Charlie wiped sweat from his brow as he brought Remian safely down to the ground in a thick cushion of air. For the moment there, he was afraid he was about to lose his business partner (and therefore, the blue mana crystals) for good.
Already he had lost the airship, of which he was a partial owner and working partner. Just one million Lir wasn’t going to be enough to compensate him for THAT loss! Five million would barely cover the initial cost of his buying in as a partner, not to mention the loss of potential business and his time! Those blue mana crystals were the only comfort Charlie had as to his efforts on this disastrous night.
Who could compensate him for the losses? Who was to blame? Was it the captain, for piloting the airship so close to the Wild? But how was he to know it had such powers? And besides, the captain was dead. The dead could not owe.
Which, of course, was another reason to save Remian. If the guy felt guilty enough, Charlie could st
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Kingdom of the Weak 47. Men and Wilds
[Can someone please tell me what is going on?] The Spike-Back Lizard asked. [You great goof!!] Carrie barked at him. [You’ve destroyed the human nest! What are you doing all the way over here?!] [I… I don’t know…] the great big fellow looked around, blinking. [Where am I? What happened to that horrible shrieking…?] [You’re at the far north end of Shadowflash’s territory.] Carrie advised. [Shadowflash is going to be so mad at you.] [Shadowflash is dead.] Spike-back grouched. [That’s what they say. But nobody has proof.] Carrie insisted. [I’m here. He isn’t. That’s proof enough.] Spike grumped. [If he were alive, he would never have let me get this far.] Carrie fell silent. She did not retort to that. [So… what now? You’ve passed through his entire territory unchallenged. You’ve proven yourself to be the strongest Wild here. Do you intend to claim this territory as your own?] [What? No way! I don’t want that sort of responsibility!] Spike turned and started running south. [You gu
Kingdom of the Weak 48. Unexpected Aid
“There’s an airship coming.” “Really? Where?” “There!” Remian overheard the conversation while he was tending to Mandy the next morning. He glanced at where a raised finger pointed; there was indeed, a little blimp in the distance that looked very much like an airship. “Could it be?” Remian perked up. He glanced around; they were in the Guild Hall along with half the injured; the other half had had to be placed in medical tents in between the Guild Hall and the workers’ quarters along with other temporary shelters set up for the survivors of Frontier Town. To put it simply, they were in bad shape. There wasn’t enough medicine, clothing, or proper shelter. They had plenty of beast meat, so food was no concern, and they had water to spare, but there were many injured who needed better treatment or suffer permanent disabilities. They needed medicine and bandages. Actually, just clean fabrics would help a lot. Better yet; the injur
Kingdom of the Weak 49. Choked
“The road.” Markus said the first word. “We need to build the town around the road. If we have a road, supplies, reinforcements, trade and even new colonists will get here more easily and more cheaply.” “We need to develop industry.” Arnold glanced at the Andros. “Weapons and armor aside, tool-making is the heart of any development. Without a strong industry supporting it, the kind of defenses you want will be difficult, expensive and slow to prepare.” “We need to develop commerce.” Andros shook his head. “People won’t work for free, especially not my crew. You’re going to have to pay us properly, and whatever we earn had better be worth our time and effort! The other side of that is that there’s nothing left in town to spend on. Shops, entertainment, good food… we need lots of businesses.” Remian cleared his throat. “We’ll need something to draw those businesses here. Fresh air and clean water won’t be enough to draw people and businesses to the Frontier, especially not with the Be
Kingdom of the Weak 50. Airships
Airships were generally one of five different types. The first time was the no-drive airship; basically just balloons and baskets (or whatever carriage vessel you prefer), they were held up by lighter-than-air gasses, and had no propulsion system of their own. These kinds were usually stationary or towed around by other vehicles or creatures. Even the Storm Cloud Chariot was classified as a no-drive airship. The second kind were the fan/propeller drive airships. These used some sort of turbine propulsion, whether horizontal or vertical. Even turbofan jet engines were classified as fan drives. The third kind were rocket drive airships. Rather than relying on airflow, these relied on the explosive power of combustion to move the airships around. The fourth kind were magic drive airships. These were especially popular because they were generally cheaper to maintain and operate, especially if you yourself were capable of wind magic. While most of the ships had hu
Kingdom of the Weak 51. Espionage
The first Lynx Mice reports started trickling in that evening. Remian summarized it in his head, then glumly sat down at the far corner of the Guild Hall mumbling to himself for ten minutes straight. Mindy, George and Tim tried to give him privacy and space to think at first, but after a bit, Mindy’s concern and curiosity got the better of her and she went over to ask, “What happened?” “It’s like this.” Remian squared off and spoke to her frankly. “The Lynxmice have thoroughly covered the entire East Side and divided it into four regions. The first region is the safest, where they need only worry about cats. There’s not much there, they say, just a lot of flour and old rations.” “Uhuh.” Mindy nodded, still a bit blur. “The second region is a little farther in to the East Side. There, they say that the humans drink more burning water than eat. There are a lot of humans in that area, and they like to chase Lynxmice around for no reason, or sometimes try
Kingdom of the Weak 52. The Roving Albatross
Meanwhile, Charlie brought Mandy and the kids home. After the relief airships dropped them and the casualties of Remian’s crew off at Fal’Herim, Charlie brought these few farther north, across the Midlands Sea, past the peninsula where the Iron Legion first rose up, to a particular city in the southern regions of Ashdale Kingdom. With the help of Deutero services, they were bundled into carriages and delivered safely to his family’s front door. “Charlie… this is the fifth girl you’ve brought home, but I’ve never seen one so badly beaten up before…” his mom noted as the servants wheeled Mandy in. “What did you do to her?” “It wasn’t me!” Charlie protested. “The town was attacked by Wilds. These are just some of the survivors.” Charlie’s family lived in a hilltop villa. Among their neighbors, theirs was the very highest on the hill. It wasn’t overly large, or anything; it was simply where Charlie, his parents, siblings, grandfather, and his brother’s wi
Kingdom of the Weak 53. The Mines of Kara-Goth
“Heave!” Markus called. “HO!” Ten trainees and forty workers chorused and tugged at several long ropes. With a crashing sound, boulders were dragged away from the mine entrance and two trainees with prospecting experience clambered into the re-opened tunnel. Remian watched them from where he sat atop Carrie. She and the wolfcats were running guard duty around the site of the nearer mine they had targeted earlier. Early scouts had reported that both mines had been sealed up, but could easily be re-opened. One mine was a Fire Copper lode; the other contained small deposits of jade. Both had previously been mined by the Kara-Goth family, who then sealed them up upon leaving the Frontier. They never came back. More than five years (more like fifty!) had passed since they left, thus all claims to these mines had long been forfeited. There were other mines, other claims, all over the Wildlands. Many of those mines had been claimed by different natio
Kingdom of the Weak 54. The Foresight
“For your own safety, nobody is permitted south of the Mines of Kara-Goth!” a poster read in front of the Iron Legion camp. Below it was another poster; “Workers wanted, good pay, food and shelter provided, please contact Quarter-master Max at the Iron Legion camp.” A third poster next to that said, “Defense demonstration; the invincible airship gunboat ‘Foresight’ debuts Starday evening! Wilds cannot bite what they cannot reach!” followed by a few bullet points saying; ‘High-powered XL-ballista’, ‘Ammunition for 100 rounds’, ‘Tier 3-4 Wilds leather envelope’, ‘Ironwood deck’, ‘Frontier Town’s first custom-made ground-support battle airship!’. Remian considered that third poster which also sported a rough sketch of a ballista on it. One hundred rounds of ammunition was a bit of an exaggeration; that much ammo was only possible if they were leaving out all the other shooters and their weapons. If they wanted to put a squad of crossbowmen on the airship along with thei
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