"No. I can"t allow you to do it." Lisa Vin forbade her son.Only, it wasn"t the son they"d been expecting her to forbid. Out here, in the temporary camp of the expedition, the son she was talking to was Remian.
"Mom, this is important…" he tried to explain.
"Everything is important! It"s always important!" Lisa flared. "And every time you over-exhaust yourself and you get weaker and weaker! When will you ever stop? At this rate, one day soon, I"m going to ask for news of you and discover that you"ll never be coming home again!"
"Uh…" try as they might, none of them, not Remian, not Father Petrov, not Professor Alexei, not Mindy… n.o.body could think of a way to refute that point.
"You"re coming home with me, now. While you still can. Let them handle the search." Lisa gestured vaguely at Professor Alexei and Father Petrov.
"But these are the Wildlands…" Remian objected.
"Mindy can guide them. Whatever you want to handle, she can handle." Lisa snorted.
"I need to repair my airship…" Mindy began.
"We"ll tow it back with us." Lisa cut in. "It will be slower, but we"re in no hurry."
"But Mom, there are important decisions that need to be made." Remian frowned.
"She can handle those too." Lisa growled. "Isn"t she one of your smartest, wisest students?"
"One of the top three, for sure." Remian agreed.
"So trust your student. Sooner or later, you"re going to have to let them make the big decisions for themselves, and from what I"ve seen, you"ve always voted for "sooner"."
"This one might be a little bit over her head."
"Then just have her call you on a comms crystal when the time comes."
"That… actually sounds doable." Remian mused. Then, he grinned. "That"s it then. Congratulations, Mindy… this expedition is now in your hands. You"re going to have to guide total townies through the deep Wildlands on foot without an airship and without my help."
"Great." Mindy half-groaned. "Just great."
***
Of course, he didn"t leave her entirely without help.
Carrie and six other Tier 4 wolfcats had joined the expedition. They weren"t being ridden; they were here as mainly as escorts and scouts. The sole exception was carrying supplies.
As for Mindy, Father Petrov, Ivan and his squire, Professor Alexei and the five students, all of them were equipped with ME-Frames (mainly borrowed from adventurers staying at Three Pines) and would generally not require a ride from a wolfcat unless things got hectic.
Joining the expedition were Sandra, Gammie and their comrades, a Tier 3 wolfcat named Sandy (Gammie"s comrade) and a Feelo-Wasp Prince named Dodger (Sandra"s).
Everyone else, including Remian, went back with the airships.
"What are you guys doing here, again?" Mindy asked Sandra.
"Nothing special. Priority Guild escort mission. We"re just here to keep you alive." Sandra told her. "Everything else is up to you."
"Uhuh." Mindy shook her head. She had expected no less. "You know it"s going to be hard, right?"
"How hard?" Sandra asked.
"We"re south of Dragon Lake, now. Every Wild out here is at least Tier 4. Tier 5"s are common. The Lords of the Wilds in these territories are Tier 6, and there are Kings around here who are Tier 7. Do you even know what Tier 7 means?"
"Something the size of KarGoth?" Sandra guessed. "Or bigger? Probably bigger."
"Something on that scale of power anyway, the sizes seem to vary. At a certain point, Psionic power counts more than size. In the end, it"s the overall strength of a Wild that matters." Mindy hesitated. "Also… there are supposedly Wilds even more powerful than that, the ones they call Emperors."
"What are those like?"
"I"ll give you a hint; I only know of two of the Tier 8"s around here. Their names are Kor"ag-dras and Mal"thor-dras."
[Don"t worry about the Emperors. They almost never appear, and would not for a motley crew like ours.] Carrie a.s.sured them. [Worry about the Nine Kings of the South.]
"There are nine Kings?" Mindy asked weakly.
[There are many Kings.] Carrie shook her head. [But we need only worry about the Nine. the territories we are headed toward belong to them. More specifically, the turf of the Great Roc.]
"The Great Roc? What exactly is he?"
[He is a bird. A very, very, very big bird. When he can, he likes to eat dragons for dinner.]
Mindy gulped. "We were about to fly an airship into THAT King"s territory?!"
[That would have been a very bad idea.] Carrie agreed. [And likely one you would not have survived.]
"But… would we really be able to make it through safely on foot?" Mindy wondered.
[If we"re very, very quiet, we might be able to avoid his notice. Or maybe he just won"t bother with small creatures like us.] Carrie suggested, ears twitching. [Unless…]
"Unless what?"
[Unless we get help from his kin.]
"What do you mean?"
[I mean, we might have to ask the Eagle Lord for a favor.]
***
But of course, the reply was to be expected.
"That… is beneath me!"
***
Yet though it was rejected, the very asking produced unexpected results.
"Are you SURE you want to do this?" Mindy asked the Eagle Princess. "Does your father know you"re here?"
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[Eh… it"s just a visit to old Gramps, you know?] The Eagle Princess chirped, her wings twitching. She looked very excited and very nervous. [It will be okay… I think?]
" "Old Gramps", you say? You know the Great Roc?" Mindy blinked.
[Oh, yes. He"s very nice to me.] the Eagle Princess chirped. [As long as we get past the Bog Serpents, we should be able to reach him safely.]
"Bog Serpents? What in the world are Bog Serpents?"
[They"re like flying snakes, not quite as big as dragons, but they breathe ice and spread fog around, you know? Their entire area is bog covered in fog. Nasty, wet place. We"d normally just fly high, high over it, but you guys…]
"We"re going to be walking right into it." Mindy gulped. "Bog and fog… what if we get lost?"
"That"s not likely. As long as we can sense and compare mana densities, the Source of Magic is as good as a compa.s.s." Alexei a.s.sured her. "On top of that, we also have actual compa.s.ses, and all of us know spells which can help with directions and mapping."
"Can we go around it? How long would it take?" Mindy asked.
[Just me, alone, running without any hindrances? Half a day. With this group, well…] Carrie hesitated. [Three days? Four?]
"Never mind. Bog and fog it is." Mindy said, drawing up a brave face. Then, she shuddered.