Kingdom Of The Weak

First off, it should be mentioned that Marcus ended up becoming Phoebe"s first patient.

Phoebe was a Life Mage of the Third Circle. Like her sister Lydia, who was of the Fourth Circle, her training was in medical work. While Lydia was a surgeon who specialized in emanc.i.p.ation, however, Phoebe was a Paramedic. Upon seeing an accident resulting in severe blunt force trauma taking place right before her very eyes, Phoebe"s first instinct was to stabilize the injured and haul them safely to the nearest medical facility. A few quick questions to Mindy a.s.sured her that the local equivalent to a medical center was the church in town.

In other words, after seeing Max drop the crate on Marcus" foot, Phoebe immediately went over, bandaged up the foot, and had the guys nearby haul Marcus to the church, regardless of his protests. It was around that time that Mindy went to join Remian at KarGoth.

Upon reaching the church, the local medical staff (Rhema) was imposed upon to properly treat the casualty (Marcus). During that time, the priests saw Phoebe and dropped a bible, a stack of hymn books, and a cup of hot coffee in rapid succession. The casualties resulting from those accidents were best treated in a laundry basin.

While Mindy started shooting at Spike and Remian was anxiously waiting for the Spike-Back Lizard to walk into their trap, Lydia was explaining her mission on the Frontier to the priests at the church. Kairos generously offered the church as a venue for emanc.i.p.ation.

By the time Spike sniffed at the Pit suspiciously, Lydia and Kairos were already at the Farm looking for Taj. They found Nadia instead, and explained to her about the sisters" mission.

Toward this, Nadia was fully supportive. They never wanted to go back to the desert. To remove the slave-bonds of the Desert King was a crucial step in ensuring their ultimate freedom.

The first person she scheduled for surgery was her own son, Davik. He was a nine year-old who loved to plant seeds and watch them sprout. He had been slave-bonded a month after he was born. The second person would be his four year-old sister, and the third, their one year-old brother. Nadia"s plea to Lydia and Phoebe was that the children be freed first. Since she was well aware that there were risks, her own children would be sent first. The rest would follow family by family, as they signed up.

After the children of the Harvest Sun clan, the children of the High Rock clan would follow, and only then would the adults be freed. There would be only one exception; a heavily pregnant woman, whose child was due in weeks.

That child would be the first child of their clan born into freedom.

***

A stiff, dull ache permeated Remian"s body as he met up with three lynxmice. The one in the lead was Mikai, the fastest lynxmice in Shadowflash Fief. They were spies who had been set on Spike to find out how he was being controlled. Since Spike came all this way from Craggy Falls, they had trailed along at a safe distance and only just arrived.

[Did you see it?]

[We saw it.] Mikai confirmed. [There was a man. He took out some crystal thing and did something for about ten minutes at Spike"s head while he was asleep. We followed him back to his lair.]

Images and flickers of memory slipped into Remian"s mind. A big black ruin, just around the corner from Craggy Falls. Crews of figures with their heads wrapped in coverings. They were… looking for something in the Black Ruins.

[What is that?] Remian stared. [Who are they and what are they looking for…?]

Mikai shifed uneasily. [I… don"t actually know. Spike headed north too soon. We had to follow. But the rest of the squads are still there. They keep watch on the men.]

[Good. Take a look inside those crates if you can. Also, if they contact anyone with magic crystals… I want to know.] Remian shifted. He fished out some cheese and handed it to them. [Thank you. Go find Tim and report before going back.]

Mikai happily munched onto the cheese and dashed off to find Tim.

Meanwhile, roars shook the ground every few seconds. Spike was clearly not happy about getting shoved into a pit. It might be a little tight, and he fell in head-first on top of that, which means he was probably in a position similar to DD and Bellower…

Actually, no, he was in EXACTLY the same position, in more ways than one.

BAM! A particularly powerful impact shook the ground.

Remian exchanged glances with Carrie. "I was afraid of that."

BAM! Another powerful shake. Another roar. Spike was struggling, and was lashing out randomly with his club-like tail.

There was a loud creak. The area around the pit cover actually sank a good foot down.

Uhoh. Not good. Was it possible Spike could actually destroy the Pit and free himself?!

BAM! Another heavy impact. Another roar. Another creak, and another sinking motion.

Spike was breaking the walls of the Pit with his tail. The High Rock clan had fortified it with gravel and mortar, but what was road material to Spike?

BAM! This time, Remian felt like even the ground beneath himself was starting to slip.

"Everyone run!" Remian shouted, and staggered.

Carrie grabbed him up with her own tail and dashed away. Buff and DD ran with them, adding even more to the shaking in the ground.

BAM! The clubbing of the Pit continued. There was another loud crash, and then another loud groaning of metal, and…

BAM! With a painful creak, the sinking of the Pit Cover became a full-on fall.

The ground collapsed. There was another furious roar, and then the sound of tons and tons of dirt and stone crashing down on a badly-positioned Spike-Back Lizard.

Finally, there was a short silence. The next roar that Remian heard was distinctly m.u.f.fled. But there was no more heavy impacts. Just roars.

Spike had well and truly buried himself this time. Apparently he couldn"t even swing his tail any more.

Good. If that clubbing had gone on much longer, Remian feared for the miners.

The roaring went on. Half an hour… one hour… Aren and Zania brought him dinner while they waited Spike out. Remian kept watch on the northern horizon, hoping to see signal smoke from the airport, but there was nothing. Charlie"s crew would send up smoke if they found the Wave Caller Crystal, but apparently today"s crystal was much better hidden.

There! Halfway through dinner, with Spike"s m.u.f.fled roars as background music, a column of smoke rose up from the north.

Abruptly, the roars stopped. [What the…? Where am I? What"s happening? Can somebody tell me what is going on?!]

[Hey, there, Spike. You got Wave-Called again.] Remian greeted him.

[AGAIN?! Oh, come on! This is cruelty to animals! This is reptile abuse! You can"t keep doing this to me!]

[It"s not us doing it to you.] Remian snorted. [It"s you doing it to us.]

[No, wait, it"s not my fault!]

[Perhaps not. Yet here you are, rampaging through my town every so often. If we hadn"t stopped you today, you"d have wrecked us all over again.]

[It"s still not my fault! You can"t just bury me alive! It"s not fair!]

[Actually, we didn" bury you. You did that yourself.]

[Come on! Get me out of here! Please?]

Remian cleared his throat. [There were other Tier 5 Wilds in similar positions as you. I"ll offer you the same deal I offered them. Swear fealty to me upon the gra.s.s and Kor"ag-dras, or upon the stones and Mal"thor-dras. Then we"ll get you out.]

[Fealty?! What do you want me to do?]

[Not much. But it occurs to me that you could be very useful for breaking large rocks and such.] Remian mused. [We"d have our own living wrecking ball. Finally, if you stick with us… we"d guard you from those people who keep Wave Calling you.]

[Whatever, just get me out!]

[Swear!]

[I swear fealty upon the rocks and Mal"thor-dras! Now, get me OUT OF HERE!]

"All right, Carrie. Get the wolfcats and let"s go dig our new friend out of the pit. Hopefully this would be the last time he attacks us during Beast Waves."