195 Strays (1/2)

Keeping an eye on the dust columns in the distance, Remian carefully made his way on the road, thinking to steer clear of Bulraki riders entirely.

”Stop!” the voice calling him from the side was low and urgent. ”Camp ahead!”

”What?” Remian turned to see a young boy, very dirty and very worried waving at him from the bushes.

”There is a Bulraki camp ahead! Don't go that way!” he urged Remian.

Survivors? ”Who are you? Why are you out here on your own?”

But the boy didn't reply. He just turned around and ran.

”Hey, wait…” Remian followed him. Meanwhile, he contacted Mindy. [Third checkpoint, hostiles suspected. Don't come over yet.]

[Understood. Shall we send backup?]

[Stand by…] Remian huffled after the boy, carefully leaving a mark on a tree as he passed it. They went into the sparse woods, then around a hillock…

”Freeze!” A long, rusted pike was suddenly pointed at him from the side. Remian turned to see a bigger, graying man there wearing a helmet and a baking apron with spoons sewn onto it as reinforcement.

Remian didn't freeze. Instead, he leapt aside, and drew his own weapon.

To be fair, Remian's weapon was even older than that pike. The long-hilted sword (c.f. nagamaki) was downright ancient. He triggered one of its three still-functioning runes; a shield of light flickered into being in between him and the pike.

But the pike did not stab forward. The elderly man did not strike, or charge. He just narrowed his eyes. ”That nagamaki… it's a runic weapon?”

Remian didn't reply. His senses spread through the area, finding several minds nearby filled with wariness and fear… and two others which had gone completely numb and apathetic.

None of them were warriors. None of them were Bulraki or Bellai. They all seemed to be in the same situation as the boy and the old man; denizens of the neutral zone caught in a war they neither asked for nor wanted.

”I'm not here to harm you. I'm just passing through when your friend there showed up.” Remian pointed out.

”Why did you follow him?” the old man asked.

”I just want to know about this camp ahead.”

The older man exchanged glances with the young boy, who was now looking rather guilty. Slowly, he lowered his pike.

Remian likewise turned off his shield and put away his weapon.

”So… can you tell me about this camp?”

***

Sandra, Gammie, and their Comrades (a wolfcat and a Feelo-Wasp prince leading his own entourage of flying hand-sized bugs) arrived as Remian got to know the survivors and their leader, the pikeman veteran Alex.

They came from three different villages all located up this very road. When the Bulraki came raiding, they fled for their lives, and tried to make their way to the Bellai forts for shelter, but were crudely turned away and were basically just trying to survive by staying away from the fighting, foraging in the wild and praying that the war would be over quickly.

”That doesn't seem likely.” Remian confessed.

Then it was his turn to share information with them.

”From what the Iron Legion told me, this war already involves thirteen nations on two different sides.” Remian explained. ”Germat, Auria, Otta, Bulrak, Ira and possibly Kuasa Besar are on one side. Ashdale, La Vive, Bellas, and the Nine Mountains are on a different side. Itarim just switched sides from the Germat-Auria side to the Ashdale-La Vive side, and the Sea People claim to side whatever side Itarim stands on, except I haven't actually seen any of them around here yet. Mendev, Liberatria, Romania, Ecclesia, Ceres, the Rainforest Commonwealth, the Saudara Nation and the Dragon Empire all have large forces present in the region, but they have yet to declare a side and are mainly just observing. Everyone else is steering clear.”

”Any idea how long it will last?”

”Not a clue. Last week, the Germat side was winning, but now Itarim has changed sides, and the Nine Mountains are going all-out, so depending on whether they can establish a strong momentum, the war could either be over tonight, or it could turn into a stalemate that lasts for years.”

”And you say you're not on either side?”

”I'm from the Wildlands. I'm just trying to get my friends out of here.”