Chapter 2: South Continent
Time: After the departure to the outpost
Place: Camp of the party
Mirain sat under his rain shelter in front of his tent, cleaning his shoes. It had been two or three days since the group had left for the outpost. He wasn’t quite sure. The drudgery of the last few days blurred his sense of time, but he was proud of what they had accomplished. The entire camp was now protected by a halfway decent palisade, and though he would never admit it, he was somewhat hoping for some thick praise from Kaela for the men and women who had worked their hands to the bone here. Grinning silently to himself, he looked around the camp and suddenly saw someone coming towards him. Mirain didn’t know everyone in the fort, but this guy didn’t look like he belonged. With his wet coachman’s coat and leather hat, as well as his worn boots, he looked more like one of the troop of the Freischar. Mirain put his shoes aside, stood up and called to the man, “Hey there, can you be helped?” Relieved, the man approached him and replied, panting slightly” Thank the elements, I’m afraid I took a wrong turn somewhere. I’m looking for Alfred Dreibein or Wilderich Starkhand of the Freischar. I was told I could find them here.” Mirain grimaced apologetically “I’m afraid you’re too late, they’re already on their way to the outpost. But they have a few of our people with them, so they’ll be back in a few days at the latest.” Now it was the turn of the free ranger to screw up his face “Shit…” He paused for a moment and considered, then his face brightened “Is there anyone here I could leave the message with? Someone who would hand it over to Captain Tripod or Wilderich when they get back? I’m afraid I have to move on, there are more I need to get a message to.”
“Sure, come along” Mirain replied succinctly and headed towards the commander’s office where he suspected Larius was.
Some time later, the squad that had successfully dealt with the outpost reappeared and Kaela disappeared, but not without first finding words of praise for the palisade, together with Captain Tripod and Wilderich for some time in the commandant’s office. When the three reappeared, Kaela seemed very motivated. Battered and tired from the last mission, but her gait was upright and her lips flashed a slight smile. “Fighters of the fortress,” she raised her voice, “please gather once, we have new news.” The people gathered and listened intently. “Not far from here, a few days’ march, fighters from the seals have gathered. Larius and I already knew that an expedition to the southern continent is planned and hope to meet representatives of Atteron there. However, we did not know that this expedition is already taking place – although this is not a problem. You could say we came back from the mission just in time.” The storm of the fortress grinned. “Larius, myself, and a few others will be leaving tomorrow morning to join the expedition for a few days to hopefully sort out some important diplomatic issues. Anyone who would like to come along is welcome. In any case, it would be nice to have a few fighters accompany us, though of course I would be especially happy if we could represent the diversity of the festivals a bit. I look forward to receiving messages. For the festivals…” The Celt waited until the ‘for the diversity’ had faded before she continued speaking more to herself than to the assembled crowd. “So… And I’m going to disarm for now, find some food, and then maybe even sleep.”