It was the morning of the twentieth day aboard the ship. The ship’s lookout rubbed his tired eyes and peered out into the horizon. He could just make out something in the daybreak haze…
He bolted from his spot to spread the news.
The entire ship was soon in an uproar; yelling voices filled the air as the crew ran to and fro. They had finally made it to the unknown continent!
“So, this is the other continent?” Siasha asked as she squinted into the distance. Nothing looked out of the ordinary except for some mist. “It doesn’t look like there are any signs of human life.”
She searched high and low through the telescope she’d borrowed from one of the sailors, but all she could see was a single ship. It was most likely the one that the main party sent ahead a while back.
The ship’s captain was barking orders at the scurrying crew. From what she could hear, they would be pulling ashore soon. However, only the passengers of two ships would be permitted to alight; the others would remain at sea a slight distance away.
These ships happened to be the ones carrying all the mercenaries and other outsiders. It made sense that these groups would go first—they had to make sure everything was safe. Though they were an eclectic bunch, they were still a force to be reckoned with.
“So we basically have to be scouts?” Siasha asked.
“We’ll need to be on high alert,” Zig said. “Since no one from the vanguard unit came to meet us, it means there was likely some kind of trouble.”
There wasn’t a single person remaining on the vanguard ship. Putting aside the fact that they never received contact of any kind, it was very strange that no one was aboard.
The mercenaries and outsiders were ordered to split up into squads of about ten people and explore the vicinity. They disembarked, leaving only a skeleton crew behind. As the squads surveyed the area, some began to talk amongst themselves.
“The ground feels soft here, huh?”
“And yet the terrain is so rough. Isn’t it usually smoother? Plus, there’s so little grass.”
Wetlands in their home continent were usually more even and covered with grass and moss. However, this one was rocky in certain areas, which made it difficult to get a good foothold.
“Maybe the plant ecosystem is different over here.”
Zig broke away from his group when they reached the shore and found a small hill he could climb to scan the horizon. He spotted what seemed to be a village far off in the distance.
“It looks to be about half a day’s walk away,” he murmured to himself.
Feeling relief that there were signs of human civilization, he tried to refine his estimations, stopping short when he felt the ground tremble.
“Was that an earthquake?!”
But there was nothing more beyond the slight tremor. Zig began to head back to his squad, when something caught his eye.
“What’s this?”
He squatted down, noticing something shining on the ground. Picking the item up and examining it closely, he found that it was a gold insignia—the type usually worn by soldiers or large bands of mercenaries.
He recognized the design: a pair of hawk wings. Perhaps it came from one of the mercenaries Cossack told him about, the group that was part of the vanguard unit.
“Hmm…” Zig narrowed his eyes. Pocketing the insignia, he headed back down the hill.