Everything came together as quickly as it did smoothly. It was staggering. First, the onikin accepted our request in a heartbeat. In fact, they told us that if we didn’t do something to quell what was going on over the border, they would. They had traded with the Peijins for so long that they pretty much saw them as family now—they felt compelled to act.
So just like that, we had six onikin on our expedition, with Zorg leading them.
Talks with the Peijins went just as smoothly, and they promised to aid us in all manner of ways, from securing a safe place for us to land our ships to preparing necessary supplies and helping the party stay camouflaged.
Admittedly, I’d expected this much—after all, the Peijins had been the ones to ask us for help in the first place. Of course they were going to help. They even had Peijin-Re at the border station, which made discussions go by that much quicker.
The cavekin set about prepping a boat for transporting our expedition, but because of the urgency of the situation, it was a pretty simple build. Still, with the goblins helping to guide the party I didn’t expect them to run into any trouble out on the water.
The only problem as I saw it was the number of people you’d get on board. Narvant told me that we were looking at twenty people, max. Not that there was much that could be done about it—the boat had to carry supplies and equipment too, so...
Yep, it was what it was.
Fortunately, a lot of stuff that you’d usually have to build for boats—sails and whatnot—wasn’t necessary thanks to our goblin guidance system. That actually opened up a lot of space for our crew.
Aymer was tiny and Sahhi was happy on the roof or the bow, so neither really occupied any space. That left the six onikin, Mont, Joe, Lorca, and four masti dogkin. Though in terms of space, all the dogkin together amounted to about two people. Oh, and there were nine men picked out from Joe’s and Lorca’s squads too.
So the boat ended up being the perfect size.
But all the same I couldn’t help being a little worried. Was twenty people going to be enough to get the job done? In the end, though, there was nothing left but to trust in the decisions that my friends made and believe in them.
Joe and my old war buddies were all decked out in dragon armor that they’d made a while back. I’d seen them at work back when they first started, but they were really impressive now that they were all done. They’d patched the armor together from leftover pieces of all the various dragon materials. Whatever they could get their hands on, they used. They had weapons too, of course, and thanks to some good old-fashioned cavekin ingenuity, their armor was even more effective than Klaus’s earth dragon armor.
Joe and the guys used earth dragon materials where they needed the raw durability, wind dragon materials where they wanted things lightweight, and aqua dragon materials where joint flexibility was a priority. In the end, they were quite the colorful sight, I had to say—they were covered in greens, reds, and purples.
Actually, even Aymer had an armor set crafted for her. She’d been in the thick of battle with me a number of times, and she’d fought enemies with her trusty pin sword back when we quelled the rebellion in Mahati. With that in mind, she was every bit deserving of protection, and so Narvant, Mont, and even Lady Darrell got together to whip her up the appropriate equipment.
Aymer still had her pin sword, but now she had a throwing knife to go with it, not unlike my hand-ax. Narvant said she could throw it if need be, but she could also just as easily use it like a hook. Aymer was so lightweight, and her jumping so impressive, that the knife would make for an easy way for her to scale both walls and potential enemies. It sounded a lot like acrobatics to me, but she could stick the knife in, jump, and repeat to climb just about anything.
As for her armor, the focus was on keeping it light. The crew didn’t want her wearing any armor that would hamper her natural jumping ability. At the same time, it had to look imposing in its own right—something befitting a commanding officer, in other words.
Aymer’s dignified armor set took the form of a dress, not unlike what Princess Diane had worn when she tried to invade. The design was why Lady Darrell had been brought in to help. Armored dresses were apparently in vogue in the royal capital, and they served to raise morale among allies. But they weren’t just for show—armored dresses had to be as practical as they were impressive, and that’s where Mont and Narvant came in.
As for the rest of the expeditionary party, Sahhi and his fellow falconkin had wind dragon armor, the masti dogkin had their trusty earth dragon fangs and scale cloaks, and the onikin had earth dragon-buffed bows. Yep, everybody had at least a bit of dragon on them somewhere, no matter where you looked.
But while our expedition was getting ready to leave, so too was our secondary party, with the lostblood brothers heading things up. They’d be traveling with Goldia, Ellie, Aisa, Ely, a number of masti dogkin, a few of Ryan’s squad, and three onikin with expedition experience. On the face, their job was trade—they’d take the road across the border and sell salted fish out of barrels. Behind the scenes, however, they’d be providing Aymer’s party aid where necessary.
As for what they could provide, the merchant party would be sharing intel and supplies, and carting any injured party members back to Iluk. Goldia, Aisa, and Ely were all well-versed in this sort of work, apparently, which was why they were tagging along.
We were up against considerable numbers, which was why both parties had opted for a large number of guards. If Aymer’s party found themselves in trouble, they could always meet with the merchant party and double their fighting force. That said, because the merchant group didn’t want to draw attention to themselves, they were going in without armor—they couldn’t just act like merchants, they had to look the part too.
Yeah, I can’t imagine a merchant party getting much in the way of a warm welcome if they arrive armed to the teeth.
“I have to admit,” I muttered, “as soon as Aymer took the lead, everything came together at a blistering pace.”
Three days had passed since we decided on a course of action, and I was at the storehouse tidying things up. I was with a young shep who was writing on a piece of paper glued to a board by the storehouse. They’d only just officially become an adult, from what I knew.
“Yep, that’s just Miss Aymer’s leadership,” said the shep. “Leave things to teach, and she’ll make sure everything goes smoothly. I don’t think you have to worry about a thing, Lord Dias.”
The young shep was one of many dogkin who took Aymer’s lessons, and they were a real wonder when it came to anything that had to do with writing and calculations. This didn’t seem to be because they were taking Aymer’s lessons—plenty of other dogkin studying under Aymer were regular dogkin, through and through. This young shep had a spark of genius, much like Aymer herself.
“I see,” I said. “I reckon you’re right that I can rest easy with her in charge. Truth be told, there’s not a lot for me to do since I decided to stay here. Just odd jobs like this one right here.”
“I think it’s fine for you to stay behind, Lord Dias,” replied the shep. “Make your presence felt and put your efforts into protecting the villagers. Joe and many of his comrades can work that much harder knowing that you’ll be here to look after their new wives. So stand tall, smile, and put your people at ease.”
“Huh... Yeah, okay. But Carlitz, I gotta say, you speak some real wise words for a dogkin who was a pup not so long ago. I’m impressed.”
Carlitz’s tail wagged a mile a minute when I said that. They burst into a grin, but then they cleared their throat and stood tall.
“Well, that’s because I’m an adult now!” said the dogkin. “Now please get the next box ready—we’ve still got work to do!”
And with that, young Carlitz strode into the storehouse.
The boat was ready and the equipment was ready, so the lostblood brothers set off with their party. They were taking the lead, but it wasn’t long before Aymer’s expedition was ready to set off too.
Iberis arrived with a few goblins I recognized, all of them decked out in their dragon armor. There were another ten goblins with them, and they took to carrying the boat for us. With that many goblins seeing us through the water, I knew that Aymer’s party would get across the border real quick.
“Be careful out there, and don’t be reckless,” I said.