*** Chapter 24 Day 53 Santos and Company ***

“You know that her father will be angry with you?” Uncle George asked Santos.

“I know,” Santos said.

After donning the armor in the morning a small group of the family had started it's trek towards the gate. They decided to forgo using the horses as mounts, they did not have enough training on horseback to fight on top of them if they would need to, but did bring two to carry gear. With uncle George and Santos’ father, Raphael, joining the group a small group of young cousins and uncles decided to join the group bringing their total force to ten. Solfrid and Roald had decided to tag along as well since without Santos there simply would be nothing to do at the shop and they were curious as well.

When they reached the second lake the group spotted someone waiting for them there, it was Maira. She had come to Santos in the middle of the night and had asked him to give her a set of armor, because she wanted to come along with him. At first Santos wanted to refuse, but he remembered his promise to her and told her that she would need to go ahead of the group or she would simply be denied permission to leave or forced to go back.

This far out, the group would have no choice, but to keep going or waste time making sure she went back.

“Life is too short uncle,” Santos stated. “We could die on any night from a good sized swarm, I won’t be the one to keep her in a cage under these conditions.”

“Just remember that she is your cousin,” his uncle said, insinuating. Santos understood him, unfortunately after what happened in the showers, he did not think he could ever think of her as just his cousin.

“I know,” he said. “And I will take responsibility for her.”

“She is not a fighter,” Solfrid said. She had woken up when Maira had come knocking on their door in the middle of the night. She had also said the same then.

“I know,” he replied. “Follow me.”

He picked up his pace and broke from the group heading towards Maira. He was the only one wearing full plate armor that had a mix of soft leather and black fur, making him look like a charging dark wooled beast. On his arm was a round shield and on his back was a solid metal spear. Watching him move was like watching a wall move and yet he did so very easily.

The armor of the others was based on the roman legion armor, bracers, chest plate, shin guards, armor skirting and shields. The armor should have felt heavy, but the armor Santos made, felt lighter than it should be, so even if he looked like a mass of walking steel, he did not feel too weighed down.

“So who are you supposed to be?” Maira asked, smirking once Santos stopped in front of her. “The Iron Santos?”

“Maybe,” He replied, grinning. His helmet did not cover his eyes or mouth, but did have a nose guard, it was very similar to a greek helmet without the fluff on top. “From here on out stay beside me and Solfrid. Do not separate from us.”

The last he spoke to both of them.

“Okay,” she nodded.

“Good,” he said. “Let’s go.”

They marched on the rest of the way in general silence.

“So this is the gate?” Uncle George asked. The group had spotted the stone dias from some distance before arriving, but held their commentary until they actually arrived there.

“Yes,” Moses replied. “Father, we need to be ready before we enter. Once we are inside, the steaming may start for some of us.”

“We’ve already come this far,” uncle Raphael stated. “There is no point in hesitating about that now. The only question is, who is going in first?”

“I will take point,” Santos said. “It was my idea to come here and I am the heaviest armored.”

“Then let’s go,” uncle George said.

Santos unstrapped the pole weapon on his back, at first it could be mistaken for a spear, but the head was longer, at least two feet of two inch broad blade. The thing sounded as if it was cutting the wind as Santos swung it around. He wielded the heavy pole weapon as if it was made of nothing heavier than foam.

“Stay with Solfrid and Roald,” he said to Maira. “Protect her for me.”

The last he said to the other two, they nodded in response.

“I will keep her safe,” Solfrid said.

With that, Santos turned towards the gate as Moses opened it revealing the world within. They marched inside after Santos in groups of twos. As they entered each person began to steam, but the most shocking among them was Santos, who appeared to be a walking smokestack.

They retreated after just a couple of minutes and regrouped around the dias. Santos had to be helped out as the steam obscured his vision, temporarily blinding him. It took a couple of hours before the steam had settled into something of an acceptable level.

While he steamed others had removed their armor and inspected their bodies, the only marking that appeared on them was one of a small turtle in the middle of their chests. For Santos, his tattoo markings had darkened into something like a dark green jade. However, that wasn’t all that gained markings, everyone’s armor had dark jade markings of intricate and beautiful designs in the aztec art.

When they finally reentered the steaming resumed, but it was no longer as exaggerated, though Santos still had trouble seeing well.

Moses led them towards the site where they had discovered the bodies at. No one spoke, everyone walked in a serious mood. When they arrived at the site they found no bodies or their parts anywhere. There were only signs of battle and nothing more.

They searched further through the forest of tall trees for a few more hours until they came up to a lake. In the middle of the lake was a floating village that looked like a war zone. Several of the houses were destroyed, some had sunk, some had burned, whomever lived there probably no longer did so.

“Maybe we are already too late,” Santos said. The steaming had settled down enough that his sight was no longer hindered. “They might have already been wiped out.”

“The salamander people?” Solfrid asked. Most of the family had seen the carcass Moses and David had brought, Solfrid had gone to the main house as well, to see the corpse.

“They might have been attacked by the larger white monsters,” Santos said.

As if to prove him right a roar sounded to their side, there, charging towards them, was a nine foot tall monstrosity with dozens of the smaller creatures behind it.

“Shields!” Santos roared. He rushed to the forefront of the battle line and steeled himself ready to receive the charging creature. There was a sudden surge that began to cut through the initial panic and as one a loose battle line was formed. Instead of fear they felt the force of adrenaline in their veins coursing throughout their bodies. “We live as a family, we die as a family!”

Everyone roared their agreement, battle spirits began to ignite fury in their hearts.

*** Gribi and Croa ***

“We should warn them,” Gribi said, she moved across the treetops towards her scouting partner.

“We do not even know if they are any better than the white beasts,” Croa said. He was one of the few remaining firemanders, an essential warrior in the fight against the invader beasts. His fire scared them and it was one of the few weapons of his people that could kill the much larger white beasts.

A small swarm of white beasts had been stalking this new group of people, they were not animals for they wore clothing and wielded weapons. The two scouts had spotted the small swarm first and had been tailing it, trying to find where they nested to bring back a larger group and kill them in an ambush. As they did this, however, they noticed that the swarm had started moving strangely, it was only when they noticed the small group of people that they understood the change in the swarm.

“What if they die to those things,” Gribi continued,” just because we were afraid of them?”

“I am not afraid of them,” Croa responded. “I am cautious. Our people are scattered and most of them are dead, we are in no position to start taking risks.”

Croa being the senior of the two and the most adept warrior as well, held enough authority that Gribi could only comply and hold herself back. She watched as the white beasts stalked the new people.

Things only got worse, it was horribly gut wrenching as she watched a second swarm flanking the new people. The new swarm appeared out of nowhere, it was suspected that a much larger swarm had been roaming the area, but they had not expected to find two swarms with a total of three large beasts.

When the first group became aware of the second group, the swarm charged fearing that their prey may be taken by the other much larger group.

Both of the scouts expected a massacre of the people, it was unfortunate, but things were dire for themselves and they could not offer any aid. Those people, however, did not waver when the monsters charged.

The lead warrior among them made some sort of battle cry rousing the spirit of the others, it was he who confronted the large monster that led the smaller creatures. The clash was not what they had expected.