Once the targets were reduced back to rubble, we set off toward the western border of the Crasters first, close enough to see the start of the flat lands of Malatia, but no more.

As I scanned the land for signs of any living creatures, not just Malatian troops, Sania came barrelling into me, clamping onto my arms and legs with her own and adding her weight to my own. Laughing like a maniac.

“Got to practice mid-flight battles!” She shouted over the rushing air as we plummeted to the mountains below. She bit my ear playfully, before lifting us both up with her own power. When she let go, I’d already regained flight under my own steam.

“I nearly crapped myself there!” I said across our bond. Laughing at her antics.

“Always getting stronger. Even if it’s just your scent,” she chuckled back. “I think we need a name for our Neuma projectiles, too. Energy balls is a poor name for what we do. Especially when the followers of the Gods have meaningful names for their powers.”

“What do you suggest?

“I’ve thought on it and I will call mine Hunter’s flames,” she said firmly. “Though I don’t expect you to call yours the same.”

“Well, I haven’t thought about it, but I’m gonna call mine Clive’s spicy balls.”

“That’s ridiculous!” She admonished, then smiled. “And just what I’d expect from you, Clive.”

I smiled wide as we continued our freestyle scouting mission. It was a good idea to name the powers, and now all I wanted to do was get powerful enough to serve Natom up a full plate of Clive’s spicy balls.

“Clive! I see the glinting of the sun from metal in the distance,” she said. Pointing to the south west of our position.

I looked to where she indicated and saw nothing at all. But her eyes and senses were so much better than mine.

“Come, we should inspect closer.” Without waiting for a response, she banked to the left and sped up. I followed her and we flew in silence for around five minutes, Sania deep in concentration.

“It’s the Malatian troops!” She finally hissed in my mind. About a thousand of them setting up a camp for the night.”

“A thousand! I still can’t see a damn thing. You sure?” I asked, purely as a rhetorical question. The look I received back made me wish I hadn’t.

“We should get back quickly and warn everyone.”

Without anything more needing to be said, we both turned and sped back to Far Reach. I was out of range to let Grigor know, but as soon as I came within range, he contacted me first.

“Is everything okay, Clive?”

“No, Grigor. One thousand Malatian troops about fifty miles away.”

“How fast are they travelling? How soon will they arrive?” He asked with surprising calm.

“They’re moving on foot. Judging by their current speed and the terrain, we have perhaps three days,” Sania offered.

“We will begin final preparations,” Grigor said firmly. I feel your approach. I will see you both soon.

As Far Reach came into view, I was suddenly, acutely aware of the lack of a finished wall. The new foundations had been dug, and the first few courses had been lain. Which considering it had only been a little over a week, was fucking remarkable. Yet we had three days before a thousand soldiers arrived, and I doubted we’d be ready.

We landed in the centre of the town. Of all the people to come rushing up to me, I was surprised when it was Bekta and Joel. They echoed my thoughts immediately.

“Clive! Three days is gonna be tight for the walls. We’ve got the stones, but we haven’t got the man power. Not to build it properly at least and not all of the way around.”

“So what do you suggest?”

“Build everything we can of the wall apart from the section that they’re approaching,” Joel replied.

“Of course! That makes perfect sense,” I replied sarcastically. “Care to explain why the fuck anyone would agree to that ridiculous plan?”

“Because the mortar won’t even be set when they arrive, and they’ll just be able to push the fucking wall over. If they approach a wall with a big fucking gap, where do you think they’ll go to attack?” Joel snapped. “Better to leave the gap where we want it. Not to mention if we’re in the middle of fighting Devotions followers for who knows how long, and Destruction’s army decide to pop along for a bit of fun and attack from behind, then we’ve got walls to cover our backs and defend against them.”

“Well, that makes sense now. Thanks for explaining. I’ll help out where possible. I should be good for moving blocks at least.

“Sure. Let me know when you’ve got some time, because there’ll always be a slot for you to work.

“Of course, mate,” I said clapping him on the back. “Anyone told the Fensalfar yet?”

I hadn’t checked in on them and it had been a little over a week since I last spoke to Zeine.

Joel shook his head. “I can go over now though.”

“I’ll do it don’t worry. Anything else I need to know?”

“Yup,” Bekta said. “We’ve started work on setting the Ballista up on top of the castle. Should be complete by tomorrow night.”

“That’s good news at least,” I said intrigued to see the massive, mounted crossbows in action.

“That’s it from us,” Joel said. “Anything else, you best ask Grigor about. He’s in the castle with the council right now. Just thought we’d pop in and grab you first while there was half a chance to speak to you. You can let them know what we’re doing when you go up. I’ll be too busy to attend.”

“Will do, mate. Good luck with the walls. Keep me informed of anything you need,” I replied.

Sania set off toward the castle as soon as I’d finished speaking and I had to shout after her. “Hey, I’m going to speak with Seine first. I’ll be up after.”

She acknowledged me with a nod and a smile then took off, flying up to the top of the castle.

As I crossed the stream, I noticed the forest here was far more dense than it had been. I couldn’t even see the pool anymore until I passed the first few trees.

“I see there is a commotion going on,” Zeine shouted as I approached the pool, in the same spot I’d left him last time we’d spoke.

“You could say that!” I shouted back. “One thousand Malatian soldiers are approaching from the South West. They consider this land theirs, and they want it back.”

“You expect war?” he asked, his face furrowing into a frown.

“I do. Everyone will be working extra hard to get that wall up, and that means around your forest, too. I expect your cooperation with that.”

Zeine looked troubled for a moment, then smiled wide. “Of course. We already cleared the area for them to dig out. What else can we do?”

He looked younger again, perhaps late forties now, compared to leather from the Egyptian times.

“I don’t know yet. I’m not even sure what you’re capable of. Apart from sharing energy with trees and water.”

He did his back flip into the water again and walked out a few seconds later. Sweeping his hand over a bush as he passed it. He had whipped a handful of something from it and as he approached me, he clenched his slender fist, causing a cracking, crunching sound. He held out his hand to give me the contents. Holding out my open palm he dropped half a dozen hazelnuts and crushed shells. I couldn’t help but pick out the nuts and pop them in my mouth.

“Damn. That’s got to be the quickest hazelnut bush grown in the history of hazelnut bush. I knew you guys weren’t really fucking around,” I chuckled.

“There is now an abundance of such bushes which will continue to quickly and year-round with the love and care we provide them. We don’t have much else to show you at the minute other than a blackberry and raspberry patch. We’ve also attracted fish to spawn in our pool, too. That will take a little while longer to yield results. And if you look above, we have the beginnings of our neighbourhood network.

I looked up to where he pointed and true to his word there were very narrow connections formed between the branches of different trees creating bridges of a sort.”

“I believe you dude. I’m genuinely sorry I had to put pressure on you. But Zeine, there’s something else. Once the fighting starts, I might need to pull you all in the castle for a little while.”

“That is fine. I expected this to happen sooner. I will gather my people and explain what is occurring.”

“They’re our people and get someone else to do it. I want you to come up to the council with me.”

“While I will be honoured sit in on your meetings, I do not think I will be overly welcome,” He replied.

“Will you make an effort to be part of the community we’re building here?”

“Of course,” he stammered.

“That’s all I need to hear, Zeine. You’re now a councillor of Far reach. Once we move on a little, Rella can join us.”

“That is a great honor, my lord. And Solla?”

“That’s probably never gonna happen.”

“I understand. My son can be disagreeable.”

“Sorry man, I didn’t know he was your son. Hopefully he mellows like you, but my position remains the same.”

“We can hope,” Zeine replied.

I

Once Zeine had passed on the word, we headed up to the top of the castle. It was frustrating not to be able to fly up and save time, but that would have been a dick move with Zeine.

The conversation was heated when we entered, but everyone stopped talking to acknowledge my appearance. Then scowled at Zeine.

“First. Knock it off, giving Zeine dodgy looks. He’s a council member now, and I trust him, so treat him with the respect he deserves.” I beckoned for Zeine to take a seat. Thankfully, there were enough spare chairs for him to sit in.

“Secondly, fill me in on what you’ve been discussing,” I said walking to my chair. It wasn’t until I’d took my seat that I noticed Stilbraker and Fakasta were present.

“We’re going to have our strongest warriors filling the gap that is left in the wall,” Grigor said. “Behind them will be our weaker fighters.”

“We cannot stand in your battle lines,” Fakasta added. “Ideally, it would be best to have armored dwarves lining up first, but that would put Kalabri immediately at war with Malatia. I’ll personally stand with you and warn the Malatians that we have an interest in this settlement and that we consider an attack on it and attack on our interests.”

“Then if they do attack,” Stilbraker continued, “I will bring out the army from the hidden entrance further up the valley and smash their forces to pieces from the side.

“You will also have fifty of the finest archers you are ever likely to meet, to the rear of your lines. We can pin troops down and give anyone in the air a lot to think about,” Zeine added. I gave him a questioning look to elaborate.

“The Fensalfar are archers without equal. Other than the Losalfar and Haralfar who are equally skilled. I promise to you, Lord Clive, a deathly hail on those who would disturb our fair settlement of Far Reach.”

It was an inspiring little speech, and I could see the table soften slightly to the old Fensalfar.

“Well, I’ll be happy to have you in that position. I’ve got to say, we’ve been severely lacking in the archery department. I wish I’d known earlier.”

“You do now. Our bows will be at your disposal.”

“Do you even have bows?” I asked surprised.

“Of course, my lord. They are built for war as well as the hunt. You will find no finer bows in all the land. Did you not realise that this is the speciality of the Fensalfar?”

“No. I didn’t. No one told me either,” I replied casting my eye around the table questioningly.

“Based off what we’d seen so far of these Fensalfar, I didn’t even consider their use as warriors,” Grigor replied. The accusation in his words clear to hear.

“Well it seems you were wrong, Grigor.”

Zeine laughed a little. “As for our bows. They were among the first things we grew since arriving here. Perhaps I should have shown you those, to keep your confidence. Either way, I assure you, the Fensalfar of Far Reach are well armed.

“I won’t lie. That’s very good to hear right now. Is there anything else we need to cover?”

No one spoke.

“Nothing?” I asked surprised.

Heads shook.

“Well, what the hell were you all arguing about when I came in?”

Shrugs and glances directed anywhere but me seemed to be the only answer I was going to get.

“You know what? I don’t actually care. We’ve got shit to do.”