“...be sure to keep buying all the supplies that Grand elder Hegir and the others need for their research,” said Akira.

He was sitting in his office behind the desk that he rarely used.

Samuel, his advisor, was sitting across from him going over several tasks that needed Akira's attention. Such things as the funding of new buildings, a better wall for the new outer city around the trade plaza, and buying supplies for both the city and the army.

The army was costing quite a lot of money to keep fully equipped, fed, and paid with all the expeditions they were making.

Fluffball's head rose from the rug next to the burning fireplace, his ears were raised and fully alert as he looked at the door intently.

Knock, Knock, Knock!

“Come in,” said Akira.

Zundar opened the door and squatted down to enter the room. Behind him, was a fierce-looking half-lizard half-snake Ramia warrior of the Auga tribe.

“Speak,” said Zundar, pushing the Ramia warrior forward.

“Chief Raibread of the Auga tribe, sends his greetings,” said the Ramia warrior with a short and stiff awkward bow.

Akira's eyebrows raised hearing this. “And why did he send you here? I am sure you know that we don't have the best of relations between Kodria and the Auga tribe.”

The Ramia messenger held his head high.

“That is all in the past. I am here to ask Kodria to send its army to our stronghold of Madu. We require your help to clean up the strange creatures that are constantly attacking our outer nomadic hunting and gathering villages,” said the Ramia warrior.

The way he spoke sounded more like he was demanding them to help, and not asking.

“So they really have reached that far south? Is it really that bad that you have to come to us?”

“We would not have asked for your help if the situation was not what it is now. Every time we try to consolidate our forces in Madu or any of the outer villages and nomad camps, they are attacked as soon as they leave the walls of their villages and temporary camps. They have already received several casualties and wounded that have ended up adding to the creatures forces.”

“These attacks are preventing us from moving everyone to our stronghold of Madu. We could find a way to handle such a problem eventually, but there is no time now that we have discovered a large gathering of the creatures to the north of Madu. It looks like they are readying to make my Auga tribe only exist in history.”

“That bad?” asked Akira.

“We only need a bit of your help to ward off the attacks so we can gather our warriors and civilians from the outer villages and nomad camps.”

“What are your orders?” asked Zundar.

Although there was bad blood between the two demon races, Akira could not hold onto the grudge in this situation where the Ramia civilians of the Auga tribe would suffer greatly if not helped.

Ding!

Quest received!

The Ramia demon race needs your help!

Will you answer their call?

The reward will be based on results at the end of the quest.

Akira turned to Samuel, “Send out the order that the patrols are to be doubled. Each one is to have at least one holy shaman with them. The grand elders need to be informed that I will be leaving to take care of a gathering threat to Kodria. Kodria must stay on high alert while I am away. The holy shaman must be ready for any attack on either the inner or outer city. I'll leave the infantry under Varbu and prince Gobbers command.”

“Zundar, let's go start mobilizing a force to help them.”

Ding!

Honor +5

“Yap!” said Fluffball as he stood up from the rug and stretched before chasing after Akira.

***

As the situation had sounded urgent the full army could not be mobilized and march to Madu in such a short time, plus the cost of such a maneuver would not be cheap.

Kodria was going to go broke if they continued such large-scale expeditions.

So the cavalry had been all that was mobilized, mainly because it was easier to mobilize and they would be able to arrive at their destination faster.

“Why haven't we seen any infected yet?” asked Klyn as he rode next to Akira on another Garg.

They were currently passing through an open snowy plain that was full of large snowdrifts which could hide who knows how many enemies.

Akira sniffed the air but could only catch whiffs of old odors of monsters that had passed by several hours before.

“We should be reaching one of our three outer nomadic villages. Trust me, they pop up whenever we try to escort them away. But since we don't have enough warriors to send out while still protecting the Madu stronghold and other villages at the same time we are stuck in this situation,” said the Ramia messenger who was sitting in a Buster sled due to being unable to ride a Garg.

When they crested one of the large snow banks Akira saw a wide spread-out village full of fur-covered leather tepees a short distance away.

The village was surrounded by a makeshift leather and ice wall to provide a small amount of protection for those inside.

When the guards of the village noticed their approach, loud war drums were hit, alerting all the rest of the villagers.

Akira motioned for the buster sled carrying the Ramia to follow him as he headed directly towards the village's makeshift gate.

“Reakrak. are these people with you?” asked a guard who stood on a platform behind the makeshift ice wall.

“Rookrek, they are the people that the chief sent for! With them, we will be able to all return to the Madu stronghold!”

“How well do you trust them?” asked Rookrek.

“Zero percent.”

“Then how can we possibly believe they can protect us as we make our way there?”

Reakrak shrugged his scaly shoulders.

Akira and the others were forced to wait outside the village as the villagers started to take down their housing layer by layer and pack everything into their large sturdy sleds.

The creatures they used for pulling were something interesting to Akira.

They were domesticated [White Snow Lizards]. The snow lizards were quite short at around 2 feet tall, 2 or 3 feet wide, and over 6 feet long.

“Will these things be able to move at a quick speed if we are attacked?” asked Akira.

“The Snoizrds are built for stamina and strength to pull things. They are not meant for speed like your large wolf things. Or the Reindeer,” said Reakrak. He was not sitting on top of one of the Snoizrds.

Graar gave a low growled at being called a wolf thing. 'Be careful of who you insult or I might eat you later as a midnight snack.'

Reakrak waved his hand dismissing Graar's words.

The over 100 sleds were fully packed and formed up into two lines. The several hundred villagers were riding on or at the back of the sleds with some on the flat backs of the snoizrds. Akira looked to Rookrek and the other thirty-plus village guards.

“You will be in charge of staying with civilians to keep them moving and protect them if anything gets past us. Five of you should stay at the front and five at the rear while the rest stay at the center to be able to react to any trouble.”

“We know how to protect our people, we don't need you to tell us how,” said Rookrek dismissively.

Akira watched as they did exactly what Akira had suggested. “Dolph, take care of the right wing, Vilkas the left. Zundar, take some people along with a few busters to protect the rear.”

“But we need to stay by your side!” said Dolph.

“Don't worry I have Klyn, Fluffball, and Bo with me. I'll be safe-ish leading the small force at the front.”

“Awooo!” With a howl commanding Kodria's cavalry, they split up taking up their positions around the Ramia sleds.

“We are going to move as quickly as we can to the next village! We can not rest until we arrive there!”

Tens of the lizard jaws could be heard snapping in disagreement.

“The nearest nomadic village is still several days away, maybe even a week depending on which way they moved before being stopped by the strange creatures. Do you want us to ride that long?” asked Reakrak.

“We have no choice, the longer we stay in a place with such a large amount of people, the more chances the infected have of noticing us and attacking us.”

An hour passed since they had left the ice walls of the last village and they still had not seen any infected.

High up in the sky a raven flew scanning the wide snowy plains from above. It was able to see behind the large snowbanks before those on the ground could, making sure that there were no ambushes.

With a loud Caw, the raven flew in a circle 5 times.

“Looks like they finally arrived!” said Akira.

“Fifty of them,” said Bo, after he counted the number of times the raven flew in a circle.

“We'll have to take care of this quickly,” said Akira.

“Awoooo!” howled Akira. He pointed his Warhammer to the northeast and urged Graar to head in that direction towards the gathering infected.

“YAP!” said Fluffball happily as he hopped off Akira's lap. He grew to his full size and quickly caught back up with Grarr and continued to run beside him.

Klyn began reciting one of his holy chants as they charged forward, light began emitting from his body and enveloping those around him.