Despite taking the last Dwarven stronghold, the Rattan were still no closer to finding their beloved Vermin-King. In fact, the whole endeavor to raze the Dwarven Under-Kingdoms that they could reach in order to find their prized Vaile had proven to be more or less a waste of resources and possibly done more harm than good. When the Dwarves were around it was far simpler to cull the rapidly expanding population, but now with them gone, who was left to oppose them in the underground? Who was left to help them deplete their own number and keep them from a massive food riot?

They now had no opposition, no walls of death to run into for a quick solution to numbers and depleted food stocks, no foe to rally against, none of that and more. The gravity of their situation was beginning to set in. They had no threats left to oppose their rule, let alone expansion, save for those above ground. How were they to keep their population in check and keep food stocks from being reduced to nil in mere weeks?

“This is bad…”

Chuu looked over the destroyed Dwarven Fortress-City in front of her. She fully realized that, at this point, finding Vaile would do nothing to stop the civil war that was coming. It would be a civil war brought about not by cultural, religious, economic or political divides, but rather by the ever-present hunger that gnawed at every member of the Rattan race. It would be quite unlikely that it would just split their nation in two, either. Numerous camps, all out for the food of the others, would form and inevitably shatter the already fragile unity of the Under-Empire to bits and pieces.

The various clans would start plotting and scheming, and the Five-Clawed Paw would be forced to throw its support behind one of them. Doing so would irreversibly shift the balance of power and give one clan the ‘God Given Right’ to take what they wanted. They needed an outlet for their cruelty, a source of food and a way to deplete their numbers. And they needed it fast.

It was at this point that a miracle happened. Sort of.

“Skwiik? What is it?”

Skwiik had appeared behind her leader, kneeling and keeping her eyes towards the ground. Having failed to locate Vaile aboveground, she had been frantically searching for some way to keep Chuu from getting angrier with her than she already was. She had now what she thought was her way out of the doghouse.

“I have found-located a document that may-might be worth your interest.”

Chuu said nothing and snatched the scroll from Skwiik’s paws like an angry parent swiping something from their annoying child. She opened it and began to read through it, her dour demeanor lightening and lifting with each line she read.

“This could solve some problems… Yes, indeed, it certainly could…”

Skwiik’s tail and ears twitched at Chuu’s words. Hopefully this helped her get off the hook a bit.

What she had given to her Vermin-Queen was a letter from one of the Dwarven Kings. Not one of the Kings on their side of the Great Abys, but the other side. Apparently, there were still some Beard-things left under the surface; finally, there was a way to solve the problems that were cropping up! It would take time to cross the massive underground canyon that separated the caves into two areas, but if there was one thing that the Under-Empire had in spades it was bodies that could be thrown at any problem, great or small.

“Good work, Skwiik. Now, go scout their lands. If there is even the slightest trace of our beloved being there, past or present, report back immediately. I will get Grima to start working on a way to cross the gap. It should not be too hard…”

Once again, Skwiik’s ears and tail twitched, this time in joy.

“At once, your most glorious greatness. It will be done!”

“Not interested in you brownnosing, Skwiik. Just get it done.”

Skwiik stood, bowed and then bamf-ed away.

Chuu looked out beyond the smoldering ruins of the once great Dwarven settlement before her. All over the once mighty Dwarven nation her people were defacing monuments that had stood for untold ages, erecting icons and structures so antithetical to that which their ancient enemy loved that it was like they were doing everything in their power to shit on the memory of what once stood there.

The Under-Empire had grown far more massive than it already was, and now there was a new foe to face. This foe would help her and her kind keep themselves from becoming an unstoppable scourge and ushering in an end of the world. Chuu smiled as she pictured the carnage to come, the mass slaughter of her own people who would throw themselves into the embrace of the Reaper just for the slightest hope of advancement, freedom or food.

Vaile was still missing, but his disappearance had granter her more than she could have imagined she would ever obtain. For so long she and the others had been content to rule what they already had, but Vaile had granted them all of this simply by being kidnapped. She closed her eyes and silently thanked her beloved for his gift to her and prayed that wherever he had been taken to was not treating him harshly.

She would have to hope that her senior in service to Vaile would locate him and keep him safe. And if he did manage to find Vaile and would not hand him over? Well, at least she and the others could visit him and finally get about to making heirs. Of course, once that had been done, they would need to watch their backs. Rattan were nothing if not backstabbing, parent/ sibling murdering, deceptive, conniving, malicious, sadistic, cruel, seditious, heartless bastards, and the Five-Clawed Paw would be fools to not suspect that their eventual children would not crave the positions of their mothers.

…

Meanwhile, up on the surface, Vaile was still riding in the caravan as it made its way across the Trelawny Kingdom. Vaile had a weird sense of déjà vu that he could not quite place whenever he heard or read the name of the Kingdom he was in. Something about it just made him feel like he had heard of it prior to being kidnapped from inside the game by Puke Princess, and he could not put his finger on what it was.

“Trelawny, Trelawny, Trelawny. Something about it just makes me remember the game.”

“What game ‘r ya’ talkin’ ‘bout, mister?”

Vaile looked over his shoulder at the young boy, probably not even 10 years old, who was sharing the covered wagon with him. Vaile had decided he would sit out the back of the wagon and the boy was sitting further in.

“Nothing you need to worry yourself about, kid.”

“Kid? I’m 10 years old! I’m not a kid no more, mama said so!”

Vaile cracked a smile behind his mask.

“Whatever you say, big guy. Just make sure you pass on your adult wisdom to stupid young whippersnappers like me, alright?”

Vaile’s comment caused the rest of the wagon-full of people to snicker and snort, while the boy was getting red in the face.

“You’ll see! If the Red Mountain Bandits show up, I’ll show you just how much of a man I am!”

At the words ‘Red Mountain Bandits’ everyone suddenly stopped laughing. The boy’s mother grabbed him and began to harshly chastise him. Vaile did not understand, but that was a norm for someone who was still new to the world. He did not want to seem simple or out of the loop, so he said nothing and listened as the sound of a hand hitting someone’s exposed rear and said someone’s crying replaced the silence.

“Damn. It’s times like these I wish I had a wiki or something to answer my questions…”

One of the other passengers scooched over and sat beside Vaile.

“A Wiki? There should be one in the next town. Gotta love those places, right? Free information on practically everything, and the fact that all of those places are connected and constantly updating with carefully curated info makes it an Adventurer’s best friend! Did they not have one where you lived?”

Vaile was surprised. Was ‘Wiki’ their word for a Library?

“No. Just heard that they existed and didn’t believe it.” Vaile bluffed.

“Boy, those places are amazing; The World Wiki was founded by an Outworlder who got lost here with a few of his buds. They figured that since there was so much people didn’t know that they needed a place to catalogue and store all the disparate bits and pieces of info from all over. No idea how they managed to do it, but they apparently turned a massive Magicite Crystal into a repository for all knowledge. Anytime something big enough happens or any new discovery or knowledge is uncovered, it gets catalogued with as complete a file as possible. You know, were it not for them we would blah blah blah blah blah…”

Vaile shut out the man’s voice as he went into a spiel about how great The World Wiki was. Vaile wanted to check out this place, but he still had a few hours to go before the caravan arrived at the next major town. They were still a few days away from the middle of the country and they would have to pass through several other settlements before reaching the major town after this next one.

Their path was going to get far more treacherous, too. They would have to pass dangerously close to the infamous Red Mountain, home of the bandits and marauders who took its name for themselves. Or perhaps it was the other way around? No one was sure at this point, but they were sure that no one could assault Red Mountain and live. It was thanks to that that the Bandits who dwelled there managed to form a kind of ‘criminal government’ and spread its influence far and wide.

Vaile, being bored out of his gourd, decided to check the minimap for any signs to hostility. He found them, alright. The new guards that had been taken on during their pit stop in the previous settlement were showing up as red. At the same time, there were several red markers flanking and following the caravan at a decent enough distance. Worse yet, the man sitting next to him also showed up as a hostile. Vaile looked him over as the man continued to espouse the greatness of The World Wiki and noticed a single part of his outfit that was out of place.

On his right pinky finger was a signet ring with a red stone in it. Why was this out of place? Well, because he wore peasant’s clothes that were stained and heavily worn down through years of hard labor. Vaile wondered how anyone who saw a peasant wearing a signet ring fit for a noble wouldn’t associate him with some shady organization, but soon enough Vaile had other things to worry about.

“Look! Up ahead!”

One of the non-hostiles from inside the cart caught Vaile’s attention and as he looked into the distance towards the supposed location of the next settlement, all he saw were the glow of fire and a rising plume of smoke. Vaile noticed that the red markers on the minimap were closing in and steeled himself for the combat to come. His build may not have been geared towards personal combat, but damn it if he was not going to go down fighting! As he reached for his cane, he felt the sting of a needle in his neck. As he fell unconscious, he saw the smile of the man who had sat beside him.

“Fucking hell.” Vaile thought as he fell into dreamland, “Forgot you were there…”