“Well, we got the seeds, we’ve proven that they are without a shadow of a doubt correct, and now thanks to the Bjorn, we got ourselves enough soil to make an entire field out of.” I noted everything off, “Well, maybe not a field, but a couple bags worth of soil is surely enough, right?”

“Yeah, Lina won’t be able to handle all the weight.” Shaid petted her as we were putting all of our luggage on the ship, “I think we should get a carriage or something. It shouldn’t cost too much to attach a rope to a wooden container.”

“I can fix that up for you, I know a guy.” Olya added, “Rest assured, he owes me big time for that time I got him out of hot water. Heheh, with a little bit of push, I’m sure he’ll give us the best carriage you guys have ever seen!”

“Oh, that’d actually really help us out. Thanks.” I waved him off as he got off the boat and far off into the crowded dock.

Man, ever since Olya came back, everything’s been so much easier all of a sudden. Now that he’s in charge of buying everything, with his connections and knowledge of the people here, we can always rest assured that he’ll get us the best possible deals. It’s actually incredible how he’s managed to smooth talk his way into not getting scammed, and even managed to get us a huge bargain for the soil. Thus, I’ve no doubts in my mind that that man can get us a carriage well worth the money!

“So, whaddya’ think?” I turned to Shaid with a smug grin, “On a scale of one to ten, how much do you think Tanathos will be happy with our haul?”

“The Old Man?” Shaid rubbed his goatee with a smile, “Yeah, I think it’s a solid ten out of ten, amigo.”

“Heh, yeah well, we’ll be stayin’ at Havana for another year or so. It’s only fair that we do our best to make it a comfortable place to live in.”

“I agree, but what exactly is our plan as of now? We can’t go straight to planting, since we need a shelter to isolate the wheat from the heat. Other than that, water is a huge concern, as plants can’t work without it.”

“Oh shit, you’re right. Looks like we didn’t think of that part. So then, should we go after Olya and ask him to get us some builders and architects as well while we’re here?”

“No, not yet at least.” Shaid thought for a moment, “The people here will be totally freaked out by the people of Havana. We don’t want to risk anyone going berserk, so let’s hold off on calling anyone else up until we talk to the old man.”

I guess that makes sense. Anyone would be skeptical if three randos just suddenly asked ‘im to follow them to the Solaris Desert, given its infamy in the World. Patiance, Schnell, we can’t get too ahead of ourselves and cause any more problems for the Havana quikkas.

“Hey guys!” Olya’s voice rung out through the crowd as he approached us, “Look what I found!”

“Eh?!” We jolted in surprise, “What the…? How’d you go and find such a huge carriage?”

In his hand he held the leads that guided the horse that was moving the carriage, and with a wide grin on his face as if it was begging to be praised, he undid the lead and went to take the horse back to its owner. This was to be expected, but the horse was just there to move the carriage over to here, we didn’t get to keep it.

“Hey!” Shaid beckoned Olya back for a second, “Thanks for all this, amigo.”

“No prob, man!” He smiled back, “Anything for my buds.”

“No, don’t say that.” Shaid felt a tinge of regret wash over him, “After what I did, please don’t feel obligated to…”

“Shaid, bro, you’re getting way too ahead of yourself.” Olya chuckled.

“Huh?”

“I’m not doing any of this because I want you guys to forgive me or anything. I’m doing this for the exact same reason as you now.” He explained, “Befriending the dark-skinned race, unifying the World, it’s all such an amazing and unheard of idea, that it’s all too dazzling to miss out on. Obviously, you’re gonna need my expertise in the quill if you’re ever gonna convince anyone to follow your lead in the future, so right now I’m just doing what we all think is right. Please, stop walking on eggshells around me and enjoy the ride.”

“Ah, r-right…” Shaid scratched his cheek, “I guess even you have your moments of maturity, fatty.”

“Right back at ya’, goatman.” Olya shot back a diss of his own.

And with that, we now had everything we needed for the project to build up Havana to commence. First, the seeds to create wheat, from which we’d make bread for the quikkas. Then the soil, in which we’d place the seeds. And finally, the carriage, on which we’d carry the previous two from the dock to the quik. Sadly, we didn’t get to figure out how to secure water and a greenhouse shelter, but we’ll talk to Tanathos about it when we get there. For now, we should board everything up on the ship and set sail.

***

The ride back to Abyssus Solis was pretty much all smooth sailing, no pun intended. We were mostly sticking to the edge of the continent, so it wasn’t like we could get lost or encounter any nefarious sea beasts while out in the ocean. Even still, I’m pretty sure I saw a Krakethulu far out in the distance, but these two were too busy playing poker so they made fun of me for “seeing things”. Nothing else worthy of note happened, apart from the fact that I completely stole everything from them out of spite when I sat down to join them for a couple rounds. Serves them right for makin’ fun of the ol’ Schnell-meister!

“Two Pair!” Olya shouted as he tossed the cards haphazardly on the barrel.

“Hey now, if those cards fall off the deck there is no getting them back, amigo.” Shaid warned as he showed us his cards, “Too bad for you though, ‘cause this one’s mine! Three of a Kind, haha!”

“Ack, shiet! Well, I don’t mind losing, as long as this bastard loses as well.” Olya pointed at me with a shit eating grin, “Shaid, rob him of all his chips!”

“Sorry guys…” I feigned an apologetic tone as I showed them my hand.

“Fu…!?” Shaid did a double-take, “Full House?! No, there’s no way! This far into the game, when our deck’s nearly at its end, there’s no way you got that!”

“Yeah! Show us your sleeves, jackass!” Olya started roughhousing, reaching for my arms all the while.

“What the fuck are you talking about, you idiot?” I yanked myself free as I sat him back down on his barrel, “You goddamned shit for brains, how the hell could I keep spare cards in my sleeves if they’re rolled up to my elbows?”

“Grr…! You have a point on that, but that doesn’t mean you’re in the clear, got that?!” Olya grit his teeth, “I know your type! You act all nice and friendly, then steal everything at the end when you’ve gained everyone’s trust! Ugh, fuck this shiet, I’m gonna go drink some rum.”

“Bring us some as well!” Shaid yelled out as Olya stormed off, “That fatass, who knew he’d be so bad at poker?”

“Hey now, he might not have the best hands, but you lost as well, didn’t you?”

“Are you kidding me?” Shaid showed me his sleeve, pouring out all sorts of strong cards out of there, “The guy was so focused on you that he completely ignored me stealing all his stronger cards. Honestly, did you not even once think it odd how little matching cards he would get throughout the rounds?”

“Dude.” I glared at him seriously before giving him a discreet fist bump, “You’re devious.”

“I know, but it made the games more interesting in my opinion, so it justifies it.” He stuck his tongue out.

Well, glad these two are getting along. When they had their falling out, I was kind of worried about Shaid, since he kind of seemed out of it entirely after that, but now everything seems to be going swell. Oh, speaking of swell, it looks like we’re approaching our destination.

“Yo, hic, there’s no more rum left.” Olya wobbled back to us.

“Dude, we had like twenty bottles stashed up in there for the entire trip!” Shaid inspected him more carefully, “And if you’re gonna lie about it, at least wipe off the rum from your lips.”

“I ain’t, hic, lyin’!” Olya pointed at us, “There wash enough fer’ me, but none fer’ yous. Besides, y’all are kids, ‘n kids shouldn’t be drinking!”

“We’re gonna be adults soon enough, just a bit under a year away, so it’s practically like we’re adults.” I noted, “I think it should be fine, especially since this isn’t at all our first time drinking.”

“Gasp! Schnell, that’sh illegal!” Olya tried sitting back down on his barrel, before missing it completely and falling on the floor.

Promptly laughing our asses off, Shaid and I made sure to get his ass sobered up before we anchored the ship to the dock. Soon after, we had carefully taken Lina and the carriage down from the ship and onto the sandy terrain below. We were kind of worried how the carriage wheels would operate on the hard to tread sand, but since Lina wasn’t really in a rush, it seems the wheels simply glided on normally. That being said, I don’t remember her being this sluggish. I know she’s kind of slow to begin with, but I’m pretty sure she was faster before.

“Hey, are we there yet?” Olya put some robes around his neck to avoid sunburn, “Ow, my head hurts…”

“It’s just around the corner.” I assured him, “That being said, you’re the one who wanted to selfishly take all the rum for yourself.”

“Ugh, why’d I even do that?” He tried to recall, “It was a spur of the moment decision. A whole heap of emotions mixing together. I was pissed at you for winning the poker games, then I recalled you were kids and kids weren’t allowed to drink, so I got this strange sense of responsibility, after that…”

“After that, you got plastered.” Shaid teased, “Remind me again who’s the adult here?”

“Watch your tone, boy! I’ll have you know I’m a whole decade older than you two!”

“Eh? That can’t be! Isn’t 26 supposed to be the peak of one’s youth?” Shaid continued laying it on thick, “At your age, you should have already had a woman, a child, a proper job, at least some notable accomplishments…”

“I do have a job! It’s just not paying out yet!” He tried to defend himself, “I’m the Revisor! Ow, my head is fucking killing me!”

“Haha, alright, alright. Settle down you two.” I calmed them down, “We’re nearing Havana, so don’t greet the people with a quarrel.”

“Hold on Schnell, we should be just around the corner, but don’t you think it’s far too quiet?” Shaid warned, “Something’s not right here.”

Crap, he’s right. Entering the quik, we were appalled by what we saw. It was a complete ghost town, totally abandoned. Don’t get me wrong, the settlement wasn’t all too big to begin with, but it was pretty busy at all times nonetheless. God, we need to go find Tanathos and find out what happened.

“Hey, this place looks pretty empty.” Olya took out a quill and some notes, “For my review of Havana, should I use the word “dead” or “desolate” as its description?”

“Who cares about that!” Shaid knocked the quill and paper out of his hands and ran inside Tanathos’ tent, “Shit, he’s not here, Schnell! No one is!”

“Hey, not cool man…” Olya went to pick up his things from the sand before stumbling onto something very important, “Oh? Hey guys, check this out.”

Opening the scrap piece of paper with some barely intelligible scribblings on it, we had Olya read it out to us, as it was thankfully in Entropic. The handwriting was definitely Tanathos’, although it was really hastily written.

“Enemy camp got us. If you two find this, you’re free to run away, no questions asked. That being said, brothers, if you have found friends capable of saving us, I beg of you, turn this paper over to find a map of where we’re located at. Send help, plea-.”

It seems the last sentence was abruptly ended, supposedly because they had found him and captured him. This would also explain why the piece of paper was buried in the sand just in front of the tent instead of it being kept inside. Honestly, with how hectic the sandstorms here can be, it’s a real miracle the scrap piece of paper wasn’t blown away. Actually, that must be why he buried it under the sand. Tanathos took a gamble, and it paid off thankfully.

“Shaid, what do we do?” I turned to him.

“I don’t like this one bit.” Olya interjected, “L-Let’s just go back and find some help.”

“Hell no. It’ll take too long, and we don’t even know when this all had happened in the first place.” Shaid steeled his resolve, “The Old Man helped us out immensely thus far, so the least we could do is save his people. We’re going right the fuck now. Schnell, your thoughts on this idea?”

“Couldn’t have said it any better myself.” I gave him a high five as we sat back down on Lina and departed for the neighboring quik.