Silverymoon
Chapter 7
"How do you feel?" Rick asked Kate as they rode side by side. Alexis had Patches in her lap and was just a little out in front of them.
"Full. That Fire Giant that was after that Rod was a lot of blood. I bite someone else, and I swear I'll burst. But at least his blood isn't upsetting my stomach." Kate was thankful for that, and she was also grateful that the guy had killed them all. He certainly looked like he had the muscles for it.
Alexis wasn't that far away. "Kissing people to drain them doesn't exactly feel all that great either."
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They were walking their horses, and Patches was trotting next to Alexis to keep up. "Guys, does that cloud look funny to you?" Alexis pointed to it. "I think it has a building in it."
Rick and Kate looked up and raised their hands to hold back the sunlight and see better. "Kind of reminds me of a Cinderella Castle," Rick commented.
"If I didn't see it, I wouldn't believe it," Kate said. So far, living here was nothing like where they used to live. No electricity, but there was magic everywhere.
"How does it stay up there?" Alexis wondered and kept looking up.
"It has to weigh untold tons." Rick was equally amazed. "So who lives up there? It has to be at least a mile high."
"What do they breathe up there? Even Denver isn't that high up," Alexis added.
They all walked and watched that cloud with a castle in it while it kept floating by until it was far enough away, and they mounted their horses to keep going.
The next city was Triboar. This city was three times the size of Yartar, and they had a selection of inns to choose from and more than one stable. So they got a room for four gold, and put the horses in a stable for seven silver. They used the coin they got off the Fire Giant, and no one said anything.
"From here, we travel through grasslands," Kate apprised them since they would be getting off the road from here on out.
"Did you two see the volcano?" Rick asked them since he certainly saw it.
"You can't miss it, Dad. The sky that way is a mess. There will be ash everywhere." Concerned, Alexis suggested, "We might want to look for pieces of cloth to put over our mouths so we can breathe."
"Why didn't we think of that before we left?" Rick was with her. They definitely were going to need something.
"What about Patches?" Kate queried. She knew Alexis adored her cat and that her heart would break if anything happened to him.
"Believe it or not, he doesn't breathe air, and he doesn't eat anything. He's literally almost all fire." Alexis had him in her lap so that other people in the inn didn't get nervous about him while they ate. After all, he was all fire.
"I like him, but he's just weird," Kate commented.
"Don't listen to her, Patches. She doesn't mean it. We all love you." Alexis petted him and bent down to kiss him.
"That's not what I mean, Alexis." Kate tried to clarify what she said. "Everything here is just so different. I was used to being back home and my life there. Now, I'm here, and everything is different. Patches, Fire Giants, Hobgoblins, Goblins, Zombies, Skeletons, Ghosts. Things I was sure couldn't possibly exist. Now they do."
"And whoever was living in that castle in the clouds," Rick added. While he loved the idea of some of this, living it was another matter.
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They had no issues in town and left in the morning after getting some better fresh food for the trip and some handkerchiefs to cover their faces later. They only cost a copper piece for three.
They had no trouble noticing that they were getting closer and closer to Neverwinter and the volcano that was still belching out smoke. "We're going to need to be careful soon. The map showed the mountain range where the volcano was, was inside a forest. We can expect forest fires, people fleeing, and those looting the town.
"If it's anything like Mount St. Helens, you'll see whole sections of the forest flattened, and rivers of mud flowing anywhere they can," Rick told them. "Research."
"Of course." Kate was still trying to figure out when Rick had found the time to do that much research. Or even how he stored all of it in his brain.
"Just be thankful we weren't there for the pyroclastic flow, or we would look like all those people in Pompeii," Rick declared as they kept riding.
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"Where are we going?" Kate queried given that Rick was out in front today.
"We've gone past Krypt Garden Forest. Next over is Sword Mountains. If you were bad guys looking to get lucky but didn't want to go north and due south was the main road that leads to Waterdeep, which happens to be the largest city this place has, where would you go?" Rick asked her.
Kate thought about that for a moment. "Through the grasses and then north. Skirt the Neverwinter Forest or just inside it to hide. OR head for a mountain range." Now Kate knew what Castle was thinking.
"Plus, we might find a place easy to reach that's high enough to scan the grasses and spot trouble before we walk straight into it," Rick mentioned.
"So, not just another handsome face?" Kate was impressed.
Rick pressed his luck. "Then you admit that I'm ruggedly handsome?"
"I never said that." Kate had no intention of inflating his ego any more than it already was.
"Let's stay on topic before you two start another fight." Alexis had been listening to those two. Now she put a stop to the beginning of a fight.
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They had found a spot on the edge of the mountain range to secure their horses, but Rick and Alexis didn't leave. Kate held out her hand, "Hand me your Goggles," and she took them. "Stay here." Kate shifted into a swarm of bats and flew up high. Then she converted back to human, put on the Goggles, and started scanning the area.
"She really is useful, Dad. Have you two finally talked?" Alexis knew her dad had been treading lightly with her before they came here and ended up prisoners of the Drow.
"Pretty much, yeah. I told Kate that I love her and want whatever's best for her. I make love to her, and she hasn't run away yet. She's still a bit distant, but she's getting better. I'm still avoiding the big things, but we're getting better." Rick had been taking a few risks from time to time.
"Good." Alexis decided to sit on the ground and pet Patches while waiting for Kate to return.
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Kate finally spotted movement; it was a bit distant, so she focused on that. "Interesting." She couldn't tell the race, but it would either be people from the city or looters, and they were just as Castle had theorized… They were coming this way.
"If they were people from the city, why head for the mountains? Why not go down the road to Waterdeep and get help?" Kate kept watching till they got a lot closer. Then, she took off the Goggles, changed into a swarm of bats, and went down to Castle and Alexis.
"I've got a group of about sixteen out in front. A little behind them are three carts pulled by oxen. Behind that is another dozen people. They aren't humans, elves, dwarves, or any other major race that we know about. Far behind the group that's behind the last group is what I would call an army. There are two abreast and marching this way. There has to be a hundred at least. Maybe more."
Kate described them. "Stooped postures, piggish faces, and prominent teeth resembling tusks."
"Looters," Rick stated flatly.
"That was my thought. They're coming this way. Not exactly toward us but south toward us and this mountain range," Kate told them. Thankfully, Castle didn't rub in that he was right.
"So, how do we handle this?" Alexis asked. And the three of them began brainstorming a plan that just might work.
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The trick was how to attack the group upfront and do something before the army behind them reached them. They were going to leave the horses here, and while they asked Alexis if she wanted to leave Patches to guard the horses, she had refused. Wherever she went, so did Patches.
So they had a plan. It had been a few days since Kate had bitten that Fire Giant, so she could bite a few of them. But most of them were maybe going to have to be attacked. At least they had a plan to cut that down some.
Alexis had the Wand of Color Spray, and Rick had the Wand of Web. Alexis would use her wand on the group behind the carts, while Rick used his on the group up front and then the oxen. That would stop the carts. And since there was only one of them driving each cart, they could handle them.
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It had mostly worked out the way they had wanted it to. It had taken a number of charges from each wand to get it to work. Alexis had used up a number of charges to get all of them to fall. Now seeing the pretty colors reaching out from her wand had been rather pleasant to see.
Mostly it worked out the way they had wanted it to work. It had taken a minimum of several charges from each wand to get it to work. Alexis had used up a fair number of charges to get all of them to fall. Now, seeing the pretty colors reaching out from her wand had been rather pleasant to see.
In turn Rick had a few issues with using his Wand of Web. He was learning that, like a spider web, at least three points of contact were necessary to hold it in place. Still, it had worked. But it worked best on the oxen since they were attached to the cart.
The one thing that hadn't worked out quite so well was catching all of the drivers of the carts. Plus, their timing was a little off. Kate had managed to attack just the one driver and had only bitten him enough to render him unconscious. However, the other two had run for it. They fled, went around Alexis, and back toward the army.
"We need to work fast," Kate told them since there was no way they could handle the army headed this way. And after those two ratted them out, they would come running instead of walking.
There were three carts, and every one of them looked full. The carts were simple enough in construction. Open top, two large wheels, a place for the driver to sit. Nothing special.
Each took a cart. "I've got mostly gold objects, silver objects, and a few interesting wooden pieces," Kate called out.
"Pretty much the same here. Though I see some statues, fine china, and other things," Rick said with a loud enough voice that they could hear him easily.
"I've got a Smorgasbord of stuff. You name it, it's here," Alexis yelled and pulled out a wand. "Some of this is magical!" That had Rick and Kate running to join her.
"Open the Black Hole, babe," Kate said to Castle. "We can try to be picky, but that army will be here soon, and I don't want to be here when they do." Only Alexis, it seemed, noticed that Kate had called her dad BABE. Hearing that made her grin.
"Careful! Nothing that might be extra-dimensional," Kate cautioned when Rick picked up a backpack.
"Good point." Rick cast it aside and continued taking things from the cart and throwing them into the hole.
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This cart was now empty. Granted, a lot of it was on the ground next to it, but everything magical that they could find had gone into the hole. It was all kinds of things: wands, staffs, miniature statues, belts, masks, and more.
At the moment, Alexis was high up in the air as a Succubus using her Goggles to spot the army while Rick and Kate were working on the wagon filled with other things. This time they were being far more careful. Unbreakable objects went in first, while things made of china would go on top. They actually thought this would fill their Black Hole. Something both of them thought might never happen.
Alexis was back, and remained looking like a Succubus, just like Rick still looked like an Incubus. They had specially made clothing to handle their wings and tails.
"We need to hustle," Alexis urged them. "That army is running this way."
"Grab the china, babe, fold up the hole, and let's get out of here." Whoever these people were, they would get away with a lot of this stuff. But not all of it. However, they also hadn't killed anyone.
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"Why are we walking the horses?" Kate had just gone with it since they had gotten away. Mostly, their plan had worked pretty well.
Rick shared his reasoning. "Movement. Running horses create dust while walking horses don't. I don't want that army spotting us. Granted, we could outrun them on horseback, but none of us are that good at riding horses. Plus, I don't want to run into another army coming out to meet them."
Unexpectedly, Kate was impressed. This was a side of Castle she wasn't used to seeing. He was actually thinking and planning ahead, and she kind of liked it. "Remind me to kiss you later."
Rick looked at her with hooded eyes. "You can kiss me now," he countered.
"Watch the pheromones, Dad." Alexis was beginning to smell them.
"Sorry." Rick concentrated on toning them down as much as he could.
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When they thought they were far enough away, they mounted their horses and rode until it started to get late. They lucked out and found a spot on the edge of the mountain range to set up their tent. They hobbled their horses and gave one of them the feed bag.
"According to the map, we should reach the road between Neverwinter and Waterdeep tomorrow," Rick noted. "And then turn north and head for Neverwinter."
But Alexis disagreed. "If it's anything like back home, that road might be clogged with people fleeing the city and headed south. It might be best to stay off of it."
"She has a point," Kate concurred. "Desperate people do desperate things."
"Like looting anything and anyone," Alexis added.
"Point taken. We can head out into the grasses in the morning. One of us needs to go high and look for that army come morning." Rick didn't want to walk right into them.
"I'll do it," Kate offered, "though I'll need your Goggles." Alexis immediately handed them over.
"Good thing we kept these. I wonder what we got." She knew it was a lot but not just what it all was. "They said we could steal from looters."
"We certainly did that." Rick didn't have a problem with stealing from thieves. He did wonder if anyone was going to want all this stuff back. But maybe if they didn't tell anyone, was that stealing?
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They were delaying leaving this morning. There was no grass here for the horses to eat so one of them was getting the feed bag since it was his turn. However, they would all get grass soon. Alexis was tending to the horses, leaving Rick and Kate alone.
Kate saw a change in Castle. "You look nervous."
"I'm… We've been making love, and I love you. While I don't need your Cum yet, I want you." They hadn't made love to each other for the entire trip so far, and it was the longest they had gone without sex since they had started making love.
Kate smiled, took hold of one arm, and leaned into him. "I miss making love to you too, but we can't. We only have one tent and where we're going is a devastated city. There won't be an inn where we can stay. If I can wait, you can wait." Kate was ready to tell him that she loved him.
"I may die first," Rick complained.
"We'll make it." Kate had gone without sex for far longer than this. But she was missing making love to him as well. "Rick, …Iloveyou," Kate said fast, thinking maybe that would be easier for her. Only all that got was him looking at her and trying to slow it down.
Kate repeated it slowly. "I... love... you." Except, one word at a time made it only words.
"Do you?" Rick wasn't so sure. It sounded forced to him.
"You know this is hard for me. Don't be a jackass. I'm trying to tell you that I love you." All of a sudden, Kate realized that she had said it. It made her smile, and she reached up to kiss his cheek. "I love you, Rick. I'm sorry it took me so long. I'm still scared, but I do love you." This time, it was so much easier.
"In the next city, we'll get two rooms because I want to show you that I love you," Rick shared with her.
"I'd like that." With her hands on his chest, Kate leaned up to kiss him soundly this time.
Alexis was back and watching them kiss. She was happy for them because she liked Kate and loved her dad. He deserved better than her mother or Gina.
Alexis cleared her throat to get their attention. It didn't get them to let go of the other, however. "The horses are ready. If you would care to look to see if the way is clear?"
"Right." Kate gave Rick a quick kiss and shifted into a swarm of bats. She went up the mountain, turned back into a human, put on the Goggles, and started looking around.
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Kate was back. "I've got a long line of refugees going down the road there." She pointed toward the road. "The volcano is quiet, but I can see fires in the distance. At least a day away from here, given how fast we travel. And for the record, my butt hurts." Riding a horse like that definitely wasn't for her.
"I hear that." Alexis thought it was only her butt.
"I didn't see the army, nor did I see the carts. I didn't see where they went," Kate reported. "But it wasn't coming this way."
"Are you certain? If I was an army and wanted to loot, there were all these people were headed south with no one to protect them. I'd kill them and take everything." Rick shrugged. "It's what I would have written. They probably can't even fight back."
"Show me that map again," Kate asked him. Now the three of them were sitting on the ground looking at the map.
"If I was an army of hundred or more, where would I go?" Alexis mused.
"Home. I have to empty my carts in order to load them again," Rick said. He pointed at the map. "Say there's a pass right here. They travel down this side where we are now, through this pass here, assuming it exists. I would come out here where this road travels through this group of hills here on the way to Waterdeep.
"The hills mean there's only the one road."
"Ambush anywhere along that road. Kill them, take everything and go home. Come back again if they want. So how do we stop that? We can't just let that happen." Kate was still thinking like a cop. Protect and Serve.
"Two days, maybe three at our speed to reach Waterdeep. Convince them to send someone to protect them. Maybe a day for them to get here at best, and who says they haven't already thought of this?" Alexis argued.
"We can't protect them. It's just the three of us, and we didn't want to deal with that army in the first place. Would they listen to go back and not straight into an ambush?" Rick questioned.
"Refugees that just lost everything, and we don't even know if there's an ambush on this road in these hills? I'm not sure I would go back. Not sure I would even listen. I'd still be in shock. I just watched my family, my neighbors, get killed by a volcano." Kate groaned since it sounded like they didn't have an idea that would work.
"You need an army to fight an army. How do we get one of those? We didn't plan to go to Waterdeep. Mitala didn't say anything about sending anyone to Waterdeep," Alexis reminded them. "He hired us to survey Neverwinter and report back."
"What do you think, Patches?" Kate asked, not really expecting an answer.
"MEOW!"
Alexis looked at Kate. "He says he wants to go home."
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They rode their horses out into the grasslands, avoiding the road entirely and heading for Neverwinter to complete their job. Trusting that Silverymoon had thought about the refugees. That they sent a message to Waterdeep to send guards to help these people.
"What do you think we're going to find?" Alexis asked.
Rick gave a heavy sigh before he answered her. "Devastation. A pyroclastic flow off that volcano will destroy everything. Mt. Saint Helens blew out sideways, not straight up. So which way did this one blow? Stone buildings are fine, maybe. Wood, like part of our home, is gone.
"Question is, can we even get into the city?"
"Then it sounds like we fly it," Alexis said grimly.