Chapter 472: Floating Caravans
=Yup.=
=I was honestly expecting more assassins…the trip’s not over yet though.=
<=...=>
=We already took them in and have begun teaching them the ways of [chaos]. Besides, Elsa needed someone who can be with her at her level and I’m fairly certain that the children are against the idea of being surprised adopted again anyways.=
=I am a being of logic, not sentiment.=
=You lie!=
=Dammit!=
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*Bing-Bong*
This is a reminder that when the term “branch clan” is used, it is referring to the Zhen Clan that is native to Stampeding Bison.
That is all.
*Bing-Bong*
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“Well this is…remarkably different from the caravans back home.”
“That’s because the caravan wagons back home weren’t designed to double as river rafts.”
“I mean…fair, but still…”
It had only been a few hours since the branch clan members had arrived to Roaring Tide, and it had been one cultural/geographical shock after the other.
From the plain fact that Tide Tongue was the local language and no longer a secret language to complain about customers with, to the significant difference in humidity between home and here. As such, the fact that the road to the main branch citadel was less of a path of hardened dirt and stone and instead a series of rivers and bridges was mildly shocking to say the least.
Roaring Tide, as far as the branch clan knew, was covered in a series of natural water bodies that ranged from lakes to swamplands, all interconnected via a series of rivers that criss-crossed the entire continent. In fact, several nations made use of these rivers as a way of formally establishing physical borders between nations. Granted this didn’t always work, but it was the thought that counts.
It was due to these rivers though that travel across the continent wasn’t done via traditional horse and wagon, but was instead done by a slightly modified giant amphibious beast and specialized wagons that could double as rafts.
The cheaper model of these wagon-rafts looked like a mash-up of the two vehicles, while the fancier ones with aether mixed in could straight up transform.
Part of the reason why it took so long for the branch clan to a get move on after arriving to Pearl Scale was due to the need of having to modify all of their wagons to be amphibious or having to buy new ones in the event a wagon couldn’t be modified.
They had plenty of beasts that could navigate the rivers, unsurprisingly, they just didn’t have the vehicles necessary.
That being said, one particular aether beast under the Zhen Clan’s command happened to find this situation the most enjoyable part of this entire trip.
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“Huh…didn’t y’all said that Tiny usually hate pulling wagons and stuff without a bribe? How is she so calm this time around?,” Rianna asked.
“I’m not entirely sure either,” Jin Fang replied, “I’ve only seen her this happy and calm when Mini is around.”
“Simply put, it’s because this is the first time in a long time, our hippo friend here got to enjoy the feeling of running water beneath her,” Zhen Liu answered, “that and rafts are actually easier to pull then straight up wagons.”
“Grunt.”
“See?”
“Ah…wait if hippos like water so much, why do Tiny and Mini live in the desert with us?”
“That’s…a good point…why do you two live in a desert?”
“Grunt, grunt.”
“That explains some things.”
As of this moment, Zhen Liu, Rianna and Jin Fang were currently sitting on the back of Tiny, the Raijin Hippopotamus, helping to lead the caravan as they navigated one of the many, many rivers of Roaring Tide. Attached to Tiny’s back was a harness carrying an oversized raft that had at least three other wagons worth of stuff on it.
Trailing behind the Raijin Hippo were several dozen other wagons, some composed of the branch clan members, others the main clan members, but a majority of the caravan wagons belonged to a trading company known as the Skyscales Company.
As far as Zhen Liu knew, the Skyscales Company was one of the few trading companies in Roaring Tide that had the luxury of being able to trade with the Soaring Griffon continent, a not-so-easy feat to achieve given that much like how Dozing Salamander and Roaring Tide didn’t exactly get along, Soaring Griffon and Roaring Tide had a rather…frosty relationship.
Regardless, the fact that such a trading company was willing to work with a group that were essentially frontier yokels in their eyes was shocking to say the least…up until Zhen Liu learned the reason why.
That reason being: Tiny.
Turns out the caravan master was rather fond of hippopotamus beasts and had initially wanted to just outright purchase Tiny due to the fact that she was one, but justified it with the fact that fourth tier aether beasts made for powerful deterrents against most bandits and beasts.
However, Patriarch Zhen Shi refused the offer on the exact same grounds that the caravan master wanted to buy her.
That and the fact that Tiny was less of the branch clan’s property and more of a friend of one of their young masters (read: Zhen Liu).
This eventually culminated into several rounds of negotiations that eventually lead to the agreement that the Zhen Clan would accompany the Skyscales Company to their destination on the condition that Tiny was the one to lead the caravan, and that the Zhen Clan would help the Skyscales Company to capture and tame another hippopotamus type aether beast should the opportunity presented itself.
It was a rather strange agreement to hash out, to be sure, but it did get their asses moving again so it wasn’t a massive deal.
Zhen Liu, however, made a mental note around the time he heard about the details of this agreement to try and minimize the presence of Mini as much as he could.
But with all that said and done, the Zhen Clan would be arriving to their ancestral kingdom in three to four days time, provided that nothing went away during that period.
However, this also meant that Zhen Liu only had three or four days left to finish up his plans for boosting his uncles powers in the case shit went sideways.
‘Okay, so the only uncles I have left to empower are my Second Uncle and my Sixth Uncle…a big brutish bear of a man with an elegant daughter and a quiet, calculative man with an oddly wreckless son…I feel like something got crossed here,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he tried to figure out which kaijin would be appropriate for the each of them.
Speaking of kaijin, as the Zhen Clan/Skyscales carvan were making their way up river in a literal sense, Zhen Liu decided to let the kaijin out of their accessory modes and let them hang around the carvan in their figure modes.
Well, most of them anyways.
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[So…none of y’all find it weird that Spring Brawler could handle that big ass ship we spent a week on, but got sea sick immediately after we got on these river…rafts? Wagons? Barges?,] Hurricroak asked.
[Barges…work….]
[Thank you, Frosttusk.]
[Not really, I mean…it’s like getting sick when you eat a specific type of nut over another,] Razorstella elaborated, [walnuts and peanuts are both nuts, but one makes me not as sick as the other when I eat it.]
[That’s fair…oh! Speaking of nuts, where’d we put that bag of sugared nuts? I would like a cashew right about now.]
[I think we-]
[Incoming!,] Nepherage suddenly interjected.
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Near the middleish area of the caravan, an employee of the Skyscales Company was staring intently at a group of figures that she swore wasn’t on the inventory list before.
“Huh…when did we get these…”
Evidently, she was so engrossed in thought, she failed to notice her co-worker walking pass behind her, only to finally acknowledge the latter’s presence when they asked her a question.
“Hmm? Ringo? What’s with the intense stare?”
“Huh? Oh, hey Sayu. I was just trying to rack my brain up on when or where we got these figures from.”
“Figures?”
“Have a look.”
Ringo stepped away from her staring spot in order to gesture at four strange figures sitting on a box.
“Whoa. They certainly look…imaginative.”
“Right??”
All of the figures were incredibly distinctive from one another, but yet had this strange uniformity about them that seemed to unify them in one coherent theming.
Of course, neither Sayu nor Ringo were able to figure out what the fuck that theming was exactly.
“Wait a minute…I am sensing faint traces of aether coming off of these figures…wait, isn’t one of the people were traveling with a puppet master? The guy on the hippo?”
“Oh yeah…think these are his puppets then?”
“Seems like it.”
“Well then, mystery solved I guess…wanna go get some tea?”
“Actually, I heard those branch clan guys brought over some coffee and I want to try it.”
“Aight…what the fuck is coffee?”
