The group spread out a little, and everyone dismounted as they moved through the ruins of the city, looking for signs of survivors, loot, or any indication that there might have been a summoning ritual in the region.
That was their primary goal, and if they didn’t find it, then they would have to warn the lines that they were likely to see an influx of Frost Giants from a new direction in the next few days.
[There is something strange under here. Bring your shovel.] Rae insisted a few minutes later.
“Rae found something. Let’s check it out.” Karl informed the others quietly.
It just felt wrong to make noise here, like the city was a tomb and deserved a level of reverence, even if they were here to loot it.
Dana took out the shovel from Karl’s pack and passed it to him, so he could dig through the rubble to get to whatever Rae had found.
With the barrier on it, the shovel cut through stone with a little effort, and it only took a few minutes to clear the rubble, while Rae got more excited by the second.
“There is a door. A stone door that leads downward.” He informed the others when he realized what he was digging towards.
[Yes, open it. There are treats inside, I’m certain of it.]
Karl was about to move the last of the rubble to open the door when Tessa stepped between him and Rae with her eyes glowing red.
“No, Rae. You can’t eat them.” She insisted in a booming voice laden with holy magic.
The spider glared at the cleric, who was obviously under the influence of the War Goddess, unwilling to relent so easily when she had been the one to detect the hidden treasures. But after a few seconds, she backed away and turned her back on the tunnel, letting Tessa have this victory.
[Fine, I didn’t really need them for the art anyhow. I will just use the frozen ones.] She pouted.
Karl cleared the door and led the way down a set of hidden stairs, with Tessa right behind him.
What he found was a small room with a few dozen liquor barrels and a dozen Satyr children, huddled together in terror, and looking malnourished far beyond what two days in a hiding hole would justify.
Tessa held out a hand to them. “Relax, little ones. We’re not going to let them eat you. Do you have a guardian with you?”
The closest of the Satyrs, a young boy in filthy blue shorts, shook his white furred head.
“Alright, let’s get you out of here.” The War Cleric insisted.
Karl had forgotten for a moment that the Red Dragon had a soft spot for war orphans, and the Satyrs were considered to be beastkin, not an enemy to humanity, even if they weren’t harmless young slaves like these ones appeared to be.
Karl stepped to the side as the cleric led the group up the stairs, and then did a final check to make sure they didn’t miss anyone who was too terrified to move.
The place was empty, and then completely empty as Remi looted the barrels. She didn’t care what was in them, they would go well with her current decoration of her shrine. Like a nice wooden plinth collection for her statues.
The group was giving Tessa looks that ranged from confused to annoyed, while Rae resisted the urge to drool as she looked at the Satyrs. If they had been in better shape, she might not have been able to resist, but these ones didn’t look juicy at all.
“And what the hell are we supposed to do with these?” Tori demanded when she saw the horde of small children.
A full-grown Satyr was under a metre and a half tall, barely chest height on Karl. These were all less than waist high, malnourished and terrified.
“They are valuable witnesses. When they’re not so terrified, they can tell us what happened, and then we can lead them back to the lines, so they can be turned over to the church for relocation somewhere safer.” She explained.
[Those aren’t the only ones. If the Cleric Knight is going to collect them, we might as well get them all. Like an army of little furry blood bags.] Rae suggested.
[How did you find them anyhow?] Karl asked.
[Scent, mostly. But the edges of the door were a bit warmer than anything else.]
“Everyone, Rae says there are more hiding. If we’re going to collect refugees, we might as well get a whole bunch of them.” Karl informed the group with a sigh.
The warriors frowned in resignation. That meant they would also be nominated to dig through the rubble to rescue them. They had the superhuman strength, and with the War God pressuring Tessa to fulfill her duty as a cleric, they wouldn’t be able to leave them behind without at least trying to look for survivors.
Rae pointed out more spots, and the group began to dig, finding more Satyrs, and a few other species of beastkin, and then finally a small group of terrified human children, dressed the same as the Satyrs, and suffering from frostbite.
“Thor, can you surround them in a barrier to keep the cold off them? I would ask Hawk, but he can’t spread his fire skill to large groups, it doesn’t work like that.” Karl asked.
The Refreshing Lightning didn’t actually warm you, but it did heal and refresh stamina, so while the cold was still painful, at least the frostbite was healing.
Bob stepped up beside Tessa. “Greetings everyone. We are Elites from the Golden Dragon Nation, here as a scout team investigating the situation. Now that the city is destroyed, we will take you all back with us to be placed in the care of the Red Dragon Clerics, or the church’s healers, who will find a suitable permanent home for everyone, or settle the children in orphanages among others of their species.
You might not know if you were born here, but the servants of the Red Dragon are active in both the human and beastkin nations.”
He gestured to Tessa with the last bit, and she smiled as she gave them a slight bow.
There were some confused looks, as not all of them had a solid grasp of the human common language, but the message was quickly relayed to everyone, and hesitant smiles came to the mass of filthy faces.
Karl cleared his throat. “Now we just need to finish searching the city, and we will be ready to leave once we have as many survivors as we can find.”
That brought a bit of enthusiasm to the group. They knew the spots where the others would have tried to hide, and they were willing to go down and help encourage the groups to come up and join the growing tide of refugees.
There were very few working age adults here, and the ones who were older were all women.
From what Karl could tell, those left behind were the children and pregnant women, who would have slowed the pace of the fleeing Frost Giants.
Karl had expected to see the Elderly as well, but after a moment, he realized that there was no such thing as Elderly for these people. When they could no longer work due to age or infirmity, the Giants simply ate them.
When they made the far side of the city, they had nearly a hundred people in their care, and Bob was looking concerned about the chances of making it back to the front lines with the poor condition that so many of them were in.
“Thor, do you see a large wagon anywhere? The bigger, the better. We will load everyone in it, and you can pull it back to the lines.” Karl asked out loud, so everyone would know what he was thinking.
Lotus pointed behind them and toward one of the open gates. “There are a bunch of supply caravan carts over there. They should hold plenty of people. It might not be comfortable, but the goal is just to get everyone back to safety.”
[Are you ready to be a cart Cerro for the day?] Karl asked.
[Like with the bus, but we can string a bunch of them together, and then I can be a whole train.] Thor suggested.
The image in his mind was hilarious. He saw himself as a locomotive, pulling the train of wagons through the fields with his looted beastkin. Satyrs didn’t attack the Lightning Cerro in nature, as they were both herbivores, so Thor didn’t see them as a threat.
There were some arguments over the good food when they met, but not enough to consider them an enemy.
With that in mind, Thor donated some of the [Mount Feed] plants that he had gotten from Doug the first time they were together. They were growing in his space now, and he could spare enough to give all the plant eaters a meal.
[I will pass it out once we get to the wagons. That will keep everyone occupied as we travel, so they don’t panic when the patrols attack us.]
