Chương 48: Journey To The Facility

The city disappeared behind them surprisingly quickly. One moment there had been crowds, merchants, warm bread and people all struggling to be heard and seen. Andy glanced back one final time. The hustle and bustle, the windmill, he'd worked so hard to get there, to be seen. To be a person. Why then was all he wanted to be back in his Unicorn body and to run until his legs couldn't run anymore. He turned back toward the road. Forward. Right now Auri was ahead of them, and that's all that mattered.

A place to rest, plan and practice was not difficult to find. Finding the reason the camp had been abandoned proved to become quite a bit more concerning. The remains of several tents collapsed around a cold firepit. Supply crates lay scattered throughout the clearing. One wagon had been overturned. Another appeared to have simply exploded. The thing that seemed the most out of place was the lack of whomever was using these supplies, tents or wagons. Andy stood in the center of camp, "Something isn't right."

"An excellent sssurvival inssstinct," Reginald observed.

"Onyx often ssaid, if it doesssn't feel right, it'sss wrong."

"How very philosophical." Andy remarked dryly. Kesseroth crouched beside a trail in the dirt.

"Something came through here."

"What kind of something?" He paused a moment before answering, "That's the thing. I have no idea." A short distance away Gustave landed atop a wagon.

"No tracks leaving." Andy looked around, "What do you mean?"

"There are an abundance of tracks leading to this campsite, in fact those are the tracks we followed here. There are no tracks leaving this campsite." The hawk ruffled his feathers.

"I see no sign of human or sophont activity in the immediate vicinity heading northward." Sir Reginald slithered onto an overturned crate. His tiny silken cape fluttered dramatically.

"Actually, I am well aware of exactly isss going on here." Everyone turned. Most of those faces looked skeptical. At this point, Sir Reginald Boggart Hemsworth the Third had done little but pose dramatically and let's just say complain about the state of most things. The dragon ride was too bumpy, the knapsack was too scratchy, the walk (That he wasn't walking I might add) was too long.

In fact the only thing that outmatched the length of his monologues was the length of patience required to not toss him from the dragon at altitude. The basilisk straightened"Thisss iss a feeding sssite." Reginald pointed toward the dead and dying forest ahead.

"There are thingsss north of the facility that make their way down to ssnack on the Harnessss' sssoldierss."

"What kind of things?" Andy asked. His black eyes narrowed.

"The kindss of thingsss that are talked about in the quiet at night. The kindsss of thingssss they refusse to name for fear of sssummoning them. I heard a lot about them during my time obssserving. They were mosssstly folk legendss. Taless that were reinforced whenever a sssoldier would go AWOL.

"Oh come on," Georgina said.

"I thought you had intel."

"Sssuit yoursself. But I'm not done. I sssaw one once."

"Uh huh." Georgina remarked before walking away to examine the abandoned crates. Kesseroth rose, "We camp here." Andy blinked.

"What? Why? WHAT?"

"We camp here."

"In the nightmare camp?" You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"There are no Nightmares here. Trust me. You would know." Andy looked around but Sessaly, Georgina and Kesseroth were making themselves at home.

"Don't sssay I didn't warn you." He said with a sigh before slithering off to help out. Apparently this was going to happen. That evening they sat around a carefully concealed fire. The crates had contained maps, logs, and what Georgina informed him were performance reports. This wasn't just any group to have gone missing. This was a high ranking official and his entourage. All Andy could do was hope that it wasn't the group who had Auri. Or that if it was–that she'd somehow made her getaway.

"It couldn't have been Auri's group." Georgina assured him. While the timing would be similar these tracks were coming from a town west of here. They'd have had no reason to go to a town with a young woman hostage. Andy nodded, not entirely feeling at ease. He realized the ridiculousness of hoping that Auri's kidnappers had a safe journey actually meant that she'd be at the Facility right now and that anything could be happening. The fire crackled softly.

Around them the darkness settled in as did the absolute quiet. That was, until Andy's horn decided that it had spent far too much time being quiet. Da da da dadada da-da da da da-da da da da.

"Andrew," Reginald hissed.

"I am trying to sssee the map." Andy sat back.

"So? How am I impeding you?"

"Your lonely road sssong is disssstracting me."

"My song…is distracting your eyes?"

"Thank you for underssstanding. Oh. Thisss map issss very detailed. It is missssing a few thingss though."

"Sir Reginald." Came Kesseroth's gravelly bark.

"Yesss?"

"You said you observed the facility for quite some time."

"That iss true, ssssir."

"Alright then. Let us hear it. What are we looking at?" For once, the primordial basilisk did not launch into a monologue. Instead he slithered up onto the map, "Eh uh, excussss me." He said pushing past Andy. A tiny black tail tapped against the parchment.

"Thisss here is the main road." Tap. Tap.

"Thesse are the guard towersss. They alwaysss are manned by three guardss." Tap.

"This here."

"There's nothing there," Kesserth observed.

"That isss exactly what the outsside is ssupposed to sssee. Thiss isss where they bring the prisoners. It iss obssscured by ssome cratesss and barrelss but if you know where it iss it'sss eassy enough to find. It'ss where they releassssed Onyx." Reginald swallowed. Tap.

"Thiss isss where the researcherss are." Tap tap.

"Thiss isss where the ssoldierss ssleep. There are twenty-five sssoldierss on campuss at all timess. But there are many battalionss who come and go. Ressearcherss very rarely leave. More often new oness ssshow up. Ussually one or two a week. Occassionally I'd ssee them on the groundsss or at the barrackss. But I couldn't tell you how many of them there are."

"Oh, here." He continued, "Is where the Harness and his first in command are. The Harness spends about half his week here, the lady is there constantly. Sshe'ss alwayss the one bringing in new resssearcherss."

"Lady?" Georgina asked.

"Yes'm, I believe sshe goess by Madam Tempessst."

"She is here, are you sure?" Kesseroth asked. Reginald nodded.

"How many prisoners are in there?"

"I don't know. I sssaw them bring in variouss beassstss, they brought in a couple of humansss, I ssaw a tree once. But I only ever ssaw them releasse one." He cast his eyes downward. The only sound was that of the campfire crackling. Reginald stared at the map.

"I kept waiting for a hero to step in. A mighty party, a council, someone bigger than me. But nobody came."

"You came," Kesseroth offered.

"You crossed through three territories to bring us here. You didn't let size stop you. You didn't let pride stop you. You did that, and when it was time to head back you didn't hesitate." For several moments Reginald just stared, eyes glossy, hands wringing, and then he quickly looked away.

"Well." The snake adjusted his cape's collar and struck a very shakespearean pose..

"Somebody had to." The dramatic nuisance was back. Andy smiled in spite of himself.

"Yeah Reggie. That's actually kind of heroic."

"I know."

"You were supposed to deny it."

"Absolutely not. You've said it and now it's canon." Andy understood Reginald in that moment. He looked around the camp and for a moment, just a moment they were simply a group gathered around a fire. An ancient dragon, a unicorn, a merfolk, a hawk, a snake, a crustacean in a jar, a second unicorn who was pretending very hard not to miss his fox. He looked around the camp at the friends he'd made along the way.

Georgina pouring over reports, Gustave keeping vigilance, Sessaly smiling softly into the firelight, Barnacle filtering, and Kesseroth silently watching over all of them. Then he looked at Reggie (That was what he was calling him now.) Reggie started this journey months ago all on his own. Tomorrow they would finish it. Together. The fire crackled and somewhere in the darkness sat the facility. And somewhere inside of it waited Auri. Forward.

[SPECIES: UNICORN(MAGICAL BEAST- HUMAN FORM)] [GALLOP EFFICIENCY: 9%] [PARTY MEMBERS: 7] [HERD BOND: HERD(RAPTOR ADEPT- TIER 5)] [HERD BOND: COMPANION (SESSILE - TIER 3)] [HERD BOND: COMPANION (MERFOLK- TIER 7)] [HERD BOND: COMPANION (DRAGON- TIER?)] [HERD BOND: COMPANION (UNICORN- TIER?)] [HERD BOND: COMPANION (PRIMORDIAL BASSILISK- TIER 6)]