All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 225: Get Off My Lawn

Bee watched the enemy camp from atop a tall hill for several minutes, scanning for other signs of the Nighty Knights. Suddenly, nearly a mile away, another set of flames began rising up in the sky from elsewhere in the encampment. This caused a renewed scramble as the kingdom's army attempted to adjust. Officers shouted commands, and soldiers all scrambled to accomplish their tasks. Many rushed towards the fires. Others dashed about to find buckets or arm themselves.

But before a full pursuit could be organized, a third disturbance made itself known. Horses started whinnying and screaming, and their picket lines snapped. Suddenly, the soldiers had to choose between gathering the fleeing horses, putting out their supplies, or dealing with the mysterious fire off in the distance. It wasn't more than a handful of moments before the officer began organizing priorities, but it was enough that no effective pursuit was launched. Bee couldn't help but grin to herself.

Now that her initial worry had abated somewhat, she had a good idea of what was happening. Given her soul sense, she could track the threads of faith through the camp and thus identify where the Knights were moving next. A fourth party snuck through the confusion and slipped into the back of one of the command tents. A few heartbeats later, a fourth fire sprang up. But this time, a dedicated force was on the prowl. All the officers' guards nearby ignored the other disturbances to become laser-focused on the group that had snuck into the section.

Only the fires in the command tents had been started in several spots, and many officers needed escorting out of danger. Even with the guards' attempts, these openings gave the five saboteurs a chance to escape. They darted into tents, trying to throw the pursuers off their trail. But the men were relentless. Once they spotted the small forms of their enemies, the men began tearing through cloth barriers with their swords and shoving people out of the way. Bee quickly searched to find the other three groups and found that they had, thankfully, made it a decent distance away from the camp.

The five had managed to stay together somehow, but they were quickly becoming surrounded. They hadn't been caught yet, but it was just a matter of time. They were being herded toward another group of soldiers assembling to block their way as their pursuers came at them from multiple sides. She dashed forward as stealthily as she was able to keep the element of surprise. But just as she thought she would have to actually step in and rescue the little rascals, a fifth disturbance appeared.

One of the five Knights hopped to the side and hurled a glass vial into the sky. It landed ahead of them, among the group of assembling soldiers. A deafening crack sounded, followed by a deep whoosh. Suddenly, a massive area of the camp was engulfed in roaring orange and red flames.

People screamed. Soldiers ran, rolling on the ground to put the fires on their own bodies out. She wasn't sure if the projectile had been aimed intentionally or if they had gotten lucky. Regardless, it had landed in just the right spot to open a hole in the encirclement.

The group didn't slow as they ran right towards the flames. Bee instinctively reached out as they entered the inferno but could sense from her ability that they weren't harmed in the slightest. They must have borrowed some potions from Maranda for this.

The group dashed onward. The soldiers found themselves too preoccupied with dragging others away from the blaze, and the pursuers were hesitant to plunge in after their targets. So the group of children ran through the blaze, completely concealed from sight, and darted a few rows of tents over.

Bee watched from afar as they turned on a dime, slipped into the shadows of an unoccupied, and circled around from a dark alcove. They watched as the pursuers that had managed to avoid the fire trundled past. Then, flitting from shadow to shadow, they skulked their way toward the edges of camp. Before long, they were off into the tall grass, crawling on their hands and knees around the camp. Bee still sat on her hill, watching the slightly swaying grass as they made their way around the sentries and regrouped with the rest of the group.

She smiled as she found the small cave that they were using as their base of operations for the night. Once she had done a quick head count and realized everyone was there through her spirit sense, she started to make her way over, careful not to leave a trail to invalidate all their hard work. When she stepped into the entranceway, a sentry she had almost missed in the shadows let out a whistle, and all of their heads swiveled toward the entrance.

As they reached for weapons, Bee held her hands up and waited for them to recognize her. "I'll have you all know, your mothers are quite worried."

---

Daedalus watched his little friend go to play with the snowmen. He let the little godling have its fun. Interacting with the new race for the first time was always interesting. It was one of the few truly unique experiences a long-lived immortal got to enjoy. Turning back to his little brother, he continued their conversation. "So where did you find these snowmen?"

Thucydides looked surprised. "Snowman? You mean the yetis?"

"Is that what you're calling them?"

"That's what they call themselves, at least."

Daedalus snorted. "Well, they're going to be calling themselves snowmen from here on out, if I make my guess."

Thucydides just huffed some frost out into the air. "Sure, It's better than yeti, at least."

"Where'd you find them?" Daedalus asked. He didn't mind talking a little shop with his little bro.

"Yeah, well, I've been mostly sleeping but keeping an eye on them. They found that cave and drew some artwork on it a few thousand years ago. Not sure how they managed to get the history right an all that, but they got most of the details right."

"That's for sure. Only a few thousand years ago? That's a lot later than I would have thought. But at the same time, they haven't advanced very far it seems."

Thucydides nodded. "Yeah, they're not the most useful, at least not when it comes to making things. But when it comes to mining, they're great. They love digging. I'd even say they're almost as good as the dwarves."

"Really?" Daedalus perked up at that. "Wow. We haven't found a good mining race since… I don't know when. With how scarce the dwarves seem to be, I was worried that all that gold would stay underground!"

"Yeah, they're really fast at digging and finding ore, but their size means they have to dig a lot larger tunnels. But when it comes to crafting, they're completely useless." Thucydides snorted, waving a massive claw. "They haven't even truly figured out fire yet. Basic torches are as far as it gets. They might be able to smelt copper if they did, but so far they haven't moved past cold forging it."

Daedalus hummed thoughtfully. "Have you tried slipping them any hints?"

"Yeah, a couple of times," Thucydides said. "They just don't seem to grasp it. I imagine it might be a bit of a hobby project in the next couple thousand years to get them up to snuff. But once I get them there, I think it might be a worthwhile investment. It's a long shot, but I'm hoping to get them to take a good look underneath these mountains. They're relatively new, but mostly untapped as far as I can sense."

Daedalus considered that and activated his Draconic Hoard skill, sending his senses seeking downwards. Surprisingly, he did find it to be relatively untouched. There was no honeycomb of underground tunnels that went through the mountains below. That was rare nowadays, "Yeah, that seems like an interesting project. Good luck. Let me know if it works out, I might have to borrow some of your snowmen for my own hoard. Anyway, any word on the Lieutenant that's captured around here?"

Thucydides shook his head. "No, I haven't checked."

"Then do you know what's up with the disturbance in the magic in the air? Recently, I started to feel it even an ocean away. Surely you've noticed?"

Thucydides shrugged. "Honestly, not really. I've been taking a break from magic recently and haven't checked in. Give me a second to see if I can sense what you're talking about."

The White Dragon folded in an awkward position, pulling its hind legs underneath itself and folding them over each other strangely. He touched the tips of his talons together and wrapped his tail around himself.

Daedalus groaned as he watched his little brother's meditation. He had never understood this method for gaining power. It just seemed so complicated and useless when you could just kill things to get stronger. But it made his brother feel special, he supposed, the diva that he was.

As he settled in to wait, the great red dragon spent some time sorting through his hoard in his mind, trying to figure out the best piece to put in his fourth-highest place of honor now that Spot had claimed a few of his pieces. It was painful to let them go but much more amusing to think of their current uses as prizes for such simple competitions. Plus, he was well compensated for them. His extra levels and new power were well worth the cost.

Thucydides pulled him from his daydreams not too much later and looked at him with a worried expression on his toothy face. "You're right. Something really is wrong. I can't believe I didn't notice this."

Daedalus just shook his head and sighed at his scatterbrained little brother.

"We need to investigate," the idiot said as he pointed a claw at the sky.

Before he flapped his wings to take off, Daedalus stopped him. "Wait, wait. Hold up. Where are you going?"

"To investigate."

Daedalus rolled his eyes. "Okay, but where? Where are we starting?"

"Well, I was going to fly around and see if I saw anything odd."

Daedalus closed his eyes and centered himself. His little brother was much too excitable sometimes. "Relax. We don't need to go anywhere. That's why Spot, and I came here. This is the center of the disturbance. It's somewhere in this mountain or one of the next ones over. We need to get a better idea of exactly where because, somehow, it's not localized as much as I thought it was. Based on the amount of power it's drawing, at least."

Thucydides put on a thoughtful expression. "You're right. I would expect it to be a single massive draw for you to be able to notice that all the way across the ocean. It's weird that it's something pulling power over such a wide area, though... Have you tried going straight up and seeing if you can sense how deep underground it is by triangulation?"

"Triangle-what?" Daedalus asked. As the words left his mouth, he wanted to call them back. He was already sure he didn't want to hear the explanation.

"Well, I wasn't just sleeping in my cave. See here," His brother said, drawing in the dirt with a claw. "If you pick out any three points on a plane, you can..."

For a few minutes, Daedalus tried his best to keep up with his little brother's ramblings about straight lines and even planes and various angle theories he had come up with. Might as well take an interest in what his siblings were doing, after all. But it was just so boring.

"....So what I'm saying is, if we can get a sample and a value estimate in at least five different points of various elevations, I should be able to trace it back to a single source or determine whether or not there are multiple sources evenly spaced out. And then– hey, bro? Did you fall asleep?