NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 108: Encampment
The druids began to use their magic. Now full of hope, not panic. They worked their powers on their friend so their songs and dance would have no end.
From bark to to hull, from trunk to mast, Serune transformed and into the sea she swam at last.
With sails of leaves she rode the breeze and with her friends, traveled the seas.
The Sea Tree by Stelar Leafblossom
—
“Maybe she’s not in the camp,” Kole suggested, in a whisper. “She could be on the other side.”
“You're right!” Amara said loudly before catching herself and continuing in a whisper, “I can calculate the distance by marking the angle and moving perpendicular to the bearing!”
“What about the camp?” Zale asked. “Even if she’s not in it, we can’t ignore this.”
“Can’t we?” Rakin asked.
“That is a mobilization,” Zale said, gesturing toward the tents. “In the middle of a field, that’s connected to our home.”
“Fair,” Rakin conceded.
“I’ll go check it out invisible,” Kole volunteered. “Someone else help Amara with her math.”
“I’ll cover you,” Doug said. “I’ll see your passage in the disturbed grass. I can fire on anyone who might chase you.
Kole saw Zale and Rakin nod in agreement by the light of the two moons of the same prairie they’d spent a month in.
Turning invisible, Kole walked toward the camp at a slow pace, taking care with each footstep. He couldn’t see well, but the flat grassland was easy to navigate blindly so long as you moved carefully.
The camp before him grew larger, and he realized it was much larger than he’d originally guessed once he could make out patrolling figures in the shadows. The tents were actually surrounded by a giant earthen berm and people walked along its top.
The grass within a hundred yards of the crude wall had been trampled flat, and when they reached the edge, Doug stayed back.
Cautiously, Kole advanced over the cleared land, mindful of his steps as he scanned his surroundings for patrols, but all he heard was the beating of his heart and the gentle crush of grass underfoot. When he was only sixty feet away, he got a good look at one of the guards and noticed something uniquely familiar.
The guard had four arms.
Soldier ants! Kole realized. Or is it ant soldiers?
Just then the gentle breeze that had been blowing through the plains, causing waves in the grass shifted and blew towards the camp. Kole saw the foot-long antennae on the insectoid twitch and some random tidbit about ants Kole had learned from Amara came to mind.
Ants could smell using their antennae.
Rapidly he backpedelled, before turning around and running back to the grass.
Why does every flooding creature have some stupid fish rotting way to detect invisible people?! Kole ranted internally as he ran.
He stumbled a few times before he reached the high grass, but maintained his invisibility through it all.
“Soldier ants!” Kole hissed as he reached Doug.
The demonkin squinted into the darkness.
“I don’t think they saw you,” he said, putting Kole at ease.
“Smelled,” Kole corrected. “The wind shifted and their antennae caught scent of me.”
“Hmm,” Doug said, considering. “I didn’t know ants could smell.”
Kole was a bit surprised that he knew something about nature the Assuine Blessed didn’t.
Seeing the surprised look on Kole’s face, Doug answered the unspoken question.
“Ants can’t talk, even with magic.”
While that answered one question, it opened up many more, only these were for Amara, and he’d long ago stopped asking questions about that particular topic.
Stupid Font of Understanding, he thought.
A part of him thought he’d not be as frustrated with his lack of comprehension of the Font if it went by a different name.
The pair made their way back to the others, staying low in the grass.
“It’s the soldier ants,” Kole said and then told them what he’d seen in more detail.
“At least they smelled better this time,” Kole said, adding at the end for some levity.
“Well we have good news,” Zale said. “Amara’s math showed that her sister is far away, so we can go around the encampment—though I don’t know what we are going to do about the enemies themselves.”
“Are we sure they're enemies?” Doug asked.
“I think,” Kole said, interrupting. “We are getting ahead of ourselves. We’re here for Amintha and Runt. If we find an answer to the ants, great, but let’s keep it to one near-impossible goal.”
The others agreed, and they started the uncomfortable process of circling the camp while remaining crouched beneath the grass. Uncomfortable for everyone but Kole that is. He simply turned invisible and walked.
It took nearly an hour, creeping along as they went, but they made it around the encampment, Kole’s invisibility failed halfway through the journey, but by then they had edged far enough away from the camp that he remained visible.
Once beyond the camp, they turned to follow the bearing straight to their targets. This bearing eventually brought them to a road that had been built into the prairie
The last time they’d been in this place—the dungeon, with the two moons and lack of surrounding mountains, not the strange land outside of it with the floating chunks of land—they’d traveled down a road nothing like this one. The caravan had taken a wheel and hoof-worn path of dirt through the ever-present grass, while this road had been constructed through magic.
A smooth band of raised dirt stretched out as far as they could see in both directions. It was completely clear of any plant growth, and when Kole knocked on it with his knuckles, it felt rock solid, though a determined stab with his dagger proved it to be densely packed dirt.
Rakin examined the road carefully. Rubbing his fingers along it, smelling it, and then placing his ear to it.
“Something's coming!” he called in a low whisper, and they all retreated into the grass.
Doug called the grass to close in over them, and Kole used his magic, hoping that it was effective against antennae-based perceptions.
The incoming vehicle was far off, for it took another few minutes for Kole to even see it in the low light of the morning. The caravan traveled without light, and he spotted a line of wagons going out into the distance. When they got close, Kole saw the familiar six-legged figure of scalequines drawing otherwise normal-looking supply wagons. Normal looking if you ignored the ant person driving it forward.
In the low light of the coming dawn, Kole noticed that this ant person was smaller than both the dead and devoured ones they’d seen pieces of and the complete ones he’d seen on the walls of the camp. This one was downright scrawny by comparison, with limbs no bulkier than Amara’s if Kole had to make a bet.
Six wagons traveled past them, each drawn by two scalequines and driven by a single ant person, which Kole internally labeled worker ants. Kole sensed a pull on his Will as the antenna of one of the passing-by workers twitched, but only briefly.
Wow, he thought to himself reflecting on how much the brief draw had cost him. He estimated almost as much as casting a first-tier spell, and in only half of a second. That was a lot of Will. Is this proportional to their perception? Or is something else going on?
After the wagons had passed, they waited until it was clear to continue on, but Rakin signaled for them to stop, the moment before chaos broke out.