I Am The Truth II

Chapter VII: Pig

"Not so excited, huh?" Pig remarked.

Borgen was exhausted from having to had completed the second half of the journey by foot.

 Although most transit vehicles in K' Arthen had been specially redesigned with tougher alloys to tolerate the unique biological variations of a Magnorite,  they were still much too weak to effectively support such heavy creatures for long distances. In fact, a lot of the infrastructure that did exist in K' Arthen was very underdeveloped, inadequately supporting the native populace. It did not help that the humans who were starting to take over the positions of the government were not interested in the least for domestic improvement, least of all for the race that was their historic nemesis.

The historic region of K' Arthen had been late in the industrial contest. Although it had the largest population and area size, the empire that once united all the Magnorite peoples together had been unable to transition from the feudal society that had somehow survived well after it had died out from the rest of the world two centuries prior. 

The Tars, quite literally named after that particular order of the sedimentary family, were the landlords that ruled over the land back then; they held much of the political sway, and they used that to their advantage, making sure the Bitumen, the king, supported them. All the others were common laborers, forced throughout their lifetimes to bend to the wills of their masters.

When industrial innovations and improvements began sweeping across Ardonia, the Tars had been quick to isolate K' Arthen from its influence, fearing loss of power. As a result, K' Arthen had been made vulnerable, a fact that was exposed to the rest of the world when the Magnorite legions suffered heavy losses for the first time against the improved Cydonian battalions.

A series of humiliating defeats later, and all that was left was a much smaller K ' Arthen, broken into two halves. After the latest conflict with the Netheran States, it was more diminished than ever, despite the fact that the war ended on a draw. Its lost territory had been incorporated into the lands of its neighbors, Crown Peak to the north and Cydonia to the south, resulting in several hundred million Magnorites of all types suddenly under the rule of unfriendly foreign governments. It had been done on purpose, for Cydonia and Crown Peak both knew the strength in numbers that K' Arthen had when all of its ethnic groups were united. The recent Magnorite protests in Crown Peak's southern most district, Nōtterskarten, was an effective testament to that.

For people like Borgen, such a mess could be fixed by the populists that were gaining ground in East K' Arthen. Only problem was that most of his compatriots that shared his desire for independence to an extent were quite frankly stupid. Even worse for him, the volcanic Magnorites were just outright racist.

He was lucky to have a tolerable friend like Pig.

"Not in the slightest," Borgen grumbled. "I don't have a choice here."

"You didn't give me a choice either," Pig said nonchalantly. 

"I don't have anyone else."

"Don't worry about it," Pig said reassuringly. "Anyways, how was your journey?"

"It was quite uninteresting..."

Pig only nodded. Borgen had a habit of making everything seem depressing at times.

The two were in Pig's rudimentary home: a perfectly-shaped room carved into the rocky hill. There was a whole neighborhood here, and many such houses could be seen dotting the jagged terrain.

"I tried looking for ways to smuggle you across the border. It'll be tough, but you can manage," He said, hoping to spark the other's interest.

"How so?"