Heart of Oak

Traveler's Rest

The journey southeast went smoothly as the grasslands provided near-infinite visibility and pleasant weather. Kesi and Simadger spent a whole day resting in empty fields of grass to help both of them mentally recover from the events of the previous week. Despite the time zipping by in a blink of an eye, they regained the strength of will to continue their cross-country trek.

As they continued their travels, they stumbled into a traveling orcish merchant. He was heading out to Clan Silver Tusk's territory to trade with them. He pointed the pair towards the capital city, helping them reset their bearings and path forward.

Traveling through the smaller towns was a relief for the pair as the orcs were surprisingly friendly towards them. Unlike the Silver Tusks, who had underlying trust issues, the seemingly more civilized orcs behaved like normal-ish people. Roads in and around the rural towns were well-traveled but not paved with stones. Flattened and hardened dirt worked well enough.

Every town they visited, they asked around about getting to the capital. Without a map available, they relied heavily on the traveling merchants, as most locals barely knew anything beyond the next town over. With each passing day, however, the pair of dune ants learned something new about the capital, Gardrid.

Positioned on the southeastern coastline, a large tributary that dumps into the ocean splits the walled city in half. Unlike the farming towns and rural settlements, an Orcish king instead of clan chieftains ran the capital. The city itself dates back to before the Age of Monsters, although nearly all houses, workshops, and piers were built in the last millennium. Most of the farming and crafting towns send their crops and wares to the capital. Merchant companies in the capital then sell these products either overseas or internally within the city itself. Rumors suggested that almost eighty thousand residents, including a considerable number of foreigners, live inside the city's stonework walls. However, they advised against swimming in the river unless they want to die of dysentery or get crushed by a sailing ship.

The great axe that Simadger carried garnered her some attention in the rural towns. The Silver Tusk Clan gained a reputation for handling smaller threats that the capital and its army couldn't. This meant that, as friends of Jolagh Silver Tusk, they got quite a few traveling gifts, including a wooden mask depicting the Orcish god of Insanity and entertainment, Magarath. Despite the weird feelings that Simadger got from holding the mask, she still took it with her as a sign of good faith and wrapped it in several layers of cloth before stuffing it into the traveling pack.

At the end of the second week of traveling by horseback, the city of Gardrid was finally within walking distance. Its white stone walls glistened in the daylight and for the first time in a while, Simadger could smell the salt breeze off the ocean. The plains had provided something of a comfortable climate for them to travel through, compared to the jungle which grew more northward. However, to Simadger, nothing was nearly as comforting as the warm and salty ocean breeze.

The Month of Harvest had turned into the Month of Feast, and when they reached the city, it was almost time for winter. Simadger had been away from home for a little under four months, but it felt like a year. So much happened so quickly, yet she had so little to show. Oakengrove sent her on a mission to gather knowledge and make friends where possible. The only knowledge she'd gathered was on the fungal parasite that killed the only dune ant colony she knew of. Even two weeks later, the whole situation with the colony still weighed heavily on her mind.

With Jolagh's great axe slung over her shoulder and Kesi acting as a pack-ant, the pair traveled to the city's northwest gate. As they got closer and closer, Simadger realized just how tall the walls stood. Twenty feet tall, and made of brick and mortar, the walls provided an illusion of invulnerability to not just the city itself but also its residents who peacefully lived within its walls.