The Dragoness Queen

Chapter Four: The Heartlands

The next few days were miserable.

It rained regularly, and they trudged through the mud. It wasn't long before they were soaking wet and filthy. Estela insisted they move, and droplets of water soaked their cloaks. At the same time, they had several more near misses with the undead. Here, Ajax's wolves proved invaluable in driving them off, bouncing their howls around.

But a choice between neverending tides of undead and howling wolves did not help Relma sleep. Food soon ran short, so they had to ration it. Relma, of course, was the one who did the rationing since she'd learned the trick from Ronald. Said food was largely dried things given by Escor and anything but tasty. Rainwater was all they had to drink, and it had a foul taste.

Of course, soon enough, they were missing it. The rain stopped suddenly, and they walked through parched and dying woods. Soon, their mouths were dry from the heat, and everyone felt bleary.

"So what now?" muttered Estela as they journeyed.

"There are some villages near here," said Ajax. "If we make for them, we should be able to get some help and supplies there. But it's a few day's journey out there, so we'd better make our supplies count."

"Relma, can you pass me your water skin," said Estela, voice parched.

"Yes," said Relma, offering it to her.

Estela took it and drank a mouthful. "We'll each take a mouthful and move on.

"You next, Relma."

Relma drank it, then passed it to Ajax, who shrugged. "I've already got a water skin, and I'm not sharing it with any of you."

"Right, sorry," said Relma.

Estela looked annoyed at this. Meanwhile, Relma opted to pass the water skin to Jomas and then Wrynncurth, who refused it.

"Oh, no need to worry, I don't need to drink," said Wrynncurth. "Not for a very long time.

"Jomas, you have the rest," said Estela.

Jomas drank it, nodding. Then Estela looked to Ajax. "Now, Ajax, we need to get to somewhere with water."

One of Ajax's wolves spoke to him, and Ajax glanced at him. "He says there is a stream near here. Come on, we'll find it."

On they went until they came to the stream. It was mostly dried up, but there was still a bit of water flower. They had a hard time filling up their canteens as they did and ended up sticking around there for a while.

"This place has been getting steadily worse," said Ajax. "All the undead wandering around is sapping the life from this place. Where they walk, life weakens."

"Wonderful," said Estela. "And there's no end to them, either. How is anyone still alive in this place?"

"My kin are actually very impressed," said Ajax. "We've killed a lot of undead. As far as I can tell when they die, the life energy they sap is restored to the land. We've probably done a lot of good for the environment."

"Isn't that what happened to the Dusk Lands?" asked Relma. "All the undead that were raised there sapped away the lifeforce of the land."

"More or less," said Estela. "That and Adrianeth's invasion."

"Finish up," said Ajax, filling his canteen. "I've been scouting out this whole place. These ones came out of the ground in several critical areas. I've set my wolves watching; they'll give me a howl if anything comes out of there-"

And then there was a howl.

"That sounds like a howl to me," said Wrynncurth.

"Ah, so they're retreating," said Ajax, smiling.