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The soldiers were up before dawn, and had all of their equipment broken down and packed away before their surroundings were fully visible. The sun was hidden behind restless clouds again, making the day seem dreary from the start. After Skye and Tidas finished off their bread trenchers full of sausage gravy, they cleaned up, and started to move their troops out.

Murdoc and Amara were up near Tidas as Skye flew ahead on Zazzy to check the terrain out. The rain had been pretty heavy overnight, and the Highlanders warned that the combination of the warming ground and even warmer rains made the topsoil highly unstable.

Landslides were common this time of year, so the extra scouting was essential. Usually, the Highlanders didn’t venture up the mountains until at least May. But Skye’s presence changed that..

As she found a clear route up the mountainside, Skye would jump from Zazzy’s back, and condense the ground. She also shifted the water in the soil so it wasn’t as muddy to walk up. At certain spots, she even made steps or bridges; depending on the reason for it.

Skye had to make a decent-sized bridges over a swollen streams, and a stairways leading up a steep cliffs. She also had to pack down several other sites to make sure the soldiers weren’t buried in a landslide as they trekked up the mountainside. It wasn’t until around mid-afternoon by the time they stopped for lunch.

Murdoc was flabbergasted at how much easier the trip was being made with Skye and Zazzy’s partnership. She was even kind enough to create all of the stairs and bridges that she’d made out of stone, so future Highlanders could use them. As he sat munching on some jerky deep in thought, Amara walked over to him with an agitated expression..

“What’s pulled yer panties into a wedgy?” Murdoc asked as she sat down next to him with a huff.

Amara was wearing her old armor set that was polished into a green color that complimented her hair color. She looked quite fetching in it, but unwanted attention from the soldiers wasn’t her current problem..

.....

“Ye know those three that are always followin’ Skye around?”

Murdoc nodded; “Aye, ye mean Klaus, Kari, and Ronnie? They be her body guards..”

Amara took on an inquisitive expression; “What’s the situation wit ’em? The fool from last night keeps followin’ around Kari. Is she not wit Klaus?”

Murdoc sighed; “You and yer gossipin’.. Aye, Klaus and Kari be an item. That bawbag Connor wants her fer his self cause of her trait. His family owns a construction company in the capital, and they want her fer strengthenin’ cheap materials. So they can cut costs by bolsterin’ low-grade materials.”

Amara stared at him in shock; “And how do ye know all of that?!”

The Highlander King chuckled loudly; “Ye be surprised at what ye hear just by listenin’..”

“...Yer a twat sometimes.. So she’s rejected ’em.. Can’t he back off?”

“Accordin’ ta Skye, his family was tryin’ ta pressure her inta marryin’ him, too. But she and Tidas outpriced ’em,” Murdoc replied as he popped another slice of jerky into his mouth.

Amara’s face twisted in anger; “Why are women treated as bargaining chips?! Makes me sick that the world sees women as less than men when none of ye would be around without us!”

“Oy! Don’t yell at me! I know a woman can be even scarier than a man when angry. Tis like facin’ off again a bloody wolverine! Especially ye short ones..”

Amara narrowed her eyes on him; “What was that?”

Murdoc swallowed his jerky with a visible gulp. He knew that Amara had never liked how short she is, and knew that he had just triggered her..

“I-I didna mean it in a bad way! I meant that short women are more squirrley! Wait-that’s nae much better.. Ahhhh...Just hit me already.”

Amara punched him in the shoulder hard, making Murdoc yelp. her tiny knuckles had hit right on an odd nerve that made a tingly sensation run down his arm. As he griped about her ridiculously good aim, Skye and Zazzy fluttered down and hovered a moment while Tidas threw her a packet of food.

It had ten strips of jerky, half a loaf of bread, some cheese, and an apple. Zazzy wasn’t hungry yet, and would hunt for herself when she did. As she and Skye took off again, the rest of the Alconians chatted and ate for twenty minutes or so before setting off again.

The equipment that Skye and Gavin had designed was being rotated through the Power Tanks, since they couldn’t bring horses. They weren’t all that heavy, but there were many of them..

The machines were to be spaced apart every ten feet or so, and no further than fifteen. If they went farther than that, then the field would become patchy. The soldiers also had individual shield generators that clipped onto their armor, but they only had a few of those, and they were specifically meant for the frontline soldiers.

Richard had shown intelligence when they had fought him last. Skye got a particularly bad feeling about how he mimicked her ground spikes with his ooze..

‘I will Not let what happened ta Mickey happen ta anyone else.. I won’t!’

As Skye munched and focused on her resolve, she and Zazzy flew to the clearing that led to the Old Capital. Murdoc had said that she would see the remnants of the first settlement to be hit by Richard in his monster form once she reached the plateau. As the two flew, Skye realized that the amount of scorched ground had suddenly increased dramatically..

“By the gods.. What have ye done, Richard,” Skye was so stunned by what she saw that the thought had just slipped out.

Giant streaks of charred earth looped around the outpost in large, sweeping circles, then expanded out in eve direction. The village looked like it had been abandoned and burned to the ground. Random poles stuck out of the ground in a circular pattern, indicating that there used to be a large fence around the settlement.

Only the largest center structure still had a partial roof, and the other smaller buildings were nothing but piles of deteriorating wood and stones. There were groupings of small stones towards the back half of the outpost, but Skye couldn’t really tell what they were from the air.

“Can ye set me down, lassie? I wanna check it out before the others get here,” Skye yelled over the random gusts of wind.

Zazzy really didn’t want to; she could smell the storm that was about to hit. She didn’t want her mother to be separated from the rest of the soldiers for too long, not with the random stench of the monster mixed in the wind. It wasn’t close, but was moving around at the moment.

If the wind direction changed, and it caught a whiff of them, the monster could come after them. Zazzy knew that she could get her mother to safety, but she didn’t want the hundreds of troops heading this way to run into the thing, either. As she debated, Skye asked Zazzy to set her down again..

After she had mentally told her mother why she was hesitating, Skye smiled and patted her side as she soothed her; “I promise that if Richard shows up, I’ll immediately run away wit cha, ye ken? We’ll lead ’em away from the others, then circle back after we think he’s been led away far enough. How’s that sound?”

Zazzy thought it over for a moment, then agreed under the condition that she be allowed to stay airborne. It was much easier for Zazzy just to swoop in and grab her verses needing to take off. With the two at an understanding, Zazzy slowly glided down to let Skye jump from her back..

The blackened ground crunched under Skye’s boots as she landed. It had looked barren from above, but from down below: the land was utterly dead. Not rustling from trees or grass, or and animal sounds for miles; even birds.

It was desolate and eerily still, so when Skye heard her name like a whisper on the wind, it had literally made her jump. It took a few whispers for her to realize that the voice was the same one that had helped her in her deam, and also decipher the Catalyst Legend.

Skye followed the whispers to the back of the settlement where the odd-looking piles of stones were. As soon as she cleared the large structure, she realized that they were grave markers.

Most of them had been damaged, knocked over, or had the black charring on it. Only one in the very back-center looked completely untouched. As Skye approached it she heard the voice again..

“The base.. Check the base..”

Shifting the bottom few rocks, Skye found a weathered piece of paper hidden within the marker. As she flipped it over, Skye’s breath caught in her throat as she read the name on the back: To My Beloved Marie.

Skye wanted to read it right away, but heard voices in the distance. Thanks to her pre-laid paths, the soldiers had caught up fairly quickly. As she walked back towards the center of the outpost, Skye stuffed the letter into the top of her body suit, and walked towards the others.

They had all gone silent as they stared at the complete desolation that Richard had caused to the area. Amara, Murdoc, and the rest of the Highlanders looked more sad than shocked to see their precious homelands in such a state.

‘I can only imagine how heartbroken I’d be ta find Moonshire in such a state.. I canna leave it like this..’

Amara look like she was ready to cry as she said; “I remember comin’ here as a wee bairn wit me parents. Tis one of the oldest settlements in the north.. How could that monster do this ta the land?! What the bloody hell does it want?!”

“Chaos.. That’s what Ether magic is: pure chaos. That’s why the few mages reported to have had it over the last few centuries wound up going insane,” Tidas replied with a dower expression.

Before Amara could ask anymore questions, all of the mages felt a massive surge of magic. It was familiar, especially to Tidas. As they looked over towards Skye, she was squatting down with her hands on the ground. Most could tell what she was doing, but a few of Reinbolt’s men asked.

Before anyone could answer them, the world around them started to come back to life...