The World Dragon's Heir-Chapter 179: Desperate Times

The Regiment was only two hours down the rutted dirt road when they came across the first village in desperate need of assistance.

And these ones were truly desperate, Dominic decided, as they had tried to stop and rob the armed convoy with pitchforks. Even if they didn’t all look half starved, that would have been enough to let him know that they were hungry beyond the boundaries of common sense.

So, he rode forward and raised his hand for the Regiment to lower their rifles.

"Sirs, madams. I can see that you’re in dire need of assistance, and unable to help yourselves if you’re starved enough to try your hand at robbing a group of bandits.

How about this? I will give you a passing grade for effort, a fail for execution, and we will donate two cured hams and a sack of rolled oats to your village as a consolation prize?" Dominic suggested.

"Where did you even get those? Nobody has good meat these days, unless they’ve got a hog sow left that the King’s men haven’t taken for themselves." An old man demanded.

"From the Army, of course. They were kind enough to donate a whole convoy of goods to our cause, along with their lives." Dominic explained.

The old man gave him a toothless smile. "I don’t suppose you can make it two sacks of rolled oats? We’ve still got two months before the potatoes start to come in."

Behind Dominic’s shoulder, Dax laughed at the man’s brazen request. His twenty senior citizens were facing five hundred rifles. But they still wanted to negotiate.

"Someone bring up two sacks of rolled oats and two hams from the supplies. Our tribute to these brave villagers. Who definitely never saw us pass, and had those supplies saved, didn’t they?" Dominic replied.

"Seen who now? My eyesight isn’t what it used to be," the old man agreed.

The riflemen’s supply Sergeant handed over the supplies, and an old woman hugged him with tears in her eyes. It was touching, and Dominic noticed that someone discretely removed a crate of canned military rations and left them beside the road for the locals to pick up when they were gone.

The convoy started moving again, and saw more abandoned villages with every passing hour. Some recently, some years abandoned. But the drought had destroyed any chance of a decent crop everywhere that wasn’t along a river, and even some of the riverbeds were dry.

The further north they went, the more uninhabitable the land began to look, and even after half a day of travel, they didn’t see any more signs of life among the scattered villages past the group of starving seniors.

"Should we search the houses to see if someone needs help?" Commander Dax asked.

Princess Alexis was about to answer, but Dominic shook his head.

"No. The men don’t need to see what they are going to find inside those houses. If there is someone alive and in need of help, they will either make noise or come outside. Just have someone ride through the village." Dominic instructed.

During his travels, he had seen enough villages depopulated by starvation or disease to know that even if you were desperate for shelter, it was a risk to your sanity going into any of the houses.

"Remind me again, why are we saving Dagos civilians?" One of the officers asked. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"Common decency mostly. But also so that we have a safe retreat route if things go wrong. If the villagers are on our side, we don’t have to worry about them turning us in to the authorities." Dominic explained.

They camped along the abandoned road, not bothering to try to hide, as there was no sign of life within their scouting range for hours. Then, in the morning, they carried on, only to find more of the same, but the ground was getting sandier as they approached the ocean, even more unsuitable for crops.

So, it was with great relief when they made it to the highway, and the scouts encountered a small way station.

Dominic rode ahead of the convoy, playing the part of Earl Nick of Totbu again now that they had encountered people who might know more Noblemen than their own Lord.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen." Dominic greeted them with six mounted riflemen at his back.

"Good afternoon, My Lord." The man replied, but his hands said something different.

{What is a Wavemates scion doing in Dagos?} The keeper of the carriage stop signed discretely.

Dominic realized that he really needed to work on his disguise skills. Everyone seemed to recognize his lineage just by looking at his face, even with his horns covered.

"I don’t suppose that there is a clean well in town? We could use a spot to wash up after a long ride." Dominic replied.

{Killing Dagos Nobles for fun and profit, of course.} Dominic signed back as he spoke.

"Ah, the well here isn’t great. Too close to the ocean, the water is salty. But it will get the grime off, and it won’t hurt the horses."

{Best of luck to you, My Prince. There are soldiers headed east twice a day. If you have the men, you can hit them in the valley to the west.}

"We will head down the road, then. Thank you for your help." Dominic replied, then turned and rode away, with a group of confused riders behind him.

Once they were back at the Regiment, the riders finally spoke up.

"What sort of conversation was that? You only asked him about the well, then left. How do we know that they’re not going to turn us in to the next convoy to pass?" He demanded.

"He was speaking Wavemates sign language, or Trade Guild hand signals, as they’re the same. He is on our side.

According to the man at the station, there are military convoys twice a day down the highway, always headed east.

That should be toward the battles in the cities.

We might as well get in place and eliminate anyone left guarding the valley he spoke of before the next one comes along. It wouldn’t do to have to engage them out in the open." Dominic explained.

The map showed that there was a canyon that led to the river, and that would have to be the valley that they were looking for. There was only one major road in the area, and it was also the only bridge over the Foneven River anywhere near them.

Princess Alexis motioned for them to send out teams, and Commander Dax began giving the orders to spread to either side of the road, so they could take both sides of the valley at once with minimal resistance.

The trucks would stay on the south side, so they didn’t get trapped between the canyon and the ocean, but the Regiment would have to split so that they could properly ambush anyone coming over the river.