Chapter 529: Book 8-17.2: Chase

Getting the gunk out of her hair was simple. Yuriko simply sluiced it with water and all the vomit flowed away. Getting it out of her poncho and pants was another matter entirely, and with the river water still a muddy brown, and with what just happened, there was no way she was going near there again. At least for a day or so. Thankfully, her backpack was sufficiently waterproof and whatever managed to get under her poncho at it was also easily removable.

As for the rest of her friends, nearly all of them were still green around the ears and were on their hands and knees. Except for Sheamus and Desire, of course. Their Anima strength must have given them more fortitude. Well, Desire was a Chaos Lord so maybe her physiology wasn’t made to be able to vomit. Dee’s eyes were slightly unfocused though, so maybe she was still dizzy.

The stench of the vomit must be contributing to their nauseated state, so Yuriko tried her best to clean up the mess. She used her kinesis to gather up the goop, and here was the trouble with having her senses unified with her aura. She could see, feel, taste, and smell whatever it was her kinesis held. The senses could be dulled, and she often operated with only her sense of touch heightened, but the stench was just so strong that it seeped through anyway. She gagged and almost threw up, too, but managed without losing her dignity.

“Where…did that come from?” Gwendith managed after a few minutes of dry heaving.

“The river, obviously,” her cousin, Asami, snarked back, then she doubled over and clutched at her head. “Ow.”

“Yeah, but how?”

“Ancestors!” Heron growled. “Home!”

The River Caradec passed through the middle of Faron’s Crossing. The walls were five paces high, but surely a flash flood that was as high as four paces here would have been higher closer to the source?

“You think this came from Shillogu Woods?” Orrin croaked.

Yuriko stared at the raging river. While the wall of water was done, the river had grown higher by a couple of paces and occupied half again as much space as the riverbanks.

Did the flash flood come from there? How potent was it when it reached that height after going through Faron’s Crossing, Cierra Village, then through however many villages were between Cierra and Haveena, before it made its way here? Unless it came from one of the tributaries? She turned to look at the Zarek Mountains, but at this latitude, the Zarek was nearly a hundred leagues away, barely even visible if not for the fact that they reached quite high into the sky.

And like most of the Imperial stable planes, Rumiga was basically flat. There were other planes that were curved, like Bella and parts of Kogasi. This meant that, if not for the undulating land, and the clouds, mists, and whatever else hung in the air, it should have been possible to see across it from one end to the other. That wasn’t possible without a truly advanced Enhanced Sight technique though.

“...Yuri, do we go or not?” Heron placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, squeezing as he did so.

“Huh?” She blinked up at him. His dark eyes were filled with concern.

“Do we abort the mission or continue?” he repeated.

“We can’t go back.” Yuriko shook her head. “Even if we do, it would take weeks to return, far too late to help. We have to continue.”

“Alright, as long as we have your directions.”

They took a few minutes to gather themselves before they continued walking. The flood had deposited a thick layer of mud that spread out beyond the banks so they had to scoot farther away.

It was midafternoon by the time they spied something off in the distance. A broken pile of refuse, stone pillars battered by the current, and dark spots moving amongst the ruins.

“A town?” Asami murmured as she shaded her eyes and squinted.

Half of the town, the side close to the river docks, was in ruins, while the other side looked to be buried in several inches of mud. The wind brought the sounds of wailing and other cries of terror and pain.

Wordlessly, Yuriko increased their pace. She could see a capsized river barge beached a few hundred paces from the town, as well as some planks caught up against the wharf pillars. There were uprooted trees floating down too. It slammed against the wooden planks and burst through whatever held them there.

Up close, she saw the survivors digging into the muck, using shovels, weak Animus techniques, and makeshift digging tools. A few glanced towards them warily, especially considering they were armed, but they didn’t stop what they were doing. She spotted a few town guards, though most of them were as mud-caked and dishevelled as any other.

Yuriko pushed her perception aura as far as it would go, though she kept it transparent. She picked up immediate signs of life underneath the muck, and many more dead.

“There!” She pointed towards a collapsed structure. “There’s somebody alive under there. Dig.” She insisted.

Suiting actions to words, she hurried to the spot, knelt and pressed her palms on the mud, feigning an earthmoving technique. Her kinesis took hold of the dirt and slowly moved it away.

“What are you doing?” Asami hissed at her through her wind whisper.

“Saving civilians,” Yuriko whispered back. “That spot over there, there, and there. Three living, go and help.”

Through her perception aura, she saw the other girl start to protest, but Gwendith took her elbow and presented a shovel. Then, both cousins start to dig. Orrin and Braden unleashed lightning bolts and focused them into a ball, which then, somehow, pulled the mud towards it. A quick twitch of their wrist and the mudball was through to the side. Heron used his Facet to create shovels out of hardened air, then he mentally directed those to dig. Sheamus actually directly manipulated the earth and pulled the mud off. Desire hummed and increased their endurance and strength at the cost of her own.

Yuriko pulled out a woman from the mud. She was barely breathing and Yuriko thumped her back to force out water and mud from her orifices. She coughed and cringed but ultimately survived the catastrophe.

The rescue effort lasted well into the night, but at the end of it, many were saved by her and her team’s efforts. However, hundreds more had died. Campfires dotted the area and survivors huddled close. Some food was passed around, however little there was to share.

This was the town of Bradford, one of Haveena’s border towns. Further south, the landscape turned to marshes and the Caradec disappeared into it, before reemerging close to the ocean. She only knew of this because of a map displayed at the Solemn Flower House, though.

The others talked with the grieving townsfolk while she kept mostly to herself. Not because she wasn’t feeling sociable but to avoid the ramifications of her Mien. She continued wordlessly helping with the debris until it was close to midnight. Then they retired outside of the ruined town, setting up a quick campfire and a watch rotation.

The next morning, they sat in a circle around the campfire and ate thin porridge. There was actually sufficient food stock in Bradford, though about half of the supplies were spoiled. The other half was contained in secure barrels containing salted fish and hams. The root vegetables, potatoes, carrots, and beets, only needed to get pulled out of the wet mud and washed off to become edible.

“This is where that prison barge stopped and disembarked their passengers,” Heron said over a spoonful of ration bar porridge. “According to the townsfolk, one such barge comes by every day. With at least a hundred passengers.”

“Where did they go?” Yuriko asked.

“Southeast. Towards Kadrac City.”

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Yuriko hummed and thought about their next step. Did the same rounding up of unwanted and downtrodden happen in other city-states too? Southeast of Kadrac City was Uaran City, as well as the Chaos Channel. If she remembered her geography right, on the same latitude were Uaran, Garamus, and Jugen. North of Jugen was Ekelus, and north of that was Ivala. The chain of cities if she travelled through Haveena was that one, then Kadrac, Uaran, Garamus, Jugen, Ekelus, and finally, Ivala. If looked on a map, the route would look roughly U-shaped.

Kadrac was in the midst of a dry savannah, almost a desert, while Uaran was flushed on the coast. She didn't know where the Chaos Channel was, just that it was within a few leagues of the coastal city.

“That was yesterday,” Heron added. “They left town this morning. On board wagons, they couldn’t be more than ten leagues ahead of us.”

“We can cover a league every three-quarters of an hour,” Gwendith mused. “And if we keep that up we can go around twelve to thirteen leagues a day. We’ll catch up with them in four or five days. Before they reach Kadrac City, sixty leagues away from here, I think.”

Yuriko nodded mutely, not bothering to work out the arithmetic.

“We’ll be exhausted at that pace,” Orrin said worriedly.

“D’you think we can go buy horses or something from Bradford? The eastern part of town is pretty intact, and the stables there sell horses.” Braden said.

“How much would that cost and how much time would we save?” Yuriko asked.

“A thousand Shekels for each horse, I think. And we won’t save much time, but we won’t be exhausted when we catch up.”

“Er…but I don’t know how to ride one,” Yuriko said.

“I don’t think any of us do,” Gwendith laughed, then glanced at Sheamus. “Do you, Mr. Dorn?”

“Hmmm, oh, not in a decade,” Sheamus said, “but it’s easy, especially for Lady Yuriko.”

“Eh?”

“Of course. Just stare at the horse’s eyes and tell it to follow your commands,” he grinned.

Yuriko rolled her eyes, “I don’t think that would work.”

Sheamus shrugged. “You’re tough enough not to be plagued with a rider’s woes. I agree that it would save us energy and a bit of time, but we might not be able to afford buying them anyway.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Braden said confidently. He and his twin left after finishing breakfast while Yuriko and the others lingered on their campsite.

Bradford was a small town, smaller than Faron’s Crossing, at least. It didn’t spread out too much, which was why the flash flood caught most of its buildings. Only the outskirts and the garrison were left intact. All of the warriors were busy helping with the rescue effort, and with the havoc the flood caused, Yuriko doubted that they would be concerned with her group.

Soon enough, Braden came back leading a herd of horses, each with a saddle, bags, halter, and reins. Yuriko looked at the creatures doubtfully. They were shorter than she was, even if they raised their heads upright, which they didn’t. They also looked somewhat worn out and unhealthy.

“How much did you spend on those nags?” Sheamus asked critically.

“Three hundred a head, plus another six hundred for the gear,” Braden said. “These were the better ones in the stable. I think,” he added doubtfully.

“These are barely better than us walking,” Sheamus said in disgust.

The twins shrugged and moved the subject. “We should go. We’re wasting daylight.”

Sheamus gave the others a quick lesson in riding, which was to squeeze with the legs to hold on, pull the reins hard to stop, and flick them to go.

With Yuriko’s sense of balance, she had little trouble getting and staying on the horse. It actually wasn’t so bad. Huh.

Sheamus led the way, and they followed the road southeast. The horse’s gait was quite bouncy though, and that was what made this rather uncomfortable. Thank the Ancestors for her forceweave brassiere.

Gwendith and Asami bounced badly, too, and Yuriko couldn’t help but wince in sympathy. The boys, on the other hand, were waddling by the time evening came along and they dismounted to set up camp. Heron, Orrin, and Braden were all wincing as they walked a bit bowlegged.

“Chafing?” Yuriko asked, curious.

“Yeah,” Heron muttered and the other two agreed.

“Go use Recovery,” Yuriko said kindly. “We’ll handle dinner. You boys take the first watch.”

“Thank you.”

Sheamus seemed amused at the boys' predicament, and at the girls. Yuriko gave him the stink eye and he bowed his head in embarrassment. She noticed him frequently looking back, and his eyes danced between hers, Gwendith’s, and Asami’s bosoms.

He walked over to the boys and clapped them on the shoulder, and whispered a few things, which picked up their spirits.

The next couple of days went by in the same manner, except the terrain became drier and drier, until the grassland turned into bare earth and sand.

Most of the other travellers avoided them, owing to the fact that they rode horses and looked to be in a hurry. She could see dust plumes up ahead, and every time they came within sight of wagons or carriages, she grinned in anticipation. But, it was usually only a farmer’s wagon or a travelling carriage. Desire too grew a bit more excited as she’d finally felt a resonance between her and the nameless’ pins. It was off in the distance though.

And on the afternoon of the fourth day, they finally saw the wagon convoy. A train of five enclosed wagons protected by fifty riders.

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