Chapter 253: 78: Nabataea Before

The snow leopard didn't reply to the message, but he was waiting near the portal in the dwarven capital in his little silver housecat form. He only waited long enough to be sure that they'd seen him, and then he got up and walked away, vanishing into the crowds like a silver mist.

"Where is he going?" Shrubbery questioned. "He's not in our party anymore so we can't track him can we?"

"Who?" MatchlessMinion asked.

"The snow leopard," Danika explained. She'd realized that MatchlessMinion hadn't seen his cat form and probably hadn't recognized him. "He was that silver cat that was here a moment ago."

Nabataea was chaotic. It wasn't just crowded, small skirmishes were breaking out between different guilds and the city guards looked a bit ragged and worn as they tried to end one fight, only to have another break out behind them.

MatchlessMinion dodged a person who had just been thrown toward the portal and asked, "Which way captain?"

Danika zipped upward and frowned across the crowded exterior streets. The city gates were downhill from the portals, but the access to the inner city was uphill. She didn't spot the traveling merchant among the chaotic crowds in the nearest square, so she couldn't ask for further advice.

She zipped downward again and suggested, "Let's go up? We can find out what the situation is like for the inner city and get more of an overview from the upper viewpoints?"

"Got it," MatchlessMinion announced and began threading his way into the crowd.

Shrubbery began elbowing her way along after him, and he glanced back and began to remove people from her path ahead of her.

Danika was rather impressed by the way the little chinchillamin added a bit of force to the legs of someone in motion to force them to take a bigger step than they'd expected, and then tripped another person to block several more from stepping into Shrubbery's path. From her aerial position she could see the swath through the crowd that he created despite his small size.

She was distracted from Shrubbery's progress when she noticed a particularly organized cluster of players who were working their way downhill with the same efficiency and determination as MatchlessMinion was showing on his way up.

The members of the group all had their guild name visible, in sharp contrast to most of the people engaging in skirmishes. The name appeared to be misspelled though, as the 'Frost Pheonix Clan', unless it referred to an obscure heraldic arrow symbol that Danika was only familiar with because it had come up in an episode once.

At the front of the group was a wizard who seemed to be tossing fire around as casually as Saaki would, but who actually wasn't causing collateral damage fires as far as she could see. He was followed by a fellow who looked like he ought to be the group's tank, and in the lead in place of the wizard, but who followed the wizard's lead with a relaxed expression.

A younger looking character named Reaper was providing the first two with a continuous string of small buffs, while querously calling suggestions to the wizard Geld. Danika didn't even have to read their names as they traded loud taunts while working with nearly seamless coordination. Their swashbuckler named Music danced back and forth, and caught any attacks that the others missed, although the player's expression indicated that they might rather stab their two loudmouth guildmates.

The group was moving along so efficiently that the city guards, who turned to object to a small fireball that shot past them into the brawl that had broken out on a side street, took only a few steps towards them before turning back.

Danika turned back as well and zipped upward to catch up with Shrubbery and MatchlessMinion. They continued their own efficient progress upward quickly enough that the tall elaborate building faces carved directly into the side of the mountain top came into view before a full bell had passed.

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As they neared the entrance to the inner city, Danika could see that the heavy gates had been firmly shut and a row of dwarven guards stood before them like another wall. Halberds and battle axes gleamed, and enchantments shimmered across their armor. These guards were nothing like the belabored city guards below, and they made no move to interfere in any of the skirmishes going on below them unless someone approached the entrance.

She dropped down beside Shrubbery and asked quietly, "Do either of you speak dwarven?"

MatchlessMinion nodded and strode forward. He stopped just out of easy reach of the guard's weapons and called out in dwarven. The nearest guard shook his head and responded firmly. MatchlessMinion protested in a persuasive tone, but all of the guards tightened their grips on their weapons and glared at him. The one who had responded said only a single word, that it was pretty easy to guess meant 'no'.

MatchlessMinion turned his back on them and shook his head. "They say we can't enter, even if we were once of service to the King, and the doors will stay shut until the world stops trembling."

"Can you feel the world trembling from your full motion console?" Shrubbery questioned.

He shook his head again and looked up at ZipZing. Danika shook her head as well, and said, "I suppose it's possible that the earth elementals and their half races can feel things that we can't, but they also might not mean it literally?"

"To a lookout next?" MatchlessMinion questioned. Although he followed it up with a much softer inquiry, "Or do you want me to sneak in?"

"To a lookout," Danika agreed quickly. "I don't know for sure that there would be any purpose to entering the inner city anyway, since we don't really know exactly what the NPCs think is threatening the world."

"Haven't you been working on all these expansion quest lines?" MatchlessMinion asked dubiously as they made their way across this level of the upper city to one of the three picturesque arched overlooks.

"I think this is a system generated one," Danika explained.

From the overlook the city didn't appear to be as chaotic as it had felt while trying to move upward through the streets. The skirmishes were very localized and seemed to be primarily between players.

Shrubbery looked down and asked with disgust, "What's the point of fighting each other here? What do they think they'll gain if they win?"

MatchlessMinion pointed out several of the skirmish locations and told her, "Look, they are almost all fighting in market districts. These probably aren't even the people who are planning to be the first desert explorers, they're probably the guild support teams trying to get into position to restrict each other's access."

Danika quickly realized that he was right. "Why does it seem like they are all trying to play like it's a guild war event?" she questioned.

"Well, that's pretty much what Justin implied it was going to be without knowing half as much as most people know from the latest official teasers," MatchlessMinion replied. "From what my sister says, they are planning to be first explorers instead of trying to corner already existing resources nearby."

Danika looked up from the city and out at the breathtaking view of the southern mountains that were home to two smaller dwarven kingdoms that had been mostly destroyed in the dwarven wars, and were about to be completely destroyed. "I was kind of planning to be a first explorer too," she admitted, "but if this - whatever it is that we are supposed to be doing - takes very long, it might be easier to stay up all night than try to get up in time to see the desert formed."

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