Back to Yonder- Chapter 1 (Patreon)

Sorry that it took longer to get back to writing. Final edits for Prism 3 and this flu bug took longer than anticipated.

Chapter 1

I woke up or rather came out of my meditative rest state. True sleep wasn't something I needed much of nowadays. There was an arm draped across my chest. I looked down and smiled at the mess of Rava's purple hair on my chest. That's right she had slept with me last night. My senses quickly moved past that though, no matter how pleasant her scent was.

No, something was wrong. I could just feel it. Something which had pulled me out of my trance. There it was. I heard three voices arguing outside. Josie, my foxkin deputy, wife and Mistress of the Wall. As I expanded my senses again, I could tell her back was to the front of our tent. She must have been blocking whoever wanted to come speak with me.

The other two voices took a moment longer for me to place. Jasper was the head of the caravan guards. He was an older orc. I didn't know him well but had found him to be no nonsense. If something concerned him, I expected it was worth listening to. Standing next to him was Vemilla, she was the head of the caravan drivers. Olimero certainly didn't have trade unions like back on Earth, but there were various guilds. She was a representative of the teamsters' guild.

Rava had needed to hire a number of teamsters as Yonderton didn't have enough people who could both drive the caravan wagons and were available to leave town. I trusted her judgment but, so far in the week since we had left town, she had been nothing but annoying. She always insisted on stopping sooner each day than I wanted to, and it felt like she was going to drag our trip out by a couple of extra weeks with her demands.

Her voice is what caught my attention though. There was a note of fear in it. "I'm telling you; the sheriff needs to wake up to deal with this. Obviously, Jasper isn't do anything about it. If a guard can go missing in the middle of the night, then what's next? One of my drivers? Or will you only take it seriously if something happens to one of your precious family?"

Through the bond, I could feel Josie's tension rising. Her magic might be fire, but her personality was the more explosive of the two. My extended senses were keen enough to feel the way she shifted her weight forward. The teamster leader might not be a combatant, but she was on dangerous ground and likely didn't even know it.

Josie might have sounded very calm and deliberate as she replied, “Calm down and step back. You are NOT going to barge into my husband’s tent. There is precious little privacy in a caravan like this. You will not disturb him and my sister-wife.

Rather than let this come to blows, I shifted Rava off of me. She complained with a low, "No, don't leave yet." but she never truly woke up.

I was up and dressing a second later as the conversation continued outside.

Jasper said, "Stan is young. Who's to say that he didn't just wander off. You know young men. Maybe he caught the eye of one of the ladies." There was a note of amusement in his voice, though whether that was about the tension between the two foxkin or if it was about this missing guard, I didn’t know.

"Easy for you to joke about security. Oh wait, it shouldn't be. It's the entire reason you're here. What good are guards who abandon their posts?"

Jasper's voice took on a steel edge. "I didn't say anything about abandoning his post. I simply said that he might have gotten distracted. Are any of your people missing? Have any of the animal's been taken? Are any of the wagons damages?"

There was a pause. I just imagine the older orc towering over the much smaller foxkin. Josie probably would have been laughing inside since I knew how much Vemilla annoyed her. I sided as I finished pulling on my boots. I better go see what really happened.

When I pulled the tent flap back, Josie simply slid to the side to make room for me. Our bond or maybe just her keen hearing had allowed her to hear my approach. Jasper’s face didn’t betray any expression but then again, he was a seasoned orc, so seeing the boss come out of a tent wasn’t going to throw him.

On the other hand, Vexilla’s eyes went wide. “Sheriff, I’m so sorry to disturb your sleep. I trust that you are well rested, but I never would have done such a thing if it weren’t necessary. Our guard captain wasn’t going to tell you that one of the caravan guards went missing last night.”

I doubted that was true. More likely, the man had simply decided it wasn’t an emergency and was going to notify me later in the day or even just talk to Josie, since she was responsible for my personal security. I was certain, my foxkin wife would have made that clear to all parties.

“I already heard some of the conversation, Vemilla. One thing bothers me above all the rest, and I don’t say this lightly. A missing caravan member, guard or otherwise, is a concern. I place value on the lives of everyone here.”

My words clearly made Vemilla uncomfortable. It was never about the value of life. Life was still relatively cheap in Olimero, especially out here on the frontiers. My Earth-born sense of the value of life was still at odds with most people’s sensibilities. For Olimerans’ it was all about the value of the lives of those in their family, group, town, organization, or whatever.

Josie didn’t react. She knew me far too well for that and I’d had enough discussions with Jasper that he wasn’t surprised.

“Uh, yes, m’lord, I know this about you, which is precisely why I believed you would want to know…”

I chopped my hand down cutting her off as I rolled my eyes. “You didn’t let me finish.”

Vemilla’s face paled and she started to gasp out an apology, but I chopped my hand, and she had the sense to close her mouth.

“What distresses me the most about this situation is that you are trying to go around my wife. Josie speaks for me. If she told you not to bother me, then don’t bother me. I trust Guard Captain Jasper. He was hired by my Mistress of the Purse and Rava is not one to suffer fools, but I have many times and will continue to place my life in Josie’s hands. She has my absolute trust and trying to get around her is like trying to go around me.”

If Vemilla had been pale before, she was positively ash white now. Her hands were trembling, “I’m sorry m’lord it was…”

For a third time I chopped my hand. “Probably best that you do not speak now. Rava hired you too. So, you must be good at your job. But you’re a teamster. Your job is to make sure that the wagons move. I’d suggest that you get about that this morning, and I’ll pretend this never happened.”

She bowed, mumbled another apology and then ran off. Josie slid closer to me and pressed herself against me. For a woman who once was nervous about any public displays of affection, she had come a long way. Lina was definitely rubbing off on her. She stretched up on her toes and kissed my cheek.

At least that had been her probable intention before I shifted, turning my head and lifting her from the ground so that the gentled peck become an impassioned good morning kiss. I let it last long enough to take away her breath but not long enough to being awkward.

As I lowered her to the ground she said, “Morning, husband.”

“I still love it when you say that. Good morning to you too wife and thank you for running interference.”

Then I glanced over at Jasper. If he was shocked by our display, he didn’t show it. Of course, if I remembered he had three wives of his own, not on the mission with him, but undoubtedly, he wasn’t going to be shocked by a little PDA. “Care to tell me what this is all about?”

He snorted. “As long as you don’t need more time to properly greet your wife. I’ve found it’s good to get them worked up sometimes, but different men handle that differently.”

Josie glared at him but patted my ass. Our bond had already told me that the kiss got her worked up, but a missing guard wasn’t nothing. So, business first.

“No, I’d like to hear your report. I assume you were on your way to discuss it with my Mistress of the Wall but then ran into Vemilla trying to sneak here to tell me.”

“Exactly. It’s a please to work for a perceptive man.”

“Technically, you work for my wife. Rava is running this caravan after all.”

He tilted his head oddly. I remembered that orcs were the most patriarchal of all the races in a world which was already patriarchal. “However, you handle your affairs, you and all of your wives seem to be quite competent. Even the catkin seems to be contributing as a scout, now that she is over whatever sickness had afflicted her.”

“Nimeera isn’t one of Rob’s wives. She is simply an employee.”

Jasper’s face didn’t seem to budge as he nodded, but I could see that he had wanted to grin. He must not be a stranger to the tensions which occurred between women with the way family situations worked on Olimero. Nonetheless he simply launched into a detailed report of the situation.

He covered the set up and rotation of caravan guards at night. This was still considered the frontier, but the guards had quickly noted that no regular animals and few monsters got even close to our caravan. There hadn’t been a single monster attack. Rumors had already started that it was some unique power of the human sheriff, which might not have been far off. My power at this point of B-rank put off quite an aura and I was learning to project my intent in such a way that it didn’t bother those who weren’t hostile but warned off any creatures weaker than me.

“In short, we have a twenty-year-old guard who had the last shift of the night. He would have come off of duty around six AM after the merchants and teamsters would have already been up preparing breakfast and such. Normally, he’d check in with my guard sergeant and then grab breakfast before finding a place to sleep inside one of the wagons.”

“But that didn’t happen?”

“No, he didn’t report. I wouldn’t have worried too much about it. It isn’t that uncommon for a guard to just feel like grabbing some sleep. There were no signs of an attack, struggle, and no one has reported anything else amiss. For some reason though, Vemilla has a bee up her skirt and is making quite a fuss about it.”

“So, you looked into it and discovered that this guard, Stan, I believe you said his name was. Anyway, you discovered that he is missing?”

“Yes, and your wif… err… the scout, Nimeera, discovered footprints indicating that he had walked off into the small forest to our east. I was going to have it looked into, but she insisted that I discuss the matter with Lady Josephine first.”

Josie was the one to ask, “Did Nimeera say anything further?”

“She had wanted to follow the trail further, but once it hit the woods, I ordered to back. I hope that wasn’t overstepping, but even if the risk is very low, I didn’t want to let a woman connected to the sheriff to wander about in an unknown woods. Odd things happen out here on the frontier.”

I glanced and Josie and she simply nodded.

“You did well, Captain. See to your men, but it might be better if they were on alert until we discern what has happened. We can’t spend too long looking for him as we have placed to be. I will, however, make sure that I at least inspect these woods.”

Josie put her hand on my arm. That was enough for me to know she had something to say on the subject but wasn’t going to correct me in front of the captain. For his part, Jasper nodded his head and said, “As you wish m’lord. I’ll ensure that the caravan is ready to move. I’d appreciate it if you kept me informed. I know that we all work for you or for your wife, but I take pride in watching over the guards under my command.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything else. Once I discuss the matter and a plan is implemented, I will notify you.”