2k words
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The woodlands of Brettonia were thick and made seeing beyond a few hundred meters impossible. Even with her goggles’ filtering modes, Skyseeker struggled to be the eyes of her new companion, though at least the added height of the doom flayer helped give her some high ground.
They had hurried away from the underburrow until the humans and slaves could run no further, and even then it had taken all of her skills in persuasion to at least get them on their feet and keep moving. She felt a little cruel, hauling up the malnourished ratmen when they begged for rest, but it had to be done. The things Ironsnout or Pinkface would do if they get their paws on her again were too evil to imagine.
Otto and the other humans were able to keep up her pace, and some of them had even taken to carrying the Skaven who didn’t have the strength to walk. It was a very peculiar sight, seeing the two species get along. Of course, Skyseeker had worked alongside them before, but these Skaven had no history with the humans. Their shared slavery had been brief, but both of their species had fought against their masters, and it seemed a sort of comradery had been formed from mutual freedom. Even Kretch seemed amiable to the men, though he never showed them the same courtesy as he did to Skyseeker. Probably because she was brilliant and drove a doom flayer like the best of them.
The vehicle gave her the mobility and speed needed to scout ahead of the group, but mostly she liked it because she didn’t have to walk around as much as the others. It was a single-seat weapon, but it was possible for a few Skaven to hang off the sides, as long as they didn’t mind putting their paws inches form the cyclic blades running down the spine of the wheel.
When the sun was close to setting behind the sea, Skyseeker finally gave the order to rest. Due to her sheer brain power, both humans and rats alike had deferred authority over to her, and they looked up at her like she was Sigmar himself as she pulled up to the group with a spin and rev of her doom flayer.
“Good run-sprint, everyone, very good. We stop here and nap for day.”
From her estimate, they had moved maybe half a dozen leagues west of the underburrow, and there’d been no sign of pursuit since the doom flayer attack. The time was safe enough for rest.
“Someone get a fire going,” Otto called, directing several of his men to collect wood and tinder. While the humans looked exhausted, they offered no complaint and did as he bid without question. Skyseeker looked to her fellow kin, and saw a punch of passed out and exhausted slaves, and she felt a hit to her pride. She hopped off her flayer after flicking off its engine, gesturing wildly at them as she approached.
“Come-Come, rats! Don’t let the man-things one-up us Skaven! Kretch, get these slaves digging a burrow.”
“We starve, Skybreeder,” Kretch replied. “We not have energy for dig-digging.”
“Then forage you fools,” she said. “Surface-world rich in food things. Here, I’ll show-show.”
She grabbed one of the collapsed slaves by the paw, and hauled him up. She did the same for another, and kept going until she had a group of followers. She lead them into the woods a short ways, and after a while found a berry bush, demonstrating how to pick them.
“Now you go find more of these,” she said. “Berries, bugs, plants, anything to fill your guts. Don’t stuff your face too much, we need to feed man-things as well. Now away with you, chop-chop!”
She clapped at them, and the sudden noise scampered off her new followers, and she dusted her paws proudly, seeing that Otto was watching her from nearby. “You see, Otter? Man-thing not only slavemaster round these parts.”
“Whatever you say,” Otto grumbled. “Shall we camp here for the night?” he suggested, looking over at the lowered sun. “These woods are unfamiliar to me, and it’ll only get worse come dark.”
“Good plan-plan. You take your slaves and nap, Skaven will do a little more scoutening.”
“Don’t go too far,” Otto called as she turned for her doomflayer. She pulled on her goggles, hoisting herself into the suspended seat, the engine purring to life at a flick of her paw. She waved the party goodbye as she sped away, weaving between the trees where she could, and churning up the rest, leaving a spray of mulch behind her as the detritus filtered down the exhaust.
The woods continued on in all directions, Skyseeker swivelling her head as she drove deeper into the north. The great mountains were to her right and front, forming a steady rise on that flank that she used to keep herself navigated so she could find her way back to her companions. She didn’t really know what she was looking for, signs of life maybe, or anyone who didn’t have a tail. Otto had said he’d make camp with Wilfred before he’d been captured, so there must be some evidence of it still left, it was just a matter of finding it.
After nearly ten minutes of driving around, she began to have a bad feeling. These hills were only a pawful of leagues from the underburrow, aand any patrols in the nearby area would hear her doomflayer’s engine. They wouldn’t’ know she was an escaped slave, but the noise was a beacon of attention. There was more a chance of finding Ironsnout’s clanrats than the wizard, but what other choice did she have? Moving on foot was far too slow for comfort.
She pulled up to a clearing and slammed on the brake pedal, orienting herself using the stars beginning to peek out from the darkness of the night. Suddenly that horrible feeling in her belly bloomed. Skyseeker knew when she was being watched, and she felt eyes on her fur, the instinct to flee rising to the forefront.
She strained to listen over the rumbling of the engine, Skyseeker slowly raising a paw and flicking on the night vision filters on her goggles, the world taking on a fuzzy shade of bright green. She twisted her head almost to a full circle, seeing the rustling of leaves, the dancing stalks of grass, the flitter of movement as a bird took flight from a branch.
Snick. A twig breaking drew her attention to the left, and she let loose a half-shout, half-cry that definitely was not out of fear, and she drew a knife from her undergarment and chucked it in the noise’s general direction.
Something was running towards her, she could hear the soft thumps as it rushed across the dirt, right behind her. She tried to turn, utterly forgetting she was in control of a vehicle, but too late, something jagging her in the ribs. She was flung form the seat, crashing to the ground aside the doomflayer. For a second it destabilised, and she feared she’d be squashed beneath its bulk, yet it did no more than teeter on its axis.
She felt someone coming up from behind her, and she drew her Skaven sword, but it was battered out of her paw, Skyseeker catching sight of a wooden polearm arcing into her field of view. She glanced up at the figure that lomed over her, little to do other than wait for the next blow, but the figure lowered his weapon, a pair of eyes scrutinised her from behind a cowl.
“It is good to see you again, miss Seeker.”
“FRED-WIL?!” A calloused paw was offered to her, and she took it, the elderly man surprising strong as he helped her stand. “You attacked me! I shan’t believe it!”
“My apologies, I feared you would have attacked or fled had I announced myself.”
Skyseeker couldn’t contain herself, thrusting forward and hugging the tall wizard round the waist, pulling him as close as she could. Wilfred seemed surprised by her gesture, but he reciprocated, chuckling under his breath as he gave her a pat on the back.
“Skaven is so glad-glad to see your wrinkly face, Fred-wil! Been looking for you for minutes. Minutes, Fred-wil. What are chances we run across eachother here?”
“Higher than you’d imagine. At first I thought you were one of the Skaven riders I’ve seen skulking about and thought you an enemy, but as I drew closer, I sensed your familiar presence and knew my search was over.”
“My aura is unmistakable, yes-yes!”
She released him, grinning up at the wizard as he shifted his staff from paw to paw.
“Come, there is much to discuss, miss Seeker, but not here. We must move, and quickly, there are Skaven afoot, and I’ve already lost many good lives in my searching of you.”
He moved in front of him as he began to move, holding up her paws.
“Hold up, Fred! Skaven is not alone out here. I made some friends, back that-a-way.”
“More Skaven?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder.
“Not just Skaven, hehe. I found others, man-thing others specifically, you might know them. There’s Otto, and a bunch of others I couldn’t be bothered to learn the names of.”
The wizard’s eyes widened in surprise. “Otto? He’s alive, and well? Oh, that is good news indeed. We were attacked, and I feared he met the same fate as you.”
“He did, actually. You come with me-me, Fred, I take you to him.”
Wilfred wasn’t thrilled about riding on her doomflayer, and he insisted on walking, which made the return to her party slower. When they finally emerged back into the clearing, the area was lit by a humble campfire surrounded by her new companions, a ring of humans on one side and the Skaven on the other, and each side rose to greet them as she and Wilfred joined them by the fire.
Otto and the wizard exchanged relived words and pawshakes, as did the other men, Skyseeker watching the reunion with a grin. It was clear the old man cared deeply for each one of the crew, if him searching the wilds in the middle of the night wasn’t proof enough.
“They took us into the giant burrow,” Otto explained when pressed for details after his capture. “It’s not a day’s journey west of here. They had us put to work the second we were in, but by Sigmar, we happened upon Skyseeker not a moment later. It was her plan that got us out of there.”
Skyseeker puffed out her chest as Wilfred gave her an appreciative look.
“You are truly a friend to Sigmar and the Empire, miss Seeker. Yet I would know your side of this tale.” The wizard turned to sit on a log the Skaven had dragged up toward the camp. “The last I saw you, you were fighting off that boarding party on the ship. You must have gone through much to arrive here, in Otto’s company no less.”
“Oh you have no idea, Fred-wil,” she sighed. She filled him in from the very beginning, putting in a little dramatic flare here and there to improve her image, and making sure to involve Kretch where she could. The better impressions she gave him, the less chance there was of friction later, she deduced.
When she finished, the wizard stroked his beard thoughtfully. “This is most troubling,” he said at last. “I knew the Skaven must have a presence here, and a burrow right in the heart of Brettonia is a bad sign.
“Is more than burrow, Fred-wil,” Skyseeker said. “This is a Clan Mors Vermintide, biggest one my former clan has ever made in my lifetime. You don’t need to be genius like me to know what they want.”
“Indeed I don’t,” Wilfred replied. “This leader of their…. Ironsnout, you called him… perhaps he can track the relic’s magics through the Warp. That is the only reason I can fathom, for a Skaven force can move so hard and fast up from Tilea. It is a good thing none of us have it, or he’d already have achieved his goal.”