CHAPTER XXIX: Explorers

The mood in the Kaffraria made the archipelago more vibrant than it had ever been. It was Saturday night, so the Kaffrarian Knights were enjoying themselves before the big day tomorrow, the commission day. It was the day K'rar had said he would brief them about their first mission that wasn't a tournament against Revolutionary Guard, easy pickings, or a drill. This would be the day K'rar would reveal his true identity. The Kaffrarian Knights were now battle-ready apex predators, having completed their training course of four years and four months. Recruitment had stopped, and the Kaffrarian Knights numbered 36,100 combatants, including a bit more than 12,000 women, and the 24 Nephilim. The regiment also had 67 Stingers and 13 Behemoths.

The Knights had in the last three years even improved their arsenal, and in one way the enhancement was too spectacular. On one trial run on a new ship, the Behemoth Wild Beast, K'rar had run into a weird rock island, isolated in the sea. His adventurous nature had moved him to investigate, and it turned out the rock was home to one of the strangest birds in Xaxanika. The rare, magnificent red-billed Urdian eagle. Seen only as frequently as a shooting star on the mainland, the massive bird of prey had a notorious reputation of hunting farm animals on the mainland as big as donkeys, and flying away with them. This was only an unconfirmed belief, but when K'rar and his team saw for themselves thousands of birds, it was not difficult to believe its notorious reputation. The Urdian eagle was a tall, three and a half foot bird of prey despite its inexplicable social behavior. With a wingspan of eight feet and huge, red scaled legs, it was easily the largest flying bird K'rar had ever seen, and the largest bird for his friends who had never seen an ostrich. He had scaled up the island's precarious terrain with five of them including the steward of the Wild Beast, Xherdan, one of the original pioneers. And then in a large crater laden with bird poop and carrion and bones, there was the parliament of Urdian eagles. They could have been more than ten thousand birds from this side of the rock to the other. The stench was repulsive, but K'rar did not want to leave until they captured one juvenile, which was easy but also frightening because when K'rar himself attempted to snatch a fledgling, he took it easily from the flock, but the other birds did not flee from him and just watched him with frightening grey and blue eyes. Yet, when Xherdan attempted to take a second bird, the parents and two others swiftly attacked him, beating their wings and sharp black talons. In fact, one bird lifted him one foot into the air and dragged him for one meter before releasing him. During this fight, both Xherdan and K'rar dropped the birds they were holding. Then something occurred to a shaken but excited Xherdan. The birds did not attack K'rar, but would attack anyone else. This was too far-fetched, but the five explorers tested it, and confirmed it. K'rar took the same bird that Xherdan had dropped this time, and the birds behaved as before. Then this time, two of the others had attempted to take two fledglings and the birds had been hostile to them. When K'rar took the fledgling with him, the birds let him be, but then its parents had then flown from the rock and landed on the deck of the Wild Beast while other knights examined the chick. From that moment on K'rar had harbored the idea to put the eagles to use in his regiment.

So now, K'rar's army employed giants, dogs, women and birds. Falcons for communication, and Urdians as attack birds, 1,550 of them, half of which came all by themselves to the Kaffraria. So he had the deadliest army on land, sea and air. Once, a horde of about fifty birds landed on the training ground and disrupted the session. The soldiers were excited. They tried all sorts of ways to interact with them, but to no avail. Then K'rar had pitched in, and the birds had spread their wings, as if saluting him. K'rar had spent hours studying this behavior toward him, and concluded that the cause was likely to be the deity, Ihanga, as this behavior was similar to the way the Nephilim had behaved with him when he encountered them. They only listened to his commands. They also understood lots of human speech, and K'rar had found that most of the words they understood were military-oriented or combat-oriented commands. They with time learned that the soldiers on Kaffraria were K'rar's soldiers, his friends, and were no longer hostile toward them. They even learned the chain of command, so K'rar could now delegate his command to his officers. Just like the canines, the intelligent birds understood commands to attack, deliver a load or message among others. But K'rar had found even a better use for them.

Because of the birds, he had invented a tactic of bombardment from the air. Being very strong birds, K'rar taught them to drop heavy objects on enemies from the air. Then his soldiers had given him the idea of dropping flammable oil, and the birds had found one of the most important jobs. The birds would carry oil balloons and drop them on the enemy, and then another "troop" of birds would drop the fire. Now this was only next to K'rar's ships as his best achievements. It meant that he could send out the "raptors", which were capable of distinguishing hostile forces from friendly ones, to launch attacks long before his ground forces had reached the battleground. They were also excellent reconnoiter spies. K'rar now had an advantage over any army right from the start. All the spy raptors had to do was to indicate the presence of an enemy by landing on a black-flagged perch.

K'rar was excited to employ his regiment's might quickly. The time had come for him to return to Korazin. It would happen this year, and he had already began to draft his overall plan. It was Saturday though, a night for merriment. K'rar decided to pay his army a visit in their "Lair", the common room. K'rar knew each one of his 36,100 fighters by their faces, and thousands of them by name, including all of the female knights. During all the years of training he had been their first example of unity and brotherhood. As their Commandant and role model, they easily shared their lives with him. For Shaniz and Bekka it was even easier, as they were royals who had stepped down to the level of mere soldiers. K'rar had become the Commandant that they would choose, not one who chose them. In the common room the mood was even better than his. Two of the funnier, livelier soldiers, were performing a song to all those who would listen. When K'rar came in through the back, the singing went on for more than a minute before the crowd close to the entrance, which was at the back of the gargantuan common room, saw him, and stood up to salute. This was infectious of course, so all those in the lair did the same. Bekka was here too, also the giants Dahlin and Joronen. They had constructed much of the lair, so they could fit inside, even when standing. But Shaniz was sleepier and had already called it quits. K'rar said,

'At ease,' and when they sat down he said, 'I am also here to enjoy. This will be our last night in the Kaffraria, which has been home to many of us. So I also composed a song.' Bekka stood up and clapped and cheered, moving many others to do the same, and then the whole group. K'rar began to sing, but it was not a song of his own composition. Rather, it was a song Pithadia would sing to him whenever he felt down. He had stopped her from doing this very early, and then Pithadia had started to hum it instead. K'rar, though, recalled all the lyrics:

Longer was he waiting for the dream of going home

Longer than the days of the oak, he waited

He sat on the beach sand, the little shepherd boy,

And sang, and sang, and sang to the sea,

"Take me home…o mighty sea

O mighty sea, take me home

To the place of my forefathers…

They listened keenly as he melodied away, but perhaps only Bekka and the Nephilim picked up the real meaning of the song.

The morning came very quickly for many of the knights. It was long for K'rar though. His nostalgia of ten years returned to him throughout that night, and he hadn't slept much. He had left his chambers and sat outside by himself, where the giantess Jehl, who also couldn't catch sleep, joined him, and they had spoken a lot about K'rar's history, much of which Jehl knew because K'rar hadn't hidden it from the Nephilim when he spent those three years with them. K'rar had told her his program for the day. So when the entire regiment, military and non-combatant, assembled before him in the morning, she knew what K'rar was going to say. The assembly stood in their six subdivisions in full uniform, including wolves and dogs for those who had them. The army's six divisions (seven if the all-bird Raptors Division of the Urdian eagles was added) were each headed by a "brigadier". Brigadier Romiel was now the Division Commander of the Hornets, carrying that division's flag secondary to the main flag of the whole group, which was carried by his ensign. Brigadier Resite headed the Hybrid Division, Bekka the Cavalry, Shaniz the Serpents. The Artillery Division was commanded by one of the regiment's standouts, the fierce and effective Daena Milshkin, and finally the Orcas were headed by Bartle Frere, who was an exception to the age limit for recruits, and who had turned out made for this Navy, having picked out the interest of the navy in the early days. General Morriffere had contracted a strain that rendered him retired, and Bartle Frere had replaced him, under the title of Fleet Admiral, the equivalent of a General. So four of these six were all commanded by women. However, Bartle Frere would soon hand this post over to a fierce chap from Et called Sorcatan, nicknamed the "Little Man". Bartle Frere himself would become the Deputy Commandant, K'rar's second. In K'rar's absence, Bartle Frere would command the army. He was older than them all, including K'rar, and had military experience. Most of all, K'rar loved him. He was in many ways similar to K'rar, and was loyal as a hound. K'rar had sent Governess Yrma a request to keep him, and if the governess allowed it, something more likely than not, then Bartle Frere would become Field Marshal and Deputy Commandant. Field Marshal was a unique rank. K'rar developed it for himself too, because he would fight on the battlefield with his soldiers, not tucked away in a room with maps, and so too would Bartle Frere.

After a long but hearty speech, K'rar said to the regiment,

'Starting today, we will exit the Kaffraria. On the ships, you will all sail and go to your homes, for two months. So at the end of it we must all be on the south coast in Iscalan by September 13, and there, King Sargios will see us off on our mission. Now for the mission,' he looked over at his officer for discipline, Haller, who began by asking them to open the scrolls he had given to them, and read with him the relevant scriptures. The Division Commanders were already in on this, though, but to the rest of the regiment, the secret, and the mission, were thus revealed. The surprise was too massive for the regiment, and they did not quieten for more than four minutes as they spotted all the prophecy's fulfilments pointing to their Commandant, starting from the Nephilim, whose purpose and origin were finally revealed. When they did calm down, Haller went on,

'You will continue to address him as the Commandant. But now that you know the mission, prepare yourselves accordingly, as you might go on this excursion for a very long time, and not return for a very long time.' The regiment had been trained to expect this, so nobody had qualms about leaving Xaxanika for many years. K'rar took the stage again and yelled the chant,

'Knights of the Kaffraria!'

They replied by mimicking the howl of a wolf, and by stamping their feet twice in quick succession. This was the part where he would dismiss the assembly. It was also the part where he said goodbye to the senior officers except Bartle Frere. Their job as training officers ended here, and all had taken the choice of staying in Xaxanika with their families. So he said his last greetings to them right there on the assembly ground, one by one from Haller to Benjoin to Zeljko and the rest. To each one of them, he have a banner with the flag of Korazin on it, and said to them,

'You men have been more than just my officers and my friends. You have been friends of Korazin. If I succeed in liberating my people, you will have succeeded too. And you are always welcome to the south, even if I don't know how long it takes to sail there.'

'Well, you will get there anyway,' said Zeljko, 'it's been a wonderful four years, Commandant.' He had his hand on K'rar's shoulder. The rest did the same, one by one, and when Haller came, K'rar asked him to send his regards to Morriffere, who lived in the same Hannish district.

Then K'rar went to the chambers where Bekka and Shaniz both slept, part of the main structure of lodgings. There were other busy bodies flooding the place, moving in all directions and yelling quick greetings to the Commandant when they passed him. K'rar's chambers were detached from these dormitories from the beginning. He found the ladies finishing to dress up in their civvies, and startled them by saying,

'Looking royal, eh?'

'K'rar,' Shaniz said, 'we were just talking about you.'

'Of course you were,' K'rar said slyly. He added, 'so, you are travelling by land?' K'rar asked them this because, like the recruits from Cauda, they did not have to sail for any real distance. Zadok was closer to the west coast, though, just away from the bay of Andria, so traveling by sea would make no sense as it would mean sailing around the continent. They would have to travel on land by crossing Cauda, into Allon-var and then the capital. K'rar himself would be heading to Iscalan on the ship of the same name with his many friends from the same area. The shorter route was actually via the Frozen Sea in the north rather than sailing to the Bovidian Sea on the south coast. Tuncay's Polemian would take Ettites, and it was heading in this direction too along with Fimronian and Andrian delegations.

'Where's the thrill in that?' Shaniz said, 'we're going with Admiral Bartle Frere on the October Pilgrim to the Blue Trench. Then we'll travel by land down to Zadok.'

'Okay, then. I'm taking that route too on the Iscalan. Later on.'

'Well, we're leaving in a few minutes time,' said Bekka. She came to hug him, and then she walked out with her things on her back in her large army bag. Their other things would have already been on the ship. Shaniz and K'rar were left alone, and Shaniz immediately said,

'I still want you to come to the palace for at least a week.'

'Tut, tut,' K'rar shook his head, and took her by the waist, 'you see, I have more than one family as it turns out. The king and queen have seen me many times in these years. But my southern family, not once.'

'Yeah, well, your wife will come from the northern one.'

'Hmm. Well, look. My southern family needs to see you. You know, for approval.'

'Well in two months they will.'

'So we're even, no?'

He kissed her passionately, and undid her ponytail, and said,

'Till we meet again.'

'Till we meet again.'

Now K'rar had also kept a hundred of his non-combatant experts, who also identified as Kaffrarian Knights. Qallio the metalsmith and Tanny the Polemian, who had that ship named after him, were part of them. He had let off all the others, but these hundred he had convinced to sail south with him, as the Kaffrarian Knights, K'rar knew, would not be the last of his military exploits. These men would continue to be employed under him, so they, too, would be on the southeast coast in Iscalan in September, and some with their whole families if they wanted. All the ships that weren't carrying home-going passengers, including all thirteen Behemoths and 48 of the 67 Stingers, would be sailed and docked at Iscalan for the entire length of the holiday. Their sailors would be from the south to make it easy for them to also visit their families. The Nephilim and some petty workers were assigned to take care of the vessels in their holiday. They would carry most of the military logistics and cargo with them, including all the Urdian attack eagles.

Now, many from the regiment had previously been homeless ones and orphans. The foremost of these was a Serpentine Division squad captain, Argus. He accosted K'rar on the beach of Wasp, where four Stingers including the October Pilgrim were moving out. K'rar was alone at a spot on the beach with his hound, Targa, waving to Shaniz on board the October Pilgrim.

'What is it Argus?' K'rar asked him. Argus was with about eight others.

'Commandant, we do not have homes to go to, so we want to come with you.'

'Well, I am staying here a bit longer, Argus. The Hananites and I are going on a fun run southeast for as long as we can, then we'll turn back toward the Bovidian.'

'We'll get your things and ours then,' said Argus, and he gesticulated to his friends the command to do just that. K'rar said,

'Very well, then. See you on the Iscalan.'

The Stinger was one of very few that hadn't already sailed away by afternoon that day. The Kaffraria was tranquil. The waves were once more louder than the human activity taking place on the beaches, especially the forging and artillery testing and morning exercises that the knights conducted while shouting songs. Only a few noises from knights who also wanted to exit later on, especially those who lived in Cauda, could still be heard. The Iscalan was boarded by only 61 of its 80 crew members, and about thirty other passengers, Hananites, including K'rar, Chio and Sarr, the brother of their village mate Ziha. On board was a single female called Hazael, also from Alhanan. She was a Serpentine Division expert archer, although the entire regiment had been turned into good archers, as K'rar always emphasized the advantage of taking the enemy from afar rather than on close quarters. The captain, Billiat, was also from Namsang village. He had been one of those on the beach when K'rar washed up. So many others who knew each other from I were here too. So an hour after noon, many of them were on the deck when one of the engine roomers came up and asked why the ship was still stationary. In reply K'rar began the secret adventure.

'Captain I,' he said, 'smooth seas…?'

'…don't make skillful sailors.'

'Then run us into a storm. Southeast, captain.'

'Aye, I,' I bowed. Then he bawled, 'who owns the seas?'

'King Nine-Nine!' everyone except K'rar yelled back.

'I said, who owns the seas?!'

'King Nine-Nine!'

'Who is king Nine-Nine?'

'You, I,' said I, 'you're the same king in the prophecy as in the fairy tale they used to tell us when we were small children.'

'I don't know about that fairy tale.'

'We're Iscalans, remember? We know that the first time you appeared there was your first time in Xaxanika.'

'King Nine-Nine was also a foreign king,' Chio began to explain, 'he was cast out of his kingdom when he was young, and in the foreign land he grew up, he was made an object by slave masters. He fought in fighting pits and arenas while gamblers made bets on him, was bought into the native king's courtyard, and became the main part of a wretched love story.'

'That is a horrible story. I prefer to remain king of the south.'

'Too late, Commandant,' said Billiat, 'many of us had already began to figure out that you could be who you confirmed this morning. You're King Nine-Nine, Commandant. The whole navy went home singing this.'

'Ah,' K'rar said, 'fine. Full steam ahead please, captain.'

The ship had supplies for as many as six days for this unscheduled voyage, so late in the evening when the Iscalan had travelled nine hours, they had travelled almost 650 kilometers into the sea going nowhere, but the ship wasn't stopped or turned. K'rar was with Billiat and Chio in the bridge when Billiat informed them of this, but K'rar said they should go on. It was a smooth sail in the dark night. There was not a single star in the heavens, nor the moon, so the Stinger dwelt on its own onboard lights to direct it, while a mapper carefully inked down the route. Six more hours, and late into the night, the sea was still as virgin as a midday sky. K'rar had since fallen into slumber, and so had the captain, who had handed over to his temporary first mate, Silas.

The sea remained this way all through the night and for the first part of the day, and at noon, the lookout yelled from the top to anyone on the deck who could hear,

'Storm! Storm!' he rushed to get on the rope and descend, still yelling, 'storm ahead, captain.'

But the captain wasn't seeing the slightest sign of a storm anywhere, so he said from the bridge while the lookout approached it,

'What storm, Homer? What storm?'

'It's very unusual, Captain, but you'll see it shortly. It's just standing in the sea by itself from one side to the other.'

'Huh, what's the matter with you Homer?' the girl, Hazael, said, tapping his shoulder, 'a storm standing in the sea?'

'It is. It is as frightening as it is fabulous,' said Homer, 'you can go up and see it yourself, or wait when we're within sight of it.'

'Oh, man,' Chio, who had just arrived, knew that Homer wasn't messing, 'he's not kidding. Call the Commandant. Now. He would know what this is.'

K'rar came racing to the deck. Many spectators were already gathered in the bow of the ship to catch sight of the stationary storm, as Homer was still describing it. When Chio received K'rar from below deck he said,

'You've described this kind of thing to us. Could it be…?'

'It is. It's exactly what it is,' he was racing to the bow of the ship to join the spectators, 'only, what is it doing here?'

As the ship sailed further and the horizon came closer, the cloud began to appear on the sea. K'rar was standing in the center of the crowd as all watched silently, waiting for him to declare a command. K'rar was squinting into the distance and pondering something. After a minute of this he said,

'Billiat. Keep going towards it. If it doesn't subside, prepare to stop just on the edge.'

'Right, sir.'

But the storm began to swiftly approach them instead. The air above them suddenly began to misbehave, and in a matter of minutes the ambience spelt real danger. Thick nimbus clouds rolled up above the ship, and the waters underneath welcomed them with a similarly threatening attitude. The knights on deck got into frantic activity to brace for the storm. K'rar and his captain imprisoned themselves in the bridge of the ship, where Chio and Hazael joined them after pulling up the windows on either side of the bridge. The Iscalan was getting closer to the vertical cloud ahead of them, which was now looking all too familiar to K'rar, although much rain and thunder and lightning were increasing this side of it unlike K'rar's final day in Korazin. Still, K'rar ordered Billiat to keep the ship sailing.

'This only means there might be land beyond that barrier,' he was yelling as the storm intensified. It was so dark the cloud wall was no longer visible, but the Stinger was rocking high and low on waves like a piece of floating ice, but was sustaining no damage. K'rar thought it was because they hadn't sailed into the storm's eye yet, so he prepared for worse.

But then, as quickly as the storm came, it vanished. The Iscalan slowly settled onto the calming water, and the light struck through and melted the dark clouds. Those in the bridge shared dumbfounded looks.

'Damn, Commandant,' Hazael said, 'the spirits must love you so much. Giants, Urdian eagles, and now even storms.'

'No kidding,' said K'rar. He was looking ahead of him into the sea. There was no vertical cloud barrier. When they checked the stern, there was nothing. Just clear sky and flat water surface. K'rar added, 'keep going until nightfall. If there's nothing by the fifth hour after dark, we gotta go back.'

'Yes sir,' Billiat said, and K'rar returned to the lower decks.

The Iscalan sailed on undisturbed, except for another minor storm three hours in. In the sixth hour, the assembly on the deck reconvened for something spectacular that wasn't a storm. Crew members standing port side saw it first, and heralded as before. This time it was ghostly or dangerous. They were watching a massive school of dolphins swimming alongside the Stinger, hopping along the water surface. This time, K'rar was the one seeing the species for the first time. After several minutes of watching them, he said,

'I want us to catch one on our return journey,' he then raised a brow. This indicated an idea had just popped in his head, 'hold on. I should take with me some of the indigenous animals south with me. What do you think, Billiat?'

'I don't see why not, Commandant. What animals are these, though?'

'Well, the Kaffraria's got some weird but beautiful birds, except the Urdians. There's brown bears, mountain lions, green pit vipers in Syene. Can't list them all. But I'm definitely taking a brown bear.' This animal's brute strength, size and efficiency fascinated him.

'We'll catch a couple before September, then, sir.'

'LAND!' Homer was even louder this time, 'Land ahead!' he was almost hysterical. It was the hour just before the sun sunk behind them into the sea. There was just enough orange sky to illuminate the expanse all the way to the land he was speaking about. Once more he descended via the rope around his waist and his thighs, yelling at Billiat's first mate, who was at the wheel. K'rar was also on deck. He was fencing against two of his soldiers with two weapons. When Homer first shouted land, the two soldiers were distracted, and K'rar punished them for it by felling both of them, saying,

'How can you look away from your opponent because someone saw a spider?' then he walked toward the bridge, where about ten crew and passengers were converged. Billiat simply had to jump up from his chambers under the bridge floor, while Homer was saying,

'Commandant, your voyage has paid fruit.'

It was the middle of the third day of sailing. The Iscalan had endured another vicious storm that it weathered without any damage the night before, and still K'rar had vouched for pushing on. Now on the horizon was wide coastline going far south on the sea. The Iscalan was approaching the land's northwestern tip, as the northern coastline was also visible from here. As they got closer to the land, more features became clear. This was barren coastline, only made of bamboo and dense vegetation. Some distance from the tip on this face of the land, a river was vomiting its waters into the sea, and when K'rar saw it he said,

'Get the logistics ready. Five on me. Uche, Damaris, Chio, Hazael, Ezio. Let's go check this place out. Bring Targa too.'

Uche was an expert tracker. He was the one calculating and mapping their movement. Damaris knew the forest, any forest, although K'rar had more experience in that. Hazael was the archer and also one of the ship's two physicians, and also her ladyship would be useful in sticky situations. Ezio was an expert at knives, and his logistics included a belt around him in which was tucked a load of knives for throwing. K'rar had chosen them with these attributes in mind. All five raced to the lower decks to change into appropriate clothing, which was nearly half of their Regiment uniform. Crewmen brought up the other logistics including Hazael's leather bag of medicines, K'rar's Nephilim sword and long boots, and his sky-blue Commandant's long, long-sleeved coat for con-combat situations, and his favorite shoulder bag. Unlike his subordinates, K'rar's badge was embroidered on the back of this coat and not on a shawl draped over the shoulders and across the back, and it was also bigger. He tied the gold-colored sash around the waist over the coat, and over this, his sword belt. They were all ready by the time the Iscalan stopped about a hundred meters from the earth, facing south. The wooden lifeboat they would use was to port. They dropped their logistics in it before it was lowered onto the waves, before they themselves descended into it on two rope ladders.

They would row the boat to a small strip of white sandy beach a few meters from the mouth of the river. They pushed it onto the sand and then stood on the sand for a moment and looked at each other. K'rar, who stood in the lead looking at the forest,

'I would give 100,000 peckles this land is apart from the rest of the world. Just as Moab and Xaxanika.'

'The gates of the earth are open,' Hazael quoted the passage from the Holy Writ. She had read the scroll about K'rar thoroughly, 'could it mean this? Discovering strange lands?'

'You think we'll find people, Commandant?' Chio asked.

'It is just over noon. Let's follow the river,' K'rar said. He started to run. They jumped into the forest like they were being pursued, and some were being competitive. The trees in this first part were spaced, the ground was dry and without too much undergrowth. K'rar ran the gauntlet diagonally, going right so as to meet the delta. They didn't stop running until they were there. This was no doubt one part of the delta of a large river. Across from it the bed was larger, as the trees were some distance away from it. But as K'rar and his team progressed, looking at and scrutinizing anything and everything, the forest hugged the river more, and they still had to navigate thick undergrowth. Aside from the fact that they were scouting a completely unknown landscape, there was nothing unusual about the forest, nor anything that would make a trained Kaffrarian Knight check his step. Still, the vegetation was something to study. Damaris was the first one to stop and say,

'Look. Look at this plant.' It was a mimosa. When he touched the leaves, they folded quickly in half along the midribs, and fell closer to the ground. All six of them bent over the plant, and at the end of this had disturbed all of it, while Hazael plucked about two inches of it from the earth and stuffed it in her bag. This wouldn't be the last weird thing they encountered, as they would run across an armadillo, huge long-nosed mice and another native species, a one-foot tall spotted flightless fowl moving in groups. Chio, who, like Hazael, carried with him bow and arrow, wanted to shoot one, but K'rar disallowed him. They followed the river further up. Somewhere the vegetation cleared, and then it hugged the river again. But the terrain was progressively getting precarious. They were going higher than they would have expected. There was no point on the banks where the river would allow to be crossed, although in full army mode they would have employed their amphibious techniques, as the current allowed it. After trekking for nearly two hours, they were now in a spot where the trees were so close to each other, and also away from the bank. The riverbed had pushed them away from it, and now they were walking along a ridge with a thirty foot slide across a dangerous, slippery formation of rocks. Here, they began to discern a louder torrent somewhere further up. It was an easy guess. A waterfall. At the Kaffraria there was such a sight on Black Poison, the fourth island. A small but powerful waterfall, squeezed between two faces of a bad canyon. Many soldiers enjoyed chilling there, but only to watch the water as it splashed into the canyon.

This waterfall was different. It was much larger and more majestic in its form. The forest now let them cut through some thick, four-foot shrubs to stand near the edge of a freshwater pool in which the waterfall dropped its white water some two hundred fifty meters across. The water was cascading across the face of a large cave formation, rising as high as more than fifty feet. The pool was large and circular, with clear, pure water, so that even the depth of the pool was determinable just by looking. Close to them the rocks at the bottom were visible, and there was no doubt that the pool was only a few feet deep. Hazael said,

'This is the most beautiful sight I've ever seen in my whole life.'

'Me too,' said Uche. He added, speaking to K'rar, 'Commandant, permission to have a swim in this water.'

'Oh, I am not leaving before I get a swim myself,' said K'rar. They were now standing on a narrow bed of dry rocks, with the water just barely touching their boots. Hazael put off her bag. She was attempting to undress. This was alright with her fellow soldiers. The knights, during training and coexistence for four years, had suppressed any qualms whilst cultivating great self-control. Uche followed her lead, but neither of them completely took off their uniforms, because K'rar and Chio spotted sudden movement across the pool, and ducked. Damaris and Ezio did this with their hands to their weapons.

'Hide!' K'rar said loudly, and one by one they stuck themselves in the vegetation behind them, while K'rar and Chio hid behind a rock large enough to conceal them from what now was the most spectacular sight so far. Behind them, their teammates were equally dumbfounded. Hazael was loudly saying,

'Well, there's a humdinger!'

What they were looking at would in no way have startled them on a normal day, because it was reasonably foreseeable that a group of eight children would come to a pool like this to swim and play. Except, these children's appearance would never have formed in the wildest imaginations of any of K'rar's soldiers, whether the ones with him or the ones back on the ship, or even anyone living in all the land of Xaxanika or Moab. These children were very dark-skinned. Their skins resembled, at best, wet, dark brown mud. The hair on their heads was black, which K'rar would have viewed as a relief if it wasn't so thick and hard that it grew upward from their heads instead of falling downward around the ear and down the neck. Whereas K'rar's and his team's hair covered the back of the neck and ear if not cut or tied, the black children's hair did not touch the ear at all, even when they were dipping themselves in the drink. Water seemed to have no effect on the hair. Also, the children, one of whom was and adult or adolescent at least five years older than any of his mates, had been dressed in the queerest garb K'rar and company had ever seen. They were bare-chested, only dressed in loincloths made of animal hides, most likely cattle. These had been removed and lined up on the dry before the children had jumped into the water. Their underwear wasn't the tight piece of elastic clothing that was worn normally in Xaxanika or Moab, but rather a heavier piece of cotton sash tied between and around the legs and waist. Some had pulled it off and dropped into the water stark naked, while others, like the older boy—all were male—had left it on.

Once K'rar had watched long enough, he decided he was going to take a closer look. He proceeded to take off his own outer coat to stuff it inside his bag, leaving his sleeveless Nephilim-designed dress. He wasn't dressed in half uniform like his comrades, although he wore Knights-grade watertight, knee-high boots.

'We need a closer look,' he said. They already knew what he was thinking and were preparing themselves accordingly. K'rar gestured something by pointing to the water and then touching his face with finger movement that called for amphibious approach. He led the way, by sliding into the drink chest-stroke. The black children were oblivious of this, even as all six snaked into the water quietly, headed for the deeper center, which would conceal them completely. The din from the waterfall served to their advantage. In the deeper water, they swam underwater for well over a minute, a technique that had been honed throughout all the training years. When they resurfaced, they didn't gasp for breath, and they were closer to the playing party, sticking only their noses above the water, but still far enough not to be spotted. They could actually swim all the way and surface just behind them. And that's what K'rar was thinking. He said to his men loudly, as the waterfall would still drown his speech from this distance,

'Let's give them a scare.' They looked at each other, smiling sinisterly, and dove again. The water was clean and clear, so they could make out the dancing legs of the swimmers up to twenty feet. Holding their breath still, they cut the distance to just six feet, and began popping up in a line. The water just behind them was flowing toward the outlet through the pool. From where they now stood, Hazael, the shortest, was standing straight in the water, while the males only had to buckle their knees a little to keep only their faces above the surface. They stayed like this for half a minute, and one of the kids spotted them. At first the kid flinched just a little, then he decided to absolutely make sure he was seeing faces, faces as light as the skin of a banana, some with wet mops of very, very soft hair covering their heads. Then he said something unintelligible and shrieked like a banshee, slapping himself out of the water. His colleagues just knew to follow him, even the older one, without bothering to see what had spooked him that much until they were clear out of the water. Two of the kids held on to the older one like glue, two others stood either side of him, and the other three including the one who had seen them first were standing far behind, grabbing their clothes very quickly and not willing, like their friends, to stand on the dry brown earth and look at the six heads watching them from the water. The older boy screamed more unintelligible incantations at K'rar and company, obviously cursing, and pushed away the kids around him to dress up. The boys were all between 12 and 19 years of age. Three of them bolted, one of them carrying his loincloth in hand. Then K'rar began to wade through the water, and so did his team. The boys who had stayed to watch now lost their brevity once the white-skinned men showed the rest of much of their bodies, and they, too, turned to show K'rar and company clean pairs of wheels, having frantically dressed themselves. K'rar yelled to the older boy, who took the tail to shield the younger ones, to halt, but obviously didn't expect him to stop.

When K'rar's team rushed out of the water to begin the chase, K'rar halted them.

'Leave them. They are bound to come back.' He unstrapped his copper-coated manicas, or armguards, shook them up, and tied them back on his arms.

'With many more friends,' said Chio, 'oh, man. This is about to get very interesting.'

'We'll follow their route. We'll dry on the way,' said K'rar. He was about to leave when he spotted something on the ground that the boys had left behind. A ring of pink and blue beads, clearly made to fit around the waist. He had never seen that kind of pearls.

'Look at these,' he said, 'another indigenous pearl.' He handed it to Chio, who stuffed it in his bag.

They then started to walk down the steep dust road. There was no forest on this side of the bank now although the trees were still numerous. Most of it grew on the other side. The boys had come up from a descending, dry road laden with soft rocks and gravel. It was wide, above what looked like a flood plain. There were two perceptible, very tall anthills against the backdrop of green foliage in the depression. The road turned left in a few meters, but as they walked down, it was clear the boys had instead detoured to a thin path next to a big bottle tree closer to them. K'rar took this path. Everything was silent and a bit eerie as they progressed. Soon, they realized that they were on the edge of a mountainous region of this land, because to their right, was a steep valley and an expansive savanna. There was still no sign of anyone nearby for another half-mile, but the path led them back onto the dust road, which was definitely not a barren road. Somewhere behind the deciduous trees to their left they could hear the smashing river torrent. To their right was just more savanna, and in another half-mile they made out signs of life on the savanna, not on the road.

'My God,' Damaris said, 'I thought it was a horde of bovines.'

They had stopped on the road and were looking down at the savanna, at a herd of cattle that could have easily numbered upwards of a thousand heads. And, these cattle were very different from their regular cattle, even those in K'rar's tropical Moab. The cattle, at least most of them, had very long horns. Nearly twenty men and dogs were supervising their grazing, stationed around the four sides of the herd. Two were standing on top of an anthill in the heart of the herd.

'This must be their way of life. Herding,' said Chio, 'I've never seen that many heads of cattle.'

'Well, it's better than most, I tell you,' said K'rar, 'Goldorans inculcate in their children the value of hating "lesser" nations and bending them to their will. K'rar added, 'let's go to them. These won't run away.'

But they did not need to do this, because down the dust road, a party of more than eleven men, led by the older boy from the pool, had just appeared. Chio said,

'He did come back. With armed men.'

Some of the men with the young man were carrying short stabbing spears, and others sickle-shaped weapons, and others, regular spears. They were dressed like the herders in the field. The same style of dressing, although the fabric was different, varying between animal hide and cotton, and perhaps another material. They all wore loincloths of these. One piece wrapped around either one or both shoulders, around the body, culminating in seamed skirts just under the knees. One striking characteristic of this people was their staggering height. Even the boy coming with them was tending to an average of six feet. His companions were all as tall as six feet three inches, and up.

At first the group stood far from K'rar and company, who were standing in the road to wait for them, to confirm with their own eyes what they obviously thought was a deluded story when the young man had first told them. But then the other seven kids had verified the rumor, and had sent back the older boy with this detective party. At least two of these had either bald hairstyles or very short hair. One had an overgrown, but neat, bush of a beard around his face. Once their scrutiny was complete, they resumed their march toward K'rar, brandishing their weapons. K'rar's men drew their own weapons owing to the menacing way in which the black turds were approaching. K'rar ordered them to return their weapons in their sheaths immediately. He raised his hand and said to the men three meters away,

'We come in peace. Peace.'

The men looked at each other once more. They spoke some things in their language, which sounded very much like a series of difficult incantations to summon the gods in the spirit realm, or like a bunch of curses. Then the one with a thick beard and larger muscles stepped forward. K'rar emphasized peace once more,

'We mean no harm.'

The man opposite him just remained indifferent, looking serious and harsh. From this distance K'rar could now make out that all of them wore beads around their ankles, as well as several of them on their arms. K'rar said,

'Do you understand what I'm saying?'

The man frowned at him. He was still taking his time to study the color of K'rar's skin. His eyebrows were thick. They accentuated his threat level when he frowned. He moved his short spear and pointed at K'rar's weapons, clearly in response to K'rar's peace rant. He did understand the common tongue. K'rar said,

'So you do understand what I'm saying then?'

After another unnecessary frown, the large turd spoke. In the common tongue, but with an exotic accent and poor construction,

'You carry panga, and come in peace?'

Panga obviously meant K'rar's sword. K'rar said,

'We're soldiers, so we always carry weapons. But they're not for you. We came on a ship, and we have never seen this land before. So perhaps we ought to greet one another in peace.'

'Soldiers? Of what land? How do you come from forest? Why is skin yellow?'

'And what is ship?' one of his mates joined him. K'rar looked back at his men behind him to see if they were wearing the same expression as him. He said,

'A ship? A ship is a…a big boat,' he gestured with his hand to illustrate a large vessel, hoping they did at least have boats for fishing, 'we came from a far-off island called Xaxanika. And we are as surprised as you are that we are of different color. So, what is this land? Where are we?' The two men once more looked at each other again. The bearded one said,

'You are in Tshekaland. We are Tshekala.'

'Tshekala.'

'Yes. Now, you come with us. We go to chief. You speak with him about large boat. If you are lying, if you are enemy, you die.'

K'rar shrugged in concurrence.

'That would be great. I like the idea. My name is K'rar, by the way. What is your name?'

'K'rar,' said the bearded one, 'I am Agogo.'