Chp.35: Freeing the lizardmen

If Darbi had to go to the labor camp alone, it would have taken him less than half an hour to reach it from the place where he had hidden the ships, since a dragon could run with incredible speed and possessed extraordinary endurance. However, this was not the case for the newcomers. While beastmen possessed greater endurance than other newcomers such as humans and elves, they still could not run at great speeds for long distances without bursting their hearts. Therefore, based on the maximum pace of the newcomers and assuming that they would have very little weight on them thanks to the dimensional bags, and adding to the equation also the various obstacles that were along the way, Darbi had estimated that they would reach the field of work in about three hours. However, he was happy to discover that he had been wrong: they managed to make that journey in just two hours and twenty minutes. Darbi didn't know if it was because the beastmen were highly motivated or if he had simply miscalculated, but he didn't mind either way. The sooner they came, the sooner they finished, the sooner they could go back and he could be reunited with his family.

The group stationed itself on a rocky hill located not far from the labor camp. From there it was possible to see the lizardmen working all the time, though slower than Darbi remembered (since there were hardly any guards to scold them if they dared slow down), carrying the stones and stacking them on top of each other to keep going. build the huge fortress they had been building for more than a year. Darbi heard the lizardmen with him growl in anger, but luckily they were able to hold back. They were probably already anticipating the moment when they would plunge their blades into the bodies of their people's tormentors.

His eyes darted across the field, making a quick calculation. The guards were exactly as expected and apparently they were all where he expected them to be. That was flattering. "Very well. All teams proceed to their assigned points. Wait for my signal, and then tear these bastards to pieces"

The beastmen nodded vigorously; the first two teams walked away, while the third remained alongside Darbi. The dragon looked at Misune: "Go, enter the building where they keep the children and make sure that no one enters or leaves. I'll come and call you when it will be all over"

Misune wanted to reply with 'you already told me, I'm not deaf', but she knew Darbi was just genuinely concerned about her, so she avoided commenting. After all, sometimes being kind also meant ignoring too much concern from the others. "All right. Good luck" she said to the dragon, then she walked away of her own before he could reply.

She had no problem approaching the labor camp. She didn't know how to use the invisibility rune (she wasn't even sure she could do it since Haku had mentioned that it required enormous concentration) and even less possessed the stealth skills of the dragons, but nevertheless she was able to sneak in undisturbed thanks to the combination of several factors. The first, of course, was that with so few guards there was very little security, also because no one would have thought that anyone would try to enter the camp rather than escape. The second was her clothing: Misune in fact wore a hooded cloak that replicated the brownish color of the surrounding landscape, thanks to which she camouflaged herself extraordinarily well. Haku had done it on purpose to allow her to hide in cases of danger. Finally, Misune in the course of her life as a slave had learned how to be ignored: depending on the movements or noise made by a person, in fact, the others could or couldn't notice their presence. Misune knew how to move quickly and quietly enough to not be seen, which combined with her camouflage cloak and poor surveillance allowed her to enter the camp undetected.

When she arrived in front of the building Darbi had pointed out to her, she crept even closer. The windows were open and from within them she could smell different scents that when she was young she had smelled in various shops in his hometown, a sign that various manufacturing activities were taking place inside that building. She peered very cautiously out the window and saw dozens and dozens of children, crammed into a room far too small for all of them, standing around several long tables, each of them working on something different. All of them had a collar of submission and they didn't dare to raise their head from their work. Some made ropes, others put together wooden beams, others cleaned used tools, others made hammers, nails and other things suitable for building. All of them showed clear signs of malnutrition and had large dark circles under their eyes, a sign that they were subjected to truly inhumane conditions. From how dirty they were, Misune wasn't even sure they had ever been washed.

That sight made her rage rise, but she was able to contain herself when she noticed a large man moving between the tables. He looked rather bored, but he had a riding crop in his hand and didn't hesitate to poke the children on the fingers if they slowed down. They looked at him fearfully and he stared at them in extreme disgust. Misune understood immediately that he couldn't attack the man directly. He was much bigger than her and would easily overwhelm her. No, she had to be smarter.

She moved away from the window and hid in a secluded spot, and there she drank an entire bottle of dragon's essence. Suddenly she felt her body suffuse with new energy, as if her strength had increased many times over. It was the first time she felt so powerful. However, she didn't let it go to her head: she knew that, even in her current state, the man probably still surpassed her, or in any case facing him would have been a difficult challenge. She therefore took off her camouflage cloak and hid it in a dimensional bag that she wore at her waist, revealing a rather nice (even if not much refined) dress that showed off her feminine body. Then she walked to the door and opened it, entering the building.

When she opened the door the children didn't turn to look at her, but she could clearly feel their gazes on her. Having been a slave herself in the past, she knew they were trying to find out who had slipped in unnoticed, or they would be punished for being distracted from work. The man, on the contrary, dropped his bored expression and looked at her somewhat confused. "Who are you?" he asked. He was evidently not used to seeing many women in the labor camp, at least not women who possessed human features.

Misune walked over and made a small half bow, pretending to be very submissive. "Excuse me, are you in charge of this place?"

"Currently yes. There is no one else after all" the man grumbled. "Anyway, you didn't answer my question"

"Yes, yes, you are right! Forgive me!" Misune exclaimed pretending to be nervous, blushing and sweating slightly. As expected, the man's grip on his riding crop loosened a lot at the sight: the more submissive she showed, the less he would consider her a danger. "I, uh… I'm officer Zember's… servant. He sent me to deliver this to you" she said, handing him a folded piece of paper (which of course was actually blank).

Zember was the name of one of the lowest-ranking officers, so it was likely he was the one Carrion had left behind at the labor camp. Misune had made sure to memorize as much as possible about that field before embarking on this mission, so she assumed that person was probably still there. And apparently she was right: the man seemed to believe her immediately. "Oh, I hope it's a shift change notice. I'm tired of being around these brats" he said, lowering his riding crop and approaching her without any caution to take the paper. "Let's see what..."

He didn't have time to say anything else. Misune was holding out the paper to him with her right hand; as soon as the man's fingers touched the piece of paper, her left hand moved and grabbed his arm. Summoning all her strength and that offered by the magic potion she had drunk a moment before, she dragged the man towards her; and as she did so, her right hand dropped the note and then darted toward his neck, and the wyrm's infamous sting emerged from the sleeve of her dress and plunged through the man's neck through and through. The man gasped and tried to fight back, but the wyrm's poison quickly took effect and he stopped breathing in just few moments. His body fell to the ground with a thud and never moved again.

'Letting down your guard in the presence of a stranger. What an idiot' was the only thought Misune had as she pulled the stinger out of the man's neck. Showing weak and defenseless was really a trump card. Maybe she should have trained to make better use of it.

She looked up and met the frightened eyes of the children; many of them had huddled together and seemed to be paralyzed with terror. Well, surely the way she introduced herself wasn't the best way to curry favor with them. "Be calm! I'm a friend! I've come... we've come to free you" she said. "Here, I'll show you"

Misune pulled a nullification rune from her dimensional bag and aimed it at the children, then she activated it. In an instant, the collars of submission that held them imprisoned went out and fell to the floor as if they were normal objects. The children rubbed their finally free necks, reddened after several months of wearing the collars, and realized that they had fully recovered the ability to move freely. Their gazes became a strange mixture of confusion, fear and happiness.

Suddenly a roar was heard outside the building. The children screamed in fright again, clearly fearing it was some dangerous beast, but Misune reassured them, "Don't worry! That's just a signal from my... friend! My companions will free your parents and then we'll take you far away, where you'll be safe! Just... stay in the center of the room and don't go near the windows, alright?"

The children clearly didn't trust her, as was to be expected since she was a complete stranger, but they obeyed her nonetheless. Probably since they were in an unfamiliar situation, obeying an adult was the only thing that occurred to them to do. Misune leaned slightly out the window and saw the guards being hacked to pieces by the beastmen; Darbi ran from side to side, using the invisibility rune to disappear and reappear at will, killing as many enemies as possible. The captive lizardmen were clearly frightened by this sudden attack, and most of them were obviously trying to get away from the battlefield, but some of them instead grabbed spades or hammers and ran at the guards, smashing their heads and helping the beastmen. Before long, more and more lizardmen joined the fight, and those left behind began cheering them on.

All the guards died in the end. All the three teams of soldiers got together with Darbi and talked something, probably to tell him they were done with the job. The dragon raised his head and sniffed the air, then he nodded as if to confirm that there were no more humans alive in the entire labor camp. After that the beastmen began to use more nullification runes to free the lizardmen from their chains, and many of them rushed to wreak havoc on the bodies of the dead guards as soon as they were free. Despite witnessing that scene, however, Misune didn't move and didn't make the children move: the situation was very delicate, therefore she had no intention of unnecessarily putting them in danger. She would leave when Darbi came for her.

The dragon came to her after a few minutes. With him there were also many lizardmen who had already been released, evidently eager to immediately embrace their children again. Seeing this, Misune finally opened the door and let the children out in an orderly manner. As soon as they were outside and saw their parents approaching, the children's faces filled with joy and they ran towards them, literally jumping into their arms. It was a really touching scene, and Misune couldn't help but shed a few tears. Even some of the beastmen soldiers were blowing their noses in emotion as they saw this.

However, Misune's happiness was short-lived. It ceased as soon as she noticed that a small handful of children had remained beside her and were looking around as if searching for something. Finally one of them, who must have been no more than five years old, turned to her and asked: "Dear lady, where is my mother?"

Misune felt his heart sink at those words. "Well… they're probably still releasing her. Or she is in another camp. You'll meet again…sooner or later" she answered trying to sound convincing. She didn't have the courage to tell the children that their parents had probably died of fatigue or been killed by the guards.

Darbi approached her. Clearly he had heard her words: there was no way he hadn't since he had the powerful hearing of dragons. The children clung to Misune in fear, clearly thinking that the dragon wanted to eat them, but Darbi smiled at them and said, "Don't worry, I just want to talk to her"

The children's eyes widened. "The lizard speaks!" one of them exclaimed. Darbi blanched at being called 'lizard' and put on such a shocked expression that he appeared to be in the throes of intestinal trouble. That scene was so comical that Misune couldn't help laughing and even the children, despite their fear, giggled a little.

"I'm not a lizard!" Darbi snapped. "I'm a dragon! Keep that in mind!"

"A dragon?". One of the children's eyes widened. "So you want to eat us?"

Darbi realized that perhaps his had been a bad choice of words. "Of course not! I'm a... good dragon. Yes, just like there are good and bad people, there are good and bad dragons. And I'm friends with this woman here"

The children looked confused. They had clearly never heard of good dragons; in the stories their parents had told them the dragons were always the antagonists. Not knowing what to think they looked at Misune, who replied with a smile: "Don't worry, he's really a good dragon. Let me talk to him, then let's go find your parents, okay?"

The children nodded and moved away a little. When they could talk in private, Darbi said to Misune: "You probably already know this, but those children will never see their parents again. There is a mass grave nearby and I can smell a very similar smell to theirs in there, a sign that the their families are there"

Misune's expression darkened. "I know. I'm just... waiting for the right moment to tell them"

"As you like" Darbi said. "I'm going to get the bodies of those poor souls, so when the time comes these people can give them a proper burial. You look for someone who can take care of these children. I don't know, ask around if they have any friends or know anyone. You have half an hour, and then we leave. Those who you cannot entrust to anyone will be your responsibility until we return to the ships, then we will look for a solution there"

Misune nodded. She was thankful that Darbi bothered to recover the bodies of the dead, although she was sure that he did it more because Haku ordered him to (since he didn't want to leave the slightest trace, since officially all the bodies had been burned due to the epidemic) rather than out of any real regard for them. After all, dragons, including Darbi, didn't really understand the use of funerals and burial rituals; for them there was only life and death, and the dead certainly didn't complain about the place where they were left. But still, Misune felt a sense of gratitude. She spent the next half hour wandering the field, looking for anyone who knew at least one of the children. Luckily, she found quite a few: uncles, older brothers and sisters, family friends, or even just acquaintances who wanted to help out. To avoid protests, she told the children that their parents were in another camp and therefore, at least for the time being, they had to stay with those people. When Darbi returned and the beastmen had finished clearing the camp completely, there were only about ten children left without anyone to look after them, so when they set out they traveled together with Misune, who carefully counted them every half hour to make sure that nobody got lost.

The return journey was longer than the outward journey, since there were now many more slow-moving people (children, old people, cripples, etc.), but after about three and a half hours they finally reached the ships. The lizardmen in more critical conditions were immediately brought on board and entrusted to the healers, who immediately began to take care of them. One by one, all the lizardmen were loaded onto the ships, which set sail immediately after everyone was aboard. Even though it was a bit tight, there was enough room for everyone.

Darbi withdrew for almost ten minutes, then when he returned he brought good news: "I spoke to Gord and Brenno, and they confirmed to me that they also successfully liberated the other labor camps! I also contacted Haku, so I can tell you: we have won! Our companions defeated Carrion's army!"

On the ship the beastmen erupted in cheers of jubilation. As the sun began to set, finally after a long time the lizardmen ended the day as free people, not prisoners. And they couldn't be happier about it.