He yelped in retaliation. "With the surge of new recruits, and at the amazing speed the fort is being built at, the rations are wearing down fast. Everyone's doing their part, and in return expect to be fed and sheltered."

"You're right." I turned my back to the Kobold and sighed. "I'll start making arrangements to get more food immediately. Thank you."

The kobold barked and went downstairs.

I went into the main room and stared at the gigantic map on the center table. I took a seat and placed my head in my hand.

I could head to Ryube and see if they had anything. It'd be about a days journey, but it was risky. If they didn't have anything to spare, that'd be a good day wasted.

I could send word to Ridley, but that'd could take a week. They'd starve to death, and God only knows how the hell Ridley would act. We'd wait for weeks to get a message back saying, "Oh come on, surely you must have some rations" and nothing attached to the message.

The other option was Radat. With all the trading and ships going in and out, they'd most likely to have the food that our fort desired. It'd be a two day journey though. And getting the food up here would require a few soldiers or horse. Since we don't have any horses.

The next problem was money. Potch had been tight, and any money collected after defeated monsters instantly went into "the fund". We had about ten-thousand potch after the crystal exchange given by Ridley. An extra thousand after the monsters (the monsters around here didn't drop ANYTHING). Question is, how much to spend? And how much would last?

I pushed the map off the table and laid my head down on the table. It had been three years since my skills were needed. A little longer than that if I was put into leadership by anything. In fact, the last time I truly lead in a war was before Odessa's death.

I hate leading. I'm no leader. I'm a soldier, not a hero. I take orders, I don't give them. That's something I learned early on in the game. There were leaders, and then there were followers. Call it diffusion of responsibility, if you will. I just do not lead. It sorta makes you wonder why I even took this deal in the first place.

Viktor's the same way. Of course, he's got the brains of granite sometimes, so he probably couldn't lead his way out of a paper bag that has a hole in the bottom.

"Viktor? Flik? You guys in here?"

I lifted my head. "Gnuh? Who?" There was darkness all around.

"Is that you, Flik?" The voice repeated again.

I must have fallen asleep. "Yeah, it's me." I rubbed my eyes. The door that was opening was leaking light into the room, so I went towards it. "Who is it?"

"It's me, Pohl."

I stepped out of the dark room and into the hallway. The fort was lit by torches. I went over to one and took it out of its holster.

Pohl looked at me with absolute terror in his eyes. "What're you gonna do with that?!"

I looked at him, holding the torch. "I'm gonna burn this place down."

The look Pohl gave me was one that he'd give if his mother had been shot in front of him. "Wh..wh..wh..why?" He stuttered.

I shook my head as I went back into the meeting room. I lit the two torches on each side, thus illuminating the room. I went back and put the torch back in its holster. "What are you doing up, Pohl? It's late."

Pohl didn't say a word, look frozen on his face.

"I'm not going to burn the fort down, okay? It was a joke. J-O-K-E. You think I'm gonna let anyone or anything burn down my fort?"

Pohl exhaled. I couldn't believe this kid took me as being serious. "Well, the sleeping quarters is pretty tight," he started to explain. "There are a few people snoring and I couldn't get to sleep. I decided to take a walk."

I picked up the map that I had pushed off earlier and placed it back on the table. I sighed as I tried to think where Pohl could sleep without getting disturbed. "You wanna sleep in my room? I've got some more work to do, and I'm probably just gonna fall asleep here on the table again."

"Naw, that's okay." He shrugged. "I'm gonna go back to the dormitory, just gotta get sleepy first."

I nodded. The conversation was at a standstill, so I sputtered out something. "Have we tapped into a water supply around here yet?"

"Yeah, there's one just outside of the fort actually. The plumbing will be around there." Pohl nodded his head.

Another awkward pause.

"Well, I'll just sorta get going," Pohl said, heading out.

"Pohl."

He froze.

"You must have had some reason to come in the fort at this late an hour. Now do you plan on telling me?" It didn't make sense that the kid would come all this why, barge into a dark room, as if we were awake and then just leave.

He turned around and looked at the ground. "Why'd you insist on being the leader of the merc for that day in Two River?"

The hell? Talk about irony. I swear, its as if someone was reading my thoughts or something.

"Cause." Was the only word that I could utter.

"Because why?"

"Cause." I repeated. "It's my duty."

Pohl looked right at me. "Duty to who? Duty for what?"

I moved my head back a little. "Duty to Jowston, I guess."

Pohl nodded. "I thought so." He walked out and closed the door behind him. He didn't even say goodbye.

What a weirdo, that kid Pohl.

"How much for 50 boxes of rations?" I looked at the trader.

He was a crafty one, this guy. These sailor types were all the same; usually up to no good, always trying to find ways to benefit themselves. I never trusted one of them. Acting all big and tough, but when it comes down to a real fight, they're the first ones to run away with their tail in-between their legs (no offense to any Kobolds).

The guy I had walked up to had a boat FULL of boxes, probably heading down to the Toran border to do some trading. I first asked him if he had all these boxes so he could go down to Toran to trade. He reluctantly said "yeah". I asked him if it was food. "Yeah".

So then I asked him: "How much for 50 boxes of rations?"

"How are you and those dopey guys of yours gonna move 50 boxes of food?"

The moment before this, I had, for the first time in a long time, a stroke of luck. Another trader had stopped off at the merc fort this morning, right before I left. He had heard about the fort and was leading a team of ten horses. He wanted to join up and give us the horses as a sign of good faith.

Who was I to argue? Not only that, but we have cavalry now too for battles.

So, I, along with four other guys, rode the horses down to Radat, making it a much easier ride.

"We've got horses. They're right outside the gate."

"How much potch you gonna pay?" He took the piece of hay out of his mouth.

"How much you gonna make trading?"

"It's two-thousand potch per box."

Okay, I knew he was trying to rip me off. "You're expecting me to pay you one-hundred thousand potch? Sorry I asked." I turned my back to the guy and started to walk away.

"Wait."

I smiled with my back towards him.

"I mean two-hundred. Two-hundred potch per box."

It was still a bit of a rip-off, at least by "the fund" standards. "Look, I'll make a deal with you. Five-thousand potch for fifty boxes. That's one-hundred potch per box. You'll get to Toran faster too, since your boat won't be as bogged down. Deal?"

The fisherman spat in the water. "Deal".

Something didn't seem right. Boatsman were NEVER this easy to barter with. Something was fishy. "Okay, good. Let's just see what we've got for food in these boxes, all right?"

The sailors eyes bulged. "Uh... There's no need to that."

"Why?" I stabbed my sword in one of them and ripped it open. Sure enough, it was full of fur. "I thought so." I turned around and pointed my sword at the sailor. "You didn't have any food at all. All you were trading were raw goods."

"Now ,wait just a second." The sailor started to back out of his boat. "There's some misunderstanding here."

"Misunderstanding indeed! You just tried to rip us off! I should hack off your head right here and now!" I pointed my sword at his throat. "What were you thinking, trying to fool a bunch of mercs, huh?" I shouted at him.

"Don't kill me, please!"

I gave him a face that would scare a bulldog. "I want rations, and I want them NOW!"

"Look. I've got another shipment coming in today. One-hundred boxes of food, directly from Toran." The man started to shake. "You can have them all, just don't kill me, I beg of you!"

Dammit. One-hundred boxes of rations absolutely free, and no one to take them there. We only had ten horses. Five surely would exhaust them, ten would probably kill them. Unless we took several trips.

"Okay. We're gonna wait for you until the shipment comes in. When it does, me and five other guys are gonna take twenty-five boxes to the fort. When we get back, the other guys are gonna go. We're gonna rotate until all the rations are back at the fort." I got in the guys face. "That also means that you can't wuss-out and think you can get away with this. We're gonna stay with you until each ration is in our possession. Got it?"

"Yes."

The guy was right this time too. A shipment of 100 boxes of food directly from Toran came into the dock. I sent five guys with boxes back to the fort, while me and four others stayed with the sailor. We rotated like that, until we had all the boxes.

Not only did we get a cavalry unit that day, we got 100 boxes of food for free. That was damn cool.