As Akira and his other allies were traveling south Varbu and Gobbers had gathered several small scouting teams and had sent them out to explore the entire area around Kodria. They took an artist along with them to draw the areas they passed onto a canvas.
The reason? The Goblin and Orc tribes had already doubled in size since they had first reached Foradverold even with the many deaths they suffered.
With the new main mission starting a race to claim land and Kodria’s population expanding faster than they could build new houses, Akira thought it was time to expand Kodria’s presence out even farther than the cramped outer city.
Since the south was very inhospitable the majority of the year, there were no local abandoned cities, towns, or forts that they could occupy like in the north.
The many different demon race cities in the south were few and far from each other, some not even having a fixed spot as they lived a nomadic life.
The southern cities may not be as active or prosperous as the northern cities or Kodria but one thing they did hold above the others, was they were strong and hardy people who were able to persevere through the harsh winters.
The areas that the artist were drawing would be used by the group of grand elders, orc chiefs, prince Gobbers, and princess Gobalina to decide on where any of the new settlements and forts would be erected when the warm months arrived.
They were moving as quickly as they could to explore all of the nearby lands because the warm months were almost upon them.
The dwarven miners in the large quarry were back in full production mode as they mined large chunks of stone for the new expansions and plans to update Kodria’s outer city as well as the east and west river forts and the south lake fort.
When the needed stone for Kodria’s upgrades was met, they would have to work on gathering the stone that would be used for future settlements and forts.
***
As the large caravan of werewolves moved south, Akira was able to see the map update the areas they passed clearing up foggy areas, while renewing information about old areas he had been to in the past.
During the trip south, he encountered many groups of humans with their own small caravans traveling out to reclaim their lost towns and villages that had been abandoned for over a year due to the plague.
Each time they met one of these caravans Akira passed on the warnings about the demigods possibly taking over their village, and he was continually amazed at the lack of concern that they showed towards the warnings, some even viewed it as a good thing.
Other than Jerora which had transformed from a decent-sized walled-off tradepost to a bustling city, there were only a few towns that took their warnings seriously.
The many deserted towns that they passed was surprising even though enough time had passed to allow the survivors to come back and claim it once again.
Because everyone had a sled as well as the sturdy elks to pull them, the caravan had covered far more distance than Akira thought was possible in the short time they had been traveling south.
As a new day dawned Akira led his guards to scout ahead of the main body to make sure there were no ambushes along their path. There had been only a few attackers on the caravan which had been made up of starved monsters due to the majority of their prey having been killed off by the Cult of Science’s Molten Onyx plague.
They had already passed Jerora and were now entering Kaldrbiod. They only saw a few abandoned towns this far south. The former residents had either given up reclaiming them or had all been wiped out.
After several hours of travel, Grarr stopped in front of a simple-looking stone fort’s gates and sniffed the air along with Fluffball and Akira.
The walls were rather tall and were thick enough that they showed no sign of wear and tear from the rough winter weather. The scents of any living person that might have occupied this fort were long gone.
While Akira checked the new dukedom map and the new places that had been revealed, Klyn checked the crude map Akira had been drawing along the travel south and compared it to an old professionally drawn map.
“This area is pretty barren. It’s like a no-man’s land from here to Kodria, there is nothing else between them,” said Klyn after studying the updated markings that Akira had just made.
“Do you think we should take over this fort and station some soldiers here?” asked Akira.
“It’s pretty far from Kodria or Jerora… that could lead to problems,” said Klyn, trying to accurately measure the distance on the crude map.
“If we have a strong enough force here we could at the very least use it as an advanced warning post and at most a temporary block to stop any forces that want to try and invade the south easily. It would also be easier for us to send help to Jerora if they ever need our help.”
Klyn had to agree that the idea had merits as the fort blocked the easiest and most well-kept road to the south.
The road was one of the main reasons the caravan was able to keep up such a fast speed through the wild untamed snowy wilderness. Although now it was pretty much just a narrow path that disappeared after a few days’ travel past the fort.
“If you want to take control of the fort, then we should claim it now!” said Zundar.
Akira thought for a moment before rummaging through his bag and pulling out a spare flag of Kodria.
“Zundar, I’ll need your help,” said Akira.
“With my strength, it’s no problem,” said Zundar flexing his muscles for a few seconds.
“Yap!” shouted Fluffball, running around Akira wanting to join in on the fun!
Akira hung his shield on his back and sheathed his sword before jumping off of Grarr’s back right at Zundar.
Zundar held both of his hands out in front of him like a step and caught Akira. His two muscular arms rippled as he launched Akira up through the air right towards the top of the fort’s walls.
As Akira landed on top of the wall his feet slipped out from under him and he fell on top of something which let out a loud crack as his heavily armored body smashed into it.
“Yap?” asked Fluffball.
“Akira? What was that sound? Did you break a bone?”
“No, I’m fine!” said Akira as he rolled over onto his knees to stand back up.
He looked down to see what he had landed on… It was a skeleton.
He didn’t know what had happened to the person or this fort’s former owners, but that did not matter at this moment as this was now going to be the most northern territory of Kodria.
After gaining his footing on the slippery stone wall he walked over to the old flag pole sticking out from the roof of the stone gatehouse.
Whatever flag used to fly on the flagpole was no longer anywhere to be seen.
With quick movements, Akira was able to secure Kodria’s flag to the aged flag pole and hoist it high above the guardhouse and the fort.
“Yap!” said Fluffball as he saw the flag flying high in the wind.
“Can you open the gates Akira? I want to get out of the wind while we wait for the rest of the caravan,” said Klyn.
“I’ll see what I can do,” said Akira as he searched for stairs leading to the ground.
When he reached the door of the gatehouse he had no problem getting inside as the door was already slightly ajar with a decent amount of snow piling up inside where the crack in the open door was.
On the right wall of the gatehouse was a large metal crank with thick chains and metal bars. It looked like it would need several regular humans to pull it to raise the gate.
In the nearby corner of the room was another skeleton.
A black misty light appeared around Akira as he fully transformed, growing taller and more muscular.
With his clawed hands, he grabbed onto two of the metal bars that stuck out and started to pull and press down with all his strength. A loud suborn creak was heard as the rusty contraption started to slowly move.
Akira kept pulling and grabbed onto the next metal handle continuing to pick up speed.
“We’re in!” shouted Klyn near the door of the gatehouse.
Akira held onto the crank with one arm and reached out towards a nearby lever and pulled it down to lock the wheel in.
“Yap!” said Fluffball greeting Akira as he exited the gatehouse.
“Is it me or does this fort give off an odd feeling to you guys?” asked Klyn.
Akira took a first look at the entire inside of the fort and found that all but a few stone buildings that were built into forts walls, were broken down littering the ground and covered in snow.
“There are a few dead skeletons left from who knows when. It might be those things giving off an odd vibe,” said Akira.
Fluffball came back to Akira after sniffing around one of the dead skeletons, not taking any interest in them.
The sound of constant crunching snow and slick metal runners on snow reached their ears. They all climbed onto the top of the wall and watched as the caravan made their way down the path towards the fort.
Dùghall and Brod rode out ahead of the group when they saw Akira and the others standing atop the fort’s wall.
“You picked a good place to stop. We’ll stay here for the night to allow everyone some rest,” said Dùghall with a raised eyebrow as he looked at the flying Kodria flag.
