With an agreement now reached with the surviving nomadic werewolf clans living in the Ancient clan caves, the next phase of the plan could now begin.
“This and that cave are the only ones we have been able to keep fully maintained with our small forces,” said elder Rusty as he pointed to two positions on a crudely drawn map of the territory.
“We will have to scout out the remainder, as it has been some time since we checked on them. It shouldn’t be too bad since we have made sure to keep away large pacts of monsters and other tribes of demon races away from our territory,” said Nurm, a nomadic clan leader.
“There is no need to fret about that. We are well-versed in hunting down monsters and delving into dungeons. While we clear out and clean up the caves, I will leave Delgar and his assistants to discuss the fortification plans with you. I trust their knowledge on the subject as they have helped build Kodria and several other large cities that are still thriving. When I finish cleaning up the caves, I’ll join you to see what plans you cooked up,” said Akira as he stood up and nodded to each of the elders around the table before exiting the meeting room with Fluffball.
In a nearby small cavernous room, Zundar and the royal guards were silently waiting. As soon as they heard footsteps nearing the room, they shot to their feet and were saluting Akira as he entered the room.
“So…?” asked Zundar, wanting to know how the discussions had gone.
“You and you,” said Akira, pointing to two random Royal guards. “Follow the same path we took here and inform the expedition force that we have completed our mission. Once everything has been situated at the shoreline camp, we need them to start working on the road so that they can send workers and supplies here to start construction of the allied forces’ main base and other fortifications.”
“What about the rest of us?” asked Zundar.
“We have some spring cleaning to do,” said Akira.
“YAP!” said Fluffball.
“Oh? What type?” asked Zundar.
“The dangerous type,” said Akira.
“My favorite,” said Zundar, slamming his fists together.
***
“There are so many caves to clean up, which ones are we doing first?” asked Zundar.
“We should start at the outer edges since they will be the hardest to clean due to being the farthest away with little traffic around them to scare off any monsters,” said Akira as he looked at the map of the known clan cave system.
“I saw some of the caves around here, and they are pretty big… we have our work cut out for us,” said Zundar.
“The caves near the center are all big enough to hold several thousands of clansmen, the caves on the edges are more for holding smaller factions or military forces,” said Akira as they walked to the first small cave that needed to be cleared.
Standing outside the entrance of the cave, Akira could smell the odor of wild beasts along with the sound of rustling hooves and snorting, alerting to creatures that were occupying the cave.
From both the sound and the smell, Akira had an idea what was occupying the cave, and he slowly inched his way into the cave to not be noticed by the creatures.
“Jackpot,” muttered Akira as he looked into the pigsty mess of a cave.
Silently, he pulled out several sets of rope and waved for Zundar to come closer and whispered, “Help me capture those guys. They will be perfect for helping with the rations of the base. Fluffball make sure none can escape.”
“Yap,” said Fluffball quietly.
With that said, Akira and Zundar rushed in with rope in hand and started wrestling with the dozen or so large wild boars and the smaller piglets that were occupying the cave. It took them over 20 minutes to capture and tie them up. With Fluffball’s help, they were able to stop all of the smaller ones from fleeing the cave.
As they led the bound boar out of the cave back into the light, everyone was visibly dirty from the mud, dust, and crap that filled the cave.
Akira handed the ropes in his hands to Zundar for a second and gathered several large, sharp sticks, piercing them into the ground in front of the cave blocking the entrance.
“Just so nothing else tries to occupy the caves we just cleared,” said Akira as he took the ropes from Zundar.
“Yap!” said a happy Fluffball as he helped herd the many boar back to the main caves, where the rust fang members were happy to accept them. They hurriedly rushed to clean up the mostly empty animal pens, ensuring that the new boar had a nice place to stay until they were turned into ham and bacon.
The next few caves were not as simple as the first, and Akira, Zundar, and Fluffball were forced to fight with spider monsters that infested several of the caves. There were a few that managed to escape the cave they were clearing and fled to different nearby caves. Luckily, the caves that were cleared were blocked by several sharp sticks or random boulders.
As they walked to a new cave, Zundar and Akira were fully alert, ready to battle with the creatures that had escaped from the last cave… but to his surprise, all along the cave’s entrance and inside the cave, there were several deadly-looking plants. Several of them were bloated and wriggling with whatever they had recently captured.
“Wait! Don’t kill them,” said Akira as he held up a hand to stop Zundar from cutting them down like weeds. “We can use these things as an outer defense measure. Let’s gather a few more people and try to dig them up and move them to the outer boundary. We can plant them there and let them do their job there.”
That… was easier said than done. It took them several hours and was a real pain trying to keep everyone alive while digging the carnivorous plants up, while stopping them from biting and eating the workers. When it was finished, everyone felt it was a good addition to the almost nonexistent defenses of the caves.
After a full day of battling monsters, hostile animals, and man-eating plants that had managed to take root in the caves, Akira deemed the caves safe enough for future workers and civilians to occupy.
The caves still needed some actual cleaning with all the dust, dirt, and blood covering the ground and stone walls, but Akira felt it was a job well done with the amount of time it took them.
With these caves cleared of dangerous creatures, they were able to house several thousand werewolves and other demon race warriors, even without the future upgrades that would no doubt expand their holding capacity.
“You will have to make sure guards patrol the cave’s entrances daily, otherwise all our work will be for nothing if unwanted creatures enter them again,” said Zundar, looking at the pile of corpses that were now being dragged out of the last cave to be cleared.
“I will be sure to talk to Grand Elder Rusty and ask him to appoint some people until we can get some doors to help block them,” said Akira as he wiped the blood and guts off of his sword and then sheathed it.
***
In a dark underground cavern.
“Ahh…” Akira sighed as he stepped out of the cold underground river and wiped his body dry.
Fluffball stopped playing in the water and also hopped out of the river and immediately shook his body vigorously to get the water out of his fur while also undoing Akira’s attempt to dry himself.
A few minutes later, the two exited the underground bathroom and walked to one of the core internal caves that had been turned into their meeting room.
“…no, no, no! It’s too large!” shouted Grand Elder Rusty. “How are we supposed to protect something so big?”
“If we don’t build it at this size, we won’t be able to hold anything inside! Anything smaller will just be a waste of materials, and we will have to build expansions on top of it, which could cause issues to the defense!” said Delgar with an even tone.
As the two noticed Akira and Fluffball’s arrival, Delgar let out a sigh of relief and said, “Akira, help me knock some sense into this rock brain. Look at this. You agree with these plans, do you not?”
Akira walked over to the table where several newly drawn blueprints were strewn out so that everyone in the room could see and compare them with each other. He stopped in front of the set of blueprints that Delgar was pointing to.
They depicted a large half oval curving out from one end of the mountains, starting at the southern caverns and curving back in to end at the most northern clan caves.
The land that had been chosen to build the wall was solid enough and not swampy. Along the curved wall were several drawn boxes depicting many fortresses.
There were three gatehouses embedded in the curved wall. One in the north, the center, and the south. The half oval encompassed a lot of land. So much so that several villages could be built inside, along with their farms and animal herds if needed.
“It is rather large…” said Akira.
“See!” said Grandelder Rusty, feeling vindicated.
“But.. this will be the faction’s main base and the last defense of our alliance. If the worst outcome occurs and the demigods and human forces under their control push us back…” said Akira after a long pause. “If we plan small and it turns out to not be enough when the entire army of the allied expedition forces arrives along with any other allied forces that may join us in the future… it would be a disaster and near impossible to tear down and expand part of this new fortification to fit everyone inside,” said Akira.
“Exactly! Think of the big picture!” said Delgar.
“For now we should focus on building the inner defenses of the fortress first, as it will be far faster and lead to a more secure foothold for the expedition army and the workers,” said Akira, pointing to another blueprint with a smaller set of curved walls and fortresses set around each of the larger clan caves.
With these inner defenses built, each cave would theoretically be able to hold off any attacker until reinforcements from another cave could reach them. The majority of the ancient caves were not connected due to the fact that different factions lived in them and did not want conflict between the factions in their living quarters. There were only a few core caves in the center of the cave clusters that had connecting pathways.
“We mustn’t forget that the large caves also need to be renovated! They are quite barbaric,” said Delgar.
“Well, they are quite old and were not meant for full-time living,” said Akira.
“With the new plans I have drawn up, there will be far more space opened up to allow more people to live in the mountains year-round with all the important facilities built inside!” said Delgar as he pulled another dozen or so drawings to Akira’s attention.
“Being dwarves, we know a little bit about making decent-sized cities in mountains,” said one of the assistant dwarves standing next to Delgar.
Grandelder Rusty only stared at the dwarf, unimpressed.
Another hour of discussion passed as they continued to erase and redraw some of the more radical plans before Akira raised a hand.
“It is late, and we have hashed out the most important details. Tomorrow, I will be returning to the shoreline base to help sort out any issues with the transportation of resources and personnel to the caves. While I am away, I hope that the Rustfangs will work with Delgar and his assistants to mark the construction sites and start clearing the land so that construction can start as soon as we have the material and men to begin the projects.”
“Of course, we will do whatever is needed! Helping clear the land is not a problem!” said Grandelder Rusty, somewhat mollified with the edits he was able to add to the blueprints.
