Vaile was now freed of his effective ‘home imprisonment’ and was therefore free to go wherever he chose so long as he tried hard to keep himself safe. And, with the decades-long war between the Solusand Dominion and the Desert Elves reaching its climax, he just had to be there for the last great battle, right? Still, he could certainly see the pattern that had been emerging regarding his time with his Tamed Beings and their servants, so he had made… preparations for what he figured was the inevitable appearance of one or more of those crazy rat women.

Sure, it was two out of three times that they tried to spirit him away, but that was still the majority of the time and because Vaile understood fractions he figured he might as well prepare himself for the appearance of the Rattan Council and their attempts to capture him shifting from 66.66% to 75%. He did, however, figure that he couldn’t use the same trick more than twice in a row, so he would have to rely on some other form of fast escape the next time he found himself faced with the Rattan after the one that was sure to come.

Understandably, he was a bit worried, but he figured that he would be safer in the middle of the desert than in a major metropolitan settlement. The odds of the Rattan having a tunnel or two that led to the capital were astronomically higher than them having one that led to fuck-all nowhere in a massive desert, right? This wasn’t some Assass*ns C*eed game where random monuments were placed in conspicuous spots for easy fast travel, and something told him that any attempt to make a tunnel in the mass of dunes he was now running through would just collapse or be exposed by the shifting silt.

So, while certainly concerned, he was not overly concerned. Besides, Zahra would be watching him and would most certainly not take too kindly to him being kidnapped on her watch and in her territory. As Vaile continued to pontificate about the future that he felt was inevitable, he eventually reached his destination; a massive war-camp surrounding a high mesa that jutted out from the sands like a certain ‘fresh’ prince’s hair after said person was buried up to his hairline in the sand. Gazing up at the escarpment, before him, Vaile wondered for a moment how the forces of the Solusand Dominion would get up there, but it seemed that they had at least one plan in mind.

As Vaile walked causally into one of the larger tents, the one that housed the generals as they plotted and planned to be more precise, he overheard that at least one of their plans had fallen through.

“I can’t believe that they would cut themselves off like that!”

“Indeed, Lord Akenamun, even I hadn’t imagined that they would simply collapse the entire tunnel leading up there…”

“The only other options at this point are to either scale the near-vertical cliffs or to attempt to repair the damaged road that wound up the whole formation, and we lack the materials needed for the latter and the bodies needed for the former.”

“True. Were it not for their position, we would have been more than able to storm them and destroy their final few accursed objects; but now we cannot, and thus the undead cannot risk themselves by taking arrows, sling-stones and magic for the living. And yet there are some who wish for the Pharaoh to come here personally and wash away the savages with her cleansing light! How could we tell them that these twisted creations of some unfathomable entity prevent our beloved Goddess from wielding her power effectively?!”

“You don’t.”

Vaile’s words caused those who were partially despairing and those stoically facing their fate to look over to him. Standing partially in the doorway, Vaile smiled from beneath his mask.

“And? What does the Pharaoh’s newest pet think it can do to stop these issues from endangering our noble mission?”

Vaile’s face fell beneath his mask, but he didn’t let the generals’ lack of understanding get to him for long. He held the flap leading into the tent open a while longer and a large mole-like creature popped up from the sand just outside the threshold. This adorable little thing that looked a bit like a M*nty M*le from the M*rio games crossed with a chinchilla was soon accompanied by tens and then hundreds of others of its kind, all of whom were equally as adorable.

“What are these supposed to do?” asked one of the generals, but rather than Vaile speaking, the first critter to appear spoke instead.

“Soh. Deez da gaiz we’z suppozd tah help, eh? Dey tinkz deyz tu pash tah fokin deg tru dah san laik uz, huh? Wat, dey tinkz deyz bettah den uz?”

This rather uncommon and rather uncouth dialect caught the generals off guard, but Vaile came to their defense.

“No, my friend. I am the one asking for help on their behalf. They are fully aware of how good you guys are at clearing debris, building things and more. Anyways, want a beer? I’ve got more than enough for the lot of you.”

The first mole-chinchilla looked up at Vaile and held out his ‘hand’, which Vaile filled with a chilled can of Generic Beer he withdrew from his inventory. The creature opened the can and chugged the whole thing before crushing the can in his ‘hands’ and tossing it to one of the others of his kind who caught it and popped back underground.

“Eyyyyyyyyyy! Naoh datz da stuvv! Ya’no, wez still gatz ta pay ya bak fer wat ya did fer uz all dem yeez ago, ya’no? If yuuz gona be sweetnin da deel wiv diz stuff, hooz wez ta rafuz, eh?”

The creature then turned back to his fellows and withdrew a mining helmet from nowhere before placing it on his head.

“Aight gaiz an goilz, wez gotz a jahb tah du! Letz mayk diz sum’in speshil, ya lazy lugz! Woik taim, erry-bahdee!”

All as one, the critters took out their helmets (once again from seemingly nowhere) before placing them on their heads and popping back underground. Soon after, the sounds of construction work could be heard from several parts of the mesa, both near the bottom and around the middle. Vaile stood there in the ‘doorway’ for a while, looking over at the generals with a smug, shit-eating grin on his face (but hidden under his mask, of course) before walking out into the camp to find a place to put up a tent of his own.