Frontier Chef: My Cooking Skills Are Broken-Chapter 23: The Desert Fortress

An Ossalaka was hauling ass across the open desert after them, bone spear strapped to its back.

’What now?’

It was alone, pumping its stubby legs against the sand.

It caught up to the beetle and jumped onto the rear of the shell without asking.

The bone spear on its back nearly nicked Ezra in the eye when it scrambled over the edge. It sat down on the flat surface like it had every right to be there.

Panting, ears flat and fur matted with dust, it brought a paw up to its chest and said, "Ossa."

Ezra recognized it immediately. The one from the staredown. The one that clubbed him before the arrow fired.

The one he’d been calling the ugly one since he first saw the damn thing.

Except up close, in daylight, it wasn’t ugly at all.

Its face had patches. White against the plain brown that every other Ossalaka wore, splashed across the snout, around one eye, trailing down the jaw. Hard to tell when he was getting stabbed to death with a dozen or so spears.

It sat at the back of the beetle and stared at Ezra with yellow eyes that didn’t blink.

"Ossa," it said, paw raised on its forehead now. ’Ossalaka!"

"It followed us," Neve said, not turning around.

"I can see that."

"Will you kill it, or will I?"

"It’s not trying to hurt us, Neve. It probably got lost. Besides, me and the Patriarch are on good terms. Maybe it was sent."

"The Patriarch didn’t send it. It left on its own."

"And how do you know?"

"Because it’s carrying provisions for one."

A tiny pouch made of dried hide hung from the bone spear. Barely enough for a creature that size and packed in a rush.

’It went AWOL from its own tribe to follow me into the desert.’

The Ossalaka pulled a strip of dried meat from its pouch and started chewing, still staring at Ezra.

’I’ve always wanted a dog. Ossalakas are semi-sapient. Are dogs semi-sapient too? Anyway, it needs a name.’

Ezra looked the Ossalaka up and down as it swallowed more jerky. It met his gaze and saluted again.

’Patches. I’m calling it Patches.’

"Does it have a name?" Ezra asked.

Neve spoke to the furball, "Ossa, ossa?" The Ossalaka’s ears perked up.

"Ossa," it said.

"It translates roughly to ’the one who strikes first.’"

"I’m calling it Patches."

The Ossalaka chewed its jerky and said nothing.

Neve shrugged and stopped talking after a while. Ezra didn’t notice right away because the beetle’s rhythm was putting him half to sleep again and the sun was warm on his shoulders.

Cooler than high noon but still warm.

When he did notice, she was looking behind them again. West.

Back the way they came.

Her jaw was set and she wasn’t blinking.

He almost asked.

He didn’t. The dark shapes on the horizon were close enough now to have edges.

The walls finally gave shape. Black and jagged, cut from the volcanic rock that rose in low foothills behind them. Obsidian-reinforced, taller than Ezra expected, with watchtowers at intervals and a gate that even from a distance looked like it’d been built to withstand sieges.

’What the fuck could they be keeping out?’

The desert ended here, just short of a mile between where the beetle was still marching and the ground that the teeth of the gates bit into. The sand was giving way to dark gravel and other shit Ezra couldn’t name.

Steam curled from a vent somewhere behind the walls. A lot of it, at that.

This was Harken.

[ Ping! ]

[ Quest completed: Reach Harken ]

> +2,500 Frontier Tokens

Patches stood up on the back of the beetle and sniffed the air toward the walls, blocking the golden text with its swaying tail.

Its ears swiveled forward and it raised a paw at the walls.

’This is it. After days of absolute fuckery, we actually made it.’

The beetle stopped fifty yards from the gate and wouldn’t go closer.

"Dismount," Neve said. She was fully alert now, the coldness in her voice already crystallized.

"We’re not there yet." Ezra was trying to make out the silhouettes standing on the walls. Human-shaped.

Actual humans.

"Riding a mount makes you look like a raider. So we walk in."

Ezra looked down at himself. Bone necklaces and a crust of dried blue saliva. "And this looks like what, exactly?"

She shrugged again and tapped the back of the beetle’s shell twice. "Better than a raider."

The beetle tilted to one side and let gravity do the work. Ezra grabbed her waist before she slid. Not like the beetle gave a shit. Its job was done.

He climbed off and she latched on piggyback, her legs dangling uselessly until he brought up his arms and held her legs against his waist.

She actually let him this time.

Patches hopped off the back of the beetle and landed on the sand with a grunt. The beetle turned and walked back the way it came.

It didn’t even say goodbye. Made sense. It had carried them across a desert and now it was done.

’Thanks, bug.’

The three of them walked toward the gate. With every step, four guards came into focus. Two on the ground, two on the wall, all four wearing helms that covered their faces with claw-marks for vision.

And of course, they even wore bone-plate armor and wielded metal-tipped spears.

First metal weapons Ezra had seen since he got here. Too bad he couldn’t keep his pincer spear and compare.

One of the guards near the gate stepped forward, spear in hand. A silver-and-black cape trailed behind him.

’This must be the leader.’

"Halt. State your origin, your arms, and your registration."

"I don’t got any."

Neve pinched his rib. "I will do the talking, brute," she whispered.

"I need a healer," Neve said, still clinging to Ezra’s back. "And I’ll speak to your commanding officer."

The guard tilted his helm, and Ezra noticed the thin tubes running along the neck plate. Condensation beading on black metal in desert heat, no less.

"I will not repeat myself, woman. Harkenian regulation must be maintained."

He leveled the spear at them. The metal caught the light and didn’t let go.

Patches growled in return, raising its own bone spear. It was comically small compared to the metal spear that was nearly Ezra’s body length.

Neve said something in Jackalyn, and Patches dropped the spear into the dirt. She was training it better than Ezra was.

But he had other things to worry about, like the blue saliva that crusted on his naked ass.

The second guard marched forward and froze in the same stride.

"Theron, look at her neck."

Theron followed the pointed finger, and saw it then. He brought the spear face up and muttered something to himself.

"Get the captain. Now."

The other ground guard left at a jog, pausing at the gate where it groaned as the teeth of metal reeled up to let him pass.

Theron unslung the cape on his shoulders and held it toward Neve without looking directly at her.

’Okay, Theron guy isn’t the leader. Cool cape though.’

"Ma’am," Theron said, lifting the cape once more.

Neve took the cape with her good hand and draped it over her shoulders one-armed.

Ezra was still naked. Theron didn’t care in the slightest.

Patches wedged himself between Ezra’s feet, confused by the shift in posture.

’Yeah, me too buddy. What the hell is going on?’

The commander arrived in under a minute. A woman, darker armor than the guards, wyvern skull insignia on the shoulder plate. It seemed familiar.

She stepped onto the dirt and the gate began closing behind her.

For some reason, Ezra much preferred she stayed behind the gate.

She looked at Ezra.

No, she was looking at the pendant around Neve’s neck.

The one with talons, stone chipped and aged.

"The Emerald Avian." She clanged her metal boots together. "You’re Nevera."

Neve straightened on Ezra’s back. The cape slipped off one shoulder.

"I need a healer. And he needs clothes."

The commander bowed lower than she had any reason to and pointed an arm towards the gate of Harken.

"At once, Honored Slayer. Please make yourself at home." She raised a fist in the air and all four guards slammed the hilt of their spears to the ground. "Harken is blessed by your presence."

’What the hell is going on.’

"I am the acting commander of Harken until the Guildmaster returns," the commander said, already turning towards the gate. "You may call me commander."