All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 131: House Training

Roscoe hurried back as fast as his rat legs would let him. What had he done wrong? He was sure that he had left plenty of troops back around the city to keep the humans boxed in, at least for longer than this. His recruitment drives were only partially in progress. Sure, the people they were finding were joining them, but his Necromantic Rituals were proving more difficult than he had anticipated.

The humans were apparently in the practice of burning their dead. This made it quite difficult to collect some of the ingredients his skill was telling him he needed. This forced him to stick with the less effective rituals that he could perform with wildlife that the horde could catch. Animals were even harder to get than humans, though. They weren't tied to houses, and they tended to move about more. They also seemed more likely to evade the undead than attempt to fight.

He had been putting the finishing touches on his first ritual to call forth Shades when the messenger interrupted him. Roscoe had left one of the elite troops from beneath the castle in charge. They were still the only ones who were able to hold a real conversation, sadly. The rest of the undead's lacking devotion to the Void was a bit troubling. However, perhaps that could be remedied later. For now, they were only tools.

The messenger had handed over a piece of paper with a message on it describing the situation back in the city. Apparently, the defenders had more horses than should have been possible. And more troops, too. They had managed to break through the siege, and many riders had scattered in all directions.

Roscoe wanted to meet the leader of the defenders. Whoever it was clearly understood battle strategy and warfare at a much higher level than he did. When he finally neared the city enough to see what was happening around its walls, his respect for his enemies' leaders only rose.

Even though the humans had managed to break out, they hadn't over-extended. They pressed the surrounding armies enough that they weren't able to chase after the riders sent out. Then they went through a complicated series of false retreats, baiting the overeager undead into position after position that they were all cut down from.

Roscoe started to launch some dark magic spells at the humans to give his dwindling troops some space to regroup. Before he even had much of an effect, the humans were already back behind the walls, having lost almost no troops while inflicting heavy losses. Only the humans' need to recover would keep this siege going. If they were as tireless as the undead… Well, Roscoe wouldn't have stood a chance. As things were, the retreat allowed Roscoe to send messages to pull back most of his recruiting troops from afar. They were now needed to just hold the humans in place.

The devastating losses were not completely fatal, though. It would just slow down their progress. His army wouldn't be able to amass enough troops to swarm the city for a while longer now. It couldn't be helped. Maybe some Shades would make a difference. Roscoe would have to wait for the return of his troops before returning to his ritual.

The delay caused him endless frustrations. Their god needed to be recognized, and this stain stood between them and the perfect world they would create. Still, the Void was endless, Roscoe told himself. There was no real rush; the end was inevitable.

—-

I honestly wasn't sure if Beatrice really understood the whole story about the dogs. She seemed too caught up in watching me hover in the air, holding Cliff. To be fair, Cliff didn't seem to be enjoying it much at all. With the sheep Cliff had caught able to get up and return to the rest of its kind, I returned Cliff to the ground, but I didn't let go of her scruff yet.

"So… We have wolves in here now?" Beatrice asked no one in particular.

"Yes." Tanu replied. "Her name is Cliff. And she has seven cubs."

Beatrice looked down at the little boy, and some of the worry left her face. In a much more gentle voice, she spoke to him. "Can you tell me how we got these guests?"

"Yes. I climbed the gate ta' other night and was walkin' in the forest. I found Cliff, though I didn't know her name then. She took me back to her den. But some zombies attacked us, but we fought 'em off." He drew and brandished the stick that I had made for him. "At least long 'nough for Lord Void to come."

Beatrice looked at me. "So then what happened?"

"Well, Void beat up the dead and carried the cubs back here. He also told me that her name was Cliff. I don't know the cubs' names though. Sorry."

"It's okay, they might not have names yet." Beatrice reassured the worried boy. "We can talk about that in a little bit. I'm more worried about having a wild wolf in the castle grounds with us."

"Cliff is a good girl. She won't hurt anyone." Tanu defended her with a fierce tone. I looked at the very large dog in my claw. She had stopped struggling, but I could see that she had some very large teeth. Though he was right that she hadn't posed any threat to the humans at all. Beatrice looked at me with a question in her eyes. I wasn't sure what it was, so I didn't respond.

"Maybe, Tanu, maybe. I'm more worried about the sheep that Tony and I just brought back for Void. They are important and we can't let Cliff harm them. And wolves do like sheep." Beatrice said with a bit of concern, but still without being too harsh on the little kid.

"Don't you worry, I can teach her not to chase the sheep." Tanu replied with a great deal of confidence.

Beatrice looked over to me for confirmation. I was sure Tanu could handle it; if necessary, I could lend a claw too. So far, my spray bottle has done well teaching the kids and the cat, so it would likely work on the dogs as well. I gave her a reassuring beep, and she shrugged. "If you're willing to do the hard work of training, Tanu. If you need any help though, let someone know."

"I might need some treats, but I got this." Tanu smiled, snapping the salute the children had started using for the last few days. He came over to me and stroked Cliff's face a few times. Once she was calm, I let her go. Beatrice had lowered her center of gravity a bit to intercept Cliff if the large dog went after the sheep again. But that was unnecessary as Cliff just meekly followed Tanu back to her cubs.

Once they were a little ways away, Beatrice turned to Tony. "Where do you think Tanu got that practice sword? I don't think the castle had any. Especially not in that size."

"I have no idea. Maybe someone joined recently with some carpentry skill?" He suggested.

"Hmmm. Maybe. It would be hard to tell though. We are going to have to figure out a better system for that." She mused.

"System for what?" Tony asked.

"Categorizing people's abilities. Or just knowing what we can do. We're starting to get pretty large, and it's hard to plan food when we don't even have an exact head count. This is getting to be a lot more than just your family and some refugees." Beatrice explained. Tony's eyes tightened as he started to think about it as well.

I let out a few noises. Beatrice cocked her head. "Oh, Void? You made the children all training weapons for the morning sessions? Of course that makes more sense, I should have known that you were on top of things like that. Especially after you made my broom-spear."

I humbly basked in the praise from my humans. Still, now that I had sheep to care for, they could figure this out for themselves for a little while. Leaving Beatrice and Tony to figure out whatever they were thinking about, I hovered over to where the sheep had settled down. They seemed a bit tired after they escaped from the surprise race they had been challenged to so rudely.

They were a little wary of my shape coming over to their circle of fluff. I ran my sensors over them, and I confirmed what I had suspected. They were very dirty. This would need to be fixed as soon as possible. But closer inspection did confirm that, indeed, many of the rugs I had found were made from the same fibers that grew out of their backs. Though the fibers I had scanned were obviously much cleaner. I wondered what the process was for collecting the material. Could I just cut it off with my sword?

I didn't think that was the best idea. At least, not yet. It was starting to get cold around nighttime, and these sheep seemed to be using the fibers as a mobile blanket. Well, I needed to do some testing. Gaining some elevation, I picked out what I thought to be the dirtiest sheep. If I was going to figure out how to wash these sheep, it had better work with the worst of them.

Once I made my selection, I lowered myself down and tried to pick it up with my claw. Unlike with Cliff, I wasn't able to find a good place to pick the sheep up from. IT didn't help that the animal kept trying to run away and avoid my claw, though that was easy enough to prevent with Air Manipulation to fence it in. The first couple of attempts, I was just left with a few strands of the fibers in my claw. I deposited that in my dustbin and received further confirmation that this was, in fact, what I was looking for.

Giving up on the claw, I poured all my focus into my Air Manipulation skill and created a little air net under the sheep. As I concentrated, I was able to lift the sheep straight up out of the flock, but it took nearly my entire processing power. I was barely able to stay steady in the air as I moved the sheep over to an isolated spot where I could focus more on it.

None of the sheep appreciated the gentle care I was taking with their sister. They all started making noises and milling around. The one floating in the air was quite distressed, and all its flailing around was seriously putting me in danger of dropping it. Still, with a titanic effort of will and focus, I managed to move it towards an area up against the wall of the castle.

Once it was alone, I started to experiment with a few different methods I had theorized would help remove the grime from its luxurious coat. I would start off with my spray bottle and mop combo, obviously, but I had a few other tricks hidden in my dustbin.