Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

2.24 Water Source

Luca crouched with the group just downwind of the water source. The bottles were handed over one by one for Ghost to fill while everyone else waited for signs of movement from the camp. Luca eyed the camp. It was straggly still. An empty camp was a strange thing to see. Even if the tribe occupying it was out hunting or something the camp shouldn’t be completely empty.

“Räv I want a look in that camp.” Räv nodded and then released another butterfly while clicking on her tablet. Luca reached over and plucked his glasses from Declan with an apologetic smile. This would be easier on the glasses than the contacts. Less of an impediment to his reflexes. Turning his contacts back of Luca blinked twice to clear his vision. The butterfly fluttered across to the camp as Luca looked at Tails, when Tails nodded Luca settled on the grass. Catching Räv’s eye Luca tapped his glasses and waited for the view and controls for the butterfly to activate.

After the momentary disorientation while the view adjusted, Luca corrected the flight path and steered around a large tent into the camp. Just past the outer ring the camp was as deserted as it appeared from outside. It wasn’t until Luca reached the very centre of the camp that he found life.

“Son of a –” Luca bit off the rest of the curse and forced his tone back to neutral. “Shade how common is the keeping of slaves here?” Luca heard the soft snarls from the others in the camp. Given their history they all had a particular loathing for s*****y. Though Luca found it interesting that Declan actual swore the most creatively after the question was asked.

“It is a fairly common practice though it is the centaurs and the harpies that manage most of the trade.” Shade’s tone was cautious as he was clearly unsure about how the group would react. “I found the practice useless and that it perpetuated problems, the Fae and the Sirens also have no interest but the other races…” Shade trailed off at the end of the explanation with a slightly helpless tone. Luca supposed it might have been a hasty conclusion to immediately call them slaves. Still the why they were held and general air about them didn’t come off as just prisoners. With Shade’s validation of the existence of the practice it seemed the logical conclusion to make.

“It’s a common problem with s*****y. We probably should have taken that approach.” Räv’s voice was bitter, and Luca winced, not an auspicious topic.

“In this case, the morality of it is less of a pressing concern. What is concerning me is that Lady is in one of those pens, I also see what I suspect are Dwarfs and Gnomes, is it common for a race to sell their own people?” Luca needed to know if they were going to save people, well he was going to save people because their own people were in there. He just needed to know if it would be viable to send those from the other races home.

“No, the Dwarfs and Gnomes have very poor combat abilities and so often fall prey to other races they never sell their own.” Shade sounded certain so Luca started to plot. The camp still seemed complexly empty, but Luca wasn’t prepared to just rush in as is. He didn’t want to be caught by a surprise return of the original owners of the camp. Which left them in the tenuous position of needing to be able to monitor the camp for a prolonged period without getting caught.

“Declan, I don’t suppose you have any good digging spells?” Luca pondered the easiest ways to stay out of sight on a n empty plane before he asked his question.

“Not that would be sufficient to make a quick burrow.” Declan responded and Luca sighed as he tossed the idea aside.

“It wouldn’t be wise to dig in the ground here, the tremors upset the worms.”

“It’s just some worm –” Tails started since he understood Shade, but Luca cut him off.

“Worms the same size as the Mygalomorph?”

“Of course they don’t come in other sizes.” There was a sort of blank confusion to Shade’s tone as if he didn’t understand why Luca had asked about size at all. After Luca relayed that information, a contemplative silence followed.

“I can –”

“No.” Luca cut Ghost off before he finished his sentence he was not sneaking in there today. While not dark the sun was beginning to lower on the horizon.

“You sucking all joy –”

“I don’t care, you’re not just waltzing in there.” Petulant muttering followed and Luca was left hoping that Declan’s barrier was as good as he’d described.

“We can’t just lay under the sky though right, because of the Elementals.” Holly finally broke the silence. Luca agreed with that point.

“Sniper nest?” Tails proposed.

“Sniper nest.” Luca agreed. While not exactly comfortable they could make a low-slung cover that would just cover a prone person and cover it with grass and brush of the planes thus making it blend in with the surrounds. “You got it?” as far as Luca knew only Tails and himself had had to make such a cover before.

“Yeah, I got this you keep scoping aside from a certain reckless fool your more meticulous in examining things for sneaking in.

After flying the butterfly around the camp Luca had determined that all the slaves were kept in two pens I the centre of the camp. The pen was just a simple wooden fence about ten feet high. It would have been the easiest thing I the world for Lady and the other competitors to climb. Luca could only assume that the reason they didn’t climb had something to do with the iron chocker covered in glowing red script around their necks.

There was no water or shade in the pen and Luca could see signs of exhaustion and dehydration. Interestingly from the looks of it, Lady and the others were all still fully equipped. They may have been stripped of any traditional weapons but most of their things they still had. Even then there state created a different problem a large number of exhausted and dehydrated people would be difficult to dangerous to try and transport on foot across the planes.

As Luca continued to investigate the camp, he found it wasn’t as empty as he’d assumed. There was on the far side a much longer stretched tent that turned out to be a stable. There where horses inside that looked no different to any other horses Luca had seen. However there was also three unicorns and two Pegasus, and they wore collars nearly identical to the ones of the Lady and the other slaves.

Finally Luca found some actual centaurs in four tents at the corners of the camp. They seemed to be lounging in the shade but there was a metal cuff around the wrist of the human portion of their bodies that had script similar to the slave collars on it though the script was blue on the cuffs.

Not one to ignore coincidences Luca took a screen shot of the writing on both things as best he could and shifted to the main display for the others to see. After circling the camp twice Luca felt he’d gotten enough footage and moved the butterfly to the top of a tent overlooking the slave pen before pushing the glasses down his nose and considering the people around him. “The floor is now open to inspiring ideas.”