The Ranger:

Welcome Back! Everyone depicted in this alternate universe, thousands of years in the futuristic past, are of age and has agreed to the their story being presented today. If your story is added, you will also have to agree.

Team1: Heran, Evaine, Niviena, Ewlene, Yesime, Anders, Isabella

Team2: Sabina, Annalise, Desa, Abigale, Amber, Treya, Ivana, Joan

Team3: Katelyn, Beau, Alexandra, Triss, Abby, Jenna, Amelia

Team4: Jacob, Dustin, Jamison, Anton, Petra, Erika, Regina

Merchant Ship: Saedin, Agitha, Cassandra

Merchant Ship2: Severan, Penelope, kids, Emma

Other: Nikolas, Sandy, Tia, Ninhersag, Grayson, Cinthia

Readers Added to Story: Soviet, Boulder

Sandy was sitting in my lap facing me, she had her cheek to my chest while Yesime was molded to my back as we sat on Tia's back flying much faster than my eagle, Tia said she knew where we are going, another 12 hours and we'll and about halfway on an island called Agonaturobar, a vacant island with no commerce available she said based on her last two fly overs.

"Did you want to do it here or on the ground?" Sandy yells into my face she dosen't blink.

"What!?" Was my smart delaying tactic to figure out what was going on.

"I understand that I'm last, but you skipped me once already." She yells and a few of her previous comments make more sense now, I knew she was older than I was, and she's hinted at this a few times, though I thought she was bluffing, posturing.

"There's no way I'd fit," I say back "Do you promise not push this to hard and hurt yourself?" I don't know how this is going to work, I named her and she's never going to leave my side, to say no would be torture.

'Holy shit, you are adulting.' Cinthia says and I feel her approval, 'Obviously, she lived the same life I did, but she did it for a decade longer.'

"Yes, Master." My goblins sexy face seemed more sinister with those razor sharp teeth, She was showing every single one of them, and her eyes were almost the size of my fist.

"When did you decide?" I ask her and Yesime scoots to the side a little and is looking over my shoulder.

"You heard?" I ask her and she nods her cheek almost scraping mine.

"Totally invested," Yesime answers.

"They showed me how to do you," Sandy says. "I claimed you the day you saved me, remember, I told you then."

"I didn't take it as that, at the time, but it makes more sense now, so from the first day huh?" I can't see this working, she might be old, but she is puny, she makes Mertil seem, a little larger, now that I think about it, Mertil isn't much taller than Sandy, well, okay, a foot taller is a lot, but not compared to Evaine or Sabina.

'Mertil is part Goblin? Makes sense," Grayson says and I agree, she is a mischief goblin when she lets her hair down.

"So here or down there?" She asks again, "I say here."

"Me too," Yesime says with Sandy putting up a second finger.

"Whose vote matters the most?" I ask giving her a firm look.

"Yours." I want her to know they aren't pushing me into this, that if this happened I was going to lead this.

"So if, and I mean a big if, I say here, you won't take this too far, too soon?"

"She won't, she won't," Yesime says, "Sorry," she pulls her face back when I look at her. The ladies apparently have been coaching and helping Sandy since she asked them after her first wait outside my door.

"Promise Master." Sandy has both sides of my face in her little hands. Leaning down I give her a kiss and her eyes which are normally twice the size of mine staring right into my eyes almost makes me laugh, she doesn't know to close her eyes and I can't look away, I can understand why we close our eyes now, as that was awkward.

"Was that okay?" She asks.

'Be nice!' Cinthia hisses.

"I Kissed you, I'm supposed to ask you that," I answer.

"It was really good, Gobs don't kiss, they showed me how," Sandy looks at Yesime.

"Whoever practiced with you was a good teacher," I answered and Sandy melted in my lap. "Be careful with that," I say looking down at her undoing the strings.

"You know how many times I had to sit there and listen?" Sandy says wiggling the pants back and forth to loosen it up.

"Seemed like every time," I answer, her chair in the hallway stopped getting moved after the second week, and she looks up at me, nods, grunting in agreement, and then goes back to work on the pants.

"Seen it a lot, played with it a lot." She grabs me.

'Wait, what? Why didn't you tell me,' I ask them.

'She asked us not to.' Cinthia answers.

'What!? seriously? How do you choose her side over me?'

'Her over you? What are you, paranoid?' Gray asks, 'She was just playing with us a bit, nothing crazy, she lays on it every night, what did you expect, and you previously told us not to mention it.'

'Oh, yeah, I guess she does spend more time with it, than anyone else.' I answer as she might be in another house or group every day until she decides to sleep, and then it's to my room and climbs on no matter who else is there, her only progress was not nudging between me and whoever was there that night, mostly Sabina lately, 'Hey, did we do anything back, I missed?'

"Nah, just answered questions and moved you around to get more comfortable, she knew it was us and not you, she said it doesn't count if you didn't know it happened.'

"You can play to pass the time, but nothing too far as I want those teeth on solid ground, and it might be disrespectful to Tia."

"Of course master," She is shaking, "you said yes." Sandy smiles at me and then beams a smile at Yesime, "You are the first male I've ever asked."

"I'm honored Sandy, though my bodyguard, goes where I go, and I guess I could show you some appreciation," while answering I put my hands on her arms, squeezing to stop her shaking, she growls at me.

"Hope we land soon." with a deep voice that had both Yesime and me chuckling at her current mood, never seen a horny goblin before, it's not far from an angry-looking goblin.

We were going to stop at an island shortly and spend the night, but we had no tents or gear and they could only last a few hours as a wolf, might as well nap and finish the final few hours up here, Tia woke us up as we were close, the plan was to stop short, out of sight and walk the rest of the way.

Tia changed the plan and dropped us off just short of the city, she wanted them to see us, considering we were going in as her representatives. Sandy was giving me a death glare when she found out she was going to stay with Tia for Yesime to dictate what is happening back to her and then she'd tell Tia. "This wasn't me, I laugh as she walks towards me and I back away, we will have time tonight in an actual bed."

Sandy, her face slowly unscrunching, keep walking and puts her arms up for me to pull her up abound my waist. "You are supposed to protect me, not come at me looking like that." I scold her with my tone.

"Protect you from others, one more?" I lean forward and she kisses me again, I could smell the mint when she spoke so it wasn't a surprise.

"Thanks for freshening my breath." I say and put her down, she laughs, "My morning duty, master."

We sat together for a while getting our land legs and going over what we were going to set about doing. Tia was adamant about them knowing the threat was real, I kept pointing out we were not going to destroy this small city, as from what we saw, this place was poor, none of her treasure has been spent there.

"They were in on it, and they will tell us who sponsored the theft," Tia replies, the angrier she gets, the taller she stands with her reaching epic heights today. We decided Sandy would fly with her over the city and we would walk the rest of the way, I'm positive we were seen by someone and this was going to be confrontational from start to finish.

'Yeah, this went tits up before it started,' Grays answers my thought.

'Depends on if they are scared or paranoid,' Cinthia replies. I think she is leaning more towards paranoid as that is her default mode.

'Best to go in eyes open, and ready.' she answers, 'saves you time trying to prove she is back.'

'Well, that's covered based on the screams, and we're still a good ways out,' Grayson laughs and I feel Yesime grip my arm.

"That was Tia letting them know she's back, hoping it makes it easier to get an audience." We walk for a moment and it hits me.

"How hard would it have been, for two mages to get an audience with someone in charge?" Not going to confront Tia, but I think we made this harder than it needed to be.

"Someone for sure, not sure who, you come off as supposed to be there, I'll stick out as a villager."

"Shut up with that nonsense, you impressed me and an immortal, yet are worried what people you haven't met yet, might, think about you?"

"Did you tell me to shut up?" She pulls into me tighter.

"Yep, I get all the changes are coming rapid fire, but you've taken them on easily."

The road next to us was used by carts more than people with the hump in the middle. The farms surrounding the city were everywhere, horse, cattle, sheep were grazing, people would stop briefly, see if they knew us and went back to work.

One farm to our front right had a herd of children, Yesime pointed it out and we walked in their direction. "Let's start off on a good note, pay them for some gossip?" I'm hungry, but those kids look scrawny for any hopes of a big meal, she does grow what we need though.

"Hey! Good morning," I shout out to the woman, She looks up, none too pleased, she wipes her hands, gives orders to what looks like her eldest, and walks over.

"How can I help the likes of you two?" She looks us both up and down. "Kind of busy, as you can see."

"Would pay for breakfast, and some news about the area?" I ask.

"With this lot? Would be lucky to have any left, come on then," she walks inside, "why not just eat in the city?" She pulls her boots off before she takes us inside, Yesime captures my arm when I go further in and nods at all the shoes near the wall, boots take a moment to get off hopping and leaning against the wall.

"We're from Riverside to the north of here, a small but growing town, I'm Kae, and this is Yesime, we have Sandy a little goblin that was riding the wyverrn Tia that just flew over."

"I'm Moira, this is Tanner," she says about the one next to her, 'The rest are busy."

"We thought since we were walking by anyway, we could help someone, and they could help us stop the belly rumblings." I glance around at the bales of wheat, rye and barley, "Could maybe use some of this also?"

"Ha! Now we are talking, there's plenty to be had, we sold about half of what we grew and are trying to save the rest, in case the city has a miracle and everyone comes back, Who doesn't need bread and ale?"

"So the city is losing people?" Yesime asks as we get two plates of warm food, and of course some of their breads, several thin and crunchy with other thicker to soak.

"We had well water issues, many people went north to Oakley or south to Inbhear, which is causing all kinds of other issues when the people that used to do things, are now gone. Now your Wyvern flew by and i'm pretty sure more will leave from that also."

"The wyvern is with us, she won't be here long, we wanted to talk to whomever is in charge, but wanted to find out if they were trustworthy first," I answer.

'Saedin's land is vacant,' I say to Yesime, she nods and looks between me and Moira and nods again.

"Being landlocked is there a port to the north we could meet at if we wanted to send some ships down here to grab your harvest, buy your leftovers?" I ask.

"Ugh, sure, is there a hurry, we are just me and the kids?"

"No hurry, we'll be down here for a while, the trip, up and back again, say three to four weeks," I answer in between bites.

"This might be the last one at the rate things are going, we could use this as the means to finally get out of here before it's too late," Moira says as she cleans up an already spotless little home.

She talks about Baron Beghen's growing his lands too fast, things were fine until the people overwhelmed the water systems and then the crops started to fail when irrigation was moved to the city and rationing began, her husband took off straight from hearing the news, leaving them to find out a day or two later about both events.

'You can bring strangers home anytime you want,' Cinthia answers before I ask.

'That would mean her and her children would have to,' I start.

Cinthia interrupts, ' yep, join us, they are all compatible.'

I tell Yesime that through the bond, her offering Saiden's land might go over better.

"So, if you were looking for a place to go, we don't have anyone that grows crops where we live, Saiden and Agitha was doing that before taking on the merchant role for the town, he has a nice house and land just south of town, we'd.."

"Just like that, move up there and take his home? What about the Wyvern, and who is in charge, what are they like?" She repeats our questions back at us.

Yesime points at me, "He's basically in charge or he is with the three women that are." I didn't turn to look at her, was watching the kids outside.

"We could also show you how to help the crops grow," I notice the small patches of oats and barley, walking in. Agitha was a woodworker, her home is beautiful, You'd also have to become a druid."

"This Agitha won't mind me moving my, ugh, what do you mean, become a druid?" Moira sits back in her chair, "You think this is funny?"

"Not funny," walking over to some weeds, the kids probably gave her in a few pots in the kitchen window, I put my hand above one of them, pull it back to full life, and nod to Yesime to do the other two."

"Kae taught me how to do this a few weeks ago, also taught us how to use these, she tilts her head at her bow."

"So you go around inviting people to join your, group?"Moira asks. "Can we show up and just be us?"

"You are the only people we've invited to stay with us," our needs seem to meet up a little too well if I'm being honest about this, more manipulation?

'Opportunity.' Cinthia says with mirth in her tone, 'If you hadn't walked over here of your own free will this conversation wouldn't be happening, the only thing being manipulated is we are allowed to dampen some of her disbelief. Most people would turn this down out of fear, and she could use some clear thinking and a break in life.'

'So our only exploitation of her and her family is removing her fear of taking the chance?' I'm okay with that, wait, 'did you do this for everyone in town as we've been going along?'

'We sorted a few of them out that were going to be troublemakers, nothing drastic.' Cinthia says and I have my suspicions with Niviena suddenly getting nicer. 'Nope, she was the real deal, it was more Desa pushing harder and causing problems, and Joan wanting to drop Jacob and go for you, nudging them back.

'Joan and Jacob? I never noticed?' I answer thinking about both of them. that would have ruined my drinking buddy.

'Yeah, you are welcome," She says and I agree, all those hours together and he never mentioned her once, then again we don't talk about any of the women, ever, most of the time we just sit in silence and just enjoy the fact the other one is happy to sit there also.

"Let me show you," I reach out to take her hands and she jerks them back, "Do you know what a druid is?" I ask and she shakes her head. "A healer of people, animals, and plants."

"So you'll teach me to heal my children, and magic my plants?" She asks, "For what in return," her hands hover at the halfway point between giving them up or pulling them back.

"Good bread and great ale!" I answer and she laughs a tight laugh for a second and takes my hands.

"My hands look so bad compared to yours," she had dirt caked in her nails and every crack in her hands are stained darker.

"The perfect hands to put my peoples lives into," I start pushing and she holds on tighter, her face in shock and her knees closing. "Oh!" I lead her back to her chair.

"You can't take advantage of me, the kids can come in at any moment." She says with her eyes half closed, I keep pushing and don't feel anything spark up, but that's normal.

"I promise I am not going to take advantage, we'll have to do this a bunch of times when you come to stay with us."

"And don't worry, I just started also, it is truly amazing after living a normal life." Yesime says, "Is it the Baron we need to speak with?"

"What is it that you want from him, he's not known to be 'giving'." She air quotes the last word with a look like were in trouble if that's what we wanted.

"Someone took all of Tia's treasure, she wants it back, or at least some of the magical relics back," I answer.

"Oh no, no, they'll never give anything back, most of it moved to Hathoverpor."

"Your sure about Hathoverpor?" Yesime asks.

"They went from what we look like here to the capital of everything out of nowhere, that was the rumor at the time, but it was also quite a ways back, before my first was born."

We sat and chatted about her kids, the days here, the tipping point of not being close enough to water, and the first incident, an animal died in a well that caused a quarter of the city to get sick, that was fixed but the damage was done and water became expensive.

"You don't have to wait for people to show up down here, if you want to hire the next boat out of here due north to Riverside, they'd bring you in and set you up the same day, easily."

"If we move everything to the northeast coast, I'm going to need for you to be there." She says looking between the two of us ignoring my comment as she was business minded at the moment, family minded later when she had time.

"How is 2gold per bushel, transport fees and if you can't get the current crop there, give that part to Katelyn when you get there. How many bushels can two wagons with kids and clothes and stuff carry?"

"We can do 40-50 bushels depending, wagon normally."

"So here is the upfront costs, we have to go, don't forget, when in doubt, just show up there, mention me and Yesime and that you are the new farmers." You'll have about forty people to help ensure every harvest is sized to what is needed, we share the gold that comes into the town with everyone." I hand her a bag with 100gold in it, she takes it and puts it into a cupboard.

"Only about half a dozen men there after the war with Skaldia, but we are probably going to be famous soon, so many more should show up." Yesime offers and Moira shakes her head.

"I've had enough of them for the time being." Moira looks at me, "Not you of course," she laughs and then grunts, "the situation and all."

"If he was outside, we might not have chose this place, your town is never going to survive lack of water, so it seems everything fell into place nicely." I say knowing it to be a setup that just needed us to walk in here for it to unfold.

"We'll fly over on the way home to let you know it'll be a few days back, and a ship sent," Hmmm, how to ensure a ship can be sent.

'I'll be back,' Cinthia says and a few moments later, 'In two weeks Mertil will send Saiden down, going back to give her the details.'

"They are sending Saiden and Agitha in two weeks, should take a week to get here." I say to Moira, she looks at me startled. "Magic," I shrug, "They are also the best two to chat with on the way back to give you the conditions and whatever else farmers talk about."

We finish with Moira and Yesime hugging and whispering.

"What was the whispering?" I ask on the road back to the gate.

"She asked if all of this was true, I said yes and couldn't wait to see her up there."

---------

"There's a tax to enter." The two guards block the way. I've only seen this in areas where the law was corrupt as incoming people had the lifeblood of any city.