The poor lizards suffered a lot on the last day, but they had four hours of rest and are carrying a lot of material, including the last desert plants we found after dawn.
I didn't look directly at them, but I felt the penetrating gaze of three women who seemed to want to rip me to shreds. I think they were annoyed that I had rushed them so much about fleeing the desert, but I still stopped to pick plants.
What can I do? We have to complete the mission so we don't waste time and Zephyr didn't help at all, he just kept laughing in front of me and only stopped when he was the target of the same deadly gazes.
Idiot.
"Have you finished picking weeds or do you want to continue gardening in the desert."
I obviously didn't respond to Gloria's teasing and started riding the lizard before Hilda could join her. The bad weather that had improved a bit, but it worsened again with the restless night and the constant threat of being ambushed that will follow us for the rest of the trip.
I'm not particularly afraid of being ambushed because I haven't seen another spy animal or even a scout from the enemy team. I think we managed to outwit them well and in a desert like this it's hard for them to hide from my view.
We spent two more days on a very tortuous route to reach the city where this whole trip started, when I saw those walls I didn't feel very safe. My companions were very happy, but I'm sure this last part of the trip could end up being difficult for us.
To my surprise the enemy that I believe will attack us did not ambush us in front of the city, which means they are not afraid to attack our group inside the city wall. This is a bad sign, as we pass through the gate after showing our identifications we make our way towards the city's military barracks.
The test protocol is very useful at that moment and dangerous, the useful part is that our path ends in the city barracks where we would be safe, the bad part is that our route is not a mystery to anyone and that this route is simply a good place to ambush us as the city's architecture helps our enemies a lot, to dozens of points where a large number of enemies can be hidden.
If I were in their shoes I would blow up the street right under us or bring an entire building down on top of us as a distraction and to separate us, an attack by assassins after the explosions would be very effective. I really hope there's no one like me palming the ambush, I don't want to get blown up.
I'm sure the mental element user we lost in the desert wants revenge, on a very cute squirrel being used as a puppet by a mental element user. He's been keeping an eye on our group since the moment we're past the town gate and the squirrel has been running along the sides of the buildings on the streets we're passing.
I feel like I'm seeing a killer squirrel running across the roofs of buildings and houses, even if I hadn't been able to see the color of the mental element in him I would have noticed the squirrel's actions.
The worst part is that I can't ask for help, I'm pretty sure the gate guards were bribed and if I tried to use them to send a message it would end up in the hands of our enemies instead of the authorities who would love to capture a bunch of thieves.
Along the way I felt like I was going to my execution, but I didn't follow to find out where the executioner's blade would come from, passing a building where there were five people with gray cores and three blacks I was absolutely sure they would attack us, but niquem jump from the second floor of the building.
"What's the problem? We're finally in town, but it looks like you're still very tense, Ulric."
"It happens when you're being watched by a squirrel since it's arrived in town, it looks like the bad guys have turned stalkers. Don't try to find the fucking squirrel, act normal."
"But I want to see the squirrel."
"Control yourself, Alice, be ready in case we come under attack. It won't be long before we reach the territory of the military, when we get there we will be safe."
Our slow journey continues uninterrupted, I thought we would be attacked four times so far, but no one attacked us which is very strange we are almost reaching our destination. Their window of opportunity is shrinking, the closer we are to the army compound the safer we will be.
Our security gate was in our field of vision, just go through the gate and we will be safe.
"Wouldn't we be attacked, Ulric? Where are the bandits?"
"Maybe the squirrel is just a squirrel that liked to follow us around."
"I don't know where they are, and there isn't a sealing squirrel that won't follow us around for so long running across the roofs of various buildings and even taking a huge turn at two intersections we've passed, Alice, a squirrel doesn't normally do that."
"Maybe it's a trained super squirrel, or it's a level one magical beast with the ability to hide its aura. I've seen a white fox from the moon do this, it looked like a normal animal but it was a very intelligent magical beast."
"I doubt that's it."
"Where do I get a fox like that?"
"I'll tell you later, Hilda."
"OK."
When Hilda was after a cute new pet we went through the portal and were greeted by a small unit of soldiers. Why do I feel like we're in more trouble now than before? One of the officers has a motherfucking grin on his face and he's walking towards us.
"Good morning my young adventurers, we have been waiting for your arrival. I would appreciate it if your team leader could accompany me to meet an officer from the internal investigations division, he has been waiting for you for a long time. The rest of your group can go to the landing sand for their belongings to be inspected before they are transported to their destination."
This smells like shit, this hasn't happened before because it doesn't make sense for an officer of this division that investigates corruption in the army and administrative divisions of the kingdom, talking to one of the test participants who are not part of the military is still very strange and a bad fate for me who just worked with criminals.
"Good morning, but I have some doubts, the first is why my group should accept to be searched by you?"
"Young man, if I were you, I wouldn't make things difficult for you. It's not a wise attitude."
"Oh really? I like difficult things, tell me why now?"
"Items that pass through the base need to be checked to see that there is no taboo or dangerous material in your luggage, do not force our hand, Young Man."
"New policy? But it's a pity you don't have the authority to do that, our group and items are only scrutinized by our examiners and they're not here."
"We're the authority here boy! If you resist we will have to arrest you."
"I want to see you guys do it, little guard. I wonder what your punishment will be for going against a royal family decree, in case you forgot this test and something created by the royal family and only the people they choose have authority over us, even the use of matrices was approved by the family real. Do you really think it's a good idea to go up against the royal family?"
The asshole with the just ate shit looks like he's screwed. The other soldiers who were behind him had already taken a step back.
Did this idiot really think he would succeed in patting us down?
"It's like we're stuck, we're going straight to the head office, whether I bump into it or not. Have a good life."
As the lizards started heading towards the matrix, the losing soldier advanced in front of my mount. What a loser.
"Boy, you can ignore my authority, but you can't ignore an officer in the internal investigations division. They have the authority to stop them, annoying boy."
Shit, he's not wrong about that. If he hadn't said that in front of so many witnesses I could have run off and pretended I didn't know the protocol afterwards, like when I had the help of the examiners at boot camp.
"You won that one, I'll find the officer. You go to the matrix and prepare everything to leave, if I take too long, use the matrix to leave and let the examiner know, do you understand Hilda?"
"Yea. Don't do anything stupid."
Too late for that. I started following the idiot who was heading to where the officer was waiting to interrogate me, I have a bad feeling about that.
I hope that in the worst case, Hilda will be able to ask the master's relative for help. He is the closest person who can help me.