Eugh, my head... What happened? Where am I? Thunder thought as he could no longer feel soft dirt under his talons anymore. He was laying on something smooth, yet rigid and hard. His legs felt like they were on fire, Right, those magic booms and whatever. Ugh, I have such a massive headache. He could hear what sounded like distant shouting, but in something he couldn't understand.

  [Steht auf!] Was all Thunder needed to hear to remember the rest. The scavenger, the metal box, and probably my capture? Unless I died?

  He opened his eyes, he was in some room. The floor was made out of a material he didn't know about, the walls looked the same, and there was some glass allowing him to see out. Looking out the window still disoriented, he saw more scavengers running about. Great, he thought, just what I need. To be captured by scavengers.

  [Erich! Holen Sie sich den Drachen!]

  [Jawohl, Sir!]

  Through the glass a scavenger appeared, it was wearing some white fabric on its top half, then black fabric on the bottom. It pressed some buttons then seemed to stop itself.

  [Heinrich! Sollten wir uns nicht ein paar Schlaftabletten oder Darts besorgen? Der Drache ist ziemlich gro?!]

  [Oh ja! Mach das!]

  The scavenger then shouted in another direction,

  [Du! Besorge mir eine Elefantenpistole mit Darts!]

  [Wozu?]

  [Oh, ich wei? nicht. Vielleicht der verdammte Drache!]

  [Na sch?n, du Arschloch!]

  The scavenger at the glass appeared to be sighing but it was heavily muffled, it picked some thing attached to an object on the ground, it then proceeded to push something miniscule down with its paws.

  [Kannst du ihm glauben? So ein Idiot!]

  Was a much clearer noise that seemed to be coming from inside the room.

  [Erschreckt dich das, Drache? Hast du Angst vor einem kleinen Lautsprecher? Keine Sorge, du gew?hnst dich daran. Und an unsere anderen Spielsachen.]

  Three moons, three moons! I'm in such a bad nightmare aren't I? I need to wake up or something! What's even happening

  [Sie scheinen in Panik zu sein. Wie auch immer, wo ist die verdammte Waffe!]

  [Hier.]

  [Danke.]

  I have to get out of here, but how? What are they going to do to me if I make an attempt?

  Some more tiny circles were hit by the scavenger and some high pitched, annoying noise began blaring from inside the room. The scavengers' noises once again came into the room as some large door thing began opening on its own. The scavenger came into the room carrying one of those boom sticks, but much larger and more menacing.

  He was too panicked to do anything, this was never supposed to happen. He was cornered, he had nowhere to run, and he was petrified.

  [Dieser Pfeil wird dich treffen und du wirst einschlafen. Ganz einfach. Gute Nacht, Drache.]

  There was no large boom, just a little thwip and a poke. He began to feel woozy, his sight was spinning around and he was queasy.

  Oh why again, what in the mo-

  ***

  He had no sleep that night. Adan had to sleep on some hard ground with no padding, no pillows or blankets. There was also the fact that it rained, and his tent had a hole in it. He really got lucky getting replaced before.

  "Assholes in tent 8, you're up for building Tranrams!"

  Holy shit, we cannot catch a fucking break for one damn second, can we?

  While he didn't want to do it, he had to as it was his assigned job. Refusal was seen as "treason of the 5th degree" which was very minor, but he'd still get punished.

  "Come on jackasses!" Adan finally got up along with whoever else was within tent 8. It was extremely difficult as his legs still felt like they had been skinned, and kicked a million times. It hurt like hell, and the project itself was going to be hell.

  "You, the one that looks underfed, grab those nails and hammer when you need to."

  "Yes, sir!"

  While picking up the nails, one poked him and a drop of blood appeared. The nail that poked him was rusty, and brown. Water probably seeped through the paper box when it rained. This could mean tetanus. Another problem added to the shit pile.

  His comrades who were working with him already had the base laid out, he was just the unlucky hammer man. Adan found a neat little groove of wood, placed a nail, and started hammering the first nail of the Tranram.

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  A Tranram was basically cover for their artillery units, something that makes stray bullets from who knows where harder to hit them. Of course, there have been no recorded cases of anybody even getting in range to hurt them, it was just a precaution. A problem however, was the fact that they're mainly made out of wood. Occasionally, when the artillery fires it causes the wood base to crack and splinter, and wood chips sometimes shoot into the legs of the team.

  Adan was just the average infantryman, so he didn't have to deal with splinter legs. But he was going to the frontline so his chance of death was much, much higher than the artillery teams.

  Damn it! Adan thought as the nail just split the wood in front of him. His comrades cursed him even though this wood was weak. He reluctantly, even with all of the glares, stood up and jogged to the wood pile and grabbed one that appeared the same size.

  "Hurry up jackass!" Yelled a man who goes by the name 'Brown'.

  "Oh, shut the fuck up!" Adan shouted back. "We're here for the same bullshit! So I don't want to hear you dumbass statements!"

  Brown just muttered and got back to placing wood, occasionally glancing back at Adan. This wood held up together much better and didn't split, relieving him.

  He repeated the process multiple times. Just hammer nails into wood, move on, and repeat. His wrist and arms began to feel tired with each hit. Definitely not as bad as PT at least.

  He finished and sat down. He looked at the shoddily built structure, and sighed. He didn't want to be here. He wanted to be back with his mom. Not out here with the same people that hated and despised him.

  He began hearing wheels on dirt. He turned his head towards the noise to find that artillery had already arrived.

  Damn, they're fast. His thoughts whispered.

  Something else he noticed were soldiers jumping out of trucks.

  So, I have to walk over 50 miles, but these people get picked up in trucks and driven here? What else do they need? A pacifier? A stuffed bear to help their nightmares? Pathetic!

  Infantry units and the way the country transports them is confusing to him. They make one big group walk forever, but then they allow a cushy ride for the lucky bastards. There was nothing he could do about that.

  The artillery units began moving the big gun to the tranram. He didn't know the name of said unit or the name of the artillery cannon. But if things went to shit, he sure as hell knew they'd be there.

  Just the size alone could crack that would. It probably won't hold, but honestly who the hell cares? He didn't anyway, he was just the person who ran at the enemy and hoped for the best.

  ***

  "I am getting impatient, you have to start soon!" Yelled the Emperor of Celeste, "Or I may have to do it myself!"

  "You have no control over me or my army, if you want to begin then fine! Do that with yours, I am not ready yet!" Responded the Khiran of Arkiel.

  "Well then get ready! We have been planning for months at this point!"

  "If I may interject, my artillery pieces are in place at 2 borders. I could fire them soon."

  "Finally, someone of competence!"

  "I need you to do the same for me."

  "That can be arranged."

  ***

  There has not been a message from either expedition group. Losing and not hearing from one was stressful, but no messages from 2 was worrying, considering that his brother was in one of them.

  The queen's and the dragon kingdoms realized that if there could be a second continent after only believing in one, there could be a third. Volunteers were quite easy considering that dragons have a huge ego and think they can do everything.

  His brother Hurricane was one of those dragons which didn't surprise him. He wasn't worried about him getting thrown into the ocean due to his ability to breathe underwater, he was worried that he would be lost forever and die out there, or even go insane.

  It had been one year since the whole Pantala thing went down and that dragons finally figured out scavengers were intelligent. Not so shockingly, a lot of the dragons showed no sympathy or fake sympathy. They will say they're sorry but in reality they're going to completely toss it to the side and go onto other things. Dragons actually feeling bad for what they've done are a minority, a lot have the mentality of 'I didn't eat them so I shouldn't feel bad' which is insane to him.

  In Sponge's own mind he did indeed feel bad. For him it was hard not to as they were intelligent creatures that had been slaughtered for thousands of years. Growing up he had only ever seen what had been in the scrolls and that had shaped his thinking. But when he actually got to see a scavenger den for the first time after the discovery, he realized that the dragons documenting this were just being ignorant. Scrolls and teachings made him think that they were just hobbled up sticks or they stayed in caves but no, they had masonry, developed paths, shops, blacksmiths and more.

  What makes it worse was the only thing they got as an apology was that dragons would stop hunting them and even that was being broken. It completely made sense that anytime a peaceful dragon went to a den to show that they were peaceful they got stabbed.

  His brother didn't exactly share the same opinions, he really didn't care. Now that 1 year had flown by and his ego brought him to the mission.

  Sponge was deep in thought when his mother, Seaweed, swam into the room holding a small scroll.

  [Hey, what's that?] Sponge flashed at his mother.

  [A note from Hurricane, it's relieving to know he didn't die.]

  [Thank the moons, what does it say?]

  [I haven't read it yet, that's why I came here.]

  [Well then, read it.] He told his mother.

  [Well, my group has made it to a big chunk of land. We have not explored it fully nor do we know the size. It is possible that this is a continent, or just an island. We are yet to see any dragons, however, we have seen a scavenger but there is a problem. One of my idiot companions got the thing killed and went into a panic. We walked away from it until he realized he forgot to bury it. It has been over a day since he left and he is yet to return. The rest of the group has no clue what happened as we returned to the scene after one day. He is missing, but I do not care for him. Something peculiar though was that the scavenger was in some metal box that had wheels. Nothing was pulling it but it was moving. The box is gone now, probably taken by other scavengers. I speculate that he is dead, probably rotting in a ditch somewhere. If he just took care of the body very first without leaving he would be fine. I shall write to you more at a later time.]

  Well, that was... something.

  So he was safe, which is good, but he appears to be even more arrogant and supposedly his companion has already killed a scavenger. How great.

  Sponge once again turned his attention to his mother, [Do we like, tell the queen that they have found something? And quite possibly pissed off some scavengers?] He asked wonderingly.

  [I-I don't know. We should tell them that one member of their group is missing, or dead. We also may have to add about the scavenger incident, we would have to be quick to show that it was an accident.] Was the reply he received.

  [Yea, it would be a bad idea to not let them know.]

  His mother nodded and swam out of the room, leaving Sponge in his watery bed to think. Think about what was just read. How in the moons above did they already manage to kill the one thing that they promised not to kill or hunt a year ago? Sure, it may have been an accident, but it could've been avoided.

  Oh Hurricane, his thoughts whispered, why are you so arrogant?