Aleksei wasn’t sure which wound up being the hardest task. The actual preparations for her second expedition into the Black Forest, or convincing the Captain to let her do it in the first place. She knew why Dilip was so reticent about the prospect. The workforce shortage was still a thing, and in letting Aleksei and her team go, he would be parting with a very valuable Engineer in the form of Aleksei, a cleric, and even Sri and Bart meant he was short an able-bodied sailor and a guard/gunsmith.

Regardless, with perseverance, and quite a bit of arguing that regardless of Dilip’s approval of it, her geas meant she didn’t have a choice as to whether or not she could drop her quest; Aleksei managed to get a three-week window to get it done. Plus the authorization to take whatever gear they’d need.

That at least they didn’t have a shortage of.

What they took?

A lot of equipment. Enough, in fact, to completely fill one of the Defender 130 the fleet commonly used as light utility vehicle, both inside, outside on its roof rack, and even an entire trailer worth of gear, fuel and supplies. Radios to keep in touch with the fleet in the Maasvlakte, a satellite dish on the roof to get access to the database, and plenty of ammunition to deal with whatever critters got in the way. Parked in the holds of Amandine before departure, the white 4x4 with the black anchors on its hood and doors looked ready to cross the Sahara.

Was it necessary? As a matter of fact, yes. Sure, on a map, the trip boiled down to heading from the Netherlands down into southern Germany. It wasn’t that far. Except that didn’t account for the state of roads and highways after the apocalypse.

Jokes about potholes and taxpayer money aside, the state of infrastructure had decayed far beyond what could have been expected from just leaving roads abandoned in the span of time since the Event.

In the Netherlands where they were, slight tidal damage to the Delta Works had led to large swathes of land turning into swamps, forcing anyone that wanted to get through to Belgium or Germany to take a ridiculously convoluted path through, needing to scout out which bridges still stood, and which marshlands were fordable.

And that was the easy part, because then would come Belgium and Germany.

“What’s wrong over there? We stopped by in Belgium all the way back in May, didn’t look too bad back then.” Angelo countered as Aleksei watched the minotaur pour himself some coffee in a mug that looked more like a bucket to the smaller hippogriff.

They were inside Amandine’s cafeteria, having a last word over breakfast before the expedition finally departed. Most of the room was empty, save for them, Sri and Bart sitting at their own table in a corner, and some folks from the day’s watch still looking over their duty sheets as the coffee cooled. Outside, the sun had yet to rise.

“Yeah, but when you went to shut down that nuclear plant, it had barely been a month after the Event. Now...” Aleksei leaned forward slightly. “It’s almost been a year. And let me tell you: Europe’s got its fair share of enchanted forests, and they grow like crazy.”

“The Black Forest you mean?”

“If it were only that. Mind you, the Ardennes count as an enchanted forest as well.”

“They do? What’s the deal with them then? German tanks appearing out of nowhere?” He chuckled.

“Nah. Err… how do I put it?” Aleksei drummed her talons on the table pensively. “Think of it like that: you have the Black Forest. Keyword: dark. That’s its trait as enchanted forest. Then you have Broceliande, over in Brittany. Keyword: mystical. Or fay. You get my meaning.”

“The Ardennes then?”

“Wild” Aleksei clicked her beak and took a sip of coffee.“At least that’s the impression it left when I flew over it with Mikhail and Pavlos. It’s like it’s… cancelling all development that ever happened there? The magic’s just gnawing at anything remotely civilized that’s left in there for a prolonged time. Metal gnawed back to ore. Buildings back to rubble. Highways that look like nothing more than fire cuts. I’m certain you can get through, I saw some of the older bridges were still standing… but by land getting it done is going to be...”

“A bitching time?”

“Aight.” Aleksei nodded. “It’s all hills and valleys after you get past Flanders, and now the highways are proper fucked, everything is covered in trees, and it’s filled with monsters. Both the Ardennes and the Black Forest are growing to the point where you’ll have one massive green blob of a forest cutting a line across western Europe from the Alps to the North Sea in less than ten years if this keeps up...” She sighed.

“Eh, not like it matters much to us. We’re sailors, what’s our business in the hinterland?” Angelo joked with a wide grin. “Except for you of course… Think you’ll do fine out there?”

“Think you willdo fine over here?” Aleksei shot back. “Not going to get bored?”

“Me? Bored? Hardly. I got two weeks left to spend with Artemis before Rhine Forest leaves, and I am going to make the most out of them.” He said, the joking grin turning into a wistful one.

“Oh? You two finally stopped prancing around and got down to it then?”

“Eeyup.”

“Pair-bonded?”

“Eeyup.”

“How is it then? I read that you minos pair-bond for life like with griffons, but it also said in the text it’s nowhere near… uh… intense?” Aleksei asked, genuinely curious.

“If by that you mean I actually can spend one day away from Artemis without feeling depressed...” The minotaur shrugged his wide shoulders. “Then yes, it’s less intense. To be honest, Artemis still doesn’t seem all that comfortable with winding up genderswapped, but she’s growing into it. Unlike you, come to think of it.”

“Don’t start please.” Aleksei sighed. “It’s a geas, how many times do I have to say it? Magical oath. Can’t break it.”

“Cù Chulainn broke one.”

“The Hound bore one of a different type, and it had consequences. You can take a geas like mine as an unbreakable vow… or one as he did, which grants powers so long that the vow remains unbroken.”

“So you don’t lose your cleric status if you break it?”

“Unrelated. There’s a way I can lose it, but that would involve committing an act unfathomable by Celtic values or the domain of fertility.”

“That, I expected.” Angelo paused to take a long gulp of coffee. “Not that I think it would be much of an issue to you. You’re too straight-laced to ever do that.”

“Thanks I guess? But can we talk about something other than me and my geas? I’m already going to spend the next few weeks trying to sort that out, you know.”

“Well between you and me, seems rather obvious you don’t want it sorted out...” The minotaur rumbled lowly before grunting as Aleksei kicked him under the table with a hoof. “Sorry! But if you’re curious about it, then yeah, I’m rather happy with my situation right now. Sure there’s a lot of work to go around, but it’s the closest to a regular nine-to-five I’ve had in years, I got a girlfriend that by all means I’ll be with for the rest of my life without even being able to regret it, and I even found a gaming group.”

“A wha- really?”

“Hey, don’t snark. I need my hobbies. Turns out, someone in Brielle had opened a board game shop before the Event, and now Rhine’s cadets have claimed it for themselves. I’m not especially fond of the tabletop part since they make a lot of house rules adding new races in settings that don’t necessarily need them. I mean, if the intent is roleplaying from the get-go, then what’s the point in adding current races? Let me play a human fighter for all I care, at this point it’s more in the realm of fantasy than picking minotaur.” He shrugged.

“All the options… and you still pick a human fighter?”

Angelo shrugged.

“What can I say? I like my classics, and I don’t need no obscure race with min-maxed multiclassing to get good roleplay done. But props to you for knowing human fighter is as classic as vanilla ice, what are your hobbies anyway right now?”

“Hobbies? I have my job as Third Engineer here on Amandine, and then my duties as fertility cleric. You know what that means? Too little time for myself, and way too much info on everyone’s sexual life.” She shook her head, sighing. “If I told you how many in Brielle are at it, you wouldn’t believe me. I checked, my most used spell these days is the contraception cantrip.”

“Doesn’t seem too logical, coming from a fertility cleric.” Angelo rubbed a thumb against the tip of his horn, Aleksei only then noticing the sheen on them.

Wait… were they actually waxed? Was that minotaur fashion, the horn trim?

… Better than nose rings anyway.

“For one… human contraception only works on a handful of species.” She glanced at the minotaur pointedly. “You should know. And fertility or not, it’s usually better when kids are planned for, not accidental. Plus the contraception cantrip kind of has that ‘kicking the can down further down the street’ effect. Sure when you use it, you have one day of free fun but...” Aleksei raised her wings in a shrug. “It increases potency after the effects wane, and it stacks the more you use it. Like it or not, Epona really is like that mom that’s always asking for grandkids.”

From her position looking into her scrying pond in the Otherworld, Epona threw her head back and let out a neighing laugh.

“Oh child, if only you knew how true that is!”

Aleksei’s expedition left a few minutes later, she, Sri, and Bart piling up inside their Defender before they drove off, first away from the harbor, then away from the safety of Voorne-Putten and the Maasvlakte altogether.

To say there was a stark difference between the island that was actually inhabited, and the surrounding area, would have been the understatement of the day. The Netherlands were a country raised on reclaimed land, and much like forestry reclaimed civilization deeper inland, the sea was showing signs of gaining terrain over the Low Countries. Broken dams and jetties had seen to it that fields and villages secured centuries prior now found themselves under at least half-a-meter of water, if not more. Needless to say, it severely slowed down their advance as they tried to make a cut for the Delta Works.

In a perfect world, they would have made a beeline for Rotterdam and taken the highway south to Germany from there.

In practice? Rotterdam being on their HQ’s doorstep meant they knew fairly well how the metropolis had fared. How badly that is. Lacking anyone to close the floodgates during a particularly nasty spring tide prior to the WSU’s arrival in the Maasvlakte, what had been a key commercial hub in the pre-Event world, now threatened to crumble at a moment’s notice from all the water that had seeped into its foundations, streets blanketed in water, mud and debris. Of all the scavs that routinely ventured into Rotterdam, not one ever took a car. Boating was the way to go.

Rather un-intuitively so then, the shallower parts, those a vehicle could still get across, were actually closer to the sea rather than inland. Though heavily damaged and with their floodgates torn open, the Delta Works still stood in part, allowing for a somewhat faster way to get across Holland and through the vast expanses of floodplains and marshlands the region had become.

Somewhat faster.

“You’re good… you’re good… bit more to the left… theeeere...” Aleksei carefully said.

Not a few hours into the journey and after they had passed the first set of dams across Haringvliet, they found they had to slow down drastically as the first flooded village came up and the water reached the top of their Defender’s wheels, forcing the 4x4 to trudge along in first gear to avoid making waves, while Aleksei sat perched on the hood with a sounding pole, poking ahead of the vehicle so as to avoid crashing into a ditch or any other obstacle hidden beneath the muddy waters.

Sure, she was a hippogriff, she could have turned into a seapony and checked underwater herself.

It was also January, and last she checked there was quite the weather difference between all the tropical ports they had cleared the previous year, and the Netherlands. The waters were frigid, with sheets of ice floating here and there, and so filled with mud and debris you couldn’t see anything a few centimeters below the surface.

Dreary really. They progressed along, Aleksei frequently shivering and tugging at the collar of her coat, thankful she had thought of packing some thermal underclothing prior to leaving, watching as a mass of broken ice, debris and plant matter accumulated around them. Further out, fog banks rolled over the flat landscape with the shadows of the next set of dams that would lead to the next island up ahead. Around them, what at one point might have been a quaint village lay rotting, partly sunken in the frigid water, the buildings’ foundations slowly growing more unstable as saltwater seeping into the masonry. Many had already collapsed, adding debris to the piles that floated with the tide. Come summer, this promised to become one more fetid swamp among many. Off in the distance, the shadow of a ruined windmill loomed, a symbol of how broken the Netherlands were. Further, the sound of seagulls mixed with that of the waves.

There were dry parts, fortunately. It wasn’t all flooded polders. But even then, progress was slow and tedious, and though the area was traversable…

…

They weren’t above making mistakes, and though having a giant moat around the WSU’s HQ could be seen as a good thing, what wasn’t was Aleksei believing she could traverse it with a land vehicle in short order. Had they looked into it a bit more before leaving, then they’d have known they should have rather loaded the Defender on a boat and taken it to Belgium by sea before starting the road trip.

Or even better: take a boat inland up the Rhine and get as close to the Black Forest as possible.

…

Really, anything would have been better than the current plan.

“You know, I starting to think this not the best idea.” Bart commented, the unicorn’s voice ever bearing the accent of someone who only recently started actively speaking English.

“I’m aware.” Aleksei groaned. “Couple paces to the right, you’re straying off the road. In my defense, how was I supposed to know if nobody had tried it yet? I flew above the area before, but it’s not like you can gauge how easy it is to traverse at a glance. Too far to turn back anyway now, best we can do is tell the guys in Rotterdam to look into fixing the highway.” She paused, tapping a claw against her beak. “Let’s hope it’s not as bad in Belgium or Germany, otherwise we’ll be wasting some serious time just getting to the Black Forest.”

“Wait, so how will we bring the Defender back to Rotterdam once we’re done with your quest?” Sri joined in.

“With difficulty.” Aleksei replied, wincing at the prospect.

Might as well call for backup and have a boat sail up the Rhine to pick them up at that point. At the very least, this trip through Holland confirmed their assumption that the region acted like a moat around the WSU’s HQ.

“So if you came through here last time, how come...” Bart started.

“Last time, I barely even touched the ground. Problem is, when you actually plan for an expedition, you need gear, and flyers can’t carry it all. We don’t exactly have a dragon the size of Mikhail to fly our stuff around.” Aleksei pointed out.

“And Mikhail is not here because?” Bart pressed on.

“Can’t expect anyone to be at my beck and call ready to leave whenever I need to continue my quest. He and Pavlos, they got a life of their own you know.” The hippogriff shrugged with her wings before returning her attention to the cold, murky waters in front of her. “Which unfortunately leaves us poking a stick at water. Never figured you would want an echo sounder for a truck, and yet here we are.” She trilled sardonically.

In normal circumstances, a road trip from Rotterdam to Belgium wouldn’t have taken more than two hours tops, traffic jams included.

From two hours, it rocketed up to two days. When night came, the group found themselves forced to drive the Defender up onto the roof of a parking building to get away from the rising tide before they made camp.

Sri and Bart set up their tent, Aleksei making a point of ignoring the noises and the shaking emanating from there during the night whilst she herself curled in her sleeping bag tucked between two supply crates in the back of the Defender, shivering.

For what little rest she managed to snag that night, it was a relief they didn’t have to put up a sentry, thanks to her putting up a ward prior to curling inside her sleeping bag.

But still cold enough that by the time she woke from her state of half-sleep, half-toss-and-turn, there was a layer of frost covering the truck’s windows, given a rosy tint by the lights of the rising sun.

Let it be said that a morning’s coffee is that much more of a relief when you add the fact you’re freezing your wings off in the wintry cold.

More of a relief though, was when they finally made their way into Belgium and that the Dutch swamplands ceded their place in favor of the short-but-dense shrub and copses of trees that covered the Flemish Plain, between decrepit suburbs, towns and industrial zones. It was still cold, with a few centimeters of snow covering the landscape, but the upside was that they finally got away from the humidity.

And the roads were serviceable too, so nowhere near as bad of a time loss when they crossed the region as they had getting away from Rotterdam, exception made for a large pack of feral dogs which were easily chased off after shooting a few of them.

“Guess we’re down to that now...” Bart commented dourly, hearing the barking disappear in the distance after the short altercation. “Shooting dogs...” He poked the corpse of a rather mangy retriever with his hoof.

“Don’t start. It’s necessary.” Aleksei fired right back at the ex-military. “They’re not happy puppies anymore. Pack mentality is a thing. Roving dog packs were already dangerous to humans, how do you think it would go now that you’re a fraction of the size you used to be?”

“I uh...” Bart sighed and shook his head before lifting his rifle back in its sheath across his back with his telekinesis. “Ik know that… is just hard to see them like that. I was with K9 units in the army you know. I know how dogs work.” He sighed again. “Godver-… I miss Samson.”

“Eh, maybe we’ll snag a pup when we get back.” Sri came up to her mate and draped a wing over his back for comfort. “A little ball of life and joy to fill a home.”

Aleksei threw the other hippogriff a look at the remark, to which Sri responded with a knowing wink.

“I figure once you separate them from the pack at a young age they’re safe to raise, I guess.” Aleksei conceded. “Doesn’t change the fact the packs are a danger. Imagine you’re a recent returnee and you come across one of those. Dragon, griffon maybe, you’d be fine. A pony though? I’d bet a few pony returnees have already died that way, thinking the dogs weren’t a threat.”

“Not that there aren’t already many things out to kill returnees...” Bart mumbled, raising a hoof to his collar, the scar on his neck still visible from when a timberwolf attacked him upon returning.

“Unfortunately...” Aleksei nodded.

Nearly a year after the Event, all logic would have it that the current world population should be around three quarters of a million.

Truth was, it probably was much less than that.

Vehicular returnees crashing.

Monster attacks.

Demonic incursions capturing returnees and destroying colonies to make thralls.

Or simply dead due to the downfall of all infrastructure and logistics, lacking access to proper food and medicine.

Hell, even getting proper clothing was a challenge. Only a scant few species could wear human clothes without needing to retrofit them.

Really, if it weren’t for the Equestrians’ assistance at the beginning, and the Gods of Old coming back in this time of need… Aleksei doubted there would be much of humanity (if it could even be called that anymore) left.

She shook her head, shaking off the thought before turning towards Bart.

“Dogs aside… You mind taking the wheel? I know we’re headed to Diest, but you lived there, not me. It can’t be too far, right?” She inquired, looking up at the late afternoon’s sky.

“Half an hour from there.” The unicorn nodded, his tone a bit more somber at the mention of the place. “Come on… If we get going now, I might know a place where we can spend the night. Won’t have electricity running, but it beats tents.”

Diest indeed wasn’t very far away, a little town near the border between the provinces of Limburg and Brabant, where the terrain was just starting to transform from the flat fields of Flanders into the hills and hillocks more commonly present in the southern parts of Belgium. Much like most older European towns, its streets were narrow and paved, with intricately decorated buildings made up of bricks and stone. Testifying to its past as a fortified town, an old Napoleonic fort stood perched on a small hill, looming above the rest of the town, surrounded by dark trees.

It was also definitely devoid of returnees. Left deserted, most buildings bore broken windows and light weather damage, with some facades covered up to the roof in vines now frozen by the cold. In other places, saplings had grown on the sidewalks whenever vegetation managed to escape the parks and planters. As the group drove through, the wind picked up, kicking up flakes of snow and pieces of trash. The only signs of life in the area were the footprints animals left in the snow, and there were few of them.

But no intelligent life. Timberwolves that had passed through? Yes. Monsters? Yes. A single sign of scavenging or abandoned camp or colony?

None whatsoever. Not even when Bart took them to a large grassy plateau on the outskirts of town where they found a small airstrip. As per the unicorn’s explanations, it was an old training center that paratroopers used for balloon jumps. Its gates were still locked shut, with the only living creatures on the strip being a herd of horses escaped from a nearby ranch rummaging the snow for food near the wreckage of a C130 outside its hangar.

Shortly after, Sri and Aleksei noticed Bart slow down. They were getting close to the whole reason why Sri and Bart had accompanied Aleksei in the first place.

A graveyard.

To Bart, that graveyard.

It wasn’t very big, set quietly out of the way in a hollow made by the terrain in a copse of trees. A worn stone wall surrounded the graveyard, with a little bridge passing over a small brook to lead to a set of imposing wrought iron gates. As they approached, the sunlight cast at just the right angle to give the sheets of ice clinging to the gates an eerie glow.

Their truck came to a slow halt in front of the gates, with Bart staring straight at them, stone-faced and silent. Betraying his state of mind however, were the telltale sparks the unicorn’s horn was emitting. In the passenger’s seat, Aleksei cast him a sympathetic look before she reached for the key with a claw and shut the engine. Then, she turned towards Sri in the back seat and gave her fellow hippogriff a nod.

“Go. I’ll keep an eye on the truck, take all the time you need.”

Sri nodded her thanks silently. Meanwhile, Bart closed his eyes, head held low. Aleksei heard the pony mutter something in Dutch before finally making his mind and opening the door.

Aleksei looked away awkwardly, feeling a little out of place.

When she looked back, Sri and Bart were already making their way towards the gates, the hippogriff keeping a wing over her mate’s back.

Through the waters of her scrying pond, Epona observed the emotions dance across her cleric’s features. Envy. Hesitation. Regret.

The goddess mare knew exactly what each of those meant, which only broadened the knowing smirk she bore on her muzzle. Whether all the players in the game were willing to look at the results or not… the die had already been cast.

And Epona liked those results. With another smile and a slow blink of her eyes, the reflection in the pond shifted. If all went according to plan, Brittany’s Celtic fealty would be cemented for centuries at least.

Further into the hinterland, a breeze blew through a dark forest.

Wind chimes rung. An old lady cackled at Fate.

Author's Note

Took me a while, but I finally managed to spare enough time for writing to get this one out. I'll try not to be as slow posting the next chapter, but time is a resource I haven't had in spades as of late, so I cannot guarantee I'll be able to maintain a weekly update schedule in the foreseeable future.

So, here's to the beginning of a new arc and all the worldbuilding it will bring.

Aside from that, I don't feel like my vision of country-wide floods turning the Netherlands into a giant swamp is outside of the realm of possibility. I mean, if you look at the great flood of '53, it didn't even need an apocalypse to get this bad, and now you have a difference between Voorne-Putten which is populated and with its floodgates under control, and the rest of the country.