Dream by RW Krpoun Page A

pointed to a small stand of trees. “See? They look like willows with gray leaves, almost silver. Silverlines. The alchemist apprentice I talked to mentioned them, they’re native to the Plains.”
    “Great.” Shad sat on a log and dropped his pack. “Now all we have to do is find buried rocks.”
    “That’s where it gets complicated,” Derek admitted. “We’re hardly the first. The easy stuff will be gone. I guess head deeper into the Plains, see what we see.”
    “No,” Fred shook his head. “High ground.” He pointed to the hills that lined the plain.
    “Why high ground?” Shad asked.
    “Visibility,” the warehouseman-turned-barbarian gestured towards the hills. “You bury a warrior worthy of a mound, you either put him on a battlefield or you put him up high, someplace dominant. I saw that on NatGeo.”
    “OK,” Shad nodded thoughtfully, idly tucking a couple pieces of bark into his charms pouch. “But wouldn’t everyone know that?”
    “No,” Jeff shook his head. “The study of ancient people for purely intellectual purposes is a post-medieval thing. On Earth only the Catholic Church maintained that sort of intellectual research during the Dark Ages and Medieval times. I didn’t see a big religious presence here.”
    “From what whats-her-face said, I bet these are not religious people,” Derek nodded. “Not as we understand the concept.”
    “What about the mages?” Shad asked.
    “They would look into stuff that would connect to power,” Derek admitted. “But not just for the sake of knowledge, at least not as a group. These barbarians are only noteworthy for their use of whitestone. I doubt much is really known about them.”
    “All right, we have an edge. What else you got, Fred?”
    “If the mound wasn’t in an area under direct control, or if they were nomads, they would conceal the mound by making it look natural while leaving a method of marking it so future tribesmen could find it.”
    “What do we look for?”
    “A method of marking that won’t look man-made, but which is distinctive. Nomads in the plains of the Ukraine planted trees on top of the mound. Certain types of trees.”
    “What about these trees?” Shad gestured towards the silverlines.
    “They only grow on the Plains,” Derek said thoughtfully. “Well, places like the Plans. Something in the soil.”
    “When did you get a lecture on trees?” Jeff snickered.
    Derek flushed. “Hey, she was cute. And she was prepping the leaves.”
    “Too bad we didn’t get a contract to gather leaves, too,” Shad shook his head.
    “They grow them, the alchemists. You just have to prep the soil…” Derek’s voice trailed off.
    “Yeah,” Fred grinned. “I wonder if those nomads knew how to prep the soil?”
    “Worth looking into,” Shad heaved his pack back on. “Lets go.”
     
    “Sum bitch ,” Shad gasped, dumping his pack and collapsing into the dry grass. “That’s pretty damn steep.”
    “Its been a while since I marched up a slope with a pack,” Jeff gasped, dropping pack-first onto his back and then wriggling out of the straps.
    “I hate this place,” Fred sat on his pack and rubbed his left knee. “I still think they left some metal in here. Military doctors suck.”
    “Go easy on the water, Derek,” Jeff warned. “Our canteens are all we’ve got, and we’re not getting any more until tomorrow.”
    “Speaking of tomorrow, let’s make camp in that dip over there, no fire, and we can look at trees tomorrow. We’re almost out of light.”
    “That clump Fred spotted is only about three hundred yards from here, more or less,” Jeff dragged his pack into the depression Shad had indicated.
    “Might as well start there tomorrow.” Shad picked a spot and carried his pack over. “You know, you forget how much fun it is to hump a pack,” he observed as he pulled off his boots. “Oh, man, I needed that.”
    “You know, Fred had a good point,” Derek kept his voice low so it would not