Sitwa had been an utter bore, a bust, a royal waste of time and space except for having seen that chieftain in all her fancy tribal dress which had made the stop somewhat worthwhile.

Perhaps Iuny will be more interesting...

"So, who rules Iuny then or is it another gaggle of nobles like Mjesani?"

"Iuny ruled by Tasid (Tas-eed), lazy, lazy stallion. Very fat, never leave home except to visit Fareed or burn village. Tasid is short, fat, oily little creature."

Jelani spat on the road as she finished speaking then promptly picked right back up and went through Tasid's life story which was quite vague but colorful to say the least. Much like Fareed there was nothing this "stallion" would not do, the realm of earthly pleasure was his only concern and if it brought him greater pleasure then by all means, do it.

That included him owning quite the harem of slaves and every one of them feared for their lives considering what happened to a couple of them. One was tossed into a sack which was tied to a rock and then dumped into the river to drown after she did something that displeased him, what it was no one actually knew.

Rumors also used to bleed out from his mansion every once in a while from various visitors or the handful of servants he had who were not bound as slaves. As a result everyone knew his harem was quite vast and he loved to show it off to his special visitors but every once in a while their numbers would slump though no one had any solid proof as to why.

It kind of reminded Verik of a long forgotten Ottoman sultan who had come up with his own solutions and like this one neither were overthrown but lived long, healthy lives. That or the more modern ones who did the same only on airplanes zipping around the world claiming they were immune to jurisdictions. Others preferred to just use orphanages to hide what they were doing and what a scandal that turned out to be.

Jelani did not stop describing him either, this bastard had his hands in just about every kind of extortion that came to mind and the tribes were all on edge because of that and more. In particular was one little bit of fun he had come up with which reminded him greatly of an old feudal law in French which meant "first right of the lord" or something like that.

All the same it sounded about right: Tasid got first chance at any married couple or to put it more specifically he got to sleep with the wife first if he fancied her.

Last time the soon to be husband challenged it he had been whipped in public then sold as a slave, the unfortunate wife "joined" Tasid's ever growing and shrinking harem. For such a "stud" he had no heirs though and no one knew why but there was no shortage of rumors as to why.

Neither was he actually married, the other nobles were unwilling to chance marrying their daughters to him and rightly so. Not that he cared one whit for it either way as a wife would probably drag him down and require a modicum of civility.

What brought the ire of those under him however was how he ran the river and the one single road they were on. In order to get their yearly tithe to the government on time they had to either send wagons or use a river barge, the later of which all belonged solely to Fareed or... Tasid. Of course the use of his ships was not free either and since the goods had to actually reach Fareed's depots in Alzamard "shipping costs" were added in.

So many rumors flowed about this creatures character no one really knew what was true or a lie and neither did it help that he almost never appeared in public. Among the many rumors was his being deeply involved in managing the slave trade in this smaller region, as to how no one knew, just one more rumor among many. All agreed however that he lived well beyond his means and those great sacks of coin had to be coming from somewhere.

Unfortunately for everyone how he pulled all this off was largely or entirely unknown except to Fareed apparently.

One thing was crystal clear though: Tasid was one corrupt little bastard in every sense of the word and he got away with it because he adhered to the prime directive of the land: appease Fareed.

King of all bootlickers would be the word Verik would choose as the toad always made certain that Fareed came first, if Fareed wanted it, he got it. Period. The last time his high holiness had deigned to visit he had rolled out the red carpet and even gathered up some locals as "offerings" to Fareed that were visually appealing.

It worked too, the bootlicking, kowtowing, groveling and crawling had paid off and Fareed let him do whatever he wished for years on end.

What made Verik choke however was the age of this one: twenty-three. At the ripe old age of twelve Tasid had come to power due to the death of his father and mother because of bad timing on their part: they just happened to be on the road when raiders crossed the border and this lot took no prisoners.

The gene pool had almost been saved that one fateful day but this little hellspawn had been left at home with some trusted advisors. All three of whom were picked off one after another as the years went along or so the story went. Jelani was a still a "filly" when it happened but her father had been quite the information gatherer and from the sound of it he put the local grape vine to shame.

At fourteen Tasid had "removed" his last advisor and cloaked himself so well that no one could prove anything and ran his little "empire" with the brain downstairs for years but was wise enough to use the one upstairs to stay in power thus Fareed permitted him to exist.

Come fifteen he had amassed himself a harem and did whatever he damn well pleased to anyone without repercussion and by eighteen he was the undisputed ruler of this little corner of the country.

Besides, it was not like the toad could cause any problems way out here, he sat on a river that did nothing except serve as a secondary bread basket while sitting in a backwater town the world had forgotten centuries ago. Indeed the last time a war had broken out in the region the enemy had completely forgotten Iuny even existed! They just passed them by, it was such a speck no one gave a damn.

Tasid helped this along too by keeping a force large enough to suppress the locals while fully garrisoning the town but not big enough that anyone passing through would seriously consider him a threat and it worked too. They were cloaked in the mirror of poverty and destitution and although entirely true it was only because Tasid had all the money.

Verik remarked to Jelani that for someone who had not really known a whole lot about the world a week ago she was now quite the dictionary for politics. Jelani shot back that because Iuny was so close to Wete they had to know because more than once Tasid had tried to bring the largest neighboring chiefdom's into his domain a few times but Fareed always said "no."

It was clear even Fareed did not trust the him one bit despite his overwhelming power, all of which said something about Tasid's character. It was not unusual to have mercenary companies "visit" every once in a while and most suspected there were more than a few spies living in the town to keep tabs on him.

Verik could only guess that so long as Tasid stayed useful he would be permitted to live but come the day he crossed that line...

Of all the nobles though he was also the only one to be so well "protected" and not by any choice of his own. Fareed wanted him there because he was predictable, or so everyone believed. The last visit he had made a rather public statement as a warning: That should anything happen to his "dear friend" Tasid he would put one of the mercenary captains in control.

That one sentence had pacified all the locals and nearby tribes on the spot.

"So thats Iuny... Why are the walls so torn up?"

"It is an ancient town and used to be a fort for some nation a long time ago, Tasid does not exactly see keeping it up as a high priority."

Zuri had begun to travel with the little pack that had consisted of Jelani, Asha and Verik. He had a pretty good guess as to why: Zuberi had probably noticed the tone of the conversations and their subject which to his ears meant trouble and that meant keeping a closer eye on them. This meant sending his sister Zuri to do all the spying.

"Must be one arrogant little bastard to just let the walls rot away like that."

"No one has ever tried to lay siege or even challenge him at the gates of his city so he has no reason to suspect anything. When an army did come they went straight to Mjesani and never bothered to send any patrols down the road to Iuny or even Sitwa."

"So he keeps it up well enough to resist a peasant uprising because that is all he expects?"

"Yup."

Not only Zuri nodded but Jelani and Asha as well.

Verik stared at the walls as they got closer and examined their decrepit state: the towers were leaning because the brick layers had no idea what they were doing and the wall had bulges in several places.

Iuny's gate was also just as bad in its dried and worn state which showed signs of warping in places but since it still worked to keep the peasants out... Why fix it.

"Zuri, your more politically inclined like your brother, right?"

"Yes..."

"Fareed, Tendaji and Tasid are male, a council of nobles rules Mjesani and the chieftain at Sitwa is female... Is that normal or an exception?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you zebras, Arabians... Rule by matriarchy, patriarchy or is power just up for grabs?"

"Whoever rules does so be they mare or stallion... Why?"

"Just curious."

Well that was interesting, it would appear that Zebrica was fair when it came to allowing the corrupt to rule be they male or female.

The caravan did not go into the town but instead turned left and parked in the shade of trees that had been allowed to grow to within fifty yards of the town walls. Zuberi called the halt here and stated they would depart come tomorrow as any continuation could mean trouble of a different sort.

This was also the signal for Sefu, Jelani and Asha to pull Verik aside as it was now the time for him to embark on his next great quest: purchasing a gift for Nuru.

Tea, that is what they had said. Just some simple tea that only grew around Iuny and that would greatly appease Nuru, it also showed he had bothered to learn what she liked the same as the spice would prove the same towards Tendaji. Not that either were necessarily true: he did so because it improved his odds and right now that meant everything.

Zuri would of course be going with them seeing as Zuberi had mounting suspicions according to Sefu who slipped that tidbit in when she was not listening. Suspicions of what? Causing trouble, the fight in Mjesani had not gone entirely without his notice as blood splatter is not so easily washed out of white fur.

Walking towards the gatehouse a gaggle of poorly dressed soldiers milled about drinking and arguing with each other and paid no attention to them as they walked inside the town. While it was not a grand town compared to places back on earth it was still stacked and packed with a single road shooting from the gate to the river where it abruptly stopped at the docks.

Iuny was like a Mjesani 2.0 on a smaller scale but without the pointless gates and walls. Instead the mud brick buildings were so packed together they formed a wall in and of themselves dividing things up rather well but any serious attacker would be able to just make a sharp turn and go around any blockage.

"I want to see the bridge."

"No bridge, just ruins."

Sefu was a little confused by Verik as he continued to insist on seeing the boats and the ancient collapsed relic of a bygone epoch but he continued to insist until they relented. Sefu did make the demand that the gift came first and then they could see the boats and bridge. The others thought Verik's interest was rather funny.

To them it was childish to want to see such things and take so much interest in them since they had no meaning in their day to day lives. Verik insisted however that he did not get dumped on their world and come all this way just to walk away from a chance to see ancient history.

Saying that confused them even more.

For a bazaar it was rather stripped down and simple with just about every household item one could think of for sale from pots, jugs, jars, spoons, food, spices, tea, crockery and one was even selling a few small copper pans for a rather steep price.

Their first stop however was the potter and after purchasing another tiny jar much like the one which held spices for Tendaji they hustled off towards the stallion selling tea and herbs before Sefu suddenly came to a halt.

"How much you have?"

Ah.

Verik undid his pouch and after pouring what was left into his palm the others flinched a little, he had almost nothing left and the way Sefu was shaking his head it would not be enough.

"I help."

Asha pulled out a few coins of her own followed by Jelani then finally Sefu, Zuri was ignored completely and she even turned and pretended to ignore them right back; she would not be coughing up any coins for his sake.

"Why?"

"You help us many times, now we help you."

Sefu collected the coins then promptly got into an argument with the zebra selling the tea while the others watched them haggling back and forth.

"I never did ask... How much is a coin worth? Copper, bronze, silver, gold... Also what are things worth, you are always haggling over even the smallest things."

Jelani watched quietly for a moment before glancing over and pointing at the pot Verik held.

"Worth ten copper, no more, if fancy with markings more but never more than eighteen. Twenty copper make one bronze, forty bronze make a silver... Hundred silver make one gold."

"That is a rather... Odd... No I take that back, your coinage system makes no sense, how can it be that lopsided? Is silver rare and gold unheard of or something?"

"Yes and no... Silver common but copper and bronze more useful for everyday buying. Gold is rare, used by rich merchants and nobles or for expensive jewelry but gold have no use for us."

"Who exactly set the pricing values?"

"Fareed."

"So he basically deigned that gold is too good for the common folk thus hiking its price till no one can afford it nor use it?"

She hummed a moment before shrugging.

"So what is food worth?"

"Why you want to know now?"

"I have been rather busy just trying to stay alive but now seems a good time to learn."

"True... Cup of barley beer three copper, bread ten, meal twenty five. Pound of ground corn five bronze..."

Verik listened to the lopsided pricing of everything with confusion written on his face to the point Asha tapped Jelani on the shoulder to stop her from droning on.

"I think I now know why your economy is going down the drain, everything revolves around five, ten or twenty of a set coin with little to no weights or balances..."

Zuri rejoined their little conversation with her own words of enlightenment at this point and explained that because few could count properly beyond twenty or thirty everything had to revolve around those denominations less they get confused.

Since everything was haggled for that only complicated matters somewhat but since nothing was ever really worth more than that it all worked out in the end. Somehow. Of course, you could always save money by engaging in the age old practice of going to the source and buying bulk in its raw form then refining things yourself.

Buying corn or wheat ground was expensive but buying it underground was incredibly cheap meaning if you could grind it yourself life became much easier. Some still preferred to buy it pre-ground though because it was faster and easier.

"Jar."

"What?"

Verik jerked a little as Sefu held his hand out and motioned to hurry up, the deal was done and now he just needed the storage container. Handing it over he watched Sefu return to the seller and after further arguing the tea which appeared more herbal than anything else was carefully weighed and gently poured into the small jar.

Sefu returned and handed it to Verik before motioning towards the dock, the most important matter was now taken care of.

Boats in Iuny were mighty interesting. From small to medium size they were built for cargo not speed or luxury except for one farther down which turned out to be Tasid's personal yacht, it was for whenever he felt like going for a cruise on the river or disposing of those who displeased him or bored him in bed as the rumor mill whispered.

From the riverbank Verik could see the wall that sealed the mansion off along with the top of the buildings hidden behind. If someone crossed the river in boats or just shattered the main gate there was actually little to nothing what so ever to stop anyone from just tearing through the place.

How the walls joined was also a hint at poor planning: Tasid's little mansion was a new addition to the ancient walls and had been joined directly in with two towers meaning if you got on the walls you could bypass the gate and use the wall to get inside of his mansion assuming you took one or both towers on either end.

Indeed another hole in the defense presented itself with a large open door frame that led from the mansion to the private dry-dock for Tasid's yacht. How the river bent through Iuny gave them an excellent view of this oversight.

As Verik stared at the poorly planned defenses he guessed that with a few boats you could make a direct crossing and just walk inside the mansion then fight your way out from there. The barracks was located too far away to save their glorious leader in time but after asking where it was Zuri took new interest in Verik's line of questioning.

Time to change subjects...

"Are those made of reed?"

Everyone's attention shifted back quickly to the small reed craft locals were using to cross the river for access to the fields on the other bank of the river. It was not a great river by any stretch of the imagination. Make no mistake it was tiny compared to the massive river that flowed through Alzamard.

Poles or maybe one oar was all that anyone needed to cross at various set points meaning the water level was rather low at some points thus all the river boats all had shallow, flat hulls from the look of them or were made of reed and floated high above.

It was rather fun he had to admit, it was like getting a first hand glimpse into ancient Egypt in an odd sort of way as the locals pushed their little reed boats along with long poles. The only ship actually moving around had to sit dead center to the river or risk running aground before making a hard turn into the docks.

"Why is the dock so high above the water line?"

"Floods once a year, right now low so crops planted." Asha pointed far to the south. "When rain water flow into great lake, flood, run north, rain in mountain cause bigger flood, brings black mud good for growing crops."

"So its like a mini Nile River then... This happen at the Thriti River? Does Alzamard flood?"

"Yes but Alzamard never flood, built on high ground." Jelani motioned with a jerk of her head. "To north Miwani and Wete, also built on high ground."

"Sounds like a good deal, free fertilizer for your crops."

"We wish, Wete and Miwani not have much flood plain, not get enough and other bank belong to other tribes, they no farm but burn crop if we try to grow."

"No irrigation to allow the flood to be channeled off into fields?"

"How you do that?"

How could they not know?

Verik stared at an oddity across the river before looking at the two story building that the shipwrights were using and after saying he would be back in a minute walked over. After a quick discussion with the shipwrights he got permission to climb to the second floor and look across the river with a higher vantage point.

From his higher perch he could see the fields being farmed were a fraction of what was once used. All the telltale signs were written into the earth that a long time ago someone had gone to great effort to dig a vast channel network that would allow fields beyond what was normally hit by the flood to also be submerged and receive a rich inundation of silt.

Somewhere along the line the locals had forgotten as things continued to degrade and considering how violent the region was. They probably got chased off more than once and returned to destroyed channels that never got cleaned up as one war after another passed over the area long ago.

The end result was a checkerboard like effect on the far side where the earth was slowly reclaiming these ancient relics of agricultural know-how meaning the local farmers had less and less to work with. No doubt the corruption of the local government was not helping matters either as it would take a great concerted effort to undo the countless centuries of damage these ancient systems had sustained.

Standing out just as much was the ruins of the ancient bridge: tremendous effort had gone into its construction to make it span the river and be wide enough for wagons to cross over its solid stone construction. Yet for some reason there was nothing left of it but old, worn out stone pillars and a few braces that still held up one tiny section.

Someone had been very intent on seeing it built then another more so on seeing it destroyed.

Verik returned to the waiting zebras before pointing to the ruins and asking what had happened, who had built it and where they had gone.

Zuri knew the story only as the local population knew it but that left more questions than answers. All anyone knew was that long ago when ancient empires had fought for control of Zebrica one of them had built this bridge. One of the others did not like this one bit and sent an army to seize ancient Iuny so they could control the bridge and river, the resulting clash devastated both sides as they both needed the entire bridge not just their side of it.

Somewhere in all of this chaos one side decided it was better to see it destroyed than let the other just have it as the stalemate would mean dual fortresses being constructed to square off against each other till hell froze over.

A useless bridge that would go nowhere and no one would ever be able to use it.

Beyond that no one knows which side destroyed it but they did know but the results were not. It had crossed at the one point shallow enough that it was possible to have a bridge but not restrict the movement of ships via the use of some ancient means that no one had any idea of except that ships were able to pass.

Perhaps a drawbridge in the center? Maybe they just made the ramp keep climbing till ships could pass underneath? Whatever the method used it was so long ago nothing was left to give any hints as to what method they had chosen, it was a mystery lost to time.

"We buy bread for dinner."

Everyone looked at Sefu as he stared at a small raft ferrying workers back for the day before motioning with his head.

"Pass, too broke."

"Its okay."

The little procession wandered towards a structure that had several large zebra driven mills with several half-oval ovens where bakers worked quickly to crank out bread for the evening rush hour. Bread here was much cheaper than Mjesani due to the sheer amount of wheat and barley they grew in the surrounding fields but otherwise food prices jumped.

Watching them work was quite a sight to behold as workers held onto wooden poles and walked in circles moving the mill stones slowly while another worker would scurry up and after placing a ladder, climb up and dump several baskets of grain into the hopper before the grinding would continue.

From there the flour was caught, packed and delivered to the bakers who either stored it in massive clay jugs with a white stripe or turned it into dough before letting it sit and raise before being turned into smaller loaves or flatbread. Loaves were tossed into the ovens while flatbread was slapped directly onto the side of a blazing hot oven and cooked near instantly before being slapped off with a stick then tossed into a large reed basket.

It was a good system that worked very well but was also somewhat foreign when he considered the region. Then again this region had once been part of several different empires, with which came different ideas of how to do things all of which had rubbed off on the locals who still used their methods to this day.

Sefu did the purchasing this time and passed around the cheapest bread they sold: flatbread. Everyone got one and it cost him next to nothing at five copper total. Pricing was completely broken here but at least it worked in their favor this time around.

For whatever reason it was decided they would sit and eat their bread while sitting around the riverbank watching the boats. Perhaps Verik's obsession had somehow made them curious as to what he saw in what they considered everyday drudgery.

They were not alone for very long either as two kids wandered over to stare at the gathering and what a pitiable little duo they were.

Taking a guess they were brother and sister just by looking at them. Nor had they been eating very well if their poor health any hint. Covered in dirt and dust they looked like two walking flea traps and both of them were so scrawny a good gust of wind might blow them away at any moment.

As Verik watched them staring from a short distance he looked around at the others and saw Asha staring back at them with a slight twitch. What he failed to were Sefu and Jelani watching him from the corner of their eyes intently.

What he did raised two eyebrows and earned a smile from the other while Zuri decided to sit on the fence and ignore the situation again.

He had yet to begin piecing on the flatbread so Verik tore it in half and made the offer to the kids. Hesitation pervaded as they eyed the strange creature before finally slinking forward and reaching out carefully, with a quick swipe they each took what was offered and ran off scarfing the bread down before disappearing amongst the houses.

Sefu watched them scamper off for a moment before his head returned to Verik then nodded in the direction they had run off in.

"I give you bread, you give it to walking dead."

"It is a gift that will keep on giving. Besides, they needed it more than I ever will."

"You have almost nothing."

"I can always use those spears to hunt and kill assuming there is any wildlife so it is not that big of a deal."

"They probably starve tomorrow anyway."

"Probably, but if anyone ever asks I can say at least I tried."

"Tried what? Make no difference."

"Maybe to you. This world is all you know and while I have always been a pessimist I figured right now was a good a time as any for a change. Besides, sometimes having a heart is more important than doing what is logical."

Sefu shrugged then went back to watching the boats crisscross the river with Jelani while both hid the beginnings of a smile. Asha on the other hand just stared and smiled happily at Verik.

"You are right brother, he is trouble."

Zuri sat beside her brother as they ate in the growing darkness, they had returned from their little sojourn an hour earlier and quickly went about preparing for the evening gathering water for cooking then accepting their rations.

"So long as he does not do anything stupid."

"I think he is asking too many questions and has taken an unhealthy interest in the nobles."

Zuberi stopped eating for a moment then raised an eyebrow at his sisters statement.

"What do you mean?"

"He keeps asking questions and spends too much time studying the walls and towers, even asking where the barracks is."

"Are you saying that he what... Is planning on seizing Iuny? With what army?"

"I dont know but the look in his eyes is one Sefu and Jelani get sometimes and the last time they had it..."

"Yes, I know what happened and all was forgiven by the tribe."

"Verik is not Wete though but they insist on bringing him, if that look he had means anything..."

"Hopefully not but it is out of our hands, only Tendaji and Nuru can decide if he stays now."

"Will you try and dissuade them?"

"No..." Zuberi let out a long sigh. "I do not like him but maybe Sefu is right, his instinct has never been wrong. Yet. So I will trust him this time as well, who knows maybe this... Predator, will do some good in Wete."

"He is still trouble and might try to start a war like other tribes."

"Zuri... If he just accepted our situation and went along with it I would tell Sefu to not only kick him out of my caravan but to hit his head into the nearest tree in the hopes of knocking some sense into him. Not agreeing with what he sees means he is not like those who follow Fareed and that is what is most important."

"As you wish brother."

Two sets of eyes stared across the camp to where Verik sat with Asha and his growing little collective that now included Sefu and Jelani. A dangerous combination but these were dangerous times and to judge them would mean to judge their own acceptance of the evils that pervaded the land. However, as in all things, time would tell as to who was right and who was wrong.

Zuberi just hoped it would not end for the Wete like it did for Asha's tribe.

Author's Notes:

Was never too happy with some chapters and this was one of them, still not terribly happy with it.