7. The Grain Drain

Ollimo watched from the hill as multiple fires burned in Amor, and nobody made any effort to extinguish them. His father certainly didn’t care. Their fragile warning network of racoons, wolves and optimism had long ago given up raising the fire alarm again.

He had filled the water barrels, mostly out of habit, but he couldn’t steer the truck and refill alone. Not fast enough to stop what was happening now. Not if he might be infected with the lose-all-hope-curse too, if he came too close to the criminals.

A boar walked past on the other side of the aqueduct. He could’ve sworn that boar ran the other way just a moment earlier. Strange beings, Amori.

He was long past telling his father “come on” and “wake up” and “help me”. Olfaman’s desire to save the innocent from fires did not seep away, no, it seemed to have been completely stolen at once. Which gave Ollimo some hope he might find it and give it back.

“Why did you start?” he asked father. “Maybe you can remember why you started the fire brigade. Maybe that … that will work.”

“Oh, forest fire, death, Tresmo, the whole thing,” said Olfaman.

Ollimo spit out the water in his trunk. “You were there? You know how Tresmo’s tragedy happened?”

“Yes. The fire was terrible. A wall of death all around us, trapping at least fifty unlucky animals. And your mother …” Olfaman’s voice broke. “Alix tried to explain we could remove the fires with water. He wasn’t the greatest teacher, to be honest. Still isn’t. All the elephants then discovered they could spray water using their trunks, and that’s how we made a few gaps.”

“And that’s why you started the fire brigade,” said Ollimo. He gave his father a hopeful smile. “Because you …”

“Because I’m foolish. It’s all hopeless. New fires will always arrive anyway.”

“No, no, no,” said Ollimo, bouncing around his father.

“Yes, yes, yes,” he said. “Or do you have some special power to prevent all future fires?”

“No, you’re right about that. But you draw the wrong conclusions. You made the very first fire brigade. You have saved countless lives, homes, and more. You know, more than most, how much pain Tresmo is in, how much pain fire can cause. You do all this because you … because you …”

“Because I …” Olfaman’s eyes deepened their colors and finally saw his son. “Because I don’t want anyone else to burn to death ever again.”

The large elephant restored himself to his full size.

He had been able to see the fires burning in Amor all this time. In fact, he’d barely moved his head for hours, as if he couldn’t physically look away.

But seeing was not the same as noticing. Observing was not the same as feeling.

“The fires!” exclaimed Olfaman, his skin regaining color. “The fires! Oh, Ollimo, almost the entire Farmor District is burning!”

Like the diamond, dear reader, it takes energy to create order. To create things, instead of maintain random chaos. For example, it takes sunlight and a long time to create a huge wooden tree like Tresmo. That means energy was saved inside that wood. That energy is what allowed wood to burn, what made it fuel for fires.

In a city of wooden homes, carelessly leaning on each other like bears of old age, a fire would never go out of its own accord.

The two elephants immediately checked the water barrels, then jumped on their truck.

“The fires,” said Ollimo. “Don’t go near the criminals, whatever they do! Or this will happen again!”

Ollimo nudged against his father, telling himself the real Toxotes firefighter was back. But Olfaman still felt a bit cold and slow.

“No. I remember now,” he said. “It was that fox. Alix! I was passionately telling him about our work, and then, suddenly, suddenly, I felt … nothing.”

“Alix? Brilliant husband of Feria?” said Ollimo. “It doesn’t make sense for him to join those criminals. They fight against Feria!”

“Which means …”

“Yes, it means what you think it means,” said a third voice. As the fire truck started rolling downhill, a boar leapt onto it too, puncturing a barrel with his tusk. At least, it kept him on top of the fire truck as it gained speed.

“Alix isn’t one of us,” said Boaris. “And we are not criminals. We would never hurt … we would never …”

The truck rattled and danced, turning speech into stuttering involuntarily. Its massive speed made the aqueduct next to them look like a gray-blue blur. Then it raced into the first district.

“What?” Ollimo froze amidst the barrels. The criminals he was looking for! One of them had just entered their truck! And … and … what to do? “You are under, erm, arrest for—”

“Oh lord,” said Boaris. “Just stick to firefighting, will you?”

“You won’t get away with this! Laws are laws! And you are thiev—”

Before Ollimo had even uttered the final word, Boaris had jumped off the truck and into the aqueduct.

In a district not far away, three do-not-call-them-criminals lay in wait. The Rescue Squad was about to rescue Amor so hard that nobody could stop them.

“That’s it,” said Ruby. “That part of the wall. The gods use it to smuggle grain into Amor now that we destroyed the largest storage.”

“I am confused,” said Wilplink. “Are we with or against the gods?”

“Ssh!”

Ardex appeared near the wall. He was caught in a brief firefight with another firebird, which he won, then made sure nobody else was around.

Ruby kept shutting them up until Ardex was out of sight.

“Go! Now! With fire and speed!” she hissed.

The next delivery of grain was carried by some strong ox. Somehow, they all slipped at the same time. The cart twisted and fell to the side, and as unlikely as it seems, every single piece of food inside scattered into the dirt.

Mmhmmhmm rapidly removed the dirt, digging tunnel after tunnel. Before anyone could blink, the entire area had lost its floor. The mole smiled smugly, pointing at himself.

“Don’t gloat,” said Wilplink, “that only worked because I made you lucky with my powers.”

“Oh please.”

Wilplink grabbed grain that had already been delivered and threw it into the tunnels as if they were garbage bins. Resupplies were out of the question: any carts that arrived here would have their wheels stuck in all the holes.

Now, Mmhmmhmm was a bit of a liar. He hadn’t dug all those tunnels himself. Many of them were part of a secret project of the wolves, and the reason their surprise attack overwhelmed the Trusks long ago. Still, Wilplink thought, it was nice to have such a capable friend at his side.

When the area was thoroughly trashed, they moved to the next one. They had a strict timetable to keep, even if it was ex-rescuer Boaris who originally drew it up.

The next biggest food storage was well-guarded. That had always been the case, but recent events caused half the standing army to picnic around the plaza.

“This is hopeless,” said Wilplink.

“Oh please,” said Mmhmmhmm, “can’t you ever say something positive?”

“At least my name doesn’t sound like I’m trying to talk with a mouth full of dirt-or-something.”

“Indeed. Wilplink sounds like you should’ve been a dwarf.”

Ruby shut them up with wings over their mouths.

“Disasters are distractions, we’ve proven that,” said she. “As soon as they think the gods are attacking them, they’ll abandon their post. Watch. Stick to the plan.”

Ruby held a diamond in her wings. The last one from their previous haul. She crushed it, drawing in energy, then shot into the sky.

As soon as she was lost between the clouds, Mmhmmhmm shot into the dirt instead. Wilplink knew what to look for and could follow the mole as he tunneled just below the ground. He had to—for it was his responsibility to manipulate the chances of someone seeing, hindering or even killing his companion.

A beautiful sunny day was interrupted by a huge flame coming from the clouds.

Ruby made sure not to actually hit anyone. Instead, she burned the fountain in the middle of the plaza. Still, the flame was a remarkably convincing copy of Ardex’ powers.

Soldiers immediately grabbed their weapons. But they didn’t flee, they formed formations. A significant number of them were birds scouting the clouds for the danger.

Mmhmmhmm pushed into the ground from below. Dirt and stones shot up, forming new hills, seats for soldiers, and eventually slanted walls like broken teeth. A fine imitation of Darus’ powers, even though that god rarely got involved with the war.

Several soldiers screamed and abandoned the place. Some still weren’t convinced.

Wilplink himself had climbed into a tree. He gave Mmhmmhmm the benefit of the doubt on his next tunnel, preventing it from caving in and getting the mole trapped. He gave Ruby some lucky clouds to cover her silhouette in the sky.

What more could he do? He noticed the trees waving slightly in the breeze. A lucky breeze later, several of the trees fell down. A really lucky gust of wind twisted a few branches, as if the tree tried to hit the nearest soldier. Eeris, they screamed, had arrived too.

This caused massive desertion. Without killing a single soldier, they had access to an unguarded storage.

It didn’t take long to relieve it of its burden.

As the Rescue Squad made for the third and final food storage, they informed the Tattlerat to spread a rumor already. Even if it wasn’t true yet. Those were the best rumors.

All our food is gone. The consuls have already fled Amor. All of us will starve in a few days if we don’t surrender.