Chapter 516: Departure
Tala and Rane’s time with Sunnydale came to an end when the village was scheduled to begin a sweep to the north so that it could start circling back toward the west in the general loop that they maintained.
Apparently, if they’d continued south and east, they would have come into a region that was loosely controlled by one of the very few ‘cities’ out here in the wandering wilds. They wanted to avoid that for obvious reasons.
But beyond that, back north and west they knew the terrain, the local beasts, and the neighbors, even if they never followed exactly the same path on any given pass.
The goodbye was gracious, but Tala got the impression that everyone involved was used to passing relationships, and cyclical friends.
They’d be on wonderful terms if they ever crossed paths again, though. It was a bit funny to Tala, as most of the trades had been between the citizens of Ironhold and those of Sunnydale.
In that vein, there had actually been a few exchanged citizens.
A single family of Irondalians had asked for—and been granted—permission to stay. Apparently, their eldest daughter had found a spouse, and so the family was going to remain in order to stay together.
On the Ironhold side of things, there were a hundred or so applications, mostly individuals, but a few from families, and a total of thirty people were approved to immigrate.
None of the gated had asked to join Tala’s hold, which was good because such were actually considered a bit of community resources, even if not in the same sense as in the arcane cities.