Book 5: Chapter 57: Marathon
Howard
September 2344
Jabberwocky
Raft creation wasn’t much of an issue. We had lots of trees, and they’d evolved to be light—something like balsa wood. Lashing a dozen posts together took next to no time, and the rafts could be carried comfortably at the end of a set of slings by about sixteen dragons. Coordinating everyone to prevent midair collisions was a real fear, so it helped that only trained and disciplined military would be tasked with this part of the plan.
Within hours, the first raft was on its way, with more coming ready every couple of hours. Soon we had twenty rafts en route. The next phase was supplies. Clay pots for the signal fires, kindling to burn, food, and tuev all went out in slings held by pairs of dragons.
It was a military operation that any Earth general would have been proud of. And while this had been going on, the rest of Alexander’s army had been organizing the dragon exodus. Most of the required numbers had been filled by volunteers, since the specter of starvation was very real and very immediate. A human would have trouble understanding the dragon psychology in this regard. A human could, in extreme circumstances, survive for weeks on little or no food—not so dragons with their amped-up metabolisms. A few days without sustenance, and most of them would eat their own mothers.
A dragon wearing the arm patch of the military flew in from the west and landed heavily. He sat down, panted for a few moments, then said, “All set. Rafts are ready; fires are lit.”
Alexander turned to his generals. “Let’s get this going.”
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