Legend of Ransera

The preceding month had already prepared Dakkur for Searing in Zaichaer as depending on who it was trying to make him feel comfortable with the city, it was either going to be full of events to remind him of the glory and magnificence of Zaichaer so he could better value his privilege to live in the city which was, opposite of the other idea that the events were nothing but an attempt to obfuscate the masses from the truth of Zaichaer in that all of these spectacles were for nothing but to cow and put everyone else under the boots of the powers that be. Either way the events held by the Riverland Corps was going to be the first of the planned festivities which may as well set the tone for Dakkur's perception of Zaichaer for the coming season and, maybe even longer than that.

It was probably only because it was an event being held by the Riverland Corps that Dakkur felt Searing in Zaichaer was going to be more of the former idea his fellows tried to assure him with. The members of the Riverland Corps just felt really hospitable. Food? There was a lot of food to be had as he walked around the site. Dakkur thought he had tried all the food Zaichaer could call its specialties but it is only now that he found out he was only exposed to the 'better' food which was available to him in the West End and then some of the food he could make do with in the vicinity of his workplace. "Und gis ish fudukin git indha aimee?" And this is the food one could get in the army? That was surprising. Dakkur thought the food given to members in the military would be like the gruel he had when he was in digs. This was so unfair. Studying the old ways was treated as lesser than picking up a firearm and shooting someone? Because this was the perception the higher ups were trying to give to its people. What about knowledge?!

Unless he was a cook though, knowledge was not going to let him taste the really good stuff and greedy enough to have everything, Dakkur was directed to what the locals truly thought were the best foods. Dakkur had only thought he needed to visit a few stalls, get a bite and move on to the next but somehow he found himself seated at a table with a lot of other people and the only thing in common between them was the plates of food left in front of each of them. Three... two... one... go! Almost immediately the other participants started stuffing themselves, as if they were starving dogs who were finally let off the leash so they could have at the meal set in front of them. Hearing the commentator talking about the moratallen who must be so confident about winning that he was nice enough to give the other competitors a head start because that was what all moratallen were good at, Dakkur finally realized he was in a contest and had to eat it to win it and started to stuff himself with all the food too.

Unlike his earlier meals however, Dakkur was not enjoying the food and it was not because of the taste; the food tasted really good especially the ones with meat in them. So juicy and tender, what sort of meat were the Riverland Corps tasked with giving all the soldiers in Zaichaer? This was so nice that Dakkur even considered signing up to join Zaichaer's military, even if he had with him some impediments all the way from Zeraphesh he brought with him to Zaichaer. If there was something he could be certain about Zaichaer after his lengthy stay here it was that the city definitely did not accept magic even if it was on someone of rank and position. However it was not something Dakkur had to worry about, his worries were whether or not he could finish off the food in front of him as hunger and his craving for the good stuff was no longer enough to keep him going. That did not stop him from stuffing a glob of bread into his mouth, then the piece of meat, and the a drink of water to wash it all down. He could feel the water and food stuck in his throat and had to stop. "No more! No more!" He quit. While he was not in first place, at least he could be proud of being pretty high up there in the rankings.

Commendable effort according to one of the people who came up to him for a shake of the hand or a pat on the back. Even without winning first place as they have all expected the giant to do, Dakkur was still a good sport who gave it as good as he could. Resting upon a wall he reciprocated with the usual " thank you, thank you but if you could just let me rest, I'll see if I can join you in for some other fun later." Dakkur felt himself quite bloated and the vigorous movements from the hand shakes and the food constantly being about to be forced out from the back pats were not helping him at all no matter how he tried to keep it all in. There was nothing for else him to do now but rest eventhough it would waste him precious festival time. He did not do it all yet! He ate a lot, not everything which was being sold over here, but he ate a lot; he did not however see all the performances in the carnival, listen to the music of the Zaichaeri or take a look at their interesting instruments although he enjoyed the ones he listened to when they accompanied him in his meals and, he had not won any of the less torturous games yet.

There was spot with a lot chairs for a lot of people but as he was unable to find any other choices, Dakkur decided to rest there. Was that a performance? Was that a lecture? Neither. It seemed to be a forum of sorts. Actually a very shrewd method this officer of the Riverland Corps had to facilitate his discussions on methods to better improve operations which Dakkur would later find out from his hostess was one of the main purposes for Riverland Corps hosting this festival. Unfortunately Dakkur was not one of the people they were looking for to contribute, he knew nothing about logistics and resource management? His extent of resource management was in the preparation of materials for runeforging and whatever processes that would follow. For a festival which had been nothing but enjoyable so far, he finally realized that there was even a boring part to it. It was probably the reason he jumped at the chance to speak about something he knew.

It seems there was a lot to logistics when it came to the archaeological expeditions he joined back in Zeraphesh. How did it work, well not like it did in the army. "Sure we had people in charge of the expeditions, but we just had the best person for the job to be in the lead at any given time even if there was a superior in charge." Well Dakkur with no involvement with any military so he could not even begin to imagine their training, for the leadership or the grunts; his involvement in the expeditions however normally had the middle aged, pot bellied, bearded humans in charge and those knew absolutely nothing except how to schmooze the backers before the expeditions for funds and how to get all the credit for themselves and their very special underlings after the expeditions. It was because of this realization he added, "just make sure you acknowledge the contributions of the leaders for those jobs. You don't want to them to start trying to find out ways to get out of these jobs or do it half heartedly." Well maybe its true the army had its people disciplined enough to be above such concerns but Dakkur had bene burned enough to know there was not enough leadership around to make up for poor leadership.

The talking helped him feel a lot better as his body got to work on the food but still not enough for Dakkur to move around on his own so he was stuck on the chair as the forum went on. Dakkur started to get bored again listening to how the Riverland Corps moved food and equipment around into the front lines or wherever they were needed. "So freshed cooked food like we had today aren't the things which are normally sent to the troops?" Dakkur asked when he heard of the shocker of the revelation; it was lucky enough he was not rash enough to immediately sign himself up with the Riverland Corps just because of the allure of the food the Riverland Corps had prepared for the festival. "Why not send them the good stuff?" he asked trying to think about the poor, poor recruits which have been cheated by festivals just like this but... yeah that made sense. A few people gave some solutions but it seemed too expensive for the Riverland Corps adopt. "Ah." That was one thing he realized while sitting through the forum, the most important to think about in matters of logistics is always about the money and that was because the government was cheap.

"Maybe you can just have the animals you're going to slaughter walk there with all the stuff you need like the cooking equipment and other ingredients you are going to use" Dakkur said as he thought of the most obvious solution which was laughed at by nearly everyone there since no doubt they have thought of it before but eventhough they laughed at him he was not discouraged because they nonetheless continued with the discussion for why the idea would not work for his benefit. A smarter man would have stopped there but Dakkur just continued, "then you just station someone who can butcher them beasts with your squads? Don't you add the personnel you need each time you find a group lacking?" Perhaps that was true but there was still the difficulty of actually getting the animals to the site, those were still hard to control as animals could not be disciplined like soldiers. Well no solution for that other than the one idea Dakkur just presented for fun, "send the dogs with them." What did he mean by that? They soon understood after he explained a little of what remembered of some old farms uncovered in the Zeraphesh ruins which suggested dogs leading and protecting the flock. There was no need to ask him how, it was just something he heard from a senior when they uncovered with it and he was no pet store owner.

After that, Dakkur left to check out the rest of the festival but not before he was asked if he was joking or serious during the entire forum. "I was serious. I just don't know anything about what you guys were talking so I think I've gotten out of this than you have" he replied amicably before he made his move.