Siege of Banua Day 3

Early the next morning, Bo-Jing surveyed the state of Banua. He was cheered by the people of the Bolad horde. They had seen him nightmarish monsters; his associates had minimized the damaged caused by the war machines. Under his leadership, the horde’s warriors had stood bravely against the demon-crazed beastmen.

But there was another story and it was loud and bitter. There were casualties, many, among the Nergui
horde. Their best warriors. Their families. Children. They had been lured to Banua. Herded. The town
had been a slaughtering pen. Bo-Jing’s efforts to answers the invectives of the Nergui elders by
reminding them that they had come to Banua of their own free choice only made them more angry.

The anger of the Nergui turned to grim determination. If they were going to die, let them die free on the open lands. They would not die as shields for Ganbaater and for the Bolad horde. The gathered their remaining animals and packed their remaining possessions.  They left their dead to be buried by their Bolad cousins.

By early afternoon, most of the Nergui horde filed out of Banua. 

They did not go west toward the Nergui lands, but southeast, toward the lands of the Eagle Horde.

Batzorig did not go with them.  Standing near the breached gate, he watched his clan file out, scanning their faces while hiding his own eyes.  After they were gone, Batzorig spent the afternoon sifting through debris .  Bo Jing worked him and it was Bo Jing who found what they both were looking for in  among the remnants of burned ger-- Naransetseng's necklace.  

Bo-Jing consoled his new friend and ally  Salt, Bangqiu shared in his sadness.  The mystery of her importance to the beastmen added a sense of absurd tragedy to the loss.  All agreed that she deserved a proper funeral.  Batzorig, clutching the necklace dug through the debris looking for anything that might remain of her body.

He found bones and burned bodies and bits of clothes, but none that he could hold and know had belonged to his sister.  In the burned-out ger, he found weapons and tools, all badly damaged and lumps of metal that might have been jewellery.  How strange that the necklace had survived fully intact.

Bo-Jing voiced his opinion that Naransetseng had not been killed by the dragons, but had cast her

necklace aside as a decoy and fled Banua with the other Nergui refugees. And this, suggested Bo Jing

was why the beastmen had marched right past Banua. They were pursuing their quarry. The grieving

Batzorig eagerly greeted this ray of hope. “Then I must go after her, either alone or with the help of all

brave men who love what is beautiful and good!”

And so Bo-Jing and his men, together with NarNuteng, Bangqiu, together with 100 brave warriors, went in pursuit of the Nergui horde.