ToT: Obligatory Exposition

“So, remind me” said David, his voice bored. “Why are we doing this?”

“She wants to take records of other lands and new places” said Samara, patiently, as they walked through the library in the Keepers’ Guild. “We’re here to give her that information.”

“So we’re here for exposition?” asked David, a look of irritation on his face.

“We also get to meet new people!” said Samara, cheerfully. “Isn’t that what really matters?”

“You sound cliché as hell when you say that” responded David, who generally had the social enthusiasm of a small eggplant. “Shouldn’t we be going after that Xavier guy?”

“We can do that after” said Samara, as they arrived at an office door. “Madras only has a few openings in her schedule.” She caught David’s eye. “I really want to do this. Please?”

David sighed. “Let’s get this over with.”

Madras’s office was surprisingly messy for someone who was supposed to be part priest, part bureaucrat (at least, that was how David understood the Keepers). Papers covered in notes, many of which were probably important, littered the floor. Several coffee mugs, which had not been cleaned in some time, sat on the desk, shelves, and any other available flat surface. Madras herself was a Mawile. She had tan fur, and her massive jaw-shaped horns were a rare pink hue. At the moment, she was bent over a large book, copying notes from it and making the occasional annotation. She held her pen delicately, as if she were afraid her fingers might break.

Samara tapped respectfully on the doorframe. “Excuse me?”

Madras looked up. “Ah, you must be Samara and David.” She gestured to the two seats in front of her desk. “Come in. Sit down.” Samara obliged, while David remained standing. Madras looked at him and shrugged. She started to search for a clean sheet of note paper. “Sorry about the mess. I’ve been working on a project these past few days and haven’t had time to tidy things up… ah, here we are.” Madras produced a small notebook, flipped to an unused page, and begun. “So, you two are from Glory’s Peak, correct?”

“Yep” said Samara. “Only arrived here last week.”

“We don’t have a lot of information on the place” said Madras. “The scholars are the only Tabirans who ever go near there, and they never remember to bring back information about the society. What’s it like on the mountain?”

“Cold” said David.

Madras looked at him, curiously. “That’s it? Just ‘cold’?”

The Riolu raised an eyebrow. “Were you expecting a poem?”

Samara backhanded David lightly. “Don’t worry, it’s other things too. I mean… yeah, it’s pretty cold, but not overly so. It actually gets pretty pleasant in the summer.”

“I see” said Madras. “Anything you can tell me besides the temperature?” Suddenly, she thought of a starting point. “I am given to understand that Glenmark tried to attack you during our war with them fifteen years ago.”

“Sure we can tell you about that” said Samara. “Bearing in mind that we were only toddlers at the time.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what were they after?” asked Madras.

“They wanted our mines” said Samara.

“Mines?”

“The Glory’s Peak settlement is basically a big mining complex, with a village outside extending around the mountain” said Samara.

“Really? I’d thought the people at glory’s peak just did… frontier stuff.”

“Did you think the original settlers chose a frozen mountain because they enjoyed the view?” asked David, pointedly. “Mining is basically the only thing a mountain economy could run on.”

Madras jotted that down. “Right. So, an ice-type mining colony.”

“Ice types and some steel types” clarified David. “Also a few dark types- Absol, mostly.”

Madras quickly wrote that down. “What comes out of the mines?”

“Coal, iron, and copper, mostly” said Samara.

“I see” said Madras. “So, how did you hold off the Glenmark invaders?”

“Hit-and-run warfare, mostly” said Samara. “Virtually nothing edible grows on the mountain, so the Glens had to set up lots of supply lines- more than they could possibly guard. All we had to do was pick and choose.”

“You speak like you were there” said Madras.

“Our parents were” explained Samara. “They had a ton of fun harassing the Glens, and even more fun telling us the story years later.”

“I can imagine” said Madras. “Wait, though. If nothing edible grows on Glory’s Peak, then…”

“We import.”

“Ah.”

“Once lack of supplies had weakened them enough, we triggered an avalanche down on their main camp” said David. “A lot of the survivors either starved to death or were picked off by our hunters.”

“That’s an interesting way to fight a war.”

“It’s the only way we have” said David. “We don’t have the population or the resources to maintain a standing army.”

Madras nodded and started asking them about other things, like how they imported food or exported metal and coal with a bandit camp blockading the way (“underground passages leading south”), what sort of government Glory’s Peak had (“the village elders are generally in charge”), what was at the summit (“nobody knows, but it’s probably just more ice”), and so on. This went on for about an hour, until Madras ran out of note paper.

“Well” she said. “Thank you very much.”

“Our pleasure” said Samara, brightly. “If you have any more questions, don’t hesitate to find us and ask them.” David snorted. “Well, ask me, anyway” Samara corrected with a sigh. She held out a hand; Madras shook it. “See you around.”

As they left the room, Madras started to read over the notes from the interview.

“Alright” said Samara. “You’ve been waiting patiently; now, we can go after Xavier.”

“Good” said David, stretching. “I need to punch something.”