ENGINEERS CREATE THAT WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN

The black and bronze engineer moved north, the last known location of the Plague. Since Mauja's absence and Psyche's ascension, he loathed the thought of running into many members of that damned group of racists again. Pathetic. Few remained in his good graces, but too many were fools to follow the black jackal who believed it better to run out and have a fucking child than rule beside her king. Duty before sex, always. Still, he had to admit that a few of the Plague members had been worthy of their superiority complex, and he found himself longing for that like-minded company again.

Well, not necessarily company in any normal sense of the word. Ulrik preferred to brood and observe in silence, but merely the thought of being around those like himself was more of an emotional comfort for his unemotional and pathetic excuse for a heart. As usual, the mechanical wolf trotted along at his heels, his longest running machine. A bit of tarnish had formed along the articulating plates of his spine, but nothing that would cause any damage. Aesthetically, the wolf looked dirty and ill, but it was fully operational. The constant whirring of the gears and circuits soothed his wild and mad mind, calming the story and raging sea of calculations and blue prints.

Large, cloven hooves reached snow, and his long, leonine tail moved like a metronome at his hocks. Two, twisted horns rose from his brow, and bronze, mad eyes stared absently from dark sockets. Ulrik would make a formidable warrior, but he had not been tried in battle. Well, there was that one time when the gold dragon bitch had launched her fat self into his side. His pride was still smarting over that one. The long beard and chest hair he had grown during Frostfall was still evident along his body, and he ignored the bitter chill, not interested in feeling cold at the moment.

Now this was curious. An entire horizon of mountains and tundra lay before him, but no unicorns. Ulrik was irrationally irritated that they were not exactly where he had left them, and he snorted a puff of frost, moving northwest. Finally, he paused and looked down at the wolf which continued to whir soullessly at his side. In hindsight, he should have installed a compass. Useless scrap. "I wonder if they all died of starvation," he rumbled, his deep voice like gravel.