With the meeting done I headed over to my room, and started to arm myself. I would hopefully not need it, but father had been quite persistent in his nagging about safety on the road. A servant I had asked for help on the way to my room, was assisting me with the buckles and soon I had my armor on me.

Masterwork leather and chainmail armor. The dwarven King Thorgrim made this armor together with his foster son. With all the love of father and the skill of a grandmaster this suit of armor is a true wonder, providing excellent protection with a small cost to movement. Slashing: /-15

Piercing: /-10

Bunt/Crushing: /-5

Armor check penalties -4

Weight: 16,7 Kg

My magical longsword hung at my side and of course my ring and belt were equipped. Now I just had to find Belinda. I took my unstringed longbow and a quiver with twenty arrows with me and started to search. Five minutes later I found her on the roof of the castle enjoying the cold autumn winds. You could feel that winter was just around the corner.

"There you are Belinda, I have been looking for you."

"And now you found me Elric, is it time to hunt?"

It had taken her a lot of time and hard work, and I could still remember the migraines she had given me when she started to mix words, pictures and feelings. It had been confusing and painful but now she could finally speak to me. Her voice was that of a young girl and you could feel her eagerness to set out. A feeling of guilt went through me, and I felt sympathy for her. I was finding it hard to get used to my new reality so I could only guess how she felt. From being able to roam around as she pleased to being looked up in the castle, was a big change, one I was not too pleased with myself. Hopefully if I could get that council thing going that would change, and we could get out of here.

"Not yet, I need to take Anders and Marcus to a chapel in town. But hopefully we will be able to leave the city this afternoon. I need to visit father anyway."

" Good, but don't worry too much about me. In a couple of years my wings should be able to carry me out of this soft skin nest. And the view from here is acceptable and the cold winds from the sea pleases me."

She had probably felt my feelings and didn't want me to feel sorry for her. But it only made my guilt worse. Lately she had been able to snap up my emotions and it was getting harder to beguile her with words. Since she would just feel the emotions behind them. And as I looked out from the castle roof I could do nothing but agree with her. The view was entraling and you could see the whole city all the way to the harbor where ships were entering or leaving, beyond it the ocean stretched out. At the horizon you could just make out the mainland where I knew the capital lay but could not see.

" Yes, you are right, the view is good. But the winds are a bit too cold for me. Anyway, do you want to come along now or should I come get you when I'm done?"

Soon it would be winter and when it finally turned to spring I would be fifteen and the time to choose my class would be here. I had not spoken to Belinda about it yet, but I was hoping that she would like to become my animal companion. A smile spread on my lips at the thought about calling her an animal. I would have to rephrase that, still it was a conversation that we would soon need to have. She had stayed with me for years now and I wanted to believe that she would accept, but I could not take that for granted.

" I would come with you now if that's not a problem."

She stood up and just as I gave the view one more look before leaving I froze. It took my brain a second to register what I was seeing. A plume of smoke was rising from one of three ships heading towards our harbor. They were coming in from the north but they still had some distance to travel before they would arrive.

"Belinda come quickly and have a look, there seems to be a ship on fire!"

As a dragon she naturally had far better vision than me. And could easily pick out movements and objects at a great distance. She turned around and came over to the battlements. Rising up on her hind legs, she looked towards the ships I was pointing at. After staring at the ships for a moment, her answer came.

"There seems to be some kind of fighting going on, and I can't be sure but I think they are humans but they are fighting some kind of green people? And yes a small fire has broken out on one of the ships. Oh! They are climbing aboard the ships and there seems to be more coming out of the ocean."

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She was clearly getting excited by the fighting taking place out there on the sea. But I was more concerned about the ships reaching the harbor and the fighting spilling over and into the city. And what green men was she talking about? Some kind of pirate orcs?

"Follow me! We must tell Anders about what's happening."

As I said this I turned around and sprinted down the stairs. The servants we passed pressed up against the walls, as they saw me and Belinda rushing through the castle corridors. Soon we made it out into the bailey where we turned and sprinted over to Anders. Who was leading my two horses out of the stable. Luckily both Bjorn and Marcus were there. They all gave me questioning looks and Anders had a small smile on his lips as he spoke.

" Elric I know you are new to this whole noble part, but you must understand that when dealing with your servants you don't have to rush to be on time. People will wait for you and a couple of minutes late is just fashionable. It also gives everyone time to fix any mistakes."

I held up a hand in hope of silence as I catched my breath before giving them the news.

"A ship is under attack!"

"What?"

"There are some green people attacking ships heading this way, one of the ships is on fire. I saw it from the top of the castle."

I pointed to the top of the castle to indicate from where I had seen the ships. Anders seemed to consider things for a moment, before he started to give out orders.

"Bjorn gather some castle guards, they should be armed and ready in fifteen minutes. Make sure that some bring bows and crossbows."

Bjorn saluted and ran off roaring orders, lighting a fire under the guards feets.

"Marcus, headout into the city and round up the city guard, get them close to the harbour. We will join you there!"

"Yes sir"

The Captain of the city guard then ran out the castle gates.

"Now Elric, what can you tell me of these green men?"

"Uh, let me think."

I gave Belinda a quick look, and she understood that I needed help answering.

" They walked on two legs and some had four arms. And they are green with long sticks."

" Well they were green and some of them had four arms, I'm sorry they were too far out for me to see anything more."

He nodded at my explanation and it looked like he bought it.

"How many ships did they have?"

"Well… there were only three ships but the attackers came from the water."

"Ah, just as I guessed the enemy must be seamerians."

I had no idea what he was talking about. And I guess he could see it on my face, as he started to explain it for me.

" How can you not know about them while living on an island, Elric? Well anyway, they are ocean dwelling people. And if they had been closer, you would have seen that their skin is more like fish scale. From what I understand the four armed seamerians are the leaders and should be quite powerful. Since their society is ruled by the strongest."

Anders explained to me while we waited for the guards to gather, how to best combat the sea demons as they were also called with their cross between fish and frog like heads. Ranged weapons and fire were the preferred weapons against them. Since they almost had no armor except for what their scales offered and didn't use shields. They more or less only used spears since they also hunted with them and the hands were claw-like, so a shield and some kind of close combat weapon were recommended if you must get into close combat. Females were to be killed first, since they were often spellcasters and healers. And most important of all, whatever happens, don't follow them into the water.

Around ten minutes later, Bjorn and around twenty guards had assembled at the gates. Even though the gear was old and in dire need of repair, they all had chainmail and a helmet. Ten had crossbows and side arms. The other ten guards had big shields and short swords. Bjorn had probably figured out what kind of enemy they were about to face and had made sure they were armed there after.

Anders gave the men a short inspection and then we were off. Bjorn took the lead with the melee equipped guards, me and Anders walked after them with the crossbowmen following us. People that were outdoors quickly made way for us, so we made good time as we marched down towards the docks. From the looks they gave us as we marched by, I guessed that this was not a common sight.

"Elric, I know that you probably want to get into the fighting and from what I have seen I would say that you are ready. But…"

I could see how Anders struggled to find the words, but I could already guess at what he wanted to say.

" Yeah, I know… I'm not fifteen yet and as such I don't have a class and will not get any experience, while at the same time I will be fairly easy to kill. That about sums it up right?"

I'm not sure how, but he managed to look somewhat embarrassed and relieved at the same time.

" I would not say it like that, but Yes, that is the context I was aiming for."

I really didn't want him to see how much those words hurt me, but without thinking my shoulders sank and I lowered my head and glared at the cobblestones. Even though I knew he was right, I had trained for the bigger part of my life and was itching to put my skill to the test. And as my father had told me about the dwarfs, they made sure that every dwarf that wanted to become a warrior had a taste before choosing their path. It was done in a more or less controlled environment, there would be people around to make sure you didn't die. And the enemy would be a goblin or some other low level monster. This was to make sure that you didn't waste your first class, because if you became a warrior and it wasn't for you and you wanted to switch to the civilian path, you would get a twenty-five percent experience penalty for all your life directly from the start. For older people or war tired veterans who wanted to hang up their axe and focus on something else this was a fair trade. Since they already had some levels under their belt, and the bost to learn skills that came with the civilian class made up for it.

" I see you brought your longbow with you my Lord, may I see it?"

Lost in my own thoughts I was surprised at the change of the conversation. And before I had thought about it I had handed it over.

"Yeah, sure."

He strung it with expertise and was soon testing the draw strength.

" Around seventy pounds, right? No war bow but more than enough to kill unarmored opponents with. "

" Yes, it's more for hunting and I'm training with it. My goal is to get up to the war bow poundage, if my stats and skill levels ever get there."

Longbow This longbow is six feet long and made for hunting big game, but will of course deal good damage at an unarmored target in combat. Damage: 1-12 physical damage (piercing)

Critical hit: 3*(damage)

Stats Requirements:

Str:12

Dex:12

Pre: 11

Skill requirements:

Bow: Journeyman

He handed my bow back.

"How good are you at climbing?"