As I get close to Gobber's room… I hear yelling… Then I realize who it is… Damn it Green. I run to the door and hear the tail end of their conversation.

“Your child is special damn it! She knew that my men would die and healed them and you get caught up on the fact that she had to go to the battlefield!”

“Are you serious!? Of course I'm upset that my child went to the battlefield!”

Green and Hilda stop their yelling match as I enter the room. Hilda looks as if she is going to say something but Green cuts her off.

“You believe her Kite? She is upset her child is a fucking prodigy. What an idiot! She is already a stronger healer than every other healer in our army.”

“Do you not hear yourself? The keyword is child you idiot! She is far too young to be part of the fighting let alone be on the battlefield. How did she even get there!?”

“Kite's dragon took her there.”

Hilda turn towards me again. Damn it Green… I go to speak.

“I had nothing to do with that. I was coming to tell you about the incident but was stopped by Kline who had a problem I needed to help with.”

“What was wrong with Kline?”

Even in the middle of yelling at us Hilda is still curious about Kline. I explain the situation… It doesn't phase anyone. The things that happen around me are just so strange that strange things have become normal to everyone.

If I recall correctly… Sylphs are beyond rare once again. They are the messengers of the elemental world. Being able to tear through the fabric of our dimension and the air realm they come from. Making the able to almost teleport in a certain way… Gaining one as an ally will be a heavy increase to our abilities later on. At least… I think it will be… She might head back to her own realm after speaking with Kline.

Hilda gets back on topic.

“Kite! You made a promise to me. My children will not fight on the battlefields.”

“Yes… I know… I'll tell Darkclaw to not take your children close to the battle but… Perhaps it would be a good idea to have your healer start learning the ways of healing now… I know the sight of blood is normally enough to gross most people out but… She might be even more special than your other children. All your children are… Incredibly talented already but… She might be the most powerful out of them all.”

Hilda starts to pace back and forth… The safety of her children comes first but… She knows that her children are beyond special. They will eventually spread their wings and some might even leave our fortress in a few years… Teaching them how to be safe now will only make them surviving dangerous situations in the future easier.

“Fine… Hilda junior will be allowed to work as a helper at the medical bay… But only that, if I hear she has gone back to the battlefield again I will leave even if I have to leave Gobber here in the process.”

Gobber who had been sitting in the corner of the room playing with his children now looks up. The children have seemed to not notice… Or rather not care about what Hilda just said… Speaking of which.

“I only count 5 children… Where is the one who imprinted with Neko?”

Hilda's point of view

Shortly after Kite left to look for my missing daughter, Hilda junior started to get a little upset by something. I pay slightly closer attention to her as she just healed someone by sensing that they needed healing. As time goes on she looks more and more upset and eventually she yells out.

"I have to go save them!"

I stop her and ask what she is talking about.

"Something bad just happened to the ships mamma. Let me go help them!"

Neko's point of view

“Look over there… That is the best spot to set up the prank. Hehehe.”

I stole Hilda's child to help me play some practical jokes. We stole a few bottles of milk, some feathers pulled from the chicken… It was hard to not eat and drink them but this prank is going to be amazing. We mix the two together in a bowl and prop it above the door to the cafeteria. Sometimes the door is left open to let the smell of cooked/burnt food exit out of the room… At least I think that is why.

We wait and watch as people continue to use the other doors. Waiting for the one moment where they choose the cafeteria door with the trap. I can hear the little girl I had stolen snickering along with me as we wait. 1 minute passes…. 2 minutes pass… What is wrong!? Why hasn't anyone used that door yet!? I go to approach it. Is something wrong with the trap? The second I get close someone jostles the door and the milk and feathers fall down on me… WHY! The door swings open a second later and Kite is standing on the other side.

“Why are you covered in milk and feathers?”

“Because of you stupid!”

What a perfectly ruined prank… I'm disappointed and angry that the prank flopped onto me. I hear laughing behind me. It is the little one, looking at the mess that happened to me. I would normally get more angry… But I'm honestly happy that someone found it funny.

Kite's point of view

I expected Neko to me more mad… She only turns around and laughs at the mishap of her prank backfiring… I get the feeling that if the child wasn't around… She would be far more upset. The children are good for my pets… I noticed that Sock is even more kind then normal. Needing to be extra careful when approaching things smaller than himself. Pokodo is far more outgoing. Sleeping far less than her normal 18 hours everyday. Even Red has started to become less haughty around the children. Trying to set a good example for them to follow.

All I can do is smile as the childish nature of Neko is slowly changed to be more adult like. Throwing less fits when things don't go her way… Acting for the sake of other people… It makes me-. One of my men rush up screaming.

“LEADER! WE- SOMETHING JUST HAPPENED TO OUR SHIPS!”

What could it have been? They didn't have enough ships to fight evenly against us. He makes no attempt to tell me as I rush passed him through the close by portals to the ships. The one I had taken… Is underwater. WHAT!? What the fuck happened? I grab the portal before I realize what is happening and start making my way out of the ships hull. I see the corpses of several of my crewmen floating in the water. WHAT THE GODS JUST HAPPENED!

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Swimming to the surface… I see that several of the other ships are in a bad way as well. Almost falling apart. One on the verge of sinking. I swim over to it and patch the giant hole making it smaller than it was. Some of the few members of the ship that had sunk are surfacing but far more had just perished… If these ships didn't have the bare minimum amount of people on them to run the casualties would have been far higher… I still expect the casualties to be at least 30… WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED!? I yell at the crew member rushing buckets of water out of the hull and throwing it overboard.

“What just happened!?”

“We were attacked! One of the ships just started to charge at us and before we could sink it, it got close enough to explode.”

Fear shoots through me… Gold had copied what had happened against her own ships… She is willing to sacrifice one of the only ships she has to make it to shore to cripple my army and create casualties… This fight is getting to be too much. An enemy who isn't afraid to sacrifice pawns is something I just can't understand. I would never do anything similar but perhaps… The only way to beat her is to think that way.

I patch several of the other holes that were facing the explosion… We lost 2 ships… A dagger and a shiv… We almost lost a sword… 37 more casualties were created in this attack… I feel like I've failed my army by being so slow on taking the fight to the enemy… We need to have another general meeting… With all of my generals.

I think a show of force in retaliation is best… I'm going to do something I haven't done since we've been fighting… I'm going to work on reducing their numbers… In a truly brutal way… I dislike this idea… Being lowered to fight so… Disgustingly as my enemies… My hands are played out though. I head to my enchanting crew and tell them to start work on more void satchels… I'll need more than a few for this mission.

Leon's point of view

I'm… I have this feeling that something terrible just happened. We've been waiting for our chance but I think it might be better to just sneak into the base to take her out… Lance pulls me aside and whispers.

“Those men were dead. They had no light in their eyes… It was as if they were walking zombies… I think Gold killed them.”

“Why would she kill them? If they were going for help, they wouldn't be able to ask for it if they were dead.”

BOOM! I hear an explosion go off in the distance. Close enough to startle me. We all look towards the explosion… It is in the direction of our ships… That is why I had gotten the bad feeling. Several of the men have jumped down to the ground and have started walking or running towards the explosion. I do as well, but am shortly stopped by a voice behind me. It is the leader who isn't the lich. He begins to speak.

“Our enemy will not give us any chance to flee or escape… This is proof of how ruthless they are. They wouldn't even let a single ship go without destroying it! We must band together to beat this threat!”

What a load of bullshit, we've already captured a ship. That isn't the way Kite would handle an enemy ship. That was obviously an attack against us by them… I need to get back to the ships. I continue to walk but quickly pass by the other people who have jumped down to look. The pirate leader continues to speak.

“You there! Why do you continue to walk towards the explosion? Do you wish to see the enemy up close? You will never make it there on land. They'll stop you before you do.”

I'm beyond frustrated now. I yell back at him.

“Then form a group and let's take back the land in that direction! We might be able to save some of the pirates if they swim back to land.”

“No! I am the leader! We are not risking more losses just because you want to play hero and save the useless men who failed their mission!”

I'm beyond pissed by what he just said… He is the reason I'm still alive. I need to get rid of people like him. I yell back.

“You're more than welcome to try and stop me. I am going to help my fellow pirates and if any of you have any fucking backbone you will too.”

Several men form around me. Standing behind me as I confront the leader. He makes no attempt to step forward or even address me. I see Lance now taking a close position behind him. If we start to fight he will most certainly jump the leader before he has a chance to respond. I hear someone yell out behind their, just as they exit the main building.

“STOP THIS! We need to stick together. Fighting right now will only weaken us against the enemy.”

There she is! Now is my chance… Do I take it though? There are several hundred pirates down here already… I would be throwing my life away if I attacked her… I'll give myself a reason to fight her then.

“FINE! If you agree to help take back the path to the ocean so we can save our friends then I won't be angry.”

“Of course, I was coming to mention the same thing just now before you did. Sometimes my husband just gets a little too guarded. This fight can cost us lives if we aren't careful. So we need to be especially careful.”

...Fuck… She agreed, now there is no way attacking her will be seen as anything besides an assassination attempt. We all turn towards the direction the ship had sailed in and start heading there when I hear her yell out again.

“You there! Come speak to me quickly please.”

I head back towards her… She looks like a normal lady… Perhaps slightly more frail than the average person… Maybe even sickly, she isn't very attractive… Far less so then her sister at least… Perhaps some jealously spurred her overthrowing her older sister… I guess that is speculation though. She speaks fairly loud when we talk, it is as if she wants them to hear her talk.

“I would like to offer you a position as one of my captains. The enemy has been spending a lot of effort killing my captains. I would like a few captains that have the trust of the people. Please come into the main building later tonight. We'll discuss our future plans for this fight.”

We push towards the beach. It is completely uncontested, looking over the damage to the ships… I can see the massive amounts of carnage the enemy just caused… 2 of our ships are missing. Several of the other ships are damaged badly as well… Damn this fucking war. Even more lives have been lost, the longer we wait for Kite to decide it is time to act the worse off we a-. A dragon goes flying over me. It is Kite followed by several griffin riders.