I had never seen the market so packed with people, it must have been the entire village, now emptied onto these streets, surrounding the warning bell for when the dragons would arrive. I could barely hear my own thoughts as the roar of the villagers' open concerns filled my ears, yet I couldn't make out what a single one was saying. I looked back at the sea of people and took a deep breath as I put my feet to climb on the bell before being held back down by Scorpion. "Are you sure you're okay with being the one to talk?" She asked me.

I paused for a moment, before then pulling back and gave her a thumbs up. "I... I can do this..." I said more to myself than her.

She gave me a firm nod before patting my back. "Good luck."

"Thanks." I said as she released me from her iron gip, letting me climb to the top of the bell tower.

I glanced back at the group one last time, then looking back at the crowd. "ATTENTION VILLAGERS OF SUNSET'S WATCH!" I shouted down to the sea.

It took a few moments before they reduced themselves to a roaring chorus, to just some minor mumbles and muttering, I took another deep breath as they all stared at me.

"Alright, first of all, you don't know me, I'm a foreigner, an outsider, and one of those pale teardrop bastards, but the fact is it doesn't matter who I am, what matters is the facts!"

I heard a murmur of agreement from below and a few groans of, "Get to the point already!"

"And the first fact is that during a mercenary guild mission, a group from the guild managed to intercept a fleeing strider escaping with three passengers, which revealed that the Cove Raiders are no more, and have disbanded!"

There was a sudden storm of gasps but it was quickly switched up to cheers till I held my hand up.

"I wasn't finished, please, I implore you all to listen!" They all started to quiet down again, a lot faster this time and they seemed a lot more interested in what I had to say this time around.

"Although the Cove Raider threat is finished, what threatened them now threatens us. During an interrogation, we discovered that the raiders turned against themselves as their water supply was taken over by a group of aeroporos. Twenty dragons have been sighted, there may be more, and we have two days until they arrive, and will undoubtedly burn Sunset's Watch to ash. I'm sorry, but there is no way to save this village, but we can still save everyone in it!" I say to quench the rising roar of the crowd. "We have a plan, after taking apart a strider, we designed a type of wind walker that can move as fast as a basilisk while carrying twenty people. If we can have six built in time and send the rest of you on the snakes, we should be able to successfully evacuate this village before the dragons get here. You may believe me, you may not, it doesn't matter because it doesn't change what a spray of dragon fire does to a human body. But if you do doubt me, if you truly have no faith in me, then I beg of you, please just ask yourselves this. What if you're wrong?"

There was a long period of silence, out of the sea of bodies, not one person made a single sound, before a man stood up, wearing some rags and a hat, holding a shovel. "What would you have us do?"

***

"So, we'll have sixteen eight-person teams, taking shifts so eight teams are always on the floor, each working on a different component of the walker's systems, that way we can produce them faster and more efficiently, we can't afford to send anyone on the snakes yet, we need all the help we can get right now."

"What are the rest doing?" The man asks as he and the other villagers start to enter the large tent, where there were several large spaces and drawings of easy to follow designs, so they could be assembled together later using the hooks hanging from the cieling..

"The mercenaries guild needs to prepare for the worst case scenario, if they get here before we're done, so we're setting up traps equipping everyone with thanatos-tipped weapons, especially the ballistas, but our main objective will to just slow them down, at least for now."

"Hey! River! We need you over here!" Palm called out for me as she waved me to a group of young men.

"Talk to Scorpion, she'll divide you all into groups and put you into stations." The villagers waited patiently as Scorpion then made herself known as she spoke up with a loud and authoritative tone. "LISTEN UP EVERYONE..." Was all I heard before I was dragged out of the tent by Palm.

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"You're the only one who's actually ever fired a thunder-bow before, so we need you to teach it to them." She said as she introduced me to a group of twenty people, wearing different sorts of light armor. "Bowman, they already have thanatos-tipped arrows and bolts but we figured that if we could give everyone a good shot with a thunder-bow, even if it's only one shot, that's bound to at least kill one dragon without wasting any venom."

"Alright then, listen up!"

***

I wiped the sweat off my forehead as I picked up the top piece of the large wooden leg and held it as the others secured it on and welded the metal pieces securely with the other parts, finishing the set. "Alright now put it together!" Scorpion yelled loudly as she finished hammering another piece down on her set. All of my team let out grunts as we carried the large set of legs and moved it to the base, before rotating it to be parallel to the side of the platform. "Line it up!" I shouted to everyone we aimed it so the wheel on the legs secured with the wheel on the base. We all took a step back and let out a sigh of relief as we heard the loud click echoing in the tent. "Set one, ready!" One of my team shouted as we then heard another click from the other side.

"Set two, ready!" They yelled from their side. "Open the tent!" I heard Scorpion yell down to us.

We all let out surprised or disoriented sounds as the blinding light of the sun entered our vision again, only block by the sails hanging by the front sides of the large platform, the rope-ladder far enough from the legs on the sides that people could climb without having to worry being caught up in the machine.

"Alright! Pedal!" I heard from the top as we watched the four people sitting in the center of the machine in some seats, holding their handles tightly as they pushed hard on the pedals, slowly but surely, the wheels started to turn ,and the legs started to move. We all looked up as the gigantic machine started to walk out of the tent on its multiple legs before stopping just on the outskirts of the village. Everyone let out cries and cheers of happiness. "Alright, second shift, move in!" Scorpion's voice then cut in, summoning a flood of new villagers to enter the tent and begin work, but I went to my station regardless.

"Wait, how does this work?" I heard one villager ask as they held the list, having to squint as they looked at the design.

"Here, I'll show you." I offered as I walked beside him and picked up the pieces of metal and wood in front. "So what you want to do is..."

***

"I'm fine!" I told Scorpion, but she scoffed as she then dragged me out with her as we left the sixth shift to do their work, I had offered to help again but Palm ratted me out after she saw me working the first four shifts in a row.

She sighed as we took a seat and watched as the final basilisk left towards the rainforest, there was no need for so many people now so it was nice to watch as the massive machines slowly started to depart, one by one, now there were only two walkers left, waiting to carry the rest of us out of here as soon as they finish the last walker.

It was now dark, the three moons shining brightly on the small village, a village which will probably not be here by the next full moon,

"That's a sad thought, but at least everyone will be alright." Scorpion said as she patted me on the shoulder. "That's what really matters."

I nod but let out a long sigh. "Wish I could just settle down in one place, you know?" I ask with a sad chuckle as I look down,

She nodded. "Yeah, hopefully Hallow will take us, but with the luck that we've been having..." She shrugged her shoulders.

We both laughed about that. "Besides, you're just going to go down that cave, aren't you?"

I nodded with a smirk. "I just gotta find out what's the deal with us." But my face turned to a frown as I remembered her words in the vision. "Was it worth it?" I think aloud, barely loud enough to hear, but she did.

"Another vision?"

I nod.

I blushed as she took my hand and for a second, I imagined it with the ri "Don't worry, I won't pry inside your head, not if you don't want me to."

I sigh. "You can read me if you want, I don't mind." She paused for a moment as she stared at me but then crossed her arms. "No, I don't think I will." She said as we both looked up at where the clouds had just parted, the stars shining brightly down at us.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" She asked.

I nodded as she suddenly leaned against me, her eyes drooping shut.

I hesitantly wrapped my arm around her before laying back on the wall behind me and let my eyes flutter shut. "Goodnight, Scorpion."

"Goodnight, River." She yawned before letting herself rest against me completely, her head on my chest.

I wrapped my arms around her before joining her in sleep.

The darkness welcomed me and I slipped into without any struggle-

We were both jerked from our sleep as we heard the loud gongs of a bell. Dread filling my heart. My eyes widened as me and Scorpion both exchanged a look. "N-no, that's not possible." I mutter as we both start to run towards the source of the sound.

"It hasn't even been over a day!" Scorpion exclaimed as we both frantically climbed the ladders to get to the top of the tower.

Everything grew muffled as I climbed, the only clear sound being my own heartbeat as I could feel it thumping in my head despite being in my heart. I couldn't hear as the watcher and Scorpion talked yet I still offered my hand so he could pass me the spy-glass. My heart thumped harder and louder as I took the spyglass and glanced in the direction of where the watcher was pointing. I leveled the spy-glass to my eye and my breath hitched and I wiped some sweat off my brow as I looked again, but sure enough, flying towards us in the distance, was a twenty dragons, and in front of them was one large one wearing the same armor I saw in the vision. "She's here." I gulped before dropping the spy-glass.

"River!" Her voice snapped me out of my trance as I looked up at her. "You know what we need to do."

I met her eyes before nodding and loading my crossbow-arm as she drew her sword.