Craydon left the tent and joined his daughter and the Fae outside, leaving behind an angry General Commodore, who spoke in a low voice to his Generals, “It seems Demons do exist, and they even bribed that girl by giving her two Drakes, the most dangerous Monsters that exist.”

One General spoke, almost in a whisper, “If it wasn’t for her father, we would convince her easily. I suppose he could have a strange accident in his sleep, like, stop breathing.”

“We can’t do anything against them unless you have a plan to prevent that Emptiness, which is always at her side, from going to the Drakes. I heard her outside. She told them to destroy this campsite and eat everyone if she or her father were in danger. It makes my blood boil, but our hands are tied. What I think we can do tomorrow morning, really early, is sending a platoon of soldiers and Mages to another incursion into the mountains and tell her to go watch. Seeing Monsters killing them and eating them all will for sure make her act, and she will join our cause willingly. She is young and easily impressed, and according to what her father said, the decision to help us or not will be hers, and hers alone.”

While the General Commodore was with his Generals fine-tuning their vicious plan for the next day, Meryda and her father were walking along the campsite, together with the Fae and Meryda’s Monsters.

She saw a group of Ooman soldiers seated on the ground near a tent playing a die game, and she calmly went to them with only the Slime around her neck as company after telling her other Monsters to stay near her father.

While standing behind one soldier, she watched the game for a while, and when one of them noticed her presence, they immediately stopped playing and looked up at her, wondering why the young Monster Tamer the rumours were talking about was now next to them.

With a smile, Meryda said, “Do you mind if I sit here? I want to talk with you guys for a while if that won’t be a bother.”

A young soldier, maybe only two years older than her, judging by his young face and height, smiled at her and said, after looking around to confirm with the others, “Sure, but I don’t know what you want from us, considering you were with the General Commodore. Didn’t he answer all your questions? Not that he usually says anything to anyone besides his Generals, that is!”

The other soldiers muffled their laughter, and while Meryda sat, she said, “He told me a bunch of things, but I am not sure if he actually believes in everything he said or if he was only trying to convince me.”

The young soldier asked, somewhat puzzled, “Convince you? Of what?”

“Convince me to join your army and help you fight the Monsters in the mountains so that Oomans can mine Magical Crystals.”

“Sorry, I don’t understand. You didn’t come here to join our cause?”

“I haven’t decided yet. I just came to see for myself what was happening here. I heard a bunch of stuff before arriving, and I am not convinced this war should even exist.”

While the other soldiers stood silent, the young Ooman said, “I am not sure as well, but what else can we do? Mages need Magical Crystals to help common people fight Monsters and wild animals. I am from a very small village in the Shian Empire, and there were a few farmers who could use Magic. If they had Magical Crystals, they could help my village fend off the occasional Bone Boar, who often came to ravish our cattle.”

“But Oomans have been mining crystals all over the World. Why does no one in your village have at least one crystal?”

“Money. They are expensive, you know? Look, we are not even sure that if we conquer the mountain range and find a bunch of mines rich in Magical Crystals our cities and villages will ever have money to buy just one crystal, but there is a chance the price will drop if there are a lot of Magical Crystals in the market. At least that is what the Generals told us.”

With a frown, Meryda said, “So you guys are risking your lives without being sure if your sacrifice will ever help your hometown?”

“They also said that they would reward the platoon that can protect a mine for enough time to mine a waggon of crystals. We can all get a small Magic Crystal of the same size as yours, the one you have on your staff.”

Meryda looked at the staff she was holding on her lap and touched the brown crystal on top while saying, “The Guild Master of my hometown gave me this. At that time, I had no idea what the cost of this crystal implied. How many lives were lost just to get it? And here I am, only using it to help my Monsters fight other Monsters or Mages.”

“You never saw a Monster killing and eating a person in front of you, did you? We all already saw it, and we wish we had never seen it. If I were a Mage or a Monster Tamer, I would be travelling from village to village, getting rid of any Monster I could find.”

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With a gentle smile, Meryda retorted, “If you were one, you would be here, fighting. Oomans are always searching for Mages and Monster Tamers, you know? Some weeks ago, I was on my farm, working the land with my Monsters when Ooman envoys came for me. They even told an Ooman army to come and get me by force if I refused to come here with them.”

“Well, at least you are here now, and if you are as powerful as the rumours said you were, we have a pretty good chance of going home in one piece.”

“Even if I help, none of you will return home. The General Commodore wants to march across the mountain range and conquer the Demon's country. It still baffles me why he and the other Generals are so eager to invade a country with beings they aren’t even sure to exist. And if they do exist, they will be forced to defend themselves, and you will all die. You can’t even go near the mountains without the Monsters there killing everyone they see! How do they expect to invade a country that is probably full of even more powerful Monsters? Heck, I came here by riding two Drakes, and I think there are a lot more from where those guys came!”

The soldiers gasped, and the young Ooman stuttered, “S-so i-it is true… You have Drakes… How did you tame them?”

“The Fae said the Demons sent them to me so that I could get here, and I tamed them. I am not sure how much of that is true, because I never saw a Demon, but according to the Fae, they want me to see for myself what is happening here and decide if I will join the Alliance or go as far away as possible.”

“Now that you are here, I doubt they will let you leave. Heck, I don’t know if I will let you leave, considering I might survive the next incursion to the mountains if you are near me!”

Meryda looked down at her staff and said, “If I want to leave, no one can stop me. I already told my Drakes that if I am in danger, they should destroy this entire campsite and eat everyone. With all the other Monsters I have with me, none of you stand a chance. And the Fae is also with me, and my father as well. I want to help everyone, but I can’t agree with people who want to conquer the lands after the mountain range without even knowing what they are going to face or if the beings living there are peaceful or not.”

With a sigh, the young Ooman said, “According to the Generals, Demons are evil and aim to kill us all and conquer the entire World. I am not sure if they exist or not, but what is the reason for Monsters to be in the mountains and stop us? They only attack if we get near, but still! Why don’t they just go away? The only reason I am seeing is that Demons do exist, and they are the ones ordering the Monsters to be there! For what purpose, I don’t dare to guess! Maybe they like to see dead people and hear our screams? Heck, I am not even saying anything about the soldiers and Mages the Monsters capture alive and take them to eat later!”

Meryda got up and said before leaving, “Or maybe Demons just want to be left alone and live in peace. They never attacked anyone, did they? No one ever saw one!”

Leaving the soldiers behind, Meryda joined her father, and when he saw how sad she looked, he asked, “What is the matter?”

“Nothing; I just heard some stuff I didn’t like. The soldiers are risking their lives without even knowing if their hometowns will ever have money to buy a Magic Crystal because of the high price. Do you think we can find a Monster Tamer around here? Probably not the ones that I stole from?”

The Fae said with an awkward smile, “Steal is an ugly word. Let’s just say you gave a better life to those Black Shucks. They never had any free will, ever since those Monster Tamers tamed them. We saw a few Monster Tamers and their Monsters not far from here. The ones that had the Black Shucks that are now yours are there as well.”

Meryda nodded and followed the serious Fae with her father at her side, with his arm over her shoulders, and her Monsters following them.

As they walked, the several soldiers around them moved out of their way, still whispering and staring at the young Monster Tamer, the one they hoped could end the war that was making them stay away from their home for so long without knowing when they would be a Monster’s next meal.

The Fae pointed to a fire pit, where three men and a woman were seated on the ground around it, with two Monsters near them. A Black Shuck and a brown Bone Boar.

The sound of footsteps made them look to see who was approaching, and two of them seemed angry, while the other and the woman looked puzzled.

Meryda made an awkward smile and sat at the fire pit as well, looking at the flames in silence. The two Sub-Monsters sat next to her, while the orange Salamander lay on the ground right in front of the fire and closed his eyes, enjoying the heat.

One man asked while trying to hold his anger, “What do you want now? Steal more Monsters? Do you have any idea how hard it was to train my Black Shuck? Now what I am supposed to do?”

Without even looking at the man, Meryda pointed to the mountain range and said, “There are plenty of Monsters over there. Go tame one of them. You were the one dumb enough to threaten me; now don’t you go and say it was all my fault.”

The man gritted his teeth and said, “As if it were that easy to tame a Monster in the mountain range! They resist our Magic, and we need two or three Monster Tamers working together to even stop them from attacking so that we can try to tame them!”

“That means you are not needed anymore, and maybe they let you leave. If you stay here, you might not survive the next incursion into the mountains.”

“And whose fault will that be? I don’t have a Monster because of you!”

“You don’t have a Monster because you were mean to me. And also, because you were mean to your Monster. I just told him that I was going to treat him nicely, and he happily waved his tail at me. I was told that Monster Tamers completely overpower their Monsters, and they stop having free will as if they were nothing besides mere tools.”