"The Monks are usually ignored by most of the people that are devoted to a God. But never by the God itself. The Monks spends their entire life praying and every single of their action is made as a sign of devotion to their God. Monks can live by themselves, ignoring everything that's not their God or they can live in little groups of Monks. Some times the Monks live near villages or cities, if needed the Monks will help the faithful ones. As Monks decided to live a life of sacrifice and faith, they will receive no divine intervention by their God, because the Monks are devoted to give power to their God not take from it."

-Bee May, the faery of knowledge

"I still don't understand if Monks are really that selfless or they are just plain stupid."

Six months, the entire World was buffeted by icy winds and snow for six months. Then, an heat wave started from the hellfire desert and enveloped the World with a fiery embrace. The snow melted in hours, all the water evaporated. It rained for three weeks. Inside the capital of the Arthus kingdom Brielle and Kitty were getting ready to depart.

"We need to worry only about the east and the south, the military will have already cleansed the west and the north..." Brielle shuddered. "If the Bull Riders had a problem with the Arthus kingdom we would have noticed already."

"Are they really so scary?"

Asked Kitty.

"Our first king, Arthus conquered the land we are holding even after all these years, we got the cold mine, we got access to the sea, we got the hardwood forest and we got the hellfire desert." Brielle started counting on her fingers. "And then we got the golden sea, our king of olds wanted to conquer every land. Then his armies faced the Bull Riders."

"We got stopped by barbarians that ride cows to battle?"

Asked Kitty surprised.

"Eh you never saw them, they value strenght over anything else, they don't ride cows, they roam the north and raise cows and bulls, they only ride the most powerful ones. Their charge is fearsome, even without quality armor or weapons they stopped our armies with hit and run tactics. Our king Arthus the first of his name had to fight in a duel the Lord of the Bull Riders. It ended in a draw, after that they made a pact, our kingdom will create the golden sea, we would feed their people and they would give us their weak bulls and cows."

Smiled Brielle.

"So, we give them wheat and they give us meat and milk and, they protect the north for us?"

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Asked Kitty.

"Yeah, pretty much. They are simple people, if they were involved in this treachery... They would not have sent spies, assassins and poisoners. They would have taken their bulls and charged until we made them happy or, until we all died. Can we fight them? Sure but, their mounts have more endurance than our horses, they are slower sure but our biggest strenght is the elite army with their heavy plates, our cavalry would get separated from the rest of the army and dismantled."

Said Brielle.

"Ok, the cow people are scary, we still have the problem of the princess, even if we don't tell the people that our king is dying, even if we don't tell them that our princes and princesses are dead... The laws of our ancestor are clear, only the blood of Arthus can sit on the throne. If a king is born, the army of Arthus will be in the hands of a female with the blood of Arthus. If a queen is born, the army of Arthus will be in the hands of a male with the blood of Arthus."

Grimaced Kitty.

"That's why you are going south, we need the piers cleansed, we need the Shadows on every ship and, with every merchant." Ordered Brielle. "I will go to the rally point, I hope that Thaddeus survived... The king had brothers and sisters, maybe there is still blood of Arthus in hiding."

"Ohh, so you want to keep the third princess in the army and put a random guy on the throne?"

Whistled Kitty.

"He won't be a random guy, he will be the blood of Arthus, he will become our king, until the third or the fifth have a son."

Said Brielle, her eyes cold.

Once the rain subsided a merchant caravan left the capital, they were going south, Kitty was hidden within.

A trusted messenger, obviously a Shadow, was sent west, after a week, two hundred men and women, the elites of Arthus were marching towards the capital, fifty scouts were spread out ahead of them to prevent ambushes. The elites did stay only a day in the capital, they left for the hardwood forest with Brielle and Micahelle as the only two additions. Oh, and a bear.

The elite army with the help of Brielle's knowledge made haste. In ten days they came in sight of the rally point. It should have been a hole in the ground with a hollowed rock on top, what they found was just that. But, Brielle was not watching the ground, in the trees, hidden by the canopy there were bridges and structures. If the village had to fight wolves and droppers, why not build on top of the trees so that the wolves could not get to them and the droppers would have a hard time ambushing them.

"Elle! I missed you so much!"

While Brielle was inspecting the trees and trying to find traces of life, she heard a familiar voice. From the trees Micah, her husband appeared, he jumped down with a rope wrapped around his body. He ran towards her, took their daughter and started hugging, kissing and spinning her around.

"Hey Micah, I'm back too."

Said Brielle angrily.

"Oh, yeah, hi Bri. Is just I did not think I woul-"

"ONLY Sidon can call me Bri!"

"Right! Sorry Elly! I won't make the same mistake ever again!"

Said Micah agitated.

"So,-" Brielle sighed "- how did it go?"

"We got out, the fighting was brutal, the snow after was worse. From one hundred and seventy eight..." Micah sighed, a tear adorned his visage. "Elly, it was terrible out there, only sixty three of us are still alive."