Two weeks have passed since the Siege of Reinholm was stopped and the walls are still being repaired due to mages being used more for healing the many soldiers, citizens and even prisoners taken during the siege than rebuilding and even after two weeks there are still some who need healing. Keireens ships that remained docked or off shore without a crew after the battle were taken in by Reinlas so that the ships now could be used against Keireen in future naval combat given that Reinlas's own fleet was decimated the ships acquired from the siege help. The border after the siege got muddled up by reassignments on both sides but more so on Keireens side allowing for Reinlas's border force to advance further into Keireens territory and take the territories with villages in it with minimal force which allowed for some soldiers that were captured in both the siege and the territory advance to join Reinlas's forces though this advance was soon stopped by Keireen sending his border force back with some new armour and weapons and reinforcements after his mistake in pulling them back. Reinlas stands at the docks which have been repaired and expanded a bit for the new ships to fully dock.
"Daiera!" Reinlas shouts
Daiera runs over.
"My king. W-what is it you require from me?" Daiera asks a bit nervously
"I wished to speak, I've been more focussed on the rebuilding that I hadn't had the chance to speak with you or Vernamai and since you were both influential over the coarse of the siege in your own ways I decided now may be a better time to talk to you" Reinlas says
"O-oh that makes sense" Daiera says still a bit nervous
"Why are you so nervous?" Reinlas asks
"I'm uh not so confident on land, being on a ship or just in the ocean I feel much better due to my main magic being that of water, I can move around easier control the environment better than on land" Daiera says
"Hmm fair enough, though given Scyera, Lieran and Erinas descriptions on how you held yourself at sea it doesnt seem to be a problem" Reinlas says
Daiera nods.
"Look over the ships we currently have, for the valour you showed and clear aptitude for fighting and commanding at sea, you can choose a ship to take control of as its new captain" Reinlas says
"Seriously?!" Daiera asks surprised
"Yes" Reinlas says
"I- Thank you my king b-but I'd prefer to keep the ship I a-already was made captain of during the attack. I know it already, capabilities, durability, crew size and pretty much everything else about it" Daiera says
"Fair enough, then let it be official rather than acting captain you are now the actual captain of the ship" Reinlas says
"Thank you my king" Daiera says with some happiness in her voice
"Pick who you want on your crew from the volunteers and go out to sea, no doubt Keireen has ships out there that you can do some damage to" Reinlas says
"Way ahead of you" Daiera says as she walks away to pick a crew
Reinlas teleports to Renamerima Castles garrison and looks over at Vernamai who is walking around the room awkwardly and slowly on his new metal legs.
"How are you feeling Vernamai?" Reinlas asks
Vernamai from the sudden shock of being talked to and also still getting used to his legs falls onto the ground.
"Fuck!" Vernamai says shaking his head as he sits up
"Sorry for scaring you and that I couldn't come sooner" Reinlas says
"No it's alright my king, I know you had more important things to do like rebuilding the city and I should have sensed you appear but I'm still getting used to these" Vernamai says as he bangs his metal legs
"I'll ask again, how are you feeling?" Reinlas asks
"Honestly? I feel fucked, I can barely walk with these legs and the concentration to keep them working while not much can get disrupted and without magic I'm fuckign useless when it comes to moving these things unless I literally grabbed onto them and moved them with my arms. Hell it'd probably be faster to crawl" Vernamai says
Reinlas laments on Vernamais situation.
"It's my fault for you losing your legs Vernamai, if I had paid more attention during the fight or utilised my scans better in the fight you wouldn't have had to fight that delantramite and lose them" Reinlas says
"King Reinlas, do not blame yourself I don't nor do I even blame myself, we both know the battlefield is absurdly chaotic especially when fighting for home, we have mainly seen it from the opposite side but we saw it from the other side of the spectrum losses of both lives and limbs were always to be expected. We all accepted that when this war started especially when our home was being attacked" Vernamai says
"You are a good man Vernamai, now get up better to keep practicing walking with your new legs" Reinals says
"Right" Vernamai says levitating up and putting his metallic feet on the ground as he starts to walk around slowly and with hands on the wall next to him
Reinlas stays with Vernamai for a few more hours trying to help him get better with walking though hes got no experience with this sort of thing so is mainly supplying Vernamai with more magic so that he wont run out and doesn't have to worry about that along with everything else. Vernamai does improve a little with his walking but as he finally does so a soldier telepathically speaks to Reinlas.
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"My king, we have an update on something interesting and concerning from the border" The soldier telepathically says
"What is it?" Reinlas asks telepathically
"Well after soem small skirmishes a bit of Keireens border force was pushed back and we came across a house that well, we sense a life inside but no one wants to get too close" The soldier says telepathically
"Why?" Reinlas asks telepathically
"It requires your expertise to say the least also you're probably better equipped for this than us" The soldier says telepathically
"I'm on my way" Reinlas says telepathically as he stands up
"Something going on?" Vernamai asks as he lays in a bed
"Yes, I'd prefer to stay longer but it appears something strange has been found at the border" Reinlas says
"Best of luck, the borders a hell hole" Vernamai says
"I know" Reinlas says back as he teleports to the soldier who spoke to him
Reinlas looks around and his nose is filled with the smell of burnt flesh.
"Where is the house?" Reinlas asks
"Follow me" The soldier says as he begins to walk along the border lines with Reinlas
The further they walk the worse the smell of burnt flesh comes but along with the smell fo smoke. Reinlas sees the house on the horizon, it is a relatively small house built only for a small family, the house is surrounded by the burnt corpses of two adults and two small children with the corpse of a dragon laying inside the house on the collapsed roof.
"What the fuck" Reinlas says
"You would not believe the amount of times I've heard that today upon coming here" The soldier says
Reinlas surveys the area around the house and he sees trees knocked over or clawed viciously along with deep claw marks along with ground in what seems to be a panicked fashion. He notices what seemed to be some small defences on first thought Reinlas believed them to be because of the border but he realises these were more aimed for the sky.
"They did something to this dragon, it attacked them for it but it seemed to be in a panic... maybe its home is nearby" Reinlas says
"We sensed something alive in the house, we couldn't narrow it down because of the dragon" The soldier says
Reinlas draws Kylorn from his scabbard.
"Lets get in there Kylorn" Reinlas says
"Of coarse" Kylorn says
Reinlas looks at the soldier.
"Send soldiers to look around the surrounding area I'm guessing this dragon had a nest nearby, find it and it could explain this and we can expect future dragon attacks but we may also find other living immortalai" Reinlas says
The soldier nods and runs off to relay the order as Reinlas walks towards the house. There is still some small fires in the house from what Reinlas can see through where a window was, Reinlas walks into the house and he comes face to face with the dragons corpse.
"This fucking thing is big though I sense it wasnt too old few hundred maybe few thousand years. Its scales are odd" Reinlas says
Reinlas looks over the dragons body noticing the predominant dark blue scales across the body with some scales showing different dark colours.
"Different coloured scales, odd though to be fair I have only come into contact with one dragon so this may be normal" Reinlas thinks to himself
Reinlas looks around the room and scans it, noticing the footprints in the house on the scorch marks from fire.
"Seems like the dragon busted in through the wall started burning the place from the inside" Reinlas says
"Indeed, thats when they ran outside to use their defences" Kylorn says
"Thats what I suspect" Reinlas says
Reinlas looks around and hears something under some of the rubble.
"I see what they meant about sensing something but not being able to narrow it down because of the dragon now, I could barely sense whatever it under there" Reinlas thinks to himself
Reinlas holds Kylorn in a more defensive way as he walks over to the rubble and clears it away carefully when a small baby dragons head pops out of the rubble leaving Reinlas slightly confused. The small baby dragon is a little girl with greyed out scales similar to the dead dragon but its scales are mostly a darkened red. The baby dragon sees Kylorn and gets scared trying to dig back into the rubble away from Reinlas and Kylorn, Reinlas sheathes Kylorn and clears more of the rubble away causing the baby dragon to sneeze fire at Reinlas in fright.
"Ok I should have expected that, good thing it only got my armour" Reinlas thinks to himself as he kneels down and puts some small bits of food on the ground
The baby dragon smells the food and turn around looking at Reinlas who now doesnt have Kylorn in hand and the food infront of him so the baby dragon walks over scared and eats a little bit.
"The panicked slashes are obvious now and why they had defences, they took the dragons baby and it came to take the baby back. Bastards" Reinlas says to himself
Reinlas stands up causing the baby dragon to move back a little wary of Reinlas. Reinlas sees a journal and quickly scans through it.
"It seems the people in this house had a problem with the dragon here as it had roared many times waking them up at night and when they had gone out to hunt, they had come across the dragon and got pretty injured so they decided to take revenge" Reinlas says
"It was defending itself and its baby so they decide to kidnap the dragons baby and try to kill the dragon? Thats horrible and extremely idiotic" Kylorn says
"Indeed" Reinlas says as he looks back at the baby dragon which seems too have climbed up the partially destroyed wall and Reinlas notices its wings seem to have attached to its front legs as it jumps off the wall but falls quickly forcing Reinlas to catch it quickly
"Seems this little dragon cannot fly yet" Reinlas says
The baby dragon struggles a little in Reinlas's arms scared by him a little bit but Reinlas grabs some more food and holds it infront of the baby dragons face allowing it to eat and calm down.
"Seems so my king" Kylorn says
Reinlas looks at the baby dragon and then the dead dragon mother.
"This baby has little chance to survive especially with the state of the world today before that well its debatable though now, she would certainly die... we'll see how Linra works with dragons and maybe this little one will have a home" Reinlas says
Reinlas walks out of the building holding the baby dragon and some soldiers rush over but seem slightly confused a concerned at the sight of the baby dragon.
"My king? What do you intend to do with the baby dragon?" One soldier asks
"Currently, take it home she does have little chance of survival given the mother was murdered" Reinlas says
The soldiers nod and Reinlas teleports home with the baby in his arms and goes into the garden where he senses. As Reinlas steps into the garden the baby dragon visibly calms and looks in the direction of linra who seems to be sitting down and talking with the pack leader.
"Ok, so far so good" Reinlas thinks to himself as he walks over
Linra turns around and looks at Reinlas then at the baby dragon very confused but gets up and looks her over.
"Did something happen?" Linra asks
"From all we've gathered there was some people who took this baby dragon and when the mother panicked and came to get her they fought her, everyone except the baby died" Reinlas says
"Thats horrible" Linra says saddened at the thought as she puts her hand on the baby dragons head calming her a little more
The baby dragon jumps into Linra arms.
"Well she seems to like you" Reinlas says a bit relieved
"I still dont understand my connection to animals" Linra says as she holds the baby dragon
"This little one should get a name, she may have a dragon name but I doubt she'll remember it without her mother" Reinlas says
"Jorankra, that might be a good one. What do you think?" Lirna asks
"Its great Linra" Reinlas says with a smile
Linra walks back over to the pack leader and sits down to talk some more to him as Jorankra falls asleep in Linra arms. Reinlas walks back into the castle but looks back at Linra with Jorankra.
"We march again soon but I had never thought about the effect the war may have on some of the mroe remote wild life, it was brought to my attention when the water dragon attacked but then this? Maybe not directly due to the war but its given me something to watch for" Reinlas thinks to himself as he continues walking towards the war room...