The others left soon to head to the city, while Matt and I sat down and started to talk.

"So," started Matt, "how about we exchange questions? You ask me one, I ask you one."

"That sounds reasonable."

"Alright. You can ask one first."

I paused a moment in thought, "I can't really think of a good question right now. Maybe you start?"

"Sure. How powerful are is the Sarroc Navy?"

"Quite powerful. They don't publicize their power, but we believe that they have around 100 modern galleys and about 200 smaller vessels. All of their vessels are equipped with ballista and explosive bolts, and are generally more powerful than anything most other nations have."

For some reason, Matt relaxed at this, "oh, okay. So they'll not be much trouble for our Navy."

I flicked an ear, "not much trouble, eh? How powerful is the US Navy?"

Matt took a deep breath, "most of the US's naval power comes from its aircraft carriers. They are giant ships that carry dozens of aircraft. You know Super Hornets, like the aircraft that 4 of them took out most of a dragon carrier and escorts?" I nodded, and he continued, "well, the Nimitz-class carriers, which we have 10 of, each normally carry 64 Super Hornets, and can carry over 100 maximum."

I blinked, "so the Super Hornet is your main aircraft, and not a special operations aircraft?"

Matt nodded, "yes, although they are being replaced slowly by F-35 Lightnings, because the Lightning has a few better qualities."

I tried to imagine hundreds of aircraft as powerful as what I had seen of the Super Hornets. Such a force could obliterate Sarroc, and would be about a match for Iridia, if they could get here. I then realized that, because they were based from aircraft carriers, they could be easily moved anywhere. At least the US didn't seem to be looking to conquer the world. And, if Varra was allied with them, then we would be extra safe.

"You okay?" Matt looked concerned.

"Yes," I shifted in my seat, "just got lost in my thoughts. Sorry."

"I believe it is my turn to ask a question," he asked, and I nodded.

"Ask away."

"The only context I have for the word 'werefox' is our mythology, where a werefox is a person who, once every full moon, turns into a half-fox half-human form. Is there any truth to this or is it just a myth?"

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"It is just a myth. I cannot change forms, this is the only one I have. And there's nothing to do with the moon about anything, other than I seem to remember something about some manacomm channels having more static when the moon is full. They're channels that are very far off of the normal sections, though."

"Okay, that's good to know. I think it's your turn now?"

"Yes, it is," I thought for a moment, "do you think that the US would be willing to sell some Super Hornets or other aircraft to Varra?"

Matt sighed, "if it was up to me, we would already have a couple aircraft carriers stationed offshore and hundreds of aircraft demolishing Sarroc's entire invasion, then be selling you and training you on modern aircraft. Unfortunately, however, politics prevents this. I think we might sell some old aircraft or something, like F4s or Tomcats, maybe? They are great, but vulnerable to modern technology. As Sarroc does not have that modern technology, I'd say that they would be good for you. Training you on them will take time, though, and politics will decide if you even get any."

I nodded. Politics was annoying. "Alright, your question now."

"Geopolitics," said Matt, "what are the nation's around here, how powerful are they, and such."

"Well, there's Varra and Sarroc, as you already know. There is also Hione to the west, but they are poor and weak. There is the island chain nation of Per Kohne, they keep mostly to themselves and are quite small.

"And then there is the Iridian Empire." I sighed, "Iridia is by far the most powerful nation in this world. They were the ones to first invent aircraft, and we only have aircraft because we captured one of their downed planes and reverse engineered it. Iridia has about 2000 of the aircraft we copied, we have 15 lesser copies and 10 equal copies. Iridia is also allied with the Dragon Council, who command about 100,000 dragons. Basically, Iridia is extremely powerful in everything. They keep on invading nearby nations and taking their land and instituting their laws and beliefs. Said laws and beliefs mainly being that if you are not a young straight white human male, then you are lesser. Their society is very layered, with people from higher layers having complete authority over those from lower layers."

Matt frowned and nodded. "That sounds like a slightly more extreme form of an ideology that we waged war against 70 years ago. We didn't let it take over then, and we won't let it take over now, I promise you."

I nodded. America seemed quite powerful, but I was not too sure if they were a match for Iridia. "I will hold you to that promise. Now, I think that it's my turn to ask a question. I'll turn your question right back at you, what are the geopolitics of your world?"

Matt paused a moment, collecting his thoughts. "There are a lot more nations in our world. About 170 if I remember correctly. Most of them are small, though. There are a few major players, though.

"There is the US, we are the most powerful nation in terms of military strength, and at least close to the richest. We are part of NATO, which is a group of 33 close military allies. There is also Russia, which we used to think was a military power to rival the entirety of NATO. However, a couple years ago, they tried to invade Ukraine, a small country that used to be part of Russia before becoming independent. Ukraine, with a small amount of aid from other countries, fought off Russia for over a year and a half before NATO finally stepped in to help. We would have helped more and earlier, but politics got in the way. Russia basically lost all the military it had, which turned out to be very weak. The last major power is China. They are a large nation that is very controlling of their population. They have a decent sized military, but they lack in projection capacity. They can't really do anything far from home, unlike the US. Our aircraft carriers allow for great power at any distance."

I nodded. Some of it had gone over my head, but I had caught most of it.

We continued talking for the entire day, discussing ourselves and our cultures. Once it got dark, we said goodnight and we each drifted off to our quarters to sleep.