One mighty feat of persuasion later, we finally manage to get the entire caravan to the gates of Skaok. Its imposing walls greeted us, decorated way more lavishly than the walls of Ribaquen were.

“You can definitely tell this is a wealthy trading city, holy cow.” My sister looks up and whistles at the majestic purple banners with the city's crest on it.

But before anyone else can comment on it, one of the city guards runs up to our group. “I’d strongly advise you ladies to leave right now.” He nervously looks over his shoulder.

“Why, what’s the matter?” Hilda asks the man.

“You are the people they are talking about right? The War Goddess of Parma?” He looks at me.

“What if she is?” Sam swings an arm around me with her other hand on her dagger.

“If it were up to us or the kingdom, nothing milady. But yesterday evening the Inquisition of Osvik arrived in town, looking for anyone who is following this ‘heresy’.”

“Shit.” Hilda curses, quickly ruffling through her bag.

“Is it that bad Hilda?” I ask her.

“Kinda, I was wondering if this would happen but I thought it would take them a lot longer than this. Sorry for not telling you but I didn’t want to make you worry.”

“From what I know, Osvik is a bit like the pope for us, right?” Nikki asks.

“Yeah, it’s practically the Papal States. Small in size but their religious influence is enormous.”

“I’m not sure what you are talking about….” The guard continues. “But it would be best for all parties involved if you were to leave now so as to let things calm down a bit, or at least that’s what the briefing told me...”

“But we really need to get to the port - do you think that’ll be possible?” Hilda asks the guard.

He thinks for a second, rubbing his stubbly beard while doing so. “If you go through the residential district and avoid the center, it might be.”

Hilda nods and looks back to me as she pushes something made of gray fabric into my hands. “Here Ami, pull this over your outfit, and hide your tail too.”

“What is it?”

“A garb usually worn by the lower clergy, I got it from a quest back in the day.”

I nod and pull it over my outfit, it’s way too big for me but it does manage to hide pretty much everything. “I look ridiculous in this.”

“I don’t know, I think it looks kinda cute.” Sam giggles.

“Shush.”

The guard gives an approving nod. “I think your plan will work, as long as they don’t get too close of a look.”

“Alright, thanks for the heads-up.” Hilda smiles and hands the guard a couple of gold coins.

With that we move on into the city and immediately take a left away from the main street, into one of the multitude of residential alleyways. Luckily the caravan that was travelling with us didn’t notice us slip away.

Once we were deeper into the alleys Hilda starts speaking again. “Okay, I thought we could relax for a bit and then go look for the captain, but it looks like that’s not in the books. Sorry y’all, especially for not telling you earlier.” Her mood has turned quite somber, the smile from a couple of moments earlier had completely vanished.

“It’s okay, Hilda.” I say. “It was to keep me from panicking, you couldn’t have known they would be so fast.”

Nikki supports my opinion. “And it was to be expected some people wouldn’t react well to our little goddess over here.”

“I just hope the people from the caravan and all the others will be okay.” I continue.

“I hope so too.” Sam squeezes me.

“Otherwise I’ll turn that entire theocracy to ash.”

“Woah, woah, woah, there kitten. Although I do agree with the sentiment.” My sister takes my shoulder. “But it looks like the people here are quite open about things, so if that Osvik is a bit too zealous I’m sure they will put a stop to it.”

“The government will probably tell them to calm their tits or force a trade embargo on them or something, but it’s best we keep out of it so we don’t make it worse for Reykland.” Nikki reasons.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Reykland completely surrounds Osvik, so yes, that’d probably be their course of action.” Hilda agrees. “But still, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, otherwise I’ll be angry.” I say with a smile.

“Alright then. I’ll try.” She somberly smiles back at me.

“Just give brooding Hilda some time, she gets like this too when she orders the wrong sandvich for someone at work.” Élise whispers to me and Sam. “That someone being me. Even though I told her a million times that the one she got me was perfectly fine too.”

“Oh I see.”

“Sam, could you ride a bit closer to Hilda?” I look up at my girlfriend who quickly gives me a nod, probably already knowing what I was planning to do.

Sam rides up to Hilda and starts talking to her. “Hey Hilda, could you hold my kitten for a while?”

“Uhh?” Hilda looks a bit surprised as Sam lifts up and puts me on the front of Hilda’s saddle. Hilda instinctively swings her arm around me so I don’t fall off. “Is something wrong, Ami?”

I shake my head and lean back against her. “No, it’s just that… please don’t be so hard on yourself, okay? Everyone makes mistakes, and we don’t love you any less for them.” I look up at her and smile.

“I guess I’m just a bit of a perfectionist… maybe a bit too much... '' her grip around me got a bit tighter as she whispers to me. “Thanks kitten, I really needed that.”

I ride the rest of the way to the harbor on Hilda’s horse. The rows of houses make place for the open area around the quay. Even though it’s raining there’s a lot of activity going on. Huge sailing ships getting loaded and unloaded. Fishmongers trying to sell their still incredibly deliciously looking fish and even some small street acts were attracting the attention of some of the townsfolk.

“Damn, where do we even start looking?” Élise looks around at all the ships, manually checking them would take quite a while.

“We could just ask.” Sam comments and stops one of the townspeople. “Dear sir, would you know where we could find the ship called ‘Sam’s revenge’?”

“I’m not sure, I’m bad with ship names, sorry.“ The man shrugs.

“And what about its captain, Captain Taylor?” Hilda asks.

“Ah! That’s a name I do know!”

“Any idea where she would be at?”

“My bet is she’s in the ‘Drowned Doormat’. It’s an inn, you can’t miss it if you keep following the quay.”

“That’s a weird name for an inn.” Nikki giggles.

“Why don’t you try to come up with an original name for an inn then.” The man shoots back.

“Fair point.”

“Thanks for the help, sir.” Hilda gives the man a coin for his troubles and off he goes.

It didn’t take us very long to find the inn. Its sign depicted a doormat under water, which Élise found absolutely hilarious. “Haha, good memes.” She wipes away some tears from having been laughing too hard.

“Should we all go inside?” Nikki asks. “Or should me and Lise keep watch here?”

“That might be best. Just in case the inquisition turns up.” Hilda gets off the horse and takes me off it as well. Sam also dismounts to come with us too. “Just come in and call out… uh… pineapple if you see them.”

My sister almost chokes as she starts laughing again.

“Alright, will do.” Nikki chuckles. “Pineapple it is.”

The three of us enter the inn and are greeted by the distinctive smell of alcohol. The inside of the inn is also relatively dark and wasn’t particularly populated.

“This reminds me a bit of the place I met you, Hilda.”

“Don’t let Argus hear that or he will be angry.” She laughs.

“How can I help you?” The bartender stares at the three of us. “You are here to order right? If you want to get out of the rain you can do that somewhere else. This place is only for paying customers.”

We look over at one table where there’s a man sleeping, probably passed out drunk.

“Okay, formerly paying customers too.”

“Do you have something non-alcoholic?” Sam asks.

The bartender looks at us with a bit of disdain. “Of course I do, what kind of premise do you think this is?”

We look over at another table with three passed out people.

“Point taken. So what will it be?”

“Is grape juice fine for you?” Hilda looks over to us, we both nod. “Three grape juice please.” She addresses the bartender.

“Ok, coming right up.”

“And also, would you happen to know if Captain Taylor is around here?”

“Oh? Is someone looking for me?” A voice comes from inside of one of the side rooms. “Maybe a group of bounty hunters trying to claim something they aren’t prepared for?” Even though the inn isn’t particularly quiet, you could hear the distinct clicking of a flintlock pistol’s mechanism. Sam immediately jumps in front of me.

“A certain captain of the guard in Honnes recommended you.”

“Oh, did she now? And who says you aren’t lying?” Captain Taylor reveals herself. She’s wearing a gray leather overcoat, which matches very well with a pair of dark brown leather thighboots she's wearing. On her head she has a gray tricorn hat which covers a part of her medium length dirty brown hair. A scar adornes her left cheek, presumably from the slash of a sword. And although her pose is threatening, especially because of how tall she is, with cavalry saber in one hand and pistol in the other, and the look in her hazelnut brown eyes... the combined picture makes me feel quite fuzzy inside.

“Why is the chibi looking at me like that?” She stares back at me.

“I-I just thought you look really cool.” I mumble from my hidey spot behind Sam.

Captain Taylor blushes while Sam almost starts laughing. “Ami, this is maybe not the time.”

“F-flattery w-won’t get you very far with me missy!” Captain Taylor slaps her own cheek twice with her pistol hand before aiming it back at us.

“She did give us a letter.” Hilda slowly reaches for her bag. “I’m going to take it out now, so please don’t shoot.”

“Go ahead, but no funny business.”

Hilda takes out the letter and puts it on the table in front of us.

Captain Taylor dexterously grabs the letter with her sword while still training her pistol on us and starts reading it. “Hmm. I see.” She sheathes her sword and puts her pistol in it’s holster. “Looks like you were telling the truth. I guess you’ve got yourself a captain.”