Run. Run. RUN. I screamed at myself in my head. I was doing my now routine morning run. I had been home for a week now and I decided to get into my old habits. Every morning I grabbed one of the hunting hounds and went for a run. Today was different though. The woods were quiet, that rarely happened. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and decided it'd be best to turn around and go home.

The sight that welcomed me was less than cheery. I was greeted by Marion knocking on my door trying to hopelessly get my attention. I stood by my steps and looked up at him. "What's happening? You're never up this early. The sun is barely up."

He gave a low sign and lowered his head. "The king has requested for us to get ready. He says he has some bad news. With our king, the bad news is really bad news."

I nodded. "Let me by. I'll change and be back out. We should make sure we're prepared for anything. If he hasn't issued a warning we should expect the worst."

Marion got off my steps and I went inside. He stood below my steps waiting for me. After a couple of minutes of changing I ran down the front steps and tapped his shoulder. He nodded to me and then looked at everyone sitting quietly sitting at the large table. I took my seat beside him. Once we were all seated our king appeared at the head of the table. We all looked at him concerned. We had no idea how bad the news could be.

King Tinyl looked somber. Even his young form he looked like he had aged years in the few days we hadn't seen him. A look of worry was plastered on the faces of everyone. He looked up from the table. "As you all know I came today with bad news." His face fell. Even he couldn't act confident and reassuring to us. "Two days ago, the king of Flaysal, Oldtur, the God of war and Fire, declared war on the kingdom Jestrye."

A few gasps escaped our lips. We looked to our king for any kind of good news. But there was none. "King Oton of Jestrye, the god of riches and commerce, has declared war on Flaysal as well as Droice. I thought this could all be avoided by declaring our nation a neutral party. I wanted nothing to do with this war. But due to Oton's declaration of war, we have no choice. His soldiers have been spotted by our border only an hour away from here."

King Tinyl looked as if this news was too much for him. He had always done so much in the name of peace and was now being thrown into a war he was unprepared for. Droice has little military power. No formal military. And a very small population. Sure the people here are strong, hell our professional sport is bear wrestling. But we're not ready to go to war.

Marion stood up, "My king, how can we help?"

King Tinyl gave Marion a weak smile as he sat down. Marion followed suit. "Marion, this community is the closest to our border. That means you all know these woods better than anyone else. I don't want you to fight. I'd prefer to shed no blood on Droice's land. I ask you all to help me protect our border. Please join me in setting up defenses at our border."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Everyone at the table exchanged looks and nodded to their king. We would support our king through anything, just as he had been doing for us. King Tinyl looked slightly more relaxed. "When do we start?" He asked.

Marion, Janais, and I all stood up. "How about we show you the woods. Since the last big was centuries ago we've created new paths that you should be made aware of." Janais spoke with confidence. This earned a half-smirk from our clearly tired King. He nodded and stood up. "Please lead the way." He spoke clearly like he was finally feeling more at ease.

Janais and I lead him down the side path that I used to get home. It was narrow, the snow made it even harder to navigate. "I think we have an advantage here. The snow will make it harder for them to follow us. Jestrye doesn't have nearly as much snow as we do. We can still move easily in it." I said. Tinyl nodded. He was deep in thought.

"King Tinyl. Are you okay? Is there anything we can do to help?" Janais asked. Janais and I looked at him very concerned.

"We want to help. A distracted king can't help in a war. Please tell us what's bothering you." I pleaded. The king wasn't one to open up easily but she had managed it a couple of times in the past.

Tinyl sighed and caved in to her demands, he knew that fighting her would just put both of them in a sour mood. "Oton and Oldtur both know my stand on peace. It's one of the most important things to me. By dragging us into this war, they're telling me that they no longer care about peace. Oldtur even claimed that peace was never a real option." Tinyl leaned his back against a tree and slowly slid towards the ground. He patted the spots in the snow next to him, signaling for us to sit by him.

Janais and I both fell into the snow by him. I looked at him extremely worried. King Tinyl is a very calm and peaceable man. This news meant the start of another world war. Most of the world was now involved. Only Echor and Creysten weren't involved.

"Why are they suddenly so angry?" Janais asked. Always straight to the point, as usual.

"Jestrye put a law in place tightening border security. They wanted to regulate trade more and redesign their system, which would change the way the world does trade. Oldtur prefers speed over quality. This would slow him down substantially."

I nodded. "Does this look like the start of another world war? Wasn't the last one so bad that only this continent remained?"

King Tinyl nodded. "Yes. It was. The war boiled down to Rakuma and Oldtur, two old and very powerful gods. Rakuma wiped the floor with Oldtur and put him in his place quickly." He laughed a little bit. "She did actually slam his face into a continent and he surrendered."

This garnered a small laugh from both Janais and me. "That sounds like it'd be funny to see. I'll remember that."

"It was pretty funny. However, Rakuma has no interest in this war. She said she would step in if needed but her country has its own problems that need her attention. She cant break up every fight between those two boys. Let's hope that they figure it out before we have to do anything."

It began to snow, very slowly, the snowflakes looked like they were suspended in the air. We looked up at the small snowflakes coming through the leaves of the trees. I stood up slowly and reached a hand out to the king.

"We haven't lost the war yet. So let's figure out how we can fight."