20 The Monastery

The ferry was a long narrow boat made out of wood with several rows for oars and a single mast with a square sail on it. It had a shallow keel, and could land directly on the riverbank.

Ethan had said to Mia "It's like a viking boat" once he got a good look at it landed on the riverbank, but this confused Mia because she had no idea what a 'viking' was.

"It's the same type of boat that our navy uses on the Great Sea. Of course, our navy never goes too far from shore because the sea monsters get worse the further out that you go, but it is helpful to have a naval presence to guard our coast from enemy invasions and to guard our shipping routes from pirates. In fact, this particular ferry is an old retired naval vessel that is being put to use here." Said Mia.

The party then embarked on the boat. The current of the river was quickly flowing south, but there was also a strong wind blowing to the north, so the boat was able to head directly across the river and reached the west bank, landing very close to the monastery.

[ This is good. We'll get our horses back, and be able to make much better time than we were while traveling on foot. We picked up two extra people in the forest, but five of our knights died unfortunately, so there should be 26 horses for 23 people. We can use the extra three horses for our gear I suppose.] thought Mia.

She then led her knights into the monastery and went to talk to the abbot, who was in charge of the monastery.

"Lady Von Ritter, was your journey successful?" Asked the abbot when she entered.

"It could have gone worse. Are the horses ready?" She said, not wanting to talk too much about the trip.

"Yes. The monks are just saddling them up in the stables now." Said the abbot.

"Excellent. On an unrelated note, I really appreciate the work that your monastery is doing in my father's territory. Your monks are doing a good job educating the previously illiterate people of this area and your physicians are giving medical treatment to the poor of this area. I'd like to donate ten gold coins for your monastery to continue the missions of your order." Said Mia while handing him a small bag of gold coins. (ten gold coins in the Vorbei Kingdom is the equivalent of 1000 days labor for a common laborer.)

"Thank you for your generosity, my lady. We are just happy to continue working to help those in need" Said the abbot gratefully.

The knights plus Ethan and Johan waited in the entry room of the main building of the monastery. A short while later, the horses were ready, saddled, and standing in front of the walls of the monastery. They were 26 well trained and well bred horses of knights. They were a special breed of horses called 'Vorbei Pferds' unique to the Kingdom of Vorbei, with it even being a crime to try to smuggle one out of the Kingdom. They were significantly larger in size than the average horse, but were mostly bred for speed, going around 53 kilometers per hour at full gallop with an armored knight on their back. They could overtake even the light cavalry of the nomadic tribes to the north, and they could bear a knight with heavy armor to even match the Western Empire's heavy cavalry units. In addition, they were smarter than average horses and very easy to train. Within a realistic battle scenario, they could gallop to reach an enemy magic caster before said enemy has time to finish casting an advanced attack spell. They were excellent horses for use in battle for these reasons, but the breed had two main drawbacks: First, they ate a lot of fodder compared to other horses making them less than ideal in situations where supply lines were cut. Second, they did not live long, usually dying of a heart attack after fifteen to twenty years, when average horses that were not of this breed often lived twenty five to thirty years. This meant that the Kingdom of Vorbei had many people devoted to breeding these creatures before their short life spans ended. For these reasons, only a portion of the Vorbei Kingdom's total Vorbei Pferds would ever be deployed at any one time, even at times of war with the remaining ones being used to breed future generations of the breed, and the Kingdom was hesitant to deploy them in areas where they could not guarantee the supply lines would not be cut.

Mia thanked the Abbot again and mounted her horse with the other knights and Ethan and Johan doing likewise.

They then began riding slightly northwest in the direction of the Castle Von Ritter, where they planned to stop for the night.