The East

A wyvern with white scales clad in armor soared through the night sky gracefully, cutting through the dreamy clouds. On its back was a young figure clad in dark grey armor that reflected the moon light, giving it a silvery allure.

She had just finished making her rounds. It was her mission to go to and from human countries as a delegate of the Ogre Tyrant. He had created illegal trade between most of the human nations and had made a huge profit out of it.

Although it was not permitted for humans to enter the Larm forest, there was nothing saying that he wasn't allowed to trade resources with the humans. Or so the ogre would say. Through this he had acquired a hefty amount of weapons and money from human nations. That was the back-up plan the Ogre Tyrant had come up with, in the case the First Tyrant ever noticed what he had been doing.

This delegate was returning to the Ogre's fortress with a letter the king of a nation had made for the Ogre tyrant and so they had made haste and flew through the secret route as usual.

This time however, when she was going back home she saw a scenery she never imagined she would bear witness to in her life. She tugged on the reins and the wyvern drew closer to the image so she wanted to get a better look at it. There was a wild fire happening in the forest and it was burning like crazy. It was spreading quickly and dangerous fumes were being produced. Her wyvern couldn't draw any closer due to the poisonous fumes so they withdrew.

Several things came to mind on what possibly caused the fire, but there was only one word that kept on ringing in her head.

'Humans?'

Had humans invade the West and started a wild fire? Surely they weren't dumb enough to just start a wildfire without any plans. Maybe they wanted to distract the Tyrant of the West long enough to extract some resources? And given the kingdom closest to the West, it wouldn't be a surprise for them to pull that kind of stunt.

She immediately decided to add it to her list of things to be reported to the Ogre Tyrant.

After an hour of just soaring through the air, the delegate could see two guard posts in front of a giant wooden wall. Beneath, on the ground, hidden by the trees were camps and camp fires, with creatures sitting around them and talking. There were various tents with ogres, orcs and kobolds around, chatting and having fun.

A few soldiers patrolled the areas and would look up at the wyvern whenever it flew over. At the guard posts were kobold soldiers, holding lamps and looking out around the wall for possible threats. They saw the wyvern and nodded at its rider – a gesture that wouldn't even be noticed.

Behind the wall was a massive courtyard filled with soldiers of the orc tribe, ogre tribe, kobold tribe and even trolls. Some were running laps around the courtyard, whereas others were patrolling. Some were busy with training, almost as if a war were coming up. There was a mansion centered right in the middle of the wooden walls. To the left, there was a wyvern sleeping there.

The delegate landed there, right next to the bigger black wyvern who opened its eyes lazily for a second. Almost immediately, the delegate jumped off the wyvern's back and caressed its sides. The delegate grabbed a huge sack she had attached to the wyvern and removed from it a huge lump of meat, which she fed to the wyvern.

"Good boy." She said.

"Welcome back, your highness!"

4 kobolds came rushing to attend to her. They bowed down in front of her and yelled.

"Tell my father that I have returned and I have important news."

"As you wish."

One of the kobolds ran towards the Ogre Tyrant's audience room.

The kobolds then began to remove her armor as she walked towards the audience room.

"How is Kala?"

"The young princess is still practicing her magic. Do you wish to see her?"

"Hmmm... No. Let her be. What about Karon?"

"The young master has left to the Demise Mountains."

"When was this?"

"About ten days ago."

"When will he be back?"

"We are sorry but we do not know. If you give us some time we shall find out-"

"Never mind about that. Prepare a bath for me. As soon as I am done with my conference with father I will need to take a bath."

"As you wish."

The kobolds bowed and left.

She reached a massive door that led to the audience room. The kobold guards on either side of the massive door bowed to her. When she nodded, they pushed it open for her. As soon she entered the audience room, the doors were shut behind her and the room descended into darkness. The torches in the room dimly illuminated the room.

Sitting on a huge throne of skulls was a very fat ogre, radiating a very oppressive aura. He had two ogre guards standing guard next to him.

The ogre princess then went on one knee and faced the ground.

"I have returned, Father."

"Did the king of the Sundane Kingdom accept my proposal?"

"He wishes to negotiate with you."

"Negotiations? Hahaha! Those foolish humans don't get it, do they? Fine. We shall humor them."

"I have brought a letter full of their demands."

"Demands? That king is too full of himself. Shall we destroy a city or two of theirs?"

He mused, but seeing no reaction coming from his straight laced daughter he scoffed.

"If that is all then you may leave."

"I have one more thing I wish to report."

"What is it?"

"On my return, there was a wildfire in the west."

"Wildfire? The West? Seriously?"

"As I was returning from making my rounds I saw something running towards the fire. I assumed it was the Mad Witch of the West."

"So why are you reporting this?"

"I believe that humans were causing this wildfire as a form of distraction so they could extract resources from the west."

Oi. That isn't a matter you should be joking about."

"I am not joking, father."

The ogress looked up at the fat ogre that was easily three times her size. He glared at her and fiery red met gradient red in a battle of wills.

The ogre tyrant looked at the two guards before him. He just lost the battle against his daughter and was feeling embarrassed. In a rage, the ogre Tyrant punched the guard to his left. The Ogre smashed into one of the walls and created a hole to the outside. The Ogre guard had died in that moment. The princess was taken aback – although she didn't show it - because they had constantly reconstructed the audience room so that when he felt like destroying something it wouldn't be the audience room. Yet, he didn't even punch the walls. Just sending a guard flying at it had destroyed it. Her father truly was something else.

No. It was more like Larm's blessings were truly something else.

The other guard started shaking albeit faintly.

"What are you standing there for? Get me, the person in charge of my borders!"

"Sir yes sir, immediately."

The guard ran out of the room with absurd haste.

"Hmmm? And what makes you so sure about this?"

"I don't know, but if I'd have to guess, I would say it was because of the carriages I saw being prepared at Keimen's outskirts."

"Oh? Those humans must be truly desperate to want to enter Larm, no?"

"If I may. Is it possible that they've found a way to deal with tyrants? I am certain they wouldn't simply use a wildfire alone to distract her."

"Pfft, you underestimate the Tyrants. There is nothing the humans could possibly do to harm us, but if they knew that she has no interest in the forest they wouldn't have done something so stupid."

"So do you have an idea of what their purpose might be?"

"As of the moment, no. But this might just work in my favor."

The ogre princess raised her head for the first time.

"What do you mean?"

"Kuhahaha! Of late the resources in the East have been getting exported too much. It's going to be very difficult to keep supplying our buyers with the resources in just the east."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Oh?" The Ogre Tyrant smirked, showing his wicked yellow fangs. "Kuhahahaha!!! The West has been ungoverned for too long, wouldn't you say? It's time for someone to take control there."

"But, isn't that where the Tyrant of the West rules?"

"For how smart you are, you can be surprisingly stupid at times."

The ogress gulped and sweat trickled down her cheeks. Her father's wicked gaze was seriously unnerving at times, although she was accustomed to them. This time, there was something different about her father. He was more malicious if she would put it and he possessed a different air about him.

"S-so, you are going to challenge the West?"

"No! The stupid witch has proved too incompetent to take care of the west. I am simply just going to take up the challenge of monitoring the west and east. If the wench refuses, I shall crush her! Summon the kings! Tell them to prepare for a war!"