The Coming Storm

After a few days of walking, we have finally reached the Waterkill Kingdom. From afar it was already possible to see their advanced development, with countless tall buildings in which people live and work, a long wall protecting the whole city from land attacks, and the ships moving to sail on the seas or coming to deliver goods.

"This place seems... Breathtaking...", Jeffrey commented as we approached the city while I tried to disguise myself, giving him my sword and attempting to hide my face with something similar to a hood. It was awful, however, we didn't have any piece of cloth to make a good hood or any kind of disguise... My best hope was that no wanted posters were in the city.

My luck soon revealed itself, the disguise seemed to have not worked at all... As soon as we walked through the gate of this kingdom, three men that were standing nearby and were armed with spears, looked at me and started to whisper among themselves, together with a random citizen.

"Well... We should go right to a boat that will bring us to the continent of that volcano... And we should go fast", I suggested to Beech and Jeffrey, hurrying up away from the four men whispering.

"I suppose... Let's just end this quickly", he said and hurried up with me, quickly going to the docks of the city.

As we ran, however, the fox jumped on me while looking behind us, as if trying to say there's something behind us... When we looked, those three guards of the gate were right behind us, coming closer and closer. It seemed like they knew who I was and were going to arrest me right away.

Or perhaps not... We could take our chances and hope they didn't want anything with us... But since they were the same guards of the gate, it was hard to believe in such a thing.

What should we do? Start running like crazy or fighting was going to drag unwanted attention anyway, our best chance was to just walk away and hope they were not after us...

"Excuse me...", someone said, putting a hand on my shoulder. By the tone of voice, he sounded very serious, and that probably meant my cover was blown up. "We've been searching for you. If you and your friends could come with us..."

"Sorry, I am not going anywhere with you, neither are my friends", I answered while slapping his hand away from me.

As we talked, one of the three guards was whispering with that citizen we saw by the gate again... Now that I paid attention to him, this citizen looked familiar, but I don't know from where I could've met him.

"Look, we got confirmation of who you are. Dagger, you must come us... We need your help...", the guard said, sighing a little as if he was defeated for saying such a thing to me. While it could be a trap that awaited me, I couldn't just turn my ears deaf to a request for help.

"Okay... We can help, but tell me what's the problem first", I said at the same time that Jeffrey gave me back my sword. There was no pointing in hiding my identity if they already knew who I was, after all.

"Well, we heard you helped this guy and his friends when they crossed the Daylight Darkness Forest... Now we need your help to deal with those criminals too. They are going to bombard this city very soon and we could use your help to defend it... Our leader and strategists are at the fort of the port, waiting to find any help they can get", he explained to me while I looked at them, a bit skeptical. But with the only motive for me to say "no" being the possibility of a trap, I felt like taking that chance.

"I see... Let's go then, lead the way", I said and he nodded, walking with the other guards towards the fort of the port.

"Sire. We have found help to fight against the criminals", one of the guards said, saluting to the armored knights there. It was a large room with very small windows and a table where a map of the coast and the seas was.

"I am more than glad to hear that, who is this person?", he asked and turned around to see me and my friends standing at his door. He gasped, in surprise and shock, while a knight by his side started to laugh.

"What are you guards doing? Trying to bring war with the Coventry Kingdom? We're allies, we should send her to Coventry before they think we betrayed them. Besides, she's just a random knightess, what experience she has with actual warfare?", the laughing knight said, but the surprised knight signed him to stop.

"While it's true that she's a criminal from our allies, she's still our best chance against the criminals... We asked for the help of Coventry, but they will still take a week to send any help. They won't make it in time. Besides, if her doings of the recent weeks are indeed true, she might be even the piece on the chessboard that might turn the tables for us... Never underestimate someone, alright soldier?", he said and the knight who laughed made a serious expression, a bit embarrassed to have been scolded.

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir".

"Anyway. Do you think you can really help us with this situation, Dagger and your friends?", he asked and I took a minute to consider what he had proposed to me... I needed more information before helping...

"Well... Why are you in this situation anyway?"

"It's... Complicated. We always had a deal with the criminals, they offered protection and promised to never steal us at the cost of having some of our built vessels... Our approach with the Coventry Kingdom was the hope we had to end this stupid deal, scaring the criminals away with Coventry's military might. Of course, however, the criminals didn't take the matter lightly... They are planning to level our city down with our own vessels..."

"But I thought your vessels were not made for the military in its majority", Jeffrey asked curiously, the knight only sighed.

"Yes... But that's because our naval military production was always what the criminals wanted from us as part of the deal. We were not a major nation by the time we did that deal with them, so our vessels were not strong enough to stop them from forcing us to sign that deal... Now I see their devious plan, they made us dependent on them by not allowing us to have a military force"

"I see... I think we can see what we can do to help you. Do we have intel... I think the strategy is nothing without knowing the strength of your enemy first", I asked them and one of the strategists moved to answer me.

"They have about a hundred military vessels coming for us, armed with the latest weapon that the Roseblood Empire developed: The gunpowder canon. Quite deadly, although none of us have seen it in action yet"

"And our forces? What do we have to repel the enemy threat?", Jeffrey asked as he looked at the map.

"About 20 vessels, 10 armed with trebuchets, eight armed with catapults, and two with the prototypes of our versions of those gunpowder cannons. We are still learning of this technology", the same strategist answered.

"Also", another of the strategists said, "if you're wondering why they have so easy access of that technology, we believe they smuggled from the Roseblood Empire... Or perhaps they have a deal with them as well".

"Well... Then we're outnumbered five to each of our vessels and they also are better armed...", I said, while considering what we had... It seemed like a lost battle, to be honest. But with a good strategy and the fact the criminals will probably underestimate our strength, we just might have the chance... We just needed time to bring that strategy to our minds...