Preparing the surprise

"I guess I will have to ask for some favors from Gramps to help me find this guy before he becomes a further nuisance," Rain said. "The beast people and the magic people will get one-half of him once I am done with this guy. Maybe that will calm them down."

"Even if the sea emperor helps us with this, I don't think that an alliance with the magic people is possible at this point," Esmeralda said. "They suffered too much by human hands in a few years… they will be as much interested in peace as the soldiers five years ago who had lost many friends on the battlefield. We pulled that off since we have a king that was still respected, but the magic people are different; they have dozens of tribe leaders, and their opinions weighted the same."

It seemed that Esmeralda didn't have confidence that she did a good job until now; it couldn't be helped, but it was a bit disheartening that most people didn't think that she accomplished much until now.