{Secret Guests}

{An Hour Before The Start Of Hunting Competetion}

8 miles away from the Reioi, a small boat escaped an onslaught of arrows fired by men whose faces were red with anger. 

The men in the small ship were dressed in black clothing completely hiding their identities. As their boat moved away they fired flaming arrows at the larger ship's sails. Creating chaos on the larger ship as fires began to spread. 

After reaching a distance where they no longer had to worry about ranged attacks they began inspecting their ship. 

"Princess Mala! A Ballista Bolt hit the boat's hull and created a large hole. Water is pouring in as we speak."

Another man yelled from the other side of the boat, "The sail has been damaged but we can temporarily mend it with dragon saliva and some sail patches." 

"Princess please you've been shot, let me heal your arm."

Even though they had been able to escape the attack it was still no time to relax. They had their own chaos to address. 

The person to whom they were submitting their reports was the shortest in the group. Other than her feminine figure, green eyes, and a few strands of blond nothing else could be gathered from a glance. 

After a moment of silence, she responded with a loud and commanding voice, "The important matter at hand is the hole in the hull. Try your best to patch it and whatever you do avoid making the matter worse. I also want two of you to grab a pail and start trying to get some of that water out. And you…start taking care of the ones with worse injuries, this wound is nothing compared to the others." 

"We need to get to the nearest island. There we can make the necessary repairs and properly treat our wounds."

The 4 people on board who could stand bowed and began doing as they were told. Another two that were injured tried to get up but they were ordered to stay down. 

As the crew became busy doing their jobs the young girl looked back at the ship that was on fire. Her eyes furrowed with anger, "To think that we would be attacked on the first supply trip I take command of." 

The group's original purpose was to buy food for their people. Since their home was a secret to any outsiders they weren't visited by any merchants. 

Her people cherished dragons and every now and then they would run missions to rescue them. Her best guess was that the Vikings must have had a run-in with a rescue group before. That was most likely the reason that they had been targeted. 

'Whatever the reason, at the moment we need to find land. In the ocean we are vulnerable but on land, there is no way we can be defeated.' 

After a tiring 8 hours, they finally reached land. The healthy members helped drag the ship onto land and the injured were taken to the edge of the forest where they could rest. 

"Lora you get sewing our sail, Ren start sealing that hole as best as you can, Nolan and Taro you go on either side and island and look to see if there is anything we should be aware of. For all we know this could be the island of the men that attacked us." 

While the people did as they were told the girl sat down and began guarding the injured along with the one treating them, Varos. 

After three hours Taro returned alongside Nolan, who had gone looking for him. 

"Princess I apologize for my tardiness…while scouting I found someone. They started a campfire not far from here. I waited a while but no one else appeared which means that he must be here by himself." 

By now their leader had removed her hood showing a girl who was around 16 years old. Her expression changed upon hearing about the island's residents. 

"Was he armed?" 

The scout nodded, "From what I could see he had a bow and a dagger. He seemed to be a hunter who was skinning his catch. A few birds among some other things."

Their princess nodded and handed the two a bag with dried food rations. "For now you two shall continue to observe him. The moment that there is movement one of you come and let us know. We will follow him and see if he takes us to his village. There we can find out if this island belongs to those who attacked us. If it is then their village will pay the price, that I assure you."

"Yes, princess." 

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.

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As the sun rose up Nolan returned to them and notified the group that the inhabitant had returned to the forest. Everyone other than the injured and Varos left in pursuit. Together they followed the markings that Taro had made on the trees. 

It didn't take long before they caught up, just like had been reported the young boy they were looking at was a hunter. 

Mala assumed that the kid would soon go home but that didn't seem to be the case. 

When the kid had lured a dragon to him she signaled her group to knock the kid out. Finding the village's location was not more important than a dragon's life. Besides after thinking about it more carefully, they didn't need the kid awake to know if he was an enemy. 

As she waited for the kid to come crashing down after being hit with a sleeping dart something unexpected happened. The kid lowered his bow and tried to befriend the dragon. He even went as far as to give the dragon part of his hunt.

It was the first time that she had seen someone other than her people treat dragons in such a manner. It shocked her, so much that she completely forgot about her previous order until it was too late. After being hit by two darts the kid was left lying unconscious on the ground. 

The terrible terror that was looking at him quickly grabbed the two pieces of meat that he was protecting and took off into the bushes. 

Now that there was nothing to fear they jumped down from the treetops.

"Search him," she ordered.

After being searched from top to bottom the young boy was discovered to have a crest on his button with a crest on it. Said crest had a vertically oriented shield that seemed to be blocking a fireball. 

'Damn it, I was wrong.'

After thinking carefully she sighed and took something out of her pocket. Said something was a small golden badge with a volcano inscribed in it. She hung it inside the boy's clothes and then stood up and looked at her people who were looking at her in confusion. 

"Princess to give him something so priceless to a stranger?"

The young girl shook her head and smiled," Lora, those who unjustly attack us are met with great pain. While those that we attack unjustly must be recompensated properly. My need for revenge has caused me to negatively harm this boy, just like my mother said would happen someday. Since these people aren't the ones who hurt us then there's no reason for us to be here any longer. We have nothing to give this young boy which is why the Honorary Volcan Badge can be given, especially if it is to a friend of dragons." 

"But Princess I still believe it to be too much.." 

After seeing their leader raise her hand to show that she wanted them to be quiet no other opinion was expressed. 

"Spray him with Haren juice and throw him into a bush. At least that way he won't be eaten while he remains sleeping." 

Once they had done their best to assure his safety and retrieve everything that belonged to them other than the broach they ran through the shadows of the forest.