Chapter 19 The mission
We awoke that morning darting back to the castle quickly so that we could train the knights. Then I remembered something the king told me yesterday while we were training the knights before leaving. He wanted me to take the knights I was training on a mission to the kingdom of Rio in the far north of the world. So it’d take at least 2 weeks to get there and a week to get back because we could travel much lighter on the way back.
Cel seemed sad about the news as I told him on the way to the training ground so he told me to be quick about it. I just wished it would be that easy but it’s uncertain because the rulers of Rio are some of the most stubborn people the world has ever known. Likely because they’re dragons so they see themselves above everyone else.
When we arrived I informed the knights that I had been training yesterday we were going on a little trip to Rio. Some of them groaned about having to sail all the way north just to get there. But we quickly made our way to the port and purchased a magic ship so we didn’t have to hope that currents and winds went along with us. Magic ships are great for fast travel because you don’t need to constantly alter the sails and you can just use magic to make a small turbine spin and push the ship straight ahead. The youngest knight Barry got a little seasick from the trip but he hung out while vomiting off to the side of the boat.
Patting Barry on the back to help him with his sea sickness Wendy asked him if he’d be alright. He tried to say he was alright but him throwing up again said otherwise so Deven took over for her when it came to controlling the magic stone that powered the ship. From the crows nest Pepper gazed off into the distance keeping an eye out for others ships and when we reached Rio. Now although we didn’t have a cook, someone had to do that job so Mark handled the cooking for us. While the other five slept in during the day to control the ship at night. So luckily we had two people for each job Mary the night cook, Pen the night watcher, Dora the night helms woman, Wels the canon man, and finally the last member of the night crew who was almost as sea sick as Barry is Becky. They were supposed to be the medics if anyone got sick or injured. How ironic.
My job was just to help the ship against dangerous currents and waves. Things went a bit too well for my liking because we reached Rio at an unexpected pace. It took us only a week. Which surprised me even with me using magic to help us across the sea. We went at lightning speed not a single problem matic wave at all, not even any attacks on the ship.
After the relatively short trip we looked around at the sight before us of a somewhat unmodern but extremely busy town. Instead of cube or rectangular brick buildings the buildings were still made of messy rocks and bricks along with some wooden buildings that looked very brittle. I dragged the knights through the chaotic busy town quickly renting a mount beasts to speed things up. We got 5 flying mounts they seemed to be a close relative to griffins. Probably a mutated one whose species would disappear in a few decades which is a little sad. I didn’t need to ride one because I can fly on my own luckily which all the others seemed a little envious of.
After a bit of a windy flight we arrived at the location known as the king of Rio’s home. The supreme dragon’s den. It was a sight to behold but only because of the sheer size of the mountain encompassing the den was unimaginable if you never saw it before. It’d take a person without magic probably at least a year or two to reach the top of it without risking your life.
We arrived at the entrance with a butler there to greet us. He had husky red hair that was clearly fading away and small horns protruding out their head. “So I’m assuming your the elite knight squadron that was sent from Sorl to discuss certain things with my lord, correct?”
“Yes we are, can we come in now?”
“Hmmmmmmmmmm you need to give the lord a gift to enter”
I was baffled by this, didn't we already agree to meet up for this meeting in the first place. “Why wasn’t there already an agreement”
“Well it’s common courtesy to give a dragon lord a gem or something when meeting one for the first time.”
A little peeved, I slowly pulled out the red ruby I won from the boulder game and showed it to the butler and he let us inside. I really didn’t want to give up the ruby but it seems like I have to at this point. We walked through the towering dark halls only lit up by fire pits that were inside of the walls. Then we went through a room then another room then another, it was like just a tsunami of doors that never stopped. It was so odd why did you have to go through so many different rooms just to get to the dragon lord who ruled Rio. Finally after what felt like a century of searching we made it to a huge room with a deep ocean blue dragon sleeping on a giant throne of gold coins and gems along with other riches. The dragon soon began to shift and roll as its eyes creaked open to look at us as it slowly entered a human form rolling off the pile of gold. The ruler of Rio stretched and yawned, rolling his head around. His hair was a mixture of blue and red and his eyes would pierce anyone’s soul and his wardrobe was a little wrinkled but still about what a king would wear. His horns were the odd part they were practically in the shape of a crown, even being golden already as if he were made for the position in the first place. “So your the ones the weakling Roger sent over to discuss the organization us and the kingdom of the dead are apart of”
“Pretty much” I replied to the draconian.
“Ok then I only want to talk with you because clearly you’re the leader of that little party of knights behind you let’s go to the diplomacy room.”
Wels scoffed a little as we walked away through what was another ten rooms before we reached the diplomacy room which was dark and had around 4 chairs in it. Sitting at one of them with a table in between us we began our discussion. “So why is that the name of the organization and what’s your plans?”
“Ah, starting strong already.” the dragon paused and stared at my eyes calmly deadpan before smirking “you see, to understand our name you must know our plan which is the name Call forth god. That’s our goal and plan to bring back the true god to this world he left to make anew.”
“Huh isn’t religion so muddy that people never stop arguing if there was one or many, along with their origins and what they did. I mean there have been wars about this. How could there suddenly be an agreement that there is only one and they have a set origin? For so long people have disagreed.”
“That’s true but one day some very strange ruins were found and clarified for everyone who saw them who created the world and what they did. Not a shred of doubt fills my mind any longer.”
“Ok next questions, why are you being so shady with what your doing, is it dangerous, and finally who’s a part of the cult?”
“First off religion! Second, those not a part of the organization would not understand if we were upfront with what we did. Finally pretty much every nobility of every kingdom except for Sorl which has very sparse members and most are vampires who managed to overcome holy magic.”
“Do you plan to harm the kingdom of Sorl?”
“Aaaaaaah that’s hard to answer because it depends on what you consider harm I guess. But leave NOW!”
The dragon jumped over the table and dragged me out by my horns back to his room where the knights were snacking on something butler gave them. “Father, please take these people out now and take their payment before they leave!” and once again we were outside the castle, our flying mounts waiting being taken care of by some butlers and maids. Once they finished the knights hopped on the mounts as we flew back down towards the place where we rented them. I pondered the information and the tone of the dragon lord Micheal who ruled Rio. We got on our boat and began our journey back to Sorl to report to Roger about the information.
It was a silent journey back is something I wish I could say but sadly I can’t because it was attack after attack. First a very weak set of pirates. we sunk them. Then it was some crazy mixture of undead and giant fish. Even the waves were against us, another undead creature of the sea attacked this time it was a kraken.
The kraken took forever to fight in the first place, cannons were useless and it was magic resistant so it was a pain in the neck. It took the eleven of us forever to fight the Kraken along with waves as it surrounded us. The stormy night was insane. The kraken almost sank the ship as it used its many different tentacles to grab us and attack the ship it even tried to eat Becky who finally got used to the sea. It took hundreds of slashes before it finally left us alone for the rest of the night. We were tired and wished to sleep but with waves and weather we had to constantly keep the ship in check and needed even more magic in the power stone that moved the ship. The sails were tattered so we had to replace it with some weak cloth and while replacing it Pepper almost got struck by lightning.
The trip back was twice the length of the expected time as we returned back to the port of Sorl wanting to puke out our guts but I shoved some wind magic down my throat to stop myself. I had to stay awake nearly the entire two weeks barely getting 10 minutes of sleep every forty eight hours. This journey made me despise ships and wish we had some form of super powerful version of the wind cycle that could carry an army of people all at once just to avoid sailing. That’s how horrible the experience back was. Stumbling off the ship the sunlight was piercing and hurt my eyes. The lack of sleep finally took me over as I collapsed over my energy was gone, not even magic could help.
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