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Day 2- Spring- Near the residential area - New Fort Bragg

 

Corporal James P.O.V

 

“One of you guys run back to the town and find Sergeant Maxim… he’ll be interested for sure”

 

James was looking at the scroll as one of the privates ran off towards the town. The guards flanking both sides of the merchant were still physically unmoving, but their eyes darted towards the soldier heading back and towards each other. James knew they must have looked weird as soldiers, no metal or leather armor in sight and no swords or bladed weapons. Although in this case he doubted that was why they were staring at him. 

 

They blinked a few times in a pattern before looking straight towards James and the remaining two soldiers.

 

Morse code I suppose

 

“..so merchant, what do you accept as payment? We don’t have a grasp of money right now but we do have supplies”

 

The merchant picked at his red vest with his finger before clapping once. His guards glanced at each other before one of them took a rough, yellowish piece of “paper” out of the wagon and handed it to the merchant.

 

“Well, we still need profit. I would be willing to accept things like papyrus, ever since the war efforts increased our supplies have been cut off and nobles need it to write their letters after all! 

 

Without hesitation, James took his bag off and put it on the ground before unzipping it. The group watched as he rummaged around before bringing out a notebook roughly the size of the papyrus sheet the merchant had, albeit a bit smaller.

 

He flipped open the notebook and ripped a page out before handing it to the merchant, who looked extremely startled. 

 

He clutched the sheet of white paper (his notebook had blank paper) and flipped it before comparing it to the sheet of papyrus on his other hand. The difference in smoothness and color was immediately noticeable, with the white and smooth sheet compared to the yellow and rough sheet.

 

“W-What!? Papyrus? And it’s completely white as well, how is this possible? The tools of the elves can’t even let it retain this beauty. This is worth at least twice as much as papyrus!”

 

James breathed out. He wasn’t sure that they would count this as papyrus as the color of it was completely different. He now had a cheap bargaining chip.

 

“Is this fine then? You give me a few scrolls and I’ll give you this, fair?”

 

The merchant was barely listening as he held the paper, before snapping his fingers at his guards who then brought something that looked suspiciously like an Abacus. (The ancient Chinese/Russian/East Asian counting tool) 

 

He flicked a few of the wooden beads up and down before turning back to them.

 

“These sheets will go for at least 10 copper each! This is, of course, just my prediction since they haven’t been on the market before but I am rarely wrong.”

 

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know the conversion of money here”

 

The merchant nodded, seemingly not surprised. From their clothes and weapons, he had probably already assumed they didn't understand much of what went on around the area.

 

“100 copper for a silver, 10 silver for a gold, and so on all the way to a magicoin”

“How much are you asking for the scroll?”

“1 gold my good sir! These scrolls may only be one use and useful for 1 language, but that bypasses all the troubles of learning it, so it is rather expensive. Unfortunately, I only have 3 translation scrolls here, so I-”

 

James grabbed the notebook as well as another one with a smaller quantity of paper out from his bag. He had grabbed these notebooks for taking notes of the various activities and tasks of the other soldiers, and they weren’t exactly short on paper. Many of the stores had stayed and this included supply stores that sold paper.

 

The papers added up to be 300 pages, one 200 paged notebook and one 100 paged notebook, which James handed to the merchant.

 

The merchant stared at James for a moment

 

“Dear customer, you know that business involves haggling right?”

 

James knew this of course, and if he had the time then he may have done so, but dusk was rapidly approaching along with their appointment with the king. He believed that to be much more valuable than haggling for a bit more money. 

 

“I just need the scrolls, money isn’t an issue currently”

 

Although paper may have been easy for people to manufacture on earth, here the cost of making it without machinery was immense. Even magic couldn’t negate the cost, and magic cost too much just to mass produce anything good quality.  Papyrus was the cheapest, but even that wasn't cheap in any way, since it couldn't be made locally it had to be imported from the desert nations that produced them. Now that the war was going on very few merchants would pass the treacherous terrain and bandit-infested paths for just a bit of profit.

 

The merchant put the two notebooks at the very top of the wagon to not damage it before handing over the promised three scrolls. As he handed them over, he placed a shimmering silver coin in James’s hand as well.

 

When James looked up to question him, the merchant put a finger up to his lips.

 

“ I feel like we’ll see each other again soon, think of that as a gift”

 

He waved towards his group, who led the horses in a u-turn back towards the dirt road before getting back on his seat and turned around to wave goodbye.

 

The soldiers could only awkwardly wave back as they went on their merry way, rumbling down the unpaved road. The wagon bumping up and down on the small stones along the way.

 

“....I think I hear my name being called. OH SHIT I GOTTA GO!”

 

James jammed the coin into his pocket and the three scrolls into his bag before running past the gates of the town and returning back to the main New Fort Bragg base.

 

Don’t be late, Don’t be late 

 

Day 2- Spring- Airfield - New Fort Bragg

 

“Where the heck is James!? We’ve gotta go!”

 

The whirling blades of the UH-60 Blackhawk sent strong gusts of wind everywhere, while the loud noise of the blade spinning made all the people getting on start yelling.

 

“-Maxim, Sergeant Maxim!”

 

Maxim looked towards the direction of the Fort Bragg City to see a recruit waving towards him while sprinting, clearly running out of breath.

 

“Hah hah Sergeant Maxim! Corporal James is talking to a weird merchant guy and he told me to come tell you. He was bargaining for a magic scroll last I saw.”

 

...James I swear to god

 

SCREEECHH!

 

Maxim looked forward to see a humvee holding 3 soldiers screech to a halt in front of him, The driver stayed in while James and the other private got out.

 

James quickly ran up to Maxim and clapped his hands together

 

“Sorry sergeant! I just had to get a few scrolls from a passing merchant, I swear it was important!”

 

Maxim sighed, they weren’t exactly late but it was still cutting it too close.

 

“You know what just...get in the Blackhawk.”

James looked at the Blackhawk chopper that Maxim was about to enter, before noticing another helicopter near it. The helicopter was the Chinook, the large transport helicopter that was a classic that everyone knew and loved. 

 

“Sir, why do we have another chopper? We’re only bringing an extra five guys for security right?”

 

Maxim got into the Blackhawk and sat down on one of the seats before glancing at James. The loud whirring of the blades made it hard to concentrate, but all of them being part of the airborne unit were used to the loud sounds.

 

“We don’t know how large the place we’re meeting is, if it is as high profile as the white house then five guys won’t be enough.”

 

James looked out the side of the Blackhawk to see a rumbling humvee occupied by five soldiers loaded onto the cargo hold of the helicopter. The back latch creaked as it was lifted up automatically to prevent the car from falling out during the flight.

 

“I guess that works. Let’s head to the village, don’t want to keep them waiting”

 

The helicopter blades sped up and lifted the helicopter off the ground, heading north from their current position towards the village.

 

Maxim could hear the pilots communicating through their radios.

 

“This is Blackhawk A, no problems taking off. Over”

 

“This is Chinook E, no problems either. E.T 3 minutes to arrive at the village over”

 

With this, they headed off towards their guide.

Day 2- Spring- recovering village- Wild Plains

 

Wyvern Captain Vance P.O.V

 

The armored figure lazily sat atop his wyvern Greyhound, occasionally scooting forward to scratch it’s chin. This man was the pride of the wyvern corps, Captain Vance. He had taken part in many ground and naval campaigns in the past and had been rewarded the title of His Majesties Sword, putting him under his direct control. 

 

He sighed as he looked towards the horizon. The sun was starting to go down with dawn arriving, the red and golden rays of the sun dipping beneath the mountains and valleys as the faint sounds of villagers talking and going about their own lives entered his ears. Nearly half of their buildings were destroyed, but life still goes on despite everything. 

 

“Sorry boy, I know we were supposed to have a free day but blame the king if you must. Anyways, I don’t even know if they were bluffing or not, it’s just that I find it hard to believe that a newly found nation has flying capabilities.”

 

The wyvern rider knew how hard it was to have a nation with flying capabilities. The wyvern riders were the most common flying units but also extremely lethal, with the flaming breaths that they emit, one rider would be enough to take out half a dozen soldiers in a moment. The others were of course elementals or magical contraptions. 

 

Elementals were vessels blessed by the gods of the four main elements. Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. This made them capable of traversing in the given terrain, however taming them was difficult if they grew up in the wild. A wyvern is tamed through trust and bravery even in adulthood, but elementals only accept their partners at birth. Of course there were other beasts and creatures but wyverns were the most common due to their versatility.

 

Then there were the magical contraptions, things that none of them understood. He couldn’t understand them, the officers and generals couldn’t understand them, and yet there they were. They were ordered through a mana crystal from the ancient Magi kingdom and sent to wherever they were ordered. Extremely expensive, extremely rare, and extremely deadly.

 

Deep in thought, he didn’t notice his wyverns ears perk up

 

Chuff Chuff Chuff

 

Vance was alerted as his wyvern suddenly sat straight up instead of laying down.  He grabbed ahold of the front area of the harness to stop himself from sliding backwards.

 

“Wha- is something wrong? Wait, what’s that sound?”

 

Chuff Chuff Chuff

 

The whirring sound got closer and closer to where they were previously relaxing, the wyvern looking towards the source of the sound.

 

Vance looked up at the rapidly approaching shapes as they streaked across the sky. The loud noises felt like they were drumming his heart out, and for the first time in a long while, he was afraid.

 

Hulking shapes of welded steel were somehow flying in the sky, the noises emitting from it disturbing the silence of the forest. The blinking lights underneath the contraption was the only thing that prevented it from becoming completely invisible to him as the sky started to darken.  

 

“GREETINGS CAPTAIN, THIS IS SERGEANT MAXIM OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. WE’LL LEAVE THE GUIDANCE UP TO YOU.

 

Voice enhancement magic!? Are they really a new country? 

 

He patted the side of the wyvern, who was slightly trembling from the intense vibrations these contraptions were sending out as they hovered over them. Any normal animal or creature would be confused by the intense noises and feelings the thing was sending out, but a wyvern wasn't classified as normal.

 

“C’mon boy, we’ve gotta get in the air”

 

The wyvern stepped forward, still slightly shaken. Wyverns were generally brave and adamant creatures, a slight noise wasn’t usually enough to scare it. In this case, it wasn’t a slight noise, but this wyvern had been through magic explosions and fireballs. As the wyvern of the Royal Captain of the Wyvern squad, he was one of the toughest wyverns to ever be tamed.

 

With a powerful downwards flap, the wyvern lifted itself and it’s partner up into the air. They flapped a few more times before reaching the level of the contraptions.

 

He looked through the front area which seemed to be made of high quality glass. It was so high quality, in fact, that he could clearly see the controllers of these beasts in their own right. They were wearing something similar to his goggles on their eyes but they were completely dark, although he couldn’t see their eyes he knew clearly that they were looking at him expectantly.  

 

Even in this situation he couldn't help but grin slightly, still staring at the beast with disbelief.

 

Oh boy, the king is in for a surprise

 

He waved towards the contraptions as he headed towards the kingdom, his wyvern instinctively knowing where to go from the multiple journeys they had gone on from and back to the kingdom.

 

He turned around to see the contraptions following him at alarming speeds, their “wings” moving so fast that they blurred, and he had no doubt in his mind that they could easily overtake them if they knew the way.

 

And so, the three large figures flew off towards the quickly setting sun and towards their destination.

Day 2- Spring- Starlight Palace - Lunama kingdom

 

King Morkath P.O.V

 

The Starlight palace was nearly as old as the entirety of the Lunama kingdom, spanning over the hundreds of years and generations. The palace itself was draped with a multitude of colored banners and dye, mostly blue, red, and purple. Mana powered lights lined the walls and mana powered chandeliers decked the ceilings of the palace's many rooms.

 

King Morkath sat at his throne while he observed the mess of servants running back and forth throughout the palace. They were carrying a multitude of cloths, chalices, chairs and such around frantically as they prepared to welcome their guests. He could smell the fragrances of the kitchen slowly wafting out as the dozens of chefs were hard at work preparing the feast. A large table had been set up at the center of the throne room for the grand feast, so the king had a full view of what was going on. Some of the kingdom representatives had already arrived ahead of schedule, so more than half the table was already populated. 

The king had extended his invitation to half a dozen neighboring kingdoms, most of them were allies but some of them were neutral as well. As such they were allowed to bring their own guards in case of a security breach and the kingdom's guards couldn’t handle it, they had to make sure that the other nobles could leave. Assassination attempts were frequent in every kingdom, and every servant had a possibility of being an assassin, so the extra security was necessary. 

 

“Father, the Republic of Sandejar’s group has arrived.”

 

Princess Elenoir stood in front of her father to report another kingdom’s arrival, the desert people. He looked out of the open window to see a group of griffins descending from the sky, squawking indignantly at the amount of soldiers already on the ground. They landed in the open area in front of the palace, where dozens of other soldiers also stood patrolling.

 

They were only missing two of the six that were invited now, the United Elven Association and the United States of America.

 

The United Elven Association were a group of elves that sought to restore balance and stability to the region as the war of the gods raged on, they were well intentioned but by helping an inferior race such as humans they were cast out by the rest of the elves that were waging war. They were the only elves that still held the goddess of nature’s blessing, while the other elves had shifted their belief to the god of poison and the goddess of magic.

 

The goddess of magic and god of poison were both neutral immortals in this war but worshipping them allowed them to acquire their blessings and stop hiding away in their forests to earn themselves a name in the war.

 

He had given all of them translation scrolls to understand the empire’s common tongue, which was the most common language in the world. The only group he hadn’t given the scrolls to was the United States of America, as they had appeared at a bad time.

 

….Hmmm. If they truly have strong military capabilities we must have them as allies. This war cannot be averted through a single kingdom after all.

 

“Elenoir, are you certain of that country's strength? I don’t doubt you often, but even with those weapons it seemed like they had an remarkably small army after all.”

 

“Believe me father, one of their soldiers counts for at least 10 normal soldiers. Oh! Father the Republic of Sandejars minister is coming to greet you.”

 

The Lunama guards tugged the gates of the palace open to welcome their guests, as they stood to the side a dozen or so heavily armored soldiers entered the throne room. 

 

Most of them had a metal mask over their faces, barely showing their eyes at all. Their bodies were draped in thick cloth and leather of various colours with steel pauldrons lining their shoulders. (Think Janissaries)

 

The front and back two were carrying long spears while the others had holstered their curved swords on their hips. 

 

The two holding spears parted to the side to reveal the minister and both his economic advisor and military advisor to the sides of him.

 

The minister grinned as he bowed to the king.

 

“Greetings King Morkath, we thank you humbly for this meeting”

 

The king laughed while standing up from his throne and patting him on the back,

 

“Nonsense old friend! We’ve known each other for so long, you don’t need to go through with all the greetings stuff”

 

The masked soldiers parted to the sides, joining the ranks of the palace guards as the two of them talked. The two groups were used to each other enough that they didn’t even flinch at them holding weapons so close to each other. 

 

“Sorry King Morkath, you know I have to do that when on official business. I got word from my informant that you recovered your children from that goblin raid, it seems the god’s truly are on your side”

 

“No, we didn’t do anything. It was a small neighboring country's military that saved them after hearing the screams from the village. They returned them to us after they healed my son’s wounds.”

 

The minister’s eyes widened a bit, 

 

“King Morkath, with all due respect, how could a small country defeat three dozen goblins in time to save your children? Those creatures kill and rape without thought, so unless they were able to kill them in a moment your children would be dead.”

 

“I guess we’ll see for ourselves since I invited them. Speaking of which it seems like another guest has arrived, can you please get your men to patrol outside? We can feed them later on”

 

The minister bowed again before turning towards his men. Without speaking, they spun around towards the main gate and marched out, leaving two honor guards behind as those guards joined the rest of the soldiers outside. At this point, one of the palace guards outside started heading towards the throne before kneeling.

 

“Sire, we have multiple white buck’s heading towards the palace with riders, from what the tower guards could see they were elves.”

 

“Open the gates”

 

The guards once again opened the gates as the elves started dismounting off of their steeds. The bucks pawed at the ground but stood in one place as their riders headed towards the palace. These elves were one of their newest allies, with stealth units and devastating magic they were a force to be reckoned with. 

 

Compared to the previous Sandejar troops, the elves were lightly armored. Only the three members in the front wore elven steel chestplates and greaves, the rest wore green and brown tunics and had bows slung over their shoulders and knives strapped to their waists. Everyone else here was human, so the obvious difference were the pointed ears of the elves that were clearly distinguishable.

The elf in the front nodded at the king but didn’t bow or kneel.

 

“Apologies King Morkath, but it is forbidden in the elven culture to bow to another, even in death. I do hope you understand our respect”

 

The king waved at him lazily before chuckling

 

“No harm done, I understand your culture’s pride is extremely important so we aren’t going to force you. Now your name is...?”

 

“Taurin sir”

 

“We need to request that you keep your troops save for two outside of the palace, they shall be fed later on but perhaps not as the feast is going on”

 

The elves with Taurin seemed to want to protest, but Taurin waved them off

 

“Just do it, it’s not like they’re going to do anything.”

 

The elves nodded before exiting the throne room as well, leaving two of the more heavily armored units behind.

 

“I do have a question Taurin, can you elves eat meat?”

 

The elf nodded in response to the question

 

“Most of us can, but the priests and priestesses for the Nature goddess have sworn to only live off of the land and not animals.”

 

“Then please sit wherever you please, we had also included many vegetable dishes but it seems it is not completely necessary”

 

The elf and his two guards headed towards the large table that was set in front of the throne. The long table was mostly filled up save for a few seats and had yet to be lined with dishes because the servants didn’t want them to be unappetizing and cold. Therefore tankards of ale were set in front of each seat instead, as they now waited for their final group to appear. 

 

The group of elves sat next to the minister of Sandejar and his advisors, with Taurin greeting the minister.

 

“Hello Minister, I am the alliance official for the United Elven Association”

 

“No need to be so stiff! This is an unofficial get together after all, just relax and enjoy the drinks for now”

 

The flanking elves pulled out Taurin’s chair before pulling out their own and all of them took a sip from the tankards, grimacing a bit.

 

Sure, elves drank the occasional liquor but the human drinks tasted...tainted so to speak. It was slightly unrefined and impure as their method of processing was antiquated. 

 

Taurin coughed into his elbow as he turned towards the minister.

 

“We weren’t informed on which country is left, do you perhaps know?”

 

“...hmm. Their name is quite similar to yours actually, they are apparently known as the United States of America but that's all I know. Other than the king I don’t think anyone has even seen them, but the king vouches for them so I can’t say anything.”

 

Chuff Chuff Chuff

 

Suddenly the hall started to fill with a loud, unknown sound. The conversation between nations ceased as the sound started getting closer, the sounds of guards outside yelling filled their ears.

"What in Avani's name!?"

 

One of the soldiers entered the throne room, looking extremely flustered and terrified. He had abandoned his sword and shield at the gates to run as fast as he could.

 

“S-Sire! Two magical contraptions have started to descend on the front entrance, were we expecting anyone with magical contraptions this big!?”

 

Wyverns were larger than magical contraptions, but the fact that it wasn’t alive contributed to it’s worth. They were extremely expensive, and were commonly fitted with deadly magical weapons. The fact that they had contraptions this large was nearly unfathomable, 

 

The king got up from his throne, his face not showing fear but instead smiling unbelievably. He quickly made his way towards the front gate despite his guards attempting to hold him back, he had to see it for himself.

 

There’s no way! Magic contraptions that can take flight are rare, each one is worth a castle. There’s just no way!

 

He pushed open the gates as the sun was almost completely dipping under the horizon, he felt the strong winds push up against him as the contraption started landing. 

 

It set itself gently on the ground before the sides of the contraption opened, making many men in spotty uniforms hop out, followed by more well dressed men.

 

The larger one set itself on the ground to the side of the smaller one, with the hatch opening and the ground contraption he saw driven before moving out with more people sitting in it.

 

The other guests had come out as well to see what the commotion was about and the only word that could be used to describe them was flabbergasted. The sheer size of this creation would require an immense amount of money that none of them currently had. 

The familiar face headed the group, while many of the others knelt on the ground with strange looking weapons in hand, scanning the area while looking cautiously at the many other creatures and soldiers surrounding them.

 

The man straightened his suit before taking off the shades that were on his face, smiling towards the group.

 

“Sorry King Mokath, we had to slow down because of the wyvern’s speed but now I am officially here to represent the army of the United States of America”

Probably one more chapter over the weekend but I won’t have fighting scenes the entire time. Diplomacy is still happening and relations with other countries still need to be made. Don’t worry, it won’t be long until more combat happens.