“That was what I read in the most recent reports. I did not hear anything about him having any plans to come down here,” said Klyn.
Instead of going back to his office, Akira led his small group down to the docks to meet with Captain Pegleg and see what had brought him here.
When they reached the stone docks, a large three-masted wooden ship which was flying a crudely drawn skeleton flag, was slowly sailing towards the docks where Akira was standing.
The ship was one of the largest Akira had seen before and it was not of any design that he had seen from any locals or coastal towns. It stopped a good distance out so that it would not run aground. The large ship was swarming with skeleton sailors that were running around like headless chickens doing who knows what, some of them actually were missing their heads.
Two large whaleboats were filled with the skinny Skeleton sailors with the last to join them being far taller than the others while also wearing a large black triangle hat along with an eye patch covering his left eye.
Splash! The two whaleboats were lowered slowly until about halfway before the rotted rope snapped and the two boats fell the rest of the way causing a decent amount of water to spray the occupants who were wearing leather armor which blocked most of the holy water.
Watching all this made Akira worry for the captain and his crew, but when the whaleboats bumped into the stone dock he was able to let out a sigh.
“Welcome back Captain Pegleg. What brings you here today?” asked Akira as he stepped forward and offered the captain a hand.
Captain Pegleg grabbed Akira’s hand with his own bony hand and shook it before using Akira’s arm to pull him up onto the docks.
“I came to inquire about buying new shnips from Kodria to help grow my fleet,” said Captain Pegleg as he shrugged his bony shoulders to reposition his captain’s coat on his slim skeleton body.
“Currently we don’t have any to sell, Kodria is also lacking new medium and large ships for its own navy since we have been focusing our resources on the battle supplies with only a few smaller troop transport ships being created recently. If you want I can help you put in an order for them, but I have a feeling that you won’t be able to receive them any time soon. The shipbuilders will soon be working on a new order of ships for Kodria’s navy.”
“Why worry about the small things? We have captured more than enough sheps. The only problem is it is so hard to keep them sailing at full efficiency. If you could help me by repairing my shaps then that should be just fine as well! With them all fully repaired I can continue my patrols and capturing prize shneps from those beings called demigods!” said Captain Pegleg waving a bony hand around.
“That shouldn’t be much of a problem. How many of your ships are in need of repair?” trying to stop his brain from being overloaded with the task of understanding the captain’s weird logic.
“Hmmm… maybe over a dozen or two that are still floating. There are also 6 or 7 that are docked at our base of operations unable to sail right now from the damage they received in the counter offense against the Demigods.”
“That’s… quite a lot,” said Akira. The number of ships that Captain Pegleg had captured was far greater than Kodria’s own navy!
Now he was really feeling the inadequacy of the small navy that had been neglected due to the land war, the rebuilding of Kodria’s inner and outer city, as well as the several other branching cities and forts under Kodria’s control. This issue would need to be fixed, and fast!
So far he and the other allies had not paid much attention or worried about building a navy since Captain Pegleg had been doing an amazing job at keeping the enemy ships under control. This allowed everyone else to focus on the demigods who were on land and were a greater threat.
Now with the old dream reader’s warning still fresh in his mind, he was really feeling naked with how small Kodria’s naval fleet of sea-worthy ships was. Most of their ships were only meant for river and shore patrols, not for sailing long distances in the wide open seas.
The only way to fix this was to throw gold at the problem and hope it was enough to fix it.
“That’s more than I expected, and how will you pay for these repairs?” asked Akira skeptical of the skeleton captain who was not carrying any gold or other trinkets.
“I know you are fond of gold but I have something better than gold! My help! I will help you with anything you need!” said Captain Pegleg proudly.
“That’s… kind of you, but the resources, labor, and travel to and from your ships will cost a lot of gold and time to do this. I don’t think that will be enough to cover the costs…” said Akira.
“Wait, I haven’t finished my offer! I know that your mini-navy is always cramped and bottled up here. I will give Kodria rights to a patch of coastal land on my island to create a deep-water naval base for your sea-worthy ships! This will also help you with being able to repair my ships easier and faster,” said Captain Pegleg, nodding his bony head proudly.
The other skeletal sailors all clapped their bony hands together with their jaws clacking as they praised their captain.
Now this was a very tempting offer for Akira. It was true that the few larger ships they had didn’t do much but float around in the lake as it was not easy navigating the shallows of both the lake and the river.
With a naval base on the same island as Captain Pegleg’s own main base of operations, it would be far more safe than if they picked a random spot on the north coast. Plus it was both close enough to the main river and the sea which would allow them to react to threats from both areas. If Kodria kept the smaller patrol ships and troop transports on the lakes and rivers and the medium and larger sea-worthy ships at an outer base they would be able to reach farther out into the sea and handle any problems that may present themselves.
“I am willing to accept this offer. But I have to walk it past the Grand-elders to make sure they do not have any concerns,” said Akira.
“Great! When can we leave to start fixing up everything?!” said an ecstatic captain Pegleg who clapped his bony hands happily.
“Eh… we still need a lot of time to sort everything first. Give me a few days to gather the resources and workers needed for such a project. I want to personally head to your island and pick a spot for Kodria’s new naval base.”
“Fine with me. You just can’t take the spot we are already using,” said Captain Pegleg. “So what am I supposed to do while I wait for you?”
“If you want you can join me in…”
“Awoooo! AWOOOOO!”
Everyone in Akira’s group turned their heads towards the river forts once again.
Akira’s sharp eyes saw several scaly heads with sharp long horns coming out of their foreheads pop up from underneath the river water. In only a matter of seconds, the entire upper body of the horned creates surfaced revealing them to be blue-scaled Quilins with white manes of hair fluttering in the cold winter wind. Their front hooves raised up and slashed the air as they whinnied announcing their presence.
Akira knew that with such creatures the lower half of their body was covered with thick scales and instead of a pair of rear hooves like a horse, it had a scaly tail similar to a dolphin which allowed it to maneuver in the sea so easily.
As more and more Quilin rose up out from underneath the river water Akira counted at least 20 of them and each one was pulling a war chariot that held at least three mermen warriors.
Behind them, a large dark shadow appeared underneath the water, and when it broke the surface, it revealed itself to be a medium-sized blue whale with a fancy cabin on its back.
Akira was shocked at seeing such a large creature manage to work its way up the river all the way to the lake!
Spoooolosh!
A large geyser of water was spat out from the hole atop the whale’s back, most of it turned into a slushy snow and mist mixture as it fell back down due to the cold air freezing it.
“Who are they?” asked Klyn.
“Oh them… I forgot about them. Those Human Fish asked me if I knew you and if I could lead them to you,” said Captain Pegleg as he pointed to Akira. “They were quite happy to hear that you had a kingdom of your own and it was connected to the sea.”
The whale shimmied its way into the lake and slowly floated over to the main docks escorted by the Quilin’s who were pulling the war chariots.
When it reached the closest point it could get without becoming beached on the shore, the cabin door atop its back opened up and two female mermaids came out along with a dozen or more heavily armored guards. The two females each had small crowns on their heads letting everyone know that they were royalty.
The two mermaids and their guards slid off of the whale’s head and with great grace and acrobatic poise they swam over to the dock where Akira, Pegleg, and the others were standing.
The busy work all around both the inner and outer docks had come to a stop as everyone gawked at what they were seeing in front of them.
“Hey big brother! Long time no see!” said the youngest mermaid as her head popped up out of the water next to the stone docks where Akira was standing.
“Princess Cora, is that you? Wow, you sure have grown up since the last time I saw you!” said Akira, a bit shocked at meeting the princess of the East Mermaid kingdom so unexpectedly.
“Hehe!” she laughed shyly at his compliment.
“It’s nice to meet you again,” said the older female mermaid. Akira looked closer and saw that it was Princess Shaarla of the West Mermaid kingdom!
“Kodria welcomes you with open arms. If you had sent word I would have gone out to meet you instead of having you come here by such difficult means,” said Akira as he looked at the medium-sized whale.
“It’s fine! Little Blue is used to clearing and widening rivers. The hard part is over now. He can swim back out easier after dredging and clearing up much of the river on the way here. That’s part of the reason we were late,” said Cora.
“So what exactly brought you here?” asked Akira, getting straight to the point.
The two princesses’ smiles were quickly turned into frowns and worried looks.
“We have come to ask for your help!” said Cora with a look of determination.
“This is a major problem! If we don’t take care of it now, there is no telling what will happen!” said Shaarla.
Akira’s gut fell as he thought about the warning from the old dream reader as well as all that was happening now. This was no coincidence.
Whatever was troubling the two princesses must be taken care of no matter what!
…the only problem was their sea ships were quite lacking.
“Can you say what is troubling you out here or do you want to go back to your cabin so we can talk in private about the matter?” asked Akira.
“There is no need to hide this information as it will affect everyone,” said Shaarla.
“There are several sea clans of the demon race that have come together long ago to guard a top-secret zone in the deep sea. Those there are tasked with keeping the area as quiet and undisturbed as possible. But recent reports have come in that the ancient sea monster of the old legends is slowly waking up from its several hundred-year sleep!” said Cora.
Ding!
-
New mission received!
The awakening legend: With the help of the sea clans help stop the coming calamity and protect the sea, the coastal cities, and even Kodria!
