>Approaching the SeaWing Summer Palace, somewhere in the Kingdom of The Sea_
Well, what a fine use of my time this all has been. Mako lamented to herself for the umpteenth time on this trip.
Barnacle, Sailfish, Bonefish and herself had departed from their enclave in the mid-morning hours the day after Mako and the dragonets had returned with news of what transpired at the scavenger den. The dragons at the resulting meeting had decided it would be best to at least warn SeaWing guards at the palace of the inexplicable but nonetheless very real danger the scavenger den now posed to dragons flying or hunting near it.
To that end, the four dragons had been flying for a few hours now. They had opted for flying the majority of the considerable distance rather than swimming, so that the trip would go by faster. SeaWings were unrivaled across the dragon tribes for their swimming prowess, but being even the most powerful swimmer on the entire continent wouldn't cancel out the universal principle that water was far denser than air.
So even with their natural swimming talents, the Sea dragons found that it was just easier to cover the same distance in the air than it was in the water.
This didn't mean that the SeaWings were the unabated masters of both the waters below and the heavens above to be certain. Due to their bodies being optimized for swimming, with denser and heavier muscles in their tails and legs and less streamlined wings and flight muscles meant that SeaWings had a proportional disadvantage in the air compared to other Dragon tribes.
Even the MudWings, whose bulky bodies which provided them armor and physical strength on the ground but served an ailment in the air. They still nonetheless held a slim advantage over the SeaWings in the sky.
All this meant that SeaWings could not maintain long distance flying for as long as most other dragons, and meant that the quartet of dragons currently flying over the calm water would tire relatively soon.
Fortunately, they weren't far from where they knew their intended destination to be, the Summer Palace. The large secondary abode of the Queen and her royal council. The Summer Palace was known largely for two things. Not just among SeaWings, but dragons across the continent of Pyrrhia. The first was that it was actually above water, and the second was that its location was a closely guarded secret. With only SeaWings at all privy to its location.
The quartet of dragons making their way over there now of course knew where it was. They were going there rather than the Deep Palace, the underwater palace that was the primary seat of the SeaWing Royalty, because it was, for one: slightly easier to get to from their enclave without going near the scavenger den that started this whole mess, and two: because it was less likely that Queen Coral herself was currently present there. All these dragons wanted to do was hopefully run into a relatively high-ranking dragon in the palace and pass off their warning to them, rather than go to all the trouble of getting an audience with the Queen set up only to tell her that they're afraid of a scavenger den and that she should be to.
After flying for a little while longer, they approached a rather large and particular island along the chain that made up the Bay of a Thousand Scales that towered high out of the water and had a small grove of trees growing atop it. Barnacle signaled with his talons that they ought to begin their dive, so they collectively pulled their wings in close and plummeted-with-purpose to the sea below.
A comparatively risky maneuver, but one that these adults had all pulled off before. Seconds before hitting the water, they flared their wings to slow themselves, before quickly pulling them and their legs back as close to their bodies as they could, and braced their necks and spines for impact.
The four dragons all met the water with violent splashes despite their practiced form. Once their momentum had carried them a decent distance under the waves, they once again spread their wings and legs. SeaWings mostly swam using their powerful tail and leg muscles to paddle through the water, relegating their wings to directional control unless they needed a burst in speed.
The four dragons adjusted their course and made to swim for the Summer Palace's entrance, a small concealed underwater tunnel that led to a great space within the island. Mako had only personally been to the Palace once in her life, and it was when she was but a dragonet. She knew it was likely a similar case for the others she was traveling with. Nonetheless, she and the other dragons with her could still locate the telltale cave entrance, wedged between two long rocky spikes that resembled a dragon's horns, with minimal difficulty.
They paddled their way through the dense yellow kelp growths that surrounded the tunnel and made their way in one at a time. There were few dragons swimming around in the waters around the entrance or out of it, so hopefully their bet that the Queen herself was not present would indeed pay off.
Mako found herself grateful for every SeaWing's natural gift for night vision, which proved itself useful in the dark confines of the narrow connecting tunnel. The tunnel that served the only gateway in or out of the Summer Palace was just wide enough so that two moderately sized adult dragons could squeeze past each other if need be, but fortunately there were no dragons that were attempting to exit as they made their way though.
Mako couldn't help but notice a series of small caverns and holes dug into the rock at intervals at the tunnel's ceiling, which confused her. Those almost definitely were not there the last time she was here, and they looked almost to be.... Air pockets? What use would SeaWings have for those? She didn't point it out, though, as they had a job to do.
Eventually, they broke out from the darkness of and into the greenish light of the cavern proper. They all swam up to the water's surface.
Even though she had seen it before, Mako found herself in awe of the magnificent scene before her. The Summer Palace structure itself was a tall spire formed from 4 immaculate pillars of blueish-white stone that spiraled gracefully around each other many times and converged to form a pavilion where Mako knew the Queen's throne to be. The entire structure had 12 similar level pavilions positioned in tiers above one another. With every tier smaller than the one below it until it all converged at the top.
The area around the beautiful structure was a shallow seawater lake within the island, surrounded on all sides excluding the cave tunnel entrance by a small beach of fine sand. The whole place was encompassed by sheer cliffs on all sides, which served as walls for the whole Palace. Said cliffs also had several small caves and indentures used for various means. Some of the caves and small waterfalls cascading out of them. The streams of water that fell from them broke up into mist and spray by the time they hit the surface of the saltwater lake below, which then spread around and gave the entire place a beautiful, mystical aura.
The Palace was lit by a wide sort of natural skylight where the sheer cliffs on all sides did not converge, but rather left a large opening that was then covered by an incredibly dense layer of jungle canopy that spread over the cliff's edges, concealing the whole place from the sky and giving it a sea-green light tint.
The entire place was surprisingly empty, given its usual population. Most of the dragons that dwelt here must have been out on other business. Hopefully they could find who they were looking for.
The four dragons waded in the calm water for a few moments longer, taking in the sight of the amazing scene around them, before Bonefish pointed to one of the lower tiers of the palace structure. There was a sizable amount of dragons on that level, and most of them looked to be guards or other soldiers, judging by how they held themselves and that a few of them had weapons. They didn't seem to be in a particular hurry.
The four enclave dwellers propelled themselves from the water with powerful swats of the tails and legs, and flapped their wings hard to lift off. They slowly flew over to where the guards were stationed.
They were unlikely to get in trouble for flying about the Palace without permission or escort, as the Queen was clearly not present here, and many SeaWing visitors frequented the Summer Palace throughout the year to simply see it. Them being here wasn't really an anomaly.
As they approached the collection of guards, Mako noticed something was off. The guards they were going to meet were acting strange. They could already see from where they broke the water's surface, that the guards were probably acting lackadaisical. But from up closer, they could see unfocused movements, strange gestures, and nonsensically strobing scales.
The four landed on the platform, catching the attention of one of the closer guards, who made his way over the perfectly smooth surface towards them with slow, stumbling steps and a bobbing head.
"Whyyy... Hello there, new drrragons! Wha- what brrrings you- you all to the... to the Summerrr Palace!?" The dragon's voice slurred rather heavily, his eyes were dilated and unfocused. He didn't seem able to look in any one direction for long. On top of that, he seemed to have trouble standing still, swaying on his talons and his wings drooping.
The enclave dwellers stood with no small amount of shock, and Mako glanced around the level they were on. Her eyes landed on several round, spikey things floating about in several of the small wading pools positioned around the pavilion tier.
Pufferfish...
She fixed the dragon before them with a piercing glare, while Barnacle rubbed his face with his wing in exasperation. "We have important news to discuss. Something you guard folk will definitely want to hear about. Where are your superiors?" He said to the wobbling dragon.
The dragon's whole face lit up as if smelling the ocean for the first time. "WHYY! Youss guyss have sssuch funny accents! Yousss must be fr- from one of the enclavesss!"
Barnacle looked a little uncomfortable, Bonefish looked amused, Sailfish and Mako both wore faces of unbridled disgust.
"Er, yes." Barnacle eventually said. "We are indeed from one of the far-out enclaves. And we may have discovered something that is rather concerning and dangerous. We came urgently to inform you of the potential threat."
The zoned-out dragon's face fell, and his head drooped low. "Threat? Urrrgent?" His once overly cheerful voice now laden with the weight of eons. He waved an unstable wing over to where several other dragons, presumably also soldiers, were strewn about the pavilion. A good amount of them were loopy, wobbling or stumbling and slurring to one another. The others looked to be rather badly beaten up, with numerous cuts, burns, scratches and bruises visible all over their bodies. Many others were wearing splints and bandages over their limbs and wings.
"We- We've alrrrready been fightin' the... The urgent threatsss here, enclavers. Been gettin' beat up real bad."
Mako felt a pang of pity and a small amount of horror at the sight, but she wasn't really all that surprised. SeaWings were uncontestably powerful in the water, but in the air against other dragon tribes the odds were turned more against them. Not being able to breathe fire meant that SeaWings were relegated exclusively to short-range combat, which was a massive tactical disadvantage further compounded by the fact that SeaWings also could not forge metal weapons reliably capable of fighting other dragons as well. Spears and daggers employed by the SeaWing general army were either made from bone, coral, as well as the horns and teeth of other sea creatures or weapons pilfered from the tribes gifted with fire.
The SeaWing's heavier stature and less optimized flight muscles meant that tribes built exclusively for flying, especially SkyWings, could maneuver circles around them in the air.
Their webbed talons, while still very sharp, had proven less efficient for slashing and stabbing than the non-webbed claws of other tribes.
SeaWings did have a slight advantage with their powerful tails, which could deliver crushing blows to other dragons when in range. Unfortunately, getting into tail-swatting range with SandWings and IceWings with their poison-barbed and whip-like spiked tails respectively was very inadvisable in the best of situations. Not to mention all those dragons could breathe fire or freezing ice, anyway.
SeaWings did have a slight advantage in brute strength, but were outclassed again by the even bulkier MudWings (who could also breath fire).
The only place where SeaWings were unmatched in combat was in the water, which was all well and good until you had to meet your enemy in the air or on the ground.
"Oh... I see. Is that why you... well, you all, are up to... this?" Barnacle gestured to the scene around them.
The dragon bobbed his head up and down emphatically. "Ye- Yeeup... yup. Makes usss feel a little better. Though... It might, ungh, might be more accurate to sssay that it just makes us feel... less. Less is betterrr... I think."
"Where'd they even get all these pufferfish, anyway?" Mako heard Sailfish mutter.
"You know that's really bad for you, right?" Barnacle said to the loopy dragon.
He haphazardly raised and lowered his wings in what could have been approximated as a shrug, if one used a little imagination. "Eh... not as unhealllthy as having f-fire breathed in your face. Heheheheh..." He chuckled at his own joke, before craning his head back to the collection of guards and soldiers behind him with a snort.
"One of you say somthin'?" He said back to no one in particular.
"No. They did not." Mako said coldly.
Before anything else could be said, the sound of loud splashing came from behind and below them, the same direction the enclave dragons had come through. The enclave dwellers turned around, to see a group of six or so SeaWings rise from the water and clamor onto the nearest sand beach, where they began to disgorge water from their lungs.
Mako winced slightly, that was one of the reasons that the quartet of enclave dragons-turned messengers had opted out from taking their warning to the Deep Palace. In order to dive deep underwater, or to stay that deep for a long period of time, SeaWings had to flood their own lungs full of water lest their buoyancy prevent them from going very deep without actively swimming downwards at all times. The really deep divers had to basically rid their entire bodies of any air, or they would be crushed by the immense pressure down in the Abyss.
It was a very uncomfortable sensation, especially for young dragonets that lived near the surface. To flood your lungs and 'drown' yourself. It was even worse when you came back up to the surface, where you had to cough all that water back up out of your lungs so that you could breathe again, as gills don't work in the air. That left for a rather nerve-wracking minute or so where a SeaWing had to entirely focus on getting a successful breath in, lest they suffocate out in the open.
It was also yet another disadvantage SeaWings sometimes had to deal with in a tactical scenario. Albeit one that was typically less prevalent than the other more obvious ones, because it wasn't as though all SeaWings always had to go through that process whenever they emerged from the water. Only when they had come up from the deep after a while.
It was one of the reasons that their enclave, and indeed the rest of the Kingdom of the Sea, was positioned in relatively shallow water.
These dragons, though, had clearly come from the Deep Palace.
The first dragon to recover was a dull grayish-green adult male, with jagged scales on his forehead and horns that curved inwards towards each other and a severe expression. He stood fully and narrowed his eyes at the enclave posse.
Mako felt a tingling flash of recognition strike through her spine. She knew those scales and those cold eyes anywhere.
The spaced-out SeaWing behind probably recognized him as well, because he made a choking noise and rushed back as well as he could manage to hiss something unintelligible to the other indulgent dragons. They all then scrambled about to swipe away the pufferfish and stand at some semblance of attention.
Mako didn't think that it would help them any.
Once the entire Deep Palace procession had recovered their breath, they lifted off from the small beach and flew over towards them, with the dull-green at the lead.
They landed, and he surveyed the scene of the haphazard soldiers with cold eyes, now seemingly ignoring the unfamiliar enclave dragons. He let out a low, continuous hiss as he slowly stalked towards them, eyes never focusing on any one dragon. His hiss persisted as his wings visibly quivered and his talons flexed.
Suddenly, quick as a flash, he darted forth and stamped his talon down hard on the tip of the tail of the soldier they had been speaking with. The soldier let out a cry of pain, which was abruptly silenced when his assailant clamped his snout shut with a talon.
The irate dragon continued to slowly track his eyes across the rest of the guards and soldiers, his low hiss unabating. He leaned his head closer to the dragon whose snout he was restraining, who looked to be fighting desperately to not squirm.
"...Having a good time, are we?" He hissed through the deadly quiet.
The soldier only responded with a "mmph."
"Fighting hard? Fighting valiantly? Been needing a break, are you? Is the strain of fighting for your home too much for you to bear? I don't see any injuries on you..." he hissed to the soldier.
Letting out a disgusted snarl, he released the dragon and shoved him back to his comrades, who stumbled out of the way so that he crashed to the floor unfettered.
The dull-green continued to stand glowering at the rest of the puffers for a few long minutes, still hissing.
"...Well." he finally hissed. "Since you all seem to like pufferfish so much... Those blasted fish will be the only thing you eat until the next full moon."
He looked over to the wading pools where the battered dragons lay, some of them appeared to be in a state of trance as well, although it was slightly harder to tell than it was with the supposedly healthy soldiers. His scowl deepened.
"They get immediate medical attention first, or else you all will need a healer very soon." He said through gritted teeth.
The soldiers scrambled about, trying to find healers or medical equipment more substantial than the loose bandages and splints the wounded SeaWings were already wearing.
The irate dragon then turned back towards the enclave dwellers, and his furious expression morphed into something that wasn't any more pleasant, but less overtly hostile.
Then again, "overtly hostile" was a pretty good way to summarize this dragon's personality in a clam shell.
"Mako." He said.
She met his gaze "Hello, Shark."
Shark stared at her and the dragons she was with for a few quiet moments, before finally speaking again.
"So... You're finally back from the backwaters? Been having a good time? What are you doing here?" His voice had largely lost its cold, furious edge, but was still deeply unsettling to any dragon unfortunate enough to have it directed to them.
"Yes, Shark, I'm back. Are you a Commander now? I take it the war effort probably hasn't been going all that well. Given, well, all this." She gestured with her wing to the remaining injured dragons on the pavilion.
Shark hissed again at that, and scowled at her. The relatives held the standoff for a couple terse moments. Before Shark surprised her by lowering his gaze a minute amount and releasing a small sigh, laced with exhaustion.
"Well, at least your time in the boonies hopefully didn't dull your strategic mind, Mako." he glanced back at the dragons with him, who didn't give any visual cues.
"No, things haven't been going smoothly. But you did not hear that from me. After the venerable Commander Tempest was killed, and the tides-cursed MudWings switched sides, the expeditionary assault lines into the Sky Kingdom broke down. Without MudWing support the SkyWings were able to overrun and burn our positions. We could hold out in and around various lakes and rivers, but we were unable to resupply or replenish our troops as the now-reinforced SkyWings could attack any SeaWings that tried to fly through the air. A flanking attack from Blaze's IceWings allies finally routed us and we had to retreat back to the Ocean."
Shark's teeth were gritted, and his face was harder than usual. He clearly hated what he was saying, and hated saying it. But Mako had to grant him some respect for being able to admit such tactical and strategic defeats. Defeats that occurred under his command.
"Blister's contingent of SandWings have not been very effective on a strategic scale, either." Shark begrudgingly continued. "Tactically, they counteract many of the... disadvantages... that SeaWings have in combat. They can breathe fire. But there are not that many of them, and I suspect that Blister is withholding the bulk of her forces. Although, you once again did not hear that from me."
Shark lashed his tail with another snarl. "In the span of months, we went from pushing into enemy territory on a successful offensive, to being trapped within our borders and barely able to keep up attrition rates. More and more SkyWings patrols have been encroaching further and further into our territory. I fear they will eventually discover the location of the Summer Palace."
He looked back with a cold glare to where the dragon puffers used to be. "Which is why the troops here need to keep alert, and not fall into this nonsense."
Shark looked back at her and her posse. "So... why are you here? I know you like your little backwater too much to stay, and you're too pragmatic to come here without a reason."
Well at least he's still perceptive. He's a lot less arrogant than I remembered, though. Which is odd.
Mako looked back to the other three dragons she came with, who all looked to her. She sighed and turned to fully face Shark and his procession.
"Well, we did come here for a reason. To bring news, actually. How bad that news is is up to you."
She then recounted the events of the past few days, the initial sighting of the boats, their later encounter with them at the scavenger den, and what Mako witnessed happening to the group of NightWings that tried to attack the den. Just as she had at the enclave meeting, she finished her story with her and the dragonets returning to the enclave, but this time she also summarized the contents of the meeting, and their collective decision to come here to warn them of the potential danger that scavenger den could pose.
"And so, here we are." Mako finished.
Shark's expression was unreadable, as always. But the dragons behind him, presumably also officers in the SeaWing army, predictably looked skeptical, and even a bit astonished.
"Do you seriously expect us to believe that!?" One of them said,
"That was the craziest story I've ever heard. And I have to listen to soldiers ramble after they've gone all smoke-headed on pufferfish."
"Did you four come all the way over here from wherever you're from to feed us that bunch of foam?"
"This was a scavenger den we're talking about here, right?"
Shark didn't say anything, other than simply fixing Mako with a hard, unwavering stare that made her feel as though he was seeing directly through her.
"Shark, you cannot seriously be taken whatever it was that she said seriously." One of the dragons said.
"...Throughout my years of knowing her... I've never known Mako to lie. Even when she was much younger. I find it unlikely that she would have gone to all the trouble of making that entire spiel up, and coming all the way over here to convince us of a bunch of unbelievable manatee-crap."
He paused, seemingly weighing what he was going to say next. Mako had no idea whether what he just said meant he believed her or not.
"...So..." his gaze on her intensified "Did you really a bunch of NightWings get torn apart by scavenger weapons mid-flight?"
Is he really taking this seriously? If he is, then I should probably take this all the way.
"I saw it with my own eyes." Mako stated matter-of-factly. "Three dragonets were with me as well, if you want to corroborate the information I gave with them. Although I doubt that you feel particularly inclined to take a talonful of dragonet's word over mine."
Some of the dragons from the Deep Palace snorted quietly at that.
"Alternatively," Mako continued, "I mentioned that three of the NightWings went down into the water. If you were to sneak into the bay where all this happened, you would not only see a massive pod of huge boats but probably three rather gruesomely destroyed NightWing corpses underwater."
Shark and the group of dragons behind him seemed to actually consider that information. Well, the dragons behind him at least appeared to consider the information. Shark was unreadable as ever.
"In that case... I guess we could find out the validity of that story ourselves." One of them said
"Is it worth the risk? What Mako described does sound pretty deadly..."
"We would be underwater, squids-for-brains. Those weapons attack dragons in the air."
"Shark? What do you think?"
The severe SeaWing tapped his claws on the floor, but didn't say anything for a time.
"If true... it would certainly mean that sending air patrols over that area would be... inadvisable for the foreseeable future. We've already been losing enough SeaWings on those patrols to SkyWing ambushes." he paused again, before Mako saw something flash in his otherwise unreadable eyes.
"On that same token... Other tribes should likely have a similar difficulty crossing over that area. At least, for a while, depending on how long those scavengers have that supposed 'superweapon' active. So perhaps this may turn to our benefit, in a way. Most of the MudWing and SkyWing scouts launched into our territory often come from the direction of that peninsula, anyway. That said, we should probably go see these 'scavenger weapons' for ourselves before we make any real plans around them." Shark said as he turned to leave.
"I won't be taking this up with the Queen, by the way. Not until we can confirm beyond reasonable doubt what you have claimed to see."
He turned to the other dragons he came with. "To address your doubts... This story is one the craziest I've heard. But I know Mako to be largely trustworthy, and the potential risks of ignoring her warning outweigh the cost of just going over there to confirm it with our own eyes. That said, we should get to the business we came all the way over here to deal with in the first place."
He then stalked off, and his procession slowly followed him. Mako remembered something Cuttlefish had said to her, and gambled on whether or not she should pitch it.
"There's something I should mention, Shark." Mako said.
Said dragon stopped in his tracks, and turned an eye to face her.
"One of the Dragonets with me, Cuttlefish, said that he saw the scavengers on the boats that were using the strange weapons flashing lights at the scavengers on other boats, and that those scavengers flashed their own lights back. He claimed that he could see patterns in the light flashes that were similar to how we speak Aquatic. I didn't really believe him, for the record. But you can do with that information what you will."
Shark's expression didn't change, which wasn't really a surprise. However, some of the other dragon's brows furrowed.
"And another thing, have you heard of a Dragon named Argonaut? He should be a recent recruit that may have been stationed around here."
Shark's unreadable eye became unfocused for a moment. "The name brings some recognition. I believe I heard of a dragon with a similar name being stationed as a patrol guard. I am unaware of his current state." He turned away fully and stalked off.
Well, that doesn't give a whole lot as far as specific information goes, sorry Cuttlefish. I suppose that this whole interaction could have gone a lot worse, to be fair.
She turned back to the dragons she had come with, "We should go back to the enclave."
So they set off.
***
>On the Docks, Safe Harbor_
Lord-Mayor Talem stood once again adjacent to Safe Harbor's now refurbished piers. He had ordered them to be repaired as soon as possible after the initial first meeting between him and the sharp looking men that were probably in charge of the entire ship formation.
The city's carpenters and related artisans had worked tirelessly throughout the night and into the morning, only stopping when the city's dragon alarms began to ring out.
Talem still clearly remembered the cold dread he had felt when Archer Guards barged into his quarters, telling him that he needed to be evacuated into the Safehold's citadel immediately. At that moment, he found himself terrified beyond rational thought for the city, his family, and himself. It had been the first time in years that the city had fallen under attack, and he had no idea whether Safe Harbor would even continue to exist. Normally, dragon attacks on human cities consisted of one to three dragons appearing, a few homes being set on fire, and a few people, sometimes entire families, being carried off to their deaths. That was awful enough on its own, but more recent reports told of the entire town being razed, and large groups of dragons slaughtering every last man, woman or child they could find.
Talem had feared the latter fate was in store for the city, as even it was well-defended enough to deter a couple of hunting dragons.
If they were under attack by dragons, it was more probable that the dragons coming intended to destroy everything.
That wasn't what happened, however. Within the reinforced citadel of the Safehold, Talem, along with the few dozen women and children that managed to be evacuated into there with him in time, did not hear the sounds of screaming, raging fire, and buildings collapsing. Instead, they heard a long series of booms. Like unnaturally rapid thunderclaps. Those sounds persisted for only a few minutes, and then they could hear nothing from outside. After a couple more minutes or so with nothing but the sounds of muttering people fearfully, crying children and infants, the decision was made to crack open the citadel and take stock of the situation outside.
One could imagine their surprise when they were met by the boisterous sound of roaring cheers.
They had emerged from the depths of the Safehold not to the horrible sight of dragon-wrought massacre, but to the entire village wildly celebrating like children who's teacher announced they'd managed to somehow acquire ice cream. Talem could see a strange flying... thing... buzzing through the air over the ships.
One of the Castle Archer Guards that wasn't caught up in the foray informed him that the city had indeed come under attack by dragons. Eight Night Dragons, to be exact. Eight! Surely the city should have been doomed!
But it wasn't. According to that Archer Guard, the attacking dragons had all been killed. Killed before they could even get into fire breathing range, by weapons of unknown type on the ships in the harbor as easily as an experienced shepherd would ward off a coyote from his livestock.
The celebrations continued through the day, and the city's carpenders resumed their work on the piers as more strangers from the ships came ashore on more small boats. Probably to assess damage and help with repairs in any way that they could. Although there was no real damage to the city to repair, thanks to their efforts.
The refurbishment efforts continued throughout the day.
Lord Talem now stood upon one of Safe Harbor's docks the following morning. He watched as one of the ships, the one that had been the first to flash its lights at the city, and the probable command ship of the formation, slowly made its way over to the harbor via unknown means.
He truly didn't know how those ships were able to move. There were no sails or oars. While watercraft that could perhaps move like that had been theorized in the years long past, those hypothetical designs always proposed using a sort of paddlewheel, and most likely hand-driven cranking mechanisms within. He could see signs of neither present anywhere on any of the ships!
The only visual giveaway for anything happening within the vessel that would allude in any way to propulsion was a pair of tall smokestacks placed roughly amidships. Each stack had a small cloud of blackish smoke rising from it.
After the meeting with the strangers last night, Talem had taken it upon himself to sift through Safe Harbor's archives for anything related to machines and mechanics in order to try to glean any information possible on the mechanisms these strangers used in their gargantuan ships.
He had found an entry filed long ago that was a proposed idea from one of the city's great inventors about a kind of contraption that used high pressure steam to pump levers and cams to create a spinning motion. Talem didn't know a whole lot about the technical details behind such a machine, but was it possible that the strangers used something similar?
As the great ship slowly, carefully, closed in on one of their docks, Talem remembered something else that puzzled him with regards to the massive watercraft, its construction.
At this much closer range, and in broad daylight, Talem could clearly see that the ships before him were clearly made almost entirely from metal. All of them.
Now, to be clear, Talem wasn't bewildered in the slightest as to how a ship made completely from metal, probably iron, could float. He wasn't an imbecile, he understood how the principles of buoyancy worked. Every Safe Harbor resident did. Any object that weighs less than the water it moves aside will float. Talem would, however, like to know how the strangers dealt with the stability issues that having such a heavy craft would produce.
What Talem really could not get his head around, however, was how these foreigners had managed to acquire the sheer amount of iron it would take to construct all these. Much less how they would manage to forge and shape all of it into the precise shapes that would be needed to build a vessel of that scale!
Questions that can be asked. I really hope our language learning efforts go quickly.
Talem watched as the great ship adjusted its bearing slightly to run parallel with the dock, and gradually drifted to a stop alongside it. One of the much smaller boats, one that had previously ferrying people to and from the ships onto the shore before the docks had been repaired, moved up alongside the ship and carefully drove its small bow against the larger vessel's starboard side, and literally pushed it beam wards towards the pier. Cheers rang out once again from the crowd that had gathered behind him as thick ropes were thrown over the side of the ship, and people on the dock quickly bound them to several vertical pillars in order to properly moor the ship for the first time.
A ramp was lowered over the side of the ship, secured in place, and more people began to disembark their vessel directly onto Safe Harbor. The first man down the ramp was the figure Talem had 'spoken' with the other night, still wearing the same immaculate dark blue clothing he had been then. The man looked over at the crowd gathered to greet him and his men, and rubbed his own forehead as if bracing himself for what was to come. Talem found himself smirking with amusement.
The man nonetheless began to approach them, walking with the purpose only an experienced sailor could, Talem thought.
Talem reached out his right hand as the man drew closer, and the crowd cheered again as the two groups shared a proper handshake for the first time. Both he and the man across from him grinned.
"Hel-oe, well-come too Sae'f Harr-b'r." Talem said in the newcomer's language, just as some of the interpreters working to figure out their language had instructed him. It was a little difficult to say, as their language was rather loud and throaty, using sounds seldom used by humans he knew when speaking. The only word he knew that used those kinds of sounds was his own name. He had felt rather sore in the throat after practicing that phrase.
"Than'k oueo, Talem." The man before him said, his grin not breaking. They released their handshake, as more and more people from the city came to meet, and thank, the newcomers that were departing their vessel.
The aforementioned interpreters from both the city and from the ships came forth to assist in any way they could with communication, using the loose collection of understood words they had. It would be a good while before either party could speak with each other properly, but that day would come. According to the people who were working on learning and translating the foreigner's language, that day may come sooner than later.
The man gestured towards a few more of the ships in the harbor, ones that Lord Talem now noticed were moving towards them, slowly. These ones were larger and much bulkier than the one that had just docked. One of the three vessels had what looked to be a bunch of masts and rigging lines sticking out at weird angles all over the ship that, at first glance, looked to be spread out randomly. However, absolutely no sails were visible, despite the ship moving. Which probably meant that those strange masts were meant for something else. Talem could see a large box-shaped structure built on top of the deck amidships, and only one of the smokestacks sticking out of it. Two of the three approaching ships did not have all of the extra apparent rigging the other had, but was otherwise incredibly similar to the other one. These ones also had a lot of people on their decks, many of whom were leaning over the railing of the ship and waving at the people on shore.
The three heavy ships all slowly maneuvered in in much the same way that the first one had, with several of the small boats also moving in to assist as well. The entire process took almost an hour, to get all three of the huge watercraft moored to Safe Harbor's two piers. One ship on each side of the piers.
Talem looked to the massive swarm of 40 enormous ships still out in the harbor. Clearly, they were going to need to upgrade their docks.
And probably a lot more than just the docks... He thought to himself. There were probably enough people on those ships to more than triple Safe Harbor's population!
Lord Talem clutched his forehead as the sheer weight of the logistical and infrastructural reality of the appearance of all these people fell on him. Safe Harbor barely had enough food, homes, and supplies to sustain its current population! He really hoped that these foreigners had some magical, completely unprecedented methods for building houses and increasing crop yields like they apparently had for building ships at that scale and bringing down dragons.
While he was still zoned-out, one of the city's budding interpreters approached him and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. "Lord Talem, are you alright?"
"Huh... what?" He said numbly.
"Uhh... I believe the newcomers said that the vessels that just docked are cargo and troop transport ships." She said.
Troop transport vessels? Are they an invading force or not?
The young woman continued. "I think they said they can give us weapons, weapons similar to the ones they had just used to protect the city, and knowledge. They said that they want to help us."
Well, there's that, at least. If there's a will, there's a way. Maybe if we all pitch in, we can solve this whole dilemma. Humans are good at solving problems, anyway.
Right now Talem just wished that they could actually talk with one another beyond a handful of words and phrases, so that they could communicate and coordinate how they were to go about solving these upcoming problems together.
He turned to the interpreter, "By the way, what's the name of that man who's their probable leader?" He pointed to the man whose hand he had just shaken.
"Oh," She said. "I believe the newcomers said his name was Cap-ten Drae'k." She pronounced. "Although, I'm not sure what either word means. And I'm pretty sure Cap-ten is a title of sorts."
Talem watched as one of the newcomers, coming through the crowd of Safe Harbor residents, rushed up to Drae'k and frantically whispered something to him. Drae'k's eyes widened, and he said something back to the other newcomer, who straightened his back like a board, whipped his right hand up to his forehead before lowering it again, and rushed back off.
What was that about?
Talem sighed, he probably wasn't going to get much anything productive done here, not like this. So he informed the couple of guards who had come with him to escort him back to the Safehold, and told them they could go on leave after that. He should let the city residents have some fun with the strangers while it lasts.
He looked back to the ships that had docked, two of them had long, organized lines of people wearing uniforms streaming off the vessels, down ramps onto the piers. While it lasts, indeed.