Yrnag slammed his scaled fists on the table, knocking over the candle lantern.


    “You told me we went down the Central River, and that fort downstream is not Fomf!” He yelled at his crew''s navigator, he then turned to the Captain Tukwm who remained stoic despite the yelling. “And you.” He angrily approached the Beastkin Captain tapping him on the chest.


    The hippo beastkin dwarfed Yrnag Hric. “You didn’t check your navigator''s work, and as such everyones pay here is getting docked! Get this ship turned around and back up the river!” He yelled, and angrily left outside.


    His ship the Hric was a merchant vessel of the Hlpecby Theocracy, he was making an inland journey towards the Toh Empire. Yet they weren’t in Toh, they should be somewhere in one of their frontiers or at the edge of it as the river marked the edge of any definitive control by the Treyarch Penal Force.


    He stomped to the bow of the ship overlooking the front of the ship, the slave oar rowers continued rowing meaning the order hadn’t gotten them yet.


    He scowled looking down the river, he looked on his left and saw the wooden fort pass them by.


    He began stomping his right foot angrily onto the deck below. “Damnit! Damnit! Damnit!” He cursed.


    “Yrnag Hric, yelling at your crew members won’t get anything done.” Said Rivm Erma.


    Yrnag heard the clack of her heels on the wooden boards of the ship approaching him on the bow.


    He turned to face the Treyarch, calming himself down before he responded and said “They are all idiots, and yelling is the only way I can get the message across.”


    The Treyarch was a tall pretty Hobgoblin looking woman, but he knew she was something else entirely.


    “Well, you are right about the fact that Fort is not Fomf.” Rivma looked at the fort, “and it seems uninhabited, which doesn’t look good.” She said grimly.


    Yrnag looked at the fort that was behind them and onto the Banks and saw a single goblin running along with the ship, yelling and waving their arms at them.


    “Well there''s a single goblin on the banks yelling at us. What does it want?” He asked.


    Rivma looked at the goblin and said “ignore the goblin, it''s a convict soldier trying to gain freedom by sneaking onto lost merchant vessels. I suggest your men be careful not to have that murderer sneak up on them when we stop to drag it back up.”


    Yrnag looked at the disheveled goblin on the banks yelling and waving and said “I’ll keep that in mind.”


    “Sir Yrnag!” Yelled the spotter from the mast.


    He angrily turned but remembered the guest was here and decided against beratings. “What is it?” He calmly yelled.


    “Walls, I see walls off in the horizon!” The Navigator answered.


    “Walls?” Rivma asked.


    “What do you mean walls?” Yrnag asked.


    At the same time two green vines appeared out of Rivma’s arms and she picked herself up to the height of the mast.


    “Like city walls! It looks like a wall that protects a city!” The spotter responded.


    Rivma backed up the Spotters words. “Yes, it looks like there''s a town wall! But it doesn’t belong to any of the towns I know. There is no gate regulating traffic or a naval guard!” She yelled from above.


    Yrnag climbed up the pole on the bow, which had a beautifully exquisite statue of his wife in it. He didn’t see it initially from his position way below the mast, but as they got closer he began to see it, it was far off a small line but he saw it.


    He looked to the left bank and there he saw a large crowd, it was still far off but it was getting closer by the minute.


    “There''s a crowd over on the left bank!” The spotter yelled.


    “Yeah I see it!” Yrnag responded.


    “Stop the ship! I think that crowd is human!” Rivma yelled.


    Yrnag turned to Rivma, still perched on her long vine arms. “Human? They won’t be able to touch us if they don’t have iron weapons or magic. We’ll fight the local humans for those walls and we’ll rest there for the day then head back.”


    Rivma came down, her vine arms disappearing. “No stop the ship, these aren’t the local human tribes. They are someone else!” She said approaching Yrnag.


    Yrnag scoffed, “You aren''t the owner of this ship, I am. If these are the local tribes we can easily kill them all by shooting at them from the river.” Yrnag said.


    “But they aren’t, in fact the local tribes were reported to have been annihilated several months ago. We shouldn’t be seeing anybody here except for some local Penal forces of Goblins and Ogres.” Rivma tried to get through Yrnag.


    “They’re Dead? Then that''s the local Penal Forces, we ask them to help us pull our ship back up river for however long they are allowed to and we pull it the rest of the way.” Yrnag quickly made a plan in his head.


    “That could work.” Rivma said, looking at the crowd that was getting closer that was running towards the ship.


    The navigator approached Yrnag. “Sir there''s no walls on the map, once I readjusted our position I found out there''s no Walls or towns located along the entire southern river.” The Navigator deftly reported.


    “No walls?” Yrnag squeaked out. “And if the local human tribes are dead then who is that crowd?” Yrnag looked towards the now much closer crowd which seemed to be wanting to intercept them at a certain point.


    The spotter then reported from the mast “Sir Yrnag! I have a clear view of the crowd; they seem to be wearing full body iron armor!”


    “Iron armor?” Yrnag looked at the crowd once more and he saw no shining metal off in the distance.


    “The local Penal forces do not wear full body iron armor.” Rivma said with a grim expression.


    “Stop the ship, tell the slave oar rowers to stop and reverse the ship!” Yrnag ordered “now!”


    Yrnag saw the oars suddenly change direction of movement, attempting to counteract the movement of the river and momentum of the ship. Yet it wasn’t enough, the river was too strong and quickly after the oars stopped.


    Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    “Sir the rowers are exhausted!” Yelled a man below deck.


    “Yrnag I beg of you stop the ship, I do not want to know who those strangers with full Iron Armor are.” Rivma said wearily.


    “Stop the ship, drop the anchor if you have to but stop!” Yrnag ordered.


    The captain was running around yelling, giving out the appropriate orders. Soon afterwards several blocks of iron were dropped, causing the ship to suddenly jolt to a stop.


    “Let''s hope the anchor pins hold.” Rivma said.


    “Don’t worry about the anchor pins, I hired the best shipbuilders in all of Hlpecby. I say let''s hope those strangers on the banks don’t attack us.” Yrnag answered.


    “Sir Yrnag, the large crowd with full iron armor is approaching the ship. I think they saw us drop anchor!” The Spotter reported.


    “Let’s hope they aren’t barbaric humans.” Rivma said under her breath.


    Yrnag ignored Rivma and simply stared at the ever closer large crowd.


    “Sir they appear to be armed with spears!” Reported the Spotter.


    The crowd grew closer to the point where he was able to discern individual bodies, the iron armor was dull and dented it didn’t shine like new armor. Meaning it was either old or worse it saw lots of combat.


    The armored people held long, bulky planks with a knife attached to the end or nothing at all. Glowing red lights shone from their waists, along with pouch bags on their waists as well. They were all running at a good speed towards his ship.


    Then he saw the ears on them, and the face of an unarmored person wearing a cloth that covered their entire body. There was a yellow armband on their left shoulder, a long spear on their back and a book in their hand.


    Rivma however reacted differently than Yrnag. “Those are humans! Get the ship moving now Yrnag! We do not want to find out what they are going to do if we remain here. We have time to get the anchors up.” She exclaimed.


    “Humans?” Yrnag heard many things about them and didn’t like the stories. His cargo was going to get stolen, he turned to the crew and began yelling “Get the ship moving now, have the oar rowers get us moving, we’ll go upriver at a tributary but get us moving now!” He yelled.


    The ship''s anchors then began to be pulled up, and the ship started to move once more with the river''s stream. Then the oars started to splash against the river and the ship began to move much faster.


    Yrnag looked over the port side and saw the crowd was on the bank not that far ahead of them, all in a line, crouching spears pointed out towards them. He began to laugh at them, “They seriously think they can hit us with their spears from the banks? Hahaha!” He laughed.


    Then he heard a high pitched whistle followed by dozens cracks of thunder and wooden planks being broken followed by the port oars no longer moving and then screaming.


    He looked at the crowd on the banks with another whistle, and then a wave of cracks of thunder rang out hitting the wooden walls. When the cracks of thunder rang out, dozens of flashes of light, he looked around and saw two unarmored people on the banks, a woman who had a shining object in her mouth and a man with a thin board in his hand.


    “What''s going on!?” Yrnag yelled at the crew, who were running around panicking.


    “Sir the port slave rowers below deck, they are dead!” Reported a sailor who had run up from below deck.


    “Dead? What about the Stern rowers?” Yrnag asked.


    “The stern rowers? Shit!” The sailor yelled running down “Stop! Rowers! Stop, your going to cr-”


    Yrnag was thrown off his feet as the hull of the ship had crashed into the banks. Getting up Yrnag felt his snout was unbroken, and he moved over to the bow and saw his ship was in the banks.


    “You idiots crashed the ship!” He turned around and began berating the crew and the slaves, then he heard yelling and stopped his beratements.


    “Break into the hull!” He didn’t understand what the yelling off in the distance was but it didn’t sound good.


    He went back over to the bow and looked onto the banks, there the humans gathered around the bow which he realized was cracked. Followed by a massive red magic circle appearing above the ship''s bow right below him. With a deep long hum, as it spun on its axis.


    “That''s magic! The human tribes should not know magic!” Rivma yelled, she seemed to activate a magic spell of her own.


    “But what does that spell do?” Yrnag asked, he looked up and only saw red particles fall slowly from the circle that covered the entire front half of the ships.


    Then he heard the front half of the hull break with planks broken. Like a door being kicked off its hinges.


    “Captain, they are breaking into the ship!” Yelled a sailor below deck. Then he heard nothing else than a hundred feet stomp into the ship.


    “I am getting out of here.” Rivma said, going to the stern.


    “Take me with you.” Yrnag asked, grabbing her arm.


    Rivma threw her arm back and pushed Yrnag away. “No, your one sleazy bastard, you know that right?” Rivma said as she extended her arms into vines and leapt away into the forest headed towards the correct river.


    He slammed the boards as the fighting and yelling seemed to stop as he heard weapons clatter onto the ground below deck. “Damn it! Damn it! Damn it…” He said slower.


    He heard the grate that covered the entryway to the lower decks creak open, and he looked on in horror as pure dull iron armor came out to the top. Followed by a leather armored person with a mask that looked like a horse.


    Followed by the unarmored woman he saw on the banks.


    “Capture them all and take any valuables they may have.” The woman said in the unknown deep sounding tongue.


    One of the armored foreigners picked him up roughly by the shoulder with leathered gloves.


    “Hey careful this expensive cloth-” The armored foreigner flicked him in the snout, and then held his snout closed like an animal.


    “What do we do with this one?” The armored foreigner asked in a muffled voice to another armored foreigner with a yellow armband.


    In another muffled voice the yellow armband foreigner responded, “Just time them up, capture all those who don’t resist.”


    Yrnag didn’t understand but he was sure they were capturing people, was it slaves they were looking for? He was dragged to the base of the mast, then was tied to it with rope probably from below deck.


    Up above the spotter was yelling at several unarmored foreigners to not come up. “Do not come up, I am warning you!” The spotter said.


    Looking around he saw that Captain Tuwkm, and navigator, were tied up with him.


    None of them spoke to him, but Captain Tuwkm and Navigator shot him glares.


    Then the armband woman came up to him, Yrnag saw more features of these people now. The woman had clear, tanned skin, with gray hair, and a pair of gray cat beastkin ears, wearing cotton clothing that was a dark gray.


    “Is that it?” The woman asked in her foreign tongue.


    “Most were below deck, and we have kept them below deck.” The armored foreigner with the yellow armband said with a muffled tongue.


    Yrnag didn’t understand a single word but it was clear to him that they were talking about the crew from the way that she glances below deck, and at them.


    “They look important, so they should know where we are on the map.” The woman said, as the two armored foreigners grabbed him by the shoulders, along with Captain Tuwkm and Navigator. They were shepherded into his room.


    The room was untouched, with nothing much having been moved. The map that laid on the table was still there, it showed the entire area they were in.


    The woman placed a compass on the table facing Winter, right below the directions.


    “They know how directions work.” The navigator said.


    “What do you think they want to know?” Yrnag asked.


    “Our location, I’m guessing.” Tuwkm said.


    The woman raised an eyebrow, arms crossed. The woman was watching all of them silently, and she tapped on the map and looked into the desk.


    “Hey don’t go thro-” He was flicked on the nose by one of the armored foreigners.


    The woman pulled a feathered writing utensil out of the desk and looked at it, she seemed unsure how to use it. Then she brought out a glass of ink and some parchment.


    She drew something on the parchment. It took her a moment to figure out how to use the feather but after a bit she turned the parchment around and showed them what she drawed.


    A rectangle, in the top left of the rectangle was the four cardinal directions. Morning, Evening, Winter, and Summer. Left, Right, Up, Down. It was a crude copy of the directions by Yrnag, there was a large symbol X, a mark on the representation map.


    “What are they asking?” Yrnag whispered to the Navigator.


    “I think they are asking where we are on the map.” Navigator said.


    Tuwkm then gave grunts to the foreigners and looked at his hands and back at the woman.


    “I think he’s trying to tell us to unbind his hands. Release his hands but be ready for anything.” The woman said in that foreign tongue.


    Tuwkm held up his hands and slowly brought his hand onto the map.


    “Hey, what are you doing?” Yrnag began to try and undo his binds to stop Tuwkm. The armored foreigners flicked him on the snout once more to get him to stop and he did.


    Tuwkm then tapped the exact spot they were in or the general area really, the woman brought the inked feather and placed a dot on the spot tapped on the map. The woman looked at the map and gave a wide smile, almost happy with what she was seeing on the map.


    They were at the bottom of the map, far away from anything else at the edge of the Goardsdaf Colony. Not that far winter of them would be Fhof town, which he was sure Rivm was going towards now or the general direction towards. Hopefully they would send a rescue party for them and deal with these foreigners.


    But something told him that rescue wouldn’t come or would be easy, by the way she was looking and tapping over the map talking with the man with her.


    Tuwkm pointed at himself and said “Tuwkm Seimer.”


    The woman was taken off guard and didn’t immediately respond, she narrowed her eyes and then she relaxed and pointed at herself.


    “See e oh. Ceo.” Was what Yrnag heard her say.


    Tuwkm nodded and she approached Tuwkm.


    “I think you and I are going to be good friends once we learn how to speak each other''s tongue. Take Tuwkm to the place he wants to go but let him not leave the ship, not yet at least.” Yrnag didn’t understand but from the non threatening nature she spoke, despite her deep voice it was almost an invitation or inauguration to have their people join them.


    “If you''re allowed to leave, go get- '''' Tuwkm flicked Yrnag on the snout, causing the merchant to pause and widened his eyes. Tuwkm gave a toothy grin to him, pointed at the fort and pointed at everybody here.


    “I think Tuwkm is asking if he can take everybody to the fort.” The yellow armband armored foreigner said in their native tongue.


    The woman looked at the fort, then at Yrnag and the Navigator.


    “We could use it as a prison depending on what is in there. But we need to check it out first.”


    The armored men then grabbed them and pulled them down into the lower decks tying them down. With Tuwkm being left on the ship, he wasn’t sure what they took but he didn’t like the idea of losing so much merchandise.


    Which was in the room next to the room they were put into. Yet he couldn’t see it, but he knew it would be useless by now.


    Tuwkm was left with several of the armored foreigners to watch over them as the others left for the fort.


    “Can’t you betrayed me like that.” Yrnag said.


    “If you weren’t such an asshole I would have not tied you up.”A