We emerged from the forest to see a great walled city. Way bigger than any city that I had seen before. I grant you… I have only seen two cities before… but it looked to be at least twice the size of Vardan.

  I could smell something in the air that I had never smelt before. It was kind of salty. I wasn’t the only one who could smell it. I asked Damecus what it was… he said it was the sea. I’ve never seen the sea before. I’m actually quite looking forward to it. All the stories I read when I was little always talked about how vast the sea is and how much of it is unexplored. It sounds fascinating.

  We approached the front gates and Damecus went to speak to the guards. There were about six of them. All stood in full armour. You couldn’t see any part of their actual bodies. They were all stood perfectly still, in two lines of three, on either side of the gate.

  Damecus told Nomius to remain visible throughout the interaction. He says that Nomius suddenly appearing out of nowhere can be quite intimidating to people unfamiliar with him. And quite frankly, bugger other people… it intimidates me when he does it. I wish he’d damn well stop doing it.

  Damecus: “Hail, knights of Uddin. I am Damecus, son of Herius, of the Sawtooth clan. My companions and I come seeking the use of your port.”

  Guard one: “We have not had any of your clan pass this way in a very long time. What business do you have in our port?”

  Damecus: “We seek transport across the sea. We wish to return these travellers to their home.”

  Guard two: “Odd group of travellers you have there.”

  Damecus: “Believe me, sir. I am aware of this.”

  Guard one: “We’ve been hearing a lot of rumblings about war amongst the lizard men. Be these rumblings correct?”

  These humans are much more civil with the lizardmen than I was expecting. And I’m really confused by the size of the city. All the books I have say that all the humans that attempted to colonise over here ended up dead. I grant you; the city is right by the sea. So, they haven’t exactly colonised the whole continent. But they have still built an absolutely massive city here. So, it hasn’t exactly been the full-on failure that my books suggested.

  Seriously… were any of my books accurate?

  Damecus: “What you hear is not wrong. The clans are nearly always at war. It is only fair of me to warn you. The Blood Dragons have been trying to expand their territory recently. They failed to take the Hitaro Jungle this time, but if they ever do succeed, then they will likely move in this direction next.”

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  Guard three: “Oh great, that’s all we need. Those invisible tossers.”

  Guard four: “We’ve been getting enough shit from the Shadow clan in the south sea recently.”

  Sounds like things here aren’t exactly peaceful.

  Damecus: “Attacks from them should die down for a while… they are currently engaged in a conflict with the Thalassic clan over who owns the Demon’s Pass Waterway.”

  Guard two: “Do your clans do anything but fight?”

  Damecus: “Rarely, it would seem. May we pass?”

  Guard one: “You got the coin to get on a boat?”

  Damecus: “Not yet, we are hoping to trade some of our supplies for safe passage.”

  Guard one: “Well now that could be a problem. Cost of travel has gone up recently… inflation… bit of a problem. Doubt whatever you have in that cart is going to cover the cost of all of you. Especially the goblin. People will want to be well compensated for transporting such a creature.”

  Shit… I knew I’d end up causing problems.

  Guard two: “You could always leave it here. We’d be happy to kill it for you.”

  Phoenix: “I am afraid the goblin stays with us.

  Guard one: “Shame, been a while since we killed any goblins.”

  Guard two: “It’s been a while since we killed anything, we’re always stood at this bloody door.”

  Suddenly a boy came running out of the forest in the distance. He was human and looked to be about twelve years of age. He had the darkest skin of any human that I have seen. I can’t tell from the knights because their skin is entirely covered by their armour. But maybe humans round these parts all have dark skin… but in Kataravonia they are largely pale… a few, like Tilda, have light brown skin. This child though… his skin is almost black. It also seems slightly reflective… sometimes the light catches him from a specific angle and it looks blue… it is incredibly beautiful. There is more variety to humans than I thought.

  The guards looked very concerned at the sight of this boy.

  Boy: “Help! Sir Alastaire, we need help!”

  Alastaire: “Bo? What’s wrong?”

  Bo: “It’s the prince, sir. He wanted to go playing in the woods and he fell down a hole. He’s injured and I can’t get to him.”

  Alastaire: “Sir Kristoff and I shall aid you. Barron, go tell his majesty what we are doing. You three, remain and guard the gate.”

  Damecus: “May we be of assistance? We have medical supplies that may be of use if your prince is injured.”

  Alastaire: “You may. Try anything untoward however, and you shall never make it through our port.”

  Damecus: “Fair enough.”

  Alastaire: “Lead the way, Bo.”