“He hasn’t been seen since you left. Come, let’s get Marie to the emerald bay, we can talk on the way,” Noelle’s voice overflowed with joy and excitement. She led the two ladies from the safety of Castle Grey to the town on a fine sunny day.
Outside the castle, the town was as bright and cheerful as could be, filled with fairy-tale creatures directly from campfire stories, myth and legend. Aisling could see faces she knew, faces of beasts and creature she had once called friends. Marie, however, was scared out of her wits. Centaurs pulled the wagons loaded with crates that were stacked twice as high as the Centaur itself, Minotaurs worked at their forge next to weedy little orcs trying to outdo one another as they sold their wares, ranging from weapons and armour to cart wheels and jewellery and almost everything in between. Witches stood both ugly and pretty selling miracle potions and offering spells for a price, the Golems tended land terraforming and farming, the young gathered around a leprechaun who sat on a rock filling his small pipe while the young listened intently to the stories he weaved; Noelle stood on her toes, straining to look into the distance, to the horizon and the emerald bay.
“I see the women have arrived. Mating season is about to start, the ferries must have docked too. Come, we need to get you home,” Noelle announced with a bright smile as she took the first step from the castle’s walls and into the sea of magical disbelief.
Marie followed with a fearful disposition and a nervous grin, she had always wanted such beings to be real and now that they were, and she was walking among the pages of a living storybook; it was terrifying, incredible, but terrifying. She knew she had no way of defending herself against these creatures should any of them take a disliking to her.
The Centaurs Aisling passed bowed their heads to her and spoke proudly, “Good morning, Lady Aisling.” She felt like she was royalty like she had never left Eiru.
When she passed the leprechaun, the elderly wee man stood up on his toadstool and doffed his hat to her then bowed saying, “You grace us with your presence again my lady.”
When they reached the emerald bay, it was a sight to behold. The water in the bay was green as emeralds, hence the name. The ships ranged in all size and shapes, each one more majestic to the eye then the last and within the waters were massive serpents of different colours swimming alongside the incoming ships.
“It’s hard to believe that no one sees the real magic of this place,” Aisling gasped.
“The only visitors that are allowed here are the females that return for mating season. It’s better this way; maintains population control and stop us from been exposed to the human world. Lycans, males, cannot control their hunger like the females can,” replied Noelle proudly while looking around the docks, a grand ship got her eye.
“There,” her finger pointed their attention to a magnificent ship, magnificent in size and in grandeur like the world had never seen, “That’s your vessel, it will take you wherever you wish to go.” Noelle told Marie as she took hold of Aisling’s hand, tighten her grip.
The peace was not long lived however as the ships docked at the harbour were sent to the bottom of the emerald bay in a blazing inferno, caused by two rockets fired from a high vantage point! The explosion knocked Noelle and Aisling from their feet. Marie was standing back, far enough not to feel the brunt of the blast only the heat from the blazing fires.
“Get to cover!” Marie shouted to all those around her as she rushed to Noelle and Aisling. Marie help them both to their feet then they rushed to find some cover at the base of the western mountain that the docks were created from.
“It came from somewhere on the cliff to the east, but I can’t see anything with the fire and smoke!” Marie shouted, pointing to where she believed the attack came from.
They strained their eyes, trying to see through the smoke and fire when briefly thought they could see Captain Quis Podex and Kian standing on the cliff top side by side. Aisling was sure she could see Captain Quis Podex, holding an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) launcher, she was sure that was what he used to blow up the only escape route from Eiru.
“Game over, Noelle,” Kian shouted, looking down upon her like she was an insect to be crushed under his boot heel.
“Michéal stood in my way once. Look what happened to him. I will be King of Eiru, and you will bow at my feet or die there,” Kian announced as his cybernetic arm begun to open and reshape into a bolt-action styled rifle.
“Is this because I turned you down, or is it because Michéal surpassed you in every way?” Noelle replied, snarling with a teasing laugh.
“You could have been the mate of a king, but I’ll settle for you being a king’s whore,” he barked, his words dripped with venom.
“And where is your Michéal now, huh? He died to protect that bastard human you now safeguard, and I stand stronger than ever before,” he guffawed as he took aim at Noelle with his rifle-shaped arm firing a direct focused energy beam. Noelle quickly dogged the energy blast only to be attacked by Captain Quis Podex, who struck her with his RPG launcher, staggering her for a moment. She had no idea how he travelled from the cliff top to the docks in a mere second, however, his second attack was unsuccessful. She was too quick for his attacks to strike her without the element of surprise. It was when Kian
