Storm Hawks: Adventures Of the Other Side

Chapter 3

Several days had passed, and the Storm Hawks had started to settled in at Dragure Castle. Piper had spent a fair bit of time learning about the Kingdom of Dragure and the surrounding lands from the castle library, whilst Junko and Finn had worked on new weapons and new Skyrides from the scraps that the kingdom provided to them. Flight wasn't very popular since most of what they needed was practically at their doorstep, but people did have rides. So materials were not that hard to find. Meanwhile, Aerrow and Radarr spent most of his time with the knights formulating a strategy for defense, in case Cyclonis tries to attack at any point. A reconnaissance unit was dispatched in order to find out information of where Cyclonis had gone or was hiding. Nothing to work with but the main priority is to protect the city, the castle, the nest, the major resource areas and other neighboring villages.

"We would need to station soldiers here and here, as well as keeping a large platoon surrounding the castle, we need to make sure above all, that the castle is not infiltrated" Skye frowned pointing at various points of the map, before making a final gesture at the castle marked in the centre. "My lady's knights will be stationed with her at all times as well as protection at the nest, we may have to ground all the dragons".

"Well, that will be hard considering that they are very restless" Alfred rationalized.

"In that case, I'll house with the dragons. It'll keep them and myself calm at least." The Queen stood at the doorway along with Alfred, the eighth knight. "I'm going to the nest now to ground the dragons".

"My lady, it would be wise to stay at the chambers, we can split your lady's knights between yourself and the dragons," Nathaniel spoke, seeing the irritation slowly growing in Skye's face. He clearly didn't like when the Queen disagreed with him, even when the plan was indeed more practical.

"But would it not be more practical to keep me with the dragons so all knights can be present in the same place?" She raised an eyebrow at him, waiting for her to challenge her decision, he simply shot back a quick smile before looking back at Skye to admit defeat.

"These guys are clearly more than a Queen and her knights, they must be really close friends" Aerrow thought in the back of his mind, despite the formal talk, their actions were more informal, as friends on a team would portray.

"Are you guys coming or not?" The she simply asked, waiting for them to either come or to stay put, either way she would have gone. Skye silently made his way to the door along with the other knights, cuing Aerrow to follow. From the drawing room, they passed the library and one of the entries to the armory, the group that initially started with six, including Aerrow and Radarr, became ten with the addition of Junko, Finn, Desmond and Cedric. They all made their way to the nest, the Queen leading the way, her hair tied in a pony tail as if ready for work.

"For a Queen, she doesn't seem very queen-like does she?" Finn whispered, using the back of his hand to prevent his speech from reaching the knights that were closest to him.

"Yeah, she seems like the type to want to do things herself" Junko continued, also keeping sure to keep his voice low.

"She is a leader, she makes sure that the job is done, no matter what" Harold spoke from behind them, a proud smirk plastered on his face. "She has a great heart. Respecting us as much as we respect her."

"I can't help but wonder, you all seem really.... close?" Aerrow raised an eyebrow, curiosity slightly getting the better of him.

"We are all best friends, before her coronation, all of us, Astra too, used to hang out all the time. Riding the dragons, exploring new terrains, even going out and meeting the people." Cedric spoke from next to Harold, smiling as though looking at the memories fresh.