The Empire Beyond the Archipelago

Prologue

In a land far far away...

3rd Person POV

Five chiefs were assembled in an underground bunker. The sounds of screaming men, the roars of dragons and the constant thump of catapults being fired could be heard distinctively. This was the reason that the chiefs had been driven underground to discuss matters between them. They would never have been able to do it above ground with all those chaos.

The tension in the room was so high that anyone passing by could have touched it. Even though they were all exemplary rulers of their own land, when gathered together they would be at each other's throats. They constantly tried to undermine the other and could never work in harmony together.

"So...is anybody going to speak or am I just wasting my time here?" one of them asked out loud, getting fed up with the constant silence.

"Well, if you want to get out, the door is always open for anyone!", another shouted in his face.

"So, you are just going to chase us out. Where is the hospitality? Didn't your bastard of a father teach them to you?" another argued.

"DON'T BRING MY FATHER INTO THIS, YOU F*CKING SON OF A MUD-LOVER!!" he shouted, spittle flying out of his mouth.

The said chief went red in the face with anger, standing up and slammed his hand on table, effectively smashing it into kindling, "HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO ME AS SUCH, YOU INFERIOR SCUM BUCKET!"

All the other chiefs stood up as well. They knew that it was a particularly sensitive subject to that particular chief having lost his father in his young age. Puddles of Meade were flowing around on the floor as all the chiefs faced off against each other.

"This is going nowhere. I shall take my leave" a chief said stomping out of the doorway, his massive footfalls fading into the distance as he ascended the stairs. A dragon's squawk and a thud could be heard distinctively stating that the chief had punched the dragon's head clean off its shoulder...yet again, as he tended to do in a fit of temper.

The group collectively sighed. They knew that they had to find a way to stop these dragon raids. Their supplies and livestock were gradually deteriorating and there was nothing they could do. They had tried to follow the dragons to their nest but it was clear to them that it was well inside the Archipelago boundaries. From the looks on the faces of all chiefs that was what they were going to discuss yet again but with one member down. They knew that Stryke will be back after a while and everyone would be apologizing to each other but they had to try.

"So, are we going to do it?"

"No! It's too risky. I am not willing to endanger my people by the likes of those Vikings!"

"What are you afraid of?! We outnumber them twenty to one!"

"But what if all of them get together. Then we will be evenly matched. So how do we know the outcome of that?"

"You think that if all of them get together to gang up one us then we will just sit and watch! We will come together as well. We are not going to watch one of us fall in the hands of Vikings!"

"But we can never come to an agreement and all of us are trying to bring down the other! How do we know if we have the support of the others?"

"That is between us. When one of us are threatened we have their backs. Just because we squabble around doesn't mean we care about each other!" said Stryke as he entered the bunker again.

Nods of agreement were seen around. A few servants came and cleaned the remaining of the table and replaced it with another. The chiefs drew up their chairs and assembled around the table again after the servants left and Meade was passed around again.