The Mysteries of Tiber

Chapter 35: Danger is Coming

Ailmar's PoV

The Knight that's in charge of the city is William Marshall. I had my Elven army take them into Qualinesti and care for them when him and his group were injured. I've tried to stay in contact with him ever since. It's good to have a Human ally in times of war. And there is a war now. I never thought I'd see him again.

Nava has been helping him set up city defenses because she was high up while undercover. Nightbreeze was the highest rank undercover but she's unconscious. Rosa has completely healed after a couple days but she's still taking it easy and going slow. Farrow's doing better too after sleeping for three straight days. The Healers brought Quintrine to the kids so she can tell them stories. It keeps her and the kids happy. Plus it also keeps the kids from feeling scared. I've been helping Rosa and Farrow. I walk around the city with Rosa and when she needs help I help her. I'm also making sure the two of them don't push themselves too hard. We have time to rest so we don't need to try to recover too fast.

Nightbreeze is still unconscious. And the Highlord army is slowly surrounding the city but they haven't attacked yet. When they do attack we will all help the Knights defend the city. They have been training the men and women on some jobs that aren't very hard like using water buckets to put out fires. Refilling the archers quivers. Throwing rocks over the wall to crush the enemy. And more basic jobs. Some of the older kids are also helping with those jobs too. Some of the people are helping bring the wounded to the Healers, others how to bandage minor wounds so the Knights can go back to fighting again. Some of the men are being trained how to fight with weapons but it's going very slowly. They've been doing all this training ever since the Knights took over but it's not doing too good. The people can fight but not that great because they were trained in other jobs. Hopefully we can survive when the army does attack. But it's very unlikely we will because the Highlord army is at least three times larger than all the people in the city. And it's still growing. More of them show up every day. I wonder if they will attack or if they are waiting for us to slowly run out of food and supplies. I'm on a walk around the city with Rosa and Farrow and the streets are almost empty. Only Knights and other people training are outside. The civilians that aren't trained to fight or help are staying inside unless they have to go outside. People are scared of the Highlord army. No one wants to go outside anymore because they are scared and I can't blame them. We don't stand a chance of winning if the whole Highlord army attacks us. A Kender walks up to us and says "Hi! I'm Earwig Lockpicker! Where is everyone?"

Rosa asks him "Do you live here?"

"No of course not! I'm just visiting! Where is everyone? I've barely seen anyone. Did they all die?"

"No. If you're visiting how did you get in? The gates are closed."

"Can't tell you!"

He runs off and we try chasing after him but we lose where he went. 

Farrow says "We should go tell Nava."

Rosa asks "About what? We saw a Kender that somehow got into the city without going through the gates. That's impossible. We didn't even catch him to tell her for us."

I tell them "We can get Quintrine to help find him. She acts a lot like a Kender herself."

Farrow asks "Can we really get her away from telling the kids stories?"

Rosa says "We should be able to. Soon enough she's going to run out of stories to tell."

We all head to the school where Quintrine is telling all the kids stories. We walk inside right when she's finishing a story. She sees us and tells everyone "Ok! It's break time! Go get snacks!"

She walks over to us while the kids stand up and go to a table with snacks on it. She asks "What can I do for you?"

Rosa says "We need your help to find a Kender."