The setting sun was looming over the horizon of Vathria. The citizens were busy constructing the roads or working on finishing the buildings or houses. This was the normal sight for the daily life of Vathrian since they arrived in the new world. But something peculiar happened in this otherwise mundane part of the day.
A child was playing with a ball with his friend when the child suddenly dropped the ball as he saw the sky above him.
"Guys! Look!" The child pointed at the sky and shouted at a loud voice. There were also adults and construction workers nearby. All of them were startled by the child's sudden shout.
"Is that a bird?" An adult man had his hand over his forehead as the shining golden hour light blinded his view.
"I don't know! Something is flying! Hey, people! Look!" Slowly, a commotion started as more and more citizens looked to the horizon to see what was flying towards them.
When the flying objects finally got close enough, they were shocked.
"I-it's a pegasus! Two of them!" A child shouted.
"My King, he's right! Pegasus! Pegasus!" The adult followed shouting towards the sky.
"It's heading towards the castle! Let's follow it!" Hundreds of citizens started running towards the castle.
As they got near the castle, the knight guards noticed the crowd of people running their way. The Knights knew they were citizens so they did not engage but they were still confused.
"Hey! What's going on here!?" The knight who was guarding the castle gate shouted.
"Look above us!?" A citizen pointed above their location. The knights followed the finger upwards and saw the two pegasuses as well.
"What the hell! Knights! Let's go!" The Knights also started running with the citizens inside the castle.
The citizens and knights all arrived in the castle courtyard where it seemed like the two pegasuses were making their descent. The sunset's golden light did not allow them to see it before but now they could clearly see there were people riding the pegasuses.
"That's!!!" A citizen yelled as he was shocked to see who were riding the mythical creatures.
The Knights finally noticed who they were and started running to approach the descending pegasuses.
"King Adrian and Former General Braum!" A knight shouted in surprise. In a few seconds, a perimeter was set up to keep the citizens at bay.
"The King is riding a pegasus!" A citizen yelled.
"Wow!!! a pegasus! a real-life pegasus!" The children's faces lit up seeing the legendary horses.
"Good evening, citizens of Vathria! I am back!" King Adrian said to the crowd. The crowd started to cheer for him.
"All the children are allowed to come here! Please play with Starlight here." King Adrian motioned the knights to allow the children to go through security.
"Starlight? Is that its name, my King?" A citizen asked the king.
"That's right! It's not only me who will get a pegasus. Soon enough, we may all have one ourselves!" King Adrian announced.
"Wooooow!!" The citizens started to cheer again.
The children approached Starlight and started to play around with its body.
"Wow! The wings have feathers!" A boy said while looking upwards as the pegasus was quite tall.
"It's soft!" A girl said while touching the lowered wings.
Starlight began to neighed in protest. He was confused about suddenly being surrounded by children.
King Adrian patted the pegasus to calm it down. "It's alright, boy. These are just children."
The citizens etched the scenery into their mind. The grand arrival of the King in a white pegasus and his right-hand-man in a black pegasus. The Vathrians were not religious but they do heavily believe in things like faith and symbolism so this event will be remembered for generations to come.
--
On the very northern border of the uncharted elven territory where the lands are not covered by mountain ranges, a very large group of more than five thousand individuals could be seen marching with horses and wagons carrying supplies.
The group was mostly dressed in a mix of leather clothing while some wore armors. There also seem to be some mages in their ranks wearing robes. They were all fully armed. They didn't look like kingdom knights but rather mercenaries.
In front of everyone in the group, a long-haired man wearing an eyepatch could be seen riding a white horse. The man had handsome features and his long and thick hair covered his ears and went down to his hips.
A man rode next to the eyepatched man. "Boss, this is the border of the elven territory....We are breaking the treaty." The man said.
"We are mercenaries. The treaty does not apply to us. And besides, we weren't the first one to break the treaty...but we may be the last." The eyepatched man flashed a cold smile in response.
The man caught a goosebump seeing his boss' smile. He knew how terrifying the boss was.
"Then what should we do? Should we march directly to the tribe's territory? I'll send our scouts to find it if so..." The subordinate man asked.
"Are you stupid? We'll kill many of them at that rate. We want live elves. Not dead ones. We, the Red Dragon troupe will be recorded down in history to be the group that conquered an entire race." The eyepatched man replied.
"That's true...selling that many elven slaves...we'll be rich!...But Boss, what should we do now, then?" The subordinate man asked.
"Find us a well-hidden spot and build a fortress. This may take months to complete. We'll flush them out slowly and create panic and divide the population before we can deal the final blow and capture the entire race. Bloodshed will be necessary but try to spare every female and child elves you can find. The King of Leincester will pay us very generously for this...who knows, we may all receive a nobility status." The eyepatched man replied while smiling.
The man's face started to lit up after hearing the promised reward. "I will get on it, Boss! Hey men! Find a place to build a fortress!" The man returned to the group behind him and they all started to move.
The eyepatched man stayed silent and did not move from his spot. "Let it be known that I, Slaven, will finally have my revenge on the elves." The one eye that was not covered by the eyepatch started to shine a red light.
Bonus chapter of the day.
No chapter tomorrow since it's Christmas and I'll probably be out.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!