Chương 180: Chapter 180 A Coming Storm

"I needed to inform you of the situation, I will be back as soon as I have more information. I will also be speaking with the halflings, though I don't know how that will go over, as I haven't met them yet," Aella said to Elalar.

"I understand. Thank you for the warning. I will see what I can do until I hear from you again," said Elalar with a nod.

Aella teleported back to her throne room, without glancing around at the nobles in his court. There was plenty of things she could have done, but now was not the time to play.

"Your Majesty!" cried Varnin. "What is going on?"

"Is everyone here?" asked Aella, looking around at the room full of demons, heroes and gnomes.

"I believe so," said Alfred, glancing around as well.

"Alright," she said as the room fell silent. "The explosion of the old palace has released a ton of magic into the realm. The realm is having a hard time dealing with it, and my sources say it will take three months to abate. However, this storm will not end until then. In fact, it may get worse."

The room erupted into a buzz of comments from everyone as they turned to their neighbors and started talking about what she had just said.

"I have already spoken to the dwarven and elven kings, but I still need to meet with the gnome council and the halflings. Rupert, I need you to form more walls, and possibly a dome over the city, to protect us from the worse of the storm. The roads from here to the human city will need to be fortified, so we can still travel around."

Rupert nodded as several of the generals stepped forward.

"Your Majesty, how will the animals we have fare?" asked Cyran.

"We will need to build protected areas for them as well," nodded Aella.

"Will the local herds of wild animals survive?" asked Kieran.

"I don't know, but we will have to find a way to survive ourselves. Everyone who is needed at the other kingdoms will need to be available for me to take them back and forth. Only our kingdom has any experience dealing with a crisis like this," said Aella.

"What do you mean, like this?" asked Firion. "I'm pretty sure that no one has ever had to deal with a deadly atmosphere before."

"Our kingdom has dealt with adversity in the face of hardships. Hunger and poor weather is nothing new to us. Besides, if the storm kills beasts around the city, I will gather them and bring them back for us to put to good use," said Aella.

"I have an idea," said Alfred, stepping forward. "I'm not sure how well you will like it, or how feasible it is."

"I'm listening," said Aella tilting her head towards him.

"Remember the place you had all of us go to, that had a different time?" he asked.

Aella nodded slowly, thinking about it. "I don't know if that would work, but it is worth looking into. In fact, that would work wonderfully, depending on how we went about this."

"What is this different time that you speak of?" asked one of the gnomes.

"I want to think on it before I go into detail," said Aella carefully. "Do you have the communications hub set up?"

"Yes, we have everything done here, that needs to be done in order for you to have your communications system. All that's left is for our factories to build the devices for your people," said the gnome.

"Then, I will take the gnomes back to their kingdom, and speak with their council. I will also head further south from them to speak with the halflings. I don't have the time any longer to go about this in a calmer fashion. I want everyone in this room to be thinking about what we will need to do to ensure the safety of all of our people during this time. As much as I hate having one emergency after another, we must continue to endure."

As everyone nodded their understanding, Aella gathered the gnomes together and teleported them back to their home. The weather was a little windy, with no sign of the coming storm.

"We will get your order processing," said the gnome in charge, as if all of her warnings of impending doom had been ignored. "For such a large order, it will probably be a month before they are ready."

"Thank you," said Aella, knowing they didn't have a month. If they refused to acknowledge the impending storm, then that would be on them. She teleported to the council room, and listened as they discussed the progress on another construction project for a moment before stepping onto the lighted podium.

"Ah, King Aella. What brings you back before us?" asked one of the council members. "I hope Manyur hasn't upset you?"

"No, council," she said with a shake of her head. "I come to you with dire news. The explosion of my palace in the north has upset the magic in the realm, and it will cause increasingly violent storms over the entire realm that will last for about three months."

"That's not good. We will lose all of our harvests for this entire year during that time."

"We have the bunkers, but can they hold everyone? Was the second section ever finished?"

"No, they can only hold three quarters of the population. And we only have six months of supplies stored away. The harvest this year was going to pump it to a year," said another gnome.

"How accurate is your data, King Aella?"

"Very accurate," she said. "I've already spoken to the dwarves, who plan to hunker down in their home under the mountains. The elves aren't sure what they will do, as the storm will grow strong enough to destroy their forest and they don't have enough supplies stored away. I haven't spoken to the halflings yet."

"Ah, the halflings will probably have plenty of food stored away. Do we have the funds to buy what we need?"

"No, we've kept the budget pretty tight with the city expansion."

"If the storms are predicted to destroy the elven forest, chances are they will destroy our city as well. Perhaps we should table all construction projects and immediately swap over to emergency protocols to protect as much as we can before the storms begin?"

"That's a good idea. The food stores and animals will need to be mobilized as they will take longer than moving the people. Any ideas on what we should do with those that won't fit in the bunkers?"

"I may have an option, but I am still working on it," said Aella.

"Alright. We will see what we can get done, and wait to hear back from you," said the council, turning back to discuss their plans further.

Aella nodded and stepped back into the shadows of the room before teleporting high into the air. She could feel the coming storms in the wind. They would be here within hours. There wasn't a lot of time. Turning to the south, she began teleporting to the furthest point she could see, wondering if anyone else had ever been able to move as fast as this. Maybe Alfred? That god Joseph probably could, but she didn't want to think about him. He was scary.

Arriving at the edge of the gnome lands, she saw that the halflings were mostly fields of crops, with small fences keeping herds of animals away from them. There were dotted groups of homes built into hills, or maybe hills built for homes? It wouldn't surprise her, seeing how flat and even the fields were, that they had moved the dirt intentionally and built their homes where the crops couldn't grow.

Landing in the middle of one of the hills, people began to appear from all around her, carrying hoes, rakes, pitchforks and shovels.

"What would a demon be doing here?" asked one of the tiny figures, squinting up at her.

"I am King Aella, of the Demon Kingdom, and I come with dire news. A horrible storm is racing across the face of our realm and it will last for the next three months. I have already spoken to the dwarves, elves, and gnomes about the coming calamity. Some have plans in place, but many have told me they will need to purchase food from you to survive, since the next three months will decimate the harvest for this year."

"You're the king of the demons?" asked one of the halflings. "But you're a girl!"

"I thought a king was supposed to be a fellow," said another, scratching his head.

"Maybe it's different for demons?" suggested a third, pulling out a pipe and lighting it up.

"That could be, my second cousin on my mother's side had a story about the demons," said a woman, leaning on her hoe.

"Now, Edith, we don't have no time for a story," said one with a humph, waving his hand in her face.

"Don't you be rude to me! I'll tell my father not to give your family any more of our cheese!" said the woman with a scowl.

"There's a deadly storm coming, that will wipe this land clean of everything on it," said Aella, trying to get them back on track. "Who's in charge for me to discuss plans for the safety of your kingdom?"

"Oh, we don't have anyone in charge," laughed an old halfling. "We do what needs to be done and that's good enough for us. There's not been a storm that we haven't survived yet."