A Warning From The Winds

Kies and Nina raced through the forest back to Silverfield.

"Where did you get that information from?" Nina asks Kies.

"A voice told me."

"A voice? Really?" Nina says in a tone that makes it sound like Kies is losing his mind.

Is that the reason why you came here too?"

"Yes. And no, I'm not going insane. so stop looking at me like I am. I'll explain it to you later," Kies promises her. "For now, we need to focus on getting back to Silverfield as quickly as possible."

"You better tell me everything this time," Nina sighed. "Also, that is the wrong way. We keep going this way." Nina points directly in front of them.

"Are you sure?" Kies asked. All the trees looked the same to Kies but whenever Kies made a wrong turn, Nina would point him in the right direction.

"Yes, I'm sure," Nina replied.

"How do you know? Wait... Did you memorize the trees that we saw or something?" Kies asked. He knew that Nina had a good memory, but he didn't know that it was this good.

"I don't. When we came here in the morning, the sun just rose. We have only been here for a few hours, so the sun is still in the same direction, just a bit higher. I remember the sun was to our left when we entered the forest, so on the way back, it has to be to the right," Nina explained. "What? Do you really think that I actually memorize the entire forest?" Something like that was practically impossible. If she really wanted to memorize the forest to the point where she could identify exactly where they were in it then it would take years.

Kies looked up to see what Nina was talking about. It was hard to see the sun with all the leaves blocking, but he was able to catch glimpses of the sun through them every other second as they were running.

Nina continued her explanation. "In other words, we only need to go in a straight line in front of us. I don't know why you keep making random turns."

"Ohhhhhhh, That makes sense."

Following Nina's advice, the two burst out of the forest after a few minutes of running.

"It's a good thing that you came with me, otherwise I don't think I would have gotten out of the forest at all," Kies told her. He was glad that Nina came with him. If he had gone by himself then he would probably have gotten lost and been spending the rest of the day in there trying to find a way out.

"All you needed to do was run in a single direction," Nina reminded him. "The forest isn't that big either, it's just really dense with trees," she pointed out. Even with Kies' terrible sense of direction, it should only really take about an hour at maximum for him to get out. "Anyway, Silverfield looks fine to me," she told him.

Kies examined the area around Silverfield and saw nothing out of the ordinary. It looked exactly the same as before they left for the forest.

"Huh, come to think of it, that voice never actually said that Silverfield was under attack right now." It just told me that Silverfield is about to be under attack. I don't know what time it is implying by that," said Kies. "I guess it means soon?"

"When is 'soon?'"

"I don't know, it could be anytime ranging from hours to days or maybe even weeks. But one thing that we do know is that we need to tell the guards or knights about this."

"Will they believe us?" Nina asks Kies. She wasn't sure about Kies but if two random kids ran up saying that the kingdom is going to be under attack, she wouldn't believe them. She was doubtful that the guards would even listen to what they have to say. And to make things even more difficult, if they were to ask them how they got that information, they wouldn't be able to explain it. After all, who in the right mind would believe them if they were to tell them that a strange voice told them?

"We need to at least try," said Kies. "Who knows, they might listen to us."

"Are you sure you're not going crazy?"

Kies thought for a moment before responding. "I sure hope not."

***

Siegfried sat down at a table outside the bakery and took a bite of his food. His mouth was suddenly filled with a sweet yet sour taste. 'Hm? What is this?' At inspection, he saw that It was bread with meat and vegetable fillings inside. There was also some kind of fragrant sauce dripping out. He guessed that that was where the sweet and sour taste came from.

Siegfried leaned back on his chair which creaked from his weight. It was his first time eating at this barkery. Normally he would get a meal at the tavern, but he heard that the bread there was delicious and decided to try it out. He picked something random since he didn't know what to get, and it was a lot tastier than he had expected.

'I should start coming here every once in a while,' Siegfried noted to himself. The main reason why he was actually here was that the tavern was closed for cleaning and repairs today after a brawl broke out between some drunkards. He wasn't able to eat breakfast because he was too busy finishing up delivering the details of his report to the king. The Council was shocked to hear that Otanian soldiers had managed to break into the city, and even more shocked about the demon. While they were busy deciding what to do, he decided to go grab something to eat since he was starving.

While Siegfried is enjoying his food, he hears the table next to him talking about the disaster yesterday.

"Hey, did you hear that the slaves tried rebelling yesterday?"

"Yeah, I did. I also heard that they blew a hole in our wall but they didn't escape through it."

"Really? I heard that..."

Siegfried sighed and shook his head. It looks like the Council decided to put all the blame on the demi-humans. Though he really didn't like that, it made sense for them to use them as scapegoats for the attack and executed many that partook in the rebellion. Even if they weren't the main perpetrators, the Council deemed this as the best choice since If news got out that there were demons and Otanians in the city then it would be absolute chaos.

Siegfried had strongly opposed the idea of using the slaves as scapegoats and voiced his opinion, but it was to no avail. The majority of the council agreed on blaming the slaves with only three members opposing it.

Siegfried sighed again and took another bite of the bread. He disliked the current king and despised many of the Council members. Most of them became nobles through inheritance and not their own deeds. They did not have the skills nor the experience to take on their positions. And the worst of all, instead of representing the people like they are supposed to do, they only choose what best suits their interests and nothing else. He was disgusted by them. But sadly, there was nothing that he could do about it.

Siegfried can only hope that the king would step down soon and let the prince take the throne. The current king was doing nothing atop his throne. Even though he alone has the power to make decisions for the kingdom he chooses not to and lets the Council make the decisions and agrees with whatever they say.

"Sir Siegfreid," came a voice from behind him.

"Hmm?" Siegfried turned around to see a knight right next to him. "What is it?"

"Do you remember the young lady from yesterday?"

"Miss Trevan?"

"Umm, yes? Was that her name? Anyway, I heard that she and someone else are currently making a ruckus at the entrance of the city. I think you better go," the knight informed him.

Siegfried eyed the knight confusingly. "What are they doing?"

"Uh, about that..."

"Nevermind, it'll be faster if I just go see it myself." Siegfried crammed the rest of the bread into his mouth and then got up from his seat. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to do this at a bakery but he dropped a few coins on the table anyway as a tip and then headed towards the city gate.

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