Returning to the ship, Uraia and the rest of the crew were still awe struck from the sight of the dragon.

  "I told you I didn't imagine it," I said to them when I dismounted from Myra and walked over to them.

  "What did they say?" Uraia asked me.

  "Her name is Saraya, she's a dark elf, she told me that she and her people are being terrorized and they need help, that's why she came to our realm."

  "Are you going to help her?”

  “First I need to know what we’re dealing with; Saraya told me that the island inhabited by the white elves is north-east of here, that’s where we’re going next.”

  We set sail for the white elves island without any objection from the crew. We had a definite destination now, and the promise of making contact with a new civilization was too exciting for them to concern themselves with the possibility that we were heading for danger. The crew went back to their stations and I returned to the stern of the ship, where I was soon joined by Uraia.

  “If you agree to help her it would mean going to war again,” Uraia said to me.

  “I understand that.”

  “It wouldn’t be a ground war; it would be a naval war, something we have no experience with.”

  “I understand that too.”

  “And Erst ships aren’t built for the quick maneuverability that naval warfare requires.”

  “Uraia, what do you think I’ve been thinking about all this time?”

  “Sorry,” Uraia responded, believing that I had been exacerbated by her questions.

  “You don’t need to apologize; your thinking is on the right track, the truth is I’ve been thinking about all of this for weeks, about how we would overcome the disadvantages that we would have in a naval confrontation.”

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “And?”

  “I haven’t been unable to come up with anything; because naval warfare is not something that we have a history of in our realm there was nothing about it in any of the books of my father’s that I’ve read. If we do end up going to war with the white elves it’s going to be a completely novel experience for us.”

  “I know that you would never go into battle without some kind of a plan, you must have something in mind.”

  “I really don’t; I’m going to talk to Brumli about it, ask him if he has any ideas.”

  We sailed at full speed in the hopes that we would reach the white elves’ island before sundown but this wasn’t possible. We dropped anchor for the night and resumed our journey in the morning believing that it would be the day that we reached the white elves’ island.

  It was around midday when the white elves’ island came into view. The sight of manmade structures on the land was confirmation that we had reached our destination. We kept sailing along the shore in search of a port, attracting attention from people on the land who, upon seeing the ship, must have apprehended that it was a foreign vessel.

  “Word of our arrival will soon reach those in power, we should expect a welcoming party soon,” I said to Brumli, who was standing next to me admiring the architecture of the elves.

  “I’ll make sure the crew does nothing to come across as belligerent.”

  As expected, we were soon approached by two sailing vessels that came up on our stern. The vessels flanked us on both sides and one of the crewmen on the boat to our right called out to us.

  “Who is the captain of this vessel?” He shouted out.

  “I am,” I walked over to the port side and responded to him.

  “State your name and your reason for travelling to these lands.”

  “My name is Alegra Luthera, queen of the kingdom of Aseron, we are traveling north on an expeditionary journey.”

  “You are from the southern lands?” he asked.

  “Our realm is south of here, yes,” I answered.

  The crewman on the ship, who looked just like us except for his pointy ears, took a few moments to ponder the situation.

  “Follow us.”

  We continued sailing in a convoy, with one of the elf ships in front of us and the other one behind us. The crewman’s mention of the southern lands piqued my interest; he seemed to be implying that they knew about the existence of our realm and I was curious to know why there had never been any contact between our civilizations.

  It took us an hour to reach our destination, a port where the elves’ fleet was docked. Their fleet consisted of sailboats and triremes, built similarly to the boats built in Erst with just aesthetic differences. None of their ships were close to the size of ours, indicating that their technological advancement was not at the level of ours. We brought our ship alongside one of the piers and docked but we did not disembark from the ship, choosing instead to wait onboard the ship for an invitation to disembark. We waited on the ship for about an hour while the sailors that escorted us into the port went to inform the appropriate authorities of our arrival.