Author's Note

I'm sorry it took so long to get this out. Not only with work but I have been drawing a bit of a blank and mind keeps wondering off, I did't want to do any time skips till I get to a certain area of the story.

So for those who are waiting I'm sorry if it feels like it is dragging on some, if ya'll see any mistakes in writing just leave a comment and I'll fix it as soon as I can.

The Trip to Griffin capital

The day had came that Sharpen had got the carriage ready for us to start making our way towards the capital, I had helped him load in the swords and shields for the guards. Though the problem is being since we are having to go there by foot, and by foot I mean me pulling the carriage with Sharpen.

Since I don't have anything at the moment that could make this a faster trip we will just have to take the normal time which is a six day walk away from town. True, I could get us there much faster but even then I might tire myself out and who knows if the carriage could survive if I ran with it.

Since as I was told by Sharpen after he showed me the carriage I was not allowed to modify it in any way till I have had my chat with the guard captain. That way I at least have some shielding from the nobility while they are not too powerful compared to the king and queen, they still had sway with some of the lower tiers of the army and officers.

I saw his point so I didn't push the fact, we had took turns for who would pull the carriage I took the first day since being truthful I could carry almost all the armor we had forged on my own. So pulling the wooden carriage was a piece of cake, we had made it to the edge of town where Harden was waiting to see us off. Mostly to scold me telling that if I embarrass Sharpen in the capital he would make a blanket out of my pelt.

I must say that was a new threat from him as I had not heard him say that one so I am going to go with that is worse and I should do my best not to stand out. You know as much as a bright orange bipedal fox could wearing grey coat, shorts, and having a book on magical runes in my bag. Okay, so I stand out more than a spot of black on a white shirt but hopefully I won't get in trouble.

I stop that thought immediate not feeling like jinx myself for this trip. I started softly humming to myself as we continue down the path towards the capital, watching the scenery, which was slowly giving away from clear hills to thick forestry. The tree looked to be pines or something that closely resemble them.

I had stopped my humming to listen to the sound of what was animals moving through the undergrowth, I had turned back to check on Sharpen who was laying back against the cloth of the carriage. We had not talked much as both of us when we were together was either one sided, either him talking about his family.

Sadly, Sharpen's wife had passed away about five years ago, he was pretty old for this era, having just hit his fifty-seventh birthday a month again. His son was in his thirties and his youngest grand chick was around my age if not give or take it a year or two.

If he had any other children he didn't talk about them so I did pry, I mean he said his son work in the capital but he never told me what his job was. The best I got was that he ran his own kind of store but never what type it was. I was pretty surprised when I found out how old he was. Though with griffin men it is hard to tell their age, it seems after they get past twenty their feather can start turning grey between five and fifteen years.

As we had slowly continue moving along the road Sharpen having gotten onto the carriage as he tired out for the day. I was kind hoping he'd fall asleep so I could at least go faster rather than just 'regular' speed. Sharpen might have already found out I can go faster as I have been doing some exercises outside of town on my free days.

I would run back and forth between the hill outside the village towards where I found the Chaos emerald embedded in a cliff side. By my count I have been able to go back and forth in just under a minute now, though I have no barring in how far apart the two spot are in feet or if it is even miles.

Though I at one point when I was pushing myself near the end of a trip I had saw the forming of the sound barrier, sadly I wasn't fast enough to break through it yet. I'm getting faster with each training, thinking about it pulling this carriage might help some with my speed training. Though I was waiting till I hear snoring coming from the carriage before slowly picking up speed.

I was sure to slow down a bit when I heard the wheels having trouble keeping up, with this speed I should make it to the stop that Sharpen told me about an hour earlier. According to what he told me so far there are small outpost along the road, they were made for traders who needed places to stay safe from night. Since bandits have became a more common with the dragon clans and some griffon mercenaries who lost their jobs since there were no wars at the time being.

Thankfully, those were just the ones that were in the army just for the money as the army/guards were paid more during war times or times of trial. From what I heard the dragon clans, were somewhat honorable, as they never used ambushes, anyone can hear them coming miles away. Their wings unlike from what I have seen and heard of griffins and pegasuses wings were light and barely made any sound.

While the dragons wings, from what I have been told, sound like someone smacking the ground with a piece of leather just louder. With my hearing I could most likely hear them coming miles off, I've had to wear some hand-made earmuffs at night to be able to sleep as I could basically hear every snoring person in town.

With a smile I couldn't wait till I had enough Bits to afford doing some experiments I would first start building construction equipment as it was what I would need to to make my own workshop. I can't mooch off Sharpen for my experiments I mean for the past few months I have used his furnace more than him. His face when he saw me hammering out the larger parts of the Tornado.

I heard the sound of Sharpen stirring after a while, so I slowed down a bit since I had already cut down the amount of time before we reach the first stop. There were other carts and griffins now flying by some of them in armor as we were nearing what I could best call a fort. They most likely had to reused for a safe area for traveling merchants and other travelers could rest without worrying about keeping watches.

This is not what I was expecting when he said rest areas, the fort was made of wood so best not to use too much fire in the area. It looked like it would be a horrible defense against flying, fire breathing dragons they also had some I would have to call them very low prototype ballista, large crossbow. The bolts were just sharpened branches, they didn't have any metal on them and the bow looked like after firing once it would break.

I had to stop myself from running up and trying to repair the poor things myself cause they looked like they were barely cared for. They didn't have anything to keep the bolt flying straight so it was almost impossible to call it more than large bow. Speaking of which it looked more like someone just made a large bow before trying to make the crossbow. They do have crossbows but they were the large bulky ones that would take about two minutes to reload.

My guess was they were in such disrepair cause of all the soldiers that had left to become either mercenaries or bandits to try and get better money. That or for some reason the supplies were much lower than thing had seemed which would raise some worries for the Griffin empire as a whole. There was also the possibility that their budget was cut so much they can't afford to keep the siege weapon, or a large number of them repaired.

I felt a claw on my shoulder and looked back seeing that Sharpen had woke up, most likely noticed I was staring at the dis-repaired weapon. He was giving me a head shake meaning I was not allowed to go repair them unless him and me were requested to do it. I understand that he was right we were trying to keep on the down-low so best not to repair a whole fort on our way to the capital.

That didn't stop me from making a note of this fort is in need for desperate need of repair and if I am allowed to I will at least upgrade this fort being one of the closest defensive areas near where I am staying for the time being. I'm truthfully more worried that the bandits or aggressive dragons will see this place as an all you can take buffet.

Though I do have a few aces up my sleeves though I hope I won't have to use them. As we had found an area to set up for the afternoon while Sharpen started up a pot of stew for the night I had slide under the carriage making sure everything was in good shape.

I may have, without Sharpen's knowledge, reinforced the axles holding the wheels to the cart it wasn't much just a light cover of steel to help stabilize the cart. It also helped make sure that the wheels just didn't fall off. After seeing everything was fine I had looked through my bag grabbing my runes book.

After half an hour Sharpen said the stew was ready, grabbing myself a bowl while holding my book in my tails I started eating while reading the next chapter. I had a feeling something bad was going to happen tonight and I was really hoping I was wrong, I can only prepare for so much and have to hope that my aces don't get wasted before I have the resources to reproduce them.