The claw of a griffon covered my mouth and another held me tightly.

‘Do you wanna frickin’ die?! After she risked her life to save you?! Shut up and we might get out of here unscathed!’

I wanted to hear none of it. I kicked the griffon behind me and shook off the other one with my magic, but as I turned around something from behind me hit my head with great force, and I fell on the ground, immediately put out like a light.

When I next came to my senses, I was tied up at the back of the ship, which looked a lot like a large fishing boat. I tried to use my magic to free myself, but found out I was too weak to do so. On the deck were four griffons with very rough dark yellow or black feathers. Another griffon must have been captaining the ship and possibly more could be in the front. I was trying to think of how to escape my current situation and get back to the shore, to help out mother…

Then I realized the reality of the situation and I fell into despair. I started wailing and kicking around the boat.

‘Why WHY WHY! WHY ALWAYS ME!’

A griffon whose voice I recognized from before came up to me quickly, when he heard me.

‘Shut up! By Arcturius shut up you brat!’

He slapped me, but I kept crying. Behind my screaming I could recognize the voice of the griffon speaking. It was the same griffon, who had stopped me before. Anger filled me almost immediately.

‘You, you bastard, chick of a bitch. If you hadn’t stopped me, I would have-’

‘What? Wasted your life away trying to save your mother? Getting yourself killed after she risked her own life to give you a chance to get away? You were very fucking lucky, you know that? And now you wanna throw all that away? Regardless, I was paid good money to get you and your mother across this sea, so be grateful. Now that I think about it, I owe you half the price, don’t I? One passenger instead of two. Want the check now or later?’

I was enraged. I had just lost… everything and he was laughing at me.

‘Demon! I swear it, I will kill you!’

‘I am a demon now, aren’t I? To be honest, I think you had better shut the fuck up and think of your situation, you ungrateful piece of shit.’

I used what strength I could still muster and hurled a bar lying beside me, at him, which he received right in the face. Apparently, though, it didn’t do as much damage as I wanted it to.

‘Okay, okay, I get it. You lost your ma and you are frustrated and sad and all. We’ll leave you alone. But you are gonna be frickin’ bound like that till tomorrow. Can’t have you having any funny ideas about jumping overboard and getting yourself killed. Not that it would hurt my business, but rather my conscience, what little of it is left anyways. Food will be served shortly. Unless you had food in those bags of yours, food will be fish and just fish, really.’

Using telekinetic magic, I got hold of a fish from the sea that had happened to swim near the boat and hurled it in his face.

‘There’s your fish, mister!’

The entire crew broke into laughter but he, who I suppose was the captain, simply turned and walked away. The whole comedic feel of the scene made me stop crying for a short while, but once I brought mother into my thoughts again, I just curled up in the corner, where I was bound to and started crying again. What else did I have to live for? All those dear to me were now gone. Father was gone, mother was gone and most likely…. No, no, no I did not want to think of that. I wouldn’t be able to bear it now. The low chatter of the filthy ‘fishergriffs’ annoyed me, so, at least, I was switching around between anger and depression, I suppose. Soon thereafter, I fell into a deep slumber and woke up only when it must have been midday the next day.

When I woke up the captain was standing above me.

‘Oi, you slept without eating a thing yesterday. You are eating today whether you want it or not. Nobody dies on my watch.’

Then he saw that I was bound again.

‘If you promise not to jump overboard or do anything stupid, then I will untie you. Deal?’

I growled but nodded my head in agreement and he took out a knife and cut the rope knots around my legs.

‘My legs feel so very sore! I can barely stand.’

‘That’s normal considering you went two days bound and not moving them at all. I am sorry for that, by the way, but better I deliver cargo alive rather than dead.’

‘So, I am ‘cargo’ now? Like a slave of sorts.’

He lifted a heavy box but kept speaking, while moving it towards the entrance to the bottom deck.

‘If you are on the ship and I was tasked with handing you off to some place then yes, you damn straight are fucking cargo. Also, I am sorry for the rude manners, but that was a thing I was never taught.’

He finally got the box down. I suppose my luggage was inside. Mother had sent most luggage to be loaded a few days before we were supposed to leave. The griffon turned to me again. His appearance was as rough as his voice. His sailors looked the same way, but he was a lot worse.

‘The name’s Alaric, Alaric Dawnbreaker.’

‘Rosa Maledicta.’

He looked as if he expected me to say something else as well. But he just heaved a sigh of disappointment.

‘Well, I guess the ancient house of Dawnbreaker has declined so much as to not be known to the outside world, let alone to a pony. Maybe our barony of Rumare may be more well-known, as a tourist spot, that is.’

I will be honest, I cared very little for what he was or where he was from. But considering I didn’t have much else to do and crying now wouldn’t really fix anything, I inquired further without any particular goal, per say.

‘And what would a ‘baron’ be doing on a fishing boat in the middle of nowhere?’

I didn’t know what the word ‘baron’ meant, but I guessed that it was some kind of rank of nobility.

‘Well, normally I would tell you an obvious lie, but you would notice sooner or later. I am out here smuggling arms. Specifically, to Brodfeld and more specifically to Kloseu and his royalists fighting for the kingdom there in the civil war there.’

‘Which most definitely sounds more noble-like than fishing.’

‘Well, I gotta do what I have to do, to send money back home. Rumare ain’t gonna be able to live off fishing and small tourism businesses really. But I feel what I do is like a drop in Lake Rumare. I worked smuggling arms, as an outlaw, as a mercenary, you name it and Rumare is still in the gutter. Can’t even find a griffon on my ancestral lands that speaks Rumareian anymore. Great! Just great! And now, father Recimir bit the dust and I am ‘recalled’ to Rumare to lead the nation. Yeah, yeah, and now my ghost will go abroad to pay the bills of a nation with barely any income.’

I don’t know if my expression spoke my feelings loudly enough, but I really did not care. But Alaric kept on talking.

‘And then I have to re-teach my own language to my nation and then get back our lost territory from Griffonstone. And, and, and. It all gets overwhelming sometimes. Ah right, I forgot to tell you your mother most likely did not die.’

When I heard that I jumped up extremely fast, as if I had been hit by lightning.

‘Why did you not mention that sooner!’

‘I mean it is not as if you will be seeing her any time soon. That’s why. But rest assured I think she is alive. Her assailants, I would say, are pretty much not, though. Damn, I am never gonna witness such a spectacle ever again. Fire and lighting literally rocked the dock. But still those she dropped down and I thought she had killed them, rose up again, but when they did, they fought for her, not against her. Wondered if she was mind controlling them. Anyhow, she was wounded, but she did not fall. From the shadows in the distance, we could tell that she must have instead been apprehended. Or so we observed. Now we might be wrong but I don’t think we are.’

I lightened up when I heard that and then quickly my expression darkened again. Alaric was right. Even if she is alive, the chances of me meeting her again are slim to none. I had better forget about it. Really, I did not know what was worse, to know my parents are alive and to be forced away from them or to be away from them while knowing they were dead. In the second case, at least, I wouldn’t have any expectations of meeting them again. I could not let such emotion cloud my judgement now. I hated to admit it, but this Alaric was right. If I went back now, which was nearly impossible in of itself, I would most certainly be hunted down in Equestria. Even if I, somehow, managed to escape and get back together with mother, most likely we would be attacked again and next time neither of us may be lucky enough to make it. Oh, mother, why? No, no, this is not the time. I am not a child anymore. Besides, every time I let myself despair, the Wendigos feed on it. They are most likely the reason for what happened in the first place. They might have realised that mother knew about them. I looked up at the sky. It was cloudy and grim. Were they always watching us? Waiting for us to mention them, so as to know their next target? Their name truly must not be mentioned. Mother was wrong. Even if one is told what a Wendigo is, one must still not utter their name. Still, I wonder: Are necromancers the only ones who have a suspicion of the Wendigos or is at least some other being monitoring and influencing the events happening in the world?

‘Alaric, could I ask you a question?’

‘That’s unexpected. Go ahead.’

‘Do you think that maybe some events that happen in the world are caused by beings and forces beyond our control?’

Alaric was apparently dumbfounded by the question. He scratched his head with his claw and sat at the edge of the boat with a confused face.

‘That’s a weird question. I suppose Arcturius does, according to scripture, intervene at times in griffonian affairs but that’s in very exquisite cases. So, I guess, maybe, if something is very important, then Arcturius and the other gods do intervene.’

‘I meant intervention in literally anything. From national events to the very small things in the daily lives of creatures.’

‘If that’s the case, then, no, I don’t think so.’

I thought for a bit and decided that the answer did not really satisfy me.

‘Then a different question. Would you ever ally with a communist?’

The entire crew stood on edge, just in case they heard Alaric give off an unexpected answer.

‘Of course not! They are vile radicals and nothing more. Don’t you know what they have done in Brodfeld?’

‘Well, leaving Brodfeld aside, would you really never accept a proposal that is from the communist point of view? Even if that proposal aided your griffons?’

Alaric looked left and right as if checking his distance with the rest of the crew and then apparently deciding it was adequate pulled me close and whispered into my ear.

‘Yes, but if you tell anyone, I will make damn sure to gut you open, got it?’

‘You know that you do not frighten me.’

‘Well, you damn well should be frightened, considering I am the only way you are getting on dry land anytime soon.’

‘Well anyways, I don’t plan on telling anyone. Do not concern yourself, Alaric.’

I pushed him to the side as I said that. My suspicions were correct though. Creatures with more experience of the world, even if they do not know about the Wendigos, tend to have their suspicions about the events happening around them. Otherwise, Alaric would quickly dismiss the communists entirely without thinking twice about it, just like his crew would. That is, because Alaric has more knowledge than his crew, or at least that is what I think the reason for the difference was. Apparently, Alaric was put off by all the hypothetical questioning though. He looked uneasy.

‘Why the hell, do you even care about all this though? Who are you to be able to do anything about it?’

While that response angered me initially, I could not object to the fact that this was the most rational thing to ponder about, from the perspective of a griffon who thinks using common sense and experience alone.

‘I am nopony from nowhere, who lost both my father and mother to events that I could absolutely not control, lived with a kind of ponies to whom I do not naturally belong, possessing abilities which cause me to be hated by others of my kind and ended up on a boat heading for a different continent to the one I was born on.’

Alaric listened to my answer in sheer amazement. He looked as if he was going to say something but I was not yet done.

‘Oh right, and I am an absolute lunatic who thinks all these ‘cruel’ things that happen to me but also to the world are the work of beings above and beyond me and who I think I can defeat. Yes, this nopony from nowhere whose only certification of ‘incredible potential’ are the words of her mother. But I chose to believe. There are many things I have yet to understand. And I do understand, that I am still but a leaf in the winds of change that are governed by people unimaginably more important than I, nobles, governors and rulers, all of whom have up to now made decisions, that have led often, in my experience, to harm, pain and suffering for those below them. But I know those big heads in their gilded offices are always only partially to blame. Because there is also something else out there. Like a curse, it binds us to an invisible ‘fate’. And we are blind to our bounds. And yes, I think the nopony from nowhere is the perfect person to deal with this and uncover the Truth.’

Alaric smiled and turned towards the direction to which the shores of Griffonia would be, or so I supposed, and he began to speak in a more composed tone than usual and by that, I mean that for the first time he did not sound, at least to me, like a thug.

‘Well… I tell you what. You and I ain’t so different, you know. I mean I am a ‘noble’, supposedly, but look at me. Out in the sea smuggling arms for a living. I love Rumare. Tis home, you know. And it was hit time and time again by people who wanted to take from it, that the Rumareians themselves had no way of stopping. I or my ancestors had no way of stopping those people as well. Tortured like a fish in a barrel. Yet we somehow survived. It is easy to press buttons in an office and then let the creatures just deal with the changes. Yet, what about the creatures? Nothing at all. Soon, I will have to become one of those creatures in the offices. Pressing buttons. Deciding whether one will suffer or one will prosper with no regards to who or what one is. When I was young and fought against the Republicans in the Empire, I killed who I was told to kill with no regard to anything. Someone just pressed a button and said I want the people in that town dead. And often, I thought I had a choice. To kill or not to kill. Thing is I didn’t. If I disobeyed, probably a thousand of my friends wouldn’t. Griffons and all creatures think that they need this kind of direction and rule lest they know not what to do. Thus, self-will is but an illusion. Maybe you are right. Maybe greater forces drive things to escalate, creating fear, anger, distrust, hate, regret. Maybe those dark forces also influence the people pressing the buttons. When you choose to say no to them though, they will strike you down. The big heads will use their fancy levers to get rid of you. Not all of the Republicans were evil. Yet the levers were pulled for all of them to die or to be forced out. So, it was in 978. The republican cause was a mess as was proven by its fate of being basically exiled to Cloudbury and then falling into warlord-ism, but not all griffons in it were ‘evil’. Their fate? Dead regardless.’

He made a pause there as if trying to organize his thoughts.

‘My point is that your goal is commendable and inspiring and all that. But things rarely go as they should. It ain’t so easy to bridge the gap between who does what above and what actually happens below.’

I had no objections to that and not wanting to ask anything further, I simply nodded in agreement.

Despite small talk with the griffons about life in Rumare or Wohnsitz and the Highlands, the days went by without much of note happening, other than the usual change of colours to disguise the ship, so as to fool some patrol boat of a different nation. Sometime later and that must have been around three or four months since this journey had begun, and while passing south of some islands most likely belonging to Asterion, we were approached by several weird looking ships on the horizon, coming from the east. Alaric warned his griffons and they all took up arms quickly. Then he came and spoke to me.

‘Alright, princess, things are gonna be getting out of claw very soon, so I strongly recommend you go below deck.’

‘Who do you take me for? I am staying whether you want me to or not! What is happening anyway?’

‘Pirates. Fucking deer from Austurland. Fawns of bitches the lot of them. Must be two or three ships over there. Cowards can’t even go against us one on one. But it’s alright. They messed with the wrong griffon today.’

I used my magic to extend my vision.

‘Four ships.’

‘What?’

‘I said there are four ships, not two or three.’

‘And how in the name of Arcturius do you- ‘

As he turned to my face to speak, he saw my eyes had turned all white and understood.

‘You know what, I don’t wanna know how. Just keep yourself in cover. Gonna get very messy here in a bit.’

Then the raiding ships got close, but they did not open fire, since they didn’t want to harm their possible loot. They shouted something at us but from the looks of it, the griffons did not understand Austerlandic. Who would have thought! However, judging from what the marauders opposing us were saying, Austerlandic is not too different from Olenian and I knew a bit of Olenian from books I had read back in Equestria. Due to that, I could tell, more or less, what the deer opposing us were saying.

‘They are saying you should surrender and they will not harm you. They will take the ship and your goods and drop you off the coast of Gryphus.’

‘Tell them Gryphus doesn’t cut it, I gotta be in Sydia in a week. Actually, no, fuck that.’

Alaric turned to the griffons around him and shouted incredibly loudly.

‘Yma o Hyd!’

The crew responded in unison.

‘Yma o Hyd!’

And they fired at the first ship, which was very close. From the looks of it the enemy assailants were a few centuries too late to be playing the old marauding warriors of Olenia and someone had not dropped them the memo, that flintlocks are not the top-notch technology anymore. They tried to fire back but Alaric and his crew with their breech loaders and repeaters made very quick work of them with astounding accuracy. But the Austurians used their ships to start coming around ours and hit it from all sides. If that were to happen, Alaric and his merry band would have no choice but to give up. And I could not be bothered with going around with a bunch of thugs other than the ones I was currently with. So, I went to the front side of the deck and began conjuring my spells. Around me both sides were screaming and firing their weapons at random, but it was only the Austurians actually suffering any casualties. On my end, I raised droplets of water, turned them into ice and let them fly at one of the ships. The icy shards tore through the flesh of the deer like swords turning them into mincemeat in seconds, unless they were lucky enough to be beneath cover. Many of the dead bodies were ripped so badly that at first, I felt disgusted to even be watching the scene, let alone having caused it. I vomited in the ocean and felt dizzy. It was my first time killing another creature, or better said, several creatures. Allaric noticed.

‘Hey, no spacing out now!’

I came back to my senses and focused on the ship I had hit again. I caused a wave and that put the ship in the way of the next ship coming, causing them to collide. With those two ships thoroughly incapacitated and the front one under heavy fire from our ship, I went to the back side of our ship, where the fourth raiding ship was maneuvering to. As I went, I dropped more icicle shards on the other ships killing and wounding more of the attacking deer. By the time I reached the back, the raiding ship had come too close. I quickly conjured a destruction spell that sets a given surface ablaze and cast it on the deck of the enemy ship. For some reason, I didn’t feel sick anymore watching the deer on the other side burn to cinders, while they mindlessly cried out in agonizing pain. I still felt disgusted, but certainly not sick. On the contrary I felt differently. Strong, in a way. On the ship in front only the dead and dying corpses remained. The wounded and alive ones were carried off by the two other ships up front, which, after taking the wounded, promptly fled the scene after witnessing the horror of the fate I brought upon their fourth ship. As for the crew of the fourth ship, it goes without saying that my spells are overly too effective. Nothing remained of the ship or its crew but blackened pieces of ash in the ocean. That is, save for one deer, who managed to jump into our boat and was injured in his back legs by rounds fired by the crew and thus was immobilized at the back of the ship. Alaric went there to finish him off. I stopped him.

‘What is it?’

‘Don’t kill him. I want to try something.’

Alaric looked at me in a wondering manner.

‘Alright, I suppose…’

The crew took the deer’s gun and his knife and shot his front legs as well. I rolled my eyes as they did that and the deer cried out in pain. Was that even necessary? Wasn’t as if he was able to move in the first place.

I went over to the deer and looked him in the eyes. He was very young or at least he looked that way. Certainly, he was too young to be doing all this outlaw business. And in his eyes, he was petrified, frozen in place by fear. I wouldn’t blame him; I was going to use him as a test subject after all.

I used a simple spell to choke him dead by basically squeezing the air out of his lungs.

‘That’s all you wanted to do? Well, we’ll just throw the body in the ocean now then.’

‘No, wait!’

I stepped back a bit and then imagined him alive, as I had for the few seconds that I had watched his eyes while his heart was still beating. I closed my eyes and painted that picture, and then my horn started glowing purple and I felt the old, pleasant warmth rushing through my body. This lasted for around ten minutes. I then opened my eyes, but felt close to collapsing. No, not today! Today I will make it through with this! I grit my teeth and stayed up. As my vision cleared, right in front of me I saw the deer, previously dead, standing on his four legs and staring into my eyes in a cold, blank way. While I am a necromancer, this was indeed my first ever full bodily resurrection. I commanded the body to move to the side and back and it did, just like a puppet. Rest assured; I was overjoyed. If I wasn’t worried about being seen as silly, I would have been jumping around now and shouting ‘Hurray, Hurray!’. I contained myself and then turned around to Alaric and his crew. Their eyes were filled with horror. Alaric gulped and found the courage to speak up.

‘What in Arcturius’s name is … that?’ and he pointed his claw at the deer.

‘Oh that? It is a resurrected body, of course!’, I answered playfully.

Alaric gave off the impression that he wanted to delve more into the subject, but he shook his head and waved his claw.

‘No, okay, no. Whatever you did to THAT, I absolutely do not want it being done again, while I am there to watch.’

The rest of the crew shook their heads in agreement. I just sighed. It was not as if the moving corpse was going to hurt them unless I told it to.

‘Can you, please, dispose of the ‘thing’ now?’

‘I do not understand what you find so appalling about it. It’s not as if it is a walking skeleton, though that is what it basically is.’

‘I do not like to see the dead walking among the living every day. There is just something fundamentally wrong with that. Anyhow, just dispose of the thing.’

I commanded the corpse to fall into the ocean and with a jump, it did exactly that. I also disconnected my magic from it, so that the body would finally die off as well. Still, I felt very happy at that moment. And for some reason the fear that the unique sight had brought into my ‘allies’ made it all the better. Maybe it was because I always had to be cautious or scared of others or because this made me feel powerful and strong. For whatever reason, I felt fulfilled. Yet, I had a lingering thought that feeling so good about this was extremely foul though I didn’t pay heed to that at that time.

‘Is anyone wounded? We’ll pass first aid now.’

I walked up to Alaric, poked him and got his attention.

‘Let me see to the wounded. I can fully heal them as well.’

‘Ah no, but no thanks. I wouldn’t want to have you do to them what you did to- ‘

I made my eyes go white and start glimmering in purple light and spoke in a darker tone than usual.

‘I do not think you have a choice.’

Alaric gulped.

‘Now, let me see them.’

I spent the next hour or so healing the wounded griffons, many of whom exclaimed they were feeling better now than even before they were wounded. I just simply smiled and accepted the gratitude, which replaced the fear from before. I am pretty sure, I also did not have to have scared Alaric to get his consent but, on a whim, I felt it was far better to get to quickly aiding the wounded, rather than having to argue with Alaric about it. As for Alaric himself, he had been shot on the side, but it had somehow missed any important organs so, while in pain, he was not in danger. He had insisted that his griffons were to be tended to first, though. When I walked to him, he grinned.

‘How does it feel?’

‘What?’

‘Don’t feint ignorance to me, I am not a stupid griffon. I do not lose rock, paper, scissors to ponies.’

‘Wanna bet?’

‘Most ponies. But don’t play dumb. The feeling of being strong. To be able to determine someone else’s fate, for better or for worse. I have felt it too, so I know. I can see it in your eyes. This sounded poetic, but that’s how it is in reality. Especially when you have someone else’s life in your claws, or hooves, in your case.’

‘Yes, I understand what you mean, Alaric.’

‘Then you will listen closely. If you wanna do what it is that you have set as your purpose, you must never ever again let yourself feel that way.’

I recalled the scene from before with the burning ship and I do regret having felt that way now. However, because I was deep in thought, I made an uncalculated move and basically twisted a needle made out of energy in Alaric’s wound. He winced in pain.

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that.’

‘Yeah, be careful with that. Anyhow, as I was saying, you cannot give in to such emotion, Rosa. Exactly, because it feels good, it means you will discredit anything else to feel that way. You will make others suffer to feel that way. I know this very well. No dynasty, the Groverian included, ever needed more land than they already had in Griffonia. Yet, it felt good. To feel powerful, great, strong. To make all others bow before you. To have more resources, when the ones you already had, were plentiful enough. You will understand it someday. And you are strong, so it wouldn’t surprise me if you were the one to make such a choice someday.’

‘But don’t you want the same for Rumare?’

‘Absolutely not. The Ruiniad happened, because in older times Rumare wanted to be like this. To be a ‘big player’, while it was absolutely fine where it was, on Rumare island, Wohnsitz and the Stone Highlands. We wanted more, we were greedy and Arcturius made us pay for our sins. We lost a great deal of our ancient civilization and language, as well as our ancestral lands on Wohnsitz and the Stone Highlands. All I want for Rumare is to go back, reverse the Ruiniad, make our people speak our language again, retake and resettle Wohnsitz and the Stone Highlands, and just stay out of everything else forever. Have my people be prosperous and happy and I want nothing more.’

‘That’s quite idealistic of you.’

Alaric laughed loudly. As he was calming down again one of the griffons of the crew came up to him with a newspaper, saying they got it from one of the dead deer on the ship in the front. From the looks of it, it was very recent.

‘Where is this from? It is in Herzlandic, so it is not an Austurian paper. Date, 16th of March. Hmmmm, ah here. That’s from Gryphus. Alright, let’s see what the world has been up to, while I was gone. Civil war in Longsword. Damn, as if Brodfeld wasn’t enough already. The Riverland games, okay, duly noted. Wait, and in the morning hours, …, proclaimed dead?!’

Alaric suddenly stood up. He should thank Arcturius or his other gods, that I was already done lest he would be in a lot of pain right now.

‘Oi lads! Grover’s dead!’

‘The weakling bastard’s dead? We are talking about Grover the fifth, right?’

‘Yeah, he is fucking dead. Fucking finally!’

Almost simultaneously the entire ship broke into singing.

‘Some say the devil is dead, the devil is dead, the devil is dead,

Some say the devil is dead! And, buried in his palace!

More say he rose again, more say he rose again, more say he rose again,

Just with a different number!’

They all cheered heartfully. Then they drank to the death of the old emperor. I was very perplexed by the scene. I thought the Dawnbreaker house was connected to the house of Grover. I decided to inquire with Alaric about this.

‘Why exactly, are you all so happy about Grover’s death? Wasn’t the Dawnbreaker family descended from the matrilineal line of the house of Grover?’

Alaric responded immediately, as if he had been repeating the same answer to every single creature who had ever asked him this particular question before.

‘Oh right, you don’t know, do you? I suppose they don’t write that in history books, but the Rumareians were around from before the Kingdom of Griffonstone ever existed. That matrilineal line preceded the dynasty of the Grovers by several centuries. Traces of it can be found as far back as the times of the Empire of Undeath. The Griffonian Empire stole both our dynastical line and our religion and then it brought us into wars we had no place in, thus leading to the gradual degradation of our culture and language, which we Rumareians call the Ruiniad. So, of course, we are glad, to learn, that we still exist to bury yet another one of the Grovers!’

Apparently, there’s a lot about Griffonia that my books have not taught me yet and since I will be staying here for quite a long while, I had better learn these things. On another note, I did not manage to sleep that night. And no, it was not the boat rocking from the waves of the sea, but instead the griffons rocking my airwaves with their horrendous voices. And the gunfire and flares they were firing all over the place all night. My ‘lullaby’ that night was the song ‘We’ll roll the old island along’

‘Well, the death of Grover the fifth wouldn’t do us any harm

No, the death of Grover the fifth wouldn’t do us any harm

No, the death of Grover the fifth wouldn’t do us any harm

And we’ll all hang on behind!

And we’ll roll the old island along

We’ll roll the old Wohnsitz along

We’ll roll the old Highlands along

And we’ll all hang on behind!

Well, we’ll bury him in the ground and we’ll bury him deep

Yes, we’ll bury him in the ground, let them mourn around his keep

Yes, we’ll bury him in the ground, may his nobles live to weep

And we’ll all hang on behind!

And we’ll roll the old island along

We’ll roll the old Wohnsitz along

We’ll roll the old Highlands along

And we’ll all hang on behind!

Then, I’ll go back and I’ll wonder round no more

Well, I’ll go back, to Rumare’s shining shore

Well, I’ll go back, let the Herzlands curse and roar

And we’ll all hang on behind!

And we’ll roll the old island along

We’ll roll the old Wohnsitz along

We’ll roll the old Highlands along

And we’ll all hang on behind!

By the next day we could see the multitude of the islands of Asterion on our left and the lands of Gryphus on our right. Alaric woke me up at midday, since I had ended up sleeping through the morning, since I wasn’t able to get a single minute’s sleep last night. He was still a bit tipsy from it all, I could tell, but his tone was more composed now, at its usual raggedy levels.

‘I hope you slept well last night, princess.’

He had taken this habit of making fun of me lately, which greatly annoyed me, even though I knew he didn’t mean any harm by it.

‘Anyhow, I woke you up to tell you that in around three hours we’ll reach Sydia, the second most important city in Brodfeld, after Kivessin. We will have to go on shore to pass off the weapons and get paid, so we reckon we will be out till night.’

‘Drinking.’

Alaric broke out in laughter.

‘Well, that is part of the job, too. Still, you should be sick of the old ship, so if you want, you can go and roam around Sydia as you like. Just remember to be back before midnight. You shouldn’t worry about the communist guerillas there. They are still a long way from Sydia.’

‘Who said I was worried?’

‘Okay, okay, I get it, you are extremely powerful and on top of everything. If you go out in Sydia be back by nightfall. That’s that. Got it?’

‘Yeah, I suppose so.’

Author's Note

Rumare in the Equestria at War universe is based off real life Cymru(Wales). I didn't have them speak Welsh so as not to complicate things. 'Yma o Hyd', the sole welsh phrase used, means 'Still Here'.
The song that is used in this part is basically 'Roll the Old Chariot' with altered lyrics. 'Roll the Old Chariot' was an 18th century English sea shanty,