Side Story 142.2 - Arrival
Belissar was just walking towards the karnuq for lessons when he felt a frantic pull on his mana. His Tower sight shifted to find the Fourth of the Seventh dancing frantically at the Tower entrance.
“King! See something flying over Hunger! Getting attacked by shades!”
Belissar’s eyes narrowed, and he spoke through the Tower mana.
“Niobee, get the army ready! Chief Rohsuak, there’s an emergency! We could use you and the hunters!”
Both of them replied and set about to fulfill his commands. Belissar then paused. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to still his beating heart.
He was reacting before thinking. Chief Rohsuak had pointed out that, while responding decisively to an emergency was important, as a leader he should stop and think about the situation as a whole as soon as circumstances allowed. The Tower itself was not under attack, nor was anyone he knew. He looked through the eyes of the Fourth of the Seventh’s scouts and found the battle still far away, over the Hunger, so not anywhere they could intervene just yet.
He took another deep breath and opened his eyes. He had time to think. So, some sort of flying creatures were headed this way and currently under attack by the Hunger. Since shades had formed, the army needed to get ready to respond, that much was clear. But…what should he do about the flying creatures? They could be wild animals that would turn hostile if they saw him, they could be injured and in need of assistance, or maybe they were even intelligent? They were bear people and skunk people so why not bird people? Point was, he didn’t know who they were or how they would react if the bee army joined the battle.
So, he reached out.
“Chief Rohsuak.”