True Love's Seventh Kiss

Ch.38 Sky Navy

Whitney cursed her luck, if she had gone to the ball she wouldn't have missed out on so much. After the minimal amount of sleep, she informed her father at breakfast that she would make haste to the Cliffgard territory.

Although her father was a bit surprised at the sudden change of heart, he approved of her actions for some mysterious reason. He even shared a few parting remarks as if he regretted not being able to go himself. But Beastling bandits were encroaching on their territory from the southeast which was causing a lot of strain on international relations. On one hand it could just be some tenacious bandits being chased from their hunting grounds, on the other hand it could be the Beastling military preparing to start an invasion.

Since the Beastlings looked like humans, except for choice animal features like animal ears and tails, and they integrated better with humans than some of the demon alliance races like goblins and orcs. But that didn't mean there weren't bigots on either side, and it also didn't mean there wasn't great tension on either side either. Marquis Westhold worked with Viscount Ghasthall on tracking down the bandits while trying to maintain a facade of working with the Beastling nation, the Lionneth Kingdom.

The Ghasthalls were using their best agents and investigating whether the bandits were just raiders or agents of the Lionneth kingdom. Since the Lionneth Kingdom was made up of vast plains and winding rivers, it was taking some time to properly eliminate suspicion.

"The Ghasthalls daughter went, if you need anything she should be able to help you." Marquis Westhold advised.

He sent her with an armed escort on wyverns since she wanted to cross the Empire in a hurry to get to the Cliffguard County.

Together they flew from one end of the Empire to the other to get to Cliffgard County. When approached Whitney was floored by just how great the Cliffgard sky navy was. Although she had heard stories that they rivaled the Imperial's army, she was not prepared for just how many ships flew around the County. Although they stayed clear of the walled off part of the city, the port and docks were littered with smaller ships.

Then there were the massive frigates that patrolled the skies and Whitney was certain that no matter how confident she was with her Wyvern flying she would not escape the cannons and other armaments of the sky navy. There was even a sky dock just outside the city made from several frigates strung together with rigging, fanciful wooden shelters, and netted hot air balloons.

When they were close enough a squadron of four mages on brooms pulled up to them wearing red robes clad in the Cliffgard coat of arms. Their brooms were curved or bent in slight S-curves so that they could hold on to the top handle of the broom while standing on it.

The front most one mage adjusted his goggles and pulled down the bottom part of his face mask with one hand.

"Dock three for Wyverns is open, we will guide you in." the mage said. They surrounded the wyverns in formation and guided them to a covered dock that had a large 3 painted on the side.

When they landed the mages were kind enough to hold out their hands to help the riders of the wyverns.

"We have the finest wyvern care facilities set up. We have hired experts from the capitol for care-taking and diet, so you can know they are in good hands. My name is Lieutenant Commander Miles Bennett. Let me be the first to welcome you to Cliffgard." The mage took off his goggles and removed his mask. He had a warm welcoming smile and bowed properly.

"Whitney Westhold, I would like to make an appointment with the Cliffgards, I didn't send any notice so I'm willing to wait if I can find some reasonable accommodations." Whitney pulled off her helmet and undid her face wrap to protect herself from the cold.