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Chapter 1
Scott slowly woke up to the sound of vigorous tapping on his study window.
He groggily sat up rubbing sleep from his eyes. At his window was a beautiful blue jay who seemed quite miserable standing at his window. Scott sighed, slowly getting up wincing as several of his joints popped and his wings spasmed stretching out on their own. He carefully maneuvered his way through the scattered piles of books, papers, and quills that littered the floor, towards the window and let the blue jay inside. It looked very pleased when it entered the room. Scott noticed the little messenger bag it was wearing and he fished a letter from the inside. He sighed wondering just what Lady Katherine was summoning him for. He looked over the content of the letter which was summoning him to a full alliance meeting at 13:30. He groaned, he was going to be late if he didn’t hurry.
Scott fed Katherine’s bird and shooed it back out the window and hurriedly changed clothes, clasped his cloak, and slipped on his boots in record time. Scott slammed open his door slipping on some ice that had formed on the balcony overnight. He closed his door and took off towards the Overgrown as fast as he could, ignoring the flakes of snow stinging his face as he flew. He couldn’t tarnish his reputation by being late, now could he?
Within a short 10 minute flight Scott was gracefully landing at the entrance of the Overgrown’s meeting hall. He was startled slightly at the sounds of elytra landing next to him.
“Scott! Good to see you.” Sausage’s familiar voice rang out.
Scott stiffened slightly at the unwanted patting of the back Sausage seemed to do whenever he was greeting another ruler.
“King Sausage, Emperor fWhip. Lovely to see you both.” Scott said internally grimacing
“Come on Scott,” fWhip complained, “No need for formalities, we’re all friends here.”
“Why don;t we head inside? I’m sure Lady Katherine is waiting for us. Scott drawled plainly walking inside.
The other two rulers fell into step behind him continuing their conversation from before. Scott could hear the other rulers landing and making their way inside. Scott opened the door to the alliance meeting and soon sat down in his seat, Sausage and fWhip following sat in their respective seats next to him, still chatting with one another. Soon the other rulers drift in waves of conversation flowing through Scott’s ears. Once everyone had taken their respective seats, Katherine stood signaling the start of the meeting.
“Welcome everyone!” Katherine smiled, fixing her gaze on everyone in the room. “I’m sure you’re all wondering why I’ve called you here.”
“Would’ve been nice.” fWhip grumbled earning himself a smack on the arm from Gem.
“Well,” continued Katherine ignoring fWhip’s comment. “I’m sure you’ve all heard if not noticed a red corruption around or in your empires.” she looked around as chatter started amongst the emperors. Each ruler stated what they’ve seen and how it was effecting their empires. It worried Katherine and she found herself describing what she and her scouts had seen.
Every ruler had a look of understanding on their faces, all except King Joel of Mezalia and the Elvenking Smajor of Rivendell. Katherine took note of this.
“Scott, Joel? Do either of you know what I’m talking about?
“If you mean the red stuff in Jimmy's swamp and the land border to Lizzie’s, the kinda. Don’t have it in the grand palace of Mezalia though.” Joel replied boastfully.
Scott, however, knew very little of this. He could faintly remember his older brother summoning the exact same things that everyone had described. Although he wasn’t one hundred percent sure. His head was also feeling a little fuzzy.
“Scott?” Katherine asked, snapping him out of his thoughts. “Do you know anything?”
“Unfortunately not at the moment, although, I will look at my library and see if I can find something of use.” Scott stated absentmindedly
“Sounds good.” Katherine said enthusiastically. She thought for another moment. “I think that wraps up our meeting. Thank you all for coming. Gem, could I talk to you for a moment before you leave?”
“Sure.” Gem turned to Pearl. “Could you keep an eye on the boys please? Make sure they don’t get into trouble.”
“Will do. See ya!” Pearl quickly ran off to find fWhip and Sausage.
After everyone had left the meeting room Katherine turned to Gem, a worried expression on her face. “Gem. I’m worried” she confessed.
Gem looked at Katherine with a smile on her face. “I know. We all can tell, but we’ll get through this. Whoever is causing this corruption stuff will be dealt with. Trust me‘
Katherine shook her head, “I’m worried about that yes, but that’s not why I asked you to stay. You’re close to Scott right?”
Gem looked taken aback. “Yes. He’s one of my strongest allies and one of my closest friends. Why?” she couldn’t keep the suspicion out of her voice.
“Did,” Katherine started her voice lowering. “Did you notice how distant he seemed during the meeting? Can- can you at least check up on him?” she pleaded with the wizard.
“Sure. If it makes you feel better I will.” Gem patted Katherine’s shoulder reassuringly. “I should be going. I’ll stop at Rivendell as soon as I am able to. Now I need to make sure fWhip and Sausage haven't gotten into trouble.” Gem huffed in annoyance. “I’ll see you later!”
Katherine watched as Gem left the room and only allowed herself a breath of relief once she heard the familiar sound of rockets taking off.