It was a lovely winter morning. The sun shone brightly, the clouds provided just the right amount of cover, a nice warmth in the atmosphere. A young lady dressed up in leather armour and a sword at her hip walked down the street, her pink hair tied up in a ponytail, townsfolk greeting her as she passed. "Seraphina!" a middle aged woman called out, a basket full of freshly baked bread in her arms.
The young lady smiled, her pink eyes looked in the direction of the women before striding towards her. "Good morning Mariam," Seraphina greeted, fishing out some coins from her pockets. "Oh no no no, young lady! How could I ask you to pay for this when you're always so busy protecting our city?" The madam insisted, pushing the handful of coins. Seraphina shook her head, making another effort to pay, "Firstly, protecting the city is my honour and duty. I vouched to serve you all in any way I can when I took the Knight's oath. And secondly," she lowered her voice, "I know the recent increase in taxes hasn't been easy on everyone. Please, let me pay for this." The madam sighed, confirming Seraphina's words. "Only this once," she said, finally accepting the coins. A smile graced the knight's lips and with a quick thank you, she continued her way back to her abode.
Seraphina's house was simple yet elegant. She had rejected the offer to live within the provided facilities, preferring to stay around the people instead. Doing so made her closer to the people, meeting them everyday as not just a knight to her people but a fellow neighbour instead. Not many knights chose to do the same, preferring instead the comforts that the crown provided them with. Plush beds and good food. Seraphina couldn't but pity them, these knights had forgotten what it meant to be knight, choosing to blindly follow wealth instead.
Shaking her head at these thoughts, Seraphina continued to prepare her breakfast, a simple ham sandwich made from fresh ingredients from the market. Just as she finished pouring a glass of apple juice, her communicator bracelet rang. She set it down, pressing on the red gemstone. An image of a woman appeared, her long blonde hair cascading down her shoulders, a cup of tea in her hand. "Sera darling how have you been! Oh I haven't seen you in so long! Have you been eating well? Do you get enough rest? I know you love being a knight but you still have to take care of yourself!" The lady rambled as Seraphina chuckled. "I know, mother. Don't you worry, I have a sandwich right here filled with vegetables and meat. Everything your growing daughter could ever need," she replied, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. "How has the town been recently?"
Her mother sighed at her question, glancing away for a second, "It's getting tougher. With the increase in taxes and the weather. Winter is lovely but crops don't survive well in this season. And then our lovely Emperor has to go about raising taxes? I don't understand how he expects the people to pay for it! We're able to cover the increase with our reserves for now, but should it keep rising…" She took a sip of her tea before continuing, "Your father has been working on some technology to help improve the yield of crops, hopefully it'll be helpful to the people." Seraphina nodded, "I'm glad our people have you two. Things aren't as simple here in the city. As a knight I shouldn't say this but, these taxes are unreasonable. I hope they'll go down soon." The lady scoffed and changed the topic, "Anyways, how is-"
A loud roar sounds off in the distance, triggering the screams of locals around. "Mum, I got to go!" Exclaimed Seraphina, grabbing her blade as she ran out to the streets. As she stepped out, everyone was looking to the sky, multiple fingers pointing as a light blue figure flew towards the castle. Seraphina ran to her neighbour, Eric and his family. "What happened?" Eric hugged his spouse and children, "I-it came out of nowhere! Fortunately Alfred was with the children when it swopped down. It looked like it was going to hurt us but then it flew away!" Seraphina grabbed onto his arms, keeping him calm, "What was it Eric? I need to know." Eric grit his teeth, his eyes swelled up with tears, worried for his family. "Dragon," he muttered under his breath, "It was a dragon."
Her eyes widened. A dragon? In the capital city of Winbehuet? How unlikely. Regardless, Seraphina stepped up. "Please everyone, go back to your homes and stay safe until the knights tell you otherwise. Let's be careful for now." Cries of worry started to sound out. "Will it come back?" "Does it want to eat us?" "What should we do if it does?" Seraphina tried her best to calm the people down, assuring them that the knights would try their best but to no avail. Panic continued to run rampant amongst the people. Just then, a middle aged man, clothed in thick metal armour, with an air of gravitas around him spoke, "Please, fellow people and neighbours, trust me and my knights. We will carry out our duty to the end of our days, protecting not only the city but the people as well." With a single sentence, the man calmed the group down with civilians slowly making their way back to their homes.
"You've still got a lot more learning to do." The man said, standing by Seraphina's side. She then promptly raised her right hand, saluting the man, "It's hard for any knight to do what you do, Teacher. Not everyone can be as great as the Sir Kraig Thestirn." The knight, Kraig, shook his head. "Ya damn punk." he uttered before giving Seraphina a back slap on the head. Not long after, an alarm sounded, "All citizens please stay in your homes, knights to the castle. I repeat, knights to the castle." Hearing this, Seraphina looked over at Kraig, there was no way that they were going to leave the townsfolk by themselves! "Just go!" Kraig shouted, "I'll stay back here with the people! Hurry!" At her teacher's persistence, Seraphina
dashed to the castle, just in time to see the dragon at the front gate, with bags of treasure in its claws? There were several guards present. The ones more trained in the arcane started hurling spheres of concentrated magic at the beast. Spheres of all colours and elements were thrown. But the dragon shook most of them off, except for the red ones. Annoyed, the dragon let out a breath of concentrated ice mist all around it, obscuring the knights' view before taking to the skies.
All eyes were on the creature as it flew off, arrows and magic chasing after it. It was an odd sight, perhaps the rumours that dragons were treasure hungry creatures were true? But where did it come from? It had been decades since the last sighting that truth be told many thought they had gone extinct around the area. The knights relaxed their shoulders, relieved that the dragon was gone. A middle aged man on a horse throttled forward, standing where the dragon had once stood. "Everyone back to your stations! King's knights are to follow me!" There was no use standing about with nothing to do, the knights followed their orders and Seraphina made her way back to the village to continue her morning patrol. Still Seraphina couldn't help but feel unsettled at the unexpected turn of events. Thunder rumbled off in the distance, an ominous feeling about the air.