The ship glided into a cove a few miles down the coast from the main harbour.
Kai and Eevy dropped the anchor and waded through the shallow water to reach the sandy shore.
The hike to the capital took a few hours of steady walking, and the landscape slowly shifted from wild forests to scattered farming villages.
Eventually, the stone walls of the human capital loomed over the horizon.
The defensive structures were genuinely impressive, rising high into the sky with watchtowers spaced evenly along the entire perimeter.
But getting inside the city was a nightmare.
A sea of desperate refugees, travelling merchants, and exhausted farmers choked the main dirt road leading up to the iron gates.
People were packed together tightly in the heat, holding crying children and clutching meagre belongings.
The smell of unwashed bodies was clearly visible.
Kai and Eevy moved through the crowd, navigating around wooden carts and sick travellers resting by the roadside.
