SteamWorks

Prologue

Rain smeared the goggles of the clockwork parrot making it troublesome to travel across the Axon dimension. Mechanical wings steered and it beats against the harsh wind, squawking effortlessly to reach its destination: SteamWorks.

It took a couple of hours to arrive at an island with floating gears, moving in circles on its side. SteamWorks had variety of buildings with bricks, wood, stones, and metal with tall lamps and cobblestone sidewalks decorated the streets. Factories were more on the west side and the clocktowers, made for stores and home, were on the east side. There were three huge gears stuck into the island's land as an architecture. The island belonged to the chronophim, the angel of gears. Flying around in a circle, the parrot's eyes locked at the heart of SteamWorks.

The House of Parliament stood tall in a marble structure with columns and a clocktower on the top of the building, surrounding the area with guards protecting on four watchtowers. The parrot dived into the shadows, avoiding the guards' field of vision to reach into the corners of the House.

The parrot hopped on its feet, eyes targeting on the windows' latch and beak hooked onto the latch, clicking it. The window opened as the hinges creaked. The parrot hopped inside into the dark hallways, with moonlight casting from the window. Stretching its wings, the parrot flew around to search for the recipient.

The moonlight cast the shadow of the clockwork parrot as it turned around the corner of the hallway with wings beating hard. No one heard it. As the parrot scanned the golden name sign from the door, "Katrina", it squawked, alerting the recipient and waking her up from her deep sleep.

Her eyes fluttered opened tiredly. She turned over to the side, staring at the wooden dark oak doors. She got up, rubbing her eyes as her golden hair stuck up like a mess. She walked toward the door, irritated.

She muttered under her breath angrily, "If I find one of my knights disrupting my sleep, I will give it a long nice punishment to rub my feet!" then she grabbed the knob and slammed the door open widely with a loud thwonk.

No one was there. Confused, she looked around until the clockwork parrot squawked below her with a letter in its beak, wet and damp. Her eyes focused on the parrot. The clockworker's parrot. Two things came to her mind: Enemies and a letter.

She took out the letter gently with her fingers, trying not to rip it apart. Her eyes wide open in panic, pressing her fingers against the letter, afraid to open and assuming the enemy wanted more. She recalled the invasion of SteamWorks many years ago and this time, something was different. What happened to her husband, Chronos? Did anything change?

The parrot waited for her response as it made a clicking sound from its beak.

Katrina swallowed her throat, prepared to know the truth. She unraveled the letter, reading the letter as her eyes move from side to side.

Dear Katrina,

It's me again. Horace. I am deliberately upset at you. Your island gave me a sufficient supply of metal and iron lately. What is going on? I received a notice from your people that the ports are closed because your island doesn't produce enough metal. I need metal to flourish my island, my inventions, and my materials. It's not enough, but I'm ready to threaten your people and Chronos that you have lost to me long ago. And you know what I'm talking about. I haven't forgot the deal.

How long has it been since I took your beloved Chronos away? Are you sad that you're scared to save him? You don't have anyone else to stop me unless you make another deal. Sacrifice your island to me and we'll build sky railroads together and my people will make more races of our own. How does that sound?

You have two weeks to respond to me. If you don't respond to an agreement, then I'm afraid that I'm going to take away your island for the resources and kill Chronos.

Tally ho,

Horace.

Katrina crumbled up the letter, snarling at the parrot, "I will never sacrifice SteamWorks. I want Chronos back."

The parrot squawked back at her in disappointment and it flew away from her as quickly as possible through and opened window.

Katrina sighed, facing toward the bed. Pressing her hands on the damped letter, she worried about Horace's actions toward SteamWorks. SteamWorks can't fall into Horace's hands. No matter how hard she tried to keep the peace between her and Horace, it wouldn't work until he gets what he wants.

Walking to the vanity dresser, she saw her reflection in the mirror, reading her own expression as she puts down the damped letter. The moon lit up, shining over her bed. She walked her way to it, returning to sleep and lying down. She stared at the ceiling, worrying about the possible invasion.

What am I going to do? She panicked in her mind. She rolled over, pulling her blue blanket toward the side. She was scared once again. It felt like the threat was reenacting the events inside her head. The fear of airships, dark clouds in the sky of SteamWorks and missiles attacking all over the village. It took her years to recover the island without Chronos. Some of the citizens were taken as prisoners for Horace's plans. She never knew what it was unless she sent a spy.

But, she was scared to put her citizens in danger and she feared for traitors on her island. Horace knew she was a weak person, the second in line to rule over the island. In monarchy, the king must rule over the land and the queen has the second authority to rule over the land if the king is absent. She cannot replace her king yet if he is still alive. No one knows for sure. To keep her peace of mind, she must find someone to look for Chronos to see if he's dead or alive.

She couldn't fall back to sleep, thinking about the threat letter. What will tomorrow be like for her and SteamWorks