Three Great Artifacts.
Three Magical objects owned and used by the ancient King Twiga.
Three Artifacts that almost conquered the entirety of the Afcari continent, only beaten by a cup of poison, killing King Twiga before his conquest was finished.
Those three artifacts.
The Orisa Eye, an Amulet that allows it's wearer to control the sands.
A Gold, Ruby encrusted crown, Which has a currently unknown power and name.
Same goes for a Sword of Blue Crystal, We don't know what they do, we don't know their name.
But we do have their location.
The closest one, The Crown is located in a cave beneath a swamp. Surrounded by pools of quicksand and poisonous mud.
The Storm Fleet will be leaving the Hedgehog and Turtle Villages in a few hours in order to continue our conquest.
While The Majority of the fleet will continue north towards areas owned by the kingdom of Abyssinia, A group of ten smaller ships will travel west towards the large swamp The Crown is located at, three of those ships will be directly involved in locating and bringing back the crown, the other seven will be making stops at villages and towns on the way in order to bring them into my Empire.
The three ships that acquire the crown will later rejoin with the main fleet at our next stop, The Great Nilus River.
Being the natural border between Abyssinia and the wild territories outside of it, It is where the Storm Fleet will be building its second Storm Base and resupplying itself.
Truly, My genius planning knows no competition.
"There he is" A masked Aardwolf said as she looked over a cliff at the fleet of hundreds of airships below her, in between the ships she could spot the target of her ire, The Storm King.
His army took out her gang and ruined her base, and now he has the gall to simply leave?
The Hyena will not allow that.
As she watched the soldiers run around their ships, preparing to continue their conquest, she prepared herself for what might just be the most challenging trial of her life.
She grabbed a bag of dynamite before she jumped off the cliff, throwing one of her fish-hooks at the cliff to hook into a rocky outcropping, swinging her sideways as she swiftly swung down towards the villages below like a trained acrobat.
Her trial?
To kill The Storm King.
"Strife, How goes the preparations to depart?" I ask my right hand man/cloud creature.
"Splendidly sir, With two ships of guards and officers staying here to manage the construction of the Storm Base and the communication with the villages, we should be able to depart in three hours, perhaps less if we're lucky, your Majesty" Strife replied, reading from a document I had him make detailing all the ships and manpower we had in the beginning of this conquest.
"That's good, send recruiters to the villages, we need to train people for an officer position, we can't keep leaving our Storm Officers at every Storm Base we build, find someone to train them for the job. Before we depart, please" I order him, not looking at him as I do so, watching over my army of airships and soldiers, Storm-born and hedgehogs, turtles, and a single Okapi.
Yes, looking down dramatically at your ever growing army from a high vantage point is something all good villains must do.
I think I'm getting the hang of this whole bad guy thing.
Although, luckily, I didn't really need to do anything that some would consider evil.
Unless if you count throwing one of my subordinates like a rubber ball, and maybe subtly threatening that one researcher, Gary, about the difference between Your Highness and Your Majesty.
But I don't count them because nobody was actually hurt.
I think?
Anyway, Once we're ready to depart, it will be another three days of flying before we reach the Nilus river, and build the Desert Border Storm Base.
There, we will be waiting for the group sent on the mission to collect Twiga's Crown to return with the artifact.
"Excuse me"
Hmm? Is somebody speaking to me while I'm planning my evil world domination plans in my head?
"Yes?" I reply as I turn to look who called for me.
Seeing as nobody is at eye level, I look down and spot a small woman.
I know she's a short and thin woman and not a child because no child would have proportions like hers.
She looks like a Grey Striped Hyena, different from the brown striped hyena who's currently working his prison sentence away in the quarry, she's also just as tall as my hips.
She's shorter than the Hyena Prisoner, but still taller than the hedgehogs.
Her striped black, grey and brown hair is held behind a black bandana.
Around her neck is a thin red cloth that is too thin to be a scarf and is more similar to a ripped shirt.
One her back is a large brown bag, tied at the top with a thick rope that seems to end inside the bag. Her chest is covered with a dark grey Tube top to protect her modesty and her legs are covered by a pair of black leather pants.
"I'm sorry to spring up on you like this, but you wouldn't happen to be the owner of all these airships, would you?" She asked as she leaned a bit closer to me.
"Why yes, I am, may I ask who I'm speaking with." I didn't say that as a question.
I have no idea who she is, and I have no idea how no-one spotted her getting so close to me.
"Oh!" She perked up, her triangular ears popping from under her Bandana, "My name is Lulu! Lulu the Aardwolf!"
So she's an Aardwolf, that's a relief, for a moment I thought she could be the Hyena.
The Bandit I mean, not the creature.
She matches all of the that descriptors we have of her.
Hyena, Female...
That's it really.
"Lulu the Aardowlf, may I ask if you need anything?"
She nodded before cupping her cheek with her paw, "Yes, you see, I always wanted to leave the Savannah, and seeing all these big strong airships piloted by all of your big strong men, I knew I found a way to make my dream come true" She said as she moved her paw from her cheek to her hair, flicking it behind her as she batted her eyelashes at me.
Thinking over what she said for a moment, I nod before replying.
"So, would you like to join my fleet?" I ask.
"Oh, I would love to, more than almost anything in the entire world right now"
The only thing I would love more is to gut you like a fish!
"Splendid!" I say with a clap of my hand. "Strife, did you hear that?" I turn to my cloud assistant, "The people are already coming to us for employment! Soon we won't even need to visit their villages." I say with a smile on my face, thinking about how great The Storm Empire would become once I officially become an Emperor.
It's still just a Storm Kingdom, sadly.
"Yes my liege, your greatness knows no end, I'm surprised it took the populace till now to come to you" what a Kiss-ass, you're lucky you at least get good results at the management side of things.
"Of course, Strife. Now, get miss Lulu here ready for her new job, she'll be working on the crown-ship. find someone to give her a tour, she'll be starting off just like all the other recruits."
"Very well, Your Majesty"
Yes... My army is growing... MuahahahaHAHAHAHA!!!
Wow, doing an evil laugh in your head is a lot less embarrassing then doing one in real life.
I think... I don't think I did an evil laugh yet.
It was a few hours later, The airships already started flying, when Lulu stopped working.
She's been mopping the floors of the lead airship for almost an hour now.
The salary she should be getting was good, and her new bunk-mates aren't disgusting slobs like the her old gang.
Sure, she's a deckhand right now, but she might get promoted to maid! that's a huge boost to her salary.
...
...
Lulu looked at the mop she was holding.
"Wait a minute..." She whispered to herself as she looked at the grey and blue Storm Army uniform she was wearing.
And then at the clean, wet floor behind her.
And at the distinct lack of a dead Storm King.
"...Dammit..." She whispered to herself before she picked up her mop and continued to clean the deck of the ship.
She'll get her chance at him soon, surely being on the same airship as him would make her job of killing him much easier.
Right?