Morning Sun rose, and the glittering Royal Banner returned to Water Fort, while the ash-black fox-wolf slipped quietly away. The surrendered general Pap put on a tattered Feathered Serpent priestly robe and a disheveled feather crown, once more becoming a priest of The Sun and Feathered Serpent, and also a Water Fleet leader who had just suffered defeat. Then, leading several hundred trusted tribal warriors, he boarded over a hundred small boats and vanished into the horizon of the eastern seacoast.
The sun rose and set; several days hurried by, and the beginning of the seventh month arrived. The seventh month was the height of the rainy season, when even the wind and rain carried the dull rumble of thunder. And dark clouds gathered over Hidden Snake City, spreading news of the Water Fleet's rout, while also stirring the nobles' already chaotic hearts.
At a time so close to danger and death, the fierce longing for life would blind all former reason, finally revealing a fatal flaw. And that flaw appeared without a sound—until the pattering summer rain, accompanied by the thunderclaps of the rainy season, exploded with a boom at Hidden Snake City's eastern gate!...
"Ah?! Pap! You actually dared trick me!... Gods! You! You're going to... ugh! Hrk hrk!..."
Fine rain fell, and the night was dark. Outside Hidden Snake City, firelight flickered in and out, faintly encircling it from afar, yet never quite visible. Looking carefully from the eastern wall, those distant siege camps seemed like Wolf Pack crouched on the ground, waiting silently for prey.
And at this very moment, several hundred tribal warriors from the "routed" Water Fleet had already become the vanguard of the Wolf Pack, taking control of Hidden Snake City's riverside eastern gate with help from an "inside man." As for that