The Wings of a Hero

On A Hero’s Wings

By: Ashburn the LeafWing

MY NOTES: Ego Luceat means I shine, summoe deo paladine: by the great god paladine and animo means courage -sky’s character? Ut pie cerasus means To cherry pie!. Et fugit Draco: The dragon flies. Taceo: Be silent, be still don’t move, say nothing. Jaculor: shoot, Corusco: shimmer

 

Author’s Note:

Dear readers, If there is some random, strange phrase you do not know(there will be a lot so...You’re welcome!), look it up in the glossary at the back or type it into google translate, Latin. P.S. Try a couple of names in there too!

Note to self:Glossary: Literally MY NOTES, just polished up a bit.

Chapter 1

Whoa, dude, the forest can talk!  

Silence. Darkness. Then, I woke up. Where was I? Who was I? “What the…”  All I could remember was a silver flash and one word. Avem. That likely was my name. I felt sore all over, in particular, my chest. My clothes consisted of a dark, dark blue shirt, a gray sweater, dark green pants and a set of combat shoes. I slowly got up, wincing as I felt little stabs of pain, particularly in my chest again. I decided to take stock of my surroundings like I had been taught by..by...Arrgh! Oh well, couldn’t remember that... I appeared to be in a forest. The trees had dark blue, red-tinged trunks. Odd, yet somehow familiar…. The leaves were needle-shaped and razor sharp. When one of them caressed my cheek it made a light scratch. I picked up some moss to cover the wound but already my cut had stopped bleeding and within a couple seconds the wound had faded to a light scar. I guess I had super fast healing. Very helpful. The sunlight shined through the gaps in the trees, the birds were singing and there were all sorts of flowers in the undergrowth, blue, blue-green and dark green. I realized a small rucksack lay a meter away from me. It was a dull, unassuming beige color. It was also very stained with grass stains and a rusty sort of red colored splotch that looked suspiciously like blood. Was it mine? I picked it up and emptied it. There were some tasty-looking apples, some bread, two water skins which were full, a sky blue cape, a dull bluestone bracelet, armor polish, some money, a sharpening stone, and a long, sharp sword. First, I slipped on the bracelet. Then I examined the sword. The sword hilt was a bronze cross piece with a painstakingly etched image of wings and had a perfectly polished round, smooth moonstone. The scabbard was very plain in comparison, just wood with a soft interior lining of leather that kept the sword from becoming dull or dirty. I hefted it up and noted the perfect balance. I found I could wield it easily and I swung it at a tree. It left a deep gouge in the wood. Sap began to ooze out of it. I gave the tree a couple more wacks, realizing I was really, really bad at keeping my balance and also came to the conclusion that an attacker would probably have stabbed me REAL DARN GOOD right now. I kept on hacking and whacking at the tree because I felt the urge to train until I needed a break. I sat down on a log and wiped the sweat off my face. Man, was I out of practice. Then I realized something had changed in the atmosphere around me. The birds were no longer singing. Suddenly I had that prickling feeling you get when someone is watching you. I whirled around. No one was there.”Hello?” I spoke tentatively. “I know you are there whether you are trying to hide... or not.” I was about to say something else when in the bushes to my right something large moved. I wondered what it was and readied my sword, then I heard a low voice speak.”Hello, child of wind and sky.” The voice said.” What are you doing in my forest?” the voice inquired. “Sorry to disturb you, ” I spoke, “but I don’t think forests really belong to anyone.” (And THAT'S the first thing out of my mouth?! Not Why are you stalking me, etc, etc.)“Oh, really.” the voice said.”Technically, you are correct in the fact that It is not MY forest, but rather HER forest.”This is such a weird conversation. “And who would that be?” I asked the voice. This person is definitely crazy. I thought. The voice deepened to a low snarl, “Why don’t you come find out?” And with that, the thing lunged from the bushes. I just had time to think: It was not a person after all….

 

Also….

I become a prisoner. Hooray. (Sarcasm)

 

I ducked and rolled out of instinct and the thing leaped clear over top of me, drawing my sword as I did so. Then something smashed into my back knocking me over and slamming me to the ground. My sword went spinning away from my hand. I almost got up to my feet when I was slammed to the ground again by a large snowy white paw. (I’m rusty okay! Give me a break!) I almost succeeded in wrenching it off but then it pressed down HARD on my chest, accomplishing two things, one, it stopped me from lunging for my sword, two, it knocked the breath out of me. My attacker was a huge snow tiger, It’s large muscles rippling underneath it’s shining, glossy coat. I sat there, winded, for a couple seconds then the tiger said, probably to another tiger out of my line of sight, “Tie her up, I’ll knock her out.” Two minutes of awakeness and already I’m a prisoner. My success in this world is so far looking wonderful. (Sarcasm) The paw lifted, swiped, Then everything went black.

 

I woke up about 5 minutes later. I kept my eyes shut, trying to find out where I was. I could feel my hands and ankles were bound. The rope was quite tight. (Also, how do tigers tie knots!!?)I was glad for my gauntlets and my greaves. Without them, I would have probably already lost circulation. (Yes, I was wearing armor, not just greaves and gauntlets, but also a chest plate and a  helmet.) I was propped up against a wall in a very dark cave. It smelled terrible.”Well, well, well, what do we have here, Nix?” a voice questioned.”Jake and I found her in the woods.” a voice replied. Hmm, I thought, Nix and Jake must be the two snow tigers who attacked me in the forest, knocked me out and brought me here. Wherever ‘here’ was that is.”An interesting creature you got here, child of wind and sky is she?” (Excuse me, but Creature? Really?)“Yes, I’m sure Niveis will be very interested in this. This is only the second time it has happened after all right, Alba?” “I believe so...Maybe this is the third time.” “Alright, what is the deal with me being a ‘child of wind and sky.’” I asked the tigers, my eyes open. Their jaws dropped.”Umm, you know?” Nix said “Is she being serious right now?! How could you have lived your whole life and not known, until now?!!” Alba replied. “One, I just woke up today with no memory of what happened before today, second, how long have I been out for?” I said. I didn’t get it though, what was the deal? Was this some weird joke? I remembered that snow tigers had a weird sense of humor, but I couldn’t remember what being a child of wind and sky meant. (Tigers are not good explainers)”You’ve been out for two hours. All right, look at your back.” Nix said, “But before you do that answer this: What does a normal human have on their back?” Okay then, weird question, then again, these are giant snow tigers. Am I hallucinating? “Umm, a back, nothing really, I guess.” I replied. This is worrying.“That is correct. Now take a look at your back.” I did. Umm...ok then... Now it was my jaw’s turn to drop.”Oh jeez, do you think I can actually fly with them?” For upon my back there were two huge (Perfect cool awesome amazing) feathered wings. The feathers were a pure snowy white. The look on their faces was enough to answer my question. ”SWEET! Can I try right now?” I asked. “No,” Nix said. “You can give them a flap or two.” EXCUSE ME?!! I thought. MY WINGS, MY DECISIONS! I gave them a good hard push down, rose into the air about a foot, crashed back to earth (OW) and nearly blew the guards off their feet. Hehehe! I was going to give it another go, (and fly away free) but then a messenger ran into the room and said: “The Everlasting Empress will see your prisoner now.” Things just got interesting!

 

Chapter 2

Nice crown you got there. Lovely, really. Do you mind if I try it on?

 

I was grabbed and dragged roughly up off the floor (Ow and Thanks! (More sarcasm)) by the Tigers and they strode out of the room with their heads’ held high. No need to rub in the fact that hey, prisoner over here, jeez. All around us tigers started to poke their heads out of their caves and watch us or stopping what they were doing to gape and gawk as we went by. Strange, I mused, (WATCH U STARIN AT!!!) I wonder why they are staring so much. We entered a large cavern where a VERY large snow tiger was resting on a vast rock outcropping. The ceiling was enormous. You could have at least put one cathedral in here, if not more. Then we stopped and Nix bowed his head respectfully while Alba backed away. Another tiger came forward, also with his head bowed respectfully. And that must be Jake, I thought. The other one who ambushed me. The Empress (I assumed) snow tiger was wearing a large crown made of silver and a polished diamond at each point. I wondered how it had been made. They didn’t have hands, after all, they had paws. Then she spoke: “Council of Snows, assemble.”  her voice was like an icy mountain stream, regal, cold, but melodious and flowing. Four tigers padded up to join her. One had red eyes that looked like blood, the second had large, thistle-sharp claws, the third was powerfully built and muscular, the fourth looked cunning, cold and calculating. (Oh, haha pun not intended.) Niveis looked down at us and a flash of recognition flashed across her face. “Who is this Nix?” She asked. “ A child of wind and sky, her name is unknown at the present.” Nix replied. “My name is Avem.” I said loud and clear. There was a collective gasp all the snow tigers present. Which were at least 1,000 of them. Niveis responded, “Then why, have you not recognized me yet, friend?” What? Friend?! I thought. Then I collapsed, overwhelmed with the memories flooding back to me, and the pain they brought with them. And once again everything went black. (HOW MANY TIMES WILL I BLACK OUT?)

Chapter 3

Old friends meet again

 

OW, my head hurts, my legs hurt, and DANG that is going to leave a beautiful bruise tomorrow! “Good morning, Avem.” I sat up and looked around. I was in a brightly light cave that had many carpets and cushions. There was a large hole in one side of the cave and I could have easily climbed out and flew away. (i did mention the large, lovely wings upon my back….right?” I looked around to see who had spoken. It was Niveis who had spoken. The four members of her council were there as well. “I remember you now Niveis, you see, I have lost my memory….” I told them the story up until this point. “Avem, do you remember us?” one of the council members asked.”Yes, at least, I think so. You are Sanguis, Malum, Fortis and Captiosus.” I pointed to each of the Tigers in turn. Sanguis was the one with blood-red eyes, Malum was the one with the large claws, Fortis was the powerful-looking one and Captiosus was the only female on the council. Each of the tigers nodded respectfully in turn. “ I remember why we are friends and what I did.” I said to the Tigers. Memories were flooding back to me now. I remembered how I killed the large beast that was terrorizing the forest and how I had led the rebel tigers in a revolt against the evil emperor snow tiger, Tyrannus. “I remember everything now.” I said to the council.

 

The council and I had discussed what had happened but nothing triggered my memory. I stayed there for a couple of days exercising my wings and practiced fighting with some of the tigers. I gathered provisions and looked for a traveling companion. Finally, though it was time for me to leave the Tigers and head on my way to find out what I had been doing before I had lost my memory. What was I doing? Why have I lost my memory? I thought. The council and I had discussed going on a quest to see if anything else would trigger memories. “Thanks for coming with me, Nix.” For the snow tiger had decided to come with me. “No problem. I wanted to see the rest of the world.” I was packing my stuff in the cave that I had met the council and Niveis in. I had practiced flying and eventually had gotten the hang of it. I said to Nix “Meet you outside in the front entrance!” and promptly jumped out the side of the cave and (Fell to my death. NOT!) neatly soared up into the sky before banking down and around to land in the front entrance with my sword and shield strapped to my back. (Yes, I have a shield, the Tigers gave it to me as a parting gift. It was steel with the image of a snowflake.) Nix entered the hallway panting lightly after racing to get down here. “You forgot something.” he said and dropped my pack in front of me which I placed on my back. “ I still beat you.” I said to Nix playfully. “Well, I bet you can’t get to that hill before me.” Nix replied. “Oh, a challenge? You’re on!” and we ran to the hill and started the quest of a lifetime.

 

Chapter 5

The Perilous Maze

 

We both reached the top of the hill, me slightly behind Nix and we looked out over the land. “Wow, I never knew that it was this big.” Nix said slightly in awe. “I can’t believe I’d forgotten it looked this way.” I replied. For it was beautiful and I reveled in knowing that I lived here. There were huge wide open plains and deep lush forests, lakes and shining silver ribbons that must have been rivers. Mountains towered in the distance on the horizon to our left. Towns and settlements were little dots here and there across the land and far away on the distant horizon, an ocean gleamed. The immense blue sky was dotted with pure white fluffy clouds and looked glorious. I couldn't wait to try flying here. I looked back at the isolated plateau that the snow tigers lived on, with their caves and immense forest. “Oh hey,” Nix said, “I beat you.” “Did not!” “Did too.” “Did not.” “Did too.” “Okay, fine you win.” I said to Nix. Nix said nothing but smirked. We looked down over the hill again and saw that right below us was a giant maze. “Well, I suppose we go through it?” I said to Nix. “Why not?”Um, giant scary maze, yeah, let's definitely go through it! Best idea ever! (Even more sarcasm) Nix replied. “Let’s go!”  I flew down and tried to fly over the maze but hit an invisible wall and turned back. We headed for the entrance and the gate clanged shut behind us. There was no turning back now. We heard noises in the distance. Howls and growls. A few steps away the entrance and sunlight glowed. But inside the maze, It was like night. The hedges towered over us and blocked out the sky. “What sort of spell is this?” I wondered. “Don’t know, It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen before.” Nix said. Then a low fog set in. Nix and I could hardly see each other. We kept hearing things in the darkness as we traveled through the maze. At one point the mist lifted and I saw dark shadows whip around a corner out of our sight. We also saw a pair of glowing eyes. We also saw lights in the distance, but as soon as we got close, they vanished, leaving us more lost than before. We kept heading onward though. Then the fog lifted and we heard something dreadful. A long low growl, and long drawn out scream from around the next bend. We turned a corner and there right in front of us was a lion, standing over a dead body of a poor fellow who had probably gotten trapped in here by accident. Nix snarled savagely at the lion and the lion replied in kind. The lion spoke and said, “You will die at my jaws like the many other victims here.” There were many skeletons upon the floor, some older than others. “And,” the lion said, “  IF you manage to pass me, (His tone clearly indicated that we would not.) the closer you get to the end the more dangerous it becomes-.” He was cut off as Nix lept at him snarling and growling. The two beasts fought, ripping and slashing growling and snarling. I ran to help but it was too late. Nix had fought very bravely and now one of the two great cats lay dead upon the floor. “Well,” Nix said, “Let’s continue then, shall we?” And we headed forward again. From time to time we stopped and fought another battle. Each time we gathered something from the foe we defeated. Food and money, blankets, swords and occasionally the odd jewel or jewelry piece along with spoils of war we left behind. We must have been getting closer to the end because it seemed every second we had to deal with a new threat. By this time we were covered in blood. Our own and our enemies. I, for the most part, had healed up, Nix, on the other hand, was still bleeding from various places when we saw daylight up ahead in front of us streaming from around the corner. We rounded the bend and daylight shined in our faces. “This is too easy, isn't it?” I said to Nix.

“The exit is right there after all we have been through.”  “Yeah.” Nix agreed. We started to walk cautiously forward when shadows started to collect in front of us. “Hello,” A voice boomed. “No one has ever made it this far and no one has ever surpassed me.”  “Only one person has ever reached me and they died at my hands.” Well, that is contradictory. I thought. The shadows thickened in front of us forming a towering shape above us that we still couldn’t make out. “You will be a fine addition to my collection of trophies, little Avem.” How does he know my name again? Also, The Department of Health will hear about this! A wall cleared to reveal people frozen in ice. Still and unmoving. Each had some unique thing about them. Some weren’t even people. It was horrifying. The shadows finally took on a definite shape and in front of us the voice spoke again, “I am the creator of the maze, PHAEDRA.” The shadows cleared to reveal a great and terrible…

 

Chapter 6

A New Prophecy

 

Standing in front of us, the lava dragon stretched its snout to the sky. “Ahh, I’d forgotten how good it feels to be solid again.” Before the dragon could breathe fire at us, we acted. Quick reflexes save your life! Nix ran toward the dragon and I ran away from him, (I’m not a coward!) picking up as much speed as I could. I leaped into the air and took flight right as Nix took a flying leap and landed on the dragon's back. I winged through the sky toward Phaedra and dove right as he shot a blast of fire toward me. The fire seared my back and wing tips but I braced against my shield hard and gained altitude to come in for an aerial attack. Nix clawed the dragon's back with all his might but hardly left a dent in the obsidian black scales. “ It’s no use!” (I’ve been clichéd.) Nix shouted, “ I need to get to his softer underbelly to do damage! Can you distract him long enough?!”  “Yes!” I shouted back and dove at Phaedra then swerved wildly to avoid his fire. At least, I’ll try. I wobbled a bit as I thought of a distraction. I soared down then caught an updraft to swoop up into the sky and dive for his face. On my first run, I missed and nearly got whacked outta the sky by a giant talon, and Nix nearly got shredded and burned to bits if he hadn’t been fast enough. Still got Toasted and Roasted though. Thankfully, Phaedra seemed VERY out of practice. I looped around and shot for Phaedra’s giant ugly face. I narrowly avoided a blast of fire, Nix almost got flung off again and we hadn’t even done anything to him yet. Phaedra reached to fling Nix off his back when I dove and stabbed my sword into his eye. Well, that did something! :)  savage pleasure.“AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!” Phaedra roared, “I'LL KILL YOU!!!!!” I wrenched my sword free and dove and swerved like hell to avoid his fiery breath. Some of my feathers got scorched pretty badly. OW ow ow ow ow “THAT A GOOD ENOUGH DISTRACTION FOR YOU NIX?!!” I shouted. “YEP!  JUST FINE!” Nix shouted back in reply. Nix was now hanging from under the dragon. Nix dug his claws into Phaedra’s underbelly ripping and slashing like a maniac with his razor-sharp claws, but not much progress. Lava was trickling out of Phaedra’s eye instead of blood and started to focus on killing me so I decided to try and disable the dragon a bit more. I needed more altitude and backed off out of Phaedra’s range of fire. I noticed that the part of the maze we were in had grown to huge proportions as we had been fighting. Self-adjusting maze. Cool, but deadly. While Nix tried to penetrate his underbelly, having very little luck, Phaedra snarled as I swooped for the ground. I was tiring very quickly with all this swerving and knew I could do more damage from the ground. Phaedra whipped open his wings and I knew things were about to get a lot worse if he took to the sky. Then I realized that was not his intention. He flapped them hard, creating hurricane like-winds. I could NOT fly well enough to deal with something like that yet. I smashed into the side of the maze and a tendril latched on to me, pulling me out of the sky and down to the ground. It pulled me down and held me to the floor as Phaedra approached. I wondered where Nix had gone when I saw he was laying on the ground unconscious, not dead. Phaedra looked down at me and smiled. “You should have known you can’t defeat me, “ he said “After the pain you’ve caused me, merely killing you wouldn’t be satisfying enough. I know! How about,” the tendrils pulled me up to his face.” I’m going to kill your friend and make you watch! Oh, and rip your wings off so you could never fly again! And finally, just keep you as a prisoner forever, letting you wander in my maze until you lose your mind and die!” he laughed and laughed. I was not going to let this happen. I couldn't. I brought my sword up in a shining ark as I ripped through the vines and rammed my sword into Phaedra, right in the chest before falling to the ground, exhausted and tired. Nix leaped up into life, he had only been pretending he was unconscious and ripped a deep, huge gash into Phaedra’s underbelly! Phaedra roared one last time before he swayed and thudded to the ground, dead. I went over to Nix after retrieving my sword and we both laid down to take a break for the night. “Look,” I said to Nix “The maze is crumbling and withering away.” And indeed it was. The hedges crumbled and disintegrated into nothing, and daylight shined in but slowly faded, giving way to dusk. As the last rays of light faded, I heard a whisper: “You will faccce many trialsss ahead.” the voice whispered “But you will be betrayed asss before and you ssshall crumble under the power of the lord of darknessss.”  the voice trailed away into the darkness and I fell into a deep slumber.

 

Chapter 7

Totally inconspicuous, that’s us!

 

We woke up early the next morning and before setting out covered my armor with obsidian scales to make them even stronger and impervious to fire. I also collected a couple of spikes and teeth from the dragon, I put the spikes on my helmet, like a crest heading down the middle of it. The teeth I could probably use as claws, attach them to my fingertips or gauntlets and then I could do even more damage in hand to hand combat. And if I break one or two I’ll have replacements. Sweet! We set out to find a town or village where we could possibly stay for the night. We encountered a strange creature, (I later found out it was a bridge troll.) while we were crossing a bridge. We could see a village very close to the bridge and we had been traveling for most of the day. We were also hungry, tired and hot. This bridge troll jumped up on the bridge and says: “You have two choices. You can either try to answer my riddle or walk away unharmed. If you answer the riddle correctly, I will let you pass. If not, I will bite your head off.” Nix and I were, well, if you listened to everything above you can probably guess how this went over with us. We got pretty torqued off at this. So I said, “ Or we can choose option three, we fight you and kill you so we can pass.” I thought to myself, great, if he actually agrees, I might be in a spot of trouble. Then I took one threatening step toward him. The troll went pale at this. He had probably only dealt with simple peasants, not warriors or soldiers willing to fight their way across. He took one look at our armor, realized we had lava dragon scales on our armor and jumped down under the bridge saying “ Don’t killlll Meeeeee!” We crossed the bridge unopposed and then headed into the village looking for an inn. After a while, I realized that people were staring at us and I wondered why. Then I realized that having a snow tiger by your side, in full armor with lava dragon scales and wearing a cloak in this heat is not exactly non-conspicuous traveling. We headed out of town and I told Nix about this. We agreed that I would buy provisions So I headed into town, leaving my armor behind, while Nix set up camp. I bought a bottle of green dye to stain my cloak and my pack for camouflage first (and maybe Nix’s fur :)) and then bought the rest of our supplies separately.  I bought a couple things for Nix as well, I knew he hated cooked meat so I bought a large chunk of raw meat for him. I headed out of town to set in for the night at camp and saw that Nix had a large stack of firewood and a fire ring as well as one of our copper pots filled with water. I set to work starting the fire while Nix chowed down on the piece of meat. “Thanks, Avem.” “No problem, Nix.” I said. While the water was heating up over the fire we practiced fighting some more. We ate dinner and sat around the fire for a bit. I stood and was going to go to bed while Nix stood up to take first watch. That was when I noticed something. “Nix, is it just me or is it too quiet out here?” Nix growled. Then we heard a twig snap. I heard a familiar shriing as metal scraped leather. Familiar…..! “Nix-!” Then 10 warriors rushed out of the trees, surrounding us in a matter of instants, and one leaped toward me, I leaped away from her thrust, realizing too late it was a feint and saw the sword pommel swing in a visicous arc, then the blinding pain as it made contact with my temple. Then all fell silent and a curtain of black fell over my sight.

 

Chapter 8

Knocked out again! Really?!

Next time I’d prefer to be conscious! Of course, there will NOT BE A NEXT TIME. (Author: Mwahaha..)

 

The first thing I realized when I came to was that my wings were bound and cold iron shackles encircled my wrists and legs. I sat up and saw I was chained to a wall. My wings were tied together and I realized I still had my armor on. I reached for my scabbard and realized it wasn’t there. These people were smart. Or just experienced. What will happen next? The room(prison) was freezing cold and razor sharp icicles hung from the ceiling. Frost and ice glittered on every surface. My breath came in little puffs of steam.Then a door I had not realized until now was there opened behind me and I turned to see this person who had captured me. A person stepped in with a fully drawn bow then moved aside as another person stepped in with a fully drawn bow. “Our leader would wish to see you you now.” one snapped, slowly releasing the bow. I heard a click as my shackles were unlocked. My wings were still bound and my shackles still encircled my wrists. As we went along a long hallway, it eventually became warmer and warmer. After a while, They blindfolded me, then we finally entered a room where my blindfold was removed. One handed me my sword, then shoved me through a door. It happened quickly. I found myself in a large room. Facing me was a large Wolf-bat thing...It had large bat wings, tufted ears, and a snarling, slavering mouth. It’s tail was bare except for a tuft of fur at the end. It’s fur was a mostly alternating light and dark brown but it’s back had fur that was almost black. I had almost no idea what to do. It swore at me in a guttural voice, “You will wish you had never come near the band of the FireBrand!” “What?...”  He(I think it was a He) stepped back, slightly puzzled by my slightly fearful but mostly confused expression. I have no idea what you’re talking about. The Firebrand???? What in Paladine is that? “What do you mean ‘What.’, You know you killed all of my brothers!!” “No, honestly, I did not. I don’t even know what the Firebrand IS.” At this point he seemed to trust me so I told him my story. (Faced with a total stranger, I spill my life story. Totally a smart idea). “Well..nice to meet you Avem...I’m Lupus.” he said. “And I’m actually your half brother, cause I’m a ‘child of wind and dark’...” At this I just fell over in shock. “What???!!!!” “Um…. yes? I’m your brother….” before we had time to talk about it further, we were interrupted by two different guards. The took us to a new room, where we waited in relative comfort, on two armchairs. They both had fully drawn bows, each nocked with an arrow. At this point, a third lady stepped into the room. She held a magnificently carved bow. It had the peregrine Falcon, a skillful predator carved all over it. “So, Lupus, were we wrong?” “Apparently so.” he snapped, seeming angry at her. “Wait..what?” I asked, befuddled. “So, we are allies with with the Firebrand,-” “Who’s we?” I interrupted, rudely. “I lead a group called the Amaruons. We are allies with the Firebrand, and not long ago, most of it, except for Lupus was...eliminated. We have been hunting the whole area for the culprits. You were new here, and we haven’t seen you before. You seemed like a reasonable guess. We realize we were wrong and we cordially apologise. I looked into the legends about people like you and we certainly would like to have you as an ally if you will accept this proposal.” “Oh, and don’t make any sudden moves. I might shoot you accidentally. Or my guards.” she added. What could I really do in that sort of situation? Say no? Might I remind you that 1. She might have a clue about my past, 2. She also could shoot with deadly speed and accuracy, 3. Her guards both had arrows aimed at us and finally, 4. The Amarouns. would be useful allies in battle and I certainly felt like a big one would come along. Maybe not even a battle. Maybe a war.

 

Chapter 9

My Destiny is Revealed (My Memory still gone though...)

 

Fortem sent her guards to retrieve Nix and our stuff while Lupus and I settled down a bit. While we waited for Nix to join us Fortem and I agreed to be allies. “What sort of arrows did you hit Nix and I with?” I asked. “We use tranquilizer arrows, they have a sedative on the tip that makes you sleepy. We also have Electric arrows, Fire arrows and the occasional bomb arrow. We don’t just have arrows and bows of course, we have swords, shields, daggers, Lances, War axes and hammers and lots more.” Fortem said. They were well prepared for a battle or war. Then Nix walked in and Fortem told us what we were waiting for. “I am going to tell you a story, Avem, One that explains why you may have lost your memory, and why the rest of us may perish if don’t regain it back.” She paused, collecting the story in her head and then began.

 

Long, long ago, farther than many people remember, this was a kingdom. A Kingdom great and powerful. This was the kingdom of Jel. Jel prospered and thrived, and was ruled by a great Queen. Her name was Kara. No one ever thought that Jel would fall. There was a legend that Kara knew of, yet hoped would never come true. On the hundredth year, Jel would be razed to the ground and the realm of evil would rise under its new leader, The Lord of darkness. Good would wither and die.There was, however a way to drive it back. A warrior would rise from the ashes and take back the land from evil. Jel would rise again and the world would be rid of evil once again. The year finally came and Kara felt no trouble. But trouble had been brewing. Evil creatures from across the land stormed Jel. The people fought back, but in vain. It was a massacre. The Lord of Darkness let the whole kingdom watch as he stabbed their queen in the heart. Jel was ransacked and destroyed as the prophecy had said. The kingdom was no more. The Dark Lord was always on the lookout for the one that was going to rise. But The Warrior never came. But he was wrong. She just wasn’t ready yet.

“So I’m the Warrior?”No…. I asked once Fortem was done. “Yes.” NO. Nononononononono. I can’t do this! “But what does this have to do with my memory? “I’m not sure, but I think you were going to go up against him and then one of your friends betrayed you to the lord-.” At this, I gasped, “How did you know?!” I said. “Know what?” Fortem said back. “After Nix and I defeated The dragon of the Maze, Phaedra, I heard a whisper. It said, I will be betrayed as before, and I will fall beneath the lord of darkness.” Fortem thought about this for a second. Then suddenly she leapt up and had 2 arrows nocked and aimed at Lupus and Nix. “Wait!” I shrieked, understanding what she was thinking, “They didn’t know!” “Explain.” She said, her voice cold. “They have never heard this story before!” desperation for her to understand crept into my voice. Fortem slowly lowered her bow and put her arrows back into quiver. “That’s true…. I still don’t trust them.” Lupus and Nix both looked at each other. Oh boy. This was going to create a lot of future problems for us. Maybe. Probably. Definitely. No. Yes. No. Yes. AHH no. Wait yes! Humph. I’ll let you guys decide.

 

The next morning, Nix, Fortem and I were just about to set out, on my huge quest and whatever when Lupus came running up to us. “Avem, sorry, really short notice, but can I please come along?” I looked at Fortem. “Your party, not mine.” She responded. I thought this over in my head. It wouldn't hurt, to have him along I thought. “All right, you can come along but on one condition, you can’t fall behind, and you have to take part in our battles.” “You can be sure I will, Avem.” And then we set off for our next destination.

...

 

We traveled along the trail for ten days when we finally decided to stock up on some more provisions. Fortem and I went into town to gather the stuff we needed. We walked into town and checked it out a bit then decided to split up to get things faster. We finished quicker than expected so Fortem decided to go hunting. I went back to camp and started cooking lunch. (Yes, I can cook now too. I’m simply amazing, aren't I?) By the time I finished Fortem had come back with a rabbit carcass. But that wasn't all she had brought back. We all heard a cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep noise and wondered what it could be. Then Fortem took her knife and cut a strip of meat of of the rabbit and took a fuzzy little bundle out of her pocket. She went over and sat on a log by the campfire. The “fuzzy little bundle” was a baby bird! “Fortem! Where did you get that?!” I shouted. “Did you steal it?!” (I’m very protective of birds sometimes.) “NO! Of course I didn’t steal this little fluff ball!” Fortem replied, now feeding the baby bird the rabbit meat. “He fell out of his nest or was taken out of his nest by some predator.” Fortem said, explaining where he had come from. “His name is Aurum.” “Gold? Why’d you name him that?” I asked. “Because he’s a golden eagle obviously! You should be able to know that.” Fortem snapped back. Jeez, calm down, no need to be rude. She looked pointedly at my wings. “Having wings doesn’t mean I can instantly tell what type of bird he is. Also, Amnesia?” I replied dryly. And that was how Aurum joined our group.

 

Over the next few days I found the little bird very annoying. Cute, yes, but still annoying. Don’t ask me why. I later found out that since I spoke bird, I could understand what he was saying. He would say, Food, I’m hungry, I’m cold, Mommy and it went on and on AND ON. Then one morning I found feathers in my bedroll. Yes, considering I have wings there would be. But this time, there were more than normal. “FORTEM IT WAS IN MY BED. CARE TO EXPLAIN?” I shouted. “NO HE WASN’T, YOU’RE JUST MOLTING!” What? I thought. I don’t molt, do I? I spread one wing and took a glance at it. Believe it or not, feathers were falling out and I saw new ones in feather sheaths growwing in. (Ha ha pun there.) However, later that night I woke up. Something warm was cuddled against me. Or more specific, my wings. They spread over top of me so I carefully lifted one and looked under it. And there was Aurum. His little black eyes blinked open sleepily. He saw me staring at him and said to me, “I was cold, mommy tries to keep me warm but doesn’t have warm soft wings like you do.” This warmed my heart. He was just a little chick after all and Fortem couldn’t keep him as warm as I could. I am more like his bird mother I guess. “Okay then, but don’t squirm too much.” I said I put my wing back down and fell asleep again. Daylight shined through the gaps in the leafy forest canopy. I woke up and realized that Aurum was gone. Fortem and Aurum were both awake and eating breakfast. Cold rations today for breakfast. Yippee.(SARCASM) I wondered if Fortem knew that Aurum slept with me. Probably. She didn’t miss much. Sure enough, as I got up and went over to where we were eating breakfast, she gave me a small nod signalling her approval. I grabbed a piece of bread and some of our small supply of butter to go on the toast. Then I went back to thinking about my other problem. The whole, ‘I’m the magic warrior who saves the day!’ Stuff. I was sure I needed a magic sword or whatever but I also needed some good back-up weapons and armor. And not just me. My companions would need that stuff too. We would need a plan of attack, and more people to fight for us. We already had the Amaruons but we needed more. We needed an army the likes of which had never been seen before. Where we were gonna get that, I had absolutely no idea! I did NOT want this role. Why me?

 

Chapter 10

The King of the Bats

 

We headed out on the road again and traveled some more. According to Fortem, we were only five days away from the Desolate plains. It was called that because it was completely barren and dead. Just dirt and stone as far as the eye could see. Not only that it held dangerous tar pits, pools of inky black darkness that would suck you down and preserve your dying moments forever. (I was NOT enthusiastic to say the least.)  We would have to cross it though, no matter the risk. To get to the ruins of Jel, we would have to. We were worried, to say the least. Little did we know that was the least of our problems. We stopped in camp for the night. We heated up the water and everything and then we started to go to bed. Then we heard the screams. Unearthly shrieks ripped through the relative calmness of the night. There were black shapes that blotted out the stars. We quickly hid under a tree. “Thanks for getting Aurum for me.” Fortem said. “What? I thought you had him!” I said, my mind realizing what had happened as I spun around! “Oh no….” Fortem’s face was pale, all the blood draining from it. Aurum was in the middle of the clearing, oblivious to the horror that was creeping up behind him. Faster than the eye could see Fortem had one arrow flying through the air and was about to send another. “Wait, Fortem, you might hurt Aurum!” Nix shrieked! Then Fortem’s arrow struck the giant bat creeping up on Aurum. It shrieked and fell over sideways, dead. Aurum wasn’t out of danger yet though. He tried to wobble over to us and Fortem and I rushed out to grab him. “Mommy, Mommy!” Aurum was saying. I almost had reached him when a bat plunged out of the darkness and snatched Aurum up then shot away into the darkness. I heard it make a weird noise, a sort of hiss/ huff noise, like this, huss husss husss. It was laughing! I lifted off and shot for the one that was holding Aurum intending to strike it with my sword which was sliding out of its scabbard. The bat hissed at me and dodged my first swing then shrieked at another bat. My flight was not as good as it could have been since I was molting. This bat swooped down on me and grabbed my wings immediately stopping my flight. Then another two grabbed my arms and the one holding my wings grabbed my sword and flew off after Aurum’s bat. My escort headed after them. I saw other bats headed for the same place, each holding some sort of carcass. Deer, rabbits and more. “Great. We get to be food.” The bat holding my sword hussed and said “Oh no, you two are going straight to the king!”  “YOU CAN UNDERSTAND ME?!!” “Yes, you spoke in our language.” the bat replied. I realized I had spoken the language of all free creatures gifted with flight, etc, etc. and I now realized that also included bats. Yay. Then I saw were we were headed. A giant cave loomed above us. The bats were pouring into it. Oh great, I thought, time to meet the king of the bats.

 

Fortem

 

“NO!” We all shrieked as we watched Aurum then Avem get carried away by the bats. I sent two arrows flying after them, knowing they would both miss. Lupus tried to fly after them but was quickly suppressed. I sank to the ground, tears welling up in my eyes. I had lost Aurum. Avem had gone to save him and got carried away too. I got up seeing that Lupus and Nix were both watching me. No time for self pity, I thought. “We need to get them back.” I said. Lupus pointed off into the distance. “They went that way.” he growled. We gathered up our stuff and headed off.

 

Avem

 

We (The bats, Aurum and I) swooped into the entrance and dove downward inside the cave. It was pitch black. The bats sent out shrieks fairly frequently and I realized they were echolocating. Every few minutes another passage would open up and we would dive down it. We were really deep in this cave system now. Occasionally we would pass other bats and rooms, some of which were filled with treasure. And some of these caves had piles of food like deer and stuff. As we were just about to go down another tunnel I felt an irresistible tugging sensation in my gut, pulling me towards a different tunnel mouth, we headed away from it and It felt like I was being ripped in two.I shrieked at the pain and the bat quickly loosed its grip, probably thinking It had grabbed me to hard or something! Then we finally swooped into a large open chamber, filled with bats. Then I saw one huge one, hanging from the ceiling in the middle. That had to be the king. The bats set Aurum and I down and I ran over to him and picked him up. The one bat still had my sword however. Guess I wasn’t fighting my way out. I also couldn't endanger Aurum. Then the bat turned toward us and I saw it had 8 vividly blue eyes. All fixed on us.

 

Fortem

 

We were still headed in the same direction when we decided to make camp for the rest of the night. Lupus stood on guard in case any more bats appeared. Nix was sleeping up in a tree and I was right below one with low overhanging branches. I think we all felt it that night, a kind of emptiness and sadness. Avem had strung us all together, brought us all together in a way we couldn’t have even begun to imagine. As for Aurum, well, he was a cute little fluff ball and we all missed him. The best thing we could do I suppose was continue toward The Cavern of the Bats.

We headed out the next morning. We restocked at a village. While there I heard the locals talking about something intriguing. “Two more were snatched tonight!” one said “Shh! Keep your voice down!” There was a muttered apology. I slowly crept closer, taking care to make no noise and keep out of sight. “Who was taken?”  “The Kladen’s kid and Josie.” Hmm, I thought, maybe this has to do with the bats! If the villagers trust me, or I get a way to make them trust me, maybe they’ll tell me more. All this went through my mind as I still crept closer and closer to the villagers. I ducked behind a corner and backed down the alleyway a bit. I started whistling a cheery tune as I walked toward where the villagers were. I heard much shushing. I walked around the corner and stopped whistling. “Well now, why the long faces?” I carefully asked. “None of your business!”  “Only trying to be friendly, no need to be hostile!” If I’m not careful, this situation might escalate quickly and I would hate to be forced to hurt one of the villagers. “Wait a minute!” one of the villagers said, “You’re new here aren't you!” “Yes.” I said warily. The villager had a look in her eye I decided I did not like. The villager turned and whispered something to the other villager. This one’s eyes hardened and she ran off and shouted down the street, “The kidnappers!, The kidnappers! Come quick! The kidnappers are here!” I just had time to think UH OH! and RUN! as the villagers congregated into a mob and snached up any weapons they could find! Pitchforks, torches, axes and all manner of things painful. They advanced and I ran for my life.

 

Avem

 

The bat looked at us for a couple of seconds. Then, in one fluid motion it flipped from its perch on the cave ceiling to beating his mighty, leathery wings in front of us. He slowly descended and landed about 5 meters away. He slowly, warily almost, circled us. Watching us, our every movement. It was erie, the bats all watching us as this one monstrous one circled us. My only thought was, Terrified. I had not even an ounce of bravery there. I was immensely grateful for the one shaft of sunlight piercing the cave center. Without it, the gloom would have been complete. A warm breeze reached down through that gap and ruffled my feathers, reminding me that all was not lost. I breathed in deeply, feeling myself relax. The bat circled to the front and faced us. “Who are you?” It breathed, almost as though it was thinking aloud. It continued its circling, edging closer, I held Aurum tight, willing him to continue his silence. Finally the bat stopped it’s circling, right behind me. I felt one large claw reach toward me. It plucked one, pure, white feather from my wing, holding it delicately. The feather trembled, quivering. A breeze snagged it and carried it away. The bat spoke again “ I am Dominus. Put her in the special cell but as for the fluffball, put it in my private cavern.” As the bats reached for Aurum and I, I shrieked. “NO, YOU CAN’T TAKE HIM!” I instinctively put my wings around him and I curled up in a ball as best I could to protect him. The bats slowly managed to seperate us and they lifted me and Aurum up and away from the main cave. The bats holding us seperated with Aurum crying for me or Fortem. It was heart wrenching to hear. “HAVE YOU NO SOUL!”(Shakespeare…?) I screamed at the bats, tears coursing down my face. “NO, AURUM!” I cried as the bats carried us away. Then the bats flew over to a cell that looked chielsed from the rock. It had cell bars of rock on the front with a sliding door of metal bars. The top was also barred with rock bars.They looked as though the were made of obsidian or gray granite. Probably obsidian. It was extremely dark with minimal light. The bats gently pushed me, in locked the door and tromped away. I curled up in the corner, wings over my head, and sobbed.

 

Chapter 11

Getting Acquainted

 

Fortem

I quickly dashed down an alleyway, trying to lose the villagers. It didn’t work. I shouted over my shoulder, “I’m not a kidnapper! What are you even talking about?!” I slipped down another alleyway and leapt up onto a pile of straw in a wagon, from there I leaped onto the low rooftops of the village and continued running,The mob followed me on the ground, keeping up the pursuit. I ran and leaped over a gap between roofs. I narrowly missed landing in the gutter which would have fell under my weight. I dashed over another couple of roofs. I was really cut up and bruised. Then I glanced back over my shoulder and realized that a couple of villagers were tentatively following me over the rooftops. They were making gestures I couldn’t see. I slowed down and kept watching them, because of this I almost fell over the next jump. As it was, I slipped down off the roof and kept holding on to a metal pipe that wouldn’t hold for long. I looked down at the dizzying drop below me. Then rough hands grabbed my wrist and hauled me up. I lay on the rooftop gasping for a couple of seconds before sitting up and looking at my savior. It was one of the villagers I had spotted on the roof behind me. He was about my age, 16 and had blond hair. His eyes were a emerald shade of green, his complexion tan but freckles dotted his nose and the area under his eyes. Behind him was another villager. He looked about 30-35ish and had the same blond hair as the 16 year old. Father and son? I guessed. However, he had pale brown eyes instead of green ones. ¨Come with us!¨ The older one said ¨The name´s Peter.” ¨My name´s Filius!¨ the boy jumped in. They both shot away and I ran after them, almost passing them in my haste.

 

Avem

 

Ten minutes later after crying my heart out, I took a good look around me. There was a small amount of sunlight shining into my cell from the top. At least it was day. I saw a small pale blue feather drift down from wherever into my cell. Not knowing what else to do, I simply braided it into my hair. I lay down and tried to rest. After about an hour later, I woke to the sound of groaning metal. Jeez, I thought, They need to oil something around here. As I sat upright, I saw the cell door slide open. Two bats stood baring the way to freedom as I stood up. One stepped inside and, grabbing me, snapped a pair of shackles around my wrists. The other bat, not the one grabbing me, stepped into the cell and pounded an iron ring into the ground behind me. I watched carefully, observing every movement. Then the bat jerked me forward and pulled me out of the cell. Attaching a length of chain to the shackles, holding the other end of it, he burst into flight. I was quick to react, snapping my own wings out with a whoosh, and taking a couple of steps to launch. The bat flew up a ways, then suddenly ducked into a side tunnel. I whipped around the corner and threw up my wings to check my flight before I smashed into the wall in front of me. I flew up, following the bat and landed on a ledge. I looked down, seeing a large amount of movement below us. There were not many of them, but they all were strong looking and between 15-35 years old. All of them had chains around their legs and  bats hovered over them with heavy oaken staffs, ready to whack those who weren’t working.They were slaves. The bat finally spoke. “They are slaves.” he said in a deep, sonorous voice. Well, thank you Captain Obvious. I thought. ‘They do all the tasks we are too important for.” Again, I kept my mouth shut but my mind was whizzing. Too important for?! Yeah, right! I thought. “You will join their ranks.” This time my mouth was wide open. “Excuse me!?! Yeah, right I will! I’m gonna free them all and bust this cavern to pieces while I’m at it!”. Not the best move I could’ve made. The bat leaped off the ledge and promptly turned sharply. If you remember, I was attached to the bat with a length of chain around my leg. So, I was jerked off the ledge and swung around into the wall. Ow, to say the least. I wasn’t too badly hurt, but I would have a couple beautiful bruises in the morning. The bat hissed at me as I landed on the ledge again. “That is how we deal with those who don’t obey!” Well, I’m gonna get punished a lot then. I thought. I glared at the bat. It sneered at me. “They are working on enlarging our tunnel system. “ Your job is to work on the ledges up high, like the one we are on right now.” Then a bell noise echoed through the tunnels. The slaves began to file out of the cavern. We followed them from above. As we headed into a large, steep tunnel, more slaves came from adjoining tunnels. We headed into a medium large cavern and all the slaves sat down at large stone protrusions from the floor. We landed again on a large ledge. Some of the smaller bats flew into the cave, each carrying something in their talons. There were items of food. Strips of meat, raw and cooked, assorted fruits like apples, plums, oranges and lemons. The bats set items of food down in front of the slaves. My bat spoke again “This is where slaves eat. If they have done good work today, they will get a strip of roasted meat. If not, they will get raw meat. They each get a piece of meat and a fruit. The sour lemons for non-workers, the sweet plums for the hardest workers. So that’s how it works, work hard, good health,  don’t work, deteriorating health. I thought. All in all it was a pretty well system. The slaves would be worried about their food and health, and wouldn’t rise up against the bats, trying to get free. “Hjak, get some food for the new slave!” my bat called. “Yessir, raw meat or cooked? And what type of fruit?” The small bat responded. My bat turned at looked me up and down, muttering under his breath.I heard ”She looks like the rest of the slaves but with some weirdo wings….but the legend...“I snapped at him. He lept back hurriedly, but then my bat pulled my chain back‘Bring some of the cooked goose,-” I gagged at the thought of eating something else with wings. “The cooked rabbit then, some of the clover salad and one apple.” Sounds like VIP treatment, I thought. The bat turned to look at me and sneered.

 

Fortem

 

We lost the mob after racing over rooftops for what seemed like hours, we finally stopped for a break. Filius doubled over, wheezing and Peter gave a couple of coughs before bending over as well. They both stared at me. “What?” I asked. “How are you not even breathing hard!?” Filius said. He stared at me intently.. *Filius’s thoughts: Wow. She’s…..Amazing. *  “So?” I still didn’t get it. “I’m not breathing hard after a short jaunt like that.” “SHORT JAUNT?!?! THAT WAS 800 METERS!!” Filius shouted (correction:screamed at the top of his lungs). “Eh, you’re right it was more of a couple steps.” He just threw me a glance. Heh, yeah..that’s right, I’m strong!After all, most women were supposed to stay home and you know, raise children and just stay home. But my home city wasn’t like that. Was….I shoved it to the back of my mind. We climbed down from the roofs and entered a small cabin. A women sat inside at a small table, writing something in a book. As we entered, she looked up and her eyes landed on me. They were green like Filius’s, this was likely his mother. “Hi.” she smiled at me. “I’m Magna.” A girl about my age came into the room. “Oh, this is our daughter Filia.” She had blond hair and green eyes just like Filius. Magna noticed my gaze and said “They’re twins.” Interesting. That’s a very rare occurrence. I thought. “Come over here and sit down so I can treat your wounds.”After all, life among the ferocious Amaruons really conditioned me, better than I was already. “Really, I don’t ne-” I doubled over and clutched desperately at my chest. I coughed so hard I thought my chest would explode. A couple mouthfuls of blood found the way out through my mouth. I fell to my knees and then collapsed to the floor. I saw Filius bend over me, reaching down to help me up. My head dropped to the floor and my vision turned yellow, studded with black spots that grew bigger and bigger and bigger…..

 

Voices. My eyes stayed shut and my breathing stayed perfectly even but I was awake. A wet cloth dabbed at my face and mouth, likely cleaning the blood away. I stayed quiet and feigned sleep to try and hear the conversation. “The villagers will be here soon, they saw us on the rooftops.” That was Peter’s voice. “ I know, but we have to convince them to let her speak and tell her story.” ‘Her’ must mean me. I thought. The cloth came back and this time with cold water. I couldn’t help it. I shivered. I let my eyes flutter open. Filia sat next to me, the wet cloth in her hands. She set it down in a bowl of water, Probably cold water. I reflected. Filia turned and said, “Mom! The patient’s awake!’ Magna came into the room then, holding a couple jars of salve. “So, What’s your name?” Magna asked. “I’m Fortem.”  I said. Magna washed all of my cuts and scrapes out with the cloth mentioned above, then put both salves on it. “What are they for?” I asked. “What?” Magna replied. “The salves.” “Oh, those. One prevents infection from breaking out and one is a pain reliever and speeds the healing process along. The dark green is the painkiller/healing one and the clear-ish one is the infection preventer. We call the dark green one Sana and the clear one is Arceo.” She finished cleaning up my bumps and bruises and I had just sat down at their table to eat something when we heard a loud voice from outside. “Bring her out! We know you have her! She will kidnap all of the children and steal all of our livestock!” It was the leader of the mob that had chased me across the rooftops!

 

Avem

 

The smaller bat hurried away. “Well, since I am supposed to be your escort for the rest of your time here and you will be here for a while,-” Yeah right! “- I will tell you my name.” ‘My’ bat said. “My name is Cingo.” “My name is Avem.” might as well be friendly to him. I don’t want anymore wall smacks after all. “You will eat in your cell. Come along now.” Cingo said. We both lofted ourselves up and flew up and took a right, two lefts and one up. Then up on a large cliff there stood my cage. We flew down to it and two guards swooped down to help. The two guards held me while Cingo undid the manacle around his ankle, attaching me to him, unclipped the chain and tied it on to the iron ring in the floor that had previously been embedded in the floor of my  ‘wonderful’ cell. The two guards flew up to two small ledges that they perched on. The smaller bat ‘Hjak’ arrived with two bowls in his talons and small bag hanging from his mouth, which held an apple. “And here is your food now.” Cingo said. Hjak slowly approached me, set the food down from his claws, keeping his head up and looking at me, then reached up and grabbed the bag from his mouth and set it down in front of me. Then he hurried backward and launched into the air. He flew off down the tunnel. I immediately reached for the food and wolfed it down, saving the apple for last. As I crunched into the delicious, crisp, tart apple the two guards came into the cell and, pinning me down, unclipped my chain. Then we heard a scream! Cingo immediately jumped into the cell, grabbed me, and smashed me against the far wall, covering me. He put his claws over my mouth, muffling any noises I might make. The scream echoed again, closer, then was abruptly cut off. I heard loud wing beats pass by my cell. After about 5 more minutes, Cingo slowly peeled himself off of me. This was my chance! I leaped up, wings out and open and launched into the air! I flew as fast as I could down the tunnel then powered my way up through the tunnel system. I heard shouts behind me as well as wing beats. Sooner or later, I needed to turn and fight. But not without a weapon. I felt an instinct in my gut, telling me where to go. I dived into a tunnel mouth below me, reason screamed to go back up, to the light, but instinct urged me on. As I flew deeper the shouts grew louder. I shot through a tunnel and came into a HUGE cavern. It was filled with gold and jewels! And there, on top of a pile of gold coins, was my sword. I dived for it and pulled it up into the air with me. The bats flew into the cavern, Cingo and the two guards. I backed up to a wall and waited for them to approach me. Cingo came first. He sneered at me. “You’re gonna use that little toothpick to hurt me? Oh, I’m so scared!” he mocked. “Well, seeing as I killed about-” I dove at him, swinging the sword and managing to just graze his wing before he dove out of the way. I lunged for the two guards and they split up, one flying above, one diving below me! But, the entrance was not blocked anymore. I swooped up neatly into the tunnel entrance and flew as fast as I could. But my wings were tiring. I couldn’t keep this up for long. I dove into a different tunnel, down and to my left. If only I had spent longer with the Amaruons.. I rounded a corner and dove for a rocky outcrop. I landed behind it and flattened my back and wings against it. I heard wingbeats overhead, then they faded away down the tunnel. I stayed still until I was sure they were gone. Then I heard a familiar noise. A cheep, cheep noise. Faint, but it was there. I crawled out of hiding and saw the cave it was coming from. I slowly approached the cave. I peeked around the corner and there he was! Aurum! I was about to rush in but scanned the cave for dangers. Aurum was tied up to a stone post, unable to get free. He cheeped again desperately. I was about to run into the cave but claws snared my wings and shoulders. I spun, sword in hand but it was slapped away and clattered across the floor. “Well, look what we found, boys!” It was Cingo and the guards. ...15 minutes later… I lay in the cell, groaning. After the guards re-chained me up to Cingo, I got to get an absolutely wonderful flyaround. (Cingo whacked me into a couple BILLION walls. OW they hurt!)I’m gonna have a couple(correction: A THOUSAND) lovely bruises in the morning. The sunlight that shined into my cell faded to starlight. The bats took flight into the night and flew away. As I curled up to sleep I saw the silhouette of a bat cover the light and then it was gone. I fell asleep.

 

Fortem

 

I looked at Magna. Her eyes widened. Oh crap, she believes them. This isn’t good. I thought. I got ready to leap up and dash for the door. But before I could Magna spoke “How can they believe this! This rumor is based on nothing more than false half truths!” “Well they do.” Peter said. “You have few seconds left until we take her by force!” Well, I can’t put them in danger for my own sake. I thought. I stood up suddenly and staggered to the door. “No, you need to wait, let us explain to them the situation.” Magna said. “No!” I replied trying to push past her through the doorway. “Filius! Give me a hand here!” Filius grabbed my shoulders and pulled me back from the doorway and pushed me over to the bed. My head spun for a couple of seconds until I sat down. “Uugh. My head hurts. Do you know why?”  “The herbs we gave you were cross contaminated with one you seem to be allergic to.” Filia answered. Oh that’s bad. “Which herb is that?”  “One called Frigus.” “What does it normally do?” “It helps to cool your skin when you are extremely hot.” “So not much of a loss?” “Depends on where you go. In the desert, it's essential. In the mountains it equals death.” “Ah. So no desert forays for me then?” “No.”  That might present a problem. I’ll deal with this later if I have to. Best to avoid it though. While we were talking Magna was explaining things to the villagers. They had reached an agreement. Once I was well, I would undergo one of their trials. If I succeeded, they would listen to my plea. If not, well, I preferred not to think about that. Magna explained all this to me. “So what trial am I doing?” “They will decide overnight and will not tell us about it until noon tomorrow, right before you do the trial.” “Oh.”  So no preparation or prior knowledge. I’ll deal with it though, I think. “Anyway it is about dinner time and I have some salt venison left from the deer a couple days ago. Peter, go grab some asparagus from the cellar and some of those plums too.” Filius, Filia and I all licked our lips in unison.

Once the food was finished cooking, we all sat down by the table and tucked in. It was delicious! “Mmm, I don’t think I know a better cook than you, Magna.” “Why, thank you.”   It was juicy and succulent, cooked just right. The talking ceased as we all tucked into to the delicious meal. Magna was definitely a good cook. I couldn’t stop wondering what the trial would be tomorrow. I was fairly confident I could do it. All the same, I was having stirrings of doubt. But honestly, what would it be? This thought kept circling in my head constantly non-stop. I went to bed lying on the floor wrapped in blankets. Little did I know, Avem was doing the same thing.

 

Avem

 

Uuuunnh. I sat up, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. My chain rattled along the floor as I went over to the cell door. “Aaand she’s awake.” One bat guard said. “I’ll go tell Cingo.” the other said. “I right here, you know. Just because you talk like I don’t exist, I do still exist.” The bat ignored me. Typical bat. “Yes, you guys are so high and mighty you can’t even talk to me.” Sure you are. What's it like being a prison guard? The lowest of the bat order?” That hit a nerve. He hissed and shoved the spear at me. I hurriedly leaped back. “Okay, got the idea, buddy..” Cingo appeared from around the other corner and peered in at me. “Stirring up the prison guards? Trying to cause trouble again?”. They opened the door, grabbed my chain attached it to Cingo, etc and we headed out. Today was my first day working as a slave. Yaaaay. (Sarcasm) We headed down the tunnel, turned left, then flew upward. We took an immediate right turn after that. Then we swooped up to where some bats were working. They handed me a shovel and Cingo nudged me forward. I started to dig out part of the wall, wondering what Fortem, Lupus and Nix were doing. Had they moved on without me? If so, where are they and what are they doing at this moment? If they didn’t move on, what are they still doing here? Looking for me and Aurum? Hmmmm…  After digging out enough for a ledge, I stood on it and started digging from there to give my wings a bit of a rest. Cingo noticed and pulled my chain up, bringing me into the air. “Wha-?” “Quit lounging around and work!” “I WAS!”  “No, you were sitting on the ledge doing nothing!” THAT’S NOT TRUE. The look in Cingo’s eye though dared me to talk back again, and I probably wouldn’t get food today. 35 minutes later… My wings were so tired, I was starting to sag to the ground and Cingo was mostly supporting my weight. Finally he relented and let me stand on a ledge and work. I was covered in sweat and dirt. “BRRRRIIINNNG!” The bell for dinner rung after what seemed like EONS! I leaped of the ledge, surprising Cingo who got pulled off another ledge and then neatly opened his wings. He swooped away and I quickly followed, hungry for dinner. We flew back to my cell and a different bat asked what food I’d get today. This time it was: A piece of bread(yum), uncooked, a piece of grilled salmon (eh) and clover salad. When brought in I wolfed down the bread and salmon, too hungry to be picky and shoveled the salad into my face. It was delicious. Where do they get this stuff from though? I wondered. The second I was done, Cingo stood up and said “His Royal Darkness will examine you now.” That’s the bat king, Dominus right? That’s not good, is it? Honestly it took him 1 day and a lot of other hours to get to me? And he’s going to ‘Examine’ me? Ummm…. Okay then??? I thought as we traveled down the tunnel. As we went deeper I noticed something was familiar. Cingo and the guards were also holding my chain a bit tighter. AHA! This was where I nearly escaped. Furthermore, the cave ahead of us was the cave with Aurum. At least the last time I was there, Aurum was there, chained up to a stone post. His feathers were only just starting to budge, yet he had seen more action than most birds ever would in their lifetime. We swooped into the cave and landed on the floor. Cingo slightly in front of me, The guards slightly behind. And, sure enough, there was Dominus, curled on the ceiling. And not 5 feet to my right, there was Aurum. Cheeping at me, he said “Avem, where mommy? Where mommy?”  Speaking in bird chirps, I responded, “She’ll be here soon, everything is gonna be okay Aurum, Okay?” “Okay..” He chirped back. “Shut up.” Cingo said out of the corner of his mouth. “You.” I shot back. Cingo muttered to himself. “So you haven’t lost your spunk yet, have you.” Dominus spoke. Instantly Cingo stood up like he was called to attention. He flipped open his wings and neatly dropped to the floor. Aurum pulled at the end of his chain moving in the opposite direction of Dominus. Poor Aurum, I swear, Summo Deo Paladine, if they had hurt him... This time though, I was the object of Dominus’s interests. He slowly circled me, like he had when we first met. He paid particular notice to the bruises I had gained. “Did I not give orders that she wasn’t to be harmed?” Dominus said, a hint of anger accentuating his words. “My-my lord.” Cingo stuttered as he turned to look at him. “S-she was not cooperating, we-we had to p-punish her.”  So he had conflicting orders. Heh. That must have been difficult. Of course, had I obeyed, none of that would have happened. Then again, am I likely to obey some overgrown bats? Nooooo. “Did you use the whip.” “No, my lord.” Cingo had lost his stutter. “No broken bones? Head injuries? Anything like that?” “No my lord.” “ How hard was her work today?”  “She seemed to be sufficient enough to dig out a couple ledges.” No. I dug out 5. Each were 7 feet long too. I stayed silent. As they prattled on about work and what was going to happen, etc, etc, I had managed to get a whole foot closer to Aurum. If I could just distract the guards long enough to grab Aurum...Wait. If I grabbed him and flew away, chances were I would either get lost or caught before making it to the exit. I was also chained to Cingo. Then I likely wouldn’t have another chance to get him and escape. If only…Soon. I promised myself. Soon I’ll get free. Until then I’ll bid my time, waiting and waiting for the perfect opportunity. “Are you listening?!” Cingo said, slightly annoyed with me. “Ummm...no?”  “Whatever.” Then out of nowhere, the guards leapt on me and held me down to the ground. Cingo began to unchain his leg manacle that connected us. The guards pushed me down even harder. Then his manacle was off. Carefully, he began to take mine off. When he got close enough, I tried to kick him in the face. The guards snagged my leg and held it down again. Dang it. Dominus was watching all this with what looked like an amused face? I’m not the expert on reading bat faces. My manacle was off finally! I stood up, spreading my wings, but the bats had two iron hard grips on my arms. They held me still while another bat flew in with a circular leather thing. It had a ring attached to it. Then Cingo stepped forward, took the thing from the bat and put it round my neck. So it was basically a collar. Then chain links were put through the ring and attached to the same pole Aurum was attached to. Then Cingo and the guards swooped out of the cave. I turned to look at Dominus. Now I was alone with the bat king.

 

Fortem

 

A bolt of sunlight shined in my eyes, prompting me to wake up. “Fortem. Foortem. Fortem! Wake up!” “Okay, okay I’m up, I’m up.” I replied, my tone slightly acidic. I sat up, wondering where I was for a couple seconds. Then memory flooded back. Oh yeah. I have to do a trial thingamajigger today. Then I’m not murdered by a homicidal mob. The pressure is on. I looked up at the person who had woken me up. It was Filius. “So what time is it?” “About 5:00 in the morning.” “WHAT! WHY DID YOU WAKE ME UP THIS EARLY?!” “Shh, you’ll wake everyone else up.I want to show you something.” I carefully followed Filius out the door, snagging my dagger and slinging it around my waist as I did so, just in case. These were dangerous times. He looked back at me but didn’t say anything. God, he was handsome. And the way his blond hair fell into his face, and the way he blew them out of face to the side again. We tiptoed out into the street. I followed him out of the village, following a faint track not well-traveled. “I found this once as I explored the forest.” “Wha-” We emerged onto a bluff facing a lake. The sun was just cresting the horizon, creating mystical colors in the swirling waters of the lake. It was beautiful. We sat down at the edge of the bluff, our legs dangling over the edge. I put my head on his shoulder and looked up at him. His emeraldine green eyes sparkled in the sunrise. We both looked out at the sunrise. We stayed there for a long moment. Then we heard a strange noise behind us. I stood and spun in one smooth movement, unsheathing my dagger as I did so. There was a medium-sized wolf behind us. I looked straight in its eyes and dared it to come closer, advancing one step closer as I did so. I knew how to deal with wolves. The wolf wavered but didn’t leave...Yet. I took one more step, and curled my lip up in a snarl. The wolf took one more look then leapt away through the forest. I turned to look at Filius. “Wow! I had no idea what to do, I’ve never seen one here before. He looked at me with something special in his eyes. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure it would work.”  “We better go.” “Yeah.” We quickly followed the path back through the forest and  managed to tiptoe back inside where I had a mug of delicious coffee. As I sipped the last dregs from the cup, Magna, Peter and Filia had all woken up. “Early riser huh?” Filia asked. Both Peter and Magna smiled at each other. “Yeah, sometimes though I sleep like the dead.” Which I likely will be, unless I complete this trial. I shoved the thought to the back of my mind. “Ah, that reminds me, you need to be down to the green, at noon.” I wonder what it’s going to be. Better bring my gear just in case. I strapped on my arm guard, then slung my quiver over my back. I snagged my bow as I walked out the door and then I headed back to the camp Nix, Lupus and I had set up a couple days previously to my being chased by the mob. Lupus and Nix, surprisingly enough were there. They both looked up as I entered the clearing. “FORTEM?!?!” “YOU’RE BACK!?!” Was their very surprised responses. “Well, yes naturally.” “For an entire day we couldn’t figure out how to rescue you. We also didn’t want to move on without you.” I told them the whole story so far. “Listen, I have to do some trial thingy in the village or a large homicidal mob will kill me. I want you guys there for a quick extraction if things take a turn for the worse.” “Okay. When and where does this trial take place?” Lupus asked. “Today at midday on the village green.” “We’ll be there, have no worries.” “I’m more worried you’ll get lost trying to find the village green rather than anything else.” “Well, where are you heading now?” “To get a buck for Magna to cook up.” “Do you think I could have a haunch?” “Hahaha….No.”  “Dang it.” Nix muttered. I crept into the forest, eyes wide and ears open, as I crept on sneaking through the forest. There! A nibbling of grass. I peered around a tree. Not ten feet away was a beautiful 6-point buck, with a lot of good meat. I slowly drew an arrow from my quiver. It lightly tapped the end of my quiver as it came out. The buck’s head whipped up. Instantly, I froze. I waited about 5 minutes before the buck put his head back down. I continued to pull out the arrow and I nocked it to my bow. Slowly I drew the bow back. I sighted briefly then released the arrow. The buck never saw it coming. A nice clean kill, right through the heart and lungs. I hefted the buck up on my shoulders and left the woods.

 

“Here you are Magna.” “What a gorgeous buck!” Magna exclaimed, her eyes wide with surprise. I set it down on the counter. “What time is it? “About 11:30 am.” “30 minutes tell the trial begins?” “Yes.” “Okay, I’ll be back for lunch.” I had walked out the door and down the road, intending to go for a morning run and work up an appetite. Behind me I heard a clatter, and I whipped around. Nothing there. “Filius, I know you’re there.” “What gave me away?” he said as he stood up, grinning sheepishly, from his place behind a vendor’s abandoned cart. “One, you didn’t duck into hiding fast enough, second, I could see your feet from under the cart.” “So where are you going?” “Don’t really know. Just going for a walk I guess. Know anywhere in the woods you want to show me again?” “As a matter of fact, yes.” “All right then, lead on.” Once again we crept into the woods, this time following a more prominent trail. As we walked on we passed a couple snares. One had a plump, juicy rabbit in it. “Yes! I caught one!” Filius exclaimed. “These are your snares?” “Yeah.” “I’ve never figured out how to set up a snare.” “I could show you sometime.” “I’d like that.” He smiled at me. I returned it, feeling a warm glow inside me. He stepped closer to me. I stepped closer to him. His hand caressed my cheek. We looked into each other’s eyes. He looked into my eyes and abruptly turned back to the snares.

 

Avem

 

Dominus stared at me. I stared back. “Do you want to end this this staring contest?” I asked. He snarled,  not amused. Aurum cheeped, making both of us turn our heads. Aurum huddled closer to me, backing away from Dominus. Dominus gave me one last look-over then flew up to his perch and fell back asleep. I took this opportunity to look around the ah… accommodations. There was Dominus’s perch on the ceiling, currently occupied. There were two other perches, relatively close to Dominus’s perch. Huh. About 10 meters away to my left, facing away from the entrance to the cave there were two ledges. They kinda looked like bunk beds. ...Wait. Oh god. Was that a human skeleton?!?! Wait...no. Thank god. Just cow bones. Dominus must like chewing on them or something. Wait a minute. Where did they get the bones from? Well a cow, yeah duh, but where did the cow come from? There must be a village close by. If and when I got free, I could stop by there, pick up supplies and maybe, just maybe stop the bats from attacking, raiding and generally ransacking the village. There were some shelfs and stuff. There was a long, sharp, knife that would be a useful weapon. But why is something like that in here? Come to think of it actually, there are a lot of sharp pointy things that would make good weapons. Not all of them, like that whip…..! My thoughts came to one horrifying conclusion. This was a torture room. Ahh well, jaculor. Is Aurum injured?! He hadn’t said anything while I held him but now he squeaked in protest as I held him up, looking at his feathers and skin for traces of blood or bruises or wounds. Thankfully, he was fine, just a little cold so I folded my wings around him. He was the only thing down here that was actually nice or even remotely good. He was getting pretty big, still able to fit in my arms but he was growing and flight feathers were just starting to budge. Maybe soon I could teach him how to fly. Then we could fly together. Fortem would still be his “Mother” though. I couldn’t replace her, not that I’d want to. I had enough on my plate. Remember the whole ‘Save the day warrior’ thing? Still had that to do... I decided to take a nap. Might as well catch up on my sleep, plus I´m gonna need my strength if I plan to escape. Which I do. I fell asleep.

 

Fortem

 

We stepped apart. He smiled shyly at me. “We should probably go.” I was the first to break the silence. “It’s okay.” Filius said. “I get it. You wouldn’t want to live with some nobody in some random village.” “Filius, it’s…” “You’re right, we need to go. The trial’s supposed to start soon anyway, right?” I didn’t want to leave it at that but he was right. I needed to get the trial done first. Then I could worry about Filius and I. Hmm. So I did think of us as a couple now. We tromped through the woods until we reached the end of the trees. Filius stopped. “I shouldn’t be seen with you when you enter the trial.” Why not? “Umm...okay. See you there?” “I wouldn’t miss it.” and just like that, he smiled at me. When I was about to give him a return smile, he had turned away and was heading down a side street. I hurried to the village green.

. ..

When I got there, it looked like the whole village had shown up to watch. My palms were sweaty. I wiped them on my pants leg. There was some sort of maze/obstacle course. That was probably the trial. Pretty impressive for a village to create. There were many benches and chairs arranged around it. The villagers had been waiting for me to arrive. Magna and family were in the stands. My heart skipped a beat when I saw Filius. I tried to catch his eye but he wouldn’t look at me. The village head lady, the one who had created the mob yesterday, came up to me. She spoke in a high, clear voice. “First, you will have to pass the obstacle course. You will only have two chances to pass it.” I could do that. Manageable. She went on. “Then you will have to beat all of our finest archers in the archery range behind it.” Okay. I can do that. She kept talking. “Then, your final challenge, should you pass all the others,” Her tone indicated I wouldn’t reach that far. “You will stand in a field for one full night and you cannot leave for anything. You must stay.” Sounds easy, but there’s probably a catch. “Are you ready for the trial to begin?”

Here we go. “Yes.” I stepped forward. I slipped on my arm guard, pulling the straps tight. I adjusted my quiver, checking the straps and slinging my bow over my shoulder. Ready. “3,2,1, GO!” I leaped forward and sprinted toward the course. I jumped and landed on the first beam, already leaping to grab the next one. I used my momentum to throw myself off the top to land on a pole below, I grabbed the pole and swung around. I reached ground level again. I dove under a beam barring my path and soared over the next one. Last one was coming up. I ran for the finish line and just slid under the last pole. “Time! “Forty seconds!” There were exclamations from the crowd. “Wow!” “That’s a new record!” “Wish I was that fast.” “She was a blur!” Looks like I might be earning their respect now. Now the archery contest. I pulled my bow off my shoulder. I checked over it for any damage, seeing none, I drew my first arrow. There were twelve targets, the closet maybe ten meters away, the farthest over 50. My opponents were stepping forward now. One was a middle aged man, maybe 20-25. One was about Filius’s age, 18-19. The last was about 35-40. They would all shoot twelve shots first, then I would shoot. The first was the 18 year old. He shot the first one, the red ring. Decent. He got mostly the same results until the tenth. Then he missed. For the other two he also missed. Terrible. Then it was the 22 year old. He shot a little better but not by much. When he reached the last three, his arrows just hit the black ring of the targets. The 40 year old was up then it was my turn. He did very well, not hitting a direct bullseye but still getting in the yellow. Then with the last three again, he shot red, red…….BULLSEYE!!???!! By the look on his face, he was just as surprised as me, if not more. So it was luck. That was the shot to beat then. The crowd was ecstatic. They were screaming and shouting like nuts. They were positive nothing could beat that. I stepped up to the plate. I shot bullseye after bullseye. Insofar I was winning. I shot two more bullseye’s, then it was the final shot. Make it count. I breathed in, then exhaled. I smoothly drew it back, sighting my target. The crowd was silent. I released my arrow. It soared across the field. It hit the other arrow, slicing it down the middle, the two halfs falling aside as my arrow drove its point home. For a moment the whole crowd was silent. Then they all cheered! Among them, screaming his throat out, was Filius. He caught my eye and I caught his. I smiled.

 

Chapter 11

To The Rescue!

 

Avem

 

I woke up tied to some stone slab. I was still in the same room, the difference was that all three perches were occupied. One by Dominus, of course, one by another male bat, and the third by a female bat. “Dad, she’s awake.” The small male bat said. Dad? “About time.” Dominus spoke. He flew over to the weapons(Torture devices) rack. “Wait, husband, aren’t you going to introduce us first?” “Eh? Oh, yes of course. My wife Regina, queen, and my son, the heir to the roost, Heredis.” “And what’s your name?” Regina had a lovely voice. It was smooth, melodic and graceful. It sounded the way you’d imagine silk to sound. “My name is Avem. Now hurry up and get it over with.” “Oh, why would we want to do that now?” I take that back. Her voice now held a note of menace and evil. “Dominus, what should we do first?” “The long, thin, one perhaps?” “Sounds perfect.” He took a sliver thin knife from the rack. It looked whisper sharp. He paused, as if deciding what to do with it first. The knife performed a downward arc toward my leg. It swiped across my calf, just below the knee. I bit the inside of my cheek to stop the scream of pain. Heredis winced and looked away.He brought the knife higher, intending to slip the knife down my side. Just then a guard burst in. “I’m sorry, your royal darkness, but the outer fortifications have been attacked! As we speak now, the first wall has been breached and the second will fall soon!” Dominus flung the knife aside and snatched up a sword. The rest of Dominus’s family flew after him as he followed the guard. Who could be attacking? Maybe Fortem and the rest. I thought they would’ve moved on by now. Then again, I was only snatched yesterday. Wow. Feels like it’s been ages. So I guess I was just gonna stay here then. Just then Aurum chirped. “Anyway, you can help me Aurum?” I asked him. “My beak could break the ropes?” “Yes!” “But I don’t know how to get up there.” He couldn’t fly yet and he was otherwise too short. “Maybe, if I extended my wing, could you climb up it?” “Sure!”  I twisted to my side, wrenching my leg in the process. “AAAGH!” “What’s wrong? Did the mean bat hurt you?” “Yes Aurum, but it’s okay, I’m fine.” I said, my teeth gritted against the pain. I slowly extended my wing, bending it toward the floor. Aurum leaped onto my wing. OW. His talons dug in. He managed to climb his way up my wing, occasionally, accidentally pulling out a feather here and there. He poked his beak into the rope and started snapping tendrils of rope. The first bond snapped and he moved to the next. I watched him carefully. When the second snapped I sat up and set Aurum on the floor, untying the other bonds around my legs. This rope could come in handy later. I slung it over my shoulder and spread my wings. I hoped of the slab and immediately collapsed, my injured leg not able to support my body weight. I stood on my one good leg and I leaped, just making it off the ground. I snagged Aurum then flew out of the cave. I WAS FREE!

 

Fortem

 

So. The first part of the trial was complete, but I still had to do the last part, stand in a field for a whole night. First things first though, I was starving! I headed to Magna’s place but got surrounded by a group of young men. “Hey, why don’t you come to my place for dinner?” “Sup, lady, why don’t you come with me?” and they were making all sorts of offers like that. Filius was coming through the group, but by the time he reached me it would be too late. I flipped out a knife and held it up. “Back away from me!” “Is she crazy or something?” “What the heck? I thought she only could shoot.” Those were all whispers from the crowd. Nonetheless, they gave me some space. “Thank you.” I sheathed my knife, turned on my heel and walked away. It had been a while since someone tried flirting with me. These new customers would not be eager to try that again. Heh. Serves them right for trying to flirt with the high guard leader of the Amaruons. Also the fact that I was formerly….No. Best not to think about that. I shoved the thought to the back of my mind. Ohhh. That smells so good! The aroma of cooking venison wafted through the air. Mmm. Magna was cooking all right. I walked in the door and was immediately sat down at the table by Filia. Magna was cooking the venison on the spit. “Hey Filia, watch the meat, okay?” “Sure Mom.” As Magna walked out, Filia stared daggers at me. Finally, she spoke. “Be nice to my brother and heaven help you if you break his heart.” Ah. I wondered when his family would notice. “All right, calm down. I don’t plan to break his heart, much less hurt him in any way, shape or form. If anything, he can’t come with us on our journey, okay?” I said definitely. “Why not?” Filia replied. “Oh, well, just the small fact that he could die.” Filia smirked. “Ha ha ha! I guess he hasn’t told you yet.” “What?” “Let’s just say, he has something….special about him.” Magna entered the house again, this time holding some herbs. “How’s the meat looking, Filia?” “Looks ready for the herbs, Mom.” While they tended to the food, my mind was whirling. What is Filius hiding from me? After eating a nice hearty meal of venison, I decided to talk a walk in the woods to clear my mind. Unconsciously, I found myself walking along Filius’s snare line. I snapped back to reality to see a figure hunched over a rabbit in one of the traps. “Hey, those aren’t yours!” I snapped. The figure turned around. “Oh, sorry Filius.” Stupid, he said he was the only one who knew this trail. “Hey, there you are. I wanted to give you something.” What could it be? “Well? What is it?” “You might not be a jewelry person, but I made these for you.” He pulled out a little box from the pocket in his jerkin. It was blue velvet, very expensive and I bet Filius probably spent all his money on it. He slowly opened it and there, sitting on a little cushion were two peridot dragon earrings. “You made these?” Wow. “They're beautiful.” “So you like them?” he asked “I love them.” He picked them up and slowly put them on me. “Filius, I-” “I know.” He cut me off. “He pulled away, his expression slightly hurt. “You wouldn’t want to be with a simple country person like me.” “No, I-” “I get it.” He gave me a sad, wry, smile. He turned away.

. ..

I stood in the field. There were some cows and sheep around, but only a few. It was pitch black but I had fairly good night vision. Nix and Lupus were in the bushes nearby, but I was pretty sure I heard snoring. Not that I expected them to stay awake. Suddenly, there was movement in the sky above us. A large bat swooped down and snagged a cow and took off into the black. It saw me and screeched loudly. I whipped an arrow from my quiver and it was dead before it hit the ground. But it was too late. Already I could see many bats coming down out of the sky. I drew, aimed and shot, drew, aimed and shot, so many times. I reached for more arrows but with a shock I realised I only had 5 left. Then, backup came. Nix leaped out of the bushes and just missed snagging a bat. Lupus took off and started battling the bats claw to claw. I got a moment to think and came up with a crazy plan. “Nix, Lupus! I’ve got a plan!” “Good! I didn’t wake up from a wonderful nap just to get clawed in the face!” Lupus answered. I pulled Nix under cover and I explained the plan to him. “Are you crazy?!”  “Probably, but it's our best chance to get Avem and Aurum back!” “Okay, I´ll tell Lupus! You cover us!” “Got it!” We rushed back out and I shot my last few arrows, then pulled out a knife. The bats concentrated on me. I saw Lupus and Nix out of the corner of my eye. I sheathed my knife and ran toward cover. Slowly, of course. This had the effect I wanted. Two bats swooped out of the sky and dove at me. I saw Lupus and Nix doing the same thing, following the plan. The plan was to get a close as possible to the bat’s lair by being carried by them. Then, when we reach the front gates or whatever, we attack the bats carrying us. They won’t expect that because they generally pick up unsuspecting/unarmed or frightened villagers. They drop us and we do a sneaky infiltration. Unless one of the bats spots us in which case, we go in bows blazing and blow the joint right before we make our extremely fast getaway. I know, I have high hopes. Phase 1 worked well enough. We were just being carried over the fortifications when I stabbed my formerly sheathed knife into the belly of one bat holding me. The other was caught off balance and was an easy target for a lightning knife strike to the leg then down I plunged. Two bats dove to catch me but it was too late. I plummeted into the tree canopy, safe for the moment. I heard additional bat shrieks as Lupus and Nix attacked their captors. Then 2 thumps sounded in the trees to my left and one slightly behind my position. “Everyone all right?” I asked. “I’m good, but boy am I going to have one lovely bruise in the morning.” Nix replied. Silence. “Lupus?” “Ow. I got a lovely claw in the face and one down my back. I think I’ll be okay, just toss me a roll of bandages and maybe some of that salve you got from Magna.” I chucked it too him then slid down from the trees. “Okay guys, you know the deal, Lupus in front, me in the middle and you, Nix in the rear.” Lupus would be advance scout and fly ahead, coming back to check on us from time to time. Nix would stay in back because his white coat of fur was probably visible for miles. Maybe not miles, but nonetheless, it was still visible. I resolved to have Nix roll in mud or something, if we found any, that is. We trudged on through the dark, occasionally tripping over a root or getting tangled in coils of stay-with-me vine and creepers hanging from the trees.We did find mud and, Nix wasn’t too happy about it but he swallowed his pride and got very, very, very dirty and smelly. He resolved to wash himself very thoroughly to get his fur pristine and white again. After maybe 5 minutes, we decided we had found a way in, away from the sentries watchful eyes. I silently creeped forward and started to scale the rocks that formed one part of the barricade. We were making good progress when Nix slipped and cut himself on a rock. “Shards!” He cursed. Immediately he slammed his mouth shut. Too late. A sentry, ever watchful, had heard it and came over to investigate. He saw us and he snagged the horn on his belt and blew it right before my knife struck him. Oh no. Phase 2 has gone wrong, which means, we have to use the backup plan. I thought. “Time for plan B!” I shouted. “What’s that?!” they shouted back. “Blast this joint and then run like heck!” I leaped up the rest of the slope and plucked my knife from the bat’s body. I kept it out though, ready for what was gonna happen next. The alarm was picked up by the other sentries and pretty soon we were surrounded. We were back to back, shoulder to shoulder and the bats swarmed around us. This is it. Darkness wins again. Then a noise cut through the bats’ shrieks and flapping wings. It was a voice I knew all too well, one that had whispered softly in my ear, one that had shouted in jubilation at the trail. “Hold on, Fortem!” It was Filius. He had a mob formed behind him, made of the villagers and together we scaled the walls and fought the bats. “Fortem, listen, you and your group go on ahead to rescue Avem, we’ll hold back the bats for a while!’ “But-” “No buts, it’s Now or Never!”  “I can’t leave you!” He pulled me close. My heartbeat sped up. “I love you, Fortem.” then he kissed me. I smiled at him. “Finally.” I leaped from the wall and into Lupus’s arms and he flew me down the tunnel. Nix followed behind us. I had snagged a torch from one of the villagers and I held it up now, examining the amazing tunnel system. Then we heard a scream echoing through the tunnels. “That was Avem!” Lupus said. We all looked at each other and wordlessly agreed that we would wreak havoc against these creatures. “Taceo! I hear something.” Nix snapped. We creeped behind a rock formation and then we heard it. Wingbeats. Large ones, heading this way. Each of us peeked our heads out from the rock formation and saw three huge bats fly overhead. Two males and a female. We hurried onward through the tunnels. Sometime later, we came to a drop. I shined a flashlight down it. “I don’t see anything, do you?” I said. “No.”-Nix. “Really? I see the bottom and 3 different tunnels that branch off from it.” Lupus said. “Here, be useful and lower me to the bottom.” “What about me?” Nix asked. “There is no way in Heaven and beyond that I could carry you, Nix. You’re a fully-grown snow tiger. Even carrying Fortem is pushing it.” “Hey, guys, stop. Nix stays here and growls/roars to warn us if someone’s coming. Then take cover, okay?”  “Fine.” Lupus slowly lowered me to the bottom. “Which way should we go?” “That one.” he pointed to our right. The tunnel was bigger than the others but otherwise no different. “Why that one?” “Because I can hear little chirps from a familiar bird friend of ours.” “You mean Aurum?!” My breath caught in my throat for a second. We hustled our butts down that tunnel as fast as they could go. We caught a glimpse of some gleaming pile of….Was that gold?! Does it matter? No, not really, though our funds are running low….Just keep going. Ignore it. “Wingbeats.” Lupus hissed. There was nowhere to hide, except in the dark shadows. And Bats have night vision. No Duh. “Quick, into the cave!” Lupus picked me up and zoomed into the treasure cavern. We heard the wingbeats pause outside the cave, then pick up again. We dropped down behind a gold pile. “Are we good?” I hissed. Lupus’s ears swiveled back and forth, back and forth. He drew breath to speak, then….louder wingbeats. And these ones were entering the cave.

 

Avem

I picked up the pace as I heard more wingbeats headed our way. Then I felt the now-familiar wrenching-in-my-gut-instinct. I decided to follow it, taking a left turn instead of heading up. The wingbeats behind Aurum and I were getting louder. I tried to speed up but realized that I was already tired, despite having a short nap earlier and also woozy and dizzy from loss of blood. Blood! I was leaving droplets of blood behind me! That would make it easier for them to track me. Sooner or later, I’d have to bandage it. The wingbeats grew even louder, so possibly sooner! Right now, bends in the tunnel kept us out of sight, but there were long open stretches, where we would almost certainly be spotted. There! A large opening in the cave wall! A cavern we could hide in! As luck would have it, that just so happened to be the very place my gut-pulling sensation was leading. I whipped inside the cave just as two black shapes rounded the corner. Whew! That was close! Too close. “Well, we made it, Aurum! I guess we’re not outside just yet, but I bet we’re close!” “Avem?” A deep, gravelly voice said. “Lupus!” I shouted, diving at him and swooping into him, him catching me in his claws, careful not to snag my wings. “I’m here, too you know,” Fortem said, smiling to take the sting out of her words. “Oh, here.” I handed her Aurum. “Mommie, chirp,chirp, mommie!” Aurum said. “He’s fledging now, soon he’ll be able to try flying!” “You’ll be able to teach him, of course?” “Certainly.” “We both can.” Lupus said. “Okay, we’ve got to go, time for reunions later,” Fortem said,”And keep your voice down.” “Wait, Fortem, hold up, I’ve got to find something. At that moment an image came into my mind of a silver disk, inlaid with bronze with a moonstone in the center and on a leather thong to hang around my neck. “What is it?” Fortem asked curiously. “The Amulet of Mardaris….” I whispered, suddenly having a flash of recognition.(Yay! I’m no longer an amnesic! Right? Right?!?) ”Everyone, look around for a silver disk, inlaid with bronze and with a moonstone! No time to explain! We need it!” I shouted. We all dashed off, looking in all sorts of places before Lupus found it. “Here!” he held up a disk that shone with a radiance of its own. I leaped from the shelf I was searching on and in a flash I snatched it up and whipped it round my head. We all dashed out of the room and Lupus and I literally flew up the tunnel! Then we heard a roar, followed by skittering noises, then silence. Fortem turned pale. “That was Nix’s warning signal! We have to hide!” there was nowhere to hide in sight, just smooth, dark rock. ///flash\\\  I was in the tunnel, flying down the hallways of the bat cave, desperately trying to avoid...DOMINUS.And there, huddled on a ledge cast in shadow was the rest of the gang. That’s it !///flash\\\  That was the power of the Amulet of Mardaris. A premonition of the immediate future. I knew what to do.“There! You guys hide up on that ledge!” I shouted. “But what are you going to-” “No time!” I yelled back in response to Lupus, i pounded my wings hard and flew down the tunnel, seeing Dominus whip around the corner right behind me. I flew and flew and flew, dodging and dashing. Zoom! Through the eating hall. Zoom! Straight through the cell area I had called home for two days. Then, up ahead, I saw the moonlight shining on the smooth floor of the tunnel. Fwip! Right in front of me! A dark black, silver blur! Too late to slow down! I slammed into the blur with a loud FWUMP! Owwww. Claws gripped my arms and strong wings beat to keep us upright. It was Heredis. Just my luck, run into two members of the ‘royal’ bat family. I struggled and pulled back as hard as I could. “Avem, Avem listen to me. I’m sorry, I didn’t want him to hurt you, but what could I do? I would have lost everything. Even you.” WHAT. THE. HECK. No,no,no,no,no. He’s actually IN LOVE with me!?!?! REALLY?! Oh dear…. “Listen, if you just come peacefully, I’ll explain to dad that I want you for my own purposes. You’ll be fine. Then, once everything has settled down and I’m king, We’ll marry and we’ll be together. Forever.” Forever. The word echoed inside my head. My wings missed a beat. No. No. NO. NO! The last word was a scream that burst from my throat, right as dominus burst into the tunnel. Heredis turned pale, then grabbed my wings to make it seem like I was a prisoner. There was only one thing to do to escape imprisonment. “I will never marry you! Not for as long as I live!” Heredis became a shade of pure white. Dominus understood it all. “Heredis.” his voice was low. The calm before the storm. The storm that was about to break. “Dad, I-I-” “AROAR!!” Dominus looked at his son with fire in his eyes and screamed a pure howl of just rage, before leaping at him. Heredis twisted to meet him and released me in the process. In the tumult I slipped away, down the tunnel and flew for that beautiful shaft of light. I burst through, just as the sun was beginning to rise. Pink and orange rays swept across the land, transforming the bleakness into a riot of color and beauty. The air was pure and beautiful. The sky was a cloudless blue expanse of pure magic and freedom. I breathed in the fresh scent of the morning dew, and heard the first birds beginning to wake. I tasted the morning mist on my tongue. I loved it. I wanted to stay here forever. Then Dominus burst out of the tunnel behind me. Ahhh, well….. Gbye! I zoomed away as fast as I could, heading for the entrance to rendezvous with the others. Dominus was closing on me though.. gaining more ground with his bigger wings every second. In a straight out race he would beat me, but in a different type of race…. Making a quick decision, not thinking this through, I banked and swerved under Dominus. He dove but just missed me by a hair width. He reacts fast, I thought, sooner or later, I’m going to tire, I can’t keep this up for long. Doing a couple more swerves and dives, catching a thermal or two to boost me up, I slowly made my way to the entrance. I felt a woosh of air and dropped like a rock, but not fast enough. Dominus’s claws ripped down my back, leaving long gashes that bled freely. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a sword or my armour, my armour back at camp and my sword in the bat tunnels somewhere. I needed a weapon to retaliate. I spotted a sword on the ground. No, too heavy. I spotted a  tunnel exit, and thought, Why not? I dove through, taking a turn and catching my breath. Oh no. Oh no no no. bad decision. He knew the tunnels better than me, he could out maneuver me in here. This was his place. It’s also 20 times darker in here. Now, my only choice was to find the sword and get out of here. Great, just great. I flew down the tunnels, evading all bat patrols I saw, but most seemed to be preoccupied with something at the entrance to the tunnel systems. Weird. I continued on down the tunnels and, somehow, miraculously, found the treasure room. Fortuna smiles upon me! I thought. Quickly snatching up my sword, I bolted. Okay, maybe not my most heroic moment, but I was going to hightail it outta there! Luckily, I still had my armor on, so I had no need to find that either. I flew down the tunnels as fast as I could. The main Entrance loomed over me, and far below, a battle was being waged.

 

Filius

 

After Fortem left, I had to deal with my own fair share of trouble. The battle was essentially chaos, point-blank. I’m bad with a sword, okay with a bow, but I’m good with a spear, then we formed a defensive wedge and drove forward. There were many injured, but not too many dead. For now, we still had the element of surprise, but how long would it last? Far above, a flash of light. A sword clashing on iron hard talons and snapping jaws. It was a warrior of a decent (The truth, Avem.) caliber. Sword flashing, the two dueled, and for a moment time seemed to slow, then, that final, crushing blow fell. With a hard thrust, the sword sliced clean through the giant bat’s body. It fell.

 

Avem

 

I hovered over the battle, not knowing what to do. It was utter chaos. Then the villagers started to remember their army training. Whoosh! A sudden burst of wind alerted me and I spun, my sword leaping into my hand. Pure, hard steel-iron talons slammed into my sword, as Dominus dove toward me. I spun and sliced Dominus’s underbelly, but he leapt back and it was only a thin graze. Swiping at me with huge, leathery wings, twice the size of my own, I flapped out of reach, even higher, then dove like a comet toward Dominus. He caught it in his talons and lunged with his teeth and jaws at me. Ducking under the blow and wrenching my sword up, I thrust forward with all my might. It was enough. Penetrating the soft, vulnerable underbelly, stabbing into the ribcage and bursting his heart, he fell. As he landed, dead before hitting the ground, I saw another great bat lying dead on the floor nearby, taken down with an arrow to the eye. It was the bat queen, Regina. Only one archer could have made that shot. Fortem. I turned to look and, sure enough, there was Fortem, but also something I didn’t expect, a villager boy with his arms around her and they were both kissing each other very passionately. That’s when I noticed Fortem had earrings. Oh great. Another person in our entourage. This was going to be one long trip.

…

When we returned to the village, we were greeted with cheers and feasting. Lots of feasting. I’d never been more full. As I’d pretty much guessed, Fortem and the boy ‘Filius’ were now romantically affiliated. We were welcomed by his family and had dinner, a delicious meal of roast venison, wild greens salad and baked potatoes smothered in butter( My Favorite! Yum!). We settled down for the night and I decided to sleep by the door, so no one (Fortem/Filius) could sneak out as I wanted to leave early the next morning.

 

Chapter 12

The Mire

 

We’d been on the road for almost the entire day, waving goodbye to the villagers, but bringing Filius with us. Fortem told us to stop and camp here, in a clearing just as the sun was starting to set. “We could have pushed onward, you know.” I suggested. “I wanted to talk about the dangers we’ll meet next along the trail.” Fortem responded. That night, as we sat around the fire, she started telling us about The Mire. “It’s filled with life, just not necessarily..good life.” She began. “It has huge creatures of murk, glutinous masses of mud that are practically invincible. Terrible mosquito swarms, hot, humid conditions and the overwhelming smell of decay, I’d rather cross it in daylight. We can only hope Fortuna smiles upon us.” And with that dramatic ending, we turned in for the night.

…

When we awoke that morning, I could tell no one had slept well. We all had tossed and turned during the night. No wonder considering where we were heading. Even better, it was a gloomy, overcast day. We packed up our stuff and got ready to go. I packed my sword, unwilling for it to get muddy and rust or break. I kept out my shield though for those ‘Mire Monsters’. If I thought it was bad when Fortem told us about it...picture the worst swamp you can imagine, fill it with fog, strange lights and a horrible, decaying, rotting, over-pervading smell. Hot, humid and wet. All of us were soaked in sweat by the time we traveled a quarter of a mile. We were all relatively strong and sturdy, but the heat will get to you. Even the water was warm. Lupus and I were the only ones who caught a break. We would take turns flying into the cool air above and ‘scout’ ahead. We mostly did it to get a break, but we did scout around a bit. It was on one of these thatI spotted it. A huge mass of mud, just cruising through the swamp. A Mire Monster! I rushed to tell the group. “Fortem, *gasp* Mire *need air* Monster *wheeze* Ahead!” I gasped trying to get air to my poor, deprived lungs, having flew hard to get back to them. “Everybody stop! There’s an MM ahead of us.” Fortem said, trying to be quiet-ish. Filius was holding up well, considering his skills seemed limited. Though I had heard a small rumor Filius had powers...Rumors, non-reliable. But still, If he has special powers, It would be great if he could use them to help the others cope with the heat. Nix seems to be dying in this heat. He is designed for cold temperatures. However, Filius, so far was….ungifted. We all stood up again and continued on again. Have I mentioned how miserable it was? It would be 5 long days and nights before we would met our first Mire Monster.

…

It was the same as any other. Lupus was on break currently and I envied him. I’m sure we all did. Lupus was just swooping in to give me a turn at wonderful relief, when we came across a large mound of mud. Fortem went dead white. “Everybody! Carefully, back up.” She shouted, but it was too late. The mound rose above us, forming a head, legs, torso and arms. It was a big, drippy monster of mud. ”Run!” I shouted. We didn’t need telling twice. We split up, scattering. Lupus went with Nix and Fortem Filius and I were stuck together. As luck would have it, we got chased. Yay.(Sarcasm). I know I sound calm describing it now, 50 years in the future, but, honestly, my brain was like: AAAAHHHHH!!! SHOOT WHATDOIDOWHATDOIDOWHATDOIDO!!!!! AAAAHHHHH!! WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!! That was...not my proudest moment ever. Yeah...back to the story! Suddenly, a flash of brilliance struck.(Fortem isn’t the only one, you know.) “Fortem I’ve got it! Keep it distracted!” “I’ll try but I’m not the one with a preordained destiny!” Ouch. Good one though. I dashed behind a tree and waited for the monster to pass. I whipped out my flint and steel. Lighting a (mostly) dry branch, I flew to catch up. I flipped over mid-air and hovered in front of the creature. Fortem and Filius ran on by me. I thrust the branch at the creature, leaving an arc of fire through the air.The monster reached forward and grabbed the branch, smothering the flames! Then it swiped a hand at me knocking me to the ground. I struggled to rise but it was too painful. I tried to get up but then the monster came over slowly, knowing I couldn’t get away. Not this time. As it lumbered over, I tried to move, somewhere, anywhere, so long as I got away. “Nyuh!” I collapsed even further, lying flat with pain coursing through my body. And still the monster approached. Then out of nowhere, a blast of water made the creature halt. The water fired again, hitting it straight on and disintegrated it! I lay flat on the ground though, unable to move for fear of more pain. Footsteps. Fortem popped down next to me. “Ooh. She’s hurt bad. Filius, get the others.” “Okay.” Filius said from out of my sight line. “We’ll discuss...that..later. ‘Kay?” “Ok.” Does she mean the water??? Maybe…. And with that, the pain was too bad.(Cue blackout).

 

Fortem

 

I hurried over to Avem, after seeing the monster disintegrate. Filius had stepped forward and held up a sapphire shaped like a water droplet. It was astoundingly shiny. He said a strange word then a torrent of water had burst forward, melting the creature away. Filia’s words came back to me..”So he still hasn’t told you yet.” No time to dwell on that. Avem was hurt really bad. She blacked out. She had bruises all down her side and back. I felt her ribs carefully and, though she was asleep, she gasped. Even more carefully, I touched it lightly. Two broken ribs. Not good, already having a hurt leg, this would make her out of action even longer. Her wings had been mostly protected but she still had a couple of ugly bruises there. Then I noticed the gashes and burns. Some Mire monsters had stones or sticks and this must have been one of them. Avem had numerous small scratches and about 5 deep ones, on her upper arm, shoulder, lower leg, thigh and back. I rummaged through my pack until I found the salves for burns that Magna had given us. After I finished dressing the wounds, Filius came back with the others. Avem sat up, wincing. “Ahh!” “Yeah.. you might want to not move too much for a while.” “Yeah well, even so, it hurts to breathe.” “All right here’s the deal, you have two broken ribs, bruised wings, 5 deep gashes and some burns.”

 

Avem

 

Hearing that damage report, I gasped, which instantly made my ribs erupt in agony. WHY IS THIS MY LIFE. With the help of Fortem and Nix, I got strapped to a board and carried by Lupus. We proceeded like this for more days and nights. The days never even seemed to pass. Occasionally Lupus would fly up and scout around, with me in tow.

 

…

It was 10 more days and nights before anything more happened. We would trudge onward, after having breakfast, then have lunch, continue onward, then make small camp and eat dinner before sleeping for 12 hours then we’d continue all over again. Time seemed to have no meaning here. We trudged onward, me having healed enough to walk by myself now. Occasionally we would see lights ahead of us. As soon as we reached them, they would disappear and reappear farther away. Fortem warned us about them. “They’re called will-o-the-wisps. They lead travelers astray and into quicksand and into places where you can get stuck, waiting for something to eat you or until you starve or thirst to death. The mountain ones lead you off cliffs.” Occasionally my wings or other assorted bones would hurt just bad enough I couldn't walk. Lupus would carry me through the Mire. Lupus, carrying me currently was looking around after flying up into the sky. Nothing ahead of us. Just more terrain of the mire. It seemed to stretch all the way to the horizon. The situation was grim, the prospect bleak, I had to pretty much rely on Fortem. Not that I minded, she was an excellent guide. “So, Fortem, tell me more about yourself.” “Like what?” She responded, as I tried to learn more about my companions. “Anything really. Your favorite color, where you came from, That sort of thing.” She shrugged. “My favorite color is when the sun first rips across the sky with it’s yellow shards of light. You?” “The green of a forest, grass after a thunderstorm. Favorite time of day?” “Noon, when the fog burns away from the mountains and the sun warms the world.” “Morning, when the sun sparkles through the dew in a meadow…” I was remembering small things, about myself, slowly just entering my mind. Fortem looked at me. “Do you remember anything about where you came from?” she asked. “Not really...just a memory of something dim on the horizon.” Fortem sighed. “I suppose you don’t remember any family or anything?” “No…” “Does it make you sad? Not knowing if you have anyone out there you love?” “I don’t know. I guess so...What about you?” “Sometimes...Sometimes I wish I didn’t have these memories. It’s all dust and ash now…” I looked at Fortem. There was an old wound there, a deep one. There was a small flame of fury in her eyes too. Taking a deep breath, it all came spilling out. “I lived in a beautiful place called Croaria. It was a huge stronghold, but it was peaceful there. We always fought the occasional monster that came in over the border of our known lands. We had a group of people known as the mounted patrol. These people were gifted with wings. They guarded our borders from any threat. I eventually grew up and joined the initiation process. I was one of three people who made it through. We were gifted our wings and we joined. Three years of our life we had spent training and we had finally made it. We had things like flying practice now but despite this, we ascended through the ranks. The day I became commander...That was the best moment of my life.” Fortem was silent for a couple seconds. “Then the darkness flowed over the border. It happened so suddenly. We had no time to react. We managed to simply send out most commoners, but no more than that. The queen and every soldier stayed to fight. There were so many. And I...I was a the head. I fought every day. It was like...like trying to push back the flood once the dam broke.”  “I think we all knew we were only buying the others time to get away. Then we were backing away, making a slow, stealthy retreat. The queen we had sent on ahead, regardless if she wanted to stay and fight. Us mounts were protecting the rear of the army. We were all resting when, out of nowhere, the alarm rang out. We rushed out and found our two scouts dead, with arrows slitting their throats. We scouted ahead and found a small party of monsters that we killed. They retreated and we pushed on, driving them away...and we flew straight into their trap. It was an ambush I sent two of our fastest flyers to warn the others. We all fought, till the bitter end…” Everyone had been silent until this moment. Filius came up and put his arm around Fortem. She didn’t shrug it off and went on. “I surrendered to save the last of my warriors. I don’t know what happened, but we all were dragged before their leader. They didn’t know which one of us was the leader. I tried to step forward, but my two friends, the only ones left, would deny it and say that it was them. Eventually, we all stayed silent…...And that was when they cut off our wings.” Fortem said, her hand reaching up to her back, almost half- consciously before dropping. Filius just helped her over the next pothole, even though she didn’t need it. “We all screamed. I can still remember the sudden stabbing pain in my back…” She paused, taking another deep breath. We became slaves, along more of my people. After a couple weeks, we had formed a plan to escape. My friend, Fidelis, was caught. She was brave until the end. All the way until they cut her head off.” Her voice broke. She wiped away tears that had formed. Then she continued. “Semper helped me escape. It was just us left. We had just managed to break free and were running, for any place were we could be safe. We were prepared to travel hard and to avoid any scouts. They nearly caught us both. We were running and we were only 10 yards away from cover when I went down, an enemy serpientiay tripping my feet. She ran back to me and helped me up, more beasts closing in on us. I told her to run and leave me. She shoved me away and pulled out her sword before saluting and saying ‘I’ll miss you, Captain.” Then she turned away and I ran, holding her medallion that she gave me, right before she turned to save me.” reaching into her shirt, Fortem pulled out a small but shimmering silvery, crystalline sphere, hanging on a chain so fine it was almost invisible. She fell silent and kept forging through the swamp. None of us spoke again for the rest of the day.

 

…

About two days later, while we were forging through the Swamp, I had flown up above the swamp and felt a really cold breeze hit me. I looked up from the swamp and saw it. The mountains. At last. I plunged back to the others. “Guys! The mountains aren’t far off! They’re maybe two days away!” I exclaimed. The others began talking, excited to finally get out of here, Nix especially. We pushed harder through the swamp and traveled nearly to the end. This time tomorrow, we’ll be OUT of this swamp! I thought to myself as we hunkered down to rest for the night.