Siege Of The Emerald City

Sha'nok

I look at the Elf in front of me. She is clad in shiny, almost silver armor. On her chest she has a plate showing an Elven tree with a dragon head above it. The cloth hanging from the front plates that are carved to look like scales shows another symbol, this a golden tree with a golden sun. Her armor looks kinda weird, a design I've not seen anywhere else. On her back she carries a quiver with a bow, which even from below the cape shows an intricate carving. Besides her cape on her left she carries two more weapons, one an Elven spear looking like a dragon spitting an iron flame, the other the staff of Kai'chira. She has the carving in her lithe right arm, but otherwise I don't recognize her. 'You cannot be her...'

Then another Elf walks up to us. The Elf who calls herself Tara'li turns to the other one. 'I knew you would follow me sister.'

The Elf nods to her and then turns to me. 'You must be Sha'nok. My sister told me a lot about you. I do not agree with her choice to teach you, however I hope I'm wrong.'

I notice how much the two look like each other. The Elf that just joined shares many features, from her build to some of her facial features, with her... sister. Tara'li looks a lot like Shirley but I cannot believe it is the same person. Then the new Elf speaks. 'You can believe your eyes. It is her yes. Much has happened since you were with her, but that hasn't changed.'

Tara'li gestures to the outside. 'You taught me the balance of nature. The good in the world. Because of that I learned to see the best in life. Remember what I said. Once I was trained I was the one to train you.'

Those were her words. It... is her. Shirley. Well, what used to be Shirley. I slither forward and touch the Lamia scar on her arm. 'Why did you... change so much?'

Tara'li's sister responds. 'That is a story for another time. Please don't ask my sister that. Some things happened that caused wounds that are to deep.'

The former Shirley, now Tara'li, puts the arm guard back on and then gestures to follow her. As we move through the halls she speaks softly. 'I'm to train you to become a dragon guard. I also secured a spot for you in my Wing. During your training you will find I'm not the only one training you, as the entire Wing has been declared by the leader as your trainers. As they celebrate tonight I believe this is the best time for you to get to know my Wing, the Outliers. Tomorrow your training will start fully.'

As she opens the doors a bowl flies towards it and bounces off the wall next to her. As another flies straight to me Tara'li moves in a blur. When she looks solid again she is holding the spear outstretched and pierced the bowl in mid air. She taps the bowl off and puts her spear away, walking in. 'Can I have your attention?'

The six people at the table all look towards us. The other Elf sits at the table to and turns to Tara'li. Tara'li gestures me forward and as I am next to her she puts a hand on my left shoulder. 'This is Sha'nok. Before we became a Wing I made a promise to her, to attempt training her as a Dragon Guard as well. The leader gave me instructions that we will be training her as a squad, so not just me. Until her trials she will be flying with me, however I'd like you all to get used to her being around as well. She will be sleeping and eating with us all. If she passes the trials she will also be one of our Wing. Treat her as one of our own, though she is a late arrival and still a student. Also Treknal, throw one more bowl at her and you'll be finding out if a bowl is harder than your head.'

The squad laughs and then return to their feast. Tara'li turns to me and points to some of the people. 'So the Elf you probably noticed is my sister is Sha'iva. We are both heirs to the throne. Over there the two Dwarves are Oruk and Noruk, master smiths and deadly combatants. The male Ork is called Treknal, he is a rough one but in battle I would like none other to protect my back. I do not know who the human is nor do I know the name of the female Ork or the other Dwarf. The female Ork is my left hand, Noruk my right.'

The female Ork gestures me to come sit next to her. Somewhat doubtful I do as she asks, sitting between her and Sha'iva. Then the Ork kinda roughly shoves a plate in front of me. 'Come join in our feasts. There is no better way to learn to know a person than to feast with them.'

Tara'li

Regret. That's what I wake up with. Again I let myself go with the drinking though the lack of any pain tells me I didn't beat anyone up again. I think. As I wash myself Sha'iva enters my room. 'Well, last night went a lot better than last time. No one got hurt and I think Sha'nok likes the squad.'

I rub against my forehead. 'And I still can't take any form of ale or beer. Thankfully I didn't beat Treknal up again. Or what is her name.'

Sha'iva smiles. 'You forgot. She finally introduced herself last night. She is Flashee. Some kind of shaman she called herself. I can't believe you didn't know the name of your left hand before today...'

After drying myself off I put my armor back on. 'I also don't know the names of the human brute, who I actually don't want to know and the newest Dwarf.'

Sha'iva laughs. 'That human never made a good first impression, did he? You already came up for me back then sister. You left an impression right from the moment you walked into the room.'

She ties the laces of my armor for me and puts the back plates of my armor on. Then I finish off my armor and start walking to the barracks. I see most of the others are still asleep. I wait for all of them to wake up before splitting tasks for the day. Now that we don't have to train flight all day I decide to get the barracks in order first. 'Oruk, Noruk, you two are in charge of making armor for our dragons and Sha'nok. I don't feel like flying to the Emerald Realm for that. Make sure it doesn't impede her movement. Same with the dragon armor. We want speed and punching power to be our strength. Treknal, you and I will teach Sha'nok her first lessons in becoming a Dragon Guard. Flashee, can you make sure the barracks get cleaned up at least a bit? I'm seeing broken off tusks all over the place and almost broke my neck over one of them. Sha'iva, help Flashee and if you are done inspect all the gear on wear and tear. Sha'nok, come with Treknal and me.'

They all nod and start working, though Flashee isn't to happy. When we are at the training field I turn to the two of them. 'I would like to go through the basics as a crash course since we all know I don't follow most of those guidance rules.'

Treknal laughs and starts giving Sha'nok the basics. 'So we be Dragon Guard. We fight to protect people, should be wearing some stupid armor that never fits but our Wing Leader dropped that. All of us fight with two weapons and we be both send on peace missions and into battles. Yer Wing Leader is boss and her word is law. If she says, you do. Yer wing is yer family.'

I smile. 'Short and strong. Now, Sha'nok. Until you got your own dragon you will be traveling with me. Once you got your dragon you are a part of my squad. You are our mage so I will be requesting someone to train you in magic. Besides that I will be finding what other weapon you are good with so you can defend yourself without magic to. As a final thing, you will be getting a crash course in all weapons and all forms of fighting as none of us can be left with a big gap in our training.'

Sha'nok seems a bit overwhelmed but nods. Then Treknal finally realizes why we are here and runs off for a moment, returning with a training sword and a plain bow in a half filled quiver. Treknal pushes it straight into Sha'nok's arms. As she stands there not knowing what to do with it I grab the quiver and start putting it on her. Then I use the straps of the quiver to put the sword on that. Sha'nok just looks at the bow and then the quiver. 'What do I do with this?'

I softly push her to the archery range. 'I don't expect you to be as good with it as me, or even Treknal. However this is a first try at finding your preferred weapon.'

Treknal steps next to Sha'nok. 'Watch this, girl.'

He grabs his big trunk of a bow, pulls back and releases a single rough wooden arrow. He hits the target as I expected from him. Treknal is still a rough and ready archer who mostly just uses the bow if he can't get in range, but his accuracy isn't as bad as I expected. Sha'nok then tries to copy him. As she draws back the bow I can see she is going all wrong. I pull her right hand slightly more towards the right and push her left hand down. 'Try it.'

She releases the arrow and hits the top of the target. Barely. She then grabs another arrow and tries again. This time she is off to the right and dangerously close to hurting herself with her bowstring. With her third arrow I correct her again. Then she asks me something. 'Is this how you learned to shoot?'

Treknal turns to me to as I look at the target blankly. 'I don't know, Sha'nok. I don't remember. I don't think I want to remember.'

The tenth day of her training Sha'nok appears to be mostly suited for ranged combat. As expected even a light Dwarven armor is already to heavy for her and with a lot of regret I had to tell Oruk and Noruk to reforge it into something else. Though she isn't as bad with the sword as I used to be, I think she would be benefitting from an Elven sword as well. However the training gets interrupted as Sha'iva runs up towards me. 'The Emerald Realm is under attack.'

I nearly drop my bow from shock. 'You have to be joking me. We must go there now!'

Sha'iva stops me. 'We can't. We got a learner in our squad. Plus the Emerald Realm is to far away. We cannot reach it in time...'

I look at her and then we both say it at the same time. 'The leader.'

We both run towards him. As we run though the hallways we also almost crash into his front legs simultaneously. The leader grumbles. 'I knew you would come to me if you heard about the attack, Tara'li. The answer is no, I will not send you there as you would come to late.'

I tap his front leg. 'Do you think you can make me believe that? I know what you did with Celeste, leader. Please do it with our squad. I'll worry about the way back, just let us go and save our kingdom. We are graduates. This is our duty.'

The leader looks at both of us. 'Your steely determination always astounds me. Fine, I will do it. Get the squad ready and make sure your student won't get into trouble. I'll make preparations to send you there.'

We both run to the barracks to give the orders and then to the training field to prepare our dragons. Sha'nok looks at us both in utter confusion. 'What are you doing? Where are you going?'

I turn from fastening the straps around Rashter's chest to her. 'The Emerald Forest is under attack. My people are under attack. Now we can stand here and do nothing or let the leader work his magic and send us there. As I'm against doing nothing I've decided on the latter. Now we will be gone for a couple of weeks so please keep out of trouble. I got enough paperwork to attend to when I return...'

When I go back to buckling the straps down I see Sha'nok climb up Rashter. I stop working on the saddle. 'What the hell are you doing? I'm telling you to stay here!'

Sha'nok, who already reached the saddle, starts strapping in her snake tale. 'And I'm ignoring you. I've cost you a lot. I think it is time to repay my debt.'

When I finish the saddle I start climbing on. 'This isn't some training or fun day out, Sha'nok. You could die out there. We all could. If you wish to come, you have to follow every order I give you. No excuses, no self thinking. I have to think fast and cannot deal with stragglers.'

Sha'nok nods and then helps me in the saddle. When I sit Rashter starts moving to the leaders quarters. On our way there we slowly come across the rest of the squad in various stages of preparations. Flashee almost falls off her dragon at one point because she hadn't strapped in her legs yet while putting her armguards on, causing some comedic relief in this serious situation. After finally gathering the squad in the leaders quarters I talk softly. 'The Emerald Kingdom is under attack. It us unknown how many forces and who, but it is known that they are under attack. I will be honest, I do not know what to expect there. We are all that is going there. It is our task to go in there and save as many lives, organize a defense and beat back the attackers. If we are to die today, we will die as legends. As defenders of all the races. Let our actions today be remembered for all eternity!'

As the seven raise their weapons the leader turns to me. 'I thought I told you to leave that apprentice out of all battles. Only fully trained Guards can go into battle.'

I roll my eyes. 'I tried talking her out of it. She is just as stubborn as I used to be.'

The leader seems to smile for a moment. 'You still are, Tara'li. You just out it differently. I have faith in you. I know this is your first battle but if you manage to survive this, you are all heroes up to a point. I'm looking forward at reading your battle report. Now all of you, step into the circle. This will teleport you to above the Emerald Forest. From there you got two hours to finish the battle or you have to fly back the hard way.'

They all go into the circle. When Rashter gets up for it I see just how massive he is. He is even larger than the leader, making me look down onto him. My Rashter is a dragon fit for a leader.

The circle lights up and displaces up to high into the air above the Emerald Realm. The entire squad drops out of the air. As we all manage to stabilize our flights I give the orders. Fist against elbow. Combat formation. I smell burning wood and see flames come up from the forest ahead of me. The kingdom is burning. We fly over the flames seeing Demons run around engaging the Elven Guard. Then I lead the squad to our landing spot some distance away on the save side of the kingdom. I instantly unstrap my legs and slide down Rashter yelling at some of the Elven guards standing nearby. 'You lot! Come with me! We need everyone on the front!'

The Elves look at me with surprise and then start running after me. I run towards the front lines, strapping my shield on along the way and grabbing my spear. Every time I see Elven Guard not fighting I call them in as well. At the front line I help fighting off the initial attack. Though I had not killed before, killing Demons... it just doesn't make me care. For some reason I don't care about killing the redskins.

With the initial attack beaten back I raise my spear. 'Rally here! Forward for the Emerald Realm!'

The Elves are somewhat confused at my orders, though when they see me move towards the redskins with raised shield and spear they realize what I'm doing. With relative speed they form a line of spears and shields. However the surprise starts really forming when my squad shows up. Noruk calls down from his dragon. 'What do you want us to do, Wing Leader?'

I point to the left. 'Flank around there! Scare them into our spear line! Make them scared in whatever fashion you can! Unleash Treknal and Flashee for all I care!'

Treknal, Flashee and Noruk all laugh on that remark and they move to the flank while I lead the spearline forward. As expected a wave of red rushes towards us. 'BRACE!'

The impact of the Demons hitting my spear and shield is almost enough to jar the spear out of my hand. With much effort I push back and slam my spear into the redskin that impacted it. He lets a deafening screech go as I impale him, before finally dying. With my spear I bash a sword of a second Demon aside while I slam another Demon into one of the other Elves spears with my shield. With a quick stab I finish off the second Demon and then toss my spear into a fourth. I then grab my sword and start chopping away at anything red that comes into reach. A red mist descents onto me. No one burns down my home. I charge straight into the Demon lines armed with nothing but my sword and shield, when I feel a hand on my shoulder. 'Daughter... your timing is perfect.'

I turn around and see mom. She is wearing her own armor which until now I had not seen. Her sword, like mine, is bloodied, but otherwise you would not say she was in combat. I give her a quick hug with my sword arm. 'I brought my squad with me and took command over whatever guards had not joined the battle yet. My squad is herding the Demons here so we can slaughter them like the animals they are.'

Mom shakes her head. 'They got a commander with them. To slaughter them like that you have to kill that commander first.'

I raise my sword. 'Leave that to me. I've had enough of them already.'

I sheet my sword, collect my spear again and look up my squad. There I find Noruk. 'Have you seen anything in dark armor that isn't a redskin?'

Noruk nods. 'I saw one some time ago, over there. He was running around yelling in some fire tongue language that I don't understand. What about him?'

I raise my shield. 'That is the one I have to kill, Noruk. Follow me please. We will end this invasion here. The line will hold for now, but not if the enemy commander is alive.'

I climb on top of Rashter who instantly starts moving towards the enemy lines. He feels my distress, my pain and my anger and channels those into a flame that turns several Demons into ash and dust. From his back I raise my sword once more and point it forward. 'Bring the battle to them!'

The Elves move forward. I see mom in their lines, her mantle damaged but her armor unscathed. I guess she was a master swordsman all this time. As the lines clash once more I start lashing out with my sword from Rashter's back, striking at any Demon who gets past his claws and teeth. Rashter and I work as a team, punching a path through the Demon lines for the Elves to widen. Then I notice the Demons retreat and a single Elf in black armor standing there. 'You have courage, princess. I can say that. But if you truly want to win you have to get past me.'

A second voice speaks. From behind a tree the Keeper of Magic steps. 'Or more exactly, past us.'

I slide down Rashter's side and move up. 'I knew you were bad news when I saw you. I never trusted you and mother never should have either.'

The Keeper laughs. 'She isn't your mother, human. You are nothing but a filthy human that wears our form.'

I step forward and quickly check the straps of my shield before answering. 'Except I'm not, keeper. I'm the child of Tresh'ta, former queen of this kingdom. I stand here before you as an Elf not because I was made one, but because I always was one, hidden below. However, your treachery can not be left unchecked and will end now.'

A black beast of sorts passes in front of my face and nearly cuts my skin open. At the last moment I step aside and shoot it with my bow and arrow. I see two more of the ravens fly towards me, claws outstretched. As I shoot the first another arrow hits the second. From the thick shaft I can see it is Treknal who shot him. I'll have to thank him later. Then I quickly put my bow away and barely get in a stance to block the attack of the commander with my shield. The commander is definitely an Elf to with how fast he attacks. Luckily I manage to turn the last block into a bash that knocks him back giving me barely enough time to draw my sword. As the commander rushes in again I hear chanting behind me. Sha'nok seems to be wrapped up in a battle of magic with the Keeper while the commander fights me. I also hear the rumbling of Demons rushing in behind me. I yell back. 'Protect my dragon at all cost! We need to keep that Keeper busy!'

The enemy commander unleashes another flurry of attacks that I block with my shield, before I slam his sword aside and start slashing back, making it look like I dropped my guard while I start pushing the enemy commander back. He in turn focusses on blocking until he sees my gap and lunges for it. I let the blade slip past my armored side by rotating my upper body and punch him in the face, before slinging him to the side. Before I can finish the fight however he gets up again. This guy won't die. He unleashes several more attacks that I mostly deflect. I then rush him with my shield and slam it in his chest, barely evading his sword. As he gets knocked back he ends up on his feet, sword still raised.

We both circle each other with swords raised. I then slam my shield with my wrist and hold it raised again as if inviting him to attack me. He seems to doubt for a moment. That is the moment I strike. As he seems to question what to do next I take three quick steps forward and start unleashing my own attacks, going faster and faster. He is forced to do tight blocks giving me the chance to put more and more pressure on him. Then I kick him straight in the knee, which snaps loudly. The commander falls to the ground. 'You may have beaten me, princess, but your victory will be short lived. Soon you will join our ranks and fight the Guard to. Soon victory will be ours.'

I finish the commander off with a quick slash at the neck. Then I notice the Keeper of Magic standing there, his eyes wide open. 'No... NOOO! You killed him! You killed my son...'

As I stand there I cannot find it in me to lift my sword to the Keeper. However I find that I do not have to as an arrow flies over my shoulder and hits the keeper right in the heart. Looking back I see mom there with her bow. 'You did well, daughter. You killed the traitors. Come.'

She raises her mantle and as I walk up to her she puts the mantle around me. I feel the shock slowly dissipate as I realize why I did it. If I hadn't killed the Keepers son many more could have died. I did my duty as the Princess and Wing Commander. Then I look around me and see the battles are slowly dying down. I did it. I secured victory for my Wing. For my people. However I also still see the fires roar around me. Then I step away from underneath moms mantle, sheet my sword and grab the staff of Kai'chira. As I start to chant in hyper focus I hear Sha'nok join me. Energy rapidly starts leaving me as thunderous clouds roll in. The thick rain clouds start unleashing their load of rain onto the burning forests around me. My head starts to feel light as I see the fires slowly die down in the rain. Then the world becomes black.