A Dwarven Discovery

Tara'li

Back in camp I report on the battle to the leader. Occasionally I hear some archers run towards the fortress or some Orks yell as they kill a couple of Demons who managed to slip out but it is mostly calm. Surprising so as I almost got stamped through the floor on the upper levels by the Demons. Apparently Sha'iva's plan with stake outs and people sniping works.

Then on Sha'iva's pushing I take a break. I sit down on my bunk and think about it. How do I keep on pushing? Can I kill a Demon Lord? Not when I'm this tired. I lay down on the bed and as I'm about to go to sleep I hear a sonorous boom. I get up and run to the source, seeing some scattered fires and Noruk with a blackened face some distance from the camp walls. He is happy for some reason. As I walk up to him he runs to me. 'I discovered something!'

As I walk over to the blackened area with Noruk pulling me towards it he starts talking rapidly. I don't even understand half of it. 'So that yellow sandy stuff when mixed with charcoal can cause these booms! Just think what we could do with it!'

I shake my head. 'What have you been drinking to try this out? And what could this be used for?'

He laughs loudly. 'I don't even know all of it myself yet! Flashes? Scare tactics? Traps?'

I study his blackened face for a moment. 'I think you should talk with king Derkley. He should know what to do with it. And try not to blacken his skin as well...'

Noruk runs into the camp and soon returns with the king and two of the kings guards. Noruk starts rambling about his discovery while they walk over here. Finally when he is standing next to me he whispers to me. 'Is he always like this? If so I pity ye...'

I sigh. 'I've never seen him like this before... well whatever. Let him show this thing so I can go catch some rest. I've been going for a full day now...'

Noruk then seems to return from the burned down ships with a bunch of charcoal and grabs some of the sand and throws it into a bowl. Using his hands he starts breaking up the charcoal and mixing it with the yellow sand. Then he pours the mixture he just made on the ground and puts a string from the pile down towards us. 'I suggest you both stay back.'

Then he starts scraping his flint and steel next to the string. Both the king and I start taking steps back, thinking Noruk has gone mad when the string is lit up and Noruk runs away from it. When the small flame reaches the pile of yellowish powder another deafening boom can be heard and I lose my breath for a moment. The flash is so blinding I see stars five minutes later and the ground shakes beneath my feet. Then Noruk turns to us. 'Pretty nice, heh?'

I look at the blackened crater the pile made. 'I don't know what that can be used for but... that took my breath away quite litterly.'

King Derkley is quite a bit more enthusiastically. 'I'll have some of me Dwarves research this stuff ye made. I like it ye know...'

One of the archers stationed at the castle comes over. 'I don't know what it is but those booms are scaring the Demons so much they aren't coming out...'

A plan forms in my head. 'King Derkley... you wouldn't happen to have some empty barrels laying around? Instead of scaring them to staying in... why not drop this stuff on their heads?'

King Derkley laughs. 'Scare 'em out of that tower? Why not?'

I turn to Noruk. 'Make as much of that stuff as you can. I want at least several barrels of it ready to go. Lets scare those Demons into their deaths. Also, please, don't light any of it up any more. I want to sleep. Otherwise Sha'iva is going to kill me.'

As if on cue Sha'iva walks over to us. 'Can that booming please stop? Also Tara'li, I thought I told you to rest, not go out and check out every sound. Otherwise you won't be fit to move out when its time to do so. And when you are tired, I'm sorry to tell you, your leadership goes through the ground. You mostly just lash out at us.'

I turn to her and purely to annoy her a bit answer her. 'Sha'iva, shut up.'

Both King Derkley and Noruk laugh at my reaction and Sha'iva lifts up an eyebrow, before she sees me smile and she laughs as well. Then she motions to the camp.

With flint and steel I light up the rope sticking from the top of the barrel. Then I let go of the rope, which is the signal for Rashter to let go of the barrel. When the barrel plummets into the roof it shatters but doesn't explode. For a moment I think we made a mistake until a boom can be heard. Behind me Noruk copies me. When his dragon lets go of the barrel I see it plummet straight to the stairs and blow up on impact. Then I think I notice something about the roof of the tower. I spread my wings and fly closer. hmm... strange. The stone is cracking where the barrel dropped by Rashter exploded. This stuff is potent. I flap hard with my wings to gain altitude again and signal for one more barrel to be dropped. Sha'iva does so and to my surprise I see the roof collapse in the resulting explosion.

Some of the outer walls, now being pushed outside by the weight of the collapsed roof, start to buckle and collapse to. I fear for the archers for a moment as the rubble drops down, though I don't think it falls in the area they are at. From far above I see the Demons pouring out of the castle, getting caught in the crossfire of the archers in the process. To my dismay I notice one of the buildings where arrows come out of is actually hit by rubble from the collapsing castle. Noticing that I have Rashter turn to move out. We are not going to keep on going or even more people will die.

After the landing Sha'iva walks over. 'Why don't we drop more of those barrels on them? We could bring down the entire tower like this!'

I point to the still crumbling tower. 'That rubble is falling onto the buildings our archers are in! We may already have lost people like this!'

The entire squad is silent for a moment. I then walk into the camp towards the planning tent and just look at the map. This fortress is hell. We cannot leave it behind or they will strike us in the back when we siege the Demon Lords fortress nor can we storm it without losing a lot of good men in the process. Bringing it down with those barrels is also not an option as Noruk couldn't get enough of it made to punch through the many floors of the tall tower. I hear the tent flaps open behind me and then the voice of king Derkley. 'How did it go? I saw not all of yer barrels got used.'

I speak softly. 'They seem to damage the stone as well. The roof collapsed and pushed the outer walls down. We may have lost some archers because of it..'

The king stands besides me. 'Deaths is a part of war, ye know. Yer friend Noruk made something new. Ye never knew it was this... dangerous. However we can use it someplace else, ye know. Let me Dwarves play with this stuff...'

I nod. 'You Dwarves always make the best stuff. I guess this was a lesson to not try and invent something myself. Let me stick to war from now on. You can take over this project.'

King Derkley laughs. 'I'll take that as a compliment. Thank you, queen Tara'li.'

The tent flaps sound once more as the king leaves, which leaves me alone in the tent with the planning table. I hope the remainder of the plan works because I'm not dropping another barrel of yellow powder on top of that roof again. The resulting explosion would probably send rubble flying where we don't want it. Enough people died already in this fortress and in the battle preceding it. Then a little commotion is outside before another person comes in. A soft hand on my own and then the voice of Tresh'ta. 'You couldn't have known those barrels could do so much damage.'

I shake my head. 'I should have when I saw the roof crumbling and cracking. I ordered another barrel dropped. Because of me some people died. I hoped the roof would make the tower crumble in on itself. Instead it fell outwards.'

She grabs my hand. 'In war unexpected things happen. We should be glad it didn't go worse like the entire tower collapsing toward the camp. Many more people could have died. We got lucky.'

I feel some anger come up. 'That isn't it, mo... Tresh'ta.'

I almost called her mother. Why though? She isn't exactly the most prevalent person in my life. Yet I do start caring about her. And now with an Elven sword on her side and clad in Elven armor, even with two rings around her hair... she looks how I wished a mother would look when I was a kid. Though if it is my fake memories or my real memories speaking here I do not know. She puts an arm around my shoulder. 'Do not beat yourself up over this. To push them out of there was needed. Now some died to clear that tower. More would have died if the tower wasn't cleared. Many more would have perished if we waited it out and let them dribble out the way they did, with the Demon Lord finding out what is happening here. As you said, the Commanders think I am still a Demon Commander and succeeded in turning you or killing you. They don't know you are the winner and I've died... in a way.'

I hug her tightly. She is so much like mom used to be now, down to her hair losing its dark tone and turning silver white. She really is trying to become a mother now...

Finally we can move out. Tresh'ta is fully armored now, the Demons died to a man and the Dwarves... well I have no clue what they have been doing. The king was speaking about some project but I don't know what he was on about. After what we suspected was the majority of the Demons came out of the castle to be shot we send in the Orks to clean up. Well, I'm glad Sha'iva stopped me from going in because some of the Orks never made it out again. It could have been a lot worse though. Now we can finally go into the final battle. The battle that decides the future. I'm pulled from my thoughts as I hear wingbeats. Odd. No one is ready to leave yet...

I look up from Rashter to see another squad arrive from Celaris. Most of the squad is flying in V formation except for two. One silver white dragon and one poison green colored dragon. The white dragon... that must be Silvarius. Reynold and Silvarius came over here? Is this their squad? To get some answers I walk over to the landing spot where one of the other squads is already preparing to take off. As the new squad lands I'm surprised to see I was right. Reynold is sitting on the white dragon. He approaches me. 'So it is true... you became an Elven queen. Queen Shirley... I'm here to officially request to be let into your squad.'

He holds his sword in front of him. I nod. 'I'll gladly accept you in my squad, Reynold. The name is Tara'li now. Queen Tara'li, council member of the Dragon Guard.'

He rises just to be hugged by me. Silvarius behind him chuckles. 'You've come a long way from the girl I rescued from the burned down rubble. A full on noble Elf...'

Then the rider of the green dragon finally comes down from her dragon. Dismounting is a big word for it, as she slithers down the front leg and slides over. Sha'nok. I let go of Reynold and hug her to. 'You made it. And your dragon looks good.'

She nods with a beaming smile on her face. 'Yes. Thanks to you our soul bind was without any issues. She is so wise... and strong. I love everything about her...'

The green dragon comes over and bows her head. 'We are ready for duty, Wing Leader. If you require any assistance you know where to find us.'

I put a hand on the front paw of the green dragon. 'You are very much welcome in my squad, green queen of the skies. You and Sha'nok are very much needed. However before I can let you come to battle... you will need some dragon armor.'

The dragon seems surprised. 'I thought your squad fought without armor. And how can we even get armor here, weeks flying from the nearest forges?'

I smile. 'The Dwarves brought smiths over. As do we have a smith walking around. The smith that made that armor.'

I point to Tresh'ta, who is working on getting all the armor plates on Rashter. One of these days I'm just going to put that armor on him and not take it off any more. Even Tresh'ta is struggling with the armor and she is quite a bit stronger than me. Well, she used to be anyway. Now the green dragon is baffled. 'I thought I saw something like that in Sha'nok's memories but... it is true. You brought a Demon Commander back to us... Tresh'ta the bloodied is redeemed...'

I nod once. 'Now it is up to you wether you want to be armored by Elven armor or Dwarven armor, but I now have to help Tresh'ta get the armor on my own dragon. It is quite a bit of work, you know... especially if your dragon is so massive his front legs can be mistaken for tree trunks.'

Both Sha'nok and the green dragon laugh as I return to Rashter and help Tresh'ta put the armor on him. Then I motion my head for her to get on. 'You get on first. I have to make the last few alterations to the flight schedule. Getting Sha'nok and Reynold their positions.'

After telling Sha'nok and Reynold their positions, Sha'nok flying behind Noruk and Flashee between them and Reynold being in Sha'iva's sub squad I walk over to Rashter and check everything one more time. Then I nod. 'All right. Remember the commands. In the air give the command for travel formation and my dragon will do the rest.'

Tresh'ta lets her mouth drop open. 'You trust me alone on your dragon? Why... would you do that? And why won't you fly with me on his back?'

I smile softly. 'I don't feel like leading right now. I will fly on my own, still in the squad, but more as a dragon. Sometimes that is really therapeutic as well. Now, you have a squad to lead, Tresh'ta. Show the world the old Rider inside you isn't dead yet.'

Rashter jumps into the air, leading my squad into the air. As they take formation on an unsure Tresh'ta's order I nod. Then I spread my wings as well and jump hard, taking to the skies with slightly more effort. I regret not using Rashter to get into the air, however as I take my position behind a somewhat confused Sha'nok I just enjoy the flight. Below me the camp is emptying and in front of us lays the unknown. However today is a day I can enjoy myself. My squad knows what to do and there is no need for me to interfere, just to enjoy the flight myself.

It is there. Up ahead. A black palace positioned very precariously on a cliff. Behind the cliff I see a volcano and several lava streams, which makes me think the Demon Lord had his palace build here because of that. Surrounding the palace on all sides but the back are high walls with towers crowned by black spikes. Demons are walking on the walls and standing guard on the towers but that isn't what bothers me. Tresh'ta said the Demon Lord himself will be the battle to worry about. According to her he ate quite a bit to much but he is a powerful entity. We need probably every trick in the book and some not in the book to beat him.

As we fly towards it Tresh'ta motions us to fly lower and keep our distance. I take in all I can see from our distance until I almost fly into the dragon of treknal and focus on the flight again. Then we land. Tresh'ta gets off of Rashter and joins me on the little hill some distance away from the squad where I landed. 'Nothing seems to have changed here. It is all as I remembered it to be.'

I nod. 'The Demon Lord bothers me. None of these defenses I worry about. With the help of king Derkley we can push through them. With Tera'shi we can find all the traps and evade them. The Orks can smash through those Demons like they are butter. What bothers me is the fight. If that Demon Lord is as powerful as you claim, we will need the entire council to fight. I fear they won't do that.'

Tresh'ta looks at the castle in front of us. 'He is powerful, but his strongest side is his way with words. He will try to divide us. His way of preferred combat is not to fight directly but to let people falter and fall. As they fall to him he makes a soul stone that binds them and he has them fight their former allies. He knows many secrets and will use them against you. Please emphasize the danger of him to everyone that comes with you.'

I turn to her. 'I will, mother. And I would like you to come with me. I know I ask a lot from you but... I would like you beside me. To remind me what I'm fighting for. You and Sha'iva are the ones I need to lean upon the most.'

At first she takes a step back but then she steps towards me. 'I will, daughter. We will face the Demon Lord together. You got my sword.'

With all the leaders at the planning tent I pace around. 'We have one battle ahead of us. The biggest of them all. Our armies are getting exhausted, as are we all. I have no right to ask this of you, but will you all draw weapons with me one last time?'

I draw mom's sword and hold it out over the table where another crudely drawn map of the area lays. King Derkley holds out his Warhammer in a way that the shaft crosses the blade. Then Tera'shi holds out her staff. From outside the tent a lot of noise comes until a tail is roughly pushed in, almost knocking me over and snapping the table in two. I guess that means he is in as well. As the leader returns to his previous position I sheet the blade and look at the ruined table. 'Well... there was little we could do with that thing anyway. So I have to ask all of you... including the full council, to come with me. We have to face the Demon Lord together. We have to be a unit unlike any other to beat this Demon Lord.'

King Derkley lifts his hammer up. 'Me stone is strong. I will not fall. Just don't ask me to fly high above the ground.'

Tera'shi nods. 'If we are going to risk our entire leadership fighting their leader... yes I will come. I can't risk you lot going in without any protection against magic.'

The leader speaks a lot softer. 'I will call a council meeting tonight for you to put forth your request. I cannot tell them to follow you into war without their own agreement. It is their choice in the end.'

I nod. 'Now, they got a single wall around the palace. My idea was going in on dragon back, go over the wall and dismount before the gates to the palace while one of the Dwarven machines bashes down the gate. Then we fight off the Demons around the gate so our armies can rush in and support us. While they take over the walls and storm the palace, we fight our way towards the throne room with the Demon Lord in it. I already asked Tresh'ta and she will be joining us so we have one person around who knows the layout of the castle. If anyone knows a way to improve this plan, now is the time...'