The Darkness of Old; The Ancient Crown; The Winged One

by Hans Bezdek

  "Is 'Gray Adders' elvish for 'prepare to attack?'" asked Dhot, eyeing the elves.

  "Of course it isn't," said Cassandra, moving up to get a better look at what the other elves apparently saw.

  "What would be the odds o' that!" said Braun, chasing after her along with Dhot and me.

  I looked around at all the other boats we had with us. There were close to a hundred, each with plenty of elves on board. All of the elves were bows had their strings pulled back and were aiming toward the island.

  "What are they all doing?" I asked, greatly confused. "Do they think they can just shoot at the rocks and win that way?"

  "They aren't aiming at the rocks," said Dhot, the goblin twisting the Goggles over his eyes. "They're aiming at those boats coming toward us."

  I squinted and tried my best to see what he was talking about. After a few seconds, I could spot some dark brown dots getting larger and larger. It looked like we weren't the only ones with a navy. I hadn't been expecting that.

  "I'm back with some crackers..." said Emerich, slowing down and looking around at the elves on our ship readying their shots. He looked toward the island, tossing the small bag to the side as he saw what everyone else had. "I see. It looks like the time to fight has finally arrived for us."

  Emerich pulled out a sword and raised it to the sky. The elves around us waited for their commander to give them the signal. Right before he dropped his arm, I reached up and grabbed his wrist.

  "Wait, wait!" I said, quickly stopping the elf.

  "What are you doing?!" hissed Cassandra.

  "We don't know for sure that those boats are coming to fight with us," I reasoned. "What if they're some of the townspeople that are just trying to escape?"

  "I highly doubt that," said Emerich flatly.

  "He could be right," said Cassandra. "If the other races on Ra'Chok don't feel any sort of loyalty toward the black and reds, maybe they decided to leave the island before the war was brought to them?"

  Emerich had a conflicted look on his face. He clearly thought what I said had been stupid, but he didn't want to offend Cassandra.

  I loved it.

  "You should really think before attacking, Emerich," I said, my tone conveying how much I enjoyed this. "Don't you care about accidentally hurting the innocent?"

  Before the elf could reply, a barrage of flaming objects shot from the boats coming toward us. Large bundles of fire crashed into the water before us, along with flaming darts and arrows. Thankfully, all of the projectiles landed a few dozen yards short of any of our ships.

  "Or..." I said. "I could be wrong."

  "How surprising," said Emerich, sounding anything but surprised.

  The elf brought his sword down, and the battle was on.

  Chapter 2

  Arrows rained down on the approaching Dar’Ka ships. I watched as a number of green and gray figures disappeared, just to replaced by new ones. The elves were able to get a second round of shots off before the Greeners were able to return another volley.

  Now that both sets of ships were closer, the Dar’Ka finally struck a few of the elven ships. A group of elves cried out to our left as their boat caught on fire. I began summoning magic into my hands in order to drop water on it, but before I knew it they had doused it themselves.

  “Seems like they know what they’re doing,” I muttered to no one in particular.

  “This isn’t our first time,” said Emerich, sheathing his blade and walking again to the back of the ship.

  “And where do you think you’re going?!” I called after him. “Going to run and hide down below?”

  The elf didn’t respond as he disappeared into the crowd of soldiers. I grinned back at the others, but none of them were paying attention.

  Bang!

  The elves around us scattered and hit the deck. Even I was caught off guard for a second, before realizing that it was just Helga.

  “Can you warn us before you shoot that thing?!” growled Cassandra, twisting a finger in her left ear.

  “Aye,” nodded Braun. “It’s bloody loud!”

  “Trust me, that would get annoying,” said Dhot, loading another round into his oversized gun. The other elves realized that the loud noise wasn’t directed at them and went back to firing at the Greener’s ships. “What if I asked you to say something before you ran in and started cutting people into two? Not only would that be the majority of what you said in a day, but they’d know to watch out for you!”

  “Cassandra’s blade doesn’t make a loud noise, though,” I pointed out. “You’re also not firing at someone within range to hear you warn us.”

  “We don’t know that for sure,” argued the goblin. “Who knows if there might come a time when a dragon is a foot in front of me? Helga would be my best defense, and I don’t want him knowing it!”

  I shook my head. “That’s a completely different scenar-”

  Bang!

  Cassandra and I glared at him.

  “Maha! Sorry, couldn’t help it!”

  I patiently waited as both sides fired at one another, slowly but surely coming closer and closer. Sure, I could’ve shifted into a dragon or thrown some magic at them, but I decided it would be better to conserve my energy. Plus, if I flew at them, they’d all shift their focus to me. Better to just blend in for now.

  By the time the two forces met, it looked like we had lost three ships and they had lost half a dozen. A couple of the elven ships went back to save the elves trapped on the three sinking ships while the Dar’Ka didn’t bother doing the same for their men. Almost made me feel bad for the Greeners.

  On the elven boats closest to ours half of the archers dropped their bows and switched to swords. I heard running behind me and turned to see Emerich coming back with ten elves, each of them wielding halberds.

  “Looks like he wasn’t running away,” said Cassandra, raising an eyebrow at me.

  “Ha!” I shouted, pointing at her. “I knew someone else heard me!”

  “Look alive, Reimar,” said Emerich as he ran by me. “There’s Dar’Ka to kill.”

  “Wait for me!” said Cassandra, pulling out the Shattered Sword as she chased after him.

  Our ship lurched forward as it rammed into a Dar’Ka one, causing Braun, Dhot, and me to tumble forward. Actually, tumble might’ve been too elegant of a way to describe the three of us falling flat on our faces. I glanced around as I jumped back to my feet and saw that all of the elves were still standing, completely unphased.

  “I hated this blasted thing!” growled Braun, pulling out Grimkell’s Mace. “I never wanna be on the water ever again!”

  “So we’ll just leave you on Ra’Chok?” smirked Dhot.

  The dwarf opened his mouth then closed it.

  “He’s got a point there,” I nodded.

  “Gah, enough talkin!” grumbled Braun, storming forward. “There’s skulls to be bashin!”

  Dhot and I shared a look, shrugged, then ran up to join the fight.

  As we were about to reach the other boat, another Dar’Ka ship crashed into it from the other side. The elves on the first boat remained on their feet while the Greeners stumbled around, making it even easier for the Collective’s fighters to cut them down. Seeing that the elves had the first boat more or less under control, the three of us pushed through the crowd and jumped onto the newcomer’s ship.

  There were about twenty Greeners on this boat, and all of them converged on us. I brought the Time Shield up and pushed out, keeping the enemies to our left boxed out. Spinning my dagger around in my free hand, I jabbed out at the legs of an orc that was advancing on Braun.

  The creature roared out in pain, grabbing the dwarf’s attention. With a laugh, Braun swung Grimkell’s Mace in a wide arch, sending two goblins in front of him flying before connecting with the side of the orc’s neck. There was a sickening crunch sound and the orc collapsed against the side of my Shield.

  Several orcs and goblins gawked in surprise, taking a nervous step backwa
rd. Dhot took this moment to chuck a few of his boxes in their direction.

  “Don’t blow anything up!” I shouted in a hurry. “We might go down with the boat!”

  “Maha! I’m not a moron!” laughed Dhot, pulling out his detonator.

  Click.

  Electricity shot out of the boxes, bouncing between the confused Greeners. They shook violently before they crumpled to the ground, which made the remaining Greeners on the ship go into a full retreat. The only problem being, of course, there was nowhere for them to run to. Taking another look back at their downed friends, they decided swimming for shore was the better option and jumped into the sea.

  “That was too easy,” said Braun, looking disappointed as Dhot collected his contraptions. “I only got to take out a couple of em!”

  The three of us fell over again as a new boat crashed into the left side of ours. We looked up to see at least thirty more Greeners coming our way.

  “Looks like you’re getting another chance,” I remarked, holding my Shield up and jumping in front of Dhot as a few throwing knives were tossed his way.

  Braun let out a battle cry that sounded quite a bit like an excited giggle, then jumped onto my back.

  “W-What are you doing?!” I cried, sinking down to a knee. The dwarf was a lot heavier than I would’ve guessed.

  “Gettin some height!” laughed Braun, jumping off of me and bringing Grimkell’s Mace over his head as he flew toward the Greeners.

  This set of Greeners was smarter than the last and jumped out of his way. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t enough. Braun swung down with all his might as he landed on the point where the ships connected.

  A sound that would put Helga to shame burst out across the battlefield as chunks of wood exploded beneath Braun, causing both ships to rock violently. Braun and the Greeners close to him disappeared into the large hole he had created. The Greeners on the other boat wanted nothing to do with us, and instead jumped over to an elven ship to their right in search of easier opponents.

  “Braun!” I shouted, running to the hole.

  “And you warned me about not destroying the ship!” said Dhot, right behind me.

  The two of us paused as we reached the edge and looked down. Braun was doggy paddling from one frantic goblin to another, smacking them over the head with his Mace and not stopping long enough to watch them sink to the bottom.

  “Looks like we had nothing to worry about,” shrugged Dhot.

  “How do you expect to get out of there?!” I called down to the dwarf.

  “Ye two figure it out while I finish this lot off!” shouted up Braun, swatting a terrified orc.

  I took a quick look around, spotting some of the bits of wood that had flown away from the dwarf’s explosive hit. Dhot and I dug through them, looking for something that would be long enough to help him out. Nothing was cutting it.

  I heard the dwarf grunt behind us, followed by a quick murmur of thanks. We turned to see Braun shaking himself dry back on our boat, an elf with a long stick beside him. The homeless looking elf took a swig of his flask and shot us a lazy smile.

  “I, eh, figured you two weren’t findin what you were lookin for,” shrugged Tad. “Decided to step in.”

  “No, you did the right thing, Tad!” I smiled. “We were going to have to let him drown.”

  “Huh?” asked Braun.

  “More Greeners!” I shouted, running after the group that had left us and boarded a different elven ship. Dhot, Tad, and eventually Braun ran after me.

  This elven ship had been surrounded by several Dar’Ka ships and the elves were outnumbered by the Greeners. Halberds were spinning at the front of their line, trying to switch back and forth between blocking strikes and making some of their own. The Greeners in the back were waiting around to get a chance of their own, and weren’t paying attention to the four of us coming in from behind.

  I jumped onto the ship, pulling my right arm back and punching out with the goblin made fist at a troll waiting near the edge. He casually glanced my way at the last second, my fist connecting with his nose as the rockets went off in the glove. The troll let out a surprised howl of pain as he stumbled back, tripping over the side and crashing into the water.

  That got their attention.

  The back half of the Greeners ran at me, nearly getting to me before I brought the Time Shield up. I listened as they banged uselessly against it for a few seconds, watching to my left as Braun summoned a ball of dark energy and tossed it at them.

  Wood, goblin, and orc flew over me and into the water.

  I lowered my Shield and watched as Tad awkwardly stumbled through the Greeners. An orc slashed at him with an axe, but the elf side stepped at the last second, causing the axe to go into the top of an unsuspecting goblin’s head. Several more times a Greener took out another as they tried to strike the intoxicated elf in their midst.

  Tad either got bored or reached the spot he was looking for. He slapped the bottom of his staff, causing the other side of it to shoot up. This hit the bottom of a goblin’s jaw, shattering some teeth and knocking him out. Swinging the staff back, Tad hit a troll in the chest, then brought it up to quickly hit the enemy in the face three times.

  Braun, Dhot, and I ran in to help get the elf’s back, quickly taking care of the majority of the Greeners on this boat. It wasn’t long before we connected with the elves on the other side of the ship, who nodded their thanks to us.

  There wasn’t much time to celebrate, though, as the distinct sound of a dragon’s flame breath caught my attention. I spun around to see a large red dragon flying over several of the elven ships, lighting them on fire. Some of the soldiers were taken out by this, while a number of others rushed to pour water on the flames. Elves on adjacent boats quickly switched back to their bows, pulling out their Zorikium arrows.

  The arrows flew up to meet the dragon, which naturally had no effect. After all, the red dragon was wearing thick armor, similar to the kind we had seen at the battle of Jiezvall.

  “That could be a problem,” said Tad, opening his flask again.

  “Reimar!” came Cassandra’s voice.

  I glanced over to see her next to Emerich, who was looking up at the dragon with concern. She gave me a pointed look, then gestured up at the dragon as it circled over the ships.

  “Yeah, yeah,” I said, waving at her and backing away to give myself some space to transform. “I’m going.”

  Chapter 3

  I transformed as soon as I found the space. Deciding to mix things up, I pushed through my half dragon form and continued on to become a full green dragon. This was a little trickier than I had anticipated, since the section of the boat I transformed on was only so big. I tried to make myself as small as possible as I completed the change in order to keep my tail and left leg out of the water, which proved to be slightly difficult.

  “Why are ya goin into yer big dragon form?” asked Braun.

  “I don’t want the elves to accidentally hit me with their arrows,” I explained. “This way there’s no way they’ll overlook me.”

  “Er, we could see ya just fine, ya know,” called Tad, tapping the side of his head. “We’ve got, uh, pretty good sight.”

  “I guess that’s true,” I shrugged, beating my wings and stretching them out. Another reason to fight like this was I hadn’t had much practice in this form. Nearly all of my fighting was in my half form, and who knew if I’d need to fight like this when we found Ulrich?

  “Want me to hop on?” asked Tad.

  “Why would you do that?” I asked.

  “Dunno,” said Tad, leaning against his staff. “Figured I might be able to, ya know, help out. Maybe poke the red in the eye?”

  “I’d have to worry about you falling off me the whole time,” I said, shaking my head. “You have a hard enough time staying on your feet when we’re on land or a boat.”

  “He’s got a point,” chimed in Dhot. “Helga and I should be the ones to ride on him!”

  �
��But ya can hit the silly dragon from down here!” argued Braun. “I be the one who needs a lil help gettin to the red.”

  “Guys,” I said.

  “Can’t you chuck one of your dark spells at him?” asked Dhot.

  “Ya think I can toss one of em that high with perfect accuracy?” laughed Braun. “What if I miss? It could kill our own soldiers!”

  “Guys!” I said again.

  “Same with Helga!” said Dhot. “I know I’m an amazing shot, but I’m bound to miss sometime! I could hit an elf, too!”

  “Don’t say that with so much enthusiasm,” mumbled Tad.

  “Ya ain’t gonna hit an elf when yer aimin at the sky!” scoffed Braun. “Yer more likely to hit one from up on Reimar!”

  I let out a roar, which finally grabbed their attention.

  “What?” asked Dhot, Braun, and Tad in unison.

  “No one is riding on me!” I hissed. “The red could just breathe fire at my back and you’d be burnt to a crisp!”

  “Not if you made sure you dodged it,” said Dhot.

  “Aye,” agreed Braun. “Ya’ve got to be more nimble with one of us on yer back.”

  “There isn’t going to be anyone on my back!” I growled, unsure how these two weren’t getting it through their heads.

  “Then what are we goin on about?” asked Braun, looking back and forth between Dhot and me.

  “Seems like a waste of time,” nodded Dhot.

  “I don’t know!” I said. “Now can I go and fight tha-”

  The wind was knocked out of me as the red dragon landed his shoulder tackle, sending both of us flying over the boats. He kicked off of me and soared higher as I fell toward the water, catching myself right before I landed in it. With a burst of my wings, I shot up after him.

  “Hey!” I roared after him. “What’s the deal?!”

  The red dragon glanced back at me, raising an eyebrow as he slowed down. “Uh… excuse me?”