"GREEN!" she exclaimed falling back into her seat.
"You know, I think it did take me a month to master growing...but after that part was down, altering plants came pretty natural to me. I don't know, maybe it's my minor that made it so simple for me and not for you," Legon poked.
Sasha had that coming but she wasn't going to lose with grace, instead she stuck out her tongue and leaned back over the plant. She knew Legon was right; he was a biologic and she an elemental. Elementals always had a harder time with altering plants, but that was on large scale projects, not making a flower a different color.
She tried again and this time the rose just died. "Oh no, I killed it," she said, feeling bad. It may have only been a flower, but she was the one who grew it to death.
Legon placed his hand next to the plant. "It's not dead yet," he said and she watched as the rose bounced back to life, its petals now back to a deep red.
* * * * *
Barnin mounted his horse trying not to cake the stirrups in mud. The rain was finally letting up and Barnin couldn't be happier. While in one aspect poor weather meant that Iumenta dragons were more likely to stay grounded, it also meant that the Elf dragons also wouldn't fly. Putting all of the responsibility of breaking Bonta to ground units, that with heavy rain made incendiary siege weapons ineffective. As a result little in the way of progress was being made on the city of Bonta. Barnin hoped that now the weather was getting better that progress could be made, he was tired of living in constant wet and mud.
Barnin and his men rode out from camp, clods of mud flinging from horses’ hooves. The sun was rising over the hills and Barnin relished its warm rays. The mounted units were on what they called fishing patrols, it was their job to find enemy units in the surrounding area and likewise make it harder for the Cona Empire to support Bonta.
As they ascended hills and trails the sun rose higher in the pale blue sky. The air grew muggy as the saturated ground lent up its moisture to the sun. Barnin stretched in his saddle, enjoying the feel of being dry.
"Feels good doesn't it boys?" he asked his men.
They all agreed.
The patrol had been uneventful but good for Barnin and his men and he thought he would tell them so. "I'm glad that we got called out on this it’s go-"
"CONTACT!" Heath shouted.
Barnin and his men moved off the trail drawing weapons looking around, seeing nothing. Above the hill in front of them a pink Iumenta dragon crested the horizon. Barnin fought the urge to panic, ordering his men to spread out. He knew there was no way to fight a dragon, all they could do was try and minimize casualties. Ahead there was another Iumenta, this one brown. Barnin could see their shiny armor strain to sparkle as the dragons themselves leached light from the sky, only their black claws and teeth seaming to gleam. Instantly he began to sweat and his heart raced.
"Help is on the way," Heath said softly.
There was a roar from behind them and Barnin turned to see an Elvin dragon approaching, its green scales bright and vibrant. The three creatures engaged each other, coming in low to the ground. Barnin turned to the south, seeing that more Elvin dragons were on their way, but likely wouldn't make it in time to help their brave comrade.
The green dragon was being forced closer to the ground, taking heavy damage its blood spattering the hillside. Barnin was about to give the order to run when a thought came to him, that Elf saved us, it could have waited for back up and won this fight easy, but we'd have died...
The pink Iumenta was just over head. "HEATH! Distract it!" and to the rest of his men, "Arrows, fire everything you've got!" They wouldn't be able to hurt the dragon; but take its head out the fight, give the other Elves time to arrive, that they could do.
Heath sent a bolt of yellow at the dragon, the spell flashed before its eyes making it turn to look at Barnin and his men. In that split second the green dragon lashed out with its tail hitting the pink Iumenta's wing. There was a crack as bone broke and the beast fell the short distance to the ground.
As the pink Iumenta landed, Barnin could see magic run the length of the dragon’s wing, it looked at them furious. "CHARGE!" Barnin yelled holding his sword aloft.
It was a credit to his men that not a single one hesitated, all spurring their horses at the angry dragon. Barnin saw a flick of green just before the pink Iumenta sent a spell at him and his men. There was a crack like thunder and a flash of pink and green, but Barnin rode on. His men split as they reached the dragon. It launched forward snapping at them. Barnin saw Ankle swing his sword, hitting the dragon’s nose and doing no damage what so ever. You aren't supposed to win he told himself. Another of his men ducked avoiding the dragon’s tail.
Barnin saw two more flicks of color around him. He looked to see the two incoming Elf dragons sending spells at the Iumenta. There was more thunder and the pink Iumenta refocused on the Elves taking off, joining its companion in the sky. They stayed close together holding off the Elves’ spells. The green dragon backed away from the Iumenta. The Iumenta turned and retreated. The green Elf waited for the other two dragons to join it and then they flew after the Iumenta.
Barnin looked to his men. Seeing the looks on their faces, some looked ready to fight; others were starting to realize what they had just done. The new guy that Barnin had snapped at the other day and the one that avoided the pink’s tail looked up in the sky, angry, "That's right you better fly away!" and that did it, everyone’s nerves broke. Barnin had to keep from falling out of the saddle he was laughing so hard.
Later Barnin was surprised that he didn't get any reprimand from command about what had happened, they seemed to be in shock about the situation.
"And why did you do this?" one of his commanding officers asked.
Barnin wasn't about to tell the truth. "If the green dragon lost, then we would have been taken out anyway, it was a narrow shot but a shot none the less," he paused, making up his mind to be honest. "And whoever that was that saved us would have died; they were going to lay down their life for a bunch of people they didn't know. I couldn't in good conscience run."
His commander seemed to think about that for a while. "Most would have run, it's the safe decision to make; however, staying like you did ended up working. It saved lives and I dare say earned some respect with the Elves, good job son, I wish I had ten more like you."
Barnin looked down, "Sir, respectfully you have twenty-nine more like me, not one of my men hesitated each and everyone did their job."
The commander nodded smiling, "That's good to hear, thank you, I stand corrected."
* * * * *
Ankle was waiting in their unit’s command tent for Barnin to return. Ankle wasn't sure how much trouble they were going to be in for helping out an Ascended. On the one hand he knew that it was a suicidal thing to do that could have cost their entire unit for nothing, but on the other hand it was the right thing to do.
Heath was sitting at the one table in the tent on one of four chairs. The table and chairs weren't really theirs, they'd found them on the side of a road during patrol and thought they would add to the overall feel of the muddy burlap tent. Ankle pulled out a chair and sat.
Barnin walked into the tent, taking Ankle and Heath by surprise. "That went better than I thought it would," he said.
"Are we going to be punished?" Heath asked.
"No, they were happy with us. I think if we had taken losses that it would have been different, but we didn't so we are the good guys," Barnin explained.
Ankle was about to speak when an Elf walked into the tent. Seeing Elves was not uncommon, so Ankle didn't think anything of it, until he noticed that the man’s brown eyes had green flecks in them.
Ankle got up as Barnin turned to the Elf. It seemed to take Barnin a moment to register who the Elf was. "Oh, you must be the dragon that saved us, thank you," he said.
The Elf’s face showed little emotion, "I could say the same for you, and thank you."
Barnin nodded, "Well, you're w
elcome. May I ask if your lot killed those Iumenta?"
The Elf glanced around the tent taking in all of its muddy glory. "No, we did not. It is rare for Ascended to be killed, though I most certainly would have been if not for your unit. May I ask who the magic user was? Forgive me; I didn't get much of a look at any of your faces."
Heath stood up stepping forward looking uncomfortable. "It was me," Heath said.
"What class are you?" the Elf asked.
"Class? I-I'm a class one, Sir."
Ankle knew that Heath was always overly critical of his skills, almost seeming ashamed to call himself a Venefica.
"Why did you choose the spell you did? It was a burst of light if I am not mistaken."
Heath looked more uncomfortable, "I was going to distract is all Sir. I couldn't hurt an Ascended if my life depended on it, but I figured a blast of light could at least make it hard for it to see or take its attention away. Sorry for making a poor choice Sir."
The Elf looked confused. "Poor choice? I think you miss understand me, I was not criticizing your choice, most would have tried to hurt the Iumenta which would have not even gotten its attention. Instead you chose to do something that would accomplish your goal; a choice I might add that saved me, but also gave my companions time to help us all. Good work."
Heath looked like he was going to faint. "Thank you Sir."
The Elf turned his gaze to Barnin, "You ordered this?"
"Yes I did."
"Why?" the Elf asked.
"You saved our lives and more, we are on the same side, and it’s our job to protect each other no matter the cost."
"Many would call you reckless or stupid," the Elf pointed out.
Barnin smiled, "I know, but the same could be said for you taking on two Iumenta dragons to help some humans."
For the first time Ankle saw the Elf smile, his thin lips turning up at the edges. "We are fools both, but I think better men as a result, don't you think?"
Barnin laughed. "Yes on both accounts, Ankle here actually made contact with his sword on the dragon’s nose," Barnin said pointing over to Ankle.
"And?" the Elf asked Ankle.
"Didn't get a good swipe at her, but she was scared, I'll tell you that much, next time Sir, next time."
"Her?" the Elf asked confused.
"Wasn't that a girl dragon?" Ankle asked. "She was pink."
To Ankle's surprise the Elf laughed loudly. "No my brave friend, she was a he; the color of our magic has no effect on our gender," he said laughing again.
Ankle laughed too. "Whoops, I always just figured since Ise is pink..."
The Elf calmed. "Do you mean Un Prose Iselin of House Evindass?"
"Yeah I mean Un Prose Iselin," he said wondering if he had spoken disrespectfully.
A light seemed to turn on in the Elves eyes, "You are that human unit that Un Prosa Legon speaks so highly of. I should have guessed, well today I am truly honored." The Elf looked at them all different. "You must be Barnin, and you based on your rank, you must be Ankle," then to Heath, "and you're Heath."
"You have heard of us?" Heath asked.
"Why yes, you are the human unit that Un Prosa Legon so readily trusts and it was you who found Mors if I am not mistaken."
"You know about that?" Barnin asked.
"Mors? Yes, it was your mission that compelled the Great Houses into action. All Elves have been told of Mors, though most of us do not know mission specifics, I am high enough to have been told. You must remember your mission was secret mostly from humanity, it would have been bad for the Iumenta to have known you were coming."
Ankle felt a bit of ice in his gut thinking about Mors, and "Rachel," he said softly.
The tent went silent.
Ankle looked at the Elf. "Do you know how the girl we found is doing?"
He shook his head. "We know almost nothing of her, I know your names for the simple reason that you were in that mission and many others for Evindass, and therefore you could be a possible target for the Iumenta. Other than that I don't know much. I have family in the golden city, they told me a human girl was living there that no one seems to know." The Elf looked solemn for a moment, "I don't know everything you boys had to see there but I'm sorry you had to see any of it."
The Elf whose name they never got, spent a little while longer with them, but Ankle wasn't paying much attention to the conversation. All he could do we see Rachel in that cage they found her in. As night drew on he stood outside his tent watching the horizon light up with the glow of fire as Bonta burned.
* * * * *
Ashley was running as fast as she could back to her house. Behind her were burning buildings that were too close to the city walls of Bonta. Wooden balls filled with burning oil hurtled over the wall, exploding when they contacted buildings and streets. Ashley told herself that she wasn't going to turn around and look at the devastation. It had been a mistake to go looking for her sister and brother in law, their house was in cinders.
The smoke turned the setting sun red. A flash of color and a clap like thunder caused her to jerk her head skywards. Above her dragons were fighting. The sky turned calico and in some places rained blood from the battle above. Ashley refocused on what was in front of her as her legs pumped, taking her away from the wall. She saw plumes of fire to her right; she looked to see some of the Elf dragons dropping the same type of balls that were being lobbed over the city wall. That’s the government district she thought.
As she rounded a corner she all but ran into an Iumenta, his yellow eyes only flashing to hers for an instant before it went back about its business. She took in what looked like an odd ballista being manned by several Iumenta. They were not loading bolts into it but rather packages. It's like a slingshot she thought. The Iumenta launched the package into the air. She watched as it exploded near an Elf dragon with a loud boom. A moment later she heard what sounded like rocks hitting nearby buildings, she looked down to see a metal spike fall to earth. That’s what the Iumenta are shooting she thought. She heard other booms and looked to the sky seeing more of the little packages in the air all around the city.
The dragon the Iumenta had shot at turned its attention to them and Ashley ran again not wanting to be around when the dragon attacked. As she ran the nearby buildings were lit with emerald, the same color as the dragon she'd seen. The light came with a small wave of heat. Ashley didn't turn around; having no desire to see whatever was left behind her.
* * * * *
Sara rubbed her eyes. She was exhausted. Though she was in Noris the city of Bonta was no more than an hour away, and had fallen late the night before. This meant that by dawn the injured were coming her way. Her day was spent with wounded people, mostly civilians. She walked out of the warehouse and turned from the healing facility to another warehouse that held medical supplies.
One of her staff was with her. "Tammy, what all do we need again?" Sara said looking at a much too small cache of supplies.
Tammy fished for a piece of paper out of one of the pockets of her bloody apron; she pulled out the paper and read off a list of supplies. They had maybe half of what they needed; Sara looked over at Tammy, her red hair escaping from under its bun.
Tammy looked at Sara. "What does my hair look bad?" she said with a wink. "Well, you're not one to talk; I think birds are nesting in yours."
Sara laughed, it was an inappropriate time, people were hurt and dying but there wasn't anything she could do to stop it. She got serious, "We need to find supplies... I will-"
"I'll try and find more, I can't use magic like you can, and maybe you can save some people. At any rate, you're in charge you need to be here, I'll go fishing," Tammy said picking up an arm full of supplies. Sara did the same and walked back into the healing center.
She was greeted by the smell of blood and infection. Most people were not seriously injured, most of those were still in Bonta, and they were unable to be moved. But Sara was still dealing with the wounded from taking Noris as well
. The Iumenta had burned healing centers as they left, leaving the town with no were to go. But unlike Bonta, Noris hadn't been under siege, which meant that most people were able to seek help before infection set in. For the people of Bonta, this had not been the case. The town wasn't under siege for long but infection set in fast. As a result, Sara knew there would be teams working around the clock removing limbs, trying to save people.
For her part, her magic was drained along with her body. All she could do was mix herbs for fever and infection and tell her medics who to try and save and who to just make comfortable.
Her attention was grabbed by a frantic mother holding a child. Sara rushed over to them, seeing that both were burned. She walked them over to an empty bed where the mother laid the child down. Almost all of the right side of his body was charred, his breath almost nonexistent.
"Help us," the woman begged.
Sara's mouth opened and closed without sound. There was no helping them, the boy was too far gone, and Sara could see it. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do."
The woman's face fell, tears in her eyes. "My husband is dead... my son is dead..." her eyes lifted to Sara's, "Why did you do this to us?" her broken voice asked.
Sara was at a lack of anything to say. How could she tell a grieving mother that the war that killed her whole family was necessary? There were no words of comfort that she could offer.
Hours after the boy died his mother collapsed with infection from her own injuries, still Sara had no supplies. She stood outside knowing that the woman wouldn't make it through the night, knowing that so many wouldn't. Sara didn't question why the war was happening, oddly she felt more confident than ever about the need for the Iumenta to be pushed out of the land, but she wasn't happy about her current situation. Tammy had returned with a few supplies she'd gotten from the Elves. Tammy had also been reprimanded by command for going to the Elves for help; the Cona stance was that they could take care of their own.
Sara was furious with her superiors for not letting the Elves help. But then she had a thought those orders aren't mine; I am still under the command of Legon. She was on loan more or less with the Cona Republic; her title was that of a liaison. She remembered Iselin's advice on taking care of things herself.
Legon Restoration Page 7