Legon Restoration

by Taylor, Nicholas

  They locked in the sky and Iselin felt her sides burn as claws raked down them, cutting into her. The wounds healed instantly and she tore into her opponent. They fell towards the ground and separated, breathing orange and pink fire at each other. Again they came together, this time Iselin received a scratch across her face, and it nearly pierced her eye. Iselin swiped at the orange dragon’s neck, it pulled back in time to only receive shallow wounds. They continued to fight back and forth, each taking and then losing the advantage. Her mind was aware of Legon using his most powerful attack and then leaving the ground. The orange dragon instantly disengaged her, backing away in the sky, sending torrents of magical fire at her. Iselin let the dragon go. All of the Iumenta were leaving the area; the green one was still unable to fight and now with the loss of the blue dragon the Iumenta were not only outnumbered but outclassed.

  Legon rejoined the formation. "Are we going to follow them?" he asked.

  "No," Sydin responded, "we aren't, we are going to return to the Carrier. We are too tired for a full patrol."

  Iselin could feel Legon's emotions, he wasn't happy. "What is it, love?" she asked, narrowing the mental network so they could talk privately.

  "I wasn't much good today, I only killed one of them," he said sullen.

  Iselin tried not to laugh. "Oh my, you forget that dragons do not often die in battle, normally once they are badly hurt they retreat, that is a victory, love. And today you severely wounded one dragon to the point where it couldn't fight any longer; also hurt another one pretty bad as well. You did kill the blue dragon, along with a mess of Iumenta ground units. So...try not to beat yourself up to much, OK?" she said.

  He laughed a bit. "I guess when you put it that way, I wasn't a complete waste today," he said.

  She decided not to comment on him saying "complete waste."

  Chapter Seventeen

  Hurry Up and Wait

  "Speed is of the utmost importance to an armed force, without it they cannot make it to a destination in enough time to wait an annoying amount of time for new orders."

  -The Exiled Captain (Author Unknown)

  Barnin and his units rode through the remains of a burnt and destroyed forest. For several days they'd been following the Pawdin Army, making sure that towns and villages were secure as the main army pressed on. He didn't enjoy playing clean up and trying to suppress insurgency before it started wasn't easy or safe, but it was a lot better than being in conventional combat. When the war first started his unit of new guys would have been disappointed at the prospect of months of not seeing what they would call "real combat", but after what they'd seen and dealt with thus far with the "non real combat" he figured none of them were looking forward to the real thing.

  Thick smoke crossed the road and Barnin put a cloth over his mouth and nose. He was assaulted by the acrid sent of burning flesh. As they rounded a corner, the source of the smoke came into view. Before them were piles of burning bodies, both human and Iumenta heaped together. Barnin knew that there were no human resistant forces fighting alongside the Elves, so no one he knew was in the piles, but he still found them hard to look at.

  "Why don't they bury the dead?" said the commander of Barnin's youngest unit.

  His name was Timothy and for the most part Barnin liked him. "I know that the spread of disease plays a factor," Barnin said, "but also the Iumenta cremate their dead, so I think in a way it's the Elves trying to be respectful."

  They were past the piles and cresting a hill. Barnin couldn't remember the name of the town that they were going too. Whatever its name was, the town looked bad. Smoke rose from several spots including a large stone building that Barnin assumed was the town keep. They made their way to the main gate which was ripped from its hinges; thus far all they spotted were humans walking around the town’s burnt surroundings. Inside the wall they found a lot more activity and to Barnin's relief a group of Elves standing next to a cache of supplies.

  Next to the supplies were the Elves tents, they looked like giant leaves that had been folded into a dome, he knew that any Elf could grow one of these tents in a matter of minutes. An auburn haired Elf woman approached Barnin and his men.

  "Good afternoon Commander, my name is Lele," she said in a calm, regal voice.

  Barnin dismounted and addressed the woman, "Hello, my name is Barnin, who do I need to talk to about finding out what I need to do here, and where I should tell my men to sleep?"

  Lele's eyes went out of focus for a moment. "You may talk to any one of the Elves here; we are from The Great House Viridi. We will be leaving to join our forces within the hour. If your men care to they may use our tents, or they may take rest in the town’s tavern," she said still formal.

  House Viridi, Barnin had heard of it of course, but didn't know anyone from it. He thought it was one of the Houses from the deep south west, its people had almost no human contact.

  "Thank you, so where are your forces headed off too?" Barnin asked, hoping that he could maybe get some news of the front.

  Lele looked confused for a moment. "Salez of course, to meet up with the rest of the Pawdin and Human Army," she said matter-of-fact.

  "Oh, so the push for Salez is on then, I suppose we will be getting orders to head up that way soon."

  Lele looked severe, "Yes, I dare say you will."

  The look on her face bothered him. "Do you think it will be a hard city to take?" he asked. Barnin assumed that Salez wouldn't be easy, but it was so rare the Elves showed concern about a battle.

  "Salez has long been a jump capable city..." her eyes went out of focus for a moment, "forgive me, I have matters to attend to. We have provided food here and some basic supplies. We have notified command that they will need to send more food here and a team to re-grow the fields. It was very nice making your acquaintance and I hope all goes well for you," she said and then walked away.

  As all of the Elves left, Timothy leaned down from his mount to talk to Barnin. "What’s a jump capable city?" he asked, "And why is that a bad thing?"

  Barnin shrugged. "I couldn't tell you about either," then he raised his voice, "OK, here's the deal. House Viridi has been so kind as to leave us tents to stay in, also there is food for the people here. This spot is our Head Quarters. Timothy, take your men out on the wall, I want a perimeter up. Ankle I want an assessment of the town. The rest of you set camp here and fan out in the town in groups of three, looking for people who need help. NOW MOVE!" he ordered.

  Using the Elves old camp as a base of communications, Barnin used Heath to keep tabs on the groups of men as they worked on their various tasks. Barnin placed his pack and a few things in one of the Elf tents. When evening came he slid in his sleeping roll grateful for the sweet scent of the tent. He closed the flap and sighed, thin though the tent’s skin may be, there was silence inside of it for the most part. He fell asleep with the image of his wife safe back home in Manton.

  * * * * *

  Heath found Ankle laying on a tarp staring up into the night sky. "Can I join you?" Heath asked.

  "Go ahead."

  "You look like you're thinkin’ pretty hard there buddy, what about?" Heath asked.

  Ankle laughed a bit, something Heath hadn't heard him do in a long time. "I'm thinking about pasta and what it tastes like."

  "Pasta?"

  "Yeah like at my parent’s restaurant back home. I'm trying to remember what it tastes like; it used to keep me grounded." He breathed out, "Before Mors I could always think of my father’s cooking and it was like being at home again."

  "What changed after Mors?" Heath asked.

  "Rachel." Ankle looked at Heath, "After meeting her, whenever I think of home I think about how she'll never have that. While I was eating and loving life, people like her were suffering in that awful place, ya know?"

  Heath felt cold. "Yeah, I know what you mean, but...but it's not your fault, ya know? That those things happened to her and others."

  "Yeah, yeah, I know, but that doesn't c
hange anything." Ankle changed the subject, "So what are you going to do when this is all over?"

  "The war you mean? I don't know, I haven't thought about it all that much to be honest with you. I don't want to have dreams that probably won’t happen. You?"

  "I think you need something to look forward to. But I think I am going to go work for my father in his restaurant, I know how to cook almost everything in there," Ankle said.

  Heath was shocked, "You know how to cook? How come I've never seen that?"

  Ankle shrugged, "I haven't cooked in a while. When I was a kid, my dad used to make me help him in the kitchen and then once I joined the army, I stopped cooking. It bugged me that he made me help him when I was a kid, but now I think he knew something that I didn't."

  "And what was that?"

  "It makes me happy, trivial as it may sound, but those are some of the best memories I have," Ankle said.

  "So cook me something," Heath said.

  "What?"

  "Cook me something…I helped look through the food the Elves left and they left a bunch of spices and other junk that no one around here is going to be using anytime soon, so make me something."

  "No, I'm not going to cook for you, I'm not your wife," Ankle said trying to close the subject.

  Heath punched his arm. "Sure ya are, now cook for me woman! I'll make a fuss and then Barnin will make you cook for everyone."

  Ankle mumbled something about killing Heath in his sleep but got up and walked over to the supply mound. He grabbed an arm full of supplies and walked over to one of the adjoining buildings where there was a kitchen. An hour later Heath sat down at a table and Ankle put a plate of pasta in front of him; it had some cream sauce and chicken covering it. Heath took a bite, chewed and swallowed.

  "So?" Ankle asked.

  "Five years!" Heath said.

  "What?"

  "I've been serving with you for five years, and this whole time I could have been eating this?! I don't know if I should be mad at you or just thankful that I can finally look forward to a decent dinner."

  Ankle laughed hard, Heath could see months worth of tension being drained from him. "I think your father was right, you are happiest doing this." It was true, not only did Ankle look better now, but when he was cooking the food Heath watched years of stress leave the man, in truth this was the happiest he'd ever seen his friend.

  "I think you're right, maybe I should start doing this more," Ankle said.

  "I think that would be a good idea, now can I have seconds?"

  * * * * *

  Almost a week after securing the town, Barnin and his men rode out of the forest taking in the wide open plains around Salez. When the order to go to Salez came, Barnin wasn't surprised. The city wouldn't be easy to take and the Elves and resistance would need every man available.

  They were coming at the city from the south east. Barnin could see the sprawling city with its white walls in the distance, but what he wasn't expecting was the lack of smoke or flashing magic on the horizon. That wasn't to say he couldn't see both Elf and Iumenta dragons in the air, there were plenty of those, but they didn't look to be fighting much. As they got closer to the city, Barnin could see structures outside of the city walls. The closer he got, the more the buildings came into focus.

  "Are those Elf buildings?" Heath asked.

  "I think they are," Barnin replied.

  As they drew in on fields of green domed tents of the Elves, Barnin was shocked to see all that they had built.

  "It's like a small city," Ankle said as they came into camp.

  Another human came up to them and pointed them to where they needed to go. They passed what looked like a hospital being grown and Barnin saw someone he knew.

  * * * * *

  Keither turned to the sound of his name being called. He smiled seeing Barnin, Ankle and Heath approaching him.

  "How are you?" Keither shouted at them.

  "We are doing good," Barnin said when he got to Keither, he dismounted and shook Keither's hand. "How are you doing?" he asked.

  "Busy, but that is pretty normal for us," Keither answered.

  Barnin pointed around, "Hey what's with all the stuff the Elves built, and how long have they been here?"

  "They came here about a week ago but construction really only started two days ago, Salez is a jump city so the Elves are counting on heavy resistance."

  "What is a jump city?" Barnin asked.

  "Do you know about jump crystals?"

  "Yeah I've jumped before," Barnin answered and read the confusion on Keither's face. "Sorry, it’s secret and I can't share, but what about it? Does Salez have a crystal?"

  Keither nodded, "Two actually, most large cities have them, one is for incoming Ascended and another for outgoing. You have been out in the plains so it's no surprise you haven't seen anything like this yet."

  "So what is that going to mean for trying to take the city?" Barnin asked.

  Keither tried not to huff or talk to Barnin like he was a moron. "Well, the Iumenta will be able to bring more Ascended in whenever they like, and on those Ascended can be replacement units or supplies."

  He saw something click in Barnin's head. "So we can't just wait for the city to run out of supplies, got ya. Well, isn't this going to be just peachy." He looked around. "But still what's with all of this?" he said pointing to all of the buildings. "I mean, why not just stay in tents, and did they really build all of this in a few days?"

  "Barnin, it could take months for Salez to fall, both the Elves and the Iumenta are digging in for a long fight, and honestly we are too."

  Keither was happy to see Barnin but he was busy and he could see that Barnin had a lot of questions. "There was an Ascended I've seen you talking to, Umbra is her name right?"

  Barnin's head bobbed, "Yeah, do you know her?"

  Keither had an idea. "Yes, we've met in Seeon"

  He reached out with his mind trying to find her. "Umbra."

  "Hello Keither," she answered sleepy, "How can I help you?"

  "Barnin and his men just got here; do you want to show them around? Or are you too tired?"

  * * * * *

  Umbra's mind flicked out to her hanger to check the time before responding to Keither. "No, I've over slept as is, but I need to stay in my ascended form. Can you give Barnin, Ankle and Heath directions to my hanger?"

  Keither said that he could and Umbra got up stretching her neck, legs and her favorite of all, her tail. She thought about having something to eat but decided she wasn't hungry just yet. One of Umbra's favorite parts of being in her dragon form was that she did not have to get ready in the morning. She didn't have to pick out something to wear or do her hair or brush her teeth, no; she just woke up and started her day.

  Her mind reached out to her hanger door and it slid open, spilling midday light inside, making her eyes water.

  "It's past noon and you're just waking up?" a sarcastic voice accused.

  How did they already make it here? She thought and then said, "I swear Barnin, I will eat you someday." She looked down at Barnin, Heath and Ankle, "And for your information, I work through the night so noon is just fine, thank you very much."

  Heath looked over to Ankle, "Right and here this whole time we thought that the Elves were so dedicated and hard working."

  Ankle laughed and waved at her, "Come on guys don't be like that, we haven't seen Umbra in a really long time. Is that any way to say hi?"

  "Thank you," Umbra said.

  "You're welcome," Ankle said adding, "She's just a big lizard and we all know how lazy lizards are, it's in her nature."

  She lowered her head level with the three of them trying to look upset, Heath just looked in her eye and made a kissy face, "You eyeing me sugar?"

  Umbra lost her composure and started to laugh. "I have missed you guys," she said and added, "So do you want a tour of the camp?"

  "Do you mind?" Barnin said serious. "Joking aside if you need sleep..."

  Sh
e looked him over, seeing obvious signs of wear on him and the others. Her heart fell seeing it in their eyes, they'd seen a lot in their short lives. "No I'm fine, really. When do you have to report in?" she asked.

  Heath answered pointing to his head, "We're checked in we don't have anything until tomorrow."

  "OK," she said and reached her mind out to command. After a moment she spoke again, "We have clearance."

  "For what?" Ankle asked.

  "For me to give you a flying tour of the area, I told my command that you are mounted units and it could help if you knew the lay of the land," she said with a wink.

  * * * * *

  Barnin, Heath and Ankle climbed onto Umbra's back. Barnin felt himself stick to her as she trotted along a wide path that connected the many hangers.

  "Why aren't you just taking off?" Heath asked her.

  "There is too much air traffic in this area, and with Salez being just north east from here we have to mind all of the Ascended in the sky. We are going to a designated take off area, from there a ground units will give me instructions so I don't cause any issues for other incoming and outgoing dragons." she explained.

  "So what happens if the Iumenta attack?" Heath asked.

  "If there is an attack we receive an order to scramble, if that happens every dragon that is on the ground will take off from their hangers to meet the threat. Sometimes scramble orders will come, but only for squadrons that are on alert."

  "Alert?" Ankle asked. "None of this is making any sense to me," he added.

  "Alert means that they are first responders, they sit waiting for a call to scramble. It shouldn't make any sense to you; everything is very catered for air combat and defense," Umbra said.

  They were coming to an elevated platform where dragons of every color were taking off from. Umbra stood in a small line until they were on the platform. A wind sock blew alongside the platform, that Umbra said was there to tell her which way the wind was blowing. She leapt into the wind, driving her wings down. Barnin felt the all too familiar pull on his gut as he moved upward.