by Tom Burton
After George looks at Urag’s lifeless body for few seconds, he turns to see Jaylen. He struggles to keep his gaze on Jaylen—his face is so beaten by Urag’s club that it has become unrecognizable.
“You didn’t deserve this, brother,” George whispers to himself.
He walks over to Jaylen and squats down next to him. Then he closes what remains of Jaylen’s eyes and then remains there as the battle rages on all around him.
Up on the cliff, the battle between Mutaro and Aaron continues. As the swords clash, Mutaro leans in to Aaron.
“This is no sparring match,” he tells Aaron.
He then punches Aaron in the jaw, forcing him to the ground. Aaron shakes off the punch and quickly stands up again. The fighting then becomes a brawl, Aaron and Mutaro using their hands and feet just as much as the swords. Eventually, Mutaro disarms Aaron: Aaron’s sword sails over the cliff, landing on the plains far below. Aaron then tries to punch Mutaro, but the wizard ducks out of the way. He kicks Aaron in the knee, shattering his leg. Aaron screams, holding his inverted knee as he falls to the ground. Mutaro smiles at Aaron then grabs Aaron’s foot below his broken leg and drags him to the edge of the cliff.
“The Silver Savior, the one who fought the mighty Mutaro, the one failed,” Mutaro says to himself. He picks Aaron up and holds him over the cliff.
“Look,” Mutaro tells him, gesturing toward the battle below.
Aaron looks down and sees the human forces surrounded, swamped by the merciless horde of orcs.
“Human compassion is not worth a thing when your life is on the line. Would you really die for them? Really?”
Mutaro sniggers at Aaron.
Aaron does not respond. Instead, he looks back at Mutaro stoically. Then he sets his feet against the edge of the cliff, grabs Mutaro’s chest, and pushes himself and Mutaro off the cliff.
They fall together toward the plains below.
Azdus regains consciousness. He sees Mutaro and Aaron fall off the cliff.
“No!” Azdus screams.
He quickly stands and sprints toward the edge of the cliff.
Then, he jumps off it.
As he heads straight to the grassy plains below, he lands comfortably and finds Mutaro and Aaron, spread out on their backs and lying next to each other. Azdus walks over to them then falls to his knees emotionally. He closes his eyes for a moment, but then lets out a loud and piercing scream. Then, after a few seconds, Mutaro’s lifeless body begins to disappear, transforming itself into a series of yellow sparkles. Some of the sparkles are quickly consumed by Azdus, but most of the unleashed energy flies off toward the North; whatever energy remains heads to the South.
As soon as Mutaro’s power is fully spent, Azdus turns back to the ongoing battle. He immediately conjures a large cloud of hot, roiling steam and rolls it toward the battle. The cloud incinerates all of the orcs as they scream in merciless terror. But the cloud simply passes through the humans, leaving them unharmed. After the cloud has passed over the entire of the plains, killing all of the orcs in sight, Azdus abruptly dissipates it.
The humans look around the battlefield for a few moments.
Then, they celebrate wildly, embracing each other and applauding.
“Victory!” one of the soldiers shouts. “We have victory!”
George refuses to celebrate. Still on his knees, his head lowered over Jaylen’s ruined body, he simply peers up for a moment and offers a hint of a smile.
One of the celebrating soldiers then approaches George.
“Collect the dead…. families need to know,” George bitterly instructs the man.
Then he slowly stands up and sets Jaylen onto his shoulders. As he carries him back to the forest, the surviving soldiers gradually gather themselves and then pick up the dead bodies.
Then, all together, they walk back to the camp.
Back at the still, fallen rubbles of Redlock, Queen Athora and the Treno-Ban warriors search desperately through the ruins, trying to find Goras. The dust from the freshly fallen walls of Redlock continues to rise as the warriors become increasingly more desperate.
Then, Queen Athora looks up.
Yellow sparkles—a stream of glowing energy high in the sky—sail toward the rubble of the stronghold.
“Look!” Queen Athora shouts.
She points to the incoming yellow sparks. The rest of the Treno-Ban warriors stop searching. As the yellow sparks sail down to Redlock, they condense into a tight sphere and pass through a small hole in the rubble.
“Search there!” Queen Athora instructs.
The warriors then rush toward the hole where the sparks descended. After lifting off several huge slabs of broken stone, they find Goras, alive and breathing heavily. The skin of his face is painted with dust and his arms and legs display several large gashes; but his eyes are alert with a newfound spryness.
Queen Athora smiles.
“Welcome back,” she says.
Goras gets to his feet. He looks thoughtfully at the sky.
“The sparks….?” he asks.
Queen Athora nods.
“It’s done then,” Goras says.
“Yes,” Queen Athora replies, continuing to smile. “It’s done.”
Back in the royal forest, Daniel, Laura, and Kamara await their fate at the edge of the forest. They look out toward what was Dellmoor. Daniel rests against a tree, as Laura sits alongside him. Kamara stands next to them with her arms crossed.
“When will they come?” she asks.
“I’m not sure,” Laura says somberly. “But I expect them to show no mercy when they do.”
After a few moments of silence, Kamara turns back to the camp.
“I’m going to get everyone,” she says softly as she walks into the forest.
Laura and Daniel look back out of the forest.
“I didn’t think we would die this way….the human race tied at the end of a string,” Laura says.
Daniel watches as a tear rolls down Laura’s cheek. He wipes it away as he looks into her eyes.
“Maybe death is not the end,” he reassures her. “Maybe death is simply a path everyone must walk down.”
Laura looks back into Daniel’s eyes.
“But we will be with each other to the end,” Daniel tells her.
Laura displays a bittersweet smile, as the two reach for each other’s hands.
Suddenly, they hear movement in the distance. Laura helps Daniel to his feet, but the two soon realize that the group approaching them are, in fact, humans. After looking at each other in joyful surprise and embracing to celebrate their victory, Daniel and Laura walk over to the group, with Laura holding her arm around Daniel’s shoulder to keep his balance.
As the humans from the battlefield approach, Daniel and Laura see Azdus leading the human army. He is carrying a fallen soldier on his shoulder. The two then see many other survivors also carrying the fallen. As they draw closer, Daniel searches for Aaron, but is unable to find him. He looks back to Azdus—but Azdus shakes his head. Then Daniel looks again at the body on Azdus’s shoulder.
“No…No!” Daniel mutters, his voice breaking. Tears quickly roll down his face.
Azdus slowly lowers Aaron’s body onto the floor of the forest in front of Daniel.
“I’m sorry,” Azdus whispers to him.
Daniel lowers himself to his knees, breaking down in shock, tears flooding his cheeks. He embraces Aaron’s lifeless body, his head close against Aaron’s chest. The soldiers around him watch sadly, but then Laura approaches Daniel. Gently dragging him off Aaron’s body, Laura hugs Daniel as he cries into her arms.
Robert Carrick, along with all of the children, and all of the elderly from the Camp, come out of forest toward the soldiers, all celebrating the revelation of their victory. George then comes toward the group surrounding Dan
iel and Aaron; he carries Jaylen’s body on his shoulder. As he approaches, he sees his father in the distance. No words are spoken as they slowly walk toward each other. Instead, Robert helps George take Jaylen’s body from his shoulder then gradually lower him to the ground. Once they release his body, George and Robert quickly embrace.
“My son,” Robert whispers.
George remains silent, clutching his father tightly. Kamara then pushes through the crowds to see Jaylen’s body lying lifelessly on the ground. She gasps heavily and recoils in shock. George hesitantly approaches her.
“I’m so sorry,” he says.
However, Kamara comes back to Jaylen’s body. She goes down onto her knees and lifts Jaylen’s head, cradling it, crying all the while.
George watches Kamara in guilt. Robert sees this and walks to his side.
“He saved my life, and I can never thank him for it,” George tells his father.
Robert puts his arm around his son, then pulls him away from Jaylen’s body.
As the two walk away, they see other dwellers in the camp realizing their loved ones have died in the battle: parents mourning children, siblings mourning siblings, friends mourning friends. George turns away from the devastating news being spread throughout the camp.
“All this horror,” George says to his father, “the consequence of war….It makes me wonder what it’s all for. When you fight for your loved ones, but they die fighting for you, what do you have left?”
“They died fighting so the ones they loved the most can live; you must honor them now by living your life as you want to live it. This war is over, we won. Now we must look to win the peace.”
Robert continues to comfort George as they walk back to an empty campsite.
A few hours pass. The survivors of the battle all return to the campsite. Some continue to mourn the dead, others celebrate their astonishing victory. In Daniel’s tent, Daniel, Laura, and Azdus sit around the table, silent, still shaken. Laura holds Daniel’s hands as they sit next to each other. Azdus leans back in his chair across from them.
Then Kamara walks into the tent. The three look over at her.
“It’s time,” she tells Daniel.
Daniel nods and stands. As he walks past Kamara, he puts his hand on her shoulder. She tries to hold back the tears.
Daniel walks out of the tent. Kamara, Laura, and Azdus follow him. Outside his tent, Daniel sees the thousands of surviving men, women, and children standing nearby, looking expectantly back at him. Then he sees George approaching him, carrying a sheathed sword.
“You, Daniel Rane, took leadership when we most needed a leader,” George tells him. “You helped two conflicting sides join forces, and you killed the dragon single-handedly, which no human has ever done before. We would be honored for you to lead us again.”
George hands over the sheathed sword. Daniel draws the sword from its sheath and quickly realizes it is the Sword of Neroman—King Edmund’s old sword.
George then takes a few steps back toward the crowd. He hesitates a moment, then kneels down before Daniel. Soon after, everyone in the crowd behind George follows suit, and kneels down. Finally, Laura, Kamara, and Azdus kneel just to the side of Daniel. Suddenly, Daniel realizes they are acknowledging him as their new king.
Days pass after the events of the Lion’s Cloud battle. Azdus and Goras are in their tent, grabbing pieces of jewelry collected from the desolation of Dellmoor. They place the jewelry into a hanging cauldron. Goras then places his hand under the pot and opens his palm, conjuring bright white fire under the cauldron. The heat of the fire quickly melts the jewelry inside the cauldron, turning it into liquid gold. Azdus then approaches the cauldron and uses his magic to manipulate the melted gold: it rises as a perfect sphere to Azdus’s eye level, whereupon he uses his magic to turn the sphere of gold into a solid gold crown, decorated with trees.
“A worthy crown,” Goras admires, as he watches the crown slowly drift down into Azdus’s palms.
“For a worthy king,” Azdus replies.
Daniel Rane stands alone in his tent, dressing in what appears to be very formal clothing. He looks over to the Sword of Neroman, which lies on the table next to where he stands. He picks up the sheathed sword then latches it onto his belt as he finishes changing. Suddenly, a horn blows outside the tent. Daniel turns nervously, then slowly walks out of the tent, gripping the hilt of his sword.
As Daniel steps out of his tent, he sees the sun shining over the entire human race standing before him. The crowd parts down the middle, creating a path for Daniel to walk through. At the end of the path Azdus stands under a wooden archway. The wizard holds the golden crown in the palm of his hands. Daniel smiles then starts walking down the path as the humans watch him pass them by. Soon, Daniel sees Laura, George, and Kamara standing at Azdus’s side; Goras and Queen Athora stand opposite them. As Daniel reaches the end of the path, he lowers himself to one knee before Azdus. Azdus raises the gold crown above Daniel’s head, then slowly lowers it, placing it proudly on Daniel’s head.
Then Azdus looks toward the crowd.
“Welcome the days of King Daniel Rane!” Azdus announces.
He takes a step back from Daniel. Daniel then stands and looks at Azdus. The two smile warmly at each other. Daniel then turns to find the crowd looking back at him reverently. The humans then slowly go down on one knee, bowing toward him. Daniel simply looks on and breathes heavily in pride.
“Today is not about me, it’s about us,” Daniel shouts to the crowd. “We together face no more evil, and may share the rest of our days in deserved peace.”
The crowd cheers in celebration. Daniel then walks gently back down the path, shaking the hands of the men, women, and children of the camp along the way. As the crowd continues the celebration, those next to Azdus—Laura, George, and Kamara on one side, Goras and Queen Athora opposite them—smile proudly at the display of human joy unfolding before them.
Eventually, the celebrations outside die down, and Daniel goes back into his tent. He breathes a sigh of relief, as he is finally out of everyone else’s sight. He begins to undress, placing the sheathed Sword of Neroman back onto the table, then changing into more casual clothes.
“Congratulations, my king.”
Daniel turns to see Kamara walking into the tent, smiling proudly back at him.
“Thank you…it went better than expected.” Daniel replies.
He finishes changing. Then he looks at Kamara for a moment and slowly walks toward her.
“I’ve been thinking…about where we go from here.”
“And what do you suggest, your grace?”
“As king, I need protection. And no one is more deserving of that than you, the woman who saved both my life and Laura’s life on the battlefield, more than once.”
Kamara looks back at Daniel, stunned.
“A member of the royal guard?” she asks.
Daniel shakes his head.
“No—the head of the royal guard!”
Kamara recoils at the proposal. She then unsheathes her sword and places it on the floor in front of Daniel’s feet as she goes down on one knee and bows her head.
“Rise, Lady Commander Vance,” Daniel instructs.
Kamara stands up proudly and looks at Daniel. Daniel smiles back at her.
“Jaylen would have been proud of you,” Daniel tells her.
Kamara’s eyes fill with tears, but she manages to compose herself.
“Will that be everything, your grace?” she asks firmly.
Daniel nods, and Kamara bows to him.
Then, she leaves the tent and takes her place outside of it.
Days after the crowning of King Daniel Rane, some of the surviving men and women begin to clean up the wreckage of Dellmoor. As more of the rubble is removed, more bodies are revealed. George oversees the clearing of the remaini
ng bodies at Dellmoor; the men and women undertaking the grim task soon start to find the bodies of the orcs who fell during the battle. George is silently watching the horses and carriages take the bodies back to the royal forest when he sees a man riding toward him.
“We found bodies of orcs under the city—what do we do with them?” the man asks when he reaches George.
“Pile the bodies and burn them,” George replies sternly. “We have no need for them. Have all of the human remains been collected?” he asks.
“We are taking the last of them to the forest now,” the man replies.
George then looks up to the rider.
“Luke Snow among them?” he asks.
The rider shakes his head.
“Head back to the forest, ensure we have everyone from the city,” George instructs.
The man nods and rides off to the forest.
Hours after the remaining dead have been collected from the field of the Lion’s Cloud and the rubbles of Dellmoor, the people of the camp gather around a field in the center of the royal forest, cleared of all trees by the surviving humans. As the crowd gathers, they see that the field is full of headstones, with the names of the dead carved into each stone. As the crowd walks through the newly constructed cemetery, they see the likenesses of King Edmund and Queen Kendra carved on two of the headstones, with the headstones being constructed out of the same rock as those with the names. However, no survivor recognizes the rock.
King Daniel and Laura walk across the cemetery, their arms linked as Daniel struggles to control his emotions. The two see the names of Jaylen Vance and Sam Woodgard carved in two headstones. Daniel stops to look at Sam’s grave for a moment, slightly pulling Laura back. Laura looks at Daniel staring emptily at the graves. After a moment, she pulls him along, and the two continue walking.
As the crowd moves to the other side of the cemetery, they see Azdus and Goras standing on a small wooden podium at the edge. The two wizards gaze out toward the cemetery even as the crowd slowly circles around them. The two wizards look mournfully upon the crowd as they speak.
“Humans look up to the stars in hope and wonder…what they are, what they do,” Azdus tells the crowd. “But perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings to the next world, where the love of our lost ones shines down to let us know they are happy.”