by Shawn Muller
“All hail the cyclops emperor. Long live the cyclops empire!”
Standing behind her now, towering over her and the assembly, Emperor Standlerd-Sinb III raised both his arms skywards as the nobles all shouted after Empress Wendyaline’s declaration.
Outside, in the streets of the ruined city of The Capitol, the citizens cowered under the gazes of their new rulers, as the cyclops armies demanded them to swear fealty to their new rulers. The heads of the dead king and queen, as well as the conquered soldiers, hung off the gates of the city as well as the walls, a stark reminder of their failure to bow before the cyclops empire.
***
“Emperor Standlerd-Sinb III! My humblest apologies your eminence for disturbing you,” Ambassador Efficame said as he burst into the war planning room situated at The Capitol.
“Ambassador Efficame. For you to have rushed in on me yourself while you are supposed to be at Westdom must be of utmost importance. What news do you bring?” The emperor asked the hard breathing and sweating Cyclops Ambassador.
“Ill news I am afraid. The faeries have risen against us yet again! A revolt has started in the cities of Banaxet and Recmon and appears to be spreading across all the Faery Isles.”
“Damn you Death-on-Wings! I will rip his wings off with my bare hands and shove them down his throat for this after I have cut his entire family to pieces in front of him! I was too hasty to send him back. I did not realise his plans were so far advanced, the cowardly snake!” Emperor Standlerd-Sinb III cursed. “Send word back on the fastest dragon available. All cyclops forces heading to Curixeus are to turn about and head back to M’Mexarow. All the remaining forces must prepare to crush the faeries once I have arrived back there within the week,” the emperor commanded the cyclops ambassador.
Bowing low, Efficame left at a run to carry out his orders while Emperor Standlerd-Sinb III turned to face his generals.
“What news have we here to cheer us, General Etawar?” He asked, suddenly weary.
“Your worship. We have begun to increase both the size and amounts of scouting parties into the Elven Forests and down the highway leading to Traders Post. We have had some skirmishes with a well-organised company of soldiers who have defeated us on many occasions. However, we are about to launch a major offensive within the week down the highway with the aims of capturing the bridge spanning the Joliotium River, which would pave the way for us to assault Traders Post. This assault will be pre-empted by a major incursion into the forests by werewolves and undead sorcerers with the aim being to flush out this company of fighters,” General Etawar explained to his emperor.
“Excellent. As soon as the skeletons have arrived, send them in as well. Unfortunately, the battalion we have marching to Tak will be all that is available. I want the rest to deal with the faery insurrection.”
“Understood my emperor, the werewolves will begin their attacks within the next two days.”
***
We had been fighting nonstop for weeks now. Our almost daily skirmishes against the cyclops started getting bigger and bigger as they began to push in earnest into the forests. We could sense that they were preparing for a major offensive soon. So far we held on well, losing little ground as the enemy pushed us hard.
We lost men often, though, but for every Ghost lost we took at least five, six of them with. We were getting battle weary and needed to pull out soon. Prince Marcus was on his way to Traders Post with his army, while King Diamond and his dwarves were still stuck in the Great Divide Mountains. Once all had arrived, we would be rotated out to rest and recuperate. Until then, we held fast and made the cyclops bleed.
We waited deep with the wet foliage for the cyclops patrol to appear. It had rained the night before, leaving us cold and shivering in the autumn morning. The leaves had turned different shades of brown, which helped us to blend in better with our camouflaged armour.
My advanced spotter sent word back that a patrol was heading more or less toward us. Once again, we would hit them hard and pull back. Looking over my company who hid with me in the dense underbrush, I felt sadness, so many faces missing, Mycotaur, Reniek, Carl, all of Ward’s sons but to name a few. Things were getting harder for us. Something was going to give soon.
A snap of a twig in the distance shook me out of my gloom. My sensors alert for the approaching enemy, time to make them pay again, and again and again. Archers stood ready with bow and crossbow. Mia led the remaining mages who stood well behind us, ready with spells of energy or healing.
Bushes rustled, and we tensed, waiting for the first signs of the enemy, all of us ready, only for a deer to walk towards us, stopping to nibble on a low berry bush before walking right through our defensive lines without noticing us.
We relaxed a little, just before a distant scream of terror and pain reached us from my hidden spotter. Immediately we were at the ready. A rumble and a thrashing of the bushes directly in front of us as a large body of enemy ran towards us.
I looked behind me and noted the deer had run off, spooked by the approaching noises. A howl, followed by a dozen more and suddenly a massive pack of werewolves were amongst us. We were fighting for our lives now. Arrows whizzed past our ears nonstop as the elves fired a steady stream into the charging beasts.
Spears were raised to skewer the reckless running and leaping animals while balls of fire and energy crashed amongst the trees, killing scores of werewolves who kept on charging like an unstoppable tide. We were too scattered to deal with this attack. Men were falling as multiple werewolves leapt over the individual spears, ripping the men to shreds under desperate screams of pain.
“Square! Form a square!” I shouted, my men responding instantly.
We closed our ranks, forming a wall of spears and swords where we held off the werewolves. A sudden crack and a large tree toppled towards us. We scattered to avoid being crushed by the massive trunk as a heavy platoon of cyclops, axes, and swords drawn, advanced on our position.
Lying in the mud, I saw as a werewolf pounced on Max, ripping his throat out. Babar, right behind him was too late to save him as he chopped the werewolf in half with a single blow. Babar roared in anger, his body swelling as he entered his berserker rage.
I shouted for him to fall back as I rose to my knees, but he was beyond caring. Recklessly, he charged headlong into the advancing cyclops, cutting down the lead elements before the sheer numbers swamped him. I felt a tug on my shoulders and looked up as Mia tried to pull me back to my feet. We stumbled after the retreating Ghosts who were trying to reform at the next defensive line.
Thackeray launched a massive magical attack, a powerful beam of light energy cut through a broad swath of forest, bringing whole trees down onto the advancing werewolves and cyclops. The ground lurched under me as the trees shook the earth, causing me to stumble once more. Mia disappeared under a falling tree as I made it to the second line. I was helpless to try and find her as the attacking cyclops were on us again. Our second line of defence was a small earth wall which we held against the werewolves and cyclops waves.
After a lifetime of fighting, the enemy sounded a horn and hastily retreated from where they had come, leaving us numb from the exhaustion. I called for our withdrawal back to our camp. We were done as a fighting force for now. Over half our members were dead or wounded now, and many were missing.
“Fremod,” I said once we were back in the camp. “I am promoting you to second in command now. We need to move base back across the Joliotium River. We cannot hold this stretch of the forest any longer.”
“I concur, Bob. I will ready the men for the move tomorrow,” he agreed wearily.
“And Bob, I am sorry about Mia and Max. We loved them too.” Fremod said as he laid a gentle hand on my shoulder as my body wracked from the silent tears.
That night, the survivors of Ghost Company sat in silence, in remembrance of our fallen comrades. The next morning, I led us to the site of the battle, to reclaim the bodies of our fallen.
G
ingerly, we wrapped them in a simple linen shroud and loaded them onto horses. I searched high and low for Mia’s body, but I could not find it. Growing desperate, we all began to search for her body, but we could not find it at all under the tree. By late afternoon, we abandoned the search and led the horses with the dead back to our camp, where we laid them on a funeral pyre and burnt them.
Giving a final salute, we mounted our horses and made for the rendezvous spot where Ward and the griffins would take us to our old camp south of the Joliotium River branch.
An elven ranger stood waiting for us at the rendezvous spot, with a message for me from King Panyk. Reading it, a flood of relief and happiness filled my body.
“That is wonderful new Bob,” Fremod said after he read the letter.
“Dude, we must go and save them,” Deez told me.
“Jawol, we agree, Ivan and me,” Titanius led a chorus of agreement from my men.
It was decided. We would go and rescue Mia and those Ghosts who were held captive outside of Tak.
We planned to hit the POW camp that night before more cyclops reinforcements could be sent to it, or into the forests. Ward led a group of griffins carrying transport cages. I led Titanius, Ivan, Deez, Li, Tachojay, Thackeray and a handful of nervous elves on individual griffins to provide air cover for Ward and to release the prisoners. Leaving just before dusk, we would hit the prison camp about midnight, under the cover of thick clouds that threatened to rain.
We flew high amongst the clouds to avoid being seen by anything on the ground. It was a long, bitterly cold flight in the thick clouds, but eventually, we spotted the camp, torches glowing faintly below us. Giving the signal, we entered into a steep dive, the griffins folding their wings tight against their bodies to provide minimal wind resistance.
Holding on as tight as I could, I could feel my body begin to lift off the griffin as it neared the walls. A few guards could be seen below, patrolling the top of the wooden walls. The griffin snapped its wings open, veering sharply left and entering into a steep banked turn, allowing me to aim and fire my flamethrower directly at the cyclops in front of me. Pulling the trigger, I felt the flames spurt out and over the top of the wall and dose the cyclops in liquid flames.
My men followed suit, the elves hovering and firing arrows at the cyclops while the humans landed within the compound, jumping off their rides and heading off towards the prisoners’ cages which were kept in the middle of the compound. Thackeray launched a bolt of energy, obliterating the wooden gates.
A warning bell began to sound from a corner tower, Thackeray launched a fireball at it, setting the structure alight, silencing the bell. I landed and ran to the cage which held Mia and a few Ghosts. I smashed the lock with my sword and opened the gate, Mia immediately rushed into my arms.
I quickly covered their escape to the waiting transport cages, as Ivan and Titanius opened the rest of the cages to allow soldiers and civilians captured by the cyclops to run out the destroyed gate. Mia climbed onto Rammstein behind me when we heard a terrible roaring screech. Freezing in our tracks, a second and then a third were heard, all coming from the direction of Tak.
“Fall back! Quickly, head for the forests!” I shouted to my men who scrambled back onto their griffins.
The griffins carrying the cages laboured under the strain, slowly gaining altitude. The rest of us hovered or circled the compound, providing cover for our newly liberated comrades. Three huge, dark and ominous shapes drifted out of the low clouds, quickly heading our way.
Wide-eyed, I realised that they were dragons. Wheeling my griffin around, I dove hard for the ground, my men following suit. Laboriously, the dragons followed, closing the gap quickly. We banked hard left and right, gaining height then plunging back down again.
I issued a hand signal, sending my men in different directions. Two of the dragons split off, one chasing Ivan and Titanius, the other chasing the elves while the lead dragon carried on its pursuit of myself and Mia. I pulled hard on the reigns, forcing Rammstein into a near vertical climb. The dragon struggled to match us, letting me perform a very tight loop which landed me directly behind the dragon.
A crazy, short man on the back of the dragon began hopping up and down on his saddle in anger, hitting the dragon with a sharp pointed stick. The dragon responded by flapping its thin skin covered wings, driving it further away from us. We may have been more manoeuvrable than the dragon, but its size and strength made it much faster. I tried to get a shot off at it with the flamethrower, but the pilot flame had dead sometime earlier.
“Point your sword at it!” Mia screamed into my ear above the roaring wind.
Drawing my blade, I pointed it at the broad back of the dragon. Mia gripped my shoulder, and I faintly heard her mumble some incantation. Without warning, I felt a series of tingles running down my arm. It grew in intensity until it felt like minor electrical shocks.
The sword crackled with electrical energy, and suddenly massive electrical sparks, the power of high voltage arcs, burst out my sword tip and hit the dragon and its rider. Electrical charges sparked and raced across the beast, burning it while it danced and shook in pain before it folded over and plunged dead towards the ground.
Banking sharp left, I looked in horror as the dragon chasing Ivan spewed flames all over him and his griffin, instantly vapourising them, leaving only smoke and ash to drift into the wind. Hearing a cry of anguish, I saw Titanius stop his griffin in mid-flight, while the dragon and its rider also pulled up short, hovering amongst the clouds.
Titanius drove his metal booted foot into the side of his griffin, who responded by flying directly at the dragon. Seeing this, the dragon rider laughed hysterically as the dragon changed position, hovering upright now. Its long snake-like head pulled back, ready to strike out at the approaching griffin and rider, its arms ready to rip them apart in a deadly embrace.
Titanius drew his Lochaber axe before hopping onto the back of the griffin to stand crouched on the leather saddle. Shouting a mighty challenge, Titanius launched himself into the air with his axe held high over his shoulder. Catching the dragon off guard by this, he smashed the axe deep into the left shoulder of the beast, severing the nerves and muscles that controlled the left arm and wing. The left side was hanging limply now, causing the dragon to tumble over, heading towards the ground.
But not before grabbing Titanius with its right claw, driving the razor sharp talons through his body, blood gushing and falling to rain down on the ground far below. The head whipped forward and bit down on Titanius’ head, chomping down and leaving him headless, just before the dragon and its screaming rider smashed down onto the ground below.
The last dragon was driven off by the constant arrow fire of the elves, leaving it looking like a pincushion and the dragon rider dead, full of arrows itself. We had saved Mia and the Ghosts who were held captive, but at a massive price. One I wished we never had paid.
***
Emperor Standlerd-Sinb III was in a foul mood as he strode into his study in Lafarance Fort, the capital of the Cyclops Empire. He had spent the good part of a week riding dragons from Curixeus to M’Mexarow to deal with the faery revolt. And it had started snowing, leaving him cold and wet and miserable.
He threw his thick leather riding gloves down on the table and waited as the servant lit a fire in the fireplace, where he would warm himself up before calling for the commanders which had been left here. Turning to face the window as it opened, he grimaced as he saw his brother Staed, enter quickly and fugitively before closing the window after himself. He quickly drew the thick curtains closed before removing his cape and turning to face his dark faced brother.
“I have heard that you were back. I did not expect you back so soon,” Staed said to his brother, joining him at the fireplace.
“I did not expect to come back so soon either, especially not to this mess,” Emperor Standlerd-Sinb III said of the uprising.
“The warning signs were there my brother.”
; “Indeed, they were. Yet, we did not react to them.”
“Ah hence your foul mood, you believe that we should have responded to the news as soon as we discovered it?” Staed asked.
“Yes. We should have rounded up the rabble and put them to torture to reveal the leaders behind it!” The emperor snapped back.
“True, but we would not have known who the real leaders are. Death-on-Wings is but a puppet for the leaders. We suspected him, yes, but he is too arrogant and self-centered to be the leader.”
“You are certain?” Emperor Standlerd-Sinb III asked his brother.
“Not entirely,” Staed admitted with a shrug of the shoulders. “The real leaders are keeping very low for now, preferring for Death-on-Wings to lead the rebellion.”
“Interesting, your recommendations then my brother?” The emperor asked his younger brother, surprising Staed.
“Well, my brother. We will lose two of the Faery Isles, and there is no helping that. However, the gnomes are very reluctant to join them, considering the violent history between the two races. We can hold onto the werewolves, who answer only to you, and the undead seem very much uninterested in the outside world. So, I would recommend bolstering the remaining forces in Dnoces and Kepa while preparing a recapturing force to be launched from Pointingway Barracks,” Staed told his brother.
“Very well, I will be doing something that should have been done a long time again my brother. I will be revealing you to the empire, and will be putting you in charge of crushing the rebellion while I conquer the humans,” Emperor Standlerd-Sinb III declared.