by Scott Beith
“What about the boys?” I pressed. “I’m sure there was one boy in particular who must’ve been worried about her,” I joked, aware of the super crush he had on the princess.
“Kya, I came here for you. I was afraid you’d choose the gnolls’ company over the prince’s.” He laughed in a comical kind of diversion.
I pushed on. “What if I told you she felt the same way?” I asked, baiting a response. “Does she?!” he blurted out, almost loud enough for Anara to hear. I waited a moment, enjoying the anticipation on his face before I had to sadly burst his bubble. “Well… I don’t know. You told me not to tell anyone about your crush, so I’ve never asked her if she likes you,” I then cheekily confessed before getting back to the root of my scheme. “But if I had just told you that she does, would that have given you the confidence to actually walk up to her and find out for yourself?”
Akoni seemed unimpressed by my meddling, but took a moment to consider my words before exhaling in defeat. “Her mother doesn’t,” he defensively reasoned, still admiring Anara as she worked.
“Her mother isn’t here, and, even if she was, that would only strengthen your case,” I reassured him jokingly, nudging his arm playfully.
“It’s not a good time,” he further disputed.
“Has there ever been a better time?” I quickly tried to egg him on.
Despite us being beside the injured and in between warzones, everything was beginning to seem more cheerful – an unlikely end to a long and rough two days. The doctor was here now and had begun stabilising his patients. Soon we would be able to leave, and with Camilla here, we’d be able travel safely back to the castle through her marketplace way-stone portal.
I started dreaming about being in my bed and sleeping – a privilege I felt I had earned after everything – only to have those dreams shattered loudly and abruptly by the crashing sounds of door chips splintering beside Akoni and me.
Ode had just barged in like a rolling boulder. Ode – short for Odysseus – was a very old friend of mine and only a recent addition to Camilla’s alpha legion. He was a stumpy roundish gnome renowned for his thick stone callus skin, short-term memory loss and a very noteworthy level of destructive clumsiness. He had literally just collided through the front door with his body tucked in like a smoothed skimming stone. Uncurling himself as he started waving his hands. “Outside! Outside!” he puffed, pointing impatiently like an overgrown concrete teddy bear.
Camilla abandoned Arlo’s debriefing and followed the direction Ode was pointing.
Ode grew up with me in the orphanage. We were the last two left to be adopted, and we used to be like brother and sister purely because of that. And although different jobs had separated us lately, I still felt greatly responsible for watching over him; for, underneath his indestructible rock-hard skin, he was an eternal child at heart... Fortune never favouring him until the lucky day I met Camilla and told her all about him and what he could do.
“Hi, Kya,” he sweetly said to me as I kneeled down to hug him.
Everyone began looking at each other with worry, and then Arlo rushed past me, venturing outside to investigate the matter personally. Our fear of danger quickly realised when a bell started clanging in warning from a nearby church tower.
The shock of it pulsing through my body with each clang of the bell. Akoni had the same petrified expression on his face as I did. I think he might have actually been more scared, as I had to yank him to follow the soldiers so we could go find his mother, who was already halfway outside the manor.
We had to grow up quickly out here, and as terrified as I had felt over the past day and a half, I feel more strengthened and resilient because of it. It was a shame I couldn’t pass on my experiences to Akoni, who was shaking and pale as I dragged him along with me.
We found Camilla and realised how bad the situation was. I was not mentally prepared for another eclipse. One was more than enough for a lifetime. But, peering out across the scenic bayside villa beach hills, I witnessed the halo-roofed rock cove darkening as the sunset slowly progressed into a dimmer prevailing dusk night. Grey storm clouds emerging as the light rapidly declined, and I found myself in another living nightmare.
“Akoni, what are you doing here?!” Camilla exclaimed as we entered the circle her and her soldiers had formed. Bluntly but rhetorically enquiring as her son dumbly scratched his head.
“Ughhh?” was all he could manage to say, lost for any reasonable explanation.
Anara and the doctor saving Akoni from having to concoct some immediate answer as they ran in joint fluster towards Camilla and her ever-increasing warrior circle. It was a collective of the finest knights The Borderlands had to offer, and they gravitated around their leader, who centred herself in the middle of this outside front fern-garden, just slightly above the sandy beachfront and its small hilly dunes.
“We can’t move them Cammy, not in time,” Doctor Maxwell said.
“That’s the least of our problems,” Camilla replied, looking straight to her son before vanishing in a quick puff of smoke.
We all began looking around for her, distinguishing her silhouette by her glorious banners. She stood on top of the huge lighthouse tower, glancing from its arched roof half of the town away, using it to offer her the best view of the village.
Even from where we stood, we could see gnolls silently creeping along the outskirts and rooftops of the town. They passed by the useless killer crabs, which peacefully patrolled their way along the forefront entrance gates.
“You all need to leave,” Camilla dramatically, and rather obviously, stated, popping back up behind us, specifically talking to the prince and princess, who were alongside her reckless son.
“No!” Arlo and Anara said in unison.
“We can help,” Anara protested.
“You need more of us right now, not less,” Arlo declared, just as reluctant to retreat.
The regiment looked ready to erupt in riot and argument; hotheaded soldiers all on the brink of chaos and rebellion. But everybody stayed quiet and reserved and took their turns to speak their knowledge and specialisation. A clear indication of their personal experience and professional training in working as one solid team. Luckily, we had the best in The Borderlands.
“Go to the stone, ma’am. Call the queen for reinforcements,” Ariss said, surprising me, as I hadn’t realised he was beside us once again. “We can hold this high ground. These private gates are spiky and huge. The gnolls will have to climb over one by one, and the dunes and hills will bottleneck them up the easy path.”
“Yes, but everything below will still be overrun,” the doctor disputed on behalf of the powerless locals in the town far beneath.
“It’s too late for escape. They’re already here. Evacuation is out of the question,” Ariss was quick to protest.
Camilla stood still, deliberating what to do. “Then we need a sanctuary somewhere in the middle of the town,” she hastily replied, siding with the doctor.
“The tavern!” I announced, pointing to the large square rooftop by the marketplace. “I saw it before. It’s already boarded up and probably big enough to hold all the villagers inside,” I added, trying to be useful. A bit of an awkwardness floating around the circle as I spoke, but many in that circle surprisingly accepting my suggestion with just cause.
Camilla remained silent but then nodded, doing her best to carefully consider my idea before actually accepting it. “It is the best option we have,” she then declared, praising me with a small shoulder pat while pacing around the edge of this inner circle. “Search and rescue only – don’t initiate unless provoked. Make no mistake. Only Helios is going to be able to save us. We need to get him and bring him safely to the lighthouse, then he can illuminate the streets and force them away,” she elaborated with a warming optimism, uplifting our spirits as the street presence of the vicious gnolls became abundantly clear to everyone from our uphill view.
“All the minors will remain here,” she dic
tated, “and no more folk will be ferried in here once these gates are shut,” she then quickly added, making sure the susceptible members of the group – such as us and the doctor – were given highest priority. A clever and kind way of hiding us newbies from danger and keeping us out of the chaos below. Akoni and I both sharing a look of pure relief upon hearing it, more than happy to comply with Camilla’s strict orders.
“Zephyr, my friend,” she said, glancing over her shoulder to a silent and stern-looking hooded marksman furthest from the circle, “get as high as you can and oversee the evacuation.”
The man then nodded and moved away from the edge of the circle, bracing himself for a swift and powerful jump. Legs warping as thick muscles shifted positions in preparation for a gigantic leap.
“Set any houses alight if you have to, but keep the pathway to that lighthouse secure,” she emphasised before his huge aerial vault. “Just not the tavern,” she then quickly added.
Everyone having a little chuckle as Zephyr rolled his eyes back, drawing strength through focus only to launch off his legs like a spring, skyrocketing into the air with an outlandish spiralling battle-jump.
Us minors gasped as we felt the air around us break, watching Zephyr’s vertical take-off, freefall and then watch him somehow landing perfectly on the church bell tower without the impact of such a landing making a sound or damaging a single tile brick that he landed upon.
He drew an arrow from his leg quiver and loaded his bow, ready to fire at the gnolls, should they come out of hiding. He was a skilled sniper, already quick to reinforce the few fleeing townspeople who had caught wind of the invasion.
“Please, who can’t do that?” Arlo said, winking at me in coy boastfulness, referring to our earlier jump out of the swampland well.
I admit what he had done was similar, but with Zephyr there was an incomparable and vital level of control that made it cool to watch. “It’s his landing that’s impressive, Arlo,” I sniped back in a whisper.
“Ariss,” Camilla then dictated, sparing no time to procrastinate, “you and Ode are ground support.”
“Fantastic,” Ariss responded sarcastically, unenthused by the fact he was once again in the front lines – only this time with our chaotic stone wrecking ball.
It had been quite a long time since I’d last seen Ode. He had left his old life well and truly behind, undergoing vigorous field training that had kept him mostly outside the castle’s walls. Camilla choosing to take him in straight after his graduation, seeing as reinforcements were so urgently needed at the time.
Without any street wit or former combat experience to decorate himself with, Ode’s knighting and addition to her Vanguard unit had come with great contestation by the council. They’d considered his knighting as unorthodox and of great insult to many others, such as Arlo and Ebony, who had many years of fight training under their belt. Camilla taking him under her wing, nevertheless, going against the council’s judgement.
He proved his worth almost immediately, acting as the legion’s battering ram, paving the way for the rest of the squadrons entrance. They utilised this tiny rock ogre best when they were in wild places with no need for containing his destructive manoeuvres, as his greatest weakness was that he had little ability to control where he was going when he was curled up like a boulder rolling and colliding against everything in his path.
I don’t like to belittle Ode, but being new and very susceptible to suggestions, I felt he was virtually a ‘free to hire’ mercenary, who could flatten an entire town simply because an anonymous stranger politely asked him to do so. A scary scenario for a lot of us to consider, and pretty much the only reason the council was so greatly against bringing Ode into their military ranks. The conflict was that he saw everyone as friendly and hence no one as being capable of evil. He quite literally would adhere to anyone that whispered into his easy-going ears.
“I want you to take good care of each other, and stay close,” Camilla reminded Ariss, authorising him to watch over Ode carefully.
I knew it wasn’t my place to question Camilla, so I did my best to refrain my frown as I remained unable to comprehend why Camilla appeared to still have an unfaltering faith in the Sand King despite his desertion of Arlo and me last night.
“It’s your job to reach the tavern and defend its doors,” she instructed them.
“As you wish, my lady,” Ariss announced in an unnaturally obedient tone, strangely content now with what he’d been asked to do.
“The rest of you are in charge of evacuation. Get everyone from their houses to the tavern, and then join Ariss and Ode in protecting it,” she concluded. Allowing a moment for the short dozen of them to consort with each other individually, grabbing picks, axes, ropes and swords. Intermingling in strategy as she walked over to the prince for a last minute request.
“Radament was the finest defender we ever had,” she respectfully divulged to him. “Despite what many would think, I would always assign him with the most important tasks,” she continued, talking to the prince beside her son and me, while Anara and the doctor headed back inside to check on their patients. “With him gone, I will be giving you a task normally reserved for him. I hope you’re ready for this.”
“I am, my lady,” Arlo humbly vowed, granting her his complete and undivided attention.
“I’m placing you in defence of this villa. Keep all the civilians up here and safely out of sight,” she instructed, looking deeply into his eyes as she waited for him to confirm.
“I will,” he stated, making the oath without joke or cynicism before Camilla gave a brief but timid smile, disappearing from all sound and sight in one short puff of smoke.
Camilla made it sound as though she wanted Arlo to protect every wounded farmer and their families, but the prolonged stare she’d given him had given me the impression she’d really meant protect Akoni, Anara and myself over the latter.
The regiment dispersed out to their varying tasks, with Zephyr leaping from the ground to rooftop as he scouted the town, ready to end the deadly calm atmosphere by igniting the cold foggy air with searing arrows lit from each candle wick edge of his leafy green and gold bark bow.
Condensing into a coarse rigid stone, Ode tucked his jagged rocky limbs into a spherical ball, allowing gravity and momentum to take a harsh hold as he rolled downhill, accurately managing to pass through the open gates only to pinball off houses, cracking them as he heavily bounced into, off and then through them on his increasingly rapid descent towards the lowest level of the marketplace crossroads. Fortunately, he managed to re-expand himself before colliding into the marble gateway stone itself, and breaking the very instrument we needed to survive this firefight. His appearance drawing all shrouded creatures towards him almost like a magnet being thrown into the middle of a tool shed.
Ariss was very slow to follow after him, deciding not to bring his faithful flying ant this time around. He slowly slid his way down the sandy hill, pulling knives from the elbow slots of his jacket in pre-emptive caution. Eventually re-joining his comrades as he and a small garrison of unknown members followed him in unison.
If I hadn’t been terrified of being in another eclipse, I would have been truly honoured to have been here, witnessing the most revered legends in action as they defended another town from an overbearing armada of adversaries.
Thankfully the villa was nestled in the highest corner of the cove, with the beach and coast protecting its rear, which meant there was only one way up: climbing over high thorny spike gates and ascending up the narrowing sandy beach entrance. The path bottlenecked under a tiny valley of sand dunes, of which the prince idly stood over in wait, watching his heroes from just inside the initial gates.
The gnolls moved like shadows as they continued to shuffle and creep their way into the town, stalking some unsuspecting residents without any form of direct confrontation yet. Akoni and I watched in a nervous yet impatient excitement. It was fair to say we were adequately safe where we were. We us
ed Akoni’s night vision glasses in turns, snatching them back and forth from each other so we could see what was happening among this growing stormy cold darkness. Humbly just waiting for something heavy and loud to drop and ignite this upcoming frenzy.
8
Eye of the Storm
After the calm before the storm, came the storm. The screams began all at once: an orchestra of pleas and cries. Fear manifesting into a physical form as the ghostly gnoll predators finally came out from the misty shadows to wreak their blood hungry assault upon these poor villagers. It was horrible… The gnolls using their long razor claws to yank out young townsfolk from their barricaded houses, pillaging all the food crates still left stacked by the port. Desperate men and women setting their own houses alight just to scare the creatures back into the darkness.
Zephyr, our leaping marksman, was the first to intervene, bombarding the gnolls with a blanket of burning arrows. His attacking speed was incredible. “Get out of here!” he screamed to the townsfolk, lunging off the rooftop and into the overcrowding streets. “Go to the tavern!” I overheard him say, yelling at the fleeing nymphs while he aggravated enough of the gnolls to chase him instead.
He leaped back up to the church bell tower for more safety and advantage, five of the gnolls climbing up after him, digging their claws into the brick and mortar as they scaled the church walls effortlessly in pursuit.
The biggest and fattest of the bunch pouncing onto the tower only a few seconds after Zephyr had got up there himself, quickly becoming the first victim to one of Zephyr’s powerful compressed front kicks, the pressure of such a collision, sending this beast into the sky and soaring over the town. Pushing the very limits of my own vision as I watched the bulky beast become just dot that disappeared into the darkness of the black ocean ahead.
This spring-legged archer returned back to the streets with a rooftop dive, struggling to evade the other gnolls who charged into the top of the roof at him, Zephyr simply trying to keep some distance from the swarms of gnolls pouncing at him. Their mindless collisions breaking crates, spilling fruity contents onto the street, instantly diverting all attention away from this marksman as the gnolls started scratching and howling at each other for the scattered raw meals.