by Scott Beith
Drone minions following the calls of these obvious overlords as they sat on the towns old rooftops as high as the hillside I stood upon. It occurred to me only then that I might have been the only nymph to ever witness these gnolls’ sense of leadership and hierarchy. That there was in fact a level of command that might have gone greatly unnoticed, due to all of this cold blanketing fog that night always brought with it.
I could understand why no one else had ever seen, nor mentioned, anything quite like this before. Most nymphs who have the misfortune of seeing a gnoll, either jump straight to fight or flight, but never actually get the chance to study the creatures like I was doing right now from the backbenches. This was a significant finding and an important piece of information that needed to be passed on – should I live long enough to tell someone about it.
I noticed how two of the alpha gnolls became fed up with the amateurs in their dominion, choosing to jump from the rooftops on two legs in order to join the fight. Golden laces threaded into the lining of their shrouds made the alpha gnolls distinguishable from the rest. Shiny bright metal that reflected the fires’ forceful shine, making them resistant against the crushing effects of gravity that our light seemed to have on the rest of their weaker leather-hooded brethren.
Those two gnolls walked right past burning houses, unhindered by the light. Their demonic pale white eyes fixed soley on Akoni and his flare gun.
The minor gnolls ceased their attack completely when they noticed the alpha gnolls coming, widening the circle they’d made in a show of courteous respect towards their larger upright-walking kin.
A sick feeling formed in the pit of my stomach, a gut feeling telling me that the prince’s underestimation of these two, along with Akoni’s own combat inexperience, was about to put them both in dire trouble. I knew I had to help them somehow, and rushed, without hesitation, downhill. I lost sight of them momentarily as I passed under the short sand dune drops and onto the flat level of the long thorny gates fencing.
Clinging on to the thorny overgrowth of viny branches that coated these rusty steel poles, I quietly pushed aside the ivy in order to make a small peep hole to look through, taking one last deep breath before reaching my hand towards the gates’ opening latch. Something stopped me however. At first, I thought it was Anara, warning me against such reckless behaviour, but she was nowhere in sight. It was my own shadow blocking my hand and stopping me.
Risen up like a tree from a pool of shade behind this fence, it had moulded itself into a real-life sculpture of me – solid enough to grab my wrist and prevent me from opening that gate. I couldn’t believe it. My own shadow was turning against me, disobeying the very master that was supposed to be in control of it.
I’d had similar experiences like this in the past – my shadow having a mind of its own – always in times of great crisis. I always saw it as a subconscious manifestation of panic or alarm, like an overprotective parent warning me I was in serious danger and that I wasn’t allowed to be in control of my own safety.
I tried to pull away and resist it, but my shadow’s grip was too strong. I couldn’t do anything but watch as Akoni and Arlo faced off with the two gnolls. A dark dust began pouring from one of the gnoll’s sleeves, camouflaging several small curved knives drawn from under this creature’s caped leather coat.
Made of blended silvery steel and bright luscious gold, these knives reminded me of the artificial talons on the gnolls’ hands and feet – sharp weapons that could pierce and sever. The gnoll stared sadistically towards Akoni, twisting these blades out in taunt, fanning them in and out as a showcase of his talents. A weird type of smoke turning to mist as it fell out of the creature’s shroud and disappeared before ever actually striking solid ground. There was no doubt in my mind this creature was another sand king like Lord Ariss.
Had the gnolls we’d feared all these years been nothing more than nymphs like us in disguise? A clever militia put together by bandits and traitors in costumes, merely posing as ravenous predators as a means of looting and stealing food supplies?
This theory would explain a lot of things… almost everything.
“Ariss, why?” Arlo asked in bewilderment, his words coated with anger, exhaustion and utter disbelief.
The gnoll’s face was concealed under its hood, showing nothing but its beady white eyes. Could it really be Ariss? I wondered in shock, glancing towards the marketplace, trying to spot Ariss anywhere out there in that distance.
Even though I never trusted him, I still felt completely shocked and betrayed. Arlo drawing arms to battle this bandit, only to have that second gnoll pull out a long gold sword no different to the blade Arlo had lost in the meadows yesterday. The gnoll then lunged at the prince with that sword, a complete level of precision and balance maintained as he swung and spun it about.
Knives cracked off curved plates of armour as this epic two on two duel began. Ariss enclosed himself in a storm of dust and daggers, smoke mixing with mist as he hurled knives at Akoni. Akoni rolled like a barrel on its side, his quick thinking only just saving his life.
Akoni drew a bag of magic sand – some composite of white sand and black powder – from his slim tactical belt, which he electrically ignited as he knelt on his knees, this magic sandbag bursting and melting instantly into a glass kite-shaped shield that deflected the spray of sharp knives his quickly approaching adversary was throwing.
Deciding to fire his gun back at the charging man before he could close the distance between them completely. Akoni’s chaotic and relentless spray of firepower randomly bounced and striked against every gate and corner.
The hot ricocheting fairy flame had forced even me to duck for safety, only to pop my head up moments later and see that Akoni’s scared and careless firing had hit the fence and burnt a few more peep holes directly into the bars. The metal-eating flame thankfully cut clean through the bars without igniting, as such an eruption could have been enough to instantly melt every organic thing along that fence.
I had watched my own vaporised shadow reconstitute and solidify itself back to life, a tiny gold knife had become embedded in its body like a pin in a cushion. And as such, it was no longer restraining me, appearing almost as if it were aggravated by the knife that had stabbed it. My shadow then sifted through the gates and started running towards Ariss and Akoni.
Understandably afraid, Akoni jetted into the air in quick escape, taking only a short second to tinker with his armband, projecting holograms of himself that mirrored his every move as he retreated. Decoys most realistic, each of them doing just as he did, with but a second’s delay. One bullet looking like twelve as he shot spouts of flame that appeared like they came from multiple directions in the sky, and yet all merged into one when they struck the floor in pursuit of Ariss.
Lord Ariss was caught between bullets above and my knife-wielding shadow coming towards him from the side; he had no choice but to run and vanish in his all-consuming cloud of mist.
“We need to get back, Arlo!” said all versions of Akoni, who used this chance to send cover fire to separate Arlo from his fight with the other talented swordsman.
“That’s my sword!” the prince stated with stern and stubborn cause, a ring of enemies surrounding him as he stared through the purple and blue flames at the alpha gnoll. “I ain’t leaving till I get it back,” he then added, determined to remain, despite the obvious danger.
Hopping left and right as Arlo and the gnoll frequently dived and clashed swords. The gnoll seemed just as confident with the weight of the blade as Arlo was with his new one. They were like two mirror images combatting each other.
Flaming arrows pelted around the swordsman from a great unseen distance away – a reminder from our long-legged archer that there was still some resistance left on the other side of town. The Vanguard’s defiant hold of the tavern becoming more and more victorious as the majority of the gnolls’ forces seemed to be coming this way to deal with Arlo and Akoni.
These lesser gnolls
and I were choosing to stand back in stalemate and only spectate the fight from afar. It was almost as if we’d pre-selected these men as our champions and had come to some secret non-verbal arrangement to let this fight decide who the overall victor for the night would be.
And so, Arlo trying all his tricky swings and spinning sidekicks blocked the last few strikes of his opponent, timing one weak spot in between parries in order to trip him over, so Arlo could bring his sword down from overhead with an intense warping of wind and sound.
I felt butterflies release from my chest. The prince had the gnoll pinned under his blade, which sat just inches from the gnoll’s hooded head. I was about to look away and check the skies for Akoni again when, in all but one glimpse, the alpha gnoll overpowered the prince and reverse elbowed him, right through the prince’s own powerful deadlock.
Strike after strike the two continued to clash against each other, releasing their swords like rotating propellers as they spun freely amidst the air. Throwing punches and sweeping at each other’s legs, only to catch each other’s sword by its spinning hilt and start fighting all over again, both of them thinking of the exact same technique each time they tried to outwit the other.
But then the gnoll thought of something completely new, suddenly dropping his sword and clapping his open hands together with an ear-piercing boom, the deafening blast bringing them both to their knees in agony.
Neither I nor Arlo had any idea they could do that, and that minor second of doubt was all it took for the alpha gnoll to push Arlo with his thunderous strong hands into the very gate I was standing at, cracking the metal frames of his armour against the thorn-covered bars as they bent in absorption of Arlo’s fierce impact into them, revealing just how powerful the force was he’d just been blindsided by.
I dropped down, putting my hands through the gate, tugging and shaking Arlo in repetitive attempts to wake him. The gnoll picked up his sword slowly, satisfied as he approached, readying himself for one final blow.
“Wake up!” I yelled, still shaking Arlo, despite his eyes forever remaining shut.
I was truly terrified, never had I witnessed anything like what I’d just seen… or what I was about to see next.
Akoni suddenly came back into view, choosing to reveal himself as he came to his friend’s immediate defence. His holograms glitching and lagging behind in mirroring his moves, causing Akoni to reveal his exact position as he tried to shoot down the swordsman with faint flaring purple-blue sparks. His weakening warning shots not scaring the elite predator, as Akoni’s fear of accidentally hitting the prince was interfering with his aim.
The gnoll paid no attention to him, continuing to stand over Arlo. Akoni dropped closer towards him, exposing himself further as he was baited further and further inwards by the swordsmen. My shadow attacked that swordsman furiously, its small knife no match for the long swipes of Arlo’s old recruitment blade, biding any and all time that it could, the gnoll’s blade continuously sliced my shadow over and over, each time dispersing it into two smaller pieces of thinning vapour blobs.
Eventually there was nothing large or dense enough to take hold of the knife and deter the alpha gnoll’s focus. He raised his sword for a final time, holding it over the prince as this shrouded stranger measured its own limits of mercy. My last line of defence being to raise my own hands up and build the blob of shadow left up like a mushroom, which popped and exploded, blocking the gnoll’s vision with harmless black misty spores.
The second alpha gnoll appeared from hiding, coming out from a depot of crates and through the mushroom’s mist in a quick but stealthy stride, heading for Akoni. “Look out!” I shouted, just as the gnoll grabbed him by the straps of his jetpack, ripping him down into the gravel as forcefully as possible.
I was ready to uproar, new shadows coalescing from every shaded corner around, offering me their ghostly hands, coaching me to participate as my own private army began to fester and form on my side of the metal gates. My head was throbbing under the sickly concentration involved in bringing all these separate threatening entities to life, a clay-like army of bodies shaking at the fence while Ariss and his associate focused their attention squarely on Akoni, completely ignoring what was sending most of the gnolls into fearful retreat.
I reached out my hand, with no idea of what foolish heroics I was even trying to do. I had no battle plan and was running on pure instinct. There was a rustling noise, sounding much like my nimble princess diving and squeezing herself through the gates’ small burn holes. I watched a partially invisible assailant using a priceless tiara crown as a club, striking it across the sand king’s head, bashing at the two alpha gnolls before they caught and disarmed her of it.
It appeared all over for my friends. I and one bent rattling gate were all that was stopping this town from being under the gnolls’ control. My shadows’ combined shaking strength began to unhinge the gate, and they poured out to the other side.
A hooded man with two gold encrusted hands came out from the pack as he inspected the bounty his men had laid out for him. A mad aggressive-seeming tribal chieftain, his arms all bruised and scratched, hands surprisingly skinny as they came out from the hooded cloak and into the house fires distant light.
Characteristics all evident of a man who had clearly lost his way, fresh wounds stitched up with gold nails and thread. Distinct features that could only be one madman... Midas!
Midas had come to inspect the job his lieutenants had performed for him. None of them were actually speaking but merely looking to one another as they retracted their weaponry.
Midas was peering towards his son, who was crawling for escape. His broken jetpack sparking and flaring as all its fail safes seemed to locking down, making it both hot and heavy as Akoni wriggled to be free of it. Midas moved towards him, grabbing his son’s leg, exposing more of his scathed and seeping gold skin, as, with great strength, he began dragging him away into the crowd of gnolls.
I chased after Akoni, my shadows tackling every gnoll that came towards me in protest. Suddenly, a loud war cry echoed and excelled outwards. Multiple shouts and taunts coming out as our own army lit up this grim and groggy night sky. Midas and his army halted as they immediately twisted their heads towards the marketplace, hearing the sounds of spiders and soldiers pouring out of a bright azure blue portal gate. The residual light of the Capital brightening this town and bringing back our vision of this cove’s halo roofing and the lighthouse Helios and his army were storming towards in order to temporarily illuminate this town once again.
The gnolls all began scattering in retreat, fleeing from the virtuous bright lights of Helios and his glowing sceptre, lighting up the middle streets and central tavern, disintegrating every enemy still trying to claw their way inside. Our white bearded weary king was riding safely on a large spider steed, accompanied by his queen and all of her cavalry, releasing banshee screams at the gnolls and their own whimpering howls. I heard violent roars and war cries out in that distance, getting louder and louder as they seemed to be heading towards us.
Lucky for me, this kept the gnolls very distracted, and I focused on drawing back every shadow I’d made and piled them onto the ground beside me.
I decided to use the gnolls’ fear of our spiders against them and moulded an egg from the shadows, imagining the squirming of worms and parasites eating at it from inside out. Midas’s elite minions finding this rocking egg unsettling and fearsome enough to briefly postpone their attacks upon me.
Life for them becoming pure chaos, seeing as we were all so far outside of our comfort zones. The growing egg eventually erupted. All but Midas flinching as a flood of a thousand tiny little black spiders spewed out of it, crawling across the ground like a flowing river of hairy pygmy-sized insects.
Many crawled up my arm as they melted and hardened into a carapace like shell of spiky armour, I ran with this flood of spiders, hoping this was enough to spook them into an uncontested safety. My scare tactic working better than I ever
could have anticipated, with the gnolls all fleeing in terror.
With everything in disarray, I weaved through the gnolls amidst a plague of mass hysteria. Midas and his two gold-tinted elites stood staring upwards, unamused, while watching me coming towards them. Midas simply was continuing to drag his son away, un-phased by these fake spiders crawling across his body and face, not bothering to mask his mouth or so much as flick a single one of them away.
My efforts had failed to prevent the abduction of Akoni, and out sheer desperation, I begun to turn some of the few spiders that laid over my arms into clumps of shady little snowballs, throwing them at this undeterred former king, morphing them into palm-sized dragonflies that sailed through the air and dove for his feet as they shackled around him like snagging tree root vines and physically lashed his legs together in order to anchor him to parts of the erupted street rubble. Akoni was awake and free to escape, but he was battling to repair his broken jetpack and fuel generator, fearing it might become seriously life threatening for all if it was allowed to heat up anymore.
Not impressed by my primitive but effective bindings, Midas turned to face me, his glare of pure hatred freezing me still while Akoni unclipped his belt buckle and began forcing static charge into the fuses of his high-tech belt buckle, overloading this lighting device as if he meant it to be a bomb. Eventually hurling it into the air as it frizzled with sparks, spitting out pulses of pure light and acting as a bright beacon to alert the soldiers of our need for help.
The intensity of the device’s raw charge was enough to evaporate most of the scourge in our immediate area – while unfortunately destroying all the shadows I had in my company. The light it emitted was like crushing gravity to these demonic beings.