The Swordsman of Fae

by A L Issett

  I studied the map and could see the enemy had drove deep into Fae and was closer to the capital than they were to their own border. We would meet this force at their flank to make them retreat a little so the Fae army could have a little breathing room. We talked long into the night until it was time to go to sleep. Jan decided to stay with me instead of returning to his camp, his gear was always packed up and carried by soldiers or placed on mules. The next morning we awoke and continued to the war, it went like this for weeks. Jan would first start off with us then fall behind and wait on the Fae army once his stamina was drained. The goblins were small but they could walk all day and did. Master was given a carriage though, he had agreed to the attempt at making five Revan. To do so he needed to mix his special potions while on the move, normally I had heard it took a month for someone to be fully healed. Goblin magic was too different from human magic I found out. Master could not fire a single fireball while Jan couldn’t do anything he was asked too either. This went on for two and a half weeks, longer than we would have thought to see the enemy but when we finally did it made me tremble a little.

  We had just stopped for the night and was on a high ridge overlooking the battlefield. The enemy was still fighting since it was light out and their forces greatly outnumbered the Fae army. The Fae army somewhat had the high ground though in the small ridge they had set up on and was keeping the enemy at bay but they were one hard charge away from being routed. The enemy though was playing it safe and slowly trying to whittle away the Fae and did not engage in a costly charge.

  “No fires today master” I said as I looked at the battlefield. “They don’t know we are here yet and the humans need all the help they can get”.

  “The humans are not expecting us, goblins can see well in the dark” Master said as he pointed out to a particular spot. “The enemy humans are already starting to set up camp near the rear. They are done fighting for the day, this is just to harass the enemy. We can climb down from here but we have to wait for dark and it would likely be light before we can bring our forces to bear. We could attempt to go down the shallow end like those traveling with us will do, but we will not have this position. Went it gets dark I want you and Brix to hurry down and kill as many as you can. I want you Crux to start with their leaders, sneak in and kill many of them. They will be located in the bigger dwellings what you call tents. Look for the ones with guards posted. Brix I want you to fight your way through to their animals, the meat will go a long way for us. Give Crux time to do his part first, then you attack Brix and do as much damage as you can. I want this attack to happen before they get a chance to sleep, I want them to be tired by the time we make our way down there”.

  I nodded and tried to calm myself. Getting down there would be the easy part, that would take me mere moments compared to the hours it would take the rest of the party to get down the cragged rocky area. Once I was in there though is when it got difficult. To attack I had to be solid, sure I could fill someone up with my body but soon they would start fanning the smoke, the more wind the harder it is for me to keep my form. Not only that, I had no idea what I would face, what tricks did they have up their sleeves? I wanted to eat but we were dangerously low on food now, hard marching meant more food was being eaten than could be caught or bought. The animal in me wanted the horses and had been salivating at the thought. The rest of the goblins heard the news and a muted cheer went up, apparently they wanted food too. I did not bother outfitting myself, neither did Brix as we chose to stay in our loin cloths. Brix only carried a small dagger on him that looked razor sharp, I thought he would use it until he found a better weapon.

  “You are nervous Crux” Master said as he sat down beside me. “Already our people move into the new lands, children will grow and not fear each other on both sides. Because of you we have a fighting chance. The great Chieftain will reward you with and mate you wish along with power”.

  “I have my mate” I replied and let out a sigh. “How is the process going master. What type of animals will you use?”

  “I have talked to the human Gallant about the simple steps” Master said as he handed me a small piece of dried out meat. “He thinks it sounds simple enough and wants his men to have our stamina. This long march had shown him a weakness he had not thought of, we could have been here over a week ago despite leaving at the same time. He does not like our stature though and thought about using the fast moving hoofed animals you call deer. Two will get our hearts and two will get deer hearts. He wants to bring in some sort of special beast for the last one depending on how these take. I already have volunteers from our side and I had never failed when using a human heart although I wish I did the first time with Cyrax. But after talking with Vlora there are some tradeoffs. She is bigger and stronger somewhat, but her eyesight is not what it once was in the dark. Her stamina is still there and she says she believes she learns things more easily but now she needs a lot more food to survive. I think humans would see their bodies shrink a little and become slightly weaker although their arms would grow slightly. They may gain a slightly tougher hide and sharper teeth but it’s the stamina they are after. Enough of my rambling, your mate has been waiting to talk to you Crux”.

  I looked around and found Vlora looking at me. I walked over and we just held each other until the sky fell dark and the first of our human companions had caught up. A runner was sent telling them about our situation as Brix came for me. We walked near the edge, that is when Brix turned to iron and leaped off the edge. I became smoke and slowly followed. I could feel that Brix had made it most of the way down on his first leap after bouncing around a bit. He had more ground to cover before he was fully off but it was too flat to consider jumping, it had to be done with climbing over the huge boulders. I tried to keep myself together as I floated down, I was mostly man shaped as I went, I could not risk floating to far apart or I could easily be blown away. I reached the bottom and passed Brix up as I solidified in the open ground. I let the fell beast out, my red fur grew long, my eye sight had become much sharper. I could feel claws sprout from my feet as I took off at a sprint, I had never ran flat out before and loved the feeling. I could tell I had left Brix far behind as I ran, I had to have run for over an hour when I saw the first sentry. I went down on all fours now and my speed slowed considerably but I was at least as fast as a normal man running would be. My steps were silent as the long grass moved around me I could see the human had heard something and was scanning the area as I turned to smoke and drifted around him silently. I stayed like this as I entered the camp, careful to stay to the shadows as I weaved throughout the tents until I came to a large tent filled with men drinking inside. I stretched myself out as I came in, careful to stay around the edges. These were older men, one of which had his sword propped up in a corner. I could not tell if these men were important or not as I slide out of the tent and spotted a woman, well she was a girl really holding a tray of food. I followed her inside a tent where there were other young girls eating. I would place them at about fourteen, there were two older women around but they looked no more than 25 summers.

  “We need a whore” a voice from behind me said. “I am sick of only the only the officers getting a piece, how much would you charge me?”

  “Go away, we are not whores we do a very important job” one of the older women said as she got up.

  “If your job involves a cock in your mouth or filling up one of your holes then you are awhore and whores can be bought. Now how much before I just pick a girl and leave for free” the man said, I could see he was dusty and smelled of alcohol, how I knew this without having a nose though I could not tell.

  “If you touch one of us I will tell Duke Marquat himself” another woman said as she got up and went towards the door.

  “Fucking whores, you must be scared of some real cock” the man said as he grabbed himself then left.

  “It’s getting worse” one of the older women said. “The duke needs to hear of this”.

&nbs
p; “The Duke doesn’t care Caroline, look at how young he wanted the girls? I heard he wanted even younger because he likes to loosen the tightness” the other woman replied.

  “Well I am going to have a word with him anyway” Caroline said as she stood up. I followed this woman out of the tent where she was whistled and jeered at as she walked up to a tent which had two serious looking men posted. I did not wait on their conversation but instead drifted inside where I could see and older man drenched in sweat plowing into a young screaming girl on top of a bed. I looked around and found the sword I was looking for, it had a golden hilt and looked ceremonial but it would do. I solidified behind the Duke as the girl saw my face and screamed even louder. The Duke took that as his key to pick up the pace as I pulled back his hair and chopped his head clean off in one motion. Blood splattered everywhere as the girl went hysterical causing one of the guards outside to peek in. I shoved the sword through his eye socket and kicked the tent where his body would be hard enough to send him flying. I then went back to smoke and fluttered out the tent as the other guard ran in along with the woman Caroline. A cry went up as I stayed hidden in the shadows outside the tent. I saw a torch and bumped it just enough that the tent would catch fire, which really sent people scurrying around in confusion. I took this as my new tactic as the enemy didn’t know what was happening as I sat fire to any tent near a torch. Sand was being doused on everything as I set more fires careful to leave the women alone. Pandemonium set in as men ran with buckets of dirt and water to put out the blaze I set. I waited to see what other leaders would appear as but could find none. I then made my way over to where the wagons were being kept. In the confusion it was simple to solidify and rip up one of the wheels which would make moving the wagons hard without trying to fix them. The enemy were numerous and would still be able to fight since they wisely did not keep all of their equipment in one place. I then heard a commotion, I was not sure what was happening but whatever it was gave me time to destroy even more carts as men started screaming about an attack. I changed back into smoke and drifted over to where the commotion was and saw brix with sword in hand cutting through a circle of men. They scored hits on him and was able to push him around a bit as they attacked and attacked. I saw the yard where they kept the horses and flew towards it. The sounds of horses screaming filled the air as I let my claws rip out their throats as I went along. The scream the animals made even sent chills up my spine as men could finally see something was attacking the horses. There were three places in which they were kept, I was in the middle killing many of them which caused a stampede to happen. The horses broke through directly towards where Brix was fightin and trampled many as they ran. I followed and could see Brix had been busy but had many hits, well scratches anyway as the swords could not dig in very deep in his skin. Brix could see my form and followed me out of the camp, lost amid the running horses.

  The horses ran towards the cliff where our army was then split off into many separate groups. I went out a ways then solidified as brix came running up and changed his appearance. He had a bunch of scratches on him, but he looked more like he ran through a thorn bush rather than fending off sword strikes.

  “I could not get close enough” Brix said as he tried to catch his breath. “Their numbers were to great and they were strong. I killed many of them though”.

  “I think they are still in confusion and wondering what just happened” I replied as I could still see the tents blazing. “I killed one of their leaders but I was spotted”.

  “It doesn’t matter, the humans will stay up in fright” Brix said as he examined his arm. “We will make another pass at them in two hours. The sun will not be up yet and their fear would be great”.

  I watched Brix turn into iron after touching his brace and buried himself a little so that only his face stuck out and nodded off to sleep. He looked like any other rock and only someone really looking would know where to find him. I went to sleep also but wisely kept my nose pointed towards the camp. I fell into a deep sleep and did not know how long I slept when I picked up a scent. I instantly popped my eyes open and could see many shapes moving in the grass, low to the ground as the sky began to lighten somewhat. I found Brix and after banging on his nose a little he shot up and looked around. The shapes were our army and we must have slept a lot longer than we wanted. I turned into smoke and flowed towards the master, I could feel him crawling along the grass and was soon close to him.

  “Master we did what we could” I said as I solidified and crawled along.

  “I saw the fires on the way down, did you find their leaders?” Master said as as he kept low to the ground.

  “I did find one but not anymore” I replied.

  “The humans have marched all night and will attack at day break” Master said as he stared forward. “We will wait for this attack, when it comes we will come in from the side, how is Brix?”

  “He is ahead of us” I replied. “We are going to attack again soon, we have caused fear and he wants to cause even more”.

  “Then you should keep going, Vlora I left in the care of your brother. She will help out the human leader with his warriors wherever she can” Master said as he stopped to catch his breath for a moment.

  I sped up, my speed greater than that of those around me as I was soon at the camp. There were many sentries around this time, they were not as alert but their eyes were still open. A shot went up as one of the saw Brix. Brix was on my far right and jumped up and attacked. The sentry went down easily as Brix continued on into camp armed with the sentry’s weapon. Many men jumped up from the ground in which they slept and were already armed as I flowed around them and looked for any tents still standing. There were more than I would have liked but I saw a runner go into one. Afterwards three men came out barely dressed, one made his way towards the commotion with some type of honor guard. The other one ran towards the frontlines with the Fae while the last remained behind. I followed him as he walked and gave various orders to get everyone up and ready to fight. I poured myself down his throat as the man gasped and choked. He coughed me out forcefully but when he took a breath I would sneak back in. They people around him had no idea what to do as I slowly suffocated the man. When I was sure he was dead I floated away as people started looking at me and pointing. I lost the crowd of people who had seen me, but my secret was out already. The sky lightened even more as I could hear the sounds of horse hooves striking the ground followed by war cries and even a drum f some kind. The battle had commenced and the Fae were attacking. I solidified as the sun came up, and started killing one archer after another before I was spotted. With my job done I changed to smoke again and left the area, the rest of the fight was for others.

  ACT V

  I watched the Fae from back on the ridge as they came down in a wave of death. Whenever the enemy would bring more horses around they would be met by arrows and killed. This fight went on for about an hour as the goblins had gotten close enough and struck. The sides were not defended as the Goblins swept through them like a hot knife through warm butter. The enemy started to fall back at this, they needed to keep both armies in front of them and with the goblins attacking from the side they had no idea what to do. They had never fought goblins before and were unprepared, the enemy normally was lightly armored and depended on horses, the goblins killed the horses easily and the men retreating on them. Five hours later I could see the might from both armies chase the enemy off the battle field. From where I could see with my enhanced vision, the enemy had lost many men and now had numbers on par with the combined might of both forces but the war was no longer in question.

  The enemy retreated without building any defenses. They needed space to do so and would likely retreat for the better part of two days until they were ready to drop before they stopped. I went into the Goblin camp, where I could smell meat roasting. I hungered at this and ate heartily before I even dressed myself. After I was finished I sought out master who had me a change of clothes.


  “These humans are weak fighters” master said as he tore into a chunk of meat. “They were weaker than your former people by far and relied too much on their horses. I cannot count how much dead they have, but I do know we have many supplies here now. We will rest up for the rest of the day then began our march to hunt them down. The humans we are with will rest up their horses and try to chase them down too, hopefully they will slow them down enough in order for us to catch up”.

  “Master where is my mate?” I asked as I did not see her around anywhere.

  “She is with the humans where I told her to stay” Master replied as I could tell he was conflicted.

  I went into the human camp where many people recognized me and split apart nodding in respect. I knew the layout of the camp, it was always the same and went over to where I knew the field Marshal would be. I attempted to gain entry as two soldiers stood in my way.

  “You will move or you will die peasant” I said as I kept my hand off my sword. “I am looking for my mate, I think she may be inside this tent with the Field Marshall”.

  “No one goes into this tent” the soldier on the left said. “Now get along”.

  My fist moved faster than I thought possible as I connected hard to the man’s unarmored gut and dropped him hard. The other soldier was shocked for a bit as I gave him a head butt and walked into the tent. I could see Vlora, she was seated along with the Field Marshal and other important looking military types eating dinner.

  “What are you doing here?” The Field Marshall said as he stood up.

  “I came for my mate” I said as I walked closer.

  “She is staying, we lost far less men than we should have thanks to her” the Field Marshall said as he walked over.

  “Are you throwing out a challenge?” I said as my voice turned deeper and the beast came out. I could feel a spell wash over me, it paralyzed me for a minute as the beast roared and broke free. I saw the source, it was the older mage as I looked him in his eyes. “You will die for that old man before this is over, Vlora it is time for us to go”.