Hello there. Thank you for opening this story, despite the suckiness of my description, it really does get better I promise. Beforeyou begin to read I would like to thnk my beta Mareth for reading through it and GTOF AKA Saphira Lily for giving me the title. Now all I have to say is please read, review and enjoy.
Hamnet sat on his bond, Hestia, as she soared through the pitch-black caves
Hamnet sat on his bond, Hestia, as she soared through the pitch-black caves. He could see nothing but the swish of many pairs of wings behind him reassured him that the attack force of humans and fliers was with him.
His mother, Solovet had placed him I command of this force, to deprive the gnawers of the Garden of the Hesperides, which she said had foolishly been given away to the gnawers by one of the King Stephan's more misguided ancestors, the plan was fool-proof. They would attack without warning, drive off the gnawers and seize the garden. If the gnawers' resistance was too strong for them to defeat easily then his mother's backup plan would come into play. They would seize the dike and open the sluice gates, which would flood the plain. If forced to swim the gnawers would be unable to fight as effectively and would be defeated by the humans.
As he went over the plan in his head there was a flash of sparks as one of the soldiers nearest him in the formation, Mareth he thought, struck a flint, igniting one of the torches, taking their cue from Mareth the soldiers began to ignite their own torches. Hamnet felt nervousness begin to set in as he saw with his own eyes the size of his force. He had only seen in the light the force that set out from Regalia. Soldiers had joined them in the dark, from Tarsus, Troy, the Fount and a dozen smaller hamlets scattered throughout human territory.
He heard a shrill cry from ahead, in the Flier tongue, though he had probably only been able to hear about half of it. He heard his bond give a nervous cough.
"That is the signal", she said, "The scouts have killed the guards at the end of this tunnel." She was thankfully able to keep any nervousness out of her voice, which would have simply added to his own.
"Then let us go".
As he said this he drew his blade. Recognising the signal the soldiers nearest him drew their own blades, and those behind them those blades, the movement moving along the formation like a ripple on the Waterway. The bats picked up speed. A few people began attaching lumps of clay to their torches, so they could latch them onto the ceiling of the cave.
He saw the cave entrance ahead and Hestia dived through, followed b his immediate subordinates, Mareth on Andromeda and Darian on Castor.
The torches lit up the chamber with surprising speed, but with a start he realised the gnawers actually had their own lights near their caves, mainly in the form of luminous moss but there were one or two small fires, a luxury for rats, who had no need for light but had it to allow their full enjoyment of the Garden.
The Garden was as beautiful as he had been told, the great dike, the smell of fruit, the golden apples and trees, the trees! Few underlanders ever saw a tree in their life but there were dozens here.
There were startled squeaks from below as the gnawers, several of whom were playing with their pups, spotted their foes. Diving down past him a group of soldiers attacked the nearest group of rats. Surprisingly, instead of fleeing as they were expected to do so, for the safety of their pups, they snarled and attacked themselves. Two gnawers were killed but another jumped atop a flier a moment too slow in her descent. The Flier's bond had his throat clawed out and the Flier herself crashed to the ground due to the sudden change in weight on her back, where two more gnawers dispatched her at their leisure. He saw that now a portion of the gnawer's strength was now splitting away, gathering their pups whilst the greater force gathered to defend the Garden.
Seeing this he spoke to Hestia as she pulled out of the dive she'd been in, avoiding the now bloodthirsty group directly below, "Hestia, bring us up. Find Mareth".
Hestia made no sign that see had heard his words but she veered upwards now, giving a greater overall view of the fight. Hamnet could see the majority of his force had engaged already and were being matched blow for blow by the gnawer's. For every gnawer lying dead on the ground a Regalian had been cut from his mount or a flier was pulled to the ground. Hamnet finally found Mareth, his blade bared and blood-stained, although the small tear in Andromeda's wing and the cut on his leg showed they hadn't got off as cleanly has he'd have liked. He caught Mareth's eye and the other man nodded, speaking to his bond, who flew out of the group they'd been leading in another attack and towards Hamnet and Hestia.
"Has the Dike fallen?" Hamnet asked when Mareth had reached his side.
Mareth nodded "Andromeda received word from Erebus moments ago that Torean and his group had captured the Dike."
"Good", said Hamnet, "You know what to do then".
When Hamnet said this Mareth pulled a curved silver horn from his belt, raised it to his lips and blew a single, long, loud note.
Within a minute the effects that signal could be seen, the sluice gates opened and water flowed into the garden at about waist height. The gnawer's were surprised at this and almost the entire army dove down to take advantage of this, Hamnet among them, Hestia flying as fast as she could to catch up and be in the vanguard of the attack.
As Hamnet dispatched his first gnawer with a slice to the throat things seemed to slow down. His senses seemed slightly more attuned for a moment; he turned his head and looked at the dike. He saw Torean standing atop it with about ten soldiers. Torean had a banner someone had brought with them and was waving enthusiastically. And then the dike cracked apart.
Torean was swept up in a whirlwind of water, the wave now many times higher than it had been before. Within seconds dozens of Fliers and Gnawers and Humans were swept up. Hestia veered upwards, just avoiding the wall of water; the two fliers nearest her were less lucky and swept up in the current like rag-dolls.
He saw the water continue on It's path towards a series of caves away from the battle. His heart stopped, there were gnawer pups near the cave mouths. He felt ill, he begged for the wave to stop. He couldn't be responsible for killing babies.
But the waves continued on their relentless path, filling the caves to the brim. Now Hamnet actually was sick, throwing up his small breakfast into the water. He'd done terrible things in battle before, but now his order had caused the deaths of dozens of children. He lost all feeling and everything went black for what seemed like a second, but when he regained his senses everything was different. The water was calmer now and the Fliers now swooped over it, plucking Human, rat or bat from the water.
Hestia had been hovering over the water, unsure of what to do without Hamnet's input. He shook his head. "Go help them", he said groggily.
"All of them?" was Hestia's reply.
"Yes" said Hamnet, "we've committed enough crimes against the gnawer's today; I won't let them drown without trying to help." He shook his head again, attempting to banish the images of the gnawer pups drowning.
Hestia then swooped down to the water, using a claw to grasp a floundering Regalian by the leather straps holding his breastplate in place. She then flew upwards, depositing him on a rocky ledge.
It continued in this way for almost an hour. Fliers swooped down to pluck an Underlander, friend or foe, from the water, although the occasional gnawer was able to pull themselves out alone.
Hamnet scanned the water for the fiftieth time, finally spotting a pair of dazed gnawers. He directed Hestia towards them but when she approached they both started squeaking at them, English obviously failing them in their terror. They then both simultaneous tried to clamber onto Hestia, who shrieked in protest. Hamnet shouted at them to let go and called for another flier to help him but the gnawers didn't listen. They finally managed to jump up onto Hestia's back and she crumpled under the weight, falling into the depths with the two gnawers.
Hamnet shrieked in horror, not realised he was on the verge of being dragged down by one of the gnawers, who was grabbing onto his leg, desperately trying to avoid being pulled under. Hamnet was oblivious, he only scanned the water for a sign of his bond. She can't be dead! She can't!"
He began to feel the gnawer began to pull harder on his leg as Hestia and the other gnawer sank downwards. At the same time he felt a hand on his back and was suddenly pulled out of the water with one hard yank. He saw Mareth pulling him onto Andromeda.
As soon as he was on Andromeda he turned again and gazed into the water "HESTIA!" he shouted. He made to dive back in, She has to be alive! She has to be!
He was so fixated on looking for Hestia he didn't notice his friends fist impacting on his skull, so it was with a mix of anger and surprise that he drifted into unconsciousness.