The Heart of Ice
Chapters 4-6
:: Chapter 4 :: CDT :: Search :: Length - Short ::
POV: Connor -
Finding the trail of the clumsy death knights was easy enough. They wore heavy boots that left deep impressions in the lightly snow covered ground. There were also broken branches here and there that told me someone with armor had clumsily walked through here. In this case, there were three bulky death knights that were trying to weave through the vegetation.
Emma's cries and please still echoed in my head. "No!" she had yelled that word over and over. "Somebody get him!" was one of the last. The final words out of her mouth were "Please find him." These words were directed at me. I had been too slow. That had cost us a paladin who from what I could tell was also a great guy.
Alissa and Nick Cowan, the newlyweds, had dragged Emma away after they told me who Emma was. Nick had pulled me aside just as I went to go get my sword from my tent to let me know John, the one that had been taken, was his brother.
This John seemed important, and the lead death knight, Tirasleen, had called him a possible replacement to the Frozen Throne, the seat of power of the Lich King, himself. He mus be a great swordsman.
I glanced at the longsword clipped to my side. If he's good enough to defeat the Lich King, he's probably one of the few that could beat me in a sword fight.
Melissa had wished me luck. She was always the last one to say goodbye to me any time I went anywhere. I wish I could just know if she and I could work as a couple. That way I didn't have to ponder risking our friendship.
There was an extra set of reversed footprints as well as a point where someone had fallen. This was where they had gotten off their mounts. I looked up from the tracks for the first time to find myself on a cliff. Below was a scorched section of ground where I could see motion.
I pulled my small spyglass from its holster in a pouch connected to my leather chestpiece. Upon looking through it, I was shocked to see scores of undead. For the first time I realized the odds we were up against. There were assembled camps, but there was nowhere designated for Death Knights.
"He's not here," I said quietly to myself. "And I definately can't get through there unnoticed."
Then I heard a humming sound. Panning up I found myself staring at a detailed structure. I lowered my eyeglass and looked up to find myself staring at three massive flying fortresses. Openings on either side let troops into this massive structure.
I turned around and glanced to where I had come from. I couldn't have walked more than two miles. We're in trouble, I thought. I collapsed my spyglass and threw it back into the pouch before running as fast as I could back to camp.
:: Chapter 5 :: CDT :: The Plan :: Length - Medium ::
POV: Melissa -
I unbuckled my belt with my daggers and throwing knives on it and let it slide onto my cot. Connor had been gone for only 45 minutes, and I didn't think it would take him that long to get back. I slipped off my combat clothes made up of cloth and leather and slipped into jeans, a t-shirt and my black north face.
I walked out of the tent to find Connor sprinting towards the command tent. I ran back in and grabbed my weapons before running to catch up with him.
"What happened?" I asked as I came along side him.
"I'll explain in a sec," he said struggling to breath and talk at the same time. "I need to see Commander Hess right now."
"Let's go," I said and we continued running.
The command tent was marked easily with the two guards posted at each side. We ran up to them, and they barred their spears. We showed them our class chains, pulling them up from our necks so they could see. Both of our chains were black, but my center symbol was a silver droplet signalling poison. Connor's was a siler arrowhead.
The silver color was enough to explain to the guards we were experts in our class. They let us through, and we rushed in to find Commander Hess and Solus, the orc lead warrior, looking over a map.
"Where are they, sir," Solus said just before they looked up to greet us.
"They're here," Connor said rushing to the map. He drew a large rectangle with his finger just North of the Gaspian Pass.
"Trenton what the hell?" Hess said.
"I was trying to track one of our capture paladins to see where his captors might have taken him," Connor said. "I came across their encampment. They're about fifty-thousand strong, and they have three flying fortresses."
"How many?" Solus asked unbelieving.
"Fifty camps," Connor said. "One thousand at least per camp."
"How can they supply a force that big?" Solus demanded.
"The Lich King's main army is undead," Hess answered. "Not to mention he has many supporters. These numbers are actually better than we predicted."
"Sir," I piped in. "May I propose that we bottleneck their forces through the Gaspian Pass? This would reduce the effectiveness of their numbers, and we could set our archers on the cliffs above to bottleneck their forces even more."
"That would make sense," Hess said. "But won't the Scourge try and use that same plan if their stationed there."
"I personally don't see another option," Solus said. "Sir, I support young Ms. Truman's decision."
"As do I," Connor said, I turned to face him, but he was still focused on Hess. "Although my word isn't worth much yet, just know that Melissa always got better scores than me in our strategy training."
He turned to face me, and we exchanged light smiles. Hess took a breath and looked at the map for a few moments.
"You're right," he said. "Any other type of attack would be suicide. We need to defend. But how do we lure them into the pass?"
"I think I can help with that," said a soft voice from the back of the room.
:: Chapter 6 :: All :: Intelligent Bad Ideas :: Length - Short ::
POV: Connor -
"Max what the hell are you doing here!" I yelled. "It's too dangerous for you to be here! I told you to stay back at the camp!"
"You can finish yelling at me after I tell you my brilliant plan," Max said.
"How old are you, son," Hess asked.
"Thirteen," He said.
"You're -," He paused.
"Cousin," I filled in for him. "He's my cousin."
"You're cousin is right," Hess said. "This isn't the place for kids."
"I still have a great plan," Max said. "Do you all want to hear it or not."
"You obviously haven't learned formality," said a woman in the background, walking into view, I could tell it was Emma. "But the little one has a good plan, sir."
"Go ahead then," Hess said. "If you can gain the trust of a Dal'Glorian, you have gained my trust."
"Thanks," Max said.
All I could do was shake my head. His parents wouldn't want this. They'd want him out of it until he had time to formulate his opinion. Sure Max had begun mage training as I had left to arrive here, but there was no way he was good enough to fight. And that's what we need here. Soldiers... not little boys wanting to play army.
"It's simple," Max said. "but effective. The flying fortresses are three different ships. Arnada, Archerious, and Sinisil are their names."
"How do you know this?" Solus asked.
"First part of mage training is magic history. The three greatest inventions in history include the flying fortresses. Three of the greatest fortresses belong to the Lich King."
"How do we know those fortresses aren't something else?" I asked.
"I sort of bewitched your spyglass to show me what you see... sorry. I'd recognize those ships in my sleep. Anyways, they're all set up in a similar pattern, and I can help you navigate it.
"The plan is to lure the Scourge in while at the same time rescue John Cowan. We send a small team of elite fighters into the ship where Cowan was taken, take control of the ship by killing the leaders inside, and then crash it into the Gaspian Pass."
"It's bold," Melissa said.
"It's war," I said. "If that plan's going to work we need three things. 1 - We need to know where Cowan was taken. 2 - we need a way to get inside the fortress -"
"Actually, getting inside's easy," Max said. "Presuming you have something that can fly and carry people besides a plane."
"We have a few drakes," Hess said. "They're fast and can fly at high altitudes."
"Ok," I continued. "Well, the final thing still remains. We need a team and a leader."
"Marshall Solus," Hess said.
"Sir?" Solus asked. "I'm too old for this kind of activity."
"Then who should lead them?" Hess said.
"Maybe we should continue this in private," Solus said and waved his hand.
We all slowly went back out of the tent and into the cold. Night was falling, and it wasn't going to be fun standing out here for too much longer. I turned to look at Max.
"Admit it," he said. "You're glad I'm here."
"It was very irresponsible for you to come here," I said. "How did you get here."
"I came with a new crew of recruits on orders from Mistress Tilan. She said I could help up here," he said.
"Obviously you can," Melissa piped in. "But you're still just a kid."
"A kid who passed magic training in four weeks," he said and pulled out a blue chain with a silver lightning bolt on it. "I'm just as qualified as you two are."
"Impressive," I said. "But you're still only thirteen."
"In ancient times thirteen-year-old's were warriors in battles, too."
"This isn't ancient times," I said.
"How about I sit on the sidelines until I'm needed," he said. "I'm qualified, but young. I get it. I'll just wait as a backup."
"Fine," I said and walked away.
Melissa followed me around the command tent and I felt the urge to rant.
"He's too young," I said.
"Yes," she said. "But he knows what he's doing."
"Well now he's going to be a burden on the camp."
"You know that's not true."
"Well he'll probably be pestering all the time to go on a mission... and join the fight agains the scourge... and pester me like he always does... trying to get me to admit to myself that I love you and it's worth a shot to-"
I stopped mid-sentence. My mouth was in the middle of forming the phrase "o shit." Melissa was smiling. She was blushing, too. She leaned forward and kissed me lightly on the lips.
Her plump lips brought new found warms in this winter anti-wonderland. All I could think of was butterflies, cotton candy, and strangely strawberries even though I hate them. I kissed back and wrapped my arms around her.
"And I thought I was the one afraid to admit it," she said between kisses. "Although you're a bad kisser these are the best kisses I've ever shared with a man."
Someone cleared their throat, and we turned to find Max with his arms crossed, trying to keep a straight face.
"I should have stayed home," Max said sarcastically. "Bull shit. We're needed back inside."
Awkwardly as we followed, I felt calm for my arm was pulling Melissa close to me as we walked. Upon entering, Hess was still looking over the map.
"The five-man team is," Solus said from next to Hess. "Nick Cowan for tanking duties. Emma Dal'Glorian for healing duties. Melissa Truman, Michello Promear, and Connor Trenton."
"The line of command is as follows," Hess said speaking up, as he did a gnome came into view (no doubt Promear). "Glad you could join us Promear."
"Sir," he said in a slightly squeaky tone.
"As I was saying, the line of command is: Connor Trenton for leader, Michello Promear as second in command, Melissa Truman, Nick Cowan, and Emma Dal'Glorian."
"Sir," Emma said speaking up. "Shouldn't Nicholas Cowan lead the team? He has the most -"
"Nicholas as well as yourself are too attached to John Cowan and may be distracted on this mission," Hess said abruptly. "I'm sorry, but this is the way it has to be."
"I understand, sir," Emma said. "I'm sorry."
"It's going to be a long day tomorrow," Solus said. "And it's already 9:00. All of you need to head to bed. Report here tomorrow at 7:30 with your breakfast, and we'll brief you. Mission will start at noon tomorrow, and we'll be in battle before mid-afternoon."
We all nodded simultaneously and turned to leave, but were pushed aside by a running man.
"What happened to my brother?" the man demanded.
"Calm down, Nick," Emma said. "We're going to rescue him tomorrow."
"But he'll be a Death Knight in the next hour if we don't get to him."
"Yes," Solus said. "He'll be a death knight. But we can't rescue him yet."
"All of his training lost," Nick said. "All of humanity lost."
"Nick," Emma said, beginning to sob. "John will be fine."
"I'm sorry."
He wrapped his arms around Emma as she openly began to weep. I held the tent flap open as everyone slipped out. As I was about to leave, I turned to face the two.
"Don't worry," I said. "We'll get him back. After all he could be the only one to replace the Lich King, and we don't want to lose him."
Please leave comments and let me know what you thought...
