Author's Notes: There'll be some at the end of the chapter.
Enjoy.
Everlasting Bonds: Wings of Despair
Maelstrom of Scales
Inigo was already barely holding onto Cynthia's waist, but when the pegasus under them turned suddenly - inclined to do so at the girl's behest - his hands slipped off her armor entirely. It was only by his battle-born reflexes, that he managed to grab the back of saddle and save himself from falling off, though he did get a good look down in the process. It looked long and wrong, and there was yet another threat rearing its head. "Three- No, six wyverns coming up!"
The blue-haired pegasus knight turned to scowl at him. "Passengers be quiet! I'm trying to concentrate!"
"But wyverns-" Inigo tried to say, but Cynthia raised her index finger up in the air, next to her head.
"Tat!" she stopped him, "Heroes of justice know of this threat already."
Rather, heroes of justice are doomed, Inigo thought. He did keep silent, though, because of the measure of trust he still had in the girl. If Cynthia did not know her business – that is, flying, and all things aerial – then who else could do this stuff? Not him, that was for sure.
The pegasus under them started to neigh and - lowering its altitude - swooped closer to Nah's dragon form. The pink dragon looked imposing and was larger than a wyvern for certain, though her size still lacked in comparison to her mother.
One of her big eyes – the left one - turned to Cynthia, and a voice sounding like it had been sent through a mountain pass flowed from within her large form, saying, "I told them about the guys tailing us." Nah craned her long neck towards her back, where Severa sat astride, dearly holding onto Morgan and nothing else. Behind Severa, Noire was grabbing her companion's belt and Nah's scales, seemingly unsure which old would be the better bet, in the case the manakete below decided to go for more dexterous movements.
Inigo heard another pair of wings stir the air, the manner of flying much more smoother than that of Cynthia's beast. Soon, another pegasus descended, setting a few feet right from Nah with both Severa's mother and Yarne upon its back. The rider and passenger both held spears, Cordelia's a bit more ornate than Yarne's; the taguel's hold on the weapon appeared to change with every beat of the pegasus' wings, but at least their furry companion seemed to have a certain sense of trust toward his own sense balance, perceivable from the way his thighs held firm against the beast's flanks. However, seeing how Yarne's hand still twitched, Inigo felt that the taguel would hurl away his sole weapon at the very first sign of danger.
And there was going to be peril. The looks on the others' faces were so grim and sullen that they could've promised the moon to fall from the sky, and it would have come to pass. Or Inigo would have believed them, had any one claimed such a thing.
At least they're alert, he thought. He swallowed, again coming to realize that there were gusts going about the wide and open space that was the sky, rustling his clothing, sometimes passing in through the openings of his leather armour and cotton attire. The air felt cold, colder than it had even felt on the ground.
He turned to look at Cynthia's back, peering the multi-linked armour she wore. Doesn't she feel cold in that? Inigo thought. Not even the slightest twinge?
At the other side of Nah,Cordelia raised her head. "Looks like seven wyvern riders!" she shouted, "We should be able to fend them off!"
That's fourteen against... Let's see, two, five, and Morgan's out... Two more... Seven people? Inigo thought, then shaking his head. Somebody's got their measures wrong, and it isn't me.
He glanced to his right. Severa's head was bowed to Morgan, and she seemed to be muttering something under her breath. Noire was looking at the flame-haired girl, her face white with horror; she turned to glance at Cordelia next, but the woman had her eyes steadily set forward, not even noticing the exchange that had taken place.
Inigo grimaced, closing his eyes. His heart was bouncing away like a defiant spoon dropping from one's frostbitten fingers, and as a result, his head was repeatedly hit by the mallet-like strikes of both energy and dull fear, making his head ache.
Had he been on the ground, well, he would have fancied the chances even to the point of volunteering to charges of almost any kind. This had been true in the future; he wasn't a coward by any stretch of the word. Womankind might have lamented his death, true, but at least he would have died with dignity.
Here in the air though, it wasn't so simple. Life was cheap here, cheaper than on the ground. A small accident was all it took for a downward plunge to happen, and all that would be left of those who met that fate was some fine paste, something that wouldn't even go with the army-rationed biscuits.
This is worse than that last time with Laurent, Inigo thought, then noticing that he had missed quite a bit of Cordelia's shouting. He perked up to hear the rest.
"-and whatever happens, do not split up!" Cordelia shouted, at the same time both looking at them all and no one in particular. "We can defeat them one by one, but only if we stay together."
Cynthia's armour clinked as she straightened herself up. "Right!", she answered with gusto, "Together, we'll hammer them down like moles!"
Inigo blinked. You'll have to tell me where you came up with that one, he thought, then peering past Cordelia as something shimmery caught his vision. His eyes soon fixed upon a group of wyverns, their wings scaling the air and the riders leaning forward, weapons already drawn out. The scales of the wyrmlings were reflecting the moonlight like a lake surface, resulting in their sides being painted in a spectacular, but occasionally vanishing, glitter.
Observing their movements, Inigo noted that the wyverns were rounding the flank of his group. The end of the motion would have the approaching threat right behind them, ready to attack from the most advantageous spot there was.
That meant they would soon have to stop and fight the threat. The numbers weren't exactly on the seven-man group's side, but neither was their speed enough to elude their pursuers.
Inigo took his right hand away from Cynthia's waist and moved it to the hilt of his sword. He failed the first two tries of pulling the thing out due to the forcible, paralysing nature of fear, but the third try was a success; the sword slid out of its scabbard without too much hindrance, setting itself in Inigo's hand like a familiar tool of war should.
Inigo positioned himself slightly better on the pegasus' back, and tried a few practice swings at the side. Hmm... It is a disagreeable way of fighting, he thought, but it is better than nothing.
He swung his sword once more, then turned to look behind. The wyverns were now just a short distance away, and still approaching. The oncoming confrontation was, apparently, unavoidable.
Looks like we'll see today whom Naga truly favours, Inigo thought, inhaling, fighting the rush that came for his head. Have at thee, wyrms and worms; I would rather die than let a comrade fall by your hands.
His thoughts finished, Inigo snapped his trembling right arm back into position by his side, utterly sure he did not want to catch a look down any time soon.
"Inigo," Cynthia said suddenly, turning to meet his eyes. "We'll turn around soon."
"Alright."
Cynthia glanced at his sword, scowling. "You'll have a hard time keeping on the saddle."
Inigo followed her eyes to the blade gleaming in the moonlight. "Well, these weren't exactly made for this kind of situation. But I'll make do."
"That's not what I meant. How are you going to handle the turns?"
Inigo blinked. "What do you mean, handle the turns?" he asked, then nodded his head toward the arm halfway around Cynthia's waist. "Isn't this going to cut it?"
Cynthia shook her head and turned back forward, pulling the reins taut. "You'd better hold onto me tight, Inigo," she said. Then, as if it were but an afterthought, she added, "You'll never make it to the annals if you die."
How about just making it out alive? Inigo thought, tensing his left arm around Cynthia. His breath grew shallower. He took in a deep breath, and felt a feeling akin to a rock hitting the bottom of his stomach as their mount dived without a warning, angling rapidly to the left. Snaky, paralysing tendrils hit Inigo's innards, forcing extra effort on his part so he could remain calm.
There was no real success there. Inigo screamed, and halfway through, the shrill voice changed into a battle-cry.
I sure hope Cynthia didn't notice that, Inigo thought. He then felt the pegasus below adopt a more shaky flying pattern, its head slightly more downward and its wings forcing them forward with increased speed. That would have been enough to drive Inigo to the point of nausea, but as they approached the flank of the approaching wyverns, he noticed that these were not the odds he had wanted to take; five of the seven wyverns had turned their ugly, teethed mugs straight at him, and the closest one drew in a mighty breath, the sadistic desire to see things burn gleaming in its eyes. When the wyvern opened its mouth, a spinning coil of flames forming between its jaws, Inigo wondered if - deep inside - Minerva was the same.
Only an instant before the flames flashed forward from the beast's maw, Cynthia pressed her knees inward, guiding the pegasus down for a dive. She ducked and Inigo followed in reflex, then feeling scorching heat pass by inches from where their heads had been before. That would have been a severe case of burning hair, had they kept up their heads.
A brief thought for the others flashed in Inigo's mind, and then Cynthia dove under the wyvern, stabbing upwards with her spear in passing. The weapon tore open the creature's wing, spilling smudgy, black substance all over the pegasus' feathery appendage.
"Aim for the wings!" Cynthia shouted, and Inigo made a mental note of her words. However, he did not have much room to work, as they were now in the middle of the enemy formation, only below, which was essentially worse.
Minerva's sharp talons flashed in Inigo's mind, sending shivers about. Yeah, he thought. Much worse.
A flash of green blazed above their heads, stopping a wyvern that had tried to swoop in and taking its legs off in a clean blast of ethereal fire. The creature screeched and turned around, the lower part of its body bleeding profusely. It steered to the direction where its fellow cohort of wyverns fought, engulfed in the battle that raged below.
As Inigo witnessed the wyvern's sinking retreat, another one swooped in from above like a hawk, opening up its sharp, taloned feet. Cynthia reared her mount further down in response, and then sharply to the right. The wyvern followed in pursuit, deftly managing itself in the air and reaching closer with every snap of its wings. It didn't take long till it was so close to Inigo's back that he could hear the beast's massive inhalation and the violent hurl that resounded from its insides.
Though he wasn't feeling the heat against his back yet, Inigo sure could imagine it.
"Hold on tight," Cynthia hissed, and Inigo, having no idea what the girl was about to do, knew no better than to tense up his left arm and hope for the best.
A bone-rattling roar resounded from behind, and Cynthia pulled the reins in her hand so hard that Inigo feared for their mount. It whinnied as the reins pulled at its muzzle, and - in almost an instant - changed its flight path to an upward climb. The wyvern's mistimed breath blazed forward and sizzled against cold night-time air.
"You keep missing your chances to attack them!", Cynthia shouted from the front. Inigo could not answer; not only because of his fear of flying, but because he was trying to hold onto Cynthia as hard as he could with only one arm. Really, flying might be bad, but this is borderline illegal, he thought, gritting his teeth while trying to resist looking at what lay behind his back.
Two strong wings – that previous wyvern's, Inigo supposed – beat the air below them, the echo of the act furthering away from their position. It appeared that the beast was being reared to another place.
As their pegasus began to fly forward again, instead of the Naga-forsaken upward climb Cynthia had been forced to resort to, Inigo exhaled, exuberant from the relief. He then realized it was probably the time to take stock of the battle situation again, and glanced about, trying to ignore the horizon far away. It had a remarkable track record at making Inigo realize how high up he really was and that would not really help Inigo in his situation.
What Inigo's eyes did witness boded ill fate for all persons in their group. Their force was split in three, each group being forced to deal with its own wyverns. Cordelia and Yarne were flying on the rim of the battle, circling away from it rather than inward. They were being chased by two of the black-clad beasts, and Inigo witnessed the woman pulling off a few rather hectic movements with her mount just to keep ahead of the two beasts.
Nah wasn't much better off. She was having trouble with two drakes of her own – one of them with the wounded wing, awkwardly flailing about – and a third one, the one which had chased Inigo and Cynthia down, was circling around to her back with expectant wing-strokes.
On top of all that – and this really did confuse Inigo – Noire was standing on top of the manakete, her bow taut and eyes determinedly cast forward. Her legs did not help in her resolute stand, however, as they buckled like those of a galloping horse.
"STAY STILL LIZARD, SO THAT I MAY AIM!" Noire roared against the night, and Inigo - feeling terror much worse than the one he had for flying - stifled an approaching violent cough. Just WHO on earth let you touch that amulet of yours, Noire?! he thought, unsure whether he would be able to dupe this other persona of Noire's in the air.
Nah bellowed something back to the girl, and set her wings to her side like shields as one of the wyverns assaulted from the side, it's rider raising his axe high in the air. The beast's teethed jaw closed on the right wing, ripping through, earning tortured screams from the manakete girl.
"Nah! NAH!" Inigo shouted, his heart beating so hard it threatened to pound its way right out from his chest. His hand grasped around his sword, and rage engulfed his insides, trying to get out and make him do foolish things in the name of courage.
Inigo caught only a flash of what Noire did to the man assaulting Nah before a shadow fell on his shoulders, instantly spreading to his chest and on Cynthia's back. In the accelerated state of his mind, the situation dawned on Inigo almost immediately. "Above us, Cynthia!"
The woman responded to his warning by once again sending her pegasus on a hellish dive, but this time, their pursuer was on the ball in regards to the movements of their pegasus. The wyvern and its rider were reaching closer, and with every beat of the beast's wings, Inigo felt like he would breathe his last.
If I fail, Inigo thought, at least there won't be any of that thrice-damned upward climbing. I was starting to get sick of that. Then he cast his light thoughts aside and prepared his sword. The familiar sound of a live volcano resounded out from behind, holding within the promise of swift, if rather painful death.
Inigo turned to meet his metaphorical demise eye to eye. Gods, but that's one hideous pair of cunning you have there, he thought as the wyvern pulled back its head. Now, he could only hope that their foes would not anticipate his next move.
"Pull up when I say so!" Inigo shouted to Cynthia, feeling the heat against his face.
"What? Are you mad?" Cynthia asked, her baffled but sharp voice almost disappearing in the roaring air, "To repeat motions is to die!"
"I do have a plan!" Inigo shouted back, still staring at the wyvern. The echo of its flames had become a formidable roar, and orange light flickered from the edges of its maw, traces of the fire soon to be unleashed.
However, Inigo did not turn his eyes away. Not yet... Not yet...
It was the gleaming murder in the beast's eyes that gave its attempt to blast fire away. "Now, Cynthia!" Inigo shouted. The pegasus rider pulled hard at the reins, the wyvern behind them lowering its head at the same time. Inigo sliced awkwardly backwards, with as much strength as he could muster. His sword met the wyvern's pointy-teethed jaw from above and split it just as its breath was about to go out.
The effect of his attack was instantly perceivable; the flames roared up and down from the splits on the beast's visage, and the flaming head of the beast struck left and right, roaring, something dying inside. Its wings beat twice in an attempt to stabilize its flight, and then, with a slump of its head, the wyvern began its downward spiral.
Truth to be told, Inigo did not enjoy hearing the rider's panicked screams. But this was war. He would do what was necessary to survive, even if it meant destroying someone else's future.
Before him, Cynthia shouted, "Attaboy! That was AMAZING, Inigo!"
"You think?" Inigo asked, feeling his grim resolve let up a bit.
"Do I think...? Inigo, you split its head from mullet to chin! You'll get immortalized in a song! A SONG!"
"Well, that certainly doesn't sound too bad..." Inigo said, and smiled softly.
The smile almost instantly vanished and turned into a surprised 'Whoa!', as a scorched body of a wyvern fell from the sky, its chest partly evaporated by something. Inigo - shaken by the unlikely surprise - glanced quickly upward, where he had last seen the manakete holding her position.
Severa and Morgan were still on top of the green dragon, former not the worse for wear, but Noire had somehow gotten herself between Nah's taloned legs and was flailing uselessly about, her arms repeating some kind of circular motion. Inigo briefly entertained himself with the thought of Severa pushing the archer over the side and Nah grabbing Noire with her legs. Then - surprised by how legit this imaginary course of events appeared to him - Inigo accepted it as how things had really transpired, letting the thought disappear as the fear set in again, aided by Nah's pained rumbling voice. "I can't take this! I can't fly for much longer!"
Inigo's eyes widened. "Nah?!" he shouted, "Nah! What's the matter?"
A black spot diverged from the night sky above the manakete; a wyvern - the one with the injured wing - dropped down, diving for her back where only Severa sat astride, holding Morgan with her arms. Inigo and Cynthia were still in the middle of their upward climb, and though Cynthia had already begun to spur their mount ahead, the tugs of her blue hair shaking in tandem with the wingbeats, they would never make it there in time. No... NO! Nah!
Something hit the wyvern's scales, ringing like a weapon brought against armor, then bounced away, ineffective and useless. Whatever it had been, it did nothing to slow down the wyvern's attacking plunge; in fact, the beast set to a nosedive, driving down even faster and soon reaching the eye-blurring level of speed. It terrified Inigo to imagine ithitting Nah's back, the talons and the jaw ripping into her scaled body.
Two wyvern cries blared out behind and above Inigo, at the same time as another longish object swooshed in the night-sky, it's moonlit tip revealing it for the spear that it was. The arc of flight was most mind-boggling, however, as it was headed straight toward the manakete's exposed back, close to the wing where she had been wounded before.
"What on-" Inigo exclaimed.
Then the unimaginable transpired; the spear, after crossing the whole length of distance between Inigo and Nah and even more, hit in through the side of the wyvern's jaw, just before the beast smashed into the manakete. Inigo - barely in position to see - thought he could spot splinters of its massive teeth reflecting the moonlight.
Likewise, moonlight glimmered green as the manakete drew her wings next to her elongated body. The wyvern, its lower jaw pierced by the spear, continued down, unable to stop its momentous charge; the gloriously ruined beast crashed through the point where Nah's bloodied right wing had been, barely missing her main body, and continued down like a whirlwind of expected death.
Two spears, one after another... Inigo thought, raising his head to look for what he suspected to be true. Indeed, Cordelia and Yarne were straight above - hence why he had not seen them in them in the first place - still flying away from the two wyverns that were chasing them.
Inigo couldn't hold in an exhilarated, nearly mad laugh. Really, he thought, that was marvellous! Not only did she take those wyverns off our back, but she...
He let his roundabout, circular look around the rim of the aerial battlefield finish the thought and then turned to gaze at the new threat approaching. Meanwhile, Cynthia finally managed to position herself near Nah and shouted, "Are you guys all right? Tell me that wound isn't serious!"
Nah's voice didn't echo as strongly as before. "It hurts... Gods, but my wing burns." Her wounded wing only flapped once for every two beats of the other one. She drew in a ragged breath, and the way her echo went, it made her condition sound that much worse.
Cynthia turned back to Inigo, her eyes wide and lips pursed. "What do we do, Inigo?" she asked, nearly pleading. "We now have two wounded persons!"
"Don't look at me," Inigo said, suspecting that he felt just as bad as the girl riding the pegasus, "I'm not the one with the answers. Also, not to add to your worries, but-" He nodded toward the approaching figure of Cordelia, chased by two wyverns. "-I think we are in trouble..."
"We have three against two, surely we can-"
Inigo shook his head intently. "Like you said, Nah's wounded," he said, "And I think that Cordelia and Yarne both threw their spears to defend her." He frowned as something itched at the back of his mind, insistent on getting out.
Cynthia turned toward the approaching wyverns. "Well..." she said, "I still think we have a chance. A hero NEVER gives up."
"Yeah, but who's going to be our hero today? You?" Inigo asked, earning a scowl from Cynthia. "Think about it! We have Nah's breath, your spear and my sword, but NOTHING else! And I don't think that Nah can properly fly any more!"
"We'll figure out something!" Cynthia shouted back, wing gusting through her dual tugs of hair. "There's always a way. There has to be!"
It was then that Cordelia reached their position, swooped under Nah, and came up the other side of the manakete. "Watch out, children!" she shouted, unarmed, with Yarne holding onto her for his life.
Somewhere the low, skin-crawling blare of a war horn sounded out, echoing to their position from a distance. The two wyvern riders, readying to swoop toward Inigo's group, stopped on their tracks and reared their heads back. The quickness of their actions made Inigo suspect that the sound had carried a meaning for the riders, though what, he could not surmise.
"We should take this chance!" Cynthia said quickly, but before she could spur her pegasus forward, Inigo snapped his right arm forward and forced her to pull back the right rein, turning their mount sideways.
"Wait!" he said, perhaps a bit too sharply. "Something's off."
"But-"
"Just wait!" Inigo said, still gripping her arm. His eyes turned to intently gaze at the riders; they were shouting to each other – arguing, really – and sometimes glanced at the general direction of Inigo's group, peering hostilely. Then the other rider shouted something sharp and pulled at the reins of his mount. The beast turned rapidly around, it's back now to Inigo's group, and began to fly away as per its master's orders. The other rider stayed still for a moment, and then – with a rough-sounding exclamation – followed after the other rider, clearly not as driven to fly away.
Inigo found it somewhat challenging to accept what had transpired. It... It can't be over, can it? he asked himself. Did we actually manage to win?
Next to him, Nah spoke, her voice emotional from relief. "...Why?"
Cordelia cleared her throat. "I think you ought to look at the top of the tree itself to find the answer to that," she said, then turning around her mount with a single, smooth motion of her reins. "Do so quickly though, some of us are on a borrowed time. And Nah, can you still fly, with your wing like that?"
"Honestly, I feel like ramming down to the ground, head first," Nah answered heavily.
"Then we'd better start our retreat now. You people can look at our saviours as we withdraw!"
Saviours? Inigo thought, turning to look at where Cordelia had implied these people were. A flash of understanding hit him as he observed a white, multi-winged stream flow down from the leaves of the Mila Tree. The Shepherd fliers, finally departing from the treetop. "Looks like Owain and the others had the most auspicious of timings."
Cynthia reared her pegasus after Cordelia and then turned to look at the tree herself. "Oh!" she exclaimed, a victorious smile reaching the far corners of her eyes. "Didn't I say there was a way?"
Inigo shook his head, more so in disbelief than out of the will to contest Cynthia's words. "Guess so," he said. "But I sure didn't know how things outside our immediate range of battle could have such a profound impact on our struggle." Again, that lingering thought. Something about spears.
"...Outside our immediate range of battle, you say?" Cynthia muttered, sounding thoughtful. She then turned to Inigo with one eye closed and a pondering quality to her lips. "Hey, Inigo... Back when that wyvern swooped at Nah, who do you think threw that spear? Was it Severa's mother?"
The image of a shoddy, second-rate spear flying through the sky flashed back into Inigo's mind. That's what it was! he thought, turning away from the Mila Tree. That's why it felt so off. That spear wasn't targeted at Nah. Rather... "No, actually, I'm pretty sure it was Yarne."
Cynthia raised her eyebrows. "Really?"
"Quite. Surprising, is it not?"
"You bet it is. But hey, that would mean that he's becoming more and more heroic. He'll go past you yet."
"If this war will even last that long," Inigo said to her. Then, as Inigo felt the thrill of battle leave him and heavy exhaustion set in, he bowed his head. Rather... he deliberated, returning to his earlier train of thought, it looks like the thrower was prepared to risk Nah's life, in an attempt to save it. I don't think I could ever imitate that. Therein lies the true difference between us two, I would think.
He glanced at Cordelia. The woman was looking at her daughter, but when the girl looked back, she instantly averted her eyes, hiding them in the horizon. So why was it, Inigo thought, that she, of all people, wasn't able to do it? He watched Severa lower her eyes again, back to Morgan, and set her hand on the girl's head, smoothing her hair softly. Guess some parents have it harder than others, Inigo thought, shaking his head. It was no use to think about such things now. Every day, as it came, was another chance at setting things right. Though he himself had no grievous problems to be corrected, Inigo knew that some of the children bore wounds deeper than the ever-flowing river of time. And for such persons, it was perhaps too much to ask for a change of character, or a casting away of their problems.
The only thing that could perhaps be requested of them would be that they'd lead a happy life, in a future not cursed by a malignant god.
Author's Notes: Yes, this is the final battle chapter for this subplot. And goodness, was this battle long... 17000 words. *grimaces* Sorry guys, I know this story's pacing goes here and there, but I'll try to fix it in the oncoming subplots. Won't be long till we get to the next one, either... Just gotta get this one out of the way(and there's still some good stuff incoming in this subplot, so it's not like I'm going to write filler text till the next subplot starts :D).
...But I'm glad I managed to end this battle on such a high note. Now we'll get to even more interesting stuff... And when the next subplot starts, I'm gonna pull out all stops and start thinking about interesting ways for the children to interact with this story even more.
Righto. Thanks for reading this chapter. If you have some parts you ESPECIALLY liked, do consider sharing it on the reviews. Reading what works can only make me a better writer.
That's it. See you in the reviews(or in the next chapter, but you know where my priorities will lie for the next three days or so :D).