Just when you might have thought it was safe to go out ... Along comes another chapter of this stuff.
[Cue evil snigger]
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It was dark. Harry blinked and tried to adjust his glasses, but it remained dark. Did I mention dark? And noisy, too. Dark and noisy. From where he had arrived, crouched and huddled on the floor, he could the sound of people shouting. Commands echoed back and forth and people screamed and shouted at one another.
Harry pulled his cloak down away from his face and frowned to himself. Underneath the cart where he found himself to be the sound was muffled, but some of the screams sounded like the owners were in pain.
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Hirad the barbarian grinned smugly to himself. "Hey, look guys! We're winning!" The mage next to him gave him a dirty look.
"Well, duhh."
"Shut up Denser, you're ruining it for me." Denser sighed and shook his head.
"We may be winning now, but we won't be in a minute." Hirad gave him a look, and he elaborated. "Erriene still knocked out from that blast before, and I can't hold this shield very well." Hirad swore. Loudly.
"So we need another mage."
"Well, duhh."
"Thank you for that extremely well reasoned and educated opinion there. It really must be great, you know, going to wizard college and everything if you learn brilliant words like that."
"Can it, Hirad."
"No, I was just saying..."
"Shut up."
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Cautiously Harry peered out from under the cart at the scene around him. People were fighting other people, that much was obvious. And some people were winning. A whistling noise overhead made him look up, and he saw a line of fire streak across the sky.
Okay then. SO that meant they had magic, and magic meant witches and wizards, and they could probably help him.
Oh goody.
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[Random scene change for no apparent reason]
(Cue evil emperor theme)
Yes, I know it's a very famous scene. Do I care?
"You.. you killed my father." Evil guy in the badly fitting plastic suit raised his lightsaber.
(No prizes for guessing where we are now)
"No Luke. I am your-"
"Uhm, 'scuse me? Hello?" A really irritatingly high pitched voice interrupted the conversation, and both participants turned to face it's owner. Short, blondeish, primitive looking leather armour.
Again, no prizes for guessing.
"Don't worry, It'll only take a minute. I just need to know, has either one of you ever been known as 'the Dark lord'?"
Luke glanced worriedly over at Darth Vader and shook his head.
"No. No, I don't think so."
"Oh." Ysel looked quite disappointed. "Are you sure?"
"Absolutely. Now, if you don't mind." Darth waved his hand dismissively at her.
"Oh, well, thanks anyway. Seeya." Ysel promptly stepped behind a pile of empty metallic boxes and dissapeared.
"Okay, now where were we."
"I was just about to fling you to your death." Said Luke hopefully.
"Hang on, I'm sure that's not right..."
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"Uhm, excuse me?" Cautiously Harry emerged from the underneath of the cart where he'd been hiding. A man who'd been stood next to the cart started at his sudden appearance, and was skewered by the sword of another man.
"Oh, god, I'm so sorry." The other man glanced over to him and shook his head before running over to join one of the few other sword fights going on. Having obviously nothing better, or at least nothing more sane to do, Harry proceeded to follow him across the battlefield.
From the look of things it was almost over, but there was a distinct lack of winning cheers. Those few who were still alive were looking about anxiously towards the horizons, clearly expecting something truly awful very shortly.
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Meanwhile, back The Raven's new base camp;
"What do you mean, no? You can't say no!"
Denser attempted a calming influence.
"Well, you see Hirad, we're kind of tired now and-"
"NO?!" There were veins standing out on his forehead. Erriene, now fortunately conscious, rolled her eyes at him.
"We are not inexhaustible, Hirad. There is absolutely no way that the two of us alone could possibly hold up another shield, and that is that."
"So we need another mage."
"Well, duhh."
"Keep out of this Unknown! You're just confusing me!" There was a vague mutter along the lines of "Wouldn't exactly be difficult, now would it"
Suddenly Denser created a distraction by pointing at the battlefield.
"Hey, who's that? I don't recognise him. What's he doing here?"
"Which one of those many stupid pointless questions do you want me to try and answer?" Hirad smirked at Denser annoyingly. But don't let it bother you. He does everything annoyingly.
"Well, we could go down and see. He might be a powerful mage."
"Like that's a good thing, these days."
"A powerful, friendly mage."
"Yeah right."
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Brief interlude- go and get a drink, check to see if that program you wanted to watch is on yet, do your homework and eat dinner. Done all that? Okay then.
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"So you're a mage then." Hirad was grinning from ear to ear. Well, almost.
"Uhm, yeah."
"A powerful one."
"Well, yeah." Harry struggled to see where this was going.
"And you want to help us win this war against the Black Wings."
"Yeah, of cour- Hey, hang on a minute, I didn't say that!"
Denser shrugged. 2Do we look like we care? You're going to help us or the world will end."
"Uh, Denser, that was when we were killing the witch lords, remember?"
"Sorry, I meant, you must help us because if you don't millions of innocent elves will die."
"No Denser, that was last year."
"So why do we need his help? Why do we have to win?"
"Because," said Hirad, with all the patience of a rock, "if we don't win we won't get paid, remember?"
"Oh yeah. SO you've got to help us."
Harry shrugged. "Okay."
"What? You're sure?" Hirad hurriedly nudged the Unknown Warrior in the ribs sharply.
"Of course he's sure, he just said so didn't he?"
"Yes, but-"
"No."
Harry looked hurriedly from one to the other. Denser shrugged.
"Now, Harry, just raise your arms like so, and imagine a big shield above us. Got that?"
Harry squinted in concentration. 2yeah, I think so."
"Good. In that case, we don't need to worry about-"
A volley of above five arrows whistled through the air. Out of habit, The Raven ducked.
Harry didn't.
"arrows." Denser finished, then looked down. "Ugh. Yuck."
"So why didn't it work?" Erriene seemed a little put out by this unexpected turn of events.
Hirad looked up and laughed. "What a berk! Well, we'll be okay if it rains, I guess."
Floating above them, with no visible means of support, was a huge shield, not much different to the one the Unknown Warrior wore on his arm.
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yay! Another chapter out!
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