The ground quaked, and the earth trembled as those giant demons charged towards the great walls of Dun Aengus. Mairi took up her bow again, holding both the curving horn of the bow and her dagger in one hand. The girl took careful aim and let fly directly at one of the beasts. She shook her head in disbelief as the creature just kept moving. Mairi fired off another three shots, but the creature only seemed to grow more enraged, trumpeting louder, deafeningly so.
"Can nothing fall them?"
Boudica shook her head. "Don't waste your time with arrows."
"Gods…"
xxxx
A hand reached into the door in shock.
Kristo reached out, his own hand darting out to grab the wrist of the person entering. The shadow walker dragged the being into the flat, jerking the form sharply and suddenly into the house with a mild squeak of surprise. The man slammed the door shut behind the person, being sure to bolt the locks and put up the chain. He moved so swiftly that, in the blink of an eye, Kristo had returned to the form, hauling the person up and locking the intruder in a strong hold.
"What the hell?" a female voice growled angrily.
Nycole blinked, and, then, laughed. "Lauren!" She let out another chuckle. "Kristo, let her go. It's alright."
"I wasn't expecting this many guests to be staying here, Nycole," the intruder announced as she slipped from Kristo's hold, glaring teasingly at the empath. Lauren planted one hand on her hip and cocked her head to one side sarcastically.
Nycole threw out her arms and hugged the shorter, rounded woman in a warm embrace. Lauren had been off on a dig when the witches came to Ireland, studying some sort of archeological site in Germany. The archeologist had agreed to allow Nycole- and Nycole alone- to stay at her flat. However, Nycole had decided to interpret Lauren's answer in an entirely different manner, to include the entire little band of witches.
Nycole grimaced slightly, giving a slow shrug in chagrin. "I wasn't expecting you to be home so soon."
The pair had met a few times before, through Kathain. Lauren had actually stayed at their house in the States once or twice while traveling through for digs in America. Lauren and Kathain had gone to high school together, in what seemed like some lost and distant life in New Jersey. While the precognitive had chosen art school in the country, Lauren decided upon something an entirely different, abandoning her home in States and trekking across the ocean for Ireland. Better digs, the archeology student always said.
Lauren tossed down a dusty, dirty bag on the floor, looking tired and disheartened. "Yeah, well the dig didn't go quite as planned." She shrugged off her jacket. "Rained out all week." The archeologist slumped down on the couch beside Raven. "Stupid ocean weather. God, I could go for a beer."
"This is all well and good, but it isn't getting Amon back," Geoff hissed in Nycole's ear. "Have your reunion later. We need to figure out where he is, now."
Lauren seemed to sense the unease in everyone around her. "What?"
xxxx
The first of those terrible beasts were upon them. With one, powerful thrusting drive, that massive, lumbering, gray creature forced through the outermost wall of Dun Aengus. Boudica's heart fell as those centuries of old stone crumbled under the power of the Roman's elephant.
"FALL BACK!"
The next wall was stronger than the outer wall. It had stood for at least two or three hundred years longer than the perimeter. But they had to make it back to that safety first. It seemed an impossible task to retreat to the deeper portion of Dun Aengus.
Boudica turned, watching as the Thirteen fell back. They leapt down from the wall, despite its height, gliding slowly to the ground softly. It was as if those wings held them aloft long enough to cushion their landing. In a flash, the Thirteen were in motion. The Romans and Praetori alike were already pouring through the hole in the wall and into Dun Aengus. The Iceni capitol was falling into ruin, but the Thirteen held fast. They were whirled dervishes of ferocity and rage, pouring out their aggression upon these invaders and the betraying bastards of Praetori. Their blades cut true and swift, slashing through the soldiers. They moved with the shadow and flickering, orange light of the torches.
All save Merric.
He was busily trying to wrangle Mairi. The girl gritted her teeth, firing off arrow after arrow close range at their attackers from atop the perimeter wall. Merric tried to haul the girl back, tugging on the back of her shirt. But, just as the young Iceni man got her to move, another of those elephants slammed through the wall behind them.
They were cut off. Mairi, Merric, Boudica.
"What do we do now?" Mairi shouted over the commotion of battle and the trumpeting of those terrible beasts as they trampled about Dun Aengus.
"Pray and fight."
xxxx
'Where am I going?'
Amon stumbled about in the sunlight, unsure of himself, but trusting his feet. They carried him across the world on what seemed familiar trails, familiar paths and ways. This place. These scents. This feeling. It all looked like a memory from a distant dream.
And, yet, he'd never been there.
He had to know; he had to be sure. The former hunter had always relied on fact and truth, rational logic and reason. The man had been thrust into a world that made so sense, held no ration or fact. Amon craved to just hold something of fact right in his hands, to know and feel that everything he had been told was real.
The burning ache in his chest was real; Amon had to admit that.
But the hunter ignored it.
There were greater truths to be ascertained.
xxxx
Boudica watched in horror from her place, perched atop a turret, firing off arrows alongside the similarly sniping Mairi. Iceni was falling. The Romans and Praetori had finally breeched Dun Aengus, the last stronghold of their people and the seat of the once glorious Iceni empire. They had come for blood, for death, for the destruction of what was left of the native people. They had come to claim Boudica's house for the Romans.
The queen glanced over her shoulder, to the hundreds of thousands of attackers still swarming in from across the moor. It was a sea of people, of soldiers and hunters. Boudica needed to cut them off somehow, so they could deal with those who had managed to actually enter the fortress. The woman looked around, hunting for anything that could stave off the approaching tide of soldiers and attackers. She needed a damn, a moat, or ever a fence.
Boudica found a large, round, darkly burnished shape not too far away. A cauldron. And, to her utter delight, the fire still burnt brightly underneath it. Oil. A devilish smile spread across the woman's face.
"Mairi! Cover me!"
Merric spun his sister around by her shirt, dragging her back to Boudica's side. They moved together, inching back, towards the cauldron. Their queen led, followed by Merric, while Mairi sniped off each offending Roman and Praetori who dared attempt to follow. Those attackers had managed to climb to the top of the wall, hunting down Boudica, the ultimate prize in this conquest.
Mairi felt the arrows in her quiver dwindling down to nothing just as Boudica reached that boiling hot cauldron. "If ye had something planned, do it quick!"
The archer's fingers found the very last arrow to the quiver. She licked her lips, drawing back the bow and readying that final shot just as one of the Praetori approached. He walked, hunched down, beneath a wolf pelt, his eyes shining with glee. Mairi waited, steeling herself, as he skulked ever closer, stalking her. She drew a breath, holding the arrow, knowing that was her last shot.
Boudica scrambled to the cauldron, to the boiling hot oil. With a grunt, the queen slammed her shoulder into the scalding hot metal of the cauldron, feeling the singing, burning on her skin. She let out a scream, shoving the thing hard.
Mairi jumped, her last arrow flying free from the bow, and missing; the shot went wild.
The Praetori snickered. "Ah, pretty girl playing with dangerous toys."
"Stay back!"
Boudica pushed past the pain in her shoulder, the burning and stinging. She ignored the damage done to her flesh and forced the cauldron far over. The big, metal thing tipped finally, spilling out the contents down and into the pipes and tubes running within the perimeter wall. She could breath a sigh of tormented relief as the oil rushed through the wall, warming the stone beneath her and pouring out over the attackers. The queen grinned madly as the invaders screamed and shrieked in agony from the scalding hot oil being dumped down upon them.
The Praetori scoundrel drew close to Mairi, his voice growling menacingly at her. "Aw, such a precious little plaything."
Merric brandished his dagger.
"Ah, another toy," the bastard snarled.
Boudica stepped up onto one of the turrets, grabbing a torch and holding it over the invading sea of soldiers and hunters. She drew in a breath and whispered silent prayers to the ancient gods of the Aran Islands. Then, the queen let the burning brand slip through her fingers, falling through the air, through the dark and shadows. All eyes fell upon the flames as the torch fell; mouths dropped open in wide gapes.
The torch hit the ground, bouncing lightly and immediately igniting the oil. Dun Aengus burst into flames. The fires spread swiftly carried around the outer wall by the scalding hot oil. All those who had been burned by the oil were now engulfed in fire. They ran, flaming as they scurried about in confusion and haze.
Boudica smiled. "Deal with that."
xxxx
"What set him off?"
Brett asked the question, unsure of any other way to even attempt to find Amon. They had no other clue to figure out exactly where the man had gone to find his answers. They had to back track.
"I don't know," Nycole replied. "I was just telling him about Dun Aengus and Boudica."
"Dun Aengus?" Lauren called from the couch.
The empath nodded. "Yeah. Why?"
"You do know Dun Aengus still exists, right?"
xxxx
There it was.
Amon had finally come home. Dun Aengus. It stood before him, a once impressive site. It was now but a crumbling, decaying shell of its former glory. The walls had rotted away to almost nothingness, less than half the height they had once been. And the last remnants of life had been eaten away by the salt air of the sea.
Some tourists mingled about, not noticing the darkly clad man.
He darted deep, to the centermost ring of the fortress. At one time, that had been the very pinnacle of the civilization. Now, it was a pile of rocks and stones, deader than anything and as still as the grave. Dun Aengus had become a grave, a tomb to the thousands of Iceni who had perished within those walls over the years, even without including the many deaths from battle along the outer walls and perimeter.
And, somehow, it felt homey, despite the dilapidated state.
Amon hunkered down, settling in against a wall. The aching in his chest had grown worse, probably from the exertion it had taken to get to Dun Aengus. Yet, that mattered not to the former hunter.
Amon had finally come home to Dun Aengus.
Perhaps to die.
xxxx
Happy belated Easter. Merry belated Ostara. And happy Passover in advance. Signed- your random fic writer, Cyren
