It was a cold, windy, rainy Winter night, filled solely by the horse's hurried claps against the muddy ground in the forest below as they rushed through it; a top of their bare backs were three elven riders, two men and a woman. Dressed entirely on armours of leaves, leather and steel, bows on their backs and knives on their waists.
Looking from time to time behind them like expecting someone or something to appear pursuing them…
"My lady, you should take a different path, we will distract those foul beasts once they appear"
"No, I won't let you behind," the elven woman replied.
"Please, my lady, you must know the gravity of the situation-" the elf insisted before he was cut by his mistress.
"And the peril you are on" The lady completed, she had heard this before," I understand the danger we face, that I face. But I will not leave you to die for my shake, you are my guard, my friends and what's left of my family. We will see this through together"
"Arya, Fidur is right, you should take another path," the second elf said concerned "We will earn you enough time to get to safety, and rejoin you once we evade the Emperor's forces"
"No, Aren, if you or Fidur die I will never forgive myself," Aria said, "I don't care who is tailing us. We stole it together from the Emperor, and it has given us a chance to take back what was once ours. Maybe, even more, we will make it as we did before. Together"
"The chances a shade has been sent after us are high," Aren said worried, "You should take another route, Arya, I insist. This is too dangerous, you are too young and inexperienced"
"We will fight it then," Arya said confidently.
"Don't be stubborn and blinded by pride, my lady! If one of those things is after us our fate has already been written" Findur said to her, like a father to a child, "If you truly worry about our safety, you must understand that hard decisions must be taken at dire times. Putting behind our feelings for one another. More so if the Emperor becomes aware of the knowledge you hold"
But Arya wasn't listening, she thought she had heard a big roar behind them, the sound of broken trees and the hurried dashing of enormous four-legged monsters. Confirmed by the sudden fall from the sky of a tree, inches before them.
Panicking her horse and her companions, hers almost threw her to the muddy ground, but she managed to take control of it, like her companions had done, pushing them further than before as they rushed through the woods. Evading more trees and stones. Jumping over them with the grace of elven horses.
"Urgals!" Aren said terrified, recognizing the roars behind them, "Arya, please listen to me ! you have to leave! it is too risky for you to be here" he said hurriedly.
"No! " Arya replied hastily, "We can fool these monsters"
"Please, my lady, reconsider your actions," Findur said in haste as another tree fell barely a few feet from them, "It is not too late for you to leave and us fulfil our duties. Here your life is in dire danger. More than ours. You do not understand the danger urgals alone possess, and your lack of experience might end up with your demise. I beg of you, please reconsider"
Arya took Findur's words to the heart, he was right she had never faced urgals or shades before, just humans, her people had once spoken with great reverence, respect, and fear about the shades. Calling them the proudest of beings, relying on others weaker than them to do their bidding when they could do so themselves if so they desired, and respect for the power they held.
But now her people were gone. Dead by the Emperor's hand, so she had been told by those who remained…
In her head, she deeply desired to stay with Findur and Aren, but her heart told her otherwise, to listen to their advice, to leave their side for her safety despite the consequences, she screamed within herself conflicted. She didn't want to leave them but knew that she had to. Taking the second choice.
As another rain of trees fell again before them, this time missing barely. But breaking their surroundings.
"Fine! " Arya gave in, still conflicted by her decision, seeing her friend's faces of relief as she began to dive her horse to another path. Which turned into horror the moment she did so, they cried almost at the same time. Tried to warn her… It came just in time.
"Arya no!"
"My lady, no!" Findur screamed. The warning came just in time for Arya to dodge the tree thrown at her, wounding her in arms and legs instead, cutting the path she was about to take.
"We will change paths once we arrive at a clear and spread up safely, the danger in here is too great !" Findur said hurriedly, once he made sure she was okay.
Arya nodded, shaking her long black raven hair to take off the leaves attached to it, turning her horse as fast as she could on its tracks; almost being crushed once again by another tree that fell where she had been moments before, smashing another instead. She rejoined her companions, pushing her horse to its limits.
She could hear the beasts, their growls, now extremely close behind them, approaching them faster and faster, she even saw a glimpse of the beasts her companions feared. They were about ten feet tall, spiky brown hair, long sharp claws on each hand, their eyes nothing but a sharp red line and on their heads long twisted horns. Taking trees out of the ground with such ease it was terrifying.
She took out her bow, like Findur and Aren, and began shooting at the beasts in an attempt to keep them at bay, their attention fully focused on them; kicking in the face, the ones that came too close and attempted to bite their legs off.
"Get off!" Arya screamed, at one who managed to seize her leg with its mouth, kicking it so hard it did… nothing, the beast threw her from her horse with ease, but Findur was fast enough and reacted in time to catch Arya and set her on his horse before she fell. As they moved.
"Are you alright my lady?" Findur asked concerned, looking at the bleeding leg of his mistress.
"Yes, it is nothing," Arya said, taking any importance from the wound, as the urgals tore her horse to pieces
Unaware that up in the sky, a red cut of fire was observing them. Moving to where they were heading, a nearby clear where it awaited, hidden in its shadows.
The group managed to fight the beasts, and slow their approach by blinding them as they threw and broke trees or stumbled with each other hindering their path, a little diversion that didn't last long; as urgals regenerated their wounds with ease, lasting a couple of minutes at best unless fatal.
"There!" Aren pointed out, "A clear!"
They looked to where he was pointing, as their horses dodge more of the trees and stones thrown at them, it was slightly hidden, but it was there. The clear.
The elves redirected their horses to it, evading more trees and stones hurled at them who broke nearby trees, slightly wounding them in arms, chest, and legs.
But this wasn't enough to stop the riders, moments after the three were passing through the clear's edge seemingly victorious, until a wall of fire appeared before them; taking them all completely by surprise, throwing them off of their horses harshly to the ground.
Arya was fast enough to put her bow behind her back and evade any severe injuries, like being stabbed by it, instead falling hard into the ground, leaving her dizzy and wounded in the side, unlike Findur and Aren; Who both managed to land safely a few feet before her. Staring at the firewall before them, bows aimed at it.
She tried to move but couldn't like she couldn't avoid what happened after, an urgal came out of the fire and attacked Findur with such ferocity and rage it took him completely by surprise; crushing him into the ground with its ginormous arms splitting him in half before her eyes, bathing her in his blood.
She was too shocked to react, to accept what had just happened before her, looking in complete shock around her, she raised from the ground and tried to approach her falling comrade in disbelief. Her entire body trembling out of fear, only to be pushed aside by the urgals ginormous arm, who threw her ten feet against a rock. Wounding her in the head, blood falling from her front, dirtying with it like the mud and blood had done before to her clothes, now her hair and diadem.
Aren wasn't as lucky as Findur, he tried to attack the beast who had taken his companion's life enraged only to be caught by surprise by another one; who emerged, like the one before, from the fire, impaling him with its horns. She could hear his scream and covered her ears, refusing to hear no more. Terrified, horrified at what she was witnessing.
But this wasn't all, once the beast was bored of her companion's body it threw it to the wall of fire that was surrounding the round clear; she could smell burning flesh and his companion's screams as he died in there.
After this more urgals began to appear, the ones left behind, tenths of them one after another, but not as many as they had thought at first, less, way less around fifty or so. She raised from the ground, using the rock she had been crashed into to reincorporate herself, still a bit woozy, but not as much as before.
She made sure she still had the bag with her, she still had it crossing her chest! safe and secure, the beats began to approach her, as she retreated every step they gave, full of fear. Til the beasts were suddenly stopped by a voice coming from behind them. It was cold, harsh, and cruel, full of authority and hatred;
"She is mine, step aside."
The urgals did as it said, opening a path for a man who materialised inside the fire dressed in red and black robes; his eyes like his hair were of an unnatural crimson colour, so was his skin, of a ghostly white. A shade.
The strange man stepped over Aren's burned body and Findur's mutilated one like if they were nothing but flies.
"How dare you!" Arya screamed at him, forgetting her fear, blinded by fury and rage she threw her knives at the shade, turning into ash before even reaching him; but she didn't give up, took her bow and shot an arrow at him.
But it never left the bow; breaking before her eyes consumed by fire, burning her hands with it. She fell to the ground powerless, humiliated and in pain, surrounded by the beast's monstrous laughter and the shade's indifference at what had just happened. She was so deep in pain and suffering, she ignored for a moment her mission, caught in her feelings and emotions. Crying, for…everything.
But she remembered what she was fighting for, what her companions have given their lives for, her, and what she held crossed around her chest. Arya cleaned her eyes with her arm and tried to clear her mind and perform a spell, but it was difficult, her companion's deaths were still fresh on it. So was the fear that was consuming her.
It took her a while, but she managed to do so, ignoring entirely the beasts' howls, the humiliation, and torment she was suffering, the loss of her companions, the pain of her burned hands and wounds… Blood falling everywhere and the grim scene of mutilated bodies before her.
Focusing instead, her pure green eyes on the stars, like her mother had told her to do almost a hundred years ago. Retreating from the shade and the urgals, sitting near the clear's centre.
And she began to sing, at first nothing but a whisper, a cracked voice full of the emotions of the moment, slowly increasing in pace, volume, emotion, beauty, and confidence; joined by the winds, fire, and the trees who began to sway at its rhythm joining one another.
It was a terrifying and at the same time stunning scene, an elven princess surrounded by fire and death, a powerful wind moving it all around her, its sparks like tree leaves reaching her; Surrounding her and dancing around her at the rhythm of her song. Rain falling on her face, cleaning her wounds and clothes, dancing with the fire, wind, and trees in an other-wordly dance. Her eyes burning like it did, flamed by it, with no rage, only decision, peace, and concentration. A unique flame of their own.
Giving her a supernatural appearance, like the elven maidens of old. Whose fury was said to be like the fire, powerful but easy to fade if the right words were chosen. So was their power and magic, able to perform it on the most dire of situations. Reaching a state of peace and deep connection with nature herself. Feeling it, singing with her as one.
The urgals that had noticed the spell tried to stop her, but were taken down by the trees as they unite with each other; Branches, and bodies once burned by the fire, now reborn greener and stronger than ever. Fading with their rebirth, the shade's fire that had been attacking them. Consuming their bodies, once black now browner than ever.
The shade aware of this sent more urgals, not after her, but the trees, it was useless, they met the same fate as the ones before, buried deep in the woods ground taken by the tree's powerful roots.
Arya begged Mathera, goddess and mother of all elves, to give her a bit more time to finish her spell, she could feel the shade approaching her, obliging her to step back as the roots took down the remaining urgals. But Impotent against the shade's power, burning to ash inches from his face.
And then she heard it, the song she was hoping for, birds, tenths of them, which the shade didn't seem to have listened to or didn't care. While above them, the natural bubble made of trees and branches finally sealed itself. Finished. Surrounding with it the whole clear.
She felt her back against a tree, unable to retreat anymore the shade approaching her, but the spell was done, she had won. And just when the shadow was about to take her bag, she rose it above her head; a smile of triumph on her tired, wounded face. And she said, victorious:
"You loose monster!" As the birds took it from her burned hands(They hurt her badly, but she ignored the pain) before the shade could even grasp it, missing by inches. Throwing her harshly to the ground, furious, breaking her lip.
But The shade didn't stop his attempt to seize it, burning most of the birds with fire of his own making, surviving only a few he couldn't reach as they returned the same way they had come in ; a small hole opened by the bubble of trees. Arya saw the shade trying to follow them, turning into a column of fire, but it was useless as there was no wind to carry him. So he reformed as she told him;
"The world is about to change, monster, and you won't be part of it" Arya said loathingly to him from the ground, cleaning the blood cut from her broken lip. A smile of satisfaction and triumph still on her face, hatred in her eyes.
"But you won't live enough to see it, just like your dying race" the shade spit at her, and with a movement of his hand, she began to twist; like if a flame was burning her from the inside out. Turning her once smile of satisfaction and victory into indescribable horror and agony; Twisting in torment, a shadow of terror in her eyes as she finally passed out. Consumed by pain.
Her last thoughts on her brothers in arms, which now lay dead and burned, she had avenged them and that made her happy, and on the bag… She could only hope…hope that the birds delivered it safely to where it belonged.
Or to someone who could change… Alagaesia…the world…someone who would care enough not just to raise it, set history properly…war was approaching…she could feel it… it was all a matter of when…and where.
Some grammar corrections done. Enjoy, and thank you for reading.