Everyone had been gathered together about three miles away from King Maecoal's camp, and now…
They were trying to restrain Cu Chulainn as he snarled and furiously glowered in the direction of the dragons, who were off to the side, cradling their youngest, looking fearfully at them. "LET GO OF ME!" The red, long-haired warrior snarled, his eyes blazing. "Let go of me right now or so help me I'll rip all of your limbs off and feed them to you! I'll make bowls out of their skulls! I'll grind their bones for my bread! I'll squeeze their eyes and drink the juice that drips out!"
"Cu Chulainn, for pity's sake, hold on!" Erimentha yelled, she and Hadiya and Seiichi and Leopold had to hold his arms, and they were barely holding on. Elisud had his arms outstretched and was standing in front of the dragons, his green shield of protection erected, sweating bullets as he struggled to keep Cu Chulainn's own magic back. The warrior was tapping into the inherent blue magical skill he had within and was launching weapons at the dragons over and over again as Cu Chulainn himself thrashed around.
"PITY?! What pity did they show any of us?! Or their many human victims!?" Cu Chulainn snarled. "Let me go, damn you!" He furiously and balefully snarled. Many other humans were shouting angrily at the dragons too.
"You fucking salamanders!"
"Stupid overgrown newts!"
"We should stomp your children's heads in front of you!"
"See how YOU like being helpless and terrified!"
"Kill them! Skin them!"
"We'll use your skin for our PANTS!"
"That'll be ENOUGH!" Tobias roared out as he stomped down on the ground, his voice echoing through the dark night air. It was powerful, imposing, and in that instant, it was clear just how much regality laid within him. "They'll be time to judge them AFTER we've beaten King Maecoal and his forces, who have spent more than an entire week ravaging Ireland and burning cities down. They are the biggest threat right now, and once they're dealt with, THEN we can all argue and bicker about what to do with the dragons." Tobias insisted. "First thing's first though, we need a plan, and luckily, I happen to have one." He gestured over at Prince Asgore, Toriel and Grillby as he approached Toriel and took her hands.
"It's just…I'm glad to see you're alive." He said quietly. "I was really worried that the king might…"
"I'm glad to see you too." Toriel whispered back as she felt the tears spring to her eyes. She could tell, without a doubt, what Tobias really wanted to say, but she knew, deep down…she couldn't feel for him the way he clearly felt for her. And it hurt her to realize that. She DID love Tobias, but…not in that way. He deserved better, but she just couldn't give it to him.
Tobias, in turn, knew that too. He knew that, despite how he felt about Toriel…he couldn't really be with her. He quietly let go of her hands and then he turned to Asgore. "…when you and Toriel and Grillby were with your father…you were kept at the back of his forces, correct?" He inquired. "Along with him?
Asgore nodded. "You no doubt want us to attack from the back. A pincer movement." He remarked.
"Indeed. We'll fiddle with the magical bonds on you to make them appear useful but they will, in reality, be worthless." Tobias reasoned. "It'll take a keen alchemical eye to do it, but we've got FOUR of them here." He gestured at Gaster and Leopold. "Two each!" He laughed. "When we attack tomorrow, you'll make your move…and so will all of YOU." He rounded on the dragons. "It's time you did your part and made some small atonement for what you've done to the humans. You're going to go to King Maecoal, your hat in hand, and you'll tell them of your failure to hold onto us. He will no doubt, in his disgust, want to keep you with Toriel and Grillby and Asgore, in the back, as a backup in case things go badly. He won't put you in the front since you failed so miserably…and I see that Terico is no longer around to freeze anyone in place to make them a target."
Tobias glanced at the dragon's faces and then quietly looked around, seeing…Mr. Bloke still wasn't there.
"…I guess Mr. Bloke isn't here either…" He murmured quietly. "He must have sacrificed himself to make sure Terico didn't get out."
"What about Gerald?" Leopold spoke up. "He's still super sick!" He said as he gestured over at Gerald, who was bundled up in a blanket nearby as Gaster was trying to examine him. Toriel walked over to him as well, inspecting him with Asgore. "We've got a LOT of really badly injured people."
"We mages will have to pick up the slack. Anyone injured or sick will absolutely not-"
"We're fighting."
Tobias stared in confusion and stunned alarm as the various sickly-looking and injured humans who had escaped the dragon city with them stood up. "We'd rather go down fighting than die to some disease anyway. Put us at the front. Don't waste your best soldiers on the front line. Put your most desperate."
"You're very brave." Cu Chulainn intoned as he held the hand of one of the worst-looking of them, who'd lost an eye and had a horrible, bloodied wound on his stomach. He had even wrapped his mouth up, it looked like he was coughing blood. "You do know you wouldn't do much good but you still want to fight alongside us?"
"Yes, sir. We want to be useful. And we want to teach that king a lesson. That even a cornered rat will bite. In fact, it bites all the harder."
"I'll lead the front charge." Cu Chulainn said with a nod. "You can all cluster around me. I'll do all I can to protect you and lead you in the first wave."
"If you're all SURE that's what you want…oh…who am I kidding." Tobias sighed as he looked all of the many injured and sick humans over. "I can tell it is. I can see the gleam of Determination in your eyes, and I know that gleam all too well. Hadiya, you'll go alongside him. Using your projectile attacks will whittle down their own first wave. Erimentha, we have to get you LOTS of things to draw on. I'm thinking of…a sort of stone and bone army. I remember the tale of Jason, who led the Argonauts. He tossed dragon teeth onto the ground, and from them sprung an army to fight for him…"
Seiichi saluted. "I'm going to scour the nearby forest, sir. I'll look for any animals that could fight alongside us." He remarked as Sakamoto let him climb onto his back.
"Good, and Leopold and Gaster, you'll back up the next wave with your combined blue magic. What we really need though, above all else, is a clear path to King Maecoal. If he goes down, the monsters will begin to give up. At the very least, they'll be discouraged or disperse. And if Prince Asgore and Toriel call for them to surrender, maybe most of them will listen." Tobias reasoned. "In case they don't…" Tobias hesitated. "…we'll…um…cross that bridge when we come to it. Hopefully it won't come to it."
"Are you willing to kill them if they refuse to surrender?" Cu Chulainn wanted to know as he raised his eyebrow up, and shouldered his gigantic sword, his face quiet, looking intensely into Tobias's face.
"…God help me, but…I am." Tobias murmured softly as he hung his head.
"…heavy hangs the crown." Cu Chulainn remarked quietly. "You've figured that out quick, little king." He remarked. "Okay, all of you! Fighting drills. Follow me!" He told his collection of motley warriors, leading them off as Gaster and Leopold glanced at one another, then motioned for Tobias to come over to Gerald and Toriel and Asgore.
"…he's BEYOND sick." Toriel murmured. "He has some kind of disease I've never seen before. He might only be alive right now out of sheer…well, Determination."
"He's all…sticky and warm…" Leopold whispered. "I don't think he'll last the night." He murmured as he held Gerald's little hands.
"Oh, I'm going to last the night." Gerald insisted. "You need my help for tomorrow and I don't care if I drop dead five minutes into the fight. It'll mean I've spent at least five minutes giving you more power, power you need to win." He muttered before he began spluttering and coughing, almost doubling over.
"You need REST." Toriel insisted gently as Asgore cringed.
"And our healing magic can only do so much. Also, if we use too much on him, we'll drain our reserves for whatever happens tomorrow. I want to help him, but I don't exactly have any medical potions on me. Father took everything but the clothes on my back." Asgore confessed. "I'm really sorry."
"Don't apologize." Tobias insisted. "I just…I just want to ask you something." He looked Asgore in the eye. "Do you truly love Tori?"
"Yes. With all my heart." Asgore told him. "And I can tell from your eyes and how you've looked at her, you love her too."
"…I can't be you, though." Tobias said. "…I can't have her love. And I'll just…have to be okay with that." He told Asgore. "So…just…love her extra for me." He added with a small, sad smile. "Give her all the love I can't."
"For what it's worth…" Tori spoke up. "It's not like I never thought about…what it'd be like if I DID think of you that way." She admitted. "…and it wasn't…it wasn't bad, when I did."
Tobias wiped his eyes. "…thanks." He whispered, glancing to the side. "…that means a lot to me. And you always meant a lot to me too. I'm…I'm just really glad you're okay."
"We've got a lot of work to do, my fellow liege." Asgore told him as he shook Tobias's hand warmly, Tobias nodding back in return. "Let us get to it. We've not got much time, and a long night ahead of us."
…
…
…
…Solomon was hard at work, the were-spider working alongside Erimentha and Hadiya as Eri was trying to practice what she wanted to make for tomorrow. Solomon was doing a lot of push ups, panting a bit, chest rising and falling as he remained in his human form, the were-spider cringing and sweating a bit as Hadiya did push ups alongside him. "It's important to…keep in…shape." He remarked in between push ups. "You know…exercise like this…can be…good for you! Can…increase your…life…expectancy…"
"Talk about…ERGH…stating the obvious!" Hadiya had to work a bit harder than he did, she and the others had been in a bad state for over a week and now she was trying to cram days worth of exercise into a few hours. She finally stopped alongside him as they sat on their butts, looking over at what Eri had drawn. "Looking good!"
"Not NEARLY good enough. It's got to be GREAT. The more well-drawn the image, the stronger it is. I need to really GET the image of what a stone soldier would look like." Erimentha said as she scribbled out her drawings in the dirt. "The more vivid a mental image I have in my head of it, the more it works." She groaned as she held her head. "But I've spent days down there with nothing but dragons and the only humans down there sure weren't the brave and fearless soldiers I need to picture. I can't get their haunted faces out of my mind."
"Then…don't think of those kinds of warriors." Hadiya reasoned. "You remember how many stories I've told you of my people?" She asked of Eri as she crouched down next to her. "Remember the stories I told you about the bush babies? Or those other monsters and heroes and warriors and gods? Try to think about those tales. Think of the most intimidating, horrifying warriors you can."
"…I've got it." Erimentha began to furiously scribble in the ground as Solomon and Hadiya looked over her shoulder. Sure enough, there, in the dirt, were the drawn images of women…who weren't quite women. It was more like some kind of freakish blend of snake and woman! The Mami Wata! Faintly nude, covered in tribal tattoos, deep black hair, done up so it couldn't be grabbed and pulled on, strong, well-built bodies, and the lower body of a scaly, deadly serpent, with pointed nails and the dark, soulless-looking eyes of a fish…a doll's eyes.
"Let's see them take on THESE!" Erimentha laughed proudly.
"My oh my." Solomon whistled. "It is the EYES that really do it for me. So…disturbing."
"Hey, to be fair, you ain't no looker when you're a spider." Hadiya reasoned. "I mean, the hair's still really nice but other than that!" She poked him in the chest again and again. BOINK-BOINK-BOINK.
Meanwhile, Elisud was in the middle of tending to the wounded who were too heavily injured to even hold a spear or sword. But he, like the others, had to be careful. He couldn't use up all of his magic here and now, he knew he'd need it even more tomorrow. So he was laying hands on only the absolute worst-off, gently patting them, a green balm bathing over their frames as he healed their wounds, going from human to human before at last, he turned to walk over in the direction of the dragons.
"You should leave them be." Said the most recently healed patient behind him as he turned to look at the woman. "Let them rot in their own wounds. They deserve it for what they did to us."
"Mercy was made for those who don't deserve it." Elisud reasoned, the woman staring back at him as Elisud walked over to Akshauhini as the green dragon shook his head.
"Don't, human. I know what you want to do, but don't." He said as Elisud looked at the assembled dragons who were huddled around their children and infants. "We're fine. We'll be just fine. Dragons can heal quickly."
"At least let me check on the babies, see if they're alright? Do any of you have healing magic of your own?"
"The only one who did was Phalanx." As Malajun remarked, the feminine dragon currently breast-feeding one of the children. "I'll take some help here, human. I'm worried about this little one, he's got a very nasty cut over his head." She confessed as Elisud, rather sheepishly, approached the dragoness as she laid down on her rump in her smaller, more humanoid form. He examined the child, who was very clearly one of hers, given the scale color and shape and color of its eyes, and he looked at the wound.
"Oh, yes, that's not good." He murmured as he gently kissed the child on the head, and a gentle and soft mist of green bathed over the little one's head. "That could have gotten much worse." He admitted. "I've seen it before, if wounds are not treated, they begin to get worse, they attract bugs and foul odors." He gestured at the child. "They'll be fine."
"You have a "Kindness" soul." Akshauhini remarked as the other dragons looked intently at him. "Its rather uncommon."
"How do you know?" Elisud asked of him as the dragons glanced at one another.
"Well…uncommon for your kind here in these lands. The more common traits here those of Bravery, Justice and Determination. Your friends Cu Chulainn and Tobias are fine examples of that." Malajun intoned as she gently stroked over her child's head, cooing softly. "Kindness, though, is uncommon. When children are very young, their Souls are…not one singular color. They're a beautiful blend, a rainbow mix that's dazzling to behold. But since they're shaped by the adults around them, they sort of…settle on a trait emblematic of what's around them. And for most in this land, its for those three traits."
"Have you ever met someone older than a child who had more than one color on their Soul?" Elisud wanted to know as all of the dragons looked directly in the direction of Malajun as she laid her now-sleeping baby back in his nest.
"A few. You might know of one. He hailed from the land you called Israel. His name used to be Yeshua Ben-Joseph."
"…ohhhhh." Elisud's eyes went wide. "You've met him?"
Malajun nodded. "Yes. I was lucky to have seen him and spoken with him. He walked the desert lands doing much good for many, and I was saved from thirst by his hand."
"Wish I could have met him." Elisud said with a big smile. "You all have a nice night. I'm going to go check on Cu Chulainn and the others. They need a reminder to get some sleep too, we're in for a long fight tomorrow. Well, hopefully not TOO long but…" He shrugged a bit and made his way off in the direction of loud yelling. Sure enough, Cu Chulainn was hard at work, blocking the assault of FIVE men on him with his sword and shield.
"Ha ha ha! Good! REALLY good! I couldn't tell you were injured at all with swings like that!" He told them, his face beaming with pride. "Wonderfully done, wonderfully done!" He saw Elisud, who held up a hand. "Eli, how are you?" He inquired. "Your friends Bowen and Gawain and the others are helping me to whip these lowly little puppies into the most rip-roaring, vicious dogs of war we can make them into!" He remarked.
"I'm not doing so well on my end." Bowen confessed as the bowman sighed, gesturing over in the direction of his archers. "Most of them just plain couldn't hit their own feet if they just aimed DOWN. They couldn't hit grass if they puked. I've never seen a shoddier bunch of marksmen. But I've got to say, the women here, they're REALLY good at it!" He admitted with a surprised but very pleased look.
"I'm not surprised, they've got super keen eyes." Dylann admitted as he shook hands with one of the female archers. "And they've also got the least injuries of the prisoners we helped escape the dragon city too. That might have something to do with it."
"My own wife was quite the shot herself when she wanted to be." Cu Chulainn confessed with a sigh as he wistfully looked out at the horizon. "…I wish I knew where my son was…I wish I knew where SHE was."
"We should all get some sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a big day." Elisud reasoned as Cu Chulainn quietly nodded and sharply whistled as he motioned for everyone to head off, the red, long-haired warrior turning to Elisud. "What?" he asked as Cu Chulainn frowned at him.
"Look, Eli, I like you. A lot. You're a wonderful young man and you've been…INCREDIBLY helpful to us. We've really showed the monsters what-for with your skills and being so skilled a healer's amazing but…can you just not be so…you know. Don't be so NICE to those dragons?" he insisted.
"All I did for them was heal a baby dragon's wound and we talked a little about Souls and Jesus. Evidently, Malajun met him once in the desert, he saved her life when she was about to die of thirst." Elisud reasoned.
"You know, I know all about your Christ and the stories of him. They're very noble, very touching tales." Cu Chulainn admitted. "I can understand why people would believe in his words. It's not a bad life to live by if you want to believe the best in others, if you want to live a life of gentleness and decency. But this isn't the world we live in. Life isn't decent. Life isn't gentle."
"That's why people have to be. We make up for what Life doesn't do." Elisud reasoned.
"Tell me something." Cu Chulainn and Elisud walked over to where they'd be sleeping, lying against fairly-comfortable-all-things-considered rocks. "Jesus in one story is tempted by the Devil. He gets asked to turn stones into bread. He tried to tempt him into throwing himself off a building so Angels would come down and save him. He tried to say "You can rule the whole world if you just worship me". And your Christ says "no". I don't understand why he said no."
"Why? Because you think he would have been a good ruler of the world?"
"PFFT." Cu Chulainn laughed. "THAT old trick? No. No, I've learned not to listen to any kind of Demons or Devils, no…why'd he say no to the second one? Throwing himself off the temple roof?"
Elisud looked confused. "Why's that?"
"If he'd done that, everyone would see angels swooping in. They'd KNOW he was exactly who he said he was. They'd know he was divine. Surely they'd say "He has to be the son of God". They'd HAVE to listen with proof like that. He'd get everything he'd want. So why'd he say "no" when that would have made EVERYONE listen to him? When it would have solved all the problems he'd had?" Cu Chulainn asked.
"Because being kind…being good and decent isn't about that. It's not just resisting the temptation to be evil. It's about not needing to be seen to be good. The best sort of deeds are those done when you don't expect to be rewarded. When you just do it BECAUSE it's just the right thing." Elisud said. "Trying to be decent to the dragons, even after what they did to us, showing mercy, is just the right thing. I don't expect a reward for it. I just want to be decent."
"…I don't have it in my heart to forgive them." Cu Chulainn told Elisud. "A tiny little voice in the back of my head keeps saying I should let it wash off me like water off a duck's back. And I just…" He smacked the side of his head with the palm of his fist. "I can't. I just want to hurt them because they hurt us. Over and over." He muttered.
"You're going to find the more you listen to that little voice, even on small, tiny things…the louder it gets and the harder it becomes to ignore." Elisud reasoned. "You can still ignore it but…it'll get harder to do so the more you listen to it. And that's a good thing. Being mean, being cruel, being evil is hard. It's being good that takes real work."
"…could you…say a prayer for my son and wife?" Cu Chulainn asked. "…I don't think I can really believe in what you believe. But…I'd like to try, just for one night. For them. Because I just want to see them again so badly." He murmured as Elisud gently put a hand on his shoulder, and his other hand took Cu Chulainn's.
"Of course."
Author's Note: To all actual readers, please leave a review. To Shaeril McBrown, Mundo de Bee and Lisa Kimberly Ware-Krantz and Pigs-t, ALL of you who've been harassing me and my friends and leaving anonymous reviews to hide behind as they post nonsense or flames, stop being cowards and actually speak to us directly. And don't just then block us before we can respond to your direct messages.