Kol felt dead on her feet as she dragged herself across the sweat, and a muddied camp full of hundreds of her kind. The old warriors that had seen the last war and many before mixed with the males who'd never seen one like Kol.
She found she missed the untouched forest camps they'd set out from, it wasn't populated with such smells of old leather and dried blood. Keir's darkbringers had left after them, they were only extra security for the Fae's. They arrived shortly after making a new camp beside the tents of the Illyrians they sneered and spat at Kol and the others.
Her brothers were not impressed.
Her wings ached down her back throbbing from the long flight. She felt as if she could be lulled asleep by a single breath or blink. They hadn't talked when they landed, too hungry, too tired. All just found their way to an empty cot settling there for the night. When she laid down and grew quite the sounds of sniffling and coughing filled her ears with the snore of others. Kol watched and listened to it all.
Some just sat there, sharpening blades clutching their helmets. The gruel was unlikable to most, but the sound of something hot was too tempting plates clicked outside, cups sloshed filled with water and ales.
One male had his shirt off, his shoulder stiff and broad, the older male seemed to radiate power. His back faced out as he tried to catch sleep, closed to talking with the much younger males. To Kol, it seemed the warrior didn't want to be there.
A wiser man.
Along his back were lines of ancient symbols that Kol hadn't known well, they were apart of their culture. She wondered what it had meant. Richon had once talked to her about the first of them that arrived making a home in the grand steppes like their warrior god and the first of them Enalius.
Kol thought of Richon, the male she'd grown so fond of even after falling in the waters. It was odd not to have Richon's presence in the room or the tent, after all this time. She never realized how comforted she was while he was around. Richon would chide her for being so petty in the midst of something so large.
She thought of Sara, her sister and the ones she'd left behind and couldn't return to. The bed she used to sleep in every night with a solid roof over her head when her thoughts only constituted around the stress of school.
While she was tired she couldn't seem to sleep the gruel in her belly gurgled with unease. She took that fate and grabbed it by the reins and began tending to the dull fires that couldn't seem to fully burn in the cold and cut bandages out of cloth she knew some would need it.
She shivered, Her leathers weren't warm enough to sit out with soundly. She supposed maybe she just wasnt used to the bitter cold like the others were. She found some furs to shield her in her bags. It was empty outside, just the wind and hushed breaths of warriors, it became eerie to her as she found water to boil for a hot drink. As it boiled she took the knife and started ripping new light linen cloth.
She hadn't written in her journal for days now, it hadn't seemed like an important task but regretted leaving it with her sac. She itched to write something.
The ice-crusted ground crunched as Morrigan arrived covered in warm furs, her hips swayed as she sat down on a log beside Kol who'd been brooding. She held a cup of fine red wine, Kol was close enough to smell it. Mor smiled lightly, a knowing smile she had a wary look in her eye about what the morning brought. She had been through The War, and the consequence of the war was death on all sides. It would be no different tomorrow.
"I knew I'd see you again," Kol raised her eyebrow but knew it was the truth in her gut. It was inevitable. Kol accepted that the harder she tried to stay away from the more she'd mess with the plot and story of the world. She knew in her heart that Prythian was not a book anymore but a continent to explore.
"We're fighting tomorrow, why aren't you asleep my Lady?" Kol poked at the fire with a long stick watching as it grew after being exposed. The warm light flickered over her face she leaned over.
"It didn't seem quite that appealing. Cassian is too loud to sleep near anyway the sleep I'd be getting would be lackluster," She hesitated before saying "I could get you out of here, you could just not fight," Mor offered quickly she look over at Kol hesitantly, but knew that Kol would refuse. Kol ran a hand through her hair. It was a sudden question with an immediate answer.
"No, you know I can't Morrigan."
They sat in silence for a moment or two, Mor looked at the highly tented grounds. It was a comfortable silence, one that you'd see between friends that had known each other for a very long time.
"We never got to go shopping," Mor whispered looking at Kol. Kol gave her a look and a raised eyebrow as if to say that I wasn't the time to be thinking of dresses but gave a short laugh.
"Don't worry it has been the least of my worries."
Mor sipped from her cup her face was taut from tired worry. She droned "Hewn sucks, I hope you know that," she turned "I'm am not kidding."
Kol laughed grinning ear from ear, "I fucking know that," she turned to Mor quickly their knees knocked, Mor looked shocked by the sudden mood change but welcomed it, she needed a distraction.
"Do you know of the tavern below near the slums?" Mor shrugged, she didn't go to the lower parts of the city often, she was scrutinized for it being undignified. Kol continued, "It has the best wine in Hewn, the owner is a cheap stake, but it must be the alcohol best in Hewn. I'll show you sometime."
'Sometime,' was the same promise Mor had given her, sometime after. After what, she wasn't quite sure.
After the war, after the bullshit.
How had they grown so close, to make such promises she didn't know.
She looked up Mor's brown eyes drawing in hers before something snapped inside tight inside her, a light. Like a long rope bridge created between two beings, she sucked in a breath astonished.
"Oh."
Mor looked Kol up and down checking to see if the woman in front of her was in fact there, she gave a watery but confident smile.
"Oh, I found you."
The world seemed to slow that night as they felt the sudden connection that they knew they always had. Kol's eyes burned she looked up at the night sky. She thought it would be impossible to find someone, a mate. She wasn't born in this world but staring at Mor the bond strengthened and everything was right in the world. She reached up a hand caressing the high fae's beautiful silky skin.
"Hi," She said a smile was drawn on her face, happiness filling her eyes she gave a watery laugh that sounded all too close to a giggle. Mor took her hand into hers drawing it close to her chest. She smiled and lol only felt warmth upon her body instead of the cold around them as she looked into the other's brown eyes.
"Hi."
"How?" Kol muttered while it made sense now she didn't understand why The Bond hadn't clicked in the first place, "Why didn't I know before?"
"The caldron works in mysterious ways, Kol," Mor tightened her hands around Kol's.
"It's Charlotte."
Mor gave a look of surprise, "Charlotte," the name rolled off her tongue like smooth chocolate.
Mor tried very hard to persuade her, out of the fight once again. It didn't work. Kol knew she had a profound duty to her brothers to protect them, and fight with them. It didn't matter what her mate said, no matter how convincing.
Her sword was drawn as she waited for others to awake, clutching a black helmet in the other. She'd found herself only sleeping lightly for a few hours of the morning before she awoke again. As the camp was struck down save for a few important tents Kol busied herself with mundane chores, stoking the fires, cooking breakfast, which was the same gruel as before with dried stone fruit it was uninteresting, Mor, the bright blonde hung close to her, but not too close. She also found preparations to be made. Kols heart pounded looking at her in Illyrian leathers. She looked ruthlessly beautiful a war maiden that could kill a male with just her looks.
Richon came up behind her putting his hand on her lower back he leaned forward she could feel his breath next to her cheek, "Are you okay Soot you look distracted."
"Leave it alone Richon," Calum smirked.
"Well we can all see it, the way she's staring at Lady Morrigan like something to eat," Kol blushed pushing away from Richon, he chuckled, "At least he has taste."
As they ate breakfast they shared a laugh or two trying to breaking blanket of mourning as the army awoke under the dying stars.
As they got up and put on armor, helmet fit tightly to their heads, Kol grew nervous. She saw the general near the front and a glimpse of the High Lord talking then vanish.
Below her, the world turned from black indigo to light blue as dawn crept across the fields and forest; the sun warmed the earth steam rose from the frost crusted ground.
As the day set, they unsheathed their swords and holding their shields heading up in the sky striking fast under a large glamour. The first glimpse of the Hybern army was seen heading out from the Spring Court to Summer Court. From above they looked nothing more than ants, but she knew they were much fiercer than that. Kol knew if she wasn't careful it would be all over. Everything she'd created would be gone.
The Hybern commanders rode giant black steeds the thunder forward. Kol glanced at her brothers one last time before diving down and fast, wings close to her body. The wind roared past her ears and she let her heart pump vigorously adrenaline pumping through her veins. She could sense the slight movement in the back of her mind as Mor winnowed through the air the High Lady nestled in her arms.
Hybern's vast army seemed impenetrable.
The land grew near faster and faster before she caught the wind once again pulling her up. Her sword felt like nothing more than an extension of own her arms. She swooped down meeting her first Hybern male. The sounds of death and clashing of swords rang through the air, she clashed with the Hybern soldier the seemed to growl as she met his sword. They found themselves in the moment of a complex dance between a crow and a serpent. The crow was desperate and smart swooping swift strokes of her sword. It ended in the death of the snarling man, a sword cleanly sliced his neck.
Her heart beat fast at the first sight of blood flowing like a gushing river running down his neck as his eye glazed over staring up at the sky into the beyond. She pushed him off her he fell in a heap to the ground. She heaved slightly. Her heartbeat was in her throat eyes wide.
She looked around. Her first kill.
The general bellowed, "SHEILDS" from the front lines to her left she readied the blue shield with her black, Richons green beside her she noted.
Kjell had engaged two men, his face steely. Blood splattered on his face matting his hair. She ran over to help him vaulting over the bodies of her allies and foes alike. She met the blade of the strike aimed at her distracted brother. She snarled in warning, feral with protectiveness. She met another strike with the same vigor.
With the help of others, she seemed to meet the blades of Hybern making her way through the mud and blood was strewn in great puddles. The life of someone else.
She struck again and again as the battle wore through her bones. Adrenaline keeping her alive and alert.
Kol pushed forward, not afraid to fall. Some had to fall for others the triumph. She had broken through the group she kicked out shielding herself as soldiers came running towards her.
The roars and screams filtered through her ears. Kol looked ahead more came, she never thought she'd make it this far.
No one was there to save her. It wasn't a spar where something was considered unfair, everything was used to her advantage.
Her stature allowed her the stay close to the ground, swiftly weaving through strike after strike. She tasted blood in her mouth as it dribbled down her face. Her Siphons unleashed bursts of power that made the enemy stumble.
"Keep moving!" Richon and Calum came crashing through striking down enemies like weeds. Her siphon glowed and power surged as she parried the Hybern male's attack. He got a strike on the side of her armor and she barely had dodged the strike aiming for her vulnerable neck. She stabbed the man through the gap in his armor twisting his squishy soft insides. He gaped like a fish deprived of water on the end of her blade as she pulled out using her leg as leverage.
The bodies fighting around her were so tight she couldn't see far in front. Thousands of men dead already, their blood-soaked her boots making them unpleasantly damp. She saw a male get impaled by a sword meters ahead.
Cassian fought along the hills on the left flank of the front lines. He moved with almost angelic grace compared to her brothers who seemed like they were mere mortals in his presence.
When the spear shot out at him she held her breath. It was so fast.
It seemed to be fired from the belly of hell. It twisted through the air in glee. Before it stopped abruptly by Cassian's shield, broken. She watched in awe as he threw another spear back with the strength of a great bear.
From the corner of the eyes, she saw another foe. She stumbled forward wiping her forehead. She readied her sword awaiting the attack until Kjell came in from behind teeth gritted.
"I got this one."
"On your left," Calum yelled as he engaged the sword of the next male he had an expression of distaste. He didn't like the violence much. Plumes of smoke rolled up through the air like markers of death. Another slammed against her shield making her stumble back. It was staggering how large the male was, he towered over her like a dark grim shadow.
Her highly gauntleted arms held her shield close, ducking. She pushed back as he struggled through her defenses she let a shot of power out, something he wasn't expecting. It shredded his face were he stood down to the white bone of his jaw, he screamed and she took the chance to spear her sword forward. Her breath ragged and the blue in her eyes seemed dull. Kol was tired, she wished that she had the stamina to fight males twice her size with ease.
As she caught her breath, she saw the retreat of Hybern towards the river where Summer Court soldiers awaited in ambush. After that, it became nothing but a slaughter. She cringed at their pleas that screamed in her ear for mercy. She walked past some of the drowned, water bubbled out of their mouths faces drawn in horror.
The battle was over.
While she wanted to be happy, as she waded through the bodies of her allies. She did not feel rejoiced. She turned to put her mind on something else. She found Mor and The high lady atop the hill as if Mor sensed her eyes. She to found Kol in the field covered in blood and dirt. Kol flexed her fingers, she dropped her shield before she found herself on her knees. The flys and scavengers would come soon to pick at the remains, a feast of death.
She felt her side as the adrenaline left her body. A clean shallow slice that cried in blood was all the damage other than the bruise she'd be sure to have.
She got up holding her side she stumbled looking around to find her brothers, she stepped over bodies where she could.
"CAL, RICHON, KJELL." She yelled voice hoarse, her hair felt wet. She noted it hadn't been raining.
"Wow, good to know you're thinking of us," Tyrion and Tywin sauntered over, swords rested on their shoulders. She came forward stumbling over, she gave them both a side hug. Richon and Kjell stumbled out of the crowd. Kjell helped Richon with an arm around his shoulder his hair had found its way out of the tie making it cascade down.
"Wow, Soot ya' didn't have to yell so loud," Richon chuckled, Kol had never seen him so lifeless hair hanging over his face unkempt.
"Where's Calum?" Her breath hitched and she looked around scan for him or his body.
"Here."
Calum came from behind, Kol's eyes burned. She ran and wrapped her arms around him, she gave a silent sob head buried in the crooked of his neck. He welcomed it openly, stroking her back as she heaved tight breaths. He hushed her his mouth close to her ear, he closed his eyes.
"I'm made of strong stuff Charlotte, you can't get rid of me that easily," she looked up at him and gave a watery smile. He smiled lightly sun met his face, he scanned her for injuries:
"You're hurt," Calum said as if disappointed, she held her side "Come on you need to get patched up."