The servant ran as fast as he could up the stairs, panting, with fresh news to give. He ran along the corridor, turned left, then right, then left again. He suddenly found himself in front of a huge wooden door, two guards monitoring it and the surroundings. At the sight of the little servant, a kid in fact, the guardians pointed their threatening weapons toward him.
"What are you here for?" one of them asked.
Still panting, the servant showed a little paper to the guards answering "Important message for the king".
The guards glanced at him then reciprocally and finally opened the door and let him in.
The servant moved forward, listening to the heavy door being closed behind him. On the other part of the huge room, he could see Karesh looking outside the window, and waited for the permission to talk.
"You don't have to tell me anything" Karesh suddenly spoke. "I watch what happens out there. I see the lights; I feel the breeze; I look at this moat that separates my castle from the rest, and every time I see this I feel fire flowing into my veins, because I know I can't be always safe, even in my own territory, because there is someone who wants to ruin all this that I've created". He gritted his teeth.
"My lord" the servant said "the guardians…".
"They have crossed the portal" Karesh completed the sentence. "What's the worst that can happen?". He turned to the servant "You can go now". The servant bowed and left the room.
Karesh then slowly turned to Serke, who had always been there, in the shadow. Karesh's right-hand man stood still near the curtains, with his massive stiffened body waiting for orders; he had maintained the same facial expression, his hands behind the back, he looked at his lord by the only lateral movement of his eyes, without turning his head.
"Today I feel like it" Karesh hissed. "Today I feel like making blood flowing…but not much blood. Just a little. Little by little. I feel like making suffer. So bring me someone. Who you want, but…you know what I'd like". Serke looked better in his eyes.
"Bring her to me".
With an intense look, Serke nodded.
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"Welcome back guardians" Aswin said, walking toward the group of guardians.
"So, how's it going here?" Halinor asked Aswin.
"Good, we're making a new plan of attack…your help will be well accepted" he answered.
"Our help is weirdly always well accepted" Nerissa joked, and everyone, including Aswin, laughed.
They reached the middle of the camp where there were many soldiers, but also many women and children.
"What happens here today?" Kadma asked.
Aswin smiled "Well, today is a special day, because…it's one of my comrades' birthday, and I wanted to take the chance to party and keep spirits up!".
The girls smiled. "Great idea" Kadma said "So….I guess we'll talk about the plan in another day?".
"I guess so" Cassidy answered "Let's join the party…after all…we need to relax too".
That day everyone helped for the preparation: among the tents, there were streamers, games and large tables on which there food and drinks in abundance. Near the creek that flowed few meters far from the camp some ladies were intent on cooking a large amount of grilled meat, while some children tried to steal meat secretly for themselves and their playmates.
"So, what do you think girls?" Aswin asked to the group of guardians who were sitting on the shore of the creek.
"Very well done, I admit" Kadma said, smiling. "Where's Yan Lin?".
"Your friend? She's overeating down there…I guess she was angry…does that girl usually eat?" Aswin asked.
"Well…let's say she's used to prepare and serve food for the others…I think that here she can enjoy the whole service" Halinor spoke.
The four laughed.
"Have you already eaten something?" he asked.
"No thanks, I guess we'll take advantage of the dinner tonight".
Aswin asked before leaving.
The girls remained silent for a while, enjoying the fresh air and the sunlight on their faces.
"Guys…I think I'm gonna throw up…" Yan Lin wheezed, coming up to the girls, with her hands on the stomach.
"It's not dinner time yet Yan, don't you feel a little ashamed?" Kadma joked.
"No…" Yan Lin answered and heavily kneeled beside Cassidy, who glanced at her. "My captain…it was an honor a pleasure to stay with you tonight" she said sarcastically, before falling down on the grass and falling asleep. The girls laughed as they saw her friend doing cabaret, then they sighed.
"When could we do our next attack?" Nerissa asked. "I mean, maybe we should think a little about it, don't you think so?".
Cassidy took the liberty to think over it for a few moments before answering, admiring the landscape during the last hours of daylight. "Maybe we should, but without Aswin we cannot do much".
Halinor stood up and cleaning up her outfit: "Who follows me for a walk?".
"I guess I'll stay here for a few minutes…maybe I'll reach you later" Kadma answered.
"I'm staying with Kadma" Nerissa added.
"I'm coming with you" Cassidy said, and she turned to Yan Lin "Are you c…..". But Yan Lin was now deeply sleeping.
"Let her sleep, I guess she's working hard to digest all she ate" Kadma giggled, while the other three girls smiled.
"See you later girls" Halinor waved her hand, walking away joined by Cassidy.
The two walked down along the riverbed, on the edge of the woods; the watercourse then made his way through an ample meadow, which extended for just over a mile in front of the rebels' camp, and the more they got further, the more impetuous the stream became. The sun was just starting to set, and the party would have been started soon.
Cassidy and Halinor were walking without saying a word, being careful where they stepped.
"How are you?" Halinor asked her friend.
"Fine. I'm fine" Cassidy answered. "You?".
"I'm fine. I was…I was wondering how you were doing with you being the new leader, and so on…".
Cassidy sighed. "Well…not so bad…I'm practicing. But…I'm so sorry for what happened to Nerissa".
Halinor didn't answer.
"I'm wondering how this could happen…it's unbelievable that the Heart can do such a mistake" Cassidy continued.
"I don't know Cassidy…maybe this is not the first time it happens…but, to be sincere, I must admit that we behaved very well with his…unexpected change" the blonde said.
Cassidy gave her a look of confusion "What do you mean..?".
Meanwhile, they reached the end of the meadow, where the creek ended in a small fall down the ravine below them. On the horizon, Karesh's castle.
Halinor sat on a rock nearby.
"I thought it would have been more difficult…I don't think it's easy, is it?" she said.
Cassidy lowered her head. "It's not".
"I don't want you to end up like Nerissa, Cass…don't do her same mistake. If there's something wrong, tell us, I don't know how we could help, but we can try…ok?" Halinor said.
Cassidy didn't answer. She was looking toward the castle.
"Cass…did you understand?" her friend asked.
But the youngest girl wasn't listening, as she kept looking toward the same direction.
Halinor tried to look to the same point, beyond the ravine and beyond another prairie and another wood.
There was nothing.
"What's up Cass..?" Halinor asked, starting worrying.
"Do you hear them..?".
Halinor tried to listen more carefully. She could hear men's voices, and the pawing on the ground of several horses. Too many horses. And they were coming from Karesh's castle.
"We have to go back…" Cassidy murmured, and they started running back to the camp.
They ran as fast as they could. They couldn't feel the strain, until their hearts and their eyes were fill with terror. Finally, they reached the camp, where they met the others together with Aswin.
Kadma stood up immediately, as she saw the girls.
"What happens?" Aswin asked.
Halinor panted. "They're coming".
Aswin stood up. "How many?" he asked, concerned.
"We don't know" Cassidy replied.
Then Aswin ran up to a soldier. "Raise the alarm".
The sentry made the siren resounding in the valley. The panic started to prevail in the camp, and there was general confusion among the tents.
Soldiers started to take their weapons and put on their armor, while women and children ran away to hide in the woods.
"Take position soldiers!" Aswin shouted, commanding his men to accelerate things.
There were dozens of foot soldiers in the front, behind them stood the cavalry, and in front of them all Aswin inspected the territory from the saddle of his horse. Waiting.
The guardians were standing near Aswin.
"Nerissa, you go to stay with those ones who hid in the woods, I don't want them to be find and get hurt…Yan Lin, fly over the area and tell us how it is…Halinor, Kadma and I will distract them and separate them. It will be easier to fight them than all together. All clear?" Cassidy ordered, and the others nodded to her command.
Yan Lin took a running before jumping and take the flight, turning into an eagle. She wouldn't have stuck out. Nerissa ran backward, heading for the woods.
The din of the horses running towards them was imminent. They stood with baited breath.
Suddenly, a shot reached the neck of a knight, killing him instantly.
Aswin and all the others turned around to see a large group of men on horseback leap out of the trees of the wood.
"We've been rounded!" Aswin shouted, as he grab his rifle and shot an enemy down. Soon, the camp turned out to be the place of a battle, where the rebels were falling down like skittles under the rifle fire of Karesh's men. Aswin tried to protect as many men as possible, hurting himself and killing.
"You have to run away, now!" he shouted to the girls "They're too many!".
"We won't leave you alone!" Cassidy cried, knocking down a soldier.
"You have to leave now! You're too important to risk your life for us! Save yourselves!" Aswin replied.
Halinor grabbed Cassidy's arm. "Listen! He's right! We better go! It would be impossible for us otherwise!".
Cassidy stood a little confused…but she nodded.
"Kadma! Retreat!" she shouted to her friend, who was fighting two men. She then turned to Halinor "We must run away without them on our tail, let's reach Nerissa and save the people she's protecting now. Do you understand?".
Halinor nodded, and, with a rapid hail of contractions, she turned into her animal form, running towards Kadma and the woods beyond the battlefield. Also Cassidy transformed, and ran away. She got through the battlefield, trying to do at least something to help Aswin's men and save them from death; once she reached the opposite side of the field, she kept on running, to go rejoin the others and help people escape.
She was alone. Kadma and Halinor were probably making their way in the woods, Yan Lin and Nerissa were surely already with those women and children.
Suddenly, she heard a noise, behind her. It was the sound of horses running fast… she turned around, and saw four men running after her. Gasping, she accelerated and ran faster and faster; she didn't have the courage to look back once more. Her heart was beating fast, and she was only thinking about running away. She didn't even think about the possible pain of a bullet in her back.
Now, she could see the others, who were helping people crossing a portal to who knows where.
There was only a brief distance between them and the men after her.
She couldn't allow this.
She stopped suddenly, with all her four paws slithering on the grass, and she turned suddenly to her right, keeping on running into the woods.
"That way!" the men shouted and led their horses through the trees.
Halinor turned her head to that voice… "Cass…". She immediately started running after them all.
Cassidy could feel the breath of the horses near, but in the darkness of the woods, she couldn't really understand where they were. She scrambled up on the rocks, where their horses surely would have had more difficulty; then, she landed on a path and found herself face to face with an horseman. She ran on the opposite direction, followed by the man, hearing their voices. She started to feel a lack of air, in all that humidity, and when she felt the man's hand on her neck, she wiggled out of it and leaped down to a below rock. Fighting against the great effort, she ran toward the end of the woods, where she could see the daylight.
"She's in our hands now!" she heard.
She didn't know where she was now, but it was irrelevant. She took a rocky trail that ran along a small slope, when she felt a rope around her neck…
With no time to understand what was happening, she was pulled down the rocky slope, hitting hard on the back at the end of it.
Sore all over, she got up, and looked at the rope.
"Did you think you could do it, guardian?" the man who captured her asked, snickering.
Cassidy looked at him in anger, and with a leap forward she tried to bite the rope, when a sturdier one reached her neck as well.
"C'mon, stay calm..!" another man cried.
"Surrender, guardian!".
"Take her Drake! Take her!". Another one tied her with another rope.
She suddenly stumbled in the same ropes that were tying her.
"We got her!".
They were all triumphant. Then they pulled each rope, and Cassidy fell exhausted to the ground.
Trying to set herself free, she emitted a last desperate growl.
"Don't let her escape men!".
"Don't worry, she's ours now".
She was still trying to wiggle out of them, when she saw a figure on the top of the slope with the corner of her eye.
CASS! Halinor shouted telepathically as she ran down the slope to go helping her friend.
NO! Cassidy shouted back.
Halinor stopped, confused.
Run away!
Halinor remained there, she didn't know what to do…she couldn't believe she was leaving her friend…
RUN AWAY PLEASE! Cassidy shouted with pleading eyes…and with tears down her cheeks...
We'll come for you Cass! It's a promise! Halinor reassured her, and disappeared beyond the trees.
Cassidy saw her friend disappearing completely, with a kind of sadness in her eyes. But she knew, at least, that she and her friends were safe.
"C'mon, let's go men!" they said, pulling their ropes.
The only thing that she didn't know, is what would have happened to her in the next few hours.
