Disclaimer: I do not own Neopets the Darkest Faerie

Chapter 4:

Tor hauled himself out of his warm bed and stretched his stiff muscles. Everything felt sore from the battle the day before. Unsurprisingly. It hadn't taken long for one of the servants to patch up his few wounds, limited to a cut on his cheek, deep but not serious, and several bruised ribs. After that Tor had gone straight to his bed and slept through the rest of the day and the night. I had no clue what time it was, but he would have to guess about midday from the light filtering in through the glass window. Not to mention that all of the other beds were empty.

He equipped his armor again, which now needed to be shined and cleaned. He would have to take it to Inga. She was always happy to handle his Altadorian armor, it being so foreign to her. And everyone really. Tor walked out of the knight's quarters and down to the entrance hall of the castle to be given his orders for the day. Somebody should have woken him up earlier, but it was too late to complain now. He would have to track down Master Torak. At the bottom of the staircase Tor noticed Lady Prunella and Lady Anabel conversing in worried whispers. Tor followed their eyes to the crowd of knights outside of the open doors of the King's Throne room.

"What's going on?" he asked the two aishas urgently. They looked somewhat surprised by his sudden appearance.

"Apparently the werelupes have attacked Brightvale," Sir Rufus rumbled when Tor failed to get an answer. "Someone was sent to us for help, but King Skarl is refusing."

Tor gaped. Brightvale was under attack so soon after the Meridell attack? What was going on? And now King Skarl wasn't going to send them help. Tor shook his head and pushed his way to the front of the crowd, effectively scaring several servants out of the way. Not on purpose of course. He must've looked fairly angry though. Once at the front Tor saw a familiar yellow techno kneeling in front of the King in a respective gesture, though his voice was desperate.

"Please Your Majesty, you must aid us! Brightvale needs the help of Meridell!"

Tor glanced at the King. The skeith seemed to be getting annoyed, but Tor decided that he would have to risk it. He stepped forward and addressed the techno. "Johfrit, what's happening?" he asked, ignoring the shocked murmuring behind him. Johfrit spun around to face him.

"Sir Tormund! Brightvale has been attacked by werelupes! We are being massacred!"

"I told you, fool, that I do not have the knights to send out!" King Skarl roared, sending Tor an angry look. "We are shorthanded as it is and if the flea-bitten scoundrels were to attack here then we would be massacred!"

Tor looked around for help but nobody would even look him in the eyes. Johfrit sent him a pleading look and Tor fought an internal battle. Finally he stepped forward and kneeled in front of the king, bowing his head respectfully. "I apologize for speaking out of turn, Your Majesty, but I just cannot stand by while this happens. I request that you allow me to travel to Brightvale's aid. I will go alone if I must and if you do not allow me to go, then I shall leave even without permission." Tor held his breath then, and waited for a response.

"Go."

Tor hesitantly looked up. "I'm sorry?"

"Are you deaf? I said go. Take three others with you and go."

Tor blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected King Skarl to give in so easily. Tor bowed his head again. "Thank you." He stood up and looked to the group of knights. "Grayson, Ebard, Lawrence, are you willing to fight?"

"Ready." They all answered in unison.

"We'll take the unis." Tor looked to Johfrit. "I'm assuming that you came with Solarin?"

"Yes. How did you-"

"No time," Tor cut him off. He walked briskly out of the throne room. His three fellow knights followed quickly and Lawrence stopped to say a few quick words to Prunella. Anabel looked at Tor expectantly, but his just nodded slightly to her. They went out the doors to the courtyard and then to the stables. Taking the unis would be the fastest way to travel and from what Johfrit had said, there wouldn't be much time. Tor hopped on a uni and kicked its sides. "We're heading to Brightvale," he said. "Make haste."

…..

"What if we're too late?" Grayson asked as the walls of Brightvale came into view a short time later. Tor had been thinking of that possibility the entire flight, but he didn't like to think of the product of that scenario.

"Let's just hope that we aren't and they are still holding strong. You may think of them all as book lovers, but they are not weak."

Tor could now hear the sounds of battle and they weren't even at the city walls yet. He urged the uni to go even faster. "Come on!" he murmured. They all flew over the walls, over the head of several draik archers who were firing arrows into the fray. Tor was shocked at the sight of the werelupes. There had to be at least three times the number that attacked Meridell. Tor looked over his shoulder at his companions who all looked equally surprised. Tor told his uni to go into a dive and as it did so, Tor drew his sword. Several feet from the ground Tor jumped off and onto the back of a werelupe. He plunged his sword straight through the flesh. He jumped back off and kicked the limp body off of his blade.

"Tor!" Ebard shouted and Tor looked over. Ebard nodded to his right and Tor turned his head watching out of the corner of his eye as Ebard jumped back into the battle. Tor looked around for what had caught Ebard's attention. He saw flashing lights from somewhere in the fray, but his vision was blocked by werelupes and knights. With a loud battle cry, Tor began to fight his way through. He didn't know how many of the beasts he was able to cut down. Finally he burst through a ring of werelupes and into an open area where a blue acara was wildly firing spells from a wand. Tor watched as a werelupe began to sneak up on her from behind. She didn't notice. She was too intent on her ongoing battle with another. Tor let out another cry and bounded forward to cut off the bone wielding brute. There was a resounding clang when the bone struck his sword followed by a loud gasp.

"Pleasure to see you again, Roberta," Tor said over his shoulder. He held his sword steady while the werelupe tried to overpower him, metal and bone grinding against each other with a grating sound. The werelupe snarled at him. "Though I could do with different circumstances."

"I know exactly what you mean," Roberta agreed firing off another spell at a werelupe how dared step forward. Tor, with his back to hers, only heard a short yelp.

"Watch my back?"

"If you do the same."

Tor roughly pushed the werelupe back. While it was recovering, he swung his sword in a wide arc, slicing across its eyes. The howl was ear piercing. The werelupe brought its large paws up to his eyes and dropped the weapon. Another swing of the sword at the throat and it was dead.

The battle raged on. Tor didn't know how long he fought off any werelupes that came close to him, all the while watching for anyone in need of help and taking care that nobody could sneak up on Roberta while she did the same. It was a familiar thing for the two of them and they quickly fell into the pattern they'd kept during their traveling days. The fighting slowly thinned out and Tor began to tire. His movements were becoming sluggish. Roberta's spells were becoming weaker. Tor's normally light armor felt heavier than it should.

There was a loud howl and the werelupes suddenly stopped and looked up. Another howl and they began to retreat. A few of the knights began to give chase, but Tor called them, back. There was no point. He looked at Roberta with tired eyes and then around at the damage. Bodies were everywhere; werelupes, knights, and even a few innocents who had been caught by surprise.

"I don't understand," Roberta murmured. "Why would they do this?"

Tor shook his head. "Grayson, Ebard, Lawrence!" he called out to his knights. "Stay here and help sort out the bodies. I need to go and speak to King Hagan."

"Right."

Tor turned to Roberta and they began walking in the direction of the castle. "I don't understand either. Meridell was attacked yesterday, but not in these numbers. They surprised two of our guards and killed them, then waiting for another patrol to come along and find them."

"You weren't hurt too badly though, right?"

"No. Few cuts and bruising." He glanced at Roberta out of the corner of his eyes, looking at her own wounds. Nothing serious though. She mostly just looked tired. "I don't know what they could have gained by attacking us like this. They couldn't have thought they would win."

"Maybe they wanted to weaken us. Their numbers are far greater than ours and they can afford to continuously attack us. At least in their minds."

Tor nodded. It made sense, what she said. And it made him shiver. It wasn't easy to fight an enemy that didn't care about their own life. "Meridell is stretched to thin as it is. We have few knights and no squires. Every one of us doing what we can to help out, even down to sewer duties, but with this new threat, I don't know how we can handle it."

"I'm sure you'll pull through, Tor," Roberta said, nudging him with her shoulder and grinning. "Nothing ever seemed to stop you from pushing yourself past your limits. Even through my complaining."

"Right," Tor laughed. "The good old days."

Two guards immediately let Tor and Roberta enter the castle, bowing deeply to Roberta as they did. Tor saw her grimace as it happened and stifled a laugh. It wasn't hard, especially when the one closest to Tor thanked him for Meridell's help in the battle. Tor dipped his head in acknowledgment to the young draik guard you still had a frightened look about him. It was probably the first battle he'd ever seen, not being much older than Tor himself.

"Lady Roberta!" Tor couldn't help but chuckle when Roberta was swarmed by servants. "Come, you must have your wounds cleaned!" a yellow kau fretted.

Roberta attempted to wave her off. "I am fine Petunia. It can wait a little bit."

"No no, it cannot!"

Tor put a hand on Roberta's shoulder. "It's fine, I can speak to His Majesty on my own. You go and get your wounds checked. I know how it is; they'll never leave you alone until you give."

Roberta nodded and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, don't I know it? Well, I wish you luck."

Tor walked up to the large oak door leading to the King's Throne Room. They were closed, two draik guards standing tall in front of it. They both looked surprised to see him. Tor dipped his head respectfully and said, "Guardsmen Wallace, Kris. I wish to speak to King Hagan." They looked even more shocked that he remembered their names.

"Sir Tormund," The green draik, Kris, bowed his head. "His Majesty is currently speaking to someone. You will have to wait."

"Of course," Tor nodded. He stepped back a few feet to wait.

"Do you happen to know of many losses?" Wallace asked tentatively.

Tor thought back to the bodies he'd seen, and it pained him when he found that he recognized them all but one, a young grarrl squire it looked like. "Mostly werelupes, but there were some others. I know of five, two guards, a squire, and two civilians. Guardsmen Jack and Piero were two, then there was a red grarrl, the squire. I don't know who it was though. I don't recall seeing him." He looked at the sad faces of the guards, trying to judge how badly they were mourning the losses. "And the two civilians. One was Harry, and the other was Cynthia. I don't know whether you knew them or not."

"Cynthia?" Kris asked. "You're sure?"

"Positive."

The doors suddenly opened and the guards immediately stepped to the side and bowed to Sir Caradoc, the yellow grarrl knight. "Sir Tormund," Caradoc rumbled.

"Sir Caradoc." Tor responded courteously.

Caradoc walked away without another word. Tor didn't blame him. He had every right to act this way after a battle such as the one that had just taken place. Wallace walked into the throne room and stood before King Hagan who was sitting on his throne looking thoughtful. "My Lord, Sir Tormund of Meridell is here to speak."

"Yes, yes. Send him in."

Kris nodded his head to Tor and Tor walked into the large room. He heard the doors close behind him as he bowed. He stood up straight again. King Hagan was staring straight at him. "Four knights is what my brother sends to my aid? He thought that that would help us? Thirteen good Neopets were killed today!"

"I'm sorry Your Majesty. Meridell too was attacked. Yesterday. We couldn't risk sending out any more."

"Meridell was attacked?" King Hagan gasped. He shook his head. "This doesn't sound like the way werelupes have acted in the past."

"I know. We don't understand it either."

"Yes, well Brightvale thanks you for your help."

"Of course, Your Majesty," Tor said, knowing that it was a dismissal. "Some of our knights have been helping with the clean-up, but we will be returning to Meridell."

"Yes, send the message to my brother that we shall be looking into what the werelupes are up to."

"I'll do that."

"Journey safely, Sir Tormund."

The clean-up was still taking place, and Tor was satisfied to see that his fellow Meridell knights were helping as much as they could. Tor whistled and four unis came trotting over along with Ebard, Grayson, and Lawrence. "Time to go you guys."

"Already?" Grayson asked. "Shouldn't we stay and help out a while longer?"

"We shouldn't impose," Tor responded, though he really would have liked to stay a while longer. "They will want to mourn on their own." He glanced around, seeing Neopets slowly walking out of their houses and into the streets to survey the damage. Children were curiously looking around their parents to see what was happening, not completely understanding what had just taken place. A loud wail split the air and Tor watched a red kau hurry over to a small body lying on the ground. Little Cynthia's mother, Annie. Tor quickly looked away. Yes, he really would have preferred to stay. In the short time he'd spent at Brightvale, all of these Neopets had become friends.

"Did you think you were going to leave without saying Good-bye?" Tor jumped at the sound of Roberta's voice. He turned around and saw her grinning at him. "Glad to see that a year of living in a castle hasn't made you soft."

"You mean less paranoid, don't you."

"Exactly."

Tor grinned. "Be careful, Roberta."

"You too Tor. You were always a little rash."

"And you were always stubborn." Tor countered. He glanced over at Annie again and Roberta followed his eyes.

"Cynthia was one of the first. We were all caught off guard, and she always liked to wander off, looking for petpets."

"Yeah, I remember. She sent me on a quest for a noil when I first met her. In return I got a twelve leaf clover," Tor said with a smile. He shook his head sadly. "I'll see you at the celebration, right?"

"Absolutely. See you then, Tor." Roberta quickly hugged him and stepped back. Tor hopped onto the back of the uni. He looked around one more time.

"Give them all my regards, and that I regret we couldn't have gotten here sooner."

Roberta nodded and Tor gestured to his companions to take flight. They took a running start down the street before taking off into the air and leaving the scene of devastation behind. They flew over the city walls and all four looked down to scan the land for werelupes. Nothing.

"It seemed like you knew them all fairly well," Ebard said suddenly.

Tor looked over at the lupe knight and nodded. "I spent several days there doing research before Roberta and I really began our quest. Or rather, Roberta did most of the research and I just did whatever. I made some good friends there, many of which were lost in that battle."

"Is that why you felt the need to stand up to King Skarl like you did?" Grayson asked and Tor nodded again. "Well, that took guts to do that."

"I had to do what was right. When I saw Johfrit begging like that, I knew that they really needed help. And all we could do was send the four of us." Tor shook his head angrily. If this kept up, these attacks, what would happen after the next few. Would the two kingdoms just leave one another to fend for themselves?