Of Wyverns and Brands
Chapter 8
The fated day is here. The official beginning and ending of the war against Crimea. Yeah, there will be pockets of resistance up until Elincia comes back, but still. against Crimea. Yeah, there will be pockets of resistance up until
There is no banter among the wyvern riders today as we fly. Even the amassed army below seems quieter as we march for the capital. No longer concerned about secrecy, the whole fighting force of wyverns were gathered and flying in formation. The supply wyverns and caravans stayed behind with few defenders. The Mad King is going all out in this one gamble. And I already know the result.
I had been given simple orders for this battle. Follow the Black Platoon. I trail along at the end of their 'v' formation, fidgeting in the saddle. Though the capital was reported as only three hours march ahead, the time seems to drag on for me. This uneasy anticipation is going to kill me before the enemy does.
King Ashnard's main plan seems simple enough. A direct frontal attack. Though I'm guessing the wyvern riders will be tasked with opening the gates by flying in, I thought some trickery might have been thought up for this. The enemy will be fresh and ready by the time we swoop in under a hail of arrows. It will be a suicide run. Shoot. Thinking about this is definitely not helping my poor morale.
The capital comes in sight for us flyers first. It's a large city, spanning at least a few miles. Unlike any cities I've seen, though, there were no skyscrapers. The palace, or at least what I think is the palace, is the largest building and is rather impressive in scope and design. With a cleared space around the large structure, the palace seems to have been built with Minas Tirith in mind. The building is made in layers, going even higher than the city walls at maybe nine or ten stories high. The palace would probably be a maze of halls and stairs on the inside, though the outside layout allowed excellent spots for archers and snipers to be stationed.
The city itself has large walls surrounding its entire perimeter, but don't seem as thick as the palace walls. They certainly don't seem as formidable as the ones I've always imagined from books I've read. Though that may be because I'm a hundred feet in the air at the moment.
A new burst of speed seems to hit the army below as they catch sight of Melior as well. I can also see a flurry of activity in the city as we grow closer. Yeah, they're probably fully aware of us by now. On the opposite side of the city, a stream of people can be seen rushing out. Hopefully those poor innocents will escape alive this time.
As we get closer, I suddenly notice a large shadow that keeps occasionally passing by. A shadow coming from something above me. I shield my eyes and look up, and instantly feel a chill cover my whole body.
A massive creature flies past overhead, easily twice the size of a wyvern. It's wingspan is simply huge. On top the creature, not sitting, but standing, is an equally huge man caped in red.
As I stare at the sight of a true dragon and the Mad King in the flesh, King Ashnard stops at the head of the wyvern platoons. The whole army stops immediately and waits in unison. Ashnard looks around from atop his mount at his army, as though sizing it up. I shiver as he gaze passes by me. Then, taking a deep breath, he bellows, "ATTACK!" With a sweep of his sword for emphasis, he charges forward at the head. The whole army roars and begins forward once more with vigor. Ashnard's dragon adds to the cacophony with an earth shaking roar.
I know about Ashnard, what he's done and will do, what he wants to accomplish, and how much mayhem he will cause, but right now, I have to admit that was bloody awesome. The earlier anticipation I felt is suddenly replaced by a frenzy of energy that I just have to let out as Midnight and I speed after the rest of the Black Platoon.
The gates of the city far ahead of us begin to open as we charge. Truly, we probably should have gotten a lot closer before charging as all the footmen below will be exhausted, but I change my mind as I watch Crimea's first mistake.
As soon as the doors are wide enough, Crimea's army comes charging out of the city at us. The forces seem to be just cavalry coming out. While cavalry might move best on an open plain, and we may have a lot of aerial superiority at the moment, I still can't believe they really just left the safety of the walls behind to face us head on. Once they stop streaming out, they appear to only have about half as much cavalry as our army. It's suicide.
The footmen below us slow and begin to prepare for the cavalry charge. Pikes are lowered and shields are raised. I notice a couple arrows fired, but they lazily fall between the two groups and stop firing. Our cavalry move off to the sides, preparing to pincer the Crimeans. Such horrible tactics. Why, Crimea, why?
Just as I thought the cavalry would charge headlong into a wall of pikes, they turned aside and galloped parallel to our footmen. After tossing a few javelins apiece into the midst of our troops, the Crimeans turn and retreat, now firing from bows as they do.
I shake my head at the strategy. It is a well devised skirmish, nomad tactic, but it only works as long as you have an avenue to escape. And they don't.
A slew of fireballs suddenly fly from the middle of the Daein troops and blast the center of the Crimean forces, panicking the horses. Their formations begin to waver, even as the cavalry on either side move in to pincer them and the wyverns begin to dive. So that's what magic looks like.
I don't have time to stare, though, as I join the others. Holding on tight, I dive with Midnight between the Crimeans and the wall. As wave after wave fly in and take potshots, the horses begin to panic. No horse is comfortable around wyverns, and even warhorses began to panic with this many swooping at them.
As I fly in low behind the Black Platoon, I steady my lance and simply jabbed down as I passed the Crimeans. My lance hits something and sticks, almost pulling me from the saddle before I remember to let go. That was definitely too close. Taking back to the air, I grab one of my two backup lances, preferring its reach over the sword while on Midnight's back. I don't even have time to wonder what I hit down on the field.
By the time we reached our previous elevation, the Crimeans were being routed. Panic stricken, the horses had turned away from the safety of the walls right into the waiting footmen and cavalry. I look toward the city and see the doors were closing once more. On the other side of the city, people are still fleeing the city, having had so little warning.
The wyverns turn back to the city, and I have Midnight follow close after them. I can see the archers lined up on the walls more clearly now, even as a stream of arrows are sent at us.
"Please don't hit us, please don't hit us," I chant, unable to do anything but keep moving forward.
What had been a unified release of arrows turns into a widely spaced volley as it reaches us. Several arrows whizz past me as I huddle down against Midnight for safety. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the rider just ahead of me in the formation take an arrow to the chest. He immediately slumps forward in the saddle, probably dead. His wyvern, confused for a moment, simply follows with the rest, no longer controlled by its rider.
I raise back up as the volley finishes passing. I'm alive. I made it.
Thunk.
I jump in the saddle as a giant arrow flies out of nowhere and skewers the wyvern in front of me, along with its now definitely dead rider. The arrow, which I realize is probably a ballista bolt, is powerful enough to force the wyvern a few feet higher into the air before bringing it crashing right out of the sky to crunch sickeningly on the ground.
I am so going to die! I decide to punctuate this morbid thought with a loud scream as we finally sail past the main walls.
The Black Platoon makes a quick bank and dives at the gathered Crimea forces by the front gate. The platoon directly behind us rake right across the wall, throwing a large portion of the archers to their deaths.
A few of the Crimeans scatter as we attack, but the majority stay to try and vainly protect the gate. A group of maybe fifty or so troops stay, so we are outnumbered six to one. For a moment. Then the wyverns land right into the midst of them, claws flashing and jaws snapping.
At the end of the line, I choose to land at the outskirts, jabbing the closest soldier in the back with my lance. This time I remembered to yank my lance back out, letting the soldier collapse without even giving him a chance to fight.
I just did it. I killed him. Without even pausing, I stabbed that guy right in the back. I didn't even give him a chance to turn around. So easy, so quick. I think…I think I'm going to be sick.
Midnight knocks me out of the sudden awakening of a conscious as she rears back to strike at a soldier. Unprepared, I fall right off onto my back on the cobblestone below. Not good. My first attempt to get up is halted as Midnight's tail suddenly sweeps past my head. When I do finally get up, I realize my lance is now shortened to an arrow's length from snapping against the ground.
Busy unsheathing my sword, I almost miss the soldier trying to attack Midnight from behind with a pike. Midnight's tail wipes past again, whacking the soldier on his helmet. Taking advantage of the moment as the soldier stumbles, I leap forward and stab the man right through the chest. He grabs my right arm and appears to ready to strike back, but then releases his grip and slumps forward against me.
Taking deep, almost panicky, breaths, I back up against Midnight away from him, not even flinching when she almost strikes me from getting in her proximity. Okay. This is not cool. This is not glorious or anything like that. I look down at my shaking hands and see my whole chest and arms covered in blood. My two-handed death grip on my sword is the only thing keeping it in my hands. I realize there are tears streaming down my face, and I don't even know when I started crying.
Get me out of here.
The sound of metal on metal stills and a loud grating sound replaces it, though the sounds of agony, cursing, and crying stay as a constant background noise to it all. Nearby, the main gates to the city are now opening. The defenders here are defeated.
It takes me a moment to realize someone is calling my name. Shouting it, actually. I look over toward the voice and see Daren on the back of his wyvern. "Drake, snap out of it and mount up! We're heading out!"
Mechanically following Daren's orders, I climb up onto Midnight, sword still clutched tightly in my right hand. Taking off after them, Midnight quickly falls in place in the rear as we start to regain our altitude.
I dully notice that no arrows respond to us, though a large ballista bolt passes. Soldiers are now pouring through the gate, having reached the city walls finally. Pockets of Crimean soldiers can be see scurrying here and there between the buildings, but the last organized resistance seems to be stationed at the palace.
The Black Platoon heads for the palace, now only seven strong, besides me. The rush of air helps to calm me as I slowly sheath my sword. Daren slows down to check on me, but we're moving too fast to exchange words at the moment. Looking at the group, I notice that both Jill and Haar are alright, the only other two that I can name here. I don't see the only other female rider of the group, so she must have fallen at the gate.
At some point, I must have grabbed my last lance. I don't remember when. It's simply clutched in my hands right now. I don't really feel in control of much of all right now. All I want at the moment is to get out of here. I don't really care where at the moment.
Another slew of arrows fly past us from the palace. Midnight roars as one shoots right through her wing, leaving a small hole in the leathery material. I realize belatedly that I didn't even hunker down this time to make myself less of a target. I need to get ahold of myself somehow.
The Black Platoon splits as it reaches the palace and begins targeting the individual archers on the walls. Midnight lands heavily on the third wall up, literally crushing an archer, before leaping down onto the wall a level below and whacking an archer into the air with her tail. After snaking her head down and snatching up a third archer from the next wall down, she leaps off into the air and releasing the screaming man to his doom.
As the other platoons reach the palace, what few archers that survived retreat to the inside, leaving the outer walls bare.
Without anymore targets, the wyverns return to circling overhead. The first wall is held tight by a large, while the courtyard just inside is too tight for a wyvern to land. However, I don't really care about the situation below. With a pause from the action, I shiver and huddle against Midnight's back.
A loud roar pulls me from my state. Below, the King himself had arrived. Landing in front of the gate, the dragon lets out another bellowing roar. A few of the soldiers visible on the other side rush into the palace proper. That probably saved their lives, too, as Ashnard's dragon rears up and rends the wooden gate with its front claws. Chucks of wood go splintering into the small space between the first wall and the palace itself as the once closed gates are now left completely ajar.
The army that was moving through the city is almost to the palace at this point, even as King Ashnard dismounts his dragon, an act I instantly found distasteful, even in my shocked state. Out of all the ways he could of gotten off, he walks down the dragon's neck and right over his head. Worse still is that the dragon seems used to it as it gets back up and waits at the entrance.
The soldiers all hesitate at the sight of Ashnard's dragon, but slowly begin to circle around it and follow the sound of their king wrecking havoc within. And yes, I can hear him from up here with his heavy blows, along with the occasional scream. It slowly fades as he gets further in, but the thought of facing him is still unsettling.
A horse rushing across the clearing to the palace catches my eye, both because the person was mounted, and the fact that a literal line of flame followed behind them, whipping around like a banner. General Petrem. Or was it Petram. Well, at least I can picture her in my mind, even if I am horrible with names.
The soldiers make room for her quickly as she rushes past into the palace, probably intent on getting glory or whatever. I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up burning the place down.
For the rest of this definitely one-sided battle, I fly with the wyvern platoons above the city, our task apparently completed. Below, the Daein troops hunt down the last of the resistance and mop up the palace guards, with the occasional flash of fire or blast of electricity highlighting the action.
Finally, a large Daein flag raises above the palace to the cheers of the tired Daein troops below. With victory claimed, the platoons head back to the camp.
I can't even recall the trip back, I am so out of it. Landing off to side of the camp, I numbly slide off Midnight and immediately hunker down against her side. I tug on her wing a bit, and she let it unfold with a huff. I pull her wing down over me like a partition even as she curls around me, enclosing me in. I just really, really needed to be alone right now.
Directly in front of me is the hole from the arrow wound earlier. I pull out the vulnerary I had been given earlier and slowly rub some of the thick liquid on the hole, pinching it shut as I do. The wound closes up nicely, though my hand is a little numb from the medicine.
Then again, most of me feels numb at moment. Even in all my panicking yesterday and earlier today, it still didn't go at all like I thought it would. My hands are still shaking even now.
I wrap my arms around my knees and curl up into ball against Midnight's side. And there, shut away from this strange, cruel world and finally, finally alone, I begin to cry and sob as I slowly rock back and forth and reality finally begins to sink in.
-o-
AN: And it ends on a rather low, raw note there. That was….a challenge to write, but I hope it makes the impact that I hope it will.
So anyway, third upload today. I didn't expect to get this out this fast, but I surprised even myself. Um, yeah, not much to say after all that, so…
Update: Fixed some errors, etc.