Chapter 43
Grave News
The war against the gnoll horde was over, but it had come at a price. Many were injured, and some were missing in action.
Only the timely reinforcements of the Royal Riders had saved them from any more losses, but the ones they had suffered still hurt none the less.
"Give it to me straight, doc…" Casey said weakly. "How bad is it? Will I need to drink the water? 'Cause I will if I have to."
"I doubt that we will have to resort to such measures yet." said James as he inspected Casey's wound, a crude javelin through his chest. "Zaleria's healing spell took care of the worst, so you're in no danger of dying."
"Oh… well, that's good."
"But I'm afraid that's where my good news end, sadly. We still need to remove this javelin, and we have no form of anaesthetics, so it's going to hurt even more, I'm afraid."
"Crap… well, if it hurts, I have to be alive, right?"
"Quite so, my boy." James said, casually patting Casey's shoulder without thinking.
"Ow…"
"How bad is it?" Leonardo asked Raphael, who had helped him to do a head count.
"Could have been a lot worse, Fearless, but I won't say that it's good." he said grimly. "We're missing some people. Some of the Nordlings, Sarah, Moe, Rattletrap, one of the orcs, Scorm I think, and Amber."
"Amber? Good god, what is Tyroth going to say?"
"Don't know, but… there's one more that's still missing. It's…" Raphael bit his tongue, not wanting to say it, but he knew he had to. "There's… there's still no sign of Mikey…"
"...damn it…" Leonardo sighed. He had hoped that their baby brother had just gotten lost in the crowd during the retreat, it had been a very hectic time, to say the very least. But now it seemed like they might actually have lost him.
The blue-masked turtle clenched his fists.
"Hey, he might still be out there somewhere." Raphael said. "He might have gotten hurt, or trapped, or something…"
"Yeah… he just might… the others too… We need to look for them, and quickly. Go get Devina, her ability to detect living creatures will be the perfect tool for this, and anyone else that can be spared."
"Got it."
A few minutes later, the two turtles stood in the middle of all the corpses, together with Devina, as well as Ragnir, Jake, Freya, Barry, and two of the Riders that had volunteered.
"What do you see, Devina?" Leonardo asked, as the vampire/werewolf hybrid let her gaze seep across the battlefield, a faint red glow over her eyes.
"A little more than two dozen life signs, give or take."
"And how many were you missing, tortle?" one of the Riders asked.
"Not that many. Six of our own, and a few of the Nordlings." Leonardo answered.
"Then there must be gnolls that survived." said Jake.
"Or a troll." Freya added.
"Then let's finish the job when we find them." Raphael half-snarled.
"Agreed. Now, let's hurry." said Leonardo. "Devina, lead the way."
The group went from life sign to life sign, digging among the corpses to uncover them, hoping and praying that they would find their missing friends alive.
But after finding half of the hidden survivors, their hope began to falter as only gnolls and hyenas had been uncovered, badly injured or otherwise incapacitated.
They were all quickly executed, and the group moved on to the next life sign.
"I see something! I see something!" Freya shouted as she took off, having spotted something among the gnoll bodies, and Barry hurried after her.
Yet Devina stayed, and thus did the others, as she sadly shook her head.
Seeing some clothing that she recognised among the fallen, Freya quickly moved aside a couple of corpses, uncovering a familiar face.
"Sarah!" Freya shouted excitedly, but her face quickly fell when there was no reaction. "Sarah?"
She put her hands on the cheetah's shoulder and shook her gently, but she still did not stir, and when the geckoling shook harder, Sarah's head simply slumped forward, revealing a large wound on the back of it.
"No…" tears began to fall. "No, no, no… you can't be dead, you just can't… Sarah…"
As the hybrid broke down into tears, Barry knelt behind her and pulled her into a soft hug.
"It's okay, squirt, it's okay…" the warthog soothed as best he could, letting her cry on his shoulder.
Over with the rest of the group, Raphael angrily kicked a dead gnoll, while Leonardo sighed deeply in defeat.
"I don't like saying this, but there's nothing we can do for her." said Ragnir.
"You're right… we should keep moving." said Leonardo, hoping that they might still be able to save the others. But that hope was but a straw in the breeze, and while he even at that moment struggled to hold on to it, a part of him knew that it would get ever harder.
More survivors were soon found, all of them gnolls, and like those before them, they faced a quick death as both Raphael and especially Freya took out their anger and hatred on them.
It seemed as if luck had abandoned the Mutopians, as they soon found the bodies of both Moe and Scorm, laying close together, covered in multiple stab wounds, cuts and bite marks.
"Aw, Dreads…" Barry sobbed. "Went out like a real champ, didn't you?"
"I saw him fight. He did pretty well, especially for someone that I would have pegged as more of a pacifist." said Jake.
"But it wasn't enough… not against these damn monsters." Raphael snarled, then looked at the fallen orc. "At least he wasn't alone."
"Come on, we'll come back for them later." Leonardo said sorrowfully. It didn't feel right to him to leave their fallen comrades, but the dead could wait, while anyone that was still alive might not have that luxury.
The search continued, and while more living gnolls were found, and quickly executed, they also recovered the bodies of several Nordlings.
Their hearts were hurting with every dead found, and their hopes rapidly dwindled. Devina especially felt horrible as she hadn't been able to find any of their missing friends alive. Even though it wasn't her fault, she couldn't help thinking that she could have been better at protecting her family during the battle.
As they closed in on one of the last remaining life signs, they saw a shuffle among the bodies, and Raphael hurried on ahead with his sai ready. Moving a hyena aside, he was expecting to find just another gnoll, but that was not the case.
Instead, lying there with a broken leg and the tip of a spear in his stomach was an unconscious Rattletrap.
"Never thought I'd be happy to see his ugly mug." Raphael said as he quickly put away his weapon and picked up the wounded rat. "We got a live one!" he called out, and the others hurried.
"Rattletrap." Leonardo said factually. "Devina, think you can heal him a bit quickly?"
"I'm on it!" the vampire/werewolf hybrid said as a golden light started swirling around her hand and then spread to the rat, straightening out his leg a bit and repairing some internal damage. This roused the rat, who groggily blinked his eyes.
"Oh man, my head… must have been some party, and I had the strangest dream ever…" he then realised just how much his body actually hurt, and looking around, seeing the carnage and dead bodies, he came to another realisation. "It… it wasn't a dream, was it?"
"It was a living nightmare." said Raphael coldly.
"Damn. Well, at least we won, right? I mean, I'm not dead, you're not dead, so we must have won, right."
"Ryan…" Leonardo began. "We might have won, but we still lost some people… you're the first survivor we've found here."
Hearing that, the rat went pale, and looking at his friends' faces, seeing the bitter sadness in their eyes, he knew that they were telling the truth. He could not find the words to respond as they counted up their casualties, he had no witty remarks, no clever comebacks, or stupid ideas. For probably the first time in his life, he willingly chose to be silent, as it was all he could do to respect his fallen friends.
The group kept pressing on, Barry now carrying the recovering rat as they walked.
But as they did, Leonardo spotted something in the corner of his eyes, and as he turned his head to focus on it, his blood turned to ice.
"Raph…" he said in a shaky voice, pointing at what he had spotted and the red-masked turtle paled when he saw what his brother had noticed.
Michelangelo.
"No…"
Slumped on his knees, weapons held limply in his hands and his back turned towards the village, while his chest, stomach and sides were riddled with spears, javelins, arrows, and axes, the youngest of turtles had held his ground until his last breath, trying to protect what he held dear.
The two turtles carefully made their way to their fallen brother, as if afraid to disturb him, tears staining their masks. They knew that there were no more life signs in that direction, but they still had to be certain, no matter how much it hurt.
And hurt it did.
There was no breath, no heartbeat, no pulse… no life left in their baby brother.
Tears streaming down his cheeks, Raphael dropped to his knees next to Michelangelo and embraced him, sobbing and crying loudly.
"Damn you, Mikey… Why… why did you have to play the hero…"
Leonardo, while tears flowed down his cheeks as well, placed his hand on Raphael's shoulder in silent comfort, as no words could do Michelangelo justice at the moment.
But they had to keep moving.
With heavy hearts, the brothers left their fallen family member, vowing to give him a funeral worthy of a hero.
A few more injured gnolls were found, and like those before, they received swift deaths.
"How's it looking?" Jake asked hesitantly.
"… not good…" Devina said reluctantly. "There's only one life sign left. This way."
The group followed Devina, and in short order, they found the source of her reading.
Laying somewhat sprawled on all four was a troll, and every now and then its torso moved ever so slightly.
"A troll?!" Freya gasped, quickly grabbing her spear and setting it on fire with her magic. "I'll burn that monster straight into hell!
"Hold on, lass!" Ragnir shouted, and grabbed onto her tail before she could take off. "It may not be the troll we came here for."
"He's right." said Jake. "There might be someone underneath it, like with the others. Let's check first."
As they got closer, they saw that there was in fact someone trapped beneath the troll, someone that they recognised.
"Amber!"
"Aunt Amber!"
Several rushed up to the troll and, together with the two Riders, managed to lift the large beast off of the marine iguana, seemingly unharmed, yet she remained deathly still.
Tears threatened to spill over in Jake's eyes as he quickly dropped to his knees by her side, looking for signs of life.
"Oh, please… please don't be dead… please don't…" he muttered as his fingers fumbled to find a pulse on her neck. "Come on, come on… not you too, please…"
Suddenly, there was a weak groan, and it came from Amber.
"She's alive! She's alive!" Jake exclaimed.
"Thank the gods!" Freya cried out, and it was a relief for all of them that there were no more deaths among them.
They gave Amber a quick examination and she did indeed appear to be unharmed, just unconscious. With some difficulties, Jake managed to pick her up bridal style, and everyone was about to head back to the rest, intending to gather more people in order to return and collect their fallen, but they were all caught off guard by a sudden lightning strike.
A few of them saw how the bolt had descended in the general vicinity of where Tyroth were supposed to be fighting the majority of the horde. Shortly after, the echo of a powerful roar was carried to them on the winds. And not long after that, from a point above the treelines, an almost blindingly bright beam of light manifested, aimed slightly downward and accompanied by another echoing roar, coiling around before rising into the sky and dissipating.
"By the Soulforger!" Ragnir exclaimed.
"Helm protect us!" one of the Riders prayed. "What was that?!"
"I would guess…" Leonardo began. "That it was Tyroth."
"Must have been." said Raphael.
"Dad…" Freya said silently. "Please be alright."
"I knew he said that he was powerful, but that… the mind boggles." said Ragnir.
"Powerful or not, he might still need help." said Leonardo. "Let's hurry back to the others, then we'll head out to see what's going on."
Not gonna lie, this was a difficult chapter to write...