Prelude Chapter 11: A Knights Resolve
Moongrum II
About a week after the initial meeting of the Carian Knights and the faculty of Raya Lucaria, Moongrum sighed heavily as he stood upon the deck of the watchtower, looking out upon the night sky. Above him on the roof of the tower was a place where one could hoist their way upwards and sit upon a higher vantage point than below, this is where Renna sat, her legs dangled annoyingly in front of Moongrums face as he scowled as one almost hit him. The space between the roof and the headspace of the Carian Knight was not much, which allowed Renna to torment him despite her shorter stature.
"Renna, if you would please get down." Moongrum asked politely as he remembered all the somber conversations they both had recently in an effort to stop himself from dragging her from her perch himself.
"No, it's quite nice up here, perhaps you should join me instead." Renna retorted, Moongrum could not see her face, yet he knew she was smiling mischievously as she usually did.
"You are quite the handful." Moongrum said as he placed his foot upon the wall and hoisted himself up carefully to join Renna, with every foothold upon the stone, he felt as if he would fall, but he used his instincts to balance himself until he sat by Renna's side. Moongrum looked out upon Liurnia, the land of the lakes and he was amazed by the view as the stars and moon shone above, which he could not see earlier due to the ceiling above him.
"And you are quite rude." Renna said softly after she allowed a brief pause for her companion to take in the view.
The two simply sat and watched as the stars turned above them, Moongrum usually felt uneasy looking upon the sky, but for some unknown reason he was quite comfortable gazing upon them at this moment. Inside the Knight stress melted away and his mind cleared, opening itself up to new ideas for spells and scripture.
"Moongrum?" Renna spoke her voice softer, interrupting Moongrums peace, although he was not disturbed by her interjection nor was he angry at his companion as he turned to her and saw her gazing upon him.
"Yes Renna? What is it you inquire?" he answered
"Do you think the eggs will hatch soon?" She asked, her eyes slightly twinkling in the light of the night as she scooted closer to him. Moongrum although was smart, and knew her increase in proximity was to obscure his view, he leaned backward and saw the basket of dragon eggs placed on the opposite side of Renna as himself.
"Renna, why did you bring them up to this height? You know if they fall and break that will not count as hatching." Renna puffed out her cheeks in anger as she turned her head away to look away from him.
"When they hatch they will be Carians like us, and are we not people of the stars? They must feel the power of the moon and its emissaries even as embryos." Renna said as she turned and began to stroke the eggs with her hands.
"Very insightful of you, whatever shall you name them if they hatch."
"It's 'when' they hatch" Renna paused. "I haven't thought of any names."
Moongrum nodded and crossed his arms as he continued to look upon the land. "I understand, you wish to name them separate names that do not represent their sires don't you?"
"You know me too well, naming them after their sires would put targets upon their backs, as I'm sure that when the ancient dragons collect themselves they shall hunt down any born of the lineage of Bayle and Greyoll." Renna said somberly as she obviously already cared much for the future dragonlings.
"Agreed, although if we have luck the white egg shall hatch a drake with a similar contour to the Ice Dragons that live in the mountaintops of the giants. The other egg should bear a hatchling with a slightly different color than a normal dragon, although to a trained eye its heritage will be easy to determine." Moongrum spoke his thoughts looking over at Renna.
Renna turned to him, grabbing his hand and pulling it towards her chest, this alarmed Moongrum as he felt himself pulled closer to the witch. "That is why we must teach them to look like us as soon as they hatch, please Moongrum we must, for their safety." Renna's eyes were uncharacteristically looking full of sadness and tears as she pleaded with him. She quickly turned away to wipe her eyes and hide her emotion.
"Renna," Moongrum paused, unsure of how to proceed, he had never been in a situation like this, let alone trained to deal with an emotional woman. Moongrum had been told by both Rennala and Rellana that Renna had no sadness within her, only a pension for mischief, although he always knew Renna was more than what her sisters had told him. Finally he spoke, "Did I not promise to help you to the best of my ability?" Moongrum placed his arm upon Renna's shoulder awkwardly patting her.
"Thank you," Renna said as her voice slowly returned to normal, although her tone was soft. She pulled her legs into her chest before turning her head to Moongrum. "Moongrum, what are we?" Renna was obviously still in the throes of the whirlwind of emotion, but yet Moongrum was compelled to answer her honestly.
"I believe that we are friends, Renna. Perhaps the first friend I've ever truly had."
Renna stayed silent, although a slight smile crossed her face as she was assured by Moongrum's answer, she eventually held her head up towards the sky, seeming much more calm than earlier. She eventually let her legs fall and hang down again as she laid backwards, resting her back upon the roofing behind them. "I feel the same, friend."
The two sat in silence as they did earlier, simply taking in the peace of the night's air, avoiding the gaze of the other. Moongrum eventually stood upwards as his view changed from the sky to the land below them, and the rising sun that threatened to interrupt the couples stargazing.
"You feel it don't you?" Renna said, stretching her arms upwards, and upon a quick look from Moongrum he saw that her eyes had changed, from being wide and full of life, to now being turned to a glare that looked down upon the rising sun.
"Indeed, they come." Moongrum saw that in front of the sun rode an army, their spears visible in the morning light, although they were too far away Moongrum to properly know how many marched on the academy, he noticed the force was easily smaller than the one that had come earlier.
"We've all given our tasks, it's up to us to complete them." Renna responded with a cold tone to her usual giddiness.
"Indeed, I remember, I alongside the knights are to defend against the Crucible Knights, our sorcerers shall take on the bulk of the force, and you and your sisters shall handle the commanders."
"Yes, shall we, My dear knight?" Renna said as some life returned to her tone as she stood, cracking her knuckles as she looked onward.
"We shall." Moongrum replied, his own confidence bolstered by Renna's newfound vigor, as he swung down back into the tower below, he turned and saw Renna floating downwards towards the courtyard, and suddenly envied her power of flight as he hurriedly descended the stairs inside the tower.
Moongrum's thoughts bounced about inside his mind as he ran about how many ways g=this battle could go, and who he could lose, and he made a vow
Nobody, Nobody dies, I cannot and will not allow it.
As he reached the hallways of the academy he began to bark orders upon the sorcerers he saw, as he gathered them all around him, reinforcing the battle plan and sending them on their way. Moongrum eventually encountered his senior Jerren, who had recently returned from his mission of evacuating the students, Jerren was smoking from a pipe and observing his greatsword as he did.
"Jerren, how do you fare?" Moongrum called to his fellow knight.
"Well enough to fight." Jerren responded quickly as he emptied the contents of his pipe onto the ground before stomping the embers out and placing the pipe within his armor. Jerren turned to Moongrum with a grin upon his grizzled features as the two joined each other in stride as they exited the academy, walking side by side.
"Think we'll win?" Jerren said, his voice was confident despite his question.
"At the very least we shall achieve our goal." Moongrum responded, knocking gauntlets with Jerren as they stepped upon the gate, leading to the courtyard.
Upon stepping outside the gate the two were met by the other Carian Knights who stood at the outpost, Moongrum's insufferable sister, Moonrithyll pushed herself from her leaning against a nearby wall as she flashed him a cheeky smile, from behind the wall Bols's head appeared alongside his hand which he waved a warm welcome to the two, nearby the other two troll's of the knights were nearby. Loretta atop her steed turned to notice them and with a nod she trotted forward, alongside Loretta was Ogha, the newest member of the Carian Knights, a young bowman the same age as Moonrithyll who had been elevated recently within the week.
At the forefront stood Rellana, her eyes fierce as she looked upon her fighting force, and she planted her weapon of choice upon the ground, a thrusting shield almost as tall as the knightess who wielded it, and when she spoke Moongrum felt a chill within him.
"Knights of Caria, we stand here today united at last for one reason. We will halt the Golden Order in their tracks, we shall drive them off, not for fame, not for any fortune, not even for our queen, but for the students who attend this academy. Hear me now, don your helmets! draw your steel! And fight!"
With that, every knight present donned their hemet, some were identical like Moongrums own helmet, Moonrithyll's, and Ogha's, many were unique, but they all walked forward joining the scholars and teachers of Raya Lucaria. Coincidentally Moongrum wound up striding beside Renna and Loretta at the forefront of the force directly behind Rellana.
From behind them they heard a roar of a creature and many looked back upon the academy, and at the gate of the academy stood a drake, its scales were blue in coloration and upon its back was a saddle, and in that saddle sat none other than Rennala, the Carian Queen herself, as she gripped the reins the drake took flight, gracefully soaring above the force and landing in front of Rellana. Rennala dismounted and was met by Renna who had slipped past to confront her sister, Renna's fists were clenched in anger but she elected not to speak her words, Rennala turned away and the force made headway forward.
Nobody dies.