AUTHORS NOTE:
Archer1eye - And now for something big! :)
Chapter 3828th Day of Early Spring 768 n.c
On the night of the 28th day of Early Spring I had gone to sleep fairly early, leaving Malkarov tinkering around with his rune scheme for his "Blower". I hadn't been waking when he rang the two bells to go to sleep, as he had been forgetting about them until the time he actually went to sleep (which since I had given him this 'problem to solve' had been much much later than usual). He assured me that he had still been ringing them and apologised to me that they were late but I told him that I was going to sleep when I felt tired anyway and had been sleeping through them. Which was why it was strange to wake up in the middle of the night to bells ringing. It took a moment, listening to the bells ring and ring, before I realised that they weren't Malkarov's bells. They were the bells in town, the alarm bells! I jumped out of bed and had my nightgown over my head all in one motion. I was pulling my trousers on when my door opened and Malkarov's head appeared. In one quick moment his eyes went wide and then screwed tight. I expected to feel the flush of embarrassment but either due to the excitement of what was going on or the fact that neither of us were attracted to the other, I pretty much ignored it.
"I…" he stammered and I even giggled a little at the thought that he was more embarrassed than I was, "I just wanted to make sure you were awake! Sorry! That's the town's alarm bells! I'm going to head up to the roof to see what's going on, meet me down at the front door once you're dressed!"
"Okay!" I said, as I finished pulling up my trousers and tied them off. He head ducked back out of sight and I heard his feet slapping on the stone stairs as he ran up towards the roof. I lifted my tunic over my head and stuck my arms through before quickly wrapping a belt around and tying it off. I grabbed a leather strap to tie back my hair as I rushed down to the ground floor. I was there for a few moments before Malkarov came thundering down the steps carrying his staff and dressed in his robes.
"The Jorganhard's farm is aflame!" He exclaimed.
The Jorganshard's had the southernmost farm in Easthaven itself (Most farms were outside the valley that Easthaven rested in, but there were eight farmholds inside the valley. Mostly at the southern end.)
We both rushed out of the tower and down the path. We caught up with Sister Tera and all three of us ran across the bridge over the river. As we were running through town we noticed that others were already running out of their homes carrying buckets and heading south along the river.
In the distance I could see the glow of flames lighting up the sky, but a second glow was beginning to appear a little closer.
"Malkarov!" I yelled to get his attention and pointed when he looked, "I thought you said only the Jorganshard's farm was on fire?"
He stopped dead. Sister Tera and I both stopped also.
"I did and it was," he said, "I could see quite clearly from the top of my tower. There was only one fire."
Even as he said this, I noticed a third fire start to spring up even closer to us.
"There's something else going on! Something else is wrong!" He said and we all started running even faster towards the fires.
"Stop!" Malkarov shouted at people as we caught up to them, and commanded "Fetch weapons as well as buckets!"
Everyone he ordered turned around and ran back to their houses, but still we ran on.
We heard shouting before we saw anything. It was the fearful shouting of someone with their life in danger. We were near the Yordas' Farm, the only one not on fire before the three that were; but even as we watched flames began to lick up the side of the farm house. We could see dark shapes, many of them, between us and the flames.
"Kobolds!" Malkarov shouted as I saw one of them. It was at least a hundred yards away and only lit up by the fire from the farmhouse, but it was definitely a kobold. Unlike the other ones I had seen, these were better equipped with swords or spears.
I didn't even think, I didn't consciously make a decision on what to do. As soon as I heard Malkarov begin to speak a magical phrase, I pushed out my magic as an Elemental Bolt. Both of our bolts flew off together into the kobolds, both hitting the same one. I could see at the distance the kobold fly backwards into the flaming wall of the farmhouse. The others around it froze.
"Move closer ten feet, you work from the left in towards the middle!" Malkarov commanded me.
We both moved together about ten feet and I managed to cast another Elemental Bolt while I did so. It shot off and the leftmost kobold dropped down dead. Malkarov was pulling something from a pocket in his robes and held it up with his staff pointed towards the kobolds. More were running into the light provided by the farmhouse fire and there would have been close to fifty of the little creatures all crowded around. They seemed a little hesitant to do anything, but as more gathered they seemed to be readying to charge at us.
I had let loose another Elemental Bolt when Malkarov completed the words I recognised as being for Elemental Explosion and I was able to witness it's devastating effects for the first time. When he first cast it atop his tower I was unable to see exactly what it did as he had cast it into the air. Against the kobolds I was able to see exactly what was happening. Malkarov had cast it pretty much into the middle of the gathering and a sphere of whipping wind appeared. Like the tornados that we would sometimes see in Late Spring or Early Summer, but instead of being a tall tower of wind this whipped everything around inside an invisible sphere. It even sucked in those near the edges, lifting them up and sending them whizzing around. It was a mass of kobold limbs, bodies and weapons. The explosion touched onto the edge of the farmhouse and writhing whip-like tongues of flame were brought into the sphere like ribbons of yellow-orange light. If any of the kobolds inside the explosion were still alive, the flames would have ensured that they died a very painful death. As it was the explosion ended suddenly, dropping everything into a big heap. A large pile of kobold bodies sat rather neatly at the epicentre of the spell, spears and swords sticking out at all angles. Some of their closes appeared to be on fire, or smouldering at least as small pinpricks of light dotted the mound.
I released two more Elemental Bolts, knocking down a kobold each, then felt a breeze as someone ran past me. It was Sister Tera, running towards the kobolds!
"Sister!" I shouted, as much to stop her as to make Malkarov aware.
"Move up fifty feet!" Malkarov shouted and I moved forward steadily. I still managed to cast five more Elemental Bolts, downing a kobold with each one. Malkarov matched me, casting Elemental Bolts of his own that knocked his kobolds flying backwards with each hit.
There were only a handful of kobolds left now that we could see and Malkarov shouted "Dancing Lights in front of them!"
We both cast Dancing Lights with mine appearing in a line twenty feet apart right in front of the kobolds. Malkarov's appeared slightly closer towards us, but also about twenty feet apart. A long line of eight glowing lights illuminated the scene ahead. There were only four kobolds left near the farmhouse, but the lights showed a group of three kobolds trying to sneak around towards us. The lights on the right illuminated the fleeing backsides of six or seven kobolds running away towards the southern farms. Sister Tera was still running towards the farmhouse as quickly as she could.
I cast Elemental Sphere between her and the kobolds sneaking near the left hand Dancing Lights. My large ball of blacklight and purple appeared floating in the air and I directed it into the middle of the group of kobolds. It struck two of them, who started to shriek in pain. The shrieks slowly grew quieter however as the kobolds collapsed to the ground. Something struck me in the shoulder and I heard something crack as a sudden blast of white hot pain radiated out from a spot that was quickly becoming numb. I tried to move my arm but the pain only increased. I couldn't lift it at all! I felt and heard Malkarov take care of the kobolds that remained near the farmhouse.
The last kobold was very close to me now, running as fast as it's legs could carry it. It was wearing a tattered red tunic and seemed to have red paint on it's scaled face. It's snout was a similar shape to a dog's, but scaled rather than furry. The bony spikes dotting it's skull appeared sharpened. It seemed to have dropped it's weapon at some point but had both of it's clawed hands stretched out ahead of it. I tried to gather my thoughts to cast an Elemental Bolt but couldn't, the pain was too great. It reached a point only a few feet away from me and pounced, soaring through the air towards me. I stretched out my good arm in front of me and felt the magical power of Elemental Touch explode out from inside me to encase my hand. It was only thanks to the extra foot or so of reach that I had over the kobold that I wasn't hurt worse than I was. The moment my hand touched the kobold, the magic flowed from around my hand into the kobold flying into me. It hit me and we both toppled over, with it on top of me. Pain flooded me from my shoulder but that was only a small distraction to what was going on right in front of my nose. I looked the kobold straight in it's yellow eyes, even as the spark of life contained in them winked out. It's scales went from shiny in the moonlight to dull and cracked. It's flesh went from relatively plump to extremely sunken and wizened.
I pushed the creature off me with my one good hand and let out a little yelp when my finger punctured the skin of it's cheek. The skin had ripped like thin dry parchment, as if there were no substance to it at all.
I yelled out to Malkarov as I wasn't able to sit myself up.
"Are you alright?" He asked as he hovered over me.
"No," I replied, wincing at the pain, "something is wrong with my shoulder. I think something hit me and I heard a crack, now it just hurts and I can't move my arm."
He felt around on my shoulder and I shouted in pain when he touched one of the bones there.
"It's broken," he said plainly, "It shouldn't be anything that Sister Tera can't heal."
"Is she okay?" I asked as I looked around for her.
"She's inside the house, probably looking to make sure that there isn't anybody inside," he said simply.
A moment of panic sparked up inside me, "But it's on fire!"
Malkarov laughed, "Celestine has likely granted her Resistance to Fire. Sister Tera can look after herself."
Malkarov held out a hand and lifted me up, it jolted my shoulder and sent a sharp wave of pain radiating through my upper body but I tried my best to put up with it. We walked slowly towards the farm as the Easthaven townfolk began to arrive. Mayor Crownever was carrying a large spear and a bucket but was shouting instructions to everyone to form bucket chains. Thankfully the farms all backed onto the river and so were very close to an easy source of water. Children were sent to get other children up out of bed to come down and help. They were tasked, when they arrived, with carrying the empty buckets back to the person at the river. Once the chain was formed at Yorda's farm, surplus town folk headed to the next farmhouse to do likewise.
Just after the first bucket was thrown in the doorway, Sister Tera came walking out, a bluish glow surrounded her. She was completely unharmed by the flames but was coughing a little from the smoke. A cheer went up from the townsfolk when they realised that she was holding the hand of a glowing Tammen Yorda, the youngest son who in turn was holding the glowing hand of his older sister Ullath. In this manner the entire family was extracted from the burning house completely unharmed.
Malkarov called to her and she very matter-of-factly healed my shoulder with a prayer. The cold shiver didn't take me by surprise this time and I gave her a quick thanks before we three headed off as quickly as we could for the next two farms.
Our first stop was quick as everyone had escaped before it caught fire, but Sister Tera made a grim discovery at the Jorganshard's farm; while she found Missus Jorganshard unconscious and was able to heal her, she was not able to heal her eldest son Kardin who was only two years younger than me.
Malkarov and I continued to look around for any more kobolds, casting Dancing Lights around us to provide enough light to detect them. We saw no more of them that night.
