Child of Salt and Fire

The grey storm clouds slowly marched southeast, patiently, yet inevitably towards my camp. Flashes of lightning appeared in the sky followed by the deep roar of thunder. The sailors and elves exhaustedly walked back to their tents as the sky and the Great Band became tinged with red. Itrust sniffed the air. He raised the crimson crest of feathers running down his head and spine, hissing at the storm clouds before walking off into the village. I finished strapping my armor back on and carried Falemneil, who had passed out from fatigue, back to her tent.

The sound of thunder slowly grew louder as the storm approached. Rhoskeil finished conquering our home, huh? Fuck. If I want to avenge my parents now, how can I do that without a country? He has the resources of an entire country and an army. I don't even have a proper army. I need to hurry up before he gets too powerful for me to kill. Falemneil groaned as I walked towards her tent. A faint smile snuck across her lips. My chest suddenly tightened as her grey eyes opened.

"You couldn't go easy on me?" she complained.

"I've been told I'm pretty rough."

She looked at me with suspicion. "And what does that mean?"

"It means exactly what I said," I replied with a smirk. She simply rolled her eyes. "What did you think I meant?" I asked. She rolled her eyes as we entered her cluttered tent. Papers with various equations, diagrams, and charts littered the floor. I gently placed her to lay down on the ground. She patted the floor next to me, smirking. I lay down besides her twirl one of her brown dreadlocks between with my fingers.

"Play with your own hair," she said shoving me playfully.

"Your hair looks better."

"No playing with my hair," she said impatiently, "and take off your armor, Barrékél," she said, shaking her head as she began to unstrap my breastplate. "I don't know how you could possibly sleep in this." She suddenly stopped. She looked up me, blushing intensely, "you...umm... you don't mind right?" My chest tightened as I replied "Not at all."

"Last time you were here, you said you were sixteen. Shouldn't you be home learning about your inheritance by now?" Her eyes wandered, slightly bemused yet extremely nervous.

"My parents are already dead," I said solemnly. "There's nothing to learn."

"Oh, I'm sorry about asking. I should've been more considerate. It was a stupid question to ask." She meekly said, slurring her words together into a jumbled mess.

"Don't worry too much," I said in attempt to soothe her anxiety.

"I guess so."

"Well since we're on the topic of inheritance, why did you join me anyways? You have too many older siblings?" I asked as I took off the rest of my armor, placing them in a pile besides me.

"No, I just have nothing to inherit. My mother was a sailor. Her mother was a sailor. I heard her mother before that was a pirate, but that could just be a story."

"If your family were all sailors, why don't you have your own ships?" A family of sailors, interesting. I think someone on my dad's side is a sailor. Actually, about twenty of them might be some form of seafarer. In hindsight, I should've talked to them more.

"My grandfather gambled away our ships, and my paternal grandmother gambled away whatever we had left after she got too drunk."

"Well that's unfortunate. Sorry to hear about that."

"It's not all bad," she said between chuckles, "I have all to gain and little to lose." She groaned in pain as she laid down beside me. "That's true for all the sailors in the Island Confederation. Only the poor, the destitute, and the abandoned are allowed to be sailors."

"If you have nothing to go back to, why retreat," I suggested as I laid down on my back.

"Exactly."

"Hmm, that's the same basic logic on why I'm using elvish slaves as soldiers. What do they have to lose?"

"Yea, but you plan on giving them land, right?"

"Enough to sustain themselves off of."

"It could work," Falemneil said as she shifted towards me. The sound of thunder roared through the camp as the storm reached the far outskirts of the battlefield we walked through a few days prior. The smell of rain and moist earth radiated over the jungle. Falemneil, apparently after working up a fair deal of courage, rested her head on my shoulder. Her eyes opened up in shock as she quickly looked for a pulse, which she soon found.

"Why are you so cold?" She asked, completely dumbfounded at my temperature in an otherwise sweltering and humid environment.

"I'm always like this."

"Your so weird," she chuckled.

I looked around the tent, glancing over the various papers before picking up one of the equations that she was working on for the past few days. The symbols seemed completely foreign. I was never good at math, having only learned the basics, but this seemed to be something either brought from the future or by an extremely bored dragon. I turn the paper trying to make sense out of the mixture of numbers, symbols, and letters. I quickly put the paper down, head pounding from the pain of seeing such a thing. Falemneil chuckled at my confused expression and took the paper I just had. She shook her head and crumpled the sheet up.

"Have you ever had a problem that you wanted to figure out, but couldn't?" she asked.

"No, I've always just gone through life and dealt with whatever was thrown at me."

"Oh," she sighed. "Well, I've been trying to figure this out for awhile. I was wondering why some stars look brighter than others and why the stars farther north look so different than the ones back home." The stars can look different? Do my ancestors know this? Does that dragon goddess know this?

"That's interesting. I never knew that."

"It's not that interesting. Who wants to look at stars all night?"

"Where do the stars come from? Do they always hide behind the sun's brilliance?"

"They do, actually. I've been tracking a few of them too. They make a sort of circle around the world."

"Makes sense, the world is round after all."

"Try telling that to an elf." We both started laughing as the storm clouds reached the outskirts of the camp. The sound of rain echoed through the jungle as the night grew longer. I rolled to the side, causing Falemneil to fall off with a thud. "What else did you learn about the stars?" I asked, acting like nothing happened.

"This might take all night," she warned.

Star's Prayer

Superb, shining stars

Singing, smiling, oh so sacred

You reside in a land so far

Laughing, luminous lights

Living, loving, oh so lustful

Your children reside in the West

Dark of skin

Dark of hair

Waiting for ascension

Radiant wonders,

Magnificent guards of the ancestors,

Cast soft light upon us tonight

Jāth Zeitrreethyn

"Young one," a familiar voice said in the middle of the night, "member of the second youngest race, remember where you are. Remember your goals. Do not blind yourself as you enjoy this night. I like watching you as do the rest of the enlightened ones with me, but be careful as the land here only seems familiar. Do your best to fulfil your goals, for it would be a shame to meet you too soon. My second youngest race may need you to guide them as the youngest race has just hatched.

And of course the stars look different; I almost forgot to answer you. Sleep well, my second to last child."

One of the Three Fall

The sound of thunder and the flash of lighting heralded the pounding rain. Cold, icy arrows fell down from the heavens, swept across the Aturah Ocean, vengeful from being unnaturally weakened by ice magic. A loud, piercing screech forced me awake from my otherwise peaceful slumber. Itrust stood above me, spear in claw, eyes skittering about, blood red crest raised. I quickly put on my armor, hearing the commotion outside despite the storm conspiring against my ears. Falemneil, who was sleeping next to me moments ago, looked around uncertain of what was happening, but the look in her eyes told me that she knew danger lay just outside her tent. I pressed my ear to the ground and listened to the thunderous sounds approaching, but not of the storm. No, this thunder was too regular, too certain, too much like the sound of metal hitting earth. I rushed out my tent to see Lakuen soldiers rushing out from the village as my own troops struggled to rouse their comrades and ready themselves for battle. Even the elves were unprepared for such an attack.

"At arms," I shouted at the top of my lungs. "Wake up who you can and prepare for battle." The rain lashed out our eyes and skin. The hail, intermixed with the water, rang against armor in a failed attempt to rally nature on the side of my foe. A flash of lightning illuminated the sky as a single flaming arrow entered the camp. Saongre, rode out on his beast, which Guangmei calls horses in my language, out to the frontline. His steel armor reflected each flash of lightning brilliantly as the enemy approached. My troops soon created the rear of this motley army. Guangmei rushed out to stand beside Saongre and Sheingne. Itrust rubbed his head against mine. "Don't you worry, we'll be fine." Josheire sword in hand, braced himself for battle. Beneath his mask there was a twisted sense of glee while Gaoreng looked on in horror. The thunder spawned by the lightning sounded through the camp.

Time itself felt as if it slowed for this fateful battle. The cavalry from my unknown enemy burst forward, heralded by a flash of lightning. My sword, with its everlasting damascus edge carved through a horse's leg as the enemy calvary easy forced its way through our predominately infantry army. The rain turned to hail as the battle commenced, beating upon us as we struggle to make it through the night.

"Exakre!" A Lakuen elf shouted as he was cut down. At this final scream, the Lakuen elves steeled their resolve and pushed forward. Itrust, forced his spear through the heavy cavalry that attacked us, killing one enemy at a time. At the clear height disadvantage with the charging warriors, I ducked, and weaved through their forces, disemboweling horse after horse as they never expected an attack from such a low angle. I stayed close to the ground as I crippled and eviscerated my enemy's cavalry. My sailors, seeing my strategy, attempted the same tactic, with varying success. Falemneil, though weary, forced herself through the pain, for what other option than death did she have.

The winds began to pick up speed as the the enemy calvary began to surround us, no matter how desperately we try to kill them and reduce their numbers.

"Humans!" An Exakre elf wailed as he fell from his crippled horse before I could slit his throat. With that scream, in his dying breathe, the soldier turned the tide of battle. Seemingly insulted by the idea that humans were in elvish lands, the cavalry fought with increasing vigor. Behind me I heard a deep breath being taken, I quickly jumped to my left, taking a glancing blow from a war hammer. I squared off with the stocky elf carrying, not one, but two, hefty war hammers. We circled around each other before he charged towards me, hoping to crush my head between his hammers. I dropped down quickly, hoping to dodge the attack, but unfortunately for me, my hair was caught in the crushing attack of the elf. I saw a sailor beside get cut down. The elf she was fighting rushed over in order to finish me off. The stocky elf I was fighting with unwilling to release my hair. With a swift motion of my sword I cut a large portion of my dreadlocks off, freeing myself from certain death only to find myself fighting two opponents. I took a deep breath as time momentarily froze in place. I stared into the eyes of the second elf, for what seemed like an eternity. His eyes turned red. Kill him. I commanded to the elf. The stocky elf swung both his hammers, one lower than the other, so I could not duck or dodge, but to his surprise, I rushed towards him, one palm facing towards him. Can you fight? "That's a stupid question, child." While I was in my internal conversation, I had blanked and not noticed that my opponent had taken a step back. A smirk crept across my face as I felt my body go numb. A chill raced down my spine as I ran towards my opponent. Again he swung his hammer and again I rushed towards him, disregarding what could happen. I reached for his face, to which he instinctively jerked back, momentarily distracted. The elf which I had commanded to kill him, stabbed him through the back of the neck. The second elf's eyes turned back to their normal color, but before he was fully aware of what was going on, I froze him head to toe.

I moved towards where the frontline used to be, ignoring the cracking sounds of frozen flesh and bone and watched as a line of at least a thousand elven infantry marched towards our weakened forces. The flashes of lightning were quickly outshone by the seeming hundreds of thousands of arrows that rained down from above. I grabbed a wounded Exakre soldier and raised him above me, shielding me from most of the arrows, but the a few met their mark, thrusting themselves in the gap between my shin guard and boot, nailing my ankle to the ground. I let out a blood curdling scream, thankfully and dreadfully, covered by the screams of other wounded and dying souls. Itrust, pierced with at least a dozen barbed arrows ran towards me, snapping off the heads of elves left and right with his powerful jaws while parrying their swords away with his spear. I felt myself get colder, but a yellow light began to radiate from the Exakre army. I began to feel warmer, the numbness that had filled most of my body before the arrow chained me to the ground was washed away. "I can't stand that light, sorry, back to you" Really? Useless. I stared into the eyes of an Exakre soldier approaching me. He continued towards my direction cautiously, confidently, and of his own volition. Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. I let out another scream as I forced myself to kick my leg up, forcing the arrow out of the ground. I ripped a piece of cloth off of a fallen Exakre soldier's uniform. Itrust circled around me as more elves approached, ever so often spitting acid, burning off the skin of any unlucky soul to be targeted. I scribbled a command to Josheire, Guangmei, and Gaoreng: "Retreat into the forest and pick them off. The more important or harmful the target the better. Find me and we can catch up on lost time later. This isn't the end. If I die, Itrust knows where I keep my silver and gold. My armor can also be sold, but give this cloak to my brother. It isn't worth a lot of money, but it has sentimental value."

"Itrust," I called, "give this to Guangmei, Josheire, or Gaoreng and leave without me."

He shook his head as he used tow fallen soldiers to shield us from more arrow fire.

"We got Saongre!" voices raised into the thunderous night sky. Upon hearing that the Lakuen soldiers either ran or dropped their weapons in surrender.

"This isn't a choice, this is an order."I wrapped my arms around his neck and patted his head. "I know this is hard, but trust me, this is for the best." Itrust, Falemneil, Gaoreng, Guangmei, Sheingne, Josheire Saongre, please don't be dead. Especially the first two. He whimpered as he took the note and ran off. An elf with a hook and chain slowly walked towards me and the other elves that watched my every move. I dropped my weapon to the ground and kicked it away. The winds then began to calm, nature's rage appeased.