Day 21
Rana awoke before anyone else, she watched the two human, they both were stranger than most humans she had encountered. The treated her as an equal, even as a member of their group. It was weird being like and appreciated by humans. Xyrdiane even seemed more relaxed, around them. It was eerie, and she found herself trying to find fault with anything they did. She knew she was biased against Bloodstone, but still she couldn’t shake the fact that he had brought her back, not because she was Xyrdians longtime friend and confidant. He had spoken to her about it when she asked. His response shook her to the core of her beliefs.
She watched him intently, every motion ever gesture, looking for that something that would prove that he was like all the other humans she had ever met. Most humans looked on half gazers with contempt of disgust, sometime outright fear. There were several times people had mistaken her for the famous gazer, she felt it wasn’t her place to correct the misconceptions.
Xyre, had married this human, and Rana had expected him to push her away, ostracize her, in fact the opposite, he included her in everything. His explanation, was that she could see things in a different manner and would be more inclined to correct him if she felt or disagreed with him. Twice she had told him he was being a jerk and he apologized.
Xyre had joked that she was in love with him, it wasn’t true, she found him interesting, and that Xyre did as well made him even more so. His daughter had asked her if she had her own language, it too made her wonder what she had lost.
Bloodstone daughter was a very strange woman, she had talked with Rana for several hours, and was fascinated with her visual abilities. She had asked if half-gazers had their own language. Sadly, if they did she never learned it. she explained that she had been a slave for most of her young life, sold off to different humans who wanted her to see if people were who they said they were, or to guard a spot. There were dark parts of her past that she had never shared with Xyre or at least not all of them, the beatings had been the worst memories.
Xyre has told her in confidence that he had used an artifact, to bring her back from death. I was perhaps the reason she wanted to know more about him. According to him he had only been on Rhir for three weeks and yet where did he get an artifact that could bring back the dead. She remembered dying and a voice calling her back, and stepping through to where the voice was calling her.
She remembered Bloodstone holding her, as she fell, from the bolt, and everything fading to black. Then he was carrying her with Xyre. It still made no sense, why would he use an artifact of that kind of power to bring her of all people back.
This was one of the few times she had been able to watch him, just watch. It’s a fact that Half-gazers usually could track things through walls and at distance. She found herself, watching him with more than a casual glance, she still couldn’t place what was different about him, the way he talked, or the way he moved. Everyone around him seemed oblivious to what she had seen a couple of times now. His shadow seemed alive, not that she could explain it. His shadow seemed to distort flicker or change at times, it was quick, but not fast enough for a half-gazer. The other thing that she had noticed were his classes, there was a class that she couldn’t identify, it was just [] and it never changed. His other classes had changed a three days ago, he had lost his [wizard], [psion],[pyromancer], [engineer], [cleric], and his levels of [blacksmith] and [goldsmith] they had all combined into to something else. The class was called [EMPTY] it made no sense. She had asked him, and he told her that he had gotten some skills combined as the classes merged as well. He wouldn’t say what the class was, it made her nervous. The next day he had made Isabell new eyes, she hadn’t seen how, she knew that he would be a terrible enemy to have. He had even spared with her, and they both knew she could hurt him if she wanted. His swordsman skills were not even close to what she was capable of. The problem was that she had no desire to hurt him. The class he had given her was what she always dreamed of being able to do, to dance and fight. Her speed and movement had gotten more fluid, she could move as fast as she could see, sometimes faster. To trick a half-gazers sight was something very fast. The creature that he had cut, she had slain, to a normal person it may have looked like she stabbed it a couple of times, she had stabbed it at least twenty times in the same places.
She had also seen something a look of panic and indecision had flashed across his face for a moment before he cut at the things leg. She wanted to ask him, she wanted to know, she would wait till she could talk with him alone.
Xyrdiane was the first one to wake up, “Hes still sleeping?” She asked Rana who had been up for at least an hour.
Rana nodded.
“Not very talkative today, what’s the matter?”
Rana shook her no.
“I know you too well, let’s get some breakfast and talk about it”
Xrye as Rana liked to call her, did know her well, and she was probably the only one who could get her talking, Rana followed her out. Closing the door quietly behind them.
“You have that look again.”
“What look?” Rana asked.
“It’s the same look we had when you met Trence, before we found out what an ass he was”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Rana said a little more forceful than she intended.
“Liar, what’s the matter”
“You’re going to laugh,” Rana said seriously.
“I promise unless it’s funny I won’t laugh”
“I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Explain what?”
“I feel like Bloodstone is hiding something, he gets cryptic sometimes or I don’t understand what he’s saying” Rana said
“I think that’s just the way he is, I got to talk with him on the beach for a bit. He’s smart, he asked if you were all right, and if we are still getting along. I don’t think our relationship has changed, and the fact that he was concerned about it.”
“You feel the same way, he is the strangest human we have ever met, there’s no hostility, or even animosity, from him or the others from wherever they come from. I find it unnerving. The people here treat us a lot better, there is no hostility, they see us as adventures not a half-elf or a half-gazer.”
“Do you want to go home?” Xyrdiane asked Rana softly.
“I do, just not yet. You want to stay don’t you.”
Xyrediane nodded, “I find him fascinating as well, did you know he asked me to pull up stones from the ground before he made the eyes for Isabel. I saw him working on them, I saw it and still have no idea what he did.”
“What do you mean, what did you see?”
“He took stones from the ground and shaped them somehow, with magic, I have no idea what kind, it was as if he knew what needed to be done, and just did it. No that doesn’t even explain it. “
They entered the common room, where meals were taken in the fortress, they each took a bowl of grains they were handed.
Everyone in the room watched as they came in and sat off to one side. There were only about ten soldiers, who were eating. One of them walked over, “Can I ask you two a question about the new Lord?”
“Sure, if we can” Xyrdiane said.
“Is it true he took on a grey shambler?” The soldier asked.
“Well Rana helped,” she said gesturing to Rana.
The soldier looked at Rana, “So he didn’t do it by himself then?”
“No, Lady Amethyst cast on in first, and then we attacked it.” Rana said.
“I wanted to come over and thank you, and him. That things been causing all kinds of trouble, it’s nice to know there is someone who can take on monsters in the garrison”
“No problem,” Rana said.
The soldier returned to the small group of men and began talking to them.
“that was weird” Rana said.
“I know, most places we get the cold shoulder, here we are thanked.”
“It is creeping me out too” Rana said watching the men with her right eyes.
“I’m worried about him though, I haven’t seen him eat or drink.”
“He was restless sleeping,” Rana said focusing back onto Xyrdiane.
Lady Amethyst walked in and took a bowl of the stew and walked over and sat with them. She yawned, “Sorry, still not used to the time differenced here.”
“I was wondering what that spell was you used yesterday?” Xyrdiane asked.
“Oh, I slowed it and used a directed banishment to push it away.” She replied.
“You have known Bloodstone the longest, have you noticed anything about him?” Xyrdiane asked.
“What other than he makes a mess, and seems to take everything in stride.”
“I mean does he seem, like he’s worried about something?”
Lady Amethyst laughed, “Of course he is, we are not from this world and he wants to find a way back, he’s pretty sure he can get us home, he just needs a lot more information.”
“He never mentioned that” Rana said.
“You know that the pendants we have are something he created, the fact that he got it to work speaks volumes.”
“You mean the artifact that brought me back to life?” Rana asked.
“Yes, and something else he said, I didn’t believe him at first but after seeing these it’s hard not to, my son and daughter trust him explicitly.”
Four adventurers came in soaking wet, along with two kids dressed in rags. The two kids were also soaking wet, and looked like they had been covered in mud. The leader of the group was a tall human, who had an axe on his back, he was very tall for a human about seven feet tall and made of muscle. The second adventurer was a female dullahan in simple metal armor and weapons on a belt. The third was a Centaur who had a bow and a quiver of arrows on his humanoid back. The last appeared to be a mage with a strange complexion almost like string or fabric.
Rana was the first to notice them, “I think we have a problem.”
“What?” Xyrdiane asked.
“I don’t recall seeing them before, those kids are barefoot” Lady amethyst said.
The four adventurers saw the three of them sitting there and walked over. The mage was the first to speak, “Well now, are you a new team out here to clean up monsters?” She said her voice was a bit high in the scale.
Rana focused her gaze onto the woman, “We are not”
“Well, then what are you here for sweetie?” She asked
Rana smiled, and said, “I’m their bodyguard” She said gesturing to Xyrdiane and Lady Amethyst.
“Oh? I didn’t know that mages needed bodyguards”
Lady amethyst said, “Please leave, before my husband comes in and causes trouble.”
“Phhhh, who is your husband?” She asked
“Lord Bloodstone” She replied.
“Lord who, I don’t know who that is.”
“Look just leave, before someone gets hurt.” Rana said.
The woman scrunched her nose up and walked over to another table, and very loudly said, “Some silver or copper adventurers not worth dealing with.”
Rana gripped the table, “I’ll show her a silver adventurer.”
“Let it go, hopefully they leave before Bloodstone shows up, I don’t want a repeat of what happened last week”
“He wouldn’t, at least I hope not, that was such a mess.” Rana said.
“Well they were the ones that challenged him to a duel, how was he supposed to know they were gold adventurers, it’s not like they wear badges or anything. Thankfully no one died, and he did apologize for being so reckless.” Xyrdiane said.
Bloodstone walked over and sat down at the table. He yawned, “Morning”
“Morning, are you going to grab something to eat?” Lady Amethyst asked him.
“Na, I feel like I slept on a rock and my arms are still sore.” He said stretching and looking around.
“Bloodstone isn’t your real name, is it?” Rana said trying to distract him.
“No, it’s like a nickname, maybe I’ll tell you, the thing is if you don’t know it you can’t call me it, and it’s a secret. When we get back if you are really interested I can show you my real name.”
Bloodstone got up from the table, “Hey hon, would you take a look at my phone, it’s been acting weird” Lady Amethyst said.
“Oh, sure let me see.” He said sitting back down.
She handed over her cell phone and he looked at it, well beside no service or bar, it seems fine. You know just to be safe, let’s put it in airplane mode.”
“What’s that?” Xyrdiane asked.
“what’s what?”
“Airplane mode”
Bloodstone laughed, “It’s a mode where the phone doesn’t broadcast or receive signals. Is called that because back home you can’t use electronics on planes if they broadcast or receive signals. Here it’s just to save battery power and prevent others from messing with the phone.”
“What can your device do?”
“Well it’s a computer, and can do different things based on the software installed, it has built in cameras. Wireless, connectivity. Storage, for various things, books, or music.” He handed the phone back to Amethyst and pulled out his own phone.
“It looks strange, like black glass.” Rana said.
“It’s off now, there is a small button here on top that turns it on.” He said pressing it.
The phone lit up with a bright white logo, and then chimed and showed the main screen.
Bloodstone stood up again, and backed up a little and took a picture of Rana.
She blinked, “What was that!?”
He held the phone out for her to see, the picture he had taken.
She looked at the picture, “what else can it do.”
“Not much, I can’t even text message” He turned off the phone and sat down. “Why is there a horse in here?” He asked.
“That’s a centaur” Rana said.
“Huh, weird never seen that before in real life. Any idea when we are heading back?”
“No, why don’t you go ask, Lady Aladeana” Xyrdaiane suggested.
“I will do that, I will be working in the forge till we are ready to leave.” He said leaving
“Crisis averted” Rana said.
“He can be oblivious sometimes.” Lady Amethyst said.
“Shouldn’t we say something to them?” Rana asked.
“I’ll do it,“ Lady Amethyst said getting up with her bowl, and walking over to their table.
The centaur looked up as she came over, ad di the others at the table, “You lost?” The mage asked.
“No, I came to ask what the deal is with these kids.”
“Oh they are our baiters, we sent them forward and scout for monsters, and demons. They lure them to us. Our mage makes us invisible so when they attack them we get the drop on them. “
She looked him in the eye, “That’s barbaric”
“It works, it make them goblins think twice about attacking kids. I have seen twenty goblins leave them the hell alone, not that that save them, goblin ears are a silver a piece. They get fed, what’s it to you.”
“They don’t even have shoes” Lady Amethyst said.
“They don’t need shoes the monsters don’t care if they have shoes why waste money on things they don’t need.”
“how much would you be willing to sell them for?”
“Not for sale, it’s a good tactic, get your own baiters.”
Lady Amethyst turned and walked back to her table, “Barbarians!, they are using those kids to bait monsters and demons.”
Her explanation was met with silence, “It happens, not much we can do if they won’t sell them.” Xyrdiane said.
“I need to leave before I get pissed.” Lady Amethyst said.
The three of them left, leaving the bowls in a barrel.
Lady Aladeana found Bloodstone working in the forge, with a white hot glowing piece of steel.
“You wanted to talk to me?” She asked.
“I wanted to ask if I can put a magical device on the top of the structure here.”
“What kind of magical device?”
“A relay system for communication, if we put them along the walls, and along the outposts, we can have a quick messaging system”
“I have mages that can sent messages if we need them”
“I don’t think your understanding, what I am suggesting. Let’s say a scout sees a huge army or something dangerous he can send a message to this outpost and the wall.”
“We don’t have mages that go with the scouts they are to valuable.”
“What about if the scout had an item he could use to communicate with the wall or the fortress or both?”
“I don’t know of any such item, there are some mirrors or other devices that could do that they are very expensive.”
“I see, let me think about it more, I may have a way to make it work.”
She shrugged, “What are you working on?”
“I am heating this up this sword to reinforce it from being melted.”
“How are you able to get it that hot?”
Bloodstone looked over at the blacksmith, who was working on a glowing red piece of steel,”I’m holding it in place, with a skill. I also have skills to use pyromancy.”
“I have no problem with you putting something up on the fortress, as long as you explain how it works and what it’s for, Once you are in charge you can do what you want, as long as I am you will need to explain it to me.”
Bloodstone dropped the steel into a vat of oil, it burst into flames, and began to bubble as it vaporized off the steel. “Maybe that was too hot”
He pulled the metal out of the oil, using the tongs, and set the steel on the smaller anvil to cool.
“You should make sure it didn’t warp,” The blacksmith said to him.
“Right”, he said looking down the blade. “Looks good”
“Was there anything else?” She asked.
“Actually, what the story with the non-humans”
“Oh the other gold team, in the area? I wasn’t aware they had returned.”
“Yeah there’s two kids with them, seemed kind of odd wanted to know if you knew about it?”
“Yes, not much I can do they have the papers for those kids, bought them, before coming to Rhir, Out here we allow that kind of thing, it’s easier than getting into a fight with a gold team or having them leave. I can at least keep an eye on them if they are here.”
Bloodstone nodded, “I guess that makes sense, seems kind of cruel to me.”
“Life is harsh here on Rhir, what they do from your perspective may not make sense, think of it this way if a monster or goblin escapes after being beaten by them they will think twice before attacking a child. It’s not perfect, nothing ever is. At least they have the gold team looking out for them.”
“Thank you”
“For what?”
“The information, gives me something to think about.”
She shrugged, “At least you know the two gold teams we have working out here, there are two bigger silver teams, that sometimes show up they work more east though.”
“When are you going to return to the wall?”
“Once I get all the reports copied.”
“See that’s the kind of thing that should be sent with magic or tech.”
“I have the scribe working on them now.”
“I wonder how valuable a typewriter would be.”
“What’s that?”
“A mechanical tool to write, you press buttons and it prints them on the page.”
“If you could make it I am sure it would be useful.”
She turned and walked out of the forge to check on the reports.
Bloodstone walked into the area that the gold teams were talking shop, and turning in corpse parts and other things.
Haran looked up when Bloodstone walked over and set down the blade. “Check the balance, see if it works for you before we enchant it.”
Haran looked at the sword, it was a little longer than the blade that had broken. The ruby blade hung at his hip. He picked it up and checked it looked down the blade. “You haven’t enchanted it yet?”
“I had help from the smith here, he should be able to make much cleaner blades now.”
“What are these weird black bands in the metal, I have never seen anything like that before.”
“That’s higher carbon steel, I had to make more steel to fill out the blade, it’s what was on hand.”
“Wait you forged a new blade in a day?”
“I wasn’t doing anything important, and I can enchant, shouldn’t take more than an hour or so.”
Several of the mages perked up and started asking questions, “Wait it shouldn’t take an hour, what kind of enchantments are you going to put on it?”
“Ones like this blade” He said pointing to his sapphire hilted sword.
“Your joking” The cloth woman said.
“Nope, My wife should be here shortly I asked her if she could meet me here. So what enchantments did you want on it?”
“I don’t even know what to ask for.” He said.
“How about lighter, sharper, increase the weight on a strike. A command word for light on the blade.” He paused thinking, “Since it would be your personal weapon I could make it tuned to you, that would make it so no one else could use it though. I could add an element to the blade. I’m not sure what would help you out here in the blight.”
He rubbed his finger through his beard, “What about adding flame to the blade.”
“That’s not too hard, any specific color?”
“Flame, nothing fancy make it so that it can flame.”
Bloodstone picked up the blade, and started wiping it down with a cloth. Lady amethyst walked in, “Let me guess, you want to recast the buffs.”
Bloodstone gave her a look, “Of course, and then cast that enchant metal on this”
She started casting spells, on Bloodstone, there was a blue glow that faded around him. “I’m not casting haste. Now give me that.”
“Touchy, what’s wrong?” he said handing her the blade.
“You and your stupid casting, what are you doing this time?”
“Um”
“Well,” she said giving him a look.
“He wants a fire blade.” Bloodstone said trying not to smirk.
She looked over at Haran, “You know that blade you have on your belt can flame as well.”
“Really!?” He said looking at Bloodstone.
Bloodstone laughed, “Yea, I got it figured out this time, no more melty swords.”
Lady Amethyst gave him a skeptical look, “Um, if he melts that blade, keep the one you have.”
“You ready?”
“Not yet, why don’t you start setting up your spells.”
“Oh your no fun,” he walked a few steps away, “I am going to ask that no one go in the circle. He started chanting words, and a light began to form between his hands. It looked like fine wires of light.” Lady amethyst held out the sword and he moved the light threads over it, after a few minutes she let go of the sword and in hung between his hands. A soft blue light began to move down the blade, towards the hilt. He continued the chant, the sword bean to spin along the long axis, faster and faster. The glow enveloped the blade, and then burst into blue flames. The spinning stopped and the flames began to die out, and then dissipated.
Bloodstone had beads of sweat on his forehead as he stared at the blade. Red and purple lines shifted across the blade. Deep green lines began to form in specific patterns. Glowing runes began to flow across the blade. The light from the runes began to brighten from dull colors to much brighter colors. There was a small of ozone in the air, and electrical energy arced around the blade. Small pops of static and blue and white sparks flowed along the blade.
“What in the world are you doing, “One of the mages said fascinated.
Bloodstone continued to chant, the electricity faded, and a cold began to flow from the blade, the runes turned ghostly white and blue. A frost hung in the air, and Bloodstones breath could be seen passing over the blade. The sweat on his head froze and fell to the ground. It then started to warm back up. A warm energy pulsed from the blade, the blade turned pure white, as the energy traveled along it. it rippled, washing past glowing runes that hung inches from the blade.
Bloodstone gestured and the chanting stopped and the blade pointed straight down. He was breathing heavy, “Ok, I need a sheath for this, preferably the one you used before.” He said gasping the request out.
Harlan handed over the sheath wordlessly, still staring at the sword hanging in the air.
Bloodstone looked over the sheath, “Wood, that will work.” He held out the sheath next to the blade, it was smaller than the width of the blade, “wood, transmutation it is.“ He let go and the sheath hung next to the blade. “You ever wonder why blades that are really clean come with a sheath, it’s made the same time as the blade.” Bloodstone said as his breathing became more normal. “So now do you want a normal sheath or something special?”
Harlan blinked, “Huh, what?”
“The sheath, I can enchant it with its own power, the thing is I would have to infuse it there are no enchant wood spells that my wife has, just metals. Once the sheath is done, I can’t go back to fix it. Wood is or was a living thing so, it remembers.”
“I just amazed, I don’t think anyone has seen a weapon being enchanted before.” One of the mages, said.
“Well this is how I enchant magic items, if it’s wrong then they obviously have no idea what they are doing. Do you ever use a shield?”
“No, too expensive, wait, you can make the sheath a shield?”
“Oh that’s a better idea, it’s wood so, that shouldn’t be a problem. Hold on a sec” He pulled out his phone and started looking at something. “Yeah that will work”
He put the phone away and started casting and white lines began to appear on the sheath, for a moment it looked like it was a larger solid piece of glowing white wood and then it slowly moved over the blade.
The wood shifted and moved and looked like the hilt was part of a wooden shield. The white lines froze in place, and faded. The blade pushed out of the shield, and Bloodstone looked at it from different angles still chanting.
The blade snapped back into the sheath and it became a standard looking sheath. Bloodstone stopped chanting. “Ok the transmutation is set, now for the support spells for the blade.” He began casting a third spell, then a fourth and fifth spell on the sword and sheath. Each spell made the sheath glow slightly. “Ok all done, now to seal them.”
He started the last spell, and the sword and sheath began to glow a bright white. It was blinding, and then he finished. He grabbed the sword and sheath before it fell and held it out for Harlan.
“Ok the sheath with become a shield, when the sword is not in it, its reinforced, and will repair itself if damaged, if the sword ever gets damaged just put it back in the sheath and it should repair it. If you somehow manage to damage that blade, you have bigger problems.
Harlan pulled the sword out it seemed as it had been before the chanting.
“It’s lighter.” He gave it a couple of test swings, “Woah, it really is light when it’s in motion.”
“Carful when you hit something its really going to be heavy for a spit second. I put all the elements on it, you can cycle through them, just by touching the gem on the cross guard.”
Harlan looked at the gem it was white, he touched it and the blade erupted into flame and the gem turned red, “I don’t know what to say, thank you!” Hr said Sheathing the blade, the gemstone turned white again. He gave Bloodstone a bear hug.
One of the mages in Harlans group asked, “what other magic items are you able to make.?”
Bloodstone smiled, “Depends on the item, and the quality of the workmanship of the item, and what kind of enchantments.”
This seemed to stop the questions, until the centaur asked, “Would you be willing to look at some of the enchantments on some items I have and tell me if they can be fixed?”
Bloodstone was about to respond when Lady Aladeana entered, “The rain has let up a bit, I have my reports done, I am ready to return to the wall when you are.”
“Sorry, can’t do that heading back to the wall, I am more than willing to look at them when you return to the wall.” He said to the centaur. He hooked his arm around his wifes, arm and turned to follow Lady Aladeana.
Harlan paused and unhooked the ruby blade from his belt and gave it back to Bloodstone. “Thank you, let me know if you ever need anything”
“Not a problem, If you break this sword I really will want to know how you broke it.” he said on his way out of the room.
Lady Aladeana, and Bloodstone were side by side on horseback. The two scouts were in front with the ladies behind them. “You rushed out of there pretty quick”
“Just wanted to get back, see if the others have arrived yet.”
They rode in silence for half an hour, “I didn’t get a chance to make that item I was asking about earlier, I am thinking there may be an easy way to get communication between the wall and the outpost. I just have to see if I can build a simple radio.”
“What is that?
“A device, it could use magic as a power source, I have to think about it a little more, the light spells could be used just need to be able to tune them properly.”
“Light spells?”
“Oh right radio is just a type of light or electromagnetic energy that’s invisible.”
“If you say so, I don’t know magic really well, at least not like you seem to know it.”
Two hours into the return to the wall, Rana rode up, “There are a number of things coming this way from that direction.” She said pointing not the way they had come but off into the blight itself.
One of the scouts, nodded at the news and spurred his horse to move faster.
Ten minutes of a faster pace, Rana said “It looks like there are a bunch of people coming this way. “
A few minutes later there were seven humanoid creatures. They caught up and then passed by the group. They were very strange having animal or insect body parts and seemed to ignore the group as they rush by. They looked built for speed, more than combat.
“Demons, this can’t be good, They usually fight.”
“They are running from something,” Rana said, “Its big, looks like a big gray lizard.”
The other scout, “Stone lizard, we need to move!”
He urged his horse to move faster, the other followed suit to stay with him, conversation at that point was impossible.
After anther twenty minutes, they slowed, and the scouts pulled everyone close as they stopped.
“Listen we may have avoided that stone lizard, we should continue to wall at haste, but not so much so to fatigue the mounts, we have a least another half hour or so before we will be close.”
“What’s a stone lizard,” Bloodstone asked.
“Big lizard, can eat a horse in one bite, hopefully it continues following those demons, if it picks up us we will have to run to the wall.”
“That’s all we need a stone lizard, we would need a couple gold teams to kill it.”
“Is it really that bad?” Lady Amethyst asked.
“Depends on how big it is,” the First scout said.
Rana said, “I see it, it’s big.”
Everyone looked to where she was pointing. They could see a cloud of dust as the beast moved in the distance, looking closer there was no dist it was the beast itself. Running from it appeared to be several demons, as well as what looked like goblins.
“RIDE!” Lady Aladeana shouted.
They started the horses going and they kicked up the speed. The beast and the quarry it was chasing got closer. They could see the wall in the distance. It would be a race to get to the wall.
Bloodstone was the last one in the group his horse appeared to be slowing down. The demons and goblins seemed to be leading the beast straight at them, perhaps in an attempt to lead the beast to them, so they could escape.
The demons got closer as did the wall. The large stone looking lizard if that’s what it was kept pace, it was fast, and about two hundred feet long has what looked like spines along its back. Several goblins were to slow and two were eaten and one was trampled.
This went on as they got closer to the wall they could see the door was barely open.
It was Xyrdiane’s horse that miss stepped and threw her. The horse hot back up and ran off to the west. She had been thrown into a puddle of water, that seemed to break most of the momentum and sprayed mud and water as she landed. She slowly stood up, covered in mud.
Bloodstone slowed and pulled her onto his horse.
“Are you all right?” he asked her.
“No, ill live at least for the moment.”
“Can you cast?”
“No”
As they approached the gates, Bloodstone realized that they wouldn’t be able to close them before the demons got to the door.As they came close to the doors he slowed, and dismounted.
“What are you doing?” She asked.
“You can’t cast, I’m going to have to help close the doors or by some time.”
“You can’t fight that thing that’s suicide.”
“Inside now argue with me later.”
She slid down off the horse, “I can’t let you do this alone” and slapped it to go inside.
Bloodstone drew his two blades and stood by the door. The door was almost closed when the first demon came through the entrance, it was intent on attacked the soldiers. The spear it was using was blocked and parried by Bloodstone. The demon was a half foot larger then he was and had molted purple and red skin, half its face looked like an insect the other half was more ape like. It gurgled and hissed, and tried to hit him with the spear, he jumped back.
A second demon came in through the entrance and was blinded by a burst of light. Two soldiers ran it through with pikes and pushed it out.
The spear wielding beast engaged the two soldiers, and the commander gave an order for the archers. They fired a volley and killed it.
The door closed and three figures managed to enter as it did two demons and a goblin. The demon on the left was all tentacles and weird eyes and molted skin, it roared at the commander and charged. The other one looked female, with horns on her head and her eyes were mostly white. Her body was covered in scales. She unfurled her leathery looking wings. A faced off with Bloodstone. She said something in a unknown language. She had a large black looking blade and swung it at Bloodstone. He blocked in and was pushed back as he took the blow. She seemed shocked that he blocked it and swung a second time and again was blocked. Each time he was pushed back.
A soft yellow glow surrounded him, “You are so fucked now”
He moved and attacked her twice in succession; she blocked the attacks and was pushed back towards the door. His speed seemed to startle her, for a moment.
A green glow surrounded him, and he pushed the attack, she continued to block his attacks, almost as if bored.
The goblin ran towards the inside of the fortress, and was knocked back by a wooden staff, “Bad goblin” Kuya said.
I said a few words to her in goblin. She replied in goblin. The goblin looked confused.
The tentacle demon was cut apart by the commander. There was a loud thump and dust fell around them, something large had hit the door.
The demon woman instinctively moved away from the door.
“Surrender or die” Bloodstone said.
The demon woman hissed and said something in an unknown language.
Kuya said something back.
“You understand her?” Bloodstone asked seeing Kuya
“Kinda,” she shrugged.
The commander moved next to Bloodstone, and disarmed the demon woman. She attempted to charge and was blocked. Soldiers swarmed over her with rope and chains.
“Good work” The commander said.
They dragged the struggling demon away. She was shrieking and cursing the whole time.
A soldier came and told the commander that the lizard had eaten the goblins and other demon and the wall defenses had stopped if from climbing the wall, it had turned west and they were tracking it along the wall.
The group of them retired back to the rooms they had been given. Bloodstone stood in the doorway and looked over at Isabel and then fell face first.
“It looks like he had been cut it the fight earlier, it looks like he has been poisoned. We used a potion and he’s sleeping now. That sword that woman was using is more dangerous than it looks, it’s got poison spines, and it looks like one of them scratched him.” Xyrdiane said.
“That’s good to hear,” Lady Aladeana said. “I am going to be leaving for the capital in the morning, so Lady Amethyst is in charge until he wakes up. Have there been any developments with Kuya her new projects?”
“The goblin seems to be all right as long as it’s kept fed, it follows her around like a dog, the demon woman, Kuya is a bit annoyed by her screaming. Something about us being vile beasts that should be eviscerated and killed. There are some weird words she doesn’t understand.”
“The commander seems pleased with the capture; they usually kill themselves or fight to the death.”
“Is there any more news on that lizard thing?”
“No, they said it wandered into the blight, that’s not good as it now roaming through the prospective new lands. We sent warnings east just in case.”