Legon Restoration (9 page)

Umbra hugged the hilly landscape making her way to the convoy. She glided almost right above them without notice. A nudge from her mind was all it took to see that there was no magic protecting her prey. She came around, coming at the group on the ground from behind. Still she made no sound. Tree tops were all but tickling her belly as she passed. When she was all but on top of the line or carts, she breathed out a long steady stream of fire as she flew up its length. The trail lit with the glow of flames as screams of pain and terror rang out.
 

She circled back around. There were ten carts, all burning. She noticed bodies on the ground, a few still running on fire. A burst of magic killed her suffering victims. She passed over the scene again, being able to see perfectly in the fire light. From what she could tell there were no survivors. Umbra flapped her wings a few times, returning to her previous altitude and original course.
 

* * * * *

Sasha did her best not to grin. She took in the rose in front of her as it grew. She'd all but mastered making plants grow. It was easy for her, much to Legon's frustration; it had taken him months to make it as far as she did.
 

"Ha. Look at that, how long did that take you Legon? A month?" Sasha taunted.

Legon smiled good-naturedly, "OK Sash, now concentrate and see if you can turn the blossoms from red to white."
 

From red to white, she could do this. Sasha focused on the plant in front of her. The feeling for making plants grow wasn't like using magic, it felt as though she was extending herself and her mind’s eye to the plant. It would grow to her will if she understood what she was doing. The ruby petals of the flower seemed to wilt folding in on themselves. She corrected what she was telling the plant to do and the flower popped back up to life, the petals a bright vibrant…

"GREEN!" she exclaimed falling back into her seat.
 

"You know, I think it did take me a month to master growing...but after that part was down, altering plants came pretty natural to me. I don't know, maybe it's my minor that made it so simple for me and not for you," Legon poked.
 

Sasha had that coming but she wasn't going to lose with grace, instead she stuck out her tongue and leaned back over the plant. She knew Legon was right; he was a biologic and she an elemental. Elementals always had a harder time with altering plants, but that was on large scale projects, not making a flower a different color.
 

She tried again and this time the rose just died. "Oh no, I killed it," she said, feeling bad. It may have only been a flower, but she was the one who grew it to death.

Legon placed his hand next to the plant. "It's not dead yet," he said and she watched as the rose bounced back to life, its petals now back to a deep red.
 

* * * * *

Barnin mounted his horse trying not to cake the stirrups in mud. The rain was finally letting up and Barnin couldn't be happier. While in one aspect poor weather meant that Iumenta dragons were more likely to stay grounded, it also meant that the Elf dragons also wouldn't fly. Putting all of the responsibility of breaking Bonta to ground units, that with heavy rain made incendiary siege weapons ineffective. As a result little in the way of progress was being made on the city of Bonta. Barnin hoped that now the weather was getting better that progress could be made, he was tired of living in constant wet and mud.
 

Barnin and his men rode out from camp, clods of mud flinging from horses’ hooves. The sun was rising over the hills and Barnin relished its warm rays. The mounted units were on what they called
fishing patrols
, it was their job to find enemy units in the surrounding area and likewise make it harder for the Cona Empire to support Bonta.
 

As they ascended hills and trails the sun rose higher in the pale blue sky. The air grew muggy as the saturated ground lent up its moisture to the sun. Barnin stretched in his saddle, enjoying the feel of being dry.

"Feels good doesn't it boys?" he asked his men.

They all agreed.

The patrol had been uneventful but good for Barnin and his men and he thought he would tell them so. "I'm glad that we got called out on this it’s go-"

"CONTACT!" Heath shouted.

Barnin and his men moved off the trail drawing weapons looking around, seeing nothing. Above the hill in front of them a pink Iumenta dragon crested the horizon. Barnin fought the urge to panic, ordering his men to spread out. He knew there was no way to fight a dragon, all they could do was try and minimize casualties. Ahead there was another Iumenta, this one brown. Barnin could see their shiny armor strain to sparkle as the dragons themselves leached light from the sky, only their black claws and teeth seaming to gleam. Instantly he began to sweat and his heart raced.

"Help is on the way," Heath said softly.

There was a roar from behind them and Barnin turned to see an Elvin dragon approaching, its green scales bright and vibrant. The three creatures engaged each other, coming in low to the ground. Barnin turned to the south, seeing that more Elvin dragons were on their way, but likely wouldn't make it in time to help their brave comrade.
 

The green dragon was being forced closer to the ground, taking heavy damage its blood spattering the hillside. Barnin was about to give the order to run when a thought came to him,
that Elf saved us, it could have waited for back up and won this fight easy, but we'd have died...
 

The pink Iumenta was just over head. "HEATH! Distract it!" and to the rest of his men, "Arrows, fire everything you've got!" They wouldn't be able to hurt the dragon; but take its head out the fight, give the other Elves time to arrive, that they could do.
 

Heath sent a bolt of yellow at the dragon, the spell flashed before its eyes making it turn to look at Barnin and his men. In that split second the green dragon lashed out with its tail hitting the pink Iumenta's wing. There was a crack as bone broke and the beast fell the short distance to the ground.
 

As the pink Iumenta landed, Barnin could see magic run the length of the dragon’s wing, it looked at them furious. "CHARGE!" Barnin yelled holding his sword aloft.
 

It was a credit to his men that not a single one hesitated, all spurring their horses at the angry dragon. Barnin saw a flick of green just before the pink Iumenta sent a spell at him and his men. There was a crack like thunder and a flash of pink and green, but Barnin rode on. His men split as they reached the dragon. It launched forward snapping at them. Barnin saw Ankle swing his sword, hitting the dragon’s nose and doing no damage what so ever.
You aren't supposed to win
he told himself. Another of his men ducked avoiding the dragon’s tail.

Barnin saw two more flicks of color around him. He looked to see the two incoming Elf dragons sending spells at the Iumenta. There was more thunder and the pink Iumenta refocused on the Elves taking off, joining its companion in the sky. They stayed close together holding off the Elves’ spells. The green dragon backed away from the Iumenta. The Iumenta turned and retreated. The green Elf waited for the other two dragons to join it and then they flew after the Iumenta.
 

Barnin looked to his men. Seeing the looks on their faces, some looked ready to fight; others were starting to realize what they had just done. The new guy that Barnin had snapped at the other day and the one that avoided the pink’s tail looked up in the sky, angry, "That's right you better fly away!" and that did it, everyone’s nerves broke. Barnin had to keep from falling out of the saddle he was laughing so hard.
 

Later Barnin was surprised that he didn't get any reprimand from command about what had happened, they seemed to be in shock about the situation.

"And why did you do this?" one of his commanding officers asked.

Barnin wasn't about to tell the truth. "If the green dragon lost, then we would have been taken out anyway, it was a narrow shot but a shot none the less," he paused, making up his mind to be honest. "And whoever that was that saved us would have died; they were going to lay down their life for a bunch of people they didn't know. I couldn't in good conscience run."

His commander seemed to think about that for a while. "Most would have run, it's the safe decision to make; however, staying like you did ended up working. It saved lives and I dare say earned some respect with the Elves, good job son, I wish I had ten more like you."
 

Barnin looked down, "Sir, respectfully you have twenty-nine more like me, not one of my men hesitated each and everyone did their job."

The commander nodded smiling, "That's good to hear, thank you, I stand corrected."
 

* * * * *

Ankle was waiting in their unit’s command tent for Barnin to return. Ankle wasn't sure how much trouble they were going to be in for helping out an Ascended. On the one hand he knew that it was a suicidal thing to do that could have cost their entire unit for nothing, but on the other hand it was the right thing to do.
 

Heath was sitting at the one table in the tent on one of four chairs. The table and chairs weren't really theirs, they'd found them on the side of a road during patrol and thought they would add to the overall feel of the muddy burlap tent. Ankle pulled out a chair and sat.
 

Barnin walked into the tent, taking Ankle and Heath by surprise. "That went better than I thought it would," he said.

"Are we going to be punished?" Heath asked.

"No, they were happy with us. I think if we had taken losses that it would have been different, but we didn't so we are the good guys," Barnin explained.

Ankle was about to speak when an Elf walked into the tent. Seeing Elves was not uncommon, so Ankle didn't think anything of it, until he noticed that the man’s brown eyes had green flecks in them.
 

Ankle got up as Barnin turned to the Elf. It seemed to take Barnin a moment to register who the Elf was. "Oh, you must be the dragon that saved us, thank you," he said.

The Elf’s face showed little emotion, "I could say the same for you, and thank you."

Barnin nodded, "Well, you're welcome. May I ask if your lot killed those Iumenta?"

The Elf glanced around the tent taking in all of its muddy glory. "No, we did not. It is rare for Ascended to be killed, though I most certainly would have been if not for your unit. May I ask who the magic user was? Forgive me; I didn't get much of a look at any of your faces."
 

Heath stood up stepping forward looking uncomfortable. "It was me," Heath said.

"What class are you?" the Elf asked.

"Class? I-I'm a class one, Sir."
 

Ankle knew that Heath was always overly critical of his skills, almost seeming ashamed to call himself a Venefica.

"Why did you choose the spell you did? It was a burst of light if I am not mistaken."

Heath looked more uncomfortable, "I was going to distract is all Sir. I couldn't hurt an Ascended if my life depended on it, but I figured a blast of light could at least make it hard for it to see or take its attention away. Sorry for making a poor choice Sir."

The Elf looked confused. "Poor choice? I think you miss understand me, I was not criticizing your choice, most would have tried to hurt the Iumenta which would have not even gotten its attention. Instead you chose to do something that would accomplish your goal; a choice I might add that saved me, but also gave my companions time to help us all. Good work."
 

Heath looked like he was going to faint. "Thank you Sir."
 

The Elf turned his gaze to Barnin, "You ordered this?"
 

"Yes I did."
 

"Why?" the Elf asked.

"You saved our lives and more, we are on the same side, and it’s our job to protect each other no matter the cost."

"Many would call you reckless or stupid," the Elf pointed out.

Barnin smiled, "I know, but the same could be said for you taking on two Iumenta dragons to help some humans."

For the first time Ankle saw the Elf smile, his thin lips turning up at the edges. "We are fools both, but I think better men as a result, don't you think?"

Barnin laughed. "Yes on both accounts, Ankle here actually made contact with his sword on the dragon’s nose," Barnin said pointing over to Ankle.

"And?" the Elf asked Ankle.

"Didn't get a good swipe at her, but she was scared, I'll tell you that much, next time Sir, next time."

"Her?" the Elf asked confused.

"Wasn't that a girl dragon?" Ankle asked. "She was pink."

To Ankle's surprise the Elf laughed loudly. "No my brave friend, she was a he; the color of our magic has no effect on our gender," he said laughing again.

Ankle laughed too. "Whoops, I always just figured since Ise is pink..."
 

The Elf calmed. "Do you mean Un Prose Iselin of House Evindass?"

"Yeah I mean Un Prose Iselin," he said wondering if he had spoken disrespectfully.

A light seemed to turn on in the Elves eyes, "You are that human unit that Un Prosa Legon speaks so highly of. I should have guessed, well today I am truly honored." The Elf looked at them all different. "You must be Barnin, and you based on your rank, you must be Ankle," then to Heath, "and you're Heath."

"You have heard of us?" Heath asked.

"Why yes, you are the human unit that Un Prosa Legon so readily trusts and it was you who found Mors if I am not mistaken."

"You know about that?" Barnin asked.

"Mors? Yes, it was your mission that compelled the Great Houses into action. All Elves have been told of Mors, though most of us do not know mission specifics, I am high enough to have been told. You must remember your mission was secret mostly from humanity, it would have been bad for the Iumenta to have known you were coming."