Toby Neighbors - Fierce Loyalty

“We have to get some rest,” he said. “I’m so hungry I feel sick.”

“And we have to warn everyone we can,” Brianna insisted. “We have to be ready when the witch is, or the Five Kingdoms will fall.”

“Okay, so let’s start with King Zorlan. We kept his troops alive through the night. Surely they’ll help.”

Brianna nodded and they flew north again. They could see bands of the roving monsters, but the centaur-like creatures became sluggish in the daylight. Some even landed and slept.”

“It’s good to know they get tired too,” Zollin shouted.

Brianna just nodded, her face pinched with concern. Zollin worried about her. He knew something had happened when she dove into the molten rock to defeat the giant, but he had no idea what it was. They found King Zorlan’s camp near a spring surrounded by tall palm trees. The dragons landed nearby and almost immediately lay down, sleeping while they had a chance. Zollin wasn’t surprised that they were tired. Flying through the night was one thing, but carrying someone on their backs and breathing fire for hours on end must have been exhausting.

Zollin and Brianna moved to the grove of trees. There were soldiers on watch, but most were already asleep. A tough looking man with a gruff voice met them at the tree line.

“We appreciate your help through the night, but I can’t let you come any closer,” the man said.

“But we need to speak to King Zorlan,” Brianna tried to explain.

“He’s resting just now. Perhaps in a few hours.”

“Well, we could use some supplies,” Zollin said. “Food, water, whatever you can spare.”

“We can’t spare anything. We’re on emergency rations as it is.”

“Are you hoarding the water too?” Zollin said angrily. “In case you didn’t notice we were kind of busy all night fighting too.”

“I’m sorry,” the man said, although his eyes were hard, suggesting he wasn’t sorry at all. “You’ll have to find your own supplies.”

Zollin threw his hands up. He was so tired the gesture made him pant. Brianna was more civil.

“Can we leave a message for King Zorlan?” she asked.

“I don’t see why not,” the man said, still watching Zollin and resting his hand on the hilt of his sword.

“Listen to me,” Brianna snapped.

The soldier was surprised by her sudden burst of anger. “We aren’t the enemy,” she hissed. “Now listen well to this message and deliver it to your king as soon as he wakes. Are you listening?”

The man nodded.

“Good,” Brianna said. “Tell him there are more creatures coming. Tell him we are going north, to warn Yelsia and Baskla. We have to make a stand. We’ll meet him at the Walheta Mountains if he’s willing to fight with us. Tell him to bring whatever soldiers he can muster to the mountains. Tell him to get his people moving north. Can you do that?”

“You’re going north,” the man repeated. “We need to gather our forces and move north as well. You’ll be making a stand at the Walheta.”

“That’s right. And tell him there are more creatures coming. Worse than the monsters we fought last night.”

“I’ll tell him.”

Brianna and Zollin walked away. Zollin was angry and tired, but the way Brianna spoke wasn’t lost on him. She was making plans, strategic plans. He’d never known her to take charge in such a precise way, and while she was a fierce as Mansel in battle, he was surprised to hear her making battle plans.

“You want to tell me what has happened to you?” he asked when they neared the dragons.

“What do you mean?”

“I just mean, something is different about you. I can’t say exactly what it is, but…” Zollin searched for the right way to express his thoughts. “You seem confident, more decisive somehow.”

“I don’t think now is the time to be indecisive,” Brianna said.

“How do you know that there are going to be more creatures coming up out of the crevice?”

“I just do.”

“You said you know what she has planned,” Zollin said. “How is that possible?”

“I don’t know, Zollin,” Brianna said, tears streaking down her face. “I don’t know how you work magic or how I make dragons, but it’s real, isn’t it? You’re a wizard. I’m dragon-kind. I don’t know what has happened to our world, but I do know that Gwendolyn isn’t defeated. And I’ve seen the creatures of the Darkened Realm.”

“What are you talking about?” Zollin asked.

“When I dove down into the ground, I just kept pushing and pushing. I melted everything around me, but I really didn’t go that far before the caverns below us opened up. It was sort of like a dream. You know when you have a nightmare and you can see things, but everything is dark and elusive? That’s what it was like, only there are real monsters in the Darkened Realm. The demon you fought, the giant I fought-they were just the beginning. I could see other demons in the Darkened Realm. It was rotting and grotesque. They do nothing but fight and maim each other, but they can’t die. And Gwendolyn was there. I don’t know how I knew it was her, but it had to be. She was surrounded by horrific creatures, Zollin, and she didn’t look pleased.”

Zollin was dumbfounded. He had seen Gwendolyn drive the knife into her sister’s heart and couldn’t imagine how incredibly cruel someone would have to be to sacrifice her own sibling just to get more power.

“Well,” Zollin said, his throat so dry he had trouble getting the words out. “I guess now isn’t the best time to pick a fight with King Zorlan’s thugs. We better get moving if we’re going to warn people.”

“One of us should go north and warn King Felix. The other should warn the towns in Ortis and then muster the troops in Baskla,” Brianna explained.

“I’ll go to Baskla,” Zollin said. “King Felix isn’t too fond of me at the moment, but Prince Wilam should listen to you. I’m going into the mountains too, we’ll need more help than just an army.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think we need the magical people of the Five Kingdoms to pitch in and help us.”

“The Dwarves?”

“Yes, the dwarves, the dragons, the mountain giants, the forest trolls. The magical people are drawn to me for a reason-maybe this it.”

“So it’s good-bye,” she said sadly, “again.”

“Not forever,” Zollin said, taking Brianna in his arms. “I love you, Brianna. Maybe there will never come a day when the Five Kingdoms know peace and we can settle into the life we’ve always dreamed of, but I won’t stop fighting for that dream. And I’ll never stop loving you, no matter what.”

She smiled and rested her head against his shoulder, but their tender moment was short lived, as Tig came swooping down. The landing was sloppy, its big blue talons sliding into the soft turf and kicking up a cloud of dust.

Brianna’s body tensed and then the other two dragons roared.

“What is it?” Zollin asked.

“The war,” Brianna said, her voice tight with fear and tension. “It’s starting.”

When Offendorl came back to his senses, he was in the deepest depths of the Darkened Realm. All he knew was pain. Curved spikes protruded from his wrists, igniting a fire of pain that spread up both arms and made his shoulders spasm into thick, painful knots. The spikes were attached to thick chains that kept the ancient wizard’s arms spread wide, with his feet barely touching the stone floor.

Thick mucus ran from the wounds that the two scorpion-tailed creatures had inflicted on Offendorl. The fluid was a mixture of blood, venom, and puss that smelled so foul it made the ancient wizard’s stomach convulse. Sweat poured from his body, both from the unending pain and the intense heat of the dark cavern. Offendorl saw hideous creatures skittering over the stone walls and floor, but it was too dark to recognize what they were. Still, the wizard knew they weren’t normal creatures. They were a twisted, evil version of animals from the realms of men.