Brian Pratt - Fires of prophesy

James sees guards rushing into the room after him. When they see the hole in the wall, one yells something back down the hallway as most of them turn and race back the way they had come.

“Let’s get out of here!” James says, as he leads them down the alley. As they reach the end, he looks back the way they had come and sees soldiers entering the alley, hell bent on catching them. They turn and run down the lane, trying to make the edge of town. A guard runs around a corner in front of them, and before he even realizes they’re there, Jiron has cut him down with the sword.

“Good with a sword too?” asks James, panting from the exertion.

“Didn’t always use the knives,” he replies, “I just prefer them.”

When they come to the end of the lane, they realize they’ve made it to the edge of town, rising before them is the mountain. Behind them are dozens of soldiers racing after them and several crossbow bolts fly past, missing by a narrow margin.

They make a break for the mountain and the relative safety of the trees. The ground begins to rise as they reach the treeline.

From behind, they hear the soldiers in pursuit. James glances back and realizes they’re gaining on them. As he runs, James searches the ground for rocks, but in the dusk of early evening, it’s hard to make any out. Spotting a couple, he pauses only momentarily to pick them up before he races to catch up with the others.

He glances back again and now can make out about a dozen and a half soldiers are in pursuit, it doesn’t look as if the officer is among them. “We’re either going to have to convince them to not follow us, or take them out,” he says to the others. “We’ll never outrun them.”

Jiron looks back and says, “I agree.”

“Ladies,” James says, “you continue on up, we’ll find you.”

Delia grabs Cassie’s hand and together they continue on up the mountain as fast as they can.

“Alright gentlemen,” he says, “let’s do it.” He stops and turns to face the soldiers while Jiron and Tinok split off to either side.

He finds the crossbowmen and using the stones he collected, begins taking them out one by one. Jiron and Tinok move forward to engage the oncoming soldiers. Jiron using his sword and Tinok with his knives, they weave a dance of death that begins felling soldiers at a quick pace.

James stays to the rear and continues throwing stones, with the added speed and accuracy only magic can achieve, until all but a couple of the soldiers have been eliminated. Turning tail, the remaining soldiers promptly retreat back to town.

When they come back together to watch the retreating soldiers, James notices Jiron has acquired two knives from the fallen soldiers. “Let’s find the girls,” he says as they turn and hurry to catch up to them.

“Are they dead?” Delia asks when the boys catch up.

“Most of them, the rest fled back to town,” Jiron replies.

With relief evident in her voice Cassie asks, “Then we’re safe?”

“Until morning at least,” James assures her. “But you can bet they’ll be coming after us at first light.”

“And they’ll probably bring everyone,” adds Tinok.

“Quite likely,” agrees James. “We’ve killed over a dozen soldiers and embarrassed their leader. So yeah, they’ll be coming.”

“What are we going to do?” Cassie asks, scared.

“Let’s get higher in the mountains and at first light, try to find a place to make a stand,” James says.

“Good idea,” agrees Tinok. Anger still burns in him over the attempted attack on Cassie.

They proceed further up into the mountains, the dark of night making the way difficult at best. When they come across a somewhat level area, they make camp. Tired, hungry and a little scared over what the next day will bring, they lie down and do their best to get some sleep, the boys taking turns at watch.

James takes the first watch and sits there as he hears his companions, one by one, fall asleep. He knows that tomorrow’s outcome will depend heavily upon him and what he can do with magic. Going over in his mind different strategies and solutions that he came up with in similar situations back home, during their role playing campaigns, he tries to find one which would work the best giving their situation. Thank god he at least has a couple of good fighters to hold them off while he does his thing. After coming up with several nasty ideas, he finishes his turn at watch and then wakes Tinok for his turn. Lying down, he does his best to fall asleep.

Morning dawns overcast, the sky beginning to lighten even though the sun is still behind the mountains. Jiron returns to camp just after dawn from reconnoitering down the mountain for signs of the enemy to find no sign of James. Worried, he wakes up everyone else and is about to begin searching for him when he sees him walking back toward the camp, a couple of rabbits in hand.

“Here,” he says as he hands the rabbits to Cassie, “take these further on up the mountain and cook ‘em.”

“But a fire will lead them straight to us,” objects Jiron.

“Exactly,” James says. “We want them to think we’re just a bunch of stupid kids who think they’ve gotten away from them. That we are lulled into a sense of security and are careless enough to light the way for them.”

“There’s a spot another hundred feet up that would be prefect to set up camp,” he tells them.

“What will you be doing?” he asks.

“While the girls are up there alerting them as to which way to come,” he explains, “we’ll be down here setting up several nasty surprises for them.”

“Surprises?” Delia asks.

“Yeah,” he replies, “surprises.” He points down the way they came last night and says, “We inadvertently followed a game trail up the mountain and I’m betting they’ll follow it too. Especially when they see the smoke from the fire.”

“What should we do?” Cassie asks.

“You and Delia go up the mountain and begin cooking the rabbits,” he says. He then points to Jiron, “You stay with me.” To Tinok he says, “You need to stay with the girls in case anyone gets past us.”

Tinok nods his head in agreement though he’s dismayed about missing the fun.

“Save some for me and James,” Jiron says, indicating the rabbits.

“We’ll see,” Tinok says, a grin playing across his face.

As Tinok and the girls begin to head up the mountain, James and Jiron start setting up the surprises. “Just what do you have in mind?” Jiron asks him.

“Well, you see…” he then explains what he plans to do as they make their way down the trail.

“Here they come,” Jiron says from where they hide behind a fallen log. The first man can be seen coming up the trail below them. “They’re following the trail just as you figured.”

“I wasn’t sure they would,” admits James. “Though I’m glad I was right.”

“Looks like they brought the whole garrison,” Jiron observes as more and more men come into view.

“Hope so,” James says, “can’t afford to miss even one.”

“You’re a bloodthirsty one, aren’t you?” Jiron asks.

James turns to him and says, “I don’t like killing, to me it’s just a waste. But if I have to, then I want to make it so they’ll never trouble me again.”

“See your point,” he says.

They watch as the men proceed further up the trail. “You ready?” James asks him.

“Yeah,” he replies with a grin, “let’s do it.”

They stand up from behind the log as James throws two stones in quick succession, killing two of the forward soldiers.

Then they yell as if scared, “Run!” and turn to race back up the trail, the soldiers immediately follow in hot pursuit.