Hero's Journey

Chapter 26

Happy Thanksgiving!

~Ashlee💕

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Delia, Xelin, and Vilh pick their way through the chaos of the attack with Maya leading the way.  So far everything has gone according to plan.  Rissa, Iglesias, and the others have created a sufficient distraction for Maya's team to move around unnoticed. 

Everywhere around them Shadowlanders dressed in black clothing fight against Rissa and Iglesias's team.  Their numbers are nearly overwhelming, but they seem to be holding up well. 

Maya ushers her team past a large tent, Delia makes sure to stay close behind as they make their way to the cages.  She can't see them now, but she hopes that they're close, the more people they have fighting on their side the better. Rissa and Iglesias's team is holding up well now, but Delia is unsure as to how long that will last with the Shadowlanders' number advantage.

Suddenly Delia's breath catches in her throat as Maya and her begin to turn the corner. Just up ahead nearly a hundred Shadowlanders guard the cages vigilantly.

Thankfully Delia is able to pull Maya out of sight before the guards are able to spot them turning the corner.

"What is it?" Vilh asks.

"Sticks and stones! They've been holding back. They have a whole army just around the corner." Delia hisses under her breath.

"Oh no." Xelin groans.

Maya's eyes widen, terrified at the danger literally just around the corner. 

"We have to warn Iglesias and the others." Delia says urgently. "They won't be able to handle all of them."

Vilh stealthily peaks around the corner. "They have weapons.  These must be the secret weapons we suspected."

Delia takes a quick peak herself.  If the Shadowlanders aren't terrifying enough with their deathly grey-white skin, black clothes, and shaved heads their weapons make it even worse. 

Each and every weapon is crafted from similar materials, but different in appearance and use. From what she can see some have black clubs, others have wicked sharp knives with black handles, and still others have great broadswords with that same black material functioning as a handle. In the front lines of the group two of the men grasp great cracking whips with sharp barbs sticking out.

"These aren't regular weapons." Delia states the obvious.

"No, they're not." Vilh says. "And I agree with what you said, we need to warn the others."

"What about the prisoners?" Maya asks.

Everyone looks to Delia, her stomach drops.  Somehow she's become the leader. "I, uh."  Delia takes a deep breath and thinks for a moment, trying to ignore the pressure that she's under. "W-well there is four of us, two of us should go ahead and try to find either Iglesias or Rissa to warn them while two should stay here and make sure this army doesn't make any moves."

"And if they do?" Xelin asks.

"Then the two come to warn us." Delia says.

It isn't the best plan, but it will have to do, unfortunately.

"Then the question is, who will stay and who will go?" Vilh asks.

Delia bites her lip for a moment. "I think that you and I should go look for Rissa and Iglesias, Vilh." Delia says. "And I think that Maya and Xelin should stay here to watch." Delia turns her head to address Xelin. "You're fast enough that you can catch up with us if need be, correct?"

Xelin nods. "I'll be so fast you won't even see me."

A small smile quirks on Delia's lips. "Good, then we have a plan. Any questions?"

No one moves to ask anything, so with a final nod Vilh and Delia run back to the battle.

As soon as the clash of battle is in their line of sight the two split up in search for Rissa or Iglesias, or better yet, both.

Within all the heat of the fight Delia mostly goes unnoticed, only a few Shadowlanders go after her.  Not wanting to waste time she simply dodges their attacks and loses them in the fray. 

Jumping away from grabbing hands, she uses her height as an advantage as she searches for a dark head of hair and dark skin or a dark head of hair and tan skin.

There's so much going on around her that it's hard to see anyone except for flailing bodies and the glint of one of her side's weapons.  It's her group's advantage, they have weapons and the Shadowlanders don't, but that won't be for long.

For a moment Delia retreats to the sidelines of the battle to take a breath.  She just hopes that Vilh was able to find one of them.

Just then one of the men get pushed out of the fight, before he can dive back into the mess, Delia grabs his shoulder. The man jumps and nearly spears her through, but thankfully he sees her face in time.

"Delia." The man Delia recognizes as Mitch, sighs in relief.

Delia takes in his numerous injuries, she doesn't doubt that many of the men bare similar wounds, despite their current lack of weapons the Shadowlanders still are good fighters. 

Kagon would love this....

Delia brushes the thought off. "Mitch, it's good to see you're okay." She smiles, but then turns serious.  "Do you know where either Iglesias or Rissa are? I need to talk to one of them immediately."

Mitch's brow crumples in thought. "I believe I saw Riss over there." He extends a hand, pointing to where the battle is at its fiercest.

"Alright, thank you Mitch." Delia smiles. "Good luck."

Mitch sends her back a devious grin before running into battle and immediately taking off a Shadowlander's head.

Delia winces slightly at the violence. Even though the Shadowlanders are evil, they still are people. It's not like when Kagon had slain beasts, these are men with families and friends. Now that Delia sees it all she isn't so sure that this is the right thing.

But there's a battle to be fought and prisoners to save. There's no other choice.

And so Delia takes a single deep breath before plunging back into the bloody mass of the battle, going straight to its center in order to find Rissa.

That's when Delia spots her in the midst of a fight with a rather large Shadowlander. Instead of killing him she shoves him away and back into the battle where he goes to fight someone else. Delia suddenly hesitates, her body frozen as her mind spins at Rissa's curious actions.

She shakes it off, however when Rissa's eyes land on her. The woman stomps over. "What is it? You should be freeing the prisoners." Rissa demands, anger lighting up her eyes like bouts of lightning ripping through a dark sky.

"I'm sorry, but it's an emergency." Delia apologizes.

"Well, what is it? We can't stand here forever without being killed."

"When our team made it to the cages we had to stop, a whole army of Shadowlanders stood guarding the cage. We nearly got caught."

Rissa stays silent, intently listening to the scribe. "But these Shadowlanders have weapons. This is all a trap, we need to do something and soon." Delia urges, worry lacing her voice.

"I agree, something needs to be done immediately. Have you told anyone else?" Rissa asks.

Delia shakes her head. "No, only my team knows."

Rissa's eyes look relieved. "Good."

Delia's eyes widen in confusion. "Wha-"

Rissa sends her sprawling to the rocky ground. "It's not time yet."