Love, War, and Flight

Chapter 13 - The First War

I  arrived at Riveredge with more fear then anyone, and was one of the last to arrive. I glanced around the crowded foyer, and I saw the nervousness in everyone. Wouldn’t you be if you knew you could die today?

“Get in your groups!” Queen Lufrewop shouted, suddenly appearing from above. Faeries left and right scattered all around, grabbing their weapons. I ran to my group, which had no metal weapons, but our own Magic. “Close-combat men, fly to the border between Winged and Wingless territory. Women, follow behind the men, and Fighting Magics follow behind women.” She ordered everyone.

I spotted Cylak out of the whole group. He didn’t look too nervous, but enough so I could notice. A tear ran down my cheek at the thought of him dying. The men took to the skies with their swords and claymores, and the women followed with their bows and arrows. Fighting Magics followed behind the women, and were accompanied by the Queen. When we flew over Downtown, the area was no more than a wasteland. Burned-down buildings and all nature completely destroyed. No other faerie was around; Winged or Wingless. We arrived at the Hulinya River, where a thick, grey-stoned, fifty-meter bridge stood between the Winged and Wingless territory. The Wingless side had a few Wingless commoners, but no army. The few Wingless saw the army and ran in the other direction, probably to warn the Wingless.

“You four.” Queen Lufrewop started, looking at the few archers in the front, raising her hand for the signal. “Fire.”

The Archers drew their arrows and shot, all of them being accurate. The Wingless fell immediately, screaming before they collapsed on the ground, lifeless. I covered me eyes as she saw them connect, and painful screams rang in my ears.

“Calia.” The Queen said as I whipped my head to face her. “Burn this place down.” She ordered, but I just stared at her unbelievably. I’m a non-violent person. I couldn’t harm anything, intentionally. “Burn it down.” The Queen ordered again. I walked over to one of the buildings, and the Winged army followed to the other side of the bridge, the Wingless Territory. I placed one of my hands on the two-story wooden building. It ignited, fire racing up the sides of the walls and onto the roof. Soon it was nothing but ashes and wood. “Make this town disappear, like they did to our Downtown.” Queen Lufrewop smiled sinisterly. “Aaron, go help her.”

Aaron and I destroyed the town together, myself burning the buildings down and Aaron raising the ground rapidly to shatter the buildings. When we finished, it looked like their Downtown, but the feeling I had still stuck with me.

“We shall now go to King Talamaki’s army, and finish this newly-started war. Then we’ll show who the dominant faerie race in Tanyela is.” The Queen clasped her fist winningly.

The other Winged cheered, all except me. Maybe war was the only option, but it still sucked to fight. Aaron put a hand on my shoulder soothingly.

“It’s okay, I feel your pain.” Aaron said softly. “It’ll be over soon.”

“The sooner the war, the sooner I die.” I muttered, thinking of the inevitable.

“Don’t think like that.”

“Kind of hard not to.” I muttered as the army flew above civilian Wingless, the Archers shooting most of them. I had my eyes clamped shut most of the time.

When the army arrived at Culikwa castle, which was apparently the name of Talamaki’s castle, the Wingless army was all set up on the ground. King Talamaki appeared in front of his army, and Queen Lufrewop and King Talamaki approached one another. They stared at each other, almost like a last-chance-to-surrender type of thing.

“If you surrender, we won’t fight you.” The Queen told him.

“No, I think we’re good on fighting your pitiful army.” Talamaki laughed.

“Suit yourself.” She said as they both ran back to their armies.

“Soldiers, Archers, Fighting Magics, I can’t guarantee you’ll live, but I can guarantee you’ll be remembered.” Queen Lufrewop said softly, raising her hand for the signal. “ATTACK!”

“ATTACK!” Talamaki screeched from his side.

The soldiers ran onto the battlefield first, somewhere around eight-hundred each. Archers kept their range, firing arrows toward their enemies. Constant screams of pain and death lashed out everywhere, and other noises like metal being clashed onto each other and the sound of wind through the arrows, flying through the air. Lufrewop and Talamaki took cover behind their armies.

I tried launching fire at the Wingless, fighting for the side I knew I belonged on. Aaron made the ground shake, and elevated himself. Pointed rocks and ground made their way to Wingless heads and chests. I saw most of the Wingless Archers were aiming at Aaron, so I conjured and launched more fire. I knew my face showed fear as the fire became more powerful and I had a wall of fire, launched it at the Wingless, which took out a good thirty of them. Animals finally arrived, and I started to believe that we could actually win. Hopes were lost when Animals arrived for their side, too. Dragons were fighting dragons, and whatever mythical horse was there fought other mythical horses, and maybe some soldier. Soldiers started mounting the horses and fighting off dragons, and the Archers now aimed for the animals. Soldiers still fought soldiers, as they couldn’t fight the animals anyway, at least without another animal to ride. I watched as the faeries would die left and right, a pool of blood surrounding them, wherever they’re stabbed, shot, smashed, or burned. I looked around constantly for my friends, making sure they’re all alive. Thankfully, they were.

As the war went on, I would see King Talamaki whispering to a couple soldiers and pointing at me. I launched some fire at them, but I wasn’t skilled enough and the fire wasn’t powerful enough to reach them. My focus stopped when she saw arrows flying by, and I swiftly dodged them, and flew over to where Aaron was trying to kill a dragon.

“This thing won’t die!” Aaron screamed to me as the red dragon thrashed his teeth at him, but dodged it. “I’ve been trying to kill this thing for ten minutes!”

“Sorry, good luck with that! Have you seen Cylak or Ezami!?” I yelled back to him, ducking my head from an arrow.

“Cylak’s down there, and I haven’t seen Ezami!” Aaron yelled, pushing me aside to dodge an ax.

“Thanks! Stay safe!” I yelled as I flew back to my spot. I flew down to help Cylak, who was fighting with a big metal sword. I launched fire at a Wingless who was creeping up behind him. It fell down motionless. Cylak turned around to face me.

“Hey, thanks!” Cylak smiled, knowing I needed it for reassurance. He swung the sword quickly right by my neck, but then drew it back. A Wingless fell behind me. “Calia, I don’t know if we’ll live through this, but if we don’t-”

He wasted no time and reached over me and put his arm around my back and pulled me in. He wrapped his arms around me completely, pressed his lips on mine. He clenched me tighter, protecting me from all the chaos we seemed to be ignoring. He jerked away as soon as an arrow flew past our faces, and turned around, picking another fight with a Wingless.

He kissed me…

As soon as I was back in reality, I raced back to my spot, noticing more and more Wingless running toward Cylak, sword raised at hand. The fire raged on my hands, but this was more bright and large, and ran all up my arms in the next second. I threw a sword-shaped flame at a Wingless, who disintegrated on contact. I could feel myself becoming more and more powerful with every attack.

~~~~~~~~~~

As the day moved on, both army’s numbers lowered drastically. It also fell dark, and the only light seen was my flame and the dragon’s fire. Talamaki’s army retreated first, followed shortly by Lufrewop’s. Lifeless bodies lay everywhere, Winged and Wingless, all over Talamaki’s castle grounds, and I couldn’t believe how many people were dead.

I flew as I watched the Winged retreat, looking for Cylak, Ezami and Aaron. I hadn’t seen Ezami since the fight began, so I became extremely worried about her. I glanced over the hundreds of bodies, but none were Ezami. I saw Aaron and Cylak alive, thank God for that. I couldn’t stay in Wingless Territory; that would be suicidal.  I glanced around one more time, but still didn’t see her.

I sighed and started to walk slowly towards Winged Territory, when I felt something strike my head, making me shriek, but then I hit the ground and blacked out.