Rise Of Pandora

Rise Of Pandora: IV. Dry Bones

"Life...you're here until you're not."

-Baccus Obryn

II. Vikings

The discord grew.

The kingdom's gate began to shake.

The curtain wall rumbled.

Everything below became oppressed by an ominous black, cementing the dismal reality of this morose day. High in the sky were these colossal figures which flew down past the raining azure, eclipsing the little sunshine that still lingered. All the while, those mysterious thuds in the distance grew more and more loud and intimidating. Tenniss could hardly see past the hole. He rushed out of the room and looked up at the sky. His eyes widened and his jaw stretched agape in astonishment along with this unshakable and dominating sense of dismay that constricted him.

"Shadowbirds!" Tenniss shrieked with dismay, his dry bones vibrating underneath his numbed flesh. He had thought his vision was deceiving him, due to his age but they had not and he knew it. What he was witnessing now was fleets of enormous Shadowbirds that appeared to him almost as a sea of monotonous black.

The other Gate Bearers wailed as Tenniss lost the faith he had in thinking they could win this battle. He witnessed their grand statures. They were so large and so lengthy, flowing in a smooth and undisturbed manner that mirrored a placid body of water. There were far too many, too many for the drained Gate Bearers and soldiers to bear. The Gate Bearers peeked upwards from out their ramparts as they endured the hail of arrows shot by the Deathknights below.

The men all gasped in fear like a chant to which they all shared in unison. The Shadowbirds let out deafening squawks and cries. Then some of the men cowered out of the curtain wall, out down the belfry and then they were on quickly ground level in haste retreat.

They ran for their lives in a frenzy, losing all sense of training and discipline that they had been hardened into them over the years. Not the Ereignfall soldiers, they stayed and fought bravely, no matter how futile. The look on all their faces was that of tangible hysteria. All they knew was to run far away. Where? That did not matter.

Only Tenniss and a few willing Gate Bears stayed to fight this wrathful battle. The mere sight of them was enough to drive the majority away. Little by little the curtain walls became barren. Those creatures in the sky boasted sizes so horrifying, some even bearing wingspans that stretched nearly thirty meters across. There was no visible end to them from where Tenniss could see. 

Their squawks boomed out like thunder. The kingdom blackened as more Shadowbirds drowned the sky. The Deathknights paraded around in their coordinates. The sounds from the forest grew more intimidating and menacing with every passing moment, he felt the stone floor start to quiver below his feet. The trees in the woods of the Colossal Snowpeak Woods rustled and blew radically. Progressively it became clear to Tenniss what those distant sounds could be. To Tenniss, the thuds began to be sound more and more like footsteps. The sounds of the footsteps were massive and traveled far.

During the disaster, three men ran toward the eastern stretch of the wall. They saw Tenniss as he ran into the main room. They quickly called out to him but it was too loud for the seasoned commander to hear their calls. The men dropped to the floor and crawled on their knees and di not stop until they were in front of the main room. Tenniss eventually noticed and looked over to his right, his distressed eyes meeting each of theirs.

One man among the three was Everwood's nephew, Darian Everwood. Darian was to go to the capital for the Survivor's Day memorial. His shift had ended seven hours ago, and he was packing up to travel into the capital to enjoy the festival. But, he was among the Gate Bearers who heard the war bell and so he came.