The Last of the Dragons-Set 1

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       "THEY'RE COMING! AT LEAST FIVE DOZEN OF THEM! THEY'VE SPOTTED US AND ARE FOLLOWING US BACK!" One of the men shouted.

Bailey stood up in a hurry as Tahli and Amy came to my side. Their eyes wide with concern.

"How many did you say?" Bailey exclaimed.

"We couldn't count them, but it looks to be five or six dozen at least. They've spotted us and have already started to make their way back towards us. By now they must have breached the mountains. If we hurry, we can stop them from reaching us. We must set out now!" The second man replied.

I looked to Amy and Tahli, both of whom nodded their heads silently.

"Right! I need one hundred men at the ready at once! We out number them nearly two to one, while still remaining small enough a group to maneuver if need be. Make it fast!" I shouted over my shoulder.

Within a minute or so, at least one hundred or so men had come forward, weapons in hand, one of which stepped forward with several additional horses tethered together. He dismounted his horse and handed us the reins before remounting his own horse, awaiting command. I turned to Amy and Tahli and nodded my head before hopping up on the horses back. Bailey hoped on the back of my horse and stared defiantly into my eyes with her bow clutched firmly in her hand. Without a single word, I turned to Jules.

"Take care of the girl." I said.

I held my bow up and called out a war cry before starting out of the clearing with my small band of men in trail. We galloped through the mountains for a few short minutes, before suddenly, up ahead, a large group of men on horseback appeared from around a bend in the otherwise somewhat straight path through the mountains.

"Here we go!" I shouted.

We were still to far for our bows to be of any affect, though it was clear that the enemies weapons were not so bound by distance. The men dismounted their horses and lined up in a straight line, filling the centre of the wide path between mountains. Then, in a heartbeat, the loud bang of their weapons fired off, with dozens of our own men and horses dropping to the ground. As they reloaded their weapons, what remained of us held our bows up to the sky and let our arrows fly. Moments later, I watched as dozens of men standing shoulder to shoulder were shafted by arrows, knocking them to the ground with painful screams. 

"Bailey keep your damn head down!" I shouted as Bailey shot off an arrow.

Just as I turned my head back towards the enemy, yet another barrage of fire took down several more of our own men, followed once again by another hail of arrows raining down on them from above. Then, suddenly, for seemingly no reason, the survivors mounted their horses, at least those that hadn't been hit by our arrows, and turned in retreat. I was confused, but in the moment, I didn't question it. We stopped, and dismounted our horses just as we reached the unorganized pile of dead bodies with arrows lodged in their chests and heads, blood pooling on the ground. I looked around at the men who had survived, and not surprisingly, that number was very few, with only fourteen men, along with Amy, Tahli, Bailey and myself having survived, the others, killed in the brief but deadly fight. I knelt down beside the dead body and pulled the arrow from its chest, before looking in the direction that the survivors had ridden off in.

"Jess? What's wrong? We won!" Bailey exclaimed.

I sighed as I tossed the arrow aside.

"We may have won this battle, but I think we may have just lost the war." I said in reply.