It had been 4 days since Nessa had reached the start of the Kadota Desert, she had only a few days of water left in her skin and only a few pieces of dried meat left. She was getting incredibly weakened by her wound constantly draining her strength and having already been heavily rationed for a few days with her food and water did not help her case. I need to get there soon, or I will be another victim claimed by the sand she thought to herself. She had given up looking around for landmarks 2 nights ago, the desert seemed the same day in day out. From the descriptions her mother had said during her stories, she was on the lookout for a cave that sat next to an oasis. Water in the desert…everywhere she looked the illusion of water was there! This had led her off on wild chases more than once and had led to the same outcome every time, nothing but sand, sand everywhere. If it were not for the healing magic this woman possessed, she would not would have even dreamed of coming into the d
“Wake up, we have preparation before the sun rises” Al’ik said to Nessa. Groaning she opened her eyes, it was still dark out, “I thought we were waiting for the sun to begin” Nessa said rubbing her eyes and sitting up. “Yes I am waiting for the sun to rise before I get to work but we need to prepare the wound and prepare you mentally for the day” Al’ik replied, “The longer we wait the more that will take its toll on you and you will never regain your full strength.” Standing up Nessa followed Al’ik outside, there was an altar style bed already setup just outside the cave mouth with a cloth thrown over the wooden frame. I hope this works Nessa thought to herself, the wound was sapping her strength everyday and she wanted it fixed as soon as possible. Al’ik threw Nessa some dried fruit and meat for something to eat before saying, “You should meditate before the sun rises to help clear your mind of doubt, I can help dull the pain with the drink I have been brewing, but it will still h
‘We will begin with some teaching’ Fafnir said to Rex after he had sat down in from of him in the mind vault. He spoke to Rex about the Blood War and why it was started. Rex’s father, Rector, had given Ean some land to satisfy his need to help rule the kingdom, which had never been done in the history of Dracoterrum, this also enraged the elders because no one is allowed to rule without passing The Dreaming selection. Rector was able to ease their anger by telling them he is ruling under him and he had to answer to him. Ean took this as disrespect and slowly greed and power poisoned his mind. He dreamed of a day he would take Dracoterrum by force and once the citizens of Vale trusted him, he used their army to attempt to invade. He coaxed a few of Bhutan’s high mages to assist him and Ean marched on Hale. Rector knew because of his connections he had placed to watch Ean and had his armies waiting for him at the border. Instead of backing down, Ean wasted thousands of lives in that batt
Once the man had burst out of the keep he came to a halt in front of the 3 companions, still ranting about dealing out the death penalty for the murder of his brother. “Who the f**k are you 3?” he yelled in their faces. They could see the vein popping from his neck, Lizz thought they were going to die. “These are the 3 accused of Dreg’s murder” replied a guard who was near them. This made the red-faced man leer at them, if looks could kill they would have all died by now. “I hereby sentence you 3 to death!!” he screamed pointing at them. “They cannot be sentenced to death without a trial my lord” said another man. “Typical politician” he sneered looking up and staring the man down, “Very well Jules, a trial it is. Tomorrow morning, we will sentence these 3 to death by hanging!!” he cried out lifting his arms, this made the crowd surrounding them start to cheer. This made Lizz cry out, “This is not right, how is it a fair trial!!??” “It’s fair if I say it is, you killed Dreg, so
Rex jumped up the moment the memories matched about who the person was. He quickly half dried himself, threw on some of the clothes that were put out for him and went in the direction he saw the woman walking. Not having a clear heading, he wandered aimlessly for a while looking into the faces of the maids he saw. Rounding a corner, he ran into Stug who was giving out orders to a man wearing a cloak, getting the man moving he looked back at Rex, eyed him up and down and saw him still half wet and asked hurriedly, “Is everything ok prince?” “Yes, one of the people you’re looking for is here! I saw her walk past my room” Rex said. “Really! They have the nerve to try and sneak back in, I will sort this out immediately!” he said and paced off towards his majordomo and said something to him. The majordomo nodded and immediately walked off to the main room of the building. He looked straight ahead and clapped his hands 3 times and then walked outside. Not a few seconds after the third clap
“Uurgh” was the only sound Rex could muster as he forced his eyes open. He had an intense headache from being hit on the head and was quite sure that wet feeling behind his head was blood. He could hear creaking noises before his eyes started to focus again, I am moving, he could feel the jolts. Blinking a few times to help clear his vision he sat his head up, he felt his hands and feet were bound tightly so he could not get up by himself. He could see 2 people to his front sitting facing forward and looking to his sides he saw wooden upright boards, he must have been in the back of a wagon.“Morning sunshine” came a voice from his feet area. Turning his head a little too quickly Rex felt his vision blur a little once more, don’t do that again he said to himself. Sitting at his feet was the woman from the vegetable stall. She was watching him with an evil smile on his face. She hopped up grabbed Rex’s shoulders and propped him up against the wagon wall. “Here drink a little water, we d
“What the bloody hell does that mean?” Nessa asked. It was way too early in the morning for her riddles. “Typical good-mannered conversation” Al’ik said with a smirk, “I believe it means you are to help someone change, how would I know? Its your fate, not mine. I’m a healer, not a fortune teller.” “Then how did you see my fate?” Nessa asked. “I’m not sure, that’s why I debated as to tell you or not. It seemed quite serious to me, so I decided I would pass it on. It is now for you to decode what it is supposed to mean.” Al’ik replied, “Now eat this and you are good enough to be on your way.” Nessa nodded, sat down and took the food she was given. She hated riddles and was never good at them so she had no idea what, “show an outwards sign of an inwards change” meant. Shaking her head in frustration she looked up and saw Al’ik sitting across from her smiling. “What?” she asked. “Oh nothing, just seeing you mull that over is quite amusing for me” Al’ik chuckled. Nessa once again notic
“Who are you and why would you want to help us?” Lizz asked eyeing her suspiciously. “My name is Nessa. I’ve been asking myself the same question” Nessa said with a smirk. That comment confused Lizz and Charr a little. “Do you know Rex?” Lizz asked. “Yes I do” Nessa replied nodding. When she said that she noticed Lizz frown a little. Was this girl his lover? She thought to herself, she reacted to her intrusion like Nessa would defending him if he was hers, another question that needed answering. She then realised that she was regarding Rex as hers, silly thoughts about him again she thought. “What or who has him unable to fight his way out? I know he is more than capable of taking on those 3 plus us and still probably win.” “How you know how Rex fight?” Charr asked stepping closer to her. Lizz pondered for a second on that also, most curious. “I have seen a little of what he can do firsthand is all” Nessa asked with a shrug, this seemed to be getting a little tense, she wasn’t sur
As the enemy soldiers charged, they quickly spread out evenly across each squad commanded by Rector’s defence, ‘They are testing our weak spots” Rex heard Rector say to Markus, who nodded in agreement as the small number of soldiers were killed quickly by Rex’s and Ley’s squads, Markus’s and Gwayne’s a few moments later, the barrage of fireballs from the walls reached the enemies’ position almost simultaneously, hitting the barrier created by their warlocks, most being stopped, the more powerful fireballs made it through and scorched the soldiers they hit, dying a few seconds after impact. “Are you going to try a counterattack?” Markus asked quietly, leaning over to Rector. “Not directly, no” he replied, stroking his beard, the enemy had not made a move since their test of his defensive line and it worried him, “Something is going to happen, I can feel it.” “What are you thinking?” Markus said, “I think they are scheming since their test proved our defences are solid.” “No defence
Everyone got dressed in silence, they were all thinking about what was coming their way with the battle. After a half-hour, everyone was suited up and ready to go, they all headed out of the room, down the stairs and out through the gate, stopping outside. Saying their goodbyes to Marcia, she hugged everyone before calling out and departing on Ulna. “Time to go and see your troops I guess” Lacey shrugged with a sigh, the closer it got to the battle, the more she started to worry. “That would be wise, seeing as they are formed up and waiting for you by the gate,” Ley said with a smile. As they all made their way to the southern gate, the entire group was silent, they were all apprehensive about how close to battle they all were, Ley seemed to notice this, “I think if anyone will survive this, it will be you all, I sense something different, something strong has formed between you, use that and you will be a force to be reckoned with, that rumoured scorpion pet of yours would be of
The sun was an hour from even touching the horizon, Rex was laying in the middle of Minet, Marcia and Lacey, all sleeping soundly, Rex snoring quietly, “Rex, wake up please, but do not wake the others, I must show you something.’ Even while inside of his dream, he knew the voice belonged to Rector, his father, it was loud enough to wake him, but not too loud to startle him, as his eyes blinked and focused, he saw Rector sitting in a chair watching and smiling, looking at the women, they were all dressed, which he did not remember them doing. ‘I would not intrude on a view that is not for me, I made sure clothes found them before I came in’ Rector said with a wink. Carefully moving Marcia’s hand off his chest, he slowly sat up, standing at the same speed, stepping over the women carefully, not wanting to wake them, ‘Is everything ok?’ Rex asked. ‘Let us go, then we can speak more freely’ Rector said, holding his hand out to Rex, who took it. Once his vision cleared Rex was in a dar
“Did you end up killing it? Surely not even you could kill something THAT big” Lacey added in. “Hang on…so you like for real saw and fought a tentaculum? A fabled flesh-eating tentacled monster from the books of legend?” Marcia asked, still visibly skeptical. “No word of a lie,” Minet said, “Rex and Raz stayed behind to let us escape, next we saw them, Rex was covered in shit and Raz’s head was split open.” “Well yes, I didn’t end up killing it, but we injured it enough it must have thought us too painful to continue fighting, it ended up losing 3 tentacles and 1 eye, Raz was hurt after it ejected some black shit that shot us into the trees, Raz hit some rocks, I patched him up best I could and carried him to the shack,” Rex said, recounting the events, leaving out some in-depth gruesome parts he wished he could forget, “So why was that muscle-bound axe man chasing you into the shack?” “Wow this is so much drama in a short time, how you even got anything done, I’ll never know,” Mar
“Well, my place is the closest to everywhere we need to be tomorrow and is away from prying eyes, and I have half a bottle of yarak spirits, we can share that, you can tell me all about your trip in a shortened version and we can have some fun, get a little sleep and then head out to our posts in the morning,” Marcia said with a smile. “I’m sold,” Marcia said, clapping her hands together. “I just had a thought” Lacey started to say. “Yes or no?” Minet interjected. “Yes, sounds good” Lacey nodded, walking with the women, “We weren’t told who we are serving with tomorrow.” “I don’t know about you, but I’m sticking with Rex” Minet shrugged. “That was what I was hoping to do, what do you think? Where is Rex?” Lacey asked, looking around for him. “Odd he would sneak out on us, this was supposed to be our night together” Minet scowled, putting her hands on her hips. “Sorry, I’m here, was just trying out a bit of magic I was shown earlier, good to know it still works, it gave me an id
Rex, Minet, and Lacey followed Rector into the palace, turning away from the throne room and traveling down a hallway Rex had never been before, “I don’t remember seeing this here” he stated, looking back, then back toward a large wooden door at the end. “That is because I do not allow this area to be accessed unless necessary, the war room has not been used since the Blood War, it saddens me to even have to use it again,” Rector sighed, walking toward the door, it opening as he approached. As they all entered the room, there was already a handful of older men present in the room who were pointing to places on a table that was in the center of the room, it showed the walls of the city and the fields beyond, many black figures stood in the southern fields showing the invading troops and their positioning, the old men were all yelling at each other for what plan they thought would be best, Marcia, Ley, and Markus were all at one end, Marcia was scowling at the men yelling, Ley was smil
“So whoever has brought this army has one hell of a grudge against Dracones, or father” Rex guessed, seeing how much dust over such a large area was being kicked up, “What was the scout's estimate?” “In excess of 30 thousand strong” Marcia replied, “That’s three times as many as Ean’s last army.” “Holy shit, how many defend Hale?” Rex asked. “About 10 thousand,” Marcia said, doing some quick math in her head, “Would be 18 thousand if we could rely on general Chris’s forces, but word is, he is currently under assault as well, it is almost like this attack has been co-ordinated from both sides of the realm at the same time.” “Three to one odds, battles have been won with a lot worse before” Rex replied. “Yes, but human battles did not have magic and monsters in their ranks either,” Raz said with a grin. “Holy shit!” Looking over to Lizz, who had cursed, which was rare for her, she was now pointing out toward the field outside of Dracone’s southern gate, to where a massive force, a
“So, you’re saying we can be released from the deal to suicide, to serve under you instead?” one of the soldiers asked. “Correct” Rex replied, “Instead of your life being a waste, why not use it for something better?” “We cannot accept that” the soldier replied, saddened, “When we swore our oath to serve, we were branded, if we break our deal, the brand kills us, so either way, we are doomed.” “Who would make you do such a thing?” Lacey asked, she was not the only one who was shocked, the entire group was as well. “Our new leader ensured our allegiance with spells” the soldier replied, lining up his sword, ready to pierce the heart, the rest of the group following suit, “We thank you for the offer, you are not like they say you are,” he took one last deep breath to ready himself, closed his eyes and slid the sword into his chest with a groan, after a few gasps he fell lifeless to the ground, followed shortly after by the remainder of the soldiers. “I did not think they would have
The sound of screams and metal hitting metal echoed out soon after the soldiers reached Rex and his companion’s position as they cut through their first wave. Lacey and Minet had teamed up on Rex’s right side and were diving, dashing, stabbing and blocking each other’s weak spots, many dead and dying fae laying around them. Raz and Lizz were on the left front, Lizz was throwing fireballs at their enemies furiously, scorching two, sometimes three at a time, Raz was standing fast between her and the front line, cutting down any that made it through to ensure Lizz could focus on what she was doing. “Looks like we underestimated a group of children,” Douve said with a sigh and smile, “Looks like it is up to us to settle this.” “Seems like it” Rex replied with a shrug, he was a little curious, everyone knew the royal family had power stemming from dragons, yet Douve did not seem phased. Bowing to Rex, Douve took a ready stance, so out of courtesy, Rex nodded his head, not a second afte