“Well I see the seats beside you are full” Lizz mused as she approached the table after Marcia called out to her. “It seems everyone wants to sit beside me all of a sudden, it must be the new scent Kealy arranged for me” Rex joked, causing Ley and Markus to chuckle, Marcia rolled her eyes and mumbled something as she took a seat beside Markus. “Speaking of Kealy, I have not seen her in a while, does anyone know where she is?” Lacey said, jolting as the topic reminded her of that fact. “Your sister is assisting with another matter” Markus said, his mouth half full as he spoke. “Please say it, without spraying shit everywhere, men are so gross” Marcia groaned, screwing her nose up towards Markus. “Well now Lizz is here, I’m quite sure you said something about waiting to ask them something” Minet chimed. “Well no doubt he doesn’t want everyone to hear it” Lacey said, trying her best to behave, Rex hid a smile, he could see the veins in the side of her head pulsing in frustration, he
Once the gate to Marcia’s house could be seen, Rex could no longer hold in his curiosity, “So you haven’t answered my question, what do you want me for?” “Please my lord, trust me, I will explain everything once inside” Marcia replied, looking over her shoulders while walking and talking as if worried someone was watching. Once they arrived at the gate, the guards leapt into action once they spied Rex, “Halt, you may not..oh my, deepest apologies my lord, we did not recognise you, we thought it was someone who was trying to court the general” the guards said, quickly changing their demeanour seeing Rex. “That’s fine” Rex said, letting his heart rate lower a little, not surprisingly, Marcia’s guards were female and wore leather armour with the symbol of a blue bird on their chests, Marcia’s sky army emblem. “If you could not tell, the only men who have ever set foot in my house are royal family, and Deacon once, not by choice, I do not allow any other men here” Marcia announced prou
After a few seconds, the entire nest had been swallowed by the golden light Rex’s talisman was emitting, and soon after Ulna was not visible anymore. It was not long before he started to feel the chain around his neck begin to heat up and out of pure surprise, he let out a little cry of pain. “Ow.” ‘What’s wrong? Is Ulna ok?” Marcia exclaimed, turning to face Rex once he jerked and out of instinct, she reached out her hand and placed it on Rex’s arm. “Yeah, I’m ok, just stings a little, it's weird” Rex said, grabbing the necklace to remove it, realising a few seconds later it wouldn’t budge, “The f**k? It won’t come off!” “Don’t be silly, just pull it over your head” Marcia said, grabbing the necklace when she saw Rex struggling, the moment she did, she recoiled her hand, “Ow! It stung me!” The longer the light kept flooding Ulna’s nest, the more heat the talisman created, and a few moments later, Rex started to feel drained, like he was running a marathon, his legs became weary
“Wake up!” came a loud voice from beside Rex, and as he jolted awake, it took a few moments for his vision and brain to adjust from being asleep to awake so quickly. “What is it!?” he called out instinctively, reaching out to the table for the sword that was there beside his bed. “That won’t be needed” replied a soft voice, reaching out and grabbing a hold of his hand. As he became fully aware of his surroundings, he saw Marcia was sitting on the edge of his bed with a smile from ear to ear, also holding onto his hand, preventing him from grabbing his sword. “Marcia! What’s wrong? Is Ulna ok?” he stammered, sitting up, a little unsettled when he saw how Marcia was smiling, he had never seen it before, not even last night when agreed to help her. “Ulna will be in top fighting shape by tomorrow, I had the best beastmasters in the land fly in last night to check her over after what you and Fafnir did, after seeing her close to death not a day earlier, they are flabbergasted by her re
“Of course you bloody did” Lacey said, shaking her head with a smile, “In style too, you ok?” “Yeah I’m ok, was weird though” Rex replied, shaking his head to try to get rid of the dizzy feeling he had. “OK, so give us a quick rundown, what did you do to it and what happened?” Lizz said, pulling a chair out for Rex to sit on, all three girls now listening intently. “Well first I..” Rex began to say. “Congratulations my prince!” a voice interjected loudly, cutting him off mid-sentence. All four heads snapped to who had stopped Rex talking. “Uh Markus? Can I help you?” Rex asked, curious as to why he was prevented from speaking. “Nope, but I can help you, please come with me, you have received the clue and must now separate from everyone or be disqualified” Markus said, his voice serious and deep. “What!?” Lacey protested. “Rules my dear” Markus said, raising his hand to silence her, waving his other hand to motion Rex to stand and once he did, “Please say no more, it would be a
Once Rex’s vision cleared up, he was standing in an empty circular room, much like the one from his vision, just without the doors, and standing in the center was the old woman, leaning on her staff, wearing a wicked-looking grin. “How do you know who I am?” Rex asked, a little confused and worried at the same time. “I know many things young prince, that is what I do” the woman said, glaring at Rex eerily, he noticed she did not blink, her bright green eyes staying open and focused on him. “So I guess I should ask who you are” Rex asked, trying his best to ease the building tension. “I am called Figulamian, but you may call me Fig for short, your tongues go so many silly ways when you attempt to pronounce it and I find the sounds you make irritating when trying” the woman called Fig said, scowling slightly. “Ok, Figulamian, or Fig” Rex winked, he was rolling the name over and over in his head a few times practicing mimicking how she said it before trying, “I am wondering why I am
His mind was racing staring at both of the visions playing before the doors, on one hand, he could save the women he held dear, but he would lose two thousand troops who may have the fix for his curse, all he had to do was save them and be rid of his curse, but he would lose the women. “Has anyone ever told you this place is f**ked, and so are your decisions?” Rex exclaimed, rubbing his temples in frustration. “Yes, many have said that” Fig replied, smiling wickedly, “I must admit I find you a curious one, leaders save the masses and yet you seem hell-bent on trying to save everyone, I will add a minute onto your decision time to let some wise words sink in.” “Yeah, what’re your wise words?” “You will NEVER be able to save everyone, no matter how much you try” Fig replied, her facial tone softening a little while speaking. Taking a deep breath in and exhaling, Rex admitted her words did seem right, but he was never one to accept defeat, he wanted both boons from both fights, stari
As the soldiers began to funnel back into the camp as Rex instructed, for some reason, the Fae soldiers did not continue their charge as he had previously predicted they would. “What the..?” Rex questioned out loud, not seeing them charge into the trap he had set. “It seems they are regrouping for an assault my lord, orders?” the commander said once he had finished receiving his report. “How did they..hang on a minute” Rex stuttered, looking up and scowling. With a heavy sigh, it dawned on him what had happened, it seemed Fig had not taken kindly to his way to turning the game to his favour. Once all of the troops were inside, Rex walked over to the balcony to see what state his troops were in, he was a little worried seeing how beaten and worn out they were, the main force of foot soldiers that had been holding the line, it seemed only half were in good enough condition to really hold their own, the other half were barely standing, most did not even have their weapons anymore. “
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