Yazen (Ponith) (13 page)

“So are you ready for this? I think we’re going to kick their butts,” Alex asks.

“I think this is going to be a lot harder than we expect, but with as many people as we have I think we have a good chance of driving them back. I really want to find the Yazen gem so I can get you and Jenn back home safely,” I tell him.

Laderic, Drakoe, and Calina all get a bow and some arrows, with small, short swords for their back-up weapons. Nytril and Korla pick out large swords. I see the
Dwarves mostly all pick up axes and maces. After we all pick out our weapons, we go down another floor to the armor section.

There are tons of outfits to choose from. There are whole suits of body armor and also different pieces of armor for different parts of your body that you can choose from. Some of the armor looks like chains, some is made out of metal, some is made out of gold, and some is made of silver. The armor is made for all different sizes.

We all start picking up different types of armor and trying them on to see what fits us the best. I find the metal armor that covers my entire body except for my face. It is very comfortable and easy to move around in but it’s heavy. Alex picks out a chain top, chain pants, and a helmet that covers his entire head. Jenn finds a nice gold accented armor outfit that fits her well. All of the Elves and Dwarves get suited up in their armor as well and then we head down another floor to the shields.

Most of us pick out a shield to hold to help protect us during battle. Not everybody decides to take a shield, depending on their weapon choice I suppose. I decide not to take a shield since I will need two hands to swing my sword.

Ovvar takes us down another flight of stairs to a huge cafeteria. We get to eat as much as we want to fill us up for our trip through the Mistpeak Mountains. I try not to fill my plate too high so I don’t get a stomach ache but it’s hard not to with all of the food to choose from.

“How far of a trip is it to get to the castle in the Dreadlands?” I ask Nytril.

“If we leave by tonight we should get there in two days. It’s not too far of a travel through the Mistpeak Mountains. When we go to fight them it will be early and I hope we’ll catch them off guard. Thank you for bringing all of us together to try and help us save my daughter. You’re a true champion, and I can see why the Unicorn has chosen you to fight for Yazen and its people,” Nytril says.

“I feel honored that you trust me to lead you and your family. I’m still very grateful for all of your
hospitality and kindness that you’ve shown me,” I tell him.

I notice Alex and Jenn are both chowing down on their food like they have never eaten before. Once we are finished eating we head back outside and let the others eat their dinner and finish getting their supplies.

“Are you ready for this fight?” Korla asks Drakoe. She seems to be holding up a lot better than she was before.

“Not really, but we’re going to save Narissa. I promise,” Drakoe tells her while holding her hand. I can tell he’s hurting just as bad as Korla.

I see the Halflings with swords, and the Centaurs and Fauns with spears and shields. Everyone looks well prepared.

Out of nowhere the ground begins to shake, and the wind begins to pick up. Is this an earthquake? What is going on? I see Jenn hold on to Alex out of fear.

“So much for the element of surprise. The war has officially started; the Elementals have been called upon. The Dark Elves must have told the Dark Lords that Zac is here. We’ll have to work together now and be careful, as they can attack us at any time,” Nytril yells.

At this time everyone is gathered outside watching as a big storm begins to brew in the sky. A bright light, miles away, is lifting up to the sky barrier and has broken a huge hole in it. One of the Dwarves comes running out from their home yelling, “The lava is rising and starting to flood our home
!”

“Laderic, what is an Elemental? I have never heard of it before,” I ask him.

“There are five Elementals that can be called upon by one of the aspects of the dark arts that the dark elven Dark Lords know. There’s an Earth Elemental that can attack us that’s made out of rocks and trees. The Water Elemental is a liquid apparition that can attack us as well. The Air Elemental can cause damage through strong winds, rain, lightning, and tornados. The Fire Elemental will attack through fire and lava. The last Elemental is the Aether Elemental, which comes from space. We are normally protected from the Aether Elemental by the protective barrier that engulfs our planet but as you can see, they seem to have broken our barrier to allow the Aether Elemental to come in. I have heard that the Aether Elemental can attack with comets and asteroids. I have never seen the Elementals myself, but I have read bad stories about them,” Laderic says.

I could really use some help with this and I whistle as loud as I can and wait for the Unicorn to appear. I wait a few minutes and have no luck. I’m not sure if it can hear me through the winds which are starting to pick up. I try again, this time whistling a little louder. I turn around and he’s galloping up to me.

“It’s time now for us to fight. Will you please try to help me the best that you can?” I ask it. It responds and encourages me with a push against my arm.

“What did they call him in the past, in the tales you’ve heard?” I ask Laderic while rubbing the Unicorn’s nose.

“It is said its name is Champion, for the people that it brings to help Yazen in its time of need.” Laderic tells me while looking at the Unicorn. It seemed to respond to the name when he mentioned it.

Luriss and his people are the last to emerge from the mountain home of the
Dwarves and he heads over to us.

“We are as ready as we ever can be. We brought our weapons with us and are ready,” Luriss tells us.

I go and stand on top of one of the wagons to shout out to everyone, “Thank you all for being here and for your support. The reign of the Dark Elves ends now. We will push them back from Yazen and reclaim the land that is ours! Now begin our war.”

Everyone cheers as we begin to head toward the mountain tops and to the pass to lead us to the Dreadlands.

The first day of traveling is quiet, except the sky looks as if is going to storm bad at any minute. The attack we thought would come at first was just a warning. We make it over the first part of the mountain and we decide to take turns sleeping for a few hours in a small abandoned cave at the bottom of the mountain the Dwarves knew about.

I can’t believe the first day went so easy, especially after the
Elementals made their powerful debut. After everyone gets the chance to get some shuteye, we head out to travel through the second leg of our journey through the Mistpeak Mountains.

As we begin climbing however, the
Air Elemental is the first to try and slow us down. The wind begins blowing at dangerously high speeds and it begins to pour down rain. It’s raining so hard that I can barely see the steps in front of me and the wind keeps knocking me back down the mountain.

We decide to stop for a few minutes until the rain lets up some and finally after 20 minutes, both the winds and rain dissipate but there are still dark clouds all around.

We begin to travel further up the mountain as quickly and safely as we can. The rocks are very slippery from the rain, causing a lot of us to slip and stumble. It makes it more difficult to climb and slows us down. We make it halfway up the mountain and stop on the top of this one large rock for a small break.

The ground begins to rumble and shake. What is going on? Is it an earthquake? I can’t stay on my feet. Everyone else is lying on the ground for their safety.

Next thing I realize, Laderic, Drakoe, and I are being lifted high in the air. The rock we’re standing on is a creature. It must be the Earth Elemental! It picks us up and launches us down the mountain. We roll down the hill, hitting trees, branches, and rocks. Luckily the armor is protecting my skin from getting scratched up, but it doesn’t stop any rocks from knocking the wind out of me. When we stop rolling near the bottom, I slowly sit up, catching my breath. Everything is spinning, I’m so dizzy, and my shoulder hurts from hitting something on the way down.

I look around and see Laderic upside down against a tree. Drakoe’s lying face down in some mud. I see the others working their way down to us.
They’re all trying to avoid the Earth Elemental. It begins to hurl rocks at us, thankfully inaccurate, but they still make huge craters around us where the rocks land.

“Everyone, come down here, there’s a cave down there!” I shout. I hope it’s safer in here, at least
it can get us away from the Elemental. I help Alex and Jenn down toward the cave on the other mountain ahead of us. Calina helps the others that are coming down the hill while keeping an eye on the Earth Elemental.

The Earth Elemental is made out of multiple rocks and has tree branches and moss growing all over it. It has dirt falling off of it every time it moves. Its face is carved out of the rock, with sharp teeth and round
, beady eyes. I don’t think it can see us, but it seems to be able to sense our presence. It never throws the rocks directly at us, just in our general area.

We all begin to enter into the base of the cave,
and it’s really dark and hard to see. I hear a loud rumble coming from behind us. We turn to see what has happened. The large Earth Elemental is on the ground, tied tightly in vines. It’s struggling to break free but it’s being held tight.

“Oh wow, he is completely pinned in place,” Alex says. Jenn looks petrified. She’s staying close to Alex.

“So what should we do now?” Nytril asks me.

“I think we should break into groups. One group will go through this cave toward the other end of the mountain and then have two groups go over, split apart, so we can spread out and launch a three
-pronged attack, hopefully catching them by surprise,” Ovvar suggests.

It seems like a solid plan and we’re all in agreement. We end up breaking into three groups. I decide to go in the cave with a few others and explore the caverns. I wonder if it will go all the way through to the other side like Ovvar said. I wish we had light in here. Ovvar comes to the front and shines the light from his helmet down the dark cavern.

“We do not have enough light to take many of us this way. I can take a handful of us, but the others will have to go over the mountain,” Ovvar says. So Ovvar decides to bring just Nytril, Korla, Laderic, Drakoe, Calina, and I with him. Alex goes with the Centaurs and Fauns while Jenn goes with the Halflings, Dwarves, and the rest of the Wood Elves.

We all form a single
-file line behind Ovvar so we don’t get lost of misstep anywhere. I’m in the middle of the pack. It’s so dark in here, I’m glad I’m not at the end of the line. We follow mostly a straight line down this hallway for about a mile, and then it branches off into three sections. We decide to follow Ovvar down the middle hallway and continue walking. After a few feet we begin to see a red-colored hue. The walls are covered with green moss, I’m assuming from the humidity.

We slowly walk toward it but realize we have come across a lava pit. It’s bright red with a yellow-orange glow, and bubbles of lava keep erupting like burp bubbles. It’s extremely hot in this part of the cavern and I have a lot of trouble seeing anything
, as the air here is so hot. Everyone stays close together so no one falls in.

“It’s so hot in here,” Korla says out loud. I have sweat beads starting to drip down my forehead. Everyone seems uncomfortable except Ovvar. I guess he’s used to the lava since he works around it in his home. I forgot they flooded his home with lava. It’s such a shame
, as it was very nice from what I could see of just the few floors that he had shown us.

We continue to walk past the lava, when halfway through the lava pit, waves and rocks begins
to bubble up in the lava, forming rough human shapes. Where at first it was black, its shape beings to coalesce into bones. It looks like a skeleton made of fire with two big horns on its head. It looks like it resembles what I would consider the devil. The lava begins to rise up on the rock stairway that we’re standing on, making it hot and melting it, making it start to fall apart. We all run at this point to get out of there without getting burned by the lava. We run full speed with Ovvar in the lead since he has the light on his helmet.

“Run faster, the lava’s having no trouble in keeping up with us!” Laderic yells.

I turn to look behind me and I can see his tattoo beginning to glow similar to Narissa’s when she was captured. It looks like he’s holding on to a gem but I’m not sure. I have to look straight to make sure I don’t fall or run into anyone. I turn back again to see what he’s doing and he has a large, green, protective wall behind him. It’s pushing back on the lava that’s rushing up from below but its only partially effective. It breaks under the pressure of the flow. It reminds me of the shield that the Dark Elves put around themselves at the trade center.

We finally make it to a flight of stairs and the tunnel spreads out slowing down the lava. The green shield disappears.

“What was that green wall? Was it magic?” I ask Laderic, while I’m still out of breath.

“Yes, in a way,” Laderic
says while still looking behind him down the tunnel.

“What you saw was one of the ways we protect ourselves,” Nytril mentions to the side of me. I turn to him and I’m very curious why Narissa’s tattoo began to glow before the Dark Elves took her. They took her necklace away from her and it stopped. Laderic had something in his hand as well when his tattoo began to glow.

“Some of us do have magical affinity to different extents. Anyone you see with tattoos here on Yazen generally has magical abilities. You saw those Elementals; they’re also brought to life the same way. It’s a bit more complicated than that and we don’t really have much time to explain, as we have to get Narissa back,” Nytril says with a frown on his brow.

I wonder what we’re going to run into next. I have never seen anything like that before in my life. I wonder what it’s like to have magical powers and
tattoos. Distracted, I can hear bats flying around in the top of the cave. Every now and then they swoop down at the light from Ovvar’s helmet. The light from the lava is receding and it’s getting dark again where we’re standing.

After climbing a few more flights of stairs, we come to an opening o
n the other side of the mountain. After being used to being underground for a while, it’s really bright heading back outside. In front of us stands a fence of huge trees blocking our view of the castle and enemy grounds. I hear people moving behind us, so I turn and look up.

It is the rest of the two groups meeting up with us. We did near perfect timing, even with our running and trouble with the
Fire Elemental.

“So what are our plans from here?” Luriss asks, clearly tired from walking this far, trying to catch his breath.

I have no idea what to do now. I’m not used to being in charge. What I thought was great at first, now I want to just sit back and follow someone else’s orders for a while instead.

I walk over and look in between the trees. Beyond lies a huge open land with a few trees around the perimeter. There’s a large wall that surrounds our
destination. A dark-colored moat is on the outside of the wall all the way around. Out front of the moat is a large pond. Surrounded by the moat lies the castle. I can see a few ballistae along the top of the wall set up in a defensive position.

From where we stand, the
Dark Elves look like ants running around down there. The castle is huge. It has a drawbridge they use to cross the moat.

Out of nowhere, we hear deep thuds coming from behind us, and the ground is shaking. I turn, guessing the
Earth Elemental is coming to attack us again, but it turns out to be the Dryads. I didn’t know that they could walk. This is great! I didn’t know they could move like that!

“We came to help. We heard what was going on, and we couldn’t just sit by idly,” a young beautiful blonde Dryad says. She stands very tall, and she’s wearing a green tank top, green arm bands, and a brown belt. The rest of her outfit is combined into the tree. She has no legs and when she walks
; the roots of the tree move her to her next destination. I have never seen anything like it before. She blends in perfectly when she stands next to another tree.

“I didn’t realize you could change location like that
. I thought Beldis told us she was stuck.” I tell her. I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but I’m genuinely curious.

“Ah, unfortunately she is indeed unable to move. We
, on the other hand, don’t have that affliction. We would love to help out. Yazen is as much our home as anyone else’s here. We would love to have our land back and not have to worry about being attacked by the Dark Elves. I even think we have a plan to help you out,” she says.

“I would love to hear your plan. What is your name?” I ask her. It dawns on me that this was the Dryad that Alex was talking with the first day we met them.

“My name is Summer. I think we can get close to them if you let me and the other Dryads slowly walk closer to the Fort. We can have a few of you follow behind us so they don’t spot you. We have a special gift that we can use to lure the Dark Elves to us. We can sing a very beautiful and subtle song that will attract them. Anybody close to us will go into a trance, so a few archers will have to stay far enough back so they do not go into the trance. Then they can dispatch the ones that we lure in,” Summer tells us.

Their plan sound
s great, to be honest, and at least it is a plan. I honestly didn’t have a plan myself on how we should attack them so this is great timing.

“I think it’s a good plan. Does anyone else have any ideas that they would like to add?” I ask.

Everybody’s quiet and is looking around. No one is offering any advice. I really wish my grandpa was here to help me through this; he always has the right answers.

“Okay, everybody listen up. I think we should go with Summer’s plan. We’ll let them go ahead of us and get as close as they can without being overtly suspicious. A few of us will follow close behind but keep enough distance so we do not go under their spell when they start singing. I want everyone to partner up, one shooter and one person with bits of cloth in their ears, to stop the others from falling under the trance. Once the
Dark Elves are lured to them, we’ll take care of them. Then we’ll work our way into the undefended castle and take back Yazen!” I tell them while taking out my bow and raising it up in the air.

Everyone raises their arms and weapons in the air in agreement. We stay hidden behind the trees and watch as the
Dryads begin to slowly make their way into the field. There are about fifteen Dryads that have spread out from each other so it is not obvious. The rest of us spread out, and a few of us go out at a time; the ones of us that have bows and arrows are paired up and are staying hidden behind other trees. I follow behind Summer and make sure I keep a distance from her. I do remember hearing her sing before at Last Hope the first time we went there. It was alluring, and she had all of the Centaurs’ and Fauns’ attention from it.

I have my own bow out and ready, while keeping an arrow in my hand just to be ready. I’m so nervous I can hear my heart pounding. We make it out pretty far, just before the large pond.