With the all clear, people slowly began venturing out of the Old Keep, and people elsewhere in the village came from their respective hiding spots.
Reese was aware of screaming, and yelling. The smell of ash and smoke, and of burning flesh was all around him. Maybe he didn’t make the cut off for reincarnation again, whatever that actually was. Maybe this was his first glimpse into hell? His eyes opened, and Nemi stared at him. Yeah, this was Hell.
“Don’t move Reese. You’re burned.” She stood and screamed for help, from anyone. Their mother was still stuck on the other side of the village, no doubt still trying to save the famer’s family or still rushing over to save hers.
“I don’t want to see you die. Mom and dad would blame me. Come on, stay awake Reese.” The slight chuckle implied it was a joke, maybe. “Help us!” She called out to the people leaving the Keep, looking for one in particular.
The attack itself felt like an eternity, as if the day would never end but in truth it hadn’t taken that long at all. Like many battles, the fighting and dying was quick, maybe all of 15 minutes. But how many would suffer after?
A man in expensive robes trotted up to the two. “Ok, he'll be fine I know a lot of healing spells. I used to be a priest a long time ago.” Reese had seen him before, a merchant who peddled healing wears from a cart occasionally. There were some mana stones he recalled seeing at his wagon, and he remembered telling his mother he wanted one a while ago.
Why was he thinking about that? For that matter why was he thinking at all? The answer was obvious, it was because he was still alive, and life was absurd and full of strange machinations of fate and chance.
“How?” He whispered. He began to feel the pain in his right side and whispered “Why.” Instead.
The merchant held his hand and pushed all the mana he could into the small boy. He kept reiterating the same spell over and over. It didn’t work, it didn’t do anything. The boy was still burned. “I… I don’t understand.”
Reese knew why though, and why it would never work.
“Stop.” Reese spoke, no longer a whisper. It hurt a lot. But he could still feel everything, which was good even if at that moment he wished he didn’t.
Slowly he sat up and took sight of his right side. His clothes were badly singe, but still present. His hand was deep red and small blisters had already begun to form. He felt like throwing up as all the nerves in his hand cried out in unison at his stupid stunt.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand why I can’t heal you?” The merchant looked over him in shock and like he was in a bit of pain from not being able to help him.
“It’s ok.” Reese spoke not in a whisper but not particularly loud either. It hurt to breathe deeply, as the skin on his chest stung. “I don’t have a gate, healing spells don’t really work on me.”
Beyond the pain though it actually was ok, he wasn’t that bad off. He should have been a lump of burnt meat and charcoal. Instead, his right hand had some second degree burns while his upper arm and chest were at just first degree. He was alive, but why was he still alive? A question for another day, when he could actually think.
“Reese!” Emilie cried out as she ran from the Keep, her mother and father behind her carrying her crying brother. An awkward moment to be sure. He didn’t want to think about the obvious implications of possibly abandoning their daughter.
“Reese. Are you ok?” She wasn’t crying, but it sounded like she wanted to. “I can try to cast that ice bolt spell and cool your burns?”
He tried not to laugh, it hurt too much. “Emilie, I’m fine. Hurts, but I’m fine. Besides I think that spell would impale me.”
The two soldiers who saved her life came up to her, along with a few more in reserve. Behind them, her parents, still cradling her younger brother. You could see the reflexive flinch as she thought about the hit to the back of the head that might be coming next. But instead, something else happened “Kid. You know water spells better than any of us, can you help us put these fires out?”
“Eh?”
That was it, if the assistance in dragon slaying wasn’t enough then this would have to be. Her way in too school. “You should do it Emilie, be a hero.” Smiling, Reese was trying to act cool, even though he was hurt both inside and out. He really wanted to pass out, but that didn’t seem like it would happen.
Her parents seemed to smile at her as well, as she ran off to save the town with the soldiers.
Reese couldn’t only sit and watch as Emilie ran around, flooding the fields and extinguished the fires along the buildings. Her water bolts slammed into the sturdier buildings, snuffing the flames. For the weaker ones, she was being smart and casting slow, smaller ones. It was working, she was doing it. This is what a hero would do.
She even managed to save the school, well, no hero is perfect. It hurt to laugh so Reese just smiled at his own thought. Eventually, she disappeared into the denser parts of the village, occasionally he could hear the water burst from faraway. Just how much mana did that girl have?
With that small smile, Reese thought to himself, ‘They’d have to let her in now.’ Trying to keep his mind off the pain in his hand, he went to his notebook, and using his left hand he crossed out the section about Fortus and considered the rest of the words. He added one more note in shaky writing “Why am I still alive?”. The exercise wasn’t helpful, and everything still hurt.
All around Reese people were running about. Some trying to put out fires in the fields, some trying to find their families and friends. At least one guttural scream could be heard implying that one family would not be whole tonight or ever again. As he sat against the outside of his house, he wondered if it would be less painful to move inside or stay where he was. Moving hurt, but so did the hard ground.
The sound of frantic footsteps and a shout pulled him back to reality.
“REESE! Oh gods no.” It was his mother, he probably looked worse than he was. Of course she tried casting every spell she could think of, even ones she could no longer cast, before settling on some healing ointments she had in her bag. It smelled vaguely of mint and cooled the burns on his skin quite well. At the very least he no longer felt like vomiting.
In truth, he wasn’t that bad off, as much as he wanted to tell her to help someone else, what mother would listen to that advice? Besides, the ointment felt kind of good, so did the thought that someone cared about him. He thought he needed to be careful of that though, thinking that such thoughts could become addicting.
Hours would pass, and fires were still burning. But by now that was all just wheat and brush. Amazingly, despite the damage, no building was lost. Thanks to Emilie and her water spells. She had long run out of mana, and could do nothing about the fields, but at least she saved the buildings. It sounded like she had collapsed from exhaustion, it was concerning but obviously, no one was going to let him visit her in either's current state.
After a few more hours, things became strangely quite again. The fires were snuffed out, either by water or just having nothing left to feed off. Inside the house, Reese nursed his hand in a bowl of cool water, and that mint ointment. It felt better than anything he had ever felt, and the endorphins ran through his brain. In some sick twisted way, he worried he might get addicted to this as well.
Outside, the squad of knights and soldiers came limping down the Mountain Pass as fast as they could. Only a few of their horses were present, and none of their larger gear. 20 had gone up, only 11 were walking back. Well, limping in a few cases. Makeshift stretchers carried 3 others who looked not good but alive. A few soldiers carried dense white wraps of cloth or canvas, that were soiled black and red. It was obvious what they contained, and where the other 6 soldiers were. Fortus still walked in front, leading the broken squad, behind him Athena followed close by.
Once the damage to the village became apparent, Fortus began to run towards the village. He wanted to run towards his house, towards his family, but he knew he couldn’t. No matter how much his heart begged him to. Instead, he headed for the Keep, that was where the staging location would be.
Inside, Ard was directing recovery efforts which were already winding down for the day. The town survived, but would need repairs. He’d have to arrange materials to be transported via one of the merchant guilds. It wouldn’t be cheap, but like all good politicians he had some nice letters that would grease the right wheels.
The battered group of soldiers and knights limped into the keep. Loud murmurs and two groups of eyes started at them, those thankful they were still alive, and those who saw them as responsible.
“What happen Fortus, you were supposed to stop them.” Ard practically yelled.
For a moment, Fortus ignored the mayor. The table he was using, their table was covered in what he saw as meaningless junk papers, and drivel. Without asking or thinking about it. Fortus pushed it all onto the floor.
“What are you doing?” Ard protested, as Fortus glared down the older man.
Turning to his six unexpected but not unwilling pallbearers, he beckoned them to put the individual remains on the table.
Ard was silent, and the rest of the keep grew so as well. White, Red and Black canvas sat in six piles, each too small to contain a full person. “Knight Thars. Soldiers Loban, Jullet, Sobbin, Hethil, and Amman. This is all that’s left of them. The rest was just… ash.” He paused for a moment, to let what he just said sink in. Several cries could be heard, as families walked to the table to find what was left of their loved ones. Fortus knew Thars and Jullet’s remains wouldn’t be collected today. He’d have to arrange their final transit back to their homes.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
“Ard, you told us there would only be 3 at most. There were 12.” Fortus voice was flat, not even cold. Like all the emotion, all the feeling, anything that made him human was not part of the conversation. Ard couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or not, but it scared him more than the dragon.
Fortus looked around, at the grieving families, and his broken soldiers. He didn’t want to give his report here, and he needed to see his family.
“I think we should do this in private.”
“Of course” Ard stammered, “The conference space –“
“No. I want to head to my house; I want to check on my family. I want all my soldiers to check on their families.” He looked over his squad. They were almost broken but did their best to not show it. Strong soldiers, strong knights. His looked told them all they needed to hear, but he said it anyway, “You are some of the strongest soldiers I’ve had the honor of serving with. Go home and tend to your families.”
Next door, Fortus was relieved to see his family alive, though quickly that turned to concern as he saw his son nursing the burns on his hands.
Reese smiled “I’m fine dad, just hurts.” Fortus nodded.
Athena walked in behind him, looking for Mabel. Lilith said nothing to her, as she made her way to their temporary shared crib where she slept. “She cried a lot earlier, and I think she tired herself out.” The words more spoken to the child than anyone else.
“Thank you, Lilith.”
Lilith didn’t respond as Athena took her child and left the house.
There was quiet in the house as Fortus, Ard, his scribe and Reese sat at the table.
“Reese, why don’t you head up to your room?” Ard politely suggested to the boy, using only his name. It was probably the first time he had ever done that to the boy.
Fortus looked over his child, clearly in pain, but comfortable. “Reese, if you can’t make it to your room you can stay at the table, this won’t be a pleasant talk though.”
Ard wanted to protest but just couldn’t work up the courage to do it. For a moment Reese considered leaving but decided to stay. If his father offered it why not, it was more comfortable than walking up those steps.
Fortus took a breath, clearing his head, and then began his report. “We left yesterday morning. The trek up the mountain went well. No issues. Our initial surveys showed two dragons but what looked like three nests. After watching through dusk, we saw a third dragon land on the other eggs. Throughout the night one would leave, but the other two would stay. We never counted more than those three.
The next morning be built the ballistea and arranged them around the larger perimeter without altering them. To be safe, we put the scorpions together too. When our scouts got to the nest they confirmed the three Dragons were still there and each were sleeping.
It was quick, easy and clean. All three were taken out at once. And we celebrated.
Thars, Loban, Jullet and Axals headed out to the nest to destroy the eggs. It was then they noticed something wrong. None of us were experts but even they could tell there far too many eggs for just three dragons. Axals headed back out of the nest to tell us, and that’s when they hit us hard and fast. There weren’t three dragons, but twelve, and the other nine had come back at once. Don’t know if they heard us kill the others or if it was just bad timing.
They managed to take out two of the Ballestea, and killed Sobbin, Hethil, and Amman in their fly over. Knight Tolk was badly injured, but he’ll probably live. They also burned their own nests, killing Thars, Loban, and Jullet who were still there.
Thankfully we had the scorpions, they worked on the smaller dragons. We dropped four of them quickly. The other two took… more. But when we were done, we only counted nine corpses in total, the other three had clearly flown off, we didn't know where.
Most of the horses were killed or ran off. Only a few of the injured ones were left. We rode them as hard as we could to get down the mountain, but it wasn’t much faster. We’ll probably need to put them down; we ran them too hard for how injured they were. As for the remains of my soldiers, I…
I almost left them at the nest. I knew we needed to get down fast, but they would deserve proper service. I’m sure parts of them are still up there. Honestly, I’m not sure my squad would have listened to me if I told them to abandon the remains anyway.”
For a few seconds on the sound of the scribe’s pen could be heard, then stopped.
“Is that your full report, Fortus Bronwyn?” The use of a family’s name was a sort of seal. A common way for nobles, aristocrats, and named families to formally account for things. You weren’t just saying thing for you, but your entire family. If you lied or deceived, you put everyone who carries that name at risk. It was like swearing an oath.
Normally, Ard would have used it as an insult of sorts. But not here, he was genuine this time.
“It is. While you’re here Ard, what happened in the village?”
“It’s as you see. The dragons flew down from the mountains, seemingly hell bent on revenge. They found it. I’ll be honest, I don’t have all the figures yet. They’re currently laying on the floor of the Keep.” If that statement was supposed to phase Fortus, it failed.
Sighing, Ard got up from the table. “I think we’re done here. Thank you for your report commander. It wasn’t what I was hoping for, but I don’t know what else you could have done.” He paused, unsure if he should ask the next question or not, “If the numbers of dragons were more accurate… Would those six still be alive?”
“I can’t answer that, I just know it would have been different.”
As Ard left, he took one last look back at Reese in particular, “You should talk to your son. He was quite involved today; and I think we might need to come to a new agreement on that Emilie girl too.”
“That was your idea.”
“I know, I might have been wrong.” With that Ard left Fortus and his son at the table.
It took Fortus a moment to work up the words, “So, Reese. What happened?”
And so, Reese went over the events of those trying 15 minutes. Paying special attention to Emilie’s efforts to safeguard the town.
“I see.” He tried to process what his son told him. His hands quivered, much as he tried to hide it. “You took a big risk trying to leave the school like that. But if it was on fire, I suppose you didn’t have a choice. We’ll have to work with Fense on a future plan for evacuating the school. The burns you suffered; you said that big one hit you head on?”
Nodding, Reese try to circle back on Emilie's contributions, but Fortus seemed more interested in correcting something.
“No, you couldn’t have been attacked head on. I saw what that did to a human body, you couldn’t have been hit head on. The dragon had to miss you, there’s no other way.” For some reason, his father seemed fixated on that one fact. Maybe it was just something he needed to believe.
Reese’s jaw felt tight, like he wanted to argue but something inside him was locking his jaw muscles in place. He knew that dragon didn’t miss him; it was a direct hit. A problem for another day, he guessed and something else to write in his notebook. It wasn’t worth the fight tonight, not after everything they had all been through.
Everyone in his family was still alive, his father, his mother, his two baby sisters, his useless older sister, and his friend Emilie. All things considered, this was the best outcome, for them at least.
Emilie would be a town hero too, she helped take down a Fire Dragon and was invaluable at putting out the fires. Because of her, no buildings were lost to the fire, just damaged.
He should have been happy, why then did he feel so bad? Why did he still feel so useless? Because someone else, did the heavy stuff? Saving his sisters like that was something. Wasn't it? Maybe it was just him trying to play the hero. It was risky, he shouldn't be alive right now.
A hand fell on Reese’s shoulder, his father’s hand. What was a strong, and steady rock, trembled now and felt weak as wet clay. Fortus tried to smile and push back everything he felt. For one rare moment, Reese actually saw his father cry.
School would be cancelled for the next day, while materials were transferred to the old keep. The schoolhouse had technically survived, but the roof had taken massive damage both from the fire and water. It would need to be replaced. Much of the town was in various states of disarray and damage. Nothing irreplaceable was lost but fixing it all up would take time, and coins.
The swelling in Reese’s right hand had gone down quite a bit, and it no longer throbbed with pain. Small yellow blisters still covered his hand and lower arm and bits of his chest, but a few already looked to be shrinking. Given a week or two, it likely wouldn’t even be visible without close inspection.
Sitting at his work bench he tapped his charcoal pencil on his notebook, lost in thought. He wrote a number down on the last page “18”, under the note “Why am I still alive?”. The number of teeth he remembered seeing in the dragon’s lower jaw. Four in front, followed by two fangs or k9s, then a row of razor-sharp molars, powerful enough to break bones. A small sketch started to form next to the number, as he remembered the back of the dragon’s throat, those spikes lined it like a trap. No matter what his father said, he was hit head on.
Healing magics didn’t work on him; it wasn’t unreasonable to assume other magics may not either. The fire that came from the dragon’s spit and breath wasn't actually fire, just mana. The mana caused things to ignite, and it would heat the air up. But if it hit his body like the deep healing spells, it would have just passed around him. His hand and arm for instance, most likely weren’t burned by the dragon’s breath, but by the pile of aflame grass it fell on. Likewise, his chest was probably burned because his clothes caught fire.
‘Is being gateless is like having a constant dispel buff?’ Another question written in his book.
Pondering other items for a moment, he wondered what Emilie was doing. He knew his father was in the Keep with Ard, Basilara and Venesar. Emilie’s parents. It was possible she was there too, it would make sense for her to be. Early in the morning, his father had asked Reese to describe in detail again what Emilie had done yesterday, which he did with gusto.
He susspected Fortus was being pushed by his soldiers who saw what she did. Regardless of the reasons, he could only hope his testimony would help her. She deserved to go to school, to have some semblence of a normal life.
At first, he considered asking if he could speak on her behalf directly but decided against it. His body wasn’t in the best shape to run over to the Keep, even if it was next door. He would take it easy for the day, working on minor chores that didn’t require much exertion. The minor fire in the kitchen didn’t cause too much damage. A few cabinets would need to be replaced, and part of the floor was questionable. At the very least he could wash the dishware and maybe the curtains, so long as it didn’t hurt too much. The cool water might even feel good.
It could have been so much worse he thought, as he considered his hand and side. For a moment, his gatelessness seemed like it might have one advantage. Was it worth the high-cost thought? His current life was at least one good argument in favor.
The next day was the first day of school in the Old Keep. It was all a bit odd. The books from the classroom had been haphazardly pushed about. Some of the desks were brought over, but more than a few weren’t salvageable. There was a large bit of slate to write on, like a chalk board, but it was even poorer quality than what was in the school. Still, it would suffice.
Around the large space Soldiers would wander about, some would smile at their own kids but otherwise tried to leave them be.
32 students in all found seats either at desks, the large table or in some cases on the floor. One new student sat at the large table near Reese.
“Hi Reese!” Emilie tried not to sequel, but it was obvious how happy she was. In front of her was an almost identical notebook to his.
“Well good morning class. Both Ard and Fortus have given us permission to use the Old Keep for the next few weeks while the school is repaired. Also, I would like to introduce a new student, Emilie who will be joining us from now on.”
“Beginning our lesson, lets pick up where we left off last time. Multiplication tables…”
Eventually, the students broke up into their groups and began working on the various problems Fense gave them. With a bit of pushing Emilie began working in an adjoining group to Reese’s, and before long, she was leading it.
After school was more study for Emilie and Reese, that is, after she stopped gushing about her first day of class to her parents who came for her. It was touching, but diabetes inducing, and in a world without insulin that was a death sentence. He mused to himself.