Once I collected myself, I reluctantly joined with the rest of the brigade as we marched to rendezvous with the second half of our army arriving from the East. Against my best wishes, Bentree physically dragged me into the third rank of formation once we joined with the others at the rendezvous point. It wasn’t an ideal position, but at least I wasn't in the very front.

"I see they threw you in the vanguard too." A soldier observed.

I turned left to a warrior much taller than me (granted everyone was taller than me) with long-flowing blonde hair that escaped his helmet.

"Yeah," I responded, "What of it?"

"Look around at everyone you see here in the first few ranks." He prompted, "What do you notice?"

Scanning across the flank, I carefully observed every soldier within sight. Most of them looked to be middle-aged and experienced. But a few of them were young like me and like me this was probably their first battle as well. Regardless, I resonated deeply with what was reflected in some of their faces. It reminded me of the image I saw of myself when I looked into the executioner’s blade.

"They're green." I answered.

"Correct." The soldier confirmed. "They crammed you all into the frontlines. Why do you suppose they did that?"

"To let us experience real combat..." I said shyly, but the words died on my lips.

"Is that what they told you?" The soldier chuckled. "You don't seriously believe that do you?"

"No." I said. "So why are we, the most inexperienced soldiers in the entire brigade, all the way up here?"

"Well, to put on a show." The warrior said as if it were obvious, although in a sense it was. "Nothing better than throwing a batch of nervous runts onto the battlefield and laugh as they shit their pants right before taking a spear to the neck. I can honestly say that I feel bad for you all."

“You keep saying ‘you all’ like you’re not one of us.”

“Because I’m not one of you.” He said. “I’ve fought my share of battles. I’m not wet behind the ears, although after your first siege you really start to wish that you were.”

“How long have you been a soldier for?”

“Excluding training? About three years.” He answered. “Not that bad when you compare that to a lot of the other fellows here, but even one measly year of swimming in blood lakes will do a number on you.” The warrior sighed. “What am I doing here? Oceans, what I’d give to be in the arms of my dear Angie right now. She always makes the best batch of Adris.”

"I never cared for Adris all that much." I replied. "It's not terrible, but definitely not my first choice of ale."

"Because you haven’t had real Adris. A sip of my wife's would change your mind. It's on a completely different plane than the piss they give us here.”

“Why are you here anyway?" I asked.

"I've got to put food in my stomach somehow." He answered. "Only thing I was ever good at was swinging an axe. I was working as a lumberjack for a while, but when the tree blight emerged I needed to find better employment. Work was scarce in Scenda as always so I had no choice but to join the infantry. How did you end up here?"

I showed him my wrist and the mark that resided there.

"Hm."

"...you're not surprised?"

"No. Why would I?" The soldier asked. "You're what? Seventeen? It couldn't have been anything too serious."

"Nineteen." I corrected.

"Close enough." He stated, "What's your name anyway?"

"Yearn."

"What a strange name."

I shrugged in response. "What's yours?"

"Mello."

"I like that name."

"I don't." Mello complained. "There's not a single damn person who doesn't chuckle like an idiot and say ‘You're in such a Mello mood today.' It gets real annoying after awhile."

"Hmm. It sounds like it's really gotten you, Mello." I said.

"It honestly has. It really gets me-" Mello stopped upon realizing what I had said. "You little shit."

I grinned.

“Halt!” A powerful voice commanded, bringing the entire brigade to a stand still. I froze not only because of the order, but also the word. It was a word that I had been dreading. A word I hoped I’d never have to hear. This was it. The battle was soon to begin.

"Hey, the keep is just up ahead. Get ready. The show’s about to start." Mello informed. "Maybe if you keep your guard high and your profile low you’ll be able to make it out of this in one piece. Better put your helmet on."

Following Mello's suggestion, I slid the red-striped helmet onto my head and waited for our commander's orders.

My stomach twisted as I peered into the distance.

It was the Gales, fighting against the Scarra to take back their keep, Anthryn. I couldn't see much due to the distance, and the thick fog that shrouded the battlefield didn’t help. I did notice huge flashes of light emitting from within the chaos like fragments of stolen sun. Although I couldn’t discern exactly what they were or their origin. They seemed too bright to be shield reflections, but I didn't want to rule out the possibility. I've seen some warriors (like Rolen) polish their equipment so often and so meticulously that their swords glistened like lakes in summer. It could have been that, but I still wasn’t sure and I honestly didn’t want to get closer to find out.

"I don't know about you all, but I'm feeling pretty thirsty today." Bentree roared. His voice now carried much more weight than the cheery, upbeat tone he employed earlier at the campfire. “I think I could use a nice tall glass of yellow, how about you all?”

An uproar of agreement traveled from the thousands of soldiers behind me.

"Those boys have gotten a bit too large in the belly. I reckon it’s our obligation to whip em' back into shape today." Bentree bellowed.

The ranks responded once more with a loud, unified, chant.

"Those freaks in there had the audacity to make a strike against a kingdom of man. They drove our people out of their homes. Raped mothers. Killed fathers. Enslaved children!"

Again the infantry let out an ocean of clamor.

"Break their bones! Choke the breath from their lungs! I want their last image of this world to be the smile on all of your faces as you slit their throats and crush their hearts! Now charge!"

And with the final command from our leader, we went to war. I cowered behind my shield as we swarmed onto the battlefield. Fear gripped me tighter with each step forward and my heart felt like it would explode from beating against the inside of my chest as thoughts of panic raced through my mind just before we dove into combat. I blinked aggressively to register what was happening because my mind refused to acknowledge it as reality. I wanted nothing more than to be away from here right now, but there was no escaping it. It felt like I was on a rowboat just moments before a waterfall with no choice but to wait for the inevitable drop.

After seeing the Scarra for the first time I finally realized what Bentree had meant by a "glass of yellow". I had to blink again to make sure that my eyes weren’t deceiving me. But they weren’t. The Scarra looked similar to humans but their bodies emitted bright beams of yellow light that escaped from the openings within their armor. It turned out that I was wrong. The lights that were flaring from a distance were not reflections from shields. They came from the Scarra themselves.

THUNK! I snapped out of my trance when something smashed into my shield from above. I shifted my gaze upwards to investigate.

"Archers, Yearn! Keep your shield up!" Mello exclaimed, his voice barely making its way through the sea of noise around us.

Doing as Mello instructed, I crouched low and hid behind my shield. I heard a deafening cry pierce the air from my right side (the unshielded side) as a warrior of light charged at me, flaring with intensified fury. Before I knew it his sword was already making its way towards my heart.

But the Scarran warrior froze mere inches before penetration. I remained just as still, simply staring at the sword that almost killed me. The warrior let out one final cry of anguish before exploding into a cloud of shimmering golden dust. Once my vision was unobscured by the dust, I was able to see who was responsible for killing my attacker.

Rolen stood in the distance with his blue longbow, wearing a smile of content after capturing his prey.

"This thing's amazing!" Rolen exclaimed, notching another arrow and taking down another foe with deadly precision.

After taking in a breath of relief, I reestablished my position, taking cover behind my shield and allies for several moments, remaining perfectly stationary to calm myself down. Before I knew it I was hyperventilating and colors obscured my vision as my head started to ache.

I nearly screamed when a pair of powerful arms snatched me by the shoulders and threw me backwards onto the ground. I readied my sword but the attacker kicked it out of my hands.

"What's wrong? Don't have any mojo left?" Auslin said as he picked me up again and shook me vigorously, "Eh, that's alright. Sometimes you just gotta give something a good rattle before it starts working again."

The captain removed my helmet, tossing it along with me to the ground again. I fell face first into the dirt, busting my lip, but it wasn't a sore face that concerned me.

I frantically tried to find my helmet as fast as I could, but my attention snapped forward instinctively as Auslin produced a loud, bellowing roar and swung his bastard sword at me. My eyes widened upon seeing the massive weapon arc its way towards me. I split my legs apart as the sword fell between, demolishing the tuffs of ground and dirt beneath me. I scrambled away from the blade, but Auslin was already drawing it back for another swing. I tried to get to my feet, but I tripped on nothing. As if an invisible arm had reached out from the ground and grabbed me by the ankle.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Auslin swung the sword at me once again, laughing hysterically like the madman he was. I barely threw myself out of the way before Auslin could slice me in half, but another follow-up strike was already incoming. I screamed out of true terror as I willed my body to retrieve my helmet, shoving the hunk of metal onto my head at the last possible moment, just praying that somehow it would save my life.

Auslin’s blade froze like a statue before reaching my face just as I slipped my helmet on. I looked up to the captain in horror; my eyes remained fixated on the wicked smile he wore on his lips.

“Sorry,” Auslin chuckled. “I thought you were an enemy for a moment there.”

“...”

Auslin’s smile widened even further as he grabbed me by the arm and lifted me up off of the ground, patting the dirt off of my armor and handing me my sword and shield, “Go get em’ boy. Show em’ how well you can swing that short sword of yours.” and then got in closer, whispering into my ear. “And remember that I’ll be watching your performance.”

And with that Auslin left me, leaping right back into battle, shouting orders and fending off the enemy forces.

I couldn’t will myself to move. My body became stone after what just happened. I didn’t break from paralysis until a fellow soldier shook me and screamed into my ear. He said something along the lines of “Out of the way, you idiot.”

Regaining my focus, I made my way back into the fight with my allies. If I didn’t kill something soon, Auslin or any of the other captains would kill me. I dug past my fear and tried tapping into frustration as I engaged. I thought of why we were fighting; why the Scarra needed to be annihilated. I thought of the words that Bentree told us, screaming them in my head so that I could become one with the message. I looked among the crowd to select my first target. After choosing a Scarran warrior, I concentrated every raw emotion within me towards him, funneling every last bit of focus into picturing him dead and threw all of the might I had at him. I tore my way through the ranks of allies and enemies alike only affording attention to my one target. After I got in close enough I brought my sword to my side, poising it to strike down my opponent. I let out a ferocious battle cry, attacked and then...

...tripped.

A leg materialized in front of my own just before I was able to slash the warrior to pieces with my short sword. Thankfully, my weapon was positioned to the side instead of in front of me, preventing my body from falling on it. I heard a snicker from behind me as I tumbled to the ground. I spat out of mere frustration. I was almost tempted to cry. The sullied anger within was enough to shatter me into a thousand pieces. I wanted to kill whoever had tripped me more than any Scarran soldier on the battlefield. It was an ally that had done it. They thought it was hilarious to put me on my ass. To see me fall.

My target noticed my war cry and redirected his focus to me while I was vulnerable. I cowered away from the warrior as he came closer and closer, throwing up my shield in preparation for his axe to fall onto me, but he paused before striking.

The loud grinding of gears and various other mechanisms announced the gates of the keep opening and a congregation of hooded Scarrans emerged from within. At the marking of their entrance the world began to turn black before our eyes. Night poured into the sky, driving out the day and drowning it in darkness. Nothing remained visible to us except for the bright yellow light emitted from the Scarra’s bodies. But even that light began to fade before long. As if terrified of the darkness, the Scarra spontaneously fled from the area, disappearing into the keep like fireflies in the night.

The Scarran knight in front of me smiled mischievously and turned around, fleeing with the rest of the other warriors. Once all of them had disappeared only the robed figures at the gates of Anthryn remained. Their hands and faces were the only lights left in the web of night that surrounded us.

After raising their hands, a sudden light emerged just above their heads- a giant orange orb of flaming incandescence. It radiated brightly, illuminating everything on the battlefield, taking back what the darkness had stolen, but its luminosity was nothing compared to the heat it emitted. Even at my distance from the hooded individuals I still managed to feel its massive warmth. But I felt more uncomfortable than anything. I thought that sitting around the campfire with Bentree and the other captains was bad enough, but nothing compared to this. I thought that I was going to incinerate inside of my armor and burst into flames. If I didn’t know better I would have mistook it for the sun, although I probably didn’t know better. After seeing an army of glowing people I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually managed to steal the sun.

The sun orb began to elevate, disappearing into the clouds. Within seconds of its inception the sky began to burn. Magnificent orange light flashed across the heavens dissolving the clouds and leaving nothing in its wake.

And then it rained fire.

A cluster of sun orbs, similar to the one that entered the sky initially, fell to the ground, spontaneously combusting into infernos of brilliant fire. All around me the sun orbs exploded into massive, spiraling tendrils of fire as they hit the ground, snatching up handfuls of soldiers into their grasp like monstrous octopi and reeling them into the sun orb to be burned alive.

Gales and Scendans alike began dropping like flies, swallowed into the fiery depths of the sun orbs. A horrific sight indeed. I thought I was to join them when a massive tendril reached out to take me as well, but then elected to snatch the soldier next to me instead. The last thing I saw of him was his outstretched hand reaching back at me to save him before being engulfed by the fire. After devouring my ally, the sun orb decided to target me next.

I felt my body lock up as I fell back into partial paralysis again. I wasn’t strong enough to move more than a couple steps. The iron-willed grip of fear wouldn’t permit me to take more as the tendril of the sun orb reached out to claim my body.

But the tendril evaporated into a stream of embers before it touched me. All across the battlefield the sun-orbs ceased their assault on us. Relief washed over me like a crushing tidal wave. I was so shocked that I had to remind myself to breathe.

“Inhale.” I told myself. “Now exhale. Inhale. Exhale.”

After teaching myself how to breathe again, I turned my gaze back to the congregation of summoners. I caught them just as they were fleeing back into the keep to be replaced by their warrior counterparts once again, now fully refreshed by their short period of respite and ready to tear us apart. Although it was almost a relief to see the infantry again. If I was to die then I’d rather get stabbed with a sword than burn to death in the flames.

The spell must have dissipated because the casters had reached their limit. A big spell like that on a massive scale would have been pretty strenuous even for a group of skilled mages. I’m just thankful that it died the moment before it could kill me. But my troubles were far from over. The Scarran warriors were arriving again and now that we were severely weakened by the effects of the sun orb spell they would be able to cleave through us without difficulty. We didn’t have a chance. We’d be wiped out within a few hours.

So I ran. I didn’t care who would come after me. I didn’t care if the executioner was waiting for me back at the encampment with his stupid scythe or if Auslin would slice me in half with his greatsword. Anything was better than here. Being around so much death was enough to make me gag. It wrapped around my throat like burning hands, choking the breath from me. I felt like I had actually been devoured up by one of those sun orbs and couldn’t escape, like the very ground beneath me and the air around me had turned to flames of pure, relentless, agony that would never go away no matter how much I begged for it to stop. I needed to escape. I’d rather die trying to flee than stay here for a half second longer. More than anything I just wanted to run away from all of this.

I met a sudden stop when my face slammed into a fully ironclad fist, hitting the dirt yet again. I squirmed to my right just before the captain’s blade came crashing down on me once more.

“I’m really loving your performance right now,” Auslin said, swinging the blade at me again, but it came too quickly this time. I couldn’t dodge, only block.

But my sword was much smaller than Captain Auslin’s bastard sword and not to mention he had the advantage of gravity. So I braced myself for the inevitable impact that I wouldn’t be able to avoid.

My defense crumpled instantly as Auslin’s sword slammed down against my own. I cried out in anguish as his blade forced mine to pierce its way into my shoulder. I had never screamed that loud in my entire life. The whole battlefield could have heard me if they were focused on listening. I thanked god for my armor because without it the pain would have been much worse than this. If I wasn’t crushed under so much pressure my breathing would be rapid, but my respiration remained short and shallow. Compressed under the weight of the weapon.

“Oh come on, Yearny.” Captain Auslin jested. “It’s just a little cut.”

He pressed harder into his blade, putting all of his body weight into it.

This time I didn’t cry out. I only had enough air to produce a croak as all of the breath was choked from my lungs. The last glimmer of spirit that I had left in me had diminished into instant nothingness as my eyes met Auslin’s sickly-sweet murderous gaze. There was no escaping this. I was trapped here with him until death came to claim me.

But something caught the Captain’s attention and he removed himself from me at last, but it wasn’t out of mercy. I didn’t care to look at what it was that had stolen his gaze but it was likely a fast-approaching enemy in the distance.

I took advantage of the moment to lash out at his kneecaps with my foot. After stunning him for a brief second I rolled out from underneath and broke into a dead sprint, eager to escape. Life had given me one more chance, I wasn’t going to waste it.

“Rolen!” I heard Auslin yell. “Stop him!”

I immediately dove forward at the mention of Rolen’s name and frantically strafed right, then left. I looked back to hide behind the cover of other soldiers to obscure his vision. I couldn’t allow him to gain clear sight of me. Rolen could literally fire in one second. Not two seconds, not one second-ish, an actual second. If he had even the slightest view of me I’d end up with an arrow in the back of my head.

I kept my gaze ahead of me and avoided looking at anything else. Not the Scarra. Not the slaphappy grins on my allies’ faces as they stared into the face of death. Not the mutilated corpses that blanketed the battlefield around us. All that was on my mind were the trees of the forest to the right of the battlefield that I would be escaping from.

I heard a sudden whistle in the wind and then felt a blazing sharp sting cut across my elbow as a slender black raven flew past me, taking a bite from my arm. Or at least what I had thought to be a raven. After seeing it embed itself into the ground, I identified it as one of Rolen’s arrows.

The pain forced me to drop my shield, but I had no time to get it back, so I abandoned it and continued to sprint as fast as my legs would carry me. I kept moving forward without looking back. With all of my will I forced my mind to shift away from the fear. If I gave into it I would die. I couldn’t afford to dwell on anything but the destination ahead during this highly sensitive situation.

Another arrow sailed past me, this time grazing my right leg, but I didn’t even allow myself to focus on the pain or the blood. The tree lines were in close proximity now. So close to freedom.

But while I managed to force myself through the slight limp in my strides that were brought about by Rolen’s arrow, I couldn’t surmount the doubt that inevitably crept into my thoughts.

A tear rolled down my face as the cold bite of anxiety foreshadowed my impending doom. In a swift wisp of time, Rolen would fire again and his arrow would pass right through my brain to end my existence on this earth. Through all of the doubt there was almost no hope left in me that I would survive another second. I thought that I would die right here as an insignificant spec in existence that would soon be forgotten and faded from memory.

But when Rolen fired one final arrow, for the first time ever, he missed.