The iron blades whip past your head, but you land badly, and before you can rise, the ettin is on you.

"DARK NUNS!" Para shouts, rushing forward. She scores a bloody cut across the ettin's back, but the huge man turns and slashes her across the side with one ax while simultaneously bringing the other blade down toward you. Your bronze sword flies broken from your hands. Your mother throws herself bodily at the ettin just as the other ax comes down. The flat of the blade strikes you across the head, and you fall into darkness.

Next

"Pon Para."

A voice in the darkness.

"DARK NUNS! You cannot die. Your mother was quite clear on that."

You gasp and open your eyes. Your head pounds, and your body feels mangled, as if savaged by dogs. But you can see the night sky overhead. You force your stiff limbs to move, and you sit up.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Below you, Hetch burns. Trolls run everywhere, stealing what they can. The great hall is an inferno, its beautiful woodwork blackening in the flames.

"Your mother got you away from the battle." Melaxu stands above you, leaning on her spear. Mud covers every inch of her body, though her eyes are bright and blue in the firelight. "I've never seen anyone fight like that. They killed her in the end, but I think a few people escaped into the woods."

The smithy suddenly explodes, blasting chunks of stone across the commons and vaporizing a score of trolls. They pay the destruction no mind, unless perhaps it is to hurry with their looting. Melaxu glances back at what she was able to salvage from town. You see food and boots, but not much more.

"Before she died," Melaxu says matter-of-factly, "your mother told me what she thinks has happened. Someone found Raun, Acamon's ax, which Hareetha used a few years ago to cause so much trouble. We need to reach Mytele and tell King Hyras what happened."

The dark ax Raun has the power to control the servitor races. If someone is using it to attack the forest tribes…

More roundhouses collapse into flame.

"Well," the nymph says, "Mytele isn't going to come to us. Get up, or I will have to do the work myself."

And somehow, you find the strength to rise and walk into the woods, away from the burning town.

We Need to Get Away from Here