Chapter 5: A World Without Garfield
Hannah had an idea. The odds of success were probably very low. She might even accelerate Solana’s death in the process. But she had to try. She couldn’t go get Garfield, and time was running out for her friend.
Hannah positioned herself over Solana and took a bite. She drew blood only for a moment before backing her head away. Hannah waited to see what effect the new elvish blood would have on her. She waited, and waited, and waited. Probably, only a few seconds had gone by, but it felt like an eternity.
Thanks to the orcs blowing over so many trees, the sun was shining brightly on the girls. Hannah suddenly felt a change in herself. Was it the change she wanted? She couldn’t tell. Either way, she had nothing to lose. She leaned over for a second bite.
--
“The future is… uncertain!” While the orcs and everybody else tried to make sense of Garfield’s sudden disappearance, the hooded orc shouted out his concerns. “War Chief, you should flee! Only death awaits us here!”
“Huh? Even with that mad human gone?”
The hooded orc didn’t try further to convince the War Chief. He simply turned around and ran out.
“War Chief, go with him, I’ll take care of things here.”
“Mudagog…”
“Don’t worry, I’ll let you have your pick of the litter.” The orc eyed the princess’ party as he said that.
“Fine. Don’t let me down, Mudagog.” Corgak retreated out the same door Gulm had used.
The creatures Garfield had summoned were still in the room. Up until this moment, they had remained passive. Suddenly, they each sprang into action as if they just received new orders. The monkey grabbed one of Yttria’s two swords, wielding it with its right hand. It then jumped over to the princess and scooped her up with its other arm. She screeched, unsure of what was going on, but Linet made the decision not to interfere. She didn’t know where Garfield had gone, but she trusted his magic and abilities.
The dog, pig, and rat each spread out to surround the princess’ party in a defensive formation. The sudden action startled some of the orcs, and one of them released an enchanted bolt from his crossbow. Its path happened to intersect Kay’s body. As a support mage, there was likely no way she could deal with the threat before the bolt struck her. Worse, the bolt would explode upon impact and deal devastating damage to the princess’ entire party, not to mention some of the nearby orcs and elves.
The closest person to Kay was Yttria. Her hand was already gripping the hilt of her sheathed blade. This sword was the one enchanted with Quickdraw. As the bolt passed in front of her, she drew, cleaving the enchanted projectile in two. One half of the bolt missed Kay to the left and the other missed to the right. Each half struck an orc and exploded. The explosions were greatly diminished due to Yttria’s cut, but at least two orcs were down for the count.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? DON’T FIRE THOSE H—“ Mudagog’s command came just a bit too late. If Garfield were there, surely he’d point out the folly of giving new weapons to soldiers right before a battle. A second orc had fired a bolt.
The second bolt was on an intersect course with Linet’s head. She had been watching as the orc aimed and fired, so she knew it was coming. However, the bolt’s speed was such that it was completely unreasonable to expect a human to be able to dodge from such a short distance.
Still, she had witnessed the peak of what humans can do. Remembering the awe-inspiring sparring match between Garfield and Hannah, and thinking back to the unbelievable sword slash the knight-in-training Yttria displayed a moment ago, Linet decided to believe that she could, at least, twist her head out of the way.
Fortunately, she was not wearing a helmet. After all, they were attacked during a meeting with dignitaries. She would need to use the muscles of her whole body in perfect harmony in order to complete the necessary motions in time. This is what she’d trained for, for years. If she failed, not only would she detonate, but the princess and everyone else would get caught in the blast.
She watched the bolt approach her in slow motion as she pushed each muscle to its limit. Using the ideal paths, she repositioned her head and pivoted her body and neck slightly. The bolt passed between her shoulder, chin, and neck as it proceeded directly into Mudagog’s still-open mouth. As it turned out, it was the bolt in the back of his throat that had stopped him mid-sentence. The explosion didn’t help, either.
--
“Huh? What the—“ An orc’s head tumbled to the ground. Two shadowy figures jumped from skirmish to skirmish, eliminating orcs wherever they could. Some squads saw the tide was turning and chose to retreat. Fortunately or not, the orcs had received detailed instructions about what to do if retreat was needed. This wasn’t their first time retreating from the forest of the elves, after all.
--
The explosion originating from Mudagog’s throat took out several nearby orcs. Unfortunately, the shockwave also did a number on the princess’ party. The monkey successfully guarded the princess by turning away and using its own body as a shield.
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The dog, pig, and rat each took advantage of the confusion to rampage through the enemy. By now, the orcs had realized their folly in using the enchanted crossbows indoors and had switched entirely to their melee weapons. However, they were outclassed. The animals looked unassuming, but they were legendary. They wouldn’t get struck down by some buffoons with swords.
Yttria, mostly uninjured due to her positioning, struck down a few panicking orcs as well. Kay, least injured of the party (other than the unharmed princess) was casting support magic to strengthen her allies and buy time for healing. The elvish leaders and their immediate guards also got a few magical jabs in, although they had mostly been left out of events until this point.
Just as the last of the fleeing orcs were struck down, an elf came running into the hall. “Thank goodness you’re all right! The remaining orcs are fleeing!”
--
White Glow came out of hiding once the battle was over. They, plus one knight, encountered Hannah and another hooded girl while they were proceeding towards the meeting hall. Once inside, they saw recovery efforts ongoing.
The knights who had been defending the princess were all dead or seriously injured. Linet seemed to be awake but too wounded to get up. A couple of elves were applying healing magic as best they could. Brooke ran over and joined the healing efforts. The rest of White Glow approached the princess.
“What happened?” the warrior asked.
“I don’t know… First the orcs were attacking, then the Duke disappeared, then there was a battle. Linet and the others got seriously injured!” The princess seemed too shaken to offer much more than that. Yttria had already received some minor healing and walked over to Hannah.
“I’m glad you’re all right. What happened on your end?”
“Wait. Garfield disappeared!?” Hannah shouted.
“Yes… we don’t know where he went. Just as he was about to cast some spell targeting the enemy, he disappeared into a cloud of black shadows and was gone.”
Hannah squatted down, shut her eyes, and put her hands over her head. She needed Garfield right now more than ever. “Garfield…”
“And who is that with you? Solana?” Yttria gestured to the girl wearing a conspicuous hooded robe.
“Um…” It was clearly Solana’s voice, but it didn’t have its usual vigor. Hannah suddenly came back to her senses.
“Come over here.” The three walked a bit away where they could speak privately. Hannah described what had happened a short while ago.
--
Hannah lifted her head from Solana’s neck for the second time that day. If this didn’t work, Solana was a goner. Hannah watched closely and did start to notice some changes. Solana’s body seemed to be glowing slightly. Hannah grabbed the wood which had Solana pinned down and tossed it away using superhuman strength.
As she hoped, Solana’s body began healing. The torso reconstructed itself into its usual shape. Her shoulder twisted back into the correct position. Her glazed-over facial expression even improved. Further, Hannah felt a connection with Solana that wasn’t there a few minutes ago. They now shared common blood.
Solana’s eyes sprang open. She tried to speak, but words wouldn’t form. She brought a hand up to her face and rubbed her fingers against two fangs no elf ought to possess. Then, she looked at Hannah with tears in her eyes. Hannah embraced her and calmed her down. She then explained what Solana had become.
--
“Wow… So the two of you rejoined the battle and turned the tide in favor of the elves?”
Both girls nodded at Yttria’s question.
“Hannah, you were really weak at first, right? How about Solana?”
“She’s not as strong as I am, and she doesn’t have my abilities, but she’s still able to keep up. I don’t know if the difference is because I was locked up for so long or for some other reason.”
“I see… Solana, what do you want to do now?”
“I…” She stopped to think. “I want to stay with Hannah.”
“What about the elves? Do you not want to stay here?” Yttria asked.
“I’ll miss them, but I don’t have any friends or close family here… I don’t think they’ll want me to stay here, anyway…”
“I see… Well, I don’t even know what the rest of us are going to do right now.”
The princess called over everyone from the Fenwick Kingdom to discuss what to do next. She asked the elves to step away so they could speak privately, and the elves left the room. “This diplomatic meeting is clearly over for the time being. There are two things to do: Send word to my father, and find the Duke.”
“But how will we find him?” Kay asked. “I already tried using my magic, but I can’t figure out where he is…” While the princess agonized over how to respond, another voice joined the conversation.
“He’s in the Shadow State, most likely at their main temple.” Pandora stood before everyone, having arrived instantly. “Oh stop, no need to bow. I’m living as a mortal, for now.”
“But you just teleported here!” Kay objected.
“Don’t mind the details.” Pandora’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Oh, and Garfield teleports too! It doesn’t count!”
“Oh, uh, okay,” Kay allowed.
“A-Anyway, he was most likely sequestered by Col.”
“Col!?” Now it was Brooke’s turn to shout in surprise.
“Yes. I’m sure you all know about His hatred of the vampires.” Most of the group did not, but they didn’t plan to argue the point. Pandora bent down and placed a hand on the chest of the most grievously injured surviving knight. “It pains me just looking at you. Here.”
Whatever she did, the knight’s breathing became less ragged. She explained, “Even I don’t know what will happen between Col and Garfield. I let Col know I don’t approve, so I don’t imagine he’ll do anything too extreme. Still, having two vampires in your party is really asking for it.”
“Two vampires?” the princess asked.
Pandora glanced at Yttria. “I’m sure you’ll learn all about it after I’m gone. Anyway, if you want Garfield, you’ll need to travel east, beyond the Orcish Hills.”
“W-Will you come with us?” Kay asked Pandora.
“What? No. When you rescue Garfield, bring him to me so I can show him my new shrine. Good luck.” Pandora disappeared.
--
Yttria explained to the group the truth about Hannah and Solana. Kay was excited to meet a second vampire, but the rest were mostly just disturbed. The princess declared her intention to lead the rescue party.
“Princess,
“Linet, time is of the essence, and we’re extremely low on people now. Only one knight is strong enough to travel, and we need him to hurry back to Bretten and report what has happened. That only leaves me as a summoner, Kay as a support magic user, Yttria as a swordswoman, Hannah and Solana as fighters, and White Glow as well.”
“Even so, at least you can remain here with the elves until help arrives,” Linet argued.
“No. This is a mission from our very goddess. Rescuing the Duke is that important. He has saved the royal family before, and it is our turn to save him. If I’m able to be of assistance, I will.”
“Um, I don’t have any objections but…” Everyone turned to look at Brooke. “What about those four animals the Duke summoned?”