Fort Pella, the Territories of Ilsylvania. Day 03.

Tyree had fallen behind while General Neemo and Colonel Verne ran up the stairs behind the man who’d called for them. When she finally made it out of the armory and to the gates, she could see what had gotten everyone’s attention.

Fort Pella sat upon a hill with the rest of the village encircling it in the basin north of the fort. As such, it offered the best view of the great pillar of smoke blotting out the horizon to the north of the village.

“Forest fire?” Tyree asked Colonel Verne.

“Could be, though we are well past the dry season,” Verne said.

“True, or it could be caused by a wandering flame elemental,” Tyree suggested.

Tyree hated the things, though Aliyah liked them, saying they served to help keep forests in check by occasionally burning away old growth so new growth could come in.

Tyree didn’t buy into that. A proper monster was one that let you know it was trying to kill you, not whatever random chaos those mischievous wisps of light were up to.

“To the south?” Tyree said as she turned in that direction. Multiple columns of smoke began rising up as she stared. Logan’s farmhouse. Tyree grabbed the nearest guard who’d been manning the gates. “You need to get to the inn and find the guardian Halzy. He’s tall, with a white beard and hair.”

Before the man even had time to say anything, Halzy called out, running towards them even as he brandished his whistle. A slender, grey-furred woman with a cat-like face, one of the rare Cait Sidhe, in sky blue plate armor was beside him.

“We need to get to Logan’s farm and warn him and my family!” Tyree called to the Guardian.

“I know. Singapura’s here to help us get there and get your family out.” Halzy said, gesturing to the Cait Sidhe.

Singapura gave a nod and blew into the whistle in her hand and the call was answered by a large wind drake. Halzy blew into his own whistle, hopped onto his eight-legged horse, and pulled Tyree up behind him. The beast moved at break-neck speeds and Tyree felt every jostle from the horse’s movements in her injuries.

The constantly renewing pain ceased as they abruptly stopped in front of a great wall of fire. An arrow whizzed by Tyree’s head and suddenly fighting erupted between Halzy, the Cait Sidhe, and the ones who’d presumably started the fires.

The Cait Sidhe was knocked from her silvery drake by a blast of yellow mana. She let out a cry that looked more from surprise than pain, and was suddenly back on her feet, sword and shield in hand.

She beat her sword against her shield and reddish waves of mana emanated from her as she yelled, “Go, Halzy! I’ve got them!”

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Without hesitation, Halzy spurred his horse onward. He circled wide until he found a break in the flames. The sweltering heat of the fires singed Tyree’s hair and the bandages covering her face as Halzy pushed them through. The great horse bellowed in pain as it trampled over still-burning cinders, but it did not slow down.

They jumped the fence and Tyree watched the fires burning down the old farmhouse like a pack of ravenous wolves feasting on a freshly killed deer.

Halzy leapt from the mount and charged into the front door, disappearing into the roiling inferno inside.

Tyree cried out as moments later, the building finally succumbed to the fires and collapsed, the second floor slamming down on the first and sending out a quaking tremble through Tyree’s feet.

Halzy came running from behind the remains of the building, his armor covered in soot and ash. “I looked everywhere I could. I didn’t see anyone inside. Maybe they got out.”

And would have been killed by the people who’d set Logan’s home on fire. It hadn’t needed to be said, but they both knew that was true.

“Leave.” That single word, icy and cold, was the only one to force its way through the lump building in Tyree’s throat.

“We need to get you back to the village. It isn’t safe here.” Halzy said, pain written on his own face.

But Tyree didn’t care anymore. He’d said so himself: her world, her family… none of it mattered to him and the other guardians. Her home was just some place they came to when they were bored. And now they had destroyed it and everything she loved simply because they could.

“I said leave!” Tyree pulled her sword from her bag of holding. She lashed out at Halzy, but fell nowhere close to striking him. She tumbled to the ground, pain flaring in her head and chest anew from her injuries. She couldn’t hold back the tears and she wept. “Why couldn’t any of you just leave me and my family alone?”

What did it matter if it wasn’t safe here? It wasn’t safe anywhere with the power the Guardians wielded. And Aliyah was gone. Alyx and Lynn were gone. Logan was gone. She had nothing… no one left.

“Halzy! We need to go! Pella’s under attack and Hogweed can’t get enough members there by himself!” Came Singapura’s voice.

Halzy watched Tyree a minute longer, then turned and followed the armored Cait Sidhe back to the village.

Though Tyree hadn’t noticed. She only watched the farmhouse finish burning itself out.

The Guardians were supposed to protect it. Ilsylvania’s army was supposed to protect it. She was supposed to protect it. Tyree had sworn an oath to protect her family and those who’d needed it. But she and they had all failed.

Tyree felt hollow, but she quickly found a grim resolve deep inside her. She had failed her family, but Pella still needed her help.

Tyree reached into her bag of holding and took out her strongest healing potion. It was intended to only be used as a last resort to pull a soldier back from the very brink of death in their dire need.

Against the warnings of everyone who had learned to use healing potions only sparingly, Tyree downed the bottle in its entirety.

A raging storm of pain flattened Tyree to the ground as her body began rapidly healing the injuries she’d sustained over the last several days. Skin and muscle stitched themselves closed and bones realigned themselves as stretched muscles tightened themselves once more. It was pain.

Finally, Tyree could think straight and move once more. She pulled her armor from her bag and threw the pieces on the ground. Stripping herself of her plain clothes and donning the tunic she wore under her armor, Tyree affixed the pieces to herself. Energy and power flowed into her as the armor’s enchantments altered her very physiology, granting her increased strength, speed, and agility.

Tyree pulled a yellow vial from her bag of holding and downed it. Time around her slowed as her reflexes and speed increased dramatically. Tyree turned in the direction of Pella and ran. She ran until she bottomed out her stamina, drank another stamina potion, and continued onward.