The first thing Valen became aware of was the sway of a saddle beneath him, which told him he was no longer on Raenelir’s back, at least. Then came the sound of voices, more voices than he was used to hearing while travelling, and suddenly he was afraid of what that might mean.
He tried to sit upright, but pain radiated through his body and he let out a groan instead. He was leaning forward over the front of a saddle, and beneath him he could clearly hear the clop clop clop of a horse’s hooves. Then something more familiar came to him; the sound of Hera laughing, and the squeal of happy young wyverns. Of course, even though it was familiar, it did not mean it made sense.
He began to open his eyes, slowly, having to squint through the stinging pain of daylight. A blessedly cool waft of mountain air helped pull him further from the dregs of unconsciousness, and Valen finally felt his strength returning to him. He was able to push himself up in the saddle and take a look around. With a start, he realized he was in the center of a long column of people, some on horseback and some on foot, all following a long, trailing mountain path.
He thought that perhaps the Imperials had taken them all and the rescue had failed, but then heard Hera laugh again and looked to the right. There she was, walking along next to the column of people, Aevra and several wyvern hatchlings following along around her feet. Between Valen and Hera, he saw Hedrick and Simon riding next to each other and having some kind of animated conversation.
“What… ?” he muttered, turning to look the other way where Samuel and Samorr walked along, chuckling about some joke that one or the other had told.
But that left a few unaccounted for, something he could tell even in his still recovering state of mind.
“Second Ranger Bardus is up at the very front of the column. Commander Narrick wanted a personal update from him, since he was chosen by First Ranger Illaya to lead our mission South into Manidar. It was quite a mess we brought with us, after all,” a voice said. Startled, Valen jolted fully upright and tried to turn in the saddle, nearly knocking right into Layne who rode behind him.
“Relax there, Val. Someone had to ride with you since you hadn't woken up yet, so seeing as you helped me before, I figured I could return the favor,” Layne said, smirking just a bit at the astonishment on his face. She had them moving at an easy canter along with the rest of the column, but to Valen all that mattered was that he had no idea how they had gotten here or where all of these other people had come from. The fact that Layne had just used his nickname went right over his head.
“Where are we?" he croaked, but clearing his throat and continuing. "What happened back at the Blackscale camp?” he asked, and the ranger’s face turned sour.
“Well, apparently that bastard Velitarii hadn't cared enough to conceal the movements of his forces up here, and we were close enough to the border of Manidar for someone to notice. Even though the Empire tends to overlook the Drake’s Tail mountains as a place for enemies to cross over, the Iron Queen is not so foolish. Commander Narrick of Ravenholde, the center of command for the movements of our troops through the mountains, received a report and gathered the strike force you see here. Then he rushed North to make sure the Empire did not cross the border. Of course, once they learned Ravas was holding Rangers of the Iron Watch captive, things changed,” Layne explained. She took a moment to gesture toward their friends and Valen’s sister.
“Then... there was a battle?” Valen asked, his brain churning at all of this new information as he tried to process it enough to ask the questions that mattered. “Did we win?”
Layne’s expression became dark again, and she glanced up just in time for a roar to startle Valen. He looked up and saw, to his delight, Raenelir flying overhead, though the Highborn had descended much closer to the rangers and soldiers beneath him, likely because he'd heard Valen speaking and knew he had woken up.
The wyvern let out another joyous cry, drawing some stares from those who were not yet used to the Highborn’s presence, but Valen just grinned. The chains around his neck, from when he had been held by the High Lord, still dangled and clanged together, and that would have to be dealt with – but he was free, which was what mattered for now.
“I would not say that we won. It would be more apt to say we managed a draw. Commander Narrick was not able to assemble an entire army. The force he brought to bear numbered around five hundred total when they struck, but it was enough when they had the element of surprise. With the chaos we caused, they were able to get into the camp and do quite a bit of damage, as well as help us make good our escape. But we could do nothing to free the other wyverns still held in those cages. Once the Blackscale Knights themselves recovered from the chaos of what we did and the surprise attack that followed, the dragon riders were too much for such a small force, and we lost some people. It became a stalemate and we had to retreat before Velitarii could unleash his Oath. I’m just grateful we were able to do enough damage and make ourselves enough of a threat that they didn't come after us,” Layne told him. At this, Valen’s joy subsided somewhat. The loss of life would always be unfortunate.
Including…
The memory of his own first purposeful kill, right before the arrival of their allies and that had broken his ‘lightning sense,’ surged to the forefront of his mind again now. He felt his stomach roiling and he began to shake, trying to rationalize it in his mind.
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“I… I killed someone…” he whispered. Though he spoke quietly, Layne seemed to hear him because she lowered her voice and replied.
“The first kill is difficult. All deaths are regretful, even if only because of the life the person dying might have lived if not for their own poor choices, or the circumstances that forced them to become people who had to be slain. What you’re feeling right now never fully goes away. At least, it doesn’t go away if you’re any kind of decent person. And you are a decent person, Valen. But the path you've chosen to walk, to defend those closest to you no matter the cost, will require you to kill again. You have to come to terms with that, in your own time, for your sake and the sake of your friends and family," she said, then paused as if considering what would come next before actually saying it. Then she sighed and continued. "And... know this: the Elites of the Blackscale Order have always been chosen based on their indifference to killing and joy for depravity. Velitarii wants his most trusted warriors to have no qualms about any command he might give, so if anyone deserved death, the man you slew certainly did.”
Layne’s words now were hard to hear, and yet he appreciated them all the same. Valen knew that she spoke the truth, that the man he had killed deserved it, and that his new path in life would almost certainly require him to face other men and women just as dangerous and twisted as High Lord Velitarii and his cronies. Yet thankfully, Layne’s words also brought another question to mind, pulling his attention from his own actions to something else he needed to know.
“What happened with Velitarii? How is it we managed to get away when he was present with that monster of a dragon?” For them to just escape without his interference in the battle seemed odd.
“Honestly? We aren't totally sure... other than, perhaps he decided in the moment to focus on recapturing the escaping wyverns rather than join his men in pushing back the attack. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but here we are," the Ranger explained, though Valen could see in her eyes that she was just as confused by it as he was.
Valen hung his head, thinking quietly as he went over everything he knew about Ravas Velitarii, and the lengths he had gone to so far in his Order's pursuit of Valen and his sister. Yet no reasoning he could come up with was sound enough to really explain how the man had allowed them to escape the way they had without way more casualties.
Finally, he had to give up the line of thought. As exhausted as he still was, he was just glad to have a break. Raenelir peeled back off into the sky overhead, while Hera finally seemed to notice that her brother was awake. She rushed over to the side of the horse with Aevra trailing behind her and the other little wyverns – three of them – following Aevra. Valen noticed with some surprise the rate at which Aevra was already growing; with everything happening back at the encampment, he hadn't had a moment to notice, but now he could see it.
She was already as large as a medium sized dog, perhaps thirty or forty pounds, and likely could no longer be comfortable hanging around Hera’s neck. At that rate of growth...
There was only one conclusion Valen could make: Aevra had to be growing into the new Matriarch of the Galar flight. He had never thought since this treacherous journey had first begun, but a Matriarch was not just born. Instead, the previous Matriarch had to choose her successor before her own passing, and it had to be while the wyvern was still young.
There was hope for his family’s flight after all, even working from such humble beginnings.
“Val, I’m so glad you’re okay!” Hera practically shouted, coming to walk alongside his and Layne’s horse as she spoke. The wyverns below ran around between her feet and the hooves of the horse with deft speed as they all continued making their way along the road; the steed grew a bit jittery from having the wyverns so close, but as they were still so small, Layne easily calmed the horse with a bit of cooing.
“What’s with all your new friends?” Valen asked, grinning a bit through the pain that was still throbbing through his body. It would be a bit before he was fully recovered, he knew, but he didn't mind.
“They followed us after you and Layne rescued us! I think some of them tried to run to their parents outside, but most of the little wyverns were taken after their parents were killed because they were easy to control. I don’t know what the Empire wanted with the poor things, or any of the larger wyverns either, but I’m glad that these little ones are okay. I just hope you don’t mind them coming with us? I know it will be more to take care of, but…” Hera trailed off, glancing up at her brother with an apologetic smile on her face. Valen simply chuckled.
“Of course it’s fine for them to come with us. I want to be able to build another hatchery, eventually, and we can start by helping these guys get big and strong,” he replied. Hera, her face beaming, spun away before she ran back to the side of the column. The hatchlings followed her, getting out from under the horses once more. That was, of course, when he realized that more of them had spread out among the whole train of people; hatchlings and whelps were all over the place, those that were strong enough to fly already mostly in the air near Raenelir.
Which explained why the Highborn still had not tried to land. He was enjoying guiding the younger wyverns as they flew.
After Hera’s outburst, Samuel, Simon, Samorr and Hedrick had all realized he was awake as well. Now they all approached, eager to talk. Yet Layne held up a hand to silence them all, pointing ahead as they turned a corner in the trail and they could see around the mountain it carved into.
Valen’s breath left him as he took in the massive series of spiraling towers of iron and stone that stood out from the landscape before them, and he could hear similar reactions from the twins and Hera off to the side, as none of them had ever seen such a thing.
This was Ravenholde, he had to assume, and it was unlike any structure he had ever seen. Its walls were the mountains that surrounded it, the only way in a road that ran up to a single gate and, if Valen was seeing correctly into the mountains behind it, left on another road out the other side. This was the seat of Manidar's forces in the Drake’s Tail Mountains.
“Get ready now, everyone,” Hedrick called out, a wistful, faraway look in his eyes as he spoke, as though he were lost in some memory. “Once we pass through Ravenholde, we will have officially crossed the border into Manidar.” They all looked at each other, disbelief in their faces. Finally. Finally.
“Safety awaits us,” Hedrick finished, smiling. Everyone else smiled too.