Iskra let out a fierce cry of pain as her body bounced off of the ground twice, flailing her body about the place as she failed to find her balance before falling flat on her back. The young girl rolled around the ground for a while, letting out a harsh groan before finally rolling onto her side with a heavy breath. The world had long started to spin around her ever since the pair of teenagers had first set out to wherever it was that the blonde-haired prince wished for them to go, and the raven-haired teenager had great difficulties in finding where she was within the spinning world around her as she desperately sought to find the young boy that dared to drop her onto the ground in such an uncouth manner.

The magical spell that the elven prince had used to get the two of them where they now were had done a number on her body, and the human teenager could barely hold in what little contents her stomach was in possession of. As her eyes scanned her immediate surroundings for the long-haired prince, Iskra’s stomach growled as her face turned sickly. Her body was threatening to upchuck what little food she had eaten earlier in the day. It took a lot out of the young girl’s remaining strength just to be able to hold a hand over her mouth as she took several great, big gulps to push back the dastardly threat of vomit that lingered at the bottom of her throat.

Throughout her body’s chaos, it didn’t take long for Iskra to find the slumped form of her golden-haired savior and she stared intently into the back of Prince Aurelius who was just a few feet away, sitting with his hands behind his back while he sought to crane his neck outwards to catch as much of the cool breeze as he could while it still whipped across his smiling face.

“You could be a little bit more remorseful about dropping me.” Iskra whispered to herself as her eyes closely trailed the path of the rolling beads of sweat that glistened off of his face and arms. With nothing else for her to do, the young girl watched the elven prince regain his composure as several beads of sweat drip down and disappear between his loose-fitted chainmail and the exposed portion of his chest.

To Iskra, the armor that the young prince now wore appeared to be two sizes too big for his form, but understanding that she knew little about the ways of armor and how to properly wear such things Iskra let the idea disappear from her mind as her attention eventually turned towards their current predicament.

For whatever reason that he had deemed to be necessary, Prince Aurelius had decided to plant the pair of teenagers atop of a small hill near the sheer cliffs of the immense pit that became synonymous with the shattered mountain that loomed over Ruined Home. The two of them were as far back as they could go within the encampment of Ruined Home, and Iskra began to wonder as to why the exhausted elven teenager had gone as far back as he did.

“It’s not like you can see most of the encampment from here,” Once again, Iskra began to speak only to herself as she slowly crawled her way towards the edge of the cliff. “Half of it’s on fire while the other half is covered in smoke.”

Iskra took in a deep breath as she poked her head over the edge of the cliff. Her eyes lingered towards where she knew the bottom of the seemingly endless pit was, but they failed to find even a hint of where such a bottom might be.

The pit was quiet today as the near-constant screeching of the demonic sounding wind that many had come to associate with the strange pit was dead silent as the sounds of battle finally caught up to the young girl’s ears. The sounds of war would have been deafening to her had it not been for the fact that her emerald green eyes were locked onto the pitch-black shadows of the strangely formed pit, dancing about the place as she desperately sought to find something within the pitch-black darkness.

She wasn’t sure what she was hoping to find, but her mind yearned for her eyes to look at something.

“Hello?” She whispered into the depths as something glistened in the distance. She wasn’t sure why she called out into the depths, but she felt that it was necessary to do something instead of staring into the depths of the remnants of the broken mountain that loomed over the battlefield as if it were a dead god.

It would be a while before the glistening returned and only because of a few desperate rays of sunlight that dared to penetrate the black depths of death that lingered beyond the young girls reach as the storm clouds rolled lazily overhead, heavily pregnant with a torrent of rain that would soon drench the land in their misery. This time it was much closer than before, and Iskra brought a hand over her eyes as she attempted to find the source of whatever it was that was causing such a brilliant glow.

As the glittering light flickered and died before her very eyes, Iskra wasn’t quite sure what could such a mesmerizing show yet she knew that it looked familiar to her. For whatever reason, the dancing stars of light reminded her of her mother. Why it would force her to remember a woman whose existence she wished to erase from her mind entirely she couldn’t say, but she knew that it had something to do with the woman’s countless gifts that had been presented to her by the husband that constantly showered her with gifts.

“Aurelius,” Iskra turned her head as she called out towards the elven prince, she was slow to speak, but her words carried themselves far as she attempted to catch the prince’s attention as she spoke his language. “Come over here and-”

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Noticing that the sinister form of a heavily scarred and grey-skinned orc was slowly approaching them, Iskra stopped dead in her tracks and darted her eyes between the two figures that were before her.

As the heinous creature continued to trek towards the pair of unprepared teenagers, Iskra desperately waited for the elven prince to notice the approaching adversary. When the long-haired prince failed to turn his attention towards the powerful orc, Iskra knelt down and picked up the first thing that she could grab.

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Collapsing onto his hands and knees, Aurelius let out a gasp of ragged breath as sweat poured off of his face, drowning the ground beneath his clutched hands in his own misery. With how exhausted he had become throughout the day's events, Aurelius had allowed himself to forgo the formalities and allowed his arms to give way, allowing the girl upon his back to drop to the ground as if she were a heavy sack of sharp rocks.

While stretching his forearms as far out as he could, the young prince fell onto his back and planted his body across the harsh, scratchy ground. It was during this moment that an exhausted Aurelius realized that he couldn’t care less if he had managed to draw the ire of Iskra. He was far too tired to care, and he desperately needed to lie down and catch his breath. So he decided to do just that.

With a sharp breath, Aurelius flashed a satisfied grin as he felt the cold breeze whipping across his face as he rolled over onto his back and stretched out his limbs for a second time. As his body slithered across the dry, rocky surface, his fingers twitched in pain while the rest of his body had begun to feel as if it had grown numb to its very core, but Aurelius was thankful for what little respite that he was now able to afford for himself.

Yet the battle that continued to rage beyond their reach had different plans for the young prince, and the sound of a tremendous explosion forced Aurelius to twist his head towards the source of the deafening sound.

Aurelius quickly grew frustrated by the lack of what he could see as he caught neither sight nor sound of what could have caused the impressive-sounding explosion. His view of the nearby area was obstructed by columns of smoke that the young prince could only describe to himself as a frustratingly massive amount. With his curiosity growing, Aurelius pushed himself up onto his back and twisted his body towards where the sound had originated from, and when that failed him, he then pushed himself further and rose to his feet.

With his new vantage point, the elven prince was still unable to see much of anything, but that didn’t mean that he had failed in his objective and as he raised an open hand over his eyes the wind started to shift in his favor and force the thick pillars of smoke to clear away long enough for him to receive a glimpse of what had forced him to break away from his much needed rest.

Out there in the distance, near the shores of the encampments only source of water was a group of elves fighting against a small horde of goblins and trolls. Yet despite Aurelius wishing to keep his eyes on the happenings of his own people, the wind had a mind of its own and shifted the columns of smoke so that they once again obstructed the young prince's vision of the battle.

Disgruntled by the thought of being denied what was essentially a front-row seat to a fierce battle, Aurelius clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and dropped his hand from over his eyes.

From what he was able to see, he knew that there was no need for him to fear for the overall fates of his companions and half-mother. ‘In fact,’ The young prince thought to himself as he planted his hands over his hips before kicking at the ground with the tips of his boots. ‘They all looked to be doing just fine on their own.’

As if to confirm that there was no need for the young prince to worry, a crack of lightning erupted from behind the pillars of smoke before being followed by an erupting boom of thunder. The spell was then shortly followed up with something else entirely, but Aurelius wasn’t able to recognize what it might have been.

The pillars of smoke were far too thick for the elven prince to get much detail of the spells that his half-mother was throwing around, and the only thing that he was able to recognize was the deep red hue that came from the arcane ability.

‘Mother Velicion seems to be doing just fine, I think.’ Aurelius scratched at the back of his neck as his thoughts turned towards one of his many mothers. From what he understood, the sorceress who was more known to him as Mother Velicion was regarded for her intricate knowledge of magical devices and arcane systems. As far as he was aware, her abilities to cast spells that one would be familiar with on the battlefield or in duels was something that she loathed to do.

At least that was what he had heard from several of his older siblings and a handful of his other half-mothers.

Another spell that Aurelius failed to recognize erupted from behind the clouds of smoke, forcing the mesmerized young prince to stare intently beyond the veil of the ashy pillars. Yet his attention was turned elsewhere when something hard slammed into the side of his left shoulder.

With a tender hand, the young prince rubbed at the affected area as he turned towards Iskra with an angry expression over his face. He opened his mouth to speak but closed it without uttering a word as soon as his eyes took notice of the human girl pointing towards something behind him.

Curious as to what Iskra was pointing towards, the elven prince turned to look and instantly reached for his weapon.

Making its way towards the top of the hill was a brutal looking orc. From his vantage point, Aurelius could see heavy scarring across the orc's powerful chest as its rippling muscles were left exposed to the elements. The creature wore very little in terms of armor, and as the mighty beast pounded the hilt of its weapon against its chest, the elven prince watched as the pulsating veins across its powerful arms bulged with unrestricted strength. The heavily scarred orc, with its exposed chest and rippling arms locked eyes with the young elven prince as the hulking creature cracked its neck and let loose a harrowing growl as the two combatants readied their weapons.

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