I jumped from my stool as screams and shouts joined the guttural battle cry, paws and boots alike thundering through the camp. In a heartbeat I found the tent flap and fumbled it open.
“Hide you idiot!” Thorn shouted behind me.
I looked over my shoulder to see the inscriptionists scrambling for cover beneath the table. Only Wolf stood unafraid, reaching for a sword with a black gem embedded in its hilt. I ignored them, pushing the flap aside and stepping out into the snow.
I had to find Autumn.
I glanced across the forge to find it empty, although the fire still burned and a glowing length of iron rested forgotten on the anvil.
A clash of metal rang out not fifty feet away from where I stood. At the edge of the tents, Kar’ktar held the shaft of a metal spear in both hands while a massive battle axe pressed against the haft between his gloved hands. The owner, a brutish green-gray skinned creature with two massive tusks, snarled as she pressed against the sanask blacksmith in a battle of strength.
Highland Orc: Level 142
The orc’s muscles bulged as she fought, but with a metallic scrape, the blacksmith forced her back and brought his spear to bear once more.
“River! There you are.” Autumn called out in relief, skidding to halt on the snowy ground beside me. Her voice was calm and controlled, contrasting the wild adrenaline running through my veins. Karl joined us with the unfinished bronze shield from the day before held in his hands and a determined look in his eyes.
“We can’t fight them.” She said, an urgency to her voice. “We need to get to the center of the camp. We need to hide.”
I hesitated, glancing back at the inscriptionist’s tent, but then nodded. It wasn’t safe here. Battle raged around us, and a canvas tent would do little to stop an orc.
“Let’s go!” I agreed, reaching for the two daggers at my waist.
My claws dug into the icy ground as I pushed myself off beside Autumn, the others following close behind. One step, then two, and then a hulking gray shape crashed through the tent in front us, siding to a halt in the snow and blocking our path. I tried to stop, my paws slipping out from under me on the icy ground. I collapsed backwards in a heap.
An orc loomed above me.
Highland Orc: Level 106
The orc wore crude leather armor stitched together from a single massive animal pelt and secured to its waist by a leather belt. His shoulder-length hair was tied back into a ponytail and he bore several black tattoos that cut across each cheek like claw marks. The orc hefted his battleaxe with ease, a smile on his lips at the sight of easy pickings, his eyes crimson and wild. They burned with something not quite sane.
The razor-edge of the axe descended in a wide arc towards me. My breath caught. My muscles froze. Time seemed to still.
A hand grabbed my shoulder and pushed, rolling me out of the path of the weapon. In a crack of bone and a spray of blood the axe embedded itself in the frozen ground.
Time rushed back and I scrambled to my paws amidst an agonized shriek of pain. Autumn knelt in the snow beside me, clutching the bloody stump of her wrist. Her missing hand lay in the snow next to the axe in the center of a vul’heli-shaped depression. Droplets of red fell and froze on the ice.
I should have moved.
The orc heaved his axe, dislodging it from the ground.
“Run you idiots!” Karl roared, stepping forward, the shield raised before him.
There was no time to think, no time to mourn. We had to survive. I grabbed Autumn’s good arm and heaved to her paws. She stumbled and I threw her arm around my neck. Tears streamed down her face.
We moved, breaking into a stumbling run. I looked around in panic, my mind whirling as I searched for some place to hide. We couldn’t outrun an enemy a hundred levels higher than us. Maybe we could hide? Play dead in one of the tents? Maybe we could…
I noticed Karl hadn’t moved to follow.
I glanced back over my shoulder to see the orc standing before the fire-scaled sanask, the orc’s axe raised high above his head. Karl stood defiantly with his shield held in both arms and his expression grim. Karl was going to die and he knew it.
The axe swung down at an angle and the sanask brought his shield forth to intercept the blow. The resulting clang reverberated through my ears, almost hiding the crunch of Karl’s arm breaking beneath the force of the blow. He tumbled back across the snow-covered ground, bowling into Autumn and I to send us tumbling backwards into a nearby tent.
My head struck something hard.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The world spun, and spots flickered in my vision.
Karl roared in pain.
Autumn lay beside me, her breaths coming in short sharp gasps. I pulled her closer. She shivered in my arms.
The orc stepped closer, a maniacal grin on his face as he stalked his helpless prey. Yet he paused in his stride, hesitating as an unarmored old vul’heli armed with only a simple sword stood defiantly before him.
Wolf. I thought.
The orc took a massive swing at the inscriptionist but Wolf simply stepped aside, letting the axe’s momentum open up the orc’s guard. Black runes flared to life on the old vul’heli’s sword and an ethereal black edge appeared on the sides of the weapon. Leather armor parted like butter with a single swing of the inscriptionist’s weapon, the enchanted blade biting deep into his adversary’s flesh.
The orc roared in pain, but I came as if from a great distance. Reached up, I felt something warm and wet soaking through the fur on my head. I tried to sit up, but my head swam and my vision narrowed.
This can’t be real.
Wolf and the orc squared off once more. The orc roared and charged the vul’heli only for an arrow sheathed in flame to arc through the night’s sky. An explosion of flame engulfed the orc whose charred corpse slumped unmoving to the ground.
Wind’s arrow.
An orc hunting horn cut through the air. Almost immediately the sound of battle faded around me, leaving only the shouts of the survivors.
My vision faded further, my consciousness flickering.
Wolf rushed over to our side, shouting orders to someone in the distance. I saw my sister sprinting through the snow with Autumn’s lost hand clutched in her own and Carmen running along beside her. I saw Carmen standing over Autumn, his face screwed up in concentration. Unnatural white light glimmered off the blood-flecked snow. It was then that the ugly truth began to worm its way into my mind. It was a most simple thought that was as dangerous as it was infuriating. It was the very reason Autumn lay injured in the snow.
I’m not strong enough.
**********
I awoke to a blinding headache and the unfamiliar ceiling of a canvas tent. Daylight seeped in through the seams.
“You’re awake.” I heard Autumn say beside me.
I turned to see her sitting beside me on a block of wood. She looked exhausted, but more importantly: alive. I looked down to see her left hand bound in a splint of wood and cloth. Following my gaze she gave me a weak smile and held up the limb.
“The axe must have been enchanted, the cut was clean.” She explained. “Carmen was able to get to my hand fast enough to stitch it back together. I’ll have to keep the cast for a day or two though. Bones take longer to heal than flesh. Even with magic.”
“That’s good.” I whispered, feeling as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. It left me, however, with the source of Autumn’s pain: I had faced death looming above me and I had frozen.
“I’m sorry.” I said, looking away.
“For what?” Autumn asked.
“For freezing.” I said. “I uh…”
“Freezing is instinctual.” She said, rolling her eyes. “Here, I have some leftovers from breakfast. You should eat if you feel up for it.”
I sat up, trying to ignore how the tent swam from the simple movement. Once the world stopped spinning, I grabbed the bowl thrust into my hand and began eating mechanically.
“Head injuries are harder for magic to heal.” Autumn explained. “Carmen said he was able to get rid of the swelling somewhat last night, but the rest is between you and the alchemist.”
“Alchemist?” I asked, and Autumn pointed to a cup of brown liquid sitting on the ground beside me.
“I have orders to make you down all of it after you eat. It should make the worst of the pain and dizziness go away.”
“What about the rest of the camp? What happened?”
“I’m not sure why the orcs attacked, but two of our number are dead and a dozen more are injured. They held a service for them this morning.”
“Who?” I asked, and Autumn listed two names I didn’t recognize. I felt relief at that, followed by a wave of guilt. Even if I didn’t know them, they still fought and died for all of us.
My head began to feel better almost as soon as I downed the medicine, after which Autumn and I ventured out into the late-morning sun. I found Karl just outside talking to Brook, his left arm splinted and strapped across his chest.
“Glad to see you up.” He said.
“Brother!” Brook cried, spinning around and bouncing over. “You’re alive, and with new battle wounds!”
“Hardly.” I snorted. “Autumn and Karl have battle wounds. I just hit my head on a rock.”
“A stump actually!” Brook cheerfully told me.
“Autumn, I told you to get me before moving him!” I heard Carmen shout and turned to see the annoyed mage stomping toward us. “And don’t tell me you forgot! You should care about your boyfriend more than that!”
“He’s not my -” Autumn began, but Carmen cut her off.
“Yeah yeah.” He said, stopping before me and grabbing the sides of my head in both hands “River, stare into my eyes. Good, now look left. Down. Right.” He released my head. “The potion seems to be holding back the worst of the fluids, but keep it easy for a couple days, yeah? Even with magic, head injuries take longer to heal.”
“I will.” I said.
“Good. I plan to let Wind know.” Carmen said. “Rain and Earth have called a meeting after lunch. Until then I want you three to eat and rest! Brook, come with me. I need your help checking on the others.”
“I already told you I didn’t want to be a healer!” Brook yelled, jogging after him.
“It’s not about ‘being a healer’ it’s about being able to utilize the different aspects of your affinity at a basic level so that next time you can help!
“How does light relate to healing anyways?” She asked. “It makes no sense. Isn’t there a life affinity or something?”
“It doesn’t need to make sense!” I hear Carmen respond. “It just needs to work.”
Autumn and I exchanged an amused look as Carmen’s voice faded into the distance.
“Shall we stretch our legs a bit?” Autumn asked, and both Karl and I nodded.
“I just realized I never thanked you two for saving me yesterday.” I said, suppressing a shiver as the memory forced its way to the forefront of my mind.
“You did the same for me when we first arrived.” Karl rumbled.
“Maybe.” I sucked in a deep breath. “But I froze yesterday. I shouldn’t have.”
“Then train yourself not to.” Karl said, pushing himself to his feet. “Let us go find Mara. I am hungry.”
***********
The camp was a mess with hastily repaired tents stitched together and held up by tree branches. Most of the expedition was busy scavenging items lost beneath the snow and mending those things that had broken. Kar’ktar’s hammer rang out again and again over the noise.
Several expedition members hovered around the central clearing where, to my surprise, a familiar charred orc was tied to a thick wooden post by a length of steel chain glowing white with magic. The orc snarled and spat at his captors like a caged beast, struggling hard enough against his bindings for the chain to have cut through the skin of his wrists. His eyes burned red with the same strange inner fire that I’d seen the night before.
Wind, Rain, Earth, and another caster stood beside the chained creature while talking amongst themselves. I flinched as the light of magic on the chains flickered. I wasn’t the only one to notice this, for Wind drew his knife and with once smooth motion, slit the orc’s throat. Blood dripped to the snow.
I looked away.
Wind cut the corpse down and dragged it over to a pile of green bodies heaped up beside the Serpent river. Returning as if it were just another day, he helped Mara set the table for lunch.
I ate almost mechanically, my mind flicking between memories of the night before and Wind’s casual slaughter of the same captive orc. Death had stared me in the eyes and I lived, but I knew it wasn’t from my own strength. You do not have that talent. Earth’s words echoed in my head. No matter how much I tried shoving them aside, her words returned to the forefront of my mind.
I stewed until Mara’s ladle called the camp to attention and we formed a rough circle amidst the clearing. Rain addressed the gathering.
“Last night we mourned the loss of two of our own.” He began. “But today we must decide the fate of our expedition.”