Next came Yezi…

As the armies of Korrigan dispersed, unknown to Dryus and the rest of the Alkin, another war was being fought under the very sunset they looked upon before they returned to their city. Far to the west on the western foothills of Pourangi Mountains the humans of Teswhyn defended their home in a desperate struggle. Being overrun along the northwestern coast the brave men and women of Teswhyn ,with the help of the mages of Costamore, fought. All through these wooded hills skirmishes were being fought and lost in grueling bouts of warfare. A bit deeper into the mountains to the south an enclave of monks was overwhelmed by injured soldiers and mages.

Here, a middle aged girl of no great stature, though pretty with her pale skin, long brown braided hair, green eyes, with light green and blue robes, had studied all her life. Seeing the desperate plight of her people, Yezi, had had enough. She turned from the room full of injured men on cots and strode to the balcony Looking to the West from the monastery, atop a peak, Yezi jumped. Robes and hair streaming in the wind, wooden staff in her right hand she plummeted! A few younger monks having seen this ran to the ledge murmured to themselves, robed hands to their faces, not quite aghast but still surprised. One said to the other, “I can’t believe she just did that!” to which the girl screamed in reply “Oh no, the grandmaster!”

By this time others had heard and had come running to the ledge to look, soldiers and monks alike in shock and awe. Her hand out in front of herself, staff across her front from right to left with her left hand hovering over the other, a large glowing white circle appeared around her. Yezi reached out her hands and found herself grasping feathers. Her winged steed, a Griffin, had materialized below her. As they began to soar westward, getting closer to the forest far below, she could see pops of light and glows of florid red, blue, and strangely, black in the forest.

From her vantage point she could clearly see commander Tusk evidently in the process of being surrounded by his enemies from the east and along the shore to Northwest. Trying to gather a better knowledge of the situation they continued circling overhead until a dark ball of energy shot just past Echelios’s right rear. Echeliosbanked hard to the left swooping around giving Yezi a clear view of who fired it. Lowering her staff to point at the group on the ground, she channeled a brief spell to which blue spell circles appeared on the ground erupting in ice and shattering the group of Korrigan and, what she thought to be, black skinned and hornless men glowing faint red.

Having dealt with them she urged Echellios down to where she could see the commanders banner of dark red and white streaming in the wind. Upon landing near their commander the soldiers in their red tunics with markings of blue and yellow immediately, startled at her appearance, pointed a dozen spears her way. As she slid from Echelios’ wing he faded into nothing. A brief glimmer of a spell circle showing on her staff.

“Commander Tusk! COMMANDER!!!” She shouted, completely unphased by the spears and guards attempting to block her way. “Get out of my way you fools! Unless you’d like to find yourselves at the end of your own pike!” She, once again, shouted at the guards. Hearing the clamor, Commander Tusk turned from his maps and viewpoint to see what the commotion was. Tusk had met Yezi a week earlier at the temple, getting a wound treated, and he recognized her immediately and shouted; “Let her through, you don’t need her ruining your day.” The guards parted, looking slightly abashed and scared. He watched her walk up the platform, to where he was standing, in a bit of a huff. Her robes were wind swept, but her hair perfectly braided still. She immediately started pointing back towards the east saying; “ Commander, your position is compromised and you’re about to be over-run” moving to where she saw he had maps laid out. Pointing again, at the map this time, drawing an arc around his position.

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“They’re coming at you from here, here, and here! You must pull back immediately!” Looking at the map where she pointed saying to her “you’re sure?” To which she replied hastily, “yes, more than a thousand here between you and the hills and more to the west” jabbing at the map more. Continuing, “if they reach this road here, they’ll cut off my sanctuary and over run us!”

Gesturing again at the map drawing a line from the east to the west of that road Tusk began to tell her “Hmmmmmm….. Fighting in this forest is going to ruin us. But if we can pull back to this point here our gnomish cannons, along this line, can deal a significant blow giving my cavalry, here...” pointing south west of their location; “...a chance to dive in along the coast and cut them off.” He paused and looked up at her “I need a small break in the onslaught to pull back, can you harry their forces here and there from the air until we’re able to reposition?” Nodding at Tusk, she turned, and with a faint light, Echellios spawned before her and she lept onto his back quickly soaring into the air.

Looking to his left and right Commander Tusk began issuing orders to his lieutenants. Flags changing on the standards around him his troops began to visibly change formations retreating behind the lines of heavily armored soldiers. Meanwhile hundreds of feet in the air watching this happen Yezi, soaring high above the moving troop formations, saw her opportunity. Angling towards the Kyanos sea to the west and standing atop the spine of the griffin Yezi began to create, with green and blue sparkling power around her staff, ever expanding circles. From the sea she created a blue green magical circle, and in front of each formation of the human troops dozens of smaller white-blue circles with swirling symbols in each.

As if a massive cannon had been placed in the sea a stream of water began to rise spraying towards the mountains. Changing to a slightly brighter glow each of the dozens of smaller circles began to blow what looked like a sideways blizzard. Each forcing the water towards the lines of Korrigan. Like waves on the sea in the worst kind of storm they overtook the Korrigan front lines and froze into a wall spanning from the coast to the hills twenty to thirty feet tall.

Having been surprised by the sudden turn of events the Korrigan spell casters were furious! Grunting something loudly from atop a burnt stump a tall shadowed and cloaked individual pointed to Yezi. Instantly several red bursts of energy spouted from small red circles amongst the staff wielding figures. Balls of fire shot through the air towards her. Jumping from Echelios she took her staff; swinging left, right and left again batting away the orbs of fire with a small white burst of magic and wind only to roll and land on her steed once again as if she had lost nothing in the flight. The remainder of the orbs impacted the wall of ice, and began to melt and break away some of it.

While the armies were busy smashing their way through the wave shaped wall of ice commander Tusk hurried his men to the road and behind their line of what looked like a colorful and quirky looking wall of dozens of cannons so big a dwarf could stand upright in their mouth. Scurrying around each cannon was two or three squeaky sounding gnomes working and preparing the cannons.

Finally, breaking through the wall, the hordes of Korrigan; with their patchy and furry looking leather armor, dark skin, and horns wrapped around their heads in almost a braided fashion, charged the lines! Atop the tallest of the cannon groupings stood Commander Tusk and with a swoosh, and a poof of magic, now Yezi.

In a sound, that can only be best described by those miles away in Teswhyn and Randoont, of thunder and fire that shook the very halls of Randoont their cannons fired! Streaks of scorched earth now shone through the smoke and piles of devastated forest and korrigan bodies lay before them smouldering. As the shock began to ease from the men and gnomes whom had ducked, covering their ears, for fear of the sound. More of the creatures began to slowly come forward from the trees in the distance that hadn’t been in the blast zone.

Raising hand in signal, a flag rose to the left of Tusk and Yezi. With a rumble the cavalry of war horses and riders, clad in a dark red with a white trim, charged and began to, with ease, mop up the remainder of korrigan. And while many of the beasts fled, only to be felled by the brave men, the mysterious commander could only be seen disappearing into a cloud of dark grey with what looked like a swirl of wing beats.