Zenora

Emily’s point of view:

We had left the battlefield, leaving several groups of men, guarding the area through the night.

The siege upon our castle has been going on for another two days, where we lost a lot of our men and woman. Every night, both sides retreated for rest and food, only for the next morning to start all over again, but with less people than the day before.

I’m exhausted! I know that I’m powerful, but fighting like this, drains me of my energy. The combination of being pregnant and using my hunter abilities, made quite an impact on my body.

Brock and I sat in a tub, filled with hot water, and we both moaned as it calmed our aching muscles. The water turned dirty a bit, as blood and sweat washed away from our skin. But we both didn’t care, I just sat against Brock’s chest being completely relaxed, as he did the same, holding his arms on the sides of the tub.

“How many did we lose today?” I asked him, after a few minutes of silence.

“About five hundred, but we had more people to start with. They lost more.” Brock said and I nodded. My heart went out for their remaining loved ones.

When the war started, Brock had told me, we had about nine, to ten thousand people in the army. Which might not sound much, as I recall wars on Earth, to be fought with hundreds of thousands of soldiers, if not several millions. But here on Zenora, battles are normally only fought with powered people, as they were tougher than any Human alive, either on Earth or Zenora.

Besides that, the armies of both Terralon and Agravine, were decimated during the last war, which was only twenty years ago. Back then, the army existed of more than sixty thousand, and we had a lot more of the machines as well. Of course, a lot more powered people were born in the last twenty years, but only a few have become of age, to join the army. The rest of them, are just simply too young.

We stepped out of the tub, dried ourselves and stepped into the bed. We didn’t have sex, I was too tired. I fell asleep in his arms.

****

“Are you going to find me, or should I stay here until they make me fight you tomorrow?”

The familiar deep voice spoke in my mind.

“Ayinthur! Where are you? I don’t know how you look like, but I haven’t seen you on the battlefield.”

“No, you haven’t, even though I’m hardly to miss. But they are keeping me in a cave on the beach, further up north.”

Wow, he is quite arrogant about himself. Is he royalty or something? That everyone knows who he is, does his character just stands out to the rest of the people?

“No, I’m just physically of a size, that you actually can’t miss me.” He said laughing.

“Can you read my mind? You are not even here!”

“No, I can’t specifically read it, we share our minds, during these conversations.”

“Oh, okay, so you’re in a cave on the beach. Are you with the dragon as well? And how many rebels are guarding you?”

He started laughing out loud now. What is wrong with this guy?!

“Don’t worry chosen one, you’ll see when you get here. There are five mages here, to keep the dragon restrained, so come with enough power, but be quiet.”

“Okay, will do. See you soon.”

I abruptly woke up from my sleep, and it scared the hell out of Brock.

“Shit love, what’s wrong?”

“We have Ayinthur and a dragon to rescue.” I said to him and he frowned.

I explained to him what had happened just now, and we immediately got out of bed and assembled my dad and the others.

To reach the cave undetected, we had to create a small team. But with five mages to face, we had to get the most powerful people with us.

Cirilya had to stay with me, so she is coming. Then Archeops, Brock and Dennis came along as well. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take Ursai with me, as he was still tired from his fights.

“We are coming with you guys as well, you need a mage on your team.” Nicolai said as he walked in the war room, together with Axel.

“Thank you Nicolai, Axel, we sure could use you both.” I said to them.

So, seven people it is. I sure hope this will be enough, but we couldn’t risk to go with a larger team. We geared up, and took loads of arrows with us, not knowing what to expect. We went outside through the servants door, headed to the beach, and walked along the base of the cliff, that rose above us on our left sides.

We didn’t talk, and sometimes we hid behind some rocks, when we heard voices from the rebels, that were guarding the beach. Swiftly we took them out, with an arrow straight through their heads. Axel shot some too, even really fast ones, when he made his eyes glow blue. One guard, nearly saw us and tried to alarm the rest, but my Arcane Shot took him out quickly. He fell limb on the wet sand, and Argent dragged him to the base of the cliff, between the rocks.

After about an hour of slow walking and silent killing, we reached a set of caves. There was nothing in the first one, so we continued to the next. Ten minutes later, we heard voices coming from the entrance of another cave. I recognized the black-haired woman’s voice, as she threatened the mages. She said that if they didn’t finish extracting the dragon’s scales, she’d kill them.

I wanted to stand up, and go inside, to make sure that the mages couldn’t continue to torture the dragon. But Brock pulled me back down, and pointed to his head, so I read his mind. His images showed the woman, standing beside her Orc companion. Maybe there were more rebels or Orc’s inside the cave, so Brock wanted us to wait for them to leave. I nodded reluctantly, but I didn’t want them to hurt the dragon even more.

We hid behind rocks and wooden crates, and waited. One of the crates was open, and I could see bloody scales in them. I remembered what Archeops said about those scales, as the dragons were hunted for them. The scales are the most toughest and impenetrable items on the whole of Zenora, and I guess they were sold to the Orcs, in exchange for their help.

My hands balled into fists, and Brock hugged me. But my rage was growing, and my eyes became bloodred. Cirilya crouched over to me, and laid her hands on my belly. Again, that beautiful sound resonated in my mind, and I released the tension in my hands. So far, I’m glad that this stupid Mage’s Fury didn’t surface, but it is getting damn hard this way!

This time, the calmness didn’t last long, as we heard an agonizing, dreadful roar from the dragon. I wasn’t taken over by the Mage’s Fury, but still I wanted to get inside the cave, no matter what! Brock tried to hold on to me, but I was stronger than he imagined. I broke free from his grip and launched myself over the crates. Quietly I killed four, five, no – six Human guards and Orcs. A seventh, alarmed the rest of the people that were there, and about twenty of them rushed towards the entrance of the cave.

I used shields on two of them, and shot another with my Arcane Shot, before the rest of our group joined me inside the cave. Axel and Archeops each killed two, and Nicolai turned one of them into a goat, before he shot a fireball to another rebel.

“Don’t kill her!” The black-haired woman said, when she came in our direction with ten more Orcs. Another twenty rebels joined in from behind us, and now we were trapped.

Shit Ayinthur! You could have told us, that there were a lot more people, instead of only the five mages! I thought in my mind.

A loud roar was heard in the back of the cave, but Ayinthur was still nowhere to be found. Did he trick me after all? Was he the one setting up this trap?

We stopped fighting, and we had to surrender our weapons to the rebels. We were highly outnumbered and if I were to be stubborn and kept attacking, the others from our group were going to get hurt. I released the shields on the two rebels, and they dropped to the floor.

“I don’t know who you are thinking of, but the part about the trap is real. Your mind was blocked pretty good yesterday, but I still saw an image of a dragon in your mind, so I knew I had to protect my dragon a bit more.” The bitch said.

“Bitch? No, my name is Victoria, and this handsome Orc here, is called Garon.” Shit, she read my mind again. I have to focus more, to block it.

“Handsome? You’re not telling me…” Brock said to her.

“Oh yes, and his offspring here – she pointed at her belly - , will be the first Orc with the mages power. And once I have your powers, chosen one, our baby will become invincible.” She said, with emphasizing on the words ‘chosen one’ as if it is something disgusting.

So, that’s why the Orc’s were with her! I never realized until now, but all the mages that we saw on the battlefield yesterday, were Humans! None of them were Orcs! And when we attacked the Orcs in the mountains, almost three months ago, there were no mages either! How could I not think of that!

In exchange for giving the Orc’s an heir with magic, and thus enhancing their own race, they were helping her to take over my father’s throne!

Several dozen more rebels, came in the cave, and surrounded our little group.

“You there! Tell the men to attack the castle!”

“Yes my Lady!” The rebel warrior said, and went outside.

Crap! I hope that my dad is prepared to face them. There is no way that I can help them now, so I have to trust my dad’s capabilities. He is the King after all.

Another loud roar, from the back of the cave was heard, and Victoria turned around. “Oh, I guess they are almost done with extracting the last scale.” She said calmly, like she didn’t care a single thing in the world. “Come, I’ll show you my pet dragon.”

The rebels and Orc’s around us, raised their swords and bows, signing us to walk after her. When we went around a corner, and further to the back of the cave, my jaw dropped open.

The cave was dimly lit, with torches along the walls. Blood was spilled all over the cave’s floor, and more crates stood packed and ready to be transferred outside. I looked at the dragon, and tears started to flow on my cheeks.

His neck, paws, wings and tail were tied down to the ground, with silver chains. Two mages held on to the dragon with shields, holding him even more tightly strapped. Forcing him to lay still on his side. The other three mages, all had shields around the last scale that was left on his belly, and when they pulled it out, the dragon hoarsely roared one more time before he passed out.

His belly and neck, were completely stripped from their scales. Leaving gaps in his flesh behind, of where the scales came out from. Blood flowed out of the holes, and I could tell he was about to die.

Everything around me, started to blur, and I couldn’t hear any sounds or words spoken. My main focus was on the bloodied, dying dragon and my rage took over.