Thunder of Thanasis The Razing of Volara

[Oda]

Malakath - Three Miles Outside Volara - Thanasis Army Camp

"There are too many Ballista." Prince Mehren spoke with the authority of command one would expect of his position. Everyone within the tent listened, and few would question.

Oda stood towards the back of the tent. Lingering and towwering over all others as Mehren gave his orders.

The Barbarian of the Peaks did not like the Eldest Prince. Considering him to be far too self-involved to be a proper war leader, but at least in this he had the right of it. The Siege would not be broken any time soon, at least not in the way that Thanasis usually ended it's battles. Volara presented a danger to them that others rarely did.

It seemed that within their defiance, the Council of Ten had scoured for every foundry, forge, and alchemist to craft their defenses. Dozens of Ballista now lay scattered around the rising defenses of the City of Volara. Each of the contraptions had been placed and 'layered' in a section of fire to create an immense amount of danger for any Dragon that might approach. Crafting a defense that even the mightiest of Thanasis' host would be none too eager to assault.

"We cannot risk our dragons." The Prince continued, slowly panning his gaze over those present. "We will starve them out. A month or two, and they will surrender."

Again the strategy lay sound, but Oda did not like it.

The Towering savage lingered in silence for a moment more, and then cleared his throat. Almost instantly the Prince looked towards the Save, his eyebrow already raised in condemnation. "My Prince."

Oda began, others slowly tunring to look up at him.

"We might wait a month." He stated. "Or we may begin tonight."

A sneer flickered over the Prince's features, as though the possiblity that Odacrin might have something worthwile to say might not even have occured to him. The great Barbarian frowning ever so slightly, wishing that it was Nasri, or perhaps even Kaveh, leading this warband. "What is it, Savage? What could you possibly have to offer that Dragon fire does not?"

Mehren beckoned, the jeering clear in his tone. "Myself, My Prince."

Oda stated simply.

"Send me, and a few others of my choice." Whispers began to float through the air. "We will break what keeps our dragons from this city, and Arkhyst will burn the rest."

There was a long moment, whispers floating through the tent as Mehren held Oda's gaze. The two of them staring at one another across table and scattered crowd. After a few more beats of the Heart, the Prince seemed to relent. His hand waved, though dismissively, towards the savage standing opposite him. "Go then, gain me my prize."

Oda frowned for a brief moment, staring at Prince, then slowly bowed his head. "If you wish for blood."

He anounced to the room.

"Then follow." The Hellfir claimed, stepping outside the tent as he went to make his preparations.

 

[Eira]

Shorter than most present, it was not hard to hear the words being said.

They called him the Barbarian, the Savage, but Eira knew they were both eager to put an end to all of this tonight. With all that had happened to the once Chosen Heir of House Malennis, with the mass killing of Moon Dragons at the Moon Dragon Dance lunar eclipse, the death of her father and his dragon, and now her recent arranged engagement to Leovold Solherre, life had not been going her way. She had resentment, anger, all boiling inside her and Tyafainne echoed her fiery rage.

Without saying word to her future husband, she turned to follow Oda.

Two swords moved as the future Lady Solherre stalked behind the Savage, not bothering to look behind her to see who had followed. In the distance, Tya let out that higher pitched screech at her bonded's advance, wakening many other dragons. The Moon Dragon glistened and blended into the dark, but the eyes, which looked like shimmering iced diamonds in the distance, were visible.

 

[Yuriko]

You can't throw up on your first mission, Yuriko.

Since her dragon, barely older than a hatchling, had chosen her to be its bondmate Yuriko had dreamt of the day the Thunder would come to collect her and her sister and take them to start their training. She had had great dreams of flying across the world, seeing things nobody else ever had, and returning of tales of great adventures. When she had held a sword in those dreams it had been more of a prop than an actual weapon she had ever thought she might need to use.

Those dreams had very quickly vanished in her first week of training.

The past few months had been a rude awakening to the realities of dragons and the wars the Thunder waged across Malakath. Her initial excitement had very quickly worn off and she had been left with a healthy dose of fear and jittery excitement. Bubblegum, on the other hand, seemed to be completely at home. Two days prior she had been told she had been assigned a mentor, a man from the mountains with a long history of war. The High Ascendant had said it would do her good to shadow a true rider, though Yuriko had thought he had been trying not to laugh, which she didn't understand.

So it was that she was stood at the foothills of Volara coming to the dreaded realisation she was probably about to see her first dead body and trying not to throw up.

You can't look weak in front of him, he'll refuse to be your mentor.

Forcing herself to keep up her peppy smile she skipped over to join Oda, pink dragon in tow.

 

[Oda]

Oda's face did not change as his team assembled. A girl of less years than his own daughter, and a spoiled child of the moon.

He did not care for their providence, nor for their desires.

Both would learn, or they would be left behind as corpses within the walls of Volara. As they stalked forward the Savage remained silent. His boots digging into the earth as they passed the makeshift roost of their Dragons. A hand raising as Arkhyst's fangs began to ploom above his jaws. A single motion enough to quell the Hellish Dragon's desires.

"Do not hesitate." His voice was cold steel. Quenched within blood, and soaked in the fires of war.

He did not doubt the mettle of either of the two girls, not until they proved themselves useless.

"We go to kill." Oda said simply, his head turning towards the tall walls of the city. "Four ballista."

The Savage continued. "We break them each in turn, then Arkhyst will burn the rest."

As he peered down at them, the two girls would see the stark confidence within his eyes. There was no doubt within the Barbarian. There was no second of hesitation. This was the mission, and it would be done regardless of what awaited them.

"Be ready to kill." He said, this time looking down at Yuriko. His ward. "Or be ready to die."

The Savage said, waving to his Dragon before turning and heading towards the wall.

 

[Eira]

Eira would not call herself a murderer, but in the past she had been responsible for a couple of deaths in the family. Treachery and plots were the norm in the Malennis family, and each death she dealt to her own kin was a warning. But this day, she would kill to protect her home of Thanasis.

She watched as the fresh faced cadet join herself and other Ascendants straggling behind them, and could not help but wonder what beastly dragon she rode to be present here to offer aide.

"Overwhelm the manned ballista one by one." Eira stated, seeing the plan being laid out. Her expression gave way to her approval of this plan, certainly one that their dear Prince would not have proposed in order to preserve the lives of their living gods.

 

[Yuriko]

Yuriko wilted under Oda's stern gaze when it was turned in its full force upon her. She was likely the only one present who hadn't taken a life yet. The rest were seasoned warriors who had several battles, skirmishes and outright wars under their belt. What had the High Ascendants been thinking when they had assigned her to him?

The group kept walking.

"Erm... excuse me? Mr Odacrin, sir?" she barely breathed the last word, bracing for him to turn back around and give her one of those looks that made her want to vanish into the floor and never be seen again.

"B-but how can such a small group overwhelm heavily manned stations?"

 

[Oda]

"Oda" The Savage correct, never stopping in his stride. Not when the woman offered her unneeded approval, not when the girl begged yet another question of him.

The brute had taught this lesson before, though her mind had likely been swimming with the other lessons lost to the wind when he had left her dangling over the cliff. When the King had bade him to take her beneath
his wing, his stipulation had been simple; she was taught of the old ways.

Not knowing what he was agreeing to, the Great Sovereign had given his word. Thus, it could not be broken, and the girl would be raised within the ways of the Crimson Peaks. "Surprise."

His voice was a rumble, a mountainside falling into itself.

"They will not expect an attack from their own walls." For that was how they would come. As the group passed out of camp, Odacrin reached down and grabbed a heavy satchel, the sound of steel clinking together briefly echoing. From it he withdrew climbing spikes, beginning to throw them to those around him. "The first will die quiet, as will the second."

It would be the third where things became closer, but that would make it more fun. "All we must do is create an opening."

So there would be no overlapping fields of fire.

 

[Eira]

Eira caught her set of spikes, giving them a curious glance before lifting her dark eyes to watch Oda speak. Straightforward and simple. Given their small number, surprise would be on their side.

Surprise was an art form the Moon Dragons taught to their bonded. Malennis' were blessed with eyesight able to see through the darkest of shadows, to always find the near invisible Moon Dragons in the light of night and the moons. "They will be looking to the skies and not their walls."

It was an approach a dragon rider would not think of. Impressed, Eira looked over her spikes to check their condition. "The Prince would not have thought of this approach." Not when dragons gave them power.