Fable - Ask The Tide Turns[Historical]

[Clarissa Vansire]

Claire felt lucky that she just happened to be standing near Rhea when the Dreadlord from House Urr decided it was time to throw caution to the wind.

She ducked low behind the mighty bulwark that the Anirian princess had produced and backed away with her in a fluid motion that had been practiced for hours back at the academy. Clarissa drawing her own shield, though it was far smaller and more suited to dueling, as an added protective measure.

"Got it," she affirmed as the Sjælden creator ascended up the bark.

For her part she felt slightly useless as Leoric felled an elf and Gideon continued to throw axes but she kept her thin blade and dueling shield at the ready just in case one of the elves tried to go after her friend. If a single one of them got within her proximity though she'd slay them without remorse, without hesitation. It's what she'd have to do to refrain from using her magic.

 

[Leoric Virak]

Leoric smiled at the elf as he wrenched his blade free.

The sickening sound was met with the cries of someone else. Above him another of the elves called out, the pain and anguish in his voice a mark of care and love. Leoric's gaze rose, and above him within the trees he spotted another of the Knife-ears.

Rage and sorrow mottled the man's face, and his hands was a bow. An arrow already lay knocked against the string, and he prepared to pull back and fire when suddenly an axe found itself planted within the center of his chest.

Crushing in the elves chest and sending him falling to the ground.

"LAST ONE MATE! You're welcome!" Gideon shouted from behind him, and then drew the massive battleaxe from his back. Letting out a laugh as he charged and leaped onto one of the nearby trees, sinking his axe into the trunk and using it as leverage to propel himself up onto the branches.

An impressive feat without magic, even for a Dreadlord.

Leoric didn't hesitate, flicking his blade to clean some of the blood from it's steel sheen and stepping forward to hunt their trackers.

 

[Rhea]

Rhea allowed herself a moment to get her balance on the swaying branches before taking off towards the elven foes. Already she could see figures leaping - much as she did now - further into the forest. Her armour seemed to shimmer and change to a much deeper green to blend in with the colours of the tree leaves. Her sword would be of little use to her at this range though she yearned to use it. The awakened blade was a deadly force however and not one to be wielded unless necessary. So instead as she raced through the trees she ripped off a branch here and there until she had enough that they might be a bow and arrows. Then she began to whisper.

In her hands the wood glowed and crackled, the odd glass-like substance that made up her other creations spreading over the wood until it vanished completely leaving in its place a curved bow and three arrows.

Without missing a footstep she drew and loosed. The first elf fell with one through his neck.

 

[Clarissa Vansire]

Off in the distance Clarissa saw an elf plop to the ground from the treetops as Rhea pursued some of the ones that fled.

Closer to where she now stood she saw Gideon leap upon an elf as Leoric hunted down any of the others in the brush. Their measures worked well enough as additional elves who had hidden themselves began to scatter and flee.

Not so fast. The thought came as took cover and as two of the retreating elves passed near her tree the Vansire Dreadlord stuck out her boot, causing the first elf to pass by to trip and go flying forwards.

The elf's companion paused in confusion, worried that his comrade must've stumbled upon a root or loose soil. He realized only after Clarissa's thin blade plunged into his chest cavity. The elf gasped for air that refused to come while she yanked the weapon out of her foe and he collapsed within a heap.

A split second later and she was on top of the elf she'd tripped earlier. A knee upon his chest and a knife pressed against his throat. "We're going to have a chat."

It was likely prudent to leave one or two alive for questioning. Ensure they're being honest by comparing the tales they wove. They'd have to kill the prisoners before venturing on but there was a chance they'd gain some sort of knowledge if they interrogated them properly.

 

[Leoric Virak]

Two more died before Leoric came back.

One thought himself faster than the lone human. He'd hidden in the underbrush and pounced like a predatory cat, moving with such speed that any ordinary man would have found himself dead before he had even a chance to think. But Leoric was no ordinary man, none of them were. A lesson the little elf quickly learned as his body froze in it's tracks and a blade buried itself in his stomach.

The visible confusion on the knife-ears face almost cathartic as the Dreadlord's blade wrenched free.

His friend, the elf who had either not the honor to stay and fight or enough sense to know it was hopeless died far more cruelly. All that could be heard from him was a scream, a cry that seemed to echo through the forest like a song of terror.

Leoric came walking back into the clearing, finding Clarissa standing above one of their foes. Her knee pressed against his chest. "Find yourself a new pet?"

He asked, whipping the blood away from his blade.

Gideon came stalking up not long after. A splatter of blood decorated half his face, and the belt loops around his waist were once again filled with small throwing axes. He wore a wide self satisfied grin, clearly pleased with finally having been allowed to let loose.

 

[Rhea]

Rhea re-joined her brothers and sister once the last elf had fallen and she had retrieved her arrows. If their bodies were ever recovered by their brethren there would be nothing to arouse the suspicion magic had been involved; the wounds looked as though they had been caused by any normal arrow. She thoughtfully examined one of her new creations as she wandered back through the forest and then down to the bow. They were not perhaps carved in the way she would have chosen, but her magic had given her the longbow she had needed in that moment.

That terrifying well of magic inside her seemed to quieten now it had been sated.

She barely spared the elf a glance even as he spat on the floor before them.

"Even with whatever twisted version of magic you've claimed for yourselves, my brothers will hunt you like the filth you are and take your skins."

 

[Clarissa Vansire]

"Most annoying pet I've ever seen," her smirk only grew as the elf held a glare of indignity.

Gideon, with elf blood smattered across his cheeks and chest, bellowed a grunt of amusement. "Scrawny little things ain't they?"

By the time Rhea had come back towards the group the elf had issued his warning and his demeanor had shifted from shame to anger. Hatred. The same slew of emotions the Dreadlords had experienced as they grew up in a nation that struggled because of the atrocities these sub-human knife ears had visited upon their parents and grandparents.

Clarissa pointed her left pinky finger at the creature and then a shot of vibrant indigo laced outwards in a jumbled mess. It flew towards the elf's hand and upon impact blew the creature's hand clean off.

He screamed in pain, clutching at his wrist and staring at the hand which no longer existed.

She sauntered over towards him and grabbed ahold of his shoulder, shoving him into the dirt. "That's only the start if you speak to us like that again."

"You wench, you blew my fuckin' hand off!"

Gideon must've decided it was his turn to add to the interrogation as he plucked the elf up by his hair, eliciting a new agonizing scream, and kneed the knife ear in between the legs, causing the creature to reel in pain.

"Look at that, they do have balls!"

 

[Leoric Virak]

Leoric watched the interrogation with listless eyes, half regarding Rhea as she walked up towards them. "Get the last of them?"

He asked casually, as though the elf wasn't being tortured in front of their eyes. To his mind it was a simple thing, this very creature had likely done the same thing to many of his own people. Their long lives meant that it wasn't their forefathers who had committed the crimes against humanity; it was those elves who now stood to fight against them once more.

Whatever crime the Dreadlords would commit, the elves had done far worse in their time.

"So little Elf." Gideon said with a wide grin, leaning towering over the lithe creature. "What have you seen then, eh?"

The Dreadlord demanded, and the Elf almost immediately spat in his face. A violent lurch followed, and Gideon slammed his fist into the knife-ears face with a sickening thud that would have sent most professional pugilist sprawling onto the ground.

Leoric let out a sigh, wishing that they'd taken Cosades with them. The man could have just ripped every little detail from the creatures mind and been done with all this nonsense in seconds. Unfortunately, he'd been pointed in another direction before the army's departure. Something to the south with the Navy, as Leoric understood it.

Another crunch as Gideon struck the elf again.

"Kress, ease up will ya? We need the thing to talk still." He reminded his companion with a shake of his head.

 

[Rhea]

Gideon ignored Leoric's comment and brought his fist back to smash into the elf's face again when Rhea caught his arm and shoved him aside with a scowl.

"He can't speak if you break his jaw can you?" The other Dreadlord scowled at her and she thought, for a moment, he might argue but in the end he stepped back with a mocking little bow, muttering Princess under his breath. Rhea resisted the urge to kick him in the nuts. It wasn't that she particularly cared whether or not the elf suffered; she had been young but aware enough to remember how they had burnt her people in their beds. But senseless violence made them no better than the elves.

The elf stared at her, swaying slightly from the force of the last two blows.

"How many are stationed in the armies closest here?"

 

[Clarissa Vansire]

Claire’s stomach became increasingly unsettled as Gideon worked through his daddy issues on the elf before them. She’d thought that simply blowing the creature’s hand off would’ve been enough to get him to start talking sense but apparently the spawn of House Urr had other ideas.

Luckily Leoric and Rhea were present to dissuade the onslaught and Gideon finally seemed to relent, even if Gideon kept a firm grip upon the elf’s clothing.

The elf laughed at Rhea’s question. “A few. Or a lot. I’m not good with numbers.”

”Be sensible.” Clarissa looked down at the mongrel with a hint of annoyance, ”we can’t control the big oaf for long.” She pointed a thumb in Gideon’s direction.

“Sensible?” Laughter erupted from the elf’s lips once more. “You don’t get it do you? In your short little lives what do you hope to accomplish by coming into the Falwood?”

Her cheeks began to glow a shade of crimson as fury was building but before Clarissa could shout at the captive elf the kneeled knife-ear before them continued speaking.

“I wish I’d killed more Anirians in the first war. Maybe I’d have stopped pondscum like you four from sprouting. We should’ve leveled that entire city of yours, that’s what happens after this excursion of yours. We remove you from the,” whatever he had planned next was interrupted by Gideon’s fist to his face.

“Don’t reckon you’ll be needing that jaw much longer,” the man from Urr roared as more fists collided with flesh.

 

[Leoric Virak]

The Elf's head lulled back finally as Gideon's final strike landed with a loud crunch.

"So much for the famed fortitude of the elves." Leoric commented dryly, though offered Gideon a rather dour glance. "You're not touching the next prisoner."

He remarked coldly, only for the son of House Urr to drop the now mangled corpse. "What?! What did I do? Little shit wasn't going to talk anyway, you heard him."

A long and exasperated sigh escaped Leoric, his head shaking. Fingers came up to pinch the bridge of his nose. He glanced at Rhea for a moment, half tempted to tell the Princess to talk some sense into the big oaf. After a moment though he sighed, simply throwing up his hands.

"Doesn't matter!" He declared in exasperation.

"There's better ways to try than beating on the fucking things." Leoric said with a wave of his hand. "We'll get another at the tower."

It wasn't their mission anyway. They were here to disrupt and destroy, anything else they picked up was just a bonus. ”Come on, we’re close now.”

 

[Rhea]

8...7....6....5....

Rhea's hands slowly unclenched from the fists they had balled themselves into though thin crescent shaped marks remained in her palms as evidence of how close she had come to losing her temper. It was a good thing they were close to the tower because she wasn't sure she would last the day without punching someone's face in. She hadn't calmed down enough not to push past the other Dreadlord though hard enough to make him stumble causing him to curse and then fall in sullenly at the back.

Leoric was right.

Another hour of following the pathway the trees laid out before them and the tower rose in to view. They had come out almost directly in its shadow at the base of the hill. Rhea didn't step out from the shelter of the trees but she did pull out a spyglass from her satchel and cupped her hand over the end to stop it glinting in a ray of sun.

"Patrols at the top and bottom, but not many. They're on their own, not in pairs."

 

[Clarissa Vansire]

Clarissa simply shrugged and rolled her eyes as the team of Dreadlords moved on. Their companion from House Urr could be insufferable at times, perhaps it was their own fault for allowing him anywhere near a prisoner. A mistake she doubted they'd allow to happen again.

Still, if they needed to point and see someone charge ahead there were few as reliable as Gideon for that at least.

"How much chaos do we want to cause?" Her voice was low, even though they were far outside of earshot from the elven tower.

Their instructions had been quite clear. Draw eyes to the western most tower, allow some of the elves to live. Within those parameters they could scorch the earth and reduce the elven tower to rubble. Or just slaughter a bunch of the elves and let a few of them flee. They could be as precise or as reckless as they wanted to be and still accomplish the task they'd been assigned.

Gideon already had a hand on his axe. "My vote is we just charge in, let 'em sound the alarm, and kill anyone who resists."

"I vote for the exact opposite."

No sense in risking injury or death just because Gideon was a bloodthirsty beast.

 

[Leoric Virak]

Leoric scoffed. "We meet in the middle."

Charging in like a couple of idiots wasn't going to get them anything. Though the Elves weren't expecting them to have any sort of magic, they weren't stupid. The damned creatures had nearly wiped out all of Vel Anir. Underestimating them was not the way to go here.

Besides, unlike last time they didn't have a whole battalion of Dreadlords, just four.

While he had no doubt they would win this fight, charging in was just asking to get one of them killed.

"Carissa and Gideon, you make the initial assault." Leoric said as he looked down at the tower. Crouching as he began to make a plan of battle in the dirt beneath his feet. "Rhea and I will support."

He quickly sketched the tower grounds, then two arcs of attack. "We want to be seen and heard, so lets do as much damage to the tower as we can, but don't worry about killing past the first few."

The Elves would withdraw once they realized they were outmatched. "Good?"

Leoric asked, looking up at his companions

 

[Rhea]

Rhea nodded her agreement as they watched Leo sketch out their plan. It wasn't artful, it wasn't sneaky. It was plain and simple and Rhea appreciated that in this scenario. They weren't here to win. They were here to buy their fellows time for their real target.

"No killing?" Gideon's ugly face twisted into a scowl and Rhea gritted her teeth before straightening.

"You listen to the fucking plan, Gideon Urr, or I'll see your whole House suddenly taking a big interest in farming out in the wastelands," the other Dreadlords face darkened with equal parts humiliation and anger but he nodded. Begrudgingly. Rhea kept a hold of his gaze until she was sure he meant it before glancing to Clarissa.

"Take this," she fished a small box out of her pack and handed it over. It was made of the same strange metal as the Princess's armour. "If you are in trouble press this," she motioned to one of the carvings. "It'll send a blast of light into the air and we'll see. We have one of the same," she patted her pack. "We meet up back here."

 

[Clarissa Vansire]

To be blunt, Claire wasn't thrilled about having to babysit the spawn of House Urr who'd just beaten an elf to death.

But Leo's plan was solid and Rhea's threat was spoken with enough seriousness that Gideon seemed like he'd behave himself. With her nerves settle the situation was improved further with the Sjælden that was presented to her. It was such a useful magic that Rhea practiced.

"Got it," a nod was issued, "we'll blow a hole up the middle, cause general chaos, and you two will make sure we aren't violently murdered."

Gideon actually laughed. "I love it."

Without further discussion the pair began to march slowly up towards the toward. In a slow pace that eventually turned into a brisk walk, then a full on jog. Elven horns sounded, riders came out to meet them, and sentries began to take position.

"Halt!" One of the lead elves with long, curly, hair shouted, "identify yourselves! You're trespassing on the lands of-"

Whatever else he had to say died on his lips. Clarissa's magic triggered, disabling her left arm entirely as a wave of indigo raced forwards. It crashed through the front of the elven vanguard, ripping flesh from bone and disintegrating muscle as it coursed forwards. The blast continued to travel until it blew out a chunk of the tower's base.

With Clarie's arm out of commission from the use of her magic Gideon let loose a bloodcurdling scream as he charged the other riders who'd come to greet them.

 

[Leoric Virak]

As Clarissa's magic struck the tower a plume dust and debris rose up from the tower. A sign to anyone within a mile that the small outpost was under attack. Leoric spotted it as He and Rhea created just to the side of the bulwark, a smile touching his lips for just a brief moment. "Well they made faster progress than I thought they would."

He commented with a motion to the Princess towards the climbing cloud of dust.

No doubt Gideon would be carving his way through the elven ranks by now, happily slicing away and taking every wound that he could. He wondered how long it would take before the Knife-Ears figured out that killing the son of House Urr was quite literally impossible.

His head shook, and the two other Dreadlords quickly increased their pace. Cutting through the deeper wood of the forest, Rhea and Leoric crouched within the underbrush just short of the towers wall. With a silent flicker of his fingers he motioned to two archers atop the battlement, both of whom were quickly rushing towards the attack. Leoric waited for their passing, then quickly rushed to the wall.

He motioned for Rhea, putting his hands together and placing them on his knee so she could use them as a launching off point to get herself quickly up and over the wall.

Then the fun would be

 

[Rhea]

"'Faster'," Rhea repeated and made a face, clearly not believing that faster meant better. They could hear the bloody bellows from here! If that fool of a man ended up getting himself killed here today, Rhea couldn't say that she would be sad about it. Turning to their own task and trying to put him out of her mind, Rhea followed after her friend to their own spot and nodded in thanks to the offer of a leg up which she took. Despite being glad in full metal armour, Rhea was as light as if she wore nothing but a tunic and hose. Being so light enabled her to launch herself up onto the battlements, her fingers curling into the stone so she could heave herself up and over. For a few seconds she vanished and then a rope appeared over the edge.

The battlements were completely abandoned in this section for the moment and so nobody saw the two Dreadlords walk towards one of the curved towers. Even when they opened the door there was a moment where none of the elves who filed past paid them any heed.

It was as her father said; their arrogance would be their downfall.

Rhea's sword almost seemed to sing as it cut the first elf's head from its neck.

 

[Clarissa Vansire]

It wasn't so much of a lobby than a crumbled mess of an entryway. Clarissa stood in the rubble from the hole she'd punched, left arm dangling by her side, before Gideon sliced his axe through another elven torso and set his eyes up the stairwell. "You sure we can't move upwards?" Gideon said as a grin of excitement flashed across his features.

"No, we can't."

Claire made sure she caught his gaze and, checking her surroundings, sheathed her blade as she signed with her good hand, need to let some of their number escape out the back way. Rhea and Leo will make sure enough of them do.

"So boring."

She pulled her sword free once more, shield strapped to her back and leaned against the cool stones of the watchtower as the thundering sound of footsteps above signaled that the elves were in a state of confusion. Judging by the number, and the general disarray, they must've assumed a small platoon had arrived but seeing no enemies out in the field had put them on edge. Well, that or the bodies of the elves the pair had slain to get inside the tower.

Dreadlord Urr was clearly bored already as he actually licked a bit of the elven blood from his axe before grimacing. "Disgusting."

She raised an eyebrow, "what did you expect it to taste like?"

 

[Leoric Virak]

It didn't take long after that.

Between the two pairs of Dreadlords the elves didn't stand much of a chance, and despite their base nature, the creatures at least knew enough to run. Quickly they rushed away from the tower, moving in an ordinary retreat even as Leoric and the others picked off their fellows.

In the end, the tower had been taken, a dozen or so elves escaping into the Falwood.

The four of them came back together in the back courtyard of the tower, appearing to be some kind of training field. "That worked out well enough."

Leoric said with a broad smile.

"What do we think?" He said with a gesture towards the structure behind them. "Search the place?"

All of them knew intelligence won wars, and they hadn't had the option to search the last tower they'd taken.

 

[Rhea]

Rhea nodded but she sat down first to clean her blade. Blood splattered her face where she had had to kill one elf in particularly close quarters but that didn't seem to bother her half as much as the blood on her blade. In fact, the inanimate object seemed more angry about it's state than Rhea was of hers.

"Then torch it."

The tower was a symbol of the elves power in this part of the Falwood. Even as they fled here they would try and keep their defeat as contained as possible; many other races who lived in these woods looked to the elves to protect them. How would they feel when they saw humans defeat them? Setting it alight would take control of the narrative out of their hands and firmly into their court.

 

[Clarissa Vansire]

"Agreed."

Gideon stood beside her, drenched in elven blood with a grin upon his face. "Hopefully we come across some rations. I'm in the mood for jerky and ale."

Clarissa rolled her eyes but didn't bother to comment as she turned and moved back into the tower. The architecture was foreign to her but its layout wasn't much different than Anirian keeps. Up in the crow's was where she assumed they'd find anything strategic and, sure enough, a map with locations of stash houses and other spires was found inside of a locked drawer.

"Here," she said as she passed the document over to Leoric and Rhea. "We can turn it over once we arrive reunite with the main force."

Gideon's decision to slaughter those further up the tower had likely prevented the elves from grabbing the thing as they fled, although Clarissa certainly wasn't going to give him any such credit.

 

[Leoric Virak]

"I'm pretty sure Elves are vegetarians." Leoric remarked to Gideon as they began to make their way into the tower.

As they searched, the four Dreadlords found the knife-ears lived much as they did. A few bunk beds here and there, some cookpots, and a game or two. Everything seemed...eerily familiar, though Leoric did not bring up that he felt that way.

Instead he found himself standing opposite where Clarissa had found the map.

There, suspended in a web of vines was a small orb. It appeared to be made of glass, though an odd swirling mist lay trapped within. Leoric studied it with a careful eye, glancing over his shoulder as Clarissa stepped over with what she had found. He nodded at the document, then directed her attention towards the strange sphere. "What do you suppose this is?"

He asked her, motioning for Rhea to join them.

Below he could hear crashing sounds, Gideon gathering furniture and whatever else looked flammable for their inevitable arson.

 

[Rhea]

Unlike her comrades, Rhea had not found anything that looked important enough for them to take other than the usual maps of the territory. Though, from what she had glanced, the Anirian cartographers had not been far off. Still, they would take what they could and Rhea bundled them into her satchel.

She wandered through to the next room where she could hear Leo and Clarissa speaking then stopped at the sight of the gem suspended in the middle of the room.

Rhea...

On the outside, Rhea's eyes glazed.

 

[Clarissa Vansire]

The crashing sounds from the first floor grew in intensity as Gideon, apparently, was working quickly to gather his firewood.

Claire's focus on the document she'd found was broken as her attention turned towards the strange object with the swirling mists inside of it. "Weird."

Whatever it was seemed important as the tower lacked any form of decor or pleasantries and the fact it was suspended and set aside indicated some form of tactical purpose. It was ultimately unlike anything she'd ever seen before, although the sight of it made her feel uneasy.

"Maybe it's an enchanted object?" She was utterly ignorant to whatever had taken ahold of Rhea during this. "Some kind of elven thing we didn't know about?"