Melantha's Stand - Part I
At the Gates
Melantha's hands ached as they continued to carry her through the air with her magic, which compared to the adrenaline rush she had right now felt like nothing. Raindrops hit her face and sank into her hair as she scanned the streets filled with people shuffling to get to wagons set to be escorted out of Pinebarrow.
"Urg, where?" Melantha grunted in a mixture of frustration and fear as she looked wildly from one person's face to the next. Of all days, today was the day Timothy decided to take Roxanna out somewhere while she was gone.
"Just my luck..." Melantha picked up her speed as she soared through the alleyways.
"Timothy!" Melantha had checked their home but found no one. "Roxy!" She'd also looked at her parents' tavern, the Crooked Beam, but also found it empty... and a little looted to her subconscious anger.
"Melantha!" A voice rose up to her just below. "Down here!" She looked down at the same time she dropped all the way to the ground. She was already on her two feet shoving past frightened towns folk when she saw the face of who'd called her.
"William!" Melantha cried, shocked to see him by himself here. "Why aren't you with Liz and Tups!?" Melantha suddenly recalled her similar predicament and regretted asking that. "Please, tell me you've seen Timothy and Roxanna!"
William and Melantha had to back up against the darkened windows of a shop to avoid the crazed people shoving past them. "They're safe with my sis and Tups! They asked me to find you and get you to them! We gotta get movin' now." Melantha nodded eagerly. Confident her old friend was telling the truth, she reached her hands out to grab onto his overall straps.
"Hold on tight!" Melantha warned.
"Wha- Ah!" William shouted in surprise as he began dangling below Melantha who lifted off into the air. But, very quickly he righted himself. "For the love o' Pelor, warn me M!"
"Where are we going?" Melantha asked, ignoring William's complaint.
"The northern district! Couple blocks east o' my shop; where the old market used to be!" Melantha knew exactly where that was, and wasted no time in rising above the rooftops to make a straight line for it.
It'd been a while since she'd flown this fast with her magic. If Pinebarrow wasn't on the brink of being sieged, she might have enjoyed the cold wet breeze smacking against her. But, right now all she felt was an unbreakable need to protect her family.
In just one minute, Melantha was already over the old market square where she saw rings of covered wagons set up to load the citizens. Some, she noticed were already leaving north. Melantha dropped low to the ground, letting William fall a foot to the cobble road before she landed with him.
William wasted no time when he took her hand and guided her between several rings of wagons before coming to a stop beside one in particular.
"Mommy!" The sweet voice Melantha suddenly heard was music to her ears as she saw a little girl jump out of the wagon. Melantha knelt to her knees with outstretched arms as her daughter ran full-force into her embrace, nearly knocking Melantha onto her back.
"I'm so glad to see you safe." Melantha exhaled with an amount of relief she'd never felt before, breathing in the fresh rosey scent of Roxanna's hair while she kept her eyes shut hoping that when she opened them this would all turn out to have been a nightmare.
Suddenly, another pair of hands wrapped around both Melantha and her daughter, and she immediately buried her face in Timothy's wet farmer's shirt as he hugged them both.
She stayed there for a moment clinging to them both tightly before an animal's snort blew her hair over her face, causing her to pull away. When Melantha brushed her hair back and looked to her left, a fully grown bear stared back at her with an innocent and almost confused look.
"Tups!" William smacked the bear's behind as it yelped and hopped onto the wagon in a hurry, which made the vehicle heavily lopsided. A blonde-haired woman joined at William's side who Melantha recognized.
"Liz," William snapped, "keep Tups under control, for Pelor's sake." Melantha noticed Elizabeth, William's adoptive sister, roll her eyes.
"Will, I'd slap you if our lives weren't at stake right now." She responded before reaching out a hand to Melantha. She took it as Liz helped Melantha back to her feet, keeping both Timothy and Roxanna close at her hip. In a flash, her face turned to Timothy's.
"Where's mom and dad?" She asked quickly.
Timothy gripped Melantha's shoulder tightly in reassurance. "They already made it out about an hour ago. They're safe."
"Thank the planes." Melantha breathed.
"Mrs. Garner, dearest! There you are!" The regal voice Melantha heard was unexpected, because she thought Mayor Bottomfoot would have left Pinebarrow already. She declined her head to where he was now standing, just at four feet tall.
"Mayor!" Melantha chirped. "You're still here?"
Mayor Bottomfoot popped the lapels of his mild and wet dress coat. "I'm a mayor, Mrs. Garner, not a coward. I don't leave this town until I've seen everyone else out first." He angled his head to Timothy and Roxy. "I'm glad to see the rest of your family is safe at the moment."
Three Ravennian guards strode by as they stopped nearby the wagons, waving their hands and giving orders for everyone to load the wagons quickly. William and Elizabeth did just that as they joined Tups in their wagon.
"Mayor!" One of the guards shouted. "Your wagon is ready. You must not delay any further!"
"Yes, I'll be right there!" Bottomfoot called back, before his eyes returned to Melantha. "Mrs. Garner. I must ask you one more time. Are you sure about this? What you said you plan to do?"
Melantha felt Timothy's expression change just out of her sight. "Is she sure? Sure about what?" He asked.
Bottomfoot's mouth fell slightly agape. "You didn't tell them?"
Timothy stepped in front of her, hands planted on her shoulders and forced to look him in the face. "Melantha, don't be thinkin' about doing anythin' stupid. Please."
She pressed her teeth together as she forced the words out. "I'm remaining behind... Timothy." Tears were welling at his eyes as she continued speaking. "I've got to help however I can to give us a fighting chance. I'm not about to let our home be ransacked."
"Mel," A nickname Melantha always loved to hear, a nickname Timothy used sparingly, "Roxy needs her mom. Please, come with us."
Melantha brushed Timothy's cheek with a hand he gently clasped between his. "She will always have me, Tim. Just you wait. I'll be back at her side in no time."
He shook his head sobbing. "I can't lose you..."
She moved to cup his face with both her hands. "You won't." Sternly. Like a fierce soldier giving an order.
More guards circled their group as the mayor was escorted to a distant wagon, flashing a solemn nod to Melantha that spoke, "Do what you must do." Two others grabbed onto Timothy as they broke him and Roxanna away from Melantha, forced to get on the wagon with Will, Liz, and Tups.
"Mel!" Timothy cried. "You make sure you make it back to us!"
"Mommy!" Roxanna whined. Everything was bombarding Melantha and causing her throat to choke up, like a massive cannonball was lodged deep inside it. But she knew the power she held inside her. And if she didn't do something, then Timothy and Roxy wouldn't have a home anytime soon.
The guards circled back to grab onto Melantha, but she was already off the ground in flight. The soldiers all shouted after her to come back, but she couldn't allow herself to. The last thing she heard were the guards' distant voices as they barked, "Just leave her! Everyone else is loaded! Make for the Bramble Forest!"
"You'll all be safe." Melantha said with tears in her eyes. "I'll make sure of it."
From atop the Pinebarrow clock tower, Melantha looked out across the southwestern landscape and couldn't believe what her eyes were seeing. There had to be tens of thousands of Teneleans marching, so small from this distance they looked like square blankets of black ants. Fire and smoke from farm fields trailed the horizon behind them like they were rising up out of hell itself.
It was horrific.
She could see the small vertical sticks among them that she knew were actually trebuchets and siege towers. She could see the flocks of birds high above that she was sure were their infamous wyverns.
Powerful magic or not, nothing was immune to the intimidating presence of an army like that.
Down below at the stout walls of Pinebarrow, Melantha perceived Ravennian archers scrambling into formation, mangonels being hoisted up onto the walls, pikemen taking up positions at the gates, knights setting up blockades through the streets.
But, when Melantha saw General Hoober II just above the southern gates of the town on the wall, she'd finally found who she was looking for. So, she wasted not a single second more as she fell into the air and let her magic carry her across to the gate.
"Coming in hot!" She warned the general and several other soldiers nearby as she came in and dropped to her feet. A few of them still raised crossbows her way, which didn't surprise her.
"You there! Mage!" A crossbowman shouted at Melantha. "Why are you not on the wagons like everyone else?"
General Hoober raised a hand at the soldier before he could speak anything else. "A mage in Pinebarrow." His elderly voice inquired. "If I'm not mistaken, you must be that Greenwood woman I hear stories about here."
"I don't know what kind of stories you hear, but I want to help in anyway I can. Please."
The general quickly shook his head for a no. "The stories I hear are ones of a Pinebarrow mage who wields unpredictable magic. Unpredictability is a detriment that we cannot risk having in a time like this." Hoober pointed to two archers, a man and woman, before pointing back to Melantha. "Escort Greenwood to the nearest safehouse until we can secure safe transportation for her out of here. Unless, she'd prefer to fly."
"General, please," Melantha pleaded, "you're making a mistake. Let me help you!"
"The only one making a mistake here is you, Mrs. Greenwood. Please understand." Melantha's eye began to twitch with agitation.
"I have power! I can fight among your men!"
Hoober quickly marched over to Melantha, so close she could see the wrinkles on his face. "I will not risk the lines of my forces because of your recklessness, Mrs. Greenwood, though well placed your intentions might be. Nor do I wish to see a fellow citizen rush to their death."
The archers were at attention behind Melantha now. "You shall let them escort you to safety, Mrs. Greenwood. This battle needs soldiers. Not vigilantes."
Melantha hated how this was turning out. Sure, her magic sometimes went sporadic, but that was the same magic that had helped rebuild this town from the damage that had been caused fifteen years ago. She hated how Hoober couldn't see that.
And she hated most that she was about to follow those orders as she let the guards flanking her begin to lead her down a set of stairs on the wall.
"Sir, incoming barrage!" A distant archer shouted with genuine fear. Melantha shot a look up at the sky just in time to see white hot flaming boulders barreling towards them.
"They're in range already?" Was the only thing Hoober was able to squeak out before the boulders came crashing into the streets, the walls, and everything outside the walls.
The screams of dozens of men began to ring in Melantha's ears as she fought to stay balanced on the wall from the force of the impacts, and prayed her portion wouldn't suddenly collapse.
She dodged out of the way and cursed her prayers just in time as one smashed into the exact spot she'd been standing in. But after it landed, she did not expect the violent aftershock that pulsed from the boulder as it blew her and her two escorts off the wall, falling toward the ground.
"Help!" They both screamed, and Melantha swiftly flew and scooped them both as she glided them onto the street safely.
"Find others and find safety!" Melantha roared at them. Surely filled with dread, they easily complied, rushing off toward areas of debris.
A deep roar suddenly came from atop the walls of the gate, followed by the flapping of large wings, and finally another man's scream.
"Not good." Melantha cursed through gritted teeth as she forced her aching arms and legs back into the air and back to the wall. When she landed, five winged beasts flew over her as Tenelea's feared wyvern riders descended into the city against scattered arrow volleys. However, the wyvern perched right in front of her, the half-eaten body of General Hoober in its mouth was what really made Melantha's legs quake.
The sounds of war and death continued to play out around Melantha as the rider on top the wyvern threatened, "Surrender, and you may yet live."
Melantha gulped, but raised her hands as she coalesced lightning in it. "I will not surrender. But I'd certainly love to live!" And Melantha thrust the lightning to strike out at the wyvern!
Only to watch it spurt out and fall to the stone like a wad of spit...
"Really? Now?" So much for a great start. Melantha was already rolling out of the way as the rider lurched the wyvern forward and it lashed out with its stinger tail, spitting Hoober to the ground.
Melantha took to the air again to gain some distance, forgetting just as she looked back that wyverns could fly too. It took flight after her, and the two were now in battle up above Pinebarrow.
The wyvern was much was faster than Melantha, she realized, as its stinger attempted to pierce her twice, which she had to barrel out of the way of both times. And every time she looked back, the rider was hot on her tail and giving her no room to act.
Melantha needed to get out of the sky, because this rider was winning it. Looking down at the town, she saw its narrow streets and enclosed buildings.
"All right then, follow me." Melantha muttered as she let herself fall, and the wyvern angled itself down in pursuit.
Get to the streets, limit the rider's movement. That was her plan. Just a little bit further and she'd-
CRASH
A massive hot and rocky object impacted right against Melantha as the concussive pain from the hit made her lose focus. The world became a blur as she flew the air to wherever fate was going to take her.
She felt the ground crush her as she bounced off it, then again, and again. She swore she felt herself roll at least twenty times before she came to a stop in a grassy meadow outside the walls of Pinebarrow.
Melantha's eyes only saw the sky above as her head swam and her bones felt broken. Dark and rainy, Filled with fiery rocks and ravenous wyverns.
She winced as she barely propped herself up on her elbows. The wyvern suddenly hit the ground in front of her with a hard thud. A ballista bolt was pierced straight through its head, but the rider was able to clammer off it holding a crossbow in one hand.
Limping his way, he angled it towards Melantha as he readied the weapon to fire at her; try as she might, her body still just would not move.
Was this how it would all end? Dead on the ground as evil consumed the sky?
Melantha didn't know what was harder to believe. That the rider was suddenly dead on the ground with an arrow in his chest, or the fact that Timothy had his arms wrapped around her, a bow and quiver to his left.
"Thank Pelor!" He cried. "Just in time."
"Timothy... Timothy!" Melantha's mind shot back to reality as she fully comprehended everything that had happened, and her arms clasped over his back. She was on the verg of tears.
"You're bruised." He worried.
"You're back!?" She lectured, pushing away from him. "You were supposed to be on the wagons!" Melantha paused, then another frightening thought bolted through her. "Roxy!"
"Roxanna is fine with Elizabeth and William." Despite the carnage going on, Timothy's voice was surprisingly calm.
"You shouldn't be here." Melantha let Timothy help her to her feet. That warm feeling of magic started to return inside her.
"And you should?" Timothy countered, restringing the bow and quiver over his torso.
"This is our home! You know what I can do." Melantha gazed out over the battlefield. Destruction continued to rage on Pinebarrow and the Ravennians defending it. Meanwhile, she spotted the legions Tenelea far back just standing.
Tenelea was just softening the town up for the true destruction that was to come.
"Of course I know! But do you remember what we swore to each other!?" Timothy showed Melantha the wedding ring on his finger. "'Till death do us part." Timothy knocked an arrow as he and Melantha both spotted a troop of legionnaires closing in on them in a circle. "Roxy means everything to me, Mel." He flashed a smile. "But you do too."
Melantha pressed her lips together in an urge to defy his reasoning, but he was right. A vow was eternal. How could she ever go back on that?
Flames burst forth from her fists as she felt Timothy's back square up against hers.
"Magic. I know you can hear me," Melantha reasoned as the legionnaires drew their blades, "please, please, please do me proud right now." And Melantha let loose her magic in a torrent of dependable flame and Timothy his arrows. A fierce last stand began.
Teneleans of all kinds, be it dwarves, elves, or goblins even charged them but were struck down by the vicious onslaught by Melantha and Timothy Garner. Melantha even had to admit that a part of it slowly started to become... exhilarating.
One after the other, second by second, in front of the gates of Pinebarrow, these legionnaires who had charged forward were falling.
A shape began to descend from the sky towards them, and Melantha knew right then their moment of power was over. She clutched onto Timothy and tackled him out of the way as a wyvern's pair of razor-sharp talons scraped the ground and turned up patches of grass in its grip.
On the ground, Melantha and Timothy barely had time to react as two legionnaires closed the distance and swiped down with their swords at each of them. Opening her palm, a flash of radiant light seared his eyes and face that sent him to the ground, writhing in pain.
She looked back and saw Timothy had ducked out of the way and was now up against a legionnaire's sword with his family bow. The man swung one strike after the other, giving no room for Timothy to think aside from defending himself. A fifth blow abruptly staggered Timothy and sent his bow to the ground.
"Timothy!" Melantha gasped as she saw what happened next. A sword slash across the chest. Timothy's clothes turning red while his body hit the ground.
No.
Legionnaires swarmed Melantha as they pressed her to the ground with swords at every point of her body.
No.
Tears streamed down her face as red hot rage began to boil up through her. It grew and grew until finally it exploded out her mouth.
"NO!" Her voice was an explosion that sent her assailants thundering backward onto their feet. In no more than an instant afterward, she had Timothy held in her arms as she burst from the ground, leaving a crater in its wake.
It almost felt like she wasn't doing anything at all, but that the magic was moving of its own accord. She dodged past wyverns and weaved through trebuchet rocks, bulleting downward to the streets of Pinebarrow like a single frame in time.
The next thing she knew, she was knelt down beside Timothy in the wine cellar of the Crooked Beam, away from all the noise.
Her hands were clasped over his chest, and he was a bloody, gasping mess mixed with her tears.
Melantha felt like the world was crumbling around her. Not because it actually was, but because of how Timothy was barely able to prop his back up against a nearby wooden support beam.
"Timothy... don't do this to me." Melantha's hands were clutched over Timothy's abdomen that were stained red from the slash wound. His hands came to rest over hers.
"Hey... hey." He coughed twice between those words. "You're glowin' right now... did you know that?"
Instinctively, Melantha looked down at herself, and sure enough she was. She couldn't believe she hadn't noticed how obvious it was until now. Golden light shone off her like she was the very beacon to a lighthouse, lighting up the entire cellar.
"This is new." She muttered, realizing there was another part of her magic that she didn't understand, but then her attention shot back to Timothy. "You can't die on me. Not right now."
Suddenly, Timothy ripped off a cleaner sleeve of his shirt as he surprised Melantha by beginning to wrap it around his stomach beneath his shirt. "Who said I was... urg, goin' to die..? Until death... do us part, sure. But I won't let that come yet..."
From Timothy's strong words, Melantha started to feel relief returning to her soul. "I have to get you out of here."
Timothy shook his head. "There is only one thin' you need to make get out of here. And it's... those plane-damned Teneleans." Timothy flashed Melantha a toothy smile that was reddened by blood. "Plus, I ain't never seen you like this before. I wanna know... urg, what you can do."
Deep down, Melantha's love for curiosity did too. "You promise you aren't going to die on me?"
Melantha entwined her hands with his as he finished wrapping the make-shift bandages over his abdomen. "I promise." Timothy grunted as he leaned forward and planted a single kiss on Melantha. "I know you can take on armies. So get out there."
She stood up. "I'll come back for you. Just wait here until then."
"I know you will. You always do." And with that, Melantha was up and out of the cellar and in the air, flying like a soaring comet through the sky. She noticed the wyverns had let up and the trebuchets had stopped.
When Melantha looked over Pinebarrow and then out past the gates, she saw why.
Most, if not all the Ravennian defenders were gone inside the town. Melantha didn't know how much time had passed, but she gathered not a lot. And outside the town, the Tenelean army was advancing on Pinebarrow, splitting up into three groups that spread around the left side, spread around the right side, and marched straight for the gate.
The town was being surrounded.
But, in just five seconds, Melantha was on the ground, the strength of her landing leaving a nasty dent in the earth. She stood tall as the legions came to stop only one-hundred feet away, headed by a man on a white horse dressed in regal armor. A commander, probably.
That man trotted forward, holding a blue-feathered helmet underneath his left arm as his bald white face examined Melantha.
"I am Iron Lord Gallio Authorus," the officer introduced, "and who is this standing before the Imperial Corps today?"
"Melantha Garner." She spoke with fury in her bones, thinking of all the destruction that had been brought to her town.
"I'm afraid you are mistaken." Gallio taunted. "You are a single foolish mage either insane enough, brave enough, or both to stand against what equals tens of thousands more than you."
Melantha began to breathe in the world around her. It was weird. She could feel a sense of control over the ground beneath, control over the air around her, and control over the sky above her. It was like there wasn't anything her magic didn't touch. She could feel herself start to coalesce power from high above the clouds.
"Surrender yourself over to us, and we may show mercy," Gallio continued, "and perhaps favor for a mage such as yourself."
"There's only one favor I want." Melantha barked. "And that's for you all to get out of my home."
Gallio sighed. "Legionnaires!" He called over his shoulder flatly, like Melantha was nothing more than a rodent. "Take no prisoners. Advance!"
The armies began to charge. Melantha against everyone else. Her eyes closed as she felt the full weight of her magic deep above the clouds. She took hold of it all, letting it manifest until it took full shape.
She had full control of her magic. She didn't know why, she never did, but she was going to take blessings where blessings were due.
Her magic became fully formed in the clouds. She opened her eyes as her golden glow radiated across the field. She looked out across the legions charging her way like she was aiming herself.
Then, she released her magic. Her entire body burst into a giant wall of flame, and gargantuan balls of fire rained from the sky.
Comments