The war rages on
After an hour, a horn blew.
“Everybody up!” Jayden shouted. “Let's go!”
Sylvia swung her bow and quiver onto her shoulder, then climbed up on Rose. Ranks were formed quickly and the martins lifted into the air. Sylvia let Rose do the driving and she notched an arrow.
“We'll be shot at by their archers.” Rose called back. “Whatever you do, aim at the ones who are aiming at us. They don't know we're coming. Also, be ready for the owls. We'll be fighting them too. But we martins are smaller and faster than they are, so we shouldn't have much of a problem. Just hang on.”
Sylvia said nothing. She saw Jayden ahead of her with an arrow ready to aim and fire as well. Dad, wherever you are right now, I hope you're safe. She thought.
“We're coming up on them.” Jayden called. The sounds of the battle were almost deafening.
“Ready?” Rose asked.
“Yes.” Sylvia replied.
“Go!”
Sylvia pulled back her arrow, the black feather tickling her cheek for an instant before she let it go. Another arrow was notched and aimed before the first hit its target. Sylvia felt bad for killing other elves, but she had no choice. They all wanted her dead. It was self-defense.
As Rose had predicted, the owls were soon after them, ridden by the six swamp creatures that attended Mira. Sylvia ducked as a green-feathered arrow whizzed near her face. If Rose hadn't have been moving it would have killed her for sure. She aimed one back and fired, catching the assassin in the arm. He clutched at his arm and tried to break the shaft, but it was too strong. He couldn't do it.
“Nice shot!” Rose called.
Sylvia heard but was aiming at another rider now, so she didn't reply. She fired. She dropped her bow and nearly fell off her owl. A black-feathered shaft protruded from her thigh. The owl dropped down and out of sight, ferrying its rider back for swift medical attention.
An owl swooped over Sylvia's head and she ducked. Rose dived down, the owl's talons just missing Sylvia.
“That was close.” Sylvia muttered. Then the rider tumbled dead from his mount. Jayden's dark purple arrow in his chest. She looked at him and he nodded to her. Two down, one wounded. Ivy hadn't had time to properly train with a bow and arrow, so she had no idea what she was doing. The fairies had different tactics they used in air war, so they were occupied in that. Sylvia turned. Fayette was dangling from her martin, his talons gripping her tightly. An owl ridden by a swamp fairy was terrorizing her, causing her martin to nearly drop her. She had a deep gash in her arm. Sylvia drew back her arrow and sent it flying into the owl's wing. He was thrown off balance and the troublesome pair plummeted to the ground. Two more fairies remained to dispose of, but despite the odds being in their favor of six to two, the two remaining swamp fairies were angry now. One of them flew over to Jayden and Sylvia, his larger owl engaging both martins at the same time. Sylvia drew her sword and Rose darted out of the reach of the owl. She took a swing at the fairy, who blocked her. Jayden had grabbed onto the owl's leg. His martin, Black Jack, was waiting out of the owl's reach. Jayden's weight was throwing the owl off balance.
“Curse you night elf!” hissed the fairy.
Sylvia tightened her face and swung at him again. He blocked again. The owl jerked down as Jayden swung himself back and forth from his leg. Then he grabbed a dagger from his side and threw it toward the owl's wing. The owl fell toward that side, tried to pull back up, but couldn't, then fell toward the battle.
“Jayden!” Sylvia screamed. “Jack!”
Soon Jayden and Jack emerged from under the owl. The fairies had taken care of the last swamp fairy, so now they didn't really know what to do.
Jack flew up to Rose. “Are you alright Sylv?” Jayden asked.
“Yeah.” she said. “I'm alright.” she looked at him. “You're bleeding.”
“Yeah...the owl clawed me as I dropped onto Jack. I'm alright though.”
“Guys, here comes Stella.” Warren said.
Sure enough, there was Stella, flying fast. She pulled up her martin near them. “I need you on the ground.” she panted. “They're everywhere!” and she was gone again.
“Looks like our job here is—” Sylvia found herself and Rose suddenly plummeting to the ground. A green arrow was lodged in Rose's shoulder, right behind Sylvia's leg. Sylvia clung to Rose's feathers.
“Hold on!” Rose croaked.
Suddenly from the sky, Jayden and Black Jack were diving toward them. Jayden grabbed Sylvia as Jack dove under Rose to try and break her fall. The four of them landed in the grass. A dead water elf lay nearby. Black Jack stood, but Rose was too badly injured.
“Oh no...” Sylvia breathed.
“Don't take it out.” Jack mumbled. We'll hide her here in the woods and I'll go get some of the other martins to take her to our medicine bird.
Sylvia looked at Rose with tears in her eyes. The bird nodded. “Jack is right.”
They hid Rose somewhere she wouldn't be found by a wandering swamp creature or owl, and Black Jack flew off, leaving Sylvia and Jayden alone.
“Well, I guess we fight on foot.” Jayden said. “Let's go.”
They crept quietly out of the woods. The roar of battle raged below them as they looked out over a rock ledge that to a human would only be a slight step down.
“This way.” Sylvia hissed, motioning to Jayden to follow her.
They slipped down the hill, hiding behind a rock. With a cry, a swamp elf flew past them and Sylvia heard a familiar voice.
“Dirty swamp scum.” it was Brett.
“Brett!” she called, stepping out from behind the rock.
“Syl! You're alive!”
“Barely, but yeah.”
“Behind you.”
Sylvia spun and zapped a swamp fairy with electricity. “I'll see you later. I'm supposed to be in the thick of this.”
Brett nodded and stabbed another swamp elf.
Jayden and Sylvia hurried into the thick of the battlefield. Sylvia surveyed the scene. She chose a target—a swamp fairy just about to stab a water fairy through the heart. She threw her hand forward and the grass climbed up his legs. He was too surprised to react, so she clenched her fist and tipped her head. His knife fell from his hand. The water fairy didn't ask questions. She picked up the knife and stabbed him, muttering something as he sank to the ground.
“Very nice.” Jayden said, throwing electricity at a swamp elf that was trying to kill him.
“I can do better.” she said.
Jayden's eye twitched and a swamp fairy stabbed himself. “Mental manipulation at its best.” he said.
Sylvia tipped her head as a swamp elf spontaneously combusted. “Fire.”
Jayden snorted. “Mine was cooler.”
Sylvia put her sword away. She clenched both fists and narrowed her eyes, holding her breath. She then exhaled slowly. A gust of wind whipped over the battlefield, blowing leaves and sticks and dust everywhere, creating a screen. Many a good elf or fairy knew it was a night elf's doing, so they took advantage of the distraction and killed their opponent. Sylvia looked at Jayden. But before he could try to top her a horn blew. A grunting, snarling sound came from behind enemy lines.
“Jayden?”
“I don't know. You might want to get your sword back out.”
Sylvia took his advice and drew it. Suddenly, out of a cloud of dust, hundreds of thousands of strange, grotesque creatures came running forward. The two elves looked at each other. Then they looked back at the charging columns of creatures. They weren't elves and they weren't fairies. They were just creatures.
Stella's voice rang out from somewhere in the chaos. “Charge!”
Jayden and Sylvia rushed forward, slashing at any swamp fairy or elf that tried to stop them. Soon they were in the thick of the swamp creatures. Sylvia was slashing and hacking recklessly, killing swamp creatures with almost every stroke. But she soon found herself face to face with a swamp creature that wore a muddy crown on its head. It was much taller than her, but it swung at her. She ducked, stabbing at its stomach but missing.
“You are too reckless.” the creature hissed.
“You're too slow.” Sylvia retorted, ducking as he swung at her neck.
The creature laughed. A low, gravelly laugh that sent chills up and down her spine. “Slow?” it said in its snake-like voice.
“Slower than molasses.” Sylvia added, as her blade crossed his.
With a growl, the creature leaped forward. Sylvia rolled into a ball and did a somersault between his legs, so he tackled the ground. She was up first, putting one of her black boots on his back and the point of her sword over his heart.
“Who are you, before I kill you?” she asked.
“I am the king of the swamp monsters. And who are you?”
“Sylvia. Attendant of the Moon Queen Stella.”
The monster king laughed. “Well say goodbye sweet Sylvia.” he said.
Sylvia expected this, and whirled around, keeping one hand on the sword still pointed downward at the king's heart and the other thrown forward. A swamp monster flew backward and landed in a heap on the grass. She sent a bolt of lightning at him just to make sure he didn't come after her again.
The distraction served the swamp monster king well. He rolled, escaping Sylvia's sword. She had barely enough time to turn back around and meet his blade with her own. They fought viciously. It wasn't going well for Sylvia. She'd gotten a few cuts were his blade had nicked her, and he was slowly backing her against a rock. When she felt its coolness, she knew she was trapped. She tried to force him back, but he wouldn't budge. Without space to move, he would kill her.
