Eyes of Emerald

Chapter 44 - Ruthless

In the battle before, the sound had been loud. This was ten times the noise. It was as if last time I had been deaf, and now I could hear again, an explosion of sound so loud I felt as if a bomb had been set off near my ears.

            I kept running. A fawn coloured wolf ran by my side, its lips curled back from its long canines in a feral snarl, its brown eyes fixed on the approaching horde. Iris was a blur of rainbow colours, the only colour in the mass of brown and silver. Ffi was to my left as well, her long red hair being whipped up in the wind she created from nowhere, her hands laced with flames.

            But still we were horribly outnumbered. The opposition seemed to be a mile wide, approaching us from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Their swords would be sinking into our flesh soon.

            I sheathed my dagger in one swift move, and sprang forward, willing my body to change shape, to grow feathers and talons and a strong, sharp beak. I felt the stretch in my muscles as they reformed, my bones becoming lighter and my eyesight sharpening dramatically, before I took off and flew above the ranks.

            At first all I felt was a rush of exhilaration, as my huge wings flapped, carrying me upwards into the darkening sky. I opened my mouth to shout, but all that came out was a strange cawing, high-pitched and long. I saw a bolt of lightning fork across the bruised sky, setting it alight for a split second before plunging us into the premature darkness of the day. That was before I looked down.

            Our forces were less than half of theirs. Hell, we were probably less than a quarter of them. They were a sea of black and silver, stretching as far as I could see, and we were just...a tiny island of brown and gold, moving fast towards their front line.

            The battle reminded me of something from a History re-enactment, the two armies charging at each other, yelling war cries that were meant to frighten the enemy (although I didn't think anything would frighten Balthazar's army), and lift your own spirits. Nowadays, wars were all about who had the biggest weapons and most money, the most expendable troops. It was strategy, attack where the opponent is weakest.

            Here, it was more a case of charge and hope for the best. We all knew it was almost impossible to find a chink in the armour. We had to fight, and fight hard until the end.

            I flapped my wings again, catching a gust of wind and being carried up. As I got higher, I noticed the small group of brown and gold approaching the Army from the back. If I could have smiled, I would have. They had survived this long, it would work. We had a chance. We weren't throwing ourselves into graves.

            The forces were getting nearer and nearer to each other, and I braced myself for the impact. Even though I was high above the battle now, I could feel the tension in the air, hear the screams in high definition. A high pitched screech sounded in my ears, and I wasn't sure if it was real or my imagination.

            The impact was shocking, even from high above. One second, there was only battle cries and the sound of thousands of feet pounding the earth into mud, and then there was an ear-splitting clash as a hundred swords met.

            If you took away the sound, it would have looked quite soft and even, as the brown mixed into the black. Suddenly the black warriors were attacking everyone from every direction, and already I saw still, unmoving shapes who had either been wounded or killed. I hoped they had been killed - dying quickly would be preferable to the poisoning their weapons would give us.

            I spotted Iris' hair from a distance, and saw the blur of blonde and red around her. Ffi and Celie were protecting her. My heart swelled. Flashes of fire and water lit the battlefield, which was becoming more and more spacious with every second. I was hit by a huge gust of wind, blowing me backwards, out of control through the sky.