The Kingdoms of the Mountain Valley

Chapter 1: Into the Abyss

Chapter 1

            “I have to save her.”

 Warwick thanks this as he and his group flies through the forest. He looks up at the one that he strives to protect, Alexia Angelfire, the princess of the Angelfire Kingdom and his betrothed. Even now, as they fly for their lives he can’t help but have his breath taken from him by her beauty. Alexia is different than the rest of their kind, being born from royalty will do that. She has long, flowing red hair unique only to the Angelfire bloodline, green almond shaped eyes which her father constantly says reminds him of her mother and she also has something else that’s unique to the royal line, stunning butterfly wings.

Butterfly wings. Eons ago, all fairies had butterfly wings, but then again they also all had magic and like magic, butterfly wings are a thing of the past, gone after the Great Cataclysm. In the place of their noble butterfly wings are wings like that of beetle-like wings, stronger and more agile then butterfly wing but not nearly as majestic.  Another thing that changed, or developed, was the elytra that evolved on all of the Fairykind after generations upon generations of war with the Goblinkin to protect their wings when in battle.

Warwick looks around them. Flying around them were three, handpicked soldiers, all are wearing fitted, dark bronze armor, helmets and leather gloves, each carry a blade and shield, trained by himself to be the best and to die for their princess if necessary, which is good because it might just come down to that.

A shadow covers Warwick. He looks up to see what they’re flying away from. The Black Wings, the Goblinkin aerial force trained to ride and fight on the backs of ravens.

Goblinkin are born without wings due to their subterranean nature so to balance against the natural flying ability of the Fairykind, the Goblinkin have become masters of training ravens, but ravens are just the beginning of the animals they’ve become masters over. They use moles and mole rats to help them create and dig new tunnels, Rats and possums for ground and tree travel and even bats for their Elites. The Fairykind have no need to train animals, they find the practice of animal training vile due to the Fairykind’s innate ability to communicate with the animals around, all except for those trained by the Goblinkin.

Warwick looks at the Goblinkin of the small team of the Black Wing that chase them,  fairy like in structure but that was where the similes between Fairykind and Goblinkin end, their skin is covered with greenish-like scales, large muscles and stark black hair with midnight black eyes.  These riders had minimal armor, helmet, and leather. They had to keep it light for the raven’s sake; it’s already carrying two riders, a driver and an archer, so there’s no need to way it down even more with heavy armor. This is why being a Black Wing is never a long term position.

The Goblins with the bows stand up behind the drivers, take aim and fires. The arrows just miss the fleeing Fairies.

 Warwick yells to Alexia, “GO HIGH!”

Alexia nods with understanding and flies up into the tree branches. Two of the soldiers follow. Warwick and the other soldier fly down hitting the deck and skimming along the ground.

The Goblins watch the group separate. The lead Goblin turns to the other two and point up.

“Go after her,” yells the Goblin Leader, “I want her alive if possible, but dead is just as good.”

The two Black Wings give chase after the princess. The Goblin Leader aims his raven down.

“GO HIGH,” Warwick yells.

Alexia nods to Warwick and flies up into the tree branches. Flying through branches is a very hard maneuver, even flying at slow speeds, but she knows she, and the two soldiers, were capable of doing it thanks to Warwick.