The Alphas Guard

Chapter 45 - The War

"Are you ready?" I asked Kate, a bow and arrow in my shaking hands.

She let out a shaky breath, both her palms facing the shaft of my arrow, "As ready as I'll ever be,"

"Let us declare war then, the northern way," I whispered, positioning the point of my arrow to the indigo midnight skies.

"Light this arrow the light of a thousand suns, and show the people that war has begun," She chanted, fire blazing from her hands onto my arrow.

My face warmed immediately as my fingertips blackened at the contact.

Without a second thought, I let the arrow fly. I let the arrow carry my fears and burdens with it as it's wings pushed it further into the atmosphere of the rotten outskirts. I let the arrow flee with my worry in it's heart.

I fired two more arrows, each one strengthening in the distance it travelled, before falling on both knees - palms facing the night skies.

"Oh goddess of the moon,  I will do everything in me to fulfil this wretched destiny you have put upon me. I will be your undying slave, just as much as I am your undying warrior. Whether I live or die is unimportant, all that is of matter is that the 4 kingdoms rise once more - as with their king," I prayed, "I beg that your moonshine blesses my battlefield, I beg that your full moon works in my favour,"

Before I could reinforce any doubt within me, I got on both feet and turned around to face the army I had been raising for almost 3 weeks now. 

Over 600 beasts stood side by side, lining the outskirts like a wall of guards. They were under my command - my spell. They would act by me, fight as I say, and die for me. I would be sure to bury every single one that passes. Not a single body will be left withering away in the rot of the outskirts.

They were soldiers just as much as they were beasts.

"Is my plan clear?" I asked Kate, evoking a nod out of her, "then the war has officially begun,"

Kate took a deep breath, whispering a lull of words before swaying her arms in circular motions - the wind following her every movement. She shut her eyes, power oozing off of her in waves before slamming both of her fists together. The dirt beneath her jumped just as her eyes flew open - amber in colour and shining as bright as the full moon above us - and spoke, "Mille lupum pariter virtute benedicite, et virtute feris insculpite,"

My breath was slammed out of me, forcing my bow and arrow to fall onto the ground. I collapsed, feeling my bones weigh a thousand tonnes more than they were supposed to. I was cold, shivering in fact, but I was also sweating. It felt as though boulders of ice were positioned to the right of me, and to my left, the sun. None of it felt right, but Kate warned me what a spell like this could do.

I was ready to face the consequences.

My beasts screeched at the sight of my fall, ready to lunge, but I held my quivering hand out - ushering them not to.

My heart was beating with the force of a thousand armies marching into battle, almost breaking out of the shell of my ribcage and all I could do was withstand the throbbing of my body. All until it became too much. 

So I screamed. I screamed so loud that the great trees shook in their cemented soil. I screamed so loud that my beasts tensed. I screamed so loud that the moon was forced to move on it's axes.

And then suddenly, the pain dissipated.

Suddenly, my body felt light.

Suddenly, my bones and muscles glided against one another as though they were algae dancing in their home of water.