Wings in the Darkness

A Tough Fight

Terin curved his flight path, avoiding a deadly goblin blade!  He quickly slashed the goblin and kept flying.  With he and the other bodyguards few goblins got close you the Chief, and if they did they fell to the Chief's axe!  Most of the mist had cleared around the nest, though goblins still dropped the enchanted waters on them when they could to keep it up.  Eagle men archers fired into the swarm, even as their fellows fought them, but they hit no eagle men.  With eyes like hawks their aim was deadly, and they only hit their intended target, or no target.

As Terin and all the other eagle men circled against the flow of goblins, killing whatever came in their path, more goblins were falling than eagle men.  The battle was going well.

But then more bottles with that enchanted water were thrown directly at Terin and his group.  They dodged, but one unfortunate eagle man struck with his sword and...

"No!" cried Terin, but it was too late.

The bottle exploded into that mist.  For a second Terin could not see, and when he passed the mist he saw the group in the same formation, but with no chief!

He spotted the chief falling, a goblin holding onto him from behind!  The goblin had no sword, but he had pinned the chief's wings and axe, and the chief couldn't reach over to throw him off!

"Down!  Down!" cried Terin!  He and the bodyguards dived straight down to their chief!

They fell, the chief struggling to throw off his weight.  They were getting closer and closer to the ground.  Terin knew they wouldn't reach him in time.  He lifted his sword as he descended and threw it with all his might!  It struck the goblin straight in the head!

The chief let go the goblin, spread his wings, and grabbed Terin's sword!  He just took off before hitting the ground.  Terin and the others flew next to the chief.

"Good aim Terin!" said the Chief as they flew together.  "But you shouldn't lose this!" and he handed Terin his sword.

"Better to lose that than you Chief!" cried Terin.

The next moment something heavy struck one of the bodyguards from above!  He fell swiftly and straight to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust!  Terin saw more objects falling.  He and the bodyguards dodged the falling missiles.   They were small rocks, but they kicked up clouds of dust as they landed on the ground.  Something is wrong.  Thought Terin.  They shouldn't be that heavy.

They dodged and weaved, and then escaped the rocks and flew up.  Over the palace and the battle they saw the goblins throwing these stones at the main gate of the palace.  The rocks, after leaving the goblins hands, glowed brightly for a second and hit the gate with a powerful force!  More Magic.  Thought Terin.  The rocks get heavier when they leave the goblins fingers.  And we thought all the magic we needed was a palace out of reach of our enemies. 

For he knew that this scheme of the goblins would break down the gate quickly.

I hope Kareen is ready.  He thought.

...

The call came out from the top of the great hall.  Soldiers shouting, "The gate will be breached!  The gate will be breached!" Kareen gathered her children at the edge of their perch and hefted her bow.  The time was coming.  Mila started crying and Jenin looked up nervously.  Kareen aimed up.  She knew the great hall was in the lower part of the palace, so the goblins would come from above while they escaped out the bottom of the nest.  She was scared for her children, but she couldn't let it show.

"Courage Children," she said.  "Courage."