Born to Fly

Prologue

He put a foot after another, silencing his thought. He needed to give his message first, then he could cry, and scream for his lost friends.

When they finally entered the camp, all he could see was chaos and blood.

Blood on the ground, blood on the tends, blood on the tears of the soldier stretchers, on the arms laying forgotten on the side of the road, on the hands of the healers elves that were running in their direction. They immediately started fussing on their injuries, shouting and asking questions James couldn't even understand.

He felt like his brain was slowed down by his fatigue. He managed to mutter some sort of 'okay' and he left Marcus in their care. They would help him to their best of capabilities, he was sure.

He limped to his last mission, to the Queen's tent, passing daemons and humans and all the other creatures, some busy tending others wounds, some being subjected to the healing.

Why? He asked to himself, why did they had to be the ones to lose the more and not the enemy? Why did his brothers and sisters had to be the one to be killed, or left broken, in this meaningless war?

And finally it was the rage the emotion that managed to enter his heart, rage that made his hands tremble with the need to do something, to hit someone.

He walked faster, with more determination than before, ignoring the awful smell of blood and rotting meat entering his nose, as if it wanted to stain his soul more that it already was.

He arrived at the entrance of the blue royal tent where two looking very looking tired daemon were on the guard. They recognized him immediately and let him pass inside without muttering a world.

A beautiful scent of roses invaded his nostrils the moment he stepped inside and instantly all his rage dimmed while calmness enter inside his chest, slowing down his erratic breath and heart.

The queen was there, sat on her simple wooden throne, with her loyal red phoenix perched on a support next to it.

Even in her tired and broken state, James couldn't help but think she still looked absolutely beautiful. Her long and usually tamed white hair were now left free, with some occasional black lock and a few little sprigs trapped. Her armour was gone, forgotten on a distant chair, and in its place heavy bandages and a simple long black dress.

The Queen almost white ancient eyes screamed fatigue and pain, but were still wide and alert, looking around at every sound for a possible threat.

She was petite, small even for an elf, but her graceful and noble shape concealed a fierce and ruthless warrior. Many of those horrible creatures had perished by her hands today.

"Your Majesty" James said, bowing in reference as much as his weary body permitted.

"You can rise my friend" she responded in a melodic light voice, indicating a chair on the table in front her.

"My Queen" he said as he sat down "I bring news from the front. The enemies have retired inside the mountain and the rest of the army has been completely defeated".

"That's good Commander, did the ritual go well?" she asked as she glanced at the map on the table where small statues laid, indicating the position of the troops and enemies.

"The ritual went as planned" James replied "Unfortunately we have sustained a lot of losses as there was an ambush led by the enemy Commander, Lord Yami" he paused, looking at her beautiful face as a flash of the brutal attack passed in his eyes "Your Majesty, almost all our soldiers for the mission had perished".

The queen sighed and leaned her head on her seat, looking so defeated that his heart skipped a beat with sorrow for the news he still had to give.

"How many?" she simply asked, eyes lost in the void.

"We went in seventy-four, fifteen elves with their gryphons and twenty humans with their dragons and two sorcerers with their companions. We come back in fifteen, four humans with only two dragons and three elves with their gryphons. The sorcerers both died in the ambush, but they were able to perform the ritual" he replied.

James let out a long sigh and looked down, almost in shame for what had happened, for what he wasn't able to stop.

"Your Grace, I have more terrible news" he said heavily.

"Go on" she said with dread in her voice.

"Lord Yami and his wyvern managed to escape with some Abbadòn, at last two hundred of them, and maybe some Phantom, but we are not sure of the numbers" he paused for a second "Connor and his dragon Yoori were with them. They were the one who informed him of the attack, they betrayed us" he finished, looking away in remorse.

They all should have seen it happen, the signs had been in front of their eyes all the time.

The Queen closed her eyes for a second, digesting the terrible news and what it meant. She sighed again and looked down at the map where the giant mountain was represented.

"How much time do we have until the seal breaks?" she asked, eyes never leaving the painting.

"Maybe 4 or 5 hundred of years." James replied "My queen, we may have won the battle, but not the war. I don't know if we can contrast a second wave"

"I know James" she said, leaving all courtesies for she was with a friend she had fought with, side by side. They had been through much together.

The Queen gracefully got up from the throne, followed immediately by the tired soldier, and grabbed her coat.

"I am sure that when the time will come, we will still have brave soldiers like you to fight for us" she added as she walked to the exit of the tent and looking at him with her ancient and full of knowledge eyes "We have to hope and pray for that, I know we will win"

Her phoenix flew onto her shoulder making a beautiful high musical sound as she opened the curtain to look at the devastation and chaos outside, while the two guards moved and bowed in deference.

She looked back at the Commander one last time, before going to her people.

"You should go and see a healer, you are bleeding from your leg" were her last parting words.

With that she went towards the camp, probably to talk and give courage to the wounded, to do what a good ruler do.

As soon as her presence vanished, the aftermath of the battle finally arrived in full force and his body bended down to the fatigue, forcing him to sit again.

He looked down to his bleeding leg where blood was, as a matter of fact, dripping on the beautiful carpet of the royal tent, ruining it. He also felt like he had a sprained rib and probably hundreds of cuts everywhere.

He just hoped his Queen was right as always.

James really wanted to believe with all his heart that they would win this war.

Or the world they all knew would be burned down to the ground.