Of thorns and fire

Eerika

As the leader of this raid it was my responcibility to come up with a strategy something i was never to keen on given the option i would rather just strategise on the go. In the council chamber there was thumond and Inkeri the heads of fathers army osmund the head of the rykens and a woman named Brenna who was the head of the tarrakonians. "So Eerika as the leader how do you suggest we go about getting into the city?" Inkeri asked patrinisingly her and thumond were only here so that if i royaly screwed up they could take over, witch was not going to happen. Furiously i staired at the map "I see two ways we could do this we can scale up the walls with rope or batter down the gate."

"Im sure that no matter what we pick the messians will be able to hail us with arrows." thumond mussed loudly. I gritted my teath "We could create some sort of cover to protect us."

"Well that would be highly ineffctuale it would be heavy its better to risk the arrows unless of course your afraid to get hurt." thumond and Inkeri chuckled. I banged my hand on the table loudly silencing them. "If you have no HELPFULL suggestions i might kindly ask you to bugger off and maybe try to disslocate that stick from up your -"

"Okayy,"Osmund said, "That was a funny joke wasnt it Eerika now I believe the best thing to do is head through the gate with a cover then once the door is open we bring the rest of our forces through steal from the city and leave."

"Before we go you should put that prissy princess who gave you those marks out off her missery now one attacks a ravenbourne and gets away with it." I nodded ignoring the feeling of wrongness at the thought. "Me and a group off my warriors will operate the battering ram osmund and his providing cover the rest of the Nkarions waiting for the door to open."

"And were should my warriors be?" Brenna asked, "Protecting the camp." I repiled.

"I dissagree," Inkeri smirked , "The tarrakonians should try to climb the walls ,divide up their forces, and besides they dont have enough men to hold us off on the walls and attack our camp." This was bad if the tarrakonians climbed the walls that put tawny on the front lines "And,"Thumond continued, "Isnt your sister working with the tarrakoians someone with ravenbourne blood shouldnt be left at the camp." I felt fire in my stomach didnt they realise that tawny was a child she wasnt ready for front lines. But maybe they did know that and just wanted see what i'd do. If i said no it would be obvious why an act of weakness to protect my sisterwould be unexeptable. If i said nothing she would be in danger. I looked to osmund for help. "In that case some of the Rykens will help scale the walls to keep them defended." With the rykens there it would be slightly less dangerous and maybe i was worrying for nothing, tawnys capapble she can handle herself. "Fine the tarrakonians will scale the walls, get your warriors ready we leave at sun down."

Lorath was very differnt from my home of nkar. Everything seemed sharper here the trees a brighter green, the sky a clearer blue and even the sun seemed more powerfull casting rays of yellow and orange to dapple the landscape. I sat by the stream a little ways away from the camp looking up at the looming city it was the biggest thing ive ever seen it sent a thrill of adrenaline through me to think i would be inside it soon. Rustling through the trees tawny came and sat beside me. Her brow was furrowed and her fists were clentched tightly."whats wrong?"

"Mother always did my braid back home i dont know how to do it on my own." Her face was tear stained and puffy her usualy straight hair in matted clumps from her attempts at braiding. "I can do one for you." She smiled and turned so i could see her hair properly. Slowly i brushed it out. "So why do you normally only have one braid?" I asked it was custom to have lots of small braids. "My hairs to straight if you try to do small ones it will all fall out,"

I finaly got it all untangled and started sectioning the hair."So what you do is section it into three then you overlap the one on the right with the middle then the one on the left then you keep alternating until you get to the bottom." I was overcome with memorys of when mother taught me to do braids when i was little. Saddness and nostalga for times gone by settled in me as I quickly finished of the braid and tied it with some string. "You make it seem so easy." Tawny moaned. "It just takes practice i used to be realy bad at it but amaya helped and now look at me." I had six or seven small braids keeping my hair out of my face. Tawny smiled halfheartedly i could tell she wanted to talk about more than braids so i waited for her to be ready to tell me.

"Im scared." She whispered slowly. "Dont be scared." I said hugging her round the shoulders. " But what if something happens? We'll be all on our own." Tawny scretched looking up at me. "You wont be alone you will have your people surrounding you and the sea to guide you and regardless you can handle your self your a ravenbourne that makes you a genetic badass." tawny seemed unconvinced. "I believe in you." I said ignoring the nawing sence of wrongness. "Really?" She asked. I looked her dead in the eye and said, "Yes." She nodded squaring her shoulders and trying to look tough. "And what about you?" She asked. "Im tough ill beat up anyone who gets in my way and when we get back ill tell you another bed time story."

"You promise?" She asked with hopfull eyes, i knew how dangerous a promise like this could be but i couldnt bring myself to say anything but, "I promise tawny," She smiled finaly feeling settled. "Come on." i said tugging us to our feet. "Lets head back to the camp."

Once we were back i went to find amaya, "go in the boats with tawny protect her. Please." She nodded a pitying look on her face, "calm down itll be alright." I nodded smiling through my fear, this was weakness it needed to be destroyed. It was going to be alright.

It was time. Tawny and her force had set of in the boats and they were just waiting on the signal to attack. Os came up and stood beside me he looked down at my hands. "are they going to be like that forever?"he asked. "i dont know." i said tracing the fire pattern with my finger. Os smiled and took my hand in his stairing at the pattern. "I think their beautiful." Heat spread from were his fingers touched mine. Suddenly a loud noise filled the countryside "theirs the signal."

we closed in on the wall holding up a collecton of sheilds as hail after hail of arrows barragied us from above i was ducked down holding the batteing ram we'd made from a tree. More arrows shot down "Brace!" I shouted making the warriers stabilise themselves as the arrows bashed into them. We couldnt do this for long. We started moving forward but sereral people were shoved out of the cover by the force of movement and were uncerimoniously shot down. Finaly the battering ram was in line with the gates. "Push." The soldiers grabbed onto the side of the battering ram and pushed it into the gates. The gates didnt gudge "again!" Still the gates held firm. "Again!Again!Again!" The gate was finaly starting to break but with every swing of the battering ram three more were shot down by arrows. "Eerika." Osmund yelled. I turned and saw him at the edge of the tree line He Shook his head. "Its not worth it." He shouted eyes wide in panic, I ignored him. "Again!Again!Again!" I could practicaly hear the wood of the gate splintering."Eerika" Osmund tried again. But this time i didnt even turn. "Again!" As if in time with my voice the gates crashed open.

Euphoria rushed through me I waved my arm and the rest of the Nkarions ran out of the woods toards the now open gates. We ran into a long tunnel That seemed to open up into an anti chamber I could hear Osmund calling me but i didnt care we had done it we had broken into messia. out of nowere osmund grabbed me around the middle and sprinted out of the tunnel. "Os what are you doing?" I screamed trying to get him to put me down. I was silenced when we got far enough away That i could see the boiling hot oil suspended above the passage way. "Retreat!" I yelled finaly understanding. Some turned and looked at me their confusion evident. "Retreat!Retreat! Its a trap!" But ity was to late the oil was lowered and the front lines were consumed in fire. I continued shouting as Osmund dragged me futher and further away. I looked to the river and suddenly it felt as if all the air had been taken out of me.The river was on fire. To my dismay i could see tawny climbing the wall she was almost halfway up when an archer raised his bow and arrow at tawny. "Tawny!" I cried desprately. But it was to late. The arrow hit her directly in the sholder she cried out in pain plummeting into the murky depths.