CHAPTER 21
THE WAR IS HERE
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THREE DAYS later and they were finally ready for war.
Chief Titawa, after arguing with a few clan chiefs and forcing a few quick preparations, was completely prepared to fight the woman who killed her father. She had a bronze breast plate with a skirt made of fine beads and strong cloth. Her wrists were covered in metal bracelets while around her neck was a thick metal choker. Her hair was braided along her scalp in rows that fell down her back like black water.
Her face bore white and black face paint that was soon to be covered with the skin of a tiger.
Donatello had decided to stay behind to finish the cure that he had begun to decipher using makeshift tools and supplies that Titawa had given him. It did take a mental toll on him knowing that he'd be on Goranna while Florence was stuck on Kuldor, yet he strictly believed that she'd come back to him, whether it was by his hand or not.
Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael were each standing at the head of Titawa's army. While the soldiers bearing different animal masks and face paints prepared their spears and machetes, Leo mentally readied himself.
He was sure that this would be one of the wars that he'd never forget. That is, if he made it out alive.
While Nadia and Florence's rescue was a priority, he hardly regarded his own safety as he formulated a plan in his head.
Then, off to the side past Mikey who was showing a soldier his nunchucks, Avi stood peering up to Raphael who was silently sharpening his sais. She watched with looming brown eyes to a face that appeared healthier than before.
Her attentive look snapped when the nineteen year old looked down and frowned.
"What's up kid," he greeted with a melancholy tone. Avi drift her gaze away from Raphael's sais to his face as she asked, "Are you going to bring back Nadia?"
"Yeah," he replied carefully. He felt sick to his stomach making another promise, but he was completely sure that this promise would be the one that he kept. "Who're you gonna stay with while I'm gone?"
Avi paused and thought for a moment before smiling. "Miss Figga is a nice old lady. I'll stay with her until you come back."
Raph smiled to himself and stopped his hands from sharpening the sais any further. He didn't want to wear the blade down too much and have it break on him in the middle of a fight. Raphael placed his shining sais to his side and let out a small sigh as he crouched in front of Avi and took her hands in his own.
Ironically, her hands were about the size of one of his fingers, making him feel like a giant.
"Kid," he mumbled, "if we don't come back-"
"No," she immediately objected. "You will come back."
Raph looked up, his gaze on Avi's eyes as they filled with tears.
"Sometimes people don't come back from fights kid."
"But you will. You'll bring back Nadia with you, a-and Florence!"
Raph pursed his lips and craned his head to the front where Leo and Titawa spoke; Titawa holding portal spheres in her hands. He turned his head back to Avi and forced a gentle smile on his lips.
"I'll see you soon kid."
Avi watched as the forest green turtle straightened his back and walked to his blue clad brother. While the two talked, Avi walked to a boulder, sat down, and rest her head against the cold rock; her eyes continuously glancing from turtle to turtle.
Maybe they could bring her sister home, but at what cost?
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KULDOR was silent.
There was no sound, no brush of wind nor any click of a bug. No birds flapped their wings and no animals chittered along.
It was all dead, barren, and silent.
The sky bore it's familiar sickly grey color while the floor did not bear any sign of new life. The scorch marks remained burned into the Earth itself, leaving the clumps and scattered black soot to spread like a blanket of black snow.
Behind a barren forest, where nothing but black oak corpses laid, the entrance to the cave buzzed with life. Soldiers, abandoning their black attire for coarse metal shields and armor, were lined up; stomping their feet in syn to create a war-like drumming.
Behind them, walking out of the entrance to the underground kingdom, was the Queen.
With black eyeliner that spiraled into sharp cat's eyes and sharpened nails dipped in black paint, she bore a charcoal dress with intricate lace patterns overlaying a silk under cloth. Her chest was covered with lace while around her neck was a topaz stone hidden among silver chains.
Her mahogany hair was placed up, yet spared a few strands on the sides of her face that fell and framed it. Four painted white lines dragged down her right eye from her eyebrow to her cheekbone and her lips were rouged with a scarlet dye.
Her hazel eyes were smokey and unforgiving as she watched her hundreds of soldiers patiently waiting for their orders. Next to the soldiers, a cart with a bed in the back held two unconscious bodies; both heavily tied up with ropes in their mouths and sloppy tourniquets to stop any excess bleeding.
Eden smirked, lifting a hand to adjust the black crown atop her head. She fixed it and ran a hand down the charcoal dress to straighten it out.
"General," she called calmly. There was a pitter patter of crunching gravel as her second in command walked out, her head held high while her lips were curled into a smirk underneath her black helmet. "Are they ready?"
Nysa smiled and nodded. "Our captives are detained and the soldiers are ready for their transition. The human girl has lost much of her blood to our exams yet we possess enough for the final wave of soldiers."
Pleased, Eden smiled and looked over her shoulder, watching as the raven haired general by her side peered at the soldiers in front of her. Eden glanced back from Nysa to the horizon where a mountain, lonely and barren with patches of white snow, rest open for the resurrection.
She turned her head to the unconscious girls in the back of the cart pulled by large beasts and frowned. "Nadia bears healed wounds?"
The scowl on Nysa's face was easily seen even through the mask on her face. She looked away to the floor and pressed her lips together. Her fist clenched tightly at her side in anger as she realized Eden's motherly worry began to overpower her Queen persona.
The sign of weakness startled and angered her.
"Her body is stable for Altair," she forced through clenched teeth. It amazed her how someone who was not at all devoted to her culture bore the title of vessel for a god that made mortals quiver in fear. But it not only amazed her, yet also enraging her. Nadia did not even know of the true motives for the Osiphs at all while Nysa had been with the Raiders for years; living as a spy on Terranova.
Eden smiled with satisfaction.
"Move your soldiers to the mountain. We must be prepared for the resurrection."
Nysa nodded once and stepped forward, immediately barking out orders for the Raiders to begin their march to the mountain. As Eden watched her fleet begin to descend to the location of her God's tomb, the woman in black smiled and rolled her head back.
Her almost gold eyes peered up to the sky with a dull glow in them.
"And like Lazarus, he will walk forth from his tomb with a smile as he regains his throne," she absentmindedly mumbled as she stepped forward. The prophecy of Altair's rise was told ever since she was a child, yet she never would have guessed that it would be her to do it.
She smiled and walked forward.
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kinda short, kinda boring, but it's a filler for the battle scene coming up!
Also, THE END IS NIGH.
Get your paper bags ready because we have a major twist in the plot. (:
Toodles!
♡