Steel Burner

History in the making

A/N: the part at the beginning before the story continues is the caravans point of view before they make it to the gremlin village.

The rocks on the pathway started to rumble as wooden wheels crossed the dirt trail. A town was coming into the distance; the wooden wheels were part of a fairly large sized group of caravans, one of which had a very menacing looking gryphon smirking as he watched the town come closer into his view. “Just a few more hours” He muttered to himself.

**********

The caravan’s made their way into the gremlin village, there was a group of six of them in total making their way to the center of town like always. They each stopped simultaneously in a circular like setup. The traders from inside the caravans started to set out what they had for sale, one trader in specific, a gryphon, had a very entrancing orb of some kind that no one could help but stare.

The orb had a certain ‘glow’ to it as he set it out on a small pedestal. The guards of the town set up along their posts kept watch of the caravan groups each time they came through town, just for security reasons. One thing they noticed was that the gryphon was new, and he seemed to be a bit more protective of his items then the more casual others.

The younger guard was ordered to keep watch over the gryphon incase he tried anything. Agreeing, he scurried off to one of the posts that had a clear vantage point.

The townsfolk were starting to enter into the center of town, flocking from stall to stall where something caught their eyes. The guards started to ease up as time passed on and the security detail started to slacken and become a bit more casual.

Time seemed to go on and the younger guard refused to leave his post, he was a bit more paranoid compared to the rest of the guards and he seems to be right in the worst situation. (Though he even started to get tired of it.) Just before he left his post to eat, he took another glance at the gryphon.

He managed to sight the gryphons tail pull money off of a passerby who had no idea it happened. The younger one decided to go over to the gryphon and stop him from what he was doing.

“Halt! No one steals from citizens!” The young guard announced as he walked towards the gryphon.

He looked to his left, then his right before speaking up, “Who? Me?” He sneered, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The gryphon carefully moved his tail into his caravan’s open door.

“I said halt! Claws and tails where I can see them!” The young guard pointed his flimsy weapon towards the gryphon who stopped his motions.

Giving a triumphant smile he said: “Yes, of course, anything you say, officer.” Suddenly, the sound of a latch coming undone was heard. A loud alarm started going off and many of the civilians had to cover their ears to avoid the full force of the sound. The young guard attempted to jab the gryphon straight through the eye, but only nicked his eye as he ducked and dove under his table.

Suddenly, each and every caravan had troops of different species come out, they had immediately started to decapitate and outright slaughter the townsfolks. Many of the guards got cut down as they were either too close and got hit when the initial attack started, or were killed trying to push it back. The young guard looked frantically about when the table the gryphon dove under exploded into millions of wooden shards in all directions.

The gryphon suddenly made a lung for the young guard who reacted a second too late, he got a nasty gash on his right arm at the joint before getting out of the way. The townsfolks were running, trying to get away from the slaughter. In a panic, none of the guards had noticed the young guard’s fight with the gryphon, all except for one guard; An older looking gremlin, grey skinned instead of sickly green; he dashed for the two fighters yelling: “Grell! Get outta there now!”

The older gremlin guard threw his spear at the gryphon, which stopped right before him, leaving the gryphon unharmed. Turning to face the older guard, Blackwing turned and grinned at the sight of the sickly looking guard.

The older guard pulled out a rusty looking sword as he yelled again: “Grell! Go now! This is your superior talking, Grell! Get outta here!” The old guard slashed at Blackwing who dodged to the right, hitting the guard with his left claw. Grell couldn’t stop watching, entranced, all he could do was sit there and watch as his superior and father trying to fight blackwing. He looked around him and saw the rest of the battlefield in his entranced state as well.

Grell saw gremlin villagers being ripped and torn to shreds, tossed to the side or made lunch for whatever had killed them. The guards had taken the majority of the townsfolks into the town hall and he guessed into the secret escape shaft as well. He turned back to Blackwing and his father’s battle in time to see a dagger fly at him and nearly hit him as the old guard yelled again “I said: Get your ass in gear and get the hell outta here, Grell!”

This knocked the young guard out of his stupor; he bolted straight for the town hall, ducking and jumping over other foes as he made for his only hope to escape.

Grell whirled under an attacker holding his weapon straight up, slicing the warrior between the legs. The attacker fell to the ground clutching himself there as a pool of blood A sack made of skin started to float around in the bloody pool.

With a mighty leap over a small group of dead bodies, Grell made it to the town hall. Once inside, he saw the guards that were inside were helping the civilian’s down the shaft. He walked up, and with a salute, asked one of the guards, “So what do we do once everyones down there?”

One of the guards wasted no time in responding. “Some of us have agreed to stay behind to blow up the entrance to the shaft, once done, there will be no way for them to catch up to you and you can make your way to the pony kingdoms.”

“But the gremlins aren’t on good terms with the ponies, how can we be sure we are allowed refuge?” Grell asked as he watched a few civilians stumble before getting down the shaft.

“The ruler of the pony kingdoms has a kind heart, she will not send away any race that has no home left.” The guard responded.

Before Grell could speak again, they heard the sound of a large crack as a few guards screamed in pain outside. A deafening wale was heard as more cries of death became audible.

The guard spoke again: “Hurry, Grell. Go down the shaft; you’re the last one.”

“But what about my father? Why isn’t he coming?”

“He’s one of the few that volunteered to stay. He won’t be joining you and the others.”

“What!? But I can’t just leave him here! I refuse to let him stay and die!” Grell started to raise his voice as a feeling of dread welled up inside him. He attempted to go back out into the battlefield when another of the guards stopped him.

“Stop! You go back out there now and you’re dead! It’s too late for those that are out there and soon us inside here will be meeting their fates.” The guard pushed Grell back towards the other two guards who were guarding the shaft. They grabbed Grell by his arms as they turned to go into the shaft.

Grell kicked and screamed vehemently as the guards started to make their way down into the shaft. A loud cracking sound was heard as the entire wall to the entrance of the town hall collapsed. On the other side, there appeared to be a mutated giant colored blue. The giant was holding something in his left hand, it squirmed a bit before another cracking sound was heard, then it moved no more.

Grell screamed and went into a panic. “Father! Father, no! Stop let me go!” He continued to try to break free from the guards’ grasps as the shafts entrance closed. “We have to go back! We have to save them!”

A loud boom was heard and Grell saw the entrance collapse, leaving nothing but dust and rocks.

“We have to....” He muttered one last time before falling silent.