Keeper of Life - NaPoWrMo Entry

Coal switched her gaze from soldier to soldier. Each equipped with magic that could bring her down. She was stronger then them, smarter then them, more agile then them but she was in no position to use any of it. There was no single move she could make that would get her out, and she could not play the pride of Valor to her advantage as she had the commander. She wouldn't die like this, not here, not while she was so close. No, too many had sacrificed themselves for her to get here. Memories of her underlings flooded her mind. If only...

“How can you defend something so evil?” Coal asked, her muscles bound by their stances, but her words were not. “How can you stand here between us knowing what you're doing?”

A laughter filled the air, it was sweet but carried the undertones of vanity.

“Must you always lie demon? Are you incapable of truth?” Valor asked back. A smile crept along her face, she knew she had won. It was this smile that brought Coal a glimmer of hope, it was a hint of arrogance, of being underestimated. Yet the creature before her was far from a fool, there were steps to be made, for Coal would walk on her namesake.

“We both know what that thing is doing, we both know why I'm here. You call us evil and yet you allow us to die. How convenient, it keeps the blood from your hooves,” Coal said stepping to the side, gauging the soldiers reaction.

“Your kind made your decision,” Valor said.

“We tried to free you, free us!” Coal retorted. “Free the land!”

“The land? Oh how noble. And free us? From what?! Look around you demon, what have we accomplished. I shall tell you what we are free from. We are free from hunger, from disease and illness, we're free from poverty and division of wealth, we're free from political strife, from war. We've cured all these things. Look around you, this is prosperity, this is success, this is freedom. The land is ours, it always has been, and it is ours to take from as we see fit.”

“You're wrong, and until that tree dies we will be at your boarder.”

“It doesn't matter now, after this night is over the barrier will be indestructible, impassable, but you knew that already didn't you, isn't that why you were sent?” She scoffed. “You and your kind will die in the sands, as it should have been. Queen Emerald should have killed you all when she had the chance, you should be thankful she was so merciful.”

“That's mercy?” Coal asked. “Mercy is collapsing our tunnels while our young slept inside, mercy is slaughtering our broodmothers as they tried to flee, mercy is burning our spires and wiping our existence from the land. Mercy is taking all that we helped to create, to build, the gardens we grew, all of it. That's mercy?”

“Yes, and you should be thankful. Your queen lived didn't she, cowering away while the others died? Some queen,” she baited. Coal twitched knowing what it was and held her ground. “She's dead now I'm sure, I know what it must be like out there.”

“You know nothing,” Coal returned.

“I know that soon you're all going to die. I know we'll have a land free of scourge. This land was ours by birthright, and it shall be ours now,” Valor said.

This time it was Coals turn to laugh. “You really are stupid aren't you? What land are you claiming? The sand, the rocky mountains we live under, the small plots of grass in the highlands the griffons hold to? The dead oceans and the dried rivers? There are husks of real trees spread in the far reaches, petrified, a stone graveyard. All markers for what your tree has done. Is that the land you're inheriting?” Coal shook her head. “It's unbecoming of you to make such stupid remarks, we both know the truth.”

Valor said nothing at first and only met Coal's steel gaze. “This land will be pure, and clean, and it will be ours,” she said.

“If only Her Majesty were quicker, if only she saw the blight she helped to create sooner,” Coal said to no one but herself.

“But she wasn't and was intercepted just like you have been. Isn't it ironic? It's almost like playing out that event so many years ago. Only this time it will end with your total eradication.”

The soldiers around her shifted position, the four making ready, they divided up already among them, the plan a passed message between their quick glances. Who would block, who would strike, how, when and why. She was outnumbered but damned if she would go down without a fight. There was no time left and here she would meet finality.

“I haven't come here to lose,” Coal said under her breath. In the corner of her good eye she saw Valor's lips move, saw her giving the order and she turned back to the guards ready for anything. That's when she saw it, that's when she saw five. Pride over anything else burst inside her like the fireworks still raining above. How clever he was, how smart, how dedicated. In that moment, despite the overwhelming odds she found hope. They had underestimated her, underestimated them, and it would be their undoing.

As the soldiers turned to execute their orders, as they made to rid the blight from the land, the blight bit back. The soldier on the far left shifted, dove and cut a guardian down. The rest flinched, twisted, and broke like toppling domino's. In a moment of green magic that split the night Coal sent them skidding along the cobblestone, their armor scraping and ringing with jagged melody.

Fang turned and struck out again, weaving in and out of the magic that now flew toward them both. Coal lowered herself and lit the air above them. A hail of blue shrapnel rained down, blocked by Valor who had dove in and shielded her soldiers. The air burst in front of Coal and she narrowly avoided it. The concussion rocked her and Valor used it. As she slipped on the now liquid cobblestone she saw Fang twist as barbs dove into his body.

Coal landed, rolled and froze the shifting cobblestone. In another instant she was running forward shielding Fang and returning the bolts that continued to fly. Valor flanked and sent Coal toppling through the air. The moment her head hit the stone of a building wall something pierced her wing. She blocked the rest of the projectiles then planted her back legs.