Keeper of Life - NaPoWrMo Entry

“Enough,” Coal roared. The wall began to shake and stones rattled like jagged teeth. She bellowed, her voice ripping through the ground, cobblestones shaking as magic ruptured around her, as the air screamed. Her muscles tensed violently and as she lunged forward the house came with her. The rocks wrapping around her hooves tore from their sockets like one plucks a flower. She shifted setting a stage of brief silence before she ripped rock asunder and threw it toward Valor with a thousand pounds of fury. The rock flew obliterating the magic that was hurled at it.

Fang slipped out of the way easily as half boulders slammed into the ground tearing up detailed cobblestone. The rocks flew and skipped off the ground. They broke Valor's first shield like patchwork glass. With a scream the rocks scattered in every direction, an explosion without fire. Yet as the rocks were sent airborne Coal dove from above, taking advantage of the chaos. Valor rocked back, deflected the first bolt, caught Coal, and sent her into the ground behind them. A metallic melody skidded against the ground, Coals ears picked it up instantly, 'The spear!'

Once Valor returned to her feet she dug into the ground with her head and twisted up, clearly in pain. Coal scrambled toward the tube but had to dive back as the ground disintegrated in a line from Valor to her. It was only another second until Coal was blocking rabid attacks. Her feet slid against the ground uprooting cobblestone that had been shaken loose. She was losing. No traction could be found, every step she took forward sent her two back, sparks skipped off her deteriorating shield. Finally it broke and against the sound of ripping flesh she could hear the tearing of her own scales. When she impacted the grove wall silence fell over her. Spikes dug into her body and pain lit through her chest. A blurry image of Valor rapidly approached her. 'Never,' Coal thought. As she took herself from the wall a strength built in her legs. Not strength from magic but from herself. With a twist she avoided streams of lightening, and she watched Valor bring up her shield. 'Not this time.' Instead Coal ran in and landed a hoof in the face of an unsuspecting Valor. It sent her rocking back and she was met with equal resistance.

Their brawling finally distanced Valor, her back to the crumbling building. Her horn glowed but Coal gave her no time as she attacked again landing another blow. Every time Valor pushed and tried to cast Coal filled the void instantly. They grappled hoof to hoof, sweat and blood making patters on the ground.

“Brute,” Valor insulted. Coal wanted to retort but her lungs wouldn't let her. Valor pushed back and Coal let her. As she prepared to land another blow something crushed every rib in her left side. She buckled to the ground.

“Fang,” she called out. He laid, a damaged lump of flesh on the ground, his dull eyes looking at her, his legs still trying to find a way to rise up. Two guardians stood beside Valor, the other two dead. They were all breathing heavy with blood soaked jaws, one was missing an eye.

Coal struggled to find purchase on a ground that now seemed to unstable. She glared at Valor who was apparently trying to adjust her jaw.

“You hit me pretty hard,” she said. “Who fights with their hooves?” she asked.

Coal wasn't done yet. Her eyes licked over the ground and finally found what she was looking for. With quivering legs she half stood before buckling down on a knee.

A grin crawled across Valor's face. “Weren't you going to tower above me?” She laughed as her horn started to glow. “Oh please, spare my life!” Valor mocked.

“No,” Coal returned. With a twist that caused one of Coal's ears to pop the building came crashing down burying an unsuspecting Valor and her two guardians. A moment of silence as Coal waited, nothing.

With trembling legs she stood upright, and retrieved the tube. The grove seemed to grow before her, the entrance a wide split in the stonework. There was no time for deviation but she went to Fang instead. He was hardly alive.

“Is that you Lady?” he asked, his face no more then burnt flesh, his eyelids sealed shut. Blood ran from his ears, he could no longer hear.

“Yes Fang,” she said anyway and rubbed his head. “It's okay.” She wanted to comfort him, ease him. The last of her brood lay before her dying. He was the only one that survived the sands, who was born without mutations and deformations. He lived while the others died. She was an unsuccessful broodmother, and soon after was declared infertile; Fang was the only one. 'What am I supposed to do?' she asked now suddenly unsure. The other broodmothers had raised their own broods, but Coal was considered too young, too inexperienced, too reckless to take on such a task. As they both aged and Fang was handed over to her she raised him the only way she knew how, as a sandwalker. There was no time for bonding, for love or compassion. In the sand one flinched and died.

“I'm sorry I was never a mother to you Fang,” she said, tears now trailing from her eyes. “I'm sorry I brought you here to die.”

“I've always loved you Lady,” he said. “Go.” His voice wasn't even a whisper, she read his lips. With her eyes closed, she couldn't bear to watch, she struck out and returned him to the land. There was nothing left in her to let him suffer.

“I'm going to finish this,” she told him and walked into the grove.