Curse

Bark · Dec 18, 2006, 05:35 PM // 17:35

This is my first try on a fanfic so if you read it, dont expect any wonders.

An Old School Tale

Bark Wizard woke up in early in the morning by the sound of someone approaching. With sleepy eyes she saw trough the tent fabric that it was no human approaching, what she saw was the figure of a dwarf. In an instant she was on her feet with her staff in her hands ready for battle. If it were one of the stone summit dwarfs he would be sorry he came.

When the blanket covering the opening in the tent begun to be drawn aside Bark Wizard already had small flames in her hand, ready to burst out at the unwelcome guest. In the corner of her eye she saw that Julia Joe was awake and fully aware of the possible threat, her young face was twisted with panic held back only by the knowledge that she could be sent back home if she let the panic control her.

Upon seeing the fear in Julia’s eyes Bark Wizard were once again struck by the insight that Julia still was so young and asked herself why she even was there with the companions. She thought to herself that she would have a serious conversation about this matter with Julia’s father, Bark Joe if she got the opportunity.

The sound of a step outside the tent brought her back to reality. Surprised that she had been so deeply in her own thoughts at a moment where both hers and others lives were in danger the saw that the blanket were fully removed now.

“Julia, look away” she whispered to the girl. Then she lifted her hands with the palm of her free hand pointed towards the tent entrance and her staff ready in her right hand, a small ball of fire ready at her left hand. The moment before she unleashed the fire she realized that they were not out in the wilderness anymore, they had reached the dwarf encampment on the early night the day before. She now got a vision in her mind of the burned corpse of a Deldrimor dwarf and held back the fire.

“What do you want?” She demanded to know as the dwarf entered the tent and Bark Wizard had seen that it was one of the Deldrimor dwarves. The dwarf, looking between Bark Wizard, the fire in her hands and the face of Julia, still marked by panic, seemed to understand how close he had been from a certain death, could only stutter forth the four words “King Jalis sent me” before he fainted and fell apart right where he had been standing.

Bark Wizard, understanding that the good king wanted to meet her, and assuming that her team would like to be there too took Julia with her and walked from tent to tent waking up her companions.

Within short she had all of her team standing ready on the small hill between their tents and the main part of the dwarven encampment. As usual they were standing in smaller groups of old friends and companions. Julia, who were training with Pippio to be a mesmer, had went to her dad, the ranger Bark Joe as soon as she saw him and was now standing as close to him and her grandfather Bubba Joe as she could.

While the groups monk, Lord Loken, were standing with one hand at King Putté’s head trying to mend his friends headache from the day before, when Putté had got his hands on dwarven ale for the first time in his life. No one knew if the titles they both had were self-appointed or not, they had been using them since they first met.

Their friend Nibber, the other ranger of the group, were also standing close to the two with the woman named Evynnia, no one really knew anyone about Evynnia’s past, spare perhaps Nibber himself, as it was he that found the woman on one of his scouting missions and persuaded her to join them. No one ever really understood why, as she did not look as she would be of much help when Nibber came back to the camp with her. But in time and under training with both Bubba Joe and Cold Warrior she has showed great skills as warrior.

Not far from Bark Wizard, Pippio Brawolski, the more experienced mesmer of the group, were standing beside his self-proclaimed bodyguard, Borotroth. Bark Wizard thought that almost everyone in the group owed Pippio gold after borrowing or gambling, and he was without doubt the richest person in the group. He was also Bark Wizard’s second in command in the group and the one she most often asked for advice when she needed to. And no one knew where Borotroth came from or why he guarded Pippio’s life above his own, but it was nothing Bark Wizard were sad of, since Pippio had an amazing ability to get into trouble.

As she looked down the hill, Bark Wizard could see Kebab Hassan coming walking from his tent. Hassan had arrived with the same ship as Borotroth and by the looks of them they came from regions close to each other. At first Hassan had been refusing to take any orders from Bark Wizard and he did not do so until after Bark Wizard had proven her skills as leader. Not even now he followed all orders without questioning them but it was getting better.

In the middle of the group were the giants of the group, Bubba Joe and Cold Warrior, both warriors. Bark Wizard was close to only being half of their length, which made her feel a bit uncomfortable with the two at first.

Bark Wizard looked around for the last member of the team and saw that he was standing alone outside the group, where James “Wood” Brawolski had chose to wait for orders. James was the one in the group that worried Bark Wizard most, because of his total lack of loyalty. At most times Bark Wizard was sure that James was just following them across the world to get the opportunity to kill as many different foes as possible with his two daggers.

“Ok, listen up everyone, king Jalis have sent for us and considering that the stone summits have captured the capitol my guess would be that he want our aid in taking it back.” Bark Wizard said with a raised voice to make herself heard.

“Why should we?” Pippio asked with a nervous voice.

“I have heard all everything about your adventures this far and in your case, Pippio Brawolski, I would say that you would do it for the riches I offer you in return.” An unknown voice said as Bark Wizard opened her mouth to answer Pippio’s question. As everyone looked surprised to see that it was Jalis, the king of the deldrimor dwarves, Bark Wizard suspected that none of them had noticed the king and his bodyguard approaching more then she had.
“Good, then they were listening.” Bark Wizard thought to herself.

“And you, Borotroth, would help me because Pippio would. And you, James.. you would do it only for the pleasure to kill.” Jalis continued looking at the both of them in order.

As the king turned his head to look at Hassan, Hassan opened his mouth to say something. “You can relax now Hassan, as I will not mention any secrets, not yours nor anyone else’s. ” The king interrupted him.

“And as for the rest of you.. you would follow Bark Wizard into hell and back again” The king finished, looking everyone in their eyes one at a time.

“It would be my honour to aid you, king.” Bark Wizard said as she kneeled in front of him.
“And I do not require any of you to follow me in there, even though I could not wish a better company then you.” She said to her group.

“You do not know what you are volunteering to!” Bark Joe exclaimed suddenly. As everyone tuned their heads to look at him he calmed down and continued.
“Yesterday evening I went back to look for my bag of gold that I couldn’t find anywhere. When I got to the mountaintop we climbed yesterday I saw an army of stone summits moving towards the capitol.”

“They are not moving towards the capitol anymore, our scouts reported this morning that they are moving towards us.” The king interrupted him.
“And from the other way an army of white mantles have been sighted moving towards us. There is still an escape route to the south if those who will escape leave now, but I wont abandon the city even if I have to recapture it alone with the few dwarves who still live.” Jalis continued.

“You wont. I will come” Bark Wizard said without hesitation.

“Julia, you are leaving this place. Now” Bark Joe said to his daughter.
“Do you have any horse that she could use?” He asked, turned to Jalis.

“Of course, I will make sure she gets the best horse available. It is my own horse but he should be the right size for her.” The king promised.
“And your brother and his friends will be given the horses of my bodyguards.” Jalis said to Nibber, who had opened his mouth. Apparently that was what Nibber was about to ask, for he closed his mouth and nodded thankfully.”

“Ok, everyone that is coming with me should be back here within one hour.” Bark Wizard shouted.

On these words the group hurried away to get everything ready. When the caravan that were leaving started moving Nibber came running to Bark Wizard, Bubba Joe and Cold Warrior, that were already finished.

“I can’t find Snotling, Punkbuster and Zach.” He cried.

“Don’t worry.” Bark Wizard simply said. Then she used her powers to set a bush nearby on flames. Seconds later the three friends came rushing out of the burning bush.

Nibber immediately rushed to make them follow him to the horses.

“But we can help..” Bark Wizard heard Snotling say just before they got out of her hearing range. She felt that that was just the beginning to a long conversation.

After that Bubba Joe and Cold Warrior went back to pouring out Putté’s ale so that they could be sure that he would stay sober during the battle.

When the time had come for everyone who wanted to follow to join up with Bark Wizard came everyone were there except for Bark Joe and Nibber. Bark Wizard knew that they were going to follow the team and sent Bubba, Cold and Hassan to look for them while she took the rest and went to get some food before they had to leave.

Within short Hassan came running back shouting for Loken. In his hand he held one of his spears, and the edge were bloody. The entire group got on their feet’s and rushed away in the direction Hassan came from.

After running a few minutes they ran around the corner of a tent and were struck by the sight of both Nibber and Bark Joe lying in a pool of blood. Nibber had his bow in his hand and an arrow in the chest and Bark Joe had his short sword in his hand and was covered with wounds from swords and axes.

Around the two where ten stone summit corpses, some killed with arrows, one with Bark’s throwing knife in him, one with one of Hassan’s spears in his throat, several with cutting wounds from Cold’s axe and three with their armours crushed on several places by Bubba’s hammer.

At first everyone was stunned by the sight and stood quietly looking in chock.
“They are alive!” Loken exclaimed. “I can feel it.”

“I kept them alive as good as I could but I am running low on power.” Bubba whispered.

In an instant everyone moved away to let Loken do his job, and as soon as it was certain that they would survive Bark Wizard turned to Cold.

“What happened here?” She asked.

“We heard the sound of battle as we came close to this location and when we rushed around the corner we found them laying like this.. after that I can not remember anything except blood and death until Bubba stopped me, send Hassan after you and begun to take care of them.” He replied.

Bark Wizard understood that the sight of his wounded friends had sent him into a rage and that he had let his killer instincts take over during the battle, like so many times before.
She decided to ask Bubba about the event later, even though she expected the same answer as she had got from Cold, the rage of battle surely had taken control of him too.

When Loken was finished with the two rangers they were feeling as good as they had before the ambush. As the group waited for Nibber and Bark Joe to get cleaned up and put on new clothes at the campfire, a dwarven scout came running to them.

“The stone summit army is getting close. You will have to leave soon if you are to be able to recapture the keep before they get to you.” He said, out of breath. The two rangers would have to eat their meal while walking.

Bark Wizard thanked him for the warning and was just about to go looking for Nibber and Bark Joe with Putté and Loken when they came walking up the hill. The mood on the group were much lower then she would have hoped for after the ambush and due to Putté’s
never-ending moaning and complaining about his ale.

As they came to the kings temporarily abode Bark Wizard left the group to go get him. Inside it was too dark for her to see after being out in the light, the dwarves were more comfortable in dark then light, so she created a small flame in her hand to light up for her. The dwarf scout that had told them about the stone summits advance showed her to the armoury, where were chocked and terrified of seeing the king making ready for battle all alone. His head and right arm were covered with bloody bandages.

The king saw Bark Wizards wondering gaze and simply said with a sad voice, “We had an ambush by the stone summits.”

Bark Wizard understood that none remained of the kings bodyguard and cursed herself for not thinking of adding extra power to his bodyguard by sending a few of her companions with them. Still, she kneeled in front of the king and said.
“We are ready to leave when you are king. And if you do not disagree I could have Loken have a look at your wounds. You would be surprised to know what he could do with them.”

The king followed her outside where she found her team busy with making their weapons ready. The mood had improved a lot, and even Putté had stopped complaining. Loken looked at Bark Wizard with a questioning look on his face, and when Bark Wizard nodded as answer he hurried to the king to mend him.

As soon as Loken were finished the thirteen begun to walk towards the capitol. Bark Wizard thought that it would already be night when they arrived.

When the sun was setting they could see the city in the distance. As they finally reached the city they found it almost abandoned. Nibber, James and Bark Joe went in trough the open gates to scout the city, with strictly orders to do everything to avoid combat, to make sure the team were not walking into an ambush. An hour later the three came back, James with blood on his daggers, and reported that except for a few guards and only forty stone summits at the keep they could not find anyone.

Relieved but still suspicious Bark Wizard led the team into the city with Nibber at her side, pointing out where the guards were. Nibber and Bark Joe could easy kill the guards one after the other with their bows, and it went perfectly fine until the city were secure and they were about to get moving on the trail to the keep when they heard a horse moving towards them from the gate.

When the horse came towards them around a corner they saw that it were the king’s horse.

“Julia, I told you to sta..” Bark Joe begun to say, ending with a desperate scream when he saw that his daughter had almost fell of her horse, and that she had three arrows in her back. From her mouth she still had a thin stripe of blood flowing from her mouth.

In that moment Bark Wizard felt her heart stop. She remembered her meeting with Julia’s grandmother Ophanyx Brawolski almost three years ago where Bark Wizard swore to protect Julia with any means she was able to. Since that she had kept Julia as close to her as she could at any times possible. Now she had failed.

She was drawn back to reality by the insight that every stone summit in the area would be drawn to them if Bark Joe did not stop screaming. Before Bark Wizard could react, only seconds after Bark Joe started screaming, Loken were next to him with one hand on his mouth to choke Bark Joe’s scream and the other at his neck, using his soothing magic to calm him down.

“Relax. She is alive. She is alive.” He said with a comforting voice. At the sound of that Bark Joe stopped screaming and fell down to the ground in relief. Bubba lifted his head that he had bowed to look at Loken with an unbelieving look on his face, Bark Wizard could see a few lonely tears in his face.

“Please help her.” Bark Wizard said to Loken with a imploring tone on her voice that made several members of the group look at her with a surprised look in their faces.

While Loken and Putté hurried to make a place for Julia to lie with their capes Cold carefully lifted Julia of the horse and placed her on the blankets. As Loken started to remove the first arrow from Julia’s back Bark Wizard took Cold, Pippio and Borotroth with her and walked towards the trail to the keep to stop any stone summits that came to interrupt Loken in his work. She could not allow anyone or anything to stop him from saving Julia.

Half an hour had gone by without they seeing any dwarves when Bark Wizard heard something next to her and nervously turned her head to look what it was.

“He is finished with her.” James said with the scornful voice he always had when talking about Loken, as he walked out of the shadows. Bark Wizard was, as always, surprised she had not been able to notice him sneaking up to her, but then again.. she never could.

She ordered James to stay at their position and come warning them if he saw as much as one single stone summit dwarf, as she believed that he would be hardest for the enemies to spot and she knew that he could get to the group even if they did notice him. After giving him that order she hurried back to the rest of the group with Pippio and the others to see how Julia were feeling.

When she came close to them she was relieved to see that Julia were not only alive, but even walking to meet her. When they reached each other they hugged friendly like so many times before, but still Bark Wizard felt that something were different.
“Glad to see you survived.” Bark Wizard said to her as they walked towards everyone else.
“Glad to see you are still alive.” Julia responded, avoiding looking into Bark Wizard’s eyes.

As they reached the group Nibber stood up, looking pleadingly on Julia.
“What happened?” He asked to know with a voice as pleadingly as his eyes. Only then did Bark Wizard realize that Nibber’s brother and his two friends had been with Julia in the caravan.
Bark Wizard barely had time to notice the tears that formed in Julia’s eyes before Julia swept with her hand in the air, pointing at them all one after one.

In an instant the world disappeared before Bark Wizard’s eyes, being replaced with what Bark Wizard could only explain as Julia’s memories. In the first minute everything were all right, and she saw how Julia looked behind her to see that Snotling and his friends were still riding behind her. Bark Wizard heard a scream and saw how Julia turned her head forward only to see dwarves and humans falling in masses in a rain of arrows. Julia turned her head to the side and saw a group of stone summits running out of the forest towards her. Snotling came running into her line of sight towards the stone summits, with his tiger Mr Whiskers following closely behind him, and then Bark Wizard could feel the pain of three arrows in her back as if it were her own pain. Seconds later everything turned black in a few moments, and then the black were exchanged to Bark Joe’s face. Bark Wizard understood that that moment must have been when Julia woke up and opened her eyes.

After that the memories of Julia faded away, being replaced with the world again. Bark Wizard took a look around her on her companions and saw that almost all of them where looking as confused as she felt that she probably did herself, except for Nibber, who had a fiery look in his eyes. Not until then she came to think of the extreme effort that Julia made to show all of them her memories. Bark Wizard only knew two mesmers that could show their memories for anyone and they were almost completely drained of power from showing them to more then one person. And Julia had been close to death not long ago.

As she looked at Julia she came to think that it did not seem as Julia lost any energy at all, where many legendary mesmers would have lost their lives in exhaustion. Bark Wizard catched Pippio’s eyes and mimed. “How can she do that? You never told me that you even teached her that.”
“I don’t know, I did not teach her.” She heard Pippio’s confused voice say in her head.

Bark Wizard decided that this were not the moment to think about that and stood up.
“We should move on.” The king said, the first time he talked since they left the camp, as Bark Wizard opened her mouth to tell the team to get moving. Now, Bark Wizard just nodded in reply and begun to walk.

When they reached the place where they left James he were nowhere to be found. Bark Wizard ordered the group to spread out and look for him in groups of three persons in each, while she went alone and Julia went with her dad. When she had been looking for a while and started to fear the worst, she suddenly felt someone poking her shoulder with one finger. As she spinned around to look who it were she saw James standing there with a grin on his face.
“Will I ever get used to that?” She thought angrily to herself, even though she already knew that the answer was no.

After James appearance Bark Wizard collected everyone to have a brief check on the situation, and then move on. When the sun started to rise on the sky they where on a trail that led directly to the keep, which they could already see clear. Half an hour of walking went by without and troubles until they walked by a large rock, behind it a stone summit guard were standing and as soon as he saw the company walking by he screamed a warning. Before he even got half way on the warning though, Julia made a gesture at him and muted him, at the very same time as Pippio confused him to look at them as friends, before Cold ran to him and broke his neck with a twisting movement.

Bark Wizard doubted that the quick intervention from the mesmers would stop the dwarves from discovering the company, since the guard still came halfway in the warning, so she ordered Bubba, Evynnia and Cold to walk in the front, followed by Hassan, Loken and Borotroth. After them Bark Wizard would walk together with Julia, Pippio and Putté. In the last line Nibber and Bark Joe would walk, together with the king. She did not even care about giving James a position as he most times did not stay there, and she knew from experience that he worked best when he made things his way.

As they could see the keep again Bark Wizard noticed that the numbers of dwarves on the courtyard had decreased and prepared for combat. Not long after that she felt the ground tremble with steps, that came closer with great speed, and understood that the dwarves had more forces in the keep then she thought at first. She looked around her to make sure that everyone was ready and found that everyone were, except James, who she could not find anywhere.

She did not get much time over to ponder where he was, since a warning shout from Evynnia made her look forward, to the road. What she saw was a great beast of war charging straight towards them with almost thirty stone summits right behind it, sprinting to the companions.

Just as Cold and Bubba steeled themselves for the collision that seemed unavoidable, a collision that could only end in one way considering the speed of the beast, two arrows flew trough the air, hitting it one in each eye, killing it instantly. In that very moment James jumped down on the road from the mountainside above, landing right behind the dwarfs’ healer, cutting his throat in the very same moment he landed on the ground. Seconds later he threw himself in behind a big rock, taking cover from the dwarven archers that already turned to him with their bows ready.

Bark Wizard noticed the threat that the archers constituted for them all and begun to turn the ground beneath their feets into coal. Then immediately she began to turn the coal into flames. The moment before she succeeded in burning the dwarves to death she saw an arrow fly from one of them, straight at her face, too late to do anything else then finishing in killing the archers, she prepared to die. Satisfied with the thought that she would at least bring her killer with her she briefly touched the thought if she would be worthy of entering the mists and begin her journey towards the hall of heroes, or if she would be sent to the underworld, forever remaining a lost soul. When the arrow were close enough to her face for her to see every detail of it she let her flames burst up, toasting the stone summits in their armours. In that same moment a blue flame destroyed the arrow, only inches away from her face.

She fell down on her knees of relief to be alive and saw Loken looking at her for a second, blinking one eye before he turned around to the centre of the fight again. The moment after that her eyes darkened with pain as she felt something strike at her very mind.
“Don’t kill him!” It was Pippio shouting to someone, the last thing she heard before the world disappeared.

As she begun to wake up she felt a battle for her soul in her mind, but her own mind were not involved in the battle. She could not detect who were friend or foe, and even if she could have, she would be unable to participate in the battle. All she could do was watching as one of the minds got advantage and begun to draw the other one out of her mind. As soon as the first mind were drawn out the other one left her mind too, leaving her alone to command her own body again.

Instantly she opened her eyes, just in time to see the last standing stone summit fall lifeless to the ground, she turned her head to her left and saw Pippio sitting on his heels next to her, with his left hand on her forehead and an exhausted, but triumphant smile on his lips. Bark Wizard looked around and noticed, with great joy that everyone were alive and standing up.
“I understand that you rushed to kill the mesmer when you noticed what he was doing, James, but you must understand that killing him when he had already broken into her mind would have put him in possession of her body, which would force us to kill her or be killed. That was why I needed him to survive while I drew him out of Bark Wizard.” Pippio explained, turned to James, as he begun to stand up.

Bark Wizard looked up at James, confused that he would risk his life to save anyone else. James did not even notice that Bark Wizard looked at him, he was just looking at Pippio with the look of someone who trusted a friend with a secret and the friend told the secret to someone who were not supposed to know.

For what felt like an eternity the two where just looking at each other like that while the rest of the group watched them and Bark Wizard got a feeling that they were talking in their minds, having a conversation not meant for anyone else. When they seemed finished with the conversation Bark Wizard had already looked around her and seen that Loken were mending the wounds of everyone, so they were ready to move on.

After the battle Bark Wizard gave up all hope on a surprise attack on the keep, and decided to simply run to the keep and just kill everything that got in their way. They did not meet one single stone summit on their way to the keep and when they reached the gate to the keep, which the stone summits probably held open for any retreaters to be able to pass into the safety of the keep, all of them were still with the group. Now the open gate served only the group of adventurers that came running, too fast for the stone summits to close the gate, leaving only the corpses of the stone summit gate guards lying at the gate behind them as they entered the courtyard.

Only when they reached the centre of the courtyard they stopped, looking at the remaining stone summit dwarves, who were trapped in a corner of the courtyard, clearly terrified of the group, even though the dwarves were still twenty against fourteen. As the group started to move towards the dwarves they reacted just as an animal in the hunters trap, they attacked one last time, fiercer then ever.

The battle did not last even twenty seconds as Bubba and Cold leaved control of their bodies to their instincts before they even reached the enemies, becoming two whirling personifications of death itself, breaking the dwarves courage. After they started running there were only pure slaughter work left to do for the group, which they left for Bubba, who did not even notice if the enemies were fighting him or running, and James, who took great pleasure in doing it.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group, who could not bear to see the slaughter, walked up one of the three short stairs to the final defence room in the keep where they waited until Bubba and James came back. Just as they came back and the group begun to cheer and congratulate each other Bark Wizard saw the spirit of Mattan Power standing not far away, Mattan was the first and only person that died under her command, while protecting the escape of the rest of the team when they were overpowered with hundreds of undead back in Kryta, where their journey had begun. Immediately she felt like a cold hand took a hold of her heart, as Mattan’s spirit only showed up to warn about great danger.

Bark Wizard felt the looks of her companions in her back as she walked away from them without a word to talk to Mattan. When she reached him he only said the three words, “They are coming.”
before he started to disappear into the air.

Bark Wizard knew that she could not afford to waste any time and ran back to the group, where she explained the situation. They quickly decided to retreat the same way they came to the keep, it were not worth dieing for. But as they left the room they were greeted with the sight of the white mantles walking towards the keep the same way they came.

Without hesitation Bubba and Cold sprinted to the still open gate and started to close it, while most of the other members of the group ran to the gate in the wall at the other end of the courtyard, and rushed up on the wall to get to the opening mechanism. Putté were the first one to get onto the wall, only to stop between two steps, staring to the ground on the other side of the wall.
“The white mantles are here too!” He cried as he turned around and ran down from the wall to not get hit by an arrow.

Bark Wizard could feel the cold grip on her heart tightening when the words reached her ears. This was not going as she had planned.
“Everyone get to me. Now.” She shouted as she walked to the middle of the courtyard.
“Ok, we are surrounded with no way to get out of here, and if I know the white mantle half as good as I think I do, they would not attack us without something ensuring them of victory. Not after the last time. She said when they were collected. These words brought forth smiles together with the memories of the last time they fought the white mantles, granting them hope back. “We have been trough so much together.” Bark Wizard thought, filled with pride of what had happened with the group since the first time it was formed, feeling the grip on her heart disappear.

“They do not fear us without reason, but if this is the end for us, let us make it an end that all white mantles, as well as the whole world, will remember forever.” She continued, filling them further with resolution. She looked in the eyes of each one of the companions in order, seeing in their eyes the same will to fight as she felt in herself. She looked for the right words but could not find words explaining how proud she was of the group. So she remained silent.

“For Old School Legion.” Bark Wizard whispered, after what felt like an eternity.
“For Old School Legion!” They all shouted together, using their old warcry that they used back at the time when the group where formed, for the first time in more then a year.

Suddenly the gate to the east was blown open by a great explosion almost exactly at the same time that the gate to the west fell apart, as if from siege. Bark Wizard had not even notice anything attacking the west gate. As she turned to it she saw three strange creatures, floating in the air looking back at her. The bare sight of them made her shiver.

“So that is why they dare to attack us,” She whispered, “It is the unseen ones.”

When the rest of the group heard that, they looked to the west to see what she was talking about. As they did that, Bark Wizard looked to the east gate, only to see twenty white mantles struggling to get ten chained birdmen into the courtyard. As the birdmen saw the group, which where their obvious target, they stopped struggling and let go a bloodthirsty cry.

“We must retreat, now. Everyone up the stairs, run!” Bark Wizard shouted, the group immediately doing as she said. As she reached the foot of the middle stair she looked over her shoulder, seeing the twenty white mantle soldiers dead, some still falling to the ground. What she then saw made her even more worried, as the birdmen were spreading out over the courtyard, almost moving too fast for her eyes to see them. None of them were close to the still falling soldiers.

When they all reached the room Bark Wizard stationed them out, Cold in the left stair, backed up with Putté, Bubba in the right stair backed up by Nibber and Bark Joe. And in the middle stair she stationed Evynnia and Hassan and placed herself there too. The rest of the group would stay back, protecting the king and help the others where needed.

“Bark Wizard, please come here.” Pippio said when everyone was ready.
“I saw the unseen ones draw back before we ran. I do not think that they will participate in the battle until the final moment, if they participate at all.” He whispered to her when she got to him.
“I feel the-,” He continued, his words disappearing in a warning shout from Bubba.
“Here they come!”

Bark Wizard spinned around and rushed back to her stair just in time to see five of the birdmen rushing at Evynnia at the same time. Even faster then the birdmen, Evynnia threw herself out of their way, driving her sword in the chest of the closest birdmen as he ran past her. It only took the remaining birdmen seconds to turn around and attack Evynnia where she was laying on the floor.

As Bark Wizard saw the leader of the birdmen drive his sword into the chest of Evynnia she felt like the time was close to stopping. She heard, as if from a distant, the sound of battle from the other two stairs and saw Hassan stick his spear in throat the leader, and the other three turning towards Hassan.

“Protect her and I will get her back to full health in no time.” She heard Loken’s voice trough the haze.
She was not dead? Renewed by the thought she made a ring of flames burst out from Hassan, burning the two birdmen closest to him to death in an instant. The last birdmen turned his head towards Bark Wizard, looking straight at her for a moment. The moment after that, the birdmen leaped at her, already too close when Bark Wizard started to try to get out of its way.

The second before it reached her she saw Borotroth’s scythe whistling past her own head towards the throat of the birdman, separating its head from its body. The strike with the claws that were supposed to rip up Bark Wizard’s throat was blocked by Borotroth’s left arm arm, revealing the bones beneath the flesh.

Bark Wizard were thrown aside as Borotroth’s body flew into her own, hitting the stone floor hard with her head, making her feel dizzy again. Not until she heard Cold shout something she could not understand did she realize that the battle was not yet over. She forced herself to her feets and saw Cold carrying Evynnia towards the safety in the room, towards Loken.
As she looked down the stair she saw a birdman running towards her from the other side of the courtyard. She awaited it with a strange calmness.
By the silence around her she realized that the birdman were the last of them alive and wondered if the other birdmen took anyone with them to death.

As the birdman was closing in on the foot of the stair, Bark Wizard blinked her eyes for a moment. As she opened them again the birdman were nowhere to be seen. As she stumbled down the stair, reaching the foot of it, she could see the birdman and James, circling around each other, both trying to find an open spot to attack on.

Bark Wizard, not wanting James to get hurt, prepared to send a ring of fire out from James.
“No! This one is mine.” James shouted, with a grim tone in his voice, without taking his eyes of his adversary, denying her access of using his body as base for her magic.

As James put his left hand behind his back the creature seemed to see a gap in James’s defence, leaping forward towards him with a speed that made the movement swimmer in Bark Wizard’s eyes, making her gasp. In the exactly moment as the birdman leaped at him, James threw himself aside, moving even faster then the creature, moving faster then Bark Wizard ever seen any human move before.

The battle that followed was close to impossible for Bark Wizard to follow due to the speed of the combatants. After what felt as just a second she could see James striking out with his left arm that he until then, had behind his back, hitting the birdman in its head from the side.

As the body fell to the ground, James bended over the corpse for a second with his back toward Bark Wizard, so that she could not see what he was doing. When he stood up again Bark Wizard could see him put something in the small bag in his belt, before he turned around and begun to walk towards her.

Only then did she notice that everyone else in the group except the king were standing right behind her, no doubt as amazed of the battle as she was herself. She was relieved to see that everyone were healthy and without wounds, even Evynnia and Borotroth.

Bark Wizard felt that it was best if no one ever got to know what James had been doing as he was bending over the birdman and destroyed its body in a fiery inferno as soon as James was far enough from it. As soon as James reached the group the silence was broken by congratulations and cheerings.

As if that had been a signal the unseen ones came floating in trough the gate, making the group silent again, this time they were followed by the white mantle leader and high priest, Confessor Dorian. Without hesitating one second, remembering what Dorian did to him all those years ago all too good, Bark Joe drew an arrow and fired it, foolhardy, at Dorian. Before the arrow reached even half the distance it disappeared in the thin air, and a bolt of black lightning flew back towards Bark Joe, hitting his bow at the very point the arrow had been placed, transforming the bow into dust in the hand of Bark Joe.

Bark Wizard could hear a malicious laughter from the other side of the courtyard, and she could see the cold look Bark Joe got in his face when he heard it, at the same time as he removed his quiver from his back and threw it at the ground. Even as it were falling to the ground, he drew two of his throwing knifes and spun around in the same movement. Before anyone had the time to react he sprinted off, towards Dorian and the unseen ones.

As soon as Bark Wizard understood what were happening she created a wall of fire in front of Bark Joe to stop him, at the same time as she saw Bubba sprint after him in the corner of her eye. Bark Joe, however, did not show any sign of stopping by the wall, instead, he was running right towards it.
When Bark Wizard realized that he would not stop she had to take the wall down.

The second after Bark Joe passed the area where the flame wall had been he was pushed to the ground by Bubba, who held him back at the ground.

“What are you thinking? Will you let him take you away from Julia too, just as he did with Juliana?” He roared to Bark Joe, while holding him back to the ground without any problem.

“He has to die, this is the moment I have been waiting for all those years!” Bark Joe roared back, with tears in his voice, struggling to get loose from Bubba.

“And he will. We will break them here and then follow him and kill him.” Bubba answered, barely talking high enough for Bark Wizard to hear him.

At the moment he said that, Dorian begun to laugh again, making a sign with his hand towards the gate which he came from. Seconds later, six white mantle soldiers came dragging in three struggling persons in chains. Bark Wizard immediately recognized them as Nibber’s brother, Snotling, and his two friends, Zach and Punkbuster.

Immediately, Cold took a grip on Nibber’s right arm, preventing him from doing anything stupid even before he started doing it.

“What makes you think that you could kill me now, Bark Joe, when you could not even protect your dear Juliana the last time we met?” Dorian asked with a raised voice, seemingly without result from Bark Joe, as he walked back to the group together with Bubba. That illusion was broken by Bark Joe’s words as he reached the rest of the group.

“If anyone kills Dorian before I get the chance, I will kill him personally.” He said those words with special looks at James, Nibber and Cold. Bark Wizard had no doubt that he would keep his promise.

“I believe that you know those three boys.. I will let them watch you die before I kill them myself.” Dorian continued after the pause, pointing at the prisoners.

“We will rescue them as soon as we are done fighting them. And you will get your chance to kill Dorian, Bark Joe.” Bark Wizard whispered to her team as Dorian and the unseen ones left the courtyard, followed by the soldiers dragging the prisoners.

The group waited for something to happen in silence, until the white mantles came marching in from both gates, forming at the other side of the courtyard. She had never seen this many of them at the same time.

“Julia, go tell the king to stay where he is and stay with him.” Bark Joe said to the girl.

“I am telling him right now.” Julia responded, showing no sign of leaving.

“Julia, go to him now. It is safer there.” Bark Wizard cut into the conversation.

“You can not make me, I have just as much reason to fight as you have.” Julia responded, staring into Bark Wizard’s eyes.

Bark Wizard was stunned when she realized how much Julia had changed since the morning the day before, when she was scared of a lonely dwarf approaching, and accepted Julia’s decision. As the white mantle soldiers begun to walk towards them seconds later, Bark Wizard saw Putté starting to summon the spirits of the dead to fight for them in the corner of her eye. Bark Wizard turned her head and saw Borotroth putting his hood on, as he always did before a great battle.

“Ok friends, this is what we are good at. Let us show them why even the most reckless and insensitive beasts and undead run from us!” Bark Wizard roared to her team, filled with will to fight.

Bark Wizard turned her head towards the white mantles again and waited. As soon as they were close enough she sent a ball of fire at their front lines, felling the three first of them. She could see soldiers falling at other places in their lines too, but the gaps were quickly filled with new soldiers rushing towards them.

The next ball she sent towards them seemed to hit an invisible wall before it reached the soldiers. She looked around her and saw one of the unseen ones, looking back in her eyes. When she looked into its eyes she felt like time stopped and she was falling down into an endless darkness. She forced herself to concentrate and found herself holding her hand high above her head with the sign of a challenge formed in flames in her hand.

The unseen one looked surprised for a moment, and then quickly recovered, making a shield of magic around Bark Wizard to protect her from the white mantle soldiers, as she walked trough their lines towards the unseen. She felt a sting of bad conscience as she left her team behind in the battle, but she convinced herself that she was helping them more fighting the unseen one then she would if she took part in the fight.

When she reached the unseen one, she heard a scream from the battle behind her. She quickly spinned around to see what happened. As soon as she turned her back to the unseen one, she felt the air changing and threw herself to the left. Not a second after she got out of the way, a bolt of black lightning struck where she had been standing. It had begun.

As she rolled to her feets she had to duck from another bolt before she got the chance to strike back. The second after it passed she sent a small ball of fire into the face of the unseen one. The moment before the fire hit its eyes it sent a new bolt towards Bark Wizard that hit her in her right arm, searing away the flesh were it stuck.

Bark Wizard forced herself to concentrate, and summoned a column of flames from the ground underneath the unseen one, at the same time as she sent another ball of fire at it trough the flames, which she was sure that it would be the end of the unseen one. As soon as she felt that it was safe she turned around to help her friends in the battle. When she had just took a few steps towards the battle she was hit in the back by something. The last thing she felt before everything turned black was how the ground disappeared underneath her feets.

When Bark Wizard got back to life she found herself laying at the foot of one of the stairs, all her wounds healed. She forced herself to get on her feet, but had to lean against the wall to not fall to the ground again. The battle were still raging and she could see that her friends had been pushed back not long ago, as Borotroth was standing over Pippio’s lifeless corpse in the middle of the white mantles, at the same time as the rest of her friends was fighting to got to the two of them before it was too late.

Bark Wizard could see Borotroth spin his scythe one last time, felling white mantles behind him as well as those in front of him, before he was hit in the back by a sword and fell. Bark Wizard, without knowing what she was doing, reached inside her for the final power she had there and unleashed it all at their position, leaving nothing but skeletons and melted armours of the white mantle soldiers she struck. Soon the way were clear for her friends to get to Pippio and Borotroth

When all her powers was used she fell to the ground again but instead of the world getting black, she got a vision of a beautiful, green countryside, that much remembered her of her home when she had been a young girl, slowly replacing the world. She realized that she was passing into the mists, filled with both pride that she was seen as worthy to do so by the gods and sadness to leave her friends.

Just as the world was almost completely changed into the mist she got a sight of Putté throwing himself down at his knees next to her, putting his right hand at her forehead and closing his eyes. Then the world stopped fading away and slowly started coming back. After what felt like hours, but probably only was minutes, the world was back again, with no sight of the mists. She realized that Putté did not know if she would be fine or if he would have to continue sending his own energy into her, and lifted his hand from her forehead with her own hand.

She quickly thanked Putté, that remained on his knees, and forced herself to her feets, still dazed. She felt that she would do best in not trying to use her powers again until she got the time to rest and decided to only watch the fight as long as she could without putting one of her friends life in danger. Not until she had been looking a few seconds could she see clear enough to notice that there was only ten white mantles left in the battle and that Hassan and Bubba was already dragging Pippio and Borotroth to safety, followed by Loken. Were they alive?

When she pointed her concentration back to the battle she could see the last two living white mantle soldiers running for the gate, but one of them was quickly felled by throwing knife from Bark Joe, and the other one got one of Nibber’s arrows in the back of his head when he was halfway to the gate.

Bark Wizard stumbled towards Loken together with Putté, and as soon as the rest of the group saw them, Bubba and Cold came running to support them. As she walked she felt the power she had been given from Putté fade away and her eyes slowly darkened. When she was about to fall to the ground she felt how a pair of strong hands took her in a steady grip and lifted her up. Seconds later everything turned black.

She was surprised when she realized that she did not faint, she was blind. She heard the rest of the group cheer as she got closer, a cheer that quickly ended when she got to them. She heard someone rush to her as she was put to the ground, and felt a hand being laid over her eyes.

“They are all white.” She heard Loken mumble next to her. “Pippio, I will need your help here!”

“Just tell me what to do.” She heard Pippio answer and heard steps getting closer to her. At least Pippio were alive.

Bark Wizard could not hear what they was saying as they whispered to each other, except the word “Dwayna” from Loken.

“But that could kill you!” She heard Pippio protest.

“If we don’t do it she would remain blind for the rest of her life, even if the unseen ones do not kill us. Loken answered. “We don’t have a choice.”

Bark Wizard felt the hand on her forehead become warmer and suddenly she felt Loken’s mind inside her own, many times stronger then ever. She heard that Loken started to chant words in a language she could not understand. Before he had said more then ten words Bark Wizard could feel how he got pushed out of her mind with a terrible force. She suddenly saw herself standing in a church, and in front of her, the most pure being she had ever seen, a woman she could only explain as Dwayna, were standing.

Bark Wizard immediately kneeled before the goddess, as Dwayna started to talk in the same language as Loken had been talking in, and when she stopped talking, she just smiled at Bark Wizard and disappeared. Instantly, Bark Wizard was drawn back to reality, seeing the world with a new light now. Everything seemed to be more beautiful now, and she was confused to see that she had a blue glow around her body, slowly fading away.

By just one look on her friends she noticed that it was not something only she could see, as all of them were staring at her. Borotroth, which she gladly noticed was alive to, went as far as to walk to her, kneel and say a few words in his native tongue, filled with power.

The silence following Borotroth’s words was not broken until the blue aura around Bark Wizard had disappeared.

“So we did manage to summon Dwayna.” Pippio said, with a tone in his voice that made Bark Wizard think that he felt that what they had done was nothing special.

“You hide your secrets well, Loken.” Borotroth said, with a mysterious twinkle in his eyes, as he tried to catch the eyes of Loken.

As Bark Wizard opened her mouth to interrupt their discussion and help Loken to keep his secret, she saw the unseen ones come floating in trough the gate once again. Bark Wizard looked, surprised, on the sign of truce they had created in black lightning between them.

She was even more surprised when one of the unseen ones made a sight for her to get closer, but she did not hesitate a second until she begun walking towards them, leaving her friends behind her.
When she approached them she was ready for the worst, but not for what happened.

The very second she reached them, they floated down to the ground and kneeled in front of her, after which, Snotling and his friends came floating in trough the gate, released from all chains. Shortly after, Dorian came floating in trough the gate, bound in chains.

Bark Wizard was still trying to understand what were happening when the unseen ones floated out of the gates and Bark Joe walked past her, towards Dorian, putting one of his knifes an the throat of the man.

“This is for Juliana.” Were the words following Dorian to the underworld.

Thank you to:

King Putté: For inspiration, spelling checks and character names (King Putte, Bubba Joe, Kebab Hassan, James Brawolski, Pippio Brawolski, Ophanyx Brawolski, Juliana).

Nibber: For inspiration and character names (Woodland Nibber, Evynnia of Tyria).

Mattan: For inspiration and character name (Mattan Power).

Sir Snotling: For character name (Sir Snotling).

Zach Rulez: For character name (Zach Rulez).

Punkbuster C: For character name (Punkbuster C).

ArenaNet: For a great series of games.

You: That took time to read this.

Old School: For helping me to come up with the names (Bark Wizard, Bark Joe, I Lord Loken I,
Cold Warrior, I Borotroth I, Julia Joe).

Casts:

Bark Wizard (Elementalist), I Cold Warrior I (Warrior), I Lord Loken I (Monk),
I Borotroth I (Dervish), Bark Joe (Ranger), Julia Joe (Mesmer)

Woodland Nibber (Ranger), Evynnia of Tyria (Warrior), Zach Rulez (Ranger),
Punkbuster C (Assassin), Da Snotling (Ranger)

Mattan Power (Warrior)

Pippio Brawolski (Mesmer), James Brawolski (Assassin), King Putte (Ritualist),
I Bubba Joe I (Warrior), Kebab Hassan (Paragon), Ophanyx Brawolski (Elementalist)

Bark · Dec 18, 2006, 08:53 PM // 20:53

Ok, as I said, this is my first try.. I'd really love comments from anyone that takes time to read it, so that i'll know what to do different to make it better