Gourry walked up to Lina and put his hand on her shoulder as she walked away from the command tent. "Hey, do you really want to...?"
"Gourry, please! Can't you just leave me alone for now?" Lina said in an annoyed tone of voice.
The swordsman blinked. He didn't like how things were going. He really didn't like it. He would never want to abandon Amelia and her father, and he really thought hard if there was another possibility to save Azeroth.
But thinking had never been one of his biggest strength, so he had hoped Lina would have some idea. But he recognized her bad temper when he saw it, and he knew that right now, Lina would not want to speak to him if she didn't want to.
He sighed. "So this is it, huh? Well, I'll... I'll just go and tell my knights, then..."
"You do that..." Lina sighed.
Shortly after, she was sitting in her own, dark tent. She had planned to just grab all her stuff and ran away, but still, something held her back. She wondered if Gourry and Zelgadis would stay behind, even if they both knew that peace with Orcs was... unthinkable.
Okay, Gourry had always been a bit gullible and at times, even more optimistic than Amelia. And who ever knew what Zel was thinking...
Lina wasn't afraid... she had no reason to... but she actually felt pity for the people of Azeroth. And when she thought about what might happen to Amelia...
No! She couldn't think of it.
But what else was there to do? Lothar seemed to have made up his mind. She pondered if she should just go back to the beginning and start anew, but she very quickly abandoned that idea. There were many things you could do, but never SHOULD do, and this was certainly such a thing. She would just have to accept that this story would have an ending she never wished it would have.
But there had to be some solution out of this misery. For some time, she almost toyed with the idea to go over to Lothar's tent and pound some sense into him.
If she at least would be at her full power, then she would be able to prevent the worst. But ever since her encounter with that Orcish wizard, her powers were visibly weakened, and on top of that, her most formidable spell, the Dragon Slave, was sealed. If she only knew how that bastard had accomplished that...
After some time, Lina sighed. If she wanted to go, she had to do it now. No sense to stay for much longer...
Just when she pondered if she should maybe say at least goodbye to Amelia, she bumped against someone who was standing in front of her tent. Someone who was barely reaching up to her chest.
"Kurdran?" she asked in surprise. "Wh-what are you doing here?"
"I wanted to talk to you, Miss Lina," the dwarf said in his gruff voice. "But keep your voice down. No one should know that I'm here."
Lina was way too surprised than to reply with anything else but a bewildered "What?".
Kurdran pushed her back inside and took another look outside until he looked up at her firmly. "Please tell me one thing, Miss Lina: You are right about the Orcs, correct?"
"What are you talking about?" Lina asked. It made no sense to her.
"When you said the Orcs won't cooperate," Kurdran said. "You were right, correct? They won't listen to the regent's pleas, right?"
"Right," Lina nodded sadly. "I was forced to live in captivity after meeting that warlock, Gul'dan. I could see the brutality of his men. They don't even seem to know the meaning of mercy."
Kurdran sighed deeply. "Then we just might have to do it."
"Do WHAT?" Lina asked.
"We have to defeat them," the dwarf nodded. "Them or us, that's how I see it."
"You mean you want to ignore Lothar's order and act on your own?" Lina asked.
"I think we don't have any other choice," Kurdran said grimly. "Besides, the messenger he sent to the Orcs came back."
"Already?" Lina wondered.
"His horse didn't have to carry as much," Kurdran sighed. "They sent back only his head."
"Amazing!" Lina said with a dark frown. "I figured that would be the part they'd eat first. Lemme guess: Lothar has already sent another messenger?"
"That he did," Kurdran nodded. "But by now, pretty much everyone knows that he will share the same fate. Poor guy was shaking so much, he almost couldn't mount his horse."
He moved a bit in the darkness, but Lina could hear the clanging of his armor clearly. Dwarves really couldn't make a single step without making some noise, and Kurdran was no exception. No wonder they had to learn how to fly, Lina thought to herself.
"You might have an idea why I'm here," Kurdran continued. "We want to attack the portal and try to destroy it. Are you with us?"
"We?" Lina wondered.
The dwarf nodded. "Thirty of my bravest warriors, in addition to Sir Gabriev and thirty of his brave knights. And I think a few knights from other orders would like to come along as well. Princess Amelia and a few of Khadgar's mages were willing to come along as well."
"Amelia as well?" Lina wondered. She then grinned. "Seems like I'm not the only one who isn't satisfied with the regent's decisions."
"Be careful what you're saying," Kurdran grumbled angrily. "He is still the regent, and we dwarves are loyal to him to the death."
"And you still disobey his orders?" Lina asked.
"If I have to, to save his kingdom and all of us, yes, I do. So what now? Are you willing to help us?"
"Of course I do!" the sorceress grinned. "Do you think I want to let you have all the fun by yourselves? Count me in!"
Kurdran smiled. "Good. We will go by air. We have thirty gryphons ready, and each of them can carry three riders at once. But to fight properly, we will have to drop you and the knights to the ground. The mages will also create a field of invisibility that will fade out as soon as we'll touch the ground."
"Well, at least we can take the Orcs by surprise. When do we leave?"
"As soon as possible," Kurdran replied in a worried tone. "Khadgar has felt a magical surge coming from where the portal is standing. He believes it might be shortly before its completion. We have to hurry."
"Okay, let's go!" Lina nodded.
They sneakily left the tent, and Lina followed the dwarf to where his air troops were waiting. She had no trouble following him. She almost believed the clanging of the metal on his body should be heard in Doomhammer's camp on the other hill.
Her tummy grumbled. "I should have eaten something before we left..." she whined.
But she also was quite agitated. A regent who believed to make peace with the Orcs and now a loyal dwarf who was ready to disobey his orders so he could save the regent... She wondered what else would be happening.
They walked through a small grove. On its other side, Gourry and his knights were waiting. Lina smiled when she saw her friend, and he waved to her while giving orders to his men.
But then she stopped as she saw the gigantic gryphon Kurdran was approaching. She had never seen one of these majestic animals that was this big. And to be honest... she had never been this close to a gryphon before. And to think that thirty of these colossal beasts was about to fly into battle, she somehow doubted that anything could stop them.
She forced herself to think realistic. She knew that the Orcs were forcing the dragons to fight on their side, and it was not that long ago when she had witnessed how three of the scaled, winged creatures had attacked one gryphon and tore him apart.
Kurdran skillfully climbed up upon the gryphon's back. To Lina's surprise, someone else was already sitting up there.
"Amelia!" she gasped. "You?"
"Didn't Kurdran tell you I was coming along, Miss Lina?" the princess of Azeroth asked in her impish voice.
"Well, he did, but... I would have neve imagined YOU to sit on a gryphon's back, Amelia... And you have never been in the middle of such a big fight before."
"Well, then it's about time," Amelia replied. "I'm not gonna wait and see if Doomhammer accepts my father's offer while we could easily destroy that portal. Onwards to victory!"
Lina had to snicker. Of course Amelia would look at the whole thing as optimistically as she always did. But she still was worried about her.
"If you are finished with your small talk, can we finally leave?" Kurdran muttered, while his gryphon let out an affirmative cry.
"In a minute," Amelia said. "I just want to wait until our final guest is ready." And she leaned forward in her saddle and shouted out into the darkness: "You can come out now, Zelgadis!"
'Zelgadis?' Lina wondered. 'Here?' He was the last person she would have expected to be here.
But Amelia was right, as the chimera came walking out of the forest in front of them.
"Well, well, if it isn't Lina..." he said with a frown. "And the traitorous dwarf... I would have never believed you to have the guts to defy your regent. And you too, Amelia? Your father won't be amused..."
He ignored how Kurdran leaned over his mount's head and asked in a dangerous voice: "Did you say 'traitorous dwarf', Mr. Greywords?"
Zelgadis threw him an annoyed glance. "That I did," he stated, and Lina started to worry if her friend was maybe a bit crazy. THat thick skin of his wouldn't protect him much against the sharp claws of the gryphon Sky'Ree... it would only make the difference between food and canned food.
"Or how would you call it if you organize an assault on the portal against Lothar's wishes?" Zelgadis asked. Again, Lina wondered since when Zel cared about what others did.
"No one here is a traitor, Mr. Zelgadis," Amelia said. "But if we don't do anything, the Orcs will win. Miss Lina is right, any negotiations with them will be futile. I think my father is the only man in Azeroth who doesn't know that."
"He knows," Kurdran said sadly and shook his head. "But he doesn't want to realize it."
Zelgadis stayed silent for a while.
"But what if you fail?" he finally asked. "Without the knights you are ready to sacrifice in this battle, we will stand no chance in the upcoming battle tomorrow."
"We wouldn't stand a chance with them, Zel," Lina replied. "It's the DARK PORTAL, don't you see? Doomhammer will be able to call for hundreds of new warriors. That's why the final battle will be at the portal, not in the valley between the hills."
"So, you really are determined to do it?" Zelgadis asked. "You would even risk exile, in case Lothar wouldn't forgive you for ignoring his orders?"
"That is something all of us have to put up with," Lina said with determination. "C'mon, Zel, you want to be part of the action as well, do you?"
"Why are we wasting time with that fool?" Kurdran grumbled. "Why don't you just go to Lothar and tell him about what we are going to do, Greywords, then he can already prepare our pyre."
"That would be too complicated," Zelgadis grinned. "I doubt they would find firewood as small as you. Well... do you have enough space up there for another man?"
"What?" Kurdran asked in surprise.
"You heard me. Do you believe I want to leave Amelia and Lina in the care of a dwarf? If you are right, you need every man. And if not... well, dead is dead, right? It wouldn't matter if I die a few hours earlier, right?"
Grumbling, Kurdran moved so Zelgadis and Lina could climb up as well. For a while, Lina was worried if Sky'Ree would be able to carry them all at once, but then again, she and Amelia didn't weigh that much, and he was the most powerful gryphon in the army.
"Are you all ready?" Kurdran asked. He looked over to the other Gryphons, and saw that everyone was sitting in the saddle.
"Princess Amelia, the mages can start their spell."
Amelia nodded, and together with the two members of the Kirin Tor that were accompanying them, she chanted the Invisibility spell.
A flash of blue light surrounded them, and then all of the gryphons, dwarves and knights seemed to turn transparent. But the Orcs wouldn't be able to see anything before they landed.
"Okay, let's fly!" Kurdran commanded, and the thirty winged beasts flapped their wings and took off from the ground.
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(Posted Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:50)
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