EPILOGUE
Violet is on the deck of the Jolly Roger, leaning over the side, the wind blowing in her hair and making her face tingle, the spray splashing up to sting her face, the smell of salt in the air, the call of seagulls in her ears. She is leaning perilously over the side but isn’t worried because Ayden has his arms tightly around her holding her safely. She has never felt so free and yet so safe before. The Jolly Roger’s deck is packed full of flamboyant pirates and elegant elves. The pirates are armed to the teeth with cutlasses, the elves elegantly armed with beautiful swords, bows and spears. Their weaponry looked elegant and was beautifully wrought, works of art in themselves, but the elves handled them with a confidence that Violet was sure was swift and deadly. She wondered who would do the most damage, the pirates with their bloodthirst and brute strength, or the elves with their graceful precision.
She herself has a beautiful sword hung at her side, it is of shining silver metal with a white handle and with peacock feathers fetched in gold down the curved blade. Its scabbard was made of blue leather with matching gold peacock feathers. Ayden has taught her how to handle it and had found her a quick study, her martial arts training lending themselves well to the elves methods of sword work. She had found their swordplay together a delight and she could see the respect the elves had for her. She could never match any of the elves in terms of swiftness and elegance, but she felt for a human they thought her skilled. She knew their mission was a serious one but she couldn’t help feel like she was on an adventure holiday with the man she loved.
They land on the island at mid-morning, the pirates and elves disembarking and Elven scouts setting off to explore the surrounding area. The pirates guarding their position. Violet stands proudly by as Ayden oversees and directs his two-fold army. The forest was again silent and quiet, but Violet didn’t find it as foreboding as she had done on her first visit, she was able to see the beauty of the sun filtering through the leaves lending the forest floor a golden green light intersected with shafts of golden light. When the scouts returned they reported that everything was quiet and the way ahead clear. They progress through the forest, Ayden at the head, followed by the elves in smart lines, the pirates in a rabble behind, the scouts silently questing ahead to check every thing was still clear. The forest is silent, they come across no one, Violet watches for flashes of creatures in the trees, but sees nothing, they are alone in the forest nothing makes a sound they see no other creatures.
When they near the clearing around the tower, Ayden and Violet with the scouts go forwards and hide in the undergrowth at the edge of the clearing and peer towards the tower. Violet can see the Golden robot Eagle and Lion still stood either side of the entrance, but as before they twitched and moved, glancing around them watching for any intruders, now they stand silently. They looked like two golden statues stood either side of the doorway, their golden colour dimmed and the light gone from their green glass eyes. The Sorceress’s power has left them completely, leaving them inert. Two orcs are now stood as sentinels, but they looked uneasy and skittery. Ayden and Violet return to the rest of their force, leaving the scouts at the clearing. Ayden gives his orders to the assembled unit. Half, led by Ayden, were to go silently through the secret tunnel and the other half, led by Captain Brandon were to go through the main entrance after the elvish archers had shot the two sentinels. They prepare to depart silently. Captain Brandon's force gathering around the clearing and Ayden’s going up the tunnel. Violet shows Ayden and his force where the tunnel is and they walk silently up it, Ayden magically opening the door at the end. They listen for Captain Brandon’s signal that he has stormed the front gate. They can hear all manner of blood curdling shouting from the tower’s entrance as the pirates whole-heartedly hunted down the orcs. They swiftly march into the tower, Ayden at their head and continue upwards slaying any orcs they came across. The orcs are swiftly defeated; they have lost the Sorceress and her magics and were uninterested in fighting, each one just concentrating on saving his own hide and just trying to escape. The tower is quickly in the possession of Ayden and the orcs imprisoned without loss of life of any of the pirates or elves. Ayden flies his flag from the tower, a golden leaf on a green field, and leaves a garrison at the tower.
Violet takes Ayden to the tree with the heart-shaped leaves. On arrival they both go up to the tree and hand in hand they lay their other hand on to the tree trunk. They hear a scuttling noise and a procession of small black spiky creatures emerge from the crevices in the bark and joyful progress around the tree’s trunk up and down, bouncing up and down in glee. Then from the other side of the tree emerges a fluffy white paw followed by two large ears and red shiny eyes, Mr Fluffy Star was quickly followed by the other imaginary friends, all smiling and scampering with glee and dancing around the tree. Ayden and Violet lead them back to the tower where they explore it from dungeons to the highest turret, clearing out the cobwebs and orcish weapons and accruements, and adding colour and sparkle, until it was a home of their own. Standing outside the tower with Ayden and their forces, as he hands over the key to the tower to them, animating the golden eagle and lion who’s eyes now shined with a friendly light on their new protectees. As Violet and Ayden stand outside the tower, hand in hand, they can hear the singing of birds, the chirrup of insects and the scurrying of animals in the surrounding undergrowth.
THE END
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends