A Warrior's Redemption

  *****

  Flin stretched out in a pace eating canter. His sweat soaked sides heaved for air as we caught up with fleeing enemy cavalrymen. One by one I sent them toppling from their saddles with savage strokes of my sword. Ahead of us I saw the pressed ranks of the enemy and I urged Flin onwards toward them, screaming insanely in my desire to destroy them all.

  We plowed into them full tilt. The impact almost sent Flin to his knees, but he regained his stride and we carved our way into them, once again lost in the bloodlust of the moment.

  One by one, front running Valley Lander cavalry plowed into the enemy and then thousands hit the panicking enemy line with deadening force.

  The heavy cavalry swept through the Zoarinian ranks with the tenacity of a sheep dog through a herd of sheep and the enemy reacted as sheep. The Zoarinian army as a whole visibly wavered, as they saw that their supporting cavalry was gone and that they were being attacked from all sides.

  Surrounded and disheartened by a campaign that had promised easy victory, but had only delivered them losses, they broke. The will to fight was gone, only to be replaced with a desperation to live.

  The broken soldiers rushed past the onrushing cavalry towards the shore and the ships at anchor beyond. Thousands more of them fell in their headlong rush to the sea, hounded by the Valley Landers and their allies as savagely as a pack of wolves would run down a lame elk.

  I drew up in the sand and watched as the survivors of the broken army swam out into the sea with a strength and fervor born out of desperation. The ships had come in close to pick up the survivors and they began to loose off arrows at us. I gave the order to pull back from the beach to avoid further casualties on our side. The battle was won.

  Upon hearing excited screams ring out all around me I turned in the saddle to look back once more at the escaping soldiers. The enemy ships dotting the shoreline were shaking and pitching around like they were the chew toys of some massive unseen hound. Had they run aground?

  Then I saw some of the unknown aggressors as they surfaced briefly for air.

  Whales!

  The same beasts that had brought our allies to us were now smashing away at the enemy’s fleet without mercy. Ships began to sink, their hulls shattered, as still other ships made way for the open ocean forsaking the screaming soldiers trying to swim out to them.

  The escape of the navy wasn’t to be though. I saw one of the ships, farthest out to sea, completely pulled under by the encircling tentacles of some huge sea monster.

  What a bloodbath this day had been!

  I noticed General Nadero by my side and, as if sensing a gathering darkness crowding the corners of my consciousness, I reached out and clutched at his shoulder, “General, no more killing! Let the survivors go! We have our victory.”

  He grabbed my arm, “Consider it done Roric! Roric, are you okay? Roric, are….”

  His words sounded hollow and far away from me and I realized that I was falling. Endlessly freefalling downward.