Chapter 1

It has been ten years since the cataclysm that destroyed the lives of the Elven had occurred. The explosion of Luclin had set their forest ablaze, forcing them to flee to Butcherblock Mountains to survive in small farming communities. Several small towns have arisen around the few farmable areas on the upper plains of the Butcherblock Mountains region. One such town, The Upper Glenn's had several master artisans that had discovered their talents had new levels of demand. One particular fellow, a carpenter by the name of Gregson found he had more work than he could handle. He was also forever short on wood and apprentices to work with and teach.

After dealing with this situation for several years, he finally determined the only way to obtain what he needed; both apprentices and wood would be to see the Captain in charge of the town's security. He was not sure how this meeting would go due to one of his encounters with her some years earlier.

The knock at the door was a welcome interruption to Captain Arrowmark; her daily grind of never ending paperwork and decisions that just had to be made by her were slowly driving her insane. "Come," she barked in a tight voice.

The door opened and her assistant stuck her head in, "There is a Mister Gregson here to see you about the shortage of available building materials ma'am."

Tamalain sighed wearily, "Very well Maggie, send him on in."

Gregson entered the office and tried to put on a brave face. "Ma'am, I know this is a bother, but think I know how we can obtain enough lumber to continue building the homes and items needed for the rest of the town."

"And where is this lumber Mister Gregson?"

"In our old home Captain, The Greater Faydark forest valley. The smoke has cleared on the upper levels and the trees are showing some signs of recovery. There is so much downed wood that we can harvest easily if it has not rotted to badly yet. Just in the area around the old Upper Pass village Crater..." he stopped when he saw the look of pain on her face. "I know Miss Tama, I miss them too."

She looked up at him seriously for the first time. "I do know you, don't I? Gregson, I thought I recognized you." Tamalain got up from her desk and gave him a firm hug, "How has that mouthy son of yours been doing of late? I heard that he had finally found a wife a few years ago."

"Yes, he is married and no longer mouthy. He has two kids of his own that have taken over the mouthy part. His wife Tilly has him well in hand," he replied with a grim smile on his face.

"Gregson, you have no idea how good it is to see somebody I knew from back then. My parents, my little brother Wayne, Elder, The Green brothers, we lost all of them on the first days of sky fall." She returned to her chair and turned away to hide her tears and leafed through a stack of folders until she found the one she needed. "What you're asking is already being planned. We have found several others that survived from my fathers wood clearing groups and they are just about ready to make a trip into the upper regions to map out the best routes and begin a hauling effort on several medium sized trees that are burned and dead, but sound and still standing. One of them believes the smoke and heat may have killed the parasites and insects that would have ruined the wood."

"Since you have this idea as well, I will send a letter with you to Grey Forrester to be included. How does that sound."

Gregson looked shocked at the speed things were moving. He had come with a simple idea only to find out it was already planned and ready to go at a moments notice. "That will be, well, great I guess. I need to get home and tell my wife and pack and close up the shop..."

While he was quietly listing what he needed to do, Tamalain wrote up a fast note for Gray to accept Gregson on the team. A carpenter would be able to judge what wood was good and what was not usable. "Calm down Gregson. Here is the letter of recommendation for the expedition. Understand this though, the reports from deeper in are not promising at all. The Orcs and Undead have been fighting an all out war in several areas between the Loping Plains Pass and the Orcs Tunnel."

"I understand ma'am, we really only need to collect from the edges at first, not deeper in. The further you go, the bigger the tree's tended to be."

"Take that up with Gray. I hate to cut you off, but I am buried in papers here and would love nothing more than to lead this mission myself."

"Yes ma'am, and Tama? Take some time off. I would suggest finding a drawknife and whipping out a new bow just for the hell of it, or go to the gym to work out some of the anger I can see under that calm expression you put on for show."

Tamalain looked at him and smiled sadly. "Now those are wonderful ideas. Thank you for the visit and advise Master Gregson and good luck on this endeavor."

After he left the office she stacked the papers and looked at them thinking how easy it would be to make them flash into ash's. No, I can't do that, all these papers needed to be read, signed and sent back out approved or not approved. She had become what she hated, a paper pusher. "Maggie, come in here for a moment please." She called to her chief assistant.

The door opened and Maggie stuck her head in. Tamalain wondered if she had a body behind the head, as that is just about all she ever saw of her was her head. "Come in Maggie, I need to ask a few questions."

"Yes ma'am." Maggie was worried, this was how jobs started and tended to end. "What do you need to know ma'am."

"I am curious about the paper work load I receive to sign off on. Is this the filtered amount or the entire daily amount coming into the office I receive? Some of this stuff needs to be going to other departments of the command staff, not coming to me first."

"Ma'am, nobody is sure what is supposed to go where, so it all comes here."

"Here is what needs to happen, take the empty table at the side in the front office, set a "In" and an "Out" box for each department. As folks bring in the forms, they will be instructed to place the forms in the "In" box of the section they are for, and to collect and deliver anything in the "Out" box to the proper section. If anybody gives you, no better yet, I will put a bloody looking sword over the baskets and a sign, "Give us and flak and you are next." How does that sound."

"That sounds like it might work Ma'am, all I need to do is look at each pile and send out what does not belong here. Yes, that will work, and I love the sword idea. I will get right on it."

Not yet, here is the stamp, use it. I am taking the rest of the day off to go to the gym to burn off this sudden rage I feel building inside of me. I don't know why I haven't thought of this before; it is like my head has suddenly cleared from a fog and I can think and feel again for the first time in years."

"Very good ma'am, have pleasant afternoon," said Maggie without batting an eye. As she stood up to leave and Tamalain saw that she did have a body. She seemed a bit passed her second century and time was slowly catching up with her. She rather sagged from the lack of exercise Tamalain thought.

Tamalain stood up and stretched, looked down at herself and blanched. She found that she has a small paunch of fat on her belly she had never seemed to notice before. She felt her arms and they felt softer than she recalled. Even her breast seemed to have, horror of horrors at her young age of just twenty six, a faint sag to them.

She cleaned up her desk, put the ink, quills, and stamps away, and then she was out the door without another word. She went straight back to her quarters and went through her clothes hoping to find something other than leather armor. No luck in that search, I need to go cloths shopping, she thought grimly. She took off the armor, slipped an undress tunic on, and headed out to the tailoring shop to see if they could supply some good solid cloth shorts and shirts to workout and run in. As she dressed to go out, she noticed a mark on the inside of her left forearm. When she moved into the sunlight at the window to get a better look, part of the mark seemed to fade away. As it faded, she suddenly became aware of her mana pool without having to think about it.

A blocking sigil, she thought. I was being magically controlled and sedated by somebody, and that somebody has the name of Jordan Trueshot. He dies, not right away, but he will pay for this one day, I will personally see to that. The question now is, why is the sigil failing, only the person that placed it can erase it. I will get answers for this mystery later.

The visit from Gregson had helped wake her up. Now she needed to find that girl inside herself again, the hurt lost child and bring her out to face the pain of loss she had been denied from feeling for ten years.

When she arrived at the tailors shop, he had a ready supply of shorts in assorted sizes and matching tunics that also would fit her overly well endowed upper body. She decided she needed a wrap for her breast to keep them from being damaged by the weights and running. The shoes were a bit more of a problem, but he did have one pair that would do until the cobbler could make her the runners she would need for her daily self-abuse.

She returned to her room and changed, then thought about something else. She went into the chest she stored her old life in and looked at the plaque on top. I am failing you on the promise I made. Tamalain is failing you. Tama on the other hand can do something about it. Command can be damned, she was going on that little trip into the Faydark, and High command and Jordan can choke on it. She changed to her new workout cloths, headed to the gym to give her body some real aches and pains to complain about.

When she arrived at the gym, she realized she had no idea how to use some of the newer pieces of weight machinery. The weights were new to her as she had just not had time to come here in all the years she had been helping her people build new lives. In doing so, she had neglected her body and her life. She went to the full body length mirror and what she saw dismayed her. She had lost her toned tight body that caused boys eyes to glaze. The slight bulge in her belly almost made her want to cry.

It was time for her come back to life and rebuild who she once was. The weight room supervisor came over and asked if she needed help. He looked her up and down and judged her to be a young house wife that was bored and wanted to lose the baby making fat that child bearing always leaves behind.

"Yes I do. I seem to have lost the person I used to be. I wish to try to find her and save myself in the process. Is that possible do you think?" She looked at the manager and saw his look of disdain.

"I would guess you just want to lose the bulge," he sighed. "It seems like that is all the women that come in here want anymore."

With a serious frown she replied, "That sir would only be the starting point. I need to rebuild my entire body from the ground up. Run me through the entire regimen, hard upper today, lower in the morning. I will be here and I will need a good running route with few interruptions and a really solid hill, or a small mountain to finish on."

"My, my, ambitious are we." He gave a faint sniff of the elite looking at a peasant, "Hoping to attract certain eyes I would guess," he said in a slightly nasty tone.

His tone changed to a gurgling when she picked him up by the throat, pulled his face up to hers, and said, "Don't you ever, EVER take that tone with me again, I most sincerely hope you understand me. I need to get back into shape as fast it is safely possible to do so." She dropped him to the floor, then going on as if nothing had happened. "Where would you suggest a good place to start at as far as working out?"

When no answer was forth coming, she turned around to discover he had fled the room. Her shoulders drooped and she sighed dejectedly, "Not going to be a good day after all. Temper control Tama, temper control," she thought dejectedly. That sigil did me that one favor of not letting it get out of hand, but now a decades worth of rage is bubbling up.

She picked a bench and started using several dumbbells listed at 30 pounds. They were heavy, but not excessively so. One of the other trainers, a woman kept and eye on her to make sure Tamalain didn't try to do to much all at once. She was into her second set of curl repetitions when the manager returned with several guards.

About fifteen minutes later the manager returned with two city guards in tow. "There," he pointed angrily, "there she is, the mad woman that picked me up and tried to kill me." Tamalain just ignored them and kept slowly curling the weight, breathe in, then back down, exhale. "Well, are you or are you not going to arrest her and lock her away for public safety."

She smiled because she was sure of what was about to be said next. "Sir, please understand that if we were to even consider arresting her, we would be the ones in the stockade, not her. Are you having fun for once Captain Arrowmark?"

"Well guardsman Raulph, what a pleasant surprise," she said, "I was until that Imp got snotty with me."

"Well Captain Arrowmark, try not to cause too much trouble tonight. The paperwork on arresting an officer is a pain to fill out."

"I am here hiding from the paper piles right now guardsman, so no sympathy from me in that corner."

The gym manager almost swallowed his tongue when he heard whom it is he had so blithely insulted. Nobody went out of there way to upset her after what had happened in the earliest days after Sky Fall began.

Ten years earlier.

Cadet Leader Arrowmark had just finished assisting the last known refugee train out of the rising smoke that had once been their homes. Several caravan leaders were upset over the treatment they had received during the long run from the fire and had begun complaining loudly about it. The chief complaint was that they had not been allowed to stop and care for their animals and mounts properly in three days.

Tamalain decided she needed to confront the chief plaintiff of this bunch first. She figured that if she could close him down, the rest would not cause as much trouble later on down the line. "Ok, let me see if I have this straight in my mind," she said absently. She looked at each of them as she spoke. "You wanted to stop and feed and water your beast on the road, correct?" she said, looking the lead pompous ass in the eyes. "Blocking the road, yes?"

"Well, everyone else would have been able to do the same. Rest, eat and maybe sleep a little bit." His bluster was building, he wasn't going to be pushed around by a child.

"Blocking the road and slowing those that could move faster to escape the fire that was closing in on them, making it so that you could all die from the fire and smoke together."

"Well, not stopping those that wanted to waste their energy running. They could just go around the road camps."

"No, they could not, nor would I allow it. It was by my orders nobody be allowed to block the roads. It was by my orders that anybody that did attempt to do so was put to death as a danger to the rest of the Elven people, right then and their, no exceptions would be entertained. I personally shot and killed seven of your fellow drivers that refused to follow that simple order, do not stop on, or block the roads. If a horse or mule stopped and refused to move, or went lame, kill it and get it off the road. If a wheel broke, grab your basic gear off the cart and get it off the road fast. I will, in time have to answer for my actions and orders, but understand this I did it to get as many of our people out of that burning hell alive as well and fast as I could."

"Lady, you may think you are in command here, but you are nothing but an over stuffed kid in a tin suit and are not suited to lead a pack of cats. The merchants will set up a new order in place of the old council and we will see to the rise of the new Elven Trade Empire."

Tamalain was ready to take his head off right then, but stopped when she saw who had just come out of the smoke in the last few minutes. A group of older Elven with over one hundred Guards around them. She also saw the leaders of all the schools and the Elder council where with them.

"Do you care to repeat that last remark for the record caravan leader." The rest of the drivers saw what was about to happen and backed away slowly from the tower of rage facing them.

The caravan leader did, shouting loud enough that he caused the council to stop and turn their way. She looked at the Council president and brought her hand to the center of her chest, first the thumb up, then down. He replied with the thumb down. "Very well sir," she said addressing those behind the now doomed Elven merchant. "By order of the Council president, who is right behind you by the way, you have been sentenced to death this very minute for high treason and willful endangerment of the Elven peoples as a whole."

She did not give him a chance to reply. She drew on her full power of combat skills and flashed her sword across his neck, severing his head from his shoulders before he even realized he had been condemned. She wiped the small amount of blood off on the corpses tunic, returned it to it's sheath then slowed herself back to normal world speeds. It was about then the head finally reached the stony ground.

"Girl, I had heard you were fast, but that is beyond believable," said the president.

Tamalain ignored the praise, came to attention, and marched over to the guard commander, "Sir, I formally ask that I be placed under arrest for unauthorized taking of Elven lives during the exodus sir."

She stood and waited for the guard to arrest her for murder and to be marched away. After several minutes of standing in front of her elders, she began to fear that her actions were even worse than she had known. She tried to recall if any of those she had killed for refusing keep half the road clear had been important in some way.

Jordan Trueshot walked up to the guard, "I will handle her from here, she is a bit shocked from events over the last week or so. Come with me Cadet. We need to have a quiet talk about circumstances of which you may not have been made aware of as yet."

Jordan led Tamalain off a short distance then quietly explained things to her. "Cadet, once it was known it was Luclin that had exploded and caused the heat flash, a plan that had been created quite a few years ago by Commander Eaglesclaw was quickly put into effect. It set in motion the evacuation of the entire Elven race from the Greater Faydark." Seeing the incredulous looks on her face, "Yes Cadet, your old mentor had laid out a plan for this type of event almost twenty years ago. It rather makes one wonder if he knew this event was coming, or one like it. Well to continue, part of the plan included orders on road travel rules and restrictions. One of those orders set limits on cart and caravan travel from blocking the entire road. Any found doing so and refusing to comply with the orders to clear to one side are to be executed on the spot and the second in charge made to understand they are next if they fail to obey the rules of the road use limits."

"So in other words, no one will file charges against you for upholding the standing orders already in place, even though you did not know about them at the time. Are you clear on that cadet?"

Tamalain looked at him for a moment, trying to digest what she had just learned. She then did the only thing her tired body and mind could do as the overload of the last week caught up with her, she fainted.

Present day

Tamalain smiled at the gym manager since she could tell from his expression what he was remembering. "Don't worry; I haven't had to do a mindless slaughter in years. I just grumble and things tend to settle down on their own in a hurry. I am here to get back into shape. The desk has ruined my form and strength. It used to be if I dressed like this, it was glazed eyes and drool hitting the floor."

"Yes, yes ma'am," he stammered. "I will be more than happy to assist in any way I can." He looked around the room and saw one of the female trainers he had ignored when he came back in. He called her over, "Lenia, come over here please. I have another victim, I mean another customer for you."

Lenia gave him a dirty look then smiled, came over and asked whom she would get to torture into shape. When he pointed, she smiled even bigger when she saw what she thought to an out of shape homemaker type. Those were her favorites to mess with. She went over to Tamalain and looked at what she was lifting then blanched. She saw that Tamalain had increased the weight to 40 pounds and was doing another set of slow curls, "The 30 pounds didn't seem heavy enough, so I went up to 40 and it feels about right now. What is the next best set of muscle groups in the upper body to work after the arms? It has been far too long since I last really worked out daily."

"I would suggest the shoulders and chest, then working down the back and around to the abdominals. If you do upper today, you know that tomorrow is a hard leg workout and run."

"Yes, I am aware of that. Now about the run, what sort of route do you have set up for the long distance runners? I will also need a good hill or small mountain to finish the run on."

Lenia looked at her employer for help but he just shrugged and smiled, turned away and walked out of the room. The guardsmen also decided that now was a good time to leave. Raulph would never say this out loud, but he thought the Captain still looked pretty damned good. "We do have a track marked off, but it is only a quarter mile around. I find it boring as hell myself."

"Nope, that won't do at all," said Tamalain. "We will need to work out a route that is at least 5 miles and goes up a mountain. It has to be that way, I will also be wearing a pack with water and weights in it. It will have to be somewhere around a quarter of my current weight until I get back up to my old speeds, then we will see how it goes from there."

Even as she was talking, she had continued the shoulder lifts she had started. When she finished with them, she paused and got a bit of water. Tamalain moved her arms in the full range of motion as she could feel them beginning to tighten up. "I will need to work on my stretching too. I am far too much out of shape for someone my age to be."

Lenia had just watched as Tamalain went through each exercise type, then started over and did them all again, with even more weight added on. "Ma'am, I am sorry to be nosy, but what is it you do and how did you get to be able to lift so much weight so easily, yet claim to be out of shape."

"You might say I am the manager of managers, in charge of the town over all. As to how I got in shape in the first place, I started weight training when I was six or seven, and just kept at it. The run I did was at least 5 miles every day and included the switchback path up the mountain behind the old Upper Pass Village. I used to live there when I was growing up. And before you ask how I survived, I was in Kelethin at the Rangers school when Luclin blew up."

"I see, and do you have a name ma'am?"

Tamalain could see this girl was not being sarcastic, she was preparing for the worst. "Call me Tama. That would be easiest on you I think, and I will call you Len, Deal?"

"That works for me Tama. By the way, you need to slow down on the crunch's, you are going to fast and you don't get the full burn. You only come up halfway, hold for a count of five, then exhale slowly as you lower yourself back down."

"Right you are, I get to talking and start speeding up. That is a bad habit of mine that I have never been able to quite break."

"That is why I am here Tama, I see to it that you do the exercises the correct way and not hurt yourself while doing them."

The rest of the workout session went with out incident until near the end her aide Maggie came rushing into the gym in a very upset state. "Captain Arrowmark, Thank goodness I finally found you. News just arrived from the southern Butcherblock region; there has been another Sky Fall Incident ma'am. It seems to have come down in Dagnor's Cauldron. The Dwarves reported in that it seems to have hit near the water line on the ocean side and punched completely through the mountain wall. The lake has been drained into the sea."

It was now Captain Arrowmark that sat back up on the bench, "We will need to have riders ready to head out within the hour to confirm this. We may also need that damned wood sooner than we expected as well. Send Gray word to be ready to depart in two days maximum. Lenia, I have to go, work has called me back, and it is a bitch." She jumped up grabbing her towel to wipe herself down then stopped. "Maggie, give me thirty minutes, I need to go and clean up a bit."

"No problem Ma'am. Everything will be ready when you arrive at the office."

Lenia just stared as both of the women left the room, and wondered what just happened. Her boss came in and asked, "What just happened out here Lenia?"

"Damned if I know boss. Things were going along great, then that other woman comes running in saying something about another rock fall down by Dagnor's cauldron. After that, it was a flurry of orders and out both women went. Who is Tama really boss, I feel like I should know, but just can't quite make the connection."

"You didn't catch the name she was called did you."

Lenia just shook her head in the negative.

"That my dear Lenia is none other than Captain Tamalain Arrowmark. Ring any bells now?"

Lenia went pale and returned to cleaning the equipment as she was doing before things got interesting.

Captain Arrowmark found chaos in her headquarters upon her return. Several Dwarves had arrived with additional information on the Sky Fall event while she was getting ready to face the world.

"It came down hard and fast about six days ago. One of the largest seen in the Butchblock so far. Flaming and smoking all the way down with a roar that sent the Drakes and giants in the hills running for cover. Our scouts tracked it to its impact zone and found most of Dagnor's had already drained. The local wildlife in there is aquatic in nature, so they found themselves in trouble right away. One of the Mer folk that ended up trapped by the water level drop told them that the rest rode with the flow and hit the ocean. Nobody knows if they would have survived the 450 foot drop though. A bit far to fall, even in water if you ask me, and I know you didn't."

"Thank you for the update. Will we be seeing any refugees from that area in the near future."

"Doubtful Captain, anybody that did not get out before impact died from the heat flash, the rest washed out or will suffocate in stale water before to much longer. As I said, most life in there are water breathers."

Tamalain thought about it for a moment, "Then go get cleaned up, have some food, get some sleep before heading back out. We still need to get things going up here that we all have been putting off. That rock did me favor really, it got me off my ass and moving again."

After the dwarves and other department heads had departed, Tamalain sat in her all too comfortable chair and thought. She thought about her position here, how she got it and what she intended to do to escape it. "Maggie," she called.

The head appeared in the door, "Yes ma'am?"

"Send a runner to find Lieutenant De'var and have him report to me soonest."

"Yes ma'am. Finally going to grab a mission and high tale it to the back of the beyond?"

"You better believe it. Gray is going to have one more body with him, and he better not complain about it."

"I am sure he will be delighted to have you along. Will you be taking over as scout leader on this mission Ma'am?"

"I am not sure on that, I just need to get away from here before this desk and chair kill me. I have finally figured out why I was shoved into this assignment over all my objections, it was to keep me out of trouble, that's why. Well Trouble, look out, I am coming to find you."

Nine years earlier

"Captain Arrowmark, you are being assigned to get this town in order and the people back to living, not just existing."

"But sir, I am just a third year. I haven't finished basic scouting school, I haven't had any formal command and leadership training, I am not up to this task sir. Besides, who will listen to a wet behind the ears kid around here."

"That Captain Arrowmark is where you are wrong. You don't see it because you are to close too the problem," said Jordan. "I have been watching how things have been going here for several weeks now. You have been in charge in one way or another for nearly a year."

Before she could start more objections he continued, "All this does is make official what you have been doing, getting this town built and going. I am very curious about one thing I have seen though. How did you get that old necromancer to use his talents to help out with the farmers plowing needs?"

Tamalain smiled and explained the old necromancer in question. "It turns out he was a friend of Elder's. He had been living in a gold mine a few miles inside Butcherblock from Upper Pass. He used stone golems exclusively for his work in gathering the metals that he traded with for food and supplies. My first encounter with him was just after the first rock falls as we were leaving the Greater Faydark."

Chapter 2 »