Fallen Skies
Chapter 2

Copyright© 2014 by Tamalain

Just as she started to back away, a gravely yet soft hissing voice right behind her head said, "Did you see what you wanted to see little Elven girl?"

Tamalain froze in place on hearing the voice behind her. She felt a jolt of adrenalin slam her heart and started it pounding in her chest as another wave of raw terror seized her mind. By what effort she never knew or understood, she was able to stay frozen in place.

"I know your there girl, I can hear the pounding of your heart, I can smell the scent of fear coming from you. Oh yes, I know you're a girl for, shall we say, other reasons." It gave an evil hissing chuckle that released even greater shocks of fear into her body and mind, even as she was fighting to regain control of herself. "Oh come now child, I will find you and kill you, you know. I have always found your race to be a tasty snack, still do in fact. Now come out and play, I am in the mood to toy with my food before feeding."

Tamalain stopped struggling with her fear and just felt for her hearts beating. She willed it to slow down and relax back to its normal quiet rhythm. As her heart slowed, she looked into herself at the fear that gripped her mind. Slowly, oh so slowly she worked at the fear, forcing it down into the back of her mind, making it merely a thing to ignore until she had more time to deal with it more directly. She felt a sense of calm settle over her and she was able too once again think clearly. 'That fear effect, it is an area effect spell, a very powerful one too, ' she thought.

"Very good child, your hearts pounding is fading along with your fear. I know you are near by, so now we will just have to find you in a less direct manner." She heard a hard fast intake of breath, and then with a slow smoke filled exhale, it filled the area far to her left down wind. When he did not see her in the cloud, he slowly turned towards what would be the center of the arc, with her squatting dead in the center. She knew she had to see her enemy so she would know what she was up against before she would try to escape. Very slowly, carefully she rose to her feet, taking a small pebble between two gloved fingers as she rose. That was a risky move when camouflaged; the pebble could break the camouflage if she moved too quickly.

Once she was standing, she turned around, being careful not to scuff her feet or disturb any of the brush around her. As she came up and around, she found herself nose to nose with a Dragon type creature terrible to behold. Its body was twice the size of a large horse; the neck extended a good eight feet from the body, and was as thick as her upper legs to support its head. The tail extended back twenty feet, was spinney, and spiked down its entire length. Its skin was a black so deep it seemed to have purplish undertones. Its eyes seemed to glow a sickening shade of purple that made her stomach twist in knots. It is of the four-legged variety of dragon, with its large wings folded tightly to its body. The talons were evil looking and sharp, the needle pointed nails about six inch's long on all four claws. The teeth, well, she saw enough of them to add a new level of fear that had nothing to do with the spell that continued to cast around her.

Her heart once again tried to begin its heavy pounding but she stopped it before it could start. She knew it would breathe out more smoke soon, and she was right in its path. She also knew she would only have one chance to escape, so she flipped the tiny pebble to her right. It bounced off a branch ten feet away making a sound like a twig snapping.

The creature spun and blew out a blast of intense fire that flashed all the brush in its path to ashes in seconds. Even aimed away as it was, the blast cooked the facing outer layer of her leather armor. She quickly tried to cast escape but the spell fizzled, leaving her exposed to attack. She knew that she would need a full minute before she could try and cast escape again, so she had to act fast or die even faster at the beast's teeth and claws. The dragon started to turn towards her as she became visible, but Tamalain did not wait for it to finish turning. Pulling out both of her large daggers, she went into full speed battle mode. Once again she cursed Jordan for putting her behind a desk and under that spell for so long, she found she was slower than she should be and clumsy in her actions and reactions.

She jumped towards the beast aiming to stab it in the eyes. She misjudged the jump and the movement of the dragon. She ended up flying over its head and landing on its back between its massive wings folded. She then tried to drive the pointed weapons into the beast spine, in hopes of crippling it. She activated the lightning bolt ability she had killed Thornbreak with, but her misjudgment caused her to miss the spinal column as it spun about while trying to shake her off. One blade dug into the muscle at the base of the left wing, the other lodged in the spine ridge in the center of its back. The scales blackened and burned at the entry point, but the charge did little else to the spine. The wing base on the other hand burned and cooked heavily as the blade drove deep into the main flight muscles of the left wing. She jumped as the dragon lurched to the side as its damaged wing dropped uselessly, unfolding to the ground. The enraged beast released a roar of agony that summoned hundreds of others to its aid. She hit the ground running and did not look back.

"I will hunt you to the end of time for this insult Elven witch; I will kill all of your kind as I should have done when you first appeared at the end of the Age of Scale." Now she knew what it was that she was up against, The Drakota. They were the servants of the greater Dragons, the fighters of the dragon kind, and none too smart if legend and myth had it right. She ran away from the crater, but not towards her two poorly trained footpads. She needed less than 30 seconds before she could try to cast escape again, so she went down slope rather than up. It was then that she knew what part of the old ridgeline she had stumbled upon in her hurry to escape. She heard the sound she had been expecting and dropped into the ditch in her path and kept running as a blast of flame shot over her head. Even though the blast missed, she felt the intense heat and smelled the leather on her back partially cook from the heat.

She now had a few seconds to think as the fear faded. These were extinct, wiped out in the final dragon wars so many ages past. Yet here they are; did they hide a clutch of eggs, casting some sort of stasis on them? That must be the case, yet what woke them, think Tam, Think, what does a dragon egg need to mature, heat, lots of heat. Ah, horse crap, the Luclin flare must have caused the eggs to awaken and hatch. One male and a dozen or so females, they must mature fast for so many to have laid eggs already. More for that later, wings appeared over her head, DUCK! She acted without thought and crouched without slowing.

Tamalain ducked down as a pair of razor sharp claws tried to latch onto her from above. They missed her by mere inches or so she thought, she kept low and moving fast. Once she cleared the ditch, she found what she was looking for further on down the slope, a large pile of tumbled stones she used to rest on after her run up the hill. She dove behind it just as she felt the twinge of the Escape spell resetting. Without thinking, she cast it and felt the pull as she quickly flashed into a sparkling cloud and was gone. The lead male charged around the pile to witness the last of the spell effect.

"Blast, the portal spells must be coming back, that wasn't supposed to be possible anymore." He turned and growled at a female to come and pull the weapons from his back. Carefully, she pulled the one that had tangled in the spines. It pulled away with no difficulty. The second dagger was harder as the muscles had bound and cooked around it and would not release it. "Just pull it out, I will deal with the damage later," he roared in dragon speech. She grabbed it in her jaws and pulled hard, the wing root tore and he started to bleed badly, but the weapon came out. The scream he gave out was heard miles away back at the main camp causing the evacuation to begin. Gray wasted no time on this. He wanted the camp packed and gone in less than 30 minutes.

Tamalain materialized right where she had planned. With hardly a break from the diving roll she had been in when she ported, she yelled, "Up now you two, we have to run even faster than before. If those Drakota catch us, we are dead, now move it!"

Both had been dozing when she appeared and startled when she yelled at them. "What's the rush, we have time before they get here," said the taller scout.

Tamalain backhanded him in the head as she passed him. "Run you worthless worm, I may not like doing this, but I will not leave you behind to be eaten by that fire breathing Dragon kin. Now move your ass's boys before you get the ultimate ass chewing!"

Both heard the scream from the weapons where being pulled out and almost lost their bladder control, they were now convinced to run that much harder and faster. Even their best efforts could not match Tamalain Arrowmark when she was in full battle mode. She felt something burning inside her; it was warning that she was getting low on mana.

Just as she was running dry on power, she saw the camp up ahead. Gray already had everybody up and packing like mad to move out in minutes. That roaring scream had induced terror in everybody even this far out. "Gray," Tamalain yelled as she staggered into camp, "Drakota! Hundreds of adults, thousands of eggs, we have to get word back to the council!" She collapsed into unconsciousness as her exhausted mana ran completely out. The two scouts made it back just as the personal moved out at a near run. "More running sir, this just isn't fair." They both complained.

Their commander sent then to the head of the column to lead the way. He also informed them they were relieved of scouting duty until they went back to school and learned how to be scouts.

Tamalain regained consciousness several hours later as the tired horses needed a short break for watering and feeding. She saw Gray standing nearby, looking at the sky in the direction they had just come from. He had been seeing winged beast on and off for the last two hours. He looked down when she moaned and tried to sit up. "Stay down a bit longer Tam. You really burned yourself out getting back down the mountain."

"What happened, are they following us yet? Did those two incompetents make it back?" She moaned as she fell back on to the furs she was laying on.

"In reverse order, yes those two made it back and are on point. No, the Drakota are not following yet. They are maintaining an air presence now though. As to the first, you tell me."

She related most of the events to her arrival at the ridge. He looked very disturbed at the numbers she told him. "Are you sure of that nest count. It hardly seems possible that they could have reproduced that quickly in such great numbers."

"That is what I saw up there Gray. I was almost peeing myself with terror from the area effect fear spell they had going. That takes a massive amount of power to produce on that scale."

"Well, I suspect Tam it was more of one male and several hundred ready female eggs that hatched first. You were seeing the older generation and the eggs were from them."

"Ok, I can accept that theory. It makes more sense than the one-year maturation I was thinking of. Now where are we, and why aren't we still moving."

"It is coming up on sundown so I figured on stopping for an hour to give the animals a rest. You need several more hours sleep yourself young woman. The cleric said you had used every, last scrap of mana in your body on the run back. You are lucky you are still alive."

"It wasn't just the run that got to me Gray; it was the working escape spell that drained me so much."

"The Escape spell is functional again? That ability died with the portal network Tamalain Arrowmark. How did you gain access to when nobody else can?"

"I felt a funny twinge earlier in the day and the ability was there, ready to use. I did have to set a bind point though. It was blank in my mind, so I used a medallion given to me by the old Necromancer shortly before he died. He said it would allow me to return to a place I was once before. I used it and it worked, it set my bind point where I left the two kids in hiding."

"Did you have any trouble casting it?" He moved over to the cart and sat next to Tamalain.

The first attempt failed, so I was on the run for the next minute or so, the second try worked thankfully or I would be filling a Drakota's belly now. It was during the run I lost both of my daggers. I left them imbedded in its back. I also found out they are very resistant to magical attacks. The lightning strike barely singed him."

"I can almost bet it was the pulling of the daggers that made him roar so loud. Where in his back did you plant your dagger blades?"

"I was aiming for his eyes, but I misjudged my timing and landed on his back. One ended up trapped in the spinal ridge, the other though I managed to drive into the muscles at the base of his left wing. They did cook a bit so the blade may have been more than a little stuck."

"Yes, that would explain the scream of agony we heard. You know you have also grounded him. What little is known indicates magic resistance includes healing. You might very well have crippled him for life."

"He did promise to follow me and wipe all the Elven out as they should have done when we first appeared." She paused. "No, he said 'as I should have', not they. Could he have been there at the final battle, then slept in stasis all this time? How could he have survived all these thousands of years, even in stasis spell."

"I can't answer you on that one Tamalain, which is about all I know about them. The High Elven might know more, but I doubt any of the wood Elven do." Gray looked around and saw that most of the horses were ready to move again. "Up people, we have a hoard of pissed off dragon kind back there ready to come done for a snack. Mount up and move out!"

Nobody decided to argue so within minutes the caravan was rolling at a pace just short of a run. "You try to get a few more hours sleep Tamalain you are still not ready for another speed run."

Tamalain felt inside and saw her mana pool was still far lower than it should be. She quickly found that with the complete loss of mana, all her abilities shut down, even the one that helped keep her power pool full. She carefully reactivated the needed abilities, closed her eyes, and fell straight away to sleep.


She appeared in the dream world and her Grandmother was there waiting for her. "That was way too close for comfort Tamalain. I am going to haunt Jordan's nightmares for years for what he has done to you."

"No Granddame, no need for that. I have my own way of dealing with him. Tell me, had you ever encountered anything like that big bastard before?"

"Nothing in that size range, I did have a hand in the final take down of Lady Vox though, but that was many long years before your father was even born. She was about ten times the size of the Drakota, and meaner."

"That is going quite a ways back in history. What about the Sleeper, I have heard tales of that, but nothing that made any sense."

"I stayed as far away from that encounter as I could. Sometime earlier, I was by higher authority, informed not to go up Veeshans peek more than once. I am glad I was on the Plane of Knowledge at the time. I was assisting in setting up a exploration run into the Plane of Time. That was not much fun for any of us either. We never made it past the second lock the resistance was so heavy. Later a larger group raided in and cleared it out, but boy did they pay the price for it. We all paid for their trespassing in fact. Time split into multiple paths of new possible futures. Some better, most were worse. I'm not sure if we got one of the better ones. I did see a vision of one time line where the portal network was crashed almost 400 years before ours, but Luclin stayed together until about the same time as ours went up."

"With escape working again, do you think the entire network will be restored?"

"That is up to the gods, so I have no idea. Well Granddaughter, you are at full charge, time to run again. Set your bind point well away from the town. Others may be able to link to it and wizard port there. Be safe child." With that last thought, Tamalains eye opened and she felt fully refreshed.


The wagon she had been loaded on was bumping along the rough dirt track at a dangerously high speed for this late at night. Most of the drivers had runners out front with lit torches to lead the way. Others stayed close behind the one in front of them, using them as guides. Tamalain sat up and discovered that she was not stiff, sore, nor hurting in any way. She was hungry and thirsty though. Gray was sitting next to her, dozing while the run went on through the night. She decided he needed to call it a night after she looked back and did not see any wings in the dark, even with infra-vision.

She nudged Gray and he woke up with a start and almost panicked. "Calm down Gray, there isn't anything wrong for the moment. You need to call off the run until after sunrise. It's time to allow everybody and the animals some rest."

Gray just nodded and called out to the lead runner to look for a good place to stop for the remainder of the night. It only took a few minutes for the entire caravan to pull to the side of the road and everybody except a few guards and the handlers were asleep.

"Gray, I am going ahead, I need to get the second group turned around before they get too far from town."

"Are you ready Tam, I know you were wiped out just a few hours ago."

"I am fully charged and rested. I have to go, oh yeah I am taking this bread and cheese with me, I am famished." She took several large bites then drank down what remained in her water skins. She stopped at the wagon that was loaded with water barrels and refilled both the skins she carried. After getting her fill and topping off the skins again, she made her way to the front of the caravan. She gave a quick wave to the leading guards, kicked in the Journeyman's run and vanished into the night.


Four men, human men that is, had set up camp on a hillside along the main road where it split off towards the Greater Faydark Upper Pass. They had some hopes of playing at being bandits and making their fortunes that way. Several days earlier when the caravan came through, they had laid low, as they did not feel like taking on over a dozen armed guards. It was coming up on dawn and the one on watch called the others quietly that some one was coming down the high road fast.

One of the men had learned a simple version of the tangle foot spell to slow their target down to make for easy picking. The caster saw the moving target and cast his spell. He was elated that it worked and had brought the person to a near dead stop. It was the last thought he ever had.

Tamalain felt the tangle foot grab her and slow her to a crawl. She didn't even have to think about what she did next. First infra-vision came in to play to get a clear number of targets, four of them. 'Large, possible humans, too bad for them she thought.' She pulled her bow around with her right hand and four arrows from the quiver with her left, holding each arrow between two fingers. She nocked and fired all four in just over a second, dropping all four targets before they even knew they were the ones in danger.

As the caster dropped, so did the spell, she sped back to full speed in a second and put away her bow. She had made the decision not to check on them, as time was more important than making sure they were all dead. She need not have worried about them though; she had switched to Dragon hunter arrows, steel broad heads. All four had died as her shots went clean into each of their hearts.


About 30 minutes later just as the sun had risen over the horizon, she came to the second group. "Who is in charge," she asked the guards on duty at the time.

"Mister Graph ma'am, but he will not be up yet for at least another hour."

"Too bad for him then, alert the rest of the guards, and get everybody up fast. This lot has to be turned around and running for their lives back to town in less than an hour."

"Why should we do that ma'am, I mean, who are you to give us orders," ask one of the guards.

"Now I really know why I hated that desk job most of all, I am not even known by my own troops. Captain Tamalain Arrowmark at your service, now as I was saying. There are several hundred very pissed off and hungry Drakota about to come pouring out of the Greater Faydark upper pass region. The Upper Glenn's is the first obstacle and major food source in their path, we need everybody back to town, and all the defenses readied before they arrive."

"Ma'am, anybody can make a claim as to who they think they are. I need proof before..." He was drawing out a small club as he was approaching her. When he later regained consciousness in the infirmary in town, he found he had two broken arms and a concussion.

Tamalain looked at his partner, "Now, you do as I say or you will be joining that insubordinate idiot, got it?"

"Yes Ma'am! Get this camp up and moving back to town NOW!" He ran off yelling for the sergeant of the guard and the commander to help get things moving.

The guard commander for this group approached Tamalain carefully. "Ma'am please calmly try and explain to me exactly why we need to get everybody up and moving back the way we just came from."

"Commander Westleaf, I believe, you will not ask why, you will do as I say or join that piece of trash on the ground over there," she pointed to the broken pile of the one guard. "Now I will stay my hand long enough to ask this, how much dragon lore do you remember. Think about Drakota, and think of there being several hundred of those pissed off dragon kind about to come down from the hills and eat everything in their path, including you. Is that clear enough?" She was in his face holding him by the front of his tunic shaking him so hard his teeth rattled.

"If this Graph comes out to try and get in the way, gut him and get this bunch of slackers moving in less than an hour. I say less than an hour because in about two, group one is going to run your slow ass's over."

Now he was terrified, he now knew whom he was dealing with and she was in the beheading state of mind. "We will be moving well before then Ma'am." He turned and ran to the alarm gong and laid into it hard and loud. "Everybody up now, this is not a drill. I repeat this in not a drill! We move in thirty minutes, packed or not, Get up people up, we move in thirty. Anybody not up gets left behind to be dragon food!" He was shouting this at the top of his lungs and nobody argued. At least not until Graph came out and demanded to know what was going on and who called the emergency without consulting him first.

Commander Westleaf saw Captain Arrowmark working up to a level of rage that any self-respecting Dragon would shy away from as she closed in on Graph. He ran over to Graph, grabbed him by the shirtfront, and pulled him away from the impending death sentence. "Graph, just shut up and do as you're told, she is dead serious, group one is coming at a full run in less than two hours, we have to be well on our way back to town or we get run over and left as dragon food."

Graph was a pompous sort that did not handle being handled well, "Now listen up, I am in charge of this group, not her. This is my group, not hers, so she can just go ahead and play the coward all she wants, but we go on and finish the mission."

"Sir, I have orders from the City Commander to gut you and leave you as dragon food if you get in the way of the retreat. Now go back and get that palace of a tent loaded on the wagon and be ready to move in twenty five minutes." The guard commander moved on to help one couple that seemed to be having trouble pulling their tent stakes up.

Tamalain had gotten her temper under control for the moment and was going around helping wherever an assist was needed. One woman asked her, "Why do you smell like brimstone, I didn't know there were active volcanoes around here."

Tamalain stopped and took a sniff at her leather top. "I guess that is the odor left behind from several near misses of Dragon fire madam. I hadn't even noticed it until you mentioned it." She moved off to help a girl that was trying to load a large crate on the cook's wagon by herself.

"Let me help you with that," she said.

"Thanks lady. All the men are busy getting important things like the booze loaded on that wagon over there." She pointed at were a group of Elven men where quickly loading barrels and crates on the small wagon.

All the men froze as an arrow suddenly appeared in the side of the barrel they were lifting. It buzzed and vibrated for a few seconds after impact, sending the message that they should stop right there. As one, they turned and looked in the direction the arrow had come from. What they saw there made all of them decide today was not going to get any better.

Tamalain had her bow out, an arrow nocked, the string drawn, with three more arrows in her hand ready to fire in an instant. One of the men recognized her and said the only thing worth saying. "Men, if we so much as flinch, she will put all of us down before we can finish, so don't get any bright ideas."

All the men quickly moved to load the needed gear onto the kitchen wagons, staying well away from the Ale and Wine. Not one of them was willing to test her temper any further.

Tamalain relocated the guard commander and told him, "Keep them moving, I need to go ahead and warn the town to prepare. From there I will have a long run to Central at the Docks to inform the council of the new danger."

"Yes Ma'am. Drakota's, they are supposed to be extinct though."

"A hidden egg stash and a Dominate male in stasis, when Luclin exploded it supplied the energy to awaken them. I have to go now."

She called up her Journeyman's run and saw she would not have enough mana to make it to town. She stopped and looked around for a moment until she found a bard that was loading tents on a wagon. "Singer, I need your services for a few minutes. Mana recharge, here is a gold for the service." She handed him the coin and he pulled out his flute and started to play a sprightly tune. She sat down and closed her eyes to help increase the effect on her.

She suddenly snapped awake, realizing she had dozed off and the bard had stopped playing. "All charged ma'am, have a safe run," he said.

Tamalain stood up and stretched to get a few kinks out, then stepped out at full speed and was gone. Her speed seemed to be a considerably higher than normal, so feeling for a difference, she saw somebody had cast SoW on her while she had been dozing. She silently thanked the Druid or Ranger that had helped her out. That thought made her heartache, she needed to train even more to be able to cast that spell on herself.

Thanks to the SoW spell, she made more miles than she expected in the early morning cool. When she felt SoW wear off, she switched over to Journeyman's and continued on her run back to her town. Town, do I even know the name of my own command? The Upper Glenn's, is the name of her town. I am not doing well at all. I allowed them to push me into a job I hated, then it turns out half my own staff don't even recognize me, and I can barely remember the name of my own town. She wondered what all did the sigil do to her all those years, she thought miserably. She continued her long run expecting to arrive at Upper Glenn's well before sundown.


Gray kept a close eye out for any sign of wings behind them; so far, the sky had stayed clear. He heard a shout from the point team, something about bodies on the road is all he heard. The group as a whole came to a sudden stop at the shout, and everybody looked up, fearing they would see winged shapes diving at them. The skies remained clear, easing the sudden fears. When Gray reached the lead group, he saw what they had found and gave a cold-hearted chuckle. "No dragons here folks, just one pissed off Captain Arrowmark. They must have tried to waylay her and she gave them her answer. Those are her arrows sticking out of them." He pointed to two of the point team, "Recover the arrows, and let's get this mess rolling again. We are wasting time here; don't call a stop unless it is an actual threat."

"Yes sir," they replied.

"Let's get moving people, those Drakota's are coming, and soon, we need to be inside the defenses before then." He looked back up the road behind them and shivered in dread.


Tamalain arrived at the outskirts of Upper Glenn's just before nightfall, so most of the folks had already returned to their homes to eat and sleep for the night. She arrived at her old office just as Maggie was leaving. "Maggie, where is the LT? I need to see him now, and the mayor, this is a full scale emergency!"

"Captain," She started in surprise at seeing her old boss and the condition of her armor and face. "They are all home or maybe the taverns. I don't keep track of them at night ma'am."

"Damn, I need to sound the alarm bells, we are in grave danger." Tamalain took off as fast as her tired body could go and made it to the main guard tower. These guardsmen knew her well and responded to her condition and orders quickly. Sound the full alarm fellows; there is a threat worse than the fire that drove us out of the Faydark coming our way and soon."

"Captain, have you looked in a mirror lately," one asked.

"No time and no mirrors, why?"

He opened a door with a full-length mirror mounted on it, for checking the appearance of ones armor and uniforms. She looked and saw a sight unlike any she had seen since that last day coming out of the fire. The upper back of her armor was singed, nearly burned through from the near miss, and the rest was torn and ragged looking from the running and fighting she had done during that brief encounter on the mountain ridge. Her face was nearly black from the built up road dirt and her hair a tangled mess.

"No time to worry about that, I need to get this town on war footing before dawn. I stirred up a Drakota nest that has spawned in the Upper Pass Crater. They will be coming out soon looking for more food and revenge."

"Drakota Ma'am? Those are extinct. Have been for ages too," interrupted one of the younger guards.

She didn't even turn to look as she slapped him across the room. "I am not kidding, now sound the damn alarm or there will be more widows tonight than there needs to be!" Tamalain had finally had enough of the lazy ineptitude that had crept into the Elven people. "To hell with all of you then, I will let Gray handle you. I will just end up killing you if I keep trying to get you moving."

Tamalain stalked out of the tower and the bells began a strident ringing. She had finally gotten through to them. The alarm, on having finally been sounded, meant security could begin to prepare the town for the upcoming attack. She walked to her quarters and stripped off her ruined gear. 'I will never wear that leather again. I am a Ranger, I will wear what is mine by right.'

She first went to the bathhouse near her quarters. She washed herself, removing the road and battle grime. She then cleaned and combed her hair out, careful to get all the harder tangles out. Once it was a flowing red wave, she was ready to return to her quarters and dress.

First, she put on a soft under suit that she had not worn in years. It fit much to her surprise. That was when she realized how much fat she had burned off her body on the long marathon run. She carefully removed her personal Enchanted Faysteel chain mail set from her storage chest. She donned it carefully to ensure that nothing was going to be pinched or caught in the links. Once she was suited up, she pulled out her complete enchanted weapons set. Her Enchanted Faysteel Longsword, the Short Sword is also made of Enchanted Faysteel. It also had the benefit of being a good parrying sword.

Next, she put the bow she had carried with her away, brought out her masterpiece, The Compound bow she had made at Greens. She oiled it, waxed the wood, and made sure it was ready for use. She replaced the small travel quiver for her battle quiver. This one could hold up to 100 arrows at need and add poisons to the arrows. She fully loaded the quiver with all the arrows she had made herself. Once her travel packs and bags were set, she moved out to get some food and drink she would need for her next run.

When she left her quarters, she found the town was in complete chaos. Nobody could figure out who was in charge and none of the preparations that needed to be made could get started. Tamalain thought about it for a few seconds then decided that the town folk were idiots after all. She grabbed a passing guard and told him to start gathering the rest of the guards together at the tower. He started calling out and she snagged a second and sent him in another direction with the same instructions. A third guard she sent to find the LT and Mayor.

She walked to the meeting point and called out for their attention. When yelling did not work, she pulled an arrow and fired over their heads. It had a streamer of fire coming from it, so it became very quiet when the arrow exploded against a stonewall knocking several square yards of stone and mortar out of it.

"Now that I have your undivided attention, here is what happened and what needs to happen fast." She related in brief the events of the previous day and the new danger headed their way. "I know it is hard to accept, but the threat is real, and they are seriously pissed off at Elven kind in general, and myself in particular. It seems in a long distant past age, our kind help destroy their kind."

"All defensive fortifications will need to be fully manned until the threat has been dealt with. I will be making the next leg of my run to central to inform the council about what is going on out here. We are going to need all the help we can get and soon. Both Faydark recon groups should arrive by dawn, so be ready to assist two very tired groups of folks in the gates. All non-combatants are to assist in any way they can. Their biggest duty will be fire control. These are fire breathers, and possibly other forms of breath attack. I personally only got singed, so I can't be certain of the other types."

"Now, I need a bard, are any of the couriers in town today?"

"We had an arrival yesterday morning, he should be about ready to head back out in a few hours," reported the guard commander. "He should be up by now, check at the reception center were they stay."

"Thank you, I will do that, now be ready for everything. This is going to be a bloody and deadly battle when it begins." She saluted the troops and took off to find her soon to be running partner.

When she arrived at the reception hall, she saw a face that brought a smile of joy. "Silor! Thank the gods it's you and not somebody else."

Silor turned muttering, "I know that voice, no, not her, please don't let it be her." As he finished turning and saw Tamalain, his face fell because he knew what was coming.

"Hi Silor, how's the voice screeching these days?"

"Tama, please, I don't want to get in trouble again, you were a menace as a kid, now you are the terror of the upper Butcherblock." When finished turning, he got a good look and stopped, gaping at the fully armed and armored Redheaded Nightmare from hell. "Tama, what is going on, the entire town is in chaos, you are set for war, and you are looking at me in a way that says I should be very afraid."

"Silor, I stirred up a Drakota nest at the crater. There are Drakota up there Silor, Hundreds of them, and they are coming down to kill us all. I have to get to Central at the docks to report in person to the council. We will need the entire Wood Elven population and the Dwarves to fight these terrors off."

"I was right, you are trouble. Ever since that day on the path, I knew you would be trouble for all of us." He stopped and sighed in exasperation," Ok, I will run you, but it will cost you too."

"We can worry about that later Silor, grab your gear, we have to move out now."

"All right, all right, hang on a second." He went over to the table he had been sitting at to eat his breakfast, collected his mail bags and set all his running gear in place. Getting the drum properly set took but a moment, he began to tap it lightly to bring the power of Selos Accelerado in to being. He grabbed Tamalains arm and concentrated, binding her to him, so she would stay right with him. "Ok, Lets move out, but understand, it is a two day run, even if we skip all the mail stops."

"We skip them then, leave the mail for the next runner. We will also need to stop about two miles outside of town for a minute. I have something to do there and show you."

They took off at a pace that made it hard to follow them with the eyes. Once outside the gates Silor began to beat on the drum rather than tap it. The full power of Selos engaged and Tamalain learned the meaning of speed. At two miles out, he slowed to a stop, but maintained the tapping to keep the effect up. He watched as Tamalain set the amulet on the ground and concentrated for a minute. He felt the binding take effect and he suddenly found he could cast Escape as well. As a Bard he could use it, but like the rest of Norrath, had not been able to since the destruction of Luclin.

Tamalain saw the surprised look on his face, "No, I don't know how or why it works now. I am just glad it does or I would have been dragon chow. Let's run my friend, let's run like no others have ever before run."

With a smile that was almost insane, he brought the Selos back to full power and they vanished from sight, leaving a small cloud of dust moving down the road. Silor was not ignoring his mana as this running took a fair amount to maintain for any long periods of time.

"Tam," he shouted. "I am going to begin twisting two songs to maintain my mana for this, so be ready for a slight jolt each time I switch back and forth between them."

She nodded and he switched to his mana song. She felt the Selos effect still going, but it was slowly fading. After 30 seconds he switched back and Selos came back up to full power. Every 30 seconds he switched back and forth between the two. Tamalain had heard of this style, but had never had a chance to experience it first hand. Her mana was topped out and not dropping even as she was holding her defensive abilities at full strength.

They ran on for six hours when Silor singled he needed to stop and rest for a few minutes. Tamalain nodded affirmative to the request, so he let the mana song fade then slowed both of them down the a walk and released the Selos effect. "Tama, I think we just covered that distance and set a new record. 200 miles girl, this is the two hundred marker. I need to drink and rest a few hours, can we spare that much time?"

"Silor my oldest friend, we are so far ahead of what I was expecting, you take the night if you need it."

"No, just need to eat and drink a bit. As you pointed out, you need to reach the council fast if you want to prevent a slaughter of our people by the Drakota." He pulled out a bar of dried pressed meat and fruit and started chewing on it. Tamalain chewed hers and started drinking water to try and soften the shoe leather tough road rations.

"Sorry Tam, the only way to get it less tough is to boil it a bit. No time for that now, just chew harder." He lead by example and she tried. It felt more like she would break her teeth off after a few minutes.

"Do you eat this very often Silor?"

"Not if I can avoid it. I try to time the run so each stop has an Inn that I can eat at."

"Smart plan, I can't chew this anymore. Next time I will bring something a little more jaw and tooth friendly, if there is a next time that is."

A few minutes later Silor indicated it was time to hit the road and cover more miles. Once back up to speed, Tamalain asked him, "Hey Silor, do any of your bard songs have words or are they just hummed and sung tunes."

He thought about that for a moment, "You know Tam, I don't think any of the Bards power songs have actual words. I wonder if lyrics would change the effect any."

"Well Silor, I was listening to the tune and these words seem to fit."

I'm a wood Elven bard I run across the Karana plains.

I sing this song and run so fast my feet they look like flames.

Selo's is the greatest song to get to where your going,

I'm Wood Elven Bard, across the Karana Plains.

Go Selo's Go,

Go Selo's Go,

I'm a wood Elven Bard, I really like to sing.

( **** My dear readers, if you can't place the tune for that, well. ****)

Silor Burst out laughing and that caused the effect to fade a bit. He quickly restarted the song and got them back up to speed. Then just for the heck of it, he started sing the lyrics she had created. He felt a massive jolt of power when he added the words and their speed increased by more than double. He felt the effect and quickly did a mental and motion check list.

Can I still maneuver? He swerved a few times side to side and found he was still able to control the run. Good, not being able to turn would be bad at this speed. He glanced at Tamalain to make sure she was still with him and unharmed. The look he saw was of a wild woman smiling manically into the wind and laughing in sheer joy at the speed they were now moving.

Silor did notice though his mana was dropping off far faster than normal, and he was not able to twist two songs when singing. He stopped the lyrics and went back to the normal mode of singing and was able to twist the tunes again. Their overdrive speed continued for a few more seconds then they dropped back down to the safer and saner selo's velocity.

"Tam, I think that is why there are no taught lyrics. It used way too much power in a short time, but for an emergency escape, that will work great if I could pull it off." He was smiling and ready to laugh when the first aftereffects hit. He quickly stopped the run and bent over heaving up his lunch and as his breath was so short he could hardly gasp any words out.

Tamalain was not in much better shape, her entire body felt like it had just been hammered by a Drakota. "And this Silor, must be the other reason. We traveled more miles in those few minutes than we had in the last hour. I feel like I just ran my old hill 20 times with 100 pounds on my back."

"We have to rest for a bit Tam, I can't do that again anytime soon, if ever. I will report the incident, but save it for the absolute direst emergency."

"That sounds good to me. Let's set up camp over there on the flat and rest a few hours," said Tamalain. She staggered over to the large flat area of stone a saw a circle of burned rocks, this spot, a small flat area of stone was well suited for campfires. This is a good place, she thought; we will stop and camp here. She was asleep almost as soon as her head was down.

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