CH 2: dream by whiteninja_1

CH 2: dream

whiteninja_1, Fantasy, No-Yiff, Violence (Not In Yiff)

#2 of Kalyla Oakgrove

An hour and 5 miles later Kalyla Oakgrove of Tsaritsyn came to her camping spot. It was perfect. A natural clearing in the middle of the Forest, a large flat rock dominated the middle, a small but comfortable cave up hill filled with grass and leaves for bedding and a hot spring not too far off, of which sounded good right then. Leaving behind her armor she grabs a change of cloths and heads over to the hot spring.

She unbuckles the harness that carries her short swords on her back and places this by the hot spring. She carefully takes off her shirt, consciences of all aches and bruises she received today. She folds the shirt and sets it next to the swords. Taking off her boots and pants she tosses those off to the side. Grabbing a cattail that grew nearby, she shook off the pollen and other insects that was on it and crawled into the hot springs to bathe.

Using the cattail, she quickly washes her back and any other hard to reach places. After washing, she leans over and grabs both the swords and her shirt. She set the swords to where they were in easy reach and the shirt as a pillow so she could it when she leans back.

"Momma, can I go out to play?" a 6 year old Kalyla asks her mother.

Xanaia smiles at her and replies "Not right now, it is almost time for dinner, and besides your father is going to be home tonight. Kalyla's eyes open wide.

"He is? Daddy's coming home!!" she shouts, dancing around in their home. Her mother shakes her head and turns back to the food she is preparing. Kalyla rushes over to the front window and sits down to wait for her father. Minutes pass and still no daddy. Kalyla turns to her mother and anxiously asks "When is he going to be here?"

"Soon dear, soon" was the reply. Kalyla turns back to the window and waits. Looking out the window she spies the one city councilors and captain of the city guard talking very animatedly. They stop when the Grand Negus of the school of wizardry and magical defense calls out to them; she seems to have something to show them. Kalyla ignores them, none of them were her father and besides she was too young to care.

Looking down the road, she spies a figure coming toward the house. He is walking with a steady ground eating pace, and with a purpose. He is in full golden body armor, a long sword strapped to his back, a shield on his left arm, and his helmet in his right hand.

"Daddy!!" Kalyla cries out and rushes out the front door before Xanaia has the time to call out to her to wait for him to get into the house. Kadril sees Kalyla running out to him. He kneels and sets he shield and helmet down just as she jumps into his arms. "Daddy!" she says again.

"Kalyla, my girl, how are you?" he asks.

She replies to his question with a torrent of her own, ranging from how long is he going to be home to what creatures did he kill to did he bring her anything. He laughs at her and puts his helmet on her head. He grabs his shield with his left and his daughter in his right and walks to his home.

The evening meal was quiet, excepts when Kalyla asks her father another of her thousand and one questions or to tell him something that she had just recalled usually about her friends or the carnival that came by a few months ago with all the strange animals and humans that she got to see. Kadril just smiled and nodded on all the animals she saw. In between Kalyla's question, her father and mother kept looking at each other with worried expressions.

Later that night while Kalyla was in her bed, she heard her parents talking in their room in hushed whispers. Kalyla crept over to their door for a better to hear well.

"But you can't! I won't go!" she her Xanaia say.

"But you must, it's too dangerous to stay"

"Your are not even sure they are coming here."

"That is true, but I am not going to take the chance, not with you and not with Kalyla."

"I am not leaving without you"

"Don't worry...I'll be fine. Beside you need to look after Kalyla, for us"

Kalyla then starts to hear her mother start crying. After a little bit, Kalyla goes back to her bedroom wondering what was going on and why her father wanted them to leave. Where were they to go? After a while Kalyla fell into a very troubled sleep.

Mean while on the Outer Wall of Tsaritsyn, an Elf Guard falls over the wall unnoticed.

Kalyla was woken up the sounds of all of the bells in Tsaritsyn sounding off. Never once in her short life has she heard the like. When the chancellor was elected a few months ago a handful of the sweet sounding bells rang, but not EVERY bell was sounded. They bells then had a rhythm to it, a time for celebration, now, it sounded hurried, frantic even.

She opened her door in time to see Kadril grabbing his sword and shield from the mantle of the fireplace and then walking out the door.

"Daddy!!" Kalyla cries out.

He stops for a moment, turns back to her. He quickly gives her a hug and tells her "Go find your mother." Then he left without a second look.

Kalyla quickly ran to her mother's room. It was completely dark except for the occasional multi-colored flashes coming from the window. The outline of Xanaia could be seen in the window. "Momma?" Kalyla calls softly.

"I am here dear" Xanaia replies from the window.

"What's going on?"

Her mother does not reply. After a few moments that was only interrupted by the occasional explosion coming from the Wall "Go get your coat and your water skin" Xanaia says when she notices the noise was getting closer.

Kalyla just stands there looking at her mother. "GO!" Xanaia say. Kalyla bolts to her room and grabs her coat and the water skin from her closet. On a whim, she also grabs the camping knife her father got her for her birthday and her favorite toy: a wooden horse.

By the time she gets back from her room, Kalyla saw her mother in the kitchen grabbing food and stuffing it into a sack. Xanaia notices Kalyla and grabs her water skin and her own and quickly fills it from the water reserve and hands them both back to Kalyla. Running to the fireplace her mother shouts to Kalyla to put on her coat. Xanaia quickly grabs her bow off the mantle. Running back to Kalyla, she takes the camping knife and straps it to Kalyla's waist then the both water skins and places then over Kalyla's head for her to carry. Her mother grabs the sack of food, sticking her arms through the straps and adjusting it so it would sit properly on her shoulders.

With Kalyla in tow, she goes to the front door and grabs the quiver of arrows from behind the door and ties it to her left hip and her short sword to her right. Placing her bow in her left hand and Kalyla' hands in her other, they opened the door and walked into chaos.

Kalyla eyes were wide for what is going on outside of her home. The city guards were running in different direction trying to get to where they were needed. The sounds of explosions were everywhere, along with the clashing of metal on metal and the occasionally screams. Kalyla looks over to her right and sees the shadow of an elf and some creatures fighting. There are the occasional flashes of reds, oranges and yellow, the white of the wizard's lightening and other colors of some other spells going off.

Xanaia pulls Kalyla in the other direction of the fighting toward the palace, knowing her home is likely to be destroyed since it is so close to the Inner Wall. As they get their first view of the main gate for the palace, Xanaia cries out and falls to the ground, clutching her leg. Kalyla looks at her mother and sees the arrow buried in her thigh.

Xanaia looks behind her and sees the orc that shoot her. Using the bow as a crutch she gets back on her good leg. She grabs the arrow on the feathered end with both hands. Kalyla jumps at the snap of the arrow and the muffled grunt of pain from her mother. Xanaia slowly turning back to Kalyla, She takes off the necklace she was carrying and places it over Kalyla's head. "Kalyla, Run for the gate. Don't look back; I will be right behind you." Kalyla looks up at her mother with fear in her eyes and nods. "Go, run" Kalyla doesn't move. "GO." Kalyla slowly backs way from her mother. "RUN!!" Xanaia shouts. Kalyla turns and bolts for the gate, all of the while Xanaia shouting encouragements to her, but it is getting softer the more Kalyla runs.

Kalyla eventual gets to the gate, she turns around and looks for her mother. Xanaia is not there, she is still where she had fallen and there is a horde of orcs and the occasional ogre heading her way. Xanaia had shrugged off the bag of food from her should and had her bow raised. She takes an arrow and nocks it, takes aim and fires into the crowd. An orc falls with the arrow through its eye. Xanaia fires another, a second falls, followed by a third and a fourth. But still the horde keeps coming, undeterred by the action of the lone elf.

Xanaia keeps shooting as fast as she can nock the arrow but all too soon the quiver is empty. She curses and looks around for a semi defendable position: a corner, an alley way, a hole, something. This was the Dobryi district, the area where the nobles and the high class merchants resides. Each block was a resident or the merchant's high class store. It was open road followed walled building followed by open road again. Even without the arrow in her leg, she would not be able to jump over the walls. Seeing no way out of this situation, she resigns to her up coming fate.

The guards at the palace gate saw event take place. Knowing that even if they had a horse they would not be able to get the woman out in the middle of the street before the horde would rush over them both.

Kalyla can see her mother in front of the horde, a white speck before a sea of black Just as the horde rushes over her a golden figure rides up beside her jumps off the horse and the horse takes off running. Then the wave over takes them both. If someone had the ability to be above the horde at that time they would have noticed hole in the wave for a little bit before collapsing in on itself.

Kalyla watches in horror as both her mother and father disappear from her sight. She stands in shock as the impending waves comes ever closer. The jolt of someone grapping and carrying her bring her out of the daze. It is one of the palace guards. He had his arm around her waist and was rushing back to the safety of the palace. Kalyla starts to struggle to get free. "Keep still," the guard growls. Kalyla does anything but that. In fact, she struggles even harder. The guard tries to reposition her so he can carrier better, but the moment he does Kalyla was able to get her camping knife free and cuts the guards arm. The guard immediately drops the girl and clutches the unexpected wound in reflex. Kalyla quickly starts running, away from the horde and the guard.

Kalyla did not know where she was going, she just kept running. Occasionally a shadow of a figure had caused her to change the direction she was going, but she ran regardless. The sun had just begun to peek over the horizon by the time Kalyla collapsed from exhaustion. Looking up, she sees a bridge in front of her. Kalyla slowly gets up and stumbles to it. Carefully, she crawls underneath the bridge and finds a corner to curl up in, and sleep takes her.

The sun had started to set by the time Kalyla woke up. Taking a drink from one of the water skins, she gets up to look for some food. When she had emerged from under the bridge, she sees a sight no one wants to see: the entire City in ruins. Kalyla wanders for hours; no a single living elf was found, nor was there anything else. The City, the people, everything: dead.

It was noon the following day by the time Kalyla had left the City, not only because she could not find anyone, but because she still could not find any food. She starts walking away from the City in small unsure steps, crying along the way. Eventually hunger overtakes her and she faint in the middle of the road, with the setting sun to be seen over her shoulder.

Kalyla awakens some time later, finder herself a little uncomfortable being in the hot spring for so long. She gets up and notices that the fire she had started earlier was dying. Shaking out her shirt, that had been doubled as her head rest, she dries herself. Putting on her change of cloths and grabbing her discarded clothes and swords, she makes her way back to build back up the campfire and for a small meal. While leaving the spring, she cannot shake the feeling that she is being watched.

"Kalyla, Run for the gate. Don't look back; I will be right behind you."

"Go, run"

"GO." Â "RUN!!"

Kalyla wakes up with a start. "Will I ever be rid of these dreams?" she moans while trying to rub the sleep from her eyes. Crawling out of the cave, she looks up into the sky to see where the sun was. Seeing that the sun was twice its own height, Kalyla curses on how late it is. She quickly grabs her few belongings. Making sure that the fire was out, Kalyla starts down the trail back to Relvan's.

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