The Grimhawk Defence

I was woken by the sound of heavy boots pounding across the rocks of the cove, the clattering of weapons being pulled from racks and the grunts of men as they moved around or pulled on their clothing. I sat up on the thin layer of straw that I had been sleeping upon with the rest of my companions, still groggy I looked around and saw that the cove was full of life as the rebels, or Grimhawks I supposed, rushed around. The canvas that covered the entrance was pulled to the side as men ran out to the beachfront and I could see that it was still dark.

“What’s going on?” I asked before clearing my throat and repeating my question in a louder voice. The rest of my party were beginning to wake too, with Aladra quickly snapping to attention as she pulled herself from the makeshift bed, and Korin muttering something as he rolled over.

One of the Grimhawks looked at me as I spoke and then ran off somewhere, apparently that somewhere was to Criff as he shortly came over to us. “You’re awake, good. Get ready and come with us, ships have been spotted approaching Sotren to the north of here. The town doesn’t have much in the way of defences and we need to get there quickly” he moved over and gave Korin a firm shake, eliciting a grumpy mumble but he got up from his slumber.

Everyone was now awake and pulling on clothes and armour with surprising alacrity, I pulled on my shirt and looked back to Criff. “You want us to help you?” I asked, still not sure I was understanding everything having just woken up. “Are we allowed to do that?” I asked in a quieter voice, directing my question to Aladra.

“Yes, I want you to help” his frustration audible as he snapped at me, he took a moment and calmed himself. “The more we have, the less risk of someone dying. The people of Sotren are innocent and it’s not like anyone else is going to help them. Now get ready, I need to organise the others” he turned his back on us and walked off.

I turned to look at Aladra again, raising an eyebrow, reminding her of my question. She was attaching her knife sheathes to her chest as she spoke, “We have discretion for what we do here, I’m sure the crown doesn’t have a problem with us fighting raiders” she paused for a moment as she tightened one of her straps. “And if it has a chance of helping our relationship with the rebels, it can only be good”

I nodded my head, seeing the sense even in my tired state. We all quickly finished getting dressed and pulling on our armour, we grabbed our weapons and followed the stream of Grimhawks out onto the beach. The boats that I had seen moored further up on the shore had been brought down to where everyone was gathered under the watchful gaze of Criff. A few others stood around him and were deep in discussion, occasionally barking out a few orders to the crowd.

I walked over to see what he wanted us to do, as my boots trod across the sand, he looked at me, “Aucus, come here” he said, beckoning me to join the others that he was talking with.

I obliged and stood shoulder to shoulder with his followers, “What is it you want us to do?” I asked as the others watched me from a distance.

He turned his head to a young woman at his side who nodded her head, “This is my daughter, Shana” he introduced the woman at his side who had a grim look to her face, her auburn hair held in a long braid that was swung over her shoulder. She wore the twin axes holstered on her waist well, as though she had a lot of experience with using them, the scratches on her armour attested to that fact. Her face was pretty, despite the dark expression and the thin scar that cut her nose, like her father she was tanned and had the same grey eyes as him. As I took in the sight of the young woman, Criff continued talking, “I want you and your party to join her and her coterie, you’ll be in the vanguard and under her command for the battle. I expect you all to follow her orders” he gave a stern expression that almost made me shrink backwards.

I nodded my head, accepting his experience in this, “Okay, shouldn’t be a problem. When are we going?” I asked, glancing towards the ships that some of the fighters were already boarding and manning the oars.

“Right now” he turned to his daughter, “Good look petal, make them bleed” the affection in his voice was not something I had seen from the man so far and it took me by surprise.

She gave him a grin, “Oh, we will da, they’ll be begging for peace in no time” they embraced each other briefly before she turned to the rest of the crowd and raised her voice, “Okay Grimhawks, if you’re with me get on the boat” she raised her fist and started walking towards the water and the waiting ships.

I returned to my party, “We’re with her” I told them as we began to follow the flow of fighters to the ship.

“Are we sure about this, I mean they are rebels” Cleo said, sounding nervous as we walked. She clutched her quarterstaff tightly and Sara placed a comforting hand on the small of her back.

“They might be rebels but the people of Sotren aren’t, if they’re going to help then I don’t really see anything wrong with it” I told her, getting one of Korin’s grunts that I was pretty sure meant he agreed with me.

We boarded the old boat that I was told was taken from the Shale Island raiders during one of their attacks, it was a swift vessel, especially when it had twenty of us pulling oars with all of our might. Shana had invited us to sit at the Bow with her as we pulled, so that she could get to know us a bit before we fought together.

The journey to Sotren took us about a half hour, even with the winds behind us. In that time I spoke to Shana and told her about some of my training in the citadel and our journey over the mountains. I also learned that Shana herself was an adventurer, though she admitted that her spirit was one of the weaker ones, only giving her three abilities. After bonding with her spirit she left the Citadel before the training so that she could re-join her father on the coast and continue the fight with him, that was two years ago and ever since then she had been fighting. I could sympathise with that, ever since Zarin had arrived in Blue-Rock it felt as though I hadn’t stopped fighting, I was just going forwards trying to battle what was ahead of me with no sight of where I was going.

Our ship was the first to arrive at Sotren, it was marked by a bright light that contrasted against the pitch of night. There were fires in the town. As the boat came to a stop at the coastline where similar ships rested, we disembarked and could hear terrible shrieks coming from the direction of the town. “Bastards” I heard Shana hiss as she gripped both her axes and turned to face us. “Kill the raiders” she announced simply, getting shouts of agreement from the others. She turned back around towards the village and roared before falling into a run.

The rest of us followed quickly on her tails, I drew my sword as we moved, and I could hear the sound of metal scraping as others did likewise. We reached the town, and I heard the wicked laughter of the raiders, the cries of women, and the gasps of men as they died. The heat from the fires buffeted on my face and the smoke made tears come to my eyes.

As I rubbed my eyes, I almost didn’t see the first raider that we ran into. He was wearing a painted wooden mask with the visage of some monster with bared fangs as he emptied out chests onto the ground and rifled through the contents. Shana wasted no time in sinking the blades of her axes into his back, ripping them back out and rapidly hacking at the body that I was pretty sure was dead.

Now in the town, she turned around and pointed at three of the Grimhawks, “You three, look after those two and find any wounded that need healing” she said and gestured towards Sara and Cleo who seemed relieved to be taken away from the fighting. The men obeyed quickly and in a way that spoke to the discipline of this fighting ****.

The rest of us dispersed in groups around the town, battling any of the raiders that we encountered, all of them wearing the same painted wooden masks that the first had. Shana displayed an almost disturbing amount of savagery as she hacked with expert skill at the raiders which seemed to be mostly occupied with their looting.

I found myself facing down a raider who was roaring maniacally beneath his mask as he slashed his blade in my direction. I brought the edge of my sword down on his as I aimed for his chest and he blocked it, making me stumble back as he pushed with what were surprisingly strong arms. I was used to fighting Orion however, who was far superior an opponent.

I quickly recovered from my stumble and ducked to the ground to avoid a slash that flew through the air above my head. Whilst I was lowered, I slashed my own blade and felt it sink into the flesh at the man’s ankles, at least I thought it was a man. He screamed and moved backwards, favouring the leg that I had cut open and was now bleeding across the ground.

I took advantage of the moment and rose back to my full height, prodding the tip of my sword at the raider. He tried to dodge backwards to avoid the strike and ended up falling on his back as his injured leg failed him. As I looked down on him, my boot pressing against the wrist that held his weapon until he dropped it, I couldn’t help but think back to that bandit I had killed. I lifted my sword above the raider’s heart and paused as I looked at his face, expecting to see those accusing eyes, instead there was just a wooden mask. My steel bit into him and I heard a sigh of air release from his mouth. It was a hard thing to admit, an uncomfortable truth, but the masks that the raiders wore made it easier for me to kill them, instead of seeing people in their place, I could envision them as just another breed of monster.

I wetted my blade with more blood that night as I fought more raiders, killing one that was half naked as he **** a woman in the street. The blood splattered across her back, and she screamed with him still inside of her, wriggling away from the dead man as he quickly softened.

When the presence of the Grimhawks in the town became known by the raiders they began to flee, taking what loot they had procured with them. However, the other ships had arrived by that time and the raiders from the Shale Islands became trapped between a band of bloodied fighters and the fresh reinforcements that had arrived with the first light of dawn. The died quickly.

Rid of the bulk of the raiders, the Grimhawks went throughout the town, putting down any stragglers and dousing the fires that had sprung up almost everywhere. Fortunately the sea was close by, and we had a steady supply of water to aid us in our efforts. The survivors of Sotren gathered together, those that were able helping in the efforts to protect the buildings from the flames; those that were unable to help were seen to by those that had healing abilities including Sara and Cleo.

Exhausted, I sat down on the beach at the foot of the village the stench of smoke and blood thick in the air. I looked down at my sword that dripped in blood that was beginning to turn brown, I pulled my sleeve over the palm of my hand and wiped the stains onto my dark clothing. I tried my best not to think about the past hour or so, I wasn’t even sure how long it had been since we arrived. It felt too long, yet at the same time I struggled to wrestle with the idea of how so many people’s lives could have came to an abrupt halt in so short a time.

“Are you okay deary?” the voice was cracked with age as it came from above me, I turned my head and saw an elderly woman in threadbare clothing looking down at me with concern.

I struggled to form words after what I had done and closed my mouth after a failed attempt, nodding my head instead.

“Good thing you Grimhawks are here. They killed too many of us, but I don’t want to think about what would have happened if you hadn’t come” she said, looking out to the rising sun with me. “At least now we can rebuild, Laurel will have her baby and in time we can recover.” She paused for a long moment, “Thank you”

I didn’t turn around to look at her, tears were welling in my eyes, and I told myself it was just the smoke stinging them, even though all the fires had been put out. These people would have all been dead if it weren’t for the Grimhawks and I had tried to take them away from the west. Even hours after the raiders had arrived, there was still no sign of any of the crown’s forces coming from the western keeps, no help being sent by the nobles. I heard the sound of the old woman moving away and buried my head into my arms, I was so tired. I had only got a few hours of sleep before being awoken to pull an oar and fight against the raiders, my body was failing me. That is what I told myself as I closed my eyes and felt the tears trickle from them.

Shana came over to me after another few minutes with her axes holstered once more, she looked at my sword with smeared blood that I had failed to clean properly. She tutted and pulled out a cloth, crouching down to take my sword and clean it properly, I put up no resistance. “You need to clean your weapons after a fight” she chided me, “Otherwise, they’ll rust and fail you when you need it most. This is a nice blade too”

I nodded my head and watched the cloth moving up and down on the steel, almost transfixed with the motion. We stayed quiet for a while longer as she finished cleaning my blade, “It’s never easy. Battles are never clean, especially the ones with the raiders. You did all you could, and everything you did was to protect the people here, don’t think on it any more than that” she shook her head and sighed, “Nothing good comes from too much thinking”

I nodded my head silently and we remained sat on the beach for a while longer. She handed my sword back to me and slapped her hand against my back as she got to her feet, “Come on then, there’s rebuilding to do. It’ll busy your mind” she held out her hand for me and I took it, letting her help me to my feet.

For hours I cleared what was still intact out of houses that couldn’t be saved from the damage done by the fires, I repaired doors that had been broken down, and for the most part I simply hammered nails into planks of wood as we helped to rebuild the structures that had been destroyed. Shana was right and I didn’t think much on the events of the battle as I busied myself with helping the people of Sotren.

When the sun reached its zenith in the sky, some of the townspeople came around and offered food to those of the Grimhawks that were still in the town. They didn’t have much after the attack, but what was left the offered freely to those that had saved their lives. It was a sense of community that I couldn’t remember seeing since Lord Beckront had died. I couldn’t help but get angry as I thought about how the crown wanted us to take this away from the westerners, to take their protection from them and leave them to die.

Eventually, we had done all that we could for Sotren and returned to the ship that had brought us there. The raider’s ships had been towed back to the cove and the other locations across the coast where the Grimhawks had similar bases, shortly after we had finished off the raiders. It took us much longer to return to the cove than it had to reach the town with the wind against us and our arms sore from a long days work.

We spent our time in the cove gathering up our gear and preparing to leave for the long journey back to Alynthir. There wasn’t much to do, with most of our gear being in our packs or with us at the time, we did however go to the sea to do our best to clean the blood from our clothing, turning the sands red.

When we were ready to leave, Criff invited us to feast with them, the Grimhawks having grown to accept us more after fighting alongside each other. The West was a difficult land and there wasn’t much to eat, but living on the coast they had plenty of fish to go around. I hadn’t had much opportunity to eat fish before, living in Blue-Rock the ocean wasn’t a travelable distance, so it was hard to get. I wasn’t too keen on the stuff as it was, finding it lacking in flavour and becoming frustrated by the bones that I kept on finding in it, though it was still better than not having any meat.

We chatted with the Grimhawks and laughed with them as we filled our stomachs with food and ale alike. As the evening continued, I excused myself and took a walk along the beach, leaving the others to their chatter with the Grimhawks. Shana came out and joined me shortly after, walking at my side as we looked out to the light of the waning sun.

“I’m sorry that we can’t help you” she said in the lilting accent that was common in the west, “I know my father can be stubborn, but you have to understand that we’re needed here. We can’t just abandon the people of the west, they have no one else”

I nodded, “I know, I’ve seen what would happen without you. I can’t say that you’re not needed in the east as well, but it’s not your fault. If the crown has abandoned the western reaches, I don’t see how they complain when the west abandons them” I said as we stopped on the beach, and I could feel the waves lapping at my feet.

We stayed there and looked out across the sea, as we did, I saw an incredible sight. An enormous… thing rose up from the water, sending out a large wave in all directions that made us step backwards to avoid being soaked. A low sonorous sound erupted from the figure, and it lowered itself back down disappearing from sight once more.

“What…” I started to say, in awe of what I had just seen, “What was that?”

Shana smiled and continued looking into the distance as she spoke, “That was a leviathan” she said, sounding as amazed as I was by the beast, “They’re probably the best thing to come from the monsters, they might be the only reason that we’re not overrun by the raiders. When ships cross the seas, the leviathans do their best to break them and sink them”

I had never considered the practical benefits of monsters before and just muttered, “they’re big” as I looked out, hoping to see it again. No more movement came from the seas, and I couldn’t help but be disappointed as we continued our walk along the beach.

“What’s it like in the city?” Shana asked, surprising me by the question.

“Uh, well it’s…” I trailed off as I thought of how to describe Alynthir, “well, it’s pretty big, and there’s so many people. I was honestly pretty scared when I first got there” I said, getting a sympathetic smile from Shana.

“It must be nice” she said, “being safe there, not having to worry about things like raiders, or even monsters”

I couldn’t help but be sadistically amused by the comment, I let out a short laugh and scratched the back of my head, “Yeah, it actually feels safer for me out here” I said, thinking of Zarin and all the attacks that I came under in Alynthir. “It’s a miracle that I’m alive with how many times people have tried to kill me”

Her eyes widened a little at that, “Really?” she asked with concern, “Why would anyone want to kill you? You seem like a pretty good guy to me”

I smiled at that, “I made an enemy of someone powerful” she looked at me, her eyes asking me for more, so I continued. “I always thought, perhaps childishly, that if you followed the rules, you would be protected, and nothing truly bad would happen to you. After… him, I felt tricked. Foolish, that I thought my ideals could protect me. Honour, courtesy, justice… they’re not real, we hold them up like shields but they only guard against those who carry the same shields. To the others, they’re just another weapon for them to use in their arsenal. It was used against me”

I felt dizzy for an instant, I had never put how I felt about what had happened to me into words, but I found them coming with ease and with passion. Everything that I had held dear to me had been stripped from my hands by Zarin and used to pummel me with, and without my shield I had nothing to defend myself with.

I felt a hand on my back and turned around to see Shana looking at me with worry, “Aucus, you can’t let this person break you. You forget that shields aren’t just for defence, a strike with the edge can break an arm, it can make your enemy drop their weapon. You can beat a person to **** with your shield” she put her hands on my head and turned it so that I was looking at her. “Honour, courtesy, justice, they’re not just ideals. They are the beating heart of our world; without them we may as well let the devils run free and burn the world.”

The strength of her words stoked the fire that had been burning within me, I had discarded these ideals and committed myself to killing Zarin when I could. I gave no thought to the honour of it, or to justice. Shana was right, I wouldn’t discard my shield, I would hold it proud, and I wouldn’t let anyone use it against me anymore.

“You’re right” I said, feeling the steely resolve in my voice, “Let’s go ba-“ I cut off as I felt Shana pull my head towards her and lock my lips with her own. I was startled by the sudden action, but as her soft lips moved over my own, I found that it felt good. It was different from the kisses that I had shared with Elsie, with Sara, with Cleo, with Opal, they had all been different, but this was something else. I could feel her passion, the salty taste of the sea on her lips, I didn’t know how I could have gone my life without feeling what she was making me feel in that moment.

After a long while, that in my mind was far too short, she pulled away from me. I was as shocked by the blush that was rising in her cheeks as I was by the kiss that she had so suddenly given to me. “Yeah, let’s go back” she said quietly, a smile touching her mouth.