Fanfic:A Mission in the Blight
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A wind rose deep in the Blight. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings or endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.
The wind blew south, over the barren and desolate landscape that those further south called the Blight. It rustled in dead trees that moved in contrast to the wind, and over strange stick-like creatures that crawled up the trees. It blew up dust motes and dead things on its way south, and the wind was warmer than its northern origin indicated.
The wind shifted eastwards, and blew down a hillside, carrying a spray of sand and dust over the encampment nested in the depths of the valley. The creatures in the camp seemed to mind neither the dust not the wind. Big brutes of horrifying shapes crashed together in twos and threes, fighting over the last scraps of meat. Beak-faced and ram-horned, they fought with weapons or talons, hoofs or boots. The Trollocs would kill each other if it wasn't for the black-clad figure standing still in the camp. He stood completely still, not even his black cloak moved an inch in the wind that blew on.
The wind continued, blowing up the valleyside, carrying with it the foul smell of the Blight, the Trollocs and their rotting meat. It blew southwards again, bringing the foulness to a group of riders, rustling their color-shifting cloaks as their leader lifted his hand, stopping the group in their tracks. The riders were silent and still as statues, and like statues they appeared, stony-faced and non-moving as they weathered the surroundings and the message the wind brought. Even the horses were silent, moving only their ears warily, picking up sounds their masters couldn't hear.
The group of riders were all unbonded Gaidin and Gaidar from the Grey Tower, on a regular mission of patrolling the Blight north of the Citadel, and clearing out nearby bands of Trolloc. Their leader was Remerin Calai, the Gaidin Captain.
Captain Calai signalled with his hand in the direction of the wind, northward, where the group could just make out a drop in the landscape: the valley. With another silent command, they set off at a steady pace, horses making as little sound as they could as they approached the edge of the valley. A safe distance off he stopped them again, and dismounted, signalling to one of the three carrying bows to follow, and the two of them moved silently to the edge to survey the valley's floor. A short while later the pair of them returned, and the Captain signalled the group to move back, so they could plan a course of action.
It was not long after that they were back on the hilltop. They were on foot, the horses tied off a safe distance away; easy to get to, should the need arise, but also safe from the coming battle. Those standing near the edge were not safe from the coming battle; they were the assailants after all. They should be as safe as possible from deadly harm, if things went according to the Captain's plan. But the young Gaidar didn't feel very safe where she stood with a bow in hand and a quiver bristling with arrows, looking down at a shitload of Trollocs.
That was Amayani's current estimate of the numbers of Trollocs in the valley. Captain Calai had said a more specific estimate, but right now she couldn't remember. Shitload worked just fine right now. To her eyes it looked like a massive ocean of beasts down there, and right there and then she doubted their ability to take them all out. She could feel the weight of responsibility on her shoulders as she pulled an arrow from the quiver on the Captain's signal. It was her job to take out as many as possible before they reached the top. Hers and the other two archers, Lyanra with her recurve bow similar to Yani's, and Nat with his Two River Longbow. The thing was quite longer than her, competing with even Nat's height.
The three of them nocked their arrows and readied their bows, and at the Captain's signal released a volley down into the valley. Well, a volley would be a bit of a stretch, with three arrows. Yani readied the next arrow as she watched the bottom of the valley erupt as the arrows struck the edge of the camp, one of them a lucky shot finding a Trolloc. Nat sent off the next arrows, but both Yani and Lyanra waited, their reach shorter with their recurved bows. No need to waste arrows on the dusty ground.
It did not take long for the first Trollocs to get within reach of their bows either, and Yani soon made good use of her training, her years of honing her archery skills. Trollocs fell on their way up the hill, arrows sticking out, and yet more came. It looked like a mass of ants crawling up a hill - huge, monstrous ants - moving with purpose. Yani pointedly did not look at the black-clad figure at the bottom, his cloak unmoving. Fear gripped her even through the Void when she looked, and made sure arrows miss their target. More and more Trolloc fell as their quivers lightened, but still they came, and the valley was only so deep. Before long the four standing ready with their swords at the top - Ruben was almost tripping with his polearm in hand - had their hands filled.
They fought in a tight formation, the three of them, Geram and Vasen in front, with Ruben safe behind their sword and shields, still able to reach the Trollocs with efficiency with his long weapon. The Captain called orders and took care of the Trollocs that made it past or moved clear of the four, protecting the three archers, who continued to take down the oncoming beasts.
Yani worried a little as her quiver was growing lighter and emptier, and there were still more coming, still more waiting down in the bottom of the valley. Why were they waiting? Why were they held back? Her mind hadn't really processed that yet, but now it made her worry. Trolloc weren't the smartest ones, so she knew the only reason they held back, held still, and the reason the others ran to their deaths at the blades of Gaidin, was the Fade at the bottom. But why?
A strange sound found her ears, one she didn't quite hear at first, one oddly hypnotising. Almost like singing? But who would sing out here? It came from none them, that's for sure. Shaking her head slightly, she sent an arrow off into the eye of a Trolloc almost reaching Vasen. It was singing, a part of her mind realized. She could feel her mind going slower, her body not responding, almost like she was going numb. Her body went through the ingrained motions of nocking an arrow, aim and release, new arrow. But her movements were slower, her aim off. And she realized slowly that it affected the others too, whatever that hypnotising, beautiful, sweet song was.
What exactly broke her trance, she couldn't tell. It could have been the grunt from Geram, as a Trolloc blade got past his shield and sliced his arm. Or the shriek from Ruben as he glanced backwards. Yani's body moved from years of practice, nocking the arrow and drawing the bow, as her mind fought a short battle to regain the Void. The bow was half-drawn and ready to be aimed before her eyes found its target, and only the Void, which the thankfully had started practicing more and more lately, kept her from reacting wrongly to the sight of the winged man hovering over the Gaidin Captain.
Her eyes locked on her target, the muscles in her shoulders drew the bow fully and fingers calloused from years of archery let the arrow fly straight, sinking deep into the big, oh so big eyes of the man-like winged creature. The shrill scream its mouth released as it reared back, pierced her ears and left a ringing tone as the second arrow found its target, joined by another a split second later.
Yani caught the sight of Lyanra in the corner of her eye, a strange look on her face and a newly shot bow aimed in the direction of the Draghkar, for that was what the beast was.
"Ruben, check on the Captain!" Nat called, having come to his senses too; Yani was quite sure he'd been enthralled as well, or the man would surely have taken out the Draghkar before her. She watched as Ruben moved over to the Gaidin Captain, part of her mind worrying through the void if the man was ok. Another part of her told her there were more important things at hand, like the oncoming second swarm of Trolloc making their way up the hill, and the Fade directing them from the bottom. And the Draghkar, lying motionless next to the Captain, but was it dead?
"Ruben!" she called, talking quickly. "Make sure the Draghkar," the name felt strange on her tongue, "is dead, and get back to the fight!" The young Gaidin paused for a moment, clearly wondering if he should follow Nat's orders, being the more senior, or her own. "Hurry!" she added, and he moved again.
Yani didn't dare look at Nat at first, but nocked another arrow from her rapidly thinning quiver and sent it off into the face of a beaked Trolloc. Her mind worked fast and slow at once. There were more Trollocs coming, but there were few enough left that they should be able to take them all out. But Geram was wounded, his shield arm moving painfully slower, the Captain was down, possibly dead, and their supply of arrows were thinning. And the Trollocs were pressing on, pressured by the Fade.
The Fade had to die.
That fact was so simple she couldn't understand why they hadn't taken him out yet, why none had thought of it. The problem was he was still in the bottom of the valley, but surely he wouldn't stay there long. He would come and pick them off once they were thoroughly worn out by the Trolloc and still occupied by the ones left. But for now he was safe down there. Her bow couldn't reach him with sufficient accuracy. But maybe..
"Nat," she turned her head slightly to look at the older Gaidin. "We need that Fade taken out. Your arm's long enough, how's your aim?" The man looked at her, stone-faced, but she thought she saw realization in her eyes, not resent for giving him orders.
"Leave it to me," he replied with a short nod, and in a few, long strides he was in a better position, away from the other two. "Distract it," he added, and she nodded back.
"Lyanra," she said simply, indicating with her eyes down the valley while nocking an arrow. The Gaidar nocked her own, and they both aimed at the Fade, knowing that their bows were not strong enough to give sufficient aim. But they could get in a lucky shot, or at least draw the Fade's attention to them, and away from Nat. As she nocked another of her arrows, one of the last ones, she saw that Ruben was back in the fight, protecting Geram's wounded side.
Yani sent the arrow in the Fade's direction, glancing his non-moving cloak as the Eyeless moved. Its movements broke as an arrow protruded from its chest, and its head flipped around to face the source, Nat. Yani was surprised at its speed as the monster sprinted up the hill towards Nat, as the man released another arrow at it. His longbow was slower than her own, a part of her mind recognized as she sent off her last arrow, aimed in front of the Fade, her mind calculating its movement and speed.
"I'm out," she called to Lyanra. She swung her bow over her shoulder and head, and drew her sword. It was not the most practical place to have a bow in melee, as it drastically hindered her movements. But she would not toss it to the ground either, and risk breaking it. Even if she didn't have more arrows on her now, there were more in the quiver hanging from the saddle of her horse, and they were not out of the Blight by far. Light, they were not done with this fight by far!
"Vaser, the Fade!" she called to the Gaidin as she closed in on the melee fight. Nat needed protection, and she was not skilled enough with the sword, especially not encumbered with the bow, to deal with it. But the Trollocs were too many for just Geram and Ruben to handle, and a Trolloc she could take on.
Vaser nodded and sprinted towards Nat as Yani took his place, meeting a Trolloc blade with an upwards swing. From then on she had enough with the Trolloc and keeping track of the two Gaidin next to her to keep track of what happened with Nat and Vaser.
She did catch a few glimpses of their fight out of the corner of her eye, and she could see that Nat had exchanged his bow for his twin blades. Where his bow was she couldn't tell, but he had most likely done what she wouldn't and tossed it on the ground, out of harms way. The pair of them were flanking the Fade, who put up a surprisingly good fight for having being pierced with several arrows already.
Most of the remaining fight, Yani fought off Trollocs with her blade, thankful for the practice she had put into the blade since getting raised to Gaidar, but feeling that she should've trained more, harder. It didn't help with the bow getting slightly in the way either, hindering certain moves. A few Trollocs were still being taken down by well-placed arrows, Lyanra having a few arrows left.
Suddenly the Trollocs wavered and started dropping to the ground, dead. The fact was not immediate in Yani's mind, and her blade found the next Trolloc even as the beast fell down.
"It's done, Yani," a voice came from her side, and she tensed at the hand that touched her shoulder. She was too tired to react properly to it, which was probably lucky for the Gaidar. Blinking, she realized it was true. Her body had already noticed, but her mind had been caught in the fight, the Void lost. She nodded slowly, releasing the grip on the sword and she looked around.
The place looked like a slaughter, dead Trollocs filling the side of the valley. In the distance she could see a few lucky runners that had avoided Nat's arrows. and to the side and behind her lay a dead, headless Fade, its body still thrashing, and a dead Draghkar.
More worryingly was the body still lying next to the Draghkar, their Captain General. Nat was kneeling at his side, with Ruben standing nearby, leaning heavily on his polearm. Vaser was kneeling next to a sitting Geram, practicing field first aid on his arms.
"How is he?" Yani asked uncertain as she walked towards them.
"Gone," was Nat's blunt reply. The man didn't look up. Yani thought she remembered the two of them being long-time friends, having risen the ranks together. And now… She swallowed, her throat strangely tight. Such a terrible way to die, if he was even dead? Nat had only said "gone", not "dead". Light! The kiss of a Draghkar, if her memory served her well, sucked the soul out of a person, leaving just an empty husk. Even if broken off in time, the person would be damaged, soulless, just a living, empty body. Better to die at the end of a blade…
"We… we need to get to a safer place, and rest," Yani said slowly, her voice breaking more than she wanted it to. "And we need to get the Captain back to the Citadel." She tensed as they looked at her for a moment, a moment that seemed to stretch endlessly. As they all nodded, she let go of the breath she didn't know she'd been holding, and felt quite surprised that they'd listened to her.
"Lyanra, could you run and get the horses?" she asked a little tentatively, still not believing that they would listen or give a damn about her ordering them about. During the battle she hadn't given two thoughts about it; things needed to get done, and she'd just been the first to voice them out loud. But now, as the adrenalin from the battle slowly faded, it amazed her that the Gaidar nodded and ran off.
"Ruben, help Nat with the Captain," she said, looking at the young Gaidin as she started walking towards Geram and Vaser. She stopped as she got no reaction from the man; he still stood and leaned on his polearm, kind of sloped she realized. "Ruben?" She frowned, and started walking towards him, breaking into a run as he sagged. She caught him, his weight too much for her to hold up, she eased him to the ground.
"Blood and ashes, what've you done now," she muttered, mostly to herself, as her eyes went over his body, searching for wounds. Blood was seeping through his uniform at multiple places from small and bigger gashes, but what caught her eye was his leg. How had none of them noticed that gash? And how had he managed to stay upright for so long? "Bloody woolheaded lummox, don't you flaming die on me," she muttered under her breath as she tore off her tunic and wrapped it once around his leg, then once again, tying it as tight as she could to stop the worst bleeding. It was all she could do now, without the equipment they'd stored on the horses.
She eased his position as best she could before she rose and walked over to Nat and the Captain. She knelt down, feeling the stiffness in her body as the adrenalin left it, and looked at the Gaidin Captain. Was he dead or just gone? She couldn't tell, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to know, so she refrained from asking.
"Is there an abandoned outpost nearby?" she asked Nat instead, tearing her eyes away from the man on the ground. They needed shelter, and it was a long ride back to the Citadel. Too long, she feared.
Nat nodded. "About half a mile from here." He looked at the rest of them before meeting Yani's eyes. "It's a long ride for the wounded, but it'll give us a chance to rest up." She nodded back, and rose as she heard Lyanra approaching with the horses.
Vaser had tied up Geram's wounds, and helped Nat get the Captain tied up on his horse. Lyanra helped Yani tie up Ruben's wounds better with the supplies from the horses, and the man woke and groaned surprisingly much as they did so. She also insisted on binding the gash in her own arm as well. Yani hasn't noticed it before Lyanra pointed it out, but Light it hurt after that.
Once they were all mounted they set course for the outpost, Nat leading the way with the Captain's horse in tow. Yani pointedly did not look at the Captain, feeling sorry for the man being strung up unceremoniously over his horse. She felt it didn't do the man justice, and while she did realise it was the best way, she ignored it by not looking. Instead she focused on Ruben, steering her horse close to his and making sure he stayed on. He had a firm grip on the reins and didn't seem in immediate danger of falling off, but she didn't like how pale he looked.
The outpost was truly an abandoned one, Yani noticed as they got close, the lack of maintenance clear. She wondered for a moment if the building would stand or fall on their heads while they were there, but trusted Nat as the man approached it. Nat and Vaser got the Captain and the wounded inside while Yani and Lyanra tended to the horses, unsaddling them, brushing their coats quickly but thoroughly and making sure they had no wounds before feeding and watering them.
Lyanra took the first watch on top of the stone tower, with keen eyes and a quiver re-filled with arrows. Vaser took over tending Ruben's wounds, doing a much better job at it than Yani had. She got her tunic back, but blood-soaked as it was, she stuck with the coat for warmth as she sat down with Nat and Geram to plan the next day and the road back to the Citadel. Nat took the lead, being the most experienced, but to Yani's surprise both him and Vaser listened to her ideas, and even looked to her once or twice. She felt honored, and somewhat shocked that they did.
It got progressively harder to pay attention, and she didn't realise she'd nodded off before Nat pointedly told her to get some sleep. She opened her mind to protect, but it vanished in a jaw cracking yawn. She looked out the arrow slits and noticed it was growing darker outside. Extracting a promise from Nat to wake her up for her watch shift, she rose and pulled her cloak tighter as she walked over to Ruben.
Sleep threatened to overcome her already as she sat down next to Ruben, but she fought it off for now. "Bloody lummox," she muttered softly to the sleeping man, worried at his still-far-too-pale look. He had lost too much blood being stubborn and standing, and he needed a Healer.
"You're not much better yourself," came a sleep-induced mumbling reply, startling her somewhat, and she quickly looked away from his face, warmth spreading in her face. A smile tugged at her lips as she darted a look back, only to find him still with his eyes closed. The smile spread as she watched his face, and she fought down an urge to slap him - gently of course. Instead she lay down on the spot, careful to lie on the not-wounded arm, and curled up in her cloak, giving in to the sleep.
Yani was far from awake when Nat woke her - it felt more like she hadn't slept at all - but she got up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and stretching the worst stiffness from her body. She checked quickly on Ruben, finding him sleeping soundly, which was pretty much all she could make out in the dark, before she made her way up to the roof, filled quiver at her hip and bow in her hand.
The night was chill as she got up to release Nat, and she regretted that she hadn't rummaged through her pack earlier for a spare tunic. It had slipped her mind completely. Wrapping her cloak tighter around her, she prayed nothing would appear that would make her use the bow, and let the cold night's air in to her bare arms.
The remainder of the night was thankfully uneventful, and the first rays of morning saw them back in the saddles after a quick breakfast. The way back to the Citadel was a long one, but Nat set the horses at a brisk pace, stopping for breaks only when absolutely necessary. They made good haste, and the last rays of sunlight shone upon the Citadel as they spotted it in the distance.
They were met at the gates by several servants and Gaidin, as well as a pair of Yellows; their state of arrival announced by the watch before they got close. Yani lost sight of Nat and the Gaidin Captain, last seen with an Yellow Asha'man , as two Aes Sedai flocked the rest of them, herding them unceremoniously to the Citadel's infirmary while stablehands took care of their horses. Lyanra protested for deaf ears that she was unhurt, while Vaser supported Ruben's bad side, and Yani lended a hand, not listening to the little voice that said she did it only to be near.
Another small part of her mind thought about the Gaidin Captain, and his terrible demise, and who would become the next Captain after Remerin Calai.
She had no idea the Weaving of the Wheel would see her in that position before the week had passed.
