My 8 E-books written over the years by Alina Udrea - HTML preview

Chapter 6: The retreat

⦁ Mongo! Wake up! And Scar shook him to wake him up. Aggy on the other hand woke in a jiffy when it felt their presence near his master. But he was calm as he knew they were friends.

⦁ Scar? Miiah? Oh, what is wrong? Why is everybody here? Bratty, Mean?

⦁ A crazy shaman has raised an army of undead and is coming to attack us, answered Scar. He will most certainly be here in a day or two. ⦁ Oh, and you want me to welcome him? Said Mongo jokingly and still half asleep and yawning.

⦁ Yeah, get Aggy ready to set his ass on fire. Aggy growled at hearing his name.

⦁ Mean, said Scar, gather your army and get ready for a hell of a fight! ⦁ About that…..I don’t know how to put this…I have no army! Just two hundred loyal men, that is all! The people of Loyalis were mostly mercenaries who fought for Dova. The rest were enslaved to work the land and feed them.

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⦁ Two hundred men? Asked Scar panicked. Are you trying to be funny, Mean? You should know that this is not the time for joking around! ⦁ Wish I was! Mean went on. Unfortunately this is the naked truth. We will have to fight the undead ourselves. Every blade counts, or in my case and my wife’s case, every spell counts!

⦁ Mongo, said Miiah, maybe it would be a good idea to get Aggy and fly above the land to make an idea of how many soldiers the crazy shaman has raised. And then report back to us.

⦁ Aggy, ready for a night flight? Asked Mongo petting his dragon whom he started to really care about.

⦁ You know I would do anything for you my little master, answered Aggy telepathically.

⦁ Ok then, Mongo went on, let’s do this! And he climbed on Aggy’s back and they were off in the night.

⦁ At least place the two hundred soldiers at the city gates…or maybe just order them to hide to save their lives. It will be a slaughterhouse here. With or without them our odds will be the same. And saying that, Scar touched his sword as if to make sure it was in its place. Then satisfied he

decided to wait for Mongo’s return.

Mongo was scanning the area searching for the undead army. He

didn’t have to search too long as he soon distinguished the army marching silently in the night, coming for Dustwither. They were more than he could count. He reckoned they didn’t stand a chance against such an army which was already dead, by the way. So they couldn’t feel any pain which made them even more deadly, meaning that no injury would stop them from attacking. They would have to be burnt or have their heads chopped off to be stopped. But could Aggy burnt them all before he would be taken down? No… He knew he couldn’t, not even with Mean and Bratty’s help, although they were mages. The army was too large, the shaman hadn’t only raised the mercenaries from the dead, but also their own people who had been killed by the mercenaries. So indeed the army was something to be feared. They would need help from their friends back home in Donn.

Mongo had seen enough so he decided to return to Dustwither

with the bad news. His friends were already gathered in the castle

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yard waiting for him. The moment he touched the ground, they almost jumped on him asking him the one question that was on everybody’s mind: how many are they? How large was the army they were about to face?

⦁ I’m afraid they are a lot more than us few can handle. We will have to think of something if we want to survive this. We can take down a lot of their army but in the end, they will take us down, too. They are just too many. Try to imagine a field of grass…and now imagine that every blade of grass is a soldier, that is how many they are. And armed to the teeth.

⦁ Not to say that every soldier will have to be killed not just hurt because an injury won’t stop these from fighting. Only beheading them or burning them, said Scar putting Mongo’s thoughts into words.

⦁ Ok, then what’s the plan? Asked Mean eagerly. ⦁ What should we do? Echoed Miiah. ⦁ I say send our two hundred soldiers to escort the peasants somewhere safe, as far away from this place as possible, somewhere in the western woods, said Bratty. I heard that there are caves and tunnels there. They can hide there until we figure this out! ⦁ Alright! As much as it hurts me to accept this, I have to agree with you, said Mean with a sorrowful look on his face. ⦁ Truth is that after Dova’s defeat nobody thought we would be attacked again so soon! Said Scar trying to appease his state of mind. It is not your fault, Mean.

⦁ Yeah, just two hundred soldiers… oh my God. Wasn’t expecting a war so soon after we had just won another. I thought I had plenty of time to gather an army. And with the mercenaries dead…who would have thought we would have to fight them again, them being even worse this time, undead…

⦁ See? Miiah also intervened. It is nobody’s fault. But better save the people and ourselves. Send them to the western woods for shelter and we should also flee this place before the undead get here. ⦁ Hmm, the shaman will be disappointed to find an empty castle! Would like to see the look on his face, the bastard! Uttered Mean with a little satisfaction in the corner of his eyes.

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⦁ Mongo, do you think that Aggy can fly with all of us on his back? Asked Scar.

⦁ Yeah, he will have to, answered Mongo feeling sorry for the ordeal his dragon would have to undergo, carrying them all on his back. ⦁ OK, said Mean, hop on Aggy and wait for me. I will give the order for the soldiers to escort the peasants. And he was off. Half an hour later the two hundred soldiers were escorting the remaining people of Dustwither towards the western woods, towards the safety of the caves. At the same time Aggy was lifting from the ground with Scar, Miiah, Mean, Bratty, Hizzy and of course Mongo on his back.

Mean was wondering if he would ever regain Dustwither and Loyalis back from the shaman’s hands, if he would ever rule again. He got used to being king and have Bratty as his queen. If he won’t be able to reconquer Loyalis, then he would be Scar’s mage again. And it had felt so good to be a king, to have subjects, to give orders for a change. And he had been a good king, even if for just a short period of time.

All these thoughts were making Mean dizzy with sorrow on the

one hand, but on the other hand it also made him want his kingdom back with such a fervor and determination that he would do anything in his power to get it back and save the remaining of his people from the caves where he had sent them to hide.