Zenora
23. The Bloodshed Mountains

Emily’s point of view:

“Gather your weapons!” Archeops yelled at the men.

I saw the portal where Anna, Cirilya and the others must have come through. It was still far away but as it was so big, it was easy to notice. It was an arch made of stone, carved with big runes and a huge blue stone on top of it. I guess it’s not working right now, as I’m not seeing any activity from it, no shining lights or a swirling puddle inside as an indication it just let through a party of people.

There’s a big, flat and dark surface in front of the portal, probably a frozen lake. And surrounding that lake is a forest of dead trees. Just as dead as the sight that we all gasped upon because on the frozen lake are several mangled and dead bodies.

A few with red clothes, our men, and a few green bodies, Orcs. At least twelve Orcs are lying around and just two or three of our own. Clearly, they had put up a good fight if so many of them and only a few of ours had been killed. But no matter how well our men had done, the lake was covered in blood, armour and weapons, and it looked gruesome.

I quickly scanned the area, to check if anyone from the other group was there, perhaps lying in between those dead bodies or running away from them. But to my relief, I hadn’t seen any of my loved ones or Brock’s men. However, sudden worry came in as well, because if they aren’t here, then where are they?

We flew down to the lake to find out if we could see any traces of where they went. Unfortunately, it had been snowing, so all sorts of tracks were gone. Brock told me to stay at the portal with a few men and Nightwing so that he, Archeops and a few of the other men could search for clues. They walked to the centre of the lake, to the dead bodies and started to search through their belongings.

Nightwing came close to me and I scratched his head. “I wish you knew where they went.” I said to him with sadness within me. He nudged his head against my hand and then something happened to me. For a second, I saw myself and got scared! I flinched and let go of Nightwing to step back into what I had seen. Nightwing came closer again and growled softly, pushing his head against my hand once more. Reluctantly, I put it on his head and I could see myself again! But now also all the other men and the surroundings, but from a strange point of view. Everything looked really bright and so sharp, I could even see the separate flakes of snow lying on the branches of the dead trees that were standing so far away from us!

Startled, I started to use Nightwing’s vision and looked around me again. Then, I noticed that where our men had walked just now, the snow looked red and where Brock had walked ten minutes ago, the ground looked orange, slightly yellow. The dead bodies on the floor didn’t have any colour, but the men that were standing or sitting next to me had this red glow around them as well.

“Princess, are you okay? Your eyes are blue!” I snapped back to reality and let go of Nightwing’s head. Brock came rushing in and looked at me strangely. He had seen my eyes as well from where he was standing and was afraid something happened when he heard his men.

Ignoring all the men’s stares and turning to Nightwing I asked him about my thoughts. “Can you see heath signatures?” I asked him, and he nodded his head. “What? How would you know that?” Brock asked me utterly confused.

I explained to him that when I touched Nightwing’s head I could see through his eyes and saw the coloured ground where the men had stepped and the difference in colours between the dead and alive men.

“Order the men to get on the Gryphons again Archeops, I got an idea.” Brock ordered him and he lifted me to get on Nightwing’s back and jumped on him as well. Brock asked me to try to do it again when we were in the air. Maybe I could see where the others went, as the blood from the dead bodies was only a few hours old, so they couldn’t have gone far through the rough terrain of the forest. So, when we were in the air, I put my hand on Nightwing’s head again and opened my eyes. Again, I saw everything around me so bright and sharp but I figured that if I took control of his eyesight, then he wouldn’t see where we went.

Brock’s point of view:

Her eyes turned blue as soon as she touched Nightwing’s head. What was it with her and communicating with animals? How could she do all this? I hope that when we get back, Arch is going to find more information about her because I’m dying to know.

We were flying for about an hour now and I had to steer Nightwing as his eyes were controlled by Emily. She had looked everywhere but couldn’t find any clue as to where they have gone. We had been flying around the snowy mountains in several directions and her desperation grew bigger.

“What if I can’t find them at all?” She said sobbing and tears ran down her face. All I could do is hug her and tell her to keep trying. She must be able to find something soon now, although I was getting slightly afraid that something very wrong had happened.

“I can hear Rhydon!” She suddenly yelped, but I still couldn’t see anything, maybe her hearing was improved as well when she made this connection?

“Where? Lead Nightwing to it, follow your instinct.” I told her, hoping it would work.

Luckily it did. She flew us around the mountain and indeed, still far away, there was Rhydon. But as it seemed he was not in a good shape. He had wounds on his side and was getting ready to charge into a few Orcs a few yards away from him. And Miles, her dog, was running right behind Rhydon jumping on the Orcs and biting them in their necks. Anna was hovering over a body but I couldn’t see who it was yet. Dennis was close to them too, fighting off any Orc that was getting close to Anna and the body. My men were fighting off the other Orcs and I saw some of them fall to the ground as they got hit with arrows from the Orc hunters in the back.

“Brock give me my bow and quiver, quick!” Emily suddenly yelled at me, with no longer blue eyes. “Keep flying towards the Orc hunters from the side!” So, demanding, yet so determined. I didn’t care what she ordered me at this moment because what she had in mind, was what I was planning to do too. We came close to the Orc hunters and flanked them on the right side. In a matter of seconds, she shot, not only one but three Orcs down with headshots. But, now they realized we were up here so they aimed their shots at us.

Arch took his hunters to the other flank and shot some Orc hunters down as well. I guided Nightwing lower to the ground and took my sword out of the saddle bags and unclasped the belt to the saddle. “Take care of her, Nightwing!” I yelled when I jumped off of him, landing on the snowy ground with my sword in my hands.

Emily’s point of view:

I saw Brock being followed by all of his warrior men and another troop of men landed near Anna to help Dennis fight the Orcs. I shot a few more arrows at the Orc hunters and also at the warriors on Brock’s side. Then I noticed an Orc hunter focusing his arrows on one of the Gryphons which suddenly had trouble flying and went down really quick. Then, Mona came soaring through the sky and hit the hunter with her claws. Was it that Archeops his Gryphon got hit by the hunter? I flew Nightwing as fast as I could to him.

“Nightwing, try to fly underneath Archeops’ gryphon, to slow him from falling!” I yelled when I also jumped from Nightwing’s back when we were close to the ground. “GO!”

Nightwing did exactly as I said, flew in between the front and back paws of Archeops’ Gryphon and while keeping his wings spread, they slowly glided down to the ground. Archeops nodded to me, jumped off and immediately started shooting again at any Orcs who weren’t killed yet.

Only a few of them were left, I saw them gathering, running towards Anna. But I was too far away. Luckily, Brock noticed it and ran after them, killing one or two. Some of our hunters shot two or three more. But still, one of the faster Orcs could avoid any incoming arrows and was still heading towards Anna.

I shot once… miss!

Twice… miss again! Shit!

By now I was much closer because I ran as fast as I could. He lunged toward Anna and what happened next was all in a blur of slow motion.

I jumped up from a rock in the snow, aimed for the Orc’s head and pulled the string of the bow as far back as I could and released it. I knew it was too late, but I had this one tiny spark of hope that the arrow would hit the Orc before he landed his sword on Anna’s body.

Mid-air I noticed that my arrow got this bright purple glow and suddenly it went faster and faster until it reached the Orc’s head from behind and it flew straight through! I landed on the ground with my feet, did a head roll, and ran fast towards Anna. When I reached her, panting and all, I saw the Orc lying dead on the snowy ground with his sword next to her. Anna stood nailed to the ground, frozen in place and in the bark of the tree behind her… was my arrow, drenched in blood from the dead Orc. It had grazed her head by just a few mere inches.

“Anna, are you alright?” But she didn’t respond. “ANNA!” I yelled again and then she whimpered her eyelashes and her eyes rolled backwards, she fell to the ground and fainted.

All the men came walking towards us and Miles and Rhydon came to me too. Brock took over to look at Anna, she wasn’t hurt at all, so she was soon to recover. But then I noticed Cirilya lying next to her, non-responsive. I checked her vitals and noticed she was still breathing but it was very shallow. Her pulse was going really fast though so I thought she might be in shock from internal bleeding. I tore her dress apart and noticed a swelling on her abdomen.

“Get me fresh snow, two very sharp knives and the supplies from my bag from Nightwing! Someone, please!” I yelled and Brock gave me his small knife that was in one of his boots.

I told the men to cover her body with snow, except for her abdomen, in an attempt to make her blood flow go slower and preserve her organs. Other men had started a small fire and I put the dagger I got from Archeops, into it. Then I cut the abdomen open with Brocks knife, on the place where the swelling was the thickest. I had to work quickly because as soon as I opened her up, blood came gushing out of her. I felt around her insides and finally found the small rupture in a part of the small intestines. Then I took the dagger out of the fire and cauterized the rupture. The squirts of blood immediately stopped and I sighed in relief. I cleaned out the wound with the water from the flask and some clean cloth from the bag. Then I stitched the abdomen at the spot I cauterized it, to make sure it wouldn’t rupture again. After that, I stitched several layers of tissue in the abdomen and finally closed the wound.

I got rid of all the snow on her body and told the men to dress her very warmly now with blankets or coats or whatever there was to find. She had to wake up herself now but it could take a lot of time since she got into a coma from the loss of blood. I couldn’t do anything more though for her since I don’t have the blood, nor the material to give it to her.

After shaking off the first batch of adrenaline and having had a few minutes to calm me down, Brock and I walked around the battlefield looking for more injured men or animals. Luckily there were only small wounds or some broken bones, but nothing too serious for them to die. Two of our men did die, unfortunately, but given the fact that all the Orcs were dead, I’d say we did a pretty good job.

I walked over to Rhydon and Miles before I realized something…

A/n: Ohh shit... what is it?

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