Static blared out of a shattered radio as flickering silhouettes scurried about the chaotic scene. There was a fire somewhere, or maybe several fires all about, and every now and again the sound of things shifting, cracking, popping, and exploding could be heard. Edwin raised himself up just a bit to see, first, if he was okay, then to see about the others. He was badly scraped up and bruised but nothing seemed broken or too deep, he could stand. Getting his bearings he could see the smoldering remains of the wagon that had veered off and hit him on his jeed. There beside it lay his faithful friend. He was dead. The brave soul, saw danger and protected his master with his life. Edwin dropped to his knees, he wanted to cry, or do something, anything. Everything seemed so unreal.
Only minutes earlier he had been riding home from the university when a military convoy forced everyone off the road. Things got hazy after that. Something exploded, there was fire and shouting everywhere. Steel, or rather the sound of steel on steel, was definitely there. Edwin was just turning around to see what was going on when something exploded behind him. Edwin scanned the tree line to see what was going on, then suddenly his jeed bucked him off. Edwin only barley made out the flaming form of the massive supply wagon barreling down on them before things went black.
Now that things were beginning to sink in, Edwin summoned Squiggers and performed a spell of healing and heightened his senses and reflexes. He was not sure what to expect now, but he would be ready. He was actually surprised at the effectiveness of the spells. Ariel was a powerful sprite, he had been training with her to channel her power but never had to actually use their abilities like this before. The pain was greatly reduced and he wasn't bleeding from any of his scrapes anymore, plus he felt stronger and more focused than ever. Adrenalin plus the spells were having a compounding effect.
First things first, Edwin had to find out what was going on. He walked up the road, around small burnt out craters, and he passed a few corpses. He did not have to check to tell that the bodies were dead. He reached the site the caravan had been attacked and where the center of the wreckage was at. He saw something dart around behind the burning remains of a large supply wagon. Edwin picked up a board from the ground and hefted it over his shoulder like a baseball bat. He slowly crept toward the edge of the wagon. Edwin's heart was pounding, what if it was just a soldier? That's probably it, right? He could hear hushed breathing and a slight shuffling in the gravel but no other indicators of the identity of the shadow. Edwin decided to jump out and scare whatever it was. So he did.
"AAAAARH!"
"AIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!"
Edwin stopped mid swing and his jaw came unhinged, the scream that had stunned him came out of one of the prettiest and saddest things he had ever seen. There was a girl curled up and trembling before him, her huge lavender eyes were overflowing with tears. She had a simple black dress that was riped in a few places, a rather bad wound on her side. Her pale skin was tarnished with ash and dirt and her purple hair was in disarray. Edwin dropped his plank and jumped down beside her.
In a whisper he said, "sorry to have scared you miss... I didn't know who was over here... better safe than sorry, you know?" Edwin forced his best grin.
She stopped crying and gave a little nod, words were still beyond her it seemed. Edwin made a gesture to sit next to her and again she nodded. So, Edwin sat down.
"May I look at your wound? I may be able to help."
She gulped, nodded, and stared at Edwin with those big lavender eyes as he inspected the cut. Edwin blushed.
"It looks pretty bad, I can probably stop the bleeding and numb the pain with a spell... but I'm not used to using them on other people yet. Should I try?"
She nodded vigorously. So Edwin shut his eyes and extended his hands toward the wound, wrists together and hands making a cradle for the transfer of magical energy. Ariel materialized for a moment to make her own calculations, then dived into Edwin's consciousness. Edwin felt the rush of magical power as he tapped into it and then he channeled it into the girl as Ariel taught him the incantation. When he finished he fell back with a gasp. He had used more power than he intended, he hoped the girl was alright. Edwin lay on his back panting for a moment before before he felt pressure on his chest then the girl's face over his.
"Are you okay?" She said, a little worried.
Edwin smiled. "I'm fine, little winded is all. ...did it work?" He held the girl's hand as she helped him sit up.
"It did! Look!" She showed where the gash had been but now her skin was healed back up and it looked like there had never been a wound there, but now, instead of a scar, there was a faint tattoo of a rose. She looked up again and smiled, "Thank you. You're really good for a first time user, you know. You have a really powerful spirit."
"Oh, well, you're welcome... and thanks. Squiggers is pretty awesome." Ariel came out and took a bow, standing on Edwin's shoulder as he said this. The girl smirked. "Oh, my name is Edwin, Edwin Felspar."
"My name's Keely O'Connor...General O'Connor's girl." She said rather sarcastically. Must have shown his dismay at her being "someone's girl" rather plainly cause she quickly added, "his daughter!"
Edwin was embarrassed, he hadn't been fully conscious of the attraction that was forming till it was acknowledged by another. Now that he thought about it, it seemed out of place for the situation. They were still in what looked like a war zone, burning wreckage all around them.
"oh, haha... I gotcha. Well met, miss O'Connor." He replied. There was silence for a few seconds then Edwin interjected. "What the hell happened?!"
Keely studied Edwin for a moment. "I'm not really sure. I was traveling with my mother along with a significant amount of supply wagons bound for the fort my father is stationed at. We were prepared for an attack by the orcs in these parts, the uprisings have been more organized of late. But from what I could tell the attack came from the sky."
"But orcs can't fly, their religion forbids them to and there's no way they could have summoned a drake."
"Right, I have some ideas but I think it's best not to make pointless conjectures. Right now we need to round up any more survivors. Surely my mother has been found and is safe... but I'm surprised it was you and not one of my father's men who found me..." She went silent and the atmosphere grew heavy. Edwin understood.
"Come on, lets go find your mom."
Edwin grabbed a pole that was lying nearby, apparently it used to be part of a wagon, and he stood waiting for Keely to give him some direction. She knew roughly where to look and they headed through the wreckage. They found a few soldiers, heavily wounded, huddled up behind a burning wagon. After doing a little first aid they moved as a group to find more people, and Mrs O'Connor. As they moved up the column towards the front things got more chaotic. Here there were corpses burn beyond recognition lying about and tracks that led off into the woods. If they were quiet they thought they could hear the sound of steel coming from deep in the looming forest on either side of the road. Finally they found a wagon left intact and pulled off the road with a score or so of soldiers around it. From inside Edwin heard a woman give a cry.
"Keely! You're alive! My darling!" A woman in her mid forties or fifties ran out of the wagon, she was still pretty. Keely rushed to meet her and they embraced as if each thought the other had returned from the grave. The soldiers with Edwin ran over in similar fashion to see their comrades and there was much back slapping all around. Edwin remained a few good paces distant from the reunion watching Keely and the woman he assumed was Keely's mother. Between tear stained hugs and tender mutterings the woman caught Edwin's eyes and he could see her processing what she saw. It must have donned on her that the man she was staring at had some part in bringing her daughter safely to her, because she stopped and pulled Keely along as she approached Edwin.
"Young man, you appeared to lead the party that has brought my daughter safely to me, is this correct?"
"Yes ma'am" Edwin nodded and stood a little straighter.
"What is your name child?"
"Er, Edwin ma'am. Edwin Felspar."
She smiled, "well, thank you very much for returning my daughter safely to me Mr Felspar." She gave a slight military style bow. "I was very worried something had happened to my baby."
Edwin bowed respectfully and let a large smile flash across his face. "It was nothing ma'am, anyone'd do the same in my position, I was just the first to come across her I guess."
Mrs O'Connor's elbowed her daughter who had been silent. "He's a cute one, sure you weren't waiting for him to rescue you?" she said with a wink.
"MOM!" Keely and Edwin both turned a few shades of crimson. Their eyes met for a second then they both glanced away quickly.
Mrs O'Connor laughed. "Well, we need to get to a safer place than the road. It looks like we have most of the survivors with us. We are going to head down the road to the fort. Edwin, you are welcome to come with us, or if you would like to go your own way I can provide a couple soldiers to escort you to your destination."
"Well, if you'll pardon me ma'am, I have a fair way to go and my Jeed died in the incident. I'll be fine on my own I think, I'd hate to make your soldiers go way out of their way just for me."
"I insist you take an escort, if not for your own safety then for my peace of mind."
Edwin looked at Keely. She had a concerned look on her face, so Edwin decided he would take an escort. When he agreed she looked a little relieved. Edwin was starting to feel light headed as all the butterflies in his stomach began to migrate. So, he decided to quickly say farewell and head home. Edwin exchanged bows with the O'Connor women again and was joined by two guys roughly his age decked out in their military duds. The three of them began marching off south-west and the remaining group took the O'Connors east toward Fort Benning.
