Resurrection Pt. 2

‘This way,’ Grim told Rafka quietly, ‘we need some newer info.’ The stealthy two trotted across the blackened barrens to the west, being chased by wild carrion devourers, embers, minotaurs, vulture raptors and anything else that spotted the odd creatures running through their territory. What a busy place this was for the wildlife of Tyria, Rafka thought.

They rounded the bend of a cliff face as it began to grow dark. ‘Quick, in here!’ A shadowy figure stepped out from behind some bushes and trees to motion the two toward a dimly lit opening in the cliff face. A heavily armored charr with what looked like Vigil gear stepped out behind them and began swinging and chopping at the creatures following behind with a roar.

Rafka peered down the entranceway but still couldn’t see much. ‘You must be new here, soldier. This is Burnt Hollow, an ash legion/Vigil camp. And at the moment we have a lot of Whispers traffic as well.’ She lit a torch, ‘Welcome back centurion, it’s been a while.’ Grim turned toward her, ‘Yes, it has. How are you holding up here?’

‘Nothing has changed. With only one way in or out, we always have so many weapons here that an enemy trying to attack would be decimated.’ Rafka looked back toward the entrance as the Vigil guard entered with a vulture raptor corpse & two devourer carcasses and held them up, ‘Dinner!’ The ash legion female grinned and motioned into the cave, ‘Come in, we’re about to eat.’

The ash soldier saw Rafka’s wonder and read her look, ‘We love visitors. Not for the company, but because we don’t want to hunt for food, so we wait for you to bring animals following you in and kill them. Might be lazy, but we like to call it “efficient”.’ Rafka grinned and Grim chuckled, and the two soldiers joined in with a laugh walking back into the large spacious cave.

Mid Fireheart Rise, location of flame legion shaman’s camp near Keeper’s Sanctum

After settling in removing masks and weapons, the centurion and Rafka sat down to eat, jawing with the soldiers about local goings-on and their future plans for the area. Afterwards Grim and Rafka sat down with the Vigil commander Trinmaw Skullbash and local Whispers members with information about the area where the flame legion shaman’s cave was located.

‘It’s not so much a cave, sir, as an indent into the face of a cliff. I don’t know what you did to make this particular shaman so afraid of you, but this guy goes very far out of his way to not leave footprints, including very few soldiers the last few years, when we looked around at your requests to find him.’

‘At the moment, last check he only had about ten guards, but seems to think he’s safe so he’s been there a while. We would have killed him already, but he hasn’t been involved in any shenanigans, and we all have known he was a target specifically named by you, so we left him alone.’

Grim nodded, then did a double take looking at her. ”Shenanigans’?’ he said with a grin, then the tent erupted in raucous laughter, the rest of the soldiers in the cave turning toward it, wondering what was so funny inside what they thought was a serious discussion going on. After they settled down, everyone wrapped up the conversation, and the centurion & Rafka prepared to move out.

They shook paws with their Whispers and ash legion compatriots and thanked commander Skullbash, who said ‘Good luck, centurion. General Soulkeeper sends her well wishes, and says to tell you “FOR BLOOD LEGION!”‘, relaying the general’s salute. Soulkeeper’s former status as tribune in his legion was a powerful thing, and both the centurion and Rafka returned it smartly.

Centurion Grimcrotch in his Whispers gear near the flame legion citadel gates, Fireheart Rise

After leaving Burnt Hollow and rounding the cliff to the east, heading north they ran into several wild carrion devourers. The centurion’s pet salamander drake he named Spanky snapped its head around, keeping in sight every creature around them. ‘Remember when you joined me near the Citadel as a cub and said you thought Death didn’t look so tough?’ he asked Rafka.

‘I kind of remember, yes sir, but I’ve since taken your word for it. It was quite a while ago.’ Grim pointed to a nearby devourer and said, ‘Go attack that one.’ She pulled both pistols and trotted toward the creature, firing them at the same time. For every one bullet that hit, three were ineffective. But not for bad aim, because they did hit. The three that were ineffective simply bounced off the devourer’s hard shell.

After the initial attack the devourer charged Rafka just before she dodged, and it knocked her back on her tuckus, then scurried underground and back, away from her, the only sign of where it moved was small trail of rocks in a line pushed up. It then climbed up out of the ground and fired two poisonous clouds at her, then darted off to the side as Rafka dodged and fired again.

The creature was hit a few more times, but all the devastating shots that would have killed another creature by now weren’t effective, and again it charged Rafka to attempt a knockback. But this time she expected it and was ready, holstering her pistols as she dodged and pulled her daggers, charging the devourer and jamming them under the creature’s shell, ripping it apart.

Grim chuckled, ‘Good job, soldier. Now you know why I have one. It’s not too intimidating to look at, but when enemies think they can take you and think you have a weak pet, they fool themselves with underestimating both targets. You have an automatic advantage.’ Rafka trotted back toward her commander, sheathing her blades. ‘I’ll be sure to give Death a treat when we get back for underestimating it, sir.’ she said grinning sheepishly. He patted her on the back, ‘Ok, let’s move out, we’re almost there.’

Resurrection Pt. 1

Inspired by the song Resurrection by Halford

‘Are you sure she’s ready for this, sir?’ legionnaire Elexus Shredskin asked her centurion, a wondering look appearing on her face with the question, ‘I’ll be glad to join you.’ Grimcrotch put his longbow away, bent down to open his chest holding the Whisper’s gear he kept, dual legion axes and a belt of daggers along with the unique armor.

He pulled out the armor and replaced what he had on, then began to arm himself with the weapons, belt first, strapped it on from right shoulder to left waist & adjusted, then holstered the axes before closing and locking the box. Moving past his legionnaire and stepping toward the door, he patted her on the shoulder on his way out, saying ‘Lock up when you leave, soldier.’

His legionnaire gave a smart salute, with her voice fading as he left, saying ‘Good luck, sir.’

As a cub, the night his camp was attacked with his simba, sire and the rest of them killed by flame legion, Grim had made it his mission to not only destroy all flame legion, but to find the one flame legion shaman responsible for ordering the attack. That night he returned with tribune Brimstone to wipe out those attacking, but the one responsible was alerted and ran off, avoiding death.

Even in the fahrar with Dinky they would sneak off in the night to search, he as determined as Grim to exact revenge. For several years off and on, word would get back to him of a location of the shaman, only for them to get there to find they had moved on. The last definite word he had was in the defense of Monger’s Sink campaign, but his paws were full and he couldn’t get away.

Now once again, word had come back through his friends in the Whispers; there was a cave near Keeper’s Sanctum in Fireheart Rise where the flame legion shaman was holed up, and it looked like a mostly permanent base. With no pressing business to tend to at the moment, it was time to finish this, for his simba and himself.

He informed the tribune of his plans, who wished him luck and ordered the rest of his battalion to be held in reserve on instant call-up if needed. ‘You can’t do this alone, Grim,’ Dinky said. ‘Both of us have searched for this low life since we were cubs, you can’t keep me from finally finishing him off with you.’

Grimcrotch held up his paw, ‘This is personal, Dinky. I appreciate your help but I have to do this without you. I am taking Rafka with me because I may need the stealth of a thief; you charging in there and going crazy could get us killed.’ So it was decided. Grim put on his Whispers gear, gave Rafka their uniform, pistols and dagger belt, and prepared to move out.

South Fireheart Rise

Entering Fireheart Rise and leaving Sati Passage moving west, past Pig Iron Mine south of the lake on the trail, it was pouring down rain. They stopped near Buloh Crossing and looked around, Grim for the first time in a few years, seeing nothing but blackened ground and a flaming tree stump wasteland, Rafka wide-eyed for her first visit. ‘What happened here?’ she asked.

‘Flame legion,’ the centurion replied. ‘Make sure you are ready to go, soldier. This is as close as it gets to being their territory in our land; those near Ashford Plain are rookies, we kill them too fast for them to get experience. The pros are up this way, they have nothing but time and numbers here. And the cave is dead in the middle. When you see the sky raining fire, we are close.’

A blood legion scout from the Crossing walked up, handing Grim a flask, ‘Howdy centurion, care for a nip?’ Grim chuckled and reached into his uniform pocket to bring out his own, ‘Have some already soldier, but thanks. Try this.’ The scout put his away and took the centurion’s flask, ‘Big draw, scout. No nip. You’re Blood Legion.’ The soldier tipped back the flask and nearly choked.

‘This is firewater, sir, wow!’ he barely stammered, afraid to breath. Coughing a few times then forcing himself to handle it in front of his superior, he squeaked out another ‘Wow’, shaking his head. ‘Hehehe…’ Grim laughed quietly, taking back the flask. The centurion tipped up the container and drank in half, then exhaled loudly, and turned to Rafka handing it to her, ‘Have a nip.’

‘I…I don’t know if I should, sir,’ she replied, unsure of what it would do to her reflexes on an important mission with her commander. ‘It will loosen you up. You won’t be drunk, but will move more fluidly. If it would hurt the mission I wouldn’t offer it to you.’ She nervously grasped the bottle and took a sip, handing it back as she bent down coughing after swallowing.

‘BAHAHAHA!’ Grim and the scout both laughed. The centurion reached over and gave her a friendly pat on the back, taking the flask, corking it and putting it away. ‘It’s ok soldier, I sometimes forget this formula Dinky and I came up with is geared for us, high octane.’ Rafka squinted and said in a raspy voice, ‘It sure is, sir.’ Grim patted her on the shoulder again and chuckled.

Entering Fireheart Rise flame legion territory…

Death, the centurion’s carrion devourer pet, seemed antsy, darting back and forth nearby, tittering loudly and facing toward a large rock face in the distance, both tail barbs high and pointing menacingly. ‘Ah, yes my little friend,’ Grim said, ‘I nearly forgot this is where I found you as a hatchling.’ The centurion squinted toward the rock, and could barely see the outline of another devourer along the ground, his pet’s agitation.

‘Come here…’ he said, mouthing some clicking noises, a sort of calling command. Death ran up to him then turned back to face his enemy in the distance again, weaving. ‘It’s alright, we aren’t here for them. I wouldn’t make you fight your own kind,’ he said, patting his little friend on his shelled back.

‘Take care out there, sir. If the land and creatures don’t get you, the flame legion sure as hell might. Thanks for the whisky centurion, come back in one piece for us.’ The scout saluted smartly, then turned back toward Buloh Crossing and his patrol around the camp. Grim nodded and gave a short salute. ‘Alright soldier, if you are set let’s move out,’ he told Rafka.

She nodded and said, ‘Ready sir.’ She patted down her belt to mentally count her daggers and clips, ran a claw across the handles of each pistol for reassurance. They crossed the blackened ground northward in silence, soon out of sight of the Crossing and avoiding the creatures. Around a giant rock hill near Forge Plains they came up on flame legion territory.

A river of lava flowed around a hill, black burnt tree stumps were all that stood out near Cozen Desolation. Grim stopped and put his paw on Rafka’s shoulder then pointed in the distance: patrolling flame legion.

Tough Enough

Rafka and Clawspur walked down from the Black Citadel to Hero’s Canton, talking between themselves, wondering why they were summoned by legionnaire Dinky to the canteen. The previous night they had helped their commander and centurion out of a jam, and were prepared to go back to the local grind of proving themselves worthy to join the Grim warband as full members.

After clearing the camp that had attacked their two leaders and walking back to help the centurion, he was leaning on a tree watching them. It didn’t look like he needed any help, because he didn’t. ‘Let’s get back to the Citadel you two. Great job,’ he told them as they walked up, patting first Rafka then Clawspur on their backs with his left paw.

‘HEY HEY! HERE THEY COME!’ legionnaire Fyon the Wraith spoke up above the din in the busy canteen. The whole room erupted in cheers and congratulations, thanks, heavy pawed pats on their backs. They stopped and looked around in wonder with half smiles, then at each other and shrugged, turning back toward the table where the centurion and his legionnaires sat.

Rathgaar Firemane sitting next to Dinky with an enormous grin, stood and waved his cub and her friend over to him, squeezing her in a bear hug. ‘I’m very proud of you, Rafka,’ he whispered into her ear. Letting go, he turned to Clawspur, paws on hips. ‘Well you’re not getting a hug, soldier, but great job to you as well, heh,’ he said, still with the huge grin, shaking his paw and slapping the thief on his bicep.

The room erupted in laughter at the elemental’s remark. ‘Alright, alright, everyone quiet down.’ Rathgaar motioned for them to sit, then turned to look at Dinky and nodded toward the room. The legionnaire stood and faced the two thieves, ‘So what did you think when I told you “Welcome to the Bloody Twelfth” back there, huh? Did you expect cake and juice, soldiers?’

Rafka and Clawspur in the Hero’s Canton canteen

The room broke out in laughter again. ‘This is how it works, Rafka and Clawspur. There is no official ceremony. When a legionnaire tells you what I did that is it, you’re officially in the warband. The only other thing to do is for the centurion himself to confirm what I have already told you. In most cases he doesn’t require his confirmation because he trusts his legionnaires. Why, I don’t know.’

Again the canteen burst out in laughter. ‘But,’ he said, holding up a paw, ‘in the case of you two he personally wanted to be the one to approve your acceptance.’ Rafka and Clawspur turned to look at each other with the widest smiles they had ever made, Clawspur backhanded a slap to his friend’s shoulder. Rafka spoke up, ‘But didn’t you already…’

‘While you were fighting the flame legion out there,’ the centurion interrupted, ‘the legionnaire and I watched. We could have helped, but you volunteered. In my warband and battalion, when you say you will do something I expect it to be done, no exceptions. I do not tolerate weakness or incompetence. You two proved you are neither of those in the middle of that firefight.’

‘I told him to get you into the warband while you were still fighting. Because with the exception of legionnaire Shredskin, I have never seen any charr handle both daggers and pistols so adeptly in mid-battle before.’ He stood and smiled, then stepped forward.

‘So if this is what you wanted, welcome to the Grim warband and the Twelfth Battalion, soldiers.’ He saluted the two smartly, and received one in kind from the two newest members. The canteen blew up into cheering and congratulations again for the young soldiers who put their lives on the line to save their legionnaire and centurion.

——

A few hours later when the battalion members who were present were well into their cups, the centurion motioned for Rafka to follow him out the door. He leaned on the rail outside near the target practice area, where she got her start under his supervision what seemed to her so long ago. She stepped up and placed her paws on the railing.

‘You have come a long way in a short time, Rafka. You’re no longer the little cub I was telling stories to in the fahrar, I am proud of you like your sire.’ He sipped his sour mash and watched the business of the Canton going to-and-fro. ‘Can I ask you something, centurion?’ she asked. He nodded, ‘Anything, soldier.’

‘Why did you go out of your way to not let me see you kill anyone?’ Grim looked down at the ground, then turned toward Rafka, ‘Because while you were still a young cub I wanted you to play, have fun, be a cub, not be exposed to the ruthless world this can be so soon. I wasn’t given the chance to grow as a cub should with games and playing, being young.’ He turned to look back out at the Canton.

‘Can I ask why?’ she replied. His eyes hardened; he stood and turned toward his protege, staring her straight in the eye, ‘Because my sire and simba were killed in the middle of the night by the flame legion, when I was several years younger than you were when you began weapon training with me. My sire was always gone, and when he was around he was always drunk. I never knew him.’

——

‘What I remember of my simba, she always protected me and hid me away when he came around drunk. She was a very caring charr, stuck in an unfortunate circumstance with him.’ He drew himself up to his full height as he looked beyond Rafka for a moment, then back down at her.

‘Every time I fight, I’m not only taking my rage out on the flame legion that killed my simba, but I’m killing my worthless sire who treated my simba and I so badly.’ He stopped and drained his glass. ‘Any other questions, soldier?’ he said with steeled gaze and raised eyebrow.

‘I guess not, sir,’ she replied, sad for her centurion and friend. ‘Alright, let’s get in there and finish having fun. This doesn’t happen very often any more, you have to enjoy it when you can. Alright?’ She looked up at him, ‘Yes sir.’

‘Hey…..I said alright? Get that frown off your face little fighter, you just gained a family one hundredfold, and we’re all happy for you.’ She smiled at the mention of his old nickname for her and said again, ‘Alright, sir’. He put his arm around her and walked back into the canteen full of celebrating soldiers, who all cheered when they saw them enter.

Young Guns

After many of the battles fought with flame legion around Ascalon since legionnaire Grimcrotch became centurion, it seemed most wanted to take a break and regroup. This Blood Legion commander was frightening, they had never dealt with such a ruthless and fearless foe since the three legions broke out and forced their surrender. Too many of their number had perished at his hand.

The weeks since the centurion had begun to train Rafka Firemane in weapons turned into months, then a year; he had been busy with other tasks, and knowing Rathgaar Firemane, her sire, had been training her this whole time was better, he felt, for both of them. The two had become a typical sire and cub, the animosity on Rafka’s part having disappeared.

Rafka also expanded her training to pistols, and was quickly becoming known as a crack shot, especially while unloading on targets mid-dive. She simply did not miss. And while the cub began to take on small jobs around the citadel that involved killing the ghosts and smaller pockets of flame legion that refused to give ground, she had begun to grow in size rather quickly as well.

A friend she had found in the fahrar, Clawspur, a thief, had begun to show her the ropes involving pistols. But his training was soon expanded by her adding her own touch to what she had already learned with diving/rolling attacks.

‘Don’t think I’ve ever seen her miss a target. I was nearly a fully trained thief when we began, and she has surpassed me already. I wouldn’t fight her,’ Clawspur told her sire. Rathgaar grew more proud of his not-so-little-anymore cub every day.

——

Grimcrotch crawled slowly along the ground below the small rise, his second Dinky behind him. ‘Ok, which ones are they?’ he whispered, as quietly as a charr with a deep raspy voice can, focusing his eyepiece on several flame legion shaman near the cave entrance. Dinky slid up next to him and whispered back, looking in the enemy direction, ‘Hell, all of them if you can.’

Grim stopped focusing his eyepiece and turned to his friend with an ‘Are you kidding me?’ look, then flipped it up and looked around. They were surrounded by 40-ish flame legion between 25-30 feet away on all sides, with only a small outlet behind them to get into, and out of, where they were. Thankfully the fires lit by the enemy kept them blind to much else beyond the light they gave off.

‘Shh.’ Grim held a claw to his mouth and turned to look behind them, with Dinky turning to look as well, ‘What…’ Grim held the claw to his mouth again with no noise, then motioned that someone was walking behind them, beyond the flame legion and fires, in the same area as where they came into the enemy camp. He cocked his ears and sharply gazed back into the darkness…

Turning back to the task at hand, Grim flipped his eyepiece back down and focused on one of the flame legion shaman at the edge of the group near the cave, nearly sixty yards away. The enemy turned and stepped away from the group; the centurion slid his bow flat to the ground slightly over the edge of the rise and loaded an arrow, then turned back to watch his target.

The shaman went to a stack of crates at the side of a tent nearby and reached in; the arrow silently shot away, going straight through the side of his head. He dropped off behind the crates, quiet. Dinky patted him on the back. Grim loaded another arrow, then focused on another target, again on the side of the group of shaman near the cave entrance.

——

The centurion’s target looked over and saw something on the ground near the tent where the first shaman dropped and went to investigate. He bent down for a pulse on the dead shaman, then turned. Just as he was about to give a shout alerting the flame legion of their dead comrade, a silent arrow entered his mouth and stuck in his head, dropping him on top of his dead friend.

Grim exhaled, then drew breath again and focused on another target near the cave. Dinky shook his head in disbelief that his friend could do this, and patted him on the back again. A third shaman from the group spoke up to his friends, wondering where one of them was, and started to step to the nearby tent with crates then stopped and turned still within their view…

As he attempted to speak an arrow flew through his temple, eyeballs bouncing out onto his face as he fell over. ‘We’re being attacked!! Rally up fla…’ Another shaman began, as an arrow went straight through his face, dropping him back with his men standing and turning to see their commander die.

The entire camp came to life, weapons drawn, confusion in the dark, shouts to everyone to find the sniper. Dinky whispered to his boss ‘Think we’ve been noticed.’ Grim pulled his bow back from the rise and whispered back, ‘Let’s get out of here.’ The two began to crawl back out the way they entered the camp. Near the point where they could almost stand and run, gunfire went off with bullets and arrows pelting the ground and trees around them.

The two blood legion soldiers stood and began to run when Grim was shot in the back on the right shoulder, making him drop his bow and fall to a knee. ‘Aaah! Dammit!’ he grunted. Dinky moved behind his commander and picked up the bow and lifted his centurion with bullets and arrows plinking off his shield. ‘Whether you can or not, boss, we have to run!’

Rafka Firemane, newest member of the [XII] Twelfth Blood Legion Battalion, Grim Warband

Out of the darkness next to them a familiar female voice spoke up, ‘Get behind those trees and stay down, centurion!’ Grimcrotch turned to the voice and saw Rafka Firemane with her fellow thief friend Clawspur, bullets and arrows ricocheting off the little cover trees brought. ‘NOW, SIR!!’ Grim heeded her warning and moved with Dinky, plopping down against a tree while his second helped remove his armor and dig out the bullet.

The two thieves each darted to a flank of the flame legion camp, unloading dual pistols, one bullet to the head of every enemy soldier standing taking out half of their number in one pass. Several of the flame legion gunners took out captured charrzookas to light up the edge of the camp. After reloading, Rafka had two of them aim directly at her, and as she dove away she put shots straight into the barrels of both cannons, making them explode both weapons and torsos of the soldiers carrying them.

Clawspur on the other side did nearly as well. But while reloading he dropped a clip, forcing him to dive to avoid several shots while pulling daggers from his belt and targeting the soldier’s heads. Down to the last twelve flame legion soldiers who had backed toward the cave, not including the remaining shaman, Clawspur leaped at them, jamming one dagger into the base of one neck then turned to do the same to another, pulling more blades from his belt and repeating it on several more, Rafka exploding heads with her crack shooting, down to only the shaman remaining.

‘STOP!!’ a voice shouted from the trees they came from, Dinky walking out toward them. The two held weapons on the three remaining flame legion commanders. ‘The centurion didn’t want you as a cub to see how he gained his reputation, Rafka. He didn’t want you to see him kill anyone this way, but you’re a big cub- er, soldier, now. Flame legion will only learn if you are more ruthless than they are. Watch and learn.’

‘Get on your knees. ALL THREE OF YOU,’ he ordered the remaining shaman. They complied. Dinky took off his shield and dropped it to the ground, pulled his sword, then with a roar split each shaman in half from skull to crotch, blood squirting and innards oozing everywhere. Rafka and Clawspur covered in blood, both got an unbelieving look, wide eyed, looking at what was living beings seconds ago, then at Dinky himself covered in blood. ‘Welcome to the Bloody Twelfth, you two. Now get over there and help your centurion walk back to the Citadel.’