Sword of Sacrifice 2 : The Swords of Our Sons

Before she could react, an arrow whizzed through the dense forest, slicing the elf's arm. She fell to the ground in surprise. Before the elf could reach for a weapon, a shrill cry sounded out as the branches suddenly parted.
Jumping right on top of the elf was a female ranger with hatred in her eyes.

"These are the woods of my family!" The ranger yelled as she held a knife to the elf's throat. "Trespassing from your kind is punished by death!"

Annette slammed her head against the humans face, breaking the other girls nose. The surprise and shock caused the woman to drop her knife, and in this instant Annette grabbed the woman on top of her, and rolled back towards her shoulders, launching the woman off and over her and into some small brush.

"Elves lived in the forest long before man ever did!", Annette shouted, blood running down her arm and face.

"Crixus!" the ranger shouted as she drew her bow from the ground.

A deafening screech was heard as a large hawk crashed through the forest floor right next to the ranger.

"Your people are dead! These woods have belonged to my family for generations!"

The excruciating pain in her nose caused the ranger's eyes to fill with tears.

"W-Why do you trespass!?" The ranger shouted while notching an arrow.

"I'm fleeing a superior foe.", Annette replied, remembering how the knight swept aside all of the combined attacks of the entire group. "And these woods still belong to the elves. Your people killed mine and tried to steal them."

The human woman still held her bow, aimed at the elf. Annette charged anyway, hearing the
'twiiiiiit' of the bow as she tackled the woman. The arrow stuck in the side of Annette's leg, mixing with the blood running from her face and arm on the ground.

The ranger was tackled onto a sharp rock, gashing her back.
The hawk swooped in clawing the elf's shoulder as the ranger cried out in pain.

Using the distraction, the ranger was able to pull both of her knees towards her chest.
"Your people always flee from superior foes!"
With one huge burst of effort, the ranger kicked the elf into the air through a thick bush.

Annette landed hard on the ground, the arrow in her leg shattering from the impact and driving it deeper into her. She lay, bloodied and broken, her bow knocked off of her, and her sword unable to be withdrawn from its sheath.

"I remember you.", a man with a painted face said, standing over her. Things were spinning now, the blood loss was getting to her. She felt the remnants of the arrow forcibly ripped from her leg, and she passed out.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?", Pick asked Sonya, who was tying a piece of cloth over the leg wound.

The girl made a moaning noise, tried to say something, then fell back into unconsciousness. Another girl stepped out of the forest, less bloody than the elf on the ground, but still pretty beat up.

"What just happened?", Pick shouted at her.

"S-s-she tresspassed!" The ranger mumbled, blood pouring down her nose.

"Elves... On my family's land!"

Her legs buckled beneath her and she fell down in a a sitting position.

"W-w-who the hell are you?" The ranger stammered as a large hawk swooped into a tree right behind her.

The rabid gnomes had long since moved on, so now it was just the unconscious elf, Sonya, Pick, Minx, and the ranger.

"We need to get to a city, I can't fix injuries like these with nothing but leaves and string.", Sonya announced. "I need gauze, bandages..."

"Whine some more, I don't think I heard you clear enough.", Pick said, picking up the unconscious elf. "Pack what you can. We need to travel light."

The ranger almost wandered off, when she realized that she could no loner walk. "Wind wall. You aren't leaving. Pack a bag with stuff.", Pick ordered.

Cavalius squinted at nothing. What was that sound? Enemies, perhaps? Unlikely. Nobody knew he was here. Nobody ever knew where he was.

It came from over there, he thought to himself as he edged his way toward a thicket. Peering around the corner, he saw a small group of people. One of the females appeared to have a serious leg wound.

Cavalius squinted again. Should he help? He was a cleric, after all. Healing was his thing. then again, so was murder. Turning to leave, he decided that it wasn't worth being spotted.

Then he heard the wounded girl make a whimpering noise... A slight cry of pain. Lius sighed, and turned back toward the thicket.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped into their midst. "Hail, friends." He said, holding his arms up in a peaceful gesture, "I am but a humble, wondering cleric. And it looks as if your friend could use my services."

"Then your services are quite needed.", Pick answered him, stepping over the wounded elf. "I have this rash, quite embarrassing really, that I need taken care of. I slipped through a bush that didn't quite agree with me."

Annette made another sound, somewhere between a whimper and words.

"Oh, and she is bleeding from her face, arm, and leg."

"Let's see if we can change that," Lius said, clapping his hands together. Instantly, his head lolled back, and he began the chant with his eyes closed.

"Tori vietsar iubarit nay baru tori gazenburg!"
Lius' head rolled forward, and his eyes burned a brilliant shade of gold.
"Tori vietso elumalet non benoun tori gan barook!"
His eyes opened.
"RECUPERATE!!" He shouted, as waves of golden energy surged around him.

Instantly, reality bent to his will, and the injured girl was encased in light.

And then-

Nothing. The light was gone, and the girl was completely healed. "She'll be fine now." Lius declared, lowering his hands. "By the by... My name's Lius. Cavalius."

The wind attack sent Cimeries soaring through the air landing pianfully on his back. He coughed and looked around till he was no longer dazed and looked up at the ogres.

"What in the hell just happened," he said fixing his hair and standing back up.

Annette looked up from the dusty, sticky ground, wondering what happened. The jester from earlier was here, along with everyone else, and two people she didn't immediately recognize.

"Weren't we fighting something?", she asked.

"It died of natural causes. Don't worry about it.", someone in the group said.

Annette lay in the bloodied dirt and contemplated things for awhile. Eventually she rose to her feet to speak.

"Someone is about to die, but not by natural causes....", Annette shouted suddenly, lunging at the ranger yet again.

"Oh dear..." Lius murmured, as the elf girl tried to maim one of the people in the group. He'd always thought that elves were supposed to be a peaceful folk. Then again, a hundred years of being raped and murdered for no reason could likely sour any race's patience when it comes to non-violence.

For a moment, he considered putting up a holy barrier between the two people.

Then a lone ogre came crashing in from the thicket, with hate in its eyes... All seven of them. If the absurdity of seeing an ogre here hadn't been so... Absurd... It likely would have taken Lius less time than it did in order to start panicking.

Nonetheless, his senses soon caught up with his eyes.

"Shit!"

The others were worried about something that crashed through the trees, but Annette was concerned with crushing the windpipe of the ranger. She tightened her fingers around the ranger's neck, only to be kneed unceremoniously in the stomach and tossed upside down, again.

"There are bigger problems at hand!", Pick shouted at them. Annette ground her teeth and forced a smile.

"He's right. We'll work this out after this fight.", Annette said, then without another word she drew her dagger and placed it at the ranger's throat. "Trust me. I will finish this later."

Pick let the girls duke it out, there was a bigger problem at hand. Not only had he endangered himself when he fled, but now he was endangering the others as well.

"We must retreat!", Pick shouted.

Cavalius was way ahead of the tiny man with the strange clothes. If he had gotten good at one thing over the years, it was escaping. "East, run east!" He shouted as he hopped over a dead bush, "There's a lake over there!"

And, as everyone knew, ogres didn't much care for water. Unless it was filled with chocolate.

But this was not the case.

"T-t-that monster is going to destroy my forest!" the ranger said, picking herself off the ground.

"However, I will never help an elf."
The ranger clutched her bleeding wounds.

"We must leave and fast!"

The ranger sprinted east, her hawk flying ahead.

Poliloko didn't know why they were running towards a lake, but he ran anyway. He was slightly faster than the others, wind magic had that effect.

Cassandre and Jegd were sitting on the dock and sipping their tea as Cavalius came barreling out of the woods.

"Ah," Cassandre said, waving away the incantation, causing the apparition known as Cavalius to fade away into smoke. "Clever ruse." Jegd commented, watching the others burst onto the scene as well, followed by a rather irate Ogre.

"Such stubborn creatures..." Sandy mused, tossing the rest of his tea into the lake, "Do it."

Jegd laughed, "Always happy to."

At that, Jegd raised his palm towards the Ogre.

A flash.

And then the Ogre was a charred, bloody corpse.

Pick fell to the ground, something he never wanted to to. The ground dirtied up his nice clothes. There was a flash, the ogre simply died. That was the best way to put it.

"What was that?!?!", Pick shouted.

Annette was not concerned about the ogre, nor the spell that killed it. The ranger was now in their little group, and that could not last.

'How can I be rid of her?', Annette thought to herself. The answer came to her.

"We should stay here for the night.", Annette announced, thinking of the best place to place her dagger in the ranger's chest. "We've been running and fighting. Some of us need to shower."

Cassandre snapped a finger, and a sorcerous fire appeared out of nowhere. It magically floated, just above the wooden planks of the dock, eliminating any risk of lighting it ablaze.

"Come join us!" Jegd called, "For the night is cold!"

"Yes, please do." Sandy chimed in, looking at the tiny many that had taken cover. "You lived in the royal palace, yes? We have need of you, my friend. Much need, indeed."

Jegd snickered from behind. Sandy hated when he did that.

"I am needed"?, Poliloko asked as he lifted himself off the ground. "Whatever for?"