We had a project we had to do for school and I decided to write a story based in the Realm of Alera. It's not very long or particularly good, but I'll let you decide. Let me know what you think!
Fury’s Sacrifice
John was running for his life. He didn’t know how far or for how long, but he knew that he had to keep going or they would catch him. He had run out of salt about a half an hour ago and since then he’d just covered himself in mud to hide from the savage wild wind furies called windmanes. His own earth fury, Varian, was having a hard time finding a cave or opening of some kind for him to take shelter despite the fact that he was running alongside a sheer rock face. Lost in his thoughts as to his probability of survival, John didn’t see the root on the ground and tripped on it, sprawling. Well, he thought, while I’m here I might as well get covered in mud again.
After he finished slopping mud all over his wiry frame, he got up and continued running in the direction he thought his steadholt was. And a nice warm meal, he hoped. He felt a small rumble beneath him as Varian began to guide him to what he hoped was a cave nearby. SCREEECH!! More windmanes were coming. John felt a large swath of mud slide off his back. SCREEECH! This time it sounded closer. John took his focus off of running to momentarily glance behind him, the sight that greeted him only made him want to run faster as the windmanes caught sight of him. Just a little bit further, he thought, then I can rest in relative peace through the night. He saw the cave. SCREEECH!! The windmanes were almost on top of him. “Varian!” he called to his earth fury, and was propelled forward in a massive wave of earth ending at the cave mouth, which Varian had taken the initiative to get some salt crystals from under the earth to put there. John grabbed the crystals and flung them at the windmanes that flew at him with wild abandon. There was a hiss as the salt struck the windmanes and an inhuman scream of pain as they were injured by the salt and dissipated.
Before he curled up on the dirt floor, John used Varian's strength to temporarily close the cave mouth, but left a small hole in the wall that was ringed with salt to let air in while he slept. As he began to drift off, John whispered to his fire fury, Draynen, to begin to dry off his mud and water drenched clothes so he could sleep in relative comfort. As darkness swept over him John thought, That is the last time I go out before a furystorm. Then he realized, Crows.... Mother is going to kill me.
John woke to the sound of hooves pounding on dirt. He rose, rubbing his eyes, then willed Varian to open the cave mouth. He stepped out into the bright sunshine and was greeted by the sight of his father and several others sitting on horses arranged around the cave mouth. “John,” His father said, relief clear in his voice. “Your mother is frantic with worry,” he said it like mother had all but clawed his eyes out to organize a search party.
“I know,” John replied, “But I had to try and get the spooked horses back.”
“And get yourself killed in the process!?”
Now at this point that his father knew John was okay, he was taking out all his pent up worry as energy in his scolding of his son. “Do you have any idea how mad with worry your mother is? You could have gotten killed!”
John sighed. “Yes but I didn't, despite the fact that I spent half the night running from windmanes without salt.” His father's rage peaked, “What!? You went out before a furystorm, without salt!?” John seemed to all but explode with sarcasm, “Yes dad, I, being your totally irresponsible son, went out into a furystorm without any salt. What do you think I am, stupid?” His father seemed to deflate at his words, “Well I'm just glad you're alright, but don't expect me to side with you when your mother gets a hold of you. There is no crow-begotten way, that I am getting in her way.” John shrugged, “ I wouldn't expect you to.”
When they arrived at the steadholt, all hell broke loose, John's mother seemed to fly out of the house. The next few minutes resolved into a blur of yelling, scolding, and threats in John's memory. Somehow after all that chaos, John ended up in the kitchen eating some soup that seemed to make his toes and fingers tingle with how good it was. He spent the rest of the day doing extra chores as punishment for going out, not that he needed punishment, John was quite sure almost being killed by windmanes was punishment enough.
That night John felt as if every part of him ached and he fell into what he hoped would be blissful sleep, but he spent the night instead tossing and turning among nightmares and windmanes whirling about in his chaotic dreams. When John woke it was dark and he was covered in sweat, but he knew that wasn't why he was woken. From his room he thought he heard cries of pain and sounds of fighting. He got up and hurried to get dressed and grabbed his hunting bow, strung it, and grabbed his knife. He quietly opened his door, without a squeak since he oiled it regularly for the sake of his late night escapades to be alone in the forest, and walked down the stairs into the main hall of what used to be Isanaholt not too long ago before she became the First Lady when Tavi was discovered as the Princeps.
When he reached the door he clearly heard the groans and sounds of metal striking something hard in the courtyard. Without thinking, John pulled an arrow from the quiver and nocked and arrow to the string, preparing to draw strength from the earth to help pull the bow back and stepped through the door to the courtyard. When he stepped out, the sight that greeted him was not a pretty one, there were corpses of animals and people everywhere and several fires were started in the buildings surrounding the main hall, and the smell was just as revolting, John had to stumble to the side and emptied the rather pitiful content of his stomach next to the door. After steeling himself, he began to step around the bodies to the gate of the steadholt, all the while having his bow at the ready to draw and shoot.
By the time he reached the gates he began to piece together what had attacked the steadholt with such a disastrous effect as he caught sight of the carapace of a warrior-form vord. Oh no, John thought, they can't be back. The implications of this were simply too much, sure there had been vord attacks even after the final queen died, but never out this far, or in this much concentration. John's train of thought was interrupted by the sound of chittering nearby, John froze, pulling his bow to full draw in a single motion as a massive vord warrior-form the size of a full grown gargant walked from the gates of the steadholt and caught sight of him. John aimed his bow at the small globule on the back of the warrior-form and loosed his arrow. The vord screeched in pain as the arrow struck home, green fluid spattering everywhere, it took a step toward him and another, then collapsed and began thrashing about on the ground. John pulled his knife and dodged around the creature's flailing limbs to sink his knife in what was left of the globule and the vord went still.
John continued through the gates in time to see his father and many other holders backing away from another three vord warriors. His mother was dragging a holder back, his father's arm was limp but he seemed unaffected probably due to the fact that he was holding his legion issue gladius and relying upon his metalcrafting to ignore the pain and continue to fight on. The vord inched forward, John quickly pulled an arrow from his quiver and shot at it wildly, not to wound only to distract and attract it's attention, the arrow struck it high on it's back and was deflected somewhere in the bushes. The vord chittered angrily and turned towards him shuffling it's feet awkwardly. “Run for the forest,” John yelled, “I'll distract it and catch up to you as soon as I can!” His father opened his mouth to protest. John gestured frantically for him to go and pulled another arrow from his quiver again drawing strength from the earth to draw his bow. The vord charged and John loosed another arrow before rolling to the side to have the vord crash into the steadholt wall. He came out of the roll running in the opposite direction that his family and the other holders were running drawing another arrow as he ran. He used Varian to locate the vord behind him and when he felt it was at a reasonable distance stopped, going onto one knee and drawing his bow. He sighted in to see that there were three more warriors following him along with several keepers, the spider-like vord that were used to spread and repair the croach that the vord used as food and shelter. John quickly loosed another arrow at one of the warriors, hitting just above the leg in the soft chitin of the joint, forcing it to stumble and fall, blocking a few of its companions. John continued running, trying to think of a way out of this. He sighed. He then thought of the best way he could destroy the vord behind him, knowing every little bit would help his family and friends get away. He decided to run as deep into the forest and do what he could from there, knowing his father was stronger in his firecraft than he was. As John reached the forest, he clicked his fingers, igniting a flame on his fingers to light his way. After he had run about five minutes into the forest he threw his hand to the side and the flames flicked to the nearest tree and caught on the trunk of the tree and spread quickly, and he started to run in a circle lighting trees around the pursuing vord to hedge them in. Then a tree spread farther than he thought, catching and making the circle, trapping him inside the circle with the vord. John looked frantically around hoping to find a way out, and slumped his shoulders as he saw none. He then looked up in time to see a warrior jump towards him and he rolled to the side only to find a keeper there that jumped on top of him, sinking its fangs into his arm. He pulled his knife and stabbed it and pulled another arrow from the almost empty quiver at his side. He jumped up and used his arm, which was beginning to feel numb due to the effects of the poison in the keeper's fangs, to draw the bow and loosed his arrow at the nearest vord warrior's croach sack on its back. The arrow struck, and another keeper jumped on the back of his leg, again sinking its fangs in to him. John fell backwards and felt more keepers jump on him and fill his blood with their venom. As his world went black, John hoped that his family had gotten away safely...
The End
