Sword and Snow

Everyone flew into motion within seconds of Vyne’s warning. The whole group was out the door and flying down the hallways of the garrison before anyone had any chance to discuss what was happening.

There was a moment of limit testing for speed as everyone barreled through the hallways. Glenn turned out to be the slowest of the group, and everyone matched his pace - which wasn’t slow by any means. In moments the whole group was outside the garrison and moving quickly through the city.

The city, and especially the gate, was still crowded with guards that had been posted there to help with the city’s defenses. Emery and Avuri, who had been leading the pack, wordlessly turned toward the southern gate - the one that was in the rear of the city and faced the Peaks themselves - and moved quickly and silently through the city’s alleys.

The whole group followed quietly, trying not to make a scene. At the speed they moved, they would need to shout to discuss anything, so silence reigned.

Emery and Avuri kept their Domains connected with a thin thread of Qi, just enough to keep their connection active. Neither were in the mood to talk, but their emotions traveling over the connection said enough; concern, worry, anger, desperation. They matched each other step for step as they sped through the city to the gate.

Thankfully, the city hadn’t lifted the defensive orders quite yet. As they moved further away from the northern gate where the defenses were focused, there were less and less people about the city. Average citizens were still hiding in their homes or businesses with only a few Cultivators on guard here and there. As they began to approach the gate, Ray sped ahead of the group, shouting he would let the attendants know that they were approaching and would be leaving through the gate. Or over it.

It didn’t take long after that for the group to make it to the gate, which Ray had successfully gotten open for them. Everyone ran right through it, and Ray rejoined the group while shouting thanks to the guards and telling them to close the gate again.

Once the whole team made it into the trees at the base of the Peak, they finally felt comfortable enough to talk again, and Emery wasted no time.

“Vyne, what’s the situation looking like?” She shouted loudly enough for the speech not to get drowned out in their motion.

“The group isn’t too large. Thirty-six people.” Emery felt a quick surge of panic - that many people would certainly be enough to overwhelm the kids, assuming they had average strength for adults. Avuri tried to soothe her through their bond, but was feeling nervous herself, too.

“They’re coming at the Peaks from a completely different angle because they broke off after they retreated for a while. They’re climbing the southeast side of the Peak.”

“The Flowing Dragon Peak?”

“Yes.” Vyne said, his voice sounding grave. “At this point, I’m almost positive that they’re heading straight for the basin. They haven’t seemed to stop or deviate for any distractions and are just climbing.”

“Can we cut them off?” Avuri asked.

There was a moment of silence as Vyne tried to quickly map out the routes and speeds in his head. “Yes, we should be able to reach them before they make it to the basin as long as we keep up our speed.”

“Got it.” Emery said, allowing herself to fall back a little while motioning Vyne to take the lead. “You’ve got the most accurate map available in your head, Vyne. Can you lead?”

“Of course. Footing will be dangerous, so don’t fall behind.” He shouted the last bit loud enough to be sure everyone heard the warning - and then turned off from the Cultivator trail that wound its way to the summit and onto a more wild game trail. And sure enough, the footing immediately became more treacherous, especially at the speed the group was moving.

“You three able to keep up?” Avuri shouted back to her cousins. They were the weakest of the group by a fair margin, but still Sky Realm.

“We’re alright!” Cove yelled back.

“Just keep moving!” Glenn called. “If we fall behind, that’s fine. We’d like to help, but speed might be more important here than more bodies. Especially with the Elders here.”

Emery turned to the Elders, a question clearly etched on her face, but angled specifically toward Vale. “Are you able to help if this turns into a fight? Or do you need to stay out of it?”

Before Vale could answer, Eiry did. “They’re trespassing on the Peaks. We’ll fight.”

“Is that wise?” Cyril asked. Attention turned toward him, though everyone was still making an effort to move at speed. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t. But we should be careful, doubly so if Aysol is involved. If we make a wrong move here, it could bring a whole host of dragons down on us.”

An uncomfortable silence followed. Everyone kept their heads down, watching the ground speed by underneath them as they thought about the events to come.

“Let us handle it, then.” Mica said finally. “The three of us, Emery, Ieji, and Avuri. Let us handle the fight, if it comes to that.”

Emery felt a surge of fondness for the woman, and smiled at her over her shoulder. “The six of us against nearly forty people? Should be fun.”

“The math works nicely, though.” Ieji said, “That's six for each of us.”

“Glenn, Cove, Mica? Think you three can each handle six?” Eiry asked, her tone seeming to carry a double meaning.

“Yes!” They all responded as one. They sounded confident, which helped to bolster the other three potential fighters.

“Once we get closer, the six of us will back off then.” Ray said. “But if things look dicey, we’ll get involved.”

“Agreed.” Lyn added. “We may not want to antagonize Aysol if we can help it, but if there are other dragons already involved, we’re not about to sit back and wait for it to escalate.”

“Don’t count on us to intervene.” Eiry said, her voice about as quiet as it could be while still audible. “I’m sorry.”

Avuri shook her head. “Don’t be. You have an entire city to worry about. And if things escalate that far, there’s no one else that can defend it.”

Emery shot a look at Vale, somewhere between a threat and a plea. “If things go poorly for us, I expect you to defend the basin. I don’t care who or what we’re up against - no one has any excuse to attack children.”

Vale wasn’t the only one to nod. All of the dragons did. “I won’t let any of the kids get hurt.” Vale promised. And the sentiment was echoed by the others through nods or words of agreement.

“We will defend the basin.” Ray said, putting a little extra effort into sounding heroic. “Fight without worry.”

“Thank you.” Emery said, directing it to the whole group. “Thank you all.”

“What’s the plan, then?” Glenn asked.

“The six of you run to intercept the attackers as soon as they enter Avuri’s detection range. We’ll break off to stay out of sight but not so far that we couldn’t intervene if a dragon shows up.”

Nods traveled through the group like a wave.

“We’ll veer toward the basin’s side, and put us between them and it.” Vale said. “They won’t get by us.”

“I’ve got them.” Avuri said, as the edges of her Domain finally flowed over their targets. Without a word between them, Emery slipped over beside her wife and scooped her up in a bridal carry. Avuri’s focus immediately slipped through their Domain, and fell into her First Snow technique.

Avuri’s technique developed to visually watch any area within her QI’s reach was invaluable for scouting, and right now was no different. The downside, which she had never been able to figure a way around, was that as long as she viewed an area, wherever her ‘sight’ originated from would have a light snowfall. She also wouldn’t be able to utilize any of her physical body’s senses while viewing the intended location.

Usually, this meant that she would try to position her view high up where the snow would be carried off and scattered by the wind well before it would be noticeable by the ground. That wasn’t really feasible on the Peaks, given they were pretty densely packed with trees.

But, thankfully, they were on the Flowing Dragon Peak - and that meant snow was pretty abundant by the time you hit the middle point of the mountain. And they were past that. She was able to blend her snow into the surroundings easily enough that she wouldn’t be spotted while observing the group of likely enemies that were running up the mountain.

She chose a spot a little bit ahead of the group to anchor herself to, so she would get a shot at seeing everyone as they passed by.

The group looked surprisingly well equipped. Many of the Deposits’ people had looked somewhat piecemeal when they were on the battlefield earlier, with a distinct lack of any sort of uniform - many didn’t seem to have any equipment with them either.

This group was far more coordinated than that. They didn’t have a uniform per se, but looked like they were a well-trained group of Cultivators that regularly operated together.

They were all also actively utilizing their Qi to strengthen their bodies for the run, which allowed Avuri to get a basic sense of their Cultivation levels. Thankfully, she didn’t get a sense of overwhelming strength from any of them, so it was unlikely that there was a Heavenly Realm or dragon among them, but Sky Realms were likely.

The lack of Heavenly Realms among the crowd shocked her, considering she caught sight of the three Deposits leaders that they had spoken to earlier among the crowd; Firmis, Quarris, and Terrane. They looked more prepared to fight now than they did earlier, wearing grim expressions as opposed to the strangely open and amicable ones from earlier. While in talks with them, she had assumed they were Heavenly Realm Cultivators, but they didn’t give off that impression now. They must have been stand-ins, the same as her side was.

As they passed, Avuri did her best to clock everyone else among their party, and to watch for any stand out figures. Most of the group had passed by her and she was just about to drop out of her technique when she saw the Cultivator bringing up the rear who was clearly directing the group as they moved.

He didn’t look as incompetent as she would have expected, if she was honest with herself. He carried himself fairly well physically, even if his body language clearly projected worry and maybe even fear. But even seeing him looking entirely inept and helpless would not have stopped the searing wave of anger and seething hate that flowed through her when she saw his face.

With their physical bodies so close, Emery felt the white hot emotion immediately as it lanced through her. Barely a few seconds later, Avuri returned to her body and her face immediately twisted in anger.

“That bastard.” She spat angrily as Emery set her on her feet to resume running with the group. Then Emery felt her own anger spike as who Avuri saw appeared in her mind unbidden from their connection.

“We have plenty of company.” Avuri said loudly enough for the whole group to hear, her voice still laced with anger. “The three leaders from the Deposits we met are with them. And so is Leon.”

She spat out her brother’s name with such venom that it actually caught her cousins off-guard. It was rare for Avuri to get this angry.

“All they had to do was leave us alone, and we would have done the same. Instead, he leads a group of trained fighters to our home.” She growled. “This time, I’ll kill him.”