The Battle of Brynstead (part 2)
Hand to Hand Combat
Welcome to the twentieth issue of Sketchy Scoops! Your number one source for the most spurious content on the internet.
Thank you.
Before we get to the events in the story, I want to take a moment to thank all of the people who show up to read my little story. Week after week a lot of you show up and read these posts. You take time out of your day to like or leave a comment and sometimes you share the post on Notes or talk about it with your friends. I just wanted to let you know that I do notice. I am grateful. Thank you for your interest in this story.
Scoop has been around for a little over five months. The story has grown as well, but I believe we are approaching a resolution for this stuff with the council. I want to thank all of you for sticking around and hope you’ll continue to follow along as we approach an ending for this story arc.
This is part of a story arc. If you’ve missed the previous episodes, you can start from the beginning of this arc here:
Scoop Reports: The Battle is Joined
Aelin marched along the piles of rock that littered the shore. He led a squad of his best fighters. Their swords were unsheathed, and their expressions betrayed a grim determination for the work ahead. Several of the men broke off to deal with outliers. Aelin waded into the Tegwenrift and caught the soldiers as they repelled down the ship. With each swing of his blade another man fell. He cut many of them down while they still struggled in the ship’s rigging.
I looked away from the carnage, but wherever my gaze landed I was met with more brutality. The Naga were busy directing the last dozen or so aqua mines into clusters of the enemy soldiers. Lykos was organizing an assault against a rampart that had been lost. Dozens of men had taken spots in the rocky scree at the caverns edge and were launching volleys of arrows onto the ship. Everyone was scared that a new group of watermancers would man the deck and be able to power the torrential cannons or launch additional aqua mines.
There had to be a way to end this battle decisively. Some singular action that would bring an end to the conflict instead of this brutal contest. Those were the thoughts I was considering when I noticed Aranblaze, the Hellbender, being carried by one of his salamander contingent. He had lost a limb.
I ran over to them. “Let me help.” I bent down to pick him up, but the Hellbender hissed and swatted away my hand.
“I don’t need yer help!”
“Maybe not, but I need yours. I have an idea. I think that you and your salamanders can put an end to this entire battle, but you will have to let me help you.”
“What did you have in mind?” Aranblaze asked.
So, I told them my plan.
“It’s unconventional,” one of the salamanders, whom I learned was named Cindertail, said.
“I like it!” Aranblaze said with obvious enthusiasm.
So, I knelt down and opened the big pockets of my jacket. The cluster of salamanders gathered around me and raised Aranblaze.
“I don’t like all of it,” the Hellbender said. The salamanders raised him higher, and he was able to scrabble his way into one of the open pockets. I waited until all of the salamanders had crawled inside one or the other of my pockets. Then, I looked down at them and asked, “Does everyone understand the plan?”
“We know our business, man. You do your part, and we will do ours. You can count on it,” Aranblaze said.
I watched the last soldier fall from the side of the ship under Aelin’s blade. He wiped the sword clean on the fallen man’s tunic and surveyed the battlefield for stragglers. Our eyes met for a moment and then he continued to survey the shoreline. Apparently, I wasn’t worthy of his consideration at the moment and that was fine with me. The less attention I received from any of the leadership the easier it would be to complete my goal.
“Are you guys ready?” I asked but didn’t wait for a reply. Instead, I folded the flaps of my jacket pockets closed and sprinted toward the ship as quickly as I could. I dodged a grumpy looking goblin. I couldn’t tell which side he was on and right then I didn’t really care. I jumped over a pile of rocks and landed in the middle of a sword fight between Aelin’s men and one soldier who was holding his own. I fell to the ground and rolled out of the way. I genuinely hoped that I hadn’t hurt any of the salamanders, but it had to be done.
I scrabbled back to my feet and continued my mad dash to the ship. I had finally made it to the sandy part of the shore and encountered a fallen Naga. I knelt next to her to check on her condition, but she was already dead. The entire left side of her body had been terribly burned.
A massive explosion happened to my right. The gust of heat blasted across me and the shockwave almost knocked me over. Then, I heard the screams. A group of Nagas were burning. They had obviously been guiding an aquamine to an enemy troop location when it had detonated. I started to move in their direction when a projectile whizzed in front of me. I looked over to the side and saw a cat-like creature holding a crossbow.
I put it together quickly after that. This creature had shot the aquamine that had burned the Nagas before they’d been able to maneuver it into place so it could be used against our enemies.
Another bolt whizzed past me. Apparently, he had difficulty hitting human sized targets compared to the massive aquamines that floated slowly across the field. I looked away from him to the Nagas. One of them was still on fire, but the other two had managed to extinguish the flames quickly.
I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and turned just in time to see a crossbow bolt explode into flames. It had been heading straight for me.
“Run, you dolt!” Aranblaze shouted. He and Cindertail were peeking out of one of the pockets.
“Thank you,” I said and took off running. I waded out into the water until it was up to my waist. The boat was still ten feet away. I pulled the flaps of my pockets all the way open and asked, “Is this close enough?”
“It’ll do,” Aranblaze said. The salamanders scurried out of my pockets and up onto my shoulders. Cindertail actually crawled up my head and nestled into a spot in my hair. Aranblaze barked orders to different groups of salamanders, but he did so in their native tongue and the meaning was lost on me, but regardless of the words he used the intent was clear as the salamanders as a group raised their arms and formed that diamond shape with their splayed fingers. Earlier they had shouted a single word to ignite their power, but this time there was a longer series of phrases that were used. When they finished nothing happened except for Cindertail tapping my head and telling me to run.
I turned away from the ship and took off running as quickly as I could. The salamanders dug their claws into my jacket and clung to me. Running through the waist deep water was a struggle, but eventually I made it to the shore. I picked up the pace and then the explosions began.
“Don’t turn around. Keep running! The big one is coming.” Cindertail yelled.
I ran faster and then something hit me in the chest. It stopped my forward momentum and knocked me backwards. Flat on my back. That was the moment the big explosion hit. I didn’t see it, but I could feel it reverberating through the ground. Debris and broken pieces of the ship flew everywhere.
I tried to get up, but I couldn’t. There was something wrong with my chest. I couldn’t bend. I looked down and saw the shaft of a bolt sticking out of my chest. Blood was everywhere.
Cindertail and Aranblaze scampered into my vision. I saw that they’d had to walk through my blood.
“We have to cauterize the wound,” one of them said, but then I passed out.
A Note from the Editor
Next week, we’ll put this battle stuff behind us and look into some other events that have been happening in a different part of Aberlyn.