Demonthorn Ch. 20

Lora looked out over the mesa at the top of the Citadel. The sun was setting and the chill of early evening was just creeping to the top of the mesa. The last rays of light let her eyes see far. What she saw chilled her blood just like the cool air did.

A black mass spread along the horizon. It was too far to see the individuals, but the mass of all the demons, imps and harpies was like a dark tide that was consuming the plains and forests.

"End of times." Whispered Kelli as she sidled up next to Lora.

"It's only the end of times if we lose." Lora said, her wings fluffing at her sides.

"Did the scouts report back?" Samantha asked as she walked up on Lora's other side.

"Yes, they did." Kelli replied. "Let's just say that we should be getting some visitor's soon. They are rooting out every single village and town between them and us. The people of the world will be flocking to us and we do not have the food or the other resources to help them."

"Attrition." Samantha said bitterly. "They will starve us by forcing us to care for our own and then strike when we are weakened."

"They expect us to turtle and cower within our shell. They expect us to be scared." Lora said.

"I am scared." Kelli said.

Both Furies looked at the woman who usually projected such fearlessness.

"I can be scared. I am scared all the time." Kelli said. "I just don't let it stop me from what I need to do. Fear is good. Fear keeps you alive and gives you the courage to overcome everything that a person needs to do in this life."

"I always thought you were just a fearless warrior bitch." Samantha said with a wry smile.

"Oh I am." Kelli said. "I just am often scared shitless when I do it."

All three women watched the sunset in silence until darkness overtook the land. The stars began to come out, twinkling like they had not a care in the world.

"There are no torches, no lights." Lora whispered.

"Demons don't need lights and our people are fleeing for their lives with no time to make lights." Kelli said. "There will be no lights outside these walls for a while."

"I can make some lights." Lora said. "Why don't I go and light up those creepy bastards?"

"We can't risk you." Samantha said sharply. "We need you here with all of us. Safe."

"I am not going to get hurt." Lora said sharply.

"And I thought that Jolie was the fiercest warrior that ever lived. She is dead now. I miss her and that filthy demon is masquerading as her out there. We cannot lose you too, Lora. I cannot." Samantha looked at Lora with fear and love in her eyes.

"At least let me clear that forest in front of Ravencrag tomorrow." Lora said. "We can give our archers more range, get some timber to shore up the defenses. We can even use the refugees and start putting them to work."

"That is the plan that came down from the council." Kelli said.

"At least they have a plan." Lora said, rolling her eyes.

"And we have weapons." Samantha said. "We have been constantly making weapons. Arrows and spears, Javelins and swords."

"And maces and bows. And also not enough." Kelli snorted. "They outnumber us twelve to one."

Kelli and Samantha looked a Kelli, who had a cold and calculating look in her eyes.

"It is true." The jangler said simply. "Every Valkyrie can take down 5 demons before she falls. The remaining Paladins two or three each. Every other villager and townsfolk may get lucky and take down one or two. Mathematics at it's finest."

The women stood looking out over the dark expanse of the night.

"Goddess I just wanna screw right now." Kelli said, taking a swig from a flask that seemed to appear in her hand like magic.

"I'm game." Samantha and Lora said at the same time.

All three women laughed and went back to the curtains that hid the Fury Dormitory from the horizon

"I never liked you." Samantha said to Kelli.

"By Below I still hate you!" Kelli laughed. "But the end of everything makes everyone strange bedfellows."

Lora silently took them both by the waist and hugged them close, her warmth flowed into both of them as they pressed into her.

The nightmare was fresh in her mind as Lora woke. Fire. It was everywhere in her dream. She wiped the sweat from her brow and attempted to untangle herself from the sheets. A groan came from her left.

"Five more minutes." Kelli said.

"About time you two woke up."

Samantha came in through the curtains, her icy wings folded to her back. She had a tray of fruit, cheese and hard-boiled eggs that Lora eyed hungrily even through her receding terror of her dream.

"You look like you have seen a ghost." Samantha asked Lora as she set the tray down. "Are you alright?"

"It's just the fire dream." Kelli interrupted with a yawn. "She has it every night now."

"What happened to five more minutes?" Lora asked, her voice husky.

"Breakfast happened." Kelli said with a small smile.

Samantha looked annoyed as Kelli tucked into the breakfast she had clearly intended to share with Lora, but then turned back to the other Fury, concern furrowed on her brow.

"This recurring dream of yours, is it exactly the same or does it differ?" Samantha asked, her blue eyes penetrating and fierce.

"It differs." Lora said, shrugging. "The end is the same though. I end the world in fire."

"Do you lose control of your anger? Is there the same instigating event?" Samantha asked. "If you are seeing the fluid future we need to avoid as many of those things as possible."

"The elders ruled out an ability to see the future when we brought her here." Kelli interrupted again. "They never would have gone through with the transformation if there was a possibility she could end everything. Even if the possibility that it was a premonition, they really had no choice."

"And the council is perfect?" Samantha asked.

"Of course not, but they know their way around a prophecy or two." Kelli said with a snort.

"It is almost never my anger." Lora said softly and the other two looked at her quietly.

"Then what is it?" Asked Samantha.

"Sometimes happiness. More often love." She blushed as she said this. "Most often an orgasm."

"Wow." Kelli said. "That was not something I thought would happen when I introduced you to the Women's House."

Lora chucked a pillow at Kelli who batted it out of the way.

"It is just a warning dream." Samantha said, clearly relieved. "They are given to us by the God to remind us to remain in control. Supposedly even he cannot fully control the elemental forces."

"Is that what she meant, when she said she and he were leaving this world." Kelli asked.

"I have no clue." Samantha said. "I reported everything to the council two days ago and even they do not really know what she said when she spoke to us."

"They will be back though, right?" Lora asked, the little girl inside of her showing through the veil of the Fury.

"Would you?" Kelli asked. "If you had the ability to make a whole new world, with all new creations and start over, leaving this one to imprison the Master forever, would you visit again?"

"But she loves us." Lora whispered, a hot tear streaming down her cheek. "She said so."

"It is OK, Lora. Of course they will be back, we just have to wipe the Master form this world before they will. I think." Samantha said soothingly. She shot a chilling lance at Kelli.

Lora sniffed back the tears and smiled at the other two women.

"We better eat and go scout." She said to Samantha. "We have to track their progress to tell how long we have until they get here."

The three women ate in silence, lost in thoughts.

"Let's go." Samantha said when they were done.

"I will check with the council while you are gone, maybe they thought of something while we were honoring the goddess." Kelli said with a small smile.

Both Furies nodded and ran out through the sheets that bordered the dormitory.

Despite the end of times, despite the pain and suffering, Lora knew it was all worth it to be able to fly. The wind in her hair, the smell of the world around her and the sight of the beauty of everything Above swelled her heart.

Then she saw the stain approaching.

The gathered hordes were moving relatively slowly, making sure to drive the villagers from their homes before burning the buildings and fields. Lora could hear the cackles of the abominations below as they came toward Ravencrag. They would be there in about two days, Lora estimated

The sight enraged Lora. She was just discovering how amazing the world around her truly was. She was just discovering how wonderful love was since she had lost her sister. It wasn't fair.

Samantha signaled to Lora to head back, but Lora's eyes blazed with fire. They had been spotted, and even though they were out of range of the bows of the demons and devils below, a quintet of massive beasts took to the air, differentiated from the sea of evil.

Lora drew her sword, flames leaking from here eyes as the five dragons rose to her. They were massive monsters, twenty lengths long and with wings about as equally broad. They snorted fire and roared a challenge to the furies above.

"We need to go!" Samantha shouted over the roar of the beasts and the wind. "We don't need to engage them now!"

"Maybe you don't!" Roared Lora. "But they are made of the same stuff as me and as long as I breathe, the Master will not use fire against me!"

She roared louder than the beasts and dove at them, her sword singing from the wind vibrations. They roared back and launched bursts of flame at the diving Fury. Lora reached out with her hand and took the fire into herself. When asked later, she could not even explain how she did it. She just took all that power the dragons unleashed upon her and stored it inside of her.

"The size of cats." She grinned.

She thrust her sword forward at the now confused behemoths and a stream of flame shot from her sword, so hot the air itself crackled and burnt. The unfortunate beast that failed to get out of the way burned to ash in seconds. The remaining dragons roared in challenge and belched flame back at the Fury. As before she took their power into her and unleashed it back upon them.

The rivers of flame destroyed two more dragons, leaving them dusty on the wind. The last two turned tail and flew away. Lora was too tired to give chase, but she still felt the burning of the dragon's power inside of her.

"You all will burn!" She shouted, her voice ringing out over the hordes below. They yelped in dismay and began to turn tail, but were whipped by the higher demons until they turned back.

Lora laughed and dove again. The demons wasted no time in launching a full flight of arrows at her. She narrowed her eyes and let her rage fly. The arrows were just made of timber after all. The arrows burned to ash under her scrutiny. The demons tried to scramble another flight of arrows, but by then it was too late.

Lora screamed in her rage and launched a full river of flame upon the hordes below, burning the evil creatures and the forest around them. When she felt herself empty of the dragon's power, she stopped and saw the forest was burning around her. All of the beauty she had admired was burning around her.

She reached out and with a sob, took in the rest of the flames she had unleashed, extinguishing the ones on the ground and recharging herself at the same time. That was when she saw how little of a difference she had made.

The stain still marched on and she was exhausted. The demons numbered beyond count and even though she had thoroughly destroyed the demons directly below her, thousands of others filled their place. Before they could launch arrows at her, she climbed above their range.

"Are you alright?" Asked Samantha, when Lora returned to the height of the other Fury.

"I'm fine, just tired." Lora said.

"Come on, we need to get back." Samantha said

The flight back was quiet. Samantha did not talk because she was truly seeing the power Lora contained for the first time. Lora because she knew she had come far too close to making her dream a reality.

When the winged women lighted on the top of the mesa, the sun was once again beginning to set, his cheery rays leaving until the morning. Kelli was waiting for them.

"Waiting long?" Asked Samantha.

"Hardly." Kelli said. "The old bags on the council took forever to see me, but they did say they had a plan."

"And what is that?" Lora asked, exhaustion creeping into her voice."

Kelli grinned with barely concealed delight.

"We ride out and meet them." She said.