Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 03 Pt. 01

She looked at Travious, "His wife!"

Travious nodded, "I am Travious Silvertree, Knight Paladin. My Aunt is his Commander. I thought he might want to hear this report from the two human encampments I just came back from. I also wanted the status on any activity in the valley since we laid waste to it. I plan to contact the King on my findings but when he asks me about the valley patrols, I won't have those answers unless he has someone doing that for him."

She frowned, "Wait here."

He waited a few minutes and he showed in just his pants. Travious looked at him. "Any news from the valley?"

He shook his head, "Nothing reported to me."

Travious sighed, "Would she have driven them off like she tried to do to me?"

He groaned, "Maybe."

Travious looked at him, "Can you at least point me at the officers who are collecting this information so I can get with my guys and the King and let them know just how bad things look on that front?"

He nodded and stepped back inside and came back with a shirt and boots on. They walked down to the central barracks and two quarters on either side he knocked on. Two men answered the door naked and they saw who was there. Including all of the ladies and the General looked at them, "Which of you is on shift at the moment?"

They each pointed at each other and started arguing over schedules.

Travious stared at Goldeagle, "When you have some actual answers let me know. Did the communication crystals come in?"

He nodded, "On my desk in my office. I left you 3 sets."

Travious turned around and walked back up to his quarters and opened the door. His wife screamed in shock. She was topless at that point. He walked to his desk and picked up three sets of communication crystals. "He told me these were up on his desk and he is arguing with two Captains over dereliction of duty."

Travious walked out and closed the door as he arrived. "I got them! Though your wife was not pleased with me just coming to get them. She was not completely dressed yet. Did you get any answers?"

He shook his head, "Let me deal with my wife first and I will see you in the east barracks."

Travious nodded and headed down to the barracks. The area was empty. It looked like his guys were all out. He laid down on a bunk when the ladies walked in, "Some woman was screaming at the General. Then she screamed some more when she got to the stable and found Shi'Drakon fucking her mount."

The General came in, "Really my wife's mount?"

Travious smiled, "You mount your wife and my mount mounts her mount. Sounds like you think alike."

He sighed, "Can you get your mount out of the stall so my wife can get to her horse."

Travious looked at him, "Tell her to move away from...screw it. Let us see what is going on."

Travious walked in and she stood in front of the stall yelling. "Goldeagle move down here!"

She looked at him, "Why should I?"

Travious smiled, "So when he comes over that gate, he does not land on you and crush you."

She walked toward him, "Shi'Drakon UNTA." Up and over the gate and she looked at him. Travious glared at her, "He goes where he wishes. He is the head of the Elven war horse herd. He will fuck any mare not already carrying."

He looked to Goldeagle, "What is the deal with your Captains?"

He looked at Travious, "Not exactly the sharpest of swords. Neither knows what is going on and they have not given out any of the communication crystals yet."

Travious looked at him, "Guess you are going to have to teleport us out to the valley to see what is going on."

He shook his head, "They will be back within the hour."

Travious sighed, "I was not impressed with the human counterparts. To repel a squad or two let alone a significant threat."

One of his casters came in, "Knight Paladin! Our scout, Fangs, told me to come back alone. Let you know that about 1,000 forces mixed ogre and worg riders were seen heading to the far southern border with the humans. He said they were dressed like an elite unit."

He looked at the Commander, "You got some teleportation circle scrolls lying around?"

He nodded," How many do you need?"

Travious looked at him, "Get your men together none of mine are back." He pulled out a dozen wands. He looked at the messenger, "Gather what forces you can in an hour and then best speed toward the human border. We will get troops together to reinforce the human camp. Trap; them between us."

He nodded, and teleported away, the commander looked at Travious, "I am not allowed to go that far out of our area."

Travious nodded. "Can you get me those scrolls and every wand wielder in the camp. Yola would you get our group back together saddled up and ready to go."

Goldeagle looked at him, "What are you going to do?"

Travious looked at him, "Steal every caster as soon as I finish talking to the King."

He followed Travious in that same small quarters and closed the door. He put the Crystal out and activated them. He pulled out the orb, "Your Majesty. Do you have a moment this is urgent?"

He responded, "What is the problem?"

He sighed, "I visited both human camps this morning, the force they have on the northern end of the valley numbers less than 30. The force on the other end was about four times that size.

One of my scouts sent his caster back to get instruction because a force around a 1,000 is heading for the southern valley entrance. I sent that caster back with a dozen wands and told them to find any other troops of ours in the area and head south coming in behind this force in one hour. These are not orcs but worg riders and ogres, identified by gear as some kind of elite unit by our scout. General Goldeagle is not allowed to go that far out let alone into the human camp down there.

I want to steal every wand slinger he has on the walls at the moment and take them to the human camp and request permission to save their collective asses."

The King responded back, "I cannot let you do that. Do you have another option?"

Travious sighed, "One, but you will not like it. I release an ancient Blue Dragon on them."

The King chuckled, "Do that."

Travious nodded, "We will leave here in 30 minutes."

He pocketed the crystal and unsecured the room.

Goldeagle looked at Travious, "You are joking right?"

Travious got on his horse as Goldeagle walked out, "I still need those scrolls."

He rode out, "Sister! Give me that ring."

She tossed him the ring. "Yola, Follow me. Tell your men not to shoot her."

They rode out of the compound and he handed her the ring, "Give it a go. She walked out into the field and the General rode out as she slid the ring on and became a very massive Blue Dragon.

He yelled over to her, "That is enough for now."

He saw her take the ring off and she was back to being a caster. She got up on her horse. Travious look at General Goldeagle, "Those scrolls."

Travious turned and looked at her, "Learning curve, think roar wing buffet and breath weapon. Then smack them with that tail. All else fails, try to fly and land on them."

She laughed. They got back to the group. He got the scrolls and handed one to his sister, "You will stay Eldus. Any of our guys who show up in the next hour you get every caster, blade singer, or arcane archer gathered. Wands of chain lightning only. Do not target the big blue dragon."

He gave him a dozen chain lighten wands, "Distribute them."

He looked at the men, "We are going against 1,000, let the casters do their work, that and the big blue dragon. Do not ask."

They chuckled as Eldus backed away and waited. Kirra read the scroll and they were back in the middle of the human camp to some startled soldiers, "Get your General please!"

One of the soldiers went to the Generals tent and he came out, "Back again."

Travious nodded, "I need your permission to operate in the area between your camp and the valley entrance."

He looked at Travious, "Why?"

Travious looked at him, "One of my scouts spotted a force numbering 1,000. Worg Riders and Ogres. Elite units, not orc shock troops, and not a force sent for repairing the barricades. They are headed here. We would love for you and your men to live through the night."

He nodded, "Just for this evening."

Travious nodded. "One more thing, tell your men not to shoot the big blue dragon it is just a polymorphed caster who I would like to keep alive. I would hate to have to hurt or even kill them."

He nodded and Travious looked out, "Yola set up north of the entrance. I will draw them in. Wand wielders to the south of the entrance. To my lone fighter join me after the next group arrives. Send all casters to the south warn them all not to target Yola in a dragon form."

He nodded. He backed off and Yola rode out.

---

The general got on a crystal with his King, "Your Majesty, I need you secure."

The King groaned and got into a room, "What is the problem General?"

He sighed, "That Elven champion is back. Said we have a force of 1,000 worg riders and Ogres headed for us. Elite units. He wishes to aid in keeping us from being killed. I told him I would allow it for this evening. They are likely to lose men before we will as they are caster heavy and he has 9 others with him. I wanted you to know."

The King groaned, "This is the same elf who has been posturing to expand the Gray Blades area. Report back after the battle. I want to know if the numbers are true and how many they lose due to this reckless behavior."

---

Yola sent her horse off a safe distance. Travious stayed several hundred feet from the destroyed barricade. About 30 minutes later He saw the head of the force.

He held a fist up. He had 2 other fighters and 6 more wand wielders and the fighters looked at Travious, "That is Yola?'

He nodded, "With a very special ring of polymorph. Hold."

He told them to hold as the sun started to lower. He rode forward a bit and turned his horse sideways. He touched his horse to be sure he had poison resistance. Then did the others.

"Karti'Ros, right hand Moon fire on."

He yelled, "Shi'Drakon Brise Shint!"

Shi'Drakon rose up and screeched out across the valley. The worgs charged. He stood his ground. "Fighters be prepared to defend the casters. Circle south."

The first group of casters shot off a dozen chain lightning spells and he heard the sound of footfalls of horses behind him. The general had his men up behind him. Yola stepped forward and roared out.

The horses got nervous and the ogres stood fast as she whips a tail through the line of worg riders. She looked down the valley. She shot lightning out of her mouth. Sending several ogres to the ground.

He called out to the casters, "Mount up casters. Yola, hold back a moment. Fighters with me to clean up this crap in front!"

The General looked, "You are going to let the others escape!"

Travious shook his head. He rode forward and sliced through dying orcs and worgs.

"Yola, get your horse and catch up. Follow me! Double speed only so our human counterparts can keep up."

They rode forward and through the remains of the barricade. The General asked, "You can go faster?"

Travious nodded. He saw the fog rolling off of his horse's barding. About that time, they heard explosions coming from the other end of the canyon. The others had engaged. Travious yelled out, "Casters' ride like the wind. He gave them 8 lengths. "Shi'Drakon Biatus Evanill Aisiaon."

They rode right into the pack of casters and ogres that fled back toward them. They closed in on about 200 left and volleys from both sides cut that number in half. "Casters save the wands!" They start casting spells from horseback. The other casters saw this and did the same. The fighters and Travious rode in. Travious had a group of six in front of him, "KITA."

We flew into the mix and jumped off stabbing one in the leap before rolling to the other side.

He continued to roll forward and slide his blade up and under the chin of a second. An ogre caught his ribs but did no damage to his armor. He rolled over and onto one knee and sliced through his leg and blocked his next attack with his shield. He rolled again and drove his blade through his stomach. Shi'Drakon had taken one down. The caster had killed another, leaving just one facing Shi'Drakon.

Travious shouted at him, "Your mother was an orc and your father a kobold!"

He got pissed. He ran toward Travious and Travious rolled in and took out his legs and ran his sword into his gut but was pinned at the moment by his falling body. He pushed the dead fucker off of him more easily after he cut his body in half. He looked around and the men were gathering around him. The human general rode in with his troops at the end. He looked at Travious as he called out, "How many did we lose and how many injured, separate count for horses. Check them all."

He got a call out from Fangs, "No deaths, 6 wounded, and 3 wounded horses. Not counting you and your horse."

Travioussmiled, "Make that seven and four."

Nice work everyone I think we will ride back with the General and camp there for the night. Casters detect magic and see if we got anything of interest on the bodies. Then stack the bodies and burn them. Fighters and Blade Singers ride back to the General's camp and do the same with the worg riders.

The general called out, "Captain Roper, Take your group back with his and help. The rest of you stay here and help."

Travious check over Shi'Drakon. He was cut and bruised but his drawing that the last Ogre off of him probably helped."

Travious looked at the General, "That was not letting them escape. The scout who sent a mage back to tell me received orders. I instructed them to gather as many as he could in an hour and pursue with all haste. We boxed them in."

The General nodded, "That would have been very bad for us."

Travious nodded, "Any sundering weapons we find in this attack we will leave with you and your men."

The General nodded, "Thank you."

They got the fire going on that end of the canyon. One of his guys brought Travious a crystal. "Looks like a communication crystal."

He nodded, "Let us get back to the General's camp."

They rode back. The General looked at Travious, "We do not have much in the way of accommodations." The guys laughed and Travious smiled, "We have that covered."

He waved one of his casters forward, "Do you still have a magic missile left?"

He nodded. He looked at him. "When I yell now, I will throw this in the air and you can destroy it."

He smiled. Travious activated the crystal and a voice replied back in what he assumed was the voice of an ogre.

"If you are looking for the poor ogre who held this crystal you can look north and see all of the ogre's bodies burning. I control this valley Frogtusk. Eventually, you will have to try and deal with me yourself. In the meantime, I hope your men ass fuck you all night long!"

He heard a growl. He threw it in the air, "NOW!"

The caster blew it to pieces. The General looked at Travious, "Why did you do that?"

Travious looked at him, "He is a Champion to his god. He had 15,000 holding the valley we destroyed in one night. Then he sent 12,000 into the center of the valley and we destroyed them with explosives from the dwarves which I requested.

This time he sends about a 1,000 to make a run out of the valley to take you on because he needed a victory. We just gave him his third straight defeat. He is running out of troops and the giants he has have probably lost faith in his ability to lead. The others are not that far behind if I had to guess.

The others will not take the news of another loss very well. He sent 15 assassins after me in my town. He killed around 120. I brought troops straight at him and killed 28,000. That is a loss of 230 for every dead citizen he left in my town. Have dinner with me when we get to camp and I will tell you more."

He nodded, "Will the cook have something ready by then?"

Travious smiled, "Yes, that will not be a problem."

---

The Ogre commander went into the enchanter's area armed to the teeth along with the Giant Commander and a squad of his men. The Ogre commander yelled out, "You are a fucking failure as a leader! Our men were massacred! This other champion knows your fucking name. He said we should ass fuck you for what you did. We will with your fucking corpse!"

They started attacking the 80 Ogre Magi's in the room and Ogre Maji's started fighting back. By the time it was done Frogtusk was injured, but alive. He had 20 Magi left of his forces. He knew he would have to take on this champion directly with what he had left now.

He heard from his god, "You have some fight left in you. Kill the champion or die in the process. He is a paladin. Challenge him to honorable one-on-one combat and kill him with any means possible. Use your remaining Magi, without a victory here, you are dead. This is your last chance at redemption!"

Frogtusk went into his supplies and healed up and then sacrificed 40 orcs near the cavern to finish healing up and recharging his abilities. He went and got rest with his Magi in a secure location.

---

They got to the end and everyone was gathered and Travious looked at the line of tents. He spotted an open space. "May we use this spot?"

He nodded and Yola cast her spell and the portal opened. He led Shi'Drakon inside, "Follow me, General."

Travious walked inside. The general looks around, "What is this place?"

Travious smiled, "Magic. You are in an extra-dimensional space."

They walked past the dining room out the back door to the falls and unsaddle and brushed down his horse as the others came in and did the same. He looked at the battle clerics, "Heal up my horse before healing me. Get the other injured first if you have not already."

They nodded. He walked out to the dining room table, "Six evening meals Deer steak, salad, and peach cobbler. 4 bottles of wine and a pitcher of cold water.

He watched as the food appeared and the ladies sat down across from them. Travious looked at the General, "Secure no teleporting in no listening in. Also, communication crystals do not work going out of here. Otherwise, it is perfect. I had an enchanter add the falls and pool because I find it relaxing at home. Out here it is great for the horses to be safe, graze, and drink."

The General looked around, "This is outstanding!"

Travious nodded. "I have a good enchantress who designed it."

One of the casters came in, "Another 20 sunder weapons."

Travious nodded, "Leave them for the General. Anything of importance?"

He shook his head and Travious sighed, "Let the men see if any of it is of any use to them then."

The caster smiled, "They will like that."

Travious looked at the General, "This will not happen before you die but the dragons will return in 75-85 years. I have gotten this from multiple sources, trusted and not trusted. I assume they are working from the same information. Orcs plan to attack the same night as the return.

We do not know if any of the other evilly aligned groups plan on the same thing or not. That is why I have to get this champion off of the field. It disrupts their plans. If we get King Thornlord's approval on the deal for the Blades, we will work on building new fortifications to hold them in this valley instead of them launching out from here. We will box them in again.

When the time comes, we will blow the shit out of them with dwarven explosives while they are grouped together. We are also working on getting the Eternal Forge back to craft more weapons that can take down dragons. We have a lot of pieces in motion even though this is a time of peace. We cannot afford wars on multiple fronts and if we can reduce or eliminate a threat before that time we will."

He nodded, "I am glad you do not see us as a threat."