The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 28

Part 6

It was still twilight at the top of the cliffs on either side of the narrow slot canyon that formed the pass out of the valley to the west, with the occasional beam of red dusk light still filtering through the underbrush. The Sylvan formations were lined up right to the edge of the cliffs, knowing that their god's gift of absolute Stealth hid them from the sight of any others. All that had a vantage of the goat shed watched it intently.

When Stripe had first alerted Reggie, the great cat had been on the slope near the ridge on the north side of the valley. He'd halted his stalk at his young master's command, and a few minutes later his awareness of his prey sharpened considerably. He now knew the locations of the closest few exactly, including their motions and the positions of their limbs, and the twins assured him that for now, the Sylvan couldn't detect him. At Reggie's direction, Stripe had moved west and up, gaining the top of the ridge where the cliffs to the west began, and he'd stalked along the top of the cliffs to the edge of the Sylvan formation. He was now hidden in the bush less than a meter and a half from the closest Sylvan, who crouched at the cliff's edge and diligently watched the goat shed.

"Okay. Let's start it." Reggie decided.

"Wait. Are we really ready to kill these people?" Helemia asked.

"Yup. You know Vanakit's gonna torture you to death if he catches you. He'll just kill me quick to get me out of the way. And we're not good enough to stop them without killing at least some of them. We'll let the wounded live if they're hurt bad enough that they won't attack us anymore, but that's as nice as I'm willing to be."

"Good." Helemia grinned with satisfaction. "Just checking. Let's do it."

At their direction, Scout took off from the tree he was in near the valley floor, and flew up to the top of the ridge to the south-west. He pumped his wings hard as he flew just above the ridge going clockwise, gaining speed.

A Sylvan who was stationed on the ridge on the east side of the valley moved over a couple of meters to get a better view of the shed, but one of the rocks he tried to step on was an Illusion covering a crack in the slope. He fell heavily and cried out before his face smashed against the rocks, and he tumbled down the steep slope for a while before sliding to a stop, unconscious.

The Sylvan woman who was stationed eighteen meters to his left stood to see what was happening, and started to move to assist him. Before she'd gone three meters the same thing happened to her. She yelled and tumbled and slid until she struck a tree, and lay there moaning from the pain of a broken arm, as well as numerous serious cuts, scrapes, and bruises.

All the Sylvan on the top of the cliffs heard the cries and the crashes of the fallen tumbling down the slopes on the far side of the valley, and stood as they tried to crowd forward to get a better look, as much as they could without crowding the ones near the edge off the precipice.

At that moment Scout flew over the southern group from behind, unseen and unheard, making his best speed. He swooped down at the last moment and slammed into the back of the second row of Sylvan from the edge. He hit two of them in the backs of their heads with his wings, knocking them into the ones at the very edge in front of them. He sank his claws into the scalp of the one between them, and drove his sharply-pointed hooked beak into the scalp of the one in front of that. His momentum dragged the one he grasped completely off the edge, knocking off those in front of him, and all the ones who were falling tried to grab the ones around them for purchase. Eight Sylvan fell, yelling and screaming all the way down.

The cliff was just over eighteen meters high, and none of them had the time or the wherewithal to cast Flight or Levitation before they hit.

On the cliffs on the north side the pass, the Sylvan crowded forward even more to see what had just happened. Stripe bounded out of cover and charged through them, knocking as many Sylvan off the cliff as he could. He reached the far side of the formation and turned. The rest of the Sylvan had backed away from the edge, but he grabbed six of them one by one by the arm or leg with his mighty jaws and threw them over before they had backed up enough to make that impractical. He leaped into the midst of them, biting and clawing and tearing amidst a cacophony of screaming, yelling, and confusion.

Scout had circled around for another pass. Most of the Sylvan on his side hadn't moved back yet, instead they stood staring as Stripe, silent and invisible, tore through their fellows on the opposite side of the canyon. Scout took four more off the edge on his side, and the rest of them moved back, yelling in fear and confusion.

Though they couldn't see him or hear him, the Sylvan around Stripe backed away from where their fellows were dying, and they brought their weapons to bear.

Then Stripe stood among dead and dying Sylvan, surrounded by a ring of spears, swords, and knives. He leaped over the weapons pointed at him and started laying waste to them again.

Many of them broke and ran, but Vanakit Lamitkeze was bellowing in rage and organizing them. “They're not demons, you superstitious idiots! It's only their animals, hidden behind some kind of Indetectability spell! Now bunch up and defend yourselves!" Soon they were huddled in small clumps of eight to ten with their weapons sticking out in all directions, and many were casting Force Shields and other spells. Stripe has sustained numerous small wounds, but nothing serious.

"Stripe, go." Reggie called, and the Sleng cat bounded out of the Sylvan formation and ran to his next assignment.

"Crap, we have to move NOW!" the twins realized as they slid out the back of the goat shed, hissing and gasping as they tried to maintain silence while the bark of the log wall scraped the delicate skin on their fronts through their light summer clothes, and the pine thatch poked and scraped their backs. They rolled around in the dry and dusty bed of pine needles behind the shed to further cover their scents, gritting their teeth against the continuing painful and itchy irritation of it. Then they ran diagonally up the slope under the trees to the north-east.

Both were angry at themselves. Their plan had called for them to move right after they tripped up the two Sylvan to the east, but they hadn't. Instead they'd been concentrating fiercely on the fight above the cliffs; tracking all the Sylvan's locations and movements, passing that information to Stripe and Scout, and hiding the animals from the Sylvan's perceptions. They now realized that they'd planned on doing more multitasking than they were capable of, and they'd left their bodies lying on top of the shed wall feeling half-squashed under the prickly pine thatch while they conducted the fight.

"They know we're here!" Vanakit Lamitkeze barked as he cast a Speaking to the Sylvan stationed on the ridge around the valley. "Kill them! Kill them now!!"

For the hundredth time he cursed the weakness of the power field since the settlers had come, and the cost in power of the mighty Shield they'd cast around the valley, and of deceiving the Wards that had protected it. Few of his Sylvan had enough power left to fly for more than a few seconds.

Over three hundred Sylvan readied bows, arrows, spells, and swords as they ran down into the valley toward the goat shed.

The twins had not put as much distance between themselves and the shed as they'd planned at that point. The converging Sylvan running down the slope toward them would be much closer together when they passed.

The two paused behind a tree, panting hard and concentrating. They tripped up two Sylvan on the far side of the valley with Illusory footing, which was easy now that they were all running downhill. Then they continued running uphill and north-east.

"All of you get down there and block the pass!" Vanakit yelled to the remaining Sylvan atop the cliffs. "Our prey will try running home, and you might not be able to detect them! Block the canyon from wall to wall with your weapons presented! And sharpen your damn psionics! Find those two little brats NOW!"☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

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