Of Ashes and Wind

Blessed by the Winds

Phoenix soared high in the early morning rays, behind her were handful of beastmen and elven riders.

They had a special mission for today.

It was the third morning of the tense stalemate in the Narrows, Ailduin was sending forward more winged mounts to reinforce what they already had – but it would be another few days before they could make it this far across Eostrun.

Pyria was making fine progress – the Tetran army was being pushed back. The plan Phoenix came up with to go behind their lines and to their encampment had the intended effect.

The same effect they were going to try again that morning.

This time it was going to be a little different, Phoenix remembered the last few times they set up camp in Kal Darom and knew the general area of where the Generals and the Prince had set up camp. They studied the path to the Narrows, together with Kieara and Fredrick, the three came up with some possible locations of where Prince Rollin himself would be residing.

They agreed that it was a one-shot move, there was no options to try and re-do this plan if it didn't work the first time.

If anything, the plan would be enough to spook the Brilux Royal Army.

Phoenix took note of one thing though, the three of them did agree on where the main supply depot would be.

The center most point of the encampment.

If anything, Phoenix was going to make sure their stores would suffer.

Phoenix and the rest of the winged-mounts were high up in the air, the air was thin and they had taken off in the darkness of the night in order to avoid detection by the winged-scouts of Brilux. The Great Granite Range was like a river beneath them.

"Alright, stay close to me and Duke." Phoenix instructed once last time, both of her swords drawn, "Don't break from the wind current, I can enchant the winds enough to maintain our speed after shooting downwards. It'll be enough for us to escape before they can mount a counter-attack with their ground forces and their winged-mounts."

It was a spell that Indigo had taught her, Alina enchanted Phoenix to fly along with them on Isle de Luna and together they all jumped off of the Mount Aurora. Indigo seemingly grabbed at the winds with his fingers, keeping his friends together as they sailed to the ground, only to sharply pull up at the last second while still maintaining their breakneck speed.

The stunt both terrified and impressed Phoenix all at once.

"I can't believe I'm about to put my faith on this stunt." One of the elven riders shuddered out.

"Last chance to back out, Nix did call for volunteers only." Tsuuki looked over his shoulders.

"She also needed rider who were good shots from their mount." The elven rider shot back.

"Want to make a bet on who can hit the most targets then?" Tsuuki raised a brow.

Phoenix chuckled, "I'd be careful about getting into a shooting match with an elf."

Tsuuki's grin only grew at the comment, "Loser has to take up the other's night patrol shift."

The elven rider smirked, a few more elven riders whistled at the gauntlet with the beastmen riders crossed their arms and looked expectantly at Tsuuki.

"You've got yourself a deal." The elven rider held out his hand.

Tsuuki shook it.

"Alright, let's get going." Phoenix breathed deep, her swords hummed.

She could feel the breeze at the tip of her sword, "Follow me." Was all she said.

Duke went straight into a nose-dive directly to the ground, Phoenix's eyes were scanning ahead for the Brilux Royal Army encampment. The wind current felt like water, she could feel the drastic beat of each rider that soared along on her enchanted gale. Their group of fifteen in a steady formation with the quickly approaching ground.

The white and blue tents of Brilux came into view.

Their formation screamed past two gryphon riders who were patrolling the skies, the two wouldn't be able to get in a dive fast enough to catch up to them now.

Phoenix focused on maintaining the current, she tugged upwards with the tip of her swords and all those on the enchanted gale with her began to level out sharply, she could barely breath at the maneuver but managed to breath once more after they leveled.

She heard bursts of spells behind while the formation started to launch their magic at suspected locations of Brilux's leadership. Phoenix summoned the familiar fiendfyre to her twin swords, the formation quickly approaching the center of the encampment.

There, in the middle of it all, was a perfectly neat and maintained supply depot surrounded by guards. Phoenix pulled her blades forward, launching the firestorm to the supply depot. She knew it was on a direct course, but she wouldn't be able to see it hit because they were coming up on the point where they needed to pull back up.

The enchanted wind current began to flow upwards, pulling with it the reckless group of riders screaming back towards the sky. Phoenix focused all of her magic on maintaining the breakneck speed that the wind current kept from the earlier descent. She didn't dare look back, for fear of slowing down and instead kept her eyes towards the heavens.

She slowed down when the air thinned.

It was then that she looked down at the ground.

At least twenty winged-mounts had taken to the skies, but their group was so far above them that they were mere specks.

"We're definitely doing that again." Tsuuki beamed.

The elven rider nodded his head in agreement, "You're truly blessed by the winds, Phoenix."

Phoenix merely grinned, "We still got work to do, let's head back to camp."