Lauret sat on the sand. Opening her eyes, around her were masses of mammals, filling the wasteland beneath them for a great distance; their numbers stopped before the hill, where Drage, Clarabelle, Annette and Darryl stood.
There were hundreds of cobras, with their slithering path behind them in the sand. Anubis baboons stood around her, jackals, dama deers, dromedaries; they all filled the area near where Lauret sat. Hundreds upon hundreds of spotted hyenas and camels waited. Six-inch long-tail scorpions littered the place too, along with Addax antelopes, sand cats and ostriches. They awaited something, not even acknowledging each other, them all usually at war in the arena of survival.
Steepe eagles, Barn owls and Secretary birds, they all flew down, who had taken away most of the light from the sky of where Lauret sat before they had done so. "I've done it." The animals increased in number around her as time passed, nearing an hour now since she started.
* * *
Near the sandy slope, the four camels pointed towards the bottom where the hill started to raise, the Edeolon Warriors hearing a noise from the fortress. It was as they feared and predicted, the stone sounding doors opening, they could hear them, even from this distance. Masses of Shadows marched out.
The numbers engulfed what was once the floor of yellow sparkling sand and turned it into a hopeless dark. No gaps in their lines. The warriors could see the Shadows wanted no pathway, no way to get to their fortress. One battalion, one army. Until a few stepped in front of the rest: Generals, no doubt, thought Drage. Their cloaks, marked with a black Amaranth flower, more figures coming forward.
"Mimics," said Annette in a frightened tone: "Six of them." She closed her eyes and realised the heat now more than before from the sun.
"One for each of us," said Drage, clinging tighter to the camelʼs neck. Their numbers kept coming from inside the fortress and looked as if they would not stop. The enemy formed a line surrounding the fortress, protecting it. Drage put his hand to his mouth. The numbers looked more than he could have ever imagined. All the camels stomped their feet in the sand, as if worried and scared, like their riders.
"Come on, Reetho," said the earth-wielder, partly worried his love was already gone, them, waiting for nothing but the end.
YOU ARE READING
The Source: Observer Chronicles, Book 3
FantasyCOMPLETE: Brenda encounters a group of unusual teenagers that appear out of nowhere, right in the middle of a war they seem to know a lot about. But what is it that they are hiding?
