The refugees, 2nd draft

Blood and fire

Twelve months in, November 47

Cordlen

When we held a thanksgiving celebration the Wolves themselves arrived to protect the werewolves in the celebration. This would have led to war except that the people were too drunk, full, and entertained to care. As the Roman's said, Panem et circenses. We held the elections that day, a day to fight and compete for a spot in government.

Most of the events were incredible but the fight for the leader of the army was the most incredible. Aspira brazenly challenged anyone who was willing to fight that if they could declare her dead then they would lead the army. Over twenty people were fighting her at any one time, but no one managed to even hit her. In the end after five hours of various battle against her Akran himself with a squadron of surveyors challenged her to battle. Their fight went something like this.

Wild cheers greeted Akran as he and a group of six surveyors stepped forward to challenge the silent knife. "A rematch then?" Aspira said, "Let's do this!" The seven combatants chose to start in the mock forest and Aspira started in the centre of the replica of timbertown. The surveyors circled Aspira's position as Aspira merely sat down and checked her watch. Then three surveyors ran into the square but just as they would have sliced for her neck she leaped backward, executing a perfect backflip, and declaring two of the surveyors dead just as the others appeared.

In the end all of akran's surveyors had been declared dead and Akran and Aspira had fought to a standstill. Then Aspira disappeared only to reappear not five seconds later with a sword to Akran's neck. Loud applause and cheers greeted that and Aspira passed into what one would consider urban legend.

Then the seven greatest wolfpaw warriors fought with Aspira, Akran and seven other champions from later events. Surprisingly the four wolves and three werewolves held their own against the human champions, defending their swath of the forest. The battle lasted for two hours but in the end Aspira led the humans to victory by assassinating the human turncoats and leading the charge against the wolves Fenris had not fought for obvious reasons but instead watched the events curled up on the ground with 13 other wolves with him.

After that we began feasting and drinking and actors from the factions put on plays and shows that they had been planning for weeks. Overall, the event was a success, easing the tension between the wolves and people.

Also, near the end of the day the builders declared that they would leave the village to set up a mining town near the Void's Maw, the name of the great chasm in the far east. Later in the month they made it seem like a Chinese mining town. That does not have any outer meaning at all, for sure. You try to find a theme you will suffer; this is a transcript of a collection of interviews, not a fiction book created for a theme.

The builders were led by Ligh and when I asked her specifically why she left she said, "Lennox left and look at these caves! Imagine the riches within!" So now the builders left to get rich, but you know what? On the first day of November a massive influx of people arrived and now all the factions have had their numbers doubled. Why do people disappear and die on Halloween!?

The next day the alarms went off.

I awoke to the bells of the church in the lower town ringing. I changed quickly and headed out to see a terrifying sight. Shuffling towards us from and easternly direction was an army perhaps one thousand strong of Zombies and reanimated skeletons, "well this would be a cool way to die," said a man beside me on the wall I turned towards him and told him, "Go find Shiani, tell her to gather the wolves." He nodded and ran off; I would learn later that that was Shiani's brother that I had sent to find her.

I then ran to the Barracks, the Army and the Guardian's shared headquarters. "Everyone up!" I demanded and as one they got up and stood at attention. "Today we are under attack by the armies of the dead, I want the guardians to the walls and the army outside, someone tell the surveyors to help. Go!" They ran off and when they all reached the walls I, with Gabriel beside me, spoke.

"Today the dead rise against us, they challenge us, they see us as weak and hopeless against us, but we are not. Today we fight not for honour nor for glory because you will not find any, not for riches because there are none to be found. Today we fight for our people, for our home, for our families, friends, and livelihoods. They think we are weak? Let us show them what weak can do, today we fight!"

The soldiers replied with a rousing cheer of, "Until the morning, we survive the night!"

The Army then charged the undead and after a few moments of fighting surveyors appeared all around the undead, attacking on all sides, there were perhaps 10 undead for each soldier but they seemed evenly matched. Then Skeletal riders appeared and began to shoot at our soldiers cutting down many before they knew what was happening. "Retreat!" Aspira yelled as they began to fall back towards the walls. "Fire at will!" Gabriel commanded as the archers began to shoot at the undead arrayed before us.

It seemed that that was it and we were done for when a blood chilling howl split the forest then another and another until it seemed that the trees themselves would fall on us, then an army of wolves two hundred strong led by the werewolves and Shiani, riding Fenris broke through the trees. With a cheer the soldiers fought with renewed vigour and the undead then had to fall back. We chased them to the voids maw where they disappeared into the many caves in the maw.

The wolves and the soldiers returned as heroes and celebrations continued for three days and at the end of it Ligh was chosen to lead the voids watch, a specialized militia dedicated to guarding against the undead should they arrive again.

Shiani was also crowned Sovereign of the Night's watch, the official name of the werewolves.

We suffered heavy losses, but we also recovered enough weapons and armour to outfit all the fighting units and most of the civilians. The wolves suffered little but had a grand time eating the carcasses and the night's watch played with their wolves with bones from the skeletons.

Then near the end of the day a dark figure was seen on the battlefield trying to wrestle with a ghost. Eventually the shadowy figure gave up and the soul returned to its body, alive but covered in lethal wounds. The healers quickly took him away and the record of who exactly it was that fought death has been lost to history.

Agriculture: Lenox,44

Water & irrigation: cordlen,37

Defence: Gabriel, 17

The army: Aspira, 14

Economy: Alizee, 19

Labour: Granger, 17

Health & human services: Alvaro, 11

Housing & urban development: Ligh, 27

Transportation: Niki, 15

Energy: Charolotte, 23

Surveyors: Akran, 37

Education: Kara, 12

273 employed