Heroes of Berrinos: Imryth

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"Imryth! Wake up Imryth, we need to leave! They are coming and we don't have any more time"

Imryth opened her bleary eyes to see her mother Allania looking down at her with panicked eyes shaking her shoulders roughly as her jet black hair cascaded down either side of her face. Even in this stressful moment Imryth marveled at how beautifully green her mothers eyes were. Just then her mothers eyes softened and filled with tears.

"What is going on?" Imryth said weakly

"Come on! Let's go already" came a rough female voice from by the door.

Imryth sat up and looked towards the door. She could see her three younger siblings standing there and could tell immediately her sister Vanya was the source of the exclamation. Behind Vanya she could just make out the face of her youngest brother Kailu as he hid in the shadows, and to Vanya's right standing straight and appearing calm with a blade already in his right hand, Faelar the second oldest among them nodded towards her. She rubbed her eyes with her hands and stood up. This felt wrong. Something was not right about this situation, and she couldn't get her wits about her.

Her thoughts snapped back into focus as a bag was thrust into her chest and she looked up to see her mother already turning away towards the door.

"Come quickly, we need to get you and your siblings out of here." her mother said as she moved to the door and ushered the other three out of the room.

Imryth began to follow but just as she took her first step towards the door she finally began to hear the screaming and yelling outside her window from the city below. Quickly she jogged to the window and threw open the curtains to see the most horrifying sight she had ever beheld in her nineteen years of life. The streets beneath the castle tower she was looking from were flooded with people fleeing for their lives as they made their way towards the castle gates. As her eyes scanned the once peaceful city of Thebalar below her window, her attention was drawn to the city ramparts where the city gates were thrown open with one of the massive double oak doors hanging precariously off one hinge.

Just then a massive war horn shattered her musings on what could have caused such destruction. The sound was one she had never heard before and yet her mind begged her to understand its origin. Her eyes sought the source of the deep resonant sound and finally saw a figure ominously walk around the corner of one of the inns down in the city center. This figure was far too large to be an elf and had a deep greenish brown skin which immediately gave it away as an orc from the Scorched Plains to the West. Imryth watched in horror as more orcs flooded into the courtyard cutting down whoever they could get their hands on and meeting not even a token response. Imryth felt tears springing to her eyes as her people were fleeing for their lives right in front of her and there was nothing she could do.

A forceful yank on her wrist sent her spinning and staring directly into her mother's loving green eyes once more.

"A time will come for pain, but now is a time for action my sweet." she said as she brushed away Imryth's tears. "The only way we make them pay is by surviving in the first place."

Imryth nodded and throwing her bag over her shoulder she followed her mother to the door where they broke into a run down the hallway. As they rounded a corner her chambermaid Kaeli nearly slammed into her. With a yelp she dodged to one side narrowly avoiding the confrontation as Kaeli fell onto her backside, tears running freely down her face.

Imryth reached down and helped Kaeli to her feet as her mother ran to a nearby open door and gestured for her siblings to rejoin them in the corridor.

"Come on Kaeli, we are getting out of here. We have a secret escape route in the first floor kitchen." Imryth turned to her mother, "Mother is father going to be waiting for us at the exit?"