Pentoria

16. The Rousing* Sun

Chapter 16

The Rousing* Sun

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The wind roared over the plain, trouncing the weapons and armour the Pentorians carried. The Rebels and their fellow men stood facing the field where they would do battle. In silence they waited for their enemy to approach.

Stade, sitting on his steed, Allan, scanned the area and it was as Bangs described. All around were broken structures, debris, and other remains. The scene reminded Stade of a huge trampled down graveyard. Huge masses of ravages were scattered everywhere in the field. He sensed the gloomy atmosphere around him and he could feel the people behind his back steering nervously on their places.

They might have known it too, Stade thought to himself.

Stade turned to the princess who was silently sitting on her horse. She was holding her reigns abnormally tight and her expression was somewhere between nervousness and sorrow. Stade knew she was remembering something dreadful.

Back at the base, Stade had studied the map of the field where the Farightes planned to meet them. The area looked rather odd in a way that Stade had the feeling that something important was missing.

Stade didn’t know that much about Pentoria’s geography, providing that his “school” didn’t teach anything about Pentoria, but the area seemed just a perfect place to build a city. It was at the northernmost corner of Pentoria and a great river divided and flowed through and around its area.

Being from the Clan of Nature, it was obvious for him to know that where there is a river, there most likely would be a village or even a city to use up its utility. The setting was such a beauty it puzzled Stade why there wasn’t a village of any kind at the spot.

But now he knew why. Stade almost regretted asking Bangs and by the look of her face he knew this place brought her painful memories.

The ruins and broken down structures around the battlefield were the remains of the once majestic and powerful kingdom—the Clan of Magic.

“No wonder those dreadful Farightes chose this place,” Bangs mumbled to herself, “they think they could wipe us off easily and leave our corpses along with the rubble.”

The princess Myrane’s expression turned to hatred so fierce Stade was glad she was on his side. He would know the pain of losing a family but just imagining everything—family, home, and everything else he had ever loved and knew about literally destroyed into complete ruin was downright unfair.

Stade turned back to the Pentorian army. The people’s faces seemed to have processed the horrors of the remains of the great kingdom, even Janrok looked terrified. Stade hoped they would not break their formation and start screaming back to the base. The Farightes’ scheme was working and Stade knew he had to do something to encourage the crowd.

He hasn’t expected so but everyone was willing to come. The weirdoes, the recruits still injured, and even the younger ones were willing to go war. But, of course, Aven was an exception.

Stade felt sorry for him because he didn't believe that they could win the war and much less he didn't believe in the Light. He was an unbeliever and Stade knew he couldn't do anything else to convince him. As assertive as he was, Aven tried talking to Stade again and being as logical as he could gave a statement about how they would all lose and just waste their lives in a pointless battle.

Aven stayed in the base with the others, though unlike him, were seriously injured and still had hope. Stade knew from the looks of their faces they’d wish they could be strong enough to fight. Unfortunately, the mood and the predicament they were in almost convinced Stade that maybe Aven had a point.