Valin (Book 3 of the White Lily Trilogy)- first draft

chapter 32- Follow Us

In the few hours he had, Dakelo for once refused no medical treatment. He was even willing to get as much rest as he could, as well as accept any foul mixture of healing potions and the amount of prodding and poking at his body. After telling the others what their orders were, they all seemed to get into the same mindset. They knew their duty was to Isildilia, and they were going to see it through to the end. None of them wanted to stay on the sideline and do nothing.

Dakelo tried to fight any exhaustion, but once or twice he knew he had slipped into a slumber. It was apparent when each time he woke the sky was far darker outside. Although he tried and refused to admit it, he was still physically tired and, despite his runaway thoughts, it was enough to still to knock him out in short spells. Eventually, he deemed it enough, for both him and the guards for them to take up position again, as every minute counted in this final fight.

Grey Paw and Xnifo were both stationed outside of the small cove inside, where Isi was kept in, keeping the curtain-like covering closed. The rest of them stood across the vast cave entrance, evenly spread. From their high-up position, they could see a fair portion of what was unfurling below. The sun passed through the sky, turning eventually from the bright blue to a dusky pink, with dark streaks of orange and red accompanying it.

Dakelo guessed that Valin planned to attack in darkness, though that had an equal advantage for both sides. If anything, it would be limiting to his side if he had truly sided with the humans. His mind went through so many scenarios on how he managed to convince the humans to follow him. Did he do it by force, was there others he could convince, did he play out a lie on what actually happened? The prince he knew would never agree, but if they made it seem like creatures had invaded and killed the head magician then they would march, but how did Valin end up leading it? He wished to know, but there was no way he could just casually ask Valin what exactly happened after they escaped.

He shook his head furiously. No, right now his focus should be on surviving this night and keeping Isildilia safe from any attacks, but he knew if Valin decided to just fly over the likes of them couldn't stop him.

"This will be a disaster." He muttered out loud without realising.

"Have courage, brother," Froyza growled, who was stood nearby in his normal wolf appearance, as he found no more need to adopt the human-skin disguise. Dakelo glanced at him briefly, wishing he had that sort of courage. He had his fair share of scraps and fights, but never on a large scale before. He watched as creatures left any tents they were in, or from the forest where they took shelter and trickled across the landscape to form their own immense wall of flesh facing their enemies. He tried to judge on who had the most on their side.

He remembered, surprisingly enough, when Valin told he and Isildilia all that time ago, that they struggled to win, for although they had strength, humans had numbers. However, this time he judged Valin to have both.

He wouldn't fail to admit that their side had quite formidable creatures on it, certainly some he never wished to fight against for fear or being used as nothing more than a toothpick, but Valin had the magic users....

"Dakelo, do not let your mind get too burdened," Thiryqa said, though when Dakelo stole a glance in his direction, he saw that the creature looked just as anxious, his yellow eyes stared unblinkingly at the masses below. He didn't blame him, any of them for being so worried. There was nothing worse than the feeling of twiddling thumbs when you could be making a great difference.

A shadow covered over their heads for a split second as the King glided down from where he was currently sat on the mountain top, approaching his front line, the clap of his wings were like striking thunder, He settled down, his large wings folding in tight against his body. On the other side he saw Valin's mass appear and he leapt over his army, his wings unfolded halfway so he could simply glide and land in front. For a moment, both sides went still as the two dragons squared off against each other. If Valin wasn't insane Dakelo was sure he would be intimidated by the King. No words were exchanged for several minutes, just the occasional tail twitch, the ruffle of a wing or two. Though Dakelo would struggle to just hear the words from his distance, he could see that no jaws were moving.