Gifted [UNEDITED]

Chapter Nine

All that was left from yesterday's attack were rows of burnt houses, and heaps of dead bodies. There were so many unroofed houses, with long black marks around their walls. The bodies were uncovered, the bruises were still fresh. Some bodies were being moved to the burial ground.

Eznarim was searching for his parents, he couldn't go to their house, it was already burnt to the ground. He checked the other places where they could be, like the camp set up for the citizens. He checked every tent, tent after tent he searched for them. Tears were already welling up in his eyes.

"Eznarim!", Domrath called out to him. The former was in one of the tents, when he came out, he met a depressed look on the latter's face. There were other soldiers with him, carrying dead bodies on a mat.

Eznarim wouldn't believe it. "No, Domrath. You have to be playing with me," he said, with a mixture of laughter and tears. The soldiers brought the dead bodies in front of him, with his shaky hands, he unveiled them.

When he saw the faces, he burst into tears. Domrath ran to his side to console him, but it was a futile attempt. Eznarim held tight to him, but didn't stop crying. He cried so hard, he started to shake. He was breathing rapidly in between the sobs, his eyes were tight shut. The tears never stopped coming.

"Take the bodies away," Domrath told the soldiers. They did as they were told immediately. Domrath helped Eznarim stand, but he wouldn't move. A few minutes later he yielded. "Come, we need to attend the ceremony. Dry your tears, Miaddrian soldiers should not cry," Domrath told him as he led him to the ceremony.

Eznarim only followed with his body, Domrath was pulling him like a bag of lifeless stones, and he followed like so. When they got to the burial ground, the priest and his entourage were just arriving.

He stood in front of the mourning crowd. Everybody was mourning that day, every citizen lost someone. The priest gestured at one of his temple elves, and the latter in turn gestured at two other elves who brought The Red stone in front of the crowd.

"May the Dead never come back to haunt us. May the Celestial King grant them peace in the underworld, may they have peace at last", The Priest prayed aloud.

"May they have peace at last", the crowd chorused.

"The Celestial King will grant us grace to live, for the world is filled with evil and sorrow."

"May he grant us grace", they chorused.

The priest collected the torch from the High Councillor, he held it with both hands, waved it anticlockwise and set the bodies on fire. The wives, children, mothers, fathers, brothers, husbands, and sisters of the deceased burst into uncontrollable tears. They left one by one, crying all the way, but the soldiers waited behind.

"Our brothers have fallen, they have given their lives", Gnarim started. "But we should not waver, we will still fight!"

"For the elven blood fears no death!" A soldier from the crowd shouted, hitting hard against his chest.

"For the elven blood fears no death!", they all chorused, hitting hard against their chests. The archers stepped forward and lit their arrows, they aimed at the dead bodies, stacked up like sardines.

"Fire!" Kamirel commanded, and all at once all of the archers fired at the dead bodies. None of the soldiers shed a tear, for it was against the Miaddrian Army custom for a soldier to cry at a funeral.

"Hey," Aora muttered to Eznarim and Domrath. Kamirel and Gnorath had gone with the High Councillor to oversee security.

"Hi, what's up with you?", Eznarim asked, he drew a long breath and wiped a small tear from his eye.

"I'm fine. I'm an orphan now, but I'm fine. My dad was beheaded but I'm fine, the only family I have is gone. But... But I'm fine," Aora answered. She held her breath through the sentences, and now she was breathing heavily.

"I think I'll leave you two," Domrath whispered. He mounted the nearest elk and joined his brother and Kamirel.

When Domrath had gone, there was silence for a while. Both parties had a lot on their mind, and would rather not say. But Aora was full of questions.

"How does it feel?", she asked. Wrapping her hands around herself, and rubbing her elbow.

"How does what feel?", Eznarim replied. He wasn't looking at her, he was still watching the fire burn. He hated the way the fire sounded, it was like it was talking to him, mocking him.

"Losing everything, everything you've ever had, everything you've ever known. You lost your parents, I want to know if you feel what I feel too."

"I should have been there to save them. I should have been there, I shouldn't have left them that night. Right now, I don't feel anything. There's something inside me, burning, but I don't feel it. I know it's there, but I don't feel it."

"Don't be too hard on yourself," she replied. "What was meant to be will always be, no matter how hard we try."

Eznarim wiped his tears, he looked at Aora. She looked so pale, her eyes were really red. He grabbed her hand and said, "let's go to the library."

Aora smiled at him, she hugged him, they stayed that way for a while before she pulled away and led him to the library. "Come on," she beamed.

The library was deserted, there was hardly anybody around. Even the librarian was absent, or dead. Either way there were only a few elves in the library.

Aora had never entered the library before. She was amazed at how much books could fit into one building. From the ground floor she could see stories filled with shelves of books.

"This library is almost as old as this city itself. Everything about High elf civilization is right in this library," Eznarim whispered. He led Aora up to where things about old fire written.

"There are lots of books here, written by the original users of old fire," Eznarim told her.

Aora took one book from the shelf, she opened it, but she couldn't find any spells. She took another books, but all she could see were achievements and the history of the users. "Why are there no spell books?", she groaned.

"Try using your powers to find the book."

"How's that even possible, I don't know any spells. I don't even know how to activate this stuff, unless I'm angry."

"Here, hold my hand," he smiled at her, grabbing her hand. "Close your eyes, focus on yourself. What do you see?".

"Nothing, I don't see anything," Aora replied.

"Focus harder, look deeper. What do you want to do?"

"I want to find a spell book."

"Good, very good. Call the spell book with your mind. Tell it to come to you."

In a few moments, a big book was floating in front of them. Eznarim was the first to open his eyes, he saw the book and told Aora to open hers. "See? I told you."

Aora laughed. She grabbed the book and opened the pages very quickly. She was fascinated at the spells. "Where did you learn to do that?", she asked in amazement.

"It's something I picked up during a training fight. It's like a calling spell, just that you don't have to say anything," he laughed.

"Can I try one spell on here?", Aora asked him. He only nodded, and she quickly flipped through the book looking for a spell to cast.

Finally she found one, a spell for fire breathing. She gasped and showed Eznarim, the latter laughed at her choice but he let her do it. She was so excited that she forgot to say thank you.

She looked at the words for a long time before she could read them. After a few stressful seconds, she finally said the words. "Komichi zahrazthe uryth," she chanted. It didn't work, Aora tried the spell a few more times but there was still nothing.

Eznarim noticed that she felt bad, so he put his hand on her shoulder and said, "It's okay not to get it at first. As long as you keep trying, you will surely get it."

Suddenly the book started fading into light, Eznarim was the first to notice. He also noticed that as the book faded, the lights were resting on Aora's arm. Moments later, the book faded completely and form a tattoo on Aora's arm. It glowed very brightly for a while, then the brightness slowly died out.

Eznarim and Aora were amazed, they looked at the tattoo, then at each other, then at the tattoo again. "This is amazing, so amazing," Eznarim laughed.

Aora didn't say anything, she just laughed and hugged Eznarim very tightly. Eznarim hugged her back, and tge two were that way for about a minute.

Suddenly the alarm bells started ringing, and everybody in the library started running out. Eznarim and Aora did the same, and went straight to find Kamirel and the others.

But it wasn't going to be so easy, because the whole city had become overcrowded and sandwiched. Everyone was on the road, running this way or that way. There were shouts from different directions, children were shouting for their parents, wives for their husbands, and brothers for their sisters.

Soldiers were riding around on elks trying to calm the crowds. Some soldiers were riding towards the main city gates. Wagons filled with weapons were being transported to the main gate.

Eznarim led Aora through the crowd, and down a quiet street that led to the main gate. At the gate they saw Kamirel atop the parapets giving orders, he would raise his hand and the archers atop with him would stretch their strings, when he would bring his hand down, they would let their arrows fly.

The arrows would knock some dark elves down. They also saw Gnorath and Domrath at the gate down below, with a lot of soldiers pushing back the gate. While on the outside there dark elves using a very big tree to bang the gate.

The gate wasn't able to hold for long, the dark elves were able to force it open. As soon as the gates opened, dark elves trooped into the city with hunger like speed. Some Miaddrian soldiers were caught off guard so they had their heads removed for them by the dark elves.

Eznarim and Aora rushed down to join them. Eznarim clenched his fist again and the beam appeared again. He picked a spear from one dead soldier's body and the beam started taking it's shape.

He threw the purple beam at one dark elf's head. It pierced his head leaving a huge hole on his forehead, Eznarim stretched his hand, and the weapon went straight into another dark elf's head. One dark elf tried hitting him from behind, but he clenched his fist, and his weapon impaled the dark elf from behind.

Gnorath and Domrath went up to the parapets where they would be more useful tonthe fight. When they got to the top, Kamirel told them to lead the archers while he went down to assist Eznarim and Aora. He also gave the order to sound another alarm telling the other soldiers in the city to march to the main gate.

When Kamirel got to the gate, a soldier came to tell him that they were greatly outnumbered. Kamirel patted his helmet softly, and told him, "reinforcements are coming, get back in there."

As soon as the soldier left, Kamirel drew his own sword and was cutting down dark elves. "They must not get passed the gate! Form a line," he shouted.

The soldiers obeyed immediately and formed a line in front of incoming enemies. "Hold!," Kamirel shouted. The soldiers buried their feet in the soil, and the enemy banged against the banged against tge shields.

"Weapons out now!"

The soldiers pushed their weapons outside the shield line into the enemy. Until all the dark elves that banged against the shields were dead.

"March!," Kamirel commanded. The line started moving, forcing the dark elves retreat.

In the same moment as their retreat, more Miaddrian soldiers trooped in. The line broke to let the soldiers riding on elks through the gates. When they were all through the gate, the line scattered, and the soldiers started running behind the elks.

Elks were brought to Kamirel Eznarim and Aora. They mounted them quickly, and joined the other soldiers in the pursuit of the dark elves.

The dark elves were pursued all the way to the borders. Many of them were killed in the forest, some were killed on the way to the borders. The rest of them were killed at the borders, none of them survived.

The soldiers started celebrating their victory over the enemies, but it didn't last for very long. As they sang their celebratory songs, and banged their weapons against their shields they heard a very terrifying shriek.

They looked up in the sky, the shriek was coming from up there. It got louder and louder, and then stopped suddenly. The shriek was heard again, and along with the shriek something else came from the sky. A huge fire dragon, with Zorath riding it.

The dragon flew past them with amazing speed, it turned around and started flying towards them. When it close enough it opened its mouth, and fire came upon the Miaddrian soldiers.

"Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!," Kamirel was shouting. But before the entire army could turn to run, Zorath had burnt a lot of them alive.

Kamirel led the surviving party back to the city to warn the other elves about the dragon. But the dragon was too fast, it got to the city before them, it mounted on the wall of the main gate waiting for the retreating party.

When they were close enough, Zorath's dragon released another stream of fire on the army. Killing more soldiers. But Kamirel, Aora and Eznarim escaped along with some other soldiers.

When they entered the city, Eznarim and Aora left the party and rode towards the bell. Kamirel rode to The Den where he was sure Gnorath and Domrath would be.

"Rally every available soldier, we need to get our people out of here. Calm the streets, so there can be smooth movement. We'll probably be able to get a good number out before the dragon gets here," he told them.

The twins left immediately to rally the soldiers. As soon as the troops left The Den, the alarm started sounding. The streets were already chaotic, everybody was running for the exit.

"Take some soldiers to the exit, and make sure everyone is calm," Gnorath commanded one of the soldiers. "You, take the other soldiers into the streets, stop the running and make sure everyone gets to the exit safely," he told another soldier.

Before the orders could be executed the dragon flew past the city. The Miaddrians screamed in terror, pushing one another to the floor as they tried to get away from the beast.

The dragon flew towards The Den, there were still elves there. Zorath smiled when he saw the elves, he said some words and the dragon let loose on The Den.

"Come Gnorath, let's have dragon meat!", Domrath yelled at his brother, as he charged at the dragon.

Gnorath followed behind him. In the corner of a street Gnorath noticed a cloaked figure aiming an arrow at Domrath. "Domrath!", he shouted, kicking his elk in its side.

He was close enough now for his brother to hear him. He shouted his name again but it was too late the cloaked figure fired the arrow, got in the way. He jumped off his elk and blocked arrow, letting himself get pierced in chest.

Domrath quickly dismounted his elk, and rushed to his brother. He checked the corner where the shot came from, but the figure was already gone. He went back to his brother with tears in his eyes.

"Don't cry," Gnorath told him. "It was my job to protect you, and my job is complete now."

"Don't say anything," he said, sobbing placing his hands on Gnorath's chest for pressure.

"Forget it. I'm done already, there's no saving me," Gnorath smiled. "The arrow got my heart, I can feel it."

"Don't talk you bastard! Now's not the time for jokes!", he yelled, applying more pressure.

Gnorath smiled at his brother, holding his face with his hands. "Always remember me," he said, and dropped his hands.

Domrath held his brother's face and slapped it gently a few times. There was no response, so he started screaming his name. There was still no response, Gnorath was dead.

Domrath sunk to the floor slowly, as slowly as a tortoise would move. He couldn't even cry, he just sat there and looked at the body. Soon Kamirel joined him, so did Aora and Eznarim.

"What happened here?!", Kamirel asked, as he rushed to Gnorath's body. Domrath did not answer, but Kamirel understood. He went to his friend, and tried helping him up to his feet, but Domrath wouldn't be helped up.

Zorath noticed them, he smiled and rounded his dragon and swooped in towards them. Eznarim was the first to notice. He went to Aora who was comforting Domrath, he pulled her aside and whispered, "Aora, now would be a good time to use that spell. Do you still know the words?", pointing at the incoming dragon.

"I remember the words, but isn't going to be dangerous?", she asked.

"I trust you, just say the words."

"Komichi zahrazthe uryth," Aora chanted. She chanted the spell a second time, but it was too late for a third time. The dragon was already here, it flew over them with overwhelming speed and Aora was whooshed to the hard ground.