The two girls, human and half-elf, Sheilah and Fialla sat side-by-side, trying to think around the problem of dealing with giants while struggling to hold back the urge to try out their newfound abilities.
It wasn’t a simple matter of “I will do this”, or “I will not do that”, it was an impulse that burned in the chest and demanded to be let out with all the ferocity of a dragon’s roar.
Although the Tyrant within Sheilah had subsided, it simply refused the idea of stealth or sneaking.
Supremacy was just that: the unwavering idea that all things should bow before it. Caution, stealth, sneaking- these were all ludicrous ideas that simply could not be countenanced.
If Supremacy wasn’t sufficient, Calamity would solve the problem. If Calamity and Supremacy didn’t solve the problem, Indomitability and Immortality would allow it to grow stronger for another try. There simply was no reason for subtlety. This grated on Sheilah harshly since she was an ambush hunter, Attacking from range, attacking from stealth, singling out her prey one by one.
“You’re right, Fialla. The Tyrant is strong.” Sheilah replied, frustrated. “It doesn’t much like the idea of being careful. Marching into the city and burning it flat is its idea of solving the giant problem.”
Fialla nodded.
“Let’s eat, try to calm ourselves down, and try again.” Fialla suggested. Sheilah nodded, suddenly realizing she was famished again.
Using a Dragon’s power consumed the nutrients in your body like fuel; this was something that was known. What they were just learning for themselves however was that being enamored by the new powers that dwelled within them and demanded to be let out also consumed them.
They settled down to a meal of rations, strips of meat, the coal-roasted tubers they’d stolen from the giants before, and their remaining water, stuffing themselves full.
“I still think we should wait a while for the others. It would make it easier.” Fialla argued.
Sheilah shook her head. “Likely what would happen is that the Dragons within us would see them as something to be subjugated.” She rebutted cynically.
“I’m... kind of worried what might happen if I go to sleep.” Finally muttered, but Sheilah heard it anyway.
“You live and die by your own strength.” Sheilah reminded her. Fialla nodded doubtfully.
Shailah shouldered the mound of materials, vaguely wondering what could be made from such a boon, when Neera showed up.
“It seems you two were successful.” She observed, her eyes thin reptilian slits.
“Yourself as well.” Sheilah replied as the Tyrant churned in her breast.
Neera shook her head. “Three of the Horned Snakes didn’t come back to the camp we set up, so... I think they failed their hunts.”
“You think? I thought you were planning on working together?” Fialla asked, her eyes alight with the power of the Dragon.
Neera grimaced, turning away from Fialla’s gaze. “We decided to do it properly.” She grumbled. “Nobody likes being looked down on by anyone, especially by the Dragons.”
She eyed the load Sheilah carried. “That’s quite a haul. Do you think you can make it past the giants?”
Sheilah clenched her jaw; the Tyrant did not want to be addressed like this.
“We were just talking about that. Scout for us.” Fialla finished with a frustrated grimace.
“Strange way of asking for a favor.” Neera snorted derisively.
Sheilah stepped back and struggled to turn away. The Tyrant demanded subjugation, violence, destruction, a savage message to any and all who dared oppose it so that all could see who was in charge. She closed her eyes and focused her attentions inward to keep from tearing Neera apart.
Sheilah opened her eyes and discovered that somehow she was on her hands and knees, her sweat dripping from her face into the ash and dust to form dark clumps of mud.
“Are you... you?” Fialla asked again.
“I am.” Sheilah replied, pushing herself to her feet. “I am unbearably hungry, though. Neera, do you have any food?”
The Horned Snake woman eyed her cautiously. “If I did, why should I share it with you?” She asked petulantly.
“Because I’m asking you nicely.” Sheilah replied. She wanted to add a threat, but figured it’d be counterproductive. A threat was a promise of violence, and if it came to that, wasn’t Supremacy the better threat? To see her cowering and broken beneath her?
Careful.
She took a breath. She wanted to explain that it took a great deal of nourishment and sustenance to keep a Dragon’s abilities satiated, but a Clan’s powers were secret, and even discussing them obliquely was forbidden.
“Please.” She repeated.
Neera let out a little sigh. “I have rations and water from the three that didn’t return.” She forwarded, and then added, “I will trade them to you now for a future favor from the Dragons.”
A shitty trade, no matter how you looked at it, but Sheilah nodded and stuck out her hand, which Neera took.
The snake-eyed woman handed over the rations and waterskins; Sheilah and Fialla devoured the food, but forced themselves to drink the water sparingly. There wasn’t much water to be found on the way home, after all.
“We certainly hurt the giants badly when we came through several weeks ago.” Neera mentioned as they sat in a small circle.
Sheilah blinked at that; she’d lost a lot of time while she was with the Tyrant.
“They have no womenfolk. Those we didn’t kill outright were poisoned. They still have food and drink, which will be helpful to us.” Neera paused. “I wish the Manticores were about. Their ability to paralyze would be welcome.” She waved her hand to show it didn’t matter. “If the giants were smart, they’d leave. Go back to wherever it is they came from. Move on to wherever it is they think will be safe. With their women and girlchildren dying practically overnight, they have to know they’re not welcome.”
“So you think we’re safe to simply go on up?” Fialla asked brazenly, and Sheilah grimaced as she discovered she was driving her nails into the palms of her hands.
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“They’re smart enough to build a city with stone, but they might be dumb enough to believe they need to protect it when there’s no reason to stay.” Neera replied with a shrug.
“So... take a peek?” Sheilah asked, and Neera nodded. “Take a peek.”
The giant’s city was just as they’d left it, though there were many abandoned buildings on the outside. The remaining giants congregated towards the center.
They discovered through Neera that during their raid, they’d missed some of the women, who all apparently had been brought together and protected after their first raid.
Sheilah and Fialla set up a camp in one of their food stores and gorged on their supplies. Meats, vegetables, roots, fruits and nuts, even their supplies of honeycomb.
“What do you think? Take the rest when we leave?” Fialla asked after gorging.
Sheilah smiled around a mouthful of meat. “As much as we can carry, sure. Though I think you’re after their honey more than anything else.”
“We don’t eat many sweets in the Redstone, after all.” Fialla replied.
Sheilah laughed. “Certainly true enough.”
Neera returned to the storehouse, finding the two Dragons stuffing their packs with fruits, nuts, and honeycomb.
“You two certainly are having fun.” she scolded.
“We don’t eat many sweets in the Redstone.” Sheilah replied, chewing on some beeswax, savoring the sweetness of the honey.
“You’re leaving me a share, right?”
“Of course.” Fialla replied with an expansive gesture at the food stores around them. “As much as you can carry.”
“Did you get their women?” Sheilah asked, but Neera shook her head.
“Too tightly guarded. I couldn’t even get close. I’ll need your help.” Neera replied succinctly.
“You should go, Sheilah.” Fialla encouraged. “You’ve still got your bow; you can kill them from a distance.”
“I don’t think that’ll help much.” Sheilah disputed.
“You cleared out most of that camp in the Redstone without them making a single noise.” The half-elven girl reminded her.
“So I kill the guards? Then what?” Sheilah asked.
“Then Neera and I will kill the women. Hopefully they’ll leave after that.”
Sheilah closed her eyes and thought. What if they didn’t leave? What if they moved into the Redstone and started a vendetta against the Clans?
Show them fury.
The path over the mountain. The way home.
“Load this cart with food and the things we’ve gathered from the Ashlands.” Sheilah muttered, slapping one of the carts inside the food store with a free hand, and then looked to Fialla. “Will you catch me if I fall, sister?”
The Half-elf blinked a few times in confusion. “Always. You should know this more than anyone.”
Sheilah turned to Neela. “Do you think you can drag this monstrous thing to the path we used on the mountain?” She paused. “It’s big, and looks heavy. Plus all of the things we’ll toss in it.”
Neera tugged on it experimentally. “I think I could get it to the base of the mountain. I don’t think I could get it up the mountain.”
Sheilah looked to Fialla. “Could you?”
The half-elf pulled on it, wiggled it back and forth.
“Maybe if Neera helped. The stuff isn’t so bad, it’s just... huge.” That much was obvious, a cart sized for a giant was significantly larger than one for a human.
Sheilah nodded. “All right. Load it up with as much as you think you can drag.” She looked to Fialla for a moment. “This’ll be my first time trying this, and I think it’ll knock me out.”
Fialla’s eyes widened, and she nodded. She knew what Sheilah was talking about.
Calamity, the unrelenting destructive power of the Dragon that allowed no quarter, that showed no mercy.
The cost for using it was a difficult one. It had been explained to them. The power of the dragon was not something men were meant to wield.
I will destroy them so that they will never set foot in the Redstone. I will destroy them so that they will never stand against my sisters. I will destroy them because they dare to stand against me.
“Neera, draw us a map here so that I can get as close to them as I can. Then take the cart and head for the mountain. Fialla will come with me to catch me ... if I fall. She’ll meet you at the base of the mountain.”
She looked to Fialla, looked to Neera, and then pulled the elven girl to the side. “If I don’t get this done right and I die... tell my father. Tell my sisters.” She whispered.
Fialla got a panicked look on her face. “What are you talking about?” She whispered back, shocked.
“I’ve never breathed fire before in my life!” Sheilah whispered to Fialla. “What if I blow up or burn to a crisp or something?!”
Fialla nodded at that. “I tried it once, before I found you.” She whispered. “It’s... intense.”
Sheilah nodded back, and then turned back to Fialla, a wordless shout of surprise on her lips. “You-!” She blurted suddenly. “I thought you said you were going to hold off until we got back to the Terrace!” She accused.
“I’m allowed to make the wise choice after I learn from my stupidity!” Fialla snapped back, causing Sheilah to burst into laughter, which Fialla shared.
The two of them joined Neera, who was drawing on the storeroom floor with a bit of wood, and hunkered down across from the map.
Neera pointed as she explained where the patrols were, where the women likely were, and the path she’d take out of the city.
Neera snuck her way to the gate leading towards the mountains, dispatched the guards there and pushed the gate open, returned to the storehouse, and wrestled the cart through the gatehouse.
Fialla and Sheilah made their way through the streets and scaled their way up one of the giant’s peculiar dome-shaped buildings.
Fialla gave Sheilah some increasingly peculiar looks as the human girl settled herself to watch the patrols.
“I notice you’re not doing anything.” Fialla observed.
Sheilah shook her head minutely. “I’m trying my best not to do something.” She replied simply, and then gestured behind her without looking. “The next time the guard passes, throw a rock or something over there to catch his attention.”
Fialla nodded, descended the building, and then climbed back up with a chunk of paving stone.
As the giant passed, Fialla tossed the rock down the side of the building with a clatter. The giant moved, his heavy tread sending tremors through the building. Shielah rose up, drew an arrow to her cheek and loosed it in one smooth motion.
The giant let out a cry, and Fialla leapt off the roof in much the same way she had the cliff edge in her hunt, driving her spear into the body of the giant, who tottered, tried to yell again, but collapsed to his side.
Fialla retrieved Sheilah’s arrows and climbed up the building.
“What next?” She asked, but Sheilah was already firing into a growing crowd of giants.
Sheilah gestured. “Over there, if we can make it.” She replied, pointing to another, similar dome-shaped building.
Fialla nodded, and slid down that side, even as a mammoth spear shattered near her head. Sheilah joined her, and they buttonhooked around the building.
“So now what’s the plan?” Fialla asked, panting. Sheilah shook her head and pointed in front. Across broad street was a building, and through that doorway the two clanswomen could see the giant’s women.
Sheilah took a long, deep breath, held it, and let it out. “Be ready, Fialla.”
“What are you expecting to do from here?” She whispered tightly. “There’s no way you can reach them from here!”
“The Tyrant seems to think I can.” Sheilah whispered back.
“Maybe a bigger dragon will give you a bigger flame- I don’t know- but they’re in buildings made from stone!” Fialla worried.
Sheilah closed her eyes and took a deep breath, imagining in her mind the great inhalation the Tyrant Dragon had done, remembering how the stone cliffs melted and smoked from its breath.
This would be the giant’s punishment for their affrontery. How dare they raise a city in front of her! How dare they stand in their way! How dare they try to live in front of her, under her very nose without bending to her overwhelming might! The audacity!
She could feel the heat burning behind her eyelids. She could feel the seething furnace in her chest. She opened her eyes, felt the fire in her chest reach its peak, opened her mouth, and then everything went white, and then black.