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For Duty

Caine Family

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
*Cove’s in trouble! *

That’s all Thea really read while she was on the roof of the Winter’s Rose. That’s all she needed to know to get her running out as fast as she could humanly do. Inhaling sharply, she tells the proprietor that she needed to go and ran off. Not telling or saying anything else, she runs down the stairs past everyone and out the doors to her horse. Jumping on its back she rides to and through the house portal that led her to the Winter's Rose right back to Yew.

As she rides her mind starts to wonder about the good time she was having while visiting the establishment. It wasn’t as bright as it has been the last time she stepped foot within the doors. Walking to the far end of the room she sits down alone at one of the tables. Hearing a rather loud voice calling her, she looks to see it was John calling her over to join them. John, the elf, the colorful girl, Piper, and the one with the blue hair was sitting at one table. Agreeing, she walks over and sits next to the elf. The night seemed to fly by with the conversations that went on. Thea mostly just quietly drank from the bottle she was given. It looked like Vodka, yet it's taste was unfamiliar and its name, its name was just as disgusting. Thea slightly smirks then frowns deeply as she gets closer to Cove. Pushing her thoughts aside she needed to think about what was coming up.

Further down she sees a soldier running towards her and quickly pulls out her bow. It wasn’t the fact that the soldier was running to her, it was the fact that she saw what was running behind the guy. Five orcs grunting and snarling, running closely by to catch him. Lining up she pulls the string back and takes aim only to hit true to her mark. Instinct takes over as another arrow flies towards an orc then another and another till there was only one left. Fully in charged, she ran down the remaining orc trying to flee. The sound of shattering bones was all that could be heard as the orc got trampled by the horse, turning into a lifeless corpse.

Not even slowing down to check on the soldier she charges on only to hear in the faint distance “Fath…”. She knew what he must have meant. She knew where to head towards even without receiving orders. Her father. Looking to the left of her she sees four guards of Cove riding horses to follow her.

“Thea Caine! We’re riding to battle with you! At the crossroads!” One of the guards yelled. Only to slightly smirk, Thea rides on towards the West side up along the bay.

Slowing down her mount she sees fire burning all around and smoke everywhere. It looks like a battle just took place not too long. Slinging her bow to her back, she looks around at the weapons and bodies that litter the ground letting the grass drink their fill of blood. Her gaze catches a few craters all around as well. She turns her steed around once then kicks its side and charges forward again after hearing the faint noise of war cries.

Upon seeing her father fighting with two orcs and the others fighting away she rides past them into the fray. Keeping her balance, she stops and slowly starts to stand on her saddle pulling her blade out from her boot. Jumping off her horse with her blade above her head screaming madly. "FOR COVE!" She howls out like a raging beast only to hear the same thing coming from the four guardsmen trailing closely behind.

Blood splatters all around as she rips the knife out of an orcs neck. The four guards that followed her didn’t jump off the horse like she did but charged forward running as many down before dismounting and taking up their weapons and fighting. Ducking, swerving and jumping, she not only makes it that much harder for her to hit but infuriates the orcs. Twisting around she goes to what looks like an easy kill, to getting hit in the chest with a club causing her to fly backwards hitting the ground with a loud thud. Coughing, she gets up breathing heavily.

Suddenly feeling a slight pinch at her stomach and shoulder, she shifts her gaze to both areas to see what was the cause of this discomfort and annoyance. She could see the feathers and shaft of an arrow protruding from both her stomach and shoulder. Hours seemed to go by before it finally registers to her. Screaming, she breaks the shaft as close as she could to her body, falling to her knees. Blood trickles down the side of her mouth as she looks forward to see an orc walking towards her. Slowly it starts to raise its hand and throws a bottle to her only to land a few feet away. She knew it wasn’t just an ordinary orc and she knew that wasn’t a bottle either. Before she had a chance to roll away it went off into a loud boom, causing her to fly back again rolling across the ground before stopping on her back.

Her eyes open slowly to see nothing but blurs of people around her and hearing nothing but a loud ringing sound. Moving her head side to side she can only make out a faint outline of everyone but she knew they were the Cove guardsmen. Coughing up more blood she slowly closes her eyes and sees darkness and the nothingness it awaits.


"Would you die for Cove?" she heard him ask.

Looking at him the only word she said was "Yes."
 

Caine Family

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
“Thea!” Melody screamed as she watched her sister fall.

Momentarily distracted, she caught the edge of a spear thrown by a retreating Orc.

Ignoring the blood gushing down her leg, she ran to her sister.

“Help me get her to the healer.”

Gazing into the pale face of Thea she said, “Don’t you DARE die on me!”

The healer’s building was in full motion, most of the beds had been taken. Melody would have gladly removed one of the guards to make sure her sister had been taken care of. Luckily, that wasn’t necessary.

Wiping the sweat and tears from her face, she watched as the healers gently removed the two arrows. The Cove healers were among the best in Britannia, so she knew Thea would be well taken care of. But that didn’t mean Melody would be leaving the building while Thea was in danger.

Brushing away the healer trying to clean her leg, she pointed to her sister…”her, take care of her.”

Prior to this night, the Orcs had only sent scouts, testing the Cove defenses. Although this assault wasn’t the full Orc force, the damage it had done was immense. Many of the Cove guards lay dead or had been hurt. But they repelled the assault. It was obvious to Melody, help would be needed to protect Cove.

Once they recovered from this attack, she would go to the cities and petition the Governors to send help. As long as she and her family were alive, Cove would not fall!

She looked back to Thea, as her sister seemed to mumble something. Melody though she heard a single word…”Yes.”

The healers worked long into the night, Melody refused to leave her sister’s side. Their father came to see his daughter, and reported that most of the area had been cleaned of Orc bodies. Eventually, the healers had done all they could, it was now up to Thea.

The paleness of her face was in stark contrast to the bright pink of her hair. Melody smiled a bit when she thought of the day Thea dyed her hair pink. Her sister had always been different. Secretly Melody wished she had the courage to do something like that.

She pulled the chair closer to Thea’s bed, and reached out for her hand. It was almost hot with the fever raging within.

“Please FIGHT, Thea!”

Melody Caine,
The Covian Guard
 
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