"E" (Writers of Kern A-Z Blog Challenge)

Sketches by Kehlee!

We arrived at the city of East Pau to open arms. There was a trumpeteer sounding our approach as we marched past. The livery of colors and the number of people on the street were astonishing, or they would be, if I was new to this, but I was a seasoned practitioner and I walked along the smooth cobblestone with grace and eloquence. Each of my four large feet padded carefully and lightly across the ground. I held my head up high. I could feel my Rider’s back held straight atop mine. He gripped the reins with assured determination and poise, as he always did, but even with that, I could feel a slight nervousness about his posture, as if he was forcing himself to sit still and dignified amongst these foreign lands and people.

We had followed the main, central street through the city. It was a wide open lane that was lined with people from the entrance all the way up to the palace gates, their eyes eager to catch a glimpse of our grand procession. For many of them, it was a once in a lifetime event. On the edge of the Chearson Desert, Pau was a difficult city to get to; to see the likes of me and my companions was a rarity and understandably, they were not going to miss it.

As we proceeded through the palace gates, armed guards in tall-plumed helmets of enameled purple and gold closed the enormous brass doors behind us, effectively quieting the pomp and cheer sounding from the city’s streets. We stood in an open courtyard before a grand flight of stairs that led up to the palace itself where we were greeted by George Mainland, Earl of Pau and the target of our visit. He wore lavish purple silks and a pointed beard. Beside him was a man dressed in tattered green and brown robes that wielded a staff and kept his eyes on the ground, his personal mage-guard I guessed.

“Sir Mainland, how nice of you to greet us.” My rider said.

“No, no. My pleasure.” His voice was harsh and strained. “What brings you to East Pau?”

“Why the King of course.”

“I guessed that,” his flippant tone made me tense up and my rider reached down to pat my neck, “but why would he send you?”

“I don’t understand your meaning, sir.”

“You! He practically sends an army to my door with your presence.” His arm sweeps over my companions and I. “He forces my reply in whatever matter he wishes.”

“I assure you, we come only seeking answers. There’s no fight on our lips.”

“No fight? Look what you’re riding!” He looked straight at me, into my eyes, and I saw the fear in his.

“Sir –”

“Why did he send you?” he interrupted. “I want you out of my city. Hurry it up.”

“The King hears word that you’ve had dealings with the southern Dwarves.”

“He what? How dare you make such a claim!” The man stiffed and his companion’s eyes lifted to look at my rider.

“Sir, please calm down, we’re only here for information.”

“Nonsense! You’re here for war! You bring the King’s Elephant Guard for God’s sake! I won’t stand for it!” He turned and began walking up the long flight of stairs that lead up to the palace. “Kill them! Kill them all, Rancor!” His companion took a battle stance and began what seemed to be chanting into his staff.

“Wait, sir! You can’t, we’re just emissaries! We mean no harm!”

The man stopped mid stride and turned to us. “My point exactly! You speak with the King’s name! His ambassadors! And you insult me? Threaten me? Oh, no, no, no! That is not okay! Rancor, guards; do not let them leave. I want their heads delivered to my desk by sundown!” He ran up the last few steps but fell short with a scream as Tronk’s rider, next to me, let loose an arrow that caught him in the leg.

There was a pull on my reins and a nudge behind my right ear. I backed up beginning to turn. “Let’s get out of here, boys!” my rider exclaimed. “We’re not welcome here!” I saw no immediate escape but I turned anyways at his request.

I could hear Wellet’s deep voice rumbling through the ground as he shouted to the rest of us. “Get ready ‘phants, we’re going to have to fight –” His words were suddenly garbled and disjointed as the ground began to shake under my feet. It felt like an earthquake and I looked back at the palace to see Rancor, the mage, dancing in place with one hand shaking wildly in the air above him, the other was firmly gripping his staff which was glowing with green energy. He seemed to be in a trance as he casted his spells.

My legs went wobbly on the quaking ground, but I swung my large head at a guard that ran up beside me with a long pike aimed at my rider. The man tumbled violently out of the way. A squeeze on my neck spurred me forwards towards the gate. I crashed into it with my forehead, denting the brass, but the gates remained closed and gave no purchase.

“Rawwrrr… watch out… Tronks!” I managed to pick out of the ground waves from Wellet’s direction. I turned to see the earth rupture and crack and split open and engulf Tronks and his rider into the ground.

“No!” I called and I felt my rider tumble sideways in his seat as I moved without his consent. When he realized what I saw, he urged me over to help.

“The mage! Take out the mage!” my rider shouted to the small band we had. There was three elephants of the King’s Guard, me included, their riders, and several footmen that walked along beside us. The footmen wielded short swords and were currently fighting with the palace guards all around us. My rider’s commands caused Wellet’s rider to turn and aim his bow towards the palace dais where the mage was free casting down at us.

I reached the hole in the ground and saw that Tronks had fallen and his rider was screaming with a leg trapped underneath the large elephant.

“Tronks!” I shouted. He managed to stand and reached up towards me. Our arms grasped each other and I began to pull with all my might. But it was futile; there was no way I was going to pull him out of the hole. When we realized this, he let go, turned, picked up his rider in his arm and lifted him up to me. I grabbed him carefully and pulled him from the hole where I swung him around towards my back. My rider then pulled him up to sit at his backside. The man screamed in pain the whole way.

“We’ll… get… you… out!” I shouted, but I wasn’t sure how much of it would travel passed the continuing earthquake. Still, Tronks nodded and began ramming himself into the walls of the hole trying to break his way out.

“Greenwich, get Wellet to the wall! We need to break it down!” My rider shouted. There was a hard pat on my side and I launched forwards into a run across the writhing ground. I don’t know how I managed to stay standing, but I did, and with a jarring smash, I ran into the stone wall beside Wellet. He was already prying bricks from their mortar and my assault toppled a large section of the wall away from us where it crashed down amongst the screams of the city patrons on the other side.

Abruptly, the tremors stopped and I looked back to see the footmen storming up the stairs towards the mage. There were swords swinging left and right and the mage was casting green energy blasts into the men, trying to hold them back. But they overwhelmed him and I saw a gleaming swipe of metal sever the mage’s arm and another shatter his staff. With a rousing shout of fury, the men bested him.

“Damn, that was loud!” I heard Wellet say in response to the ground’s silencing.

Behind me there was a trumpeting and Tronks heaved with his trunk and pulled himself out of the ground, his legs kicking and trashing against the ground as he struggled to stand. I turned back to the wall and with my head began knocking pieces out of the way. The hole was getting bigger and soon we would be able to fit through it.

The footmen ran passed me and jumped up into the wall and out onto the street where they started forcing a path through the crowd. I knocked another section down and climbed through after them, followed by the other two elephants. Together, we rushed down the main street towards the exit. People had to dive out of the way to avoid being trampled by our stampede and we met no other resistance as we escaped from Pau out into the desert that surrounded the city.

"E is for Elephant Emissaries Escape from an Evil, Earth-weilding Ecomancer and his Employer, the Earl of East Pau"

(I was afraid the "e"lliteration used here would be apparent in the text, but I think I did a pretty good job of hiding it. I had fun with this one...)