FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Cyrvanyx´ eyes went wide as he watched Henry falling to the ground. His body didn´t move, not a single muscle. Did that mean... was he...

No, he could not be. Henry just could not be dead.

He felt tears forming in his eyes, but he quickly blinked them away. He could still save him, or at least try.

Without a second thought he stormed forward into the waves of enemies that stepped all over Henry´s body. Before any of them was able to stop him he pushed them all away, sending waves of flames after them. As the surrounding enemies held up their shields to protect themselves, Cyrvanyx picked up Henry with his paw and pressed him closely to his chest. With two beats of his wings he leaped away from them, bringing Henry into safety, if he could call having only a thin line of allied men between him and the enemy safety.

"Henry!" There was fear in him like he never felt before which he could clearly hear in his own voice. He never lost anyone dear to him, not in that way. Those dragons who died fighting, he knew them all only barely. Henry always was his one and only true friend he had in the order. "Henry!" He almost yanked his helmet off of his head after he cut the leather strap open with an unsheathed claw. What he saw horrified him. Blood was running down the side of his head at the exact spot where his helmet bore a dent. It was not the sight of blood that horrified him, he´d seen plenty of it. What horrified him was the fact that he was bleeding from his head and didn´t appear to be breathing.

He looked dead, but he still refused to believe it. He shook his head while tears were running down his cheeks. The battle behind was forgotten for a second and all he could hear was his sobbing. "Please..." He desperately begged for some kind of miracle. "... please don´t die..." For him, that moment felt like an eternity, whereas it really were just a couple of seconds.

"Cyrvanyx, what are you doing?" The grandmaster stepped up next to him with a bloody greatsword in his hands. "Glaring at him won´t bring him back from the dead!"

"I refuse to believe that he is dead!" He roared at him, anger replacing his grief.

"Doesn´t matter whether you believe it or not, he is dead and we will soon follow him!" He placed a hand on Cyr´s shoulder and looked at the sky. "But you don´t have to! You have wings you have a chance of escaping this alive and tell your clan what happened here! Maybe then they will finally consider aiding us in this war against Ulric´s mongrels!"

Cyrvanyx glared at Grandmaster Maldwyn like he never glared at him before, with anger. "I´m just as sworn to protect this order as you are and-"

"yes you are! And that means that you have to follow my orders! I might be dead soon but as long as I still live I am your grandmaster!" He pulled his hand away and put it back on the hilt of his sword. "The others will go as well! You´re not going alone! Go and tell your clan! That might be our last chance for us to win this war!" Without further words he ran towards Arylaryl, probably to tell her the same thing.

He was not sure how to feel about those orders. His gaze wandered back towards Henry and then it fell on Ary. He did not want her to die, especially after he lost Henry. He watched as the grandmaster spoke to his son, Gareth, while they were standing next to Ary. they appeared to be discussing something before Gareth ran back into the battlefield, Ary and the grandmaster following him. From what he could pick up he understood that Ary should take Gareth with her, but he did not want to leave the order behind, so he charged back into battle.

He already made his decision, he would follow Maldwyn´s orders. And if Ary could take Gareth with her then he could take Henry with him. Maybe there was still away to...

No. No there was not. He had to stop lying to himself. Henry was dead. But there still was a way to help him anyway. Cyr´s gaze fixed on the door that led into the keep. Henry´s family was in there. He knew how much his family meant to Henry and he also knew that he did not fear for his own life, but for those of his son and his wife. Cyrvanyx knew that he had to go, but not without Henry´s family. He knew Henry would have wanted that.

The doors were still open so they did not block his path as he sprinted inside. There was no time to lose after all. He took a turn to the left, stepping into the hallway. He knew which one of the rooms was Henry´s, he´s been there not long ago. The door was wide open and he managed to get his head trough.

No sign of Henry´s wife or son.

"What... where..." He asked himself, scanning every corner of Henry´s room with his eyes. Even though it was hard to think in the situation he was in, he tried to so. They obliviously hid somewhere, but where?

He retreated his head, looking at the other end of the hallway. His mind rattled with numerous ideas of where they could be, all of which he immediately shoved aside, except one.

The storage room.

There was plenty of room to hide there, at least for a human. A lot of crates and corners were there, so it would make a perfect hiding spot. The room was not that small either. Without any other ideas, he ran towards the end of the hallway, where he saw two staircases around the corner, one leading up, one leading down. The one leading up was made for humans and dragons, leading into the council meeting room.

whereas the one leading to the storage room was only made for humans. He hated those. It was extremely difficult and in some degree painful to walk down steps that small, but at the moment he did not care. He was on a mission after all.

The door to the room was just as small as the one for Henry´s room, allowing him only to stick his head trough. The room was, just as he expected, filled with various crates, barrels and chests, filled with various things. A perfect place to hide for a woman and her child.

As he was about to call out for Henry´s wife, he realized that he had forgotten he name, again, so he just called out for his son instead. "William! It´s me Cyrvanyx!"

Almost immediately after he said that, a young boy, followed by his mother appeared from behind a corner. "Where is Henry?" She asked while walking towards him, holding her son by his hand. "What is happening out there?"

"We are losing the battle. I´ve come to save you." He lowered his head as they kept looking at him, waiting for the answer of the first question. "And Henry... he..."

That was all he had to say, they both understood what he was going for. Cyr looked at them both, staring into their shocked faces. "I... I understand." She visibly held back tears, which he could also hear in her voice. "Come on William, we have to go."

"After me and stay close." He said before walking up the far too small steps. He heard how they followed him shortly after. As he made his way outside he kept his pace a little slower so that the two could follow.

Once he was outside the sound of screams and clashing steel reminded him that the battle was still going on. The enemies had pushed onward but the brave men of the order were still holding their line. Some wounded men were carried out of the fighting to the spot where he had dragged Henry before.

He was glad as he saw that Ary was still on the ground and did not leave without him. She was standing above someone who appeared to be a knight, and that knight was Gareth. She defended him as best as she could, fighting off all those who came too close. Only then did he realize that Gareth was injured in some way, at least the blood on his forehead suggested that.

"Father!"

Cyr´s gaze fell upon the little William who ran towards the body of his father, his mother running after him, telling him to stop. Maybe he thought he could still save him. "William stop!" His Mother grasped his arm just as he arrived and they both stared at Henry in disbelieve.

It was the same look he had when he realized that he was dead.

He approached both of them, but said nothing to interrupt their moment of grief. He noticed how William held something in his fist that appeared to be some kind of necklace. "Father..."

The moment of grief was interrupted by a the grandmaster. "Hold the line! Hold the line!" The loud voice caused Cyr to look at the battle line, or what was left of it. After some time the line had gotten so thin that some enemies were coming through, some of which were charging at him, no, at William and his mother.

Before they could reach them he bathed two of them with fire and struck the third with his tail, causing him to fall to the ground where he finished him with his claws, cutting trough the mesh of rings of the chainmail like butter. He didn´t see the fourth one coming though.

He turned around as he heard a scream of pain. Quickly he turned around and looked at the scene with wide eyes. He saw how William´s mother dropped to her knees as a sword was embedded deep into her stomach. Cyrvanyx bit the man in his arm and pulled him off his feet, throwing the screaming soldier across the courtyard.

When he focused his gaze on the injured woman she saw her collapsing, the sword still in her gut. William stood next to her, watching with horror. He didn´t scream, he didn't cry, he just stared at her with wide eyes.

Cyrvanyx watched as the life slowly drained from her body and she no longer breathed.

His gaze wandered upwards and across the courtyard, ending up upon Ary who was holding Gareth close to her chest with one of her paws while standing on three legs.

He knew he had to carry William like that as well, because he could fall off his back too easily. His mother could have, but...

"Why are you two still here?" He heard the grandmaster calling out to him and Ary. "Go after the other two! You have to go, now!" His orders were clear, and this time, he would follow them.

He grasped William in one of his paws and held him tightly against his chest. He immediately started squirming and complaining. "No, no! Let me go! We can´t leave them!"

He simply ignored his words and spread his wings as he saw Ary do the same. They had eye contact for a brief moment before she took of. He followed her, gaining enough speed with a few clumsy steps on three legs before he took to the skies. The moment he took off he saw something fall in the corner of his eye.

"The Medallion!" William squirmed even more so then before. "Land! Let me down!" He secured his grip on William by using his other forepaw as well. "Go down! Land!"

William kept on screaming at him as he followed Ary. He still knew in what direction his clan was even though he has not been there in ten years.

While the boy in his grasp would not stop squirming he looked back one more time.

He watched how the grandmaster and two other knights made the last stand, killing off as many as they could before meeting their unavoidable fate.

He watched as they fell and the attackers storming the keep, probably aiming to kill all refuges.

He looked away, unable to watch anymore. With the order gone, all hope seemed lost.

But maybe he could persuade the clans to help.

Maybe there was yet hope for Albia.