The Birth of the New World

Dem’tri

“Well damn, her idea actually worked…” Dem’tri says to himself as he is peering over the side of the trench, watching as that insane woman, Igy, is busily spreading chaos on the wall and even destroying some of those annoying lights that hurt to look at. Unfortunately, though, the humans seem to be quick to adapt and have already started to shoot down any more of the little ones that they send flying with the launchers.

Dem’tri shrugs as he watches them get shot out of the air, moving lights on the human’s side making their camouflage useless and turning them into easy targets.

Meh, I said there was no cover up there. Looks like I was right too, stupid Igy. All that matters is that an opening has been made.

Pulling out a horn that he had personally cut from the head of a monster he hunted, Dem’tri puts it to his lips and blows, a billowing ‘Bruuuuuuuoo!’ calling out for everyone to hear.

“Charge! Charge forward, always forward, just like Father desires! Fight and die, eat and grow, and make Father proud! FORWARD!!!” He shouts as he waves his cleaver towards the enemy.

All around, cheers go up from Brothers and Sisters and little ones alike as they pour out of the trenches and charge for the hated wall, their feet splashing through the mud and snow as they scream out war cries full of hunger. Those siblings that can, use their magic to protect themselves and those around them from the human weapons, enabling pockets of their forces to move unabated across the field of death. Others move for the cover of the many boulders that now litter the place, moving from cover to cover every chance they get through the rain of deadly projectiles that seem to fall without end from the human’s hands. The little ones, they simply run forward, using sheer mass of numbers to move forward like a tide of living flesh. Where one part gets pushed back and reduced to pink mist and flying limbs, other parts push forward, never stopping in its gradual advance towards the wall.

Dem’tri isn’t an idiot, despite what some of his siblings may claim. He knows that recklessly charging forward like this will drastically cut through their numbers, one of the few advantages that they currently hold over the humans. But he also knows that if he were to take this siege slowly, carefully, inching forward bit by bit, then the humans would no doubt wear down his numbers over the course of the night. And he wouldn’t be able to face Father if he couldn’t even take down one simple wall.

So, Dem’tri had decided to take every idea that was put forward and try them all out at the same time and see if any of them would work. Except for the giant wooden rabbit idea. That one was too stupid.

Seriously, why would the humans accept a giant wooden rabbit from us anyways!? Does that idiot seriously think that humans would do that? They are more likely to just throw it back at us than they are to accept something like that!

Besides the plan to launch parachuting Goblins at the wall, other plans had been approved as well, like the snow crawler plan, but those guys took too long to crawl all the way to the wall through the snow and Dem’tri lost sight of them a while ago… actually, they might be getting trampled by the charging forces right now… Other plans were to try and find ways of blocking the enemy’s attacks while being able to approach the wall. Luckily, siblings that survived the battle on the other front had brought with them some of the ideas they used, like shields and pushing those wheeled homes that the little one’s enjoy sleeping in. They aren’t the best at blocking the enemy’s attacks, but it was an idea that they could build off of.

For one, the wooden shields seem to do absolutely nothing to stop their attacks. But! The metal of the wheeled homes seems to have better results. Solution? Get more metal and stack it in layers until it works!

They only had enough time to make a couple, but three of the wheeled homes have been layered in metal, all strapped down and tied with vines, and are now being pushed out towards the wall alongside the charge to see if they will work. Thankfully, Dem’tri is smart, so he made sure to assign mages to protect the armored siege crafts from being blown up as they are pushed forward. He had heard about how the humans had targeted them with explosives before.

On top of this, if wooden shields won’t work, then they just need to use metal ones. Thankfully, metal is easy to find, even as sheets large enough for a little one to carry and cover their body, so it didn’t take very long for his search parties to come back with piles of the material, resulting in there being a good number of little ones and even siblings wielding shield as they charge towards the wall. More proof of Dem’tri’s genius!

Other little plans got thrown in as well, but he couldn’t care less about those one. If they work, they work, Dem’tri figures. But it is the last plan that he is the proudest of and is definitely taking credit for despite not being the one to come up with it, which he can, because he is in charge here and that means the credit is all his. It’s good to be the boss sometimes, even if he has to work with idiots to get shit done.

The plan is both simply, but brilliant, and he seriously wishes that he had been the one to come up with it, but again, as far as anyone needs to know, he did!

They will dig!

Not just trenches, those were also a great idea, but actually dig through the earth and under the wall! While the humans are distracted from the front, a team of Earth Mages is currently busy tunneling their way through the earth to the other side. The humans will never see it coming!

Standing in the trench and watching as his charging forces claw their way towards the wall, Dem’tri can’t help but smile at his genius.

Father will be so proud when he sees what I have done. I just wish he was here already to see it…

He turns, looking to the north where the dark night sky is lit by the coming of a steadily approaching storm. Raising his hand, palm towards the sky, Dem’tri catches a couple drops of early rain, the ash coating his skin running grey as the water flows down his arm. The water… it burns a bit against his skin, the droplets looking unnaturally dark and filling him with an uneasy feeling of dread as he looks at the water. Even the thunder and lightning of the coming storm seems… wrong, twisted even… The bolts that dance across the sky move oddly and seem to carry a dark light to them, with even the thunder seeming to lack its normal rumble and boom that should be expected, but are instead muted, as if all the sound is being muffled and silenced, only the physical vibrations of the thunder managing to reach their audience to lightly shake their body.

Even the turning bodies of the clouds seem deeper and darker, as if looking into some deep pit of tar where you can't possibly guess how far its depths may be. As if anything that sets foot inside would be swallowed up and forgotten, drowned by an endless abyss of black. It seems… angry. As if a force of nature could actually feel and express emotion.

For some strange reason, now that Dem’tri is watching the coming storm, he cannot take his eyes off of it, some instinct inside of his mind whispering that something horrible is quickly approaching. For a short while, as his eyes are locked onto the dancing of black lighting, he forgets his charging forces, the humans, his plans, and even the sounds of combat going on behind him. His heart beating in his ears, he can’t look away from those clouds, his mind playing tricks on him as he starts to see images in their form that can’t possibly be there. Skulls and screaming faces, bodies being trampled by hooves or torn apart by a thousand teeth and claws, hands writhing and grasping as they fight to climb over and pull on each other as if drowning people are fighting to pull themselves out, only to drag each other back down. The face continues to surface and be dragged back down over and over again, and despite everything being colored in shades of black and being so far away, Den'tri can see clearly as they cry tears of blood and as their mouths fill with tar like water to choke their screams.

More rain comes, a slight drizzle of skin stinging raindrops turning into a downpour as the twisted clouds draw closer and closer, looming over everything like a dark curtain, the rain soaking Dem’tri’s hide robes with blackened water as they flow down his body, the ash that coats his skin running down his face like black tears.

He is afraid, but of what? A storm? Dem’tri is a son of Father, he has magic. He has nothing to be afraid of!

But for some reason, as his eyes continue to see things that shouldn’t be real moving through the deep darkness of those clouds, he can’t help it as he begins to shake and shudder, a sudden chill running through his core…

And then he can see it. He can see his own face in those shadows, screaming in terror as his body is crushed and torn apart, as teeth tear into his flesh and claws remove his organs, as his bones are cracked open and the marrow sucked out before his very eyes before those too are plucked out by hungry black beaks. He wants to scream, but he can’t move. He wants to turn and run, but his eyes refuse to look away. He can feel it! With every drop of dirty water that falls on his head and runs through his blue hair, he can feel it! Death drawing ever closer, its presence looming over everything like a titan in the sky, these clouds nothing more than the shadow of its robe before the scythe takes its harvest!

He is hyperventilating now, body shaking, hands sweating. His cleaver and war horn fall to the ground and splash in the mud, their surfaces dirtied in deep browns and blacks as they slowly sink into the mud beside to his bare feet. As he continues to look toward the hellish sky, his mind running away in a panic, the sensation of muddy clawing hands begins to move up his legs, their grip digging into his skin as they start to pull and drag him down. He can’t do anything to resist as those hands claw their way up his legs and to his thighs, icy claws and boney fingers digging into his flesh and muscles to scrape against his bones, the sensation of sinking into the muck crawling up his skin like a bad itch as sucking wet soil slowly devours him, his eyes never leaving those clouds and the screaming faces within despite how much he wishes to scream and run.

…

A hand on his shoulder knocks him out of it, his mind suddenly rushing back into his own control as burning water continues to fall on his head and all around him. The clouds are closer now than they had been before, as if time had suddenly skipped forward. How long had he been standing there in shock, staring up at those clouds?

“Brother Dem’tri, what are doing?”

“Huh?”

He is finally able to look away, his body shaking as he turns towards Brother Leti and finds his hand on him. Looking down, he sees his feet, muddy and cold, but wholly free of the earth and able to move, his weapon and war horn lying beside them in the mud. Just to test that he can, he wiggles his toes and finds that he can, the little digits moving in the cold mud.

He shudders, relief flooding through his veins to find that he isn’t being devoured whole. That he isn’t dead.

Leti shakes his shoulder again, “Brother, are you alright? You’ve been staring at the sky for so long. We need you to focus on the battle. You are the oldest, please, command us.”

“Righ… right, right… that’s right, I have work to do, I have to make Father proud. We all do…”

Dem’tri turns to look back towards the battlefield, to look forward, always forward… but he can’t help but to look back one last time. The screaming faces are gone now, nothing but figments of his imagination…

I wish that Father was here now. We would have no reason to be afraid of a storm if he was here, but he is fighting the Grey Demon right now.

Feeling for his connection to his King, Dem’tri can feel his presence to the north, still fighting deep within that storm somewhere.

Dem’tri puts his fear behind him and returns his attention back to the front. His forces have reached the wall, and he has work to do.

“Continue to expand the trenches! Claim as much ground as we can! And bring down that damn wall! Even if you have to grind your bones into dust, I will see that wall crumble! Forward!!!”