Page 60 of Storms & Sacrifice
“We must return to the city, now,” Khazak tells me and Druid Darkwolf before turning to the camp’s officers. “Frostsong, Proudblade, remain here to relay this to any rangers returning from patrol: everyone is to return to V’rok’sh Tah’lj immediately. There is no timeto waste.”
All the officers jump to action, everyone running into their tents to grab their packs before taking off for the city. Khazak’s bow is still broken and his armor unwearable, but he grabs his longsword and hands me my own weapon.
“Captain,” Darkwolf calls for Khazak’s attention, and I watch as she changes her form once more, this time into a large horse.
“Thank you, Druid,” Khazak tells the horse as he mounts her.
He extends a hand to help me up next, and I’m grateful for it this time. Trying to mount a giant horse is even more difficult without a saddle. There’s also a little bit of weirdness around the fact that I’m riding a person, but she’s probably used to doing this given how fast she was tovolunteer.
We take off, and I’m glad I’m not riding in front. Not being able to see where we’re going this late would probably freak me out. I’m leaning against Khazak’s back, my arms around his waist while he holds onto the horse’s mane. The forest is dark, but as we approach the city, I can see smoke rising into the cloudy sky, illuminated from below by the orange glow of flames. If there was ever a time for that rain to start, it would be now.
There’s only one guard at the gate when we approach, and he wastes no time in opening the way for us. Once we’re inside, our druid-horse heads toward the nearest smokestack. We’re in the northern part of the city, and I’m reminded that this is also the poorer section of town by the less-than-nice homes we pass along the way.
There a lot of people standing outside of their homes, and the closer we get to the fire, the more we see fleeing from that direction. We follow the smoke to the site of one of the explosions, an apartment building.Oh gods, all those people.
The scene here is even more chaotic, and soon there are too many people for the horse to move through safely, and we have to dismount. The druid immediately returns to her normal form and we all step up to the wreckage. From where we’re standing, it looks like the explosion happened on the lower level of the building. Flames are pouring out of the unit on the lower left, and the walkway above it is all butdestroyed.
“We need to evacuate this and the surrounding buildings,” Khazak says, stepping forward to begin working.
“I am attempting to get the rain started,” Darkwolf starts, hands already raised to the sky. “But I think someone may be doing the opposite, or is at least aiming to block my magic. I will continue trying while I work to control the flames, but it may take some time.”
Khazak shares a look with me, no doubt suspecting the same person responsible as me: Councilman Murbank. He’s planned all of this. With Darkwolf holding the flames at bay, the two of us begin pounding on the doors of the building, making sure each one is empty. We only make it through six before I can see the stress growing on Khazak’s face as he calculates his plan forthe night.
“I have to go to the station.” He pulls me to the side after we clear another apartment. “I need to find out where the other explosions happened, and make sure the fire brigades are all coordi—”
“Go,” I tell him. “I’ll stay and finish helping here, then I’ll comefind you.”
“Are you certain?” He’s already stepping away from thebuilding.
“Yes, go.” He’s got important things to do right now. Lives are at stake. “I’llbe fine.”
“Be careful, David,” he orders me (he uses a different tone, I can just tell) before turning around and running in the direction of the ranger station.
I manage to clear out the rest of the bottom floor without any issues but hit a few roadblocks on the second. First, I find an elderly orc gentleman still in his apartment, hurriedly trying to gather together some papers. I startle him when I walk in the door, making him drop everything all over the floor. He looks so distraught when I try to get him to leave without them that I end up bending down to gather them together myself. He thanks me as I hand him the stack, looking fondly at the old drawing of a young orc woman on top before allowing me to escort him outside and down the stairs.
My next issue comes in the form of two orc women still in their own apartment. They aren’t as old as the man I had to help down, but they certainly don’t appreciate a young human banging on their door. They just sit there staring at me as I frantically explain why they need to leave, and I’m not even sure it’s because they don’t understand me. When nothing I say or do works, I go outside and get Darkwolf’s attention, forcing her to stop working on the fire to come up and try help me.
While she deals with the two of them, I move on to the final apartment, or at least the final apartment I’m able to enter. The unit right above the explosion... even from here I can see that the inside is mostly destroyed.Gods, I hope it was empty. Not wanting to focus on what I can’t do anything about, I bang on the door in front of me, the wood already starting to warm.
I hear something, not quite a response but enough to get me to open the door, a small amount of smoke escaping. I stay low to the ground as I force my way inside. I can see that the wall to the adjoining apartment has crumbled, and lying underneath the rubble is a woman. She’s conscious and trying to console the two young orcs on the ground in front of her, each frantically pulling on her arms to get her out. Smoke is starting to fill the room, and it won’t be long before it’s impossible to breathe in here, and considering the entire building might collapse soon, I need to get them all out ofhere. Now.
I rush to her side to see what I can do. The woman and her sons both look at me relieved, though for very different reasons. Both boys start shouting at me, begging me to help their mother, oblivious to the danger around them. She speaks to me much more calmly, obviously wanting me to get her children out. I try to get both boys to understand what I need them to do, but the language barrier is an obvious problem. Still, I do manage to at least get them to move away from their mom and toward the door. They won’t go any farther than that without me helping her though.
I inspect the wall that’s lying atop her. It’s heavy but doesn’t look like it’s crushing her. She’s probably broken or sprained a few things but nothing she can’t recover from, I hope. The question is, can I get the wall off of her? It’s heavy, solid stone, and I burn my fingers on it the first time I touch it. I have to pull down my sleeves and cover my hands awkwardly just to get a grip on anything. But it’s still mostly in one piece, so maybe...
With no more time to waste, I crouch down and grab what feels like the sturdiest section of the wall.One, two, three!I stand, trying to lift as much of the wall up and off the woman as I can. As my arms and legs start to strain, I realize a flaw in my plan: what if she can’t move on her own? As soon as I start to worry, two green blurs come in from my left, both kids rushing in to help. I can see that she’s at least able to crawl, but time isreallyof the essence here. I’m not sure how much longer I can hold this up.
“Hurry,” I grit out. Movemovemovemove!
I drop the wall as soon as I see that she’s out, jumping back so I don’t crush my feet. When it hits the ground, the entire building rumbles, and with wide eyes, I quickly usher everyone out of the apartment. The boys are down first while I help their mother with her injuries. I can see Darkwolf at the bottom of the stairs, still arguing with the two women she “helped” out of the burning building. One of them is holding a small dog that won’t stop yapping atthe druid.
As soon as she sees me and I confirm that the building is empty, she goes back to trying to control the fire while I go to the surrounding homes to evacuate them next. The knights at the academy are part of Northlake’s fire brigade, so I actually have a little training in this area. There’s always a chance the fire could jump to another building, or that this one could collapse and knock one of the others over.
Thankfully, emptying out the rest of the homes goes much smoother. Most of them are already empty, the owners having enough sense to get out once they saw the fire. When I’ve finally finished, I can see a group of uniformed orcs have joined Darkwolf in taming the fire, while others are speaking with the building’s tenants. Hopefully, that means Khazak was able to get back to the station alright. The apartment building gives another shake just before the left section of it crumbles. Looks like we were just in time. I know it’s still bad,butphew.
With the situation here under control, I say goodbye to Darkwolf and begin my walk south to the station. I’m a little tired after all that, so I’m not exactly running, but I know I can’t take my time or anything. Just as I finish catching my breath, another explosion rips through the air and makes everything around me tremble. I see the new smokestack rising into the air, and it’s right in the direction I’m headed.Oh fuck, the station!
I break into a run, any feelings of exhaustion jolted out of me. All I feelis worry.
