Fragments Gallery
Between Two Forces: Part 1
A moonless night covered the forest. The darkness was thick, the silence encompassing and the fog which had descended upon the trees cool. In short it was a good night to sit around a crackling fire telling stories of times long past. Unfortunately for some fate has a different plan.
Lyn slipped through the undergrowth leaving little trail behind. Her breath came quickly and her chest heaved from the exertion of the sprint. They were after her, of that she was sure. She could still hear their horns in the distance and occasionally she caught sight of their torches. Despite her best efforts they were closing in on her. The rebels followed along behind and the empire, suspicious of the rebel activity, had mobilized in force before her.
Unknowingly the two were working together to trap her. The only chance she had of escape was to get to the end of their lines and escape before the fighting broke out. This entire forest was a tinderkeg with the two military forces encamped on either side. Both sides had been encamped around the forest for a couple weeks, neither one willing to make a move. At the moment it was a race between the reinforcements the empire waited for and those coming for the rebels. Whichever arrived first would give their side a distinct advantage. Until the circumstances changed there was an uneasy ceasefire only broken by the occasional skirmish between scouting parties.
It was a bad situation for Lyn. She belonged to neither force and should either capture her things would turn ugly. She had gone in alone as an observer for her own master who had an interest in this conflict. Should she get caught there would be no help coming from her own people, they wouldn't risk discovery. The rebels weren't even supposed to know that she had been there, but she had been careless.
Now she ran.
The trees lashed at her face as she sprinted past. Normally she could move through the forest without disturbing a single leaf but this was not a normal time. Still, even now, she left little trace of her passage. It would take an experienced tracker to follow her through this foliage.
Lights flared up ahead and she silently dove into a forward roll coming to stop beneath a leafy bush. Her eyes glittered in the darkness as she stared towards the source of the light. In the distance walked a trio of rebel soldiers, each one carrying a torch. Their armour gleamed in the firelight; the deep blue in their surcoats appeared black in the flickering light. Even with the distance she could see the tenseness in their limbs that suggested their nervousness. She couldn't blame them; she might have broken that uneasy truce that had existed between the two forces this night.
Naturally the rebels had assumed her to be a spy for the empire, when the commander of the rebels had caught her snooping in the command tent. The last thing she had heard as she fled the camp had been the commander roaring in fury as he ordered his soldiers to bring her back by any means necessary.
As the trio vanished from her sight she rose and continued on her way. If she were going to get out of this she couldn't stop for long. She had to keep moving.
The silence of the night broke as yells erupted from the forest behind her. Metal clashed on metal and voices roared in defiance. The empire forces must have sent out scouts to investigate the commotion. She cursed softly; when this night began she'd had no intention of being the instigating factor in starting the battle.
She dove under cover as low voices filtered through the foliage up ahead. Grey cloaked soldiers emerged from a thicket several meters before her. They were empire soldiers on patrol and heading towards the rebel camp. They were cocky to be speaking so loudly out here. Lyn nervously waited until their voices had faded before resuming her flight.
She swept swiftly through the trees without encountering another living soul. She brushed easily between the great boughs, leap lightly over fallen logs and crept slowly through the occasional open clearing. Behind her the sounds of battle still tore through the cool air, but now the sounds were fading. She was leaving this madness behind. The end of this night could not come soon enough.