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Léda
Léda stood to the side of the readied Amazons twirling
her staff as fast as she could. She was really worried
about this battle. The scouts had returned and the reports
of the number of men were breathtaking, Léda could only
hope all the training that every Amazon had been through
would pay off.
Everyone grew quiet; the army was now close enough for
everyone to hear. Léda moved to stand in front of
everyone, quickly the Amazons were in place and ready to
fight. Medea and Tern were right in the front lines with
very excited looks on their faces, with the young Amazons
right along beside them. The older Amazons took their
places, but didn't look as happy. Celosia walked over the
stand beside Léda. No one would move until the Queen told
Léda to give the signal.
After a short time the men were close enough that, if
not for their talking, you could have heard a twig snap.
The Queen nodded and Léda raised her staff.
"AMAZONS UNITE!" everyone yelled as the first
men came over a hill. With various battle cries filling
the air, the entire Amazon Tribe ran forward, with Medea
and Tern racing to be in front.
Thalia
Thalia was perched in a tree above the grounds, her
crossbow loaded and ready to help her fellow Amazons. From
her position, she could see the entire battleground. She
almost wanted to close her eyes as the Amazons charged,
but she knew she had to be there for them. As much as she
didn't want this to happen, there was no way she could
prevent it. With her good arm, she raised her crossbow and
took aim.
Tern
Charging in, Tern twirled her staff, slamming the end
into the first man to reach her. Though she and Medea
joked about it, Tern took war more seriously than the
others knew. She had seen too many loved ones fall in
battle to really enjoy it. Unfortunately, it was part of
an Amazon's life.
"Medea duck!" she yelled. The smaller Amazon
did so as Tern's staff whacked the guy behind her
backwards. Back to back Medea and Tern realized they were
losing sight of their tribal sisters as the men swarmed
towards them.
"What now?" Medea hollered to her mentor.
"Hold them off till archers can get a clear
shot!" Tern shouted, slamming the staff at one man
after another. Into the knees to cripple, the head to
kill. Grimly the Amazons battled on; calling on their
patron Artemis for strength and hoping the archers would
hurry.
Thalia
Thalia aimed, shooting her first arrow at one of the men
charging at a fellow Amazon. She spotted the men gathering
around Tern and Medea and quickly reloaded her bow, taking
enough of them out to give her sisters the advantage. She
reloaded as fast as she could, but she only had one arm
and there were so many men.
Where were they coming from? And why were they after
those two men they'd captured? She hoped that Celosia had
taken the two men to a safer place. "They should be
out here helping us." She muttered to herself,
loading another arrow.
Suddenly, she heard yelling from below. She looked down
to see more men at the base of the tree, yelling up at
her. One of them took his club and threw it at her, barely
missing her head. Thalia quickly morphed into a falcon,
but she realized in horror that with her left arm useless
she wouldn't be able to fly. She morphed again into a
squirrel and ran on three legs down the base of the tree,
her crossbow and sling falling to the ground.
Once she was far enough from the tree she morphed into
human form again, grabbing her crossbow. Her head spun,
having morphed too much in a short period of time.
Shooting on of them men she kicked at another with left
foot, spinning and knocking the feet out from under
another one. Hugging her left arm to her chest as the men
closed in, she hoped the other Amazons would be all right
without her arrows to cover them...
Léda
Léda saw an Amazon disappear within a large group of
men. Wanting as few casualties as possible, she ran to aid
her sister Amazon.
Swinging in every direction with her staff she knocked
men one or three at a time back from the dog pile.
Suddenly, she felt her staff being wrenched out of her
hands from behind. With a quick glance, she saw one man
throw it back about 10 feet while grinning at her,
thinking he'd beat her easily now.
But Léda was too smart and fast. With a half roll, she
got out of the way of his lunge and pulled a dagger out of
her boot, because she didn't have time to reach for her
sword. Catching her opponent behind the knee, she crippled
him. Pulling out her sword, she finished the job.
Then Léda jumped in the middle of the swarm of men,
finally getting them back enough to see whom they had been
attacking. She saw Thalia lying there unconscious with her
wound from earlier bleeding and a lot of other new gashes
and cuts . . . but somehow, she was still alive.
Léda picked up Thalia and flipped over a few men where
she picked up her staff. Then they ran back to the make
shift infirmary that had all ready become very busy.
Laying Thalia on a mat on the ground, she informed one of
the young apprentice healers who it was and ran back out
to rejoin the raging battle.
It was getting very hard to tell who was winning.
Aurora
Celosia and her right hand Amazon, Aurora, began to set
up a secondary defense. A series of pits, nets and hiding
places surrounded the area directly in front of their
campsite, and the few Amazons not fighting in the
front-line prepared for a second assault should the army
press past the other warriors.
Celosia turned to Kayla with a concerned look on her
face.
"These men obviously want Hercules and Iolaus for
something. We have to protect them. You know these parts
better than anyone here, so I want you and Tern to take
the prisoners away where they will be safe. And find out
why they are being chased."
"Anything you say, my queen." Kayla and Tern
ran into the prison tent and quickly untied Hercules and
Iolaus.
Just as they disappeared from sight into the woods, the
army approached the secondary defense. Behind them, Kayla,
Tern, Hercules and Iolaus could hear Celosia yell
"charge!" and many screams of pain, both men's
and Amazon's alike.
Xanthea
Xanthea pulled out her bow and arrows and found a decent
distance where she could still fire at the men. She aimed
at every man within her sight, taking out each one at a
time. She looked around as she wondered what Celosia had
in mind for the men they had found. She mentally shrugged
it off and continued to fire at the men.
For every one man she took out, it seemed there were 3
more taking his place. A war like this could cause a lot
of causalities for the Amazons.
Xanthea sighed and continued to shoot. Soon she ran out
of arrows. Shrugging to herself, Xanthea threw herself
into the fight, hoping the apprentice healers would be
able to handle the infirmary while she fought along side
her sisters.
Just a little while longer, she thought. Then
I'll head to the infirmary to help. I'm sure I'll be just
as needed there.
Medea
"For the love of Artemis! Where are they all coming
from?" Medea hollered at Tern. Another circle of men
came at them.
"I don't know Junior, but heads up!" Tern
answered. She whacked yet another man behind Medea. The
shorter Amazon dove to the ground, but quickly got back on
her feet.
"So where," she paused as a warrior tried to
get her from behind. She grabbed him by the arm and
flipped him over her shoulder, grinning as he hit the
ground with a groan. "Do we go now?" she
finished, stabbing her sword through the man's heart and
giving it a little twist for extra pain.
Tern gave her a look of disapproval to which she
shrugged with a little smile. "He had it coming to
him. Thalia's shoulder, remember?"
Tern rolled her eyes and grabbed her cousin by the
hands.
"What are you-"
"Hold on tight!" The tall blond ordered and
swung her shorter friend around, hitting the other
soldiers with her feet. When she set Medea down they all
lay on the ground knocked senseless.
"Nice move, but for future reference . . .WARN ME
NEXT TIME!"
Léda
After knocking down a few more men, Léda looked around
quickly and couldn't help but grin at Medea and Tern. Tern
was swinging Medea around like a bag of flour, and the
look on Medea's face was priceless. Léda couldn't help
but notice how well that move worked. I should get a
few of the younger ones trained to do that. Could be
useful some day.
But a pain in her arm brought her back to the present
danger. A dagger had just nicked her arm, luckily it
missed her except for the edge. After bringing down the
man that had thrown it, she ripped a piece of cloth off
his tunic and quickly tied it around the wound to stop the
bleeding for a while.
She looked around again, noticing that a lot of dead or
wounded men covered the ground. The Amazons were wining.
But looking closer she saw that there were many Amazon
casualties as well.
Gripping her staff tightly, she stuck one end in the
ground and about 10 men tried to surround her. Using the
poll as a pivot, she jumped up and literally ran across
the men's faces, sending most to the ground. Once her feet
hit the ground, she sprang over the bodies of the stunned
men and realized that only about 20 men remained, and the
Amazon Warriors now far out numbered them.
Raising her staff above her head, she let out a loud cry
of victory, which made the others look around. Noting that
they had full advantage, the Amazons killed almost all the
remaining men within seconds. That wasn't what I had in
mind. thought Léda.
Quickly the live soldiers were tied up. For mercy, the
ones that would not live past the day were either set free
to die in the forest, or put out of misery where they
were. Léda felt a bit sick, she never liked having to
kill so much. It's for the good of the tribe, she
kept telling herself.
After reporting to The Queen, she made her way to the
infirmary to check on Thalia.
Thalia was awake now, but wasn't looking to good, though
her wounds had been treated.
"How are ya doin’?" asked Léda.
Thalia smiled and stood up to show she was fine...but
when she moved her arm, the look of pain on her face was
obvious.
Léda smiled at the determination, one thing all Amazons
seemed to have (and need) a lot of, nodded and left. Soon
everyone would come to the funeral ceremony for the
sisters that did not survive the battle.
Meanwhile, off in the woods, Medea, Tern, Hercules and
Iolaus were trying to decide if the silence from the
direction they had come was good or bad.
Thalia
Celosia paced in front of the cage holding the two men.
She walked quickly, hands behind her back, obviously
tense. After a few moments she stopped in front of them.
"Are you happy now?" She glared at them.
They were taken aback. "H-happy?" The blond
one asked.
"We lost many of our Amazon sisters defending YOU!
We could have left you out there to them and they would
have left us alone, but we didn't. We chose to sacrifice
ourselves, and our location, to save you."
"We..." The larger one looked down, not
meeting her gaze. "We didn't mean for this to
happen."
"I..." Celosia stopped. "I…I'm
sorry." She put her head in her hands. "It's
just... too much to handle right now."
The two men stared remorsefully after her as she headed
back to her tent.
They heard voices and looked over to see another body
being carried out of the healer's tent, another Amazon
limping out after. They looked to the ground and stayed
silent.
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