~Mirandiona💎

Dodging a spear that had been thrown my way I continue to fight my way through the mass of flesh and steel. The Avar mimic was in the center of camp, and it was imperative that none of the rebels get close enough to him to tell the difference.

Cutting down another rebel, the faint neighing of prel drifts through the clashing of metal and deafening screams like the faint ripple of wind blowing across still water. The noise was so faint I didn't think I'd heard it at first but my instincts raged in my ears like the pounding of my pulse telling me to 'look up'. Forcing my eyes away from the battle around me, I turn my face skyward.

Through the clashing bodies and waves of archers I spot the distinct silhouettes of carriages. I watch as barrels are let loose from the rear of the wagons falling gracelessly into the fray. One strikes the spear of a guard midair, the moment the blade pierced the wooden frame glancing off the metal bracket, the barrel combust with a crack so loud the world falls silent. An inferno blooms from the barrel like a miniature sun sprinkling fire like rain across the rebels and guards alike.

I along with the rest of the angelo and lycans freeze in terror struck awe. As barrel after barrel races for the ground screams of agony pierce the silence. Shaken from my revery I whip my head back down to see both rebels, guards, and a few lycans flailing their wings and panicking as their fur, feathers, and armor catch aflame.

My voice finds me in that moment as another barrel strikes the ground bursting into another short lived sun. "Fall back!" I bellow across the front as I turn to leap into the air and flee as more and more suns are born on the battlefield.

The rebels clearly didn't know about the barrels or at least were unaware of their power as they stopped fighting in favor of fleeing the growing inferno. We need to stop the wagons from getting any farther into camp.

Banking midair I dodge around the fleeing forms of other angelo. Spotting the nearest wagon, I beeline for the lead prel. The chestnut stallion sees me and tries to dodge but I follow his movements and thrust my sword forward to catch the underside of his throat.

The creature immediately begins to plummet, dragging the other prel and wagon with it. A nearby rebel dives for the harness to cut the lead prel off and allow the others to regain flight but is intercepted mid-dive by a black blur shrieking angrily.

Turning away I search for the next wagon. Again I aim for the lead prel and take it out. This time the rebels are a bit quicker on the draw. One tackles me while I see another cut the harness, but it was too late. The guards had caught on and were attacking the wagons in earnest trying to down them.

Kicking my assailant in the hip to loosen their grip on me, I flip the blade in my left hand and stab it through the secondaries of their wing before jerking up and slicing through the vulnerable flesh under their armor.

The rebel yelps and loses their hold on my torso as their focus diverts to the now useless wing. Giving them another good kick in the gut, I send them into the flames below before righting myself and using the heat to glide higher.

Looking around I see more wagons falling from the sky and blooming into even larger and more devastating children of Sapio. We need to evacuate. The fire will take the whole camp.

Flipping around I head back for the center of camp. Most of the rebels and guards were still caught in the skirmish happening above the flames to get in my way. Looking to the north I see the rebels retreating and heading to the west, turning my attention south I see a very different battle playing out as the rebels overrun the guard. Serana! I pull up and give a few hard flaps in preparation to turn back in that direction, when a spear glances off the side of my helmet.

Without a second thought I barrel-roll to the side and feel the gust of wind as the rebel swoops past me. Damn it, we can't fight and outrun the fire. "Fall back!" I yell at the top of my lungs to anyone who can hear me. "Get away from the flames!"

I hear the shouts of commanders relaying the order over the roar of the blaze. I continue flying for the center of camp when my vision shakes and blurs violently. Pulling up short I realize it's not my sight but the landshelf.

Looking over my wing I see the vegetation holding the shelf in place burn and snap, giving way under the weight of the shelf and heat of the fire. As another wagon explodes against the shelf it gives another violent shutter as a crack ripples through the western edge.

Looking down into the crack I'm met by the sight of glittering purplish black rock. Trygmerzite! Terror sets in as I realize what's happening. Trygmerzite retained heat and melted fairly easily, and became brittle to the point of volatile without a stronger substance to bond with.

Taking in a lungful of smoke and ash, I raise my voice to bellow over the cacophony around me. "The shelf is breaking!"

As my shout rings out to the nearby guard and rebels I see both sides stop and begin to panic as the realization of what's happening sets in. Lycans we're sprinting on all fours for a way off the shelf, angelo from both sides began to scatter in every direction as the shelf gave another violent lurch and groaned under its own weight.

Swooping down I block off a large group of guards flying toward the east. "Help the lycans, they can't get off the shelf as easily. Find prel, use wagons, do something to help them off before the shelf gives." I order the group.

They all dive at once, heading for the prel still tied up and hitched to wagons trying to get the lycans to board up.

Turning back for the center of camp I quickly find the tent we have the Avar look alike stashed in and nearly land on top of it in my haste. Throwing the flaps open I spot the veteran guard chained in the middle of the tent with five guards posted around him. "Mr. Patavis." I greet the duplicate quickly.

The man didn't look like Avar close up, but he had a similar enough build and was close in skin tone. The main thing that made him the perfect replica was that he'd lost his wings to an algor, allowing for the stuffed remnants of Avar's wings to be attached to his back via a disguised chain sling.

"What's happening?" One of the guards asks as the ground shapes again making all of us stagger.

"The rebels started a fire and were using explosives, the shelf is breaking." That was all any of them needed to hear in order to start moving. "Take Mr. Patavis to the secondary location. The rebels apparently didn't think their plan through as they're freaking out just as much as we are so you shouldn't face much trouble."

The guard on the far side of the tent grabs the reigns of a black prel, stationed in the tent in order for a quick retreat, as another pale faced woman gets the duplicate. "Skies have mercy." I hear one of them whisper as I turn around and head back out.

I have to find Serana. The ground shutters again as I try to take off making me fumble and crash into an abandoned wagon. Grunting at the pain shooting up my left side from the impact I try again, this time managing to get airborne.

When I get high enough, I see that the fighting on the southern front has stopped as well. Replaced by a panicked flock of angelo trying to get off the shelf.

I'm half way there when I'm clipped by another set of wings, throwing me off and making me pull back. A set of familiar iridescent green wings with a white patch come into view in front of me. "In case you didn't know, safety's that way!" She points off to the east with a prominent scowl marring her features.

Biting back a snarl I bare my teeth and point behind her. "Serana is that way!"

The scowl on Myka's face only deepens as she actually kicks at me to make me head in the desired direction. "You'll never find her in that! She's with Treale, they know where to go." The former rebel tries to reason, still working to make me turn and fly away.

This time I actually snarl at her and dip down to go beneath her lashing feet.

"Your majesty, we need to leave! This shelf is about to shatter, and when it does anyone near it is getting a body's worth of shrapnel!" Myka shouts, managing to grasp my right wing and yank me back. "She's probably already gone. Don't make her live with the guilt of being the reason you died!" The older woman snarls, forcible shoving my wing away to allow me to hover.

Looking back toward the southern front I see that most of the flocking angelo have dispersed. Realizing that she's right I stop fighting the other woman. "Aye, let's get out of here." I concede folding back around to head east.

Myka is close behind me, not saying a word as we race for the next shelf. Just as we reach the edge of the shelf lapping over the eastern side there's a sky shattering crack that shakes the very air. We both barely manage to get over the edge when shards of rock and wood larger than my wingspan fly past at force. The shelf beneath us begins retreating from its fallen neighbor at the insistence of the forceful impacts.

It quickly becomes a race to keep the solid shelf between us and the land fragments still sailing past us. A new problem quickly occurs when the pieces not influenced by enough trygmerzite begin to fall back down around us.

A shard the size of Ovah nearly lances my left wing making me dodge to the right and forcing Myka to the left. "Over there!" The former rebel points to a collection of boulders each barely large enough to hold a vyx.

The rocks were crashing into each other and grinding together from all the shaking and being smacked by debris. I wasn't sure how they were going to help, but this was Myka's homeland so I followed without hesitation.

Dodging a few more rock shards of varying sizes, we finally get less than a wingspan from the boulders. At this distance I spot what had drawn Myka's attention, on one of the larger boulders was a sizable crevice on the lower eastern side.

The green winged woman landed first and wedged herself into the crack toward the bottom leaving barely enough space for me to squish myself in farther up on the backside. Getting my upper body into the hole above her I have to half wrap my legs around the other woman's torso to get them in as well. Inadvertently protecting her exposed wing and neck.

As we cling to the rock I can feel the pressure from the shattering shelf forcing our shelter toward the other rock face. I can see the approaching stone and brace with all my strength as we collide. Tremors make the rock shutter so violently I nearly lose my grip.

Digging my talons in even harder, I press my wings back and arms forward in an effort to not slip from my perch. I can feel Myka doing the same thing, just as desperate to not be crushed by the next impending collision.

It felt like we spent hours gripping the rocks between each clash of stone. Gritting our teeth as rock shards peppered our armor and juts from the other boulders and landshelf dug into our frames.

Eventually the rumbling stopped and the heat abated as our shelter calmed to a gentle sway once more. We both sat there panting, not daring to loosen our hold in case this was a false respite.

After several long minutes I slowly relaxed and began to take stock of myself. My right leg hurts, not too bad, probably just bruised. My right wing as well.

My mouth and throat felt like I'd swallowed a fist full of cinnamon as I cough in an effort to speak. "Myka?" I wasn't able to get out more than the other woman's name before my lungs tried to come up my throat.

A harsh cough followed by the slow extraction of the body bellow me was all I got in reply.

Following the former rebel's example I begin to peel myself out of the crevice we had hidden in. Dropping into open air I quickly spread my wings to hover and take stock of our surroundings.

The shelf that previously held our camp was in splinters and had caused rifts and fractures in the surrounding shelves still swaying violently from the impact. Massive shards of rock and wood stuck out of the ground where they'd been lodged, while others floated away aimlessly.

"Skies!" I hear Myka exclaim, drawing my attention to the other woman as she clings to the boulder that sheltered us. "They taught us in school what the shattering of shelves was like but..." The other woman shakes her head in a mute kind of horror.

Landing next her i grunt my agreement. No amount of knowledge or reading could have ever prepared someone for this. To have the very ground rupture beneath you, to watch the devastation in its wake. Even still I could feel the shutters of the other shelves in the air and through the rock beneath my talons.

Reaching out with my wing I tap Myka's ruffled feathers. "Come on, we need to find the others."

Myka gives a sharp nod and drops into a glide making course for the east. Farther from the shattered remains of the shelf and more in our territory where Serana and the guards were more likely to flee.

Dropping into a glide behind her, I throw one last glance over my wing to catch sight of the still burning vegetation on the few remaining splinters of the broken shelf.