Legon Restoration (26 page)

"I think that would be a good idea, now can I have seconds?"
 

* * * * *

Almost a week after securing the town, Barnin and his men rode out of the forest taking in the wide open plains around Salez. When the order to go to Salez came, Barnin wasn't surprised. The city wouldn't be easy to take and the Elves and resistance would need every man available.
 

They were coming at the city from the south east. Barnin could see the sprawling city with its white walls in the distance, but what he wasn't expecting was the lack of smoke or flashing magic on the horizon. That wasn't to say he couldn't see both Elf and Iumenta dragons in the air, there were plenty of those, but they didn't look to be fighting much. As they got closer to the city, Barnin could see structures outside of the city walls. The closer he got, the more the buildings came into focus.

"Are those Elf buildings?" Heath asked.

"I think they are," Barnin replied.

As they drew in on fields of green domed tents of the Elves, Barnin was shocked to see all that they had built.
 

"It's like a small city," Ankle said as they came into camp.

Another human came up to them and pointed them to where they needed to go. They passed what looked like a hospital being grown and Barnin saw someone he knew.

* * * * *

Keither turned to the sound of his name being called. He smiled seeing Barnin, Ankle and Heath approaching him.

"How are you?" Keither shouted at them.

"We are doing good," Barnin said when he got to Keither, he dismounted and shook Keither's hand. "How are you doing?" he asked.

"Busy, but that is pretty normal for us," Keither answered.

Barnin pointed around, "Hey what's with all the stuff the Elves built, and how long have they been here?"
 

"They came here about a week ago but construction really only started two days ago, Salez is a jump city so the Elves are counting on heavy resistance."
 

"What is a jump city?" Barnin asked.

"Do you know about jump crystals?"
 

"Yeah I've jumped before," Barnin answered and read the confusion on Keither's face. "Sorry, it’s secret and I can't share, but what about it? Does Salez have a crystal?"

Keither nodded, "Two actually, most large cities have them, one is for incoming Ascended and another for outgoing. You have been out in the plains so it's no surprise you haven't seen anything like this yet."

"So what is that going to mean for trying to take the city?" Barnin asked.

Keither tried not to huff or talk to Barnin like he was a moron. "Well, the Iumenta will be able to bring more Ascended in whenever they like, and on those Ascended can be replacement units or supplies."
 

He saw something click in Barnin's head. "So we can't just wait for the city to run out of supplies, got ya. Well, isn't this going to be just peachy." He looked around. "But still what's with all of this?" he said pointing to all of the buildings. "I mean, why not just stay in tents, and did they really build all of this in a few days?"

"Barnin, it could take months for Salez to fall, both the Elves and the Iumenta are digging in for a long fight, and honestly we are too."
 

Keither was happy to see Barnin but he was busy and he could see that Barnin had a lot of questions. "There was an Ascended I've seen you talking to, Umbra is her name right?"

Barnin's head bobbed, "Yeah, do you know her?"
 

Keither had an idea. "Yes, we've met in Seeon"
 

He reached out with his mind trying to find her. "Umbra."

"Hello Keither," she answered sleepy, "How can I help you?"
 

"Barnin and his men just got here; do you want to show them around? Or are you too tired?"

* * * * *

Umbra's mind flicked out to her hanger to check the time before responding to Keither. "No, I've over slept as is, but I need to stay in my ascended form. Can you give Barnin, Ankle and Heath directions to my hanger?"
 

Keither said that he could and Umbra got up stretching her neck, legs and her favorite of all, her tail. She thought about having something to eat but decided she wasn't hungry just yet. One of Umbra's favorite parts of being in her dragon form was that she did not have to get ready in the morning. She didn't have to pick out something to wear or do her hair or brush her teeth, no; she just woke up and started her day.
 

Her mind reached out to her hanger door and it slid open, spilling midday light inside, making her eyes water.

"It's past noon and you're just waking up?" a sarcastic voice accused.

How did they already make it here?
She thought and then said, "I swear Barnin, I will eat you someday." She looked down at Barnin, Heath and Ankle, "And for your information, I work through the night so noon is just fine, thank you very much."

Heath looked over to Ankle, "Right and here this whole time we thought that the Elves were so dedicated and hard working."

Ankle laughed and waved at her, "Come on guys don't be like that, we haven't seen Umbra in a really long time. Is that any way to say hi?"

"Thank you," Umbra said.

"You're welcome," Ankle said adding, "She's just a big lizard and we all know how lazy lizards are, it's in her nature."

She lowered her head level with the three of them trying to look upset, Heath just looked in her eye and made a kissy face, "You eyeing me sugar?"
 

Umbra lost her composure and started to laugh. "I have missed you guys," she said and added, "So do you want a tour of the camp?"
 

"Do you mind?" Barnin said serious. "Joking aside if you need sleep..."
 

She looked him over, seeing obvious signs of wear on him and the others. Her heart fell seeing it in their eyes, they'd seen a lot in their short lives. "No I'm fine, really. When do you have to report in?" she asked.

Heath answered pointing to his head, "We're checked in we don't have anything until tomorrow."

"OK," she said and reached her mind out to command. After a moment she spoke again, "We have clearance."
 

"For what?" Ankle asked.

"For me to give you a flying tour of the area, I told my command that you are mounted units and it could help if you knew the lay of the land," she said with a wink.

* * * * *

Barnin, Heath and Ankle climbed onto Umbra's back. Barnin felt himself stick to her as she trotted along a wide path that connected the many hangers.

"Why aren't you just taking off?" Heath asked her.

"There is too much air traffic in this area, and with Salez being just north east from here we have to mind all of the Ascended in the sky. We are going to a designated take off area, from there a ground units will give me instructions so I don't cause any issues for other incoming and outgoing dragons." she explained.

"So what happens if the Iumenta attack?" Heath asked.

"If there is an attack we receive an order to scramble, if that happens every dragon that is on the ground will take off from their hangers to meet the threat. Sometimes scramble orders will come, but only for squadrons that are on alert."

"Alert?" Ankle asked. "None of this is making any sense to me," he added.

"Alert means that they are first responders, they sit waiting for a call to scramble. It shouldn't make any sense to you; everything is very catered for air combat and defense," Umbra said.

They were coming to an elevated platform where dragons of every color were taking off from. Umbra stood in a small line until they were on the platform. A wind sock blew alongside the platform, that Umbra said was there to tell her which way the wind was blowing. She leapt into the wind, driving her wings down. Barnin felt the all too familiar pull on his gut as he moved upward.
 

As they got higher Barnin was able to appreciate the vastness of the base that the Elf and human forces had built. He could also see lines of dragons coming in to land in specified areas.
 

Umbra angled north towards Salez, which was taking up much of the horizon. The city was deceiving in its size, to Barnin it looked so close, but he knew that the Elves’ air field was a few miles away from the city. He could see flashes in the sky around the city as dragons fought.
 

"I thought we weren't attacking yet?" Barnin asked Umbra.

"You aren't. We however, have to hold the air space above our units and base, and the Iumenta have to hold the air over Salez. The fighting you are seeing now is more posturing, no one is doing any real damage and neither side is putting effort into it. Don't worry about Salez right now, I want to show you something," she said.

They were getting really close to the city. Barnin wondered if they would get attacked soon, but Umbra didn't seem concerned. She pointed their interest to the ground. She was perpendicular to Salez. Below them was the Elvin artillery. Until Umbra said something, Barnin wasn't sure what he was looking at. From the ground grew tall trees whose bases looked like the ends of tuning forks, there were no limbs or leaves on the trees, they stretched straight into the sky. From their tops were vines that touched the ground.

"What are they?" Ankle asked.

"They are our version of Trebuchet," Umbra said a little smug.

"Can you explain?" Heath asked.

"Of course. You see those tall trunks of the tree are like the throwing arm, an Elf will grow the arm down to the ground where that vine you see will be attached to an ordinance. The arm will be tied to the ground and an Elf will tell the tree to straighten back out. Once the proper resistance in the arm is met the tie keeping the tree to the grown is cut and then wa-la, just like a regular Trebuchet, the ordinance is hurled at its target," she explained.
 

"You grow your siege weapons on site?" Barnin asked.

"Yes they take about an hour, and then another few for ordinances to be grown. Wait until you see how we take down the city gate," she said cryptically.

They flew away from the front and Umbra, true to her word to her commanding officer, showed Barnin, Heath and Ankle the surrounding country. The sun was setting when they started back for base. As they flew Umbra showed them one last thing. Two buildings like mounds rose from the ground at the back of the base; they were far apart but looked identical.

"These are jump sites. We brought two jump crystals up the Kayloose and placed them in these buildings," Umbra said.

They watched and sure enough a dragon flashed into existence above the east most building. Umbra explained that Elvin jump crystals were not as strong as Iumenta ones, but that because of the Elves’ control of plants they were able to sustain power longer than their Iumenta counter parts. What it meant was that an Iumenta crystal could bring in a lot of dragons in a short amount of time, but then it would run out of energy; whereas the Elves’ crystals couldn't work as fast but they never ran out of power.
 

"I thought dragons had to use energy to jump," Heath said.

"We do most times. Like when I was bringing you back from Mors I had to provide nearly all of the energy for that jump and even then I had to be in range of the crystal. This is also the case for the crystals in cities; they act more as guides for Ascended. But in combat you don't want to drain all of your power jumping into a fight, so a dragon will augment their own strength what that of the crystal. When we siege Salez their jump crystal will be doing nearly all of the work when they bring in Ascended. The two crystals the city has will be powerful and if the Iumenta are wise, with that kind of energy they will be able to bring in a lot of units if they need too, or vice versa they will be able to evacuate a lot of units."
 

"Do you think they will do that?" Heath asked.

"Evacuate? Yes, when the city's air space is about to fall they will jump all key people out of the area. Once we control the space over the crystals they will no longer be able to use them, a crystal only guides Ascended into a very small area of space, or conversely will guide an outgoing dragon out of a small area of space. Once the sky above is controlled, the crystals are all but worthless to the Iumenta. Only in very rare and desperate cases will Iumenta try to come into an area or flee once the crystals have been compromised. Still, our first priority as Ascended is to destroy those crystals," Umbra said and seemed to pause.

"What is it?" Barnin asked.

"I'm trying to find a nice way of saying this, you see the fight on the ground, while important won’t decide victory; whoever controls the sky controls the ground."
 

Barnin knew what she was saying, "It's OK, we don't take offense to that, we know how battle works. If you didn't control the air we wouldn't be able to control the ground, it's the same with the navy, until they control the coast line there isn't much good in us getting ourselves killed on the beach, ya know what I mean?"

Umbra came in low to the ground on her approach, banking slightly left and right to slow herself. Barnin always found landings to be the most relaxing on a dragon. The sun was going down and the Elvin base lit up with magical lights. Umbra seemed to be following a lit path, culminating in a landing pad that she touched down on.
 

"Thank you for the tour," Barnin said once he dismounted.

She winked at him. "Anytime...hey," she said and paused, "the battle is going to start in a few days...it's going to be long and bad. In your down time if you ever need someplace to go you’re always more than welcome in my hanger," she told the three of them.

Barnin nodded, taking what she said to heart. Despite the joking tone they had with Umbra all of them knew how experienced she was in combat. Barnin headed toward his tent not looking forward to the days, weeks and probably months ahead.

* * * * *

Umbra watched Barnin, Ankle and Heath leave. As soon as they were out of sight she made her way back to the take off pad. She'd spent too much time with them that day and she still had to fly her patrol, but she didn't regret it. Experience had taught that you had to enjoy down time in war.