Whoever shouted the warning call kept running past my room. A quick note of their mana, and I assessed them as a common druid. I heard them keep shouting the sa despairing alarm.
"What’s happening?" Tulisa whispered in wide, heavy panting alarm.
A mont ago she had been excited with sex, but now the dread danger of the romans transford her in a state of fear. The clear indication of which was her warm smile had upturned into chilling gloom.
I reached out with my mana sense far to the gates and got a clear picture of what had happened.
"The romans are marching through the gate. They enter unhard." I add further guess based on what the druid had cried. "The clans have betrayed us and joined sides with the Romans."
"Why?"
I placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
Her breathing slowed and matched my steady breaths.
"For now, we must group up with the others. We will likely flee the city."
"What happens if we are caught?"
"We will fight."
"You can beat them. No one can stop you." She said with far too much confidence.
I trembled as it hit . Mars was coming.
Not only was I not ready, I was drained from my last fight. I 2as like a boxer going for the championship with only half my blood running through my body. A shiity comparsion; anxiety borne.
We got dressed.
"Co."
I moved through the druid tunnels for the last ti. I felt sick. A sort of moderate pain that ca not from an infection, but from stress. I also was starting to form a headache and my concentration wasn’t the best. I used magic to give myself relief, but the underlying constant stress remained.
Not even the afterglow of orgasm, a warm bath and a loving woman’s company had healed from pressures of the day.
I was, in a word, overwrought. Not so much for fear of my own life, though that mortal worry did exist, but for all the responsibilities I had to others. It was the people I cared about that caused such anxiety - their weakness.
We gathered with the others: Iris, Morgana, Laidir, Rebecca, Umbra and many others from our refugee group. So carried too little and so too much of their life’s belongings, but most were all too prepared to flee for their lives again. Their numbers swelled as we discussed. Moreover, druids started to collect among them including Donna.
"We are betrayed." Morgana growled with a furious bark.
I’m not sure if I’d seen her frown so deep and her face marred with the creases or such hatred.
"What do we do?" Soone from the crowd asked.
"Fight."
"Flee."
Different voices cried for one or the other. They were taken over by their anxiety and their all-too-human flight or fight. Many were quiet and looked to be frozen with fear.
"We can defend to the last." Said the would be priest of .
"We can." Umbra agreed.
"I will slaughter them all." Laidir promised.
"We cannot. I will not waste our people on a pointless fight. Please, Sorcerer. Do nit let my husband sacrifice be in vain." Rebecca pleaded. She ca close and said to more quietly, "Do not repeat what he did and commit us to an impossible fight."
"It should not be this day, fight only if we must. We are caught in their net and their knifes are drawn. Should we commit all to a fight, It would cost us everything and there is a good chance we will still fail." Morgana sided with Rebecca.
"Our people and the druid way is at risk of extinction. We must flee." Iris added.
I considered the argunts. I didn’t see a way forward where we didn’t fight, but as Morgana had said total war would make any victory pyrrhic assuming we won. I needed to get my lovers out of here alive and all the people that followed .
Though the agreent with the clan kings was now pointless and thus so too were all our efforts to secure their support. We would first go to our land and if need be flee further north.
"We make ready to leave the city and go to our lands. Warriors prepare to defend our people and fight out way out. Tomorrow is uncertain, but I promise you our future is bright. It is said in my holand it is darkest before dawn. We will have our morning."
"You heard him. Make ready to leave."
We rushed to the surface. I called back the floating barge, our Noah’s ark, and the people entered. More and more druids ca and pleaded for a space aboard. Then to further surprise so citizens of Elkilbour and clan warriors, those unhappy with the deal made with the Romans, also asked to join. It seed they knew no more than we did at the surprise turn of events.
I made the barge even bigger to accommodate the surge in demand. We went from under a hundred folk to hundreds. It slowed down the departure significantly and cost even more magic to alter the barge. Every breath ca heavy, I was starting to feel more like a shadow of myself than . But, how could I leave them behind?
Iris ca over, "Robin says the Romans draw near. Perhaps we should leave."
"We cannot just abandon these people."
"I didn’t an..."
I stared at the horizon and the sea of people desperate to flee the conquering Romans.
Still more people ca.
Soone ca up first to Umbra, and then Umbra directed them to Morgana. The pair ca over to , "Roman scouts draw near us. We must go."
"There are still more people coming."
"We cannot wait, Master. It is not right to condemn those that we can save by waiting." Umbra argued.
"She’s right. We have already been reckless, to continue would be suicide." Morgana said.
"So be it. Prepare to disembark!" I called out.
Shortly after, I raised us up and shot for the sky.
But an easy escape was not to be.
"Eagle, it’s giant!" Iris shouted.
I looked like a small brown, feathered plane rather than a bird of prey. It reminded of one of those world war two fighter plane in its speed and agility.
It soared towards us, easily evading magic cast at it by many of us. It was on the hunt. We were its prey.
Its yellow feet stretched out and its talons gripped and cut through the tal barge. The weight of the giant eagle started to drag the barge down, but it was a flare of divine energies, too foreign to my knowledge to understand, that cancelled out the enchantnts keeping the ark sailing in the sky and brought it down low.
We hung and then fell.
Magic and steel assaulted the giant eagle, but there was nothing we could do.
In a mont of inspired desperation, I grew forth a great tree beneath us to soften our fall. Though the tree broke it softened our landing on the earth. It did cost even more magic to cast such a strange, huge and soft tree.
We crashed back into the city.
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