//------------------------------// // Konighorst // Story: A Song of Storms: Shattered Skies // by Sigur024 //------------------------------// Konighorst was in ruin. They had ran the whole way down the highway, the Canii rushing along heedless of the danger and forcing the rest to keep pace. Now they stood in dreadful silence at the marble arch that formed the entry of the town. Theod could make out the shapes of marble-clad buildings in the heaps of rubble, traces of the effort of a generation in the broad paved avenues running in arrow-straight lines through the devastation. A town, a city bigger than Theod had ever seen, heart and soul of the Canii tribe. Once said to be the equal of holy Angenholt, now it was simply gone. This was not like Viridis. That place had merely been sacked. Here in Konighorst everything had been deliberately and systematically destroyed. Pillars toppled, roof beams sawed through, rafters set ablaze and now lying smouldering on the blackened ground. Trembling and ashen-faced, Aella led the way once again. She picked her way down the debris-strewn street. Theod trotted after her, trying to get her attention, but she stayed silent. The hen lead the way down what was once the main street, upturned merchant stands paving the way towards a grand marble arch that somehow remained untouched amongst the devastation. Beyond it was the market square, a broad open space so similar to the one in Viridis. Hundreds of dead lay strewn upon the flagstones, stagnant pools of clotted blood choking the gutters. At the gates, great piles of dead heaped up where they had frantically tried to escape. There was no order to the slaughter in the square. Old lay entangled with young. Hens fallen across the dismembered remains of tercels. White plumage mingling with lifeblood on the stone. Amongst the carnage, planted in the middle of the plaza was a bronze-topped banner with a pennant reading LEGIO V. Grimly, Theod noted that only a few had weapons, and none wore armour. They had been taken completely by surprise. The Auxillia trailing behind filed into the square. A good number of the Canii amongst them had come from this city and the sight caused them to cry out in dismay. They scattered amongst the fallen, searching for friends and relatives but praying that they were not to be found. Aella continued to walk forwards, as if in a trance. Theod looked back to Gretus for aid, but he was frozen in place, horror etched across his normally stoic face. Theod chased after Aella, following her across the plaza. She crossed the whole expanse, treading upon griffon corpses as if she did not notice them. Then she stopped and sat at the foot of one of the piles of smouldering rubble that ringed the square, weeping silently. As he came to her shoulder, Theod saw the body of an older tercel sprawled upon the mosaic-decorated stairs, his severed head resting neatly in his lap. Aella put her talons to her head, digging the points into her skull and staining her plumage with beads of blood. Theod reached out to comfort her, but suddenly she threw her head back and howled in pure, animal pain. “We were loyal! Always loyal!” she screamed, rearing up on her hindlegs. “We did everything for them, and- and now this!” The hen rounded on Theod, teeth bared and eyes filled with hate. “We turned on our people, made enemies of all the other tribes. We fought their damned wars and worshipped their gods. We opened our homes to them when they marched by and now they slaughter our people!” Theod cringed at the noise. “Please, Aella, you have to stop shouting.” He hissed. “There might be some still-” “If they are here let them come! I will water the grave of my father with their filthy blood!” Aella snarled. The noise of shifting stone made them both freeze. A tile sliding over toppled masonry. As one they looked to the source and saw a hunched, scrawny tercel. He was filthy and reeked like an outhouse, but unmistakably bore the pale plumage of the Canii. His beak worked silently for a moment as he tried to force words out of a parched throat. “I did not think any would come.” He finally croaked. - - - The Auxillia sat in what once was an amphitheatre, the stepped rows of seating being one of the few places both hidden and not filled with rubble. The tercel they had met had led them there, and as the sun began to set survivors slowly filtered in. Each was filthy, hungry and terrified, not daring to speak except for hushed whispers. The Canii amongst the Auxillia began to grieve when they found none of their kin or friends amongst those wretched hens and tercels that congregated on the sound of Griffon voices. Theod pulled himself from the huddled group of Auxillia and sought out the first tercel they had found, who squatted at the edge of the theatre with the others, ready to dash back into the safety of the town at a moments notice. The young tercel bowed his head to the older one, sitting at what he hoped was a respectful distance. The survivor looked fearful still, so Theod spoke as softly and gently as he could. “What happened here?” The other griffon was silent for a while, his beak working soundlessly as he tried to remember speech again. “I was in the kitchen when the Legion came.” He croaked. “Cooking meat for my master. He took his wife and his children out to greet the Cirrans, and left me there- but I could see through one of the windows. “They marched into town, and most everyone came out to meet them, because we are… were their friends amongst savages. They were given gifts, bread and wine and flowers. The whole lot went up into the market as if they were going to parade, and all followed. I lost sight of them then.” The tercel’s face twitched involuntarily before he continued. “I-I could hear them though. Their commander shouted something, and then there was screaming! Such screams! I saw griffons try to run or fly out of the square, but the Cirrans hacked them down! “It all went quiet, then the Cirrans started moving out into the streets. They came into the villa, covered in blood. The other slaves were herded into the larder and I heard them screaming, but I hid!” The tercel hissed. “I crawled into the latrine, and they did not find me. T-they found the others hiding in other places. Stabbed them or kicked them until they died. Then they started destroying everything.” He swallowed hard, his whole body shaking at the memory. “I hid in the shit and the dark until it all went quiet, and a day besides. Heard patrols coming through, digging in the rubble to try and find anyone they missed.” “How long did you hide?” Theod asked as gently as he could, though the tercel still flinched at his words. “Four days. Had to risk sneaking out to get water, then three more. Then it is today” The slave replied. Theod nodded in acknowledgement, standing slowly to not startle the tercel. The few Auxillia, and perhaps three dozen survivors of the Canii. Old and young, slave and noble. Theod ran his talons through his plumage. The survivors were all scared witless, weakened by their time hiding. Getting the Auxillia anywhere was challenge enough, and they were all fit in spite of their attempted poisoning. Yet, he could not simply abandon them to their fate, Theod resolved. The Canii would have to come with the Auxillia, for better or for worse, or they would all starve crawling like vermin in their hiding places. They had a chance, perhaps, if they made for the hall of Theods father. In the last war it had been left untouched, to deep in the forest to find easily. Theod just had to hope that it had remained that way Theod picked his way down the tiers of stone steps towards Gretus, who was trying to comfort the inconsolable Aella. “Gretus. Do you know the way to Darkwood?”