Winterspell

by KarmaPolice

Prologue

“It’s time, Milord.”

The unwelcome intrusion woke Lord Commander Gale from his shallow sleep. He sat up sharply, waving off the soldier who had the unenviable task of waking him.
He moved briskly, donning his armor and inspecting his warfeathers for appropriate sharpness. Finding them satisfactory, he stepped outside. The cold air bit into his face as he took in the white expanse before him.
Soldiers moved around, preparing for a coming battle. Large cumulonimbus were being amassed- and with them, he would lay waste to Storm's Break, a major earth tribe bastion.

If, He thought. The parlay does not go according to plan.

Those he passed bowed low to him and he would typically acknowledge them with a nod- but on this morning his mind was preoccupied. Their fighting strength was diminishing, not through battle losses, but through a much more vicious killer- starvation. Lack of food was bleeding his fighters dry.
The earth tribe, on the other hand, was well fed and well-ready for a conflict. The larders of Storm's Break were laden with grains and fruits in cold-storage. Enough to supply an army to siege the magical stronghold on Mount Shine, even. Enough perhaps to secure his family's superiority for all time.
Gale reached the edge of the cloud and simply stepped off of it. He unfurled his wingspan, keeping things slow for his lack of cold-weather gear. The windchill was known to cost foolhardy fliers their ears, and doctors were in short supply.
The massive walls and towers of Storm's Break loomed in the distance, the massive pyres in the towers lighting them for all to see, a bright contrast to the bleak horizon beyond.
He landed near the clearing designated for the meeting. His personal lieutenant was there to greet him. Misty was an accomplished fighter in her own right, although her ribs would be prominent if she were to remove her armor, much the same as the rest of his fighting force. Sharp warfeathers glistened among her tawny plumage, made dull from a poor diet of scrub grass.
“Are they here, yet?” He asked, the strain in his voice painfully audible, even to him.
“They’re waiting. They’ve fulfilled the terms of the parlay, too. I’ve had our detachment stand off.”
Gale sighed. “Walk with me. I’ll value your council.”
The pair made their way towards the opening in the brush, finding the area lit well enough by perimeter torches.
Two of his prospective enemy stood there, in their characteristic heavy iron armor. Their back shoes each had three sharp iron spikes on their bottoms.
One of them removed his helmet to step forward. He bore a ragged scar across his right cheek- and his right eye was pale and sightless.
Gale stepped towards him, standing back at a respectful distance.
“Chief Rockjaw. I cordially thank you for agreeing to the terms of the meeting, and-”
Rockjaw scoffed at his assumed polite demeanor and shattered Gale’s barrier of personal space. He strode to within hoof’s reach of Gale and stared him in the eyes, the breath roiling from his nostrils visible in the brisk air.
“Enough with your useless words. Say your terms. The morning is cold and I should like a good laugh.”

Gale sighed. He wasn’t off to a great start.

“Very well. You stand in face of a superior fighting force. You are commanded to lay down your arms and open Storm's Break to us. We will take half of your food stocks, half of your weapons, and half of your gold. We will conscript one-quarter of your fighting stallions to our cause, and a further one quarter of your growers. You will then allow free acquisition of materials from your greatwoods, and in return I will leave Storm's Break intact under the protection of a detachment of my warriors. Do you agree?”

Gale knew what the answer was even before Rockjaw roughly spit in the dirt, his remaining good eye nearly glowing with intensity. He howled at Gale with unbridled rage- “You dare to presume that you can take your starving group of cloud-jumpers to my castle gates and make demands? I should like to see you try to take anything from us, Gale! For every pegasus that lands inside my walls, I will add a new feather to my chamber tapestry. Starting, perhaps, with yours.”

Rockjaw strode forward aggressively. Misty smoothly stepped forward and extended her wing between Gale and the angry warlord currently staring him down, displaying her razor-sharp blades. "Remember the agreement, Chief. If you take another step, it will be your last."

Rockjaw's lieutenant stepped forward but he was roughly waved back. Rockjaw eyed the both of them down with murderous intention.

"You have one last chance to accept my terms." Gale spoke in an icy tone.

Rockjaw growled, a low, threatening rumble that Gale was not afraid to admit unnerved him. "Enter my lands and try your luck, fool. I will see you on the battlefield."

Gale nodded. “I had considered the possibility of you saying that. I regret to promise you that your family line will end tonight. This meeting is over.”

He and Misty bowed slightly before taking a slight running start and alighting from the clearing, leaving the pair of earth warriors to stomp the ground and head back to their fortress.
Misty and he flew silently, slicing through the cold air. Their siege cell loomed above, casting a dark shadow on the already-dark ground. The towering cumulonimbus were black with energy, sharp blue bolts bursting from their puffy formations. He hoped it would be enough.
They landed in front of the command room. Another officer was there to meet them. Lieutenant Rainband could tell from their faces that their encounter with the enemy had not gone as ideally as it could have. “We are prepared to move into position, Lord. At your command, Storm's Break will be ours by next nightfall.”

Gale sighed. “And the soldiers. Do they have the energy for this siege?”

Rainband paused for a moment. “Lord, if I may speak frankly, we have enough left in us for another fight. And we are determined. Should we fail here, we may not have what it takes for another conflict, at least not for some time. And by then we will be even weaker. We are driven by our loyalty to you, but we are equally driven to crack that castle open like a nut and take her bounty for ourselves.”

Gale nodded. “Then make it so. Order the cumulus into position.”

Rainband bowed low, and flew off. Orders went through the chains of command, and soon dozens of his warriors were aloft, moving the clouds into position.
The dark shadows they cast cut a swathe through the greatwoods. The massive forest was perhaps the greatest asset Storm's Break had to offer. The towering oaks stretched skyward, some of them in excess of one hundred and fifty feet, and twelve feet in diameter. The timber he could harvest there could build him a city, or a fleet. If I had the stallion-power to do it. He mused.
He watched with his dark eyes as the towering clouds finally arrived in position over the castle.
Misty landed beside him. “All elements are ready, Lord."

Gale sighed. “At my signal, unleash Tartarus on them.”

Misty bowed and flew off. Gale waited a few more minutes, contemplating the endless conflicts and the family he had left behind. Finally, he turned around. He nodded to the archer standing at the ready, who lit his arrow in a brazier and let it fly.
At once, the massive cumulonimbus unleashed their energy onto the castle. With every drumbeat-synchronized buck from the legion of Cloudkickers, a brilliant bolt of lightning flew forth. These clouds had been seeded above the great plains and had been artificially grown to levels of energy far surpassing any that would occur in nature. They had been transported here over the past month, and their transport required an army in it's own right.
The earth tribe had learned from previous engagements. They had outfitted the towers with lightning rods. He watched as the tops of the castle’s battlements attracted lightning, in awe at the sort of beauty of it. The dry lightning could be seen for many leagues. A testament to his army's strength, Gale thought with pride.

But even their lightning rods could not hold off the full strength of the barrage. As he watched, an orange glow began shining off the battlements- he knew the wooden structures within had taken flame.
The Cumulonimbus finally ran dry, and the barrage stopped. He knew Rockjaw would have measures in place to fight fire, but the orange glow gave way to visible flames as the buildings within were consumed.
Many of Rockjaw's warriors may have died, but there were doubtless many more- enough to pose a real threat. There was only one thing left to do.
Gale ran off his cloudy perch, streaking towards the burning castle at top speed. He felt barely encumbered by his light armor and warfeathers, and the adrenaline flowing made his heart beat in his ears like timpani.
As he got closer, he could see his warriors streaming down towards the castle too, and the sounds of screaming and combat penetrated the rushing air to reach his ears.
The wooden structures were well aflame, but the central structures were all of heavy cobblestone, and out from them poured ironclad earth warriors in worrying quantities.
The fighting was everywhere, and it was fast paced and vicious. His warriors were not anywhere near as ferocious as he had seen them to be in past raids, nor as fast. For seemingly every time they tried to attack from above, an earth warrior, despite his heavy iron armor, was able to snatch them and wrestle them to ground.

Gale sighted one of them, a hugely muscled stallion with scored armor from many engagements, streaked in red. His helmet was not starkly iron, as was standard- it bore a multicolored plumage. A war trophy composed of pegasus feathers.

Gale shot towards him. The enemy noticed him almost immediately, years of training no doubt yielding him quick instincts and a gaze ever-skyward.
He ran, his iron shoes pounding the ground. Gale gritted his teeth against the speed he was reaching, at the last second shifting into a standard dive-attack- back legs first.
The earth warrior dove out of the way, leaving Gale to slam into the ground, elegantly transferring his momentum into a roll. He came up ready to fight and was surprised with the speed that the enemy had reached him with. He lashed out with his wing, but his warfeathers failed to find a chink in the warriors armor. He grunted as he dodged out of the way to avoid being impaled by a buck from the warrior’s iron-spiked shoes.

He shot skyward again, attempting to regroup and strike from a more strategic angle. But just as fast, a weight around his neck jerked him back to ground. Instantly, the chaos of the battle was drowned out by a hellish tinnitus, and Gale panicked as is vision left him . As he fought for breath, he regained blurred vision enough to see that another earth warrior had downed him with a lasso and the one with the feathered helmet was moving in for the kill.

Gale slashed the rope with his warfeathers, gasping for air as the slipknot around his neck was released. He scarcely managed to roll out of the way as the big warrior stomped down, shattering the paving stone where Gale’s head used to be. Gale bucked out, striking his enemy in the breastplate and staggering him back, allowing enough time to scramble to his hooves. The big warrior howled a battle cry and charged. Just as he pivoted to deliver a death-dealing buck, Gale shot up and struck down in one fluent motion.

It had the exact effect he had hoped for- the warrior slammed down on his belly, his legs sprawled out. Gale landed on his back hard, not giving him any time to recover, and slashed the exposed back of the neck with his wing. Bits of the earth warrior’s black mane joined the red on the ground as Gale shook his head to clear the ringing in his ears, not pausing before charging back into the din, sighting a new opponent.