Dawn was just rising over the mountains, deep reds and oranges washed over the mountain tinting everything in a golden glow. Few fey were up yet, they had been up late the night before cerebrating Telmeth’s healing. Telmeth had woken early to savor the last few hours of being linked to these amazing people.
People! If someone had asked him a few months ago if fey were people he would have given them a definitive no. They had no discernible society though friendly with each other,. they made no villages. They did not even make houses. Since they had never chosen to speak with humans he had not known they were capable of speech. They seemed to him at the time as highly intelligent animals, like a wolf or a horse, not something resembling a human.
He knew better now.
He breathed in deeply feeling the world around him. Such exquisite detail, he could feel every tree, every flower, every blade of grass growing around him. The breeze was sweet with dew, the chill of morning was invigorating. He regretted that he would lose all of this later today. Not lose, give up. He kept his word, he would not hold these people against their will.
He felt a disturbance to the east, trees being broken and crushed. He strained his eyes to see the disturbance, it was too far away even with his enhanced vision. He started that way, might as well see what is going on before he roused the fey.
That is when the giants attacked, giants and ogres. They rushed the clearing casting spells at an amazing rate. Trees exploded and the ground erupted. Telmeth saw a fireball heading for a group of confused sprites. Leaping to their defense he cast a wind gust knocking the fireball up and away from the clearing.
The fey were up now and casting back at the giants, they were not going to be taken again. He felt them responding to his thoughts, earth dwarves throwing up earth ramparts and digging ditches. River nymphs rerouted the rivers to spill into the ditches giving them something to cast from.
From the sky the dragon swooped, flames spewing forth to destroy giants and ogres alike. Suddenly a huge ice dragon swept down and collided with the fire dragon, knocking him from the sky. He landed in a heap, the giants racing towards him.
Telmeth groaned, he had just finished healing. He raced off, calling on all of his links Telmeth raced towards the dragon. He cast water, ice, fire in rapid succession. He caused the trees to attack the giants, for holes to open up and swallow the ogres.
It wasn’t enough, the giants surrounded the dragon and locked him up again. He leaped, using the sprites gliding ability to sail over the barricades and landed next to the giant. He cast about him, moving too fast for thought. He jumped and weaved, acting on instinct alone.
The fey rushed forward, casting at the their enemies. The giants responded with a wild sweep of elemental powers, if it hadn’t been for the bulwark they would have all been finished. The fey started systematically attacking the giants, working in tandem to knock them off balance and keeping the giants from attacking. They were driving the giants back now, the ogres were fleeing in terror.
Telmeth worked at breaking the restraints on the dragon, they were thicker this time and harder to break. He heard a roaring sound over head and turned to see the ice dragon circling. It opened its mouth to freeze the fey, Telmeth sent a shot of flame at it that knocked its head to the side as a wide swath of the forest was frozen solid narrowly missing the line of fey.
A giant cast a wind gust that knocked Telmeth off balance, Pasithea washed the giant away with a surge of river water.
The ice dragon swooped down, freezing the ground in a direct line towards Telmeth. There was no redirecting it this time. The heartstone hanging around his neck pulsed, he accepted without conscious thought. Magic exploded in him, he was overwhelmed with the raw power of it. It was chaos barely contained. He cast towards the ice dragon, meeting its icy breath with a wave of fire. The ice dragon swept away.
Telmeth freed the fire dragon, laughable easy with this new power. He felt the dragon moving next to him, preparing to leap into the air. Telmeth leapt with her. Telmeth had been wrong this dragon was female not male. Wingless he soared, forgetting the battle for a moment as he soared with wild abandon, swooping and sweeping through the air. A blast of ice cut in front of him, he darted around it and rejoined the battle. The ice dragon was in a fierce battle with the fire dragon, they wove and dodged shooting fire and ice in every direction.
Telmeth joined the fray, sending attack after attack at the hostile dragon. Giants launched attacks as well, hitting him and the fire dragon with elemental power. He felt the fey moving forward, trying to drive the giants off.
Telmeth hit the dragon in the face with a water attack, it stunned it and the fire drake blasted it with a seemingly unending fire stream. The ice dragon roared, it slashed out hitting the fire dragon’s left wing with its powerful back legs. Turning quickly it shot a blast of ice into the fire dragon’s chest.
The fire dragon dropped, Telmeth could feel the life draining from him. He felt the dragon pass a link to him, it was small and fragile. Telmeth felt his power waning, with the last of the fire dragon’s energy draining away he shot forward pulled on all of his links casting directly at the ice dragons chest from close range. It hit it like a hurricane. The light went out of the dragons eyes and it plummeted towards the ground.
Telmeth felt the fire dragon die and felt himself plunge towards the ground. He tried to slow himself with gusts of air but he was falling to fast.
Just before he hit he saw Pasithea send a surge of water towards him that caught him and slowed his descent. He crashed into the ground, stunned but alive.
The giants were retreating now, the ogres were gone, and the ice dragon was dead. They had survived, at great cost. Looking around he saw dead and dying fey scattered around.
“Should I release them,” he asked Pasithea, “Would they heal faster without a link draining them.”
“They are more likely to survive linked, they draw power from you just as you draw it from them. Its a link that is more than the sum of its parts. If you released them now they would surely die.”
Cadence 