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Untitled Document
Slowly the gates to Sakhmet opened. Jade, Sharn, Jassy,
and Midnight stood at the head of the Sakhmet army. Before them the Shadow Lord,
Shokiba, and Kiata stood at the front of a massive amount of pets. Each was
mounted on a black Uni. Both rider and Uni had as much armour as possible and
the riders had weapons anywhere from slings to a battle-ax.
Jade stared levelly at the Shadow Lord.
There was no more than a metres space between them.
"Well if it isn't the Shadow Lord and
his band of followers," she said coolly.
"If it isn't the pathetic Shoyru," he
replied back.
Upon hearing this comment, Timberleaf,
the Uni Jade was riding, lowered her horn menacingly. She was a creamy white
Uni with gold stars splotched across her body. She had a gold horn as well.
Behind her everyone else rode Starry Uni's.
Someone in the front ranks of the Shadow
Army sent an arrow zipping by Jade. Some retaliated behind her.
"CHAAARRRGGGEEE!!!" the jade coloured
Shoyru shouted. The battle had been joined!
It was Jade versus the Shadow Lord as
the two armies met. Thought it was 10:1, the defenders fought bravely on. They
pushed back their attackers, farther and farther away from Sakhmet. When Jade
saw it fit to attack properly she swiftly arranged four lines of soldiers. In
front were archers, behind them slingers, and behind that another line of archers
followed by more slingers. Leaving Jassy to command them Jade left to help the
rest.
"One... two... three... FIRE!" Jassy roared.
Arrows zipped into the enemy ranks. Many
fell to the pointed shafts. Jassy smiled, they had all found their marks. She
quickly ordered the next instructions, "Front archers duck down and reload!
Slingers behind... FIRE!"
They continued shooting in turns, first
the archers, then the slingers. All was going well until the Shadow Lord mustered
up a third of his army and made a three-pronged attack. Back to back, the archers
and slingers shot madly. Unis reared and whinnied. Many good and bad fell.
Jassy saw that they weren't going to last
much longer, when she looked up to see Jade and Midnight backed by half of their
force. Letting up a wild war cry, they rushed their opponents.
With renewed hope they drove them back,
eventually scatting them and making them retreat. A loud cheer arouse from the
defenders, "HOORAY!!!"
Jade, Midnight, and Jassy stayed back
and held a whispered conference.
"I haven't seen Kiata or Shokiba anywhere..."
Jade muttered.
"Who?" Midnight questioned.
"Shokiba is the Army General, yet Orlan
is guiding and commanding them. I heard Shokiba's name off of one of the enemy.
Apparently they don't know where she is either. As for Kiata, you both know
who she is." She was rewarded with two nods.
"I'll call you if I see either of them,"
Jassy responded.
"Aye, me too," Midnight said. With that
the three split up to command the rest of the army.
***
The losses were heavy on Sakhmet's side. They had half of what they had started
with. While Jassy, Midnight, and Sharn commanded their small force Jade hunted
for Kiata. She wasn't paying attention to anything but finding her adversary
when someone shouted, "Look!!! It's the Faeries!!!"
"And there are creatures from the new
world, Meridell!!!" cried another. It was true. From above hundreds of Faeries
flew, led by the Battle Faerie. Charging over the dunes the Meridell army could
be seen, armed to the paw. In front of them Captain Jake could be distinguished
from the rest, grinning from ear to ear. With renewed hope the depleted defenders
attacked the attackers at will.
In the confusion, Jade spotted Kiata.
Commanding Timberleaf forward Jade gave chase. Kiata, seeing Jade, kicked her
Uni hard. It shot forward, pounding ahead of them. Jade snorted angrily and
urged Timberleaf on. Both Uni's hooves thundered across the dunes, sand spraying
in all directions. Jade didn't know how long she was chasing her for but it
seemed for ages. Then Kiata stopped.
Jade stopped a few feet before her. Kiata
stared levelly at Jade. Both sides stopped fighting and turned to watch the
two. Having dismounted, Jade urged Timberleaf to leave. After much persuading
the Uni backed off. Unsheathing their swords they charged.
Clang!
The battle resumed once more. Jade and
Kiata fought fiercely. Midnight and Jassy had their paws full with Shokiba who
had mysteriously appeared. Sharn was heading towards Jade, fighting off anybody
who tried to stop him.
The Shadow Lord appeared behind Kiata,
"Hurry up and finish her off! As soon as their General is out of the picture
they will lose heart and Sakhmet will be ours!"
Upon saying this Kiata, pushed herself
and fought madly. Jade, however, matched her skill easily. They continued their
swordfight when Jade's sword blade struck gold. The chains to both her amulet
and Sakhmet's amulet snapped in half and fell with a soft thump in the sand.
Jade, avoiding Kiata was there, dove for them. She managed to grab both.
Kiata, seizing the opportunity, began
to slash and cut at Jade's unprotected back. Sharn saw this, and with a loud
cry, whirled his slight. He loosed off a stone.
Crack!
Kiata slumped to the ground, out cold.
Jade got up painfully, just in time to deflect Orlan's sword. He laughed mockingly,
"You'll never win!"
"Oh yeah?" Jade growled.
She took up the unspoken challenge, despite
the wounds that covered her body. Back and forth they fought, sometimes using
magic, other times just with the weapon at hand. Finally Orlan got annoyed and
built up a large black ball of light. As Jade charged towards him he unleashed
it. It crashed into her and she was sent into the ground, skidding across the
sand. Sand became lodged in her fur and wounds. Before she could get up there
was a sickening crunch. A frightened Uni had stepped on her arm.
Dragging herself up, Jade grabbed hold
of both Sakhmet amulets and turned them so that the front of both faced Orlan.
"Wh-what a-a-are you d-doing?" he stuttered.
"Finishing this off!"
She swiftly read the backs, first in the
ancient language, and then once more in English, "When two amulets combined
the Light stands tall, the Shadow Army shall fall!"
A gold light surrounded the Shoyru. Sharn
gasped, Kiata, who had finally regained consciousness, cried out, Jassy and
Midnight gasped, Shokiba gaped and the Shadow Lord whimpered.
She was lifted a few feet from the ground.
Then the gold light that surrounded Jade expanded out like an explosion. It
engulfed the entire battlefield, including Sakhmet...
***
Voices. Jade listened to the voices nearby.
"We lost a lot of soldiers, but we still
came out victorious in the end."
"Aye. How is Jade? She's been out for
a week. At least she finished the war off. It would have lasted MUCH longer
than two days at the rate things were going, with the tides turning and such."
Slowly Jade opened her eyes and tried
to sit up. She instantly wished she hadn't. A Kau healer rushed over, keeping
a hoof on her shoulder.
"Hush, you young rip. You have some pretty
horrid wounds that are infected. Your arm is also broken."
Jade stared up at her, then tilted her
head to see Sharn looking down at her. He kept his voice level as he spoke,
"Thank the stars you're awake! The healers did all they could to get you back
into shape."
Jade grinned, "How're Jassy and Midnight?"
"They are just fine. They fought bravely,
and when you fell to the ground they were there in an instant. The two of them
fared well, very little to fix up."
What he said triggered another question
for her to ask, "What happened after I read the poem on the amulets?"
Sharn stared hard at her, "You don't remember!?"
she shook her head. He laughed slightly, "You started glowing a topaz-gold colour.
Orlan, filled with rage, charged at you. He dug his sword through your shoulder.
That's when the light surrounding you expanded over the field, engulfing everything.
When it cleared you were in a heap on the ground. The Shadow Army were defeated,
the Dark Empire fallen. They fled with all speed. Not much happened after that.
Me, Jassy, and Midnight carried you back here on Timberleaf. You've been here
for a week."
Jade didn't speak as the Kau went about
fixing the Shoyru up. When the healer finished Jade asked her to leave, and
she did. Slowly she pushed herself up so that she was sitting. She smiled at
him through deep, sapphire coloured eyes.
Outside, a golden sun rose over the dunes.
The sky was a vivid shade of red, fading to a gold, the same shadow of the sun.
All thoughts of war had vanished. Peace had been restored to the Lost Desert.
***
Jade smiled at the Sergeant, Battle Faerie, and Captain Jake as they stood
before her. Midnight and Jassy supported her. He bowed, and turned to look behind
him. The Faerie Queen, Queen Fyora, came striding up in a beautiful violet gown.
In her hand there was a small dagger-like sword sheathed in a black leather
case. She tilted her head and the Faerie stared at her. If it had been thousands
of years later, Fellian would have smiled the same way at Latine.
Jade stared at her curiously, "What's
that?" she motioned to the dagger.
"I know you wanted this when you came
to the Hidden Tower. Since you have showed a great deal of courage and help,
I give you this..." Slowly she unsheathed the dagger. Jade's eyes lit up as
she watched the right side flare up into a blazing fire and the other freeze
into sharp shards of ice.
Jade took it with shaking paws, forgetting
Jassy and Midnight. She stared at it, the fire and ice reflecting in her eyes.
She stared at the Faerie Queen, "Thank you," she whispered.
A loud cheer arose as she held it up for
all to see. Then taking it, she sheathed it in its case, and clipped it to the
belt of her tunic.
***
After recovering enough to leave the sick bay, Jade was often found on the
roof of the palace. Sometimes she would be found alone, lost in thought, or
sometimes she could be seen talking to Sharn. Jassy and Midnight rarely spoke
to her, knowing that soon she would have to make one of the most important decisions
of her life.
The Sergeant came up to the roof silently one
evening. He sat beside Jade, who was alone, and said, "What are you going to
do about the amulets? You can take them to Meridell and have King Skarl guard
it. You can do nothing, or you can take it to Tyrannia, to one of the most feared
parts of the land."
Jade looked at him and stood up, "I'm going
to take the amulets to Tyrannia where they will be destroyed forever. Then history
cannot repeat itself once more."
Very well Jadestone," he said and left silently.
Jade stared at the setting sun. She would take
the amulets to Tyrannia and destroy them. She still had one final task...
The End
Author Notes: I really hoped you enjoyed this story. It's been a year since
I wrote it's sequel, The Warrior. It was nearly a year ago I got it put into
The Neopian Times. There are two real pets in here, and they are my friends
pets. They are Jasperisena and Midnight__Shadow. ^^
I know that the names in here are odd and probably hard to understand.
Below is a pronunciation guide to some of the more difficult names.
Rourge: Roar-ge
Latine: Lah-teen
Kiata: Key-atta
Shokiba: Show-key-bah or Shah-key-bah
Fellian: Fell-ee-en
Floent: Flow-ent
Shayena: Shay-ee-nah
Heilan: Hey-len
Zaelin: Zay-lin
Larinzine: Lair-in-zine
If there are others that you don't understand how to pronounce you can Neomail
me! ^^ There is one more story after this one and then the series is finished.
--Yellowyoshi749
Thanks neopets!
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