Singing Stones Pt.4

-I know it's shorter than normal and stops weird, but I have writers block and I haven't added to this in a while

-Gracie! finally wrote enough to post the next part!

-The song is Sparrow by Jason Gray

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Escape

Artham swung his sword at a . . . Fang? He couldn’t remember what his brother called them at the moment. A pile of dust was collecting in the paths he had traveled through the horde. Most of his focus was searching for any other non-fang beings getting attacked. He wasn’t sure whether the snakes were terrible at swords, or if he was simply better than he thought. Though there were flames surrounding him, he couldn’t feel their heat.

“Artham! Where are you!” He thought he heard Esben yelling, but could hear little and see less. Climbing the first non-burning thing he saw, Artham scanned the area around him for survivors. He couldn’t see much through the smoke and held his breath as he tried not to breathe it in.

Protect the king.

That was the first of his vows. To protect the king (Or queen, but that did not fit for Esben). To remember and remind seemed irrelevant at the moment. Then he was to protect the kingdom. Well, what little was left of it already. The rain still poured, but it did nothing to calm the flames melting even the stone walls of the castle. He half-fell-half-jumped from the crumpled wall and sliced another creature in half before he landed. 

He heard Esben call out again, but a demand instead of a question. “Artham! Get Nia and the children to the river! It’s too crowded for them to get through alone!” He ignored his little brother’s calls and went to make a secure circle around the castle grounds. A safe space for any Annierian who could find it.

He kept his brother in his line of vision. It wasn’t that hard as his brother was trying to force through the crowd to him. Zoning out the fire and rain was easy enough, but Esben refused to stay quiet any longer than a few seconds to kill the snake-beings. Artham threw his sword at his brother. The wind knocked it slightly to the left, and hit a Fang in the head as they tried to ready a bow.

He smiled, but only for a moment as he realized he lost his only weapon. He dropped to place his hands on the ground, and swung one foot out around him, causing a mix between a ripple and domino effect with him at the center. (Or start, if it was dominos).

Esben’s sword stabbed into the ground beside him. How did he know it was Esbens? Well, that’s simple. It had a star where the blade met the hilt instead of the crescent moon his held.

He picked it up and ran towards the castle, swinging at anything in his way.

I’ll come back for you. I always will.

“Arfam!” He heard above the storm.

“Uncle Arfam!”

Kalmar! That sounds closer than the castle,

“Artham! Over here!” He figured Nia was the one yelling, and from under a fallen slab of stone.

He raced toward them, jumping over anything on the ground, even the fallen Annierans.

“Sorry. Sorry,” He said to no one specifically. He sang to himself lightly, a nervous habit that may actually be helpful for once, “Even the sparrow knows, he holds tomorrow.

“Not a sin-gle star i ou of pace,” Janner sang/shouted the next line, apparently he sang a little too often around his nephew.

“Nothing broken he can’t replace.” someone else joined in.

“If you long for hope”

“When you’re afraid,”

“Ook at te sarro!” Kalmar shouted at the end.

Laughing, he took Leeli from Nia as she crawled out of the makeshift hiding place and handed her back when Nia was on solid ground.

“Eet,”Kalmar mumbled, reminding Artham that they had skipped dinner to escape.

“Soon Tick, soon.” He answered.

“Tick? Really?” Nia asked.

“ I mean, A clock. Right?” He bobbed his head side to side, “tick tock.”

“The worst time I think ye could’ve come up with it lad.” Podo told him with a pat on the back.