So it begins

Riley looked down across the city. It was bustling. With humans, with creatures disgusting and horrific, with all manner of slithering and screeching and cackling evil. With Beast and his minions.

The Sorcerer had transported all of the remnant of humanity to this place. To this clifftop.

To their doom.

No, not doom, Riley shook his head. Survival. Roland said they would survive. The Sorcerer had willed it. And the Sorcerer, finally, was here. Couldn't he fight the battle for them? With a word, couldn't he wipe out the enemy entirely?

Why wouldn't he?

Why did he use them?

The thoughts were doubtlessly overheard by the Fae, which hovered, nearly invisible, amongst the people. Their fire was muted until the time of attack. 

"Is this the best way?" He murmured to Roland, beside him. "I mean, it's… everyone."

He cut his eyes behind them, where Roland's three children straddled three winged ponies.

Finn looked at Riley from her place behind her husband on Judah's back.

"The survival of our world depends on this day," She said. "We will all fight for it."

"There's no real battle plan." The General complained. "We'll be slaughtered."

"Just because the plan isn't yours doesn't mean there isn't one," Finn stared at him.

"Right. The Sorcerer's Will. The Sorcerer's plan. I'm sure it'll be great," Riley sighed. "I just wish I knew what it was."

"We only need to know our part in it," Finn insisted with a smile. "We must make this stand, to draw all the evil forces to one place. We will make them all come to fight us, and then they will be defeated once they all arrive."

The General nodded, uncertainly. Thankfully, his own wife was near the rear of the formation with all of the smaller children. Mayra too, with her baby and brood, and the other mothers of the very young. All the rest of the women, the children old enough to fight, and the men mounted horses and various other creatures that were willing, and steeled themselves for war.

There were no infirmed to leave behind; The Sorcerer had healed them. Only the littlest children and their mothers would be spared from the fighting today.

Even Brenna, that formerly traitorous wench, and her husband, the treacherous Edmar, stood with the armies of mankind. Riley turned to see them seriously considering the enemy below. Behind them were Caspian and Naomi on large, white stags with shining steel antlers. They had left their orphan brood in the care of Ashley and Mayra. 

Lysander was to the right, behind the initial line of horses, on the back of a colossal fiery bird, whose wings rippled with hues of orange, red, purple, and white flame. Yet, the former Provider did not burn nor feel the heat.

Gabriel seemed uncertainly perched on the back of a tremendous lizard with a lion's mane and the face of a lamb. Victoria reached out from the back of a horned, armored beast to squeeze his hand, and he smiled at her gently.

Behind them, Simone was with Shayn on the back of a cat very similar to Judah, which was now striped and spotted green and grey like the clifftop and its patchwork of weeds and grass. Riley grinned at his younger brother and winked, with a significant look at how tightly Simone's arms were wrapped around him.

Shayn rolled his eyes slightly, but Riley didn't miss the color creeping up the young man's neck. Good. Let him remember Riley this way, if the worst should happen.

The General wanted his children to hear stories of how brave he was. Not scared. Always making jokes, never terrified of the battle ahead. He would never be known like that, not to the oldest nor to the littlest newborn of his brood.

Ashley was safe, at the rear, with them. His precious, dear wife who he'd clutched in his arms not long ago, and kissed with a desperation born of hope, and of love.

Hope for humanity, love for her. A kiss worth remembering, if it should be there last. 

Gritting his teeth, he promised himself it wouldn't be. He would get back to her, to all of them. They would survive. The Sorcerer was with them, who could stand against his power?

Riley took a deep breath, turning forward to the battle ahead. The battle below. His young trainees were off far to one flank, hopefully furthest from the intense fighting. There was no chance of them getting off without any battle at all. The numbers of their enemy, he realized, were overwhelming.

Riley took stock of the enemy below.

Beast had dismantled the City Hall and used its stones to build himself a throne. Disgusting. The thing lumbered to his feet and bellowed orders to his minions while he stared up at the army with disdain.

Mocking them.

Daring them to come and fight.

Could he take yet more of their army from them? Could he turn the hearts of those in their midst against them, splintering their forces and winning the battle before it had begun?

So far, no one had turned. No one flinched. All stood together, united against evil, against the worlds' most dreadful and terrifying inhabitants.

Would this war, this 'final battle,' wipe them out forever, like Roland seemed to think? Would the world finally know eternal peace? Could they finally rest from the toils and strife of leadership when the worlds were united under the Sorcerer's rule?

"They seem rather eager down there." Riley jerked his chin down at the frenzied cries of the demented creatures below. Their words were garbled, but their collective cacophony was enough to reach his ears. "Shall we oblige them?"

"I think it would be terribly rude to refuse the invitation," Roland responded evenly. Finn snickered behind him, and Riley quirked a small smile.

At least there were people here during this battle to appreciate his jokes. War was hell without it. The goblins, as he recalled, had no sense of humor whatsoever. Then again, he had been slaughtering them before they had the chance to laugh… Perhaps that was a bit unfair of him.

He could see a few scuttling in the strange shadows far below. He should give them a second chance. Maybe they weren't all that bad.

"Well, then, Your Majesty, lead the way." Riley inclined his head. He could stand a few extra seconds to think of some quips so dazzling that not even the weird snakelike things on the ground would be able to keep from snickering.

If he was going to slaughter countless evil creatures, wasn't it polite to let them die laughing?

"Isn't it the General's duty to lead in war?" Finn tapped her index finger to her chin. "Ah, well. Let's go, My Love."

The king turned to kiss his wife once, deeply, before taking a deep breath and nodding.

"No great speech? No pre-battle pep talk?" Riley frowned in disapproval. Roland gave him a longsuffering look, and tugged Judah's mane. The cat turned so the king could face his people.

"My people!" Roland shouted, and his voice seemed oddly amplified. Riley shot a look at the shimmering Fae by Roland's side. Was she magically making him louder?

"Once, we were separate. People of Rhone, of Ceto, of Klain. Now we are one. Once, longer ago, we were giants, and halflings, and more. Now we know that is temporary as well. We are united, the beloved creations of the Sorcerer.

"We need not fear what comes. All worlds are the Sorcerer's. His Will guided us here, and it will sustain us. We do not fear, because we know who is on our side. We do not fear, because we know how this ends. We do not fear, because we have each other, and we have our creator.

"We fight for our world! We fight for each other! We fight for survival, and we will emerge victorious today!"

A cry rose up from the gathered humans, a battle cry of a people desperate to fill their hearts with the bravery of their leader.

"Judah, it's time." Roland said, patting the great cat's mane. A chirp was the response, and the man chuckled. "Thanks. I think so, too."

"I don't think you actually understand anything he says," Riley's eyes narrowed. "You just pretend."

"Think what you want," Roland shrugged with a half smile. "Doesn't make any difference to me."

The pair surged forward as the cat let out a great deep chortle that echoed back from the edges of the army. Judah sprinted full speed to the edge of the cliff and kept going, leaping into the air.

"Show off." Riley grumbled, and urged his horse to follow. As its sharp hooves left the ground, wings sprouted from its side, catching an updraft from below and letting him soar above the city.

A cascade of misty cloud flowed like a waterfall from behind them, catching Judah and the other non-winged creatures and people leaving the cliffside and bearing them up like a mystical bridge to the battle below. It was like flying. Almost.

Riley was actually flying, and his breath left him for a moment as he looked out at the world from a different view than he'd ever had.

He initially thought he would prefer his own horse, but this… this was something else. It was beautiful. Exhilarating. Glorious.

If he was going to die in battle today, this was definitely how he wanted to enter it.