Waiting for war

"We must go soon," Riley told Roland. "It's been days since the second caravan of evacuees left with the Treasurer. There's no one left here who will be willing to leave. 

"I will not abandon my people until I have to. Until they reject me, I will stay and rule them as best I can." The king looked up with exhausted eyes.

"They are rejecting you already. There is talk of rebellion." Riley had ordered the men who fomented it publicly whipped. The crowd who had watched was eerily silent, as if empathizing with the rebels instead of condemning them.

The General stood by the order. Treachery was the highest crime in Klain, and the men were lucky to not face execution as spies. Somehow his mercy did not seem to be appreciated.

"Riley," The King's blue eyes cleared for a moment, "I will not leave until I know for sure there is no hope for those who will not come with me. They must all be given a chance."

"They've had two chances! And if we invite them to come with us now, that will be a third! They could not ask for more," Riley protested.

"You may go if you wish, and take all who are willing. I will follow, if I can, when the time comes." Roland smiled wanly.

"You know as well as I do there isn't a single other person in the city willing to leave. We practically went door to door trying to convince people!"

"They may yet see wisdom when the Beast is on our doorstep," The king looked back down at the map in front of him. "I think this path through the mountains, if it still exists, will be best for us."

"You don't need a path, you've got Judah," Riley eyed the creature taking up an entire corner of the room.

"He cannot carry all," Roland shook his head.

"As far as I can tell, you and I are the only ones left who are going to leave," Riley counted off his fingers. "The Treasurer, Peacekeeper, and your father left with the second evacuation, Jarnsaxa and Hugi both say they would rather die than run from the other giants, we don't have anyone left to back us up here. We're it."

"Riley, are you saying you want to ride behind me on Judah and ride off into the sunset together?" Roland lifted an eyebrow.

The General rolled his eyes. "Look, of the two of us, I'm the funny one, so don't go treading on my territory in this friendship. Secondly, we'd be going North, not West. Third, you make it sound like sitting in the back is less manly somehow, when I'd really be acting as your human shield for arrows that come from behind, Your Majesty."

"Fair points," Roland nodded. "Would you rather I be the human shield?"

"Are you willing to leave right now?" Riley countered. "I'll take whatever spot you want if you are."

The king closed his eyes, his face becoming more serious again. "I can't. I had another dream."

The General sighed and sat down in a chair in front of Roland's desk. "What was it this time?"

"The Sorcerer showed me a little more of what was to come. I know for certain now the Beast is not doing his bidding. I had doubted… the reports of him healing people and feeding them seem to be legitimate, and I wondered, you know, if I were wrong. But I'm not." He concluded.

"What's to come?" Riley leaned forward.

"I saw a piece of our world crushed. There was fire falling from the sky. A great battle raged, but most… most humans were not on our side. There was Darkness on the land, and death everywhere. A great black dragon sat across Klain, spreading its rule further, and the people cheered its evil reign." Roland shook his head. "It's clearer than ever that we cannot win, but I will not leave anyone behind to suffer that fate if I can stop it."

"You can't exactly kidnap them all," Riley was still reeling from the king's description of what would happen, but he focused on the conversation at hand. "What's the plan?"

"My hope is that the shock of Beast's appearance will lift the veil for those still in denial of his existence. Perhaps they will come to their senses and flee with us." Roland didn't sound certain.

"But that wasn't in the dream," The General guessed.

"No. No, that wasn't in the dream."

"Far be it from me to challenge someone who's already died once, but I'd rather not try it, myself. At least not yet." Riley quirked an eyebrow.

"I hope to avoid it too, as you well know," Roland hung his head.

"Is that what this is? Misplaced guilt over a gut feeling that you want to save your own life?" Riley stood. "Are you going to get us both killed to prove to yourself you're not a selfish leader?"

"You're free to go anytime you wish, Riley." The king looked up with sorrowful eyes. "If I abandon the city now, it will dissolve further into chaos."

"Roland, how long have you been in here? It's already chaos out there," Riley glared for a moment, then stood and threw open the wooden shutters on the one window of Roland's office. They were soundproof and thick, and the noise from the outside world suddenly flooded in.

A cacophony of sound bounced through the walls of the office, and Roland closed his eyes as he absorbed the indications of life outside. Raucous laughter, a loud crash of something being smashed, drunken yelling.

Roland looked torn apart, but nothing had changed his mind. Eventually growing tired of arguing, Riley left and made his way, to the city wall, climbing the steps with a heavy heart. He could get the earliest sign of the enemy's coming, and steal Roland away for the man's own good.

Riley stood on the wall looking out over the hills around Klain. He'd stood here many times before, in times of peace and in times of impending war… but never like this. Never so afraid that his men would turn on him at any moment and kill him.

That the world as he knew it would end.

The departure of the second group of evacuees had left those inside the city more anxious than ever. The food shortage was becoming worse. Empty houses were taken over and looted. Businesses ransacked. Crime was rampant. Half the Peacekeeper's men had abandoned their posts, saying the job was impossible.

Morale in the city had never been lower. The emergency stores were empty. Many of the fields, which had been almost ready for harvest, were ransacked overnight. Riley could see the barren farmlands stripped of their bounty.

He knew the fight was over before it had begun.

The unseasonably cold winds from the south had turned into a scorching, humid atmosphere. The air was stale and barely breathable.

Riley squinted into the waves of heat dripping off the landscape for a sign of what was to come.

 The lake seemed lower, and the river was sitting nearly still in its banks, stagnating.

It was counter-intuitive. The heat should be melting the glaciers that fed both the lake and the river. Winter was the time for it to be low, not midsummer. It was another sign of the turbulent and unpredictable times in which they lived.

"Come on, let's just get this over with," Riley whispered to the horizon. "Where are you, you vile, idiot monster?"

He hated anticipation worst. In the heat of battle he was a thunderstorm, an unstoppable force. Instinct took over and it was action, not thoughts, that determined whether you survived. Actions, and luck.

Here, on the edges, the city slowly starved and dissolved further into the madness which claims so many on the verge of societal collapse. Everyone in their right mind had gone in the evacuations. Left were those who either ignored the truth or had already had their loyalties twisted by the creeping influence of the Beast.

It was contagious, like a disease. It inched into the hearts of humanity, living in the hidden depths of their souls until it became acceptable to flaunt.

"Where are you, you contemptible, disgusting mutant?" He muttered. It truly was the most hideous thing he had ever beheld, including the goblins he'd fought and killed in the last war. Particularly disturbing was the head that looked as if it had been half hacked away, yet still lived.

Bile rose in his throat, he scanned the horizon once more. No other guards strode the walls, save one or two who found this to be a fine spot for drinking. All the loyal ones had evacuated. The only left were barely tolerant of his existence, or ignored it entirely.

He was a General without an army to command.

Still, there was some modicum of hope that those stationed further out on patrol would blow the horn of warning, even if in celebration of Beast's coming.

His hope was not in vain, for the echoing horn broke the relative silence of the countryside just moments before Beast's hulking form, flanked by two giants, appeared on the horizon.