I woke up on the root cellar two days after the invasion. At least, I think it was two days. It’s hard to tell in the absolute black. I’ve slept twice, which is as good as I could do in the circumstances. Sitting up, I performed the ritual I’ve done dozens of times, and summoned Strxick. Light poured forth into the room as the fire elemental manifested next to me.

“You’re still in a root cellar,” he said, his crackling voice warming my soul.
“Yep. I don’t know why you expected anything different. You left me in a root cellar, so it makes sense that I’d still be here.”
“How long are we going to be here? No offense, but there’s not a lot to do.”
“We could play cards.”
“Very funny.”
“I don’t know if any of them are still out there,” I said. “If there are, I’m not sure if we can take them. There’s plenty of food, so we could just out wait them.”
“No water.”
“There’s liquids.”
“You’re planning to drink vinegar? It looks like you’ve already drank everything that could possibly be considered water. Plus, and I may not be an expert on your food, but I think that once you break the seal the food starts to rot.”
“You have a point.”

I looked at the barred door. I had put some shelves in front of it and loaded it with as much weight as I could to keep the invaders out. I wasn’t sure that any of them had seen me go in, but I sure wasn’t going to make it easy on them to get to me. That shelf had been a comfort to me. At least it would give me some warning that they were coming to get me. But, Strxick was right. Man can not live on vinegar alone.

I stowed some of the jars and cans in my backpack. I’d need rations to get to Highgate on foot. I doubted that I could find a horse. They wouldn’t leave anything alive, not even the livestock.

I pulled the rest of the stuff off the shelves and set them down. If there was someone out there, I didn’t want to let them know I was here. Stealth wasn’t my strongest skill. Actually, I sort of sucked at it. I doubted that my knowledge of the elemental planes, what the difference between an alligator and a crocodile was, or the best way to set a broken leg would help me escape. I lifted the bar and set it carefully on the floor and peaked outside.

Sure enough, they had set a guard outside the door, and worse it was staring right at me. I threw open the door.

“He’s seen us!”

Strxick rushed out, but it easily dodged out of the way of the first blow. He used his whip at it, but did almost nothing. It sliced at Strxick, swinging wildly at the fire elemental three times. I summoned my power, arcing an electric bolt at it, but it may as well been a gentle breeze for all the good it did. Pouring strength into my bond with Strxick, he punched the guard, landing a blow straight to the chest. It went down, and didn’t move.

“How did you know?” Strxick asked.
“It was looking right at me.”
“No, I mean how do you know if it’s a he or a she. It’s a skeleton. It could be anything.”
“I wasn’t thinking of that. I was thinking of warning you.”
“Ah. Well, it wasn’t that bad. Maybe we’re worried over nothing.”
“Maybe. Let’s see if there’s anyone else around.”

The village was completely silent. That wasn’t a good sign. I checked in some of the houses, but they had been completely ransacked. Food was scattered and spoiled. The dead have no need for that sort of sustenance. Worse, they were brutally efficient. The only bodies around were those zombies and skeletons that had been killed during the fighting. A village of a couple hundred, now bolstering the ranks of some undead lord and his unholy priests. I was sick to my stomach.

“Let’s see if there’s anything at the garrison.”
“There was nothing you could have done. You’d just be part of its army, too.”
“You’d think that would make me feel better.”
“I didn’t think it would. You wouldn’t be you if it did. But you need to focus on what’s in front of us, not what we could have done.”
“Thanks.”

The garrison courtyard had two more skeletons guarding it. Maybe someone was inside. After all, they set a guard for me.

“The last fight was pretty easy,” Strxick said. “We didn’t get a scratch.”
“There are two of them.”
“Maybe it will be twice as easy.”
“Hopefully we get lucky,” I said as I moved toward them.

The skeletons noticed us right away. Strxick strode forward, his flaming whip in his hand. It had been next to useless last time. His punches, though. Those had worked.

The skeletons suddenly charged from their positions. The first on Strxick’s left, who swung and clipped him in the side. A wound opened on my side, in the exact same place. It wasn’t bad, but the blood was distracting. The other ran around to flank, slashing at his back. Another slash opened in me.

Strxick punched and slid, trying to get out from between the two. He missed, then missed again. Working my hands, I through a mystic pile of stones at one of them, but it dodged out of the way. It slashed at Strxick again, missing, but the other slashed him across the temple. Pain seared through me as I lost control of my elemental connection with Strxick. Blinded by blood and panic, I ran as fast as I could away from them.

Coming to my senses a few moments later, I ducked around some burned out houses, weaving through some of the ruins until I lost my pursuers. Blinking blood out of my eyes, I waited until I felt like I would be safe, then worked my way back to my root cellar. I bandaged my wounds, using bits of magic to slowly seal them back to scabs. After about five hours, when I felt strong enough, I manifested Strxick back to this realm.

“That went poorly,” he said.
“We never laid a hand on them.”
“Did they seem stronger to you?”
“No, just more of them.”
“What’s the plan, then,” Strxick asked.
“We can’t let them flank you like that again. You need to move faster. Skirmish with them.”
“We can handle that. Give me more speed and focus our strength.”

We moved from building to building, trying to stay out of their line of sight for as long as we could. The garrison house was on a little bit of a hill, allowing its one tower to have a field of view over the fields and forests around the village. It had allowed the townfolk to have some warning of their approaching doom, although I doubted it had saved very many. Most people don’t evacuate their homes, even in dire emergencies. The warning had, at best, cost the army some of their size when they left.

The skeleton guards were back at their post, looking at the door, but periodically watching the courtyard as well. They were mindless, but still had enough mental fortitude to know not to get ambushed. That wasn’t our plan, anyway. I gave a nod to Strxick and he stepped forward.

As before, the skeletons rushed forward. They had further to travel this time, which allowed Strxick to let them come to him. The first one came forward and slashed, Strxick just able to step out of the way. The second ran to flank him, slashing him in the back. Pain flashed through my back as well, but it was a minor wound.

Power flooded through my connection as I forced energy into Strxix. Speed was what we needed, and speed is what he got. He punched at one of the skeletons, then took off running, the newfound speed pushing him into a sprint. The skeletons took off after him, just barely keeping pace enough to allow them to give a running slash, which missed. He turned, punching one skeleton, sending it into a pile of dead bones. As I reached for more power, he ran away from the last one. As it made to follow him, stones poured from every direction, pelting it until it also collapsed.

“That was better,” Strxick said. “We might be getting better at this.”
“When we don’t just rush in blind, I think you’re right. Let’s see what it was they were guarding.”

I slowly opened the door to peak inside. Two more skeletons were facing the closed door of the weapon closet. There was no room to move, so their was no way to pull off the trick we’d just done. There was only one hope.

“Stand in the door,” I whispered. “They can’t get around you if your there.”
“You won’t be able to see past me to cast.”
“I will cast Scatter Scree in front to you. I don’t need to see them to hit them.”
“Just hope they don’t jump out of the way like they did the first time.”
“Thanks for the positive outlook.”
“I live to serve.”

With that, we kicked open the door and Strxick stood in the doorway. I set up directly behind him. The skeletons rushed forward, slashing as they came. More wounds appeared on my body. Strxick hit one, crushing it. He then turned and with a bellow, smashed the other one just as I was preparing to cast a spell.

“Why did we do that the last time?” he asked.
“We tried. We failed. We almost died.”
“Right.”

I moved to the door and knocked. If someone was alive they probably were on guard.

“Hello? Is there anyone in there?”
“Who is it? I’m armed. If you know what’s what, you’ll leave.”
“It’s Resault Ember.”
“The scout? Come in before they come back.”
“The skeletons are down. You can come out.”
“I think you’d better come in.”

I opened the door to see a man on the floor, a crossbow at his side. One of his legs had been crushed and hung limp in front of him.

“Are you sure there aren’t any more of them?” he asked.
“Nope, just sure they aren’t in front of the door or the garrison. Let me see that leg.”
“It’s bad and getting worse,” he said, wincing. “I think that they killed me, just taking the long way around.”
“Don’t worry. This will hurt, but I’ve got you.”

I set the leg as best I could, splinting everything together. Concentrating, I let the magic flow through me as I healed his leg. The pain vanished from his face and he stood up.

“We could have used you three days ago.”
“I’m spent. One healing spell wasn’t going to turn the tide of that battle any more than a single crossbow. What’s your name?”
“Andre Julien.”
“Nice to meet you. The way I see it, we have two choices. We can try to see if we can hold up here in town, or we can get to Highgate and try to warn them.”
“Wait here, just the two of us, and hope that the army of undead, or another one, doesn’t come and finish us off, or go the direction that the army that almost finished us went and hope to get ahead of them to warn the next town that they are on the way.”
“That’s how I see it.”
“They have a two day head start.”
“Yes they do.”
“They are likely between us and Highgate.”
“Yep.”
“Good plan,” Andre said. “Well, at least you have an elemental on our side.”
“Strxick, meet Andre.”
“Good to meet you,” Strxick crackled.
“We’d better hustle. We’re not going to make up two days sitting around here.”