Tales of Haven - Belina

Round Five Winner of Witches Circle Contest

With glazed eyes, she looked down at her blood soaked hands and wondered what had happened. Her mind, still a fog of images, none of them making any sense, wanders back into reality. When her vision starts to clear she stands up, braced against the wall behind her. Blood? What hap…. Just then a loud crash from her left jolts her, shards of timber surge past her, stinging her arms and hands. She looks over with heavy eyes at the hulking monster in the doorway, wood splinters strewn out in front of it.

The memories flood back like a wave washing her confusion away and replacing it with wounded conviction. Orcs! Blasted Orcs. Belina pushed off from the wall, her hands sliding from the blood, and readied herself for battle.

The Orc, holding a bloody arm up to his chest, charges toward Belina with his good arm raised high and wielding a large wooden club. His green skin is mottled with stains of blood that do not hide the massiveness of his muscles as he sprints to his revenge. “Groklig!”

Belina side steps the attack, swiftly touching the Orc on his neck as he passes and getting into another defensive stance. That should do it.

The Orc stops, a few footsteps past Belina and is motionless. A white, icy skin starts to appear and quickly envelopes the Orc. Like a statue, he stands motionless, Belina stood, admiring her work while dusting herself off, I hate Orcs!

Belina, stumbling a little, started walking out of the Sleeping Dragon Inn and out onto the dirt street, dust flying through the air on the breeze. To the north a group of Orcs were pulling citizens out of buildings and clubbing them in the head. Why Orcs favored the flesh of humans over even cattle, she will never know.

Her memories restored, Belina pondered the situation momentarily . The town, Haven, is being attacked by Orcs again. Since they are chaotic creatures, yet fighting with purpose and thought, they must be under the control of another Mage. Tessimoor!

Belina knew of this Mage. He is a scoundrel and about as evil as one could get. Tessimoor would surely be watching from somewhere, giddy at the destruction he was causing. But where?

Looking south Belina noticed a new creature in the fray. Tall and massive, this behemoth was easily fifteen to eighteen feet tall, smashing its hands on the roof of a small mercantile.

This wont do. Belina, standing her ground, closed her eyes and envisioned fire. As her will came to life, magical energy started crackling in the air around the Ogre that had nearly reduced this store to rubble. It looked around, confused like a child watching a trick of sleight of hand.

Abruptly the Ogre exploded into a fiery pink mist as the magic took effect. Lucky. Lucky no one else happened to be close by or they might have been hurt by the blast. Such are the dangers of spell-weaving and the reason practice is so important.

Belina turned her attention to the Orcs to the north. There were already several bodies piled up in the center of the street and panic was embracing the remaining citizens as they ran and hid.

Belina concentrated, focusing on Earth, tendrils of Earth. She rose in the air while the magic ran its course, exposing her intent to the world. The ground under the Orcs began to shake. They stopped and glanced at each other, surprised at the thunderous roar of the earth beneath them. Growing upwards at incredible speed, large roots sprang forth, entangling the Orcs and pulling then down, back into the Earth from which they came. A sickening slurp of mangled sinew and flesh could be heard as they each were dragged under.

Feeling weak... I must rest soon, before it’s too late. Manipulating magical energies is no easy task. It takes years of practice and failure, to be able to call upon and cast magic. Belina was well practiced. She studied at the Mage College back home and was among the top of her class. But, due to the type of magic she cast here today, her own energy was diminished and she needed to rest. I hope that was the last of them.

A Haven soldier came running through the town, repeatedly yelling “The Orcs are dead! The battle is over! Tend to the wounded! Find your families!” In the crowd close by her a citizen shouts, “Hazah for Belina, Light of Haven! Hip, Hip!” The immediate gathering of people shouted in time, “HAZAH!” Belina looked to the ground, almost embarrassed. She doesn't feel that she garnered this much attention. This is the third time that she has almost singlehandedly saved the town from Orc attacks in the last year, but she is just doing her job as High-Mage, or Haven’s Light.

Cheers were erupting from the whole town as normalcy was restored; the attackers defeated by Belina. She knows, however, that her next task, once rested, would be to seek out Tessimoor and end his evil reign.

She would be a hero once again…