Chapter 31 ( Preparing for war )

Rhiannon, Rahnyah, Queen Madeline,Kerari, Sherari were finishing up cooking up all the fish and feeding the masses of people. They grabbed food for their table and sat down to enjoy the late night dinner. Rahnyah had eaten only three hours before but was amazingly famished. She ate two fish and tons of vegetables and rice. Valudaz and the paladins walked among the newly freed Paladin and offered them words of encouragement and praise. It would take some time but eventually they would regain their memories. Some of thier family had recognised them and rejoiced at their gift of having their loved one again. The tailors made more tents rather quickly and the paladins erected them up and made sure all of the men and women had a place to rest and get some sleep. The gnomes said they would keep watch over them during the night and would call the medics if something went wrong. 

Thibideau sat upon a large rock, mystified that he was able to save so many of his Paladins. He really didn't like Richard much but in this case, he felt a little forgiveness should be given. He mused as he ate his fish, rice and vegetables and made mental notes of the training he would have to reteach in two days time. As he looked up, he saw a bright flash in the distance and the sound of marching.

The portal hole opened and a multitude of Samurai, monks and dragons came flying through the portal above them. Thibideau looked up and saw that the moon was blotted out from the dragons. Finally Briesef flew through the portal, having barely reached them before he used her scale to bring them back.With a great hiss the portal snapped shut. The sound of their feet marching could be heard a mile away. The marching grew louder as they filed passed Thibideau and up to Valudus who was standing near the forges.  Breisef lifted her right claw and bowed her head to the king," Your Majesty, I have brought you an army." She said as she gestured to the Samurai, monks and warriors of all kinds from the Asian lands. She looked at him and smiled," Would you have a nice fat cow for me to eat?" Valudus nodded and said," Go ask one of the cattlemen if they can cut you one from the herd."

Breisef gathererd herself underneath and lept into the air with strong beats of her wings. The down draft was quite cooling to those near the forges. Val placed his hand on his son's shoulder as he drew near to him and his older brother. " Vallium, how are you doing my boy?" Vallium smiled and said," Ruthieanne and Jacxie have no clue mother died and that you and Rahnyah are married. I think you should grab mother and Rahnyah and bring them to the house." Val nodded and kissed his son's forehead and pressed his forehead to his for a moment." My son, you bring me much joy."

" Go get them and come to the house I will meet you there." He motioned for Valudaz to come to him and motioned for him to walk with him. Daz followed behind his father. Soot ran in bands of sweat that marked his arms like tattoos. He had three smudges across his face and one across his nose. His hammer resting on his shoulder as they walked into the door. Ishella and Rahnyah holding hands and Rahnyah was rubbing Ishellia's arm softly while she tried to tell the girls what had happened. She got choked up and Daz touched her arm." I tried to get there as fast as I could. She was still alive when I got there but they were both badly hurt. He choked back a sob. I hammered everything I had at him and he just buffered it away from him like water off the duck's back. He stabbed me and the tip of his blade nearly hit my heart. I was weilding Excalibur so I knew I could not die but I was badly, badly hurt. I could not stop him from throwing me into the portal then he killed our mother and threw her in on top of me. That place stunk so badly of death and decay. I don't know how long I was out of it. It must have been quite a while. When I came too, I was in a coffin." Ishellia stiffened and started to hyperventilate. Ruthieanne and Jacxie came over and touched her and tried to calm her. The women were all huddled together, consoling one another.

The men both placed their hands upon Daz and he said "Brace yourselves. Ruthie come help me. I can cleanse mother a little further now that I have Grandfather's armor." Ruthie stepped back and looked. He surely did have Grandfather's armor. They both stepped back and held hands and said as they each hiked up their plate booted feet and said as they both tossed down a lit candle as if they appeared from out of nowhere. Daz even had a mechanism that ran down his arm, armed with a candle and a pack of candles ready to go again past this zippo like lighter that ignited with the push of the button that dropped the candle down. It flew past his fingers already burning and the bottom softened so that it stuck onto the floor nicely. Then they said," The power of Shit cunts compells you!" and they stomped down hard. With eough force the foundation of the house shook. A blast of light emenated from them both and washed over ishellia. She screamed once but held the women around her as the holy fire of God cascaded through her body. Tiny black tendrils of ectoplasmic goo came through her skin. The three woman pulled each tendril free and it felt as if each one struggled with them in an effort to go back into the host body. Val went to get a metal bucket and held it for them to finsh cleansing Ishellia. Ruthie looked at her brother and said," Grandfather's armor is the dopest set of armor I have ever seen." Daz looked at her and said That word is so 2020." She chuckled slightly and shoved his arm. and said," That still doesnt exlain where Alitha is." He looked at her and mournfully said, " When I was in Gahennah, I was sent on a mission to our home town to kill everyone. I was remembering  who I was in snippets because I had excalibur on me. I found our home and I went in and she was there." He took some breaths and continued," She thought I was going to kill her. So she stabbed herself in the heart! She didn't even try!I am so angry at her. Why would she do that Ruthie? Why? I would never have obeyed Lucifer. I wasnt obeying him. Then I found out she lost a baby.I was really lost and then I ran into the Melwreth twins and Kerari and I just clicked like we had nevr left the grove." Ruthieanne took it all in stride and rubbed her brother's arm and said," Thanks for saving us today. I am ever grateful."

The women helped Ishellia up onto her feet and into the spare bedroom. Ruthieanne and Rahnyah helped her into the bed and Jacxieblue pulled up the chairs. Ishellia was still shaking in spasms that shook her whole body. Rahnyah looked over her shoulder and said," Val can you shift into your tiger form and curl up on Shell? She's shaking so bad right now and her skin is like ice." Val responded. 'She is reacting to having the last of the taint removed from her body. The nano bots will kick in shortly. She wont be able to retain body heat until they jump start her systems again." He said, as he walked into the room. He shifted into his tiger form and jumped up onto the bed and wrapped himself around Ishellia's shaking form. Suddenly, they heard a soft knock on the door and Vallium left the room to see who it was. He opened the door and saw his beautiful grandmother standing there with a warm steaming cup of Imortality potion. He stepped aside and let her through the door and he kissed her cheek as she walked through. He said softly," She's in the back bedroom, father is wrapped around her in tiger form and trying to warm her until those robots do their job." She nodded and reached up and pulled the shawl off the top of her head and stepped into the bedroom. 

Rahnyah smiled broadly and welcomed her to the bed. Madeline sat down on the edge of the bed and touched Ishellia's foot and turned to Vallium and said," GO get Andronus, Karogen, Sherari and your aunt. Go now! I need them right away!" Vallium snapped his fingers and he instantly teleported to his uncles house. Andronus was in the living room when his nephew bamped in and looked up as Vallium said," Mother needs you at dad's house." He snapped his fingers and popped to Ambrosious's hut and they both looked up at him and he said," Grandma needs you at Dad's" He said as he flicked his fingers," Shemanch Rhie Rhom, Prince Valudus's home." The druids stepped inside the portal and they dissapeared. The mage then turned and snapped his fingers and he stepped out of the teleport onto Karogen's front porch. He reached up and knocked on the door and Karogen yelled from inside,' Wait a moment I am already grabbing my staff." He opened the door saying," What's wrong?" Vallium said, Grandmother needs you at father's house." He said as he was about to go to Sherari's house when she rounded the corner of the house and nodded at Karogen and they went two doors down to Val's house. They all entered the house and went straight to the back. Madeline brightened and said immediately," Rhiannon Badger form and onto her chest. Karogen what's your small animal form?" He winced with chagrin and said," Well Your Majesty, its rather large. It's a wolf." She motioned him to shift and said," Hop up here and lay along her right side." Karogen did as he was bid and she turned to Ambrosious." My dear if you could do some of your wonderous healing." The old man smiled and nodded his head moving to Ishellia's feet and touched them. Electric green light came fromm his fingers as he rubbed her feet. He held the healing for as long as he could and sat on the side of the bed .Three hours later Ishellia stopped shaking and began to warm up. soon she woke up and growled," Ok, Ok you all can get off of me now. Thank you so much! I wasnt sure I was coming back from that." Daz looked at his mother and said. "The line should be severed now. You won't hear the voices anymore. Ruthie and I hit you with an insane amount of cleansing spell, we just wanted to make sure." He turned to his aunt and said," You need to retrieve to sword for Rahnyah. She has to go into battle and she needs to have it's power."