Back at the foot of the mountains, a rather large army was packing up for the morning getting ready to move through the pass. Most of the soldiers, consisting of elves and faeries of various sorts, were ready to go and were waiting impatiently for a lone sphinx to give her permission for them to pass through, as the valley was too narrow for them to go around her territory and they were running out of time to get to their destination; they had to get throught that pass today.
Outside a large tent near the center of the encampment, a (seemingly) young girl was looking at a map of the surrounding area with the war councelors and generals gathered around the table with her. Though she was obviously no human, she appeared to be the human equivlant of about sixteen, maybe seventeen years old. She was a faery, but somewhat different for the classic image of a flower-petal adorned creature the size of one's thumb (though granted she could change sizes. For the moment she was the size of an average human girl). Her glossy chestnut brown hair was pinned up at the back of her head, bound by a silver circlet that, aside from the high quality of her armor and weapons, was the only indication of her rank. Her dragonfly wings,gossamer but surprisingly sturdy, were at rest, almost touching the ground from their length.
Though she appeared young, anyone who saw her emerald green eyes would realize this was no naive, flighty creature. She had a wisdom and a keen intelligence in her that far outshone her apparent age.
She looked up from the map for the moment to steal at glance at Oniba. Oniba Karenina Whitewing was an albino sphinx; she was pure white, from the tips of her horns to her skin to the pads on the bottom her hind paws. The only part of her that bore a trace of color were her pale blue irises. Her pale guardian was in turn watching another of Alambil's guardians: Xiao Fahng, who was perched on top of a large thrity foot (9.14 m) boulder that happened to be sitting in the middle of the field where they had made camp the night before. Xiao Fahng was the tiniest sphinx Alambil had ever chanced to meet. She was young (in human form she appeared to be a mere child of ten or eleven), but at her age she still should have been aproaching an adult size. Right now she didn't even top six feet (1.82m). Alambil gave an inward smile. She had come to the conclusion that Xiao didn't care a whit about her small stature. It had certainly never dampened her perky nature.
Xiao's size did have the unexpected benefit of allowing her to be near unsurprassed in the category of speed and agility. Though she didn't come near the raw power of the other members of her species, her cheetah-resemblant lower half and her falcon wings made her nigh uncatchable.
From her perch on the boulder she kept an eye on the pass through a spyglass.
Alambil's gaze returned to the coucil when her cousin Tarro asked "Alambil, how much longer is this going to take?"
She shook her head. "i just sent Geren up to deal with her..." She gave an inward sigh. She didn't like the forced removal of anyone from their homes, especially when it was war-time related. In all honesty she was surprised. When treated with the proper respect (which varied from species to species) and asked politely, most sphinxs or other "wild" beings were willing to allow them to pass through, especially if it were just for the day. Indeed, that was all they had requested, yet for some reason this sphinx had taken offence...
"Good" said Tarro. At a glance from Alambil he followed with "Cousin, I know your feelings about this, but right now time is crucial, we can't stop for one person right now."
"I know, Tarro. But nevertheless, I do not like forcing her aside, even if it is only temporary. Furthermore, she is not one of our subjects, she is an Independant..."
"Um, Ally?" said Xiao from atop the boulder.
"What is it?" Alambil couldn't help wishing more people would be willing to call her Ally, or at least something not so stuffy and formal as "Your Highness" as most people were want to do.
"Ally, you might want to see this..." she said in a slightly awed voice.
Alambil blinked in surprise. A buzz of her wings lifted her off the ground and carried her on top of the boulder next to Xiao. Wordlessly Xiao handed her the spyglass and Alambil peeked through.
Her jaw dropped.
Oniba, who was watching them, called out "What is it? Did Geren finally meet his match in combat?" halfway jokingly. Geren was known the best sphinx warrior in the empire, and his close friends kept teasing him (as much as one can tease a sphinx) that someday he was going to meet a better fighter than he was.
Lowering the spyglass, still somewhat shocked, Alambil spoke softly in telepathy to Oniba. <Actually... I think he has...>
She expanded the reach of her mind so her telepathy would be sent over a longer distance.
<Geren? Geren, What on earth is going on up there?>
<I'm working on it, Al...> sounding like he was speaking through gritted teeth. <She's just a little tougher than most...>
Making a decision, Alambil collapsed the spyglass. Cupping her hands around her mouth she yelled to the nearby mound that, if you weren't paying attention, could easily be mistaken for a small hill. Albeit a small hill covered in red scales.
"Sorcha! Wake up!"
A low rumbling vibrated the earth as a sleepy dragon head rose into the air until it was on eye level with Alambil.
"Sorcha, come on!" she began to lift into the air.
"What? What is it?" she asked as she shook her head to wake herself up.
< Apparently Geren has finally bitten off more than he can chew> said Oniba as she lifted off. Generlly when they spoke in telepathy it was included to their small group.
<I heard that! Alambil, I can handle this, don't worry about...OW!!> said a very annoyed sounding Geren.
Alambil was already flying toward the fighting mass of feathers after giving a command to her officers to make sure everything was ready to leave. Sorcha soon caught up with her.
<Get on, Ally.>
Always trying to be respectful of other being's personal space, Alambil hesitated until Sorcha dodged under her and lifted her head up underneath Alambil until she was sitting on her head.
<Geren, what was that?>
She got worried when she felt Geren close his mind off to hers so she could no longer feel what was happening to him.
<GEREN! TALK TO ME!>
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