Greggan

As they passed under the gate Greggan could hear the commotion of a fight starting back on the road and assumed it had started.

" how do you beat mages without magic?" The question had been sitting on the edge of his tongue since he first heard tales of the knights of Thre'a and the great mages of the citadel. He always felt it was unfair to use magic against a person who had none. The knight laughed a bit before pointing to his armor. " you see this armor and those shields. Its titan tree iron, it repels most magic spells, the shields are also enchanted so the other half of the spells we can't block with our armor our shields can. Elvish enchantments are more powerful than regular mages and thats what we got on' em. Our swords are also made of titan iron and black lava ore. They can cut through anything even protection enchantments. They're lighter than a gum tree branch of the the same length. And there are of course more of us than there are of them." He laughed a bit more until he heard screams of a few knights followed a few more. " close the gates!" Screamed the knight " we got Mages attacking!" Greggan wasnt sure who he was yelling to but the sounds of cogs clanking and iron sliding filled the air and the large steel gate began to shut. " boy follow this road, it'll bring you to the hard of the city. I suggest you find the orphan home before a slaver finds you!" He took off down another road that looked to lead to dolly like system that took you to the top of the wall.

Greggan stood a few hundred feet from the closed gate and the path to the city, he was frightened(terrified really). This whole ordeal that had begun a few weeks earlier at the destruction of the La'velle had began to look like it wasn't going to be any better any time soon. He let out a shaky sigh, " how come i always have to do every'fing in a hurry." His little legs were still tired but he could at least walk briskly to where he needed to go. He looked down at his shirt and for the first time noticed there were deep lacerations on his chest, they had dried blood caked over the slashes. The pain had numbed but now that he had noticed them they had started to burn and ache more and more harshly.

The walls shook as blasts of magic erupted outside the walls, screams of death had grown louder as the knights were obviously losing the battle outside the walls. Greggan wished he could watch but also wanted to disappear far away from the three mages who seemed to really want Greggan for some reason. Certainly he wasn't worth all this trouble, taking on an entire cities army just so they could sell him for a few silver. Greggan heard the poundings of what sounded to be a thousand footsteps through the alleyways around him. He heard the gates open and those thousand feet pass behind him to enter the fray.

Greggan took off into a sprint once more, he knew his body would drop dead eventually from all his running but he didn't care he just wanted to get away from all the death he was hearing.

He turned many corners and took many twists along his path through the city, warning bells had begun ringing throughout every point in the city and the streets had begun to fill with chaos as the military began to rush to the gates in droves as those not fighting rushed further into the city to the siege shelters below. No one had a clue this assault on their city was over a small boy, im sure they could send out a dozen little slave boys and be done with the whole situation but there was no room in the air for diplomacy while magical and non magical hostilities were at their highest.

There started to be too many people on the streets for him to run, dodging people as he went. He remained unnoticed through the commotion, something he was incredibly grateful for. A few hundred yards away stood a door with the symbol of the house magus on it and underneath the symbol was the words "home for orphans" . It wasn't fancy but not ill kept which was a good sign to Greggan.

A cold wind had kicked up and a slight snow flurry had begun to fall around the city, it nipped at Greggan's bare flesh he went to pull his cloak around himself when he remembered he had lost it hours before. It was well past midnight and on into the early part of the morning where the sun starts to creep in and bring the light into the horizon.

Greggan was certainly beyond tired at this point, he wanted to go somewhere and sleep and get away from this awful adventure he had now found himself on.

The snow fell harder and in more quantity beginning to blanket the inner city in the cold wet powder. Greggans breathe created great clouds when he breathed, his teeth chattered and his skin had begun to turn blue from the cold around him. He felt like the closer he got to the orphan home the heavier his body became and the harder the cold fell on him.

He came to the door of the orphanage and just looked at it for a moment, as if to gain the courage to knock on the door. He's heard many horrible stories about these places, about the people running them using the children in horrendous ways, torturing and starving them. The brothel owner used to tell these stories at night to the children to discourage them from causing trouble for him. " they beat you for asking for a second helping at meals, the pretty boys get dressed up like girls and given to men who don't mind if they have a smaller cock than their new boy brides."

Greggan felt a familiar pull at the scruff of his neck, sharp cold searing pain spread to his shoulders.

He let out a scream before being forced around in the air in the opposite direction. There standing in front of his controlling the icey claws he had escaped from hours before. There was only one of the bald men this time, he looked as if he had barely made it out alive. His left arm hung lifeless at his side oozing blood, there were arrows sticking out of his robes that were now soaked in the red. " because of you, you little shit, both of my brothers are now dead. We had planned to sell you to a blacksmith in another city but now i think i'll just kill you and serve your body to the vultures!" His voice was deep and scary, he eyes were no longer just blue but shone hints of red. He raised his remaining good arm in Greggan's direction and began to call forth his ice magic. Frost covered his fingers and flurries of snow cascaded around his body like a cruel cold dance.

Greggan prepared to be killed, he whimpered and covered his face, " go ahead little boy, cower as i kill you, there will be suffering as i freeze your body slowly. You'll beg for it to end!" As he spoke ice started to collect over Greggan's shoes. It poured in through the holes as he felt his legs start to become stiff and cold.

The ice crepts over his feet and up his trousers, it burned his skin causing him to let out a horrible scream that carried through the crowded chaotic streets. "Please stop! Please have mercy! Please please.." Greggan cried out, tears began to roll down his cheeks and freeze as they fell. He was going to die frozen at the orphan house doorway.

"Oh by the gods i need a miracle." He thought as the frost and ice enclosed his lower extremities and moved to his stomach and chest. His lips began to turn blue and his eyes felt heavy, the cold had begun to dull his senses. It would be all over soon, he thought about his mother and her jet black hair, he wondered where he would go after he died and if the actual act of dying would hurt at all. He prepared for the darkness as the ice crepts up his arms and onto his kneck.

Suddenly the bald man let out a gargling sound deep from his throat as if he had been strangled. Greggan forced his eyes open to see the bald man standing with an arrow coming out of his adams apple blood leaking from his open mouth with the look of a childs horror frozen on his face. He fell to the ground and the cold winds stopped. The clouds that had blocked out the moon and morning sun, disappeared.

The numbness slowly melted away and hisbbodt felt warm again, wet and a still a bit in shock at what had just happened. He looked around the walls and rooftops to see if he could see where it had came from but he couldn't see any archers or people for that matter. He gave up the search and tried to move his stuff aching limbs so he could try to stand up but to his own frustration were still too weak to move properly and support him. He decided to lay back down on the steps for a little longer to get his strength back.

He lay there with his eyes closed trying not to see the bald mans face covered in blood when he closed his eyes but couldn't. After a few terrible hours he decided it was better to keep his eyes open in case someone comes that may want to snatch him up, he was easy prey for a slaver right now.

Greggan through all this had forgotten exactly whose door he had been attacked on, the Orphanage had been vacated during the battle with the ice mages but the occupants of a hundred orphans and many care givers were due to return from the siege bunkers at anytime and Greggan wasn't so apt to stay in AridTown home of the slavers. He wanted to possibly go east away from the war like Davos did.

In his currents state he had only managed to crawl down a few steps before exhausting himself to the brink of passing out.