Saranie
Looking over the hill, her hope left her body. From a prairie, she expected to see green, yellow, and orange tall grass with rolling hills. Wild flowers sparse near a small creek. Sun shining down, warming the hearts of those who happened to pass these lands.
Instead it was a graveyard for the end of the war. Bodies stacked high to mimic hills. Blood stained the ground, while black smoke from craters drifted towards the sky. No sound filled this space other than her expelling the dinner from last night out onto the ground.
She let her mind wander towards a memory from her past.
---
Seranie was a little girl at the age of five. Most of her day included chores around the orphanage and playing with her makeshift family. Her sandy hair blew in the wind as she met one of the new girls joining her family. At the time, she was just standing there not really paying attention to everyone getting to know each other. She just nodded waiting for the moment when she could go back to playing.
Later that night, the new girl asked her to read a book. She declined because it was for babies and she actually didn't pay attention to class, so she didn't even know how to read.
How she hated herself for what happened later.
After that time, she never paid much attention to the little girl as she was younger than Saranie. At that time she focused on the older kids because they played the really fun games.
A few months after meeting the girl, everyone got the news that the girl had died. Yunara was only three years old. Just on the edge of four. The whole thing was sudden, but it hit Saranie especially hard.
With Yunara's death, she tried to interact with most of the kids there at least once. Getting to know their names, likes and dislikes, even helping them out when they need. At the same time, school became an important part of her life. The orphanage doubled as a school, so it was easy for her to receive an education. Saranie learned to read because of Yunara.
The stories she read to the younger kids were in Yunara's memory.
---
Her memory shot out of her mind as she found one of her brothers and sisters. Retii and Klighare. Retii was her sister, the same age as her. They met a few months after Saranie turned seven. She couldn't say they were best friends, but they did hang out in the same group. They had a good friendship.
When they turned ten, a few others came to the orphanage. Klighare was one of them. As a kid, he had a weird haircut that everyone snickered at, herself included, but Retii didn't. From then on those two grew closer. If not for the war, she could have easily seen them getting married.
Their bodies were now under her. Tears falling on their corpses did little to rid their bodies of blood. She cared for both of them, all of her family. Now they lay there dead.
Wiping her face, she looked around for any survivors. She didn't want to be left alone. Her breathing was all she could hear. Only her moving. The dark clouds holding her future hostage.
Another memory came to mind as she pressed forward.
---
Something came with her birthday. She got her first job. For the last two years she had worked as a blacksmith apprentice, but her effort was finally rewarded. Pay and the ability to make her own stuff. To work alone if she needed. It was wonderful and amazing. Twelve years old and a full fledged black smith.
As an orphan, it was tough to get a job. Most like here, just foraged for food in the forest when they were older or did the chores around the orphanage. Of course they could do menial labor or even get an apprenticeship, but because of their upbringing it made it all the more difficult.
How she got the job was interesting to say the least.
One day she's walking to the forest and bam some guy dies. At first people thought the guy fainted because he was a noble, but they felt for a pulse and he was just dead. Nothing. Gone in an instant. Saranie had been one of the people there that had seen the whole thing.
Eventually everyone was round up and questioned. He was the lord's son of this city. So they assumed some poison or whatever. It didn't matter much as she was released a week later, hungry and a little dehydrated, but fine. There was no conspiracy or murder, she heard the guy just happened to die on the spot.
Well anyway, one of the people she met in the jail cell was a blacksmith. Tripharem, a master blacksmith, found that if they made it out safely, she could see him about an apprenticeship. For a profession like a black smith, she didn't know what to make of it.
Detailed work like that, long hours, and the heat… She didn't think she could do it. Actually she never visited Tripharem's shop. She was scared and afraid that she would make a mistake and end up in debt. Her mind asked her to stay away and she obliged.
The city wasn't too small or huge, but they did meet. As a ten year old girl, she ended up giving it a shot when he told her not to be so nervous. Following him, she saw how he worked. Of course she was still nervous. It couldn't be helped, but that kind of work interested her and eventually she joined in. Saranie worked hard at it and learned really quickly on the job.
Two years after she officially joined as an employee, they received a request from the lord.
"We got a new order!" Tripharem called from the front.
The other employees and apprentices, along with her, joined him in the front. It wasn't unexpected to hear him call everyone for a big order, but the size was bigger than they imagined.
The lord was looking for new weapons and armor. They weren't the only ones to receive one like this, but they still put the effort in.
It was easy to see why someone would need weapons and armor from every blacksmith in the city.
War…
---
At the top of the next hill of bodies, she could see a huge vortex in the distance. She had known this storm's center was in this direction the week before this. Everyone knew, but now it was filled with a green magical energy. She could sense it. Ghastly and destructive. Whatever those cultists were doing… They needed to be stopped. From the looks of it, she was alone. No one else. Either fled out to some outpost or hid in the woods. It wouldn't matter if the cultists won. It would all be over. Everyone would die. The planet most likely destroyed.
Everyone, including her, recently learned this whole was a sham. She had hated the idea of the war and last week their eyes were open. The truth had been revealed and the real enemies were out there. The Cult of The Void was an old idea. More of a horror story. Fictional and used to scare kids. She never heard of them as a kid, but most people she had met in their army had.
The cult infiltrated most of the kingdoms. Building over the years towards their goals. No, they believed that power was nothing, that the whole world needed to be destroyed. To be sent back into the void and born anew. If they could bring something from that side into theirs… It would be the end of the world.
So they pitted the world against each other. To fight in major cities and specific battlefields. As soon as the war started, the world was fighting. Thousands, millions of people died. Their magical energy is released back into the world.
Their goal to bring beings into their world needed a lot of that energy. They got it and now she was staring at it. Seranie needed to get there. She started sprinting, her only focus on the horror in the distance.
She tripped on a body and fell down the hill knocking her out…
---
Once she had learned of the war, it wasn't long before she was drafted. Everyone, aged ten and up, were drafted into the Vellheart kingdom's army. Tasked to survive in a war that no one knew was really happening until that moment. But as soon as the fighting started… It didn't stop. Not at all.
She was fourteen years old. Most of her family was with her for the basic training, that helped. It helped them all adjust to the new scenery. Since they were orphans, most people considered them all disposable. In the early days, that stayed true.
Propaganda helped develop their hate for their enemies. Each kingdom, land or whatever all had differences of some kind that we could attack. Some made alliances that were faulty to begin with due to the cult's influence.
Anyway she got her basic training. Cooking, swordsmanship, medical aid and even strategy. There was more, but it was simple stuff. Things she was expected to know along her allies.
With little time to really hone her skills, she and her family were sent out to fight. Most of them had died in the initial attack or had gone mad from the death around them. Saranie was deeply affected. Using their deaths to push her forward and do the same thing she did with Yunara. The girl who's death had set her on her current path to better herself and learn all she could.
She took that moment to specialize her training in…
---
Memories from six years ago.
As she opened her eyes, she gleaned at her blood stained tanned body. Her normal sandy colored hair came undone from her ponytail letting it soak up the blood and dirt around her.
As she tried to push herself up, she quickly fell back down. Her left hand was broken. The fingers weren't doing great. Her whole body wasn't either, but she could live with that. Quickly using an easy and common spell, her fingers snapped back in place. Her mouth shut tight so she couldn't bite her tongue off in the pain.
The only light around her was the portal forming ahead of her. That green light against the black background. Weirdly enough she could see rain and lightning in the distance, but nothing around here. Not around the center of this magical storm.
The war was over now. It was done. Part of her could smile at that and the other part knew it was just because everyone was dead. Gone. Their enemies, full of undead on their side, now outnumbered them.
Again she was alone, but that didn't stop her. It was either die here and try to stop them from opening the portal or die as the world is slowly destroyed around her. No, she approached the ritual. Her allies and past enemies lied next to the undead that were destroyed in an explosion around here. Saranie guessed that with no enemies left, they didn't see the need to keep any undead on watch.
The cultists were few in number at this point. Only twenty she could count, but those were the only ones alive. Actually as she started the count, one of them fell over dead. Probably used too much life force.
She was out of mana at this point. Even using that healing spell on her hand was just enough to remove the last bit from her. Now if she needed to cast a spell, it was time to use her lifeforce. This was the end anyway, so there was nothing she needed to complain about.
Blood was her lifeforce. As long as there was blood in your body, by using your own blood, no one else's, that was lifeforce. Over time your body could make more and there weren't really any downsides to using it. Though most people used it in times of need as it took a while for their bodies to create more blood and if left them light headed at times.
To give someone's blood to someone else was a very bad idea. It would effectively reduce their life force until their bodies could remake their own. Sure in a life or death situation, it needed to be done. But doing so on someone who needed to fight, like her, wasn't such a good idea.
Using her life force she shot out a magical dart at one of the cultists far away from her. They were killing themselves for her, but if they did the portal would open. She needed to end them now. Even if they dodged it or blocked it, it was more of a distraction. So when she saw it hit and damage, she knew she had a chance. The one next to her on the other hand had his head removed by her sword. One that she had made herself.
---
In the camp, just after they learned the truth.
"… and once we are gone and out of the way, they're going to bring something into this world."
"What is it?"
"We don't know and don't want to know. We need to get over there and stop them. That is all that matters. Their location was just revealed to us, so we moved out in the morning."
---
In the next moment, she had slain a few more cultists. They were mostly focused on the portal. That distraction allowed her to cut the early ones down with ease. The rest after that were starting to put up a fight. With hate and disgust, she fought with her life. Their depravity destroyed her family and friends. All the work she put into her life was nothing anymore. The future was no more.
A family… Future…
---
"Since Retii and Klighare are dating, have any of you found anyone special?"
Saranie had thought about it back in the day, before the war. She would have liked to find someone special, to live with them, and grow a family.
Not anymore.
She couldn't and wouldn't focus on a future like that. Most of her friends had died at this point and the war had no end in sight.
---
Saranie wasn't perfect at fighting. Sure she took care of her weapons and armor. It was something she had taken great pride in. She made them and they were her own.
Seeing as some of the cultists had been getting some cuts on her body, didn't help. But she pushed through them. Saranie would kill them all.
---
"Here's the expert we brought in."
"As your commander stated for you before, they are trying to open up a portal or gateway into some other realm. The reason they started this war was to get rid of any opposition and to drain the magic from living beings. It gave them safety and a source of additional power for their ritual."
"How can we stop it?"
"They need time for something like this and they have already been going at it for days. The magical disturbances you have been feeling, have been from that. So we need to push them fast and kill them all right away."
"What if we don't make it in time?"
"Whatever they are trying to bring here, will destroy this world. We cannot fail. If the portal opens up, then the only thing we can suggest is to forcefully close it with your life force. One person won't be enough though, we are going to need at least ten more individuals to help you close it."
---
The last one was up ahead. She sprinted towards him. Her grip was steady and tightened in her grasp. She was bleeding. She was dying. Time wasn't on her side right now.
Alone, no allies. Her squad was gone.
---
"From this point forth, you will make squads with ten people. They will be with you all the way. Once squads are formed, we will have some stay back just in case."
Most thought they were going to die. Those that got to stay back were the safe ones. Of course no one voiced that aloud as this whole situation wasn't looking good. They were all surrounded by people they had been fighting for the past six years. No more fighting against the good guys.
They all knew who were the bad guys now.
Saranie happened to be in one of the squads to stay back. The problem was that they were ambushed. She just happened to be the only survivor or the one to stay behind and fight.
---
Now she was truly alone. No enemies or allies around her. The rest were dead or they fled. Blood raced down from her wounds as she looked at the portal. She wasn't fast enough to stop them. It was complete.
But there was no way she was going to give up.
Saranie planned to tear that portal apart with her lifeforce at any cost. The ten man squads were nothing more than a suggestion in her mind. She couldn't let herself think differently. As she reached out, attempting to pull at the portal, as she made contact she heard noises. They screamed and tore at her soul. Then she heard someone laughing and when she realized that she was the one doing it, she focused on one memory that could always calm her down.
---
The garden.
Behind the orphanage was a luscious garden. It was filled with different vegetables that they grew and ate. It was a stability to help them save up for the winters and other times when food became scarce.
But it wasn't only filled with vegetables. There were flowers amongst them. Colors she would find in a rainbow.
"Saranie, I know it's tough. Yunara was a wonderful girl. You are young right now and you might not understand, but sometimes that might be for the best."
Saranie looked up at a face that blocked out the sun. She didn't understand. "She just wanted me to read her a story." A warm hand found itself on her head.
"If you ever feel sad, come here. Look towards the flowers. They stare at the sun all day so you can see its beauty. Even if we can't, they can for us and look at the warmth they bring to your eyes. Talk to the flowers. Tell them your pain. I'm sure they can help you when you need it."
---
Her hair was blowing across her face. Her mind felt clearer than ever before. That garden was her safety net. It helped her through all the worst times in her life. She especially enjoyed talking to the flowers.
It gave her color in this wasteland. Real focus. With her lifeforce, she grabbed onto the edges of the portal. It sparked against her. A bolt of energy shot into the ground at the side. Focus. It was like she was attempting to stop the grind wheel in the shop with her bare hand. More sparks shot off, some of them were ramming into her. Eventually all of them were aiming for her. Guards to protect the gate.
Her skin burned and charred against those strikes.
Creatures from the inside were getting closer. She could sense them from where she was and that made her work faster. Focus. Sarnie understood why a minimum of ten people were suggested for this. It was impossible-
The garden.
Her family sparked back into her mind. Friends and loved ones. Color spread out from her again. She looked around to see a rainbow of magical energy around her. It was amazing, but she had no idea how it was happening. It didn't matter as her grip on the portal grew tighter. As she tried to pull the portal apart she found her life force going towards the center of the portal with the rainbow. It felt easier and the right thing to do. She squeezed and pushed it towards one point.
She pressed everything in on that one spot. One point in the center of the portal, attempting to collapse it there. It was moving and she was making progress. The bolts of energy kept on hitting her, destroying whatever was left of her. It hurt, the pain was unbearable. She screamed, but that extra pain pushed her further collapsing the portal.
A single moment was all she saw where the portal was closed, before a shockwave and explosion occurred. Her eyes were covered in those rainbow lights. She was being pulled towards the center, but she should be pushed away. It didn't make sense. It didn't need to. It was the last thing she had done.
One thing that did make sense was that she closed the portal and saved the world from the horrors that were on the other side.