There were plenty of wounded riders to attend to when they arrived near the stables. Even some of the horses needed healing also. Arlhenwe and Idrial went to check on those who needed aid the most, while the children spread out and began assisting the riders.

"Come on Serna, lets see what we can do," The kurori took her hand walking over to the captain.

"Okay!" Serna walked over the Captain Andaerean with Caliaphy.

He turned around to see them approach, "You two can help me lead the horses to their stalls."

"No problem!" Serna began to get to work, first approaching the horses calmly before she lead them to their respective stalls.

After leading several horses each, the kurori took a break and stretched for a bit. She wasn't used to that much physical labor, and gasped at the sight of the swordsman riding up with an orc head in one hand, "What the heck is that??"

*********

Covered in blood and guts, Irzen spat upon the corpse of the fallen Ashuruk and stumbled across the battlefield nearly exhausted from the fight. Off in the distance, his Elven eyes spotted Gruumasht hiding in a tree line observing the battle and its terrible result.

With his blood-soaked sword in hand, the Swordsman pounded his blade against his chest, opened his arms in open challenge and screamed the Drow cry of victory, "WESTFALL VICTA!!!!"

++++Drow to Common Translation: "WESTFALL VICTORIOUS!"++++

Captain Andaerean rode over to Irzen nodding with approval, "One less to deal with. We've gathered our wounded and our dead. Come join us later if you will, Lord Irzen."

With a wild-eyed look, the Swordsman turned towards the mounted calvaryman, "Siyo! Siyo! Usstan orn valm dos! Udos inbal casexiggus victa nindol tangi!"

++++Drow to Common Translation: "Yes! Yes! I will join you! We have emerged victorious this day!"++++

Seizing the head of Ashuruk by a single tuff of hair on its head, Irzen marched wearily over to the wargoat, "Doer! Ori'gato udossa yutsu ulu udossta abbanen l'amith udossta ultrinnan nindol tangi."

++++Drow to Common Translation: "Come! Let us return to our allies and enjoy our victory."++++

The wargoat snorted at the stench of the dead orc's head in protest. Once Irzen mounted again, the wargoat galloped back to the city of Westfall where the gold dragon watched all of them return alive. Well most of them.

Satisfied the immediate danger had passed, Perthonexio left and returned to the gauntlets once more leaving a very tired elementalist walking through the main gate. Lazheros was already there waiting for her when she collapsed and caught her just in time. One of the handmaidens watched from the wall in silence as the bronze man brought the elementalist up and past her.

Lazheros stopped for a moment, "Is there something you, or the princess needs?"

The handmaiden said nothing backing out of the way, her hand on the hilt of her weapon. There was a nervous twitch in her eye as sweat poured down on one side.

The bronze man now faced her, his gaze bore into her mind and she resisted him, "My apologies," And he stepped past her setting the elementalist down on a bench just as she drew her jagged blade. Her strike was blindingly fast swinging to and fro but the armor that the bronze man wore deflected it.

The sounds of a weapon hitting armor drew out the ranger.

"What is going on here?" The Prince stepped toward the confrontation between The Cleric and the Hand Maiden with his hand upon the hilt of his sword.

The hand maiden's expression turned maddening and crazed now, her eyes wild and filled with an uncontrolled rage since her first target was unfazed by her killing stroke. Whirling around, Willow now faced another broken puppet of Gruumasht. Out of one sword came another identical jagged blade slashing wildly at the ranger forcing him backwards. Quick hard strokes from the assailant dropped two of the royal guards before they could intercept. Blood soaked eyes continued to rage from the handmaiden screaming uncontrollably when she charged the ranger with intent to kill him and everyone else now.

"Whoa!" Willow ducked, bobbed and weaved as best he could to avoid the slashing, jabbing and stabbing motions of the Hand Maiden's lethal attack. She was on him so quickly and so furiously that he barely had enough time to pull his blade free of his scabbard to defend himself.

Princess Liliandra came out now, she was utterly mortified at the sudden carnage, and more so as one of her most trusted handmaidens turned into a blood thirsty maddening killer. It was a scene from John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars slightly scaled down but still scary as hell with an elf consumed on killing everyone around her. Using her own magic, the princess was able to Hold the handmaiden long enough for Willow to put down the assailant before anyone else fell.

The Prince quickly ran her through with his sword and took a step back as he gasped, "Thank you, Lili! She was so fast and so quick. I barely had time to do anything."

Looking at the two fallen royal guardsmen, Willow ran over to them to check and see if they were still alive. One of them was dead yet the other was barely clinging to life. The Prince turned to his sister-in-law, "Get the Cleric! NOW!"

"Willow," The elementalist opened her eyes leaning against the stone wall, "He's right here."

Lazheros went over to the fallen guards and healed the one he could save. Sadly though, the other guard was gone, "He has gone to join his ancestors, Prince Willow. The other will be fine after some rest, and for that creature, I have seen this before and only once. She may of been an elf once but when her mind is broken, there's only instinct and blind rage. There is a being capable of bringing out the evil in a soul, and he is very good at it. A half orc Brujah-warlock who specializes in creating Meat puppets, and if I miss my guess, he's the one behind this."

War Scribe merely looked on and did what she always did--record all that she saw in her tome.

****

Irzen proudly rode back into the castle, dismounted from Billy and handed the reins of the wargoat over to Caliaphy, "Plynn bwael kyon d'ukta, qunnessaa, uk uriu ussen'me uns'aa al nindol tangi."

++++Drow to Common Translation "Take good care of him, fairy, he has served me well this day."++++

Caliaphy waved her hand back and forth, "P.U! You stink! You need a bath!"

Then the Dark Elf walked towards the ramparts to find Prince Willow and Princess Liliandra with the head of Ashuruk still clutched in his hands.

The swordsman came into a new scene of carnage normally saved for the battle field with one very disturbing and vicious and very dead hand maiden.