The Fires of Summer (first draft)

All hell breaks loose.

Guards spread into the crowd, fighting off all of the pirates trying to get close to Corvus. There are so many of them it's impossible to count their numbers. Haley tries to push through to get to his dads, but a guard blocks his way, brandishing a sword at him.

Haley takes his cutlass and swings it at the guard's sword arm. The guard immediately lifts his sword to defend himself and the metal of their weapons shrieks as they clash. Haley is the weaker man and so his arm gives way, the sword swinging at his chest. He backs away just in time for it to slice down where his body just was, and instead of pursuing the fight, Haley flees back into the crowd.

His next best bet is to get to his ship. While the guards are all on land, an ocean attack would be optimal - if they can strand Corvus he'll have no option but to be taken prisoner. He pushes through the crowd, trying to ignore the sounds of screams from both Sanguis guards and the people of Pirate Island. He hears footsteps behind him and turns to see Axel, Gray, and Vimmie running after him. Axel is already splattered with blood, and Haley dreads to think who has fallen victim to him and his magic, even now.

They stop running as they turn off into another street. There's already fighting there, the guards having moved quickly throughout the island. There's just as many here as there were among the main crowd.

"I'm going to go get my ship," Haley tells them as they catch their breaths. "If we can strand Corvus and his guards we'll have a better chance of reaching our goal."

Axel looks around frantically. "Has anyone seen the rest of my crew?"

Haley's eyes flicker out to the fighting on the street ahead. He can't recognise anyone, but a sickness sets itself within his stomach thinking about them. "I'm sure they'll be okay. Some of them might be on the ship - we'll see when we get there."

Axel nods, though he doesn't seem any less concerned. "We'd better hurry up then, before this gets any worse."

As if he'd jinxed it, Haley hears the sound of wood crumbling and looks around to see flames slowly crawling up a building, emanating from a bundle of wood at the bottom. It looks as if it'd come from the sky, and suddenly he realises that the Sanguises must have catapults on the ships. He can't watch as it all sets alight, instead getting on his feet and leading the bunch down the street.

They're stopped by a troop of guards with blood-covered swords. Haley immediately lunges, stabbing his cutlass at one's stomach, but the blow is deflected with ease and returned. Haley moves out of the way in time for the blade to only make a small tear in his coat. Haley aims next for the arms, and this time he's quick enough that he makes contact, his cutlass ripping into the flesh of the guard's sword arm. The guard drops his weapon and yells in pain, but he's not out of commission for long, swinging his fist at Haley's face. The punch hits and Haley recoils in pain, forcing himself not to reach up to clutch his face. He instead primes himself for another slash, aiming to take the guard's legs from under him. With nothing to defend himself, the guard is forced to withstand the blow and he crumbles to the ground, reaching for his sword. Haley kicks it away before he reaches it.

Gray seems to be struggling with his dagger, new to fighting with blades, and so Haley swings to his rescue, taking the guard's attention off the dragonborn for a minute. While the guard is turned away, Gray stabs him through the chest, sending blood splattering at Haley. Haley stares wide-eyed at the wound, then up to his friend, who looks equally as shocked. Gray withdraws the weapon, watching the guard drop to the ground, and he takes an audible breath but doesn't say a word. They share a look that says 'we'll talk later' and they both turn to Vimmie, who seems to have knocked out the guard confronting her. Then they look to Axel, just in time to watch the blood sputter from his guard's gaping throat wound. Haley looks away and starts running.

"Ophelia!" Axel suddenly gasps from behind them. Haley's eyes dart all around the street until they land on an alleyway where Ophelia is fighting off a guard.

As they approach they hear her speak. "I'm on your side, stop it!"

The guard doesn't stop, swinging her sword at Ophelia and pushing her against the wall, where she has little room to manoeuvre. Haley furrows his brows. On their side?

Axel attacks the guard relentlessly, plunging his dagger into her back. She cries out in agony, turning and swinging her blade at him. He leaps back, avoiding the attack, but doesn't give her any time to recover from her attack, lunging right back at her and dragging his dagger along her throat. Axel is covered in blood now, his face and chest splattered all over with it, and as he looks at Ophelia his eyes are dark. "'I'm on your side'?"

Ophelia avoids his gaze, keeping her weapon high. "I just said it to get her to stop."

"Don't lie to me," Axel says. His pale hand is wrapped tight around his dagger, turning his knuckles white. "What did you really mean?"

Ophelia looks to Axel and then to Haley. He can't quite read the look in her eyes, but whatever it is puts a feeling deep in his stomach that he doesn't like one bit. She lowers her gaze. "After you started working with me, Axel, I let it slip to the wrong person who I was helping. The Sanguises came to me with an offer. They'd either arrest and charge me for high treason for working with you or I could be a spy for them, to tell them your plans so you wouldn't be able to get this far. But after the ball I stopped telling them! I couldn't do it anymore. I never wanted to betray you, I had no choice-"

"No choice?" Axel hisses, slamming his blade into the wall next to her head. She cowers, staring up at him with her eyes blown wide, her hands trembling. "You could've told me. I would've kept you safe better than anyone could."

"I didn't know that," there are tears rolling down her face, "I didn't know you that much."

"You know me now," Axel says, his ears twitching. "I'm glad my friendship meant so little to you."

"I'm sorry," Ophelia sobs, squeezing her eyes shut. "I'm so sorry."

Axel pulls his weapon out of the wall and stares at her as if thinking hard about something, then he steps away. "Get out of here. I don't ever want to see you again."

Haley holds his breath. Axel walks back to the group, his tail lashing hard behind him and his face cold. Before they can completely turn away, Ophelia calls out, "Haley, there's something I have to tell you."

He stops in his tracks. What could Ophelia possibly have to say after all of that? He approaches her and his chest aches to see her so upset. She looks just like...

"Ellamia. I think you deserve to know that she was my sister," Ophelia says.

Haley stares. How didn't I put this together sooner? he asks himself, frustration building up inside of him. He can't help the resentment that crawls up into his throat. "You bullied Ellamia until she ran away. You're the reason she hated her birth mark."

"I was young and stupid, I never realised how much harm I was causing," Ophelia tries to explain, but Haley doesn't want to hear any of it.

He backs away, shaking his head. "I don't want to hear it. You should leave."

Ophelia clutches her cutlass, gives him a long and melancholy look, then she disappears around the corner of the alleyway. Ellamia had always hated her birth mark because of her family's beauty standards. They ruthlessly bullied her for not meeting the aquatic elves' beauty standards until she couldn't take it anymore. Haley can't imagine sweet Ophelia doing anything like that. She's always been quiet and reserved, and nothing like the bully Ellamia had told him about. But there's no doubt they're related - they look so similar that it's uncanny.

He can't linger on it for much longer. They're running out of time. Haley leaves her behind, heading back on the way down the street, trying to put it behind him and push away all of the emotions to the back of his mind.

When they reach the dock, Haley quickly realises they've wasted their time. Out on the water is a wall of ships blocking them into the dock. If anyone were to move, they'd be blown to pieces.

That's when Axel falls to his knees. Haley immediately turns around, expecting to see someone standing with a bloodied sword over him, but there's nobody there. Axel is propped up by his hands and he's breathing heavily, his head facing the ground.

"Axel?" Haley looks around for any threats, but most of the guards are engaged with pirates. "Axel, what's going on?"

"I don't know," he gasps.

Spikes begin to burst from his back, his entire body trembling, and horns sprout from his head, shaped in an arc much like his demonkin form. He starts to grow. Haley can hear every snap and crack of bones and every tear of flesh and muscle as his form changes, getting larger until he towers over them, no longer Axel but a great beast. He extends his long neck, opening one white eye and opening a jagged mouth to reveal sharp teeth. His neck is made up of two pieces that twist around each other. He has six arms with hands scarily human, and two skinny back legs with sharp claws. His tail has a mouth of its own that breathes with him. Slowly he unfurls two wings, insectoid apart from the hand in the middle joint that spreads across them, holding them together. All over his body are flowers and thorns. Haley blinks up at him, and slowly he realises he's seen this before, in his dreams - it's the thing that swallowed him and the eel. But then, what was the other creature that he'd seen? It'd been so similar yet looking at Axel he knows it wasn't this.

Nearby everyone's heads have turned to stare at the beast that has appeared before them. Axel beats his wings, the power of them sending Haley to the ground, and he takes to the air, then launches himself at the ships blocking the way. He tears them to shreds. Cannons are fired in a desperate attempt to fight him off but he avoids them, his six arms destroying their masts and ripping apart the wood that makes them up.

With this, Haley won't need to attack from the sea. Axel takes off again, heading back in the direction of the south dock, and Haley runs after him, back through the streets. Gray and Vimmie are on his heels.

As he rounds the corner back onto the main street, he sees the turmoil the Sanguises have created. The smell of smoke wafts into his nose and fire surrounds him, burning through homes and shops and diners. Haley's stomach churns and twists but he doesn't stop, charging back into where the fighting is at its worst.

Immediately he's faced with an attacker. A guard closes in on him, not giving him a moment to think as a sword comes swinging at his head. Haley narrowly manages to fight it off, putting all of his strength into pushing the sword away with his cutlass. He knows he can't hesitate, and he throws himself at the guard, stabbing at the spot where the breastplate separates at the side. Haley doesn't notice the sword that swings at him in retaliation and there's a heavy pain in his arm as the blade rips through it, opening a wound that starts to bleed down his coat. He yells in agony, squeezing his eyes shut, but he knows he can't give up. Haley aims for the guard's leg, slicing a deep wound into their thigh, making them crumble to the ground. He steps over them and looks up to the water ahead.

Axel is grappling with the man of war. His long body wraps around it like a snake, his tail and mouth both working to rip the gold plating from it. His head hangs in front of a cannon. Haley knows what's going to happen before it does - there's a bang and a cannonball slams into the side of his head. Axel goes slack, his body sliding off the ship and disappearing into the water as though it's no longer there.

Haley sprints in his direction, pushing through the crowd. Axel is somewhere down there in the water. Haley remembers the feeling of water flooding his lungs, heavy inside of him, and he knows immediately he can't let Axel meet that fate, forever drowning. He screams his name, passing where Corvus is still fighting the Pirate Lords, but just as he breaks through the crowd a group of guards block his way.

Haley explodes. He can't feel Axel. When he reaches out with the bond there's nothing there. He can't feel Axel's life force thrumming through his body or the feelings coursing through him, and a feeling of dread rises up through his chest. Haley shakes, clutching his cutlass, his eyes flickering between each guard with resentment.

He looks to the sky. The ravens of Pirate Islands are flocking in the sky above him, a great flock swarming and waiting. Haley extends his cutlass towards the guards and screams, "Tamziquha 'iilaa qatae, tamziquha 'iilaa gatae!"

The flock swoops. Their bodies become like blades, tearing through the guards. There's a sound like a bird's squawk from Corvus and when Haley turns to look at him he's faltering, birds clattering against his armour. His wings flap once and ice starts to envelop them, but it opens him up to the Pirate Lords, who don't hesitate to attack.

Haley can't hear a thing. He steps towards the guards, only to see they're starting to look deathly pale. At first he thinks it must be their injuries, but swiftly he notices the tattered black spreading across their skin and the way their skin seems to be shrinking over their bones. One staggers and falls. Haley watches them fall to the ground and sees beneath him the ground is black and the seaside grass has wilted, grey and lifeless. More of the guards get sicker and sicker, and one of them starts to cough. Black slime starts to ooze from their mouth.

There's a familiar sound. Someone's calling his name, but he can't find it in himself to turn to look at them until a hand clasps on his shoulder and starts shaking him. He blinks, then looks to see Gray, his eyes dull as he coughs and splutters, calling his name over and over. Haley looks further to Vimmie, who is clinging to Gray to stay standing, her skin tight on her bones.

Haley lifts his hands to his face. His fingertips are black and there's a weakness in his bones. Gray shakes him hard and suddenly it all becomes real. He gasps at the carnage and reaches out to Vimmie, holding her up.

He casts one glance out to where Axel had been. He'll live, Vimmie won't.

Haley and Gray work to pull Vimmie out of the fighting, pulling her into an alleyway. She's gasping for breath, her chin splattered with the same black goo as the guards. A weight settles in Haley's chest and he feels tears prickling in the corners of his eyes, but he fights them back when suddenly they're met with company. Two guards close in on them, and immediately Haley recognises one of them.

"Whitmore," he spits. He blocks Vimmie with his body and Gray closes the way to her beside him, brandishing his dagger, a guttural growl in his throat.

Whitmore looks terrible in Sanguis armour. It sits funny on his skinny body and his face looks far too innocent to be a part of them, like he couldn't do a bad thing to save his life. Haley knows all too well that it isn't the case. Both him and the other guard face them with a sword. Haley remembers his gift from the Pirate Lords.

"You traitor. How has it been kissing Corvus' ass?" Haley points his gun straight at Whitmore's head.

"Pays better than bein' a pirate," he returns, his dark eyes watching the barrel of the gun. "Ain't so polite to point a gun at a man y'ain't seen in seven years."

"Not so polite to betray your entire crew for a pretty penny," Haley fights the overwhelming urge to just shoot, to not give him a chance. "They're all dead because of you. Those three young lads died horrible deaths because of you."

"That was Corvus' doin', not mine," Whitmore says.

Haley can't stop himself. He pulls the trigger, but just before the bullet fires Whitmore moves out of the way, as if he'd been expecting him to shoot. Whitmore is fast when he attacks like a vicious viper but Haley meets his strike with his cutlass. There's no time to reload his gun so he instead cracks it against Whitmore's head to give him a moment to regain himself, putting away the weapon and focusing his energy on his blade.

Whitmore recovers quickly. He strikes at Haley's neck, and when that is deflected immediately moves to slice his arm. Pain ripples through Haley and he steps back, giving himself space for just a moment. Haley remembers why the man had been on his crew and he steps up his game. He has to think like he did as Captain Undying, the best warrior on the Bloody Undead and a captain worthy of his title. He fights with similar ferocity, this time with the intent to kill.

Strike after strike is met with metal on metal. Whitmore is careful, making sure to keep himself on guard at all moments, careful that he doesn't strike too far from a position where he can defend himself. Haley struggles to catch him off guard. He seems too present, too practised. Haley manages to finally cut Whitmore where there's a gap in his armour, under his chestplate. Blood blossoms from the spot, dripping along the silver metal. He doesn't falter, immediately lashing back.

"They say the blades they give us can kill anything, even the divines. I'd like to put your title to the test," Whitmore says as he presses his assault into full blow. Suddenly Haley loses his momentum and he staggers, his sword arm no longer protecting himself. Whitmore goes straight for the throat.

Gray jumps in front of him.

All Haley can see is the spray of blood as his throat opens and his life spills out of him. He collapses to the ground. He has no time to mourn, Whitmore pressing forth immediately, the blade against his throat in less than a second.

The guard beside him hesitates. "Whitmore, we need to bring him back alive."

Whitmore grumbles, disappointed, keeping his blade at Haley's throat. Haley looks at his feet, where Gray lies with his throat gaping. He looks peaceful, his eyes closed as though he'd anticipated his end. His dagger is clutched in his hand and Haley wants to reach down to grab it, but before he can even ask for it the other guard grabs it and puts it in his belt. Whitmore frowns as he looks at Haley. "Y'should beg the King for a pardon. It's the only option for you now."

"I'd rather die," Haley spits. He can feel the tears rolling down his cheeks fast.

"There's whispers he has mercy in mind for you," Whitmore continues, pressing the blade harder into his neck, as though he really wants to slice.

"He can shove his mercy up his feathery ass," Haley bites back.

"You can't say I didn't try," Whitmore sighs, nodding to the man beside him.

Before he can speak another word the other guard's fist connects with his skull and he blacks out.

When Haley wakes up, he starts crying. He doesn't yet register anything around him, tears blurring his vision, and he wishes he didn't wake up at all. He sees Gray's broken body in the back of his mind, the scarlet leaking from him like a tiny ocean. Another person the Sanguises have stolen a future from.

He finally tunes in to his surroundings. As far as he can see, he's being carried over someone's back and he's heading down the main street again. The sound of fighting has died down. He tries to move his hands and feet but finds them cuffed, rendering him completely useless. Even if he summons his wings there's little chance he'll be able to get very far.

The buildings around him are up in flames. The home he's loved all his life is burning. It's all burning. Everyone's going to die, he thinks, everyone I love is going to die.

That's when he sees the worst part of it all. As he's carried to the shoreline, he's put on the ground on his knees. The crowd is covered in a sheet of ice holding them in place, and his dads are frozen on their knees too. Their hands are blackened with frostbite and their weapons on the ground. Corvus stands over them panting, icicles formed on the ends of his feathers, his skin speckled with frost.

"You thought you would stand a chance against me?" Corvus laughs bitterly, breathless, spear in hand. "You pirates are more foolish than I thought."

"You're a fool to come here. The resistance will be tenfold," Gambi returns, his voice still slurred. They Pirate Lords have been drinking before the invasion. He can barely move his hands and his axe lies just out of reach in front of them. Haley can't help but feel like it's all cheating, to use magic against the Pirate Lords.

"And mine will be even greater than that. Your reign is over," Corvus beats his wings and the ice falls, smashing on the floor, splintering in all directions. It's ice cold when a piece touches Haley's hand.

That's when Gambi turns and sees him. A look of despair crosses over his face and he leans towards Corvus as though wanting to lunge at him. "Leave Haley out of this. Kill us if you want but don't take him."

"This one?" Corvus tilts his head towards Haley as he folds his wings neatly on his back, elegant as ever. There's blood on his light armour. "Captain Undying has been a thorn in my side for long enough. His fate is in my hands, now."

"You bastard," Gambi says, and then he shouts, "you bastard!"

Corvus simply tuts and flicks his wrist in the Pirate Lords' direction. Guards move in to cuff them, their hands first and then swiftly their legs as the ice melts away at Corvus' will. Haley feels too weak to shout and argue. He's lost Ophelia, then Axel, then Gray. Now he's going to lose his fathers. He wilts, folding in on himself, then he's picked up again and the battle is over.