Jula screamed, but she was pretty sure everyone else was screaming too judging by the noise.
They had been seated further back on seats far too large for them, and waited. There had been noises, a whining howl that grew louder and louder eventually drowning them out, and the ground had lurched away from them. Not the ground they were sitting on, but the ground they could see through the beasts mouth and the mountains beyond. Soon they were rushing forward and out of the cavern into the open air. That’s when the screaming started. There was a tremendous rush of air as the mouth slowly closed and the peaks below them rushed past. Soon the ramp had shut and the terror subsided into white knuckles griping anything solid for dear life.
Looking to the knights for reassurance Jula noticed none of them had moved, their legs immobile like statues although helmets bobbed as a wordless conversation took place amongst them. One of the knights waved his arms in mock fear, and several others shook as if laughing, helmets glancing back at the youths.
Straightening herself she scowled at the thought of how she’d embarrassed herself in front of the Knights. There was no more time to be shocked, or scared, or afraid. She had to focus and be prepared. What if this was the first test? She had no idea how long the tests would take – years it was said – so she comforted herself thinking it was likely not the end of the road if she had failed.
Looking around to distract herself she took stock of the others. It was odd to see everyone dressed in the strange clothes of the knights, if she didn’t know them she wouldn’t be able to tell who was a Southron and who was from the vales.
“But that’s probably the point,” she thought to herself. Marco leaned in to her and spoke softly, his words almost lost over the rumble that permeated every thought.
“What’re you so deep in thought about?”
“I was just wondering if this might have been the first test.”
“Well we’re not dead, so we’re doing alright I think.”
She rolled her eyes and huffed. “I mean seeing if we panic or not.”
“Of course we were going to panic. I mean flying! Hello! It’s a bit sudden.”
Jula folded her arms and fixed her jaw. “Well I’m not going to be taken by surprise again like that.”
Marco laughed, sliding back in his seat.
“I’m not laughing at you, before you punch me...”
“I would but I’m forbidden.”
“I’m just happy to see you back to your old self.”
“What do you mean?” She relaxed her posture, releasing the tension from her body.
“Well the last couple of days you’ve been a bit out of sorts, ever since that fight with Cab. You know, uncertain about being a knight.”
“Well that’s over, I’m going to be the best they’ve seen, and Cable will eat his words.”
-
The rest of the journey passed without any incident, most of the recruits sleeping fitfully for part of the trip at least. Russo and Nothara periodically came and checked on them, but most of the time they spent away from their sight. After what felt like a hours the Knights returned carrying small red packets. They passed one to each youth before disappearing again.
Jula turned the item over and over in her hands. It felt strange and smooth, like the benches where she first met Russo, but soft like fabric. In shape it was long and thin, the length of her palm, but only two fingers wide. The short ends were flat and thin with a serrated edge.
“It’s food, stupid.”
Jula looked up suddenly, and one of the Southron girls sitting opposite her was holding hers up, opened at one end.
“I know,” retorted Jula in a somewhat unconvincing manner. “I was just looking at it.”
The girl shrugged and started eating from the bag. Jula grabbed a corner and tore it away. The food inside didn’t look too appetising. It was a uniform brown colour, slightly sticky to the touch and fairly firm. Marco had his open too and was sniffing it.
“Given what it looks like, I wouldn’t be doing that.”
He looked at her unimpressed.
“Since when did you get a sense of humour?” he deadpanned.
Smiling, she shrugged and took a bite of the mystery food.
“What’s it like?” Marco asked.
“Chewy.”
“Huh.”
“Yeah.” She chewed the foodstuff, savouring the strange flavour. Slightly sweet but a hint of bitterness. Regardless they hadn’t eaten yet and this... stick was strangely filling for its size. Leaning back Jula closed her eyes and felt a great weariness pass over her and she fell into a deep slumber.
-
A sudden jolt broke her from her reverie. Opening her eyes she found she was slouched against Marco’s shoulder, and had drooled on him slightly. His head was on hers and he started to stir as she sat up. Clearly whatever had happened had woken the others and they all started working their tired limbs. The machine was making a deeper rumbling sound, and though she couldn’t be certain without seeing it, Jula felt like they were going down. The Knights were still immobile, though now Russo and Nothara were standing with them, their backs to the youths.
The machine clunked and lurched again and several of the recruits let out shouts of alarm. Fighting the urge to do likewise Jula gripped her seat and stole another glance at Russo. She frowned when she saw he hadn’t turned and had missed seeing her maintain her composure. Well, she thought to herself, there’ll be plenty of opportunities to come.
“Oh wow,” Marco’s voice broke her from her thoughts. “I really need to go to the latrine.”
“Just don’t think about it,” she replied snippily.
“I’m trying, believe me.”
“Great, now I need to. Thanks a lot.”
“Sorry!” he said with exaggerated exasperation. “Didn’t you sleep at all?”
“No,” Jula snapped again, before softening. “Sorry, I just don’t know how you can be so calm about all this.”
Marco shrugged, “All part of the Emperor’s plan for us.”
She nodded slowly to hide her expression. It was an unusually pious thing for him to say but, she rationalised, it was stopping him from freaking out. There were obviously more obstacles to overcome than simple feats of physical prowess.
The machine roared louder than ever, the floor surging up at them and shuddering, before suddenly going still and silent. A harsh bell chimed atonally and the ramp started to lower. Jula saw the knights turn as one and face the opening as the relative darkness gave way to a harsh, bright light. The glare obscured whatever lay beyond and cast the warriors in a stark silhouette. With the light came a wave of intense heat that knocked the air from her lungs. Breathing deeply she could taste salt on the cloying, sticky wind. Sweat was already beginning to form on her brow as Russo approached, a void of shadow in the light.
“Come, we must be hasty.”
Turning without any further explanation he took them from the machine into the outside.
-
Jula gaped at what she was seeing. She stood on a platform of perfectly smooth stone daubed with geometric patterns and markings. The flying machine fit easily onto its expanse, and several others were alongside it.
To her right was an expanse of water that stretched to the horizon. Deep blue in colour it rippled and crashed onto a wide sandy expanse. She had heard stories of the oceans, but had never thought it would be so alive with noise and movement. The sun was sitting low to the skyline turning the sky a deep crimson, and would set soon.
To her left a vast tangle of plants rose high into the sky on the side of a mountain that rose away into the distance. Massive trees towered up through thick undergrowth of deep greens and yellows. They must be truly ancient things, a hundred canas tall, dwarfing even the great mountain boughs of the Vales. Tiny dots of multi-hued birds flitted between branches the size of Mr Lusow’s chimney. Where the trees of the Vales were tall and upright these were thick trunked and their tops flared like great mushrooms. Jula imagined the entire village would have fit within the trunk of one of and still had room.
Realising the scale she saw that the undergrowth was in fact a dense mass of smaller trees growing together as one gigantic mass.
But that was nothing compared to the sight that was directly in front of them. A massive block of metal rose from the ground in the distance, gigantic beyond anything Jula ever imagined. It sat part in the water, part in the ground, and seemed buried in the mountainside as it curved into the ocean.
The... building, though she found it hard to call anything so large that, was painted in the midnight blue of the Spectral Knights and a titanic winged lightning bolt hung from a pennant that would be ten times the size of one of the mighty trees. A great vane jutted out and upwards in the centre, a second out to the side over a cavernous space that looked too big to be real.
All around tiny specks scurried to and fro, and Jula knew they were people despite her mind telling her nothing made by men could ever tower above them so greatly.
“Have you ever seen such a thing?” remarked Petr, awestruck, “I must be a thousand canas high!”
Jula had to agree with him, though she did note that it was on a strange angle, as if it had been forced into the ground partly turned on its side and downwards. She furrowed her brow as her brain struggled to cope with the overwhelming impossibility of what she was seeing. The shape seemed so familiar, but the size was so...
Turning around slowly she looked at the flying machine, a bead of sweat slowly trickling down her face, then back at the..?
“It’s a big flying machine,” she said with a slight waver in her voice. “It crashed into the mountain and the back’s sticking out, which makes it...”
“The Storm of Wonder,” Russo finished her sentence for her. “Once it carried our ancestors between the stars, but it was forced to come to rest here.”
He smiled – at their uncomprehending expressions, Jula guessed – then continued.
“This is our fortress, our home and our history. But that will do for now young ones, we must make haste to your barracks. You will need all the sleep you can get.”
Finished painting up some Galadhrim infantry for my Lord of the Rings force. I'm personally a bigger fan of LotR over WotR - the skirmish system suits the material much better to me.
