The night was alive with the crackle of burning wood. Orange light flickered through the trees as Aron's band moved swiftly beneath the cover of smoke.
The forest they had called their shield now threatened to become their grave.
Lina ran at Aron's side. "The fire spreads faster than we thought. We have to find open ground."
Aron's breath came hard, but his mind was clear. "The old quarry," he said. "Stone won't burn. We can make a stand there."
---
By dawn, they reached the quarry — a hollow of gray stone, forgotten by time, deep and wide enough to shelter the band.
Garron looked back at the smoking woods. "We'll lose the forest. But we'll live to fight."
Aron nodded. "And when the fire dies, we rise from the ash."
---
They set to work fortifying the quarry. Stones were stacked, arrows prepared, every hand put to use.
The people were tired — faces smudged with soot, eyes red from smoke — but they did not falter.
Mara moved among them, offering water, bandaging wounds, speaking words that steadied hearts.
---
By nightfall, they saw the enemy's torches on the ridges above — the Scourge, closing in.
Lina spotted them first. "He sends his hunters. They mean to trap us here."
Aron gripped his sword. "Then we turn the trap. We hold this hollow, and we make him bleed."
---
The battle began as the moon rose.
Arrows hissed from the quarry's edge, finding gaps in the Scourge's advance. Garron's stones crushed those who tried to scale the walls.
Lina led a small band, striking from hidden paths at the enemy's flanks.
The quarry rang with the clash of steel, the cries of the wounded, the roar of defiance.
---
For hours they held, though the Scourge pressed hard.
At last, as dawn broke over the burning land, the enemy withdrew, leaving behind their dead.
Aron stood upon the stone, breathless, bloodied, but unbroken.
"We live," he said. "And so the fight lives too."
---
Far away, upon his black hill, Jaren watched the smoke rise, his silver mask cold and still.
"Stone and ash," he murmured. "Let him cling to them. When next I strike, I bring the storm."