Risha Chapter 36

Risha let out a sigh, the last of the foreign people leaving her tent. It had been a long couple of hours, listening to their wishes, then speaking with Glo and Elder Kulos. 

The lizards had been the hardest. They seemed to dislike speaking with Risha, and had answered every question with the briefest explanation possible. The Dark Elves had been more willing to listen after Risha dropped Grand Mother Maya’s name, and had simply asked to be escorted to the caves in the mountains. The small humanoids that Risha discovered to be dwarves had made the same request, but had wanted to stay with the High Goblin Craftsmen in the meantime. Risha didn’t have any reason to refuse, and even though Kulos gave them a dubious look, he agreed with her decision to let them stay.

Risha stretched, then motioned for the two High Goblins to join her.

Risha moved her hand to her cloak, and Kliks crawled onto her hand, “Can you grab Klaz’zks and her people. I’m calling a meeting.” The spiderling jumped off of her, “Glo, can you grab the Elders?” 

Glo bowed, then slipped away. Risha made her way out of the tent and started walking towards the command tent. 

“What do you think, Elder?” Risha asked.

Elder Kulos didn’t answer right away, instead walking with her in silence as they made their way through the camp.

Risha looked at him from the corner of her eye. He stared into the distance, towards the direction the refugees had been taken. “The lizard creatures do not respect you. That is dangerous.” 

“You think so?” Risha asked.

Elder Kulos nodded, “They cannot be predicted. I will make sure someone is watching them. As for the others, I agree with your decision to protect the vine-child. The man who guards her… he feels like a predator. The dwarves and the dark elves are more complex. I will be glad when we return them to their people.”

Risha hummed, her face unreadable. 

They arrived at the command tent and stepped in. Spiders hung from the ceiling, while Klaz’zks stood near the front in her humanoid form, her legs still reaching out from her back. Leaf-Watcher and Klu spoke quietly to each other on the other side of the spider. Glo stood behind the chair at the head of the table, a fancy looking spear in his hand.

Risha walked up to the chair at the head of the table and sat down. She watched the flaps of the door as the last of the Elders and leaders filtered in. 

Elder Kulos made his way over to some of his goblin compatriots. Elder Oltak watched from the other side of the room, his gaze filled with curiosity. 

The last person in the room was one of the orc leaders. He gave a nod to Risha, then Klu, then sat down. 

Everyone quieted, and looked to Risha, waiting for her decision. 

“Elder Kulos, how long until Rilok arrives with the refugees?” Risha asked. 

“A few hours at the latest, Grand Mother.”

Risha nodded, “Leaf-Watcher, what do the scouts report of the humans?” 

“They’ve retreated out of the forest to one of their villages. They are a two day’s run away.” Leaf-Watcher answered.

 “I have decided.” Risha stood from her chair, and lifted her chin, adopting Empress Shyanne’s imposing presence. She let the silence stretch as everyone waited. She smiled wide in a slow predatory smile, a soft growl vibrating her throat. “We march on the Art clan. We leave tonight.” 

Sharp smiles and growls spread through the room. This was why they were here, the reason they left their homes and traveled through the cold mountains. 

Risha walked towards the door, “Ready what you need. I will sharpen my blade.” 

She left, having no desire to plan the attack when there were monsters better suited to the task. Glo already knew what she wanted.

Goblins and kobolds ran past her through the camp, and she noticed several spiderlings as they climbed into her silk cloak. 

She glanced at her status, wondering what her feats meant. During her fighting with the humans, she had reached level 39.  Risha had a feeling that level 40 would bring something special, just as level 20 and 30 had. 

She reached her tent, where one of Glo’s goblin lieutenants waited for her. She was a goblin that Risha didn’t know very well, but if Glo trusted her, then so did Risha.

The lieutenant waited for Risha, then followed her inside her tent.

The High Goblin quickly and efficiently helped Risha put on her purple chitinous armor, then stepped out of the tent. Risha reclipped her silk cloak over her armor, and her little spiderlings swarmed her, hanging from the coat with a happiness that made Risha laugh. 

Risha made her way to her bow, and held up the custom made weapon. She was very happy with the item she’d used since she first evolved. She remembered well how she took down the monster that had claimed so many hunter’s lives. Every arrow had felt so powerful then.

She pressed the wood into the floor, and with practiced ease, strung the powerful bow. 

She tied her quiver to her waist on one side, then her sword to the other. Next was her obsidian dagger, which she sheathed behind the sword. 

Risha stood there for a long moment, her eyes in the distance, as she felt the weight of every weapon on her.
Risha remembered the Overseer. She remembered his sword piercing her stomach as she claimed his head. She remembered her anger.

Risha remembered Earth-Shaker, her teeth ripping his spine out as her claws dug into his side. Nothing had mattered in that moment, beyond killing the monster in front of her. 

Now she readied to fight another monster. A chieftain not too different from either of those creatures. 

“Please.”

Her sword had stopped, inches from taking that life. 

Why had she stopped? Why did her arrow hesitate on the bird that had taken the life of her spiderling.

Was she weak? Was she wrong? 

She had not seen the woman or her flying warbeast since that moment. But that told her nothing. Kliks’s venom was powerful, even with Risha’s healing working against it.

RIsha drew her sword, looking over the well-forged weapon. Notches marred its length, many from her own fights against the oppressors who dared harm her people. Blood too, stained it, a brown that would never leave it. 

Risha smiled, realizing that much of the blood on it was her own. 

She sheathed the weapon. No, her sword was not made to take every life. She chose whose blood would continue to stain it. 

Risha did not regret the lives she’d taken. She took them for a reason beyond herself. She took them for the goblins who rested as bones in the dirt. She took them for every scar that marred her children. She would take more lives, an infinite number, all to protect her children.

Why did she spare some? 

Because she chose to. Because she was not so blinded by her rage that she could not see the innocent goblins inside of every human, monster and elf, loathe as she was to admit the last one.

When that drake had begged for its rider’s life, Risha saw her own love for her spiderlings, the same love she held for Glo, Klu, or Sun-Chaser. 

The Art clan was as far as she could reach for now, but she would not stop. Risha had no doubt that there were more children that needed freedom from chains. 

Every overseer, Earth-Shaker, or angel would face her wrath if they dared to try and stop her.

Risha turned to the last weapon resting against the wall of her tent. A simple spear.

She grabbed it, then left the tent.

The camp was alive with movement. All different kinds of monster ran to complete their duty. 

Risha spotted a white furred kobold, the cloth covered man and vine-child next to her. Despite the activity of the camp, the monsters parted before Leaf-Watcher. 

Leaf-Watcher caught Risha’s eyes, then changed direction towards her, the two others close behind.

Risha waited for them to arrive. Leaf-Watcher bowed her head. Talo, son of Cala, bowed low and Aliya, the vine-child, copied him.  

“Grand Mother Risha,” Talo greeted. “You are marching.” 

Risha nodded, then waited for him to continue.

“We come with you?” He asked. 

Risha glanced to Leaf-Watcher, who stared back at a loss.

“What about the child?” Risha asked, looking down to the vine-child. Aliya stared back with a strong gaze, an improvement Risha was happy to see.

“I am here,” Talo answered. “Safe with a Grand Mother close.”  

Risha looked into the eyes of the man. Her thoughts quiet as she mulled over how strong the man was. She certainly sensed more to him than he let on.

She looked to Leaf-Watcher, who bowed her head. “I will always have someone by their side.”

Risha nodded, “You can come.”

Anything more was interrupted as a howl echoed through the camp, followed by a few more.

Risha nodded to the three of them, then took off towards the walls. Kliks knew what she wanted, and jumped off of her cloak, expanding so that Risha could ride her up the walls. 

The spider summited the walls, and Risha looked down on a long caravan of bloody and exhausted creatures making their way to the camp. Orcs, goblins, and spiders wound their way through the forest.

Rilok had exceeded Risha’s expectations with the number of creatures he brought. 

She spotted the orc, near the front of the caravan, observing the monsters as they made their way into the military camp. 

Sensing her gaze, he looked up, spotting Risha on the walls.

He bowed his head low. 

Risha smiled. 

It seemed that Risha would have lots of evolutions to get through before they left.

***

They marched through the night, making quick progress towards the edge of the Art Clan’s territory. Risha rode one of her spiderlings near the fronts. Teams of scouts roamed ahead, taking out the occasional patrol around the orc-goblin village. 

They arrived with the first rays of sunlight, descending on the first village. The orcs stationed there attempted to resist, but were no match for Risha’s full army. More goblins and spiders joined their ranks, while prisoners were escorted back to where Klu watched their rear.

Three more villages faced the same fate before the Art Clan war-party realized what was happening. 

At the fourth village on the second day, they met their first organized resistance. Scouting parties clashed, and Risha’s forces moved forward inch by inch to take the walls of the village before the bulk of the war-party arrived. 

The two armies stared at each other through the forest, and small parties fought over strategic points as Glo played a game of tiles against the enemy orc chieftain. 

Risha trusted her general, and moved where he asked her to, fighting with her spiderlings to control key points. 

Glo’s strategies won battle after battle, but Risha still watched as orcs, goblins and kobolds died for her cause.

She accepted the deaths, and she stood tall, refusing to bend under the weight of her decisions. Instead, she placed her hatred and grief into her sword, taking heads as she became a demon on the battlefield.

Orcs were made for battle, and their battlelust was strong. 

But when the High Goblin in purple armor arrived with her purple spiders, they learned what fear was.

Her sword was bloodied, and she did not stop, no matter how long the battle went, her power only increasing with every slain orc. 

At the end of one night, she finally reached it, level forty.

Skill [Mother’s Spiritual Advancement] gained!

[Mother’s Spiritual Advancement]: Advance or change your children’s evolution with magic matching the Grand Mother’s Element.

***

Epigraphs on RR since last update:

Chapter 29:

They came from the depths, a terror undefinable. Shadow and flame, the magic of the old world resting at their fingertips. Our armies fell, like branches in a storm. We called for help, but it was too late. The Elves fought in their forests, and the dwarves hid inside their strongholds. Our people died.

All would’ve been lost.

The Ice Giants left their cities of frost, and the angels descended from the clouds. They fought beside us, in an endless battle against the monsters of the depths. 

And monsters they were. Some hid their features behind cloth, while others lived wreathed in fire. The orcs of the surface fought beside them, furthering the rot that they brought.

We fought tooth and nail, and we lost, until she came.

-Saint Alexander, Son of Shyanne. On the War of the Second Age and the rise of Grand Mother Shyanne,