Cloak whipping in the wind behind him, Innail ran as fast as he could down the narrow, rocky crevice. Here and there and arrow whipped past him sinking into the mud or bouncing harmlessly off of a rock.

"Only a little farther, my companion!" He shouted to the sorcerer, who was only paces behind him.

"Until what?! We get to run in the trees? Those mastiffs will hunt us down faster in there than the horses or men can run in this crevice."

That's when the crevice ended.

A two hundred yard dash all the way to the tree's was all that was left. But what Innail saw caused him to stop dead in his tracks. Thousands of warriors adorned in black chain-male or black leather. Sitting in the middle of this sat one man in white.

Easy to pick out in the crowd already, he also sat upon one of the flying beasts that had been harassing them for the last three miles. This one was different; it was slightly larger and deep blood red scales encompassed it's mass, as an impenetrable shield.

"Intimidating." That was all he heard from the sorcerer who stood next to him. It was at that moment he realized that he could hear footsteps coming from behind them, and the arrows had stopped.

Squinting to take a closer look at the man in the white robes, he saw long flowing silver hair touched with one streak of deep rich brown on the bangs.

Then he saw the man's face.

"Jaeril! That's Jaeril! We marched together to the Battle of Vindi, fought side by side the entire time. Tough character... though a large surprise to see him leading such a large army."

"Well, it seems we will see what his intentions are in a few moments," The red creature stirred it's wings and lifted off, to power towards them. "Stay wary, always remember people can change very quickly once they have tasted power. He may not be the same man you remember."

With a giant thud it plopped down ten paces in front of them, it's neck stretched out. It looked Innail directly in the eye...