Payments Due

[Taiylor Wallace]

Rogal knew she couldn't figure it out, and when he had a chance, he dove into cover and grabbed the gun. Taking the ramming rod, he shoved it down the barrel, then stood, dodging out of the cover. He aimed and pulled the trigger, and a man nearly thirty yards from him froze, a hole in his forehead, and collapsed on the spot. Rogal came back, reloading in her sight so she could see exactly how it was done, and he gave it back to her, "It kicks back hard, make sure you're ready. Don't fire til you know you'll hit, use the sight on the end of the barrel to aim. Careful love." He bolted out once more.
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It wasn't long before Rogal got them moving again. They were headed for the main square where the city guardsmen were fighting and trying to keep the majority of the enemy back. Some of Iresea's men, the ones who'd wanted to help Hannibal, were fighting at the sides of the guardsmen. But then a huge cannon was rolled out, and the men scattered like mice when it fired, killing five on impact, then the ball exploded into shrapnel and killed or wounded twenty more, enemy and friend. And then, Iresea appeared, roaring at his men: "NO! STOP THIS!" He leapt on the cannon, killing its gunners, but then he was shot in the stomach and thrown aside. He kept trying to fight, but it became painfully clear that his men were not fighting by his orders.

[Rose Swan]

As Rogal and Amelia reached the main square, she watched her brother, trying desperately to stop them from going any further. Amelia forgot to be angry, and threw her gun aside before trying to get to Iresea and pull him over to their side. This involved trying to run on the side of the line of fire trying her best not to get hit. But as she got about halfway there, she realized more gunners had been brought in to replace the men who had been killed, and another ball landed right next to her. As she tried to run off more, the ball exploded, nailing her in the back. She fell over, in a serious amount of pain, but kept crawling to Iresea until she reached him and tugged his sleeve to tell him to come with her.

[Taiylor Wallace]

Iresea punched a man across the face before his eyes turned to Amelia. She saw pain. Not from his wounds, but from how horrible he felt that all this had happened, and he picked himself up. He lifted her up in his arms, barreling his way back across the line to Rogal. "Go!" Rogal told him, "Get behind me in cover, I'm going to finish this now!" Iresea darted back inside one of the stone buildings on the main street, setting Amelia down. Iresea stood over her, ready to defend her, and through the window, she could see her husband pulling out energy stones as a white mist began to form around him, expanding outward beyond the square. Off in the distance, she could see a watchtower on the city's outer wall, and she could see something at it's peak begin to glow. It was a solar cannon. The others were lighting up too, and they began shooting beams of light at people around the city. The main gates had been closed by the enemy, keeping Amelia's other allies out, so they were out of harm's way. Suddenly, Rogal's body and armor began to glow, pulsate even. And with a painfully bright flash and an explosion beyond a hundred cannons' worth of noise, the square was suddenly empty of Iresea's attacking men. All of Amelia's own men stared around, completely confused. All of them were gone. And then they noticed the ash everywhere, and stepped back, horrified.
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Rogal collapsed to his knees, breathing heavily. His palms came to the ground, but didn't stop him from falling over and rolling onto his back, trying to get air back into his lungs.

[Rose Swan]

She would run to Rogal, but she was out of breath and her back hurt like hell. She couldn't believe that the men were gone. Rogal's little weapon had worked, even if the effects weren't that little. Their victory was all because of him. "Iresea... This wasn't your fault. Don't go thinking that. Can you... Can you bring Rogal-Aaaacccggghh!" She hissed as she shifted, causing her injury to hurt even more. There was blood all over her. The shrapnel had gotten her in a terrible place, right in one of her lungs. She could barely breathe.

[Taiylor Wallace]

Iresea knelt by her, "He's alright, just out of energy. You need some serious medical attention..." He took a look at her back, and knew immediately which piece of shrapnel it was that had punctured too deep. "... We need to get you back to the castle." He slowly, carefully picked her up again, carrying her outside. Rogal was being helped up by a couple guardsmen, and when he saw Amelia, he knew she was badly hurt.
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"Love..." Rogal looked at her, nothing but pain in his eyes. He'd failed. But Iresea hurried back to the castle with her, and she was laid on her side in a bed on the castle's ground floor, given all manner of herbs, and the physicians and doctors began pulling shards of metal from her body.

[Rose Swan]

Amelia groaned as the physicians pulled the metal out. She was tired and hurting, and overall just needed some sleep. But she wanted Rogal too, and wanted to know he was okay. And she wanted to know Iresea and Hesca were okay too, and Lenny and Luna. But she was progressively weaker, to the point where her eyes closed and she fell unconscious.

[Taiylor Wallace]

She wasn't quite sure how long she was out, but when she woke, it was early morning. But who knew if it was the next morning or a day or more later. Her back was only in a sort of dull pain, thanks to herbs and a similar earth and plant mixture made by one of the Lunars among her allies. It was still tough to breathe and she'd probably cough up a bit of blood for a while. She saw Hesca in the room, asleep in the corner, curled up in a blanket, bandaged in several places, and she could hear someone pacing in the hallway.

[Rose Swan]

Amelia felt still incredibly exhausted as she looked around to see where she was. She heard pacing outside, and just knew that was Rogal. He was probably worried sick about her. Since she was incredibly stiff, she stretched a little and tried not to roll on to her back. She wanted to see him, badly.

[Taiylor Wallace]

Hesca's leopard ears flicked at the slight sound of her movement, and he picked up his head. She saw he'd been hurt after she left, as she could see a long, nasty cut from his right ear down his jaw and nearly to his chin. "Sister?" He asked softly. He slowly stood, and she saw many more wounds now, all bandaged and cared for. He limped to her side and knelt at the edge of her bed, laying his huge head on the soft sheets, his pained eyes filled with worry for her. "How're you feeling?" He asked softly.
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Rogal heard him speaking, and slowly opened the door. "Love?" His voice let his exhaustion through.

[Rose Swan]

"Tired, stiff, and sore. But better than whenever it was I got hit." She told Hesca and looked up as Rogal entered. Amelia looked relieved now, glad he was okay. "Tell me you didn't lose sleep over me again, sweetheart." she said with a worried smile. She was trying to be upbeat despite feeling like hell, because clearly she wasn't the only one.