Falling Behemoth

A Story by RavenLecrawe

Rough draft and possible chapter to the Goblin Queen book

The clanking behemoth, it's armor weathered and patch work steel plating, shields its wards from another volley of enchanted arrows. The mystic explosions tear the wires underneath apart as the gears whine and sparks fly from the great insectoid defender. Goblins pour from underneath its massive steel carapace and loose their own bolts from tiny yet powerful crossbows, flying true into the ranks of elven and eladrin warriors charging the ancient keep. The behemoth cries and screams as its gears grind its bulk forward to meet the mass of fleeting fey; its general and god mentally directing it from atop the keep. The goblins charge without fear as their bugbear cousins bellow the name of their goddess and clash with a thunderous clap with the shield maidens of the humans flanking the eladrin arcane archers.

Watching the human clerics scouring the ranks of goblins as the eladrin fleet and dart among them the god-general notes that his own mechanical soldiers are dropping ten of the evasive foes to each goblin scoured by divine flame. His ever present companion, a mithral clockwork insectoid named Io, blandly reads off the statistics of victory,"Seventy five percent without direct intervention." her pleasant sing-song voice does little to cheer up the dragon born general. His white scales, hinted with aquamarine, show no sign of his advanced age as he pulls the heavy cowl down from his still sharp teeth and shimmering blue eyes. "The odds of her being among the front line troops master are below ten percent," Io chimes in, seemingly reading his mind.

A small smile, the first in weeks, creeps along the generals face. "Has being around humans as long as you have taught you nothing Io? She is out there among her men, lying to them about victory." Looking back at the behemoths bloody path to the center of the elven warriors he watches their center break, then watches in silence as his mechanical soldiers methodically route and demolish the retreating fey. The giant was not going to make it back to the safety of the keep, its engine over-taxed and the damage to its gears too severe; so his last command to the behemoth was to loose the fire in its engines toward the verdant and ancient forests that circle the mountain. The human troops that managed to escape the wall of blades behind them now flee the gout of hellfire bellowing between the trees and boiling the pristine streams to a thick steam. Elven and eladrin troops stop and weep at the sounds of the screaming forest unable to escape the palpable pain and anguish from the ancient mother trees.

Holding a small silver and garnet ring between two of his claws, Urza turns and sits facing the war council that silently watched as the battle unfolded before them. The great hobgoblin king Gronk smiles at the honor his cousins brought during the siege and routing of their hated foes. A growl of humor leaves the alpha of the lychanthropes Kodlak as his troops secured the main gate holding back the massive fey beasts and dispatching the elusive eladrin spies that infiltrated their home. Rising to watch the retreat of the human troops beyond the vale, the goddess of the goblins sheds a silent tear for the forest below. And watching the grim conquerors from the corner of the room was the changeling Yawgmoth, a traveler from worlds away that remembers all too well the same scene playing out once before.

Her small pale body rests against his broad build, her head barely reaching his chest, "You always do so well Urza, we couldn't have held our new home without that behemoth or your troops. Thank you my friend." Her once pale blue hair, now blackened from the transformation into her new station, shimmers in the flickering firelight as it frames her beautiful and dangerous frame. Urza knows that the words come from her heart, and that makes them all the more painful to hear. "You have the vale again Andromeda, the court of stars will think twice about attacking the handmaiden of Baba Yaga again." his reply was honest and somewhat short but seemed to please Andromeda the Night Hag, Queen of Goblins, Beta of Wolves, and Lady of Artifice.

Stepping away with Io on his heels he lets his mind wander the creations still out on the field of battle, senses fleeting from one set of crystal eyes and lenses to another. The ticking cowl kept him focuses just long enough to cover the battlefield and beyond looking for the glimmer of red locks and blue-green eyes, and the god-general nearly falls over himself when he sees her looking at one of the fallen troopers. Freckled pale skin showing under her heavy steel and silver armor when she takes her helm off to pray for a fallen toy soldier. Urza only sees her for a moment, but the weight of the world lifts just so slightly from his ancient shoulders