//?A Curious Sergal (3)- Part 11- Version 1

-----Things fall apart

BANG BANG! BANG!

Jax was shaken out of his contemplations of revenge as another volley of fire arrows was followed by three loud bangs.

He scrambled up the side of one of the small adobe buildings and climbed over its roof to the other side. What he thought was the small feathered creature he had passed by in the market place was now quivering on the ground, apparently injured, next to two large Sergals, but his eyes were still partially blinded by the fire arrows. Jax hopped down from the low roof and ran over to the Sergals to see what had happened. When he approached, he realized they had grey fur. The Northerners had managed to get so far into the city already?! He was only a few blocks from the city center he had so recently been held captive in. No, this couldn't be. He must have been turned around. Yes! That was it. He had been dizzy from when the other Sergal had punched him at the gates. A city this large couldn't have been taken so easily, he was only making a mistake.

A city this large couldn't have been taken so easily… could it?

Jax started to truly look around for the first time since the first volley of fire arrows. The defenders were still on the walls, but they were quite outnumbered. Could they be on the brink of falling? No! He shook the thought out of his mind. This was the one place he had found that stood a chance of enabling his revenge. The one place that stood as a beacon of light against the waves of grey fur. Jax' eyes still darted around the city, desperately looking for a way that he could help out, but then he glanced at the back gate.

It was wide open, and hundreds of warriors were pouring into the city streets. NO! The hooded Sergals had opened the gates! If only he had been able to stop them. But maybe it could be countered. Lives could be saved! He could at least do something to help the city. Perhaps inform the Leader. The one that had been armored back when Jax was held captive. Yes! That was how he could help. The… the city may be lost, Jax pretended to accept that now, but he knew that the more time the city's army had to react, the more invaders would die. Now… how to inform the Leader?

Jax glanced at the city center. Maybe the Leader was there. With his blurred vision, he could not see much, but he could make out a tent. He squinted. The two guards outside the tent seemed to have fallen asleep. Then he realized the rivers of blood flowing from the arrows in their necks. His heart plummeted. Maybe that was not the command tent? Maybe the Commander was able to fight off the assailants that had raided the tent? Jax's mind raced for illogical answers, but when he tilted his gaze he realized the truth.

There, just behind the command tent, stood a lone, grey Sergal, holding a polearm. Atop the polearm, Jax could see what had become of the Commander. At least the Commander's decapitated head.

He turned away, and started to fall over, images of the brutal end of his old clan floating into his mind. He fell into the pool of blood that the two Northern Sergal corpses had now created, which the Nevrean was now starting to drown in.

Such a disgusting end, Jax thought. But he wasn't just thinking about the Commander. He was thinking about himself. Here he was. Only hours ago he had been delivering information that could have stopped the Northern invaders dead in their tracks to the hands of the strongest city-fort he had ever seen in his life. Now… here he was. Sitting in a pool of blood. Watching a pile of bodies burn in his memories of his clan, and the real world stench of death filling his nose. As the city fell. Because he couldn't do anything. He could never do anything.

He gazed back up at the Commander's sad head as it watched its city burn. All was lost. There was no reason to stay in this place of so much death. Jax regained his footing and stood up.

"peep"

A pitiful cry for help emitted from the drowning Nevrean near him. Jax had almost forgotten about the creature. Almost. His curiosity would never have let him forget completely.

He picked it up carefully, gently making sure to not damage its avian bones. After slinging it over his shoulder, he started to run. Ava could feel Jax' heartbeat. It reassured him. He didn't know where they were going; it didn't matter. The two fled from the doomed city.

For the second time in his life, under the cover of Mother Night's omnipresent embrace, Jax flew, borne on swift wings of fear.