Rally at Last Light

The knight's footsteps were placed with the intentional caution and precision of an animal stalking their prey.  One wrong step could bring about a painful end as the battlements and ramparts surrounding him were crumbling; a direct result of the continuous barrages that had begun just before the sun had risen.  It would not be long before another volley was surely impending, leaving little time.  Despite knowing this, the knight resisted the urge to rush as the slightest shift in weight could be enough to cause a deadly avalanche of stone and mortar.  Once already he had narrowly avoided death as a section of the wall had given way beneath his boot.  A voice internally whispered that the next time the knight would not be so lucky.

The castle was soon to be lost, the tide of battle far beyond the point of turning.  All that could be done now was to send out a warning to aid their allies and delay the enemy in whatever way they could.  Reaching the watchtower, the knight unlocked a large cage to retrieve the great messenger bird.  As he strapped a parcel around its leg, it looked at him with intelligent eyes that spoke much clearer than the rushed, scribbled message bound to the creature for it to carry.  It knew what needed to be done and that it would not be returning.  The knight then tied a heavily worn key around its other leg; wishful thinking intended for those that were to be besieged next.

He watched as it flew away, wishing he had wings of his own.  The winds along the ramparts adjacent to the cliffside grew cold as the last few beams of sunlight dipped down below the horizon, painting the countryside in a bleak palette.  Whatever was to come next for them would not be pretty, but they must try to hold out hope.  Unfortunately, any remaining strands of hope slipped through the knight's clenched fingers as a dark shadow lurched from the field into the sky and then down into the stonework below him causing the ground beneath his boots to instantly disappear.