Role

Chapter 2

When at last the magicians had left, she took in all the carnage before her.
Feathers of her fallen friends and family floated with pieces of ash in the
air. The smell was awful, like burned meat and horror.

Rage filled Ioxia. She screeched in her wrath. It was the call of a bird of
prey. She beat her black wings and rose from the ash. She knew she could not
win a straight fight with the mages, but maybe if she could catch them
unaware she'd have a chance. Maybe she could avenge her people. Maybe it
would ease her pain.

When she caught up to the mages she slipped into the shadows as she'd done
the night they killed all her kin. They had made camp on the roadside. They
were casting spells, apparently calling multitudes of them in the air. They
must be practicing again.

Ioxia watched from the shadows for hours. The two magicians had a pattern.
They would cast until they lacked the power for another spell, then slept.
Once rested they awoke again and began another series of incantations. If
they couldn't cast, she could beat them. She waited for them to drain their
power and sleep.

The next time they laid down, she moved in on silent wings. The first
magician was a dark-elf, she realized for the first time. Ioxia had never
seen any people other than arials like her. But, she knew from the stories
what she was looking at. She inserted her claw in the fleshy area of its
neck, right below the ear. As the dark-elves eyes went wide in shock she made
a quick jerk and pulled flesh, muscle and organ lose. A spray of blood hit
her face. It was warm and...satisfying.

Ioxia turned toward the other magician. Not a dark-elf. A gnome, she thought,
or a svirfneblin. She couldn't be sure. Just as she reached the small wizard,
it awoke. Ioxia pinned him beneath her hand.

"Stay right there you piece of shit," she hissed. The gnome saw his dead
friend, and his eyes filled with fear.
"P-p-please, no!" the gnome begged.
"Please no?" Ioxia sneered, "Did you listen when my friends, my family,
screamed 'no' to you!?"

Despite her strong words, Ioxia felt a pang of guilt. This little gnome
wasn't like the dark-elf. There was no evil in him. Maybe just ignorance?
Perhaps if she gave him mercy he could spend his life trying to atone for
what he'd done?