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"Friends, there is something strange happening!Something approaches from the armour room!" he shouted,"I was walking past it when I heard the sound of clanking armour!Willowing, what do we do?"

There was silence, and I started walking, changing into my bionic form.To make them aware, I banged a hand against my shield, louder and louder as I stepped towards the entrance. Then I heard Willowing speak.

"There's naught there but the armour of the statue, what wonder is this?" he shouted. He wasn't a bad actor either.

I came to the door, and fired a burst from my launcher on my sleeve. The canister landed squarely in the door way, filling it with smoke. I stepped through the smoke, and into the chamber.

All the avians were looking at the gloom. The fires that were lit cast eerie shadows on everything, but that worked doubly for me.There was a cry of alarm, several gasps, and then Willowing shouted.

"The statue! The statue has come to life, guided by the arm of Ja'ryaq! Servant of the lord, what is your task here?"

They all waited for the answer, and I drew myself up.

"My master sees battle, and war, he has sent me to deliver you from the hands of your oppressors. I have been commanded to fight with you! For he has said," Even the rock itself is under my command!"

This was a piece of religious detail Willowing had told me, their god had power, like most gods do, over all,mineral, vegetable or animal. There was a cheer, led by Kodey and Ryan Lewis, and it was echoed by several voices.

"Why this time, this hour?" Willowing asked.

"He has foreseen battle today, and he remembers well. Do you not remember how you were cast out by the ogres from your village, so soon after being burnt from your forest? You have been besieged here by them! I ask you as a fighter! Will you stand for it?"

There was a roar.

"No! Too long have we toiled with no reward, because of them!" One of them shouted.

"Exactly!" I bellowed back, my voice echoing back at me from the length of the hall."I have been instructed to show you how to defeat these ogres. I want two brave men!"

The crowd, almost as one, raised a hand, each clamouring for their vote. I pointed two out, Ryan and Kodey.

"You two will have the honour of leading your side into battle. For we will hide along the walls around the square, in wait for the creatures! On three sides we will surround them, they will have no choice but to run or fight! I want everyone else, except Willowing and Jay to organise themselves into three equal groups.Will the two I chose and the two leaders come with me?"

I stood to one side, as the door reappeared through the smoke. Willowing looked nervous, as did Jay, Ryan and Kodey were pretending to look slightly scared. They walked past me, and I shut the door behind me, drawing out a piece of chalk. I drew a rough plan of the square on the ground, with the other four watching me.

"Right, we come from here, they come from this door. An hour before the attack, the front line of all three sides will form up on all three sides, and raise their shields in a wall, except around the doorway. I will be in the shadows, and I will step forwards when the ogres are all in the square.On my signal, everyone will reveal themselves, and the attack will begin. Willowing will be behind me, Kodey will be on the left flank, and Ryan on the right. Jay?"

"I will fight where I am put." the avian replied softly.

"Very well, Jay and Ryan on the right. Kodey, I will talk to you later about this."

Meaning Silverine would be sitting atop the pillared roof, and fly down at the critical moment. Thomas would be in our corner, with rifles should things start to go pear shaped. Everyone nodded, they knew it clearly.And still only my friends and Willowing knew my identity.This was going to be legendary.It would go down in their history as the day the gods intervened. I was not a god, just a servant, of which I was happy about.

After some questions on the charging, everyone went back in to the room, except me.I wandered back down the corridor, and found Silverine leaning against the exit.

"Hey Silverine, that went well."

"You bet it did. Where do I fit in?"

"Can you fly with that armour on?"

"I can glide down, but no vertical take off."

"Well, you'll start above Kodey, on the roof, and then when we do the great reveal, you'll dive down and land in front of Kodey, and announce yourself as another servant. How is it said?"

"Ja'ryaq.I heard. But that sounds fun, and then we attack?"

"Yep."

"Better start climbing then." Silverine began scaling a pillar, his claws easily finding grip on the stone. I waited for ten seconds, and then went over to our fake wall where Thomas was.

"Yo, Thomas, all good there?"

"I've got eight rifles and four C.E.O blasters, all ready, in case. I've also got a life tracker, which will tell me when the ogres are leaving their area."

"Excellent." I nodded enthusiastically.

Silverine was already on the roof, and he said he was going to take a power nap. I went back to the door of the avian room, and waited.

I sat down behind a pillar, waiting in this slightly uncomfortable armour. An hour and a half before midday, I walked back in.

They were all milling about, and I spoke.

"Form your groups."

With classic military form, each fighting avian went to one side, or the middle. Three lines of avians, maybe 210, 240 all told. Eighty men in each line, and Kodey and Ryan went to the head of their lines. Jay and Ryan stood together, Kodey and Willowing were alone.

"Excellently done, good work.Now, under the command of Ryan and Kodey, will the two side groups please leave and assemble where they have been instructed." I said with a tone of authority. The two sides heading towards the door, both walking in single file, just enough to get through the door. They walked with their shield ahead of them, and weapon sheathed. It took five minutes to get the avians of both lines out, and five after that, Ryan and Kodey said they were in position. I led my own group out, and we walked into the square. Willowing arranged his men in one long line to join corners with the other two, and leaving a five metre passage for everyone heading towards the door.

Willowing went back into the common room and came back with a long mace. I took it gently, and stepped back from the light, vanishing into the gloom behind a pillar.

"Now we wait.At ease, men."

Everyone sat down as Ryan and Kodey and Willowing passed this along. The avians began doing many things. Most broke into prayer. A couple of us were nervous, and I was certainly among them.

But all was silent. We waited, our discipline rigid and emotionless. There was not a raised voice. After half an hour, Thomas spoke.

"O.K., the door's opening, you have two minute's walking to get prepared."

I hissed."Actions stations, stand with your back against the wall, behind your shields, and hurry." This was passed to Willowing, Ryan and Kodey, Silverine and Jay. There was a brief shuffling of men, and then as shields came up, people vanished, the silver shields blending well with the marble and rock walls and shadows.

I stood in darkness, my head looking around a pillar a good ten metres in the corridor, and a perfect view of the opposite tunnel. I was thus first to see the ogres.

They were short, that struck me first, I was expecting something much taller. About the same height as the four and a half foot avians, they were much broader. Thick knobbly arms and legs, large hands and feet,a very large belly, and then there was the head.

Two overly large eyes peered everywhere, looking through a face with inherited suspicion. The nose was large and round, somewhat bulbous. The mouth was wide and full of tombstone teeth, several were missing from the first I saw. A mop of untidy, ragged hair completed the image. They wore skins of animals as loincloths, and carried clubs, although one or two had rusty swords.

But they had numbers. Thomas reckoned about 400 of these ogres were coming down the passageways, and while they were all trying to be at the front, they made very little noise, the perfect sneak thief sort of way. As they walked across, the leading bunch slowed down, to give the chance for the rear to catch up. The last was just coming out as the gaggle of ogres in the front sneaked stealthily towards the entrance.

There was an explosion of smoke, I fired my canister, and I stepped forwards into it. I stepped out of it, and stood not ten yards from the ogre in front, who was looking at the cloud in suspicion and then alarm as he saw me. The voices were rough and guttural, like they had gravel in their diet.

"What is it?"

"It doesn't look like one of them." another whispered, all in vain because of my audio amplification.

I drew my sword and hefted my mace in left hand.

"Begone, foul Fiends! You are here to destroy that which is good in the world, and I am the servant of their heavenly god! You will not enter this threshold alive!"

They stopped.Weapons were pointed at me, in a half hearted sort of way. Through the jackal helm I could see them clustering together.

"I say begone, and never bother these avians again! Will any of you defy me?" I challenged.

Unfortunately I got a roar instead of the entire group turning and running for it.

"As you will!The gods will show no mercy!Down, Silverine, down the devices! Down with the shields, let them know their doom!This square will be stained with the blood of the oppressors by the night!"

O.K., I was being overly dramatic, trying to strike fear into their unstable souls. All the avians stood to attention, swords and other weapons drawn. Kodey and Ryan stepped forward a couple of paces, and with a quick morph, changed into their normal selves, and both heavily armed.

Then came a moment that could have set them running. Silverine vaulted off the roof, and landed on all fours next to Kodey. He rose slowly, magnificently, his wings unfolding like the wrath of angels, his knight armour gleaming. His great halberd was drawn and held in attack. Ryan drew his bright sword, as did Kodey. The ogres turned all around, looking at their enemy on three sides. Most looked at the decidedly non avian Silverine, but a couple looked at Ryan, and a few kept their eye on me.

Everyone on our side was looking at Silverine, self, Ryan or Kodey as well. It was a look of awe.

"The gods smile upon us, sending down their servants!" Willowing shouted.This was chanted by several others.

By the ogres did not run. They just clustered together.

"Right."I said into my headset," Charge in five seconds. We are trying to protect the avians here, so go it alone for the first half a minute."

We charged. Ryan raised his sword up as he ran forwards, sneakers hammering across the flagstones. Silverine roared, which even scared me and Kodey, and rushed forwards. Kodey followed suit, and I ran straight at the leading party. Sword in my right hand, mace in my left hand, friend behind me, foe in front.

I was the first to get to the ogres, due to the line they had formed. My sword hummed around and went straight through the clubs of about three ogres, I tell you I keep it sharp. The mace came whirling back around, and struck one of them into several of his mates.

The avians had not expected the sudden rush by us four, but Willowing and Jay quickly shouted their orders.

"Attack!"

They descended on their enemy with a vengeance. Ryan Lewis was stabbing at everything with in reach. Silverine was using his halberd like a long handled axe, Kodey was using the weight of the sword to press his advantage rather than his own weight, and me, well, as a bionic berserker I had no need for defence.I do wish I was a bit more skilled with a mace though, they are surprisingly heavy for a one handed weapon.

The most that can be said for the battle of the Ja'ryaq temple was that at least the damn thing was brief. Overly long battles result in such exhaustion. Us on the other hand, it took about ten minutes.The ogres were slain by the avian ambush with startling speed. They did not have much time to set up a defence that they were not expecting to do, so it was rushed and untidy, and we four Centralites took full advantage of that.Such was the intensity of the onslaught that the avians lost only two during the battle, although in the ogre's defence they did manage to wound Ryan (scratch on the leg), Willowing,( stabbed in the wing by a ogre who suddenly had the wrath of me bearing down on him), Jay ( bruised but not broken, and Ryan dealt equally quickly to the offender), and several others in likewise minor ways.

It was really down to two things, the armour helped cushion any blows and deflect sharp weapons, and the four of us Centralites were so fierce in our attack that it was devastating on the opposition morale. Those ogres still standing turned and ran, and Silverine howled after them. The blood chilling howl made everyone take one or two hasty steps away from him, and while I didn't, I felt a chill run through my veins at the creature standing not ten metres away. Silverine relaxed, and turned to face me.

"That went well." he said in Centralite, smiling. I shrugged, although no one could see my smile because of the jackal helm.

"I thought your arrival would have made them run." I said back to him.

Jay and Willowing met together, and began speaking urgently. Kodey sat down slightly clumsily next to Silverine, panting with tiredness. Silverine immediately sat down next to him, and began speaking to one another. Ryan Lewis walked up to me, limping slightly. A sword had scored a line along the side of his left leg, and he was bleeding. Nothing fatal, but it looked bad.

"Sit down, Ryan.Just tell me where you're medikit is." I took out the vial, and measured half for him to drink. He did so, and I gently poured the rest on his leg. The avians around me and him jumped in fright as he yelled in pain. The wound smoked, and then healed.Ryan panted, breathing deeply.

"That hurt a bit." he said, conversationally.

"Shows it kills the bugs." I replied," Most of the good Hell brews hurt."

Willowing came over. I grabbed another bottle. His wing had been run right through, but hadn't clipped a large vein.

I sat him down on my lap, and while Ryan Lewis held him steady (he looked scared at this point), I gave him half to drink. He gagged, but swallowed the mixture. Then I began applying the liquid directly onto the wound.There was a keening, screeching noise, and Willowing convulsed in pain. A couple of avians rushed forward to help their comrade, but Ryan stood up, and those that did suddenly decided not to.

"It's painful." Willowing said, and both hands gripped my left arm, while I gently tipped the remainder of the vial onto the wing. He gripped to the bone.

His screech would have cracked glass, but very quickly I saw the wound was knitting together, and before long there was no wound,only a scar. I love Centralite medicine. Hurts like agony, but works miracles. There was a gasp from the avians looking at us, and Willowing flexed his wing in an experimental fashion. Then he hugged me. I felt his wings closing around me, and removed my arms from the cocoon tight embrace.

"Alduin, you healed me." he whispered, in reverence. All the avians who saw this was the case were slowly backing away.This statue had just magically restored their companion. How was this possible? Jay stepped forward.

"Hail to the servants of Ja'ryaq!For this day is victory due to them!"

Silverine, Kodey and Ryan Lewis all stood up, standing together. Only I remained seated, because of Willowing's tight embrace of me. The avians stood around us, raised their weapon, and shouted.

"Hail the servants of Ja'ryaq!" they shouted together.

This was deeply touching.The two hundred strong avian voices echoed loudly around the temple, and Silverine nodded his head, which from him was a polite thank you. I gently coaxed Willowing to stop hugging me, and got to my feet, the avian in my arms, he just would not let go of me, and he placed one hand around the back of my neck to hold himself tight and to take some weight off me. Ryan Lewis spoke loudly.

"Thank you, my friends! But the day doesn't just go to us, for we four alone wouldn't have beaten them.You fought nobly, like true avians should when the time calls for it!You deserve your freedom."

This was greeting by a roar of exultation. Weapons were waved, shields were banged, the avians were looking at us or the sky in delight. After two minutes of this, Jay finally stopped shouting praises and shouted over the clamour.

"My fellow warriors!"

Silence fell, and everyone looked at him.He spoke softly.

"There are the women and children who await the result with trepidation and worry. We should return to them. But alas, not all of us made it, will four of us bear the dead back to the hall? There will be celebration of the victory, but sadness at the loss."

"A damn sight less than had it not been for the four servants." Willowing muttered, but only the Centralites heard it,"We should be celebrating that only two lost their life, and that the women weren't deprived of half their contingent."

"Peace, little one." Silverine said gently to the avian," We helped, that is true, but death cannot be taken so lightly. Two of your kindred will never see the light of this world again, is that not worth sorrow?"

Willowing was rebuked, and coming from Silverine kept silent.Silverine was like that, happy to get involved in ferocious battle, but is never truly happy afterwards if there is a loss on his side.So protective and caring.

We returned.The dead were born on their shields, sword resting on their chest. Six were assigned to bearing each of the two, for they rested on two shields,two carrying one end, two carrying the middle where the shields inter locked and two carrying the other end.I followed at the rear of the moving column, and heard the cheer as Jay entered, and then all went silent as Silverine entered with Kodey.

"Dearest children, wives, women, and all! Do not fear these creatures, for they served with us to command the battle, and we won. The ogres were slain under their onslaught, with no more than a couple of casualties on our side.For every avian dead, there were at least one hundred times that number of theirs!"

There were gasps of wonderment, and more so when Ryan Lewis entered.Then the cheers started again at the long line of male avians returning.But at the sight of the two that had died, the cheers stopped again. They were led away towards another door, while I walked over to Silverine.He was currently standing by the large fire in the centee of the room, and I noticed with interest that several young avians, maybe one and a half- two feet, were standing next to him, looking in awe.

One of them actually gained enough courage to touch him. Silverine carefully kept his blank expression as the avian brushed his fur down with a tentative finger.With child like curiosity, he began to clamber up Silverine's leg, and I fought back a compelling urge to laugh, as Silverine rolled his eyes and grinned at me. Kodey looked and saw, and tried unsucessfully to conceal a giggle. Ryan was trying so hard to conceal his grin.A couple of the avians were shocked at the child's boldness, a couple surprised by Silverine's tolerance to it, most amazed by the child's determined attempt to get up Silverine's body and to look at his face close up.

Silverine was not a easy creature to get foot holds, and despite the child's attempt at clambering up, he eventually gave up and stood back on the ground. Silverine bent down and with one hand picked the child up.Nestled in the Lupogriff's great arm, Silverine spoke gently to the child.

"Well?"

"You look scary." the child said, with absolute frankness. What made it so funny was the way the young avian said it, with no tremor or concern. Silverine's eyebrows went up a bit.

"Oh really?" he said genially,"So, why, my brave little companion, did you try to get up onto my back?"

"I wanted to look at you. You don't act scary."

"That's because he's in a good mood." Kodey called, and I laughed. Silverine grinned. Ryan broke into a coughing fit.

"Trust me, I scare a lot of people when I want to." the Lupogriff ruffled the avian's hair.

"You don't scare me." the child declared. I wondered idly what made kids this fearless.

Ryan whispered to me."He's the first."

I burst out laughing, and Silverine looked at me and Ryan.

"Alright, what did he say?" he said wearily, although wearing a grin.

"Private joke, nothing important." Ryan said, his countenance beaming.

"I'm sure." Silverine replied, but before he got a chance to get an answer out of us, the child once again interrupted us.

"How strong are you?"

"Me?" Silverine laughed, and set the child down," Try and knock me down."

The avian looked the Lupogriff up and down. Then with a yell of defiance he leapt at Silverine's leg. Silverine folded his arms and looked at me with a quite clear expression as the child wrapped around the leg, throwing his weight backwards, trying to tip the Lupogriff over. This was a futile gesture.Silverine leaned against his halberd, wings unfolded, looking completely calm at the youngster trying to make him fall over.

"Enjoying yourself yet?" he asked innocently. The child let go, and looked at Silverine in despair.

"How am I supposed to knock you down?" he asked.

"You work that one out, you let me know." Silverine said, and walked over to me.

"You have to admit,"I said in Centralite," that was pretty funny." I caught a very rare moment of the Lupogriff trying hard not to burst into outright laughter.

"Yes, Alduin. I would like a child of my own with his degree of ferocity and curiosity."

Jay bent down next to the young one.

"My child, while you are strong for your size, that is a servant of our god, he has powers none of us have."

"I'll give him this, it was a good effort though." I said, off handedly.

"For his size." Willowing replied, chuckling. "I doubt three of us could topple him."

"It's all in the technique." I shrugged, letting Willowing down.

"We are not wrestling one another, you don't play fair." Silverine replied shortly.

"What do you expect from something my size?"

Ryan Lewis was removing all his armour, and putting it in a large bag, which had a material teleporter. As the statue, I had to keep my armour, but the others could take theirs off.This is what Silverine and Kodey proceeded to do.The Lupogriff's bare chest, complete the scars of previous battles was exposed, and the avians looked at this mighty being. Ryan Lewis had his normal clothes underneath, and two or three of the children decided that the human was more interesting than the hulking Lupogriff.

Ryan sat down, and three adult avians and five children sat by him. The children clamoured to be near him, to play with him. As for the bold youth who had taken on Silverine, Jay carried him on his shoulders, I guessed he was the father, and they went off towards one of about ten doors that this room had in it, not counting the door out into the corridor.

"What are through the doors?" I asked Willowing quietly.

"Three of them led to our crops, they are many sunlight areas. One leads to my quarters and Jay's we have a small room each, the rest are bedrooms for everyone else.One also leads to a set of toilets."

Kodey, now I noticed, was talking to a sleek female avian, who was talking about several things about Kodey, the main subject was about his antlers. As I and Willowing detoured around the bonfire, I whispered into Kodey's ear.

"She finds you attractive." I said, and both reindeer and female avian heard this.Both blushed heavily, and I clapped Kodey on the back.

"Come, don't be shy, Kodey."

"I'm not!" the reindeer protested,"It's you I'm worried about."

He got the laugh he was waiting for, and Willowing led me on through the hall. Many children ran with us.

"It moves well, for a statue."

"Do all statues come to life now and then?"

"Don't be ridiculous, it's a magical statue."

"Maybe it's a creature that was turned into a statue?"

"No, the god brought it to life. End of argument."

"Do you think it's as strong as the big servant?The furry one?"

Willowing smiled, and I smiled too, although no one saw it. Children asked the funniest things.

One rapped on my leg.The tang noise was heard, even though it was muffled by my cat suit's sleek black.

"It's made out of metal!" the child declared,"It must be heavy, and strong."

"Is that why the god chose him? Maybe he can't be damaged."

I felt a gentle thump against the back of my leg.

"Ow!" one of the children exclaimed,"that hurt!"

I stopped, preventing Willowing from going any further. We were just next to the door, and I turned and bent down, looking through the helm at the girl who had just struck me.

"Dear, I am made out of metal. No sword, no spear or no mace could harm me. Willowing, hit me."

Willowing looked at his sword, then at me.Then with all his might he swung it around at my chest. The armour held firm, and Willowing dropped the sword as the back shock spread through his hands.The clang against the armour made everyone hold their ears, and after a few seconds, I bent down.

"You see?"

"Yes.Are you a statue?"

"Do I look like a statue?"

"You are made out of metal, you must be a statue!" the girl, having finally taken this great logical step, turned around and ran back to her mother, obviously eager to explain everything to her.