The sand warriors of Bel-Seledas [Chapter 3]

It was a cold night in Bel-Seledas, but the gate watcher sat, enflamed, but calm. The night never brought war, not since the apes took to the sky. He stood with his spear of granite in hand. He saw a glint in the distance, blinked his dark eyes once and saw it approach at terrifying speed. He rang the warning bell and prepared his spear for a battle. What was this approaching, a new weapon of the humans? Soon he saw what it was as it approached. Several Fire demons, flying towards him. He lowered his spear but did not change stance, no fire demon could take to the air like this.
The low churn of the propellor hadalmost lulled Desmond into sleep, when he heard loud cries in the pit, something out of the ordinary had happened, which was unusual. For years there had been a rigid and stale peace between the humans and the Fire demons. Desmond replaced his nightcap with the hardened cap of Tortuk, a symbol of low rank in the HAC, Human Armed Corps. He ran down to the pit to report to the senior officer, and question what had happened.
"several targets spotted, moving quickly through the air,"
"what?"
"the demons have wings, and are now taking to the sky."
"where are they now?"
"i dont know but they seem to have not noticed us, arm the cannons and prepare for battle, we must return to the Wind Master at once to report this."
Desmond moved to the cannon room and began to load and cock the cannons, as he worked he began to wonder, he had never faced battle before, and the demons were disgusting abominations to be feared. What would happen if the humans final refuge was finally defeated? What would become of his own race?
Bel saladas was groggily awakening from a deep slumber, all but the miners had been sleeping, and the town was confused, the warning bell had been rung but no fight had followed. Soon the gates opened and in flew some tired but strong Fire Demons. The duke came to greet them, to discover it was the team of architects that had set out to find new technology to destroy the enemy. The duke took them in, to his nest and spoke.
In his deep, scratching and old voice the duke spoke,
"what have you discovered in those mountains Balandrao?"
Balandrao stood silent his eyes fixed on the duke, slowly he unfolded his wings, now fully formed and capable of carrying more than 10 Fire demons.
The duke sat, quietly, stewing over the information.
"you mean to tell me the finch of Nardas has invoked you?"
"Aye"
"and how may we give this gift to the other warriors?"
Balandrao took a peice of growing soy from his own body, cracked the burnt outer shell and threw it on the table for the duke. "consume it and he returns to us."
The duke took the sprig and consumed, at first their was only slight difference, his body began to tremble, then suddenly his eyes shot wide open and he growled loudly. His wings shot open at full length. The duke stood there in silence for a few minutes and then said to the architects, "you have completed your quest, and have opened the gates of destruction for the humans,"
the duke folded his wings slowly, ", may their future crumple in the the flames of our fury."
-three weeks later-
Desmond, now captain of his own, fully armed gunship was circling the airspace above the apparent location of Bel - Seledas. His cannoneers, ready for any battle stood ready. Desmond cleaned the rims of his goggles, and fixed his Hardened Captain's Cap. "he turned to the edge of the ship and peered out, he thought to himself "things have been quiet ever since those demon sightings, im beginning to wonder whether the Master is doing the right thing, and whether Captain Gleamus was just seeing things in his tired state. Either way we have orders, questioning them will only get me into trouble." Desmond remained leaning over the bow for a few more moments, but soon straightened, in the distance was a glint of light, of flame. Desmond called to the cannoneers, "Prepare yourselves! Sight on starboard, keep your eyes open!"

The Fire demons had spotted the circling Galleon in their airspace and had decided to try out their new abilities. One demon was sent to the distance, to catch the galleon's attention, once they moved towards it for the kill, the remaining warriors would approach from below and engulf the ship, killing all inside.

Desmond took out his rifle and spyglass, and attached the two. He watched over the demon from his distant spot, it seemed to be spasming. "Get closer to the target!"
Navigator Sewell changed course and headed towards the far away demon. Desmond saw as he got closer not a spasming beast, but a laughing one, it seemed to know he was watching and pointed at him. At first Desmond was confused, but later he realised that it was pointing behind him. Desmond Turned to watch the shit become engulfed in flames, and suddenly all dissapeared, as his head was claimed by one of the Fire Demons.

Below in Bel Seledas, most of the population had their inner finch awakened, the duke stood with his dark staff, on the highest point of the fortress and watched the ship above become destroyed. The duke stood and began to laugh, then cackle.
"Look to the sky my children," he coughed hoarsley ",our first victory against the apes, their fate is sealed!" And with that the duke raised his arms to the sky and summoned a sand pyre, engulfed in flame, to signify the defeat of humanity.