The sound was deafening. The ground shook as the thunder of the horde roared across the valley. "There are so many of them"... it seemed like the landscape was covered with these massive tattooed warriors. The earth shook as they advanced towards my army. The sweat and rain beaded down my face as I accessed the battle that was about to take place. As the keeper had told me, I was destined to be here, at the head of the Army of Light. It is MY destiny to lead these brave men and woman against the thunderous horde that had ravaged my homeland for so long, but how can I defeat them....... "There are just to many of them". MY soldiers are brave and stout of heart, but it seems as if the Apocalypse itself is rising from the horizon. "There are just to many"...........
The night had progressed without event. The meal we ate had been less then satisfactory, but edible, as usual. Everything had been going the same as it had since we started our quest, which was to gloriously seek out the fabled Grail of Wisdom. Many had sought out this ancient artifact said to be blessed by the Gods but no one had even seen a glimpes of it. We were going to be different. We were the Sons of Dahcis, the warrior of light who struck down the mighty Dragon Karahonthal, the leader of the armies of Wrath who defeated the Blood God Deracht, and the Keeper of the legendary Sword of Truth. We were going to follow in our patron hero's footsteps and bring the Brotherhood of Dahcis back into it's rightful place as guardians of the fountain of truth and the King would gain the wisdom to defeat the Horde, but first we had to find the fabled Grail of Wisdom and return it to him.
The trip had not been hard since we left the protectorate of the King. The most we had to worry about was annoying insects that occasionally buzzed around our necks, other then that the going was easy. Our researched had discovered a prophecy that did not tell where the grail was hidden but by the wording it was to be used as a starting point.....
"The Winds change dark"
"Time will stand still "
"The seekers of the grail will come"
"Being led by the One"
"Be it brother or sister"
"The Red Storm they must endure"
"Then shall all answers be opened"
What the prophecy meant exactly was not hard to decipher, assuming we deciphered it correctly. The turning of the last century had marked the beginning of the era of the horde. A mass of warriors had descended upon the land from the north and had slaughtered many villages in the kingdoms northern realms. That was over 6 decades ago and still the war rages on. Several generations of the Kingdom have lived and died knowing nothing but war. It had been as if time stood still for 6 decades. We decided that the leader of our brotherhood was the One referred to in the prophecy. Jacheith was to lead us into battle against Korunthia the red dragon who had been suspended in a magical slumber on top of the Ardena Mountains in the east, better known as the Red Storm of Ardena. Recently rumblings from the peak of the mountain range had warned that the dragon had been awoken, most likely from the atrocities happening in the north. After we defeated Korunthia, the answers to our quest would be opened and we would find our way to the Grail and return it to our King in glory! We didn't know how right....and wrong we were.
We crossed the borderlands of the east into the untamed wild with just a little trouble. A creature that looked to be part human and part lizard had attacked us as we neared a fresh-water spring to refill our water skins. The surprise attack did not catch us off guard and even though the...thing... managed to scratch a member of our party we quickly unsheathed our swords and slew this monstrosity. we searched around on his corpse and found what appeared to be a sort of coin, growing nervous as we realized if this thing had coin and weapons then there must be more about. This being realized we tightened our security, posting double guards at night and pulling a tighter formation while riding, and it was a good thing we did.
Along the third day of no reports from advanced scouts we found out why. We had been trudging through the closest thing to a trail when we saw a group of the lizard men up ahead, we readied our swords and prepared for battle. The lizards did not notice us at first, they were busy messing with something hanging from a tree. When they saw us approach they ran into the jungle, as if they just melted with it and we dared not leave the trail to search for them for in the thickest parts of the jungle we stood no chance of maneuvering correctly against these agile beasts. The trail widened out as we approached where the thing hung from a high tree, the trial soon widened out into an wide open swamp area, ankle deep. The whole party stopped as the realization of what was swinging from the tree hit us. The advanced scouts were all, netted. Skinned and gutted hanging from a tree only the skin on there face and their hair were not cut off, many of the men got sick, and then they attacked
Swarming in from what seemed like every part of the jungle the lizard man attacked us. We barley had enough time to draw our swords and defend ourselves when they overwhelmed us. A majority of the lizards were without weapons but their claws were razor sharp and could cut deep into flesh. We fought for our lives. As the battle progressed we slowly gained ground. The lizard men seemed to melt back into the jungle as our men became more organized and killed more and more of them until, almost suddenly, they were all gone. The battle seemed like it lasted for hours but in reality only a few minutes had past. 12 of our 35 men were dead and 4 near death with no chance of being saved, the rest were either unscathed or had minor injuries. We buried the dead and graced the severely injured with the praises of Dahcis and moved on, knowing nothing could be done for them. The rest of the journey went as smooth as it could of, we saw no more sign from the lizard men and the closer we got to the foot of Mount Ardena the more dead the jungle around us seemed.
We reached the foot of the mountains in the morning hours, not daring to stop at night in case of another attack by the lizard men, we road for 3 days straight. We camped the entire next day to gain strength for the climb ahead. Mount Ardena was not a tall mountain range and there had never been reports of anything other then the normal wildlife taking up residents on the mountain, except for the Dragon. We set up a base camp and left 7 men to guard it, if the rest of us did not come down they were to head back to the King and report what had happened, we left after we had secured our supplies and readied our weapons. It was only a days climb to the summit where the dragon was and we had to be prepared.
We climbed all day until we were just a few hours from the summit, we decided to camp the night and face the dragon well rested in the morning. We decided to approach the cave he was in from 2 sides, hoping to flank him, although flanking a dragon isn't easy. I was to lead an attack head on into the cave and Jachieth was to lead a group through a smaller entrance a little west of the main entrance. The plan being laid out we all slept silently that night, knowing the battle ahead would most likely claim some of our lives.
The Attack was a catastrophe. The dragon had sensed our presence probably from the moment we entered the east lands and had prepared for us. He was waiting for Jachieth and his party at the side entrance when they arrived and they were all encompassed in The Red Storm's flames as they entered the cavern. Hearing the screams of our comrades and knowing they were dead, knowing our leader, the One of the prophecy was dead, knowing that all hopes of recovering the Grail were gone we still rushed to fight the dragon to our deaths. The battle we fought was long and hard but in the end we failed in defeating the dragon and all were destroyed by it's fury....or so we thought..
I arched my back in pain. The last thing i remembered was plunging for the dragons neck as he turned and unleashed scorching flames unto my body. I had felt my skin burning off, my skin turning to ashes, the flames melting my muscles and scorching my bones until all was dark. I screamed out, the pain was unbearable and i once again fell into darkness.
I awoke. This time the pain as just a dull ache throughout my body. I looked up, into eyes that seemed to me the most beautiful in the entire known world. nothing I've seen surpassed the beauty, caring, and the intelligence i saw in those eyes. I felt her hands rubbing my arms, her soothing touch made the pain go away. I sat up but I couldn't take my eyes away from hers. She spoke to me in a voice that was almost singing but was the most beautiful I've ever heard.........
"I am the Keeper of Destiny"
"You are the one, You destroyed The Red Storm"
"You are destined to lead the army of light"
"It is your destiny and your right to wield the Sword of Truth"
"Go now and strike down the Darkness that ravages your land"
"And the prophecy says........."
"The One will come"
"He shall fight the darkness"
"The Son of Dachis"
"Wielder of the Sword of Truth"
Suddenly I was filled with the images of a war and of my patron hero Dachis. Images of death, love, the Grail of Wisdom, the Sword of Truth. All things present and past were shown vivid in my head. An understanding was seeded in me. The Keeper had shown me the destiny that was meant for me. I was to lead the army of light against the horde in the final battle. The Sword of Truth was at my side and I was to fight the Horde and defeat them, or not defeat them, either way, it was my destiny to fight........As the understanding was seeped into me and the wisdom from the Keeper flooded my mind, age shown on my age, parts of my hair when gray, my bear grew out some and went gray, wrinkles formed on my face, I looked 20 years older then I was but none of that mattered, all that mattered was my Destiny.
The sound was deafening. The ground shook as the thunder of the horde roared across the valley. "There are so many of them"... it seemed like the landscape was covered with these massive tattooed warriors. The earth shook as they advanced towards my army. The sweat and rain beaded down my face as I accessed the battle that was about to take place. As the keeper had told me, I was destined to be here, at the head of the Army of Light. It is MY destiny to lead these brave men and woman against the thunderous horde that had ravaged my homeland for so long, but how can I defeat them....... "There are just to many of them". MY soldiers are brave and stout of heart, but it seems as if the Apocalypse itself is rising from the horizon. "There are just to many"...........
The Keeper had magically transported me back to my Kingdom and i presented myself to the King, with the Grail of Wisdom that the Keeper had given me in my hands. The King drank from the Grail and had realized all that I had realized and I was given command of all the armies of the realm and now here I am, in the final battle against the horde. This will decide the fate of the known world.
The battle raged for days. thousands of men and woman lay dead in the field, thousands more lay wounded. The Horde seemed to be unstoppable. The stream of warriors just kept coming. Our men fought bravely but were slowly pushed back until we were at our last outpost in the northlands. The Horde's viscous warriors attacked relentlessly and there were so many every time we killed 1 3 more took his place. We defended our last outpost bravely. Thousands more died during our final stand, but thousands more of the Horde died. As we defeated more and more of there warriors attacking our final citadel there numbers finally started to waiver. As the attacks became fewer and fewer I ordered a counter attack. The attack was successful. With courage in our hearts and the Brave soul of the army of light we killed a thousand tattooed warriors in our last attack and drove the Horde from our homelands forever.