Prologue
“Tydana, the goblins have begun to siege the outskirts of Erygor. Please send help immediately or the city will be lost,” a young head-archer of the elven kingdom of Crystadell reported to her commander.
“Ugh! Another invasion? When will these insolent maggots stop?” Tydana, commander of the Aurabow, said, annoyed. Then, the commander said to the standing archer, “Summon my hunting pack for me and then return to your post to continue scouting.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Within a few hours, Tydana had fully assembled her huntresses and brought down the invading horde. By losing no more than ten huntresses, Tydana had left no ugly red dwarf-like creatures alive to report the casualties to the enemy officers. This was the eighteenth battle within the week, which was not the first, and Tydana knew that if the goblins persisted with their wild rampage, they would not keep their streak of wins.
1
Crystadell was an elf kingdom like none other. It, being the major elf kingdom, reigned over thousands acres of land, many which were forests or plains. This elven kingdom lay right in the middle of the continent. To the west, the bloody fields of Gorian, the home of the mischievous and annoying goblins and the red, fire-breathing dragons, could bee seen. Surrounding the magnificent empire to the north were the Artic Mountains, home to dwarves and the even more deadly, but less common kind of dragons; the brumal, bluish-white ice dragons. To the east, lay the ocean of Merwine, the home of the peaceful, but powerful merfolk. Plotted within the realm lay several other elf nations, none, which were even comparable to Crystadell.
Crystadell had many different regions and type of structures. Starting from the outskirts of the kingdom, farmers would claim that the grass was always greener on the Crystadell side, and that the waters were always clearer. Buildings, even in the most rural areas, were fortified, and made, so that even the poorest elf in the kingdom would have a house that was comfortable and could provide shelter from the harshest weather. As the area becomes closer to the capital, the scenery becomes better, along with roads and buildings. The population of hunters, warriors and magistrates increase as well. On the lands surrounding the capital, elegantly constructed barracks could be found, continually training young elves into hunters and huntresses.
A bit westward of the geographic center of the kingdom, sits the capital, Crysthaven. True to the kingdom’s name, the entire city’s buildings were sculpted from the finest crystal, making the city have a sparkling look. Many of the capital’s buildings housed aristocrats, and hunters and huntresses of high tier. Thus, not only did the buildings shine a crystal-like shine, they were artistically crafted into monumental structures by the mountain dwarves, the best architects in the land.
But a kingdom is not real without problems. Several years ago, the thirty-third ruler of the kingdom had passed away, leaving his two hundred forty-five year old son, Eidias, as the new ruler of the land. Transitions always, no matter how peaceful, lead to trouble, especially if power is handed to an inexperienced young elf.
“Court dismissed!” ordered Eidias.
A bunch of worried advisors stood up hoping the king was just playing around with them. They had just started the assembly a few minutes ago and they just barely started talking about last month’s agricultural reports. Though relatively short court sessions had been held for a few years, the wise and venerable advisors of the deceased king still had not been used to them.
“My king, you can’t just stop the court right now. We’re in a middle of a discussion. Please hold the meeting until we are done with the topic,” pleaded one of the officials who wanted the kingdom to thrive.
“The king can do whatever he wants and if he wants to end the court now, he has the power to do so,” replied one of the officials who only wanted to have an official title, but didn’t want to help the kingdom.
“This advisor is correct,” the king said, pointing at the official who had just sucked up to him by going with his idea. “If you are unable to take orders from me, I do not want to see you in the court any longer. Now, do not make me repeat myself. The court is dismissed!”
The good advisors, knowing that they would either be beheaded or dismissed from the court permanently, bowed to the king, and, with the lazy and greedy advisors and the other advisors, they left the court. The king yawned and then sent for a servant to escort him to his chambers. When he got there, he ordered the elf to send the activities coordinator to him.
“Right away,” the eunuch answered and set off to do his king’s orders.
Fifteen minutes later, the activities coordinator had arrived at Eidias’s resting chamber.
“My lord, what do you wish to add to your activities list? You have a banquet two days from now, a hunting party the day after that, two fairs to go to by the day after the day after tomorrow, and the rest of the month is pretty much entirely booked.”
“Well, I want to have a ball, in this month. Probably next week since you said it was pretty,” snapped the king who had not listened to a single word the coordinator had said except “What do you wish to add to your activities list?” and “The rest of the month is pretty.”
“But my lord, weren’t you listening to what I said a second ago? And anyways, you just had a ball two days ago remember? Your royal relatives arrived to see you and you hosted one. We don’t have infinite gold for you to spend you know.”
“You’re the freaking activities coordinator, so you’re supposed to coordinate the activities I want, and if I want a ball, you’ll coordinate it. I’ll handle the money issue.”
“It’s not another tax raise, is it? The peasants have been taxed seven times this year. If it wasn’t for the good deeds that your father had done as he was king, they might have already revolted,” the activities coordinator said.
Eidias boomed, “You are the activities coordinator, not my countries treasurer. You have no say in what I do with taxes. Anyways, I’m ten times the king my father was and if you say anymore of this nonsense, I will have you executed. The kings before me were always too passive and protective about everything. I am not the same.”
“I’ll find a time for your ball, my lord,” sighed the coordinator.
“Good, then you are dismissed. Tell me the date of the ball and then tell the messengers to send the hunters and huntresses to party too. I’m sure they need some relaxing time after guarding the borders for so long.”
With that order, the coordinator dismissed himself and the king then headed to his fourteenth consort.
“Tydana, there are a horde of goblins heading toward another city fifty leagues west of this city,” reported an archer.
“Archer, my Aurabow pack had received a message from a scout earlier about a siege on another city. Send the message you carry to my dear friend and commander of the Shadowlance pack, Faidar. His pack should be available right now. Oh, please tell him to meet me at Glen’s Wood when he’s done slaughtering fighting off the horde,” Tydana answered.
With a salute to the commander, the archer took off to the Shadowlance camp. Tydana took off her dressy garments and wore the official female commander’s armor; a silver, dragonhide breastplate with shoulder plates that had the commander’s insignia, the fist inside a diamond, and the same colored dragonhide leggings. Then she took her ancient yew bow off the wall and sheathed her magnificent short sword that had slain many enemies of Crystadell. After gathering the rest of the pack, the Aurabow pack mounted on their steeds and took off for the besieged city.
As they arrived, they were shocked to see tat the goblins had overwhelmed the defending sentries and had already leveled many of the poorest elves’ buildings.
“Tydana, thank the stars that you have arrived. The horde is more bloodthirsty then ever. Our bows could not stop them from coming over the wall.”
“Curses. What had given these eye-blights the surge? You,” Tydana ordered, pointing at a hunter in her pack, “Take a third of my pack and guard the interior wall. Don’t let these… these animals into the heart of the city. The rest follow me, we have some goblin lives to end.”
With that, Tydana led her pack into the city.
“ Gather my tribesmen,” ordered a shaman-like goblin. Then, after they had assembled into a messy formation, she cackled, “Charge! Slash-n-burn them elves!”
The goblins, with their swords, glistening with blood, began advancing towards the small pack of elves.
“Line up into bow formation and prepare your bows,” Tydana instructed. “Hold your fire until I order you to. Hold, hold…”
The goblins were getting closer to their enemies, and with a decisive “Fire!” the elves let their arrows fly, stopping the front line. But many more goblins took their dead brothers line and they continued to advance, as bloodthirsty as before.
“Ok, now archers, fire at will. Hunters and huntresses, draw your elven swords and show them true swordplay.”
With that, Tydana fire a few more arrows, called the archers for retreat and with the enemy within a few feet from the pack, she commanded, “Strike them down!” and rode forward on her mount to face the opponents.
Tydana withdrew her short sword as three goblins aimed their swords at her neck. With a flick of her sword, a goblin lay dead on the ground. The other two watched for a second, and then decided that they didn’t care if they were turned into goblin meat, and charged. Tydana unhooked her swords sheath and used both the sword and its sheath to block the incoming goblin attacks. Then she clubbed a sword out of one and cut the other one open. Then she leapt, did a two mid-air flips while cutting down the remaining enemy. Tydana watched six goblins swarmed a fellow elf and before Tydana could help the outnumbered elf, two goblin swords, belonging to the last two surviving goblins of the six, had impaled him. But Tydana couldn’t take the time to acknowledge the soldier’s handwork and service, as she was surrounded by eight goblins herself. She fought hard, disarming all of them. But doing that was not enough. A goblin rushed forward with his fist flying forcing Tydana to impale him with her sword. Allowing the other goblins to bring her down. The goblin held the sword that was in him until his last breath. By then, it was too late for Tydana. Six of the goblins had already knocked down her sword and had held her against a wall of a building. The last goblins was brandishing a sword that he had picked up from the ground. He stood up, walked over to Tydana, raised the sword, and brought it down to kill Tydana.
TBC
Posted by dragonistear 
