Avalon Publication (october 2002)
Trouble Over the Horizon
The young Nino Oro mother opened the picnic basket and unpacked the lunch she made for her family. It was a beautiful day in Blue Mountain Valley and she was going to take advantage of it so she packed the lunch and went into the forest to the nearest clearing near the Clearwater River. The Nino Oro woman watched her husband and little girl swim in the river. She couldn’t believe how fast her little girl had grown. Mara still remembered the day little Allie was born and now she was 70 years old (7 in human years). Her dad was teaching her how to swim. Allie kicked her legs while her father held her so she wouldn’t slip. Having the little girl gave her mother such joy especially when her husband had to be away from home on occasion because he was in the city guard. Sometimes he was away for months at a time. Her husband had earned himself a month of time off and she was going to take advantage of it as much as possible. “Come in, time to eat.” shouted Mara. There was much splashing as the young man and child swam out of the water. Her husband has long, sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. He was also a Nino Oro and all Nino Oros were lean and muscular. The girl had long red hair and blue eyes like her mother. The girl’s hair was done up in pigtails and she wore a dark green bathing suit. “Something smells good.” Jorvic took three sandwiches and bit into one. “You make the best sandwiches in these parts sweetie.” The magess smiled and fed the little girl her sandwich. They ate quietly for awhile. A green face appeared out of the nearest bush. The green face looked out at the little family with black eyes. Little Allie saw the face and let out a ear-piercing scream. “Daddy! Mommy!” They turned around and looked to where she was looking. “I saw a green face.” She started to cry. Tears rolled down her checks in a small river. Her father put his arms around her and gave her a comforting hug. “What did you see baby? What frightened you?” He got up and inspected the bush but the creature had vanished. Mara saw the goblin behind her husband. “Jory, behind you!” The mercenary turned around to face the goblin. “Gods, where did he come from? Pack up the lunch and take Altheia home.” The mercenary took out his sword and prepared to defend himself and his family. The goblin swung his club at Jorvic. The club missed by a mile and the mercenary sidestepped the strike. He thrusted his sword in the goblin’s chest. The creature fell forward dead in a pool of blood. Mara ran over to her husband with Allie in tow. “You shouldn’t have done that. You could have gotten killed.” He hugged and kissed his wife. “I couldn’t let it hurt you and Altheia. That was a goblin, Mara. Where there is one, there are others. They are like ants. First, you see one, then ten, then pretty soon, there are thousands. Let’s just go home.”
Back in the village of Blue Mountain Valley, the first thing they did was report to the city guard so that Jorvic could report what he saw to the Captain. “Captain Reeds, my wife and I saw a goblin out in the woods. I killed but there may be more.” The Captain was a tall thin man with black hair and eyes and a mustache. “A goblin you say, private and just the one. Hmmm.” He smoothed out his mustache. “We will investigate it. I will send out a search party right away.” “Thank you Sir.” He saluted and left the man’s office.
Two weeks passed after the first sighting of the goblin. An investigation had went underway to find the culprit behind the goblin attacks. The investigation concluded with the report of an enemy from the east of the Kingdom of Darkshire. The king that ran the kingdom desired among all else, power and land. He tyrannized over his subjects, taxing them to death and now he wanted to control the Kingdom of Avalon as well. It was only a matter of time before King Jarek Darkhield would strike.
Avalon didn’t have long to wait. Soon after, the first goblin attacks, King Michel De’Beir II, sent out patrols from each of the villages guards to investigate the forests. A proclamation went out for no one to go out of their homes unless they absolutely had to leave. Finally, at the end of the second week, Avalon declared war on Darkshire. Every eligible solider had fight in the war including Jorvic Summers, Altheia’s father. It was an emotional time at the Summers’ cottage for Mara and Allie. “Why must you go Jory? It is your time off. You went without for months to get that time off and war or no war, you deserve it.” The man held his wife in a close embrace and wiped her tears away which started to flow freely down her cheeks.
“You know that is impossible Mara. I must go for you and for Allie. The life of a mercenary is never easy or pleasant.”
“What would I ever do without you?” sobbed the golden-skinned woman.
“Mara, I don’t want you to stay here. Promise me you will take Allie and go to Haven where it is safe. You always talked about studying there. I don’t know how long I will be gone but I will feel better knowing you two are safe. Leave right away, in fact leave tonight after I leave, before it gets too dark.” The girl looked at her husband in bewilderment. He never talked like this. This war was making everyone crazed. “Are you sane? Leave tonight? How are we to get there?”
“I arranged for you and Altheia to go with the Rosegroves. They are leaving for Haven tonight as well. You will be safe with them. Once you get into Haven, go directly to the Clearwater School of Magic. We will write each other every day. I promise you, Mara.”
“I will miss you so much Jory.” They hugged each other tightly. Maybe for the last time. Mara couldn’t help thinking these thoughts. That evening, just before dusk, she and her child boarded the buggy with the Rosegroves and headed to the capital city of Haven.
The next morning, Mara and her daughter reached the gates of the school. A gardener let them in and they went straight to the headmaster’s office and knocked on the door. “Come in.” replied the voice on the other side. The girl pushed open the door. The room was decorated in dark oak. In front of her sat a dark oak desk and chair. In the chair sat a younger looking Headmaster Mikeal. He had brown hair and eyes with a short, plump stature. “excuse me, are you the headmaster?” The man looked up to see a golden-skinned woman and female child both with red hair and blue eyes. “Yes, I am headmaster Mikeal. How may I help you? Please sit.” The woman sat in another dark oak chair and sat the girl in her lap. “Headmaster, my name is Mara Summers. This is my daughter Altheia. I have come to study magic at your school. I already have some mage skills. My husband is a mercenary fighting in the recent campaign. My village is no longer safe because of the goblin attacks. The safest place to be is here. Please headmaster, I need your help.” She had said that last line with a great deal of urgency.
“Slow down child. You do not need to talk so fast. Your husband is right. This place will be safer for you. With all our students, we need to test you to place you in classes. Our program is individualized which means you progress at your own pace and study as long as it takes for you to learn at your best. I can arrange for you to stay on campus in one of our bigger dorms with your daughter. We even have a center on the premises for our students who are parents and need care for their children. Little Altheia will be safe while you are in classes. You see, you have nothing to worry about Mrs. Summers. Now, I will have a page show you where you will be staying and I will arrange for the skills test tomorrow after breakfast. Will that be all right with you? You may bring your daughter with you to the skills test.” The golden-skinned woman looked more relieved than when she arrived. “Thank you headmaster. That will be fine.” She got up to shake his hand. “It was a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Summers and your beautiful daughter.” He smiled at the little girl. She turned away from him and hid behind her mother. “She is shy, headmaster, around people she doesn’t know very well.” He smiled at her. “Yes, of course. Young children tend to do that. How old is she?” “She is thirty years old.” He raised his eyebrows at looked at mother and child again. “I didn’t realize she was that young. Well, until tomorrow Mrs. Summers.” He waved to the little girl behind her mother’s robe. “Bye Altheia.” He showed the young mother and her child out, closing the door behind them.
The next morning, Mara entered a large room that appeared to be empty except for the headmaster and two other gentlemen with white beards. “Ah, Mrs. Summers, good of you to come. These two gentlemen are from the Mage Council. They will be administering your test to you.” The headmaster looked around for the woman’s daughter. “Where is the little one?”
“She is in the nursery, headmaster. She would be under everyone’s feet if I had brought her.” replied the red-haired woman. The headmaster nodded in agreement. “That is a wise idea. She is very young after all.” One of the men stepped forward “Ms. Summers, we will test you against different scenarios and see how you handle them. We won’t tell you what they are because that would defeat the purpose of the test. Are you ready?”
“I am as ready as I can be under the circumstances. I take it this type of test isn’t anything you can prepare for.” The man studied her face and then nodded his head. “That is a reasonable answer.”
After the man had spoken, a wolf had appeared in front of the student. This wolf had silver fur and eyes with yellow fangs. It snarled at the girl and growled. The girl wasn’t sure how the wolf got there but she was sure her test had begun. The wolf charged her and she moved out of the way. It looked like one minute she was there and the next, she was some place else. The wolf turned around and charged her again. Mara summoned a sword and held it out in front of her. The wolf charged on, when it was in arm’s length, she plunged the sword into the wolf’s body, straight into the chest to be exact. The wolf eyes took on a glassy stare and blood seeped out of its mouth. The girl pulled her sword out and the creature fell to the floor. “Smart thinking, young lady. I applaud you for your creativity and quick thinking but not all the tests will be that simple. Shall we continue?”
One of the rafters fell from above the girl. She quickly dodged it by accelerating to the speed of light. As she stopped to catch her breath, another rafter fell and she stopped it with her mind a foot before it hit her, moved it out of the way then let it drop. The two men didn’t make any more comments instead they summoned the next thing to throw at her. Out of nowhere, a dagger appeared and was thrown at the girl. She blocked it with her defensive barrier so it bounced off and landed with a metallic sound on the floor. Another dagger appeared and was thrown, this time the girl caught it in mid air. While she held it, heat radiated from her hand and melted the dagger down. Another two daggers shot off towards her. She leaped out of the way so the two daggers hit then disappeared. The girl landed back on her feet in the same place she started. The headmaster looked very impressed. The other two men from the council wrote some notes down on a sheet of paper. Mara wasn’t sure what was going to happen next. Then a man appeared in front of her. He was dressed all in black wielding an unusual sword. He lunged at her. She bent back in a slow motion, reached down and came back up with a similar sword in hand. She stepped forward and lunged across his chest. He dodged out of the way. The man twirled his sword around and aimed for her chest. The golden-skinned elf concentrated, and one minute sword was pointed towards her and the next it was in her hand leaving the man without a weapon. Now with two swords in hand, she cut across his chest simultaneously leaving two deep gashes in his chest. She gave him a high kick to the groin and the man doubled over in pain. She couldn’t read the man’s face because it was completely covered. Now that he was in a somewhat crouched position, he sprang up and aimed a high, sidekick to her head. Before, it could reach her, she froze the black-clad man in mid air so that now he was nothing more than a block of ice. The student looked at the three gentlemen “Do you want me to finish him?” The two men from the Council looked at each other then the first man spoke, “Take care of him as efficiently as possible.”
“As you wish.” She unfroze him and plunged her sword into the guy’s chest as he came down. The man disappeared into black ash. The men didn’t not clap or even say a word, they just continued to scribble more notes on a piece of paper. When they were down scribbling, the men looked up and Mara saw a fireball heading towards her. She concentrated I don’t believe it is there at all. The size of the fireball grew smaller and smaller until it didn’t exist. “Very impressive so far Ms. Summers but for this last test, you will need to be able to maneuver your way out.”
A cell appeared in the middle of the room with Mara chained to the wall. The cell was made out of steel and probably had enchantments on it. “You need to be able to get out of that.” replied the first man. Mara tried to break the chains but there were too strong. She started to break down the structure of the chains so that instead of metal, there were pieces of string. The string gave away with a little applied pressure on her part. Now there was the matter of getting out of the cell. She examined the cell. It would probably have some sort of forcefield or enchantment on it. What could she use to short-circuit the forcefield? Then she had an idea. What if this cell was not here? On the other hand, they probably want her to do it the hard way. She summoned a metal rod and threw it at the cell bars. There was a metallic zapping noise as it hit. She had figured right. There was some sort of field on the bars. She summoned another rod and this one made the same noise. The third rod short-circuited the field with a small electrical show.
With the field down, the girl examined the bars. There was no lock or door to be seen. No problem, she would just make a door. She concentrated her power and the bars started to bend and move and form a space big enough for her to walk through. When the space enlarged about three feet on each side, she merely walked through the bars and stood in front of the men, waiting patiently for them to speak or give her the next test. The two men continued to scribble on their papers. Finally, they both looked up and over at her. “Congratulations, Ms. Summers, you have passed the test. You rely perhaps a little too heavily on the sword however you did spend a little too much time on the ninja. We had to deduct some points for that. The good news is that you met every challenge we threw at you and you did it without having to use a spellbook or wave of your hand or saying any words. Mages who can do that are called Benders. They can manipulate reality. I wasn’t too sure you were one Ms. Summers. If you had failed this test, we would have told you right away and given you the “other” test we give mages. It looks like you proved me wrong.” The elf had gotten the feeling they expected her to fail. “I am glad to hear I passed.” she replied. After all, she didn’t want to contradict a man that would be leaving soon. “Is there anything further?”
“No, my dear.” spoke the headmaster. “You are dismissed. I will need to speak with Kalia Shadowchaser, who will be your instructor. Meet me tomorrow morning in my office at 10a.m.”
“I will be there.” She acknowledged the three men with a bow and showed herself out of the room.
A red-haired man leaned over a wooden table and examined the map. He was dressed in steel armor chainmail. On the map, the little kingdoms of Avalon and Darkshire were circled. Little figurines were marked where each battle was too take place to a tee. He smelled the air. “Today is a good day to die. I love the smell of blood in the morning, don’t you Smeel?”
Smeel was a small man for he was a dwarf. As one of the head underlings, he was the God of War’s chief toadies. “I think it is a fine day to die boss. What is that saying? Ah yes, the more the merrier.”
Out on the field, two large armies battled it out. I hate to use the cliché of a chessboard but that is what the scene looked like. The Avalonian army in red and brown leather uniforms on one side and the gold and black uniform of the Darkshire army on the other side. Arion, the god of war even made an appearance.
A trumpet blew, signaling a charge into battle. King Jarek I sat on a black war-horse watching his prey. There is the old saying of the grass is greener on the other side. Well, he wanted the other side and soon he will have it. He raised his hand and let it drop. Arrows filled the sky as they were launched into the air hitting their targets on into enemy camp. Some were lit on fire. Some were had magical enchantments. Others were poisoned. Whatever the mean was, the end was the same. The first Avalonian went down in agony as the arrow went through his chest. Another arrow went through the next soldier’s arm. The poisoned arrows killed a handful of soldiers on contact.
While the Darkshire army attacked, the Avalonian army sent their best mages out onto the field. The sky was lit even more with the fireballs that flew around. In midst of this, soldiers fought one on one. Jorvic stood in the midst of this bloody battle to watch his comrades slaughtered one by one. One enemy soldier charged up to Jorvic and sliced him in the soldier. The mercenary slashed him across the stomach. He uppercutted the guy in the gut and plunged him through the chest. The enemy soldier fell to the ground in a bloody mess.
This was not a battle, this was a massacre. To give a comparison, this battle made the Saint Valentine’s Massacre look like a little girl’s tea party. There weren’t just dead bodies lying around, there were dead body parts lying around. Jorvic watched a soldier chopped off a man’s finger. He could not tell if the bloody leg he saw was attached to a soldier or not.
Then when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, a Darkshire cleric started to chant. The dead bodies on both sides began to rise. The soldier zombies attacked the living ones. It was harder to kill the Undead zombie soldiers because they were already dead. These soldiers didn’t have souls. Their eyes, nothing but hollow, empty sockets. The dead bodies on the field outnumbered the living ones which made even more volunteers for the Undead army.
Weeks turned into months and months turned into years. Both sides were growing weary and tired from the fighting. Supplies were beginning to run low. Neither side knew how long this war was going to last. New recruits were brought in every day by the truckload. The Darkshire army started to show signs of weakness.
Renee, a young sorceress, had just been recruited for the Avalonian army. She had an idea on how to destroy the Undead army. Not only were they killing the living soldiers but they were also kidnapping some soldiers, held them imprisoned, and used them as slaves. Now, Renee had strong fire element abilities. She thought if you can contain the Undead army in one place, she can set them on fire and they turn to ash.
The next battle, Renee put her plan into action. The young sorceress with others of her magical abilities broke down the Undead army into small groups and cornered them with circles of fire. Before the magic users could pull of their plan, an exotically beautiful woman appeared in the middle of the battle. A woman with long purple hair, dressed all in red, in the style of the 1970’s complete with a halter top, miniskirt and Go-Go boots. She surveyed the scene. “No mortal takes away what is rightfully mine and no mortal interferes with my domain. The dead stay dead.” She snapped her fingers and all the Undead zombies disappeared. No one saw this woman. All the Darkshire army knew was that more than half their number had been reduced. The Avalonian army took their attack of opportunity and surrounded the rest of the Darkshire company.
With the Darkshire army severely weakened and diminished in number; they ran like the scared little mortals they were back to their side of the border. The enemy went back to lick their wounds with their tails between their legs in defeat. So what is the moral of this story? Don’t anger the gods. You would think the people in “How the North Got Its Just Desserts” learned this lesson but I guess they haven’t figured it out yet.