Kager procured two mugs from the bar, poured some coffee, and got a
few slices of lemon bread.
"Now, what is it you have to tell me?" Kager.
"Well.....I ha..." Trors seemed to wander off.
"Tror. What's wrong? Snap out of it!" Kager said in concern, as he
shook Tror.
"S-sorry, I-I am struggling to stay sane." Tror said in frustration, as he
held his head.
Kager slid him a mug of coffee. "Thank you." Tror said in reply.
"Now, le-let me tell you a story. It is the only way for you to understand
why I am different."
Kager nodded his head in understanding.
"Now, let me see, I will start with saying that I was a commanding
Footman. Which put me in a spot to command the royal forward
scouts. About........."
Twenty-two years ago I was summoned to the king's court, where he
was getting ready for an expansion campaign. He needed a
commander for the Royal Forward Scouts, so I volunteered, since I
had the most battle experience. As you should know the pirate wars
were some of the most intense. And spread across my entire career,
you became my top recruit in the last two years...
"Wait, sorry, I don't think we have ever met. Before you came here that
is." Kager
"What do you mean? In the pirate wars you earned the honor of knight
at the end of the war. When you and I took down pirate lord Horka."
Tror
"Sorry, but the kingdom of Flogur has never had any wars before in its
entire history." Kager
"But please, continue." Kager
" Let's see....
When we killed Horka we both got merit awards. So I was, and
guess I still am, the most decorated soldier in all the king's forces.
Which as I said put me in a spot for the RFS. I got ousted however
and was sent as the third in command. Anyway I accepted, not that I
had a choice, and was sent out with a calcified amount of troops. First
we took Dream island, which again as you know is to the west. We
built a bridge over the twin river to get to it, only to find the coasts on
the other side were too far apart. So we had to go all the way south to
Stigma gap, and cross the path of the banished.
(Author's note: read the introduction of Flogur, which has all the
important info for all the places I just mentioned.)
"I am s sorry to interrupt again, but Dreap has always been apart
of Flogur." Kager said, just listening to Trors story out of respect.
"Huh, it's fine, but just let me tell the story, then you can give me your
thoughts." Tror said in an annoyed voice.
So, we went down to the Stigma gap, and of course no man's land
was a harsh crossing. And don't ask what's no man's land. We made it
to the lands of banishment, which was pretty easy, most of the trees
were like the ones in the Gula-had. We thought there would be no
one there, and if there was they would be easy to bend to the will of
the king. Keep in mind I was still argent and thirsty for approval from
the monarchy, but really it was the council of scholars who were, and
probably still are, running the kingdom. Well, we were pathetically
mistaken about the inhabitants, we came across wild people. They
varied from tall, slender, or tall and muscular, to short, stocky, and
harry. Some were pretty, others ugly and dumb looking. Some blond,
others red hair, and still some others who had brown hair. They
seemed friendly, so we feasted and talked with them.
They knew our
language because they were descendants of banished people, or they
were banished themselves. It was then that all went to hell.
In the night while we slept, they began to burn the huts and tents
we were sleeping in. All men got out on time, but we faced a heavily
armed force. They weren't hunter gatherers as we had assumed, and
they were skilled. We began to fight, by morning we lost a quarter of
our troops, and that number kept falling, so we retreated. But it was
the wrong direction. So, now we were stuck, with no supplies, and an
enemy force between us and home. For about a week we attacked,
which was going nowhere, every time we had to run back with our tails
between our legs. We had to start hunting, and building a sort of
wooden fort.
We even built a eight foot high log fence, we hit the
Morvikites (as we learned they called themselves, calling the lands of
banishment, Morvia) with small raids, which kept casualties on a low.
They of course also hit us with small raids, which luckily, also did not
cost too many soldiers. We hunted, fought, and days grew to weeks.
Weeks grew to months, then months to years. About our third year in
Morvia, we went on a full scale attack. I was stationed at the front, our
first in charge died when we first fought the Morvikites, the second in
charge stuck to the back, with plenty of men between him and the
enemy. We fought hard, men fell left and right. When it seemed as
though we were pushing them back, they brought forth a massive
army that annihilated us.
We fell back, and counted our losses. I knew we couldn't last
doing a full on assault, so I devised a plan where one group headed
by the second in command would go forward with what would appear
to be a frontal assault. my group would go around and come from the
side, and a fourth group would cross a stream to the south and come
around behind them. The front group had heavy losses, and my group
got pinned along a cliff edge, the third group never showed.
My group
fought hard and managed to break through and regroup with the first
group. The second in command had changed, he was more caring of
the soldiers over himself, and according to rumors he laid his life on
the line several times for his men. We were tired, home sick, and
missing home. So, we just went for an all out attack, I told all men to
fight for themselves, and if they made it through, run and don't turn
back. We charged forward, weapons raised yelling, then, they
revealed these large barrels, with hundreds of bolts in them. The
enemy pulled strings attached to the barrels, and with a loud boom all
the bolts flew out, cutting us down, like a scythe to grain. I fell all of a
sudden, and as I began to rise, I heard this blood curdling scream of
agony. I looked around and saw my men dying, bolts flying through
them, cutting them in half. The stench of blood filled the air, still, I
could not see where the scream was coming from. Then, I looked
down at my legs, my left leg was gone, my right leg had a bolt through
it, and there was a bolt protruding from my left ribs.
That's when I
realized it was me screaming, everything blurred, the sounds around
me became muffled. All men were either dead, or bleeding out in the
battlefield. Men came around and collected those of us who were still
breathing. They tied all of us in a row, and revealed those barrels
again. They fired, killing some men, then again, and again, until I was
the only man left.
The Morvikites fed me, and nurtured me to health, then released me
into no man's land. I stumbled through the mountain covered desert,
and after a very long time I found Stigma gap. I stumbled through the
kingdom, trying to make it back to the capitol. No one seemed to care
for a broken and frail man. They walked by, not paying attention, or
obviously dogging me. I estimate around two years since my return,
and ten years since I had left for Morvia, I made it back to Blouthu.
The king took me in, once I told him everything they stripped my rank
and drug me into some deep dungeon. All I know is it was dark and
there were these people in black cloaks, who came and tortured me.
“Now I must tell you the purpose of this tale. That man, the one
with the red beard, is a Morvikite. He is a wild man of Morvia. And until
I saw him, all of those events, all my comrades who had died, were all
forgotten to me….” Before Tror could finish his eyes glazed over, he
looked scared, and ran from the inn, throwing the door open as he did
so.
“Tror, come back.”
Kager followed him. He couldn't seem to catch up with Tror, but still
managed to remain close enough to follow. He stumbled along,
leaving the village and going into the forest. Then Tror fell over, and
Kager ran towards him. “Tror what happened.” As Kager asked this he
saw that a large arrow was striking from his leg. “Oh by the fairies of
Gula-had. It's alright mate, hang in there.” Kager said reassuringly.
He
looked around for where the arrow could've come from. Luckily Kager
had flint in his apron, and a knife he always kept at his side. He made
a small fire, and began to heat the knife. He crouched next to Tror, still
being cautious of his surroundings. He placed the knife at the gap of
the wound, and wrenched the arrow out. Tror let out a loud scream,
then passed out. Kager sat with Tror laying next to the fire. Then a
disturbance broke the silence, there was a person dressed in a dark
wool cloak. The person raised something to their lips, then Kager
began to feel sleepy and he couldn't stay awake. He stood to confront
the person, but then he felt a searing pain in his back, then the ground
seemed to rise up towards him, it was because he had just fallen over,
he looked down to see a hole where an arrow had gone straight
through his second left rib.
His vision was fogging, but then he felt warm, protected, and began
to wake up. He looked up and saw Tror standing, there was a strange
crimson aura about him, he was standing head bent down. Then the
cloaked figure moved towards Tror, the stranger pulled their cloak
back, it was a smug looking bald man, who began to pull a short
sword from within his cloak.
Tror flexed and his aura grew massive
and more power full. His shirt ripped off, revealing scars all over his
body, a rather surprisingly muscular body, considering he spent his
time drinking. Tror seemed to summon a large double bladed sword,
this was the same color as his aura, but it seemed to be dripping with
his aura. The bald man fell in half, to Kager it seemed as though Tror
hadn’t moved, then from the tree tops dropped a small troop of the
cloaked figures. Tror moved with speed and cut off an assailant’s arm
to his left. Then an arrow zoomed towards Tror, but his aura deflected
it. Tror moved with speed, soon the ground was soaked with assassin
guts and blood, but still they fought on. Every move of them seemed
cold and emotionless, Every time someone fell they walked over their
fallen comrades. Then, an arrow covered with a golden aura pierced
Trors heart. Kager being a knight could use aura also, but his was
weaker, a green aura shot up around him, and he had a shield and
short sword in hand, he began to fight. Then it felt as though someone
was tugging him apart. He looked down and saw that his body was
filled with arrows, and his blood was gushing out everywhere. Then
the warm sleepy feeling the first assassin caused came over him, he
slipped peacefully & painlessly off to sleep.
Author's note: So far I have done the story from Kagers perspective,
but my mc is actually Netry, whom I will be switching to on the second
line of episode five.
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