Short Story / Untitled

                 “Himura stood to look around, his eyes scanning the muddy terrain, he knew that the enemy, us, was close, but he had no clue as to which direction he would be attacked from. The group of men he had assumed command of had been whittled down. He and four others were all that remained. We had simply confused them, we attacked from what would be considered all directions, and they never found a single one of us. The mud had slowly started towards the trench, the rain driving it on, or so Himura thought. In an instant, our cover had been shed, and there was a quick silvery flash, one that only a blade could produce. Himura had this horrified look on his face. I know; I saw it as his head rolled back towards m, the look forever frozen on his face. Before his body had time to slump to the ground, we had executed the rest of his men. Horrible screams fled their mouths and filled the night. It was sweet music for the damned! I remember the look in his eyes, they were glazed. The adrenaline rushing through his veins somehow had awaked something from a very deep sleep, a slumber that should not have been disturbed. It was a demon we had awaked that night… and its name was Vol’jin. He was the son of the great mystic, perhaps the greatest and wisest our villages had ever seen. Under his guidance, we prospered. We had cast away our warlike nature and made peace with our enemies. It was a bit strange; we had been a testing party, to test allegiances of various platoons of men. With each passing group, Vol’jin became filled more and more with a strange bloodlust, as if he wanted to find a traitor simply to execute them. Finally, he gave the order; he was convinced that without a doubt, Himura was a traitor. We had been stalking him for days, making sure to monitor his every movement. Many of us, Himura had done little wrong to the throne, and when the order was given, we hesitantly followed through. I wish it had never been done. Every night, I toss and turn. Fearing to sleep due to the nightmares that plague my mind, and chase away my dreams. I often wonder while I lay in a cold sweat, is this all set up? Or am I living in a nightmare? Am I simply unable to wake up? I wish it were true. Oh, how I wish it were true.”
-Clazin
Traitor to the Throne

        “It has been many years since Vol’jin betrayed the throne. After he slew Himura, he quickly launched a series of attacks upon villages nearest to the location, branding them as traitors as well. His own village was included in the list. What few survivors escaped the horrific acts fled to the keep, and news spread fast. Before he could strike too many more villages, we had set up encampments of men to guard each village. Even so, the loss of Sol’jin was devastating, and the moral of the troops was in no form to conduct combat, we almost lost Ravenhill that day. The men were able to repel the attack however, and even were able to capture several of the higher ranking officers to question the motive of Vol’jin. He, however, managed to escape with a small band of men into Silverwood Glade, and my men dared not follow. The horrors lurking in Silverwood Glade are much too great to risk even pursuit of that fiend. Reports of Vol’jin randomly trickle through to me. The most recent report is that of a man bearing the crest of a blue griffin marching south with a dozen or so robed men. I scouted the reported area myself but found nothing to signal the path had seen any traveling. It troubles me, but not as much as your requests my lord. Why did you wish for the statement of the traitor and my reports? You don’t have to answer, but sire, you must drop the fascination with him. We still have to prepare the men to engage Leodi, what could this possibly lead to other than straining our resources even more?”
-Hans
Lieutenant and Chief Guard of Silverwood Village

        “I thank you for your information. It is my personal belief that the traitorous Vol’jin and my brother have indeed been interacting in some way. The sudden changes are similar. As is his ability to enter and exit Silverwood Glade with his life. The only difference between the two is the fact that he had no other direct attacks after the first few. I believe something bigger than us is pulling the strings, I’ll contact you later. Send my regards to the twins; tell them I shall rejoin you soon as possible.”
-Loki Trister
Emperor of Runefaust
“P.S. Do not even entertain the thought of attempting to track down Vol’jin. The Empire has hired you and your men for the sole purpose to help cleanse the land of the demon spawn that has slowly been encroaching upon our lands. Any attempt to do so will terminate our contract and thus cut your pay.”

Heavy footsteps woke me from a light nap. It seemed about noon, but I couldn’t be sure. The clouds and rain blocked out the sun. I shifted to a sitting position and rubbed my eyes. A blurry image of a man standing before me greeted me as the first image of the day. I muttered something in disgust as I stood and slowly made my way to my clothing. I changed my tunic and pants as the man rambled on about the daily reports. I listened half-heartedly. I could care less if one of the gods themselves was delivering the news. It was to be another dull day, go to point A, ensure purging completion, ride all day to point B, set up a perimeter and then begin to exercise the demons in the area. It had been four years since I had set out to find him. Four long years of a wild goose chase, false reports flooding in and being filtered through. I sighed deeply, and then an odd thought struck me, I was looking at this all wrong. I should be enjoying tracking him down. He was running from me, he feared me and therefore was punished by my existence as well. A grin formed upon my face. I would find my half-brother and I would make him pay for the death of my family and friends. It was only my sister and I who had lived through his onslaught. When he had attacked me, I felt as though he would shred me to pieces. But then, that bastard… my step-father, Sol’jin, he faced his son unarmed; he did it to buy us enough time to flee to the stables and escape the village. I couldn’t believe that he did it. The self-centered ass was always thinking of himself and his reputation as a mystic. He let mother die while attempting to prove his supreme power. Yet here I was, thanks to him. I had survived to gather my rag tag army of misfits. They feared nothing, and like myself, had lost everything, there would be no reward other than vengeance here.
        I lifted my head to the sky as I left the shelter; the ever present rain of Darkgrass Plains had slowed to a trickle. I set forth to the command tent, and upon entry I was greeted with many a hostile look.
        “Sire, we have waited all day, there were reports of…”
        “There are always reports, they’ve been false, and how can you be sure this time?” I cut him off; I had grown tired of the always “dire” threat.

        “Balmug, we seen it ourselves, two hours to the west. There is an encampment, two actually. One housing demons, and the other humans, we cannot guess when they arrived, but we wasted no time in returning to camp… a great battle was raging between the two… and the humans were fleeing.

        “Where would these men flee to?” I asked feigning concern.

        “Sire, I last saw a few coming this way, with a horde of demons on their tail.”

        I shook my head in disbelief; turning my head to the others I nodded my approval to the guards. I would not be caught off guard. We had found and ratted out several demon encampments before. But from the look of the scouts face. I realized this was not some run of the mill band.
        Maybe forty minutes later, the alarm was cried. There were only a few riders less horses at first, but soon, two men were visible, their horses rushing towards us with all their might. Close behind were several demons upon their unholy mounts. Upon sight of our outpost, the demons slowed to a stop, they had not realized our presence until now. The two men raced past our first lines of defense. They quickly stopped and dropped to the ground, their horses near death and the look on their own faces showed exhaustion. Instantly I realized who they were. Both had identical necklaces, bearing the signet of a golden dragon. They were the twin sons of the emperor, Jin and Lios. Jin was the calm and collected of the two. He had been appointed the emperors Chief of War. His mind was a strange and deadly weapon, but none questioned it effectiveness. Lios was the hot tempered of the two. At the age of eight, he had excelled in all forms of combat, his only equal at the academy was his brother, and it was decided that he should be his fathers Chief of Guard.
        “Lios! Jin! Twin sons of the High Emperor! What are you doing here?” I asked as I helped them to their feet.
        “Balmug! The same could be said for you! However, you asked first, we were sent here to look for our brother.” Jin began.

        “Kyle? I heard he was returning home from an injury.”
        
        “No you idiot! Our other… brother… if we can even call him that anymore.” Lios said.
        
“Ah, Leodi, what could bring him here?”
        
“We don’t know, but you better have your men flee now! There are more demons on their way.” Lios said, it was not like him to be a coward, there had to be something he was hiding.

        “Tell you what, I’ll stay here and fight and I’ll lend you ten of my best riders to return you to your hold. From there, whatever information you can relate back to your father in hopes for more troops to be issued here would be appreciated.” I said.

        “You’re going to fail you know, there are too many of them, you cannot hold them for that long. And even if you could, I doubt we would be able to return with enough men to save you.” Jin growled.

        I looked to Jin as if he had slapped me in the face. I quickly signaled for ten close men to accompany the two princes to their keep. As the men lead the princes away, each cast me looks of pity, they realized I could not be swayed. I could not help but wonder however, why would these two do such an act, they knew my skills?
        It was late in the night when the demons had started their advance. Slowly at first, then at a dead charge. It was now, I knew, that the longest and quite possibly last moments of my life would be spent. We met their charge, in hopes of having our outpost as a fallback area. The fighting went on for what seemed like days, horrible cries of pain and screams of agony and wailings of death came from all directions. I focused solely on the creatures in front of me, cutting my way through to the center, and that’s when I saw him. Straight in front of me, at first I couldn’t have been sure. From head to toe the figure was covered in black plate armor. It wasn’t until he pulled his sword from a body of another man that I realized who exactly I was facing. The figure turned to face me, the misty form of his breath escaping from under his helm. He stepped towards me and raised the accursed weapon. The blue white glow from his sword was the only reassuring thing to the identity of this man.
        “Leodi…” I gasped as I stumbled backwards. It was the brother of the twins. His armored hand reached up and removed his helm, revealing the face of the traitor, he was a shadow of his former self however, his hair now was straw like, and his youthful face now seemed twisted and warped with age.
        “Hello… Balmug!” He said as he plunged his sword through my chest. There was no time to react, no time to cry in pain, the last image forever burned into my eyes was that of this man. The man responsible for changing my brother… as he pulled the sword from my chest, I realized there was no pain. There was no feeling at all. I was dieing, and all I could think about was how I had lived a foolish life, and now, at its end I could only pray that Loki would retrieve my honor. Before my life left me, my only wish was for Loki to avenge me and the lives I had not avenged. I left it all on Loki, to once again, save the world from the demonic scourge…

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