World of Taroo

by Jimmy Eriksson

  Kemi was quiet for a while thinking and then said that the Domoro Land had an awful lot of water for being in a part of the land that was next to a desert. They all looked at her and Jay wondered if it might be time to visit the Domoro Land. Kemi thought it would be a great idea and then moved her troops towards the desert. They arrived to the Shamo desert where Jay once entered and he told Kemi about the worms that awaited them in the ruins. She was not concerned and ordered the soldiers to walk straight through the desert. When they entered the ruins after walking through the desert, the soldiers cut down any worm that attacked them. They were surrounded but the worms seemed to hesitate to attack at first. When Kemi’s cursed army left the ruins, many worms had been killed by them and only a couple of the soldiers had been dragged underground to be devoured.

  When they exited the Shamo desert, Kemi ordered an attack on the monastery and to bring the monks out to be interrogated. They recognised Jay and pleaded for him to help them but he only stared at them. When one of them came up and grabbed him on his arm, he stabbed the monk through the chest. Kemi forced them to talk and she found out that in the beginning of the building of the monastery there was nothing but desert in the Domoro Land. The water suddenly appeared one day when it began to flow inside of the mountain. When she got no more answers, she had the monks turned by the magical stone. They fell in line like the others and followed her as she ordered the army to walk towards the mountain into the Domoro Land.

  They walked for a while and suddenly, there was smoke coming up from a point of the mountain and a man could be spotted. The smoke was used to warn for intruders and Queen Lisaro would get the information right away that they were coming. She sent soldiers to look through the mountain and capture anyone that tried to leave or enter after them. They could see the Domoro Land finally and looked upon the watery countryside. Jay pointed to something on the land and she ordered the men to be ready to fight. On the land, there were many men coming towards them from the castle. The Domoro lands soldiers were close by and with a single word from Kemi her forces marched down. They walked the path towards the oncoming army that had been refilled with soldiers that escaped from the Grasoll kingdom before it fell.

  Kemi’s soldiers were acting like a swarm of bees and blindly followed what she said. When they reached the bottom of the land, they got hit by arrows but the unstoppable army continued forward. They climbed over the injured and continued to form a big line where they stayed until Kemi arrived to them. The Domoro Land’s soldiers were confused and surprised that the advancing army didn’t even slow down after taking so many hits. The Queen of Domoro Land Lisaro was finally showing herself and looked over the land towards her enemy that used to be her friend. She had got the news when the castle became poisoned by those who returned home. She was about to send soldiers to help but learned about how the Grasoll kingdom acted and decided to wait. When she got word from the kingdom of Ocenia that they were coming her way, she made sure to get soldiers up in the mountain to inform her if they entered the land. She then looked upon the army that seemed like it had no conscience.

  Kemi came up and saw Queen Lisaro then turned to the high officers. She told them to start the attack right away but to make sure Queen Lisaro was unharmed as she might have some good information. Queen Lisaro was wondering why they would attack when they were outnumbered and so many of her soldiers were just shot down by the arrows. She then witnessed the power of the shadow stone when all the fallen soldiers suddenly rose up again and fell in line with the others. She could see her soldiers were uneasy about what they saw and she tried to encourage them with the power of the Domoro Land. The fact that they were more would hopefully be enough, she said to herself.

  Kemi suddenly raised her hand and pointed it towards the Domoro land’s army that her soldiers then ran towards. The Domoro Land’s soldiers started to shoot arrows again and even if they hit a man, it seemed to do little harm as they slowly rose again. Queen Lisaro ordered them to draw swords to engage in fighting and they did. The Domoro Land had a reputation of being great at forging strong fighters and had won the soldier class in the arena at the great city of Shetana many times. They then showed their power by chopping down the enemy easily. The Grasoll soldiers never really stopped fighting and kept coming even laying on the ground after they had been struck by swords.

  Queen Lisaro then saw how the soldiers from the back were carrying something and were walking towards the fallen soldiers. Fear and chills ran through her and the entire Domoro Land’s army when everyone saw Kemi come up to the magic stone. With a touch of the hand, she released more mist over the fallen soldiers and the others that were fighting. Lisaro could see her injured soldiers rise again and raise their swords again but this time, towards their own people. Her soldiers that were not injured but inhaled the mist, also stopped fighting and turned towards their own people. She then realised the danger and ordered the men to retreat fast.

  The men tried to move back but when they did, the archers of Kemi’s army started to shoot arrows that took many of them down. The arrows even hit their own soldiers but they soon rose again. Queen Lisaro rode towards the castle and ordered the evacuation of the villages along the way. Queen Lisaro’s army had been decimated and over 300 of them then rose to join Kemi’s army. Kemi moved the army forward and deep into the land that was slowly turning dark in the evening. She found people running away from their homes and sent groups of men to collect people on the way. They returned back with several frightened inhabitants of the Domoro land that also turned to her soldiers.

  Kemi continued forward unfazed of the attack by Lisaro and soon, Kemi looked upon the castle that held the queen. The castle was big and strong with walls higher than her own kingdom. It looked impenetrable but she knew nothing would stay away from her for long. She watched the castle from further away and could see they had brought out more defences. Kemi asked the advisors what they had for her and they told her about the strength of the castle. One of them said how hard it would be for them to bring it down with just the amount of people and limited machine resource that was in their possession.

  A new strategy would have to be forged and Kemi looked out over her catapults. They might cause a little damage on the strong walls but what if they could be used to throw something else. Being able to generate health after being hit by something that could kill was opening new ideas. She was quick in her decisions and now that the darkness was coming over them, she found it to be a perfect time for attack. She got the catapults to line up and put smaller boulders that didn’t weigh much more than that two soldiers could drop it in place. They started to fire to calibrate the right speed and height.

  When they finally got the aim right, one the projectile flew just over the wall. The people inside the castle had little fear of the smaller boulders that created little damage but still caused some. They wondered why they would shoot such small ammunition at them but soon found out as Kemi ordered the catapults to line up and fired fast one after another. From the walls, the Domoro soldiers were firing arrows down to hit the attacking soldiers. Lisaro was inside her castle away from the fight but had full faith that her castle would stand against Kemi’s army. She had already sent for help to others that could come to her aid and had begged the king of Ocenia to help her. They were not really friends but in a time like this, it was important to see through their differences.

  From the outside, Kemi had lined up her soldiers that stood ready. She then ordered soldiers to sit in the catapults and they fired straight after one another. As soon as one fired, it was made ready to fire next while more soldiers came up. The castle suddenly found itself being attacked by the soldiers that fell down into the castle grounds and on houses. The soldiers rose inside and started to cut down anyone they saw. The Domoro land’s soldiers were powerless to do anything when the advancing attackers did not seem to stay down. Some relief came after someone fired an arrow that hit the head and the soldier did not rise again but it was too late. />
  A door was opened by one of the soldiers that was shot inside and was also once one of the soldiers of Domoro Land. He knew the side doors and managed to open one up. The cursed soldiers rushed in and started to attack the castle. Queen Lisaro was paralysed to do anything and in panic, told everyone to save themselves. Chaos was in full and many of the castle guards left their weapons to run away. The whole castle with the people inside then tried to escape out any way they could and ran out to the open lands.

  Kemi was fast to block any way out she could find and forced the people that had not yet escaped to stay in their homes. The attack on the castle was over faster than anyone could have known. People that went to bed in the houses further in, then woke up to the castle being taken over. Kemi was happy and could see her soldiers would be increased multiple times with so many people captured. When she asked for the magical stone, however, it had suddenly stopped shining and Kemi realised it had completely stopped working. She ordered the men to gather everyone in her army in to the castle. She was angry and grabbed the Alumrylite stone again to try to start the power once more but the voice that was coming from inside of it was not there anymore.

  Without being successful, she became furious and demanded the wise men to find a way to make it work again. The captured scholars of the Domoro Land were forced to go through their library as well and search for anything that mentioned about the water stone while they tried to re-ignite the shadow stone. The whole city was kept under guard by the twisted army and only a small resistance was met from the people in the kingdom city.

  The Domoro citizens were too afraid of the men that seemed to have no soul in them. Kemi sat in the queen’s throne and had Queen Lisaro on knees in front of her. Lisaro cursed at her and wanted to know why they attacked her since they used to be allies. Kemi laughed then said if they want to be allied again then they had to give the magic stone and join her. Kemi had no longer any conscience and didn’t hold back on what she thought anymore about the Kingdom of Domoro. She told Queen Lisaro she always thought she was pathetic because she was fat and never liked her. She said that if it wasn’t for that she needed her to keep the other people in the kingdom calm, she would have killed her.

  When Queen Lisaro spat in Kemi’s direction, she lost her patience with the queen and ordered her to be stripped and thrown naked in the cell at the bottom of the castle. Queen Lisaro screamed and tried to make resistance but the men and Kemi laughed at her as every piece of clothing was ripped off her. When she was naked, the men were ready to take her to the cell so they grabbed her arms tight. Kemi told them to wait and walked up to Lisaro with a small apple she grabbed on a plate right next to the throne. She pushed it in the mouth of her and said she was truly a pig then waved her off as the men brought her to the bottom of the castle. Queen Lisaro cried all the way and when she was sitting on the floor of her cell she could hear other people of higher status call out from the cells around her.

  Kemi was finally getting an idea about why the magic stone stopped working and one of the scholars from the Domoro Land had found a couple of broken scrolls and manage to read them. It was an explication from someone not known to anyone of the wise men long ago who said the water stone that could bring water would sleep for twenty days after continuous use and there was nothing to do until it woke up again. This was the first evidence of the water stone being mentioned in the kingdom and at least she then knew what happened to the shadow stone. She was angry and annoyed about still not knowing if the water stone was even in the kingdom or if the old script was from Redonia. She got news of a better kind after a few of her men had brought one of the oldest wise men of Lisaro. He had been hiding but then stood afraid before her.

  Jay knew of him and said the wise man had a wide knowledge about the history. It was true because she heard from a scholar that the land was truly a desert at one time. Some bandits had killed a group of six soldiers travelling with a monk in an ambush and acquired something that made the land fill with water. He grabbed a small marble tablet that was one of the many things brought up by the wise men to study. He read from the marble tablet that had the text of an old song that the new king brought water to the land and started the new nation of the Domoro Land.

  Kemi asked how well the queen knew the history and the man told her Lisaro was the only one who knew because the marble tablet was found by her forty years ago. It had been hidden away in a shut room next to the treasure room and she only told him. Kemi knew then that Queen Lisaro was a descendent of a simple bandit and ordered the search of the entire castle to be done for the water stone. The old wise man told her there had never been any Alumrylite that could bring water found in the castle but Kemi said she would break the castle apart to find out herself. The castle was searched and even the kingdom itself for the water stone but four days passed and there was no sign of the magical stone anywhere. Kemi killed one of Queen Lisaro’s cousins that had been brought out of the dungeon as punishment for not finding the water stone. She found the castle boring and felt the water stone was not in it. Her patience was short and brought up soldiers on a row that she killed in front of their families for every time she didn’t get what she wanted.

  On the sixth day of the castle being under her control she decided to act on a feeling she got. She had, under this time, never really thought about it but the water stone was obviously the source of the water. From what she could tell there was no waterfalls or waterholes that pump up water near the castle. The water had, instead, moved by trenches built long time ago to transport the water to the castle. The mountains, she thought to herself and wondered if Lisaro’s bandit ancestors hid the magical stone in there. She needed to assemble her soldiers to search out the mountains. There was something she didn’t expect that happened and she learned many things being the new person she was. She looked over her soldiers that were standing ready for her command and they followed her with their eyes. She wondered how it was that only a few of her army was able to think more for themselves but most of them were just following blindly. She looked at her old friend, Jay and wondered if he too was fading into complete darkness. She, however, still had a clear mind even if she knew there was things she had forgotten. She could not remember her father anymore and also parts of her childhood. Her mind was slowly changing and her thinking was becoming different she could tell herself.

  She had sent soldiers to various parts of the land to give her information of anything that could be of use. She had, however, lost the connection with them and didn’t feel their presence like she did with those around her. Perhaps the shadow stone cut off the connection when it seized to function but why then did she have a connection to those left next to her. She could sense other soldiers she sent to the mountains still but nothing further than that. Maybe the few men she sent out further stood confused of who they were or had been killed by the kingdom’s soldiers that would be coming for her soon. The last message she received from a soldier that returned to her was that there was a big recruitment being done to fight her with the Redonian kingdom also waiting to attack. If they arrived before the shadow stone awoke, she would be vulnerable to the attack.

  With no possible chance to create new soldiers or wake those that fell, she would be in deep trouble. She wondered if Amaya knew about the shadow stone becoming powerless and then coming for her. She would need the water stone as well to be able to fight against anyone coming for her. She was not afraid of dying as before but did not wish to vanish before she had killed her enemies. She looked towards the mountains she came out of when she entered the Domoro Land. There was a massive waterfall in the distance and it looked like it was shooting out from a hole in the mountain. Without any hesitation, she assembled the high officers and told them they would leave immediately.

  ‘There is no time and the magical stone is clearly not in the castle,’ she told Jay who agreed. She descended to the courtyards and when she was just about to reach the door leading out to the city inside the kingdom, she got
a message from one of the soldiers that were watching over the land from the mountains. He said there was a great army being assembled in the lands with many people. It looked like the shadow stone had brought some attention of what it could do and the rumour about Amaya having three Alumrylite stones that could perform strong magic. She knew many people would love to get their hands on the Alumrylite stones then. She having one of them had brought the attention of many people.

  What Kemi did immediately as she left her kingdom was to send out some soldiers to many cities and towns on the map. Even to the separated kingdoms around the land. She had hoped they could blend in with the people but seeing how her soldiers were changing, she assumed they must have been discovered eventually. They were supposed to learn about the weaknesses in the city and any resistance that would be given if they were to attack. Before the connection was lost, she could feel them but then she couldn’t anymore. The soldier that came back with information also said there was a possibility the Kingdom of Ocenia would then, for the first time, engage in the fight for the magical stones.

  Kemi knew the time was short and she must be swift to acquire the magical stone. She ordered the soldiers to make ready and head off to the mountain. She would also bring another 200 men from the Domoro Land’s army to aid in the search for the water stone. She told the men she promised to return them if they helped and no harm would come to the people in the kingdom. She left soldiers in the kingdom to make sure no one rose up against her. She also decided to leave the shadow stone but made sure no one knew it was still in the castle. She could draw back to the castle if she got attacked in the mountain and not risk losing it if she was attacked there. She would be able to hold the castle for enough time to poison the entire Domoro Land’s people in the kingdom. She was unsure of leaving the Alumrylite stone but her mind was not making sense for her all the time anymore. She told a high officer to make sure the shadow stone was guarded and to keep an eye on Queen Lisaro as well as the rest of the higher class people. She said to execute some of them if the people started to raise their voices. She told the people again not to be afraid as she then knew where to find what she was looking for and they would be left alone.