“Aye, Lord Commander, but we cannot forget the Storm Troopers. They’re better trained than the rest of this host and armed with steel. They are sure to make this a fight from hell,” cautioned Durin.
The Dagger Militiamen were seething with rage and amongst the creatures that saw their young officers being viciously crucified, enough was enough! One shouted in a loud hiss, “This one says he will not fight this war for Zorkan and his Storm Troopers! Rise, brothers, and off with their heads!”
Two hundred Goblins wielding daggers and pole-axes shouted in defiance and some began chanting, “Hell no, we won’t go; hell no, we won’t go!”
The Goblins mutinied and charged against the Storm Troopers who had been trying to crucify their officers! Now more dissatisfied Goblins from the Standing Army joined the uprising! Word began to spread throughout the entire Army that elite Storm Troopers and enforcers had been slaughtered! Civil war broke out! The watching Dwarves were amazed.
“Now look at them go at each other, Lord Commander Alesander!” declared Durin.
Alesander replied, “They’ve been handed to us on a silver platter.”
Lord Commander Alesander’s Cavalrymen lit torches and began sounding their horns. Each man held two torches apiece and the shocked Goblin Dagger Militia assumed that a massive force was hitting them from the south-west! Lord Commander Alesander’s Cavalry swept down upon the Goblin wagon train and began slaughtering the now hapless creatures that were still fighting one another!
On the western front of the battlefield, the Dwarves began firing their trebuchets! Sacks of burning oil tar were hurled into the Goblin camp, splattering upon the ground and starting a raging grass fire. Goblin tents were set ablaze as well as their own batteries of catapults and trebuchets! The Dwarf infantry charged in from the west out of three draws and tore into the Goblin Army! The Goblins were still fighting amongst themselves as well and, seeing this, King Togrobeg launched his remaining infantry into the battle from the north as well as another Cavalry force from the west. It was a grave risk to divide their Army in the face of a foe who outnumbered them two to one, but it had worked brilliantly due to the circumstances of the Goblin mutiny. The King himself led the Cavalry column attacking from the west and as the smoke raised high in the air above Bloody Glade, as this place was to be called from now on, he held his sword high in the air as they charged the evil host! The Dwarf Longbowmen rained down a shower of arrows into the confused Goblin ranks as balls of flaming oil tar continued pouring down on the fading forces of Zorkan the Cruel!
The only Goblins who showed discipline in Bloody Glade were the Storm Troopers, who formed the elite corps of the Goblin Army. Back home, the Storm Trooper Corps also served as the Royal State Security Police for the Goblin Reich. These were the cruellest of creatures and were trained to show no mercy to enemies of their Kingdom, whether real or imagined. These units rallied strong around Field Marshal Zorkan and slowed King Togrobeg’s forces on the north end of Bloody Glade.
The Storm Troopers wore large black boots with shirts and trousers which were coloured steel grey with black collars and cuffs. Over their shirts they wore chain-mail armour and their helmets were glossy and black. The shape of their helmets was round on top, coming down to the neckline, flaring out one inch on the bottom. For General-grade officers, the helmet had the same red, brush-like structure on top like General Vlach had been wearing. The helmet curved around in front, partially covering the face, and in the centre was a guard which came down enough to shield the Storm Trooper’s nose, and this formed the spaces for the wearer’s eyes. On each side, near the ears, the helmets were marked with the insignia of the Royal Goblin Storm Trooper Corps. This shape was a silver Crescent Moon partially enclosing a star. The Officers’ insignia was worn on the front of the helmet above the bridge of the nose. Field Marshals’ rank insignia was a white star and for Commandants it was a red star. Generals wore an orange star and Brigadiers wore a yellow sickle and Obersts a yellow hammer. A Junior Officer, known as a Triad, wore Yellow Diamonds. These units marched with fearsome black flags on which was embroidered a Red Crescent moon and star in the centre of the flags on top of a solid white circle. In addition, each banner had a symbol in the upper left corner that would identify which unit the flag represented. The units present today were the 1st and 2nd Werewolf Divisions and the 9th Regiment, Mounted Lancers. Field Marshal Zorkan the Cruel’s rise through the ranks of the Goblin Army had been as a Storm Trooper. Seeing that he was defeated, Zorkan rallied his Storm Troopers in a desperate attempt to break out of the trap towards the west!
“My Lord King,” stated Master Azgar.
“Yes, Azgar, what is it?” replied the King in a heavy breath, as he fought off a Goblin attacker.
A Storm Trooper fired a crossbow and the arrow narrowly missed Azgar’s neck. The King turned around and raised his left hand in order to give a signal, when the same Storm Trooper fired his crossbow once more! The arrow impaled itself in the palm of his hand and the King let out an angry cry of pain! Up behind the Storm Trooper came another Dwarf Cavalryman, who let go a fierce blow on the creature’s head with a mace! The Goblin’s helmet absorbed the blow, but the creature was knocked to the ground sideways and his bow fell from his arms. Another Dwarf thrust a lance downward into the beast’s neck between his helmet and body armour!
“Hurry, man, the King is wounded!” shouted High Lord Azgar. “Get him out of here and back to base camp! tumpeteers, sound assembly, our own call! We must form a line now! The Storm Troopers are massing to come at us!”
Field Marshal Zorkan had his senior command officers assemble around him. “Where is Commandant Vlach?” he demanded.
“My Lord, that one never returned from the forward scout mission last night,” replied Commandant Damien.
“Why was this one not informed earlier, Damien? That one must have been intercepted. We must consider him dead or missing! That one was not a Storm Trooper and neither was the Light Cavalry that that one took on this patrol. It is clear that the battle is lost. All Storm Troopers rally here and form a line. These one’s will break out to the east before escape is impossible.”
General Omar asked, “But what of the Standing Army and the Dagger Militia; not to mention the siege engines?”
Zorkan replied, “All of that is lost! The Dagger Militia has mutinied and so have half the battalions of the Standing Army. Go find Brigadiers Karla and Jibreel as well, Oberst Gamal. See who amongst them remain loyal to the Fuhrer King and form them here! See if Gamal’s mounted lancers are in a place to cover our withdrawal! This one will turn the hour-glass and when the sand is finished, we break out of here!”
“Aye, Sir. Heil Zukhi!” replied the officers, who raised their right hands in the Storm Trooper Salute. The way of the salute was to take one’s fist and swiftly strike the heart, and then snap the arm straight into the air, fist still doubled-up.
On the western side of Bloody Glade, the 1st and 2nd Werewolves, armed with weapons of steel, organised a counter-attack against the advancing Dwarves. It seemed for a moment that the tide would turn against the Dwarves in this sector. Lord Commander Theodah and his men were fighting a desperate defensive action now! At that moment, brave Theodah looked across the smoking battlefield. He saw Lord Azgar astride his horse, coming under fierce attack from a mass of Goblin Storm Troopers! He shouted to his men, “Look there and see Lord Azgar, standing like a stone wall! Let us rally behind the Nobles and fight!”
Many a Dwarf fell this day as the sun grew high and hot above Bloody Glade! The 2nd Werewolves suddenly withdrew and joined their fellow Storm Troopers and half of a Brigade of Standing Army, attacking to the east, covered by Goblin Mounted Lancers. Lord Azgar and the Cavalryman could not hold them and Field Marshal Zorkan broke free and beat a hasty retreat. The remaining Goblins began to surrender and, as the sun tended towards the afternoon, the battle came to an end, a happy day for freedom lovers everywhere. The Priestess treated many wounded that day. Lots
of them could not be saved from the gutted belly wounds and so suffered and died, that long day in Bloody Glade.
Once more from the Skald’s Tale of Heroism we hear the words of the mighty story unfold before our itching ears! Let the Skalds sing the tale of the Dwarf Lords and the Battle of Bloody Glade! On from the south came the evil Storm Troopers of the Goblin Fuhrer-King! The noble heroes of the Dwarves of King Togrobeg slashed the Goblin ranks from east and west and north! The murderous beasts of Zukhi were put to the sword by Togrobeg, Azgar and Alesander, whose troops returned north, marching across a field of festering and rotting Goblin corpses! Those who had murdered the mothers and the babies of the Dwarves of Ariemel became that day a pile of broken corpses.
On came the raging Slaughter Wolves of Korgan Tal for to put to fight the resistance of the Good King Sigurd! On a Prairie of Flame did the slanderous Scythians come. When the battle had gone on a very long time, Sigurd advanced with his standards, holding in his hand the sword, Edge of Honor. He hewed both men and horses tearing through the ranks of Slaughter Wolves. People fled away from him and neither helmet nor coats of chain-mail withstood him. Looking onward, the Great Volsung cried, ‘Never has there been the like of this man in all Gomeria! The battle lasted a long time, with much slaughter and savage encounters. The tyrants fled from him that day, at the Battle of Prairie’s Flame. Sigurd now returned home with all due haste, to save his beloved Queen from the Ogre sword!
Chapter XII
Troll Woods
From the Skald’s Tale:
Listen well, my King, ruler of these Visigoths who are gathered before you on this evening. Each man among us must face a test in life. Is our quest pure? Are the motives for our quest pure? Shall the innocent be slain with the guilty? If we noble men claim such enlightenment, can we slay the innocent along with the guilty? We have faced down the Beast Kings of Romulus, and we all know that they will slay the innocent as well as those they perceive guilty, but what of us, dear friends. Learn from the example of our ancient father Horsa, and his long-ago quest, that we as well may be a shining example of men who love life, and defend the innocent to the death! Even in the face of foul Troll provocation.
F ar towards the rising of the sun, Horsa and his warriors continued their journey east. They entered into a bleak desert landscape and the heat was enough to bake a person in his armour. Having left the fresh waters of the River Oxus far behind, they journeyed through a desolate land of bleak landscapes and endless vistas. The sky above them was like a great blue dome.
“What unholy ground this is, Thane Horsa,” stated Kraus.
“Ya, und we don’t know how many days across,” replied Anton in a worried tone.
Thane Horsa replied, “My brothers, who are we?”
Anton replied, “We are Getic.”
Horsa knew he had to be a strong leader and not let his fellow Knights lose heart. He smiled and said, “Ah, Brother Anton! We are Warriors of Sigurd the Good and the Great Queen! They have trusted the fate of our people to us, to all of us; and we will not let our people be murdered by the Slaughter-Wolves! We are Warriors of the Quest and the Kyzyl Kum desert will not stop us. Come, let us go, my brothers.” Thane Horsa nudged his horse forward and gestured with his right hand for the warriors to follow.
The day wore on and the sun beat down without mercy. In the distance, the Quest Warriors could see shimmering waves of heat pulsing up off of the desert floor. Overhead in the sky buzzards circled, hoping that the men below would die and that their beaks would be filled with their bloody flesh, torn away from their sun-blistered, festering and rotting corpses! The horses and pack mules were suffering no less than the men and all could have been easily fooled by the many mirages which spoke lies in their minds, saying, “Here is water! Come to me and satiate thy thirst!”
The buzzards suddenly scattered! Something was wrong. But what it was, they could not tell. Thane Horsa and his men by this time were walking, leading their suffering, thirsty horses. They dare not lose their noble steeds in such a barren land. Up ahead a mile or so, they could see a rock formation and from the looks of it, trees.
“Onward, men, it may be water and a place to rest out of the sun,” said Horsa.
“Thane Horsa, those dirty, nasty vogels that were above have suddenly vanished,” said Kraus.
Anton and the other seven looked skyward and found that Kraus was right. Horsa looked intently upwards while shielding his eyes from the intense rays of the sun. Sweat rolled down his forehead. He heard a faint screeching sound, far in the distance. “Quick, men, and hurry to saddles! We must ride fast!”
The Quest Warriors leaped into the saddle and away they galloped towards the rocks as fast as they could get their horses to go! It was soon apparent why Thane Horsa had given the order.
From out of the sky swooped a great flying reptile! “It’s a Luftdrakkon!” shouted Kraus.
The Flying Dragon had a wing-span of fifty feet across and talons razor-sharp upon its scaly feet! It had a long beak and a reverse horn on the back of its head!
“It’s a beast on the hunt!” cried Anton.
But this was not the worst of it! There were three more of them forming a small flock! “Hurry, before they haul us all back to the rookery!” shouted Horsa.
The first Luftdrakkon swept down and grabbed hold of the tenth warrior and his horse both, flying away to devour them in its nest! There was no time even to stop and shoot an arrow! The next Drake screeched and the ninth warrior was taken to his doom! However, the Drake dropped the poor horse to its death! The fate of the seventh and the sixth warriors were the same! The shock of it all! The final Drake missed his mark, and, in so doing, Horsa and the remaining warriors made it safety to the shelter of the trees. They jumped from their horses and began firing their crossbows at the beast! The arrows pierced the Drake’s wings and it quickly withdrew. But in doing so it grabbed one of the poor pack mules and flew away with it! The other mules and the horses were crazed with fear and ran in circles around the oasis. Now only four desperate men remained of the ten which had begun the Quest with such high hopes. Would the hopes of the people die here at this faraway, lonely oasis in the Kyzyl Kum Desert?
Horsa said as the Luftdrakkon flew away, “Your deaths were not in vain, brothers! We shall complete this quest for you and for us all!”
Thurgau removed his helmet and wiped his brow with a cloth and said, “How awful for a man to be grabbed and flown away to a dragon’s rookery!”
Horsa, Kraus, Anton and Thurgau took shelter in the giant rocks and found a beautiful spring of fresh, sweet water in which they satiated their thirst and washed their sweating brows. The whole oasis was about ten miles in circumference and the boulders were surrounded and covered by a thick forest of oaks and weeping willow trees. They washed their faces in the pools while keeping a vigil for more drakes.
“Beware, brothers, for this place cannot be known only to us,” cautioned Horsa.
“What do we do now, Thane Horsa,” asked Thurgau. “Is the Quest to end here?”
“No, Thurgau! It shall not end until we find the Wizard or the last one of us dies! We shall not be stopped!” Then he smiled and in a jocular tone said, “Besides, if we quit, the Queen will find us herself and make of us eunuchs.”
Everyone laughed, but in their minds they had in no way forgotten the so-recent deaths of their dear comrades.
They could no longer hear their horses, and figured that eventually the animals would come in to them. They were not likely to stray off into the desert away from such lush grass and abundant water, for here there were many pools of cold, clean water; a paradise heretofor unknown by most of the outside world.
“Let’s scout this oasis and see what is here,” ordered Horsa.
They searched towards the centre of the oasis, going about a mile, and found the tracks of giant humans leading in and out of a cave. The smell coming out of the cave was putrid and there were bones of all types scattered about the entrance. The
re seemed to be no immediate danger. After all, the birds were still chirping and fluttering about. Horsa looked at the tracks in the muddy soil and said one word. And that word was a word that the others would have preferred not to hear, “Trolls!”
The men looked at one another and then back at their leader. Thurgau replied, “What in Halja? Trolls? Here in this land where even Thor has forsaken! How in the name of Wotan did they get here?”
Horsa answered, “Thurgau, did you think this Quest was going to be all fun? All pleasure with hunting and fishing? No! It is this hell we suffer through that will save our people from a fate worse than any stinking Troll can inflict! These things live underground and will not come out until darkness falls. I know not how they came to be here, but when they come out for us, we will do as the Queen would do,” replied Horsa.
Anton and Kraus laughed and said, “Ya! She would take out her dagger and make of them eunuchs!”
They all laughed in low tones and backed away from the cave. Once well away, Horsa said, “We can’t let them just come after us. We will use the horses as bait. When they come for them, we will have the upper hand to attack them first. Quick, brothers, we have precious little time to round up the horses and make ready.”
They soon found all of the horses as well as the mules calmly grazing and drinking water at one of the many large ponds, whose banks were rich with reeds and cat tail plants. They tethered the animals together in a string, and then gathered enough wood for a fire. Horsa intended to set up a camp, the fire of which would draw the Trolls in. Near the horses, the men set up rope snares in order to trap the creatures as they made for the horses. Trolls will eat men, but prefer the taste of horsemeat and their blood as a rich salted drink Horsa ordered that their sleeping bundles be laid out around the fire and made to look as if the four of them were sleeping. With the trap set, Horsa and his men watched the sun setting in the western sky. The sight was so magnificent and beautiful. Clouds on the horizon were made to seem as if the sky had been set ablaze by the fire of God. The waning light glinted off of their helmets as the four Quest Warriors stood at the edge of the oasis and watched the sun disappearing below the crest of the distant horizon. Behind them in an oak tree, a large monarch butterfly sat, stretching and flapping its wings.
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