Chapter one: Retribution

The history of Yadout
Chapter one
Retribution



The sun raised slowly in the eastern sky. I approached the gathering army a bit late. The mayor, Amber, had already finished her speech and my brother was starting on his. I look around the ranks and see Gordo’, the symbol of strength in a time of weakness. He didn’t forge a special sword or axe for himself, he is using his hammer, a symbol all its own.

“These ogres!” My brother shouted for all to hear “Stole the castle from our great leader!” A rumble sounded in the army “We must retake it! Claim it once again as our own!” he breaks here for a small cheer from some in the crowd “We must show these beasts that Yadout is not a nation to be reckoned with!” Another cheer, this time louder “For Amber! And for Yadout!” he shouted as loud as he could

“FOR AMBER AND FOR YADOUT!” The crowd screamed back. That was the signal and the massive gates of the castle lowered Rebecca was obviously successful. The gate hit the ground with a thud. The army charged in, Tom was in the front and made it to the door first our army slowly over took him.

At this time I must make a personal note. I found myself really getting into the battle fury; I had to force myself to calm down. I look over at Gordon; this is what he had been waiting forever since the ogres took the castle. I smile at his courage, for that is what it was, not battle rage like me. Slowly I begin to relax; just then the front lines hit the first wave of Ogres.

I soon find our troops holding back slightly, their bloodlust starting to wane at the sight of these massive creatures. Our troops had surrounded one of the Ogres, but no one wanted to try and kill it. Ducking into the small ring of my own troops I draw my short sword, the Ogre turns his attention to me. The look in his eyes show fear, but also the same rage that filled our troops, he wanted to draw blood just as bad as we did.

In his right hand he holds a giant club, I see his grip tighten as he approaches. My palms grow sweaty and I feel my grip loosening. Them, or us I tell myself, us or them… I leap forward catching the Ogre off guard, I slash his stomach hard, the blood pours through, but he doesn’t seem to notice. He raises his club high in the air; I am filled with a paralyzing fear. Fear I had never know so strong. No thoughts going through my head, my muscles not responding to my commands to move, when a sword from behind it pierced through his neck into his throat. It tilts to a side and falls over dead. My brother removes his sword from the ogres neck. He glares at me “You owe me.” He says. I can only nod.

I sit on the ground for a few minutes looking at what would have been the end of me. The sounds of battle rage all around me. I look at the bodies of my friends and foes littering the ground, not comprehending. The battle moves further down the hall, but I don’t notice. I look closer at the bodies of my friends, the lives that came to an end here for Yadout. I soon notice that I am not alone.

Amber sits on the floor, not far from me. She is breathing heavily. I slowly stand and walk over to her. “Amber?” I say. “Are you hurt?” she shakes her head weakly. “What’s wrong?” I ask. Amber turns her head towards me slowly, closer her eyes and falls towards the floor. By that time however I am able to catch her. I lay her on her back. “Amber?” I say slightly tapping her face “Amber.” I say louder. Her eyes open but don’t focus. “Try not to sleep Amber.” I say looking around “C’mon, stay awake.” I say tapping her a bit harder. I look around for something, anything. I see a bottle of something strapped to one of the Ogres belts.

Quickly grabbing the bottle I struggle with the cork for a moment, trying to get it off. “Hold on.” I tell her. I hear the satisfying pop of the cork coming out and but the bottle up to her lips, “Ohh I pray this doesn’t kill her… or something.” Tilting her head back I pour the liquid. She chokes on it. Her eyes open and flare in anger.

“What are you doing?” She shouts at me “Drowning me while I’m down? You moron! You could have killed me! Arrghh!” I scramble away as she gets up. Grabbing her staff she tries to hit me with the medal end of it. “Jerk.” She looks around at the bodies, the staff goes limp in her hands. She lowers her head.

A soldier from the main force comes to us. He is badly wounded. He stops a moment, quickly tries to catch his breath and reports. “Your honor,” He says to Amber “Deany.” He says to me “Word from your brother. Sir.” He gasps for air, still out of breath, “The main force has worked its way to the throne room, they are currently tangled up in combat and are awaiting the two of you to enter it.”

“What about their support? The sea, is there any way to cut them off?” I ask. The soldier is near collapse. He sinks to his knees. “Please, is there any way?” At this point Amber started running down the hall to rejoin the main force.

“Sir, it’s already done.” He says closing his eyes. I am confused at this point, how did we cut them off so fast? “He’s back, sir, he’s back.” He collapses onto the ground and faints. I grab the bottle I used to help Amber and pour it into his mouth. There was no change, and a moment later he died. I have no other choice but to leave him there, with the other dead, we would give them all a proper burial. That is of course if we won.

Grabbing my short sword, I start running down the hall. This is not at all what I had expected. All the shouting and blood was so overwhelming, it was like nothing I had ever experienced, fear and hope, love and hate, it was scary and yet… fun. What kind of monster am I becoming? Fun. That’s absurd, I feel like I’m becoming what I have worked so hard to destroy. An Ogre.

I shake the thought from my head, however it is filled again with hatred and anger. Can violence be justified? An eye for an eye, or turn the other cheek? What am I doing? I question every thought that enters my head. Is this how a warrior should act? But I’m not a warrior. I’m a scholar. No matter what I do… what was that?

I come to a stop just beyond the window I had passed, I turn around. This window has one of the best views in the entire kingdom. But what is this that I see? The turtles seem to be fighting with others, there’s someone on one of them… It’s not an Ogre. A thought comes to my head. “Stuart.” Is all I can say. I stay a second and see more turtles coming, some of them have riders, humans. “He’s back.” I say.

Just as fast as I saw the battle turn in our favor, it turned again as bats streaked out of the midday sky and began swarming Stuart and his allies. My heart races as I see once again our failure. Stuart has to get out of there, we can regroup, figure out another plan to defend the sea troops.

I turn around and run back outside of the castle. “Stuart!” I shout “Get to cover! The bats will be easier to take under the castle! Pull back!” I am quickly running out of breath.

“You know he can’t hear you.” Said a person sitting on the ground playing with a stick. I look down at him, his head is turned away. He gestures out to Stuart “The bats are too loud. That’s what makes them so effective in part; the enemy cannot hear the orders of their commanders. Stuart and his troops will slowly give way to the chaos, they will be overwhelmed.”

Now I recognized him “Ryan?” I say.

He stands up and turns to face me, then looks out to the sea again, “You remember me, eh?”

“It’s only been a few months.” I reply

“And a productive time it’s been. I’m truly impressed at the progress Yadout has seen. Ambers done really well.” He looks back out over Yadout. He looks back at the stick he’s holding and snorts.

Kevin, the bartender at Kevin’s gate (named after him) walks in, cuts between Ryan and me, and then walks right back out.

Ryan watches Kevin leave and asks ”What was that all about?”

“What? Kevin?” I ask, “Oh, just ignore him. He does that sometimes.”

Ryan shakes his head, “Well, I never said it was perfect. That was really weird.” I shrug, kind of agreeing with him. “See this,” He said gesturing to the stick he held, “I embedded it with a sort of magic.”

“What does it do?” I ask.

“Shoots lightning.” Ryan shook his head. “Haven’t got all the bugs worked out yet, but I’m working on it.” He points it towards the bats flying around Stuart. Some of the turtles and their riders have been killed in panic by the Turtle Riding Ogres. Ryan lines up his shot then raises his other hand above his head. He brings it down on top of his wrist shooting lightning in the direction of the bats. It strikes one and as it falls to the water the others part for a split second. “It wouldn’t be fast enough. But that was only a signal.”

I stand in shock, it had worked. It was amazing. “The signal?” I ask

“Just, give it a sec.” We wait for a moment when piercing the clouds comes
another flash, I focus my eyes on this slow moving lightning bolt and realize that it isn’t a lightning bolt at all.

“What is it?” I ask Ryan

Ryan nods, pleased that it had worked “That’s Chris.” He states “Chris did the same sort of thing Stuart had done. Except he found the best and most trainable bird, the Pelican.” Following Chris was a battalion of pelicans and their riders. Chris drew a short sword and thrust it high into the air, light reflected off of it, he lowered his sword and pointed to the bat swarms.

“Ryan,” I say thinking of Tom and the force in the castle “can you blow a hole in the side of the castle? I need to rejoin the main force.” Ryan aims the stick at the side of the castle. He raises his hand over his head and brings it down on his wrist. Lightning streaks from the tip of the stick and strikes the wall. He opens a hole big enough for me to get in. “Thanks.”

Scrambling through the hole I hear an explosion, it echoes in this dark chamber, I choke on the dust and try to clear my eyes. I grip my short sword as a dark figure blocks the light suddenly then pushes past me. I go to the light and look into the room. The only other way out is a door with a magical aura about it. I see Amber, Tom and Gordon fighting five ogres with staffs instead of the usual club. They are casting spells at the three.

Before they realize that I am there. I rush in and jump off one of the desks and drive my short sword through the neck of one of the Ogres. I jump off its falling body and join the other three. “What happened here? Why is the door shiny?”

Amber lets out a momentary shrill laugh. “The Ogre king cast a spell after we entered and it sealed the door behind us keeping the rest of our army out.” She said covering her mouth with one hand to keep her laughter down.

“Then he jumped off the throne to the back of the room and bashed in the wall. These five came out and he went in. That’s when you came.” Gordon informed me.

“You hear Gordon? Your brothers back.” I told him “Saw him myself, he brought reinforcements.”

“Yeah, I heard.” Gordon said getting ready to charge the Ogres

“Chris is here too.” I added

Amber appeared shocked. “What? Really?” she asked

“Yeah, he and Ryan.” I say. Gordon charged in with his massive hammer, followed soon after by Tom. Gordon crushed the skull of one of the Ogres while Tom held off another.

“Amber!” Tom shouts “The crystal!” bracing himself, he pushed away the Ogre and pointed towards a crystal on top of the throne.

“What about it?” She asks as the Ogre jumps him again only to have Gordons hammer come down on its back.

“Their source of power!” He shouts getting to his feet.

“What?” Amber asks in a blank moment.

“The Ogre mages draw their power from the crystal! Destroy it and we may gain the upper hand.” Just as I say it, as though to emphasize my words a bolt of magic streaks in between Amber and I making us jump back.

Glass shatters as Chris and his pelican break through a window and into the fight. Pulling the crossbow off his back he takes careful aim and completely misses his target. “Dang.” He says reloading a bolt and winding it up again. The pelican flaps its wings and leaves through the window.

I charge in behind the Ogre nearest Chris and do my best to distract it as Chris gets another shot ready, I swing my short sword in an arc to keep it at bay as long as I can. A magical bolt flies across the room and strikes the crystal shattering it. The Ogres are all momentarily stunned. I run forward, taking advantage of the moment and thrust my sword into his gut. He slumps over. Chris shakes his head then puts a bolt through the Ogres.

Without their magic and their friends the other two Ogres fall easily. Amber is out of breath, I hand her the Ogres bottle, she drinks some but spits most of it out. “That is vile!” she said, the very surprised continues “Hunh. I’m fine again. I’ll have to get Kevin to take a look at this.” She straps the Ogres bottle to her belt.

We pursue the Ogre King through the hole he blasted in the wall and past the hole created by Ryan, Amber is at the front of the group and finds her feet falling out from under her as she tumbles down the black staircase. We enter a secret room in the castle and find him standing alone. A massive Two-handed sword easily held firm in his right.

Amber takes a step forward challenging the ogre king, she raises the staff high above her head and shoves it in a crack in the floor. She closes her eyes and concentrates on the spell she is going to cast. The Ogre King wastes no time in his opening, he raises his left hand and hits Amber hard enough to maker her go flying into the wall behind us.

“Well, Chris” I say “How about we take that thing out at a distance?” Gesturing towards the crossbow in his hands.

“Are you insane?” He asks “Do you want to make that thing mad? That’s
suicide!”

“Well what do you suggest?” Gordon asks looking around hoping to find a chandelier or something to drop on the ogres head, with no success he looked to Chris.

“I say we let the warriors take that thing on while Deany and I tend to Amber.” Chris suggests. Tom steps forward toward the ogre king and glares at the beast. The ogre seems to second-guess his abilities but over comes this.

“You coward,” my brother says “hitting a woman while she is casting a spell. Is there no honour in your kind?” He continues to move forward, the ogre is not backing down. “My friend, you have crossed the line. We had a deal,”

“The deal was to your own benefit, human.” The ogre king says tensing, up ready to jump “We ogres got nothing from that deal that we couldn’t take by force, and you know it.” The ogre king was buying time, though he was more than twice Toms size he was still intimidated by him. “Puny human,” the ogre began to taunt “throw down your weapon before you hurt yourself.”

Tom began circling the monster the monster. “This isn’t a plan at all, he’ll only end up like Amber.” I said to no one in particular.

“The plan was…” Tom began, but was cut off as a blur entered the room moving twice as fast as anyone. Quickly it jumped onto the Ogres back and drove a Spear through its back.

The Ogre stumbled, then fell forward catching Toms legs under it as he tried to dive out of the corpses path. He cringed with pain as his feet were crushed beneath the weight. The blur slowed down as it pulled the spear out of the Ogre kings back revealing itself as Gordo’s brother Stuart.

“What was that?!” Chris shouts as Stuart jumps off the body of the giant Ogre.

“That, my friends, is a gift from the caverns of…Uncachunca…” Stuarts eyes dart from one place to another

“Uncachunca?” Gordo asks suspiciously “How does it work?”

“Well,” Stuart says pulling the chain that the artifact of Uncachunca up to eye level, “The thing about that is…” Stuart activates the artifact and darts out of the room. Gordo grits his teeth together in an anger only brothers can truly share, some things about Stu just never seems to change.