Hrith 1: Skirmish: Chapter 1: A New Age.

Chapter 1
A new age.



“Father are you ready”? Yelled a boy, he was four feet tall, was eighteen in age and was wearing a short dagger around his waste.
The long road wound in every direction for miles, “Fendor, be safe and be back soon, your brother will be waiting for you at his house in Dang Village, may good fortune rule over you and I wish you luck”! Said Fendors father “May you too live well my father, good bye and I will send word when I have settled”.
Smoke rose from a nearby village, soon his feet was hurting and his skin was dry. He had blisters on his feet. Soon he came into sight of Dang but instead of the village that was supposed to be there, there was a dusty rampage of burnt wood and caved in huts! Bodies were everywhere and it was bitterly quiet except for the sound of the wind! He pulled away a burnt piece of wood to see his bother curled up in a ball-dead.
Suddenly a strange creature grabbed him and smashed him against the side of a hut, it grabbed Fendors neck and squeezed! A blade protruded from its head and a strange man grabbed Fendor and took him away! “We must leave, dunong are closing in, follow me”! They ran through the village, as more of the strange creatures closed in they got out of the village “Get on that horse and follow me quick”! The man yelled!
They galloped away from the village and the strange creatures that were still yelling at them with their strange voices and into the woods!
Thick trees surrounded them, vines hung from the branches of the huge pillars of wood. Soon they lost sight of the village and all of the land around them apart for the forest of which surrounded them! They came to a halt in a small clearing encircled by large thick bushes. “Who are you “? Asked Fendor in a weary voice, “I am Osnath a member of the elves of Hondvar, we are allied to Galborn but are also trying to stop his rule, we are a resistance of which contain many men, elves and shtokan but sadly we have not been successful enough to form the Legacy of the elves”. “I will take you to Galborn as instructed and there your fate will be decided”. “Get some sleep we will spar in the morning and then start our long journey to the kings keep in vronbark”!


Fendor stood there holding a wooden stick in one hand and facing Osnath who stood exactly the same way holding his stick, Osnath held his stick high and ran towards Fendor who parried his blow and placed a well timed blow on Osnaths shoulder, in a flurry of power both exchanged blows all of which were parried! Soon they were both fighting at tremendous speed and ferocity it was soon finished with Osnath lying on the ground with bruises all over him! For five days they had trained and traveled and in that short time Fendor had become a very skilled swordsman!
Mountains rose on every side of them, their icy peeks not seen above the grey, stormy clouds! The road was deep with snow and the horses struggled to keep moving. “These are the mountains of Lukonor and if we traveled about seven leagues to the east we would reach the valley of nandomar of which is the place where our stronghold is”, said Osnath. “A day it will take us now to get to Vronbark”, he added.
A man appeared in the pass out of the mountains, he was wide eyed, hairy and had a starved look on his face “Osnath a Dunong”, he yelled! Osnath flipped around and killed the beast. About twenty more ran out of the shadows and towards them! Osnath grabbed a spare sword out of his saddlebag and threw it to Fendor who caught it and started to swing it, the hairy man had reached them now, was holding a spear and was upon a horse of enormous size, strength and was pure white. The dunong was upon them, Fendor struck out, narrowly missing his target and almost falling over, he swung his sword, parried a strike and struck a dunong threw the head, the beast fell dead. Osnath was battling five at once smashing at their armor and then swinging at head height before parrying their weapons. A dunong ran up to Fendor and tried to cut his chest open but got killed soon after by Fendor. The hairy man was in trouble; he was pressed up against a tree and was surrounded by more of the monsters. Fendor ran over to assist him but was stopped by a dunong; he decapitated the creature and then ran up to the hairy man. The dunong did not see him coming so he was able to dispatch three before getting found out and now he was in trouble! He started fighting with all his strength but was soon pushed up against the tree with the hairy man. The hairy man swung his spear, piercing one dunong in the rib cage but harming no more, he jutted his spear outwards, killing another and injuring two. Those two Fendor dispatched while they were screaming in agony. Then they were swinging their swords and spears around trying to hurt some more of the creatures but to no avail. One struck forward with its spear, Fendor smashed the very week spear and killed the holder. There were still four left and they were too good to be killed, they were about to die! “Fireno Colo Na”, there was a blinding flash of red light and the four dunongs were screaming horridly and then there was a spark in their chest, their chests ignited and they fell to the ground dead! Osnath was behind them holding out his hand and looking very ragged. “Get on the horses quickly there are more coming”!
They charged out of the mountains followed closely behind by hundreds of dunongs. They were going very fast and the landscape was going by in a blur, arrows were flying past and everything was horrific. A large pig was next to Fendor, it had red eyes with a overly large pupil, its large tusks though were not the biggest problem for on the pigs back was a dunong with a spear poised to strike. Fendor slammed his horse into the pig and the dunong fell off and was trampled to death by the other pigs! But they were surrounded by them and there was no escape! Then something equally strange as when the chests of the four dunongs had burnt up and the monsters had died, Osnath drew them to a halt and he and the hairy man began to chant words in an ancient tongue “Ashtocen anduwindie shantacom Fendor Oscanondie ave ashtocen”. Suddenly there was a roar and then a jet of fire shot fourth from the sky and ignited all the pigs and dunongs, incinerating them to dust every single one of them died and then a mighty dragon soared down from the sky its scales shone gold in the light, its tail was a magnificent specimen and its head was enormous. Its eyes gleamed blue and flames were gushing through its mouth and nose! It landed in front of them and their horses screamed in fear but were restrained. “I am Ashtocen your dragon and guardian Fendor” it said in a low menacing voice “I am here for you and will follow your every command”. “This is a dragon Fendor and a mighty one too, this is why you are so important to us, if you are wondering who this other man is he is Enchon my son and he is now just like me a guardian and a servant to you who is the one that will give peace to this kingdom”. With this Ashtocen growled menacingly “Oh and of coarse Ashtocen is the same, he will be fort upon and will be as a brother to you”.
They spent the rest of the day practicing to ride on Ashtocen and soon they had made a comfortable saddle with straps and other things!
The sun was setting and Fendor, Ashtocen, Osnath and Enchon were gathered around a small fire. “Osnath what was that thing you said today about Fireno “? “Ah now that was magic”, he replied “Magic comes in elves in which Enchon and I are and as well in people with certain gifts of which I will explain another time, you can control magic and so can Galborn”! Fendor was stunned, Osnath put out the fire and muttered a word under his breath, the fire shot up once more and he put it back out. “Raise your hand over the fire that is no more and say clearly Fireno and then wait a moment and pull your hand back”! As Fendor held his hand there and said the word flames shot up from the wood and then when he pulled his hand back the fire was out. “When you are in need of your dragon say the words Ashtocen en ton and he will come, I cannot teach you any more you must go to sleep”.



The city was vast, with its towers and turrets the capital of New Hrith was beautiful. The market was in full swing people were bustling everywhere with baskets and little children were playing with bamboo balls everywhere. But on the top of a large mountain there was a magnificent castle, lined with gold, stain glass windows, the whole building was beautiful. They had left Ashtocen in a forest near the city where the people of the city wouldn’t see him and wouldn’t get worried!
They climbed up the steps escorted by the imperial guards and then entered the hall where Fendor would finally meet the king of New Hrith, Galborn!