Over five years ago… Thorn’s Keep
The dark halls and rooms cast their shadows from the flickering candlelight as they danced along the floors and walls. From time to time, the ground shook underneath, groaning, trying to deny what is happening within its walls. Shouts and a few mumbled screams echoed down the long dark corridors.
Gale’s body lay slumped against the wall, his hands chained to the floor. Cold. Dark. Hungry. Alone. He lifted his head up slowly, trying to see and memorize his surroundings. He wasn’t in a jail cell or dungeon, which he thought he would be, but as he glanced around he noticed he was in a small room. An unusual table sat in the center with cabinets and cupboards up against the walls. Various unusual instruments hung from the ceiling.
What happened? Did something hit me on the back of my head? He reached his hand to his head and gently felt around the pained area. With a short intake of breath and clenched teeth, he removed his hand and found blood had pooled from his head wound. He studied the blood for a while before glancing around the room once more.
Where are they? Where are the others? His worriment creased his face when suddenly a shadowed figure stood in the doorway.
The figure had two armed men behind him as he entered. ‘Ah, you’re awake, excellent. We can finally begin.’
‘Who are you?’ Gale asked hoarsely, ‘what do you want of me?’
‘You got too close for your own good pointy ears,’ the figure stepped closer into the candlelight. He wore a dark cotton outfit with leather sewn into it, cotton covered his legs and arms whilst the leather covered his shoulders and torso. He was young, perhaps in his early thirties, mid-length white hair and amber eyes that seemed to pierce right through him. ‘My master wishes you unharmed, what he has planned for you,’ he chuckled as he motioned for the two armed men to move in.
Each grabbing one of Gale’s arms before the white-haired man snapped his fingers and the chains were released from the floor but they still gripped him tightly around his wrists as they hoisted him up.
Gale started to struggle but it was pointless. Their iron grips only tightened around him so he fell-limp, dead weight in their arms as they dragged his feet along the floor.
The white-haired man took the lead and led them down and around corridors and steep steps as they descended further below. They past dungeon cells along the way, Gale glimpsed his friends’ hunched unconscious on the floors of their cells as he called out to them, they did not stir but he knew they were alive. ‘What have you done to them?’ Gale shouted.
‘Nothing…yet,’ the white-haired man replied as he opened a large door that led into yet another large, dark room.
What Gale saw he could not believe his eyes. A large pillar of light formed from the ceiling to the floor. A throne stood directly in front of him, it was a large hand crafted metal hand with spikes emanating from the fingertips. An old dead body lay slumped in its grasp. A husk of a body, with barely any skin to wrap around the bones. Gales stared, mortified at the sight. For a moment, he didn’t realize he had held his breath until he gasped for air.
‘What…do…you…want…of…me?’ Gale said breathlessly.
The white-haired man circled around him but it wasn’t him who spoke, ‘you.’ A deep voice erupted from the pillar of light. ‘You are just what I need.’
Gale’s heart pounded in his ears as he stared at the pillar of light. His face hardened and fearlessness etched across his face as he replied defiantly, ‘I will tell you nothing! I will not! You will have to kill me!’
The voice chuckled, ‘oh you will, just not in the conventional way,’ it chuckled louder as Gale began to struggle against the men who held him. The chuckle turned to laughter as Gale struggled more violently.
The men’s vise-like grip dragged Gale towards the light, climbing up three steps to a raised platform, they stood mere feet from it.
The light suddenly enveloped the room and screams echoed through rooms and down corridors
Present day...Thorn’s Keep
Gale watched silently as his armies gathered. Standing on a balcony overlooking a large vast, dark hall as horns bellowed and the sounds of loud footsteps were heard. He grinned widely as he gazed upon the masses.
Q’tel stood next to him, his fingers interlocked behind his back as he said, ‘master, I have received word that our agents are in position and are awaiting for your approval.’
Gale leaned on the stone rail and turned his head towards Q’tel, ‘tell them to carry out their orders. I’m going to pay the princess’s family a little visit, but first…’ he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black orb, ‘a visit to the Cold Mountains is at the top of my agenda,’ Gale chuckled as he gazed into the orb.
‘Master, what about Kivian? Do want me to deal with him?’ Q’tel asked.
‘No. I will deal with him. It has all been arranged.’ Gale looked back into his orb as he added, ‘take Bulldog, Brute and Red with you when you go. I gather they will serve a much better purpose with the dwarves. Now go, I have much to prepare.’
‘Yes, master,’ Q’tel bowed before leaving the balcony.
Gale smiled as he gazed at the moving picture the orb was showing him.
Zelkr remained gorging on his kills as one by one, villages and small settlements burned to the ground. Men and women who had decided to stay, armed with old rusty swords, fish hooks and scythes, dared to approach Zelkr with their weapons held high as each one burned and screamed before they even got close enough to him to land even a glancing blow.
Gale placed the orb back into his pocket and once again gazed down at his amassing army of men, beasts and something-in-between. With one hand raised high above him, the sounds down below suddenly hushed when he spoke, ‘the day has come to serve your God! When you leave here, you will raise every city and town to the ground leaving nothing behind! Sound the horns for today you march!’
The masses below bashed their shields and stabbed the ground with their spears, staffs and halberds as the rhythmic chorus echoed around the hall.
The Wild Lands
Smoke rippled through the sky as it rose higher and higher, trying to reach further towards the clouds.
Blood soaked the dry earth as screams of men, women and children echoed around him. His large sharp teeth tearing flesh from bones as he took his fill. The stench of meat and blood filled his nostrils as he tore at a now undistinguishable lump of meat. His wings spanned the breadth of a large hall, his black scales glistening in the humid sunlight with every deep sundering breath he took. His red eyes focused on his kill as he ripped it apart, piece by piece. He could hear a feint whisper of a voice in the back of his mind, calling to him. He recognized the voice immediately. It commanded him to retreat back to his master.
And he obeyed.
With swift move he was airborne. Flying higher and higher, passing large naturally formed rocks as each flap of his wings increased his momentum and disappeared into the distance.