Joined: 24 Jan 2007 Posts: 263 Location: British Columbia, Canada
Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 9:25 pm Post subject: Bard Clan
Here is the Home of the Bard Clan. Those who are writers, musicians or storytellers make their Home here. _________________ Those who try their best are never at their worst.
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 6:33 am Post subject: David's Story
For those who've visited the barracks and wanted to know Shmiel's story, here it is.
First off, it is kind of long. I have a limited supply of parchment, but I'll make do. Because nobody's in this clan, I'll write down the stories and post them in the village. Here's page 1:
The Shmiel Legacy
Chapter 1: A little background
The Smiels were a family that lived way up in the Tidiria, in the same village that I am from. Most of us were farmers, growing mostly alfalfa and grain, but the Shmiels grew flax as well, or used to.
Tidiria, especially our village, reached a golden age during a period of quite friendly relations between Tidiria and Glomen, the human-populated country in the 'lowlands'. Trading was wonderful, and the Shmiel family grew quite wealthy by weaving flax into very fine linens and selling them to humans and centaurs alike.
Now, in the Shmiel family was born a natural leader by the name of David. I knew David well. He was kind, and always had good thoughts for Glomen. He kept those thoughts well into his early twenties, when the war finally ended.
About fifteen years ago, Glomen suddenly broke off trade to Tidiria. The economy crashed, and Tidiria was sent back into the stone age. Our little village was cut off from the main country because of miles of unsafe roads. Although all of us were hit hard, the Shmiels took it the worst.
Having based their entire economy on trade with Glomenians, they quickly became poor. Their flax crop was reduced to a tiny corner of their field, while they tried to grow enough food to sell and survive. They had almost no money for most of the depression.
However, two years ago a single human merchant went to our main port city. He was arrasted, but the news quickly spread. The merchant was just in time to announce a re-established trade route for the Great Harvest.
(The Great Harvest was where everybody from everywhere brought everything worth trading to the capital city for a fair-type festival that could last anywhere from three days to three weeks)
Tidirians all around rejoyced. The Shmiels themselves made enough money to start up their business again. However, the first night, a Tidirian officer was assasinated by a Glomenian arrow.
I, with David fighting by my side, was able to barely fight off the Glomenian 'merchants' (they were soldiers in disguise). However, while we were gone, vast armies both surrounded the city and pillaged each village.
Thus, the war started[/b] _________________ Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is bad?
At first, the war was very local. The humans were invading over the lake by the thousands, and the Tidirian government was trying to gather together as many able-bodied people as possible for a militia-type army. Although the Tidirian 'army' was under-trained, the farm-workers had strength and tactics.
I remember the first battle very vividly. A couple thousand Glomenian troops were marching up the mountains toward Imperial City, while the couple hundred Tidirian militia were defending from inside the city.
Ballista were set up along the walls, and the infantry (with David and me in their ranks) set up behind the gate. A few archers showered the humans with poison-tipped arrows. Make-shift molotov cocktails were thrown at rams, but we couldn't hold them off like that forever.
The sound was deafening. The Glomenian seige machines were tearing apart the walls while the feeble attempts to drive them back were quickly dissapating. The humans had so much more training in archery, and the defenders on the walls were quickly picked off.
When the first ram reached the gate, the sound was deafening. All of us infantry were shacking, adrenaline pumping through our bodies. It was probably the scarriest moment in my life, waiting for the gate to fail.
Eventaully, three rams were set up, one at the gate and one on either side, pounding the stone wall into gravel and powder. After what seemed like hours, the gate failed. Tidirians rushed through the hole, slashing our way through the surprised Glomen forces.
Surprise was on our side. They were totally unprepared, and we had killed probably three to five hundred humans before they reacted. The battle was kind of a blur for me. I don't remember much of it.
I remember putting my claymore away and picking up a fallen enemy's curved scimitar (contrary to Tidirian straight swords) and fighting with that. That was when I realized we'd win, despite their superior numbers.
I knew our victory was assured because the Glomen swords were of such poor make that my stolen one shattered within a minute of use. I quickly pulled out my two daggars and fought with those.
Before I knew it, I was a killing machine. Nobody could even get close to me. I had learned the art of fighting quickly, although I admit my first few attempts at killing were sloppy.
When the battle was over, I was drenched in blood. My daggers were chipped and scratched, and I was covered in gashes and wounds. It hurt to move, but we won. Imperial City was safe. Our families were safe.
And yet, that was only the beginning.... _________________ Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is bad?
After that main battle at Imperial City, we were getting reports of Glomen troops marching up well-known mountain passes toward our biggest city, Upper Mountain City, or UMC.
A large portion was dispatched to overtake the humans at Mission Ridge, a few miles away from UMC. David and I, however, were to lead a strike force upward through the winding mountain roads to our village and other surrounding ones.
The hike was long and hard. Our moral dropped through the floor. Sure, we'd won, but barely. Quite a bit of our 'army' had been killed. Most had gone to protect UMC. A small portion had been left to defend, and a few other teams went other directions to protect the farms of Tidiria.
Sure, I knew the road better than anything else, but it seemed much longer than usual. We crossed in probably record time, mostly cantering and trotting toward our village. Just before we got there, we saw smoke rising in the valley.
Rushing in, we were too mad to think about what we were doing. We took the Glomenians completely by surprise. They were burning the post office when we arrived, slashing and hacking. One of our team lost her sword and resorted to tearing the humans limb-from-limb. All of us had grown up in this village, so it made us crazy to see it being burned.
We won with very little losses. However, the damage was done. We had no fire retardant system, and it simply spread and spread. We managed to save one acre of Jonathan Stringer's field. Dissapointed, depressed, and very mad, we left the valley to save other villages.
The road around would have taken way too long, so we walked up a saddle and down. Coming out of the mountains, we caught the humans just waiting. They were a little more prepared, but we had momentum and just ran through their ranks, killing.
After that, we circled around and attacked the next village. However, they were more prepared. Of the twenty remaining centaurs, thirteen died. David and I were severely wounded, so we decided to return to Imperial City.
On the way down, David and I agreed on something. We both knew we had to take the fight to the Glomenians. We needed to go and attack them. We figured those that have survived thus far had enough experiance, they'd be like trained fighters.
So, pulling into Imperial City, the plan began to form. _________________ Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is bad?
When we got back to Imperial City, we heard the news. The attack on the humans at Mission Ridge was a success, but only barely. We'd suffered huge casualties, making our militia slim pickings, but we'd killed nearly every human in Tidiria, which was good. Now, there was hardly any military presence in our country.
But I knew that none of that mattered right now. Glomen could just send in more troops to conquer our weakened empire. We needed to hit them hard. We needed to attack on their country.
I got talking with Xihan, the 'military' leader ever since the assassination. He said that we had very little intelligence of Glomenian troop placement and cities. They had old maps from two decades ago, but they'd hardly account for enemy camps.
However, we did know that any other attack would come to Lower Port City, via the Great Lake that separated Tidiria and Glomen. There was a way around the lake, but it was an old mountain road that the ancient nomads used to herd sheep from the lowlands to the mountain valleys.
The road was treacherous, but the Glomenians didn't know about it, and even if they did, they couldn't travel on it very quickly. That meant we had the entire advantage over them on our offence.
Our plan was to attack Glomen's port city, called Ravenport. However, a direct front assault wouldn't work because of the human defenses in that city. We needed a better plan.
I was trying to think of one when a story popped into my head. It was the story of a man who lead a small army, about three hundred men, to attack a huge enemy camped in a valley. They used trumpets and torches, scaring the enemy into thinking he had a huge army. The enemy fought each other and ran away.
Maybe he could do something like that, except actually attack. They had over a thousand battle-trained centaurs available, with enough to stay and guard Imperial City.
We finally decided. Tomorrow, we'd walk down the path and wait at the edge of the mountains until nightfall. In the cover of darkness, we'd surround Ravenport, even in the water. Tidiria would send all their ships, mostly fishing and trading ships--relics of twenty years ago. However, given enough disguise, they could be made to look like an armada.
The plan was to attack the moment the sun came up. Reports said that, from the city, the sun would light up the plains and water like fire. We'd emerge from that inferno, like demons, and attack.
And so, the next day, we began phase 1 of Operation Twilight Flame. _________________ Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is bad?
About a thousand of us left Imperial City early in the morning. The dew was still on the grass as we walked triple-file down the road.
After a few miles, a small valley road cut off from the main drag. We took that, quickly walking away. This road cut deep into a thick forest. With trees on both sides, we were very un-maneuverable.
Then, the nomadic trail left. It was very thin, but we managed to stay triple-file as we cut through the forest. Trees had attempted to grow up, but a few goat farmers still used the path, keeping trees from growing over the ancient walk.
We soon left the forest and were cutting through the mountain ridge. The path was quite steep, having few switchbacks. We finally came to what was known as Devil's Saddle.
It was where the trail left the forest and started actually climbing the mountains. The path was visible as a beige line that did zig-zags up the would-be cliff. The mountains around us towered above like gods, keeping us away from battle.
We were determined, though, and we continued going. I remember when I was just about three-quarters of the way up the mountain. When I looked up, I saw the line of centaurs disappearing over the edge of the ridge, the first in line. When I looked down I could see the very last centaurs emerging from the forest.
When I got to the top, I was stunned. I'd always lived high up in the mountains, but the valley prevented me from seeing any real view. However, this was the last ridge of the Tidirian mountains. Here, we stood on the edge of the other side of Devil's Saddle, and I could see for many miles across the lowlands.
It was unbelievably flat. Here, you get used to it, but when I saw it for the first time.... there weren't words to describe how I felt.
The world was huge! It spilled out away from the mountains in a never-ending plain. The path did a few switchbacks, but then cut diagonally across the ridge, down it, into a forest.
Coming down, the view slowly got worse. The horizon came up back at me, but I was still unnerved at it's totally flat line. I could see Ravenport off to the left, on the edge of the Great Lake.
Eventually, we dropped down into the foothills, masked my trees all around us. Then, the path hit a river, and we walked along the side as it wound through a steep canyon.
Finally, as the sun was setting, we reached the place where the canyon suddenly ended and the river ran free in the lowland. We'd reached our resting spot. Now, we just had to wait until dark. _________________ Why do we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is bad?
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
