Stories of Giladriis: The Paladin's Squire

Part Six

By the end of the night they were prepared to leave out. One of the forest elves who owed a favor to Cianna had went back to retrieve the tents and other belongings left behind by the group. They left their brown pack horse behind, along with the recovered belongings, having decided to take only what their own horses could carry with them. Cianna rode her yellow horse, Razeem his white, the dwarf his little black horse, and Olsyn the spotting tan and brown one.

    Their travels through Fleurydia were peaceful. Only twice did they run into other travelers. One of them was an older elven woman who was on the way up north to a village near Still Branch to see her son's wedding. She had a Minotaur companion who she had paid to keep her safe following her. A few days later they ran into somebody who looked to be a thief. If he had been a thief, he knew better than to try to rob them. It took them a day less than they had expected to cross from Fleurydia into the Empire of Mythos.

    The area they entered had once been part of the large forest that covered Fleurydia. In the Era of endless war Mythos had claimed a little over half of the forest and turned it into what they saw before them when he terraformed the land that belonged to his empire. There were no living trees around, and the rotting trunks of long dead trees only appeared every now and then. The only grass was a strange red or gray grass that few in small patches over the top of the ash and dust that had once been fertile ground. The sky almost always had dark stormy looking clouds, though even when they didn't the sun still had a dimmer glow that it naturally should have.

    All of the lands claimed by Mythos looked like this now. Water was rare and usually dirty, at least in areas already discovered by those outside of the empire. There seemed to be no living vegetation, leaving people to wonder what the Mythosians ate. The only Animals that existed seemed to be mutated from various other animals. Mythos created a nightmare out of what he claimed to be his empire, and he wanted nothing but to change the whole of Giladriis into what the group saw before them.

    Razeem got off his horse to stretch. While he was off he decided to go over the plan one more time. He pulled out the map and unrolled it, along with another paper that had the details of the plan on them. "Once we find the beginning of the invasion forces camp we will start to move around it. Gunder and I will go around one way while Olsyn and Cianna go around the other. Cianna your task is to get a rough estimate of the numbers Fithris has gathered so far. Olsyn, you are to keep an eye out for patrolling guards and keep you and Cianna from getting ambushed from behind."

    Razeem turned and nodded to Gunder before speaking to him. "You and I will be sneaking through the camp from the other side. Our goal is to find the Warlord's tent and surprise attack him, hopefully without being noticed by the rest of the invasion force. If we do everything right we can get out before they ever know that they have lost their leader, and the forest elves can take out the disorganized remains."

    Of course, all of them knew that this was just the plan, and that plans had to change midway through more often than not. Olsyn hoped that he did not have to fight, seeing how he had never fought against any of the Mythosian races before. Cianna was worried about leaving Razeem to fight the Warlord without her, but she understood why he had separated them apart. She knew that both of them would be distracted trying to make sure the other one was alright. Gunder was excited but worried for Olsyn at the same time. This was the first time he was going to be doing something without the supervision of his teacher or the dwarf. He was worried, but at the same time he was proud of Olsyn. He hoped the young paladin to be would be alright on his own.

    After a quick but filling meal they all were back at their horses and moving again. There were no longer any paths in the empire. They had all disappeared when Mythos terraformed the empire. Instead they followed horse and humanoid tracks that they discovered a few miles from where they had stopped. It was so dark that they could only see a few feet in front of themselves by the time they finally found the beginning of the enemy's camp. The only thing that stopped them from accidently trampling over the first tents was the light from the campfires that cut through the darkness.

    With silent gestures the four split into two groups. Olsyn and Cianna went to the right. He would watch the opening between the rows of tents while Cianna worked her way own the alleys and took a mental count of the troops she saw. It was late enough at night that most of those they crossed were asleep. Anybody that was still awake was not paying much attention to their surroundings. The Mythosians were not expecting an attack on them while inside their own lands.

    Olsyn caught sight of something that took his full attention. "Cianna, what's going on over there?" He whispered loudly and pointed towards one of the larger tents near them. He had caught sight of a fully armored human stepping into the front of the tent. At first he thought that it was Razeem but after thinking for a moment realized that there was no way he could have made it all the way over to this side so fast, even if he had not been sneaking.

    Cianna nodded before crouching and making her way towards the tent. Olsyn slowly made his way over to her as well. Both of them looked through a rip in the tent but could not see much of the seven figures from the angle they were looking. They decided to move towards the entrance for a better look. If there were humans or elves assisting the Mythosians then they needed to know if they were Mythos loyalists or traitors giving them inside information. They were both surprised when they peeled the flap into the tent open and saw seven humans dressed in darker colored versions of Razeem's armor.

    "Oh no," Olsyn whispered, pulling Cianna back by her shoulder, "those are dark paladins."

    Olsyn bumped into somebody and turned around just in time for two more dark paladins grab him and Cianna.

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    Razeem and Gunder did not have to sneak as much as assumed they would have to. Like Olsyn and Cianna they found most of the Mythosians to be asleep. It took them no time at all to figure out which tent belonged to the warlord. They spotted a tent that towered over the others and starting moving for it.

    The tent was still dimly lit on the inside and the faint shadow of a lone figure could be seen moving around. Razeem found it odd that the figure seemed to be slimmer than he remembered Fithris being. He shrugged it off when he thought about how many times he had seen a shadow that was only half the size of whatever cast it, while other times it could be twice the size casting a smaller one. He thought back to when he had Gunder had almost lost to a creature they assumed would be smaller from the shadow and decided that he would now make that mistake again.

    Gunder followed close behind with his battle axe already drawn. When they were close to the entrance he motioned for Razeem to follow him. He walked around to the other side of the tent where the light was the weakest. His plan was to cut through the tent and attack the warlord from behind before he could figure out what was going on. When Razeem was ready he cut through the tent's wall with one slash and charged through, Razeem close behind him.

    Gunder was knocked out right away by a large metal shield.

    Razeem ducked under the shield and rolled away from Gunder. Before he could stand all the way back up he felt the flat part of a sword smack him in the jaw. He fell onto his back and tried to crawl away, but felt a metal boot hold him down. Through blurry eyes he looked up to see that the being standing over him was not Fithris.

    The human that stood above him looked much older than him. He had a thick blond beard that was about six inches long. His long blond hair had bits of white and silver in it, probably from age. His left eye was covered in a dark blue colored eye patch. His face wore four deep scars that looked like claw marks. He had on silver and black armor and held a black metal shield in one hand with a slightly curved sword that had a black handle and a shining silver blade. "Well, what a surprise this is." The voice was familiar to Razeem and once he realized who it was he could not believe his ears. The dark paladin brought his sword down on Razeem just as he could see clearly again.

    The last thing Razeem saw was the face of his former teacher, Kabel Windrift.