War of the First Age

II: Of Men and Orcs

1A, 936Y

Anni Opal-Slate

The spring months of every year in the city of Anni Opal-Slate we're always warm, pleasant and filled with festivities as the day everybody in the kingdom celebrated, Palridimis, was coming up and sweet, fruit pies were being baked and purged the air with their sweet, pungent smell. Delicious breads of the newly sown wheat from the fields that were south of the main city were being baked by most of the houses along the streets of the city. The main city itself was bundled with people buzzing around the markets, browsing and shopping for clothing, food, cloths, silks and many other things. Children played in the streets, playing an assortment of games, the younger children played around pretending they were soldiers fighting in the War, rescuing princesses and queens from the perilous Blackveil Orcs or played tag and hide and seek with some of the willing guardsmen who were extremely bored on duty. Near the main gate to the city an extremely large castle pierced into the clouds with its blue rooved spires, the sunlight at the start of the day cast a beautiful silhouette the market district behind it, its gardens were revered as some of the best in the realm. Guards wondered almost aimlessly and casually talking with the people of the city and adventurers and travellers coming through towards Crystal-Slate, the harbour town of Opal-Slate, connected by the same monarch, Palridian XXIV and his queen Anni Opal-Slate, a name tied to the city's queen, no matter what her name was before, she was now Anni Opal-Slate, a Dwarven name for which the city was named after. The city was along the road between the tiny village of Drajil and the bay at the edge of the forest occupied by Rangers, dangerous folk who are very skilled in the wild, the decided to build a city of stone, a safe haven for those seeking refuse without the troubles of monarchy. The City of Opal-Slate was bound and build in the centre of the Forest of Heroes, a large forest spreading far up the north where it gets extremely thick and almost impassable and down to the great Eleneth Desert, a large desert spreading across the rest of Skyrule till it hits the ocean, there is only one safe road through it and that only goes to Winterhelm, the Capital of the realm, a large city built on an icy mountain. Opal-Slate was far from the freezing cold of the capital and got the warm spring breezes from the Eleneth, the smell of oak and pine trees filled the air along with the green summer grasses springing up from the ground and beginning to seed and spread across the plain of Anneath which divided the Forest of Heroes from the Eleneth.

On the balcony of the Castle overlooking the busy city in motion stood a tall, slender, eighteen year-old, half-elven Queen stood sleepily, her hands propping her up on the balcony, she was slightly slumped and looked fairly tired. Her long brown hair was flying freely and gently in the light breeze behind her slightly pointed ears along with her silken, thin, sapphire blue knee-length dress, which swayed softly in the breeze just below her knees. Her loving blue-green eyes looking out towards the city, thinking about something elusive, her face was that of a kind one, a sweet smile crossed her face as she looked out at the city showing white teeth, her skin was fair but not to tanned, not like those from the Eleneth desert whose skin was really dark, and not to pale like those from the icy capital of Winterhelm, whose skin was as pale as paper. It was fair, which is odd seeing as she was the daughter of Bazzridian and Jêssïcâ, the High King and Queen of Winterhelm, and both of their skin was pale. Out of the doorway behind her, a tall, slender also a half-elven male about the same age, emerged from the dark, his dark green eyes looking lovingly at her, his longish brown hair was pulled back messily in a short ponytail, his shirtless body revealed several scars on his thin, fair skinned, masculine chest, an open wound was on his arm and was slowly healing. Belted as his waist was a pair of black trousers and he looked as though he just woke up from a restless night, his skin was wrinkled around his eyes and he looked much older than eighteen. He wiped his eyes with a little bit of pulling and the skin returned to its normal look, non-wrinkled and he looked his age. He walked silently up behind her and put his arms gently around her and kissed her neck sweetly.