The Three Kingdoms [under edit]

Unsetlement

     The Stars speckled the blackened sky.  The little encampment lay sprawled out on the hard compacted dirt, rows of tents peaked high like the light waves on the ocean. The races factioned them selves into groups, they fought for shared cause, but they did not fight for each other, it Was an issue Galvin wished to resolve.  He looked out towards the flickering lights in the distance, their next strategic advantage. To the left there's a wide expanse of barren land, emptiness calling out to him to just run away, but he couldn't.  Caper sat down beside him.

"Your days are numbered, aren't they."  Galvin asked.

"We are all winding down and dying." The ragged canine replied.

"I don't like all this killing."

"Nobody does..."

After a while, Caper left to leave.  Galvin wandered about the encampment...divided mostly in two.  Humans on one side, dragons on the other.  He has hoped to bring the races together, but many were resistant to his ideas.  Though, at the moment, they seemed surprisingly at ease.  He saw several times that night, groups from both sides seated together or sprawled out in the dirt, gambling away what they had, drinking, and laughing.

Tomorrow will be different.

Galvin walked back to his tent.  It wasn't very large, dragons only stood five to seven feet high At the shoulders, and he was on the shorter end.  The wolves were fairly large for their race, standing  three to five feet, but then again, they were different in all aspects other than appearance.  Galvin seriously doubted their chances of success, but the land was dying...they had no choice.

"Darwin."

"Yes sir?"

"Go back to my kingdom.  Tell them I have found Darien, tell them to assemble the armies, though few, and meet here as fast as they can."

Galvin watched as the large bird flew off, and briefly imagined what it would look like if he wAs shot out of the sky right then and there.  He knew it would be foolish to expect all his friends to survive a war.

"Galvin!" 

The dull blue dragon awoke with a start.  The sun was up and the camp was bustling with activity.  Caper stood impatiently waiting by the enterence to his tent.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing!"

Gal in groaned.  

"Sage just had her cub."

"It's alive?"

"Of course it is." Caper growled.

"How come you didn't get me sooner?"

"Oh...we didn't want to interrupt your beauty sleep."

The two briskly departed to take a look, when they neared the tent the only sounds that greeted their ears were screaming and yelling.

"Can you give me the lowdown?" Galvin asked.

"Caden is trying to get her to leave...says a military encampment is no place for a cub....accused her of being a bad mother.  They're pretty angry."

"You don't think they'd ever split up?"

"No, never."

"Sir, they're coming." The Phoenix swooped down from the air to join them.

"Thank you Darwin.  Sage just had her baby."

"That's nice.  Not the best time or place though.  There hasn't been  dark force this long in millennia.  His hatred infests other lands, we may be on the brink of a war that extends beyond your homeland."

"How old are you?"

"Older then you think."

"What? Why?! Why is everyone around here so old?"

"So old?" Caper asked with a hint of sarcasm.  "I'm not old."

"You're over 800."

"No...well kind of...something went wrong. I don't really know.  Phoenixes live forever, Darwin's an old hag."

"Whatever.  We have more important matters to deal with right now."

"Yes we do," Darwin agreed. "As you know the two main bodies that make up our army don't like each other."

"Aw that's a shame." Caper growled.

"They refuse to fight together."

"I thought I just saw-"

"Not all of them feel this way, but they aren't enough to make a difference."

They didn't have much time to say anything else before the trumpets sounded.  A sudden rush to arms was the response.  They were under attack, but nothing was visible from outside the tents.  The arrack came from the inside.