The fields blazed in the glory of vanquish, as King Araphus looked down from his mountain holdfast, at the carnage he had invoked, when he let him into this war.
The rebels had sat on the brink of victory, for some time, they had decimated the Kings armies all the way from the frozen capped mountains of the North to the wind swept peninsular of the South. With countless friends and foes lost along the way.
Now they had driven them back towards the Capital and their last, strong hold, raised by the dread, in the Kings name, Araphus castle. But that was where the war turned, the Shaman had seen to that, plucked from the portal of another world, with untold promises from the King, the rebellion seemed doomed, in an instant.
The renegades had arrived in surprisingly upbeat spirits from victories on the Godmodin plains, out on the grasslands their spears and light armour, made it easy for them to use their speed against the slower and heavily armoured Kings soldiers. But here, tucked into a fortified bastion, with the Dread’s fire bolted hands raining down on them, they were all fodder for the end of the rebellion.
It was in the last moments of the burning fields, amidst the deafening screams of the flaming dead, that Namok Nira, leader of the rebellion, and the one they pledged to die for, gathered them in the dark smoke.
“I fear, our rebellion is over, but this war will not be in vain.” He stated with disappointment “If we can’t defeat them today, we shall try and diminish their supremacy, for tomorrow.”
While King Araphus and the Black dread, basked in their fiery triumph.
Namok lead the small band of remaining survivors, not back to their homesteads in the north, but under the clandestine mountain pathway and up to the very gates of Capital. Unfamiliar and fearlessly they clambered over the city walls. To find the surprisingly empty settlement. Which somehow hearten their damaged pride, it had at least taken all the remaining Kings soldiers to halt their cause.
But they now had only one target left, the one that would surly force a divide, between the King and the Dread, and cut off the Shaman’s strength. Destruction of the Portal.
It didn’t take them long to find it, as the black threads of magic emanated all around the Kings courtyard, leaking out into the sky to regenerate the Dread, all the way back at Araphus Castle.
Their spears were sharp and their anger fiercer, but they were hesitant that their thrusts could penetrate the crystal surround, it was Namok who lunged at it first cracking the outer shell, to raised cheers from his followers, who then proceeded to join him in the shattering.
The smallest of Namok’s mutineers, stood back pondering her next move. She had seen her father scorched before her very eyes earlier in the day and had left her mother and her two older brothers slain on the battlefields of Godmodin, her resolve for life had all but waned.
“I’m going to enter the portal.” she confirmed to the others
“But, it is evil,” said one of the older rebels “You’ll only find death and destruction there, more Black Dreads.”
“Maybe, but I must know, what is beyond” she stated recklessly
“You don’t, want to do this,” Explained Namok “Once we destroy the Portal, we will scatter the shards to the far corners of Genkarriss you would be trapped, never to return.”
“Return, to what” she said as a tear rolled down her cheek “the rebellion has failed, my family lost, I might find answer on the other side of that portal.”
“You might, only find death?” Cautioned Namok as he placed an arm on her shoulder
“Then let that be my fate.” she stated as she walked forward and engulf herself in the blackness.
YOU ARE READING
Broken Portal
FantasyWhen does the current become history, when does history become legend, when does legend become myth, and when does myth become forgotten.
