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A Thousand Years To War	By : reddragon Category: -Misc Video Games/RPGs > General Views: 1783 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Millenium War Aegis, nor do I make a profit from this.

Chapter List
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“Dragonewts! There are dragonewts in the castle!”
Prince Xal tried not to wince as he watched his father's eyes darken at the news. The shout was as unwelcome as it was expected. Standing between the two men was a small table, its surface littered with the tokens and miniatures that marked armies on the move. Standing in the center was a tall stone castle, a foot tall and twice that wide, loving hand carved centuries ago as a present to a long dead ruler. In the present day it was surrounded by solid rings of black stones, marking the positions of the forces besieging it. Even the most novice of soldiers could take one look at that table and realize the castle was doomed. Xal stared at the table and instead cursed the history that had brought them to this day.
For a thousand years the kingdom of Cerval had stood guard against the demonic invaders who desired nothing more than the complete destruction of the mortal world. The royal family was descended from the first hero to throw back the forces of evil, a mortal man who had accepted the blessing of the Goddess Aegis and the responsibilities of her champion. The Champion and his allies had beaten back the armies of the damned, driving them back from the world of the living and sealing their portals behind them. Thousands of magi and witches had toiled for a full year to erect the barriers that would separate the demon realm from the mortal, many sacrificing their powers and their lives in the process.
Peace had reigned for a time, and the mortal races had grown in their plentiful numbers. Cerval had become the focus of a new golden age, with the other kingdoms sending their sons and daughters to study at its universities and temples, pledging their soldiers for the time when the demons would return. But peace turned to contentment, and contentment turned to complaceny. Friendships turned to rivalries, rivalries turned to conflict, and conflict turned to war. Cerval and her closest allies remained above the various battles, protected by ancient treaties and traditions. After all, while no one had seen a dragonewt for hundreds of years everyone knew the chance remained, so why risk the defenders? But remaining above also meant remaining apart, which quickly turned to isolation from the rest of the world.
The dragonewts, however, were free from such internal strife. They fed off the pain and misery that came to them from the mortals, using it to fuel their never ending attempts on the barriers. Each new attack drained the rapidly fading powers of the Goddess Aegis, and when the last barrier came down...
'Six weeks,' Xal thought bitterly. 'Six weeks was all it took to turn a living kingdom into hell on earth.'
“Go.”
That one word was all it took to stop Xal's heart. “Father?”
“Go,” the King repeated. He didn't growl, he didn't shout, though Xal wished he had. The old man's voice was eerily calm, as if he were sending his only child off to daily lessons and not ordering him to flee for his life. “At last word the tunnels were still open. Go, now, while there is time. We'll hold them here for as long as we can. Seek out the temple in the woods. Speak with the Goddess, beg her for the blessing she once gave your ancestor. Right what has gone so terribly wrong.”
“Only if you come with me, Father!” Xal pleaded. “We'll do this together! We'll rally the people, send word to the other kingdoms-”
“Word was sent when the first village burned.” Sadness touched with anger now crept into the King's voice. “There was no answer, nor do I believe there will be one. It has been too long since the demons walked our lands, and I fear the other nations will see this as just another war, with us just one more casualty upon to the long list of the ages. And the people need me here. I am old, Xal. Too old. I would only slow you down, and even if we did manage to escape together... Well, war is a young man's burden. If I were to die on the road, then I fear it would break what fragile spirit remains to our people. Here I can die well, sword in hand, a necessary cost that must be paid to ensure our future victory. Let me have that much, at least. Let my death have meaning.”
“Father-” Xal's voice cracked on the word, his tongue too stiff and dry to finish the rest.
“I love you, too, my son,” the King said. He pressed cracked, dry lips to his son's forehead. A terrible roar shook the room, echoed by the screams of men dying in the hall not too far off. Prince and King both reflexively turned towards the noise, their hands dropping to the hilts of their sheathed swords. Xal started for the door, but his father was quicker. Strong hands grabbed him by the shoulders and spun him around before forcing him towards a crack in the wall behind him.
“I said GO!” This time the King bellowed the command, shoving his son into the open passage. Xal stumbled into the darkness, nearly falling on his hands and knees as he struggled to retain his balance. That moment cost him his last chance at defiance, as the King quickly resealed the tunnel. Stone rumbled as the wall closed back together, and ancient devices clicked into place. Darkness swallowed Xal, forcing him to continue down the path his father had set him on.
Time lost all meaning as Xal shuffled through the corridor. He kept one hand pressed against the cold stone wall, using that to guide him in the absence of light. Only the faintest sounds filtered through the walls, but it was obvious that the defenders were still fighting, of that Xal was sure. Then again, as the dragonewts never took prisoners, so what was the point of surrendering? Every so often he would hear the scurry of something much closer. The first time he had frozen, waiting to discover if he would live or die as nervous sweat stung his eyes. It wasn't until he heard the chitter of the rats that had discovered him that he realized it was safe to continue.
Finally, after how many minutes or hours, Xal saw a faint sliver of light breaking through the darkness ahead. He broke into a run and the light grew brighter as he charged towards it, but then so did the clash of steel and roar of man and beast fighting grow louder. The courtyard ahead was packed with the bodies of dead men and dragon newts, with the survivors battling it out on top of their corpses. Off in the distance Xal could see a cluster of guardsmen holding an archway against the invaders. His first instinct was to run towards them to help, but before he could take his first step one of the three men was pulled under the swarm of attackers. The breach in their shield wall quickly led to the deaths of the other two. Having gained the archway, their killers began to pour into the castle.
Four goblins, child sized monsters with skin the color of blooming nightshade, came climbing over the top of a decorative stonewall, completely ignoring the stairs that waited only a few feet further on in their haste to taste the blood of the remaining defenders. One spotted Xal as he appeared and pointed towards the prince, screaming out a cry of warning or direction to its companions. The other three goblins let out identical squeals as they drew their jagged edged short swords, only to vanish in an explosion of flame a moment later as a massive ball of fire landed in the middle of their position.
“Lovely day for a stroll, eh, my Lord?”
“Barbastroff?” Xal stared incredulously at the old man carefully picking his way across the courtyard. Dressed in the white cloak of a court philosopher and the black robes that marked him as a mage, Barabstroff had been one of Xal's teachers for as long as the young man could remember. The mage had also been his father's teacher, and his grandfather's teacher before that. No one knew exactly how old the wizard was, as there was no one still alive from when he had been born, with the obvious exception of the wizard himself.
“Of course!” Barbastroff called back excitedly. “Do you know anyone else with a beard this magnificent?” The mage motioned to the ankle length beard hanging down the front of his robes. Normally white as a fresh snowfall, the last few inches had been dyed a brownish red from having been dragged through pools of blood and other such things.
“But- What are you doing here?” Xal demanded as he hurried to close the distance between them. The fighting seemed to be moving away for the moment, but there was a good chance that more enemies could appear at any moment, as those four goblins had just unluckily proven.
“Why, I had planned on showing young Anna here some of the more exotic herbs we tend to here in the south gardens,” Barbastroff said. His eyes grew wide and he sounded surprised by Xal's question. He turned to the side to reveal a young woman cowering behind him. Xal recognized her as one of the court clerks. Anna was fair skinned, and wore her platinum blonde hair fashionably long. She was clearly terrified to be out in the middle of a battlefield, and at first Xal wondered what in the name of the Goddess she thought she was doing, especially with only the crazed elder mage as a guard. On the other hand, there probably wasn't anywhere safer to be, and it wasn't like there was much that Barbastroff couldn't handle. “Did I err? Was there some event planned for later this eve? Oh, don't tell the steward, he would be most cross...”
“Barbastroff, there's a bit of a war going on,” Xal said through clenched teeth. “The dragonewts, they've taken the castle. My father ordered me to escape while he stayed behind. He told me to find the Goddess in her temple, but I don't even know where that is!”
“A battle?” Barbastroff looked around, as if seeing all the carnage for the first time. “Oh, dear, the steward really will be cross. I don't think they'll get this cleaned up in time for any party tonight! Lucky us that we need to get you to that temple then! Come along lad, I know the way. Keep an eye on Anna if you get lost, as I know she knows the way as well.”
“You do?” Xal frowned as he looked at the woman.
Anna nodded. “I was responsible for sending the monthly tithes to the temple, and would escort it every so often to check in with the clerics and make sure they had everything they needed.”
Xal felt a sense of relief wash over him. “Good, then we need to be going. Hopefully we can pick up some other survivors along the way-”
Whatever plans Xal might have announced were lost when a creature high above let out a skull piercing shriek. Xal and Anna both reacted instinctively, throwing themselves flat to the ground as a bat winged shape came plummeting out of the sky. Barbastroff, however, simply stood there as he stared up at it. “Oh my, is that a gargoyle? What is that doing here? I-”
“Barbastroff, no!”
Xal tried to get back to his feet and push the mage out of the way, but he was too far, too slow, and ultimately, too late. The gargoyle's talons seized on the old man's shoulders and yanked him off his feet as it beat its way back into the sky. Xal started to case after them, but the gargoyle and its future meal disappeared around a tower and were soon lost to sight.
“Damnit! Damnitdamnitdamnit!” Xal fell to his knees and began to beat futilely at the ground. He had lost his father. He had lost his teacher. He had lost his home. What was the point of even living? The Goddess would never choose him as a Champion, not when he had already let down so many others. Why would she possibly want a failure such as him to carry her banner? There had to be someone more worthy, someone who could actually defeat the dragonewts, someone who would have been able to keep two old men from dying pointlessly.
“Prince Xal?”
Xal's head snapped around at the sound of Anna's voice. She was kneeling on the ground, staring at him. Fear filled her eyes, which only made him angrier. Not only was he a failure, but he was scaring the people who were supposed to be relying on him.
'So stop scaring her and do what you're supposed to!' his mind snarled.
'It's not that easy!' he snarled back.
'Of course it is! This is war! Everything is easy in war, its just getting it done that's complicated. How many times did your father tell you that?'
Xal closed his eyes, trying to think of an argument, and knew that he wouldn't find one. Instead he shook his head and look back at Anna, making sure to meet her gaze. “I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to see that. We need to go, get out of here before its too late.” He stood up and held out his hand to her. “Can you show me how to get to the temple?”
“I can.” Anna nodded as she took his hand. Xal pulled her from the ground with relative ease, but she stumbled from the strength of his lift. Their bodies pressed together, and Xal realized he could see clear down the front of her dress. The realization made him blush, and he quickly turned away.
“Sorry. I didn't mean-” He shook his head again, this time in embarassment. “Sorry.”
“So, it was my fault, I wasn't expecting us to be moving so fast,” Anna said. She clapped her hands over her mouth as her brain caught up to her tongue. “Wait, I didn't mean it that way!”
Xal surprised both of them by laughing. A moment later Anna started to giggle, and then the tears were pouring down both their faces. It felt good to laugh and it felt good to cry, even if neither one of them truly understood the how or why of it. Xal knelt to recover his sword from where had dropped it earlier and slid it back into its sheath. With one last glance back at the castle that had been the only home he had ever known, Xal took his first step towards his destiny.
*
Progress was slow, but steady. Even though the dragonewt army seemed to have infested every nook and cranny of the Cervallian capital, there were still pockets of survivors and holdouts hiding amid the ruins. Finding them, however, was tricky. The best method of survival was to not be noticed by the invaders, but that also meant hiding from any other survivors. By the time night had fallen, however, Xal and Anna had managed to make it as far as the city gates and gathered together a small band of soldiers and archers. Two in particular stood out; a young forest ranger named Soma, and a priestess named Alissa. Soma was the younger of the two, a petite brunette who carried a longbow nearly as tall as she was. The quiver that went with the bow was half empty; the missing shafts had accounted for more than a dozen dragonewt soldiers, and their bodies had formed the trail that had led Xal and his band to the pair of women in the first place. Alissa was only a few years older, but already wore the crowned cap of a Sister of Gelabas, the patron saint of children, the elderly, and charity workers in general. Only those who had mastered the arts of healing were allowed to wear the embroidered gold cross, and impressive feat for anyone who could only have seen less than twenty five years. The two had been trying to escape themselves, and were grateful to see the Prince arrive with his allies.
“You can see there, they've got the gate well guarded,” Soma whispered as she pointed in the direction of their target. “They must have hit the defenders hard enough that they could take it without doing too much damage to the gate, and now they've got the entire thing sealed up again. If we want to get out, we're going to have to take it back.”
“How many of them do you think there are?” Xal asked. He could see movement, but it was mostly shadows on shadows. The dragonewts didn't seem to need light as badly as the humans did, so the evening gloom played to their advantage.
“I count ten, no, wait. Eleven.”
Xal frowned. “How can you be sure?”
Soma gently grabbed him by the write and began to use his hand to point. “There's three there, on the left, and three there on the right. There's another three there, sitting underneath that archway eating. The last two are roving back and forth. I don't know if they're just roving, or if they're actually trying to patrol the gate.”
“You have phenomenal eyes,” Xal murmured. Even though he knew where she was pointing, he still couldn't quite make out everything that she had seen. “But that still leaves us outnumbered. There's only six of us, not counting Anna and Alissa. Those two aren't fighters, and it would be murder to send them out there.”
“Two to one odds aren't bad.” Soma shrugged at the numbers. “We'll have the element of surprise, and they don't have any ranged fighters. I should be able to put a couple of them down before you even get close. Just try to be as quiet as possible, so that you can get as close as possible. Go in on the right, and I'll open fire on the left. When they react to that, you can hit them in the flank.”
Xal frowned as he considered her suggestion. He didn't like the odds being that high against them, not when he had so few bodies to work with. What he would have preferred would have been an entire platoon of archers, or maybe a squad of magi to wipe them out in just a salvo or two. Then again, if wishes were actually going to make the situation any better, he was just going to wish the whole war had never started in the first place! When he couldn't think of anything better, he nodded. “Alright, it sounds like a plan. Wait till we're in position and I give the signal, but don't hesitate to open fire if you see them start to move before we're ready. I'd rather we give them as little time to organize themselves as possible.”
“You got it, Xal,” Soma whispered as she pushed herself to her knees. Xal shook his head as she departed. She hadn't referred to him as the Prince even once since they had met, and he got the feeling she never really would. For a woman like Soma, respect was something that needed to be earned, not given. It drove Anna absolutely nuts, but for some reason it made Xal feel oddly comfortable.
He quickly filled the rest of the troops in on the plan, and made sure they all drew their weapons before they started the attack. Dragonewt capabilities were a bit of a mystery, but if their sight was better than a human's he didn't want to risk that their hearing was as well. A prickling sensation crawled down the back of Xal's neck as he got the other three soldiers into position. The men were tired, edgy, and more than a little shell shocked by the day's events. He could see them trembling in the dimness of the shadows. Taking them into yet another battle was risky, but there was no other real option. The only thing he could do was give them a quick pep talk and hope that would be enough.
“I know today has been one of the worst you can possibly have experienced.” Xal tried to put a bit of steel into his words, a task made difficult by the need to whisper. From the way the men nodded, however, he knew that it was working. “But that doesn't matter. The enemy thinks that he has won the war, when all he has really succeeded in winning is one small battle. Why? Because he doesn't know about us. We're not going to let them win the war, because that's our job. They caught us unawares once, and it worked for them. So now it is our turn. Except when we come back, we're not going to give them the chance they are giving us. There will be no second tomorrow for them. The next time we return, it will be at the head of an army. But first we need to get through that gate so that we can go build that army. In order to do that, we need to kill the goblins that are defending it. So what do you say, men, want to go give a little back before we get going?”
Fortunately, the soldiers were smart enough not cheer, but each gave him a huge smile and a nod. They drew their own weapons, careful to keep the tips pointed at the ground so as to not accidentally stab someone in the dark, and carefully made their way into formation. They had to move slow, so as not to accidentally rattle their armor and to give them the chance to study the ground beneath their feet between steps. Loose rubble and broken timbers lay scattered across the road, and a single mistep would give everything away.
Naturally, it was Xal who screwed up.
It was a child's toy that did for him, a tiny little wooden ball of all things. It had been painted black, making it impossible to see in the dark. His left foot came down directly on top of it. The ball shot out from underneath and off into the shadows, where it had the utter gall to slam into the middle of a brass pot with an audible ring. It wasn't a loud sound, the sort to be easily missed in the course of a normal day, but as far as Xal and his troops were concerned it might as well have been the tolling of a cathedral's bells. All the goblins immediately turned to look, and the closest one shrieked out a familiar skull splitting warning cry.
“Damn!” There was no time to look back. Xal raised his sword high as he shouted. “Charge! FOR CERVAL!”
“FOR CERVAL!”
The goblin that had cried out leapt to its feet and charged headlong at Xal. Its eyes were glowing red with hate, and spittle dripped from its fangs as gnashed its teeth in anticipation of tasting manflesh. Xal readied his sword, preparing to counter its first blow, but neither fighter had the chance to engage. Instead an arrow shrieked past the Prince's hip to catch the goblin in the throat. The goblin's war cry turned into a choked gurgling as the steel arrowhead ripped through arteries and vocal cords alike on its way to severing the creature's spine. Robbed of the use of its legs, the goblin tripped over its own feet and rolled clumsily across the ground.
Xal was already reacting. He leapt over the corpse and slashed at the next goblin in line. It dodged to the right, but not fast enough. Xal's sword bit into its shoulder, cutting down as far as the collar bone before Xal could pull it free. The goblin ignored its wound and shoved its own blade at Xal's leg, looking to hamstring the human. Metal scraped off metal as the goblin's sword was deflected by Xal's greaves. It was the only chance the goblin would have. Xal's second cut slipped between the goblin's ribs and sliced open its lung. Bluish blood spilled out of the wound in the sword's wake, and the goblin toppled over.
By then the rest of the soldiers were sweeping past their Prince and laying into the goblins with their own weapons. One particularly heavy armed individual with a morning star took the lead, slamming into the cluster off goblins like an angry bull. He swatted one of the goblins full force, hard enough that it sent the body flying across the way to slam into the closed gates. The crunch of breaking bones could barely be heard over the sounds of battle. Another arrow whistled out of the darkness, cutting down the last of the goblins.
“You three, get the gate opened!” Xal ordered, pointing to the three closest soldiers. “Soma, get Alissa and Anna, check for wounded and see if there are any supplies that we can use. The rest, keep an eye out for reinforcements. I want us to be out of here in five minutes.”
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A Thousand Years To War