Illarion.org

Chapter One:

Astral, Korwin, Inioch, and Roke sat in a circle around the fire place at Korwin's house.  Apparently the attack had not happened yet and the companions grew weary of waiting outside.  Hour after hour passed without a sign of any attacks.  Astral, Inioch, and Roke had fallen asleep, but Korwin layed awake, tired but alert.  He seemed to be aware of something, but there was no knowing what it was.  

Suddenly he sat upright and awoke the others.  On the table sat a Griffin Bow, the mightiest bow that had been seen by any of them.  It was not known how it got there, but it was undoubtedly there now.  Korwin cautiously picked up the bow and drew back the string.  When it was at it's maximum extension, he released the string with a "twigg" sound.  The bow fell to the ground with a clatter and Korwin stared at it, for it continued to vibrate even though the force that was applied had been long used up.  The company sat there and observed the strange phenomenon as it continued.  Then suddenly Korwin looked at the roof.

"This is a mere distraction to us!" he shouted angrily as he realized that the attack had begun and he had been fooled.  "Grab your swords and follow me!"

They ventured out into the cold night and hurried to the source of a sudden trumpet call.  The sky in this are was a dark brimstone colour, and the very heart of it was deep crimson red.  Lightning flashed across the sky as wicked calls were heard.  Many of the town's guards had already been slain and lay motionless in the streets.  Past the library they saw the enemy.  There appeared to be four of these apparitions that had been spotted before.  As another lightning bolt flashed, the ring was illuminated on the finger of the one who was directly in the middle.

"Ssso you wissssh to challenge ussss?  Very foolisssh decisssion.  We sssshall victor over you and and thissss town sssshall belong to ussss." came a voice from the general vicinity of the shade.

Korwin held his sword up high and a golden light flowed through it.  "In the name of Illarion, bless this blade!" he shouted up into the night sky, and the lightning seemed to calm momentarily.  Then he put the sword back at his side and spoke to the shades.  

"You do not speak the truth.  Even if you defeat us, there are many others you must take before you can truly lay claim on this land.  If you faulter in the slightest, the reprecussions shall be catastrophic.  Do not underestimate humans, they are very resourceful.  Soon you shall soon learn the true prowess of Forest Rangers!"  

And with that Korwin pulled out his old composite bow and fired off four well aimed arrows into the foul beasts that carried the apparitions.  Lightning flashed across the sky towards the group and came unnervingly close to them.  But Korwin held his own even when the rest of the group grew weary.

Soon the two sides were involved in a full out sword battle, one on one.  Astral fought with the shade which wore the ring about it's finger.  Korwin fought with what seemed to be the co-leader of their pack, for it was adorned in more magnificent robes than the other two.  Once and a while Korwin paused to cast a paralyze spell on his opponent so he could get a clear shot at Astral's arch enemy.  

The battle continued for long, but the shades did not tire, but the four companions did.  It was just then that Korwin used his last magical energy to paralyze his opponent while he finished it off.  While the shade was stunned, he held the sword up to absorb the golden light, then thrust it angrily through the torso of the figure.  When Korwin withdrew his sword, the shade fell to the ground, and then the robes collapsed in on themselves as the essence of the ghost drained out into the evil sky.  The other three paused for a moment, but both sides were too stunned to take advantage of one-another.

Then they turned on each other again and resumed the battle.  The figures now seemed to fight with more determination, which made Korwin's side fight with a seemingly lack thereof.  Korwin blessed his blade once again and prepared to drive it through Roke's opponent since Roke was clearly tiring of the intense battle.  Again, the same thing repeated itself as Roke's shade fell to the ground.  The other two paused again, and so did Inioch and Astral to catch their breath.

When the battle resumed once again, both extreme determination and slight fear were apparent on the expressions of their enemies.  Then with the help of Korwin, Inioch defeated his enemy.  The last shade appeared very startled to notice that it was the last one left.  It was pressed up against the wall of the library by the four companions.  Astral then drew his freshly polished wand and pointed it at the shade.

"ra-ke-qwan" he formed with his lips, and their was an intense scream as the spirit broke alive in flame.  It danced in fury for a few seconds, then fell to the ground in a pile of ashes.  Then Astral saw the ring surface and catching an astray light ray, it glimmered once again.  Astral picked up the ring and put it on his finger.  The four party members sheathed their swords and began the walk back to their houses.  Astral was once again staying with Korwin until his house was rebuilt.

Inioch and Roke departed to their seperate houses leaving only Korwin and Astral in the night.  They were both evidently extremely tired, so they spoke rarely.  Into the house they descended, and the griffin bow lay now still on the floor.  Korwin set his other bow down beside it and continued off to bed.  Astral stared for a second at the two bows, as if he noticed something strikingly interesting but could not quite remember it.  'oh well' he thought as he walked to the bed.

"As long as I can get some sleep" he said aloud, the ring once again about his finger.



(Edited by Astral at 12:51 pm on April 1, 2002)

Whatever either of you do, please do not pull that Griffin bow string again. Ohh, and whoever sent those enemies to destroy you should have sent more experienced fighters, they apparently didn't know who they were dealing with.

wow i didn't know i was that good a sword fighter...

#me is interested in where this battle is taking place..............

Chapter Two:

So the war ended.  Or so they thought.

It took a few more uneventful weeks until Astral's house was rebuilt, but it was worth the wait.  The new house was about double the size of the previous one, and the furnishings were superb.  Astral moved back into his house, and all was peaceful and happy.

On his bookshelf sat many expensive and advanced magic books, for he had accumulated these over time.  Even with so many there already, there were still many to learn.  He was currently working on a new book entitled Hept, the rune of Ice.

"Hept Kel!" he spoke, trying to keep it silent, but in his anger it came out in a yell which echoed through the forest.  He stood alone in a clearing far from the town of Illarion.

"Hept Kel!" he tried again, this time even louder.  He swung his wand and tossed it to the ground in a rage.  Just then something caught his attention.  A small creature flying overhead made a high pitched screech.  Astral looked up just in time to see a bird-like figure gliding overhead.  But this was no ordinary bird, as he soon noticed, it had a tail!

Astral sat dazed for a few seconds after the creature had left his view.  He wondered what this creature could be, for he had never seen one before.

"A Dragon!" he shouted, accidentally stepping on the wand that Korwin had given him.  But in all the excitement he didn't notice.  Then he heard the creature coming towards him again and quickly tossed part of his packed lunch on the ground hoping to draw the creature to it.

And it worked.  Sensing the smell of the meat, the creature suddenly swooped down and landed near it.  It moved hastily towards the meal.  But then it spotted Astral and stopped dead in its tracks.  It just stared at him, and he stared back.  This standoff lasted for a few seconds.

Then somehow sensing Astral's intentions, the creature began to move again, although very cautiously.  When it got to the meat, it poked at it with it's nose a bit before it took a small bite.  Then another bite until the meat was reduced to nothing but bones.  Then the creature looked at Astral with a sense of trust and began to waddle towards him clumsily.

Astral was very startled by this, and he was unsure on whether to run or stay put.  But this was decided for him.  He turned to run but found out quickly that his foot had snagged on a tree root.  The root was unforgiving and would not release his foot, so he had no choice but to meet the creature.  He did not want to frighten it, for if it was a dragon it would most likely become hostile.

The creature stopped a short distance from Astral and stared at him.  It then turned it's head to the ground and looked directly at the tree root which had untangled Astral's foot.  It's head pulled back slightly, it blinked, and then a green flame shot out of it's mouth like lightning.  Startled, Astral tried to move quickly away from the creature, but could not get far.  The flame hit the base of the root and it instantly shriveled up, becoming easy for Astral to tear apart.

"Thank you!"  He said softly to the creature.  It produced a small noise and moved it's head.  Astral took out some more food from his pack and layed it on the ground for the creature.  It took the food and ate it quickly.

Then the creature turned it's head to the sky and made another sound.  Then it spread its wings and prepared to fly.  Just before it took off, it turned to Astral and gave him a look of content.  Then with one mighty movement of it's wings, the creature was once again sailing through the air.

Still amazed by the experience, Astral sat in thought for a short time.  Then he got up and retrieved the broken wand from the ground where he stepped on it.  It  was snapped in two pieces and most of the carefully constructed points were snapped off and lost in the grass.

He carried the pieces back to town and quickly deposited them inside his newly built house.  Then he was off to the library to reasearch this creature that he had met -- or that had met him...

I want in on this war! where is it taking place tell me sir please!:Confused: angry: