Keri should have been a noblewoman. She looked very beautiful on her chestnut-brown horse, Tragar, as she bumped in the saddle. It was the kind of beauty that was natural; commanding in appearance. Her supple leather riding clothes shone attractively in the early morning glow of the forest light. Her dark tan revealed a woman that knew how to make the best of her already fine looks. Today, though, was a traveling day. As such, she kept her long blonde hair rolled up under her riding cap, in order to disguise her femininity. "Can't be too careful, not with brigands on the road!," she thought to herself. Her blue eyes looked sharply ahead -- almost piercing the trees.
In contrast to her beauty however, her pretty face didn't look very happy. In fact, she had the grim look of one with a troubled mind -- with places to go and maybe a few old scores to settle. "My friend and step father, Kalar, is gone to the world beyond..." she reminded herself. "If only he were here to travel with me. There is nothing left for me now at the old cabin. And this new assignment in the Upper Vivar Valley doesn't appeal to me! Who needs desolate mountain pine ranges when you can have the rolling woods! Ah, `work your way up' they said. They probably put me way out here because I'm a girl! Still, a job for Toridar is for Toridar none the less!..."
She rode on for twenty kai that way. The sunlight filtered brightly down through the tree boughs. The light gave her a warm feeling, and finally: a small smile appeared on her face. She found the North Shore Vivar Road and turned immediately to head West on it...
After a few minutes she noticed that the road seemed to be very heavily traveled. "There are many wagon tracks today..." she thought to herself. She would have thought further about this, but the pleasant and cool ride soothed her. The road wearied both her and Tragar...
They were in front of her in a flash: "Hold!!!," cried the two spear wielders as they crossed their spears to prevent her passage. Something caused her to stop without drawing her sword. That something was a feeling very much like the one she had when Kalar was near -- almost friendship. The spearmen were dressed in the emerald green of elves -- yet they were not elves, and they had a funny accent. They grinned when they saw that she was a girl.
"We mean no harm, Miss!," said the tall one on the right, "But you've ridden right up to our camp!" Suddenly, a deep voice spoke from behind the trees to the right.
"Hold, Artan! Speak no more!" Out stepped a huge man dressed in the same clothes as the other two, but he had a mail shirt and wore a silver handed sword. The dark brown eyes of the man scrutinized her appearance, until he noticed the gold arrow pin on her left cloak flap.
Then he had a happy look on his face. "Ah!," he said proudly, "You are a Toridar Forester. Welcome, Miss. I am called Eytawe, and I am the Sergeant of these two vagabonds."
"Greetings!" replied Keri cheerfully, "I am called Keri."
"Very Good!" said Eytawe politely. Then he turned to his two soldiers and said: "Let her pass if she wants to, Boys. I dare say it's a good thing that you followed orders. This Lady Forester probably could have knocked both of you with one arm tied behind her back."
They withdrew their spears. "Ah, c'mon Eyt', we're not in that bad a shape, now are we?" laughed the one on the left.
Then Eytawe turned his gaze back upon her and said gently: "Do you know where you are headed, Miss?"
"Yes," she replied calmly, "I'm on assignment to the Pine Forest of Arbor."
Eyt looked grave. "I'm sorry, Miss, but everything West of here and even 100 Kai East has been evacuated. The Toridar Patrol has been very busy."
"Then you are Patrolmen!" she said proudly. "I didn't know they came so handsome." she thought to herself.
However, Eyt fumbled around for an answer: "Ah, well ah, not exactly." When she heard this, she felt fear. Slowly, she caused her hand to slip down to her sword hilt. Tragar felt her tense too. Eytawe couldn't help but notice. His eyebrows raised, but he was other wise unperturbed: "Easy there, Miss. We are on the side of light, just as you are." The right spearman said "No Eyt! We can't tell her!" Things looked serious.
An elf stepped out from the left side of the path. He was tall and strongly built. His short blonde hair appeared almost to shine on his head. He took charge immediately: "You have no choice now, Sergeant." Keri tensed even more. Eyt turned toward him.
"Sir, couldn't we just ask her to go back to the East?"
"There is another choice." said the Elf firmly. "This is a Forester known to us: Keri Delsheen trained by the one called Kalar the Ranger."
Keri was shocked: "How did you know that?"
The Elf looked professionally at her and answered "The Western Tribe of Maple Elves lives near your cabin and they know you. Their leader Woodwise was Kalar's closest friend -- and my Uncle."
Keri could not speak, but she relaxed. Eytawe looked perplexed. "You said that there is another way, Sir???"
"Yes, Eyt." replied the Elf matter of factually as he turned to go back into the woods. "Ask her to join us." Then he just stepped behind some branches and was gone.
After their leader left, Eytawe (or Eyt for short) relaxed, smiled and looked at Keri happily. "You must have no where else to go, Miss Keri."
"That is probably true, one called Eytawe." said Keri.
"Vilef sure trusts you though." he appended. Eyt walked up to her with his big right hand outstretched. She shook his hand. "That is an honor, coming from an elf." she said with a slight smile. Keri's curiosity was awakened. "Well boys, I guess we better tell her what's going on..."
While Artan led her horse into the encampment, she looked around at the sights. Many green clad men and women were busy putting up tarps and feeding their effereet. "Effereet!" she thought to herself, "I had heard of bird beasts that can fly, but this is amazing: there must be two hundred!" All of the soldier group had huge muscles and had the ruddy tans of outdoorsmen. Each carried a spear, bow and sword. They looked happy and confident, almost as if a heavy burden had been lifted off of their shoulders...
Artan was still explaining to her who this group was and what they were doing: "You mean you all come from across the Azure?"
"Yes, Miss." answered Artan.
"And the Elves brought you out of Baldor?"
"Yes, Miss. We were all slaves at one time. They rescued, trained, and armed us." said Artan.
"Things must be terribly amiss in the Baldor Hold, Artan. You mean the Toridar Council doesn't know about all this???"
"They'll know very soon. We know that an important Patrolmen will speak at an emergency session of the Council. You'll have to ask Vilef for the rest of the details." stated Artan. "And you're here to join up with?..."
"A great Captain and Freeman. They call him Rollvag. We call him Stormwielder."
"Who is he?" asked Keri.
"A man from Vasquenta, such as we."
"Well then, why do you want me to join you?"
"I suspect that you have some abilities that Vilef believes will be useful." replied Artan.
"How did this...Stormwielder get to be a Captain?"
"The Baldor Barbarians, the Ard, sent a raiding party into Toridar which was met and stopped by Rollvag and his Patrol."
"The Ard entered Toridar!!!???" stated Keri in outrage.
"Yes, Miss. If it weren't for Rollvag, the whole town of Trader's Nest would have been destroyed." Keri pondered these words...
Eytawe and Vilef rode up on their effereet. Keri watched them approach. She noted that the effereet could serve as ground mounts as well as air ones. Their sturdy legs looked as if they could walk for a hundred kai. She made a mental note to ask more about them and how this group had come by so many.
Vilef spoke to her. "Greetings, Keri. You have probably been wondering many things. A decision is needed, though. We could use one who is of Toridar, knows this area, would fight with us, and who also speaks Toridarian. You could be our witness to the great deeds ahead. "What do you say?"
Before Keri could answer, a soldier ran into the camp. "We've found them! We've found them! Stormwielder is just crossing the stream at Mt. Arbor!!!..."
Q(1) What will your answer be to Vilef?
Q(2) What will you do now?
Back to Arveta 4 Table of Contents
Back to Arveta List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1999 by Abram Paradies.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com