An Ashlanders Tale Chapter 3 Options

[jonajosa]

Some of you may have read my first two chapter in this little adventure and enjoyed it. Well i've got alittle twist for yall. Let me introduce to you another charcter that is very important to this story. Her name is Johannes.


Chapter 3

[size=18]Johannes's Story

Here we come to a part in this adventure when another character’s plot begins to unfold. This character’s name is Johannes. She is a young female nord who grew up in the new settlement of Dagon Fel. So far her life has been completely unscathed by the war that was going on right outside her small village. However, as we all know nobody can escape war when it is already at your own doorstep. Let us begin Johannes’s story.


“Father.” Johannes asked when she saw her family rushing past them in the streets of Dagon Fel.

“Father!” He turned to look to see who was calling. When he saw Johannes his face lit up and he hurried towards her.

“Hurry daughter. A army is marching this way and I fear they have death and destruction on their minds.”

“What army? Who would want to attack our village?”

All I know is I saw a large group of soldiers coming this way and that I need to get my family out of here before the reach us.” He said in a very urgent tone.

I stared at him in disbelief but his face should too much worry and strain for him to be lying. “Ok. I must get home to gather my stuff.” I started to walk off but he grabbed my arm.

“No there isn’t enough time for that. They will be upon us at any moment we must hurry.”

I nodded and began to follow him through the village. Several people stopped to watch us in our hurry to leave but nobody looked too suspicious of us. I wondered why my father was not telling the others about this approaching army. Thy must know about them. My father would not condemn them all… would he?

[jonajosa]

I looked at Galos and saw his hand caressing the hilt of his sword. This man is just waiting to kill something isn’t he? I wondered to myself. Subconsciously I took a small step away from him and directed my attention to a more threatening problem. There were easily a thousand ships rowing towards the beach with mad half naked men screaming at us from the decks. The sight was enough to make even the bravest man shiver with fear. Some of the “less brave” men slowly started to step backwards away from their posts when they saw their enemy. As the boats got close those slow steps turned into a frantic run towards the city behind us and soon easily a fourth of the force was I flight.

“Galos! Look, your men are running!” I shouted while pointing at the running men. Galos turned around and drew his sword and began running after the men that were fleeing.

“Stop you cowards! Either you die by my hand or you die by the enemy’s! For I will hunt you down when this battle is over with and kill all of you!” Most of the fleeing men stopped dead in their tracks and turned back to their commander bowing and asking to be forgiven. More loyal soldiers ran up behind Galos and began herding the deserters back to the lines. Some went willingly and some had to be pushed back to their positions. It was not a very encouraging sight for the others that were to fight this day. I only hope that didn’t affect their moral that much…

When the men were back in their positions the order to draw weapons was given. The Nord ships were almost at the coast and I knew the time for battle had begun. When the ships were almost within bow range the orders for archers began.



* * *
“Lay your arrows,” the Fletcher commanded. Quickly and expertly the ranks of archers took out one arrow each and laid it across their bows. The Fletcher stood and watched the coming wave of ships and when he saw they were within range he gave the next order, “Draw!” The Fletcher shouted, taking his won advice and pulling back his own arrow. They held onto the arrows for a little while longer while the Fletcher guessed the range.

“Two hundred and fifty yards men!” He shouted again. “Put them there!” Again putting his words into action he loosed his arrow and watched it arc across the dark gray sky towards the ships. He lost sight of it as it blended into he mass cloud that swarmed out to fall upon the waiting Nords.

“Loose!” He shouted, and the second volley of arrows sped away with the sound of huge whirling whistles. Standing on his tiptoes the Fletcher could see the impact on the nord army. The sound of screaming from the wounded and dying nords could be heard from the shore as it echoed across the beach.

“One hundred and fifty yards men! Loose!” More arrows lifted into to the air and impacted into the ships with a satisfying result. More screams came to our ears and some of the archers cheered. But the Fletcher didn’t have enough time to order another volley because the ships were already too close to shore.

“Draw swords!” He shouted and watched as half the archers dropped their bows and pulled out their iron long swords, “Form up!” They fell into line and waited the next command.



* * *
“Sir!” A nord sailor said when as he came to a stop in front of the nord invasion commander, “The landings have begun on the eastern and northern beaches. There is some resistance but it poses to threat.”

“Never under estimate your enemy Captain. Just to be sure that this… resistance wont be too much a problem I’m sending the second and third waves to follow you up on the beach as soon as your entire first wave lands. That should make the invasion much easier.” The commander turned to an aid with a grin on his face, “Tell the other captains to begin their attack.” The aid nodded and ran up to the front of the ship were he could send flag signals.

“This island and its defenders will be crushed into dust. Soon we will have control of all the Zafirbel bay will be ours.” He laughed and returned his attention to watching the battle.



* * *
“Fire!” The Fletcher shouted and the second half of his archers fired into the mass of nords running up the beach. The impact was devastating to the nord army as the first two rows of pikemen fell to the volley. “Charge!” Fletcher yelled and led the run down the beach into the nords. The nord axes weren’t devised to be defensive weapons so when the Chimer army collided with the nord army they were able to quickly cut through several rows of swordsmen and pikemen in just a few seconds.

However once the Chimer lost their speed from the charge and began fighting close quarters with the nords many fell to the nords favorite weapon. More men rushed up behind the already fighting chimer and helped push the nords back their boats. All seemed fine and victory was certain when all of a sudden dozens of more nord ships landed on the beach and hundreds of nords came spilling out of the sides.

The Fletcher saw no other choice but to fall back and regroup at the hill to the west. “Fall back! Fall back.” He looked around and saw many of his men running towards the hill behind him. He was about to run after them when a axe slammed down into his back and killed him instantly.