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]

Marit stood the ridge that overlooked the valley that Johannes had just left. Anger swarmed through his veins as he saw the nord soldiers overrun the remaining archers below. Now was the time to take care of these brutes once and for all. His hand rose into the air and fell back beside him in a slow motion. Unseen by the enemy four catapults loaded with flaming cargo fired up into the air towards the valley. Marit watched the soldiers below him scramble about looking for cover as the flaming missiles arched over him and land in the valley setting everything ablaze.

“Give the order to fire at will.” Marit told his subordinate after the dust cleared below him. Even though entire front column of soldiers was destroyed by the sudden strike more nords from the back of the force quickly filled in the valley and continued to push forward through the rubble. Again the catapults fired and killed more nords. But it seemed for every nord they killed dozens took his place. Marit looked down the valley towards the enemy and saw to end to the force he was trying to stop. It was evident that he could not do this by himself. Therefore he made the only decision he could at the moment.

“Tell the catapults to continue firing into the valley until they run out of supplies or in danger of being overrun. It’s time for us to leave this place. We’ll fall back to…” He took out his map and examined it. “this forest. From there we can wait for the rest of the refugees and transport them to the mainland.”

“But sir, that would mean leaving the battle. We couldn’t possibly-“ He stopped when Marit raised his hand.

“I have orders from Galos that if we couldn’t hold this valley, which has just became evident to me that we can’t, that we should fall back to this bay and help escort the remaining townsfolk there off the island.” He stopped and sighed. Secretly he hoped deep inside that Johannes was there amongst the refugees. “Believe me I don’t like it either and I did all I could to get Galos to change his mind but…”

“I understand. I’ll give the order then.” The man walked off and began talking to the other captains. Marit turned and looked back down into the valley and a tear came to his eye. His country was being destroyed and there was nothing he could do about it. At the moment…


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“Don’t look back. Don’t look back.” Johannes told herself over and over as she ran behind the group of archers in front of her. They had just barely escaped from the nords in the village behind them and now they were being chased by nords on horseback. She could hear the hoof beats behind her as she turned and twisted through the trees around her. She would be able to avoid them until they came to another open area. Then they would speed up, catch her and possibly kill her.

She heard a scream of pain behind her and instinctively looked back. She saw a horse finish trampling a soldier behind her and keep coming. But the thing that really made her start to run faster was what was behind the horsemen. As far as the eye could see was soldiers. The sound of drums and marching cadence echoed down the valley made the very rocks under her feet tremble. Horns blasted, explosions sounded yells and screams carried through the air. These were the sounds of war. Hopefully she could get out of this valley before it became a resting place for her. So… she ran faster.