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?

[minque]

I just got this update from jonajosa so enjoy!



Last part to chapter 3

Johannes had finally caught up with the rest of her unit at the beach after running for what seemed like days. She looked around her and saw hundreds of refugees but only a handful of soldiers. But where were Marit and his troops? Certainly he couldn’t have died… Could he have? No! Johannes thought. She wouldn’t allow herself to think such thoughts. He was alive she could feel it. A horn sounded through the bay and everyone looked out to sea. The boats had finally arrived.
Everybody started to walk closer to the beach and try to get a place on one of the boats. But Johannes was reluctant to join the others in their move. She stood there staring out into the woods waiting for any sign of Marits arrival. The archer that she had shared a building with at the village saw her standing alone and decided to approach her.

“Why aren’t you trying to get a place on the boats?” She asked.

“Im waiting for someone.” Johannes answered without looking back. She felt that if she stopped watching the trees she would miss the chance to see Marit or any of his unit. The woman looked at her and guessed that Johannes was in shock of losing someone. But before she could go get one of the soldiers to assist her with Johannes a cry of terror swept across the bay. Everyone looked towards the hill where the scream came from and saw a woman running at them waving her arms.

“Their coming! They’re coming to kill us all!” Several people just shook their heads in disbelief and began walking towards the boats but many stayed and watched the woman run from person trying to convince them to run with her. Finally after being turned down by dozens of people the woman rushed out of the crowd and ran over the ridge still shouting.

Johannes watched the hill from where the woman came from and saw to sign of any nords following her so she returned her attention to the forest. She was still scanning the woods when something caught her eye on the ground. The pebbles that lay along the beach were shaking. Sensing that that could only mean something bad was coming this way she began to prepare herself for battle. Seconds later a loud roar came over her and the refugees. They all looked up instinctively towards the hill that the crazy woman came from and saw a dust cloud
slowly coming over the ridge. Johannes picked out the glints of armor from the cloud and began to warn other around her.

“They’re here!” She shouted while pulling out her sword. People around her started shoving their way towards the boats but a few drew their own weapons and formed a ragged line around her. A quick glance around told her it wasn’t just refugees getting ready to fight. Small surviving groups of soldiers were starting form up also. Johannes saw a few from her own group and walked towards them. She saw the woman she shared the tower with and went to her.

“Are you ready for another battle? You looked like you were in shock a minute ago.” The woman asked when she saw Johannes approach. She had her bow drawn and an arrow ready to be fired.

“Im fine.” Johannes responded. The woman chuckled and turned back to the hill that was now swarming with nords.

The nord front lines were composed of some of their finest soldiers. Blood swords, large men who carried huge two handed claymores and felt no fear on the line of battle. Behind them was the pikemen, their job was to hold the battle line after the blood swords cut deep into the enemy lines. And in the back of the force were the axemen. They were the counter force used when the pikemen started to lose control of the line.

The refugee force was composed of several knights, a dozen bowmen, two dozen swordsmen and about a hundred lightly armed civilians. There was no hope for them and they all knew it. But it seemed like a good day to die to them and they didn’t care if they took a few nords with them.

The nord mass picked up speed as the drew closer to the rag-tag force. When they did collide the result from the fast paced charge was devastating. Three dozen civilians and soldiers died within seconds. Almost a quarter of the force was down and the battle barely even started.

Johannes swung back and forth not bothering to stop to try and block any blows at her. She pressed her attack so ruthlessly that the enemy didn’t have the chance to even take a swing. She had killed several swordsmen before she ran into the pikemen. They poked their lances at her and she was forced to weave back and forth to avoid being stabbed. After a few tries at charging them she found that she couldn’t break through the pikes. So she looked to her sides for more swordsmen but instead she found herself in the path of a raging blood sword. The crazed nord ran at her and swung his massive weapon at her head. But Johannes ducked and drove her sword up through the nords stomach. He reeled back and slammed his fist into her head sending her flying backwards into the dirt.

As she tried to fight away the dizziness she found that her weapon was still in the nord. She looked at him in time to see him rip it out of his body and use it as another weapon to cut down the men around him. Johannes quickly searched the ground around her for something to use against this beast. There! A few feet away was a pike. She grabbed it and jumped to her feet. Fighting away the dizziness she started clumsily stabbing away with the pike. Johannes had never used a pike before and that combined with the fact that there was no room for maneuvering the weapon around her made it extremely hard to use effectively. The blood sword saw that she was untrained in the pike skill and used that to his advantage. He shoved her pike to the side and slammed into her knocking he to the ground again. Johannes rolled to the side to avoid his downward thrust and kicked him in the groin. She smiled and asked herself why she hadn’t used that tactic before. The nord fell to his knees and dropped Johannes’s sword. She picked it up and swung at his head cutting it from his shoulders.

Despite the overwhelming numbers the nord army had the determined refugees were able to hold their own against countless attacks from the nords. Slowly the refugees fell back into a tight circle and began a new more ruthless defense. Most of the civilians were dead now and a little more than a dozen soldiers stood and fought. The fight had been lasting for about and hour now and the situation was worsening by the minute. Despite the bravery of the chimer soldiers the sheer numbers of nords began surrounding small pockets of chimer and cutting them to pieces. Johannes was in one of these pockets.

She was with the woman she shared the tower with and a knight. They had their backs to each other and were trying to fight out of the circle of nords they were in.

“We have to get out of here!” The knight said from behind her. His voice showed he was in pain and anguish. He had been stabbed in the shoulder at the beginning of the fight and he had lost a substantial amount of blood. It wouldn’t be long before he fell and Johannes knew it. Something had to be done now or else they would all die.

“We should all attack the area at the same time and try to break through. That might work.” She looked around her and saw a part of the line where the nords weren’t packed together and decided that’s where they would go. “On three follow me!” The other shouted their readiness and got ready to charge.

“One… two… THREE!” They all ran at the supprised nords and cut them down before they could react to the sudden counter attack. Johannes slashed left and right and was out of the circle before the others. She looked behind her and saw the knight fall underneath a slashing mass of swords. The woman was right with her running as fast she could. Their aim was the woods ahead of them. It was there they could have a chance of getting away from the battle. As they ran forward they saw movement in the trees. It looked at first just to be some wild animals but after a few more sighting Johannes saw it was a large group of swordsmen running through the woods towards them.

“Get down!” The woman shouted and pulled Johannes to the ground beside her. The mass of swordsmen ran past them and towards the nord army. Johannes forced herself to glance up at the passing soldiers and saw them carrying shields with the symbol of the chimer army upon them.

“Look!” She said jumping up, “The chimer army has to come to help us.” The woman got up beside her and stood there watching the men rush past them. One of the soldiers stopped beside them and seeing their small cuts and bruises guessed they were part of the small group of people fighting the nords. Johannes took the short moment of silence to talk to the soldier.

“Where is your commander? I need to speak with him.” The soldier pointed towards the east where a group of men on horse back were trotting back and forth. “Thanks you” Johannes said and dragging the woman with her ran off towards the men.

As she approached she saw one of the men on horse back was Marit. He had a bandage stained with blood over his chest and was apparently trying to coordinate his troops with the other commanders. Johannes approached him and coughed loudly. Marit turned around with a “what is it now” face and was about to start yelling when he recognized Johannes. His face grew happy and he tried to speak but his mouth moved wordlessly.

“You have no idea how long I’ve been looking for you…” Johannes said after a while. She then grew angry suddenly, “And now that I have finally found you I can’t spend time with you because I need some medical help. Me and my friend here…” Johannes gestured at her companion and looked to her for a name.

“Namea. My name is Namea.”

“Yes. Namea and I need medical attention. We have been fighting down there in the bay with the other refugees and it seems we got ourselves a little cut up.”

Marit still looked at her unable to speak but he managed to point across the field to a group of healers by a tent.

“Thank you Marit.” Johannes answered smiling. She turned away and began walking away to the healers when Marit rode up to her. “Yes?”

“Get on.” He said firmly. Johannes was about to protest when she realized he must be giving her a ride to the healers so she wouldn’t have to walk. She looked beside her and saw Namea on another horse. Marit turned the horse away from the healers and towards a small beach away from the battle field.

“Where are you taking me? I need a healer!” Johannes shouted angrily but Marit did not respond. He just sped the horse up and they began galloping towards the beach now. Johannes could see a few small ships still beached and realized what was happening. “Im not leaving you again!” She shouted and began trying to get off the horse. Marit gripped her roughly and finally spoke up.

“You must go Johannes. Sadrith Mora is in ruins and this is no place for a commoner like you. You will only die if you stay here. You will get on this boat and get medical help aboard. The battle is almost over now so I will catch up with you later.”

“I must stay! My place is here with you. I am tired of leaving you behind!”

“You will get on the boat and leave.” He signaled for the guards to come and get Johannes and get her aboard one of the ships. “You will go to Vivec on this boat and from there you will travel to Molag Mar. I will come for you there when this is over.”

“Why Molag Mar? Is it safer there?”

“Not really… but Galos has ordered me to send you to officer school. Your actions in the valley and here in the bay have shown him that you would make a good addition to the army. Now go. I promise this will be the last time we part like this.”

Johannes tried to continue arguing with him but the guards grabbed her and dragged her onto one of the boats. When she kept trying to get off the ship they tied her to the mast and left her. Johannes sat there watching the battle which she knew Marit was now in the middle of. Both sides had added more men to the fight and now the battle had spread across the entire beach. Arrows flew back and forth, soldiers charged at each other and cavalry trampled chimer and nords beneath them. The dead lay everywhere on shore and the stench of blood and dust in the air was enough to make someone gag. At that moment Johannes knew that this war with the nords was far from being over. The boat pushed off into the ocean leaving the condemned island to its fate.


End Chapter 3