The Trappings of War: Volume V

[UnOrthOdOx]

The Trappings of War: Volume V
An UnOrthOdOx view of the Glory of War.

(Computer trouble has forced me to my old computer, away from the helpful 'word' program. Ill be back to proof it later and fix the many likely mistakes. Sorry for the inconvenience)

It was only after several days of long needed rest, that I began preperations for my trip to visit the lands of Legoland. Looking back, it is these times of quiet that I remember most fondly, with both my children to play with, and my wife looking radiant in her new Silk dress.
Hot Enamel, in the mean time, had taken up a thurough study of our dragon. After overcoming his initial shock at the sight of the beast, he had taken up to heading out each and every day, making detailed drawings and diagrams of our dragon. He was fascinated with both the beauty of the beast, and with the challenge of the hunt. Master Zen had even made a breif visit, coming to witness for himself the power of Hot Enamel's new Ballista. Together, we put it through a rigid set of tests for both power and range in order to ascertain the optimal distance we would need to be to our beast to fire this thing. While Master Zen held an intense interest for the hunt, his regular duties soon took him back to the main land. Hot Enamel was also called away after a few days to oversee The Hill, the city in his charge.

It was an unusually cold morning when I finally set out for Legoland. I had set out only after sending ahead an envoy both to inform Legoland of my arrival and to seek out Aro, our most renowned sailor, and a brilliant map maker. Aro had been sailing around legoland for some time now, and knew them, perhaps better than anyone else within Glory of War. Perhaps he could help me to pursuade them to give up some of their unique building materials, and hopefully he would return with me to captain the ship upon our quest to hunt the Dragon. My days with Master Zen had taught me that the Legoland people were a peacefull race, wishing to be left alone to build to their hearts content. However, their isolation had also made their island a hot bed of barbarian activity. We knew little of these barbarians, or really, of the lego people beyond this, though.

Packing the boat light in order to return a full shipment of supplies allowed us to travel with remarkable speed sout to the land of Lego. It was a pleasant voyage ,adn I was beginning to see the allure that Aro must feel as he travels the world mapping out new and exciting locations. The shores of Legoland offered some of the most spactacular cliffs, and we had to sail for some time before finding a safe shore to land on.

Packing as light as we were to keep room open for the cargo I hoped to return with, I was the only one disembarking. I took a small wagon and my new toy, the ballista just in case something came up my flail would not handle, though. Barely were these off the cart, though, than did I hear the distant sound of thundering hooves. I bid the boat to quickly set sail, not wishing it to be caught beached should this be the infamous barbarians we had heard so much about. One sight of the source of the noise had me full of wonder. These 'men' were all golden-brown, both in their armor and their skin. Strange horns adorned their helmets, and their horses also made an odd jerking movement. Everything seemed too square about them. I had heard tells these lego men appeared odd, so immediately called out to these men, convinced I had met the lego peoples. A warcry immediately splitting the air told me I was wrong. Taking careful aim with the ballista, I let loose what I knew would be the only shot I got. To my shock and horror, though, the bolt shattered right through at least 3 of these horsemen. SHATTERED. What were these things? They neither moved nor bled like normal men. The distance now closing between us, I brought about my flail, determined to take as many with me as possible. My first swing caught the leader of the charge squarely in his chest...and threw me completely off balance. It passed right through, shattering him as if it had hit only air. Expecting, as I was, an impact with a solid being, I was caught off guard by the follow through and was struggling to regain some sense of balance. Launching into a roll to avoid a spear thrust from the next rider, I heard in the distance a sound of a horn. This must be a bigger party than I thought I told myself, now on my feet. With the chaos of horse and 'men' that were all around me, I launched myself at the nearest horse I saw, taking the rider with me to the ground, and whipping a dagger from my belt. Suddenly, though, I noticed this man looked quite different, wearing colored clothing and with the most remarkably shiny yellow skin. I was in the process of bringing down my dagger when a mighty blow struck me in back of my head. I was vaguely aware of a mounted warrior barking out orders and pointing at me when all went dark.

Next thing I knew, I was draped across the back of a horse, and being brought into a mighty city, judging from the croud gathering to see this procession. Far behind us, I could see my wagon being pulled along as well, and I hoped that everything was still in working order. Hot Enamel would not be pleased if I had broken the original and had to ask for a completely new one from scratch. I also realized I had much more pressing matters to concern myself with at the moment. My hands had been encased somehow in a mighty block of some kind. One that was remarkably light, my feet were similarly encased from what I could tell in my current position. Suddenly, though, we came to a stop, and the soldiers began dismounting. I was hauled off my own mount, and they made a move to drag me into a courtyard when I stopped them, grunting "I can walk, damn it! At least give me that dignity."

An unusually tall man came to stand directly before me, staring me right in the eyes. As we exchanged that stare, as much a challenge as anything else, I could tell this was a hardened individual, and obviously the Captain of this band. He merely nodded at the soldiers to my sides, and instantly my feet were free of their block. Try as I might, however, I could not reproduce with my hands what they made look so easy with my feet. The courtyard was obviously a gathering place of some import to these people with a large column raising abouve the grounds, obviously meant for some ruling body to assemble and oversee events that took place below. A trumpet sounded loudly, and the men all around me began to kneel, obviously awaiting their ruler.

The Captain shoved me in the back, barking out "Kneel, prisoner."

With all my strength, I swung around and drove the block my hands were attached to, catching him directly on the side of his head. To my amazement, though, he did not shatter as those I was fighting ealier. Apparantly, these men were made of something stronger. While I was recovering from this initial shock, however, he had sprung back to his feet and had a sword out and in full swing towards my torso. I was able to divert it from a fatal blow with my block, marvelling at the strength of the thing once again, as it turned away the sword with ease, but the sword caught me across the shoulder, and I felt that arm going weak. With a second swing headed at my head, however, I was able to catch his hands right below the wrist and knock the sword from his hand, swinging him around with the force of the impact. Unfortunately, a fellow soldier threw him a spear, and we began circling, sizing up one another as the soldiers were chearing thier captain on.

"ZargonX Stand DOWN!!!" Boomed a voice above me.

ZargonX, as apparantly his name was, paused and looked. Following his gaze, though, he looked not at the source of the voice, but off to the side, to a figure in the background. It was only upon a nod from this figure that he lowered his sword and straightened to sheath it. Relaxing my own guard, I was suddenly aware that this block was growing suddenly heavy, and I gazed up at both the voice, and the mysterious figure to whom Zargon was apparantly waiting for confirmation from. Wondering what all this meant, I began to feel suddenly sick. Falling to my knees, I straightened my back and called out with my remaining strength "Peaceful builders, my ass!" Just before everything went black.