The soul pebble wars

[blito3]

The Soul Pebble wars
sure some spelling mistakes and grammar....but the jist is there as well the intent.....enjoy..
had posted this on a gameing site i usually visit...been doing one or two chapters a week.
or when ever i felt like it. the story is just sort of heading off into its own direction as i think
of the plot line at work....LOL

THE Soul Pebbles Wars

chapter one....the witch

Hell was burning, as it should be.....but looking out upon the cliff, thinking to himself, Sloak thought "Hell is burning" over and over.
All could not be good when the war was going badly. the two armies had clashed for eternity, now one side, the other side was winning.
Sloak picked up his shield and staff. He marched down the path to the ongoing battle, his minions close behind.
there was no thought in these repeated battle, death, rebirth, then death again. How many times has he died Sloak thought, he had lost count.
but to the battle he went.
Sitting on a boulder as his troop rounded the corner of a rocky crag was an old shriveled witch, He raised his arm and his fellows halted.
"what do you do here, why dont you battle for your lord" said Sloak in a raise voice echoing off the cliff walls.
The witch just sat, lifted her head, lifted her hand. At the ready Sloak was wary, he sent a small group of minions to surround this witch and punish her
if she wouldnt answer the simple question.
"battle? you say..." her voice trailing off. "Answer the question, witch....you wear the colors of our master" raising his voice.
His minions surrounded the witch, weapons at the ready to smight the witch in case it was a trick.
"You have been lied to.....this battle is not a battle but a distraction. And i have grown tired of it".
She flicked a finger and one the soldiers went flying. the others backed away for a second.
In that second she clenched her fist and the rest of the surrounding soldiers collapsed stone dead. unmoving.
Sloaks stood his jaw agape, he had just lost 20 soldiers in a blink of an eye.
The rest of his horde waited, Sloak raise his staff and pointed it at the hag.
a dark purple light ran from his arm up the crystal atop the staff and shot towards the witch.
the witch just cackled and waved the beam of light away, it cast an aura around her.
"you are but a youngling, how many times have you died for you master?" she asked in rasping voice.
"I have stopped dying for a long time, my master can no longer trick my mind into a fight that doesnt bring victory" she when on.
"I fight for victory as we have been told to fight, he brings us everlasting life, and victory shall come against those that oppose"
waving his hand out to the battle field bellow where sounds of battle could be heard and seen.
"if you will not fight, let me pass, witch!" else i shall pass on your insolence and deaths caused by your spells.
"You have no power over me' the witch said as she stood up, stretching herself.
She moved with surprising speed, to face Sloak mear feet away, he flinched for a second at her speed.
"My looks are a mere illusion" she transformed into a very muscular woman, now wearing warrior garb.
"your looks are mear illusion" she waved her hand before Sloak could reply, his soldiers turned from grunting orks to human men.
He himself looked down at himself and saw tanned skin and hands where once clawed fingers had been.
"I now command your men, bind him" as she said that the now human soldiers grabbed and bound him.
"what have you done witch" Sloak bellowed.
"Trickery, this is what it is, bewitchment" he turned his head looking about him.
"you have been bewitched by this war, not me, I have seen out of the corner of my eye that which i had not seen before" the Witch replied with distain.
"once I had seen it, i persued it some more and soon found out i could see the truth" she cast her eyes around.
"Come!" she commanded. the soldiers under spell followed and dragged Sloak with them.
Back up the path they went as the battle grew dimmed in sight and mind.
They marched for what seemed like a day, without sleep. Sloak thought this through, he was not tired.
He was not hungry, he was not thirsty. Yet they marched through forests of the dark, the sky niether changed from day to night, it stayed overcast and the clouds cast a
red glow, with the occasional lighting.
He tried to ask the witch questions, but his mouth would not work. Sloak was thinking of what new magic could cause this.
Could this be why they were now losing the war?

by juha koivu

copyright 2010

 

[blito3]

Chapter 2

THE KEEP...


Sloak looked at the landscape. he noticed strange colors and what looke to be small trees growing from the ground.
He was used to barron rock and trees with brissle sprouting from them.
Placing he feet upon the strange growth, it was soft under his feet.
He marched with the others his hands bound, a rope around his neck.
up ahead he spotted the Keep, Two giants stood at the gate.
As they aproached the two giants knelt on one knee and greeted the witch.
"wellcome lady Trish, all is well" they said in a deep rumble and stood back up swivveling their huge
heads back and forth looking out from where the troop had come.
The witch, Lady Trish smiled at the giants and walked across a bridge.
where lava should be the moat was filled with water, "a waste of water" thought Sloak as he was
led into the Keep. the colors were new to him, they were too bright, happy. He squinted trying to adjust his eyes.
finally they halted, servants came running out greeting the witch.
"wellcome back Lady Trish, we shall take these and hold them for later" said an old man bowing and
leading the troops and Sloak to what looked to be holding pens for animals.
once inside, All strength seemed to leave Sloak, he felt tired, hungry.
"do not worry" the old man said, just sleep and you shall be fed when you wake.
He dreamed nitemares for the rest of the night, tossing and turning strange images had
entered his mind, he could not attack them or banish them, they came back again and again.
Sloak woke in a sweat, was he dreaming, looking at his hands he saw that he was indeed human.
Giants guarding a keep, the witch, the old man leading them to animal pens....his soldiers turned into humans.
the fence was not too high and could be climbed easily, his men slowly woke.
He aproached the fence and tried to climb it, he fell back as if pushed.
"do not even try" laughed the old man, he sat on a stool, pipe in hand blowing a cloud of smoke into the air
creating a pattern not natural."you are one of the lucky ones, what is your name?" asked the man" I am Nervis" he stood and
bowed.
"Sloak" he said wondering what and where he was, he waited.
"well, well captain. You are indeed lucky, not like those others" Nervis walked up to fence and leaned and pointed at the other
men in the pen with his pipe. "you have some freedom of thought and have the abilty to remember things, these only have
rudimentary memory" he said " sad, but little we can do" his head shaking as he said that.
Stepping back from the fence. "and if you will, this is what i was" Nervis lifted both hands and began to transform.
Sloak stepped back and looked up as a creature twice as tall as he, with horns appeared.
Nervis let out a battle scream, as if to challenge any who would fight.
"Thats enough!" came a voice from behind Nervis, as Nervis turned his head, his transformed himself back to an old man.
Lady Trish strode up shaking her head. Nervis smirked and suppressed a laugh.

 

[blito3]

CHAPTER 3

The Soul pebble.

"well captain Sloak, we have you use for you, these others have limited use" Lady trish noddin
towards the rest of his men.
"what have you done to me and my men?" Sloak asked in an unfamiluar voice,
instead of the deep booming voice he once had.
"if you will, Nervis. watch and you shall learn" patting Nervis on the back. Nervis went into the pen and picked one
the men. "hmmmm, i think this one will do fine" a docile man followed Nervis outside the fence.
The man didnt move as Nervis pulled out a Red dagger from his belt, a belt containing many hangin items,
Sloak had not noticed before.
"kneel." Nervis commanded, the man knelt. The dagger pressed against the mans head right behind one of
ears, The man didnt move or cry out as it slid under the skin, and moved deeper.
"damn" mumbled Nervis as he continued to probe for something. Sloak looked in facination, wondering why he
didnt respond to this as he would of. finally Nervis seemed satisfied, a smile on his face.
Out popped a black pebble, landing into an out held hand before it could fall on the ground.
The man grunted, blood flowing from the cut. He finally fell from what bonds had held
him and lay on the ground motionless.
Pebble in hand, Nervis Held it up and looked at it for a few seconds he tossed it to Lady Trish, who caught it and examined it herself.
"this is a Soul Pebble" she said as she held it up for Sloak to examine.
"that man will die, all that he was is trapped within this pebble, you have one too" she gestured at the man on the ground.
"but yours will be of a different color, much less intrusive to your thoughts and actions" she commented.
"Still you would die, never to return if it was removed" she continued.
Sloak felt behind his ear, searching, finding no sign of a pebble. "It is there, we all have one, most like this one" Lady Trish held the black
Pebble up again. "Other Pebbles of different colors giving the owner different ablilities and powers"
"If i believed you, what will you do with me and the others with me" Sloak looked at his men.
Before she could answer a horn sounded. Startled,Sloak looked around. Lady Trish and Nervis turned towards the sound.
A head of a giant peered over the Castle wall. "they come, prepare yourselves" The giant bellowed.
"come with us, you will find this interesting, it seems someone was searching for you" Lady Trish said and Sloak
now was able to exit the Pen. They all marched towards the wall.


CHAPTER 4

The Horde

Upon the wall of the Keep stood Sloak and others, more gathering to peer into the distant.
"where are they?" Lady Trish said, looking but not seeing anything yet.
One of the giants swung his arm pointing at a cloud of dust. "just on the horizon" the giant responded.
The other giant scratched himself, and looked, Squinting trying to see what his fellow giant saw.
Finally the dust could be seen, as it aproached, a lone dot apeared first. Far ahead of the
cloud of dust, a lone figure could be seen, running.
As the figure aproached the Keep, Sloak could make out its features. A single horn jutted from
its head, not centered but off to the side. Green skin and 8 feet tall with wings far too small
for a body of its size. It finally stopped just before the Keep, Stared, took a bow and a large
smile of teeth and tusks could be seen as it waved and hurried to the west of the fort.
"Idiot! he is bring them way to close to us" grunted nervis. Lady trish shook her head
as her eyes went skyward. More and more servants and wizards from the Keep were
now on the battlements, They let out a cheer as the Green creature started his run the west.
"RedBurn! StonRok!" yelled Lady Trish to the giants. "go to the line of enchantment, and deal with
any Stragglers" she continued. "Idiot indeed" thought Lady Trish. The Two giants, RedBurn and StonRok
headed to the line that defined the green and the red desert, leaving enough room so as not
to cross into the patch of desert. The Army aproached at full Gallop, chasing the lone figure who stopped
a short distance West of the Keep. the Green Creature found an aproppiate rock and sat on it.
Sloak could not firgure why the Creature would stop, and why the people in the Keep were not
Preparing to battle the horde advancing towards it. He looked at Lady Trish and the others
they seemed not to care, they all wore slight amusements upon their faces as if waiting to
be entertained. Finally the Horde advanced close enough to be seen, there were dragons with their riders fying above.
a few giants amongst them. simular green creatures like the one they were persuing, many soldiers of
verying sizes and build in armour and multitudes of skin color. Horns atop heads, weapons of verying types hung
from belts or were dragged along by mounts of grey elephantine, but much leaner and not adverse to
the heat. They stopped in front of the keep and wheeled to the west to face the lone figure sitting on a rock.

 

[blito3]

CHAPTER 5

The Battle

General HarmWick road upon his steed urging his troops forward, they were closing the gap between the Two forces. Up ahead he could see the other other Horde, roughly the same size as his own turn West. He gave orders to ready weapons if need be to his under leutenents, they hurried about the troops shouting at them to unlimber their weapons as the distant between the two hordes narrowed. the other army stopped and turned to face them. Generals Harmwicks troops wheeled West facing the foe, a horn blew and his army stopped. bellowing from each side grew as troops from each side strutted back and forth uttering challenges.
Eyeing his foe, The general looked to the north for a few minutes studying the desert. He looked at the keep, but could not see it. He turned his eye back to the enemy, they had captured a messenger troop and he wasnt going to allow that to happen under his watch.
Sloak looked at the stopped horde and couldnt figure out, why they did not just rush the lone creature sitting on the rock before them. Instead they had bellowed and roared challenges at him. He couldnt see why they would not be facing the keep and preparing for parlay or attack, it seemed they could not see the keep. they held back on attacking the lone creature. Lady Trish looked at sloak "I think you need a little help in seeing what needs to be seen" as she spoke she lifted the palm of her hand and touch Sloaks forehead. Suddenly another horde, identiclal to the the persueing horde appeared surrounding the now not lone creature.
"inivisable army?" queried Sloak. "just wait and you will see" responded Lady Trish.
A few soldiers rushed forward in challenge and fought killing each other instantly dying as they thrust their swords into each other, they lay on the ground dead. their bodies rotting away into dust. to finally reveal bone. then the bones themselves dissapeard into a cloud of dust and shot up into the red sky. to be resurected again for a future battle. the general ordered a few more troops to advance and test the mettle of the enemy, he had
not seen his messenger troops who had been captured. A few had returned reserected where the witch had killed them but many had not, so they must still be alive. A few of the larger soldiers unlimbered their weapons, bellowing as they charged as a like number of creatures returned the charge. the general watched, matching blow for blow soon these soldiers lay dead and dust enveloped them. The General had yet to note that an equal numberof troops on soldiers had died. More shouts and challenges, a few soldiers had wondered on the outskirts of the
army and dissapeared from view to suddenly see a small cassle appear before them. No sooner had they seen the keep, giant feet had crushed them, one soldier had been grabbed by RedBurn and flung into the wall of the fort and tumbled dead into the moat. the water preventing the body from turning to dust. while those underfoot of the giants turned to dust and escaped into the sky. No one notice the missing soldiers or their mysterious dissapearence.
"will they not notice their missing troops? suddenly dissapearing?" asked Sloak. Nervis answered "All their minds, have been clouded by a battle spell, how long it last will be up to Hemlock" ,pointing at the horde that was once a single creature. Fansinated Sloak watched the battle unfold. more and more troops started to clash, equal numbers died from each side. A dragon and its rider had crossed the barrier and out from one of the towers shot a bolted harpoon attached to a rope of that unspooled itself, it hit the dragon. burried in the dragon, th dragon let out a large roar and fire shot from its mouth. the rope pulled taught and the tower started to reel in its catch, the rider hanging on trying to cut the rope he could not reach. three of the giants clashed with their fellow giants, bashing each other with club and sword. this went on amidst more fighting between other soldiers. Large bolts of lighting flew back and forth as did large flamed boudlers, an aireal battle
between dragon riders filled the sky, dragons breating fire and clawing each other, the riders shooting blue and green rays of light at each other amongst the din.
General Harmwick stood upon his mount and tried to spot his equal amongst the din of battle, there! He had spied him the same time he had seen him. He kicked his mount forward, he bellowed and his guard followed. His equal charged too,his guard in tow. Something was wrong, thought the General, his mind trying to clear something from his mind as he charged forward.
As he passed fighting and dying soldiers, he noticed the likeness of each soldier to each other as they fought. they moved in unison, parry and thrust matched. more then 3/4 quarters of his troops have parrished in this battle the same for the other. He slowed his mount, and as he slowed so did the enemy general. "I think the General has sensed something is wrong" said Nervis to Lady Tish as he watched both the battle and where the general had stopped to look around. The crowd on the
wall were still cheering and placing bets on the battle, but they allso saw a slight pause in battle. some were watching the two giants RedBurn and StonRok battle a giant that had crossed across the enchantment, but that fight was over as they over overpowered the lone
giant smashing in its head with club and hilts of drawn knives. The battle slowed as the General stood staring at his equal. His equal stood and stared back.

 

[blito3]

The Mirror breaks

chapter 6

General Harmwick's mount snorted, shook its head. "calm boy" the general patted the head of the beast. singaling his
hornmen. Two sharp deep rummbles came and the troops stopped fighting, both sides stopped and looked around.
Taking his staff, he shut his eyes and struck the ground, the blue emerald on top glowed. "something is in my mind"
he thought, searching. sifting through his thoughts he looked for the source of his confusion. There! he had sensed the
webbed viel of the spell that was inside him. He struck it down, and opened his eyes.
The Army that was in front of him had disappeared, a few vapours of their of their existence all that remained.
Sitting on rock a lone creature sat trying to shade its self from the red sun, it yawned, its wings far to small to provide
shadow to house its much larger bulk. Hemlock, yawned once again folded his wings and stood. He knew
the spell would not last long. the majority of his foe had killed themselves, so only a handfull remained. Reaching
into a pouch he pulled a few black pebbles and started to walk towards the small group in front of him.
Hoping to distract the general, Hemlock did not want the General to look towards the Keep and sense something
was amiss and break that spell.
Harmwick eyeballed the creature as it aproached and waved to his men to aproach the creature. He saw it throw
something in the air. the black pebbles flew towards the enemy as Hemlock released them. the pebbles possesed,
weaved in amongst the troops as if looking for something. one pebble buried itself into the head of a likely candidate.
the creature grabbed its head, which exploded sending bits unto the nearest soldiers. other soldiers tried to sheild themselves
from the remaining pebbles, this failed as the pebbles found more targets. four more soldiers died, heads exploding.
the bodies dropped but didnt turn into dust and rise into the air. near each of the bodies now lay two black pebbles.
The general waved his hands and shot a spell of binding at the creature, but to his surprise the red beam of the spell
bent and curved and struck one of horsmen and it fell to the ground. bound. Angry shouts and roars built as his men
began to target the lone creature. spells of lesser powerfull wizards flew through the air, as did projectiles from troops unable to
cast spells began to target the creature. the Lone remaining dragon and its rider swooped down to attack. Before the dragon
could reach its destination, it had stopped mid air as if hitting a wall. its rider fell to the ground. out of nowhere walked a
witch, old and withered. Behind her, two giants and othe wizards. general Harmwick swung his head around and saw
a small castle wavered into veiw as the witch, raised her hands and cast spells, binding and the remaining troops under his
care. He stood alone, his mount shuffling and looking ready to bolt. "who are you?" bellowed the general building himself up,
to cast his final spell. the general dissapeared. "damn! damn! damn!" yelled Harmwick. "why did you come out so soon, I would
of captured him". Lady Trish merely said "Look behind you?"

 

[blito3]

THE TRAP

chapter 7

Hemlock turned and looked, and stared. slowly a large force, much larger then the one he had
just battle appeared, their cloaking spell broken. Lord GrayStar smiled.
"well done general" looking down at General Harmwick from above his massive mount.
"thank you my lord" bowing his head to GrayStar. "it was worth the loss to find these, lost souls"
said the general. "indeed" GrayStar turning his head towards the now exposed wizards and witches.
"most of these are unlaiden wizards and witches, with much greater power then those that ride with me
today, even you General are no match for most of them" the general frowned but nodded his head in agreement.
Lord GrayStar lifted his hand and shot a bolt of green at the witch LadyTrish. before she could react, she flew high into the air and backwards, her skin seemed to peel off her body. The skin of the witch floated down,revealing the true woman underneath She gentley floated to the ground catching herself from the fall.
the skin that had protected her began to blacken as it fell to the ground.
No longer cloaked she lifted her hand and a few of the fallen pebbles had rushed to her hand, then shot out again towards GrayStars soldiers. The pebbles circled a few of the forward soldiers, but these were armoured. only the eyes were exposed. the pebbles attempted to enter the armour but bounced off then dropped to the ground.
At GrayStars singal, large mechanicals sputtering and spewing fire and
smoke, rolled foward on huge wheels. then they suddenly let out a loud explosion,huge stoneballs shot from the rolling metal beasts.
tlhe huge balls arced through the air and cracked mid flight, hatching out a net, that fell upon a few of the wizards and witches.
Nervis screamed as the net engolfed him and started to bind and then burn. Lady trished the nearest the net, rushed to grab it.
She whispered a few words, keeping quiet so none could hear, else the spell would not work.
the Net started to fall apart from where her hand was holding and unwove itself. the freed wizards and witches had stood and some had started to run, a few launched themselves into the air transforming into large winged creatures, circling above avoiding the other nets .Another Netstone had trapped some more of her fellow bretheren, but LadyTrish feared she was too far.
the bodies started to burst into flame where the net tightened and bound them, in a deadly embrace..
She flew as fast she was able, put her hand down and whispered as she touched the net.
It too had fallen apart, but some of the wizards would not get up again.
they breathed but lay still on the ground. some who werent burned severely began to wipe the burns off their skins as if wiping away rain. the skin healed as they stroked.
One of the giants bellowed, StonRok had ensnared one the flying nets in one arm.
the net binded itself to the arm and began to burn. Nervis jumped and floated for a second
as he hovered. He grabbed the net and whispered to himself. the net loosened and fell apart.
Lord GrayStar shouted for his forces to attack , prisoners dead or alive he did not care.
These lost souls will be taken.the General began moving forward with his lords troops.
Lady trish looked up and shouted for those left standing to head to the keep. the keep would not
last under such a large army, so she signaled to the towers. A bald wizard with large ears and a green mustache waved,He looked down from where he stood and shouted orders to unseen helpers. Under retreat and as more of the netstones fell amongst them, they retreated. occaconally stopping to help those that were trapped under nets.others were not so lucky as other projectiles and spells started to weave themselves into the battle.finally Most had made it to the gates. the two giants tranforming themselves into their original forms, dove as the gate closed behind them. the grass that surrounded the keep began to wilt and wither as did the shrubs and small trees. the water around the moat began to boil.
the Army of Lord GrayStar started to surround the small casle. Its four towers holding off the attack of the dragons . spells bouncing off the walls or flying above the keep.
"they have no place to run, no place to hide" Said the lord as he got off his mount. General harmwick returned to the side
of his lord as did other officers. "lay seige to these vermin, their spells will not hold for long" GrayStar commanded, his men bowed and returned
to their duties.

 

[blito3]

Chapter 8

THE SEIGE

"well captain" looking down at sloak, then bending down and touching her finger to his forehead. "I think you should just stay where you are" lady Trish laughed, Sloak was bound once again.
he Heard the battle build. He lay in one of the towers. more and more of the keeps inhabitants were taking possitions in the towers. Dragons started to drop netstones from way above. occasionally a dragon came close enough that a bolt shot out from one of the towers. the battle began to grow.
spells bounced off the wall, soldiers in armour grabbed clinkers from around their waist and tossed them at the wall. The clinkers attached themselfs to the wall biting into the stone and expanded.
the wizards on the walls tried to sweep the clinkers off, but their spells could not effect metal. some of the soldiers on the wall began to pry a few of the nearest clinkers from their resting place. the freed clinkers fell into the water bellow, some just exploded parts of the wall as they attempted
to reattach themsleves.
More and more projectiles started to fly towards the keep from all sides, a volley of hundreds of arrows flew arcing over the wall and struck a few people within the keep. The armoured soldiers finally had thrown enough clinkers to provide a foot and handhold for climbing, some the soldiers ran and jumped the 20 feet of boiling water moat. Looking down at the climbing
attackers, Nervis grabbed a small bag of HornPepper from a barrel and dropped it down the side onto the climbing soldiers. while magic would bounce off the metal armour, the HornPepper in the bag had exploded once it hit the armour, a black gray dust cloud expanded engolfing
the length of the wall and down towards the moat. The HornPepper seaped through the amours joints, As the small black pepper touched the skin, as if planting itself, a root shot out of the surface and started to burrow itself into the skin. the soldiers began to squirm as more of the HornPeppers began to cause discomfort. they began to fall, moaning as they tried to scratch
through the armour. into the moat of boiling water, bodies started to sink unmoving. As more Amoured troops leaped, they leaped into the cloud of HornPepper, instead of gripping for a clinker they yelled and began to try and scratch at their armour and fell into the boiling waters of the moat. A few more bags were dropped around the perrimiter of the wall, some were tossed across the moat to keep the soldiers away. Another volley of Arrows flew, the archers far enough to avoid direct contact with the keep.
RedBurn Transformed himself back into a giant, his head poking above the wall at the attackers. He eyeballed the archers. RedBurn grabbed a full barrel of HornPepper and with grunt, tossed it towards the archers. It landed off to the side but its affects were imediate. a large cloud of gray,
waifed through the ranks of surrounding souldiers, they started to scratch themselves furiously.
Lord GrayStar Screamed at his wizzards to deal with troops afflicted with the itching substance.A few of the lords wizards waved the remaining cloud of gray away and began to casts spells of healing. the HornPepper began to expand as the spell hit, now the troops had huge boils of black under their skins. the soldiers screamed, as arms, legs and heads began to explode from the expanding boils. Lady Trish cheered with the others as they saw the result of the healing spells effects on the soldiers. the attacking wizards could only blow the evil powder away from the troops and had to stop any healing attempts even as the soldiers scratched in agony on the ground.
With a few wizards now commited to protecting the soldiers from the itching powder, Lord GrayStar was left with fewer skilled wizards. The NetSones began to drop on his own troops as defenders have finally found a combination of spells that would make the stones drop as if gravity pulled harder then it should have. His mechanicals changed from stone to iron and started to crash into the wall, the wall began to break under the attack. far from range any spell or projectile weapon, the defenders could only look down at the damage caused by the rolling Mechanical cannons.
ChinDin the wizard with the green mustache and baldhead, one eye bigger then the other was finally ready, he signaled to Nervis, who poked Lady Trish and pointed to ChinDin. She smiled,waved. One of the toweres let out a loud belch of smoke and a deep rumble sound flowed from it.

 

[blito3]

Chapter 9

The Towers

The Tower beltched some more smoke, and started to shake and rise. Stonedropping and breaking away, undernieth metal appeared. Like a snake, the tower started to shed its skin of stone. As it rose ripping itself away from the walls, other towers started to rise and shake away their stone facade. Two Large wheels supported the rising towers four smaller wheels on jointed arms balanced the towers.
ChinDin and the other metal wizards coaxed their towers into life. ChinDin ran down into the bowels of the tower, to its power source. Attached to the wheels a complex cog works occupied the main drive room. Hanging from
a couple of swinging pendelums were two metal cylinders, they were not fully
metal, they let out sounds as if alive. With a deep clang, a door would open,
a fire would appear. As if on que, one of the cylinders, groweled and shot towardsthe fire and consume it, the door closed and the cylinder creature swung back.at that very instants another door opened on the opposite and a fire appeared.the other cylinder moved towards it as had its twin. With slow steady opening and closings of the firedoors, the creatures rocked back and forth faster and faster.
Satisfied, ChinDin nodded and angaged the gearing controls to the wheels. He hurried up to top of the tower and entered a control room that popped out and hung over the side of one of the walls of the tower. A wheel like in a sailing ship, multitudes levers with a captains seat waited for him. seating himself, he pulled a cord a horn sounded and the Tower rocked back forth and began to pull itself away from the stone and brickworks of the remains of the keep. The other towers swung, themselves around, and began to follow ChinDin. The four towers rocking back and forth as they moved, a few luckless soldiers crushed underneith the huge wheels, their armour
no match for the weight of towers.
"Damn them" roared Lord GrayStar as he watch the transformation of the keep. General Harmwick looked in awe at the towers, he had never seen anything like it in all his lives."metal wizards?" asked General Harmwick the ones he had seen or had used in some battles had done nothing like this. "follow them" bellowed GrayStar. He jumped atop is mount and moved with his troops, the towers had finally cleared the remains of the surrouding troops. Dragons riders circled overhead and tried to drop their
weapons unto the moving targets, meanwhile a few of the wizards and witches in the tower had transformed into flying creatures of verying design. the took off, and harrased the dragons. they were far to small to slay the dragons, but the riders could be killed. making the dragons useless, to the armies bellow. the four towers bobbing back and forth as they reached their maximum speed, a little faster then jogging soldier. the enemy
started to spread out in persute, the mecanical cannons barely keeping pace. the mounts and their riders kept pace, and began to harrase the sides of the metal towers. the foot soldiers loping at a steady pace, were too busy trying to keep up to do any battle. a few of the foot soldiers had jumped on tops of mecanicals occasionally flying off when the mechanical let loose a shot of its cannon or blast of flame.

 

[blito3]

chapter 10

the map

Hemlock grabbed Sloak and dragged him below, bumping and scraping his body as he pulled it along, Sloak could not feel a thing. Lady Trish and nervis followed as did tow others."oomph" Hemlock grunted as he heaved the body of sloak into corner. one of the others that followed a witch name Tangoli pulled out a piece of parchment and unrolled on a table, the swaying of the tower did not move the table. The lampover head swing back forth, Its light casting a dance of shadows as it swung. Nervis looked at it, waved his hand and the lamp stopped mid swing. "ahhhh....thats better" nodded the other wizzard.
On the table lay the parchment unrolled, a forever map could be seen on its surface.at its center a small glowing dot, and ever so slowly the features moved keeping the dot steady at its center. "and which way shall we head" said Nervis as the soundsof pings and the occasional clangs could be heard as the persuerers threw theirweapons at the walls of the tower. "there...i think" said Hemlock, pointing at a valley feature. "the valley of the heads? you must be joking?" esclamed Tangoli, shaking her head."they would never allow us to pass, we would have to fight our way through" she
added. "not if i have a talk with them first" grinned Hemlock. Lady trish thought for a second. Three different valleys lay in their path, a valley of fire, a forest of so thick the towers would be slowed that they would have to spend time cutting and battling the enemy at the same time. No, the only way was through the Valley of the heads, else a longer way around,
she traced her finger from their current possition and off to the side of the map. "the heads it is" said Trish, Nervis nodded. "i should go with Hemlock" said Mucktoe, the other wizard, casting an eyeball at Hemlock. "he shouldnt have all the fun, tallking to those dimwitted heads"
"they may be stupid but they are dullwitted" chuckled Hemlock. A groan at the humour, from everyone else. "no, I think Hemlock should be able to handle this himself" said Lady trish, nodding her head towards Hemlock. she ignored the protesting look of MuckToe."ok then, we need to prepare the Captain...see to it Tangoli" Trish guestured to the body of the Sloak in the corner. Tangoli nodded. "well, I better get going" Hemlock
said and ran up the stairs. Tangoli grabbed the body and grunted. "and if anyone can help me pull this lump....hmmmm" said Tangoli as she tried to pull the body. Nervis said "a wee bit of the weak are we?Allow me madam" Nervis grabbed the body and the two of them dragged the body into another room. Lady trish alone with Mucktoe, waited till the others were out of earshot. "as much as i know Hemlock can handle it, I want you to follow him, but keep out of sight, Just in case he runs into trouble"
MuckToe smiled his hansome smile as he struck a pose, and walked out and up the stairs. Lady Trish glanced at the map. "oh well" she sighed and headed back up the stairs to see how the battle was going.

 

[blito3]

chapter 11

The chase

Lady trish just got to the top the tower in time to see Hemlock, with a wave Hemlock jumped, she peered over the side and watched as Hemlock transformed his small wings flapping furiosly as they slowed his fall.
He landed and began to run at great speed, far faster with his wings helping push him along. a few of riders of GreyStars army, that lay just ahead of the towers gave chase. "well?" said lady Trish to MuckToe.
MuckToe had a monicle held up to his eye, one eye squinted shut as the other eye observed Hemlock. "just a second, my lady....hmmmmm...I think that should be good enough" as the magnified image the monicle provided viewed Hemlock and his persueres . A few arrows hitting the floor
at his feet, Mucktoe winced looking down at them. With a bow, he leaped off the tower and flew to the ground and landed and looked as if he skipped his way forward. as if gliding across the ground, each leg touching the ground to push himforward in a glide. No one persued him, they could not see him, he had cast a temporary cloak on himself. Lady trish watched him, through her own lense she watched as Mucktoe disapeared in the distant. "good hunting gentlemen" whispered Trish. The towers seemed to be working fine as she looked at the other towers, they rolled and bobbed back and forth.
occattionally a large heavy object would hit one of the towers and it would veire off course from the weight of the hit, then right itself. the dragons still circled above as did other flying creatures.
A mechanical stopped and fired an iron ball that missed a tower, then began to move again. to catch up to the moving towers. "at least they only have a few of those" said Trish to herself. occassionally bags of hornpepper would be tossed and the soldiers on the ground would have to slow and bypass the cloud of grey. StonRock had gotten bored and had jumped down off the tower
he was in and transformed himself into a giant and ran beside the towers. He would get hit with arrows but his hide was thick enough to only feel a slight tickle, he would run out and try to chase a few of the nearer riders, their beasts would make haste and gallop away when they saw this huge
monster approach. The riders hanging on for dear life as they attempted to bring their mounts back under control. One rider was not so lucky, StonRok had caught him and his mount. Toss them high into the air, take out his club and bat at it as it fell and when hit the rider and mount flew a few hundred
feet and crash into a group of running soldiers. StonRok gave out a roar of victory as his bat hit. Redburn beside Lady Trish, shook his head. "he wil grow tired and come back....." he said. and at that StonRok ran up to the tower that held Redburn and jumped, transformed and landed softly on
the deck of the tower. "did you see that? was that not a beauty? StonRok heaved in breath as he spoke.
"well if you want to call it a beauty" replied RedBurn. "jealous?....hah!" rebutted StonRok, still weazing in a breath. "well not as young as i used to be....still." pleased withhimself StonRok watch the army
bellow.
Lord GreyStar, stopped his mount and pulled out a parchment that contained a forever map, traced the path of the beast that had jumped out of one of the towers and ran ahead of the towers dissapearing into the distant with few of his rider in persute . "hmmmm...valley of the heads" He said, as Few of his generals pulled up to where he had stopped. rolling up the map he kicked his mount and it began the persute. he yelled at one of the generals to see if they can stop at least one of these confounded towers. General QuinBar nodded and pulled his mount into the direction of his troops, he had a few wizards and mechanicals under his charge as well dragons.
He held up his staff and shot a green flare into the sky. One of the dragon riders pulled his reigns as soon as he saw the green flare, and flew towards where General QuinBar was. as the General road his mount the dragon
flew flapping its wings keeping pace with the general. the rider, a captain yelled "what is it General". With a few words the general yelled back over the noise of the riders and dragon his plan. the captain nodded and
flew into the air once again to his fellow dragoneers.
every once in while a bolt attached to a rope would fly out from one the towers attempting to hit one of the dragon riders. on the side of the towers hung a few luckless dragons bouncing against the sides of as if trophies. the Captain closed in amongst his troop and hand guestured his intent, The three remaining dragoneers raised their fist in acknowlegment.

 

[Mouse]

You might want to stop and check out the rules for the critique forum, matey, cos I think your thread's gonna get locked. http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/527567-please-read-before-posting-rules-and-guidelines-for.html

 

[blito3]

oh oh....thats not good....well where would i put a story in progress?...hmmmm....

 

[HareBrain]

I'm pretty sure you could post it in the blog section. This section is for short excerpts to be critiqued.

 

[blito3]

ahhhhh.....ok....me bad...

 

[The Judge]

Very bad.

Mouse was indeed right in her assumption. This thread is locked.

Before new members can request critiques we require from them a certain level of involvement with the Critiques Forum and/or the community as a whole. Our rules and guidelines for the Forum can be seen in full in the link Mouse gave -- I'll repeat it in case you haven't yet got around to reading the guidelines (which you should have done before even attempting to post):PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING: Rules and Guidelines for Posting in the Critiques Forum

The specific rule on this point begins:

1) Members will be unable to start a new thread in the Critiques sub-forum until they have made a measured contribution to SFF Chronicles. Be aware that this contribution is not gauged by a set number of posts, but rather the breadth and depth of your interactions across the forum.

In addition, we have an upper limit of 1500 words for pieces for critique, and while it may be that each separate post falls within this (I have not yet waded through them all to check) we do not take kindly to people attempting to circumvent the rule by posting multiple excerpts -- and the thread would have been locked for that reason alone. Moreover, there are rules concerning formatting which you need to abide by -- since the software doesn't allow for indented first lines, paragraphs have to have one clear line between them. Again, your failure to abide by this is not appreciated.

We welcome new members and we look forward to seeing their work. We therefore encourage them to make the effort to become involved throughout the Chronicles site and most especially to give the benefit of their insights by providing critiques to other aspiring writers on this forum. As and when you achieve the necessary contribution, you can post a fresh piece for critique. At that stage, however, please ensure you read, and adhere to, all the guidelines mentioned above.

If in fact you have no wish to receive critiques, then, as HareBrain says, you may post your work on your blog.