Emperor of Legendia

The training field was occupied with thousands of soldiers. Spectacularly vast acres of lands were provided for a total of five thousand men. Horse fields were separated from the others. Army being given the utmost importance, the army field occupied one-third of Legendia. It is very huge and facilities are abundantly provided. The three batches trained in three different fields.

Marvelo kept a strict eye on his men, keeping up his reputation of the strictest commander of amongst all the countries. No one even dared to fool around with the training. One less or extra step as taught by him and the soldier will have to bear the consequences; to jog a round of the whole city or even worse, to clean the whole training fields including washing of all the horses by himself which usually took five days.

Marlin Wills on the other hand was a very lean commander. During the break times, he had this habit of scratching his thick brown beard every now and then making a sudden swing with his stick at any of the soldier standing in his closest vicinity. It was pretty obvious by now for the soldier to be prepared to block the sudden strike. However, it proved a very successful training for Marlin’s men as they were always alert and active.

“You two! Pair up!”, Marlin ordered to Simon Scorpio and Lolegbrow. The two obeyed him with swords clenched tight, face to face. “Always use the defenceless space as the first target, in your case Lolegbrow, your lower half of the body...”

Simon was everyone’s favourite. Well known for his crap and pathetic jokes, they somehow manage to tickle the ribs. A very tough warrior, Simon always wished to be in Marco’s batch as they were childhood friends and he always admired Marco’s battle instincts. He had tried to switch but Marlin never approved of it, as Marlin somewhere held a grudge against Marco too.

The archers were allotted a different camp. The archers count was a total of six hundred out of the overall five thousand. Knights totaled a humble eight hundred. Their best of the horses were reared and trained from Hul and Elgenim. The two cities are quite small but are well known to provide strong horses for battle purposes.

Marco was late in reaching his training field. His men were to glad with his absence and prayed for more free time. He was passing through the archer’s camp when he spotted a young man of his age aiming his arrow to a distant target. Marco then realized that the target was a group of other archers. Marco’s eyes widened but before he could say anything, the arrow shot out with a speed of a falcon. A soft splash, then a faint thud; Marco moved a bit closer into the field. The archers in a distance were cheering and applauding. Marco saw a sliced piece of apple spread out near a nervous looking man standing erect and breathless. The shooter approached the group with a proud smile. “Look at his face. He’s gone in a shock by your shot.”, one of the men laughed., “You sure are the king of bow and arrows”. The shooter received half a dozen pats on his back.

“You! Come here!”, it was Marco. The shooter turned and the group flew away at Marco’s appearance.

“Are you the one who goes by the name Fred?”, Marco asked.

“Fred Spines.”, he replied without stammering. He had firmness in his speech. His youthful looks were prominent enough on his well built torso. His complexion had a bit of tan, which clearly signified his practise under the sun. His shining blonde hair fell heavily in front of his hazel eyes, concealing his forehead. His clean shaven jaw was the type of jaw that every lady wished for. He had an aura of handsomeness around him; a kind of charm that he casted on the onlookers.

“He could have died -”, Marco started.

“- I was aiming the apple on his head,”, Fred cut him off.

“What if he died?”

“Only the target dies, when Fred shoots!”, Fred smirked. “It won’t scare me to shoot down a fly sitting on the head of a king. I release my arrow on the account of complete precision.”

Marco held his head high, “Seems your attitude needs to be given some strict supervision. Under whom do you serve?”

“I’m a new recruit, yet to be allotted.”

“You serve in mine then.”, Marco took out a small circular silver object, “Come to my field from today onwards. Show this identity when you will be assigned in fields and tell them I have already chosen you.” Fred showed no gratitude. Marco turned around to leave when he stopped and looked back at Fred, “Archer Fred, keep your insolence at the bay in my presence and follow the code of conduct while talking to a superior.”

“Understood Commander.”, he made an effort to erect his back and join his legs, arms sticking by his sides.

Fred loosened his body language as Marco walked away and threw a victorious glance at his jealous friends who were peeping from the archer house.

“Damn Marco! Your way too early for tomorrow.”, Peter said while riding his white horse.

“Shut up Peter! I was busy recruiting a worthy archer for our batch. His name’s Fred.”

“Oh... that arrogant boaster?”, Peter got down from his horse and patted on its neck.

“He’s got some ego, no doubt, but he seems to be an advantage in the battle field. I’ve heard people admiring his skills; the best amongst the archers... that’s what they say.”, Marco shrugged. “Anyway. Now let’s get done with today’s load full of training.”

They walked into the field. All the soldiers lined up on his sight. Marco shouted across the field, “Warriors! Minds focused now! Don’t relax your bodies due to the recent victory. Remember, trouble does not knock your doors before coming in. You are the best warriors I can ever have. You have shown great discipline and skills and I want it to be consistent, which shall be broken lest you relax. So pick up your swords, shield and arrows. Re-practise the tactical phases I trained you the last time, for I will be conducting an assessment of your groups soon.”

“Aye Commander!”, the field erupted in an echo.

Something weird happened during the training. Marco felt like he heard screams from far away. He turned and tried to see far into the city skirts but it was too distant to visualize anything. He continued to show his sword tactics to some soldiers. When he showed his last move, he saw Peter gazing past him blankly, confused and alarmed.

“Something wrong?”, Marco enquired.

“What the hell is that?”, Albert said out aloud from a distance. Yoyo joined with the same remark. Marco turned and saw something very dark in the sky near the Gateway of Legendia. It was like a dark cloud moving rapidly. First it looked very small, and then it was moving in the direction of Great Castle, when the cloud appeared larger slowly, slowly.

“It can’t be a rain cloud..”, Peter remarked.

“True!”, Marco hastily jumped upon a nearby horse and sped in the cloud’s direction, followed by Peter, Yoyo and Albert. Marvelo realized the danger and could be seen riding horses in the same direction, followed by the stout man, Simon Scorpio.

The cloud darkened a large part of the central city. It stopped moving just above the Great Castle. Marco and company entered the darkness. It was dark as night as soon as they entered the area under the cloud. When their eyes adjusted to the darkness, they all hurried of to the Great Castle with a lot of struggle as the horses were scared and restless. The lights in the castle were no more glowing. A faint glow of light was seen from a distance in the uppermost veranda of the castle. Zimon’s staff was illuminating enough light for him to reach the gates. A vast crowd surrounded the front gates of the castle gazing upwards to the black clouds. Guards took their positions with their long range fire arrow shooters pointing towards the sky, as a messenger suddenly descended with a shocking speed and halted right in front of Zimon. The crowd backed up in horror and took cover in nearby shelters.

“NO!”, shouted as the guards pointed to the messenger, “LOWER THE WEAPONS!”

The messenger hissed sharply.

“Good morning William Zimon.”, the cold voice said.

“Or rather good evening?”, Zimon answered unmoved, trying to keep up the glow of his staff stable as the messenger fought back to decrease the power of the glow. “Why do you come?”

The light from the staff flickered when the messenger replied, “Put-off your lights.”, it said, angry but unmoved.

The light from the staff vanished. Zimon adjusted his eyes to the darkness. Marco’s sword was already out, his hand completely shaking. He stood still at a distance.

“I would gladly announce that the Dark Lord has bought very good news to you.”

Zimon waited. When he did not speak, the spirit continued, “As the Dark Lord had promised, he would very soon, be looking forward to wage a war against Legendia.”

“Anything else?”, Zimon asked defyingly.

“That should be it.”

“Now that you have finished your very amusing news, I kindly request you to..”, Zimon paused and then blurted, “..GET LOST!”

The messenger raged with anger but ascended as the guards aimed at him. Slowly, slowly the darkness cleared out into a troubling long day.