• Timber’s Memoirs
    By: Tyler William Rey

    Intro
    Long ago, in a world very much like our own, with many continents and many oceans. With many countries and many seas, and many cities and many rivers snaking their ways through the valleys was a small town named Durn stationed on the border of its kingdom. This was a poor town with many people and many dreams. But this town was one of many towns that were terrorized by the necromancer, a powerful shade and a terrible being from a far away place, on a monthly basis. He unlike many other shades did not seek power, he just wanted to see the world burn. He had come like a robber in the night taking what he could and disappearing before anyone had realized he had come. The necromancer came and went as he pleased causing as much havoc as possible. There were those who tried to stand up against him but never returned. But after many years the necromancer grew tired of the people coming to defeat him and started sending terrible creatures into the cities, each one of them unique, to drive even more fear into the people. It was a mere game to him.
    The creatures averagely stood six to seven feet tall and had the heads of many animal native to the surrounding islands, But the creatures were stuck with ravenous hunger that turned there eyes scarlet. The people of the towns killed the creatures whenever they came into the city looking for prey but they kept on coming, so the civilians of the cities moved away from the necromancer’s territory and into an area closer to the King’s castle that was surrounded by a strong stone wall for protection. But as the people abandoned their old homes expecting then to easily collapse due to the weather and no caretaker the unique creatures took the old territory for themselves. Many of the old homeowners retaliated hoping to drive them out. They won some of the battles and lost others. But the creatures slowly but surely moved closer to the people once more.
    Years passed as the shade gained more land and eventually the good King Trytin sent his sons and a small army of troops into battle. Weeks passed and the small army was making progress. They were able to kill most of the creatures that had moved into the abandoned villages but when the necromancer heard news of the defeat he grew frustrated knowing that he was now loosing this small was that he looked at as a chest game. He was a very complicated character, even for a shade. When the army was starting their return home after a few months of battling they received news from the king that before they came home they were to wait in one of the towns they had taken back and set up a base camp. The king and the rest of the army were coming to aid the team in defeating the necromancer once and for all.
    After a week of waiting King Trytin and the reinforcements arrived. They spent a few days deciding battle plans and preparing for war. They didn’t know what new creatures the necromancer may have conjured up since the last battalion had been unleashed.
    After a short time the army was on the move, prepared for battle and dedicated to destroying the necromancer, for one man alone could not kill a shade, but an army was another story. So the army started in the way of the necromancer’s layer. Spies had had glimpses of it and its surroundings but never of the lair itself so they knew its location but didn’t have all of the important details.
    They marched for a week and on one rainy day came to a river. But on the other side of the river the leaves of all the trees were dead and the look of the forest screamed death.
    “Ok” said the King Trytin “we have hours before going into battle. Let’s make some of our last hours count. Some of us will die but no matter what happens we must get the job done. Not only our fate, but the fate of Dalantis depends upon it.”
    The army yelled a battle cry in response that shook the forest floor.
    The next morning came as fast as lightning and the army was on the move again. It was around four in the morning when it started raining and five in the morning when the army crossed the river. By eleven the valley of the necromancer was nearly miles away. The weather was still rainy and foggy so no one could see the lair itself but they knew it was there. The smell, the feeling, the sight on the soldiers’ faces, this was the soft whisper of death. And they had to face it.
    The army stumbled down the hill to the center of the valley and walked around the valley’s edge looking for the lair. They were around three quarters through the valley when all of a sudden all kinds of noises were made from atop one off the hills that surrounded it, but the army could see nothing through the fog, only hear the screeches and howls piercing it.
    After moments of unrest the battle had begun; hundreds of creatures ran at the center of the valley. The front lines of the army lowered their pikes while the back rows drew bows. After seconds of charging the two armies met clashing with each other. After the arrows were shot and the pikes broken the army drew their swords and shields and fought with all their might. The creatures were lightly armored and had dull weapons so many fought with their claws and teeth. The battle lasted only a few minutes as the small battalion of creatures and the army fought. They army of thousands eventually made the creatures retreat to where they came leaving a field of soldiers and their hacked opponents. The army fallowed them over the hill ready to kill them then find the necromancer. Once on top of the hill the creatures had come from they prepared themselves for another battle. They stood on top of the hill and looked down into the valley. The fog was less thick showing that there was a huge stone fortress with steaks and torches all around its top. It had pillars on top of it and ruins surrounding it and in one of the pillars shown an orange light penetrating the fog.
    The king took a deep breath knowing that death was right around the corner and looked towards the sky and yelled “CHARGE!!!!” His two sons repeated his order to the others that were farther away and the army charged. The army of three thousand ran down the hill into the field of fallen stones and ruins killing the necromancer’s urgal soldiers and creatures. Then just as they breached the castle’s wall the necromancer put his hands on the orange crystal up high above the tower casting a spell over every creature in the valley, both good and evil.
    * * * * * *
    King Trytin awoke around two hours later but he had no idea how long it had been, unable to move, barely able to breathe or see. He didn’t know why but he was angry and starving. His eyes were blood shot red, his muscles hurt and he found himself unable to speak. He looked around but all he saw was the same creatures they had been fighting. His men were all gone, the urgals were gone, and all that remained was him and his enemies. Terrified he stood up and ran towards the castle to kill the necromancer but he couldn’t stay standing. He crawled to cover but couldn’t move any farther. He fell to the ground and started to drift off. . . until he heard foot steps. His red eyes opened and he looked around with the might he had left in him but saw nothing as the steps continued. They got louder and louder until finally in the distance a demonic figure walking towards him, it was ugly and pale and looked like a dead man still walking. Its teeth were sharp and yellow, its eyes red, and its hair blood scarlet.
    Trytin just laid back down ready to accept his fate, but his anger grew stronger as he thought of his family. But it couldn’t end like this, he had to find his sons and kill the necromancer. He looked back up above the fallen pillar and reached for the closest weapon he could find. He reached for a spear that was feet away from where he lay. So he reached out his hairy arm and picked it up. Then sat still and listened. He heard the noise of the necromancer’s footsteps and its crooked cackle as it started to laugh. He was able to figure out where he was coming from. Then he stood up over the pillar and threw it the hardest he could at the figure that was walking toward him. As it grew closer and closer to the necromancer the faster he walked towards Trytin. It hit the necromancer in the hip and got stuck all the way through it. He smirked in pain but didn’t even make a noise. So Trytin now on his two feet stood up and ran at the necromancer with his hand ready to grab his throat and his mouth open ready to tear open his throat.
    “AAAHHHH!!!” Trytin yelled as the two grew closer and then everything went black.
    The necromancer had temporarily frozen Trytin’s mind, He did not dream, he did not sleep, but he wasn’t awake.
    * * * * *
    Trytin awoke hours later completely unable to move or see.
    “Trytin” said a deep gurgled voice that sent shivers down Trytin’s spine. “You’ve been defeated Trytin. You and your army were just the ones I needed to come here to take over the entire island. And now that you work for me it will be easy to take out Coal, Reinwal, and Privilis.”
    “We don’t work for you!” said Trytin, questioning why the necromancer had said so.
    “You don’t have a choice” said the necromancer grinning evilly but then said “Well, maybe you do. You know what Trytin, I'm going to let you and your army go”
    “And why would you do that? We will keep coming back to kill you.”
    “I think it would be more fun to watch” he said turning around to walk back to the door in which he came from, then entered back into his castle. Trytin then passed out once more.
    * * * * *
    A short while later he awoke still feeling sore but did the best he could to run into the forest atop the hill. He had looked around and seen none of his men so he thought it would be best to retreat. Once he got to the bottom of the hill he realized he had been running on all fours. He no longer had the angry bloodthirsty feeling in his mind and body. He stood back up on his two legs thinking that walking on fours was just foolish. He looked around for his soldiers and sons but still all he saw was creatures lying on the floor knocked out, dead, or crawling around as they regained consciousness. So he turned around to run down the hill in which he and his former army had first seen the creatures. But when he turned around he saw something out of the corner of his eye. At first he thought it was a snake but when he was able to see it completely he noticed it was a tail. He panicked and started looking at his hands, then arms, then his legs. He fell on his knees and in front of him lay a battered war helmet. He picked it up and looked at his reflection. He no longer looked like the person he once was, in fact he no longer looked like a human. His reflection resembled that of a wolf. Terrified he put his hands on his head to feel how it was shaped.
    “Helgrind” he said under his breath. Then he looked down at the field where the battle had perspired. It was filled with creatures that were half human and half animal. Even more than they had fought. It was the whole army, both of them. So he ran back down the hill to find his sons.
    “Everyone!” he yelled surprised that his voice was still the same, although it was much louder than it used to be “For Dalantis!” He was hoping that the exclamation would reveal his soldiers that he could no longer see. They seemed invisible compared to how many there were.
    “For Dalantis!!” he heard many of his soldiers yell in reply. As more and more soldiers realized that they were no longer human they shed their armor which was now much too tight and grouped together with whichever friends they could find.
    “Retreat! Retreat!!” yelled the king and the generals of the army and at that word every soldier that came to fight the necromancer that day retreated with the rest of their mutated teammates. Even the soldiers that were taken prisoner and mutated months ago joined the team.

    They had marched for seven days when they made it back to their kingdom’s wall. They saw many weird things during that week but it was apparent that the necromancer’s magic had made it much farther than they had expected. As they walked into the city it looked as if havoc had befallen the kingdom. The dead had already been burnt and the cities were getting used to their new form.

    But sadly after weeks of living with the curse other kingdoms took notice and attacked Trytin’s kingdom with catapults and ballista towers forcing them onto the kingdom’s ships. They evacuated the island leaving much behind. They had expected this attack for some time because the few ambassadors they had sent never returned. When word had reached the kingdom they loaded their belongings onto the ships and made arrangements so the transition would be easy.