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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Daniel Knight" data-source="post: 243220" data-attributes="member: 1113">...Story Hour ContinuedPreludeSparks rose into the night air, wafting on the summer breeze.  King Liam I of Krailem dismounted his horse and moved forward, sweat beading on his brow.  Seven of his best knights followed suit, as he pushed past an onrush of screaming soldiers covered in flame.  He had no time for the wounded – the clerics would have to see to them.  His aching feet continued forward, crunching as he tried to keep balance on the smouldering remains of soldiers long since gone from the world of the living.  A roar echoed through the night sky as another dragon was destroyed.“My Lord, please you must away!”  A young boy – barely a man – staggered up to the king.  His blue eyes squinted through ash caked around his eyes, burn marks running along his left cheek and down his neck.  His clothing hung on him, dirty, battered and burnt.  “There’s nothing left of the West Tower but rubble and fire.  The wizards could only hold against so much.”Liam stopped trudging forward.  The heat was becoming unbearable now as his armour started to scold his flesh at the edges.  “How long ago?”“What?”“How long ago, boy?”“Just moments.”“And Heldun?”The boy hesitated.  Heldun was the kings advisor and trusted friend.  There were nine other countries involved in the war, and Heldun was also the only arcanist under Krailem’s banner.  “He’s still in the remains of the tower my Lord.  He’s magiced up some sort of a see through wall around himself.  There’s also a sorceress from the desert lands and some elf, I think.”The king squinted towards the flames in the distance.  “Why didn’t the Blue Banner troops make it there?”The boy frowned and looked away.  “They did my Lord.”“So where are they now?”Another roar echoed through the night, bouncing off the nearby mountains.  “The dragon my Lord, it came in so quick!  I was with the Green Banners but there was nothing that could be done.”Liam unscrewed the top of his water-skin and let the cool liquid slide down his raw throat.  The initial rush of fleeing soldiers had passed, leaving the group alone on the battlefield with the moans of the dieing at their feet.  One more rise, thought the king, and the tower would be visible.  “And my daughter who was leading them?”The boy remained motionless and didn’t answer.Liam stared off into the distance and nodded at the silence.  The wind changed direction and a blanket of heat wafted over them - the thick air filled his lungs and smothered his body sucking the energy from his muscles, and yet he felt icy cold fingers sliding their needle tips into his heart and stomach.  He closed his eyes and the world seemed to change.  The polluted air’s scent changed from blood and smoke to that of the salty sea, and the wind cooled and tumbled through his hair.  He looked down to his daughter sitting on the edge of the pier, all grown up with her feet playfully splashing in the water.  They were in the city of Melzibeth for diplomatic reasons.  She looked so much like her mother, he thought, so beautiful and so defiant against all the odds.  He liked to see her like this, when life’s hardest punishment was making her decide what sort of flower to put into her hair.  She’d chosen a tulip.  Things had been so different a week ago.  He felt dizzy.“Did she lead the contingent well?”“She did my Lord.”King Liam turned around and looked at his knights with coal black eyes.  Battles continued to rage around them through the countryside.  His knight stood before him, battered and bloody, exhausted and coughing up smoke and blood.  A tear rolled down his cheek to his beard, cleaning a line in the soot.  He sniffed the air and looked back towards the boy.  “Now go and keep safe, you’ve done well for Krailem.  If you want to continue helping, please see to the wounded – more then enough blood has been spilt today.”The boy watched as his king once again started moving forward, knights in tow.  “But my Lord, you’ll never live!  To face the dragon is to stare into the face of Death himself!”The king continued forward, ripping the burning armour from his pain-wracked body.  “Good.”  Liam said simply clenching his jaw, “I’ve got a score to settle with him.” To Be Continued...</blockquote>

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