StoriesStoriesYou walk to the back of the library and find the story section. On a large bookcase in front of you are many stories written by the warriors of the Keep. You pick up a book and start to read....
Story by Nighthood Swordfighter
The quiet stream gurgled softly and slowly in the still night air as a figure swathed in black passed a sleeping hut in the still woodland. The Wraith had returned to Edgewood.
"Tssseeeerrrr!" The cry of the great bald eagle resounded off the rocky crags below, Skywrath had returned to his precipice in the far Northland Mountains. Below a column of a thousand ferrets and a mixture of weasels marched.
A large fox led it with a swishing cloak. Skywrath looked the other way to the fork in the road; a band of ferrets dressed in the same garb crept along stealthily along the ditch at the side of the road. A hail went up from the side of the ditch
"O sire, Deathclaw the Assassin. The fox's long claw's shot out and grabbed Rocpaw the ferret by the throat.
"Numbskull do you want to advertise the presence of our horde to the whole country side?"
The fox's name was Deathclaw the Assassin. He whipped out the long throwing knife from his belt and tickled the ferrets gizzard, "Now tell me you're report of the tracking of the Wraith!"
Mmm..aster we tracked him straight for six moons until we came to a forest called Edgewood where we lost his track" "Edgewood is also home to the famed Castle Fleetclaw. It is commanded by Raptail the Rat and he has twenty-five score rats at his disposal and if we can slay him all the rats would come to us as soldier's, slaves or outcasts.
Deathclaw thought for a moment and then turned and addressed the vermin horde,
"Tomorrow at dawn we march to Castle Fleetclaw!"
One particularly observant ferret known as Whiptail took this all in with close detail and then took his place in the marching column.
That night a gleam of metal flashed and the weasel sentry gurgled a muffled scream and lay slain.
"Whiptail has fled the horde to go to Castle Fleetclaw to warn Raptail of our coming, I want his head brought back on a spear-point" Deathclaw addressed his five Captains and one hundred trackers.
"O Master, how do you know he has gone to Raptail?"
"Because that is where he would go numbskull. Why do you think our weasel sentry lies slain on the rocks below the camp?" "If brains were acorns, you'd be a dead oak!"
The tracker Captain Boneclaw stared dumbly at his commander, Deathclaw smiled sweetly at the tracker and said,
That is why I am the commander and not you diddle brains"
Skywrath, who had been watching the whole scene below, screeched out his hunting cry and followed the horde where soon there would be meat aplenty.
Whiptail was dinning with Raptail and relaying his information to the big rat.
The rat listened intently to the traitor, knowing that the future of his horde and castle depended upon it. Raptail rapped out his orders.
"OneEar, Scarbuck get water on continuos boil ready to pour down on their heads if they try to scale the wall, and get archers an sentries on the wall at all times in case of definite invasion.
The two rat captains jumped to their feet, knowing that their lives depended on it. All around the castle orders were being shouted.
OneEar got the scouting parties together and told them to find out were Deathclaw was and report back with all haste.
Whiptail was thanked by Raptail and then carried off by two large rats bearing scimitars. Raptail shouted at the screaming Whiptail "Traitors get no reward except death."
Blackeys's sharp ears pricked up at the sound of the high pitched scream from his perch in the high elm tree as he shouted down to Deathclaw, "Castle Fleetclaw has stationed sentries all around the walls."
Deathclaw told him to come down and take food and drink.
That night a set of pale amber eyes watched the horde intently and then slunk off into the night like a black shadow.
That morning a weasel sentry was found dead with a message on a piece of bark - Don't try to catch me, or every night a horde member will be slain. A picture of a knife, the Wraiths mark, signed the message.
Deathclaw stormed into his tent in a rage of furious anger because he could not go after the Wraith.
Raptail was marching at the head of two hundred - fifty rats to engage in guerrilla warfare on Deathclaws horde.
Deathclaw consulted with the fox seer, Nightflash,
"We must now be on extra alert. If you see the Wraith or Raptails Guerrillas, shoot first then ask questions later, if they resist, gut them."
As soon as he had finished speaking an arrow shot out of the woods and landed in a stout pole wooden pole. A message was transfixed to the shaft, all it said was "warning"
Deathclaw snapped the shaft in half and flung it into the woodlands,
"There lets see you fire any more of those arrows you slime!"
As if to answer his taunt two volleys of arrows flew in the horde ducked in fright but not before four of the slower ones lay slain.
"Send that castle to Hellgates as well as that cursed horde" Deathclaw spat in fury but before the horde could retaliate the guerrillas had gone.
The big fox snarled at one of the weasel bodyguards "Bring in the vixen seer." The weasel saluted smartly and strode out through the tent flap. There was a scuffle outside the tent and then Nightflash was shoved inside the tent and kicked sprawling at the feet of her master.
"Well tell me vixen do you see me standing on top of Castle Fleetclaw victorious?"
"O master I see you atop a wall and then everything goes black"
Deathclaw said nothing and then in the blink of an eye, pulled out his throwing knife and flung it with deadly accuracy, it hit Nightflashes cloak and threw her backwards pinning her to the wooden pole in the centre of his tent. Deathclaw spoke harshly to the pinned vixen
"I want you to spy for me inside Castle Fleetclaw, if you bring me no useful information the next blade will be 'twixt yer eyes, go now"
The Warlord held a whispered conversation and one a f the bodyguards took four weasel trackers with him trackers with him to follow the vixen and make sure she did as ordered.
Raptail stood on one of the battlements of Castle Fleetclaw with a rat called Aggal, who could see the farthest out of five hundred rats.
"Tell me what you see, my faithful servant"
"O lord of all rats I see a vixen approaching and the looks of her dress she is a seer."
"Good, get a welcoming party for that fox and bring her up to my chamber, now jump to it!"
One of the more agile weasels had climbed a tree and was following above ground so as to see above the heads of his comrades. He spotted a column of rats filing out of the castle very silently. They were all armed with spears or a bow and a quiver of arrows not to mention a sword at their side.The weasel in the tree dropped silently to the ground and quickly reported what he had seen to the leader. The small party blended back into the forest to watch the meeting of the fox and the rat band.
Suddenly Nightflash found herself surrounded by ten rats bristling to the fangs with weapons.
"Come on fox we're going to the castle."
Nightflash curled her lip scornfully at the rat and turned away but found herself confronted by two spears and an arrow on a taught bowstring.
Well, well vixen it looks as though you'd best come with us or you'll find your head on the ground, or somebody else will, but not you because you will be dead!" The rest of the rats started laughing cruelly at the joke. Nightflash went with them knowing that if she escaped the rats of would kill her if she went back to Deathclaw she would be killed by him for bringing no news.
When the group of animals thought they were alone, they materialised out of the forest.
"Well now we have report back to the chief."
None of them noticed a blowpipe poke out of the bushes, the weasel Scarface was dead before he hit the ground. As they bent over to inspect, they found the dart, the leader tasted the tip, and then he spat viciously on the ground,
"Poison" he snapped the dart in half and flung it into the woodland. The group shouldered their weapons and trooped off.
In Raptails castle everything was being well strengthened and fortified. Rats were getting arrows fletched, daggers, spears and swords were being sharpened, stones were being piled up on the walls for slings, trenches were being dug and then lined with sharp, fire hardened stakes and foraging parties were out adding extra stock to the larders in the event of a siege.
Skywrath swooped out of the sky and snatched the dead weasel, another meal for another day.
Raptail smiled in grim satisfaction he had watched the whole scene in the clearing. The party of rats and the vixen would be here any minute. A loud rap on the door sounded their arrival.
"Come in"
The vixen bit, snarled and scratched as they dragged her into the throne room but her resistance was futile.
"That is a good game you play fox, but it is not good enough, for I saw you approach with no caution and as though you have no cares in the world. But I know better, I have dealt with your kind and I know you want something from me, name it."
"O master of this castle, all I ask for is a meal and shelter for the night and then can we possibly talk business later?"
"Guard take this vixen away to the cells for the night, make sure she is well fed and clad."
The dawning of a new day saw the whole garrison of Castle Fleetclaw marching through the back gates of the castle to mount a full-scale attack on Deatchclaw's camp. The guards brought their report to Raptail,
" O master the vixen escaped during the night and slew the guard that was placed by her cell."
" Oh well it was nothing we will continue with out her, even if she had stayed, I would have had her killed after she talked."
As Raptail continued his march north he grew suspicious of the activity in the woodland, there were no birds chirping their cheerful song in the in the early morning sunlight, it was a dead calm through the whole forest. Just as he turned his head away a hail of glistening arrows flew over the garrisons head.
" It's an ambush retreat, back to the castle secure the gates."
The front runners of the horde were cut down by a mass of war painted fighters. Raptail urged his rat's forward. Bow snipers were picking of rat commanders from the treeline. Raptail soon realised he had to flee. He pushed his bodyguard in front of him and slipped through a side door in the castle. Nobody noticed him, except Deathclaw. Deathclaw drew his scimitar and sprinted across the courtyard to meet him on his way up to the ramparts.
Raptail threw a glance behind him and saw his foe bearing down on him. Raptail drew his double swords from his back and turned for a final fight above his castle. It would be himself or Deathclaw who reigned this castle after this fight.
The two combatants locked blades as steel clashed on steel. Deathclaw used a swift disarming motion and sent one of Raptails swords flying over the wall.
Raptail glanced over for a second, which cost him his life. The Assassin's sword went through the unfortunate rat. Deathclaw stood triumphantly on the ramparts. Behind him Raptail moved with his last dying breath and weakly slapped Deathclaw across the leg. That was all he needed to do Deathclaw lost his balance and began the deathly plummet to the ground far below.
The blackness in Nightflash's first prophecy had been revealed. And so thus ended the struggle between two opposing forces. And as for the Wraith, its identity is to be revealed.
Email: mrinitialman@yahoo.ca