The Seventh Kingdoms

[Kipi]

This story is going to be fantasy-based one-man story. And thus, please do not post anything here. Comments and ideas can be PMed to me

Part 1
Chapter 1

No-one could have predicted the destruction. Even the wisest believed that the kingdom of Streaswen would survive from the massive war against six other kingdoms. So big and powerfull was that kingdom that it was thought as a miracle that the others would even dare to launch the attack. But in the end, Streaswen had been conquered and burned down. The lands which had been populated by millions of humans, elves, dwarves and other races was now only a big wasteland. The magic used in the battles had burned everything down, there was no trees nor anything else living growing from the ground. This was the land where Eareel, young elf who was one of the few survivor. This land had been Eareel's home. But not anymore. He was standing in the edge of the place where his hometown had been few years back. Now, there was only few lonely stonewalls which hadn't collapsed during fierce battles. But even as the walls were standing, those carried the marks of battle. One wall had clear mark that at least three balls of fire had hitted it.

Eareel hadn't been home when the war had begun. He had been visiting his relatives in kingdom of Traead. His relatives had taken care of him during the war, since it had been impossible to return while war was going. Now, three months after the end of war, he had finally managed to return his homeland. Managed to return to only see the terrible destruction caused by envy of six other kingdoms, Traead, Implere, Nesasa, Cleareg, Saeret and Freasas. Alone none of these kingdoms wouldn't have lasted long against Streaswen, but with combined power, the victory had been possible, yet unbelievable. But it had happened. Of course, every kingdom had experienced terrible losts during the war. Over 20 percent of the known world's population had died during the war which had taken 4 devastating years. But now the war was over. And Eareel didn't have any place to go anymore. He wasn't willing to return to his relatives, since their kingdom had been one of the quiltys to the destruction of his homeland after all. Of course, he didn't carry any hate against his relatives directly, but he just wasn't able to imagine himself living in the kingdom which had brutally joined to the war against his homeland, and brutally killed millions of innocents.

Slowly, Eareel rised his sword from the ground where he had dropped it in sorrow. Now, he must find new place to live. He turned his face to the mountains lying few days travel to the south from his current location. Perhaps there he could find shelter, and finally a place to build new home. But the trip wouldn't be one of the easiest. The war had brought some nasty side effects with it. Due the destruction and chaos, bands of orcs, goblins and other evil creatures had arrived from remote lands to raid everything remaining. It had taken only 2 months before the kingdom was said to be full or raiding bands, killing any lonely traveller in their way. But Eareel was prepared. He carried his trusted longsword with him always, and besides it he also had shortbow tied to his back with lots of arrows. He was also wearing a cape which made from the colour of the ground, making it harder to notice him especially from long distances. The only thing to worry was that it was said that few groups had shamans with them. And Eareel didn't have anything to protect himself against shaman's magics. If he happens to come face to face with band with shaman, his only options are either to try to shoot the shaman first or run. Luckily, most shamans prefered to cast defensing spells to themselves and their group before launching any offensive magics, thus giving him more time to kill any spellcaster.

Eareel begun to walk towards the mountains, thinking at the same time what to do when he reach them. One thing was sure to him: attackers must suffer. But to have revenge, he would need army with him. Alone he wouldn't be able to achieve much. Even small group would be enough at the beginning, and with time he would enlarge his army to the size which would finally be big enough to challenge the forces of Kreaf, old mage who was emperor of the kingdom of Saeret, and the very same person whose planning the attack had originally been. Kreaf hadn't bothered to try to keep it secret.

Kreaf was very old human who had selected magic as his living. During many years he had obtained more and more knowledge and power among wizards, and finally at the age of 32 he had been selected as the head of the council of wizards. This had given him the power over every wizard, and kings had begun to obey him. At the age of 40 he had taken the throne of Saeret from the old king. Rumours said that Kreaf had organized the murder of the king, but there hadn't been any proofs. Since then, Kreaf had controlled the kingdom, raising bigger and bigger army. His only goal had been to conquer the kingdom of Streaswen. Reasons to this were unknown. It had been clear from the very beginning that Streaswen was too big to be conquered by one kingdom alone. The breaking point had been the alliance of the six kingdoms, which had finnaly lead to the war and to the destruction of Streaswen.

[Kipi]

Chapter 2

For days Eareel had travelled across destroyed land. The marks of war were everywhere: destroyed cities, mass graves of dead soldiers, hunged peasant which had been dead for months. More Eareel saw, the more he feeled hate and anger towards the other nations. And especially towards Kreaf. But the past was what it was, and Eareel understood that. Past could not be changed, so there was only one option to him: revenge. This was controlling his mind during journey towards the mountains.

But the journey had had some positive things as well. Eareel had found signs that there were survivors, heading to same directions as he. Corpses of slayed bandits, with elven arrows in their chests. No orc or other evil being raiding this land was eager to use elven items, especially when they usually had their own items. So, the arrows could only mean that at least some of Eareel's race has survived, and were fighting for their lifes while trying to reach the mountains. He had also found dwarven axe, which had dug deep in the orc's skull. Now, this didn't alone reveal that the owner of the axe was alive, but the fact that the corpse wasn't looted showed that no evil being hadn't survived. So, there were survivors, after all. And this was something that made Eareel try harder toreach the mountains, since that would be a place where the trails of survivors were leading.

Suddenly, Eareel heard growling coming behind. Shocked he looked behind, and saw three wolves standing there, staring to him with hungry eyes. Those wolves were only few meters away, so the battle was unavoidable. Quickly, Eareel rised his sword, and took battle stance, keeping the wolves in his line of vision all the time. To look away even for a second could be fatal, and he knew that from experience. After all, he had fighted against wolves many times during his travels.

Just when he had got ready, one of the wolves launched it's attack. With ease, Eareel blocked it's attack with sword, piercing it from stomach and throwing it over him using the movement of the corpse. While the corpse was still in the air, the two remaining wolves attacked. With powerfull horizontal swung Eareel broke the skulls of both wolves. And then, the fight was over. The whole thing had taken only seconds, but Eareel could feel the saking of his body. The fight had took some of his strength, which was already in low level due the long walk he had made already that day. To continue the journey in such condition would be very dangerous, so he decided to build a camp.

Eareel decided to build hte camp in the ruins of old house, which had only parts of walls remaining. QUickly he lit the fire, using the wooden parts of the house lying around. He also set traps to the gaps, just to be sure that nothing would be able to suprise him and thus giving him at least some chances to prepare for a fight. He didn't, though, wait anything to happen, but these were the times when nothing was sure, especially when there were those raiding groups everywhere. When everything was ready, he prepared meal, using the meat from wolves. He had to use everything he could as food, since his supplies were getting low, and there should be something reserved to the moments when he wasn't able to get anything else to eat.
After the meal, Eareel made final check that every trap was correctly set, and then fell asleep next to the fire.

[Kipi]

Chapter 3
Cold wind woke Eareel. How long had he slept? It was dark, so t was still night. The fire wasn't burning anymore, so he had slept long time. But through whole day? The fact tht he didn't feel tired anymore suggested that he had slept vey long.

Quickly Eareel rose up to check the traps. Everything was in place, so nothing had tried to interrupt him. But the corpses were gone. There was signs of blood in the place where those had been lying, but no other tracks revealed what had happened to those. No signs of other animals, no signs of humanoid creatures. Nothing. The corpses were just gone.