The legendary hero
BOOK ONE
ORTUS
CHAPTER ONE
Tourney preps
Inside of an old village many people had gathered around the massive campfire to hear stories of old from the great story teller. They did because he was known for his knowledge of their fearful past; their dark years; and of an evil ruler. The story teller began his story about the two men who had saved the entire land from their last tyrant ruler and his demonic magicians.
Deep in the land of Sacer Terra there was a race of magicians that dedicated their lives to training for the event of a lifetime. They called this event The Tournament of Victors; and the men and women of their families when they grew up to be sixteen competed in this event. The longer the fighters of each family survived the higher they were in social status and the more the family name became respected.
The family that our story is based on is the Dodger family.
They were in a place of low status due to the fact that their uncle and father both got defeated in the Tournament of Victors in their generation. So day in day out both Colton and Lane Dodger would train in swordsmanship.
They would spend time training in archery; and then they would train themselves in swordsmanship by doing constant battles between themselves and their uncle. All of this intense constant training was in preparation for The Tournament of Victors.
A small piece of sunlight shot into the barn as Lane awoke from his sleep. He let out a loud yawn as he arose from his bed and put his feet onto the ground. He then quietly walked to the door of the barn in fear of awaking Colton, his brother
When Lane opened the door of the barn he was blinded for a brief moment due to the light of the sun that was in his face. He went out to the back yard where Lane's father had placed four poles, and he connected the poles with ropes on all four sides to make a fighting ring out of the four poles and four ropes.
Lane went to a shed that his uncle had built for the straw dummies that had been created for all of the students that wanted to learn how to get good at fighting with a sword and a shield. So Lane got one of the straw dummies so he could practice on his sword techniques. He swung his sword left to right hitting the dummy with all that he had inside of him. Then he would thrust his sword forward stabbing his advisory in what would be the gut if it was a real person.
As Lane was practicing his moves, someone came out of the barn. Swiftly turning, he came face to face with his older brother Colton. He went to Lane and he then said "Lane, how long are you going to practice with that straw dummy."
Lane leaned his sword on one of post of the ring; and he walked over to his brother and he said "I guess that I will just keep doing it until I get it down Colton."
"Would you like to do another duel with me before we have to do our entire daily training Brother?"
Lane began to think if he wished to do this morning duel with his brother and he finally made his decision. "All right Colton I will do this duel with you if this is what you want to do this morning."
"Yes Lane, that is what I want to do with you this morning my little brother" Colton said.
They both went into the ring to do their duel; and Lane began the fight in a defensive stance. His brother swung at him near the knees to try to knock him onto his knees. Then Lane swung at Colton's right arm, but then after Lane had a failed attempt at hitting Colton; Colton hit Lane on the back with the butt of his sword. Lane then fell straight to the ground.
"How does it feel like to lose a battle against me"?
"My dear brother Colton; well I hoped that you enjoyed your short but sweet reign of victories, because they will end today". Lane said. Then Lane rose onto his feet.
They both placed their swords up against the outside wall of the old and rusty wooden barn.
"Lane; do you want to go to the mess yard and grab our morning meal before we go to our daily archery practice?" Colton asked Lane.
"I do think that we should go eat before archery practice" Lane said.
They walked through the woods so that they could reach the main road main road on which most of the tribe happenings were located.
They then turned right when they got out of the woods and then went walking down the dirt street that divided the area where their tribe lived.
First building that was on their left was the house of the Zaldor family this family was for their archery and magic skills. The Zaldor family has been an enemy of the Dodger family since the Tournament of Victors of Lane's and Colton's grandfather's age and time. Their house was made of bricks and had a wooden entrance, although they did not put a door on their house's entrance because the yearly temperature did not ever go below fifty degrees in their area of Sacer Terra.
Now all of the houses of the families' houses were located on the street to the right of the Zaldor family's house; but the Dodger house is the exception.
Then to the right was the Arena of Challenge where families were to do battle against other families; and at this current moment the Fador family and the Rorris family was in a morning duel before their morning meal.
Now the second building to their left was the town's armory that was run by Dagon Fador was wooden large and also guarded by Waquon the Wise as he was the oldest of all of the members of the Earth Tribe.
The second building to their right was the archery range which was ran by the Vastin family. The two sons of the Vastin Family; Aradas and Erijav were practicing their aim and firepower on dummies in the archery practice field.
The final area to their left was the bonfires where the people of their tribe both told and heard stories of the times where there was no peace.
The final place to their right was a building that was used in order to train the kids in the ways of magic spells.
There was a large open field that had both long and small; each table was for a certain family to get together to eat their daily meals. The tables were made of stone. While the families were in line for their meals; the mothers were coming to the cooking lines preparing the morning meal.
Lane and Colton both went through the line, and set at their families table with their uncle. "So boys how did your morning duel between each other go?" their uncle asked them.
Lane looked up at his uncle and he said "Well I thought; and it went well and that we both have made many improvements over the years".
"What do you think; Colton?" their uncle said.
"From my perspective I do believe that we are ready for the Tournament of Victors".
They all finished their breakfast; and Lane took up all of the platters and utensils.
"So Colton, I was wandering what your weapon o f choice was going to be for The Tournament of Victors" their uncle asked.
"Well Uncle, I was planning on using a sword and a shield for the Tournament of Victors"
As Lane came back to the eating table his uncle asked him which weapon that he was to use at the tournament.
"I was planning to use my bow as my weapon" Lane said.
"Well you boys better fight well for your family; and fight to win" their uncle said to them in a fatherly manner. "You boys better go to your archery practice now so that you are not late".
They got up and they then walked out of the mess field and walked down the road until they got to the archery range.
They walked to Vastin; their teacher; and he began to give them instructions on what they were going to do today during their archery practice. "Well today boys we are going to have a little fun; and you two boys are going to have an archery competition between each other" their archery teacher said.
So when Mr. Vastin was done telling Lane and Colton what they were going to do they both got three arrows and each a single bow so that they could do their competition.
They both aimed at the target that had three rings on it.
Lane raised his bow at the target and he aimed; then he fired the arrow at the target; he then released the first arrow at the target and it hit the middle ring.
Then Colton took aim at his target and released his arrow and it spun all of the way to the center of the target.
"Well done boys! Keep going" Mr. Vastin said.
Lane was next; so he took a very steady aim at his target and he hit the center of it.
Colton then hit the outer ring of his target.
Lane then hit middle ring of the target.
Colton went to shoot at his and he let go; and he missed the target as a bell rang in the distance.
Mr. Vatin looked at them as the bell rang and said "You boys did fine today; but today is our final day together due to the Tournament of Victors which shall start tomorrow; I shall wish you both luck".
Then both Lane and Colton left the archery range so that they could go to their swordsmanship practice at their house with their uncle.
They passed through the woods before they reached their house; and when they arrived there their uncle and two boys from the Fador family.
"Here boys take both a sword and a shield to duel with the Fador boys." Their uncle said.
This they both did before the fight began.
The first Fador boy did a vertical cut at Lane; so Lane stepped to his left to dodge the vertical attack.
Then Colton threw his shield at the other Fador boy's stomach to cause him to fall to the ground.
The kid did fall to the ground due to the force of the contact.
As that kid prepared to rise Colton used his sword to pin him to the ground. "Go Lane he is all yours" said Colton.
Lane and the final Fador boy were in an intense battle for whatever one would dish out the other one could block it. That was until Lane tripped his advisory; and his sword to his neck.
"Well done boys, all of you; I wish all of you good luck tomorrow at the tournament" their uncle said. Both Lane and Colton helped up their adversaries before they went to magic practice.
The two of them walked down the main street until they reached the arena of Challenge.
Their magic teacher was Mr. Fador he put out three dummies for each Lane and Colton so they could practice for the tournament.
Lane said "DETRUDERE!" and it was shoved forward.
Next Lane said "IMAGO!" and it blew into tiny pieces.
Colton then said "ERMERGERE!" it then it rose into the air.
Lane finally said "GLACIES!" and it had a giant block of ice around it.
Colton finally said "IMAGO TERRA!" and the earth beneath it broke; and it fell in to a gap. When they were done Mr. Fador said "Well that is all for today go home and get some rest. About tomorrow may the best family win"? On the way back they went to the campfires and set down by the local storyteller named Frank. All of the people of the village always loved to listen to his stories of the many legends of the old days with mythical beasts.
"Back in the days of old there was a massive war between the elves, dwarves, and humans. Then there was an evil ruler that rose to power through this war.
"After the people had had enough of this evil ruler and his iron fist; a legendary hero rose and united all of the people and they fought against the evil king and won after year of war." Frank said.
When the story was going on Colton went to Mr. Zelon and asked him a question. "Mr. Zelor may marry your daughter".
Mr. Zelor looked at Colton so he could come up with an answer. "I believe that if you win The Tournament of Victors as well as The Tribal Wars that you will have earned my respect and will have proven that you will be able to take care of my daughter Kalie".
"We have ourselves an agreement" Colton said. He then left Mr. Zelor to listen to the rest of Frank's story. Then after the story was over both Lane and Colton went home.