Prologue: the girl and the Klingon
Sacae Plains. Outskirts of the once Lorca's clan's territories
Sacae. Land of proud nomads and indomitable mounted warriors. The inhabitants of this harsh but beautiful lands are hunter by traditions and necessity. Tilling the land in a place constantly flayed by raging winds and devoid of ample water supplies is not exactly an easy task, with the results that only the hardiest crops can be grown in such an inhospitable place. In exchange of that the sparse human population and high birth rate of many animals made this place an excellent hunting ground, and the Sacaeans knew this.
Just right now a young hunter covered in dirty and moss-covered dress was patiently waiting near a small hill next to a pond used by the local wildlife. On his hands a bow rested ready to fire. His breath was quiet, he was waiting for the prey.
After some minutes his patient got rewarded: an adult stag finally approached the pond, its thirst overpowering every sense. The majestic creature reached the water slowly, looking carefully for potential predators, but the young hunter was well hidden and immobile. After twenty minutes of patient waiting, the stag finally reached the pond and started slacking its thirst; the hunter slowly notched an arrow and prepared to fire.
And just in that moment an orange light appeared at the center of the small pond, followed by a loud splash that startled both the hunter and the prey. The stag escaped immediately and the hunter let loose his arrow for the surprise, missing the target.
"What in mother earth's name was that!" cried the hunter that finally revealed herself as a huntress, while looking at her lunch now running away.
"It appeared as a strange light, but I never saw one like that."
Cautious, the girl slowly reached the small pond of water, looking for any sign of strange activities. Her bow had already another arrow notched, ready to kill.
Then she finally saw him: a person frantically trying to come out from the water. Someone was wearily coming out from the pond.
The girl quickly rushed in the stranger's direction but after few jumps the girl stopped abruptly on her tracks. The stranger, now clearly visible, was not human or at least not a normal one.
He was big, bigger than the tallest kutolah hunters and they were almost 5 feet tall. His skin was dark and all his limbs appeared tougher than an ox. He was dressed with some kind of silver colored light armor, form fitting black robe and brown trousers now shimmering thanks to the water; strapped on a belt there were two holsters, one containing a wicked-looking knife, the other one was empty.
But what really left the girl speechless was the stranger's face. His face was wide, his mouth showed a row of sharp teeth, his hair and beard were brown, curly and heavy. His frontal face was covered with strange ridges that gave him an ominous look; one of the giant's eyes was broken, forever forbidden to see light once again.
All in all, it was an ominous sign, but the girl refused to leave the stranger in the mud. Whoever it was, it was clearly wounded and no one leave a wounded person in the plain unless is a clan enemy.
"I must bring him back to the encampment." said the girl to herself. With quick and practiced movement the girl placed her small bow on a scabbard placed on her belt and grabbed the unconscious man, only to discover that he was far heavier than she had previously imagined. Three times the girl tried to lift the unconscious stranger and three times she miserably failed.
During all these movements the stranger remained unconscious, is only answer a garbled mess of strange words never heard by the young huntress.
"I will need the help of one of the hunters." muttered the girl "Let's hope they will accept him."
Lyndis's ger. 2 hours later
"By Khaless's bat'leth. My head."
Slowly, with all his limbs shaking for the pain, general Martok finally regained consciousness. The lumbering Klingon felt like he had just drank twenty barrels of blood wine in one go.
Blood wine prepared by that annoying ferengi, that is.
"Kezed, status of the crew! Ayav, number of casualties! And someone call Sisko if is not here already!" bellowed a still dazed Martok
"I know that it was an emergency teleportation, but I expected something better from starfleef engineers! I feel terrible."
"I...i do not know what you are talking about sir. I am sorry!" answered an unknown voice next to him.
All traces of pain and hangover disappeared from the general's face, replaced by pure adrenaline. Honed Klingon instincts reacted immediately and in less than a second the general was standing and battle ready. His d'k tagh was gone, but he was more than capable of defeating a lone human with his bare hands. The general looked at the surroundings, analyzing the place in search of a weapon in case a fight broke out.
What his single eye saw left him surprised for a second: floor made of green grass, wooden furnitures, strange colored drapes. A tent, clearly, but one never seen by the old veteran.
At the center of this strange tent there was a human. A girl, covered with a dark robe and possessing long, dark green hairs; her eyes were blue and on her hip rested what looked like a long, straight Mek'leth.
All in all, the last think the old general expected to find this day.
"Greeting stranger." said the girl with quiet voice, but Martok was no fool. The human was more than ready to attack him if necessary. He saw it in her posture.
"I found you unconscious on the plains, and brought you back inside my ger. My name is Lyn of the Lorca clan. You are?"
-She is what?!- though Martok incredulous. If this was some kind of a joke and Sisko teleported him inside an holo-deck, then it was not funny.
"Is there some problem?" continued the girl "You should not stress yourself too much, you are still injured."
"Where am I, and how I ended up here?" asked Martok warily
"As I said, I found you unconscious in the plains, near a pond where I usually hunt. You appeared right in the middle of the small lake and scared all the beast in a mile radius. Me and some hunters brought you back here so we could nurse you, although I never saw someone so...unique as you. Are you from the isles?"
"This does not make sense!" muttered Martok "I need to go outside now."
"Wait! You are still tired! First you must rest." Martok simply brushed the girl aside with one hand and opened the heavy curtains with the other, revealing what was outside the ger.
What he saw left him speechless: verdant plains until the eyes could see covered by the bluest sky ever seen by Martok's eye. Three great tends dotted the landscape, their bright colored color in contrast with the endless green plains. Women and children dressed in various robes looked at him with suspicious looks. Two young males took some spears and pointed them at him.
Just what in the world was this place?
"Computer. Stop the program." muttered Martok but no one answered.
"See? This is Sacae." said the girl behind him "Home of the Sacaeans. Now, can you answer my question please?"
For a second Martok simply could not answer, his mind overwhelmed by this place. Thankfully Lyn decided to wait patiently.
"My name is Martok, son of Urthog, of house Martok and...i do not know how I managed to get here."
13 minutes later. Lys's ger
A steaming pot began whistling inside the ger, signaling both the inhabitant that the stew was ready
"Sooo" began Lyn while preparing two plates full of meat, stew and bread for her and her guest. "Your name is Martok, and you are a general of an empire far away from here."
"Correct." said Martok
"And you ended up here because of a botched teleportation spell."
"Not a spell, a device." corrected Martok. Lyn shrugged her shoulders
"A device that botched the spell." Martok sighted heavily.
"Fine, a botched teleportation spell, be that way. Now, you seem to know about teleportation technology. Is there some place in this…Elibe where I can hitch a jump?"
Lyn placed her plate down and sighted heavily.
"I am sorry to say this Martok, but teleportation staves are pretty rare for what I know. Maybe the mages of Etruria or Lycia can help you, but it will cost you a lot, and the journey from here to those nations is long and treacherous."
"I see." mused Martok digesting the informations "Nevertheless I must press on. A war is about to hit the empire and my place is inside the Rotarran with my warriors. If these Etrurians or Lycians can use teleportation technology then I will go to them."
"If that is your wish then" but something stopped Lyn's words. Rumors of battle, clamor of weapons and shrieks of fear. Both Lyn and Martok jumped immediately, their bodies ready to jump.
"Enemies?" Asked Martok "Is your clan in war with another?"
"Wait here Martok." said Lyn. The girl quickly grabbed her long sword and some pouches of strange concoctions and left the ger. She came back almost immediately, her face twisted with rage.
"Bandits and looters!" She hissed in rage "They must have come from the Bern mountains and have killed the two sentinels! They are only two so I should be able to deal with them. You stay here Martok, I will be done soon."
"Out of the question!" bellowed Martok "You helped me when I was unconscious and offered me your food, and now you tell me to stay put and not fight!? I am a Klingon warrior not some pathetic Ferengi coward. I will fight with you."
"But I have only one sword, mine." retorted Lyn
"I had a distruptor pistol, my d'k tagh and my bat'leth with me. Where are them?"
Lyn looked at him with suspicion; she still had some reserves about the strange person but the cries of pain and fear outside the tent quickly convinced her. The girl quickly rummaged inside one of the wooden cabinet placed inside the tent and opened a hidden compartment. Some second later she grabbed a short wicked looking knife.
Martok's d'k tagh.
"It was the only weapon I found on your body. Swear upon your Clan that you will not use it against my people." said Lyn before handling him the weapon
"I swear upon my house and the empire than I will not attack your clan." solemnly answered Martok. There was conviction in his voice and Lyn decided to trust him.
Both the girl and the Klingon quickly rushed outside the ger and asserted the situation: the two young sentinel were dead, their bodies strewn near the nearby gers. Two burly men armed with sharp axes were bulling and beating the defenseless women and children with their weapons.
"where are the warriors?" asked Martok after seeing the bleak situation "Surely the two younglings now dead were not the only defenders of the camp." Lyn grimaced as if forced to remember something painful.
"The few hunters left are out hunting in the lower plains, looking for meat that we desperately need. The others...i will tell about them later."
Martok looked at her and saw pain in her eyes, so he decided to not delve too much.
The first bandit finally saw the duo and charged at them. Lyn unsheathed her sword and prepared to countercharge but Martok stopped her.
"Do not meet force with force." suggested him with critic eye "He is an untrained brute. Move three paces forward and wait for his charge; his left leg is slightly off balance, meaning that he cannot move as fast as you. Sidestep the moment he swing his blade and then stab him the moment he lose his footing."
Lyn looked at him quizzically
"Do it!" hissed Martok "I know what I am seeing." This time Lyn obeyed. The girl walked forward and waited the charge. As Martok expected the brutish human charged the girl hoping to overpower her with pure strength, only to have Lyn nimbly avoided the axe swing and stabbed him in the throat with a fluid movement. The bandit gurgled in pain and left his weapon while touching the wound. A second precise stab from Lyn ended the bandit's life.
-Fast- thought Martok with admiration -And agile. She could become a good warrior with some training.-
"First enemy killed, but the other one look ready to fight us, and look much stronger than the other." said Martok quickly
"He saw you killing his mate, so he shall be more cautious. We shall attack him together: I shall go first and engage him while you shall attack him in his left flank."
"Why the left flank?" asked Lyn
"Because for some reason untrained humans look more at their right flank rather than the left one. Go now! We will talk and celebrate later." this time Martok used his commanding voice.
Lyn quickly obeyed and started circling the bandit's position. Martok directly moved against the brutish human and prepared to attack with the d'k tagh.
"Who do you think you are creature!?" bellowed the human while swinging wildly his axe "Do you think you can defeat Batta the Beast?!"
"Like an old Grishnar Cat." snarled Martok in response "All bark and no bite."
Batta swung his axe against Martok in a vertical slash but the old Klingon easily missed the attack and retaliated with his knife, slashing at the human in the arm. Red blood gushed away from the wound and Martok used his momentum and stabbed Batta in the stomach inflicting a deep gash. Batta roared in rage and swung wildly his weapon forcing Martok to sidestep, but exactly in that moment Lyn found an opening in Batta's defense and charged the enemy from the sides, stabbing the bandit in the heart and killing him on the spot.
"How...how did you..." said Batta with his last breath, just a second before collapsing in a puddle of his own blood. Martok simply sneered at him.
"Victory." said Martok with joy "You are a good fighter Lyn of the Lorca clan."
"You are also good Martok." replied Lyn with glee, the fire of battle still in her veins "You immediately understood the bandit's attack patters in less than one minute."
"The empire allow only the worthy ones to become generals. Now" Martok looked at Lyn with his only eye. "This was your first battle, am I right?" Lyn looked at him surprised, but in the end she nodded.
"Then today you have shed your first blood and become a full fledged warrior, Lyn of the Lorca. Let's throw away this filth in a ditch and have a toast about this day. You deserved it."
Lyn smiled savagely and quickly ran toward her tribesmen.
The day after. Lyn's ger
A sated and very satisfied Martok awakened from his slumber with a long yawn. Feasting after a victorious battle was always a pleasure for a Klingon and these humans proved to be quite accommodating: the hunters came back from their hunt with dozens of strange and burly animals on their backs and the moment they discovered about the attack and how Lyn and a "mysterious stranger" defeated the bandit menace they decided to cook half the beasts in a great feast in Lyn and Martok's honor. Abundant meat, goblets of an alcoholic beverage called "Kumis", not worthy a single bottle of blood-wine but acceptable nonetheless, and poets singing songs of battle and glory near the campfire.
It was almost like feasting with his warriors!
Martok honored the feast by devouring an entire boar by himself, drinking five tankards of Kumis and singing at the top of his lungs various Klingon songs, something that entertained the Sacaeans to no end.
The feast ended only at the first rays of sunlight and Martok woke up on midday inside Lyn's ger, courtesy of the girl that gave him a spot where to sleep.
"Morning Martok." said Lyn to the old Klingon when the girl saw him waking up. Martok simply groaned and straightened up for some seconds
"Lyn, I see you are already awake." commented Martok while trying to find his footing "You didn't enjoyed the feast too much, despite being in your honor. You were thinking about something else, am I correct?" Said Martok while remembering the feast.
Lyn looked at Martok with a sad look
"Your single eye possess great wisdom Martok. Yes, I was thinking about the battle, and how we both fought the enemies."
"And?" encouraged Martok
"And I saw how experienced, powerful and wise you are. You could have defeated both the bandits alone but you let me fight them."
"They were small fries" commented Martok "And you needed training."
"And you are clearly expert in the matter of warfare. Yesterday you told me that you want to reach Etruria and Lycia in the hope of finding a mage that can teleport you to your place."
"Correct."
"Then...can I come with you?"
The question surprised Martok, and the old Klingon looked at the girl with an inquisitive eye.
"You said yourself: the journey will be hard and dangerous. Why do you want to come with me?"
"I need to get stronger, and you could be a great teacher. I could guide you across the plains and beyond, and hunt for you." there was an impatient tone in the girl's voice, a tone quite common in the mouth of young and inexperienced warriors.
"Lyn" began Martok now deadly serious "You belong to a clan. You life belong to your clan leader. If he or she will allow you to leave the tribe I will consider your proposal; you are not a wild Targ that can run amok in the wild-lands."
Lyn looked at him with a truly pained expression and for a second her face was filled with tears.
"You mean my father?" her voice was now broken and sad, with tears freely flowing down her cheeks "My mother and my father...died six months ago. My people-the Lorca-they don't...i am the last of my tribe. Bandits attacked and...they killed so many. The tribe was shattered. My father was our chieftain and I tried to protect my people. But I am so young and our people were old-fashioned. They wouldn't follow a woman. No one would follow me. I have been alone for so long."
Martok looked at her with unreadable eye and encouraged her to continue
"Those beast poisoned our water supplies, we were barely unable to stand let alone fight. I want to avenge them, I want to kill them all, I want to become stronger. Tell me that you will accept me Martok, tell me that you will train me, please!"
Martok still looked at her, weighting her rage and fury, looking at the young girl in the eye for almost a minute. Lyn waited patiently his answer.
"Vengeance." said finally Martok "Yes vengeance burn fiercely inside your heart, as it should be. You are the last heir of the Clan leader, so the burden fall upon you. Tell me the name of your father, Lyn."
"Hassar." her answer was a whisper
"Will you accept my guidance during this journey, will you shed blood in my name and obey my commands?" asked Martok harshly
"Yes!" answered Lyn without hesitation
"Then, I Martok, son of Urthog, accept your offer Lyn, daughter of Hassar. I will train you in the way of the warrior."
"Yes, thanks Martok, thank you!" Lyn tried to embrace Martok but the Klingon immediately rejected her with both his hands, surprising the girl.
"That mean that now I am your trainer and superior Lyn. I will be a strict instructor and I will whip you into shape; you will learn patience and obedience; you will call me Martok'aj and shall obey my orders. You shall become a warrior worthy of my clan, or I will kill you in the process. Now wipe away those tears, they are unworthy of a true warrior."
Lyn immediately did as he said
"Good. Now, there must be a city where we can resupply for our travel. We shall go there and prepare for our travel and in the meantime you shall train your muscles under my command. Your first duty is to dry the meat we have received from the hunters in preparation of our journey. I will talk with your tribesmen and explain the situation. Dismissed!"
Lyn recoiled under Martok's harsh voice but obeyed and went out of the ger. Martok smiled slightly: young, brash, stubborn and full of pride, but strong, loyal to her word and obedient. Like a true Klingon
-This will be a story that will be sung for generations, assuming I shall survive long enough to tell the tale.-
Aaaand done! I will tell you right now: this is a test. Mixing Star Trek with Fire emblem. Folly maybe but I want to try.
Tell me if you found this small sample satisfactory.
Stefaniuss out