Note: This will currently NOT make sense at all! Don't tell me none of it makes sense to you. Once I have finished all the parts, it will all make a lot more sense. Each character has their own chapter that explains everything!There are a lot of missing details, all of which will be covered in each person's own chapter.
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The Ballad of War
-Iraphar-
Iraphar stepped onto the shallow grass of the Natilalia Highlands. Iraphar had just been assigned the rank of commander, after the other commander had been killed in battle. He stood in front of his army and soldiers, ready to command. From a distance he could see the enemy elves charging at them, with quite a ways to go. He again faced his army and looked every soldier in the eye. He stopped at focused on the archer, Maylin, his fifteen-year-old brother. He had talked to Maylin about the war, and why he didn't want to be a part of it. Maylin was only here because he was pushed here against his will, just like every other male human in Valendew. But he knew that Maylin would fight, and fight with honor.
He continued his glance down the lines and stopped at Tyru, his sorceress sister. Tyru was not his sister by blood. But she had been a part of the family sense birth. Although she seemed to be older, Tyru's high pitched squeaky voice, almost babyish, revealed her to be but only twelve looked Although he knew that she was a certified sorceress, he wasn't sure about how he felt about his sister being in this battle. He tried to talk her out of being in the fight, but she didn't listen. Tyru was very confident, almost bubbly, about being a part of the fight. She knew that her mysticism over the magic of air would baffle the elves. Knowing this, Iraphar did not tell Tyru that she could not fight, but he did remind her of the risk she was taking.
Finally he stopped at the minors, or also known as "The Youngest Nights". The Youngest Knights was a militia comprised of five through nine year olds, who had to fight in the war. He looked painfully at these children and knew that they had no reason to be on the battle field. They would not be here if the army hadn't run short on troops after the elf's night attack that whipped down over half of the human army. Iraphar's brother, Delphin, should have been in the ranks of the minors, but was not. Iraphar would not stand for his five-year-old brother being a part of the war. He was too young to understand the war, and too young to deal with death. Iraphar had hidden Delphin in a nearby stable for his protection. He told him not to come out of the stable for anything. Iraphar couldn't get his mind of the image of his little brother in bright red armor, carrying a blade that was bigger than him. Watching the minors, Iraphar was irritated with the Royal Guards choice on forcing all of these kids fight. Every single one of the minors was shaking in their bright red armor, and were not ready to be fighting anybody. Many tears came from these children.
When Iraphar turned back around, he could see the elves were getting too close. He had to ready his troops. "Men, women, children," Iraphar shouted from on top of a small hill, "The day has come for the elves to fall! They asked for a war, and now we will bring it to them!" The army cheered loudly, loud enough for the elves to here. "You're not fighting to live!" Iraphar continued, "You are not fighting for the royal family!" Iraphar paused, "You are fighting today, for the sake of love. The love of your family, the love of your home land! That is why you are here!" Iraphar ended and the army went into to cheers again. He knew that he had lied. Many of the troops were here against their will, but he needed to augment the confidence of his army. "Do not fear death, welcome it. Death is not you enemy! Davenite, the elf lord, is the enemy!" The elves were too close now, and Iraphar took this into notice. "Now my troops, Charge!" Iraphar shouted. At that time, all of the troops began charging to the elves. First the infantry, then the pikemen. After that came the minors, but most of them tried to run the other way but were stopped and turned around by the archers in back. The archers stayed back on a hill overlooking the battle field. Iraphar led the troops down a steep hill and into the elven ranks. Iraphar noticed that Tyru had gotten ahead of him and was the first one to start fighting. Although he did not mind, he worried about her decision. Tyru whipped her hands through the air and began slowly hovering out of reach above the fight. Iraphar ran in the battle, swinging at the sight of every elf that got in his way. With his sword, Mercury, he was able to slice through elves like water. Maylin waited upon the tall hill waiting for the chance to take down some of the elves with his mighty bow. He was nervous though, as he was not the most experienced archer. From a nearby stable, Delphin had a clear view of the fight. He was getting tired just moving in his heavy armor, and sat down on a pile of hay. He watched the raging fight through the loose boards of the barn, always keeping his eyes on Tyru, the one who he had spent most time with before.
From the high tower of Valendew, Isabel watched the end of the war begin. The fourteen year old princess was way too worried about Iraphar, the seventeen-year-old knight, to ignore watching what was going on. Although she was only fourteen, she felt deeply about Iraphar and panicked at the thought of him dying in battle. She sat on the and watched the battle from inside the top room of the high tower.
Iraphar noticed that Annocia, the Elven hero, was ripping through the human ranks. He went to take him out quickly. Iraphar knew that if he could wipe out Annocia, the elves would fall to lack of leadership and power. Iraphar charged to Annoica, ignoring any other soldier he pasted by. Annocia turned around just in time to see Iraphar with his sword up high, trying to rain down on him. He quickly evaded this and began fighting Iraphar. Neither of the leaders could touch each other. Both were quick and defensive, causing them to be unbeatable to each other.
Maylin, who was still with the other archers, had his bow fixed on an elven archer far away. He knew that he could hit him. Right as he was getting ready to fire he heard Iraphar shout to him, "Maylin, help me!" This caused Maylin to mess up his shot. He turned to assist Iraphar.
Iraphar had hit Annoica once, and caused him to flee. Annoica went running behind his men to the restoration magicians in the back. Now that Annoica had left, Iraphar looked around to check on his fighting siblings. He saw Maylin still unharmed upon the hill with his group of Archers. Then he looked up in the air to find Tyru, floating somewhere. She was easy to find for a few reasons. She was actually pushing the air to fly over the battle and cast magic upon the elves from above. Secondly, she was the only magic user on the entire fight. When Iraphar looked up at her, he saw something drastic! An arrow came flying and was shot straight through Tyru's throat! Tyru stopped in the air and gagged, trying to pull it out. Tyru fell to the ground bleeding massive amounts of blood. She struggled with the arrow in her throat and coughed painfully on the blood stained grass of the Natilalia Highlands. Iraphar came to her aid, but by the time he had got there, Tyru had bled to death. He looked at the arrow, noticing that it was a familiar style of arrow. He didn't care through. He was outraged and berserked at the lose of his only sister. Just after Tyru had been killed, a massive gale came from the back of the elven lines and swept many of the elves, and humans, hundreds of feet in the air, killing whomever was caught by it. Iraphar had lost it, and ran through the elven lines swing randomly and powerfully. He cut down the enemy and destroyed nearly all of the wave of troops that were there. Once there were almost no troops left, Iraphar fell to the ground of fatigue. He saw the remaining elves were retreating from battle. He couldn't find Annoica though. He didn't know if he had killed him or not. Iraphar turned around to see his ultimate demise. All of the Youngest Knights had died. But then he realized then when we went berserk, he had killed most of them. He looked at his sword, stained with blood. He went to his knees to pray to the divines and ask for the forgiveness. He looked around again. Tyru had died due to the arrow. He looked for Maylin, but could not find him in sight. Luckily he could not find Maylin's corpse either. Little did he know that Maylin was not dead. Iraphar then thought about Delphin, and the stable. When we looked for the stable, he noticed that Annoica had standing near it with a torch! Annoica had lit many of the buildings on fire and watched them burn, and now he was just burning the stable to the ground. He didn't know that Iraphar's brother was in there, nor would he have cared. He touched the torch to the ground and turned to see Iraphar charging at him with flare in his eyes. His sword was withdrawn and he had every intention of killing Annoica. Annocia knew from the injuries he did get in battle, he would not be able to fight Iraphar. Annoica ran in the opposite direction. Unfortunately faster the Iraphar. He ran, and did not come back.
Iraphar ran into the stable to find Delphin. By the time he had gotten in, the whole stable had gone up in flames. He looked and looked, and finally found Delphin hiding in a pile of hay! He picked up Delphin and saw that he was totally unharmed. For some reason, Delphin was either asleep or knocked out, because he had a pulse and was breathing. He ran out of the stable with Delphin in his arms, just in time for right after they got out, the stable fell to the ground in flames. Iraphar looked around the site. Nothing besides him and Delphin was alive. He looked around to see bodies of the dead solders. Corpses of the small, innocent children that didn't deserve to die. Tyru, dead with an arrow through her throat. Maylin, his other brother, was nowhere to be found on the battle field, dead or alive. Houses, stables, and churches had all been burned down by Annoica.
Iraphar looked at all of this sorrowfully, and sighed. The worst of this, was that the war was still not over. Iraphar began to pray to the divines, asking them to take care of Tyru. He picked up his brother, whom still hadn't opened his eyes, and began walking home. Nobody was here, they all retreated. And now, Iraphar carried Delphin home, and prepared for the next assault of the Elves.
Please remember I deliberately left out a TON of details. Many of those details, such as why Maylin was gone and what Delphin was doing, will be covered in later chapters that center around those character. This was just a small, introduction chapter explaining things about the story.