Prologue

The bell rang on an early morning. The ringing bell meant a barbarian raid. The blacksmith

Alexander and his wife Emily were the first to respond. They immediately dressed in their steel

breastplates, grabbed their long swords and went to the middle of town. Soon all the warriors woke

and ran to their war rooms to grab their chainmail and their short swords. Everyone ran to the ladders

and climbed up the defensive wall. Alexander reached the top first, where he readied the archers falling

in line. Beneath the cool mist a few barbarians could be seen creeping towards the wall. Alexander

yelled the orders, "Fire!" The archers sent a barrage of arrows.

Half the barbarians were slowed down, turning away to tend to their wounds. The ones that

survived fired their arrows back at the villagers and missed everyone but Alexander. He pulled out the

arrow and tied a rag around the shaft. He lit it with a torch and fired this last shot. The arrow struck the

barbarian's leader and lit his clothes on fire. Alexander fell to the ground dying. By now the barbarians

had learned to take cover from the arrows. The swords would be next.

Emily threw down a rope and slid down to the ground outside the wall. She was followed by

the swordsman. She yelled, "Charge!" and everyone clashed with the barbarians in a fight to the death.

Emily was the first to engage an enemy. After the first blow, two more barbarians flanked her. She

pulled out her sword breaker and tried to hold her own against three. Metal clashed against metal. One

of the barbarians fell to an arrow from the wall. As she struck a fatal blow to one enemy, the other took

advantage of the opening in her defense and took off her head.

The villagers won but found out they had lost their two greatest leaders. The warriors took the

bodies of Alexander and Emily back to town and prayed that their souls will be released from the earth

to the land of the gods. They burned the bodies to make sure this would happen. They carried the ashes

to where they had died and let them go in the wind. The enemy dead were left to feed the vultures.