A brief history of the Crusade. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own (World of) Warcraft. If I did, I would be busy making the next expansion instead of writing Fanfictions


7: Training Days

"And so, with the fall of Uther the Lightbringer at the hands of his former apprentice, Arthas Menethil—now known better as the Lich King—the Knights of the Silver Hand were all but decimated as all of Lordaeron fell before the Scourge," Arcanist Doan explained to the crusaders in his own personal chambers, known as the Athenaeum, in the Scarlet Library.

Danthor never got to meet with Herod on his first day of training, and spent a good amount of time practicing his sword swings in the Training Grounds at the armory. Though he wouldn't admit it out loud, the instructions he got from the Scarlet defenders on how to properly use a sword in battle were very helpful to the former farmer, and he found himself improving already.

When the sun was directly overhead, the warriors broke for lunch and were then sent off to the library wing for the next few hours, where they were told they'd be taught some of the history of the Crusade by Doan, and then the art of ranged combat by Houndmaster Loksey.

"During this siege, Isillien, a former priest of the Holy Light, and the elder Abbendis, paladin and father of Brigitte Abbendis, fought valiantly against the undead, bravely gathering anyone who was still alive on the battlefield. Perhaps it was the shock of Arthas's betrayal and the dissolving of the Silver Hand, but from that battle on, Abbendis and Isillien pledged to create a new order to destroy the undead and free Lordaeron from the grips of the Scourge—the Scarlet Crusade."

Balean, who was a part of the group listening to the lecture (meeting up with Danthor at the Huntsman's Cloister, the area just before the actual library), leaned over to him and whispered, "I've heard that Isillien and Abbendis went insane after that battle, but I guess they were sane enough to create this whole organization, so what do I know?"

Danthor nodded absently, absorbing all the knowledge Doan was putting forth, utterly fascinated with the creation of the Crusade.

"With the Crusade created, Isillien took on the rank of High Inquisitor while Abbendis became the High General, leading the organization together while powerful crusaders gathered under them like Highlord Taelan Fordring, Scarlet Commander Renault Mograine, and Grand Crusader Saidan Dathrohan. Fordring offered his home of Hearthglen in the Western Plaguelands as a base of operation for the Crusade, while Abbendis took control of Tyr's Hand in theEastern Plaguelands."

Danthor glanced around the room they were in. It was circular with the walls crammed full of bookshelves, each of them stuffed to capacity with several books, all on various subjects. There was so much in that room it was almost overwhelming.

"Unfortunately, the elder Abbendis died while fighting the Scourge, leaving his daughter to become the new High General. Currently, the Crusade is led by Grand Crusader Dathrohan, who commands the Scarlet Bastion in the city of Stratholme, constantly fighting against the Scourge who control it. High Inquisitor Isillien and Highlord Fordring control Hearthglen, while High General Abbendis now commands from Tyr's Hand."

Doan dropped the book he was reading from onto the desk near the back of his room, causing a loud sound to emanate from the impact. Everyone looked up at this to see Doan standing there and staring at them all.

"That concludes the basic history of the Crusade," he said. "I've still got you for about an hour before Loksey takes over, so I'm offering my extensive library to you. Feel free to read whatever you like to try and gain as much knowledge as possible. I only ask that you return them when you leave. Feel free to pick whatever you want, and remember, a powerful crusader is an intelligent crusader."

With that, the crusaders began to wander around the library, looking at the extensive books, starting with Doan's circular room and extending all the way down the long hallway of the Athenaeum. Danthor and Balean walked slowly down the hall, looking at the books thoughtfully.

"Quite a collection he's got here," Balean said, glancing around. "How long do you think it took for him to gather up so many—" He saw that Danthor had stopped moving, staring now at a single bookshelf. "What are you lookin' at?"

Danthor moved closer and picked out a single book. He turned it to look at its cover and saw that it was called A Brief and Varied History of Gilneas Life. Danthor opened the book to the front page and saw that it clearly wasn't read that much.

"You a fan of Gilneas or something?" asked Balean, leaning over Danthor's shoulder and seeing what book he held in his hand.

"Huh? Oh, no, not really." He closed the book with a dull thud. "It's just that my sister used to be a huge fan of anything that had to do with that city . . ."

Balean noticed the past tense when speaking of his sister, and sensed the worst had happened to her. He put his hand on his shoulder and said, "You can take a look at it if you like."

"No, not now," Danthor said, putting the book back on the shelf. "It's a bit too soon for that. Besides, I'm not a big reader—my sister was always the more intelligent one."

"Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear." They both turned around to see Arcanist Doan behind them, a smile on his face. "You'd be surprised, but not a lot of the crusaders we get around read a lot when they were younger. It's understandable, of course, but a shame. That's why I make it my duty to get as many crusaders as I can reading so they can not only learn more about the world around them, but also about the history that's made the world how it is today."

Danthor wasn't quite sure of what to say to this, so he uttered, "Uh . . . thanks, I guess."

Doan put his hand on Danthor's back and began to lead him away from the bookshelf. "Here, follow me. I've got a great book to start you off with, and you can feel free to take them with you to read in your free time—provided you return them eventually, of course."

Balean couldn't help but laugh a bit as he scratched the back of his head. He then looked around and muttered, "I wonder where the wilderness section is around here . . ."

— — —

The Huntsman's Cloister in the Scarlet Library reminded Danthor a lot of the Training Grounds in the Scarlet Armory, probably because they were both designed to be near identical, with the cloister being a square piece of untouched grassland surrounded on all sides by manmade stone walkways.

Upon the rules of Arcanist Doan, none of the hunter's pets are allowed into the library section for fear of them destroying something. Due to this, Kojak was left under the care of Houndmaster Loksey while Balean and Danthor were being taught by Doan. When the arcanist dismissed them to be taught by the houndmaster, the first place Balean went was to get his companion Kojak.

Loksey himself looked like a rather unassuming man. He was about the same height as everyone else, had the same balding pattern as Doan and a brown moustache, and had two one-handed axes on both of his hips. His Scarlet tabard was different from the rest of theirs, with a gold trim instead of a red one and a vertical red stripe going down the center and cutting through the flame in the center. Though Danthor noticed that all of the leaders wore this type of tabard to denote their superior rank. He also constantly had three Scarlet tracking hounds at his side at all time.

"Some of you know me, some of you don't," he said to those gathered in the cloister. "I'm Houndmaster Loksey, the captain placed in charge of training the Scarlet beastmasters and their pets."

"That would be me," Balean said with a grin.

"Congratulations," replied Danthor.

Loksey pulled out a bow and strung an arrow in it. Just as quickly as he did that, he let the shaft fly, zipping between Balean and Danthor's head and hitting the target dummy behind them right in the head. The two of them looked at each other apprehensively, then back to Loksey.

"Oh, and I should mention I don't like people talking when I'm talking," Loksey said. "When training beasts, it's best to let them know who's the master right off the bat, right?"

"Right, right!" both Balean and Danthor said quickly, raising their hands up as if in an apology. Kojak let out a nervous bark.

Loksey smiled. "Good. Now where was I? Oh, that's right, I'll be teaching you how to be an effective marksman. Sure, fighting close-combat is good a lot of the time, but sometimes fighting the undead requires striking from afar. Now I want you all to come and line up behind me. You'll go one at a time and take this bow. Now you won't be able to hand it off to the person behind you until you hit the dummy anywhere on its body. Understand?"

Everyone was silent, not wanting to speak up.

This caused Loksey to laugh and say, "Good, good, you're learning already. Now let's go, line up!"

Danthor ended up being in front of Balean, who was about in the middle of the line to begin with. While in line, Danthor couldn't help but ask, "Why's he making us all use a bow? Can't we use guns or crossbows instead?"

"The bow is the best ranged weapon to learn with," Balean explained in a hushed whisper. "If you can aim and shoot with a bow, you can easily use a gun or crossbow, though I prefer the crossbow myself. Now be quiet, unless you want Loksey to shoot at us again!"

Danthor got the point and kept silent until he finally got to the front of the line. He'd never held a bow before, and it showed, as Loksey had to instruct him on how to properly grip it. He strung the arrow he was given and closed one eye, aiming at the target dummy on the other side of the cloister. He let the first arrow fly, and it clattered off the stone behind the dummy, missing entirely.

"Try again," Loksey said, handing him another arrow.

Danthor tried again, taking his time to try and line up the shot, and missed by another few inches just again.

"Here," Loksey said, handing him another arrow, "try tilting the bow slightly. It'll help you see better than if you just hold it straight in front of you."

Danthor tilted the bow a few degrees to his left and aimed again. Letting out a shaky breath, he fired the arrow, and much to his surprise, he was able to hit the dummy, albeit a few inches lower from his heart, which was where Danthor aimed.

"Good job," Loksey said, taking the bow and handing it to Balean. "Get back in line and we'll try it again. Now come on, Balean, I expect great things from someone who's been training with me all morning."

"Yes, sir," Balean said, taking the arrow and aiming at the dummy.

With one try, he was able to strike the dummy right in the head, very close to where Loksey had hit when firing between both he and Danthor. Kojak saw this and gave an excited bark. Balean handed the bow back to Loksey and went back in line behind Danthor.

"That was amazing," Danthor said to Balean as he rejoined him. "You hit him right between the eyes with one shot."

Balean shrugged, saying, "I've been training with ranged combat ever since I was little, so it always just seems to come naturally to me." He tipped Danthor a quick wink. "Feel free to ask me any questions for how to improve, if you'd like."

"Sure," replied the warrior. "For starters, how can I improve my aim. It always seems to be slightly off, no matter how much time I take trying to line up the shot."

Balean grinned as he patted Kojak on the head. "Well that has a relatively simple fix. I noticed your stance was a bit off, and trust me, that makes a big difference when aiming . . ."

The group practiced their shots two more times that day. With his second shot, Danthor hit the dummy on his third try, but on his third shot (and after some more advice from Loksey and Balean), he was able to hit the dummy on his first try.

Sure, the hit wasn't exactly where he was aiming, but Danthor thought it was a start.


Learning a varied set of skills . . .

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