So, sorry about the pause, I've been busy lately with school, I wanna get the vikings on track; the sooner I finish the main story of them and the samurai, the sooner I can continue on with my part of the story. I wanna get this going but yet again, I don't wanna have any time jumps to the samurai or through the viking storyline. It just wouldn't be fair. I may speed the story up from the Great Raid to the final part of the Viking story. I don't feel like that would be fair to just skip a large section of the game.


(1 year previous to current events)

A lone knight hauled himself through the snow of Ashfield's winter; this knight was familiar.

A torn Blackstone insignia, now fading from no care for it and the weather's effects on it covered the back of the knight's tabard.

He saw a lone city in the distance; he had taken a month of hard walking to climb the mountain range of Ashfield. There was a lone city atop it he needed to visit. His horse followed behind him as he pulled the horse's reins.

He had been traveling for over a month after abandoning the Blackstone Legion.

The city that was erected in front of him was a glorious sight; a tall chapel stood above almost every other building, bar the central fort, styled castle in the center. Iron Legion flags flew in the cold, winter air.

He felt exhaustion grip his senses; he couldn't give up now. The horse breathed heavily, the beast was even more tired than he was.

His eyes became heavy, his arms were slow, holding his longsword after days of non-stop marching left him exhausted. His legs were numb, they burned as he forced them to move.

He felt his legs give out from under him, he moved the sword to break his fall, only to have the blade bury itself into the ground as he collapsed. He gripped the handle as he tried to stay awake.

The horse made sounds of fear, he could hear a rumbling on the snow covered ground.

His helmet covered eyes narrowed and focused on the noise; he saw a group of horsemen growing closer. He wanted to get to his feet and stand his ground; he couldn't force himself off his own knees. When he felt he could lift himself to his feet, his eyes closed and he fell to the ground.

The Iron Legionnaire horsemen surrounded him and his horse, observing the knight.

"It's a warden!" the leader exclaimed, but the second one shook his head.

"Orange and black! He's a Blackstone!" he growled, but the leader stopped his assault.

"No Blackstone would be caught dead this far beyond their territory. Even Apollyon would know better than to send scouts into Iron Legion guarded territory." the lead horseman sighed. They wore chainmail and plated armor; long spears in their hands along with Iron Legion painted shields.

"So what do we do with him?" one asked, the leader sighed.

"We take him back to the city. A warden may be just what we need, the Iron Legion beyond the lands of Ashfield won't send any commanders down anytime soon." he sighed. They placed the knight upon his horse. One grabbed his sword and carried the knight to the city.

(Three days later)

The knight's weary eyes slowly opened. He looked around, he wasn't in a snowbound field of dead grass. His armor wasn't on his body, his sword wasn't in sight either. A lone man stood in his sight, reading a book in the low light. The man had a dark gray beard and hair along with a pair of soft glasses.

Without looking upon the knight, he spoke.

"Well...I suspected you would wake up soon." the man had a long aged voice.

"Wha-...where...am I?" the knight had a deep voice. Without his helmet. He had a scraggly black beard and a full head of hair.

"Well...you're in our chapel...but we're in Everwinter, capital and final sanctuary to the Iron Legion of Ashfield.

"E-Everwinter? So...I made it?" the knight asked, the old man only nodded.

"Well...since this was you apparent destination...you had a reason to come here...so…do you have a name, sir warden?" he asked, the knight sighed.

"…..." he was silent. The old man raised a gray eyebrow in curiosity.

"...Tristan Lionel...knight of the Warden Order." he sighed, the old man only put his book down.

"And what brings a former Blackstone knight to Everwinter?" the man asked Tristan.

"I...I wanted to return to the people of the Iron Legion...I need to warn them about Apollyon..." he sighed, realizing it was too late.

Before the old man could say anything, a knock came from behind the room's door. The old man, in his dark gray robes stood up and walked to the door. He opened it, revealing a captain.

The soldier gestured for the old man to stand aside as he removed his helmet, revealing a man of African origin, his dark skin reflecting the light off. His dark black hair was trimmed until it was almost completely shaved.

"Good. You're awake." the soldier sighed, sitting his helmet on the small table in the room.

"Welcome to Everwinter, warden." he used warden as he didn't know the knight's true name.

"Tristan Lionel is this warden's true name." the old man explained to the captain, who nodded.

"Well...welcome, Tristan. I am Sir Morgan...most just refer to me as Ajax." the captain bowed graciously, a fist held over his chest as he did.

Tristan suddenly remembered he didn't have his gear and his horse was obviously nowhere to be seen.

"My armor, sword; where's my gear?" he asked, Ajax moved for him to take a slow approach to standing up.

All Tristan had on was a finely patched shirt along with cloth pants; he felt light without his equipment.

"Calm yourself warden; your armor and sword are being repaired and maintained. Your horse is being treated well in the stables." Sir Morgan's explanation calmed his mind.

Ajax was quiet for a moment before preparing to speak.

"We need commanders..." he said suddenly.

"What?" he asked.

"The Iron Legion in Ashfield isn't organized...we need to bring them together but none have answered our summons..." Tristan was shocked.

"They haven't answered the summons of their own capital? What has happened to the Iron Legion?!" he growled, Ajax slowed him down.

"Apollyon happened. She now has four legions under her command." Ajax sighed, Tristan was shocked.

"Twenty-thousand MEN AND WOMEN?!" he was utterly shocked.

"Yes...that's why we need your help." Tristan's brows furrowed.

"Need me? Why?" he asked, Ajax sighed.

"We've tried to unite the remaining Iron Legions of Ashfield ever since Apollyon appeared...we have maybe a SINGLE legion with our forces combined…but we won't even unite." he growled; Tristan was unaware of how bad the situation was.

"But a warden of your build could be just what we need. Someone with experience in battle and who's qualified to be a leader could unite our remaining legion." Ajax's logic made sense to Tristan.

Tristan sighed.

"Well...if only to redeem myself...fine." he sighed, Ajax smiled, retrieving his helmet.

"I thank you, the guard commanders will be joyous." he gave a warrior's salute before opening the door and leaving them again,

The old man looked to him and gestured for him to rise.

The priest led him out until they both looked across the city of Everwinter. The central castle/fort stood mightily among the rest of the structures surrounding it.

"That's where you'll stay from now on. Welcome to Everwinter, Commander." the priest bowed before turning back into the chapel.

Tristan admired the townsfolk, along with the city itself.

It wouldn't be easy, but he needed to get the Iron Legion back on it's feet.

"Well...looks like I've got work to do." he sighed.

(Two days later)

Tristan was now in his armor, but his helmet was laid on a table several feet away from him; his sword was in his left hand.

In the caste, he had discovered a huge, empty room, filled with cobwebs, dust, and a few old wooden crates.

He had an idea; to unite the Iron Legion of Ashfield, they needed to have somewhere they could meet, plan, discuss, debate, and plan their troop movement.

"Morgan!" he called his new second in command. The African captain entered the room, taken a bit back by the vast room, almost completely empty.

"This room. This will be our War-room. Have some builders and tailors arrive; they need to plan some furnishings, make banners to raise, a map of Ashfield, Valkenheim and the Myre. He looked at the center of the room, it was several yards long and wind.

"Also...have some carpenters construct us over a dozen chairs." Morgan was about to leave, but Tristan stopped him.

"AND. A large, round table." Tristan released him.

"Of course, commander." the man turned and left to give his orders.

His thoughts strayed to Jacklyn. How he longed to be with her; but he didn't know if she was even alive. He only prayed that she was well...and that they would one day reunite.

...

(Present day, Valkenheim)

Theoden looked over the huge army of vikings they were gathering. Siv hadn't disappointed with gathering her people to merge their armies. Runa had been successful in gathering the rest of the tribes under the Warborn banner.

Almost seven-thousand vikings all united in a single army.

Stigandr and Helvar had left to take back the Shipyard. They needed to remove the Blackstones from Valkenheim entirely.

The vikings had put much faith in Stigandr to help take back the shipyards. He was now in the poorly fortified shipyard, dodging Blackstone soldiers and fighting off the few in his way.

He bashed a captain in the face with his shield and buried his sword into the man's armored gut. He used the hilt of his blade to smack a man-at-arm across the head, sending him into the water.

The sounds of Helvar's berserkers and the marauders with them filled the entire air behind the wall. The Blackstone knights were well to hide behind their defenses, opening the gate would mean a slaughter.

A warden stood in his way of the gate controls.

"C'mon Stig! Just get to the gate control." he readied himself.

"Dannati barbari!" the Warden spat at the warlord. Stigandr only held his shield defensively.

The warden charged him, the longsword clashed against his shield. The jarl used the handle of his sword to hammer against the knight's helmeted head.

This warden wasn't a disciplined fighter; he spat curses at the viking during their duel, whereas Stigandr was practically silent.

The knight's sword struck his shield again, but Stigandr grabbed his sword arm and threw the warden to his right. The knight skid across the stone ground, trying to get his footing. A captain joined the warden.

Stigandr used his shield to almost send the captain off his feet. The warden charged him again, but the warlord used his shield to strike the knight's face. He drove his blade into the captain's throat as the soldier had attempted to get the warlord by surprise. He pulled his sword to the side, emitting a bloody tearing of flesh as the captain's helmet's rim and his armor below became covered in blood.

The warden stood up, preparing to fight the viking.

But he received only a blade to the gut. The vikikg coughed and stuttered, Stigandr let the dying knight fall to the ground.

He drove his blade into the chains, they tore quickly; the drawbridge fell, revealing the small skirmish force of vikings. Helvar roared as they charged into the shipyards. The men-at-arms' line collapsed almost immediately as the berserkers broke gaps into their ranks.

The marauders overran the men-at-arms, they were cut down left and right. Stigandr mounted a ballista as he spotted archers set up above them. He began firing flaming bolts at the bowmen. Each one skewered every archer he fired at.

He left the ballista and charged to join Helvar. The two came face to face with a conqueror, a female warden, and the knight in command of the shipyard.

"Uccidere questi maledetti selvaggi!" the commander growled; Helvar and Stigadr readied themselves.

The warden charged for Stigandr, the conqueror approached Helvar. Stigandr instantly blocked the warrior's attack.

Helvar had his hands full with the conqueror's shield being his disadvantage. Stigandr blocked an attack from the warden and threw the sword back, before bashing the knight with his shield. The jarl drove his sword into the knight's gut. She coughed, he threw her into the water below them.

Helvar was being pushed back, but saw a chance as the conqueror began gaining momentum on his next attack as he span his flail.

The conqueror was unprepared for his flail to be caught by the berserker's axe. Helvar brought his free axe up to break the chain of the conqueror's flail. The conqueror tried to back away to grab a weapon, but Helvar was faster than he, and drove an axe into his back.

He raised his axe up and drove it into the knight's helmeted skull.

Stigandr gave chase to the cowardly commander. He only cornered himself. His soldiers were being cut down left and right as he cowered.

The commander wore warden armor, but he dishonored the name of warden for running away from his troops' demise. Stigandr growled as he closed in on the commander.

Helvar saw Stigandr return with the man's corpse in hand before throwing it into the water.

"Well...we've got quite a mess to clean up." he looked to a lone berserker.

"Return to Theoden. Tell him that the shipyards are ours again; and tell him we can bring the army." the soldier nodded and ran out of the shipyards.

(Three hours later)

They had been clearing bodies from the shipyard along with removing the terrible fortifications the Blackstones had put into it. It looked like a shipyard again, not a poorly made fortress. Runa and Theoden along with Siv had arrived with the army now.

He had his helmet off, revealing his faded brown hair and stoic facial features.

Stigandr located crates that had an odd look and design to them. Runa was carrying knight weaponry to be smelted down along with Siv. Theoden was watching Stigandr and Helvar.

He opened them, to see some type of helmet along with items he had never seen. Helvar walked over to his side.

"Where did these come from?" Stigandr asked, the berserker looked over it.

"Samurai ships, washing up all summer long. Full of this junk." Helvar handed the old Kensei helmet to Stigandr. The jarl was curious...but then...an idea formed in his head.

A seriously risky, yet ingenious idea.

He held it in the air and turned to them.

"The Samurai!" he yelled, Theoden was confused. Runa and Siv laid the weapons down and turned their attention to the jarl.

Helvar turned back to his jarl. "They're weak. We outnumber them ten to four. But the houses are so caught up in their political war, it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't unite to defend their emperor. Every leader of the houses wants to take the mantle as the new emperor." Helvar's explanation made a grin grow on Stigandr's face.

"And they've had a good year!" Stigandr tossed the helmet at Helvar as he threw the chests open, revealing Samurai currency filling the crates.

They all admired the sight, most smirking. He sighed.

"We're gonna need a fleet!" he growled, they chuckled. It evolved til the entire crowd of vikings began laughing heavily before turning into a war cry.

"It's time...for a raid." Theoden thought to himself as he was the only silent one in the crowd.


Man I can't wait for when I write the Great Raid. So I hope the part with Tristan gives some answers to where he went. Jacklyn however...will not be seen til after the Samurai chapters. Which means she won't be mentioned for a while. But it's kinda leading to a different story see? It's very slowly coming together. See you guys in chapter 10.