Chapter 4

The paths of the grey

The journey there was kind of long seeing as they had ten thousand people to move, although the watch wasn't as bad to set up when they camped at night. The people and horses were getting tired. By the time they reached the entrance of the cave they were tired so they took an extra day to get ready. Greyhem sent spies to scope out the place. His reports were devastating news. Most of the commoners had changed sides and fought for the goblins plus there were twelve Darkelves that he saw which meant there were more! "We must fight them none the less," Greyhem kept saying but in his heart he began to understand, not all of his friends will make it, and he might not ether.

The next day the army marched up to the gate. Greyhem yelled to the army inside, "Let the lord of this treacherous place come and face me!" there was no answer, "Coward! Come and face me!" Greyhem continued. Just as he finished, the gate opened, and what it revealed was a grim and terrifying sight. Endless waves of Goblins marching forward. The united army began to take a defensive stance. Greyhem ran back on his horse and got of. He than went into his speech he had prepared incase this happened. "When all things end there will be only evil!" He began, "But today is not the day for evil to triumph. Today is the day good will triumph!" A loud cheer came, "Let us fight to the end and fear no darkness! For freedom." He then ran to the Goblin army. Glarsnal and Glarthen were the first to follow, but seconds later all ran forward. This is a grim seen. Greyhem thought. He was soon cutting and slicing heads and arms off of Goblins. He soon saw three dark elves and new he couldn't win. Most would have given up when they saw three Darkelves, but Greyhem new he would save many people if he even killed one or wounded one. He went into his best fighting style "cut them down" met "whirlwind of death" which met "dragon flies" And then he realized that all three were down and one quarter of the Goblins were dieing. The goblins must have been bound to the dark elves Greyhem thought. He then saw nine Darkelves and charged at them. How stupid am I? He thought for he new there was almost no way to beet nine Darkelves at once... or so he thought. He very soon found only two Darkelves down and he only had on cut on the ribs, and one cut on his leg! There were only five hundred goblins left! They had victory in their grasp and all because of Greyhem. Hundreds of arrows soon found their targets in the Darkelves heads, both fell and what was left of the goblins died except one. He ran to tell his master Al'drakene about Greyhem's talent at sword fighting.

As they went deeper into the cave, they came across more Goblins, thousands more and no Darkelves. "This time we must fight for real to gain victory, there are no Darkelves here." Greyhem said, "Our only hope is to stand together!" As the humans cheered the Goblins put out their long spears. "For Glory and death!" With that the horse men charged while the rest of the men, Spiders, Dwarves and Gronsot walked on foot. As the horse men charged Goblins let their arrows fly. Horsemen fell, Foot solders fell, but they still advanced. The Goblins suddenly had a look of fear upon their faces. The horsemen clashed into the Goblins and hundreds of Goblins per second were falling... but horsemen were falling too. As Greyhem charged into battle, The Goblins charged on their slarks. Slarks were wolves with the head and neck of a snake. Greyhem had only herd of slarks in stories his father told him about his Grandfather Greysham. With tongs that wrapped around your head they were one of the Goblins main tools of combat. But they could be tamed to obey humans too. Slarks were worse than in the stories. The slarks used their tong as a whip and cut people in half! Greyhem cut Goblins and slarks, killing at will. The battle raged for hours. Greyhem called the nine other leaders, Gorugu, Ulara, Glarsnal, Glarthen, Borathor, Narfel, Fadane, Gloren, Gorlthon, to him while the rest fought the oncoming horde.

"What are we going to do?" Greyhem asked his friends. "The goblins are too many, we cannot win... I was wrong."

"WHACH OUT!" One of the solders of Gronsot yelled; the Goblins had shot a catapult! The Goblins were stupider than they had thought.

As Gorlthon fought he decided that he would use magic if it got to rough. He took his staff and sword and he cut through any thing that stood in his way to Greyhem. Suddenly a catapult hit the ground near him knocking his horse to the ground, the horse didn't get up. Well now, he thought as he got up, that was nice. He charged at the goblin now surrounding Greyhem and Ulara.

"To me!" Greyhem yelled to the solders "To me all solders! Form ranks, Reform the lines and Drive them back!" He seemed to be frantic, trying to defeat the goblins on their own ground. Suddenly he saw a Slark facing him. With its tong he found it a formidable opponent, but not powerful enough, He hurled two fire balls at it and it fell easily enough. "Charge!" He yelled and the few that had stayed with him charged towards Greyhem. Hacking, cutting and killing the goblins they fought their way through to Greyhem.

"Finally you made it Gorlthon," Greyhem stated as though it was a joke, "We have driven them back, they are retreating." Sure enough there were men cheering in success, but he knew the goblins would be back, with more Darkelves and Slarks. "The Goblins will be back soon." Greyhem said, "Form a perimeter to keep them at bay!" He shouted at the solders. He walked away shouting orders. He has changed, Gorlthon thought.

Back at camp was utter chaos. There were fires and bodies strewn all over the ground. But Ulara did not care; she was already accustom to dead bodies.

"My lady," a young warrior from Greyhorime said, "We have fought the Goblin scum back to their old fortress, Bartem."

"Good, very good," Ulara said, "I have to talk to Greyhem and the others about another march, excuse me." She then walked past the solder and spotted the others.

"Ulara good to see you." Gloren said

"Like wise," Ulara said, she then turned to Greyhem and began on her request for another march. "I request that we push forward another march. We could catch the remaining Goblins in their fortress-

"No we cannot afford another march." Greyhem said, "The solders need rest and time to regain their strength. I agree with you though, this soon after a battle Goblins would not expect it." He then turned to Gorugu, "can we spare any forces at all?"

Gorugu was silent for a few seconds, then "I believe that there are a few that could fight, although if the Goblins have nearly as many as they did today I do not think they would win."

"I have an idea" said Gorlthon, "My destructive blast might be able to take the Goblins out, although I would be useless for many days after."

"That sounds good, but are you sure it would work?" Greyhem asked.

"I am not exactly sure, but there is an extreme chance I would be able to."

"Alright, Gorlthon goes."

Nice situation you got your self in eh Gorlthon. Gorlthon thought angrily should have kept your mouth shut. Greyhem and the others were leaving, he was alone. He heaved a great sigh and said to himself "well, this will be fun" He turned and started walking towards the Goblin fortress. As he came into sight of the Goblin fortress he charged his power.

As the goblin general looked out the window he saw a bright light, as it got closer he saw it was a human. "Look lively fools!" He yelled at his Goblins to shoot him down. But as they shot the human, the arrows bounced off of him. "What? That should have killed him!!" The goblin general looked in horror as the human spun his staff above his head and stabbed it into the ground. There was a sound like a cave-in then suddenly the ear-splitting noise stopped, silence, a dead air, filled the space. Then a fire ring came out of the human's staff and turned into a dome around him. The dome then shot... and the general saw no more.

Gorlthon leaned on his staff and marveled at what he had done. A whole fortress gone! He was very weak; He sent the signal (One blast of loud sound) and then fell....

When he awoke he saw his friends standing over him. "Finally, he's awake!" His vision was still blurry so he identified the person by sound.

"Ulara?" he asked placidly with a voice that did not sound like his.

"Yes that is my name and now you need to rest."

"Is everyone OK?" Gorlthon asked.

"Everyone is fine," a new voice, Gorugu, "and now you need to rest. You collapsed; you've been out for three days." Suddenly his vision flashed and he could see. They were out of the cave, and it was daylight. He sat up, or tried, because Gorugu put a huge hand on his shoulder. He fell back unable to resist. "Do you want to kill yourself from exhaustion?"

"I feel fine!" Gorlthon yelled angrily, although it sounded like a whisper. In truth he did not feel fine but he didn't want them to know that. He didn't want them to think him a weakling. "How much longer till we reach Narfemsar?" He asked.

"We will be there in a few days, in the mean time you should rest." he looked at Ulara and glared, he did not like to be told what to do. Just then Greyhem, Glarsnal and Glarthen entered.

"How are you feeling Gorlthon?" Glarsnal asked.

"I am FINE! Why do people keep asking me that?" Just then a new person entered, a solder.

"Sir, Narfemsar's tower is under siege!" He cried hysterically, "we have been asked to come with great speed! Their situation is that the Goblins have put siege weapons, such as catapults and trebuchets, and the Goblin army is estimated at fifty thousand! The gates have been overrun and the sorcerers and sorceresses are trapped in the tower." After seeing the confused looks on the leader's faces he added, "A messenger came with a letter from Narfemsar."

Oh man, Gorlthon thought sadly I can't even walk... wait, what if- yes! "I have an idea, hand me my staff." Ulara followed the request. "Thanks, now watch." He started chanting, it was the first spell he learned, the healing spell. He finished chanting and he had full energy. "Let's go kill some Goblin!"