Deltora Quest 4 (Swords of Deltora)
Author's note: The quest is beginning soon. I have been doing some research into a few of the topics as this will require a bit of detail into certain things. I realize that I have yet to describe Endon Jr & Jarred Jr in physical appearance that will be done in this chapter. Also I'll try not to make Anna a Mary Sue type character. Continue reviewing the story. Oh & I love my description of Anna's birthday cake, the imagination of it just made me hungry. More spoilers for Tales of Deltora & who are the heroes for the journey?.
"Is there any other clues leading to the whereabouts of the other parchments?" Jarred inquired impatiently. Unbeknownst to them Endon, Jarred Jr, Anna, Josef & Linta, Thalion &Alarca (Lindal & Barda's children). Jarred was usually quiet & observing & dodging was his method of fighting. Anna was aggressive & would always rush to the opposition first & she sometimes took the swift & silent assassin appoarch. However she was often impatient & that often became her downfall. Endon's fighting style required hand to hand combat & more than often multiple arrows.
Endon had his ear close to the door intensively listening to the conversation. He had short rough blonde hair down to his neck like his twin Jarred & sparkling blue eyes like Jarred Jr. Josef had the same straight black hair of the Torans & white face with rough hands & he had great brown eyes. Linta was tall & auburn-haired with freckles; she was thin but remarkably fast & had blue eyes & had a sleek body. Linta's weapon of choice was a rope dart-a flexible sharp dagger blade connected to a chain & at the end was a metallic ball. She easily mastered the weapon & could wield it to swiftly relinquish, kill, trip or chain trap the enemy.
Thalion was like his father big & supposedly fearless, he was much more of a cavalry warrior than an infantry or auxiliary. He was broad, stern, battle-scared, powerful & had blue eyes & uneven blonde hair & was clean-shaven. He used a long curved sword, a circular broard shield & was a brilliant archer. Alarca was unsurpassed by her entire family in the art of spear-fighting. She also was auburn & had green eyes & a healthy body with muscles.
The 7 people in that group had skill in using their weapons that was like a herd of ak-baba attacking. They would work together like the dragons did on that fateful night devastating evil with their optimal skill. At the same time they would fight with the heart of a true warrior pure of heart. "What are they saying?" asked Anna enthusiastically "Something about 7 swords" Jarred Jr replied.
"The clue is 'the path to the paper of knowledge is timidly behind my story. '" answered Ranesh. "My story could be a biography of this person Tod Bigg-Fellar" suggested Tom. "Perhaps it is also a birdsong, for I have heard that the bird that Tenna met was a timid being." Ranesh replied as he pulled out the volume 1 which contained the Tenna Birdsong tales & begun casually flicking through the pages. "I knew it" he said as he grinned & began reading the page.
Tod Bigg-Fellar
The territory of the opal was said by their cousins (the other dragon tribes) to contain many strange beings. Tod Bigg-Fellar was no exception, although his parents were noble fair-faced cooks. He looked nothing liked them his face was as red as the tomatoes that grew in the Ralad farms & his left eye could change colour to tell his mood. Tod's parents weren't surprised for it was a familiar site to see peculiar beings born in the wild forests & lush habitats of that area.
As he grew up Tod forged an unacceptable relationship with Hekken of the Wild Mere. The tribes at them time were fearsome enemies with each other & would fight viciously & killing their neighbour's people without remorse. As he grew up he secretly went out to play with Hekken & learn his skills in exchange for his. Tod often did this when he wasn't in the kitchen learning the confidential culinary skills known only by the people of Hira & the plains. Hekken was taught by his father the great fighting technique of the Mere. Tod also befriends Opal the dreamer & was never alerted by her strange precognitive dreams
For many years they did this-Hekken became a better chef & Tod became a greater warrior until Tod's parents Mungo & Anzuray found out. They claimed that Hekken savagery was corrupting their teachings passed on to their son. A fierce quarrel began between the two tribes & eventually Tod was forbidden to go outside of Hira likewise Hekken couldn't go beyond the borders of Rithmere. Tod & Hekken missed each other so soon one night they rebelled against their parents & ran away together to live in the mountains of the north. There they stayed hunting for their survival fighting fearsome monsters until they became an exploring wanderer traveling with no purpose in life.
They soon learnt that their disappearance sparked a feuding war that lasted 10 years since there disappearance at 15. Now 25 together they created the first map of Deltora & their journey was quite perilous & faced many dangers including confronting the other tribes. Tod & Hekken also were given a great gift the blood of the scarlet dragon. It was gave to them by a friendly dragon who told them their secret a dragon's blood gave them longevity & possibly immortality depending on a person's heart. Those who were evil & dranked it would immediately die painfully if they were humans & not creatures of evil. The only way to die for a dragon is in the hands of a foe in battle.
They were the first ever explorers & the first writers of the Annals. Hekken & Tod soon went their separate ways. Hekken remained working with dragons & Tod choosed a free wandering life traveling to many places. The dragon's blood they dranked kept them alive for many years to serve in the Battle of Deltora, witness the knighting of the 7 & see the creation of many swords. (The Key to reveal the secret is hidden within the honorable pile of riches)
Tenna Birdsong Tale
"Honorable pile of riches this sounds peculiar. How can a traveling explorer consider jewels & gold honorable?" Barda said when he read this odd statement. "Perhaps he doesn't think it's honorable. He might be referring to the riches of Dread Mountain" Jasmine proposed. "Of course!" Gla-Thon said excitedly "he was referring to our talisman the symbol of honour & he must be saying it is in our piles of gold" "Honora find the parchment" Lief whispered the name of the dragon & requesting a favor.
The emerald dragon then flew into Del towering over the houses & tossing the paper carelessly into Lief's hand. "Here it is king. Next time don't interrupt me while I'm sleeping" Honora snarled angrily.
Downfall of the Knights
By the time of King Elstred- Deltora was settled in by many migrants from beyond the Silver Sea & the Ocean of the South. It had the most prosperous year due to trading as well as numerous feasting from the many foods imported. It is widely speculated by some people that some migrants were foreign criminals that were secretly brought in whom secretly allied themselves with the Shadow Lord. One of the more mysterious foreigners Agra around this time became the 1st Chief Adviser for the royal family.
Some settled into this new life & became simple, care-free farmers or traders; others were warriors whose only purpose nowadays was to fight for glory. Agra suggested that the Mere should change the Rithmere games from a traditional fighting festival celebrating their ways to a competition for riches, glory & success.
The people of Rithmere agreed to this as they saw no harm to oblige to the needs of the people. The games became a great success but however I heard whispers of conspiracy. Many of the warriors who were former thieves, assassins, pirates & bandits were being recruited one by one to join the Shadow Lord for his plan in return for sorcery. I was worried so I warned the Knight of the Plains Aeternus, the Knight of the Mere Miguel & the Knight of Honour Turon. Aeternus, Miguel & Turon in turn warned the King. But after many investigations my report was dismissed & I was laughed at by the Mere as though I was a fool.
A few weeks after the competition, raids by the foreigners had begun & the 7 knights began battling them. However many of the dragons were quickly tired by the fights & many were killed in both their homes & the battlefield. The raids were spread out in many different places & all 7 knights & dragon tribes were preoccupied by this.
The numbers of dragons quickly diminish & the warriors who by now were obviously known to be serving the Shadow Lord grew & the organized attacks became more frequent. The knights preoccupied by this & were seen to be failing quickly lost the faith of the people. They had learnt to be over reliant on them & that became the downfall of the land & the knights.
The king also gained weight due to the food & by now hadn't seen the 7 for days. Foreigners trading in Del & Broome stopped due to the order of the king & disgust at the fact that the knights were killing their people. This was without doubt one-sided facts that were spread by an evil spy. Someone seems to have taken advantage of the situation including Elstred's obesity. I began hearing furious shouts that the king no longer wore the belt everyday & that Ballum tried to kill the king. Strangely enough the fighting had stopped at this time.
The knights immediately heard the news & flew on the leaders to the king demanding that he wear the belt everyday like he once did. But he had already decided to agree with Agra's strange suggestion. With no other choice they drew their swords & marched to where the secret area where the belt was kept, the glass case at the tope of the hill & seize it for the king. They were met by resistance from numerous guards whom they easily defeated without killing.
However just as they were about to retrieve the belt many palace guards came to the other's aids like a sea lapping on the sands & seized them. They were branded criminals by the Chief Adviser & were sentenced to death. The knights also received news of their dragons being hunted for killing livestock, children & destroying resources. They were also forced to watch their swords broken before their eyes into several shards. Then they were left in the cold dungeons for many days to grieve for what they lost & their family who were to pay for their false crime by burning at stake.
The day came & they were dragged in chains wearing ragged clothes, most were shocked by this appalling treatment of their noble protectors & the migrants threw rotten vegetables at them for what they did to their families. As they were being led through the street their families looked on in fear. I was disgusted that the king listen to the lies & did this to them his friends & allies in governing. I organized a attack with Hekken & the other explorers Columbus, Kook, Mi-Kayle, Bentex & Scholastica.
We attacked the party & freed the knights soon we were followed by many guards of the king. Snatching the families of the knight & the jeweled-adorned boxes that contained the shards we raced out of the city fighting through a large group of warriors & guards. To bid us time Turon fought against the guards bravely slashing here & there until he was finally stabbed in the back. He sacrificed his life to his friends & family.
We eventually escaped the city luckily I was me & the other explorers were wearing masks so our identities weren't revealed. Finding a nice campsite in the Forests of Silence there we made our plans. Knowing it was no longer safe to keep the shards with us & that the gems of the dragons had been taken from pommel. We made our plans & began scattering the pieces across Deltora leaving an important clue to find each one. This is the book I gave the widows & the 7 of us were entrusted to guard over their children or unborn child. We went our separate ways each guarding a secret that was the blinded picture that shows the locations. Each book was left with the widow who later left it in the care of another of their own who will be marked.
Tod Big-Fellar
"Blinded picture that shows the location" Barda read as he was the believing it was absurd. "How can we find these books if we don't know who were marked by them?" Jasmine asked. Lief stared aghast at the parchment in despair, then 7 figures in the room Manus, Tira, Hellena, Tom, Marilen, Gla-Thon & Barda moved to the table & placed on it 7 black leather books at once. It was old, worn & tattered & on the back were faded gold words given by wandering explorers to the fair ladies of the knights. "We were told to guard this by our ancestors" they said at once.
Taking a ragged, ripped & folded sheet from each one Jasmine put them together over a map of Deltora. The small painting formed was the original 7 knights with 8 dragons of each tribe with their eyes missing. It revealed 56 points which were obviously the location of the shards. Jasmine immediately took a blunt pencil & formed a circle wherever there was a hole in the picture. "The locations of the shards have been revealed we musn't waste any time" Lief whispered silently but loudly enough for everyone to hear.
"I'm calling for the guards" Barda said as he stroded outside to find the 7 adolescent who were immediately punished by beating with staff & sent to bed. Barda's guards were tired & weary when he found them & were half-awake when he woke them. He sent a group of themto eachlocation & returned home each at different times. When they returned at different times with a shard Lief despite being sleepy began reforging the swords with fatigue. He would have fallen into the boiling water had not Jasmine gave him herbs that kept him awake.
When he was finished the swords gleamed like the morning sun & he thrust the sword into the ground & waited. Streams of light scarlet, golden, green, rainbow, white, violet & blue with a point of sparkling white. Endon, Jarred Jr, Anna, Josef & Linta, Thalion &Alarca startled by the light rushed to find the source where it led to the forge & found a red-eyed Jasmine & Lief.
"You must each pull a sword out of the stone for you have been chosen by the swords to find its gem" he said dazily. One by one each one went to grip the hilt tightly & try to pull the sword out of the stone. Although they were each very different people with the exception of the twins Jarred & Endon they all agreed that the task looked difficult. But surprisingly it was as light as a feather & they pulled it out with great ease. The swords had chosen them to be their bearers & the ones who will return the swords to its gems.
Lief then started creating a new weapon from them with the ropes that Marilen had weaved, hard wood from boolong & iron that he found. The weapons he made was to their liking & they would need it for their journey. Anna however reused an old leather strap for a horse & cut it into a belt she then smashed the iron into 20 shining new short daggers with a circle at the bottom for a pummel, a red cloth grip with an elaborate rain guard with metals protruding like a tree & a vine & flower pattern on the blade with a few curves. Jarred like Anna created his own weapon a brand new halberd with a strong handle made from a thin stick of a boolong tree & a imperial blade at the top with 2 spikes, a crescent like metal at the blunt side with a area to trap & manipulate weapons & a long curved blade. Endon followed his siblings example & made 100 sharp arrows, a leather quiver with a artistic golden design, a wave design bow & a long curved dagger for close combat.
Josef was given a dual-bladed axe with a spike & snake-lines on the blunt surface of each blade connected to a short wooden handle wrapped by leather with a chain connected to a sharp knife at the end. Linta was handed a rope dart with a needle-sharp blade connected to a several short lengths of rope weaved by Mariled & knotted to become puissant handle & joined together by a beautiful link made from small rings. Thalion was presented a brilliant scimitar with a handle of purple cloth reused from an old Toran cloak, its blade was a sharp as a dragon's claw & decorated with a picture of a dragon. Lief cage him a shield with a picture of a dragon bordered by the belt of Deltora, several arrows & a decent bow. Finally Alarca was given a long spear with a fine & sparkling blade.
When Lief did this he fell onto the ground & immediately Barda, Lindal & Jasmine rushed to his aid. They were relieved when they realize he had fallen into sleep due to his slumberous mood after staying awake so long. But for Linta, Josef, Jarred Jr, Endon, Thalion, Alarca & Anna they felt excited, fearful & confused. For in a short day & waking up they discovered they had been given the burden to carry the swords to the gems. Tomorrow was the beginning of a great adventure & all the clues they had to the location lied in a book.
Author's note: Will be doing the other personalities of the other original characters soon & what are Lindal & Barda's natural hair colour & eyes? Whose sword is who? What is their first destination? Also what do you think of my descriptions of these weapons?