Light
It was 300 years after the death of king Babbie. The grandson of Babbie,
Keygar, was now king of the city Light. The city was very succesful because king Babbie had killed all invading demons. So there was peace now.
King Keygar was a respected man, and he had over 50 children who all lived in the city. He had make alliances with the cities of Wind, Earth and Fire. Life proceeded, until there came a day when there was war with the demons again.
A fisherman, named Lasdi, sailed to the sea very early in the morning because he wanted to go home early this evening. It was a very foggy day and all other fishermen from the village stayed at their homes that day. Lasdi threw his nets out and waited for a while. Then he felt something. There was something that was pushing against his boat. He standed up to see what it was, when there was an enormous shock which threw the boat on its other side and made it sink. The water felt very cold. Lasdi looked around, very frightened, to see what made his boat sunk. Then he felt something swimming around him. He looked in the deep, dark water but he saw nothing. He began swimming away from the wreck but the coast was far away. Too far away. Lasdi was scared to death because he knew he didn't going to make it. On that moment, there was something that pulled him into the deep water. He tried to shout but that wasn't succesful.
Nobody ever saw Lasdi again.
King Keygar sended a huge offer of money to the city of Water to join the allicance of the four cities. He sended one batallion to guard the transport. The king from Water was a litttle man with red eyes and white hair. He gave the transport a warm reception. The money was stored in the big safe of the palace. He promised he wants to join the alliance and he gave the men a place to sleep outside the city. But in the dark night, he dispatched a group of lancers to assassinate the soldiers. They succeeded in their unrespectable mission. None of the brave men ever saw the sun again. The king of Water went to the coast after these happenings and he had a secret meeting with some huge characters who came out of the sea….
King Keygar was in a very bad mood. He just received a message that said: "My king, this message comes from a fishermens' town. Strange things happen here. In five days we are missing 30 people of our town. They all just disappear when they go to the sea to catch some fish. We are afraid, please send someone to inspect these terrible things."
Actually king Keygar had no-one to send to that town. He immediatly asked his son to come to the palace. His son asked: "What do you want me to do, father?"
"I want you to immediatly search 500 of the most brave men of the city and train them in four weeks to Elite soldiers. They must be good with bow and sword," said the king.
His son began with his task and king Keygar went to the old library of the palace to read about evolving of demons.
4 weeks later. The new Elite was ready. They were not very skilled but good enough.
The king promoted his son to commander of the Elite. Together with him and the Elite, they rode to the East, to the fishermen's town. When they arrived a few days later, they found the town completely abandoned. They rode to the sea where they saw some bodies lay on the beach. One Elite soldier went to the bodies.
"All dead, sir," was his conclusion.
At the moment he said that, a huge rock came out of the water and killed the man. Something rised up out of the water. The king recognised it. It was an enormous water demon. He shouted to all the Elite soldiers: "Aim at his neck!"
All arrows hit the enormous demon in the neck but they had almost no effect.
With his 6 tentacles he made a huge wave and all Elite soldiers fell on the ground. The king fired his bow and the arrow hit the demon in his eye. His second arrow hit the other eye of the demon. He couldn't see anything now.
The king made a sign with his arm and all the Elite soldiers and his son retreated to the forests near the beach. The king had a message: "Get the oil we have brought with us. Put your arrows in it and lighten them. The thing we saw is a water demon, probably evolved from the demons king Babbie had killed. You maybe think: "fire isn't effective against water, but they live in a cold sea and fire is hot as you know. I think they can't stand the heet. On my sign, bows ready?"
All the Elite shouted: "For Light, for king Keygar!"
The arrows flew through the air as fast as thunder and hit the demon everywhere.
His body became red of all the hot arrows. The Elite fired again on command of the king and that salvo was too much for the water demon. He roared with a terrible sound and he fell in the sea. He looked like a hedgehock with all those arrows in his body. When he wasn't in sight anymore, there was a big WHAAAMMMM! In the water and a huge fontain of water marked the place where the demon died.
The king shouted to the Elite soldiers: "Victory is ours!"
All Elite soldiers yelled: "Hurray, we're victorious!"
When the beach was quiet the king said: "Make a grave for this unfortenately Elite soldier and I also want you to make an outpost on the beach."
First they made a high stone wall with some farms inside to have enough food if they were going to be under siege. Then they made 10 catapults on the walls, which could fire enormous firing stones on whatever person. The reach of the catapults was plus-minus one kilometre. When the catapults were ready they started to build very high watch towers, one on every corner of the outpost. That was going to take loads of time. In the time the Elite soldiers were not building, eating or sleeping, they were practising fighting with bow and sword to increase their experience.
The city of Earth was a peaceful city. It only had an army of 400 welltrained men and only one wall. It was surrounded by forests and small lakes. The king of the city, Sutbi, was an average man and he was not very tactical, but he was very good in talking. So it came that they had an alliance with large groups of wolves, bears and eagles in the environment.
On one day, one of his scouts reported him that a small army was marching to his city. Immediatly he sended some of his most loyal men to the other cities of the alliance to ask for help.
He also asked the three kings of the eagles, bears and wolves for help. They agreed and they sended massive armies. Sutbi armed the eagles with huge knives, he gave the bears axes and the wolves get body armor.
The outpost was ready. It had become a beautiful fortress, very strong and almost untakable. The king said to the Elite: "300 men stay and await further orders. I want you to report if something happens. Good luck men, and remember: you are the Elite, the finest army ever!"
The son of the king also stayed in the outpost to command the troops. The king left with the other Elite soldiers, back to Light to see what was happened there.
One of the scientists of the research-centre of light had found the solution. The question was: what can easily defeat the water demons without victims at our side?"
He had just designed the first crossbow, and after that he knew a very good solution of the problem: produce lightning-arrows. It had lots of advantages: the arrows were twice as fast as normal arrows, the aim was much better and the arrows were very powerful against water demons. They are so effective because if they hit something, they explode in a little thunderstorm and they would short-circuit.
When king Seygar rode through the first outside gate, there came some messengers with letters from the other cities: "My Lord, no-one returned from the transport with gold," and
"King Keygar, our city will be attacked soon. Please send reinforcements."
The king sended at once 4 batalions of bowmen away with one of his sons and he began to find more about the disappearing from the soldiers of the money-transport. He didn't really trust the king of Water and he let his best spy, Juka, come to the palace. Juka was not his real name, and he had many other names.
"Juka," said the king, "I want you to go to the city of water and see what's happening there.
I don't really trust them over there. You can go. Oh, and Juka, good luck."
Just when Juka was gone, a monk came in the palace. The king looked at him.
"Brave king, can I speak?" said the monk.
"Permission," said the king.
The monk began: "We live in an abdey far away in the south. On one beautiful morning we heard something outside. I was praying and I didn't want to go out before that was done. That was my luck. Because when I came outside after my prayer, I saw all the other monks dead on the ground with terrible wounds. There must have been a fight, because there was also a victim on the other side. I couldn't believe it, but it was a demon. My grandfather once told me about this creatures because he served under king Babbie. I rode at once to Light, and now I'm here."
"Okay, it was a good decision," said king Keygar, "go take a bath and ask one of my servants to prepare a meal for you."
"Thank you, sir," said the monk, and he left.
The king sighed. He thought: the water demon we saw was probably evolved from the dead demons my grandfather threw in the sea, and now we have normal demons, evolved from those water demons. I think I must prepare for war.
He ordered every man between 18 en 45 to come to the open fields outside the city.
"I will train you to the finest army ever existed. We are only going to fight with crossbows, not with melee wapons. With melee wapons you don't win a war anymore."
And so came it that Light prepared a huge army of crossbowshooters.
All reinforcements arrived just in time. When all the bowmen of Light, the swordsmen of Wind, the lancers of Fire and the royal guard of Earth were ready, the enemies arrived. But the commanders of the good side had make a perfect fight plan. They couldn't loose.
Everywhere in the ground there were ambushes, the animals where ready to attack and there were enough stocks. Then the enemy forces came out of the forest and the king of Earth recognised the mark of the city of Water.
"You traitors," he whispered.
Then the battle began. The bowmen of Light fired their arrows and many enemies fell. The first line of the forces of Water fell in the pits the villagers of Earth had dig. They fell on sharp pins and were dead before they could protest. The city Earth was now in reach of the bowmen from the city Water. They had also got fire arrows and their first shot produced a lot of chaos in the city. Then king Sutbi gave the order "attack!" to the eagles who were sitting in the trees. The eagles' attack was very suspicious. They cut trough necks and scratched out eyes. After this quick attack, the wolves and the bears came. Many enemies had fallen already, but it was still a big group. The wolves bit in the legs of the enemies and then disappeared, and the bears just fought as they were used to do: kill in a short time as many enemies as you can. The animals fled to the forest to return on a better moment.
The melee-fighters of the forces of Water had reached the walls of the city of Earth and began to destruct them. The bowshooters of Light and the bowshooters from the forces of Water shot eachother with many casualties at both sides. The other forces of the good side prepared an outburst to kill the enemy's troops. They came out a sidegate and formed three long lines. They saw the city burn and they saw allied people died. An tremendous rage fell upon them. And they began to run, while they roared: "For Fire, for the city of Earth, For Wind, for Light, for our king!"
That had a huge effect on the enemy troops. They all looked, scared to death, to see where the sound came from, and on that moment everything came at the same moment: the bowmen fired from the city walls from the left, the animals attacked from the back and the huge army of Earth, Wind and Fire stood in front of them. They tried to attack the animals, but then they felt the swords and pikes in their backs and the arrows hit them in their heads. But still there was recistance. A small group of bowmen fired at the allied forces with a huge impact. But behind them came a group of crocodiles out of the forest and attacked the bowmen in their backs. They all died.
The big fight was still busy and the city was burning. But the commander from the city of Fire shouted: "Everyone out of your formation! Bowmen, fire!"
When the formation broke, the enemies stood alone. That was a golden chance for the bowmen. All bowmen of the forces of Water were dead and the shield of the enemy forces were all broken. That salvo ended the battle: every man from the army of the city of Water was slaughtered. The king of the city of Wind shouted: "We have reached the victory. Congratulations men! Tonight we'll drink and feast and think about our fallen friends! Hurray!"
Everyone who was still standing was happy and began to yell.
But there was one task they hadn't completed: the city was still burning and they began to extinquish the fire with water from the lakes which were near. But when that was completed, the animals heard something. They fled because there were five enormous demons marching to the city. Actually everyone fled. The demons began to destruct the city, and no-one even thougt of attacking them. But when the good forces thougt it was all lost, out the forests on the other side of the city came 10 elephants. They were full-armored and there where welltrained crossbowshooters on them. Normal arrows wouldn't hurt the demons, but the arrows from crossbows were twice as quick as normal arrows. They were not thunderarrows but they were well made. And so began the battle, who was later called 'the battle of giants'. It took 3 hours before all demons were destroyed. Now they could finally feast the victory. The elephants were sended by king Keygar and one of his sons led the army. They decided to leave the city of Earth and all villagers of Earth could live in the city of Fire.
Juka had reached the city of Water. While he was travelling, he learned how to play on a flute and he did well. He masqueraded himself as an musician and he rode to the gate.
"What's your name, stranger?" asked a guard.
"Just a musician, good man," he replied.
"You can pass."
He rode into the city and he saw two types characters, the evil men of the city of Water, and, as a surprise to him, demons. They were not long, but very compact and they looked very agressive. Juka saw that the city has grown enormous. When he came to the palace, a beautiful clothed guard asked him: "What's your name?"
"Gyu'rip," said Juka.
"What brings you here, Gyu'rip?"
"I want to play on my flute for your king," answered Juka.
"Oh, so you're a musician?" asked the guard.
"Yes," said Juka, while he thought: stay calm.
The guard thougt about that, and then he said: "Follow me."
The outpost did well. There were many attacks, but not one succeeded. The Elite had make ballista's in the towers, armed with huge lightning arrows. At the end, there didn't came demons anymore. Further, nothing of interest happened there.
There were now 3 big cities left, and a lot of villages who were now preparing to defend theirselves as good as possible. King Keygar prepared his soldiers to go on crusade. They had to kill the demons once and for all. From all remote corners there came bad messages. The king prepared his big army of crossbowshooters and left the Elite soldiers behind to defend the city of Light. They first rode to the 2 other cities to see if they could get more men. The kings of the cities gave the king melee fighters, but the king didn't accept them. Melee wouldn't help anything, he said. So he went on crusade with just his big army. They rode on horses and they had enough stocks to defeat the enemy.
The king had told one of his daughters to control the city. She wasn't very good at that so she told one of her brothers to do that. She began to recruit women above 18 and under 45. She wanted to make an army of Elite women soldiers. They practised with almost everything: bows, crossbows, swords, throwing knives, lances and pikes. The king's daughter went to the scientists' centre to care for the armour and weapons. She cared that everything was the best of the best.
Juka awaked. He looked around. The sun shined in his face. It must be late in the morning. Yesterday he searched for special things to tell the king, but he didn't found anything. Only that the city of Water was now the enemy of the three other cities, and something about the demons they work with. The demons had come out of the water, and they were evolved from the average demons that king Babbie defeated. They lived for years and years in the water, and now they were out of the water, and become land-demons. It was just like the situation hundreds of years ago, but now there were no special fighting techniques. He must find out more, he said to himself.
The crusade was till now a succes. The thunder arrows had a huge effect on the demons, even land-demons. But now there was a mountain which they must cross. When they were on the top of it, and they looked to the valley beneath them, they saw thousands of demons behind them, and there were also houses(if you could call it that). But it was not really a challenge for the army of the king. They fired one salvo with their fire arrows, so that the houses would burn, and presently they changed their fire arrows to the famous thunder arrows. The chaos was complete. The demons ran, besides the burning houses, to nowhere. They where insane of madness while the thunder balls were rolling everywhere on the ground. It was such a stir that almost every shot was a hit one. When there was almost no move left, the troops of the king went down the mountain to inspect the place. The houses were all burned out and everywhere on the ground lay dead demons. King Keygar shouted: "Search out the houses. Kill everyone in your path. Have no mercy, because you won't receive any mercy from them. Go, my soldiers!"
The crossbowshooters walked careful into the valley. They walked through the houses, and if there was no demon alive in a house, they shouted: "House cleared!"
Four crossbowshooters died because they were in a collapsed house. In some houses, there were some demons left, but they were no problem for the crossbows.
That continued, until a high officer shouted: "Valley cleared, all man return to te king!"
They walked to the king, who was waiting near the biggest house of the valley, and he said:
"This is the birth place of all the average demons. Now we have destroyed this place, we can clear the whole country. That's a hard mission, there are thousand and thousand demons spread over the country. But first we must destroy the city of Water. We'll make a camp here and I'll make a plan to take the city and destroy it once and for all."
His army agreed and they made a camp on the top of the mountain so that they could see approaching enemies. They made a wooden wall around their camp and they also made a watch tower. Then they took a rest.
The same scientist from the crossbows and the thunder arrows, had found another very important weapon. After that he was promoted to 'highest scientist of the city Light' and 'strider of king Keygar, 1st class.'
He went with his invention to the daughter of the king, who was still training the Elite women soldiers. Today was lance-training day. The scientist shouted her name and when she was standing in front of him, he said: "Princess, I think I made a great invention. Look." He put his invention on the ground, loaded it, he put the torch to the powder-magazine, and WHAMM! The canonball flew through the air and hit a tree, which fell immediatly on the ground. The princess was impressed by this invention and she said to a high servant: "Get the royal elephants, I think we can place those cannons on the beasts. Then we'll march to my father, I think he can use these things. And you, scientist, you'll get a big reward."
The scientist was promoted and the princess marched with the massive army to her father. The city was now under the command of another son of king Keygar.
There was nothing more Juka could find out. He had listened at doors, looked through windows, and talked to all kind of people. He had sended a few homing-pigeons to the king with the things he had found out. He couldn't find out more and so he wanted to send one more pigeon to ask the king to come to Light. But when he sended it, he didn't saw there was someone standing in the corner. That person was very interested in what Juka did.
The princess (Tukei was her name) arrived with the large army of women Elite soldiers and the elephants with cannons at the mountain. The king was happy to see his daughter. Now they must wait a little longer to invade the lands of the city of Water, because the king must think of another battle plan with those cannons and the Elite women soldiers.
A few ours later, the homing pigeon of Juka arrived. King Keygar wrote back to him: "You have permission to return to the city. Thank you for doing this mission. Be careful."
The villagers of Earth, who were living at the city of Fire, were still living close to the animals. And they had a wonderful idea that sounds very attractive. The eagles, who were very big, could carry young men with crossbows! They started to practise with that idea.
Juka still didn't receive the letter of the king. He wandered to the city, thinking of what to do now. When he returned to his room, he decided to get in bed. When he lay there for a while, there was a knocking on his door. "Come in," said Juka.
Three men came in, one palace guard and two other men who had black clothes. They took their swords, and put them on Juka's chest. The palace guard asked: "Is this yours?" and showed Juka the letter of the king. Juka said he didn't know what that was.
"Yes it's yours. So you're from the city of Light, eh?"
"No, I am from the South," replied Juka.
The guard didn't believe him. He ordered the two men in black to take Juka and throw him in the dungeons. But Juka didn't want so. When the palace guard turned around, Juka took his short sword as quick as the king always did, he stabbed the palace guard in his back, and turned around to fight the other two men. The palace guard was dead before he hit the ground, and Juka took his sword. It was a long sword. He slammed the head from one black man of and stabbed the other one in his heart. The three men were dead, and the chamber coloured red. Now, so knew Juka, he must be very quick. He took his bag, brought the sword of the palace guard with him and he also took a bow, with nice long arrows. He practised a lot of shooting with the bow when he was young, and that was now an advantage.
The whole city knew that he was a spy so he couldn't trust anybody. He took his horse, who was downstairs in the palace, and quickly rode out the gate of the palace. There were two palace guards there who tried to stop him, but he hunted them down while he was riding. They both died. Then he rode out the gate but he discovered that there was a horde of enemies on horses behind him. His luck was that they didn't have any bows. Each time there was a good moment, he turned around on his horse and shot one man. He knew that each shot must be a hit one, because he didn't have many arrows left. He rode very quick and the enemies couldn't reach him. But there was a moment that he put his last arrow on his bow. With one eye, he looked over his arrow to one of the three men that were left. He looked the man straight in the eyes and he saw fear. But Juka did knew if he didn't shoot, the man was going to kill him. So he aimed, and… hit. The arrow made a hole in the head of the man, between his eyes. Now there were two guys left. Juka had to get rid of them. He rode more slowly, so that the men could ride beside him. Then he jumped, and threw the man of his horse. He took his sword and with a few cuts he threw the other man of his horse. He wasn't dead but heavily wounded. When Juka saw a river, he let his horse rest and he cleaned his weapons.
After that he started to ride to the city of Light.
The eagles were ready. They could hit the stump of a tree while flying, what was a very hard thing to learn. The king of the city Fire sended the eagles to the army of king Keygar, together with a small army of lancers. They wouldn't help much, but it should be handy to have some men to guard the camp. That was actually no task for the crossbowshooters of the king and the Elite women soldiers of the princess. And not at all for the elephants.
Still there came many messages of villages which were under attack. The prince who has taken the control of the city of Light, didn't know what to do with those messages. He sended a messenger to his father to tell him what the current situation was.
The battle plan was ready. With this plan they almost couldn't loose. The king gave his men the order to strike the camp and then march to the city of Fire. The march would take a week. Some eagles flew forward to see if there were no enemies on their path.
Snow was falling over the country.
The princess shouted: "Stop the army!" And she shouted to a woman Elite soldier: "You, walk forward, and look what that is!" She had seen something which came out of the air. The Elite woman held her shield for her body, just as she had learned, and held her sword besides it. She walked careful to the thing which lay on the ground, and looked to it. Then she shouted back to the army: "Princess, it is an eagle with a boy, and they're both dead." She looked again and she saw a kind of letter on the boy's chest. She read: "To whoever reads this. I'm Fyulon, an eagle-rider who is sended out by king Keygar, ruler of the city of Light. We were with six eagles and we had to search for enemies. We flew straight in an ambush. I'm the only survivor. Please say this to the king: "The king of the city of Water knows of the coming of the army. I don't know how, but he knows it. Thank you."
The Elite woman soldier walked back to tell the princess. But when she was half-way, there came three arrows out of the forest which was near. The three arrows hit her shield. That gave such a shock that she felt on the ground. But she immediatly standed up, turned around and hid behind her big shield. Then she slowly walked back, with her face in the direction of the forest, while more arrows came out the forest.
The princess said to one of her soldiers: "Warn my father."
"Yes, princess," she said, and she ran away.
Then the princess shouted: "All women Elite soldiers, prepare for battle! Post in battle formation!" The first line of the princess' army held their shields forward, and the lines behind the first line held their shields above their heads. It was only shields you could see. Then came the lancers of the city of Fire, and held their lances besides the shields of the women Elite soldiers from the first line. So if there would come enemies out of the forest, they couldn't reach the Elite soldiers without many losses.
The army of the princess walked forward, to the forest. The king had presently prepared the other men of the army to attack. He let his Elite crossbowshooters and the Eagle-riders shoot at the forest with burning arrows, while the men on the elephants were loading the cannons. But there was an enormous rain of arrows that came out of the forest, and the burning arrows didn't help much because the trees were full of snow. The Elite woman soldier, who had taken the message, made it to the army, and she disappeared in the enormous mass of shields. Then she appeared near the princess and she said: "Princess, I found this message near the body of the boy."
"Thank you, that was very brave," said princess Tukei, "now return to your post."
She sended a messenger to her father with the letter. Her army was near the forest, when she shouted: "Stop! Let them spill their arrows!" and the army stood still.
The cannons on the elephants were loaded. King Keygar shouted: "All cannons, FIRE!" and there was a huge explosion of fire. A few trees fell on the ground with a tremendous CRACK! And after the shot the whole forest was burning. Now there didn't come many arrows out of the forest. The king and his daughter gave the order to search the forest and kill everybody who was in it. The army of the princess first walked in. Some of her soldiers were killed by burning trees. But soon the whole forest was empty of enemies. On the ground there lay hundreds of demons with bows. Then the masters of the army yelled: "Victory! Hurray for the king and princess Tukei!" and the whole army yelled: "Hurray, hurray, hurray!"
After that they buried the dead allied soldiers and burned the demons who attacked them. They made a camp for a short time and king Keygar had a little speech: "Dear, brave soldiers, I just read a message which said that the king of the city of Water knows of our coming. So I think we can prepare for a huge battle. The earlier we lay siege to the city of Water, the more bonus we have on the battlefield. Thank you all for your brave fighting in today's battle, but now we have to go." And he walked back to take his horse.
Still the snow felt on the ground and the trees.
The army of the king arrived at the city of Water without many problems. They lay siege on it and they let no-one pass the gates. They cared that they were out of the reach of the catapults and arrows from the forces of the city of Water. The king said that they would attack the next morning. The soldiers of the huge army made a camp and the lancers of the forces from the city of Fire cared for the security of it. Now they could take a rest, but they still had to be wakeful.
It was four ours in the morning. Everyone, except the lancers from the city of Fire, prepared for the first attack. They were ready when it was six our in the morning. They saw nothing move in the city of Water. The king came out of his tent with, on his left side, the princess. They both looked beautiful and majestic. The king weared a battle suit, full armed with gold. He had the sword he heired from his grandfather, and he weared a black helmet with a huge red plume on it. On his big shield he had a picture from the city of Light. The princess weared her normal battle suit, in which she could fight very good. "Okay men, and women, we are going to battle. We have te sun in our backs, that is a bonus for us. It is going to be a hard-to-win battle, but we win for sure. Eagle-riders, you go and fly! Try to hold the sun in your back!" And the eagles flew to the city. "Men, quick! Attack! But be careful! And the Elite crossbowshooters and the Elite women soldiers began to march to the city. The elephants with cannons walked behind the army. The eagle-riders saw a few guards with pikes walking on the city walls. The guards had no idea what was going to happen. The eagle-riders all shot their arrows at the same time, and almost all guards died at once. But there were a few who could see the eagles. They shouted: "Attack! Warn the king! Waaahhhhhh!" and they were all dead. But the city was now warned. The eagles flew above the city to hunt down everyone they saw, but some of them weren't careful enough. The demons and the palaca guard from the city of Water shot them out of the air.
All of a sudden there was an enormous BAM! and there was a big hole in the North wall of the city. The hole was made by the cannons on the elephants. Then the elephants retreated to the camp and the allies ran through the hole. There came an enormous fight there and the king was fighting over there. The princess was, as always, by his side. The king's sword shined in the sun, altough it was full of blood. There came another gulf of demons out of the city and the king ran towards them. Some of them had bows and they tried to shoot the king, but he held his shield up and all arrows fell on the ground. The king had reached that enemies and he began to slaughter them. He turned around when it was ready and saw his daughter fighting against to many enemies. He ran towards her and he began his destructive work again. Everywhere around him he heard screaming, the sound of swords and running people. He didn't saw any eagles in the air. When he turned around he didn't see his daughter. He ran to her body, and she wasn't alive anymore. He shouted: "Everyone retreat!" but no-one heard him. There were only demons and palace guards around him. He picked up the body from his daughter and ran like he never ran before. Then he shouted again, and this time there were a few of his soldiers who heard him. They also began to shout and everyone retreated to the camp. The enemies couldn't reach the camp because the elephants fired their cannons on them. So the two armies retreated.
The king immediatly buried his daughter's body, overwhelmed by sadness, and after that he held a debriefing with his highest officers.
"My king, we have lost many brave souls today. I think we must quit with it," said one of them. King Keygar didn't even look at him. Another officer said: "Bravest of all kings, not only one eagle-rider has returned." That was bad news. There was almost no positive news today. The king didn't say anything, and he walked outside. He watched at the army, and counted his men(and women). He didn't look very satisfied. When he stood there, one officer named Ysseudos came forward, and said: "King Keygar, I think I have the solution." And he and king Keygar spoke a very long time that afternoon.
A few days later. A palace guard from the city of Water walked to his post above the south gate. The sun shined his first beams on the city, and the palace guard saw something wonderful. It must be from the forces of the enemies, he thought. However, he didn't see any enemies. It was a huge wooden elephant. The guard stood there for a moment, watching the elephant. Then he climbed off the wall to warn his officer. An hour later all important civilians from the city were on the city walls to watch the enormous wooden "statue". There was no doubt that the enemy forces were all gone. The civilans all said: "Let's accept the gift from our enemies."
So they did and they began a big feast with lots of food, wine and beer. But in the night, when everyone was drunk, there came a strange noise out of the tummy of the elephant. Something jumped out of it, but no-one noticed. Shadows walked through the city, and killed everyone who was not inside. Then they all ran to the gate…
The king was the only one who didn't drink. He also didn't accept the elephant in his city, but he was afraid of revolution and so he said they could take the wooden beast inside the city walls. "Even the palace guard is drunk," he mumbled, "and I don't trust that elephant." When he spoke that sentence, he turned around and looked straight in the eyes of king Keygar. "How do you come…" he began, but two Elite crossbowshooters shot their arrows in his head. The two men and the king left the room and walked through the corridor. Everywhere there lay dead palace guards. Their necks were cut through or they had a few arrows in their bodies. When they walked out of the palace, without haste, the saw burning houses, dead bodies and running allies. It was a real massacre. When the whole city was burned there was not any civilian alive from the city of Water.
There was a victory-feast, but the army from the king wasn't very happy. After that they buried their deads, (there weren't many) and they took a rest. The king held a little speech but he said nothing of interest. The high officer, Ysseudos, was promoted to 'highest general of the Elite army', and 'strider of king Keygar, first class.'
The king didn't know what to do now precisely. He sended a part of the army to the cities of Earth and Fire, and he also sended the lancers from the city of Fire to their homes, with 'thanks' to the two kings. The biggest part of the army began on his journey home to the city of Light. They still had to search the groups of demon-maurauders who crossed the country.
The winter was over, and spring was about to come. Everyone was happy, however there were still groups of demons who tried to attack the villages in the country.
That was why king Keygar sended parts of the army to every village. With that the problem was soon over. Every village became well-defended and soon there didn't come bad messages from attacks by demons.
Peace fell over the city of Light. The alliances weakened, but there were monks who had written down the whole life of king Keygar. That books were stored in the palace-library, so that everyone could read them.
King Keygar died, after a long period of prosperity for the city of Light. His oldest son took the responsibility over the city of Light. But he wasn't as smart as his father. That was why the alliances broke and war began between the three cities. The city of Light won the war, but there were many losses.
The son of king Keygar was poisoned by one of his brothers. His tombstone said: 'Kill one man, your a murderer. Kill thousand men, you're a king. Kill them all, and you're a god." That other brother was more like his father and the city of Light grew.
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