Here it is, chapter 5! You know, aside from EI, which I have currently given up on, this is the most chapters I've written! Hopefully this goes on for a while! So. Here you go.

The town hall had been cleared, a large meeting table crammed into the main room. Makeshift seats dotted around it, almost all were being used.

Sicomba and his friend, who introduced himself as Kamiko; Aruthi and a muscled, silent man who's long nose -a common feature in Aruthi's village- was slightly bent; Jyoti and her husband, the leader of the Indian village; not to mention several strategic and fighting minded people from my own village. Sicomba had asked me to hold a meeting and I agreed, calling the others when he insisted of the urgency of the situation. So far he had not told much more than a boat of his enemy's was near, we waited in silence for an explanation.

"Come on Sic," Kamiko encouraged, elbowing him.

Sic stared at his hands, which lay on the table. He drew a deep breath and finally began to talk.

"For eons, indeed, even before the End, my people lived south of this land, in a country of our own. We were ruled by Kings, our name for his role being Shukun. We were a peaceful and prosperous people, until my grandfather died, and my uncle became Shukun."

I stared at Sicomba in amazement and awe. He was a prince?

"He waited until his third year of rule, when I was five, to begin his plans," he continued, not looking at any of us.

"He began forcing people into the Nether, to fight blazes and wither skeletons. The few that returned were greatly injured or driven insane from the cruel creatures in that place. Soon he had a great deal of trophies; piles of blaze rods, netherrack, soul sand, glowstone in abundance, gold nuggets and ghast tears, though none he was prouder of than three gruesome Wither skulls."

I stared at him, foreboding trickling down my spine. Soul sand and three Wither skulls were the ingredients to make a Wither King; the monster that had almost destroyed the world centuries ago.

"As you may have guessed, my uncle planned to build a Wither King." Gasps and looks of horror filled the room. Everyone had heard the legend of this beast, though few who had seen it lived. It was still alive, somewhere, for none had been able to kill it.

"How could he be so insane as to even think of such a thing?" I looked up at Sicomba as I asked this, not realizing until later that this would hurt him, his own family being called mad.

"He believed he knew a way of controlling it," Sicomba continued, sorrow and pain clear on his face.

"Did he?" I turned to Aruthi in surprise. Most of the people present were sickened by the story, but the librarian stared at Sicomba with a strange eagerness. "Did he manage to control it?"

"I did not stay to find out. My father opposed my uncle in his planning, and was murdered for his troubles. I knew I was in danger, and so I fled."

"But he followed?" the Indian chief guessed.

"Yes. Blue sails are the mark of the Shukun, of Japanese royalty. He has found my village, and he will attack this entire land."

Nodding, Cricket Hunter, Royale's only hunter, concluded "And you need our help."

"The ship is large enough for over five hundred people. Those who came with me number under thirty."

"Count Royale in," I announced, giving Carla, the woman who had taken the role of guardian, after I asked her this morning, a stern frown.

"Ekra, come with me," she ordered as she hurried out from the room. The second the town hall's doors were shut, she turned on me.

"Entering a war will in no way benefit the people of this village! Once again you are thinking only of yourself, and forgetting others live here too."

Contrary to Carla's belief, I had thought this through. "Five hundred people will kill Sicomba's village with ease. I know you haven't seen the grasslands, where the three villages are, from the rise where the Japanese will come. Quilla is a military village, which can be clearly seen by the large fort. Aruthi's village is quiet, not to mention distant enough that they will not see all of it. Which place do you think they will attack first? Do you really think we can fend of five hundred people?"

Carla stared at me, obviously trying to find something to say.

"I'm going back inside. Hopefully the other two villages with aid us." I brushed past her and entered the hall, where silence held over the meeting.

"Aruthi, Devaki, will you aid us?"

The two men looked at eachother, trying to decipher the other's decision.

"I speak for my village when I say we will stand by you Ekra, and you Sicomba. We are few, but many of us can fight." I mouthed 'thankyou' towards Aruthi, turning towards Devaki.

"You'd better have a really good plan," the chief muttered.

"I'm getting one," I almost whispered, remembering two horses trapped in a cobble enclosure.

(O}======§‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›‹›

I silently thanked myself for telling Ekra how to breed this horse. The foal was almost fully grown, and pumpkins, which Ekra had piled against the enclosure's wall, would speed it's growth.

The young stallion was pitch back, gleaming in the afternoon sun. The mane was as red as fire, burning down his neck. A horn the colour of soot rose from it's head, and deep red eyes glimmered up at us, the blood-coloured tail swishing through the air. It was a formidable horse, a Nightmare.

"They're beautiful," Sicomba whispered, staring at both the foal and the parents; Xavier and Divonna. Xavier's mane was the colour of gold, contrasting brilliantly with his almost silver coat and eyes. Between his ears, a pearl-white horn stood, gold spiraling towards the point. Divonna was as white as summer clouds, the the fur of her shoulders magically merging into feathered wings, which were folded close to her body. Eyes bluer than the sea were the only colours on her body.

"If you feed redstone to a Nightmare, it will burn the ground where it stands." Having read journals of Nether explorers, who had seen the horses in their natural dimension, I knew of this, and their other attributes -an immunity to fire and heat, the ability to jump higher than most horses, and being clever enough to throw enemies into the air with it's horn.

Ekra smiled, caressing Divonna's neck. "I doubt the Shukun has the ability to muster horses across the oceans."

More OC's are needed, I'll need a lot more characters, including people on the Shukun's side, for the next few chappies. Don't expect them to last long though. I love killing off people...