Chapter I: Moving Out

Polort Jagnar shifted the fire and added 2 wood logs, He didn't want to be cold again after 3 days of nearly freezing to death, Although young and fit (He was around 15 years of age) he was a slightly sickly person with a grand mind and an even greater heart, The ladder of which was most likely the reason for his slightly poor health, That morning his mother entered the room, Being the only child of a widowed mother, His life was hard and tough, After all, He was virtually the man of the house since his father died four months after his birth on the field of battle.

"Polly, Come here, There's a man looking for you", His mother often called him 'Polly', Why is anyone's guess, But it probably just because it was shorter to say.

"I'll be there in just one second, I'm stoking the fire for breakfast", Polort replied.

He was a tall person for his age, Almost 6 foot high with a thin build, A trait of his mother's, He also had some hairs above his lip which formed into a light mustache, Long blonde hair tied in a horsetail and stunningly bright green eyes, Almost the shade of emeralds, He also had a deep voice for his age, Which also didn't crackle or squeak, An odd trademark of his indeed, As he walked through the door, His mother Janna was waiting for him, She was a young mother for Polort's age (34 years of age) with a thin build, Short-ish henna hair, Long slender, But strong legs which bore enough hairs to make a rug out of, On which she wore the same brown trousers that she put on every day along with shoes made of cow leather, They were sprinkled with dirt and a blotch or two of mud, She also wore a gray-green tunic with a mud-brown skirt underneath, Each of which showed the work she did as they had seen all of what she had done for the last four years, As Polort came to the door, The person entered, It was a soldier, .

"Greetings Polort, I've been looking for you" he said.

"Who are you?" Polort asked in confusion.

"My name doesn't concern you, I'm just a soldier here to inform you that both of you, Polort and your mother Janna are now in great danger, It's the war" he said with a lowering voice.

"The war? Again? But we just moved back here again 4 months ago! Before that we were stuck at some kind of camp for half a month just east of here" Janna responded with a high voice.

"I know, And I fully realize it's annoying for you, Your son and everyone else but I don't control these things, You see a unit of 300 soldiers from the kingdom of Poté stormed in through the borders last night and were outnumbered 2 to 1 by our armies, Only a few lived and....I'm one of them", He then wiped a few tears from his eyes which were bloodshot and had lines of tiredness underneath, He then continued.

"Now please, I recommend you get your things collected together and move out as soon as possible, There's no telling when they'll attack this town, As they say, 'They ride in with the dust and blow out like the wind', Remember that.".

"Yes i know the saying, But why did they attack? Did someone get killed again?" Polort asked with a voice of anger.

"As a matter of fact yes, 6 days ago Governor Gawt was found dead in his bedroom with a crossbow bolt in his chest, His wife then committed suicide the following day, Or so we think, It's believed someone pushed her off the balcony but it's not be confirmed as of now" the man said, Both Janna and Polort then let out deep sighs before Polort remarked.

"I wish that damn assassin never killed Haser! Otherwise we wouldn't be having this fucking war!"

"Calm down, There's nothing you can or could have done, That was twelve years ago now, You were only a little toddler, Besides they gave him a nice shave on the headmen's block not long after everything started", Janna then walked over to the fire pit and extinguished it using the nearby pail of water, "Polly, Go to your room and pack up your things, We might as well move now than later".

Polort then turned to Janna and said "Alright mother, I'll do that", Then he turned to the soldier and continued, "And you sir, If you can, Send word to your captain we'll be gone by midday, Dusk at the latest".

He then nodded before bidding farewell and riding off on his horse, "Well mother, I better go get packing now, You should too".

"Don't worry, I'm getting right onto it, Make sure to wake up Tewy and get him into his cage".

Tewy was the family magedog, Called so due to the fact they were a sub-species of the normal species Canis Lupus Familiaris, They're well known for being strong and living for a long time (Usually for up to 4 times the normal lifespan of a regular dog), But then virtually every major species of animal (Including man) lived for longer than they did in the old times.

As Polort prepared to leave, He looked out the window and saw what had happened, In the far distance, There was a billowing cloud of smoke from the burning buildings and fortresses, And he could hear faintly the sound of yelling and of swords clanging against other swords, And the sounds of the Poté's men chanting their war cry's.

"Mors nostris erroremque hostibus illum! Aut die in splendet ita rutilent!".

In the common tongue it meant roughly "Death to our foes! Or die in might!", Polort frowned in disgust at the instant he heard it, He loathed the Poté due to the fact his father, Ugart the Mighty had died while in a fierce battle with them just a few years before the war began, His mother was therefore widowed only a month after her 20th birthday and although he never had the chance to meet his father, His mother had always told to him that he was a great, Gentle and kind-hearted man alongside being a fierce and powerful warrior who was said to have slaughtered down 200 of the Poté's men in a single battle once, Whether or not it was true, He didn't know, But it probably was the truth considering he was honest and never deceived anything from his kindred and kinfolk, As he packed his things, Tewy walked into the room and barked at him.

"Hey Tewy, I was going to go wake you up in a few minutes, Listen, I want you to just sit and wait, Then I'll get your cage ready, We need to leave unless you want to become a pile of charcoal from those damn Poté", Tewy then whined a bit before sitting down, Even he could sense there was something wrong in the air, No surprise though considering all dogs are extremely intelligent beings, Some say almost as intelligent as man.

About 10 minutes later, Polort had finished packing his backpack and filled a few sacks with his belongings before leading Lewy into a wooden cage which had a hand-forged locking door made from pure hardened steel by the local smith or at least once local smith Jonaby, After he was locked in to prevent him from running away, Polort walked down the 2 short rows of stairs each with 5 steps on them, He saw that his mother Janna had finished too, She then took some of the items from him and loaded them up into their horse-drawn wagon which had a canopy overtop of it for shelter and was pulled by 2 fine horses.

"Is that all of your belongings or did you miss something?" Janna asked him while her head was turned towards the wagon.

"I think it is...but perhaps I should go and check, Last time I forgot 2 of my best shirts, Each worth a quarter of a score of slivlys" he remarked with a slight smirk on his face.

The Jagnar's weren't very rich, In fact they were on the verge of being downright poor, As such a quarter of a score of slivlys was for them quite a decent sum of money as Polort only got half a score of coppers per week for his job as a vendor of goods just inside town (That town being Kaserd on the shores of the Kaserd River), And Janna worked as a waitress at the local tavern getting another half a score of coppers per week, Plus remember this, 4 score of coppers made up to 1 slivly.

On his way up the stairs and back into his room, He began to feel slightly worrisome, Although he didn't really know why, Perhaps it was due to the fact they were moving again? Was it because of the armies not being that far away? He didn't know, But once he finished inspecting his room from all 4 corners and from the top to the bottom, He walked to the window to see the view from it one last time, And with this look, He got the answer to his fears, It was the Potéan armies, They were coming in and fast at it.

"Mother! Mother! It's them! They're coming in! Quick! Let's get the fuck out of here!!" he yelled as he rushed down the stairs, Out the door and onto the wagon.

"Wha.....wha....what? I thought they were still quite a distance away?!" she stammered.

"They were, Yes I could see them from my window but they were still at the least 15 kilometres away, But that does not matter right now, We need to move now before they impale us on a spear!"

He then got the horses moving and they rode off swiftly, And as they could hear the sounds of the trumpet's and horns alongside the prancing of their horses, It came quite clear to them, They were after the town, But for 20 minutes they rode, By then they were now on the top of a large hill which stood over the town, This gave them a good, Although frightening view of Kaserd, By that point the armies of the Poté had stopped, But now they were burning down houses including their's, Killing the citizens even though few had ever even thought of going in the defence against them, And even fewer had fought in the war directly In fact in all of the history of the town, There were only 2 "heroes" of war, The legendary commander of the Jazarian 2nd Squad Lasky Frewer often referred to by the folk of Kaserd and neighbouring towns as "The Slayer of Kings" due to the fact he killed King Freta the III of the Northern Triad about 150 years ago, Then there was of course, Polort's father Ugart the Mighty, Otherwise the town of Kaserd was a peaceful, Kind and friendly town whose citizens wouldn't even hurt a riverfly.

As they looked back, They could now start to hear screaming and crackling, The town was on fire and it's residents slaughtered down one by one, Then they saw 2 armies of Jazar rush in on horseback faintly and then the yelling and chanting began as the two sides clashed in battle, One by one the Poté's army was being taken down and they were also saving all of the residents who were still living, They watched for some time the ongoing battle before Janna asked Polort a question.

"Do you think the Jazarian armies will make it?".

"I...I.....I don't know, I hope so though, But from what I see, The Potéan armies are outnumbered 3 to 1 by the Jazarian's, So there is a chance they'll make it, I hope not many in town died", He then let out a loud sigh before asking "Why would this happen?".

"Beyond me Polly, Could just be because those damn fools want more land, Not like they don't have enough, They own almost a quarter of all of the land in the Six Kingdoms!".

"I know mother, They've always been like this, But it was them that escalated everything in the first place After King Frewa's nephew was killed, He became enraged and decided to start a war, I have to say it was probably the smartest decision that brainless bastard ever made" said Polort sarcastically with a blunt tone in his voice.

"Yeah you got that right, And because of said decision, He's caused the deaths of over 60,000 good and honest soldiers, And well over 5 times that in innocent men, Women and children in the various towns and cities they've attacked" she remarked grimly.

And every word she said was true, They had murdered thousands of people during the last twelve years, As of the last report issued on the 5th of that month (March) 363,511 soldiers and people had been killed, Although most of the casualties were in the last seven years since the Siege of Squanga in which a barrage of 5,000 Potéan soldiers stormed the city, Killing everyone in their path, And due to its remote location and previous un-involvement in the war, Nearly all of the city's 40,000 residents lost their lives along with about 4,500 Jazarian soldiers, It was and remains the single most deadly conflict in the war so far.

"Well at least we're safe for now, But we still have quite a journey ahead mother, I recommend we head south to Readal City, There we'll be safe as they don't dare attack there, Doing so would be a death trap for them and us", Which was true due to the fact they held the 4th largest army of soldiers in all of Jazar, Consisting of around 60,000 soldiers, Not to mention a vast array of weapons and defence forces, With a large wall wrapping around the city, On top of which were around 60 ballista's, Each of which fired a massive bolt magically enchanted with spells of fire giving the effect of 10 cannonball hits in just one bolt, They also had inside the walls themselves, 60 cannons, Each could fire up to 5 balls before reloading, And each ball had a core made of pure firerock, A volcanic substance which when exposed to a great deal of force and/or friction, Explodes in a violent matter, Sending shards everywhere, This is particularly useful against large armies in wide areas, Luckily the costs for making them is'nt high, One ball costs 2 coppers and 10 costs a score of coppers.

As the battle raged on, It appeared that the Jazarian side was, In fact, Ruling over the battle as they began to drive over the Potéan's from the town, And so after, All of the remaining soldiers were dead.

"Look's like that's the last of them crummy bastards, If so it means the battle is now over", Polort remarked with shallow breaths.

"Well I wouldn't recommend we head back in, As the old saying goes, 'The enemy always strikes twice in a lost battle', As such we better get onwards to Readal City, It's nearly midday and the sun is high, So if we move swiftly, We should be there by tomorrow morning", Janna said to Polort.

"Yes indeed, Firstly though, I suggest we better eat something considering I never had a chance to make breakfast", Polort remarked while rubbing his groin.

"Perhaps we should, I hope you brought the supply of biscuits, If so we'll eat those, Won't be much in terms of food but it'll crave our hunger" she replied.

Jolort nodded and handed her the bottle of homemade biscuits which they always saved just in case, They were stored in a bottle just to make sure they didn't spoil or go stale, For 10 minutes they ate and consoled each other before storing the biscuits away.

"Polly, Before we go, I.....have to tell you something" Janna said suddenly.

Polort looked at his mother and asked "Sure, What is it mother?".

"Well...it's just...I want you to make me a promise".

"What kind of promise?" he replied with a keen ear.

"I want you to promise me that no matter what happens to us, The city or any parts of the Six Kingdoms, I want you to avoid at all costs joining the Jazarian Army, I know they do a lot of good for us but...one soldier is enough for our family, And you really aren't the type for fighting anyway, Now do you swear to keep it?"

He looked down for a moment and pondered deeply before replying, "Yes I do".

Janna smiled at his reply, That made him feel joyful as it was a clear sign she approved and was glad of his decision, After that they started to ride southwards to Readal City, A city of peace, A city of dreams.