Thy Kingdom Come - Colt Kuhlman (small books to read .TXT) 📗

air towards the other men in the bar, all of which stay glued to the there position, before one by one they turn away going back to there drinks and banter. sighing alabaster sits back down and waves at the bartender to slide him another drink. looking down at valgrum, alabaster mumbles to himself."what hayden wants with the likes of you i haven't the slightest idea, but..your going to set me up for a good long while."

   After a while, making sure the tavern had gone back to it's loud and lewd scenery, artimus grabbed her gear and made her way to the bar.grabbing the stool next to alabaster she sits, waving at the slender elf to slide her a drink, then turns towards him to speak but just as she's about to he interrupts."And to what pleasure do i owe this visit from a Heldum officer, a ranger at that?"she pulls a piece of paper out of her bag and slides over to him. taking it from her, reading over the page front and back. looking over to her with a confused look on his face he asks."what is all this? why is my name and all this information about me and these others on here? who are?" artimus pulls another paper from her bag and again slides it over to him."i am artimus ranger commander under general stone of the Heldum army. we recently went under battle with Haydens elite forces for control over shakarah forest, about a quarter days ride from winser castle where another one of our commander's was fight off his forces as well. we under estimated there strategic abilities and we paid dearly for it, we lost 2 battalion's...and.."her eyes start to fill with tears, but she shakes it off before giving in to the over whelming sorrow burning inside her."and we lost General Stone to the fight, one of the most important and well trained men that we had.with out him a big blow has been made to our forces."alabaster listening intensely to what artimus speaks as he reads over the reports and the paper with the names over and over again before finally speaking."And what does all of this have to do with me?i am just a bounty hunter, nothing special about me. so again i'll say what could Heldum possibly do with me, and these others?" alabaster looks back to her, studying her face for the answer.meeting his gaze with a look of despair. trying to hide her distress under a strong facade she reply's."You and these others are individuals that are remarkably skilled and well versed in your particular trades.we believe that as a collected group we could intern unite what is left of the heldum empire with your kingdom of Furdenhelm to put a end to Haydens reign and finally bring back the peace we had for so many centuries."waving down the bartender as he finishes off the last of his drink he remarks with a slight snicker in  his throat."and what such "skill" do i posses that could possibly be any good to the kingdom of heldum?and what makes you think that after the tension that's been between our two nations for the past decade over our trade agreement that the king of furdenhelm would be willing to step in and assist when hayden has not even bothered to glance in his direction and left his land alone?"pulling a map from her shachel, artimus lies it out on the bar top unfolding it, revealing a detailed map of albatross and the war path hayden had laid so far. artimus point's down to the red marking moving over heldum."this is the path hayden has laid out for his men moving from his territory in the capital of Liona down through the outskirts and into all  the major cities of Heldum after taking out any form of resistance. now as you can see he is working his way from the bottom up gathering up any men, resources, supplies he can get and obliteration everything and everyone else...so..."cutting her off alabaster asks."again what does this have to do with or my kingdom?"sighing artimus remarks back."its not that he is leaving your kingdom alone because he does not want it, he is gathering enough forces and supplies to take your kingdom in one foul swoop and with it the full power of our nation, which is something that we cannot allow.and what  i need from you, what albatross needs from you is your inate tracking abilities, impeccable fighting skills and your profound skill of persuasion. i need you and these others to help me unite heldum and furdenhelm together to end this tyranny hayden has instilled on our land."spinning around on his stool, looking out over the tavern floor, a look of intense thought stretched across his face.turning to him artimus places her hand on his shoulder an in the softest voice she can muster says."we have all lost a lot in these past few months, all been stricken with nightmares, anger, thoughts and want of revenge. i know we can not bring back what you lost but you could be apart of what brings back peace, and a whole new era to our kingdoms."alabaster takes a photo from his coat running a finger across it, whipping away the build up of dirty revealing a face of a human women. artimus looks down at the picture in his hands."is that your wife?"tucking the picture back into his coat alabaster stands and puts a hand on artimus's shoulder."i will play along for a while just until i get bored."A small smile perks up in the corner of artimus's lips as she turns back to the bar stuffing the papers back into her shachel."alright lets go, we have a lot of ground to cover and a lot of people to save." Artimus and Alabaster throw on the hoods of there cloaks as they march threw the rain to the stables. strapping there packs to the horses, they mouth and begin heading to the main road, rain splashing beneath the horses feet."so where are we headed first on this little quest of ours?"remarking with a sarcastic tone while he adjusts himself on his horse."first things first we are head to Winser Castle and see what the out come of the battle there was and hope commander Leander was successful."with that she knickers to her horse sending it into a full gallop, dashing through the rain back threw shakarah forest heading west to Winser.shaking his head with a deep sigh alabaster follows in pursuit thinking to himself what it was he just let himself become a part of... CHAPTER 3: WHAT IS TO COME

26 MARCH                                                                           

                                                                   ***2 DAYS EARLIER***
        As Elijah raced through the woods, vaulting over fallen trees, branches breaking against his Armour. the cold night air stinging his hard emotionless face, all that he had just witnessed and with out ample time to process it all left him empty. he had just watched his general no his mentor fall before his eyes. his horse neighs vigorously into the night air as he digs his heels deep into her sides, pushing her to move faster. rage building behind his eyes as this young lietenant's mind wraps around the situation. We had defeated the lesser soldiers without so much a drop of sweat to our brows but Mathis's elites walked through us as if we were a mere spider's web, not even batting a eye as they had struck down Lionian soldier after soldier. with in minutes only Elijah and a few other of the officers had managed to escape, though he was the only one still on a mission. The others ran an hid in fear. "Such cowught, they should havdied with honor not hid to live another day. only to live in fear of being captured for the rest of there lives. Elijah's rage began to subside the longer he rode, traveling to winser castle to assist Commander Leander in there seige. His thoughts began to go wild with fear, and doubt,"If we were not able to handle one legion of Haydens men how are we ever going to handle the full force, let alone what Leander is facing..".That though raced through his mind over and over trying to contemplate whether or not this was all in vein. Elijah slowed his horse to a low trot as he began to break the tree line into a open field. scanning over the area checking for anything out of the ordinary. pff what was he thinking," we are at war everything is out of the ordinary." he thought to himself before pushing forward cautiously through the wheat, watching the tree line infront for any movement. The wind began to pick up, moving the wheat and loose straw past his face catching him off guard, his reaction caused his horse to spook rearing up and dropping Elijah to the dirt below with a hard thud, while his ride and most of his supplies disappear into the night. muttering to himself "Damn beast."as he pick himself up and dusts off, now looking in the direction the the castle."well getting to leander just got a whole lot more dangerous." errie shrieks echoed through the nights air sending sharp tingling shivers all through Elijah's body. looking around him trying to pin point it's origin, his hand gripping the hilt of his blade, ready to draw at any moment that would call for it.his eyes darting from left to right, analyzing the feild before him, when out of the corner of his view he catching what looks like the roof of a hut. Elijah moves slowly to the top of the hill in the center of the field and once there see the outline of a small village just inside the tree line to the north. kneeling down Elijah pulls a small telescope from his vest and begins scanning the tree line."a few huts, looks like there arround a central well. looks abandoned, and for quite some time."collapsing the scope and grabbing his satchel Elijah begins to head towards the village."hopefully there might some useful items left that i can salvage and then continue on to the castle, the quicker i can gather the faster i can get on my way."

   Just a few kilometers away from the village Elijah now search's, the sounds of war can be heard echoing through the hills. the ground trembled as the might of the Lionian army thundered in pursuit of the castle. "pull the lever!!!" can be heard shouted across the top of the castle walls from Captain to Captain of the Heldonian men.like clock work, z the men release the catapults simultaneously. sending boiling oil out over the lionian troops, striking several, sending them to the brazed earth, screaming and withering in agonizing pain as the burning oil strip's there skin from there bodies.even with the amount of bodies that began to litter the field it did not make a difference for just like ants to a sweet apple the troops continue to appear from the forest in increasing numbers.

   One of the soldiers moves from a supply room and approaches one of the Captain's giving him