Dugar rubbed his chin, “Undead you say?” He started to pace back and forth in front of Kallem, Carter and Tuvas.
“This is not good, it’s too soon.” Kallem raised his eyebrows,
“What is too soon?” Dugar frowned,
“It seems that our friend Maphesto has been using his sorcery raise the undead.”
“How can he do that?”
“Some of the darker parts of the sorcerer’s abilities, include necromancy. Our latest scouts have reported that he has amassed quite an army.” Carter leaned forward slowly,
“Just how big an army are we talking about?” Dugar shrugged his shoulders,
“Last report about five and a half thousand.” Carter quickly leaned back again,
“Forget I asked.”
“King Rohammer has already begun to mobilise his troops but we are greatly outnumbered by the undead. Plus the fact that the dead are not too easy to kill.”
“Fire seemed to be quite effective,” Kallem smiled.
“Against four maybe, but what about several hundred?” Kallem could only shrug. Tuvas who had been sitting close by listening to the conversation raised his head. “Technically if we take out Maphesto wont the undead disappear?” Dugar scratched his chin in thought,
“It’s quite possible, but if the dead remain that could cause quite a lot of problems.” Dugar started to pace back and forth, “Even then, taking out Maphesto will be no easy feat. He is controlling the undead from the comfort of his castle in the Nether lands.” Kallem stood up,
“No problem, the three of us will travel to his castle and proceed to run it into the ground.” Dugar just laughed,
“I admire your eagerness young hunter, but you are not yet skilled enough to complete such a feat.” He shook his head slowly, “First you would have to navigate past the base of the Orc Mountains the plains there are crawling with orcs and their goblin kin. Then pass through the Ithimar swamp to reach his castle on the other side.”
“That doesn’t sound too hard.” Dugar raised his eyebrows,
“Your serious aren’t you?” Kallem shrugged,
“Well we make a pretty good team don’t we?”
“Yes but that is beside the point. You are too young to partake on a mission such as that and you have no permission from the rest of the circle.” Kallem thought for a second,
“So if the circle decides that the mission is worth it we can go yes?” Dugar shrugged his shoulders, “You are quite welcome to try but I doubt you will succeed.”
“We’ll see.” Kallem replied.

Larthion knew that there was something out in the depths of the forest but he could not figure out what it was. His elven eyes scanned the forest floor from his perch high up in the trees, his vision picking up any trace of heat out in the darkness. It was as black as night, he couldn’t seem to see any life besides the trees themselves. Larthion was confused normally the forest was a buzz with activity even in the middle of the night. He silently dropped from the branch he was sitting on to the ground twenty feet below, as he hit the ground he ducked in to a roll coming up on to his feet, he unslung his bow from his shoulder and nocked an arrow. Larthion raised the bow and drew the string back to his cheek aiming the arrow out into the darkness. Suddenly the temperature started to drop, he shivered quietly as he peered out into the darkness. The sound of a stick snapping in the dark in front of him had him turn his aim and loose an arrow in the direction of the noise, instantly he had another arrow drawn and aimed. A solid thunk told him that his arrow had found the mark. Another sound to his left caught the next arrow. Suddenly there was sound all around him, Larthion could smell death. Drawing his sword he attacked the first figure to come out of the darkness, swinging hard he took the head clean off the person. As the head came to a rolling stop at his feet he looked down to see that his attacker had been dead for quite some time. Empty eye sockets looked up blankly at him. The elf spun around looking at the undead appearing from the forest, he had to get word to King Tyreal. He turned away from the approaching mass and went to run towards the city. He took two steps before he ran straight into something solid, it was a skeleton, looking up he saw two glowing red eyes. The skeleton was close to eight feet tall, pieces of plate amour hung all over the bony body.
“Time for you to die, elfling” the skeleton spoke in a deep grating voice. Larthion felt a sharp pain in his stomach. He removed his eyes glare of the skeleton to look down where he could see the sword sticking out of him, held in the grip of the skeletal hand. The hand twisted sharply and Larthions vision went black.

The four of them had been riding hard for several days now, across the sandy desert towards the nomad town of Dalteima. Kallem took a drink from his water skin and looked across the desolate landscape, he could see the heat rising from the ground and the far distance he could see what looked like big areas of water, he knew this to be a mirage, an illusion. Many a man had died in this wasteland chasing water that was not there. Finally on the horizon Kallem could make out the tents that belonged to the nomad town. As they approached three people came running out of the town, the three stopped when they reached the group of riders. The Nomads where dressed from head to toe in sand coloured clothing. The only thing that showed where their eyes from under neither the cloth that was wrapped around their heads. They were armed with two scimitars each one strapped on either side of their bodies. One of the men stepped forward “Identify yourselves,” he said. Dugar leaned over in his saddle.
“I am Hunter Dugar, my companions are; Hunter Kallem, Ranger Tuvas and Ranger Carter.” The man who had spoken bowed his head.
“Welcome Hunters, we are honoured to have you in our town. Please accept our hospitality.” The nomad introduced himself as Kahleel and he lead them to the middle of the camp where a fire was burning in the centre of a ring of rocks.
“Please, sit, make yourselves comfortable.” He said pointing at the ground, “You must be hungry from your journey, I will get you something to eat.” Kahleel called over a young woman and spoke to her quickly in the nomadic tongue, the woman nodded he head and walked off to one of the near by tents. Kahleel returned to were the four sat and joined them on the ground.
“So what brings the Hunters to my village?” He asked.
“We are just passing though on our way to the Jagged Mountains.” Dugar answered. Kahleel leaned forward slightly.
“The council of thirty is meeting?”
“Yes” The nomad leaned back again.
“It has been along time since all the hunters have been together in one place.”
“Well circumstances have called for it.” Kahleel nodded slightly,
“I am well aware of the reason, the dead walk the shifting sands.” Dugar frowned,
“You have had undead out here?”
“I am afraid so.” Dugar cursed loudly,
“I did not think they would be out here yet.” Kahleel shrugged,
“My warriors are more than a match for those walking bags of bone.” The Hunter smiled,
“Of that I have no doubt.” Kahleel then turned his attention to Kallem,
“So you are the new hunter?” Kallem looked up at the nomad,
“That I am,” he replied.
“Well then what are we waiting for, come, you and I will duel.” Kahleel lifted himself off the ground and brushed the dirt off his clothes with his hand. Kallem raised his eyebrows,
“You want to fight me?”
“Of course, no hunter my come through here and not show their skills with the blade. Hunter’s fighting skills are renown.” Kahleel loosened both of his scabbards and drew his two scimitars. Kallem stood up,
“I don’t see why we need to do this,” he said. Kahleel grinned,
“Because we must.” With that the nomad jumped forward bringing both blades down at Kallem. Carter and Tuvas both rolled to the side as Kahleel dove between them. Kallem was already moving his eyes shaded over silver as he grasped his power, stepping to the side he avoided the dropping swords and drew his own blade. Kahleel spun around swinging his swords again and this time they were met with the steel of Kallems blade. Wasting no time the nomad advanced on Kallem blades spinning, Kallem deflected each attack as it came dodging left and right. Kahleel leapt up into the air bringing his scimitars down at the hunter’s chest, Kallem quickly brought his blade up to meet the nomads. As the swords clashed in shower of sparks Kahleel kicked out with one leg catching Kallem in the chest, the hunter fell backwards, he hit the ground in a roll coming back up to his feet. Kallem had had enough of this fight and he decided to end it. Raising his left arm he conjured a ball of fire and threw it at the advancing nomad. Kahleel just laughed at the approaching fireball, he raised his scimitars and just before the flames reached him he cut through the ball there was a flash of light and when Kallems vision returned he could see Kahleel standing there unharmed. Kallem looked at Kahleel’s swords they glowed red for a second before returning to their original silver colour. At the point of impact Kallem could have sworn he felt a surge in power coming from the blades. He looked up at the nomad,
“How did you do that?” Kahleel smiled and sheathed his blades.
“Have you not figured it out yet Kallem?”
“I believe that your swords are the reason.”
“Then you would be correct, these scimitars have the power to drain magical attacks.”
“Impressive, but I still don’t see why we had to fight.”
“Because you had to learn that you cannot always count on your magic to save you and because someday you may be able to put that skill to use.”
“Without the magic blades I don’t see how that is possible.”
“You are young, you have plenty of time to acquire such things.” He clapped his hand on Kallems shoulder, “You fought well, we must train again sometime.” With that the woman that Kahleel had spoken to earlier returned with a tray of food. After the group had eaten they all went to sleep as they had a long day in front of them. The next morning the four set out again for the mountain range that Kallem could just make out on the horizon. There was where the council of thirty would meet.



Chapter 6 - The Quest for the Sword