Splinterstone

==By Carter Howlett ==
In a time where there were no I-pods, no televisions, no skateboards and chess games, there was a world full of bravery, conquest and adventure. This is the story of that era.
Itza, a tiny baby troll was a blessing to the world. His brother-Vlagen was just as bright, but he was shunned just for being a Reema. Reema’s were descendants or cousins of the Orcish race, with a slightly slimmer, taller build than the Orc’s. They were a bit more agile so they swayed a little to the rogue-ish side of things, unlike the Orc’s who decided long ago to be a race of brutish, hard faced warriors. Trolls were almost the same as Reemas; they just knew the forests a lot more than the Reema. They also had the mystic powers of the Shaman flowing from their fingertips.
One gloomy day on the eve of Itza’s birthday, Vlagen was training to be the best Reema fighter in the entire known Seenza world. In each hand he carried two brutish looking daggers 30 centimetres long and a bow made from Dengan tree wood with the string made from spider web heated until it shone like the eclipse. He fashioned all his arrows and bow needs by himself, he was a very self productive Reema. Itza on the other hand had everything brought to him; he had the smiths work day and night for weeks to fashion him the best sword, shield and armor in all the Troll land. It would be fitting that they were worst enemies; in fact they were but the best of friends. They would go hunting together for food or just for fun; the point is there was absolutely no friction between them.
One day when the pair were out hunting near a supposedly abandoned Dwarf outpost, they stopped at a clearing after hearing hushed voices speaking the widely known language of the Elves. They decided to investigate so Vlagen climbed a tree and sure enough there was a whole party of Dwarves, Humans, Elves and the very agile Loktu. Vlagen got so excited about the whole thing he almost fell out of the tree, which gave off a big rustling sound. The Loktu sentinels heard the rustling and sprinted over to investigate; Vlagen quickly climbed down out of the tree and told Itza what was happening.
‘There’s some Loktu coming, we’re never gonna outrun them!’
Itza received the frantic words and replied calmly, ‘We’ll have to fight them then’.
He drew his sword and shield while Vlagen ran off to use his bow. The Loktu came tearing through the bushes; Itza charged them and smashed the lead Loktu in the face with his shield. He took a swing at a Human but it dodged out of the way and lifted its own sword to strike. Just at the right moment an arrow thudded into the Humans’ unprotected armpit. Vlagen then sprinted into the clearing to join the fray, his daggers whirling, slashing and stabbing just as his trainer had taught him. Suddenly there was a big BANG! And the Dwarves set off a volley with their Blunderbusses. Itza dived over to Vlagen and raised his shield as he went; the bullets thudded into the shield with surprising strength.
Itza was perspiring heavily and exclaimed: ‘This is a lot more difficult than I thought’.
Then, Vlagen had an idea, ‘I’ll cover you and you sound the horn for the rest of the clan’. Itza sounded the horn but that horn was met just as quickly by the horn of the Humans. The Human cavalry then came thundering in through the thicket. Vlagen jumped up and tackled one of the riders off his mount and followed it up with a quick stab. He then pulled out his bow and arrow and muttered a quick chant under his breath, ‘Andigo,’ and the arrow tip glowed with a blinding blue light.
Vlagen let go of the arrow and it flew into the chest of one of the Dwarf rangers, sending all Dwarves close to him flying back 20 metres. Itza then got up after being knocked down by a charging horse; his sword was glowing green with fury and his shield glowing red with the power he was pouring into it. He charged at a demon that one of the Loktu had summoned. It slashed at his head with its huge claws and Itza blocked it with his raised shield. He then raised his mighty sword and brought it down upon the beast, yet in the midst of this; the Loktu summoned an Imp that jumped on to Itza’s back and started clawing at his neck. It was then cut short in its attempt to kill Itza by an arrow sailing through the air. Itza was exhausted, his vision started to blur and go purple and yellow around the edges. He tried to swing his sword but it was just too heavy, he saw Vlagen fall to the ground and he too surrendered to the will of fatigue. He was almost unconscious when he saw his tribesmen charging into the field on their mounts and on foot, his muscles then failed and he went into the deep world of unconsciousness.
When Itza awoke; he was back home in front of a blazing fire. He saw Vlagen with a hide blanket and a cup of chi, their favorite drink. The clan leader then came over to where they sat.
‘You kids are among the bravest I have ever seen, it would be an honor to fight alongside you in my army,’ he said.
Itza smiled at that and replied ‘Is that an offer? If so, certainly!’
The clan leader then said, ‘Sure, I’ll see you and your friend at the armory tomorrow morning then!’
Itza and Vlagen looked at each other for a long while.
‘He speaks funny’ joked Vlagen, and they burst out laughing. Just like good friends do.
Vlagen woke with a start, cold beads of sweat glistened on his arm his he sat up. It was 30 days after he and Itza had been invited into the "Dawn Raiders", basically the clan's battle-group sort of thing. A select group of the Raiders had been sent out to defend a strategically crucial defence point. A medium size shed that was rectangular and overlooked a vast valley which had held many ancient battles. Yet the shed was largely concealed because it was on the edge of a massive forest land that hugged all sides of the valley, so the the valley was actually like an arena with two exits at either side. The reason extra enforcements were being sent there was that the shaman-lord that see's all had seen a vast army approaching towards the forests with the intention of wiping the clans from existence.
So as soon as Vlagen awoke, he knew something was wrong. He felt a tugging sensation in his gut that was a sure sign that something bad was near. Vlagen had just enough time to throw a wake up stone at Itza when the roof caved almost completely silently in followed by three humans with wicked looking swords glowing white with pure energy. Vlagen and Itza were the quickest to react. Vlagen snatched up his daggers and lunged at the closest human whilst Itza poured the energy from his rage of being woken up into his shield - it glowed an intense jerky red. Itza flung the shield at another human, grabbed his sword and charged into the fight.
Vlagen kicked his enemy in the knee, knocking him off balance then drove the butt of his dagger into the human's temple - knocking him out cold. Itza drove his sword ruthlessly through his stunned opponents unproteced flank, killing him. Although that bought the third human enough time to summon fire which starting burning the walls with a ghostly flame. Vlagen quickly threw his dagger and silenced the human's dangerous charming powers. This fire was the fire of diseases, the ghostly chill that eminated from it seemed to sink into the walls and everything just seemed to start rotting on the spot.
Vlagen stepped outside as the ghostly flames sweeped away through the forest. The whole forest withering away and dieing as soon as the flame touched it. Vlagen felt short of breath and a tightness in his cheast, the plague fire must attack the body as well. Vlagen grabbed his canteen and took a long drink of chi. Aside from being tasty and popular within the clans, chi had certain healing properties so Vlagen immediately felt his cheast lighten and his breathing steady. Itza caught the drift and soon everyone in the shed was up and drinking some morning chi. As the rest of the raiders were trying to hoist back up the rotting walls of the shed and repair their strategically crucial position whilst Itza and Vlagen poured over a map of the valley. It was all rotten, no trees could support their shelters and all the dead shrubbery rendered all their current camouflage attire obsolete. A quick solution to this camouflage problem would be to dig a whole bunch medium sized holes in strategic locations in which warriors could wait, hidden until the chance to strike their foes came. You could also upgrade that sort of defence method by linking all the holes with tunnels so there would be less chance of being found and position adjustability.
So that was exactly what Vlagen had on his mind, so everyone grabbed shovels and started digging. the rotten trees around the forest were useless for handling outdoor weather, but still created great wood for underground support beams. With the whole team working on hastily setting up their underground ambush tactic it only took about an hour and a half to finish it.
Just as Vlagen was overlooking every hole and sprinkling foliage to disquise any evidence of the holes. A great rumbling sound rippled accross the clearing followed by the sound of snapping branches and falling trees. Most definately Human and Dwarven machines. Vlagen finished what he was doing and dropped into the Dawn Raiders network of undercover ambush points.
Just as soon as the Machines rumbled onto the field closely followed by Loktu footguards, Trolls, Orcs, and Reema stormed onto the stage of battle with their weapons drawn and teeth bared. The opposing sides faced off accross the valley, ready to jump into action. Vlagen sat in his place,silent as the night until he heard the sound of footsoldiers moving through the forest to flank the Troll force!
Itza saw this too, and used a pre-meditated becon system to alert the other Dawn-Raiders of the enemies presence. the beacon consisted of three messages, one long flash for enemies spotted