Nerxis

[belial]

A small village neat the west coast of the continent, laying between the mountains in the north and the town of Flaion in the south.

[belial]

* Three men, covered in long black in hooded cloaks walks through the muddy alleys of Nerxis. In an abandonned small alley they pass a beggar. Suddenly one of the men stop and holds up his hand to the other two*

" kyorl [ wait ]"

* The man walks to the beggar and crouches. He brings his hand under his cloak and takes out a silver coint, holding it before the beggar's nose. The eyes of the beggar starts to shine and he brings his hand forwards to take the coint. The stranger quickly closes his hand and shakes his head*

" Uh uh. Dos....dos...." * the stranger points to the beggar.*

* Confused the beggar looks to the stranger but that he smiles childish and answers*

" Me? me? yes, me, i understand. What... do... i * points to himself* have... to... do?" * the beggar articulates on an overdone way*

* The stranger now points to his eyes and says several times*

" jous.... jous."

* The beggar looks confused again and imitates the stranger*

" I see? see what?" * he asks with a questionating face*

" che'el... che'el" * answers the man in the cloak while making waves with his hands as he wants to enclose something bigger.*

* The beggar, who is acctualy quick in mind for a streetrat narrows his eyes*

" The village? This, here?" * the beggar now points to the ground to express the word 'here'*

* The stranger now suddenly smiles happy and nods affirmative.*

" You want me to see...uh to show you the village?" *asks the beggar*

* the stranger still nods and then stands up showing the silver coint back to the beggar. The beggar quickly stands up and looks eagerly to the coint. The stranger rolls eyes and gives the coint to the beggar saying* " villllaaaage" * a bit with a double tongue*

* The beggar nods and with the silver coint, safely in his skinny fist he nods and signs the stranger to follow him. While following the beggar the stranger turns his head to his mates and grins*

"Della dos ol orn'la naut tlu nindel dubo" [ Told you it would not be that hard ]

* As the darkness of the night starts to fall, the beggar stops in an small alley and turns to the strangers. After a whole day walking around with the strangers behind him, showing them everything in the village of importance, from the tavern to the barrack of the few townguards, he decides he has earned his coint for today.*

" stop.....done, end." * says the beggar while trying to explain the guiding is over*

* one of the strangers bows his head towards the first one, who seems to be the leader and who made the conversation with the beggar this afternoon.*

" Usstan talinth uk wants ulu telanth uk zhah xunor." [ I think he wants to say he's done ]

* a soft smile is visible on the face that's hiden in the shadows of the cap.*

" bwael, udos inbal keffal z'lonzic. Draken, morfeth ol qee'lak" [ good, we have seen enough. Draken, make it quick ]

* the stranger who hasn't spoken till so far nods and anwers*

" Siyo, ussta senger." [ yes, my lord ]

* The stranger steps towards the beggar, grabs him at the shoulder and pulls the beggar against him. The eyes of the beggar enlarge as a dagger pierces his heart. Slowly the beggar slumps and falls on the ground. The killer crouches and cleans his dagger with the shirt of the beggar. Quickly, before the rigidity of death would set in, he takes the silver coint that the beggar has beel holding for the whole day, out of the hand of the body. The killer stands up and nods to the others*

" Ori'gato's alu" [ let's go]"

* and with sound, the strangers disappear into the night*

[belial]

Somewhere near the coast, not far from Nerxis.

* Both The Dragon and The Lion float on the soft waves, lightly pulling at their anchor, in the dark night. Only on The Dragon still burns light in the captain's cabin. In the cabin, several persons sit at the table. They seem to be in a deep conversation. One man suddenly takes the word...*

" Gentlemen, I suggest we put everything together now and decide what to do. Draken, me and Sentii are quite common now with the language of the population of the Unknown Land... We don't speak it yet but we do know some particular words now after being 2 weeks scouting around over here. First of all 'horssse', their word for a 'zaphodiop' seems to be pretty important for their culture. We have kept an eye on their soldiers and most of it exist out of light cavalry. Few or even no footsoldiers."

* Draken nods and takes the word for himself*

" Belial is right. I think we're dealing with kinda a horse-culture. Not the heavy cavalry as we know but light and fast cavalry which can be quite dangerous... But till we don't speak the language, we can't get more information about this. So I suggest we inform you gentlemen of the other thing we've found out."

* Belial leans backwards in his chair and sighs*

" Gentlemen, we have gathered some information about the political structure inhere. The land excist out of three big cities, compared to Ypres. They are called Urgor, Nerai and Quoa. The village we've visited first is called Nerxis. But the interesting part comes now.... We have heared the city of Urgor isn't very found of the city of Nerai. It seems that some Nerai-leader is busy increasing his power. My idea now is, that we visit Urgor tomorrow with the men we've been able to get here in these 2 weeks."

* Belial now looks to an older military officer at the table and asks*

" How much man do we have here again, Lieutenant Nuthor?"

" The ships each have their crew increased with the 100 marines we had with us the first journey. As my lord ordered, in the last few weeks we have managed to bring over some 800 man. Mainly footsoldiers, 100 archers and 100 elite axe-fighters. Also 12 voluntering Valheru lords have arrived. But...if I may, my lord..?"

* Belial nods*

" Uhm...with all do respect my king but isn't it reckless just to walk into a city full of warriors of a race we don't even know of?"

* A soft smile appears on Belial's face*

" Yes it is, Nuthor... but remember...the gods always favour the braves..."

[Kinether]

(okay guys, this is quite too much... you cannot expect the village to be completely blind. Two armies promenading around? Thats too much to be unnoticed completely... do ya know?)

It would be an usual morning in Nerxis. The village was quite far away from all the conflicts between other villages and their chiefs, from any civilization in general. In fact it could be taken as a picture from ideal life of plains people, they were free and got nothing much to worry about.

Actually they would got nothing much to worry about if a local fisherman, Nirai, hadnt see much more than he wanted.

He run into the village shouting and catching his breath.

"Everyone! Chief Kanur! Theres a..." he coughed after his run "...there are a ships on the shore... large ships! And... soldiers coming from them! They are passing somewhere, out of our sight, from the shore to the east!"

It took just several moments before a crowd gathered around him. The rumours spread fast between the people... and soon the chief of the village arrived.

"How many?!" he asked the man.

"...many... over ten tens soldiers, much more! The ships, large as..." he gesticulated chaotically.

"Soldiers? You mean... you think they came to conquer?"

"Sir, they got weapons! And armour and-..."

"Raise alarm! Everyone, to arms!" just in time he could stop a council member near him from blowing a horn "Silently. If the things are as Nirai said, we dont need them to notice our move first. And... I knew that long time ago, there was a boy from The Plains. There exists more villages and more warriors to defend if those soldiers intentions are really same as we think. We need three quickest riders to carry an alarm further."

With that the council and villagers dismissed.


Several hours later, full military force of Nerxis was prepared, consisting from 800 men and even women. There were from half niru-warriors, armoured with wooden lances... kaquoan throwers... and one fire mage. The three messengers were sent to the south-east... to the way to Urgor, Flaion and Gotar.

The army waited for command from their chief inside the village, ready to defend their homes in case of their new enemys attack.