The Swords of Greylock

Chapter 1: The Human City

David Shard, only seven years old, walked around at the borders of the kingdom, looking around at all the different unique things in the forest nearby. Frogs jumped up and down in the small pond near the giant walls, and the little critters scuffled through bits of grass cheerfully. Everything was so peaceful.

Just as he was walking by the forest in the Northeastern side of the kingdom, David saw something shining deep inside the forest. It was just strange to see the glittering light so far away, and shining like the sun, unlike fire that glowed a little to cover a small area, this shone so bright, David wondered how others wouldn't be able to see it.

At seven years old, David walked slowly to the big light deep within the woods, and it was far in. Traveling in the woods alone at his age would be dangerous, but curiosity overtook David's mind, urging his feet on. About one hundred feet away in lay a small, shining orb only the size of a small gerbil. Slowly, David picked up the orb and it's light transferred into him, losing the orb's light and David shining brightly. Then, after a couple of seconds, David's light dimmed and was back to normal.

Three years later, he still wonders about what that orb was, but has gotten his curious mind off of it, through game making.

He loved playing the homemade board game "King" all the time from start to finish. David would hang with his friends and set up a big homemade board. They'd each have their own kingdom, make treaties, build loads of farms and mine precious items to trade with others. But the most exciting part was when a world war had started up, and kingdoms were going down flat. The entire game would always end where two really powerful kingdoms declare war on each other, and it was always extremely close. David was the best player at "King," but nobody bothered in any of David's talents at board games.

One night in the land of the real Orell, a peace treaty was actually being declared by the elves and humans to not fight under any circumstances with one exception, of being if one attacks, they all attack. However, that didn't mean any good news for David. He wasn't able to be anywhere in the high castle he saw every day. So, for that, he instead played the classic game he and his friends were always playing, "King." So, he played with his four other friends playing the game as usual, with David of course in the lead becoming allies with almost everyone playing, being one that nobody wanted to mess with or have declared war on David. They played for hours forgetting all that was happening anywhere in their real world in the land of Orell and beyond. Then, it got to the final two people playing after a big world war, one of which being David as usual. They both played hard using every move they had got, David sending pikemen to battle and archers, while the other player used swordsmen and lots of catapults. Neck and neck, when David was about to place his final move to destroy the other player's entire castle, somebody interrupted.

"Guys, stop playing the game!" a kid by the door suddenly said being intense. "You have to stop this game!"

David got up, looking annoyed, "Why do you want me to stop the game when I have one more move to go? It's almost done! Can't you wait one more turn to get back in the game?" The kid slowly spoke, this time whispering, "A man just killed the guards on our street, and is heading towards the castle. We don't want to get caught, David."

"Yeah, that was me. My archers have good skill, and I defeated the guards, duh. It's not like my archers will attempt to kill their own king. I control them!" David responded getting annoyed more.

The kid said again looking creeped out, this time whispering even quieter than before, "This isn't a joke! You will die if we don't quiet down! No, we will die if you don't settle down. Archers didn't kill those guards. A terrifying monster did!"

The player facing David walked next to David and said to the kid, exaggerating, "A monster isn't descriptive enough, so explain every detail! For all we know, archer monsters could be killing the guards! So, go on."

The kid said back, "Horrifying! The monster had a dark cloak on, a very dark black. And-and it didn't have sk-sk-skin, instead smo-smo-smoke. Like, uh, c-contained s-sm-smoke!"

Suddenly, the four others listening immediately looked confused, "Come on, you're joking, just quit the acting. We know everything you've done was pure and brilliant acting skills, but that's for when you play the game."

David looked at the kid, "Please, just go in the kitchen to get some more bread, I know that's what you wanted from all that acting, that's what we've done in the past. Somebody acts like a wimp and gets all scared, so we comfort them with bread. So, stop it, and get bread already."

Finally the kid shivered, and then said, "But it's right there!"

The five kids immediately got up. The man standing in front of them was tall, and had a dark hood sitting upon his head, but the face seemed extinct to the man's body, black smoke instead of skin. Rather an imprint of a face lay on his head made of deep black smoke. Then, he spoke the words softly, "Kill. Kill him. If you do, great rewards will come straight to your front door, if," the man stopped talking, "you kill him."

He was looking directly at the kid who pointed the man out, and said, "No. I don't kill people, but you do."

The ferocious beast put his darkened hand out and said, "Good-bye." Immediately, the boy crumpled to the floor, dead. His face turned pale, and his eyes had stopped moving.

The evil creature looked towards another, this time the one David was facing and spoke, "Kill. Kill him. If you do, great rewards will come straight to your front door, if you kill him."

The innocent boy said cowardly, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Lies!" and the boy was dead.

After this, a boy was charging as fast as he could out of the room, but the beast pointed his hand out, and another boy was dead.

With only two ten-year-old kids in the room, the mysterious monster went on to the final two kids and spoke softly to both of them, "Kill. Kill him. Great rewards will come right to your door if you kill him."

The boy besides David yelled out, "Why do you ask us to do this?" and the beast killed him, too.

David was the only one left, and was shivering in fear, feeling pain.

The beast looked directly at David and asked, "Will you kill him, then?" At this time, David looked completely puzzled.

So David said, "You will kill me if I say no! Then kill me!"

The beast pointed his hand straight at David, but nothing had happened. David was standing there, ready to die, but nothing happened. "Why? This doesn't make sense! You should be dead! Unless-" the creature stopped and floated towards the kitchen.

The beast turned towards his mother who was in the kitchen. He pointed his hand out, and she was dead.

David charged after him, forgetting that this thing killed all his friends, could kill him, and was much stronger than he was. David just forgot all that. "No! No!"

The beast all of a sudden disappeared into thin air. David heard shouts from the outside, "Elves! They're murderers! Killing every human in town!" David didn't want to leave his mother, but he had no choice. So he sprinted outside of the house dodging arrows of the elves, sprinting to the Foggy Forest.

Almost every human in the entire land of Orell died that night.

Almost.