The Ghost of the Sword

Shallynne awoke, vaguely remembered her father screaming at her to run. His face was
hid amid shadows and ghostly images of trying to warn her. She had seen the murder of a
few of her town's people by the army that rode into the community. The people of this
army wore masks that covered their faces. Their sheilds bore no markings to signify who
they were. They chased her here. She looked about she remembered this area as a bog,
Her memories were foggy.

She remembered that most clearly, she remembered fleeing with the riders behind her,
chasing after her. Their hooves tearing into the ground and tearing through the brush.
Hammering them into the ground, these horses flew after her. She looked at the other
side of the bog. She saw a knight with a rose breast plate and a sheild with the same
markings on it beckoning her to him. She thought she heard him say, "It will be alright. If
you get to me."

She knew this bog, there was no knight there. She had been there hundreds of times,
before, now she heard another voice say,"No. He is there! Go to him." The voice was
that of her mother.

She hurled herself forward into the water. She would be saved. She stumbling
and falling into the black murky water.

She, now spied in her hands in a huge pommel of a two handed sword, she vaguely
remembered touching it. It looked like it was secured in the baldirc. There was no way
she could remove it fromits sheath. With a spider's web, dried blood, and the dirt held it
tight. She could not move it no matter how hard she pulled. To pull the sword to remove
to its sheath. As the sword began to be clear its sheath, where it dwelt as these figures
disrobed her.

When the knight reappeared to draw the sword from its huge genuinely well crafted
baldric to desimate the enemy. Blood streamed down its blade, the blood looked to be
a stream, that broke into several others upon arriving on her hand and wrist. She noted
that there lay a few bodies, which were cut in half. Blood ran from the bodies and bodily
organs spilled through the cuts in the corpses, some of them had been cleaved almost in
two, Arms and legs were not attached.

The sword cleared the baldric now, as if it had never been secured there, she saw that
the sword was covered in blood, pieces of he bodily organs clung to it and gore from the
corpses she presumed. Her arms were covered in blood and tissue.whose tang was
sculpted with an image of a man on one side a woman on the other. Both of whom were
naked; their hands reaching to the very tip of it's blade. The sun light glinted off of the
sword's edge, to tell her of it's keenness.



Between her legs, there stung a mass of pain. Her garments were torn and sliced from
her body. She looked through the bull rushes that surrounded her there. On her back
were cuts in it. She had awaken with her legs spread, her arms were over her head, one
knee bent the other was straight. The sword was with some symbols etched into it, that
she could not truly make out. It was a two-handed sword, it's pommel had a ruby cut into
its bottom, that was cut in a hexagonal shape.

She looked at the stone she was on to see a helm of a knight, The visor was up and she
saw a skull with some skin that was still attached to it. The armor looked like it had
taken a great deal of damage. A shield lay on his arm. An arrow protruded from one of
his eye sockets. He was a tall man, if she was to judge by the armor he wore he was
musclar as well.

The hand had been broken that was probably attached to the sword that she held. The
mail glove had been torn. On its waist was a pouch that contained a scroll. The scroll was
sealed with a seal of a signet ring, that she did not recognize. However the seal was she
vaguely remembered, she could swear she knew that was something familar to her,
but why? She did not know why?
se
The knight's armor was rusted through in spots. Various holes had been pounded, smashed covered it. There was fresh, dried blood, gore and was dirty. The shield had several dents and holes pounded through it. She realized he did not die without one devil of a fight. just behind him. Saw a skull of a horse, with the armor that a knight's horse would wear when going into battle it to had damage done to it as well. The rest of it had fallen into the water. They both had been dead for quite some time. She looked at the bodies, looking at the faces.She remebered them, as being who pursued her into the woods. Trying to have their way with her.

She felt a hand fall on hers, she saw a knight standing before her. Drawing up the sword
to attack these men. She did not see the sword, but she saw a man fall in half. His upper
torso tumbled backward as his lower torso fell upon her. His guts and intestines spewed
out of him, the area was now red with his blood. He looked at where the sword had
come from. He opened his mouth to scream.

The silence was all she heard as she watched his mouth open, his eyes were agape. He
had a look of mortification on his face. Within the time, it took for that to happen.
Another man lost his head, it tumbled down his back. His hands released what they held
the sword fell to his feet, her garments tumbled to the ground.

She looked at the knight, he quickly turned to face the next person. This one was a
woman, the killings continued. When they finally stopped she was alone, aside from him.
He vanished from view the sword returned where it lay, standing upright in the baldric,
the knights back was pressed to the edge of the stone. The sword lay in her hands. She
had passed out from the attack.

She now. Looked over to see the horses that the riders rode. They looked as if they had
been hard ridden. The horses looked as though they had to be taken care of. The horse's
hides ha burrs and branches in their fur. They were badly hurt by their ride to here. Their
muzzles were scarred with the burs and cuts on them. The riders had been driving the
horses very hard.

There was a large pool of brackish water with plankton on its surface, there were lines in
the water that were the size of the horses haunches. They had come from the east, the
brush that was there was trampled by the horses, the lines were straight as arrows the
path. It indicated they had ridden hard there.

She remembered fleeing from her community. She saw the riders pursuing her, the
masks that they wore. She did not like the looks of these people. Their garments were
motley. Their clothing was leather, some plate mail, and some mail. Until they had gotten
caught up to her. Remembered hearing one say,"When your finished with her, I will have
my way with her as well." In less than a heartbeat, there was a flash of light and a sword
The sword whose pommel she held cleaved through his shoulder and lower abdomine.
His head and arm fell to his right and the rest to his left. There was a geyser of blood, in
the geyser she saw the knight. Standing behind him, his visor was up. He was smiling.

She climbed onto one of the stallions, she rode the horse that looked so, less unharmed
by the ride to there. The other stallions were led back to the woods, to return to the
community. However, she did not want the people who were there to see her coming
there.

She chooses to ride the horses slowly to the very outskirts of the community edge. She
hid in the brush that was there. Her fear was that they may see her. So, she patted the
muzzle of the horse trying to reassure the horse. She crouched behind the brush.Watching
to see if there were any more of these men, here. She knew the odds would not be in
her favor. As there was one here, she could truly rely upon. The knight might return. That
was a might, Not something, she could rely upon until she knew.

She saw smoke rise from the buildings that were there. Someone was sure that they
were unable to rebuild the community. She looked about and saw no one about
the community alive. Looking about she found that they were not there. She felt
reassured that she could go into the community. Having not seen anyone of them.
She did not find a women's body in the mess of bodies. The children were slain.

There was not a sound to be heard from there, she began to ride into the community.
Her ears were perked up, to do this. Her eyes saw not any movement that was there,
aside from the wind that was blowing through the trees. The houses were burned to the
ground. She did not hear any sound that revealed fighting, or screams. There was only
one house remaining, it was her home and the leader of the communities home. Why is
my home standing. She wondered, I will check on that later. First thing, I must do is find
out what has happened here.

She found the bodies that were there with arrows and bolts with fletching certian types
that were similar to a type she had seen before in the region to the west. It suggested to
her, that they had done this.

She was worried about what they were doing? Finding her own home, its door was
marked by a red skull on the door. What was the reason for this she did not know, but she
would find out the truth. What did the red skull on the door signify she did not know. She
entered her home, They did not set this house ablaze. Inside she found her mother slain,
she had all her orifices stitched closed. She had been butchered.

Shallynne swore they would pay for this. She chooses to ride to the next community
to the east. The foe's bodies were not to be found in the community. It was as if they
had not taken any damage from them. It was as if they had been spirits instead of
human beings. That was what one would think if they did not find the arrows that had
slain the community's people.

She desired to go back and bring back the bodies of those who had tried to harm her.
She rode back to the swamp, where they attacked her. Riding the horse through the
murky water, the horse struggled at move through the water to arrive the rise of
stones. Where she had been attacked by them.

She drew up a body to throw him over the horse's withers. Having to know, who had
done this to her family, and teh community.More importantly, the why? She threw up
just from the scent. She tried to calm the jittery horse, upon having the decaying
body of her attackers. Riding through the bog to get to the nearst community.
on her new horse. She hated the stink, the horse, Insects fed on the man's dead boy.