Shield of Gnea Chaper 1

Trapped and alone. So alone, not a single being around, barely able to survive. A pain so deep that it is unable to heal on its own. Can’t get free and being torn to shreds night upon night. Making life a hellacious event that there is no escape... even through death. After facing such physical damage one would think that the Goddess of Death would take this tormented soul away upon her wings to the afterlife. But there is no such luck. This being has given up hope of escape when caught in the night, the day was a different story and seemingly a different world. If capture is avoided on some nights... its only a matter of time before being captured again. For this poor soul is trapped in these lands, easy pickings for the creatures that hunt.



“Save my lost soul.” a voice whispers. A voice that has eminence power... power that can not be ignored.



Euri awakes with the dream still fresh in his mind and the whispers of the voice sends chills down his spine. Its not the first time that he has had these dreams. Dreams that grip him in terror, pain, and sense that it will never end. There is an urgency that he can’t quiet explain and the elders that he has spoken to about it could not explain the dreams. All they would say was that he had to listen to them and do as the dreams said. This was the only way for the nightmares to stop. Some of the dreams were peaceful with the warmth of the sun. A feeling he does not know very well. Euri always thought it was shameful to have nightmares like this seeing as how he is a vampire. It started when he was about 30 years old, just a small little vampire. Now he is close to 90 years old which was still considered to be young. So the feeling of warm sunlight is something he has never experienced, its always a burning feeling even through the magic wards. A loud bang on his wooden door had him bolting up in his bed.

“Yes?!” Euri said loudly to be heard through the door.



A young handsome man opened the door, his blonde hair pulled back in a pony tail. Blue cat like eyes with specs of green looked over at the worn Euri. “Nights shroud is rising, we should be getting ready for the campaign through the mountains. The sooner we leave the more ground we will cover during the night.”



“Alright. I’m up, I will be out there before night comes. Thank’s Ter’ Verie.” Euir stood up and was a few inches taller than Ter’ Verie who was 5’9”. Euir had long black hair that when down came to his shoulders. His eyes were a bland brown color and like normal vampires his eyes were cat shaped.



Verie was a little younger than Euir but not by much, while working they had to keep to formalities. But when they were not on scout duty they were like brothers. They had grown up together in the Knight guild, so Verie knew the signs of a day with the dreams. “You good?”



Euir smirks, “When have I not been good, Verie?”



“Well, from where I stand you look like shit.” Verie smiles showing his small fangs. “See you by the big rock, Ter’ Euir.” Verie dashed off before he could utter another word.



Mareiz Kingdom was always trying to expand their boarders to the south. But since establishing the city of Hyii just a little north of here, the scouting parties were unable to expand beyond the mountains. Too many obstacles stood in their way to expansion. This was the farthest that the scout party has been able to expand. At the base of the mountain, a small fort was in the process of being build and to secure the area smaller scout parties of two people were sent out during the early night time. Today was a little different, a party of five people will be headed up into the mountains and if able to the other side.



Euri went over to the table by the door, he stood there looking down at his light weight armor. It was silver plating with specs of brown, in the distance the armor shined a golden brown color if rays of light reached it. Though up close the silver stood out more, he chose these colors for it gave him an odd sense of hope. All the armor that vampires wore were enchanted with a ward to protect them from sunlight. No vampire would go outside with out some sort of protection from the sun. Never knew when you might be caught outside in the day.



He was in the lower levels of the Knights of Gnea, Goddess of the Night and Death. He and Verie were in the Ter’ level of Knighthood, they got simple missions which normally scouting areas. Higher level knights were in charge of more important missions and a few knights get chosen to guard an royal or noble vampire. Those were few now days due to them being targets in many war between the kingdoms. With five vampire kingdoms, two faery kingdoms, 9 human and dwarf kingdoms, and a lot of unexplored territory.



Royal and noble vampires are often descendants of the founding vampires of the kingdoms. They are both the strongest and weakest of the vampires. These vampires are strong magically but are not able to gain their strength through the normal means. Normal vampires are able to drink the blood of animals, faery, humans, and dwarfs; but the nobles and royal vampires can only drink the blood of other vampires. Blood increases the strength, magic, healing, and speed of a vampire, a royals magic is only increased by the blood of another vampire but their ability’s are incredibility stronger from it.



Many speculate that this is because the blood of a vampire condenses down life blood. Removing impurities and stronger the vampire is the more rich the blood. So being a knight to a noble or royal is an honorable thing, a knight protects them from physical attacks as the noble or royal casts magic. A knight also offers their life’s blood to the noble or royal vampire. All vampires ate food and drink water like normal creatures, blood just gives them a boost.



Euri wishes to one day to take up such an honor but for such a lowly knight as he to do so would be shameful for the noble or royal. Euri was only 3/4ths vampire for his father was part human. A full human was better than a part vampire... a full anything was better. The only reason he was able to join the Knighthood was due to his skills at combat and the fact that all the kingdoms were at war with a problem far greater than land, money, and racial differences. Creatures of great power has been popping up all over the place and they only seem to grow stronger the farther south one travels. That is another reason why the Mareiz ruler-ship wants to continue to push south, they do not like to sit around waiting to be over run by creatures. They want to reach the source of this outbreak of creatures. These creatures only seem to come out at night and Euri was put on this mission because of his dreams. He saw the creatures in his dreams years before they started attacking any of the kingdoms. He was startled the first time he heard of the creatures being real. A fear of his dreams becoming reality is great and he dreads the day that it does become real. The torturous events that take place in his dreams makes him count his blessings but so far his dreams have not come true other than the creatures appearing. The location that the dream takes place is one he has not seen yet but is hard for him to remember the exact details of it.



Euri slips on the armor quickly and places his swords on his hips. After double checking his armor and gear, he leaves the small room. The new scouts would now use the rooms that Euri and the rest of the team were using. The turn over rate was high so even with the hands full of rooms at the new fort there was almost always room for more scouts. The hallway out side his room was a narrow and there were about fifteen rooms, one of which was the eating area and kitchen located in the middle. He walked down the empty dirt hallway to a intersection of the hallway to other rooms and a door to the out side. Four medium sized stone buildings were built in this area with a wall of logs surrounding the cluster of buildings. Walls as tall as the buildings, were still being built and so were towers. The wooden towers did not loom over the fort, it was just tall enough to see over the walls. His building was the closest to the gate and beside the gate was a small cart. Kira was sitting in the cart looking at maps, she was the second in command of the fort. Always busy with something she never pays much attention to how she looks. Which in Euri’s opinion made her all the more beautiful. He was unsure of her age but that didn’t matter when it came to her strategic abilities and prowliness in combat. The kingdom sent the best that they could spare to this fort. It means a lot if they are able to secure the location.



Euir walked up and Kira’s brown hair fell down in front of her face and her green eyes scaned the maps. She tapped her fingers against the cart’s edge while her feet rested on the ground. Of course she was covered in her striking red armor with the crest of her family on the front. She was a decendant of Hornab a noble magician, but instead of become a magician like traditionally done in her family she became a knight. Kira didn’t much care for learning spells and reading a bunch of books. Fighting and planning was more of her skill sets.



“Hey, you are a little late. The others are already outside waiting for you.” Kira peered over at Euir, studying him.



“Sorry, Nor’ Kira.” Euir said as he bowed his head in respect.



Kira nodded as she stood up from the cart rolling up the map in her hand. “Lets go.” She slipped the map in her pack and tossed Euir his pack. Then she put on her pack and lead the way. He followed her outside the gate to the others. The big rock that Verie spoke about was nothing but a small boulder that reached knee high. It was the largest rock near the fort, but further into the forest the rocks got larger the closer to the mountain they reached.



Verie, Zvimn, and Twe were waiting their with their packs on their shoulders. Twe was a magician, he had a very large stature for his height. He was about 5’2” but had a large muscle mass, people often joked about how he was part dwarf. Twe of course denied this accusation quiet heatedly if someone was dumb enough to say it around him. He had short spiky brown hair and green striking eyes. Zvimn a skinny guy that looks like he couldn’t lift a blade much less use one. But his looks are very deceiving, his black hair came to his chin. Black shinning hair accented his sharp features. He could wield his two short swords with deadly accuracy. Last but not least Verie was an archer, which came to use when dealing with the devilish flying creatures. It was a pain to try to fight those things as they picked soldiers and knights off one by one.



“Lets head out!” Kira said taking charge of the group. She was wanting to see the mountain for herself and didn’t want to rely on the report of someone else. To her who lost family in these woods, it was a personal mission for her to see these lands for herself. Not to just see them but conquer them and obliterate the creatures that stand in her way.



…..........

In a different area

The wind blowing through the trees carrying with it the scents of the Bolrigu flower. Its smooth silvery white petals shaped like the wings of a falcon. Learina bent forward and smelled the sweet perfume scent. She gently caressed the flower as she held a piece of animal hide under the flower with her other hand. Tapping the flower lightly so that the pollen falls onto the animal hide. Folding the hide so that the pollen slides into the crease. She then tilted the hide guiding the pollen into a hide pouch. She did this with all the Bolrigu plants that she came across.



She knew these 150 acres of land, every plant, rock, river crossing, and animal. The signs of battle and disruption could be seen amongst the brush and river crossing that was near by. Learina hated seeing those disruptions and it caused a bit of fear to swell up inside her. Taking a deep breath to steady herself before continuing on with preparations. Limping down the path she stopped to check the traps... but was disappointed at not being able to catch herself a meal from any of the traps in the river or those hidden in the brush.



The sun was high in the sky but because of the cliff side it would become a bit darker soon. Learina moved as quickly as possible through the forest. She reached the cliff side at the edge of the 150 acres, it was the highest point of the land and the safest place on the land. There were points higher up the cliff that would have better defense, but she could not reach those areas. She had to stick with what she had, and this was it. With some difficulty she pulled herself up the large stones, until she was about 50 feet off the ground. In front of her was a small worn path into a crevasse in the cliff. Claw marks scared the stones, Learina followed the path back to her room.



It was very basic, there was a fire pit, sleeping area, tree stump that held water, and in a hole held fruit and vegetables. The cave went deeper but she never explored farther than the line of pebbles in the cave. Her bow and stock pile of arrows are in a corner by her bed. Some arrows have balls of leather at the tips instead of stone, some of those balls are soaked with plant oil while others have the Bolrigu pollen in it. Learina has a stock pile of Bolrigu seeds so that in the spring she can plant the Bolrigu closer to her living area. The area use to be filled with the Bolrigu plants but an extremely cold winter killed off a lot of the plants. It has take Learina some time to nurture the plants back to health. By the entrance to the cave there are some wooden spears, the spears have been dipped in Bolrigu plant sap. She was going to make sure that the creatures tonight would have hell getting her tonight.



Glancing at her mostly healed wounds, she has a flash back of the battle the night before.



Exhausted from staying awake night after night fighting a seemingly endless battle. Even with her growing stash of Bolrigu powder it was not enough to stop the smaller sharp fanged creatures from getting past her defenses. The Bolrigu powder weakened the first few waves of the night but the powder that she had gathered ran out. The first to get through was about five of the small bat like monkeys that sharp teeth. She was able to kill a few but it did not take long for the small buggers to wear her down. Bitten by those cruel fangs she was stunned by their ill-gotten venom. With weak limbs she tried to knock them off her. Scared of what would happen if she gave in to the poison...



She snaps out of her flash back... not wanting to focus on the past. She had to focus on the next night of hell.