Chapter 1

     Brules’ eyes gradually open through the pain. With a few blinks, Brule is able to clear away a good portion of the blurriness from his sight. As he looks around, he sees Ayla hovering a few feet in front of Kiesha. Ayla looks sad enough to bring the old war general to tears.

                A few yards from her is a crater in the beach that almost appears to be made of glass. In the bottom of the crater is a small blood pool where it looks as though the molding of the bowl has shattered.

                “Son of the Sun! What was that?” Brule asks to no one in general.

                Trying to stand completely, Brule pitches sideways, losing equilibrium, and splashes hard into the earth once more.

Taking it slow this time, Brule slowly lumbers himself into a poisition on his hands and knees. Looking around he can see that Teauh and Herror were blown back against a sand bank and both are now starting to come around from the cuncussion. Just as Brule once again attempts to stand, Ayla stops levitating and lands on the soft sand. Everything within eyesight violently shakes and the glass crater in front of her explodes, sending melted sand fragments sixty feet in the air.

Driven to his face and belly all over again, Brule now decides to lay there and gain his bearrings before attempting to collect his thoughts and try and figure out what has just occured. Rolling onto his back and gazing into the sky, Brule breathes, "Hell from within......The Empire HAD to have seen that."

000

 

Standing at the bow of the IronHorse Legion flagship is a slightly thin man of quality build and dark features. His hair is straight, long and raven black. His eyes are turquoise with reflective slashes of silver in the irises. He wears thick leather armour with a pitch black and blood red trimed cloak. His boots are knee high and covered in the front by short, fat spikes.

Looking down the man sees the shadow of this mighty ship coursing across the ground fourty feet below. He then looks to each side to see that his air support is staying in formation.

The ship was named, BloodWolffe. It was only one of four of its kind on the planet of Oryalon. Just in front of the rudder wheel, there sits a small, white glowing glass ball. This device was given to the man a few years back and it had allowed him to sail his warship through the air. Not having more of these, the only air support he could possibly have were gryphons or DragonEscort. Today he had chosen five dragons with riders to go out and meet an old friend.

Turning to the navigator, the man calls out, "do we have full sail, Goban?"

"AYE AYE! we do m'lord."

"Well, that ol bear has to have seen us by now and is just as anxious as i am. How long till we arrive?"

"I would estimate about an hourglass and a half of another." The scrawny little wheelman calls back.

A medium sized dragon breaks formation and comes to glide under the great ship as the man says, "Too slow for me....I'm catch'n a ride."

The navigator begins to anounce that he had heard his lord when the wind suddenly stops blowing and he pauses, looking around with a very plain look of confusion and fear on his face. "M'lord?" he trembles, "This is unnatural."

Just as the man looks up, he sees a lightning blot pierce the earth only a handful of miles away. A moment later he sees a shockwave blast from the confinements of the northern treeline and wreak havoc on the town of Brule. Dust, lightweight shop items, articles of clothing and roof thatching gather in the stormfront and begin speeding on their way toward the fleet.

"HOLD FAST!!!" The man yells to his shipmates and his support as he wraps a saftey tieoff to his waist.

The shockwave collides with the fleet like a hurricane. The ship is instantly blown off course to the starboard. Two of the dragons are entirely knocked out of the air and tumble on the prairie below, breaking one dragonriders arm in the rolling chaos. The other three dragons are knocked back by the force about eighty feet and seem to be shaking off some sort of deliriousness.

After being violently bounced off the main mast, the man stands and looks out over the prairie. Silence. Mere moments pass and then he sees the northern treeline shake like a giant had been dropped from the stars.

"What in all those that are hellbound was that?" The man says to the air. "Goban, get us to that town NOW!"

Getting to his duties with a renewed speed he answers, "Yes, Emperor Merrell!"

000

Reviews

[Octavious]

I really enjoyed this chapter, there was more dialogue that fit into the setting of the story which I enjoyed, there was enough going on that held my attention, and the description and detail was enjoyable.
I think that there is still a bit of work done needed to get completely in the zone, but I think that, that's only because I haven't reached the climax yet. So I really enjoyed this one, I think there still needs to be work with wording, and detail but other than that, I think that it was well written. great job and I look forward to the next chapter.

[A.G.Adair]

Sounds like this could be a good read. The story has lots of potential.

[calgar]

I think that this has a lot of potential, it's a good place to in a way leave the first chapter at as it leaves us wanting more and more. Also, the whole background to this seems like it will turn out to be a really good read. Looking forward to the next bit,
Calgar