The Sacrifice

This is a story about a great love and the ultimate sacrifice. This is the story of Kale Gal'Tanic set in my fantasy world of Torrea.

   The story begins in a time all but forgotten and erased from the histories. A time when dragons ruled the skies and creatures of all types still roamed the land. A time before the Great Flood that started the world over. A time of war, pain, and death. In this world of destruction and mayhem two people managed to find true love. Their love is so deep that they would do anything just to be with each other. On a hill outside of Clayree, the capital of the Union, two people lay next to each other, hands entwined in a show of their inseparable love. This is where the story begins.

            “I could lie here for hours if it was with you,” Kale whispered as he looked lovingly at his wife, Rachael. Kale was a bear of a man, standing at six feet tall and 50 inches wide at his shoulders. But his bulk didn’t slow him down; he could still move faster than most of the trained soldiers fighting in the Union. This was partly because of his mixed blood; he was half human and half elf. He had deep set green eyes that spoke of the many battles he had fought and won. But there was also a deep love in his eyes, a love for his country and an even deeper love for his wife. He had short light brown hair with sharp ears poking out on the sides. He was clean shaven and had a scar on his left cheek. He was dressed in a plain white shirt and brown pants. He was hardly ever seen without his shining silver armor.

            “I too could lie here forever, but you have your duty to the Union. Plus I’m sure the Union would miss their best knight.” Rachael said as she leaded over and kissed Kale tenderly on the lips. Rachael was considered one of the most beautiful women in all the land, with her long blonde hair and her startling blue eyes. She turned heads with her perfect form, and graceful stride. She wore a white lavender dress that accentuated her form.

            They lay there for hours until the sun started its descent, setting the western sky ablaze with color. “We should head back into town, it’s getting late.” Kale whispered tenderly in Rachael’s ear as he got up and gently pulled Rachael up with him.

            “Let’s go,” she said in a soft voice filled with love. They started their short trek back to Clayree. They left the hillside and entered the small stretch of forest between the hill they were on and Clayree. They had only walked for a couple of minutes when Kale suddenly stopped. “What is it my brave knight?” Rachael asked in a playful voice.

            “Shsh… there’s something coming… something that should not be this far into Union territory. Just hold still, don’t move and don’t talk.” Kale said in a hushed cautious voice. Rachael stood perfectly still; the only sound coming from her was her light breathing. Kale reached down and pulled a fourteen inch long hunting knife from his boot. He took a ready stance and waited for the thing or things that were hunting them. “Orcs…” he whispered under his breath.

            Suddenly from his right a giant green form jumped out from behind a tree. He came flying at Kale with a speed shocking for its size. It stood around six and a half feet tall with dark green skin. It had small black pig eyes, and grisly yellow tusks coming out of the corners of its mouth. It held a six foot long black sword that it wield with great skill. Kale noticed this in the instant he first saw the beast. In the next instant he pushed Rachael out of the way and dodged the vertical slash the orc brought down on where he had been just a moment earlier. He then took a quick step towards the orc and slashed the beast’s throat before the orc could bring his sword up for another strike. The big beast fell backwards spewing black blood from the wound on his neck.

            Kale cleaned the blood off his knife and replaced it in the sheath in his boot. He then picked up the giant sword and went over to stand by Rachael again. “Are you ok?” he asked her, concern in his voice.

            “Yes, I’m ok. What are orcs doing this far across the border?” She asked a bit shaken but not much; she had seen her share of killing and death in her lifetime.

            “I don’t know, but there are more coming. They are between us and Clayree; we should go back to the top of the hill. I’ll better be able to fight out in the open than in this accursed forest. Let’s go,” he said as he grabbed her hand and started to run back the way they had come. They got to the top of the hill in about a fourth of the time it had taken them to get into the forest. By now it was twilight, luckily with the elf blood in Kale he could see just as well in the dark as in the light. “Ok, now I need you to go over to the tree and climb up there. You will be safest up there, if any of them come after you, scream and I’ll be there in an instant. Now go!”

            Rachael went the couple of yards over to the only tree on the hilltop and climbed up to the highest branch, 30 feet above the ground. Kale looked up at her; she was almost completely hidden in the green leaves. Kale transferred the hunting knife from his boot to the back of his belt and took a ready stance the orcish great sword in his hands. Around 30 seconds later about a dozen orcs burst out of the trees where Kale and Rachael had come from. They wield a variety of different weapons including: axes, swords, daggers, and spears.

            They came running up the hillside, blood lust in their eyes. Two orcs wielding axes came at Kale first, swinging madly. He dodged the blow from the first one, blocked the blow from the other one. Then before the first one could recover he pushed his blade against the axe he was blocking, the orc took a step back and lost its footing on the uneven terrain. He then took his sword and brought it down on the first orc, cutting him in half. He then took a step forward and stuck his blade clean through the second orc that was still trying to get his balance.

            Next four came at him wielding spears and swords. He dodged, sliced, blocked, dodged, stabbed, parried, sliced, and then kicked. In 3 seconds three where lying on the ground dead blood pooling around them. He walked up to the fourth one lying on the ground, and stabbed him through the heart. By that time the last seven had made it to the top of the hill. They had formed a circle around him; they readied their weapons and attacked. He dodged a dagger, blocked a sword, cut a spear, cut off a leg, dodged another dagger, cut an arm, stabbed an orc, blocked a sword, and slashed at another orc. This dance went on for another minute before the ground was covered in black blood and various body parts.

            Kale was a little winded but unharmed for the most part, there were a few little cuts here and there but nothing too serious. He looked around and saw thirteen dead orcs lying on the ground, weapons scattered around the battlefield. He didn’t hear anymore so he relaxed a little, but not completely. He looked up to make sure Rachael was ok, she was. “Is it safe to come down now?” She asked in a strong voice after witnessing what had just happened.

            “Don’t come down quite yet, I want to make sure they’re all dead. Plus I want to check for more of them. You never know, there could still be more out there heading our way right now.” Kale then went and made sure they were all dead. He kicked one, and then decapitated them all. He had fought too many Undead to leave the heads on now. He then went and leaned against the tree listening for more. He waited for a few minutes, by now it was dark out. After that he decided there probably weren’t anymore, so he told Rachael. “Ok, you can come down now, just be careful so you don’t fall. I don’t want to kill all these orcs and then have you falling and breaking your neck.” Kale said in a joking but still cautious tone.

            “Do you really think I can’t come down a tree without falling?” She said half heartedly, as she started to descend the tree. She had just got down the tree and was heading towards him when he heard it. The ‘thwang’ of a bow string being released and he knew the arrow wasn’t meant for him...

“NOOO!” He yelled as he ran and jumped in front of Rachael. The arrow struck him in the left shoulder. He fell to the ground and rolled to his feet, ready to fight. “Get behind me!” to told Rachael in a pained voice. He knew the arrow had been fired from the tree line down by where the orcs had come from. Why had the shooter waited until he had a shot at Rachael? Were the orcs here for a reason? Were they here to kill her? That would explain why there where orcs so far in Union territory. He quickly glanced at the arrow in his shoulder. It was defiantly not an orc arrow, and it wasn’t poisoned. Meaning it wasn’t orc, troll, and it didn’t look undead, so it probably wasn’t just a Visachy scouting party.

            Well he would soon see who had shot him, because a figure was heading up the hill now. It was human, elf or something like it, he stood around six foot tall, and was very skinny. He wore a long dark cloak that completely covered up his entire body. He also wore the hood up so it completely covered his face too. The only thing you could see was his bright red eyes, full of hate and a desire to kill. He carried himself like a man who thought he was invincible. In each hand he held a skinny curved sword, with the sheaths for them on his back. He was definitely not someone you wanted to underestimate.

            Kale noticed all this before the man was half way up the hillside. “What do you want?” Kale asked the mysterious figure.

            “What do I want?” the man asked in a mocking tone. “To kill, that is what I live for, that is was gives me pleasure. And by looking at you two I can already tell this is going to give me immense pleasure!” He said as he laughed mockingly and started twirling his swords. He then came running at Kale with great speed, but Kale was ready for him, he blocked both the swords with a horizontal block. Kale then pulled out his hunting knife with his left hand and had the sword in his right, now he could block both swords. He blocked the next attack and the next and the next. He kept up the defensive while he looked for a weakness in his opponent. Kale noticed that the man committed to his attacks, he didn’t pull his punches so to speak. Kale battled the man for 3 minutes, and then Kale made a mistake. He blocked one of the blades with his sword and missed the other blade because of a sharp pain in his shoulder. The figure’s sword pierced his already wounded shoulder.

 “Auh!” Kale groaned as the man pulled his blade out and dodged Kale’s hasty slash with his sword.

“So the great warrior can be wounded. Perfect, this means he can be killed too.” The man said this as he slowly circled around Kale. He then did something Kale didn’t expect he lunged at Rachael who was to the right and behind Kale. Kale did the only thing that made sense at the moment he jumped in front of the lunge. The sword went straight through Kale chest, spewing blood out of his back where the sword tip exited. The man pulled the sword out and back off, looking awed and shocked.

“Ha ha ha! This is going better than I thought, now the girls all mine.” He sneered at Kale as Kale fell to the ground. “Now time to take care of what I came here for!” He stepped around Kale and headed for Rachael. She was slowly backing away while looking at Kale with a great pain in her eyes. She tripped over a rock and fell on her back. The man was now over her raising his sword to stab her through the heart. She wasn’t even going to try and defend herself, Kale was dying and she didn’t want to live without him. “Well it looks like this is the end of the great knight Kale and his lovely wife.” The man said laughing while he readied his sword. Kale used all the strength he had left; he stood up, grabbed his sword and ran at the man. The man was still basking in his glory he wasn’t paying any attention to Kale.

He started to bring his sword down on Rachael. In that instant everything went into slow motion for Kale. He could feel his strength giving away but he would not let all of it leave until he had saved his true love. The sword was six inches from Rachael when it stopped, then is went off course and fell into the ground beside her. Next to it lay the man, with Kale’s great sword sticking out of his chest. “You… How… I… Can’t… Be… Killed…” whispered the man as his last breathe left his lips. Standing where the man had been was Kale, blood soaking his white shirt. He fell to his knees; Rachael rushed up to him as he started to fall forward and caught him in her arms.

“Oh, Kale how could you do this to me? You can’t die; if you die I’ll have no reason to keep living.” Rachael said choking on the last words as she began to weep. Her tears started to spill down her face and landed lightly on Kale’s blood stained face.

“I had… I had to save you. I couldn’t let you die.” Kale said while coughing up blood. “I love you Rachael. More than… I could ever tell you or… show you.”

“I love you too Kale. Just please don’t leave me here all alone, I don’t know if I can take it.” She said as tears poured down her cheeks, “Don’t leave me, please!”

“I have to go now. But I will… see you again… in the land over the sun, good… goodbye Rachael… I love...” Kale said in hardly a whisper, as he breathed his last breath.

“NO! Kale, please no! Don’t die, not now, please!” Rachael said as the tears started to pour more and more. She sat there on the hill crying for hours into the night before they found her. When Kale and Rachael hadn’t come back, Rachael’s father had sent men out to look for them. They found her and brought her back to the castle at Clayree.

Seven years later on the same hillside there stood a beautiful woman with her son. They stood on the hill side by side, their matching blonde hair blowing in the wind, looking at the headstone sticking out of the ground. The headstone read: “Here lies Kale, Valiant Knight of Clayree. He died here while bravely protecting his wife from a group of orcs and the legendary shade known as Death. After vanquishing Death in a fearsome duel, he took a mortal wound. He left this world in place of his wife. Here lies Kale, the loving husband of Rachael and father of Jason. May he live forever through his deeds and the deeds of his son.”

Reviews

[Decanter Red]

Sinister antagonists, a knightly love, fast-paced battles. I can't begin to describe how I enjoy your writing :) it suits my preference very well. I wanted to find more parts to comment or give a detailed review, but you had me caught and I just threw the reviewing stance off and wanted to enjoy it.

It sounds so traditional, so cliche but you turn the tale into such a way that it felt like a new comeback of fantasy haha! Well nicely put. My only concern, however, (hate to say it again, because I did earlier) is the spacing.

[Joshua Hunter]

Thank you once again! I have to say this is one of my favorite pieces I have written. I agree with the spacing, I have read your book and I agree it is much easier to read and follow. Thanks once again for the review and correction I will go to all my stories now and space them!

[Decanter Red]

Hahaha, great! :D