*Stomp*
*Stomp*
*Stomp*
The marching of the soldiers sounded throughout the grassy hills of the Yssarg Fields. The heavily armored troops of the Erup Empire alerted the surrounding wildlife to run. One foolish goblin charged at this mighty force, and as it charged, club in hand, a fireball consumed its head. The goblin's body hit the ground. A part of the charred, blackened head of the goblin fell apart from the impact. Sizzling could still be heard from it, as the blood inside boiled away. The marching soldiers walked right by the corps of the goblin as it was no longer a threat to anything.
"Sir," a soldier began his report to Thill, "We are within eyesight of Nomed, and another army was found marching to Nomed."
Thill stroked his short beard, "Another army, ay? Hmm, did they have any identifying insignia?"
"Sir," the soldier started once again, "The flag's insignia had an apple with roots growing out of it. The apple and roots were golden, with a black outline. The background was black with purple outlines."
Thill thought about the details of the flag, "That must be the Tolpetsaw Kingdom, "Send a messenger to them asking what is their purpose."
The soldier nodded, "Yes sir!" The soldier hurried off to the rest of the soldiers. The thought rolled around in Thill's head; what could the Tolpetsaw kingdom want with Nomed. Recently, talks of Nomed and Tolpetsaw becoming allies had found its way upon Erup's ears. Assuming that Nomed and Tolpetsaw had recently been communicating quite frequently with each other, Nomed must've done something to offend Tolpetsaw.
As the possibilities swam through Thill's head, he saw a group of guards on horseback were rushing to Tolpetsaw's army. Those must be the messengers from their army; good, Delacs wanted to know if that army would be friend or foe. The messengers came to a halt, as spears were pointed in their direction. They talked for a while, and eventually came back to Erup's main force.
Soon after the messengers returned to the group, a soldier rushed up to Thill, "Sir, they say that they are here to eliminate Nomed. According to them, Nomed has declared itself separate from the Tarlived Empire, and they've killed the ambassador of the Tolpetsaw Kingdom."
"Why would they kill the ambassador?" Thill pondered out loud.
"Sir," the soldier began, "The Tolpetsaw Kingdom says that they did it as a declaration of war. It appears Nomed wants to start its own empire, and it wants to begin with the Tolpetsaw Kingdom."
Thill was silent for a while. It seemed like such an odd choice for Nomed to separate from the Tarlived Empire. The Tarlived Empire's name was a useful thing to have to one's name; using it, one could eliminate the chances for war from most other kingdoms. In addition, the Tarlived Empire wouldn't allow for one to separate itself from the Empire easily. You'd have to fight and prove that it was more trouble than it was worth to fight you.
Thill snapped back to reality, "I'll talk to them. This'll be good for us if they have really separated from the Tarlived Empire." Thill then set off towards Tolpetsaw's army, accompanied by a single other scrawny guard. He stood in front of guards, and then a particularly confident but strong looking soldier came up to him.
"General Thill, I assume," she started, "I'm the head of this army, General Ecila."
Thill smiled, "It's a pleasure General Ecila, I'm going to get straight to the point, I believe it would be best if we joined forces."
"Oh?" Ecila sounded.
Thill explained, "We believe there is a certain target in Nomed, and we want to capture it. If what you said is true, about Nomed becoming its own kingdom, we'd help you with destroying Nomed if you help us find the target."
"This does seem mutually beneficial," Ecila thought out loud, "but it all depends on the target you're talking about."
Thill inhaled, ready to tell them of the monster that could be in Nomed, "We have reason to believe that a shadow rat, or possibly worse a black rat, is in Nomed."
"A black rat!?" Ecila exclaimed. The surrounding soldiers within earshot all turned to Ecila, questioning if they had heard her right. She blushed and coughed, then went back to a straight face, "If there is really a shadow rat or its possible evolutions within Nomed, we'd be happy to help you subjugate it."
Thill smiled, "Then I guess we have a deal." The two generals shook hands, and the guard that followed Thill started talking and casting magic. At the end of his speech, Erup's army began to mobilize and it joined the other Tolpetsaw army. The army rested for an hour, but began mobilizing towards Nomed right after. The dual armies marched to the city, the clanging and stomping of the armies alerting the soldiers of Nomed.
Nomed's soldiers ran through the city, winding right and left and up and down alleys, roads, and streets. They found themselves standing in front of the Baron's mansion and rushed inside. The soldiers went down the hallways ending up in front of the double door of beautiful dark brown wood. The soldiers knocked twice on the smooth doors and a voice inside came through the doors, "Come in."
Hearing the voice on the other side's response to the soldiers' knocks, the two opened the doors of the office to an unusual sight: a rat darker than dark sitting in a plush, red chair, a grizzled lizardman with scars over his body standing to the rat's left, an undead in a paladin's armor stood to the rat's right, and a greater fire spirit hovered to the side with a glass of wine. Truly an odd sight.
The rat looked at the two guards and said, "What is it?"
"Um," The soldiers stumbled on their words, "There is a large, large army of soldiers marching to us at this moment."
The rat, undead, lizardman, and fire spirit smiled, "so they're finally here."