Xanadur And The Legend Of The Mystic Ryders.
Candi Leigh

 

Chapter 1: The Clearing

He searched for her everywhere and all the signs led him here. He had soldiers behind him but he knew that she could kill him or any of them with one blow if she got the chance. Dorlok looked around with his golden eyes. Even in these woods nothing could hide from him. They saw everything in the dark, yet he could not see her. “Circle around you fools, she’s close. Be aware of everything. Go in pairs, if she attacks one then the other scream.” His teeth glowered as he smirked, thinking of how dispensable are.

Dorlok heard the snapping of a tree branch up ahead of him and cautiously proceeded to walk toward it. He could smell her scent and knew that Pheleria was there somewhere, hiding, and waiting. He could not let her get the upper hand, although she very well could have laid traps everywhere. Suddenly, he heard one of the soldiers scream for his life. Dorlok stopped and hurriedly ran toward the scream; knowing that Pheleria had attacked.

He found the two soldiers lying dead on the ground. Looking at the ground, Dorlok discovered only hoof prints too big for any deer to make. Once again, he had been too late. All of a sudden, there was a crackling nearby. It was Pheleria; the noise was too loud for any woodland creature. They were not in the Enchanted Forest yet.

Everything in the Enchanted Forest seemed to come alive, especially during the night. Dorlok disliked the Elves. They did not come out too often in fear that Dorlok would find out where they were hiding their village.

What Dorlok did not know was that, when the Elves come out they used the forest to deceive their enemies. He still had no idea how or why they did some of the things that they did.

The soldiers started to gather around their fallen comrades. Dorlok turned his focus on the noise. He would kill her if it was the last thing he did. He heard her hoof beats then suddenly…they stopped, restoring the forest to silence. “You fools; she’s tormenting all of us. Let’s get her and get back to the castle. She’s due to foal at any time.”

They all proceeded forward in to a patch of clearing, where they saw a beautiful mare. Her coat was black as ebony and as smooth as glass. The soldiers turned to go back to find a way around the clearing. They had a bad feeling about it. They were on their way around the clearing when Dorlok appeared out of nowhere. “And where do you think you are going Captain?”

“I have decided to take my men around the clearing. We have a bad feeling that it’s a trap and want to avoid it as much as possible.” The captain stood in front of Dorlok with confidence. He had no doubt that Dorlok would think the same thing.

“YOU thought? Well well captain, looks like you have grown some brains up there in that empty skull of yours. ”

“Sir, I do not understand…” before he could finish, Dorlok had grabbed his shirt and had his back up against a tree.

“Let me make this very clear. You have no brain when I am around…”

“But…”

“Do not interrupt me when I am speaking. See? You have no brain or you would have already known that. Like I said, you have NO brain when I am around. You and to TAKE orders from ME and nobody else, you got that? Secondly, these are MY men not yours. The king may have appointed you Captain, but when I am around, that means nothing. And you have a bad feeling huh?” Dorlok let go of the captains’ shirt and let him drop to the ground. Seeing that Dorlok wanted him to answer, he got up and dusted himself off. And then spoke.

“Well sir…”

“Busca!!!” With that he received a power ball to his chest, knocking him to the ground.

Walking over to the captain, he knelt down so that he was just above him, yet letting his voice carry among the soldiers. “I did not give you permission to speak. Oh dear Captain, you see I kill men for far less than for what you have done tonight. You have yet to bring me Pheleria. That was why we are out here. And instead of going through the clearing, you opt to go AROUND it! What were you thinking?” Getting up of his knee, Dorlok turned to the soldiers. Walking toward the scared was what he loved best. He pointed at a soldier. “You, what is your name?”

“It’s ah…”

“Never mind, it does not matter. Congratulations, you are now the captain. For you see…” He turned around toward the captain and raised his hand. “Glorb!” A fireball appeared and he threw it at him. “…we have suffered a tragic loss of our dear captain. Do you see why we need to get Pheleria? She is the one responsible for his death. Now anyone else have a bad feeling about the clearing?” Seeing no one say aye, he shoved his way to the clearing and saw her. He knew her better than what she thought. There standing in the clearing was Pheleria, in her horse form. The mare had no wings but he knew that it was her. He motioned for the archer to come to him.

As the archer knelt down to take his place. Pheleria raised her head and looked at them. She reared up and as she came back down on all four legs, her wings flew out. With lightning speed, she rushed toward them, scaring everyone including Dorlok. With one leap she jumped over the archer and with one blow she nailed him in the chest, sending him up against a tree. One by one she fought with most of the soldiers. The majority of those did not know what was coming. Killing or injuring someone was not anything new to Pheleria. She was forced to do it by the king.

At last Pheleria was face to face with Dorlok. It would take much more if not all of her strength to defeat him. He was no ordinary man. He was a warlock, but he was as evil as they came. His appointment with destiny would come to him soon enough. Dorlok grinned, baring all of his razor sharp teeth. Pheleria was terrified of him, but she did not let it show on her face.

“So Pheleria, you think that you can just run away from the King do you? Believe me, if I were king, you would have already been an appetizer to the wolves.” Dorlok wasted no time, his started to raise his hands from his side and focused on everything around him.

“Kloff summoat gloat gedeswicks” As his arms started getting above his waist, sharp sticks, stones, and pine cones started rising from the ground.

Pheleria charged at Dorlok hoping to distract him from the sticks, stones, and pine cones. As Dorlok looked up from his weapons, he noticed that Pheleria was running at him. As his weapons fell to the ground, Pheleria jumped and land square on Dorlok’s chest. She pounded and stomped on Dorlok and when he fought her off of him she fled into the woods. He looked around for her and could not see her, but that did not mean that she was far away. Dorlok got up started walking in the direction that he last saw her. He heard some leaves being moved to his right and he turned quickly to avoid being blind sided. Dorlok saw nothing.

All of a sudden he took a blow to the back of his head. The force of the blow sent him flying into the air. When he recovered he looked around and still saw nothing. He looked up to the trees and saw her. As she started coming toward him, he forced a sharp stick flying through the air with his mind. The stick was moving too fast for Pheleria to move out of the way. The stick grazed her shoulder. She faltered and stumbled onto the ground. As she looked up at Dorlok, he walked toward her.

“You just thought you could defeat me!! But you can’t, in fact nobody can. What made you think that you were any different?” With that he pulled a rope out from his belt and almost got close enough to tie it around her neck. Dorlok had been waiting for this day for a long, long time. The king would reward him graciously. He would be given anything that he wanted.

They weren’t supposed to have hurt her in anyway, especially since they all found out that she was carrying the next generation of Pegasus. They would have complete control over everything and everyone. All Dorlok had to do was get her back to the castle unharmed. He slipped the rope around Pheleria’s neck and went to her shoulder to see how bad the cut was. Seeing that the cut had only knocked her down and was only a flesh wound he then proceeded to heal her shoulder. Under his breath, he uttered Vasset, one of many words of the lost language.
Very few know the language except the Enchanted Ones. They had meant to keep it that way. He, however, found out how to learn, speak, and use it to gain respect and put fear into the villagers and gain power of his own. He had healed Pheleria and tied her up to a tree. They would stay right there for the night. It was late and he was tired. He hated Pheleria for making him chase after her. If only he were king. He had dinner with him and started to eat.

Not wanting to be taken back to the castle, she jumped up and snapped the rope in two. Pheleria started to fly into the sky. When she got about 20 feet off of the ground when one of the soldiers pulled himself up and fired a shot at Pheleria. It would have missed her if she hadn’t fallen closer to the ground. It landed right into her shoulder. Pheleria winced at the pain but rounded up the courage to fly higher and faster. As she made it out of sight, Dorlok screamed, “NOOOO. You idiot! She was falling back to the ground.” He walked over to the soldier and plunged one of his own arrows into his chest.

While watching the soldier look up at him, looking for some help, Dorlok was looking for some way to tell the king that they had failed. He turned to the dying soldier and thought; no I did not fail the king.

“You have failed the king and for that you must die.” Grabbing the arrow, Dorlok yanked it out of his chest. “This is a very nice arrow.” Looking at the arrow, he saw that was still sharp and jabbed it back into the body of the soldier. Not wanting to waste too much time watching the soldier die, he used his powers and ended it that very moment with a fireball. Dorlok loved to watch death fill every person and animal that happened to cross his path and to anger him. The time, however, he had no time to waste. He did have a Pegasus to track and capture.

Pheleria was injured. She ached the whole time she was in the air, soaring over the kingdom. However, she could not stop until she was far away. She was never far enough away from the castle though. She saw the farthest hills of Daladurmer. That could only mean that she was close to Travilamur. She had heard that it was a nice, quiet town. Pheleria had heard the king say it was one of the poorest towns in the kingdom. He wouldn’t think of looking for her there. At least she hoped that he wouldn’t. She didn’t know anywhere else that she could go. She couldn’t go north, everyone up there had been brainwashed into doing whatever the King, or anyone in alliance with the King, had to say.

 

 

Copyright © 2007 Candi Leigh
Published on the World Wide Web by "www.storymania.com"