Vaxinate

The nightmare began, as it always did.

Vax was dressed in his red-hued field plate. His heavily muscled body should have born the steel with practiced ease -- and yet it felt like a suffocating giant's fist grasped around him. Barely able to stand beneath the weight, sweat drenched him, running down his ribs in torrents.

His bastard sword was held in one hand, his red kite shield in the other. The tip of the sword kept sliding down, heavy in Vax's hand. The tip of the shield kept slicing into his steel leggings, as his tired arm would slip, only to be caught.

Around him, his soldiers died by the scores, their own armor turning upon them, taking on form, wielding weapons. He could hear every one of them screaming his name, begging him for salvation.

He heaved a breath, forcing his lungs to fill, against the crushing weight of his armor. And another breath.

Blood dripped off of Vax's bastard sword, and his shield. The red hue of his field plate was from blood.

A voice, behind him, as deep as the oceans. So deep, and so resonant, that his armor literally vibrated, shaking Vax apart. "Kneel."

Blood streamed from Vax's ears and nose, and he turned to face his opponent.

It was a dragon, but like no other. The size was huge; it's wings were spread, shadowing the battlefield. It's scales glittered like blue diamonds, half translucent. Behind the scales... Things moved, like tortured souls trying to escape the dragon. The bones of the dragon were immense, seen eerily behind the writhing skin. It turned its head from the battle, to Vax, and its blue pin-point balls of fiery eyes stared at Vax. Once more, that earth-shaking voice spoke. "Kneel before me, Viradovax Karthamos."

The dragon began to draw a deep breath, sucking air into its bellows lungs. The many strands of Vax's white hair that had worked themselves free of his braid, swept past him, sticking to the blood on his face. The force of the vacuum before him nearly staggered Vax to his knees.

Instinctively, as the bellows draw began to ebb, Vax dropped to one knee, raising his shield to protect as much of his body as possible.

A thunderclap shattered Vax's hearing, and blue-white lightning arced all through his armor, between his teeth and his shield, from his sword to his breast plate. The blood was instantly cooked black, and he could smell his own flesh burning. The force of the blast of lightning forced Vax back in a deep furrow along the ground, but he lived.

Glancing to either side, Vax's demon-red eyes saw that no more of his soldiers stood. Only their armor, bloody with the torn flesh of their former wearers. Vax looked over the rim of his shield, smelling the blood cooked onto his helm, and rising off his body.

The voice was felt, again, rattling Vax's brain with its power and depth. "And so you kneel, to me."

Vax's eyes went round, as he realized his position. Kneeling before the dragon.

The voice shook the world again, and said, "And now, Viradovax, you shall call me, 'Master'."

Vax awoke from the nightmare, sitting up quickly. He was gasping. His thin cotton sheets and robe were drenched in sweat, suffocating him. He threw the sheet off the bed, and held his head between his legs, hands clasped over his knees.

He reached for balance within himself, letting the image fade from his mind. Vax intentionally sped up his heart rate, and slowed his breathing. He let go, and his body reached equilibrium of its own accord.

Vax took in a deep breath of air, and slowly let it out. He smelled the lands of southern Erlkazar. A hot, steamy kingdom in the south. The world outside his room was made of hard dirt, rock, stone, and forest.

He held his eyes closed. He knew the hour. It was barely an hour to dawn. The nightmare always came, at the same time. And he always awoke from it, at the same place.

He fell back, and touched his face, finding the blood a mere trickle from his nose. Vax rolled out of bed, and stood before his wash basin. Dipping his hands into the water, he paused, looking at them.

A bit of red cloud spread out from the hand that had touched the blood on his upper lip. The rippling of the water reflected the outside starlight in tiny wavelets. The vision reminded him of the dragon's scales.

Vax splashed the water against his face, washing it. What is it, goddess? What is it you will not speak to me about? What is it that I dream of?

He patted his face dry, and glanced outside his window. Softly, his lips barely whispering, he intoned, "I wake, goddess, as a servant of the Red Knight; my duty is to the defend the Realms, protect the living, and serve the Law." He made a fist, and thumped it against his left breast. "So do I devote another day to duty, goddess."

Vax sighed, and turned back into the room. "Another day, another duty..."

The dawn services went swiftly. There was much to be done. As High Priest to the Red Knight, at Five Spears Hold, Viradovax Karthamos had a great deal to do. The road that the hold stood watch over was a vital merchant route. It was also at an important gap in the nearby mountains; two chains dwindled away to nothing, in a long, sparsely wooded and hilly valley. The hold was ideally situated to defend the north or the south.

The many dwarves that worked in the hold helped the caravaners and merchants prepare for the day. Food and water was loaded in vast quantities aboard the wagons, provisioning them for the journey. The dwarves also maintained the hold, and served to improve its defenses.

The main temple to the Red Knight was all of rough-hewn, solid stone that would withstand seige engines for a long while. The temple was in itself a large fortress, with narrow windows ideal for archers to fire from.

Surrounding the temple were many wooden buildings, some reinforced with stone, inside. Supporting the smithies, barracks, training fields, kitchens, stables, temple, inn, tavern, warehouses, and mercantiles, was an army of workers.

All trained in weapons and armor, joining in the followers of the Red Knight, and the garrison, training at different times of the day. Vax oversaw much of the training, personally instructing troops, cooks, and pages alike.

He also kept the finances smoothly running. Vax was very proud of the fact that Five Spears Hold was nearly financially independant, for all its workers. Food was grown and raised, there at the hold, or gathered from the hills and the nearby Forest of Mir. Traders paid modest fees to stay the night, drink the ale of the hold, and be reprovisioned in the morning. Dead bandits and goblins had no need of their gold. And the services of the Red Knights were sought out because of their quality.

Vax was planning ahead. Many of the dwarves, under cover of night, installed great clay jars in the lands surrounding the hold. The jars would prevent seige engines from being rolled close enough to the outer wall to bombard it. The outer wall was only a wooden palisade, some thirty feet high. Strong, but not as strong as stone.

He also kept granaries well provisioned, in case of seige. He hoped that Five Spears Hold would one day become a city in its own right. But it would take time.

Towards mid day, sentries with great long bows of yew spotted another caravan, moving towards the south. Erlkazar, the kingdom in which Five Spears Hold sat, was a new kingdom; trade was its young life's blood.

The king of Erlkazar, Korrox, Paladin of Tyr, had personally entrusted the protection of the caravans to Vax. As well, the Baroness that controlled the lands around the hold trusted Vax to keep the southern portion of the Bright Kingdom safe.

Brigands and other things occasionally stormed forth from the mountains, or hid amongst the hills. The sweeping cavalry tactics often pushed the merchant predators into infantry that dug itself in, in the night. Scouts swept through the mountains, giving warning or heralding minor attacks.

Vax was listening to one of those scouts, the man's horse panting behind him. The scout told of a small band of goblins that was trying to sneak from one mountain range to the other, across the caravan route, though in stealth, not warfare.

Beside Vax, his second-in-command stood carefully, literally memorizing the scouts report as it poured forth form his lips.

"And, I saw, about sixteen short bows, among them," the scout panted.

Vax asked, "What color were the arrows, in their quivers?"

The scout panted, thinking. He put his hands on his knees, bent over, trying to breath deeply. "Can't, remember."

Vax's second-in-command pursed her lips. She was a cleric of the Red Knight, and very skilled in the use of a longbow. Her red hair was tied back in a long pony-tail that reached to her waist. Her red-hued chain mail rustled over rust-colored leathers, and she said, " 'Observation is key to victory'. Try and remember, Yosef."

Vax glanced at the woman. Aradina was fully human, though she affected the ways of the dwarves -- careful vigilance, forced tact in her voice, and rare smiles.

Yosef, finally catching his breath, said, "I think... I think they were made of eagle feathers. Black and white banding."

Aradina glanced up at the six-foot-four Vax, and asked, "Raiding party?"

The High Priest to the Red Knight shook his head. "No. Protectors of shamans. Eagle feathers mean high magic, and they're likely enchanted." He turned to Yosef, and said, "Rest your horse, and then get something to eat." Vax said to a small boy, nearby, "Page, summon the cavalry."

The small boy saluted just like his elders did, when passing Vax, and then ran through the courtyard towards the kitchens.

Aradina frowned. "Shamans? Goblins have shamans?"

Vax nodded. "They were very rarely used, during the Goblin Wars, but they exist. If these have survived, then they're trying to meet up with other goblins."

He crossed his arms, thinking for a moment. As he considered his next option, the caravan the sentries had spied rolled through the palisade's main gate.

For just a moment, Vax saw the dragon, stalking through the gate on all fours, preparing to breath lightning, death, and destruction.

Aradina turned, following his stare, and saw the blue tarp on one wagon come clear in the wind. The palisade had caught and channeled the wind at just the wrong moment, and the brief gust, funneled as well by the mountain ranges, snapped the cover tarp's ropes. Several dwarves caught the tarp, and slowly ambled towards the caravaner, returning it.

Vax blinked, and said as though no memory had percolated, "Tell the kitchens to prepare iron rations for the cavalry; they'll return hot and hungry from this. And saddle a horse for the cleric."

Another page scuttled off.

The cleric, Aradina, asked, "What's the battle plan?"

"We know where in general they are, but they could easily hide in these hills, turning it into a search. So you and the cavalry are to thunder in their general direction -- where Yosef last saw them. I'll take up a position on a lone hill, with a good view."

The cavalry quickly rode around the stone of the temple, and moved into formation, awaiting orders. Vax contined to Aradina, "They'll immediately go into hiding, as you thunder past. Ride off into the far hills, and then circle around the hold. I'll deal with the goblin shamans, when they finally decide to move, again."

Aradina nodded, and moved to address the cavalry.

Vax moved towards the temple, where an honor guardsman was holding his great ash bow, his quiver, and his shield and helm. The guardsman saluted proudly, and helped outfit his High Priest.

As the cavalry thundered out of the hold under Aradina's leadership, Vax moved off at a trot through another gate, on foot. His red-hued field plate thumped with every heavy-footed step, and he quickly began to prayer in chant, in step with his feet.

A moment later, the heat and weight fell away from the priest, and he increased his speed accordingly. Threading his way through small copses of trees, and behind hill ridges, he wound his way towards the goblin party.

In a small copse of trees on a hill top, he climbed the tree, and surprised a sentry.

The sentry in the tree helped Vax up onto his post, several planks set in a good juncture of limbs, high up in the air.

The sentry was silent, saluting as soon as he was able, and then waiting.

Vax returned the salute, and said, "Maintain your watch, sentry. A goblin squadron has been seen, and they may have shamans with them."

The sentry said, "Yessir," and held his spyglass up to his eye.

Viradovax looked out at the cloud of dust his cavarly had generated, further down and away.

A moment later, the sentry said, "I see them, sir; moving by the small ridge at left-of-straight."

Vax squinted his eyes, and saw the motion. "I see them. Let them move, for a moment. I want to study them."

The sentry nodded, glanced once at his signal arrows, and then turned the spyglass back on the goblins.

The High Priest quietly intoned a spell, and suddenly his vision leapt ahead. The small goblins were worn and weary. They appeared tired, and as they moved, cautiously watched the fading trail of dust in the distance.

Vax guessed that three of them were shamans. The attitude they exhibited was one of exhaustion. The shamans were using a variety of spells to shield themselves, but whatever they were shielding from was not ground-based. Vax squinted. The archers with the shamans were watching the skies.

For a split second, fear and terror raced up Vax's spine, locking it in an icy grip. A feeling of the nightmare seeped through to reality, as though the dragon were circling overhead.

Training, discipline, and reason kicked in, as a trickle of sweat rolled down Vax's ribs.

"Wyverns."

The sentry blinked, and let the spyglass down, scanning the skies.

Vax said, "There must be wyverns, in the mountains, again. See the way the goblins are watching the sky?"

The sentry obediantly zoomed in on the goblins, again, with his spyglass. "Yessir."

"Goblins don't usually move at night; light hurts their eyes. And they're easy to see. But wyverns overheat, down here, in the midday sun; they're more adapted to the cold environs. Like in the mountains."

The sentry nodded. "Understood, sir. Shall I send a message back by way of arrow?"

Vax thought for a moment. "Go ahead. Just in case the shamans give me any trouble."

The sentry hastily scribbled a note on some soft vellum with a small stone of lead. As he did so, Vax looked up into the sky, through the branches of the tree.

Dimly, in the deep recessess of his mind, he could hear the dragon's thundering voice. You shall call me, 'Master'.

Vax muttered, "Like hell I will."

Behind him, the sentry's bow twanged, throwing the arrow towards Five Spears Hold. "Message delivered, sir."

High Priest Viradovax Karthamos

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