Dishon Chapter 1

Prelude to a War
IN THE TENTH YEAR OF RECAB, KING OF DISHON
A cold winter wind whipped through the town. Ishod clasped his freezing hands together and blew into them in a futile attempt to keep them warm. "Wish I would have brought my gloves" he thought to himself. Ishod picked up the shovel and continued clearing the street of snow. He had gone to Jolk's tavern, hoping to relax a little and talk to his friends, only to find out that Kitmus, the boy who usually shovels the street, had broken his leg and needed a replacement. Since Kitmus was his cousin, everyone volunteered Ishod for the job.

Ishod slipped on the ice and fell in the snow. He got up and brushed himself off with his numb hands. "Ishod" called a voice behind him, "what happened to Kitmus?" Ishod turned around to see Dosut. Dosut was second in power only to the king. He was also the commander of the army. Since Ishod was a soldier, he knew Dosut well.

"He broke his leg" answered Ishod. "I wasn't there but they tell me he fell of his horse."

"And so your filling in for him" teased Dosut. "Ishod you look miserable! Don't tell me a job meant for a child is so hard for you." Ishod opened his mouth to defend himself, but Dosut stopped him. "I'm only kidding of course," he said smiling. "Here, take my gloves. Your hands look redder then Tomaz's chest."

"Thanks a lot" Ishod replied, putting on the gloves. The chill began to rapidly leave his hands. "Speaking of Tomaz, have you seen him?"

Dosut thought for a moment. "Not since this morning. He and the king have been talking all day."

The smile on Ishod's face quickly left. Dosut's expressions also became more somber. "They're not talking about social matters I trust."

Dosut let out a long sigh. "I'm afraid not" he said.

"Tomaz always takes a break this time of day, always," pointed out Ishod. "What could possibly be wrong that they've been talking about it all day?"

"You know I can't tell you that Ishod. If the king wished it to be public knowledge, he would have told the people. Besides, you'll find out soon enough. It's hard to keep something like this a secret for long." Dosut turned and walked into the Tavern, leaving poor Ishod extremely curious.
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Dosut returned to the king's palace an hour later. Tish, one of the king's servants, rushed to take his coat and hat. "The king and Tomaz are in the meeting room" he told Dosut as he hung the coat up. "Did you lose your gloves?"

"I let Ishod borrow them" answered Dosut. "Did much change since I left?"

"Dosut, I don't even know what their talking about much less what they've decided, but it looks like Tomaz has reached a plan."

"I'll guess I'll just have to find out" Dosut said, giving Tish a valort, the current unit of money. Dosut raced down the hall to a small room that the king liked to call his meeting room.

Dosut was short, about 5 foot 5, with red hair. His father had been prince of Rammes, a far away country. When his brother had tried to take the throne Dosut, not eager for power, had let him have it. Knowing his brother would want to eliminate all dangers to his throne, Dosut had fled to Dishon.

Dosut was twelve at the time and he decided his future lay in becoming a soldier. He conditioned himself until he was fourteen, old enough to join. Dishon was a small country with a weak army, so peace was the only way the people survived, being most accommodating to other countries demands. However war did eventually break out. A tribe of lizard men, looking for a home, thought Dishon an easy target.

Lizard men have a body shaped like a man, but covered with scales like a lizard. They have two fangs like a snake which carried deadly poison. Their hands have no fingers, but rather five long claws, each half a meter. The claws acted like small swords. Fortunately for Dishon, however, their lack of fingers made it impossible for them to make or use weapons.

The war was a relatively easy one for Dishon. They stayed far away and cut down the lizard men with arrows and spears. In fact, Dishon only suffered major causalities from one battle, and Dosut was at that battle.

The Lizard men ambushed a battalion of Dishonites going back to the base after a hard day of fighting. The commander of the battalion had been incompetent and his men were not prepared. All at once, lizard men began leaping out from behind every tree and rock. Some even climbed the tree and pounced down on the army below. Before the army knew what had happened they where half licked. Most men didn't have time to even draw their sword before they were bitten by the fangs or stabbed by the claws. Dosut was one of the lucky ones who was able to get his sword, at which point he began cutting down lizard men left and right. The leader of the lizard men army himself had leapt down from his tree to combat Dosut. He landed on the ground and struck Dosut across the cheek with his massive claws, leaving Dosut's face a bloody mess. Dosut fell to the ground from the force of the blow, dropping his sword in shock. The leader leaped on him ready to inject his deadly poison. Blood flowed into Dosut's eyes, making it impossible for him to see. The leader's feet landed on Dosut's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. The leader's hands came down on Dosut's shoulders. The head came down to bit Dosut's chest, but Dosut, able to see a little bit, grabbed the leaders neck and held him back. The leader took his hands off Dosut's shoulders in order to use his claws to shred Dosut's wrists. But before he could, Dosut pushed the leader off, and ran to his sword. He turned to see the leader leaping toward him. Dosut plunged the sword into the leader's chest. The leader fell down and writhed in agony, screaming loudly. Lizard men have a loud, frightening scream, causing everyone to look at the leader. Eager to avenge their leader, lizard men attacked Dosut from everywhere. Dosut, who was in no condition to fight, stood his ground and became an inspiration to his fellow soldiers. Eventually Dishon won the battle, and Dosut was honored with a major promotion. That was the beginning of a lot of promotions for Dosut, which eventually led to him being second only to the king at age 25. Dosut was now 27.

Dosut opened the door to the meeting room to see the king, Recab, and the king's most trusted advisor, Tomaz. Tomaz was a robin. In Fabulae animals possessed the same intelligence as humans.

"Sit down Dosut" invited Recab, motioning toward a chair.

"I heard Tomaz has found a plan" said Dosut, taking a seat.

"Not much of one I'm afraid" Tomaz answered.

"Tomaz is always very humble about his ideas" said Recab. "However this time, I think he's right. The strategy is really a last resort."

"While, what is it?" asked Dosut.

"Let's start from the top, shall we?" said Recab beaming. Recab was a history buff, and he loved showing it off. He cleared his throat and began. "The empire of Marram began about, oh, one thousand years ago in the region of what is now called Ninthinia. Ninthinia, as you probably now, is famous for it's rocky, desert like land. The empire was founded by some wandering barbarians who were too weak to conquer any sort of land what so ever and had to take part of Ninthinia because no one else wanted it. The origin of the barbarians can be traced back to the empire of Calet. The Emperor Cerazerer, in an effort to make his power supreme, began killing off all opposition. A small group fled from him and eventually, through the generations, became barbarians. It's quite an interesting story actually." Recab looked up to see exasperation on the faces of Tomaz and Dosut. He quickly added "but we won't get into that right now.

"Anyway, it took a while but the people of Marram were hard working and industrious. Before one hundred years had passed, they had established a thriving civilization. Then they went to the next step: conques. And conquer they did. Before the country of Egiot knew they were fighting a war, they had been conquered. Gracram also met a similar fate."

"And nine hundred years later" cut in Tomaz, eager to end the history lecture. "Marram is a huge empire, who is obviously preparing to conquer Dishon."

"Right" said Recab, showing no annoyance at being interrupted. (He was used to this kind of thing when he was talking about history). "They're positioning their troops and everything."

"Dishon is a very small country!" Exclaimed Tomaz. "We'd be conquered in a day."

"So what is Tomaz's plan then" asked Dosut, who had been trying to get a word in edgewise for quite some time.

"Why, to bribe Calet" answered the very talkative Tomaz. "Well have to scrape to the very bottom of our royal treasury to get enough money, but the king of Calet, Shallum, will do anything for the right price. We'll simply ask him to defend us from Marram."

"Calet," began Recab, "Now that was an empire."

Tomaz, who was always a talker and never a listener groaned, but Dosut was beginning to become interested. "Why Marram is a tiny village compared to what Calet once was!" he exclaimed.

"Calet had conquered almost the whole world" said Recab. "But then they fell, due to one disaster after another. First their capital burned down. Then an accomplished assassin began picking off their leaders one after another. As if that wasn't bad enough, a group of revolutionaries began trying to revolt. At the same time, most of the remaining countries left banded together and attacked. All this Calet could probably have handled, had not famine struck in Nomar, the empire's bread basket."

"And under these pressures, Calet was crushed like an egg shell" put in Dosut, trying hard to keep up with Recab by remembering what he had once learned during his brief education as a prince.

"Calet never recovered from the blow history has called the year of many disasters" said Recab, clearly more then a match for Dosut, or for that matter most everyone when it came to remembering history. "Falsely named however for the disasters spanned about ten years. They began a long, and painful for the citizens of Calet, decline in power. However, call it miracle if you will, Calet seems to be rising to it's old power again."

"Thanks to the help of Perez" said Tomaz, eager to regain domination of the discussion, and, being the king's advisor, was well informed about current events. "Perez is a military genius. A saying has developed in Calet, 'If Perez is put in charge of a war, he will bring victory'. So far the saying has not been proved false. Of the ten wars he's been put in charge of, he's won every one of them."

"Calet will hold Marram off for a little while at least" summed up Recab. "And I can see no other choice." Tomaz and Dosut nodded in agreement.

A weak knock was heard at the door. "Come in" called Recab.

Tish entered the room. "My king," he said, "your meal is ready."

Recab turned to Tomaz and Dosut. "You gentlemen can help yourselves if you want. I do not fell like eating with my country in such peril." Tomaz and Dosut were about to leave, when Recab called out to them. "You know what will happen if Marram conquers us."

Dosut shuddered to think about it, for he knew only to well what would happen. All males would be killed, girls made slaves, and women to be divided among the soldiers for the most vilest of purposes. The same would happen if Dishon surrendered. Recab left, leaving Dosut and Tomaz with the horrible thought still stuck in their mind.