Dishon Chapter 4

Disaster
IN THE TENTH YEAR OF RECAB, KING OF DISHON
Perez gaized out on the fearsome army of Marram. The weapons were most impressive, and the sheer size of the army was enough to make one dizzy. The huge army dwarfed the size of Calets forces, but Perez had complete confidence in his battle plan. With his plan he knew that Calet could win, but he shuddered when he thought of the lives that would be lost.

"This is it" said Shallum. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck" Perez replied. "Here, keep this with you," he said, handing Shallum a small rock. "It is Nathor tradition to keep a pebble with you when going into war." Perez was a Nathorite. Nathorites can be identified by their eyes, which are completely black. Perez was well known for always following Nathor traditions.

The king smiled. "And where did this tradition come from?" he asked, as he put the pebble in his pocket.

"No one knows anymore," Perez replied. "It's meaning was lost a long time ago.

Shallum thoght for a moment, and then said "Perez, in case I don't make it back, please take good care of Seled for me."

"As long as I live, Oh king, not one hair on your son's head will be damaged."

Shallum gave Perez a thankful glance, mounted his horse and then rode to the front of his army. Perez, with one of his servants, ran to a little hill where he could watch the battle.

At the front of the army, Shallum looked out at his commanders. Each raised their hand to show that they were ready. Shallum then raised his sword up: the signal to attack.

Calet's army charged forward, and once the generals of Marram saw the charge, they too ordered their army to charge. The battle had scarcly begun when Marram was taking some heavy blows. Perez's plan was ingenius, as were most of his plans. I will not risk confusing the reader by trying to explain it, but I will say that it was superb.

"And now" thought Perez from his hill "here comes Polad to deliver the final blow." But Polad's army did not move forward. In fact, it even began moving back a little. "What's wrong with them" Perez wondered. "Attack! Attack!" Perez knew his plan would bring victory even without Polad's army, but it would take a lot longer.

Suddenly, out of every forest, from behind every tree, came trolls. They ran into the battle from behind the mountians, and the winged trolls swooped down from the sky. There were more trolls then Perez would have thought possible. It seemed like an infinate number were now already on the battle field, and they were still pouring in by the hundreds. The trolls fought on the side of Marram, and within minutes, Calet's army was crushed. The Soldiers fled in panic.
Perez stood devestated. "How could this have happened?" he said aloud. "Where did those trolls come from?"

"Sir" his servant shouted. "We must get out of here quickly." Perez nodded and the two of them ran. Soon they saw the river where the army of Calet had crossed to get to the battle field. The river was very narrow, about four meters wide, but it was deep, very deep. It was had big banks on each side that dropped down like a cliff. Calet's army had to build a bridge in order to cross it.

The bridge the army had used was burned. About ten or twelve Marramiane soldiers stood guard by the bank. Perez saw more soldiers off in the distance that were coming his way. Perez realized with horror that soon Marram would have many soldiers here, and they would destroy the fleeing army of Calet.

"Were going to have to charge them if we have any hope of escaping," Perez said to his servant. "Are you armed?" His servant unsheathed his sword and held it up. "Good, lets go."

The two of them ran forward. Perez carried his spear in his hand. His sword hung by his side. The soldiers shot several arrows. Perez leaped to one side to aviod being hit. In doing so he tripped over his feet and fell in the dirt. Out of the corner of his eye, Perez saw his servant fall, with an arrow piercing his chest.

Perez threw the spear as hard as he could, and it killed a Marramiane soldier. Perez picked up a rock with his right hand and held his sword with his left. He resumed his charge. The soldiers did not have time to refit another arrow, but a couple of them threw spears. Neither of them struck Perez. Perez threw a rock at one of the soldiers, knocking him into the river. Perez thrust his sword into the chest of another soldier before he leaped to the other side.

Perez barely made the jump. His fingers had a tight grip on the edge of the bank, while his feet struggled for a hold. The bank was not as stable as he had thought. Most of the dirt was loose, unpack, and gave way easily to him. The bank quickly crumbled around where he had his fingers, and Perez soon found himself slowly sliding down the bank, clawing away at it the whole time in hopes of getting a hold. At four feet away, saying he was an easy target for the soldiers on the other side of the bank would be an understatement, but Perez didn't have time to notice that they never tried to finish him off.

With a splash Perez entered into the murky, but suprisingly warm water. He surfaced to see dead body of the soldier he had stabbed. Perez removed his sword from the corpse, and placed it in it's sheath. The other soldier, that Perez had knocked into the water, was being helped out by his comrades. Perez heard many splashes, and suddenly realized he was being attacked by several crocodiles. Since these animals had not been here earlier, he concluded that they must be part of the Marramiane army.

Perez quickly drew his sword. A crocodile swam towards him, it's mouth wide open as if to swallow him whole. Perez thrust his sword as far into the open mouth as he could, until he saw the end of it come out of the crodile's back. Perez withdrew his sword, leaving his enemy to flounder in agony.

A second crocodile approached, but opun seeing what had happened to his comrade, he dove down into the water. Since the water was dirty, Perez immediatly lost sight of his antagonist. Before he had time to think, Perez felt strong jaws clamp down on his lower leg. The next thing he knew, he was dragged under water and surronded by crocodiles. Perez swung his sword wildly, stabbing every where he felt movement. The crocodiles left him momentarily, but just when he was about to go up to get a breath, they were upon him agian. The same crocodile that dragged him under tried to get another hold on his leg, but with strength he didn't know he had, Perez put his sword through it's skull. He whirled around to see another croc swimming towards him. The creature soon felt cold steel through his belly. A third crocodile suddenly made a dart for him, but Perez, swinging wildly, gave it a painful cut on it's side. The crocodile retreated to another part of the river.

Perez surfaced and took a big gulp of air. He then relaxed as he saw that all of the crocodiles were either dead or had fled. Then he quickly submerged himself into the water when he remembered the soldiers on the bank above him. The soldiers had not yet been able to perceive that the crocodiles had been defeated, as the water was hard to see through. Since they didn't want to waste any arrows, they had been planning to just let the crocodiles finish Perez off.

Perez swam under water as long as he could. He swam until his lungs felt like they were going to burst, and then he remained swimming. Finally, when Perez could wait no longer, he came up for a quick breath. He would have liked to stay long enough to take a big gulp of air, but a quick breath was all he was able to take. Perez continued swimming, but this time he wasn't able to go as long before he needed to breath again. On the bank above the soldiers watched for his head to emerge so they could see where he was, then shoot a couple of arrows in his direction.

One impatient soldier drew his sword, and leaped into the water after Perez. He landed on Perez's back. As soon as he felt the impact, Perez immediatly perceived what was happening. His opponent promptly fell of his back, and before he could swim to the surface, Perez was on him, swinging his sword rapidly. The soldier barely had time to parry many of the blows, and ended up with a few cuts on his chest as a result of being one second to slow. Once he got his senses back, the other soldier fought just as valiently as Perez. Both fought under water, trying to stab the other and protecting themselves from the enemys sword. Neither dared to go up for a breath, fearing that his opponent would do him in the moment he left his guard. Perez, however, was worn out and could not hold his breath for long. Soon he kicked heartily, allowing his head to rise up to the air. No sooner had his head broken the surface, then the soldier charged him. He barely had time to parry the oncoming sword, when the soldier delivered a punch to his stomach with his left hand, knocking the wind out off him. Since the blow had been at a downward angle, the force it had carried Perez under. Perez, desperatly needing air, would have shot right back up to the surface, but the soldier was on top of him now, grabbing his throat and keeping Perez's head submerbeged.

Perez raised his sword out of the water and was about to bring it down on his foe, when the soldier dropped his own sword, and grabbed Perez's arm with his free arm. Immediately Perez's left arm flashed out and landed square on the jaw of his adversary, knocking him off. Perez came to the surface and drank in the sweet air. For a moment he forgot the danger he was in, and just sucked in the surrounding vapors.

The familiar sound of an arrow in flight came to the ears of Perez, followed by the sharp pain in his left shoulder where the arrow struck. Perez suppressed the urge to express his pain in a howl, and quickly returned to the safety of the water.

Up on the bank, the Marramiane soldiers forgot about Perez in order to attend to more pressing matters. The army that Perez had seen in the distance was supposed to attack Calet's army from the rear. However Marram had not anticipated defeating Calet so soon, and so that army had already missed the battle. It would still be effective though, just as a means to sandwich the retreating soldiers of Calet and destroy them. The Marramiane soldiers on the bank had been posted as some what of a look out, to make sure things ran smoothly. Now the fleeing Calet soldiers where headed right toward the river, with only the ten to stop them. The soldier who had gone after Perez was told of the situation by his associates, and was pulled up to help them at once.

The ten of them bravely stood their ground, as they shot arrows into the oncoming army. The Caletians, wild with fear, simply charged on, and the ten Marramiane soldiers were quickly killed. The Caletians all leaped into the river and proceeded to claw away at the opposite bank until they had climbed it. It was chaos like you wouldn't believe, and many soldiers drowned from jumping in the river and then have others jump on top of them, and still others, on top of the person who was on them. The river was very deep too. No one had yet found it's bottom.

In the commotion Perez surfaced and began to try to climb the bank, but he could not. His leg was badly injured from when the crocodile had clamped down on it, for crocodiles have a very strong bite. His left arm was almost totally imobalized by the arrow. He called to his countymen for help. If he had been any other man, he propably would have been left to his fate, but since everybody knew what his military genius had done for Calet, they helped him out.

Two men from on top of the bank grabbed Perez's arms, while two men below pushed him up. When he got to the top of the bank, two men helped him keep up with the other men by pratically dragging him the whole way.