Unsheathed

The sound of swords being drawn from their scabbed rang across the line. I stood there at only 14 years of age with bright golden yellow hair and freckles. I held my sword but I was shaking from head to toe from the cold and fear. my father stood upon the walls screaming orders to any and every man. He looked at me with a grim expression, showing in the shadows of his golden hair. I looked to my left and right seeing men twice my age fear-stricken. I raised my voice above the noise and confusion. "Today!" The voices and screams quieted. I swallowed and stepped forward and faced the men I stood with. I raised my sword. "Today!, we stand here." I looked each man in the eyes. "Today we die!" I lowered my sword at them "We die for the ones we protect. We stand to be the swords and shields of the women and children who can't stand with us!" I looked up at my father. Realized I was the only voice to be heard. "Today we become legends! We will feast in the halls of our fathers and their fathers!" A cheer rang through every man who was there. The cheer swiftly stopped, as a bang hit the gates. It shattered instantly. Without looking behind me I turned and ran straight into a horde of zombies. We call them walkers or the cold ones. I swung and cut one in half. A pot of flaming oil purred around me. I slashed it with my sword, sending a spray of it into the surrounding cold ones. Over a half a dozen lit up like an old dead tree. They burned fast. I cut and hacked at the dead for over an hour. Until an eerie scratchy voice called out. The voice echoed off the walls calling for a full retreat of the cold ones. I collapsed to my knees, my sword planted into the ground and my head hung low. After several minutes I stood and looked around. I had a pile of bodies surrounding me at least 4 or 5 feet high. I climbed over the ice-cold corpses and looked at the carnage before me. Fires burning randomly it seemed in the heat of the battle I pushed further out into the cold wastelands than i meant to. So I slid down the pile of bodies and walked back to the fortress. I raised my voice as loud as I could muster. "Hear me. Rally here!" I spun my sword around in the air. Men started to pop up around and started to make their way to me. I looked toward the fortress and saw my father standing there with a couple of dozen archers, all of them except my father seemed overjoyed.

Once inside the keep, I was allowed to stand at the war table. "Oather (Oath-are). I think we should raise the walls" Oather my father rubbed his face. "We can't do that not without more wood and the nearest forest is a day's march to the south." Until now I sat but I stood and placed my hands on the table leaning against it looking down at the map that was the table. "Father and elders of this land." I looked each in the eye showing the same grim expression as they had "we need not go to the forest." I pointed at the hills around us. "We have clay-like dirt which is why we can't farm. So why don't we rebuild our walls with clay using our current structure as the foundations?" I watched them nodding and looking at the map. "Arthen what about the cold one’s patrols?" Arthen (are-thin) is my name. "We have horses so we give spears to the horsemen or bows" several of the others nodded. My father raised his hand in silence. "Boy. Where did you get this idea?" I looked at him and pulled out a small book. I placed it on The table. "People like us once lived without fear in giant fortresses higher than the clouds hundreds of years ago before the cold ones". My face showed passion and desire along with a stubbornness they all knew from my father. "We can make this work". We all looked to my father "Oather?" One elder said "what do you think?" He nodded and looked at me, his face tired. "I'll leave it to you then" my face spread into a smile then I forced it to disappear. "Thank you father." I turned and walked out.

For the next several days I examined the dirt and clay, looked at papers, and drew up plans. As the days turned into weeks the scouts killed small patrols of Cold-Ones, while the rest of the women, children, and men dug away after a month of hard labor. We had a solid wall and the land around us was mostly flat with room to expand. I was on night guard when I saw a glowing blue figure in the distance among a sea of cold ones. Then I saw another figure standing alone among the hills. He was wearing a black cloak. He carried no weapons, only a large staff with small animal teeth. He raised his hand and a bird came and landed in it and on the other side a large wolf. I woke up with a start and looked out among the shadows and saw nothing. That morning at breakfast I watched my mother move about the room and noticed she didn't have her heart-shaped locket. "Mother, where has your locket gone?" She smiled at me "Dear, boy your sister has come of age and now wears it" she placed her hand upon her breast feeling for that once familiar weight. I nodded and grabbed an apple off the table. The walls creaked as the wind blew "we are in for a harsh winter." My father entered the home covered from head to toe with snow. He stamped his feet and grunted at my mother. “Boy come look at this.” he held out his hand and beckoned me to the door. I looked out and saw for the first time since I could remember the younger children running about playing in the snow. "I have never seen any children play with snow before." My father looked down at me. "You did good son" I smiled as I watched the younger ones play. That's when it hit. A loud crash happened outside of the walls. I drew my sword and rushed the walls. once I got to the top I looked down and saw several hundred cold ones all lined up and in full ice plate armor. They had spears, swords, and shields. I looked around seeing our men wearing only at best leather armor, no helmets or shields.” to me!” I shouted “archers to the walls!. Shields and swords split into two groups: wall and gate!” a large portion of the military were spear-type troops. Which walked down to. “Okay I need 10 of you to spear the enemy from the walls and the rest of you to the gate funnel them to the swords.” they all nodded grimly and I climbed to the wall again. And looked down at my small army of 200 infantry, 80 archers, and 40 cavalries.” Hear me!.. We stand today together as brothers under the sky, friends in arms, and kings under the earth!.” I slammed my sword against a shield. The rest joined in beating shields. I smiled and looked out into the enemy’s lines. My father kneeled down next to me and looked up into my eyes. “Son I must tell you something-” I placed my hand on his shoulder “father it can wait until after the battle” I stepped forward and raised my sword “Archers Ready!.. Knock... Loose'' the whistle of arrows flying into the mists of the enemy and just like that everything went quiet. Arthen stood in the field, he looked back and saw his hole Razed and his friends and family laying dead. He felt something cold slide through him and he looked down to see a large icicle growing into his chest. with that he fell into an eternal sleep.

Author's notes. Hey I really hope you enjoyed my piece "Unsheathed" . I had a blast writing it for your viewing pleasure. I have always loved telling dramatic fantasy stories for my friends and family to enjoy and now I'm extending that out to you! I'm a lot younger than all of you, only being 17 going on 18 this July. But that's fine by me. Anywho have a wonderful and blessed day!