An alternate Telling of the Cherubim Knights Tale

Chapter One: Arrival In Tyria


“*Cough,sputter* Ouchies I hurt all over. Ugghh my face is in sand. I hate sand in my mouth.”

I peered up out of the muck my face was buried in, and immediately regretted it, sun blinding me and sand bringing burning tears.

I’m on a beach, that much is evident. Where? Why? How? I can not remember for the moment as I pull myself up onto all fours. My skin is burned. How long have I been exposed? As I sit up I realize most of my armor is torn away, my jerkin torn, barely concealing my breast. My trousers are filthy and feet bare. Highly undignified for Royaly. Alright, a minor Lady, but Royalty nonetheless.

I kneel, perusing my surroundings, trying to remember what has happened to me. Pieces begin to form in my mind of recent events as I stand looking about. I view upon the unfamiliar beach not recognizing anything. Not the plants, nor birds, and worst off no landmarks. This land is totally foreign to me.

As the jumbled past begins to coalesce in my mind, I begin to remember what happened.

I had embarked on a grand adventure with the leader of our band, Little Pammie. A cute little dwarf with flaming orange hair, always a laugh, and 90 years of wisdom, experience, and wealth. Journeying along was the ferocious Orc warrior woman, Pummel and the dark elf Sorceress, Lady Pompous, as she preferred to be called. We had decided to pay homage to the Goddess Eva in her undersea kingdom but had run afoul of the Great Water Dragon, Fafurian. It had proven a glorious, yet futile battle.

Our 100 length Man-o-War was but a half the journey to Eva’s Garden when the beast had roared forth from the depths. Lady Pompous, ever vigilant, responded first ‘fore the Dragon’s first bellows had ceased their echo’s in our ears. A blast of tornadic winds erupted from her ebon body to press back the leviathan as it clumsily attempted to scramble onto our decking plates. As I gazed upon the sight from the pilot’s house, I cried to the Captain to turn the vessel into the wind to give the beast a less stable platform from which to retaliate, and proceeded to rush to my comrades’ aid.

As Pompous prepared to unleash a second assault, the beast let loose a spout of water from it’s great maw that struck her squarely and seemed to crumble her lithe form as it tossed her from our vessel and well out into the waves. As I fumbled for my axe and shield, I spied Pammie, wielding her massive two-handed hammer, smartly and soundly braining the beast squarely between it’s eyes. The power in such a small frame was staggering. The stunned beast attempted to pull back leaving it’s underside vulnerable to her repeated strikes. For the briefest of moment, as I approached the fray, I had hope of victory.

As Pammie swung at the monsters underbelly I leapt to the attack from its left forequarter, raising my axe to hack through scales and aim for its bitter heart. Spying me in its peripheral, the beast rolled enough for my onslaught to miss the mark, axe biting instead into the left foreleg with disasterous results. Losing balance, the giant beast fell forward onto our tiny leader and seemed to flatten her entirely. Upon rearing itself back up, realization sunk in. The creature had weight enough to break the deck and drop Pammie’s body through into the galley below, condition unknown.

Now, but I, remained on deck. Where in the God’s names was Pummel? The foul creature now turned its focus fully upon me and I knew what was to follow. I braced myself, shield in front of me, and leaned hard into the water spout the beast erupted towards me. Lord’s above, a hundred hammer blows could not have hurt more….but I held. As the beast recoiled for its next attack, I prepared my next maneuver, feinting left, then moving right as it spewed more volumes of water at me, and swinging my axe at the offered head. Catching it to the side of the eye, I cleaved its face setting loose a torrent of bluish blood. I grinned. First blood to me.

I had to play this smartly, so for the next several moments it was dodge, hack, feint, slash, brace, counterattack. I was tiring quickly and feared the damage I was inflicting was sorely short of what it would take to dispatch this abomination. My respite came in the form of a snarling blue-green orc cursing obsenities about her nap being disturbed. Orcs are not known for their manners and polite language, but for once, I had nothing in the way of objections. Her hands were adorned with the giant 4 bladed claw weapons, razor sharp and too heavy for mere human to wield. They were as nothing to this behemoth of a woman, and the Blades were aptly named, Dragon Grinder’s. And that’s exactly what she did.

Launching into the creatures chest, her claws became a blur of motion, hacking out great pieces of the animals meat. Gore splattered the Orcs body and she smiled the smile of the psychotic. As Pummel relentlessly pressed her assault, I continued my hacking at any vulnerable parts I could reach but always maintained a distance from the orc, lest I get caught up in her fury. The great dragon was trying desperately to get at the woman, attempting to hack through to its vitals, beneath it, but each time it stepped back to make room to attack, I and the orc pressed in. Finally the monster was afforded the opportunity it needed.

As the orc pressed, she slipped upon the bloodied deck boards and dropped momentarily to her knee. Opening offered, the mouth of the Dragon bit upon the left shoulder and chest of the orc, raised her up high, and began to shake her. Not a cry escaped her but our eyes locked and this fearless warrior bellowed but two words at me….”Fight On”. The beast whipped it’s head about and slung the orc across the ship and headfirst into the pilot house. No movement. It was down to me it seemed.

Fear and adrenaline, I allowed to course through me, drove me into the creature wielding every attack I could upon the beast. Each lesson at the hands of every Warmaster, I studied under, flowed through me and I became a creature of motion without thought. Action and reaction. How long I kept at the beast I do not know, but finally the end moments arrived. It reared it’s head, seemingly for another blast of water from its mouth, and so I braced myself. It did the unexpected. Slamming its head forward like a battering ram, fully upon my shield, I was hit by the massive head that easily outweighed me by three. Physics prevailed. I was launched backwards, my back and head ripping through the wrist thick side rails, and tumbled with the wood into the sea.

Fog clouded my head and I was sinking fast. “Drop the axe or drown” my head ordered and every warrior instinct argued with me that a weaponless Knight was a dead Knight. Survival prevailed and, eased of the axes weight, I returned to the surface. My head pounded and scarcely the strength remained to stay afloat. I tore off my armor plate with my remaining strength and reached frantically for something to buoy me. My hand found something firm and I grabbed for it. I had found part of the wood siding that had been so abruptly torn from the ship as my body had passed through it. As I pulled myself upon it, I collapsed and began to lose vision and thought.

My last recollections, as the man-o-war slipped away, were of faint girlish cries, warrior bellows, and lightning flashing. Perhaps my friends fought on. I was done. All became dark.

As my memories finished playing out in my head, and frustrated tears and fears for my comrades issued forth, I began to refocus on the now. A movement caught my eye, a scant hundred paces away. Some group of creatures approached me. On two legs and appearing catlike. “Animals?” I wondered, but then noticed they were clothed and seemed to be talking amongst themselves as they pointed at me. “Well, maybe they’re friendly” I thought. I waved and shouted a greeting as they approached more closely.Suddenly an arrow flew forth and at me, easily dodged but surely not friendly.

“Awww what now?” I cried



Pampered One