Story Time, Chapter 1 : The First Great Dinkle Scuffle##
As the veil of night settled down upon Dinkleburg, the camp fire is lit, signalling the end of a hard day at work. The working citizen hearthlings strolled back onto the campsite, tired and weary. While a few hearthlings were still trying finish their days work, sluggishly packing away their supplies and tools, the few free from the burden quickly embraced their bedsides and promptly drifted off into a sweet, deep slumber.
Amidst the scuffle and shuffles of the drowsy and the dreamers, Commander Norsa, Captain of the guard and rising hero, assembled her small band of soldiers together for the dreaded night watch. With the threats of goblin attacks during the day and undead assaults during the night, it was taxing for Norsa and her two rookie soldiers to remain vigilant for all hours of the day and late into the night.
Wiping the fatigue from her eyes, Norsa motions to the other two soldiers, Sanin and Jhon, to begin the night patrol. Night watch at the campsite is easier than the day patrol, as there is less area to cover since the other hearthlings are huddled together in their beds. However; due to the guards being undermanned, Norsa and her men are required to take up both the day watch and night watch in one great stride, only being granted a couple of hours of needed rest and respite after a diligent search of the area, confirming no more assaults will threaten the camp that night.
Sanin patrols the west of Dinkleburg, carefully scanning the hills and cliffsides, where enemies usually take advantage of the altitude to launch surprise attacks. Norsa takes Jhon into Hunters Grove to the east of the base camp, where the dense foliage of the forest provides enemies with the means to ambush unsuspecting hearthlings, which becomes even more dangerous during the night. Where hunters go during the day is too dangerous for Norsa and her men to patrol during the night, so they patrol the entrance and only a little deeper, where the trees are still fairly thin and the density is sparse. Jhon throws stones into the darkness as Norsa scans the tree lines for movement. Norsa found that the undead are fairly easy to bait out of hiding with sound and movement, so this technique is usually the safest, however she always reminds herself and her soldiers to stay ever vigilant.
A few hours pass like this and Norsa and her men regroup at the campfire for a rotation of duty. However; a deathly cold wind blows in from the south-west, followed by what could be only described as a shroud of bloodlust. Norsa and her men freeze for a moment, they knew this feeling after many small encounters with the undead, however; the intensity on this night was palpable.
To the south-west was a large plain, it was unusual for the undead to approach from this direction. “In fact,” Norsa thought to herself, “it would be unusual for any enemy force to approach from that direction unless they were large… enough…”
A large force.
The dread washed over Norsa, this wasn’t going to be a small encounter like she and her men were used to. This was going to be a fully fledged battle. Shaking off the fright, Norsa readied herself, adjusting her armour and gear while throwing a glance at Sanin and Jhon, her men understood and immediately proceeded to do the same and without a moments hesitation they set out to meet the enemy on the plains, further away from the campsite.
By now the dark of the night was mature, and without the nearby light and warmth of the heartfire, Norsa had to rely solely on the moon and stars for vision.
She and her men stood in the middle of an expansive plain, a gentle breeze rolled through, however they could only feel the harsh prickle of bloodlust rolling in from the south-west. In the darkness, they waited in silence.
Click, clack!
Norsa and her men went rigid. From the distance they could hear the friction and collision of bone against bone.
Skeletons.
However; as the sounds drew closer, Norsa picked up another sound, a groan, or multiple groans.
Zombies.
Norsa groaned with disgust, and then Sanin made a pointing gesture. When Norsa peered further into the darkness, she could see, four shaded figures, two of which were rather skinny and the other two were limping. It was an undead assault that had them outnumbered, a situation they had never been in before. Dread started to wash over Norsa again when her thoughts were interrupted by a rattling sound behind her. Norsa’s head jerked backwards swiftly, expecting a surprise attack from behind she readied herself. Instead, she found Sanin and Jhon quivering in their battle stances.
Realising letting her own dread take control would lead her to her own death, mostly likely her recruits and then the other hearthlings, Norsa planted her feet into the ground, in a charging stance, throwing a stalwart glance to her recruits.
Inspired, Sanin and Jhon took up similar stances, their shaking had disappeared and their breathing calmed.
It was time.
As swift as the wind, Norsa leaped into action, leading the charge, as her men followed close behind.
Ahead, a zombie had broken away from the group, seemingly leading a similar charge.
Clang
Sparks flew as their weapons clashed. Norsa and the zombie collided with enough force it almost knocked her off her feet. Norsa remained planted however, falling down so early into the fight meant certain death for sure. Sanin and Jhon roared ferociously as they leapt out from behind Norsa, who was still holding the zombies weapon down with her own.
The rest of the enemy force was closing in fast as well. Whoever could reach the centre to assist Norsa or the zombie first would turn the tide of battle in their favour early, making it difficult for the other side to recover.
Norsa felt wind rush past her as two roaring figures jumped into the fray.
Sanin and Jhon pushed back the attacking zombie with such ferocity and power that it was pushed back and behind its advancing allies.
Her men were able to bring the tide of battle into their favour, with one of the four enemies wounded heavily, the advantage they had before was now gone, the battle could go either way, but Norsa and her men were now driven by a high morale
Now was the time to deal a decisive blow, with the enemy force split up after the initial clash, Norsa and her men were able to delegate targets. Sanin assaulted the other zombie while Jhon attempted to distract the two skeletons. This gave Norsa the opportunity to slip through their defence and attack the first zombie before they could recover from the charge.
SMASH, SMASH
The plan had gone better than anticipated, Norsa managed to slip past and deliver a final blow to the first zombie, this distracted the second zombie allowing Sanin to deliver a one hit kill.
With half the enemy force eliminated after one fell swoop, the fight was all but won.
It took little effort to finish off the two remaining skeletons.
Victorious; Norsa and her men wearily strolled back to the campsite. Tired and proud, they felt they earned tonights’ few hours of rest.
They’ll need it for the days to come.
