Train with the Warriors

How Treason killed us once

Come hear the tale of Blackfur and Neverheard his wolfbrother. They are about to tell you how the battle of Artud-ferrs-urrigr was and how they along with nine others saved the life of our noble King Kostajor the Unseen. As always I will translate and you will patiently listen.

It was several winters ago when we annihilated the Maboder Tribe. These traitors were no match for us and several of them fled when they saw us approaching, some preferred to stay and died. Oh, you should have seen the mass of bodies and the sea of blood on the new-fallen snow. It was a sight that many of us will never forget. In the same night the Tergavi offered to the King's bodyguard the honour to search a rock which should serve as a sign of our victory. Telmor was with us this night Neverheard found a huge rock greater than those I have seen before. And while we went hunting more traitors the next day, the Tergavi and his guards stayed and called Telmor to help them create a new Tergavi stone.

We came back some nights later and the Tergavi stone was already finished. It looked magnificent and was clearly shaped with the help of Telmor. I think it is still there on the edge of the Telmori woods and it is said that a great spirit of vengeance is near this rock and keeps it safe from every enemy of us wolves. It is said that while touching the stone not even a Red Man could lie. I doubt that a Red Man could get far enough even to see it without provoking the spirit. This stone is called Orrud-artud-fers or Where-Treason-died.

Now Kostajor declared on the next cursed day that the Red Men would attack us Telmori as soon as they could. We would have only the winter to prepare for war. But since the coming of the Red Men we Telmori were prepared to fight for our forest and land. The winter was more than enough time to practice. The King declared that he had to visit some of his friends who were people of Orlanth and to make even more friends but he should be back before the snow melts and spring arrives.

We warriors trained the whole day and sometimes even the whole night. I know one wolf that did not sleep the whole winter through but trained instead. He was called Sleepless and he was a special wolf. When snow was about to melt Kostajor our noble King arrived with all the other packs. What was surprising for many of us he brought people of Orlanth with him, yes even men who worshipped death. It was said that they could fight like Telmori and that they never fled a battle and that they could drive forth the spirit of your body only by looking at you and saying strange words. Their leader was Sword Neverdied. Kostajor told us in secret that this man could not die regardless what wounds he received. We were assured that another friend of our King would arrive before the Red Men came. He was named Orstarong and was a great warlord which swore an oath upon his honour to bring an army with him to fight on our side.

Then the scouts reported Red Men…

They were coming from the winter and were armed with bows, spears and swords, most were made of poison metal. They were four times as much as we were. Though many of the people of Orlanth were frightened Kostajor told them not to be, because we Telmori could handle this army alone. And so the people of Orlanth regained their heart. We marched assembled with the King and his bodyguard which I was a part of out of our forest to meet our enemies and to secure our lands forever.

But suddenly a scout reached the field who was hardly alive. I recognised him, it was Nevercaught a wolfbrother to one of my cousins who was a scout and was sent to secure the summer. First I plucked carefully three arrows from his chest, then I tried to heal his wounds. He reported that many of his brothers encountered Orstarong's army and that Orstarong ordered to catch the Telmori and to deliver them to the Red Men. He was the sole survivor of this and reported that Orstarong was a traitor who was in league with the Red Men. He would not fight for but against us. This caused trouble. Many of the people of Orlanth did not want to fight against their brothers but Kostajor and the Men of Death reminded everyone of their oaths and the Men of Death assured every oath breaker being killed on the spot. Thus we had to face two armies one the from winter and one from the summer.

After the Red Men had finally arrived they waited for Orstarong the Traitor and more prey warriors. At last they arrived. The Red Men formed the middle, Orstarong the Traitor the right and the other people of Orlanth the left. Our army was organised as usual in many small packs, Telmori were to defend those who had no Telmor's skin. Sword Neverdied led his Men of Death alone. He politely refused the aid of any Telmori. Snowwhite a blessed Telmori, Sleepless and I and our wolfbrothers were part of the King's bodyguard. Our King wanted us to drive all attacks away from him so he could get hold of Orstarong. We assured him that either Orstarong or us all would die today. Then the battle began…

All the warriors that were on the right side began to ran, yes some even flew to meet us. But this was no attack, Orstarong was standing alone in the middle of his right side. All his men deserted him and let the captured Telmori flee. These were men of honour who also swore an oath to Kostajor and because our King was always kind to them and they could not break an oath just like any ordinary Red Man, they did flee Orstarong. Finally the battle had begun.

The Red Men fired many arrows at us and after the first of us discovered that they had poison metal tips we withdrew to the forest where we awaited our enemies. Sword Neverdied was the first to meat our enemy. I saw him delivering Death with his sword to many and though he was often mortally wounded he never died but seemed to become even stronger. We were the first Telmori to reach our foes. The Red Men had poison spears and were heavy armoured. But none of their attacks hit our King since our wolfbrothers troubled all before us and we killed them fast enough. Many of us were wounded including myself and Sleepless. Snowwhite managed to stay out of the trouble but his white fur was more red than anything else that day. After we fought our way to the right side where Orstarong fought along with the Red Men. We saw their hrevrr calling for evil red disc magic while their warriors tried to stop us before reaching them. At that time I saw Sword Neverdied cutting the spirits of his enemies with his sword, such visible was magic on that day, and the Men of Death though covered in blood and outnumbered fought like our best warriors. Our spears reached deep in the bodies of the Red Men and we had nearly reached Orstarong and their hrevrr as something horrible happened.

The sun turned pale and the Red Men started to change their very form. Some grew, some shrunk, some became disgusting to look at, some where strengthened, some died and some simply become monsters. This was chaos ! This was the evil magic that only the Red Men could perform. Many of their companions ran in terror. Against this our spears were not sharp enough, against this our magic was not evil enough, against this no wolf could triumph. But we tried our best, we fought and killed as many of them as we could. Snowwhite died first, then Sleepless followed. But since Sleepless was a special wolf he could not be brought to sleep even by chaos and he stood alone surrounded by chaos and killed everything that dared to attack him. But many Telmori had died already though the losses of our enemies were uncounted. Only a few Men of Death stood and defended themselves against chaos. Sword Neverdied stood in their front his armour destroyed, bleeding everywhere and unrecognisable with all this blood on him, and though he was alone and only ten of his warriors lived they frightened all of the hrevrr to the bone who were more than 100. Then we slew the last guard that stood between us and Orstarong who cast evil protection spells on him all the time.

Us the bodyguard parted to let our noble King reach this traitor. King Kostajor invoked Telmor's help to revenge this treason. That day Telmor could not have ignored such a wish. With bare hands our King grabbed the traitor and with a mighty cry ripped him apart. After this we prepared to gather all warriors that survived to crush the Red Men. The Men of Death only five by number were crushing the last defense of the hrevrr.

We could have been victorious but the price would had been too great. Their hrevrr were prepared to invoke even more chaos in order to win the battle. Perhaps this would have brought the Devil and the Great Darkness back. Thus our wise King agreed to give up against a foe who was ready to destroy the whole world in order to destroy us. Not even one in ten Red Men returned home this day. We would have won were they not of chaos.

But in the end half of our tribe was destroyed and many Hor-vars-urrigr were also dead. Only Sword Neverdied and two Men of Death still lived and Sleepless also began his sleep. We marched home taking our dead with us.

Never will I forget this battle. And though the Red Men forbid us to search a Tergavi stone there, I sometimes go there and the memories of the battle return. It is then that I see King Kostajor again, ripping Orstarong apart, the Hors-vars-urrigr bleeding for their and our freedom and the Men of Death with their leader Neverdied devastating the best of the Red Men troops and fighting so hard that no Telmori could have done better.

I am old now and I hope one day you the people of Orlanth and us Telmori could stand together on this sacred battlefield and destroy all the chaos and kill the Red Men. But I know this is just a dream.