Horizon - Revision #1 - March 26, 2008 4:35:17 PM UTC

Horizon
Join the army, go to distant lands, meet interesting people, kill them

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Never in her nineteen summers had Marone seen an Elf. She had read about them in her father’s old books and she had heard of them from various merchants that came to their house. Her younger brother, Merry, even claimed he had seen an Elf once, close to the river banks south of their home, but Marone never took his words serious. He was a little boy with an over-active imagination. He still believed that there lived an Orc beneath his bed. It was a lie Marone took full responsibility for. But Merry had annoyed her so much one night, that she had told him the Orc under his bed would eat him if he didn’t shut up immediately. It had worked and whenever she now mentioned the Sleeping Orc her brother would turn pale and in the worst case he refused to sleep in his own room.

Either way, Marone had never seen an Elf before. But she wanted to see them desperately. She wanted to ride her horse to the Havens of the South, beyond the Veil of the World to the Land of Elves. She wanted to experience them. She had heard they were amazing. She wanted to climb their trees and look over the rooftops. Her gaze would spread to distant lands and she would laugh. She wanted to fly on an eagle’s back, touch the Heavens above and then disappear in the ground to see the Underworld with her own eyes. She wanted to forge her own sword, not use the ones that were already there. She wanted to yield her own, made of dark anthracite, filled with magic that she didn’t possess, but always dreamed of.

Marone wanted to see the Elves and she knew that once she had, everything she had ever wished for would come true. So when one late afternoon Marone walked through the city and she came across a pamphlet, it immediately had her attention.

“Are you willing to serve your King? Do you want to achieve greatness? Are you a man made of steel? Then join the Phoenix Guard. Your ventures will bring you to the Land of Elves and beyond. Arrows will seek your heart, swords will strike mercilessly, but distant lands will be within reach and death is always honourable. Join the Phoenix Guard. For your King.”

It didn’t take Marone long to choose. That same day she packed her clothes and a few pieces of bread together with a flask of water. She then kissed her family goodbye. That evening the sunset found a young girl on a grey stallion riding to the horizon.