Realy short story (presently writing more)

[Walks behind the rows]

What is written in these pages is what occurred that fateful day, five and two generations ago. I must admit, this is the second time that this account has seen parchment due to the great fire that engulfed the Hall of Knowledge. My only regret is that certain bits of the truth will be forever lost to the ages of one generation passing this story to the next. I am called Nathanial of Creeston, and we have my ancestors alone to thank for that privilege.

Long before these towering walls of stone and mortar. Generations before the white stones were cut from the living mountain to build Castle Creeston, we were but noblemen and commoners settling the new lands far to the east of the capital city of Aurum. The Priests discovered a vast track of fertile land, over which passed the constellation of The Emperor, and the first stake of our new home was driven. Buildings sprang from the ground and fortifications followed soon after. Luckily, or by the will of the Gods, the last of their defenses were in place when a small band of Orcs came down upon the settlement of Creeston. It was to be the first of many.

When the sun rose the following day after yet another siege attempt by the damned Orcs, My seven grates father, Lord Draxton of Aurum-Creeston, called upon his Priests, Wizards, Engineers, and Captains yet again. Riders had been sent to Aurum before with no word, or rider, in return from the Good Emperor so a better plan was needed. It was the Grand Wizard Flāneed and the High Priest Grathmin who devised the spells and prayers to ensure aid from the heavens while the Engineers and Captains saw to re-fortification, planning new stratagems, and creating new battlements. Lord Draxton then prepared yet another message for the Good Emperor and prayed that the need would not exist to send it.

Grand Wizard Flāneed and High Priest Grathmin spent the day preparing for dusk. For when the constellation of The Emperor would rise and shine down upon the people of Creeston, it would be then that they would have the Emperor’s protection and the ears of the Gods. According to the legend passed down, there were seven men gathered in the church that fateful night, the Grand Wizard and his understudy with The High Priest and four of his acolytes. Dusk came, and with it shone the twelve stars of the constellation of The Emperor upon the darkening sky. Prayers were heard across the land being shouted and sung while strange lights flooded out of the windows of the church. At the full height of the constellation, the prayers were peaked and the strange lights were at their brightest. Suddenly the very ground shook and the sky itself seemed to tear down the full length of the celestial being and continued in both directions across the night, dividing the sky into two. Every eye in Creeston looked upon the heavens. The Wizards and Priests fled the church and gasped at what they had done as the heavens were spread apart by a growing red glow. A star appeared on the crown of the constellation and grew brighter. It then fell from the heavens with a tail of fire and screamed as it fell to the earth below. It withered the trees as it approached them and it shook the ground when it struck just a short distance from where I am sitting now. But then it was outside our vision among the trees. Lord Draxton himself and five of his highest ranking knights, adorned their armor and took mounts to the site where the star fell. They knew that this was the answer to their prayers, but the Gods and the Good Emperor seem to work in mysterious ways.

If my memory serves me well, I was told that the star was some sort of horseless chariot made of metal and stood some three stories tall. That it was painted in red and had angelic adornments covering it. Lord Draxton and his men recalled that the sides of this container opened and the surrounding area was flooded with an angelic light. Out of the light stepped ten beings clad in crimson armor of unknown design or origin. Lord Draxton approached with caution, and raised his right hand to lift his visor. What exactly was said in the woods between Lord Draxton and the visitors from the heavens is lost to antiquity.

Dawn had already broken when Lord Draxton, his knights and the strangers from the stars approached the gates of Creeston. Lord Draxton sent word to clear the great hall where they, the Priests and the Wizards shall gather. This is where we learned all we really know about those who came to us from the sky. I have asked the eldest of our city to retell the stories in an attempt to gather all of the truths about this account. The visitors were indeed angels of blood, signified by the angelic wings that surrounded the blood drops on their crimson armor. We believe that their strange armor was somehow powered my steam by the way it hissed when they remover their great helms. Their swords had teeth and were stained with the blood of uncountable fallen foes. Their muskets could fire several volleys before needing reloaded and they were adorned with more angelic scrawling. They had stated that they shall serve the emperor beyond death if he wished it so. They were the answer to our prayers.

Lord Draxton explained the situation with the Orcs and was relieved to discover that the Angels of Blood had encountered them several times over. ( I must say that the exact details of the meeting are, as well, lost to time. However, we do know that they are the reason that the region is free of those cursed Green Skins. My ancestors fought alongside the Angels that The Gods and the Good Emperor had sent us. For the first time we went on the offensive, took the fight to the Orcs, and won the day).

How the Angles left us is left up to rumor and educated guess work from those who are far smarter than I. The days following ‘The Great Cleansing’ slowly turned into generations. The settlement of Creeston became the third largest city on the Northern Greatlands. I could go on about the statues and the temple over the site where our saviors came to us from the stars, but you know of all of this. I am attempting to recall the story as to why they are there.