Let us get a little closer. A country, a city, a street, a woman. As we look at this specimen, we notice something odd about her, about all the people around here. We notice that they’re all carrying some kind of weapon but hers is an unusual weapon. One that seems odd in many ways. It is a ring. It has a diameter of about 30cm. Simple, one may think but this ring has a past and has other abilities that are yet to be seen.

            Let us change focus from the weapon to the woman. She must be about twenty-five, and in good health considering the conditions of the city.  She has longish black hair and green eyes. She is well-spoken and quite short, about 5’4”. That would seem a little short to you and me but everyone around her is about this height, many being much shorter. Her name? Well, her birth name is Emelia Ravenspire but she is more commonly known as the Golden Valkyrie. It is now customary for me to describe her in-depth and me being the narrator would only be too happy to oblige.

            She is actually 26. She lived in a small country village called Shallow Rock. But even though her life was hard, she loved it. Then, when she was 16, it was destroyed by the RM. During this attack, she saw her father killed by a coward. He used a gun after her father knocked his sword away. After the destruction of her town, she found her dying mother. Her mother’s last words were, “Take this ring. Use it wisely and avenge your fathers death…” and with that, she died. The ring she spoke of was obviously her weapon and as her mothers dying wish had specified, she practiced using the ring for the following years until she mastered its movements. She believes that she has mastered the weapon and now she is here, in front of the warrior hall to see if she can attract warriors from joining RM and helping her.

            This is how the tale should begin. You know her, you know the place, and you know the time. Now we can commence.

            As she stood there, leaning against the post of the smith’s house, she noticed a slim man wearing chain mail. He was taller than her but looked like a pole. He was very thin and his weapon was the standard one and a half handed bastard sword. Immediately, Emelia knew where this person was from. The weapon and ‘that’ chain mail were all the components of a knight of Arlesen. It seems that this man would be a good accompaniment, being known that knights of Arlesen are particularly skilled with a sword. She saw this as a time to make her move and she stepped up to him…

            “Noble knight. I would like to ask, why are you joining the RM?”

            “Why to better my skills dear woman, and what a butch woman you are! You remind me of my late wife, an Amazon you know. She was amazing. Much better at weaponry than me. We met about blah blah blah…”

            She quickly grew tired. She made some excuses and left, and returned to the post remarking in how strange knights of Arlesen are. The waiting continued. She thought she’d be there all day until a man in a huge suit of armour, one that she’d never seen before, noticeably stepped to the back of the queue. She gave this man sparkling stare of curiosity and quickly reminded herself that curiosity killed the cat. Even though, the offer was simply too tempting…

            “Hello stranger. Why do you want to join the RM?”

            The stranger replied in a coarse low tone of voice that made him sound like a demon’s roar. “What do you want?!”

            Unfazed by the mans brash tone, she continued, “I was wondering the reason that you want to apply for a position in the RM.”

            “It is none of your concern”

            “Why not?”

            “Because I said!!!”

            She could see he was infuriated but she persisted with her hunch that this man is not here because he wanted to be. “I think you and I could help each other…”

            “I feel nothing for you wench.”

            “How dare you imply such a disgraceful accusation about me? You make me sick to look at you!!!”

            “So what did you have in mind then? Obviously I misunderstood you.”

            “What I was trying to say was that I could tell by your eyes that you don’t want to be here. So, if you’re here for the reason I think you are here, we may be able to help each other”

            “I’m listening…”

            The conversation went on about how Emelia began her life, the story of how Shallow Rock was destroyed and how she came to hate the RM. The azure armoured stranger was deeply absorbed by the story and looked as if he was hanging on every word, to Emelia’s delight…

            “So I plea to you. Help me avenge my parent’s death and kill the emperor!”

            “You should keep the volume of your speeches down”, with which he pointed to a set of RM guards not concealing the fact that they were coming for the two. Immediately Emelia drew her weapon but the armoured man dragged her into the nearest alleyway. About a minute later, the guards rush in to find that, in the long, narrow alley that had a stench of death, no one was there. The guards swiftly ran down the alley in pursuit of thin air in the hope of finding them.

            After the guards left, the two warriors appeared, the first, Emelia floating down from the high reaches of the alleyway like a dove. This was swiftly followed by the armoured warrior who floated down like a boulder, shaking the very foundations on which the buildings stood, but still, landing on his feet.

            The great armoured man was unfazed by the fall and immediately walked over to her. “Follow me. I have a place where we can go where we can talk more privately.” He said and began to move, in a quick pace, out of the alley and down the courtyard towards the bridge into Old Town. The city they’re in has many towns, each with individual names, but no name for the city itself. They were just in the Warrior Town. There is normally one of these in every city, named by the Emperor.

            As they began to move through Old Town, Emelia saw how utterly different it was from the Warrior Town, being that she’d not left Warrior Town since she came here. The people were poor, the shop owners were poor, the shops produce was poor and the building structures were poor. Back in Warrior town, most buildings were regal and made from huge carved sand stones. Here, houses were mere stone, and badly carved stone as well. She though that some of them defied logic to stand. This truly was a poor place and no one; even the Emperor could hide this little part of the city.

            The man led her into a fruit stand, he whispered to the stand owner who gave a quick look to his surroundings before pressing a button on top of the stand that made it reveal a secret tunnel way.

            “Wait! What is your name?”

            There was a short silence as he looked into her eyes, “Marek Azure, I am a knight.”

            “Of what order?”

            “A long dead order, which I still uphold”

Marek grabbed her and led her through the dark tunnel to a room at the other side, well lit by candlelight.

            “Let us talk. I shall start. The reason I was at the warrior hall was because I needed to be recruited so that I could work up to be the bodyguard of the Emperor.” Emelia became very nervous and a look of pure fear crossed her face. “Do not worry. I wanted to become his bodyguard so that I could stab him in the back. You should be more careful though, if I were a spy, you would’ve been dead by now.”

            “So what is your reason for hating the Emperor?” The knight shifted in his seat has he thought back to the day…

            “It was a long time ago…”

            “How long?”

            “You can question at the end. As I was saying, a long time ago, I was a knight of an order that was gravely attacked by the RM. They believed that our grand master was holding bad feelings against the Emperor and plotting to overthrow him and take the power of his kingdom. This was not so but still the RM invaded our dojo. The Emperor sent his best men to completely destroy and annihilate everything that could possibly prove our existence. We fought bravely, killing one wave after another. We had killed around four hundred troops. This was a dojo of around fifty warriors. There were three of us left against the rest of the RM army. Me, the master and my friend, Artelk Rameen. We saw thousands of them heading for the dojo…” the knight tried holding his emotions and Emelia could see that he was having a hard time expressing them. “Please, what happened?” The knight gathered himself and continued. “We saw them, like a swarm of ants covering the land so none could be seen. Artelk told me to take the master and leave…I wanted so badly to stay and defend with him but I knew that what he said was right and just. I left with the master running beside me. The last thing I saw of the dojo and Artelk was when I turned round while running. The first wave hit Artelk…he was covered in them. The dojo had been raised to the ground by cannons. It was over so quick.” “You said they were all over him but who’s to say he didn’t escape?” “I kept that hope in my heart for years until I was sure that he was dead. I never heard from him since that day… Any questions?”

            “Where is the master?”

            “Dead. He died of old age. He was 73 at the time of the attack.”

            “How old are you?”

            “Never mind”

            “Tell me”

            “We are not here to discuss my age!!!”

            “Okay then, why did you hesitate to answer when I asked you your name?”

            “Did I hesitate? I cannot remember.” He could remember perfectly well and he did know why he hesitated but he decided not to share it.

            “We must find a way of getting to the Emperor!” said Emelia aloud.

            “I will not warn you again. There are choices in life that we must make. Some seem less important than others but are just as deadly. If you choose not to keep your voice at a lower tone from now on, there will be a dark cloaked spirit with a scythe waiting.”

            She knew no one could hear her down in the cove. “I have no need for you to give me fear. I am not afraid of death.” She threw her hair back in defiance against his stern stare.

             He was infuriated by the remark and he could see that she was trying to act defiantly. He rose to his feet quickly and in a loud, deep voice, the voice he used when he first met her, and said “Foolish woman. You call yourself a warrior. Hah! What good is a dead warrior? Can a dead warrior save a kingdom? No!” He began to calm and decided to explain what he meant. “If you run into a battle thinking that you are willing to die, you normally will. No man ever won a battle by dying for his order; he won it by making the opponent die for his. Remember that.” Although she acted as if she never heard him, she heard him very well and took heed of what he said.

            The next day, after a long sleep, they arise in the cove and head for the exit. At the fruit stand, a platoon of RM soldiers were looking at the produce and complaining about the state of the oranges.

            “What do you call this old man?” said a man dressed in the standard RM uniform. This consisted of silver shin guards and shoulder guards, a green and black padded body suit and black combat trousers. It looked awful but gave great camouflage in battle.

            “These’r me best oranges” said the owner, smiling so he could make a sale.

            “They look disgusting, just like you old man.” The platoon started laughing and the owner lowered his head in shame. A noise, like someone, no, some people running. The guard was bemused. How can the sound of running come from behind a stall when the stall is against the wall? He was soon to find out.

            The two warriors ran up the secret tunnel as fast as they could, knowing that there were guards waiting.

            Emelia was growing tired and wanted to slow down. “Why do you (huff) want a battle now? You said (huff) that we should keep quiet for the time being! (huff)”

            “I am not going to let my friend be insulted in public. Especially not in this town.” People knew that if an RM soldier insulted a stall owner in Old Town, that owner were not fit to buy from. That is unless the soldier is killed. “I understand…” she said in a meek voice.

            With a large crash, the stall broke in two and out of the darkness came a glimmer of light. Then two blue eyes came running through the darkness. Then, when the soldiers were deeply entranced by the tunnel, Marek appeared at high velocity, aiming directly for them. In the resulting collision, three of the eight strong platoon were hit with such force that it threw them to the other side of the street and imbedded their bodies into the soft clay stone of the house. The remaining guards drew their weapons. He was surrounded and thought that his plan didn’t work.

            “Damn! I hate saving everyone else’s carcass,” said an echoing voice. At this point, Marek knew his plan worked. “Who is the one who insulted the owner,” said Marek in his usual growling tone of voice. The guard sneered at him and shouted ”What!!! Can’t you see that I am busy?” Marek pointed over the mans shoulder, down into the darkness of the passage way and said,  “Are you the platoon leader?” “Yes.” “Do you see that?” “What?” “That there.” “WHAT!”

            As if in flight, Emelia jumped out of the darkness and managed a spinning kick that connected on three more guards who were imbedded in the wall, forced to watch the ensuing battle. It came down to the stand off. Two on each side of the street. The soldiers, one the platoon leader, were shivering while trying to hold their weapon defensively. “T-t-t-that’s…” “That’s the Golden Valkyrie!” On the other side, Emelia stretched her tired muscles as the guards watched. Marek simply put his right fist in his left hand and cracked his knuckles.

They stood face to face. Marek and the platoon leader; and Emelia and the second in command. As if pushed by some supernatural force, both the warriors and the soldiers launched in a burning rave at each other. The platoon leader took a vertical swing at Marek, but Marek moved, just missing his right arm by a fraction. Now Marek was burning, literally. His right had had set a light and was ablaze like an inferno, but Marek neither felt pain from it or even saw it as unusual. He put all his force in a single power punch. He swung as hard as he could, catching the platoon leader clean in the chest and knocked him unconscious. This would have seemed natural… had it not been for the fact that as the leader was falling; the body was covered by huge flames that dispersed as he landed, leaving one char-grilled corpse. Onlookers were horrified and many vomited at the sight but Marek simply stood watching the Golden Valkyrie; waiting for her to perform her dance.

The Golden Valkyrie was unaware of the platoon leaders death. She stood ready, weapon in hand. She began by moving in slow, cool motions. Very similar to a bird in flight. Marek noticed that most of her movements did this and was quite impressed. As he watched her, she began to get infuriated by the non-attacking soldier. She had trained herself for defense rather than attack and could counter almost every move made by a man but what could she do against an opponent who won’t attack? She grew angry and lashed out with her ring leaving a streak of gold across the soldiers face. He cowered in shame and begged for mercy, which she granted.

The smell of burnt flesh finally hit her nostrils and she saw the crisp corpse for the first time. She almost vomited herself but managed to keep it in then ran away in fear and disgust.

Marek ran after her as fast as he could but his armour was simply too heavy to keep up with the angelic movements of Emelia. It was vain of him to think that he could keep up with her, so he retreated to his hideout and pondered the frailty of the person known as the Golden Valkyrie.

As she ran, she paid no notice to those who followed her. She must escape at all costs. The terrifying horror that she had witnessed had back cold memories of the small town Shallow Rock. The smell of burnt flesh in her lungs felt like they were consuming her. She had to get away.

When she finally did stop running, she was in an unusual part of the city, one that she had never seen before. It was full of smiths and shops. Hundreds of buyers swarming around her like river of money. She wondered why she had never been here before. She cared not for she was here and things were on sale. It’s like a compulsion. Women shop if they can. She was no exception. She ran to look at the produce at each stall and admired each object she saw. She stopped at the smith’s house to look at their armament…

            “Smith, have you seen any weapons like this?” She showed him her ring and he gasped. “N-n-n-n-not in a long time…” The reaction scared her at first. She’d asked many people before, trying to find the true meaning of her weapon but never actually finding someone who knew anything about the ring.

“You must tell me all you know,” she said, shaking the man violently.

“Of course Ms. Ravenspire.” She paused in disbelief and let go of the smith. The smith gave a quick look at his surroundings before whispering, “follow me.” She would follow him to the ends of Earth and back to find the secrets of the ring.

The smith ran into a narrow alley which opened into a walled off square. As she followed him in, she noticed something different about his movements. Less cautious, smoother, arrogant even. She was hoping that he’d become less tense. The RM would spot him a mile off.

“Why have we stopped in this square?” she said, her deep concentration on him. He turned around and his face was no longer frightened or sad. It had grown evil. He now had a grin on his face that made it clear that he had evil intent in mind.

“You know you cannot defeat me, so why even try.”

“Who ever said I was going to beat you?” said the smith, and with a wave of his hand, six men appeared. Probably thieves but their profession was the least of the Valkyrie’s worries.

They circled around her callously, randomly jumping in and trying to attack her. Her first opponent was a short man who looked as if he could be carried away by the wind but by way of demonstration, he broke concrete brick on his head. She was obviously not impressed to see the fighter knock himself out with the third brick. Quite amusing, but very dangerous and truly stupid.

The second onslaught was a well-built man with a patch over his left eye. He used a wrestling style of fighting. She knew this because of his stance so when he charged for her; she was more than ready to move. He ran past her then turned to face her. He couldn’t charge her but she couldn’t go round for round with this fighter. He fought hard, punching in Thai Chi style punches. He was an experienced fighter but still, his moves were slow due to his bigger body mass. She danced round him knowing that if he hit her, she would be caught. She stayed round his left and many times did he find that she was nowhere to be seen. That is until she attacked, and when she did, he felt every tingle of pain. The fight was over relatively quickly. The crowd had dispersed and the only people left in the square were her and a fighter left at the square so that they could make their escape.

This fighter was different. He used a sword. She drew her ring. They stood face to face, waiting for the impending moment of compulsion when they would force themselves to fight but who could hold out the longest? Suddenly the fighter moved at a speed she’d never seen before. His moves were swift and powerful and for every block she made, there was an attack that could stand up to the great force of the Golden Valkyrie. The battle raged on and on until a moment of fatigue, a slight misplacement of the mind, a misjudgment. Whatever you’d call it, she slipped up enough for the skilled swordsman to have her on the floor with the tip of the blade at her throat.