CHAPTER SIXTHE GENERAL AND THE DEMIGOD

  Landon Rosser stood tall, holding his rudimentary wooden staff in front of him with both hands. He gazed at the dead bodies of nine of his men and one sabercat. The former general to King Gideon Brock backed up slowly and watched as the remaining sabercat stalked him slowly in the twilight.

  The Barren Wastend was an almost lifeless isnd. Mostly covered by volcanic rock, the nd had little vegetation, barely any water, and only a few small animals and reptiles that could withstand its habitat. It had been about a year now since Rosser and his men had been exiled to the hellish ndscape, but they could have been dead if King Brock had willed it. Luckily Brock, along with Dwarf King Dormir Ironhearth, had spared their lives after finally ending his attempt to take Brock’s throne.

  Still, thought Rosser, this life is not much better than death. Actually, it could be worse. He ughed sarcastically. The water was becoming harder to find and, even though they still had numbers on their side, the sabercats, as few as there were, still ruled the rge isnd. And both his men and the goblins that had allied with him knew it.

  Landon Rosser looked over at the young sabercat. The fight was now just between the two of them. Rosser looked over his shoulder and saw the rickety bridge that had looked like it could be too old and feeble for him and his men to cross. The bridge necessary to take them further into the isnd than they had ever been, in search of food and water. However, the sabercats had gotten to them right before they could cross, as dangerous as that would’ve been. But now, thought Rosser, the bridge may be able to just hold him. IF he could get to it.

  Rosser started to back up faster to the wood and rope bridge while the sabercat eyed him, licking its chops. A warrior for most of his life, the big man had been in many battles, many fights, both physical and mental, and against all odds. However, the sabercat well outweighed him, and its fangs were as rge and as sharp as daggers; its other teeth as small and precise 1as arrowheads. His brown furry hide was thick.

  Rosser reached back and grabbed one of the wooden polls that helped stabilize the long narrow bridge. The bridge that held his only escape. Suddenly, the sabercat lunged forward and, upon nding in front of its prey, swung its huge paw. Rosser lifted his staff and was barely able to defend himself. Even worse, the top of his staff broke off and flew down into the darkness of the giant chasm that the bridge swayed over.

  Rosser looked down into the bckness and waited to hear the wood hit the bottom, but the sound never came. Slowly, Rosser walked onto the first few wooden pnks of the ancient bridge, cing his left arm around the rope handle; his right arm lifted with the remaining half of his staff pointed at the animal that, like him, just wanted to survive The Barren Wastend.

  Rosser continued backing slowly on the bridge, stepping over a few holes where the wood had broken off over the years. Then he watched as the sabercat pced its front paw on the first pnk of the bridge. Rosser turned and looked far off to where the bridge ended. Hope all but left him and he sighed. There was no way he would come out of this alive if the sabercat took to the bridge with him. With the weight of them both, the old bridge wouldn’t be able to hold them, and if he made a dash, the bridge would surely colpse from the stress.

  Stepping forward, Rosser swung his broken staff at the rge predator. Surprised, the sabercat reared up. Then the big man yelled, raising both arms high.

  “Back! Back!” Rosser screamed as he swung his broken staff wildly. The sabercat, composed again, roared back as the staff came within inches of its face. The mighty beast swung its right paw at Rosser and knocked the man’s only weapon from his hands and down into the chasm. Then it swung its left paw for the kill, but Rosser leaned back and evaded the strike. However, though the sabercat’s paw missed its prey, it sliced through the fraying rope that held the bridge aloft. Landon Rosser gasped. Then the big man screamed as he fell from the bridge and down into the total darkness.

  The first thing Rosser felt when he awoke was pain. First in his head then, when he tried to move, his right arm. As he y still for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts, the smell of dirt and rock slowly wafted into his nostrils. After opening his eyes and pushing off with his left arm to sit up, the former general of King Brock’s army winced as he leaned back against the dirt wall just behind him.

  Rosser looked up. The sun was out now, but even so, where he was, it was still dark somehow. He could see, but darkness seemed to cover this pce, both naturally and spiritually, if that made any sense, thought the fallen former general.

  “You are going crazy from the long fall, Landon. Who knows how many times you hit your head on the way down. But you will survive, warrior. You always do,” whispered Rosser to himself. Now, with his wits about him, the big man started to stand, but an excruciating pain from his ankle dropped him to the dirt once more.

  “My staff… If I can just find the rger piece, I could at least use it to stand,” spoke Rosser, as he looked around with a steady gaze in the peculiar darkness.

  After gritting his teeth, he whispered, “I will not die like this. This will not be the end of me.”

  After a few seconds of silence, his voice became louder. “Not after all that has happened.” Landon Rosser closed his eyes. Then his voice rose even higher as he screamed, “Not after all I have been through!”

  “You are strong. You are resilient. You are angry. Like me. Yes. I like that,” came a voice across from the fallen warrior.

  Landon Rosser opened his eyes quickly and looked around, but all he saw was dirt, rock, and darkness. Rosser squinted his eyes to look harder in the strange chasm. Then he sighed, closed his eyes again and said, “Not yet Landon. It is too early for you to be falling apart down here. If you have survived over thirty years of fighting goblins, dragons, rogue wizards, and even your own people, you will survive a little tumble from a bridge.”

  “So, you would sacrifice even your own people to get what you want? Now I know our fates have truly been intertwined for this moment,” replied the voice again in the strange darkness. The voice was matter of fact. No trace of any emotion could be found.

  Now knowing he was not alone down deep in the ground, Rosser looked around slower and harder for any trace of the voice.

  “Show yourself! Whoever you are!” demanded the big man, as his eyes darted left to right.

  Then just as he finished saying the sentence, he could just make out what looked like a collection of bones, a skeleton off in the distance. Rosser strained his eyes to their limits. Being a man of war since his youth, he had seen his fair share of death and decay, both on and off the battlefield. However, something was strange about this skeleton. It seemed almost human, but it seemed almost elven and dwarven as well.

  Then a chill went through Landon Rosser’s body as he remembered one of the biggest legends of Danaria.

  The general had led men against dragons. He had outmaneuvered enemies that had greater numbers and better weapons. Landon Rosser had taken down trolls with only a knife and his will. He had even escaped from a dungeon in The Goblin Caverns. That being so, who he now realized was in front of him trumped all of that, and maybe all of those experiences combined.

  Rosser told himself to keep his voice steady as he opened his mouth to speak. “You...you are...” spoke the warrior, but his voice broke when he uttered the next word.

  “...Agmon.”

  “Yes,” replied the voice. Agmon watched as Rosser looked at the bones in front of him and then up at the air above them. The mortal’s head slowly turning from left to right to get a fix on the spirit that now spoke to him.

  Though the answer to his question was frightening, the crification of the mystery strangely put Rosser at ease, if even just for a moment. Then he spoke one of Danaria’s most well known legends.

  “You dared to challenge Elion after he created you. You...you killed your sister...your only sibling, to take her power…to add it to your own…to rule Danaria alone after your father had left to create other worlds. But he returned...Elion defeated you, but the god of all creation could not destroy you, because you had become too powerful in his absence.”

  “Yes,” seethed Agmon as he cut off Rosser. “And for my deeds and failure, I was thrown down from his Embrace into this world to be forgotten. A thousand or more years have since passed and I still can feel my burning body crashing through dirt and rock, this chasm my falling body created becoming my resting pce.”

  Rosser stared straight ahead and ughed to himself. How simir his story was to Agmon’s. True, he was a mere mortal and Agmon a demigod, but both of them had turned against their “rulers” and tried to take their power. And though the timeline was different, they both ended up banished and alive in a hole in The Barren Wastend.

  Landon Rosser leaned his head back against the wall of the dirt behind him and ughed at the situation. He had met Agmon, one of the first creations of Elion. Along with his noble sister, Kaminess, Agmon helped rule the world of Danaria. It wasn’t until the people started to love Kaminess more than him that he had changed. Well, that was what Matthias had told him, anyway.

  Rosser closed his eyes, missing his dead son, who had died needlessly for a king who acted rashly, bringing the kingdom to war. That war not only killed his only son, but also the only real joy in Landon Rosser’s life.

  The big man nodded his head slowly. That is where he and Agmon were different. The demigod had made war over power and jealousy. This mortal had made war for a reckoning, and for the betterment of the kingdom, thought Rosser.

  “If only you could see this now, Matthias...” said Rosser under his breath. Then he shook his head, as if to erase the strange moment that was occurring.

  “Matthias?” questioned Agmon. “Who is Matthias? Your brother perhaps?”

  Rosser sighed. He knew death was near. He could not stand. If he could not stand, he could not climb, and even if he could, the odds of him climbing out of this deep chasm were slim to none. Speaking about his son could at least comfort him somewhat in this dire situation.

  “Matthias was my son,” replied Rosser into the air. “In a way, he is the reason I am sitting here in your presence.”

  “Tell me his story, mortal,” replied Agmon.

  Over the next few minutes Rosser spoke about how Goblin King Taudridor had killed Queen Marianna. How King Brock had acted rashly in invading the goblin nds and, though King Brock had won the war, Rosser had lost his son on the battlefield. Matthias was for the invasion. He agreed with King Brock that the kingdom could not sit by and do nothing after the vile goblins killed the queen. Matthias had led one of the first attacks into the enemy’s nds, but was killed in the process.

  “What did Matthias know?” mented Rosser. “He was still a young man, filled with idealism and action. I asked Elion to temper his feelings. Then I pleaded with Brock to wait, to pn accordingly. Instead, he attacked The Goblin Caverns swiftly, and without a proper strategy...”

  Agmon watched as the big man clenched his fists as he talked, reliving the moment. The demigod could tell that the mortal had relived these moments in his mind countless times.

  Landon Rosser closed his eyes as his head and arms shook in anger. “...and I lost my boy because of it! King Brock had to be deposed, not just for the death of my boy, but for his rash actions! I asked Elion to give me strength and wisdom in what to do. I knew I could run the kingdom far better than Brock. My men were more loyal to me than him, and when I added the goblins to my force by making a treaty, we fought to take Aubrelon. And we would have taken the capital city, if it were not for the Goblin King’s cowardly retreat! Now my men and I are barely alive on this forsaken isnd!”

  With those final words, Agmon became gleeful, now knowing he had the mortal right where he wanted him. Landon Rosser was imbanced by a mixture of grief and hubris. And even better, he still wanted revenge.

  “Elion did not give you the justice you deserved. But I can...” said Agmon. Then the spirit floated over to the big man. Though he couldn’t see him, Rosser could feel the demigod’s spirit circling above him.

  Then Agmon whispered, “...And I WILL.”

  Landon Rosser’s face became worried. He was in front of Agmon. Though he was a spirit in his present form, the demigod was still the enemy of Elion, the creator of Danaria and all its inhabitants. The creator of the skies, stars, sun, and moon that surrounded it. Elion’s spirit still inhabited the world he created, and Rosser knew it. It was how the clerics cimed their healing power. His creation where the wizards drew their power for magic.

  “I...I do not know,” responded Rosser.

  “You are afraid to side with Elion’s enemy?” replied Agmon sarcastically.

  When Rosser did not answer, the evil demigod continued. “Where is Elion? He has left his spirit on this world, but he has not been seen for centuries. The god of all creation has left Danaria to create new worlds, and it seems he would rather reign on one of those new worlds now. Elion has forgotten the peoples of Danaria. Look where you are now. He has forgotten you...”

  Then Agmon raised his voice for emphasis “...as he forgot your son.”

  A mix of anger and anguish flooded over Landon Rosser’s face, but he knew in his heart that the demigod was right.

  “What do you propose?” asked Rosser.

  “Oh, it is simple mortal,” whispered Agmon. “You and I will rule Danaria in his absence. You will have your revenge and I will have a body once more.”

  Rosser looked at the skeleton again, then raised his eyes upward to where he could sense Agmon’s spirit was still hovering. “I would rather die in this chasm than offer you my body. Yes, I want revenge, but I want to see my revenge first hand.”

  “We will share your body,” crified Agmon. “I will only be as a whisper in your ear. With my divine magic you will get your revenge against King Brock, but you will not just rule The Human Kingdom Lands. We will conquer every other kingdom of this world. But I need a body to use my power. That is why Elion destroyed my flesh with fire as he hurled me from his Embrace to this barren wastend. It will take some time to gather my full power, but I assure you once I do, we will not fail.”

  Landon Rosser weighed his options. He could die down here in the chasm, or he could rule everything above it. And this new ally would not run as the Goblin King had. Rosser smiled up at the spirit of the demigod he knew was right above him.

  “So, you are willing to make this bargain with the enemy of the god of all creation?” asked Agmon. Then he gave the warrior one st chance to change his mind. “Remember, once you agree there is no turning back.”

  The former general of The Human Kingdom Lands looked straight ahead as he sat in the dirt, his thoughts fixed on the promise of a new day, of a new life. Then his face filled with anger, but also assurance.

  “At the end, whether I go to Elion’s Embrace or am kept at arm's length, I will be happy enough with my revenge,” decred the big man.

  With that, Landon Rosser closed his eyes, opened his mouth, and breathed in. Instantly, the spirit of Agmon entered Rosser’s body as a strong wind fills a sail. Then he heard the evil demigod sigh and ugh. It was the ughter of one who also had a new lease on life.

  As Landon Rosser began to float toward the top of the chasm, his pain slowly faded away and his tattered clothes began to change. At the same time, both of the pieces of his staff flew towards him. He grasped the bigger piece in his right hand and the smaller in his left.

  When the big man finally pced both feet on the ground, just outside the chasm, he looked down. He now wore regal bck armor and a long flowing purple cape. In his right hand was a sword and his left hand, a dagger.

  Then he heard Agmon say, “Landon Rosser died in that deep dark chasm...”

  The former general to King Brock’s army smiled and squeezed his hands tighter around his weapons. As he started to walk, Agmon concluded, “But you have been reborn. Today is a new beginning…

  …Lord Grimdall.”

  ”