It was a very nice morning. Gerald was pretty happy with his job in the city guard, he had a lot of freedom and it wasn’t that demanding. After his job in the army has become too dangerous he decided to quit his job as a scout and go to a city trying to find a job. He ended up in Khorinis (back then one of the wealthiest and busiest cities in the kingdom) and tried to join the city guard. He didn’t feel much like becoming an apprentice with one of the masters, but since it was a custom in Khorinis he had to.
He was taken on as an apprentice by Harad. He also joined the city militia. From Harad he learned some basics in forging weapons and weapon maintenance. The heavy smith work also made him a bit stronger.
At the same time he started building a reputation with the city guard. He helped with the arrest of a few bandits who set up camp near the city, collected the farmers' contributions, replaced Wolfgar when he was too sick to train other militiamen and played errand boy if necessary.
After about 9 months he was if he could give up his apprenticeship to work for the city guard on a more permanent basis; he was happy to accept. Harad wasn’t that happy but he couldn’t do anything about it but protest. The city guard had a strange chain of command. Officially Larius the governor was in charge of the militia and city guard, but he never interfered with the routine. Gerald doubted Larius knew what the city guard and militia did. Because of the lack of control some people were the unofficial leaders; Wolfgar was the one everybody listened to. The other main officials within the city guard were Ruga and Mortis. Although Mortis was only a smith many men came to him for advice about just about anything. Peck always acted like he was also an important person, but since everyone knew Peck spent most of his spare time in the Red Lantern no one took him very seriously. Gerland was also asked about his opinion frequently. Wolfgar and the others always consulted some other men when they had to make an important decision and he was one of those men. Times had been good - a chaotic but still well organised everyday life, low prices and very little crime.

That was 5 years ago. Much can change in 5 years. Nowadays the city isn’t as wealthy and busy anymore. Especially the harbour district has gone to hell. It used to be the busiest part of the city, there were times he loved to walk around the harbour and just talk to people about anything. Nowadays it wasn’t even safe for the city guard to go there anymore. Ships also weren’t coming to Khorinis anymore, and trade has stopped. The city depended on the travelling traders and the surrounding farms for food now. Although the farmers didn’t always completely cooperate with the contribution for goods to the city, with some ‘persuasion’ they always let go of the goods. He didn’t like stealing from the farmers but without it the city had to rely totally on the travellers. Onar was the one who protested the most.

Gerald and another guard were guarding the south gate that morning.
Although he hated guard duty at the city gates it wasn’t that bad this morning. It was a sunny morning, the grass was all green and the raindrops which had fallen the night before looked like small pearls reflecting the light of the sun. It was like the first warm day after winter.
From a distance he saw one of the farmers from Lobart’s farm coming towards the gate. When the boy came closer he recognised him as Maleth who came to the city once in a while.
‘Good morning,’ Gerald said although he didn’t know why. Most times he didn’t say anything. He must have been in a good mood.
About half an hour later two other guards came to relieve them. He went directly to the barracks to eat and have a short nap. When he woke up it was late in the afternoon. When he left the barracks Peck came running to him.
‘The barrier fell last night,’ Peck said out of breath.
‘What?’ he asked, because he didn’t really understand.
‘One of the farmhands at Lobart’s farm was attacked by a guy who claimed to come from the penal colony,’ Peck continued. ‘Sometime later there was a large group who almost killed two farmhands. Pablo and some other men interrupted and left only one escapee alive’.
Gerald was shocked; the barrier had always been the ultimate prison in the whole known world.
‘What are we going to do now?’ he asked, trying to hide his astonishment.
‘There are some guards posted at Lobart’s farm, any more escapees will be arrested - or if they make trouble they will be killed’.
‘I see, do me a favour and keep me informed’.
‘I will,’ Peck said and went to see the other guards and important militia men.

Gerald wasn’t really paying attention while on guard duty, he was still thinking about the sudden collapse of the barrier. Since the ore flow had stopped some weeks ago the cargo ships didn’t come to the harbour anymore. There were some rumours about why the ore flow had stopped. One said the prisoners just wanted a higher price for the ore and cut off the transport to make the king desperate and give more for every nugget of ore. The other rumour said the ore mine had collapsed. Yet another said the mine was depleted. There were also some other rumours but very few people believed them. Like the rumour that said all convicts died for some reason. When he walked past the temple of Adanos, he didn’t see Vatras, who usually was always in front of the temple. One of the people told him Vatras had gone to the monastery, probably to investigate the sudden fall of the barrier.

A few days later he was doing his regular shift, he was walking past the merchant square when a member of the militia came running in.
‘Come over to the barracks immediately,’ he said.
Gerald knew the man and knew it had to be serious to get that man so upset.
All the merchants and their customers looked at the two men with a weird smile and went on with their business.
When all important members of the city guard and militia were assembled, the man told his story.
‘I went to Onar’s farm to see what has become of it after the fall of the barrier. When I was close to the farm, I was picked up by three men. I was brought before Onar and he told me he wouldn’t pay any contributions to the city anymore and if one of us was ever caught in the area of one of his, Secob’s or Bengar’s farms, he would make use pay’.
Some of the guards and militia were shocked and started whispering to each other.
‘Who were those men who took you to Onar?’ a militia man asked.
‘I got the one who brought me back to the tavern to talk and he told me he was part of a group of mercenaries which came from the Valley of Mines. They were hired by Onar together with another group of mercenaries which came from the south hunting orcs’.
‘How many mercenaries were at the farm?’ another guard asked.
‘I didn’t get to see them all but I think there are about 40 of them’.
’40?’ another person asked. Gerald didn’t know who.
‘The city can gather more men,’ the same person said. ‘In a fight we can beat them’.
‘Not so fast,’ he said. ‘You forget that half of the mercenaries have come from the south fighting the orcs. They must be battle hardened, well experienced troops, and I think the group from the Valley of Mines has also got trained and experienced fighters’. He knew from his time in the army how combat experience could be a decisive factor in any battle.
‘Those mercenaries are not to be taken lightly’.
‘Before we are going to make any battle plans, we have to inform the governor,’ Wolfgar interrupted.
‘The governor?’ asked another. ‘But it’s gonna take days for him to make a decision’.
Every man in the city guard and militia knew the governor couldn’t make important decisions quickly.
‘I don’t care,’ Wolfgar said. ‘I’ll inform the governor, the rest of you get back to your posts’.
All men did as he said. Gerald got back to the merchant square and kept thinking about the whole situation.

A few days later he stood at the small plateau between the barracks and the harbour district, just watching the green-blue sea. He remembered that some years ago there always was at least one seaworthy ship in the docks. Now there were only some small boats, one was a small fishing boat belonging to Halvor the fish merchant. Others belonged to wealthy citizens who liked to make a small boat trip, but ever since there was so much crime in the harbour district the citizens didn’t come there anymore, afraid of getting robbed. Some people said those boats were used at night to smuggle the stolen treasures out of the city. Everybody knew the thief guild had contacts in the harbour but no one could prove anything.
While he was thinking about it his view wandered off to the sea and he saw a big ship coming from behind the rocks on the right side of the bay. It was a big seaworthy vessel with a royal sign on it. It took him a few seconds before his mind was clear enough to realize what that meant. He started walking with the movement of the ship. He walked past the harbour warehouse, past Brahim the cartographer, past the pub. If he had looked at the faces of the people he would have seen people who were surprised to see someone from the city guard just walking around in the harbour... before they also saw the ship and looked just as surprised as he did.
When he stood between the pub and the Red Lantern, the ship turned to the left. He noticed the ship was going to dock at the docks behind the great rock. He suddenly remembered he should tell the governor as soon as possible. He ran past Fenia’s store and Lemar’s house, and on the craftsmen street he saw Pablo.
‘Tell everyone at the barracks a ship has come, the ship is going to dock behind the great rock,’ he shouted while running.
He couldn’t see if Pablo had understood him, because he was already past the gate to the upper quarter. He ran to the town hall, nearly bumping into some people. When he entered he saw the governor and his secretary standing by the table. The governor was inspecting a large map of the country, his secretary was reading the law book of the city.
‘A ship,’ he said while trying to catch his breath. Although he ran a good distance every day he had done the run from the harbor to the city hall in record time, that’s why he was breathing heavily.
The governor looked at Gerald in disbelief and said:
‘A ship, and its gone dock here’?
He nodded and gave a description of the ship.
‘A Royal ship,’ the governor said.
‘Yes’.
The governor thought for a moment.
‘Go to the docks, me and Cornelius will meet you there’.
‘Yes,’ he said and ran in the direction of the docks.

When he arrived there he saw Pablo who heard him while he was running by. Several other militia men and guards where already helping the ship to dock. When he looked at the crew he immediately recognised them as knights and paladins. It took a few minutes before the ship was properly docked and by that time the Governor and Cornelius had arrived. A paladin was the first to come ashore. Gerald recognised the paladin as Lord Hagen; during the orc war he had served under his command several times.
Larius walked towards the paladin and spoke:
‘My name is Larius, I’m the governor of Khorinis, and hereby I welcome you to our city’.
‘I’m Lord Hagen’ replied the paladin. ‘Paladin of the king and warrior of our lord Innos. We have come to this city by royal order and we are to take control of this city until we have completed our mission’.
Everyone present was shocked to hear this all, the governor the most, but he knew he couldn’t do anything about it.
‘What is that mission you spoke of’? Larius asked calmly, trying to hide his dislike.
‘Our mission must remain a secret to all but the most important people, I will be happy to tell you about it later but now it’s neither the time nor the place’.
’I understand’.
‘Could we go to the town hall and I will explain everything to you’.
‘But of course, follow me please’.

After all the men and all their material were brought off board, some knights were told to guard the ship, other knights and all paladins came with Larius to the town hall. On their way to the town hall all the people they passed stared at the unusual company.
Gerald just went on with his regular duty. He was also asked questions by the people of Khorinis. Most questions were answered with ‘that’s uncertain at the moment’.

The next day when he was guarding the west gate of the city he was called to the barracks; a less important militia member took over. When he arrived at the barracks he saw a paladin standing in front of the other guards. The paladin waited a few minutes for all the guards who were still in the city to come to the barracks. The paladin began his story.
‘My name is Lord Andre, I’m to take charge of the city guard and the city militia, and from now on you will all report to me’.
‘Oh great,’ he heard somebody saying; the paladin heard it, too, but ignored it.
‘Some thiwill have to change while we’re here. Some laws will be changed and there are going to be some other small changes. There will probably be some protests against some changes, but in the end it will most probably work out alright’.
The next ten minutes the paladin explained about the new rules in the city and some other changes which affected the lives of the people more than the law system.

After Lord Andre had finished and had made one of the chambers of the barracks his office, some of the militiamen and guards discussed the new situation.
‘What do you think about the new rules and all those changes?’
‘I don’t know,’ said one of the older militia men.
‘I like the idea they’re going to give away free beer,’ said one of the younger guards.
‘We ran this city for years with the old rules, and it never went wrong, and now some egocentric paladins are changing all the rules everyone is accustomed to,’ said the old one again.
‘I don’t know,’ Gerald said. ‘I have served under the command of Lord Hagen when he became commander of our unit. In the beginning he also made a lot of changes and new rules, but in the end those rules worked better than the old ones’.
‘Let’s give them at least a chance,’ Ruga interfered.
After discussing some more they all agreed with Ruga.

The next day when he was guarding the craftsmen street, he heard some noise coming from the south gate. When he arrived there he saw a paladin and the two gate guards arguing with a man dressed in red armor. When he came closer he heard what the man was saying.
‘Dragons, there are dragons in the Valley of Mines, I have seen them with my own eyes’.
‘Great,’ he thought. ‘Another lunatic talking about beings which don’t exist ’.
The paladin was getting pretty upset because he couldn’t get the man to be silent. The people in the street were getting nervous as well because the man was talking about dragons.
‘How could you have seen those dragons if they are in the Valley of Mines’? The paladin asked.
‘I come from the former colony,’ the man said.
His face changed after he realised what he just said.
‘An escaped convict,’ the paladin said with a victorious smile. ‘Lock him up in the barracks,’ he said to Gerald and one of the other man, ‘and make sure he keeps his mouth shut’.
‘No problem,’ the other man replied (a rookie militiaman who liked to talk tough) and pulled a small dagger from his scabbard.
‘Listen,’ he said to the man, his voice sounded cold. ‘You keep quiet and I won’t … hurt you, understood?
The man nodded.
‘Let’s go’.
The people on the way to the barracks looked interested when the two guards and the man passed by. When the man was locked up the two guards returned to their regular duty. Little did the rookie guard know that the man had stolen his purse and was sitting in his cell counting the money.

The next day Gerald woke up late. He had been guarding the merchant square the whole night. After he had washed and had a small breakfast he was about to go to the south gate when Peck stopped him.
‘Lord Andre wants to talk to you,’ he said.
‘About what? He asked?
‘Don’t know, he just told me it was urgent’.
‘Alright, thanks’.
When Gerald arrived at Lord Andre’s office, the paladin was reading a book. With a small cough he let the paladin know he was there.
‘Yes?’ the paladin said without looking up.
‘They told me you would like to see me’.
‘Ah yes, come forward,’ Lord Andre said while looking up from his book.
When he got closer he saw the book the paladin was reading. It had been written by Cornelius and it registered all men in service of the city guard. He was surprised to know the page the paladin was reading was about him. The paladin saw his looks and sent him a reassuring smile.
‘It says here you’ve been guard for over seven years now’.
‘Yes, three months ago it was seven years’.
‘You’ve got a good record. Hardly any complains about you, eight criminals arrested, some even killed, you can give training, make small arms and repair them,’ the paladin said.
‘It also says you were in the army’.
‘Yes, I served under Lord Hagen’s command during the battle of the Callengar Pass as a scout, and I was part of the Unicorn offensive. The rest of my time in the army I was part of several groups, mostly border control groups’.
‘Really?’ the paladin said, looking surprised. ‘I led the kings knights during the battle of Callengar Pass’.
‘I see’ Gerald replied. ‘But about what do you want to talk to me?’
‘Under order of Lord Hagen, I am to assemble men for an expedition into the Valley of Mines. Because the number of us paladins and knights is too few to form a decent expedition, I was planning to recruit some men of the city militia and city guard to accompany us. Thus I am looking for brave men who would like to come with us on the expedition, preferrably men with some combat experience, special skills or army veterans’.
‘Why is that expedition going to the Valley of Mines?’ he asked.
‘The goals of our mission are still a secret, but when you join the expedition all will be explained to you. The expedition will be away for about three to five weeks, it probably won’t be very dangerous and all men will be paid the standard military fee plus a bonus which is yet to be determined. I would like to have your answer before tomorrow afternoon’.

Gerald spend all day guarding the south gate and thinking about the offer. He had seen the Valley of Mines several times when he was part of the convoy guarding the goods which were to be exchanged for ore. While loading the goods on the exchange platform he had seen the valley from a distance. He heard the magic dome was designed to only enclose the castle and the mine, why everything went wrong nobody knew. The longer he thought about the proposal, the more he got interested in it. The same evening he went to Lord Andre and told him he had another man for the expedition.

Two days later he was called to Lord Andre.
‘The expedition is going to leave town tomorrow morning; Commander Garond will be in charge. The expedition will be assembled at 7 o’clock at the merchant square, make sure you’re there on time. You will be given instructions and some extra equipment. The convoy will be leaving at 8 o’clock’.
‘Aren’t you coming with us’? he asked.
‘No, and neither is Lord Hagen. We are staying here to look after the city and, if the situation calls for it, we're ready to tackle sudden complications. We aren’t expecting any complications, but we make sure we always have a backup plan,’ the paladin quickly said to make sure the man didn’t think the mission could be dangerous.
‘You have the rest of the day off, I’ve taken care of that. You’ll also get 100 gold pieces in advance to do some purchasing for the trip, we have enough provisions with us to hold out for long but you might want to buy some things for your own use’.
After Gerald got the gold from Lord Andre he went to buy stuff he was going to need on his journey.
He bought some food and drinks; bread, ham, cheese, milk, Coragon's special beer, and a couple of healing potions. He also went to Harad to get his sword repaired and sharpened. It wasn’t in a bad condition, but he wanted his sword to be as good as new.

When he arrived at the smithy and was about to tell Harad what he needed, the smith interrupted him.
‘I can’t help you now. I have to make weapons for the paladins, if you want weapons you’d better go to Carl; he doesn’t have to make swords for the paladins’.
‘I don’t want to buy a new weapon, I just need this one repaired.’ He showed he sword.
‘Brian can help you with that.’ The smith called his apprentice.
‘Yes’? Brian asked coming out of Harad’s house.
‘He needs to have his weapon repaired and sharpened, can you do that for him?’
‘Sure,’ Brian excitedly replied.
‘Why so excided’? Gerald asked.
‘Well,’ the young apprentice said. ‘Until the paladins came Harad only let me do repairing if he was too busy himself. He has tought me how to do it a few months ago, but I haven’t done it many times until the last few weeks, but don’t worry, I’m pretty good at it’.
He knew Brian was good at it, because he heard other people promote Brian’s work.
‘Let see,’ Brian said while inspecting the sword. ‘About a meter long, roughly five kilos, steel, double edged, military model and judging at its looks about eight years old.
’Twelve years, I always cleaned and repaired it’ he said. But was still impressed by the knowledge of the smith’s apprentice and went to do some other spending.

After he bought everything he needed and got his sword back in excellent shape he went to the barracks and went to bed early. He fell asleep in fiveminutes.
It was 6 o’clock when he woke up. After washing and shaving he picked up the bag he had packed the evening before. He also got his old bow and some daggers from his chest. The bow was in real good shape because he rarely used it, which was because he wasn’t good with the bow. He used the daggers for throwing and was pretty good. When he got to the merchant square he saw most of the other men who went with the expedition were already there. After he got some extra equipment, mostly arrows and some magic scrolls, he saw the paladin Garond and some other knights and paladins coming.
‘Thank you for coming so early,’ the paladin spoke. ‘To all of you who don’t already know this. We are about to set forth on an expedition to the Valley of Mines to carry out a mission I am not going to explain to you yet, but it is a mission the king himself has ordered us to do. This is all for now, prepare to depart’.

At precisely 7 o’clock the group left for the Valley of Mines. They went in the direction of the tavern which was touched by the first rays of the slowly rising sun when they arrived there. When the group walked to the pass they saw a few farmers in the distance who were already working in the fields and watching the sheep.
‘Filthy bastards,’ someone said. ‘They are all on Onar’s side now’.
‘There is nothing we can do about it now,’ a knight replied. ‘So just keep your calm’.
When they got at the entrance of the pass, two knights were told to guard it. The rest continued along the canyon until they got at the former exchange place.
Gerald remembered bringing the goods the prisoners demanded to the exchange place, and after all was set on the wooden platform the platform with the goods was lowered and the platform with the ore came up to them. Until about a month or three ago the exchanges were made regularly but they had stopped for unknown reasons. They went down the small slope and past the point where the barrier had been. He felt a bit weird, they were walking inside the former barrier covered ground, and they would most likely return to the outer world after a few weeks. The prisoners had lived for over a decade under the barrier now, and until about a week ago it had looked like they were also going to die in captivity. When walking further along the canyon they came by what appeared to be a closed-off mine. Garond came forward and choose a few men.
‘You, you and you, remove that fence.’
The removal took a few minutes and except for a few everybody rested a bit and drank something. Garond stepped forward and began to speak.
‘To all city men who were brave enough to come with us, you deserve to be told what this mission is all about’. Gerald turned around to face Garond while the paladin continued the story.
‘The war against the orcs is going badly, more and more of our country is being taken by them. There are still some forces fighting against the orcs which are mostly mercenaries and the national reserves but although they fight bravely and proudly, they are mostly overcome by the orcs. Also the war at sea is going badly, and much of our once so mighty fleet has been sunk by the orc galleys. The Esmeralda, the ship on which we came to Khorinis, is one of the few which is left. Although we made her ready for battle she is nothing more or less than a medium sized cargo ship. We are here in the Valley of Mines to gather as much ore as we can, load it onto the Esmeralda and sail to the capital and use the ore to make powerful weapons and armor which can turn the tides in this war’.
When Garond had finished all men who came from the city started whispering.
‘So they aren’t going to help us with the Onar situation’? one asked.
‘If the orcs aren’t stopped, both Onar and the City will be history,’ another replied.
The paladin heard this and interrupted. ‘I understand you all hoped we would help you with the problem of the revolting peasants, but the mission we must carry out is the only hope for our kingdom. If we fail this mission only the divine power of Innos himself will be able to save our kingdom. We hope you all are still willing to help us with this mission’.
All men from the city agreed they would help with the mission, but some of them were all not happy about the whole thing. Gerald wasn’t too happy either, but he could understand the position of the paladins and wasn’t going to turn on them now. He was also very curious about how the Valley of Mines would look like.
After the men had removed the fence they went in.
‘They are going to look if there is ore in there,’ Garond said. ‘You,’ and he pointed at Gerald. ‘Go into the valley and look for a suitable place for us to set up camp, you got about half an hour to find us a good place, maybe more’.
‘I’ll be on my way,’ he said and walked in the direction of the valley.

He first came across a small plateau with a human skeleton hanging from a tree and hoped the entire valley wouldn’t look like that. When he got at the end of the plateau his mouth fell open. He now had an amazing view of the valley. It surprised him at first, he had always imagined the valley to be grey and black and desolate, full of ore smelting pits and big fires. But the view showed a beautiful green valley with small, clear blue rivers and big trees with thick foliage. He couldn’t see any people or animals from this distance so he walked further down the slope. When he arrived down at the base of the mountain he walked towards the settlement he saw while walking down. He stayed on the road and saw a few scavengers in the distance.
‘Damn, are those beasts also in this place,’ he thought. The animals never were much of a danger to him, but they were annoying when you really didn’t have time for them. He walked across a bridge and saw it desperately needed fixing. He saw the gates of the settlement were closed; he walked towards the gate and listened if he could hear sounds inside. Although he heard something he knew there couldn’t be many people in there judging by the sound. After he had walked around the settlement to measure the size and couldn’t find any open entrance he returned towards the slope leading up the mountain.
He had seen paintings of the old castle in the Valley of Mines, it had been the place where all prisoners were locked up when they didn’t have to work in the mines, he also noticed there was a tower missing.

When he returned to the rest of the expedition he saw the three men hadn’t come out of the mine yet.
‘Report,’ Oric said as a strange welcome word.
‘There is a small settlement down in the valley, I think the prisoners built it, there are still some of them in there, but I don’t think many of them’.
‘What does it look like inside?’ Oric asked.
‘I haven’t been in there yet, there are two entrances and both of them have been blocked, but the gate has been made of wood, we got a few axes with us and we are probably able to open the gates within a couple of minutes’.
‘Are there any defenders?'
‘He really is thinking like a military strategist,’ Gerald thought.
‘I haven’t seen any, but I’m not sure there really aren’t any’.
‘Thank you,’ Oric said and returned to Garond to discuss it. After a few minutes the men came out of the mine and reported there wasn’t any ore, they hadn’t checked a few caves but the mine looked like it had been depleted years ago.
After Garond had consulted with his officers he gave Gerald the order to bring the group to the settlement.

After they arrived there, several former city guards and members of the city militia grabbed their axes and started hacking the wood of the gate to pieces. Bringing the whole gate down was taking too long so they carved small gaps big enough to be used as a step. One of the younger militia members climbed up and cut the rope which was holding the gate together. After the gate came crashing down all men of the expedition prepared for a possible fight.
When they entered the camp they saw it was almost deserted, only a few people had stayed behind, mostly older men. They gathered around the group, looking surprised. One stepped forward and adressed Lord Hagen.
‘On behave of all the people in this camp we would like to welcome you to our home’.
‘Thank you,’ the paladin replied and introduced himself. ‘My name is Lord Garond, paladin of the King and servant of our lord Innos’.
When he said paladin of the king, the faces of many camp people became even grimmer.
‘We are here on a very important mission and appreciate some help.'
‘What do you need help for and what do we get for it,’ one of the camp people asked.
‘Well,’ answered Garond, obviously a little irritated by the second part of the question. ‘We can arrest you all, even kill you since you have been classified as dangerous criminals’.
The camp people got nervous while hearing him say this.
‘But,’ the paladin continued, ‘if you are willing to help us, I’ll personally arrange you’ll be given amnesty as soon as our mission is over. Maybe you’ll even get paid for all the days you’ll help us’.
‘You still haven’t told us what we have to do to help you,’ the same person asked, but not as menacing as before.
‘We have come to get magical ore which is needed to turn the tides in the orc war. We need to know where we can find it and we need some people who can help us gather it’.
‘Even more digging,’ some of the camp people said to each other. One of them stepped forward and addressed Garond.
‘My name is Snipes, I was a digger in the mine belonging to this camp, but the mine collapsed after we hit an underground river’.
‘What’? Garond replied in disbelieve.
‘Yes, furthermore, the entrance to the mine collapsed during the earthquakes which took place at the time the barrier was destroyed’.
Garond cursed silently after hearing this, but continued in a normal voice.
‘Did you check the mining site after the entrance collapsed for any ore visible on the surface’?
‘No, we haven’t checked the site after the fall of the barrier’.
‘So it’s possible there is ore just below the surface’.
‘Yes,’ Snipes replied after thinking for a second.
Garond pointed at one of the militia from the city.
‘Could you bring him to the site and find out if there is any ore left’?
‘Yes’. Snipes replied. Garond turned to the rest of the camp people.
‘I guess this means you are all willing to help us get the ore’?
‘Yes,’ the whole crowd replied, some less enthusiastic than others.
‘Great,’ Garond said with a minor smile on his face.
After Grimes went to the old mining site with the militia man, Garond started to give others orders. He sent seven men out to further scout the valley and five to hunt animals to get meat (they did bring food and water from the city but more was needed to make sure they had a good amount of food). Garond took the rest of the men into the castle and made his headquarters in the former ore-barons house.

After every man had made a sleeping space for themselves there was some repairing to be done. First of all, Garond wanted to have to have the north gate lifted in its proper place again, he also wanted to have a wooden platform above the prison and in the remains of the fallen tower. The men decided to use the wood from abandoned huts to use for the repairs. Gerald went to two camp people and asked which hut he could take wood from. The two men looked at each other and something must have come up in their mind because they both got a big smile on their face.
‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking’? one of the men asked with a big smile.
‘Yes, I think so, you tell him’ replied the other with an even bigger smile.
‘When you come out of the castle gate, go right, you can use the second hut which is built against the wall,’ said the first man with an even bigger smile, he was trying not to laugh.
Gerald knew there had to be something wrong, but when he came to the hut it looked like it had been deserted weeks ago. He took all the wood he needed and went back to the castle gate. At the gate he turned around and took a look at the camp. He was amazed by the size of the camp, on the painting he had seen of the castle before the valley was sealed of there was just the castle. The prisoners must have built all the huts and fortifications around the castle. The defenses of the camp were also very good. If the camp had some good defenders with bows or crossbows, the camp could withstand the attack of a small army. ‘But,’ he said to himself ‘we first have to make sure the castle is well accommodated,' and he took the wood into the castle.

After the platform in the remains of the fallen tower was completed (he hated the work, he was a scout, not a carpenter) the first scouts came in together with some other people who were clearly residents of the former prison colony. Some of them just came along with the scouts, some were ‘gently’ pushed by them. The scout reported to one of the paladins and after talking to him some of the men were locked up in the prison and some were given empty huts. Gerald was busy with another former city guard to bring the anvil from the smithy in the castle to a place next to the sleeping quarter’s door. The smithy was going to be nailed shut and used for storage. He hoped he wouldn’t have to help to carry the smith’s fireplace to the same place. Ten minutes after he and three others replaced the smith’s fireplace he had some time off. He ate some bread and drank some water. He walked out of the castle and went to a camp inhabitant.
‘Where can I get some fresh water’?
‘There are several wells in this camp,’ the camp man replied. ‘The nearest is over there,’ he said while pointing at one.
‘Can you tell me something about the camp’? He asked the man.
‘Of course, what would you like to know’?
‘Just some information about the camp and the colony, in the outside world we know very little about the prison colony’.
‘Well, in the beginning before the barrier enclosed the valley we were all prisoners. We were kept in the dungeons of the castle and had to work all day long in the mine. There had been some riots but the guards always ended up on top. After we heard the rumour of the magic barrier we really thought we would never see freedom again. When the barrier was created, something went wrong and it ended up being much larger than anyone had even thought. The guards were shocked and they didn’t pay as much attention to us as they should have been. One of the diggers called Gomez told us to follow him and we attacked the guards and the people who were in charge of the administration in the castle. After we had taken over the castle, Gomez was chosen as our leader; together with some others he took control of all activities. We soon discovered the mages who were also trapped in their own barrier. None of us dared to attack them so Gomez made a deal with them, they would leave us alone and study the barrier and we give them shelter and leave them alone. Back then our only concern was to get out of there as soon as possible. Then we received a letter from the king himself. He was offering to make a deal, ore for everything we wanted. We accepted and got a lot of good food for the ore. The Old Camp was established. After about one year the fence around the camp was completed and we left a lot of space open for new arrivals to build their huts. After a few years a band of people grew tired to work to get ore for the king and built their own camp. That camp became known as the New Camp. Some of the mages also went with them; they tried to find a way to bring down the barrier. Those mages became water mages. That camp didn’t get goods from the outside world and began to grow rice to eat. They also made an ore mine because the mages needed ore for their escape plan. The Old Camp and New Camp never got along. About one and a half year ago some people in the Old Camp began to get strange visions and dreams. They followed a man named Y’berion, also a convict who was chucked in here after the barrier was created. The Camp’s authorities didn’t like their idea of another god next to the regular god’s and to avoid conflict the group left the camp. They founded their own camp in the east of the colony and they called themselves the Brotherhood of the Sleeper. The Sleeper was the idol they worshipped. All other people in the colony thought they were a bunch of loonys and referred to their camp as the Sect Camp. The people in the Sect Camp had a good alchemist and this combined with the weed which grew in the swamp got them a great trading product called swampweed. You can smoke it, it makes you hallucinate a bit but it feels very nice. They traded the weed with both of the others camps. They were nice and never did anything wrong, but a lot of people didn’t trust them very much because they developed their own kind of magic which affected peoples mind. A couple of months ago they had a big sort of séance to get in touch with their idol, it went wrong and their leader died. I think that all the things which have gone wrong in the following months started with that event. A few weeks later the mine belonging to this camp collapsed, a lot of good people died that day. From that moment on the Old Camp became locked off and Gomez ordered some guards to attack the New Camp’s mine called the Free Mine to get the ore. They failed and for a couple of days it was uncertain what would happen. One day, a lot of noise came from the castle. It turned out to be a man in a heavy armor suit killing Gomez, most of his lackeys and most of the guards. A few days later, during the night the barrier fell, there was a lot of rain, lightning and thunder. After the barrier fell there was an earthquake, this caused our mine to get blocked. When we found out the barrier had fallen most of the people fled from the valley’.
‘Why didn’t you go’? Gerald asked.
‘I’m old, I spent the better part of my life in this area, now I’m free to do whatever I want to. It was forbidden to go into the castle when I was a digger. Now I can go everywhere’.
‘Thanks for the story,’ Gerald said and went back into the castle totally forgetting to get the water he wanted.

It was evening when the other scout came back. The digger Snipes and the scout accompanying him found ore just below the surface at the site where the mine used to be. Other scouts also found two other ore mining sites, which were visible now due to the effects of the earthquake. In two days three groups would be assembled to get the ore. Each group would consist of about a dozen diggers, some guards and knights and a paladin in charge. He and some other people were just finished bringing all the food and water they brought with them and some meat the hunters collected to the storeroom they build inside the former smithy of the castle. The only person to have access to the storeroom would be the steward Engor who would also be in charge of the distribution of the rations.
Because of the valley walls it quickly turned dark in the valley and several campfires were started. Gerald went to sit around a fire with several men of the city guards and militia who were also part of the expedition.
‘I wonder who will be chosen to go to mining site,’ one said.
‘We don’t know, we’ll find out the day after tomorrow,’ another replied.
‘But what if there are still some convicts left and they’ll attack us?’ the first one continued.
‘Then you’ll have to try to capture them, if that doesn’t work you’ll have to kill them,’ Gerald replied calmly.
‘Kill? I never killed anyone before in my life,’ the man said nervously. ‘I don’t know if I will be able to do it. How many did you kill’? the man asked Gerald.
Eleven men and about a dozen of orcs, he said. 'My instructor when I was in military training always said that if you are fighting a man during a war you should always think it’s either him or me. If you think that way, you’ll be able to kill him, if you doubt yourself at that moment you’ll get killed’.
‘How cold!’ the man replied.
‘It’s what keeps you alive, you’ll have to see your opponent as a thing instead of a living being’.
‘When was the last time you killed somebody’?
Three years ago, he said and started to tell the story. ‘There was a small bandit camp near the city. When a militiaman approached the camp to ask some questions they fired at him with their bows, he was shot in the leg. The whole city guard and militia were so angry about it that we didn’t wait for the Governor to make a decision and formed a team and went to capture them so they could be judged. We crawled towards them using low plants as cover. They must have heard us because they drew their swords and came storming at us. A fight started and after I knocked my opponent down with the pummel of my sword I saw a bandit who was gonna stab one of us in the back while he was fighting another one. I cut off the hand holding the knife and slit his throat. That last was a bit too much and I was called to Wolfgar from whom I got a lecture about what the city guard was all about, and my job was to arrest bandits not kill them. According to him I should have knocked him down after cutting his wrist. Only because the bandit tried to kill one of us it never came on my record’.
‘Wow,’ the militiaman said ‘I didn’t know’.
‘It doesn’t matter, killing is only hard the first couple of times’.
‘Any advice on how to deal with the feeling you killed someone?’ the man asked.
‘Get drunk,’ Gerald said with a smile and stood up to go to bed.

The second day he had to repair the bridge north of the camp. A few camp people, who he had learned were called ‘Diggers’, helped out. The wood used for the repairs had been taken off unused huts, some boards even had something written on them.
‘When did that tower collapse’? Gerald asked a digger.
‘About three and a half years ago, due to poor maintenance’ one of the diggers said.
‘We knew that tower wasn’t that strong but the ore barons wouldn’t have it repaired. Several good men died when that tower came crashing down. A few were smart enough to relocate before it collapsed but since the collapse every structure in this camp was properly looked after’.
‘It’s how it always works’ Gerald said. ‘Somebody always has to get hurt before something is done’.
When they returned from fixing the bridge Gerald had to help out with the north gate. Some men were repairing it. They fitted the door they brought down when entering the camp with new ropes and with the help of twenty other men the heavy door was hung back into place again. They also fixed the south gate. The winch jammed but it was repaired within the hour. Both gates worked again and were opened. The paladins posted two men at each door to prevent people from escaping.

The next morning it was about 11 o’clock. All the men came together in front of the former ore barons' house to decide who was going to go to the mines to guard the diggers and the ore. Suddenly a man came walking through the gate. He was wearing red armor and had a short sword hanging at his side. Gerald recognised him as a Khorinis militia man. He walked towards Garond and addressed the paladin.
‘I come on behalf of Lord Hagen, due to the importance of your mission he decided yesterday to send you some reinforcements, we assembled a small group of men and we set off to find you. I bring fifteen men with me’.
‘Glad to hear Hagen has so much confidence in me,’ Garond said with sarcasm in his voice.
‘He does,’ the man quickly replied. ‘But neither Lord Hagen nor you knew what to expect in this valley. He thought you might have lost some men during this mission and hereby sends you some support’.
‘Fine, let them come in,’ Garond quickly said.
Through the gate came a couple of men, there was also a young mage with them. Then Gerald saw the man with them who told stories about dragons in the city.
‘What the hell is he doing here?’ he said to no one.
The question was answered by the man who gave Garond the message.
‘He is a former convict from the mining colony, he knows his way around in this valley, so we made a deal with him, if he would help us he would get his freedom after our mission has ended. The same goes for him,’ and he pointed at another man in the group. The man was tall and looked strong; he was enclosed in heavy blue armor.
‘Great’ Gerald thought. ‘They are probably going to run at the first opportunity they get’.

The men who had just arrived were given a place to put their belongings and could stay inside the camp. The man who had been talking about dragons in Khorinis was appointed to Silvestro’s group. Two other groups were made also each under the command of the paladins Marcos and Fajeth. Each group also had a couple of men from the city and many diggers. The Diggers who had been resisting arrest were appointed first. Next were the young Diggers and those who had some special knowledge which could come in handy. The Diggers which were left were used to fill in the gaps in the groups. Each group was given supplies and were sent to a mining site. The big man (which he had heard was called Gorn) was kept inside the castle.
‘Probably for the time when we explore the rest of this valley,’ Gerald thought.
He had also noticed the magician going to the house on the left of Garond’s quarters. It had been searched when they first entered the camp and it had been identified as probably the house where the imprisoned fire mages used to live. Gerald had already heard the mages where killed after the Old Mine collapsed. Maybe the young mage had heard from the two former prisoners where he could make a private room for himself.
Anyway, he was also kept at the castle together with the majority of the other men which had come from the city. Later the afternoon he and some other man were sent out to hunt for meat. In the beginning of the evening he came back with the meat of twelve scavengers, ten molerats and three wolves which had intervened with his hunting.

The next few days were nearly the same. He and some other men had to deliver wood to the three mines so they could begin tunnelling, but most of the time he was just standing guard at the castle. It was boring; in the city he was always listening to the conversations the people had. He was most of the time at the castle where most people didn’t talk much. In the outer ring the camp people kept silent if the there was an expedition man nearby. He didn’t know if the camp people didn’t trust them or if they might be planning something, but didn’t care too much since the men of the expedition were all armed and trained fighters.
This boring time went on for several days until one morning a highly disturbing message reached the castle.

He was guarding the front gate of the castle when a man came running in. Gerald recognised the man as one of Fajeth’s mining team. He went straight to Garond's quarters. After a few minutes Garond and his officers came out to the courtyard, he wasn’t looking too happy. He called all expedition men to the courtyard and spoke.
‘A man who is with Fajeth’s group just came to report that orcs have been seen in the valley’.
‘Orcs,’ several men whispered. Gerald saw fear in the eyes of some. Most city men had never seen real battle, let alone an orc. Most just joined the city guard or militia to have a job and although they got fighting training they had very little experience. Some had helped with the arrest of bandits a few months ago, but none had ever seen real war.
‘There is no sign of a coming attack at this moment,’ Garond almost shouted to get the attention.
‘We will investigate the orc threat and this afternoon we will send some extra men to each mine. At this moment there is no reason to panic, and it would be best to keep this a secret to the camp people for the time being’.
Later that day three additional men were sent to each mine. He again was staying at the castle. He hated orcs, many of his friends in the town he grew up in were killed by them after they joined the army. This was one of the main reasons why he had given up his job as a soldier. He was standing on the wall of the castle looking at the camp and the people. When observing the people he knew the orc news had not been a secret for long. The people looked scared and were talking and discussing with each other. A few were brave (or stupid) and started to repair and sharpen their sword. A few bows were prepared. There was even a guy who had a few magic scrolls.
‘They're not gonna give up without a fight,’ Gerald thought. He knew perfectly well the camp people wouldn’t have a very good chance when facing orcs. Scouts and shamans were relatively easy to beat, but the camp people wouldn’t stand a chance against a warrior or Elite.
He had seen an Elite once and it took seventeen bolts to bring it down, only after the Elite had killed six men. The Elites were the strongest orcs. The warriors were also though to beat, with the difference that they didn’t wear plate armor like the Elites did.
The only real advantage the armies of Myrtana had was better ranged troops. The orcs didn’t have any archers or crossbowmen, the only ranged weapons the orcs had were siege engines but those were useless against infantry. Orc Shamans had the ability to use fireballs, but the orcs never risked harm to the shamans and kept them far behind the front line. In the beginning of the orc war the archers of the kingdom were responsible for major losses amongst the orcs, but as the war progressed the orcs managed to take out more and more companies of archers and the only real advantage Myrtana had was lost. Although the army tried desperately to replace the killed archers there were never enough to have a real effect on the course of a battle. Gerald had seen it and thought about it. In case the orcs would attack the camp the camp people would have the advantage of a good defensive position. There were enough expedition men who knew how to use a bow (Ruga is a very good teacher) and the paladins could use their magic. He had never seen their magic but if the stories were only half true their magic was still devastating. The only thing he worried about were the number of orcs and their siege equipment. The orc sighting reports only spoke of a couple of orcs, but (except for scouts and a few other exceptions) he had never seen groups of less than 50 orcs.
‘I’m probably being paranoid,’ he said to interrupt his own thinking and trying to give himself more hope. Still standing on the wall next to the castle gate he looked at the outer ring and tried to think about something else than orcs.

The next three days came and went without any report about the orcs. He was standing guard at the remnant of the collapsed tower looking at the forest to the west of the castle. The weather was nice, it wasn’t that warm but the sun was pleasant. His gaze shifted to south-east and he watched the waterfall which had clear blue water and gave a fine fog when the falling water fell into the lake. He thought by himself that the Valley of Mines was a much more pleasant place than he always thought. Maybe in future if the ore mined by this expedition had helped to win the war, wealthy citizens could go on holiday to the valley. It had a calm, peaceful atmosphere.
Then he saw something in the right corner of his eyes that would change the calm, peaceful nature of the valley forever. On the big rock to the south of the castle he saw orcs standing, three shamans, five Elites and about ten warriors. One Elite was talking to a shaman, which made a hand gesture to one of the warriors. The warrior was carrying something in his hands and brought if up to his face Gerald couldn’t see what it was, but he heard by sound it was an orc war horn. Now the sound the armies of Myrtana had feared since the first battle against the orcs was heard by all men, orc and beast in the valley of Mines. As the horn was heard a wave of dozens of orcs came from behind the great rock. He wanted to sound the alarm, but knew it was already useless since everybody in the castle heard the horn. The two guards standing at the south gate quickly ran back into the camp and lowered the gate. Some camp men came running to the gate with their weapons. When they reached the gate all nearby guards had already started to fire at the quickly approaching orcs. They used the small holes in the gate to have a good aim. Orc after orc died under the rain of arrows which was intensified by the camp men who showed surprising good aim. He saw from his elevated position that many orcs were not running at the gate but around the camp wall.
‘They are going to attack the north gate,’ he thought.
He jumped from the wall almost twisting his ankles and ran to the castle gate. Many men had already gathered around the gatehouse. Gerald saw two men desperately trying to lower the gate, but the winch seemed to be jammed. He ran to the winch trying to help but before he could get inside the gatehouse orcs began to enter the gatehouse. The first and second row of orcs died by arrows but they kept coming and within a few seconds the archers were forced to use their swords. Many camp people died because of the big blows of the orc axes. He quickly ran to the gatehouse and saw an orc warrior coming at him. The orc lifted his axe above his head.
He knew this attack, because many orcs used it. It was a strong attack but also left the orc vulnerable for an instant. Without thinking he quickly did two steps forward and sunk his sword in the exposed underbelly of the orc. He stabbed up so the sword would damage several important organs. With a characteristic cry the orc fell to the ground. He quickly looked around and saw the militiaman who had been nervous about killing at the camp fire kill his first orc. He saw that unless the gate wasn’t closed, the camp and expedition men would be overwhelmed. In the midst of the battle he ran to the winch and saw a small piece of metal was stuck in the chains, jamming the winch. He quickly tried to pull the metal out of the mechanism, but it was stuck. He hit the metal with the pummel of his sword and it came loose. He pulled the lever and the door came crashing down, squashing a few orcs with its enormous weight. He quickly withdrew to the outer rings because an Elite had managed to get inside the gatehouse. The Elite was now killing men by the dozens. Others were firing arrows at the Elite but because of the Elite’s metal plate armor none did any harm. He decided to try a high risk attack. He quickly picked up a large hammer which was dropped when the owner was killed by the orcs. The Elite had killed all men who were present inside the gatehouse and turned to the archers. Gerald charged at the Elite which prepared for a horizontal strike at him. When in range of the orc's sword the Elite made a big horizontal swing from right to left at him. Gerald quickly dodged the attack and felt the air flow of the sword in his hair when it came over his head. He moved over to the right side of the orc and slammed the hammer against the knee joint of its right leg. The hinge of the plate armor cracked and small pieces flew off and were bent, jamming the hinge and robbing the orc of the ability to use its right leg, immobilising the orc. Gerald quickly jumped out of the way to avoid getting hit by the orc’s sword when the Elite swung it back to the right. When he was out of the swords range he turned around and saw the Elite looking surprised at his right leg. The archers however kept firing at the orc without it having any real affect.
‘Idiots,’ he thought and pulled out a magic scroll and dropped the hammer he was still holding. He had learned by listening to the mage Daron back in Khorinis how to use it. He held the scroll in his right hand and whispered the text written on it.
Lord Innos. Master of all
Grant me a large Fire-ball.
When he finished the text the writing began to burn. Although he was holding the scroll which quickly burned, his hand wasn’t harmed because of the magical nature of the flames. When the fire had consumed the parchment it fell apart, leaving him with only the flames in his hand. Although he had never used this kind of scroll he suddenly felt his own magical energy, which was also called mana. Because he felt it he knew how to transfer his mana into the fire. The flame grew and slowly turned into a darker red colour, until the flame reached a certain size. He knew that he could now make the first charge. The small fireball which he held between his hands now had the size of his fist. He allowed the fireball to explode and stopped the explosion when it was the size of his head, he just successfully completed the first charge. The fireball now had the energy of the explosion and he gently pushed the fireball back into its original size. He laid more and more mana into the fireball which grow and became several charges big. Suddenly he felt a weird kind of tiredness and knew his magical energy had been depleted. The whole process had taken less than five seconds. He was now holding an almost completely charged large fireball in his hands and turned to the Elite who was still struggling with its right leg. Although he knew it didn’t matter he threw the fireball at the orc with great force. The orc was hit in the upper torso. The flames spread quickly over the orc’s body, burning several parts severely including its head. The orc screamed in pain but because of the jammed knee hinge it couldn’t run to the small puddle next to the castle wall. The flames didn’t last long but the orc was already half dead. Gerald pulled out one of his daggers and threw it at the orc hitting the Elite in the face, killing the orc. The heavy body fell to the ground and the men were glad the battle was over for now. Some men started to cheer and hug each other.

All men were cheering and a camp man gave Gerald a small blue potion. He drank it and felt the weird tiredness quickly go away. He was about to thank the man when six meters away two men were incinerated. Every man looked shocked at the two men who were now little more than charred corpses. Gerald was shocked and wondered what could have happened. Suddenly a big shadow flew over him, and when he looked up he saw a creature he only knew from stories and legends.
‘Dragon!’ one of the men shouted.
‘To the castle,’ another one screamed.
All men left at the north gate now began running to the castle when suddenly a second dragon appeared. The mighty beast lifted one of the diggers from the ground and carried him to a height of fourteen meters, from where he was thrown at one of the huts. The first dragon had already burned two other men to cinders, including the man who had made his first kill inside the gatehouse. The men fell around Gerald and he could feel the heat of the flames. He was the second man to reach the castle gate and he quickly hid in a small corner along the castle wall. He suddenly remembered the men who were fighting at the south gate. He ran from his hiding place to the courthouse after making sure the dragons didn’t notice him. He ran from there to the magician’s house and the fallen tower. When he looked down he saw the men had been torched by the dragons. The orc had withdrawn from the scene and the dragons were now busy with setting the wooden gate and walls ablaze. He now noticed there were four dragons not just two. The dragon also burned the men they found in the outer rings alive. He suddenly heard something behind him and turned around. Paladins had just closed the gate of the castle and ran back into the courthouse. During the attack he hadn’t seen the paladins fight once.
‘Cowards,’ he said out loud.

After the dragons had set the entire outer ring on fire they flew off in different directions. The huts and wall of the outer ring burned for the rest of the day and the better part of the night. In the morning only a few fires were still burning. Over twenty men died in the attack, most of which died at the south gate. Most of the dead men were camp people. Near the end of the morning Garond came out of his headquarters and spoke to the men who were left.
‘Since we are almost surrounded by the orcs, Engor will ration the food and all city men are now considered man-at-arms and keep guard. You will report to my officers Parcival and Oric. Even the slightest detail of the enemy movements will be considered important information. We will send out a scouting party tonight to find out if the mines have been taken by the orcs and investigate the area. The party will consist of knights and paladins.
That was all men, keep guard and remember: every detail of the orcisch strategy if important, so tell us if you have seen something’. Garond looked really sad when he returned to his room.
‘Man-at-arms,’ Gerald heard someone say. ‘Great, a promotion without a better pay’.

He stood guard at the west side of the castle and looked at the orcs who began building huts on the ash covered ground which used to be the outer ring. Although even his archery skills were good enough to hit the orcs from this distance, he had been given strict orders not to do anything to upset the orcs. The orcs didn’t pay much attention to the guards and were very busy setting up camp. The orc were surrounding the castle from the west side to the east side.
‘Probably to tempt us to leave with ropes down the east side so they can easily get to us and kill us all,’ he thought.
‘The only real advantage we have left is a good defensive position and they are not going to take that from us’.
The only real thing he was afraid of were the dragons; he remembered the incident in the city where a man was talking about dragons. He had laughed about it and had labelled the man as a lunatic. The same man which had been sent with a mining expedition to one of the ore mining places, maybe he had already fled, he didn’t know. He spent the rest of the day comparing the dragons he had seen with the dragons he had heard about in the stories children were told and came to the conclusion that the real dragons were far worse.

The next morning he heard the scouting party had been a complete disaster, all men had been killed by the orcs except for Tandor. The party had entered a cave to discuss the plans in peace. The orcs had suddenly entered the cave and slaughtered all men but Tandor.
The orcs finished surrounding the castle near the end of the afternoon; he had seen dozens of orcs walking to the woods near the east of the castle after the castle had been surrounded. He reported it to Oric and his shift ended when someone came to take over. He woke up the following morning to find out that the orcs had cut down a lot of trees and were now building a large wall. It would give them a good defensive position and it would make it difficult to estimate their numbers. The orcs did this often in the war and made it much more difficult to make a good offensive plan because you never knew the strength of the enemy’s reinforcements. Gerald went to Engor and got his rations for that day; a small peace of bread and a cup of water. He also got some food from his own bag but had a feeling of hunger the rest of the day.

Next day when he came out of the guards quarters he noticed an uproar near the storeroom where all the food was stored. Three men-at-arms were trying to bring the man to the ground which came with the expeditions reinforcements. He heard the man was called Gorn. The fight was already intensive and punches were exchanged. Another man-at-arms man had already been hit since his nose was bleeding. Gorn was also punched repeatedly but he didn’t seem to notice much of it. Gerald ran to the crowd and jumped on Gorn’s back. Another man pushed Gorn and he lost his balance for a moment. Gerald while hanging on Gorn back quickly shifted his weight to the right side causing Gorn to fall. Gerald came down first and Gorn’s heavy body fell on him. Other expedition men quickly grabbed Gorn and pulled him of him. Gorn was taken into custody.
‘What did he do?’ Gerald asked trying to breath. Gorn’s fall on him had driven the air from his lungs.
‘He ate a big part of the food which was left,’ a paladin answered.
‘What?’
‘He got access to the storeroom somehow and ate until he was found. Don’t worry, he won’t get any food the next week’.
‘Good’.
‘Now go your post,’ the paladin politely ordered.
‘What will be done with him’?
‘He will be locked up and Lord Garond will discuss with his officers what is to be done with him when the expedition is over,’ the paladin said while walking away.
Gerald knew most expedition men would hope Gorn was to be executed. He didn’t know what to think of it. When he got word that Engor shortened the rations again he wanted the same.

The next days where long and boring, the orcs didn’t do much and the dragons didn’t show themselves. He had already reported to the paladins that all orcs were taking their orders from one shaman who had his hut on the big rock at the south of the castle. His post was at the remnant of the collapsed tower so he could keep an eye on the activities of the shaman and all orc south-west of the castle. While standing guard he tried to do as little as possible so he didn’t lose much energy. He was looking at the shaman which was talking to some elites when another man-at-arms attracted his attention.
‘What’s wrong’? He asked.
‘What’s that over there?’ the other man-at-arms said while pointing in the direction of the forest.
Gerald couldn’t really see it because of the sun. It was some kind of construction which was made next to the wall to make it hard to see. It had wheels and a swing arm. It looked a bit like a battering ram but wasn’t, orc battering rams looked different than this thing. Although he didn’t precisely know what it was, he knew what kind of equipment it was.
‘Go report to Garond and report that the orcs have built some kind of siege engine,’ he ordered the other man. The other man was a militiaman, thus lower in rank than him.
‘I will,’ the man said and ran across the courtyard to Garond’s quarters.
About five minutes later the man came back with the two paladins Udar and Sengrath which were to keep an eye on the siege engine and use their crossbows if the orcs tried to use it.

Some days later the orcs had used their ram against the wall. Very few orcs had been killed because only elites had guided the ram and their heavy metal armor had protected them against even the crossbow bolts which were shot at them. The ram turned out to be a construction built to do two things; it was first used as a traditional battering ram. After the orcs had made several big holes in the wall the ram was parked inside a big hole and could be used as a walk bridge to get inside the castle. Everybody was confused about the fact that the castle wasn’t stormed by the orcs using the ram. The orcs had just retreated to their normal positions. He had found it weird, the orcs normally only used a ram to breach wall and gates, to find out that these orcs had used the ram for two purposes scared him, the orcs were much smarter and better organised than normal.
The life in the castle went on after this strange incident. Rations were shortened every day, the paladins got grumpier, there was even a guy who didn’t want this anymore and ran away from the castle. Because he had taken his armor off he could easily outrun the orcs, but they send their wargs or orc dogs after him and those beasts ran him down and ripped him to pieces. After the incident no one had tried to escape. Although important information about the orcs was coming in every day, very little was done with it. Garond and his officers knew the daily routines of every orc labelled important but didn’t seem to be doing something with it. As the days progressed more and more men became desperate. When the orcs hadn’t completely surrounded the castle yet some men were sent out to look what had become of the mines and to bring the news of the orcs to the outside world. None of those men were seen again and he didn’t think anyone even made it out of the valley, otherwise help would have arrived by now. The days creeped by and nothing interesting appeared to happen anytime soon. Until one night.

Gerald didn’t know how many days it was since he entered the valley. He had thought of the expedition as an opportunity to finally see the Valley of Mines without being trapped for the rest of his life. The gold which would be paid after the expedition didn’t interest him. The first week inside the valley had been a fantastic experience. He had felt better than the time when he was welcomed in the ranks of the city guard and that was one of the best moments of his life. The valley had been beautiful and peaceful. The valley had been so much more than he had ever thought possible. Now the orcs had infested and mutilated the beauty of the valley. The trees had been cut down to make the great wall and ram, other trees where burned and black. He suddenly remembered one of the main reasons why he hated the orcs. They always destroyed the beauty of the area they lived in or marched through.
He was standing on the wall next to the gatehouse. His shift had just began and he was to take care of the key to unlock the main gate. It was the most important position in guard duty. He didn’t like it; his favourite guard post was the collapsed tower, because he could keep an eye on the most important orc shaman and the big wall. Fortunately he only needed to guard this spot for one night, the next day he would get his usual place back. He was looking forward to it and hoped the night would pass by quickly.
He was keeping an eye on the orcs while he thought of Khorinis. The city with its sea and the surrounding forest, the market square and merchant square, the chapel of Adanos and pubs. He remembered all the reasons why he loved the city. His thoughts passed away and he noticed something highly disturbing. While he thought about the city the orcs had retreated to the area across the river. He didn’t know what was going on and was about to call the paladins when he heard a scream. He looked up to see the guard post above the gatehouse exploding in a sea of fire, vaporizing the guard standing there.
‘Dragons,’ he shouted although everyone inside the castle already knew what was going on. The paladins which were guarding Garond’s quarters quickly went inside and pulled out their runes although the dragons were flying much too fast for the paladins to hit them. He saw a man-at-arms which spine broke as a dragon hit him in the back. Other men were shooting with bows and crossbows at the dragons which was even more futile than the paladins with their runes because the though dragons scales didn’t allow arrows and bolt to penetrate enough to do real damage. Many men were burned alive. Gerald quickly thought about his chances and grabbed the rope which was lying around. The rope was strong enough to support the weight of a man but would snap if an orc would try to climb it. He figured his best chance to survive was to stay outside. He attached the rope to a barrel and dropped the gate key. He went down the rope and came down in what used to be the outer ring of the camp. While taking cover next to the burned huts he walked away from the camp to just before the river.
He turned around and saw the castle burning, screams were heard and he felt sorry for all men which died in the attack or were dieing. He knew the orcs had noticed him so trying to flee was out of the question. He also knew that right after the dragons left he had to get back before the orcs would cross the river again. The dragons' attack lasted for one more minute and the dragons left. He was breathing heavily after his run to the shore, all that time in the castle has been devastating for his endurance. The orcs didn’t seem in much of a rush to get back to their huts so he didn’t rush himself either. He took a long look at the burning castle, not knowing it would be his last.

Suddenly he heard breathing from behind him. Although he immediately looked after what made the sound he knew it would probably be too late. He recognised the creature as the red dragon which attacked the men guarding the north gate after the orc attack on the camp. For a split second their eyes met and in the eyes of the dragon he saw himself standing, not looking scared but surprised. The dragon pulled his head back taking a deep breath while doing so. He wasstill too surprised to react. The dragon moved its head back to the front and fire came out of its mouth. He tried to dodge but couldn’t evade the fire. The heavy armor he was wearing didn’t protect him from the fire, he might as well have worn a paper suit. The fire incinerated his flesh and for an instant he felt the most excruciating pain he had ever experienced. A moment later all the pain was gone since the pain receptors in his skin were gone. The next moment he lay dead at the feet of the dragon, there was little more left than charred bones.

The End.