It was a calm morning, almost too calm in comparison with the rain and thunder of the night before.
'I hate rain,' Maleth thought, 'but at least it will make the grass grow faster'.
Maleth was very happy with his life as a shepherd. It was easy work because the sheep never gave him many problems. He handled the sheep better than Vino; Vino was happier with the hard work on the field. Maleth was physically weaker than Vino; Vino was also two and a half years older than Maleth… but that didn't matter.
Maleth was one of the best shepherds found around the city of Khorinis. He had only two big concerns: wolves and bandits. Wolves weren't a big problem as long as they didn't attack in great numbers.
The bandits were another story.
Although Maleth wasn't a real fighter, he had learned from Wulfgar the militia trainer how to use a weapon; his favourite weapon was a sickle, not as slow and heavy as a two handed sword, but fast and - in his hands - dangerous. But he didn't have to worry as much about bandits as he did years ago. Because of the penalty that every guilty man was to be thrown into the mining colony, there were very few bandits and thieves left, and most of them kept their heads low. Although everyone knew that Myrtana was in total war with the orcs, everyone in Khorinis and on the farms around the city was relatively calm, and everything appeared to be normal.

Maleth went on his way to the city (like every once in one and a half weeks) to sell sheep skins, the food Vino and his workers had harvested on the fields, and five wolf skins he had taken from two adult and three young wolves which had attacked his sheep. He did also go to pray and make a donation at the temple of Adanos, have some tools repaired at Harad's smithy, and buy some goods.
The gate guards recognized him and one of them even said, 'Good morning', something they usually never said.
'Must have had a good night's sleep,' Maleth thought.
Because of the orc war the city guards were on a 24-hour-a-day alert; although the war was still very far away, most of the city guards didn't get much sleep because of their guard duty.
As soon as he took 3 steps into the city he could smell the air of Khorinis.

He first went to Matteo. The shopkeeper saw Maleth and said, 'Good morning'.
'Good morning Matteo,' Maleth replied. 'How are you doing today?'
'I'm fine, how are you and everyone on the farm?'
'Just as fine as you are.'
'What will it be this week?'
'First I would like to sell this to you.'
Maleth handed over some goods to Matteo. The shopkeeper looked at the goods and tried to estimate the quality and value.
'I will give you 125 gold pieces for those goods,' Matteo said after a couple of seconds. That was the same price Maleth was going to ask, but he was curious if he could get more.
'140 Gold pieces,' he said, trying to look unsuspicious.
After a few seconds Matteo agreed.
'I will be back to buy food after I've done some necessary spending,' Maleth said. Although there weren't many bandits, it was still a though time because the militia sometimes came and stole some of the farmers goods. So every time Maleth went to the city, he first did the most necessary spending before buying something else. Matteo gave him his gold and Maleth walked outside.

Before going to Bosper he went to Harad. After the usual 'Good morning, how are you' sequence Maleth gave Harad the tools he needed to get repaired.
Harad examined the tools and said, 'Most of them only need sharpening - give me an hour and they're as good as new.'
'How many is it going to be?' Maleth asked.
Harad thought a moment, determining the price, and answered, '50 gold pieces'.
'Okay,' Maleth said and went to Bosper. He sold the wolf and sheep skins for an average price and went to Vatras.

When he came to the temple, he noticed Vatras wasn't at his usual place in front of the temple. He was inside the temple instead. When Maleth silently entered, Vatras was praying in front of the big statue.
'Have you noticed something strange this morning, Maleth?' Vatras asked without turning around. 'In my sleep I felt an enormous disturbance in the magical field. It was powerful enough to wake me.'
Maleth hadn't felt anything and told the Mage.
'I've only come to pray, make a donation and search for your blessing, but maybe it has something to do with the barrier around the mining colony'.
Perhaps some lunatic thought he would come out at the other side alive, Maleth thought.
'I thought the same thing,' the Mage answered. 'I give you my blessing and don't need a donation. You can pray in front of the temple, but I have to go now and discuss this matter with Pyrokar.'
'I will do that and no longer delay you,' Maleth said and stepped out of the Mage's way. He made a small prayer and asked Adanos for rain that would make the grass and their crops grow faster.

On his way back to Harad he met Valentino. 'That arrogant bastard,' Maleth thought.
Valentino came closer and asked, 'Where has Vatras gone, peasant?'
'To the monastery.' Maleth tried to make his disgust for Valentino audible. When he walked away he heard Valentino say something; he didn't hear it but he was sure it wasn't polite. When he came to Harad, the smith said he needed a few more minutes.
Maleth talked a bit with the smith's apprentice to pass the time Harad needed. After about 7 minutes Harad was done and Maleth paid him.
Maleth went back to Matteo and bought some bottles of wine and beer, cheese, bread and some apples. He then went back to the farm and brought the goods and the money that was left to Hilda, and then he returned to his sheep.

It was early in the afternoon and Maleth was guarding his sheep (one of them appeared to be pregnant) when he saw someone coming from the path that lead to the mountains. The man was dressed in what looked like a worker's outfit, and he was carrying a pickaxe. When the man saw Maleth, he suddenly came running at him and - attacked him!
But the man didn't know how to use his pickaxe. When the man took a swing at Maleth, Maleth swiftly grabbed the pickaxe and broke the nose of his attacker with his free hand. Maleth knocked the man down without even using his weapon and shouted angrily, 'Who are you?'
'Nobody, just a digger' said the man, laughing, although he was in pain because of his broken nose.
'Where do you come from,' Maleth asked, irate because the man was laughing at him.
'From the mining colony'.
Maleth didn't understand. He shouted at the man, 'You lie! Nobody ever escapes from that prison!'
The man laughed even harder.
'They do now. The barrier has fallen this night, and soon everybody will be free.'
Maleth was shocked and thought of what Vatras had told him in the morning. He searched the man and found an old coin, a piece of a purple, glowing rock, a few arrows and some food. He called one of Vino's farmers to guard the sheep for a short time, brought the things the man had on him home and took the man to the city.
He delivered the man to the gate guards and told them the whole story. The guards took the man to the prison for further questioning.
'I will report this to my superiors. Go home and look out for other escapees.'

When Maleth returned to his sheep and was about to tell the farmer to go back to the fields, they saw a group of men coming from the path. Most were dressed in the same outfit as the man who had attacked Maleth earlier on. Some where dressed in red medium armor and armed with swords. They came walking towards Maleth and the farmer.
Maleth was very nervous, and when one of the men pulled out a sword, he and the farmer did the same.
A fight started and Maleth and the farmer killed two of the unarmored opponents. But although Maleth had some combat training, he had only been trained to keep off the relatively badly armored bandits, and thus he took a hit. It was a small flesh wound in his leg, but the pain was enough to weaken him. The farmer killed one of the armored opponents by shattering his neck with a big blow form his heavy branch.
There were two unarmored and two armored enemies left, but Maleth was wounded and the farmer was fighting on strength alone and had no combat training at all.
When the worker was knocked down and Maleth's sickle was beaten out of his hand, he thought it was the end.
Suddenly the two armored enemies where hit by arrows and died instantly. Maleth saw three members of the city guard aiming their bows at the remaining two unarmored enemies. One was hit by two arrows in the upper body, the other was missed. The man surrendered and threw down his weapon. The guards knocked him down hard, and one of them took him to the city. Pablo helped Maleth back on his feet and handed him his sickle.
'Thanks,' Maleth said, still confused by the sudden end of the fight.
He and Pablo helped the farmer who had been knocked down back on his feet, then Maleth went to the farm to take care of his wound. When he got back to his sheep, he saw that the militia men who brought the prisoner into the city had returned with three other militia members. There were seven men in total now.
Pablo explained to Maleth that the city militia expected that much more escapees would come from the mountain path, and that the people on the farm should be protected.
'They only come here to protect us because we deliver food to the city,' Maleth thought, but he was happy he did not have to fight of all the escapees himself. The rest of the afternoon Maleth talked with the guards who were guarding the path, and he told them jokes and stories.

At the beginning of the evening a group of fourteen men came down the path. Most of them were dressed in robes. The guards were scared because six of them were dressed in medium and heavy armor, looked strong and had big two-handers on their backs, two looked like some kind of mages, and the last six were dressed in light and medium armor and had swords. The guards didn't know what to do, fight and most likely get killed or run and possibly have the farm destroyed. A 'Mage' and a heavy armoured warrior came to the guards and Maleth and began to speak in a calm voice.
'Please let us go in peace - we don't want to hurt anybody, but we will fight when attacked.' Maleth felt sympathy for the group and asked the guards if they could let them go. The guards agreed they would let them go, mainly because starting a fight would be suicide. The group waited a little longer and then disappeared into the wilderness. A guard went into the city to report this and came back soon.

The following morning Maleth suddenly realized that there was another access point to the Valley of Mines.
He ran to Pablo and said, 'There is also an access to the Valley of Mines near Onar's farm. Has a guard been sent to that place?'
'No,' Pablo answered.
Maleth couldn't believe his ears when Pablo continued.
'Onar hasn't paid his contribution to the city for a while. He even had the people who were suppose to get his share of goods as a contribution chased away by a big group of armed peasants. He doesn't deliver, which means he won't get any protection by the city. Once he has some hostile groups of escapees on his grounds, however, he will be happy to share his goods with the city in order to get protection.'
Pablo saw how Maleth was looking at him and said, 'It wasn't my plan, I would be happy to go there and protect the place… but I would be the only one, and I would get problems with my superiors'.

After three days of arresting and fighting, the Exodus from the valley had stopped. Most of the escapees were imprisoned again, or dead.
The head of the town militia was worried. There had been at least 300 people in the Valley of Mines before the barrier fell, but only 189 had been noticed when coming out to this point. So an enormous amount of convicts must have escaped into the land around the city.
Maleth was back at his spot near the sheep again, his wound was healing very well. The guards were back in the city and life was peaceful again. It was time to go into the city for the necessary repairing of tools, and the buying and selling of goods.
Normally he went to the city once every ten days, but the farm was in trouble because they also had to feed the guards who guarded the farm.
'Great,' he thought, 'now we have to spend the money we had left three days ago.'


He visited people in the same order as he had done three days ago - from Matteo to Harad to Bosper to Vatras. When he arrived at the temple, Vatras saw him coming and healed him.
'Thanks, when the escapees came they injured my leg.'
'Yes, I heard,' the Mage answered. 'It looked like you were right about that thing with the barrier.'
'Have you talked to Pyrokar about the sudden fall of the barrier?'
'Yes, according to us, the only possible explanation for the sudden fall of the barrier is that the source of power which delivered the energy for the barrier and also caused the big accident when creating the barrier was destroyed. But we don't know what it was - it must have been something of tremendous power, power beyond anything a human can possibly possess.'
'So it must have been something else,' Maleth thought.
He made his prayer and donation and returned to Harad. The cost of the repairs was higher than usual because they had fought with the tools.

When he returned to Matteo, Pablo came running at him.
'Onar has hired mercenaries,' he said while breathing heavily. Maleth didn't understand him at first, but Pablo continued with his story. 'Yesterday, three guards went to see what had become of the farms near Onars farm. When they got there, they were picked up by mercenaries. They were brought to Onar's and he told them he would not pay goods to the city anymore, and any member of the city guard would be attacked when spotted, should they approach the farms.'
'How many mercenaries are there?' Maleth asked.
'At least 30. From what I've heard most of them came from the Valley of Mines, but another mercenary group from the south that was hunting orcs joined them'. Maleth understood Onar because the city guards and militia had been stealing goods from any farm in the area. On the other side he was angry, because now the guards would come to Lobart's farm more often to steal.
'Can't the city militia and the city guard not just attack the mercenaries? If their number is as you said, the city is able to gather more people.'
'I've been thinking about the same thing,' Pablo answered. 'But there is a problem, those mercenaries are all experienced fighters, they are all well armed and wear thick armor. The city troops could kill them all, but it will cost many lives, and then there won't be enough men left to protect the city and keep the order.'
'I see. What is the city going to do about it then?
'We don't know yet, we are going to let it rest for a while and think about a solution'.
'What about Agil's farm? Did his farm also hire mercenaries?'
'No, he hasn't hired mercenaries… yet.'
Suddenly Pablo was called by another city guard and said bye to Maleth.
Maleth went on to Matteo who already heard the news.
'I'm already low on stock, and since Onar isn't delivering anymore, it's going to be a hard time for us merchants, 'Matteo complained.
'Don't worry. Next week I'll be coming to you with the goods we have left,' Maleth assured him, said goodbye and went home.

Lobart was disgruntled when he heard the news, and they all talked about if they would choose the city or the mercenaries when they would be forced to choose. They couldn't make a decision and decided to let the matter rest for a while instead.

Two days passed since Maleth had heard about the mercenaries. It was late in the morning when Lobart called him. When he came to the small group, he saw a heavily armored man. The man was wearing a very heavy, grey, shining armor and had a royal sign on the chest. He stood proudly before the farmers.
'My name is Lothar. I hereby announce that the paladins of the king have taken over control of the city.' Maleth was shocked when he heard it; he thought there had been a hostile take over of the city, but he was reassured when the man continued.
'We come with good intentions and will not stay longer than necessary for us to complete our mission. Our commander is the honourable Lord Hagen, and he took shelter in the City Hall. From the moment we took control until we leave again he will be in charge of the city. The rules in the city are like they were before, with one big exception: from now on every man accused of a crime will have to report to Lord Andre who can be found in the militia barracks. The city guard and militia also have to report to us paladins.'
'Taking over the city looks a bit unnecessary to me, if you're only going to defeat some mercenaries,' Maleth interrupted him.
'The goals of our mission are secret, but we are not going to attack the mercenaries at Onars farm.We have more important matters to attend to than to knock down a peasant rebellion. - Furthermore… I don't like to be interrupted, boy.'
'Why are you here then?' Maleth asked.
'Like I said, the goals of our mission are secret,' the paladin angrily replied, but then he continued in a normal voice. 'We have arrived last evening by ship, and we need to have full cooperation for our mission to succeed.' Lothar turned around, said goodbye and left.
'Great' was Lobarts first reaction. 'Now we have to feed those paladins as well, so the guards will come stealing from us more often. If that isn't worse enough, those paladins are going to do nothing about Onars mercenaries.'

A couple of days later, when the farmers where having their evening meal, Hilda said she heard some commotion coming from the city when she was outside.
'I went to the gate and saw that big paladin Lothar. There was a man who was screaming he knew there were dragons in the valley of mines.'
'Dragons!' Lobart was shocked, but quickly regained his calmness. 'That was probably a lunatic who just wanted some attention, and started talking about dragons.'
'I don't know,' Hilda said. 'He was dressed in a same armor as those guys who attacked Maleth and him the day after the fall of the barrier.' She pointed at the farmer who had fought together with Maleth. 'I assume he came out of the valley of mines. What if he was right and there are dragons in the valley?'
'I just hope there aren't dragons,' Vino said. 'Dragons are the last thing we could use at a time like this; most of those paladins probably won't survive a fight with a dragon.'
'What did they do with that guy,' one of the farmers asked.
'I have heard the paladins sent him on a prison transport to the valley of mines; if he did come out of the valley he might know something that's important to the paladins,' Hilda replied. 'I thought I heard the paladins called him Diego, but I'm not sure about that.'
After they all went to sleep, Maleth had a nightmare about dragons.

Days later, in the evening of the 12th day after the barrier fell, they were all talking about the last days and the paladins.
'I think there are some bandits somewhere up the path to the mountains,' Maleth said.
'What makes you think so?' Lobart asked, a little grumpy because of a headache.
'I saw a man going that way. Well, he wasn't walking, he was sneaking, and he probably thought I didn't see him.'
'What can we do,' Lobart mumbled. 'Those paladins aren't going to help us if every bandit in the kingdom comes stealing from us.'
'They are probably also going to sit back and watch when the orcs are coming to kill us all,' Vino said.
'Orcs?' Hilda asked, shocked.
'Yes, orcs,' Vino continued. 'I swear I saw an orc in the woods yesterday morning.'
'Only one orc?' Lobart asked.
'Yes.'
'Probably a scout,' Lobart mumbled. 'Orcs are nearly always running in groups, except for scouts,' he explained.
'So those orcs are closer to the city than anyone has ever expected,' Maleth said to nobody in particular. 'I'll go and tell the paladin,' he then suggested and ran off to see the paladin.

He met him just inside the city gates.
'We saw an orc scout close to the city.'
The paladin didn't look shocked, but his voice told another story.
'We knew there are small groups of orcs in the valley of mines, but we didn't know they have already come out,' he said wile thinking. 'I will report this to my superiors; don't tell anything to the people in Khorinis - we don't want mass hysteria.'
'Fine,' Maleth answered, but he wasn't sure if he should believe the paladin. After all, the paladins were here for a specific mission, and the way Lothar talked about the orc he had the impression the paladin didn't give much about it.
Maleth returned to the farm.

'He is going to report it to his superiors, and he asked us to keep quiet for a while, but I have the feeling that he doesn't care much about the whole thing.'
'If he tells it to Lord Hagen, I have great confidence the orc will get killed by the paladins or guards,' Lorbart said. 'I have heard about him, he and his men have killed many enemies in the wars before the orc-war.'
'At least we have a great military commander and a big group of highly trained and battle tested paladins in the city,' Maleth said with sarcasm in his voice. 'They are going to do nothing, but at least we have them.'
After dinner everyone on the farm went to sleep.

The morning of the 13th day after the fall of the barrier Maleth noticed one of his sheep was missing. He went to Lobart and told him about it.
'Probably those bandits you told us about yesterday evening,' Lobart angrily said. 'We will soon pay them a visit and kill them all. Go back to your sheep and make sure they're not stolen'.
About ten minutes after Maleth got back to his sheep, he saw a man coming down the path.

The End