• The Fall of Evil Trilogy
    Book 1
    The Beginning

    Chapter 1

    They call me Zar. I am a dwarf from the Steel hills of Aranor. I will tell you the tale of the fall of evil. My people were under siege by the evil Carnak for centuries. He was an orc who had harnessed dark magic and turned himself into an evil wizard. Whoever stood against him died an extremely slow and painful death. My people were the only race to dare resist him. He had used his magic to raise things from the dead and use them in his evil armies. His fellow orcs and the goblins are the only ones who willingly joined him.
    He had enslaved the elves and men. I had heard rumors that he is trying to breed orcs and goblins to create a new monstrosity. We only hoped he was not successful.
    We had been building up our forces for the past six months. He had not attacked at all in that time but we feared it was to lull us into a false sense of security until we let down our guard and he storms in and completely annihilates us. I was chief of security. I made sure that all dwarves of fighting age had posts and were at those posts at all times during their shifts.
    The king sent me a dispatch on a miserable Saturday night saying that the time had come, and we were going to attack Carnak at dawn of the next day. I was to lead our forces. To give me the authority to do that, the king promoted me to the highest rank in our army, chief commander of all forces. The next morning our chief blacksmith, Thror, approached me with a new set of armor, a sword, and a shield. “I crafted these especially for you”, he told me. “The chief commander of all forces needs the best arms. Use them well”.

    Chapter 2
    I never thought it would be possible, but there I was, chief commander of all forces, leading the assault on Carnak. We had 100,000 dwarves against at least 150,000 of Carnak’s orcs and goblins. However, we dwarves are unsurpassed fighters, and we have the element of surprise on our side. The chances of victory were slim, but they were as decent as they ever would be. As we approached the heart of Carnak’s territory, we were surprised that no force had come to meet us. We had overestimated Carnak’s awareness. We soon found out the reason of why the place was deserted. As we started to set up camp, we heard horns in the distance. We all grabbed our weapons and began to line up in our formations. However, we saw a white flag of peace. We were all bewildered at this, for we knew that Carnak would never offer peace. Instead of Carnak’s evil forces, we sighted the leader of the men, Darimir, and the leader of the elves, Forlindil. Darimir approached me saying, “Are you the dwarven leader?” “Yes,” I replied. “I am Zar.” “We have cleansed the area of Carnak’s forces,” said Darimir. How many are you?” I inquired. “I lead 50,000 men and Forlindil leads 50,000 elves. We are glad you have shown up because our spy has told us that Carnak was going to attack us in two days and we would have surely died. Now we shall stand a chance.”

    Chapter 3

    Our new alliance of dwarves, men, and elves set out to meet the remainder of Carnak’s forces at Ginof pass, where Darimir said they would be. The plan we came up with was risky, but it would probably work. I decided to go through with it. Forlindil, the chief strategist, told me that as soon as I was done with my part of the mission the next day, come back ready to fight. He and Darimir would do the rest. I set out the next morning at dawn. I was approaching Ginof pass with a white flag when I finally saw his dark fortress. I strode confidently up to it and was not challenged. I hit the door with my fist and stood back. Not long after I knocked, the narrow black doors slid open to reveal a long black staircase. I called out to see if anyone was there. No one answered. I suspected Carnak had used his dark magic to open the door.
    I climbed the flight of stairs to the top of the fortress. Carnak was waiting for me. ”So, have you come to grovel at my feet?” he interrogated. “No” I replied. “I have come to ask for your surrender.” “My surrender? You think you could ever force me to surrender? Well, I don’t think so. I suppose you have heard the rumors that I am trying to breed orcs and goblins? Well, they’re true. And I have succeeded. I call my new creation Thuruks. Would you like to meet one?” Without waiting for my reply, he shouted, “Come!” A figure stepped out of the shadows. “This is Gurg, he smugly told me. “He is leader of my new Thuruk forces. You have 5 minutes to leave here before I order Gurg here to run you through.” Needless to say, I took off. I quickly grabbed the weapons and armor Thror gave me, and set off for the battlefield. By the time I arrived, things didn’t look good. Our soldiers were literally just dropping down dead for no apparent reason. I guessed that Carnak was using his dark magic to kill them, so I set off to find him. I located him near the peak of Sven. “It’s the puny dwarf again.” He shouted.” I’ll teach him a lesson!” As he started to mutter a spell, I charged toward him swinging my mighty battleaxe. He had to stop muttering to block my blow, and we started to duel. Back and forth we rained blows down on each other but neither of us could break the other’s guard. Finally, I broke through his defense but only hit his leg. He screamed in anguish and fury and commanded his soldiers, including Gurg, to attack me. By the time I had slayed them all, Carnak had escaped. At the celebration that occurred because we won the battle, Darimir approached me. “We won the battle,” he told me, “but if we had killed Carnak, the war would have ended. It will take a long time for Carnak to rebuild his forces. We must hunt him down before he can do so.” “Aye,” I agreed.

    To Be Continued