Chronos Book I: Failing Fortress

So the last time I visited Leslie, she showed me a story that she had started but didn't continue. She had a few of these, it seemed, and this one was a couple of pages long. It was a Lord of the Rings fanfic. [EDIT: She wrote it and the other things she discussed yeeaaars ago.]

Well, I'm currently looking through stuff for my move, deciding what can stay here (including most of the nostalgic items), what should be taken, and so on. And... I found it. A notebook from about 1999, when I was 13 or 14. It's mostly illustrations. Some of the illustrations are flat-out amusing, some of them are slightly disturbing, and the rest are Star Wars ships, most of which I made up, and most of which I made up with stats. (I also designed several characters in this way, both for Star Wars and Lord of the Rings.) I was a budding roleplayer then, and at the end of that year I would join a Lord of the Rings roleplaying community, Elendor, which I am still a part of today. The concepts for the characters in this booklet, though, are hilarious for anyone that knows Lord of the Rings.

But there is a story in here too, or at least the start of one. I must've had a whole book series in my head. It stops after two pages. The handwriting is surprisingly legible, but the writing is about what I've come to expect. XD

"Brought you some food, rookie!" Landos's voice rang as he opened the door to the guardpost. "What is it?" Crasnell emerged from the window, facing west toward the sunset. "You'll like it! Roasted slug!" Crasnell cringed, but Landos reassured him, "Just kidding! Here! Have some lashnog!" Crasnell examined the blue root, smiled, and said, "Thanks! I'm starved!" "Heh, knew you wanted food!" Landos smiled and went to the window. Crasnell finished his food and joined Landos. "At your permission, sir, but, may I ask why we guard this pass?" Landos laughed a jolly laugh and answered, "Tradition! Why, hundreds of years ago, a great army, led by a powerful wizard named Sisen, came to our kingdom to wage war! We were ill prepared, though, and fought us to this pass. Here, several thousand archers gathered and guarded this place from take over. Within a day the army of Sisen arrived. Thinking that we fled, they stormed through. Halfway, they stopped. Their commander heard something. Suddenly it came! With a rain of arrows, our archers took out their top men. Scared, they fled. Thereafter a post was set here to guard from their return." "Wow!" said Crasnell, as he walked into his room. "Get some sleep!" Yelled Landos, "I'll guard." Crasnell spoke up another question from his room. "Was our kingdom that large to inhabit the Western Reach?" "Yes, certainly, though now this is the frontier," Landos answered, "The wild men took the west before we could come back. Not wanting war, we extended to the east, to the ocean. Now get some sleep!" Crasnell complied, and fell asleep with a thousand questions inside him.

"Rookie!!! Wake up!!!" Landos ran into his room, grabbed his sword, and approached Crasnell's room. He smelled of fear, his eyes wide awake. Crasnell emerged, and yelled a few dirty words. "Shut your mouth!" Landos yelled. "Ok, listen." In the silence at first nothing was heard, but then a faint, and orderly march was heard. Crasnell grew serious and grabbed a sword and his chain mail armor and followed Landos to the horses. "Get on either one, but make sure it will fly, for there is no time to be slow!" They mounted their horses and looked at the army.

The army was gigantic. There were about 10,000 knights with plate armor gleaming in the moonlight. Leading them were 10 robed figures, probably high wizards. Behind them were 5,000 archers, bows ready but not drawn. Then came the terror. In the back were 2,000 mages and 1,900 priests. No known mage army was that huge, save maybe the magic kingdom to the north, Inor Malis, but they weren't here now. Suddenly they spotted, but a mile away, and coming fast, 6 lightning scouts, of the other outpost, 6 miles down. But they were summoned, for only two manned that outpost.

Let's go!" Crasnell said. Landos, about to say the same thing, left with him. They sped long, but the scouts overcame them and they had to fight their way. Landos took down 2 of them easily, but his partner was knocked off. Crasnell yelled, "Go! I will draw them away!" At that he got up, drew his sword, and ran south. Landos yelled, but Crasnell was gone. Landos, knowing that Crasnell's sacrifice must be taken advantage of, fled east.

It took a lot of effort to not edit myself.