Lird: Lord of the Lizardmen
Written By: Simon ‘newguy2445’ Hales
Chapter 1:
“Go!”
Lird needn’t wait to see if the others had heard his signal, he did a quick run through of the plan in his head one last time, then jumped.
The wind rushed at Lird, like freezing shards of ice, had he not been encased in his suit he would have surely frozen. Lird was over one thousand meters in the sky, plummeting towards the ground. To his left and right branched out the landscape from below him, and above was a pitch-black sky, illuminated by the gaping moon.
The jump had been made from the edge of a cliff, and to whom Lird had barked the order ‘Go’ to, was Mich and Wol. Mich was his second in command whilst Wol was Lird’s leading tactician. Naturally Wol had just passed in front of Lird’s view, due to his heavier weight. Lird checked behind him to spot Mich, the lightest of the three also following Wol and Lird’s paths towards the ground.
The plan. Lird had almost forgotten, lost in the bitter coldness of the night and the ongoing thought of the speedily approaching ground. He had to quickly identify which building they were to land on, then inform Mich and Wol. For directly below Lird, was a city, and that was their target.
There. A flat based roof that was slightly higher then the surrounding buildings, and a good distance from the Citadel, their future target. Lird grabbed his bow with his tail; the bow was attached to his right leg. He also reached to his left leg and withdrew an arrow. The arrow had a bright red ribbon attached, that would indicate which building to head towards. Lird propped the arrow in the bow. His finger ready to withdraw, allowing the built up energy in the bow to send the signal arrow flying through the sky. He only had one shot, if he missed, Mich and Wol would land at the wrong location, separating the three of them. They were half way to the city, and were picking up pace, Lird would need to wait till the last moment to shoot the arrow, to reduce the possibility of being sighted, and so that accuracy was not lost in the time it took the arrow to reach its destination.
It was time, Lird fired, the arrow hurtling through the air, a red ribbon following in its wake. And then Wol, below Lird, deployed his wings. They weren’t natural wings, but rather mechanical wings, that served to slow down the user, and to allow the rider to steer himself. Lird immediately unleashed his wings, and was followed by Mich. The arrow had reached the roof, and Wol was already angling towards it. Lird banked sharply to slow his rapid descent. He took one last look around him at the surrounding scenery, the grassy hills, the distant forest, the small stream that flowed near the city, and then the walls of the city shot up, blocking his view.
Wol hit the ground first at a roll, just before landing, he had ejected his wings so as to make an easier landing. Lird did the exact same thing. Just before hitting the ground he withdrew his spikes into his body and curled his tail upwards, to avoid any injuries that could very well ruin or hinder the progress of the plan. With a big thud Mich hit the ground next to Lird as well, he stood up, brushed himself off then turned to Lird.
‘Well that wasn’t so bad’ he said with a mocking smile.
‘Speak for yourself, doesn’t help being the heaviest, and therefore the fastest’ Wol grunted, still dazed from his rapid descent to the city.
Lird rose to his feet, strode over to Wol and offered his hand.
Wol took it gratefully and pulled himself to his feet.
‘Thanks’
‘Don’t mention it’
A screech in the sky caused Lird to jolt his head upwards. A black silhouette could be seen against the moon.
Wol put a hand on Lird’s shoulder. ‘Relax, it’s just Gornup’
Gornup was Wol’s trained Derlack. Wol had raised him since he was a kid, the two had a special loving bond. Lird shook his head, he needed to stay alert, to mistake something as simple as a Derlack call as something from his nightmares wasn’t a good sign.
Mich passed Lird a scroll. ‘The map’ he explained.
Lird nodded his head and unravelled the scroll, it was a detailed map of the city they were currently in. His eyes wavered over it, trying to identify the building they were standing on top of. ‘There’ exclaimed Wol, his finger pointing towards a building located two buildings from the Citadel. Lird stared intently at the map.
‘Ok, here’s the route we’re going to take’ explained Lird; he traced his finger as he talked. ‘We’ll jump to the ground from this building, run up these two streets, and then climb this building. Once we’re on top of it, we should be able to hook-line across to the Citadel, without the guards on the bottom seeing us’.
‘Sound’s good, but how do we know we won’t be seen’ argued Wol, his eyes staring at Lird.
‘We won’t, assuming things are the same as I remember, this is resting time of the city. Everybody except those inside the Citadel should be asleep, so we are very unlikely to get caught’ Lird answered to Wol, returning the stare.
Wol looked away, breaking eye contact, he had been concerned over Lird lately, as Lird had been acting rather shaken ever since he had begun planning the mission.
For apparently Lird, had a dream, where he saw his father being tortured by dark beasts inside the Citadel in the city. Lird refused to believe that it was a normal dream, claiming he had seen him, Ragna, and that Ragna had warned him that his father would be dead within seven days.
Mich shifted impatiently.
‘Are we going yet?’ he asked, his jaw shaking from the cold.
‘Not yet, we need to wait for Gornup to give us the all clear signal’ Lird replied, gritting his teeth at the unbearable coldness.
Lird walked to the edge of the building, he looked down, the building that they were waiting on was at least five stories high. Down below was some very old looking carts and boxes.
Another screech echoed through the city. ‘It’s time’ muttered Wol.
Mich and Wol ran to Lird at the edge of the building. They all grabbed some rope and clamps out of their backpacks. Quickly each of them attached the clamps to the edge of the building, they then tied the rope to the clamps, and checked that they were attached securely.
Wol on the outside of Mich and Lird turned to them. ‘I’ll go first, check that it’s all clear’.
Lird gave him an acknowledging symbol with his hands.
Had somebody been looking out of their window at the time, they would have seen a black figure slide down a black rope, then send a signal to the top of the roof. For all three of the Lizardmen were clad in black, so that they may blend into the shadows. Had it not been a stealth mission, they would have worn their specially designed armour. But they planned to engage in as little combat as possible.
Upon seeing Wol give the all clear signal, Mich and Lird grabbed their ropes and slid down to the ground, landing in a muffled thud. Lird peered up the street then turned to Mich and Wol. He gave a countdown with his fingers. 3,2,1…
Footsteps filled the empty silence as the three of them sprinted up the street, they reached the end of the first street and quickly rounded the corner. As he was running, Lird grabbed his climbing gloves out of his backpack and put his hands inside of them.
They slowed their approach as they reached the building Lird had pointed out earlier on the map.
Mich also held a knife in his mouth, incase they had to quickly engage in combat upon climbing the roof. The Lizardmen camouflaged brilliantly into the shadow cast upon the wall by another building. They climbed at a reasonable pace, keeping their eyes peeled for any onlookers. As Lird passed windows on his climb, he recognised some of the occupants inside sleeping. Hard to believe, but they did not look older since he had last seen them. His eyes flickered over their sleeping faces, illuminated by a red glow from beneath their eyelids. Fear that Lird had tried keeping at bay since they had arrived swarmed over him.
He continued the climb, this time it was Mich who was first. He pushed himself upwards onto the roof, grabbing his knife out of his mouth at the same time. Mich spun around the roof surveying the area, checking for any threats. It was clear.
He turned back to the roof and helped heft Lird up. Lird turned to Wol to offer him a hand, Wol shook his head, placed both hands on the edge of the roof and used his upper body strength to pull himself up, his muscles bulging from the climb. Lird turned to look at the Citadel, the building was magnificent. Lird did not know who had created it, but he knew it had existed since before the first Lizardmen were born. The size of the building was breathtaking, if looking from in front the building would appear reasonably small, due to rock surrounding the Citadel, hiding everything but the entrance. But from on top of the roof, Lird could see the glass roof that covered the Citadel. Mich had originally suggested landing on the roof, but Lird explained that the roof would surely break under their combined weight, alerting their enemies to their presence.
No, it would be easier and safer to eliminate the entrance guards from above, and then enter the Citadel. So Lird crept across the roof, Mich and Wol following him silently, the only noise that could be heard was the slight shuffle of the Lizardmen’s’ backpacks. Mich went before Lird, he grabbed onto a pole and swung to a ledge directly above the three guards who were standing at the Citadel’s entrance. Mich shuffled over and Lird also swung across to the ledge. Lird then signalled to Wol to stay, there was not enough room on the ledge for him.
Lird pointed at Mich and then at the guard on the very left of the entrance, Mich nodded, Lird then pointed at himself and the other two guards. Lird counted down on his fingers again. They both dropped silently, approximately 5 meters and landed with a thud. Mich instantly punched the back of the head of his guard. Lird wrapped his tail around the head of the middle guard and twisted until he heard a snap, at the same time he punched the other guard unconscious. All threats were eliminated, no alarm had been sounded, all was going to plan.
Lird turned to the entrance to see Wol dropping to the ground landing on his feet and hands he straightened his pack and stood up. Wol turned to Mich.
‘Not a word or I will crush your skull’
Mich smiled mischievously as he dragged the guards into a shadow.
‘Enough, we need to focus on the task at hand’ growled Lird, ‘Mich, get your blade out, we need to cut this door open’.
Mich reached to his backpack with his tail and pulled a long blue blade out, it illuminated Mich in the cold dark night.
The blade was made out of sky diamond, the hardest substance in the world, which could cut through anything, the only problem was it was only hard in cold temperatures, so during the day it was very fragile and useless.
Mich shoved the blade into the top of the gap between the two sides of the door, the blade pushed through with ease. Mich then dragged it down to the very bottom of the door and pulled it out. There was now a long thick gap through the centre of the door. Lird backed against the door and peaked through.
What he saw was breath-taking, it was a large, very large room, that was filled with a small forest. Surrounding the forest was marble floors that spanned out to the walls, the walls were shiny and reflected everything in the room. Lird’s eyes drifted upwards, towards, the roof. It was simply beautiful, the glass roof allowed the moonlight to shine down, the cold blue light is what illuminated the room. If anything the room looked very eerie.
‘All clear?’ came a voice from behind Lird. Lird shook himself, he had gotten distracted, he turned to see who had spoken.
‘Yes Wol, time to open the door if you don’t mind’
Wol smiled and walked to the door, he pushed his hands into the gap and clutched the edge of each door piece and attempted to pry them apart. He was grunting and his feet were sliding backwards as he exerted all of his power through his strong thick arms. Then with success the door slowly started to pry open, Wol kept at it until it was, barely, open enough so that he and the others could squeeze through.
‘I’ll go first, then you Mich, and Wol, you bring up the rear’ Lird ordered.
The two other Lizardmen nodded their heads, Mich tightened his grip on his blade, Wol cracked his knuckles.
‘Follow my lead’ said Lird, the tiniest bit of fear could be heard in his voice.
‘You are all right?’ Wol asked.
‘No time, let’s go’ Lird barked back.
And with that, Lird squeezed through the door and sprinted towards the forest, they would be harder to spot in there by any passing guards. He turned as he ran, checking to see that Mich and Wol were following him, they were. Their feet made a very light tapping noise as they ran forward, it sounded kind of like rain falling on the roof.
Lird looked up and to his surprise it was raining. Excellent he thought, that would cover up any noises they might accidentally make. Lird slowed as he felt grass and dirt beneath his feet, he had reached the forest. He halted and turned and waited as Mich and Wol slowed down next to him.
‘Any sign of guards?’ asked Lird, his eyes jutting around the room.
‘Nope’ replied Mich.
‘Good, we’ll continue through the forest, less chance of being seen’ said Lird, he gestured into the forest.
Wol nodded, he didn’t like being in wide open areas where there was nowhere to hide.
Lird tensed his hands hard, and out slid his claws. Lizardmen had many claws and spikes throughout their body which could be released by tensing certain muscles tightly, and retracted in the same manner.
He reached forward to the branch in front of him and clawed it down, his claws slicing through the branch cleanly, cutting it into small pieces which then fell to the ground. Lird continued forward, slicing at the forest in front of him, clearing a path, nobody had ever been inside the forest, or at least not when he was a kid, it held a punishment of death, as it was said that a very powerful and much worshipped person had been buried inside the forest.
Lird had been pushing through the forest for two minutes when he halted, turning to tell Mich and Wol to be silent. They stopped when he stopped, and listened as he gestured around them. Faintly but becoming louder they could hear people coming.
‘Guards?’ Mich asked as he prepared for combat.
‘Yes, but many of them, I’d say at least a hundred’ Lird replied, he also got in a combat stance.
‘Lird, we can’t fight them all, we need to retreat, somehow they knew we were here, we need to retreat’ said Wol, his voice raising to be heard over the increasing noise of the guards.
‘We came this far, we can’t go back now’ Lird replied angrily.
‘Then we need to act fast’ Wol stated.
Lird saw trees moving in the distance, they were very near now.
‘Let’s go’ yelled Lird.
He charged on through the forest, dodging branches, leaping over roots, Mich and Wol followed him closely.
‘They’re gaining on us’ yelled Mich who was at the very back, Lird checked back to see Guards within sight charging after them.
‘We have to make it, we can’t fail now’ Lird yelled as he increased his speed, his tail helping to part branches as he pushed on.
A minute passed, he was reaching the edge of the forest and Lird was still running.
Crap, he hadn’t checked on Mich and Wol. He turned, dread filled his body, they weren’t there. Lird waited, waiting to see Mich and Wol charge out of the forest, but they didn’t come. He couldn’t even hear any guards pursuing him anymore, he was alone.
‘I see you came’
Lird spun, his gaze turning from the forest to seek the source of the voice. There in front of him was Ragna.