Some Advice

This is war. War is about survival. About strength. About speed. During war, the oldest laws of nature are once again the highest law. Namely, Survival of the Fittest.

Alice walked towards the encampment. It was late in the eve, and she still had to do a few things for the upcoming battle. She heard from Corporal Stevens that the General was planning for a night assault. The men and women of Hylia would once again charge against the walls of Camelot and it’s king Uther Pendragon. He had hunted hundreds of mages to death, and he would pay soon for that. Alice’s mother was one of the mages that were killed during one of Uther’s first “witch-hunts”. The Siege of Camelot had already lasted four months, and the end wasn’t in sight yet. Every time they breached through the gates, the Knights of Camelot, under the leadership of Uther’s son Arthur, charged down and pushed the Hylian army back. But perhaps today would be different, since the General ordered that this time, the Hylian mages were allowed to join the fight. Alice already decided that fireballs would be the most effective way to deal with the Knights of Camelot, since the horses should be afraid of fire. She had discussed this with the other mages of their legion, and they had all agreed with that fact. Suddenly, a horn called in the distance. It was the signal!

Alice hurried back to the encampment, and there she sought for her company. She soon found Corporal Stevens shouting, and when he saw her he shouted at her: “Where have you been?! We can’t do this without you, we need magical barriers against those damned arrows! The plan is simple, again. We march to the gates, and from there the mages will use their magic to scare of the knights. So here is some advice to all of you, stay alive!” So it was just another stupid charge at the gates of Camelot. The current General of the 2nd, 3rd and 7th Hylian legions who were mustered here was General Codvith. He was a good General, especially concerning logistics… but his tactics weren’t any good. Therefore, everyone hoped that the First Legion of Hylia would soon join the current army. Rumors were spread that the Hero and General Penatra would be with that Legion. If General Penatra would take over the lead… it would be decisive in the favor of the Hylian army. General Penatra was a military genius, and she was the best Hylian generals in ages. Thanks to her, the Forces of Harad were driven back into their desert in the north. Since then there hadn’t been any word from Harad at all, but again, there were rumors. It was said that the Haradrim were fighting against elves and dwarves north of their desert.

But that didn’t matter. Alice turned her thoughts back to the present. She could see the first waves of arrows coming, and she muttered a few words to create the barriers. About twenty meters left of her a mage wasn’t fast enough with creating the barriers, and he was shot along with seven men of his company. The surviving men and women quickly joined other companies near them. The army quickly marched further while the archers were reloading. Some mages dropped their barriers during that time, and when the second salvo came, a few mages didn’t create the new barriers fast enough, and they died. Finally, they reached the gates. The first lines of the army were already in the city, luckily the people of Camelot hadn’t been able to repair the gate of the city, but they were still holding the Citadel. When the gates of the Citadel were breached, Camelot would fall. General Codvith knew that, Alice knew that, and Uther Pendragon knew that as well.

When Corporal Stevens’s company finally entered the city they saw that there were archers stationed on the houses. They were firing at will at the Hylian troops beneath them. Alice quickly shouted a few words in an old language, and from her hands a lightning bolt hit one of the archers. Then a few archers started aiming on her, and too late she realized that when she used the lightning spell she dropped the barriers protecting her and the company. The first arrow left the bow, and it went straight for Alice’s throat, but on the last moment, Corporal Stevens threw her on the ground, and the arrow just missed Alice and hit the stone street without any effect. “Alice! Don’t attack yet, spare your energy for the knights! I need my men alive, and I need your barriers for that!”, Stevens shouted at Alice. “Sorry”, Alice muttered, and after that she threw up the barriers once again.

The party continued through the ruined streets of Camelot, a few time they met a company of Camelot’s soldiers, but they weren’t any problem for the superior trained Hylian legionnaires. They finally reached through a few side streets the gates of the Citadel, which were just opening. There a man sat on a brown horse. The man wore the normal red chainmail of Camelot, and only his right arm and shoulder were plated. He wore a helmet, so Alice couldn’t see his face nor his expression. But she had heard that Prince Arthur had some good looks. He would want to drive the intruders out of his city, Alice thought. Then the knights charged. Alice knew this was the moment, so she and the other mages of the Hylian army all shot fire spells at the charging heavy cavalry. But it did not have the effect they hoped for. What the Hylians didn’t knew was that the heavy cavalry of Camelot had horses that were trained to ignore anything on the battlefield, and thus they were ultimate steeds for the Knights of Camelot.

Now that the Hylian army saw that the plan of General Codvith failed, they started the retreat. Steadily first, they quickly turned around and fled. “Run!”, Corporal Stevens shouted. The whole Hylian army fled with terror for the charging Knights. On a normal battlefield, the forces would have hold position, but now they were charged by a group of heavy infantry from uphill. Without any orders from General Codvith what to do if the plan failed, the lower officers fled from the city with their troops. This was an easy bait for the Knights of Camelot.

At last Alice reached the gates. She lost the Corporal and the company during the fleeing, and now her only objective was to stay alive. When she was about to run through the gate to the encampement she looked across her shoulder and saw that the Prince of Camelot was hunting down Corporal Stevens. She saw how Stevens was hit in the back and fell. The horse’s hoofs crushed the body of Corporal Stevens. “No!”, Alice shouted, and she fired a lightning bolt to the prince. But she was astonished to see the bolt deflect. Someone had created barriers to protect the prince! But the lightning bolt didn’t miss Arthur’s attention, and he turned his horse and he saw Alice. There was a moment in which Alice saw Arthurs eyes. Apart from anger, she also saw astonishment. Then he charged, with his sword still dripping with Stevens’s blood. She shot another lightning bolt at him, but it was no use, it was deflected by the barriers again. Then Arthur reached her and slashed at hear breast. The first slash was directly a fatal one. With her face turned to the forest surrounding Camelot, she drew her final breath. But there was one thing she saw before she died. A men dressed in green on a horse came riding from the forest. He wore a pointy green hat and he was playing on a Ocarina. The Hero had arrived to deal with the Prince at last.


Notes + Credits:
Ik heb een crossover gebruikt van verschillende werelden. De haradrim zijn de Zuiderlingen uit Lord of the Rings (van J.R.R. Tolkien), Hyrule (Hylian is het bezittelijke voornaamwoord of hoe je dat ook noemt) is het land waarin Zelda zich afspeelt en de Hero is dus de Hero of Time, aka Link (LoZ is van Nintendo). Tenslotte is Camelot, Arthur en Uther gebaseerd op de BBC serie Merlin. Andere figuren komen uit m'n eigen fantasie.