By Richard LeBlanc
Chapter One
It was a bright sunny day as one weary traveler stopped to catch his breath. He had been on the road for what felt like months but on clear days like this it was all worth while. He was going to continue on his way when something caught his attention. Smoke - rising up from the valley.
How odd. That doesn't look like a fire. But what? he thought. A part of him was telling him to turn away and travel in another direction, but his curiousity got the better of him once again. he collected his belongings and hurried towards the distant valley.
A short while later - as he drew closer - he could hear what was causing the smoke - it was a war. as he peeked over a large rock he stood in disbelief at what he saw. It was two large armies - one of between the forces of elves and knights and heroes. But as he focused - he saw that he was mistaken - these two huge armies were not fighting each other - they were fighting something else - but what?
What have I stumbled onto? he thought. Common sense told him to run away - but once again his curiousity won the better of him and he remained right where he was. he wanted to see what force was holding these two armies at bay.
As more time passed he began to see odd things emerging from the dust and smoke. On one occassion - he witnessed a metal dragon rise up from the ground to attack several knights. Odd looking metal birds dived up and exploded into the beasts that elves rode on. That was when he saw what they were fighting - a plainswalker!
He was a normal looking fellow, but he had a look of cold determination in his eyes that intimidated the traveler from where he watched. He was dressed in a dark blue hooded robe that had several large ruby gemstones sewn into it. On his hands he wore metal gauntlets that emanated the sources of his power - one glowed red - one glowed blue.
He watched as a fireball enveloped one white knite that saught to charge him. From the other hand a blast of ice froze several elves solid. At first the traveler was unsure who this plainswalker was - but when he watched the wizard conjure up several more mechanical weapons - the doubt was gone.
"Toymaker." he said to himself. Down below, the mage looked up to where he was. Instinctively - he ducked down behind the rock. surely he couldn't have heard him amongst the chaos that was surrounding him - could he?
For almost ten hours - the war raged on. The sun that had shone so brightly that day had gone down behind some distant mountains and was replaced by a full moon. It was then that he heard something odd - the fighting had stopped? he slowly peeked out from behind the rock to see what had happened.
Down below, hundreds of dead bodies littered the darkened battlefield. the only lights that illuminated the field were the full moon - and the dozens of fires that had engulfed several odd looking devices and monsters. But the wizard? He was gone.
"I guess he finished them off and left." he said to himself. he then turned around and found himself face to face with the Toymaker! the traveler almost jumped out of his skin - but managed to calm himself down.
"You - are not the one." Toymaker stated calmly. he turned and walked passed him as though he were nothing more than a flickering shadow cast by a candle. the traveler was both angered and pleased that the wizard had left him alone - but his good judgement was once again no where to be found. He quickly made his way down the hill but stopped when Toymaker turned around.
"What do you want?" he asked seriously.
"What was all this about?" he asked curiously. Toymaker sighed and looked around at the carnage and destroyed devices. He shook his head and continued to walk.
"I know about as much as you do on that." he replied. the traveler was mildly confused. He had often heard stories of evil wizards that fought for the power that was mana that was in the lands, but this wasn't the case?
"So - who were you fighting?" he asked. Toymaker looked over his shoulder at the inquisitive man and resumed what he was doing - examining the dead for any possible clue or lead as to who was behind this ambush.
"I don't know." he admitted.
"You - you don't?" he asked in modest disbelief.
"That's what i said. I was traveling through this place when these two armies attacked me." he answered as he looked at the tattoos on one elf's arm. Nothing remotely familiar to anything he had seen in his travels.
"But - i thought that you wizards fought each other and so forth." he continued. Toymaker stood up and pointed at the person that was making his goal difficult.
"Look, i am really busy here - if you desire to loot the dead for souvineers - that is your perogative. It is none of my concern. But stay out of my way - and do not bother me until i am done - understand?" he warned. The traveler silently nodded and watched as Toymaker tried to find some subtle clue that might explain why he was attacked. He then looked over at the traveler that was now looking at the ground.
"You - whoever you are. Come here." he requested. The traveler looked up hesitantly to see if the wizard was talking to him.
"Me?" he asked.
"I don't deal with the dead so I guess I'm talking to you." he replied.
To be continued...
