The Warlock and The Lord
Twas a cloudy day, back when men of dark and light were separate, and so they chose it to be. The Lord stayed in his shining white fortress, whilst the Warlock brewed within his walls of scorched black stone. So it was that upon this overcast day, a man flew to these neighboring manors upon his albino Pegasus. He found the flight moderately difficult as he was of middle age, and so this man alerted not the Lord and his Vassals, and not the Warlock and his Minions, but the children of both houses, to come and sit atop the hill. And so the children gathered. Those with black, hooded robes chose to stay on the dried, brown and dead grass in which they had always known. Such was it that, upon the lush green grass opposed, the children under white hooded robes be gathered.
After a few moments the man made a fairly good landing atop the hill and his albino Pegasus only suffered moderate pain throughout. This man he did, sat atop the giant brooding death, a variety of mushroom which, at it's time of birth, was a shrewd, shriveled, and poisonous thing. Upon it's day of death, the magnificent 4 foot tall mushroom tasted of the sweetest of honey, so it's soft, white appearance suggested. But this particular giant brooding death stood at a reasonable height for sitting, a modest two feet tall.
Finally, whenst this man was fairly comfortable, he began to speak. "Hello," he said. "I am of a faraway land. This land was, upon the day of my birth, much like yours. So it was, that the tall, hansom Lord sat within his magnificent castle, and the Warlock, dark and mysterious, brooded deep within his blackened fortress. I hath a story to tell, one of how the ways of my land changed, that black unicorns are as common as my white Pegasus. "
The children kept silent, for all were busy listening.
"And so it was, that, one day, the Warlock was bored and so fetched a messenger to venture into the Lord's manor. And it was done. The very same day the Lord also sought to break his boredom, and so sent one of his own across the land with a message to his rival. As it happened, the Warlock's messenger, upon his black Pegasus, collided with the Lord's messenger, upon his shining, white Unicorn. The two fell from the sky, and both struck upon the wall of territory. The Warlock's messenger, now dead, pitched over onto his own land. And so it was that the Lord's messenger, also dead, too pitched and fell within his homeland.
"Both sides took the finding of their dead messengers as an acceptation to the invitation of war which they had sent each other. For, nobody had the time to take an ear to the whisperings of the mason, who had witnessed the fateful collision. So it was that upon this day the Lord fetched for his Trolls to begin their smithing and the Warlock sent his Gnomes to work. The Lord trained his Knights and Warlock drilled his Orcs. The Lord's wizards prepared for war whilst the Warlock's Sorcerers concocted their spells. The Fairies of the light and the Witches of the dark all made their potions of war.
"Twas the ninth day whenst both sides decided it best to send out their declarations of war to the King, and on the twelfth day, as it was, the formal declarations were received by both sides, and a battle at the river was to be had.
"On the fourteenth day, the Lord and Warlock sent their forces to the river's banks. Such an assembly, perhaps a hundred white a hundred black, was never seen by the people of these manors before. Neither side was interested in talking, and so their charges were sounded. The mounted Knights and Orcs leapt unto the air, whilst the Soldiers and Goblins clashed their mighty forces in the center of the great river."
For both the children in black and children of white were gathered closer than before. A half circle was created, perhaps the space of one child separating those white and black.
"The great battle raged on for days. Scores of them were dropped into the river and swept away by the slow but steady current.
"On the seventeenth day, after three days of battle, the Warlock and Lord rose up from their manors and shouted with pride, 'My alchemists have wrought gold of lead! For all the land will be mine!' Now it was that when they looked across at each other after their triumphant shouts, both were ignorant to the fact that the other had yelled at all. No one, in fact, knew which had actually yelled. They sounded their calls at the same note, and since they were in chorus, twas impossible to tell."
The children around this man drew closer yet, some even touching those whom they thought they hated.
"The two set strongly to work making gold of lead; they used it all. Every last ounce of lead within the manors became gold. On the twentieth day, the Lord and Warlock both hired their own bands of mercenaries and sent them to the battle at the river. So it was that when the Mercenaries' charges met, the last Knight and last Orc plummeted from the sky and fell into the river depths.
"And so yet longer the two sides battled. By the twenty third day of war, the river was covered with blood as thick as any man's arm. When the nobles saw of the ending battle on the twenty fifth day, they sent their Witches and Fairies to further do battle until the thirty third day. Finally, the Wizards and Sorcerers met at the river. For, both used spells and counter spells, and so only several died a day. On the sixtieth day, the Lord and Warlock looked out across the river and saw that there was no battle raging."
The children were now interspersed among each other. Some lay across the laps of others, some sat against each other�s backs, but all were seemingly comfortable.
"The two stormed out of their manors and shouted for all of their armed soldiers to prepare for battle. When noonday came and still nobody emerged, the Lord and Warlock ran to the river themselves. They met each other atop the river. They had no idea it twas the river, so clogged it was with bodies. The two fought for hours. And upon the tolling of the midnight bells, the Warlock and Lord sliced each other�s heads clean off. Sixty one days of war had produced no victor.
"When the townspeople of both manors awoke in the morning, and the Vassals and Minions arose to serve their rulers, all were amazed to see that nobody remained to rule at all. Confusion broke out about who would rule and whether or not there was still a war to be had. Finally, a messenger of each side was sent to the other, proposing a meeting of the townspeople. They met at the wall in the middle and began to debate the outcome of the war.
"Finally it was agreed that there was no victor and this, being completely unorthodox, sent a huge commotion through the crowd. 'Hey!' a call was heard from a man of reasonable height. Twas the mason who had built and now maintained the wall. 'Come now! You would have hundreds die, whilst poisoning a river, just that you may decide which manor is better? It is petty! And then, when there is no outcome, you fight over who shall rule? I say! I am tired of keeping you divided by yonder wall! For the two manors would be better fit as one!'
"That did it; the townspeople roared their delight and shouted for the mason to lead them. In the coming weeks a new manor house was built from the stone of the very wall that once stood and all of the people lived as one. Orcs fought sided with Knights, Goblins with Soldiers, Fairies with Witches, and Wizards with Sorcerers."
The man looked around. Most of the children were sleeping. He got up and slung himself onto his Albino Pegasus. With a modest leap he flew through the air, his chisel and mallet clanging at his side.
3/12/01
Copyright 2001 Joseph Basile