"By the gods!" whispered Lyre. She and her small division
were just a group of mercenaries hired by the king of
Bristal in order to patrol in the southern border and warn
from a surprise attack. She always thought that nobody would
attack Bristal, and if there would be any small nomad's
tribe raids she could push it back a little, at least till
help would be on the way. After all, she had all that a good
division needed. Out of 63 men and women, 30 were worriers,
knights and barbarians, 20 archers and the rest were
magicians and warlocks. She thought nobody would attack
Bristal, but this? This is something like she never seen
before!

  Thousands of undead heading toward the borders, and those
who couldn't walk in light, were carried in their coffins.
There were of every kind! Skeletons and zombies, vampires
and ghosts. Just there! How did they manage to risen such an
army without anyone noticing, it would take many years, even
for the most skilled necromancer, to raise even just a bit
of these. Maybe a group of them, but no, it would take them
too much time, too much strength, some body would have
noticed.
A gentle push interrupted her thoughts, "General, what shell
we do?" as much has she didn't want to, the words came out
from her mouth, with silent anger. "What can we do." She
said " will retreat, get my horse ready and call on the best
10 men we have. I want at least one warlock and 2 archers.
Tell them we are leaving at dawn, I am leaving you in
charge, get this army back to the king's castle as quick as
you can following the map and schedule I'll give you. If you
reach there before I contact you I want you to seek me. Now
go Yank!" He nodded and left.

  They left at dawn, some of the men she rode with she knew
well, some not. Spring was at his peek and so the roads were
well and the pace was fast. They reached the king after two
weeks of non-stop riding and as their horses were near
collapsing they did the last day on foot. It took the king
almost 3 days to establish a war council, way to long for
Lyre's thinking, but she waited. At last the council was
ready and she was summand to her place, after a short brief
of what everyone knew she gave her report and waited for the
response. It wasn't different from what she had expected.
The king immediately sent for recruits and his generals
asked the same goddamn questions over and over again, she
was growing impatient. After an hour or so of questioning
and interrogation plans were finally formed and planned. At
the end it was estimated that there would be no more then
4000 recruits and add to that the 1700 trained soldiers that
the army posses you get odds that many heroes would live
through. But this ain't no myth, Lyre thought, and there are
no heroes. Yet.

  The next day came the hard part, force's deployment.
Every general wanted new troops. Especially Lyre that had
the smallest number of troops. She knew that if she wanted
to survive this war she needs many more troops, but she also
knew that if she would get too much troops she would be put
on the front line in one of the first battles - a sure
suicide. After the debate was done, and everyone went
preparing happy, some more some less, Lyre found herself
with 647 troops more then before, not as many as she asked,
but some of the other generals received less. She also
received a large financial grant in order to train them and
to buy mercenaries. Mercenaries she already decided would be
spell casters and god's kids. "I heard that those little
church boys know how to brake undead better then the sword."
She said to herself, "I just hope they're worth it" she
added silently.

  Lyre sent some of the man that went with her to seek
monks with instructions on quantity and quality making sure
they knew when to be back, and with what. Then she began to
ride towards the camp where her new army should be waiting
for her. Three days past riding, when she reached her
already trained troops she called her deputies for a
council. Each and every one of them will receive new troops,
whether he likes it or not, and so it was done.

  Two weeks has past while training the new troops. Word
has already came featuring horror stories of frightened
humans, ogres and other unknown creatures. Lyre's monk
searchers returned with what she asked for, and brought a
letter from the king. She read the letter out load and so it
was written: "Lyre, I King Bundvil summon you and your army
to defend me and my city here in the city of Bundvil. Hurry.
If you shell successfully defend me and the city I shell
reward you and 10 of your chosen troops. So it is written,
and so it shell be done!" So they went to the city of
Bundvil. It took the all army a week to travel that far, but
that's what happens when you have a big army, she thought.
They reached the city and fortified, archers went up the
walls, warriors took positions, spell casters memorized
their spells, and monks, monks prayed.

  Finally the big day arrived. Even after many battles
there were so many undead, but not as many as before, Not
something hopeless. First stroke the wizards with large
fireballs and great lightning's storms coming down from the
sky. "It's bad this is darkness, more forces for them, less
visual range for us. I just hope my secret surprise will
work." For she knew that if you cut off the head, the body
will die. Well in most creatures.
The monks told her that they had made a special surprise
just for undead, and that she will see it if the creatures
came to close to the town. The wizards spell has stopped now
and the undead army seemed like a net, full of holes - but
if you looked at it from far you'll see a great surface
ready to stop everything. Suddenly a blue white holy flame
came bursting out of the ground on the first raw of undead.
Lyre could still here their cries as they turned to ashes.
The flame left the ground and swept at a meter's height
through half the army destroying hundred of undead creatures
and sending them back to rest in peace. The odds seemed
better now, Lyre thought. "Maybe we do have a chance" she
told her self with a giggle.

  It was near sunrise. The sides battled to the night. Most
of the city's population came to help, most of the city's
population died. Thousands dead, thousands died again. The
archers had finished their arrows long time ago, and went
into close battle with their swords and daggers. Who knows
what's left of them now, probably rotten corpses who lay
somewhere outside of the city. Lyre fought against zombies
and skeletons, vampires and ghosts. Her enchanted sword
sliced through her opponents like butter.

  When morning came there was a crying sound of hundreds of
vampires, as they were burned to ashes from the touch of the
sun. The battle was ours we thought. Lyre's secret team did
her job wonderfully and now most of the necromancers were
dead, those who weren't were running away. After hours of
fighting the battle has ended. This enormous war of light
and darkness was forever known as "War of the Dead". Lyre
gathered her forces and sent patrols in order to gather the
lost equipment and to destroy the last scattering forces of
evil.

  A week past, Lyre's remaining forces were ready to leave.
Lyre went into the castle of the king, asking for her
guaranteed reward. The king refused to give it to her
excusing his actions by the fact that he is the king, and
that saving him was an obligation, not a privilege. He made
Lyre mad, and when she is mad, she is mad! Lyre came near
him, taking quick care of his guards, and slit his throat
open. No one was there to do to do anything, she just took
the gold bags that he always kept near him and left. No one
was there to stop her. The land was at chaos, with no king
and no hair. No army to rule and corpses everywhere the land
was at anarchy.

  "Lyre and I split after a couple of months. I wanted to
settle with the king's fortune and she wanted to continue on
killing. Last I heard she was at the new king's service.
Maybe she'll need my services again, after all who knows,
there is always somebody to kill or protect, and money to be
made." Yank didn't know how right he was.
  A couple of days later two royal troops came with an
order to bring Yank to the king's castle with his old
division's equipment, for an unknown duration. Yank kissed
his kid and wife goodbye and went on his way. He had no
doubt that it was his old general who gave the order to
bring him. He just couldn't help wandering why. The troops
took their time in the first days, not pushing Yank to
hurry, but as the days past they began riding faster and
faster, excusing their speed by the fact that winter was
arriving, and the days grew colder each day.

  A few riding days away from the king's castle the troops
turned into a small side road. As they kept riding he
noticed that the green bushes around him were a bit too
green and too alive for bushes. At one point he actually saw
a pair of bushes running in their direction, this of course
confirmed his suspicions of heading towards a secret camp.
After a two days of riding they entered the camp, Yank
could've seen it was well guarded and decided that the best
thing to do was wait. So he waited, patiently for a while
and then with certain tension that something was wrong.
After a while she came, he hardly recognized her at first,
but he could have never forgotten that face. As she grew
near he said "Dear Lyre, the most lethal and most beautiful
woman in the realm. How you've been doing?" She looked at
him strangely, like she didn't believe her eyes and then
answered: "Is that really you Yank? Damn you sure changed,
heard you got a child and a wife. It's been three years, how
are you doing? Come, lets talk in my tent, we shell have
more privacy there."
They stepped into her tent and set down. Lyre offered him a
glass of filthy water and a loaf of bread. They talked for a
while, about the past, the present and the future. When they
ran out of subjects to talk about Lyre got serious and said:
"I'm going to conquer a country". Yank almost choked,
finally he spitted out the loaf of bread he was chewing and
tried to breathe. Finally he said: "You and what army? Those
men I saw outside are not enough to conquer a castle". Lyre
looked at him with strange interest and said: "I have more,
and the king is supplying me with what ever I shell need. I
am doing this in his pleading." That last word was said with
joy. "Its not hard to realize why you summoned me here..."
"I want you back in my command" she interrupted him. He
agreed, vowing loyalty to her once more. Even now, after all
these years he remembered the words. Lyre was very strict
about loyalty, she demanded that her troops will not pledge
loyalty to the king, the army nor the country, but to her
and her only. For them, Lyre was a god of flash and bone.
Then she asked what about his family and he said with a
little smile "They will survive". As they stood up and began
walking towards the exit Lyre thought, boys will be boys.
Once they were outside he told her about how a few days
before she summoned for him he was telling about her to his
family, and with a cunning look on her face she said : "I
knew", and left.



  Hundreds of years ago, long before "War of the Dead" the
seven empires of the known land decided to create a new
empire, this empire was named "Frontier". It was agreed that
this new empire shouldn't have one ruler but will contain a
counselor from any liberated country who wishes to influence
it. This empire was to be given a small territory in every
border between any two countries and it would forever have
that territory. The empire was to be a neutral territory and
no army should ever enter it, the seven empires talked of
terrible punishments to those who would attack that
Frontier. The sparse guard that the empire had was enough to
stop the local criminals and most times stop the quarrels
the rose up in the taverns. For hundreds of years this
empire stood still between wars like a small lake between
volcanoes. No one, not even the undead, dared conquer it for
fear of the punishment from the empires. No one did, until
now.

Months Later:
  It was like a thunder on a bright day. Shouts and yells
were heard from the general's tent. "It's insane!" yelled
Yank "The empires will crush you, think of your actions."
The tent rumbled with the replay "Lower your voice Yank,
unless you want to find yourself at the lead of this
battle!" Yank calmed a bit and replied "For over 300 years
no one had dared attack the Frontier Empire, why would you
change a perfect situation?" "Do you know how many important
men are kept there? After our recant victory at the Vine
Valley more army captions escaped to that stupid empire. The
amount of important captives including two royal counselors
is great. I'm telling you that if we don't do something we
are going to find ourselves attacked from those captives,
I'm not taking that chance." Yank took a deep breath and
replied "Aren't you worried about the empires? Don't you
remember their vengeance?" Lyre only looked at him and
laughed, Yank felt hurt and asked "What are you laughing
about?" Lyre stopped laughing and reminded him that the
empires are gone for over 70 years and the only empire left
from those empires will do nothing, it has its own problems.
So they attacked.

  The battles were over after a few days, all the refugees
were killed and the citizens were promised freedom after the
war was over. One place made some troubles and Lyre took
some man and Yank and went to deal with that place
personally. Most of the area was conquered pretty fast and
the last warriors camped at a tavern at the center. The
conquerors camped in a field near the tavern when they
observe it so no one will leave.
When morning arrived Lyre, Yank, and a few troops. Yank was
very excited because he never saw Lyre fight after she
became a general, he wandered if she improved. They entered
the tavern was filled with people which divided into two
groups, the conquerors and the rebels. Lyre and I stayed at
the back as the soldiers of both group battled in the small
tavern, as the battle came to end it was easy to see the
many corps on the ground, five of our soldiers survived the
battle, one of them was wounded. There was one last rebel in
the back. He was standing proud, his sword still in the
sheath. Lyre's troops waited for a sign. Finally he spoke to
Lyre "Are you proud Lyre?" he asked her "Butchering innocent
farmers who only asked for their freedom?" Lyre smiled a
devious smile and said "Very, " she pointed to the man and
said, "slaughter him".

  The soldiers began walking towards him with their swords
ready. The man said "I hoped you would have choseמ better
Lyre, and spared the life of your men, and yours". He drew
his sword and the room was lighted with a soft white light.
The soldiers stood still, amazed at the look of his sword,
the sword was glowing with white light. A sudden fear that
the strange man was a wizard sprung in the soldiers, but
Lyre's reordering them to "wipe out the man" over came that
fear and in an action to satisfy their ego they jumped on
him while yelling his mother employment.
The man moved with a swift move and sliced through two men
with out an effort. One of the soldiers swung his sword at
the man but the man swung his sword towards the soldier
protecting himself with his sword. When the two swords
clashed the soldier's sword broke and the man's sword went
deep into the soldier making him fall in pain on the floor,
crying for help. The wounded soldier that was left began
making his way towards the exit... when he reached the door
he tried to go past Lyre. Lyre pulled out a dagger, the same
dagger she killed the king with, and stabbed him in the
heart while saying that cowards are bad for the heart.

If requests will come I will continue