As the Dark Army marched through the Mojave Desert toward the West Coast the mass increased.
Men and women unhappy with their lives in America, due to poverty, losing their houses, the current political scene or having a rebellious nature, joined. They came from all over the country.
The Army even drew people from affluent areas; bored individuals looking for something different.
The dark soldiers trained the civilian recruits and controlled the captured equipment. A convoy of trucks carried the weapons and supplies. Shops and stores were raided and set ablaze after they attained supplies. Everything in the path of the army was absorbed or destroyed. Law-abiding citizens packed what they could and fled putting strains on neighbouring authorities which lay away from the direction of the dark hordes.
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Interlude
I
“Graam, bring my boy back!” demanded Queen Auria.
“Yes, my love,” said a bowing Graam. “He pleaded with me to let him command the attempt to push the Mercians further back.”
“Just bring him back!”
“I will see to it myself.”
Into the fields within Dragonbreath Castle strode a lightly armoured Graam.
“Rose! To me,” he shouted to a large grey mare.
“I have one last favour to ask of you old girl. I know we have been through many battles together and I granted you the rest of your life free to frolic in this field. My grandson, however, is lying in a battlefield–as told by Herdegraad the Seer.
The mare snorted and then splayed her front legs and bowed her head.
“Nay, rise fair lady it is I who should bow before you. I would not be here today if it were not for you–a thousand times!”
Graam then snapped his fingers and two men prepared Rose for travel and battle. He then rode out through the castle gates and over the meadows surrounding the castle. He stopped for a moment on a small hillock and glanced back at Dragonbreath before galloping on.
II
The mists swept over the dead as Mercian death squads roamed the field. Any Anglo-Saxon who groaned was shown no mercy.
Alfred raised his head up through the pain and saw a squad of five men heading toward him. As he prepared himself for death, he heard a distant galloping and, raising his head back up, he saw something incredible.
III
A lone horseman galloped across the battlefield his long, blond-grey hair flapping in the wind. He rode into the death squad and loped off the head of a Mercian. He then jumped off the horse and battled three of them eventually cutting them down with his sword.
As he retrieved the sword, the fifth man, realising who he was, crept up on the king. In a flash the battle-mare Rose galloped out of the mist and pummelled the Mercian into the mud.
IV
Graam stabbed his sword into the mud and rested an arm on Rose’s neck. Then, the two stared at Alfred.
“Granddad! I’ve seen nothing like that!” said Alfred through clenched teeth.”
Graam strode over to where the boy was lying and held out a hand.
“Come on lad–you can die some other day!”
Mounted on Rose, the two men rode off through the mist.
“Thanks Granddad!” shouted Alfred.
“Thank your Granma. She’d kick my arse if I returned without you!”
The two men laughed as they galloped toward the far-off Dragonbreath.
End
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