Chapter 1

Shadows of the forest cast itself upon the convoy of caravans hastening through the forest trail. In the caravan was 'aid' sent from the Province of Banana Hammock to the nearest province. So called 'aid' but were in fact refugees consisting of soldiers. The most recent war had ravaged their lands causing peasantry and armies to flee and desert the lands. Only the stubborn wizards shut the doors to their guild and towers, refusing to take on more trainee wizards and claiming to make a last stand when the time comes. Rumor has it that if the province ever falls, they have a secret portal to escape through, hidden deep within the basement of their guild. Nobody knows where it leads to; frankly, nobody wants to know.

Their armies had been no match for the combined strength of the numerous provinces of the invading kingdom. The enemy armies came in waves giving no rest to the weary soldiers and withered away at their numbers. Even the legendary 'lioness'; the most deadly lady archer in the whole province was seemingly lost in action; her whereabouts unknown.

How pathetic.

He closed his eyes and yawned the contagious yawns of the other soldiers seated in the darkness of the caravan. The caravan shook violently as it crosses over an uneven patch of ground. He was the son of a peasant and had fulfilled his father's wishes by becoming a knight. However, not long after, the war broke out and all semblance of a proper army disintegrated within his section; wages unpaid and weaponry running out. The Lord of the province commanded his section to be sent away as soldiers to the neighboring province; on one hand to counter the overpopulation of the province, on the other hand to ensure that they would not desert and aid the war effort under the citizenship of another province.

He sighed deeply. He hope his father is doing well; knowing him, he has probably slayed a number of enemies protecting mother and sister. That sly old fox had many tricks up his sleeve. He knows because he had secretly entered their home's off-limits cellar once - a secret stash of weapons and runes that any normal peasant shouldn't have hidden within.

A terrifying boom suddenly sounded ahead followed by cries of men.

'What?-' He didn't manage to finish his sentence for in the next moment, his head was spinning and a ringing sound echoed in his ears. He was then flat on his back on the ground with no clue on how he got there. He coughed as dust settled down around him. He opened his eyes to the sight of weak sunlight peeking through the gaps in the top canopy of the forest. A shadow then hovered over his face cutting off the weak sunlight.

He blinked as the shadow unblurred to form an image of the silhouette of a hooded figure. He could barely out the figure's face and while he could see lips moving, there was no sound. The figure reached down with a hand; to pull him up he supposed. The hood fell off revealing a gorgeous young lady with long hair. It was love at first sight.

Chapter 2

He reached out his right hand and winced in pain. He's going to need some massage for that throbbing pain on his shoulder. The young lady grabbed his hand and pulled him up effortlessly. Helluva strong lady!

His ears were still ringing and having stood up, his vision started to see saw before him. She started talking to him again and he could barely hear her.

"Hurry up into the carriages behind, we have no time to lose."

He limped after her as she dashed to the carriage behind. Corpses of his fellow passengers laid scattered across the ground, some hanging off the branches of a nearby tree. Or rather, a part of some of them. He shifted his sight away from them, having had enough to haunt him for decades. It seems like he was the lucky one in the whole caravan. He remembered his father warning him that he only had one chance of surviving an offensive magical spell; he thought his father was just being superstitious but it looks like surviving this was 1 of the many tricks of the sly old fox.

He climbed into the next caravan and it set off. The lady went to the front and whispered to the driver and the caravan's speed increased. She came back to him and sat beside him, pulling up her hood in the process.

"You are a lucky one. I have never seen anyone survived an explosion before. Where do you hail from?"

They exchanged tales of their battles. She had been at all the major battles for the past few years and he was impressed that she had survived defending the province thus far. She was a shining beacon of hope and warmth in the bleakness of the situation. He wished they could just sit there and talk forever. Time flew as the caravan rumbled along the forest trail before emerging out of the forest and waved through the checkpoint of the neighboring province.

Into the city the caravan rode and all the way to the barracks of the city. The lady leaped off and spoke to the captain of the garrison receiving them. He immediately straighten up and saluted her.

Who was she? He had not gotten the opportunity to ask as they had gotten engrossed at sharing stories. Surely she's not the...

A roar thundered in the skies. A shadow came and covered the whole city and everyone froze and became silent in the streets. The shadow revealed itself to be a emerald dragon and flying in the direction where they came from.

"Thank goodness we reached here in time. We would have been toast if we were outside the city". a nearby soldier whispered to another.

This dragon must have been developed in unison by the kingdom and launched from this province. Looks like the enemy will have quite a handful to deal with fluffy. The dragon is a powerful weapon but many an ally had suffered at it hands as well. He was startled when his hand was grabbed.

"Follow me into the barracks, from today on, you will serve me." came the words of the lady.

He rose his eyebrows questioningly. Surprises after surprises today it had been.

Chapter 3

The atmosphere was grim and tense in the barracks as he strolled after the lady along the corridors of the barracks. Foot soldiers hurried in bright gleaming armor; messengers jogged to and fro from the entrance disappearing into the innards of the barracks. It was a bustling center of activity which he just got roped into.

Earlier on...

"I have to report to the captain of the garrison.." He replied indignantly. Yes, she may be gorgeous and his heart captivated by her but he still has no clue who she is.

"I'm a trained knight serving the Lord of Banana Hammock! My allegiance is to him and him alone!" He declared to her. A hush fell around them. Many pairs of eyes fell upon the both of them. Lover's spat perhaps they thought. Or insubordination?

The lady smiled and replied with great confidence. "I'm the noble lady, lion-ness of the province of banana hammock, reporting to the lord directly and given authority to command the army in this barracks. Kneel before me so that I shall re-knight you to serve under me."

His eyes widened like never before till he thought his eyeballs would fall out of their sockets. All around him whispers went abound. The lion-ness was entitled to her own personal knight but was well known not to ever have one despite many offers from knights and from the Lord himself. Some gossiped that perhaps she was waiting for a female knight. Today, that rumor was squashed without doubt.

He trembled as he knelt before the lion-ness. She drew a sword from the sheath of a nearby soldier. Tapping his right shoulder with the sword, she proclaimed in accordance with tradition:

"Sois chevalier, au nom de Dieu!"

(Be thou a knight in the name of God.)

Tapping his left shoulder:

Avancez chevalier!"

(Arise, knight.)

He rose with the cheers of the refugee soldiers around him. He had done what many would envy, to be the personal knight of the noble lady 'lion-ness'.

"Well, with the formalities out of the way, let's go to the strategic room and start the meeting." she gestured into the barracks.

They had arrived at the strategic room. 2 guards opened the doors for them and into the room they entered.

"So, shall we begin the strategic meeting to prepare for the slaying of the coming dragon?" she beamed at the generals seated around the round table with their knights at attention behind them.

What has he gotten himself into? He would be clasping his cheeks in despair if he wasn't in a room with all these bigwigs. Slay a dragon? You would need an army in the thousands! He needed a beer.

Chapter 4

The lioness took a seat and he stood behind at attention.

"We shall run through a quick report on the current situation." One of the generals spoke businesslike as he unraveled a map of the kingdom. Pointing at one of the provinces, he began to drone.

"The enemy had made a break through at the province of banana hammock in the north where the lady escaped from. They took the province of Stella as well and are advancing towards the province of Avian." The lioness frowned and stared intently at the map.

"Our spies also reported them in the west at the province of voodoo, between Hertog Jan and Monody."

"In the east, they have reached Sozinistan, Shady Contractors and SlaughterZone. Lands were razed and the peasantry massacred in the province of Bern as well." The general finished and straighten up warily. All that he reported was definitely not good news. And they still haven't touched on the topic of slaying the coming dragon which was the lioness's objective.

"Raven's forces will bring everything under control." the lioness waved her hand dismissively.

The general who just reported tensed up and gazed to the right at the general seated beside him. That general stared vacantly at the map and started mumbling.

"My lady.."

"Raven..."Another general who seemed more calm continued for him.

"Raven could not mobilize enough forces."

"Their forces did not attack the invading forces."

The energy in the room was electrifying and everybody held their breath. The lioness's eyebrows twitched as she seemed to struggle to contain an explosive power within. She blinked and shifted her shoulders to loosen it.

"The following shall remain in this room: The generals of south, east, west, defense and my knight." The lioness spoke slowly and softly deliberately.

The rest of the knights, pageboys and guards shuffled out of the room without looking back. He observed the generals beginning to perspire and their shifty eyes gazed at each other. The only calm one among them was the general of defense with his piercing dark black eyeballs looking forward without blinking. The general of the south, the one who mumbled earlier sighed softly. The door slammed shut after the last of the crowd left the room.

The lioness raised her head and stared at the generals.

"That was an order!" the lioness raged without restraint. "Raven's assault was an order!"

"Who do you think you are to dare disobey an order that I gave?" the lioness snarled at the generals.

"So this is what it has come down to. The military and wizards have been lying to me. Even the spies!" shaking her hands accusingly at the generals.

"You generals and your armies are a bunch of contemptible,traitorous cowards!" the lioness stood up and started pacing the room. He had to scurry backwards to avoid her.

"MY lady, I can't allow you to insult our military.." the general of the east who continued the sentence of the general of the south rebutted rapidly.

The lioness stopped and screamed at him "They are cowards, traitors and failures!"

"My lady, this is outrageous." the general of the west refuted unhappily.

"Our generals are the scum of the Ghetto Nightmare Kingdom!" The lioness hissed, drew his sword and flung it onto the table where it got stuck where it landed. First blood, wooden table. His brand new sparkling sword's first casualty was a round wooden table.

"Not a shred of honor!" she spewed in contempt.

"You call yourselves generals because you spent years at the academy...where you only learnt how to hold the knife and fork." He almost burst out laughing. Yes, no doubt the generals got to wine and dine themselves well with the nobles at many royal events; her remarks tickled him silly despite the gravity of the situation.

"For years, the military has hindered my plans. All you ever did is thwart me! Every kind of obstacle was placed in my way." the lioness clenched her fist and banged the table repeatedly.

"I should had have all the generals executed for bribery!" The lioness shook her fists at the generals and roared . She had paced back to her seat and took it.

"I had not went to the academy before yet I defended the north, conquered the enemies on my own and was then promoted to be the general of the north." clenching her fists, she thumped her chest triumphantly. The general of the west who did the report earlier swallowed and glanced at the general of the south. The general of the south met his eyes and looked down in defeat, his spirit crushed.

"I have been betrayed and deceived from the very beginning!" the lioness caught her second wind and raged animatedly, her head bouncing up and down with every word, her hair swaying around her.

"What a monstrous betrayal of the GN kingdom and its people but all those traitors will pay. With their own blood. They shall drown in their own blood!" The lioness now looked down and stared at her own knees.

"My orders as the great commander of the kingdom have fallen on deaf ears." the lioness spoke disappointingly.

"Under these circumstances, I am no longer able to lead... the war is over." The general of the south looked up and around confused; probably tuned out of what the lioness had said for a while; the general of the west tugged at his collar nervously; perhaps nervous at the risk of having his head roll for bribery or something.

"But generals, if you believe I'm going to leave this province as a refugee in order to escape again, you are seriously mistaken; I rather slice my own throat." the lioness closed her eyes in determination.

"Do what you want, I have nothing to add anymore." the lioness slouched over the table, resting her chin on her clasped hands.

First ever strategic meeting he ever attended and it sure was memorable.

Chapter 5

With the lioness depleted of her energy, the chased away crowd was re-invited into the room, stealing glances at the lioness's stony face, her eyes closed and hands clasped together. The generals quickly got down to discuss the rest of the agenda; speedily to end the meeting; and probably to escape from the room lest the lioness roars again.

"We conclude that the armies to slay the coming dragon will comprise mainly of the untouched reserve armies of spoons, coffee, gurthen and bandu to be led by the appointed great commander of the kingdom." the general of the south announced nervously, stealing a glance at the lioness. It was a short moment before she gave a short nod of acknowledgement in response. The burden seems to be lifted from most of the generals in the room. Weasels probably didn't want to lead the defense. Only the general of defense seemed slightly disappointed but it had been decided that the defending army against the invading armies needed his leadership. It would take the charisma and quick witted lioness to motivate the army to defend against the dragon. Everybody shuffled out of the room leaving the lioness and him alone.

"Have you ever fought a dragon before?" the lioness spoke from where she was, yet to move a slight muscle.

"I'm afraid not, today was the first time I saw one." he gave an honest answer.

"It is essentially a suicide mission. The old ways of doing it has always been to send the army at it until it tires out and gets slayed where it lands to rest." the lioness spoke in monotone. He was speechless.

"I had wanted to propose a new idea; to make use of the dwarf's latest invention, something they call catapult that can hurl man-made fireballs into the air at the dragon. Instead of sacrificing our people, it could have taken much less to take down the dragon. Alas, it seems the generals are buffoons; despite knowing of the invention, they continue to stick to their old methods." the lioness sighed.

"Ready my horse, we shall depart immediately to the east. That's where the dragon will fly in from. The lands were razed and peasantry massacred to enable their dragon to fly straight to central without distractions. We will prepare for the dragon's arrival." Looks like it is finally time for some action; hopefully not his last.

The winds ruffled the flags of the vanguard as he stood with the calvary at the edge of the cliff. Scouts continued to search the horizons for any incoming dragon. It was cold and the clouds were grey and low hanging. The lands smelled of burnt forests. It had been nearly two weeks since their departure from the barracks. The combined defense against dragon armies had been in high spirits when the lioness appeared before them; like an angel on a white horse, the sun sparkling behind her; him hiding in her shadows, not like anyone would care about him until mealtimes when people started approaching him on how he got to be her knight. He got really annoyed and really wanted to punch someone but he decided to patiently repeat his story all over and over again that it was a fluke of his survival that got him chosen.

He yawned. The armies have been restless. It was not easy to encamp for a week with no action. All around them was nothing but clouds and the increasing smell of burnt cinder...wait a moment, the smell had been getting increasingly stronger in a short period time.

"Dragon!" he hollered. A stream of fire burst from the skies above them. A bunch of troops instantly became burnt corpses.

"Clever girl..." he whispered.

Instead of coming from the front, the dragon had flew as high it could and dived down from right above them. The dragon flew down in a flash and pulled up just in time to fly parallel to the ground, ramping into groups of troops who hung for dear life on the dragon. The dragon shook its nose, barrel rolled and poor guys were sent flying off like ragged dolls. From its appearance, half the vanguard had been wiped out. The dragon landed in a group of troops, 4 times as tall as a man, roared and incinerated that whole lot. Scary ****.

"Separate out as planned!" the lioness roared in defiance and raised her bow. Two messengers some distance away on her left and right took out horns and blew it to announce the start of the dragon slaying. The dragon didn't like the sound one bit and the messengers were soon burst to a crisp. Note to self, never retire to be a horn blower.

4 columns of calvary in pairs galloped in haste towards the dragon. 1 each from the direction of north, south, east and west. The plan was to minimize losses while damaging the dragon as much as possible. The dragon could only focus on each column at 1 go in theory. The column that attracted its attention will abandon attacking and ride to distract while the other 3 columns rode close to let loose arrows and slice at its feet and then ride off to circle around to repeat.

The dragon was eventually irritated at being surrounded and decided to not deal with them on the ground. It began flapping its wings in an attempt to take flight. Not that easy, girl, he thought. Their initial greatest fear was getting the dragon to land on the ground; that was the crux of their plan. The dragon had literally landed right into their trap. It's not getting out of the trap so easily.

"Ready the bolts!" the lioness commanded.

Wagons which resemble bows; elevated on wheels, emerged from being hidden in bushes. The bolts were made of mithril, crafted and made by dwarven hands.

"Fire!"

The bolts flew right at the dragon, some missed but most shot through its wings. The bolts restrained it as they were attached to thick ropes made up of multiple strands which were anchored to the wagons. They would not be easy to break out of.

"Secure the wagons!!"

The wheels were broken and huge logs thumped into the ground, securing the heavy wagons. The dragon flail in the air in futile, struggling to break through. It could not use its breath of fire to burn off the ropes without the risk of burning itself. The calvary scattered and everyone waited for its eventual demise. After about a quarter of an hour, it fell to the earth, exhausted. The soldiers nearest to the dragon cheered and started to go nearer doing celebratory dances.

"Watch out!" he shouted in alarm.

With its last ditch of strength, the dragon let out an extremely strong breath of fire burning everything and everyone around it, even setting the ground on fire and as a result, itself as well. Looks like this lot of soldiers can only be sent home in ashes he thought. Damn fools. The fire roared as it consumed the land and the dragon. Half of the army remains as they stood solemnly around the roaring fire. He wondered how barbeque dragon meat will taste as the aroma of cooked meat lingered in the air. He will definitely scrap off some of its skin. Dragon skin armor, what a souvenir he will have. Bet his dad doesn't have it!

He had survived a dangerous campaign. The campaign where most usually died. As he rode behind the lioness back to central, messengers came to inform them of the kingdom's surrender to the enemy. They may have slain the dragon and won the battle but the war was lost. Nevertheless, more battles and wars awaits him he knows. He still has much to learn from the resourceful and inventive lioness as he looked at her back with respect. She was not just a pretty face and deadly archer; she was their leader and the spirit of the kingdom for she is the great commander of Ghetto Nightmare kingdom and they will not give in easily to any invaders.

Hey-ho! They will win the next war.

The End