The moment I was suddenly in a forest scared me utterly shitless. I immediately lost my balance and fell on my rear, my heartbeat was a million miles an hour. On the other hand, Elyisia was seemingly unaffected by this unlike myself and stood there eyebrows raised with an amused smirk on her face.
“Are you alright my lord? You seem to have fallen and can’t get up. Do you want me to contact Life Alert for you?”
My face went red in embarrassment, not from the fact I feel and teased over it, but from the fact I died when I was 19 not 65 god dammit. I sighed and got up with no trouble, at least her poking fun at me like this calmed me down from my initial freak out session. I may be a god now but literally yesterday I was human, cut me a little bit of slack, eh? “I thought servants of the lord were meant to be respectful to him?”
“Forgive me, from my knowledge of you and the way you ‘are’ it was a good quick way to calm you efficiently.”
I found it sort of weird she had this knowledge. Truth be told I didn’t know that if I was freaking out, embarrassing me was a good method to undo that sudden terror. I shrugged it off, not wanting to think a woman I just met knew more about me, than I knew of me. I patted the dust off my tunic and began walking towards the city, Elyisia following closely behind. Because the town was a major trade depot, and it being a border town, entrance was a little more strict compared to other locations. In most places, they simply verify you aren’t on the wanted list, and your cargo for illegal goods. Here however, you must have a ‘pass’ these passes are easy to obtain, you simply have to visit a major town of man or dwarf’s government building. They make sure your not on the wanted list, you pay two gold coins and you have a pass for the year. This knowledge sort of ‘popped’ into my head, I guess it’s one of the perks of being god? I imagine in my hand a valid border pass, after all if all the other uses of my power involved imagination, shouldn’t creation be as well? I looked at my hand and there sat two white pieces of paper, one with Elyisia on it, the other Daxen. I frowned mostly because I hadn’t thought of what to call myself. It certainly wasn’t something like “Daxen”. Instead, as the line moved, I thought of a better name. I would go by Fallion, a dwarven name meaning careless tinkerer. I didn’t care for the meaning behind it, I just liked the way it rolled off the tongue. As we got closer I realized the other pass still read Daxen, I imagined it changed to Fallion and thankfully it did. The guards stopped us and checked the current wanted posters, seeing none matched us they asked for our passes which we showed. Satisfied since we had no goods, we were allowed to pass into the city. Inside the city were great stone structures, and great metal ones. Obviously it was meant to be representing of this being a border city. I noticed along the wall, dwarven guards were stationed at points, and then humans in a sort of interval fashion. This was probably to represent the ‘trust’ between the two kingdoms. In truth this town was one of the unique towns in several ways. First off the towns was separated into four districts. The Maos, Veruk, Loddel, and Farras districts respectively. The kingdom of dwarves controlled the Maos and Loddel while the kingdom of man controlled the Veruk and Farras. As I was about to suggest we find an inn before we explore the city, a town crier was heard.
“Hear ye, hear ye. Upon this day war has been declared! The Orc Empire and the Beast-men Conglomerate have declared war on our great kingdom of dwarves. Our king, his Majesty Sartiunk has asked the king of men, his lordship King Borus to aid him in fighting these terrors. As of now all male and female, dwarf and human alike shall be conscripted if deemed fit for service. This is due to the lack of standing army of the two kingdoms since there has been no war in hundreds of years. All humans are to report to the Veruk government building while Dwarves must report to the Maos government building! Failure to do so will be considered treason and offenders will lose citizenship status! You have five days to report and sign up. That is all!” The crier stepped down from the makeshift podium, receiving some boos and indifference.
A war? Sounds fun! Of course the only problem relies in that I’m god so I could technically just force them to make peace, also I can’t die, and any weapon I pick I instantly master in every way possible. I turn toward Elyisia who’s obviously indifferent to it all. She simply was awaiting my orders. “Do you have combat experience?”
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She nodded “I have full mastery of all conventional weapons to better serve you my lord.”
I bobbed my head slightly up and down and sighed “Very well, I suppose we will travel a lot in war, so to adventure!” I point my finger high and head to the Maos government building, while Elyisia headed to the Veruk building. Upon arrival not many had lined up, obviously wanting to wait the forced summons as long as possible. It went relatively quick, mostly because I was one of ten dwarves total in line. After 30 minutes or so it was my turn.
“Next!” a gruff voice spoke and I stepped inside
The room was well lit, papers in neat piles all around, a dwarf in a uniform of sorts was writing something on the desk. He looked up and motioned for me to sit in the chair in front of him.
“Name?”
“Fallion.”
“Age.”
Unsure how to respond, I knew it was common for dwarves to live several hundred years, and one was considered young until nearly 200. “104”
The dwarf nodded and scratched his nose “Preferred armor and weaponry?”
“Heavy and any.”
The dwarf looked up a bit eyebrows raised “Now what do you mean by ‘any’ boy-o? As in all weapons or the most common weapons for battle?”
“Any as in all.”
The dwarf chuckled “I dunno if you’re being serious or not, but for the sake of me filling this here form out I’m simply gonna put sword, shield, claymore, and bow. Good enough?”
I nodded not really caring, technically being what I am I just go unarmed and punch everyone to death while the song “You’re the best around by Joe Esposito played in the background.
The dwarf leaned back and sighed “Alright kid time to do your physical, come with me.” The dwarf got up and led me to a door, he opened it and ushered me in “Wait here for your name to be called.” He left and shut the door, likely to continue his task at hand.
Time went by for what felt like an hour or so before my name was called. “Fallion, its time for your checkup.” I stood up and walked to the doorway where the voice came from. Inside was a much younger dwarf then the one before. His voice wasn’t gruff and didn’t have as hard features. “Sit down in front of me please.” I did as he asked, and he began checking various parts of my body from my muscle mass, to my responsiveness mentally, and emotional health. The exam itself wasn’t too long and when he finished he took the card the previous dwarf filled it and stamped it with an official seal with a symbol. The symbol meant ‘approved’. “Take this card out that door, you’ll see a dwarf wearing heavy battle raiment and a long black claymore on his back, hand the card to him. He’s the one who’ll give you your assignment.”
I nod and walk out the door, whistling as I do thinking about how fun war will be. Though of course he also remembered old veterans tell him “wars nothing but a pointless massacre” and “there’s no honor there”. However being this was his world and a fantasy one at that, he held high hopes. He turned a corner a found the dwarf the last one mentioned. He was watching several dwarves in combat practice, some hitting mannequins, others sparring with fellow trainees and even more being given verbal instruction. I approached the man and coughed gaining his attention and gave him the card.
The dwarf nodded “I’m lieutenant Ruckgevir, welcome to the army kid.”
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Thank you to those who have given criticism so far, I wish to address a part of one. Someone mentioned how I had the world ‘pre-made’ and I have a reason for such. In my original take of this story I had him shape the world as he wanted, however it was dreadfully boring and dull. I spent a good month testing various things to make it ‘”interesting” with no luck, thus why the world was conveniently already there. Once again thank you for your criticism, as I’ve said this is the first non-short story I have written so I hope you continue to offer advice and recommendations so I may improve my own quality of writing.