A beautiful and haunting forest surrounded the small field. All was still and quiet as the sun rose.

The TWO WARRIORS were leaning against old tree stubs and broken rocks, watching the sky lighten.

Joab was the oldest of the two. A hairy, beast of a man. He rarely spoke, and when he did, it was followed by grunts.

He said plenty with his eyes and the scars on his body, however.

Abishai was his younger brother. As Joab laid on a rock like it was bed, Abishai leaned on his extra long spear like it was a pillow.

He was lean, thin, strong and relaxed, with a cool intensity about him.

The two brothers enjoyed the quiet that surrounded them.

"Always late," Joab said. 

Abishai spun his spear around. "I'm never late."

 "I'm not talking about you."

"Well, you could've been clearer."

"It's clear enough. Our youngest idiot brother is late."

Abishai waited.

"Ironic."

"How?" asked Joab, stroking his beard.

"Well, because he's so fast."

"Abi, what does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, if you are that fast, you think you could make up the time."

"Stop talking."

"I'm done."

Joab was glad the conversation HE started was over. But then, he started it again.

"For a famous giant killer, you are pretty dumb."

"Our Mother would be offended," Abishai responded quickly.

"And Father would agree."

"Quiet."

"Don't tell me what to - "

"Shhh. Listen. He's coming."

A quickening was heard through the forest.

Footsteps.

Step after step.

Over rock and tree and brook.

Like a ghost wind, it came for the two brothers.

Asahel appeared. Beautiful and young and mighty and FAST.

He ran like a beast, and his joints moved like a machine.

He leaped in the air and landed next to his brothers in the field.

They weren't that impressed.

"Show off," Joab spoke.

"Hungry?" Asahel offered.

"Always."

Asahel handed his brothers some apples out of his satchel. They immediately started to devour them.

"Where'd you steal these?" Abishai said, apple half eaten.

"Some farmer down the hill. Not loyal to our king. So I helped myself."

"Thief," Joab said, pulling apple out of his beard. "Punishable by death."

"Try to catch me first."

The three chuckled and ate.

Morning was upon them.

"Abi," Asahel asked.

"Yeah."

"Those giants you killed. Were they fast?"

"Not really."

"That's what I thought."

The brother's wardrobes were a mixture of trench coat like material, but with hoods. They had armor, but it was light.

The swords and haircuts and dialects, as well as their race and ethnicity, were a mixture of all that had come before and was yet to come.

No real time period nor culture to pull from.

In other words, timeless.

Joab finished his apple.

"Okay. Nine more."

Abishai looked up. "Who are the three?"

"Us."

"Really?" Asahel asked.

Joab nodded. "The king wants to send a message."

"Separatists need no message," Abishai cooled.

Joab pulled his brutal, heavy sword from it's sheath. He stared at it, thinking of all the death that came from it.

"I don't have to remind you what it's like down there."

"I've only done it once," Abishai replied, spinning his spear around his body like an acrobat.

"I just watched,"Asahel added.

"Well, it is cold, dark, wet and horrible. But it spares the rest," Joab said, with some emotion in his voice. "Let's get going."

"You guys want to race?" Asahel asked excitedly.

"NO!" His older brothers exclaimed.

The three brothers marched up a hillside. As it cleared, parts of their divided kingdom was before them.

Tents and camps of armies, big and small, were scattered. In the distance, castles. Fortresses that were 

stone like and magnificent and yet futuristic, but also gothic and primitive.

The three couldn't help but feel like they were on top of the world as they stared at the small corner of it that was theirs.

But the feeling soon stopped.

A sinister figure stood before them, chuckling.

The three brothers stopped and immediately pulled their weapons.

Amelik was masked. The strange mask was like an actors or buskin mask, but with jagged pieces of metal and rock and debris coming from it.

"Amelik. Let us by. Today is Swordfall," Joab announced, his voice booming.

Amelik just continued to chuckle. "What makes you think I care about a fight at a dirty pool?"

"That fight keeps your army alive. I doubt you will be there," Abishai responded, spinning his spear.

"I promise you. You three will NOT be there," Amelik spit behind his mask.

Suddenly, other formidable armed foes surrounded the three brothers with swords and weapons drawn.

The three went back to back to back.

"This ain't good," Asahel laughed.