The Sword of Heaven

This is the story of how the Sword of Heaven came to the world.

King Galen was aging and sick and on his deathbed. Like many men whose fate had raised to kingship before him, he pondered the fate of his kingdom upon his impending demise. That night the good king Galen had a dream. In the dream, the creator had thrown down a stone from heaven. Within this stone was the material to forge the Sword of Heaven. In this dream, the king would foresee the contest to obtain the stone. His dream revealed to him the place where the stone would land. It placed the stone at the mountain that stood between his kingdom and a neighboring kingdom called Parthian. The king there was called Archon. He foresaw that the priests that worked for Archon would also see the stone as it fell from heaven and would also be sending a team to recover the stone. King Galen woke and called his scribe and his physician. His physician tended him with juices and a purgative tea. While he drank his tea he had his scribe write down the directions to where the stone would fall. The king looked the parchment over and then sealed it to be shown to his son Prince Michael. The prince had been staying in the monastery near the mountain while he was being trained by the priests. The king sent 2 of his best warriors with his scribe to deliver his note to the prince.

After his small breakfast and bath, the king was feeling energized. He was able to sit upon his throne once again and called for his generals. Crathas was his number one. He stood with the king always and was a kind of poet and warrior. King Galen brought him close and told him of his dream. He told his top general that he feared that he might not live long enough to see his vision for the kingdom completed and ask him to assist Prince Michael to secure the stone and to ensure that from it was hewn the Sword of Heaven. The significance of this was not lost on general Crathas. The sword of Heaven would be coveted by every king. It would be the sword of the king of kings.

That night Prince Michael and the king's guard went to the mountain as instructed. The moon was full and the terrain was well lit. They needed and wanted no fire as they rode. General Crathas was on his trail within hours with 50 of his best men. 20 archers and 30 armored cavelery. As the general and his men approached the mountain they saw the meteor fall from the sky exactly where the king had said it would fall. This hastened their pace to close the distance between them and the prince.

Prince Michael and the royal guard were practically right beneath where the meteor fell Their horses were startled by the flash and the explosion as the bolide blew into many fragments overhead. Once the horses were calmed and settled the prince and the guardsmen fanned out to locate the glowing fragments and to spot the small fires they would light on the mountainside. Spotting a large fragment prince Michael dismounted his horse and drew out a hammer and approached the fragment. It looked to him to be about a 30lb piece. He moved it around so that it was flat against a rock and hit the stone. The light materials fell away and its still-hot metalcore was revealed. The prince motioned for one of the guards to bring some tongs. They positioned the metal on a large flat stone and the prince knocked away the rest of the lighter material. While the guardsman cleaned up the large billet of metal Michael continued to seek out more large fragments. They together collected about 25 lbs of metal in all. They quickly poured oil on them and cooled them on the mountain stone. It was then one of the guardsmen heard the approach of horses from the South East side of the mountain. The Parthians were on their way and fast.

General Crathas could see the light of the torches the Parthian's carried as they were making their way through the narrow pass. Their horses were straining under the weight of the armor and the riders going uphill. The general sent the archers forward as they had less weight than the more heavily armored cavalry. He instructed them to loose arrows as fast as possible as they approached the area near where the Parthians were going to crest the top of the pass. Michael and the scribe and the king's guardsmen worked quickly to wrap up the still-hot metal from the meteor and head down the mountain. The prince instructed the guard to light up some dried brush and add then add some green to make smoke to try and conceal their exit down the mountainside.

King Archon's men were over the crest of the mountain pass by now. They were no more than 800 yards from the prince and his men and were closing fast. Their horses were tired from their treck up on their side of the mountain but the downhill slope gave them more speed. One of their chariots came loose from its mount and crashed into some rocks slowing down the party. As Prince Michael descended the mountain trail the archers were on approach. They dismounted as the Prince's party passed them and then took cover in the rocks. The archers sent their mounts to follow on with the prince and his party. They would fare longer dismounted and hidden in the rocks as the Parthians approached. Michael saluted the archers as he passed them on the trail. He knew the king had sent them to buy him some time.

Prince Michael met up with General Crathas and the calvary on the trail as the archers loosed their first volley of flaming arrows. As the Parthians fell some of them charged the archers. The archers continued firing but with no flames to follow to pinpoint the locations they felled many of the attacking force. Now the armored calvary was entering the fray. The Parthians fired on the calvary charge but to little effect. As the 2 forces met Prince Michael handed off their prize to the scribe and instructed the king's guard to keep it safe and deliver it to the blacksmith. The prince headed up the mountain to join the fray. While there were still some sword clashes ringing out in the cold night air the task was done and the Parthians retreated.

While they had lost just 3 archers the Parthians had lost more than a dozen men. Prince Michael and General Crathas headed back to the castle and discussed the king's vision for the sword of heaven. It was not even made yet but it's making was forged in blood.

-0-more later-0-

AND.......?

a reply to: Plotus

Hit the wrong key and it disappeared, about 1 hour of writing. I will redo it tomorrow. I should know better by now than to write online.

Awwww. that has happened to me..... and even some of my best writing. It surely is disheartening.

a reply to: Plotus

General Crathas sent 12 of his archers to take up positions on the bluff near the mountain pass. They gathered the Parthian dead and placed them near the mouth of the pass and lit fires near them as was the custom. The Parthians came in the night with litters and gathered up the dead and were gone by morning. Michael had headed to the blacksmith in order to see the prized meteor metal. From the fires of the forge, it was clear that the largest piece had a gold color but the hardness of the finest steel they had made in this forge.

The blacksmith who was called Fricheot was a Carpathian and had brought their steel making technology with him. His forge had 2 bellows. 2 men could fire the bellows to a high enough heat using the black mountain coal to liquefy iron. This metal softened a bit and glowed red hot but did not melt. Fricheot had the metal drawn from the forge and worked it on his anvil with his largest hammer. It took on good shape for a sword but was a bit long. He tried to use the stone ax to cut some off but it would not yield. Michael could see this would take some time so he got the blacksmith's attention and handed his 3 pieces of gold for his work. Michael wanted to present the sword to his father before he passed on if at all possible. Fricheot paid his helpers and sent one of them to gather more help to stoke the fires and prepare a late supper for anyone he could rouse this late to help. Michael went to his chambers but was intercepted in the hall by the scribe who called for him to attend his father the king. Prince Michael saw his father was looking weak but he smiled at his son and took his hand. King Galen told his son of how proud his mother would be to see the man he had become. She had died 3 winters past of lung disease so Michael fought back tears while thinking of her.

King Archon at this time was talking with his priests. The priests described again the prophecy of the sword of heaven. He could not manage to obtain it that night but still coveted it. Even more, now that blood was spilled in his decision to try and obtain the meteor metal. The stone from which the sword of heaven would be drawn had landed in the Galacian kingdom of that there could be no dispute. The dead were recovered from his neighbor's land and all knew this. A carrier would be sent in the morning with a piece of silver for each of the recovered dead and an apology would be issued.

The blacksmith worked through much of the night with his crew of helpers. The sword was taking shape and there was enough metal remaining to forge some knives and perhaps some arrow points. There remained some metal more like steel that remained but was light in weight. From this Fricheot would form a shield. This metal while lighter than steel was very strong. It had a blue glow to it like a crystal structure. It would be days before these weapons would be forged but what they would reveal would outlive any mortal king.