The Mountain Guard.

The armed forces of the Mountain Kingdoms, led by the General Major. Over two million strong, they’re known for recruiting criminals and orphans into their ranks, whipping them into elite warriors.

This was not my original plan, but joining the Mountain Guard has its benefits: The General Major is one of the most influential figures in the Mountain Kingdoms, second only to the Mountain King himself. Technically, after a monarch’s death the Crown passes down to the eldest child, but dynasties are short and rare. Assassinations, bribery, blackmail, and rebellions are easier ways to get the Crown, after all.

If I manage to become the General Major of the Mountain Guard, starting a rebellion would be easy. The Mountain Guard far outnumbers the miniscule Royal Guard of the Mountain King; most likely the king would surrender the Crown to me with as little bloodshed as possible.

I sat fantasizing about the future in the small cage. I was interrupted from my thoughts when a giant hand banged on the iron bars of my cell. It was the ogre that had got me into this predicament: Libnawg. “We’re almost there,” he yelled. “Prepare to be recruited into the ranks of the Mountain Guard!”

My eyes darted around. All around me, other greenskins were also in small cages. Some were no more than children, others dirty, filthy creatures with murderous intent shining in their eyes. “Why do you need so many?” I asked the ogre. “I bet half of us here can’t even hold a sword properly…”

Libnawg laughed cruelly. “Well, survival of the fittest, after all.”

I suddenly felt like vomiting. “S-survival of the fittest? W-what do you mean-”

“What do you think I mean?” He snarled. “A death tournament. Out of every sixteen of you, only one will actually join the Mountain Guard. The rest… well… crows need to be fed, after all.”

I felt dizzy as Libnawg laughed. One in sixteen… each of us had to fight four one-on-one duels. Not the training matches Glitsnab enjoyed… real weapons. Losing a battle meant death. I had never killed before, and I never planned to. And yet… I would have to kill four others today just to survive.

This was how life worked in the Mountain Kingdoms, I realized. Every day you survive is paid for with blood. You either kill, or you are killed. It was a cruel game of death: The winners reap the rewards, and the others are left to die.

“Well, boy, choose yer weapon,” The orc with an eyepatch grunted. “It’s gonna be yer best friend for the rest of your life.”

I looked around the small room. Each wall was covered with an assortment of weapons. Long, thin knives. Shiny steel swords and gigantic axes. Slings, bows, even shurikens and nunchucks. The weapon I chose would be the weapon I would use for the rest of my life. It would be the one that would take the lives of tens, if not hundreds…

I searched through the thousands of blades, but none of them seemed to tickle my fancy. I swung a short sword around, but it was too light for me. Ranged weapons weren’t my thing. I tried to pick up a greataxe and ended up nearly chopping off my feet. The axe fell and slammed into the ground, a millimeter away from my toes. Yelling in surprise, I jumped backwards and promptly slammed into a rack of longswords that collapsed onto the ground.

“Hey! Boy!” The blacksmith yelled. “Watch it, will ya! Those swords are expensive!”

I muttered a “sorry” before beginning to pick up the swords. Suddenly, one of them caught my eye: The blade was about three feet tall, forged of nothing but common steel. However… when it fell off the rack, it slammed through the wooden ground. Walking towards it in wonder, looking at its hilt protruding upwards, it seemed as if it were…

“Excalibur,” I breathed, drawing the sword from the ground as if it were the Sword in the Stone.

Okay, looking back on it, I’ll admit I was pretty stupid. In most legends the Sword in the Stone and Excalibur usually aren’t even connected, but it just felt so damn cool to draw the sword from the ground. Holding the longsword with both weapons, I felt like a king. “Well, kid, is that the weapon yer gonna chose?”

“Yes,” I smiled. “Excalibur… a sword forged for kings.”

The blacksmith laughed. “That sword was forged for nobody but cannon fodder like yourself. Excalibur… what a strange name. Well, you will carry that sword to victory tomorrow, or you will carry it to your grave.”

***

Dressing up as an orc isn’t as hard as it seems.

Orc women were usually a head taller than me, but greenskin runts aren’t that rare. An elf dressing up as an orc to infiltrate greenskin society, on the other hand, is. There was no way they would suspect me, I told myself as I painted myself green. I fashioned my hair into a bun before putting on a golden suit of armor from one of the many orcs I slew in the past.

“Well, don’t you look lovely.” I turned around to see a man chuckle. He was rather tall, with messy, brown hair that matched his eyes.

I pouted. “Why is it that I have to dress up like a greenskin while you go on more guerilla attacks?”

“The Oligarchy commands it,” the man smiled as he embraced me. “Don’t worry… if we obey them, our dream will come true.”

I felt the tears begin to spring up in my eyes. “When I told you I wanted to get married and raise a family with you… I never thought we would go so far.”

“Inarel… I would kill everyone in the entire world if it meant being with you.” Felein touched my face gently with his hand.

Forbidden love. Social stigma. Taboo. Elf and Human, society decreed, could never make love to or marry one another. Too much happened between the two races for them to accept each other… besides, elves often lived thousands of years. Any elf-human couple was doomed to end in tragedy.

And yet I fell in love with a human. Qeshu’naly, they call them in my tongue. Lowborn scum. Imperfect creatures that shouldn’t even touch us godlike, near-immortal beings. I knew our relationship would end in tragic disaster, but I didn’t care. Elf-human relationships were punishable by death, so we swore that if worse came to worse we could commit double suicide.

“We leave this world together,” I whispered softly to him.

“We leave this world as one,” Felein finished, before kissing me.

His lips were so warm and so sweet… yet it was bitter. Like everything else in this world. We were both excellent warriors, and soon we attracted unwanted attention from the government. The Oligarchy of Fenlar discovered our relationship. As we were both legendary soldiers they were reluctant to execute us… so they gave us a proposal.

Serve as their dogs. Obey their every order. If we became their slaves for ten years, they would reward us with permission to marry.

To be with him for the rest of my life… to raise his children with him, that was all I wanted. I would do anything for that dream to come true…

“Well, what do they plan on making you do now?” Felein asked.

I sighed. The task they gave me was near-impossible… but if I wanted my dream with Felein to come true, I would have to do anything.

“I am to assassinate the General Major of the Mountain Kingdoms.”