This story is a parallel of the Tales of Runne. It tasks place in the same world. It is written by the Albino Knight of Darkness. He and I have worked together to create a substantially sized world which there are many stories about. Hope that you enjoy this.

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Chapter 1

There he stood in the dawning light. Watching the Ogres make there way to where they should be. Going to work, school, shopping in the markets. He stays crouched in the darkness and cover of the overgrowth, As he cocked his first arrow. But he was not alone. Beside him and all along the tree line, the others cocked their arrows also. Then it the time came. The sun was just right. He gave the signal pulled back and all at once there was a rain of arrows fly; almost sing through the air. Then it started. There was all at once a series of horrifying screams; as the first wave of arrows struck.

One Ogre who was walking with an infant covered the child for protection; just as the first arrow bored through her skull to protrude from the other side; with what was left of her right eye, and little pieces of the ogre's brain that was pushed through by the arrow. She screamed once then as her body went through convulsions she was struck again. Through the shoulder blade, a lung, her heart; to have the end stick out the left side of her chest by an inch, almost enough to strike the infant; but it did not. Villagers ran in wide spread panic. As one after another fell with each strike of the arrows.

" Rothner!!! You traitor. After all we taught you. Took you into our society, showed you our ways, our life, excepted you as our own. And this is how you repay us? You shall die for your cause today. You shall die and I will be the one to carry your head into town and let it be known what you did on this day; and it will be your people who suffer. For you will be dead."

He spoke with a powerful voice. One that now more then ever made his enemy realize that his long time comrade was not going to be the one to die today. But that did not matter even if he did die today, he would make sure that he left his mark on his enemy. That he would not die in vain. He would die with his entire honor. Not like his enemy. Rothner would die knowing that he had betrayed the one's he had called family for a long time. He would know what it was like to feel cold steal. Because if he could not kill him today. Then Joklake would. His would be the last face Rothner would see before he died. But for now it was time to see actually how good he was. But if his voice was anything like his determination it would be one hell of a fight.

"Yes, you did teach me; but these are my people, and I shall help set them free from your clutches of pure hatred and hell."

They lunged into battle. Both swinging there swords with the rage of all their people's pride driving them. For the winner would also represent the fate of their people. They raged on until the first blow was struck. Rothner being the smaller and quicker of the two got the first shot. It was a beautiful and noble strike he thought. It was a slice across his leg. It brought him to his knees. Then Rothner struck again. Removing his sword hand, severing half of his arm along with it. He screamed in agony.

As blood poured from his severed limb he thought to himself. He realized that he was right. That Rothner; this Elf was going to be the downfall of the rain of Oztoria. And there was no one; not even the Ogre king himself who could stop him. But he would not let it show now. For it was not his place. For he was the first of millions who would fall before him. He looked up into his long time friend now enemy's eye's and spoke the only thing that could help him in his cause to free the Elves.

"When Joklake hears of this you will be hunted down and killed. This is worthless Flex. You will never defeat us. They will hunt you down and give you the death you deserve. And the result will be that your people will pay for your actions. Ha ha ha!! This was pointless."

" If you are all dead how will they ever know that I was here? They won't know till it is too late. They won't know till they feel the cold steal of my blade in their back. Now you will be the one who will feel my blade first. Good-bye Lortoc, my noble and most respected friend."

He let out one last horrifying battle cry as he watched a tear run down the cheek of his enemy. Then the blade fell, shimmering in the mid daylight. In that instant he realized that he was the lucky one. He was the one who did not have to see all this death and carnage happen. It was Flax who had to live to see it. Then it was over. Flex removed his head from his body in one full swipe. Flex wiped his blade off on Lortoc's clothing. Then with a pride and almost joyful look turned to see the damage that was done. To his surprise none of the Eleven band that he had assembled was fatally harmed. He had trained them well over the last few years.

Just then he saw an Elf raise his blade to strike down a defenseless infant Ogre. In that very instant he hauled out an arrow and let fly. It struck the Elf enough to make him drop his sword. Then he was there in a flash with his long knife to the young Elf's throat.

"I said there was to be no killing the infants. For those who did would pay with their life!!"

The young Elf spoke out as though he was testing Flex. Like he wanted to see if he would actually go that extra step and kill one of his own to save the life of an enemies child.

"But, if they live they will grow and become just like their parents, and try to enslave us again. They all must die!"

Flex turned to face the young Elf. Looked into his eye's and realized that this was going to be a hard and long fight to bring the two races together as one. But he had to start somewhere, and here was the best time to do it.

"No, if they are taught to treat us as equals and brought up with our ways. Then none of that will ever happen again. We will take them and make them our own. They will know of our hard ships and be taught that what their parents did was wrong. But we will make sure that they will not suffer for their parents actions because they did not know any better. For they are innocent. They are not the one's who had done this."

Flex stood and turned to face the rest of the band of Elves. Then with a very dominant and leader like pride asked to all.

" Is there anyone here who thinks different? If so step forward and speak your mind know."

Not one came forward; because all knew that if anyone dare ask questions or go against him; they would end up like Lortoc or even worse. Flex gave the order to clean up the town, and for the women to be brought in to take care of the infants. The war of the Elves had now begun. There was now no turning back ..EVER.

The day wore on as the Elves slow but surly took control of the small town. Burying the dead Ogre's out of respect for the innocent by standards. For those who had to die for the cause. Now fortifications were being prepared to be shipped back to Vine Glade. Flex sat down on one of the huge feather beds inside one of the hotels that they had raided for anything they could salvage. He started to recall his past, how all the events in his life had led up to this.

Flex had no memory of his father. He never even knew his name; let alone be able to put a face to it. Although he had pictured this great man of strength and power. Then there was his mother. Well before she disappeared anyway's. He remembers her as a very dark, mysterious women. Almost an evil presence but yet kind, and loving towards him. She was a very beautiful woman. She was young when Flex was born.

Then strangely to Flex's surprise there was Jocorg. He was a very strong powerful person. From the time Flex can remember up until his mysterious death Flex knew him like a father would a son. Which was very strange. Because most all the elves were slaves working in the gold mines, or in the mills. But not Flex. Himself and about 150 others were taken as orphans and brought into the castle and taught the Ogre's cruel and devastating ways. They were taught how to fight. How to wield a sword. Not just any little sword. They were taught how to use a broad sword. They were trained to be an elite force that could protect the king when the need be. But, for some reason Flex was always singled out. Or taken aside by the king himself to be trained.

The king would take Flex on hunting trips or little civil battles when the Elves would feel like rebelling. Although these battles were unfair for the Elves; the king would seldom give mercy to the rebels. Although every time he saw one fall Flex could see the pain in his eye's. Even though he never understood why he felt this pain he did not ask why it was that way. He always thought that if he was to know the king would tell him. Flex grew up knowing both sides of the story. The pain and suffering the Elves went through, and the struggle the Ogre's went through to keep it that way.

In his younger years Flex came to realize that he had a strange birthmark on the back of his neck. Which strangely resembled Ogre skin. Fearing being ridiculed and made fun of by the other's he let his hair grow long to hide this sight. While he was training two others only matched him. Joklake and the one who fell to his blade earlier that day; Lortoc. They were all in competition with each other; but Flex had what looked like the severe disadvantage. But, in the end it was not. In the case of Lortoc. Joklake for some odd reasons treated Flex with the respect and love a brother would. So Flex had done the same.

Although he had never seen one before there was said to be humans to the west of the mountains. He thought to himself that he would like to meet such great beings to have driven the Ogre's into his ancestor's lands and to enslave his people. Although it was rumored that they were having problems of there own with the rebellion. I guess the people there were just like the Elves. Being mistreated and used; and now were just tired of it being so. Then his mind wandered back to how he got here. He recalled the day it was said the king was found dead in his chamber with an elite force of Ogre's that Flex thought were to be of a much better caliber then even his special training.

There was a time of mourning. But it did not last long. Joklake took the town and everything seemed to start to change. There was a great shrine built to honor the king and the one's who fell with him. Then the rumors started to fly around town. There was said to be a servant Elf that witnessed everything. But he was imprisoned I the castle dungeon. Even though Flex who was an elite guard. And knew almost every inch of that castle. It had made him curious as to if the rumor was true or not. Joklake had changed in a drastic way. He no longer treated Flex as a brother. He had changed in a way that Flex sometimes began to question if it really was Joklake. It became obvious that things were only going to get worse for the Elves from here on.

This new Joklake started to have random killings so that it would discourage any thought of rebellion in the slaves. Flex started to get angry with this. But it was when Lortoc left that he decided to do something about it. Lortoc was stationed at this town. He was to help lead the defense for the town. He was supposed to make that town a small fort. Once he had left Flex pout his plan into action. See; the king had taught Flex where the secret passageways were incase he ever needed to escape. Namely after the kings demise. Flex gathered up his elite force and proceeded to make the escape plan. The plan was to take as many Elves as they could out through the tunnels to escape to the south where they would stay make fort and build an army. The first eight attempts were successful. However the ninth was not. There was rumor that the Ogre's were catching on but they didn't think they would get caught. They were halfway to the first check point when the Ogre guard spotted them. The Elven guard got away because of his great skill. The rest of the Elves were not so lucky. The Ogre's slaughtered them. They came out of the shadows and attacked them with no mercy. They were tore to shreds; as if wild animals had attacked them. But from what the Elven guard watched and told Flex. The Ogre's had attacked in a manor that was nothing like they always were trained to do. This started to make Flex wonder. What was going on with the Ogre army? So Flex devised a plan to change the route; but still make a decoy to distract the Ogre attackers. Which worked every time. So for the last two years the elves have been little by little. Escaping from Oztoria. This brought the founding of Vine Glade. This was the new Elven town. The Elves needed a place to live once free of the Ogre's. So they began construction of a town in the treetops so as to hide their appearance from the rest of the world until the time was right. It seemed now that it was so. With that thought Flex laid down and drifted off to sleep, for a much needed rest.