The Battle of Ebulon

The Battle of
Ebulon

A Shared
Anthology

Copyright 2013 Shane
Porteous Walter Rhein Vanna Smythe Neil Shooter R.M.
McDaniel

Kaine Andrews Brandon
Ellis L. Blankenship Jenelle Leanne Schmidt Tom Barczak SKN
Hammerstone Jennifer Priester Kate Porteous Wayne Borean Matthew
Taylor

Smashwords
Edition

Copyright 2013 cover art
and cover by Tom Barczak

Smashwords Edition,
License Notes

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Dear Reader

I’ve always loved
crossovers; the idea of characters created from two or more minds
coming together in one story has always excited me. I cannot
remember the first crossover story I read/watched (although an
episode of Power Rangers where the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
guest starred comes to mind.) I have no doubt it has something to
do with my love of manga/comic books. What you mean there is a
single comic book that features both Spiderman and Batman? How
could I not get excited about such a story? Crossovers enable
writers to tell a unique story with familiar characters together,
that a single author simply can’t do on their own.

I was suffering from a
particularly bad case of writer’s vulnerability. I didn’t really
have writer’s block per se, it was just I couldn’t get excited
about any ideas that I came up with. Like most writers I began
thinking about what I wanted to accomplish with my storytelling.
Now apart from the obvious dreams of success, one of my goals was
to collaborate with another author and write a crossover between
our novels.

I began searching the list
of independent authors whose works I admired as I began dreaming up
potential ideas for a crossover. However I soon discovered the
extreme difficulty in getting a crossover written. Most authors
barely have time to get their own stories written let alone the
time needed to write a good crossover.

At first I was disgruntled
but my mind kept coming up with different crossover ideas. I soon
found myself thinking about the fantasy genre as a whole. Fantasy
has to be the most diverse literary genre; there are just so many
sub-genres. I began thinking about the differences between the
sub-genres and soon discovered the one commonality they all share,
heroism. Now as you probably know heroism comes in all shapes and
sizes but ultimately it comes down to heroes doing the right thing
and selflessly putting themselves in dangerous situations to
accomplish such a goal.

Unsurprisingly when
thinking about the core of fantasy it is impossible not to think of
Tolkien’s work (without a doubt the measuring stick of fantasy).
While thinking about Lord of the Rings an image popped into my
mind. I imagined Conan the Barbarian and David Gemmell’s Waylander
fighting alongside Legolas and Gimli as they defended Helm’s Deep.
Pretty cool image right?

That image sent my
imagination running and it wasn’t long before I came up with the
concept for this anthology. But truth be told because of my
frustrating experiences with trying to get a crossover story
written I wasn’t exactly hopeful about it. I posted the idea in
several goodreads groups with little intention of actually creating
the anthology. Sometimes it is just fun to talk about an idea even
if nothing comes to fruition.

However within only a
matter of days I had over a dozen excited authors eagerly asking
where they could sign up for the anthology. Their enthusiasm got me
excited that an anthology could actually happen. I quickly set
about gathering these authors, setting up guidelines and an email
address where we could all communicate and finally submit our
contributions.

As I read what my fellow
authors had written I was both impressed and amazed by the
diversity presented to me. Almost every sub-genre of fantasy can be
found within this anthology, epic, high, dark, brutal, urban,
horror, paranormal and almost everything in between. If you’re
expecting 15 Eragon styled entries then are you in for a surprise.
We have a great array of traditional heroes, bad ass anti-heroes,
urban heroines, angels, demi-gods, ancient beings, talking animals
and even super heroes. Also a few authors are making their
publishing debut with this anthology.

It still feels a little
surreal that not only this anthology was put together but just how
brilliant of an anthology it is. As strange as it sounds I feel a
little like the King of Ebulon right now. While he called for aid
to save his kingdom I called for aid in helping me deal with my
writer’s vulnerability. Their fictional heroes just might save
Ebulon (I can’t give away spoilers now can I?) but I know for sure
the enthusiasm and talent of these 14 authors has cured me of my
vulnerability. For that I just want to say thank you to each and
every one of them.

Now the time for talk is
over, the enemy is at the gate, hellbent on destroying this
fascinating Kingdom. Will they succeed in conquering it? Not while
our heroes have anything to say about it!

-Shane Porteous (complier
of this anthology.)

Entry Point 1- By Shane
Porteous

The winter was the coldest
it had ever been, causing a constant chill to consume the air. The
sun did its best through the thick clouds, but even its power was
not enough to warm the mountainous landscape. Two warriors dressed
in thick fur over full suits of armour stood side by side in a
quiet little corner of the city. Both in their early thirties, one
possessed a full head of black hair, while the other was completely
bald. The air was cold enough on its own to transform their breath
into mist, but each sucked eagerly on pipes creating mists of their
own. The weed tasted pleasant yet both stood with sour
expressions.

“No one is coming you
know,” The full haired man said, his words were as flat as paper.
He had spoken softly yet his voice seemed loud in the otherwise
tense silence. For his words he got a scowled look from his bald
headed companion.

“How many times are you
going to say that Ulka?”

Ulka studied the face of
the other man briefly; Torin was always hard to read.

“
Until you
accept it as fact my friend.”

Torin took a long drag
from his pipe as he glanced up at the morbid sky. “We’ve known each
other since we were kids and in all that time I never knew you had
such an ability.”

Ulka narrowed his eyes,
trying to figure out what his deep voiced friend meant. Torin knew
well enough that Ulka didn’t realize what he was getting at. With
his bronze eyes Torin looked to his friend. “I didn’t realize that
you can see into the future, tell me are we going to see the end of
today?”

Ulka made a point of
taking a long drag from his pipe before he answered. “I don’t know
about the future, but I have seen the present and not one word of
help arriving has been uttered.”

Torin held the pipe in his
teeth but spoke before inhaling. “The day is still young Ulka,
besides we have no idea what is happening in other parts of Ebulon
do we?”

Ulka bit his lip,
sometimes Torin could be a little condescending. “That doesn’t help
us now does it?” Ulka replied.

Torin shook his head and
blew out more smoke. “It might, for all we know there is a whole
horde of allies taking care of the enemy, we might not even have to
wield our swords today.”

“You seem to have the
ignorant hope of a child, Torin.”

“Better that than the
cynicism of an old man,” Torin skillfully replied.

Ulka gaze ascended to the
dull sky, he rarely saw the sun but had always found its glow
beautiful, of all days he wished he could see it clearly today. “I
just don’t see why anybody will come and help us, their worlds
aren’t at stake, they have nothing to gain from coming
here.”

Torin allowed the words to
hang for a moment before he responded. “Let us just hope, there are
enough selfless warriors in all the worlds that enough will bring
aid.”

Ulka nodded, though he
remained doubtful, his gaze still to the sky.

“Lieutenants!” a sharp
voice called.

The two men turned to see
a woman warrior, dressed similar to them.

“Yes Luvis?” Torin
asked.

“The Captain wants to
speak to you two immediately.”

Ulka and Torin glanced at
one another briefly as the air grew tense. They both feared the
attack had begun. Taking one last drag of their pipes the two of
them quickly emptied them and extinguished the embers under their
boots. They made sure their lungs were free of smoke before nodding
to Luvis and moving out of the little corner.

They walked passed a stone
corner and into a large open area. Warriors, both men and women of
the realm, stood and sat in preparation for what would surely be
the largest attack on their city in history. The lieutenants
received the occasional nod from their fellow soldiers, each
warrior tried to look brave but the air stank of fear. They could
see their captain above the courtyard, standing upon the stone
walkway that bordered the city. His helmet wasn’t on his head,
potentially a good sign that the attack hadn’t come yet. Moving
together they walked up the closest set of stone stairs and entered
the walkway. Silently they moved passed the numerous soldiers who
stood by various mechanisms of defense, such as stone throwers. If
Ebulon were too fall today it would not fall quietly.

As they approached the
captain they were drawn to his immense eyes. In the chill of winter
they seemed like two flawlessly carved marbles of blue and white,
unflinching and immovable. As with every soldier that would defend
this entranceway Torin and Ulka were grateful that Captain Juruz
would be leading them. In a sign of genuine and mandatory respect
the two of them bowed slightly.

“You called for us
Captain?” Torin asked.

Through his thick blond
beard Juruz said, “Where were the two of you?” Though he was in his
early forties, ever since he was 13 Juruz had possessed a voice of
authority.

“Captain we were smoking
from our pipes,” Torin answered.

Juruz stayed silent, but
they each knew what it meant.

“We did it in a corner
that wouldn’t be seen by any of the troops, we know how important
it is to appear brave in front of them and so we both needed to
calm our nerves,” Ulka said quickly, hoping to ease the immense
tension.

Juruz didn’t answer right
away and that made the two of them nervous. “That weed doesn’t calm
the nerves, it dulls them…tell me do you want to be as sluggish as
drunkards when the time comes to wield swords?”

Torin and Ulka lowered
their heads, they wished they could’ve been as fearless as Juruz,
but such fearlessness was beyond them. Ulka raised his head and
motioned to speak but then stopped upon realizing Juruz wasn’t
looking at them. Very rarely did he not give eye contact; it was
one of the many reasons why he was so respected amongst the
soldiers of Ebulon, because he always showed respect. Instead he
was staring out into the mountainous wilderness, every inch of
which appeared grasped by snow.

“Captain may I ask what it
is you’re looking at?” Ulka asked while Torin listened
carefully.

“I am not looking at
anything Ulka, I am listening…”

Torin and Ulka raised
their heads and listened well.

“I’m afraid I can’t hear
what has grasped your attention Captain,” Torin said
respectfully.

Juruz nodded, though his
expression remained like stone. “I can’t hear it anymore either,
the drums can no longer be heard.”

Ulka and Torin listened
for a moment to strengthen Juruz’s words. They now stood by his
side looking out into the mountain ranges. For the last several
days those accursed drums had haunted the air as the Orcs were
preparing themselves for battle in whatever dark ritual suited
their filthy minds. Ulka and Torin had been too consumed by fear to
realize that the drums couldn’t be heard as they smoked their
pipes. Juruz was right, the weed had dulled their
senses.