Hayden Miller Baynham Parker Mr Hogge English 9/3rd Block 15/3/2013 The Epic of Thane A long time ago,

there was a Nord named Thane. He was a faithful knight of the King of Galilee, Leif Erickson. The Kingdom of Galilee had been at constant war with the humans for quite some time, and now they were running out of knights to send to battle. On the day the messenger from King Erickson came to call for the knights, Thane was in the fields with his friend Olaf, a fellow Nord but Olaf did not have the intelligence of an average Nord, They had been in the middle of a jousting match when the horn from the village sounded, calling everybody to the village square. Thane and Olaf ran to town to find that they were the last two to get there. The messenger stood in front of the village and proclaimed that any eligible knight should come forth and fight for his King. Thane's fellow villagers were all women, children, and retired knights who were no longer eligible for battle because they had already fought, The messenger looked around at the people, frantic to find someone young and eligible. As he looked over the area where Thane and Olaf were, his eyes seemed to skim over them, but quickly darted back to them. He called them up to the front where they were whisked away in carriages and led to the King's castle. As they arrived at King Ericksons castle, they saw groups from all over the land; Nords, Dwarfs, Centaurs, Vikings, and even the Dragon Hunters. Thane isn't sent to the King, but he gets a letter from him saying that he, Thane, must go try to reason with the humans and stop the war and that he has until morning to accept or decline this pretentious offer. Of course, Thane accepts, so he and Olaf set of on their Epic Odyssey.

The two Nords first had to go around to the different lands , making friends, gaining allies, and preparing for the final confrontation with the humans . Thane and Olaf wandered around the Nordic country side, gathering supplies for their long trip. One day, along an old beaten down road, they noticed a sign that said 'Horses for Trade'. They walked up to the cottage, and noticed that they aren't the only ones here. They saunter into the cottage and find a group of Nords beating up a man. Thane and Olaf break up the fight only to discover that the man who was getting beaten was the owner of the horses, and that one of the men had not gotten the horse he wanted . Thane takes the man's horse back to the stable, gets the one he wanted and sends him and his friends off . The owner thanks Thane and sends him off with a two free horses , one for him, and another for Olaf. Olaf suggests getting supplies, so they head to the local trading post. Thane makes a mental list of the supplies they need, and sends Olaf off to get them while he catches up on missed sleep. Olaf came back with the supplies, and a cat. The cat looked up at Thane, and at first he thought Olaf was messing with him by putting fake antlers on the cat, but then Thane tried to pull on one of the antlers and it meowed in protest, then bit him. They set off to visit the land of the Dragons and the Dragon Hunters, seeing that once they got the hardest one out of the way, the rest would be easy. They got to the gates of the Dragon territory and were met with massive mossy stone walls as far as the eye could see. Thane sent Olaf up to the wall to see if he could possible climb over them, but instead he discovered that the walls extended up into the murky sky too. Thane started shouting at the wall, distraught about the delay, and suddenly a gate and many guards appeared before him. He rode up to the gate, and the guards tell him to state his buisness. I am Thane, knight of Galilee, faithful servant to the king. I was sent here to seek alligence from the dragon kind. The guards huddled together, speculating his request. One turned, and said You shall pass

through the gates of the Dragon territory. Thane jumps back on his steed and gallops through the gates to find a barren land with boulders placed precariously and haphazardly throughout the plain. Then, ever so slightly, Thane saw a blast of orange in the distance. He looked again only to find that the blast of orange was much bigger and brighter now, so he turned around to leave but was stopped by Olaf, who was trying to get Smitty, the cat, out of his bag, and get his horse to move at the same time. Thane shouted to get out of the way just as a flaming ball of fire hit the stone wall. A group of dragons flew toward him, and he boldly stood where he was as the Dragon Riders asked what his buiness was. He repeated what he had told the guards. I have come to recruit allies for the final confrontation with the humans. They have attacked the shores of the Centauric land, and are progressing rapidly throughout it. If we cannot stop them, it has been proclaimed that we all will parish. The dragon riders were skeptical about him as the circumstances were, but when Olaf yelled in surprise because Smitty had jumped down under his horse, the riders looked at them with pity, as if they needed their help. They agreed, and said that they would spread the word throughout their land, and sent Thane, Olaf, and Smitty onto their next task; traveling through the mountainous land of the dwarfs. For two weeks, the two Nords, and Smitty, dealt with blizzards, hypobaropathy, and Smitty's constant opposition to the thin trails they followed up and down the mountains. As they started to run out of supplies and food, Thane secretly started rationing Smitty's portions. Making Smitty hate him even more. They finally reached the dwarfs and the kind-minded creatures did not agree, nor disagreed. They said that they would intervene if necessary.