Fantasy World Farm 8

Chapter One

“Ladies and gentlemen of Gladewood Crossing!” he called out in a calm and almost cocky tone. “I am Lieutenant Shaar.”

The crowd mumbled among themselves, as if they were trying to figure out if they should know that name or not.

But I kept my gaze on the scarred elf who held his hands out as his side with a twisted grin on his face.

“You are now officially under my occupation,” he declared. “Courtesy… of Drakar Rathys.”

Lieutenant Shaar stood like a pillar of exposed muscle and sinew, and he radiated a punchable amount of confidence as he grinned at the people of Gladewood.

The silence that had settled was suffocating. No one moved. No one even breathed. But Shaar kept grinning as if he already knew he’d won.

I didn’t know who it was that broke the silence, but there was a quiet whimper quickly followed by a shrill shriek.

After that, the floodgates opened.

A cacophony of screams and yells rattled my head and pierced my eardrums. Mothers holding their children scrambled for the safety of the houses lining either side of us on the square.

The men who had been helping move the bodies of the dead soldiers unsheathed their weapons, but Shaar didn’t move an inch.

It was like he was drinking down the chaos those few words had caused, and he was getting drunk on it.

The exposed muscles of his cheeks glistened as they turned taut from the lupine smile that twisted his face, and his dark brown eyes shimmered with amusement as they flicked between the trembling Gladers trying to muster enough courage to strike.

Karrida gripped my arm tightly, and I could feel her hand shaking around my bicep.

Raeth growled and pulled her greatsword from her back with a hiss of steel.

Sparks flew from Ellyn’s nimble fingers as she held them out in front of her, and Tirii pulled out a dagger from a hidden sheath loosely strapped to her thigh.

My own gun holster was hanging off my hips thanks to the rush I’d been in to put it on. But I didn’t pull out my Glock just yet. Shaar hadn’t made a move. He was just… watching.

The screams of terror continued to echo around the bloodied streets of Gladewood, and every shrill shriek was like a bolt straight to my brain.

“Enough!” I shouted above the noise, just to get it to stop.

He wasn’t attacking, which meant there was a chance he wanted to talk.

I didn’t want another fight. Not here where almost every single Glader was present, and half of them were weaponless.

Unfortunately, the crowd continued to shriek, and it was only when Shaar raised up his hands that everyone fell silent. Almost every single Glader paused in their panic and stared at the intruder with wide, frightful eyes.

Shaar kept grinning like the Cheshire Cat as he slowly lowered his hands.

The silence this time was somehow even more suffocating, and I could tell everyone was waiting on his next words like they were a lifeline.

“Hush now,” he cooed in a tone dripping with condescension. “There is no need to panic. In fact, the less of a fight you put up, the easier this will all be.”

“The easier what will be?” I growled.

“This.” Shaar waved his hands around and glanced at the surrounding buildings with a fleeting sneer. “Gladewood, and it being under my thumb.”

“That isn’t going to happen,” I snapped. “So, think again.”

“Sharp one, you are.” Shaar’s sinister grin turned to me. “You must be Noah. The farmer.”

“So, you’ve heard about me?” I asked. “Good. Then you know what I’m capable of.”

“Yes, I know about you, Dawson,” he hissed out my name like it was poison. “And all of your little… antics.”

“So you know I’m the one that sent Drakar running for the hills after I kicked his sorry ass.” My words were pure venom, and I wanted them to slice into Shaar’s marred skin.

“I know what you did,” the scarred elf said as he narrowed his dark eyes on me. “But I’m not afraid of you. Or your little shard, Noah.”

I felt my breath hitch in my throat, like a piece of glass wedging itself against the tender muscle, but I kept my expression stoic and cool.

If he had a direct line to Drakar, then the bastard could easily tell him that the shard was still in my possession. I didn’t know what that slimy asshole knew, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to let his ‘Lieutenant’ get a hold of my shard.

He wasn’t going to intimidate me, either. I’d already faced countless threats, and all of them were a lot scarier than this bozo.

I’d sent the shard back home, and I could already feel the pull in my chest coming from it. But I couldn’t call it to me. Not with Shaar here and no doubt waiting for the exact moment I did that.

This fight was going to be hands-on. And I was completely fine with that.

Shaar suddenly clapped his hands together, and the sharp sound rang throughout the valley of stone and wood. A few Gladers gasped in surprise and staggered back, and some of the men holding their weapons jerked forward like they were jabbing a phantom in front of them.

“Think of this as a mercy,” Shaar declared. “Under my rule, your town continues its… pitiful existence. Without me, you will suffer.”

“We’ll suffer under your rule, and you know it!” an elderly human woman cried out from the swell of the crowd. “We don’t want you here.”

“I’m afraid it’s not a matter of what you want, my dear,” Shaar purred. “It’s what you need.”

“What’s the point, huh?” I asked. “Why did Drakar send you rather than coming himself? Why not just show up and take what he wants?”

“Drakar is currently… indisposed,” the scarred elf said with a casual wave of his hand. “I’m here to prepare things for his arrival.”

“Like what?” I demanded.

“Like whipping you all into shape,” Shaar said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Of course, there’s the other option. I could just kill you all.”

The growl that tore through my throat was bordering on feral, but as I went to move forward, Karrida tugged on my arm.

I looked down at the trembling half-dwarf, who squeezed my arm tighter. She shook her head, which made her loose ginger locks fall in front of her wide, pleading blue eyes.

I sighed and turned my venomous gaze back to the sniveling Lieutenant.

“Easy there,” Shaar mocked as he looked me up and down. “No need to get rabid. It would be uncouth for the leader of this town to get so confrontational.”

“I’m not the leader,” I said firmly. “And to hell with being couth.”

“Oh?” Shaar’s sparse eyebrows shot up to his hairline, and he suddenly glanced over the trembling crowd with more interest. “Then who is?”

Alden, who had been trying to make himself look as small as possible, reluctantly cleared his throat and took a bold step forward.

“You?” Shaar choked on a sharp, mocking laugh. “You’re the leader of this place? And here I was thinking Noah was the one calling the shots.”

“Alden is the Overseer,” I snapped. “Consider me the guard dog.”

“How amusing,” the elven Lieutenant drawled. “Well, forgive me for being blunt, but this will be much easier than I thought.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Alden asked in an accusatory tone.

“It means you look like a whelp,” Shaar said bluntly. “And I’m not going to have much of a problem swiping this town from under your little feet.”

Alden growled and bared his tusks, but Shaar didn’t even blink.

“Like hell you are,” I said as my fingers brushed against the grip of my Glock.

“And I suppose you’re going to stop me in place of your Overseer?” Shaar tilted his head to one side, and the exposed muscles of his face shimmered in the last bits of sunlight.

“You want to test my mettle, Shaar?” I asked. “Is that it? You want to see if I live up to whatever bullshit Drakar has fed you in order to get you to come here?”

“Perhaps my curiosity is piqued,” the dark-haired elf hummed with a slow nod. “Perhaps I also need to evaluate the only threat I can see so far.”

“There’s more than just me you need to be worried about,” I said. “Look around you. You think all of this blood is just for decoration? We decimated the bandits that tried to attack our town.”

“Yes, you certainly put up a good fight.” Shaar nodded as he glanced around at the remaining blood that stained the cobblestones beneath our feet. “But that was just an appetizer, I’m afraid.”

“No!” someone in the crowd cried out, which spurred a flood of more protests. “These are lies!”

“Oh, you simple-minded fools.” The dark-haired elf chuckled and slid his tongue against his teeth like a hungry predator. “You can avoid all of this if you simply… acquiesce.”

“That’s not who we are,” I said as I took a step forward in front of the crowd and out of Karrida’s grip. “Drakar should have told you that.”

“He mentioned something of the sort,” Shaar said as his dark eyes narrowed. “I suppose this will be more difficult than I’d hoped.”

I reached my hand blindly behind me, until I felt the cool press of steel and leather against my palm. Karrida’s sword.

It was a precaution. My other hand was still brushing the gun in my holster, and because I’d left my own sword behind in the rush to see what was causing chaos outside the Frostfyre, I wanted a secondary weapon for close-quarters combat.

“Yeah,” I said as I tightened my grip on the short piece of metal and brought it around in front of me. “It will be.”

Suddenly, Shaar flew forward in a flurry of robes faster than I could blink, and I jerked the sword up on reflex to block his attack.

But just when I thought Shaar’s body was going to collide with me, he swooped back and planted himself back onto the ground. Then his palm shot out in front of him, and my steel met a force of wind that sent me tumbling to the ground.

The crowd behind me gasped and quickly scrambled backward, apart from my girls who watched my form on the ground with wide eyes.

I quickly picked myself back up and turned to face the smirking elf, who clearly had pretty strong powers, and I quickly tried to think of a new battle plan.