“Sir Alinot! Sleeping on the job are we?” 

Alinot startled awake. “No your Honor!” Said Alinot, straightening his vest.
“Good, glad to hear you’ve been taking your duty seriously.” Said the Elder.
The Elder, the graying old leader of the Council, ruled over the Firstborn Valley and the human nation of Ardya. Rumor had it the Elder was the very first of the Cyntaf race, colloquially known as the Firstborn, that would mean he was going on nearly 600 years. Once very tall and strong, as is customary of the Cyntaf race, gravity had taken its toll, and he now stooped with the weight of his age. His eyesight had grown weak, and his pointed ears had started to droop
The Elder dawdled into the Council Hall, leaving Alinot alone once more. He leaned back against the tree that formed the archway into the hall. His eyes fluttered shut and his golden blonde head began to droop once more.
“Ardya’s star knight asleep on duty again, eh?” said Sir Cadell.
 A grin tugged on his mouth, framed by flowing dark hair. The two had a long history together. Cadell had proudly fought beside Alinot through thick and thin. When the grotesque being known as Nhywyll attacked, Cadell was the only one who remained with Alinot to fight it.
Alinot startled awake once more. "Cadell! I was just resting my eyes."
Cadell's comeback was cut short when a courier boy burst into the hall.
"Elder, we have word from the colonies."
"This had best be important." Said the Elder, looking down at the courier.
The Elder and the other six councilors sat on a massive stump at the end of the hall, all arranged in a crescent. Two Highborn, two Lords, the Head, the Right-Hand, and the Elder himself in the center.
"The colonies are gone."
"What!?" The color drained from the Elder's face, not that there was much to begin with.
"All of them were torched, all but one. A single town remains." Said the courier, his eye beginning to twitch.
"How could this happen? The entirety of the Fertile Plains, destroyed?"
"Beasts, horrible creatures, of some demonic form, came out from the desert. They raided, burned, and killed everyone. We can only presume it's a matter of time before the last one is gone."
"Your Honor, what do we do?" Said the Head, pushing up his spectacles.
"Nothing."
"But your Honor those people will die!"
The Elder stood. "And so we send the army? All the way to the Fertile Plains, just to save a single town? We let them die when there is nothing left to die for? No, we shall leave them."
The Head frowned, but stayed quiet.
"Go now messenger boy, you are no longer required here." Said the Elder, sitting back down.
Cadell turned back to Alinot, his lips drawn into a tight line. "We could send reinforcements, it wouldn't have to be the entire army. We have to do something, they're going to die."
Without a word Alinot ran from the hall, escaping into the grandeur that is the Valley of Firstborn. Golden trees with white bark. The sun's rays breaking through them, casting spotlights onto a ground of lush moss.
Alinot stumbled over an exposed root chasing after the courier boy. "Wait! Stop!"
The courier turned around, his eyebrow raised. "Say, wait, aren't you Alinot?"
It appeared his reputation preceded him. He had been the top Cyntaf knight for a while now, doing many deeds in service of Ardya. "Yes, I am. I need a favor."
"I'm not sure I can be of much service to one as you, unless you need a message delivered."
"I do in fact. Return to the Fertile Plains, and tell the people there, if they can build me a defense, be it a tower or a wall. And face it toward the desert the beasts come from, then I will help them."
The boy's eyes widened. "Sir, but that's defying the council! The Elder will have your head!"
"It's a knight's duty to hold his honor above everything. People look up to me as a hero. What kind of hero would I be if I let them die?"
"I might not know what I'm getting into Sir, but I'll do it."
The boy hesitated, but then ran off with his new mission. Alinot turned back towards the hall, the great oaken doors standing like sentries before it, guarding a new task for Alinot. Somehow he needed to get the other knights on board with his plan.
"What was that about?" Said Cadell, standing at the entrance to the hall. "You know what kind of trouble you could be in for abandoning post like that."
"I'll be in even more soon."
"Oh no... what did you do." Said Cadell, as like a dawn, the significance of this came over him. He knew Alinot had a strong sense of duty to his nation. He also knew that if Alinot believed something was wrong, consequences could be damned.
"How does insubordination sound?"
"You're not actually thinking about going to the plains?"
Alinot clenched his teeth. "I sent a message with the courier, promising help."
"Ugh..! This is voluntary exile, surely you know that, right?"
"I am aware. So, will you help?"
"For better or worse, we've always been in it together, that won't stop now." Said Cadell, pinching the bridge of his nose. "But what are the two of us going to do against hordes of monsters?"
"We have to get others to join. Either the Cyntaf Knighthood, or the Paladins of Ardya."
"Not many of them will be willing to commit an act of blatant rebellion."
"Yes, but out of the hundreds, surely we can amass something significant."
Cadell looked towards the ground, his brow furrowing. "Hmm... Perhaps, we may just be able to do this. But from what the boy said about those creatures this will be another Nhywyll situation."
"I agree, but this time at least the other knights will have nowhere to run to."