Hearthglen

Xzorn walked on, his armor clanking, sweating profusely as Arthas' platoon worked their way to Hearthglen. He saw a stream of smoke rising in the distance, and sighed with relief. They would soon arrive in Hearthglen.

The townspeople cheered as the platoon made their way into the small town of Hearthglen, and a footman jogged up to Arthas. "Welcome to Hearthglen Milord. As you can see our soldiers are training and ready to aid you."

"Excellent, soldier. Wait, what was in those crates?"

"Grain from Andorhal Milord. Don't worry, it has already been distributed to the villagers."

"No... To arms!"

The people's eyes closed momentarily, and when they opened again, they were glazed over. They had become zombies in service to the Scourge. The footmen charged and slew the zombies, but were shaken. Arthas spoke once more to the captain in of the town guard. "Tell the villagers not to use the grain!"

"Yes, Milord"

Arthas sniffed the air, and muttered grimly, "Undead. Defend the town!" The footmen went to defend the southwest gate, a force of ghouls, led by a necromancer, were attacking the guard towers. Arthas roared and charged, as did the footmen.

Xzorn charged at the nearest ghoul, swiftly running it through with a shortsword. He stumbled back as a skeleton rose from the ghoul's corpse, charging him with a bone sword. He dodged to the side, chopping off it's head. The ghouls fell before the footmen's resolve. The necromancer began a spell, but was slain by an explosion of light. Xzorn looked to Arthas, who had been the one who cast the spell.

He was left with little time to think, when Arthas shouted, "Undead at the Northwest gate!" The footmen charged the next force, roaring battle cries. Once more the undead died swiftly. Xzorn turned to see Arthas speaking to a messenger. He yelled out to the troops, "The undead are sending an unholy caravan to plague the villages to the North. I must go to stop it!"

Arthas left with a large portion of their troops, leaving only ten footmen to defend the town. The next Scourge attack was from both sides, Northwest and Southwest. Xzorn and four other footmen went to defend the Southwest gate. This time the force was much larger, consisting of eight ghouls, an abomination, and a pair of necromancers at each gate. Three footmen went to make their stand at the Northern guard tower, while he was left to defend the Southern one with a black haired footman. As the undead approached, Xzorn asked, "Tell me, who am I honored to fight alongside?"

The man replied, "I am Saidivh."

"An honor to fight beside you," said Xzorn, just before four ghouls charged them, with a necromancer not far behind. He slew the first one, slicing it in two. Another one crashed into his shield, while Saidivh fought the other two. He felt a stinging pain as a necromancer's bolt hit him in the side, he shoved his sword through the ghoul, and ran at the necromancer, pulling his sword from the ghoul. He arrived at the necromancer only to have a skeletal warrior stab him in the side. He spun in time to see Saidivh smash it with a shield bash. Xzorn nodded in thanks, and whirled around, killing the necromancer. They rushed over to aid the other footmen who were having trouble fighting the abomination. Together with the other three footmen, they slew the abomination. The first real wave had been repelled. But one of the other footmen had fallen. The remaining four stood together in a defensive stance, awaiting the next wave of undead.

-more to come later-