«Father, father! Today I heard a story about trolls and gobbles. What is all this, please father tell me! The old man also said something about dragons... do they really exist? Please father tell me about it!»
«Ah, well my son, since I know that you will not keep quiet until I tell you. They are called goblins by the way and not gobbles my son!»
The captain of the guards gently pushed his son towards the chairs around the old wooden table and then sat down right next to him.
«The kingdom of Arx is the home of the human people» he explained to his son. «We are under the reign and protection of kind and wise King Lunshire. The little people whom you have probably seen at the market square from time to time are called dwarfs. The are masters of all kind of fine crafts and are usually very friendly towards us humans. The trade agreements between the us go back a very long time. Lately something seems to be horribly wrong. I have not seen a dwarf in a very long time, they live away from the other civilisations at the lowest level of the fortress»
The captain sipped at his mug and put his arm around his little son. He then went on with his explanations.
«Let us now come to the trolls. They live somewhere down a level quite a way below us. They are as tall as a stone pillar and very, very strong. On the other hand they are not very smart and look kind of ugly, too. On the same level of our world we also have the goblins, ugly, mean imps. They use the stupidity of the trolls to their own advantage. That is why the trolls sometimes work and fight in the place of the mean gobs. The goblins themselves are very aggressive and it is heard that they raid and mug humans. Of course we have never had an incident of this kind near our home since it is guarded by my men.
Then there are the sisters of the edurneum. Rumor has it that this magical sisterhood of snake-like female magicians have a beautiful temple somewhere down here. I have never laid eyes on one of them but it is said that they are as beautiful as they are powerful sorceresses.»
After another sip of his drink, the face of the captain grew darker when he switched to his next topic.
«I am not really sure if you are old enough to hear this but it is probably never too early to learn of the evil dangers lurking around you! There is a cult called the cult of Akbaa. These people are all fanatic followers of the evil god Akbaa himself. They kill people without reason and carry out horrible acts...
Their leader is called Iserbius, the high priest of the cult. Remember that he is a very dangerous man indeed my beloved son, remember that! The Ylsides... none of us know who they work for...I have heard that they are unmatched in skill and strength.»" The captain looked at his son's face and saw tears rolling down his cheeks. «Do not worry my son, there is no Ylside that could take on your dad, right? Besides, there are the Sybarta, a mighty race balancing all life in the universe, and they will never fail us, understand? They will send somebody to help us and then Akbaa will have a bad time indeed!» This brought a smile to the boy's face which remained there as his father scooped him up in his powerful arms and carried him, peacefully sleeping to his bed.