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Would this work, it's a bit from a book I'm working on:

Chapter I

The sharp ring of metal on metal rang out loud even in the crowded street of the village of Shorum, located just within the protective walls of Kuuva's castle's domain. A small village; if you didn't already know it was there, you'd pass right over it, especially if you were following a map.

That day, the 13th day of the Warmest Season was the final day of the Creation Festival. It had been a long seven days this year of vending, game playing, tournaments, and many other things. For once, tourism had been oddly above normal, though that was probably because travelers had been getting turned around quite a bit in the fog wall. This had made the vendors more greedy than usual and they raised their already high prices on everything and now sat behind their makeshift counters counting their small gold and bronze pieces. There had been very little silver being passed around of late, which was odd since that was usually what most of the middle class and common folk payed with in those days.

Maya had noticed this long before anyone else inside the village had, after all, her frequent travels back and forth to the resident royal city gave her all kinds of insight to the economic and political parts of what was currently happening in the Land of Dreams. Things weren't as peaceful as they seemed in the village.

War was raging both in and out of their country. It was no surprise though. Maya knew that all the countries except that of the Dark Ones was currently in a slump both economically and population wise because of the plague. Apparently the Dark Ones thought this would be as good a time as any to lash out at the countries around them to try to expand their border lines. It made strategic sense: strike while their numbers are down and they're weak. Things seemed bleak at the least for the people of the Countries.

But Maya was hopeful, a ray of light in a dark storm so to say. She felt the war wouldn't last long, the Dark Ones weren't the strongest things out there to deal with, in fact, they were rather low on the metaphorical chain. Maya knew this well, her place in Royal Border Patrols made her aware of everything, while also giving her access to all cities and castles in any country as long as she gave a positive I.D. number and her Border Patrol badge.

Besides doing what their namesake grants them, the Border Patrol also stands for a back up line when the number of Protectors (Soldiers in Earth-Hell terms) isn't low enough to bring the general public into battle. Usually that didn't need to happen though. Usually the superhuman Protectors were enough to get rid of the enemy. They were, of course, the first and strongest line of defense available to the human kings of the countries. Second belonging to the King's Royal guard, Third to the Border Patrols, and last to the common peoples. Somewhere between the Royal Guard and the Border Patrols came the few magicians that still existed.

The Protectors, being the first line of defense against attacks from other Countries, needed all the strength and magic they could muster up. Most were born without magic and artificially imbued with it when they were ready for that part of their training. The magic they were giving not only gave them the power to see beyond the regular reality of the Dream Lands, but also alloted them even more physical strength to help cope the awesome powers that would then be coursing through their veins. Without that extra boost, they would die within a few days.

The King's Royal guard was usually nothing but a bunch of glorified combat magicians with enchanted butter knives. This did however place them at the second ranking for the amount of power held by one group of hired people.

Border Patrol usually consisted of a mix of people; degraded Combat Magicians, Archers, Swordsmen, and Assassins alike were in the Border Patrol, sometimes even mixes of two or three of them if they were lucky. Most of them had also been imbued with magic during their training, but not the same kind of magic as the Protectors. The magic for the Border Patrol gave them a little more strength and speed, made them lighter while still keeping the amount of strength they had gotten, and allowed them to use little spells, for healing and reviving. Even if they weren't as strong as the protectors, they were still two to three times stronger then a regular man, and that's when the fun tournament starts.

Every year at the end of the Creation Festival the regulars held a tournament for the people of the Border Patrols to see which one was the strongest. Right now, the second semi-final round was being watched intently by seventy-five or so intense stares.

Maya hadn't let her eyes drift from the spar since it began, her enhanced B.P. eyes catching every movement the regs would've missed. Marrin and Salla were an equally matched pair when it came to weapons, but both Salla and Maya knew that Marring had illegal magic on his side.

Everyone in their Patrol knew Marrin had been infused with extra magic. A couple gold pieces in anyone's home then a days would get you just about anything, it wasn't all that uncommon either. Bribery would always be the center of reason in an economic slump, at least in most countries anyways. To most, it seemed that bribery was the brunt of the Dark Ones' economy.

Maya had never been very compliant to this widely held belief. While she did believe that strongly in the Dark Ones being much weaker than humans, she didn't believe that they were as corrupted as their namesake held them to be. In her eyes they were actually quite clever when it came to their economy. They had found a way to enchant regular creatures and make them better in order to make a profit. They also had an immense amount of farmland run by regs right in the center of their Country which allowed easy access to the whole of it. Large rivers made it easy for them to ship things quickly, and dense forests made it possible to build ships. All in all, Maya thought they pretty much had it made in their country. But it's only logical that someone who has everything always wants more.

Maya saw Marrin mouthing the Cast and for a brief moment she could no longer follow his movements, which meant Salla couldn't either. Before either of them knew it, Salla was on the ground with Marring' sword tip at her throat. Salla couldn't help but smile knowingly as she threw her sword away to show that she admitted defeat. Marrin's response was to sheath his weapon and bend down to help Salla up as the reg crowd began to cheer for the final round. Maya wished longingly that she could have her round with Marrin, but their ranks in this Border Patrol - Leader and Second in Command - kept this from happening since it would upset the balance of power in their group. Instead Salla would face the former Dark One of the group, Fennius Lynch.

He hadn't been the first one Maya had seen, they stick out in a crowd of regs with their dark hair, pale skin and tall lankiness, but he was the first one she'd seen accepted into a Border Patrol. The Division said that he had been a Protector of sorts with the Dark Ones and that job would've continued for him if he'd come from somewhere else, but no one but a Dark One would give another Dark One that much power. Still, they'd wanted to put him to good use so they turned to Maya, one of th the more knowledgeable when it came to his kind, and she, of course, accepted him into her patrol, not out of pity, but our of strategic need. The war had just begun then and patrols of that part of the Countries border had been amped up greatly. Since he was from the other side it made sense to have him show where the most likely places to attack were. He also knew their fighting tactics and how to counter them, although neither Maya or Marrin had gotten fa chance to see him in action.

Today wouldn't be their day to either; Marrin had already made plans to take Maya out to the Royal City to get her something for her birthday which had been a week ago, before the merchants and vendors had arrived in town for the festival.

Normally the trip there itself would take several days to a week, but Marrin had hired a master magician to open a teleporter circle so they could get there in less than a minute.

Maya found it sad that humans had lost their touch with the magics that flowed through their worlds, that's why most of the off planeters - Earthlings being the only real humans of that grouping -knew nothing of the amazing things that happened behind-the-scenes on their little globe of water and rock. They had no idea that other beings not of Earthbound origin existed, some believed, but even they doubted themselves on that. Simple glamories were enough to throw any Earthling off since they could no longer sense magic, although maybe niavette was a good thing for them. They'd never seemed too keen on having their nightmares appear before them as real beings. But even the humans on Maya's planet couldn't activate the teleporters unless one of their parents were in tune with the magical energies, and even then, that would be the most they could achieve, they wouldn't be bale to pass through it. Other than that, they could only cast simple, lesser spells like the ones Marrin could use. Any higher mages were creatures; dragons and half-dragons, harpies, drakes and half-drakes and some enchanted animals.

But part of Maya also looked down at them and laughed at their pathetic disability. That was the dragon side of her, the side of her that no one except those that fought alongside her knew. She was one of the strange half-dragons; the ones with two separate forms and minds. This being so, Maya could easily become a combat mage, or a Royal Guard member, or even a Protector, all she'd have to do was show the Division she was able to shift and control when she shifted, and they would begin her training. Maya, however, found it nearly impossible to leave the people she'd bonded with in her single year of Border Patrol (which would be about six Earth-Hell years).

Marrin approached Maya, inclining his head slightly in greeting, which she returned. Not exactly formal but they weren't there to be formal.

"Are you ready to go, Ma'am?" He asked, pushing a strand of brown hair form his face.

"As ready as I'll ever be for a teleporter trip." Maya replied unenthusiastically, "You know I'd rather ride."

"Ah, but then we would've missed them." He asservated, then added, "Besides, it's been raining and I know how much you hate the rain, Maya." And with that he began to wander off, obviously expecting her to follow.

Maya sighed heavily and followed him reluctantly. The road was still muddy and her feet sunk into it causing it to give off a horrible odor, and while Maya was severely grumpy already, Marrin had a big grin swathed across his face.

"Smelling like horse would be better than smelling like its droppings." Maya grumped, only just fighting off the urge to knock him out and go get horses herself.

"They'll think we're farmers that must've had a good crop." He answered quickly.

"We look nothing like farmers! Compared to them, our hands are as smooth as the day we were born." She complained loudly; she hated walking in the mud, and she hated teleporters.

"Get over it, you big baby, it'll be over like that." Marring said happily.

"I wish." Was all he got form Maya as it began to rain.