The Strife of Survival and Honor

Except for hunting, farming, transmuting, smithing and fishing; the Brards has nothing to do with their life than combat training. From morning to night, Warchief Sitka spend his time train, sign some papers, train a little more, sign some more papers, hunt or fish for his lunch, train a little more, go to a chieftain meeting, listen to the chieftain discussions about future expansion and planing on their defences , and sign one more paper. But despite that being boring, Sitka still remembers his responsibility and duty as the Horde's warchief. Sitka must aid his people to have their new homeland and to show the world that they are not savages nor barbarians upon those who would sees them as such.

While he spend his time, he also get to see his people around the peninsula. He saw every Brard clan training themselves with all sorts of weapons as they used them on each other, trying to get the upper hand in combat. The entire encampment was filled with blacksmiths, forges and craft shops where the Brards are learning how to craft weapons and outfits without their transmutation, but with their hands. Every tent later on turned into stone buildings and the Brards used their transmutation powers to create a stone wall from coast to coast with towers and catapult platforms on the walls which also have three steel gates. The entire has quickly turned into a port city for the Brards also build huge harbour in their 'city'. In the honor of their ancient hero, Sitka named this city 'Kenai-Urus', named after Kenai who was the first Brard who possessed transmutation power.

It has been a day right after the battle with the Diamond Dog Slavers and now the Brards are making good progress in building up their own nation. However, what worries Sitka is the fact what happened with the clans that has encountered minotaurs who attacked them and got eradicated. Sitka knows that it will give his race a very bad reputation and this bad reputation could cause the world to look down on the Brards... and perhaps even, cause them to try eradicate the Horde. Still, his duty as warchief is the survival of his race, the future of their cubs. While the Brards don't usually wear steel-plated armor for their agility, Sitka conviced every clan to use every bit of help for combat to make their fighting more stronger, enough to survive a hundred nations.

The next day, Sitka was visiting the settlement that his clan and Turok's clan builded. He left Turok in charge of that place and entrusted him to make it's defence and warriors strong to repel invaders. Now Sitka came to visit the newly build 'TakkarRha' settlement, to see how things are going and if Turok has encountered any diffilculties. As the warchief past by, the warriors of the Dread-Claw clan greets him in respect and Sitka returned the gestures. It didn't take long before he meet chieftain Turok.

"How are things going chief Turok?" Sitka asked.

"We made alot of progress, warchief. The wall is strong and TakkarRha is completed. Our warriors stand guard on both land and sea as we speak. If anything comes, we will know." Turok reported to Sitka.

Turok gave Sitka a tour around the town and the wall, showing him how much progress they made. Sitka was amazed by the armaments of their warriors, the testings of the trebuchets on the plattforms and the port defence incase their would be a naval invasion. Sitka and Turok went up to the wall to have a view of the area, he was enjoying both the view and the certainty of his people's strength. But then after a moment while he was sightseeing from the wall on the field, he saw movements. Almost like a group was comming towards them, they were so far that he could not make it clear who they are or if they are friendly or if they are hostile.

"Turrok!" Sitka called out for him as he pointed to the direction of the commers. Turok saw them to and turned towards his clan.

"We got commers, ready yourselves!" Chieftain Turok yelled out for the whole town to hear him. And so, all Brards of the Dread-Claw clan were running towards their stations. The gates were tightly closed and locked, civilians and cubs barricaded themselves in the houses and all the warriors of the Dread-Claw clan take positions on the wall and the rest of the town's defences.

"We will not attack unless they proved to be hostile." Sitka said strictly.

"I know" Turok said as he still keept his eyes on the commers.

There has been a silent moment, waiting for the commers to approach. After those moment, Sitka and Turok could see clearly who the commers were. It was those minotaurs that they meet early, along with commander Rush Horn. Sitka and Turok was glad to see a friendly face. They and five Brard warriors jumped down from the wall and walked to come and greet them. Commander Rush Horn was the first to come to them, infact, what Sitka has noticed is that he took quicker pace than his fellow minotaurs in attempt to come to the Brards first before anyone else. Sitka and Turok noticed the worried face of their horned friend, such face that says something bad will happen. Sitka and Turok first looked at each other before they walked towards the minotaurs. Once they approached Rush Horn, they greet.

"Rush Horn, I'm filled with joy to meet you again." Sitka said in a happy tone while Turok simply bowed his head with his fist in his heart-chest.

"Sitka, it is great to see you as well. I am honored that we can meet again." Rush Horn said in friendship.

"It seems fate can be compassionate to us." Sitka said as he offers his hand to Rush Horn who took it happily but later had a worried face.

"Fate is also crule." Rush Horn said in a scared tone, causing Sitka and Toruk to worries. Rush Horn looked behind him where his fellow minotaurs are comming to them. He came closer to Sitka with his other hand in his shoulder to whisper.

"Sitka this is bad, this is very bad. The one who is comming here is the son of the king, he's here to be the emissary between our people." Rush Horn said in panic, but in whispers and Sitka paied attention to his worries.

"What do we need to know about him?" Sitka asked.

"His name is Iron Breaker, he-" Rush Horn tries to tell but was interrupted by the said prince.

"Commander Rush Horn, I am suppose to meet with the leader of these monsters!" He said with a snobbish, spoiled tone and that causes the Brards who heard that growl and searched for the source of the insult. It didn't take long before a minotaur with golden armor and axe. Rush Horn sighed in defeat, knowing that there's nothing he can do now.

"Prince Iron Breaker, this is Sitka of the Blue Storm clan and Warchief of the Horde which makes him the leader of the Brard race. This is Turok, chieftain of the Dread-Claw clan." Rush Horn tried to speak further he was interrupted by the pitch black brard.

"You will watch that filthy tongue of yours, freak! You do not disrespect warriors!" Turok spat on the prince. All the minotaurs gasped in shock how one could insult the prince. The said prince's head was so red it almost came smoke from it.

"HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME BEAST!! I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD FOR IT!!!" Iron Breaker yelled in rage as he pulled up his axe and walked towards the Brards and so Turok draw his claymore sword, ready for combat.

"My prince no, you mustn't fight them! You're no match against them!" Rush Horn came infront of the prince, tried to calm him down but was rudely pushed aside by the said prince.

"Rubbish! No one can defeat me, I will have their heads mounted on my wall!!!" He yelled as he began to charge against Turok who took a fighting stance. So the battle begun.

Iron Breaker was clumsy and careless when it comes to combat. He just lifted his axe and swings it down like it was meant to hit Turok. But not once has it hit him since Turok was able to dodge all his swings, after the seventh Turok had enough and swinged his sword, cut off both his horns and kicked him in the face, sended the spoiled brat away on the ground.

All the minotaurs stared at the fallen prince with shocked faces as if the impossible happened. The prince manage to recover and saw his horns on the ground. He froze as he stared at the horns and went completely berserk. He grabbed his axe and blindly charged at the black brard chieftain. Turok side-stepped from the axe and cut the prince's left arm off, causing Iron Breaker to scream in agony on his knees while holding his severed left arm that was bleading.

Once it was done, Turok moved aside from the wounded prince as the other minotaurs ran for his aid.

"You are too worthless for the sword." Turok insulted as he turned around to Sitka and his fellow Brards.

"Too worthless for the sword?" Prince Iron Breaker said in silence before she pushed off his guards, pulled a dagger from his belt and charged to kill Turok in the back.

Brakssshh!!

Everyone heard a earthly noise and they all turned to where it came from... They all see a rock spike from the ground impaled the said cowardly minotaur prince in his belly. Everyone was silent while the stopped prince was bleeding to death. Right after he died of bleeding, Sitka and Turok searched with their eyes where the stone spike came from and there was no other Brards than the onse who came along. Without knowing who was responsible (infact did that even matters?) the minotaurs carries the dead prince with them as they march back to Minos Kingdom. Rush Horn stood there for awhile infront of Sitka and Turok in a minute of silence. Rush Horn looked at Sitka and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Sitka. I'm truly sorry." He said in a sad tone with a sad face as he turned around and went along with the minotaurs. Sitka and Turok knows now what it means.

The Minos Kingdom and the Horde, minotaurs and brards are now at war.

*In Canterlot Castle*

"SISTER BE REASONABLE!!! A one time event dosen't need to mean it would repeat! For all we know this new race can be friendly since they saved Tempest and Celaeno from slavers!!" Princess Luna tried to reason with Princess Celestia who in turn turned deaf ears.

"NO!! They only saved Tempest and Celaeno out of cunning to make us let our guard down, making us a more easy prey. Grogar came to our world through a portal and so does they, this IS Grogar's doing and HIS revenge plot!! The last thing I need to do is let our guard down for evil to strike hard when we least except it!" Princess Celestia argued back as she suits up with her armor.

"You cannot be sure this has anything to do with Grogar. For what if you're wrong about them and attack them, you'll be known for killing a innocent race for a crime that they have nothing to do with." Princess Cadence support Luna.

"Princess, haven't Equestria had enough of conflicts. The Storm King's invasion has damaged out nation already alot, another conflict will only make everything worst!" Princess Twilight Sparkle tried to calm Celestia down, which didn't work.

"ALL THE MORE REASON TO ERADICATE THEM!!! Remove them before open conflict, to protect Equestria. The Storm King conquered us because we were not prepared!! We didn't had the means to defend our home!! I will NOT commit this mistake again, not while I now have the chance to protect our subjects!" Princess Celestia retored with anger towards her fellow princesses. Later on Tempest and Celaeno came in and joined the argument.

"They are no threat to us, princess! I swear we meet them, even their leader. There is no malice in this new race, no evil. I know because I and captain Celaeno has spend time with them, knowing them. They are not what you delude yourself to think." Commander Tempest spoke in the Brard's defence.

"You are too quick to judge them, for something they have nothing to do with. They don't serve Grogar, they only want to ensure the survival of their race; the future of their families." Celaeno help out and of course it didn't work.

"At the cost of OURS!! These creatures have no care or sympathy for other lives! You all had not seen what Grogar had brought, you had never experience the burden of destroying the very citizens you were suppose to protect because they were walking corpses who served a demon. And Luna, you were there and heard what Grogar said before his banishment to tartarus. 'When the next portal opens this world will be mine' and you just want to ignore it!?" Princess Celestia retored with venomous words while she grabbed her halberd, Lune felt insulted by her last words.

"I DON'T IGNORE DANGERS!!!..." she yelled at the point were the ground would shocked. "... but I don't judge without thinking. Grogar was gone from Equestria like forever, if we attack a race just because they came through the same way he did we are just as bad and him, YOU would even be far worst than him! We must not abandon our principles as the most peaceful kingdom of-" Luna was later interrupted by a pegasus guard courier who carries a scroll and the botton has a golden bull head on it, it proves that it was from Equestria's recent allied kingdom, the Minos Kingdom.

Princess Celestia opened the scoll and read it whole. After that she looked at the ones who criticized her decision with a rude face.

"King Rock-Charge have lost his own son, his heir to his throne at the hands of the creatures that you all protects right now." She said with a glare and hand them the scroll for them all to read. They all did that and saw it says that Prince Iron Breaker was attacked and murdered by the race known as the Brards and considered it an act of war. The Minos Kingdom have called for all of it's allies; Griffonstone, Yakyakistan, Crystal Empire and recently Equestria to join their war against the 'Horde'.

"This proves me right and I shall answer the call. You can either help me or stay out of my way." Princess Celestia said with alot of venom in her voice that she would look like a demon in disguise. She went to her balcony and flew away, leaving the four equines and one avian alone with shock and sadness in their faces.

"Something's not right, something here isn't right!" Tempest said in denial.

"That's right, we must talk to Sitka and Turok about this!" Captain Celaeno agreed with her. But Luna sighed in defeat.

"If only you could... I don't want any of this to happen but the Minos Kingdom has declared this as a act of war and since Equestria is recently allied with them we must answer their warcall. I'm sorry, but I too must answer it as princess of Equestria." Princess Luna said with a heavy heart while she conjured her armor and weapon, and then flew away for her sister.

The rest felt great sadness that harmony could not be preserved once again. Tempest and Celaeno are now stuck with a extreme difficult choice, whenever to join the front line against the Horde or the join the Horde to help their life saviors. Cadence hates violence in general and Twilight Sparkle worked so hard on spreading friendship across the world only for it to fail because of a horrific past reminder. War has once again come across the land.

*In the Minos Kingdom*

In the Minos Kingdom, many minotaur soldiers has gathered into a big army. They carried all kinds of weapons and armors that considered heavy. They have all come for one purpose only... war. All their combat training and weapons preparing was for nothing more than to go to war. All by the order of King Rock-Charge.

King Rock-Charge was furious the moment he saw his dead son, that Brards killed him is what everyone agreed on but the moment Rush Horn told them about Iron Breaker's assassination attempt on the Brard leaders to protect them, he was branded a traitor and therefore he was sentenced to prison, striped away all his ranks and honor. King Rock-Charge will not allow this new species to go unpunished for killing his own son.

Now not only has he prepared his own army to invade them and retake the peninsula, he has also summoned his allies for war aid. He did it because even though the minotaurs are naturally proud and bullheaded that they would not ask for help, Rock-Charge prefer not to underestimate these bear creatures. To really ensure that he will win without failure, brute strength and large numbers combined shall lay waste upon these barbaric monsters. King Rock-Charge armed himself to join the war of retribution, he will be in charge of avenging his family.

*In the Peninsula Mountain Chain*

The news about the Horde being now at war against a kingdom who was supposed to be their allies has now been spreaded all across the peninsula, letting every Brard clan know about this. Sitka thought that their action of eradicating the slavers with the minotaurs would create a friendship with this new world's natives. But instead it became a war all because of a spoiled brat's pride.

Upon the a mountain top high enough to see the great Brard wall, Sitka sit down on the mountain in contemplation. It didn't take long before a black Brad chieftain arrived to break the warchief's solitude.

"Warchief?" Turok asked with worries.

"I need this solitude Turok." Sitka said to him.

"You are needed along with your warriors." Turok said, causing Sitka to get up with a sigh.

"The moment we lost Kremlore, we have lost everything. Yet still lives and endures, in trying to build us a new home. But later on, we will loose more. Warriors will die, that's for sure." Sitka said with a heavy heart.

"If you doubt our warriors pow-" Turok was interrupted by Sitka

"I don't doubt any of them. I doubt my own determination. As long as I doubt, I feel my fighting powers have no motives, no reason to keep fighting." Sitka said with sadness in his voice.

"There is no cause that is worth fighting for than to protect the very existence of ones race. To create a new home for our future." Turok tried to reason with his warchief.

"What is our future? This world? or is our future someplace else?" Sitka asked.

"This new world is what we are destined for." Turok said.

"(sighs) Kremlore is also what we were destined for. During our time of strifes, when we were still Ursidae, Polar and Grizzly. We were ruled by desperation and cruelty. We acted no better than animals, and nearly drived into extinction." Warchief Sitka reminded his friend about their ancient dark age.

"Don't forget that from that age of blood, the great Kenai who bested even the most horrific beast. His art of Terrakii, the power of transmutation brought us unity and kinship. We no longer needed to spill any more blood of our own." Turok tried to remind Sitka about their golden age.

"That is until the begining of Kremlore's end." Sitka said in sadness.

"You mean Palion and her war cult?" Tarok asked.

"Yes. To her eyes peace makes us weak, causing us to forget ourselves and what we are meant to be. And so, to remind us that. She orchestrated the very same natural catastrophe that force us to spill each other's blood out of desperation and fear of death. We had forsaken our own kinship. We may have killed her but she ends up in triumph." Sitka keeps saying.

"She used the power of our people to destroy Kremlore." Turok remembered.

"And forced us into this very moment. We never asked for this, we were forced into it. Now we have no choice but to fight and kill once again. Even though we are not killing our own kind, we are killing the very onces we called friends." Warchief Sitka said in pure sadness.

"Friend or foe matters not anymore. The only thing that matters is to ensure the onces who look up to us. Can you not feel the true nature of leadership, you don't do what you want, you'll do what you must. Although it's pains me, the dead of this war will be the price for our people's survival." Turok said.

"And just how many dead will come from the very war that we worked very hard to avoid!?" Sitka began to loose his cool.

"That's up to fate to decide! Like all the chieftains I will fight along side my warriors for the survival of my clan, for that is my responsibility as chieftain of the Dread-Claw clan." Turok said sternly right at Sitka's face.

"Is fate really that cruel? Are we meant for slaughter and war? Why?" Sitka said in a calm tone.

"We can never know why fate forge us like this. But both you and I know this; A true warrior does not fight because he or she hates those who fights him, but because he or she loves the ones who fight beside and behind him or her. Those are your words." Turok reminds him.

"And a true warrior... puts his duty and responsibility above his own desires." Sitka said in agreement.

There was a silent moment before Turok starts to leave.

"Return to us Sitka. Take responsibility." Turok said as he stood on the edge of the mountain.

"For the future of our cubs." Turok said before he jumped down the mountain edge. Sitka followed and stood on the edge as well.

"For the Horde." He said before he jumped down as well.

Time for war.