I'm really pleased and surprised by all of the responses. Some of your guesses as to what's going on behind the scenes and what will happen are either very close or spot on, and some of your guesses are not anywhere close to the truth.
I'm pleased because I'm happy to know so many are actually reading and paying attention to my story

Makes me want to get chapter 9 finished even more.
I'm surprised on how close some of you are to the truth. I'm not sure if I should be happy that you're paying so close attention, or sad that the story is transparent enough to lead you to those conclusions. But the parts of your guesses that are wrong, at least, makes me feel good about still being able to hold the wool over your eyes a little longer.
footsteps wrote:What I'm curious about is what
you meant for the pronunciation of Ikros?
Also, what was your inspiration for the name Ikros? Something profound, or simply mundane?
Alan
I didn't want to say how I pronounce it, simply so I wouldn't influence the poll. I always pronounced it one way, until my father pointed out that technically it's pronounced another. I do like the way he pronounces it cause it sounds cool (ick + ross).
But when I created Ikros, it was 'EYE + k + row + s' - long 'o', emphasis on 'eye.'
I wish I could say that Ikros means something, that there was some profound meaning to its' birth, but I was simply looking for a name of a Kingdom that sounded harsh (hard 'k + r' sound did well) and was quickly spoken.
Garalt, on the other hand, was born from a totally seperate project a friend and I were working on, in which there was a leader of great warriors - a knight among knights - named Sir Garalt of the 4th Guard. He was a man without peer, honorable, chivalrous, and ironically enough, a dragon slayer (the original story, chapters 1 through

had no dragons in it).
--Anthony