Welcome to yet another edition of Story a Week. This week's story is clocking in at ~2400 words. I wasn't meaning for it to make up for last weeks shortfall in word count, but this one just flowed out of me in a matter of a couple of hours. I didn't know that it had gotten that long until I copied it into Word to spellcheck it.
It was nice to have the words flow like that again. The last story I had to fight hard to get out, but this one the words seemed to write themselves. As far as overall plot goes, I'm not sure how many stories are left before the conclusion, but we'll see. I hope that you all enjoy the ride.
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Rixi saw Cuddlington tackle Melbrid as she dodged to a corner of the tunnel away from the opening to the dragon's lair. Meentha went the other way and Rixi couldn't see how she fared as she shielded her eyes from the heat and light of the dragon's fire. A short time later the fire dissipated and Rixi helped Melbrid and Cuddlington get up.
"Here's the plan," she said as Meentha rushed over to join them. "You three charge out and head left to distract the dragon. I'll try to stealthily go right to try and sneak up on the dragon. Cuddles, I need to know its weakness."
The dwarf bristled a little at the sound of the nickname he hated, but quickly calmed down. "Me god told me that there's a break in its armor where its legs meet its torso."
Rixi nodded with a big fierce smile on her face. "Good," she said. "I can get there without much trouble, but you three will be in grave danger. Please be careful."
They all nodded and without another word, Cuddlington let out a battle cry and charged out the door and broke for the left. Rixi heard the dragon roar and a couple of stomps as Meentha growled and, with her bow drawn, charged out firing arrows. Melbrid gave Rixi a weak smile as he walked out of the doorway chanting a spell.
Rixi took a moment to steady herself. She was trying to be calm and confident for her friends, but her heart was pounding and her hands were shaking. She slid over to the entrance and peeked out. The dragon had Cuddlington pinned in one corner of the large room, but Meentha and Melbrid were trying to get its attention so that it wouldn't try to take a large bite out of the dwarf. Rixi saw that this was her best chance to sneak out and she quietly crept out and to the right.
Rixi knew a little about dragons from her parents. They had come to Telquirk not long after it was founded and there was still a green dragon living in the forest nearby. Some of the townspeople banded together and eventually killed the dragon, but not before many of them died. As such, her parents told her that the chromatic dragons, such as the green and red variety, were smart and ruthless, but not any smarter than the average person. Rixi wasn't sure whether the dragon saw her in the tunnel or not, but it was likely to have forgotten or dismissed any sight of her when just three people came charging out of the tunnel.
That didn't mean that she could recklessly charge under the dragon and stab it in its belly though. Its tail was moving about and that thing could do some damage if she couldn't avoid it. She glanced over to the other side where the main battle was occurring and saw that Cuddlington had managed to get out of the corner and was trying to fend off the dragon in front of Meentha and Melbrid.
She saw that they had broken off many of the scales around the dragon's head and neck and she was happy to see that they were making progress. However, Rixi knew that the three of them wouldn't be able to hold the dragon off forever, so she had to hurry if she was going to have a positive effect on the outcome of this battle.
From behind the dragon, Rixi watched the tail and saw that it was moving predictably from side to side. Once she had the pattern down, she moved into position just out of reach of the tail. She watched it pass once, then twice, and then ran for the underside of the dragon. After five or six steps, she spotted some gore left from the dragon slaughtering the orcs. It was too late though and Rixi's right foot slipped in the gore and she fell. Luckily, the dragon didn't seem to notice her fall, but Rixi's ankle was sprained.
She was about to stand when the dragon's tail whipped by and almost struck her in the head. Rixi decided that it would probably be best if she crawled the rest of the way and carefully began crawling towards the underside of the dragon. She nearly got slapped by the dragon's tail a couple of times, but after a few moments, she was between the monster's hind legs.
Rixi checked on the progress of the main battle. She saw her three friends still standing, battling the dragon, but she also saw a whirling mass of air and dust and she remembered that Melbrid had a gem that could summon an air elemental. Things must not be going well if he'd had to do that. She must hurry to help her friends before they ran out of tricks.
Gingerly, Rixi stood up on her feet. Her ankle was in pain, but she could walk on it. She looked up to see the dragon's armored belly was right above her head. The armor here wasn't as heavy as on its back and tail, but she couldn't puncture it with her short swords or daggers. She drew her swords and cautiously approached the dragon's left hind leg. She immediately saw the break in the armor that Cuddlington was talking about and studied it for a second. She knew that once she stabbed the beast, it would know she was there and try to kill her. That either meant that it would simply lie down and crush her, or that it would try to strike her with its tail.
She thought a moment to come up with an escape route when an idea popped into her head. She smiled at the thought and steadied herself to stab into the dragon's leg. Quickly, she plunged her swords into the dragon's tender flesh two times and jumped out from under the dragon. She ignored the loud roar that the dragon let out and sheathed her swords. She saw that the dragon's head turned towards her as she quickly climbed the dragon's leg and got onto its back. She saw the dragon open its mouth wide to release its breath weapon. Rixi was shocked and didn't think that the dragon would do that to itself. Then she remembered something that her parents told her about dragons. They were almost always immune to their own breath weapons.
She had to think quickly and saw the dragon's wings up ahead of her. Her ankle was very painful, but she sprinted up to hide behind the wing as a gout of dragon fire reached her. As she had hoped, the wing blocked the fire from hurting her. The fire dissipated and she heard the dragon roar twice as loud as it had before. She fought to hold on as the dragon turned its body and head around. The head tried to reach her, but she was still protected by the wings from its gnashing mouth.
The dragon realized this pretty quickly and smiled wickedly at her as it said in the elven tongue, "I hope you can fly, elf."
Rixi didn't have long to wonder what that meant as the dragon jumped into the air and its wings started beating. She had trouble holding on as the muscles underneath the armor she was holding on to moved more and more. A few moments after the dragon started flying, her grip slipped and she desperately clung on with one hand. She saw that the scale she was gripping was starting to lift up so she quickly grabbed a short sword from its sheath and stabbed it under the scale. The dragon roared again and its left wing couldn't keep up with its right.
She smiled in triumph, but that smile was short lived as the scale that she was gripping slipped off of the dragon. She began to fall, and saw that the dragon was struggling to keep its height itself. Even though she knew that she was falling to her death, she smiled to herself, knowing that with the help she had given them, her friends would be able to defeat this dragon today.
Suddenly, her fall slowed to a stop and Rixi found herself floating about a foot above the ground. She looked upwards to where her friends were standing and saw Melbrid smiling at her through a look of concentration. Cuddlington yelled, "Get moving girlie or that dragon's gonna come down on top o' ye!"
Rixi got her feet on the ground and limped over behind Cuddlington. She turned just in time to see the dragon come crashing to the ground. A moment later, it tried to stand, but its left hind leg wouldn't support its weight. It roared and reared its head in the group’s direction. Cuddlington charged forward with a roar of his own and Meentha began to fire arrows into the bare spot of back where the scale that Rixi had torn loose had been. Melbrid pulled out the dark death ray wand and pointed it at the dragon's head. Rixi, a surge of pride and adrenaline rushing through her, pulled out her hand crossbow and began firing.
Melbrid yelled out, "Down, Cuddlington!" The dwarf threw himself to the ground as Melbrid yelled out the trigger word for the wand. The black ray of energy surged out of the wand and struck the dragon straight in the head. The dragon let out a final roar as its head staggered, then fell to the ground.
Cuddlington stood up and turned to Melbrid. "Nice shooting!" he shouted and let out a victory whoop.
Rixi put a hand on Melbrid's shoulder and smiled at him. Meentha walked over and examined the dragon's body. "It's still alive," she said. "Barrely, but it’s still breathing."
Melbrid smiled back at Rixi before moving over to where Meentha was standing. "Dragons are powerful creatures and this one is no exception. I'm not terribly surprised that it survived a Death Ray. It won't be awakening anytime soon to be sure. We should get out of here before it does." He turned away and took a couple of steps.
Cuddlington and Meentha looked at each other and Rixi noted a slight nod exchange between them. Cuddlington said, "Not so fast there, Melbrid. We need to finish off the dragon."
Melbrid turned back and said, "What? We defeated the dragon. We can move on without having to kill the creature."
Rixi saw Meentha and Cuddlington glance in her direction to see which side she was going to favor. Rixi decided to keep quiet and see how this discussion unfolded before she would chime in. Seeing as such, Cuddlington plodded on. "Melbrid, this is a chromatic dragon. Such creatures are widely known as incredibly evil beasts. All they do is eat, sleep and pillage. Do ye know what they eat, young sorcerer?"
Melbrid was obviously startled by Cuddlington's ferocity. He meekly said, "No, not really."
Meentha took this opportunity to chime in and said, "Everrything. Literrally everrything. People, livestock, buildings, animals, trees. They eat for days all the while looting whatever treasure they can get their claws on. When they've built up a large pile of treasure they use slave labor to bring it back to their lair, and then eat the slaves. After that, they sleep for a couple of hundred years and do it all again."
Cuddlington let out a short laugh that was anything but mirthful. "Yer lucky if they sleep that long. The young ones sleep for a year or two then do it all again. Their period of sleep increases as they age."
Melbrid gulped and stared at the dragon. Even though he was a smart man, he let his naiveté show through when he asked, "All dragons do that?"
Meentha and Cuddlington smiled. The dwarf opened his mouth to speak, but Rixi beat him to it. "No, my friend, not all dragons do that. There are good dragons in the world and there are neutral dragons in the world, though those are rare. The good dragons often hunt their evil cousins and keep the loot for themselves."
Cuddlington and Meentha looked startled and confused that Rixi knew that fact. Rixi smiled at being able to show her older friends a bit of her knowledge and past. "My parents helped fight the green dragon that terrorized Telquirk when the town was founded. I asked that same question to my parents when I was young."
Rixi looked towards Melbrid and saw that he was struggling with the decision. She moved over to him and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "It's alright, Melbrid. You don't even have to be around. One of us will take care of it."
The sorcerer took one last look at the unconscious dragon and solemnly nodded. He weakly smiled at Rixi and turned towards the tunnel and walked to it. Rixi turned back and looked a question at Meentha and Cuddlington. Without any hesitation, Meentha said, "I'll do it. You two may head to the tunnel."
Cuddlington nodded at the ranger and took Rixi's arm and guided her to the tunnel. As they walked, he quietly said, "Ye surprised me back there, young lass."
A smile as wide as Rixi's face showed as she said, "In a good way, I hope."
Cuddlington smiled too and said, "Yes, lass. In a good way."
Rixi took a step through the door to the tunnel and was startled as the tunnel transformed from the tunnel they had come out of to the dining room of the mansion that they had met Yif in. Melbrid was standing not far from where Rixi and Cuddlington came through. Rixi turned around and looked through the doorway they had come through and only saw the room beyond. "Where's Meentha? What just happened?"
She recognized the sound of Yif's voice as he said, "She'll be along momentarily. She just finished off the dragon for you all."
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Showing posts with label propheteering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label propheteering. Show all posts
Monday, October 17, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Story a Week 31 - Propheteering 13
So apparently I posted this last night and didn't remember doing it and didn't put my normal heading paragraphs in. Silly me. :)
Here's another segment of the Propheteering storyline. It's a little shorter than the others in the series. Next week, unless I have inspiration for a different story, I'm planning on posting the next part of this storyline. Enjoy!
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Cuddlington heard a very quiet scuffling sound behind him. He whispered, "Rixi, is that you? Where did ye go lass?"
He saw her finally when she turned towards him thanks to the light from the dragon's chamber. Before he could say anything further, Melbrid said, "Where did you get that? It's practically glowing with magical energy."
The dwarf couldn't see the item that the sorcerer was talking about. Rixi said, "Um, I found it here. One of the orcs must have dropped it."
Her friends all looked at each other doubtfully. Cuddlington dismissed it all with a wave of his hand. "We have bigger problems. Did ye see what's waiting fer us out there, Rixi?"
Rixi gazed out at the dragon. It seemed to be sleeping after it finished slaughtering the orcs. She said, "Yes I did. I think we can defeat the dragon."
Cuddlington closed his eyes and shook his head. He was about to spout out a witty retort when he opened his eyes and noticed that he wasn't standing with his friends any longer. He was still in a tunnel of some sort, but instead of unnaturally bright white light coming from behind him, it was instead a dim golden glow.
Startled and wary, Cuddlington turned towards the glow with a hand on his axe. He was startled to see a dwarf sitting on a glowing golden throne. He immediately knew that this must be Kilzan Thunderhammer, the god of all dwarves. "My lord!" Cuddlington exclaimed as he dropped to one knee.
"Oh fer Ur's sake, rise," Kilzan replied. He spoke in a voice that was at the same time booming and quietly reassuring to Cuddlington.
Cuddlington, uncertain of himself, rose and looked in Kilzan's direction. The throne he was sitting on was very ornately decorated with some of the most well-known exploits of the god while he was a mortal during the Gods' War around 1400 years ago. Kilzan was smiling down on Cuddlington as he said, "Yer in fer some rough times comin' up here, young 'un. That Yif has some plans fer ye and yer friends, that's fer sure."
Cuddlington nodded, he said, "Yeah, that's what I figured. He hasn't been hiding that."
Kilzan laughed heartily and stepped down from the throne and approached Cuddlington. "He ain't exactly subtle, is he?"
Shaking his head, Cuddlington replied, "Nope. Subtle as a battle axe."
The dwarven god laughed heartily again. "Well, I can't tell ye fer sure what he has planned for ye, but I can help ye on yer way a bit. For instance, I can tell ye that one of yer friends has gotten assistance like this."
Cuddlington wondered which of his friends he was talking about, but couldn't think about it long as Kilzan was still talking. "Also, the dragon has a weakness. If ye can hit it, there's a join in its armor where its legs meet its torso."
"That certainly will help," Cuddlington replied. Something was puzzling him though and he said so, "I don't really understand why ye're helping me. The Gods aren't known for their direct assistance to individual followers."
Kilzan put a hand on Cuddlington's shoulder. "Ye're a little different, Cuddlington. If I might be a little blunt, I also have plans for ye and I'd like to see ye survive this ordeal that Yif is putting ye through." Kilzan's smile disappeared and was replaced by a solemn look. "There's a lot of stuff brewing up right now, Cuddlington. Storms, hurricanes and... beer!"
Kilzan laughed again and Cuddlington followed suit. Kilzan slapped him on the back and said, "I really wish ye luck. Ye're gonna need it."
There was a flash of light and Cuddlington found himself in the darkness of the tunnel outside the dragon's chamber. He felt a little disoriented.
He was startled when Rixi said, "Cuddlington! You had disappeared!"
Cuddlington turned to where his friends were standing near the opening to the dragon's chamber. "Yeah, it was strange. Kilzan Thunderhammer took me somewhere and told me about a weakness that the dragon has."
When he paused, Melbrid burst out, "Well, what is it?"
Suddenly, Cuddlington heard movement in the chamber. He looked and saw the dragon looking directly towards them. To him it seemed like he was staring straight into his soul. A hiss from Meentha startled Cuddlington, "You fool! You've woken the dragon!"
Cuddlington looked back at the dragon just in time to see the dragon open its maw to release its breath weapon. "Look out!" Cuddlington yelled.
Here's another segment of the Propheteering storyline. It's a little shorter than the others in the series. Next week, unless I have inspiration for a different story, I'm planning on posting the next part of this storyline. Enjoy!
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Cuddlington heard a very quiet scuffling sound behind him. He whispered, "Rixi, is that you? Where did ye go lass?"
He saw her finally when she turned towards him thanks to the light from the dragon's chamber. Before he could say anything further, Melbrid said, "Where did you get that? It's practically glowing with magical energy."
The dwarf couldn't see the item that the sorcerer was talking about. Rixi said, "Um, I found it here. One of the orcs must have dropped it."
Her friends all looked at each other doubtfully. Cuddlington dismissed it all with a wave of his hand. "We have bigger problems. Did ye see what's waiting fer us out there, Rixi?"
Rixi gazed out at the dragon. It seemed to be sleeping after it finished slaughtering the orcs. She said, "Yes I did. I think we can defeat the dragon."
Cuddlington closed his eyes and shook his head. He was about to spout out a witty retort when he opened his eyes and noticed that he wasn't standing with his friends any longer. He was still in a tunnel of some sort, but instead of unnaturally bright white light coming from behind him, it was instead a dim golden glow.
Startled and wary, Cuddlington turned towards the glow with a hand on his axe. He was startled to see a dwarf sitting on a glowing golden throne. He immediately knew that this must be Kilzan Thunderhammer, the god of all dwarves. "My lord!" Cuddlington exclaimed as he dropped to one knee.
"Oh fer Ur's sake, rise," Kilzan replied. He spoke in a voice that was at the same time booming and quietly reassuring to Cuddlington.
Cuddlington, uncertain of himself, rose and looked in Kilzan's direction. The throne he was sitting on was very ornately decorated with some of the most well-known exploits of the god while he was a mortal during the Gods' War around 1400 years ago. Kilzan was smiling down on Cuddlington as he said, "Yer in fer some rough times comin' up here, young 'un. That Yif has some plans fer ye and yer friends, that's fer sure."
Cuddlington nodded, he said, "Yeah, that's what I figured. He hasn't been hiding that."
Kilzan laughed heartily and stepped down from the throne and approached Cuddlington. "He ain't exactly subtle, is he?"
Shaking his head, Cuddlington replied, "Nope. Subtle as a battle axe."
The dwarven god laughed heartily again. "Well, I can't tell ye fer sure what he has planned for ye, but I can help ye on yer way a bit. For instance, I can tell ye that one of yer friends has gotten assistance like this."
Cuddlington wondered which of his friends he was talking about, but couldn't think about it long as Kilzan was still talking. "Also, the dragon has a weakness. If ye can hit it, there's a join in its armor where its legs meet its torso."
"That certainly will help," Cuddlington replied. Something was puzzling him though and he said so, "I don't really understand why ye're helping me. The Gods aren't known for their direct assistance to individual followers."
Kilzan put a hand on Cuddlington's shoulder. "Ye're a little different, Cuddlington. If I might be a little blunt, I also have plans for ye and I'd like to see ye survive this ordeal that Yif is putting ye through." Kilzan's smile disappeared and was replaced by a solemn look. "There's a lot of stuff brewing up right now, Cuddlington. Storms, hurricanes and... beer!"
Kilzan laughed again and Cuddlington followed suit. Kilzan slapped him on the back and said, "I really wish ye luck. Ye're gonna need it."
There was a flash of light and Cuddlington found himself in the darkness of the tunnel outside the dragon's chamber. He felt a little disoriented.
He was startled when Rixi said, "Cuddlington! You had disappeared!"
Cuddlington turned to where his friends were standing near the opening to the dragon's chamber. "Yeah, it was strange. Kilzan Thunderhammer took me somewhere and told me about a weakness that the dragon has."
When he paused, Melbrid burst out, "Well, what is it?"
Suddenly, Cuddlington heard movement in the chamber. He looked and saw the dragon looking directly towards them. To him it seemed like he was staring straight into his soul. A hiss from Meentha startled Cuddlington, "You fool! You've woken the dragon!"
Cuddlington looked back at the dragon just in time to see the dragon open its maw to release its breath weapon. "Look out!" Cuddlington yelled.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Story a Week 25 - Propheteering Part 12
Once again, I had this story written long before it was due to be posted. I'm so proud of myself!
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Rixi turned around to see how close her friends were getting. She blinked and when she opened her eyes she was startled to see herself standing in a vast forest. From behind her, a voice that was somehow familiar, yet also strange said, "Welcome, Rixi."
Startled again, Rixi spun around and drew her short swords. She was surprised to see a very handsome Grey Elf standing beside a table elegantly set for tea. She sheepishly put away her weapons and smiled at the elf.
"I'm sorry to have startled you," the elf said. "I'm also sorry to have pulled you from your current quest, but I needed to speak to you."
Rixi was very confused. The man in front of her looked very familiar to her, yet she knew that she had never met him before. "Who are you?" she asked.
The man blushed and said, "I'm terribly sorry, how rude of me to not introduce myself. I am Yond Thruil."
Rixi nearly fainted when she recognized the name of the god of all elves. "Wh...what do you want me for? Am I dead?"
Yond shook his head and replied, "No, of course not. As I said before, I needed to speak with you before you and your friends faced the dragon." He gestured to a seat next to the table. "Will you sit?"
Rixi shyly nodded and sat down. Yond sat after her. "Would you like some tea?" he asked.
Rixi realized then that she hadn't had anything to eat in quite a while. She nodded. As Yond poured the tea, he said, "Just so that you know, Rixi. I am quite aware of your situation and I know your history quite well."
Yond passed Rixi the teacup and saucer. She asked, "I don't understand why you want to talk to me? I've never been very religious and I'm not even sure how to pray since I've never tried."
Yond chuckled and said, "I appreciate your honesty. To respond to your question, even if you don't worship me, you are an elf. As the god of all elves, I want you to know that I have the best interests of our people at heart."
Rixi sipped her tea as he spoke. When he was finished she said, "That doesn't really answer my question."
Yond chuckled again. "You are a smart one." Yond sighed, "There are rules that even I must follow, Rixi. One of them is that I cannot tell you of your future. For one, the future isn't written. It sort of unfolds itself. As such, I can only see glimpses and get vague ideas of it anyway. Just know that, even if you don't worship me, that I love you as I do all elves."
Rixi was as confused as ever. "What did you want to talk about?" she asked.
Yond's smile grew. "You may or may not have heard of a race of elves called Pelorin?" He waited until Rixi shook her head. "Well, in that case I will explain. Pelorin are elves chosen for a higher calling. They are extremely rare. Their skin is a golden bronze and their hair is a fiery golden color. They are my representatives on the surface of Uroth." He paused, looking into the distance for a moment. When his attention returned to Rixi he said, "Yif will notice your absence soon and will wonder at it. He cannot know that I have taken you. My point is, Rixi, would you ever consider joining the ranks of the Pelorin?"
Rixi was taken aback. "You want me to be one of your servants?"
Yond shook his head. "The Pelorin aren't servants. They are my eyes and ears and often my fists. Most of them are devout worshipers. That, unfortunately, is turning out to be a bit of a problem for me. There have been times where they have been blinded by their faith. I think that it is about time that I start bringing some new faces into the ranks of the Pelorin. I need someone who is willing to fight with me on occasion."
Rixi felt overwhelmed. Before a few minutes ago, Rixi had trouble believing that Yond Thruil even existed, though she learned about his military career when he was mortal from her parents when she was little. Now he was asking her to be one of his closest advisers and a warrior for his causes. "I...I just don't know. I've don't really know anything about your religion or anything."
Yond nodded. "I understand, Rixi. It is okay for you to think about this for a while. Please don't tell anyone about what I've asked of you until you are ready to make your decision. Once you're ready, just speak my name aloud and you will be transported back here again."
Rixi nodded. Yond stood and Rixi followed suit. He said, "I will send some food back with you. Yif won't notice. You and your friends are getting hungry down there and it will help you on your way."
Rixi nodded, still overwhelmed by this whole experience. Yond put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Good luck."
Rixi felt a little sense of loss as she was transported back to the dark passageway. She heard Cuddlington whisper, "Rixi, is that you? Where did ye go lass?"
Rixi turned to see Cuddlington, Melbrid and Meentha near the entrance to where the dragon's chamber. She started to move over to where her friends were waiting and realized that she was carrying a new item. It was a small bag that was very light.
Melbrid said, "Where did you get that? It's practically glowing with magical energy."
Rixi said, "Um, I found it here. One of the orcs must have dropped it."
Her friends all looked at each other doubtfully. Cuddlington dismissed it all with a wave of his hand. "We have bigger problems. Did you see what's waiting for us out there, Rixi?"
Rixi gazed out at the dragon. It seemed to be sleeping after it finished slaughtering the orcs. She said, "Yes I did. I think we can defeat the dragon."
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Rixi turned around to see how close her friends were getting. She blinked and when she opened her eyes she was startled to see herself standing in a vast forest. From behind her, a voice that was somehow familiar, yet also strange said, "Welcome, Rixi."
Startled again, Rixi spun around and drew her short swords. She was surprised to see a very handsome Grey Elf standing beside a table elegantly set for tea. She sheepishly put away her weapons and smiled at the elf.
"I'm sorry to have startled you," the elf said. "I'm also sorry to have pulled you from your current quest, but I needed to speak to you."
Rixi was very confused. The man in front of her looked very familiar to her, yet she knew that she had never met him before. "Who are you?" she asked.
The man blushed and said, "I'm terribly sorry, how rude of me to not introduce myself. I am Yond Thruil."
Rixi nearly fainted when she recognized the name of the god of all elves. "Wh...what do you want me for? Am I dead?"
Yond shook his head and replied, "No, of course not. As I said before, I needed to speak with you before you and your friends faced the dragon." He gestured to a seat next to the table. "Will you sit?"
Rixi shyly nodded and sat down. Yond sat after her. "Would you like some tea?" he asked.
Rixi realized then that she hadn't had anything to eat in quite a while. She nodded. As Yond poured the tea, he said, "Just so that you know, Rixi. I am quite aware of your situation and I know your history quite well."
Yond passed Rixi the teacup and saucer. She asked, "I don't understand why you want to talk to me? I've never been very religious and I'm not even sure how to pray since I've never tried."
Yond chuckled and said, "I appreciate your honesty. To respond to your question, even if you don't worship me, you are an elf. As the god of all elves, I want you to know that I have the best interests of our people at heart."
Rixi sipped her tea as he spoke. When he was finished she said, "That doesn't really answer my question."
Yond chuckled again. "You are a smart one." Yond sighed, "There are rules that even I must follow, Rixi. One of them is that I cannot tell you of your future. For one, the future isn't written. It sort of unfolds itself. As such, I can only see glimpses and get vague ideas of it anyway. Just know that, even if you don't worship me, that I love you as I do all elves."
Rixi was as confused as ever. "What did you want to talk about?" she asked.
Yond's smile grew. "You may or may not have heard of a race of elves called Pelorin?" He waited until Rixi shook her head. "Well, in that case I will explain. Pelorin are elves chosen for a higher calling. They are extremely rare. Their skin is a golden bronze and their hair is a fiery golden color. They are my representatives on the surface of Uroth." He paused, looking into the distance for a moment. When his attention returned to Rixi he said, "Yif will notice your absence soon and will wonder at it. He cannot know that I have taken you. My point is, Rixi, would you ever consider joining the ranks of the Pelorin?"
Rixi was taken aback. "You want me to be one of your servants?"
Yond shook his head. "The Pelorin aren't servants. They are my eyes and ears and often my fists. Most of them are devout worshipers. That, unfortunately, is turning out to be a bit of a problem for me. There have been times where they have been blinded by their faith. I think that it is about time that I start bringing some new faces into the ranks of the Pelorin. I need someone who is willing to fight with me on occasion."
Rixi felt overwhelmed. Before a few minutes ago, Rixi had trouble believing that Yond Thruil even existed, though she learned about his military career when he was mortal from her parents when she was little. Now he was asking her to be one of his closest advisers and a warrior for his causes. "I...I just don't know. I've don't really know anything about your religion or anything."
Yond nodded. "I understand, Rixi. It is okay for you to think about this for a while. Please don't tell anyone about what I've asked of you until you are ready to make your decision. Once you're ready, just speak my name aloud and you will be transported back here again."
Rixi nodded. Yond stood and Rixi followed suit. He said, "I will send some food back with you. Yif won't notice. You and your friends are getting hungry down there and it will help you on your way."
Rixi nodded, still overwhelmed by this whole experience. Yond put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Good luck."
Rixi felt a little sense of loss as she was transported back to the dark passageway. She heard Cuddlington whisper, "Rixi, is that you? Where did ye go lass?"
Rixi turned to see Cuddlington, Melbrid and Meentha near the entrance to where the dragon's chamber. She started to move over to where her friends were waiting and realized that she was carrying a new item. It was a small bag that was very light.
Melbrid said, "Where did you get that? It's practically glowing with magical energy."
Rixi said, "Um, I found it here. One of the orcs must have dropped it."
Her friends all looked at each other doubtfully. Cuddlington dismissed it all with a wave of his hand. "We have bigger problems. Did you see what's waiting for us out there, Rixi?"
Rixi gazed out at the dragon. It seemed to be sleeping after it finished slaughtering the orcs. She said, "Yes I did. I think we can defeat the dragon."
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Story a Week 24 - Propheteering Part 11
Let me tell you that I was on a roll last week while I was out of town. That's when I wrote this story along with last weekend's story.
I was thinking about why these stories come together so well for me and I think that it's because it's just like running a D&D campaign, except things go exactly the way I plan. Anyone who has been a DM will tell you that things never go the way you plan. It's kind of nice to have things go so smoothly and I'm really enjoying writing in this series.
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Rixi watched the orcs bash their weapons against the clear material for a few moments more before she was satisfied that they weren't going to come breaking through the door at any moment. After ten minutes of attacking the door, they hadn't even made a scratch in the clear stuff.
Rixi shrugged and turned her back on the door. The sight in front of her still amazed her. So much loot! "What are we going to do with all of this stuff?" she asked.
Melbrid shrugged and said, "I don't know, but I can tell you that all of the weapons and armor are magical. Some of the other pieces of equipment laying there are too."
Cuddlington replied, "I think that the weapons are meant for us. Look at them."
Rixi looked up and studied the array of weapons. She immediately spotted the weapons that would be meant for her. There were two short swords, a bandolier of daggers and a hand crossbow. She'd always wanted a hand crossbow, but even non-magical hand crossbows were really expensive. She saw Meentha eyeing a strange looking bow, a long sword and a scimitar. Cuddlington was looking at an axe and a small warhammer. Melbrid picked up a broadsword and was nodding at it.
"You can take the weapons," he said. "They're mostly simple enchantments to improve sharpness and balance. Rixi, that bandolier magically replenishes the daggers. Cuddlington, that warhammer will return to your grasp after a moment or two. Meentha, let me take a look at that bow."
Meentha nodded and handed the bow to Melbrid who began to study it. While he did that, Rixi fitted the bandolier over her torso, under her tunic. She lovingly placed her old short swords on the ground and replaced them in her sheaths with the two new short swords. She took the small quiver of crossbow bolts and placed it on her belt and slung the hand crossbow over her shoulder by the strap attached to it.
Rixi looked up when Melbrid spoke again. He said, "Meentha, this is a shocking bow. When you speak the command word, the next arrow you fire from the bow will shock the target as if it were hit by a lightning bolt."
Meentha nodded as she took the bow back from Melbrid. Melbrid turned to the pile of equipment and studied it for a moment. He pointed to a chain mail and said, "I think that this one is for you, Cuddlington. It's enchanted to be harder to puncture." He next pointed to a piece of studded leather armor and said, "Meentha, you should take that one. It's enchanted much the same as Cuddlington's."
Finally, Melbrid picked up a piece of jet black leather armor. "Rixi, this is Shadow Armor. It will sense when you are trying to hide and you will seem to melt into the shadows."
Rixi looked at the armor with awe. She'd always been pretty good at slinking around in the shadows, but this armor would make her virtually undetectable.
Melbrid turned to the others and said, "You all go ahead and don your new sets of armor. I'm going to go through the rest of this pile and identify it all."
Rixi turned and moved to another side of the room as Melbrid began to sort the pile. She made sure to make a face at the orcs on the other side of the clear door. They had stopped bashing it with their weapons, but had a guard posted there. When she was sure that the orcs couldn't see her anymore she began to remove her equipment and her old, beat up set of leather armor. She was kind of sad to set the armor on the floor since it had been with her for so long, but the feeling quickly went away when she picked up her new armor. The leather felt supple, but strong. The color was blacker than anything she'd ever seen before. When she wore it, she barely felt the weight of it on her and it didn't hinder her movements in the least.
After she was all finished equipping herself, she turned back to see Melbrid sitting on the floor meditating. She walked over and sat down next to him. He didn't seem to notice, so she shrugged to herself and picked up something from the pile in front of him.
Suddenly, Meldbrid's arm shot out and grabbed Rixi's wrist as she started to pick up a wand. "I wouldn't do that, if I were you," he said.
She dropped the wand and pulled her arm away. "Well, you didn't have to startle me like that."
Melbrid apologetically said, "I'm sorry, Rixi. I was meditating when I felt you pick up that wand. It's quite a powerful, destructive wand, so I didn't want to you accidently set it off."
Rixi shrugged it off and asked, "What is all this stuff?"
Melbrid started pointing at objects as he rattled off their descriptions, "There are two lightning wands, the death ray wand you were playing with, several healing potions of varying strengths, an Amulet of Natural Armor, Boots of Striding and Springing, a Scarab of Protection and I think that that last gem is an air elemental gem."
Rixi was confused. "If you know what they all are, why are you meditating?"
Melbrid glanced back at Cuddlington and Meentha, saw that they wouldn't hear, then whispered, "I wanted to regenerate my magical energy. Yif is equipping us with some pretty powerful artifacts here. He has something dangerous in store for us."
Cuddlington and Meentha returned to the spot where Rixi and Melbrid were sitting. Melbrid began to hand out the magical items out to the group. He gave the amulet to Meentha, the boots to Rixi, the scarab to Cuddlington and he kept the gem for himself. He said, "I think that this is the configuration that Yif meant for us." He glanced in Rixi's direction.
Rixi sighed and said, "Melbrid thinks that Yif has something particularly dangerous in store for us."
Melbrid looked shocked that Rixi told the other two about what he said, but soon got over it when he saw that Meentha and Cuddlington were nodding their agreement. Rixi stuck her tongue out at Melbrid. He shrugged and picked up the wands and put them carefully into his wand holster inside the sleeve of one of his robes. He then passed out the potions so that each person had two of them.
After the last items were secured in everyone’s' pouches, the ground shook. Rixi heard the orcs yelp and turned to see them running from the clear door as the ground continued to shake. She heard Melbrid say, "Oh, no," and turned to see him pointing at the wall behind her. She turned to see the wall slowly moving towards them.
Panic filled her as the wall continued to approach them. She looked around and saw that the only way out was the way they came in. "Follow me!" she shouted as she ran to the door.
She pulled the door open and rushed through into the dark passageway. She looked both directions and saw that the opening that they had come through where they fought the hydra was dark, but the opposite direction had an opening at the end. She could see the forms of many orcs running in that direction.
Suddenly, Melbrid ran into her and they both went down in a heap. "Hey!" Rixi yelped.
"Oh, sorry Rixi," Melbrid said as he helped her up. "Once you got to the darkness, I lost sight of you and didn't see you there."
Rixi smiled to herself, her new armor was working well at least. "The way back seems to be blocked. I think that we can only go the way that the orcs came from and went back to."
Cuddlington broke in, "We had better keep moving too. The wall at the end where we defeated the hydra is also moving in our direction."
Rixi said, "I'm going to run ahead to the opening and look through. You guys catch up, but don't go out the opening until I tell you too. You won't be able to see me there."
The others voiced their acceptance and Rixi sprinted down the passageway. Her new boots made her move a lot faster than before. After a few moments she was on the heels of the last orc as it left the passage and ran out into the open. Rixi stopped short and stared out into the large room beyond.
The room was about twice the size of the chamber where they had fought the hydra. The reason was obvious to Rixi, there was a gigantic red dragon occupying the room! The dragon was smashing, burning and biting the orcs.
Rixi swore under her breath as she watched the dragon decimate the remaining orcs. She saw that the dragon was obviously quite powerful, but she had a feeling that the four of them would triumph.
I was thinking about why these stories come together so well for me and I think that it's because it's just like running a D&D campaign, except things go exactly the way I plan. Anyone who has been a DM will tell you that things never go the way you plan. It's kind of nice to have things go so smoothly and I'm really enjoying writing in this series.
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Rixi watched the orcs bash their weapons against the clear material for a few moments more before she was satisfied that they weren't going to come breaking through the door at any moment. After ten minutes of attacking the door, they hadn't even made a scratch in the clear stuff.
Rixi shrugged and turned her back on the door. The sight in front of her still amazed her. So much loot! "What are we going to do with all of this stuff?" she asked.
Melbrid shrugged and said, "I don't know, but I can tell you that all of the weapons and armor are magical. Some of the other pieces of equipment laying there are too."
Cuddlington replied, "I think that the weapons are meant for us. Look at them."
Rixi looked up and studied the array of weapons. She immediately spotted the weapons that would be meant for her. There were two short swords, a bandolier of daggers and a hand crossbow. She'd always wanted a hand crossbow, but even non-magical hand crossbows were really expensive. She saw Meentha eyeing a strange looking bow, a long sword and a scimitar. Cuddlington was looking at an axe and a small warhammer. Melbrid picked up a broadsword and was nodding at it.
"You can take the weapons," he said. "They're mostly simple enchantments to improve sharpness and balance. Rixi, that bandolier magically replenishes the daggers. Cuddlington, that warhammer will return to your grasp after a moment or two. Meentha, let me take a look at that bow."
Meentha nodded and handed the bow to Melbrid who began to study it. While he did that, Rixi fitted the bandolier over her torso, under her tunic. She lovingly placed her old short swords on the ground and replaced them in her sheaths with the two new short swords. She took the small quiver of crossbow bolts and placed it on her belt and slung the hand crossbow over her shoulder by the strap attached to it.
Rixi looked up when Melbrid spoke again. He said, "Meentha, this is a shocking bow. When you speak the command word, the next arrow you fire from the bow will shock the target as if it were hit by a lightning bolt."
Meentha nodded as she took the bow back from Melbrid. Melbrid turned to the pile of equipment and studied it for a moment. He pointed to a chain mail and said, "I think that this one is for you, Cuddlington. It's enchanted to be harder to puncture." He next pointed to a piece of studded leather armor and said, "Meentha, you should take that one. It's enchanted much the same as Cuddlington's."
Finally, Melbrid picked up a piece of jet black leather armor. "Rixi, this is Shadow Armor. It will sense when you are trying to hide and you will seem to melt into the shadows."
Rixi looked at the armor with awe. She'd always been pretty good at slinking around in the shadows, but this armor would make her virtually undetectable.
Melbrid turned to the others and said, "You all go ahead and don your new sets of armor. I'm going to go through the rest of this pile and identify it all."
Rixi turned and moved to another side of the room as Melbrid began to sort the pile. She made sure to make a face at the orcs on the other side of the clear door. They had stopped bashing it with their weapons, but had a guard posted there. When she was sure that the orcs couldn't see her anymore she began to remove her equipment and her old, beat up set of leather armor. She was kind of sad to set the armor on the floor since it had been with her for so long, but the feeling quickly went away when she picked up her new armor. The leather felt supple, but strong. The color was blacker than anything she'd ever seen before. When she wore it, she barely felt the weight of it on her and it didn't hinder her movements in the least.
After she was all finished equipping herself, she turned back to see Melbrid sitting on the floor meditating. She walked over and sat down next to him. He didn't seem to notice, so she shrugged to herself and picked up something from the pile in front of him.
Suddenly, Meldbrid's arm shot out and grabbed Rixi's wrist as she started to pick up a wand. "I wouldn't do that, if I were you," he said.
She dropped the wand and pulled her arm away. "Well, you didn't have to startle me like that."
Melbrid apologetically said, "I'm sorry, Rixi. I was meditating when I felt you pick up that wand. It's quite a powerful, destructive wand, so I didn't want to you accidently set it off."
Rixi shrugged it off and asked, "What is all this stuff?"
Melbrid started pointing at objects as he rattled off their descriptions, "There are two lightning wands, the death ray wand you were playing with, several healing potions of varying strengths, an Amulet of Natural Armor, Boots of Striding and Springing, a Scarab of Protection and I think that that last gem is an air elemental gem."
Rixi was confused. "If you know what they all are, why are you meditating?"
Melbrid glanced back at Cuddlington and Meentha, saw that they wouldn't hear, then whispered, "I wanted to regenerate my magical energy. Yif is equipping us with some pretty powerful artifacts here. He has something dangerous in store for us."
Cuddlington and Meentha returned to the spot where Rixi and Melbrid were sitting. Melbrid began to hand out the magical items out to the group. He gave the amulet to Meentha, the boots to Rixi, the scarab to Cuddlington and he kept the gem for himself. He said, "I think that this is the configuration that Yif meant for us." He glanced in Rixi's direction.
Rixi sighed and said, "Melbrid thinks that Yif has something particularly dangerous in store for us."
Melbrid looked shocked that Rixi told the other two about what he said, but soon got over it when he saw that Meentha and Cuddlington were nodding their agreement. Rixi stuck her tongue out at Melbrid. He shrugged and picked up the wands and put them carefully into his wand holster inside the sleeve of one of his robes. He then passed out the potions so that each person had two of them.
After the last items were secured in everyone’s' pouches, the ground shook. Rixi heard the orcs yelp and turned to see them running from the clear door as the ground continued to shake. She heard Melbrid say, "Oh, no," and turned to see him pointing at the wall behind her. She turned to see the wall slowly moving towards them.
Panic filled her as the wall continued to approach them. She looked around and saw that the only way out was the way they came in. "Follow me!" she shouted as she ran to the door.
She pulled the door open and rushed through into the dark passageway. She looked both directions and saw that the opening that they had come through where they fought the hydra was dark, but the opposite direction had an opening at the end. She could see the forms of many orcs running in that direction.
Suddenly, Melbrid ran into her and they both went down in a heap. "Hey!" Rixi yelped.
"Oh, sorry Rixi," Melbrid said as he helped her up. "Once you got to the darkness, I lost sight of you and didn't see you there."
Rixi smiled to herself, her new armor was working well at least. "The way back seems to be blocked. I think that we can only go the way that the orcs came from and went back to."
Cuddlington broke in, "We had better keep moving too. The wall at the end where we defeated the hydra is also moving in our direction."
Rixi said, "I'm going to run ahead to the opening and look through. You guys catch up, but don't go out the opening until I tell you too. You won't be able to see me there."
The others voiced their acceptance and Rixi sprinted down the passageway. Her new boots made her move a lot faster than before. After a few moments she was on the heels of the last orc as it left the passage and ran out into the open. Rixi stopped short and stared out into the large room beyond.
The room was about twice the size of the chamber where they had fought the hydra. The reason was obvious to Rixi, there was a gigantic red dragon occupying the room! The dragon was smashing, burning and biting the orcs.
Rixi swore under her breath as she watched the dragon decimate the remaining orcs. She saw that the dragon was obviously quite powerful, but she had a feeling that the four of them would triumph.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Story a Week 23 - Propheteering Part 10
Wow, for the first time in a very long time, I had the Story a Week done long before the weekend. Since I was out of town this week, I had a little extra time in the evenings to spend on writing and that's what I've done. Of course, last time I was out of town I didn't write, I just sat in my hotel room playing computer games. I've kind of decided to give those games a rest as I wasn't satisfied with my lack of writing.
Also, this is the first time I've used the scheduling feature of Blogger. If you're reading this, obviously it works! :)
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Rixi edged along the wall towards the opening that the hydra had charged through. She pulled a small mirror out of her belt pouch and took a moment to wonder how it had survived intact through all that she had been through today. She angled the mirror to give herself a good view around the corner. Satisfied that there was no immediate threat, she signaled for the others to wait there as she carefully and quietly crept around the corner and into the darkness.
She stayed on the edge of the walkway that led into the darkness. Even though elves could see very well in the dark, there just wasn't anything to see, yet. A few minutes of creeping along in the darkness she stopped short. She stared at the wall on the other side for a moment. She nodded to herself. There was a faint light shining through a crack at the base of the wall opposite of her. The crack was very minute, but as she approached she was sure that there was a door there.
Rixi touched the wall above where the crack was, but nothing happened. She tried to push on the wall, with the same result. She ran her fingers along the wall and felt, rather than saw, where the outline of the door was. She glanced further down the passage, then back towards her friends. She thought about calling out, but she couldn't be sure that no one on the other side of the wall would hear.
Shrugging to herself, Rixi quickly and quietly sprinted back to where her friends were waiting. She laughed a little when she sprang out of the darkness and startled the three of them.
"Ach, don't do that, lass. I would've split ye in two if I hadn't recognized ye so quickly," Cuddlington blustered.
Rixi, Meentha and Melbrid laughed at the dwarf's bluster. "There's a hidden door a couple of hundred yards down the passage. The passage keeps going, but I haven't seen anything other than dust in it," Rixi announced.
Melbrid said, "Well, lead the way then."
Rixi nodded and turned back into the dark passage. She led her friends down it as she kept her eye on the place where the wall met the floor. It seemed to her that the light was a little brighter this time as her and her friends approached the place.
"I see the light under the doorway," Melbrid said as Rixi stopped.
Rixi replied, "Yes, I felt the edges of the door, but I couldn't get it to budge by pushing or pulling on the crack. She reached out and pushed on the wall again, just to be sure.
She saw Melbrid reach out and feel along the wall. "I don't feel anything," he remarked.
"O' course ye don't, yer half human," Cuddlington said. "Human's aren't attuned ta nature like elves and they don't have the affinity for rocks like us dwarves do." The dwarf reached out and felt the wall. "Ah, I feel the edge. Mighty fine craftsmanship. If that light weren't showing beneath the door, I doubt ye would have noticed the door, even with a torch, Rixi."
Rixi nodded and saw Meentha reach out and touch the wall. The moment her hand connected with the wall, a sharp crack emitted from the wall in front of them and echoed down the passage. The four of them jumped back in surprise. Rixi looked and saw that light was now coming from a seam that ran all the way around the door. She reached out and tried to push on the door, but it wouldn't budge. She stepped back and said, "Well, if there is danger waiting down this passage, it knows that we're here."
"Indeed," Melbrid replied.
Cuddlington tried to push on the door, but gave up after a moment. He stepped back and said, "Meentha, you try. The damn thing cracked when you touched it."
Meentha stepped forward and pushed at the door with all her might. She also gave up after a moment and stepped back. "It won't budge," she said.
Suddenly, the answer dawned on Rixi. "The door cracked when all four of us touched it!" she exclaimed. She put her hand back on the door and said, "Come on, put your hands on the door."
The others did so and there was another loud crack as the seam around the door grew. A moment later the door began to slide into the room behind the passage. Rixi had to shield her eyes as the light from many torches flooded into the previously dark passage. After her eyes adjusted to the light, she gazed into the room beyond.
"It's amazing," Melbrid remarked as he stepped into the room.
The others made similar remarks as they too stepped in. Rixi glanced down the passage before she followed them and stopped short. She wasn't sure, but she thought she saw something metallic reflecting light her way. All of a sudden, she saw several metallic objects reflecting light and heard the growls of unseen creatures waiting in the darkness down the hall.
Panic rose within Rixi, but she fought it down and tried to move into the room as nonchalantly as possible. She moved over to Cuddlington, who was still staring into the center of the room. She was about to tell him about what she saw when she caught sight of what the others were staring at.
On the wall on the far side of the small chamber was another door leading into a larger room. The door had a wooden frame, but had some sort of clear material, clearer than any glass Rixi had ever seen, that allowed the group to see what lay on the other side. In the chamber beyond were several obviously magical weapons and piles of other useful equipment.
Rixi heard some noise coming from the hall again that broke her awe inspired reverie. "Cuddlington, there are a lot of creatures outside that I think want to do us harm. What should we do?"
Rixi's words startled the dwarf out of his own reverie. He glanced around at the small antechamber and said. "The door to the passage is a good bottleneck, but we won't be able to hold out long if they have enough numbers." He glanced at the door that had slid to the side of the entryway. "I doubt that we can move that door back into place."
Rixi nodded and glanced back into the larger chamber. "Maybe we can get into there and shut the door?"
Melbrid was already trying to open the door. "It won't budge," he said. He pointed to some runes or drawings that were beside the door and shrugged, "I think that these are instructions or a puzzle of some sort," he said. "It's not a language, I don't think. At least, not one that I'm familiar with."
The low noises that were coming from the passage suddenly turned into a loud roar. The group could hear the sounds of pounding feet coming their way. Cuddlington said, "Meentha, get your sword. You and I are gonna defend the door. Melbrid, assist us with yer magic. Rixi, get that door open!"
Cuddlington and Meentha took up positions at the door just as the first creature appeared. It was an orc and Cuddlington quickly sliced its belly open with a swing of his axe. "Ah, orcs!" he yelled. "This should be fun!"
Melbrid gave Rixi a weak smile as they switched positions. Rixi heard the battle raging, but concentrated on the glyphs in front of her. The first symbol was a circle with eight dots spaced evenly around the edge, one of the dots was a little larger than the rest. There were two small lines across from each other intersecting the edge of the circle. The second symbol was three lines intersecting one another to look like a triangle whose sides just kept on going. The third symbol looked like the bars of a jail cell. The fourth symbol was a five point star. The final symbol looked like an asterisk, but with eight lines instead of six.
Rixi tried to figure out the similarities between the symbols. Each of the drawings, with the exception of the circle, were made of entirely straight lined aspects. Each of the drawings, with the exception of the asterisk, contained geometric shapes. None of this helped her. She heard a yelp and turned to see that Cuddlington had taken a slice to one of his arms. She rose to help out, but Melbrid saw her move and signaled that she needed to stay put. The sorcerer pulled a potion out of his pouch and aided the dwarf.
Rixi forced herself to look back at the symbols in front of her, but shook her head. She just didn't get it. She sighed and looked up at the ceiling and closed her eyes. Suddenly, she thought of something. She quickly glanced around the small room and nodded to herself. The room was a circle and there were eight torches scattered evenly around the edge of the room. She turned back and knew that the first symbol represented the room that they were in.
Excited now, Rixi crouched near the symbols again, but couldn't make any sense of the others. There weren't any triangle shapes, bars, stars or asterisks in the room. Only the torches and doors. "Wait a second..." she mumbled.
She counted the number of lines in each of the remaining symbols. The first symbol had three lines. The second had six lines, four bars and two for the top and bottom. But the third symbol had ten lines and there were only eight torches. She shook her head, but said to herself, "Well, it must represent five then. It's just a star's outline to confuse me."
She looked at the fourth symbol and counted eight lines. "Good," she said to herself. "So, three, six, five and eight."
She stood up and looked at the torches. "But, which one is considered the first and what do I do with them?"
Then she remembered the larger dot on the circle. She looked back at the circle and saw that it was to the right of the lower line. "If that one is the first..."
She pointed to it and counted them out. "You must be the third," she said pointing to the third torch to the right of the door. She walked over to it, shrugged and pulled a piece of cloth out of her pack. She doused the torch and stepped back. Nothing happened.
She shrugged again, "What do you expect, Rixi?" she said to herself. "You've only figured out the first part of the puzzle."
She continued to count out the torches until she found the sixth. She went over and doused that one as well. Then she went to the fifth and doused it. Finally she went to the eighth and doused it. When she stepped back, there was a sudden flash of light and she saw that all eight torches were lit again. She frowned as she walked over to the door and tried it. The door didn't budge.
Rixi heard Meentha cry out and turned to see her bleeding badly from a stab wound to the gut. She saw Melbrid pull her away from the melee and pour the rest of his healing potion onto the wound. Rixi wanted to run to help her friends, but she knew that they were depending on her to figure out the solution. She forced herself to turn back to the symbols.
She stared hard at the fourth symbol. "Oh," she said as the solution came to her. "You're not an eight, you're a four!"
She turned and saw that Meentha was back in the fight, though her wound wasn't fully healed. Rixi rushed to the torches and douse them. First the third, then the sixth, then the fifth and finally the fourth. This time there was a bright flash again, but all of the torches went out this time.
The battle noises paused as everyone adjusted to the sudden darkness. Rixi quickly ran over to where the door was and found that it easily pushed inward. She called out, "Quickly, into the large chamber!"
She moved inside and held the door as Melbrid, Meentha and Cuddlington moved into the room. She slammed the door shut as the first orc was reaching it. The torches on the other side flared up again. The orcs were momentarily stunned by this, but soon started pounding on the door.
Cuddlington moved closer to inspect the door. "Whatever this clear stuff be, it's sure holding against those blasted orcs!" he exclaimed.
Also, this is the first time I've used the scheduling feature of Blogger. If you're reading this, obviously it works! :)
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Rixi edged along the wall towards the opening that the hydra had charged through. She pulled a small mirror out of her belt pouch and took a moment to wonder how it had survived intact through all that she had been through today. She angled the mirror to give herself a good view around the corner. Satisfied that there was no immediate threat, she signaled for the others to wait there as she carefully and quietly crept around the corner and into the darkness.
She stayed on the edge of the walkway that led into the darkness. Even though elves could see very well in the dark, there just wasn't anything to see, yet. A few minutes of creeping along in the darkness she stopped short. She stared at the wall on the other side for a moment. She nodded to herself. There was a faint light shining through a crack at the base of the wall opposite of her. The crack was very minute, but as she approached she was sure that there was a door there.
Rixi touched the wall above where the crack was, but nothing happened. She tried to push on the wall, with the same result. She ran her fingers along the wall and felt, rather than saw, where the outline of the door was. She glanced further down the passage, then back towards her friends. She thought about calling out, but she couldn't be sure that no one on the other side of the wall would hear.
Shrugging to herself, Rixi quickly and quietly sprinted back to where her friends were waiting. She laughed a little when she sprang out of the darkness and startled the three of them.
"Ach, don't do that, lass. I would've split ye in two if I hadn't recognized ye so quickly," Cuddlington blustered.
Rixi, Meentha and Melbrid laughed at the dwarf's bluster. "There's a hidden door a couple of hundred yards down the passage. The passage keeps going, but I haven't seen anything other than dust in it," Rixi announced.
Melbrid said, "Well, lead the way then."
Rixi nodded and turned back into the dark passage. She led her friends down it as she kept her eye on the place where the wall met the floor. It seemed to her that the light was a little brighter this time as her and her friends approached the place.
"I see the light under the doorway," Melbrid said as Rixi stopped.
Rixi replied, "Yes, I felt the edges of the door, but I couldn't get it to budge by pushing or pulling on the crack. She reached out and pushed on the wall again, just to be sure.
She saw Melbrid reach out and feel along the wall. "I don't feel anything," he remarked.
"O' course ye don't, yer half human," Cuddlington said. "Human's aren't attuned ta nature like elves and they don't have the affinity for rocks like us dwarves do." The dwarf reached out and felt the wall. "Ah, I feel the edge. Mighty fine craftsmanship. If that light weren't showing beneath the door, I doubt ye would have noticed the door, even with a torch, Rixi."
Rixi nodded and saw Meentha reach out and touch the wall. The moment her hand connected with the wall, a sharp crack emitted from the wall in front of them and echoed down the passage. The four of them jumped back in surprise. Rixi looked and saw that light was now coming from a seam that ran all the way around the door. She reached out and tried to push on the door, but it wouldn't budge. She stepped back and said, "Well, if there is danger waiting down this passage, it knows that we're here."
"Indeed," Melbrid replied.
Cuddlington tried to push on the door, but gave up after a moment. He stepped back and said, "Meentha, you try. The damn thing cracked when you touched it."
Meentha stepped forward and pushed at the door with all her might. She also gave up after a moment and stepped back. "It won't budge," she said.
Suddenly, the answer dawned on Rixi. "The door cracked when all four of us touched it!" she exclaimed. She put her hand back on the door and said, "Come on, put your hands on the door."
The others did so and there was another loud crack as the seam around the door grew. A moment later the door began to slide into the room behind the passage. Rixi had to shield her eyes as the light from many torches flooded into the previously dark passage. After her eyes adjusted to the light, she gazed into the room beyond.
"It's amazing," Melbrid remarked as he stepped into the room.
The others made similar remarks as they too stepped in. Rixi glanced down the passage before she followed them and stopped short. She wasn't sure, but she thought she saw something metallic reflecting light her way. All of a sudden, she saw several metallic objects reflecting light and heard the growls of unseen creatures waiting in the darkness down the hall.
Panic rose within Rixi, but she fought it down and tried to move into the room as nonchalantly as possible. She moved over to Cuddlington, who was still staring into the center of the room. She was about to tell him about what she saw when she caught sight of what the others were staring at.
On the wall on the far side of the small chamber was another door leading into a larger room. The door had a wooden frame, but had some sort of clear material, clearer than any glass Rixi had ever seen, that allowed the group to see what lay on the other side. In the chamber beyond were several obviously magical weapons and piles of other useful equipment.
Rixi heard some noise coming from the hall again that broke her awe inspired reverie. "Cuddlington, there are a lot of creatures outside that I think want to do us harm. What should we do?"
Rixi's words startled the dwarf out of his own reverie. He glanced around at the small antechamber and said. "The door to the passage is a good bottleneck, but we won't be able to hold out long if they have enough numbers." He glanced at the door that had slid to the side of the entryway. "I doubt that we can move that door back into place."
Rixi nodded and glanced back into the larger chamber. "Maybe we can get into there and shut the door?"
Melbrid was already trying to open the door. "It won't budge," he said. He pointed to some runes or drawings that were beside the door and shrugged, "I think that these are instructions or a puzzle of some sort," he said. "It's not a language, I don't think. At least, not one that I'm familiar with."
The low noises that were coming from the passage suddenly turned into a loud roar. The group could hear the sounds of pounding feet coming their way. Cuddlington said, "Meentha, get your sword. You and I are gonna defend the door. Melbrid, assist us with yer magic. Rixi, get that door open!"
Cuddlington and Meentha took up positions at the door just as the first creature appeared. It was an orc and Cuddlington quickly sliced its belly open with a swing of his axe. "Ah, orcs!" he yelled. "This should be fun!"
Melbrid gave Rixi a weak smile as they switched positions. Rixi heard the battle raging, but concentrated on the glyphs in front of her. The first symbol was a circle with eight dots spaced evenly around the edge, one of the dots was a little larger than the rest. There were two small lines across from each other intersecting the edge of the circle. The second symbol was three lines intersecting one another to look like a triangle whose sides just kept on going. The third symbol looked like the bars of a jail cell. The fourth symbol was a five point star. The final symbol looked like an asterisk, but with eight lines instead of six.
Rixi tried to figure out the similarities between the symbols. Each of the drawings, with the exception of the circle, were made of entirely straight lined aspects. Each of the drawings, with the exception of the asterisk, contained geometric shapes. None of this helped her. She heard a yelp and turned to see that Cuddlington had taken a slice to one of his arms. She rose to help out, but Melbrid saw her move and signaled that she needed to stay put. The sorcerer pulled a potion out of his pouch and aided the dwarf.
Rixi forced herself to look back at the symbols in front of her, but shook her head. She just didn't get it. She sighed and looked up at the ceiling and closed her eyes. Suddenly, she thought of something. She quickly glanced around the small room and nodded to herself. The room was a circle and there were eight torches scattered evenly around the edge of the room. She turned back and knew that the first symbol represented the room that they were in.
Excited now, Rixi crouched near the symbols again, but couldn't make any sense of the others. There weren't any triangle shapes, bars, stars or asterisks in the room. Only the torches and doors. "Wait a second..." she mumbled.
She counted the number of lines in each of the remaining symbols. The first symbol had three lines. The second had six lines, four bars and two for the top and bottom. But the third symbol had ten lines and there were only eight torches. She shook her head, but said to herself, "Well, it must represent five then. It's just a star's outline to confuse me."
She looked at the fourth symbol and counted eight lines. "Good," she said to herself. "So, three, six, five and eight."
She stood up and looked at the torches. "But, which one is considered the first and what do I do with them?"
Then she remembered the larger dot on the circle. She looked back at the circle and saw that it was to the right of the lower line. "If that one is the first..."
She pointed to it and counted them out. "You must be the third," she said pointing to the third torch to the right of the door. She walked over to it, shrugged and pulled a piece of cloth out of her pack. She doused the torch and stepped back. Nothing happened.
She shrugged again, "What do you expect, Rixi?" she said to herself. "You've only figured out the first part of the puzzle."
She continued to count out the torches until she found the sixth. She went over and doused that one as well. Then she went to the fifth and doused it. Finally she went to the eighth and doused it. When she stepped back, there was a sudden flash of light and she saw that all eight torches were lit again. She frowned as she walked over to the door and tried it. The door didn't budge.
Rixi heard Meentha cry out and turned to see her bleeding badly from a stab wound to the gut. She saw Melbrid pull her away from the melee and pour the rest of his healing potion onto the wound. Rixi wanted to run to help her friends, but she knew that they were depending on her to figure out the solution. She forced herself to turn back to the symbols.
She stared hard at the fourth symbol. "Oh," she said as the solution came to her. "You're not an eight, you're a four!"
She turned and saw that Meentha was back in the fight, though her wound wasn't fully healed. Rixi rushed to the torches and douse them. First the third, then the sixth, then the fifth and finally the fourth. This time there was a bright flash again, but all of the torches went out this time.
The battle noises paused as everyone adjusted to the sudden darkness. Rixi quickly ran over to where the door was and found that it easily pushed inward. She called out, "Quickly, into the large chamber!"
She moved inside and held the door as Melbrid, Meentha and Cuddlington moved into the room. She slammed the door shut as the first orc was reaching it. The torches on the other side flared up again. The orcs were momentarily stunned by this, but soon started pounding on the door.
Cuddlington moved closer to inspect the door. "Whatever this clear stuff be, it's sure holding against those blasted orcs!" he exclaimed.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Story a Week 22 - Propheteering, Part 9
So, I'm sitting at the airport facing a five hour delay, so I thought I'd finish the story I started working on for last weekend. It's a continuation of my Propheteering storyline. I hope that you like it.
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Rixi saw Meentha pull out her bow and begin firing off arrows at the hydra's body. Cuddlington roared and charged at the monster as Melbrid began chanting and moving his arms about. Rixi stared at the monster, frozen in place. She saw one of the creature's five heads knock Cuddlington down.
Rixi could do nothing but stand there in fear as the same head that knocked the dwarf down threatened to chomp down on him. The jaws opened and as they were about to close down on the prone dwarf, an arrow struck the head in its left eye. The head reared up and the creature let out an awful screech. Cuddlington rolled away and got to his feet.
All Rixi could do was watch the combat, she was so paralyzed by fear of the creature they were facing. Melbrid yelled out, "Rixi! We need your help!"
Rixi looked over to the sorcerer. The hydra had moved between Cuddlington and the rest of the party. The dwarf was managing to fend off three of the heads, but one of the heads was looking at Melbrid and the remaining head was trying its best to eat the pantheron ranger. Rixi watched in horror as the fifth head latched on to Meentha's shoulder. The beast picked her up, but she kept on fighting, stabbing it repeatedly with a dagger. The beast flung her across the room and Rixi watched, the rage building up inside of her, as her new friend crumpled against the wall and didn't get up.
The fifth head turned its attention towards Melbrid and Rixi made her first move. She quickly and quietly walked around to where some of Meentha's gear lay and picked up her discarded long sword. The young rogue made her way behind the creature. In a sudden burst of motion, Rixi leapt upon the creature's back and stabbed the long sword into its spine. The creature let out another horrible shriek and all five heads began to turn towards Rixi.
She knew that she didn't have long so she quickly drew her own swords and began to hack away at the creature's back. The beast began to shake its body, trying to dislodge the little elf, but she was too agile to be thrown so easily. Rixi saw out of the corner of her eye that Cuddlington and Melbrid were taking advantage of the beast's distraction to score some wicked hits against the beast's front.
Confused and heavily injured, the beast tried vainly to fight back against the sudden onslaught. One of the heads did manage to finally dislodge Rixi from its back by head butting her hard. As she fell from the beast she dropped one of her swords. She wasn't too worried about that as she saw that the fight would be over soon. The beast was bleeding badly from the wounds that they had inflicted upon it and two of the heads were lying motionless on the floor.
Rixi stood as the head that knocked her down approached her menacingly. She gripped her remaining short sword and deftly jumped up onto the beast's head. Surprised, the head reared up ever higher as Rixi repeatedly stabbed her sword into its skull. Rixi felt the strength drain away from the hydra's body as it died moments later.
She was startled by Cuddlington's shout, "Rixi! Watch out!"
Suddenly, she saw that the head of the hydra had carried her about fifteen feet into the air and it was starting to fall as the beast died. She threw her sword clear and prepared to land. Just before the head hit the ground, Rixi pushed off and jumped forward into a roll. She landed hard, but it was a lot better than it would have been if she hadn't been prepared.
As soon as she stopped moving, Rixi sprang up and ran to where Meentha lay against the wall. She pulled her healing potion out of a pouch on her belt and popped the cork as she arrived. As Rixi knelt down she saw that Meentha was alive, but unconscious. Rixi, not knowing what to do, began to drip liquid from the potion into the ranger's wounds. Cuddlington and Melbrid joined her then. Rixi looked up at the dwarf with tears in her eyes and Cuddlington nodded at her and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She looked back at the fallen pantheron and saw that her wounds were beginning to close.
"She'll need the rest of that potion, lass," Cuddlington quietly said.
Rixi nodded and carefully poured every drop of the potion into Meentha's wounds. She watched as the wounds slowly closed. She heard Meentha moan and looked back at her face with hope in her eyes.
Meentha's eyes fluttered and she opened them a moment later. She smiled weakly up at Rixi and croaked, "Is the beast dead?"
Rixi smiled back and nodded, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I was afraid that we'd lost you," she managed to squeak out.
Meentha shook her head and Rixi could see the strength returning to her friend. She tried to sit up, so Rixi helped her. "You can't get rrid of me that easily, Rrixi," she replied once she was sitting.
The whole group laughed at that and Cuddlington said, "Well, what do we do next?"
Rixi helped Meentha stand and the four of them looked around. Rixi said, "Well, the gap that the hydra came through is still open. Since it doesn't appear that we're going to be transported quite yet, I suggest that we go through there."
The rest of the group nodded their agreement. Melbrid, Meentha and Cuddlington began to walk towards the opening, but Rixi hung back. The other three turned to her, but she wouldn't meet their gaze. "What is it, Rrixi?" Meentha asked.
"I...I would like to apologize for my hesitation against the hydra," Rixi replied. "I...I was just so scared, you know? I didn't know what to do, or how to fight such a creature."
Rixi looked up and saw the understanding on her friends' faces and felt a little better. She said, "It shouldn't have taken one of my friends getting hurt to get me to move." She hesitated for a moment, meeting Meentha's gaze before saying, "It shouldn't have happened and it will never happen again. I promise."
Meentha smiled at Rixi and put her arm around her. "Do not worrry, young one. We've all experrienced fearr like that at one time orr anotherr. Brraverry is not the absence of fearr; it is the overrcoming of fearr."
Rixi glanced at her other two friends and they were each nodding at Meentha's words. She smiled and said, "Well, in that case, the passage beyond looks really dark. I think that I could sneak in there and make sure that it's safe for the rest of you."
Her three friends chuckled and Cuddlington indicated that she should lead the way. For the first time today, Rixi felt confident that the four of them would survive whatever Yif could put in front of them.
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Rixi saw Meentha pull out her bow and begin firing off arrows at the hydra's body. Cuddlington roared and charged at the monster as Melbrid began chanting and moving his arms about. Rixi stared at the monster, frozen in place. She saw one of the creature's five heads knock Cuddlington down.
Rixi could do nothing but stand there in fear as the same head that knocked the dwarf down threatened to chomp down on him. The jaws opened and as they were about to close down on the prone dwarf, an arrow struck the head in its left eye. The head reared up and the creature let out an awful screech. Cuddlington rolled away and got to his feet.
All Rixi could do was watch the combat, she was so paralyzed by fear of the creature they were facing. Melbrid yelled out, "Rixi! We need your help!"
Rixi looked over to the sorcerer. The hydra had moved between Cuddlington and the rest of the party. The dwarf was managing to fend off three of the heads, but one of the heads was looking at Melbrid and the remaining head was trying its best to eat the pantheron ranger. Rixi watched in horror as the fifth head latched on to Meentha's shoulder. The beast picked her up, but she kept on fighting, stabbing it repeatedly with a dagger. The beast flung her across the room and Rixi watched, the rage building up inside of her, as her new friend crumpled against the wall and didn't get up.
The fifth head turned its attention towards Melbrid and Rixi made her first move. She quickly and quietly walked around to where some of Meentha's gear lay and picked up her discarded long sword. The young rogue made her way behind the creature. In a sudden burst of motion, Rixi leapt upon the creature's back and stabbed the long sword into its spine. The creature let out another horrible shriek and all five heads began to turn towards Rixi.
She knew that she didn't have long so she quickly drew her own swords and began to hack away at the creature's back. The beast began to shake its body, trying to dislodge the little elf, but she was too agile to be thrown so easily. Rixi saw out of the corner of her eye that Cuddlington and Melbrid were taking advantage of the beast's distraction to score some wicked hits against the beast's front.
Confused and heavily injured, the beast tried vainly to fight back against the sudden onslaught. One of the heads did manage to finally dislodge Rixi from its back by head butting her hard. As she fell from the beast she dropped one of her swords. She wasn't too worried about that as she saw that the fight would be over soon. The beast was bleeding badly from the wounds that they had inflicted upon it and two of the heads were lying motionless on the floor.
Rixi stood as the head that knocked her down approached her menacingly. She gripped her remaining short sword and deftly jumped up onto the beast's head. Surprised, the head reared up ever higher as Rixi repeatedly stabbed her sword into its skull. Rixi felt the strength drain away from the hydra's body as it died moments later.
She was startled by Cuddlington's shout, "Rixi! Watch out!"
Suddenly, she saw that the head of the hydra had carried her about fifteen feet into the air and it was starting to fall as the beast died. She threw her sword clear and prepared to land. Just before the head hit the ground, Rixi pushed off and jumped forward into a roll. She landed hard, but it was a lot better than it would have been if she hadn't been prepared.
As soon as she stopped moving, Rixi sprang up and ran to where Meentha lay against the wall. She pulled her healing potion out of a pouch on her belt and popped the cork as she arrived. As Rixi knelt down she saw that Meentha was alive, but unconscious. Rixi, not knowing what to do, began to drip liquid from the potion into the ranger's wounds. Cuddlington and Melbrid joined her then. Rixi looked up at the dwarf with tears in her eyes and Cuddlington nodded at her and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She looked back at the fallen pantheron and saw that her wounds were beginning to close.
"She'll need the rest of that potion, lass," Cuddlington quietly said.
Rixi nodded and carefully poured every drop of the potion into Meentha's wounds. She watched as the wounds slowly closed. She heard Meentha moan and looked back at her face with hope in her eyes.
Meentha's eyes fluttered and she opened them a moment later. She smiled weakly up at Rixi and croaked, "Is the beast dead?"
Rixi smiled back and nodded, tears rolling down her cheeks. "I was afraid that we'd lost you," she managed to squeak out.
Meentha shook her head and Rixi could see the strength returning to her friend. She tried to sit up, so Rixi helped her. "You can't get rrid of me that easily, Rrixi," she replied once she was sitting.
The whole group laughed at that and Cuddlington said, "Well, what do we do next?"
Rixi helped Meentha stand and the four of them looked around. Rixi said, "Well, the gap that the hydra came through is still open. Since it doesn't appear that we're going to be transported quite yet, I suggest that we go through there."
The rest of the group nodded their agreement. Melbrid, Meentha and Cuddlington began to walk towards the opening, but Rixi hung back. The other three turned to her, but she wouldn't meet their gaze. "What is it, Rrixi?" Meentha asked.
"I...I would like to apologize for my hesitation against the hydra," Rixi replied. "I...I was just so scared, you know? I didn't know what to do, or how to fight such a creature."
Rixi looked up and saw the understanding on her friends' faces and felt a little better. She said, "It shouldn't have taken one of my friends getting hurt to get me to move." She hesitated for a moment, meeting Meentha's gaze before saying, "It shouldn't have happened and it will never happen again. I promise."
Meentha smiled at Rixi and put her arm around her. "Do not worrry, young one. We've all experrienced fearr like that at one time orr anotherr. Brraverry is not the absence of fearr; it is the overrcoming of fearr."
Rixi glanced at her other two friends and they were each nodding at Meentha's words. She smiled and said, "Well, in that case, the passage beyond looks really dark. I think that I could sneak in there and make sure that it's safe for the rest of you."
Her three friends chuckled and Cuddlington indicated that she should lead the way. For the first time today, Rixi felt confident that the four of them would survive whatever Yif could put in front of them.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Story a Week 20 - Propheteering, Part 8
Well, after moving into our new house last weekend and a nice, leisurely week off of work, we come to another edition of Story a Week. This week, like the last few, is from the world of Uroth, a fictitious world that I started creating over a decade ago as part of a D&D campaign that I had been working on. I think that next week I will write something different. I love me some Fantasy, but I feel that it might be getting to be too much, for now. Anyway, I have just gotten a couple of ideas, so stay tuned for that.
In other news, this is my fiftieth blog post! I've technically had this blog for a couple of years, but I've only been regularly posting since last June or so. Fifty, or so, posts in a little less than a year is a good pace, I think. Let me know if there's anything you'd like to see me do in future posts or stories. If there's a genre you'd like to see me try writing in, post a comment! If there's a topic you'd like to see a regular blog post on, post a comment! I'm here not only to get my creativity on, but to share my views with you all. That's what blogging is all about.
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Rixi wiped the tears from her face as she stared up at Yif. Out of the corner of her eye she could see her friends also crouching or standing near her.
She heard Cuddlington growl and begin to lunge at Yif. The wizard motioned quickly and Cuddlington stopped dead in his tracks as a Hold spell took hold of him. The wizard shook his head at the dwarf, but smiled. "I know what you just went through, dwarf, but I am not to blame for the fate of your cousin," Yif said. "The point of the experiences you each just went through was to teach you that even when you know what is coming, you can't always change the outcome."
The wizard paused and looked each of them in the eye. "If you four are the prophets that I seek, you will know that you will change the empire. That will not change."
Yif started pacing as he continued speaking. "The other point of the exercise was to try to show you that you wouldn't be where you are today without those major events in your lives unfolding the way that they did."
He stopped in front of Cuddlington and stared down at the dwarf. "If you and your cousin hadn't met those drow that day, would you have ever left Goldendelve?" The wizard waved his hand in front of the dwarf, releasing the Hold spell. Cuddlington sighed at Yif and shook his head.
Next, Yif moved to stand in front of Melbrid. "And if you'd been accepted to the wizard school? Would you have been living in Telquirk as a sorcerer?" The sorcerer timidly shook his head.
The wizard then walked over to Meentha and said, "If your village hadn't been destroyed by the Bortan Empire, would you have left it?" Meentha stared hard at Yif, but shook her head as well.
Yif nodded and finally moved in front of Rixi. "What about you? I'm sure that if your parents were still alive you'd be living in Telquirk, but would you be a street rogue or a fisherman?"
Rixi looked down at the floor rather than meet the piercing gaze of the wizard. "I don't know...but probably a fisherman."
The former Archmage of the Bortan Empire nodded again, turned and took a few steps back. "I have high hopes for your group. You're the first group to get this far." He turned back to the group and smiled once more. "Good luck on the rest of the tests."
Before any of the group could react, Yif waved his arms once and the group was teleported away. Rixi looked around and saw that they were standing in a circular chamber with some sort of gravel floor. The chamber was about fifty yards across. She looked up, but couldn't see the ceiling of the room.
Rixi turned around when she heard a scraping sound behind her. She saw an opening appear on one side of the circular room. She was about to start walking towards it when she spotted movement in the shadows.
Suddenly, six goblins darted out of those shadows and charged at the group. They were yelling, screaming and jumping as they were running.
Cuddlington growled and pulled the battle axe from his back as he charged towards the group of goblins. Meentha quickly drew her bow and started letting arrows fly. Melbrid began chanting and waving his arms about as Rixi drew her two short swords.
Three of the goblins stopped to fight the dwarf and the other three gave him a wide berth as they passed him by. Rixi moved forward to try and stop their charge and to protect Melbrid. Meentha dropped her bow and drew her scimitar and stepped up beside Rixi.
Two of the three goblins came for Rixi as the remaining one went after Meentha. Rixi started the fight in a defensive posture. She whirled and parried the seeking blades of the goblins as she fought hard to keep them from flanking her too badly.
Suddenly, several bright orbs of light struck the goblin on Rixi's left. She immediately took advantage of the situation by kicking that goblin square in the chest. The goblin fell back and Rixi turned on the remaining goblin. The goblin growled at her and swung his crude long sword at her legs. Rixi shot the goblin a smile as she jumped over his swing. The goblin obviously wasn't expecting that move as his swing put him off balance. The moment her feet hit the ground, Rixi lunged at the goblin, piercing it in the chest and neck with her twin short swords.
The goblin fell to the floor when Rixi pulled her swords out of him. Rixi turned as the other goblin was rising to his feet. The goblin was already injured and was looking for a way out of the fight. Rixi, seeing the goblin no longer had the desire to fight, indicated that it should run away.
The goblin took two steps back and turned back the way the group had come from and ran. Rixi looked around to see how the rest of the group was faring. Meentha was standing over the bleeding body of a goblin and Cuddlington was cleaning his axe on the tunic of one of the three goblins at his feet.
Cuddlington stood and turned as he heard the footfalls of the goblin running towards the doorway. He dropped the axe and quickly drew a small warhammer and expertly chucked it at the retreating goblin. The warhammer struck the unfortunate goblin square on the back and the creature fell to the ground. Casually, Cuddlington picked up his discarded axe and walked over to the goblin and finished him off with a quick blow of the axe.
Rixi watched Cuddlington's actions with horror. She ran over to Cuddlington and shouted, "Why did you kill that goblin? It was done fighting! It couldn't hurt us anymore!"
The dwarf looked back at Rixi with confusion. "I don't understand yer concern for the creature. Goblins are typically evil creatures, lass. They're entire race are enemies of dwarves everywhere. The world is a better place fer havin' one less goblin in it, I say."
Rixi took a deep breath to calm herself. Before this horrible day, if it was even still that same day anymore, she'd never even killed a humanoid. Now, she'd killed or helped to kill at least two real humanoids and several more in that strange simulation that Yif put her through.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned her head to see Meentha standing behind her. "It's been a harrd day forr you, hasn't it, Rrixi?"
The young rogue nodded at the pantheron and replied, "Yes, I was just thinking about that." She turned her head back to Cuddlington and said, "I'm sorry for snapping at you, Cuddlington."
Cuddlington smiled back at Rixi and said, "No worries, lass. I know that this ordeal has been especially tough on ye. Yer too young for all o' this mess."
Suddenly, the ground started shaking. The entire group turned as a large portion of part of the wall started rising to reveal the large form of a five headed hydra.
The creature let out several simultaneous shrieks as it spotted the group on the far side of the arena. Cuddlington chuckled and said, "And the mess just keeps gettin' bigger."
In other news, this is my fiftieth blog post! I've technically had this blog for a couple of years, but I've only been regularly posting since last June or so. Fifty, or so, posts in a little less than a year is a good pace, I think. Let me know if there's anything you'd like to see me do in future posts or stories. If there's a genre you'd like to see me try writing in, post a comment! If there's a topic you'd like to see a regular blog post on, post a comment! I'm here not only to get my creativity on, but to share my views with you all. That's what blogging is all about.
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Rixi wiped the tears from her face as she stared up at Yif. Out of the corner of her eye she could see her friends also crouching or standing near her.
She heard Cuddlington growl and begin to lunge at Yif. The wizard motioned quickly and Cuddlington stopped dead in his tracks as a Hold spell took hold of him. The wizard shook his head at the dwarf, but smiled. "I know what you just went through, dwarf, but I am not to blame for the fate of your cousin," Yif said. "The point of the experiences you each just went through was to teach you that even when you know what is coming, you can't always change the outcome."
The wizard paused and looked each of them in the eye. "If you four are the prophets that I seek, you will know that you will change the empire. That will not change."
Yif started pacing as he continued speaking. "The other point of the exercise was to try to show you that you wouldn't be where you are today without those major events in your lives unfolding the way that they did."
He stopped in front of Cuddlington and stared down at the dwarf. "If you and your cousin hadn't met those drow that day, would you have ever left Goldendelve?" The wizard waved his hand in front of the dwarf, releasing the Hold spell. Cuddlington sighed at Yif and shook his head.
Next, Yif moved to stand in front of Melbrid. "And if you'd been accepted to the wizard school? Would you have been living in Telquirk as a sorcerer?" The sorcerer timidly shook his head.
The wizard then walked over to Meentha and said, "If your village hadn't been destroyed by the Bortan Empire, would you have left it?" Meentha stared hard at Yif, but shook her head as well.
Yif nodded and finally moved in front of Rixi. "What about you? I'm sure that if your parents were still alive you'd be living in Telquirk, but would you be a street rogue or a fisherman?"
Rixi looked down at the floor rather than meet the piercing gaze of the wizard. "I don't know...but probably a fisherman."
The former Archmage of the Bortan Empire nodded again, turned and took a few steps back. "I have high hopes for your group. You're the first group to get this far." He turned back to the group and smiled once more. "Good luck on the rest of the tests."
Before any of the group could react, Yif waved his arms once and the group was teleported away. Rixi looked around and saw that they were standing in a circular chamber with some sort of gravel floor. The chamber was about fifty yards across. She looked up, but couldn't see the ceiling of the room.
Rixi turned around when she heard a scraping sound behind her. She saw an opening appear on one side of the circular room. She was about to start walking towards it when she spotted movement in the shadows.
Suddenly, six goblins darted out of those shadows and charged at the group. They were yelling, screaming and jumping as they were running.
Cuddlington growled and pulled the battle axe from his back as he charged towards the group of goblins. Meentha quickly drew her bow and started letting arrows fly. Melbrid began chanting and waving his arms about as Rixi drew her two short swords.
Three of the goblins stopped to fight the dwarf and the other three gave him a wide berth as they passed him by. Rixi moved forward to try and stop their charge and to protect Melbrid. Meentha dropped her bow and drew her scimitar and stepped up beside Rixi.
Two of the three goblins came for Rixi as the remaining one went after Meentha. Rixi started the fight in a defensive posture. She whirled and parried the seeking blades of the goblins as she fought hard to keep them from flanking her too badly.
Suddenly, several bright orbs of light struck the goblin on Rixi's left. She immediately took advantage of the situation by kicking that goblin square in the chest. The goblin fell back and Rixi turned on the remaining goblin. The goblin growled at her and swung his crude long sword at her legs. Rixi shot the goblin a smile as she jumped over his swing. The goblin obviously wasn't expecting that move as his swing put him off balance. The moment her feet hit the ground, Rixi lunged at the goblin, piercing it in the chest and neck with her twin short swords.
The goblin fell to the floor when Rixi pulled her swords out of him. Rixi turned as the other goblin was rising to his feet. The goblin was already injured and was looking for a way out of the fight. Rixi, seeing the goblin no longer had the desire to fight, indicated that it should run away.
The goblin took two steps back and turned back the way the group had come from and ran. Rixi looked around to see how the rest of the group was faring. Meentha was standing over the bleeding body of a goblin and Cuddlington was cleaning his axe on the tunic of one of the three goblins at his feet.
Cuddlington stood and turned as he heard the footfalls of the goblin running towards the doorway. He dropped the axe and quickly drew a small warhammer and expertly chucked it at the retreating goblin. The warhammer struck the unfortunate goblin square on the back and the creature fell to the ground. Casually, Cuddlington picked up his discarded axe and walked over to the goblin and finished him off with a quick blow of the axe.
Rixi watched Cuddlington's actions with horror. She ran over to Cuddlington and shouted, "Why did you kill that goblin? It was done fighting! It couldn't hurt us anymore!"
The dwarf looked back at Rixi with confusion. "I don't understand yer concern for the creature. Goblins are typically evil creatures, lass. They're entire race are enemies of dwarves everywhere. The world is a better place fer havin' one less goblin in it, I say."
Rixi took a deep breath to calm herself. Before this horrible day, if it was even still that same day anymore, she'd never even killed a humanoid. Now, she'd killed or helped to kill at least two real humanoids and several more in that strange simulation that Yif put her through.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned her head to see Meentha standing behind her. "It's been a harrd day forr you, hasn't it, Rrixi?"
The young rogue nodded at the pantheron and replied, "Yes, I was just thinking about that." She turned her head back to Cuddlington and said, "I'm sorry for snapping at you, Cuddlington."
Cuddlington smiled back at Rixi and said, "No worries, lass. I know that this ordeal has been especially tough on ye. Yer too young for all o' this mess."
Suddenly, the ground started shaking. The entire group turned as a large portion of part of the wall started rising to reveal the large form of a five headed hydra.
The creature let out several simultaneous shrieks as it spotted the group on the far side of the arena. Cuddlington chuckled and said, "And the mess just keeps gettin' bigger."
Monday, April 18, 2011
Story a Week 19 - Propheteering Part 7
Well, another late Story a Week. I had a little writer's block last week and with all of the moving preparations as well... Anyway, it's here now. It's a little long, but this part of the story is pretty good. I'm quite proud of this one.
Without further ado...
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Rixi stood there staring numbly at her short swords as they dripped blood onto the dirt floor. She felt, rather than saw, someone approach her.
She glanced up and saw Meentha standing near her, a concerned look on her face. Rixi tried to smile, but she knew that her smile was weak, at best.
Meentha asked, "How arre you doing, Rrixi?"
When Meentha said her name, Rixi's smile grew. "I like the way you say my name," she said. "It sounds more exotic."
"Arre you okay?" Meentha asked again.
Rixi's smile diminished a little, but she nodded. "I've never killed, nor helped to kill, another humanoid before," she said.
Meentha nodded. "I thought as much," she said. "Do not worrry yourrself, little one. Minotaurrs are notorriously evil crreaturres. The worrld is a betterr place with the death of this one."
Rixi nodded. "I guess so..." she started to say.
Cuddlington interrupted their conversation by saying, "Lasses, ye all ready to move on?"
Rixi nodded to Cuddlington and he waved them over. Meentha started walking over, but Rixi put her hand on the pantheron's arm. Meentha looked a question at her, and Rixi said, "Thanks."
Meentha smiled and nodded back. When the four of them were all standing together, the dwarf nodded to Melbrid. The sorcerer mumbled some mystical words and waved the wand over their heads. Rixi closed her eyes.
When she opened her eyes she was confused to find herself standing in the town square of Telquirk. She quickly glanced around and noticed a few subtle differences in the town. A couple of the shops had the wrong signs on them and there were a lot more ships in the harbor.
Rixi walked around town in a daze. The town was busier than she remembered. She wandered down to the wharf. Suddenly she stopped short.
She recognized one of the boats docked on the pier. She also recognized two of the people on the deck. "Mommy? Daddy?" she whispered.
She saw that the crew was preparing to push off. Frantically, she ran down the pier shouting, "Stop! Wait!"
Her parents turned toward her when they heard her shouting. They looked puzzled as they walked down the gangplank onto the pier. Rixi stopped in front of them, out of breath.
Rixi's mother said, "Rixi, dear, what's wrong?"
Rixi took a moment to catch her breath and said, sobbing, "I don't understand, how can you be here?"
Rixi's parents looked at each other and shrugged. Her mother said, "I don't understand you, dear. Calm down now, honey, and tell us what's wrong."
Rixi looked about the pier for a moment as she gathered her thoughts. She recognized more and more of the ships there as some of the ones that were lost in the past ten years. Understanding dawned on her. Her parents weren't back; Rixi had been transported to the past somehow.
She looked at her parents again with concern on her face. There could only be one reason why she was transported to the past with her parents there. "Don't go," she said, "I have a bad feeling about it."
Rixi's parents smiled down at her. Her father said, "You know, Losa, we could use another deck hand since Maveri is too sick to sail with us."
Her mother, Losa, replied with a smile, "I think you're right, Luvar. What do you say, Rixi?"
Rixi considered their offer for a moment. 'Maybe if I go along I'll be able to prevent whatever disaster would befall my parents,' she thought to herself. Aloud, "I think I'll go along."
Her parents each put an arm around Rixi and the three of them walked up the gangplank together. Rixi followed her father into the Captain's Cabin. She went to the large navigation table in the center of the room. She saw the course charted on the map and turned to her father, "Why does your course take you so far away from the continent?"
Her father put down the spyglass that he'd been cleaning and strode over to the map. He pointed at the farthest point from the continent that the course would take them. "We've heard a rumor of some schools of exceptionally large tuna out here and we thought that it would be worth spending a little extra time to take a look."
Rixi nodded to her father to show she understood. She looked more carefully at the route and saw that they would come close to several uncharted islands. Her father interrupted her studying by saying, "We're going to be pushing off soon, want to watch?" She nodded and followed him outside.
The next couple of days Rixi spent with her parents bathing in the warmth of their love and company. She realized that this event or whatever it was might be fleeting, so she tried to take advantage of the situation as best she could.
Rixi was sitting in the Captain's Cabin on the fourth day when she felt the ship slow. She stood and went out to the deck. She shielded her eyes from the sun as she scanned the deck for her father. She spotted him at the wheel when he waved her over.
"The lookout thinks he's spotted a school of tuna," her father announced when Rixi approached where he and the pilot were standing. "We're going to furl the sails soon and throw the nets over."
Rixi spent the next two days watching the crew fill their hold with the largest tuna that Rixi had ever seen. She wondered aloud to her father how the fish was kept fresh. "Oh, all fishing vessels have magically enchanted holds that keep the fish fresh," Luvar explained. "In the old days, fishermen would have to salt the fish right away, but that wasn't a very good system and they wouldn't dare try a fishing run this far away from their home port."
Rixi nodded absently. She was busy staring at something on the horizon. "What's that?" she asked, pointing.
Her father squinted at where she was pointed. Sighing, he pulled out his spyglass. Rixi knew that something was amiss when his stance turned rigid instead of being the casual gait he normally affected. All of a sudden he put the spyglass away and sprang into motion. He jumped down onto the main deck and started shouting orders to pull in all of the nets and prepare the sails.
Startled, Rixi turned to the wheelman and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Me thinks yer father seen something he don't like in that ship ye spotted," the old sea dog responded.
Rixi's heart pounded in her chest. 'This must be what happened to my parents,' she thought to herself. 'I would bet that that is a pirate ship.'
Now Rixi jumped down to the main deck and ran back into the Captain's Cabin. She practically bowled her mother over as she charged into the room. "What's going on?" Losa asked. "I heard shouting..."
She must have seen the dread on Rixi's face as her own face steeled in resolve. Rixi wasn't sure what her mother mumbled next, but it sounded something like "Pirates".
Losa ran over to a chest on one wall of the cabin and threw it open. She pulled out several wands and potions and pushed them into her belt pouches. Rixi went to where she had hidden her own weapons and started equipping herself. She felt a hand on her back and turned to see her mother's stern face looking at her own.
"A battle is no place for a child," her mother said.
Rixi's face showed determination as she said, "Mother, I cannot explain it now, but I'm no child. I will fight with you and there is nothing you can do to stop me."
Losa was taken aback by Rixi's fierce words. Gently she said, "As you wish, Rixi." She kissed her daughter on the forehead and ran out onto the deck.
Tears welled up in Rixi's eyes, but she fought them down. "I can make a difference here," she said as she charged out onto the deck.
She shielded her eyes from the bright sun as she stared out at the approaching vessel. It was much closer than before. Rixi dodged the sailors running about as she ran to the forecastle where her parents were standing. As she approached she heard her mother say, "...no doubt about their intentions?"
Luvar shook his head and replied, "None. They display no colors and heed no signals."
Rixi reached the forecastle just as the sailors unfurled the mainsail and the ship started moving. "Can we outrun them?" she asked her father.
Luvar turned to his daughter. He saw the weapons and equipment she was carrying and started to say something but was stopped when Losa shook her head. Sighing, he said, "Not likely, my dear. If they're good pirates, their ship is built to be faster than ours, not to mention the fact that we're carrying several tons of tuna in our hold."
Rixi glanced back to fast approaching pirate vessel. "How long do we have?" she asked.
Her father shrugged. "Perhaps fifteen minutes," he said. "I plan to sail directly towards them and then turn hard to port just after we pass broadside of them. Hopefully, that will buy us some additional time as they scramble to intercept us."
Her father ran back to the wheel. Rixi watched the approach of the pirate vessel with apprehension. They were getting close enough for Rixi to make out sailors running on the deck. The ship was about the same size as her father's, but it sported broadside cannon where the fishing vessel didn't. Rixi saw smoke bellow from the front of the other ship, then saw a splash about twenty yards fore and starboard of the fishing vessel.
"Great, they have a forward cannon on deck," her mother mumbled. She pulled out a stunning red wand from a pouch and aimed it at the other ship. "Just one more minute until we get into range..."
The pirate vessel sent another cannon ball sailing towards their ship. The range on this one was good, though five yards or so to port. The next one would probably land squarely.
Before they could get off another shot, Losa let loose with her wand. Several bright spheres of light sailed across the open water and struck one of the sailors serving the forward gun square in the chest. The man flew back and landed on the main deck, unmoving. Losa smiled at Rixi and said, "I just hope they don't have a real wizard or sorcerer on their ship. I couldn't match them with my meager skill."
Losa drew another wand as the ship neared and let loose a fireball at the other ship. The fireball exploded on the bow of the pirate vessel causing the rest of the guns crew to fly backward. The sail above the forecastle burst into flames.
The two ships were beside each other now and the pirate ships broadside guns opened up on the fishing vessel. Rixi felt the boards beneath her vibrate as the roundshot struck home. Rixi grimaced when she saw the pirate sailors wielding grappling hooks. Their approach was close enough that most of them stuck when they threw them over. Rixi was nearly thrown from her feet when the ship slewed to starboard as the sailors on the pirate vessel pulled the ships closer together.
Rixi jumped down to the main deck as pirates began to make the crossing to the fishing ship. Her qualms about killing humanoids from earlier in the day were thrown out into the wind as she began slashing and stabbing the intruders.
Rixi didn't get much of a chance to gauge the status of the overall battle as it raged around her, but she did notice every time the ship shuddered when something struck it. After one particularly large shake, Rixi dispatched the pirate she had been fighting and glanced around. The first thing she noticed was that two of the fishing boats masts had fallen and the sail on the mainmast was on fire. The pirate ship was faring much better, the fire Rixi had seen on the foremast's sail was out and there wasn't much other damage to speak of.
Then Rixi noted a figure moving about the pirate ship. The man was wearing simple robes and walking about the ship confidently. Rixi could tell right away that he was a wizard. Growling, she stormed over to the rail and grasped the nearest rope. She swung over to the pirate vessel and landed near the wizard.
"Ah, what's this? One of the peasant fishermen wishes to bring the battle to our ship?" the wizard said.
Rixi ignored the man's brash comments and growled again as she charged him. He just stood there smiling as she passed right through him. Rixi stumbled for a couple of steps and looked up to see the wizard standing on the quarterdeck, smiling down at her. "You're no match for me, little girl," the wizard boasted. "I've killed the meager sorceress your ship boasted and I've been plastering your vessel with my destructive..."
The man's boasting was silenced when Rixi charged him again. This time, she stopped short of his image and spun around to where he had been standing before. Sure enough, the wizard was there. Rixi launched both of her short swords at him and quickly drew her daggers. She watched as the short swords reached their target and she stabbed into the image of the wizard standing behind her. She smiled as her daggers penetrated flesh and she heard the wizard gasp. The image on the main deck disappeared.
She withdrew her daggers and turned on the wizard. She stabbed him again with both daggers and watched as the life drained from him. Something inside her cried out, but she pushed the feelings down deep. She cleaned her daggers and returned them to their hiding places. She quickly jumped down to the main deck and retrieved her short swords.
Rixi took a moment to assess the situation. The pirate ship was all but deserted with most of the pirates aboard the fishing vessel. The fighting over there seemed to have stopped with most of the sailors dead or surrendered. Rixi saw that a full third of the fishing vessel was on fire. Tears welled up again in her eyes, but she fought them back as she ran to the rail. She swung back to the fishing ship. The pirates seemed to ignore her presence as they looted and corralled their prisoners.
She turned to run to the forecastle, but stopped short when she saw the wall of flames engulfing the entire deck there. Tears welling up, she ran instead to the poopdeck where the wheel was. As she approached she saw several bodies piled up there.
She cautiously began sifting through the bodies until she saw a shining spyglass. Sobbing, she pushed the body of a dead pirate off of her father's body. Tears began pouring down and blurred her vision. The closed her eyes and let the tears come.
After a few moments, she began to wipe her face and she opened her eyes. She was startled to see that she was no longer kneeling on the fishing vessel, but was in an unfamiliar room. She saw the wizard Yif standing over her.
Without further ado...
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Rixi stood there staring numbly at her short swords as they dripped blood onto the dirt floor. She felt, rather than saw, someone approach her.
She glanced up and saw Meentha standing near her, a concerned look on her face. Rixi tried to smile, but she knew that her smile was weak, at best.
Meentha asked, "How arre you doing, Rrixi?"
When Meentha said her name, Rixi's smile grew. "I like the way you say my name," she said. "It sounds more exotic."
"Arre you okay?" Meentha asked again.
Rixi's smile diminished a little, but she nodded. "I've never killed, nor helped to kill, another humanoid before," she said.
Meentha nodded. "I thought as much," she said. "Do not worrry yourrself, little one. Minotaurrs are notorriously evil crreaturres. The worrld is a betterr place with the death of this one."
Rixi nodded. "I guess so..." she started to say.
Cuddlington interrupted their conversation by saying, "Lasses, ye all ready to move on?"
Rixi nodded to Cuddlington and he waved them over. Meentha started walking over, but Rixi put her hand on the pantheron's arm. Meentha looked a question at her, and Rixi said, "Thanks."
Meentha smiled and nodded back. When the four of them were all standing together, the dwarf nodded to Melbrid. The sorcerer mumbled some mystical words and waved the wand over their heads. Rixi closed her eyes.
When she opened her eyes she was confused to find herself standing in the town square of Telquirk. She quickly glanced around and noticed a few subtle differences in the town. A couple of the shops had the wrong signs on them and there were a lot more ships in the harbor.
Rixi walked around town in a daze. The town was busier than she remembered. She wandered down to the wharf. Suddenly she stopped short.
She recognized one of the boats docked on the pier. She also recognized two of the people on the deck. "Mommy? Daddy?" she whispered.
She saw that the crew was preparing to push off. Frantically, she ran down the pier shouting, "Stop! Wait!"
Her parents turned toward her when they heard her shouting. They looked puzzled as they walked down the gangplank onto the pier. Rixi stopped in front of them, out of breath.
Rixi's mother said, "Rixi, dear, what's wrong?"
Rixi took a moment to catch her breath and said, sobbing, "I don't understand, how can you be here?"
Rixi's parents looked at each other and shrugged. Her mother said, "I don't understand you, dear. Calm down now, honey, and tell us what's wrong."
Rixi looked about the pier for a moment as she gathered her thoughts. She recognized more and more of the ships there as some of the ones that were lost in the past ten years. Understanding dawned on her. Her parents weren't back; Rixi had been transported to the past somehow.
She looked at her parents again with concern on her face. There could only be one reason why she was transported to the past with her parents there. "Don't go," she said, "I have a bad feeling about it."
Rixi's parents smiled down at her. Her father said, "You know, Losa, we could use another deck hand since Maveri is too sick to sail with us."
Her mother, Losa, replied with a smile, "I think you're right, Luvar. What do you say, Rixi?"
Rixi considered their offer for a moment. 'Maybe if I go along I'll be able to prevent whatever disaster would befall my parents,' she thought to herself. Aloud, "I think I'll go along."
Her parents each put an arm around Rixi and the three of them walked up the gangplank together. Rixi followed her father into the Captain's Cabin. She went to the large navigation table in the center of the room. She saw the course charted on the map and turned to her father, "Why does your course take you so far away from the continent?"
Her father put down the spyglass that he'd been cleaning and strode over to the map. He pointed at the farthest point from the continent that the course would take them. "We've heard a rumor of some schools of exceptionally large tuna out here and we thought that it would be worth spending a little extra time to take a look."
Rixi nodded to her father to show she understood. She looked more carefully at the route and saw that they would come close to several uncharted islands. Her father interrupted her studying by saying, "We're going to be pushing off soon, want to watch?" She nodded and followed him outside.
The next couple of days Rixi spent with her parents bathing in the warmth of their love and company. She realized that this event or whatever it was might be fleeting, so she tried to take advantage of the situation as best she could.
Rixi was sitting in the Captain's Cabin on the fourth day when she felt the ship slow. She stood and went out to the deck. She shielded her eyes from the sun as she scanned the deck for her father. She spotted him at the wheel when he waved her over.
"The lookout thinks he's spotted a school of tuna," her father announced when Rixi approached where he and the pilot were standing. "We're going to furl the sails soon and throw the nets over."
Rixi spent the next two days watching the crew fill their hold with the largest tuna that Rixi had ever seen. She wondered aloud to her father how the fish was kept fresh. "Oh, all fishing vessels have magically enchanted holds that keep the fish fresh," Luvar explained. "In the old days, fishermen would have to salt the fish right away, but that wasn't a very good system and they wouldn't dare try a fishing run this far away from their home port."
Rixi nodded absently. She was busy staring at something on the horizon. "What's that?" she asked, pointing.
Her father squinted at where she was pointed. Sighing, he pulled out his spyglass. Rixi knew that something was amiss when his stance turned rigid instead of being the casual gait he normally affected. All of a sudden he put the spyglass away and sprang into motion. He jumped down onto the main deck and started shouting orders to pull in all of the nets and prepare the sails.
Startled, Rixi turned to the wheelman and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Me thinks yer father seen something he don't like in that ship ye spotted," the old sea dog responded.
Rixi's heart pounded in her chest. 'This must be what happened to my parents,' she thought to herself. 'I would bet that that is a pirate ship.'
Now Rixi jumped down to the main deck and ran back into the Captain's Cabin. She practically bowled her mother over as she charged into the room. "What's going on?" Losa asked. "I heard shouting..."
She must have seen the dread on Rixi's face as her own face steeled in resolve. Rixi wasn't sure what her mother mumbled next, but it sounded something like "Pirates".
Losa ran over to a chest on one wall of the cabin and threw it open. She pulled out several wands and potions and pushed them into her belt pouches. Rixi went to where she had hidden her own weapons and started equipping herself. She felt a hand on her back and turned to see her mother's stern face looking at her own.
"A battle is no place for a child," her mother said.
Rixi's face showed determination as she said, "Mother, I cannot explain it now, but I'm no child. I will fight with you and there is nothing you can do to stop me."
Losa was taken aback by Rixi's fierce words. Gently she said, "As you wish, Rixi." She kissed her daughter on the forehead and ran out onto the deck.
Tears welled up in Rixi's eyes, but she fought them down. "I can make a difference here," she said as she charged out onto the deck.
She shielded her eyes from the bright sun as she stared out at the approaching vessel. It was much closer than before. Rixi dodged the sailors running about as she ran to the forecastle where her parents were standing. As she approached she heard her mother say, "...no doubt about their intentions?"
Luvar shook his head and replied, "None. They display no colors and heed no signals."
Rixi reached the forecastle just as the sailors unfurled the mainsail and the ship started moving. "Can we outrun them?" she asked her father.
Luvar turned to his daughter. He saw the weapons and equipment she was carrying and started to say something but was stopped when Losa shook her head. Sighing, he said, "Not likely, my dear. If they're good pirates, their ship is built to be faster than ours, not to mention the fact that we're carrying several tons of tuna in our hold."
Rixi glanced back to fast approaching pirate vessel. "How long do we have?" she asked.
Her father shrugged. "Perhaps fifteen minutes," he said. "I plan to sail directly towards them and then turn hard to port just after we pass broadside of them. Hopefully, that will buy us some additional time as they scramble to intercept us."
Her father ran back to the wheel. Rixi watched the approach of the pirate vessel with apprehension. They were getting close enough for Rixi to make out sailors running on the deck. The ship was about the same size as her father's, but it sported broadside cannon where the fishing vessel didn't. Rixi saw smoke bellow from the front of the other ship, then saw a splash about twenty yards fore and starboard of the fishing vessel.
"Great, they have a forward cannon on deck," her mother mumbled. She pulled out a stunning red wand from a pouch and aimed it at the other ship. "Just one more minute until we get into range..."
The pirate vessel sent another cannon ball sailing towards their ship. The range on this one was good, though five yards or so to port. The next one would probably land squarely.
Before they could get off another shot, Losa let loose with her wand. Several bright spheres of light sailed across the open water and struck one of the sailors serving the forward gun square in the chest. The man flew back and landed on the main deck, unmoving. Losa smiled at Rixi and said, "I just hope they don't have a real wizard or sorcerer on their ship. I couldn't match them with my meager skill."
Losa drew another wand as the ship neared and let loose a fireball at the other ship. The fireball exploded on the bow of the pirate vessel causing the rest of the guns crew to fly backward. The sail above the forecastle burst into flames.
The two ships were beside each other now and the pirate ships broadside guns opened up on the fishing vessel. Rixi felt the boards beneath her vibrate as the roundshot struck home. Rixi grimaced when she saw the pirate sailors wielding grappling hooks. Their approach was close enough that most of them stuck when they threw them over. Rixi was nearly thrown from her feet when the ship slewed to starboard as the sailors on the pirate vessel pulled the ships closer together.
Rixi jumped down to the main deck as pirates began to make the crossing to the fishing ship. Her qualms about killing humanoids from earlier in the day were thrown out into the wind as she began slashing and stabbing the intruders.
Rixi didn't get much of a chance to gauge the status of the overall battle as it raged around her, but she did notice every time the ship shuddered when something struck it. After one particularly large shake, Rixi dispatched the pirate she had been fighting and glanced around. The first thing she noticed was that two of the fishing boats masts had fallen and the sail on the mainmast was on fire. The pirate ship was faring much better, the fire Rixi had seen on the foremast's sail was out and there wasn't much other damage to speak of.
Then Rixi noted a figure moving about the pirate ship. The man was wearing simple robes and walking about the ship confidently. Rixi could tell right away that he was a wizard. Growling, she stormed over to the rail and grasped the nearest rope. She swung over to the pirate vessel and landed near the wizard.
"Ah, what's this? One of the peasant fishermen wishes to bring the battle to our ship?" the wizard said.
Rixi ignored the man's brash comments and growled again as she charged him. He just stood there smiling as she passed right through him. Rixi stumbled for a couple of steps and looked up to see the wizard standing on the quarterdeck, smiling down at her. "You're no match for me, little girl," the wizard boasted. "I've killed the meager sorceress your ship boasted and I've been plastering your vessel with my destructive..."
The man's boasting was silenced when Rixi charged him again. This time, she stopped short of his image and spun around to where he had been standing before. Sure enough, the wizard was there. Rixi launched both of her short swords at him and quickly drew her daggers. She watched as the short swords reached their target and she stabbed into the image of the wizard standing behind her. She smiled as her daggers penetrated flesh and she heard the wizard gasp. The image on the main deck disappeared.
She withdrew her daggers and turned on the wizard. She stabbed him again with both daggers and watched as the life drained from him. Something inside her cried out, but she pushed the feelings down deep. She cleaned her daggers and returned them to their hiding places. She quickly jumped down to the main deck and retrieved her short swords.
Rixi took a moment to assess the situation. The pirate ship was all but deserted with most of the pirates aboard the fishing vessel. The fighting over there seemed to have stopped with most of the sailors dead or surrendered. Rixi saw that a full third of the fishing vessel was on fire. Tears welled up again in her eyes, but she fought them back as she ran to the rail. She swung back to the fishing ship. The pirates seemed to ignore her presence as they looted and corralled their prisoners.
She turned to run to the forecastle, but stopped short when she saw the wall of flames engulfing the entire deck there. Tears welling up, she ran instead to the poopdeck where the wheel was. As she approached she saw several bodies piled up there.
She cautiously began sifting through the bodies until she saw a shining spyglass. Sobbing, she pushed the body of a dead pirate off of her father's body. Tears began pouring down and blurred her vision. The closed her eyes and let the tears come.
After a few moments, she began to wipe her face and she opened her eyes. She was startled to see that she was no longer kneeling on the fishing vessel, but was in an unfamiliar room. She saw the wizard Yif standing over her.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Story a Week 18 - Propheteering Part 6
Technically it's past midnight here, so I'm posting this week's Story a Week. I've had it done for a couple of days, but took the time to reread it a couple of times and did a little rewriting.
So, enjoy the story!
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Meentha pulled the last arrow out of the minotaur's stomach. She looked it over and nodded to herself. She was able to save several of the arrows that helped take the beast down. She glanced around. She saw the dwarf, Cuddlington, digging through the minotaur's pouches.
He pulled a wand out and tossed it to the half-elven sorcerer, Melbrid. "Figger this out," the dwarf said in his gruff voice.
Meentha looked over to where Rixi was standing. The girl was staring blankly down at her blood-covered short swords. She didn't particularly like the little elf rogue, but she could see that the girl was troubled. She glanced back at the dwarf and half-elf, but they were busy with other tasks. Meentha sighed to herself and cautiously strode over to where Rixi was standing.
Rixi looked up when she felt Meentha's presence and put a weak smile on her face. Meentha asked, "How arre you doing, Rrixi?"
Now Rixi smiled in earnest as she said, "I like the way you say my name. It sounds more exotic."
Meentha started to feel slighted by the comment about her accent, but then she realized that the girl was trying to be nice. Meentha smiled back at her. "Arre you okay?" she asked again.
Rixi's smile diminished a little, but she nodded. "I've never killed, nor helped to kill, another humanoid before," she said.
Meentha nodded. "I thought as much," she said. "Do not worrry yourrself, little one. Minotaurrs are notorriously evil crreaturres. The worrld is a betterr place with the death of this one."
Rixi nodded. "I guess so..." she started to say.
Cuddlington interrupted their conversation by saying, "Lasses, ye all ready to move on?"
Meentha glanced at Rixi, who was nodding to the dwarf. Seeing this, Meentha nodded as well. Cuddlington waved the two of them over to where he and Melbrid were standing.
Meentha started to walk over to them, but Rixi's hand on her arm stopped her. "Thanks," the rogue said.
Meentha smiled and nodded back. When the four of them were all standing together, the dwarf nodded to Melbrid. The sorcerer mumbled some mystical words and waved the wand over their heads. Meentha closed her eyes as the spell grew around them.
When she opened her eyes she was startled to find herself crouching in a dense forest. She quickly glanced around and recognized her surroundings as part of the forest near her old village. She tensed when she heard a noise in front of her. Ahead of her were a group of a dozen or so armor clad soldiers plodding through the dense forest. She recognized them as soldiers from the Bortan Empire.
Now Meentha was thoroughly confused. She glanced around again more carefully and noticed and recognized several other pantheron near her. 'Oh, my dear Ehlonna, I've been transported back ten years!' she thought to herself.
She looked back at the soldiers and saw that they were beginning to make camp for the night. She then noticed several of the other pantheron looking in her direction. She nodded to herself and signaled that they should back away. She pointed to the nearest scout and indicated that he should watch the soldiers.
When the rest of the scouts arrived, Meentha spoke in the pantheron language, "We will sleep in the trees tonight and have a standard watch on the soldiers."
The other pantheron nodded and dispersed to hunt for their dinners. Pantheron preferred to have their meals freshly caught, but Meentha pulled a large chunk of jerky out instead of hunting with the others. She had a lot to think about. Why had her goddess, Ehlonna, sent her here? Is this a test of some sort, or is she supposed to fix the wrong that would happen tomorrow?
Before long it started to get dark out and the hunters started returning. The group bedded down in the trees for the night. Meentha knew she could trust her team to keep the watches, so she tried to sleep. She did sleep, but fitfully. Her current situation and the events leading up to it plagued her thoughts.
She awoke before the dawn returned to the forest floor. The youngest in her team, Perrkrrid, was already awake and sitting on a rock near the base of the tree that Meentha had chosen for her bed. When he saw her land on the forest floor, he stood up and respectfully waited for her to address him.
Meentha remembered the youngster from the last time that this had happened. He had just reached the age of ascension last week and his father, a friend of Meentha's, had begged her to take him on this mission.
Meentha nodded to the youth and said, "You have something to tell me."
Perrkrrid nervously said, "Yes, Scout Master Meentha. Do you have a few moments to spare?"
Meentha remembered that she had rudely put him off last time, but that he had been persistent so she let him speak. This time she said, "Of course, what is it?"
Perrkrrid was still nervous, but he said, "I had a vision last night. A horrible, troubling vision."
Meentha knew what he was going to say, but she still said, "Please, tell me about your vision."
The young warrior looked about, but the two of them were alone. "My vision showed our return to the village," he said. After a short pause he continued, "It...it was destroyed."
Last time, Meentha had utterly dismissed his vision as a nightmare of a youth. He had argued that it seemed very real, not like a dream, but she was stubborn. This time, "Yes, Perrkrrid. I believe in your vision. We will act accordingly."
The youth seemed to perk up when Meentha said this, but a thought troubled him still. "What if we are too late?" he asked.
Meentha placed a hand on his shoulder. "We will not be," she said. "Wake the others; I must speak with the watcher."
Perrkrrid nodded emphatically and practically jumped up a nearby tree where a warrior was fast asleep. Meentha raced to where the soldiers' camp was. It took her a few moments to spot the watch, but she was glad to see that it was Yerrn, a warrior with as much experience as Meentha had. She quietly approached his position.
He saw her coming and flashed a smile in her direction. "Their watch fell asleep an hour ago," he whispered to her. "I could have killed them all without waking a one of them."
Meentha put a hand on his shoulder. "We are returning to the village," she whispered back.
Yerrn looked confused, so she elaborated, "Perrkrrid had a vision of the village being destroyed in our absence. I believe in his vision."
Yerrn, Meentha knew, was a very spiritual individual. He nodded. "This is wise of you, Meentha. I know that you do not have perfect faith in such things."
Meentha almost got angry at that remark, but then she remembered that up until today, she hadn't been a true believer in Ehlonna. The day's events would have changed that. Now, she knew what was going to happen, so, hopefully, she could change the outcome.
Yerrn was watching her, as if trying to read her thoughts. She said, "Things change, my friend. Also, the possibility is too much to risk staying with these fools and not going back."
Yerrn nodded and gestured in the direction of the sleeping soldiers. "What should we do about them?"
Meentha's visage turned stonily cold as she said, "Kill them all."
Yerrn nodded and stealthily crept towards the camp as Meentha returned to their sleeping place. The entire scouting group was waiting there. Meentha confidently strode into the center of the group and addressed them. "We are returning to the village." Several pantheron started whispering amongst themselves, Meentha ignored them. "Perrkrrid has had a vision from Ehlonna that we cannot ignore. If we continue this mission, our village will be destroyed." The whispers turned into gasps. Several warriors started talking at once.
"Silence!" Meentha growled. The entire group became quiet. "We will leave as soon as Yerrn returns."
"What is he doing?" one of the warriors asked.
"This group of soldiers is merely a distraction by the Bortan so that they can sack our village while we are gone. Yerrn has gone to kill them all while they are still sleeping." Meentha glanced around for any dissent, but saw only nodding faces. She had the group’s full support.
It was at that moment that Yerrn strode into the group and up to Meentha. "It is done," he said.
"We move!" she shouted and ran in the direction of their home village.
Several hours later Meentha signaled for the group to stop to take a short rest. Everyone growled in unison to keep going. Proudly, Meentha nodded and signaled for the group to keep running.
Another two hours passed before the group arrived in the village. The villagers were surprised to see them return so soon. Meentha ran up to the chieftain’s hut, but as she arrived a flaming arrow struck the hut not five feet from her head.
Meentha quickly turned to see a dozen Bortan archers fit another volley of arrows to their bows. "Ambush! North of town!" Meentha yelled as she drew her own bow.
Meentha quickly fired off several rounds into the archer group. She wasn't sure she hit anyone, but she saw a couple of the archers fall before they let fly their next volley of flaming arrows. The remaining archers melted into the forest. Meentha heard an unintelligible shout come from the forest, then ten mounted warriors came charging out of the forest into the village. They were followed by at least thirty men on foot.
Meentha knew then that there wasn't much hope for the village. Glancing about, she saw several huts on fire and only her few warriors were ready to defend the village and they were exhausted from their sprint back to the village.
Meentha fired off a round into the nearest horseman, then grabbed the nearest pantheron she could find. "Get the Chieftain and Warmaster! We must organize the defense!"
The older female nodded and ran into the chieftain’s hut. By now, several other warriors had joined hers in the defense of the village. Meentha noticed the archers returning to their positions, so she started picking them off, one by one.
The Chieftain, Herran, came up beside her, wielding his own bow and firing at the archers. "Why have you returned?" he asked in between volleys.
"A youngling in my group had a vision foreseeing this event last night. I knew that we would be needed," Meentha replied.
Herran, who knew of her imperfect faith in Ehlonna, looked at her doubtfully for a moment. He fired another shot at an archer, then nodded at Meentha. "I am glad you heeded the vision," he said. He looked around at the village and sadly remarked, "Of course, there might not be much of a village left after this attack."
Meentha was about to reply when one of the horsemen charged the two of them. Meentha dropped her bow and quickly drew her scimitar. She easily dodged the charging horse and, in the same movement, sliced the poor creature's front legs. The horse immediately dropped to its knees, throwing its rider forward.
Meentha quickly ran over to the man and, before he could recover, dispatched him with a quick slice to the back of his neck, nearly decapitating him. She turned back to where the melee was occurring and saw that the chieftain was lying on the ground near the horse. She ran to him, but saw that there was no hope for him.
"Meentha..." he whispered. Tears stung her eyes as she tried to keep him from talking. He shook his head weakly and groaned. "I'm..." The chieftain would never speak again.
Angrily, Meentha rose. She grabbed her discarded scimitar and ran, growling, into the melee. After several minutes of frantic fighting, the remaining soldiers retreated into the forest. Meentha, clutching one of the wounds she sustained, surveyed the damage.
All, save one, of the huts in the village were burning. Many of the villagers lay on the ground, unmoving. She counted five of her own warriors among the dead, leaving just Yerrn and Perrkrrid alive. Meentha hung her head in shame and guilt. She'd come back instead of continuing the pursuit of the diversion and it hadn't changed the outcome by much.
Her sadness and exhaustion caught up with her and she fell to the ground and started weeping. After a few moments, she noticed the sounds around her and grown quiet. Puzzled, she opened her eyes and saw the wizard, Yif, standing in front of her.
So, enjoy the story!
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Meentha pulled the last arrow out of the minotaur's stomach. She looked it over and nodded to herself. She was able to save several of the arrows that helped take the beast down. She glanced around. She saw the dwarf, Cuddlington, digging through the minotaur's pouches.
He pulled a wand out and tossed it to the half-elven sorcerer, Melbrid. "Figger this out," the dwarf said in his gruff voice.
Meentha looked over to where Rixi was standing. The girl was staring blankly down at her blood-covered short swords. She didn't particularly like the little elf rogue, but she could see that the girl was troubled. She glanced back at the dwarf and half-elf, but they were busy with other tasks. Meentha sighed to herself and cautiously strode over to where Rixi was standing.
Rixi looked up when she felt Meentha's presence and put a weak smile on her face. Meentha asked, "How arre you doing, Rrixi?"
Now Rixi smiled in earnest as she said, "I like the way you say my name. It sounds more exotic."
Meentha started to feel slighted by the comment about her accent, but then she realized that the girl was trying to be nice. Meentha smiled back at her. "Arre you okay?" she asked again.
Rixi's smile diminished a little, but she nodded. "I've never killed, nor helped to kill, another humanoid before," she said.
Meentha nodded. "I thought as much," she said. "Do not worrry yourrself, little one. Minotaurrs are notorriously evil crreaturres. The worrld is a betterr place with the death of this one."
Rixi nodded. "I guess so..." she started to say.
Cuddlington interrupted their conversation by saying, "Lasses, ye all ready to move on?"
Meentha glanced at Rixi, who was nodding to the dwarf. Seeing this, Meentha nodded as well. Cuddlington waved the two of them over to where he and Melbrid were standing.
Meentha started to walk over to them, but Rixi's hand on her arm stopped her. "Thanks," the rogue said.
Meentha smiled and nodded back. When the four of them were all standing together, the dwarf nodded to Melbrid. The sorcerer mumbled some mystical words and waved the wand over their heads. Meentha closed her eyes as the spell grew around them.
When she opened her eyes she was startled to find herself crouching in a dense forest. She quickly glanced around and recognized her surroundings as part of the forest near her old village. She tensed when she heard a noise in front of her. Ahead of her were a group of a dozen or so armor clad soldiers plodding through the dense forest. She recognized them as soldiers from the Bortan Empire.
Now Meentha was thoroughly confused. She glanced around again more carefully and noticed and recognized several other pantheron near her. 'Oh, my dear Ehlonna, I've been transported back ten years!' she thought to herself.
She looked back at the soldiers and saw that they were beginning to make camp for the night. She then noticed several of the other pantheron looking in her direction. She nodded to herself and signaled that they should back away. She pointed to the nearest scout and indicated that he should watch the soldiers.
When the rest of the scouts arrived, Meentha spoke in the pantheron language, "We will sleep in the trees tonight and have a standard watch on the soldiers."
The other pantheron nodded and dispersed to hunt for their dinners. Pantheron preferred to have their meals freshly caught, but Meentha pulled a large chunk of jerky out instead of hunting with the others. She had a lot to think about. Why had her goddess, Ehlonna, sent her here? Is this a test of some sort, or is she supposed to fix the wrong that would happen tomorrow?
Before long it started to get dark out and the hunters started returning. The group bedded down in the trees for the night. Meentha knew she could trust her team to keep the watches, so she tried to sleep. She did sleep, but fitfully. Her current situation and the events leading up to it plagued her thoughts.
She awoke before the dawn returned to the forest floor. The youngest in her team, Perrkrrid, was already awake and sitting on a rock near the base of the tree that Meentha had chosen for her bed. When he saw her land on the forest floor, he stood up and respectfully waited for her to address him.
Meentha remembered the youngster from the last time that this had happened. He had just reached the age of ascension last week and his father, a friend of Meentha's, had begged her to take him on this mission.
Meentha nodded to the youth and said, "You have something to tell me."
Perrkrrid nervously said, "Yes, Scout Master Meentha. Do you have a few moments to spare?"
Meentha remembered that she had rudely put him off last time, but that he had been persistent so she let him speak. This time she said, "Of course, what is it?"
Perrkrrid was still nervous, but he said, "I had a vision last night. A horrible, troubling vision."
Meentha knew what he was going to say, but she still said, "Please, tell me about your vision."
The young warrior looked about, but the two of them were alone. "My vision showed our return to the village," he said. After a short pause he continued, "It...it was destroyed."
Last time, Meentha had utterly dismissed his vision as a nightmare of a youth. He had argued that it seemed very real, not like a dream, but she was stubborn. This time, "Yes, Perrkrrid. I believe in your vision. We will act accordingly."
The youth seemed to perk up when Meentha said this, but a thought troubled him still. "What if we are too late?" he asked.
Meentha placed a hand on his shoulder. "We will not be," she said. "Wake the others; I must speak with the watcher."
Perrkrrid nodded emphatically and practically jumped up a nearby tree where a warrior was fast asleep. Meentha raced to where the soldiers' camp was. It took her a few moments to spot the watch, but she was glad to see that it was Yerrn, a warrior with as much experience as Meentha had. She quietly approached his position.
He saw her coming and flashed a smile in her direction. "Their watch fell asleep an hour ago," he whispered to her. "I could have killed them all without waking a one of them."
Meentha put a hand on his shoulder. "We are returning to the village," she whispered back.
Yerrn looked confused, so she elaborated, "Perrkrrid had a vision of the village being destroyed in our absence. I believe in his vision."
Yerrn, Meentha knew, was a very spiritual individual. He nodded. "This is wise of you, Meentha. I know that you do not have perfect faith in such things."
Meentha almost got angry at that remark, but then she remembered that up until today, she hadn't been a true believer in Ehlonna. The day's events would have changed that. Now, she knew what was going to happen, so, hopefully, she could change the outcome.
Yerrn was watching her, as if trying to read her thoughts. She said, "Things change, my friend. Also, the possibility is too much to risk staying with these fools and not going back."
Yerrn nodded and gestured in the direction of the sleeping soldiers. "What should we do about them?"
Meentha's visage turned stonily cold as she said, "Kill them all."
Yerrn nodded and stealthily crept towards the camp as Meentha returned to their sleeping place. The entire scouting group was waiting there. Meentha confidently strode into the center of the group and addressed them. "We are returning to the village." Several pantheron started whispering amongst themselves, Meentha ignored them. "Perrkrrid has had a vision from Ehlonna that we cannot ignore. If we continue this mission, our village will be destroyed." The whispers turned into gasps. Several warriors started talking at once.
"Silence!" Meentha growled. The entire group became quiet. "We will leave as soon as Yerrn returns."
"What is he doing?" one of the warriors asked.
"This group of soldiers is merely a distraction by the Bortan so that they can sack our village while we are gone. Yerrn has gone to kill them all while they are still sleeping." Meentha glanced around for any dissent, but saw only nodding faces. She had the group’s full support.
It was at that moment that Yerrn strode into the group and up to Meentha. "It is done," he said.
"We move!" she shouted and ran in the direction of their home village.
Several hours later Meentha signaled for the group to stop to take a short rest. Everyone growled in unison to keep going. Proudly, Meentha nodded and signaled for the group to keep running.
Another two hours passed before the group arrived in the village. The villagers were surprised to see them return so soon. Meentha ran up to the chieftain’s hut, but as she arrived a flaming arrow struck the hut not five feet from her head.
Meentha quickly turned to see a dozen Bortan archers fit another volley of arrows to their bows. "Ambush! North of town!" Meentha yelled as she drew her own bow.
Meentha quickly fired off several rounds into the archer group. She wasn't sure she hit anyone, but she saw a couple of the archers fall before they let fly their next volley of flaming arrows. The remaining archers melted into the forest. Meentha heard an unintelligible shout come from the forest, then ten mounted warriors came charging out of the forest into the village. They were followed by at least thirty men on foot.
Meentha knew then that there wasn't much hope for the village. Glancing about, she saw several huts on fire and only her few warriors were ready to defend the village and they were exhausted from their sprint back to the village.
Meentha fired off a round into the nearest horseman, then grabbed the nearest pantheron she could find. "Get the Chieftain and Warmaster! We must organize the defense!"
The older female nodded and ran into the chieftain’s hut. By now, several other warriors had joined hers in the defense of the village. Meentha noticed the archers returning to their positions, so she started picking them off, one by one.
The Chieftain, Herran, came up beside her, wielding his own bow and firing at the archers. "Why have you returned?" he asked in between volleys.
"A youngling in my group had a vision foreseeing this event last night. I knew that we would be needed," Meentha replied.
Herran, who knew of her imperfect faith in Ehlonna, looked at her doubtfully for a moment. He fired another shot at an archer, then nodded at Meentha. "I am glad you heeded the vision," he said. He looked around at the village and sadly remarked, "Of course, there might not be much of a village left after this attack."
Meentha was about to reply when one of the horsemen charged the two of them. Meentha dropped her bow and quickly drew her scimitar. She easily dodged the charging horse and, in the same movement, sliced the poor creature's front legs. The horse immediately dropped to its knees, throwing its rider forward.
Meentha quickly ran over to the man and, before he could recover, dispatched him with a quick slice to the back of his neck, nearly decapitating him. She turned back to where the melee was occurring and saw that the chieftain was lying on the ground near the horse. She ran to him, but saw that there was no hope for him.
"Meentha..." he whispered. Tears stung her eyes as she tried to keep him from talking. He shook his head weakly and groaned. "I'm..." The chieftain would never speak again.
Angrily, Meentha rose. She grabbed her discarded scimitar and ran, growling, into the melee. After several minutes of frantic fighting, the remaining soldiers retreated into the forest. Meentha, clutching one of the wounds she sustained, surveyed the damage.
All, save one, of the huts in the village were burning. Many of the villagers lay on the ground, unmoving. She counted five of her own warriors among the dead, leaving just Yerrn and Perrkrrid alive. Meentha hung her head in shame and guilt. She'd come back instead of continuing the pursuit of the diversion and it hadn't changed the outcome by much.
Her sadness and exhaustion caught up with her and she fell to the ground and started weeping. After a few moments, she noticed the sounds around her and grown quiet. Puzzled, she opened her eyes and saw the wizard, Yif, standing in front of her.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Story a Week 17 - Propheteering Part 5
Hello! It's time again for a Story a Week. It's a day late, but the funny thing is that I actually finished the story Thursday. Yesterday we spent the day out of the house and I barely touched my computer all day.
Anyway, here it is. Enjoy!
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Cuddlington pulled a wand out of the minotaur's pouch and handed it to Melbrid. "Figger this out," the dwarf said gruffly.
Melbrid took the wand and nodded. He sat down cross-legged and concentrated on the wand for a moment. He began to sift through the emanations of magical energy that he could see the wand giving off. First, Melbrid saw that there was some basic protection on the wand to prevent non-magic users from accidently activating the wand. Next, he saw something strange. The spell was new to him and obviously crafted by a powerful wizard. There was some effect masking the true powers of the spell, but it was quite obvious to Melbrid that it was a teleportation spell of some sort. Considering their surroundings, Melbrid guessed that it was designed to teleport the group over an extremely long distance, a feat that was risky using the normal teleportation spells available to most wizards.
A voice brought Melbrid out of his reverie. "Melbrid, ye figger that wand out, yet?" Cuddlington asked him.
The young half-elf nodded uncertainly. "I think so," he said, "I've never seen anything like this wand before. It's some kind of teleportation wand, but it doesn't use the traditional teleport spell. It's pretty unique."
The dwarf gruffly shrugged back at him. "So? Can ye activate the blasted thing?"
Melbrid nodded back and Cuddlington turned to where Rixi and Meentha were standing. "Lasses, ye all ready to move on?"
They both nodded, so Cuddlington waved them over to where he and Melbrid were standing. When the four of them were all standing together, the dwarf nodded to Melbrid. The sorcerer mumbled some mystical words and waved the wand over their heads, closing his eyes as the spell built to a crescendo.
When he opened them, he was immediately confused. He found himself standing outside the wizard school in Gadenz, the capital of the province where Telquirk was located.
Melbrid glanced around, but didn't see anyone around. He suddenly remembered the last time that he was standing outside this particular building. He ran inside.
The first door opened easily for him, but the doors on the inside of the entry wouldn't budge. He heard someone clear their throat to his right. Melbrid glanced over and saw a bored looking student worker sitting behind a service window rolling his eyes. "Can I help you?" the student asked.
Melbrid quickly went over to the window and said, "I have an appointment with Head Wizard Munic concerning admittance."
The distaste that the student obviously felt for Melbrid's presence was obvious as he replied, "Your name?"
"Melbrid," was Melbrid's reply.
"Melbrid..." the student said condescendingly.
Melbrid sighed and said, "Melbrid Thatcher."
Melbrid knew the reaction he would get from his lower class surname and wasn't surprised when the student mumbled, "Uh-huh." The student nodded to himself as if Melbrid had confirmed something he had already surmised.
The student looked down at something on his desk. He grudgingly nodded and grabbed a wand from somewhere out of sight. He waved the wand at Melbrid and said in a bored monotone, "Welcome to the Gadenz Wizard School. Your presence will be tolerated for two hours at which point you must either leave, or have an authorized wizard renew the spell I have just cast on you. The door will open for you, now."
Melbrid quickly said his thanks and ran through the door. He hesitated in the hall for a moment, but then started up the main stair that went up through the center of the tower. If he remembered correctly, the Head Wizard's office was at the top of the tower. Several minutes, and many, many flights of stairs later, Melbrid arrived at the top, out of breath. He gave himself a moment to catch his breath before he knocked on the door that stood at the top of the stairs.
"Enter, Melbrid," he heard an elderly, yet strong, voice say.
Melbrid nervously stepped forward and opened the door. He saw a man sitting behind a desk reading a thick tome. The man was obviously quite advanced in age, but exuded a powerful presence all the same. The man, without looking up, gestured for Melbrid to enter and take a seat.
Melbrid tried to exude confidence as he entered, but the memory of this event plagued him. He still didn't understand why the wand had somehow transported him ten years into the past, but he could figure that out later. If he was stuck in the past, perhaps he could change his future today.
After a few moments, the man looked up at Melbrid and smiled. "As you know, I am Head Wizard Munic."
Melbrid nodded and replied, "Thank you for inviting me here, Head Wizard. I was pleased to get the invitation. It was unexpected."
Munic nodded. "Yes, this I am sure of. As I'm sure you're aware, being a wizard has become an elite position in our society. Only aristocrats and their brats have the power and money to get into any wizard school in the Bortan Empire. I aim to change that as much as I can." Munic paused. "When I attended the wizard school in Bortan City nearly two centuries ago, tuition was cheap and there was no acceptance process to speak of. Everyone was accepted and if they couldn't hack it they were excused, that was all."
Munic stood and paced behind his desk for a few moments. He stopped and faced Melbrid. "My point to all of this is that I know that you're interested in attending our school, but I'm also aware of your family's standing and financial situation. To be blunt, neither you nor your family can afford to send you here and you frankly don't have the political pull to have the administration reduce your tuition."
Melbrid was still surprised by the old man's frank attitude, but he nodded all the same. Munic nodded back at him. "Good, you at least acknowledge your situation. If you'd argued it, I would have put you out on your ear, which is still a possibility, mind you.
"There is something that I've found out about you that concerns me, Melbrid," Munic said as he started pacing again.
After a few moments, Munic didn't elaborate, so Melbrid said, "What is that, sir?"
Munic sighed and said, "I've been informed that you've begun training yourself as a sorcerer. Is this true?"
Melbrid remembered this part of the conversation from the last time that it happened. He'd tried to downplay his training as just an eagerness to be familiar with magic and his skills were only at a novice level. Munic called him out on that and kicked him out. 'Things will be different this time,' Melbrid thought to himself.
Steeling himself, Melbrid said, "Yes, sir. I have been training to become a sorcerer. I..."
Munic turned suddenly and silenced Melbrid by slicing his hand through the air. "Enough! I know about it, but that sort of behavior will not be tolerated in my wizard's school!"
Melbrid was confused. Last time Munic had kicked him out for trying to hide his activities, now he was angry just because of them. "I d-don't understand, sir," he stammered out.
Munic seemed to calm down as he explained, "You see, Melbrid, magic isn't meant to be 'dabbled' with. It's too dangerous. Wizards practice magic with scientific precision through experimentation in controlled situations and documenting our findings. Sorcerers arrogantly claim that they 'understand' magic better through some hokey innate control. All wizards know that this control is a fallacy. Sorcerers don't understand the basic principles of magic enough to..."
It was Melbrid who cut Munic off this time. All the old wizard's rant did was to anger Melbrid, not show him the error in his ways as Munic has obviously intended. "You're the one who doesn't understand!" Melbrid blurted out.
Munic stared at Melbrid with astonishment that quickly turned to anger. "You dare?!? You're as insolate and arrogant as the typical sorcerer! I will not have you in my school! Get out!"
The door behind Melbrid's chair slammed open. Melbrid stood slowly and said, "It's really wizards who don't understand magic, Munic. You use it like a tool while sorcerers embrace it as a part of us and everything around us. We are the will of magic, you are its abusers."
Munic's face flushed with anger now. "Out!" he screamed at Melbrid. "Out before I show you how deadly my 'tool' is!"
Melbrid turned his back on Munic and slowly left the room, slamming the door behind him. Things definitely went differently this time, but the result was the same. Melbrid found himself smiling all the same, which was also different than last time. He had been so disappointed before, now he found himself beaming because he knew his path was the right one. He smiled at the gruff, tough looking students who met him at the first landing. They looked at each other quizzically; they'd never seen someone happy about not being admitted into the school before.
Melbrid had always regretted how things had gone at during his interview, but now he knew better. He closed his eyes, savoring the moment. When he opened them he was startled to be in an unfamiliar room. Standing in front of him was the wizard Yif.
Anyway, here it is. Enjoy!
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Cuddlington pulled a wand out of the minotaur's pouch and handed it to Melbrid. "Figger this out," the dwarf said gruffly.
Melbrid took the wand and nodded. He sat down cross-legged and concentrated on the wand for a moment. He began to sift through the emanations of magical energy that he could see the wand giving off. First, Melbrid saw that there was some basic protection on the wand to prevent non-magic users from accidently activating the wand. Next, he saw something strange. The spell was new to him and obviously crafted by a powerful wizard. There was some effect masking the true powers of the spell, but it was quite obvious to Melbrid that it was a teleportation spell of some sort. Considering their surroundings, Melbrid guessed that it was designed to teleport the group over an extremely long distance, a feat that was risky using the normal teleportation spells available to most wizards.
A voice brought Melbrid out of his reverie. "Melbrid, ye figger that wand out, yet?" Cuddlington asked him.
The young half-elf nodded uncertainly. "I think so," he said, "I've never seen anything like this wand before. It's some kind of teleportation wand, but it doesn't use the traditional teleport spell. It's pretty unique."
The dwarf gruffly shrugged back at him. "So? Can ye activate the blasted thing?"
Melbrid nodded back and Cuddlington turned to where Rixi and Meentha were standing. "Lasses, ye all ready to move on?"
They both nodded, so Cuddlington waved them over to where he and Melbrid were standing. When the four of them were all standing together, the dwarf nodded to Melbrid. The sorcerer mumbled some mystical words and waved the wand over their heads, closing his eyes as the spell built to a crescendo.
When he opened them, he was immediately confused. He found himself standing outside the wizard school in Gadenz, the capital of the province where Telquirk was located.
Melbrid glanced around, but didn't see anyone around. He suddenly remembered the last time that he was standing outside this particular building. He ran inside.
The first door opened easily for him, but the doors on the inside of the entry wouldn't budge. He heard someone clear their throat to his right. Melbrid glanced over and saw a bored looking student worker sitting behind a service window rolling his eyes. "Can I help you?" the student asked.
Melbrid quickly went over to the window and said, "I have an appointment with Head Wizard Munic concerning admittance."
The distaste that the student obviously felt for Melbrid's presence was obvious as he replied, "Your name?"
"Melbrid," was Melbrid's reply.
"Melbrid..." the student said condescendingly.
Melbrid sighed and said, "Melbrid Thatcher."
Melbrid knew the reaction he would get from his lower class surname and wasn't surprised when the student mumbled, "Uh-huh." The student nodded to himself as if Melbrid had confirmed something he had already surmised.
The student looked down at something on his desk. He grudgingly nodded and grabbed a wand from somewhere out of sight. He waved the wand at Melbrid and said in a bored monotone, "Welcome to the Gadenz Wizard School. Your presence will be tolerated for two hours at which point you must either leave, or have an authorized wizard renew the spell I have just cast on you. The door will open for you, now."
Melbrid quickly said his thanks and ran through the door. He hesitated in the hall for a moment, but then started up the main stair that went up through the center of the tower. If he remembered correctly, the Head Wizard's office was at the top of the tower. Several minutes, and many, many flights of stairs later, Melbrid arrived at the top, out of breath. He gave himself a moment to catch his breath before he knocked on the door that stood at the top of the stairs.
"Enter, Melbrid," he heard an elderly, yet strong, voice say.
Melbrid nervously stepped forward and opened the door. He saw a man sitting behind a desk reading a thick tome. The man was obviously quite advanced in age, but exuded a powerful presence all the same. The man, without looking up, gestured for Melbrid to enter and take a seat.
Melbrid tried to exude confidence as he entered, but the memory of this event plagued him. He still didn't understand why the wand had somehow transported him ten years into the past, but he could figure that out later. If he was stuck in the past, perhaps he could change his future today.
After a few moments, the man looked up at Melbrid and smiled. "As you know, I am Head Wizard Munic."
Melbrid nodded and replied, "Thank you for inviting me here, Head Wizard. I was pleased to get the invitation. It was unexpected."
Munic nodded. "Yes, this I am sure of. As I'm sure you're aware, being a wizard has become an elite position in our society. Only aristocrats and their brats have the power and money to get into any wizard school in the Bortan Empire. I aim to change that as much as I can." Munic paused. "When I attended the wizard school in Bortan City nearly two centuries ago, tuition was cheap and there was no acceptance process to speak of. Everyone was accepted and if they couldn't hack it they were excused, that was all."
Munic stood and paced behind his desk for a few moments. He stopped and faced Melbrid. "My point to all of this is that I know that you're interested in attending our school, but I'm also aware of your family's standing and financial situation. To be blunt, neither you nor your family can afford to send you here and you frankly don't have the political pull to have the administration reduce your tuition."
Melbrid was still surprised by the old man's frank attitude, but he nodded all the same. Munic nodded back at him. "Good, you at least acknowledge your situation. If you'd argued it, I would have put you out on your ear, which is still a possibility, mind you.
"There is something that I've found out about you that concerns me, Melbrid," Munic said as he started pacing again.
After a few moments, Munic didn't elaborate, so Melbrid said, "What is that, sir?"
Munic sighed and said, "I've been informed that you've begun training yourself as a sorcerer. Is this true?"
Melbrid remembered this part of the conversation from the last time that it happened. He'd tried to downplay his training as just an eagerness to be familiar with magic and his skills were only at a novice level. Munic called him out on that and kicked him out. 'Things will be different this time,' Melbrid thought to himself.
Steeling himself, Melbrid said, "Yes, sir. I have been training to become a sorcerer. I..."
Munic turned suddenly and silenced Melbrid by slicing his hand through the air. "Enough! I know about it, but that sort of behavior will not be tolerated in my wizard's school!"
Melbrid was confused. Last time Munic had kicked him out for trying to hide his activities, now he was angry just because of them. "I d-don't understand, sir," he stammered out.
Munic seemed to calm down as he explained, "You see, Melbrid, magic isn't meant to be 'dabbled' with. It's too dangerous. Wizards practice magic with scientific precision through experimentation in controlled situations and documenting our findings. Sorcerers arrogantly claim that they 'understand' magic better through some hokey innate control. All wizards know that this control is a fallacy. Sorcerers don't understand the basic principles of magic enough to..."
It was Melbrid who cut Munic off this time. All the old wizard's rant did was to anger Melbrid, not show him the error in his ways as Munic has obviously intended. "You're the one who doesn't understand!" Melbrid blurted out.
Munic stared at Melbrid with astonishment that quickly turned to anger. "You dare?!? You're as insolate and arrogant as the typical sorcerer! I will not have you in my school! Get out!"
The door behind Melbrid's chair slammed open. Melbrid stood slowly and said, "It's really wizards who don't understand magic, Munic. You use it like a tool while sorcerers embrace it as a part of us and everything around us. We are the will of magic, you are its abusers."
Munic's face flushed with anger now. "Out!" he screamed at Melbrid. "Out before I show you how deadly my 'tool' is!"
Melbrid turned his back on Munic and slowly left the room, slamming the door behind him. Things definitely went differently this time, but the result was the same. Melbrid found himself smiling all the same, which was also different than last time. He had been so disappointed before, now he found himself beaming because he knew his path was the right one. He smiled at the gruff, tough looking students who met him at the first landing. They looked at each other quizzically; they'd never seen someone happy about not being admitted into the school before.
Melbrid had always regretted how things had gone at during his interview, but now he knew better. He closed his eyes, savoring the moment. When he opened them he was startled to be in an unfamiliar room. Standing in front of him was the wizard Yif.
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