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Narad Bladesinger
Learned Scribe
Finland
170 Posts |
 Posted - 26 Mar 2004 : 19:15:15
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Bladesinger’s Fall
It was a small hill, in the middle of a deep forest. All around the hill the forest grew as a green barrier that separated the hill from the forest. Nothing unusual about that hill. But something was going on. The hill was not alone. There, on top of it, was a lonely creature, a moon elf.
Narad Arynn stood alone on the hill. It had been a while since anyone had called him with his full name. His family name brought back some painful memories from the past. How foolish had he been then when he first met Dalyr. Ah, Dalyr. Narad’s mentor. Funny, Narad thought. He had never catched his full name. Not only had he teached Narad the ways of a bladesinger, but he had also been a good friend. Loyal to the end, Narad thought. It pained him greatly to think of his mentor. Had he not saved Narad’s life and died succeeding, things might be different might be… What? Would things be better if Narad had died, instead of his teacher? Narad couldn’t think that his friends sacrifice had gone to waist. So he started down the hill, knowing well that it could be his last journey..
The day wasn’t special in any way. The sky looked grey and every now and then a couple drops of water landed around Narad. Though he wasn’t getting wet at all, Narad hid himself in to his magical cloak.
Doing so, he faded from sight, almost completetly.
Silently he went throuh the thick forest, without a sound. Many animals noticed him just few steps away and ran off to the shadows of the forest. Sarcastically Narad smiled to himself. It wasn’t just animals that ran away from his company.
Avoiding easily trees, branches and everything the forest had to offer, Narad went through the forest without any hesitation. The forest had proved to be a place of great danger many times before, but this time Narad just didn’t care.
He was not in a great mood. Not only did he have a suicide-mission before him, but his sister was viciously murdered just couple of days ago. It pained him greatly to not be able to hunt down his sister’s murderers. And as he had been told countless times during his training; any distraction during a mission could be leathal. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop thinking about his sister.
After a while Narad realized that his step wasn’t so silnet anymore. His feelings had bested him and now he had been walking through the most dangerous part of the forest making noice that the gods themselves must have heard. In his mind he cursed to himself for a long time, but then decided to climb to a tree. The tree was tall and perfect for climbing. Quickly he was above most of the forest. He took direction from the nearby mountains. Narad had gone a bit too much south. Again, he was cursing to himself until he heard some noice from below.
Slowly, he climbed down to see what had caused the noice and there they were.
Two demonic figures were standing below him. They were somewhat manlike, but their form was too skeletal and big to be a human. They were doing something, Narad didn’t first see what it was, but then it hit him; They had smelled him! Narad hid himself with his cloak and just in time. The other demon then galnced up, seeing nothing. But they didn’t give up so easily. They reached their arms and scraped the tree with their long claws. Narad had to think fast. If he attacked those things, he would not only compromise his life, but his mission too.
The demons slashed the tree trunk like mad, planning to bring the tree down. Narad realized that he didn’t have much choise. He slowly took his longsword from his back and closed his eyes. He reached in for the unique bond that he had made with his weapon. Narad opened his eyes. The ornamental blade he was holding glowed a faint yellow light. It was five meters to the ground and the tree was shaking under him. He started humming. The demons stopped for a second, but then continued, putting more and more power to their blows.
Narad’s humming became singing and his voice became louder and louder and the tree started swinging from side to side. Finally when Narad let out the final note of his song, the tree sarted falling.
Narad jumped. For what felt like an eternity, Narad fell through the air. He turned his sword pointing downwards as he dropped with increasing speed. Then in a flash, he landed on one of the demons. A loud shriek was heard and they fell to the ground.
The other demon looked what had happened. Just before him, his companion lay still, face down, with an elf on it’s back. The elf had one knee down on the creature’s back and his sword was sticking from the demon’s neck.
The other demon screamed and rushed towards the elf with only one purpose. The elf rolled aside with his sword, just before the rampaging demon would have hitted him.
Narad backed away breathing calmly. He was a bit shaken up by the fall, but otherwise he was allright. Now he had a two and a half meters tall demon against him and it was furious. The demons red eyes gleamed as he started towards Narad. Snapping branches the creature came closer .
Narad had the advantage there in that forest. The trees were growing thick and Narad could easily pass between them, unlike the demon. For a while Narad just avoided the creature, using the gaps between the trees.
The demon grew frustrated and roared. The demon gor close and Narad dodged a blow that hit one of the trees. With great speed, Narad slashed the thing’s arm an backed away. It roared in pain and rushed forward. Narad dropped low as one arm came high from the left in a wide arc. From below, Narad thrusted his sword into the demons gut and barely escaped it’s next attack. Narad backed away, trees surrounding him. The demon was bleeding fast. It knew that the wound it had gotten would kill it and so it made one final rush towards Narad. The creature came running towards Narad, but he was ready. When the demon got close, Narad stepped behind a heavy tree and quickly came from the other side. The demon followed, but Narad had used his magical cloak again, becoming invisible. As the demon went past him, he thrusted his sword into it’s back thus ending it’s life.
Ahem.. Now if you have read the thing, I'd like to know what you think about it. I don't want to write more if no one wants to read it...
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31799 Posts |
Posted - 27 Mar 2004 : 08:08:11
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Before I comment on your work thus far, what type of demon are you using in your story? For the most part, it sounds as though it resembles the balor-like Palrethee. But, your reference to a man-like skeletal being would seem to suggest otherwise...
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Narad Bladesinger
Learned Scribe
Finland
170 Posts |
Posted - 27 Mar 2004 : 09:33:51
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Used about 30 min doing this, so I didn't really think about it that much. I first thought of a balor, but it seemed to be too much. So I made some changes.
And please do comment. I don't mind if you say its garbage, anything will do. |
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Narad Bladesinger
Learned Scribe
Finland
170 Posts |
Posted - 28 Mar 2004 : 08:55:55
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Narad yanked his sword free and the demon fell to the ground. He declared it dead and so Narad was again on his way.
It was getting dark there in that forest and Narad had to hurry. Now, that he had been noticed once, he had to be even more careful. All the time he was glancing to his sides and occasionally he stopped to listen. Every time the forest responded with silence, no bird was singing, no animal moving. Just complete silence. And that made Narad nervous.
It had begun raining, but only few drops of water found their way to the ground and to Narad. The forest was getting hilly, and Narad was getting tired. He knew he was getting closer, but his time was running out. Just then he heard an odd sound from his side. Narad went behind a rock, unaware what had caused the noice. Little by little he went around the rock. There, behind the trees, floated a group of imps. They were arquing with high-pitched voice. Narad didn’t stay there any longer. Though they were in his way, he decided to go around them. He wasn’t afraid he would die by the imps, he was more concerned that one or more would get away and alert others. Silently, Narad departed from his hidingplace and went around the imps. He hoped that they hadn’t picked up his scent.
Traveling further to the forest Narad notice a change in his surroundings. The forest grew darker with every step he took and if possible, more thicker. Narad couldn’t see any shadows anymore, the night was falling. Many times Narad had to backtrack his steps, because the forest formed dead-ends and many times he had to cut his way through them.
As he swung his sword to give a final blow to one of the leafy barriers, the forest opened in front of him.
It was a wide clearing, forming a perfect circle. In the middle of the clearing stood a buliding, looking like a temple. The building wasn’t very tall, maybe three or four meters. It didn’t have much in it, just a pair of doors, closing the world from whatever lurked inside. And Narad knew, that he had to pass those doors. It had been decided and Narad had agreed to do it. Narad looked up. The sky was clear, the stars gave ther faint light to him, but they were not important. What was important, was how the moon was almost directly above him. Relief filled his mind, he had made it after all.
Under that clear sky, he walked towards the building. He knew what it was, it was a tomb.
As he walked towards that building, from the shadows all around him appeared dark figures. Narad stopped as the figures walked to the light the moon was giving. Fifteen slim figures, elves, apporoached him. Good, they had come, Narad thought as the fifteen bladesingers apporoached. Only one was missing. One of the bladesingers, an old-looking gold elf, came to speak with him:
-You arrived at last. It is almost time for the claiming. Are you ready?
Narad closed his eyes. Was he ready? His hand touched the neclace he had been given.
-I’m ready.
-Good, because soon the beasts will come and you must be as quick as you can, the older elf replied grimly. And indeed it was time. The moon was then above them all and the tomb begun glowing faintly. The doors started opening slowly, as if they resisted what was happening.
From the forest all around them came all sorts of howling, screaming and roaring.
-Go! the elf said to Narad. Narad gave him a quick nod and turned to face the tomb. The other bladesingers were forming a circle around it. Narad walked slowly towards those opened doors.
As he stepped inside the dusty tomb, he looked outside just in time to see demonical creatures rushing from the forest. Then the doors closed behind him and there was nothing left to see.
He used his magic, and a ball of light appeared to him. He looked around. The tomb was small, only four meters from wall to wall and completetly empty. The walls were made of grey stone, as was the floor. Narad didn’t care about the room’s emptiness. He went to the wall facing him and studied it carefully. Some old runes could still be seen in that wall, they had barely lasted all that time they had spent on that wall. Narad didn’t understand those ancient runes, but he didn’t have to. It was just as he was told it would be. Before he had left for his journey, Narad had been shown just those same runes.
Narad cleared his voice and in a couple of seconds he started singing with a clear voice. Aa a bladesinger he had been trained to sing and Narad was quite talented. He sang in ancient words, wich he didn’t even understand properly, but he didn’t have to.
Outside the building, the bladesingers fought for their lives. Baler, one of them, heard Narad’s voice coming from the tomb. All around him were scattered bodies of dead creatures, creatures he couldn’t name. His strenght was running out, but when he heard Narad’s song, he gained new strenght. So did all the other bladesingers. At least those who were alive.
Narad opened his eyes as he finished his song. At first he thought that nothing had ahappened, but then the tomb started trembling. With a shriek, half of the floor slided to one side and a steep stairway appeared. Narad descended the stairs with his lightball as his only companion. The stairs went for a while and patiently Narad checked every step in case of some sort of trap. He found none, and at last he came to the stairway’s end. There was a long hallway, with carvings all over the walls. The walls weren’t grey anymore, the were shiningly white. Narad started walking, while admiring the beatiful artwork of the walls. On went the hallway and Narad became more and more distracted by the carvings. As he reached a certain point of the hallway, the spell that was hidden in the many carvings hit Narad.
Narad didin’t think anymore.
He was floating in space, with nothing around him, admiring the timeless beauty the space offered for him.
Nothing mattered to him then, nothing was important. It was like his mind was free from all the troubles it had suffered. There he floated, in peace. But then a voice started talking in his mind, his own voice.
-What are you doing? You have a mission to complish! said the voice.
First Narad tried to ignore the voice, but when it is your own voice that can be hard. So he started thinking about the voices words. A mission? Hmm… I did have a mission! But what was it about? Something important.
Narad reached for his sword. He always thought more clearly with his sword in hand. His hand reached nothing. And then he remembered. Sword! The claiming! And with all his willpower he forced himself back to his body.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at the wall. Quickly he started to stare the floor, which had no carvings on it. With great haste, he started walking. He almost hit the door, having not seen it. It was a simple wooden door, with nothing on it. Narad pushed it. The door swung open without any sound. Behind it was a small room and in the middle of the room stood a spectre. It looked like an elf, with elven chainmail on it and a fine-made longsword on it’s hand. As it saw Narad it attacked directly.
It was the guardian of the tomb. Forunatetly Narad had been told about it. He took his neclace and held it high in front of the spectre. The spectre was just about to swing it’s sword, when he noticed the neclace. With an etheral voice it said:
-You… bear… the.. symbol… You…shall…pass…Then the spectre turned around and went to the back wall. It stared at the wall for a moment and the wall slided open. The spectre stepped aside and bowed to Narad.
Narad didin’t even notice the spectre anymore. The next room was all he could see. It was a large room, with six corners. In the middle of the room, was a large platform above the floor. Narad walked to it and rose the few steps it had. On the platform was a pedestal. And above the pedestal floated a sword.. Narad took few slow steps to get to it. This is it, he thought. One last time he touched his neclace, closed his eyes and grabbed the sword. Blinding light erupted from the sword and when it stopped, it was dark again.
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Edited by - Narad Bladesinger on 28 Mar 2004 11:59:25 |
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A little story I made...
