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gypsy_merrique Journeyman


Joined: 30 Sep 2007 Posts: 213 Location: Umbra
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Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 3:17 pm Post subject: (Umbran) Kids Will Be Kids |
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Standing on the small porch of their home, Merrique watched Shalcross and Demetria run toward the road to the north. It was the elven child's giggling that really caught her attention, and her own son looked as if he might be doing his best to harbor a secret or two. The older child had come to the house asking if she and Shalcross could be permitted to go practice shooting targets in the woods just outside of Umbra.
Having seen both children's skills with their bows, and the elf with the magic, Merrique decided it was a gamble she'd be willing to take. Demetria nodded solemnly, eyes wide, when Merrique said to the child, "I'm entrusting my son's safety to you. Should anything happen, you'll have his father to deal with." The girl seemed sufficiently respectful of these words and then gave her consent for the target practice to commence.
Merri cocked her head to the side, listening carefully. The children must have stopped nearby to share some sort of information, because she heard an excited whisper as she heard her son's voice exclaim, "Oh, wow, man, you're kidding!"
She wondered what was going on, and suspected she soon enough would know. _________________
. . . But the dark is very trustworthy.
It's always as dark as you thought it was.
And you don't have to work at staying there.
All you have to do is survive it.
And I've been doing that forever.
from the novel "Dark Debts" by Karen Hall |
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Langois Journeyman

Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 136 Location: Oklahoma
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Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 3:38 pm Post subject: |
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I knew what lands I could travel to and where I should not be. And the Orc camp is one of the places I was not supposed to be. However Bonedeath was itching for some blood. Blood is what the blade yearned for flesh and blood. It did not care if it were innocent or vile. I prefered to feed it the blood of the vile.
Orcs were with out a doubt vile creatures. An abomination created by Mondain, using the stock of humans and of dogs. Their pure lust for carnage, destruction and death was enough to make me "forget" our boundaires for the time being.
Mas neighed and danced in circles at the mouth of the cave just outside the fortress of the orcs. I scanned around. Alas There was a stalagmite that jutted up from the ground beside the mouth of the cave. I quickly dismounted and tied my faithfull companion tightly to the rock formation.
The fort was not far from the entrance. I let my right release Bonedeath from his sheathlike prison, whilest I had my left arm strapped to my old wooden kite shield. I made forth, slowly creeping up to the encampment. Death unwelcomely filled my nose, as well as the guttural cries of the orcs behind their weak wooden walls.
The gate was wide open and I seen my first target. He was unarmed, though I recognized he was marked as one of their mages. Orcs were all stupid creatures, however he would have had to been the the smartest of the dumbest.
Charge it, feed me, charge it, I hunger! the Blade called to me. "Patience." I retorted.
A roar resounded through the air. Damnit boy, you can't be so careless. It will be your undoing for sure. The old voice said to me. The voice was always there. It was easy to keep it out of my mind when I concentrated. However, the roar had brought my guard down.
In a matter of seconds two more orcs stood shoulder to shoulder with their mage. They on the other hand were not unarmed. With out a word I charged their mage. Bonedeath shreiked with excitement as he pireced true into the orcs heart, with the cry of death came a couple of blows to my shield from the other two orcs.
I danced about, I bashed one in the face with my shield, as Bonedeath parried the other's spiked club. Lightning struck when the blade bit into the creature wielding the spiked club and he fell limply to the ground.
*flick* *flick*
Blood matted my hair as I fought franticly against the undead. This isn't right. Flooded my thoughts.
Hurricane had us where he wanted us and was not going to let up. His goal nearly reached. My brothers clad in white all lay dead around me, as I fought on. I am the last. It is finally my time.
*flick* *flick* *flick*
When I came to there was a pile of dead orcs around me. These memories will see me dead. Entered my mind as I cleaned Bonedeath off, on an oil cloth from my beltpouch.
"Bonedeath, you are a messy feeder." I chuckled loudly.
*WOOSH*
I stumbled back, and the sword fell from my hand. What hit me? As I looked down I seen the shaft of an arrow extended from my chest. Before another thought could cross my mind there was blackness.... Cold void blackness. |
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Demetria Adventurer


Joined: 31 Dec 2007 Posts: 45
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Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:57 am Post subject: |
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Holding the little boy's hand in her own, Demetria practically dragged Shalcross toward the northern woods to show him the many targets she so carefully crafted and arranged for their shooting and learning pleasure. Just a few moments before, the two had laughed together...the sound bubbling up and lovely as the laughter of children often is...Demetria had told Shal that one of her special targets was dressed as 'one of those lightbringers from up the road'. Shalcross responded with a little cry, 'Oh, wow, man, you're kidding!'; Deme shook her head solemnly and swore she was not, in fact, kidding. She then reminded Shalcross that she wasn't a man, her voice a little stiff and defensive. But first the important things needed to be seen.
Through the woods they went, sometimes running and sometimes walking and sometimes pretending to stalk the many and varied targets. Some were in trees, some hidden in the underbrush, some seeming to be magically suspended above the void. Deme wouldn't give up her secret as to how she managed those targets no matter how Shal begged. Other targets were magical in nature and did not appear until the children were within a certain range, springing up in a show of pretty colors not unlike fireworks. Slowly throughout the day they wove their way toward the west. It was just near the Orc fort where the special gold and black clad target was stationed. The elven child couldn't wait to see the look on the younger human's face when he saw it. She'd spent so much time making it look realistic.
As children tend to do, they didn't exactly grow bored with their outing so much as they were overtaken by the excitement of it all; their attention spans were drained. By the time they ran along the mountain toward the Orc fort, bows cocked at the ready, the two were chomping for the final special target. The figure she placed must have been moved...she could have sworn it had been on the back side of the fort and not the eastern side, but who knows. She briefly wondered at the heap of Orc corpses nearby, perhaps they picked a fight that was very recent? At any rate, a good target is a good target, she thought. No matter the details. She looked forward to seeing the stuffing and straw spraying out of the golden clothes.
'Look, Shal!' Demetria cried and nodded toward the target. The laughter and carefree demeanor of the children died immediately as they halted and raised their bows, their expressions too adult for their ages. A flurry of arrows and bolts rained through the air. 'Oh, noooooo,' moaned Demetria.
She had noticed all too late that the figure moved slightly and held a sword in hand. There was no weapon in the hand of the target she made. It was not fluff and fodder that sprang forth from the target, it was crimson.
Very, impossibly, crimson.
It seemed forever that the pair stood there, frozen and mouths agape at the spurting blood that very well might have been arterial.
A sound that was part shout and part whimper issued from the girl, and Demetria charged forward, shouting 'Hey mister, oh wow, oh no, don't move, don't move, I know magic...' |
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Langois Journeyman

Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 136 Location: Oklahoma
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Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 3:13 am Post subject: |
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I rather enjoyed the trip to Umbra. Holding onto dear life and slipping in and out of unconsciousness. Not to mention the slow rate of travel in which the children drug me across the ground. The cries in my head of lives that had passed me by long ago, and Bonedeath's irritating wails to be fed. Overall the trip was outstanding.
Umbra was a dark city, and I had thought it to be a place of great evil. Necromancers had made this their home, it was either because it was fortified by the void or because it was as dark as the midnight all the day long. Why anyone would want to come here to Umbra was blank to me. And it had made me ecstatic that I had never once visited this city. You will die here. Mocked me from the inside.
The voice was all the company I had now. He... Rather it was all the friendliness that I had received at the time.
"He's waking up!" The young girl exclaimed, as my eyes opened a moment, my back rested against a large dead tree near the moongate that floated and hummed eerily. A few seconds passed and I was out again, only to be rudely awakened by the child kicking me and a ominous, cloaked figure hovering over me. She then began upbraiding me, "Wish to live" this, "Bested by a nine year old" that. None of it was quite sinking in.
*flick* *flick*
The tainted blade pierced my heart true to the core. Hurricane himself came to deliver the final stroke, in person. Heat began to emanate from the blade. The sneer on his face told the whole story. He was finally rid of me, and I of him... Just not in the way I had come to expect it to end. "Join me, and I will stop your untimely end, Vladamir." Reverberated from his mouth.
"I choose to embrace death," escaped my lips faintly, "I will be her bridegroom." He snarled and drove his evil sword into my, time stood still, and blackness consumed me.
*flick* *flick* *flick*
I hacked up blood. Indoors now, and kneeling upon the altar. Cold shivers danced up my spine. This place had to be the climax of evil. Body parts strewn about the floor. And a blackness, darker than the pitch of night to my right. The young girl and the cloaked woman discussed what to do with me. Death hanging on my skirt tails made time seem to stand still.
"Swear fealty to myself, and Umbra, and we will allow you to live." Came from behind the hood. " I said with a smile, filled with as much cockiness as I could muster, "I will embrace death."
Anger filled the woman's voice, "We should let you die, you are weak.." A cynical laugh chilled my bones. "Bested by a nine year old. You are very weak indeed."
Cries began to fill my head, cries of bitterness, cries of sorrow. They were always there but I could not seem to drown them out this time around. Plagued by the cries of death that had haunted me many-a-lifetimes. Wails of mental anguish and pain. They seemed shrill and sharp in my head. Dead, soon enough you will be dead. Laughed in my skull. Then it will be my turn. It continued.
NO! I thought in attack, I am my own, it is my time. Leave me be. Tears began to well in my eyes. Streaming down my cheeks and soaking my beard. "Make it stop," I cried. "I will swear fealty, just make it stop."
For a moment in time, everything ceased to exists. My mind blank, and the lies that once flooded my mind with the Virtues this, and Sanctus that, were simply no more. Sanctus.... The virtues? What that does not ring a bell.
"What is your name?" I heard, and before I could think to respond, "Langois." Betrayed my tongue. "Where am I?" I asked softly. And a blast of pain shot up from my chest. "And why do I hurt?"
"You are in Umbra, you were bested by this child and she dragged your sorry carcass here." A chuckle cleared my throat and I retorted, "Surely you jest." As soon as I said that, "I jest not." the other voice seemed to battle back.
A few questions later and the lady said, "If you wish to live, you must swear fealty to Umbra, and to myself." The arrow hole in my chest throbbed, and the light of life was about to flicker out, as I coughed blood up on the altar I said, "I swear fealty to Umbra, and to you... What is your name?" She said confidently, "Arch Matriarch Ceinwyn ab'Arawn."
"Ah yes then, I swear Fealty to you Arch Matriarch Ceinwyn ab'Arawn and to Umbra." She laid hands on me and began to chant, and then my body seemed to stitch itself back together. To me it felt as if a bucket of cold water had been emptied on my head. "Now to the first order of business dispose of those atrocious black and gold uniform."
With out thinking, I sprung to my feet and removed the unfamiliar uniform that bothered Ceinwyn so. Looking to my right I only felt it was only appropriate to drop said belongings into the cold blackness, known as the void. With a smile I waved at the garments as they floated and were quickly consumed by the blackness. |
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Demetria Adventurer


Joined: 31 Dec 2007 Posts: 45
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Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 12:17 pm Post subject: |
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Sweat pouring from their faces, blurring their vision and the arduous work straining their young muscles, Demetria and Shalcross physically dragged the lightbringer toward the east. Despite the magic she tried, the wound in the man's chest wouldn't close; at least she managed to get the arrow out of his chest without seeming to cause too much more damage.
Demetria was slowly and surely heading into a state of panic and wondering why she had to choose that particular moment to shoot a poisonous snake-like arrow hurtling through the air; the answer was clear though she did not want to admit it. Certainly it was to impress herself, and maybe even the little boy at her side. "Pride," she thought. Such a lightbringing virtue.
As the unlikely trio neared the Den--and thus, the home of Shal's parents--Demetria urged the boy to get home. After a few attempts she managed to cast a portal to the boy's front door and literally pushed him toward it. Quietly as she could, she hissed at him as she pushed him, "Get home. This is my mess. I'll deal with it." When he tried to protest, she gave him another push and through the gate he went. With a frustrated sigh she bent and again began dragging the lightbringer toward the bridge into the city. It didn't occur to her to try to cast another gate and see if she could manage getting into town that way, there was just too much going on and bombarding her young mind. In truth, sending Shalcross home was probably more an act of self preservation...she did not want the wrath of the boy's Humanis father raining down upon her.
Panting, she finally managed to get the dying man into the city. Looking around and seeing nobody who could help her, Deme left the man who would come to be known to her as Langois in the road, and ran toward the Sepulcher. Bursting through the doors, she was glad when she saw Matriarch Ceinwyn and mister Alex. Between hitching breaths, bits and pieces of the story spilled forth and the adults took over. Demetria lead them to the place she had left her bleeding charge.
When Alex was given the task of moving the man to the Sepulcher, Demetria was grateful. Her muscles would not cease their tremors, and the stitch in her side was enough to nearly double her over; she was grateful that the blind panic was ebbing and welcomed more rational thought processes.
The elven child paid little attention to the goings on behind her as she crouched near the void, listening to the faint murmurings and whisper-like sounds that issued forth from it. Vaguely she wondered why it seemed so few other people stopped to visit with the blackness. Every so often Demetria would interject, telling the Matriarch and her warrior that the void didn't want the man dead. The void said that he could serve Umbra well. This man had darkness in his soul...the void said his spirit was divided as if two people lived within him, remove the light and the darkness would prevail.
Demetria smiled down into the void and reached into her pocket. Slowly, reverently, she dropped one by one a fistful of rubies into it. To this child rubies were the most beautiful thing one could ever hope to possess, and these she gave gladly as an offering to her dark guide.
It never occurred to her that she was nothing more than a pawn moved by the power of the void, and that perhaps the accident was really no accident at all.
After all, in Umbra, the void always gets what it wants, and it wanted the warrior for its own agenda. |
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Walter Sage


Joined: 01 Jan 2004 Posts: 618 Location: -=Magincia=-
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Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:11 pm Post subject: |
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Was a rather quiet night in the house, thankfully work had given Walter a slight break to enjoy some quality time with his wife and son. Sitting in bed, Merri tells Walter about her talk with Shal about the incident near the orc fort. This news defiently frustrated Walter. It took Merri some bit of comforting to get Walter to calm down and that everything was going to be just fine.
"Walter, just relax tonight and talk to him tomorrow morning after you've calmed down."
With a nod in agreement they began their bedtime routine. When Walter finally hit the pillow there was alot on his mind as he drifted off to sleep.
*some point the next day*
Walter was peacefully sitting on the sofa in his living room reading the latest Humanis Voice. When Shal came running in the front door from whatever his daily adventures brought him.
"Shal, son come over here and talk to dad for a minute." Setting down the paper Walter hoisted Shal up onto his knee.
"Now I had a talk with your mother last night about what happened by the orc fort." Hearing this struck fear into the boy, Shal idolized his father. Everyday he trained he tried to emulate his father, just with a bow instead of a kryss.
"Don't worry Shal, everything will be fine. But did you learn a lesson with this accident?"
Silent for a moment Shal quickly nodded his head. "I learned.... umm to be more careful next time."
Walter smiled, "Yes remember to always know what your aiming at before you release that arrow. "
The scared little boy was still shaking abit, so worried his father was going to yell and get mad.
"Remember Shal me and your mother love you, and no matter what your always our son and we are proud of you, now go run along and get ready for bed. And don't forget to give your mother a hug before you go to sleep."
With a quick "I love you too dad." Shal hurries up to his bedroom to get ready for bed. _________________
[20:28] Inkari: walter=chuck norris
"What do you mean I can't sell castle deeds I create on Ebay?" - GM Darwin circa 1999 |
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