Rules      FAQ       Register        Login
It is currently March 29th, 2024, 5:29 am

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 2363 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1 ... 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140 ... 148  Next
Author Message
 Post subject:
PostPosted: December 31st, 2008, 8:26 pm 
Mageling
Mageling
User avatar

Joined: 03 July 2005
Posts: 9846
Location: city that never sleeps

Offline
Kendath shrugged. "Half a week. Perhaps longer." And silently he added, The longer the better.

The rest of the afternoon passed in silence.

Evening saw them by a brook trickling down the slope. The trees were thinning, giving way to sparse tufts of grass and bare stone shelves. Mountains loomed high above them, grim sentinels against an even grimmer darkness. The ridges here might as well be knolls compared to the mighty alps that scraped the skies of Dey'tarn, but the horses were exhausted, and a mere slip on the tumbled rocks across the path could topple them.

Spruces sheltered the glade, but the only fire they risked was a tiny flicker cupped under a cantilever of rock. It sputtered in the chill air. A keen eye would spot it from the road, Kendath knew. Thus, every rustle in the trees and every breath of wind made him stiffen, snap his head around to watch the trees. Only the shadows answered back.

By the time the horses had been cared for, the fire built, and the rations consumed, nightfall had already sprayed the blackness with stars. Kendath tossed aside his boots and found a nice rock, upon which he promptly collapsed. His joints uttered a chorus of pops. He shivered. Bloody cloak wasn't as warm as his first one. About time he got used to the cold, anyway.

"I'll take first shift," he said.

_________________
Image


Top
 Profile       WWW            
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: December 31st, 2008, 8:48 pm 
Tolkien Scholar
Tolkien Scholar
User avatar

Joined: 01 June 2006
Posts: 8449
Location: Adragonback

Offline
The next in a series of jaw-cracking yawns made Merrin raise a hand to cover her mouth. She blinked away exhaustion, drawing her knees closer to her chest and pulling her cloak - dark green this time, and slightly too big - tighter around them. "Aye, all right," she said, in belated response.

The fire was too small. The night sky could have swallowed it whole, and it would not even have brightened the distant stars. Merrin itched to build it higher, from their meager little store of wood.

Something passed beneath the stars, and jolted her eyes up and her heart momentarily into her mouth. A dragon -?

A chorus of high-pitched squeaks erupted faintly from the thin foliage nearby, and Merrin closed her eyes briefly. Bats. That was all.

A gulp of the chill air, tasting of snowstorms in the high reaches of the peaks, wakened her sufficiently to start to her feet and go to where Kendath sat. Outside their little alcove of stone, the slope of the mountains swooped steeply down, and far, far below there glimmered the fragile lights of a village. She let her eyes fall all that way, and sat down on the same stone, facing toward the little fire.

Beside her, she caught a glimpse of Kendath's charred hand, only beginning to heal, and gently slipped her own underneath, murmuring, "Adeila should look at that."

_________________
Image


Top
 Profile       WWW            
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: December 31st, 2008, 10:02 pm 
Mageling
Mageling
User avatar

Joined: 03 July 2005
Posts: 9846
Location: city that never sleeps

Offline
A heartbeat. Then Kendath realized what she was talking about. "Oh. That." He shrugged and brought up his hand, turning it over like a blade under scrutiny. The bandage had loosened. The hand appeared burnt to a crisp, but it didn't sting, didn't itch. In the gloom it resembled a claw, black to the Lich's white. Self-conscious, he jerked free the cloth strip and began to rebind it.

"Your wrist okay?" Kendath shot a glance at Merrin's hand, resting where his had been a moment before. His gaze slid up her arm to her face, pale in the firelight. When was the last time he'd seen color in those cheeks? "You should sleep. You need it."

_________________
Image


Top
 Profile       WWW            
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: December 31st, 2008, 10:38 pm 
Tolkien Scholar
Tolkien Scholar
User avatar

Joined: 01 June 2006
Posts: 8449
Location: Adragonback

Offline
Merrin spared a moment to study his face in what little light the fire cast, in an attempt to determine his mood. She gave it up and reached for both his hand and the bandage. "Let me. You only have one hand."

Sitting and winding it between his fingers, she belatedly remembered his comment about her wrist. A pause to push back the sleeve of her tunic revealed the gash - ragged, but shallow. A scar already stretched nearly the length of her arm, from ages ago. Literal eons in the past. Merrin gave half a shake of her head and knotted the bandage, testing it. "There." Another moment and she realized she was staring down, holding his hand in both of hers. She released it with an involuntary shiver. That place...

No. Merrin reached up to turn his face toward her and brushed his lips in a kiss goodnight. "Don't forget to wake me," she said, slipping off the rock. "When you're tired."

_________________
Image


Top
 Profile       WWW            
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: January 1st, 2009, 1:17 pm 
A-U's Official Tolkien Scholar
A-U's Official Tolkien Scholar
User avatar

Joined: 03 June 2005
Posts: 5928

Offline
Adeila pulled her cloak more tightly around herself, wishing absently that she'd thought to find a better one before departing. It occasionally got cool by the sea, but never this cold. The fire no doubt was helping, but she was still freezing. She supposed she should just be glad that she had managed to find shoes that offered better protection than her thin sandals.

Reluctantly, she moved further away from the fire's warmth to sit next to Kendath. "I am not going to attempt anything tonight," she said, indicating his hand, "but at least let me see it."


Top
 Profile       WWW     YIM        
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: January 1st, 2009, 2:51 pm 
Mageling
Mageling
User avatar

Joined: 03 July 2005
Posts: 9846
Location: city that never sleeps

Offline
Kendath watched Merrin go, a slender figure haloed by firelight. With a sigh he pushed himself around to face away from the fire, out toward the valley below.

He'd hardly made himself comfortable when he felt another presence lower herself beside him. What the abyss was this fascination with his hand? "It's fine," he said, jerking it away. "It doesn't hurt."

_________________
Image


Top
 Profile       WWW            
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: January 2nd, 2009, 1:19 am 
A-U's Official Tolkien Scholar
A-U's Official Tolkien Scholar
User avatar

Joined: 03 June 2005
Posts: 5928

Offline
Adeila firmly grasped Kendath's wrist and began slowly unwrapping the bandage. "Obviously it doesn't hurt," she said as she tried to examine it in the limited light. "Therein lies the problem."

His hand had been badly burned, that much was clear. It was little wonder that he didn't feel any pain - there was hardly any tissue remaining to feel much of anything. But unlike any other burn she'd ever treated, the damage stopped rather abruptly at a specific point, rather than continuing upward in less severe burns. There was simply charred, then not charred.

Burns were difficult to heal. Treated naturally, they took weeks to mend, and even then it would be mostly scar tissue that severely limited the range of motion. The right spells could make the process significantly more efficient, but it would require an equally significant amount of energy. Contrary to popular opinion, magic was not the cost-free alternative to traditional healing.

"You should have shown this to me a week ago," she said, starting to re-bind the hand. "I had no idea it was this severe. Scarring is inevitable with this sort of damage, but I could have prevented more of it had I begun treating the wound earlier. I cannot do everything in one night - especially if we are to be traveling like this - but with your permission, I should be able to magically aid the healing process. I also think I have some dried comfrey root in my pack, which would help the skin mend more easily."

She deftly tied off the bandage. "Unless, of course, you do not anticipate having any need of that hand in the future."


Last edited by pirateoftherings on January 2nd, 2009, 7:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Top
 Profile       WWW     YIM        
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: January 2nd, 2009, 6:54 pm 
Mageling
Mageling
User avatar

Joined: 03 July 2005
Posts: 9846
Location: city that never sleeps

Offline
Kendath winced, recalling his awkward fumble with his knife just that morning. He'd taken it for granted that the burn would heal on its own, but even after a week it showed no sign of mending. "All right," he said. "Do what you can."

Adeila returned to the campfire, leaving Kendath alone with the rock and his thoughts. Idly he turned his bad hand over and over in his good one, feeling the fingers, flexing them, watching what little remained of the muscles twitch in the darkness. The Lich's hood had been cold, colder even than the ice of Merrin's neck as he'd held her in his arms. So cold it'd been hot - a searing hot that'd burned and destroyed all the boundaries between hot and cold. The memory alone spun him around to face the campfire, where the bundled forms of Merrin, Adeila, and Garthag flickered in the dying embers.

His gaze lingered on the crown of copper hair he knew belonged to Merrin. Shadows lurked along the edges of her blanket. Irrational fear. The Lich was gone - he'd seen to that with his own dagger. Nevertheless, he found himself rising, moving closer to the fire to seat himself near Merrin's head. Let fools come.

The night was quiet. Kendath drew out a knife, flipped it between his fingers to test its balance, and began tossing it. Back and forth, back and forth, between both hands at first, but after the failed attempts it simply became a one-handed game. Black and orange twirled like phantoms across the blade. He leaned closer to the dying campfire, as he might have once leaned closer to Demon... or Gyre... wherever she awaited him now...

Too late, he heard the shuffling footsteps.

His eyes snapped open. Two seconds. One second to pinpoint the noise. One more second to spot, in the glow of the surviving embers, the shadowy figure creeping around the horses. He waited, gripping the hilt of his knife. His left hand could make the throw. It had to.

The figure emerged.

The knife hissed through the air, glinting, turning...

Missed! And the figure was off, stumbling into the trees, but not before Kendath glimpsed the dark bundle cradled under the thief's arm.

Son of a *beep*! Kendath jumped to his feet. "Get up!" he roared at the camp in general, and without pausing to see who would follow he plunged into the trees.

_________________
Image


Top
 Profile       WWW            
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: January 3rd, 2009, 11:30 am 
Tolkien Scholar
Tolkien Scholar
User avatar

Joined: 01 June 2006
Posts: 8449
Location: Adragonback

Offline
Flung forcibly out of slumber - which had been fitful at best - Merrin sprang to her feet, hands groping for where she'd left her sabre. Her last glimpse of Kendath was disappearing into the murky shadow of the sparse forest.

Moonlight made spiky shadows of the pine trees. The silver almost looked like snow.

She froze in the act of groping for her sabre, eyes fixed on the forest. Dark, cold - icy, even - icy as the dagger -

Lightning split the night and tossed the trees into sharp relief, and Merrin cradled fire and light between her hands as she rushed headlong after Kendath. Another crackle of flame, and in that instant she saw him ahead of her, and past him some unnamed figure in black. In black. Terrible suspicion dawned. No. Gods, no - no - please -

Trees sprang at her from the darkness, trunks looming black and forcing Merrin to dart between them. The ground began to slope gently down, and her sprint took on a wild, precarious momentum. There! Again!

She gathered the fire at her fingertips and flung it.

_________________
Image


Top
 Profile       WWW            
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: January 3rd, 2009, 10:23 pm 
Mageling
Mageling
User avatar

Joined: 03 July 2005
Posts: 9846
Location: city that never sleeps

Offline
Fire sizzled through the air, and for one instant Kendath was blinded. He skidded, boots stumbling for traction against the slope. Branches raked his face. He heard the crash of brambles just ahead, followed by the reek of burning flesh and the thump of a body hitting the ground.

There he was - the thief - struggling to rise. A velvety form against the darkness, hunched over, stretching forth hands like claws -

Kendath rammed right into him. The thief toppled with a banshee's shriek, and in the hammer of a heartbeat Kendath felt himself falling, striking a tangle of pine needles and thorns, rolling and rolling down a bank that never ended, wrestling all the way down. A body colder than frost crushed him. Breath like needles stung his face. Claws clenched his wrist, numbing his fingers until his knife trembled - and trembled -

Stab. Straight into the heart, cloaked under black velvet. They slammed into a tree. Kendath threw his arms around the trunk, yanking himself free from the descent. The thief - the thing - rolled a small distance more, then lay still.

Kendath picked himself up. His limbs hurt all over, a simultaneous ache and throb as though he'd wrestled with ice. He tasted blood on his lip. His blood, not the enemy's. Now that he noticed, the hand that'd gripped the knife was completely bloodless.

He glanced over his shoulder. A flicker of white fire in the trees signaled Merrin mere seconds behind him. Ahead, the heap of black cloak still hadn't budged. He began making his way toward it.

The black hood shifted, turning to face him. Slowly, slowly, a single claw extended to push back the velvety mask.

It was the face of a corpse.

Merrin's white fire cast light on the unmistakable - the waxy skin, the bloated flesh. Maggots may have once seethed from those rotting eye sockets, but all traces of putrefaction were gone now. The corpse had revived, had crawled with life so frigid that even decay had been chased away. But Kendath still recognized the tapering ears, the elegant lips. Those lips had once sneered a challenge: This is my domain. Trespassers pay with their souls.

"Damn," Kendath breathed. "He certainly died well."

_________________
Image


Top
 Profile       WWW            
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: January 4th, 2009, 2:51 am 
Tolkien Scholar
Tolkien Scholar
User avatar

Joined: 01 June 2006
Posts: 8449
Location: Adragonback

Offline
Merrin stumbled to a halt, breathing hard and hearing every thud of her thrashing heart. Gods, no - where was it - she'd died for this -

Her eyes, dazzled by white fire, saw strange splotches of color in the darkness. The misshapen lump at their feet was only a solitary fragment of the night, lacking identity. As her heart clawed its way further into her throat, Merrin kicked the body over and snatched one-handed at the cloth-wrapped lump that fell from one fleshless claw. With the other hand, she clutched a globe of flame.

It was only when she felt the hard angles of the Shard against her fingers that Merrin straightened, the hammering of her heart lessening to a pound, and let her eyes follow the velvet shroud up to its head.

Her heart stuttered and froze.

Shrunken flesh, pulled into a fixed grin, leered up at her. Her fire reached the dull sockets, but they held their own malicious, twisted spark. The one clawed hand twitched. Pine needles rattled. Fire faltered and shrank as Merrin's grasp on it trembled.

Dark. Too dark. The corpse, multiplied a hundredfold, a thousandfold. Stabbing green...

When Merrin could see again, she was paces back from the huddled figure, trembling and cradling the merest candle flame of light. The edges of the Shard cut into her fingers.

"Go away," she whispered. Her voice shook. "Leave me alone."

_________________
Image


Top
 Profile       WWW            
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: January 4th, 2009, 7:34 pm 
Mageling
Mageling
User avatar

Joined: 03 July 2005
Posts: 9846
Location: city that never sleeps

Offline
The Shadower Lord's only response was a septic grin.

Kendath knelt to level his gaze with that of the corpse. Shadows squirmed along the edges of the bloated face, melted onto its skull like cottage cheese. The creature couldn't have had decayed for more than a few days. "Who revived you?" he demanded.

The grin widened.

"Yourself? The Lich?" No, not the Lich. The Lich was gone - Kendath had seen to it. A sudden, frightening thought occurred. Garthag had betrayed little about the Citadel, but possibly... just possibly... "The Seeress?"

The grin widened still more, stretching taut the white skin. Layers upon layers of cottage cheese.

Kendath, his eyes nailed on that sneer, yanked free his knife. It slid from the corpse's chest without complaint, tearing away chunks of flesh and tatters of black cloak. Its hilt was the cold of smothered rage.

Down plunged the blade, straight into that leering mouth. Downward, again and again, shattering the fragile mandible, sending bone the color of rot spraying into the darkness. The skull crumbled like parchment beneath his blade. A scrap of gristle here, a slab of flesh there. He plunged until there was little left, nothing that identified the oozing, yellow mass as what had once been the pretty head of an elven archmage.

He staggered back, spent, his arm shaking from the cold. His knife dropped from numb fingers. "There," he said, and gripped Merrin's shoulder for support. "Destroy it."

_________________
Image


Top
 Profile       WWW            
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: January 4th, 2009, 8:12 pm 
Tolkien Scholar
Tolkien Scholar
User avatar

Joined: 01 June 2006
Posts: 8449
Location: Adragonback

Offline
Her stomach roiled. Merrin stared down at the gruesome corpse, mouth dry. Somewhere in that mess of shattered bone and rotted flesh lurked one of the malevolent spirits she thought she'd left behind - far behind - forever in that expanse of barren underworld...

The stuff of nightmares flashed before her eyes. Merrin's breath caught in her throat and broke in half a sob.

Destroy it.

Her limbs refused to obey at first; they were cramped, every muscle tense. Slowly, Merrin let go her grasp on the Shard, blindly thrusting it at Kendath. She brought her hands together. Beyond the paralysis of fear, white fire roared its fury.

"Go back," she said. Her hands tingled. "Go back."

Mercifully obscuring the sight, lightning crackled blindingly from her fingers. It seared, burning away the putrid flesh, while an acrid scent stabbed the air. Slowly, so slowly, the corpse shriveled, curling upon itself as the flames convulsed. Merrin gave one gasp for air, and the smell flooded her senses. Fire blazed, and she flung it at the cadaver with every scrap of power she possessed. Bone charred. Skin dissolved. Long after there was nothing left but ash and smoke, lightning still crackled. She threw it doggedly. Go back. Go back. Go back.

The acrid stench was fading. Her hands trembled and fell apart from one another, banishing the flame and leaving them to stand in quiet darkness. Merrin's palms were chill with cold sweat.

Heaving for breath, she turned and blindly pressed close to Kendath.

_________________
Image


Top
 Profile       WWW            
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: January 4th, 2009, 10:19 pm 
Mageling
Mageling
User avatar

Joined: 03 July 2005
Posts: 9846
Location: city that never sleeps

Offline
Kendath blinked, waiting for his vision to stop whirling. Blotches of white spun, cloaked in black. Ghosts of flame seemed to chase themselves through the trees. He shook his head, and when the light had cleared and the roar had dimmed from his ears, there was only mute darkness.

He put his arms around Merrin. For a moment he allowed himself to relax, listening to the gradual slowing of her breaths. As soon as he felt her heartbeat calm against his chest, he pushed her back. "Can you call back your fire? We need to return and speak with Garthag and Adeila."

_________________
Image


Top
 Profile       WWW            
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: January 5th, 2009, 12:16 am 
Tolkien Scholar
Tolkien Scholar
User avatar

Joined: 01 June 2006
Posts: 8449
Location: Adragonback

Offline
Kendath's hand, the unscarred one, was cold against her shoulder. Merrin shivered convulsively. His comforting solidity, arms around her, steady heartbeat in her ears, had driven away the edge of her dry-mouthed terror. She breathed in, shakily, and rubbed her palms on her breeches. "Aye."

Sparks kindled between her palms. Merrin cupped them and looked up at him. The darkness was more oppressive when feebly combated by her light. Around them, wind hissed through the branches of the pines. There was no hint of a glow, up the forested slope, from their campfire.

Another shudder rippled through her, crawling icily up her spine. "It's so dark," whispered Merrin.

The silence as they climbed the slope prickled on the back of her neck. The moment the fire was once again in sight, she let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. The little alcove of rock was welcome shelter.

Merrin collapsed, stone at her back, the moment they reentered the radius of brave light. The sparks in her hands disappeared. "Dead," she said, looking from Garthag to Adeila. Her palms still felt damp. "Undead. The Shard's all right."

_________________
Image


Top
 Profile       WWW            
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: January 5th, 2009, 3:59 am 
Tolkien Scholar
Tolkien Scholar
User avatar

Joined: 08 June 2005
Posts: 7734
Location: Isengard
Gender: Male

Offline
Garthag had awoken to Kendath`s sudden shout, alarming him of a presence in the camp, what a surprise that someone had already found them. At first Garthag sought to rush after the two, but took a moment to think about it logically, if there were more than one intruder around them then the two might be running into an ambush. Not to speak of Adeila`s non-existent capabilities in defending herself from any king of threat, certainly glaring venomously down the cold steel of an opponents blade would not work.

Garthag activated a protective spell and scanned his surroundings, securing the fact that the campsite was not in danger. Before long it truly seemed there was a lone attacker and the sounds of struggle had quieted down in the woods. Garthag however remained wary until the two re-emerged from the trees and took a more relaxed, seated position.

The very news,of an undead assailant, was alarming and he began quickly recounted the events of their battle with the Shadowers. Certainly the two had taken care of The Lich and Garthag had personally seen to it that the shadower elf was left groveling for death, lest he survived. Yet then again he feared that hideous presence, who had been manipulating events to her own ends was still capable of revenge and amounting an attack on them.

Restlessly Garthag grinned and stared at the crackling fire before him, not seeking to meet the eyes of Merrin or Kendath, both were suspicious of him and that was enough. Adeila had kept her mouth shut, admirably so, but Garthag began to fear that she might betray information when it was required of her.

"Curious, but not unexpected. This means that either some of us did not properly dispatch of our foes or there is someone, whom has been able to escape the wreckage..."

Garthag reasoned, leading them trough the obvious trail of thought, but did not give away anything more about The Seeress, who was apparently the one behind this attempt. Vindictive and powerful as hell, all the more fun when they would have to deal with her, one more time.

Albeit the truth was that only he himself had ever truly directly thwarted her plans, the others had merely served her as tools in order to gain the shard. In the end the truth about this threat and it`s nature would be revealed in any case and besides lies would not gain him anymore trust than he already had from the others.

"Most likely that old hag.... I should have expected as much and now she is not only after the shard, but me as well for what I did... Vengeance is such an ugly thing yet then again is betrayal..."

Garthag said before sighing deeply and frustrated scratching his neck, remaining seemingly calm compared the words he just dropped out of his mouth. Whatever conclusions the others reached Garthag could not give a *beep* about, but in the least it might shed some light on the whole matter and the others might grow to appreciate the fact they owed their lives to him.

Yet those kind of thoughts were simply unfathomable to the others albeit only one of them had ever lived in the darkness, filled with greed and lust for power, or simply empty and devoid of emotion.

_________________
Image
Let him curse my name
On these blood stained pages of misery
Let him call me a tyrant so cruel
Let him curse my name, but remember the truth!


Top
 Profile                  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 2363 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1 ... 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140 ... 148  Next

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 16 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Jump to:  




Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
Boyz theme by Zarron Media 2003