Midorea V3 Development Merch | Search | Memberlist | Vault | The Forge | Battle! | Temple
   
  
Goody Shop Reward

      Log-In   Not a member? Register Now! 
Midorea Forum Index / The Storybook
Post new topic   Reply to topic not yet titled
Red Lion



Send private message


 PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 6:53 pm Reply with quote        
This is a project I'm working on, it's not that great, mostly for practice and to hon my writing skills If you want to give me some advice I'd appreciate it, feedback is welcome
Red Lion



Send private message


 PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 6:54 pm Reply with quote        
It was warm that day but the air held a foreboding chill that warned of an oncoming cold front. Engar Bearclaw peered through the fine sea mist as his long boat came within landing distance of the approaching shoreline. His clan mates began leaping from the boat and wading to the rocky beach. In the distance behind them their fishing ship, The Ifreet, bobbed on the tide. There had been a monstrous storm the night before and the Nord men had been blown far off course from their fishing grounds.

“Where d’ye think we are?” asked Hienrich Iron-Teeth, a grizzled giant of a man who was twice Engar’s weight but more flab than muscle. He scratched his hairy, wobbling gut and looked expectantly at the younger man.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” replied Engar with a dismissive shrug, truth be told he was not overly fond of Hienrich, the man was crass and loud, always picking fights and starting trouble. The people of the south thought the Nord clans to be barbarians and Hienrich, like many others, had embraced that title and seemed set on using that as an excuse to go carousing and brawling as he pleased.

“If I had to guess where we’d were I’d say we were somewhere south of home,” said Skinny Jormund, a rat faced youth with buck teeth who was suspected to be only half Nord due to his notable lack of stature or substantial muscle mass. His face was contorted with the effort it was taking him to reach such a conclusion. Navigation was a difficult task to be certain but Jormund was almost 90 percent sure they were somewhere south.

“Oh that’s brilliant that is…we’re due south of the northern most continent on the map. Well done, we’d never have guessed without ye,” Engar growled sarcastically. To his chagrin Jormund beamed and there was a distinct “whoosh” as the sarcasm flew right over his head. Heaving a sigh Engar turned to Hienrich, “I know he’s puny but if we end up running out food and eating each other I vote that one goes first,”

“Oi! Will y’damn sons of bitches quit fartin’ around and start looking for some civilization? We need to find out where we are so we can figure out how to get back home!”

The three men turned to see the second long boat come ashore with their dour and sullen leader, a cantankerous elder man of sixty with a formidable braided, grey beard who was known as Udo Birdsong. There was a long running debate about whether Udo’s constant foul temper was a result of the old warrior being stuck with the clan name Birdsong while everyone around him had some kind of Fang-Tooth-Claw-Bear-Hawk-Wolf-related title.

“We’re in the south!” said Jormund, pleased that he had come to that difficult conclusion several minutes ago and even more pleased that he could show off his “brilliance” to his captain.

Udo stared at him for a full minute in appalled disbelief before he went into a full, bellowing rage against the boy.

“I KNOW WE’RE IN THE SOUTH YE BLITHERING IDIOT!! ANYONE WI’ AN OUNCE OF SENSE KNOWS THA’!! YE SLACK-JAWWED, SLOBBERING LITTLE DIMWIT!! WHAT I DON’T KNOW IS WHY YAR DISEASE RIDDEN, YEASTY, FAT, STUPID, WHORE OF A MOTHER DIDN’T PITCH YE OFF OF A CLIFF WHEN YE WERE BORN YE-“and so for the next ten minutes Engar and the rest of the crew waited for their leader to finish cursing Jromund and all of his ancestors to an elaborately violent eternity in the iciest of all hells.

Once Udo’s ranting had finished and Jormund was properly reduced to a whimpering ball of shame and tears the men gathered their things and started venturing inland.
Red Lion



Send private message


 PostPosted: Thu Aug 16, 2012 8:55 pm Reply with quote        
(I'm breaking it up because when I post other stories on other sites people complain that the wall of text is too intimidating)

.....

For about the first hour of their trip they found nothing. It was nothing but dense, leafy, forest once they left the shore. No sign of any human life whatsoever. At length it grew warmer in spite of the chill that had been present earlier. As the heat began to get to them, and the Nordmen started shedding the heavy furs and leathers that they typically donned baring thick, muscular arms and hairy chests decorated with an array of indigo tattoos.

"Perhaps we've hit a deserted island," said Heinrich.

"If that's the case there won't be much we kin do but get supplies and try heading north again," said Engar. "'Tis risky,"

"Well stayin' on a deserted island ain't no picnic tha's fer sure," grumbled Udo. "Me knees are startin' ta hurt,"

Engar gave him a pat, "Yar age gettin' tha best of ye?" he smirked.

"Watch it pup, yer no lad yerself anymore...thirty's just round the corner," Udo shook his grey, shaggy head. "Twenty-nine years and still ye've not had a child, something wrong with your wife?" he asked.

Engar frowned, "Don't speak that way about her," he said. "She's a good woman and it's not as if we haven't been trying,"

"Easy! I ain't criticizin' yer wife. Everyone knows Resa is a fine woman, but a man needs an heir you know and Resa's not the only fine woman..." he raised his eyebrows at Engar hoping that he'd understand the hint.

Engar looked down at the old man with such consternation that Udo actually had the grace to look ashamed of his suggestion.

"I love my wife. I will not do anything to hurt her, not even for the sake of carrying on my bloodline," said Engar, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Udo looked as though he was about to reply but Heinrich called to them from a good distance up ahead.

"Hey! Come quick and see this!"

The group pushed their way through the thick undergrowth. They expected that Heinrich had found some sign of civilization. Engar felt suddenly anxious...something wasn't right, this forest had been far to quiet so far and now there was a faint smell of smoke in the air around him.

Catching up to Heinrich he finally saw what the man had found. The forest ended abruptly in a barren stretch of burnt ruins, the remains of what had seemed to be a rather large town, or even a city. It had been razed to the ground, and recently by the looks of the still smoldering remnants of wooden homes. Whoever had done the razing was gone. There were signs of a hasty retreat. Lances and swords left carelessly in the ash and mud, corpses unburied, not even a sign that the town had been plundered by its attackers.

"I don't much like tha feel a' this place," Engar commented, "There's something unsettling in the air,"

Udo nodded in agreement. "Stick close then, eh, lads?" he jerked his head in the direction of the wasteland.

Sticking close proved more difficult than Udo thought it would, Heinrich was already ahead of the group, looking to loot one of the fallen corpses.

"Heinrich y'fool don't touch tha'!" cried Udo. "Ye don't know what spells or magic be lingerin' in this place!"

But Heinrich was to busy trying to remove a jeweled necklace to hear him and it wasn't until the burnt carcass jerked and screamed and clawed at his face with the sharp bones of its fingers that he lurched back with a yelp.

"'Tis black magic!" he shrieked as the body began dragging itself forward, it's lower half separating from its screeching, blackened torso as it propelled itself forward on its elbows.

Engar shoved Heinrich out of the way and brought his large booted foot down on the zombie's head, crushing it into a blackened pulp. The dry, burnt outer skin crackling before giving way to a crunch and a squelch as Engar stomped it into the ground.

"Next time cut off its head, instead of screaming like a woman," he growled wiping his boot off on some leaves.
Heinrich grimaced, "I wasn't expectin' tha'," he said. "It coming to life that way....no wonder nothin's been looted, there must have been a Necromancer here."
Red Lion



Send private message


 PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 1:03 pm Reply with quote        
"Aye...but why? And who's side was he on? Certainly not the attackers, they were imperial soldiers, and ye know they have laws forbidding that art," said Udo.

"How can ye tell they were imperials?," asked Engar.

"Look at this sword someone left behind," said Udo, "it's got a picture of a griffin creature on it," he showed Engar the thick, gilded, gold hilt. "It's the kind of sword they give only to their most decorated officers."

Engar frowned and hefted the blade. It was much lighter and shorter than the broad swords commonly used by his own people and more elaborately decorated with engravings and jewels. "Tis a fancy sword but it doesna look like it would be a very useful weapon,"

"It ain't, it's more a symbol of status than anything else, the man who owned it probably used another weapon," said Udo.

"Ye know a lot about this," commented Heinrich.

"Aye, weel I was a trader back in the day, I seen a lot of the world," said Udo.

"What do you make of all this?" asked Engar sweeping his hand out before him to indicate the ruined town before them.

"If I had ta guess I'd say the poor sods who lived here tried to refuse cooperating with the Remish Empire and as would be expected, the Empire simply tried to take what they wanted. But something backfired and they had to retreat, even so they'd clearly won."

"Who do ye think the people of this town were?" asked Engar.

"I ain't certain, but I don't think they were humans, most of the corpses have small, fine bones an' their little....I don't reckon this here fellow," Udo indicated a nearby corpse with the toe of his boot. "was much more n' five and a half feet tall. Notice most of these people were using slings and arrows to fight. This wasn't a town of soldiers."

He looked around, being careful to walk in between the corpse so as not to disturb them, lest they spring to life. "Notice somethin' else, none of the trees were cut to make this town, there aren't any old stumps anywhere and the few buildings that are still sort of standing have been built around trees and in trees," he pointed across the stretch of ash, ruins and bodies to a temple, unlike all of the buildings around it, it remained upright, its walls seemed to be woven into the oddly twisting branches of a large oak tree, three more trees formed pillars and between them two wooden doors and a blue and green stained glass window. "This building hasn't been touched," Udo said examining the structure.

Engar nodded and tapped on of the wooden doors. "A temple made from a tree...I dinna think I've seen the like," he remarked admiringly.

"I think these people were forest elves," said Udo.

"What's a forest elf?" asked Heinrich."

"It's a smallish creature with reddish hair and really big yellow or green eyes, they got short pointy ears an' they're kinda spidery in build, long arms and legs on skinny little bodies. Mostly keep to themselves an' don't bother nothin'. I never really worked with any back in the day when I was trading, so I can't tell ye much more." As Udo spoke Engar opened one of the doors and slipped inside unnoticed by his companions.

"Dark skin or fair?" asked Heinrich,

"Fair!" called Engar from within the temple.

"How tha' devil do ye know that? I ain't sure myself," Udo called back.

Rather than replying Engar came out holding a small female child of about three years old. It's skin was indeed lightly colored but there was a hint of a soft, golden glow to its cheeks rather than the warm rosy color that most human babies had. The child's large, subtly slanted greenish eyes and curling russet hair were also tinged with gold. It regarded everyone solemnly with it's hand in its mouth. For a three year old the child looked thin, but it was unclear whether that was its natural state or because it was underfed.

"Careful Engar ye dinna know what it can do," cautioned Udo.

"What do ye mean? Tis a baby not a serpent," replied Engar giving the child a jiggle.

"Aye, a strange, lone baby in a village full of dead people who could potentially wake up and rip us to shreds if we touch them," said Udo. "Put it back where ye found it and walk away now before it eats yer soul or somethin'."

"Yer crazy, look at this little thing, it's not gonna hurt nothin," said Engar.

Heinrich poked his head through the door of the temple, at first glance it seemed empty. But as he walked through he noticed that the bodies of small children and infants were scattered sparsely throughout the room, under wooden benches and in the corners. One that had already begun to rot was sprawled in front of a stone alter bearing a cup and a withering branch of flowers.

"Looks like they tried to keep their little ones safe in here," he said.

"Aye," said Engar, "This was the only one that was moving,"

"Hang on this one's alive too," said Hienrich picking up a baby that mewled and cried weakly.

"I don't think we should be foolin' round with this," Udo said as he gingerly stepped into the temple.

"What do we do then? Leave them to die?" asked Engar, balancing the child on his hip while he bent to examine one of the other children, a four year old boy with reddish brown hair, "This one is alive too," he said. The boy stirred and whimpered, like the little girl he was thin for a child his age and his lips were dry and cracked.

"What are you thinkin' we should do? Try to take them with us? Look at the state of them! They'd never survive the trip back north, the journey is hard enough for us, these children will die from the cold, I know ye lads mean well but all we'd be doing is dragging out the inevitable end. "

"Here's another one that's alive...but I think it's not got more than a few hours left," called Heinrich.

"I say we should at least try, the entire town died trying to save their babies," said Engar.

"That's got nothin' ta do wi' us," Udo insisted, "Why didn't they leave a nurse maid or somethin' here to take care of em?"

"They did..., two of them. Here they are," said Heinrich pushing aside a table to reveal two emaciated corpses that had begun to collect worms and maggots. "They must have starved themselves trying to keep the children alive,"

"So, why didn't they leave?" asked Udo. "I'm sure they could have at least tried hunting for food in the forest. "

"Didn't ye notice? There wasn't a single sound in those woods...not a deer or bird to be seen or heard, I reckon the animals cleared the area when the village burned down," said Engar.

"Ye know, we probably can't move all of the living children, the infants won't make it for certain and the older ones are barely out of their cradles as is," said Udo, but his resolve was wavering, for all of his callous stubbornness he couldn't deny that the tragedy of the situation was affecting him.

"Even if we bring just one or two, it's still better than doing nothing," reasoned Engar.

"Well, alright, we can try, to take some of them with us," said Udo.

They spent the next hour or so looking around the temple for children who looked as though they could possibly survive the trip. In the end they decided that Engar's girl, the four year old boy and a second little girl of about three years-old had the best chance of survival. Aside from being malnourished they seemed alright. The three men then decided what was to be done with the remaining survivors that could not be saved.

"We can't just leave them," said Engar, "They could linger for a few more days, just wasting away, it's too cruel."

"But we can't take them with us, we've not got many supplies as is and we don't want to stretch our resources too much or everyone will die." said Udo.

Engar knew he was right, the sad truth of it was that all of the remaining children would have to stay behind.

"Should we put em out of their misery?" asked Heinrich, it sounded harsh, but at the same time it seemed more merciful than leaving them to die slowly.

"Aye..." Udo heaved a sigh, "Ye lads take the three we picked outside, I'll take care of this," as the oldest of the group and the leader he felt it was his responsibility to take care of the situation for his crew.

.....

While they waited Engar tried talking to the three children, the boy was conscious now and he was looking from Engar to Heinrich with a hungry, hopeful expression.

"I'm sorry, we've not got any food with us right now," said Engar, "But if ye hold on a little longer you'll get somethin' ta eat."

The boy looked crestfallen but the hopefulness didn't leave him. "Where's Miria and Tanda'?" he ventured to ask at length.
"I don't know who they are," said Engar.

"They were s'posed to take care of us," the boy explained.

"Laddie, they're gone," Engar said patting his shoulder comfortingly, "But you're safe now, my friends and I are going to take you with us, what's your name?"

"Len," the boy replied.

"I'm Engar Bearclaw and that's Heinrich Iron-Teeth,"

"Funny names,"

Engar chuckled, "Who are these two little lasses?" he asked lifting up both of the little girls in his massive arms.

"Lira," Len pointed to the first little girl that Engar had found, "Adma," he pointed to the second one.

"Funny names," said Engar with a grin.

"Can we leave now?" Len asked, his big yellow eyes began to glisten.

"In another moment, I promise," said Engar.

Len was about to speak when there was a loud crack that filled the air. Engar looked across the ruins and to his horror he saw that Jormund had caught up with them...and he'd stepped on a corpse. Jormund screamed at is came to life and attacked him, in the process of dodging it he stepped on another and another until he'd woken a swarm of them.

The three children clung to Engar, whimpering and crying. Udo exited the temple to see what all the noise was. "Damn that idiot....damn him to hell! Take the children and get back to the shore!" he ordered.

"What about Jormund?" asked Heinrich.

"Ye can go and save him if you want, I'm not helping him this time," Udo growled as he started rushing away.

Heinrich took a look at his companion, who's head was currently being eaten by one of the zombies, and decided that it was to late for Jormund. "Oh well...this means one less mouth to feed," he reasoned, following Udo out.

Engar scooped up all three children and ran after his companions. "I'm sure the village will understand ,"

....

Once the group had returned to shore they told the rest of the crew that Jormund was gone. No one was terribly upset. They were however curious about the children. Heinrich filled them in and there was some arguing but no outright protesting from the other crew members.

"Did anyone find out where we were?" asked one man.

"Aye, thar was a map in the temple," said Udo producing the roll of parchment. "If I'm readin' it right we're on the northern coast of Solaria."
"We're a little way's from home but it should be easy enough to get back and if we use our supplies sparingly they should last," said Engar.

"Aye, we'll cast off soon," said Udo.

There was a murmur of agreement from the rest of the crew and within the hour they had cast off and were on their way up north.

.....

The trip was a long one...it took almost a month and much to Engar's dismay, Len and Adma did not live. Len had been the healthiest of the three in the beginning but he had gotten so seasick that that they couldn't keep him fed and watered and Adma had simply died, it seemed that help had come too little, too late for her and when they reached colder waters she wasn't strong enough to survive the drastic change in temperature. One week of travel left to go and only Lira seemed to be clinging to life.

Determined that his effort to save the children would not have been in vain Engar poured all of his time and attention into taking care of Lira. He fed her, kept her clean, kept her warm and left her side only when he absolutely had to, praying to every spirit he could think of that she wouldn't die too. The week went by....She lived.

....
Post new topic   Reply to topic



Powered By phpBB Home | Rules | FAQ | Help | TOS | Privacy Policy | Contact us