[Mkguild] The Journeys Begin

[joeschoder2 at charter.net]

Well, here at last is my first chapter.  This is only the second time I've written a story so any comments or suggestions on how to improve would be welcome.

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December 28, 706 CR – 7:00 pm

Somewhere on the Western Ocean

The peaceful smell of salt water permeated the air, the only sounds were of the ocean and the wind, the song of the gulls long since faded.  Dimalya looked back, the mountains of her island home, were a mere speck on the horizon.

A large fin rose out of the water and pushed back into the depths, sending a crest of water straight at her.  As she spluttered and gasped for breath she heard the booming laughter of the man who was her travel companion, husband, and sometimes, teacher.

She glared at him and slapped the hard scales she was sitting on, directing her ire to the creature they were riding, “That was NOT funny!”

A low rumble ran along the length of the sea-serpent, she could have sworn the great Leviathan was laughing at her.  She turned her eyes to the sky and laughed, “Eli help me, I’m stuck in the middle of the ocean with a pair of comedians.”

Dimalya of the House Taggard, by marriage, was an energetic woman to say the least, her dark black hair, only a shade darker than her skin, offset the deep blue eyes that showed her birthright.  Her body was rugged, honed by a lifetime of physical and mental training.  At twenty-five years of age she had completed her training as a summoner mage and been married to Drake.  

That it was an arranged marriage did rankle her a bit, not to say that she didn’t want it.  They had been together for as long as she could remember, their marriage arranged since birth on the condition that they both complete their summoner training.  As their power was passed through family lines they couldn’t... well, ‘waste’ those people who have the power.  Of course, it didn’t help that the Irombian society was patriarchal and heavily biased against women.

Dimalya considered herself very lucky to be so talented.  On her few visits to the mainland of Irombi she noticed the subservience, some would say the weakness of most of the women there.  They were slaves, by any other name.  She didn’t feel sorry for them, this was the way of things.  Those who are weaker need to be ruled... don’t they?  Sometimes she wasn’t so sure that their way was the best.  But it was the only way she knew.  Of course no one treated her with anything other than respect, at least not after the first time. 

Three years had passed since her training had been completed, her husband Drake had woken her in the early dusk and asked her to accompany him on a journey.  At first she was confused, before she realized that he meant to leave the island.  

He told her of a dream he had been having for almost a week, and in truth she had begun to worry as she had awoken to find him in the throes of a nightmare some days ago.  A woman who called herself Kyia came to him, she needed his help.  He had seen a great castle on a hill, burning as strange animal creatures and humans fought a losing battle against hordes of giants and green skinned monsters in the midst of a massive hurricane of snow and ice.  He concluded that she was a being of another realm, perhaps one of the Djinn, or a nymph, but in any event she was very powerful and was calling for help.  He had to find this place, its spirit, and help her people.  And Dimalya had gladly followed.

They went to the beach where Leviathan waited, Drake must have summoned him earlier in the night as it would take about an hour of constant focus to call forth such a creature.

At the moment she was regretting her decision.

“I should have known any higher order creature you summon would have your sense of humor.”

He laughed again, “You’d rather sit in silence for the whole trip?”

She glared at him as he sat laughing.  As her anger began to abate she couldn’t help but laugh to herself, after all she was no worse off.  Her clothing wasn’t wet as one would think, it had been treated with an oil made on the island to repel water.

He was a good man at heart, even if his humor could use some refining.  He was 30 years old with black hair and the same dark, work honed body she had, as they had been trained under the same master, though he had completed the course of study a few years before her.  His eyes were the same dark blue color of her own, the mark of a summoner.

Drake looked over as her stomach growled, “Hungry love?”

“Famished, I haven’t had anything since before we left.”

“Well then it’s high time for dinner.”

He stood up as the body beneath them shuddered for a moment, then the water began rising as Leviathan dove beneath the waves.  She came up spluttering again, “Warn me next time, damn it.”

She sounded angry but was laughing all the same.  They both treaded water for a few minutes before their feet hit something solid and Leviathan rose up beneath them again.  As they came free of the water the large head of the creature came up and turned around to face them.  It lay its head down across its back within reach of the two and opened its mouth.  In the recesses surrounded by rows of razor sharp teeth was a pool of water held back by its tongue in which swam a school of multicolored fish.

Drake patted the creature’s head, “Thank you my friend, this will be perfect.”

Climbing full into the mouth he grabbed several fish and impaled them on one of the teeth to stop their flopping before climbing back out.

Dimalya looked incredulous, “Raw fish, dear?”

“Of course not, have a little faith in me.”

He placed his hand out, as if waiting for something, and in a flurry of light a bundle of firewood appeared.

“This wasn’t just some spur of the moment thing, I’ve been having the dream for a week.  I made sure to store what we would need.”

Leviathan swallowed the rest of the fish, turned his head back around, and started swimming again.

In short order the wood was stacked on the broad expanse of Leviathan’s back and with a thread of fire magic Drake lit the blaze.  If the creature noticed the heat it gave no sign.  

With a quick mental trigger Dimalya brought an arrow into being from her personal stores and the fish were quickly roasted and eaten. 

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December 28, 706 CR – 7:00 pm

Metamor Valley North of the Keep

Sasiv, chief of the Wolf Riders tribe, slowly walked through the forest a few hours north of Metamor.  He was still holding the stick with the bit of white cloth the Keepers had given him when he called his tribe to stop the fighting.  He was still trying to work out the inconsistencies of the past day as he walked.  

Nasoj had said that the Keepers were evil demons who care nothing for the life of Lutins, who sit in their comfortable towers feasting, laughing as Lutins starve and freeze in the inhospitable wastes of the giantdowns.  Yet the Wolf Riders cared nothing for this, they survive well enough in the giantdowns.  So the messenger appealed to the old chief to do this for the good of all Lutin tribes, for the freedom of all, not just the Wolf Riders.  When that failed he threw fire from his hands, killing the old chief and several others saying that all will die if they do not follow Nasoj.

So Sasiv led the tribe south under the banner of Nasoj.  They came to the keep.  They saw the great riches and the feasts that Nasoj had spoken of.  And they met the demons of the Keep and they fought.  And they lost.  And the demons, the Keepers, had done something that Sasiv had never expected. 

“They let us live...”

“Why they let us live?”

“They demons, Nasoj say.”

Quickbite, his mount, a large grey-furred dire, walking at his side looked at him and let out a soft wuff.

“Nasoj lie...?”

The Lutin chief let out a low growl under his breath, “Nasoj Lie, Lutins die for Nothing!”

Sasiv fell silent as he noticed an almost imperceptible twitch from one of the wolves on the vanguard.  Unlike other Lutin tribes who only use dire wolves as tools, the Lutins of the Wolf Riders tribe are connected on an almost spiritual level with their wolves.  The Lutins all slowly reached for their weapons as they hunched lower to the ground scanning the trees for an ambush.  

“What is it, why are you stopping?  Keep moving you fools, before the damn keepers change their minds and come after us!”

The wolf who had given the alarm, Keenscent, let out a low growl as Sasiv started toward the front, ignoring the loud, grating voice of the mage following behind him.  Sasiv grimaced as he reached the wolf, thinking 'I hope it is ambush, loud fool make good target for archers'.  

Unfortunately Keenscent’s rider had been killed during the attack on the Keep, unfortunate because without her rider the wolf could not communicate exactly what she had smelled.

Large-ears moved to his side and his rider leaned down until his chin was resting on the wolf’s neck.  Large-ears’ large ears flicked back and forth for a moment as he sniffed the air, Sasiv strained his eyes to see through the trees and snow.  Large-ears’ rider, Zaxz, spoke softly, “There one, alone.”

Sasiv nodded as he kept looking, the mage had finally realized what was happening and had fallen silent while moving to keep several Lutins between him and the forest.  Sasiv’s grimace deepened in disgust at the coward mage.  

He knew even as he stared into the snow-covered forest that Gauntjaw and Swiftrun with their riders would be circling from the back of the formation to the left and right to get behind whoever was out there.

As they reached the front of the pack whoever was out there realized that they had been seen.  A form burst out of the snow and started running deeper into the forest, at the same moment both wolves sprinted forward to cut off the escaping form.  It was a female keeper, who, realizing that she couldn’t get away put her back to a tree and drew a saber, holding it in a shaking hand, judging from her appearance though it was more due to the cold than to fear.

The mage strutted forward, shoving Sasiv out of the way as he saw it was only a lone woman keeper.  With a smug smile he gestured to the two riders, “Kill her.”

As Gauntjaw and Swiftrun slowly closed around the woman both riders and wolves looked back to the mage, as if to confirm what they had just heard.  Sasiv rose from where he had been so thoughtlessly pushed aside, let out a growl, and waved them back, “We give promise to holder of Whisper to not harm Keepers...”

“I don’t care what those damn beasts said, I am your master and I say KILL HER!”

Turning on the mage Sasiv finally let the anger that had been simmering since they were forced on this doomed attack boil to the surface.  “Wolf Riders Give Word!  Wolf Riders Keep Word!  Keeper NOT die, MAGE DIE!”

The mage’s face was growing ever deeper shades of red as Sasiv spoke but as the final words left the Lutin’s mouth, all color suddenly drained from his face.

His eyes wide he raised his arm, a burst of fire igniting in his palm.  Before he could loose it he screamed in pain as Quickbite’s jaw crushed his arm.  She lifted him off the ground, shook him violently, and watched as he tumbled through the air, his arm still in her mouth.  As he hit the ground the wolves fell on him with a vengeance tearing and pulling in all directions until all that remained was a bit of tattered clothing lying in the red snow. 

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Ashley had thought she would die when the wolves had caught her scent, so of course was pleasantly surprised when they turned on one of their own instead.  

She had been outside when the attack began and had been cut off from the Keep.  She had been trying to make her way to the ruins of the ard’Kapler mansion in Mycransburg where she and other survivors of the town’s destruction, along with some friends of theirs, had lived for a time after a rather narrow escape from a near disaster in Lorland, which is where they had moved after the destruction of Mycransburg.  At least it would be relatively warm.	

Although with this Lutin complication she was beginning to doubt she would make it.

The wolves finished with the mage and again turned their gaze on Ashley, who gripped her sword as tightly as she could given the fact that she could barely feel her fingers, and braced herself for the charge.  It never came.

A large Lutin called out, “Run Keeper, we not kill you.”

Without thinking she called back, incredulous, “Why not?”

“We promise, Wolf Riders always keep promise.  Run Keeper, we return to ice of north to save tribe from Nasoj.”

“Save them?”

The Lutin looked at her strangely, “All keepers so stupid?  Of course save, must move tribe before Nasoj learn that we want him dead.”

Ashley’s mouth dropped, “You want Nasoj dead?”

“Nasoj lie.”

The Lutin turned and began walking north again.  The wolves and other Lutins followed.

Ashley muttered under her breath, “I know I’m going to regret this.”

Aloud she called, “Wait...  There is the ruin of a mansion in a town about an hour’s walk to the north.  You could stay there.”