[Mkguild] A Traveller Appears

[tjlord at bellsouth.net]

wow. umm. definitely nervous, but forcing myself to send out my first story today.
here we go...

A Traveler Appears

A Metamor Keep Story
by Fenrs Wolf


A number of years have passed since the curse of a town between the north and south was cast upon the inhabitants and the area itself, causing once normal people to take upon forms that are not their own. For those who are unaware of the effects in detail, there is an explanation. The people of the town had gathered at the three gates, guarding against the invasion from the north and the evil socer Nasoj. The curses were three, each with a different body changing effect: the people at one gate became infants, the next became over-proportioned versions of the other gender, and lustful thoughts made them unable to fight. The third gate, however, was the most changed: the people there became animals, losing their humanity in both mind and body. The mages of the keep acted quickly, still being affected by the curses themselves, to counter-act the spell. It worked. Only to a certain extent, however; the age-regressed people could change from toddlers to fourteen years of age, and the gender changed people, while still being of the other gender, could control their proportions from the over-sized level to the normal. As for the people changed into animals, they became humanoid, half animal, and half humans, able to change between half animal to full animal.

This is the story, not of those events, exciting and interesting though they may be, but of one lone man, traveling, who heard of this place for the first time.
My story.

"What? Preposterous!"

"I'm telling ye, i saw it with my own two eyes."

"You only have one eye."

"I lost that after I saw it, so it doesn't matter."

"Fine then, prove it!", I demanded of the man across the table from me. We were in a corner, so talking wasn't hard. People don't pay much attention to corners.

The caravan guard replied, scowling at me: "You know I can do that, Fenrs. It's my policy to not buy things i don't need from places the caravan goes."

"Well then, I guess that leaves one option.", I retorted, figuring this wasn't going anywhere.

"Yeah? And what might that be?"

"I'll have to go and see for myself."

And I did. With directions from various guards so that he knew exaclty where he was going, I set off across the land, northward, to the place known as Metamor Keep. Midlands were starting to get boring anyway. Being a traveller that I was, I full well knew the dangers going alone brought, so I offered help to a merchant and three guards who were headed the same direction I was. Convenient, but that's how it was; if it's not there, you wait until it is or find it somewhere else. The journey had begun. There was silence, for a time, and eventually one guard broke the calm with his loud voice:

"Hope this time is better than the last."

"How so?" I was curious what he meant by 'better than last time'. Maybe someone got lost?

The guard turned back to look at me, and I could sense a bit of regret in his tone.

"Last time we came this way, we got attacked as we were getting close. One of the guards had to get some serious medical attention for his arms, chest, and leg... the Lutins snuck up on us and attacked him first, before we could react. We had to leave him behind. to be honest, I hope we don't seem him again. I don't know what I'd say."

"How about 'would you like your job back?'" I said with a slight chuckle. I figured there are very few times in a trip here humor won't go over well.

The guard shook his head and trudged on. Guess it was one of those times.
The rest of the trip was silent until the Lutins attacked.
The first thing to break the silence was the death scream of the man guarding the rear. It was chilling, and I knew we would have to fight.
"Damn. Lutins!" the shout went up as the guards drew their blades.
All were armed, save for the me. I don't carry weapons with me. The Lutins knew an opening when they saw one, and they saw a man with no blade, club, or spear. Well. they thought they saw an opening.
What they did not see was me beginning to channel a spell. I don't like using magic if front of other people much. Once people figure out you're a mage they think you can just magic your way out of all your problems.
It was a group of five Lutins, against a merchant, two guards, and a traveler. I knew exactly who was going to win if I didn't play his cards right.

There was something odd about the Lutins, though... they wore thick strips of leather, some even with bits of metal protection, and their weapons of finer quality than usual. These Lutins were successful at raiding merchants. Figures we'd have to fight experienced little monsters. Immediately the guards fought against the attackers, the merchant rummaging for a weapon better than his sword in his cargo, finding a crossbow, and began to prepare it to be fired. During this, one guard had been hit badly in the knee by one of the Lutins with a club, amongst other injuries. The othe guard had a few scratches and bruises. I had to keep pumping energy into my spell.  I was out of practice and knew it had to be strong to count. Just as a Lutin was about the strike down the downed guard, I hit it squarely in the face, sending it back in the the bushes from which it did not return. Wind spells are useful like that. The merchant impaled a Lutin's foot into the ground with a heavy barbed bolt, where it was finished off by the less injured guard. While he had his back turned so as  to kill the crippled Lutin, another cracked his skull with its mace. The three remaining Lutins edged closer towards us, and a new Lutin which must have been in hiding for some time, leaped out from behind us and stabbed the merchant in his stomach, face, and neck, then being quickly killed by the injured guard as I cast another air spell at the group of Lutins, sending them onto their backs in disarray, but not before obtaining a couple of wounds myself.

"Let's get moving. NOW." I said, grabbing the guard and running towards the direction of the town,

"No... my knee is broken. I can't run. Keep going alone."

"I'm not leaving you behind to die like the others!"

The guard looked up to me, battered, bruised, and broken, and said: "You have to. I'll hold them back. Run... and don't look back and don't slow down or they might catch you."

"But..."

"I said GO!" yelled the guard, pushing me forward and leaning against a tree for balance.

"At least tell me your name, then."

"My name..." coughed the guard, losing more blood, "...is Daniel."

"Right. It was a pleasure to meet you, Dan."

"What was your name again?"

"Fenrs."

"Goodbye, Fenrs."

I knew without needing to look what his fate was. He sacrificed his own life to save that of another. After a few minutes of running, dawn broke.

"A new day..."

"A new day with four less people in it than yesterday." I sighed, and returned to my run for the keep. After a time I arrived late in the morning, exhausted from the combination of running, magic, and pain. I collapsed at the gates.
But I had made it.

I got to Metamor.
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