[Mkguild] A Traveler Appears - Revised

[tjlord at bellsouth.net]

Below is an edited version of my previously submitted story, A Traveler Appears.
I hope you all enjoy it.

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.

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.

It was long, long ago. I do not know when, for the years blur before me, days, weeks, months, all melding together, endlessly.

This is not the beginning. It is only one of many.

"What? Preposterous!"

"I'm telling ye, I saw it with my own two eyes." The gruff man across the table with the scruffy beard and the eye patch was intent on making me believe his story. 

"You only have one eye."

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

"Fine then, prove it!", It was a battle of the travelers.  unlike normal battles, we just swap stories of places we've been to see who has the best one. We were in a corner, so words flew looser than normal. People don't pay much attention to corners. We battled every once in awhile, but sometimes he would add a little extra to a place he'd been to have a little advantage. Sometimes I caught him doing it, as I suspected he was doing now.

He replied, scowling at me: "You know I can't do that, Fenrs. It's my policy to not buy things I don't need from places the caravan goes." A silly policy, I thought. Every time he mentioned it, it seemed unnecessary. You could at least get something to remember the place by. I got those every once in awhile. 

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

"Yeah? And what might that be?" He sat back in his chair with a smug grin on his face.

"I'll have to go and see for myself." I got up, and left. I paid for my drink, checked my money for signs of sticky hands, and left the small tavern of oak. The smell of alchohol hung in the air, as well as the more disgusting smell of those who had too much.

With directions from various merchants so that I knew exactly where I was going, I set off across the land, northward, to the place known as Metamor. Midlands were starting to get boring anyway. Things hadn't been boring for me for awhile now, and when they started, it was pretty bad. Being a traveler 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. I was reliant on luck to get me where I was going, almost always. Maybe I shouldn't be, but that's how I've always done it. The journey had begun. There was silence, for a time, and night fell. It was a cool night, not chilly, but one that feels good to take a walk in. The forest smells added to the affect, and it was practically a simple midnight stroll, for awhile. Eventually one guard broke the calm with his loud voice:

"Hope this time is better than the last." He seemed to have a tinge of regret in his voice, as though he made a mistake the last time they went this way.

"How so?" I was curious what he meant. Maybe someone got lost?

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

"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 the sound too well. It brought back bad memories.
"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... I can't.

There was something odd about the Lutins. I noticed it immediately; they wore thick strips of leather, some even with bits of metal protection, and their weapons of finer quality than usual. Those weapons almost sent me into a panic. Metal. I thought tribal warriors used bones and stones for weapons. This was bad. I couldn't let them touch me. These Lutins were successful at raiding merchants. I hated things like this. Things that killed people just for the ability to do a better job next time. They killed people because people screamed.  If I had been thinking, I would have told everyone to run. Then we might have gotten away, but I was too angry to think. I just wanted these creatures to die. The guards ran toward our attackers, and the merchant began rummaging for something in his cargo. I began to channel into my spell, all that anger and hate I felt... One of the guards had been cracked in the knee by one of the Lutins with a club. More bad memories came up at the sound of breaking bones. The guard screamed in pain, and the sound filled my ears untill all I could here was the screaming... Lutins swarmed him, in seconds he had ugly red gash marks on his legs and back. Blood spilled onto the ground. The smell of it hung in my lungs and fueled my hate at the Lutins.  I released my spell, compressing the space around two Lutin's heads until their skulls imploded. They screamed as the pressure increased, dropping their weapons. and they fell to the ground. The sound alone would convince any man they were dead. The other  guard ran in and skewered one of them with a pole arm, shoving the steel into vital organs. The merchant impaled a Lutin's foot into the ground with a heavy barbed bolt, he finally found what he had been looking for. A crossbow. He should know you can't waste time in a battle like that. The guard with the broken leg and the pole arm jabbed his weapon into he Lutin's chest, killing it. The second guard was having trouble with two Lutins, he leaned against a tree, bleeding, and his effort gone to blocking with his shield. his sword lay a few feet away.I cast another spell that lifted it and thrust it into the two Lutins, skewering them to another tree. The smell of blood in the clearing was horrible, and it kept getting stronger. The four remaining Lutins edged closer towards us, and a new Lutin one leaped out from behind us and stabbed the merchant in his stomach, face, and neck, in quick succession. It was a sickening sight, but I tried to ignore it. Leaving an opening would mean getting killed. I didn't have armor like the guards did. the one with the broken arm picked up his sword and stabbed it into the face of the Lutin standing over the merchant, and left the opening the others were waiting for. They all charge him from behind, and plunged their weapons into his back. He coughed up a small puddle of blood before collapsing into it.  I finally had the sense to decide to run. I used what little energy I had left in a  spell to launch the Lutins who were grouped together over the dead men's bodies out of the clearing and into the forest beyond.
"Let's get moving. NOW." I said, grabbing the guard and running towards the direction of the town, and we ran for a bit. I could hear the filthy chattering of the Lutins behind us not long afterwards.

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

"I'm not leaving you behind to die like the others! You fought alright with than knee, I'm sure you can run with it!"

The guard looked up to me, battered, bruised, and broken, and said: " Running is different from fighting, friend. Can't lean on a tree and run. Trees like to stay where they are. You have to go. I'll hold them back. Just run... and don't look back and don't slow down or they might catch you."

"But..." I didn't want to just leave him. It was hard enough having the others get killed by those things.

"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..." he said, as he began coughing up more more blood, "...is Daniel. Daniel Torov."

"Right. It was a pleasure to meet you, Dan." The Lutins were getting closer. I could hear them. I could smell the blood on their hands... I tried to ignore it.

"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.

I was so angry at myself. "Why. Why do people always die... Everywhere, EVERYWHERE I go... people die... why..." The stench of the battle and the shouts of pain still rang clear in my mind. I was blinded by the emotions, filled with rage at my inability to keep people around me from getting killed. After a time I arrived late in the morning, exhausted. I had never depleted myself that much before. I was so tired. There were voices, they sounded like they were miles away. Blurred faces. The Sun overhead, proudly bearing the new day. I collapsed at the gates.

But I had made it.

I got to Metamor.

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