[Mkguild] next installment of my story

[Killer Narwhal]

Here is the next part of my story in the works, with more character
detail and background given to Kriid. Comments are appreciated.


New Story Title

Cheep opened his eyes. He saw a wall of stone with an upside-down
dresser mounted on it halfway between the floor and ceiling. Under the
top of the dresser he could see the head of his monkey statue. He
looked down, and saw his hands and feet suspended in the air, but his
tail was stretched straight downward in a tight line and then curled
around a wooden beam stretching across the room. He felt his tail
loosening its grip, and before he could react he flew upwards toward
the stones above and fell on his head with a thump.

“Ow!”

“Are you trying to hang from your tail again?” Kag’s voice was heard
from the next room.

“Maybe,” Cheep replied, rubbing the new lump on his scalp.

“You’re going to hurt yourself if you don’t stop.”

“No way. I just started trying last week and I’m already up to twenty
minutes! I’m completely fine.”

“Says the guy who just fell on his head. Again.”

Cheep grumbled as he got up off the floor of his room and walked out
to the table where Kagmer reclined, reading.

“Maybe you should stick with practicing fighting with your new body.
Besides, we have scout training in a couple hours. You should go early
and discover how the Curse has affected your abilities,” Kag
recommended.

“I already know my skills haven’t been affected by the longer arms. I
want to learn to do new stuff.”

“You may still be able to move your weapons the same way, but your
body is still a different shape, and on top of that you are more agile
than before. You need to learn how to use your new strengths to your
advantage and compensate for any new weaknesses.”

“Weaknesses?”

“I don’t mean for bananas. You are lighter than before, and longer
arms may be great for reach, but you can’t put as much torque on them.
You don’t have as much muscle mass, so you will need to adjust your
style to allow for more hits and less power. And more dodging; you
seem to have a penchant for taunting.”

“What, you mean like this?” Cheep asked, and immediately began
cavorting about in a ridiculous manner, sticking out his tongue and
clapping his hands as he jumped all over Kag’s head and the table and
everywhere, shrieking happily in monkeyish laughter and occasionally
pulling on Kagmer’s ears. The rhino man tried to grab him to keep him
off his head and horns, but the effort was futile, as Cheep always
managed to leap just out of Kag’s reach whenever he grasped at the
monkey.

“You’re a natural at that, and I’m not sure I mean that as a
compliment,” Kag said, giving up.

Cheep leapt off the rhino’s head, did a backflip, and landed perfectly
on the floor, bowing.

“Thank you, thank you very much.”

“You’re hilarious. Now go practice on someone else. I’m trying to read.”

“Maybe you should come too. It’s not as if you didn’t change.”

“I guess you’re right, although the only noticeable differences for me
are increased strength and size and thicker skin. Oh, and now I have
horns on my face.”

“Great. Let’s go.”




As they made their way to the practice rooms, Cheep and Kag passed
many animal morphs, children who were probably much older than they
looked, and women (and men, too) who dressed androgynously because
they weren’t comfortable accepting their new gender. This was no
longer a surprise or a shock; they had been at Metamor Keep for a
little over two weeks at this point. However, they still found it
interesting to see all the different iterations of the Curse.

“Oh, great.” Cheep muttered under his breath.

“What?” Kag asked, confused.

“Try not to look at the vixen walking toward us. We… um, may have met before.”

“She’s not bad-looking. Why, are you nervous about asking her out?” Kag grinned.

“NO!” Cheep shouted, and then blushed heavily at the ears as he
realized he had just drawn attention to himself. “I mean, we sort of
met under less than favorable circumstances.

The vixen turned at the shout and examined the speaker.

“You look familiar. Have we met before?” she asked, looking at Cheep
ponderously.

“Umm- No. I’m sure we haven’t. I mean, um, I think we haven’t. I mean,
you don’t look familiar at all to me! Nope. Haven’t met. Sorry,” Cheep
stammered.

“You’re a terrible liar, you know. You’re that nice guy who stopped my
vegetable cart when those jerks pushed it down the hill.”

“I, uh, umm… Maybe?” Cheep squirmed.

“Don’t be so modest. That was really a heroic thing to do. By the way,
I’m Sasha.” She held out her paw.

“I’m Cheep. Uhhhh… actually I was just not paying attention when your
cart hit me.” Cheep dropped his gaze.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. You didn’t yell at me or anything, and
that’s a lot kinder than anybody I know.”

“You must know a lot of jerks.”

“You’ve got that right. Maybe I just live in the wrong part of town; I
got my shop from my dad, so I never thought to move.”

“So you own a vegetable stand?” Cheep was curious now.

“Well, fruits and vegetables. And sometimes spices, when I can find
traders to sell them to me. Not that there will be any of those for a
while,” Sasha said thoughtfully.

“So, you might not by any chance have bananas, would you?” Cheep queried.

“Yes, actually, I do. Why do you ask?”

Cheep was actually excited now. “So, theoretically, you might be
willing to sell them at a discount?”

“Why, do you like them? Oh, dumb question. I mean, I don’t want to go
making assumptions based on your form; nice form, by them way. But
don’t most monkeys like bananas?”

Cheep smiled, blushing a bit. “Can’t say I know of any other monkeys,
but I sure do.”

“Oh! You know what? You can just have them. All of them. Nobody seems
to buy them, and it’s the least I can do,” the vixen offered
apologetically.

“That would be more than compensation for such a little thing,” Cheep smiled.

“Okay, where would you like them sent?”

“Sent?” Cheep looked surprised.

“Remember that cart you saved? Delivery cart. I was on my way to get
them to some family of rabbits when it got jacked and pushed down the
hill. I didn’t think I had that many enemies.”

“Oh. Well, I have a room in the Keep, but I don’t know how to explain
how to get there…” Cheep started to explain sheepishly.

“Don’t worry about that, I know how Kyia works. You must be new here.”

“Why does everybody keep saying that?” Cheep said, getting a bit flustered.

“Don’t worry, they’ll stop soon enough, once you get used to things.
I’ll get a crate of bananas to your room later this afternoon, then.”

“That would be great,” Cheep said, smiling again.

“See you around, cutie,” she giggled.





Cheep’s ears burned as he blushed heavily.

Kag elbowed Cheep as they walked on toward the practice room again.

“Somebody likes you,” he teased.

“Shut up,” Cheep muttered.

They arrived at the practice area and found a few other fighters
practicing their art.

Kag had just recently gotten clothes that were big enough to
accommodate his humongous frame, and he had gotten a set of light but
tough sparring garb, white in color, which he now wore.

“I feel stronger; I think I’ll see how much I’ve changed that way,”
Kag said as he walked over to the side of the training room dedicated
to strength training and picked up a large shaped stone  two feet wide
and one foot across, a weight he had lifted before only with
difficult. He lifted it above his head with surprising ease, flicking
his ears, and set it back down. He looked at his huge hands, in wonder
at how much stronger he now was. There was only one stone in the area
bigger than the one he had just lifted, and it was longer and thicker
in diameter by six inches. It should have been much too heavy for him,
but he lifted this with almost no effort as well. Cheep looked on in
awe as the stone more than ten times his own weight was lifted again
and again. Kag set it down after a few repetitions.

“I think I need to find a heavier weight. That one is a lot smaller
than I feel like I could lift.”

“That’s insane. You just put that thing up a dozen times without any
more effort than hefting a pack. It probably weighs as much as you
do!”

“Maybe. I want to go out to a quarry or something soon to find bigger
rocks. It’s kind of exhilarating, being this strong. I can’t think of
anything that’s even close.”

“Yeah, great. We’ll go as soon as this quarantine ends. Hopefully
soon. All those cases that survived the Plague were cured, and no more
cases have been seen. You’d think they would just open the gates or
something by now; maybe they just think they have to be really sure or
something.”

Cheep moved over to the wooden dummies intended for practicing weapon
technique and pulled his nunchukas out. He held them taut, horizontal
and at arm’s length. He was surprised for a moment at the realization
that they were quite a bit further away from his face than usual. He
then went through his normal practicing warmup slower than normal,
swinging the rods around in tight arcs, switching hands, catching one
handle under his arm. He proceeded to strike at the dummy, adjusting
his technique as he grew used to his longer arms, gradually moving
faster and faster until his hands and weapon were almost a constant
blur. He thought he would miss and hit himself in the face or
something, but he didn’t; impressed at his own newfound speed and
agility, he finished his exercises and slowed to a stop. Kag stood
nearby, nodding in approval.

“I may have lost some speed with the change, but the strength I have
now more than makes up for it. You seem to have gotten just the
reverse, slightly decreased strength but greatly improved
maneuverability. It’s like we increased our specialties at the expense
of weaker attributes, almost like one of those role-playing games.”

Cheep laughed. “Yeah. Hey, I think one of those specialty shops we saw
in Euper sells those,” he said hopefully.

“They cost too much for me,” Kag said.

“Oh. It was just a thought.”

The two finished their respective warmups and moved on to the place
where they and the other scouts were scheduled to begin training now.





Cheep was bored. He was in his room, hanging upside down from his tail
again, trying to think of something better to satisfy his urge to
climb. Immediately the forest had come to his mind, but being outside
the quarantine made that out of the question.

Or did it?

The gears of Cheep’s mind began turning as he considered the
possibility of breaking quarantine. Secretly, of course; he would
certainly be stopped if he tried leaving openly. The guards patrolled
mostly at the gates, as the walls kept most people from passing. All
but the most skilled climbers- Cheep let go of the rafter with his
tail, this time landing on his hands and flipping end over end to the
door. He would probably need to find some rope, and a hook, and maybe
another one as backup, as he needed to be sure to be back the next day
in time for the scouts’ scheduled training. He would likely use some
of the stealth skills he had learned there in his efforts if this plan
came to fruition.

Cheep contemplated these ideas as he hurried through the Keep. All
this effort just for some trees to climb. And maybe some interesting
things to see if he could find anything. He shook his head and swiftly
moved through the Keep to get outside. He would need to scout out the
walls for places conducive to being scaled stealthily and procure a
rope and hook.

He made his way through Keeptown as the sun began to set, stopping at
a well-kept stable and paying the stable hand for a spare coil of rope
he saw in a stack. Rope in hand, Cheep tried to think of how to
explain to a blacksmith why exactly it was that he needed a grappling
hook. He shook his head, rejecting the idea, and found a pawn shop on
the edge of town, which was apparently open later than most
businesses. He entered the shady-looking establishment, glancing
around for his target, trying to appear nonchalant as he perused the
shelves and racks. The owner, a mangy rodent of indistinct variety,
watched him with beady eyes that made him uncomfortable. Cheep saw all
manner of items in barrels, on shelves, and strewn across the walls in
various means. The shop had everything from swords and pikes to
rolling pins and jewelry. Finally Cheep found an old but well-made
grappling hook made of iron and wrapped in black cloth.

“How much for this?” Cheep asked, attempting to appear confident.

“Six bronze,” replied a gravelly voice from behind the counter and cage.

“How about five?” Cheep asked.

“Prices are not negotiable,” the shop owner snapped. “You want it, you
pay my price,”

“Oh.”

Cheep looked and felt extremely uncomfortable in spite of his efforts
as he passed the coins across the counter.

“Great. Have a nice day,” the mangy rodent sneered sarcastically.

Cheep hurried out as fast as he could.

He then continued on to the edge of the city, starting to use alleys
to avoid sight as people were largely inside their houses now that it
was dark, until he came to the high curtain wall that surrounded the
city. He looked up, searching for a suitable catching point for his
hook, and selected a merlon close to one of the turrets on the wall.
Cheep tied his rope in the loop in his new hook, remembering how to
tie the sturdy know from his experience with the acrobat troupe. He
frowned at the memory and returned his mind to the task at hand. He
gauged the distance to the top of the wall, holding the coils of rope
loosely in one hand while swinging the hook from a short length of it
in the other. He had gauged correctly; the hook sailed just a foot
over the top of the parapet and fell into the crenel next to the
tower, falling back and catching fast against the stones. Cheep
checked the rope by tugging it firmly a couple times, and then
surprised himself with the ease with which he speedily scaled the
rope, clearing the top of the wall in seconds. He had timed his
journey a bit close to the patrols, though: he saw a torch coming his
direction from the next tower over. The watchman would surely see him
if he stayed where he was any longer, so he hastily hooked the rope on
the other side of the wall and dived over the battlement, softly
impacting the wall as the rope went taut.

Cheep nervously remained motionless against the side of the wall,
halfway up, as the light from the torch moved closer to where his hook
was wedged against the wall, and he hoped furiously that the
patrolling watchman would not see the hook. He held his breath as the
light stopped right above him. The guard might have heard him! Cheep
waited anxiously as the light remained, flickering slightly, and then
disappeared into the tower. He released his breath, relieved, and let
himself down the rest of the way to the ground. Jerking the rope to
get the claw to unhook from the wall, he caught it as it fell and
quickly coiled the rope back up and stowed it in his small pack, and
swiftly headed for the woods. Satisfied that no patrolling guards on
the wall top had seen him, he stealthily moved off to the west until
he was concealed by the woods.

Cheep sighed in relief as he reached up and swung himself into the
first tree he came to, glad to be able to get off the ground. He
continued upward, rising higher into the trees as he swung from branch
to branch, letting his monkey instincts run wild and applying a few
acrobatic tricks. He was enjoying himself immensely, feeling the cool
night breeze on his face fur as he swung and flipped further into the
forest, giving some caution to be as quiet as possible. The moon had
emerged from behind the clouds, allowing him reasonable seeing light
even through the forest canopy. After an hour or so, he began thinking
of how he would get back inside the walls in such bright moonlight
when all of a sudden he heard a noise far below. It had been very
quiet up to this point, with only a few owl hoots and some insect
noises breaking the silence. This sounded like snoring. Curiosity got
the best of him, and he silently climbed down the tree he was
currently in, trying to figure out where the odd sound was coming
from. As he approached the forest floor, he saw a small flickering
orange light in the same direction as the noise. He got to the ground
and approached the curiosity as stealthily as possible. Nearing the
source of the light and sound, Cheep saw that it was a small camp. The
snoring was coming from a small pup tent near the fire, for that is
what the orange light was, but Cheep thought it odd that someone would
go to sleep at their campsite without putting out the fire. He turned
his head at this oddity, and drew closer to investigate.

All of a sudden Cheep felt a blast of cold and his feet went frigidly
numb. He looked down to see that they were encased in a block of ice!
He tried to turn, but as his feet were frozen down, he could only
twist and look behind him. He saw in the shadows a black-cloaked
figure, holding out one hand in the palm of which was a glowing blue
nimbus. The figure spoke.

“What are you doing here?” it demanded, stepping closer to Cheep.

“I was just out for a night stroll when I saw the firelight and
wondered what it was,” Cheep explained nervously, looking at the
still-glowing hand aimed at him. He noticed that it was not a strictly
human hand, as it was covered in white fur except the black pads on
the palms that stretched up to the fingertips that held claws. The
figure pulled back the hood of his cloak to reveal the face of a snow
wolf, with an expression that can only be described as being downright
cold.

“I don’t believe you.” He scanned Cheep with his cold blue eyes,
looking unsatisfied and a bit confused. “Why do you look like a
monkey?”

“The same reason you look like a wolf. Have you never heard of the
Curse of Metamor before?” Cheep asked, incredulous.

“No. I did want to know what caused this, however. Why are you here?”
he demanded again.

“I told you. I still don’t know who you are; I found your camp by
accident. Can I go back home now?” he pleaded.

“I would just kill you, but my companion probably has something to say
about it.”

“You’re right, I do.” a new voice broke in, this one gravelly and
serious. “Kriid, we can’t just kill people we meet. Besides, he might
be able to help us.”

Cheep looked over at the source of the voice, and saw who he first
thought was the Steward, but then realized was a different alligator
morph, this one with a more human shape.

“Dosh, he might be one of the assassins! Can we take that chance?”

“I’m not an assassin!” Cheep argued.

“Shut up!” the wolf barked.

“He doesn’t look like an assassin. Besides, if he were, you wouldn’t
have heard him coming or been able to stop him.”

“Wanna bet?”

“No. He said he only stumbled upon us by accident, and I think we
should assume he is telling the truth until we have reason to believe
he is lying. He could have attacked you with those throwing stars I
see on his belt. You wouldn’t have even had time to freeze his hands.
You, will you run if he lets you go? I just want to ask you a few
questions.”

Cheep shook his head vigorously, and the wolf mage reluctantly waved
his paw at the magic ice encasing his feet, causing it to flow back
into the blue nimbus and then snuffing that out at a sign from the
alligator. Cheep immediately sat down and rubbed feeling back into his
lower legs. The alligator looked at him and began to speak.

“Sorry about my friend Kriid over there. I’m Dosh.”

“Cheep.”

“Charmed. So, you were wandering through the woods at night. Where did
you come from? You don’t look like you live in the woods. We want to
know if there is any town or city nearby that might be able to cure us
of this… Curse, as you call it.”

“Sorry, the Curse is irreversible. I just changed last week, and I
needed to get some use out of my new form. I kinda, well… you see,
Metamor isn’t exactly, shall we say, open… at the moment.”

“Metamor? So we made it! Ha ha! Fantastic… Wait, how do you mean, not
exactly open?”

“Well, it’s kinda, umm… under quarantine for the Plague.”

Both of the others gasped at the word.

“It’s all over, though. I don’t see why they don’t just unlock the
gates and let people out again. The last case was cured only a couple
of weeks after it started mysteriously. Nobody has seen or heard of
any cases since.”

“Then how did you get out here? Or does ‘quarantine’ mean something
different around here?”

Cheep looked at his feet sheepishly. “I kinda sneaked out. I would get
in really big trouble if somebody found out, so I really need to get
back soon. You should be able to get in soon, once they lift the
quarantine. Should be soon, because I can’t see any reason they should
continue it for two weeks past the last recorded case.”

“Ah. But this… Curse… this is permanent? Did this happen to more than
just us? Surely there must be a way to reverse it magically.”

“Nope, you can’t. All the wizards at Metamor have tried, and trying to
change it only brings disaster. In regard to the first question, yes.
Everybody at Metamor Keep is cursed, so they are either a child,
gender-swapped, or animal. Unless they are too young to have been
affected yet. Some of the children are real kids.”

“Hmmm… at least it doesn’t seem to hinder me much. We have been
isolated from society for a long time. The concept of ‘fitting in’
seems a bit foreign. So there are many other humans who appear as
beasts like us?”

“Yep. But really, I do need to go.”

“Why?”

“I have work in the morning.”

“Ah. Well, I hope to see you again, under better circumstances.
Farewell, Cheep.”

“Bye!” Cheep said, and turned and began jogging back toward the city.
He traveled faster than was comfortable, trying to get back before
midnight so he could still get some sleep. Eventually, he broke
through the trees into a large clearing, but Metamor was still a few
hundred yards away. Cheep hurried under the momentary cloud cover to
cross the open plain before returning to the wall where he had climbed
it earlier. He looked up, searching for patrolling guards. The sky
suddenly brightened; Cheep saw the moon emerge from behind the clouds
and pressed himself up against the wall. The cloud cover returned, and
Cheep watched a torchlight disappear behind the tower before stepping
back, pulling the rope and hook from his pack. He once again tossed
the hook into a crenel and scaled the wall quickly, switched the hook
from one side of the wall to the other and rappelled down the other
side of the wall. Retrieving the rope from the wall, Cheep re-coiled
it and stored it in his pack again and headed back to the Keep
stealthily.

He entered without arousing suspicion, walking down the hallway and
focusing on his room. Oddly, he walked for several minutes without
encountering any doors. He tried focusing harder on his room,
furrowing his brow as he stalked onward, growing frustrated with the
Keep. Finally, he came to his door and pulled on the handle.

It didn’t budge. He pulled harder. Still nothing. He braced both feet
on the wall and pulled the handle with all his might. It popped open
easily all of a sudden and Cheep flew backward across the hallway and
into a previously unnoticed room. The opening he had come through
faded into a stone wall just as he passed through before he hit the
ground. He cried out in surprise and got up off the floor quickly to
run to the wall. He pressed on it frantically and felt all over it for
an opening, but there was simply a wall. Then he heard a satin-smooth
somewhat inhuman voice behind him call his name. He turned around
apprehensively, not sure of what to expect. What he saw surprised him
more than the wall changing before his eyes: a girlish figure,
slightly transparent, light blue, and glowing a bit, reclined on a
couch wearing a loose flowy garment. Cheep just stood there staring
uncertainly until she motioned him to sit on the couch beside her. He
hesitated for a minute, but felt he should obey. He meekly walked over
and sat down, wondering what and who this strange being was. She
seemed to read his mind.

“Hello, child. I am Kyia. You look a bit frightened, and tired as well.”

“Uhhh… yeah. I mean, I’m sorry! Lady Kyia. But what do you- I mean-”

“Why did I summon you like this? Very simply, I wanted to talk to you.
You are a very interesting boy, but one who needs to learn many things
still.”

“Thanks,” Cheep said sarcastically.

“You are very bright. I can see all kinds of ideas swarming about in
your mind, but you don’t apply common sense to many situations. For
example, do you know what quarantines are for?”

Cheep felt his ears burn as he looked at the floor, embarrassed. Then
he was confused. “How did you-”

“I see everything that goes on here, child. Also, you smell of the
forest. Anyone who paid you attention would discover what you did. In
the future, I would recommend that you follow laws even if you think
there is no reason for them; those who rule did not receive their
positions lightly. As it happens, you were right about the quarantine
unusually long. It was held longer to punish certain corrupt Lothanasi
officials, but it will be lifted tomorrow, as they have been affected
by the Curse now. However, you did not know that, and were wrong to
break quarantine. No punishment will come to you for this, but you
must learn to live wisely and follow the laws. They are in place for
the good of all, not for your inconvenience.”

Cheep had grown more and more embarrassed while she spoke, sinking
lower and lower in his seat.

“Sit up, child. I tell you this to improve you, not to torture you.
You may go now. May we meet again under more favorable circumstances.
I will be watching you, Cheep.”

“Uhh…Thank you… I guess…Lady Kyia. Well, Goodbye.”

He turned to leave the room, and then remembered the wall. He turned
back to Kyia to ask her to open the wall again, but she was gone, as
was the couch, and also the room. He stood in the hallway facing the
wall opposite his door. He stood there stupefied for a few seconds,
and then tried his door again. It opened with the standard ease,
creaking only slightly as it swung outward and admitted him inside. He
heard Kag snoring loudly in his room, and he closed the door and
clambered tiredly into his hammock before dropping almost instantly
off to sleep.





The next day, Cheep was only slightly more tired after scout training
than usual. More sore, perhaps, but he still felt the energy from the
exhilaration of his nightly expedition.

“What’s got you in such a good mood?” Kag asked.

Cheep looked up, startled. “Huh? I don’t know what you’re talking
about,” he said guiltily.

Kag looked at him hard. “What did you do?”

Cheep was blushing furiously now. “Well, I met some new people last night…”

“Is that why you were out late?

“…I also met Kyia.”

Kag’s eyes widened. “What? You did? Really? What does she look like?
Wait, don’t try to avoid the question.”

Cheep replied, calm this time: “I’m not. Oh, and she looks kind of
like a girl, only sort of ethereal, and all blue. But yeah, that’s
where I was. I, uh, may have… broken quarantine.”

“… Seriously?”

“Yeah. I went to the woods to find stuff to climb.”

“That’s not good. You could get in really big trouble for that. If
they caught you in the act, they might even have killed you.”

“I don’t think so. Kyia told me I wouldn’t get in trouble for it. I
was right about the quarantine being longer than necessary.”

“But that doesn’t make it okay.”

Cheep looked at the floor. “I know. But I met a couple of people who
are animal Cursed who will probably end up coming here. Maybe be
friends.”

“What were they like?”

“One was kind and reasonable; he was an alligator. The other was,
hmm.” Cheep chuckled a bit.

“What?”

“I just thought of how ironic it is that the best word I can think of
to describe him is cold. He is some kind of mage, because he froze my
feet when I first encountered them. Oh, and he’s a white wolf.”

“Ice mage, huh? I wonder…” Kag looked thoughtful.

“What is it?” Cheep, unsurprisingly, was curious.

“Naaah, couldn’t be. I have a brother, kind of a black-sheep brother,
who showed some promise as a mage, but threw his lot in with the wrong
people. My family disowned him for his associations; he never really
cared what my parents thought about anything. They were the
super-traditional type, who required him to learn a trade that didn’t
involve magic, as they didn’t trust it.”

“Who did he hang out with?”

“Nobody really knows where they came from, but there were some rogue
mages that lived in our town growing up. They were the type that would
frame you for murder just to loot our house. The Watch tried to do
something about them, but they never openly caused trouble, just
lounged around acting shady. They were the only magic users around, so
the Watch were afraid of them. They never found evidence of any of the
crimes they committed, but they didn’t honestly look very hard for it.
They tried to avoid confrontation with them at almost any cost. Then
one day they all left. Everybody breathed easier, except my mother.
She cried for the loss of my brother; he went with them. I never heard
anything from him after that.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, I get reminded of him sometimes. I miss him. It’s been 9, maybe
10 years.”

“Wait, what was his name?”

“Oh! Mesmer. But he didn’t like it. He tried to get people to call him
anything else; last name I heard him use was Creed, I think.”

Cheeps eyes opened wide. “Did you say Kriid?”

“Yeah, I think that was the name. He seemed to like that one better
than most. I don’t suppose he uses his given surname, either.”

“…Remember I told you there was an alligator? He called the wolf guy Kriid.”

Kriid remained stoic as he took the first watch of the night. It had
been almost 2 years since he had lived in a civilized place. He had
been pursued by mercenaries and assassins since he offended the baron
of the city he had been living in.

Well, he offended the local government at least. It’s rather difficult
to be offended when you’re dead. The corrupt baron had tried to
manipulate Kriid into being one of his henchmen by threatening his
fiancée. Kriid had refused to stoop to the level of shaking down
citizens and taking their ‘extra’ gold for the baron, and the baron
followed through on his threats. He underestimated Kriid, however: he
woke one night to the sound of ice cracking and found himself pinned
to his bed by his hands and feet, frozen to the bedposts. He looked up
and saw a man with steely-blue eyes boring into his, an expression of
contempt and rage filling his face. He tried to cry out, but when he
opened his mouth, it was instantly filled with ice and he couldn’t
make a sound.

“You fiend,” Kriid breathed. “If you had come after me, you might have
lived. But SHE DID NOTHING TO YOU!!” His face turned purple with
emotion. “You think everything belongs to you to do with as you
please. You’re wrong.  I’m going to end you. AND your reign of terror.
Any last thoughts?”

The baron’s eyes were bulging out of their sockets as sweat poured
down his face. He struggled back and forth, but to no avail; born a
ruler, he had never needed strength or fighting prowess. Kriid held
out an empty hand. A blue nimbus formed there, and as he clenched his
hand into a fist, magic ice flowed into existence in the shape of a
cruel-looking dagger. The baron tried to scream but couldn’t as Kriid
plunged the hate-formed blade downward into his chest. The dagger
glowed for a second, and the man convulsed and then stopped moving as
the intense cold of the magic dagger froze his heart solid and his
body crystalized. Kriid dissipated the ice and froze at the sound of a
knock at the door.

“Sir, are you all right?” came a muffled voice from the other side of the door.

Kriid put out a hand and cast a ball of ice onto the lock. That should
slow them down, he thought. He leaped out the window at a loud THUMP
as the guards attempted to break down the door.

THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. THUD-CRACK! The door splintered as it was smashed inward.

Three armed bodyguards burst into the room, ready to fight, but the
room was empty of life. They found the body of their employer
stretched out on the bed, a look of terror frozen literally onto his
face, with a surprisingly clean and bloodless wound in his chest. It
was still frozen on the inside and extremely cold outside. The guards
gaped in wonder at what had caused this, but still managed to raise an
alarm, throwing the entire castle into a frenzy trying to discover
what had happened. The baron’s personal servants wrapped his corpse in
the sheets and carried it away.



Kriid had hit the ground running. He was not usually one for physical
exercise, being one of slight frame, but when one is fleeing for one’s
life, the motivation to exert oneself is dramatically increased. He
mentally noted the tactical error of immediately fleeing when most
people had no idea what he’d just done, as they would immediately be
suspicious now. He cursed under his breath and continued running. The
people in the town heard cries of ‘MURDER!’ from the castle and began
chasing him. He was glad of his black cloak, as it would greatly aid
in his midnight escape. He darted around a corner and leaped straight
up, pulling himself with some difficulty onto the roof of the house
and rolling away from the edge. He carefully lay flat, motionless and
silent, as the crowd of angry guardsmen tore around the corner he had
just turned seconds ago. They ran on, not realizing that they had lost
their quarry, and Kriid breathed a sigh of relief. He waited a few
minutes longer, until he could no longer hear them, and then
stealthily made his way to the stable at which he had left his horse,
a beautiful black mare. He found the stable quiet, thankfully, and
carefully saddled and bridled his horse, grabbing the pack he had
concealed in the straw which contained travel provisions. He quietly
led the horse to the door of the stables and looked out, checking all
directions for guards. He continued to lead his mare apprehensively
toward the edge of town, hoping to remain unseen.

He heard a shout behind him and immediately leaped into the saddle and
spurred the horse into a gallop. He wasn’t sure that the shout was
someone coming after him, but he wasn’t about to take the chance by
looking and wasting precious seconds. As he fled through the gates,
startling the few sleepy watchmen who were guarding it as was under
construction (luckily), Kriid briefly glanced back to see a dozen or
so men on foot and a single rider in hot pursuit.

Seriously? Only one of them thought to get a horse? he thought. NO!
Stop. Focus. Getting away. Yes. Focus on that.

He spurred his mare on toward the slightly distant woods that would
ensure his escape if he could but reach them and looked behind him
again. The footmen had returned to the town, presumably to find horses
of their own, but the sole pursuing rider was gaining on him.

I can fix this. Let’s see… Kriid went through a few possible spells in
his head, finally selecting one and summoning the necessary magic to
his free hand.

He rose up in the saddle, turned around to face his potential captor
or killer, and with a commanding voice spoke a few words of a very
ancient tongue with outstretched hand. A ball of misty blue light
coalesced in his palm, swirling faster and faster as the magic
structured into the spell. When it reached the size of a badger, Kriid
cast the spell backwards and quickly resumed his focus on riding
furiously for the woods.

Clouds poured from the swirling orb of magic as it flew toward the
rider, who pulled back on the reins to try to avoid it, but to no
avail. The spell hit the horse square in the chest, exploding into a
storm of ice, which slashed all around them, cutting through the
halter and saddle straps with flying ice shards. The man yelled in
pain as hundreds of little cuts appeared on his body, which was also
growing stiff from the cold. He and the horse’s tack slid off the
ice-encrusted horse’s back and onto the hard ground with a
THUD-crunch. The storm slowed to a stop and the horse calmed down,
standing beside his fallen rider as Kriid reached the woods. The sky
lightened gradually and the sun rose as the men from the town arrived
on horses to find their compatriot wounded and unhorsed. The other men
helped him back to town to a healer, and when they reported to their
captain he clenched his fist and called for the mages skilled in
tracking and the assassins. Thus quickly set in motion was the plot to
hunt down the man Kriid and end his terrestrial existence.