Post by Yoshiko on Feb 27, 2006 22:06:55 GMT -5
The Shadow of the East
Chapter Three
Companions
“Ahh! It hurts… Ow! Ouch! Stoppit!” A sigh emanated from a young girl, nineteen or so, with a filark sitting on her shoulder; it was a lean, red bird with a blue chest, and a golden beak. They weren’t too large – their wingspan usually only reached a foot at their fully-grown age; however, this one was small, and seemed to only have a six inch span. “Quizzle, stop it. Apparently, it’s not coming out.” The girl referred to a large wooden splinter stuck in the palm of her hand; it was quite a large piece of wood – perhaps almost three inches in length, and it went at a forty five degree angle into her skin.
“I’m sorry, Jenna. It’s just going to keep hurting you… Hold on…” The bird spoke telepathically to the girl; filarks were known to be increasingly intelligent. It gave a good hard tug, and out the wood came, straight into the bird’s mouth. “Hah! Got it! See? Told you it’d come out.”
Jenna smiled at her friend. “Oh, Quizzle, you troublemaker. That really hurt, you know. I should smack you for that.” She told him, giving the filark a solid pat on the head. “Well, let’s keep moving, shall we? We’ve someone to meet.”
“You don’t think that the old lady was right, do you? The old fortuneteller? All she told you was that you’d meet someone on the planes today. It’s not like you know whom. Or did she tell you that after I left?”
“Quizzle! You were spying on me? I thought I could trust you to leave me alone for five minutes!” She sternly told the bird.
“I’m bound to you. I can’t leave you alone for long, or else I start getting twitchy.”
“That’s not my problem. You’re the one who bonded with me first, anyways. Let’s just keep walking.” Quizzle seemed to bob his head a few times, then fluttered to the ground, keeping up a quick pace beside Jenna. “And no, the woman didn’t tell me whom I was to meet. It’s still a puzzle as far as I’m concerned.” She replied, answering Quizzle’s previous question. “I get the feeling, though, that he’ll be—”
“‘He’? What makes you think it’s a ‘he’?”
“I just do. Should you try reaching out in the area with your mind to see if anyone’s nearby?” Jenna asked curiously. She’d heard of how rude it could be to pry into others’ thoughts and emotions, but she didn’t even care now. She just wanted to meet this enigmatic fellow.
“How rude of you, Jenna! I don’t know if I should.” The bird told her firmly. It was too polite for its own good. “I will. Just to make sure no one is nearby that’s dangerous.” A light fluttering wind passed by as the filark paused to scan the area with his mind, although he could find nothing at all; Jenna watched him with eagerness and content mixed with excitement all the while. “I have… a presence.”
“Really? Really?”
“Silence! He is near.”
See? It is a man.
“I thought I told you not to mind-speak? Save your energy.”
No! I want to see him!
“He’s almost here. Now silence.”
I haven’t said a word.
“Jenna, really, I thought you were more mature than this.”
The young woman decided to take in the seriousness of their situation. They didn’t know who this man was, and he could’ve been dangerous; so, pulling out a small dagger, Jenna readied herself behind a thick tree. Then, when the man came into full view, she realized how harmless he could be: cold blue eyes, half his face hidden by crimson hair, and dressed in a lowly tunic that a peasant would wear. But at his side, he held a long sword, which Jenna only guessed was for protection.
“I’m sure he’s harmle—”
“Who goes there!?” The voice of the man called out. A loud scraping noise sounded as Jenna watched him pull the sword at his side from its sheath. “I can feel you! Show yourselves.” The man commanded, and just before Jenna and Quizzle stepped out into view from behind the tree of which they hid, three large, hideous creatures leapt out from another tree, tackling Lance; his sword flew from his hand, and all three had him pinned in under a minute.
“Fiends! Unhand me!” Lance commanded, struggling against the three ugnarooks, but to no avail. It really was no surprise to Jenna or Quizzle: ugnarooks were deadly, vile creatures of immense physical strength, but they were dumber than most other races. Ugnarooks were somewhat tribal, although most were loners from a pack; the hunters would have disemboweled Lance already, and then would have found Jenna and Quizzle. Instead, the scaly, top-heavy lizards still stayed on top of Lance, sniffing him.
“He’sss not going to give usss what massster wantsss.” One of them said, hissing purposefully at Lance.
“What master wants? Who is your master? What do they want?” Lance asked, deliberately giving up his struggle against the creatures.
Jenna couldn’t stand by and watch; she never was one to let others get hurt right in front of her. “Stop!” She cried, strafing out from behind the protection of the large oak tree. “Let him go! I have what your master wants.”
“She sssmellss exactly like him. And like what massster wantsss.” The same ugnarook told the other two, before sliding off of Lance and facing Jenna.
“Jenna! What’re you doing? Are you insane? They’ll rip you apart.”
I’m a mage. It’ll be fine.
“An apprentice mage, my dear girl. I don’t know if I trust you.”
Oh, be quiet! Let me handle this.
“Who?” Lance said as he sat up, and reached for his long sword. It was within arms length, and with a bit of stretching, he was on his feet. He saw the girl who had stood out to defend him, and he couldn’t help but stare. She had long black hair, ending round her elbows, fairly tall, nearly tall as Lance, who was six feet, two inches. Her attire was much different, though: a blue tunic, with a black cloak draping around her body, nearly touching the ground. On her feet were brown boots, fastened with ties. Lance could clearly pick out her evergreen eyes, along with the large, gnarled root staff at her side, which she held in her right hand, and seemed to be just as tall as her.
“Jenna Armentine, at your service, serf.”
“Serf!?”
“Obviously. Why else would you be wandering like that? Only a serf who ran away from their lord would be leaving Dramoor this quickly.”
“You’ve no clue how quickly I was leaving. I was just heading to—watch out!” Lance was referring to the three ugnarooks now crowding around Jenna, hissing at the air. “Just stay quiet. Their eyesight isn’t well, and they’re…” He would have kept talking, but unfortunately, the ugnarooks turned back to Lance.
“He smellsss more appropriate. Now. Let uss take him to our lord.” The three nodded in unison and leapt at Lance once more, bringing him down; this time, though, his sword stayed in place, and found its way into the back leg of one lizard, and then out it came, only to back the hilt of it into the eye of another.
I have to help him! He’s the one the seer told us about! She must’ve known this would happen to him. Come, Quizzle.
“Jenna! Wait! No, come back, foolish girl! She never listens…”
Jenna stepped out further from the tree, and held up her staff. “I may only be an apprentice mage, but I know some tricks.” She said fiercely to Quizzle. A small ball of fire shot forward from her stick and made contact with an ugnarook, and sent it sprawling. It twitched a few times, but then lay motionless. Quizzle looked as surprised as Jenna, and Lance could already feel a burn on his right arm, but still gripped his sword tighter, and plunged it through the heart of the last ugnarook. The fight was over, and no one was severely injured.
Lance stood, and gaped at Jenna and the filark. “You could have hit me! I wouldn’t have trusted a sage to fire that shot!”
“Some way to say thanks to someone who just saved your life!” Jenna said angrily, turning her head up.
“Saved my life? I would have been able to fight them off.” Lance turned from the girl and wiped the silvery blood off of his long sword, then replaced it in its sheath. He then turned around to face her, nodded his head, and then began walking in the opposite direction of her.
“W-wait! Come back, serf!”
Lance winced at the mention of ‘serf’, but decided to play along with it, considering the facts that he had no clue who she was, and who she may have served. He turned around, and painstakingly looked the woman in the eyes. “Yes?”
“Hah! See? You are a serf. You just admitted it.”
He grimaced. If he was to begin traveling with this girl, it was to be very annoying. “Yes. I am a serf, and I tried escaping from my lord. You won’t turn me in, will you?”
“No. Of course not. Fortunately for you, I’m very against the way serfs are treated nowadays.” The girl smiled, and began walking quickly towards Lance. “Oh. And how rude of me. This is Quizzle, a filark, if you didn’t know.”
“Hello.”
“You mind-speak!” Lance exclaimed excitedly. “That’s amazing.”
“Can you?” The filark asked curiously.
“Only when someone else engages the conversation; other than that, I’m completely silent in the mind.”
“I see. Then perhaps I should speak.”
“You can?”
“Of course! Obviously you don’t know much about filarks.” Lance heard Quizzle laugh, and then opened his beak. “Is this better?”
“Much. Thank you, Quizzle.”
“Enough talking, you two! Let’s get going.”
“Going where?” Quizzle looked to her, his beady black eyes blinking a few times against the blaring sun.
“Wherever he was headed, I s’pose.” Jenna suggested. She looked at Lance with curiosity.
“My name is La—” The Prince paused, suspending his mouth in midair. He couldn’t give her his real name. “Lahnz.” He said, nodding at the bird, then the girl.
“Lahnz? That is the strangest name I’ve ever heard.”
“My friends called me Lance.”
“Okay, then. Lance. That’s much better.” Jenna said. She smiled a friendly smile, and turned. “Where were you going, anyways?”
“Erm… Uh… Falthalym.”
“That’s far.” Said Quizzle. The intelligent bird could’ve calculated the miles if he had a few numbers to work with.
“Well, I’ve business there.” Lance told the two.
“Business? Of what kind?” Jenna requested.
“My business is my own. You’re lucky I’m not even refusing to take you with me.”
“Think of Quizzle and I as bodyguards.”
“Bodyguards!? I’ve no need for such a thing!” Lance protested arrogantly.
“Yes you do. You’re lucky I’m not returning you to your lord, so as payment, we’re willing to come with you and protect you. We want to visit Falthalym, anyways.” Jenna told him quickly. “Please, just take us with you. I’ve no doubt you can protect yourself. Just please, take us with you!”
“What’s the rush? Is someone after you?”
“No! Of course not, right Quizzle?” Here, the bird shook his head a no.
“No one’s chasing us. We want to visit Falthalym, but I’m only a bird, and Jenna’s an apprentice mage, not a mage quite yet. We’re going to Falthalym to see her master.”
“I see. Well, I don’t think there should be any problems with you coming with me. Come. Let us leave.” Lance commanded, and led the trio. He gazed out into the plains of Darleanna, hoping this time to see life, but to no avail. “Dramoor used to be a nice place, don’t you think?” Lance questioned as they walked.
“It did. But then the Prince disappeared, and his brother took over.” Jenna said sadly.
“You seem to know much about Darleanna and its situation, Jenna.” Lance said cautiously.
“Well, Lance, it’s because of Quizzle. He tells me of recent goings-on, and they just stick to my head.”
“Well then,” Lance said happily, “could you please tell me, Quizzle, what is the situation of Falthalym?”
Chapter Three
Companions
“Ahh! It hurts… Ow! Ouch! Stoppit!” A sigh emanated from a young girl, nineteen or so, with a filark sitting on her shoulder; it was a lean, red bird with a blue chest, and a golden beak. They weren’t too large – their wingspan usually only reached a foot at their fully-grown age; however, this one was small, and seemed to only have a six inch span. “Quizzle, stop it. Apparently, it’s not coming out.” The girl referred to a large wooden splinter stuck in the palm of her hand; it was quite a large piece of wood – perhaps almost three inches in length, and it went at a forty five degree angle into her skin.
“I’m sorry, Jenna. It’s just going to keep hurting you… Hold on…” The bird spoke telepathically to the girl; filarks were known to be increasingly intelligent. It gave a good hard tug, and out the wood came, straight into the bird’s mouth. “Hah! Got it! See? Told you it’d come out.”
Jenna smiled at her friend. “Oh, Quizzle, you troublemaker. That really hurt, you know. I should smack you for that.” She told him, giving the filark a solid pat on the head. “Well, let’s keep moving, shall we? We’ve someone to meet.”
“You don’t think that the old lady was right, do you? The old fortuneteller? All she told you was that you’d meet someone on the planes today. It’s not like you know whom. Or did she tell you that after I left?”
“Quizzle! You were spying on me? I thought I could trust you to leave me alone for five minutes!” She sternly told the bird.
“I’m bound to you. I can’t leave you alone for long, or else I start getting twitchy.”
“That’s not my problem. You’re the one who bonded with me first, anyways. Let’s just keep walking.” Quizzle seemed to bob his head a few times, then fluttered to the ground, keeping up a quick pace beside Jenna. “And no, the woman didn’t tell me whom I was to meet. It’s still a puzzle as far as I’m concerned.” She replied, answering Quizzle’s previous question. “I get the feeling, though, that he’ll be—”
“‘He’? What makes you think it’s a ‘he’?”
“I just do. Should you try reaching out in the area with your mind to see if anyone’s nearby?” Jenna asked curiously. She’d heard of how rude it could be to pry into others’ thoughts and emotions, but she didn’t even care now. She just wanted to meet this enigmatic fellow.
“How rude of you, Jenna! I don’t know if I should.” The bird told her firmly. It was too polite for its own good. “I will. Just to make sure no one is nearby that’s dangerous.” A light fluttering wind passed by as the filark paused to scan the area with his mind, although he could find nothing at all; Jenna watched him with eagerness and content mixed with excitement all the while. “I have… a presence.”
“Really? Really?”
“Silence! He is near.”
See? It is a man.
“I thought I told you not to mind-speak? Save your energy.”
No! I want to see him!
“He’s almost here. Now silence.”
I haven’t said a word.
“Jenna, really, I thought you were more mature than this.”
The young woman decided to take in the seriousness of their situation. They didn’t know who this man was, and he could’ve been dangerous; so, pulling out a small dagger, Jenna readied herself behind a thick tree. Then, when the man came into full view, she realized how harmless he could be: cold blue eyes, half his face hidden by crimson hair, and dressed in a lowly tunic that a peasant would wear. But at his side, he held a long sword, which Jenna only guessed was for protection.
“I’m sure he’s harmle—”
“Who goes there!?” The voice of the man called out. A loud scraping noise sounded as Jenna watched him pull the sword at his side from its sheath. “I can feel you! Show yourselves.” The man commanded, and just before Jenna and Quizzle stepped out into view from behind the tree of which they hid, three large, hideous creatures leapt out from another tree, tackling Lance; his sword flew from his hand, and all three had him pinned in under a minute.
“Fiends! Unhand me!” Lance commanded, struggling against the three ugnarooks, but to no avail. It really was no surprise to Jenna or Quizzle: ugnarooks were deadly, vile creatures of immense physical strength, but they were dumber than most other races. Ugnarooks were somewhat tribal, although most were loners from a pack; the hunters would have disemboweled Lance already, and then would have found Jenna and Quizzle. Instead, the scaly, top-heavy lizards still stayed on top of Lance, sniffing him.
“He’sss not going to give usss what massster wantsss.” One of them said, hissing purposefully at Lance.
“What master wants? Who is your master? What do they want?” Lance asked, deliberately giving up his struggle against the creatures.
Jenna couldn’t stand by and watch; she never was one to let others get hurt right in front of her. “Stop!” She cried, strafing out from behind the protection of the large oak tree. “Let him go! I have what your master wants.”
“She sssmellss exactly like him. And like what massster wantsss.” The same ugnarook told the other two, before sliding off of Lance and facing Jenna.
“Jenna! What’re you doing? Are you insane? They’ll rip you apart.”
I’m a mage. It’ll be fine.
“An apprentice mage, my dear girl. I don’t know if I trust you.”
Oh, be quiet! Let me handle this.
“Who?” Lance said as he sat up, and reached for his long sword. It was within arms length, and with a bit of stretching, he was on his feet. He saw the girl who had stood out to defend him, and he couldn’t help but stare. She had long black hair, ending round her elbows, fairly tall, nearly tall as Lance, who was six feet, two inches. Her attire was much different, though: a blue tunic, with a black cloak draping around her body, nearly touching the ground. On her feet were brown boots, fastened with ties. Lance could clearly pick out her evergreen eyes, along with the large, gnarled root staff at her side, which she held in her right hand, and seemed to be just as tall as her.
“Jenna Armentine, at your service, serf.”
“Serf!?”
“Obviously. Why else would you be wandering like that? Only a serf who ran away from their lord would be leaving Dramoor this quickly.”
“You’ve no clue how quickly I was leaving. I was just heading to—watch out!” Lance was referring to the three ugnarooks now crowding around Jenna, hissing at the air. “Just stay quiet. Their eyesight isn’t well, and they’re…” He would have kept talking, but unfortunately, the ugnarooks turned back to Lance.
“He smellsss more appropriate. Now. Let uss take him to our lord.” The three nodded in unison and leapt at Lance once more, bringing him down; this time, though, his sword stayed in place, and found its way into the back leg of one lizard, and then out it came, only to back the hilt of it into the eye of another.
I have to help him! He’s the one the seer told us about! She must’ve known this would happen to him. Come, Quizzle.
“Jenna! Wait! No, come back, foolish girl! She never listens…”
Jenna stepped out further from the tree, and held up her staff. “I may only be an apprentice mage, but I know some tricks.” She said fiercely to Quizzle. A small ball of fire shot forward from her stick and made contact with an ugnarook, and sent it sprawling. It twitched a few times, but then lay motionless. Quizzle looked as surprised as Jenna, and Lance could already feel a burn on his right arm, but still gripped his sword tighter, and plunged it through the heart of the last ugnarook. The fight was over, and no one was severely injured.
Lance stood, and gaped at Jenna and the filark. “You could have hit me! I wouldn’t have trusted a sage to fire that shot!”
“Some way to say thanks to someone who just saved your life!” Jenna said angrily, turning her head up.
“Saved my life? I would have been able to fight them off.” Lance turned from the girl and wiped the silvery blood off of his long sword, then replaced it in its sheath. He then turned around to face her, nodded his head, and then began walking in the opposite direction of her.
“W-wait! Come back, serf!”
Lance winced at the mention of ‘serf’, but decided to play along with it, considering the facts that he had no clue who she was, and who she may have served. He turned around, and painstakingly looked the woman in the eyes. “Yes?”
“Hah! See? You are a serf. You just admitted it.”
He grimaced. If he was to begin traveling with this girl, it was to be very annoying. “Yes. I am a serf, and I tried escaping from my lord. You won’t turn me in, will you?”
“No. Of course not. Fortunately for you, I’m very against the way serfs are treated nowadays.” The girl smiled, and began walking quickly towards Lance. “Oh. And how rude of me. This is Quizzle, a filark, if you didn’t know.”
“Hello.”
“You mind-speak!” Lance exclaimed excitedly. “That’s amazing.”
“Can you?” The filark asked curiously.
“Only when someone else engages the conversation; other than that, I’m completely silent in the mind.”
“I see. Then perhaps I should speak.”
“You can?”
“Of course! Obviously you don’t know much about filarks.” Lance heard Quizzle laugh, and then opened his beak. “Is this better?”
“Much. Thank you, Quizzle.”
“Enough talking, you two! Let’s get going.”
“Going where?” Quizzle looked to her, his beady black eyes blinking a few times against the blaring sun.
“Wherever he was headed, I s’pose.” Jenna suggested. She looked at Lance with curiosity.
“My name is La—” The Prince paused, suspending his mouth in midair. He couldn’t give her his real name. “Lahnz.” He said, nodding at the bird, then the girl.
“Lahnz? That is the strangest name I’ve ever heard.”
“My friends called me Lance.”
“Okay, then. Lance. That’s much better.” Jenna said. She smiled a friendly smile, and turned. “Where were you going, anyways?”
“Erm… Uh… Falthalym.”
“That’s far.” Said Quizzle. The intelligent bird could’ve calculated the miles if he had a few numbers to work with.
“Well, I’ve business there.” Lance told the two.
“Business? Of what kind?” Jenna requested.
“My business is my own. You’re lucky I’m not even refusing to take you with me.”
“Think of Quizzle and I as bodyguards.”
“Bodyguards!? I’ve no need for such a thing!” Lance protested arrogantly.
“Yes you do. You’re lucky I’m not returning you to your lord, so as payment, we’re willing to come with you and protect you. We want to visit Falthalym, anyways.” Jenna told him quickly. “Please, just take us with you. I’ve no doubt you can protect yourself. Just please, take us with you!”
“What’s the rush? Is someone after you?”
“No! Of course not, right Quizzle?” Here, the bird shook his head a no.
“No one’s chasing us. We want to visit Falthalym, but I’m only a bird, and Jenna’s an apprentice mage, not a mage quite yet. We’re going to Falthalym to see her master.”
“I see. Well, I don’t think there should be any problems with you coming with me. Come. Let us leave.” Lance commanded, and led the trio. He gazed out into the plains of Darleanna, hoping this time to see life, but to no avail. “Dramoor used to be a nice place, don’t you think?” Lance questioned as they walked.
“It did. But then the Prince disappeared, and his brother took over.” Jenna said sadly.
“You seem to know much about Darleanna and its situation, Jenna.” Lance said cautiously.
“Well, Lance, it’s because of Quizzle. He tells me of recent goings-on, and they just stick to my head.”
“Well then,” Lance said happily, “could you please tell me, Quizzle, what is the situation of Falthalym?”