Below is the first draft of my first story for Metamor Keep. It also introduces a new character, whom I haven't named yet (currently known as <inh>, or <insert name here>!). The character is Misha Brightleaf's nephew, and the story recounts his spectacular entrance into Metamor Keep. I think I need a bit more detail in it, yet I hope this is enough to give you an idea into what I am trying to do.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 718, Christos Reckoning Bang! SNAP! "Why did this have to fail now?" Hoping the glider would still make it, he kept wrestling with the glider, steering it into the... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Who might I be talking about? Me, of course, in my spectacular entrance (for all the wrong reasons) to Metamor Keep. However, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here. Just in case you haven't read this before, I am not your average person. I'm not even your average mage! I study the art of automatons. However, before I reveal too much on myself, I will start from where it all began for me in my interest in automatons. I was a boy living in Marigund, and my mother was in the Mage's Guild. She had a brother who lived at this place called Metamor Keep, and was the first automaton mage in centuries. Put simply, I was that eager to get to Metamor Keep to become my uncle's apprentice that I would sometimes sneak into the Mage Guild Library and look for books on automatons. Eventually, I finally managed to convince my mother to let me go to Metamor, but she did tell me it would come at a cost: I would either become an animal, a child, or a female. Oh, I just realised that I neglected to tell you my name! I am <insert name here>, and the uncle I am talking about is none other than Sir Misha Brightleaf. Anyway, back to my entrance. I had managed to hitch a ride on a merchant wagon going North to Metamor Keep. And we happened to get no trouble from bandits, until we had just entered the reach of the curse, which was when the bandits struck. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The quarterstaff swung round and clobbered another bandit on the head, knocking him out. Yet they just kept coming. Blocking another sword thrust with the staff, the kid looked around and saw that the guards were also holding their own. However, while he was distracted, a bandit thought he could take advantage. The thief swung forward. The boy jumped back just in time, yet wasn't quite fast enough to avoid being scratched in the leg. Now jumping backwards to avoid the sword, the boy was forced against the merchant cart. Thinking quickly, the boy rolled under it and out the other side. He then climbed on top of the cart, jumped, and landed on the brigand who had been fighting him. However, there was immediately another bandit there, who thrust his dagger forward towards the boy, too quickly for it to be blocked. He promptly fell on the ground, dead, with an arrow embedded in his back. The boy smiled. His uncle had just arrived. A fox-morph stepped out of the edge of the clearing, with a massive black battle-axe in hand. Every single bandit screamed like a little girl and simply fled. “Well, looks like my reputation precedes me!” Misha stated, rather unnecessarily, as every single guard just stopped and stared. “That was a little too close for comfort Uncle Misha,” <inh> said. “Don't blame me, blame Caroline. She's the one who fired the arrow.” Caroline promptly stepped out of the bushes and whacked Misha on the back of the head with her bow. “HEY!” “Don't blame me, blame Caroline,” was all that came out of the otter-morph's mouth in a rather impressive impression of Misha. “Aunt Caroline, are you any good at any other impressions? That one was quite good.” This made all of the guards laugh as Caroline started looking more than a little bit embarrassed, which turned to groans as <inh> added “And it left quite an impression on the guards here.” This earnt him a few whacks from the other cart guards. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was in the middle of summer at Metamor Keep, and Drift wasn't liking it. He might have had his ring, yet the sweltering heat wasn't being abated fully. Drift had started to realise recently that the ring was losing its cooling ailities, and so he had committed himself to talking to Misha about getting the ring recharged, yet he hadn't seen the fox in ages. Drift was out walking around the keep, trying to find a place to launch his glider from. Suddenly, he saw a fox-morph and an otter-morph, with what looked like a fourteen year-old between them. Drift couldn't help but let out a smile. It was good to see an old friend once again. As the trio rounded the bend in the road, a big samoyed-taur came running up with a glider on its back. “Drift! I haven't seen you around recently. What have you been up to?” Misha exclaimed. “Oh, wait, before that, let me introduce you to my nephew, <inh>. <inh>, this is Drift, an old friend of mine.” “Good to meet you Drift,” said <inh>, reaching up to shake the taur's hand. “And you to. Misha, your ring is losing its power.” “I was wondering what was wrong. You look hot enough to be on fire!” Drift shivered at that, despite the heat. <inh> was looking at the contraption on the samoyed's back, and was walking around, taking it in from all angles. “Sorry to say, but that isn't going to fly” “Why not?” was Drift's indignant reply. “It is cracked, and won't be able to hold anything without breaking up. In fact...” <inh> grabbed a wing and gently lifted it, causing it to snap in two. “It won't even support its own weight in the air! It's simply too fragile.” Drift let out a cry of alarm, as the glider snapped, and whipped around to keep his glider away from the fiddling hands of <inh>. All this succeeded in doing was causing his contraption to fall apart completely. “Drift, you really need more strength in that glider. It just won't hold any weight if it is too weak.” “Well, how is it supposed to get in the air with that much weight?” “I can put rune's of lightness on it, which will lighten the glider considerably.” “Oh, well then I'd better restart then.” said Drift, anger abated. “Sorry about yelling at you, <inh>.” “Don't worry. I have been told that you have been known to hit people for some things!” “Oh, um..” said the now very awkward Drift. “Drift, just come by my place in a couple of days and I'll have the new ring ready for you.” “Yeah, thanks. Well, see you all later then!” Walking off, Drift had a feeling that Misha's nephew was going to be seeing him a whole lot more often. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Entering the keep proper, <inh> gasped in awe at the range of creatures around him. There were that many that his head nearly turned around at the sheer number of them. After a short walk, they bumped into a raccoon that Misha had seen plenty of, yet <inh> hadn't seen at all. However, he promptly stepped forward, and, to Ricktter's astonishment, introduced himself. “Hello Ricktter. I assume you are one of Misha's friends?” Ricktter's jaw simply fell open. “How can you know that? You aren't using magic to accomplish this, so how can you?” “Your name inscribed on your pack, and the look of recognition on Misha's face. You are also going out to meet someone, by the gift in your pack, and you are also a mage, because you have magic sight, which I know from the fact that you mentioned magic in your last sentence.” By this point, Ricktter was just looking dumbfounded, and even other people were stopping and staring at the sight of a 14 year old that had just caught Ricktter off-guard. “<inh>, I think you have just accomplished the impossible.” “Apparently so by all of the people just staring. And Kyia is even impressed.” Suddenly, a huge explosion outside the keep caught everyone by surprise. In a flash, everyone was outside, gawking at the building that had caught on fire. <inh> spotted something, and ran into the burning building. “<inh>! COME BACK!” Misha yelled out. “Oh, my sister is going to kill me if he is harmed. Inside the building, <inh> was franticly finding his way around, looking for some stairs. Finally finding them, he charged his way upstairs, and looked around. There, on the landing, was a bat-morph that had passed out from the smoke. Grabbing her around the waist, he hauled her over to a window and pushed her through, down onto a cart of hay. Now that she had been saved, <inh> ran back downstairs, only to find the door he had come in had collapsed. Looking around, he saw some barrels in a corner, and what looked like a glider in another. He promptly grabbed the glider, put it on top of the barrels, and set alight the contents of one of them, causing a chain reaction of exploding barrels, blasting the glider through the roof. Finally out of the fire, <inh> calmed down a bit, before realising that the glider was on fire! Looking around for the closest water source, he saw a fountain a short distance away, and steered the glider towards it. He was right over the top of the fountain, when the glider finally gave way. Bang! SNAP! "Why did this have to fail now?" Hoping the glider would still make it, he kept wrestling with the glider, steering it into the fountain with an almighty splash. Water was sprayed every, including a very worried Misha that was running after the runaway glider. He ran up to the edge of the fountain just as <inh> came up again, coughing and spluttering. After recovering his breath enough, <inh> asked “Is the bat alright?” Misha just chuckled, and said “You just saved Drift's wife from certain death. You just became a hero, do you realise? Not only that but I think someone wants to talk to you.” He stepped away, just as Drift came running along, no longer in taur-form. “You just saved Alexis?” All he gt in reply was a snore as <inh> had fallen fast asleep. “He mightn't wake up for a couple of days,” was all Misha would say, before carrying his sleeping nephew into the keep into his apartment. After tucking him in to a makeshift bed, Caroline walked in, with a worried look on her face. “Will he be alright?” “He should be. He just needs a bit of rest. He might even wake up after the curse has taken him. But I probably should tell Elizabeth about this. She will be worried, I know. And I'll probably need to make sure no emergencies happen around this fella any time soon!” “We'd better go get Coe to take a look at him, just to make sure he hasn't broken anything.” “We probably should. <inh>'ll be asleep for a while.” And that is how I made my entrance into Metamor Keep. I woke up a few days later in my uncle's room, with a cast on my left leg and a model glider next to me. Just then, my uncle walked in, and he was obviously not meaning to go into this room, but he certainly looked pleased to see me awake. “How long have I been asleep?” was the first thing on my mind. “Um, a nearly a week.” was all my uncle said, before letting in Drift and the bat-morph I saved from the building. “This is Alexis, the person you saved, who is also Drift's wife.” “Good to meet you,” was all I could say before falling asleep again. As I fell asleep again, I heard my uncle say “I think that he might be a pretty good automaton mage. I just hope he doesn't go ahead and get himself nearly killed again! His mother wasn't all too pleased when she heard about this!” ________________________________ Well, there it is folks. I think it needs a lot more work, and just seems a bit vague in some parts. I think I might also want to add in that the contents of the barrels was Dragon Dust, and hence the reason for my question in the forums. ________________________________ flylow dragon ________________________________ !DSPAM:4ec21cdd271311804284693! _______________________________________________ MKGuild mailing list [email protected] http://lists.integral.org/listinfo/mkguild
