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. _______________________________________________ MKGuild mailing list [email protected] http://lists.integral.org/listinfo/mkguild
