Miracles

[Kamik Windslasher ~]

Kamik was speaking in his deep sleep, in the inn. He was calling a name. An old and powerfull name.

Malachin...

And perhaps only The Great Hunter could know what happened to His humble follower.
A red well ornamented dagger was resting on a case on Kamik's belt, the same case that used to hold his father's dagger.
The dagger now belonged to his brother - Taylor.
That new dagger there had something strange about it. By standing near it, one could feel the same odd sensation of increasing faith you feel when entering the silent walls of a temple.
Kamik knew who that dagger belonged to.

Malachin...

The story behind it involved his own salvation...



- I'm done for today... - Kamik stated to himself, tired. He was inside the crypts. He had been going there a lot lately, worried about the incresing number of skelletons - like an army. Even their weapons were designed for war: plate armors, war axes.
Kamik took a deep breath and glanced at the broken bones around him. "I hope this has nothing to do with you, Dravish...", he thought to himself.
With his axe still in hand, the blue haired man began to walk towards the exit, climbing the ladders. After the first ladder, Kamik jumped back, suddenly frightened and raised his axe.

The lich raised its sword too.

He thought of Dravish again, but he could feel it wasn't him. There was something different in the air. When he was near Dravish, Kamik could only feel the ascent of blood and the power in his bones. The lich before him smelled of death - of Death herself.

- Weak fool - the voice came from the empty air of the red skelleton bones. It sounded like crows.
Kamik couldn't say a word. He couldn't think of anything staring at the dead creature. His mind was floating somewhere around his axe: he was sure, somehow, he would have to fight for his life. Again.
- Weak fool - the lich repeated and made a moviment with a red thin hand. Automatically, Kamik could hear the sound of bones uniting down the ladder.
- Get him! - the lich shouted to the crypt and started to leave.
A skelleton climbed the ladder swiftly but yet trembling weakly pathetic. Kamik trusted the double axe foward, towards the unprotected head of the dead creature. Then he spined and attacked with the second blade of the weapon. The skull of the skelleton brone in two and the monster fell down the ladder again.
- Wait! - Kamik yelled. Something else was crawiling in those crypts, that lich was a sign of it, and Kamik was hunting them all. Hunting them all down.
He runned through the corridor, his dee blue eyes darting at every shadow, looking for his new oponent.
A thought was slowly forming inside his head, although he didn't notice it. But he felt something wrong with him, something he rarely felt: he was hesitating.
The lich was ahead, poiting with his crimsom hand towarda the half elf.
- GET HIM! - he insisted. Two other skelletons rose from the ground. Those ones were holding war hammers. Kamik brandished the axe again.

When the fight was over, Kamik was exhausted. Panting, he walked through the corridor, looking around. Kamik stared back at the broken bones and an idea occured him. He went back and picked one of the war hammers. His skill with that kind of weapon wasn't even near his skill with his axe, but braking bones with a hammer would be easier. He set the axe to his back and raised the hammer with his left - silver - hand.
The lich appeared again, shaking a bottle in a hand. The he tossed it and runned again. Kamik's deep blue eyes widened as the bottle got near, he jumped to the side, but the explosion still got him. It was then that that thought occured to him again. He realized what it was: Devrah. Always Devrah. His love. He couldn't risk his life. No, not that day; for the next day would be his wedding.
"I must escape...", he thought. "I can't die yet. There must be another exit", and took another path. It was an unkown path, but he followed it until he reached a pillar. Zombies were crawling around it and once they noticed Kamik, they attacked. The blue haired man passed through them, being attacked by teeth, nails. He dismantled them with the hammer as his strenght allowed him and started to run. He was bleeding.
"I can't die now"
Ahead, Kamik could see something. Was it an altar?
- Cherga.
He could hear a voice too. That crow-like voice, calling for something, in front of the altar. Kamik stopped away from the lich and whatever he was doing and tried to think of what he should do. All he could do was say:
- Let me pass.
The lich didn't replied and continued repeating.
- Cherga. Cherga. Cherga.
"Damn it". Kamik shouted as he brandished the hammer, weakly, and attacked the skelleton, sending him away from the altar. The lich let out a gutural sound, a growl and drew the sword again. Kamik tried to run through a side - a blue flame rose before him, making him stop and turn again. He stared to the lich. Oddly, his skull seemed to be grinning, his red hand pointing directly to the spot where the flame appeared.
- Damn it - Kamik thought out loud.
The rest was a blot. Blue and red blurries approaching and moving away from each other as the metal flashed. With luck, perhaps, Kamik hit the skelleton into the blue flame, hoping that would result in his chance to escape. The blade of Cherga came out of the fires in a stab into Kamik's right leg.
- Aaah!
The lich was laughing.
In a desesperate attemtp to run, Kamik lowered the hammer and started to use it as a crutch. Another laugh and another stab - this one on his right shoulder. The power of the attack was so strong that Kamik was stumbled foward, falling on the ground. The grip of the sword in the lich's hand went down at the back of his head and the man's face hit the floor, his counciense fighting to stay awake. "I can't die..."
- Weak fool - said the crow like voice. - I hope this teaches you a lesson for you to think twice next time when you try to destroy the sons of Cherga.
The sound of the skelletons around was evident.
Kamik heard something being pushed at the wall and the altar vanished. He tried to stand, on all fours, and felt a hard, spiked, foot on the wound in his shoulder.
- Aaah! - he fell again. He could hear the steps of the monster walking away before he passed out. And before he passed out, he could lean against a wall and stand, walk some steps. Before he passed out, he could feel an odd cold sensation around him. The sensation itself seemed to speak with him, through his mind. The voice sounded like faith. And then the world turned back.

When he woke, he was laying on the grass, still bleeding a lot. His eyes, half opened, were aiming at the clean sky.

Kamik...

It was as if the sky itself was calling for him. Then...

thug

Something hit the ground besides him, near his head. It was a dagger. Kamik reached for the red well ornamented dagger and imediatelly felt a new strenght run through his body. He stood, holding the dagger tightly by its blade with his Silver Hand.

- Malachin! - he shouted to the sky.

The last thing he remembered was entering Troll's Bane carrying the dagger, seeing Maliss and Taylor and muttering: "Malachin Shrine... Grey Refuge..." before collapsing again.
He never saw the people carrying him to the shrine, he never saw the spell Maliss cast on him, he never saw the sacrifice of his brother, he never saw that dagger shining and never heard that voice again. But the wounds closed alone and the skies opened over him, through the ceiling. And Malachin welcomed his hunter and gave him a second chance.




Malachin...

The dagger - Malachin's Dagger - shines in his belt as he sleeps...