The Birth Of A Coward
Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2003 12:39 am
It was the dead of night and the tranquility of Fangorn Forest was broken. The usual silence of the woods gone, in its place the sound of breaking branches and disturbed undergrowth.
A lone man wearing robes which would be mistaken for rags apart for the image of a blazing sun which could be made out upon this now ravaged cloth was in haste. Hes brow showed the sheen of sweat as he made hes way through the woods.
He was Aristeaus, once a scribe in the order of Heavenly Respite, but now a man on the run. He could hear no sign of pursuit but he knew he was not alone.
Hes once peacefull life of study had ended only hours before, where once there were books and the sounds of the choir, all that remained were flames and death.
Hes last memories of the monastery were those of screaming.
It had been an ordinary day in the young scribes life. Hes master the elf Laurandilas had been supervising hes research upon the races of Illarion.
' So Aristeaus what have you learnt about the lizard folk and their lost cities '.
Aristeaus looked up from the tome when the sound of somebodys scream erupted into the room. Laurandilas stood and motioned with hes hand for Aristeaus to stay seated.
Laurandilas stayed motionless towering of hes pupil, murmering odd sylables which Aristeaus had never heard before.
Before the doors to the room burst open Aristeaus noticed a change in hes master, he looked the same, but it seemed as a power radiated from hes allways peacefull presence. Before the Aristeaus could make out the figure in the doorway hes master had risen hes hand and cried out a word which Aristeaus had never heard, let alone hope to copy. Lights silhouted the figure in the doorway marking the stranger as an Orc, the orc began to howl in agony, the light was not just illuminating this fiend it was burning it alive.
' Quickly Aristeaus, make haste. These fiends are led by a old evil i can only maintain my powers for so long! '
As he spoke more figures where emerging into the frame of the doorway and suffering the same fate as their first companion.
' The window, flee you fool! ' as he spoke a large shadow started to envelope the room.
So i fled, as i vaulted from the window i heard my master hurling another word of power, its effect chilling me even as i fell through the air into the forest below. As i landed in the moat and emerged from the murky waters, i felt elation how could anything survive the power which my master had unleased. These thoughts did not last long as i heard a hollowing scream emerge from the window above, not any scream... My masters.
So i fled,I the coward, fled.
A lone man wearing robes which would be mistaken for rags apart for the image of a blazing sun which could be made out upon this now ravaged cloth was in haste. Hes brow showed the sheen of sweat as he made hes way through the woods.
He was Aristeaus, once a scribe in the order of Heavenly Respite, but now a man on the run. He could hear no sign of pursuit but he knew he was not alone.
Hes once peacefull life of study had ended only hours before, where once there were books and the sounds of the choir, all that remained were flames and death.
Hes last memories of the monastery were those of screaming.
It had been an ordinary day in the young scribes life. Hes master the elf Laurandilas had been supervising hes research upon the races of Illarion.
' So Aristeaus what have you learnt about the lizard folk and their lost cities '.
Aristeaus looked up from the tome when the sound of somebodys scream erupted into the room. Laurandilas stood and motioned with hes hand for Aristeaus to stay seated.
Laurandilas stayed motionless towering of hes pupil, murmering odd sylables which Aristeaus had never heard before.
Before the doors to the room burst open Aristeaus noticed a change in hes master, he looked the same, but it seemed as a power radiated from hes allways peacefull presence. Before the Aristeaus could make out the figure in the doorway hes master had risen hes hand and cried out a word which Aristeaus had never heard, let alone hope to copy. Lights silhouted the figure in the doorway marking the stranger as an Orc, the orc began to howl in agony, the light was not just illuminating this fiend it was burning it alive.
' Quickly Aristeaus, make haste. These fiends are led by a old evil i can only maintain my powers for so long! '
As he spoke more figures where emerging into the frame of the doorway and suffering the same fate as their first companion.
' The window, flee you fool! ' as he spoke a large shadow started to envelope the room.
So i fled, as i vaulted from the window i heard my master hurling another word of power, its effect chilling me even as i fell through the air into the forest below. As i landed in the moat and emerged from the murky waters, i felt elation how could anything survive the power which my master had unleased. These thoughts did not last long as i heard a hollowing scream emerge from the window above, not any scream... My masters.
So i fled,I the coward, fled.