Post by Helia Hawke on Apr 29, 2005 11:00:13 GMT -5
As the sword slide between my ribs and the world turned grey I remembered the tales mom had told me as a little girl about this place…and of the strange people who live there. She had warned me about how hard they hit….mom was wrong…they were way tougher than she remembered. So what drew me here? What attracted me to certain death? The answer is simple…profit my friends….sad, sad, sad…not adventure. Not this time. I had heard that the victory over one such opponent could earn one enough to buy 7 horses. The tales proved correct. But not because of own doing…rather because of luck…
My new, ghostly visage drifted back through the metal door behind me…where not a few moments before, it had clanged shut with a sudden, loud reverberating noise that seemed to fill my soul…I should have heeded the warnings. The eerie sight of the grim twisted woods came into view. Beyond the stretch of the first copse of trees paced a healer that had made the dangerous trek from nearby Umbra in service of humanity. I would be his next client….
…the grey world had just gone back to color and there I stood in my death shroud. I stared at the metal door that I had drifted through not moments before. I knew what lay on the other side. Shortly after my own death I had heard the screams…the death knell that told me what befell my steed, shortly following my own death. What also lay beyond those doors, still being worn by my former corpse…was armor that had been a gift from Lady Kameko…and I really liked that armor….not to mention the frosty white spear that proved to be invulnerable to damage…a spear that had been hard won by myself (and thereby hangs yet another tale.)
Setting a grim look on my face, I made my way determinedly to the metal door…making sure I “bravely” kept to the shadows. After all…a shroud makes very poor armor indeed when faced with razor sharp steel. The door quietly creaked as I opened it just enough to slide my body through sideways. There on the other side of the hallway was the object that I sought….my slayer no where in sight. Slowly I crept across the hallway. Oh so quietly I reached for my armor….making not a sound…so quiet in fact, that it was all to easy to hear the swish of a sword cutting through the air behind me as the world went gray once more.
I turned…or rather my spectral body turned, while my physical body crumbled into a heap next to the corpse that already lay on the floor. There before me stood the grim sight that had been the cause of my death once again. My friends, it is a sight to chill one right to the bone. These creatures dress in armor that seems to glow red, from within…as if some hellish power animated it. When I entered the hallway the first time…seeking my opponent, the first thing that greeted my senses was the smell of death…a smell that one does not easily forget….and yet…something more.
I remember standing there….oil…yes oil…it was a feint smell of oil…
…which had made sense since mom told me that these creatures where far more than the men and women they had once been in life….mom told me that they were part machine. They appeared to be human, but the smell of oil, and the shear raw power of these creatures belied their TRUE nature…
There is an old adage my friends…that says simply “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.” This and another adage ran through my mind…. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again; then quite. Don’t be a fool about it.”….yes…both ran through my mind as my opponents sword sliced through yet another death shroud….again…
…and again
…and again
…and again
…until the floor of the hallway had become littered about the room with my corpses…
…and commons sense had long since given way to foolhardiness…
I had long since stopped skulking about in the shadows and was now simply walking through the door…when suddenly the room was filled with smoke. It was not long before the smoke cleared revealing a sight I shall long remember.
A rabbit…a small rabbit whom I would soon learn was named “Fluffy”…
…a rabbit that continually lunged at my former opponent…and WAS WINNING!
“GO, GO, GO” I cheered on the small rabbit!
Soon the red knight collapsed in a heap of red steel, blood and black oil on the floor of the hallway….and gold and diamonds were flung about carelessly as the small rabbit sorted through the fresh corpse.
“How humiliating,” he said, shaking his head, “defeated by a rabbit”
Still dumbstruck by the sight I had just witnessed I listened….as the rabbit turned and spoke to me…
“No carrots, not a one. How disappointing. You humans and your gold…”
Finally I found my tongue again, “Thank you for saving my life.”
“Not a problem, the rabbit shot back at me. You look like you needed some help. Hi there…name’s Fluffy…who are you?”
“Fluffy?” I replied… Not THE Fluffy…the same rabbit that mom had told me about. THE FLUFFY!”
“Yup…the same.” came my reply.
Fluffy looked up at me.
“Say. Got any carrots? You know, he continued, not many people actually stop to talk to me. Only a woman named Dusti. People are always to busy trying to accumulate that gold stuff or busy making things to talk to me. Say! Would you like to go with me to my favorite tavern?’
I had no sooner agreed to go, than a luminescent blue moongate appeared in the hallway. Stepping through I appeared in a tavern….I was soon to learn all about Fluffy first hand.
(to be continued)
My new, ghostly visage drifted back through the metal door behind me…where not a few moments before, it had clanged shut with a sudden, loud reverberating noise that seemed to fill my soul…I should have heeded the warnings. The eerie sight of the grim twisted woods came into view. Beyond the stretch of the first copse of trees paced a healer that had made the dangerous trek from nearby Umbra in service of humanity. I would be his next client….
…the grey world had just gone back to color and there I stood in my death shroud. I stared at the metal door that I had drifted through not moments before. I knew what lay on the other side. Shortly after my own death I had heard the screams…the death knell that told me what befell my steed, shortly following my own death. What also lay beyond those doors, still being worn by my former corpse…was armor that had been a gift from Lady Kameko…and I really liked that armor….not to mention the frosty white spear that proved to be invulnerable to damage…a spear that had been hard won by myself (and thereby hangs yet another tale.)
Setting a grim look on my face, I made my way determinedly to the metal door…making sure I “bravely” kept to the shadows. After all…a shroud makes very poor armor indeed when faced with razor sharp steel. The door quietly creaked as I opened it just enough to slide my body through sideways. There on the other side of the hallway was the object that I sought….my slayer no where in sight. Slowly I crept across the hallway. Oh so quietly I reached for my armor….making not a sound…so quiet in fact, that it was all to easy to hear the swish of a sword cutting through the air behind me as the world went gray once more.
I turned…or rather my spectral body turned, while my physical body crumbled into a heap next to the corpse that already lay on the floor. There before me stood the grim sight that had been the cause of my death once again. My friends, it is a sight to chill one right to the bone. These creatures dress in armor that seems to glow red, from within…as if some hellish power animated it. When I entered the hallway the first time…seeking my opponent, the first thing that greeted my senses was the smell of death…a smell that one does not easily forget….and yet…something more.
I remember standing there….oil…yes oil…it was a feint smell of oil…
…which had made sense since mom told me that these creatures where far more than the men and women they had once been in life….mom told me that they were part machine. They appeared to be human, but the smell of oil, and the shear raw power of these creatures belied their TRUE nature…
There is an old adage my friends…that says simply “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.” This and another adage ran through my mind…. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again; then quite. Don’t be a fool about it.”….yes…both ran through my mind as my opponents sword sliced through yet another death shroud….again…
…and again
…and again
…and again
…until the floor of the hallway had become littered about the room with my corpses…
…and commons sense had long since given way to foolhardiness…
I had long since stopped skulking about in the shadows and was now simply walking through the door…when suddenly the room was filled with smoke. It was not long before the smoke cleared revealing a sight I shall long remember.
A rabbit…a small rabbit whom I would soon learn was named “Fluffy”…
…a rabbit that continually lunged at my former opponent…and WAS WINNING!
“GO, GO, GO” I cheered on the small rabbit!
Soon the red knight collapsed in a heap of red steel, blood and black oil on the floor of the hallway….and gold and diamonds were flung about carelessly as the small rabbit sorted through the fresh corpse.
“How humiliating,” he said, shaking his head, “defeated by a rabbit”
Still dumbstruck by the sight I had just witnessed I listened….as the rabbit turned and spoke to me…
“No carrots, not a one. How disappointing. You humans and your gold…”
Finally I found my tongue again, “Thank you for saving my life.”
“Not a problem, the rabbit shot back at me. You look like you needed some help. Hi there…name’s Fluffy…who are you?”
“Fluffy?” I replied… Not THE Fluffy…the same rabbit that mom had told me about. THE FLUFFY!”
“Yup…the same.” came my reply.
Fluffy looked up at me.
“Say. Got any carrots? You know, he continued, not many people actually stop to talk to me. Only a woman named Dusti. People are always to busy trying to accumulate that gold stuff or busy making things to talk to me. Say! Would you like to go with me to my favorite tavern?’
I had no sooner agreed to go, than a luminescent blue moongate appeared in the hallway. Stepping through I appeared in a tavern….I was soon to learn all about Fluffy first hand.
(to be continued)