Subject: RPG:History and flight
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 08:59:18 -0800 (PST)
From: Stana Hierspiel <darkannex@yahoo.com>

                The mortal lay sleeping uneasily, tosing and turning.
Apparently she could not even find a peace in her repose. The Unicorn
trapped in human form sat watching for a time. He never needed much
sleep, and there was a feeling in his stomache that would not allow
him to look away from the girl.
                 He wondered what had posessed him to lie in the first
place. He had told her that no mortal had ever worn the pendant, when
there was indeed a story of one. Perhaps it was because he had truly
thought that it was a fable. But he kept hearing, over and over,
Rashka telling him that he looked, smelt and lied like a human. That
scalded.
                 There hadnt been a time he could remember when he had
brooded in any fashion. But he sat there and gazed at the disquieted
mortal and allowed his thoughts to travel down untrodded dark paths.
                 Why had he lied? Jealousy? That the princess he had
risked so much to rescue-had given up his immortality for-had chosen a
mere human over him? Jealousy was a base emotion. It was beneath him.
Then why did that hollow feeling in his stomache contine to plague?
                 Before the time of the rending there had been a
mortal foolish enough to love a Unicorn.  He had longed and pined
after her. Cared for her as a child and waited as she grew older. But
as she did, so did he that much the quicker. She had given him the
medallion, and his ageing slowed to a snail's pace. Despite he was a
mortal, their tales spoke only of his great honor and love of all
things living. He forsook his fellow humans and dwelt among the
Unicorns.
                  But as tim eprgressed, there grew within him a
darkness, as the amulet took his faults and exagerrated them.  The
medallion began to remake the human in its image. Inhuman and consmed
only with the thoughts of taking revenge on the Earth's maligners.
Eventually the desires  began to eat at, and consumed him. He fought,
taking all his will and innate love of life into the fray. And he
lost. The Princess, Rashka, led the attack to defeat him. Madness was
the least of the horror.
                  Unicorns fell in droves that day, fighting to
contain the monster they had unwittingly created. The maddened human
broke free and wreaked massive destruction before he was finally
brought down in the fields still called the Bloody Madness in ancient
tongues.
                  Stana had listened to him with an outward calm. Only
the paleness of her face and the darting of her eyes in short panicked
bursts betrayed her fright.  After that she had thanked him quietly
for telling her the truth and turned her face to the wall for a long
time. She hadnt spoken to him since. Not even a good night.
                  What he had tried to tell her was that he believed
in his princess. Clip did not think she would do anything to endanger
anyone, and not her rescuer. He could not figure out how to set the
mortal's mind at ease, unless of coursethe whole legend was untrue.
                  But that light around her-the violence in her gaze
as power beat around her and called the trees to life...that was real.
And she knew it too. In that moment she could have kiled any one of
them. And not have stopped herself. Once the killing started-it would
have never ended. An army had not stopped the last Elemental gone bad.
One young colt would have no chance at all.
                  He wondered then about the tales of the elements
that had been told from mare to foal. Of the four brought together as
one. Bringing the end and the beginning. How one would fall, and
betrayal catalyze death.  He remembered how he quaked as a foal
whenever the thunder rolled. He feared the mortals-the bringers of the
end.
                   Now looking at Stana, he shivered much like he had
then.
                   Tainted power. The perversion of the tortured
earth, reaching out to grapple the less than immortal. There had never
been a time in his life he had felt anything but scorn for mortals.
He couldn't let her out of his circle of protection.
                    Clip's mind was darting all over-moving too
lightening fast and against itself.  Then he heard something. His eyes
rose to meet Stana's as she too woke to listen.
                     That was when shouts and warning bells began
clanging, and everything went to hell in a hurry.
                     Stacey did not make a sound as the glass window
beside the bed shattered; bursting inward. She cowered, the glass
nicking her ckeek and face. Clip had transformed in the first moment,
watching a simultaneous attack on the door.  There was little time for
subtlety now, thir lives were in danger. He shouted for her to mount
even as he fell mute in the transformation.
                      She reponded with alacrity, taking a quick run
across the bed and hopping on his back. She clung to his mane as he
half reared and took off at a run. He took two steps before barrelling
out the front door, knowcking their assailants out of the way.
                       Clip trumpeted his defiance, glowing brightly
in his wrath. There was a moments lull as the Unicorn looked about
and realized that the fighting was all around.
                       "There!" came a cry, and both beast and girl
looked to where the shout was taken up. More than a few were beginning
their way.  Noone was recognized, which made them the enemy.  Then
there was a cross current as some of the Army of Steel crashed into
the advancing group. Blood and gore flew in the air. Stana screamed as
she saw one of "her gaurds"  disemboweled. It was the guy who had
asked to carry her bedroll.  She couldnt help it, she kept screaming.
                       "Get her out!" roared the Commander to the
Unicorn. "West-go WEST!" He slapped the flat of the blade against
Clips' rump, leaving a bloody smear. The Unicorn was so startled that
he took off, driving a path through the masses. He felt the girl still
holding tightly, face buried and he heard her sobbing. But he felt no
wetness from tears. The medallion burned against his neck very hotly.