| Shadow's Lair The village itself was rather unimpressive, more of a group of houses that had grown up out of a unorganized refugee camp, although the houses were spaced out enough it was cozy rather than crowded. There were two buildings set off to the side weather on purpose or not would have been hard to say, for anyone other than the villagers and me, and I do not plan on telling, The streets hardly deserve the name and are nothing more than well worn paths frequented by horses and foot traffic, no carts have ever graced the village's streets, and the villagers have kept it that way ever since they came nearly two years past. It was never meant to be a defendable place. Consequently, I now sit quietly and watch this drama unfolding before me, debating my course of action, for today those who had invaded my lands to build their precious village, are under attack. When they originally came, it had been painfully obvious they were fleeing someone or something. Unfortunately they had chosen to settle in my lands, and they had no idea as to how to build a defendable village, thus their current problems. Had they built it for defense they would have been fine, safe from their pursuers. Regardless they simply were not that intelligent. Their stupidity, I think, their stupidity has forced me to this decision, should I lend my aid and risk forsaking my solitude, or should I allow my enemies to succeed and then send them a thank-you card? Ah well, it was worth the thought, but, they might decide such an action was a sign of weakness on my part, totally unacceptable. Worse yet it may be interpreted that I can no longer hold the Black Tower. I sigh then realizing that I have already chosen to take the unwanted task. However briefly I wonder if the village might win on it's own, yet dismiss the idea as improbable, possible but definitely not likely. I may still be young, but I am definitely not ignorant in this area. As I was preparing myself to rise and go to the village's aid, an odd movement in the farthest end of the battlefield catches my attention. A swordsmen-no a swordswoman is fighting for the villagers and holding her own in battle, alone, against some of the worst odds. 13 wind howlers, the sight of which makes me bare my fangs in rage, how dare these vile things enter my lands. Thirteen when most warriors would have frozen cold with fear, soiled themselves, run and dropped their weapons, in that order, when faced with only seven, run, and tried to hide in the safest place they could think of, not that there was any such safe place to run to with a pack of �howlers on your trail. Once a howler has your scent they never loose it, unless you kill it, permanently. Yet here this one fights as though possessed, handling her sword with deadly accuracy, and not running where lesser, or perhaps saner, warriors would flee. While these observations are probably necessary, I realize that I am merely delaying the inevitable. Just as I realize that with the proper training and the right teacher she may yet realize her potential and become so much more. I quietly and quickly arose from my seat behind my desk, smiling a smile that on any other may have looked rather peaceful, yet on me appeared to be secretive, mysterious, and down right deadly, or so I've been told. I immediately began an Archway spell to get myself to the battle as quickly as possible, so as to make up for the time I had already wasted. As I began this spell I also grabbed my weapons, Hell Cat, my sword, and Nathanethdel, my favorite and most powerful staff. The staff was already in a shoulder rig so that I could simply swung it over my shoulder and fasten it to my back, which is exactly what I did. The sword I drew out after I had belted the scabbard on I planned on going in to the fray with my sword naked in my hands, there was no point in going into battle with Hell' sheathed when I knew that I would immediately be facing dangers that can only be faced with spell and sword. As an after thought I also threw open the doors to my office, knowing that Dark Thunder could open all the doors to the keep excepting this one, mostly because I use it as a retreat from the world although sometimes the world has other ideas, and he would be most irate if I made it difficulty for him to reach me. The office of course is difficult for anyone else to reach and is decorated in black, with hints of blue, and silver with hawks flying on every surface of the room possible without bordering on the tacky or gaudy side, and done tastefully, according to the angle you would have seem them from, excepting the ceiling which had an accurate star chart done all in silvers and black with only some hints of dark blue and no hawks. Of course the starry background was behind all the other scenes, just to balance them out, and the floor is covered in a dark forest green carpet. The whole place blends the smells of ancient forests open skies the scent of dried roses along with some other harder to identify yet pleasant smells. The other end of the gate landed, though with some difficulty, in the outskirts of the town and so giving little thought to the action I headed through, That was a mistake. Fire roared through my body, however briefly for I quickly Shielded myself from that particular threat. I then Proceeded to trace the mage who had done this, any one that could attack me through my Shields must be a threat. I could only trace the spell so far, it had been a set enchantment specially cast for me, it had been set from a distance and the spell caster is in the west, male, and very evil, and reeked of every type of forbidden magic known to Elvish Kind. Thwarted for the time being by this maniac I shut down the Archway then I headed off in to the thickest of the fray, however the villagers were holding off most of their attackers, and the nonhuman attackers were handled easily enough by Hell'. Unfortunately there was no sign of the elvish woman, the villagers, Elvish and human alike, were beginning to cast very worried looks in my direction, and some foolish twerp had ripped my favorite shirt, though he had died by my sword, I wish I had time to do something more...... creative. True I must give them some credit most of the villagers were rather fierce fighters, trained or untrained it did not matter they all fought valiantly, I was actually considering trying to start a permanent partnership with them, on my terms of course. None of the villagers however showed any sign that the lady which I had seen was any thing more than a figment of my imagination. For the most part the enemies that I have encountered have all been dressed as though they were common brigands, yet they fight with a sort of unity and skill which are not found in such bands. This sudden revelation came to me as I was pulling my sword from the heart of my latest victim, these "bandits" must have been sent by the maniac from which these people are running, and the man who had dared to attack me! I realized then also that there had to be something more to the elvish girl. Though by my estimation she can be no more than sixteen, if even that, she has to be the key to everything and will probably be in the thick of everything, though the worst of the fighting had already died down, and the rest of the peasants had already begun the job of hunting down the rest of the "bandits". Now if I were a stupid and terrified elvish female, and one of these villagers where would I hide? Of course the armory or their meeting hall, both of which were in the outskirts of town and well away from the rest of the fighting. Furiously I ran over towards the buildings, praying to all of the many faces of God that I was right, and blessing whatever quirk of fate had created the People of the Midnight Sun. For the speed and agility of my race saved me from many falls which I may have taken had I been anything else and allowed me to better absorb the shock of the one fall into the dusty street I did take. Already however half a candlemark had passed since I had last seen any sign of the elvish child and so I doubt there would be much if anything left of the girl worth salvaging. Although the fighting is over for the most part I have encountered a few groups that out numbered me they steered clear apparently the didn't want to play with me. However at this point they would only have succeeded in aggravating me more, and I would only have ended up avoiding them or out distancing them. Then I finally reached the armory and the meeting hall, even though it had been only a few short moments the short run seemed to have taken forever. First I decided to check the meeting hall, and aside from a few over turned benches scattered papers and the podium the Meeting hall is empty, which left only two possibilities, the armory and the Black Forest. If it was the armory that she had gone to there was still a chance that she could find a place that they could only attack her from one direction and thus hold off her attackers and eventually defeat them, however in the forest she would be easy prey for the pack. Even considering this I expect to have to pick up whatever pieces of her that the pack had left behind. Upon opening the armory I found almost exactly what I had expected to. Only it is the bodies of the wind howlers that need picked up before they cause the place to permanently smell like a slaughter house. In life the wind howler's coats would have been an egg shell white only instead of staying only that color they would have reflected every color of the rainbow. In death they had lost all such properties and become a shade of grey that only a corpse can take though they would remain a threat until their bodies had been burned down to ash. Five of the howlers lay dead at my feet, and I can still hear the sounds of fighting towards the back of the armory it appears as though I am not too late, the day is looking up. |