Helbrethim of the Meldremain
Prologue
I was born into the hard ways of winter. The bite of cold winter winds were among my first feelings. The chill touch of steel was always welcome in my hands. I was never at peace, with myself, or my enemies. I never found rest from evil. All of my days were filled with war and pain. I am Helbrethim, last of the Meldremain. My people once ruled all of Carcoris. But now they possess nothing. Nothing but the clothes on their back and the sword in their hands. We dwell only in those lands too inhospitable even for the enemy to enter. Desperate is our cause, and grim are our people, but even so, we will not give up. We will not give in.
Of my Early Years
At a young age I found that I was the only one in our camp that was young. All of the others were men, tall and grim. I was given respect and gave it back. I was expected to do a man�s work and so I did. I worked from dawn to sunset every day for my people, or what is left of them. When I was a mere child I helped the older men in the fields. Such as they were. By the age of 13 I had been in combat multiple times and slain many orcs, goblins, and men. By my hand and by the hands of the other men of my people was our small winter vale kept safe from the dark fingers of the enemy. We were so high up that even in summer it was rare to have temperatures that did not require warm clothing. Our crops were meager and our meat less. But we held on for many years.
When I was 16 I learned at last who my father and mother were. My father was a great warrior in our camp and had died before my birth. My mother was the last and fairest of the women of my people. She died soon after I was born. I have always dealt with hardship. That was the first of them. By 16 I was a man. I stood taller than most in our camp and stronger than many. But I was grim and sad. I saw no hope for my people. By my hand was my sword and shield forged. My sword was named Tarchocoth, which is Flame of Death in our long forgotten tongue. It earned its name time and time again in the narrow pass leading into our valley. When foul things draw near it shines with a bright white light. Like a beacon by the sea or a star in the heavens. Often did the evil things of the Darkness feel its bite.
When I turned 18 I was given a choice. I was the last of our people and so I was told this:
�Go whence you wish and remember always your people, but if you would heed us then we beg that you remain here to our deaths. We will grow old and would not wish to fall into the hands of the enemy�
I stayed in the Valley for I knew no other home. But within me I loathed it. It was a sign of despair and death to me. A symbol of the failure of my people. A beacon of death. Not long after I made that choice my kinsmen began to die of age or weariness with the world. I did not mourn or weep. I had grown too hard for that. I could kill without emotion and live without feeling. The long years of winter and pain had shaped me into what I despised. A symbol of failure. The men in the camp remembered the old days and still had hope. I, who had never seen the fair cities and had never felt warmth on my neck, had none. My only purpose was to defend and kill. But I often wondered what would come next. When everyone else died what would I be? Where would I go? Why should I live?
At 20 there was only one of them left. His name was Corthos. He was the oldest of them all but wise. He saw in me the loathing and the pain. He saw through the hard and emotionless outside. Thus it came to be in my 20th year that my life changed.
The Days of Protection
�Helbrethim! Come here!� shouted Corthos.
I did not respond but came and stood looking down on his old body sitting on the hard stones at the mouth of our cave.
�Helbrethim, you must learn to smile sometime. When this war is over-� he began. I cut him off.
�It will not ever be over� I said it in a flat tone that indicated neither anger, pain, frustration, or anything else.
�It will end, for better or for worse. There are bound to be some others out beyond our valley who are still surviving! Don�t lose hope!� he scolded.
�Yes sir.� I replied as I turned and went back to working in our �fields�. It seemed like we grew more rocks than food. The food we did grow was hardly enough and tasted terrible. But it was all we had.
I continued to gather up the fallen berries and nuts and pull up the edible roots. I heard Corthos singing in his raspy voice.
He sang of times long gone. Of great cities with walls of bright white and rimmed in gold. Of towers sparkling in the sun. He sang of valorous men and fair maidens. I believed that those things once existed but did not anymore.
I finished gathering food and walked back to Corthos.
�We might live this winter I think.� I stated flatly. I was neither cheerful nor sad.
�Oh, come on you old rock! We may be nearly about to starve and be hemmed in on all sides by snowcapped mountains and be doomed to a painful and slow death but cheer up! There is so little to be happy about that its comical!� he joked. Then he grew grim, �But, we must ration ourselves even more. I haven�t seen much game about nor much of anything at all. Come to think of it, I have seen an unusually small amount of Orc sign this season. That may be a good thing!�
�Maybe� I replied.
�Will you ever be optimistic?� he inquired.
�No.� I replied boredly.
He found this funny somehow and began to laugh. It was a rich deep sound. But It made me think of the deep throaty cry of orcs when they charge. It was no longer pleasant to my ears. Suddenly I realized I wasn�t just imagining the cries. I was actually hearing them.
I turned around calmly and took up my sword, shield, and bow. Coming up the pass was a company of Orcs. They were clad in strange garments. More heavily armed than the other orcs. But orcs all the same.
�Wait here.� I said.
�Okay. I�ll just sit.� He replied just as flatly.
I walked calmly to the opening of the pass. Only three or four orcs could come through at once so it would be no huge problem fending them off.
The first line came charging forward. They bore cast iron helms and large wooden shields. Under that the wore thick chain mail and metal greaves. On the shield was painted the device of a gray snake�s head with blue eyes. I swung hard at the first row of orcs. Two of them fell to the ground. I leapt forward and stabbed backwards into the back of one of the orcs. I then quickly brought my sword upwards to parry a blow from the front. It shone with a glistening white light. They orcs reeled backwards in fear. I swung straight downwards at one Orc that was just trying to get up. It cut through his helm and split his skull.
I then brought out my bow and fired off three shots. All of them found their marks on the heads of Orcs. Another wave approached and I lifted my shield and ran at them. It knocked them to the ground. I then proceeded to stab each one. The rest of the orcs finally gathered their courage and charged. I slew them all one by one. Orc by Orc. When I was finally finished I pillaged their bodies for armor and such so that no other orcs could come and claim them. These I would melt into molten metal in the forge within my cave.
I also picked up a shield and studied the symbol on it. The snake had been the crest of the Meldremain royal house but it had been a red snake on a black shield. I believed it to be a mockery of my royal house and I burned the shields to ashes.
�So, what took you so long? Normally you take less time.� asked Corthos.
�They wore unusually heavy armor and wore helms. They bore also a strange device on their shields. It was a gray snake.� I replied in a nearly monotone voice.
�Really? A red snake was the Meldremain royal crest wasn�t it? Strange that our enemies would take up a such a similar symbol.� He mused out loud.
�It is a mockery. A mockery to my people and my house.� I stated with a hint of anger.
�You just sounded angry. That�s nearly a first.�
My life went on like that for many months after that. But I grew continually closer to Corthos though I showed still less emotion than before. I was constantly thinking about what I would do when he died. But one day I returned to a different Corthos.
As I walked up to the cave with my arms full of roots and berries I noticed an unusual silence. I set my load down by the door and entered the cave cautiously. It was utterly silent. The air seemed heavy in my throat. There was some lurking evil nearby. I could feel it. I took up my sword and unsheathed it. It was faintly glowing. I heard a moan from the corner. It sounded like Corthos. I slowly walked to him. He fell prostrate at my feet suddenly. I knelt just as I felt a wisp of air move over my head and heard a solid thus against the wooden table near me. I turned and pulled Corthos into a niche nearby. I came in behind. My sword glowed brighter the closer it got to Corthos.
Suddenly his eyes came open. They had a fey look in them then they turned blue and his face turned gray. His hands groped at my neck. In the dim light around me I saw on his neck a cut where an arrow entered his neck. I wrestled him to the ground but he became possessed by unearthly strength. I heard footsteps in the cave coming closer and closer. Corthos took out a knife and tried to cut my throat. I pushed back his hand. The footsteps came closer. I heard Corthos rasp, �I am the gray snake!� then I knew that he had truly been possessed by the evils of the enemy. I wondered if it had come from the arrow wound in his neck. There might have been an evil poison. Then I raised up my sword and drove it through his heart. He gasped and fell dead.
Then I rose up and leapt into the cave. A man stood there but he was not a man. There was an evil look in his eyes. They were bright blue and evil. His skin was a sickly gray hue. He took out a sword and lunged at me. I knew suddenly that my enemies had found some new devilry to attack me with. It was some type of fell poison that corrupts the mind of even the best of men. Then I felt rage and anger boil up inside of me. I swung heavily at the man and my sword cleaved him in two along the waist. His body fell with a thump on the ground. Then I wept.
My only friend and companion was dead and I had slain him. I had killed my own kind. I had slain my kin. I mourned for seven days and seven nights. I buried his body deep in the earth where no force of good or evil would defile it. I cut every plant, tree and scrap of wood into pieces easily caught on fire and piled them over his grave. I found every Orc carcass I could and piled them there as well. Then I burnt it all. I burnt every trace of my life and his. I covered the mouth of the cave and sowed the fields with rocks. Then I went to the pass and covered it with rock, dirt and ash. I then renamed the valley from Dregnaros, Cold Valley, to Narosogrothos, which is valley of the kin slayer. Then I knew where I would go, and what I would do. I would find the ones responsible for the death of Corthos and the rest of my people. I would hunt them all down and finish them. I gave myself the name Cothgav. Bringer of Death.
Of the Days of Wrath
Ten days after I left Corthos in Narosogrothos I saw for the first time green lands. I had wandered westward for many days and I slew every foul and evil thing that crossed my path. I was filled with anger for I saw what had been long kept from my people. What the evils of the world had corrupted. For though many hills and valleys were fair. Greater still was the number that were dark and shadowed, filled with an evil malice. In dells and hollows in these hills did I live for many months. My fame grew and tales spread far of the prowess of the light of the mountains, for I did not stray out of sight of them.
But in time I became older and when I reached the age of 25 I grew discontented with my life. And to the west did I cast my eyes ever. Few were the occasions when I met others of the free peoples. They shied away from me for I was not kind to them either. When I looked upon them I saw only weaklings and turncoats. They had not aided my peoples cause and so I would do the same for them. Revenge and justice are what I sought and I would have them.
I gathered up my few belongings and set out to the west. After three days I arrived at a road. It was in a forested valley and seemed to forebode ill but I set out upon it anyways. I looked to the north, up the road, and saw a bridge over a small creek. The sound of the creek seemed strangely muted and dim. Everything about me seemed unnaturally shadowed and dim. Suddenly strange cries rent the air. The sounded at first like the cries of Ravens but changed to the shrill call of a woman. I saw many large black birds rise suddenly out of the trees and fly swiftly Northwards. There was something strange about them but I couldn�t place it in my mind.
Suddenly there was a rustling of leaves behind me and I turned. One of the birds was flying straight at me. I ducked and grabbed it as it flew above me. It was pulled to the ground. It let out a high pitched screech that sounded dark and evil. I grasped the bird�s neck and pulled it closer and rasped this, �Tell your master that it was an unwise mistake to leave even one of the Meldremain living! For he shall have his wrath!�
Then the bird replied in a strange voice that seemed rough and yet graceful at one time. It held me entranced for I know not how long. He spoke this, � I shall tell him thus, and he shall be pleased to have a foe again!� then I released him and stumbled backwards. The bird had had piercing blue eyes. Just like the man in the cave and the snake on the shield. I walked on in dazed confusion and lost myself in the shadowy wood. After several days of my wanderings I came to my senses and stopped walking. I did not know which way the path was and had little hope of returning to it.
Then I heard a haunting voice. It sang clearly but in a strange tongue which I did not know. I turned towards it.