New Beginnings

This is a story I've been working on off and on for a few years, figured with all the free time I would try and see if I could actually finish it. As always, the usual disclaimer about being a novice writer and all that jazz. Regardless though, hope you enjoy it!

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The bright sunny day suddenly darkened, giving the man who called himself Jarek Giles pause.

“Catch me!” came a woman’s voice from above, so Jarek dutifully put his arms out just in time to snag a beautiful woman as she plummeted from above. All things considered, not the worst way to start a day.

Jarek looked into the woman’s clear green eyes, and was surprised by what he saw there. As previously mentioned, she was pretty, and the firmness of her body in his hands danced at the edges of his thoughts, but something in her eyes demanded his attention. Intelligence, warmth, and curiosity were all there, as well as something more resolute.

After a brief moment, almost frozen in time as the two took stock of one another, the girl leaned forward and gave him a quick, playful kiss on the cheek. “Thanks handsome, but you can put me down now” she said with a smile.

“Do I have to?” Jarek replied, and he meant it.

She laughed, a sweet, lilting sound, and nodded. “For now at least, I find I am in a bit of a hurry at the moment.”

Jarek looked up and saw several armed guards pointing down at her and shouting. “That’s unfortunate. Anything I can help with?”

The woman laughed again. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

He set her down and she started to turn away, but Jarek put a hand lightly on her arm to stop her. “Can I get a name at least?”

“Only if you see me again.” With that and a wink, she dashed off.

Jarek watched her go, realizing as he did he already missed her. He shrugged his shoulders and started to continue on his way when he felt arms grab him from behind and slam him down into the dusty road. Before he could regain the breath knocked out of him, a man was sitting on his chest with his knees pinning Jarek’s arms down and a knife to his throat.

“Who are you and why did you help her?” the man demanded. He was dressed in a city guard’s uniform, which, considering how sweaty the man was, was apparently rather hot.

The initial shock of the encounter gave way to anger at his treatment, but the knife at his throat was problematic. So, Jarek decided to try his best to be diplomatic.

“The name’s Jarek, and I am just doing my best in the fight against broken limbs.”

The guard smirked. “Ah, you are just a dupe then. Well then, dupe, you won’t mind telling me which way the girl went?”

“I’ll show you if you get off me…” Jarek replied.

The guardsman pressed the flat of the blade hard against Jarek’s throat, causing him to gasp for breath. “I don’t believe you are in any position to make demands” he sneered. He held the blade a moment longer, then stood up. “Now, what direction was that again?”

Pausing only briefly to consider the ways in which the girl and the guard had treated him, Jarek pointed in the opposite direction the girl went.

“Thanks” the guard replied before punching Jarek in the stomach. “If you lied to us, we’ll be back.”

As Jarek fell to his knees to recover, the guard was joined by three others, all of whom rushed off in the wrong direction. After a couple of seconds, Jarek took small comfort in muttering “Dupe this” before climbing to his feet. He almost started walking in the direction the girl had gone, but a vague feeling of being watched told him it was a bad idea. The girl had gone north and the guards south, so Jarek decided to head west. He hated not following her, but given the situation, he figured it was best to play it safe, and he needed to not be around when the guards returned from going the wrong direction.

The road west started out busy, mostly with traders and townsfolk going to and from the city, but after a few minutes, the hustle and bustle died down and the path grew quiet. Trees lined the road, but large amounts of sunlight still managed to filter down through them. Before long, Jarek grew thirsty; he had not had time to fill his water skin before having to leave town. As luck would have it though, he heard water running in the distance, so he left the path and ventured towards the sound.

***

The river was wide but shallow, and whispered to him invitingly. He kneeled down and examined the water, which appeared clear and delicious. He paused briefly at his reflection, his mind recalling the girl calling him handsome, then cupped his hands and took several long drinks from the stream. After he had drank his fill, he dunked his whole head in the water before filling his water skin.

Once finished with the river, he stood up and turned around just in time to see five figures wearing various types of leather armor materialized from the woods. They approached slowly, and did not exactly appear friendly. Jarek sighed and stared at the sky momentarily, noticing that dark storm clouds were slowly encroaching on the sunny day and his position. Returning his attention to the earth and the five men before him, he decided to try a tactful approach. “Good evening gentlemen. This must be a popular spot for this river, let me just get out of your way…”

The foremost man raised his arm and pointed Jarek, then balled his hand into a fist. The other four surged forward, unsheathing and unstrapping various weapons as they did so. Taking that as a sign of hostility, Jarek quickly unsheathed the sword from his side and took the plane wooden shield off his back.

The first man that reached him wielded a large axe, making him considerably dangerous but also rather slow. He began to swing the large weapon, and quick as a flash, Jarek surged forward. He ducked beneath the axe, then used his forward momentum to bring the shield edge up, smashing it directly into the man’s throat. The man staggered back, clutching in vain at his shattered larynx, and Jarek continued forward, shoving his shield bodily at the next attacker. The man was pushed back a step and slipped in some river mud, giving Jarek the opening he needed to bring the blade to bear and impale him. However, the dying man grabbed the blade sticking from his chest and clung fiercely with a death grip, preventing Jarek from using it.

The next attacker, sensing victory, hefted a curved scimitar and charged full out, running at top speed to catch Jarek while he was unable to use his weapon. Jarek struggled vainly to get the sword out, but the bandit on the end of the sword would not let go. At the last possible second, just as the charging man was swinging a vertical slash, Jarek rolled to the side, coming up with the knife that the man clasping his sword had dropped. He came to his feet and hurled the knife expertly at the bandit that had rushed past him, catching him in the spine.

Jarek looked around for the other men, spotting them just as they slid into the cover of the trees. After noting the directions in which they fled, he returned his attention to the man grasping his sword, who had finally died. He pried the man’s fingers off the blade and straightened up, mentally considering his options. All of a sudden, he heard a malignant hiss, and he dove to the side just as an arrow soared out from the concealing forest. The arrow thudded painfully in his left shoulder as he dove, but he managed to dodge the kill shot. He rolled when he hit the ground and came abruptly to his feet, dropping the shield due to the pain and running in the direction from whence the arrow had come. This was probably not the best plan of action, but too much rage filled his body for him to think clearly, so he clutched his sword tightly and sought out his quarry. Another arrow flew out from the forest, hitting him in the leg but also betraying the shooter’s position. Jarek did not even feel the pain as he ran, his mind focused utterly on vanquishing his attackers.

The archer was just fitting another arrow to his bow when Jarek hit him with a fierce downward slash, ending the archer’s threat. A chill of weakness and pain coursed down his body, but he dismissed it to begin seeking his final attacker. Lightning suddenly split the sky and rain began to fall in a torrential sheet, but he continued to look around, and the next lightning flash revealed the location of the other highwayman, who was cowering beneath some bushes. Hefting his blade, Jarek let out a ferocious cry and charged.

The remaining man, who had been the leader of the group, screamed in utter terror when he realized that he had been spotted. Without a backward glance, he began to run as fast as he could, knowing that his very survival counted on it. As a result, he did not see his pursuer faint from the loss of blood and exhaustion after only a few seconds of chase.

***

Morrigan Valinor wandered along the road home with his two sons, lamenting the sudden appearance of a heavy rain. Cold and wet, he quietly cursed the heavy grey clouds above his head. A hand touched his shoulder, causing Morrigan to look behind him. One of his sons, Matthias, gave him a faint smile and shrugged.

“Nothing you can do about the rain, Dad,” he said, and Morrigan nodded solemnly.

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

Matthias’s smile grew broader as the youngest son Aric, who was only nine, chimed in “I think it’s refreshing.” Then he gave his father a big smile.

Morrigan could not help but return the favor at that point; his son’s omnipresent optimism always served to lift his spirits. He was about to thank his sons for cheering him up when a wrenching cry cut through the forest, scattering birds in the trees and startling wild animals in the undergrowth.

The three men looked at one another and Morrigan sighed heavily, his good mood fading quickly. His sons peered at him, waiting for his advice, so he gave them a nod of acknowledgement. Without a word, the three took off running in the direction of the scream.

***

After several long minutes, the family came upon the river and a clearing that had clearly seen the chaos of battle recently. Several bodies littered the landscape, none of them having died of pleasant causes.

Morrigan viewed the battlefield with consternation, unsure about what to think. The dead men were clearly bandits, so their loss would not exactly bring humanity to its knees. However, what or whoever had killed them had likely survived the confrontation, and Morrigan did not know if that person was friend or foe.

He heard Aric give a yell. Looking up from his thoughts, Morrigan was surprised to see how far his sons had spread across and from the battlefield while he had been thinking. In fact, he couldn’t even see Aric, who had apparently gone into the trees. Panic surged through him, and he ran towards Matthias, who appeared to be able to see Aric. He quickly reached his son, who was staring down at something in the thick loam of the forest floor.

A closer inspection revealed that it was a man, partially covered in leaves after what appeared to be a heavy fall. He was lying on his stomach, blood seeping from two grievous arrow wounds and onto the blade that he clasped in his right hand. Morrigan tried to roll the man over, but the sword prevented him from putting the man completely on his back. Upon trying to remove the weapon, the stranger grasped the handle tighter, giving Morrigan the sign of life he had been looking for. The chest rose and fell very slowly; it was clear that he had lost a lot of blood. Morrigan looked up at his sons, who stared alternately between the dying man and their father.

“We can’t just leave him here, Dad.” Matthias said.

“He’s hurt badly!” Aric added.

Morrigan grimaced at the realization he would not be able to convince his sons otherwise. It was not that he didn’t want to help the man; he was afraid of what the person would do upon his recovery as Morrigan had a pretty good idea that the dying man was the one who had killed the others in the clearing. But, there did not appear to be another choice, so setting his jaw firmly and taking off his tunic, Morrigan set to work binding the stranger’s wounds.

“Matthias, I need you to run home, get the horse and some blankets, and come back here as soon as possible. Aric, you go home with your brother; when you get there, get a fire going and boil some water. You both understand what I need you to do?”

Both boys nodded and started running the last mile home.

Morrigan got back to work at that point on the man’s wounds, cleaning them out with a water skin he always brought with him for the trip between home and his blacksmith’s forge. He also used his tunic to bind the wounds, used his belt as a tourniquet on the leg, and applied pressure with his hands on the shoulder wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

When Matthias returned, they strapped the man on the horse’s back, covered him with the blankets, and started home. The going was slow since they did not want to jostle the man too much, and by the time they got home, the stranger’s pallor had grown visibly fainter.

They placed the stranger in a bed and put it very close to the fire to keep him warm, and Morrigan changed the man’s crude bandages, adding some medicinal herbs he had stored away. When all that was completed, he looked down at his sons.

“You guys have done a great job today… At this point, it’s out of our hands; his will to survive is the only thing that is going to make him recover now.” With that, they all sat down in front of the fire and began to wait.

It took three days and three nights for the stranger to come back around. Three long days and nights of changing bandages and keeping a close, tense eye on the labored breathing and survival of the strange man. Throughout these tense days, the stranger never once opened his eyes or loosened the grip he had on his sword. It rested next to him on the bed, his hand clasped tightly about the handle.

Confessions of an 8 Year Old

Given my lack of success in the job market, I have recently turned to obssessively cleaning and sorting to make up for my current lack of purpose. During the course of this, I found a journal (its got dinosaurs over the cover, so don't worry, it's very manly)from 1994. No idea how this particular item stayed in my stuff for that long (I have to fight the occassional pack-rat tendencies), so I started to go through it and found some rather humorous comments that I thought I would share.

"When I got to the shop (my folks owned a retail store growing up) I played with Liz the cat. The cat got all the compliments."

"We had a bad thunder storm and the power went out today. I was scared because I couldn't see a thing!"

"Missed almost a month of writing in my diary." (end entry with no further comments)

"Had a little dribblers game today. I scored 23 points. Our team won 27-22." (No comment about how awesome it was I scored almost all our points. Apparently I used to be rather humble)

"I hate playin with *name deleted* He says bad words all the time, and if you steal the ball he tries to kick you. When I play we win."

"We watched 007 with Sean Connery. It's Irish. The name is pronounced as Shawn, which is weird"

"We won our game today 41-6. It was actually 41-4 because *name deleted* traveled when he shot but they gave it to him anyway."

"????" (For a solid week I didn't write, but I wrote the date with question marks for every day)

"Today I got lots of presents because it was my birthday" (end entry)

The Rest

This is the conclusion to the previous post, a story Justin and I decided to work on together.

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From my time as a soldier and scout, I was a proficient hunter and forager, so I did not need much to survive. When I did need something, there was usually a job or two at the various towns I passed through on my travels. Such a job had led me to this troll cave.

The last village I had entered had appeared barren and lifeless at first. No animals roamed the streets, no children ran across my path, and no adults were around to glare suspiciously at me. I made it to the town square before I saw the first sign of life. A large man in armor appeared, and I finally received the suspicious glare I had been expecting.

“Why are you here, stranger?” he asked.

“I am either a traveler just passing through or a skilled hunter and tracker looking for work, depending on what you prefer. And if I may ask, who are you? You do not much look like a village elder. And where is everybody else? I have never seen a village so empty.”

The man visibly relaxed. “I am called Sten, and I am the leader of this village. Our elder was slain by a marauding troll, which has been terrorizing the town of late… everybody is in hiding to try and limit the number it makes off with. So, a hunter is just what we need. Would you be interested in killing the troll for us? We would pay, of course.”

I thought on that for a moment. “Well, we could use the money, but a troll is dangerous business. Let me consult with my colleague.”

Sten tensed once again. “Colleague? We saw no one else with you.”

I smiled and whistled. Almost as a ghost, Snow appeared out of nowhere beside me. I scratched behind his ears and whispered “Nice touch”. Then, more louder and theatrically, I asked him “Well, what do you think? Shall we kill this troll for the villagers?”

Snow nodded his head, and I grinned. The villager looked surprised for a moment, and then smiled. “Nice trick. We appreciate your services then. The troll always comes into town from the north, so we would guess it has a cave in that direction.”

“That would make sense. Now, you mentioned payment…”

The man nodded. “Let me confer with the other villagers and see what we can offer you.” He started to walk towards the largest building in the town, and I started to follow. He stopped, however, and barred my path. “If you will, sir, our village has been through quite a lot as of late, and we would prefer if you would stay out here. I will be back shortly.”

I shrugged, starting to feel slightly uneasy with the secrecy, but decided it was understandable given their fear. A few minutes later, the man returned carrying a bag of coins. He tossed it to me, and said “We are prepared to give that to you now as a down payment, and triple it should you return with proof that the troll is dead.”

I looked into the bag. It wasn’t a lot of money, but it would be enough to get me through for awhile, so I nodded. It was fairly obvious they would not want me to spend the night in the town before venturing off, so despite how tired I was after several days of difficult traveling, I said “This is sufficient. I will be back shortly” and headed out.

The troll was not difficult to find, as they are not exactly the most careful of creatures. Once I was north of town, I could very easily see a trail of knocked-down trees and battered grass. So, I followed that until I reached the mouth of the cave, and that brings us back to the present.

I looked up from the fire, and the troll was still staring at me. “You know, if you wanted to come out here, we could get this over with” I said sarcastically. The troll seemed to glare at me, then stepped out and roared. Be careful what you wish for. I sighed and stood up. “Ready to go to work Snow?”

There was no response. I looked down, and the wolf was nowhere to be seen.

“Great…” I started to say, and the troll charged. I unsheathed my sword, grabbed my shield, and sidestepped the troll’s charge. He crashed into a tree on the far side, and I got into a stance to be more prepared for the next attack. The trick with a troll is to go to the neck. Much of the troll’s body is covered in thick scales that are better than most armor as protection; as a result, the target is either the eyes or the throat. Of course, reaching the eyes and throat of a ten foot tall troll is a bit of a challenge.

The troll approached slower this time. It swung one of its huge fists at me, so I rolled to the side. When I came to my feet, it tried to shoulder push me into its cave. I slide between its legs and shoved it with my shield. I don’t think it moved even an inch. It swung its arms around in reaction, and I took the brunt of the hit on my shield. The force threw me back and dented the shield, the force numbing my shield hand. Not a good sign.

The troll tried to press its advantage, lurching forward and trying to grapple. I rushed forward inside its arms, surprising it. I slashed at its throat, and it just barely managed to pull back. My sword traced a faint line across its neck, drawing a thin line of blood. The troll continued backing away in surprise, and I moved back as well. We stood momentarily staring at each other in reevaluation. The battle wasn’t really going the way either of us wanted.

Suddenly, Snow appeared out of nowhere, jumping down from above the troll’s cave. He went right for the throat, tearing it out in a flash. The troll stared at me in surprise, gurgled, and sank to its knees. Blood spurted over the ground, and it finally fell forward, dead.

I stared, momentarily stunned. And then I started laughing. The wolf stared at me.

“You did it backwards!” I shouted between laughs. “You’re supposed to be my distraction, not the other way around!”

Snow rolled his shoulders in a shrug as if to say “Hey, it worked, didn’t it?” I walked forward and cut the troll’s two largest fangs out in proof of the kill, and considered my next action. It was still night and rather cold, so I decided I would head back in the morning. I settled back in front of the fire, with Snow lying down beside me, and drifted off into sleep.

In the morning, I decided to take a look around the troll’s cave before heading out. Unsurprisingly, it smelled awful and was cluttered with the remnants of humans and animals alike. What was a surprise, however, was a large volume of armor pieces either still attached to the bodies or flung around the cave. The armor was leather and dyed red, typically the kind worn by bandits. I had not heard of any groups operating out this area, so something did not quite add up to me, but I could not quite put my finger on it. Nothing else of note struck me in the cave, so I walked out and heading back to town.

I was rather tired and sore after being the troll bait yesterday, so the journey back took a bit longer than the trip to the cave, causing me to arrive around the middle of the night. Once again, I could see no villagers as I entered, but since it was the middle of the night, this did not strike me as unusual. I wandered around, looking for anybody, before arriving again at the town square. The village elder did not come out to greet me, so I considered going back into the forest to sleep when I saw light coming from the edges of the door of a large building at the edge of the square, likely the town hall. The windows were all boarded up, but as I walked closer, I could tell that it was definitely torchlight emanating from any gaps in the building.

I approached the door and was just about to knock on it when I heard Snow whine. I paused and looked around, but I saw nothing, so I started to knock again. This time, Snow growled, so I decided to investigate more first. I leaned down and tried to look through the crack at the bottom of the door, but it was too small. Once down there, however, I could hear voices… and they were chanting.

That’s never good.

I got up and looked back at Snow, but he was gone yet again. Looks like it was still my turn to be bait. Without wasting any more time, I kicked the door in and strolled into the building in time to see about a dozen men in a circle stand up quickly and look at me in surprise. Six children and six women were chained in the center of the circle with strange sigils painted on their faces, and a circle of flames was between them and the men.

“Am I interrupting anything?” I asked, and the men charged at me. I took out the nearest two quickly, but the others were smart enough to stay together and surrounded me.

“I don’t suppose I can make a last request to know what the hell is going on, can I?” I inquired.

Sten laughed, a sound that lacked the pleasantness usually associated with such an act. “Sure, why not. We didn’t think you would survive, so we are summoning Anazas the Toll Bane to take care of our troll issue.”

I looked at him incredulously. “Wait, you are summoning something that eats trolls? Is that all he eats?”

Sten looked uncertain a moment. “Well, we just have the name… figured he’d go find other trolls. That makes sense, right?”

“Uh huh. Look, before I kill all of you, I’d just like to ask how the hell you planned on stopping something that literally eats trolls for breakfast. And you’d sacrifice your own women and children to bring that thing here? That’s despicable.”

Sten laughed again. “These aren’t our women, and this isn’t our town. We are bandits, we captured this village awhile back, killed all the men that wouldn’t join us, and made the women and children our slaves. It worked out great for awhile, but we didn’t know when we attacked that the town had a troll problem. Bad luck on our parts. He killed a lot of us before I remembered this book we had found from a grave we’d robbed earlier, so we decided to use it.”

“Ah, okay. So, you guys are bandits, murderers, and grave diggers. Thanks for the information, now I don’t have to feel bad for what I’m about to do.” I snapped my fingers, and Snow burst through one of the boarded up windows, tearing into the circle of men around me. Surprised, the men turned outwards towards this new threat, and I went on the offensive. Between the two of us, the bandits didn’t stand a chance, and it was not long before we were the only ones left.

The bandits had placed buckets of water around the building to control the flames, so I quickly used them to extinguish the flames around the women and children. A quick search of Sten’s body resulted in the keys to their chains, so I freed the women and children. Tears were shed and they thanked me profusely, but I was still overcome with disgust at what the bandits had done and had tried to do. And they wonder why I hate people.