|
|
 |
|
|
|
register |
bbs |
search |
rss |
faq |
about
|
|
|
meet up |
add to del.icio.us |
digg it
|
|
|
|
A short story by, yours truly, Fly Boy
Thoris
The sun shone bright on the cool summer's day. The Atlantic
winds blew from the west. The castle Darkthorn's majestic towers
could be seen for miles to the North and West. The secluded, yet
prosperous village right outside the castle, depended mainly on
the mines which lie deep in the mountains which surround
Darkthorn on the remaining East and South. There is but a single
road leading to Blackthorn. Not many a traveler comes to
Darkthorn, for this is a place of great magic and strange,
fearful creatures.
There had always been black magic in the lands. The king,
Alexander Beeldic, had gotten word from Xeuxn, the royal
sorcerer, there was a new magic; a magic unlike any other that
had ever cursed this dreary place with it's presence; A magic,
that he knew he had to overcome, or be swallowed by it.
A brave knight, known simply as Thoris, was sent forth to
protect the kingdom. Thoris took as his first action to monitor
the very kingdom he was sworn to protect. A day passed with
nothing to happen but the normal routine of the peasants and
monarchy. The next day, however, a lone traveler came up the
gates of the castle Darkthorn. Thoris stood high above castle one
of its towers that oversaw the draw bridge. The traveler stopped
and the dreary moat.
"May I be of assistance to you good man," yelled Thoris to
the new comer below.
"I am Rasmond from the land of Agenon. I wander these land
and come now as a trader." Thoris saw his ugly face. It was an
ogre that had come upon the gates.
"I shall be down. Stay there," Thoris yelled down as he
rushed down the stairs, through the corridor, and finally to the
gate. Looking around as if being watched, he signaled for the
opening of the gates. As the bridge fell, Thoris saw through the
steel grating, that the ogre was turning from rummaging in the
stash located at the back of his beet up wagon.
Thoris hesitated and signaled the gatesman to open the steel
gate as well.
He walked to the trader, uncertain of the ogre's intentions.
"What do you bring to our quiet kingdom," he asked Rasmond as he
slyly eyed the ogre's hall.
"Tis nothing more than trinkets and beers. I also carry fine
wines as a gift to your lord as well." The ogre reached into his
hall. Thoris, uneasy, stepped back. Thoris saw many things
showing their shape through the covering of the wagon but saw
much of nothing when the ogre lifted the cloth to remove the
wine. A click was heard as the cloth shifted.
"What was that," asked Thoris.
"Excuse my clumsiness," the ogre said with a slight look of
embarrassment which Thoris was unable to judge the honesty of the
coyness. "It must have been my equipment shifting."
Thoris signaled a servant from atop the high tower. The ogre
was escorted to a peasant guest room just outside the castle.
Could this be the one who brings the magic as Thoris had been
warned? Thoris thought long and hard about the possibility for
the remainder of the day.
"Thoris," a small man quietly said as he walked into the
tower room atop the gates which was lit by the moon's light, "The
king has requested your service on the look out here for this
night. The usual watch man has been injured in a hunter's trap."
"Tired as I am," Thoris said in a weary manner, "I will
obeah the desires of our king." Fighting to stay awake, Thoris
watched over his post. His sharp eyes and knightly expertise were
weakened by his great fatigue. There was a noise. In the distance
the faint click and squeak could be heard. He looked on the floor
of the forest below but saw nothing more then the still fields of
the surfs and the moonlight on the moat.
"I must be getting tire," He thought to himself as he sat to
rest his physically and mentally exhausted body. He pulled out
his dagger and started polishing it with a cloth as he thought
about the click. "I must be hearing things and must not let
delusions distract my post."
The clicking that he had heard earlier in the ogre's wagon
and again in the castle was getting louder and seemedly
approaching, but not from outside. Thoris struggled to his feet.
He poked his head cautiously out the doorway and saw a small
figure a small distance down the hallway. A streak of confusion
swept over him. With his hand on his sword, he slowly and
stealthfuly crept his way to the figure. It look as though it
might be a small dwarf like creature with long, flowing hair
rummaging though a kill. Closer and closer he got. His heart was
pounding at the thought of a creature who could penetrate the
defenses of the castle so easily. Thoris sped up as he approached
the figure. His sword swung, aiming for the creature, he let a
cry and fell to the ground as if his body had gone numb.
"You... what are you doing," thoris asked in a panic. The
creature just laughed the laugh of a small child and scurried
away. Thoris, struggling against his own body, managed to pull
him self closer to the spot where the creature had currently
been.
Thoris heard the sound of a wagon in the distance, but was
determined to solve this mystery first. As he crept toward what
the creature had been hovering over, he saw nothing. As he crept
further to the staircase the creature had scurried down, he heard
something;click, click, click.
"Excuse me sir!"
In a momentary disorientation, Thoris lifted his head to see
the sun rising about the majestic mountains which surround
Darkthorn. It had been a dream.
"Uh, wha.. yes..yes sir. May I help you?" Thoris, trying to
hide his embarrassment of falling asleep at his post, slowly
oriented himself back to reality.
"I am but a magician sent by my king," the traveler yelled
up to the tower. "I mean you no harm. Let me see the king."
"What is your name traveler?"
The traveler hesitated as if in thought. "I am the one they
call Yurinemesson, but Yuri will suffice."
"By which king where you sent? I would have been alerted if
m'lord had been expecting a magic user."
As the magic user looked around and then back at Thoris, he
said softly to himself, "No no. This simply won't do." He snapped
his fingers and said something which Thoris could not understand.
Thoris, worried by the magic, ducked beneath the window of his
post. The smell of weeds was coming from the ground. As he looked
down he realized he was no longer in the castle but aside the
magic user's wagon.
"No need to kneel," said Yuri as he looked down on Thoris as
he let out a little chuckle. "Now please, I would like to see
your king good knight."
"Thoris!" a familiar voice cried from the tower, but when
Thoris looked to see who it was, he saw nothing. Thoris just sat
on the cold, dew covered morning grass trying to make sense of
the his situation. He unexpectedly turned at the sound of the
drawbridge as he pulled himself up to his feet. Thoris, hoping
that his currently vulnerable state would not through off the
guard of his fellow knight, watched as he approached.
"May I be of some help here?" the other knight asked.
Thoris just sat there for a moment and gave his friend a
look which was a cross between fear and confusion. Thoris'
friend, made more nervous by Thoris' look, quickly drew his
crossbow. Yuri, in this threatening situation, moved in to a
defensive position as his hands started to glow and his keen eyes
focused in on the knight. The knight reached back for a bolt, and
as he did, he was, somehow, thrown off as if his armor were too
heavy for him to support. Tripping, fighting to maintain balance,
his heal caught on the end of the out lain drawbridge as he fell
into the moat. He grasped onto the bridge and tried top pull
himself up which required Thoris who ran to his assistance.
"Gasper." Thoris held out his hand. "What happened?"
"It's him; the evil the king spoke of! Bastard. May God have
merci on your soul!" Gasper stared intently at the magician and
suddenly, fainted in the arms of Thoris. Without hesitation,
Thoris pulled his friend into the castle and signaled for the
closing of the gates.
"By the light," Thoris screamed through the hall which was
the signal among the Darkthorn knights of a wound to one of their
own. "Keep the wizard out of our kingdom. We must be rid of him."
As Thoris and many other guards carried Gasper down the
corridors to receive medical attention, Thoris noted a figure out
of the corner of his eye. Immediately, he thought of his dream.
He slyly moved away from the group of guards carrying Gasper and
followed it. It seamed to sense Thoris approaching and ran at his
very footsteps. He quickly, yet stealthy as he possible, followed
the short creature with the long flowing hair, following it by
it's shadows as it swiftly made it's way down the halls. Even
though the unlit hallways which he new so well from his lifetime
of residence at the castle he followed the creature by his laugh
alone.
A single door of the long corridor slammed shut. Thoris
opened the door with spear in hand. Instead of the creature which
he had hope to see, he saw the ogre in the storage closet which
he had opened.
"What is the commotion with this creature of yours? And what
are you doing in the castle?" Thoris asked in a somewhat startled
manner.
"I assure you sir, I know not of what you speak. I do not
know how I got into the castle and, to my knowledge, you and I
are the only creature in this room."
"Impossible," said Thoris in discontent with Rasmond's
answer. He stormed around, discouraged, looking for the creature
which he knew he had seen. He eyed the ogre as a hawk to it's
prey. From his silvery hair to his 6 golden rings to worn leather
boots he could see nothing.
"Could it be," he thought, "That my mind is playing tricks
on me again? No.. NO! Not a knight of my caliber."
Thoris' search of the closet turned up nothing. "Do not
sleep easy," the ogre was warned, "for I will be watching you."
Squinting, he carefully made his way down the hallway, keeping
watch on the ogre. Stumbling down the hall, with lessened vision,
Thoris saw the figure walking down the hall way; but this time,
to another figure. Disregarding his unforeseen lack of motor
skills, he pulled himself together the best he could to follow
the shadow. Closer and closer he got and as he did he saw that
this creature was a human.
"No! No! Let me go! Stop it!," the small, long haired
creature cried with the voice of a small girl.
Using all of his strength, Thoris pulled his mighty sword
and stared into the eyes of the other figure with girl. He stood
in utter amazement as he saw that it was none other than the very
magician which he had seen at the gates just earlier. Slightly
nervous and weakened by some unknown source, came the words, "Let
her go or I will kill you."
"No," cried the child. "Don't hurt my daddy!"
"T...Tanya? Is that really you my dear? It's me. I AM your
daddy." Thoris spoke in a gentle and vulnerable voice as a tear
rolled the beaten path of his face. It was his daughter who had
left this earth so many years ago. "Come to be my child."
"No! You let me die you killed me! You could have saved me
but you didn't!" Tanya spit on his face as her saliva came
together with his tears.
"You don't understand. I HAD to sacrifice you. It was the
only choice."
"He's me daddy now." Tanya said, holding on to the wizard
(Yuri)
Infuriated, he stared into the eyes of the wizard which
stares back; as dead as corps, as cold as stone. As a smirk came
over the wizards, until now, unchanged face, as he raised his
hand at Thoris. Thoris fell at the hard blow of the magic. Tanya,
laughing an evil laugh at her once father. Like a dagger threw
his heart he heard his only born laughing at him as if a fool.
Above the laughing, he could make out a click... click...
"Thoris! Thoris!" he could here the cries of someone calling
him as he saw his fellow knight come from around the corner.
"The ogre.... and the magician.. they are here, in the
castle." Thoris told the knight
"Thoris, there is no one here. Now come on. The king has
summoned you. Come. Come. The king awaits."
Thoris picked up his things and scurried to the thrown room
at the center of the castle. As he entered the large room, he saw
the enormous golden chair upon which the king sat nobly. The
thick brown beard highlighted his proud face. Thoris kneeled
before him.
"Yes m'lord?"
"Thoris," spoke the king, "I have noticed a great deal of my
knights have fallen prey to the vicious evil whatever it may come
to be. Some of my finest knights getting stuck in traps, suddenly
disoriented, or even gone mad. You, however seem untouched by
this magic, therefore you must be among the most nobel. I have
arranged for Xeuxn to conjure magical weapons as he sees fit. I
believe you have them ready now, do you not?" The king turned to
the wizard who stand aside him.
The wizard nodded and stepped down with his hands held out
to thoris facing up as if ready to catch something. Smoke rose
from his flameless hands and there appeared a mighty golden sword
engulfed with jewels.
"That," said the king, "along with the lone ten besides
yourself who have been untouched, will aid you on your quest. I'm
hoping the tenth member of your army will be returning soon. He
was sent to the mountains to.."
Just then, the doors flung in rage at the knight storming
in. Sword drawn, he ran at the king. The guards whom the mad
knight had passed on his way in bombarded him with arrows from
their crossbows. With arrows sticking his body through his
tattered steel armor, he came to Thoris who, with a mighty blow,
trust his sword across the knight's chest. The most piercing,
bloodcurdling sound could be heard throughout the castle as the
screams of the knight accompanied the light bursting from within
him. A blinding flash came over the room. Thoris looked down and
saw his fellow knight, his friend, dying. His face was full of
boils and blood covered his body.
"Quothica... and in his heart you will see.." the knight
finely died. Engraved on the back of his armor were the words
"LEAVE NOW OR INSURE YOUR ENTURNITY IN THE DEPTH OF HELL."
"Assemble my men and have the wait out of the gates,"
demanded Thoris to the king," I will be waiting."
His men, nine remaining, awaited him on nine of the finest
black stallions, two without riders. As Thoris mounted his own, a
powerful blow knocked him off. Still able to keep his
consciousness, he attacked the ogre which had knocked him off;
the same ogre that he had allowed passage. The knights with
Thoris joined the attacked on the ogre. The ogre, badly wounded,
vanished in an angry flame. They, ignoring this incident for now,
went on to the mountains.
As they approached the bridge across the river which ran
between the castle and mountains. From the dirt which Thoris had
walked on many times before, appeared the magician; the traveler;
Yuri.
"Let us pass," demanded Thoris.
"My sincere apologies kind sir, but I can not let you do
that."
Three knights charged on horseback which the magician blew
of the horse with the ease of a single blast form his hands. He
stared at Thoris and before Thoris could react, he was entranced.
"Sorry," said Yuri, "I have no choice." With the snap of his
figures, Thoris lost all consciousness.
What was this? He awoke in a cave. Instantaneously, a
paralyzing horror swept over him at vivid flashbacks of his
previous encounter in this very cave held. He slowly walked, full
knowing what hold in store, yet with an heir of unexpectedness.
he peeked around the corner at the vicious sight he had tried to
forget so many years ago. The wizard laughing.
"So, which will it be," the wizard asked, "Your beloved
kingdom, or this little bitch?"
"NO!," screamed the girl. It was Tanya being held by her
hair. "Put me down." The wizard just laughed.
The pain of all those years of agony for the choice he had
mad to save his kingdom gathered in a crazed fury as he drew his
sword and charged the evil magician. He let out a cry and found
himself awakened in a cold sweat, bound in ropes. The aroma of
burning herbs filled the smokey air. He saw his fellow knights
tied with rope as was he, and across the fire in the center of
this unfamiliar cave stood Yuri.
"I demand you let me and my men go! You are the evil. What a
fool I have been not to have done you in already!" Thoris cried
from hid bounds.
"Ahh," explained the magician, "but if only it were that
easy. Here. Catch!" He threw a ring to Thoris who twisted his arm
from behind his back to catch. "This is a magic ring and will
aide you if you are the true chosen. Go ahead. Try it."
Snap! Snap! The ropes around him burst as a smile came upon
Yuri's face. He aimed his ringed fist to his sleeping knights
which had the same effect to their bounds.
"Now," yelled Thoris, "Awaken them," as he pointed the ring
to the unseen sky. For third time, the ring had worked as he
pleased.
"I am sorry I had to be so harsh but if I weren't, then
surely the true evil would be out of your grasp. The mountain
erupted shortly after I took you to with me to this cave just as
the prophecy said. Great magic erupted from there and you would
have surly been turned into stone along with the rest of you
kingdom."
"Stone? Erupting mountains? I am not quite sure what to
believe anymore... but what of you and Tanya? My dream."
"He is one of veil and deception. He will abolish your faith
in the ones you trust. Trust your soul, not your impulses."
"You have given me this powerful magic, I feel it is in good
faith. Thank you my friend. I would be honored with you
accompaniment."
As Yuri walked to a wall of the cave which faded into an
opening, he walked out and stood on the air beneath him out side
the cave. "Perhaps," he said the Thoris with a smile before he
dropped from thee sky. "May your heart lead you," echoed Yuri's
voice in Thoris's mind. Thoris looked to see where he had gone.
In front of him lie a the bottoms of the mountains to which he is
currently in. The sky is black of soot and black of clouds rising
from the mountain in the distance. The volcano of ash was
terrifying but somehow he knew, that is where he had to go.
"There," he said pointing to a small light on the volcano of
ash,"That is where we are to go."
A burst shot from the ring on his finger. A bridge lie where
none had been before spanning the gap of the mountains. His
balance was thrown. He looked at the object which had tripped
him, he saw a lone a mouse, then a hawk; not alive; not dead.
They were stone.
Sword in hand, men by his side and the courage in his heart,
he crossed the lengthy bridge to his cave were his goal await.
There, above the cave stood a hideous gargoyle of a gruesome
three headed dog.
Uncertain of the consequence, Thoris raised his ringed fist
to the dog who was now beginning to open its red eyes.
"Quothica," he yelled. His voice echoed through the cave. A
boulder fell, and then another. The entrance was closing. His
men, fighting to maintain their balance, were hit by falling
debris. Thoris took a deep breath, shut his eyes and thrust
himself into the cave.
Before him lie a hallway of mirrors. Each one reflecting not
his own, but the reflection of another. In one he saw Rasmond and
another Yuri and yet another one he saw Riminius, his fellow
knight. The image reflected Thoris's movements yet somehow had a
cried out to him. Pointing his ring and mustering the power
invested there in ,he, somehow, pulled the image from the looking
glass into the cave with him. In still other mirrors he saw the
rest of his men. He pulled back from the mirror to bring in the
rest of his knights, but as he did this, he witnessed, before his
own eyes, his men turning to stone. Crash! Crash! One by one the
mirrors cracked apart. Their broken shaves flew in all
directions.
Click... click... "This is it." he whispered softly to
himself. "That clicking. This is it."
Thoris turned and ran though the cave. There he saw himself
at a dead-end. A giant cuckoo clock. Click, click; or maybe more
accurately, tick, tock. Void filled the room. As Thoris looked
around the small chamber, he saw only Riminius bye his side and
the cuckoo clock. Nothing more; not even the passage by which
they had come in. 11:59. Tick, tock, tick, tock. 12:00!! But, at
the strike of the witching hour, instead of the cuckoo bird, he
saw sweet Tanya.
"Daddy! Daddy!," twelve times she screamed for the twelfth
hour.
The face of the clock started bleeding and sorted into a
distorted state. It started swirling, and from the swirling face
came the wizard. The wizard who he knew; who he feared. The mad
clicking sound of the clock seamed to be right in time with
pounding of Thoris's heart. Riminius pulled the sword from
Thoris's sheath and charged the wizard.
"Riminius NO!" Cried Thoris, but it was to late. With all
his might, Riminius thrust the sword though the wizard's skull,
slicing his body in two.
He killed him. Just like that, he killed him. In great pride
he held his sword in the air. Turning to Thoris who still had a
look of utter terror on his face.
"Be marry my friend, the wizard is..umfg.." suddenly, he
stopped and dropped the golden sword as if punched in the
stomach. Thoris, seeing the opportunity, grabbed his sword and,
with eyes wide open, he did what he could and watched. As
Riminius let out the horrid cries of pain and suffering, his skin
was boiling and pulsing and stretching as far as it would
stretch.
**BOOM**
Out of the body of Riminius came the wizard. The bloody
pieces of Riminius burned of his silky robe as that then did the
same. He came toward Thoris. His skin turned pitch black. His
skin turned rough and hard. His now glowing red eyes; eyes of a
bug; staring right into his heart. His arm, now long and scrawny
with enormous claws sung at Thoris but hit his sword. The
wizard's arm fell to the ground to shrivel and dissolve to dust.
The arm had grown back on the seemingly invisible enemy. The
monstrous wizard raised his hands and let out a thunderous roar.
Thoris pointed his ring at the beast. SLAM. The blast thrust him
against the wall but only seamed to make him even more angry. The
monster shot a blast of energy at Thoris. He hid behind his ring
which absorbed the blast but immediately shattered. Fearing for
his life, unable to calculate his next move, he cowered in the
corner. The beast let out a laugh and with his wide open mouth,
launched himself at Thoris.
"DADDY!" cried Tanya for the cuckoo clock at the top of her
voice.
Boom. Saved... but by what? A blast out of nowhere. Thoris
saw Yuri standing before him.
"You must destroy him," said Yuri, "I can only weaken him."
"But my ring, it's gone."
"There was never any power in the ring." Explained Yuri,
"The ring was merely a tool to focus the magic within yourself."
As Yuri used all the power he could muster, Rasmond, the
ogre, appeared and bashed the monster with his enormous strength.
The Wizard lay on the floor as he is continuously weakened by
Yuri and Rasmond. Thoris rushed over to the clock and cut the
chains which held Tanya. As he did this, she disappeared.
"Now!" cries Yuri. "Kill him now!"
Thoris raced for his sword and ran at the beast. A flash
came from the beast.
"Enough!" angrily growled the wizard beast. "Now, Thoris,
you shall die." and with a blow of magic thoris was hit into the
swirling vortex which was the face of the clock from which the
wizard emerged.
Clinging for dear life, he heard Yuri call to him, weekend
though he was, from against the wall." Use the magic within you!"
Releasing his grip with one hand, he grabbed for his sword.
In a valiant effort, he lunged the sword toward the wizard. It
missed.
"I see," said the evil wizard,"you are no more prepared than
the last time we met."
The sword stuck in the wall behind the wizard and with a
mighty blast, hurled the wizard at the clock. With his free hand,
Thoris grabbed hold of the wizard's cloak and with his other
hand, let go. The both of them were sucked into the vertex.
The clock started to shake and tremble. It's spasmatic
actions became more intense by the moment and finally an
explosion.
A lone girl, Tanya, sat crying on the spot where the clock
once was.
"He is, for now anyway," said Yuri to all present, "gone.
And thanks to the brave Sir Thoris." Yuri conjured a portal
leading back to the gates of Darkthorn. "Thank you old friend for
all you have done for me rasmond. I bid adieu to you too precious
child. Your father was a great man. Be proud. Chin up." In a
cloud of smoke, he was gone.
Tanya sat crying for a moment and looked up to the sky as if
hoping to see her father in heaven. just then, from seemingly
nowhere came the voice of Thoris. "Do not cry my angle, for I
will always be with you in your heart. I love you little one, and
I always will."
|
|
|
To the best of our knowledge, the text on this page may be freely reproduced and distributed.
If you have any questions about this, please check out our Copyright Policy.
totse.com certificate signatures
|
|
|
About | Advertise | Bad Ideas | Community | Contact Us | Copyright Policy | Drugs | Ego | Erotica
FAQ | Fringe | Link to totse.com | Search | Society | Submissions | Technology
|
|
|
|
|
|
