Deciever, Story But Not Related to TES Options

[Tulustan]

Last few weeks I have had ideas for stories rolling around in my brain muscle, so here is me trying to share one of them. Critiques are welcome!

Chapter 1

It had been roughly five years since I had gone north to the port city of Tanon in search of wealth. I had heard many things about the city, especially how easy it was to find a job on the wharf, which being of the prespant class left me very few choices in work. Slowly I had worked my way up the labor ladder on the wharfs and had become the manager of wharf four. It was still hard work especially getting the newer members to unload cargo quick enough and safe enough as to not hurt themselves or the cargo.

This year however I had begun to take a liking to one of the new dockhands. His name was Marcus and he had been working on the wharfs for only a few months. However, he had the brains to listen to my advice and not get himself seriously hurt or killed yet, and also no complaints had been filed against him (all extremely rare for new dockhands).

All in all life was going pretty good. I looked at the machine in the corner that told me what hour of the day it was… very nice almost time to go home. I decided to go down and arrange some festivities for the night.

As I walked onto the wharf the familiar feel of the treated wood groaned under my feet as the ocean tried to lazily dislodge it from the earth that it had been built into. Not much had changed about wharf four in the five years I had worked on it. A few broken planks here and there and that one time the crane had broken and almost clove the wharf in half, but it was still the same thing with a few scars and the blood of the men who worked it.

As I reached about halfway across the wharf I spied Marcus unloading a medium sized grey crate by himself. “Hey there!” I yelled to him.

“Whoa, if it isn’t the grand ol boss here to the rescue.” He yelled back. “Gonna actually contribute to this little shindig for once instead of sittin on your boat all day watchin us do all the work?”

“Hey! It takes a lot of strength writing those reports for all the crates you’ve dropped!” I replied not having to yell with the distance closed to within a few feet.

“Ah dang, you know I don’t drop any crates. But please feel free to keep sitting there while I do real work!”

I let out a little chuckle at that and began to help him lift a couple of the heavier crates off of the ship. I mean hell it’s a great way to keep in shape and I owed him after the drunken stupor I managed to drink myself into the night before.

Even though I had not totally recovered from that previous night I asked him “After were done off loading this ship wanna go to the Musty Sailor and grab some of the new import from Mumbril. I hear they added some extra zing to their new batch of ale!”

“Are you joking with me? After last night you wanna go drinking again? I mean cmon you just about killed yourself in that pile of puke you conjoured up! But yeah I guess, hopefully this time you’ll be walking me home though… Yeah I just realized the likelihood of that statement, ya drunky.”

“Hardy har har, see ya there. I gotta go take care of a few administrational things first.” under my breath, but loud enough to hear me I muttered “like getting you fired”.

“oh, you bag of dicks” he responded then said “later, don’t get too drunk before I get there to drag your boat home” he finished.

At that I walked back to my office at the end of the wharf and began to get all the reports ready to hand in the next day to the “dock master”. By the time I had finished my paperwork it was dark out and the candle lit room cast shadows of all the odd bobbles I had collected over the time I had lived in Tanon.

As I left my office the familiar smell of saltwater assailed my nostrils. Usually I just ignored it automatically but for some reason it was intensely strong. I kept walking back to my house. The whole way there the pungent aroma of the saltwater assaulted my senses.

I approached the shortcut to my house. It went behind the butchers shop and a few tall apartment buildings. Most of the city was built out of solid stone, one of the few in the kingdom. It was a key hub for commerce and with an abundance of quarries and a limited supply of farmland the city had built vertically.

As I reached my house, an apartment complex grafted onto the side of the southern wall, I noticed that most of the blankets over the windows of each apartment were down. I found this to be very odd because it was still early in the night and still fairly warm outside.

I got into my room and began changing into clothes I did not care overly much about (didn’t want to have to worry about puking on myself and buying a new shirt). I took care to put my dagger back on however, never know when you can use one in a enclosed area full of men whose heads may be a teeny bit infected with alcohol.

I left my house on the same route I had come in and when I got to the back ally I thought that I noticed someone following me. I ignored it, this being one of the safer cities in the kingdom thanks to all of the wealth it had acquired.

About halfway through the ally I heard someone full out sprinting in behind me. Quickly I turned around and began to pull my dagger. However, as the blade almost cleared the phantom behind me tackled me to the ground. He reached for something in his lavender robe, quickly I thrust my leg upward and into his growing getting enough force to somersault him over me.

I looked back to notice that he had somewhat recovered and had drawn a sword. Quickly I rolled to my feet and pulled my dagger. He came swift and fast with a lunge for my chest. I barely got the parry in time to stop the blade from gutting me. Again he tried to inflict damage on my innards using the same thrust. However this time I was more prepared and managed to parry the thrust easily. I noticed that he either must not have been expecting such a strong parry or was very inexperienced at using a sword because the parry had left his middle right open.

I took the advantage. I jumped on him with all of my might and knocked him to the ground. Right when we hit the ground I pummeled him once in the face with the butt of my dagger and kicked his sword away.

“Why are you attacking me!” I yelled into his face. The sound I got back was that of a mad animal trying all it could to break free. The thing was it wasn’t me he was trying to break free of. It was like something inside the man wanted out, or control of the body. I repeated my inquiry.

His face turned savagely red but it looked like something was winning over and he managed to mutter through gritted teeth “Heh help me”.

I had no idea how to help this man or even if he needed helping maybe this was just a ploy to break free from my hold. I began to ask in what way I could assist him when all of a sudden I heard a zinging sort of noise from my left ear, there was a wet smacking sound. The attacker had stopped moving altogether underneath me and a warm fluid had begun to puddle near my left knee where I was holding his arm down. That is when I noticed a small dagger handle jutting out of the side of my attackers’ neck.

This post has been edited by Tulustan: Dec 7 2010, 05:11 AM

[Tulustan]

“Hey sleepy head!”

I jolted upright. Someone was in my camp! Wait no I wasn’t at my camp, I was somewhere else. I had been drugged. Taken somewhere else by people I had never clearly seen or understood. Suddenly a burst of wisdom popped into my mind and out my mouth “Wha?”

“Yeah sorry about all of that. They think you’re a spy, so just bear with me for a bit and either you’ll be dead or free.” The voice said with a chuckle. “But seriously, don’t try and lie it really will be detrimental. Do you understand?”

“Uh yeah.” The man speaking to me was relatively tall. The dark hair on his head was vanishing with his age. The face seemed warm, as if he cared about everything and anyone around him.

“Great then! Let us get down to it. First I will explain what happened. You see you were hit by a really strong anesthetic slash paralytic. So now that we’ve cleared the air with that what’s your name?”

“I’m sorry but aneshectic? What the hell is that?”

“Basically it makes you sleep, a lot, without feeling anything. Your name please?”

“It’s Fellessen.”

“Ah so you’re the one who killed the prince then. Good I thought so. That will make clearing these spy accusations a breeze!”

“No wait what? I didn’t kill the prince. Why would that help?”

“If ya didn’t kill the prince then why did we find that grand ol sword on you?”

“I, someone else killed him I think.” My head was still a bit funny from that anesthingy. “Can Iget some water?”

“Oh yes of course. I’m so sorry, you really need to hydrate. We are in the desert and all!”

He seemed very friendly, odd. I was being interrogated wasn’t I? As I drank the water I tried to remember what had exactly happened in the past. Although he seemed nice something told me that he could be a much harder man. “Your name? I, I don’t know your name?”

“Oh yes! You can call me Hawke, for that is the name I have taken out here.”

“Hawke, well how long have ya been out here for?”

“Sorry but I am the one questioning you remember? Back to the topic, you say you did not in fact kill the prince?”

“No someone else did with a thrown dagger of sorts.”

“Hmm really. Why did you flee then?”

“No one would have believed my story?”

“And I am supposed to believe it? No, it does make more sense. I mean we literally found you chasing a rat. Not very sneaky for a spy. Or skilled.”

“Hey! I can be snea-”

“so you are a spy! A very juvenile one at that!”

“No that’s not what I meant, it’s just I was doi-“

“Doing what? Spying on the alliance!”

“NO, I was heading south to try and find a villag-“

“You went south to spy on a village to our south? A village owned by the Denegt tribe?!”

Frustrated and scarred that they would execute me I yelled “Let me finish a freaking sentence!”

“Good news buddy! You’re not a spy.” Hawke said with a smile on his face. “We knew from the last time we interrogated you. Except last time you were a bit more shall we say drugged up. Just giving you a hard time there pal!”

“Wha, why would you do tha-“

Somone entered the tent and as the owner pulled Hawke out he said “Sorry bout that one but I gotta go.” I could barely hear the last bit. “Stay put!”

I moved around in the small dwelling where I had woken up. The furnishings were very sparse. The material that the enclosure was made out of sown together animal hides. The one piece of furniture was a small table. More of a nightstand really. The wood it was made out of was really twisty and dark. I had never seen a plant or tree that grew like what it needed to for that shape to have been created.

Thankfully Hawke returned shortly after he left. “So here is the deal kid. Were packing up, you can leave and go your own way or stay with us.” He smiled that oddly comforting smile and said “However if you leave the closest source of water is probably a hundred miles south of here.”

“Yeah, uh I’m just going to stay with you guys.”

“Great! First thing first, you need to pack this tent up.” Hawke then casually left the dwelling.