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]

Leaving the tent as well, I was immediately assaulted by the blinding brilliance of the sun. My eyes took time in adjusting to the brilliance. I spun around looking for any indication of where I might be. The whole place looked desolate. A few shrubs here and there fought their way through the crusty earth. Other than that though there was only the giant mountain. It was the lone protrusion from the ground for miles. It looked like a large sharks tooth had been jammed from the underside of a dried out pancake.

Hunger had forced itself upon me. When was the last time I had eaten? Gotta pack the tent first though. That was the priority, I would ask that Hawke character about getting some food afterwards.

It took me a few hours to get the tent into its bag. The thing simply would not fit. I tried re rolling it different ways many times but I could not get the blasted thing to get into the sack. A few members of the band had decided that I was good entertainment and had watched me struggle through the entire ordeal. It was as if they had given me a bag too small to hold the canvas of the tent on purpose just to watch me struggle. I hadn’t seen Hawke in a while either. Even though a small crowd had gathered to watch me I still felt alone. Unable to communicate with the majority was a new experience. It was very disheartening. I had made fun of the Adiplen traders for always fumbling on words when they had docked at Tanon.

The band of nomads started heading out soon after I had finished packing the tent up. They had loaded all of the stuff onto the top of large four legged creatures. I had never seen them before. The legs seemed too skinny to support their mass. The body of the creatures was also very odd, they were almost flat on the top but were also very shallow. It reminded me of a walking table. The head was the most intriguing. It had a head similar to a horse but the mouth was much more rectangular. The nose had a large bony protrusion that seemed to have no function other than making the beast look even more peculiar.

We began moving, heading towards the great protrusion in the earth. The size of the group was pretty large. I estimated it in the thousands, and everyone and their mother seemed to be armed to the teeth. There was beauty among these people though. I saw a few of the women looking at me and giggling. They wore silks that really left very little to the imagination. Their hair was dark, not a single member had light hair. It was odd since most people from the western cities had blonde hair. I had been one of the few exceptions.

A familiar bubbly voice came from behind me “Hey, heard ya had a hard time putting the tent away? Ya know that you were trying to put it in sideways right?”

So Hawke had been one of the observers also. Great. “So thank you for all your helpfulness on the matter” I replied in a sour tone.

“Oh don’t get you panties all in a twist. First time I did it, it took me the better part of a day! It’s kind of an unspoken ritual we have for outsiders.”

I felt a bit better after he had told me that he went through the same thing. I still asked “Really? It took you that long? Dang. How many other outsiders are there?”

“Naw took me maybe thirty minutes. Other outsiders besides you and I? Nope. The only reason you were allowed to stay is because your accused of killing the prince.”

“Great” I muttered back. Why did these people dislike my people so much? From what I heard very small amounts of Tamultans had ever even journeyed east. We had been told these people were constantly fighting each other and that going east was to invite disaster. Few traders had ever made a true profit of the thing. Remembering my hunger “Hey, do you know where I can find some food?”

Hawke reached into his bag and pulled out what must have been some sort of jerky. “Here ya go. This stuff will fill ya up quick!”

He handed me a large handful of the stuff. It was thicker than any jerky I had ever seen. The taste was actually pretty good but the texture was very odd. There were crunchy parts next to chewy parts with soft parts sprinkled intermittently. At one point I almost threw up. The texture in this jerky was so odd my mind got confused and didn’t like what it was experiencing.

Hawke laughed a little and said “yeah the stuff is a bit hard to get used to. The sooner ya do, the better your life will be! I have to go check on some things, enjoy the trip.” With that he walked away towards the back of the group.

He had not lied about the ability of this stuff to fill you up. After my third piece I was almost feeling bloated. The last few pieces were pocketed incase the need to eat struck me before Hawke returned.

The next few days went by without much incidence. Walking in sand was incredibly tiring and by that third night my legs ached and burned like never before. Hawke had begun to instruct me in the language of these people. It was so entirely different from my own that I struggled with almost every concept that he tried to teach me. Thankfully, I had made real progress with one thing. Packing that damned tent up. It now only took me maybe half an hour to get everything ready for travel. The size of my crowd had dwindled for those that watched me pack. They had almost seemed sad that I was able to do it much quicker.

Tonight there was supposed to be some sort of feast in honor of their god and prophet. I didn’t much care their deity, I wasn’t huge on the whole idea. Then again most of the lower class in the west was of similar mind when it came to any entity that was supposed to be fair and equal. Equality is something that men can only dream about in perfect situations with perfect people. However it is my belief that if a human is perfect in every way and without fault they are no longer a human.

The smell of roasting meat was strong as I approached the center of the camp. Odd music emanated from a group of people to my right. Celebration was in the air. The movement of the women around the fire caught my attention. The grace exuded was tremendous. All would move in unison thrusting violently forward then shaking their hips as though a wire was attached to their upper bodies and the lower body did whatever it pleased. One looked right at me. Blood rushed to my cheeks, and other places. I looked away concentrating on the hillside.

“Enticing aren’t they!”

Oh great he’s back. How will he make a fool out of me now.

“Here, drink up. It will numb ya so as not to make a public spectacle out of yourself!” He shoved a cup my direction.

I took the cup from him and gulped the whole thing down. It had been too long since I had ‘altered my state of mind’.

“Uh, I wouldn’t do tha- aw hell” Hawke said. The world began to spin. The honoured user this was really strong. Two voices rang into my head simultaneously yet at different times “forgot to tell ya that khundi is a hallucinogen. Damn every time, sorry, had a bit too much of it myself.”

The world morphed around me. Thorns erupted from the ground. Demons sped over the hills. I heard the language again. I looked up and Hawke had transformed into an avatar of light. He was holding a bow and aiming at the demons crawling over the hill. The yelling melded into a low drum. Something was really wrong. People had begun fighting, not in a friendly way either. Hawk skewered a demon with an arrow from his bow of light.

The demons were closing in. I tried to stand but was knocked back down by my own inability to judge where gravity was. The sky became the sand and the sand in turn became the sky. Something had fallen on top of me. Warmth flowed from his neck. It was a demon! I had to get it off of me. I looked up and light and dark were clashing. Three demons had surrounded Hawke. One lunged, but was immediately stopped by a wall of light. Or was it a dagger things were confusing. Another demon attempted to jump him from behind. Hawke became a blur and the demon was falling back with a waterfall spouting from it neck.

I tried to get up again. A voice full of care and speed told me to stay down. It didn’t matter I collapsed on the ground again. I had no weapon to battle the demons with anyway. Hawke felled two more of the creatures. More kept coming. Creatures came to help Hawke. They looked familiar yet they were green and had grotesque limbs that ended in long pointy fingernails. They engaged the oncoming demons. Something was not right within me I needed something to quell my stoma- I vomited all over the sand next to me.

The dizziness had subsided a little bit but the monsters and demons were still fighting. A third time I tried to stand. I heard something about a sorry then Hawke’s light turned towards me. His shield of light came towards me. Darkness engulfed me.