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]

Chapter 4

The world was clear around me. The sun was up, but only just enough to have its brilliance staring straight into my face. I was suffering from an overwhelming headache.

“Are you ok?” Hawke said from behind me. Thank god, I thought he may have perished in the attack. “Hey Felless, are you ok? I had to knock you out so ya didn’t get yourself killed last night.”

Turning my head out of the glare of the sun I answered “Yeah, I’m doing all right. What happened last night?”

“We were attacked by a rival tribe. They have been trying to get at our leader for a while now. Claim he’s evil or some nonsense.”

“Great.”

“Hey, trust me our men are the best fighters in this part of the world.” Hawke pulled a stick out of his bag and began to fiddle with it. The stick looked treated and very old.

“What’s that?” I inquired.

“Memory of my past life. Long story, I don’t want to bore you with the details.”

“Fair enough. Where are we heading now?”

“To an old ruined city. Jehmundi, the leader of our tribe was able to interrogate one of our attackers. Apparently there is some sort of artifact in the underground chambers.”

“What? Like a magical artifact?” I couldn’t hold in my disbelief. Magic was just something that was told in stories to spice them up. Make people more legendary than they really were.

“You never heard of magic?”

“Yeah, but, it’s not real.”

“Are you sure? There are things in this world that are unexplainable. Things that should not be able to happen yet they have been witnessed by many. Take life for example. How do you create life?”

“What you mean like babies?”

“Well yes, that is one example.”

Feeling like being a smart boat I said “Hmm well it starts out with a mommy and daddy then they-“

“Yes that is how it starts, but how is it created. Why sometimes is life not given? How do YOU create life? How does it start?”

“I don’t know. It just does.”

“Like magic, it just does. Why would it be hard to believe that magic exists? If you can’t disprove it then there is a chance it is there.”

Under my breath too low for him to hear I muttered “magic is stupid.”

The conversation ended with that. Hawke disappeared somewhere again. For the next few hours we walked. The scenery never changed. Sand was once again my nemesis as my legs began to burn. It sapped the strength from me. The terrible heat did nothing to help. It continuously pounded and brought drought to my body as it drew the fluids from it.

Thankfully the water supply seemed to be endless. Every hour or two I would go to one of the distribution areas among the caravan and get my canteen filled up. A while later we stopped and made camp.

“Hey Felless! Come over here!” I heard Hawke yell from the far side of the camp. Making my way over I wondered what he wanted.

“Hey what do ya want?” I asked. The journey had worn me out and the sand, that devil sand had tired me profusely.

“Here.” He threw a scabbard at me. A good throw, practically landed itself in my hand. “Draw your weapon.” I pulled the sword out of its sheath. The sword was dazzling, high quality, fit for a prince. In fact it had at one point belonged to a prince. This weapon was the very weapon that had gotten me into this mess.

“Prepare yourself.” Hawke then smiled and ran towards me. In each hand there was a dagger where previously empty. His arms were crossed right over left. I thrust the sword straight forward catching both blades in the middle stopping the initial strike.

My legs almost gave out on me. Thankfully they did not because Hawke bounced backwards then lunged forward. He struck for my gut with his left hand. I parried the blow but something cold was at my throat. His other hand had evaded my detection and was now waiting to cut my jugular.

“You have to remember that both arms can have weapons on them.” He said as he backed away.

“Why does it matter if I know how to fight?” I had never had any formal training in my life, just some playful stuff with wooden swords when I was a kid.

“Because out here its kill or be killed, I would rather not have you die.”

“Touché, I would rather live as well.”

“Good, then your training starts now.” With that damned smile on his face he attacked me again.

Hours later and close to death from exhaustion I was finally able to retire. Sadly I still had to set up my tent. So tired, I couldn’t bring myself to set it up so I decided to lay down on the sand and within seconds I was in the world of my own mind.