The Black Everest: Part I Options

[niceguy]

The Black Everest: Part I

Lessons Of Life

“Before you fight, find out what you're fighting for.”

This was a common thing said around the temple. The monks lived by this. When I was a child I always had a feeling that I was suppose to be fighting for some thing but what was I fighting for?. This quote has driven my life, to find a purpose
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My back was against the wall. The biggest mistake of my life. Gangsarr boxed me in, western style but when you pin someone to the wall; all you want to do (in order to win) is beat the living hell out of them. But I didn’t blame him. There were no rules in this fight. I tried to keep my guard up but I was getting weary. Left right left right. My arms were num now from the hits. I felt pain all over my body; it was as if I was being attacked by a pack of wolves on all sides. I was. I thought I was going to die, to be honest. Beat up to death in this arena…by my best friend too. What a great way to die. There was nothing to do at this point. I threw my body at him another stupid mistake, we rolled on the ground. “Ahhhh!”. I heard a popping noise, It was Gangsarr. He had dislocated his left arm.

We looked at each other, deep in the eyes. I expected to see a monster a beast that had ripped out of my friend’s insides and took control of him. Possess him. But when I saw his eyes…oh, his soft, cool eyes. I knew he was still there and he was scared. The crowd was cheering; the arena was filled with noise. The monks were off their feet and cheering for us. I smiled. I had to make my final hit count. The killing blow. I saw Gangsarr’s stance, it was the Cycle of Blood an old Redguard fighting style. Both my arms came up (symmetrically) to where I could see them, in front of my chest.

I took a deep breath and slowly opened both palms. A defensive position. The ancient Rain-of-Sand' fighting styles of Elsweyr. Before a battle, Nords yell their best battle cry, they were famous for it. And so was Gangsarr. I was scared as hell, the arena was quiet. “Ahhhhargghh!!!” He was charging at me. My palms were still open. He was running so fast. My feet dug into the wet ground. Here he comes… And then, and then I wasn’t sure what happened next, it was all a blur.

But I found myself looking up into the terrace, the sky was so beautiful. “Dane…” It was Gangsarr’s soft low voice but it sounded so weak so…lost. “Yes?” “You fight like hell brother”. I smiled. All of the long years we shared together in this temple, I never realized we were brothers. From the blood and the sweat. To the punches and kicks; and from the broken bones and bruises we exchanged. We became brothers. The giant Nord and the skinny Breton. Perfect. I could hear a raucous going about in the stands. The monks were leaving the arena. “Bravo, bravo” Master Zhul knelt before us. “A very good match indeed” He smiled. His face was filled with energy and excitement. I felt so defeated so exhausted Gangsarr felt the same way to I bet. “Master, I –“He placed a finger on his wrinkled lips ‘Ssshhhh” he whispered. I couldn’t see what he was doing but I felt an aura inside and around my body. It was healing me, easing the pain. Did I hit him?, did I hit him? It didn’t matter anymore, it was over. A draw.


Author's Note; Ok well I posted this at the ES forums and was really grateful with all the good coments there, so I'll give it a go and post it here aswell. Also my absence to make the first post of the story longer was because I was so excitied to get it started. I'll try to make them bigger in the future. Thanks

[niceguy]

Lessons of Life

After the fight with Gangsarr I went to my quarters and wiped the blood from my mouth. I looked at the mirror. Scars from previous fights laced my bare body. My mother once told me when I was young that: Scars are another way to discept ones life, for they always haunt you. They are always there no matter what you do to your body, be it mentally or physically. I wondered why my mother told me this. I had many scars.
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Gangsarr dipped his big toe into the water. “Holy ---- It’s freezing!”

I laughed and being the big show-off that I am, I dived into the pond. It’ actually was cold but I tried to look cool.

“C’mon Gangsarr you baby!” I started back stroking toward the little water fall that overlooked the pond, shivering my but off! I floated on the water. I always felt relaxed when I swam around the pond, it just felt good but before I could fully enjoy my leisure time I sensed something below me, Gangsarr and his antics.

“Okay Gangsarr I give –“He pulled me down into the water and placed me into a submission hold. His arms were tightly around my neck and his legs wrapped around my waist. A minute had past by and he swam back up for a breather.

“Dane?” My body bobbled up, lifeless. He swam toward me and held me in his arms. “Dane, Dane!” Gangsarr started to panic and began shaking me “Dane!” My eyes opened wide, like it would when your eyes adjust to the light when you’ve been in a dark room. My arms lunged to his neck and I jolted behind him. I had him in the exact submission hold he had me in. “Okay. I…give…up” I released my grip and patted him on the back. We started laughing.

We started to head back to the Temple soon after sunset. We arrived at the gate but no one seemed to be behind the walls of the stronghold, the gate guards weren’t even in the watch towers.

“Must be in the meeting house” Gangsarr implied. “Yeah, but it’s to quite” I looked at Gangsarr he had a worried face on. “Come one” I said. I started to back away from the walls. “Where you going?” Gangsarr was always worry wart. “Come on!” I said again. I started jogging lightly and then gain speed and just as it looked I was going to run into the wall, I jolted over it doing an aerial flip.

My ankles embraced the grass hard. Not soon after Gangsarr came leaping over too, unfortunately he landed on his but. “Come on you goof.” The Temple (well it wasn’t exactly the temple itself but we referred to it as our town) was like a ghost town. We checked a few of the student quarters and they were empty. We checked the meeting house, the mess hall, the arena, and even the Temple and the library. Gone. There was one more place we haven’t checked yet. Grand Master Onasi’s house, which was behind the temple. The courtyard gate was open. Master Onasi never left it opened. “This doesn’t feel right Dane, what happen to all the students…the masters!” I looked back at Gangsarr who closed the gate behind him.

“Shhh, I sense something inside.” “Yeah I do too…sadly.” The front door was slightly opened too. “Prepare yourself brother.” I said. In situations like these I had always acted like the big brother. We went inside Onasi’s house. “Hello?”

And then as the door closed something shocking, terrified me. It was Master Zhul’s body, dead body lying on the floor and a strange dagger in his back. “Master!” Gangsarr and I said in unison. We were too late, he had bled to death. My fingers closed his cold eyes, I was mortified. “What’s happening Dane” He walked in circles his hand to his head. “I don’t know Gangy, I just don’t know. Wait.” There was a muffled voice in the library. Two exactly. I ran to door that led to Onasi’s library, took a deep breath (I was afraid to see what was behind the walls to be honest) and opened the door. Locked! “It’s locked Gangsarr” “Move out my way Dane” Gangsarr pushed me aside and rammed the door breaking it into splinters.


We rushed in and I was so stunned I couldn’t move. There was a portal right in front of Onasi’s book sets. And then I saw a glimpse of a foot disappear into the portal. I don’t what was more shocking the portal or the disappearing foot. I saw Gangsarr leaping into the portal but to no avail the portal had closed and Gangsarr slammed into the stacks of books. “Dammit!” Gangsarr punched the floor in frustration. And then as random as the portal and disappearing foot a piece of paper floated onto the ground. I quickly went to reach it. It was a note. “What is it Dane?” Gangsarr patted his pants from the dust that those ancient books had contain. “A note, and it is written in Grand Master Onasi’s handwriting” The ink had smudged in several sentences but I could make most of it out.

To Dane and Gangsarr: strange things have happened ----------- I must-------make----------there---now------ has been a conflict of----------demons-------They have round up most of the students but Master Zhul made a feeble attempt to rebel against the----------I have hidden in the storage room, hopefully they won’t find me here.--------------You must travel to Vvardenfell and talk to a Sirollus Saccus about The Black Everest. I----you two luck.

I rose to my feet. A lot of things were on my mind, everything happened so quickly. I turned to face Gangsarr “We must travel to Vvardenfell”