Shadowydreamer’s Scribbles
A Place where a Dreamer throws up stories.
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A new beginning - an old enemy
Everyone was tired, covered in muck and mud but their Paladin. While they bandaged their wounds and healed from spells, he cleaned his armour. Seonaed was starting to think him more than slightly insane. Tagliente and Shey didn’t seem to think anything of it, so maybe all Paladins were bugnut crazy. This one certainly did eat bugs..
They rounded the corner to find Bertoxxulus sitting on his throne looking very smug. He smiled a wide toothy grin and settled back. “Ah, here you are again M’dear. And a shortage of people to bring you back after I rip your head off and spit down your throat.”
“He’s ugly.” Seonaed brilliantly observed.
“Thank you.” Bertoxx said, quite seriously. “And you too are about to be dog meat. Nice to meet you.” He peered short sightedly at the group, “And a couple Iksar, how quaint. You should hear the things that I have planned for your race..” He looked at narrowed eyes and thrashing tails. “Oh, well, maybe next time. Maybe I’ll enslave your spirits here and tell you into eternity.”
“Boooooorrrriiing.” Tagliente muttered. “You do realize I have much better things to be doing than standing around listening to you all day?”
“Like the elf?” Bertoxx sneered.
“Well, she’d be a good start, yes.” Tagliente smiled, bowed a bow from a court long since turned to dust and summoned a plague of insects to infest the god.
“Insects? Against the god of Pestilence? INSECTS?” Bertoxx looked vaguely offended and the insects all fell to the ground dead.
“Good point.” Tagliente muttered.
Sheylanna stamped her foot on the ground and from the depths rose bushes errupted from between the tiles, wrapping Bertoxx in their thorny embrace, delicate pink flowers errupting all over.
As Bertoxx started to sneeze his way free from the plants, Kydaan became a wood elf once more, pulling out ancient bow and firing arrows at a blurred speed.
Keese called upon Rodcet Nife and recieved no answer to her calls, her powers fizzling. Bob placed a flipper on her shoulder, “Wait. It will come.”
Seonaed followed Rassis in a charge upon the monsterous god. Hacking at bits of him to get little more than bits of green ichor on her sword as the monk smacked at a shin.
“OW. Stop that!” Bertoxx growled, having freed an arm he swept Rassis back and away.
Bob sighed, and looked up. “I suppose I could let them, but it would take forever. And I’m tired.” He hopped past the caster and priests. He picked Seonaed up and placed her behind him and made a shoing gesture and was ready with his two handed sword when Bertoxx broke free of the thorns and roses.
“YOU!” Bertoxx growled, eyes widening, skittering back towards his throne. “Impossible! You died, you disappeared, you were gone!”
“Gone, but not forgotten.” Bob smiled that froggie smile and started growing, shifting, changing into an impossibly large human in silver armour, flowing brown hair with a paladin’s moustache.
“Mith Marr.” Sheylanna breathed in awe. Then, “You son of a bitch! Where the hell have you been?!”
“At the bottom of a lake.” He replied calmly, his voice rumbling amongst the halls. “You.” He pointed at Bert with his sword. “Have long since outlived your usefulness and purpose. I was given a vision from the GMs, a vision of what would be the future. These mighty warriors could eventually defeat you, but it would take half the world and more time than the short lived might want to give. So I was offered the chance, that if I sacrificed my beloved people -”
“The frickin’ slimey frogs.” Bert grumbled.
“Neither Frogloks nor frogs are slimey,” Mith Marr refused to be distracted, “if I sacrificed the Frogloks, I could save the world.” His eyes narrowed, “and here I am.”
“And what are you going to do?” Bertoxx snickered, “You’re no more powerful than I am! Our battles would be even longer and destroy the planes as well as the world!”
“Very true.” Mith Marr offered a hand to Seonaed, “But you do not have a creator on your side.” The god turned and smiled down at the young warrior, “If you will allow me to focus your incredible powers my dear? While you could, would and will eventually learn them well enough to be rid of this fiend, better now than later.” He did not mention the wartorn creature Seonaed would become, grey in hair and beant of body. Free will was an important thing to the god of truth and light.
Seonaed looked up at the shining figure, a being that represented everything she tried to believe in and wasn’t quite sure she always succeeded. “I trust you.” She told him.
A powerful thing unto itself was truth, Mithaniel thought, and gathered her powers gently into his own being and said the words he’d been holding for centuries. “command, find all instance Bertoxxulous. Delete.”
“You son of..” Bertoxx finally worked up the courage to launch himself at his fellow god, disappearing in a shower of sparks halfway to him.
“That’s IT?” Sheylanna yelped. “Centuries of hardwork, blood, sweat, tears and death and that’s it? You march in here and make him poof? Where the hell were you four hundred years ago?!”
“I am limited in what I am allowed to do, young elf.” Mithananiel let go of Seonaed’s hand, her powers returning to her. “I have to play the game as much as he did. While I was given special permission..” He shook his massive head, “I still cannot break the laws. That is why people like her are around, for when the rules need to be broken.”
“I came to you!” She marched up to him and poked him in the shin. “I came to you in your temple with forty other supplicants, I beat you in battle to gain your wisdom and what do you tell me? Evil always return to the same place! But it didn’t, did it? No, you sent me on a wild goose chase that made my kin think I”m crazy!”
“You are crazy, you’re an elf.” Mith Marr commented, shrinking to a more reasonable size. “And if you hadn’t gone to the bottom of Lake Rathe, who would have found and released me?” He patted Sheylanna on the arm. “Come now, it may all seem a neat little package, but really, everything was quite knotted and confused for a good deal of time. You think it’s was easy being a statue for so long? Knowing my people were being corrupted, tortured and harmed? Knowing there was pain and suffering I could prevent but musn’t for the greater good? To feel Luclin explode, the thousands upon thousands within gasping for air and failing? There are no finishes, no answers. There are two first brood dragons loose on the world, there is still a power mad ex-Paladin out there who I may not touch, there is good, there is evil and there is the balance in between that must be maintained. This wasn’t an ending, this was keeping an out of balance power in check.”
“So that’s it? I spent my whole life striving for this and you say, hey, not even a bookmark?” Sheylanna leaned back against Tagliente, the dark elf wrapping his arms around her.
“Bah. Of course not. Your life isn’t over. There’s still plenty for you to do. Just for starters there’s the known universe’s greatest library that needs guardians until Norrath is ready once more to access the Plane of Knowledge.”
“That does sound good,” Tagliente murmered, eyes lusting for sight of the knowledge in the endless supply of books.
“See? ANd you have love, that is an important thing.” Mithaniel smiled, “So stop feeling sorry for yourself and go live your lives. I have a temple to clean up.” He started to fade. “Bet those rusty hunks of armour have done nothing but stand around looking confused for a few hundred years while the cats shed everywhere..”
Kydaan stretched and walked over to his sister. “I have an apprentice to claim and an evil son of a bitch to watch.” He gave her a hug and messed up her hair before turning to his great-many times Neice. “If you’re ever in Freeport, look me up. I’m the only Ranger.” He rubbed his ring and disappeared.
Sheylanna kissed her great-times-daughter on the cheek. “I’m so proud of you.” she said before she and Tagliente disappeared in blue light.
“What?! What about me?”
“What about you?” Rassis grumbled, picking up his staff, “YOU get to go back to Qeynos and become a mighty paladin, protecting the world from the evils of Freeport. *I* have to go plan a wedding.” He grumbled to himself, stalking towards the portal across from the throne. “Oh wah, I get powers and riches and fame. While the silly lizard has to go figure out how to feed four hundred on no budget. Oh how life is so unfair to the mighty pretty paladin.” He stepped in and disappeared.
Keese looped her arm through Seonaed’s, “You really are welcome to stay with us for a while. Get used to things. Have a few friends around.”
Seonaed sighed, “Shouldn’t I be waking up the world?”
“Well, I’m no creator or anything, but I wouldn’t want to be near any cranky dragons when they’re woken up. And from all the lore, Vox wakes up MEAN.”
Seonaed thought about this. “You’re right. She can wait.”
* * *
I was never particularly happy with this ending. It was awfully coincedental and contrived. But at least I wrapped it up.
March 16th, 2009 at 2:14 am
do you have any pics for this story?
March 17th, 2009 at 4:32 am
best, wonderful, wonderful!!!
March 18th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
author must begin a second blog, it’s wonder!