Wild Gazebo
Explorer
Argg. I thought I wasn't going to get it posted. Good Luck!
I didn't sbock it...sorry. I can't edit as per the rules.
I didn't sbock it...sorry. I can't edit as per the rules.
CERAMIC DM March 2012
Good job not editing it - some of us do that as a knee jerk reaction then suddenly find ourselves disqualified! Actually I havent, but fully understand it. And it doesnt need to be in an sblock really, especially if you story is posted last.
Good job getting it in during the last 2 minutes
Helle
Good job getting it in during the last 2 minutes
Helle
Wild Gazebo
Explorer
Yeah, I got a curveball yesderday. I just barely managed to get what I had posted.
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
I would always, always rather have an opponent post what they have instead of just defaulting. That's happened to me in the past, and it's so frustrating to have written a story and not have anything else posted at all. I have so much respect for folks who bust their butt to meet the deadline.
So, in other words, thank you.
So, in other words, thank you.
UselessTriviaMan
Explorer
Ceramic DM R1 M5 entry
The Caretaker's Gift
[sblock]
We always figured that Digger would die ‘cuz he did something dumb.
Well, we all thought he’d get caught stealing from one of the market vendors or something. He’s way slower than the other kids, but he can’t help that he’s a dwarf. His legs are just too short. He’s not old enough to have a beard yet, but he does have a couple of big black whiskers sticking out of his chin now. He’s awful proud of them.
Anyway, Digger’s not too bright. Everybody started calling him Digger ‘cuz when he first showed up in the marketplace, he was always making holes. The rest of us would make fun of him for getting so dirty, but he didn’t care. He’d just keep digging, using this old trowel he pulled out of the trash someplace, and the only thing that’d make him stop was when the guards’d finally notice and chase him off for making potholes.
I always tried to look out for the little guy. I mean, sometimes he’d get so caught up in his digging that the guards would bop him with the back ends of their spears before he’d run away. I felt bad for him. See, I’m way smarter than him. And I’m the fastest runner out of all the market kids too, ever since Mathias got himself killed for trying a snatch-and-run at the silversmith’s stall. Mathias was the fastest, but he couldn’t run faster than a crossbow bolt. He was dumb, but Digger was even dumber. Digger didn’t know the best ways to beg for coppers, or how to lift some sucker’s purse, and with those short legs he wasn’t fast enough to pull a snatch-and-run on his own. So I watched out for him sometimes. I’m smart. I know the best places to get food. I can beg better than pretty much anybody. And I know which guards in the market’ll keep chasing you, and which ones will just shoot you. Digger didn’t know any of that stuff, so I kept an eye out for him. I shared my food with him sometimes, but then I’d get mad when he’d go and share it too. He was like that.
I caught Digger a couple of times, giving food to old Suraiym. He was this toothless old beggar with his head all wrapped up, and he talked with this really weird accent. Suraiym was always sitting in the market shade, smiling and just watching people go by, with his dirty brass coin cup sitting in front of him. He was harmless enough, but I’d never really talked to him much. But after I busted Digger passing Suraiym some of the food I’d given him, I quit sharing for a while. It didn’t last long though, ‘cuz Digger is dumb. Like I said, he wouldn’t last long in the market if I didn’t watch out for him.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The market is big. Like, huge. It’s really called the Market District of Freehaven, but we just call it home. We stay there ‘cuz that’s where the food is, but sometimes we go see other places in the city. Digger’s favorite place to go was the Temple District. He would get all excited looking at the fancy temple buildings. He really liked it when he could actually touch the buildings. He’d spend a long time running his hands over the fancy stone carvings and stuff. Somebody would usually chase us off though, after a while. I don’t know why – it’s not like we could steal any of it.
There were lots and lots of temples. A couple would even let us come inside, like the Temple of the White Lily (they worship Andur the Creator), but most of ‘em were totally off-limits to street kids like us. Out of all of ‘em, the coolest looking temple was Huntsman’s Hall. You couldn’t see it from the street, ‘cuz of this big thick hedge that totally surrounded the place. The one way through that hedge was the Thorny Gate, and the only way you could even see the temple building was if you got high enough to look over the top of the hedge.
And the one place we could do that was on the upper balcony of the White Lily. I mean sure, we usually had to sit and listen to Brahmin Guptira preach for a while before we could go up there, but sometimes we got to eat rice cakes while he talked. He was always trying to convert us like that. But it was totally worth it.
Anyway, Digger and me would go up and sit on the balcony and look across the street at the Huntsman’s Hall. It was old, and green and black moss filled in the cracks. But the carvings on that temple were just so cool. We couldn’t see them all that well from so far away, but there were people and animals and plants and stuff we couldn’t even figure out carved all over the building. It was the kinda stuff that Digger just went nuts for, and that kid loved staring at that building.
We were up there on the balcony again today. It was just starting to get dark, and like most days, I’d gotten bored with looking at the building way before Digger did. I was watching the people down on the street and thinking about asking Guptira for more rice cakes when I spotted something weird down there.
Three Huntsmen were dragging old Suraiym between ‘em, and they were headed towards the Thorny Gate. I said a word that woulda gotten me chewed out big-time if the Brahmin had heard me, and Digger looked at me in surprise. I didn’t say nothing else though, and when he looked where I was looking and saw what I saw, he said it too.
“We gotta help him!” Digger pleaded.
I was kinda worried. Huntsmen always wore these big black cloaks with green ivy ‘n stuff on them, and they were a lot scarier than most temple guards. You couldn’t ever see their faces really, ‘cuz they wore those big helms with deer antlers on ‘em. But they were really good at seeing you, and they’d just as soon stick you with a spear as look at you. Especially if you were someplace you weren’t supposed to be. And if we tried to help Suraiym, they’d probably end up sticking us with those spears. I knew Digger was scared, but I also saw the look on his face. We were gonna have to help his friend.
It was too bad Guptira wasn’t a fighting kind of cleric, but Andur is all about peace and stuff. None of his clerics fight if they can help it. They don’t even wear armor. So it was pretty much gonna be up to us, but there wasn’t much we could do from up on that balcony. Even if we ran the whole way, we never woulda got to them before they got inside the gate. We watched the Huntsmen drag Suraiym through the Thorny Gate, and then I grabbed Digger’s arm and made him look me in the eye.
“We’re gonna go get him out of there, Digger.” I just didn’t know how we were gonna do it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
We ran the whole way down to the street and kept going. I was heading for the corner, to get out of sight of the Huntsmen standing at the gate. Maybe we could find some other way through the hedge. I thought Digger was still right behind me, but when I looked back he was running as fast as he could, straight for the Thorny Gate. I hurried and grabbed him just before he threw himself at the guards.
“YOU LET MY FRIEND GO!” he screeched.
At first the Huntsmen were ready to stick us with their spears, but for some reason they backed off a little. “You saw them bring in that man?” the shorter one asked.
All of a sudden I got really scared. There was something about the way he said the words that had my feet telling me to run away right now.
One of the Huntsmen started speaking really weird words. “Ast tasarak sinularan kyrnaw…”
I let go of Digger and tried to run. I only made it a coupla steps…
-------------------------------------------------------------------
I woke up with my cheek pressed against a cold, musty stone floor. I sat up, wiped my face and tried to figure out what was going on. Digger was lying next to me, still passed out, and I remembered it all. I looked around. The room had stone walls, like what I figured a dungeon would look like. Nobody else was in there with us, so I bumped Digger with my foot to wake him up.
As he sat up, the door opened and a lady came in. She was in this dark green dress that went all the way to the floor so you couldn’t see her feet, and she kinda glided instead of walked. But that wasn’t the weird part. The antlers sticking out of her head were way weirder than the way she walked. Me and Digger both scooted away from her on our butts until we were up against the back wall, but she just stopped and smiled at us.
In the market, Fat Grunda sells sweet pastries. Sometimes at sundown, she would let us have the old, stale sweets she couldn’t sell anymore. She is the ugliest old lady I’ve ever seen, but when she smiles it makes her kinda pretty. The antler lady was beautiful, but when she smiled it didn’t make her pretty. It made her look even scarier, somehow.
She just stood there staring at us for a little bit. Digger made a little scared noise next to me, and then she finally said, “You stated that the Suraiym is your friend. Tell me about him, and tell me true. If you will do this for me, I’ll let you go.”
I knew Digger was scared. He just stared at her with his eyes open real wide and shook his head a little. Me, I wasn’t scared. But I was pretty sure she wasn’t gonna just let us go, no matter what we told her about the old guy, so I didn’t say nothin’ either.
She just stood there, real still, for a minute. Then she cocked an eyebrow and said, “Do you urchins know of the Wild Hunt?”
We didn’t.
Then she started preaching at us, but it wasn’t anything like Brahmin Guptira’s sweet-talk about peace and life and good stuff. She just about scared us out of our pants, talking about the Huntsmen and their hounds and the Master of the Hunt, and how they never, ever failed to catch whatever they were hunting. Even people.
While she was talking, I was thinking. After she’d been at it a while, I finally couldn’t hold it in any more and asked, “Does this mean you’re gonna hunt Suraiym?”
She looked mad that I’d interrupted her, but she answered. “Perhaps. Do you know why the Suraiym was allowed to be in the marketplace unprotected?”
The Suraiym? I thought that was just his name, but the way she said it he sounded all important. But he was always just a beggar.
We didn’t say anything, but she musta figured out we didn’t know what she was talking about. Her mouth scrunched up like she’d just stepped in horse poop, and she turned around and walked out without saying anything else. The door slammed shut, and we heard the click of a lock.
Digger looked at me. “What are we gonna do?”
I looked around. There were a couple barrels in the back of the room, and about a dozen big flour bags stacked next to them. Nothing we could use there. I checked my pockets. I still had my knife, but it was way too small to use like a weapon.
We were stuck in a storeroom, but it might as well have been a jail cell. There wasn’t anything we could do.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
We were in there for several hours. I was trying to open barrels to see if there was anything in ‘em we could use, but my little knife wasn’t very good for that kinda stuff. It took me a really long time to even get the first one open, but when I finally did it was full of apples. I looked up to tell Digger the good news, and I saw he was just being Digger again. He had his nose almost touching the wall, and he was using his old trowel to dig at a crack he’d found. I already had a big mouthful of apple, and I tried to chew fast so I could tell him what I found.
But before I could swallow, he did something with the trowel and part of the wall opened up. Digger fell backwards on his butt with a squeak and scooted away from the black hole as fast as he could.
Nothing came out at us, and after staring for a few seconds I went over to take a look. It wasn’t very wide, but it was tall enough for me to walk through without hitting my head. Digger waited to see if I was gonna get eaten by something, but then he came over too.
I couldn’t see anything in there. I looked back at the one torch behind us on the wall, but it was too high to reach without something to stand on. I was headed for the barrels when Digger said, “I can see in there. I don’t need the torch.”
I looked at him. I had forgot all about how dwarves can see good in the dark. “Do you think we can get out that way?”
He nodded and held out his hand. I took a big breath and put my hand in his.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The tunnel wasn’t too bad, except there were a lot of cobwebs. Digger’s a lot shorter than me, so even though he was going first I kept getting hit in the face with them. The tunnel had a lot of twists and turns, and every once in a while we could see little bits of light where there were peepholes in the walls. Most of ‘em were too high for us to reach, so we just kept going. The tunnel ended at a stone ladder and we climbed up as quiet as we could. I can be super quiet when I want to be.
At the top of the ladder Digger whispered, “There’s a bunch of different ways to go from here. Where should we go?”
“I dunno. I can’t see, so you pick.”
He took a few seconds to think about it, and we were off again. We didn’t get very far before I spotted another peephole, but this one was low enough that even Digger could look through. I stopped to take a peek.
I looked out into a room that musta been a library. I’ve never seen one before, but it had books all over the walls, so that had to be what it was. I clapped a hand over Digger’s mouth when I saw there were people in there. A gnome wearing weird clothes was standing in front of a big, fancy desk. I got kinda scared though when I realized he was talking to the antler lady.
“I assure you, my lady, that it will be ready in time.”
“It had better be. You are being well paid for your services, and if your contraption isn’t ready it will cost you much more than mere gold.”
The gnome looked a little nervous and offended all at once. “My armillary sphere is much more than a contraption, my lady. It will trap the Suraiym’s power after you kill him, preventing it from traveling to the next chosen Caretaker.”
She looked bored, like this was something she’d heard a lot. “Then I’ll not keep you any longer. Finish your masterpiece. You have until midnight.”
I wasn’t scared before. Well, okay, I was a little scared of the antler lady before. But now she scared me bad. All I wanted to do was get out of there and never, ever even look at this place again.
But Digger was right there with me, and he’d heard everything too. I took my hand off his mouth and we snuck away as quiet as we could. He led me a ways down the tunnel before he stopped and whispered, “She’s gonna kill the Suraiym. We gotta save him.”
How could Digger be braver than me? That didn’t seem right somehow. “We gotta find a way out of here first. We can’t rescue anybody if we don’t know how to get out.”
Digger just squeezed my hand with his and led me away into the darkness.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
We explored for a really long time before we finally found another way out. The secret door opened up behind a big statue of a guy who looked like one of the Huntsmen, except he wasn’t wearing a cloak or even a shirt. He was holding this fancy spear like he was about to stab somebody with it.
The statue was at the end of a short hallway, and there was nobody in sight. We crept out as quiet as we could, and I peeked around the corner just ahead.
There was a long hallway. The wall I could see was covered in this huge painting, and now I knew what I saw there was the Wild Hunt. There were all these hunters on horses, and big dogs and wolves, and at the very back there was the Master of the Hunt with his antlers and his helmet and... then I realized the statue behind me was him, too.
I ducked back when two Huntsmen came walking around a corner way down the hall, but they didn’t spot me. I heard their footsteps though, and they went off down some other hallway. I peeked again, and realized they had come from outside. There was an open doorway, and I could just barely hear the buzzing noises of cicadas coming from that way.
I waved at Digger, and we started towards the way out. We were almost there when he grabbed my hand and turned me around.
“We hafta save him,” he whispered.
I almost cried. “Digger, we gotta get out of here! I don’t want that hunt to chase after US!”
Digger looked like he was about to cry too. “Then you go without me. I gotta help him.” He stuck out his bottom lip.
I almost left him there. Almost.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
We had to dodge the guards one other time, but it didn’t take long to find where everybody was at. They were all in the main temple room, and we found ‘em by following the sound of the chanting.
There were a whole lot of Huntsmen in there, all kneeling on the floor. But they all had their helmets off, and I was a little surprised to see that their antlers were just part of the helmets. Underneath, they were all just people.
But the antler lady didn’t have a helmet. She was standing up in front, and I was a little embarrassed to see that she wasn’t wearing any clothes at all. But she was holding up a fancy knife, and she was standing behind an altar. And tied down on the altar was Suraiym.
Off to one side, the gnome was standing next to his contraption. He did something to it, and the rings started spinning by themselves. He looked over at the antler lady and nodded his head.
And then she stabbed Suraiym in the chest.
Everything went really fast after that. There was this big flash of light, and it zapped from the altar to the machine. It got stuck there inside the rings, shining as bright as the sun.
And suddenly I realized Digger wasn’t standing next to me anymore. Somehow he was running as fast as he could toward the antler lady and Suraiym, and he had that old trowel in his hand. But just before he reached the altar, he turned and ran towards the machine. The gnome tried to grab him, but Digger dodged him and jumped up at the machine…
And he jammed his trowel in between the rings.
There was this awful screech of metal that only lasted for a second. It happened really fast, but I thought I saw the ball of light jump free and slam into Digger. Then the machine broke with a big bang and pieces of it went flying all over the place, and one of ‘em musta hit the gnome ‘cuz he got knocked almost all the way across the room.
The antler lady didn’t get hit though, and she was mad. Some of the Huntsmen were starting to head for Digger, but she was faster than any of ‘em. She was screaming all the way over to where Digger was layin’ on the floor. She still had the knife in her hand, and Suraiym’s blood was still on it. And then, before he could even get up, she used that same knife on my friend Digger.
The next thing I knew, I was running as fast as I could out the door. Suraiym was dead and so was Digger and I didn’t want to be next and there were guards chasing after me and I ran and ran and ran, and then there was the Thorny Gate and then somehow I was outside and there was Brahmin Guptira across the street and then it felt like I was flying and everything faded to a white nothing…
-------------------------------------------------------------------
When I awoke, I could smell the unmistakably distinct fragrance of white Andurian lilies even before I opened my eyes. A soft burbling of running water was near at hand, but its music couldn’t entirely mask the sounds of the city beyond the walls of the temple.
I opened my eyes to a new day’s dawn. Brahmin Guptira was there at my side, and he offered me a silent, sad smile. No explanations were necessary. Just as the two thousand, eight hundred fifty-seven Suraiyms had been before me, I knew that I would be the new Suraiym for the rest of my days. The Suraiym – the Caretaker of Andur’s Wisdom – was his Chosen, the Keeper of his Secrets, his voice in this mortal world. And though Digger had only held that gift for the briefest of moments, his place at Andur’s side in the Seven Heavens was now assured.
The Mistress of the Hunt had been denied in her profane attempt to harness and corrupt the power of the Suraiym, and I knew instinctively that her own deity would be profoundly displeased by her actions. The Hunt does not slaughter helpless victims upon an altar; the hunt is in itself their holiest of services. She might not pay for her crimes in this world, but pay she eventually would nonetheless.
Guptira assisted me in dressing, reverently wrapping my head in its pristine white dastar before helping me into my robes. I briefly considered the day ahead. The two thousand, eight hundred fifty-seventh Suraiym had relished the feel of the earth between his fingers, and his predecessor cherished watching the people in the city market. I hadn’t yet decided what my own preferred pastime would be, but I knew what this particular day would bring.
I bowed to the honorable Brahmin and took my leave of him. As I walked to the marketplace, I smiled and nodded in greeting to all I met on the streets. Once in the market I found a good spot, hitched up my robes, and sat down in the dirt.
With a smile, I pulled a trowel from my pocket and began digging.
[/sblock]
3,996 words
The Caretaker's Gift
[sblock]
We always figured that Digger would die ‘cuz he did something dumb.
Well, we all thought he’d get caught stealing from one of the market vendors or something. He’s way slower than the other kids, but he can’t help that he’s a dwarf. His legs are just too short. He’s not old enough to have a beard yet, but he does have a couple of big black whiskers sticking out of his chin now. He’s awful proud of them.
Anyway, Digger’s not too bright. Everybody started calling him Digger ‘cuz when he first showed up in the marketplace, he was always making holes. The rest of us would make fun of him for getting so dirty, but he didn’t care. He’d just keep digging, using this old trowel he pulled out of the trash someplace, and the only thing that’d make him stop was when the guards’d finally notice and chase him off for making potholes.
I always tried to look out for the little guy. I mean, sometimes he’d get so caught up in his digging that the guards would bop him with the back ends of their spears before he’d run away. I felt bad for him. See, I’m way smarter than him. And I’m the fastest runner out of all the market kids too, ever since Mathias got himself killed for trying a snatch-and-run at the silversmith’s stall. Mathias was the fastest, but he couldn’t run faster than a crossbow bolt. He was dumb, but Digger was even dumber. Digger didn’t know the best ways to beg for coppers, or how to lift some sucker’s purse, and with those short legs he wasn’t fast enough to pull a snatch-and-run on his own. So I watched out for him sometimes. I’m smart. I know the best places to get food. I can beg better than pretty much anybody. And I know which guards in the market’ll keep chasing you, and which ones will just shoot you. Digger didn’t know any of that stuff, so I kept an eye out for him. I shared my food with him sometimes, but then I’d get mad when he’d go and share it too. He was like that.
I caught Digger a couple of times, giving food to old Suraiym. He was this toothless old beggar with his head all wrapped up, and he talked with this really weird accent. Suraiym was always sitting in the market shade, smiling and just watching people go by, with his dirty brass coin cup sitting in front of him. He was harmless enough, but I’d never really talked to him much. But after I busted Digger passing Suraiym some of the food I’d given him, I quit sharing for a while. It didn’t last long though, ‘cuz Digger is dumb. Like I said, he wouldn’t last long in the market if I didn’t watch out for him.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The market is big. Like, huge. It’s really called the Market District of Freehaven, but we just call it home. We stay there ‘cuz that’s where the food is, but sometimes we go see other places in the city. Digger’s favorite place to go was the Temple District. He would get all excited looking at the fancy temple buildings. He really liked it when he could actually touch the buildings. He’d spend a long time running his hands over the fancy stone carvings and stuff. Somebody would usually chase us off though, after a while. I don’t know why – it’s not like we could steal any of it.
There were lots and lots of temples. A couple would even let us come inside, like the Temple of the White Lily (they worship Andur the Creator), but most of ‘em were totally off-limits to street kids like us. Out of all of ‘em, the coolest looking temple was Huntsman’s Hall. You couldn’t see it from the street, ‘cuz of this big thick hedge that totally surrounded the place. The one way through that hedge was the Thorny Gate, and the only way you could even see the temple building was if you got high enough to look over the top of the hedge.
And the one place we could do that was on the upper balcony of the White Lily. I mean sure, we usually had to sit and listen to Brahmin Guptira preach for a while before we could go up there, but sometimes we got to eat rice cakes while he talked. He was always trying to convert us like that. But it was totally worth it.
Anyway, Digger and me would go up and sit on the balcony and look across the street at the Huntsman’s Hall. It was old, and green and black moss filled in the cracks. But the carvings on that temple were just so cool. We couldn’t see them all that well from so far away, but there were people and animals and plants and stuff we couldn’t even figure out carved all over the building. It was the kinda stuff that Digger just went nuts for, and that kid loved staring at that building.
We were up there on the balcony again today. It was just starting to get dark, and like most days, I’d gotten bored with looking at the building way before Digger did. I was watching the people down on the street and thinking about asking Guptira for more rice cakes when I spotted something weird down there.
Three Huntsmen were dragging old Suraiym between ‘em, and they were headed towards the Thorny Gate. I said a word that woulda gotten me chewed out big-time if the Brahmin had heard me, and Digger looked at me in surprise. I didn’t say nothing else though, and when he looked where I was looking and saw what I saw, he said it too.
“We gotta help him!” Digger pleaded.
I was kinda worried. Huntsmen always wore these big black cloaks with green ivy ‘n stuff on them, and they were a lot scarier than most temple guards. You couldn’t ever see their faces really, ‘cuz they wore those big helms with deer antlers on ‘em. But they were really good at seeing you, and they’d just as soon stick you with a spear as look at you. Especially if you were someplace you weren’t supposed to be. And if we tried to help Suraiym, they’d probably end up sticking us with those spears. I knew Digger was scared, but I also saw the look on his face. We were gonna have to help his friend.
It was too bad Guptira wasn’t a fighting kind of cleric, but Andur is all about peace and stuff. None of his clerics fight if they can help it. They don’t even wear armor. So it was pretty much gonna be up to us, but there wasn’t much we could do from up on that balcony. Even if we ran the whole way, we never woulda got to them before they got inside the gate. We watched the Huntsmen drag Suraiym through the Thorny Gate, and then I grabbed Digger’s arm and made him look me in the eye.
“We’re gonna go get him out of there, Digger.” I just didn’t know how we were gonna do it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
We ran the whole way down to the street and kept going. I was heading for the corner, to get out of sight of the Huntsmen standing at the gate. Maybe we could find some other way through the hedge. I thought Digger was still right behind me, but when I looked back he was running as fast as he could, straight for the Thorny Gate. I hurried and grabbed him just before he threw himself at the guards.
“YOU LET MY FRIEND GO!” he screeched.
At first the Huntsmen were ready to stick us with their spears, but for some reason they backed off a little. “You saw them bring in that man?” the shorter one asked.
All of a sudden I got really scared. There was something about the way he said the words that had my feet telling me to run away right now.
One of the Huntsmen started speaking really weird words. “Ast tasarak sinularan kyrnaw…”
I let go of Digger and tried to run. I only made it a coupla steps…
-------------------------------------------------------------------
I woke up with my cheek pressed against a cold, musty stone floor. I sat up, wiped my face and tried to figure out what was going on. Digger was lying next to me, still passed out, and I remembered it all. I looked around. The room had stone walls, like what I figured a dungeon would look like. Nobody else was in there with us, so I bumped Digger with my foot to wake him up.
As he sat up, the door opened and a lady came in. She was in this dark green dress that went all the way to the floor so you couldn’t see her feet, and she kinda glided instead of walked. But that wasn’t the weird part. The antlers sticking out of her head were way weirder than the way she walked. Me and Digger both scooted away from her on our butts until we were up against the back wall, but she just stopped and smiled at us.
In the market, Fat Grunda sells sweet pastries. Sometimes at sundown, she would let us have the old, stale sweets she couldn’t sell anymore. She is the ugliest old lady I’ve ever seen, but when she smiles it makes her kinda pretty. The antler lady was beautiful, but when she smiled it didn’t make her pretty. It made her look even scarier, somehow.
She just stood there staring at us for a little bit. Digger made a little scared noise next to me, and then she finally said, “You stated that the Suraiym is your friend. Tell me about him, and tell me true. If you will do this for me, I’ll let you go.”
I knew Digger was scared. He just stared at her with his eyes open real wide and shook his head a little. Me, I wasn’t scared. But I was pretty sure she wasn’t gonna just let us go, no matter what we told her about the old guy, so I didn’t say nothin’ either.
She just stood there, real still, for a minute. Then she cocked an eyebrow and said, “Do you urchins know of the Wild Hunt?”
We didn’t.
Then she started preaching at us, but it wasn’t anything like Brahmin Guptira’s sweet-talk about peace and life and good stuff. She just about scared us out of our pants, talking about the Huntsmen and their hounds and the Master of the Hunt, and how they never, ever failed to catch whatever they were hunting. Even people.
While she was talking, I was thinking. After she’d been at it a while, I finally couldn’t hold it in any more and asked, “Does this mean you’re gonna hunt Suraiym?”
She looked mad that I’d interrupted her, but she answered. “Perhaps. Do you know why the Suraiym was allowed to be in the marketplace unprotected?”
The Suraiym? I thought that was just his name, but the way she said it he sounded all important. But he was always just a beggar.
We didn’t say anything, but she musta figured out we didn’t know what she was talking about. Her mouth scrunched up like she’d just stepped in horse poop, and she turned around and walked out without saying anything else. The door slammed shut, and we heard the click of a lock.
Digger looked at me. “What are we gonna do?”
I looked around. There were a couple barrels in the back of the room, and about a dozen big flour bags stacked next to them. Nothing we could use there. I checked my pockets. I still had my knife, but it was way too small to use like a weapon.
We were stuck in a storeroom, but it might as well have been a jail cell. There wasn’t anything we could do.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
We were in there for several hours. I was trying to open barrels to see if there was anything in ‘em we could use, but my little knife wasn’t very good for that kinda stuff. It took me a really long time to even get the first one open, but when I finally did it was full of apples. I looked up to tell Digger the good news, and I saw he was just being Digger again. He had his nose almost touching the wall, and he was using his old trowel to dig at a crack he’d found. I already had a big mouthful of apple, and I tried to chew fast so I could tell him what I found.
But before I could swallow, he did something with the trowel and part of the wall opened up. Digger fell backwards on his butt with a squeak and scooted away from the black hole as fast as he could.
Nothing came out at us, and after staring for a few seconds I went over to take a look. It wasn’t very wide, but it was tall enough for me to walk through without hitting my head. Digger waited to see if I was gonna get eaten by something, but then he came over too.
I couldn’t see anything in there. I looked back at the one torch behind us on the wall, but it was too high to reach without something to stand on. I was headed for the barrels when Digger said, “I can see in there. I don’t need the torch.”
I looked at him. I had forgot all about how dwarves can see good in the dark. “Do you think we can get out that way?”
He nodded and held out his hand. I took a big breath and put my hand in his.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The tunnel wasn’t too bad, except there were a lot of cobwebs. Digger’s a lot shorter than me, so even though he was going first I kept getting hit in the face with them. The tunnel had a lot of twists and turns, and every once in a while we could see little bits of light where there were peepholes in the walls. Most of ‘em were too high for us to reach, so we just kept going. The tunnel ended at a stone ladder and we climbed up as quiet as we could. I can be super quiet when I want to be.
At the top of the ladder Digger whispered, “There’s a bunch of different ways to go from here. Where should we go?”
“I dunno. I can’t see, so you pick.”
He took a few seconds to think about it, and we were off again. We didn’t get very far before I spotted another peephole, but this one was low enough that even Digger could look through. I stopped to take a peek.
I looked out into a room that musta been a library. I’ve never seen one before, but it had books all over the walls, so that had to be what it was. I clapped a hand over Digger’s mouth when I saw there were people in there. A gnome wearing weird clothes was standing in front of a big, fancy desk. I got kinda scared though when I realized he was talking to the antler lady.
“I assure you, my lady, that it will be ready in time.”
“It had better be. You are being well paid for your services, and if your contraption isn’t ready it will cost you much more than mere gold.”
The gnome looked a little nervous and offended all at once. “My armillary sphere is much more than a contraption, my lady. It will trap the Suraiym’s power after you kill him, preventing it from traveling to the next chosen Caretaker.”
She looked bored, like this was something she’d heard a lot. “Then I’ll not keep you any longer. Finish your masterpiece. You have until midnight.”
I wasn’t scared before. Well, okay, I was a little scared of the antler lady before. But now she scared me bad. All I wanted to do was get out of there and never, ever even look at this place again.
But Digger was right there with me, and he’d heard everything too. I took my hand off his mouth and we snuck away as quiet as we could. He led me a ways down the tunnel before he stopped and whispered, “She’s gonna kill the Suraiym. We gotta save him.”
How could Digger be braver than me? That didn’t seem right somehow. “We gotta find a way out of here first. We can’t rescue anybody if we don’t know how to get out.”
Digger just squeezed my hand with his and led me away into the darkness.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
We explored for a really long time before we finally found another way out. The secret door opened up behind a big statue of a guy who looked like one of the Huntsmen, except he wasn’t wearing a cloak or even a shirt. He was holding this fancy spear like he was about to stab somebody with it.
The statue was at the end of a short hallway, and there was nobody in sight. We crept out as quiet as we could, and I peeked around the corner just ahead.
There was a long hallway. The wall I could see was covered in this huge painting, and now I knew what I saw there was the Wild Hunt. There were all these hunters on horses, and big dogs and wolves, and at the very back there was the Master of the Hunt with his antlers and his helmet and... then I realized the statue behind me was him, too.
I ducked back when two Huntsmen came walking around a corner way down the hall, but they didn’t spot me. I heard their footsteps though, and they went off down some other hallway. I peeked again, and realized they had come from outside. There was an open doorway, and I could just barely hear the buzzing noises of cicadas coming from that way.
I waved at Digger, and we started towards the way out. We were almost there when he grabbed my hand and turned me around.
“We hafta save him,” he whispered.
I almost cried. “Digger, we gotta get out of here! I don’t want that hunt to chase after US!”
Digger looked like he was about to cry too. “Then you go without me. I gotta help him.” He stuck out his bottom lip.
I almost left him there. Almost.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
We had to dodge the guards one other time, but it didn’t take long to find where everybody was at. They were all in the main temple room, and we found ‘em by following the sound of the chanting.
There were a whole lot of Huntsmen in there, all kneeling on the floor. But they all had their helmets off, and I was a little surprised to see that their antlers were just part of the helmets. Underneath, they were all just people.
But the antler lady didn’t have a helmet. She was standing up in front, and I was a little embarrassed to see that she wasn’t wearing any clothes at all. But she was holding up a fancy knife, and she was standing behind an altar. And tied down on the altar was Suraiym.
Off to one side, the gnome was standing next to his contraption. He did something to it, and the rings started spinning by themselves. He looked over at the antler lady and nodded his head.
And then she stabbed Suraiym in the chest.
Everything went really fast after that. There was this big flash of light, and it zapped from the altar to the machine. It got stuck there inside the rings, shining as bright as the sun.
And suddenly I realized Digger wasn’t standing next to me anymore. Somehow he was running as fast as he could toward the antler lady and Suraiym, and he had that old trowel in his hand. But just before he reached the altar, he turned and ran towards the machine. The gnome tried to grab him, but Digger dodged him and jumped up at the machine…
And he jammed his trowel in between the rings.
There was this awful screech of metal that only lasted for a second. It happened really fast, but I thought I saw the ball of light jump free and slam into Digger. Then the machine broke with a big bang and pieces of it went flying all over the place, and one of ‘em musta hit the gnome ‘cuz he got knocked almost all the way across the room.
The antler lady didn’t get hit though, and she was mad. Some of the Huntsmen were starting to head for Digger, but she was faster than any of ‘em. She was screaming all the way over to where Digger was layin’ on the floor. She still had the knife in her hand, and Suraiym’s blood was still on it. And then, before he could even get up, she used that same knife on my friend Digger.
The next thing I knew, I was running as fast as I could out the door. Suraiym was dead and so was Digger and I didn’t want to be next and there were guards chasing after me and I ran and ran and ran, and then there was the Thorny Gate and then somehow I was outside and there was Brahmin Guptira across the street and then it felt like I was flying and everything faded to a white nothing…
-------------------------------------------------------------------
When I awoke, I could smell the unmistakably distinct fragrance of white Andurian lilies even before I opened my eyes. A soft burbling of running water was near at hand, but its music couldn’t entirely mask the sounds of the city beyond the walls of the temple.
I opened my eyes to a new day’s dawn. Brahmin Guptira was there at my side, and he offered me a silent, sad smile. No explanations were necessary. Just as the two thousand, eight hundred fifty-seven Suraiyms had been before me, I knew that I would be the new Suraiym for the rest of my days. The Suraiym – the Caretaker of Andur’s Wisdom – was his Chosen, the Keeper of his Secrets, his voice in this mortal world. And though Digger had only held that gift for the briefest of moments, his place at Andur’s side in the Seven Heavens was now assured.
The Mistress of the Hunt had been denied in her profane attempt to harness and corrupt the power of the Suraiym, and I knew instinctively that her own deity would be profoundly displeased by her actions. The Hunt does not slaughter helpless victims upon an altar; the hunt is in itself their holiest of services. She might not pay for her crimes in this world, but pay she eventually would nonetheless.
Guptira assisted me in dressing, reverently wrapping my head in its pristine white dastar before helping me into my robes. I briefly considered the day ahead. The two thousand, eight hundred fifty-seventh Suraiym had relished the feel of the earth between his fingers, and his predecessor cherished watching the people in the city market. I hadn’t yet decided what my own preferred pastime would be, but I knew what this particular day would bring.
I bowed to the honorable Brahmin and took my leave of him. As I walked to the marketplace, I smiled and nodded in greeting to all I met on the streets. Once in the market I found a good spot, hitched up my robes, and sat down in the dirt.
With a smile, I pulled a trowel from my pocket and began digging.
[/sblock]
3,996 words
Rune
Once A Fool
[MENTION=2810]Rodrigo Istalindir[/MENTION]:
That was a fun story you produced. I couldn't help but see it as black-and-white, on a big screen. With Ed Wood-style special effects. Only problem, of course, was that the plot was too good to be a B-movie!
As for commentary on my own, I will let the piece speak for itself, except to post the really brief version:
Travel the Mindway.
Seek, Shaman: what Woldshanks learns,
the Wormmammal is.
That was a fun story you produced. I couldn't help but see it as black-and-white, on a big screen. With Ed Wood-style special effects. Only problem, of course, was that the plot was too good to be a B-movie!
As for commentary on my own, I will let the piece speak for itself, except to post the really brief version:
Travel the Mindway.
Seek, Shaman: what Woldshanks learns,
the Wormmammal is.
maxfieldjadenfox
First Post
Round 1, Match 5: maxfieldjadenfox vs. UselessTriviaMan
Let Sleeping Gods Lie
Lahore, Pakistan, 1865
Lala Balhumal Lahuri read the signs. [http://www.aip.org/history/cosmology/tools/images-tools/nakedeyes-armillary-sphere.jpg]
The elderly astrologer shifted the outer rings on his armillary sphere, making sure that they aligned properly with the inner rings. He squinted out the window of the observatory at the night sky.
"It can't be," he said, and recalibrated the sphere again. And again. And again, he got the same results. Finally, after several hours of recalibrations, punctuated by long moments staring out the window at the odd pattern of stars and trying to convince himself that he was wrong, he took off his shoes and sat on the floor in full lotus position.
"Pashupati, Lord of Animals,” he whispered, "I beg of you, send help. Pashupati, Lord of Souls, hear my prayer."
~
Pashupati, the Horned God of the Indus valley, opened his eyes. He was resting quietly in the ruins of Harappa, the city which had collapsed during his battle with Ravana, the Devil. It had been buried for 6000 years, but today was the momentous day when Gupta, a young builder, who was helping to construct a railway, realized that the rubble in the track's path was more than just rubble. Today was the momentous day when, 120 miles to the south, an astrologer in the court of Jagatijit Singh Bahadur called his name in prayer. It was a prayer no one had spoken in a millennia.
The God stood and stretched, his antlers spreading above him like the branches of a long dead tree. He was naked but for the torc around his neck, and his long grey hair fell around his shoulders like a mantle.
"Who dares to speak my name?" he thundered. He looked around. Much had changed while he slept. The once thriving city had been reduced to nothing, his subjects killed or scattered. He had been forgotten, and a God forgotten was a dead God. Once his domain had stretched from the Himalayan foothills in the north to Gujarat in the south and east and Baluchistan in the west. Once his name, "Lord of Animals" had grown so powerful as to mean "Lord of Souls." But then a new God, Shiva, took his place. His name ceased to be called and he slept, undisturbed.
"Who entreats me with the old prayer?"
~
Gupta shivered and looked up at the sky. It was cloudless. Where then was the sound of thunder coming from? He picked up the brick, baked hard and covered with strange symbols that might be writing, and a small soapstone carving that seemed to call to him from the debris. Gupta thought of Hiran, the girl he hoped to marry. She had met him on the road that morning, and had said something very strange to him.
"Gupta, today you will find something. A gift, for me. You will recognize it when you see it. Bring it with you tonight, and I will make you curry for dinner." She smiled up at him, looking through her thick eyelashes.
She was beautiful, he thought, and had a mystical way about her. She could read the stars better than the astrologers. If she said something was going to happen, it usually did. He slipped the small soapstone carving into his pocket. Later, when he had time to look at it, he saw that it was a man with antlers, his torso wound about with a serpent. The image unsettled him, but somehow he knew it would gain him favor with Hiran.
He took the brick to his foreman, a burly Brit with a luxurious moustache.
"Sahib," he said, "I have found something." The foreman took the brick and turned it over, his eyes widening as he surveyed the odd writing carved into the baked surface. He looked up to see the crew throwing the rubble aside, not realizing its value.
"Stop, you blighters!" he yelled at the workers. They stopped, stunned. "Put down your shovels. We're quitting for the day. Maybe longer." Amidst general grumbling, the crew did as they were told and made their way back to the wagons.
"What is it, Sahib?" Gupta asked. "Is it important?"
"Yes, Gupta," said the foreman. "I think we've found the lost city that Charles Masson wrote about."
Gupta nodded, although he had no idea who Charles Masson was.
~
Lala heard the God's voice as a rumbling inside of his head. At first, he thought he might be imagining it because he wanted so badly for it to be true, but then, when the God spoke again, he replied,
"I am your humble servant. I would not disturb you but at the greatest need. Ravana arises."
"Ravana," the God laughed, 'I dispatched Ravana long ages ago."
"The stars say he is back, Lord of Souls. They say he will devour the world. Shiva is too busy playing to be of any use. Kali's allegiance is questionable. There was no one I could call on but you."
"How did you come to know my prayer? A prayer that was forgotten?"
"Not forgotten by all my Lord. My mother's mother was a priestess to you. She taught me your name, but she told me that you would not hear unless I was in the most dire need, and unless I said the old words of entreaty. I am in dire need, oh great Lord. The Rakasha are stirring in an ancient temple not far from here. The stars say Ravana will rise tonight."
"If what you say is true," said the voice in Lala's head, "I do not have much time. Ravana's army of demons is always ready. My followers are not so well organized.”
"Surly the animals will come when you call? You are their master."
"The animals will come, but they will not be enough to defeat Ravana."
Lala sighed. How could this God who had so little faith in himself save the world? The connection between him and Pashupati suddenly snapped. Had the God heard his doubt?
"Lala Balhumal Lahuri," said a voice in his ear. He turned to see the Lord of Souls, standing before him.
"Show me the signs," he said.
When the God was satisfied that the omens were as Lala had told him, Pashupati rose to his full height. Although he was elderly, he seemed strong and vital, even after centuries of neglect.
"Take me to the temple. We will make ready."
"I have armor, my Lord. And weapons." Lala said, surveying the God's nakedness. "Ravana will have armor."
The God laughed.
"I have a weapon that Ravana won't be expecting. I need no armor."
Lala put on his white robe and turban as a sign of respect for the old God, and what was to come. Then he led him down the winding staircase of his tower to the path that would take them to the temple, and the site of the battle for the world.
~
Hiran took the soapstone carving from Gupta's hand.
"Where did you find this?" she asked, her eyes glowing. In fact, all of her was glowing. Gupta stepped back as Hiran seemed to burst into flames, her body engulfed in a nimbus of light. [http://cbsmp3.files.wordpress.com/2...christine-taylor_610w.jpg?w=405&h=285&crop=1]
He thought he saw - but no it couldn't be - antlers sprouting from her head - and then she was gone in a spiral of fire. Gupta wept.
~
The temple was at war with itself. Dedicated both to Shiva and Ravana, in a vain attempt to placate both the God and the Devil, it had done neither. It was a haunted place, a place of spirits. When Lala and Pashupati came into the temple grounds, Pashupati stopped.
"What has become of my temple?" he asked. He walked around the building, touching it and then pulling his hand away as if the building had burned him.
"It is as it always was," Lala said.
"No. Before I slept, this temple was dedicated to me. It was a place of peace and harmony. Look at it now."
As Pashupati spoke, a Rakasha demon burst from one of the statues. [http://www.jadedragon.com/graphics/BanteaySrei2.jpg]
As its face exploded outwards, laughter rang through the temple complex.
Ravana appeared near the broken statue. He looked exactly the same as the last time he had faced Pashupati. He had not aged. He looked vital. Dangerous.
"You seek your death, old God?"
Pashupati smiled.
"I slept for six thousand years. What is death to me?"
Lala, who was standing as if frozen in the center of the temple complex made a move toward Pashupati's side, and suddenly found himself seated in a protected corner of the temple. He could see and hear what was transpiring, but found himself quite unable to move.
"Be still," said Pashupati's voice in his ear. "No need for you to die."
"But I would serve you, my lord," Lala said through unmoving lips.
"You served me by calling me, and you will serve me again. Be still and witness."
The God and the Devil crashed together. The ghostly forms of the Rakasha swirled around them. A great tumult echoed around the temple as deer and goats, lions and dogs, geese and elephants, all kinds of animals swarmed in to the temple yard, snarling and bleating, trumpeting and roaring. They attacked the Rakasha with fierce swiftness, but the Rakasha were venomous and cruel.
Lala wished he could cover his eyes, but his hands remained clasped in his lap, his neck canted at an uncomfortable angle.[http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5175/5461829865_557b6d6034_z.jpg] His eyes were fixed open to witness the fight, and he feared that Pashupati was losing.
"Ridiculous old God," said Ravana, "while you slept, I grew an army of followers who razed your temple and built a new one for me and your selfish son Shiva. These are the wages you pay for destroying your city as you tried to destroy me. You were foolish to believe that I, Ravana, Devil Lord, could be so easily vanquished. While you slept, I planned and built."
In the midst of the temple yard, in the very center of the battle that was being fought by the animals and the Rakasha demons, a flame grew. It swirled wide and encompassed the fight. When the flames subsided, the Rakasha were gone, and the animals circled about Hiran.
"At last," Pashupati cried. Hiran ran to him and together, they faced Ravana. Ravana's face crumpled.
"What trickery is this?" he said, looking frantically for his demon hoard. "What have you done with my Rakasha?"
Hiran looked up, and raised her hands. Ash was falling from the sky like snow.
"How can this be? You slept! You slept!" Ravana frantically swept at the ash.
Pashupati laughed.
"And while I slept, I dreamed. I dreamed a daughter."
Hiran smiled at the Devil, looking for all the world like her father.
“A daughter of fire as well as flesh,” she said. The ash fell thicker now, and Ravana, Lord of Devils, was cloaked in it. As the ash fell, it became solid, and soon, Ravana appeared to be just another one of the temple statues.
Pashupati brought a mighty fist down on his head and he shattered into a million pieces.
Lala Balhumal Lahuri, able to move once more, looked up at the sky. The evil constellation was gone. Pashupati and his daughter, Hiran, walked toward him.
"You have accomplished your task well, Lala Balhumal Lahuri," said Pashupati.
"Now I have a new task for you."
"Anything my Lord."
"Rebuild my temple." Hiran touched her father's arm.
"I know a good builder," she said. "His name is Gupta."
"Teach people my name," said the old God. "I am tired of sleeping. I am awake now."
Let Sleeping Gods Lie
Lahore, Pakistan, 1865
Lala Balhumal Lahuri read the signs. [http://www.aip.org/history/cosmology/tools/images-tools/nakedeyes-armillary-sphere.jpg]
The elderly astrologer shifted the outer rings on his armillary sphere, making sure that they aligned properly with the inner rings. He squinted out the window of the observatory at the night sky.
"It can't be," he said, and recalibrated the sphere again. And again. And again, he got the same results. Finally, after several hours of recalibrations, punctuated by long moments staring out the window at the odd pattern of stars and trying to convince himself that he was wrong, he took off his shoes and sat on the floor in full lotus position.
"Pashupati, Lord of Animals,” he whispered, "I beg of you, send help. Pashupati, Lord of Souls, hear my prayer."
~
Pashupati, the Horned God of the Indus valley, opened his eyes. He was resting quietly in the ruins of Harappa, the city which had collapsed during his battle with Ravana, the Devil. It had been buried for 6000 years, but today was the momentous day when Gupta, a young builder, who was helping to construct a railway, realized that the rubble in the track's path was more than just rubble. Today was the momentous day when, 120 miles to the south, an astrologer in the court of Jagatijit Singh Bahadur called his name in prayer. It was a prayer no one had spoken in a millennia.
The God stood and stretched, his antlers spreading above him like the branches of a long dead tree. He was naked but for the torc around his neck, and his long grey hair fell around his shoulders like a mantle.
"Who dares to speak my name?" he thundered. He looked around. Much had changed while he slept. The once thriving city had been reduced to nothing, his subjects killed or scattered. He had been forgotten, and a God forgotten was a dead God. Once his domain had stretched from the Himalayan foothills in the north to Gujarat in the south and east and Baluchistan in the west. Once his name, "Lord of Animals" had grown so powerful as to mean "Lord of Souls." But then a new God, Shiva, took his place. His name ceased to be called and he slept, undisturbed.
"Who entreats me with the old prayer?"
~
Gupta shivered and looked up at the sky. It was cloudless. Where then was the sound of thunder coming from? He picked up the brick, baked hard and covered with strange symbols that might be writing, and a small soapstone carving that seemed to call to him from the debris. Gupta thought of Hiran, the girl he hoped to marry. She had met him on the road that morning, and had said something very strange to him.
"Gupta, today you will find something. A gift, for me. You will recognize it when you see it. Bring it with you tonight, and I will make you curry for dinner." She smiled up at him, looking through her thick eyelashes.
She was beautiful, he thought, and had a mystical way about her. She could read the stars better than the astrologers. If she said something was going to happen, it usually did. He slipped the small soapstone carving into his pocket. Later, when he had time to look at it, he saw that it was a man with antlers, his torso wound about with a serpent. The image unsettled him, but somehow he knew it would gain him favor with Hiran.
He took the brick to his foreman, a burly Brit with a luxurious moustache.
"Sahib," he said, "I have found something." The foreman took the brick and turned it over, his eyes widening as he surveyed the odd writing carved into the baked surface. He looked up to see the crew throwing the rubble aside, not realizing its value.
"Stop, you blighters!" he yelled at the workers. They stopped, stunned. "Put down your shovels. We're quitting for the day. Maybe longer." Amidst general grumbling, the crew did as they were told and made their way back to the wagons.
"What is it, Sahib?" Gupta asked. "Is it important?"
"Yes, Gupta," said the foreman. "I think we've found the lost city that Charles Masson wrote about."
Gupta nodded, although he had no idea who Charles Masson was.
~
Lala heard the God's voice as a rumbling inside of his head. At first, he thought he might be imagining it because he wanted so badly for it to be true, but then, when the God spoke again, he replied,
"I am your humble servant. I would not disturb you but at the greatest need. Ravana arises."
"Ravana," the God laughed, 'I dispatched Ravana long ages ago."
"The stars say he is back, Lord of Souls. They say he will devour the world. Shiva is too busy playing to be of any use. Kali's allegiance is questionable. There was no one I could call on but you."
"How did you come to know my prayer? A prayer that was forgotten?"
"Not forgotten by all my Lord. My mother's mother was a priestess to you. She taught me your name, but she told me that you would not hear unless I was in the most dire need, and unless I said the old words of entreaty. I am in dire need, oh great Lord. The Rakasha are stirring in an ancient temple not far from here. The stars say Ravana will rise tonight."
"If what you say is true," said the voice in Lala's head, "I do not have much time. Ravana's army of demons is always ready. My followers are not so well organized.”
"Surly the animals will come when you call? You are their master."
"The animals will come, but they will not be enough to defeat Ravana."
Lala sighed. How could this God who had so little faith in himself save the world? The connection between him and Pashupati suddenly snapped. Had the God heard his doubt?
"Lala Balhumal Lahuri," said a voice in his ear. He turned to see the Lord of Souls, standing before him.
"Show me the signs," he said.
When the God was satisfied that the omens were as Lala had told him, Pashupati rose to his full height. Although he was elderly, he seemed strong and vital, even after centuries of neglect.
"Take me to the temple. We will make ready."
"I have armor, my Lord. And weapons." Lala said, surveying the God's nakedness. "Ravana will have armor."
The God laughed.
"I have a weapon that Ravana won't be expecting. I need no armor."
Lala put on his white robe and turban as a sign of respect for the old God, and what was to come. Then he led him down the winding staircase of his tower to the path that would take them to the temple, and the site of the battle for the world.
~
Hiran took the soapstone carving from Gupta's hand.
"Where did you find this?" she asked, her eyes glowing. In fact, all of her was glowing. Gupta stepped back as Hiran seemed to burst into flames, her body engulfed in a nimbus of light. [http://cbsmp3.files.wordpress.com/2...christine-taylor_610w.jpg?w=405&h=285&crop=1]
He thought he saw - but no it couldn't be - antlers sprouting from her head - and then she was gone in a spiral of fire. Gupta wept.
~
The temple was at war with itself. Dedicated both to Shiva and Ravana, in a vain attempt to placate both the God and the Devil, it had done neither. It was a haunted place, a place of spirits. When Lala and Pashupati came into the temple grounds, Pashupati stopped.
"What has become of my temple?" he asked. He walked around the building, touching it and then pulling his hand away as if the building had burned him.
"It is as it always was," Lala said.
"No. Before I slept, this temple was dedicated to me. It was a place of peace and harmony. Look at it now."
As Pashupati spoke, a Rakasha demon burst from one of the statues. [http://www.jadedragon.com/graphics/BanteaySrei2.jpg]
As its face exploded outwards, laughter rang through the temple complex.
Ravana appeared near the broken statue. He looked exactly the same as the last time he had faced Pashupati. He had not aged. He looked vital. Dangerous.
"You seek your death, old God?"
Pashupati smiled.
"I slept for six thousand years. What is death to me?"
Lala, who was standing as if frozen in the center of the temple complex made a move toward Pashupati's side, and suddenly found himself seated in a protected corner of the temple. He could see and hear what was transpiring, but found himself quite unable to move.
"Be still," said Pashupati's voice in his ear. "No need for you to die."
"But I would serve you, my lord," Lala said through unmoving lips.
"You served me by calling me, and you will serve me again. Be still and witness."
The God and the Devil crashed together. The ghostly forms of the Rakasha swirled around them. A great tumult echoed around the temple as deer and goats, lions and dogs, geese and elephants, all kinds of animals swarmed in to the temple yard, snarling and bleating, trumpeting and roaring. They attacked the Rakasha with fierce swiftness, but the Rakasha were venomous and cruel.
Lala wished he could cover his eyes, but his hands remained clasped in his lap, his neck canted at an uncomfortable angle.[http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5175/5461829865_557b6d6034_z.jpg] His eyes were fixed open to witness the fight, and he feared that Pashupati was losing.
"Ridiculous old God," said Ravana, "while you slept, I grew an army of followers who razed your temple and built a new one for me and your selfish son Shiva. These are the wages you pay for destroying your city as you tried to destroy me. You were foolish to believe that I, Ravana, Devil Lord, could be so easily vanquished. While you slept, I planned and built."
In the midst of the temple yard, in the very center of the battle that was being fought by the animals and the Rakasha demons, a flame grew. It swirled wide and encompassed the fight. When the flames subsided, the Rakasha were gone, and the animals circled about Hiran.
"At last," Pashupati cried. Hiran ran to him and together, they faced Ravana. Ravana's face crumpled.
"What trickery is this?" he said, looking frantically for his demon hoard. "What have you done with my Rakasha?"
Hiran looked up, and raised her hands. Ash was falling from the sky like snow.
"How can this be? You slept! You slept!" Ravana frantically swept at the ash.
Pashupati laughed.
"And while I slept, I dreamed. I dreamed a daughter."
Hiran smiled at the Devil, looking for all the world like her father.
“A daughter of fire as well as flesh,” she said. The ash fell thicker now, and Ravana, Lord of Devils, was cloaked in it. As the ash fell, it became solid, and soon, Ravana appeared to be just another one of the temple statues.
Pashupati brought a mighty fist down on his head and he shattered into a million pieces.
Lala Balhumal Lahuri, able to move once more, looked up at the sky. The evil constellation was gone. Pashupati and his daughter, Hiran, walked toward him.
"You have accomplished your task well, Lala Balhumal Lahuri," said Pashupati.
"Now I have a new task for you."
"Anything my Lord."
"Rebuild my temple." Hiran touched her father's arm.
"I know a good builder," she said. "His name is Gupta."
"Teach people my name," said the old God. "I am tired of sleeping. I am awake now."
maxfieldjadenfox
First Post
I was sooo excited that I figured out how to put in the links, and damned if three of them don't work. Looking forward to reading everyone's stories now that I finished mine!
Looking forward to reading everyone's stories now that I finished mine!
Gulla
Adventurer
Thanks to all of you for writing exciting stories. Now if I could also find time to both read them properly and comment...
A piece of advice PirateCat spread around a few of the earlier incarnations:
Find (or start) a "practice thread" somewhere on the forum and test-post your entry there. Then you can edit and adjust formating and links and s-blocks and stuff to your heart's content, and then just finish up by copying and pasting it in this thread.
I think it was good advice, and thought it wouldn't harm to repeat it.
And still good luck to all of you! (The really lucky ones are us, the readers )
A piece of advice PirateCat spread around a few of the earlier incarnations:
Find (or start) a "practice thread" somewhere on the forum and test-post your entry there. Then you can edit and adjust formating and links and s-blocks and stuff to your heart's content, and then just finish up by copying and pasting it in this thread.
I think it was good advice, and thought it wouldn't harm to repeat it.
And still good luck to all of you! (The really lucky ones are us, the readers
)
Last edited:
