Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spider_Jerusalem" data-source="post: 290244" data-attributes="member: 5507">Hey everyone, I’d just like to take this opportunity to say that, in my opinion, this story hour project is turning out pretty well so far, due in no small part to the writers who have already posted, the organisers (cheers Enkhidu) and all you glorious, glorious readers. And I reckon this coin story could just keep on rolling. It has a guaranteed update (more or less) every week, so could become huge.Just as a minor thing, the reason this is verging near the deadline is because I decided to rewrite it with past tense - I wasn’t happy with some of the present tense in my usual story hour, so thought I’d try my hand at past tense here… I need to sort this stuff out, so if you do criticise, please be without mercy (if you strike me down Uberkitty, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine) – so it took a little more time than usual. Sorry to keep you all waiting.Anyway, I’ll shut up so you can read what you came here for:The Coin: Part VIRallanth lowered the crossbow as the bird began to plummet downwards, its dead wings caught the rising wind as it fell, gliding it southwards for a moment as if it were still alive. Sliding a greasy strand of hair behind his ear, Rallanth sneered in victory. The first pools of morning light began to melt across the forest canopy; yellow shards highlighted the familiar’s spiralling descent into the awaiting sea of trees below.Three of the crossbowmen plunged into the water, their cries of “Elward!” carried slowly to the drifting body of the duke, his face staring unseeing into the clear sky above. “You fools,” cursed Rallanth as he glared at the wading men with his only remaining eye, “Elward isn’t important, it’s what he was carrying. Swim if you wish, but the lake is not kind to men such as he”.The crossbowmen faltered, their hopes for Elward’s life savaged by the truth of Rallanth’s words. They all knew that the waters of Scales End were swarming with creatures more than capable of dragging a man under. Rallanth knew all too well that this was the truth, for his own right eye had been lost near the waters not more than a mile westwards. A creature neither man nor fish had stricken it from his body while he had slept. However, the creature did not last long under Rallanth’s awoken fury, and the fish man was broken and dead as Rallanth took his bloodied eye from its waning grip. Yet the eye was crushed and would not heal, so a substitute had been found.“Ser. We can’t just leave him,” said a young crossbowman stood on the pebbled shore, his eyes cast out across the shimmering waters to the bodies of the duke and necromancer, “he might be alive”.“Don’t be a damned idiot!” snarled back Rallanth, not caring to hide his contempt, “the Rillfins will already be cutting him to shreds”.The men stood uneasy under the roving gaze of Rallanth, the ioun stone set into the trackers empty socket turned slowly with a wet grating sound as it mimicked the movements of his remaining eye. “Follow me then. The duke is dead, but your duty is not ended. The coin must be retrieved and returned to Elward’s father at all costs,” grimaced Rallanth as he turned to the yellowing tree line, “he is not a patient man”.Rallanth gauged the final trajectory of the skewered bird, his honed intuition estimated not more then three miles inward of where they now stood. Confident in his calculations, Rallanth mounted up and not even looking to see if the men followed, began to pick his way towards the heart of the forest.- - - - - - - - - -The iron tipped taste of a humans lifeblood attracted many creatures in Scales End, and the entwined bodies of the necromancer and the duke were no different. A small red bird circled impatiently on the floating duke’s chest, its head darting precisely at each splash of the feasting Rillfins that occasionally brushed the surface of the murky water that surrounded the bodies. Old wives tales were told of how children playing in the waters of Scales End would have their ankles sliced open by the trailing razor tails of the tiny silver-scaled Rillfins, only noticing the deep cuts once the water clouded red. The fish had made short work of the duke’s back. A matrix of thin red gashes chequered his black doublet and a dozen or so Rillfins thrashed wildly as they burrowed into the openings. The necromancer’s body, strangely avoided by the Rillfins, gently broke away from the embrace of the duke and glided out into the deeps of Scales End. The mage’s punctured skull trailed a soft red cloud, which the current whipped and curled as the body drifted, colouring the surrounding water into a red, misted haze.Abruptly, the necromancer’s eyes snapped open. Unable to move his body, his eyes stared upwards through vein-streaked eyes at the dappled gold radiance above him, and the gliding body of the duke being kissed by so many spiralling lines of silver. He knew then that he had returned, yet only one thought echoed through his broken skull. The coinAn aching darkness swept forth then, and once more, the necromancer plunged into a shadowed slumber. With a final push of the current, the necromancer came to a rest on the soft sediment of Scales End. His dreams were afire with thoughts of the coin, and his body began to ache with the dark energies that now bound and constricted his life into a new death.- - - - - - - - - -The kobold watched the human disarm yet another of his traps, wondering if the stone-eyed man would ever make a mistake. He had been told to not raise the alarm unless a trap was sprung, and Kattak was beginning to get nervous, as the humans were getting closer with each step. They wanted to kill Tussakak no doubt, probably for his stealing of that baby child. The stone-eye snapped his head up as Kattak’s tail scraped lightly against a tree. Kattak clenched his spindly fingers around his spear and froze just like he was told to do. The other humans halted, little furry heads and bodies of metal creaking as they looked around. But Kattak was the best at hiding, and that was why he was a trapper.Kattak watched with a pounding heart as the stone-eye and his friends turned back to the path and kept walking, stepping past his best ever traps as if they weren’t even hidden. The disparaged trapper stepped out of the trees cautiously, his snout flared as the scent of the sweaty metal men faded and his eyes squinted as the last of the armoured glimmers disappeared further into the forest. Another tracker would probably tell Tussakak to run away anyway. It would be better if he stayed here and reset the traps, decided Kattak with a nod. An hour later the sun was trailing through the thin clouds above and Kattak had reset most of the traps. He only had two or three more left to check. He shoved the first panel of the bear trap forwards again with a bark of exertion, jamming the board in far enough to stop the rusted teeth springing together. Kattak sat back in the muddied track and threw a few broken branches on top of the metal jaws, hoping the bears hadn’t learnt any of stone-eye’s tricks. His hand touched something hard as he leant back, and squatting in the middle of the path, he looked cautiously at the pack of mud sitting in his hand. Scratching away a crumpled leaf, Kattak clawed free a dirty yellow coin encrusted with mud. He licked away the clumps of mud and proudly sat the gold coin on his palm for all the forest to see. Kattak jumped to his feet, and he couldn’t help but think of what Tussakak would say when he showed him the gold. He would be angry he did not find it himself! Kattak clasped the coin tightly and yipped eagerly as he scampered forwards. Straight onto his newly laid bear trap.</blockquote>

Verification