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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cyronax" data-source="post: 114420" data-attributes="member: 822">A beginning.......September 16th, 407 MYLI HAI:The creak of wagon wheels and the buzzing of marsh weevils greeted the stranger's ears as he was bumped awake by a rut in the trail. Li Hai cursed under his breath,"Eh...old man, its been less three days, and I already regret picking your wagon."The graying driver pursed his lips, but whatever he was going to mutter back to the stranger he wisely kept to himself. The reins clicked again, and Li Hai sat up in the back of the covered wagon. Leaning against bails of worked cloth offered little comfort on this road. This road was actually a trail that somehow served as the single artery for travel to and from the lucrative copper mines in the Gorgon foothills. It was aptly named the Copper Way. Li Hai climbed out the back of the wagon and followed along the wagon train. Six wagons, all but one in poor condition, made their west at a pace slower than the stranger could walk. A number of armed men on horseback rode alongside the wagons. Li Hai trailed beside his wagon, "When do we reach the next village?" he asked. "I suppose by sun down given our pace," the driver said, "and after that......we're really in the wilds."The next village was Cherry Knoll, a pleasant name for a rather dreary place, or at least that's what Li Hai had heard. Cherry Knoll was the last village on the Copper Way for more than a week's journey west. There was no safety passed that village, only the Tsai-Nau woodlands in all their ancient mystery. Li Hai didn't see it this way however; he wasn't worried. Even if he had had plans to continue with the wagon past this village and into the true frontier, he had no fear. He silently mocked the scared tales of the "nameless horrors" of Tsai-Nau's past. History be damned, his time was coming. ----------------GARETH:The creak of wagon wheels also came to the ears of Gareth Steele. He heard this and much more. His senses were as alert as they had ever been.More so than any of the other outriders, Gareth made sure he never let his guard down. An admirable quality for someone who has never had a serious day in all his life. He felt the weight of his chain shirt fall across his broad, yet unimpressive physique. "You seem worried Lord Steele, is something wrong?" The voice came from the driver of the first wagon, one Master Hollum, the caravan master, and a long time friend of the Steele family. Gareth drew his horse closer to the lead wagon with a natural smile playing across his handsomely broad face. "I was just wondering about what time we would reach Cherry Knoll. I can't remember the last time I've seen the Abbot." He had in fact never seen the Abbot. This was his first serious travel west of his family's castle at West Point. Hollum and the rest of the caravan didn't know this however."Well, Lord Steele, it should na be much further. We're making good time, and the road aien't been too baddened by the summer rains." "Excellent my good man. Tonight, we'll call on the Abbot's generosity, and perhaps we'll taste some of the delights of Cherry Knoll. Heh, a place with a name like that must have delicious food."Mater Hollum kept an even smile on his face, and answered, "Well I suppose sir. Cherry Knoll isn' much more than an expression though." "What?""I mean to say that there are no cherries grown out in Cherry Knoll. It be just a name.""Oh."The caravan continued west towards the village.  Gareth was already annoyed.----------------KELEC: It was unlikely anyone or anything noticed their passing. Even with his own clomping gait and the impatient panting of his wolfen companion, Kelec hurried east through the unclaimed woodlands of the Tsai-Nau frontier. He had foresworn the Copper Way, knowing he could reach his destination nearly as fast if he stuck to the trails that the wolf knew best. His companion was also a bit worried about using the road, instinctively sensing danger along such a course. It has been a long time since Kelec had seen this part of the forest, and even longer since he'd seen the marshlands and noisy villages near the Meirlenith Sea. If these thoughts gave him pain, he didn't let it slow his pace. He tried focus on the duty at hand: Illitol's Mound.He was already tired from their march, but he kept going, knowing that the sooner he got there, the sooner he'd be able to come back. He didn't much care for civilization. It'd been at least a decade since he'd come to the frontier, and his time here could be boiled down to one word: relaxing. The only consolation he could find for coming east, was the promise of some proper ale at Cherry Knoll's only inn. Ole' Porblin's moonshine was definitely losing its strength lately, and a change would be nice. Optimism was a rare occurrence for this dwarf, and he immediately became sullen again.He cared little for his mission, being a rather unambitious man himself. As he let his thoughts wander, Kelec began to worry that he was being pulled into something that would ruin his precious solitude. He had little doubt that this mission would take more than a week. Was this yet another plot to increase Nexatatus's influence in the Tsai-Nau? Or was this mission truly one of mercy for the wolf guardians of Illitol's Mound? To the dwarf the wolf seemed to be in an awful hurry. The wolf would often stop and look back on the dwarf's progress before continuing on the journey to his homeland. The wolf knew that his pack was in danger, and he could only hope that the dwarf's help would prove sufficient."F**k it!" He laid aside his daydreams and redoubled his efforts and began to run faster. Whatever the true reason for his mission mattered little now. He was in it up to his neck, and he knew it had to get done no matter what the true purpose. As his stout legs continued to pound eastward, he imagined that he could already smell the stench of humans and their unnatural ways.---------------- GORBAG:He probably misplaced his sword's sheath a day or two ago when he had camped near that pond. He didn't care. He just held the naked steel of his bastard sword idly in one hand. He barely noticed his chafing, bloody shoulders. He also barely noticed his soiled and rusting chain mail shirt. He merely lumbered east, down the Copper Way, towards an unknown future. He had stopped crying a few days before, and he barely remembered why he had left his people. Gorbag knew he was doing something right for a change. It felt good to be away from his father's incoherent speeches, the sickening sight of their weak goblin and human slaves, and the constant fighting. If thoughts could talk, Gorbag's were definitely were mute. He merely felt the present, always living from moment to moment. The blessing and the curse of it was that Gorbag's past was little more than a murky blur. He usually couldn't remember things unless someone helped him. In his dreams he saw more, remembered more. Sometimes the dreams spoke to him.On the rare occasion he did think about the past, even as dark and bloody his was, anger rarely came forth. Even the throbbing wound on his right temple had finally lessened. He dimly remembered what this wound would have represented had he not resisted his father that night. He loved his dad, but leaving was the right thing to do. He was on a new road now. His homeland was more than a week behind him, and if he had been able to read it, much less notice it, he had just passed a sign upon which was sloppily written in Mytherian, "Welcome to Cherry Knoll."</blockquote>

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