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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lars Frehse" data-source="post: 734749" data-attributes="member: 1674">An audience with the archfiend part 1The next morning, Jan was woken up by a strange sensation: something wet was touching his face again and again. Resistant to open his eyes just yet, and vaguely guessing that one of his friends was playing a practical joke that had something to do with a wet towel on him, he turned around but the sensation remained.He opened his eyes, and there, right in front of his face, in the middle of a wheat field that was still moist with the morning dew, there was the face of a horse staring back at him and apparently it’s slightly wet nose had caused the sensation that woke him. Fully awake all of a sudden, he got himself up in a sitting position, and the horse stepped back two steps, still eyeing him.There was gray dust of the road on the horse which seemed to be of perfect white beneath the dirt, and even though as big as a warhorse it looked too thin, as if it hadn’t been fed well enough. There were the tell tale marks of a yoke around it’s neck and there were freshly healed scars on it’s flanks, showing that it had been frequently whipped in the past.Jan got up. The horse seemed very young and it’s eyes were full of wisdom and intelligence. He gently caressed the horse’s forehead with his right hand, and as he removed the dirt, he saw it:  A silvery mark in the form of the eight swords of Corean on the horse’s forehead, and it shimmered so brightly in the morning light, that it almost looked as if the hair was made of silver.For a moment, he was tossed back into his peaceful and pleasant childhood. Then, his favorite bedtime story had been the story of Permenthes, and so often did he make his father or his mother tell it to him, that Niklas, who slept in one bed with him, had gotten tired and even annoyed with it after having it heard over and over again.Long before the Titanswar, Permenthes had been a Paladin of Corean, who, after having commited many noble deeds for Corean, he raised a temple in his name. However, so eager was he to raise this temple, that he completely ignored the needs of the people who worked on it. One day, a man too old and feeble to work on the temple came to Permenthes, asking for shelter, but Permenthes merely cursed the man for not working on the temple.Then, Corean dropped the disguise, and Permenthes was shocked, as he realized how pride and ambition had pushed him onto a path that was against the ideals of his god. Corean cursed him, and turned Permenthes into a horse, so that he should learn humilty.But Permenthes, having learned his lesson and accepting the judgement of the great champion, continued to serve Corean as good as he could. He wandered the lands and helped the servants of Corean as a mount, fought the enemies of his god, and even when he saw farmers who could need a strong steed to pull the plow, he wasn’t above doing that.Then, one day, he walked through badlands, where he came upon a deserted village. There he was attacked by an old woman with a pitchfork, whom he smote to the ground. Now, the old Permenthes would have killed the woman who had dared attack him, but now, he paused, and so he found out that the reason the woman had attacked him was that she was merely trying to feed her starving family.He offered her to lead her out of the wasteland, and after having drawn the family on a rickety wagon to the plains, he stopped and contemplated the situation. He saw that they were safe, but without food they wouldn’t make it to the nearest settlement, and so he told them to kill and eat him in order to survive. The family did so with a heavy heart and survived, and the old woman prayed for Corean to forgive his cursed son.Permenthes soul travelled to heaven, and having redeemed himself in the eyes of the Avenger, Corean offered him former position of glory. But Permenthes refused, asking only to continue to serve as he had done for so long now. And so he returned, in the form of a warhorse, serving as the herald of Corean.Ever since, he had given birth to a new line of horses: the coreanic steeds: noble horses filled with the spirit of their ancestor who served Paladins who had proven that they were worthy of their service. And here, in front of Jan, in the middle of the cursed lands of the followers of the slave-driver, one such coreanic steed had found and chosen him.He couldn’t remember a happier moment. All the horrors of the last day were wiped from his mind as he first embraced his new companion and then began to concentrate on taking care of it’s fur, watched by his puzzled friends, who had only now gotten up.They marched and rode on and Jan was too focused on his newfound friend to notice much of the other things around him. Then, on the next day, as they were moving a long the road to Durm in a constant rain, they ran into Colonel Gihjan again, this time only with two soldiers. For a moment, they thought of attacking him, but seeing how they were already so unusual looking that most peasants which had seen them would remember them, they didn’t take the risk. And so, they simply waited on the side of the road as he and his guards rode past them in the rain.Except for one further incident, the journey to Durm remained uneventful. For all the terror Lageni spread in the neighboring countries, it was almost boring within. So they were almost happy to see a diversion on the road in form of  a single woman- the road had been far from empty, but a blackhaired beauty like her was sure to raise a smile from most of the men. She was dressed in a well worn leather armor, and there was a light mace hanging from her belt and she wore her beautiful hair in a single long braid.As she passed the party, she nodded a polite greeting, and then stopped, staring above and beyond them: „Odd. Those are northern crows that live around here are much larger, with more of a curse to the beak. I wonder what they are doing this far south?“.The men turned to look, and seeing that the crows were still far too far away for her to possibly see so much detail, they turned back, but she was gone. Checking the ground, they saw that her tracks had vanished, too, and all Ben found with his wolflike sense of smell was the lingering smell of sandlewood.„Now, what was that all about?“, Trepat asked, voicing what they all were thinking.</blockquote>

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