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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 1766011" data-attributes="member: 63">Episode Three: Dreams of the Dead, Section IIIStill clutching his fire magic talisman, David reached into his robes and drew the light talisman.  He held it out in his right hand, keeping his left hand pressed to the wound on Allar’s throat.  His talisman filled with magic and cast light into the ancient church, revealing dozens of pale serpents slithering toward him from the remains of a giant tree that lay crashed in the center of the room.“Get back!” David shouted, releasing his light talisman to dangle from its cord, and channeling energy again through the fire talisman.  The nearest snake burst into flame and writhed silently on the ground.  The other snakes, undeterred, continued to approach.Allar groaned and shifted under David’s hand, and David felt warm blood again spread across his palm.  The snakes were only ten feet away now, hissing and weaving.  David scrambled to grab Allar’s black scimitar, and as one snake dashed forward he swung the blade in both hands, knocking the creature away and severing its head.  Other snakes sped toward him, and David flailed wildly at the ground, killing some, feeling others slide up his boot to his pant leg.  Swinging in a failing effort to keep the snakes at bay, David tripped over a piece of rubble and fell amid a pile of snakes.  They scattered at first, then turned and slithered back for him.The painful flare of a bite came from David’s leg, and he felt something sliding into his hair.  Only one of his spells could deal with so many creatures at once, and though it might kill him, he was out of choices.  The blade shape of the fire talisman was filled with the ashes of a powder house in Elstrice that had exploded in a fire, and David tapped its energy now.  A ball of fire appeared in his free hand, normally intended for hurling at distant foes.  David closed his eyes and smashed his palm to the ground.The explosion carried him into the air and seared the ground.  When he crashed back to the baked ground, he batted at his clothes and cringed at the pain of burnt flesh across his face and hands.  But then he heard the satisfying dry slaps of dozens of charred snakes falling to the ground around him.  There was no more hissing.Ignoring the pain from the fire, David crawled back over to Allar next to the holy water font.  Allar was moving slightly, pressing a hand to the wound on his neck, though he seemed delirious.  Thankfully he had been outside the blast of the fireball.Remembering the bite he had felt on his leg, David grimaced and drew a knife.  First he cut open his pant leg, then he cut open the flesh on his leg.  For the first time in a long while, he cursed outwardly, gritting his teeth at the pain.  Then he bent awkwardly and began to suck at the wound, spitting out the blood and hopefully the poison.After a few moments David tied a bandage of torn cloth across the snake bite.  Allar still had enough presence of mind to keep pressure on his wound, though David could not guess how it might be affecting his thinking.  He tried to talk, but the warmth in his mouth nearly made him retch.  He staggered over to beside the font of holy water, intending to wash out his mouth and clean his hands.  Instead, just as he was swishing a mouthful of holy water, he saw that images were again glowing from the water’s surface.  The brown-skinned man again, whom David could now see was a half-Elf, was standing with several other people in a forest grove, speaking with a small golden-scaled dragon.  The creature, as large as any of the people in the image, was cowering in apparent fear.  David wished he could hear what was going on.He wanted to take Allar to safety, but he could never carry him alone, and he couldn’t risk leaving him, so he placed a loose bandage on Allar’s wound and waited, watching the images in the font, hour after hour.  Allar stirred and twitched, seemingly in time with some of the more disturbing images from the spell.  Though David did not know what story these images told, he was growing uncomfortable.  Every few minutes he would glance at the sword, lying on the floor a few feet away, and wonder if it was watching him.  One time when he turned to check on the sword, he saw a figure waiting nearby it.“What are you doing?” the figure asked in Elvish.David gasped, seeing the pale monster from before standing at the edge of the pulpit, amid the charred snakes.  It took him a moment to realize that the creature had spoken to him, in Tundanesti Elvish no less.  David did not reply, and the humanoid thing blinked its glowing eyes at him, its expression angered.Slowly it knelt, loose white cloth draping across its frail body.  With two fingers it touched the spot where David had spat his blood.  It held up the fingers to consider the blood, then bent lower and licked the remaining blood off the floor.  David shuddered.“Your friend is dying,” the creature whispered, as if sharing a secret.  It looked up to him, but did not stand.  “What faith brings you to the empty doors of this church?”David said, “I wouldn’t have thought you could talk.  But I and my friend share a faith with this church, and if you threaten us or it. . . .”He trailed off, uncertain if he could back up a threat.  Judging by how the holy water had burned the creature, it was probably undead, but David could not be sure if it was corporeal, or if it had any weaknesses.It sighed and said, “I died in these woods many years ago, during the black moon.  No church sheltered me then.“But now,” the creature said with a long-toothed smile, “it has brought the blessing of a feast to me.  How shall I offer thanks to your god?”David said, “My God prefers it when the dead stay dead.  Well, usually.  Why are you haunting here?”David glanced at the black scimitar, lying just a few feet away on the floor.  The creature’s burns from David’s spell were gone, but he hoped that perhaps the creature would fear the sword.“I do not haunt.”  The creature sneered.  “I am cursed to have no grave, like the line of those before me.  There is nothing left to eat here, and even my attempt to pass this curse, you thwarted.”The undead looked to Allar, and David followed his gaze.  David looked back defiantly and took a step forward, toward the sword.  “Be gone from here.”It smiled.  “Impressive words, but powerless.  I have tasted your essence, and so you cannot harm me.”From beside the font, Allar croaked out, “Pick up the sword, stupid.”David hesitated, and the creature leapt forward, the flesh of its Elvish face tearing away as it spread its jaws to bite him.  David backpedaled and stumbled, but managed to dodge the creature as it tried to grab for him.  He pulled out his dagger and stabbed at it, but his blade felt like it was striking unyielding stone.  Hissing, the blood-drinker grabbed David and tried to lift him to its face.  David reached out and grabbed the only sturdy object, the font, and as he was lifted the font tipped sideways and spilled.  The light from its surface vanished suddenly, but as the water splashed across the creature it sizzled.  The undead shrieked and dropped David, then backed away.  The skin along its legs was melted as if by intense heat, pale flesh turned black.David held out his fire talisman and called forth a bolt of fire.  The blood-drinker completely ignored him as it shook its legs to kick off the burning water.  The bolt of fire struck the creature and dissipated with no effect.David blanched, then in Jispin muttered, “You weren’t bluffing, were you?”As the firelight faded, the room dropped back into darkness.  Hoping the puddle of holy water would keep the creature at bay, David held up his light talisman and called upon its power.  The church filled with illumination again, and the creature cringed, covering its eyes.  Then it growled and started to approach again.  David backed up, but held his talisman higher and channeled some of his last remaining energy into it.  The light flared brilliantly and the creature actually backpedaled for a moment, stopping beside the fallen tree.It snarled and crouched, baring its teeth.  Its voice a hiss, it said, “I must remember you have no power over me.”“Get out of this church!” David shouted.In sheer frustration, he hurled his fire talisman at the monster.  The talisman missed, but cracked open on the ground beside the tree.  Flames burst forth in a wide gout, and the tree caught fire.  The creature started to approach again, but then it fell back and cried out, shaking its arm, the loose skin of which had caught fire.David realized that though his magic might not harm the creature, mundane fires from the burning tree would.  He ran to the tree and pulled out a branch that practically crumbled apart in his hand, but he tossed it at the blood-drinker, and the creature backed away.“Your fire will die,” it hissed at him.  “I shall return.”David grabbed up the scimitar and used it to toss burning bits of the tree at the creature, and it retreated slowly out the main door to the church.  After a few moments it was gone, and the shattered fire talisman still flared, keeping the dead tree alight.  The flames glinted off something in the corner of David’s eye, and he glanced up to see the tall church spire reflecting firelight.  Whispering a momentary prayer, he turned back to the font and began to wrack his mind for ways to keep the creature at bay.When he reached Allar, who lay semi-conscious and groaning, David looked down and saw carefully padded flasks of oil on his friend’s belt.“Don’t worry,” he said.  “I’ll get us out of this.”*    *    *She dreamed of her first sunrise, the light rising up over the end of this flat world, a brilliant fire that was first beautiful, then so painful to look upon that even those here turned away.  And she dreamed of the storm that had greeted her in those first moments in this new homeland, overflowing with power, roaring with a thing she knew was called “thunder.”And, uneasily, she dreamed of a shadow following her, half a day behind, first arriving in this world in the painful light of day.  Its heart was fallow, and it was pursuing her.  A shadow she had tried to leave in the darkness below.  A seeking shadow that had been given body.Tri’ni awoke on her side, her breath caught in her throat.  She breathed in and opened her eyes, but did not see the expected darkness of this old family house.  She was not wearing her necklace, so she did not know the words to describe what she saw beyond the window, but there was fire at night, far in the distance.She rolled out of bed and grabbed the necklace, then shouted to Lacy, sleeping in the adjacent bed.  Entreating her in Taranesti to wake up, she shook the woman with one hand and put on the necklace with the other.  Lacy sat up quickly, glaring at Tri’ni for waking her and muttering something about not being touched, but Tri’ni pointed toward the window.“Look out there,” she said.  “It’s fire, in the trees.”Lacy frowned for a moment, then gasped.  “Allar.”Lacy got out of her bed and quickly began to change into her armor.  To Tri’ni she said, “Go wake Babb, and see if you can get any help from the others in the house.”Tri’ni nodded and ran out into the hallway.  She pounded on Babb’s door and shouted, “Wake up,” then ran for the stairs to the common room.  She was about to head for the parent’s bedroom when she noticed the elder Valheur sitting by a window, staring out, holding two pieces of a cup in his hand.  In her Elvish sight, his figure was dim and old against the dead wood walls.The racket upstairs of Babb waking up caused the man to turn and see Tri’ni.  He said something to her in Tennae, and she shrugged.  He sighed, pointed at her, then pointed out the window, then gestured as if he were striking something.  Tri’ni could only smile weakly and half-nod, half-shrug.“Why does no one speak Taranesti?” Tri’ni sighed to herself.  Then she paused and touched the necklace.She untied it quickly and held it out to the old man.  He frowned at her, but she smiled as genuinely as she could and walked over to him.  He tensed as she reached around his neck to tie it, but as she backed away he patted her lightly on the shoulder.  Tri’ni wondered if he thought she was asking for a hug.  She chuckled despite the urgency.She said the only sentence she was sure she knew of Lyceian.  “I thank you.”The man squinted, then scratched his ear and said something.  Tri’ni knew it was Lyceian, but of course had no idea what the man was saying.  But she smiled anyway and shouted up to Lacy and Babb.The Elder Valheur tapped her on the shoulder and said something.  She turned and saw him holding the necklace between his fingers, shaking his head disapprovingly.  She made a saddened face to the man, and cocked her head toward the stairs, then smiled hopefully, doing her best to convince the magic-fearing man to trust her for just a moment.  The old man groaned and snorted, then nodded in defeat.Soon Lacy arrived, then Babb, and then for the next few minutes Tri’ni just sat back and smiled to herself as she listened to the urgent conversation, not understanding a word.  Then they were done, and the old man nearly tore off the necklace to toss it back to Tri’ni.  She hadn’t even finished tying it back on when Babb pushed a sharpened piece of what she knew was called “wood” into her hands, and they were out of the house, heading for the fire in the night.</blockquote>

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