Those Who Are Not - Chapter 1

[blackdraco]

Those Wo Are Not


Chapter 1

“Every story has their heroes. We all know the stories and deeds off these heroes, but what few know is their first real adventure”
The old bard leans back in his chair with the whole common room of the inn listening to his words.
The bard lifts his eyes and every stare in the inn is captured by the intensity of his.
“That is the story that I’ll tell you tonight…

---

It is a bright summer day. Most of the village people are working out in the sun, while they let the kids play. It is far too warm to let kids work, unless you want them to get a heatstroke.

All of the kids of the village are assembled in the village square.
The local tavern’s old bartender is giving out lemonade to the kids with a smile under his white mustache.

Elise looks over the assembled party of kids. It’s rare that all of the village’s kids are together. Qualine that’s locked away in the local mansion, Axel disappearing into the forest now and then and Quin disappearing for hours, does make it hard to get all the kids together to play.
Not to mention Valen and Robert that often keeps to themselves. Even Jasper, which has trouble with his teacher, may be gone for hours playing the lyre. Or trying to at least.
But right now every kid is assembled. It’s too hot to sit inside and concentrate, so even Qualine is present.

Elise takes a sip of her lemonade while she eyes the others speculative, wandering what to do with this splendid opportunity.
A thought hits her and she looks at Axel and Quin with a glint of mischief in her eyes.

“Hey guys” she directs at the others, while looking around making sure the adults are not too close to hear.
“What do you think about adventuring into the forest?”
She smiles and adds in a whisper ”I mean. To see what behind the river by the old oak”

The river is what some has been saying is the limit for how far the kids are allowed to go.
It’s not really a river, but more like a calm stream of water, and easily passable.

 

[SuccessWarrior]

Well . . .

Axel watches Elise with eyes that are bluer than gray today as she makes her devious proposition. He too looks around, not really caring about parents in general but only one set of parents. His. And he can't see them. He turns his attention back to Elise.

"You know we can't cross the river," he says but he drains the rest of his lemonade and sets the cup aside before standing up and brushes the dirt off his backside. Not that the brushing does a lot of good when much of the dirt is stained from hard work and previous adventures in the woods.

If they crossed the river though, it would be greater than all those other adventures put together. He was ready to go but he wanted to see what Quin said first.

 

[WarShrike]

Valen stands close to Robert, sipping his drink. When not drinking, he holds the mug close to his chest, and glares at anyone who comes too close to his newly aquired treasure. He was rarely given anything for free, and he was not about to have it taken away or spilled by any of these idiots.

Upon hearing Elise's proposition, Valen sneers at her. She thought breaking a rule was adventurous, did she? Valen wasn't impressed. He had no use or respect for rules. Rules only governed the weak of mind.

"Oh sure" he says, his voice oozing contempt. "Great idea. Since it's yours, you kin cross first, if you got the guts. If you do, i'll follow."

 

[HolyMan]

"twidle, tweet, twill*

The sound of Jasper's flute takes on a questioning quality as he moves in to listen a bit clearer at what Elise is proposing.

Lips still on the mouth piece Jasper looks about as he says between notes, "I could stand watch out and use this," he says with a nod to the flute. "To warn you if any grown ups come."

[sblock=OOC] Hope you don't mind I have at least one piece of starting gear blackdraco but a bard can never leave home without it [/sblock]

 

[Voda Vosa]

Quin scratched his ear while listening to the girl. He shrugs "Sure I love di forest, but ye'll not find anythin' different on di other side o' di river. It's all forest." he gulps his lemonade. "Lets go anyway, the forest is always fun." the joung lad leaved his cup and run away, waiting for no one.

 

[SuccessWarrior]

That's all the excuse he needed

Axel watched Quin start running toward the forest. He looked back at the rest of the kids, trying to decide, but it was really not much of a contest. Sit around here in the village waiting for his dad to give him some chores or go exploring the woods?

Axel shrugged at the rest of the kids and ran off after Quin.

 

[ghostcat]

Qualine is really enjoying the hot weather and for the first time in several weeks is actually feeling well. Still he is not convinced that going into the forest is a good idea. "The forest might be dango, er denger, eh horrid." he says, stumbling over the new word he has just learnt. Feeling a bit self-concious he take a big gult of lemonade, which goes down the wrong way. Resulting in a coughing fit.

Seeing that most of the others were up for it, Qualine finally says "OK I'll come. But if we get into trouble its your fault Elise"

 

[HolyMan]

*twinkle, le' de*

Jasper blows some happy notes on the flute as he takes up at the end of the line to follow the others and watch for anyone who is over five feet tall.

 

[blackdraco]

Elise smiled. She hadn't thought so many would think that it would be a good idea. She smiles at jasper “that's a great idea, and off course I'll take responsible.” The last too Qualine, as they begin to walk. “ I am the oldest, am I not” She might be the oldest but often enough, she Put the responsibility on some of the other guys. But she'll gladly say that she takes responsibility if it would mean that all of them came along.
She then glared at Robert and Valen. Robert Schrock and then muttered “Valen is right. If you go over the river first we will follow.” He then follows while whispering only loud enough so that Valen could hear “then we can always put the blame on them. And who knows. Maybe an Opportunity will show itself.”

As the other kids followed the running Quin and Axel, they slowly went into the forest.
It was a quiet normal forest. Birds singing, and with the bright sun above the forest, it was a green wonder. After approximately half an hour later they found the great old oak. The sheer size of it told that it has had to be at least 7 hundred years old. Right behind it was the so-called River.
Quin and Axel already stood at the brink.
Elise looked around with pride in her eyes. This is how far every one of them had ever been. And now was the time for them to go even further.”Do I have to be the one to go first” she states briskly. “Or do any of you gentlemen want to?” capitalizing gentlemen.
“We will first go when you are on the other side” Robert states. “That was the agreement”

The other side did not really look different from this. But then again, you could only see so far into the forest. None of the kids really knew what to be out there. Of course there have been stories to keep them out of the forest, but none that could really be believed.
Elise took tom in one hand and stepped closer to the river. She seems uneager to take the first step, but at the same time ready to.



00C
Of course, but only because it's really fitting in.

 

[SuccessWarrior]

Axel hesitated at the river's edge. The adventure was on the other side but he had been told never to cross the river. If his father found out that Axel and broken that rule, he might keep Axel closer to home from now on. If he didn't go though, he might be missing on the greatest adventure of his life. There had to be something very dangerous on the other side if none of the kids were allowed to go over there.

"What if it's an ogre?" Axel asked, voicing part of his thoughts out loud.

He looked around, fidgeting, wanting to go, knowing he should stay, and waiting to see what the other kids were going to do. He squirmed his bare feet in the muddy edge of the river.