Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerulean_Wings" data-source="post: 4014827" data-attributes="member: 55060">Here's the next installment, the first of a couple to come in this long weekend <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Enjoy!Chapter 15A long journeyBy the dawn of the next the day, everyone had gathered traveling supplies for their long trek and felt ready to face the journey ahead of them. Each traveler carried an equal amount of gear, even though some of them, like Vincent and Darius, were already burdened with their heavy armor. The squire and soldier would get more sleeping time and less guard shifts, in return. The day was sunny, a good augury, although the only one who counted this as such was Darius, who was pointed out to be “superstitious” by his peers. Gon used every opportunity to make jokes about the soldier's beliefs, now that had been given material with which to make fun of.Initially, the land outside Seawall was lush and green, filled with pastures everywhere, making for a pleasant area to go by. As one moved east and north, however, the terrain started to turn into slightly barren hills, and the Gray Spears, the mountains to the north, begun to get closer in sight. The mountain range stretched far, from the very west, by the coast, to the east, where the peninsula started.They had traveled for only two days from Seawall, when Darius finally lost his patience with the merry Gon. “Would it kill you to remain quiet, Gon?!” he yelled as his face turned red, although not from the sun shining on them from above. “We've got many days of walking, and I could use some solace, every now and then” he added in a more level tone.“I so happen to be allergic to silence, my dear Brokenblade” Gon explained with feigned sadness. “You wouldn't want my face to go all puffy, because you dislike the sound of my voice, would you?”.Before Darius could reply, Vincent spoke, seemingly oblivious to their heated exchange. “Say, Gon, how come you don't wear the usual Honor Guard armor, or even carry a spear?” he asked from behind the two soldiers.Gon didn't mind aborting his pestering for the time being and slowed down to fall in line with the squire. “It so happens that I'm more comfortable with lighter protections, my good squire”. To demonstrate, he jumped up in the air and spun in a complete circle before landing gracefully on the ground, smoothly returning to the walking pace.Vincent seemed impressed by this. “You've received different training than the regular soldier, then?”.“I've received different training before I joined the Honor Guard” Gon replied with a smile and a wink. The squire didn't inquire further, understanding from his words that the matter was private.“Kahleen, have you got magic to get rid of a massive headache?” Gilliam was asking the shaman, a couple of paces ahead of the rest. “I'm afraid that my power can only affect wounds, not annoyances” she responded with a shake of his head.The mercenary looked back every now and then, mainly at Gon, but his casual glances didn't provide with any further insight of what the roguish soldier was up to. “What about silencing Gon?” he asked in a lower voice.“I could, but I'm not going to” Kahleen replied, laughing lightly after she did. Gilliam noted this with a frown. How many times had he seen the shaman laugh, from the day he'd known her?  “To be honest, I see more wisdom in preserving our energies for the journey, rather than to fight amongst ourselves” she suggested serenely to the man. Sighing deeply, Gilliam yielded to that point. “I agree, but...” he said, his next words trailing off. Kahleen didn't say anything, and waited for him to continue his sentence. Gilliam kicked a nearby stone, expressing his feelings at the time. “There's something odd with him. I can't put my finger into what, exactly, but something about that soldier unnerves me”.Just then, Vincent was laughing wildly at a comment Gon had made, and it was unlikely that anyone but them heard what they had said. “Tell me about it” Darius commented in a frustrated tone, hurrying his pace to place himself by Gilliam's side. The shaman didn't say anything herself, remaining silent for the time being.“Did he always pester you, even in the quarters of the Honor Guard?” the mercenary asked Darius. Nodding, the blond soldier let out an angry breath. “Indeed. He always finds something to mock me about. Especially my last name”. “I don't see anything remotely funny about your last name, Darius” Gilliam reassured him in a serious tone. This didn't seem to improve the man's mood, however. Darius mumbled a curse and started to walk faster, gaining distance from the rest of the group.“Let me talk to him” Kahleen said, before Gilliam could stop the soldier from moving ahead. The shaman quickened her pace as well, catching up with the furious Darius in little time. “I have a proposal” she said to him upon reaching his side. The soldier looked curious, but not overtly so. “Go ahead” he said in a tired way.“I will tell you about my past with the Wind spear tribe, if you then tell me about yours”. This took Darius by surprise, and the man didn't know how to reply for several seconds.“Alright, I don't mind telling you, miss” he said at length, sounding less angry than before. Almost subconsciously, he glanced back at the other three, and saw that Gilliam was looking at him intently. Apparently, the mercenary held some hope that the shaman could help him.“You may call me Kahleen” she said, her tone still the same as it always had been. It was almost like a river, one that didn't bend or turn, always flowing smoothly in the same direction, without moving up or down in its course.“My last name comes from a loss,” he began “when my grandfather, Argus Hial, fought in a civil war in Seawall. The whole conflict wasn't as big as I make it sound, but it took its fair amount of lives in the process”.“Was your grandfather one of the unfortunate ones to die in the conflict?”.Darius shook his head, bearing a grim expression. “No, he didn't die there. He was quite the seasoned fighter, changing the tides of each battle to his favor practically all the time. The only people who weren't proud of him were the ones of the opposing faction, and even some of them had to admit he was admirable in his efforts and tactics”. Nodding, Kahleen responded “I don't see any shame in this, but quite the opposite”.“That's because I'm not done with the story” Darius said, if a bit too forcefully. “Argus fought countless times, his energies seemingly infinite, until he battled the leader of the opposing faction head to head, blade against blade. The ones who witnessed this confrontation claim that the whole war stopped just to watch the two collide”.Seconds passed in silence, but Kahleen didn't demand a continuation of the story, nonetheless. For some reason, Darius felt compelled to finish his tale. “My grandfather's blade was sundered in two by the enemy leader. His reputation, pride, and his last name were sundered as well. Since his opponent took mercy on him, he was allowed to live, but in exchange of not participating in the clash of factions until one of them overcame the other”.Darius took a moment to regain his breath and think ahead, in order to bring the rest of the tale together as one. “The civil war was won by my grandfather's side, but to him, it wasn't a victory he felt proud of. Days after the conflict settled down in Seawall, Argus Hial departed the city, never to seen again. His son, my father, kept the name as a reminder of the event”. He looked at Kahleen, feeling more relieved. “Now it's your turn”. The shaman acknowledged this with a quick nod.“The Wind spear tribe was, and according to the noble from House Suran, still is a very barbaric group. Even when I was a child and lived there, they had slaves in the tribe, using them for menial tasks”.“Where did these slaves come from?” Darius dared to ask, sounding troubled by the concept of slavery. Kahleen gestured at the Gray Peaks, to the north. “Anywhere they raided. They attacked other smaller tribes, for the sake of maintaining their dominance over the land, making it clear they were the strongest”. Her words came out in a flat, monotone voice, making the recounting sound even more chilling than it was. A part of Darius wanted to ask the shaman to stop telling him these things, but he didn't interrupt her.“Our previous shaman, a very wise and ancient man, was struck dead due to an incurable illness. It was a great loss, at least for me, since he was one of the few who voiced his concerns about slavery, and pillaging other tribes and small settlements. I didn't know this, but I was to become the tribe's shaman at the age of fifteen. The shaman's spirit contacted me in a vision, and so it dawned on me that I had to take his post and continue his efforts to pacify the tribe's blood lust”.“At what age are shamans usually chosen?” Darius inquired, curious. Kahleen shrugged. “Whenever the spirit of the previous shaman contacts them” she explained. “In my case, I was very young, but I took my role seriously and determined to make a change. Things didn't turn out how I had hoped, back then, when I was near my thirties, and my connection to the Nether was greater than it was now”. Kahleen paused and brushed away some of her brown hair in order to allow her one eye to see better, and cover the hideous scar she bore in place of the other one. “This... being, whatever it was, came and stole a great part of my essence, draining it away with a special dagger”.In a very chilling way, Kahleen turned her head to face Darius with her eye. “It seemed like the dagger had to be inserted into one of my eye sockets in order to drain as much essence as possible”. The soldier paled, and his lower lip shook for a moment. “Good Gods...” he whispered, truly horrified.The shaman's expression seemed the same as before, though, and she returned her gaze to the road ahead of them. “I didn't know who or what it was, and I still don't. In my weakened condition, I fled the tribe, fearful of the outspoken brutes taking advantage of me. Needless to say, I had made the right choice, and I stayed away, far away, in order to see things from the outside, trying to find a way to tame the wild Wind spears”.“That's my story” she said simply. The day had been quite warm minutes ago, but to Darius it felt like winter had come early. The soldier shuddered, and tried to unsuccessfully suppress the reaction, clenching his fists at his sides.“I-I'm sorry, Kahleen, I didn't know you had gone through something like that” he apologized weakly, but the woman didn't seem offended in the least.“We are who we are, Darius Brokenblade, and denying that simple fact is denying our very existence. If we are to move forward with our lives, we must come to term with our past”.She left Darius to ponder on this, and slowed down for Gilliam to catch up to her. Moments later, Darius did the same, still looking a bit shaken by Kahleen's tale. Gilliam glanced at the soldier, a bit concerned, but with a look from Kahleen he changed his mind and decided to keep silent on the matter.“And then I said to the captain 'Listen here, sir, it's not my fault my companions decided to go naked while I was away from the room!'” Gon was telling Vincent, drawing impressed stares and laughs from the elven squire.“Long road ahead of us” Gilliam commented absentmindedly, trying to break the awkward silence between them. The two flanking him didn't deny this, but Darius replied in a relaxed tone.“That's life” the soldier said, rather poetically.</blockquote>

Verification