The Foreigner Chapter One Part Two: Beginning of the End

• Posted by Dale Garrett July 27, 2012 - 796 views

       "No!" Bluejay said "I can't be Emperor!"  Before his pack could answer he had ran out the door of their small wooden shack by the Sea Ghoulas.  He ran from Gylish into the Dark Forest.  A forest filled with such a thick fog people would lose their way through the forest only a few yards in, with trees so dark the people of old thought they were the trees of death. He remembered the stories when he was a small boy.  How people would go in, and never come out, how all they would find was their weapon or a part of their body.

       When he reached the entrance of the forest he realized something, he didn't have a blade!  He looked at his clothes, a ragged turquoise farmers shirt complete with dark brown trousers.  "Maybe I'll be lucky." he said.  Only a few yards in he already lost his way in the fog as most others have.  Bluejay was walking faster now.  The wet ground sucking at his boots.  The small brittle branches cracking under the weight of his body.  He swore he could hear the soft footsteps of the Rictnigh, the deadliest animal on Drellia.  With fur green as algae on that massive body twice the size of a human, and complete with teeth so sharp that they could be used to mine rock, and horns so sharp and long that the men of old used them as daggers.
  

      Bluejay was practically running now, only the fog was stopping him from a full out sprint.   When he reached a small stream he heard the rictnigh only a few feet behind him.    He leaped aside, landing in a small clearing of dead grass, and rocks.  "Great my only advantage gone!" he whispered to himself.   The rictnigh could now catch him that the trees where gone.  He looked to his left and saw the strangest thing.  the hilt of a sword blue as the sea.  Before he could even think about it the rictnigh caught sight of him again.  

     In a short moment Bluejay  processed all the outcomes in front of him.  Could throw rocks, but that would only stop him.  I could somehow get him on the ground and use a rock to kill him he thought.  In that short moment the rictnigh charged him.  He waited, then side stepped, letting it charge past him.  It charged straight into a tree a few feet behind Bluejay, getting one of it's horns stuck in the tree.  He took adavantage of that situation by picking up a rock and slamming it on the rictnigh's stuck horn.  He then ran back to where he was in the rictnigh's confusion.  Charging once again expecting him to side step it ran his way.  Bluejay dove straight between it's legs, and scrambled to the tree with the rictnigh's horn.  He then pulled out the horn, and waited.  With only one way to win, and fully expecting himself to die he charged the rictnigh.
  

     Again he dove between it's legs, but hitting a sharp rock that cut into the back of his left arm.  Ignoring the pain in his arm he thrust the horn up... only to have his left arm wedged under the rictnigh's body.  "Well, this isn't my left arm's day." Bluejay said.  Then he heard a noise that scared him even more then the rictnigh's attack... the noise of human footsteps.

      Terrified, but wishing for a chance at a different fate than some lucky predator's snack he called out to the figure.  "Looks like you had a less than pleasant experience, eh?"  said his oldest friend Ugnad.  "You could say that." said Bluejay.   "Your pack said you ran into the Dark forest, so I did the only rational thing.  I charged in after you."  Ugnad said while he started push the dead rictnigh off of his arm.  Ugnad was the strongest, man in the town other than Bluejay.  They had met when they enlisted for the town guard.  Ugnad was strangely a medic, despite his skills as a warrior.  "What can you say?  I'm one of the most important people to your life."  Ugnad always said.  Once the animal was off of his arm he saw the amount of blood on the stones.  "Jeez, you would be a vampire's best friend right now."  "what can I say Ugnad?  Either stitch me up or give me to the nice old lady by the lake."  They laughed at that.  The old lady by the lake as said to be a vampire, the never attacked her because, well they were scared.  

     After a few minutes of stitching the wound of Bluejay's back they went over the the blue hilt Bluejay saw earlier.  "You sure we can get this out from under that stone?"  said Ugnad.  "If any two men  can do it, it's us." said Bluejay.  Their faces drenched with sweat, they had moved the stone.  "Th.. that's the sword of Shyling!"  Ugnad said. Instead of saying anything Bluejay picked it up and said "You already have your sword, this is mine."  "Well it would fit with you being meant to be emperor, and all."  "How did you know that?"  Bluejay asked.  "Dude, your pack told me."  They then walked further downstream until they hit the lake.  "Let's set up camp, and hope the old lady by the lake doesn't go out for a nightly snack."  Ugnad said.  Instead of answering Bluejay layed down down, and fell asleep instantly.  "Guess I'll be pulling first watch."