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| The Songs of Eternity; Ascension | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 1 2009, 07:04 PM (216 Views) | |
| Post #1 May 1 2009, 07:04 PM | Feather |
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THE SONGS OF ETERNITY ASCENSION By: Fairemont Chapter 1 – A New Employer Two months ago… The peasants in the countryside had fled long before the battle was even over, and now the chase was on as the Forsaken Company hounded the rebels, nipping at their heels as they retreated through the lands. The Captain would not let up though - he knew that every one of these rebels that escaped would regroup and cause him hell. Already riders were off and cutting them down when they could. The Forsaken were professionals. The rebels were not. Scouts returned several hours after the initial rout and chase had begun to report to the Captain that the rebels had sacked a town during their retreat. It had burned out mostly, but it still likely housed some rebels who felt they might find shelter among the fired buildings. Who knew what kind of protection such a place could offer? “They were likely a bunch that broke before the fighting even began, damned cowards,” The Captain spit on the dirt, and then rubbed it in with the heel of his boot; a little habit he picked up when he found something unsatisfactory. “Sergeant Marron, take some men and see what you can flush from there. Some light cavalry should get the job done.” The sergeant in question looked up from the dirt where he stood, completely lost in thoughts of the earlier battles. They had been a bloody massacre and he felt a small sense of regret that they had killed so many hapless rebels who had likely been suckered into the whole ordeal by a few of the instigators who lead the group. He looked at the Captain, a massive hulk of a man hidden in a large suit of plate armor lined with furs that actually made him look like an armor-clad bear. His scarred face and brutally scowling features, complimented by a fairly thick, black stubble beard made him look all the more fierce – and bearlike, “Yes, sir. I’ll get right on it.” The Captain nodded absently and turned back to the lieutenants. By the gods it was cold up here in the north, but no one, and definitely no thing, could get the Forsaken Company to back down when they had given their word. They fought to the end, and even to the last man if need be, but they never, ever went back on a contract. It was the way of the company, and no man in it had ever had any doubts that they would finally meet their ends supporting that very aspect of the Company’s strict doctrine. The Captain had been such for many years, and he knew how to run this company of his. Cold hard and crisp commands, straight to the point, and always disciplined; they were known to be one of the greatest battle companies in the lands, but it was often contested. So far, through a few tricks and a lot of deceit, he had pulled them through. He did not know how long it would last though. He had been having a bad feeling as of late. His faithful lieutenants surrounded him, clinging to his back like leeches as he walked through the ranks of his company as they made camp. They were competent leaders in their own right; had good heads on their shoulders and a fair grasp of military tactics, and the most important thing, they were trustworthy and dedicated. He could always rely on them to get the job done. There were four of them. Lieutenant Felix Falkatta, one of the oldest members in the entire company, who had served nearly thirty-five years, was probably one of the greatest military minds the company had ever seen. He was handy with a blade and could spew orders faster and more efficiently than any man the Captain had ever seen, not to mention the fact that he could spew curses just as fast. Next in line was Lex, if that was even his real name, no one was certain. He was sort of a mystery when he joined and an even bigger mystery up to date. He was an excellent swordsman and had a way with subterfuge and the likes of which the Captain was certain few others could match. He had armies of spies at his disposal, and rarely was that man uninformed of a thing that was coming at them. The other two had slinked off to deal with other things while the Captain didn’t really notice. It did not worry him overly much that his lieutenants were fairly independent in their roles. It gave him time to do what he pleased and deal with the things he had to. It was only an hour later when Sergeant Marron returned, and he was not alone. He and the cavalry had brought thirteen prisoners with them, as well as a large clump that the sergeant had over the rear of his horse which looked like it might have been a body covered by a burlap sack, but he doubted it, unless of course it was highly deformed or had been feathered with arrows so thoroughly it would be difficult to identify. The sergeant nodded as he approached, the Captain knew what he wanted and signaled him to come to his tent which had just been erected. Sergeant Marron entered the tent with the bundle suspended between him and another soldier who left the instant they set it down on the floor. Sergeant Marron signaled the Captain over and he went. They stood near what he figured to be the head, or at least the right-side-up end, and felt his heart leap as the sergeant pulled back the covering. It was an elf! The girl was astonishingly beautiful. Any other man that was not the captain would have had his breath taken away, but he was a hard man and looked at her, understanding well the implications that this could bring. If an elf had been killed, that could cause serious problems for him. They were extremely rare and extremely powerful in their own right as beings, but the one thing that struck him was when the sergeant pulled the cloth back further was the cause of the odd protrusions in the coverings. She had wings. It was an hour later that she awoke, badly bruised and cut up, but alive and ticking. The Captain was notified and he was there within moments, bursting through the tent flaps like an angry bear fresh out of hibernation – and looked the part for that matter. He grunted at Sergeant Marron who had been doing a pretty good job of keeping their find under wraps. Elves were a very superstitious topic and not many people felt comfortable being around or discussing them. The Captain had no such thoughts. The elf groaned and tried to sit up, but flopped back down with a wince of pain. The Captain looked at the Sergeant and nodded. The man left to find a physician if he could. The Captain turned back to the elf, “What are you?” “I’m an elf, what did you think?” The Captain gave her a skeptical look. “Ok, I’m an elf with wings! Yeah, you don’t see it every day, but look, yeah, wings, I’ve got them,” she stated rather belligerently. He grunted, “What were you doing in the village?” The girl looked at him with a confused expression, “I wasn’t in a village. I was on the road, travelling this direction when I was jumped.” The Captain turned back to the tent flap, wondering what on earth Sergeant Marron had been thinking, and then turned back to the elf when she started speaking again: “No, it wasn’t your men, some very scared men to be sure though. They came at me and when they found I didn’t have anything worth taking they left me like this hoping that I might tell them that I had been lying and was hiding stuff. They must have had some weird thought that I was rich.” He nodded absently as Sergeant Marron came back with the Company’s physician who looked at the elf, then at the Captain, then back to the elf and set off to work, poking and prodding at her bruises, checking for broken bones, applying bandages and poultices to cuts to keep them from getting infected, all while the Captain and the elf discussed what she had been doing here. It was obvious that she was not welcomed among other elves. She had been travelled from the south originally, following the trail of a beast of some sort, which even she could not identify, summoned by elven mages which had escaped after devastating the village in a surprise attack. The Captain had grunted when he heard that. He was no to keen on magic himself, often trusting his soldiers and cold hard steel instead of spells which he believed to be unreliable at best, though, begrudgingly, he had to admit that the three magic users among the company had their uses, even if they weren’t the best in the world. When she had found the beast, she had confronted and killed it, but nearly dying in the process. It had been a battle worthy of song she had said, and it was then that it hit her. The Captain noted the look of pained distress immediately come over her regal features, she had bolted upright, hands clutched to her head, fingers entwined in her fairly lengthy grayish-blond hair. “I need to go back! I lost it!” she repeated to herself several times as she got to her feet, which had shocked the Captain who had not really believed she would have been capable of such in the condition she was in, rushed to the exit despite him bellowing orders for her to stop, pushed open the flaps, extended her wings, and took off into the air like an arrow fired from the world’s largest ballistae. The Captain sighed. “Sergeant Marron! Damnit! Someone find that worthless maggot and bring him to me immediately,” The Captain yelled vehemently. “I’m here, sir.” The Captain turned around and towered over the Sergeant like a demon, “Follow her, find out what she wants, and help her get it. Then bring her back here – gently.” Sergeant Marron nodded enthusiastically and turned to mount his horse. “Sergeant, I swear if she is anymore injured than you are I will hunt you down and beat you to death with my bare hands.” The Sergeant took off, rounding up the light cavalry that had followed him earlier and set off to find where the winged elf had gone; riding like the devil himself was after him. What was eating the Captain? Surely this elf wasn’t worth getting all worked up over. Why should they worry about her if she was perfectly capable of defending herself? He snapped out of his train of thought and realized it would be better to just follow the orders and not question them. It took them only a little while to catch up. Sergeant Marron found the elf on the side of the road near where he had found her before. She was scrounging through the tall grass looking for something. He dismounted his horse and walked up to her, signaling to the others to stay back a ways so they didn’t startle her, and then approached slowly on foot. She was franticly searching, and when she looked up and saw him, he noticed that tears were welling in her eyes, but even more surprising was that her wings were gone! She crossed the small distance between them faster than he thought would be possible for a living being. Sergeant Marron was hoisted up off the ground by the front of his shirt as if he was no more than a ragdoll, and then tossed down onto the ground, knocking the wind out of him and kicking up a cloud of dust that didn’t make breathing any better for him and neither did her knee planted up against his sternum as she glared down at him, “Where is it? Did you take it? I need to find it! WHERE IS IT!?” “Where is what?” he sputtered after he gathered in enough air to do such. The others had dismounted quickly and surrounded the elf, ready to protect, or in the most likely case, avenge their Sergeant if anything happened. He signaled them to back off with a flick of his wrist. “The head. It was a head. A demon’s head. You would have seen it. Did you take it? Did you steal it? Hide it? What’d you do with it!” she screamed at him and raised a fist to hit him. “Woah, woah, woah! Calm down!” Sergeant Marron held his hands up to ward her off. “I didn’t see it. Are you sure that it’s not around here somewhere? I brought some men, maybe they can help look?” She searched his eyes for a moment, and then got up off him and hopped back down into the ditch to resume searching. Sergeant Marron turned to his men and gave them a nod. They knew what to do and began searching as well. As he began his search he started near the elf, watching her out of the corner of his eye as she dug through the tall grass, “So, what exactly are we looking for?” The elf glanced over at him, “A demon’s head. It looks like a dog, with a silver spike driven into its head.” Sergeant Marron laughed, and instantly knew it was a mistake as she glared at him, “No, no, I believe you, they only problem is you said you were attacked right? The rebels were looking for anything valuable and if they came across that head with a spike of silver in it, they likely took it and ran off instead of trying to pry it off while our scouts chased them down.” She looked at him again, she looked even more afraid now than when she realized that she lost the head to begin with. She rushed back up out of the ditch and grabbed the reins of his horse from a hapless soldier who had no idea what to do as she overtook him and jerked them from his hands. She made to hop up onto the horse, but as she tried to push herself up into the saddle she yelped and got back down holding her leg and wincing in pain. Sergeant Marron followed her out of the ditch, walked up behind her and grabbed the now free reins of his horse, “What did you think you were doing? Stealing my horse?” She glared at him again. She seemed to do that a lot, as if she was perpetually angry at the entire world, especially those she had to interact with. Averted her eyes and nodded. “Well, if those men took it, and in all likelihood they were men from the rebel army, your mission, my mission, and that of the Captain are all the same. We’re tracking them and could offer assistance I suppose. Your wounds aren’t completely healed yet, but here, let me help you up.” Sergeant Marron helped the elf up into the saddle and then climbed up behind her. Soon the entire squad was headed back down the road towards the encampment. It wasn’t until they had travelled a fair distance that he realized the elf was sleeping, and it only really dawned on him when her head tipped backwards and rested against his shoulder. He chuckled to himself and rode into camp. The Captain was none too pleased with anyone that day, and he was there right away, growling orders at everyone to keep them busy and out of his way as he dealt with Sergeant Marron who had carried the elf back inside his tent. Whatever they had been looking for, they hadn’t found it, and it was now in the hands of the rebel. “So, what’s with her? She had wings when she came in; wings when she left, and now they are gone? Sergeant Marron, please explain to me what is going on here?” the Captain demanded in a stern tone. The sergeant shrugged, “All I know is that she is looking for a demon’s head, likely the one that she had talked about earlier. It had a silver spike driven into its skull for whatever reason and now we think that the rebel stole it to try and get some money out of it. Who knows though, it might still be out there lying in the grass, but I figured it’d be better to get back here and deal with it.” The Captain nodded, “Good thinking. If we can help her, and get her back safely to her home, we might be able to win some favor with the Elves, and we all know that it’s something we could use. It might give us another step forward against the Rebels and I’m all for whatever advantages we can get.” Sergeant Marron realized what it was all about, the Captain could see. Any halfway intelligent man could see that it was all about politics. War was politics as far as the Captain was concerned, and politics was the worst war of all; a double-edged sword that is. “Sergeant, we’ll be moving soon, so I want you to take most of the cavalry, but leave a few good riders back here for me to use as messengers, and take them up north further. Hunt down the rebels. Do not engage in any foolish battles, only if you are certain to win. Get a lay of the land and then in three days report back to me, we will be moving out within the week,” the Captain stated as he clapped a hand on the sergeant’s shoulder. “You’re a good soldier. You have a good head on your shoulders and know how to use it. Keep it up and you might make lieutenant someday.” With that he walked off, leaving the sergeant to his orders. When he pushed his way back into the tent, the elf was still sleeping. The Captain gave her a good one-over and dismissed her; confident she would live without any further need for the physician. She was slim thing, tall and lithe, built for speed and agility by what he could gather. He knew from past experiences that elves were naturally stronger than they appeared, but in all his years, he had not yet once met an elf with wings. Something was going on here – he intended to find out what it was. The elf awoke again sometime later, and the Captain was there waiting with Felix at his side. They had previously been discussing their plans for dealing with the rebel, and as such, had been discussing with Sergeant Marron who had returned with news that the Rebels were trying to gather the remaining loyalists into another army. The Sergeant had been dismissed and then the Captain turned his full attention towards the elf. “You have some explaining to do,” he grumbled. The elf sat up, looked at him, and scowled, “It has nothing to do with you, so I have nothing to explain.” “It has plenty to do with me and my company. If they rebel has stolen something that has gotten the elves all worked up, then it is definitely my business,” the Captain responded. The elf thought it over for a moment and then laid back down, seemingly intent on keeping quiet. The Captain would not really allow that though, he grabbed a cup of water that had been brought for him earlier and threw it on her. She sputtered and sat up again, angrier than before. “Consider yourself my prisoner then. I will have the information I need if I have to torture it out of you myself,” the Captain growled. “Now, we’ll start with your name.” The elf stood up, thoroughly drenched by the water and glowered at him some more, “Go to hell!” The Captain turned to Felix, “Find him and bring him here.” Then he turned back to the elf. “You’re not very cooperative are you?” She shook her head and looked around, obviously searching for a way out that would cause little trouble for her, but the Captain had made sure that his tent was quite secure. The last thing he needed was some rebel assassin slipping in and stabbing him while he slept. This unarmed elf would find it difficult to get out without going right through him to the exit. She apparently didn’t have any problem with trying that if that was the only way to go. She surprised the Captain by taking a swing at him. She threw a hearty right hook, but before the Captain had joined the Company, he had been quite the fighter even then, and the years of war had made him a deadly weapon; his left hand closed around her small fist like a viper striking its prey, and he had anticipated her strength being quite formidable, so upon impact, he pivoted slightly, pulling back with his hand to lessen the impact and taking her off balance and using his right arm, he struck her in the gut, knocking the wind out of her. “Sergeant Marron, come here,” the Captain ordered as the elf coughed and gasped for air on the ground. Having been injured prior to the ordeals now unfolding had not assisted her in any way. She was already in a weakened state and the Captain had been a great deal stronger than she had thought. The elf looked up as Sergeant Marron and two other armor-clad guards came in and sucked in a breath, trying to rise. The Captain nodded to his men and they moved quickly, grabbing her arms and forcing her to the ground while they bound her wrists. “Now, you will answer a few questions, and after that, you may be released if you so choose. So, we’ll start with your name,” the Captain stated plainly as he took a seat on a small round stool. The elf groaned, “Feather.” “What kind of name is that?” Sergeant Marron chuckled. The Captain shot him a glare, “Well, Feather, what are you are doing in the North? I know that elves do not live anywhere around here at least not for many miles to the south.” “Looking for something.” “And what are you looking for?” Sergeant Marron interrupted, “It’s the demon head thing that I was telling you about earlier.” The Captain looked over at him with a blank face, but Sergeant Marron knew he was not pleased with his interruptions, and decided it would be best to keep his mouth shut, but the elf confirmed what he said, telling the Captain that it had been the head of a large, dog-like demon with a silver spike embedded in its forehead. She also went on to demand release so she could search for it. The Captain merely laughed at her. “You are my prisoner until I feel like releasing you, and after that little stunt you tried to pull, it could be a while,” the captain looked up as Felix returned with another man who was about the most plain and ordinary male in the world. So plain, that you almost always looked right past him because he did not draw your attention in any way, but the Captain knew that he was no ordinary man, his name was unknown, but the men called him Croaker because of the noises he made and the way his voice sounded. He was the company’s head physician, but his skills mainly came from being an expert at torture, used to keep his “patients” healthy alive long after he began his work. The Captain shook his head as the two entered, Croaker took the hint and left, but Felix stayed behind. “I’m feeling a bit merciful lately; I’ll allow you to regain status as a guest of the Company if you tell me about this demon head and its significance, as well as why the rebel would have taken it,” the Captain stated as he picked up the cup he had emptied on her earlier and poured water from a pitcher into it, then took a long drink as she began talking. “It’s a demon that had been summoned by the elves. I do not know why, nor do I care, but I was tasked with hunting it down and killing it, I am not welcomed among the elves because of my heritage, but they would have appreciated it to know that their demon was killed before it caused too many problems,” Feather stated. “So, you went after it to try and improve your relations with the elves?” the Captain asked. “No, I could care less about them. I did it to gain favor with the gods.” The explaining went on into further detail, and the Captain, though normally unconcerned with the affairs of magical beings and the like, had learned that the affairs of the gods as of late had become quite entwined with those of mortals, and it was believed that soon chaos would rule the world, or so the elf had said. Three weeks prior to her adventure to find and slay the demon, one of the few major gods had been slain by one of their rivals, and every minor god, demi-god, and god-blooded mortal on the planet was vying for the new position. The elf had been seeking favor with one of these candidates. The Captain could care less about all of those affairs for the time being, but he did care about the contract to destroy the rebels, and now they had the power of a demon with them, for the elf had told him that if the silver spike were removed, the demon could rebuild its body. He began to worry. Things started to get better instead of worse for the Company, despite the Captain’s worries. The army the rebels had been gathering had been decimated in a battle against the Forsaken Company when the Captain ordered Felix and Lex’s divisions down the center, while the remaining two took the flanks. The rebels were so unorganized, that once the main forces had come together, the flanking divisions had devastated the rebels so badly that only a handful had escaped. What the elf had said was true, if the spike was removed from the demon’s head, it would come back again, and it had been very grateful to the mage who had freed it, and had offered its assistance in the battle, killing a good handful of the Company’s men when it attempted to make a strike for the command structure. Thankfully, with the help of the Company’s wizards, as well as the elf who had magical talents of her own, they had been able to put the beast down permanently before it got out of hand. During the battle, the leaders of the rebel army had been slain, and now the Company was once again free from contract and ready to search for another, what they had not anticipated was who their next employer would be. The elf, Feather, which the Captain had learned from his wizards, was not her real name, but a wizard’s name meant to conceal their real identity, had introduced them to someone who the Captain found to be very interesting. The only problem was that the sense of destruction for his company became ever stronger around them, and again, he began to worry. |
The Massaratum
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| Post #2 May 1 2009, 07:04 PM | Feather |
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Chapter 2 – The Books of Feather It was during the battle against the demon, when several men had been killed that the Company’s annalist had been slain. As I had become more attracted to the Company during the weeks between my capture and the battle against the rebels, especially to the Sergeant Marron and the men who had found me, I had volunteered myself, as payment for my previous trouble-causing actions, as the new annalist. Due to my injuries, as well as an infection I had contracted several days after the Captain had turned me into an actual prisoner, I had lost a good deal of my memory of the previous events, and as such, had to go around to members of the Company – especially Sergeant Marron, the Captain, and some of the men who had initially found and brought me back – in order to record those events that my predecessor had never gotten around to logging in the books before his death. I had learned that this position was one of honor among the Company, as I had access to the entire past of the Forsaken Company, and they held me in a reverence that seemed fit for a priestess. I had also learned that by undertaking this position, I would be expected to, every so often, read a passage from the past that had caught my attention as inspirational and read it to the men to keep morale up as well as show what the Company had come through, and I will admit, over the many years it had been in service, it had been through a great deal. I feel that it is only right of me to introduce myself. I am Feather, though it is not my true name, and it would be foolish of me to write it down here where my future enemies or rivals may find it and use against me, for no wielder of the magical arts should ever give away their true name, for we are our names, and to know our name is to know us, and by knowing us, control us. It is true; I am an elf, but only partially. My heritage dates back to some of the greatest of the elves. I am only half Elven though, and they see me as such. Only half an elf, unable to stand up to any full blood, and because of that, I have been outcast, and even the other side of my family, the Avarrii do not accept me, as they are not too fond of the elves themselves. I am an oddity, one of the first long lived Avarrii, and the first Elf to have wings. I had always considered myself my own family, my own kin, and had deemed myself worthy of starting a new race among the world, but that was until I met the Forsaken Company. They were outcasts as well. People who never belonged, like the Captain, who had been a notorious gang leader and sentenced to death many, many years ago and had escaped and found his way into the protection of the Company, or Sergeant Marron, a man tried and found guilty of murdering his family, though it is obvious that he never did, and everyone of us among the Company knows it. Felix, the old scoundrel who has become a good friend of mine, was one of the greatest spies to have ever served the lands. He had eventually been betrayed and captured, but had found his way out of the hands of justice and joined up with the Company. As you see, everyone of us was unwanted by the world, be we criminals, people who are a bit off their rockers, or just plain outcasts, we have come together to form a family unlike any other, dedicated entirely to brotherhood, and in some cases, sisterhood, for there are a few women among the Company, but not many, who all follow the most strict of doctrines. Never betray a contract unless betrayed yourself. Serve honorably, protect your brother (or sisters) on the field of battle, or in any situation that may bring them to harm. Stand together for all time, and most importantly. Show no mercy to the enemy, for they shall show you none. I learned that we are a feared force in the North, as well as the other lands, and that we are a power to be reckoned with, for the Captain and the lieutenants are of the most cunning and devious lot, never holding back on treachery and deceit among their enemies, and with all their talents, they have kept the Company together for many, many years, and their predecessors before them had done the same, as had theirs, and so will the ones who follow in their footsteps. I find it funny that I already consider myself part of the Company. I use us instead of them, and refer to the Company and myself as we. It’s only been a few days since I accepted this position, but already I have much to do, and thus begins, the Books of Feather. |
The Massaratum
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| Post #3 Jul 7 2009, 03:49 PM | Grunt_of_War |
Yeah, I'm about two months late for comments. Sorry. ![]() I liked what I read so far. I thought the end of the first chapter sped things along rather quickly, but there's probably a reason for it. Keep writing for this if you get the chance. |
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