I'm alive?

[tzukeil7]

So you wish to hear the tale of my resurrection? So be it.

I awoke in the place i hold dearest to my jaded heart. Dirty, bloody, beaten, i laid upon a wet stone slab, with my teir'dal bretheren staring at me with those darkened eyes from all sides. I looked around and realized i was in the Church of Innoruuk in Neriak; blood red candles dripping already stiffening wax down the sides of their dirty, ruined golden holders surrounding the room to provide the lighting. The figures seemed to be pleased with themselves as finally one spoke thus...

"Arise most loyal of all Shadowknights...for your father needs you"

I opened my mouth, to respond...unable to, finding it dryer than dirt, i could barely feel my own tounge. I started to wonder, "What happened to me? Why did this happen? But surpringly most impatient of being awnsered in them all, why did you bring me back?"

Then as if they were prying my needy mind, spoke the awnsers i was in search of, one speaking after another, as if one couldn't awnser them all.

"You don't remember what happened to you? I suppose it will come back to you, but allow me to enlighten you..
You were struck down, by a lowly human (Lowly? What makes humans so intolerable? I don't understand...), and a bastard follower of Tunare (Arghhh...the one name all Teir'Dal sneer at). From what we can gather the dal shot you with a ceremonial Tethelin marked arrow in the arm and that loose bag of putred man flesh casted a restraining spell on you, a very strong one..unaturally strong as it left burn marks on your wrists and ankles (I gathered what strength i had and looked...and sure enough..black chared jagged circles sat ingraved on my skin) It appears that this allowed the Dal to walk up to you and impale you with a pair of enchanted daggers that have burnt a scar upon your chest...(another started to speak)

Tzukeil, (My name...) You were disgraced by these two, we raised you only because our ranks are getting very thin. As far as we are concerned you are nothing now, replaceable, or infintely raisable. The honor that you had shown last time, died with you, that is why this has happened. (Ungrateful wretches...we always were a hateful race, but before i had respect...these fools will learn my scorn...as another began to speak...)

(In a surprised tone) Why did we bring you back? Is that remorse you worthless pile? Have you fallen so far..? (Yes...this existence is wretched...and if our father had any respect for our kind...he would have left me dead..death is a release to this.)

(As i said that all of them moved their arms forward and their dark eyes lit up with fire, as i felt as if my chest was being crushed ) As they for the first time spoke in unison...That'll teach you to fall at the hands of a lower race! (I then let out a wail that must have been audible for miles) Shut up you patethic fool! (spoken as i saw the head of a hammer coming at me..i was knocked unconcious).

Untold time later i find myself, once again beaten in the wilderness...insight of my city...of Neriak. My head searing with pain...of screams..of cries, i held my head and franticly wondered, What have i done? Where...where is the old hatred that kept me alive? I...I...I feel it no more.., Why has Innoruuk abandoned me? As loyal as i was...

These questions burned inside of me, as i gathered myself, and proceeded farther into the darkness...i knew that i tried to re enter the city that i would be killed...again. So i made my way to an outlying fort or town, to gather my strength and decide what comes next.

And here i am...

[kore]

Kore sat just outside the reach of the raining fire that poured from Nerriak’s skies in a never ending fountain. He sat studying over a map of the various locations of his contacts, and jotted down notes on a small piece of parchment. He shifted his stiffening legs, his metallic armor dully clanking, as he stoked the fire over which the small crows he had bolted out of the air with his cross bow smoldered slowly.

“Almost done” Kore smiled softly to himself. He gaze quickly changed as he heard foot steps in the distance. He listened…they were uneven…step, pause, step, pause pause, step…Either drunk or injured…. He tucked the map and parchment under his breastplate.

Kore stood from his crouched position and placed his right palm calmly at the hilt of his sword, the other lightly grasping the sheath, ready. He peered on, waiting to cast eyes upon the maker of the foot steps.

[tzukeil7]

Still quite weak on my feet, i shuffled along the ground, occasionally feeling the warmth of the flaming rain. When the sound of clanking armor met mine own ear, weary that perhaps the Church of Innoruuk or the Lodge of the Dead had sent another to solve their problem. "I'm in no condition to fight something as powerful as one of my brothers...but i'll be damned if i die again..by their hands"

With the pain finally subsideing in my chest i decided to reach for my axe...a past habit, to which can not be fulfilled at the moment as the realization that i've been stripped of my armor and weapons overtook me. I can still use my inborn abilities...but they would leave me ever so drained...esspecially Harm Touch....that puts to the brink of death when i was in perfect health...surely kill me now.

So i started to make a slight jog, away from Neriak, and out of the Nektulos, away from my persuer..or so i thought. Everytime i thought i had possibly lost them, the dull clanking reminded me.

"I tire of these games...if i am to meet my end again, im going out as hard possible."

I turn around and step out into the open til i can start to recognize the shape of another Teir'Dal in the distance...in this desolete, forboding plain of hatred. The sky seemed as if it spoke of my demise, to see the very visage of Innoruuk visible...or i was just dellusional. It is here that i make my stand.

[kore]

Kore eyes the stranger….someone he has never seen before. He was accurate in his assumption, for the Teir’dal was injured. He looked like he had been beaten over the head pretty badly. Kore remains calms and coolly stands his ground, completely relaxed, but not allowing room to underestimate this man’s intensions.

“A dark day to you traveler. I wish not a quarrel.” Kore awaits this stranger’s reply, for he knows most of his race to be crude and cunning. But while waiting he sees the man unarmed, and looking fairly helpless. Still, he was not about to let his guard down. Living among the Teir’dal is never a place to be relaxed.

[tzukeil7]

With a loud breath, i examined the stranger, his armor was of fair shape, and his eyes spoke that of confident caution.
I gathered myself so not to jump into open hostility, and spoke thus...
"A dark day to you as well, i am Tzukeil, a..." I paused...what am i now? A mercenary? An abandoned Shadowknight? I don't know..."...wanderer as of right now. What buisness do you have with me?"

[kore]

Kore kept an eye on the stranger, but lowered his hands from his sword.

“Sir Tzukiel, it was you that stumbled upon my camp here. What business that occurs is your affair.”<br>
The weary wanderer looked thin, and pale, even for one of the Teir’dal. Kore could almost feel the wining of the lone man’s muscles.

“If you are but a wander as you say, you are welcome to sit with me and share tells of your adventures. In exchange, you may have one of these crows, and I am sure I can find an extra canteen.” Kore walks back to his fire and sits, never taking his attention of the wanderer, but he had no need to look directly at him, and trusted his instincts to warn of danger.

[tzukeil7]

"I shall take you up on this offer, and my adventures in my past are vast." I lurched over to the fire and took a seat opposite the hospitable stranger, thought of where to begin and then decided it would be best to not yet say anything of my past as a shadowknight as it might arouse high suspicion.

"I was born an orphan, or so i was told, was found on the bank of the river Saren by a sympathetic soldier
::takes large breath::
This one took me to the Church of Innoruuk inside of Neriak and presented me to the priests there, who debated my purpose but decided upon the fact i wasn't killed in the wild that i must have some strength and decided to let me live."

"Though our kind knows no pity nor sympathy, will to do good in the world, and for this deed my finder was executed. I was left entirely in the hands of the priesthood, which is where i spent my my childhood and adolescent years." Then i thought to myself, where should i take this now? Perhaps the truth...but if he is the deeply religious type i will surely be killed, just a covering lie for the time being...i shall build upon this idea of being a wanderer.

"The church at my maturing years decided that i was not worthy of becoming a Shadowknight, as my prowess was lacking...though i excelled in my religious piouty. So they essentially kicked me out the door and without a house or anything at all to fall upon i set out to wander Tunaria."

"I have seen many things in my somewhat short years, that many in their last have not. Children of Tunare and their settlements...under the cover of night. Gnomes and their mechanical city. Humans and their sandy hell hole.

What have you to share?"

[kore]

Kore carefully regarded the tone and pauses held as this wanderer spoke while picking at some crow meat. Something wasn’t right….he was hiding something. Being Knight of the Shadows himself, he knew they would never simply cast someone aside. They would either be thrown into the battle front, hopefully taking down a few opponents with their death, or executed… Kore looked up at the wanderer. Yet, he also knew of betrayal of the Knights…he knew of that very well…

“We all have our pasts. I live by my sword and go where I please. Eat when I need to, sleep when I want. I know the life of a wanderer, of being alone.” Kore shifted his eyes down to his feet. “ I know of life and death and punishment and power. But we all do, in our own ways.” Kore looked back up at Tzukiel, and handed him his flask of rum. “ You might want to do something about that wound on your head.” He takes out two bandages from his travel pack and offers it to the man. “ Tie it tight, but not to tight, and you can use some of the rum and that extra bandage to clean it off. It will sting like a ranting woman, but at least you wont have as great a chance of sickness.”<br>
Kindness…perhaps he was being to kind with a stranger. After all, if what he claimed was true, then he knows the Teir’dal would kill one for such acts. Only time would tell. Perhaps this one was different…perhaps.

[tzukeil7]

I took the bandage and rum to my side and choked out a "Appriciated", not in effort to offend this most hospitable stranger, but in the sheer oddness of using the term.
I clenched my teeth together and poured a bit of the rum onto the wound, an intense stinging sensation immedeatly followed; I wrapped the bandage as tight as i felt it needed to be, and nodded at the stranger in an effort to further show my gratitude.

"This life you speak of, it sounds like a pleasing choice, wanderers have nothing to hold them down to one place yet also nothing to hold close...it like everything is a double edged decision."

I believed I could trust this teir'dal...least in the sense to not slay me in my weakest, for the hour was getting late and I was beyond the definition of dead tired. Sitting down, while the fire lasted, i closed my eyes, surely only to see nightmares of the recent and distant past.

[kore]

Kore leaned back against a tree just beside his fire as he watched the wanderer ease himself to sleep. He relaxed, and watched the fire lick at the night air, it’s tongues growing minutely smaller as the last of the wood was sucked dry of its fuel. Then his eyes became a little less focused as inward thoughts drew his attention. Moments passed, then he became fully aware again. Checking to see that Tzukiel was still fast in his slumber, Kore took out his map from within his breastplate. Hmmm, the quickest way north…not to far. We will travel a little off the path to avoid unnecessary attention, and it is cold this time of year. Kore replaced his map, and checked over his supplies, trying to keep the clanking of his armor to a minimum as not to wake the weary traveler. Pack, food, blanket…hmm, only one. If this man is going to go with me, we will need more supplies…by the looks of it, he has nothing…not but the torn bloody clothes on his back. Kore leaned back against the tree again, and bent one knee at an angle, so he could get up quickly if need be. Resting his palm on the hilt of his sword, he closed one eye, and left the other slit as he rested. We will discuss it in the morning.

[tzukeil7]

I woke up to the well lit campground, cold as the morning wind blew through. Finally having a moment to think, i decided that i should stick with this stranger for the time being, seeing as i have nothing anymore.
Taking the chance i analyzed the still sleeping stranger, his armor looked as if it had seen some use, but still very usuable. While it is the sword that caught my eye, not extraordinary, but the simple fact i was unarmed ate away at me...Teir'dal have trickery and betrayal in their blood as well as no pity for the weak...i know.

Though i decided that i should just see how things worked out...i was feeling much better at this time that when i first woke outside of the city.

[kore]

Kore watched Tzukiel through his slit open eye, his movement summoning more awareness then when he was sleeping with one eye open as they say. He didn’t bother move. Instead he watched his would be companion, to see what type of character he was. What would he look at? He pouch? Then perhaps he would be a thief. His roled blanket? Then perhaps a poor man. His sword….ah, a man of caution. Kore waited until he felt the urge to move, and then yawned and blinked at the man as if waking for a first time.
“Well, Tzukiel, I know not what you intentions are, and I do not know why you are here, but I must leave to the North this day.”<br>
“To the north? What reason do you have for traveling there?”<br>
Kore eyed the man, not sure the intentions behind that question. “I am seeking information.”<br>
A broad answer Tzukiel thought. This man is not going to give anything away. But that wasn’t much of a problem, most Tier’dal keep their own agendas and secret plans.

“Would you mind a companion? I have nothing here, and no reason to go anywhere else.”<br>
Kore looked over him. So he does want to go. Ah well, I shall keep him at bay, and if anything seems awkward about it him, then I deal with it when it comes. Kore went about gathering his few belongings that he traveled with. He didn’t know why he was letting a stranger travel with him. He would never let this happen, but he felt something with this man, something that went deeper than what the man’s simple tales were suggesting. It was just something about him.

“Very well, you will need some better equipment then what you are wearing now. It is cold up north. Have you any other supplies?”<br>
“No, I have nothing.”<br>
Odd, he claims to be a wanderer, yet all he has is the clothes on his back. Something is missing here…<br>
“Very well, come with me, I’ll supply you with the basics, and in return you shall be my servant for a year? Deal?”<br>
Kore really didn’t care about the servitude deal, but he didn’t want to look to suspicious for helping a stranger.

[tzukeil7]

Hearing the word servant, I immedeatly thought "I am no ones servant." But i considered my options and grudgeingly muttered a "Deal."

I felt my hands clench with my first taste of hatred in some time, but i quickly decided to not let it rule me, the teir'dal was trying to do me a favor after all.

Again in my thoughts, "To the north...what could have possibly want to do up there? To the Rogue Clockworks and Klick-Anon? It matters not i suppose. I will return here one day and have me revenge on those that cast me out...where divine hatred has left me, a very real lust for vengeance has awakened."

"Whenever you are ready." I spoke in anticipation of the travel ahead.

[kore]

(This thread is continued under Winter Wonderland Reply # 12 )