Forum Story: Chapter 3

[Esioul]

(I'm taking the liberty of keeping this story alive, but be warned, my writing is especially terrible at the moment)

Judith had known some time ago that they had been had. She had known that this would involve danger, fire, and probably death. But she liked to take risks. And she knew something about Jinns (Jinei?), because she had once read half of a book about them. Well, nearly a quarter, really.

She looked around. The other four were speeding along in a reddish warm haze, just as she was, and they were blurry and misty to her sight. Well, there were four of them. That might be enough. It didn't seem to be a very big Jinn, so she didn't think it would require many human sacrifices. No more than four, anyway.

She was warm; but not too warm. She squinted and blinked into the haze. There was a darker area of red ahead of them. Experimentally, she tried hanging back. For a moment, her toes seemed to meet sand and brush through it, then something jerked her forward into the rush again.

After a while she realised that she could see everyone a little better, and that there was solid ground under her feet, muddy with leaft-mould and silvery-barked trees were looming out of the mist around them. And soon she saw the shadows, drifting amongst the pale leaves or winding around the trunks, whispering.
"What are those?" said Caterina nervously. Her voice seemed to be swallowed up by the damp and the fog.
"How the hell should I know?" said Judith. One of the shadows drifted towards her. She could see a kind of darker patch which she thought must be its mouth, because it opened and a quiet moaning sound came from it. Caterina sqeauled and Judith yelled. Everyone tapped their ringing ears for a moment. The thing drifted nearer.
"Hello" it said, moaningly.

 

[polymorphikos]

This is fairly bad, but I wanted to keep the ball rolling. It's very sloppy, sorry.
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"Why is it that no matter where we go, there is tea?"

The question was oddly pertinent, because the five of them were currently being given hot cups of the substance by the shade of a two-hundred year old farrier named Arymjus.

"Because we cultivate it," replied the shade. "What else could we do? Trapped, as we are."

"And where are you trapped?"

"I have no idea. I was brought here one hundred and seventy years ago, by a faun who came up out of the dark forest on Nox Silvae and begged some wine. and a place to sleep. Then I was woken at midnight by tales of the forest, and of the inner glade where the dryads dance. The faun led me by the hand, down through the winding paths and across the leaves of black and green, and into this place where the beautiful visions were dancing and writhing in the smoke of ecstasy around an alter of fire. The faun warned me not to step inside the circle of their dancing, but they were so beautiful and their voices so sweet that the trees themselves were bending towards them. I tried to fight the beauty, but I am a man, and I stepped into the circle and woke here. I think the faun knew what he was doing."

"You are a very eloquent farrier," said Haj.

"I've had many years to improve my learning. There are all kinds here. And as for you, how did the jinn trick you?"

"It made a deal with us that we mistakingly thought it would keep."

The shade looked at them as though they were mad.

"How long have you been here?" it asked.

"About a week."

"You daft gits. The doors over there. Just make sure you close it on your way out."

The travellers were justifiably confused, and voiced this in words that are quite unprintable.

"The jinn only brought you here. You can go. It didn't trick you."

You are erroneous in your beliefs.

The shade vanished in a puff of smoke, terrified. Everything became very quiet as the jinn, now a tall man with blazing yellow skin and eyes of azur flame, walked out from behind a tree.

The farrier is correct, in so far as you may leave, however I require a sacrifice of sorts.

"Damn, I thought I was wrong," muttered Judith, and began to sidle towards the exit. A wall of fire appeared to stop her.

I demand one human be given to me, in exchange for my services and your release. Otherwise you will remain her for all eternity.

"But we gave you the stone."

That is why I only require one sacrifice.My master has given me free reign in the conducting of this bargain, and so i will take one of you and eat you, as is my wont.

"Which one?"

The jinn shrugged.

"And why do you want us?"

Because you are souls, and I draw strength from the energy of the soul.

"Really?"

The jinn nodded.

"Then why don't you just eat all these souls flying around here?"

The look on the jinn's face resembled that of a man rowing across a river who suddenly remembers that he has left his boat behind.

You know what, that's actually quite a good idea. Off you go, then.

And everyone slipped out of the glade whilst the jinn started eating souls who weren't entirely sure if they were happy to be free or devestated that they were being eaten.

Outside the glade, however, proved infinitely less pleasant than being eaten by a demon, and did not hold even the slightest prospect of tea.

 

[Sirathiel]

Outside the glade the five companions couldn't believe their eyes. They had thought to escape a terrible fate, but now they weren't that sure anymore. Vey cursed silently under her breath. This was not what they had expected out of their first bargain.

"May the Great Flame burn that jinn forever!", she exclaimed, frustrated at their situation.

That got her a strange look from Alvis who was clearly wondering where that rare expression of swearing had come from. But he soon turned back to contemplate the marshland complete with geysirs before them. They couldn't see very far because everything was hidden in a sulfurous smelling mist.

Getting through that would be long and hard work. And very dangerous. Who knew what creatures might be hidden out there? Vey was biting on her lower lip, thinking hard. She knew a relatively short way out of here. But she was a bit doubtful about her companions' reactions when she revealed it to them. She remembered all too well, the killing of the last dragon they had encountered and she had good reason to expect a similar reaction if she revealed the other half of her nature...

"If I told you I was large enough to carry all of you and that I could fly, would you refrain from killing me and accept my offer of getting us out of here?", Vey asked the others, hoping they wouldn't freak out when they found out about her.

 

[polymorphikos]

Naturally, everyone was very, very surprised by this statement. In fact, by an astoundingly-unlikely coincidence, they all had the exact same thought, at the exact same time, that perhaps teaming-up with a muddy stranger in an unsavoury tavern was not the smartest decision they had ever made, and that perhaps if they went along with it the insanity might not be so hard to cope with from then on.

That was why Caterina (sp?) said:

"Yes, of course we would."

And the other three said the same.

"Wait," said Haj, who felt that he'd missed a key aspect of the statement that really needed adressing. "What, exactly, are you going to tell us?"

Vey looked sheepish.

"Do you promise you won't kill me?"

Everyone nodded.

"Really?"

They nodded again.

"Certainly?"

"Bloody-well yes already!"

"I'm part-dragon."

Three of the people there decided that cooperation could be damned, and began to fight against the encroaching insanity with tooth and nail. The fourth just shrugged.

"You really shouldn't over-hype things," said Haj. "If you'd just told me you were a Keshva in the first place we might have saved a great deal of messing-about with walking and fighting things and jinns. Or is it jinni."

Now Vey looked as though she had suddenly a bucket of custard poured on her from mid-air. Which is to say, very, very surprised.

 

[scalem X]

[Hi people I would like to join in this story but I think I better wait a bit since my character is a half ogre and it would be weird if you met him here]

The story is really funny and I hope I am worthy to join and I won’t shame Esioul who invited me.

Here comes some info about my character:

Name: Barrol (Barrol just Barrol)

He is huge and heavy muscled, but not very smart (which is common for his kind).His skin is some sort of light blue and he is wearing a jacket of what must have been some wild cheep. Although he has hardly any knowledge he has a sort of farmer’s wisdom and the ability to drink huge tankards of ale in on sip. He can be easily robbed of his money, but thanks to his broad shoulders and little amount of money he is not a favored target for theft.

History:

Since my character is half ogre, I will start with his birth, he is the breed of a tiny man terrorized by a ogrish wife and since he wasn't having the guts to resist her, they finally after 3 years of marriage got a kid, the name is unknown, since Barrol once forgot his own name after a long night at the inn and has never remembered. So since his birth Barrol has also been terrorized by this ogrish woman, who only calms down if someone plays music of any kind.

One day after been beaten up by his mother, Barrol leaves in the mourning and never returns, he terribly misses her though and will bash anybody into the ground who dares to say anything bad about her.

 

[Esioul]

Hey Scalem, I'm glad you (and Barrol) have joined. I'll see what I can do to move the story into a better place for you to join. You should introduce yourself in the introductions section so everyone can say hello!

Of course you're worthy to join! I liked your contributions to the story on speculative vision. It's just a shame people seemed to ignore them.

Andreas, can we keep writing this while you're editing it?

 

[Esioul]

Swatting a fly, Judith sighed crossly. "Can we talk about it later? Could we please go somewhere more civilised? I'm craving a bath..."
"...and clean clothes..." murmered Caterina.
"..Drink..." said Alvis to himself.

Vey smiled, and Haj shrugged.
"Well, um, why don't you become a dragon now, then?" said Judith.

Judith never could get used to Vey turning into a dragon, not for years afterwards. There seemed to be a lot of light, with darker patches in it, so everyone had to half close their eyes, and put up with the coloured blots in their vision, because these coloured blots soon became more solid, and there was a large, green dragon crouching in front of them.
"Yikes" said Caterina; Vey whipped her head round, and they all stepped back.
"Well, climb on" she said, annoyed.

Dragon scales are mroe uncomfortable that you might think, but eventually everyone managed to scramble on, with a lot of swearing from Haj, and even worse swearing from Judith.
"Ready?" asked Vey, shifting a little, and shaking her passengers. Everyone screamed.

 

[Sirathiel]

Vey the green dragon winced at those screams. Her dragon ears were very sensitive. Realizing that she wouldn't get an answer to her question, she simply added:

"Hold fast, time for the take off!"

With these words she spread her large greenish orange wings and beat them forcefully gaining altitude fast. The higher she rose the better she could see the extent of the swamp. It would be a long flight, but she wasn't worried, her wings were strong.

Veering to her right, Vey shot off in the direction of the afternoon sun, eliciting new screams from her passengers. Secretly she enjoyed finally being herself, but she still worried about Haj's last remark. She would find the time to question him about it. She could be very insistent.

After a couple of hours of flight, Vey spotted the end of the swamps. Lucky for their party a village was situated close by. Remembering their last encounter with a dragon, Vey landed in the outskirts of the swamps out of sight of the village.

Alvis, Haj, Caterina and Judith hurriedly scrambled off her back. As soon as they were back on safe ground they began to bicker again, only slightly halted by the second light show of the day when Vey changed back into her human form.

[I hope we'll meet Barrol in that village. And a hearty welcome to scalem X. The more the merrier.]

 

[scalem X]

Barrol was puffing and sighing, he ran on and on. Was this the best way to get rid of a hangover? Old Danker said so. Argl not again he though as he saw the mist coming up. This was the second time this month and the previous time the consequences had been disastrous. The previous time Barrol had just used his sense of direction to keep track, and had kept running. After some time he had ran up to the great oak next to Old Danker's house. Then the mist had vanished and he had returned home. Some hours later there had been rumors of a giant bear destroying more than six farms. The people had organized a bear hunt and they had hired a foreign bear tracker. The bear tracker had time to time led the people back to town and was finally was torn to pieces by the angry mob.

Barrol was not fond of people who killed animals, but he decided that he could better slow down.

As he strolled on while using his hands and feet for direction, he finally got out of the bank of mist.

What he saw there was incredible, even for a half-ogre. He saw a huge green dragon descending from the air and on the dragon there were four pale-faced riders. Barrol would love to ride something one day, but most things, such as horses and wagons collapsed under his weight.

As the most remarkable thing happened, the dragon changed into a woman, the pale faces started to take color again.

The freshly painted riders saw the half-ogre and started to command and discuss, but Barrol was too astonished to hear, he still couldn't believe a dragon so beautiful changed into some weird woman like that.

 

[Esioul]

"Ouch! I think I've got saddle sores... by bum is killing me..." said Alvis, and Caterina laughed.
"But let's find something to eat. I'm starving after that flight!" Vey said, somewhat nervously. But Haj didn't seem to be contemplating any dragon slaying, and was staring the other way. Judith was looking too.
"Um, what is it?" she whispered.
"Looks a bit like an ogre" muttered Haj, wondering whether he would have time to draw his sword.
Caterina and Alvis had noticed as well by this time. "Hello!" Called Caterina, and Judith thought about hitting her.

The ogre was standing in some trees, looming out of the chilly mist like a ghost. Judith wondered what was worse: a live ogre, or the ghost of an ogre.

 

[scalem X]

[Ooh my writing is poor, but I try to produce quality by first producing quantity and then reducing it to this]



Barrol awoke from his trance, did someone just shouted hello? He came closer while still wandering if it was possible for a dragon to change into a humanoid.

He ran closer and could see them clearly now. Could a dragon really change into that woman?? Maybe she was just a sorcerer able to summon dragons; she might have even captured a dragon and held her in a mysterious item. Barrol forced himself back into reality, it was rude not to say hi and introduce himself. So he stammered:' hullow, my name is Barrol. Just when Judith was so amazed by the fact that ogre could talk, he added:' yes I am a half ogre and stop staring, I am not the one that was just riding a dragon?? Not that it can't be an interesting experience, I have never ridden anything, but am willing to try anything that can carry me.'

 

[Sirathiel]

Vey was as surprised as the others at meeting Barrol. But in addition to surprise she felt unease. The half-ogre wanted to ride on her? They hadn't even finished the introductions! Ignoring her chaotic thoughts, she smiled wanly at Barrol and said:

"Hello Barrol. It's a surprise to meet you. We thought we were safe from prying eyes when we decided on landing here. I'm Vey, the Dracomorph of the group."

She mustered Barrol intently, not sure what his intentions were and why he was here in the first place. She could clearly tell that her companions held a certain degree of distrust, too. Except for Caterina who inspected Barrol full of innocent curiosity.