Tamaranis

Finnius, your poetry remains entertaining even to uncultured slobs like myself.

I hate those mechanical pencils. I tend to write very fast, and press rather hard on the paper. Those flimsly leads in the mechanical pencils break almost immediately.

Mesl traced his way slowly through the branching underground passageway Legman had directed him to, even the young mage wasn‘t foolish enough to rush into battle with an unknown opponent. He’d been at this for hours, but it might still be some distance to his quarry, and it wouldn’t do to arrive too exhausted to fight. Cold but bright flames danced in Mesl’s left hand, illuminating his surroundings. The sides of the passage were far enough apart that if he were to hold his arms out to either side he wouldn’t be able to reach them as he walked down the centre. He listened and watched intently for any sign of the mysterious creatures he’d been sent to hunt. Occasionally he communed with the element of air to sweep the area ahead of him for anything in the passage but beyond his range of vision. The passageway became more and more familiar as Mesl travelled it, and it occurred to him that this was very similar to the passageway he’d been running through in a very vivid dream he’d had a few nights before. The unearthly and earthshaking howl of some unknown beast suddenly filled the passageway. It was the same sound the monster he’d never quite encountered in his dream had made. “Odd,” Mesl mused aloud, “Talented as I am, I’m not precognitive.” Mesl realized he’d quickened his pace, he was no longer unsure of which passageway to take when he came to intersections, he knew exactly where to go to find these creatures and Legman’s missing soldiers. Occasionally another unearthly, chittering howl would fill the passage, louder than the last, confirming that he was getting closer. At the same time that he felt he was approaching his goal, he became increasingly uneasy, the same uncharacteristic worry that had come over him after his dream. He did his best to shove it aside. Human shouts and cries began to accompany the occasional roars, and Mesl found himself suddenly rounding the corner and catching sight of an large, unnatural shape. Mesl tossed the cold flame at the creature, speaking to element of fire as he did so. As it sailed through the air, the flame went from cold to very, very hot. It struck the creature, and splashed over its body, both igniting and illuminating it. The thing was enormous, larger than Mesl had initially thought. It had six segmented legs, like those of an insect. One of its two heads also had insect-like features. The other head was monstrous with dagger-like teeth and jaws that were obviously powerful, even from this distance. Both heads frantically whipped about on snake-like necks. The body was smooth, and covered in fur. The way muscle rippled beneath it, it gave the impression of resemblance to one of the great cats. Topping off the frightening appearance was a large scorpions tail and the fact that the monster was being illuminated by flames consuming its own body. As legman had advised him, the creature did not appreciate the flames, and for good reason. Both its flesh and its chitonous exoskeleton were withered and burned by the fire, much more than would have been expected of a normal creature. When the flames eventually did die out, it began to advance on Mesl. A well adjusted individual might have been frightened to see the grievously wounded creature advancing towards them, clearly bent on vengeance. Mesl, however, could hardly be considered well adjusted, and convinced of his own god-like abilities as he was, he smiled and produced another ball of flame and calmly tossed it from one hand to the other. The creature stopped in its tracks, fearing to be struck again by magefire. Mesl dropped the fireball. It splashed against the ground and went out. For an instant, the only thing Mesl was aware of was mind-numbing terror. The creature roared and advanced, using the sudden advantage of the darkness. Mesl thrust both hands out, hardly noticing the pain the sudden movement caused his right arm. Twin jets of flame sprung from his palms to squarely strike the rather large target that was the advancing monster. Blinded and pained by the sudden light and heat the flame produced, the monster lost all track of Mesl’s actual location and, by nothing more than poor luck, the gnashing jaws of both its heads entirely missed their target.. Mesl was launched from his feet into the air when the creature simply ran into him. His landing was fortunately forgiving and neither broke bones nor rendered him unconscious. Shrieking in agony with both its voices, the creature died of the flames dancing about its body. For several moments Mesl didn’t move, and simply reflected on how close he’d come to meeting his death on nasty, pointy teeth. Eventually the rancid smell of the creature’s burnt flesh brought him back to reality. Slightly shaken, he stood up and began to slowly continue his search for the missing soldiers. Legman’s forces found Mesl, rather than the other way around. A dozen or so battered looking men and women coursed past Mesl, screaming at him to do as they were, and run. Immediately following them was a like number of monsters who were evidently of the same species as the one Mesl had just slain. Reflecting that he couldn’t burn them ALL before they reached him, Mesl did as the soldiers suggested and ran away. The six legs each monster possessed, however, proved to be faster than the two possessed by each human. Mesl had not been running nearly as long, and so had the endurance left to reach the front of the panicked mob. He found, however, that he was in complete disagreement with the old saying, “I don’t have to run faster than the chimerae, I just have to run faster than the group of people I was sent to save.” Mesl allowed himself to drop back somewhat, and his hands once again danced with the cold fire that was a prelude to an attack with that element. Once he was the last in the line of soldiers, Mesl communed with both fire and earth, and allowed a stream of flame to fall from each hand to the ground at his feet. He convinced the earth to allow the flames to feed on it to a small degree, and they lingered rather than going out. The monsters dropped back somewhat, but continued to follow as closely as they could without coming into contact with the fire. It took Mesl only a moment to realize he couldn’t possibly keep this up until he reached the exit from the cave. The elemental energies coursing through his body in combination with the exertion involved in running away were already weakening him. He slowed his pace to a walk, and turned around to face the advancing monsters. He continued to let fire fall from his hand to the stone at his feet as he backed up, keeping the monsters at bay. Some degree of order remained with the soldiers, for rather than continuing to flee, they slowed down so as not to lose sight of the only mage among them, and thus the only person capable of an effective attack against the monsters. Mesl stopped, and hurled the fire outward, creating a flimsy flaming barrier between himself and the creatures pursuing him. He gathered his thought as began communing with the element of air. Recently Mesl had discovered that while fire needed air in order to burn, it only needed a small fraction of air, or rather, only certain component of air was used by fire. Concentrating that component, feeding fire a purified form of air, made it burn all the hotter. The creatures stopped as they reached the barrier Mesl had created. All their heads glared menacingly at him, their strange, clicking roars echoed through the cave with such volume that Mesl nearly abandoned his magic to cover his ears. The hatred of the beasts was evident, it was clear that hatred would overcome their fear of fire and eventually they would leap across the barrier. After several moments of a very nerve-wracking staring contest, one of them finally decided to attack. Mesl was surprise at how much the air resisted him, he’d never tried to manipulate such a volume of it before, and he hadn’t anticipated this resistance. Still, he was aware of the fact that if he did not succeed, immediately, he would be torn to bloody pieces. With terror induced strength, he threw all his might into the spell he was casting. As the monsters crossed the burning line and the flame caught them, the vast majority of the oxygen in the passage rushed towards the flames. The blast of hot air that struck Mesl as the monsters burned knocked him from his feet. The flames overtook them, destroying their highly flammable bodies as fast as they could advance. Finding the same aspect of the air he’d fed into the flames was necessary for breathing, and cracking his head against the cave floor, Mesl lost consciousness. Mesl finally awoke back in Legman’s encampment. The dozen men he’d saved had been far enough away from him at the time he’d cast his spell to remain standing, and they’d carried their saviour back to the main encampment. As Mesl came to, and was told what had happened, and how quickly his spell had destroyed the monsters, knowledge of the incredible feat he’d accomplished overtook the lesson he’d learned about his own mortality, leaving it to be forgotten.

Really... This just went from good to awesome.

*blink* I can't believe I missed that... It is a nice allegory... but I suppose that says something about me...

Nice piece, it is. It somehow works that its not explicit about the nature of the merchant, the wares, and the creations.

OOC: if no one else is going to post, then I will. Robby launched himself into the air and drove the heel of his foot into the side of Belshayou's head with all his strength, and summoned all the force he could muster and add to the attack. As before, to the casual observer, physics would have seemed to have lost all authority. The massive and enraged dragon should hardly have noticed the impact generated by a small man kicking her in the head, but she definately did. Another bolt of lightning went wide. Unfortunately Robby's second guess as to the vulnerable spots on a dragons head proved as wrong as the first, and Belshayou didn't seem to be seriously injured. If he couldn't find vulernable spots, Robby realized, he was going to have to break bones, and that was proving even more difficult than he'd imagined it would be. None of the combants noticed the earth begining to ever so slightly shift beneath their feet. Gyrfalcon's swordsmanship was dazzling, his blade was ever a blur, it was doubtful any mortal swordsman could be greater. Robby's hands moved with similar speed, when they struck it was as if he were wielding warhammers. Belshayou, however was a dragon, and easily met the furious assult from the two mortals with nothing more than rage, hate, and overwhelming physical power. Both mortals began to wonder why Deleo hadn't intervened yet, and as if in answer, the earth began to move in earnest. So wrapped up was she in her anger, that Belshayou didn't notice when the earth on which she stood began to tilt towards open air. Robby and Gyrfalcon did, and quickly made a short retreat. Belshayou thought that finally the two small mortals had realized the futility of their attack, and she moved to advance on them, but found her footing suddenly uneven, and started falling away. With Belshayou's attention focussed entirely on not becoming part of a small landslide, there was a brief but shining opportunity for her opponents. Gyrfalcon quickly assesed which portions of the ledge appeared most stable, and ran alongside Belshayou along the sturdiest available piece of ground. Not needing to place any concern with his own defence, he drove his katana into the dragoness' underside with a single powerful thrust. As she fell away the blue's momentum tore the wound wider than Gyrfalcon's strength alone could have achieved. Indeed his katana was nearly ripped from his grasp, and in pulling it free Gyrfalcon was nearly pulled along with the dragon into a deadly plumit. The sudden, overwhelming pain caused the Belshayou's outstretched wings to freeze in place for a few critical moments. As she fell, gravel and stone engulfed her legs, and by the time she again attempted to escape it was too late to do anything but futilly scramble against gravity. Uncerimoniously, Belshayou and several tons of rock collided with the ground. Gyrfalcon quickly moved away from the portion of the ledge on which he stood as it began moving to join the rest of the structure. Small fist sized stones continued to rain down on Belshayou, who, judging by the roars, was still very much alive. "It's still coming down." Robby observed to no one in particular. He took a few steps back towards the edge, and made the descision to lend a hand. He closed his eyes, concentrating so deeply that he ceased to breath for several seconds. Then, with a roar of effort, he brought both fists down of the acid-weakened stone. The sound of the impact was something that could be as much felt as heard, and Robby, being closest, almost seemed to be unbalanced by the force unleashed by his own hands. The entire cliff-face trembled for a moment, but held. "Fall!" Robby allowed himself a small string of curses, "Fall damn you!" Much to his surprise, it complied. *** Belshayou couldn't believe this. Small men with swords, and yet smaller men with no swords, should not be able to harm dragons. It was not right. She roared her frustration at the situation as began to painfull process of digging herself free. She would kill that one with the sword, but not quickly, he wouldn't get away with harming her so easily, no, his death would be slow. There was a "boom" from overhead. The small one, who hit so hard, he was up to something. He, too would have to be made to pay for the crime of assulting a dragon. Belshayou's thoughts of vengence were cut off as she looked up to see several more tons of stone plumeting towards her. Gravity and the mass of the stone quickly accomplished the bone-breaking work Robby's direct assults had lacked lacked the power to complete. *** Gasping for breath, and choking on dust that filled the air from the small landslide he'd helped, create, Robby managed a struggled, "Well how about that, we won." With that he took a few step back, the half sat down and half fell backwards to the ground, relieved to have surivived the battle, for the moment he seemed intent on simply catching his breath.

I've got to agree with Stick on this issue. Birds get up at like... 3:30 in the morning... and they're noisy about it. Back to quotes: "Quick everyone, tuck your pants into your socks!" Dr.Evil, moments before being attacked by millions of rats.

As always, you present us with an inventive and interesting bit of writing.

Occasionally I wander through here and read something at random... I don't have nearly the credentials Wyvern does, but I've got to say I disagree with him on the apple pie thing. It's sort of out of place, but in a way that alters the poem in a way that I think was quite deliberate. And overall it's a powerful poem.

I saw a bit of Princess Monoke once... People get decapitated with arrows in that movie, it's nuts! Other than that I'd kinda like to see the whole thing, because there was some storyline happening there, but other than some mad archery, I couldn't really figure out what was going on.

Vanna Ascendant... nine moths, a butterfly, and a retarded caterpillar... Oh, the wondrous things that happened before my time. Poor Gohan and Akabar, they never knew what they were up against...

It doesn't seem quite so happy, just yet... These unexplained swords, presumably of great power, are excellent. There's story behind them that the reader wants to know, it's a good hook. There's a whole lot of history unknown to the reader that most readers probably want to know, come to think of it. I also like that the elves destroying this town are people, not heartless monsters. I'm interested to see what happens with the conflict between Talen, Arianna, and Sepher. On a final note, I'd suggest proof-reading more carefully. There are enough typos here to take away from the story, and that's a shame because it's a good story and you could probably skim through and fix most of them with minimal effort.

And here I'd thought we'd never hear from you again, Finnius. Good to see that's not the case.

Yes, it certainly does.

Robby had been so completely occupied with avoiding the dragon's teeth and claws that he made the error of ignoring the threat posed by her tail. He saw the end of it coming towards him, propelled at incredible speed by the muscle along the whole of it, too late to avoid the attack. Robby tried to generate a counter-force, but there wasn't time even to properly do that. The tail collided neatly with his center of mass, easily lobbing him through the air. Just as he gathered his wits enough to think about trying to land without further injury, Robby struck the stone of the cave opening, blasting from his lungs the little air they had recovered. The pain, both from being struck by Belshayou's tail and from striking the wall, tried to keep Robby from rejoining the fight. As he slid down the wall and his feet struck the ground he had to struggle for a moment to keep them. The collision had been so kind as to leave his spine intact, but battered muscles seemed determined to ignore him. Surely ribs must have been broken, but Robby couldn't be sure which ones, it felt as if his whole torso were being crushed. Belshayou's tactic, however, seemed to be to stun her opponents so that she could face them one at a time. If she were allowed to do that, she might well kill them all. Robby only stayed slumped against the wall for a moment, then, grimacing as the pain of his injuries seemed to double, he sprinted full speed to again attack the dragon.

"Can't the sun warm the earth and make crops grow without all this cursed light? Or could we just travel at night?" Veln asked rhetorrically as he raised a hand to shield his eyes. A strip dark of cloth was tied around the drow's eyes, which left him with vaguely blurry vision and just enough light coming through to make him uncomfortable. The rest of his clothing was similarly themed in protecting him from the sun. Very little skin was exposed to its punishing rays. He'd learned the hard way that although he never felt it at the time, he was far more vulnerable to the phenomenon known as a "sunburn" than members of races who lived above the surface. "You could have stayed underground, its not like there isn't anyone to trade with down there," Alkleo countered. The human woman was clearly enjoying the sunshine far more than the drow. Both were traveling with a merchants caravan headed for a Seraph village, while most were somewhat confused by Veln's choice of profession, Alkleo seemed more amused. "What merchants do," Veln began with a sigh, "Is buy things where they are relatively common, and therefore cheap, take them to a place where those things are rare and therefore expensive, and then sell those things. I had thought you were familiar with this concept." Veln missed Alkleo's grin due to the strain on his eyes, "I think you're going to be very rich one day," She chuckled.

Now that I'm a page I'm going to have to start making a huge effort, because Quill-Bearer just has such a nice ring to it.

I just thought I'd mention that the whole of the thing was great. Vestat supposedly stealing Taleth's immortality was particularly good. I don't really have much to say other than that it was interesting enough that I read the whole thing in one go.

w00t, karma rules. uhh... "Humans have a unique ability to always find a way to be unhappy"

Clam chowder and chicken noodle are both far too bland. If I had to pick one or the other, I'd take the chowder, because it's less bland. The other problem with clam chowder and chicken is that they don't really lend themselves to being seasoned. You COULD add something like pepper, but for some reason it just doesn't seem to help those soups. And they're both too much broth, not enough stuff. The more stuff the better. What's interesting is cream of tomato with tabasco sauce. Of course that doesn't really tend to fill one up, because that's ALL broth, but its a thick broth, and the tabasco sauce makes things interesting. I had a very good pasta soup once, but what's really good is chilli. Yes, its not a soup. Its something far, far greater.

I know for a fact that internet debates do not always turn into flame fests, because I've seen a few go on for months sans flame, and then just sort of die away. It all depends on who's involved.

Not that I'm saying this should be like other boards or anything... but there are a lot of boards devoted to something in particular, in this case writing, which also have an area where current events are discussed. Nothing has to turn ugly if no one wants it to, and its perfectly possible for people on opposite sides of the fence to still get along. Personally I wouldn't mind if the occasional debate turned up, because I'd like to hear the opinions and thoughts of members of this community, but if not, oh well.

I still type things up on the computer when I can avoid a pen and paper. I make many, many mistakes, as evidenced by anything I don't thouroughly proof-read. Fixing those mistakes is so much easier with a computer. Sometimes I type stuff up in a word processor so I can benefit from spell-check and the save button, but usually I'm too lazy for that.

I'm wondering if all those tremendously powerful archmagi on Terra are the half-light beings... Anyway, is this open to all?