L’Stre held the scrolls gently as to not rip them. He was still astonished at receiving such a wonderful gift. He still didn’t know how to use them though. He decided that he wanted to head back to town and it was no better of a time to learn how to use one then now. He picked out a return to Hidden Valley town scroll and looked at it. He thought about how it would work. He thought to himself about how he would like to be back in town with no troubles for the rest of the morning. All of a sudden there was a whoosh and he appeared in town near the four men he had met earlier. He was flabbergasted to have instantly appeared back in town. It took him a few moments before he could collect his bearings and take a seat on a bench nearby.
After such a long day, he was beginning to get hungry; he peered around town looking for a place to eat. He could hear a vendor yelling that he had bows, knives, swords, armor, potions, and food for sale. He grabbed his things in a handful and headed towards the vendor in the north part of town. The vendor could see his victim coming, and put on a crooked smile of sorts. L’Stre walked up and asked the gentleman if he had meat for sale, the vendor replied with a simple nod and a smile. He asked to buy several pieces of the meat. The vendor said that is 1 adena for each piece. L’Stre reached into his pouch and plucked out his purse and tossed the vendor 5 pieces of adena. The vendor in returned opened up his meat pouch and plucked out 5 pieces.
He quickly ate up 2 pieces and could feel his strength quickly come back to him. The vendor whom seemed to have lost the crooked smile a minute ago was now smiling ever so largely again. The vendor peered into the elf’s eyes and said well elf seems you have a large sum of adena, what else are you going to buy. L’Stre stood shocked as this man, it seemed, just had ordered him to buy more things. A frown drew across his brow and he replied well nothing more human. The man seemed to jump back in awe at this sudden rebuttal of insolence. Well elf you seem rich, why can’t you spend your adena here? L’Stre gave an evil smirk and replied my business is done human I am leaving. With that last comment he turned and spit at the ground in mock disapproval and trotted off.
Now with a full belly and his strength returned he wanted to rest once more. L’Stre found a nice grassy green ally behind a hut. He sat his pouch, bow, and quiver next to himself and leaned up against the wall of the hut. He lay there for a moment thinking about the rude vendor until he nodded off for a nap. In his dream it became colder and colder until he could stand it no longer and he awoke. Surprised he found it was no longer light out. He laughed about his dream and realized it really wasn’t a dream after all. He stretched, yawned and sat up, a little dizzy since his eyes were not yet accustomed to the night. He leaned up against the wall until they were finally adjusted. He reached down and picked up his items and began walking to the edge of town.
It was brutally quite, it had never been this quiet before. He glanced over to where the vendor had been before and noticed all of his things being there but the vendor was not insight. He began getting a strange ill feeling in his stomach as he got closer to the edge of town. When he reached the gates of the west side of town he smiled and nodded at the guards, and they returned the gesture happily. Still feeling sick he stepped into the woods. All of a sudden the woods lit up with light and before him stood four men. The vendor and the three individuals that were selling their magical gifts back in town. The sudden light had painfully made L’Stre dizzy. These four men peered at him and each cracked a smile with evil intent. These men all had knives in hand, ready to do him in. He thought the scenario through his head several times wondering exactly how it would play out. These men were twenty paces from him at least. He would have to bring two down with his bow and the other two with his Orcish dagger. He thought about calling the guards but by the time they would arrive he would be dead.
An idea struck him. He would yell for the guards quickly draw his bow and try to fire two shots. In mid thought the vendor took one step forward and asked him if he thought he was so high and mighty now. L’Stre yelled as loud as he could for the guards and unslinged his bow and fired an arrow so quickly that his foes didn’t even know until the guy who offered to bless his armor fell to the ground with an arrow in his heart. By this time he had already knocked another arrow and let it fly. This time the man who wanted to cast polymorph for one hundred adena fell to the ground with an arrow in his neck. Blood slowly drained from each lifeless body that lay on the ground. Now it was too late to fire another arrow, so he threw his bow out of the way and brought out the Orcish dagger. Outnumbered two to one he started to circle them, staying clear of their knives. He knew he couldn’t hesitate any longer and let them think up a plan to get him. He dove in stabbing at the vendor, only to be sliced in the arm by the other guy. He didn’t think that was a smart move but what else could he have done. All of a sudden there was a crash behind him in the woods and without it distracting him he dove and stuck his dagger in the vendor. He let loose of the knife handle and the vendor dropped to his knees. L’Stre had placed the ill made dagger into the vendor’s right lung, he could tell by all the blood that the vendor was spitting up. Death was slowly overtaking the sheen in the vendor’s eyes. He had but a few more moments to live. He fell to his side with his last gurgle of a breath. The last remaining man, the guy who wanted to sell him a magical spell to bless his weapon, stood shocked. Three of his companions lay dead on the ground around him, they were all slain by this one elf. The guards finally arrived, bows up, arrows knocked, they told the remaining man to drop his weapon. He did so as quickly as possible so as not to end up like his friends.
The guards apologized for the behavior of the town folk and asked L’Stre not to judge all humans because of the simple-minded actions of a few. He smiled knowing all to well the ramifications of judging another individual by some other individuals actions. He thanked the guards for the haughty entrance. They laughed and said they played no part in what happened in the woods, that L’Stre was the one who handled it perfectly. They could not believe that he dropped two with his bow and one with his dagger. They knew for sure if they had not come to save this last man he would have been the second to die by his dagger. They clapped him on his back and bid him farewell as they led the man who was left alive back to town to be placed in jail until he could be sentenced.
L’Stre walked over to the vendor who held his dagger in his chest, feeling very proud of the way he reacted to the sudden threat on his life. He retrieved the dagger and wiped the blood off on the dead mans pants. He could feel the skill rise up in him, his experience as a warrior was increasing with every battle. He could feel himself reaching a peak, he did not know what this peak meant, but he knew it to be very important to him to surpass this level of expertise.
[A href=”http://forums2.warcry.com/flat_read.phtml?f=53&id=27230&thread=27230″]Journeys….Life in Aden. Chapter Six Discussion[/a]
Published: Sep 29, 2003 08:13 pm