Okay I'm going a little out of order with my novel here.(This is also my first post in awhile besides posting.) I'm posting story seven before six because six needs a lot more work. Anyway enjoy, review, or check out the rest of this collection of short stories.
Please forgive me
What you are reading has been written in accordance to the Great War. It has been written so the Ancient History may be kept alive and that all may know. Although I might not be the one to give you this book fear not. For this particular history will live on among many -Eldroc
My breathing quickened as I glanced over my shoulder. Fresh bursts of speed were used as I tried to outrun my invisible pursuers. Driven on by the fear of being caught, I gripped a parcel tight to my chest. How ridiculous that I should have to run from them now. To understand my predicament you’d have to go back several centuries to when the feud first started.
All those years ago before the feud there was two sects. The dwarves and the elves were the only two that existed. They lived in a harmony until a cause, which is unknown even to me, plunged the countries into war. This war continued for many years with neither side giving any ground. Finally, they came up with an idea that would benefit both sides. The plan was to breed together a group of elves with dwarves. It was successful, thus the race of humans was born.
The humans became the merchants and the neutral party. The war continued with the humans left alone. This was until two specific brothers were born. These brothers were me and my brother. As human’s we were exceptional. For me I was born with more of the qualities of the wise, fair skinned elves. My brother resembled the dwarves more. Most of this mess was my brother’s fault. Now that I think about it there were several events that gave to bad feelings from the dwarves because of him. The biggest one was when he strangled a dwarf in a drunken rage.
Also I’m not without my shortcomings either. Most of my life I have studied in the arts of summoning and alchemy. As of lately I have gotten much better, but far from perfect. Somehow I had managed to summon not just creatures but people. This people much to my dismay were contorted beast that ran amok. On one of their rampages they tore down part of the eastern elven forest.
Panting heavily I found myself in front of a cave. Quickly, I stole into the cave and nervously slumped to the floor. I tore through the package I had been carrying and held it up. Beams of sunlight glinted on the reflection of the steel axe in my hand. Several, second after setting it on the ground a cloud of gray smoke covered the area in front of me. When the wind had cleared the smoke, a small man with fiery red hair stood next to me. Letting out a groan he cracked his fingers and stretched.
“Why’d you have to keep me in that form for so long? It’s really cramped in there.” His voice echoed through the cave with a slight Highlandish accent. I cringed as his outrageous voice assaulted my ears. “Be quite Aeden would you have rather ran all the way here.” He shrugged and sat down. “No, I guess not. We drew sticks though, and you have longer legs. Why are we here anyway?”
Wordless for a moment, I pushed weakly on a stubborn rock covering the exit. “We’re on the run from the elves and dwarves because the run from the elves and dwarves because we know of they’re plan. They’re planning to sweep into the valley today and annihilate the humans. Now help me move this rock.”
Giving an exasperated sigh Aeden walked over to the boulder. Droplets of sweat ran down from his brow as his muscles bulged and he exerted his strength on the rock. With a final yell he heaved the rock up and dropped it out of the way. I patted his shoulder as I peeked through the opening. “Good job. Now come on we have a mission to fulfill.”
I squinted as the bright sunlight shone into my eyes. Below us, at a steep decline¸ lay the settlement of humans. Also visible to the eye was the eastern forest and the western mountain ranges from where the elves and dwarves would come. Aeden scratched his head as he joined me on the ledge. “So how are we going to get down in time?” A few seconds after this question I had formulated a plan.
To our left a thin but still useable ledge waned down the mountain. That path would be our only way down. When my brother caught my gaze he began to catch on. “Okay so we could take that path down. We would never make it on time though.” Aeden’s eyes grew wider when he noticed me start to pick up some sticks. “I know what you’re thinking. You’re not going to do any summoning or magic stuff. Don’t you remember what happened in the forest?” I snorted at the minor snub. “That wasn’t my fault besides do you remember how I gave you your love back.” Aeden shifted his gaze uncomfortably. “Aye, I remember sure enough.”
About a week ago a rockslide destroyed the western wing of a village in the mountains. Aeden’s fiancé to be was killed in the rockslide. I remember the look of terror on his face when we saw her blonde hair sticking out. Never would have imagined someone so rough could be so emotional.
Being his brother I naturally felt bad for him. So using some of her hair I reincarnated her. It actually went perfectly she was exactly like the other one. So their story was happy since then. Aeden’s only reason for coming was probably because she was in the village below.
Gathering some sticks and stones together I began to chant. “Paro Taurus et via ex silva.” Adding some enthusiasm to the last word I jumped back as the sticks and stones began to morph. The branches stretched out until they hollowed out into a cart. Cracking and snapping the rocks broke apart forming wheels. Finally, two pieces of bramble sharpened into a horn shape and rose into the air. With a puff and a snort it turned into a bull. Now we had a cart for transportation. Aeden jumped into the cart and pulled on the reins. “Hurry up and get in.”
Usually I would have protested Aeden’s ill manners. However, right now was no time to be picky. Sullenly, I listened to the sound of thunder of the bulls hooves. Fear stuck in my gullet as I looked over the cart at the wending cliff. If we didn’t die from this would the dwarves and elves do us in.
We zoomed by what had been a tranquil pond as we neared the bottom. Brambles and weeds had choked out the once flourishing flora. Memories of that pond lay broken and scattered in my mind. So much of my life was there. No one except Aeden knew of my secret hiding place underneath the lone willow next to the pond. I used to spend all of my extra time there studying and meditating. Most of the pond had dried up. Murky shallow water and damp ugly muddy shores lay instead. When this was over I was going to fix this among other things.
A sharp nudge to my side shook off my nostalgia. Aeden pointed to the gate of the city in front of us and stopped the cart. Jumping out, he kicked it open. I pursued him as he ran towards the center of town. Over the top of the houses you could see the tall temple that lay in the square. That was where we would have to go to save the village.
I realized by the time I reached the fruit stands the Aeden was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, something pulled me down under the stand. A hairy hand clamped over my mouth. “Shhh it’s me.” The light of a match illuminated Aeden’s face. Momentary relief became panic when he lifted up the tablecloth to peak out. An elf archer was passing by us. Holding my breath I realized he was probably the first of many. I exhaled quickly when he passed into the opposite street.
Getting up I ran quickly towards the temple doors across the street. I motioned for Aeden to follow. Aeden ran as fast as his short legs could carry him. Jumping over a rock his body fell back and hit the ground. An arrow stuck up from his chest. I screamed and saw the archer halfway down the street. Flying off the steps my hands hit the ground, glowing with a circular pattern. A long stream of rocks and dirt rose underneath the fleeing elf.
I raised my hand up and clenched my fist. “Please forgive me.” The rocks drew tighter around him until he was invisible and suffocating. Finally, I released my grip. His body swayed in the air and hit the ground. His body was cold and pale. I turned to Aeden. Touching the arrow I hummed until the arrow splashed onto his body as water. Then I placed both hands over his chest. Once again my hands glowed.
Slowly part of my left hand disappeared. As I stopped I screamed when my arm started hemorrhaging. Placing in my hand over it I tried to clot the blood. When the blood had stopped I wiped off Aeden’s eyes as he started to open them. He smiled as he tried to stand. “I’ll wait here while you go in and finish up.” I smiled back and ran into the temple. I opened the door again and let it close without looking back.
My body was bathed in an array of different colors as I looked up at the stained glass. As much as I would have liked to look at art I had a job to do. I ungracefully ran up three flights of stairs and by the time I reach end of the fourth I was stumbling. New energy flowed as I touched the top stair. I was finally at the right place.
It was a stuffy old tower with not a single object in except an intricate lever on the wall and a simple chair in the corner. Bits of gravel and rubble lay strewn about from the deteriorating walls. Limping forward, I threw my body weight onto the large oak lever. It wobbled for a moment but then dropped down. I lost my balance and hit the floor in unison with more rock breaking away from the wall. A large section of the wall now revealed numerous gears. As if by magic the gears started clicking and turning.
It almost surprised me that after all this time the gears still worked. I finally stood up only to be knocked back down by a large tremor that ran across the down. Quickly regaining my composure I ran over to the window. It was working just like it was supposed to. On the farthest edges of the human land mountain-like barricades were rising. When they finally stopped they formed a barrier around the settlement.
I grinned and slumped into the chair. “Well looks like you did it.” Startled, I looked up. Aeden had entered the room and was looking far better than me. “Yeah it worked perfectly. Hey Aeden.” He looked up pensively from the floor. “Hmmm, what is it?” I shifted in my seat for a moment. “Please forgive me.” Ching! Aeden’s head lolled to the side then hit the ground. His knees buckled and his body hit the ground. “Why” He moaned. An axe lay embedded in the wall.
I coughed as a cloud of smoke filled the room and someone screamed. “Owwwwwwww!!!! Did you have to let me hit the wall? Aggghhh my head.” Aeden walked over to me holding his head. I grinned at him. “Please forgive me brother.” He groaned and sat down. “Don’t get started with that. So what do we do now?” I kicked the lifeless body over. “We wait for the moment.”
Slowly, a purple slime ran out of the body onto the floor. Finally it pooled together and began to take shape. It piled higher and higher until it was as tall as Aeden. Glowing eyes and mouth grew at top but it lacked a developed body. “So you saw to the real me. You even sacrificed your own arm.” I laughed and scooped up some blood. Tapping my stump of and arm with the blood I regenerated it. “I guess if you call that losing. I didn’t see through you either I knew what you were up to. It’s not that hard to pick out a fake elf. While we hid I made a fake Aeden for you to take the bait. I knew you’d switch bodies and try to stop me.”
It smiled eerily and continued. “Very good but do you know why the elves and dwarves have always been at war. I can claim full credit for that. Because of my existence they have slowly been affected by madness and malice.” I frowned slightly and groped inside my cloak pocket. “I admit I was not aware of that. But please forgive me demon as I must erase you from life. It won’t be too hard in your weakened state.”
It sighed as an invisible force pulled it into the bottle in my hand. “So it ends like this.” Throwing the bottle to the ground, I smashed my glowing hand on it. Removing my hand I admired the new two rings that lay there. “Congratulations brother there’s your wedding rings. Just be safe we better leave the barrier up for a few weeks so the evil can dissipate. Come on lets go.” Touching the dead body I smirked with satisfaction as it morphed into a large bird. Both of us leaped out of the window to land on the bird back. Howling in delight like little children, we flew around the town.
Several months later—
Picking up a flat pebble I slung it across the stagnant pond water and watched it skip. Satisfied with the numerous skips I stretched and leaned back against the willow tree. I returned to my writing. I looked up once more at the sky. The world would know of this history. Stories of lore would be told for generations and this saga would live on. I caressed worn bark of the old willow. “Please forgive me for not restoring this place sooner.”
