Young Writers Society

I guess that it was inevitable that eventually everyone would ask about my past especially those I travel with. Part of my assumption is that yes olive skin is very unusual for an eladrin we are usually quite pale. Moreover why do I worship Pelor deity of summer instead of Corellon deity of the fey?

I guess I’ll start from the beginning, or at least as far back as I can remember… I was born in the warmer regions of the fey wild most of the other fey I knew were my skin tone or darker. My parents, as fuzzy my memories of them are, were wonderful and incredibly strong eladrin. As it happened though I wound up taking one of my parent’s swords and wandering away with it when I was very young, I didn’t wander very far and I didn’t intend to stay out very long, but the drow came I don’t know how they found me or why they captured me even at such a tender age I fully expected to die that day. They took me to the under dark a foul place and you can be assured that they were quick to stop my crying.

As I said before I do not know the motives of the drow but I spent many years in a small dark room, I think the only thing that kept me alive, or at least sane through the years was that most days for about ten minutes a small ray of sunshine would work its way down into the under dark and into my cell a very small beam of light but I was still surprised that the drow never found it before. Each day the drow would come and take me to another room strap me down to a table and commence to cut my shoulder in some of the most painful ways imaginable and if I resisted they would only torture me longer… over time the scar tissue built up to resemble a surprisingly detailed spider, this process took many years to complete, at the end the spider looked almost real…it still does…

Soon after they were done creating the spider scar on my right shoulder they put me to work as a slave, mostly I carried stone between buildings and worked in mines. Of course there were guards but a surprising number of them were non-drow. I came to be “friends” with one of the dragon born guards who didn’t seem too bad. I was relatively happy, and if I worked hard and quickly I wasn’t harmed often. But I still dreamed of returning to my homeland one day.

I worked there until I was about twenty at which point several large drow guards and a female drow dressed in elaborately designed spider silk robes and gloves, she told me to follow them and that I was “strong enough now”, I had seen several other slaves with “spider scars” leave with similar drow women and I never saw them again. A more optimistic eladrin would have thought that they were transferred but the very idea of following her struck terror into my heart I backed away defensively but the guards grabbed me roughly and started to drag me off towards a large building that I had been previously forbidden to go near…I thrashed and screamed and almost pulled away a few times, I was surprised at how strong the years of hard labor had made me. The drow woman touched my scar and suddenly I was in agony, it was like a million spiders sinking their fangs into my brain; the pain only lasted a few seconds but it felt like years when it was over I just went limp not wanting her to activate the scar again.

Behind me I heard someone say “Priestess, do you really think this one is strong enough for your purposes? She is after all part of an inferior race.”

“Of course she is strong enough you dragon born fool!” the priestess snapped at the dragon born that I now recognized as my friend. “If she were not an appropriate offering and my actions had not led to an appropriate use of the mark the eladrin would not have screamed like that when I activated the mark because Lolth would not have let loose the pain of the mark!”

“I am sorry if I have offended you priestess, but I think this one is weaker than she appears she is often sluggish when working in the mines and she doesn’t carry heavy loads of stone for long distances like some of her kind that seem like they should be weaker than her do.”

“Why, pray tell do you think that the mark activated if this eladrin did not possess the strength to be a proper sacrifice to Lolth?” the priestess said narrowing her eyes.

“Maybe my thrashing would have hurt you or my screaming would have attracted something nasty to your wonderful pits here oh mighty priestess” I said sarcastically through my teeth knowing now that I was going to die, whether or not she activated the scar on my shoulder again though was another matter entirely. I just needed to say something though I hoped for escape I didn’t think it would come anytime soon or maybe at all.

“You might have a point eladrin scum, if you were to hurt me Lolth might intervene in such a way; however I don’t let vermin such as you speak to me like that and go unpunished” she said as she smiled evilly, then she jabbed my scar hard! It felt ten times worse than when she had touched it before; the spiders weren’t just in my brain they were all over me, biting every inch of my body and I could feel the venom poring through my veins feeling as if they were aflame! My head spun as I tried to maintain consciousness; I couldn’t move or breathe for a second, I was totally limp and I didn’t open my eyes it took all of my effort just to be aware of my surroundings. “Well, I don’t know about her strength but I do know that Lolth prefers her offerings to be conscious… I will contemplate what you have said about this one’s strength dragon born but be warned,” she said narrowing her eyes “Interfering with my ceremonies is not something I take lightly.”

“I understand priestess, forgive me.” The dragon born, my friend, said as she bowed deeply to the priestess...

At that point I lost consciousness. I woke up later in my cell my whole body sore and my mind pounding, I felt like I had been out for days. A few minutes after I had regained conciseness I heard a voice through the door.

“I have the key to your cell I’m not a drow so please don’t attack me when I open the door. I can only open the door once though before the drow get more suspicious than they already are so just say something to let me know you’re awake. I am going to pretend to be escorting you to an area near the surface, don’t act exited or you’ll just get us both killed.” The person through the door said in a whisper.

“I’m awake, but I don’t think taking me across the under dark unconscious would have caused any more suspicion than taking me conscious.” I said

“Didn’t think of that… well your awake now so let’s go.”

“How do I know I can trust you, I don’t even know who’s on the other side of the door.” I said angrily

“Look, if I’m lying and you trust me, your dead. But if I’m telling the truth and you don’t trust me you’ll probably die anyways when the priestess gets back and if you don’t have help you’ll never leave the under dark.” The person said as I heard keys jangling in the door.

The door opened slowly and in walked… my dragon born friend! She walked in every way the guard. She walked in gave me a mean stare, grabbed my arm roughly and shoved me out the door. “Act broken” she whispered “It’s the only way I’ll get you close enough to the surface to make a break for it.”

I slumped my shoulders tried to stare as blankly as possible, I had seen broken slaves but thankfully I had never been one, until now, or at least I hoped that’s what the drow thought. We walked for a long time always upwards, it did surprise me that we didn’t get attacked by something other than drow as we moved between cities. We came to a door labeled “armory”, the guards outside let us through but they watched me very carefully one of them tripped me; I knew that I couldn’t throw my arms in front of me or I wouldn’t appear to be broken so I did my best to prepare myself for the inevitable pain and I hit the floor scraped my chin and my left shoulder, I lay there waiting for instruction.

I heard the guard snicker “Boy, once a priestess activates that mark of theirs the slaves sure become more agreeable”

“Yeah” I heard my friend say “But what would the priestess do to you if you had scratched the mark with your little “test”? Get up eladrin!”

The guard fell silent and I stood up; he let us through without any more trouble, as we closed the door I heard him arguing with the other guard about the “methods of tripping marked slaves without endangering their marks.”

“There” my friend said “they can’t hear us now and I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced even though we’ve known each other for years now, my name’s Bane what’s yours?

“My names Fox Jewel” I said “How do you intend to get us out of here and to the surface?”

“First,” Bane said “You need to pick a weapon, we won’t make it out of the under dark without both of us being armed”

I looked around and I saw it, my parent’s sword! I snatched it up and examined it, it was in perfect condition. The sword Dragon’s Doom had been in my family for generations and I was glad to have found it. I held my sword confidently and asked Bane “so now what’s your plan for getting out of the armory without raising the alarm?

“I found this a long time ago and didn’t tell the drow because I thought it would be useful to have an escape route one day.” Bane said as she pulled aside a pile of old barely serviceable weapons to reveal, a picture of a bird. She pressed her thumb against the bird it slid in and clicked she kept pushing until it clicked again and the stone slid by to reveal a passage way. She ducked in and motioned me to follow, so I ducked under the passage and the door slid closed quickly behind us. “This will only take us to about 200meters outside of the city and there are drow all over the under dark, so it will probably be best if you keep acting broken until we get to the surface; alright?

“Alright, but are we going to have enough food to get to the surface at all?” I asked.

“All guards stationed near the temple are required to carry enough food to get themselves and a priestess of Lolth out of the under dark, just in case.” At that statement another door slid open in front of us and I had to stop talking.

About two days after we left the city when we were attacked! An eladrin woman leaped out in front of us and screamed “Stand down dragon born fiend and release the eladrin or you shall taste the edge of my daggers! My name is Glare Fañerka and you are not going turn this broken eladrin into a slave!”

I checked for drow with my peripheral vision and seeing none I stood up straighter, focused my gaze and said, “Look, thank you for trying to save me and all that, but do you really think that a lone guard, traveling across the under dark, with a prisoner to guard wouldn’t have the means to deal with any conceivable threat that the under dark could come up with? Furthermore as you can see I am not actually broken, my friend here is helping me get to the surface and away from the drow.”

“You poor thing, you really think they are going to let you leave the under dark just because you’re with a guard! This dragon born is probably just tricking you and leading you deeper into the under dark and into a drow city!” she screamed at me.

“Look, Glare was it? My name is Bane Shlandr and I have worked for the drow for years so I can honestly tell you that Fox Jewel here has been a prisoner to the drow for 15 years and a slave for five of them. If I was going to lead her to a city she would have already been in one and of I wanted her dead well, I already saved her from that she is one of the only friends I have ever had and I won’t let her spend another minute with the drow! So stand aside and stop screaming before the drow hear us and come to investigate the fact that you are not dead or captured yet!”

Glare looked at me and said “I hope you know what you’re doing, sigh, what do you need me to do if I want to get out of here to?”

“Give me your weapons, act broken and whatever I say or do don’t get angry or defend yourself, it’s the only way I’ll be able to get you out of here.” Bane said

She gave Bane her daggers, scowling, she said “I don’t trust you but at least Fox Jewel knows enough about the situation to make a hopefully wise decision.”

Bane nodded and then we started walking. We walked for days and eventually we had to hunt and forage for food (or at least Bane had to hunt and forage glare and I were “broken”).

Eventually we came to a tunnel that had one guard standing in front of it. “Steve!” Bane called out to the drow like they were best friends. She walked up to the drow and said in a conspiratorial tone. “Hey Steve, I have two broken prisoners that have been here all of their lives and well, I think it would be hilarious to see their reaction to the surface especially since they will have to go back.”

“Dude!” said Steve “that would be hilarious! But… you know I can’t let prisoners past this point. Maybe if I was to go with you to keep an eye on the prisoners…”

“Fine with me” Bane said “But don’t blame me if you get caught away from your post.”

We walked past the drow and he did not follow us just told us not to get any funny ideas. Eventually we made it to the surface. The light stung my eyes and I almost wanted to go back but then my eyes adjusted and I started loving it up here again.

“Told you I would get you out of there.” Bane said as she handed us our weapons.

We traveled together for a few years, going from town to town, just seeing the sights. Too bad it couldn’t last… Eventually Bane found a fighter’s school and I started training to be a paladin, I choose Pelor because of the sunbeam that was in my dungeon cell when I was in the under dark. I’m not quite sure what glare started doing but she just kind of wandered off after I started my paladin training…

This ends my tale but not my life.