Glimpses of Kira

[Snoopluva]

The smell of blood fills the cloying darkness.  Ahead in the faint light stands two tall figures, carving into a tied down slave.  His screams fall dead in the vast blackness as the dark demons carve into his flesh pitilessly.  Their knives, wielded with great precision to ensure that the slave stays alive as long as possible.
       

Bloody pieces of meat are dumped unceremoniously into the cook pots.  The slaves’ screams have died down now, blood loss taking its toll; his suffering will be over soon.  A bowl bearing odious contents is shoved into a young woman’s hands.  Starving for food, she unwillingly dips her hand into the warm, soft… fabric?
       

Kira opens her eyes, a moment of panic crossing her face.
       

Where am I?!
       

She looks about, calming instantly.  She sits in a green four-poster bed set up on a dais.  Candles, scattered about, dimly light the room.  Sighing with relief she sits back, clearing her red hair from her face.
       

 It’s all right I’m in Krandor.
       

 Quietly she climbs out of the bed, wondering how Celgar manages to move her so easily without waking her.  She casts about in the gloom and finds what she’s looking for.  Celgar: lying slumped over his desk, sound asleep.  A smile spreading across her face, Kira pulls a blanket off the bed and stealthily covers him with it.  Shaking her head she lays back down on the bed, pondering the events of the past week.
       

I never thought the surface would be so strange:  Dragons summoning people from afar, men with wings, creepy elves with forked tongues that spit blood.
        She sighs and rolls over trying to get comfortable
       

At least I have Celgar and Jaren.  I’m lucky to have them as friends.  I’m lucky I escaped from Tasald and to have my freedom.  But it doesn’t seem like I’m going to be able to enjoy the surface as it is forever.  Everyone is talking about this Blood character.  About his armies and his demons… About him being a demon himself.  It’s all very confusing.  What does seem to be for sure is that he’s coming for Mistone.
       

She tosses restlessly on the bed not seeming to be able to find a comfortable position.
       

We can’t let him conquer Mistone.  He’s got to be stopped.  I’ve got to help however I can…  But first I have to sleep…  How do they sleep on these beds…?
       

She rolls off the bed with a heavy sigh and walks quietly to the corner of the room.
       

Maybe I’ll get used to it someday… For now the floor is fine…
       

Sitting in the corner she curls herself up, and taking a last looks at Celgar, then slowly falls into a slumber, a smile on her face.

[Snoopluva]

Kira sat on the floor of the of the great library hunched over an immpossilby thick tome.  Not just any Tome, though, a Tome dedicated ot the subject of dragons.  She couldn't read the the tightly written script; that's not what she was interested in anyway.  The book had detailed drawings of dragons.  She'd been visiting the library more often now, always returning to the same section to retrieve the same book in order to pour her attention over the same pictures she'd looked at dozens of times before.  She would probably look at them a dozen times more in the future.



This is what I want to become someday, she thought to herself running her hand over the beautifully rendered picture of a Gold Dragon in flight.


Someday I'll be powerful enough to will the spell into existence that will change me into this and then, maybe, I can fly.



She closes her eyes imagining the thrill of flight; the ultimate freedom.  A smile playing across her face briefly that, soon, disappears into a look of determination.  


Well I'm not going to do it sitting around here, she chides herself, closing the tome and lifting it into her arms; its unwielding size and weight making her strain with some effort.



 She puts the book back in its place and walks over to the childrens section.  She selects one of the thinner books off the shelf and takes it with her, thumbing through the pages.  She's surprised to find that she recognizes some letters even some of the smaller words.  Celgar's teaching seem to be sticking.  With a grin of triumph she walks through the portal, and back to Blackford.

[Snoopluva]

Celgar sat at his desk, a heavy book in front of him.  There was a sad look on his face as he closed and locked it.  "For the best, I guess," he said, turning to his new golem, Faith, asking her to place the book on the top shelf of a book case.  Kira watched from the doorway, feeling a mix of emotions.  Celgar had lost the memories of his home, and with them all the memories of his parents.


For the best...?  But he'll never remember his mother's smile, or his father's exploits, Kira thought to herself.


 "I have to write down some things, I'll be with you in a moment hun."


 Celgar was looking at her and smiling; she'd been lost in thought.  She smiled and nodded leaving his room and walking to the back room of the house where she'd set up a few bits of furniture that she'd bought.  Her head spinning from the excitement of the day.  Golems, goddesses, and sacrifice.


Sacrifice.  That's what she said was needed to restore the halflings sanity.  Lucinda; I still can't believe I saw her.  She was angelic, with wings of pure white.  Her prescence was overwhelming and the air seemed to crackle all about her with magical energy.  But despite all her power, she still needed a sacrifice, from Celgar, to restore the halfling's sanity


She sighed, sitting down on the rug, a book on Blue Dragons lay in her lap.  Once Celgar was done he'd be in to help her read it.  Her reading skills were getting better day by day, but progress was slow.  She flipped through the pages calmly.  Usually the mere thought of dragons would have had her excitedly studying each drawing of the book, but tonight she only wanted to be with Celgar.  


She closed her eyes, remembering him as he dipped his hand into the fluid and the white light that had begun emanating from him, Lucinda, and the mad halfling.  She remembered the panic that had gripped her as he fell limpily to the ground.  For that instant she'd thought she'd lost him forever.


But Lucinda didn't take his life as the sacrifice, she took the memories of his home from him. She thought, relaxing immensely.


Kira sat thinking about whether that had hurt him.  He did seem more light-hearted now.  Smiles that normally were small and tinged with, what seemed like, sadness, now spread across his face faster than a dwarf could down a mug of ale.


But won't he miss the memories of his family? Kira wondered, struggling to remember her own family that she'd been taken from by the Drow.


 She looked up to see Celgar walking into the room, a sparkling smile on his face.  Together they sat into the night, Celgar patiently helping her along as she haltingly read through the book, until Celgar began yawning.


"You can go on to bed, I can continue on my own," Kira said, smiling though feeling guilty.  Celgar had helped save the weave and, probably, the world today.  He was, of course, tired.  She watched him as he got up and wearily left the room.  A moment later she closed her book and went back to the corner where she usually slept.


She couldn't sleep though, the days events playing through her head again and again.  Celgar falling to the ground... again and again...


She got up and crept, noiselessly, into Celgar's room.  Celgar lay sleeping peacefully in his bed.  She slipped under the covers carefully and snuggled up against his back.  And then fell right to sleep.

[Snoopluva]

Eternal darkness; a setting Kira had become all too familiar with.  A small fire in the center of the slave camp blazed defiantly into the overwhelming blackness.  Some soft moans could be heard throughout the camp:  a byproduct of fresh broozes and whip lashes received during the latest beating.  A rough hand grabs Kira by the arm and drags her away from others.  Kira went limp, fighting only made the beating last longer.  She curls up, covering her head.  Behind her she could almost sense the whip rising and coming down...


CRACK!



Kira's eyes shot open, the remnants of the dream falling away in an instant.  The sound of the whip was still echoing in her mind as she looked  about.  She was outside of Blackford, the sounds of the waterfall behind her driving away memories of the whip.  She rolled over and smiled as she saw Celgar, asleep next to her.  He'd set up a romantic little picnic on the spot they'd have their wedding.  Her wedding.


 Kira looked down to her finger, searching for the engagement ring Celgar had given her, just to make sure it was still there.  To make sure she hadn't just dreamed it.  It was still there.  She scooted a little closer to Celgar and closed her eyes.  She could still see the Slave trainer and her whip on the backs of her eye lids though, sleeping was out of the question.  At least for a little while.


 She shuddered softly, opening her eyes back up, and lay, watching, Celgar's sleeping face.  His silvery hair reflecting the moonlight in the oddest way.



Like the reflection off a Silver Dragon's scales, she thought smiling.  The smile disappearing thinking back to that cryptic phrase that Reg had uttered just after turning into a dragon.



"Pretty lass, curious enough to become an apprentice to a dragon...?"


At least that's what she'd thought she'd heard him say.  She was too awestruck by him turning into a dragon to have responded.


 She crinkled up her mouth in thought.   What had he meant?  

She shook her head.  Celgar had finished teaching her how to read and she's been visiting the library on a regular basis to fill herself with the knowledge of dragons, but her forays into the texts only left her with more questions.  And recently Cel had brought to her attention the existence of Half-Dragons...  But he didn't know much about them.  "Ask Ozy." He'd told her.



Kira wondered if she'd ever have enough courage to actually talk to that devil past the polite "Hi, How are you doing?"



Maybe I can ask him when Cel is with me , she thought, reaching up to smooth some of Celgar's hair.  He'd stirred at her touch and opened his eyes to look at her.  "Hi..." she said sheepishly.