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Topics - darkwulf365
61
« on: June 08, 2005, 08:19:00 pm »
--The battered man in the black leathers slumps down beside a tree outside Hlint. The sky is a reddish purple from dusk trying to turn into night.--
Jaren sighs as he sits and starts to rummage through his backpack for something to eat. "What a night, at least it was profitable." His thoughts turn to his small fortune he has in the bank. He makes a mental note to thank Gloin and Bru in some appropriate manner.
After a few minutes he finds what he's looking for and pulls out a hunk of dried meat. Jaren looks at it closely, decides he doesn't care what it came from, tears off a small piece and begins to eat slowly. This was the first food he'd been able to afford in about a week, and despite tasting like rotten leather, he still enjoyed the feeling of something in his stomach.
It was definately a profitable night as far as money went, but like Daren always used to say, nothing for nothing. He had happend to chance across Kira and Celgar together inside of town. His ideas of boating out to Rialra to escape from them got blown out of the water almost as quickly as they were formed. Seeing them both together stung quite a bit, not as much as it used to, but still, hurt is hurt, and emotional pain is can be as bad as a sword to the stomach. So Jaren paid that cost and reluctantly found himself drawn again into their odd little family. At least he got to see the Great Library, and all the books within made it worth it.
For a brief time, Jaren's thoughts turn to his own family. His face darkens as the image of his father appears in his mind, but a immediately clears when the image changes to his mother and young Jaral. He thinks about taking some of his fortune out of the bank back to the farm but quickly dismisses it. He knew he couldn't face his father. Maybe someday, but not now...best not to take too much at once.
A rueful smile appears across his worn face as he thinks about his older brother Daren. Jaren wonders if he's still alive, maybe he's possibly back home on the farm. "Highly doubtful...probably not even a farm for him to come back to." Jaren mumbles around a mouthful of food. He sighs...family, friends, friends and family...he hadn't glad to be rid of one, and almost yearning to lose the other. Only once had he cried since Jaral had left him, taking off to begin her training as a Ranger. Only once had he cried after realizing he was truly alone as a boy of 14. He hadn't cried after that night with Kira, but gods, it would almost be a relief. It would be such a weight off his heart to just pick up and leave them both.
But he made a promise to her, and promises from Jaren Valhaikor were never broken. Thinking of Kira and promises brought up the image of her in her wedding dress to his mind. Just as quickly he dashed it away. He was past that, she was just a distraction anymore. And as the fortune teller also told him that night, distractions were the road to ruin.
He thought back to his conversation with Celgar in the great library. They had discussed the war, and Blood. Celgar said that many have tried to kill him, none have succeeded. "I'm too stubborn to die." Celgar had said once. Jeran replied "I'm just too stubborn to stay dead."
'Better watch out...cause I'm a war machine' comes through Jeran's head. Dog is with him now all the time, even when he isn't physically there. Dog's voice sounds like a demon screaming in Jeran's head, but he doesn't find the sound totally unpleasant.
Jeran grins so coldly that it would give someone a chill on a hot summer night. Not quite yet, but soon...Dog is absolutley right again. Tenacity is Jeran's speciality.
The sky is totally dark now and he conjures up his magical light and starts to rummage through his backpack again. He pulls out some pages he managed to steal from the Great Library and starts to study them, a frown of concentration on his face.
'Can you feel it...comin' in the air tonight' from Dog. Jeran grins coldly again.
"Most definately." he says quietly into the night.
62
« on: June 08, 2005, 05:59:00 pm »
A man and his Dog
--Two figures camp next to a fire, outside the western wall of Hlint. One is a young man with shaggy blue-black hair, dressed in black and red leathers. Both man and armor look much too battered and beat up for their age. The other is the man's familiar, a large black hellhound with glowing red eyes. The man sits on the ground, slowly petting the hound with a fond smile streching his beaten face. The man looks up, deep into the starry night sky, his familiar, who he has named Dog, stares into the embers of the fire, as if reading something in their glow--
"Big changes..." the man says in his deep, quiet voice. "Big changes, too much to think about, and far too much to learn make for a very tired and confused me." He looks up to see a star twinkling in the distance. He opens his palm up to the sky, concentrates hard, and softly speaks an arcane word. A small orb of white light starts to glow in his palm. His smile weakens as he closes his fist, and the light dissappears. With a soft sigh he turns his gaze back into the fire.
"I don't know what we're gonna do..." he tells Dog. An old streetwise voice with a strange accent answers 'You can't always get what you want...but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.' The man looks at Dog and nods "Yeah, I guess you're right." Dog is full of sayings like that, always different voices, and they always seem like they come from some alien place, like some strange bardsong. They always appear in Jaren's head, and he doesn't always understand, but Dog is patient.
The man takes off his gloves and looks at his scarred hands with another fond smile, they were his first success at magic. If you can call setting your hands on fire a sucess. His father was right, hard work and dedication was something you could always give, and sometimes it was all it took. Being able to spend large amounts of gold for study supplies didn't hurt either, Jaren thought and his smile widened. Yes, all that time in the Watcher's Tower, struggling to read books that he couldn't understand, speaking syllables he couldn't pronounce. All the running around Mistone fighting, questing, and looting had certainly paid off. It had also cost him a part of his soul, but that was a small price to pay for learning to control the weave.
"Yes, you're definately right, this *is* exactly what we need, both of us. All of us." After that little talk with her, when he had laid his heart out on the line, and the emotions that followed quickly after, a little alone time was exactly what they needed. Another part of his soul had gone to figuring that out. The man smiles thinking that pretty soon there won't be enough of him left to share with anybody. Self control, that's what the fortune teller said, and if Jaren had a middle name, that's what he'd change it to.
'Leaves are fallin all around...Time, I was on my way ...Thanks to you, I'm much obliged...such a pleasant stay...But now it's time for me to go...' comes from Dog, staring with half-lidded eyes into the fire.
Jaren rubs his chin thinking that was a good idea. Time for them to move on. He needed to grow up and learn his lessons in self control. No more joking, no more berserker charges against impossible odds, there is a war going on, and he has to be ready, just in case.
'Its better to burn out...than fade away' coming from Dog. Jaren sighs in agreement, if he was going to be remembered in any book or bard's song, it wouldn't be as comic relief.
And just as quickly, his thoughts turn to her. He decides that he was being quite juvinile about the whole thing. Another lesson he had paid dearly to learn. They honestly didn't know each other very well, but they hit off fabulously at first. He thinks that being lonely too long made him just cling to anybody. Whether or not that was true, Jaren didn't know, but at least it was a start, and at least they were still friends.
'If you chose to walk away...I'd still be right here waiting' another voice from Dog, this one sounding quite a bit younger and newer. The man nods again, that was pretty much the state of his and her relationship right now. Jaren thought that Dog was fairly perceptive of the human condition...for a canine, that is.
The moon was high and full in the summer night sky, and Jaren lays his down and closes his eyes. "G'night Dog". He snaps his fingers and in a circle of white light Dog starts to dissapear. 'Everything is gonna be all right...rockabye' comes from Dog before he leaves for wherever he comes from.
Smiling, Jaren falls asleep in front of the fire.
63
« on: June 07, 2005, 02:36:00 pm »
I'm not sure if this is the place to post this or not, but Jaren took his first wizard level last weekend, and I was informed that this might result in his deletion. Right now he's a 5/1 Rogue wizard (I read somewhere that 5 was the minimum for multiclass, so if I'm wrong there, sorry). In his submission he's trying to study magic but has failed so far. I thought about submitting a CDQ so he could gain his first level (I PM'd Milo about it (on June 2nd), but then I sent another one saying that since Jeran travels a lot with magic users and he finally got some money he could study intensivley during his downtime...Milo is gone now, but he didn't write me back, so I assumed it was ok. If all multiclass has to go through a CDQ, then I'm sorry, and you can go ahead and delete Jaren, just right now I'm sort of stuck.
Thanks for your time
64
« on: June 05, 2005, 01:32:00 pm »
*A note posted at the Inn with hasty scribbling*
Be careful on the road to Port Hampshire, a flock of 3 griffons attacked my companions and myself.
Take care in the Broken Forest, the undead are restless, and the safe way isn't as safe as it used to be.
*scribbled very messily*
Jaren
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