Chapter 2 -- Silent Dawn of the Sea

[Shan Gutarus]

They had traveled for just over two weeks, the pace steady (though not as quick as Paladia would have liked) and now the party stood staring up at the path that would lead them into Crazy Woman Pass and through the Mithril Mountains.

The journey from the woods had been uneventful. Nyari, having quickly become comfortable with the rest of the group, turned out to be a very talkative young girl. She would excitedly discuss anything with anyone, even taking in conversations with the relatively unresponsive Shanvorin, whom she would occasionally ride upon when tired.

Finally, the party had come to the base of the mountains where they made camp. Now it was early morning, the sun just coming over the horizon, and Paladia was eager to go.

Shan was lying on a large flat stone, looking up at the simple path that had brought them through the low hills that built up to the mountains, and now would bring them into the actual range itself. The trail was lined with craggy rocks and large boulders.

There's something about this place I don't like he thought irritably, but Shan's thoughts were interupted as Nyari climbed up beside him and told the shingar about some dream she had that night.

"A dream can exist only in darkness."

[Paladia Entonei]

Paladia stood off from the side of the party, as she was often found. The journey had not been as the Tethinrhim would have liked. The pace had seemed too casual, the light hearted chit chat among the group irritating her. Pally was also uncomfortable in the unfamiliar settings; the elf missed her trees, her forest, her home.

"Let's go!" she ordered impatiently, walking through the rough camp as the others were packing up. "I want to get through with my business in these mountains as quickly as possible," she added, skeptically scanning over the large boulders and craggy trail sides.

Finally the group was moving, and the elf couldn't help but notice the cat's uneasiness. He feels it too, Pally thought to herself, still looking over the new terrain as they walked through the trail. Something is missing, out of place...I just can't put my finger on it.

It was still morning, midday an hour or two away, when the small party came to a snow-fed stream, not large enough to make itself too much of an obstacle in their path. On the other side of stream was the fabled Crazy Woman Pass, its winding road coming up high into the mountains.

"This is Crazy Woman Pass," Paladia announced, turning back to the group, "We can rest if you need it." The elf's cold stare drifting down towards Nyari, who was trying hard not to reveal her quickened breathing.

"Fall down seven times, stand up eight"

[Urse the Distant]

Urse found himself trapped between the sky and the ground.  His eyes were sometimes transfixed by the beauty of the mountain ridges and peaks.  Then he would look down at the child and make sure she was keeping up, or if showing tiredness, someone was picking her up and carrying her.

It was hard going, certainly harder than he was used to down on the plains between the cities.  He gasped for breath and hoped they would rest from the relentless pace soon.

"Queprur waits...."

The Favor of Querprur

[Kareesh Valendar]

Kareesh felt uneasy, but why, she could not tell. Even as they were walking, she rested her hand on her dagger's hilt. When they came to Crazy Woman Pass, the female Elf up front told them they could rest if they needed to.

"I do not require rest," Kareesh said as she held her tongue at all the things that she wanted to say. "But it seems others in our group do. I say that we rest for awhile, at least till we are all rested enough to go into the mountains."

It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy...?

[Mínsyth Mërénwèn]

Minsyth nodded from beneath his cloak at Kareesh's comment. He himself did not need rest and would not need any for many more hours. "Perhaps the few of us that do not need rest can scout ahead a little ways to make sure everything is clear."

He had noticed everyones uneasiness about the place and realized that there was something about it but it was not strongly felt in him as it seemed to be with the others. He actually kinda liked this place oddly enough.

Slowly, he passed up everyone and made his way a little farther from everyone, looking ahead, seeing if his eyes would catch anything unusual about the place...

"...Life is a story waiting to be written. It is up to us to make it exciting and unforgetable..." - Shara

[Shan Gutarus]

Nyari, relieved that some of the party members had decided upon a rest, sat herself down next to the stream. The small child dipped her hand in the ice cold water, swishing it around to make tiny whorlpools. She seemed so at peace for a child so young to be all alone, and so far from home.

"Perhaps the few of us that do not need rest can scout ahead a little ways to make sure everything is clear."

Shan looked back at Paladia to see if the elf was moving to go with Minsyth. By the way she had sat down away from the rest of the group and was once again scanning over the strange parchment, the shingar was having doubts. The cat, restless and wanting to find out for himself why this place seemed so odd to him, plodded over to stand by Minsyth's side.

The shingar looked up at the warrior with his human-like blue eyes as if waiting for him to take the lead.

~~~~

Meanwhile, the slim form of a young woman peered over the edge of a cliff, her prone body hidden by a struggling bush which clung desperatly to life on the rock. A small smile escaped her lips, as the woman slipped back into the shadows of the rocky terrain unnoticed.

"A dream can exist only in darkness."

[Kim Sandrage]

Kim sat herself against a rock to ease her feet. Oh how she missed the snow of her home. She looked sadly at the area as she throught back to the weather and terrain of her home.
"So quiet here so bare" She wispeared upder her breath.
Walking up to Nyari Kim smiled at the child her cold heart felt the pain and lonliness of this child.
"So where are you from Im from Cyhalloi."  

Welcome to shadow world far under northern skies
Mountains and raging seas, valleys and icy winds Glory and majesty, triumph and victory
Legends and epic tales born between these dark lakes
For you a new one written with black blood

My Character Description!

(Lyrics from Luca Turilli - Magic Horizons

[Paladia Entonei]

Nyari looked up from the stream, her attention drawn to one of the women who had turned to speak with her. "My daddy travels with me. He says that our home is on the road and our fate is with the wind," Nyari replied proudly, speaking of her father like he was some kind of war hero or grand king. The little girl's eyes drifted up to the sky, "I miss him. He used to tell me stories before bed." But with a sudden bright smile, Nyari continued, "But Daddy will be in Nepris! Waiting for me with Uncle Dimitri. And he'll tell me all about his escape from the evil bandit men!"

Paladia, who had taken a seat a respective distance away from the others, looked up from the parchment. Not used to the mannerisms and minds of children, the elf stated coldly, "Don't get you're hopes up, child. Bandits are ruthless."

Understanding well what the Tethinrhim had meant, Nyari turned a pleading face towards Kim's general direction, "But Daddy will be okay. He protects me. He can protect himself."

"Fall down seven times, stand up eight"

[Kim Sandrage]

Km looked at the elf then back to the young girl. It was possible that her father was already dead but surely the belief that they were alive was better than the belief they were already dead.
"Im afraid I do not know, Your father may well of got away if he did we will find him for you and return you back in to his arms."  Looking out in to the distance her mind once again drew back to her home and her Godfather. She wondered if he was okay, if he missed her... No why would he. Shaking the thoughts from her head she turned to the Tethinrhim.
"How far is it to Nepris?"

Welcome to shadow world far under northern skies
Mountains and raging seas, valleys and icy winds Glory and majesty, triumph and victory
Legends and epic tales born between these dark lakes
For you a new one written with black blood

My Character Description!

(Lyrics from Luca Turilli - Magic Horizons

[Paladia Entonei]

Paladia looked back up from her parchment. "To Nepris? I..." the elf paused. She didn't know. Geography wasn't something a Kaerian warrior studied. But before the warrior could answer, a small voice interupted her.

"Two days," said Nyari, her hand swishing through the cold water again. "Two days with ponies going slow. And more breaks."

The auburn haired elf stared with a look of both surprise and satisfaction at the child. Suddenly, her hazel eyes turned cold. "Right. Should take just over a day for us then," the elf said with finality, looking back at the poem that the cat had held on their first meeting.

"Fall down seven times, stand up eight"

[Kim Sandrage]

"okay a day." Turning back to the little girl, Kim watched as she played with the water. So young and so innocent, poor thing may never see her father again but it sounded like she had family.
Looking up she questioned Paladia.
"What is Nepris like i have never been there. I was told it would be a good place to find work."

Welcome to shadow world far under northern skies
Mountains and raging seas, valleys and icy winds Glory and majesty, triumph and victory
Legends and epic tales born between these dark lakes
For you a new one written with black blood

My Character Description!

(Lyrics from Luca Turilli - Magic Horizons

[Kareesh Valendar]

"If it is a good place to find work, then it must be a good place to find a place that I may sell the small collection that I started before I was kicked out of the last town," Kareesh thought to herself as she watched the human child play in the water. She could tell that all the others thought that the child's father would already be dead, as did she. Death came frequently for many people.

"If we are to reach this city, then we should leave this place as soon as possible," Kareesh said looking around.

It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy...?

[Shan Gutarus]

Minsyth glanced down at Shan, then up at the rest of the party.

"I will take the cat further up the trail. I wish to see what we have ahead of us," he said. Skipping over the glacier-fed stream, the ebony furred cat in pursuit, Minsyth began walking up the trail.

The elf and the shingar rounded a bend, the scouting pair walking out of sight of the rest, and continued walking, his step quick.

The bubbling and sloshing of the brook had long since been left behind. The shingar, ears flattened, stopped in his tracks and padded the ground nervously with a large front paw. Something was wrong. And now it only dawned on the wild-cat. It was silent. The stream's babble had died away minutes ago, no birds chirped, no creature disturbed the delicately perched pebbles and not even a breeze rustled the sparse vegetation.

Minsyth glanced down at him curiously, but suddenly, the elf turned his head up to the trail, now understanding what lurked about them. A hand on his sword-hilt, Minsyth took a step back as Shanvorin crouched.

A crude arrow thudded into the soil at their feet, and the pair turned their gazes upward. Coming over the edge of a small slope were at least a dozen wild men and women. The men, their faces covered with scraggly beards caked with mud, carried crude clubs or swords. The few women, their hair long and equally unruly, carried either spears or thin daggers.

The thirteen wild-folk, obviously making their homes in the caves that dotted the mountainsides, charged in Minsyth and Shan, weapons drawn and ready. A huge man, apparently their leader, screamed a wild cry that echoed off the walls of the mountain trails and came barreling down on Minsyth, club raised high.

"A dream can exist only in darkness."

[Paladia Entonei]

"If we are to reach this city, then we should leave this place as soon as possible,"

So impatient, that woman is Pally thought to herself irritably, though had to admit that she had similiar wants to get things on with.

About to tell Kim how she had never been to Nepris in her life, Paladia was cut off, words on her lips, by an angry scream coming from further up the trail.

"By the gods, what was that?" Pally began, already on her feet. Straining her keen hearing towards the sound, the trained warrior was now certain some kind of struggle was already in the works.

"Looks like you've got your wish," the woman snapped at Kareesh, taking her bow up and slinging it over one shoulder, ready to charge up to the sounds of battle.

"Fall down seven times, stand up eight"

Edited by: Paladia Entonei  at: 3/10/04 0:11

[Urse the Distant]

Urse was lost in his thoughts.  Once again he was thinking about the time in his childhood when he confronted the witches for the white lady and how he had loved her since.  His mind was making its familiar journey to the incident with door that changed him when he heard the scream.

"Oh, I think Queprur will have her hands full today."

He tried to get the non-combatants to hide behind some rocks, while looking wildly over his shoulder.

"Queprur waits...."

The Favor of Querprur

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