The story of Alice

Member created stories, poems, & other creative work.
Post Reply
User avatar
orangetree
Dungeon Master
Posts: 897
Joined: Thu Jun 03, 2004 9:10 pm
Location: UK (GMT)

The story of Alice

Post by orangetree »

Alice Journal.

Hi there, my name is Alice. Well... why am I saying that in my own journal? Oh maybe to just remind myself of who I am? I guess that could be it? Surly nobody is going to read these lightly insane monologues of a boring every day life as me. Sure maybe in a thousand years some elf will pick up my journal and say.. oh yeah, I saw her. Nice girl, walked in the meadows. Gods why do we have such short lives...

So anyway, after my parents disowned me I figured life had to get better after that. Cause well, you know it's just got to? Sure I have no friends, and people generally think I'm a little weird. I talk too much, drink too much, and have a love of nature... why can't I just love nature again? I guess that's why I adore Lurue. Always all this 'conforming' stuff. Hey, you're a hin. You got to do what works for hins. You got to do this, you got to do that. What are you? What am I? What are you! I'm just trying to live out the same life as anyone else you know?

Anyway, first adventure. Well they always say the first adventure is the boring one. So it was, as I ran various errands all around town. Lots of people needing bobs and bits. Pins and lockets... eh, makes you wonder how anyone keeps anything on them. I made a decent amount of coin for it, enough to join up in the Lady's college.

Lady's college.. sounds like a place to make some friends, right? Well not really. I mostly did all the tasks alone. Talented as I am with the weave, these stuff isn't all that hard. I pretty much hear enough gossip to know how to pass most the first line of tests. I must look like some sort of savant expert to them. Or a cheater.. heh. Well, I did mess up one or two times with the whole necromantic part and lost a lot of gold on it. But I think I'm doing better then most.

So, anyway I journeyed to Rivermoot where I heard a fellow hin sorceress departed to seek out even greater mysterious then can be found here (ie, she died.) So I suppose in some ways I'm just picking up where she left off. Hard doing that, people don't like talking about death. Neither do I, would rather just not dwell on it too much. Spectre of death is a hard thing to shake off.

Let's see, in rivermoot I heard of some adventuring group. Looked like lizardmen? Yeah okay, it was stupid of me but I decided I could take a chance and have a look. Lurue always said adventures had to be taken on a dare, so I dared myself to give it a shot. I saw a few lizardmen and managed to evade them. I even gained a spot of luck in looting some treasures... though it gave me pause to wonder at how such valuables were skipped by whatever slayed them. One can usually judge the worth of people by the rubbish they leave behind.. so yeah, I'm pretty much at the bottom of the pile of the whole thing.

I found a group in the farm, lead by a woman named Arizma. I'm a bit forgetful with names, but I try to offer my assistance. I used my knowledge of nature to help them work out how many numbers of lizardmen were around. I'm sure they had other means to work such things out of course, such a skill is hardly in demand.

So here's where I hit my first major wall in my life. A group of about thirty five lizardmen, looking about to kill us all. Do we pull back? No, Arizma decides to kill them all instead. Yay? They were... in a cave, hiding. Not on the main roads and.. okay sure, maybe the presented a threat in general, but there had to be some other way. In any case, when the fighting started, I decided I best duck out of the way. I'm sure it was an amusing sight. As always, this is simply a bad move when trying to make friends. A true friend would stand until they were a corpse so as to be watched their life snuffed out, knowing you did it for them. Die! Die for me! Die!

.. and this is why I hate this world sometimes. Or at least, people. You always have to be what they want you to be, and if you are not.. you're not anything to them.

I ducked out of the way, and got some incredible criticism for it. Emotionally I was quite shaken by the whole experience. Does that mean I'm not a good adventurer? I thought it made me sensible. I recognised I was way way over my head and ducked out to let those with more experience handle things. Besides I made myself useful, I kept an eye out for any trouble behind us. Lizardmen are sneaky, and I suspected potential flanking. It didn't come to pass, but one has to be cautious.

Anyway, I decided to write a newsreel of the whole affair. Lots of stuff to write about, got to get the word out in silverymoon on what these adventurers are doing on behalf of us citizens. Sure it's crazy, but sometimes it can be nice.

I continue my studies of the weave, and reflect on things. There must be ways I can improve myself. Also got to watch out for gossip, any useful rumors to explore and learn about.

- - -

I fell asleep in the meadow again. I was looking for the unicorn, or even a fairy. Eh, I know they never come but it's a hard habit to break. Got to wait, got to wait. Just keep waiting, even if it takes another ten years. If they don't come today, maybe it will be tomorrow?

I was quite pleased to see Will, and I invited him over to my private spot where the unicorn was seen ten years ago by my dear friend Cara. She was so lucky... I often wonder what she was told that made her leave so suddenly. Anyway what turned into a pretty nice evening, became a sour end. It was the first time I had really talked to a fellow halfling after my parents abandoned me. It would have been nice to connect to them again...

we talked a bit while he smoked his pipe, and I smiled as I told him what drew me to lurue. I felt like I was really opening up to him. It seemed all quite nice and socially? Ah, but the scorn.. the judgement.. yes, I had forgotten what that felt like. I was reminded of the face of my father, when he found out I was learning the language of the fairy.

I spoke to Will about how I ducked out of the cave, and he was quite unsympathetic. In his own words... "If you're likely to run away, you shouldn't even be there or follow."

.. but seriously, thirty five lizardmen? What exactly did they expect from me... and oh how I got my answer.

"If you don't carry more then your own weight you have no right to mouth off."

I did my best? I wanted to help, I tried to help. I gave everything I had and more. I had only my bow, and a dagger. I was as close to death as I was comfortable to be and just trying to survive at this point, hoping.. just hoping it was not going to come to a fight. When the fight came, and the flash of more blood then I have ever seen... I cried. I broke. My heart shattered...

and so came the final judgement.

"Oh apologize, mistook you for a grown-up."

I looked up to see him leave. I tried to settle back into my private corner of the glade, content to be alone for the moment and recover. That's what happens when you place your heart with people, especially your own kind. It always hurts. So with my tear streaked eyes, I look up at the sky. I look for lands of acceptance and wonder, where it's okay to cry.. okay to be happy... to be free of the expectations and burdens people place on one another. Am I a child? I don't know what that means, and I know it's taken as an insult by many halflings. But for a halfling to use it on another halfling... I don't know. but if it means feeling sad for seeing so much death.. for not being able to do anything about it... for trying to take on so much more then I can possibly do...

… then yes I am just a child.

I don't get people... I really don't. Certainly not other halflings. I think I am destined to be alone in this world, like my parents said I would be.
Post Reply