The Cold Road (18+ sexy and violent)
Xujja considered taking those few steps forward to follow after her, but surely if he stepped through those gates, the guards would have at him and he wouldnt get to ask her about what she whispered anyway.
He could just watch as the top of her golden hair blended into the crowd inside the city gates till she was gone.
She had whispered it so softly that she surely must not have expected him to hear it.
*********************************************************
With a sliced foot and unhappy grumble the tiefling slumped down to sit against the boulders outside High Hold. Leaving his Dawn in the city to tend her temple, and then stepping in a trap meant for some wagon hadnt made for a pleasing day. He was getting sober as well, worse still the only thing in his satchel to cure his sobriety was cheap ale.
Xujja uncorked one of those cheap ales, bottled in the tiny village of Rivermoot, and started drinking.
He, Abelia, and Tock all awaited the arrival of their friend Ixazix. Normally Xujja was content to drink himself numb in silence with his crew around. They really didnt talk to one another all to often, save to discuss work on the rare occasion. Tock and Xujja often spoke of fishing, but today Xujja just felt like drinking in silence. It seemed like he would get what he wated.
Maybe not. There was Ryu. As much as Xujja tried to lose focus on the scenery and drift into his drink, or into a deep self indulgent thought of Dawn... Ryu would talk.
Damnit... he knows I dont make these descisons. Why wont he leave me alone?
To make things worse the man was standing there in bright red robes.
********************************************************
It was nice to finally get to sit down with Dawn. She clung to him tight as young lovers do when separated for a few days. He did his best to enjoy in silence, fearing she would ask him how his days had gone.
*********************************************************
Ryu was asking to spar again. He remembered seeing this man two times, and hearing him ask to spar three times. Xujja was trying hard not to pay attention as Abelia turned him down with a scornful snarl.
Just shut the hells up and let me drink.
"How about if you can hit me ill give you ten gold.. if I can knock you down you give me 10 gold."
Xujja saw the guards. He was also pretty sure If an accident happened, the guy with the horns would get the blame. Besides, play fighting wasnt really any help for the real thing. There werent any shamans or backstabbers when people played at fighting.
"That, aint happening" The tiefling responded.
The man in red robes insisted that he was only trying to prove his worth, or somesuch nonsense that had nothing to do with Xujja getting drunk. The man reminded Xujja of a puppy eager to please. He wondered if he had been that pathetic when he had arrived, that urge for acceptance.
And he was wearing a red robe.
********************************************************
There was another time when he started to complain about her friend that had asked to run with his crew. Complaining came to him easily, but he didnt want to waste time doing that now. Dawn would no doubt have to go back to her temple duties soon.
She seemed willing to let him sit a bit longer in silence.
*********************************************************
"Well mate.. I told you already I dont make the descisions.. but when he gets here... Ill tell him I dont approve of you... an especially them robes."
"And if he dont, I will" Abelia added to Xujjas commment.
The stranger offered to go rooting around in the caves without a shirt at all.
This drink would taste a lot better if he would just shut up.
*******************************************************
A few merchants wagons had rolled past in the last few hours. Still the couple had sat under the same maples, talking only occasionally.
"What about you?" The pretty blond girl asked.
"Just workin. Looking for loot when everyones around."
"Well, hows that been going?"
"Disappointing"
*******************************************************
Sometimes you get let down even if you lower your expectations.
The man had asked Ix for a chance to prove himself to his crew of mercenaries. The 'interview' hadnt gone well. When told to lure an enemy, he charged them. Even worse was that he led them to a cave with danger and no loot.
The man had, overeager, gotten up on some foul groaning undead thing and it had taken a good bite out of the man before going down.
If this man had been part of their crew regularly... he would have been sucking up healing resources and rushing when told to lure. Xujja was running out of patience for the stranger, and the cave.
"Lets go find some living victims. Some creatures that collect gold like us."
He was just about to leave when Ix called out to him.
"Xujja... just a moment."
*********************************************************
"Xujja? What are all these little scars on the backs of your hands from?"
"Just the place where my mother would nail my hands to the table, or sometimes the porch."
He thought she was just as pretty when she was horrified as she was when she was happy. Maybe more.
********************************************************
Xujja realized there might be trouble when he heard Ix asking the question of the strange man in unlucky robes. It was a question they asked everyone that wanted to work as part of the crew.
"So.. what god exactly do you pray to?"
It was dark in the cave, but Xujja had grown up in the dark. He could see everyones reaction. Tock was bored, indifferent... he wanted to get back to fishing. Abelia always looked angry, but Xujja was starting to know her moods and this one was worse. He reasoned she was wanting to kill the fellow. She really seemed to hate him a little more than most.
Xujja found himself hoping the man didnt say something dangerous that would result in a fight. It seemed like he was friends with Dawn.
It would be sad to have to cut one of Dawns friends. Dont say it...
"...I serve Helm..." The man said more but Xujja wasnt listening. A disappointing answer to the question.
Ix decided to tease the man for being a member of the House Invincible but still needing to root around in caves with mercenaries. It was usually the other way, with the guards hiring on extra swords in times of need. The cult of Helm had been on his neck since he arrived, when Ix was done taunting him for being poor, Xujja added his own opinion to hopefully end the conversation.
"How many wolves you ever see with two packs?"
"I am not a wolf."
Wrong answer again.
The answer was enough to make Tock show his rejection by walking off, forcing Ix to speak up.
"Alright, well lets get out of this cave and maybe find some place with some profit."
Ix parted ways with the man with pleasant words and an offer of drinks, Xujja thought that drinks in a town wasnt a bad idea but he didnt want to risk his life to someone like that. As Ix chatted friendly with the man and said his goodbyes, Xujja joined the rest of the crew in walking off without a goodbye.
How is it that I used to hate downtime and love work... another thing all backwards now.
******************************************************
Kisses goodbye. Xujja had managed to enjoy himself all night curled up with Dawn under the maple trees. He had avoided talking about his work any more, in order to keep their visits pleasant.
The young couple shared a bit of a defiant streak and usually enjoyed their goodbye kisses in front of the guards. Dawn whispered something so soft that Xujja was sure he wasnt meant to hear it. A sharpness of ear that she didnt expect caught the whisper anyway.
"I love you"
She had slipped his grasp and taken a few steps into the city, where he could not follow, by the time he had the focus to respond.
__________________________________________________________
Thanks again to everyone reading.
J
He could just watch as the top of her golden hair blended into the crowd inside the city gates till she was gone.
She had whispered it so softly that she surely must not have expected him to hear it.
*********************************************************
With a sliced foot and unhappy grumble the tiefling slumped down to sit against the boulders outside High Hold. Leaving his Dawn in the city to tend her temple, and then stepping in a trap meant for some wagon hadnt made for a pleasing day. He was getting sober as well, worse still the only thing in his satchel to cure his sobriety was cheap ale.
Xujja uncorked one of those cheap ales, bottled in the tiny village of Rivermoot, and started drinking.
He, Abelia, and Tock all awaited the arrival of their friend Ixazix. Normally Xujja was content to drink himself numb in silence with his crew around. They really didnt talk to one another all to often, save to discuss work on the rare occasion. Tock and Xujja often spoke of fishing, but today Xujja just felt like drinking in silence. It seemed like he would get what he wated.
Maybe not. There was Ryu. As much as Xujja tried to lose focus on the scenery and drift into his drink, or into a deep self indulgent thought of Dawn... Ryu would talk.
Damnit... he knows I dont make these descisons. Why wont he leave me alone?
To make things worse the man was standing there in bright red robes.
********************************************************
It was nice to finally get to sit down with Dawn. She clung to him tight as young lovers do when separated for a few days. He did his best to enjoy in silence, fearing she would ask him how his days had gone.
*********************************************************
Ryu was asking to spar again. He remembered seeing this man two times, and hearing him ask to spar three times. Xujja was trying hard not to pay attention as Abelia turned him down with a scornful snarl.
Just shut the hells up and let me drink.
"How about if you can hit me ill give you ten gold.. if I can knock you down you give me 10 gold."
Xujja saw the guards. He was also pretty sure If an accident happened, the guy with the horns would get the blame. Besides, play fighting wasnt really any help for the real thing. There werent any shamans or backstabbers when people played at fighting.
"That, aint happening" The tiefling responded.
The man in red robes insisted that he was only trying to prove his worth, or somesuch nonsense that had nothing to do with Xujja getting drunk. The man reminded Xujja of a puppy eager to please. He wondered if he had been that pathetic when he had arrived, that urge for acceptance.
And he was wearing a red robe.
********************************************************
There was another time when he started to complain about her friend that had asked to run with his crew. Complaining came to him easily, but he didnt want to waste time doing that now. Dawn would no doubt have to go back to her temple duties soon.
She seemed willing to let him sit a bit longer in silence.
*********************************************************
"Well mate.. I told you already I dont make the descisions.. but when he gets here... Ill tell him I dont approve of you... an especially them robes."
"And if he dont, I will" Abelia added to Xujjas commment.
The stranger offered to go rooting around in the caves without a shirt at all.
This drink would taste a lot better if he would just shut up.
*******************************************************
A few merchants wagons had rolled past in the last few hours. Still the couple had sat under the same maples, talking only occasionally.
"What about you?" The pretty blond girl asked.
"Just workin. Looking for loot when everyones around."
"Well, hows that been going?"
"Disappointing"
*******************************************************
Sometimes you get let down even if you lower your expectations.
The man had asked Ix for a chance to prove himself to his crew of mercenaries. The 'interview' hadnt gone well. When told to lure an enemy, he charged them. Even worse was that he led them to a cave with danger and no loot.
The man had, overeager, gotten up on some foul groaning undead thing and it had taken a good bite out of the man before going down.
If this man had been part of their crew regularly... he would have been sucking up healing resources and rushing when told to lure. Xujja was running out of patience for the stranger, and the cave.
"Lets go find some living victims. Some creatures that collect gold like us."
He was just about to leave when Ix called out to him.
"Xujja... just a moment."
*********************************************************
"Xujja? What are all these little scars on the backs of your hands from?"
"Just the place where my mother would nail my hands to the table, or sometimes the porch."
He thought she was just as pretty when she was horrified as she was when she was happy. Maybe more.
********************************************************
Xujja realized there might be trouble when he heard Ix asking the question of the strange man in unlucky robes. It was a question they asked everyone that wanted to work as part of the crew.
"So.. what god exactly do you pray to?"
It was dark in the cave, but Xujja had grown up in the dark. He could see everyones reaction. Tock was bored, indifferent... he wanted to get back to fishing. Abelia always looked angry, but Xujja was starting to know her moods and this one was worse. He reasoned she was wanting to kill the fellow. She really seemed to hate him a little more than most.
Xujja found himself hoping the man didnt say something dangerous that would result in a fight. It seemed like he was friends with Dawn.
It would be sad to have to cut one of Dawns friends. Dont say it...
"...I serve Helm..." The man said more but Xujja wasnt listening. A disappointing answer to the question.
Ix decided to tease the man for being a member of the House Invincible but still needing to root around in caves with mercenaries. It was usually the other way, with the guards hiring on extra swords in times of need. The cult of Helm had been on his neck since he arrived, when Ix was done taunting him for being poor, Xujja added his own opinion to hopefully end the conversation.
"How many wolves you ever see with two packs?"
"I am not a wolf."
Wrong answer again.
The answer was enough to make Tock show his rejection by walking off, forcing Ix to speak up.
"Alright, well lets get out of this cave and maybe find some place with some profit."
Ix parted ways with the man with pleasant words and an offer of drinks, Xujja thought that drinks in a town wasnt a bad idea but he didnt want to risk his life to someone like that. As Ix chatted friendly with the man and said his goodbyes, Xujja joined the rest of the crew in walking off without a goodbye.
How is it that I used to hate downtime and love work... another thing all backwards now.
******************************************************
Kisses goodbye. Xujja had managed to enjoy himself all night curled up with Dawn under the maple trees. He had avoided talking about his work any more, in order to keep their visits pleasant.
The young couple shared a bit of a defiant streak and usually enjoyed their goodbye kisses in front of the guards. Dawn whispered something so soft that Xujja was sure he wasnt meant to hear it. A sharpness of ear that she didnt expect caught the whisper anyway.
"I love you"
She had slipped his grasp and taken a few steps into the city, where he could not follow, by the time he had the focus to respond.
__________________________________________________________
Thanks again to everyone reading.
J
Last edited by mr duncan on Sat Dec 20, 2008 12:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
A pretty girl with hair the color of honey and gold stood outside the cities white walls. She had been there a while now, with dozens of wagons passing her by on their way into the city.
Her beauty earned her more than one call from passersby, and more than one wave from farmers sons on their way to market. The girl for her part tried to smile back at everyone, but she was mostly busy scanning the roads for lone walkers.
*******************************************************
"Nice wargear" Xujja said as he looked over the pale girl in her dark suit.
Abelia let the compliment slide. Normally she would have been ready with a snide comment but maybe she knew the suit looked good? She certainly didnt seem the type to try to look attractive, but she was in shape and the suit made it show.
Xujja realised while he watched her get ready that he probably would never have noticed how she looked if it werent for Dawn. Xujja had always thought of Abelia as just another cutthroat like himself, partly because he had always harbored a bit of fear of females. Since his first kiss with Dawn he had lost the fear of looking girls in the face. Abelias new outfit reminded him she was not just a cutter, but also a cute lass.
Someone else noticed, a pair of sellswords walked by.
"Nice armor"
******************************************************
Whoever the girl was waiting for was late. Wagons had stopped rolling past yet still she watched the roads with worried and eager blue eyes.
*******************************************************
Ix was like most artists, a master of timing. Just as Abelia bent to pick up the last of her gear he was there to peer at her.
"Nice... armor" He smirked.
This time Abelia grumbled. She probably hadnt expected that much attention in such a short amount of space. Still she didnt lash out at her companions, just snorted out her disapproval in a huff.
The three made their way up into the hills outside Rivermoot, in search of plunder and loot. Ix said it smelled like a good day for loot.
*******************************************************
The girl was more than a bit worried now. Thats why she didnt notice the stranger in the dark, walking a bit behind as if to pass her, as he came closer.
She didnt hear the leathery creak of a gloved fist opening and closing.
It was too late for her.
*******************************************************
Orcs. Greenskins. They were a dangerous foe, but murdering a band of greenskins was always a lot of loot.
Almost a dozen lay dead between them and the exit, the band of three had made as much money tonight as they had in the last two weeks.
Now they lurked outside the chieftains cave, he was holed up with his last handful of boys. Both groups whispered back and forth, making their plans.
It was terribly tense, Xujja was getting hungry.
*******************************************************
The girl should have gone in when the sun set, now she was in the clutches of someone much stronger than her. One of her arms was immobilized behind her, just as she went to scream for help a hand on her neck slowed the scream to a whisper.
Her foot kicked down, but she was stomping on a metal plated boot.
*******************************************************
The giant orc fell with such force that his vital fluids spewed upward away from the impact. None of the three had been seriously hurt in the short but furious melee. The brute looked a terrible mess, carved up in such severe ways it made the meat slurp and slither off the bones as it lay there.
"That... was bloody masterful" Abelia said.
It was Xujjas turn to loot the fallen, but even as greedy for the chiefs loot as he was, he still had to stop and marvel for a moment that Abelia had said anything nice at all.
It was like kisses from Waukeen. Three times he had gone to loot one of their fallen victims, and three times he had found a little gem.
Purple, eh? Wonder if this is quartz? I bet that old fella will be surprised to see three rocks at once.
******************************************************
Rough hands took control of the girl, pulling her back a few steps out of view of the road. The man gave the poor girl a rough shake to break her tension and will, he knew how to handle victims.
Still the girl tried to use her feet to run free even as she was clasped tighter in her captors grasp.
*******************************************************
Outside the cave Xujja could see that it was late, there had been many more foes out tonight than usual. Dawn would be missing him if he didnt start soon. Ix spoke, appealing to his greed.
"You know those caves up close to town probably have some good plunder and loot...?"
Xujja reasoned that he had done well enough so far, and he was late in setting off to see Dawn.
"Nay, Im done workin for a bit"
Even Abelias sour mood was sated on the loot in her packs, and the three of them made their way out of the hills and back towards Rivermoot.
*******************************************************
Less than thirsty seconds into the ordeal and the man could feel her muscles twitch in surrender, she might keep fighting but she would lose the fight.
Xujja let slip his grip under her chin and let his hand cup her breast as he let her go with a mild shove.
Dawn had made a habit of showing him a fascination with his darker side. Unsure if he liked it, or even if she understood the nature of sheep and wolves, he had decided to test it.
At least it was fun.
Dawn turned around angry, but couldnt stay that way when she heard Xujja laughing. Changing her reaction in the blink of an eye, she threw herself at him with a hug and a kiss.
That was even more fun.
_________________________________________________________
Thanks again to everyone reading.
J
Her beauty earned her more than one call from passersby, and more than one wave from farmers sons on their way to market. The girl for her part tried to smile back at everyone, but she was mostly busy scanning the roads for lone walkers.
*******************************************************
"Nice wargear" Xujja said as he looked over the pale girl in her dark suit.
Abelia let the compliment slide. Normally she would have been ready with a snide comment but maybe she knew the suit looked good? She certainly didnt seem the type to try to look attractive, but she was in shape and the suit made it show.
Xujja realised while he watched her get ready that he probably would never have noticed how she looked if it werent for Dawn. Xujja had always thought of Abelia as just another cutthroat like himself, partly because he had always harbored a bit of fear of females. Since his first kiss with Dawn he had lost the fear of looking girls in the face. Abelias new outfit reminded him she was not just a cutter, but also a cute lass.
Someone else noticed, a pair of sellswords walked by.
"Nice armor"
******************************************************
Whoever the girl was waiting for was late. Wagons had stopped rolling past yet still she watched the roads with worried and eager blue eyes.
*******************************************************
Ix was like most artists, a master of timing. Just as Abelia bent to pick up the last of her gear he was there to peer at her.
"Nice... armor" He smirked.
This time Abelia grumbled. She probably hadnt expected that much attention in such a short amount of space. Still she didnt lash out at her companions, just snorted out her disapproval in a huff.
The three made their way up into the hills outside Rivermoot, in search of plunder and loot. Ix said it smelled like a good day for loot.
*******************************************************
The girl was more than a bit worried now. Thats why she didnt notice the stranger in the dark, walking a bit behind as if to pass her, as he came closer.
She didnt hear the leathery creak of a gloved fist opening and closing.
It was too late for her.
*******************************************************
Orcs. Greenskins. They were a dangerous foe, but murdering a band of greenskins was always a lot of loot.
Almost a dozen lay dead between them and the exit, the band of three had made as much money tonight as they had in the last two weeks.
Now they lurked outside the chieftains cave, he was holed up with his last handful of boys. Both groups whispered back and forth, making their plans.
It was terribly tense, Xujja was getting hungry.
*******************************************************
The girl should have gone in when the sun set, now she was in the clutches of someone much stronger than her. One of her arms was immobilized behind her, just as she went to scream for help a hand on her neck slowed the scream to a whisper.
Her foot kicked down, but she was stomping on a metal plated boot.
*******************************************************
The giant orc fell with such force that his vital fluids spewed upward away from the impact. None of the three had been seriously hurt in the short but furious melee. The brute looked a terrible mess, carved up in such severe ways it made the meat slurp and slither off the bones as it lay there.
"That... was bloody masterful" Abelia said.
It was Xujjas turn to loot the fallen, but even as greedy for the chiefs loot as he was, he still had to stop and marvel for a moment that Abelia had said anything nice at all.
It was like kisses from Waukeen. Three times he had gone to loot one of their fallen victims, and three times he had found a little gem.
Purple, eh? Wonder if this is quartz? I bet that old fella will be surprised to see three rocks at once.
******************************************************
Rough hands took control of the girl, pulling her back a few steps out of view of the road. The man gave the poor girl a rough shake to break her tension and will, he knew how to handle victims.
Still the girl tried to use her feet to run free even as she was clasped tighter in her captors grasp.
*******************************************************
Outside the cave Xujja could see that it was late, there had been many more foes out tonight than usual. Dawn would be missing him if he didnt start soon. Ix spoke, appealing to his greed.
"You know those caves up close to town probably have some good plunder and loot...?"
Xujja reasoned that he had done well enough so far, and he was late in setting off to see Dawn.
"Nay, Im done workin for a bit"
Even Abelias sour mood was sated on the loot in her packs, and the three of them made their way out of the hills and back towards Rivermoot.
*******************************************************
Less than thirsty seconds into the ordeal and the man could feel her muscles twitch in surrender, she might keep fighting but she would lose the fight.
Xujja let slip his grip under her chin and let his hand cup her breast as he let her go with a mild shove.
Dawn had made a habit of showing him a fascination with his darker side. Unsure if he liked it, or even if she understood the nature of sheep and wolves, he had decided to test it.
At least it was fun.
Dawn turned around angry, but couldnt stay that way when she heard Xujja laughing. Changing her reaction in the blink of an eye, she threw herself at him with a hug and a kiss.
That was even more fun.
_________________________________________________________
Thanks again to everyone reading.
J
A silvered gauntlet was emblazoned on the snowy-haired girls forehead, much as the snowflake of Auril sat over his own brow. He would have thought her pretty, and in fact had initially taken her hair as a sign of good luck... but she was marked by the hand.
Nothing that came from any of the lords of the hand was ever any good. Tricky gods that ruled part of the cosmos without offering anything back other than to push their agenda. Pushy hands, pushy cults with hands for their symbols.
The girls arrogance would make the sharpest of nobles green with envy as she tossed her hand into a dismissive gesture while addressing Xujja.
"Didnt I tell you not to come around me?" She snarled. Xujja wondered how many hundreds of butlers, maids, and serfs she had dismissed in the same way. The escaped slave seeking acceptance would have buckled to a pretty girl being mean... but Xujja had kissed Dawn, and didnt recoil like a shy bumpkin.
Say two things back to the bitch for every one she says
"An I thought I told /you/ to choke on a sharp pole somewhere?" Was the tieflings reply.
Oh damn, that was only one thing... gotta add somethin.
"Slackjaw"
He didnt hear the white-haired shrew respond. He was to busy being pleased that she was so easily roused to anger to actually appreciate the angry words themselves.
Torm, the hand of arrogant nobles. City-creatures that live in a dung heap and are proud that they live at the top of the pile. Torm
********************************************************
"How does your Goddess like to be addressed?" Dawn asked him as she looked out across the frozen plain. It had taken Xujja a while to figure it out, but she was making it obvious she had intent to offer prayers in a formal fashion to Auril.
It made him uneasy. Not that he didnt want this to come from her, but that a small part of him dreaded what had to happen to her. She was entirely to sheltered, she felt to safe. Flippant. She had never faced such a thing as the White Queen, and if she did it in such a disrespectful manner... she could curse herself, both of them.
"Your Majesty, White Queen, North Maiden, Great Beauty... all those are pleasing names to her ears" Was the tieflings response.
*******************************************************
The wooden bridge echoed loudly the armored mans angry stomping feet. It was Ogdenstorm, he was yelling at the top of his lungs. Normally It was Rathalan screaming, he must have had the day off.
"AND STAY AWAKE, BY HELM, OR ILL USE YOUR ASSES FOR KICKING PRACTICE!"
Lemuel slammed the gates closed with such a force as to actually shake the stone support arch a bit. The sudden slam made one of the less attentive guards drop her pike.
Helm, the hand of willing slaves. Quick to threaten either with lashing or hanging. Lick the boots of the nobles, guard them like dogs... and get the shiny armor and blue cloaks. Helm
*********************************************************
The girl peering around the post at him was very pretty. Again Xujja thought of Dawns effects on him as normally he would have been intimidated by such a beauty. Now however, he looked on at the girl with hair so black it was a little bit blue.
She wanted to sit with him, had never seen a tiefling before. Xujja had known people like this before. He called them 'curious shamans'. It was a better reaction than fear and growling, and the girl was pretty.
"I cant say Ill have answers to your questions, but sure lass... you can sit with me."
The girl offered him a friendly smile like Dawn, and even spoke a little like her too. Both soft were southlanders, probably lived their whole lives indoors. The similarities stopped there though. Dawn was lithe, almost frail.. and this girl had a tight muscular build like a big cat. She was dark of hair too, and somehow felt almost predatory as she settled onto the grass to him closer than he had expected.
*******************************************************
Midwinters night, in the Spine of the World. The little boy had been talking to his mother for longer than he had ever been able to without being beaten.
He and his mother had sat side by side on their wooden porch as it and they collected a light layer of snow. Neither shivered from the cold. It was his mother who spoke after the noises of the feasting wolves dissipated.
"Alright now... yer mothers old and is goin to bed, but you son get to stay out all night."
Xujja was excited at the prospects of being awake all night. He had never had a whole night of freedom before. He wasnt going to get one now.
"Xujja... hop off into the snow, turn around and put your hands on the porch."
The little gray boy did as his mother bid, holding still while she readied a hammer and two nails.
"Alright son... you done good so far. Now Ill leave you out here in sacrifice to Auril. If you dont freeze to death, or if a holy wolf dont come eat you.... then youll live to go fishing."
Xujja was used to it by now. He didnt even cry, just watched the first nail get hammered through his hand and into the porch.
"When I wake, Ill come look to see if you is alive, boy."
The second hand hurt more as it took the nail, he winced in pain. His mother slapped him hard.
"The Queens watchin tonight. Dont embarrass yerself."
*******************************************************
Xujja woke up to another boring day of hauling water buckets and carrying saws for the adult slaves. He had only been a slave for a few weeks now, but had already learned to wake up early with the goblins and go picking for grubs. Without grubs, the little slaves wouldnt get to eat at all.
This morning he woke up to see the human he was chained to had died of exposure during the night.
As he scurried to find grubs, crickets, and spiders to eat the guards chopped off the foot from the body and took the two parts away. Xujja didnt think it was right to eat someone that had been claimed by Auril. He watched in anger as he chewed on a mole-cricket.
Searing pain raced through his shoulder and back. It was the whipmaster. The grizzled old orc hadnt liked the way the boy was staring at the guards. The little tiefling was to defiant.
It was ten lashes for showing a defiant face, it was twenty more because the young barbarian had laughed at the first ten.
Bane... the god of slavery. The most honest of the hands. Subjugate all those weaker than you, weaken all those stronger than you. The hand is even made into a fist. Bane.
**********************************************************
Xujja led her into the white snows hand-in-hand, stopping when the wind was strong enough on them to kick up their hair. He turned to her. Her smile was full of love and perfect trust even at this dark cold hour.
He would have to fix that.
At first he turned her to him as if to kiss as they usually did... only now he seized her roughly, like the victim she was. His fingers snapped over the buckles of her armor and tore free her chain shirt. Worry lept to the pretty girls face.
"What are you doing" She said as she had her first shiver. It could have been a shiver from the cold on her exposed breasts, or it could have been a shiver of fear. It didnt matter to Xujja, the two were the same.
She wanted enlightenment, she wanted truth.
*********************************************************
The pretty girl with lucky hair was looking for work, money to get home. Plenty of people had been asking about his mercenary band since coming to the Marches, but most of them were bumbling farmers sons or came bearing omens of terrible luck.
"Well I do run with a crew of cutters wot makes a decent living. How can you earn your keep like that?"
"I am a priestess of Umberlee" The dark haired beauty said in a rather flat tone.
She revealed a necklace from under her clothes, showing him the double wave seal of the Queen of the deep.
The Holy Sister of the White Queen. This girl IS lucky.
All the girls compliments and flirtations seemed to make perfect sense to the northman now. She had sought him out and spoke such words at him because their faiths were so closely linked.
As quickly as he had rejected Ryu for showing up in a red robe, so too did he decide that this holy speaker of Umberlee should meet Ix and be shown respectful assistance.
Someone who wielded the magical might of one of the two sisters, his own Queens sister. He felt immediately protective of this pretty stranger.
*********************************************************
Such a pretty girl, my Dawn... and so much prettier when crying or whimpering.
It was like looking at a struggling goddess, such a perfect pale body that now sprouted little bumps from the cold. She was shivering more fiercely now as she spoke.
"Th-thi-this is-is-s-s not how-w-w-w I wanted to" She gasped... it was getting hard for her to finish her sentences with chattering teeth. Still, she stammered on as Xujja tore off her clothes.
"N-n-not how I wanted to do Th-th-th-iss!" She cried. She still had a scarf and one boot on... Xujja decided she looked like a perfect victim with just a tiny bit of clothes left on so he stopped there.
Real fear in her eyes now, finally. He shoved his lover to her knees in the snow. She bent to kneel with the fearful resignation of a man going to his own beheading. But this was no sick city-peoples justice, this was Holy.
He knelt with her to pray.
*******************************************************
"You dont want me to make friends between you and Dimetree?" Dawn asked, a bit suprised that her lover had told her not to bother.
"He can choke on a bone"
Dawn looked hurt, Dimetree afterall had been one of the people who stopped to help her on the day she had her life threatened.
"When I met him he was all sorts of imperious, high and righteous."
Dawn was still silent, she probably knew this about the man already.
"Walkin up on me with two other cutters... wantin to stuff garlic in my face an act all big for his boys."
Dawn still didnt say anything as Xujja kept talking.
"Then I come to find out... his god... is just some mortal propped up in place to serve /ALL/ the other gods... even sick twisted ones.... even my own."
Still the tiefling went on.
"A servant of a servant, a clerk pushing a quill for another clerk with a quill... and he has the gall to talk down to ME? a free man? He can rot in a hole. Dont even mention my name to slackjaws like him."
********************************************************
"Revered White Queen" they both said in unison as they knelt in the snows. Dawn had tried to leash her shivering, Xujja decided to lead her into the prayer.
"White Queen of the snows, We beg that you not devour us in your endless hunger. We thank you for the stark beauty of your snows, and ask that your fell hand pass over and beyond us that we might live to speak of your glories."
"Thank you for this breath and the beautiful skin it blows over. Do not let your breath or bite take us." Dawn added.
Xujja chanted the holy name three times before returning his gaze to the naked girl with him in the snow.
********************************************************
"My name is Umraely, and yes I am from Baldurs Gate" The southland girl leaned close to get a good look at the horns growing from his head as she kept talking.
"and you handsome? Will I get an introduction from you?"
"I am Xujja, of White-Pines"
********************************************************
Still kneeling in the snow, Dawn faced Xujja. A gray hand caressed her bare shoulder. He had seen plenty of people lose their lives to cold, and he could see the beginnings of the end for his lady love. She might have half an hour before real damage set in. He still couldnt resist taking a moment to caress her naked thigh, such a perfect thing of beauty.
"Did that scare you, my Dawn?"
Shaken and awestruck, she didnt answer.
"You wont last long exposed like this, speak to me while you are still in this holy state" That request forced words from her. His platemail was as icy cold as the snow itself, yet she still clung tight to him as she shivered.
"What do you want to know, Xujja?"
"Did you hear her? Were you scared"
Her answer was close to what he expected, even as it pleased him to know she had face the queen the right way... he realized it may sometimes hurt him to be the agent of Auril.
"I heard the wind... but I feared... you"
Xujja nodded as he helped the dazed girl back into her clothes. Auril taught fear of the cold. Blizzards, avalanches, and snow-madess were all curses of Auril... but her fear came in other forms too. Winter wolves, the great pale bear and the fanged white Yeti were her tools of fear and harshness as well.
Today he had done a holy thing. He had joined their ranks, as a Winter wolf, or a pale bear. He had been the hand of Auril that had caused Dawn to shiver. He had tossed his own lover to the cold, and gotten her back.
The two kissed when she was clothed again, they hung tight to one another as if reunited after a long trip apart. They whispered sweet words to one another as any couple would, but made all the sweeter by their shared experience in faith.
Something she said made him lose focus a moment, she was saying how lucky she felt to have him.
No... you arent lucky because you found me. But you ARE lucky there wasnt a wooden porch anywhere nearby tonight.
_________________________________________________________
Thanks again to everyone reading.
J
Nothing that came from any of the lords of the hand was ever any good. Tricky gods that ruled part of the cosmos without offering anything back other than to push their agenda. Pushy hands, pushy cults with hands for their symbols.
The girls arrogance would make the sharpest of nobles green with envy as she tossed her hand into a dismissive gesture while addressing Xujja.
"Didnt I tell you not to come around me?" She snarled. Xujja wondered how many hundreds of butlers, maids, and serfs she had dismissed in the same way. The escaped slave seeking acceptance would have buckled to a pretty girl being mean... but Xujja had kissed Dawn, and didnt recoil like a shy bumpkin.
Say two things back to the bitch for every one she says
"An I thought I told /you/ to choke on a sharp pole somewhere?" Was the tieflings reply.
Oh damn, that was only one thing... gotta add somethin.
"Slackjaw"
He didnt hear the white-haired shrew respond. He was to busy being pleased that she was so easily roused to anger to actually appreciate the angry words themselves.
Torm, the hand of arrogant nobles. City-creatures that live in a dung heap and are proud that they live at the top of the pile. Torm
********************************************************
"How does your Goddess like to be addressed?" Dawn asked him as she looked out across the frozen plain. It had taken Xujja a while to figure it out, but she was making it obvious she had intent to offer prayers in a formal fashion to Auril.
It made him uneasy. Not that he didnt want this to come from her, but that a small part of him dreaded what had to happen to her. She was entirely to sheltered, she felt to safe. Flippant. She had never faced such a thing as the White Queen, and if she did it in such a disrespectful manner... she could curse herself, both of them.
"Your Majesty, White Queen, North Maiden, Great Beauty... all those are pleasing names to her ears" Was the tieflings response.
*******************************************************
The wooden bridge echoed loudly the armored mans angry stomping feet. It was Ogdenstorm, he was yelling at the top of his lungs. Normally It was Rathalan screaming, he must have had the day off.
"AND STAY AWAKE, BY HELM, OR ILL USE YOUR ASSES FOR KICKING PRACTICE!"
Lemuel slammed the gates closed with such a force as to actually shake the stone support arch a bit. The sudden slam made one of the less attentive guards drop her pike.
Helm, the hand of willing slaves. Quick to threaten either with lashing or hanging. Lick the boots of the nobles, guard them like dogs... and get the shiny armor and blue cloaks. Helm
*********************************************************
The girl peering around the post at him was very pretty. Again Xujja thought of Dawns effects on him as normally he would have been intimidated by such a beauty. Now however, he looked on at the girl with hair so black it was a little bit blue.
She wanted to sit with him, had never seen a tiefling before. Xujja had known people like this before. He called them 'curious shamans'. It was a better reaction than fear and growling, and the girl was pretty.
"I cant say Ill have answers to your questions, but sure lass... you can sit with me."
The girl offered him a friendly smile like Dawn, and even spoke a little like her too. Both soft were southlanders, probably lived their whole lives indoors. The similarities stopped there though. Dawn was lithe, almost frail.. and this girl had a tight muscular build like a big cat. She was dark of hair too, and somehow felt almost predatory as she settled onto the grass to him closer than he had expected.
*******************************************************
Midwinters night, in the Spine of the World. The little boy had been talking to his mother for longer than he had ever been able to without being beaten.
He and his mother had sat side by side on their wooden porch as it and they collected a light layer of snow. Neither shivered from the cold. It was his mother who spoke after the noises of the feasting wolves dissipated.
"Alright now... yer mothers old and is goin to bed, but you son get to stay out all night."
Xujja was excited at the prospects of being awake all night. He had never had a whole night of freedom before. He wasnt going to get one now.
"Xujja... hop off into the snow, turn around and put your hands on the porch."
The little gray boy did as his mother bid, holding still while she readied a hammer and two nails.
"Alright son... you done good so far. Now Ill leave you out here in sacrifice to Auril. If you dont freeze to death, or if a holy wolf dont come eat you.... then youll live to go fishing."
Xujja was used to it by now. He didnt even cry, just watched the first nail get hammered through his hand and into the porch.
"When I wake, Ill come look to see if you is alive, boy."
The second hand hurt more as it took the nail, he winced in pain. His mother slapped him hard.
"The Queens watchin tonight. Dont embarrass yerself."
*******************************************************
Xujja woke up to another boring day of hauling water buckets and carrying saws for the adult slaves. He had only been a slave for a few weeks now, but had already learned to wake up early with the goblins and go picking for grubs. Without grubs, the little slaves wouldnt get to eat at all.
This morning he woke up to see the human he was chained to had died of exposure during the night.
As he scurried to find grubs, crickets, and spiders to eat the guards chopped off the foot from the body and took the two parts away. Xujja didnt think it was right to eat someone that had been claimed by Auril. He watched in anger as he chewed on a mole-cricket.
Searing pain raced through his shoulder and back. It was the whipmaster. The grizzled old orc hadnt liked the way the boy was staring at the guards. The little tiefling was to defiant.
It was ten lashes for showing a defiant face, it was twenty more because the young barbarian had laughed at the first ten.
Bane... the god of slavery. The most honest of the hands. Subjugate all those weaker than you, weaken all those stronger than you. The hand is even made into a fist. Bane.
**********************************************************
Xujja led her into the white snows hand-in-hand, stopping when the wind was strong enough on them to kick up their hair. He turned to her. Her smile was full of love and perfect trust even at this dark cold hour.
He would have to fix that.
At first he turned her to him as if to kiss as they usually did... only now he seized her roughly, like the victim she was. His fingers snapped over the buckles of her armor and tore free her chain shirt. Worry lept to the pretty girls face.
"What are you doing" She said as she had her first shiver. It could have been a shiver from the cold on her exposed breasts, or it could have been a shiver of fear. It didnt matter to Xujja, the two were the same.
She wanted enlightenment, she wanted truth.
*********************************************************
The pretty girl with lucky hair was looking for work, money to get home. Plenty of people had been asking about his mercenary band since coming to the Marches, but most of them were bumbling farmers sons or came bearing omens of terrible luck.
"Well I do run with a crew of cutters wot makes a decent living. How can you earn your keep like that?"
"I am a priestess of Umberlee" The dark haired beauty said in a rather flat tone.
She revealed a necklace from under her clothes, showing him the double wave seal of the Queen of the deep.
The Holy Sister of the White Queen. This girl IS lucky.
All the girls compliments and flirtations seemed to make perfect sense to the northman now. She had sought him out and spoke such words at him because their faiths were so closely linked.
As quickly as he had rejected Ryu for showing up in a red robe, so too did he decide that this holy speaker of Umberlee should meet Ix and be shown respectful assistance.
Someone who wielded the magical might of one of the two sisters, his own Queens sister. He felt immediately protective of this pretty stranger.
*********************************************************
Such a pretty girl, my Dawn... and so much prettier when crying or whimpering.
It was like looking at a struggling goddess, such a perfect pale body that now sprouted little bumps from the cold. She was shivering more fiercely now as she spoke.
"Th-thi-this is-is-s-s not how-w-w-w I wanted to" She gasped... it was getting hard for her to finish her sentences with chattering teeth. Still, she stammered on as Xujja tore off her clothes.
"N-n-not how I wanted to do Th-th-th-iss!" She cried. She still had a scarf and one boot on... Xujja decided she looked like a perfect victim with just a tiny bit of clothes left on so he stopped there.
Real fear in her eyes now, finally. He shoved his lover to her knees in the snow. She bent to kneel with the fearful resignation of a man going to his own beheading. But this was no sick city-peoples justice, this was Holy.
He knelt with her to pray.
*******************************************************
"You dont want me to make friends between you and Dimetree?" Dawn asked, a bit suprised that her lover had told her not to bother.
"He can choke on a bone"
Dawn looked hurt, Dimetree afterall had been one of the people who stopped to help her on the day she had her life threatened.
"When I met him he was all sorts of imperious, high and righteous."
Dawn was still silent, she probably knew this about the man already.
"Walkin up on me with two other cutters... wantin to stuff garlic in my face an act all big for his boys."
Dawn still didnt say anything as Xujja kept talking.
"Then I come to find out... his god... is just some mortal propped up in place to serve /ALL/ the other gods... even sick twisted ones.... even my own."
Still the tiefling went on.
"A servant of a servant, a clerk pushing a quill for another clerk with a quill... and he has the gall to talk down to ME? a free man? He can rot in a hole. Dont even mention my name to slackjaws like him."
********************************************************
"Revered White Queen" they both said in unison as they knelt in the snows. Dawn had tried to leash her shivering, Xujja decided to lead her into the prayer.
"White Queen of the snows, We beg that you not devour us in your endless hunger. We thank you for the stark beauty of your snows, and ask that your fell hand pass over and beyond us that we might live to speak of your glories."
"Thank you for this breath and the beautiful skin it blows over. Do not let your breath or bite take us." Dawn added.
Xujja chanted the holy name three times before returning his gaze to the naked girl with him in the snow.
********************************************************
"My name is Umraely, and yes I am from Baldurs Gate" The southland girl leaned close to get a good look at the horns growing from his head as she kept talking.
"and you handsome? Will I get an introduction from you?"
"I am Xujja, of White-Pines"
********************************************************
Still kneeling in the snow, Dawn faced Xujja. A gray hand caressed her bare shoulder. He had seen plenty of people lose their lives to cold, and he could see the beginnings of the end for his lady love. She might have half an hour before real damage set in. He still couldnt resist taking a moment to caress her naked thigh, such a perfect thing of beauty.
"Did that scare you, my Dawn?"
Shaken and awestruck, she didnt answer.
"You wont last long exposed like this, speak to me while you are still in this holy state" That request forced words from her. His platemail was as icy cold as the snow itself, yet she still clung tight to him as she shivered.
"What do you want to know, Xujja?"
"Did you hear her? Were you scared"
Her answer was close to what he expected, even as it pleased him to know she had face the queen the right way... he realized it may sometimes hurt him to be the agent of Auril.
"I heard the wind... but I feared... you"
Xujja nodded as he helped the dazed girl back into her clothes. Auril taught fear of the cold. Blizzards, avalanches, and snow-madess were all curses of Auril... but her fear came in other forms too. Winter wolves, the great pale bear and the fanged white Yeti were her tools of fear and harshness as well.
Today he had done a holy thing. He had joined their ranks, as a Winter wolf, or a pale bear. He had been the hand of Auril that had caused Dawn to shiver. He had tossed his own lover to the cold, and gotten her back.
The two kissed when she was clothed again, they hung tight to one another as if reunited after a long trip apart. They whispered sweet words to one another as any couple would, but made all the sweeter by their shared experience in faith.
Something she said made him lose focus a moment, she was saying how lucky she felt to have him.
No... you arent lucky because you found me. But you ARE lucky there wasnt a wooden porch anywhere nearby tonight.
_________________________________________________________
Thanks again to everyone reading.
J
"You are a liar" Dawn said to him. Hearing her say that was enough for him. Dawns convictions had been shown to be temporary things, as temporary as his own.
"I came out here with some stupid notion to fix things... but If that is your feelings, Im ready for you to go. You said with one word I could send you away."
"If thats what you want"
"Go"
Dawn wasted no time in turning on her heel and walking away.
**********************************************************
"So where IS your little kitten of a lover tonight?" The dark haired Umraely asked.
"She will be around when she wants."
"What about what you want, Xujja?"
Xujja shrugged. "Attachment breeds weakness, and desire only causes suffering.... should I want something?"
"I think you should want many."
Xujja just shrugged again. He had heard the argument that he should enjoy more than one girl, more than once.
"I know... Ix says I should enjoy dozens of bitches. But I say... eventually Dawn will leave me, and Ill have time for doing that then."
"Is waiting till she finds out what you really are... the right thing?"
"That is a question I ask myself often. Still I am drawn to her, and find myself wanting to enjoy it till she wakes up."
Umraely added "It sounds like you are keeping your true self hidden so you can live a lie."
"Maybe so. Maybe I am just easy to please? Perhaps living in chains for a while makes you that way?"
"Or maybe its just that thick skull" Abelia added as she came walking up to the two.
*********************************************************
Xujjas mind was reeling, he couldnt believe what had just happened. He stared in awe at the priestess who had caused this unlikely chain of events to unfold. Abelia, who had been an unapproachable monster the whole time he had known her, was now curled up against Umraely, nuzzling her neck.
"Thats an awful, complicated, cruel trick...." Xujja nodded. "Praise Umberlee"
"Praise the Queen" Umraely responded.
"Mmm... praise Umberlee." Abelia added.
********************************************************
Dawn always seemed extra pretty when she was upset.
"Im the only one who has ever loved you, Xujja."
She sounds just like my mother.
********************************************************
The terrible old crone leered at her tiny son who sat trembling with his hands nailed to an old rickety table.
"You are an ugly little boy, and no one will ever love you."
********************************************************
It was an amazing sight, one like Xujja had never seen. Such a common idea, that it could happen... yet he had never seen it. Such a simple thing, yet just looking was clouding his mind more than the drink they had been sharing.
Two girls kissing.
They had set aside their philosophical musings and gone on to drinking away some of their hard earned coin. It had started as a joke about making Abelia shut up... but then ended with her melting into the arms of Umraely, priestess of Umberlee.
The priestess had provoked her to drink, and had turned her sour grumblings into lusty groping. Kisses became bites, the two ladies were locked in their passionate embrace no more than an arms length away from him. It was enthralling, he literally couldnt look away.
This is the devil in me.
*******************************************************
A pale girl with hair like the oceans depths sat close to a tiefling, the two of them looked close at a bottle of mushroom wine. Xujja couldnt help but think back to when Dawn had done much the same, teaching him the words on a wine label.
"Your mind is on your kitten again." Umraely said. The tiefling didnt respond, so she added more.
"You doubt there is a way through all this."
"I know there isnt a way."
"But youll let me and Abelia try to explain it to her, and to help open her eyes?"
Faith. Putting it in the gods was one thing, trusting the clerics was much more difficult. Both she and Dawn demanded that he expect success where he only saw doom. Umraely added more as he sat quietly.
"And its not like she wont have to meet Abelia and myself as equals, over drinks, if she is going to be part of your life anyway, no?"
Those were the things he wanted, after all. For Dawn to find a way into the world she so often seemed drawn to, but just as often repulsed by. He wanted less tension with his crew thinking him having poor judgment for being with Dawn. Everything Umraely said made sense.
"I know you will tell her... everything. I disagree that honesty is always best... but you can at least /wait/ till the right time to say something, right?"
Finally the logic found a way to control the tiefling. "Aye. Ill wait."
*******************************************************
Addled by drink and tempting visions, Xujja was not entirely aware that the weight in his lap was Abelia, his first instinct in such a situation was to assume the girl hugging him was Dawn. So he kissed back.
"Whoa... I.. damn." Xujja caught his breath and went on. "I dont think we should do that."
It had taken him a few seconds to realize he was kissing one of his crew, Abelia. Nearby Umraely seemed very amused. Abelia settled back as Xujja pushed on her. It was her first time drinking, so he reasoned it was expected that she would do something unusual.
Her arm, still around him, sank a little as if she was realizing what she had done. It was only a glimmer of that hesitation that showed however. Abelia looked back up at Xujja and kissed him again, as if daring him to stop her a second time.
Mushroom Wine. Ix had given him this bottle as a gift, said it would bend the mind like no other. It was a mix of this drink and the temptations seen that night that shook him awake and made him hungry. It would be a terrible thing that he would have to tell Dawn if he did this.
He wondered if there were pretty girls in hell.
*******************************************************
"You dont know what your name means, friend?" Ix had asked.
"No, I dont... Does this mean /you/ do?"
"Well yes. Your name is a word, or rather a combination of words in the Infernal language."
"Infernal?"
"Yes Infernal, of or from the Hells. The language of Devils as opposed to Abyssal which is the language of Demons."
"Oh... and what does it mean then?"
"Well the word Xujj means having greatness, or being great, large, or deep."
Xujja waited for the rest.
"And Ja, well that means starving, or hungry."
His mother must have seen what was coming for him. It made him sick, it made him laugh.
*********************************************************
Two strangers stood on the grass near the waterfalls outside Rivermoot. The pretty blond girl turned away from the gray faced monster and sped down the road.
The waterfall nearby remembered the two, as did the grass, but the stars had moved on from their equinox places.
*********************************************************
There are pretty girls in hell. Not like Dawn of coarse, but the hells have to have pretty girls like Abelia and Umraely. If not hell, there wont be a place for such girls.
Xujja pressed his lips to Abelias. For months he had known her as a tomboyish warrior and it was only in the last week or so that he, and everyone else, had started to notice that she was in fact a girl. Her drunken impassioned kissing dispelled the last thoughts of her as that grumbling tomboy.
It was a kiss layered with guilt. He knew it was the devil in him, a deep hunger, that made it so easy for him to enjoy both the kiss and the guilt.
*******************************************************
A little boy was locked up in a black hole under the stairs. The boy was very hungry, he wanted to reach down and eat a spider lurking near his foot but his hands hurt to much to grasp at it.
He decided to just sleep the day off. He heard a singing far off, it seemed like he heard that womans voice every time he had bled a lot.
Maybe it was the Queen lurking close, ready to take him, thirsty for his blood?
********************************************************
As they parted their kiss, Xujja bit her lip just a bit... enough to taste her blood.
Umraely seemed very pleased with the kiss. As Abelia parted from him, the priestess pulled her back close to curl up with her. The girls kissed again, Umraely forcing herself roughly on her and Abelia melting into her arms again.
After a few long moments of this they parted, Umraely licked her lips and looked over at the tiefling.
"Mmm Xujja... you /do/ taste good."
********************************************************
"Id argue that you dont know what you like if youve only had one girl" Ix replied.
********************************************************
The Abelia had gone to find a quiet place to sleep off her drink, the reading lesson had come and gone, still Umraely and Xujja sat together in the same place, talking quietly.
"I dont mean to to chastise you... but look what you and Abelia did tonight. Can you say you really know yourself if you didnt know you had that in you?"
Xujja was silent, Umraely patted his knee.
"If you havent fully explored the self... can you really love, or be loved by anyone?"
********************************************************
When he saw Dawn the next day, he felt like he had grown overnight. He was so much older now, and she was still so young and unchanged. As if only one night had passed.
Her smile was warm and loving as usual. His smile showed his sadness. Dawn knew something was amiss right away.
"Whats wrong?"
_________________________________________________________
Thanks again to everyone reading, and everyone contributing.
J
"I came out here with some stupid notion to fix things... but If that is your feelings, Im ready for you to go. You said with one word I could send you away."
"If thats what you want"
"Go"
Dawn wasted no time in turning on her heel and walking away.
**********************************************************
"So where IS your little kitten of a lover tonight?" The dark haired Umraely asked.
"She will be around when she wants."
"What about what you want, Xujja?"
Xujja shrugged. "Attachment breeds weakness, and desire only causes suffering.... should I want something?"
"I think you should want many."
Xujja just shrugged again. He had heard the argument that he should enjoy more than one girl, more than once.
"I know... Ix says I should enjoy dozens of bitches. But I say... eventually Dawn will leave me, and Ill have time for doing that then."
"Is waiting till she finds out what you really are... the right thing?"
"That is a question I ask myself often. Still I am drawn to her, and find myself wanting to enjoy it till she wakes up."
Umraely added "It sounds like you are keeping your true self hidden so you can live a lie."
"Maybe so. Maybe I am just easy to please? Perhaps living in chains for a while makes you that way?"
"Or maybe its just that thick skull" Abelia added as she came walking up to the two.
*********************************************************
Xujjas mind was reeling, he couldnt believe what had just happened. He stared in awe at the priestess who had caused this unlikely chain of events to unfold. Abelia, who had been an unapproachable monster the whole time he had known her, was now curled up against Umraely, nuzzling her neck.
"Thats an awful, complicated, cruel trick...." Xujja nodded. "Praise Umberlee"
"Praise the Queen" Umraely responded.
"Mmm... praise Umberlee." Abelia added.
********************************************************
Dawn always seemed extra pretty when she was upset.
"Im the only one who has ever loved you, Xujja."
She sounds just like my mother.
********************************************************
The terrible old crone leered at her tiny son who sat trembling with his hands nailed to an old rickety table.
"You are an ugly little boy, and no one will ever love you."
********************************************************
It was an amazing sight, one like Xujja had never seen. Such a common idea, that it could happen... yet he had never seen it. Such a simple thing, yet just looking was clouding his mind more than the drink they had been sharing.
Two girls kissing.
They had set aside their philosophical musings and gone on to drinking away some of their hard earned coin. It had started as a joke about making Abelia shut up... but then ended with her melting into the arms of Umraely, priestess of Umberlee.
The priestess had provoked her to drink, and had turned her sour grumblings into lusty groping. Kisses became bites, the two ladies were locked in their passionate embrace no more than an arms length away from him. It was enthralling, he literally couldnt look away.
This is the devil in me.
*******************************************************
A pale girl with hair like the oceans depths sat close to a tiefling, the two of them looked close at a bottle of mushroom wine. Xujja couldnt help but think back to when Dawn had done much the same, teaching him the words on a wine label.
"Your mind is on your kitten again." Umraely said. The tiefling didnt respond, so she added more.
"You doubt there is a way through all this."
"I know there isnt a way."
"But youll let me and Abelia try to explain it to her, and to help open her eyes?"
Faith. Putting it in the gods was one thing, trusting the clerics was much more difficult. Both she and Dawn demanded that he expect success where he only saw doom. Umraely added more as he sat quietly.
"And its not like she wont have to meet Abelia and myself as equals, over drinks, if she is going to be part of your life anyway, no?"
Those were the things he wanted, after all. For Dawn to find a way into the world she so often seemed drawn to, but just as often repulsed by. He wanted less tension with his crew thinking him having poor judgment for being with Dawn. Everything Umraely said made sense.
"I know you will tell her... everything. I disagree that honesty is always best... but you can at least /wait/ till the right time to say something, right?"
Finally the logic found a way to control the tiefling. "Aye. Ill wait."
*******************************************************
Addled by drink and tempting visions, Xujja was not entirely aware that the weight in his lap was Abelia, his first instinct in such a situation was to assume the girl hugging him was Dawn. So he kissed back.
"Whoa... I.. damn." Xujja caught his breath and went on. "I dont think we should do that."
It had taken him a few seconds to realize he was kissing one of his crew, Abelia. Nearby Umraely seemed very amused. Abelia settled back as Xujja pushed on her. It was her first time drinking, so he reasoned it was expected that she would do something unusual.
Her arm, still around him, sank a little as if she was realizing what she had done. It was only a glimmer of that hesitation that showed however. Abelia looked back up at Xujja and kissed him again, as if daring him to stop her a second time.
Mushroom Wine. Ix had given him this bottle as a gift, said it would bend the mind like no other. It was a mix of this drink and the temptations seen that night that shook him awake and made him hungry. It would be a terrible thing that he would have to tell Dawn if he did this.
He wondered if there were pretty girls in hell.
*******************************************************
"You dont know what your name means, friend?" Ix had asked.
"No, I dont... Does this mean /you/ do?"
"Well yes. Your name is a word, or rather a combination of words in the Infernal language."
"Infernal?"
"Yes Infernal, of or from the Hells. The language of Devils as opposed to Abyssal which is the language of Demons."
"Oh... and what does it mean then?"
"Well the word Xujj means having greatness, or being great, large, or deep."
Xujja waited for the rest.
"And Ja, well that means starving, or hungry."
His mother must have seen what was coming for him. It made him sick, it made him laugh.
*********************************************************
Two strangers stood on the grass near the waterfalls outside Rivermoot. The pretty blond girl turned away from the gray faced monster and sped down the road.
The waterfall nearby remembered the two, as did the grass, but the stars had moved on from their equinox places.
*********************************************************
There are pretty girls in hell. Not like Dawn of coarse, but the hells have to have pretty girls like Abelia and Umraely. If not hell, there wont be a place for such girls.
Xujja pressed his lips to Abelias. For months he had known her as a tomboyish warrior and it was only in the last week or so that he, and everyone else, had started to notice that she was in fact a girl. Her drunken impassioned kissing dispelled the last thoughts of her as that grumbling tomboy.
It was a kiss layered with guilt. He knew it was the devil in him, a deep hunger, that made it so easy for him to enjoy both the kiss and the guilt.
*******************************************************
A little boy was locked up in a black hole under the stairs. The boy was very hungry, he wanted to reach down and eat a spider lurking near his foot but his hands hurt to much to grasp at it.
He decided to just sleep the day off. He heard a singing far off, it seemed like he heard that womans voice every time he had bled a lot.
Maybe it was the Queen lurking close, ready to take him, thirsty for his blood?
********************************************************
As they parted their kiss, Xujja bit her lip just a bit... enough to taste her blood.
Umraely seemed very pleased with the kiss. As Abelia parted from him, the priestess pulled her back close to curl up with her. The girls kissed again, Umraely forcing herself roughly on her and Abelia melting into her arms again.
After a few long moments of this they parted, Umraely licked her lips and looked over at the tiefling.
"Mmm Xujja... you /do/ taste good."
********************************************************
"Id argue that you dont know what you like if youve only had one girl" Ix replied.
********************************************************
The Abelia had gone to find a quiet place to sleep off her drink, the reading lesson had come and gone, still Umraely and Xujja sat together in the same place, talking quietly.
"I dont mean to to chastise you... but look what you and Abelia did tonight. Can you say you really know yourself if you didnt know you had that in you?"
Xujja was silent, Umraely patted his knee.
"If you havent fully explored the self... can you really love, or be loved by anyone?"
********************************************************
When he saw Dawn the next day, he felt like he had grown overnight. He was so much older now, and she was still so young and unchanged. As if only one night had passed.
Her smile was warm and loving as usual. His smile showed his sadness. Dawn knew something was amiss right away.
"Whats wrong?"
_________________________________________________________
Thanks again to everyone reading, and everyone contributing.
J
With Dawn, Umraely, and Abelia out of sight and out of mind he could finally find new focus.
Such strange new lusts Ive awakened
***********************************************************
"You keep being drawn to being more and more human... but that is the /weak/ half of your blood. Im telling you this because I want you to wake up. Wake up and embrace your heritage." Ix had said to him over drinks, his first taste of Winterwine.
*********************************************************
Blue. One of the most fortunate colors. Dawns eyes were blue, as were Abelias. Dawns eyes were lighter than Abelias just as one girl was darker than the other.
He felt the new shade of blue he stared at now just might be richer, deeper, and more complex than either. He felt a little guilty tug for comparing Dawn. Xujja enjoyed his guilt, then let it go.
He stared for a long while.
If self-indulgence is the point of life... honor really is a lie, isnt it?
*********************************************************
Umraely still had her hand on his knee as they talked quietly in the noontime shade of the birch tree.
"Your sword, your love, your lands, titles... any of these things can be taken from you and /replaced/. A sense of self, an accomplishment, an indulgence... those are forever."
It all made such sense to him. Umraely, the philosopher. She went on.
"Your desires, Xujja, are the strongest thing about you... not your arms."
********************************************************
Xujja rested his hand on the pale curve of a shoulder. He marveled at such beauty. This was a most important night.
Cant honor come from vanity? Isnt vanity part of my heritage?
********************************************************
Ix adopted the tone of a curious friend. "Well how do you really know if she is the only girl youve ever kissed?"
*********************************************************
"I got over 100 gold coins for them gems, most of it was from just that one stone I found on the orc boss." Xujja said as he leaned against the tree with arms crossed.
It was Abelia nearby that asked "What kinda gem was that?"
"I dunno, some kinda rare garnet. I forgot what the old dwarf said about it, he was really excited and has that terrible thick accent."
Abelia grumbled under her breath, back to the classic sour Abelia that he had gotten used to. That same Abelia, but not quite, he still looked at the curve of her shape in her tightly cut armor... he still knew what the pouty, grumbling, lips tasted like.
All things are corrupt now. All lines seem blurred. The only fact is the self. The only constant is Auril.
*********************************************************
It was not Dawn he looked at with such adoration. Nor was it Umraely and Abelia that were the object of his stares now.
Though I wanted this since I was a young boy... and have taken it now, I cant help but feel it is a symbol of my complete corruption.
Xujja picked up white-blue gauntlet. Expertly crafted, with sharp fluted edged at the back of each knuckle. Its color fading from the brilliant blue to snowy white on the edges. As much art as armor.
Fixation on the material is a sign of the city-sickness...but it feels to good to give it up now.
*******************************************************
The little gray boys hands opened the heavy chest in his mothers room. Eager, he pulled out the black bracers to look close.
The black jagged steel was cold to the touch. It sent a shiver of excitement up his spine as he ran his finger along the sharp blades worked into the forearms of the bracer.
It was a whole warsuit of metal, like some of the more important men in the tribe wore... only this one was his mothers. She kept it locked away from all eyes, a relic of her youth. Even with the onset of rust and decay it had a hostile, powerful, feeling about it.
The door creaked open behind him. He had been looking at the armor for to long, his mother was now home and he would get a beating.
*******************************************************
Since escaping his time as a slave in Luskan he had passed his seventeenth year, which would have made him a man back home. He had lain in sexual union with a woman, and that might make him a man in other lands. Ix had said that simply escaping his bondage and insisting on living free made him an adult.
It was only now, with a sharp sword and wearing a proper suit of mail that Xujja had earned himself, that he actually did feel like his own creature. Something more significant than a scavenger.
It was no soft feeling, no sense of loyalty or higher calling that this day gave him a sense of self. It was his greed showing success. It wasnt the platmail itself, Xujja realized, but it was the vanity of owning the best that tasted so sweet to him. Just like Ix with his fine wines, scented hair, and teakwood lute.
Civilization, and the world at large were finally starting to make sense to him.
______________________________________________________
Thanks again to all still reading.
J
Such strange new lusts Ive awakened
***********************************************************
"You keep being drawn to being more and more human... but that is the /weak/ half of your blood. Im telling you this because I want you to wake up. Wake up and embrace your heritage." Ix had said to him over drinks, his first taste of Winterwine.
*********************************************************
Blue. One of the most fortunate colors. Dawns eyes were blue, as were Abelias. Dawns eyes were lighter than Abelias just as one girl was darker than the other.
He felt the new shade of blue he stared at now just might be richer, deeper, and more complex than either. He felt a little guilty tug for comparing Dawn. Xujja enjoyed his guilt, then let it go.
He stared for a long while.
If self-indulgence is the point of life... honor really is a lie, isnt it?
*********************************************************
Umraely still had her hand on his knee as they talked quietly in the noontime shade of the birch tree.
"Your sword, your love, your lands, titles... any of these things can be taken from you and /replaced/. A sense of self, an accomplishment, an indulgence... those are forever."
It all made such sense to him. Umraely, the philosopher. She went on.
"Your desires, Xujja, are the strongest thing about you... not your arms."
********************************************************
Xujja rested his hand on the pale curve of a shoulder. He marveled at such beauty. This was a most important night.
Cant honor come from vanity? Isnt vanity part of my heritage?
********************************************************
Ix adopted the tone of a curious friend. "Well how do you really know if she is the only girl youve ever kissed?"
*********************************************************
"I got over 100 gold coins for them gems, most of it was from just that one stone I found on the orc boss." Xujja said as he leaned against the tree with arms crossed.
It was Abelia nearby that asked "What kinda gem was that?"
"I dunno, some kinda rare garnet. I forgot what the old dwarf said about it, he was really excited and has that terrible thick accent."
Abelia grumbled under her breath, back to the classic sour Abelia that he had gotten used to. That same Abelia, but not quite, he still looked at the curve of her shape in her tightly cut armor... he still knew what the pouty, grumbling, lips tasted like.
All things are corrupt now. All lines seem blurred. The only fact is the self. The only constant is Auril.
*********************************************************
It was not Dawn he looked at with such adoration. Nor was it Umraely and Abelia that were the object of his stares now.
Though I wanted this since I was a young boy... and have taken it now, I cant help but feel it is a symbol of my complete corruption.
Xujja picked up white-blue gauntlet. Expertly crafted, with sharp fluted edged at the back of each knuckle. Its color fading from the brilliant blue to snowy white on the edges. As much art as armor.
Fixation on the material is a sign of the city-sickness...but it feels to good to give it up now.
*******************************************************
The little gray boys hands opened the heavy chest in his mothers room. Eager, he pulled out the black bracers to look close.
The black jagged steel was cold to the touch. It sent a shiver of excitement up his spine as he ran his finger along the sharp blades worked into the forearms of the bracer.
It was a whole warsuit of metal, like some of the more important men in the tribe wore... only this one was his mothers. She kept it locked away from all eyes, a relic of her youth. Even with the onset of rust and decay it had a hostile, powerful, feeling about it.
The door creaked open behind him. He had been looking at the armor for to long, his mother was now home and he would get a beating.
*******************************************************
Since escaping his time as a slave in Luskan he had passed his seventeenth year, which would have made him a man back home. He had lain in sexual union with a woman, and that might make him a man in other lands. Ix had said that simply escaping his bondage and insisting on living free made him an adult.
It was only now, with a sharp sword and wearing a proper suit of mail that Xujja had earned himself, that he actually did feel like his own creature. Something more significant than a scavenger.
It was no soft feeling, no sense of loyalty or higher calling that this day gave him a sense of self. It was his greed showing success. It wasnt the platmail itself, Xujja realized, but it was the vanity of owning the best that tasted so sweet to him. Just like Ix with his fine wines, scented hair, and teakwood lute.
Civilization, and the world at large were finally starting to make sense to him.
______________________________________________________
Thanks again to all still reading.
J
-
Random Hajile
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A 12 step program?Mick wrote:This story has reached a point where I'm going to have to start looking into a good 12 step program.
Keep it coming Mr D.
Step 1: Remove baby.
Step 2: Cut baby into 3 chunks so that it will fit into a pot.
Step 3: Fill pot with water.
Step 4: Bring water to a boil.
Step 5: Place baby sections into pot and boil for 45 minutes
Step 6: Remove baby sections and put them into large casserole dish.
Step 7: Slather with barbecue sauce of your choice.
Step 8: Cover with tinfoil and chill for several hours.
Step 9: Preheat oven to 250 degrees
Step 10: Cook baby in oven for 3 hours.
Step 11: Remove foil and broil on stovetop for 5-10 minutes.
Step 12: Enjoy baby-back ribs.
Good enough?
Currently playing: Abelia
A younger Xujja had once looked on with lust and envy at the jewelry in cases sold in the big city. The ring that came sliding out of the envelope was beyond any of those pieces he had wanted so badly then.
A delicate band of silver that resembled ice crystals moreso than metal. A silver snowflake decorated with tiny white stones sat as the rings centerpiece. There was a note in the envelope, Xujja would have to get someone to read it for him. The note, he figured, wasnt nearly as important as a ring with the holy symbol of Auril.
This is fate rewarding me for proper action. A prize for being brave enough to simply let go. A sign Ive taken the right steps.
*********************************************************
Xujja was walking down the cobbled road between towns, Headed away from the city of Silverymoon. Echoes of their fight still followed him. A girl pregnant with a devil-child and she wanted to run back to the very people who made it a point to reject tieflings.
He had surprised himself by offering to help her with this unlucky child she intended to keep. Dawn had resisted not once, but two times now.. and Xujja had his limits. He had reached those limits sometime during the conversation with Dawn.
Just let go. Toss doubts and treasures alike into the cold void.
******************************************************
"Sometimes you wise shamans can be so achingly stupid... If you really want to be that careless... I say we sell the baby. Theres an 800 coin bounty on it. We can split it."
Dawn was horrified, but not enough. Dawn had begun to sound like his mother, and he heard the old crone in himself when he snarled at her for her stupidity.
Just let go. A falling snowflake is focused only on its path.
*****************************************************
It was symbolic. Xujja was walking down the road, away from Dawn when he came across Abelia. The world he had visited, looked at from outside, was behind him... he would waste no more time worrying about dead ends. He walked up to Abelia and back into the world he knew so well. After a greeting they fell in step together, drifting further from the city along the road.
"What were you doin down near the city?"
"I saw Dawn today."
"Anything worth hearing about?"
"Shes took with my seed."
"What??"
"Aye"
*******************************************************
Ix handed the note back to Xujja, after reading it for him.
"Seems like you have an admirer." The southlands noble said.
********************************************************
The guard tower was small, and had an unpleasant smell. Xujja walked in and nodded a greeting to the man who had summoned him here, Sergeant Praetor Baron.
The Sergeant bitched some about Xujja being late to which the tiefling simply nodded, waiting for the real conversation to start. It didnt, Baron was determined to show the horned devil who was the more scary of the two. He jumped up from his chair and stomped around to face Xujja, he was angry... quaking with rage.
Like a frightened dog, barking the loudest.
"Are you a coward?" the angry man barked.
Xujja wasnt really focused on the question. He was still thinking about their difference in attitudes. The sergeant was trying to prove something... Xujja was just bored, and a little hungry. Detachment was again the lesson, as he both pondered and practiced his indifference the sergeant raised his voice. Xujja would have to think later, he had a barking dog to deal with.
"I asked you a question, demon!" He said as slammed a fist into his desk, sending papers around the room in a mess.
"What man calls himself a coward?"
The baron shook with rage while Xujja kept speaking in a flat, uncaring tone.
"An so you know... theres a difference tween devils and demons... I aint no demon."
Xujjas indifference was getting further under the sergeants skin. The man was probably used to cowering from sellswords, or even defiant ones... but Xujja offered him the same concern the mountain-lion offers the mouse. It unnerved the man, he sputtered his next sentence.
"Well.... what the fuck ever you call yourself"
*******************************************************
Abelia laughed aloud when Xujja related the comment about selling the baby.
"You really said that? Thats cold" She said with a cruel gleam in her eye.
Xujja was busy thinking that such a cruel sneer really suited her, more womanly and attractive than her grumblings. It made her seem... sharp. She was the next to speak.
"Anything else good happen?"
"I got to tell her that you were right, about every prediction you made of her. That was worth it... satisfying, I guess. The rest was all weepy and dramatic."
The two walked on in silence for a while longer before Xujja spoke again.
"I did offer to try an be a father.... twice, you know. Gotta let go after two times though. Stupid girl thinks she is gonna raise a devil baby in a city wot wont even let the father into the gates? Had to cut that loose.... wont waste no thought on her no more."
"So.... finally after all that, you get her knocked up... and THEN its over?"
Xujja nodded and shrugged. "Beshaba Provides"
Abelia laughed.
********************************************************
Xujja stood over the body of the gnoll he had slain, he had learned to hate them as a young man and didnt fail to vent his rage on them when he found them. Recently however he had begun to rethink everything. Were these things really worth hatred? Did they matter that much... or were they just victims?
People speak of firey rage, and inflamed passions. Hate is to warm for me. Let go of this too.
Abelia walked up to him from where she had finished one off herself, callous blue eyes scanned the gnolls camp in search of anything that might be taken away as loot. Xujja was no less greedy than his companion, but his thoughts were inward rather than on coin. He kept staring at the fallen gnoll.
My hate of these stupid beasts dosnt further my vanity, my pleasures... my indulgence. Such hate makes them the focus of my life, offering them power. They are just my victims. Let go.
Abelia was bitching, none of the gnolls had a damned bit of loot that would sell in town.
THAT is a reason to hate these pauper bastards.
**********************************************************
The sergeant still hadnt given up on trying to intimidate Xujja. For his part the tiefling was getting bored with this. It was clear the man wanted something other than these scare tactics. The sergeant was now talking in a more subdued tone, but no less threatening.
"I think youre the killer. You a killer? You been slitting these throats?"
"I dont slit throats... I cut people in half. You wouldnt have to ASK if I killed somebody"
"Ha!"
********************************************************
"An admirer?" Xujja asked.
"Yes, this is a 'gift from our lady'... whoever that is." Replied Ix, as he helped Xujja read the note.
"Oh."
"The letter says you are trusted to know what to do with this, the ring."
********************************************************
Xujja shrugged. "I dont see what it would get you."
"You dont? Ive had more complaints about you than a mother superior gets the day after barbarians raid the vestals."
Another shrug from the tiefling. "You get complaints from weak, frightened sheep that cant look at a pair of fangs without pissing themselves."
"HA!" the sergeant was having a hard time trying to stay scary when Xujja kept making him laugh. Still, he wasnt done trying... Baron liked to be the scary one. Interacting with the tiefling would be so much easier for him if he just put the young buck in his place now.
"So how cool would you be if I called those guards in here and said you just confessed? It would only take a few minor details, and I could have you locked up. How does being arrested for murder sound?"
The man poked his finger into Xujjas chest. Xujjas boredom became annoyance, he decided to remind the dog that he was barking at a wolf.
"If I tore your heart out... and ate it... THEN they would have something to arrest me for... you soft, vulnerable, pinkie.
Xujja loved reminding humans that they were pink. It always seemed to give them that gentle nudge, a reminder that they were a prey species.
It had the effect Xujja wanted. Barons face went pale, and he stopped talking for a moment. He stepped back, out of arms reach of the tiefling. Xujja spoke again.
"So now that we got that out of the way.... how about you tell me what you /wanted/ by calling me in here in the first place?"
**********************************************************
"These people are accustomed to being on the top of the food chain. They dominate the goblins and orcs... but to something like a demon, they are as sheep quaking in front of a hungry wolf. You are greater than these people." Ix had told him over drinks.
*********************************************************
The rest of the conversation was easy, the sergeant ended up telling him he was suitable for work as a mercenary. Being a useless guard, he also made the typical show of reminding Xujja that he was being watched.
Just when Xujjas boredom started to become evident again, the sergeant made a big show of declaring how busy he was and that the meeting was over.
Xujja left as he was asked, offering the sergeant a smile and nod before going. It was easy to smile at the man now, no matter how much of an ass he had been. It was a pleasant smile because from now on the angry 'lord of Rivermoot' would never be able to look at Xujja without having to consider having his heart eaten out of his chest.
DAMN... Im gettin hungry.
___________________________________________________________
Thanks to everyone reading, and an extra big thanks to Wynna for the uber-tense scene with the sergeant. (Did I mention how glad I am that I won that opposed intimidate check?)
J
PS- for those who appreciate my story...youll prolly like this too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeuEGr_UTzg
A delicate band of silver that resembled ice crystals moreso than metal. A silver snowflake decorated with tiny white stones sat as the rings centerpiece. There was a note in the envelope, Xujja would have to get someone to read it for him. The note, he figured, wasnt nearly as important as a ring with the holy symbol of Auril.
This is fate rewarding me for proper action. A prize for being brave enough to simply let go. A sign Ive taken the right steps.
*********************************************************
Xujja was walking down the cobbled road between towns, Headed away from the city of Silverymoon. Echoes of their fight still followed him. A girl pregnant with a devil-child and she wanted to run back to the very people who made it a point to reject tieflings.
He had surprised himself by offering to help her with this unlucky child she intended to keep. Dawn had resisted not once, but two times now.. and Xujja had his limits. He had reached those limits sometime during the conversation with Dawn.
Just let go. Toss doubts and treasures alike into the cold void.
******************************************************
"Sometimes you wise shamans can be so achingly stupid... If you really want to be that careless... I say we sell the baby. Theres an 800 coin bounty on it. We can split it."
Dawn was horrified, but not enough. Dawn had begun to sound like his mother, and he heard the old crone in himself when he snarled at her for her stupidity.
Just let go. A falling snowflake is focused only on its path.
*****************************************************
It was symbolic. Xujja was walking down the road, away from Dawn when he came across Abelia. The world he had visited, looked at from outside, was behind him... he would waste no more time worrying about dead ends. He walked up to Abelia and back into the world he knew so well. After a greeting they fell in step together, drifting further from the city along the road.
"What were you doin down near the city?"
"I saw Dawn today."
"Anything worth hearing about?"
"Shes took with my seed."
"What??"
"Aye"
*******************************************************
Ix handed the note back to Xujja, after reading it for him.
"Seems like you have an admirer." The southlands noble said.
********************************************************
The guard tower was small, and had an unpleasant smell. Xujja walked in and nodded a greeting to the man who had summoned him here, Sergeant Praetor Baron.
The Sergeant bitched some about Xujja being late to which the tiefling simply nodded, waiting for the real conversation to start. It didnt, Baron was determined to show the horned devil who was the more scary of the two. He jumped up from his chair and stomped around to face Xujja, he was angry... quaking with rage.
Like a frightened dog, barking the loudest.
"Are you a coward?" the angry man barked.
Xujja wasnt really focused on the question. He was still thinking about their difference in attitudes. The sergeant was trying to prove something... Xujja was just bored, and a little hungry. Detachment was again the lesson, as he both pondered and practiced his indifference the sergeant raised his voice. Xujja would have to think later, he had a barking dog to deal with.
"I asked you a question, demon!" He said as slammed a fist into his desk, sending papers around the room in a mess.
"What man calls himself a coward?"
The baron shook with rage while Xujja kept speaking in a flat, uncaring tone.
"An so you know... theres a difference tween devils and demons... I aint no demon."
Xujjas indifference was getting further under the sergeants skin. The man was probably used to cowering from sellswords, or even defiant ones... but Xujja offered him the same concern the mountain-lion offers the mouse. It unnerved the man, he sputtered his next sentence.
"Well.... what the fuck ever you call yourself"
*******************************************************
Abelia laughed aloud when Xujja related the comment about selling the baby.
"You really said that? Thats cold" She said with a cruel gleam in her eye.
Xujja was busy thinking that such a cruel sneer really suited her, more womanly and attractive than her grumblings. It made her seem... sharp. She was the next to speak.
"Anything else good happen?"
"I got to tell her that you were right, about every prediction you made of her. That was worth it... satisfying, I guess. The rest was all weepy and dramatic."
The two walked on in silence for a while longer before Xujja spoke again.
"I did offer to try an be a father.... twice, you know. Gotta let go after two times though. Stupid girl thinks she is gonna raise a devil baby in a city wot wont even let the father into the gates? Had to cut that loose.... wont waste no thought on her no more."
"So.... finally after all that, you get her knocked up... and THEN its over?"
Xujja nodded and shrugged. "Beshaba Provides"
Abelia laughed.
********************************************************
Xujja stood over the body of the gnoll he had slain, he had learned to hate them as a young man and didnt fail to vent his rage on them when he found them. Recently however he had begun to rethink everything. Were these things really worth hatred? Did they matter that much... or were they just victims?
People speak of firey rage, and inflamed passions. Hate is to warm for me. Let go of this too.
Abelia walked up to him from where she had finished one off herself, callous blue eyes scanned the gnolls camp in search of anything that might be taken away as loot. Xujja was no less greedy than his companion, but his thoughts were inward rather than on coin. He kept staring at the fallen gnoll.
My hate of these stupid beasts dosnt further my vanity, my pleasures... my indulgence. Such hate makes them the focus of my life, offering them power. They are just my victims. Let go.
Abelia was bitching, none of the gnolls had a damned bit of loot that would sell in town.
THAT is a reason to hate these pauper bastards.
**********************************************************
The sergeant still hadnt given up on trying to intimidate Xujja. For his part the tiefling was getting bored with this. It was clear the man wanted something other than these scare tactics. The sergeant was now talking in a more subdued tone, but no less threatening.
"I think youre the killer. You a killer? You been slitting these throats?"
"I dont slit throats... I cut people in half. You wouldnt have to ASK if I killed somebody"
"Ha!"
********************************************************
"An admirer?" Xujja asked.
"Yes, this is a 'gift from our lady'... whoever that is." Replied Ix, as he helped Xujja read the note.
"Oh."
"The letter says you are trusted to know what to do with this, the ring."
********************************************************
Xujja shrugged. "I dont see what it would get you."
"You dont? Ive had more complaints about you than a mother superior gets the day after barbarians raid the vestals."
Another shrug from the tiefling. "You get complaints from weak, frightened sheep that cant look at a pair of fangs without pissing themselves."
"HA!" the sergeant was having a hard time trying to stay scary when Xujja kept making him laugh. Still, he wasnt done trying... Baron liked to be the scary one. Interacting with the tiefling would be so much easier for him if he just put the young buck in his place now.
"So how cool would you be if I called those guards in here and said you just confessed? It would only take a few minor details, and I could have you locked up. How does being arrested for murder sound?"
The man poked his finger into Xujjas chest. Xujjas boredom became annoyance, he decided to remind the dog that he was barking at a wolf.
"If I tore your heart out... and ate it... THEN they would have something to arrest me for... you soft, vulnerable, pinkie.
Xujja loved reminding humans that they were pink. It always seemed to give them that gentle nudge, a reminder that they were a prey species.
It had the effect Xujja wanted. Barons face went pale, and he stopped talking for a moment. He stepped back, out of arms reach of the tiefling. Xujja spoke again.
"So now that we got that out of the way.... how about you tell me what you /wanted/ by calling me in here in the first place?"
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"These people are accustomed to being on the top of the food chain. They dominate the goblins and orcs... but to something like a demon, they are as sheep quaking in front of a hungry wolf. You are greater than these people." Ix had told him over drinks.
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The rest of the conversation was easy, the sergeant ended up telling him he was suitable for work as a mercenary. Being a useless guard, he also made the typical show of reminding Xujja that he was being watched.
Just when Xujjas boredom started to become evident again, the sergeant made a big show of declaring how busy he was and that the meeting was over.
Xujja left as he was asked, offering the sergeant a smile and nod before going. It was easy to smile at the man now, no matter how much of an ass he had been. It was a pleasant smile because from now on the angry 'lord of Rivermoot' would never be able to look at Xujja without having to consider having his heart eaten out of his chest.
DAMN... Im gettin hungry.
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Thanks to everyone reading, and an extra big thanks to Wynna for the uber-tense scene with the sergeant. (Did I mention how glad I am that I won that opposed intimidate check?)
J
PS- for those who appreciate my story...youll prolly like this too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeuEGr_UTzg