Post by Viktor on Dec 30, 2009 19:46:01 GMT -8
To his surprise it felt natural.
This was the only emotion he could render in the twilight of the depths of the underground caverns. A feeling that his whole life spent on finding a place he belongs and a duty he could enjoy was slowly coming to and end and a life of meaning could be just beyond the horizon. As the shadow of the giant bear danced on the cave wall in the fairy like twilight, his mind wondered back to how it began.
As with most things in his life, it all started at a bar, the Knights Rest to be specific, Viktor had just gotten done with a charge of chopping and delivering wood for a land owner to the Abby; the last job he had lined up for the rest of winter.
So with coins in his bag and his mouth and stomach both hungry for ale he barged into the tavern with his usually grin and demeanor. This night though he didn’t find the usual crowd of drinking friends, but only a sole woman sat at the bar.
A bit downhearted by the lack of companions Viktor walked to the bar and sat at a seat next to the clocked figure and smiled giving his usually conversation and cheesy pick up jokes.
It turned out fate had pushed him to meet Sage that evening, a woman whom explained to the man she was drinking Sap from a tree, after a few words they went their ways.
A few weeks later he received a note from the same lady, asking for him to meet her at the Manor within the Freehold.
The Freehold, he had seen it before, and knew only that it was home for those known as the Fae, and for all he could figure between gossip and the antics of James, was they where a people strongly tied to dreams, fairies and the like.
He of course went, when a lady of Sage’s beauty asks a man like Viktor to come see her, there is little argument about the decision to go or not. It was at this meeting Viktor would find his new charge, and perhaps his new life.
His eyes widened as Sage stood before him not as flesh, but as leaf and bark a full grown tree; and explained to him what she was, and how that she was in need to “take root” and change into another form, and how she had wished him to be her guardian during this process. The price to be paid was food and drink, and of course the enjoyment of the Freehold.
A few days later he met her at down.
Sage meet him with her usually friendly grin as they passed back and forth greetings and other such formalities, Viktor trying his best to get a few laughs out of her before they departed for the task at hand. To his confusion though Sage handed him rock climbing gear, and explained that she had chosen a cavern under the freehold to perform her changing
Then was the compass, made of silver and it’s arrow a small little hand which would point the direction to the ritual grounds. Sage had explained to him by taking it he would see the secrets of the freehold and see as she and the other Fae did.
He was unprepared for what came next, when he had awakened the world had changed to him, he could smell things a mile away and the entirety of the world seemed different, and himself an eternal part of it; but the eyes of the Fae saw even more.
He looked to see a world of lucid dreams and stone, shadows of moving exotic patterns, and his sense of smell, which already powerful beyond normality could smell things he didn’t even know was there, hidden things in the world, secrets long buried from the mind and eyes and men.
And so they climbed, and he saw the world anew, as he listened to the voice of Sage behind him, telling him of the Fae and the nature of the Freehold, Viktor was not a man of extreme intelligence, and never had cares of schooling or such noble privileges, but when Sage spoke he found himself oddly interested in learning more.
After sometime they came to the vent which would take them underground and with a little effort they slowly and carefully made their decent down the giant wall of ice. Though it was no normal ice climb, to Viktor it was like the scene from a dream, as wisps of light flowed around them to light their path, and a elder dragon rested on the rocks below unmoving in its slumber.
At the end of the rope they found themselves hanging in the darkness of a huge chamber within the mountain, suspended over a dark pool of water. Sage soon summoned a stone path from the murky depths upward, allowing them to walk to the edge of the lake and down into a long dark tunnel, wisps hovering around them to give them enough light to see their path.
They found themselves soon at a small chamber, its walls and floor covered in moss and other vegetation, and in its center a single pool of water. That was where he found himself now, with Sage, now in the form of a willow tree by the pools edge. His snout pointed towards the opening of the dark tunnel leading out, if anything came though that opening, it would have to contend with the bear guardian, and the terror of the Gurahl.
And in this charge he felt at utter peace and focus.
This was the only emotion he could render in the twilight of the depths of the underground caverns. A feeling that his whole life spent on finding a place he belongs and a duty he could enjoy was slowly coming to and end and a life of meaning could be just beyond the horizon. As the shadow of the giant bear danced on the cave wall in the fairy like twilight, his mind wondered back to how it began.
As with most things in his life, it all started at a bar, the Knights Rest to be specific, Viktor had just gotten done with a charge of chopping and delivering wood for a land owner to the Abby; the last job he had lined up for the rest of winter.
So with coins in his bag and his mouth and stomach both hungry for ale he barged into the tavern with his usually grin and demeanor. This night though he didn’t find the usual crowd of drinking friends, but only a sole woman sat at the bar.
A bit downhearted by the lack of companions Viktor walked to the bar and sat at a seat next to the clocked figure and smiled giving his usually conversation and cheesy pick up jokes.
It turned out fate had pushed him to meet Sage that evening, a woman whom explained to the man she was drinking Sap from a tree, after a few words they went their ways.
A few weeks later he received a note from the same lady, asking for him to meet her at the Manor within the Freehold.
The Freehold, he had seen it before, and knew only that it was home for those known as the Fae, and for all he could figure between gossip and the antics of James, was they where a people strongly tied to dreams, fairies and the like.
He of course went, when a lady of Sage’s beauty asks a man like Viktor to come see her, there is little argument about the decision to go or not. It was at this meeting Viktor would find his new charge, and perhaps his new life.
His eyes widened as Sage stood before him not as flesh, but as leaf and bark a full grown tree; and explained to him what she was, and how that she was in need to “take root” and change into another form, and how she had wished him to be her guardian during this process. The price to be paid was food and drink, and of course the enjoyment of the Freehold.
A few days later he met her at down.
Sage meet him with her usually friendly grin as they passed back and forth greetings and other such formalities, Viktor trying his best to get a few laughs out of her before they departed for the task at hand. To his confusion though Sage handed him rock climbing gear, and explained that she had chosen a cavern under the freehold to perform her changing
Then was the compass, made of silver and it’s arrow a small little hand which would point the direction to the ritual grounds. Sage had explained to him by taking it he would see the secrets of the freehold and see as she and the other Fae did.
He was unprepared for what came next, when he had awakened the world had changed to him, he could smell things a mile away and the entirety of the world seemed different, and himself an eternal part of it; but the eyes of the Fae saw even more.
He looked to see a world of lucid dreams and stone, shadows of moving exotic patterns, and his sense of smell, which already powerful beyond normality could smell things he didn’t even know was there, hidden things in the world, secrets long buried from the mind and eyes and men.
And so they climbed, and he saw the world anew, as he listened to the voice of Sage behind him, telling him of the Fae and the nature of the Freehold, Viktor was not a man of extreme intelligence, and never had cares of schooling or such noble privileges, but when Sage spoke he found himself oddly interested in learning more.
After sometime they came to the vent which would take them underground and with a little effort they slowly and carefully made their decent down the giant wall of ice. Though it was no normal ice climb, to Viktor it was like the scene from a dream, as wisps of light flowed around them to light their path, and a elder dragon rested on the rocks below unmoving in its slumber.
At the end of the rope they found themselves hanging in the darkness of a huge chamber within the mountain, suspended over a dark pool of water. Sage soon summoned a stone path from the murky depths upward, allowing them to walk to the edge of the lake and down into a long dark tunnel, wisps hovering around them to give them enough light to see their path.
They found themselves soon at a small chamber, its walls and floor covered in moss and other vegetation, and in its center a single pool of water. That was where he found himself now, with Sage, now in the form of a willow tree by the pools edge. His snout pointed towards the opening of the dark tunnel leading out, if anything came though that opening, it would have to contend with the bear guardian, and the terror of the Gurahl.
And in this charge he felt at utter peace and focus.
