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 Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:29 pm
 Name: Eloy Nickname(s): None that he is aware of. Age (Appearance Wise): Mid-twenties Age (Actual): 92 Personality: (Please include at least 3 character traits. These must not be physical traits. One trait must be a character flaw. And please put in more than just one word answers. We want to know how your character will act and function after all!) Thoughts on the Forest: Thoughts of Book Children: Thoughts on City People: Physical Appearance:
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Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:41 pm
History:
Hobbies: Playing his guitar, making little clockwork things.
Birthday:
Favorite Things:
Hated Things:
Story: The Raven's Chapel
Favorite type of Ending: One that is satisfying to the reader, one that wraps up the story without leaving more questions than answers. Cliffhangers are the absolute worst, in his opinion.
Favorite Illustration:
Dreams:
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Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:46 pm
Eloy's Story
The Raven's Chapel
A far traveling bird, a spirit in the form of a living bird, finds a home in and around a small rural church. The bird spirit, a raven, takes the protection and care of the church under his wing. He assures the congregation gets to the sanctuary without any trouble and hopefully on time, leaving little offerings of his own, usually taken from a river in the woods in the nearby foothills that contains gold nuggets, as well as dropped or forgotten beads or jewelry found outside and leaves them on a window sill or in front of the sanctuary doors. He takes to ridding the churchyard of as many pests as he can manage and seems to enjoy ‘tossing’ flowers and little leafy twigs at the children of various churchgoers.
This isolated church in the woods in under the care of an older priest and a deacon, a younger man. The elder of the two becomes greedy for the gold that the bird comes to leave. Secretly the elder follows the bird to his stream or river and waits until the bird leaves to gather up as much of the gold as he can possibly carry. He squirrels the gold away in his quarters and the bird doesn’t find out until the next time he goes to collect an offering for the church. Angered by the theft, he seeks out the perpetrator. His intense hunt for the thief leads to his protection of the church to waver. A pack of stray dogs moves into the area around the church, making a good handful of the congregation fearful of having to deal with the pack on their way to services. Mice and insect populations increase noticeably as well.
One evening, the bird is checking in the windows of the church and comes to a stop at the priest’s window. Inside the room, the old priest is surveying his little cache of gold, including some of the previous offerings and jewelry that the bird didn’t leave. The culprit was found and the raven set to tormenting the priest for his misdeeds. The priest, in turn, turned against the raven, even tried rallying what loyal members did show up in spite of the dogs and pest presence against the bird. He said it was a winged demon, hell-bent on ruining the church and that it must be cast away or killed before the church succumbs to the fiend’s workings and crumbles upon its very foundation. Some were for the crusade against the bird, others weren’t inclined to join in for they knew and saw for themselves what the bird had done for them and the church.
Everything came to a head when after a few weeks of the raven’s torment, late one night, the priest went out to collect some wood and fuel to set fire to the tree that he believed that the bird dwelled within, an old oak right off the side of the church.
The young deacon went into the priest’s quarters to check on him, concerned over his behavior over the past several weeks. The deacon had heard the old man’s rants about the demon bird but didn’t quite understand where he was coming from. He knew the raven as the one that cleared away the mice that had been living in the church, kept the congregation safe on their way in, and even left them little found offerings. Heck, the bird even acted playfully towards the younger members of the church; a fact that he knew the children adored. He believed it to be either a very intelligent bird, or perhaps something of or working for a higher power that had taken the little isolated church under his wing. The protection and offerings stopped about the time the priest that he worked under began to act differently than usual. Upon entering the old priest’s room, he discovered the hidden cache of gold pieces plucked from the river as well as some jewelry that he could have sworn he had seen on some of the church goers. The thought struck him that perhaps this was the cause of the raven’s change of heart. It was then that he began to smell smoke coming in from outside the church.
He raced outside after grabbing a bucket of water from the kitchen to put out the fire to find the priest yelling into the dark sky. The raven was circling the burning tree, cawing and wheeling down around the priest, beating his large dark wings at the maddened old man. The deacon was horrified! Stealing, greed, and now putting the very church at risk by setting a fire amid the roots of the aged tree, not to mention dividing the congregation to join this madness and trying to kill the church’s unofficial guardian. Before he could reach the priest, the elder picked up a stone lying at his feet and threw it up at the bird. It struck heavily, causing the bird to fall to the ground. Before the old mad priest could do any more damage, the deacon put the bucket down and shoved the old man aside, decrying the man for his actions and assured him that he wouldn’t be allowed to serve the church any more once word of what he had done got to their superiors. The catching fire was casting long, wavering shadows and the stray dogs added to the intensity of the scene with baying howls from the dark woods around the churchyard. The priest turned and fled, out of the yard and down the wooded path towards the small town that the church served, the barking and howling dogs quick on his heels.
The deacon picked up his bucket of water and splashed the creeping fire, quickly stamping out the crackling embers that remained on the roots. Dropping his bucket once the threat of fire was extinguished, he moved to the side of the fallen raven. It was alive but stunned and a broken wing if the low, awkward angle it was being held at was any inclination. He crouched down next to the bird, which staggered back away from him a few uneasy steps. The deacon held up his empty hands showing that he wasn’t going to hurt it. The raven paused, seemingly understanding his meaning, and let the man pick him up and take him inside.
Securing the wing to the bird’s side, he made sure to do all he could for the guardian. After a few weeks being kept in a small out of the way place, the raven was relocated to behind the church. There, his bandages were removed and he was set atop of one of the handful of tombstones in the back. The bird stretched his wings, ruffled his feathers, and tested himself out. It took him a few days to really get back into the hang of flying, but it wasn’t long before he was back to his old self. The deacon took on the title of priest for the church, the old man having left the area after his crimes were discovered for fear of further persecution by the raven or the hounds, and for fear of having to face the ire of the congregation and the townspeople. The raven returned to his usual duties, having chased off the dogs, reduced the mice and insect populations, and once again began leaving presents and offerings on window sills and at the sanctuary door. In time the mad priest was forgotten and the presence of the black guardian became as normal for the church as Sunday service.
[An original story by me]
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