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 Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2006 4:07 pm
ok I'm going out on a limb here and posting my story here, a friend got me interested in it agen so the post will be long in between I would love any feed back I could get!
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Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2006 4:08 pm
Chapter 1
Zerron stood on the hilltop observing the battle unfolding before him. Two armies clashed in the valley below. One was fortified in the pass across from him, the other was trying to gain it. The attacking force was harrying the other relentlessly with small focussed attacks. In contrast from the past, there was an uneasy peace between the four realms of this world. The realm’s had always been in various wars, allies and enemy changing every war, but the last war with them had been seven life times ago, Zerron being only four lifetimes old had not witness it and the borders with the other realms had been shut off his whole life. He was a Ranger, a warrior of the god Earth. The Rangers had been granted extended life for their services to their God.
Hearing the grass rustle behind him he turned from the mock battle to see who is was.
“Hail Zerron.”
He smiled as he recognized the familiar face. “Hail Sheathling,” Zerron finished the tradition greeting, “I was not expecting to see you until later.”
“I saw you up here and decided I might as well meet up with you now,” She turned to watch as the attacking horde started to gain ground, rushing passed the debris of the broken defenses, “I see the training is going well.”
“Yes, they've been at it for a couple days now, the new recruits are doing surpassingly well against the 1st Brigade,” he said as he averted his eyes from the battle to her pack, “yet they were unable to hold off the other group of recruits.”
‘What? Well that is interesting, our troops must be getting rusty.” She was watching the battle intensely and didn’t notice Zerron grab something from her pack.
“Oh hey, what’s this?” he said as he pulled out a book, this she noticed and tried to grab it from him. “Myths of the Water Realm? What could be so interesting in here-?” Zerron asked in a mocking tone.
“Give it back,” she demanded and lunged for him. He danced skillfully out of her grasp and laughed. “Entangle Roots!” She yelled and thrust her hand palm foreword towards his feet and grabbed at the book with the other.
“Hey no fair, no magic!” Zerron smiled as the vines wrapped around his feet. “Disentangle!” he commanded and kept the book out of reach with the other. The vines unwrapped and he jumped and rolled out of the way. She then snatched up her pike she had discarded earlier, and attacked. “Now the fun begins.” Zerron smirked as he slipped the book into his belt and drew his sword. Zerron had removed his cumbersome pack but Sheathling hadn’t had the chance to. He did not have the advantage though, Sheathling was three times older than he and was much more practiced in fighting. The two combatants attacked each other ferociously. They were parrying attacks effortlessly that any normal man would be cut down by. Zerron ducked low and swung at an opining but his blade was deflected harmlessly off her leather armor. Sheathling, exploiting her advantage, quickly disarmed Zerron and caught him in the chest with a kick that sent him tumbling down the hill. He sprung up, drew his bow, nocked an arrow, aimed and fired it in one fluid motion. Sleathling flicked her pike and nocked the arrow out of the air, and charged down the hill after him deflecting arrow after arrow. When she reached the bottom she jumped and swung at Zerron who rolled out of the way and kicked the the pike out of her hands. She then drew her dagger and tackled him knocking him to the ground and putting the dagger to his throat.
“Book. Now!” she snarled.
Laughing in response Zerron pointed at the hill and said, “It fell out of my belt when I was rolling down the hill.”
Looking at the hill she saw nothing. “Where I don’t- EEK!” She was interrupted by Zerron flipping her over, pinning her dagger arm down and putting his dagger to her throat.
“Food. Now!”
“Fine you win. Now get off of me. I only have a little food left so don’t eat too much.”
Zerron stood up then extended his hand, she reached up to take it but he slapped it away. “No, give me your pack.”
She responded by chucking it at him.
“Uff, what in the name of Earth do you have in here?”
She only smiled and proceeded to pick up the scattered weapons. He sat down and opened the pack. “Where is the food?”
“Bottom,” she replied.
“Clothes, clothes, clothes, think you have enou- ah here we go,” Zerron sat down at the base of a tree to devour his just rewords, temporarily content with life.
“Kerexar wants to talk with you back in the glade,” she said passively, as she sat down next to him and opened up her book while resting her back against Zerron’s shoulder.
Zerron glanced at the twilight sky and then at the book. "So why the sudden interest in the Water Realm's myths?” he asked inquisitively
“I don’t know, I just suddenly wanted to know about the other realms.” rebutted Sheathling.
“So it has nothing to do with the fact we voted to open up the borders again or that the water realm has the best ‘romantic’ stories ever written?” Zerron asked.
“No. well,” she stammered looking up from her book realizing she had been found out, “I- um, just.” Zerron started to chuckle “Shut up.” she fumed and returned to reading.
She suddenly smirked and looked up, “Kitra also wants to see you,” she was unable to suppress a grin when Zerron suddenly choked on the nut he was chewing. Zerron then proceeded to mutter about how unassuming he found her comment in rather harsh words. “I’m not joking she asked to request from you some privet lessons in sword fighting,” she was now smiling from ear to ear when Zerron growled and put his head in his hands.
“Here I was perfectly happy with life, peacefully munching on some trail mix, and then you go and have to mention my student that's been hitting on me sense she was assigned to my classes.” Zerron growled
“Well I think she's cute, you two would make a nice pair for a while,” Sheathling cooed.
“If you think she's cute then why don’t you court her?”
“I would but I wouldn’t want to steal her from you,” the conversation than quickly then deteriorated into bickering and name calling. After a while Sheathling finished it by snatching back her food , and shoving it back into her pack. Zerron then stopped arguing to stare at his empty hands.
“My, my food!”
“You mean ‘my’ food,” Sheath shoot back as she stood up, slung her pack over her shoulder, “come on let’s get moving.”
“But, my , er your food, that I was eating, it’s gone,” Zerron mumbled staring at his empty hands, that a moment ago had held everything that had mattered to him.
Sheathling rolled her eyes and kicked him in the ribs where his armor was thickest, hard. The result send the startled Ranger rolling several feet, “Come on it’s starting to get dark and we still have to meet with the captains,”
“Fine, whatever you say Pinky,” Zerron shot back at her trying to get the last word. The result was a very angry Sheathling.
“Stop calling me that!” Sheathling shouted back subconsciously brushing back some of her pink hair with her hand.
Zerron, knowing he not had the upper hand continued, “But it’s so fun to see your reaction Pinky.”
Sheathling, then reacted by charging Zerron, and Zerron reacted by running very fast away. This was a normal day for the two, they had been nettling each other sense they had been paired as partners when Zerron had started his training. Even though Sheathling was a little over four hundred years older than him, she was assigned to him. Her first partner had been killed in training. The training the Rangers had to go through was ruthless, but it produced the most powerful warriors to walk the realms. There were always healers present at every class, but personal training and duels, only had a healer if one had been asked to come.
Zerron and Sheathling appeared to be in their early twenty’s and would continue to until their death. No Ranger knew what would happen when their extended life wore off, no Ranger had ever survived that long. They were told in their legends that they were given a hundred normal lifetimes, but no Ranger had even survived longer that fifty. Even the best warrior could be killed by a single stray arrow.
Zerron was not big man but was slightly taller than the average man. His hair was a light brown and his eyes were a bright emerald green, some say that it was a sign of his power and potential. This thought was encouraged by the fact that he had grown horns, something that was only happened after the Ranger had grown in power considerably, at only a hundred years of age. The normal age was around thirty lifetimes.
Sheathling reminded most of a cat, although not small she was very slim, and body was very shapely. Her muscles were apparent, yet not overly developed, and only added to her overall beauty. Her hair was bright pink, and her eyes were a soft chocolate brown. She moved with a silent deadly grace, that made it appear that she danced as she fought, even more so than the average Ranger. Rangers are taught that to fight is to dance with fate and death, while most Rangers just move with fluid grace, Sheathling made it into a ballet of life and death.
The chase ended abruptly when Zerron nearly ran into several solders standing at attention. “Um, as you were m-,” Zerron began but was interrupted when Sheathling ran square into his back.
“Sorry, I couldn’t stop,” Sheathling lied, digging her knee into his back as she picked herself up.
Zerron grumbled something under his breath as he stood up, knowing full well she could have stopped if she had wanted to. He quickly regained his composition, and took his place behind Sheathling, she was after all the seiner Ranger.
Sheathling cleared her throught and begain her speach, “We have have watched you train and fight and have deemed you ready to join the ranks of the Earth Realm’s army. Your next pair of Rangers will be along in a couple of days, and if they also approve of you, then, and only then will you be able to join the army,” Sheathling stated as she looked at each of the officers in training in turn, “But you know this already, so I will not bore you any longer. Report back to your units and prepare for the next inspection, You!” she commanded looking at the man who would be in charge of all of the others if this was a army unit, “take these papers, they have Zerron’s and my signature. If you lose them then you will have to repeat the entire process again, have the next set of papers ready for the Rangers coming. I’ve said my peace, dismissed!”
The solders in training saluted, Sheathling acknowledge them with a nod, and with that they turned and left. The leader clutched the paper as if it was his most prized possession, it probably was.
“Well that's that, Come on Sheathling lets go home Kerexar’s waiting,” Zerron said as he turned away to hide his smile, he had no doubt that these men would make it into the army, he was proud of them.
“M-hm, right behind you,” Sheathling said happily as she turned and skipped after Zerron. She was happy to be going home, she wanted to be able to fight someone other than Zerron for a change. “So what do you think he wants, the messenger didn’t tell me.”
“No idea,” Zerron sighed, “Probably to talk to us about how the borders are opening up and that we should be extra careful, and that how most of the senior Rangers are going to be stationed with an army unit, as we used to do.” Zerron said, repeating what Kerexar had told them before they had left.
“Na, he already talked to us about that.” Sheathling said happily, smiling at Zerron’s sarcasm.
They continued to walk a while long, but after travailing several hours after sun down, Zerron called it a night. As they settled down to sleep, Zerron started to wonder if things really would change and Sheathling and him would go off to war, or would things stay the same. He glanced over at Sheathling who was already asleep, and brushed aside the thoughts when he saw her shiver. Zerron sighed and crawled over next to her. They didn’t have any blankets just sleeping pads, so Zerron put his arm around her and drew her close, careful not to wake her. He would probably get it in the morning, but he didn’t care, he hated seeing her cold. They had once been in a relationship, but that had ended ages ago. Sheathling and him had moved apart and started seeing others, but they had remained very close. Sheathling, sensing his warmth in her sleep snuggled closer and slept on. Zerron smiled and shortly fell asleep thinking of home.
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 12:05 am
Chapter 2
It wasn’t far, only about seven miles deeper into the forrest. They passed the outer sentries less then a mile from the glade. The sentries were elder Shadow Rangers posted to keep outsiders out of the glade. They soon reached the second line. The second line of sentries were young Rangers like themselves, sentry duty was boring, but it was required as part of their training. Of cores, the Rangers found ways to ease the boredom.
Sheathling spun around in mid-stride while going to one knee, sweeping her pike around and deflecting the weapons of two rangers. While Zerron parried another with his wrist - shield and drew his own sword. Wielding her pike with deadly speed Sheathling started into her dance, easily blocking the two Rangers who were slashing at her with little skill. Out of the woods two more Rangers rushed at Zerron, who responded by caching his first attacker off guard and hit him with a dirty low kick.
“Sorry, Ranger,” Zerron apologized to the crumpled form, as he drew his short sword and turned to face his new attackers. He met their charge and with several well-placed precise slashes which forced them back towards a rock outcropping.
One of the youngest attacking Rangers, who had never seen Sheathling fight before, stopped his charge stop, stood and starred at her. His eyes were wide with awe, and his mouth dropped when Sheathling suddenly jumped and kicked one attacker in his upper chest and defected the others sword with her pike. Sheathling noticed the starring boy hit him with the butt of her pike in the ribs, knocking him down. By this time the fallen Ranger was back up and charged Sheathling’s back. Only to be deflected by a quick spin of Sheathling’s pike. She then slowly lost ground and was fighting back to back with Zerron.
“Ok this is getting old,” Zerron muttered to her.
“I agree, end it?” Sheathling replied.
“Ya, I’m getting hungry,” Zerron responded. Then ducked and rolled between his two attackers, catching their cross guards with his and twisted his wrists, disarmed them. As the two disarmed men began turning around Zerron kick one in the stomach and spun around catching the other in the chest with his elbow, Knocking the man over. Sheathling smacked one of her opponents in the head with the end of her pike, and then finished the other two the same way.
“Sheathling!! How many time do I have to tell you, Not to do that!” a voice shouted from behind some trees.
“Oh, good green Earth, it’s Cragnath!” Sheathling exclaimed, and proceeded to hide behind Zerron. Her blissful smile she had had when fighting was now replaced with one of childish fright.
A figure emerged from the trees and strided over to the nearest Ranger who was rubbing the back of his head. He was short and his figure was all but hidden beneath long flowing dark brown robes. His head was shaved, and his chin was accented by a long pointy beard, which was also a dark brown. He shoved the young Ranger’s hand out of the way to look at the injury. “This’ll just be a light bruise stop whining,” he muttered to the Ranger. He then looked at the others but none were seriously injured. After he was satisfied he turned his gaze to Zerron and Sheathling.
“You were lucky this time younglings,” he scalded fiercely, “Now what did I tell you about hitting people in the head!”
“Only hit someone in the head if you don’t mind killing them,” Sheathling repeated as she stepped out from behind Zerron, a bad idea. Cragnath took the opportunity to smack her upside the head. The young Ranger who had been starring at her earlier drew a breath, about to protest. Although he was silenced when Cragnath shot him a icy glare, before he turned his attention back to Sheathling.
“That's right and I can assure you that none of my Rangers would do this,” Now he was openly glaring at all the Rangers present. “The Arcane School of Rangers is much more civilized than you-”
Cragnath was interrupted when a large mass of dirt shot out from the trees, and hit him square in the back. Thus knocking him off his feet. A distant “Ha, you missed me Stragner, Entangle Roots!’ could be heard off somewhere in the trees. All the Rangers in the clearing burst out laughing.
“Y-you might want t-to check on your civ-civilived class,” Zerron struggled in between breaths, and the crumpled to the ground in a fit of laughter. Sheathling only remained standing by grabbing on to the nearest Ranger.
The indignant Cragnath stood up and turned to walk away, only to trip on his robes. This provoked the laughter to start up anew, and the Red Faced Arcane Ranger hurried off out of the clearing. A billow of dirt following in his wake. The laughter continued for a wile longer, and all the Rangers had some how found their way to the ground.
Zerron sat up and wiped tires out of his eyes, “Oh boy, hehe Stagner’s going to get it. who said that though did anyone recognize the voice.” Zerron asked looking around at his fellows.
“Who cares,” replied one, “If he hadn't missed we would have had to endear Cragnath insult us some more.”
Sheathling rolled face up and gasped in a deep breath and pulled herself up to a sitting position with Zerron’s shoulder. “Aw, poor Stragy I fell bad,” Sheathing managed to gasp out. “I’ll have to mack it up to him.”
Zerron smiled and looked over at the other Rangers, “You guys ok, sorry about the whole head thing.” he apologized looking form one face to the next.
“Naa, were fine, don’t worry about it,” one spoke up. “Ya, it was all in good fun, were fine,” another chimed in. The Rangers chatted for a while longer and then stood up and went back to their businesses
Zerron was eager to talk to Karexar so he could go to his house and just relax. Sheathling and him had been away with the army for almost two months. As much as he enjoyed camping and sitting at a evening fire surrounded by people who looked up to and respected him, there was something about being home in the Glade. Here he wasn’t high ranking or vastly looked up to. Sure he and Sheathling were prodigies but the were still very young. Age was one of the keys to respect in the Glade. Ironic being that it was almost impossible to tell how old a Ranger was. Once a person goes through the initiation ceremony their body stops aging. This being so the minimum age for the ceremony was eighteen, Zerron had waited till he was twenty five, and Sheathling had been twenty.
Zerron’s thoughts were brought to a halt when the guards stopped them at the base of the tree. “What's, your business Ranger Zerron?” interrogated one of the guards. “I’m to report to Kerexar,” Zerron replied, “He didn’t say, just told me to high tail it back here. So now I’m here.”
“All right, go on up, I don’t think he's doing anything important anyways,” the Guard replied as he let Sheathling and Zerron pass.
The Glade was built mostly in the trees, so the ground had very little development and retained most of it’s natural beauty. Karexar’s war room was at the top of the tallest tree so it had a view of the entire forest. The trees were linked by a complex bridge system that took about a life time to learn. the entire layout of the Glade. The Glade was divided into the three schools of the Rangers the very bottom was the Shadow Rangers, the spies, assassins, and lightning warriors of the Rangers. In the center was the Ranger Knights, they were the body of the Rangers, they were the warriors and diplomats. In the tops of the trees was the Arcane Rangers, the mages. This was the basic layout, the housing, store, workshops and government building were much more mixed and matched.
The Arcane Rangers had made the trees’ branches grow out and thick. They then grew a thick moss on them that was covered with dirt and then several layers more of the same. Last grass and small plants were even grown on what were now platforms in the trees. It was almost as if there were four layers of ground and you could move up and down through them. The Rangers had all the land they needed, and could simply make more if they ever ran out of room. Of course the layer were not just one piece but were broken up so some sun could even reach the bottom level.
Being that they were in the city they didn’t bother to turn when they herd footsteps behind them. Aides, messengers, and guards, and others were going up and down the pathways too. It wasn’t until Sheathling was swept up off her feet that Zerron paid attention to the person.
“Squeee! Don’t, I told you not to do that!” Sheathling exclaimed blushing slightly, as she wrapped her arms around the man’s neck.
“Well I love you to, how was your trip?” he inquired as he fell into step beside Zerron. He was almost a head taller than Zerron, with broad shoulders and wispy long hair with alternating steaks of dark green and light brown. His eyes were a light teal almost blue, and his robes were a simple green with silver embroidery of leaves running down the front and around the cuffs. On his shoulders was the magic armor of the Arcane Rangers, one of the skills they had to learn was how to turn plants into armor. His Base plant was a Red wood tree, the wood covered shoulders swooping up at the ends. The two shoulder pieces were joined on his back from the neck to halfway down his back. The front was joined by thin piece of wood that followed his collar bone, with the emblem of the Arcane Rangers at it’s center. About the size of a mans fist, was a sun burst that at it’s center was a tree flanked on both sides by a staff. Starting at about his shoulder blades was a cape of rich green moss. His belt was plane leather with many pouches of odds and ends used in spells, and fixed on his left hip was an ornate dagger made magically from the bone of a fawn. The hilt was curved slightly and the emblem of the Arcane Rangers was engraved upon both sides. The overall appearance was fearsome and would make a normal man blanch.
“It went well, the recruits performed better than what I’ve seen in a long time.” Zerron recalled as he turned his eyes back to where he was walking. “I think they’ll go far.”
“Well I’m glad your back, things were betting boring here, with no one to help me play tricks on the others.” the man replied as he smiled at Zerron, and then looked back at Sheathling, “And of course you weren’t here my dear, that was very unsettling indeed.”
Sheathling turned her head and blushed, “Oh stop it Stragner, your embarrassing me,” she said as she hit him playfully in the chest. “Besides what did Cragnath do to you when he found you?”
“He hasn’t,” Smiled Stragner, “Yet. but let’s not worry about that, what are you two up to?”
“Kerexar wants to talk to us about something, don’t know what. What about you,” Zerron asked.
“Oh, I’m here for the same reason. Don’t know what either.” Stragner said right before he gave Sheathling a light kiss on the cheek which Sheathling returned. “Well, we’ll see when we get there.
The rest of the walk was short and soon they arrived at the War room in short order. Zerron and Stragner stood and waited, Sheathling was still being held by Stragner and was enjoying playing with his hair. When the door across the room opened and a impressive looking man came out Zerron snapped to attention, and Stragner did to, as best he could, Sheathling was to busy playing to notice.
“Well finally your here took you long enough,” The man’s voice boomed staring Sheathling, and nearly making her fall out of her man’s arms. “We have much to talk about.”
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