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nick-writes-stuff-blog · 7 years ago

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In a Realm of Gods and Trees Ch. 2

Kel sat in the saddle of Sepulcher with the sort of self-satisfaction only brought on by the promise of great reward. Done with the tiredness and loneliness that came with hard travel Kel was sitting and imagining all of the amazing things that were waiting for him in town. A warm comfy bed, a long hot bath, plenty of home-cooked meals. However most important to Kel and what plagued his mind like a bee to thistles, women. Kel thought pervasively of all the pretty town girls and cute barmaids that would surely be everywhere in this small town. A beautiful broad every five steps he took. All wanting to talk to this seasoned trader. Desperately begging him to take them away from their boring lives and go travel the lands with him. He would tell them grand stories of his life in the plains, his travels to the grand port city of Caldran, and he would tell them of his courageous encounter with the wildcat. By the end of it all he'd have more women in his bed then he knew how to deal with (not that he knew how to deal with only one). Kel was shaken out of his revery by the feeling of being watched yet again. He thought briefly back to the same feeling when he had encountered the cat and a shiver of fear ran down his spine. Following his stalkers gaze he looked up to meet his fate and realized that he was just staring back at the Pillar of Stone looming high in the sky. He shook his head and snorted at his own fearfulness glad it was only his senses messing with him this time.

The wind whispered in Kels ear as he stared straight into the sky. Looking at the passing white wisps of clouds as if they all rushed to hold council above the looming Pillar of Stone. One of the ones that passed was especially noteworthy because it looked like the spitting image of a sitting cat. When Kel saw it he blinked hard and furrowed his brow in concern. Such was the superstition of his homeland that the clouds often told of the future. Even though it was obvious blasphemy against their now One God the people of Shee Aresh have always looked to skies in search of fair weather and prosperous lands. His people had always followed these clouds and appointed a family within each clan to read them. His family had been one those families. Which is why he had taken his mother's title of Cloudseer when he had come of age. All of that was behind him now. All the clouds in the world couldn't have stopped what happened to his homeland. Why would he trust the clouds now? When everything he knew had been wiped away. “Brrr” Sepulcher winning as Kel was lost in thought. Kel shot his head straight forward just in time to see a dog like a figure scurry across the road. A few seconds later a human-like figure scurried just as fast across the road chasing after it. Kel tilts his head slightly in confusion and flicks the reins of Sepulcher lightly. The mare walks reluctantly up to the spot where the two creatures had crossed the road and Kel looks to the left where they ran into the woods. He can see the obvious flattening of where they had run and looks at it contemplatively. He shakes his head and turns back to the road when a human cry comes from the direction the creatures had run. He sighs loudly at his curiosity and dismounts Sepulcher quickly.

Kel ventures into the forest stepping carefully over the tall grass and bountiful greenery. The tall evergreens begin to block out the sun as Kel quests out the trail left behind by the figures on their chase. As Kel treks through this dark wood, a feeling washes over his being. Like a wave washing through his system and catching in the tide pool of his heart. He stopped in his place as his eyes widened to the scene around him. All the plants seemed to glow with inner light and for a second Kel felt every emotion the plants were feeling. He could see the roots spreading under the floor, intertwining with each other to create a massive web. He saw the flow of life, death mixed with birth and all the growth in between. The wind breezed through him, the sun warmed his upturned his face, and water flowed through the roots spread below him. His soul was with the forest. Then Kels eyes refocused and again he was just a man. He looked down at his hand is exasperation and felt the wonder of what just happened as familiar confusion crept into his thoughts.

#my writing #fantasy #druid #writing #writers #author #forest

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nick-writes-stuff-blog · 7 years ago

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In A Realm of Gods and Trees

The wind blows lightly through Kels hair, ruffling it as his father had time and time again. He bounced up and down on Sepulcher, his large pitch black horse, on this dusty road. He rode the black steed with all the deftness of a grievously overweight cat and his skill had quite the horrid effect on his bum. He shifted in the saddle slightly trying desperately to regain feeling in his rear, then let out a sigh as he settled back into the saddles painful embrace. The mare plodded along unaware of his plight on the rough road of gravel and mud. The rain of the day before still evident by the brown puddles pockmarking the road. The air still smelled of dampness as Kel stared deeply into the road winding in front of him. Willing, as if by magic, to summon the ever-longed-for town from its depths. Kel didn’t yet have that mastery so instead, he let out a long sigh and continued onward at the ambling pace of his father’s black mare.

Kel rode somberly as he looked out into the setting sun. His thoughts till plagued with the plains of home. His melancholy gaze shifted and he stared at the trees a long distance away that sits like a hallway through the green plains. They followed the Great Rivers winding path as if it were the carpet laid down in the hall for travelers to tread upon. He stared in blank awe at the scene lit with the ambiance of a setting sun while Sepulcher walked the narrow road ringing a large grass coated hill. Kel knew that after he rounded it the Great River would follow his path and as he followed its banks he would be close to his destination. The quaint hillside hamlet amply named Hilbogan, a small timber town nearest to the border of the Great Forest. A town therefore widely known for its cutting of the trees in the Great Woods and highly sought after for its trade of the strong dark wood simply known as Greatwood. Perfect for the large houses of the wealthy landowners that now began to claim the hills of this newly conquered land. Kel was supposed to meet with his father Trellis after Kels successful trade deal with the raving nomads of these wayward plains. Kel had gone out on his own for only the second time as a full-fledged trader and had bargained a shipment of an assortment of iron for some much needed dried meat and grain. He had then taken that stock of foodstuffs to the peoples in the city of Caldran selling them mostly to the owner's travelers inns and waystations. Now after that year-long adventure of boredom and wonder Kel was on his way to meet his father again. He was to pay him back on the initial stock loan for the iron and then spend some much-forgotten bonding time with his aged father. Kel realized then deep in the thought of his travels that the eternal clock in the heavens seemed to be winding down into darkness. As the light begins to dwindle Kel ventures slowly down the other side of the hill following the trail to the bottom. The darkness grows to that special time of day called twilight and Kel ventures off the faint road and dismounts. Taking his worn dusty mount to the small stream and finds an area to begin the makings of a small campfire. He works at the flint with his cold steel knife given to him by his father on the first day of his 12th year of birth and the sparks take quickly to his pile of dry grass and sticks. He wanders back to find Sepulcher as the mare blends into the darkness. Kel takes out a grain cake from a pouch in his pack and feeds it to the greedy mare. Petting him softly on the head as he chews on the cake. He then unstraps his bedroll and the small chest hanging onto Sepulchers side. Then takes off the saddle and riding blanket and walks back over to his quaint fire. Kel brushes down his mare slightly as the fire grows, making long strokes down the side of the beast while she begins to lower her head.

“You did a great job riding today Sepulcher” Kel whispers in her ear.

“We have traveled far together and I am glad that I could make this journey on your powerful back” Kel moves to look into the mares black eyes.

“Thank you,” He says sincerely and then moves to settle down to the warmth of a fire under the watchful gaze of the night sky. Kel sits, quietly staring into the flames and like most nights is reminded of his home.

His tribe had always been a family to him and even though they traveled far like the rest his people, the plains of Shee Aresh will always be his true home. His only roof the open sky and his only walls the feet that carry him. Kel sighs at the memories and opens the small chest made of strong dark oak, inlaid with an iron band and, with a small, cut emerald set into the top. Using the key wrapped around his calf he unlocks the heavy padlock on the front and looks inside. Taking out the cloth that muffles the jingling Kel peers inside to see his gold in the same place he had left it. Then, like every other night, Kel counts out 43 pieces of gold, 16 silvers, and 20 coppers. As well as 3 cut rubies, a silver necklace, and the large geode that was left to him. He takes out the large geode and holds it close to the fire. It begins to glow faintly to Kel and he admires the windlike patterns painted on the outside of it. A small gift from his long-dead mother, given to him by his grandmother on the day of his manhood.

Kel slept fretfully through the night in the midst of a strange dream. Walking through a quiet woods he stumbles through the brush with something clutched in his hands. Behind him, a fire blazes to the heavens and comes raging at his back. Kel runs. He bursts through the foliage at a sprint into the moonlit clearing and sees a large lake spanning the entirety of it and a small island floating in the middle like the lone star in a dark sky. He doesn't stop his speeding momentum and runs straight into the lake. Falling on on his face a couple times and cursing the gods he wades and eventually begins to all-out swim to the center island. Looking back as he paddles hard he sees the burning forest beginning to reach the very place he had just stood. He finally makes it to the shining center heaving and rises slowly from the water. He then stands soaking wet and looks up eyes widening at the thing before him. A woman over two heads taller than Kel in a draping dark green gown that flows out from her in the nonexistent breeze. While large twisting antlers like pale branches sprout from atop her head. She felt like a star brought to earth radiating with a foreign light and comforting warmth. A being seemingly not of this world but made from it at the same time. Her hair was a dark brown streaked with fluorescent white and her face...

“Oh, blessed gods” Kel whispered softly in blank horror.

One side of her face was a mask of beauty. Perfect full, red lips, a jaw carved from delicate marble, and skin as white as a floating cloud. The other side, however. It was covered in horrible scabbing burns, still red from the fires that had touched them. A face tainted by the fire with her dark green eyes piercing through with hidden pain. The contrast left him in shock and Kel stared open-mouthed at the tarnation of beauty.

“Stop,” she said in a voice no louder than a breeze and more resonant than the song of a bird.

“Please stop it”

All he could hear was the pain in her voice and the distress in his own heart, the fire, and the world muffled around him. He looked up at her and pleaded with himself. Stop what? What could I possibly do against the fires that burn away such a powerful beauty? He knelt down before her crushed by his powerlessness and the fierceness of her pain.

“I'm sorry” He croaked out through his own unfamiliar pain.

He knew inside that the distress he felt was nothing compared to hers but he could only feel sorry for himself and his own weakness.

“The only weak ones are the ones that give in,” She says to him with a voice full of strain that brushes past his ear as the exhale of a sigh.

Kel furrows his brow hard in anger at his own weakness. Through the scorn of this godly spirit, he fills himself with the rage of a man defeated. Despising his own self he looks back up at her with resolve in his eyes and self-sacrifice in his soul. As he does his face contorts to confusion and as the fires rage around him. The goddesses hand lowers down with fingers splayed out above him. She places her hand on his face as her own smolders and looks into him with her sharp, emerald, piercing gaze.

Kel sits up quickly as he wakes from sleep after the distressing dream. He sits in his sleeping roll at early dawn gasping for breath and places his hand on his face where the goddess had just put hers. He could still feel her fingers like hot coals lining his face. He looked around frantically in a panic and then seeing only the treeline to his right and the road to his left he began to slow his breathing. What in the hell was that dream? How did it seem so real? He felt at his face and clothes still testing reality and then crawled out of his warm bedroll determined to move on with his day. Now was not the time for contemplation. He had to meet with his father in two days so that he could report the fruits of his travel. Hopefully, the look in his father's eyes would finally make this year-long trek well worth it.

Kel rolled up his bedroll and packed it back onto Sepulcher. After such a fretful night Kel was ready to move along back to civilization. He gathered up the rest of his things slinging his pack over his back. As he fiddled with the straps he realized something. His lockbox was nowhere to be seen. Frantically he searched around the fire pit looking around where he had last placed it. His mind ran thunderously as he laid out every possibility of its location. Dread filled him as he couldn't find it and he began to panic that a wayward thief had stolen it in the night. Kel starts to expand his search at a rapidly increasing pace. Circling outward he rustles the ground as he goes. Suddenly Kel feels a dreading foreboding in his chest. Not quite the same as the one he had been feeling for his lost lockbox. His hands start to get sweaty and his eyes dart around feverously. The feeling of being stalked sinks deep into his heart. Kel looks into the treeline as Sepulcher dances and whinnies behind him. His eyes lock on the beast, wide in fear of what stalks him. A large cat about half the size of Sepulcher paces back and forth. Kel watches it frozen as it stalks toward him. Rippling muscle of a born wild killer, spiked paw padding after spiked paw as it crouches low into the small clearing. Kel jumps with surprise as he realizes that his strongbox is clutched in the cat's mouth like a newborn. Kel also notices that the cat's teeth and claws are covered in fresh blood and a new wave of fearful recognition flows through him. Sepulcher whinnies again and starts to prance backward away from the predator. Kel stands his ground in awe and fear as the cat approaches him slowly. Kel wonders why he isn't dead yet and the cat suddenly drops the strongbox on the ground in front of him. Kel stares down in awe as the cat peers up at him. He looks into its eyes and sees the want deep inside of them. Kel reaches his hand around and without much thought begins to scratch behind the large mountains cat's ear. As he does Kel realizes a long needle protruding from its neck. He reaches back to pull it out and the cat makes a low growl as he does. Kel leans back to stand straight over the cat and displays the needle. The cat looks at it for a while and with sudden recognition turns around suddenly and runs back into the forest. Kel stands there looking at the retreating beast and slowly begins to realize what just happened. He looks down at his hands and furrows his eyebrows in confusion. Shaking his head of the questions that plague him he takes the weird experience and goes off to mount Sepulcher. He finds him circling around the road fretfully and holds onto his reins. Kel begins to pet Sepulchers head as he again goes deep into thought about the events of this morning and last night. Kel shakes his head yet again and swings up onto his now calmed mount. Starting on the road toward Hilbogan again feeling like someone different.

#fantasy #writing #my writing #story

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