Ice Village, Chapter Four: Of Wizards and Beasts

[Tessar]

First off a quick thank you to you guys who've been encouraging me to keep writing this and wanting to see more of Ice Village. It really means a lot to me that some people are actually interested in what I'm writing, and without you guys (Lief, Frog girl , AE...) I doubt that I would've kept writing it.

I've been trying to write another chapter, and today I finally managed to get this down. I think I'm happy with it, and I hope you guys will be to.


Ice Village, Chapter Four: Of Wizards and Beasts

The quiet shuffling of feet on stone was muffled, quieted along with the soft murmur of voices discussing and debating many matters. This was the most famous library out of many notable collections, and although it was never empty, it was large enough that there was always room for a little area of peace and quiet.

Dust motes swirled in torch, lamp, and sunlight, each place seeming illuminated by a different source. The floor was made from many slabs of colored marble, each one cunningly jointed and interlocked to form patterns and designs. Rising up high overhead, fluted pillars supported the massive roof, forming graceful archways from which gargoyles hung, peering down with nasty grimaces and frowns on anyone who might dare to so much as leave an ink mark on a book.

Muted, like the sound of feet and voices, a soft snore filled a little side area. A plain table had been set up, along with a comfortable chair and a small copper lamp, which could be conveniently lit as it grew darker outside. Even during the day the lamp was often needed as the large windows were mostly hidden by bookshelves of carved oak and mahogany, adorned heavily with fanciful frills and ornate designs.

The snore came from a man with a long white beard, his forehead resting gently on a book of great size and pillowishness. The book was about the Powers, and how they were sectioned away into certain talents that developed and changed over time. Not many people were at all interested in the Powers, unless of course they were training in them. It was rumored that Power Theory was a required course for Psionics and Wizards. But then again that hardly concerned the old man at the moment.

His name was Abanor, and although few knew him, many had heard of him in one form or another. He had written several books, and was in fact a teacher. He taught in class rooms, and in the library where he was currently napping, although by this time of day all his students were finished, and either at home or reading books more to their own interest. No one was near him… except for one creature.

Eyes of a shocking blue, filled with a sort of electric intelligence and energy, watched him closely, sharp teeth bared in a glimmering ivory smile. Its skin was a dark gray color, which tended to shift between a paler gray, and an earthy brown. Although it weighed little more than a human, it was easily the size of a large pony, and could carry larger burdens. It had arms and legs, although it really preferred to walk on all fours, and its cleverly joined limbs allowed it to move like a cat, and hang from walls like a monkey. Lastly, its tail was long and powerful, ending in an arrow-tip shape that went well with the membrane wings connected to its arms. A demon by all appearances.

Chuckling deeply it itself, it clung to the side of a bookcase and watched the man, every muscle tense and ready to pounce. It would not miss its target this time.

Silent as a wrath, it leapt forward, strong claws extended and ready to strike, its tail streaming behind it as it half glided and half fell towards the man. It knew its target, and it knew the job that must be done. With the barest whisper of claws sinking into soft wood, it landed in front of the man and its smile widened, sharp teeth bared as it leaned forward with mouth wide open.

[Tessar]

“Abanor you old fool, wake up. You’ve fallen asleep again and I’ve finally found just the book we need.” It hissed, its smile disappearing as it realized Abanor really had been asleep. So much for showing off.

Growling with annoyance, Zach flicked his tail and stalked off the table, sharp claws partially retracted into his fingers and toes. It really was most annoying to find the book Abanor needed only to find out the man was asleep. What a waste of a perfect landing too!

Muttering to himself, Abanor sat up and glanced around blearily, wiping his face with an ink spotted sleeve of his brown robe.

“Oh drat it all Zach you nuisance I was having a lovely dream about food!” Abanor grumbled and tried to wake himself up fully, patting at his face and trying to tug his beard back into some semblance of order.

“Well you can give food a rest for now,” Zach quipped, snapping out of its pout and flexing its tail over its head to lower a book in front of Abanor’s eyes. “By the Gods Abanor I’ve found it.” Zach’s tone became low and filled with excitement, his solid blue eyes flashed with restrained energy and his skin flushed an even darker gray as he whispered, “The book. The one we’ve been looking for. I found it on the highest shelf of some forgotten row back in the History Section. It almost looked like someone had been trying to hide it.”

Abanor’s brown eyes flashed to life, a flush darkening his cheeks as he leaned forward and took the book. “You found it?” he hissed eagerly, flipping open the book’s dusty cover and scanning the first page quickly. “Yes… Yes… Oh Zach… you found it!” now wide awake, Abanor pushed to his feet and was about to take off for the library’s exit when a clawed hand slapped down over his and stopped him from leaving.

“Don’t. Move. A muscle.” Zach hissed, blue eyes wide and seeming to flick back and forth, although it was hard to tell since he had no discernable iris. His skin was changing color again, melding into a paler gray as if the blood were draining away from his entire body. “There’s something watching us, I can sense it. I caught a glimpse of it in the area where I found the book, but I thought it had run away.” The sudden change from eager energy to this sudden tenseness was surprising and quite unexpected.

Frozen, and excitement now replaced with a sense of uneasiness, Abanor didn’t argue or bother to question his friend’s judgment. Zach was a magical beast, created in an experiment long ago. He could sense things in the way Wizards and Psionics could ‘feel’ the area around them. Also his instincts were animal, and sharper than any dog’s.

“Yes… Yes it’s coming towards us… Abanor it’s one of the gargoyles. I can see it, it’s just above us, barely moving now.” Zach’s voice was calm, but there was no mistaking the tone of fear that penetrated his words.

“What shall we do?” Abanor asked tensely, his instincts telling him to run, or do something other than stand and wait with an enemy so near that he couldn’t see yet.

“We will do nothing,” Zach’s tail gave a predatory flick and then flipped around, tapping the book, which Abanor still clutched tightly. “You my friend will run as if a beast of the Core Lands is after you, I will keep it busy.”

“No!” Abanor whispered sharply, his eyes narrowing. “I’m not totally helpless you know, and I’m not going to leave you to that thing. You’re afraid of it, and I know very well that gargoyles don’t come alive for no reason, they’re not supposed to anyways.”

“Abanor look,” Zach began, and then cut off midsentence as he leapt forward, tackling Abanor and throwing the old man down to the floor. Behind them the table shattered and broke into a thousand flying fragments as a heavy weight slammed down onto it, a bestial roar filling the air with its grating noise, like two boulders smashing together.

“JUST RUN.” Zach yelled, twisting and throwing himself on the massive beast that now stood where the table had been, surrounded by swirling dust and a strange gray powder.

[Tessar]

Half dazed and already hurting, Abanor got to his feet as quickly as he could, grasping a bookshelf for support and gazing in horror at the two animals that were now locked in combat. Zach’s strong claws were fully extended, and his eyes glowed with an electric fire as his strongly muscled arms and legs tore at his foe. The gargoyle was just as well equipped, and clearly the stronger of the two. Abanor observed that the thing was still dead, simply animated by some cantrip, and powdered stone fell from it with each movement.

Clutching the book, Abanor turned and ran, his legs carrying him faster than he would’ve thought they could, but still at little more than a speedy shamble. If the thing was just an animated beast it had to have some one controlling it, and some one nearby. Abanor’s strengths were in other places than controlling things, but he knew how to deal with magic.

Pulling a small ring out of a pocket, Abanor slipped it on and halted his run behind a bookshelf. The ring was set with a softly glowing emerald, and as he extended his arm away from his body the glow flickered slightly and began to fade. Swinging his arm around towards the sounds of battle brought the glow back, and pointing his arm a little to the side of the battle made the emerald light up with a green fire. It was a Wizard’s Device, and an ancient item that could sense magic being used.

With a grunt, Abanor pushed himself away from the bookshelf and began shuffling off as quickly as he could towards the area indicated by the ring. Oh yes, he had ways of dealing with wizards.


~*~

Zach moved with blinding speed; attacking, leaping back, and then moving forward again almost too fast for a physical creature. Not, however, too fast for the gargoyle. Zach didn’t know or care where the thing had come from, and being a magical creature himself he wasn’t at all surprised to meet the gargoyle, which he knew had been normal stone only hours before. His mind was centered on one objective: buying Abanor enough time to get out of the library with the book. If he managed to destroy the beast, fine. If not, he was sure he could get away.

Lashing out with his tail, Zach wrapped it snuggly around his opponent’s neck and throttled the gargoyle, slashing away at its stone eyes with his claws and scoring deep gouges across its rocky face.

“Hah, thought you were a little too tough for me?” Zach laughed and unwrapped his tail, lashing out in a whip like motion that drove the gargoyle back with stinging blows. He was beginning to feel confident now. After the first few moments it had quickly become apparent that although the gargoyle was stronger, Zach was faster and smarter. Seventy-eight years of living in the wild had taught Zach how to fight almost anything. Almost anything.

A half-seen flicker of light and heat approaching him caused Zach to forget his attacks and throw himself to the side, a lance of fire slamming into the floor with enough force to crack the marble and blacken it’s colored surface. Before Zach could move again, swift as he was, a blast of air carried him up and backwards, catching in his wings and tumbling him forcefully against a wall. A thrill of fear ran through Zach and he latched his claws into the wall to keep from falling, his tough nails sinking into the soft mortar and pitted rock easily enough.

Standing, almost hidden by a bookshelf, a blue clad man was making gestures and waving his arms around, a glittering ball of light was forming in front of him and green sparks leapt wildly from it. Zach sensed a great deal of magical strength in the man, and a shudder ran through him as he noticed that an extra flick of the man’s fingers set the gargoyle in motion again. If the gargoyle managed to pin Zach down… well then that would be the end of it.

Then a flicker of brown appeared behind the wizard, who turned as if hearing a sound he didn’t expect. With a strangely awkward motion, the wizard made as if to duck, but was arrested mid-movement by a chair slamming into his stomach. As he reeled away, the chair appeared again and broke over his back. Zach finally caught a glimpse of the chair-wielder and almost laughed. Abanor, looking as angry as Zach had ever seen him, was now bludgeoning the downed wizard with a hefty book and yelling something that Zach couldn’t quite make out.

It didn’t take long to destroy the gargoyle after that; Zach’s claws were effective and well suited to the task of dismembering just about anything. A little rock was no problem at all.

As the dust began to settle again, and silence returned, neither of the friends bothered with words; a quick look around and they were off, moving swiftly through the library and away from the wreckage of their formerly peaceful area. It was for sure now; they weren’t the only ones who were still hot after the book, but they were the first ones who had found it, whatever good it might do them now.

[Tessar]

Alllllll righty, please let me know what you think.

I'm sorry to break away from Danlor and Mariel, but this will be an important part of the story later on.

One thing that I should probably explain is the idea of 'The Power'.

All 'talents' come from The Power. Psionics, Wizardry, and several other skills that will pop up later in the story are all part of it. This means that Psionics and Magic and all the other talents are related, but are still distinct and unique in their own ways. Because of this though, no one can learn to be a Wizard AND a Psionic, which are the ‘main’ two talents currently known. Some talents are passed down through family lines though, so you could be a wizard or Psionic and have another ‘lesser’ talent.

The library that Abanor and Zach are in is in the city of Camin, which if you'll remember is the largest city in one of the largest sections of land (the lands of Rothmog, which Danlor protects).

That also brings us to Zach. You'll find out more about him in the next chapter, but I just wanted to say that in reality he looks a LOT like a gargoyle, except without the horns and he's an intelligent being . Trust me, he's in the next chapter.

And yes, THEN we'll get back to Danlor and Mariel.

[Tessar]

Hey wow, I got two chapters written today .

Hehe, it's nothing terribly exciting, but I still can't let it out till I've written chapter four and a half . You guys are gona need a little history lesson and geography lesson.

[Lief Erikson]

Finished reading the chapter. Good action sequence, in terms of the way you wrote it. You may want to set up more of a plot though, for readers to get a glimpse of. At present in the story I'm seeing quite a lot of unexplained fighting for a beginning.

All 'talents' come from The Power. Psionics, Wizardry, and several other skills that will pop up later in the story are all part of it. This means that Psionics and Magic and all the other talents are related, but are still distinct and unique in their own ways. Because of this though, no one can learn to be a Wizard AND a Psionic, which are the ‘main’ two talents currently known. Some talents are passed down through family lines though, so you could be a wizard or Psionic and have another ‘lesser’ talent.

The library that Abanor and Zach are in is in the city of Camin, which if you'll remember is the largest city in one of the largest sections of land (the lands of Rothmog, which Danlor protects).

That also brings us to Zach. You'll find out more about him in the next chapter, but I just wanted to say that in reality he looks a LOT like a gargoyle, except without the horns and he's an intelligent being . Trust me, he's in the next chapter.

These details you probably should write into the story. I know we have the advantage of hearing information from you about these things, and that's very convenient. But for other readers, these kinds of details had best be written about within the tale.

Good writing, and I'm waiting for more .

[Tessar]

Originally posted by Lief Erikson
Finished reading the chapter. Good action sequence, in terms of the way you wrote it. You may want to set up more of a plot though, for readers to get a glimpse of. At present in the story I'm seeing quite a lot of unexplained fighting for a beginning.

You know that's a very good point that I had totally forgotten... All that fighting and no one but me has any clue why. *hits himself*

Heh, I'll have to work that into the next chapter... Sorry. *cough*

[Earniel]

Originally posted by Tessar
First off a quick thank you to you guys who've been encouraging me to keep writing this and wanting to see more of Ice Village. It really means a lot to me that some people are actually interested in what I'm writing, and without you guys (Lief, Frog girl , AE...) I doubt that I would've kept writing it.

Nehheh. I'm glad we've managed to keep you writing because I really enjoy reading your stories. You use just the right amount of humour and descriptions in your stories that I like.

Zach sounds like a very interesting magical critter. If I imagine him the way you write about him, I get some nice mental images of him.

*eagerly awaiting next chapter*

[Tessar]

Hehe, thank YOU.

*sigh* Would you believe that I tried to write this really serious, sad, touching story a few months ago... and totally flubbed it? I couldn't help myself; there was something so tragically FUNNY about it I was throwing in humor and plays on words everywhere.

I think the Blessing of the Music (the one with the boy who heard songs in his head ) is the most serious story I've EVER written.

[Earniel]

Nehheh, yes, I can believe that. One can't have both ways, I suppose. The Blessing of the Music... I don't think I have read that one. Have you posted it here on the writer's workshop?

[Tessar]

Click me! CLICK ME!

If you want to torture yourself by reading the story, by all means click on the manic button .

[Earniel]

Originally posted by Tessar
If you want to torture yourself by reading the story, by all means click on the manic button .

Hm, torture? That doesn't sound all too encouraging...

Oh well.... *clicks*

*reads*

This is indeed more serious. See? You can write serious stuff.

Asaar, that name rings a bell. Didn't you use it for a character in the Hytorax?

[Tessar]

Yes, to my sin, I reuse char names a LOT.

I have a wheel of time Danlor, an Ice Village Danlor, a star wars Danlor, and there will likely be more Danlors in the future.

I have a final fantasy Asaar, a Lord of the Rings Asaar (who I have no clue what happened to him, I got busy with other stuff and lost touch with the RPG for a while), I think I almost had an Ice Village Asaar too. Oh yes, lets not forget my Wheel of Time Asaar.

Lets not even get into my new favorite name: Adiar. There are so many Adiars, Elises, and Mariels I just don't know what to do with them all.

[Arat-Falathion]

Hehe Indeed very nice written, and although Lief has a point on the reason for the fight in this sequence, that could be written later and rather be used as a tool for the writer to read on at this point.

The action sequence was nicely written, the whole capitle better then the others. I find it funny how every new chapter is better then the last you put up

I don't think going away from Danlor at this point was a bad thing. 2 chapters with Danlor, introducing Mariel. Then one chapter with Abanor and Zack... not dumb introducing more than one main character always work seducively on me Again, I can't wait for the next chapter to arrive