Well That's Just Great ch. 1

Well That's Just Great ch. 1

I suppose it’s relative. If something happens, something else would have less of an effect than normal.

You have no idea as to what I am talking about, do you? I guess I should start at the beginning…

I sat at my usual spot in that particular alleyway. I’m rather fond of this spot because it is quiet and because…

Oh, sorry, I often forget to introduce myself. My name is Christian. Christian Akinos. I am 21 winters past and I do not do anything to support myself. Nothing legal, anyways. Let’s just say, I have become adept at getting things that wealthy beings would rather me not to have. A solution to a lock, a guard’s trust, locations of traps and the like.

However, tonight, I will not do anything. I had already “relieved” a nobleman of his possessions this morning and I was going to leave it at that. Yet, something felt strange. Normally, I would have a feeling of solace in this alleyway. Not tonight. Retrieving my possessions (including a hefty sum of platinum), I left my comfort spot. Upon leaving the darkness, I saw a cloaked figure to my right. I walk towards it, and it ran off, leaving a trail of embers. I followed it into an alley and finally caught up at a dead end. He seemed unresponsive, but it stared at a circle that appeared to be drawn in chalk. I felt drawn towards the circle and before I knew it, a flash of light appeared before my eyes. Closing them, there was a feeling of rapid spinning and a bit of sickness.

I opened my eyes and what I saw was ultimately empty. Was on a platform, generally 20 paces in from one end to another. And I was not the only one there. Two figures, one to my left and one to my right, were also there. To my right was a small figure in a cloak. I, however, was not to concern as to what was under the cloak, as much as to who was to my left. This man, and I use the term loosely due to the size, was brandishing a large sword. He shouted, “WHO ARE YOU?” I for one do not want to be cut in half. Answering with a quiet, “C-Christian Akino-nos.” The cloaked one remained silent. “Wh-who a-are y-y-you?” I asked. “I am Hugh Wulfsson,” he simply stated. Cloaked one was still silent.

It seems my appearance has eluded you. It was a small mistake on my part. I appear to be, ahem, female. This is not true, however, I have been able to use it to my advantage. My hair is unnaturally long and well kept, if I do say so myself. It is a shade of white with the smallest hint of silver in it. This was a result of a run-in with a particularly irate sorcerer. To this day, I simply have no clue as to why he decided to take his rage out on me. Anyways, my skin is the normal color and my eyes are a strange sight. I see why most would rather not keep eye contact with me. My right eye is a deep blue and my left eye is a little hard to describe. It’s red, but not that traditional kind. The only way to describe it is to say it is like peering into the fiery depths of hellfire. To clear anything up, this was not a result of the sorcerer. I was born in this manner. Nor am I evil, while we are still on the subject.
The cloaked figure moved to the edge of the gear and we realized that the gear was slowly, but surely, moving. It wasn’t disorienting, but strange. A trail of gears went off in one direction and I suggested, “Let’s go.” The others nodded in agreement. I went across quite easily. Hugh had a small amount of trouble, but was able to get on the large gear I was on.

Now the cloaked one did nothing, but revealed a small tuft of fur (from what I could see), and allowed it to levitate in front of him. He circled his hands around it, creating a glow and the fur disappeared. With the grace of a cat, he leapt across the trail of quickly spinning gears and ended up on our gear.

The events from then and now are extremely uninteresting. We stopped at a completely different gear. It was a horizontal cylinder and spun to the point that balance would be an issue. I barely managed and Hugh just fell after the first step. There was a loud “clunk” and I realized that the space between the platform-like gear and the floor wasn’t too far. The cloaked one produced a feather from his cloak. Once again, he circles his hands around it and it disappears. Two large wings appear and he literally flies up. I look down and jump. I was not hurt as I rolled through with the fall. The cloaked one came down and simply flew back down to where we were. It appeared as if we were on the floor. “Maybe we should start looking for an exit. I will be going this way. Hugh, go that way and you go that way,” I said. Hugh asked, “What should we do if we find one?” “Then yell,” the cloaked one stated.

Going in different directions, I began to wonder why they hadn’t complained against me telling them what to do. No time to ponder, as Hugh’s voice pierced the air. Following it, the cloaked one and I saw Hugh in front of a door. The door, unlike the rest of this structure, was wooden. There was no handle, so Hugh looked ready to charge through it. The cloaked one simply pushed it open. I laughed silently at this and exited as well. All that was “outside” was a vast expansion of black with tiny pinpoints of light protruding through it. The cloaked one started chanting something and a badger appeared from the gods know where. The badger walked off the edge. I went towards the edge as well and looked down. The badger was falling until it was too small to see. “Well, that helped,” I said, looking at the cloaked one. He made a movement, indicating acceptance of thanks.

I felt a tad bit disoriented and noticed that the platform we were on was a gear and it was moving at a near still pace. However, it was moving. I stood up and decided to walk around the gear. On another side, there was a trail of smaller, but rather large gears leading off into the distance. I called the others and we walked across. Once again, nothing of importance, besides a strange gear. It was teeming with life; however, the trees on it are growing and dying in the matter of a few moments. Hugh made a motion towards the gear, but the cloaked one and I stopped him. The cloaked one explained, “If whatever is on it would die within a few moments, what would happen to a living being entering it?” I agreed. Finding an alternate route, we walked until a wooden platform was before us. I have begun to expect the unexpected. That is a nice saying. Maybe I should say it more often. Anyways, Hugh and I walked toward the wooden platform and the cloaked one flew towards a higher level of this platform. Before he landed, the wings disappeared and he landed softly. I decided to climb up to the higher level and Hugh followed in suit. What I saw was amazing.

A large tower simply placed in the middle of the path that we were on rose to about 30 feet. I looked to the others and Hugh was amazed. The cloaked one’s face was coved by shadow. I walked forward and motioned the others to follow. We agreed that the cloaked one and I would stand on opposite sides of the doors we would not be seen and Hugh would be in front of the door to warn us of impending danger. Well, Hugh WAS the strongest in terms power. He signaled that there was nothing. I peered into the doorway and saw nothing as well. And by nothing, I mean nothing. Looking in was the equivalent to closing your eyes and covering them with a black blindfold at night. If not for the open door, it would be impossible to see anything. I walked in, dagger drawn, and saw an outline of a table, a few chairs and a stairway going up. There was no sound coming from the upper floors, so we decided to rest here. The cloaked one sat down and began casting a spell. This spell apparently involved him quickly preparing three simple spells in quick succession. This took ten minutes. The cloaked one finally stood up and took a random piece of paper, crumpling it up and casting a spell on it. This brightened the room, about twenty feet around the piece of paper. The cloaked one gave the paper to Hugh and he led the way, with me behind him and the cloaked one brings up the rear.

The second floor was as dark as the first. However, with the light that we had, I could see an outline of a cage. I told Hugh to walk towards the general area of the cage and the contents of the cage were revealed. Inside it, a very large wolf was trapped. I pulled out a pin from my pocket and picked at the lock open with ease.

What stepped out of the cage was a sight to behold. It appeared to be a wolf, however it stood on two legs and his front paws had five fingers. It wore armor and carried a pendant of a certain god. I could not remember, but it was one involving death and magic. “I thank you for your assistance. I am in your debt.” His fur was a light brown with several dark patches randomly placed. He walked over to a table and retrieved various things from it. Namely, armor and weapons. He had a type of armor I have seen knights wear and his weapon is a large mace. His eyes are an extremely bright yellow and when I looked through them, I felt a piercing feeling going through me.

“Oy! There’s more stairs over here!” Hugh pointed out. Now, our group has added a large wolf creature, which I later find out is called a Knoll, to itself. Climbing up the stairs, there was another room and another cage. As we neared it, a smaller, second cage became visible. The contents of the large cage were, surprisingly, a human. He had some regular traveling clothes, but he looked like he had more than just that. The smaller cage had a wolf. “Can you help me?” the person said. I picked the lock with ease and opened the cage. The person exited and asked, “Can you also release my wolf as well?” I shrugged and picked the lock on the smaller cage. The wolf pounced on me and I put up my arms in defense. “He must like you,” said the man I just rescued. He called his wolf over to a table close to the cage and picked up his equipment. His appearance was that of an average human. Average build, average height, normal colored skin, brown hair, brown eyes, and he appeared to be a friend of the forest. Not a druid, but something else. I cannot quite remember.

We proceeded down the stairs before we stopped. A large clocked figure appeared in front of us. He seemed to glow from his feet and he left a trail of embers as he walked. Now, I will be the first to say, this is not good. The figure threw off his cloak and revealed a creature that was not on fire, but was fire. He was flame and he didn’t look pleased. I was able to get back to the second floor before the others; however, I forgot that the cloaked one was still in front of the flame creature. This worry, however, was dispelled when he cast a spell that created a large hemi-sphere of ice around the flame creature. The ice did not show any signs of melting for a few moments and I let out a breath I had no idea know I was holding in. “That was interesting,” said the friend of the forest. Ranger! That was what they were called. The ranger kept on talking, “While the ice did help us, it also blocked our only way out of here.” Hugh spoke up, “I have to agree. What should we do?” The Knoll spoke up, “Take the woman and go to the top most floor. We should try to find an exit from there.” Many of you would be confused if you know that I am a man. However, what the others see before them is a woman, as I still haven’t stated my gender to them yet. I chose to ignore this comment for now.

Searching the third floor yielded a few locked chests and a string hanging from the ceiling. The ranger and I decided to look at the chests. The cloaked one tried to pull down the string but ended up hanging there. None of the chests revealed anything, except one. It had a large spider inside of it. Now, one would ask, who would keep a large spider in a chest? A creature made of fire, that’s who. Now, the cloaked one’s hood fell back, revealing an Elfin male. His expression was that of embarrassment. I walked over to him and tried to pull him down. Damn, whatever was holding the string was strong. And so was the string. It took both Hugh and I to finally pull him down. And the string was also pulled down, revealing a ladder and an opening. The Knoll climbed up first and Hugh followed. I ended up going up last and finally stood up on the top of the tower. The Knoll had climbed down already and the ranger was attempting to do the same. He fell the full height and landed on his feet. He bent his knees, but still looked like he was in pain. The cloaked one also fell, but was not as lucky. He fell the full height on his back. I winced in sympathetic pain and proceeded to climb down. I was able to get to the ground safely and Hugh was able to come down as well.

What we the cloaked one, Hugh and I didn’t notice was a large, monolithic city when we walked toward the tower. It looked like a normal city; however, the houses were stacked upon each other, rather than side-by-side. It was also deserted and desolate, unlike the bustling urban centers I was used to. There was a trail of gears that slowly moved and the walk towards the city wasn’t much of a hassle. Reaching the city, we looked for inhabitants. There were none, nor were there any inside of the houses. We decided to rest in one house. I, out of habit, went to a dark corner and, quite literally, disappeared into it. Ah, the joy of having shadow armor. Ahem, on with the story. Nothing happened for a while, until I heard a sound coming from the outside. Judging by the ranger’s reaction, he did too. I stood up and walked silently to the door. He was slightly put off by my sudden appearance, but he regained his composure. We agreed that I would open the door and he would be ready with a loaded bow. I opened the door and he pulled back on the arrow, but he put the bow down. I looked around the door and saw nothing. However, the sound had stopped. The ranger ran outside. I followed and saw a glimpse of a figure dart off into the city. I said to the ranger, “You go inside and rest. I’ll watch for anything else that might come around.” “But…” he started to rebut. “No, I’ll be out here, don’t worry,” I said. Now, considering the fact that he thinks I’m a woman, I batted an eyelash at him to get him to go inside. His look of embarrassment was an indication that it worked. He went inside and closed the door. I walked back and forth close to the door before the others emerged, fully rested. I decided to smile at the ranger before asking, “What is your name?” “Uh-um, uh, it’s umm, Mycel Soarts,” Mycel stammered. “My name is Christian Akinos. Nice to meet you,” I answered, extending my hand. “Umm, nice t-to meet you too,” he said, shaking my hand. “By the way,” I said, pulling him closer, “I’m a man.” The look of shock on his face was absolutely priceless.

I pointed out the direction that the mysterious figure ran in. Our group walked off in that direction but, there was nothing. The various homes were surprisingly empty. Hugh wanted to check inside one to our right and the cloaked one looked into the door on our left. Nothing in either, but a few doors down, there was a room with a table full of weapons. Hugh took a long sword; Mycel took a long bow and the cloaked one took a long bow. I don’t know why, the cloaked one is a spellcaster and isn’t much of a weapon user, but, maybe he can. I don’t know.

Once again, we walked for a while, before we saw a flight of stairs going down. Hugh volunteered to walk down first and we followed. There was nothing much, until a large wooden door. Through the sides and bottom of the door, there was a faint light coming from it. Hugh, without warning, opened the door.

And behind the door was a huge metallic figure with glowing red eyes!