!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> Send this to Ben periodicaly. Oh, I was thinking Peregrine when I made the name, didn't realize I took it from...well, you know. : ) Prolouge 'Where are you going?' Alodain asked, huffing and puffing to catch up. 'Celebrations of our victory, hmph, all celebrations, for that matter, are things you like, but not I, as you know very well.' replied Raldun on his noble stead, Lightfoot, and with a staff tapered to a point slung over his sholder. 'What are you saying? I DO know you quite well. Well enough to know that you are up to something.' Raldun pressed out a faint smile, 'Very well indeed. As was said before, my line has but one purpose, to fight evil where it is, and the evil is now gone from here, most of it at any rate. Others can vanquish what is left, if they don't, my line will have to return again, as the evil will grow.' 'May I go with you?' 'Your place now is here, perhaps someday.' 'Where will you go?' 'I have seen in a dream of the night before last that the east is in danger. Not the near, nor the far, but to the ends of the earth I will go before I return, if ever. But first to the east.' 'To the east? As you will, my lord.' 'My friend, as time goes on you will understand, all things happen as set by the One, that is the way of things, I am His, and do as he says. Even this that I did was of His will.' 'Will your name be changed?' 'If it will, you will know it. Time is now, farewell, my friend.' Alodain sniffed back a tear or two, 'Farewell my friend, may you be kept well til we meet again.' 'May your shadow never grow shorter, Alodain, the Hero of The Land of Rhun.' As Raldun rode away on Lightfoot, he gave Alodain one last pleasure, he sang a quiet song. Quiet indeed, but softly caried on the back of the wind and the front and sides thereov as well. The words have all but been forgoten, but the few that remember sing them in their minds and all that comes from their mouths is a low hum. But these are the words as the oldest of the old and the wisest of the wise remember them to be: 'To the east I now go, to lands I do not know, to wander once again, for others both big and thin. To vanquanish evil to the hill and the dale, for ever to wander or not, what a care! To lands I've not been to, my friend, perhaps to come again, or not that it may be well, never again to drink of this ale. Along the neverending road, and the farest way, farewell, friend Alodain! until another day! The land I leave now will be changed some day!' And thus ended the Second age as the world was changed. . . (Low pitch horn and slight drum roll) The sound of many feet beating rapidly across the plains from the west marsh, sweaping into the city on the fronteer of The Long Marshes, the city of Calidun, the farthest west outpost, east of the marshes, west of the mountians of Rone. The moonlight cast no light on the shadow figures as they set the city ablaze with the citezens scurring away to the east. Some of the small populace escaped into the night, but many were cut down or killed in their beds, weather or not they were asleep. The few there that could wield a sword were no match for the tall, dark, strong and smelly shadows of the night. They could barely be seen, much less fought. The small city on fire, the dark warriors gathered togather to leave. The shadow pulled togather out of the city and into the night, as a swarm of some dark, evil insect, leaving the city in shambles. But one shadow, the bigest you've ever seen, was in mortal combat with a man. Fighting with a staff that tapered into a point as a spear, glowing white in the firelight, with a long black cape that gave him the appearance of a shadow as well, he fought deftly and skillfully against his almost invisable foe. A foe that had a black axe, one that looked evil like it's wielder. The blade was a cresent with spikes eminating from the top half of it, making it double as a mace. The wooden staff clashed with the axe, never failing, never bending or chiping. When three of the shadows returned, they watched, as the warrior with the staff stabbed the point into the shadow as a shriek shot out around the city. The three shadows covered the warrior. Two more shrieks went out as two shadows fell from the frey. The last shadow was stabbed through as well, but without a sound. As it fell, it whirled a flash of black and a sword sliced through the warrior, and he fell to the ground. Leaving his staff on the ground, he pulled himself with his last strength near a house on fire. The flames jumped all around him and he vanished without a trace, the greatest vanishing act ever seen by anyone in those parts, but only one boy saw it, and he forgot it soon after… (A short series of horns ending with a high note) Chapter 1 It had been a decade and a half since that tragety. The boy was a young man now. Filled with the burning passion of his ancesters to go out and see the world around him. He found himself at a loss, however, on what exactly he should do. So, he went to the ancient library, where his teacher, guardian, and good friend would surly be on a day like this. It was the first day of the autoum, the leaves on the trees were not yet gold, but soon the world would decorate itself with shades of red and orange and gold as the trees changed into their autoum clothes. He thought surely the Elder One would be there, he always was, so anyone who needed help could come to him. Upon arriving at the library however, he found that his mentor was not anywhere to be found. The wood walls showed no sign of trouble except that several books were missing. The library was one big room. It had wood walls with windows placed piriodicaly on the walls, three on each except the front which had two and the double doors in the middle. The bookshelves went all around the walls, the reading tables were in the middle, and the checking-in/-out was done at the desk at which the boy’s friend always sat. The boy went to the desk and throughly searched it only to find that it was completely empty except a torn piece of paper which had a obviously hastally scribbled message on it. The note read: “Must go quickly, no time for ceremony. Time is short, go to my house and get the cloak and staff, then go north on the old path.” The youth knew exactly which path the message was referring to, so he stuffed the note into his pocket and dashed to his mentor’s house. Upon arriving, he found it in quite a shambles. Things were broken and all the most valuable things had been taken. But by the door, lay an old, brown, cloak and a walking staff that his mentor had always with him, except, it appeared, on this day. The boy took the cloak and tied it to, leaving the hood down on his back. He decided, on a hunch, to go into the kitchen. It to was a shambles, but on the ground lay his backpack. I must have left it here, he thought to himself. He took it and found it was loaded with things, but he didn’t know why. He strapped it on over the cloak he now wore. He suddenly felt uneasy, so he made his way to the door. Then out of the corner of his eye, he saw the staff laying on the ground and remembered that he was to get it too. He took it and headed out the door. He went to the north side of town, the house was the farthest north all alone, apart from any other, just like its former owner. Spotting the path, the boy took off down it. After a good deal of running, he found it was getting on to evning. The path wound around hills and streams only occasionally crossing any. The path was old indeed. It had been around for longer then the library, one of the oldest buildings in the town and the only one that was saved from the flames of the past. The boy remembered his mentor teaching him things as they walked this path, but they always returned, never following the path to its end. As the day drew to a close, he finally found out what was at the end, or so he thought at the time. The path went up a hill surrounded by bright trees with golden leaves. The path emerged at the other side where he saw a small shack with a stream that quickly became a river going away to the west. All was quiet, too quiet he thought. Stabbed into the ground before him he saw a sword. He reached for it and examining it saw only an old, dull sword. He set the staff down and peered ahead into the dark shack, as evning was now quite on. “HAHAHHAHAH!!!!” Came a sinister laugh from inside the shack, “What a fool! He has fallen into my trap! I will now have quite a trophy to take home to my master…” Out of the shack steeped a hulking black hulk. A harry, muscled, smelly, black thing (the boy could not think of a name to describe it) wearing an old black cloak and heaving on it’s back, a tied up old man. “You are a great trouble, so I will deal with you both while you are still weak.” It dropped the old man, the boy’s mentor, and pulled out a black, ball-n-chain mace. “With this I will bash in your head!” It yelled as it charged at him. The boy was caught off guard, but managed to jump to the side in time so that the spiked ball missed his head. The hulking shadow twirled the mace over its head and made another charge. The boy sidestepped again, but was caught by the shadow’s left arm that sent him to the ground. The shadow turned and pulled out three balls held together by ropes. He threw this at the boy who had just gotten to his feet. It wrapped around his feet as he jumped away, tripping him and bringing him to the ground. The shadow charged again. The boy could see his life flashing before his eyes, this was the end…then out of nowhere, the staff flashed by, as did a young man, though a few years older then the boy still, who was swinging the staff. The butt end of the staff caught the shadow in the face, knocking him back and down. With the pointed end of the staff, he cut the boy free from the ropes. “Hi, need a hand?” He asked with a smile. “Use your sword, we’ll surround him, and attack from both sides!” “Yahoo!” The boy on the ground yelled as he jumped to his feet. “Let’s do it!” The young man twirled the staff, he was obviously skilled with such a weapon, and he charged forward with a yell. Pointed end first, he sped by as the shadow jumped to the side. Whirling around, he placed several quick blows and sidestepped every crushing mace swing with speed and agility. He jumped away, just out of the mace’s range. He looked at the boy and yelled “Now!” The boy charged forward madly slashing with the blade and the young man stabbed with the staff’s point. At exactly the same moment, the sword and the staff struck through the shadow. The staff going in the front and out the back, and the sword going in the back and out the front…the shadow colappsed into a heap as both the sword and staff were pulled out from ether side with a jerk. Chapter 2 “What happened? Who are you?” the boy asked. “Don’t you know me, Raldun? I’m Paragrin, and I’m tied up, would you help me?” The man tied on the ground asked. “Oh, Yes sir!” Raldun, the boy, ran over to his long time friend and sliced through the ropes with the sword. “Who was that who helped me? Wait, he took the staff!” “Oh, it’s all right. I was looking for him, he just went on ahead. I really have to talk to you. It’s much more important.” “What is all this about, Paragrin?” His mentor let out a sigh, and closed his eyes for a moment. “It was long ago, my son, I met a viliant man who was leaving my homeland, quite possibly forever. I made a decision. My family had been killed in the war that had just ended, and I was all alone. You see, in the closing battles of the war, the enemy leader, one who’s name is still feared, sent all his avalable troops and all those that were out of his relm, but not fighting, he sent them all on a mission to make the lands against him suffer for what they had done. He knew they were going to win the war against him, so he sent all those to set fire all that they could. They couldn’t do much, now that there were so few of them, but they destroyed several small villages, and one small town. My family lived there…” “I’m sorry…” “Hmm, I would have become bitter, but for this man. He agreed to teach me the ways of an adventurer, and I so enjoyed it all! We traveled around all the world and back again I came with his son…You see, I am an elf, at least in part, the long life in me comes from that. Each son, and one daughter, of that man I taught and took care of, and then traveled with. Each one had only one child. And I was with many of them when they died, weather of sickness, battle, or old age. Finnaly, I decided to rest and here was the place I picked. Far from kingdoms and shadows, wars and battles, I left that man’s decendants to do as they should, I was getting to old for all the traveling…But, I was destained to run across the line of his family again... "One night, a dark shadow rose up again and burned the city to the ground, all except the library, which was saved. A man with the same staff battled and killed four of them as the others left. Swing and stab, one down, two, three! But alas! the fourth went down, but pulled one last trick, a quick but cheap shot, taking the man down. The man managed to escape, but he left behind two sons, his staff, and his cape, I can only think he was not to return, but I could be wrong… “I took it upon myself to raise his two sons, on but a boy, and the other a bit older. The older one left away, but I have kept up with him, he did not wander, by my wish, but stayed until I would go, for he is wise and saw my plight. He was here, he was the one who saved you. You two are unique, the first of your line to have a sibling… "But now, to my point, Raldun. You have the name of the man who brought and taught me. I have been far from my kind for many years, an age, in fact, or more.” Paragrin’s eyes flasher open, burning with a fire and a twinkle of his age, all at once. “My kind have a yearning to go west, across the Sea, to the land of no death, once they have tired of these lands, my time, is now…” “But, Paragrin…” Raldun’s eyes began to fill with tears. “Wait! I have not gone yet! Save the tears, or shed them not at all! I will go to a place where I can rest peacfully and contently after all the years I have wandered the world. I have grown weary and need rest, perhaps I will return someday, it has happened before, but only in great need. Your brother has supressed the urge of his linage for adventure, and it has now begun to come to you. It is time that we journey west, far west.” “But the marshes? How will we cross them? It is said evil things lurk there…” “No fear, Raldun, we will not go by foot. A dark power is near, and I will help you fight it before I go again to the Sea where I was born. It is in the marshes, but we can not go there easily. Your brother, however, has fixed the problem for us. He has made many things, but he has a love for the heavens. He has made a diamond and a triangle that he ties to a string and they will fly, most of the time, anyway. He has wanted to grace the skies himself, so he made a flying machine-.” “A flying machine!” “Yes. It is a huge contraption. He will explain it to you, I’m sure, he enjoys explaining things so much. You now know what we are doing, well, well enough to acompany us. The darkness nearby is but a shadow of evil, the true evil is much more powerful, I fear. I can stop this one, if I retain the power still. But I am weak in my old age, so it is up to you and your brother. You each have something that was your father’s, you his cloak, and your brother, his staff. You will discover what they do later. We must go now, though. Come along.” Paragrin led Raldun through the trees and followed the stream west. They walked all through the night and into the next morning. They finnaly reached their destination. There was a wheel in the water with flaps that made it churn as the stream flowed gently by. This was on the end of a beam that protruded from the side of a small building, no bigger then a small shack of wood. The young man, Raldun’s older brother was running around doing this and that. He was wearing a blue jacket, light and thin, though warm if need be, under which he wore a brown shirt. He wore brown pants he made himself and shoes of leather he had made as well. He wore a red band around his forehead, and had brown eyes and brown hair that was held back by the band from covering his eyes. He wore leather gloves, the top blue and the palms grey. His frissled brown hair and thin, unshaved beard gave him the appearance of one who traveled recently, one spur of his hair was hanging down past the band over his nose, between his eyes. He had a huge tube connected to what appeared to be a huge sheet on one end and the other end went into the shack. “Welcome friends! Raldun, I am Alodain,” he called to them. “I think you will be surprised shortly!” Chapter 3 "Whenever you are ready, Paragrin," Alodain said, as they got nearer. "It and I am ready when you are." "Excellent, Alodain! On time for once, I see," Paragrin said with a smile. Alodain produced a slight grin, apperently pleased with his work. "I've got it to work, but I need to test it with a full load-" "You mean you are going to get us on a flying machine and you don't even know if it works?" Raldun broke out. "Actually, I do know that it works, I just haven't tested it with any one other then me, or any weight other then how much I weigh. Let me explai it to you, then you might not be so conscerned." Paragrin smiled at Raldun as if to say, See, what did I tell you. "It's all a matter of air," Alodain started, "If I'm right, the air IS something, not just nothing. If that is the case, then you just have to find something that, well, that is less then air. Then I had this idea, what if the air is little pieces of something, if I make some of the pieces hot, then they will start jumping around because of it. The only way to do this, is to make the air hot enough that it will bounce us up. Now I don't know exactly haw it works, but if I fill this sheet with air, then make a fire under it and let the heat go in, then the air starts moving around or something, because the sheat and everything tied to it, up to a cirtan weight, will go up into the air. I know it works, because I've flown it once. The first time, it had no stearing device, I think I've fixed that too, sort of. I just made an air container that I just shoot air out of, another proof that air IS something, and it maked it go that way. The only problem is, the wind can make it hard to fly." "Wow, that's...confusing..." Raldun said. Alodain did not make an atempt to hide his grin, he thought it a good peice of reason, and was not surprised that it overwelmed his younger sibling. He went to the end of the tube that was tied to the sheet and turned a knob. The sheet (which was indeed a ballon) began to fill with air and lifted off the ground. It was solid red, died wool that Alodain had painstakingly woven to the point where there were no visible holes. The interrior was lined with leather so that as little air as possible would go through. As soon as the baloon was compleatly filled, the small "basket", a large bucket of sorts, was three feet of the ground, gently tugging on the ropes holding it down. "You see, I said it would work," Alodain said. "Very well done, my son," Paragrin said. Alodain responded with a slight blush, he held his mentor's esteam in high regard. "I do my best," was his reply. "I have everything loaded up in the bucket, so if we are ready, climb up the ladder, hop in, and we'll be on our way." "Are you serious? We're going to just fly to this evil thing's main base, walkin, and challenge him to a fight?" Raldun asked in suprise. Alodain smiled, "We'll explain it to you on our way, time is of the essance, everybody in and we'll be on our way." All three of the travelers climbed the ladder and into the bucket. The "bucket" was a round platform with a half-wall around keeping the contents and passengers from falling out. Inside was a large lantern, into which Alodain started a fire. He used a valve to controle how much went up into the ballon. There were three seats on the platform, and all other things, food, ect. was packed in between the seats. Alodain stoped the air flow into the ballon and pulled the ropes with their weights on the ends and the rope ladder, into the basket after untieign the single rope that held them down. He turned the valve above the fire and steam rose up into the ballon. The shack, streem, grass, and trees fell below them as they slowly rose. The ground was a good hundred fifty feet below now and the mountains could be seen to the east. To the west, the shifting sands of the marshes that had long since swollowed all acient paths through it was a menicing site, but even more so was the dark black tower that rose from the sands, to the south was the small town of Calidun, and to the north the green grass slowly faded to white snow. The sky was clear and blue and long and far could be seen. As they were a ways up, he truned it off. "You see, it does work," Alodain said. "The air that the heat makes lighter goes up, and can't get out of the baloon, so it lifts us up too." "Well now, I think it's about time that we let Raldun know what's been hapining outside Calidun, to the east of the Rone Mountains. It may help him see why we are doing this," Paragrin said. "And I see you want me to tell him, all right, I shall," Alodain said. Turning to Raldun, he began, "There's not much to tell. The evil was loosing the battle against the easterners, so it sent all its remaining troops to attack those lands. When I first went that way, I heard all that had happened. The people there saw victory on the horizon, so they made a massive effort and as soon as the evil's troops came out of the mountains, the people made a pre-emtive strike, wiping out all those there before they were set up to attack. Only a few surrived. The leader, flew away on something that the people I talked to could only describe as a winged beast, but one said a dragon that had lost its fire, I favor the last one more then the others, and only hope that its fire is truely gone out for good. As a result of all this, the evil retreated to its dark tower on this flying beast. Also, all his dark creatures are now gone, I have seen to it. He was recalling them to rebuilt and attack again, and I went and blocked them on their way back to the marches. The strongest one, and the last to go, was the one we fought togather. The evil is now weak, and now is the time to strike as it is all alone and unprotected. Its troops and guards are gone, and it is vunerable while it is trying to recharge its power. If there are any left in the dark tower, the two of us will destroy them, then Paragrin will do what ever it is that he has planed and will vanquish the evil back to it's own land, not destroy it, that is beyond our combined power-" "For now," Paragrin said quietly. "What do you mean?" Raldun asked. Paragrin let out a caugh, "Ahem, for now, look at the ground below, we are the first three ever to fly!" "Long way down, eh?" Alodain said as he was leaning over the side to see if the air vent that was pushing the baloon on its course tword the tower was working right. Raldun thought for a moment he could see grass in the distance beyond the marches to the west as Alodain pulled a rope, thus letting air out of the balloon from higher up. They quickly descended, and Alodain jumped to the ground and tied the ropes to posts that surrounded the tower. It was time to go into the dark after the dark... Chapter 4