by Knight Errant » Fri Aug 12, 2011 5:13 pm
((Sorry, been hit with several days of feeling really bleh about posting.))
"Kind of morbid there... but lets see...." He clears his throat, sitting down and beginning. "O Muse, sing in me, and through me tell the story of the young man, strong and brave. A youth burning for approval, and the story of how his actions changed a kingdom."
"Today I will tell the story of Jaemad, a prince brave and strong. Third in line for the throne behind his elder brothers, Jaemad burned to find a way to prove himself to his father the King. But as the years dragged on, he feared he would find no way of doing so. He trained his body in combat with the castle guard, his mind with study and magical lore with the court mages... but he never got an opportunity to fight more than bandits or wild beasts, such was the peaceful state of the kingdom."
"Fate finally intervened one day as the news came that a village on the outskirts of the kingdom had been attacked. Bordering a vast and unexplored forest, the culprits could have been anyone or anything. Not missing what might be a one in a lifetime chance, Jaemad mounted up with the soldiers, riding off to the distant town of Briton."
"When they finally got there, there were no townspeople to greet them. The whole town was eerily quiet... seemingly abandoned. Then out of the woodwork they came, a monstrous tide of half human half snake Naga. Soon the guard were beset by monsters they had only heard of in fairy tails, and begun to fell under blade, claw, and fang."
"Jaemad saw his friends and companions being cut down, and rallied them. Stirring them with impassioned speech and bold actions, he rode forth into the scaled tide. The guards, driven by their duty to protect the prince, fought with a renewed courage. They fought amongst the deserted town for hours, and as twilight fell the last of the monsters were slain. The ranks of the guardsmen had been reduced to seven, which with their weary but living prince made eight. Not wishing to remain among the carcasses of the fallen, they began the trip back to the capitol on foot. Most of the horses being lost, the few left used to carry their supplies."
"However, it was at least a two day trip to the nearest town on foot... and death does not like being cheated. Eight camped down that night, six rose the next morning. Having perished from the venom of their enemy. That was reduced to five... when a horse and the rear guard of their procession simply... vanished on the road. It was then that the Prince began to suspect something following them... but there was little they could do but press onward with their journey."
"That night they awoke to a great thrashing and screaming of horses. The remaining men rushed out, weapons in hand, to see a massive shape outlined against the night sky. A snake as thick around as an ancient tree and just as long had surrounded their camp. Defiant even in the face of nearly certain death... the prince rushed forward to stab the giant serpent. Unfortunately, it was like striking a sheet of iron scales... and it did nothing but bring the attention of the beast."
"Looking down upon its quarry, the glowing yellow eyes seemed to pierce into the men's souls. The four guards and their prince found themselves paralyzed... unable to do anything but quake in fear as the snake slowly swallowed the prince and three of his guard. Turning to the last and speaking in a hissing tone. It told him he would be spared as the messenger of the coming of the Serpent Queen. And he would be seeing his prince again... As if to punctuate that statement, the serpent laid four giant eggs, the outline of a man just able to be made out underneath the leathery surface."
"And so it was this story was brought to the king and court by the sole remaining guard. A great evil had been let loose upon the lands. The Serpent Queen and her new Princess would come to terrorize and conquer, aimed at swallowing the land whole. But that is a story for another time. This is just of the beginning."
((I would have liked to make this story much more descriptive... but just cant muster the ambition. Might rewrite it on my own sometime...))
O Muse!
Sing in me, and through me tell the story
Of that man skilled in all the ways of contending,
A wanderer, harried for years on end...

Click the eggs... feed the dragons.