My name is Sai, my story tells of my quest for power, but
before I start telling it, I should start by telling the
reason for my quest:

I was born and grew up in the main port city of Thesk,
though it wasn't the capitol, it still was the most
influential city in Thesk, the true rulers of the country
(the thief guild) was located mainly there, and most of the
country money came from the docks' trading route.
Though the guild ruled the city completely, they didn't
ruled harshly on the simple people, most of the people of
the city know of the true rulers, almost never talking about
it, mainly never caring about it, the opposite was true-
most people living in the city enjoyed the way the guild
ruled the city- making most merchants wealthy from the
trading route the guild fought to maintain (under their
protection, of course), and any poor man could find some
kind of a job under the guild... me and my mother wasn't
different.
I grew up only with my mother; she raised me as best as she
could, teaching me the harsh truth of this world and the
ways to survive, but still she taught me the value of love
and showed me the beautiful things one can find by only
looking.
My mom never talked about my father, I never found out who
he was or what happened to him, I once asked her about him,
I will never forget the sad face she showed me that second,
she only got up saying that the time has come, moved the
stone statue we had from the time I could remember myself,
from the corner, and I was surprised to see a small trap
door, barely big enough for a mouse to pass through, and
took a small package from it and gave it to me, with tears
trailing down her cheeks, she told me to keep it from any
harm, and left the house, I never asked my mother about my
father ever again.
In the package I discovered I strange key, made from some
exotic metal (I later discovered it was not magical in any
way), this key is my greatest treasure, I often find myself
laying down under the stars, pulling the key from it's chain
around my neck, and wonder about my unknown father.
I was very young when my mother died (at least by elven
standard), there were a lot of rumors in the city about her
demise, she was a well known thief "liona the invisible"
they called her - the local law seekers could never find
evidence of her jobs, nor wouldn't they try to find- she was
protected.
When you grow up on the street, like I did, you learn to
find certain truths in the rumors, after getting some of the
rumors, I knew the truth of her death, my mother always
accepted the hardest jobs from the guilds (her skill was
unrivaled), but she would never accept assassinations. The
rumors said that one of the city puppet rulers, a known
person in the city for his good heart, was trying to gather
strength against the guild, but his location, a safe house
protected by few great defenses - just outside the city,
prevented the guild from silencing him- only a few could
master the skill to get inside the safe house, silence the
untying puppet, and get out of there alive, my mother was
one of those few. She refused the job though, even after
very generous offers and some less generous threats, and
those threats wasn't empty threats, it seems.
After a few days I heard of the ruler demise... died in his
sleep, and that was the confirmation I needed for the
rumors, I fled the city then, knowing that the guild
wouldn't let me go that easily - not that my level in the
guild was high, I was nothing more than a petty thief and an
information collector for it, killing was not in my nature
either (though, those days, a man died by my hands in the
name of self defense)  - but the guild never let anyone go,
there was only two directions after you got inside the
guild, up for higher ranks in the guilds, or down - to the
grave.
I got a ride, hiding in a caravan that delivered horses, to
the capitol. The guild had much power in capitol, but not as
much as in my home town, so it was possible for me to lay
low for a while and live somehow. And low I got, lower as I
possibly could, down in the sewers, I lived for months,
sinking in my sorrow and in the filth of the people above
me, eating rats, insects, or anything I could find to
sustain my life.
After a few months of living - if the way I existed could be
called "life" - in the capitol, I found the strength to get
up and get out of the sewers, the city, and that low-life -
my new strength was found in revenge, for after the grief of
my mother was subsided, there was an empty place in my heart
soon to be filled with anger and rage for my mother's death,
I will someday revenge the rulers of the guild for the death
of my mother, although her profession, she was a kind person
and a good mother, and those that chose to eliminate her
because of those qualities, shouldn't be existed, and I will
see to it.
I wasn't stupid though, I knew of the power of the masters
of my guild, unrivaled by any other that I know, I knew that
the only way I could ever rival their power was to gain the
same power, and so started my quest for power they possess.

I knew from rumors of a power that the guild has manifested
on the most loyal (or rich) members, it was from the god
Mask himself, a power of shadow manipulation, a power that
without it I could never obtain the skills needed to have to
have the power of a shadow-lord, the power of the guild's
highest rulers, I knew that I needed some way to receive
that power or a power similar in order to be a shadow-lord,
and no cleric of Mask (if a cleric of the hidden god could
ever be found outside the guild) would have given me that
power without consulting the guild, so I left Thesk In order
to find a power that will give me the skill to obtain the
power of a shadow-lord, leaving my former name and identity
behind.
After long and rough travels I came upon a small city in the
land of dale, the city has a problem of attacks of some
sort, outside the city, at night.
I saw my chance of wealth and battle experience I needed to
be stronger so that I could handle the killers of my mother,
when a strange group assembled in the city for the purpose
of dealing with the current problem, along the group I met a
strange stony friend, a goliath warrior I fondly called
"big-ass" (he quickly confirmed his new name by killing a
dire rat with his huge ass.
I went with them to a strange underground castle, only to
see me companions almost die from a few little mice and a
simple trap, that day was over for adventuring, we came back
to the city with no money or fame to buy us a sleeping place
for the night or something to fill our bellies with, my
experience at the sewers, though, made me ready for such
occasion, so I brought one of the dead rats for dinner, my
starving friends, strangely, wanted nothing of the meat
sticks I made, so what I didn't eat I gave to the local
Shuanti shrine, so that the poor children of the city could
fill their bellies.
After eating I needed my daily 4 hours meditation, which I
started at the Shuanti shrine, but after less then 3 hours
was interrupted by the city's guards, telling me I need to
evacuate the streets in the night.
With no money, the guards stole from me any chance to
survive in the night (with the continuing attacks outside
the city, sleeping outside would be suicide) let alone
finish my meditating, my only essence beside my rapier was
the answer I needed for the night - the tools of opening
locks and disarming traps I had from my previous life.
I entered the inn, passed the bartender - pretending to go
to one of my friends who had money for the night - and went
to the unoccupied rooms in the inn, hoping to stay for the
night unnoticed, my skill wasn't enough, though, to get the
locks of the first 3 doors open, the fourth was open and
with some of the belongings of someone, I saw no profit in
getting any of the cheap stuff in it, and spreading the
rumors of a thief  in town, so I continued to the next door
with no luck, in the door after it I had a change of luck...
for the worst, in the middle of my lock picking, a man came
out of an other room and caught me in my act, a started
screaming "thief" and blocked my only exit, I tried to
tumble over him but my jump was blocked by his fist, I had
no other escape route so I escaped through the window.
I barely managed to escape the city while a whole bunch of
people tried finding me, after a hour of wondering I
realized that I'm tired of running, so I came to the bar
kipper and told him I was just looking for my friend's room,
he told me he don't care about it but that the guards of the
city will care so I should turn myself in, thinking that my
petty crime will get me a few nights in jail at most, I
turned myself in (after hiding my illegal tools of course),
and the next day had the trial - it then came to my
knowledge that my crime means death in such a place, so in
the trial I made an act as if my life was dependant on if,
and managed to get the death threat off my head, and got
four days of house building for the damage I made for the
window of the inn.
Though I saw my companions leave to adventure in the days, I
knew that the night were mine, though my strength wasn't
enough those days to wader such hostile places at night and
I almost died from some living walking small trees, the
monsters that was making the attacks I heard of.
I barely managed to return to the city and was heavily
wounded, when my companions saw my condition and heard my
story they put aside the "rumors" of my theft and I was
welcomed again to fight with them.
I was a great essence in our group, for the castle had many
doors with mighty locks, a thing I mostly to counter with my
skills, and the hidden doors revealed happily to my elven
senses.
We worked many days, clearing the castle of its evil
residences and gaining much money and fame in the process,
my friend "big-ass" was a mighty opponent to those evil
people and monsters, and I learned a lot of he's fighting
and maneuvers, learning more in it then in the art of
theft.
While I was the scout of the group and was risking my life
more then the others, this came with a bonus - I often found
some piece of treasure that I chose to keep, three of those
things are notable: a pair of magical gloves that made me
much quicker and faster to act, a very powerful cloak that
made my body and mind more resistance to most attacks, and
the last was a scroll - not magical or of that sort, an
ordinary scroll scribed with a map, that tells of a place
not far from where I stood, that has some strange creatures
residing in.
After we managed to clear that place of its evil, we met a
monster, more terrifying than all our previous opponents
added together, a troll.
That monster was strong, ugly, and really big, but the thing
so terrifying about her wasn't that, it was after our big
assed warrior was able to cut off his arm that we saw the
terrible thing - the monster only smiled, took the fallen
hand with it's remaining hand and simply put it back in the
place it fell from, no trace of the cut remained. We were
going to loose, our warrior was badly hurt, our cleric was
tending to his wounds with his few lesser healing spells
left, our monk was the only one near the monster, but even
his mental armor was beginning to let some of the monster
attacks pass through, our wizard, no attacks left for today,
tried to find a retreat route - though the monster blocked
the only one. In his hysteria his book of magic dropped, I
was in the beck of the cave, shooting arrows from my hiding
place, only to see their wounds close a second after.
As an elf the magical ways came to me naturally, and in our
former battles I learned a few things from my wizard friend
without meaning to, so I went down and picked up the
spell-book, and started searching for an answer, to my
surprise I started understanding the spells of the first few
pages, I then saw a spell that brought some bedtime story my
mom used to tell me in childhood, about the elf and the
troll, I drove the grief of mother back for the moment and
started trying to use the spell, it took me a few minutes,
now the monk was hut badly and my stony friend, back in the
action, was hurt again.
I came to the troll from the shadows, using their cover to
make my attack hurt his most vital spot I can get, just
after the hard hammer my big assed friend stumped on the
troll, before the troll could be regenerated again, my hand
came, striking the middle of the chest of the troll, where
the heart of the creature was, the fur of the monster
instantly ignited, boiling the blood of the creature, making
it impossible for his wounds to close themselves...
just like the story my dear mother used to tell me, every
year the troll came and took one of the elf's daughter's,
the elf tried arrows, axe covered with acid, sword making
ice where it hit, hammer making lightening when hit, but the
troll only laughed and promised to come back next year, only
in the fifth year when the poor elf had no one else to loose
as all three of his daughters was taken away and his wife
too, he took no weapon that day waiting for the troll, when
he came he fell on the ground and cried to the gods for
answer of his sufferings, the elf then said to the troll
that the death he now wants but that before that he just
wanted the place his last breaths on a curse on the troll
and wished him to burn in the flames of hell and plunged his
deceased wife kitchen knife in the monster, the knife then,
for the elf's surprise, got hotter in his arms and the troll
begun to scream while catching flames, the knife was covered
with magical flames now, soon the troll was nothing but
ashes, the elf smiling, thanked the gods, turned the knife,
plunged it, and joined his wife and daughters. In the place
the ashes where found, a tall tree grew a year later, and it
is said that a unicorn visited it every year, shedding tears
over it.
The troll, burning now, was much easier to deal with, the
arm was cut off again by my heavily wounded companions but
this time, the troll didn't smile, or even tried to pick it
up, he just tried to put off his burning fur, and a minute
later was dead on the ground, still burning.
The troll had only few things on his cave, beside a few dead
bodies and skeletons, while my companions searched for the
few gems and gold pieces scattered in the cave, a seemingly
empty sack catch my eyes, I looked inside it and wasn't
surprised to see nothing inside it, but I have heard of
magical bags and had a strong feeling this may be one of
them, so I took one of my arrows and put it inside the sack,
closed and opened it again and I was only a little surprised
to see that the arrows disappeared, I willed it back to the
sack and was happy to see it ready for me to take it, but
this time it wasn't alone, it had a few pearls, a few books,
and a strange looking symbol with a string.
One of the books was half empty so I tore the papers that
were filled (just some uninteresting diary of some sort),
and used the rest it for my new found talent to use spells,
I find myself able to conjure a lot of lower level spells
from my memory, and write them down.
When we came back to the city we arrived as heroes, they
prepared feast for us and this night we needed not pay for
the rooms, for the inn-keeper knew of the trading root that
now will be open again, now that the roads are clear.
The next day we reset and enjoyed the hospitality while
tending to our injuries, we then parted the city and
continued our way.
After we left the city I showed the group the scroll I have
found, and offered them to find that hidden place.
After reading the scroll, they said it seems this place had
no one to aid and nothing to gain from, so they said we
should continue to the next city, though their words made
perfect sense, something inside of me told me I have to go
there, no meter what, and so without understanding why, with
heavy heart, I parted with my companions and begun my travel
to the secret home of the race called saurials.

It took me two weeks to get to the area the map described
and another week to find the secret route to the home of the
saurials, the scroll told of a peaceful and good in nature
lizard-like humanoids, and that exactly what I found, they
were very suspicious at first and imprisoned me, taking me
for a interrogation for spying, the location of their home
was so important for the saurials to stay hidden, so that I
was supposed to stay imprisoned there for the rest of my
life, but after much interrogations under truth spells my
whole life was known to them, and it was then when one of my
interrogators, some highly respectable priest named Sulad (a
yellowish brown reptilian with blades on his beck - of a
race, I later found out to be called bladebeck) , hearing of
my life and the unknown reason for me to come here, ordered
my release immediately.
We took me somewhere inside their city, telling me my reason
for being here is not coincidence, my entire adventure since
I left the domain of Mask, the guild, was pointing me to
this place.
He sympathized with my story because of the hardship his
people went through, an evil deity pooled them from their
home plain to this vale, that is now their home, and made
them destroy it, a few heroes fought him and killed him and
one of them, a deity called Wyvernspur, is now the patron
deity of them, they staying here to try and repair the
damage they have done to it.
While he finished telling me their sad story we arrived to a
big church, a golden coin was meld into the big altar;
seeing that, I knew what deity this temple endorsed, Tymora
- the goddess of luck and adventuring.
He told me Tymora directed and tested me all the way since I
left Thesk, that ever since then I become one of her
children even though I never said a prayer to her, that the
way I lived my life shows I'm a follower of Tymora; I always
lived for the adventures, traveling whenever I could, even
in risking my life, letting fate deciding the my existent,
from the second I left Thesk, traveling to far places,
letting only fate bringing me to my goal even when obstacles
were put in my way to test my believes in fate. After being
caught in the middle of a crime I through myself to the
hands of the guards instead of running, trusting my fate to
get me out of the troubles, after I couldn't go adventuring
with my companions in the days of my punishment, I decided
to trust my luck in the sake of adventuring and went to the
forest alone at night and was almost killed because of it, I
grubbed the opportunity (and the spell-book), and in the
face of death tried a spell without being a wizard and with
no guaranties for it to work, and jumped on the mighty
monster, risking my life, and most importantly, I left my
security and companions only for the sake of a feeling, I
was truly a follower of Tymora in heart.
Sulad was the high priest of Tymora for the saurials (which
followed Tymora less only from Wyvernspur), and he told me
he was informed one like me would arrive with a quest
worthy, ever since a priestess of Mask discovered the
profaned ritual that made the thief guild masters of Thesk
such powerful the priests of Tymora (Mask paralleled good
deity) worked on a similar ritual to achieve or counter the
power of the followers of Mask and help them travel and
adventure easily, because I've passed every test Tymora sent
me, and because my quest was worthy, Tymora herself decided
to imbune with power so that I could achieve the power I was
seeking.
For a week I passed several rituals that tested both my
mental and physical strength and eventually changed my, in
body and in spirit.
Sulad explained later that the power didn't come from
Tymora, the power of the deity did change me but the new
source of it was my own body and soul.
I now had less vitality in my body, but my body listened to
my mind much quicker, the Sulad told me a few other inner
powers will show themselves to me in time and that the
former powers will grow in strength too, the first power I
can make is the power to cover my identity and change my
appearance and even to impersonate myself other humanoids
creatures, though not the most powerful of them.
I lived in the saurials home for a few months, and learned
their language quickly (the language of dragons), they were
very nice and tried to lower the tone of their voce enigh
for me to understand them - I managed to adapt to their high
tone eventually with the help of my keen elven hearing.
Saurials are divided to four kinds of sub-races, the
bladebeck (like Sulad), hornhead, finhead and my dearest
friends the flyers, all four of them was very nice to me,
excepting my presence and acting as if I was one of their
own, but the flyers were the ones that really embraced me as
one of their own, they too were expert in the art of theft
and we found many things common, although our physical
differences, and I even learned a thing or to in the
profession from them, after spending most of my time with my
friends, I become very envious in their ability to fly, I
found myself often desire to be one of them and fly with
them in the air, and one day it happened...
We played "tag" and I was tagged, and I ran after one of
them, on ground it was no problem for me to catch them, but
we agreed a non-flying game because of my disadvantage, but
when I was just catching him, my little friend spread his
wings and cheated, that moment I just wanted to fly beside
him more then anytime before, and as I watched my little
friend fly away and just wanted to be like him more then
ever, I closed my eyes and imagined myself as one of them
and started moving my hands faster and faster as if I was
flying, and then, surprisingly, opened my eyes... what I
felt was right, I was flying, my body was a body of a
flyer(almost identical to my cheater friend actually), I
flew by him, and soon all the other flyers flew with us,
that was the most pleasurable moment I felt in my entire
life, we flew like it for hours, not feeling the aching of
my muscles, until I could use my wings no more.
After we landed, with the questioning looks at my friends'
faces, I started sorting my mind and search for the answers,
the answer was easy to find, it was the first power my deity
gave me (I now became very religious, and had a very warm
spot in my heart for her), I explained it to them and they
were very happy for me (most of the followers of Tymora here
were flyers), and soon everyone knew about my knew
abilities.
I had a limited time at being another every day, but every
second I could I wasted it on being something else, sometime
bladebeck, hornhead, or finhead, but almost always a flyer,
flying in the sky with my friends, it was like this for
another months, and then on day while I was playing "flying
tag" with my friends, one of the finhead called me and told
me Sulan sent for me.
I joined the noon prey in which Sulan was already in the
middle of, inside the temple. When it was over Sulan took me
aside and told of a very important mission I will be assign
to in the next day, to guard some caravans in a long journey
in the large desert of anurak, the objective of the journey
was to retrieve an important object from some other temple
of Tymora, an object which for my own safety he cant tell me
of it, but because the nature of my powers it will probably
won't work in the open desert most of the time, so he gave
me a sacred object to protect myself from most spells and
effects, much like my cloak - only this was made of the
divine powers of Tymora, the goddess herself bestowed a
protecting hand on the possessor of the stone, he gave me a
letter for the high priest on my destination (which I only
knew was across the desert somewhere) to give me some other
object to strengthen my defenses even more, he told me to go
visit one of the flyers called Rikah, before I go.
It took me until night to prepare myself for leaving, but
even though I was very tired and needed to be ready for
going out before first light, I went to visit Rikah, he was
awake and, seemingly, waiting for me, he brought me to the
beck room in which he had many items, most was regular
adventuring items but some looked more unique, I soon was
filled with many useful items, he said Sulan already paid
for it, but I did use my money there - I traded some of my
gold and the thief tools that served me so well, in a much
richer and in better quality thief tools, I bought some
pearls the use of some of my spells, I was ready to leave
when I saw two small vials that caught my eye, I asked him
what was it and he said that most saurial know to make this
poison, their ancestors learned to make pretty good poisons
in their home plain, and pass on the knowledge, the poisons
they made was merciful but very efficient, he told me that
because most flyers knew to make it the competition made it
cheap, and I was shocked to hear his definitions of cheap
400GP but the promised efficiency of it made me spent much
of my money on few doses of it, The next day we departed
very early, and started the long journey.
After a week of traveling we entered the desert, in which we
traveled a few more weeks before arriving our destination...
a rock in the middle of the desert.
It was rocky mountain that seemed to be of no interest, but
to my surprise we stopped and one of the bladebeck that went
with us, another priest of Tymora that served under Sulan
named Sindrom, got down from the caravan and started
preying, and in the middle of one of the bigger rocks, a
huge door appeared.
He went to it and used a key from his pocket, the door
opened magically to reveal two human guards between us and a
small town, he exchanged a few words with them and we all
went through with our caravan.
The town filled with sunshine, the ceiling was enchanted,
letting the sunshine go through it without revealing the
town from outside.
The town was filled with Tymora symbols and in the center of
it stood a big temple of the lady of luck, most of the
people were human and Halflings, but some were elfs and even
a dwarf or two, though the only symbol I saw on some of the
people there was Tymora's.
I walked with the saurial priests to meet with the local
priests of the temple, they were expecting us with the head
priest in the main hall of the temple, Sindrom gave the head
priest a sealed scroll and he nodded and gave Sindrom a
small box, he told us rooms were ready for us and a feast
was being prepared, so we should go and wash, we turned to
leave and the high priest stopped me, he said he felt the
holy power inside of me and asked how did I get it, I told
him my story in short and presented him my letter, told then
gave me a luck stone, with the lady luck will protect me
even further by giving an edge in jumping to places an area
spells and effects didn't reach.
After we washed, we all had a very pleasant feast, we
enjoyed a few more days in the town and then the time to
depart for the way beck arrived.
In the middle of the way to the end of the desert, one
evening (and Tymora surely bestowed her luck upon us, for a
few hours before - under the sunlight, the situation would
have ended differently) while we were preparing to make a
stop for the night, from under our feet, from the ground
itself, a few medium and big humanoids that looked like big
lizards attacked us.
I heard the flyers flying above us cry "attack" and
"stingtails" and before I knew it we were surrounded by the
lizard-men.
The fight was in motion in seconds; I quickly noticed a
sting on most of the bigger lizard and understood to avoid
it, the smaller ones and some of the bigger ones had no
sting and looked somehow differently, they were all armed
with axes and fully armored.
They fight took only a few seconds and by the magic of our
wizards and clerics we seemed to be winning, and then as
suddenly as the came, they disappeared, right into the
earth, but we had no time to celebrate our victory because
Sindrom's voice then came, I understood then that the attack
was not unplanned one and that the victorious of the battle
were not us, I did not need anyone to explain to me what
Sindrom was talking about when I heard his hysterical cries:
"They took it, it's gone...", some of my companions gathered
their senses and started casting spells and asking Tymora
for guidance, but the clerics had no way of following the
evil lizards to the belly of the earth.
It took me just a few seconds to gather enough of my calm to
understand, that unlike my companions, Tymora did give me
the power to pursuit the thieves, like I was able to fly
with my flyers friends, it was time to find out if I can
burrow like those thieving lizards.
I brought up the image of those seemed like the strongest
kind of the lizards we encountered, those justifying their
name by the sting on their tails, and used my mental
strength to change my physical self to it, I felt myself
starting to change but just before I was able to finish my
transformation my mental strength has reached some mental
barrier and my ability shattered, I was terrified at first,
it was the first time my abilities failed me, with no light
source powerful enough to ruin my abilities, I begun
thinking that I somehow used all the power that my goddess
infused me with, that I was drinking to much of the well and
that it was beginning to get dry, but the promises of Sulan
that the poweres will only grow in times kept me from that
depressing thoughts and let me stay focus on saving the
valuable artifact, as I remembered Sulan's explanations of
my powers I suddenly remembered him telling me the facts on
this particular ability, I immediately knew that the problem
was not with my power, my subject from transformation was
probably too powerful for me to mimic, I then tried to turn
myself to the other kin I encountered then, I took no
chances and tried to mimic one of the smaller ones of the
kin (I later discovered that I can turn myself to the large
type of this kin too), I only discovered that I stopped
breathing after I opened my eyes to see myself in the form
of a big lizard, without loosing time I started using my
tough hands to try and dig the earth, I discovered that,
like flying, I was able to mimic the way the thieves
traveled underground.
The "stingtails" or whatever they were was already ahead of
me and I had no idea which way they chose inside the wall of
earth, I must had someway to "see" or navigate, a way my
ability wasn't able to mimic. I put my ear on the earth
around me and concentrated, trying to hear the slightest
sound, after a few second I somehow noted a slight noise
somewhere to the right of me, turned to that direction as
best as I could and started burrowing as fast as I could -
hoping it's the right direction and that I won't stray from
it because it was impossible to identify directions in the
muddy direction, after a minute or two I stopped and
listened again, I was overjoyed when my fears faded when I
heard the same noise from before only a lot louder and now
in the same direction but a bit below me. Actually, I heard
a few of these noises there, so, now encouraged, I started
again my burrow in their direction, after another minute or
so I stopped again and listened, it now seemed like they
were just in front of me, it seemed that the burrowing
fiends were so certain of their escape route that day didn't
even bothered moving faster then their natural speed, the
noise then shifted and was moving above me, they were
resurfacing.
I waited a few seconds for them to walk away from here and
did likewise, I dog out right to the center of those
lizard-folk infested cave, they were waiting for me to get
out, I thought of returning to the earth and escape the
certain death of fighting so many of this mighty enemies,
and then I spotted that they were all waiting calmly and
without much interest, their weapons were safely tucked in
their belts, and then I saw few of the big sting tailed ones
digging out not far from me, they were waiting for the
slower larger friends to finish the journey, and did not
seem to notice I was not one of them.
After all of them were present (and me blending with the
walls of the cave, hiding in the darkness they had to offer)
they started walking outside the cave, talking some unknown
language, similar by sound to the language of the saurials
(but that might be just the similarity in their voices), I
walked behind them hiding in the shadows of the evening and
any other bush or cactus that was on our way, they did not
notice me, they were just talking anxiously, presenting the
small chest containing the artifact as if it was a trophy.
They must have traveled far in the desert to reach the route
of our caravan because this night they reached no sanctuary
and was traveling until the morning, at dawn they stopped
for a break and a breakfast.
During the long night I transformed beck to my original self
(at that time I was only able to maintain the forms I took
for short periods) using the last darkness before the set of
the sun I used my ability again, changing to one of them
again, and watching them taking out of their bags some
smelly or raw meet and starting to savagely devour it.
While their attention was focused on their food I snuck into
their camp and found my way to the biggest of the sting
tailed humanoid, the one that possessed the chest with the
artifact, he too was very focused on the large stake in his
hands so I fought it would be very easy the relieve him from
the small chest poking from his bag, without him noticing, I
started, very cunningly and quietly, to pull the chest from
the bag, covering the sight of both with my new tail while I
was pretending to sleep, and just when I succeeded doing so
I heard the shouts of the leader.
I stared at him in confusion, not knowing how to answer the
unknown language, seeking a way out, a place to hide, seeing
only that the first few rays of sun started to vanish every
one of my precious shadows, all of the camp was now around
me, pointing their weapons at me, then the leader changed
the language and asked me in the common language "what are
you doing? Who are you?", and I knew that taking the form of
a flyer will only get me an arrow while trying to escape by
flying, I wanted to be someplace else, I wanted to
disappear, to hide, I watched the rising sun wiping the
shadows form around me and I wished only for them to remain
and to engulf me with their safety, and the next thing I
knew was that I was completely covered by darkness, not a
darkness I was used to, not my keen elven eyes nor the
ability I received from my goddess to see in the infra red
spectrum allowed me to see through it, I wondered if again
my wishes was coming true to reveal another aspect of my
mysterious powers, but I didn't wait to find out, I was
adept to fighting in the darkness so I was able to act
quickly and suffer no hindrance by it, before my enemies
understood what has happened my plan was already in action,
they heard the sound of burrowing and quickly joined the
underground chase, but, using a skill I developed only
recently, enabling me to move freely while attacking someone
or using an ability, I was able to start burrowing a few
feet to the earth, going beck to the surface, changing my
form to a flyer, and silently start to fly away while they
chasing a phantom into the earth.
While I was flying up I left the darkness and saw it was an
unnatural perfect globe of darkness in an already lighten
day, while I flied away from the sun, hoping to find my
friends in there I saw no sign of pursue.
I knew not where my friends where, so I flew in the
direction I hoped we came from, the sun hurt my eyes so the
cave we emerged from was very attractive at the moment, so I
flew a few more minutes in the best speed I could master,
until I felt the form I took begging to be harder to
maintain, so I landed and restored my natural look, and ran,
ran as fast as I could, ran with nothing in my stomach from
the last meal I had almost a full day before, ran under a
sun that burned both my eyes and my mind, ran until all the
power in my legs ran out, until the sleepless night came to
demand what it was depraved of, so I fell, into the hot sand
and the inviting sleep, in my dreams I saw the day turning
into night and in the night I saw myself returning to the
place the attack took place the last night, crawling the
last few steps into the camp they put in there, returning as
a hero with the artifact's chest in my hands.
When I finally woke up it was the middle of the night
already, at first I knew not where I was and what have
happened, but when I started to regain my senses a bit, I
remembered what has happened and by looking around me, I
knew it was all a dream, I was not a hero, I did not return
the chest, I did not crawled beck to the camp, in fact,
there wasn't even an attack on the caravan, It was all a
dream, I was safely in my tent.
The logic I went through was simple enough; there was no
attack on the caravan because if there was I was sure to be
lying in the desert, or in the stomach of the vultures,
there was no chance my friends would have find me in the
desert, it took only minutes of lying there before the sand
will cover you enough so that you will seem only as an sand
hill to any but animals, and the dream of returning as an
hero could never have happened, only to crawl the few steps
I saw in my dreams was unbelievable enough in the shape I
was, not to mention crossing the desert to find the camp.
When I learned the truth I was shocked, it was all true,
both the attack, the pursuit, the escape, the passing out,
and my triumphal return, a guard saw the whole thing happen
just in front of him and told me of it in person, his watch
was about to end and just when he was about to go and wake
up his replacement, he saw me crawling out of a hole, or so
it seemed, when he checked the place where I came from after
the whole business about my return came down, he discovered
what seemed to be a hole in the ground was nothing more then
a normal sand hill that the caravan's big symbol, that was
held above it, was shading the moon's light from.
I was lucky that Sindrom didn't let them move a feet from
the place where the attack took place in, he had every
confidence in me to return the artifact, he knew of the gift
I had received and knew that with the lady luck on my side I
could not loose, he told me of the abilities I discovered in
my journey, the ability to create magical globes of
impenetrable darkness, and to travel through small distances
in the blink of an eye by traveling through a higher plain
called "dimensional door", he explained the I must have
activated the ability by wanting to get beck to this place
in the half awake state I was in while being at the brink of
death, sindrom and the other clerics was able to save my and
cure my wounded body and soul, but I still slept for another
day and night after that night.
The rest of the voyage was with no other attack or other
such event, we got a warm welcome by the Tymora followers
when we returned, but when they heard of the encounter we
had I was treated as an hero by all the saurials, even those
that wasn't following the lady of luck.
After a month of resting and enjoying the life with all my
friends, I came to a decision, I went to the temple and
after the morning prayer a talked at length to Sulan, I
asked him everything about my powers, now and in the future
when I'll be more experienced, he told me everything of it
and of ways to know when ill get new abilities and to find
out to power and length of the current ones, I told him I
was about to leave the valley in a few days, that I felt
that I now knew enough about the shadows to start learning
to manipulate them and to achieve the power of the
shadowmaster's guild leaders: the Shadowlords.
I will tell now of my parting with my brothers the sauirals
because it still saddens me to recall of it, though I now
have the power to travel to there in just a week's worth of
travel - I way I will not take light headedly because it
it's dangers, but on that I will elaborate in a further
point of my story.
After a few months of traveling, I arrived to a land ruled
by undead and impenetrable to the light, though the risks of
staying in this land was far greater then those my
experience would normally let me survive I decided that it
was the perfect place to develop the powers of the
shadowlords, and with the luck of tymora I might just made
it.
I spent only a few weeks on this land, it wasn't necessary
to stay more, because every day I encountered many undead
skeletons and zombies, my proficiency in striking vital
points on a body never worked on the undead monsters, so I
had to use any trick I knew just to stay alive.
I spent all my days in hiding, searching for food on the
dead land, killing the zombie or skeleton that sometime
wondered alone to my area.
Those monsters I could somehow manage to kill if I was alone
with them, with the power Tymora has bestowed upon me, I
would have lower a globe of impenetrable darkness upon the
monster and would use my ability to fight better then normal
without sight, so even though my sword could only sting
them, like a single sting of a bee would only annoy, but a
hundred of them would kill anyone, so were my stings, and
the stupid monsters barely hit me while after a very long
battles I was almost always victorious, and when I could not
win, mostly because some of the monsters I encountered was
not "your every-day undead monsters" and wasn't in
comparable to the power of the zombies and skeletons and
much closer to my intelligence then of them, there my other
powers of turning into a flyer and flying the battle through
the sky or burrowing my way through the earth in the form of
a lesser stingtail, and if I was at a desperate condition I
would rip a hole through the dimensions and create a door to
a much further place, the powers of Tymora saved my
countless times in the never ending night of that cursed
land.
But the undead monsters wasn't the reason I chose to stay in
that land, the reason was the never ending night, for I knew
that to develop the skills of a shadowlord, I had to learn
how to manipulate the darkness and dimensions, and the
endless fight against the undead brought me to there a lot
faster than I imagined it would be, after living and using
the shadows and magical darkness for my fights for so long,
I started noticing things about it, at start it was vague
and I only understood that there was more then it seemed,
but after I used it and traveled between the dimensions more
and more frequently I started comprehending it, I learned
that the darkness, though it was used by the evil creatures
of this and other worlds, was itself not evil nor good, it
could be used to both sides, and after understanding that I
saw how to really use the shadows, how to let it into my
heart and soul, never fearing anymore from it, never fearing
anymore to be corrupted by it, because it was like me,
natural, containing both the good and the evil of the
world.
After letting It course through me, the bond created between
us opened my eyes, the infra red spectrum wasn't necessary
anymore, I could see through darkness like it was in bright
daylight (and since the bright daylight now hurt my
sensitive eyes, then even better the in bright daylight),
but the shadows didn't stop in there, I learned to use it
like my power to open a door between dimensions, I
understood that a darkness itself is a dimension and that I
could walk between two places covered by darkness without
walking through the space between them, the power it took
from me to walk through dimensions was  too great though,
and I could only travel between very close places until I
have rested again, I could walk only a few feet between
shadows then, much shorter then the dimensional doors, but
that space I could take in small doses, about ten feet each,
and though I never even got closer to the range of a
dimensional door, the distance I could travel in shadows did
grow in time.
Another thing I learned from the shadows, which perhaps came
because I already had a magical training of a sort, was to
cast some spells, just like a wizard but not exactly like
him, not like him because the spells I learned seemed to be
a bit too powerful for my level of magic using skill, they
were wizard spells but I learned them directly from the
shadows and to use the I didn't use the power I learned from
my wizard companion.
Now that the shadows was inside my heart I needed not this
cursed land to develop the bond between us, and every time I
used the darkness and every time I fought a monster from
that day forth I learned more about the shadow world and
developed more skills and great powers.
After the weeks I spent in the cursed land, I decided to
rest from adventuring for a long while, maybe a few years.
I traveled from town to town, taking every temporary job I
could find, for a few months, and in the nights I would find
other resources of income, being careful not to still from
the wrong man, and unless I knew my target had a black
heart, I tried not to steal from someone who couldn't afford
it, and never to leave a man with nothing to eat, every
forth gold piece I earned in that way was kept for emergency
or for the first temple of my lady I saw in my travels,
whichever came first.
I never became rich from that profession and only a few
times was lucky enough to get something valuable, the only
time worth mentioning was when one night in a small town inn
I traveled through shadows to a room which was filled with
bright magical aura, that I saw with the help of a lower
level spell of my wizardry.
I was already invisible by the powers of my shadow wizardry,
so when I heard an alarm spell going off I didn't panicked
and looked around to grab anything I could before I
disappeared, a man jumped from the bad and looked around,
searching for the reason of the alarm, I saw a very bright
staff at his side and a bag a bit last bright next to it, I
thought of taking the staff for a second, and then
understood what the stuff could be, I wished not to take the
staff of a mage that was that bright, I suspected the
staff's identity and wished it not, so I took the little bag
and passed through dimensions to a predetermined ally, I
quickly hid the aura of the bag with one of my spells and
hid it under some garbage.
I hid in the shadows while walking to the wall next to my
room, some shouts were beginning to be heard in the
direction of the inn I "worked" in, and I jumped into my
room through the shadows.
I then dismissed the ability that made me look like an
Halfling and dismissed the invisibility, all that was left
now was to wait.
Soon a lot of people were forming in the street and my
neighbors started to get out and inquire, I too went out,
making sure people will notice me going out of the room
looking as if I just woke up, and started asking what
happened, my knowledge of such incidents kicked in so I
started going into the scene of the crime, knowing that the
guards of the town will already be there, I arrived seeing a
lot of other people standing there and knew what to do, I
talked to the guards and start pestering them and trying to
get into the inn, to the "scene of the crime", the guards
were stopping anyone who passed by and asking them their
questions, but me and the few other curious  that were there
asking what happened and pestering the guards were told to
go beck to our rooms and that we were interfering with the
investigation.
I waited two more days in there, the theft (which wasn't
that uncommon there) was already forgotten and the wizard
already left, and then took the bag out.
The bag was a magical item that stored the things in it on
another plan of existence, in it I found a magical armband
that made me smaller after saying the magic word, and a
periapt that increased my vitality and physical resistance,
the bag wasn't an ordinary bag of it's kind, you needed not
search inside the bag to find what you wanted, the thing you
wanted always was the first thing in reach in the bag, a
thing that helped taking out things from it in combat more
quickly and without lowering your defenses,
I could identify those objects easily because, very
conveniently, the bag also contained a few pearls, which was
a pretty valuable ingredient in the spell to retrieve the
information.
Those travels from town to town stopped when I came to a
village named Tyrako, the city's population was mostly of
human and elves, the city was in hysteria, it seemed a group
of dark elves visited the town last night and killed few
guards and not so few citizens, though I don't like useless
killing of people, I was used to such violence from birth,
but when I heard what the fiendish drows did I pinned the
young guard that told me about it to the wall, fire in my
eyes the only word I could say was "WHERE...?".
The scared guard told me everything he knew about the
whereabouts of the drow's keep, and without any other word I
turned around and stormed to the place on my horse.
As I rode I tried to calm myself, every time I tried the
only thing I could hear was the guard's describing the
events and the cries of women behind him... "They came in
the middle of the night, before we knew what happened the
guards were already dead and they were inside the city.
slashing down men and women... without even a pause, we all
got out of the guard house without even our armors, a thing
that cost the life of some of my friends, but we couldn't
stop them, they succeed on what they came to do... they...
they... to their evil goddess... our cleric said they have a
holiday tonight, they... they... they going to SACRIFICE THE
CHILDREN!!!", and I then lost my calmness again.
The only thing that is sacred in this world, the only thing
that can take my calmness so completely was to see a danger
to a child, a child should never be robed of his childhood,
he should keep his innocence as far as he can and live
happily with his mother, the echoes of the elven woman's cry
behind that young guard still ringing in my mind even now.
After a few hours of riding I came to a line of corpses,
mostly elves and man, but there was also a few dwarfs and a
Halfling near the corpses of a few drows, I was on the right
track, the corpses, of both sides, were efficiently killed
and emptied of belongings, as I kept a few more steps and
efficiently dodged an arrow, unfortunately my horse wasn't
able to dodge it and he fell down on the ground, I managed
to jump from it's beck before he hit the ground though, I
then activated the small gadget a gnome once showed me how
to make, and with a jerk of my hand, a small iron string
that was attached to a small pot's cover removed it from the
lead pot on my belt and the light from within poured out,
only it wasn't a light, it was a darkness and a globe of it
was surrounding me now, I ran right into the bush in the
right of me, the bush the arrow came from, arrows was
flowing around me, unable to hit me in my impenetrable
concealment, in the bush there were two drow elves, that
lost their sight a second later, unluckily for me one of
them was more able to fight without sight and his attacks
almost hurt me seriously a few times, I then activated one
of my wizard spells, a spell that took me virtually no time
to cast and that made my attack much more accurate, lady
luck did smile on me then because my sword got the main vein
of the drow's neck and destroyed it completely which killed
the drow instantly.
The other drow was much easier; he just shot his sword
anywhere, trying to get me by luck, what he did not know was
that lady luck was on my side, and in a few well aimed
strikes I could only do because he had no way of protecting
his vital areas in his blindness, he was on the ground,
dead.
I closed the pot and sealed the darkness again, but before I
could ran forward to the dark elves' keep, the strange sword
that the drow was carrying catch my eyes, it was
magnificence, it was a sword of my people, most elf noblemen
went with it, even if only to show their position, but this
elven thinblade was really magnificence, it was obvious it
was made in the hands of a master, I suspected it was
magical but there was no time to find out, the moon already
finished rising and when it will set and disappear behind
the horizon it will be the time of the sacrificing.
I ran forward, following the trail of bodies, as I moved
forward the drow corpses decreased while the others
increased in number, until I got into a huge metal door,
which seemed to lead into and underground fortress, at the
foot of the doors were more then a dozen corpses, none of
them drow's, the cause of death seemed to be the countless
arrows protruding from them.
The scene I saw in there would have brought me to tears of
laughter in any other condition, a big guy, almost as big as
a troll, was pounding on the doors with his huge hammer, and
yelling to the drows to open the doors, in his insane rage
he seemed to not notice the arrows shooting at him from the
shooting holes above the door, luckily for him most got his
full plate armor.
I could not believe my eyes, after a few years of traveling
I met my goliath companion again, the one who killed a giant
rat with his big ass and for that got a nick name but he
prefers to be called "Kinless".
I went to him trying to hide from the shooters above, ready
to dodge their bolts, when I got to him and tried speaking
with him, though, I was spotted and shot at, I managed to
dodge three of the bolts but when a forth one was seemed to
be undodgable and I was ready to absorb the shot a strange
thing happened, the sword in my hand, the elven thinblade I
just acquired, guided my hand and faster than I could think
the bolt was countered with my sword, Kinless then notice me
and with red maniac eyes almost hit me, a second before his
hammer came to me though, recognition came to his eyes and
he only said, barely able to talk in his rage "You...
friend...".
The thinblade made me feel too relaxed with the arrows
around me and that's how I found out about the limits of its
power, two arrows was coming at me at the same time and
without thinking I raise my hand to deflect them, but while
the first was deflected easily, the thinblade didn't try to
get the other, it seemed that it's magical power only works
on one arrow at a time.
I knew much about draw poisons and thought I will have no
chance of surviving, but to my relief that arrow wasn't
poisoned, I guess they wasted all the poison on kinless, or
understood that a warrior like him was less likely to be
affected by such attack.
"What happened here" I asked.
"Children inside... can't get in..." he replied in between
his hammer blows on the door.
"Don't worry Kinless" I said, "I'll get us in".
I moved to wall on the side of the door, while walking I
cast a spell to bend the light around me, making me
invisible, and when I got there I continued to the shadows
on the other side of the wall, inside the keep.
What I saw there got my blood boiling even more, a drow, the
guard of the door, was sitting in his chair, and while
Kinless was pounding it trying to get to the children, and
the children were being prepared to being sacrificed, he was
soundly asleep.
Such a cold heart, to be asleep while children being
sacrificed, I couldn't allow such thing to exist, I aimed
the sword to his heart, and drove it right through it, he
opened his eyes in surprise, and moved no more.
I opened the big wood log that held the door blocked, and
unlocked it with the key inside, and just a few seconds
after I promised I'll get us in, I opened the impenetrable
door to the very surprised look of my goliath friend, all he
said was "How...".
I answered that it wasn't the time and that we'll talk after
saving the children.
The way down was long and full of traps but almost no drow
was in our way.
After about a half of the way have passed, and I just
finished killing a drow in my darkness globe while Kinless
was fighting two other drows, a third one was already lying
dead at his feet, I closed the darkness pot so that I could
help my friend without blinding him, but I was very
reluctant to fight without the protection of the darkness, I
wished the shadows would still protect me, so I connected
the shadows in my heart, even if just to feel more
protected, and asked to being engulfed by them, all the
three fighters looked at me with amazement, the two drow was
held in place by fear, as if they just saw death itself,
this was enough for my friend to lower his huge hammer on
one head with enough force to kill him instantly, between me
and Kinless a single drow was a matter of seconds, he then
looked at me still in amazement, and asked me what those
things around me, I didn't like the way he looked at me nor
the way he held his sword waiting for my answer, I took out
a small mirror from my thief's tools and was amazed to see
shadows running around me, making anyone without my sort of
a sight concealment enough to block a fair amount of
strikes, hitting only air, I recognized my knew ability only
by look at it and knew everything about it, we continued
down the keep.
I told him that we'll talk later, now the children are the
priority.
My time sense told me we're pretty much close to the
deadline, and I rushed Kinless, no more searching for traps,
a thing that cost us in a direct fireball, which I managed
to dodge with not much effort, but my friend was a bit
burned from the experience.
We finally arrived to a huge room to find out about thirty
drow fighters screaming in delight for the death of the
children, the children were all in cage near the stage in
the center of the room, what seamed to be a drow female
cleric was surrounded by three drow with no armor, the
female was holding a dagger in a form of a spider above an
elf girl tied to a strange ceremonial table, the cleric
looked exactly to me as if expecting me, and then cried, in
elven, in the language my mother passed to me, "in the glory
of the spider queen", and risen the dagger even more exactly
over the head of the crying girl, all I managed to do was to
ran forward, screaming "no.....", if only I would have think
clearly, if only I would have used the dimensional door, I
could have gotten there in time, I could have saved her, I
saw the dagger getting into her skull, I saw the eyes that
shed a second ago tears shedding tears no more, I heard her
cries turn into a shriek and stop producing voices at all, I
saw the table's eight edges dripping in red fluid, making a
shape of a red monstrous spider made from her blood, her...
I will never forget her name, Milinda, that name is engraved
so hard in my heart that I sometimes wish a real darkness
will enter my heart so that it will fell no sorrow anymore,
the cleric's smile only widened, and I saw now that the drow
fighters was all around us, smiling, one of the wizards went
to the cage and reached for the key, they all were laid beck
and sure of their victory, too laid beck, as if we here to
watch and then die, I will not watch that again... they will
not kill another child as long as I can hold that sword, as
long as I can take another breath... the deep sorrow was
overpowered by something else, by deep anger, by hatred, I
wished nothing more then to kill them all, from that moment
I stopped thinking, I didn't care that after using an
ability to teleport myself to the cleric and wizards I could
not attack in time and will be at their mercy, all I wished
was to drive my sword into that... that... murderer, hatred
filled my heart, mixing with the shadows, both was souring
through my body as I opened a portal to the middle of the
room, and jumped with my sword, attacking as if I already
was in there, something was different, when I came out the
shadows inside me somehow filled the environment,
strengthening the shadows in there and being strengthen by
them, somehow intertwining together, and I didn't just
walked out as always, I shot out of it my weapon piercing
and cutting, interfering with every spell that demon tried
to cast, all she could do was try and block my blows with
the little ceremonial dagger, I had no doubts about killing
her, I didn't see a woman in front of me, I didn't see a
drow in front of me either, all I could see was the blood of
Milinda dripping from the dagger, some of it has dropped on
me in the clash of weapons and I know looked as I felt, her
blood on my hands, I saw her lifeless body lie on that
spider shaped table who's legs was Milinda's blood and my
madness took over the sadness again and a new chain of blows
came through me, I would have died in that second because
the three wizards behind me was in the middle of casting
spells at me, only they didn't consider the goliath from the
other side of the room, thirty drow warriors between him and
us, I wouldn't have considered him either, only that his
screams of rage entered even through the block of my own, if
I would have glanced behind me in that second I would have
seen Kinless run in frenzy toward us, drows stepping in his
way and flying from the impact on his body, his huge hammer
way above his head, and a look in his eyes that could bring
fear to the fearless, I took no note of this in my own
frenzy, but luckily for me the three wizards did and
realizing that, unlike me, Kinless did target them right
now, so they kept on casting but shifted the recipient to
Kinless, unfortunately for them, kinless was not an ordinary
fighter and his hate for the evil magic users of this world
made him develop abilities any magic user will tremble upon
hearing of, three light beams, two blue and one black, left
the wizards' hands, but when they got him and the wizards
were sure that this is the end of it, the most unexpected
thing happened and two of the beams, the blue and the black,
returned right to the caster of it, Kinless slowed for a
second as if he head trouble moving his muscles but resumed
his full speed instantly, arriving to the stage and smashing
the statue the wizard has become in a single blow, the next
wizard next to him in the meantime was screaming on the
floor unknown words and trying to poke his eyes out, a
second later he was dead.
The third wizard, seeing what has happened to his two
companions, through his materials and spell book on the
ground, and start running hysterically to the other side of
the room only to be smacked from his side in the middle of
his run by Kinless huge hammer, flying straight to the
floor, now in a prone position he received a second blow,
this time from above him, it seemed that the blow was much
more powerful this time, at least four times as powerful,
the great hammer fell on him splitting him in two and even
breaking a big part of the staircase he was on.
The cleric was now dead too, countless sword wounded on him,
but I cared not, I kept on piercing his body again and
again, wishing only to avenge the poor girl I saw being...
no... I will nor forgive nor forget...
The thirty drow warriors could have easily finish us, but
seeing their leaders being chopped so quickly end ruthlessly
brought them into a frenzy of fear and they all scattered
and tried getting through the door, Kinless and I were now
after them and not even one raised his weapon on us, they
climbed on each other and killed one another just to get
away from the devils in pursue, the big full-plated man in
blood freezing rage screaming through his eyes and mouth,
filled with blood, with a huge hammer that was bathed in
blood completely and still had some of the internals organs
of one of their leaders on it with the crazy elf that seemed
to come from hell himself, darkness surrounds him, with no
way to run from because he can show up anywhere anytime.
So Kinless was passing through them, striking them one by
one with his hammer like you would cut a tree with an axe,
and I jumped from drow to drow through the darkness, showing
up a feet behind them and slitting their throats one by one,
knowing not what I was doing and how I did it, and cared not
either.
We were able to kill about a half of them while the others
managed to escape, seeing there was no drow left in here I
was ready to pursue, but something stopped me, a voice, at
start it was only a buzz in the madness that engulfed my
senses, so I hesitated for a second, that was the time it
took it to penetrate the rage, it was a familiar voice, a
very painful one, something that happened recently, I looked
around and saw it's source, it was the other children
cries...
Next to them there was a stage...
The kids were crying,
And on the stage... NO...
I came here to save those children,
On that stage... there was another child to save...
I need to get those children out of here,
Another child... NO... I must not think of it... it's not
important...
I need to bring those children to their parents,
But not everyone will be beck to his parents... to HER
parents...
NO, I must take the kids NOW there is no time to think, I
will handle it later... whatever it is.
I had another one with me... Kinless, where is he, he's
nowhere around, I hope he's not dead, I went to the cage
avoiding looking the place next to it ...I will deal with it
later... and opened it, I heard myself as if from another
room saying coldly, "I came to save you, come with me", the
children seemed to be more afraid of me then from the drows,
but I guess it couldn't be helped, I have to get them
somehow...

...the next thing I remember was walking on the road to the
village, the sky told me that it will be morning soon and
that the sun will show up, for once, I wanted it to rise, to
engulf and clean me with its bright and painful light, after
me there was a group of about thirty children, I was holding
something heavy, a blanket or something, it was important, I
needed to bring it somewhere, the shadows didn't ran around
me anymore... (Was it a dream? Tymora... I hope so...),
something about convincing the children to come... yes it
frightened them so I dismissed it, (It can still be a dream?
Tymora, make it be a dream ...), there was something I
forgot, YES... Kinless, I still haven't found him, there was
something more important... yes, the blanket, and the kids
too, they looked so frightened from me, but still they kept
close to me, afraid of everything else even more... the sun
is rising, I embraced the pain and the light, the light
blinded me for a second and then I was able to see again,
only it was painful, it was cleansing, it was good, my
muscles barely worked anymore, every movement pained me, but
I have to keep moving, here it is... the village, just a bit
more...
Just a few more steppes...
Almost there...
The gates...

..."The children, he brought beck the children"
..."Call Mira, her son is here"
..."Call the parents..."
..."Nira... Nira... papa, mama"
..."Did you see my daughter...?"
..."Thank you for bringing my son beck"
..."Olian... thank god you're safe"
..."Mom...? Dad, where is mom... mom...? Mom...?"
..."Did anyone see my daughter...?"
..."Thank you, Thank you..."
..."Mammy... I was so scared mommy"
..."My daughter... where is my daughter..."
..."I'm so glad you came beck to me Tommy"
..."Where is my daughter... sir, where is my daughter, where
is my Milinda?"

No matter how much I will try I will never the name Milinda,
I will never forget her mother searching for her while other
parents found their own, I will never forget her begging
face when she asked me, begging me to lie to her, begging me
to say that she's alive, and I could never forget putting
the blanket from my hands to the ground and revealing the
beautiful elf girl, all in blood, and that sorrowful scream,
and the look, I couldn't bare the broken look in her eyes...
I turned and left the village, looking at the blood in my
hands, the blood of the little girl, the blood I could have
prevented from spilling, the blood I was responsible for, a
few drops has fallen on my hands, washing some of the blood
away, I stopped them immediately, I don't deserve the right
to cry, the right to wash the blood that easily.
I came beck to the cursed place, to the underground keep,
the rage has subsided and now sorrow filled me, no taste of
revenge stood in my mind, I came hear for two reasons alone,
to check if my goliath friend among the dead in there and to
burn the cursed place.
When I arrived to the entrance both reasons for me to come
came forth without me raising a finger, I saw my goliath
friend, blood all over his full-plate armor, he looked like
a spawn from hell, but I guess I was looking about the same
way myself, he was using his huge hammer to destroy what was
left of the entrance, until I got there he already finished
destroying any way of entering.
"Hallow Blacki, destroyed the place inside, and now the
doors, where are children?"
"In the village, I brought them beck into there, are you
okay?"
"Kinless strong, thenty two drow fighter, three wizard
drows, blacki strong too, eight drow fighter one evil
cleric"
"I don't remember much of last night, if you're alright than
I can return to my travels"
"Wait, blacki fight, blacki get treasure, and magic thing
too, from dead drow" he handed me a big sack filled with
gold and platina pieces, and a small chained symbol that had
a strange sign and a strange name in undercommon, I guess
it's some small drow house, it has the ability to heal me a
little every day.
From that day me and Kinless are together, we had many
adventures together in which we succeeded pretty good in,
we're pretty much a good team, he's the firepower and I'm
the thieving and sorcery, especially escape roots, after a
while together I found out that the dimension of shadows I
was using as an explanation to my spells was really
existing, "the shadow plane", and that through my power I
could travel to it and through it if there's need for long
distances much quicker, and even could travel to other
planes from it, Kinless wasn't that crazy about it but we
used it to visit my saurials friend once anyway, but beside
that it's for emergencies mainly, we now going beck from the
hidden valley of the saurial, we're going through some
forest, and I feel like my luck or destiny is about to
change, and it has nothing to do with the big dead looking
dragon passing right over the forest now...


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that's as far as i'm going to go in this story for now, if
you liked this story and wished me to continue it please
send me a message to:  Syberpuppy@gmail.com   (-: