This is the second chapter of the adventures of Nirk. All
you need to do to know how he may fare out of the boundaries
of his prison... and the only home he knows - is to slide
the bar and start reading...






All the hatred and fear I felt for that man - a MAN!!! Zolk
doesn't deserve being called a man - those feelings helped
me ran for weeks, and so I managed to escape the camp. if,
or when, Zolk have found out about the scroll and connected
the dots to my test and disappearance, I never found out...
what mattered for that moment was that I was alive, and I
needed to keep moving. 'He mustn't find me before I will be
ready for him', I kept telling myself.
There were times I had nothing to eat or drink for days; the
area was a wasteland - the only city I saw was half a day
running of Thai camp. Since then I saw no town or even a
farm, even animals were rarely seen around.
I only survived by stealing from travelers. Every time I saw
some group traveling, I followed them until the time they
camped, and then I waited till they got to sleep. Usually
there was a guard, but they weren't expecting a thief in
there, they were searching for some wild animals, so they
were never really hard to avoid seeing by. After avoiding
the guard, I easily stole every valuable object I could
carry, and more importantly... food and drinks. But
something did trouble me - every time I outstretched my
hands to steel anything, the picture of my parents flashed
in my mind, and the fact that they were good people - and
not just that but a protectors from evil as well - it made
me think: 'what I'm doing is evil, am I good or evil... I
guess evil, can I be good, is it too late for me, I can't be
good, I was taught only evil deeds from childhood, by the
picture I'm even descendent from devils, but my parents
weren't evil, can I stop steeling and be good...?' but every
time, I did steel and no changed result arrived.
One day I followed a small group of people into a small
wood. They camped there for the night and even their guard
was sleeping, my strike came immediately.
I went straight into the camp, not even trying to hide from
the sleeping guard. My objective revealed to me immediately
- in the center of the camp was a circle of four caravans
and in the middle of the circle a larger and richer caravan
stood - the camp leader's caravan - if there's anything
worth getting in the camp it is most likely to be in there.
To my surprise the door was locked. It's not common for the
leader to lock his door if the camp is guarded, unless
there's some distrust between the camp's people, or there's
something very valuable in that caravan. The second option
sounded very good in my mind, so without any second thought,
I quietly picked the lock (a very simple lock), entered the
room, and closed the door behind me.
The room was a very simple: right in front of me on the
other side of the room was a desk full of boring books like
"the eye of the merchant" and "diploma in diplomacy". By the
door was a simple looking chest with a small lock on it.
Behind the chest a small bed stood with a man sleeping
soundly on it. On the opposite corner of the room was a
carved wooden table with some silver and golden spoons and
some ceramic plates, but the thing that caught my eyes
wasn't the silver and golden spoons or even the locked
chest...
In Thai, I was taught never to look at the obvious place of
the valuables, the most precious object of the person will
be always in his reach, and that's the place you first have
to notice, and that's why instead of looking in the chest I
immediately searched the man's bad for anything unusual and
I noticed that under the sleeping men's head was a little
over-puffed pillow.
It was obvious that something was under the man's pillow.
After observing it for a few seconds, I decided what the
size of the object must be and took two books that together
were about the estimated size of the object. I rested the
books on the edge of the chest and with one hand supported
the pillow and in the other hand I pulled the object nice
and easy from under it and than without letting the pillow
adjust to the lack of the little chest I replaced it with
the two books. In school the teachers were always impressed
by my quickness... "Quicker than the eye", they always
said.

Everything went so smoothly that I started to feel
invincible - or in a thief's case, invisible - and here came
my biggest and final mistake in this job. I started
forgetting I should be careful and pay attention to
everything and not just trust my thief instinct, and that
was a big rule they kept reciting: "The only rule you ALL
will learn only by breaking it - that means the few that
will survive it: Trust your instinct completely but no
matter how sharpen and greater they'll be, they should never
come instead of your common sense. It doesn't matter how
much good thieves you'll be and how much your instincts will
be able to do the jobs automatically - when you'll do the
job without thinking, they will bring you your downfall." I
remember hearing that preach again and again, but I never,
until that day, really understood or cared about its
meaning.

So I decided not to wait for getting out of the camp or even
caravan to open it. The poor security of the place and the
snoring of the man in the bed told me I could easily stay
for an hour or two without anyone noticing. I put the chest
on the table - it took me about fifteen seconds to pick the
lock of the chest and open it. From the moment the first
crack of the chest-cover was revealed to me I was shocked;
in front of me a diamond was sitting. But not the fact that
it was a perfectly orb diamond nor the fact that it was
enormous was the thing that shocked me - it was the light,
the few rays of light that were in the dark room seemed to
try to enter the diamond and in return the diamond was
radiating in a soft bright light. For a few minutes I was
just standing there, looking at it and then I grabbed the
diamond and held it high, and just then a single moonlight
ray that escaped the curtain and fell on the diamond. Now
the diamond looked like it was on fire, a white fire, and
then continued glowing brighter and brighter. It seemed now
like I held a pure light in my hand.
All I did was look on that diamond like that for an unknown
time - not a thought passed through my mind, and then,
acting by instinct alone, crouched a bit right and dodged a
flying dagger a centimeter from my ear, I still remember the
sound it made, I immediately snapped out of it. Not even
looking back, I put the diamond back in one of my hidden
pockets while jumping on the table and intentionally put my
leg under the other edge of the table and by that tripped
from it to the door on its other side, just missing another
flying dagger. My hands hit the floor and I pushed the
table-edge as powerful as I could upward.
I gained a few seconds of relatively safety from the cover I
made from the inverted table, that's all I needed to look
around me and analyze the situation.
Jumping to my feet in a crouched position, I glimpsed from a
low side of the table and saw to my amazement  the
previously sleeping man with a throwing dagger in every hand
and a belt with a dozen more daggers around his chest. I
then saw how all of this could happen, the bright light was
so compelling that my instincts didn't alarmed me not of the
very bright light right in front of the sleeping man - the
thing that obviously waked him up, not of him waking and
getting up - I didn't even hear him, only the danger of
losing my life was high enough to wake me up from this
trance.
I then noticed something - still in midair - flying all
around in his direction, were the objects that laid on the
table. Only then I realized the world was progressing in
slow-motion, including my quickness along with the thief's
instincts - which include all the abilities I was taught and
had earned in work - that were the only thing that was
keeping me alive in front of this unexpectedly
dagger-thrower master. While thinking all that I realized
that if I want to get out of here alive, the chance for that
is near at hand and when it will be over I will have no more
chances. The chance I had was throwing the chest of the
diamond right toward the big man's belly; I remember its
weight. I gathered what just might be enough of a diversion
for me to escape. So I started running while the chest got
to his belly and that got the two first daggers out of
balance and out of my way, but I saw he's wasting no second
and reaching for the next two daggers from his belt. I
decided that in order for me to get out of this alive, I
have to do something different than just running past him to
the exit - that way he would chop me to pieces. Fighting
with him was out of the question with his dagger's skills...
so I ran right towards him. Seeing the speed and the
direction I was getting he cast the daggers aside and took
the lowest dagger from his belt, which was in fact not a
dagger but a short sword. He was ready to strike me down as
soon as I'll be there, but instead of getting to him I used
all the skills I gathered in the academy in the field and I
turned around, turning my beck to him, and in the last
second before getting to him I managed to flip flop above
him, and still in his surprise I took the opportunity to
escape.

Running straight outside, I intentionally gave the dagger
thrower a clue about my direction - straight forward, then
in the second I was covered from his sight by the next
caravan I stepped into a shadow and disappeared. I climbed
on top of the caravan and watched as the noise we caused
made the other camp residents wake up to find the noise's
origin. I understood that my whole encounter with the camp
leader started only about two minutes ago. Now time was
normal again and I saw the camp leader shouting to rouse up
the people while running in the direction he saw me running
toward, followed by his men that already managed to catch
their weapon. I waited for a minute longer until everybody
was already on my supposed trail.
I smiled and jumped from the caravan roof to the next
caravan roof - the same caravan I just robbed, and than
jumped off the roof, out of the camp - while everyone were
searching me in the very opposite end of the camp, but in
that jump I never reached the ground...

In midair, instead of feeling the ground under my feet, I
felt something hitting me on the beck. First, I thought that
in spite of my skills I didn't jump right and fell on my
back, but then another strike fell on my chest, and another
on my left wrist. I then felt myself getting upward, trying
to understand what happened. I saw that three vines were
holding and lifting me. Two were wrapped around my waist and
chest and the third was around my left hand's wrist. I tried
getting my dagger with my right hand and immediately another
vine caught my right wrist and tightened it to my right
shoulder.
Now I had nothing to do. Even if I was able to free myself
of the vines, I still would have to face the getting-further
ground. The only thing I could do right now was to wait.
In a few seconds I found myself in front of a wide platform
just a few feet under the treetop that was nearest to me. On
it I saw three elves that were all dressed in clothes of
green and brown, exactly like the colors of the earth and
the trees. The tallest of the three, a male, was chanting to
himself and looked very concentrated - though his eyes were
closed I could see that he was aware of me. Right by his
side was a female. In comparison to the other female elves I
saw in my school she wasn't that beautiful, but she was
still an elf, so she still was good looking.
In front of them, just at the end of the platform, a younger
girl was standing. I knew that if I can see the difference
in their ages so easily, she must be really young. She was
really beautiful, though in an immature sort of a way. She
smiled to me, a beautiful innocent smile, and said, "Hallo,
my name is Anila".
"who are you?" I said.
"I told you I'm Anila, and this is my father Onil, and my
mother Orin. We live in this forest and protect its living
beings and the passengers staying here for a night. It's a
sanctuary you know".
"sanctuary?" I asked in a true amazement - I had no idea of
this.
"yes, father can you put him on the platform? It looks
really uncomfortable", she said while easily taking my
hidden daggers from my sleeve and from my belt, and my
crossbow too.
I felt the vines moving again, putting me softly on the
platform.
"so what is your name, anyway?" she asked.
"Nirk", I replied before stopping myself, as if it was
forced out of me.
"Nirk", she said pondering, "A strange name. I'm
wondering..." she came to me and without any fear sent her
hand and touched my cheek softly, nearly caressing it.
"you're a bit warmer", she murmured and took her from my
cheek. She then looked straight to my eyes, like she was
searching something in them. Then she shifted her eyes to my
hair and after a few seconds to my feet.
"you have no shadow either", she said smiling, "you're an
outsider".
All this time she was revealing the things I tried so much
to hide, I was so astonished by the fact that she knew
exactly what to search and where, that I hadn't said
anything. But hearing her tell me that my anomalies define
me as something raised the question I asked myself so many
times straight to my mouth "What do you mean? An outsider?
What is it? What do you know about me? How did you know what
to look for? What am I? Who am I? Tell me!!!" my assault was
so fierce that she took a step back and looked at me with
surprise, though not in fear. "I could feel no evil in you,
but a lot of anger and confusion. Calm yourself and I will
try to answer your questions".
Seeing her expression and the lack of her beautiful smile in
her face got me out of my rage and made me realize how I was
acting a moment ago. I took a deep breath and sat down on
the platform.
"But before we can begin, I will need what you have taken.
It's our duty to protect this holy place", she said with a
piercing look that took away all thoughts about trying to
hide it from her off my mind. I handed it over to her. It
was in normal brightness now. She took it and without even
looking at it again, she raised her hand while murmuring in
an unknown language. In a second, there was a flesh of white
- a white hawk flew in great speed from one of the treetops
through Anila's hand, leaving her hand without the jewel,
but without any scratches either. "Griffith will bring it
back to its owner. Now come inside and we'll be able to
talk". We all went down the platform to a small house that
was made inside a huge dead tree and was impossible to find
without knowing of its existence.
After telling them my life's story and showing them my
scroll, they told me about the "asimars" and "tieflings" and
about my ancestors. She said I was a tiefling, but that it
doesn't mean I have to be evil, and that by the scroll my
parents were also good and fought to maintain the peace and
prevent evil. She couldn't tell me more about tieflings and
she knew nothing about my parents. With the thought that my
parents were good and that I can be good too, I fell
asleep.
Afterwards, I learned they were rangers. They taught me how
to love the nature and protect it. I found out Orin, her
mother, was only half-elf and that made her a quarter human
and that's why she looked so mature in her age - 25, and as
a part human too we got closer.
They taught me how to direct my hatred from the world to
that Halfling I hated so much. They said it's all right to
hate those who deserve hatred and even helped me with my
fighting skills - especially with my off-hand, and a few
other skills, in order to avenge my parents death.
Their warm welcome of me, especially Anila's, started to
change me little by little.
I started showing back the feelings I was receiving, until
one day I decided that no matter what, I will never cause
harm to another good soul and I will use my talents to help
the souls in trouble and to protect them.
I stayed with them for about a year. I would have stayed
more but a longing started showing in my heart, a longing to
find out about my parents, about my ancestors, about
myself.
I decided to leave my good life and my good friends at the
sanctuary for a quest to find out about myself and my
family's life and avenge their death.
After parting with Onil and Orin, and my dear Anila, I
started my quest by leaving toward the next town known to my
elf friends.