[ORP] Viper in the Spider's Nest

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Lynx

[ORP] Viper in the Spider's Nest

Post by Lynx »

Lynx wandered around the town's outskirts. He'd never felt very comfortable around those that were different than him, and being an outcast from his own village for the nearly mutational change his body was undergoing made almost everyone 'different' than he. He'd lived a rather happy beginning in one of the secluded villages of the Elves. Surrounded by trees, and critters, he felt perfectly at home. He even had a younger sister who adored and looked up to him. His mother had died 20 years ago, and his father did not take her untimely passing that well. He slowly slipped into insanity. The Village leaders decided to help him redeem himself, sending him on a hopeless errand. In fact, this was a common way to get rid of those Elves that lost their keenness to nature and steering towards becoming an 'abomination'.

Lynx scowled outwardly at that word as he thought it. "Abomination!!" What right did any one, Elf, Human or other majestic being have to declare someone such. Was it any less an abomination to cast his father to his death?

After that fateful day, Lynx and Jaenaria had been raised for 6 more years with their Uncle and Aunt in the village. Sure, they were not their direct bloodkin, but life was good. At the least a bit more stable. They were treated very well by everyone in the village, almost as if it was an apology for the fateful decision that had been made in regards to them.

All the while, Lynx had a nagging darkness that took seed inside his heart. In the matter of one year, he'd lost both of his parents. One stolen from him by an apparent illness that wasted his mother away from the inside out. There was talk of some curse being cast on her for turning down the advances of courtship before her and his father were married; though this was never proven. And then months later, the decision came down for his father to go off in the search of a fabled moondrop tear to save a neighboring grove. All the participants in the quest came back empty-handed. All except he and Jae's father. They were told he died valiantly, but Lynx knew in his heart that was just platitudes.

The seed of doubt and sinister did not sprout yet though. At 36 years old, Lynx had come of age to follow in the village's footsteps of male progression. Being that he had a natural aptitude towards martial abilities, he began training to become a Hunter/Ranger. Learning how to fight two handed with a special emphasis in smaller blades, he quickly proved himself more than capable to join their ranks.

Lynx flashed back to the present...the only trinket they'd left him with wound around his neck; an intricately carved oakleaf cluster with berries inlaid in obsidian. This was the mark in his village of his status, being one of the youngest male elves in the village's history to attain the cluster, denoting him a fledged Ranger, one of the elite of the village.

That was when the seed began to sprout in his heart. Being at that age where a young man begins to notice the opposite gender, he became enamored of a young elven maiden named Lauraena. As all males can attest to, this generated rather strong emotions. Sure, they were positive emotions, but it still served to nurture and feed the seed that had been germinating in his heart for the last 16 years.

All in all, the two lovers had a wonderful courtship, even beginning to travel together outside the cloister of the village performing simple tasks for village folk. In fact, they became very close indeed, and rather notorious. So much that some of the neighboring cloisters began to send for them to do the occasional beast slaying and dealing with 'abominations of nature.' There was that word again!

One such quest changed the course of Lynx's life forever, however. And ultimately led him to join the Town of Fenia.
Lynx

Re: [ORP] Viper in the Spider's Nest

Post by Lynx »

Lynx slipped through the nearby forests to the hillocks, he'd noticed a cave: well, sort of a cave: that he thought he could use until he knew he belonged here. Slowly he looked around himself for any eavesdroppers. Content he had no one following him, he slipped inside the cave. It had previously belonged to a small family of wild animals, but Lynx 'convinced' them to move on with only limited bloodshed. He hunched in the nook dug into the rock-face and thought back again to that fateful adventure.

It was supposed to be just like any other hunting trip. He and Lauraena had been on dozens of them by now and were becoming the ultimate team. There was something a little fishy about the whole thing by the description they'd received from the neighboring village skarll's rendition. Again, that wasn't the first time this problem had existed. Ofttimes the two of them were sent off to track a beast or abomination never seen by the informant, and those had turned out just fine.

However, this one was even more uncanny. The place they were heading was an old abandoned ruin. Apparently some creature, or creatures; that part was vague too; had taken up residence and was starting to prey on the village's children. Lauraena heard Lynx's concern, but pressed the issue that children were at stake.

You see, Elves do not generally have many children, so the death of their childfolk was a grave concern. It could spell ultimately into the doom of a village or entire civilization in terms of Elven standards. Lynx gave in, unable to argue her logic on this point, so they went.

As they approached the destination, Lynx's foreboding in the pit of his stomach grew more and more. Seeing the building they were supposed to clear struck him as very out-of-place. These 'ruins' they were supposed to infiltrate did not seem too ruined. He tried to halt his companion, but she was hell-bent on her maternal instincts over children, and did not hear his gasp to stop. She slipped into a window as Lynx turned the corner. It was dark inside, yet obviously inhabited by something...intelligent. Not some beast like the others they'd hunted. More sinister.

His elven blood and intuition could also sense strong, dark magic. Forbidden. Menacing.

Lynx drew both his blades silently and slipped into the window. Hoping to find Lauraena right inside, he was sorely mistaken. The dark room he thought he was entering was not the same room he found himself in. Instead, he found himself in a relatively well-lit hall. What sort of foul magic was this?!

Lynx grasped his knives tighter. The two long dirks were approximately 17 inches in length from guard to bladetip, and gleamed silver in the torchlight. He blinked his eyes several times. His eyes felt...off, somehow. His head buzzed. Maybe that was the effect of the magical abode?

Lynx moved stealthily down the hall. There was talking in the adjoining rooms. He couldn't understand their language, but it was clearly communication as the many voices had a rhythm back and forth, one then the other in reply and back again. He snuck through the corridors, seeking either his prey or Lauraena, more concerned over finding the latter as a means to center and ground himself, but the further he went down the corridor, all he was seeing was more groups of these strange looking humanoid creatures, carrying on and having a jolly old time. Some of them were laughing and having merry, while others joked and bereft themselves acting as though they were all in camraderie. Where the heck was he?! This place had no similarity to the dark building he'd seen previously! Who were these 'people'? Were they people? He couldn't make out faces, which was all the more strange as he could clearly hear voices. Unable to make out the language, but they were most definitely voices!

He became more frantic and uncomfortable over the oddness of this whole excursion. Moving faster with less concern over silence and subterfuge; carelessness overtook him from his frantic need to find Lauraena and get out of her. Something was definitely NOT right!

Just then, he turned a corner which opened up into a very large room, filled with these faceless creatures. They all turned to look at him. He'd been careless and got caught! He held his blades tightly and knew he was in for a very large fight. The creatures rushed him. Well, rushed would not be the best way to describe it. They more hobbled towards him with the occasional lunging, some of them obviously faster than others, but all of them looked so unnatural. So menacing. He spun his hand back and brought it forth sending a spray of bright red blood streaking the nearby wall. He spun again cutting down another...and another. He could not fathom why these creatures menaced him so, all he knew is he had to fight to protect himself from them. Madness began to overtake him at the blood he'd spilt, and he hungered for more of it. Cutting down creature after creature. The beasts stopped in apparent horror and turned to flee from him. But, they'd spotted him! They'd go get help! He ran a few of them down, cutting them from this world...and then he heard it. A laugh. One of those laughs that goes all the way to your soul. He gasped as sweat was pouring out of every pore, even pores he didn't know he had. A waterfall of sweat cascaded down his body underneath his tunic, plastering his golden brown hair to his forehead. His dirks felt slippery in his hands with his palms so sweaty...then the laugh again, this time he whirled towards where it was coming from. Everywhere and all around him...and a third harder laugh, this time ending with the sound of a feminine scream. That scream sounded so familiar.

He followed his hyper-sensitized ears to the author of that scream, in horror he placed who it belonged to. He saw Lauraena, her hand to her mouth as she fell to her knees. Suddenly, he was no longer in that lit-up ballroom. No longer swarmed by faceless beasts and creatures...instead...he was surrounded by blood and the faces were now readily apparent. Elven children lay strewn all around him. He looked in horror at his two blades. They no longer shown silver. Instead they gleamed with red in the dim torchlight of his discarded torch. All of their faces shown in his mind...his soul.

Then that laugh rang out again as he felt his heart burn. He yelped in pain as a bright flash hit him hard. He cried out as the pain flared through every nerve of his being. His soul seeming to be wrenched out of his very being. Lauraena looked on in horror as the curse worked its way through Lynx's veins, his mind. With blinding brilliance, he shone before in a final wrench of pain, his entire body clapped against the floor. When he awoke, he didn't know how he'd gotten to where he was. His legs ached, which was the only evidence he had for what happened.

He didn't know where he was, how far he'd ran. The last thing he had etched on his mind was the horrified look on Lauraena's face. He stood up, staggering to his feet and looked around...seeing a village at the bottom of the hill...surrounded by a forest. He hobbled his way there. He could never go home, and never could go home. He stopped at a stream and looked into the water's reflection...and did not recognize who looked back at him. His face had grown darker...tanned? His hair used to be a golden brown, now had darkened to more prominently brown. And his eyes! What had happened to his eyes! They were no longer the deep green of his people...now they were yellow? VERY yellow?! He backed away several steps falling into the damp ground
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