This is a story i wrote last summer... It's kinda plotless. Read it anyways, it's okay, please review and critique.
PS the pronunciations of the names are in parenthesis next to the words.
PPS if you look at some of the perculiar names, they're words or other names spelled backwards
Xenria (ZEN-ree-yah)
In the dusky lands of Xenria moving is not necessary if you want to find something unusual. Humans of course live there, but they are not the only ones. If you think so, an army of gnomes will laugh at, and chuck you into a pit.
The gnomes are small tiny creatures. They are weak alone and easy to defeat but if you anger a group of them, well I will let you picture it.
In dark forests live the dwarves. The dwarves are very rare and you should never double-cross them. It may be the last thing you ever do. They are experts in axe wielding and could over power you and 17 other buffoons stupid enough to anger one.
Then there are the humans, brutal and power hungry. They will do anything to gain power, even if it means getting rid of their own kind.
Below the humans in the racial class are the ogres. The ogres rely on brute force for anything they do. Tall and dark the ogres are limited because of their habits. If they were to try to eat something, they would pick it up and crush it. Therefore, any growing food is not an interest to the ogres. The only things ogres usually eat are other ogres. Since they eat each other so much, they have slowly died out.
Goblins have their domains in open planes where they can wreak havoc and create a cacophony of screeching and wailing. Never let one into your house. They can shape-shift and trick you into letting them in. The only one thing that will tell you it is a Goblin is the mark on the back of their neck. It is in the shape of a capital G crossed with an x, so always ask the poor beggar that asks for hospitality at your door weekly to take off their handkerchief and show you the back of their neck. If you do not you may not have a recognizable house anymore.
There is one last creature so ferocious and terrifying that anybody that even hears the footsteps of it dies of fright. That creature is the Yzarc. The only people who have seen the Yzarc did not live to give a visible description so what it looks like is unknown to all living creatures. There are also Halflings, Elves and other magical creatures but in Xenria, the six major species are humans, dwarves, goblins, ogres, gnomes and the dreaded Yzarc (EE-zark).
Chapter 1
An encounter with humans
Peering from behind a gnarled oak tree, a dwarf watched as three humans laden with packs and canteens passed by his clearing whispering.
"Let's get back to our home on the edge of this dreaded forest," said the first human
"Yeah maybe the dwarf there will have some food there for us," said the second. The third human remained silent.
Elbirroh (el-BIH-row) did not like humans. They were the ones who drove him out of the forest of Shebar because they needed wood for some strange contraption called a "cabin". His bearskin vest snagged on a small branch protruding from the tree he was hiding behind and he tripped into the clearing.
An arrow fell next to his right ear. He looked up to see one of the humans with a bow drawn out of his pack and one foot on a large rock, the other on the leaf-strewn ground. He raised his chest, tightening the leather straps over his green shirt. The two men next to the first had produced swords from their silver cases and pointed them to the back of the defenseless and bruised Elbirroh who was whimpering on the ground.
"Oh, it's just a pathetic little dwarf," said the man with the bow.
"I'll teach you to call me pathetic," said Elbirroh struggling to get up. However, seized by the two armor clad sword-carrying men and slammed to the ground. He could not get up,
"Don't bother," said the bowman as on of the swordsmen took a step forward to stop Elbirroh from getting up. "Let him go and we'll see what he can do."
"I am not a circus animal!" yelled Elbirroh. Nevertheless, he ran into a hollowed out tree and returned with an axe.
"What a joke. Don't you think its funny Francesco (fran-CHESS-co)?" laughed one of the swordsmen to the bowman.
"Yes indeed Desenay," said Francesco
"Very funny you say. Have a go at me then," said Elbirroh.
"If you say so," said Francesco pulling back an arrow in his bow. He released it and it shot through the air, hurtling at the dwarf. With one swift movement, the dwarf slashed his battle-axe down to the ground as if chopping a non-existent log. However, to Francesco's dismay the arrow fell like a dead bird to the ground. Francesco then pulled out a crossbow, loaded it with seven arrows, and shot them at the dwarf.
"Think you're clever!" laughed Elbirroh as he snapped his fingers. The arrows turned into stone and fell to the ground. Elbirroh then ran back to the hallowed out tree and came back with a small mirror encrusted with jewels around the edge. It had golden edging and reflected the cool autumn air.
"What is that!" said Desenay. "Did you just visit your bathroom?"
"Those jewels might be valuable though," said the swordsman who remained unnamed.
"Very true Psorad (SORE-add), let's kill him and see what they're worth," said Francesco and he fired another arrow out of his crossbow, which soared over the dwarf's head and hit the tree behind him.
"You dare try to kill me!" yelled Elbirroh, and with a raspy cry, he ran at Psorad swinging his axe. Psorad screamed as the axe struck his pack. Francesco looked over and saw water starting to spill out of Psorad's bag.
"The blasted dwarf destroyed my canteen!" yelled Psorad as he swung the sword high and plunged it towards the dwarf. With little effort, the dwarf put the mirror in front of himself.
"Don't destroy it!" yelled Desenay as the sword went into the mirror. Instead of cracking the mirror and going through the backdrop, the sword passed through the mirror and shot back out of it directly at Psorad.
"This cursed mirror's been enchanted!" said Psorad as he pulled the sword back out of the mirror and ran back to Francesco and Desenay.
"Let's leave," suggested Francesco
"Yeah, this guy's got too many tricks up his sleeves," said Desenay breaking into a stride.
"Vests don't have sleeves you idiots!" called out Elbirroh to the three retreating backs.
"Stupid humans" thought Elbirroh. He had lived in the clearing for almost all his life. Until age eight, he lived in the forest of Shebar. However, that was twenty years ago. He shuffled over to a tree. He walked around to the back of the tree. There he had carved small indents into the tree, away from the eyes of travelers. He climbed up to the top of tree hand over hand, foot over foot. There at the top of the tree there was a thin rope leading to another tree.
He had thought when making the rope out of reeds in the lake nearby that a human would not be able to scale the tree that the rope was leading to, but they would be able to climb the one with the indents. Therefore, he decided to make a rope that would unravel with the weight of a human but not by the weight of a dwarf. He had made the rope extremely long so he could entwine the rope in a net that stretched between the two trees. Elbirroh crawled across the reed rope net and arrived at the other tree. At the top of the tree, there was a small hole big enough for a dwarf to fit in.
When he lowered himself down a ladder attached to the wall, he found himself in a hollowed out living room. Inside there was a small wooden rocking chair that Elbirroh had carved himself.
To the right of the chair was a small bookshelf built into the wall that Elbirroh had made with a pickaxe. He had made small book-sized slits that he fitted books into horizontally. The one flaw in this plan was that other people could take the books from the outside. Therefore, he had made the bookshelf a type of library for any other creatures (not including humans) to use.
Next to the bookshelf, there was a handsome wooden clock. It told the time of the day not like other clocks. Instead of all the numbers in order around the clock, the numbers were scattered in a random formation so it looked like alphabet soup, using numbers. The hands of the clock were enchanted, just like the mirror, except the clock did not repel enemy's attacks against themselves; the clock hands had the power to move to the correct positions without assistance.
Standing as straight up as Elbirroh could make it, next to the clock was Elbirroh's favorite piece of furniture of all. It was his weapon rack! The rack had three shelves on it, built in precisely the right way so its items could fit. On the top shelf, Elbirroh kept a large collection of axes. Each of them looked different and each of them with a different enchantment from his grandfather except for the seventh one.
Out of all seventeen axes, Elbirroh treasured the seventh one the most. He had won it after an encounter with a troll who went screaming to his homeland without a right arm. In his rush, he had dropped a golden axe. The troll had not been able to use it on Elbirroh so Elbirroh did not yet know what it did. Many different axes had different properties in Xenria. Some had healing power, some had the power of different elements, and some had no power at all. Therefore, Elbirroh had taken the axe over to a fallen log. Once the axe's blade had touched the log, the log instantly turned into water. After that Elbirroh made sure that, the blade did not touch anything around itself, fearing that his home may turn to water. Elbirroh replaced the impenetrable axe residing in his grayish calloused hand that he had used to deflect one of Francesco's arrows with the others.
On the second shelf, he had a large collection of spears. They were not ordinary spears but special spears. The spears that lay on the first half of the second shelf had a boomerang effect. When thrown a distance, with one snap of the fingers, it will come back at the same speed as thrown.
The spears on the second half of the second shelf when thrown would go twisting through the air, and never stop flying until it hits some solid object that comes across its path.
The only things on the third rack were several small bottles of liquid or powder. What was inside the bottles were medical herbs and healing potions.
Elbirroh replaced the axe and took out his fire axe. The fire axe could cut through a piece of wood with a single flame. If anything touched the tip of the axe, the axe would shoot a flame down it in a perfectly straight line until it reached the end of the object in question. Elbirroh got to his feet and shimmied up the ladder back to the net making sure not to touch anything with the blade of the axe. He went across that and climbed down the tree to the ground. Once he reached the bottom of the ladder, he headed out to the thick of the forest.
Chapter 2
An old friend
When he got to the center of the forest, he realized that someone else was there. In the dim light cast through the trees, he could not distinguish who it was. The only thing he could make out was that the creature in front of him was either a goblin or a dwarf. The creature started wobbling towards him. A dwarf would not walk that way, thought Elbirroh. Only goblins walk like that! The creature got closer and closer and then it spoke.
"Is that you Elbirroh?" said the approaching creature. Once the creature came into a beam of light Elbirroh could see who it was.
"Is that you Dionarap? Is it really you!" said Elbirroh. Dionarap had been Elbirroh's childhood friend. Ever since they had found out they had been born a table away from each other on the same day in the same place, they had been friends. When they were around seven-years-old Elbirroh started to call Dionarap "Freakish boy who was born next to me at the same exact time" as a joke whenever they passed each other through the forest collecting firewood. After the human's invaded the forest of Shebar, only Elbirroh came to the place they were standing on, Dionarap had not. Something was wrong with the way Dionarap was walking to him though. It was not normal. When Dionarap reached him, it was obvious what the problem was.
"So you've noticed my leg," said Dionarap
"What happened to it?" remarked Elbirroh
"Some ogre that found me searching for a source of water," said Dionarap
"Did you find the weapon that did the damage?" exclaimed Elbirroh
"Yes I did" said Dionarap "I have hanging down from my pack. It's an axe and I'm not certain what it does yet so I'm not letting it touch anything"
"Well I'll take you to my place and I'll try to fix your leg," said Elbirroh. Elbirroh looked at the leg again and saw his reflection looking back at him. The right leg of Dionarap shined silver. In many cases, this would be good, but in this case, it was not. Dionarap was not able to move the joints in his right leg, forcing him to do a half waddle when trying to walk.
"May I carry the silver axe?" said Elbirroh
"Sure," said Dionarap handing it to Elbirroh "But be careful." At these very words, the tree to Elbirroh's right turned silver.
"If you turn the ground silver… and it rains-," said Dionarap angrily
"Then the ground will be slippery and easy to slide down," interrupted Elbirroh, the red strings of his hat dangling in front of his face after he looked up at the silver tree.
"-people like me" said Dionarap pointing to his leg "could fall and crack their poor dwarven heads open"
"Didn't think of that," said Elbirroh stepping into a large beam of light "Well this is my clearing"
"Nice place" said Dionarap "But what do you mean about your clearing? I don't see any home or even a simple shelter"
"Ahh that's what you think," said Elbirroh redirecting Dionarap who was looking for a shelter underneath a pile of leaves and a fallen tree. "That's the beauty of it, nobody who I don't want visiting, won't be able to visit. Come over here" Elbirroh motioned for Dionarap to come to the back of the tree with the indents carved into it.
"Cool," said Dionarap as he climbed the tree after Elbirroh. Elbirroh got to the top of the tree and started crawling across the net.
"Neat idea," said Dionarap following immediately after Elbirroh who was half way to the second tree.
"Get off you idiot!" yelled Elbirroh "Why do you think this net is made of reeds!"
"It was the only thing you could afford?" said Dionarap but quickly changed his answer when he looked down at the net, which was slowly unraveling. "Oh crap, it's so only a dwarf could get across without weighing too much" Dionarap went back to the first tree while Elbirroh entwisted the reeds together so they would hold.
Once the two dwarves got to the second tree and down the ladder, Dionarap spoke.
"You can have the axe if you want, something bad will happen if I have it."
"Thanks Dionarap!" said Elbirroh putting the silver axe with the rest of his collection. "This'll be really useful."
"Whoa! Look at all these axes!" gasped Dionarap.
"Never mind about the axes lets try to find a cure for your silver leg, Dionarap, are you listening to me?" said Elbirroh. Dionarap had picked up a green-headed axe and accidently touched it to one of Elbirroh's spears, which instantly sprouted flowers.
"Oh crap, sorry Elbirroh," said Dionarap noticing his mistake.
"That's okay," said Elbirroh "I was trying to make a couple of flowers grow in a pot I made by touching the dirt in it with the axe. I accidently touched the pot instead. I still have to trim that dreaded pot every week. So about your leg-"
"Can you do anything about it?" interrupted Dionarap
"- well there are lots of things I could do with it." said Elbirroh "Pick your poison. I could make turn it into water, frozen silver, I could make it grow flowers and I could chop it off.," said Elbirroh in a manner that sounded like he was a science teacher giving a well-rehearsed lecture for non-listening college students. Dionarap however was listening.
"Do you have any thing that could turn it back to its original state?" asked Dionarap worriedly
"Of course I can!" said Elbirroh in surprise "But when I saw you were so interested in my axes I thought you wanted a solution for you leg using one of them."
"Oh," said Dionarap feeling stupid.
"So do you want me to saw it off or heal it?" asked Elbirroh
"I think healing it will do fine," laughed Dionarap
"If you say so," said Elbirroh "But I would enjoy sawing it off." and with that he picked up a small bottle from the bottom shelf of the weapon rack.
"Around how long will this take…? To heal of course," asked Dionarap
"Oh dear," said Elbirroh in a worried tone "You want fast working medicine, well I'm sorry but this will take around five-thousand-,"
"Five thousand!" exclaimed Dionarap
"- milliseconds" finished Elbirroh.
"Oh…well of course…will it be painful?" asked Dionarap.
"Ah, well about that, I've never used this stuff before. Luckily, I bought this rejuvenation medicine at a friend's house when I was young. Thought it might be handy. It will probably say on the bottle. Ahh here it is, right on the front. It says 'When taking this medicine, patient will experience excruciating pain- (Continued on back,)" said Elbirroh as Dionarap moaned "Ahh here it is '-will experience excruciating pain if the recipient of the medicine is a caterpillar, any other species will feel nothing.' Elbirroh heard Dionarap sigh at these last words.
Elbirroh took out an eyedropper, sucked up some of the purple liquid, and squeezed it over the silver leg of Dionarap. It was as if somebody had turned the focus dial on a pair of binoculars. Dionarap's leg faded into its normal self.
"Ahh," said Dionarap with a sigh "Thanks a ton. Is there any faster way to get back outside?"
"Well there is a hole I dug" replied Elbirroh "It leads out of the place in case of an emergency. But I haven't finished it yet."
"Okay then" said Dionarap heading towards the ladder.
"Let's go then," said Elbirroh climbing the ladder after Dionarap. When he got to the top, Dionarap was already climbing down the second tree.
"Wow," said Elbirroh "Did that medicine make you hyper or something?"
"Say what?" said Dionarap thinking "Hyper? I don't think so."
"Just making sure," said Elbirroh climbing across the net, sending his voice down to the ground "So how did you find me?"
"Find you?" said Dionarap puzzled "I thought you found me!"
"What! I've never seen any other dwarves in this forest except for a few that use my library every so often," said Elbirroh climbing down the second tree
"What library," said Dionarap tripping over a small rock "Ooof, You mean that shelf of books in your trunk…You call that a library?"
"Forget about the library and tell me where you have been living!" Elbirroh said taking a few steps towards Dionarap
"Oh, yes, you weren't wrong about being the only one in this forest give or take a few dwarves," said Dionarap looking past Elbirroh's shoulder at a dying rosebush "But if you said you've scouted this area and figured out everything about it, then you're wrong"
"What do you mean?" asked Elbirroh picking at his left knee
"I mean that I live on a plain on the outskirts of this forest," said Dionarap "There I have my ho-,"
"You live on the edge of the forest!" interrupted Elbirroh.
"-home, and yes I live on the edge of the forest" retorted Dionarap
"But, but, that's where the humans live! The three humans that attacked me live there! I heard them talking about their home and a dwarf that lived with them" said Elbirroh hurriedly, jumping up and down "This doesn't mean that you're the dwarf that lives with them!"
"You talk about humans like they're monsters! Anyways I don't think Francesco, Desenay or Psorad would attack you!"
"I'm surprised they didn't tell you about it,"
"Well they did tell me about an army of flesh-eating trolls that they passed a clearing," said Dionarap.
"An army of what!" giggled Elbirroh "Wow there isn't even such thing. Gosh, they figured an army of flesh-eating trolls out of one dwarf."
"I went into the forest looking for a water source." said Dionarap "And then I met the ogre. After the battle, I found the axe standing on its handle on the ground. I tied it to my pack and then I found you,"
"Nice to finally know some solid facts," said Elbirroh
"Here to," said Dionarap "Well I got to leave. Thanks a lot."
Dionarap turned around and disappeared into the forest whispering,
"They saw an army of flesh eating trolls, preposterous!"
Chapter 3
Winter at last
Elbirroh woke up under his beaver skin blanket after feeling a tickling feeling on his nose.
"Whatever you are that's messing with my nose, stop," said Elbirroh sleepily, his eyes still closed. The sensation did not seem to obey Elbirroh's commands so Elbirroh opened one eyelid to see who the perpetrator of his request was.
When Elbirroh opened his eyes, he saw a small line of falling snowflakes trickling down through the air. He looked up at the source of the flakes and saw a small crack in the top of the trunk. However, for some reason he was getting closer or the crack was getting bigger. Whichever answer it was Elbirroh did not get to decide for a resounding CRACK preceded a winter wonderland. Unfortunately, for Elbirroh the winter wonderland was falling on top of him.
After seventeen frigid cold, frostbitten minutes, Elbirroh pulled himself out of the snow purple in the face. Elbirroh looked back at a very interesting scene. The snow had fallen on his weapon rack and hit his axes. Therefore, the snow was constantly changing. First, it was water then water with plants growing out of it then ice with plants growing out of it and it just became weirder and weirder. Elbirroh's favorite effect was when the entire thing turned into a giant silver blob that broke in two after an orange jet shot down it then all his spears shot out of the middle. Once the cacophony stopped, Elbirroh went into the blob that had turned a shade of opaque lavender and got out everything of value.
Every year when it became winter, Elbirroh moved. Well he had moved every winter since the Shebar infiltration. When Elbirroh had scavenged all of his items, he put them in a giant box. He loaded the box onto a giant wooden sled. Elbirroh took his hands out from underneath the box and cupped them to his mouth.
"Come here Enasni (EH-nah-snee)! Where are you Nooffub (NOO-fuhb) ! I have work for you Esned (ES-ned)! You know what to do Rekoj (REH-koj the j is the je m'apelle j sound in french, sounds like a razor)! Naid-e-moc I know all the places you hide! Esutbo (ES-too-bow), will you please wake up!" called Elbirroh. In the distance, Elbirroh could hear the sounds of half a dozen dogs barking. The sound of paws on snow was coming closer until Elbirroh was facing six healthy-looking huskies with their tongues hanging out panting in the cold air.
"The time has come for us to move again" said Elbirroh looking at the dogs sternly "I expect good behavior from all of you, and Enasni. "I have decided to put you in the front dog position next to Naidemoc." The dogs barked cheerily and ran over to the chains and harnesses that Elbirroh had set out on the sled.
An hour later Elbirroh and his six four-legged companions were on the move. Rushing through the trees and wind Elbirroh's mind was free to think, pausing every once and a while to yell at Nooffub.
"For once in your life actually listen to me!" requested Elbirroh loudly to Nooffub who had stopped to sniff a tree. "Even if this is another dog's territory we're just going to pass it!"
In the periods, Elbirroh had to think in between yelling at Nooffub and giving the dogs directions he thought of where he wanted to live. He had picked the clearing with the two trees because it was like his last home but there was nothing similar it anywhere they had passed yet. Elbirroh abruptly woke from his thinking when a large tree fell in front of the path.
"Oh great," said Elbirroh sarcastically getting off the sled and walking towards the tree trying to move it. A crack in the distance made Elbirroh look over the brush and into the woods searching for a change in color or shape. Elbirroh cupped his hands to his hears listening for the sound of its footsteps. He tried to smell the putrid smell of its drool dripping in sickening plops onto the snowy ground. He could just picture the swishing tail of the Yzarc swishing back and forth waiting for a prey to come upon him, waiting for a time to strike. However, there was no Yzarc waiting to gouge out the eyes of an innocent dwarf traveling to an undetermined destination, unless you consider a small furry rabbit to be the cause of any fear.
With the combined effort of Elbirroh and his dogs, they were able to move the tree far enough off the path to get through and moving again. Not much time had passed when Elbirroh came to a bridge. He hopped off the sled and looked at the water underneath. It looked freezing; chunks of ice were floating down with the current.
"Sixteen gold pieces," said a voice that made Elbirroh jump.
"Pardon?" asked Elbirroh looking around for the voices owner.
"The toll for the bridge is sixteen gold pieces," scowled the voice that Elbirroh traced to a wrinkly little man wearing a brown vest and white pants. The most intriguing part of him was the fact that his hair ran down to his knees. Giving into the fact that he was about two and a half feet tall, the hair on somebody else's head would only be a bit longer than normal, if they were female.
"I am sorry but I have never owned a gold piece in my life," said Elbirroh in a sassy no-it-all tone.
"Well than I hope you can swim," said the droning little man turning around and staring at the wooden arch bridge as if the conversation was over. After hearing this Elbirroh got back on the dog sled and called out to the man
"Hey geezer!" the man turned around and stared at Elbirroh with little interest.
"The toll for the bridge is sixteen-," started the man in a way that you could tell that he faking memory loss.
"I would let me go through if I were you," said Elbirroh in a small dark voice, squinting his eyes so he looked fiercer on the outside than he really felt.
"Why should I do that?" said the man starring intently at a leaf falling from the tree behind Elbirroh.
"Because-," said Elbirroh. He pulled back on a metal bar on the sled that made a loud shifting noise and the chains that harnessed the dogs together fell down. The dogs started growling, their hair on end and showing their sharp teeth that were dripping with saliva, long pink tongues licked their lips. You could see that they were hungry.
"If you don't let me through," growled Elbirroh through his teeth as if he was one of the dogs as well, "I will give Enasni and Naidemoc permission to attack you. After they kill you, the rest of my dogs will eat your flesh, unless of course you let me pass"
"Y-Yes, Okay, I w-will let you p-pass of course" said the man shakily taking a step away from one of the head dogs "I am s-so s-sorry I didn't l-let you pass b-before hand"
Elbirroh slid across the fresh snow covering the bridge slowly. Elbirroh selling the fresh meal of a man from the dogs for 16 gold pieces seemed to depress them.
"H-hope you c-come back s-soon" called the man from behind.
Elbirroh rushed passed trees and bushes, the wind whipping at his face. He slid to a stop when he reached a lake. Across the lake were flashing lights and loud booms. Elbirroh could hear the faintest sounds of laughter.
"Stay right here," commanded Elbirroh as he got off the sled cautiously. The path opened up to a vast lake as if it were the start of a race. Two tall trees with long leaves hung over the water on either side of the ending path.
Elbirroh tiptoed over to the lake and dipped a finger into the water. This did not work however because the water was frozen solid. Elbirroh put his glove back on and got into his sled.
"The lake is frozen solid," Elbirroh called out to his furry companions "You should be able to get across fine so get going!"
They started moving, slowly at first but picking up speed. The dogs went into brisk jog when a crack made them stop dead in their tracks.
"The ice is cracking!" yelled Elbirroh to his dogs "Just get across!"
At his words, the dogs sprinted. Weaving left and right making sure not to run on the fault lines. The sound of breaking china sounded behind the dogs. The ice had started to break up entirely. Before anybody knew it, Elbirroh and his dogs were floating on a chunk of ice. Elbirroh frantically riffled through his bag looking for something to get them onto the mainland. A stick or anything that could get them floating in the right direction would do. Elbirroh's hand grasped something long and slender. Not even knowing what it was he pulled the object out of the bag. The object lying in Elbirroh's hand was one of his spears.
"Perfect," Elbirroh said to himself as he pushed one of the ice islands with the spear thinking that he would be pushed towards the other side of the lake. This theory was wrong though. Instead of him going backwards, the island he pushed went forwards. The sounds of shouting and laughter became louder from behind him. He could see bright colored flashes from the edges of his eyes. There was a drunken "Whoops" and a streak of purple came down in front of Elbirroh. It hit the water and exploded in a brilliant roman candle. Elbirroh and his dogs were hurtled through the air head over heels. That was the last thing Elbirroh remembered before everything went black.
Chapter 4
The Fileurs
Elbirroh opened his eyes slowly. He gave a weak jump when he saw another pair of eyes staring back at him. The eyes were huge. They were a deep, dark green and the size of cocoanuts. They belonged to a young boy with long, wavy, blonde hair. The one distinguishing feature apart from the monstrous eyes was the boy's nose. It was as if someone had taken a woodchip and glued it to his face. It was rugged and brown extremely contrasting with his pale white face. However, the boy's nose did not seem to have any visible nostrils, which intrigued Elbirroh.
"Do you mind getting off me?" asked Elbirroh politely after he had finished scanning the strange boy's face.
"Greekio!" yelled the boy.
"What the…?" exclaimed Elbirroh as he watched the boy run out of the room yelling his head off. Elbirroh stood up and looked around. The room was a pale orange with tiny purple stars scattered across it. Elbirroh heard the sound of running footsteps and quickly laid back down where he now recognized to be a metal cart with wheels with a thin bedspread draped over it. The door flew open, the boy ran in followed by an old looking man with the same creepy-looking eyes, and nose but his hair was long and grey.
"Hiana aina kumanda!" gabbled the young boy wildly to the old man.
"Quenda-lu fa tola?" requested the man sternly looking at Elbirroh with his eyebrows creating a V.
"I am so sorry," pleaded Elbirroh from the cart "I have no idea what you are saying."
The younger creature's eyes lit up and quickly said, "Quenda-lu fa Dwarf?"
"Did you say Dwarf?" asked Elbirroh intently but the moment the young creature heard Elbirroh repeat the word Dwarf he ran out of the room. The man looked at Elbirroh, then at the empty room and ran off.
A moment later, the boy returned with another creature. The creature approaching him had ripped clothes and something that looked like a vest with a hat sewn to it.
"Are you the one Retep has been yelling about?" asked the girl surveying Elbirroh's facial features. Her voice had a small swing to it as if she was singing.
"Can you speak Dwarven!" rhetorically asked Elbirroh.
"Yes we can- well, I can" answered the girl scratching her ear.
"Who are all of you?" asked Elbirroh seriously staring at her mouth waiting for her lips to form a word.
"We are the fileurs," said the girl slowly looking directly at Elbirroh as if this was something of grave secrecy.
"So you guys are the fileurs," said Elbirroh about to speak but the girl cut him off.
"What do you mean by guys? Is it some Dwarven slang term?"
"No, it is an informal way of saying people and what should I call you?" said Elbirroh quickly adding on the ending.
"Well you can call me by my name," answered the girl.
"Can you be more specific," said Elbirroh with a chuckle.
"Everybody calls me Elohcin," said the girl looking at Elbirroh as if he should have figured it out.
"Okay then Elohcin (EE-low-sin)," said Elbirroh playing around with the name.
"Do you want your strange looking companions back now?" asked Elohcin "You might have to wait a while longer though; the young ones are having a fun time playing with them.
"Okay, as long as I, to use a common phrase "Do not disturb" anybody else" replied Elbirroh
"Shall we leave the room?" requested Elohcin kindly opening the door a small bit, "Retep is sort of moody today and I think we should leave him alone"
Elbirroh looked back Retep. He was sweating at the face as if he had run a mile.
"Okay then, I will go and see my dogs again," said Elbirroh awkwardly spacing himself from Retep for he was hopping up and down on the balls of his feet. Elohcin opened the door to its furthest extent and walked through.
"Elbirroh are you coming?" asked Elohcin in a sharp tone that Elbirroh had not yet heard. Elbirroh was staring intently out a window he had found opposite to the door. There was splintered wood lying everywhere and littered matches lined the ground as if it were confetti.
"W-what, oh sorry Elohcin" apologized Elbirroh. "I guess I was in some sort of a daze."
"Yes you were, so now that we have discovered your state of mind we can go. I am not in the mood to discover the meaning of life as well"
Elbirroh walked through the door and into the hallway with Elohcin. The hallways seemed to be wooden and had that special smell about them. Painted over the wood was a beautiful ruby red color. The hall extended for a couple meters where it ended in a large green door, prominently standing out from the red. Above the two walkers was an extravagantly displayed set of chandeliers. Each one sparkled with what looked like thousands of diamonds. Glittering symmetrically on the chandeliers were seven candles that shone bright flickering light making the entire are seem like a log cabin. Elbirroh dragged his hands across the cabin wall feeling the smooth wood between his fingers.
"Ouch!" proclaimed Elbirroh pulling his hand away from the wall as if it was a radiator.
"What is it?" asked Elohcin dreamily examining the chandeliers hazily. She did not get a reply however for Elbirroh was hopping up and down on one foot with one hand clutching his thigh and the other being waved rapidly at chest level.
"What is wrong with you?" said Elohcin in a sassy puzzled tone staring perplexed at the hopping Elbirroh.
"Sthlinther!" said Elbirroh with his pointer finger in his mouth muffling the most of the word. Elbirroh pulled his pointer finger out of his mouth and said clearly, "I have a splinter!"
"Oh please, you're such a baby," said Elohcin.
"A am na" said Elbirroh with his pointer finger back in his mouth.
"Come on and I can get you some tweezers" said Elohcin in a bored tone but at the word tweezers Elbirroh's eyes lit up and he dashed down the hall away from Elohcin. Elohcin waited until she heard a loud thunk. She walked down the hallway towards the end and stopped where she saw Elbirroh.
"We placed a panel of glass here to make sure we could stop anybody who robbed us or just wants to run away. Elbirroh weakly looked up at what he collided into. A large piece of thick glass towered over him.
"How do you get around this thing?" asked Elbirroh weakly getting up and wobbling.
"Just come over here." said Elohcin dully pointing to a knob in the glass.
"Why I missed that I do not know," said Elbirroh stupidly.
"Follow me through the door and we can get the tweezers for that stupid splinter of yours," said Elohcin already on the other side of the glass panel.
Elbirroh followed Elohcin without question being in a non-fighting state. They walked down the rest of the hallway and came to the door Elbirroh had seen previously. From the start of the hall, the door looked green but up close, he could see it was blue with vines growing up and down it.
"I like the plants," said Elbirroh kindly examining them as Elohcin pulled out a key and fiddled with the lock.
"They aren't there on purpose," said Elohcin finally opening the lock and pushing the door forward. "They grew around it after a foreigner dropped a seed on it."
They entered a room filled with Fileurs. They were sitting on couches, watching television and eating round berrylike food. There were Fileurs of many different ages. There were old Fileurs and young ones, male and female. The room was like a nursing home for all. The walls had white blooming flowers painted on by hand over a baby blue. Elbirroh took a step back for a middle-aged Fileur came running in front of him with a large tray balanced in one hand holding several purple colored drinks.
"So are we going to get the tweezers?" asked Elohcin taking Elbirroh unaware. He was watching an old couple playing a checker-like game
"Alright then," Elbirroh said distractedly watching one of the Fileurs make roll a die, move a piece and jump into the air.
"The tweezers should be in this room over here," muttered Elohcin pointing towards a door that had a red plus sign on it. They walked through the door and entered a closet. Shelves bedecked the five walls which when connected with the door created a hexagon. Elohcin walked purposefully towards the opposite wall and searched through the shelves. Boxes lined them covered in brightly colored papers. Elohcin uttered an indefinite "Hah!" and pulled down a bright orange box from one of the higher shelves.
"This has what we need," said Elohcin "Just hold out your hand and we can get this over with" Elbirroh weakly raised his arm and closed his eyes.
"I'll pull it out on three, Okay?" asked Elohcin. Elbirroh nodded weakly. "One, Two-," Elbirroh squealed. Elohcin pulled early and a small piece of red wood came out of Elbirroh's finger.
"That's better," said Elohcin softly pulling out a Band-Aid from the orange box and putting it on Elbirroh's finger.
"We can go and see your dogs now," said Elohcin getting up and leading Elbirroh out of the closet.
"So where are they anyways?" asked Elbirroh, finally talking again.
"They're over in this room," said Elohcin walking towards another door. She the door and walked in. Elbirroh walked in and saw a happy scene. All six of his dogs were lying on the ground basking in the sun coming from an overhead window. Eleven or twelve young Fileurs were rubbing their fur and laughing. Sitting across from the door in a brown rocking chair was Dionarap.
Chapter 5
Home
Dionarap woke up in his warm bed. Comfortable and cozy he lay down without opening his eyes. He lived in a small cabin outside of a rather large forest. It always reminded him of the forest he lived in when he was young. Now he lived in a nice wooden cabin with three Humans. They had found him one day wondering in the forest helplessly after the excursion of Shebar. They thought that they should help so they allowed him hospitality. Every day from then it would be the same routine. Psorad, Francesco, and Desenay would set out early morning to do a bit more exploring of the forest. They only had mapped out the brief "shoreline" of it. They would do what they did and Dionarap would make breakfast for all of them. He would be half-finished with his meal when the three explorers would walk in always arguing about something. The argument would stop when they saw the food and started eating. Today's argument was about something that attacked them. They resolved it by calling it an army of flesh-eating trolls. After breakfast, Francesco would go outside and practice his bow and arrow skills. He was good but Dionarap had to hold up the circular target and it didn't cover him completely. On the other side of the house, Psorad and Desenay practiced their skills of sword wielding. Occasionally Elbirroh would hear an the muffled scream from a distance of Psorad getting stabbed in the foot slightly or somewhere else, turn his head and nearly get hit by an arrow speeding over his head from Francesco.
"You guys should really practice with these wooden swords I made," said Dionarap sternly holding two of them in his thick grayish hand watching Francesco bandaging Psorads wounded foot.
"We would," said Desenay handing Francesco some antibiotic, "If they didn't come up to here on me." Desenay wiggled his hand halfway between his foot and knee.
"They look more like daggers than swords now that you mention it," said Psorad picking up one of the swords and looking at it. Dionarap sighed profusely, took the sword away from Psorad, and put it in a case along with the other one.
The rest of the day went on normally. Dionarap made lunch while the others went up a large wooden staircase opposite the door and to their "rooms" on the upper floor. They each were a small corner above the lower floor with two walls and one concave curve railing that rose up to a human waist level. The rooms had no doors and to get from one room to the other you had to walk across a small wooden plank. The humans' balancing skills needed work so once Psorad started to fall off the plank ever day consecutively, Dionarap added moved the furniture on the floor below so you would fall onto something more comfortable than a wooden floor, like a couch or a worn-out chair. To give the humans a bit more privacy, Dionarap had added curtains in the shape of the railing that fell down and created a third "wall". Dionarap amused himself temporarily by watching the three men shimmy across the wooden planks going to their rooms. Psorad's room was the furthest away from the staircase. Dionarap thought this was rather stupid for Psorad had the worst balance and had to go all the way around the room.
"Why can't you add a plank from the stair case to my room," asked Psorad scooting alongside the last plank, he took a small step forward and fell off and onto the couch.
"Why don't you do that?" asked Dionarap in a fake polite voice.
"Don't sass to me or you can go back to the forest and live their," scowled Psorad at Dionarap while rubbing his injured backside.
"If you do that," called Francesco from the upper floor lying on his bed, he got up and walked to the railing and said "then you'll go hungry for a week, he's the only one doing some actual cooking here"
"Thank you Francesco" said Elbirroh glaring at Psorad who started back up the staircase and stopped at the top.
"Just look at this tiny distance," said Psorad looking across the staircase at his area, "Just one piece of wood would save me a whole lot of trouble and it would be simple!"
"If it would be so simple then why don't you do it?" pleaded Dionarap for his day had been long.
"Cutting apart from that," said Psorad changing emotions quickly, "Can you go find another source of water, the spring behind the cabin is dry as a bone now"
"Fine I'll go look for one," sighed Dionarap "At least it's something to do but no promises."
"No requests" said Desenay who had woken up from a short nap and cut in.
"Off you go then," said Francesco returning to his bed. Dionarap turned on his heel and set out with a map a compass and a task to complete as he exited the door.
The forest was vast and Dionarap had only the badly written map the humans had made to guess where he was.
"I must be somewhere around here" said Dionarap about a half hour later pointing at an unwritten point on the map and laughing at his own joke. He crossed by a small burlap sack on the ground.
"That's a strange thing to find out here," said Dionarap but he picked it up and threw it over his shoulder. Dionarap looked around trees and bushes, rocks and boulders and a strange arrangement of teepees that he found near a rather large fallen tree that consisted of two large teepee's and a small teepee that could of fit a dog. Walking further Dionarap felt a small rumble underneath his feet. A tremendous shake came to Dionarap's ankles followed by an ear-splitting roar. He looked around a tree shakily and saw a fifteen-foot tall greenish-grey ogre looking back at him, holding an axe. Dionarap screamed as he ran for his life. Unfortunately, for Dionarap whose senses had just flipped upside down, his life went strait towards the ogre. A large cracking noise awoke when Dionarap accidentally ran head first into the ogres kneecap. The ogre then swung madly with his axe barley missing Dionarap's head. He wasn't so lucky when the backswing of one of the ogres attacks brushed his leg which instantly turned silver and rock solid. When this happened a large bang noise sounded for whenever a magical axe was first used a special noise was emitted. The noise frightened the ogre out of his wits who dropped the axe and ran away with loud rumbles every step. Dionarap was lucky enough to catch the axe by its handle without having to move. He tied the axes handle to a string protruding from his sack so it wouldn't touch anything. Walking from that point on was difficult because his silver knee joint was inept to move so he half-waddled surprisingly like a goblin further into the forest. A while further he saw a black figure silhouetted by the shadow of a tree wearing a hat that Dionarap recognized.
"Is that you Elbirroh?" asked Dionarap amazed at what he saw.
Elbirroh proceeded to question Dionarap about his leg and carry on the conversation in a lost-friend-that-you-finally-found-in-a-forest-way that everyone knows- well maybe not. They both talked and walked for a while and Elbirroh fixed Dionarap's leg in his surprisingly complex house.
"Nice to finally know some solid facts," said Elbirroh a while later.
"Here to," said Dionarap "Well I got to leave. Thanks a lot."
Dionarap turned around and disappeared into the forest whispering,
"They saw an army of flesh eating trolls, preposterous!"
Dionarap wandered off back into the forest practicing his failure speech to the ground and several unresponsive trees as he walked.
"I'm sorry to say that there's nothing out there," he said to a nearby bush. "No. saying that doesn't sound right. How about coming about it in a humorous approach? You know that forest's emptier then Psorad's heart- wait, that'll anger them."
Dionarap was still talking to himself when a stream of sunlight announced that he was at the edge of the forest. Dionarap sniffed the air with his grayish nose. A charred smell broke the usually pleasant air. Dionarap, whose eyes were closed thought: Did Francesco try to cook again?" he opened his eyes, expecting to see a smoldering pork on a cracked plate on the front step but instead saw a horrifying site. The entire cabin, charred to ashes.
"FRANCESCO!" screamed Dionarap in anger "HOW BAD A COOK ARE YOU!"
The pile of ashes Dionarap was screaming at seemed to take no effect, given the fact that it didn't have a brain or was named Francesco.
Chapter 6
The Unnecessary Chapter
Just as the title of this chapter says, this chapter is completely unnecessary. The soul purpose of this is to warn the reader of the possible change in writing style from this chapter forward. This is due to the time period separating the time writing chapter 5 and the chapter you are currently reading. If you do not enjoy passages with entirely no use at all in them (who really does?) then by all means proceed to chapter 7. If you however enjoy reading pointless writer commentary then read on. The rest of this "chapter" that will actually be a short paragraph or two, will comprise entirely of the writer venting on about writers block and other strange and unnecessary things, this is called the unnecessary chapter. Refer to the chapter name regularly if you find yourself asking "What's the whole point of this 'chapter' here". I only ask of you that you do not put down this book for the sake of the writer and of course the economy. This is actually becoming tedious to write so I will start the next chapter (yes, it will be an actual chapter, feel free to throw this book in the air and cheer- maybe not throw the book) and try to pick up where I started.
Chapter 7
The Continued Chapter from the Chapter Before the Unnecessary Chapter
In the middle of the ruins, Dionarap saw a distinctive piece of paper, greatly contrasting in color to the surrounding ashes. He walked forward and picked it up. It read:
Dionarap, when you receive this letter, we will be gone. Please don't follow us. A fire started and we couldn't put it out because we had no water, We hope you are safe and can find shelter. if you must, we scouted due East. If you must, we scouted due East, Best of luck to you.
Sincerely,
Psorad, Francesco and Desenay
Dionarap stared at the letter for 5 minutes, reading it over and over. Finally it dawned on him that he had to do something. Standing around there would do nothing. He picked up his pack and started to venture away from the forest. If the direction was East or not, he did not know, Francesco never told him which direction the sun set. That was happening right now. Well, Dionarap didn't actually know. He set off towards the sunset in a cowboy movie ending way, all that was missing was a cactus, horse desert and a background of country music…
TO BE CONTINUED…
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