I wrote this story quite quickly, in about an hour, I just wanted to try and give Shar-Teel a little background so I wrote this. It's not my best work, it hasn't been re-drafted or anything so don't expect a lot but I hope you like it all the same.
Burning Hatred: A story of Shar-Teel.
What a glorious day. Teelah raced through the mucky streets of her sleepy little village. The great sun rose high into the sky spreading its great tendrils of light through the sheets of grey cloud. Teelah stared at the cerulean blue sky and her heart felt light. She shivered with delight and raced through the rusty village gate through the copse and up onto the slight knoll, just outside the village. She fell onto her knees breathless and stared down across the grassy plains. What a beautiful day, and her father wasn't home yet, even better! She stared down across the land, the long strands of grass waving slightly in the warm mild breeze.
She felt like lying down on the bushy grass and bathing in the shining sun and resting in the gentle heat. Suddenly she felt a sharp bump on her shoulder and she jumped in fright. She swung around and saw Tobias, a boy from her village. He had thrown a tuft of clay and grass at her. He picked up another piece of clay and fired at her. It caught her in the back and she squealed in pain. There must have been a stone or something sharp in the piece of clay because small specks of blood started to appear on the back of her shirt.
"Stupid girl," Tobias laughed and ran off.
Teelah growled angrily to herself and gritted her teeth. She hated boys and men. She hated the powerlessness of her own sex. She hated everything about them. Their pride, their stubbornness, their…strength. She especially hated her father. He was a chauvinistic, nasty man. She sometimes wondered why her mother had ever married the man. She was so much better and beautiful than her father. Her father beats her mother, smacks and pushes her sometimes. Teelah hates it, her whole body grows cold, and she shivers with hate and pain and sorrow.
She decided not to get angry on such a beautiful day; the blue-breasted birds chirped their refreshing song and the wind brought strange and wonderful smells. Teelah soon blocked out the thoughts of anger and raced back into the small little village. Her feet splashed in the muck as she sped through the village. She was only ever in the big city once, Waterdeep it was called. It was too big and smelly and all the people were unfriendly, but one thing she liked about it was that there was no muck on the ground. They had cobblestones that were nice and warm in the sun and she never had to splodge through muck. She turned the corner of her village past the blacksmiths and saw her mother standing at the door in her crinkled, brown garments beating the dust out of some old rugs against the stone walls. Her handsome mother raised her head and her dark hair crumbled down around her face. She smiled warmly at her daughter, and before Teelah could say anything there was a loud shriek that could curdle blood echoing from down the road.
Teelah's head sharply turned sideways, and her whole body trembled as she saw three great black horses galloping down the village street, muck spraying the walls of the peasant houses as the powerful horses galloped. On the horses were three tall, stern men. One of them had a dirty moustache and a toothy, sly grin. He had a large scar on his forehead and Teelah could tell he was a battle veteran. The other two men were thin, leather armour and looked considerably younger. They both had sandy-coloured hair and crafty smirks on their menacing faces.
Old Clymene, the village grocer was leaning on a fence, staring mesmerised at the three horsemen galloping towards her. Her lined normally gentle face was now anxious and scrunched up. The man with the toothy grin unsheathed a great silvery blade. It caught the sunlight and the glimmer from it nearly blinded Teelah.
The man swung the blade forward and brought it up abruptly in front of old Clymene. When the blade was back up in the air, Teelah noticed it had crimson stains running down it. Suddenly Clymene screeched and fell to the ground holding her chest; she had been slashed by the blade. Teelah tried to scream but her throat was dry and she let out a crackling whine. Clymene's blood ran into the muck and mixed with it, turning it a reddish-maroon colour. As the men galloped closer to Teelah who stood shaking uncontrollably, the blood-muck spattered her face from the horse's hooves. There were no birds singing anymore, no sounds, just the booming of the horses hooves, the sounds of death. Suddenly she felt a whoosh of air and an arrow flew right past her head, strands of her pale blonde hair danced in the air as it flew past. The arrow struck the man on the horse at the rear of the group. He screamed and fell off the horse that immediately slowed.
"Get out of the way Teelah!" she heard a loud, manly gruff. It was Horas, the local blacksmith. He was a very tall man and Teelah suddenly felt a tinge of respect for him. She was scared stiff and didn't move until the man with the toothy grin lifted his blade and Teelah knew he was coming for her.
"Teelah!" came a shriek and her mother sprang from the doorway of her house where she too was watching the ghastly scene. She punched Teelah painfully on the arm, it was an accident of course, but it was enough to knock Teelah out of the way of the hungry blade. As she landed muck splashed up all around her.
"Mother!" Teelah cried.
There was a sickening crunch as the man with the toothy grin rode right over Teelah's mother and drove his out-stretched blade straight through Horas, who stood close by. Horas made no noise but sunk to the floor. Teelah was blinded by her stingy tears but she blinked them away and vomited violently whenever she saw the mangled body of her once beautiful mother. Her face was crushed and blood was pouring from some gash on her back.
"Run," her mother hissed with her last breath, and then lay still.
Teelah's limbs grew weak and she felt like part of her died just a painful death along with her mother. She snaked along the ground, through the bloody muck, and put her dirty hand on her mother's head. She let out a horrible whimper that ripped through her throat. She felt like she had just let her spirit go, like she had just lost all reason for living.
The man with the toothy grin slowed his horse and circled round with his blood and muck stained blade and the other horseman slowed who came behind Teelah. He let out a raucous laugh and smiled a disgusting smile at Teelah which angered her so much. She wasn't going to let herself die like her mother, she wasn't going to die by a man in her home. Suddenly her whole body jolted into motion, her feet splashed madly through the muck as she rolled past the horse in front of her and dashed madly up past the blacksmiths. She didn't know whether to turn right out of the village, or left, both were exits but the right exit had a great hill and a forest so she decided it would be harder for the men to chase her through that kind of terrain.
She turned right and her whole body twisted to re-adjust to the new direction. She was ready to speed out of the village. She looked up towards the gate and unconsciously her body halted. She toppled forward and she landed on her knees. The mucky road leading ut of the village was littered with corpses and three, different horsemen stood facing her, their horses snorting patiently.
She recognised the bodies of the people on the ground, her friend Melka, that boy Tobias, other inhabitants of the village. Peaceful people who never wished for war or death. All of them gone. She spun around and looked behind her, maybe she could make it out of the other exit. It would be a long run to the next village but she was burning up sorrow, pain, hurt and fear as fuel. Her heart was crushed whenever she saw another three horse men standing ghastly and pale like blood-hungry spectres at the gate.
Her whole body felt like it was slowly dying and tears rolled freely down her cheeks. The day had changed from beautiful to miserable and rain was pouring from the heavens. Her tears mixed with the rain and the rain splashed on her hot face, and her dry tongue. It tasted of blood.
The two horse-men who had first assaulted her galloped round the corner and slowed to a halt. The man with the toothy grin let out another booming laugh and slipped off his horse.
"This one is mine," he said hungrily, licking his dry, cracked lips.
Teelah shivered with the thought of what he would do to her. He lifted his blade and she was ready for the death-blow but instead he spun the blade around and cracked her over the head with the hilt of the blade.
She sank into the muck, blood spurting from a deep cut on her head. Darkness swallowed her, but she would survive…unfortunately.
Three years later, when she was fifteen and retaining the same beauty she had when she was younger, she worked in the bandit's camp. She was their sex-slave, their cook, cleaner, farmer…provider. She hadn't smiled once since that day, not one day went by when she didn't remember her dying village, friends and family. Another girl in the camp, Briela had gone through a similar crisis. The bandits had sacked her farm, murdered her family, and taken her captive. Briela and Teelah had become quite close. They shared the pain and when they were together the pain was relieved a little. Whenever Briela was given a beating, Teelah would nurse her and heal her and do her chores for her that day so Briela could rest or vice versa. The camp was nestled in a deep forest in seclusion; the nearest civilisation was at least three weeks walk away. Escape was futile. Security was brilliant as well; there was no chance of leaving. Teelah was sure she must've been the most evil bitch in the world in a previous life to have deserved such a punishment in this one.
One day, the majority of the bandits had left on another raid and there were only a few left. Briela had left Teelah a piece of parchment she had stolen from the Bandit leader's tent and had written on it; "Meet me at the well."
Teelah had sneaked to the well when she was sure no one could see her. There she saw Briela, with her raven black hair hanging loosely by her shoulders, sitting by the well and drawing water.
"Briela?" Teelah whispered curiously.
"Look what I have found," Briela said excitedly. She turned and darted past the well and skipped through the thicket. Briela was lithe and fleet-footed and made no sound in the woods, Teelah had to tread softly in case she snapped a twig and alerted the men.
Teelah walked for nearly half-an-hour, sometimes Briela went to fast and fell out of view, and Teelah had to run to catch up with her. Teelah knew that the bandits would be back soon and if they discovered that Teelah and Briela were missing they'd search the area from top to bottom until they were found. Teelah became nervous and brushed through a large outcrop of thin fir trees and found Briela standing still, panting, and staring at a small stone structure. She cocked her head and beckoned Teelah forward. "It is a shrine to the Goddess Shar, the Goddess of the night." Briela took a large obsidian stone from her pocket. It was beautiful and well-polished and Teelah wondered where Briela got it.
"I took it from one of the chests in the Bandit Camp," Briela said as if reading Teelah's mind.
"They'll kill you if they find out you stole it!" Teelah said incredulously.
"They'll never know, they have enough riches to sink a ship. Why would they notice an insignificant stone?" Briela said confidently.
"I have been praying to Shar to help us, help us leave this place of death and horror," Briela said, tears were glistening in her eyes.
"I will leave this stone at her shrine, she will answer me prayers, I know she will," Briela said hopefully. She entered the shrine.
It was a small circular stone room, cold and unwelcoming. In the middle was a table for sacrifices and on the wall was a perfectly sculpted statue of the Night Mistress; Shar. It looked like it had been perfected so much that it couldn't be perfected anymore. It was so smooth and real and if you stared at it long enough and it blinked, you wouldn't be surprised, it was like a real person, and it was like someone else was in the room with them.
"I can feel her here," Briela said as much to herself as to Teelah.
The statue had an empty smoothed niche in her chest. Briela walked slowly towards the statue and slotted the obsidian stone in there, it fitted perfectly.
"Please Shar, help us."
Teelah watched Briela as she sank to her knees and started praying to Shar. Teelah rubbed her finger along the sacrificial table and realised how dusty it was obvious that this place had been abandoned for some time now. She accidentally nudged her elbow on it and the top of the table wobbled and crashed to the floor making a loud clatter, the birds outside screeched and flew off. Briela spun round with an angry expression however it soon changed when she realised what Teelah had discovered. The top of the table was actually a lid, like into a tomb. Briela peered down and saw that there was a small room in there. There was a musty smell put Briela clambered down and she squeaked with joy.
"This is what Shar gave us Teelah!"
"What?" Teelah asked, curious.
"It is a sanctuary; there is space down here and a tunnel. It leads out into the fresh air." Briela said excitedly.
"How do you know?" Teelah asked confusedly.
"A piece of paper, it reads;
In times of need, this place is yours.
It leads to the mountains through tunnels, consumed by the darkness of Shar.
The darkest place is your sanctuary.
Her blessing falls upon it."
Briela looked out of the small hole towards Teelah, Teelah couldn't really see her but she knew she was smiling.
When they arrived back, the camp was still half empty. When Teelah and Briela were at the shrine they were tempted to run and leave this place but realised that they would eventually be chased down and re-captured, and punished badly. They had covered the hole back up and had decided to slip off one day and hide in the hole for awhile, surviving on rations they would stole from the camp. When the searching for them would subside they would run away through the tunnels wherever it takes them and be free.
Teelah was hopeful. She would find a new life and forget about men. She would live in a cabin with Briela in the mountains and they would be happy again, for the first time in a long while, in their short, miserable lives.
Teelah wanted to leave soon but Briela said that they'd have to wait until the time was right.
The next few weeks Teelah worked hard for the bandits, she knew that if she worked better then they'd have no reason to be angry at her, or hit her or keep a close eye on her. Briela did the same. Teelah also watched the bandit's fighting and she picked up a few of their tricks. She was skilled with a short sword, the blacksmith in her old village, Horas; he used to train her in fighting sometimes, for fun. She knew that she'd probably have to be ready for anything so she practiced at night time with the sword.
One night in the silvery moonlight she was practicing her sword-fighting when Hordak, the bandit with the toothy grin who had kidnapped her three years ago arrived. He had made Teelah call him Master.
"Ha, a slave learning to fight. Give me the weapon bitch, keep to your cooking," he sneered and kicked Teelah aside. She dropped the blade and nodded and was ready to walk away but he grabbed her and tore the top strap off her clothes.
"Feisty woman, stay awhile," he grinned and leaned over and kissed Teelah. She tried to resist but realised it was useless, she was in this position many times before and she had to just sit still and let him have his way or there'd be trouble. When she was thirteen she had resisted him and he had beaten her black and blue and left her dying, Briela had helped her.
The man smelt of pigs and Teelah was revolted as his rubbery tongue roughly rubbed against the inside of her motionless mouth. He held her tight and roughly ran his hand up her body to her bountiful breasts. Teelah had enough, she pushed him away, and he snarled at her and smacked her across the face. She tripped and fell onto the hard ground and he kicked her in the head.
"Yer a dirty whore," he raged and kicked her away. Tears ran from her eyes and she was angry that she was crying, angry that she couldn't stand up to him, angry that he was stronger than her.
She tried to stand up but he easily pushed her down again.
"Roll in the muck you dirty creature," he yelled at her, "just like your mother."
That was it, it just snapped Teelah's mind. Her whole body shook with rage and her tears ceased and her heart pounded. She shrieked loudly and head-butted Hordak in the stomach. He fell forward and she rolled towards the short sword and lifted it up.
He pulled out his dagger and lunged forward towards her, his face had gone red with rage. She twirled the blade around and deflected the attack. Hordak was surprised and maybe even scared. He stuck his leg in between hers and tripped her. She was back up again quickly and she swung her blade and he dodged it. He lunged forward again and the blade skimmed her neck, she took advantage of his open position, dropped to one knee, and stuck her sword straight into his unguarded belly. He groaned in agony and she leapt up and looked at him in the eyes.
"Who is stronger now?" she said mockingly and swung the blade round and slit his throat. He fell to the ground instantly.
It felt good, like a drug, she had killed a man. A slave had killed a man. Even better, a slave girl had killed her abusive Master. She had beaten a man. Her blood rushed around her body and she felt brilliant, she felt like she could go through a hundred men but her ecstasy was short-lived whenever she realised someone was going to find the body and she'd be killed. She thought of waking Briela and running away but it wouldn't work, she had ruined everything.
"Teelah," came a soft voice, it was Briela, and she was wearing her night gown. It was the only piece of clean clothing she had; it was mauve and dusty blue. She looked beautiful.
"What happened, I heard shouting," Briela said, and then her face contorted in disgust whenever she saw the dead body of Hordak.
"Briela, I … he," Teelah began but was cut off.
"Who is there," came the voice of one of the bandits. Several bandits came from their tents and gathered around with torches and saw the bloody scene.
"Hordak!" one of them yelled.
An older bandit looked at Teelah and Briela, "Who did this?" he demanded.
Teelah was ready to admit and face her death but she couldn't because Briela interrupted.
"I did," Briela said, "I killed him, it was I."
Teelah's heart was pounding, what was happening, "Briela, don't be foolish."
"I am nineteen, you are fifteen, and you are young. Be free, escape to Shar's shrine," Briela whispered and Teelah loved her friend more than she ever thought she could, but she knew she couldn't actually let Briela do this and she was about to turn around and tell the bandits the truth whenever one of them grabbed her and dragged her off through the camp. She was twisting and turning and struggling to be free but to no avail. She heard noises and soft talking and she cried out to be free. The bandit holding her kneed her in the head and she fainted.
It was raining outside, pouring down. The ground was battered by the tempestuous weather and Teelah woke up. She was in a small tent and a fire was burning low beside her though it still gave out sufficient warmth. Large drops of water splashed on Teelah's face from some leak in the tent roof, soothing her. Her whole body ached and she forced herself up and stared out the flap in the tent. There she saw it. Briela's corpse being pulled through the muck by some Bandit. That scene sliced through Teelah liked a hot blade. She immediately stood up and walked through the camp, her body was numb with pain, and her mind was numb with hurt. She walked towards the forest and marched though it, not caring if anyone saw her, luckily only one bandit did, a young man.
He immediately followed her, with every intention of raping her in the woods. He crept along slowly behind her. Teelah marched quickly towards the Shrine of Shar.
She thought of how her mother sacrificed herself to save her and how Briela also sacrificed herself to save her. She thought of how men had taken everything away from her, raped her, enslaved her, and killed her spirit and her soul. She walked along to the Shrine of Shar and came to the statue of Shar as she entered. The only sounds she heard in the forest were the noise of the heavy rain, no birds sang, death seemed to be ringing out all over the forest. She was dripping wet and she flung herself to her knees and put her hands on the outstretched hands of the Shar statue.
"Please help me, I have no where else to go," Teelah pleaded with hot tears running down her face in small rivulets.
She heard loud footsteps behind her and knew it was one of the bandits who had followed her. He stepped across the stone loudly and came towards her.
"Stay still," he commanded her. She wasn't really listening to him, she was praying with all the strength she had left in her body to the Goddess Shar.
The man unbuckled his belt and came towards her and grabbed her by the hair but she was strong and remained in place, he lifted the butt of his sword and knocked her in the head with it. A fountain of blood poured from the wound but she didn't move, or squeal or wince.
"What kind of witch…?" he gasped.
Teelah had something in her veins, some power, some strength some feeling of hopefulness.
"I invoke thee Shar. I have suffered in the darkness and I have not found light. I am yours" Teelah whispered and she felt the darkness envelop her, she became one with Shar. Shar pumped through her veins and made her fell strong and invincible. Teelah leapt into the air and kicked the man behind her, sending him sprawling on the sacrificial table.
"For you, Shar," she hissed and ripped the dagger from the man's hilt and before he could make any movement, she jammed the blade into his neck. His blood ran from the table, and dripped onto the floor.
"Know me now as your kin Shar; know me know as Shar-Teel."
Shar-Teel had no feeling anymore, she was numb, all the horror and atrocity she had witnessed in life had rendered her soulless, incapable of emotion except for the hunger for blood, male blood, and the burning hatred blazing through her body. She had cursed men and no man was safe from her savage blade. She took her first victim's armour and weapons and marched off through the woods, in search of a worthy opponent that would feed her blood-lust. Everything she held dear was taken from her by men. She would do to them what they did to her. She left the forest, walking in the rain, with the bitter-sweet taste of revenge in her mouth.