The Half-Drow
Prologue – Part one: The Hunt
Dark shapes flitted through the trees. Hunting. Ahead their prey was a beacon of light. Light spilled away from the torch held by a young human. Her long hair was slick with sweat and her threadbare tunic stuck to her body clearly showing an enlarged stomach. Another dark shape ran ahead and beside her. As he passed through the torchlight it glinted off his ebony skin and stark white hair. Drow. The woman stumbled and tripped over a stray root. She fell heavily to the ground.
"Katherine!" Shouted the drow. He ran to her, kneeling beside her. "Katherine, you must get up." He said. "They are almost upon us."
"I think I broke my ankle!" She said, terrified. "I can't walk!" As the couple, spoke the dark figures arranged themselves outside the firelight. One of them stepped inside the bright circle. Katherine screamed a wordless cry of fear and agony. The drow standing over Katherine whirled around, drawing his sword as he went.
"Izz'vyll." He said, naming the now visible drow. "I should have known they would send you."
"Come now, Kalan'aonar. This little charade is over. Give us the woman and we may spare your life." Izz'vyll said, hands crossed over his chest.
"Never! I would rather die than betray my love and the child she carries!" Kalan yelled in defiance. He lunged at Izz'vyll, stabbing forward with his slender sword. Izz'vyll slipped out of the way at the last second and drew his own sword.
"Always had to be difficult." He said with a sigh. His blade sliced backhand toward Kalan. There was a ring of steel on steel as Kalan parried the blow and launched into a vicious attack routine. His blade flashed high. To the side. Low. Izz'vyll blocked and parried, their arms blurring with speed. A scream resounded from behind the embattled pair. Kalan whipped around to see several drow circling around Katherine, still on her knees.
"Katherine!" He screamed. A groan escaped his body as hard steel sprouted from his chest. Kalan'aonar fell to the ground, his life escaping him. Izz'vyll huffed as he stepped over the now lifeless Kalan. The drow had surrounded Katherine, holding her up as she struggled to escape. Izz'vyll stalked slowly toward her, the blood of her beloved dripping from the tip of his sword. He stood in front of her sword drooping, debating which form of death pleased him more. Suddenly he lunged forward and stabbed Katherine in the chest. A blood curdling scream ripped itself from her throat at the same time as the child ripped itself from her body. She fell to the ground dead as the baby fell to the ground alive. With her last breath Katherine spoke the name of her child. Kel'zek. Izz'vyll laughed heartily into the night. He crouched beside the tiny half-drow.
"You were fortunate to have a birth at all. Now your pathetic, tainted little life must end." He whispered to Kel'zek. He stood up straight and held his sword over the child, ceremoniously positioning it for a killing blow. He thrust the sword downward and a second before the blade spit Kel'zek's flesh there was a fiery explosion centered around the half-drow. Izz'vyll and the other drow were blown back and burned badly. After many moments of silence and stillness Izz'vyll stirred. Soot covered every surface within the area of the explosion and fire lingered in many places threatening to spread. Izz'vyll coughed loudly and sat up slowly. Blackened, split flesh covered half of his body. His whole left side was burnt beyond recognition. He stood and walked over to Kel'zek. There was a ring where nothing was burned centered around the baby half-drow. Izz'vyll scooped up the child and held him up. He stared into the child's eyes. "Kel'zek." He said and after a moment added "Lynrak." Izz'vyll held the baby in his burned left hand and picked up and sheathed his sword with his unharmed right hand. "You have just earned a meager life, swine." He said to the child. "And a family name."
Prologue – Part two: The Forest
There was more to the darkness of the Raal forest than simple lack of light. The darkness smothered breath and scent and sound as well as light. It dragged at the very souls of any traveler unfortunate enough to find themselves wandering between the blood-red trunks of the Scil trees that existed only in the Raal forest. There was a kind of perverted magic in the darkness of the Raal. Clerical powers seemed to fail, all except the most powerful clerics of a goodly god would find their powers totally useless in the never-ending darkness. Dark illusions and mirages led astray those who dared to venture in the Raal. Though most wanderers of the Raal are more likely to be slaves of the drow and their twisted games. They would stage an escape and then hunt down the slaves for fun. Screams of unimaginable agony resounded throughout the forest and even beyond its edges cowing surrounding towns, and convincing them to leave the drow menace untouched. This was the home of Kel'zek Lynrak.