Chapter 1: Death of Moneybags
Once upon a time… In a land, far far away. Where cliché beginnings and endings only go for so long, before screaming elves and chasing dwarves come into play. Ah, yes. The poor dwarf who (if I recall correctly) had his town and his townspeople taken from him from those filthy elves rampaging across his homeland, yet miraculously escaped with his life. But here he was, chasing little Screamy. The little elf ran with all his might, screaming "NOOOOOO! NOOOOOO! BAGS! WHERE ARE YOUUUUUU!?" As puzzled and exhausted the dwarf was, his mind was clouded by the red fog of revenge. And as Screamy debated on whether he could outrun the dwarf, he glanced back - only to see that the dwarf that was chasing him was the one he was assigned to kill. Screamy contemplated the many different scenarios of the future, and found that death was inevitable - so he came to a quick stop, turned back (effectively doing the exercise "suicide"), and committed suicide. Blade stuck in his airway, Screamy realized that this was one of his more stupid decisions.
But as the dwarf came to the silent corpse of a once lively prey, he found on him a letter - with a horrible sketch of him on it. Most of the letter was gibberish to him, but there was one line in the very end of the letter in Common - Bring Durnick, dead or alive.
"DEVIL WORSHIPPER!"
"HERETIC!"
"FIEND!"
"HORNY!"
"OH DEAR LORETHIAN, DO NOT CALL HIM THAT AGAIN."
"I-I'm sorry… I didn't mean for you guys to be attracted… It just…"
"Shut yer trap, tiefling," said one of the three elvish guards - with particularly pointy ears - harassing the young bronze-skinned lesser tiefling, as he stomped on his face.
"I'll try not to do it again, I promise…"
"Oh, trust me. By the time we're done with you, you'll never be able to do anything like that again," said another as he unsheathed a dagger. The lesser tiefling wanted so badly to resist, but in the back of his conscience his mother and father urged him not to - or maybe that was them… He was orphaned, after all. Before the guard could get any closer, however, a seemingly infamous dwarf approached the town's entrance. One of the guards noticed him. "Say, isn't that-" but he stopped in his tracks as he saw his fellow guard running for the heart of the town. He followed suit, and Pointy Ears, whose foot was still on the lesser tiefling started to flee saying "This isn't the last you'll see of me! Y'hear!?"
"Geez. What was that all about?... You all right?" said the dwarf. But he was met with silence. "Hello?"
"Oh, me?"
"No. I was asking the fleeing guards if they were all right," said the dwarf sarcastically. The lesser tiefling was anything but amused, however.
"Oh, sorry… I'm just… Not used to people addressing me."
"Eh. Talking is overrated anyway. Well, I'm off. See ya around, then!" replied the dwarf, curiosity still coursing through his veins. Why was his face - and so horribly drawn at at that - on the letter of an elf? And why did those guards flee as soon as they saw him? Those elves who desecrated his hometown couldn't have a bounty on him or anything… Could they?
"Uhm. Ok… See ya…"
The dwarf, caught up in his own thoughts, didn't even notice that he was being followed. The lesser tiefling following him didn't know what else to do. After all, he had just arrived in the town, and the guards started to beat him up the moment they saw his horns and tail. For all he knew, the townsfolk might be hostile towards tieflings as well. Good thing almost nobody was awake, he didn't want to find out. But here was a dwarf who accepted him for who he was - and so he followed him. Going into the building which seemed to be the house of the Deputy's, the lesser tiefling noticed a drawing outside his fence. Upon further inspection, the lesser tiefling noticed the dwarf who had saved him was drawn - horribly - and put upon the the Deputy's fence. Though he could not read any of what he supposed to be Elven, the lesser tiefling contemplated on whether or not the dwarf was one who could be trusted. Here he was, possibly having a bounty on his head and a tainted name, but also scaring off those guards and not harming him at all. The lesser tiefling decided to follow the dwarf into the house - trustworthy or not. The dwarf finally spotted him at this point, seeing as he had a careless habit of doing random Spot and Search checks. "What are you doing here?"
"Er… I just… You know…" The lesser tiefling paused and drooped his tail, hoping the dwarf would fill in the silence. When he didn't, he just said "I didn't have anywhere else to go… Seeing as the town guards tried to beat me up on first sight, and you helped and greeted me, I figured you were a better option than chancing upon finding them."
"Ah. Well, if you wanna be my slave, 's alright with me." The lesser tiefling stared in astonishment. Maybe this wasn't his best idea, after all. "I'm just kidding. Geez, here you are about to pout and run off like a baby."
"Sorry, I just-" that was when the dwarf slapped the lesser tiefling on the back.
"Geez! Be proud of yourself for once! You know we dwarves say. 'Smaller than a cricket, but with strong spirits!'" The lesser tiefling chuckled. "So you do have a sense of humor. Well, if you don't mind, can you find the Deputy for me? I need to ask him something."
"Okay…" It wasn't too long before he spoke again. "So I'm guessing you didn't do this?" The lesser tiefling pointed to a corpse of what seemed to be the Deputy - which was just out of sight of the both of them until they actually started looking.
"... Well. There goes the opportunity of knowing why I'm scary. It isn't my beard, is it?"
"..."
"Guess not. Well, let's see if we can find anything."
"I'll go look in the other rooms."
"Yesss… My precioussssss. The tint of silver, copper, and gold! WHAT!? EWWW! GOLD!" said a maniac. Or at least that's what the lesser tiefling deduced he was.
"Hey, find anything?" asked the dwarf from across the hall.
"Ummm… Yea… Some money, and a-"
"LET ME SEE!" The dwarf charged in the room, immediately followed by the lesser tiefling. The dwarf stared at the bag of what seemed to be money, before he noticed it was floating. Or was it? Upon further inspection, the dwarf noticed a maniacal and unhygienic elf holding the money bag, as well as a short sword tainted with fresh blood. "Oh, so that's how the Deputy-"
"I AM MONEYBAGSSSSSSSSS!~ MONEYBAGS THE DEFILER!~ NONE SHALL PASS, no, STAND IN THE WAY OF MY FIELD TRIP, no, QUEST TO FIND ALL THE SILVER AND COPPER IN THE WORLD! YOU THERE! YOU'VE COME TO STEAL MY SILVER, HAVEN'T YOU!?"
"Ummm. Well I wouldn't say that. Say, is that fresh-"
"SILVER!? I KNEW YOU WANTED MY SILVER!" Moneybags pointed his sword at the dwarf, but the lesser tiefling took initiative to swerve past his newfound ally and strike at the maniacal elf. "Oof! So it was you! NO! My silver!" The dwarf followed suit, but not before being mesmerized by his habit, and Spotted that the ceiling was made of beautiful birch wood. Distracted by beautiful wood, the dwarf managed to swing at Moneybags the Defiler, but ultimately missed. Moneybags tried to take a stab at the lesser tiefling, seeing as he was hit by him first, but the lesser tiefling dodged and killed Moneybags with one last skillful strike.
"G-gomen-nasai… It's just… Robbers don't belong in this world…" said the lesser tiefling as he closed the maniacs' eyes.
"Wow, well aren't you the swordsman. What's your name, anyway?"
"Lyf (pronounced liff). And yours?"
"I'm Durnick. Nice to meet you. Let's see what this guy's got on him." They found a memo in Common, stating "Do not leave without the other elf." On the other side, it said - again in Common - "Please stop eating copper coins. It bugs me out. -Screamy"
Laughter rang out from the both of them and Lyf wagged his tail in pure happiness - something he had not experienced for a while. But the mirth did not last long. The three guards from before came barging into the room, having witnessed the death of their Deputy.
"You killed the Deputy! Didn't you!?" said familiar Pointy Ears.
"Well, if Grim-sama said it was his time… Well, it was-" Lyf started quietly, but Durnick interrupted him.
"And? So what if I had anything to do with his death?" Lyf saw through his stupidity, but could not come to terms of why he would do such a thing. It certainly provoked the guards, and as the guards came closer to have a swing at Durnick with their puny daggers. They all ended up missing - still hesitating at getting closer to the infamous Durnick. Durnick, however, swung at Pointy Ears and landed a blow with his dwarven waraxe. Lyf contemplated on whether to attack, but seeing as they were targeting one of his only friends, he struck at Pointy Ears, killing him - and finding out that he was donned in prosthetics and seemed very robotic. The unlikely team of the dwarf and the lesser tiefling eventually finished off the other two guards (Durnick noticing the wooden floor and stone walls mid-battle), and wondered why they did what they did - well, Lyf wondered anyway.
Author's Note: So, I'm really new to Fanfiction, and I've only read a few fics myself... Seeing as I set out to write these for pleasure anyway, I figured I may as well try to publish it for fun, and see where it goes from there... I don't expect much, but if I get a few favorites or reviews, I'll certainly see if I can continue ^.^... I already have the next chapter typed out, and I'm also working on a third chapter by the way . Oh, this IS based off of a playthrough of Dungeons and Dragons v3.5, and also a few things I conjure up in between to fill in backstories and such. Feedback is much appreciated ^.^