OH MAN. That was rather large text .-. Oh well. I'm So sorry for the late update, long story short, My computer had to be rebooted and arg. Not fun D Not much happens in this chapter. Some of your questions may be answered in this chapter, and if you're a real thinker-aheader, you'll be able to figure out the connection between the whole thing. Lemme know if you think you've got it D Pharhar.
It was within the last few moments of my blind and mad dash of attempted heroism that I realized how stupid I was. The man I was in mid-process of attacking could very well be a guest of the castle, or a far more experienced knight. Or, like I suspected, it could've been the very same dark lord that had attacked my mother. But of course, I was far too stupid to stop myself, so I simply swung the blade horizontally with all my might at the armored figure, only to have it whirl around and parry with his own blade. The blade itself claimed my attention for a good while. It was a large, two-handed sword, though the man in question only had to hold off my swing with one, the hilt was as black as the gnarled blade, imprinted with the very same red markings as the man's armor. Upon matching the markings on the blade to the armor, I once again pondered the identity of the man. He had a fair build, and upon looking at his face, I could seldom see icy blue eyes looked down at me with a slightly amused shine. I knew those eyes, not very well of course, but I knew them. The knight gave a good push with his blade and I stumbled backwards, throwing my arms out behind me to try to steady myself, but I only unbalanced myself further. I was caught by the steady hands of Gain as he slipped behind me. He pushed me back to my feet and the knight sheathed his sword. It was Laresh, of course. The armor must've been the 'Otherworldly Package' he'd entrusted to Bruma. It certainly looked Otherworldly to me.
"It seems the boy has found him armor." The knight said in his usual brisk and cold voice. It seemed to me that he was never actually directly talking to me. I was always 'The boy' to him. Did he even know my name?
"Yeah, umm…Nice armor?" Phoenix said, scratching the back of her head and poking the knight's cuirass with a finger. The knight lifted a hand and pushed the archer away, then turned his back to the trio
"We will be traveling Just West of here, a merchant has reported seeing something like an Oblivion Portal." Laresh said coldly, he seemed about to say more, but Phoenix quickly interrupted.
"Carter isn't coming, right?!" She said, sort of commandingly. I felt a sudden tug of disappointment inside me. I wanted to travel with them, I wanted to go to Oblivion. I'd heard plenty of stories about the demon world, but I've never got the chance to come within a mile of a portal. I knew the archer was simply being protective, but I longed to go anyway. I looked hopefully to Laresh, but his face, as always, gave away nothing.
"No." He said, quite briskly, almost without pause. "It is dangerous and Aaron will be looking for him. I won't risk it." Okay, two things. Who was Aaron? The extra question merely added on more frustration, I couldn't go with them? Was I just to be left here?
"But I want to go!" I said suddenly, without intending it I may add, I was slightly tense and my outburst came in a squeak. Laresh said nothing, but turned his cold gaze to me. I felt at a sudden loss for words. "I…I…" Phoenix made a cut sign with her hand to her throat, she was trying to tell me to shut up before I hurt myself or something. This only made me more determined to suddenly prove myself "I want to go with you to Oblivion, I know I'm not much of a fighter, or a Mage, or an Archer for that matter, but I can learn!" I said desperately, trying to find some sort of fact I could use to aid me in my plea "I don't want to be left in a stuffy little town in the cold, I could find someone in the castle -maybe one of the knights- to teach me, I could learn to fight or something, but don't leave me behind!" It was pathetic, in my view, as I look back on it. I could've mentioned that 'Aaron' as Laresh had said, could've come looking for me unprotected in the castle, or even that they'd gone through a lot to try and save me from that dark lord and his minions, and that they were suddenly going to leave. But then, none of those ideas occurred to me. Laresh simply gazed at me and Phoenix had given up trying to get me to shut it. There was a moment of silence followed by a comment from Gain.
"The Knights are always looking for new students, he would be welcomed" For a moment, I thought he was against me on this too, but what he said next changed my views. "Even if it is only for a short while, within three days they can instruct a boy how to fight like a man." Gain seemed rather confident about this, and I realized weather he agreed with it himself or not, he was trying to also convince Laresh to let me come. Thankfully, the knight gave in.
"We will stay one week, no more and no less. If he cannot pass their final test by then, we shall leave without him." With that, the knight turned and walked briskly past us and out the door. Phoenix gave him a dirty look for giving into my pleas, but shook her head good humouredly and once again turned her attention to my needs.
"We might as well get you up to your room, It'll be bedtime soon and your training will start bright and early tomorrow. I'll arrange everything concerning your lessons, Gain can take you up to the guest rooms, where you'll be staying." She said. And with a slight grin, the archer followed the knight's lead and hustled by us with a hurried wave and a 'Goodnight'. Gain heaved a sigh and smiled at me
"Well, looks like you're off to Oblivion with us." He said, and he motioned for me to follow him as we headed up a set of stairs to the west of the room. I walked beside him on our way, and asked some questions that had been eating away at my brain
"Gain," I began
"Hmmm?"
"Why did you Laresh and Phoebe come to save me that night?" The mage made a puzzled face and shrugged
"I'm not entirely sure. You see, we three are travelers, Laresh travels from city to city doing tasks for the counts and countesses and guilds. He's constantly closing Oblivion gates and clearing out haunted caves and mines. We were heading towards Camping just outside the Imperial city when Laresh woke us up and told us we needed to get to the Great Woods as quick as possible. So, we traveled towards Chorrol, but he took us off course to your house, and that's when those ghosts attacked you." Well, that was a little better than what Phoenix had told me. We turned down a hallway carpeted in red and headed towards another set of spiraling stairs at the end.
"How old are you all?" This question earned a chuckle from the mage.
"Phoebe is the youngest of us at Twenty-four, I'm going on twenty nine and Laresh is going on Thirty-two." A new question popped into my head as he said this.
"Who is 'Aaron?" I asked suddenly
"Aaron?"
"Laresh mentioned him."
"Ooh. Right. Aaron is the Dark Lord that attacked you that night, Lord Aaron, he's known as. He governs a lot of territory in Oblivion, and he plans to take over this world as well by somehow creating enough Oblivion gates to allow armies to storm the cities. But Laresh keeps on closing the portals before he can assemble his forces and send them through. They've been long time enemies, and Lord Aaron will do anything to rid himself of Laresh."
"Oh." This news somehow startled me. If this 'Lord Aaron' hates Laresh and everything about him, why did he attack my mother and me? I looked to Gain for answers, for he seemed to actually have them
"Why would he attack my home then?" As we climbed the final steps into the last hallway, Gain looked at me with a sympathetic look, but something sparkled in his eyes that told me he was lying.
"I don't know." I opened my mouth to speak again as he said this, but he held up his hand for silence, then waved it in the direction of the end of the new hallway. He guided me to one of the last doors in the hall, and pushed the door open for me.
"Thanks" I said as I stumbled through. I was more tired than I had thought. I began to take of my armor, as the mage began to retreat back into the hall
"I'm in the room directly across from here, if you need anything, don't hesitate to tell me" The door closed with a soft click and I undressed, taking the moment of peace to observe my room. I was nothing special, a marble room with wood floors, a small table beside the single, white-sheet bed and a small window above it. With a sigh, I collapsed into my bed and pulled the covers up to my chin. I tossed and turned for a minute while I got comfy, then closed my eyes and plunged into sleep.
When I awoke, the rancid tang of burning rubber reached my nose, I scrunched up my face and blindly pulled the covers back overtop of me, as they'd been thrown askew in my sleep. My eyes were still shut tight. Though the rancid stench intended fire, I felt unnaturally chilled. It took me a moment to register that this was somehow wrong, and I opening my eyes to watery slits. My room, which was originally a marble white, had a blood reddish hue, and a black figure stood tall and thin at the side of my bed. I opened my eyes wide and tried to move, but my muscles didn't respond. I found myself pinned, I couldn't open my mouth nor lift a finger, yet the man had not touched me. I could move my head though, and I shifted my gaze to the man. He was tall and adorned in black leather armor, he was wearing no helmet and had raven hair, short and wild. What chilled me were his crimson eyes that painfully reminded me of the night of my mother's death. It took me a moment to register that he might've been Lord Aaron, the man who'd attacked my home. I tried to scream, but failed. Out of the corner of my eye, I could make out a thick red fog that was settled over my covers.
"Don't struggle" Lord Aaron crooned. His voice was crisp and cold, but nothing like Laresh's. The knight's voice was deep and cold, sometimes even monotone, but this man had a voice that sounded mocking and wicked. "I'm not going to hurt you…" I doubted this greatly, and was somehow comforted when he finished his sentence with a 'yet'. I purposely disobeyed and struggled anyway, I tried to twist and squirm, but I found myself bound to place. The man lifted his hand over my forehead and felt a painful draining sensation, that spiraled through my body. I forced my eyes shut and Tried to turn my head, but I found I didn't need to. The sickening pain had stopped. I opened my eyes slowly again, only to find that Aaron was now directly ontop of me, his knees pushing into my ribs and causing me a great deal of pain, but try as I may, I could not scream or fight back. The dark lord was hunched over, and holding my arms out and away from my body with his hands. The lord grinned at me, then slowly lowered his head to my ear, sending shivers down my spine as he spoke.
"I'm coming for you" He paused, then moved one of his hands to my throat and began to strangle me, lifting his head once again to pierce me with his crimson orbs. "You can't hide anywhere." Black spots began to dampen my vision when, to my relief, another voice, warmer but muffled, broke through the pain.
"Carter!" It was Gain, he was pounding on my door. The man vanished in a whirl of smoke, then re-appeared at the side of my bed, I seized the moment to scream. But Aaron simply lifted his hand and forced my mouth shut magically. In my silence, he spoke again.
"I'm coming for you…" He lifted his hand and sliced it through the air, a motion that somehow sent me rolling off my bed and onto the ground. There was a crash at the door and I assumed that Gain may have thrown himself against it, only to find it locked. I pushed myself to my knees and hung my head, still breathing ragged from being strangled. The mean crouched in front of me and gripped my hair tightly in his fingers, jerking my head up.
"You can't escape me, and no one can save you. Give up, I'm coming for you." He repeated. There was another slam at the door and a bright flash, then the dark lord pushed my head down and forced me to sprawl on the ground. He stood tall and erect once again, and vanished in another wisp of smoke, taking the reddish hue that tainted my walls with him. Directly afterwards, my door glowed with a red light and burst off it's hinges to the opposite wall. Gain leapt into the room, his hands clenched into fists, set ablaze.
"Carter? Are you okay?" He cast his gaze around my room, only to find it perfectly restored. I however, was sprawled out on the floor beside my bed, one of the sheets still entangled around my foot. I was drenched in cold sweat. I thought about telling Gain the truth about what had happened, but it suddenly occurred to me that even if he did believe me, I wouldn't be allowed to accompany them to the demon world at all.
"Y-Yeah, I jjust had a bad dream, I guess." I lied, but he didn't seem too suspicious. He scratched his head and lifted my door back into place
"Some dream." He said, as he re-fastened the hinges to the door, magically, of course. He opened and shut the door to test it out, then spun to confront me again " I heard a thump, and a scream coming from your room. Are you sure that was just a dream?" I nodded and struggled to explain
"I was having some sort of Nightmare…I think it was about that night…" I paused, and rubbed my head in thought "I screamed in the dream, because I was about to die, and then I kind of fell out of my bed when I woke up. Sorry to startle you." I said, trying to sound humble. Thankfully, the mage bought it and shrugged
"It's okay," He said, then he opened the door and strode out, calling behind him as he did
"You'll find the baths in the room at the very end of the hallway to your left. Phoenix has arranged your lessons to start in an hour, and breakfast is in half an hour." I shouted my thanks to him then shut the door in his wake. I propped my back against it and slid into a sitting position, drawing a ragged breath, I forced myself to calm down. After a moment or two of silence, I got up and struggled through trying to put my armor on. I'd have to get a bath later, it would take me enough time to try and find the eating hall. Snatching my sword from the wall it was propped up against, I opened my door and stepped outside, taking a last look at my empty room before closing the door behind me and making my way down the hall.
Ohman! Supsense fer ye? eh? Eh?Eheheheheh? Humum. We shall see. If you review D I like reviews though, I like reviews, hint hint nug-bricked-
I won't bore you with that D I'll try to get another chapter up before christmas, then I'll be taking a holiday for a few weeks, but If I get the chance, I will upload a chapter should it be finsihed.
Anywho, Review please D
Tata
Shmeeko