Author's note:

Thanks again ssp47 for you review.


My vision turned blood red and I lost control of myself.  I could still see, hear, and feel everything though.

I charged one of the spiders as webbing from both snared me.  Somehow I managed to rip it off and continue towards the spider.  I swung quickly and accurately, killing the target within seconds.  Then my world went black.

When I came back into my senses, I still had no control.  In my hand was a ring of wishes, with 2 rubies in it.  I could barely hear myself talking, but I did catch the word immortal.  One of the rubies vanished.  Then, as the blood red was almost completely gone, I heard the last wish: Not to age.  The last ruby disappeared, and I gained total control.

I knew it was the ring I picked up.  It had to have been.  I tried to take it off, but it somehow grafted onto me.  Then I cut my finger off with my sword.  I knew that if I could get to a cleric, I could get it fixed later.  The ring detached and rolled into a spider's body.

As I looked up slowly, I saw a massive hall, filled with dead spiders and the red webbing.  There was a torch burning at a tunnel leading off, which I assumed to be the one I threw earlier.  I picked it up and walked down the tunnel.

It took about fifteen minutes to realize I was lost.  I kept walking though, and I thought it would hopefully open out to the surface.  I lost track of time, and eventually wound up in another large hall.  This one had no spiders, so I knew I had gotten somewhere.  My torch was burning very low, and I needed to get out fast.

Then I smelled a foul odor.  It was like rotted meat, and it was coming from a large opening into some kind of room.  I could see that there was a door behind it, with faint light from under the cracks.  I drew my sword and approached cautiously.

My torch flickered and died out right before I reached the door.  I stopped and listened for a while.  I couldn't hear anything.  I decided it best to get in and kill anything inside, so I kicked the door in.  Three goblins woke up and jumped off their cots.  They wielded poorly crafted short swords.

I knew they were no match, and let them advance.  The problem is that more were coming in from behind.  Once I realized this, I jumped at the lead one in front of me.  I took him down fairly easy with a few slashes at its chest, and then moved on to the left one.  The two left in front on me tried to attack, but my armor protected me from their bad weaponry.

I managed to slice the neck of the one in front of me as the goblins in the rear moved forward.  A spear hit me in the back, but this was from no goblin thrust.  I fell to the ground, unable to move.  They jumped on me and started inflicting all the damage they could.  Then I passed out.


***

When I awoke, I found myself in a luxurious bed, with clerics around me.  They were amazed that I had lived, since they thought I was dead for sure.

I was then summoned to the lord of the estate, who happened to be Westor, one of my father's highly decorated commanders.  He told me he was chasing a large force of goblins for about a week and finally found their quarters.  Once he eliminated them, he recognized me and brought me back to the castle, where he discovered I was still breathing.  He then had his clerics work on me constantly.

He told me he knew of the bad news, and of the quest I was on.  I told him about the cave, and that I didn't find the ring and then got lost.  I felt bad lying to him, but to tell him that I wasted the ring, and one of the few answers out, would surely get me killed.

He said that I could stay as long as I helped out with the city guards.  I accepted, and joined the ranks of the "D" watch, the watch before the dawn.