This was written at roughly 2:00am sometime over last spring/summer. Now
I'm posting it. I was in a zombified state when I first wrote it, so there
were gibberish streams where my hand or head hit the keyboard and errors in
most words and probably every sentence. After finally being run through
Microsoft Word, most (I hesitate to say all) errors have been fixed. I
have no clue why I wrote it or why it's in first person, I was out at the
time.
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My story? It's not much, nor is it particularly important to anyone but me. I guess it really starts as I got here.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I used to be an adventurer, a ranger and a darn good one if I do say so myself. Only I and the two others who traveled with me weren't quite good enough to take on the Drow. Long story short, we were captured and told we were slaves, then separated and thrown into cells on their near surface dungeon level. I've not seen the wizard or the thief again, so I can only guess as to their fate. What matters for my story is that I was tossed in a cell. There was just one tiny window way up the wall that didn't let any light in and a 'bed' at each end. Then I noticed there was someone else in the cell. Sitting in the corner by the last part of a calendar that took up most of the back wall and was scratched into the rock was another surface elf. She looked up at me, and for a second smiled. It's hard to describe her, she was just one of those people who you'd just have to see to really get. Her hair was long and dark brown and her eyes ice blue. She was tall, not quite as tall as me, but tall. It doesn't sound as much saying it, but she was beautiful. I'd seen the ever-young queen of the elves, my queen, but her beauty paled in comparison to the prisoner sitting across from me. For a second she smiled, and then carved something into the wall. She looked back up at me.
"Ya know," She said, "Your the first person in a long time they've thrown in her who's actually kinda cute."
I must have blushed so red that I looked like a stunted fire giant. She laughed, not mocking me or anything, but actually just laughing. The kind of laugh you don't expect to hear from a prisoner in drow dungeons. I walked over to her and tried to at least look at the calendar for some of the time.
"Its amazingly accurate." I said. And, for that sort of calendar, it was. I looked up at the wall and saw a whole lot of calendar. "How long have you been in here?" I asked
"Five years today. tomorrow if you only count full days." She paused and looked right into my eyes again. Her gaze pierced me, and she spoke again, "As long as we're on personal subjects, I'm Aria. And your name is?"
"Derek." I replied, "Of Gnarley Wood"
"Gnarley wood? I was from around there before I did something stupid that landed me in here." I looked up at Aria, and she continued. "I thought I could sneak in and take down the Spider Queen. End the war. That's what they call the bitch who runs this place, but then again you already knew that, didn't you?"
"Why would I?" I asked. I had known, but I never said anything about why I was here. I had no reason to know.
"Your an adventurer. A ranger like I was unless I'm really getting bad at this. I'll bet you got trying to do exactly the same thing I was trying to do."
"Not exactly. There were others with me. A mage and a thief. They'll break out soon enough and then spring the rest of the cells on their way out, if they don't take down the Spider Queen in the process!"
She frowned. Her eyes held almost too much sorrow for people she'd never met. "I've seen mages and thieves before. These cells are antimagic, or at least they prevent casting. And the locks? The locks are all trapped with a powerful shock spell. I saw a self-proclaimed master rogue try to pick one once. The guards hauled his fried corpse out a couple minutes later." somewhere, distantly, I thought I heard lightning.
"I guess we really are stuck in here... wait. How did you know I was an adventurer?"
"You have that look in your eye. All the real ones do. Not these people who get thrown in one day, claim to be masters of something or other, and are hauled out the next."
I don't know what came over me, but I leaned forward and kissed her. One of the guards must have been passing, because, from the hall, there was a cry of "Go ahead! we need all the slaves we can get!" and then a sickening laugh. I backed away, more embarrassed then I had been in my life.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
An Hour later, I was back in the corner I had started out in. We hadn't spoken since. "I'm sorry, I-"
"Don't be." She cut me off as she walked over "You have spirit, not like anyone else they've put in this cell. You probably can't be broken like the rest."
"Broken?"
"How do I explain this? Listen, in my time as an adventurer I faced Mind Flayers. You ever have a run in with the Illithids?"
"Yes." I said, and it was true. I had a sickening feeling I knew where this was going.
"Then you've seen them, the slaves that the Illithids keep. I don't know how its done, but the drow turn their slaves, supposedly you and me, into people like that. Most of the time, someone thrown in this cell is already languor by now as their will is sucked away. Some of us are different. I only know of myself and now you but there are likely others in other cells."
"You already miss it, don't you?" Aria followed up.
"Allot of things. What, exactly, do you mean?"
"The woods. The trees and the flowers and the birds and majestic creatures of the forest down to the crawling ants and the little plant people who let you see them every once and a while. Home, just like anyone else would miss, home!" She was almost crying as she described it and when she finished she hugged me and broke down into tears in my arms. "See that window up there? It looks out on the gallows and the light comes in only one day a year, at dawn on midwinter. It's the most desolate view possible, in the worst place anyone could be! Someday, someday I keep telling myself that someone will succeed. They'll kill the Spider Queen and end the war or the elven army will march down into the drow city and free all the slaves and they'll open up the cell and I - we will be able to leave this horrible place. For some reason I care about you. That's not the way it's supposed to be, we've only met an hour ago but I do care and you do to!" She spoke the truth, I did care about her. As crazy as it was, I did care. "When they come and open the cell we'll leave here and never come back! We'll never have to see worked stone or the darkness of a cave or the bitter cold of the underground ever again! We'll be free. Free."
Arms still around me, she looked into my eyes again with that piercing look. I don't know who started it but we kissed. The clink of boots upon stone passed the door "Lights out! Snuff the torches!" We let go, Aria and I, and each went to sleep, dreaming of freedom.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The guards came and took Aria to the gallows the next day at dawn. Midwinter, when the light filtered in through the bars of the window. I turned one of the beds on end and looked out, face pressed against those cold iron bars. Out in the sun, the Spider Queen and her guards stood as Aria was taken up to the scaffold. She looked down at the window and saw me. She looked right into my eyes, knowing I was watching.
"You have fought for too long. Today it will end. Have you any last words?" The Spider Queen asked.
Aria stood straight and tall and spoke "Only that, though you kill me, the fight can only end with you losing. Where I die, there will be another to take my place. It will never end." Then she spat in the Spider Queen's face, and looked down at me. "Remember me" she mouthed, and I nodded. She looked into my eyes and gave me the same smile she had when she first saw me. The Spider Queen, her face wiped dry, gave the signal and the executioner pulled the crank.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I guess I could keep going, about how I kept up the calendar, about how fool after fool comes in and is taken out broken or dead in a day or two. I've been here well over four years now, and the midwinter that will mark my fifth will come in but a few short days. The drow will take me out to the gallows, and I'll be the one spitting in the face of the Spider Queen if I get a chance, and someone else will take my place, or just find a strangely accurate calendar in the cell they get thrown into. When I enter Correlon's Court, where elves go in the afterlife, I'll meet Aria again and we'll walk in the light, never having to see or deal with worked stone or the dark of a cave or the chill of the underground ever again. we can walk in the eternal wood among the trees and the flowers and the birds and majestic creatures of the forest down to the crawling ants and the little plant people who let you see them every once and a while. We'll be free.
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My story? It's not much, nor is it particularly important to anyone but me. I guess it really starts as I got here.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I used to be an adventurer, a ranger and a darn good one if I do say so myself. Only I and the two others who traveled with me weren't quite good enough to take on the Drow. Long story short, we were captured and told we were slaves, then separated and thrown into cells on their near surface dungeon level. I've not seen the wizard or the thief again, so I can only guess as to their fate. What matters for my story is that I was tossed in a cell. There was just one tiny window way up the wall that didn't let any light in and a 'bed' at each end. Then I noticed there was someone else in the cell. Sitting in the corner by the last part of a calendar that took up most of the back wall and was scratched into the rock was another surface elf. She looked up at me, and for a second smiled. It's hard to describe her, she was just one of those people who you'd just have to see to really get. Her hair was long and dark brown and her eyes ice blue. She was tall, not quite as tall as me, but tall. It doesn't sound as much saying it, but she was beautiful. I'd seen the ever-young queen of the elves, my queen, but her beauty paled in comparison to the prisoner sitting across from me. For a second she smiled, and then carved something into the wall. She looked back up at me.
"Ya know," She said, "Your the first person in a long time they've thrown in her who's actually kinda cute."
I must have blushed so red that I looked like a stunted fire giant. She laughed, not mocking me or anything, but actually just laughing. The kind of laugh you don't expect to hear from a prisoner in drow dungeons. I walked over to her and tried to at least look at the calendar for some of the time.
"Its amazingly accurate." I said. And, for that sort of calendar, it was. I looked up at the wall and saw a whole lot of calendar. "How long have you been in here?" I asked
"Five years today. tomorrow if you only count full days." She paused and looked right into my eyes again. Her gaze pierced me, and she spoke again, "As long as we're on personal subjects, I'm Aria. And your name is?"
"Derek." I replied, "Of Gnarley Wood"
"Gnarley wood? I was from around there before I did something stupid that landed me in here." I looked up at Aria, and she continued. "I thought I could sneak in and take down the Spider Queen. End the war. That's what they call the bitch who runs this place, but then again you already knew that, didn't you?"
"Why would I?" I asked. I had known, but I never said anything about why I was here. I had no reason to know.
"Your an adventurer. A ranger like I was unless I'm really getting bad at this. I'll bet you got trying to do exactly the same thing I was trying to do."
"Not exactly. There were others with me. A mage and a thief. They'll break out soon enough and then spring the rest of the cells on their way out, if they don't take down the Spider Queen in the process!"
She frowned. Her eyes held almost too much sorrow for people she'd never met. "I've seen mages and thieves before. These cells are antimagic, or at least they prevent casting. And the locks? The locks are all trapped with a powerful shock spell. I saw a self-proclaimed master rogue try to pick one once. The guards hauled his fried corpse out a couple minutes later." somewhere, distantly, I thought I heard lightning.
"I guess we really are stuck in here... wait. How did you know I was an adventurer?"
"You have that look in your eye. All the real ones do. Not these people who get thrown in one day, claim to be masters of something or other, and are hauled out the next."
I don't know what came over me, but I leaned forward and kissed her. One of the guards must have been passing, because, from the hall, there was a cry of "Go ahead! we need all the slaves we can get!" and then a sickening laugh. I backed away, more embarrassed then I had been in my life.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
An Hour later, I was back in the corner I had started out in. We hadn't spoken since. "I'm sorry, I-"
"Don't be." She cut me off as she walked over "You have spirit, not like anyone else they've put in this cell. You probably can't be broken like the rest."
"Broken?"
"How do I explain this? Listen, in my time as an adventurer I faced Mind Flayers. You ever have a run in with the Illithids?"
"Yes." I said, and it was true. I had a sickening feeling I knew where this was going.
"Then you've seen them, the slaves that the Illithids keep. I don't know how its done, but the drow turn their slaves, supposedly you and me, into people like that. Most of the time, someone thrown in this cell is already languor by now as their will is sucked away. Some of us are different. I only know of myself and now you but there are likely others in other cells."
"You already miss it, don't you?" Aria followed up.
"Allot of things. What, exactly, do you mean?"
"The woods. The trees and the flowers and the birds and majestic creatures of the forest down to the crawling ants and the little plant people who let you see them every once and a while. Home, just like anyone else would miss, home!" She was almost crying as she described it and when she finished she hugged me and broke down into tears in my arms. "See that window up there? It looks out on the gallows and the light comes in only one day a year, at dawn on midwinter. It's the most desolate view possible, in the worst place anyone could be! Someday, someday I keep telling myself that someone will succeed. They'll kill the Spider Queen and end the war or the elven army will march down into the drow city and free all the slaves and they'll open up the cell and I - we will be able to leave this horrible place. For some reason I care about you. That's not the way it's supposed to be, we've only met an hour ago but I do care and you do to!" She spoke the truth, I did care about her. As crazy as it was, I did care. "When they come and open the cell we'll leave here and never come back! We'll never have to see worked stone or the darkness of a cave or the bitter cold of the underground ever again! We'll be free. Free."
Arms still around me, she looked into my eyes again with that piercing look. I don't know who started it but we kissed. The clink of boots upon stone passed the door "Lights out! Snuff the torches!" We let go, Aria and I, and each went to sleep, dreaming of freedom.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The guards came and took Aria to the gallows the next day at dawn. Midwinter, when the light filtered in through the bars of the window. I turned one of the beds on end and looked out, face pressed against those cold iron bars. Out in the sun, the Spider Queen and her guards stood as Aria was taken up to the scaffold. She looked down at the window and saw me. She looked right into my eyes, knowing I was watching.
"You have fought for too long. Today it will end. Have you any last words?" The Spider Queen asked.
Aria stood straight and tall and spoke "Only that, though you kill me, the fight can only end with you losing. Where I die, there will be another to take my place. It will never end." Then she spat in the Spider Queen's face, and looked down at me. "Remember me" she mouthed, and I nodded. She looked into my eyes and gave me the same smile she had when she first saw me. The Spider Queen, her face wiped dry, gave the signal and the executioner pulled the crank.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I guess I could keep going, about how I kept up the calendar, about how fool after fool comes in and is taken out broken or dead in a day or two. I've been here well over four years now, and the midwinter that will mark my fifth will come in but a few short days. The drow will take me out to the gallows, and I'll be the one spitting in the face of the Spider Queen if I get a chance, and someone else will take my place, or just find a strangely accurate calendar in the cell they get thrown into. When I enter Correlon's Court, where elves go in the afterlife, I'll meet Aria again and we'll walk in the light, never having to see or deal with worked stone or the dark of a cave or the chill of the underground ever again. we can walk in the eternal wood among the trees and the flowers and the birds and majestic creatures of the forest down to the crawling ants and the little plant people who let you see them every once and a while. We'll be free.