A World of Darkness
By: ArcaneWeapon
Chapter 1: Captured
"Saevel it's time to get out of bed!" his mom's voice called out. "How can you be so lazy on your forty-fifth birthday? I thought you were excited to go on your first scouting expedition."
Saevel's scintillating violet eyes, pure as amethyst, shot open as he remembered how special today was. He carefully spread his white wings so as to not crumple them, and pushed himself off of his stomach so he could drape his legs off the bed. He lightly hopped down and stumbled over to the mirror to look at himself. He was 5' 8" weighing 102 pounds with pale porcelain white skin, silver hair, and purple eyes. He wrinkled his nose in disgust at his sleeping robe and walked over to his closet, looking for something special to wear this day. He selected his finest blue robes with gold trim and brought them with him into the bathroom. After taking a quick shower he threw his blue robes on and walked into the kitchen. His mother stepped away from the stove and gave him a big hug as he entered the room.
"I made your favorite breakfast, fresh tuna," she informed him as she served a large helping onto a plate and handed it to him. "Once you're done with that you can go say your morning prayers and study your spellbook before heading to the scout headquarters," she kindly told him.
As he happily dug into his tuna Saevel thought about his life up to this point. He had been born into the Xilokerym family, which meant "Petalsword." His mother was a famed cleric and his father was a fearless defender of their people. Saevel had followed in neither of their footsteps however. Unlike other boys his age, he had never found any pleasure playing with wooden swords. Instead he studied magic. He had always been a very intelligent child and magic seemed to come to him naturally. This had set him apart as an outcast, and he had never had any close friendships. When he had free time he spent most of it studying and practicing magic or flying around the Aerie, the enormous crystal citadel built atop of the Icerim Mountains, and the last stronghold of the Avariel, the winged elves of Faerun.
Thousands of years ago the Avariel had been hunted down to the brink of extinction and they had fled to these mountains in an attempt to hide from the world. Their withdrawal from the world caused them to become a rare sight and slowly they became legendary creatures of myth as time passed. Recently in Saevel's life they had started spreading back out into the world, now that they were not afraid of dying out. The scouting trip he was about to go on was checking the conditions of a human supply caravan that was bringing trade materials to the Aerie.
He finished his fish and brought his plate to the sink before leaving the kitchen and entering the prayer room. He took a moment upon entering to light the three candelabras and some incense before going to his knees in front of the altar. He bowed his head and began his prayers to the elven deities.
"Corellon Lerethian," he began, "Creator of the elves, please guide and protect me on this day. Aerdrie Faenya, mother of the Avariel, you have looked out for my people for thousands of years, please give me your guidance today."
After finishing his prayers to his two main deities he rattled off a few more minor ones, asking for their protection as well. He ended his prayers with one unusual for an Avariel, Mystra, the Goddess of all magic. Not many Avariel practiced magic and Saevel often felt like her only worshiper in the Aerie. After asking Mystra to aid his spells he walked back to his room and sat down at his desk to study his spellbook.
Since he was only a beginner wizard his spellbook didn't have very many spells, it currently only had six full pages. Scanning over the ones he could memorize for the day he decided on Light, Detect Magic, and Daze for his cantrips, the lowest level of spell, and Magic Missile, Shield, and Sleep for his 1st level spells. After spending an hour committing them to memory, Saevel tucked his spellbook into a pouch on his belt next to his spell components and re-entered the kitchen where he snatched up a packed lunch his mother had made for him and shoved it into another pouch. He then stopped by the door to attach his quiver to his belt, sling his bow over one shoulder, and grab his quarterstaff before leaping out the door and falling headfirst towards the ground 100 feet below.
Halfway down he furled his wings and beat them several times, turning to head towards where the scouting party was going to meet. As he leisurely flew he took deep breathes of the cool morning air and gazed out at his surroundings. The sunlight glistened off the snow that was on the high peaks year-round, making it look as if they were capped in silver. Several giant eagles, his favorite animals, were lazily circling some of the peaks, looking for breakfast. He arrived at the meeting just as roll was being called. Saevel was slightly intimidated that everyone else there was much older and more experienced then him but he didn't let his voice shake as he called out, "Here!" when his name was called.
Saevel carefully listened to the instructions that were given before taking flight with the others. Their goal was to find and escort a human caravan carrying supplies back to the Aerie. It wasn't a very important mission, which was why Saevel was allowed to go. He didn't care about its importance, however, he was just excited to be on his first scouting mission. After about an hour of flight, Saevel could make out the caravan below them and pointed it out to the others around him. They were impressed that he had been the first one to see it and many of them gave him looks of approval. Saevel knew that first spot meant an extra reward upon return to the Aerie, but he was too excited to care.
As the Avariel entered into a dive to approach the wagons they noticed them stopping and people emerging. All of a sudden, as they neared the ground, the lead Avariel started desperately pumping its wings, trying to regain altitude as fast as possible. The sudden strain on its wings was too much, however, and they snapped with a sickening sound, causing the Avariel to plummet to the ground. The rest of the scouting party looked on in horror as they realized what the leader had seen. The shapes emerging from the wagons were not human. They were orcs, hundreds upon hundreds of orcs.
The Avariel in the back managed to slow themselves down and fly back up to a safe distance but the ones in front, including Saevel were unable to do so. While he wasn't as far ahead as a few others, his wings were not as strong as the rest of the scouts and he knew there was no way for him to pull back up. Desperately he called a spell to mind and reached one hand out to form the spell while the other grabbed a pinch of sand from his spell component pouch. His fingers reached into the web of magic that covered all of Faerun, a web only mages could manipulate, and pulled several of the threads before sticking his hand with the sand out palm towards the orcs and shouting the finishing word. A small white sphere shot out of his hand and exploded in a 15ft radius, causing six of the orcs in its area of effect to slump to the ground in a deep sleep.
The orcs shouted in alarm as they noticed Saevel casting the spell and a huge barrage of arrows shot up like an angry swarm of bees. In a panic Saevel cast the first spell that came to mind, once again reaching into the web and twisting the threads. This time there was no visible effect when he thrust his hands out.
"I've never cast this spell before," he thought, "I hope it works!"
The arrows cut into the Avariel in front of him, but they bounced off an invisible disk shielding him from harm.
"Thank you Mystra," Saevel whispered in gratitude, his Shield spell had worked perfectly.
By the time he was able to slow himself down enough to start flying back into the sky safely he was alarmingly close to the ground and the orcs. He was terrified when he saw that many of them held nets and were preparing to throw them. He made a feeble attempt to regain some height but they were already throwing their nets. They tangled in his wings and he felt himself lose control as he started to fall towards the ground. He hit within seconds and passed out from the pain.
A/N: There goes! First chapter of my DD fic :) I am going to be working on this a lot and I expect it to be the most detailed and exciting thing I've ever written. I hope you enjoyed the story so far, I have so much to write I just can't write it fast enough :) So far I've actually been rolling everything out that would require dice (like the amount of orcs that Saevel put to sleep, rolled 2d4 and got 6) and I think I'll keep doing that throughout the story. Please review if you liked this.
