{All non-player characters and the Guild Wars universe belong to NC Soft and Arena Net. I am simply presenting my own character through the story. Thank you.}

Chapter 14

"People of Ascalon! Gather around and listen!" Rurik shouted, standing atop the hill that mostly overlooked the small haven of Old Ascalon. Below him a crowd of starved, fatigued men, women, and children gathered to look up at their Prince with hope and trust, "Your King has abandoned you! He sits in madness in the failing capital and would see you all fall along side him to the Charr! Although I love my father and my King I will not see his wishes followed through! Ascalon must live on! We must retreat to Kryta and start life anew! There the crops will grow, the rivers flow clean, and there are no charr! Who will come?"

Below murmurings started amidst the people. Throughout the lands the folks of ascalon had gathered from the Grenditch Courthouse furthest to the northwest, to the small camp of Piken Square outside the Breach. After a few nerve wrenching minutes the soldiers of Piken Square stepped forward lead by Duke Barradin. They bowed deeply and the good Duke crossed his right arm over his chest. "We follow the prince."

Before long 85% of the crowd had stepped forward swearing their allegiance and trust to Rurik. The rest however wore stony, dark faces filled with pride and anger. They were farmers who'd spent generations on the lands on their ancestors and now they stepped back spitting toward the prince and his followers. One woman spoke up assisting her father in moving back toward their shack, "Curses be on all of you! You would dare turn your backs on your own people and whimper with your tails between your legs to the Krytans! Traitors!"

Rurik looked sorrowfully at those moving away from him and only looked towards those that wished to be saved. "My fellows, we are running out of time, before long the Charr will regroup and march on us for a last time. We must quickly pack up our little belongings and go toward the promise land," a roar arose from the crowd and Rurik raised his sword to the sky letting the ancient blade light up the sky with it's fire, "To a new tomorrow!"

"To a new tomorrow indeed," rasped a voice as dark as the longest night. A large green hand rose in Signa's vision. The flesh seemed to melt off the bone and let off a black gas that caused Signa to gag and choke, "However, all things have a price."

Q moved out of his tent and stretched. A rare smile graced his face, and the chill air filled his lungs with its fresh, pine scent as he looked up to the clear skies and shining sun. The pilgrimage through the Diessa Lowlands had been one of the hardest to ever have been made. Three caravans had been lost to the Charr, 30 children to hunger, and 20 soldiers to the fight against attackers. The journey took weeks stretching into months and Q had begun to lose hope until they at last topped the very last hill and caught sight of the Shiverpeak mountains and clear sky. Now they just had to play a waiting game while Rurik journeyed through the mountains to negotiate passage with King Jalis Ironhammer. It had been nearly a week since the Prince had went into the Borlis Pass with his small escort. Q had been apprehensive at first, but he knew that the Krytans were with him, and that he would be just fine. "Kalen!" Q called toward the bulkier man who had been quietly chatting with another warrior.

Kalen looked up from his conversation to see Q walking toward him with travel clothing and bow ready for action. "Hey Q," he asked slowly, "Where are you off to?"

Q smiled and gestured toward the exit of the small Krytan camp, "There are centaurs gathering north of here threatening our passage west through the Borlis Pass. I thought perhaps I'd do my part in taking them down. It shouldn't take too long do you mind watching over the camp?"

Kalen nodded looking around at the meager gathering of tents and weapon racks that made up the Krytan "town" of Yak's Bend, "Yeah take your time I can handle things here."

Q nodded trusting his good friend and then walked out of the camp's southern entrance before directing himself northward. Some of the Krytan locals of the area had told him about what he could expect in the wilderness of the Shiverpeak mountains although Q had been through them before so nothing was all that new. The only danger that Q did not recognize was the threat of the "Stone Summit" dwarves. The Krytans he had talked to described them as crude, loud, and heavy in number, but otherwise could not seem to put a solid profile on these enemies. Q hoped now that he would be able to figure it all out for himself.

As always, even on this borderline town nearing only the base of the Shiverpeak mountain range, fresh snow littered the ground and crisp, freezing air shortened Q's breath with harsh swiftness. The lands were quiet as no animal could be spotted in tree or bush. Q frowned and slowly strung his bow in preparation for anything that might come his way; he was all too wary of the ettins and minotaurs that lingered in the area. As if on cue directly behind him a twig snapped and Q turned around to shoot an arrow toward the disturbance. A shriek emitted from a shaking bush which surprised Q for he had not known ettin to be so shrill of voice.

"GRENTH'S RAGGED ROBE THAT WAS CLOSE!" came the voice again and now Q was thoroughly shocked as ettin's never said more than "Ugh" or perhaps "Herrgeeka." His unasked questions were answered when a slim figure fell through the bushes followed by two rather grotesque creatures that towered over the one who fell over. Q immediately drew two arrows and knocked both preparing to take the creatures down. Unlike the beauty they hovered over, the monstrosities had skulls for heads blood-stained bones protruding from their backs like spikes. The rest of their bodies were vaguely human in shape and were made of nothing but rotting, pulsating flesh. Q had never seen, or smelled, anything like them before.

Seeming to become aware of Q's presence, the creatures began to crouch in preparation of an attack and Q was just about to let fly before the woman who had fallen over put a hand up to stop him. Surprised, Q dropped his arrows slightly and even the creatures backed away from their hostile stances. The woman slowly stood sputtering dirt and snow from her pretty little mouth. She had short, bluish-silver hair with bangs that covered her right eye and tucked behind her left ear. Her skin was almost as pale as the snow she stood on although she wore dark makeup around her eyes and dark red lipstick creating a shocking contrast of features. She patted down dirt and snow from her now dampened dress to reveal a variety of bone charms and feathers hanging from the black and green folds. To Q she looked like a servant of Lord Death from the stories he'd listen to as a child and he was at a loss of words as far as how to greet and/or threaten this new person.

He didn't have to for as soon as the woman had "prettied" herself up again she curtsied at Q. "Hello there Mr. Tan my name is Silvery Dusk although my friends mostly call me Silvery. Sorry for sneaking up on you there that probably wasn't the smart thing to do."

Q barely shook himself out of his confused stupor to say a few words, "Call me Q... um.. what are you, what are those, and why are you following me?"

"My what a lot of questions you have there Q let's see I'm a high class traveling Necromancer, and these are my main minions; I've named them Gronkle and Ugga." The minions stood behind Silvery quite tamely until one of the bones on Gronkle's back fell lopsided and hit Ugga over the head. Ugga grunted, "Ugga" and punched Gronkle in the arm although the impact between fleshy ick and fleshy ick only created an unpleasant "splat" sound.

"A necromancer," Q said as his eyes were drawn to the horrendous yet comical interaction between the two minions, "Okay yeah I've heard of that class. It's not a class many people take right? Because of the, er, risks?"

"Hey there's only risks if you let there be risks. Those blood necros keep making a horrible name for the rest of us. I'm strictly a minion master."

"Of course, what about my other question? Why were you hiding in a bush watching me?" Q felt rather annoyed now. Although the encounter with the woman had been quite interesting he was remembering that she had spied on him first.

"Oh, yes, well- um... I'm a uh... fan."

"A fan?"

"Yes I've uh, heard of you and I uh appreciate your incredible skill."

"So you were spying on me?"

"Admiring from a comfortable distance."

"Stalking."

"Okay maybe a little."

Q sighed sliding his arrows back into his quiver, "Look. Silver?"

"Silvery."

"Silvery," Q began to turn away, "The Prince of Ascalon will return to the camp any day now and I need to clear these centaurs before that happens. I suggest you return to camp and stop hanging around in bushes."

Silver frowned watching Q go away and turned around to look at her minions continually slapping each other having nothing else to do. She then grit her teeth and ran after Q with the minions stumbling over each other to follow. "Wait!" she cried once she was close enough for him to hear her, "I can help! I fight to! My minions do whatever I ask and they're great fighters since they're already dead!"

Q reached a boulder that stood before a small valley where he could see smoke rising from campfires. Now he turned toward Silvery with a strained smile on his tanned face, "I'm sure they are Silvery and their capacity for attention is-" Q watched the minions begin to slap each other again, "Astounding, but two big meat shields aren't going to do much against a whole valley of centaur warriors."

"How about twelve?"

"Huh?"

"I can uphold up to twelve minions. I just need dead bodies to make them from. If you keep killing centaur with these first two, I can keep making more to cover you!"

Q slowly looked toward the camp and thought hard on what he should do. There were three fires each with ten centaurs gathered together. The closest gathering of centaurs had eight Shiverpeak Long Bowmen, and two Shiverpeak Warriors. Considering Silvery's ability the attack should be a snap if he could just pick off the bowmen while Gronkle and Ugga took out the warriors. Deciding on his plan of action he turned back to Silvery. "Alright here's the plan. Each of those campfires are about 50 paces apart for a human, 25 paces for them. That closest fire is to be our first target. I need you to send out flesh thing one and flesh thing two after those two warriors there so that I can pick off the bowmen. After a few of them are dead they'll start calling the other centaurs which will give me about 10 seconds before both other camps are stampeding toward us. I need you to hold back on calling more minions until I've killed off every centaur from the first camp okay? Sound good?"

"They're not fleshy things their names are Gronkle and Ugga and they are my minis."

"Fine Gronkle and Ugga, are we clear on the plan?"

Silver nodded smiling once more, "We're clear. Gronkle and Ugga? Prepare to charge!"

The minions nodded standing in front of their master waiting patiently for the attack. Q nodded and turned toward the camp fires setting himself up at a nicely defended position and setting several arrows next to him. He then looked toward Silvery and nodded.

Silvery nodded back and pointed toward the Shiverpeak Warriors, "Minions destroy!" Eagerly Gronkle and Ugga charged into the valley making splat sounds all the way down. It didn't take long for the huddled group of centaur to notice them and brandish their weapons. Gronkle went in first tackling one of the two warriors and pummeling him even as the centaur attempted to stab it through with it's rudimentary sword. Q shook his head from his perch and took careful aim. The first arrow flew true and hit one of the long bowmen square in the back to topple him onto the other warrior. Ugga had a field day clamping her "jaws" on the fallen warrior with ravenous hunger. Q continued his attack satisfied with the wonderful distraction the two minions were creating. He was glad to see that he was even able to kill two more centaurs before one of them finally gathered his wits and blew a horn to call the other two camps over.

Q gently whispered, "Ten" the arrow whizzed from his bow piercing through the centaur's vocal cords mid-blow. "Nine" two arrows embedded themselves in the seventh centaur's flank. "Eight" arrows began whizzing toward Q from the remaining three centaurs of the first camp and Q ducked knocking another arrow into his bow. "Seven" Q emerged once more taking aim between two spiraling arrows and sending his own into the heart of the centaur with the wounded flank. "Six" the ground rumbled from the beating of many hooves stampeding toward the fight. "Five" Q moved up to shoot again and fell over to dodge an incoming arrow. "Four" Q tried once more, but missed as one of the minions toppled the centaur he was aiming at. "Three" the centaur lifted itself up again hitting the minion away with his bow. "Two" both centaurs aimed at Q at the same time with the stampede of centaurs visible just behind them. "One" the twang of arrow leaving string resounded in Q's ears as he ducked and shouted, "NOW!" Q's two arrows lodged in the heads of the remaining centaur bowmen as their two arrows whizzed above Q's head. Silvery moved from her hiding place and pointed a bone staff she had retrieved from who knows where toward the sky. A sickly green light surrounded her pale, thin arm and swirled into the eyes of the skull at the end of her staff. The eyes flashed once with the energy and Q watched as the dead bodies of the centaurs he'd shot exploded. Creatures the size of Gronkle and Ugga emerged from the carnage and shrieked as one creating a line of defense between Q, and the incoming Shiverpeak stampede.

Just as Q had predicted, the enemies stumbled over one another in their surprise and the minions were on them before they could say, "Disgusting!"

"GRENTH'S BLISTERS YEAH!" Silvery shouted, rooting for her beloved dead things, "GO TO THE MISTS YOU BUNCH OF BONE-HEADED IMP FODDER!"

Q shook his head and proceeded to shoot down as many centaurs as could be seen in the mass of red flesh and terrified centaur. After about five minutes of bloody massacre not a single centaur remained while six minions were left standing. Silvery smiled and clapped her hands as Gronkle and Ugga absorbed their comrades and returned to Silvery like puppies who had just been playing a game of fetch. Q had never been more fascinated, yet at the same time terrified, in his whole life.

Silvery turned toward Q, "That.. was so.. freaking.. WICKED! Can we do it again?"

Q stared at Silvery wondering at her combination of cheerfulness and frightening blood lust, "Um.. no. Not now at least; however, I do have a proposition for you. My team could use someone like you and despite our quest for a safer place for the Ascalonians is nearing its finish, I have a feeling our adventures are far from over. How would you like to join our group?"

"Do you mean that?" Silvery asked, excitement nearly spewing forth from her startling green eyes, "OF FREAKING COURSE! Oh grenth's groveling graveyard this will be amazing! Hanging out with Q and his friends! I'll be a hero just like you guys!"

"Calm down, let's just get back to camp okay?"

"Right, to camp. Let's go!"

Ugga looked at Gronkle as Silver dashed off back towards Yak's bend with a sheepish Q following and slapped him again before running off. "Ugga!"

(Thank you for reading this series and please review/comment/message me with your feedback or just to say hi! Have a magical day!)