Welcome back everyone. Enjoy and review.
Fear
Gladiators. Criminals forced to fight one another until they had served their time. Evabon who lived in cities and towns found it to be highly entertaining to watch them fight. Balor didn't see anything entertaining about it but coming from a village why would he?
Balor followed the gladiators to the arena. He thought if he were to see a fight then maybe he'd understand why they were found so entertaining.
As Balor followed the gladiators he saw a great crowd of men and women at the front of the arena. They were all cheering. Balor stopped in his tracks to look at the crowd. There weren't any children in the crowd. Why was that?
Once the gladiators were inside the arena, the crowd followed them inside. Balor followed only to have a red guard grab him by the shoulder. Balor looked up at the guard. The guard shook his head.
"Sorry, son, but no children allowed." The guard looked at Balor's arm. "Malkolm will have my job if I don't keep ever one of his grandchildren out. Just think of it, me Seyton, without a job." Seyton looked at the scar of Balor's arm. "That's quite the scar you've got there, son." Seyton shook his head. "A child can't go around with a scar like that." Seyton removed a bracer on his right arm and put it on Balor's right arm to cover the lightning bolt-shaped scar. "It is big, a child wearing an adult's bracer… but at least it will cover your scar." Balor touched the leather bracer. It felt cool against his skin. "Now run along and find something to do!"
As Balor walked away he heard some old women talking. He stopped to listen. Their voices were filled with worry.
"The streams have all dried up!" Balor shook his head. The streams just needed water. It was summer sometimes it would rain until autumn.
"All of the wild beasts have fled! And the vermin? Where are they? And our animals: tolacs, mounts all are afraid." Balor's eyes widened. Wild beasts fled? Where did they go? Where were the vermin? Why were their animals so scared?
Balor looked up at Mount Dunkan. The volcano looked peaceful but there was something evil about it. It looked oppressive like thunder!
"Beasts? My dear sister, that is nothing! The water in the sea boils! It would be death to jump into that water! The ground shakes! The ground speaks! Our shaman, my husband knows of this and ever since this morning he's been looking worse and worse. It is like he's dying!"
"Oh, it is the end of the world! The end is near! It's coming! Our hearts will join the thousands!"
At that moment, Balor walked closer to the old women. "Excuse me… Can you tell me where the archives are?"
"Why? Is an eavesdropper like you trying to escape the end by hiding in the archives?" The old woman pointed a bony finger. "They are that way but they will not be of any of help." Balor bowed his head and left the old women to their talk. "A little thief, seeking to steal from the archives while Gratiano is at the arena. He will die when the end comes. When the day is over there will be nothing left."
Balor continued on his way. His eyes weren't on where he was going but on Mount Dunkan. Was there some sort of ancient demon trapped in the volcano? Was it escaping? When it did escape would the volcano erupt?
Finally Balor reached the archives. Time to find answers about that mountain of fear!