Wednesday, November 3, 2010

NaNoWriMo Chapter 2: Patience

Din watched a woman making a speech. He couldn't catch any words, but from the fire in her eyes, the dagger in her hand and her encouraging voice he understood she was edging people to war. She had the same, slightly darker skin color as the natives of this land, and raven-black hair that fell wild down to her shoulders. Her clothes reminded him of the ritual clothes of the priests, complete with a sign in front that looked like somehow religious.

He slowly became aware of the surroundings too. She was standing on top of a staircase of some kind, seemingly made of stone. The sun shone behind her. Looking around him, Din noticed a lot of people dressed for war. Like her, they looked like the natives of this land, and carried mostly bows and spears. It looked like the speech was working, the people were so fired up they looked ready to kill whatever she pointed at.

The woman walked down to the people and lead the way, with everyone trailing after. Din found himself following as well.

Suddenly they had arrived at a forest. Rather, they were standing at the edge of a forest, looking at the plains. It was evening now. A lot of tents of some kind made up a small village. With a howl, the woman charged the tents, and all the warriors followed, both men and women. The woman didn't run, she somehow just skipped the space between the group and the tents, leaving only a blue streak of light lingering in the air where she had moved. An elderly man fell down to his knees with his arms clutching his throat. The woman stood behind him, with her bloody dagger in hand. Then she was somewhere else, leaving only the blue streak behind.

The warriors reached the tents and started killing as well. Now the group in the tents were making a valiant defense too, but they were sorely unprepared for the assault. After what felt like a very short amount of time, all the locals were dead. Men, women and children. The priestess-like woman stood in the middle of the group, edging them even further.

Once again, time seemed to pass. It was another battle. They were fighting on a mountainside, with some primitive-looking houses in the background. The priestess was once more leading the battle. However, this time they were facing a much more even enemy. The other group seemed to be organizing their defense, and had the advantage of the higher grounds. Still, the woman darted from man to man and stuck her knife at chests, throats, eyes... vital points.

Suddenly, a very visible man appeared. He was practically looming over the others of his tribe, with a frame even bigger than Brick's. He looked like he was burning with a red flame, but the fire wasn't harming him. He charged several warriors of the priestess' group, with a kind of hammer risen into the air. When he struck, he literally sent three men flying, and already before landing they were far beyond any hope of surviving.

The priestess appeared behind him and stuck her knife. However, she seemed unable to puncture the man's skin, despite him being naked from the waist and up. He turned to strike at her, but she was already gone. They clashed together a few times, and she managed to inflict minor wounds on him. However, she couldn't stop his charge as he slaughtered her warriors. Changing plan, she slaughtered the man's warriors instead.

Then there were only the two of them alive, and they fought. After what felt like an eternity it looked like they were running dry of whatever fueled them. Din seemed able to finally follow her movements with his eyes rather than her darting faster than he could follow, and the man no longer half-demolished mountains with each missed strike. His resistance to attacks seemed lowered to more ordinary human level.

Finally, he managed to get in a good hit. She fell to the ground, with her head turned in a very unnatural direction, her neck broken. The man stood over her, blood seeping from dozens of wounds. He staggered and fell, and did not rise again.

The scene changed. Din looked at a group of men and women clad in the same ritual clothes as the priestess had been. They seemed to have reached a decision. One young woman from the group broke away from the others and walked up the stairs to the place the woman had descended from. At the top, on an altar, was a statue that looked identical to the dead priestess. It seemed to glow blue.

The young woman touched it. She started floating up in the air, and a blue smoke-like substance engulfed her. Something was happening to her, but Din couldn't figure out what it was. The glow subsided and she fell to the ground. Two other priest-like people went up to her and helped her rise to her feet. Somehow, she now looked like an identical twin to the priestess Din had seen gotten killed earlier, except a lot more exhausted.

The scenes started flowing faster. Most included fighting. Lots of them included killing. Some included the priestess, or at least one of her twins, getting killed.

Din also spotted the huge man that died earlier again. There were also a few other notable figures, in particular a fairly tall and very thin man who seemed to have a yellow shadow. He threw some yellow, glowing items that pierced through several of the priestess warriors. For a moment, Din saw the conclusion of the fight with the man dead before the priestess, but somehow he showed up later in another scene.

The last scene was of the priestess dying yet again. Somehow he expected to see a new woman being transformed into her twin yet again, but it just stopped there. He somehow got the feeling that someone was very angry about this. Not a searing hot type of rage, but a cool, controlled fury of someone who will wait as long as necessary to get what she or he wants. And for some reason, Din felt it was more likely that it was a "she".

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