Glenhaven's Son Enirch - pt. 4 - A New Mission

     Originally intending to use the dynamite themselves, Enirich and Matthew realized that then the band of adventurers showed up in town, maybe it was best to leave it to the experts.  He wasn't very old, and even though he had been trained, he knew that the Drow out in the magically darkened woods were a bit more than he and Matthew and the handful of other trained men in town could handle.  

     He didn't trust the dwarf Garig at first.  The cleric had been part of the adventurer group who had killed his parents almost a year ago, but he'd met the man before he left for Waterfordshire and truth be told had more or less trusted him.  He decided eventually he would talk it over with Garig in private and see whether they'd really slaughtered his parents in cold blood or there was another reason.

     And now that he had arrived with other adventurers, he did wonder if the dwarf had been just a pawn in their scheme.  After all, the tall elven druid seemed to be the leader and she was the one always trying to kill him.  Enirich just shrugged it off and allowed the others to see if they could successfully take down the towers and get the rest of the explosives from the mines.

     It honestly didn't take very long for it to all play out, only within the span of a day or two, and they had felled the first tower and then headed to the second.  They cleared most of the Drow from the woods, and then went to go close off the abandoned mine entrance.  However, Garig returned to town before they would head further.  The new adventurers had discovered that the Drow who fought them had no idea where they were.  In fact, they said they had been kidnapped from somewhere and dropped here, and were only fighting because they thought they had to.

     Bringing the Drow back into town, they joined the rest of the Waterfordshire group, because, in fact, they WERE part of that group, just transported here from journeying South.  The rest of the adventurers decided to delve further into the mine before blowing it up as they wondered if it actually lead to the Underdark at all.

     So Garig stayed behind to help, and Enirich, Tra'Laga and the other townsfolk tried to piece together what was going on...  Caspian, the wizard became more and more distant and eventually after a brief visit, announced he would be leaving town for a time after he made preparations, that he had to talk to someone he knew.  He would be there for about a week.

     It was right around then that Garig's old adventurer group arrived.  Enirich was upset, but he had taken a little bit of time to speak to Garig, and now that it had been nearly a year since the incident, he decided to let it go...at least for now.  His parents had been fooled, but they had also done their share of damage, so he was trying to resolve that in his mind.

     Tra'Laga helped him cool down, her level head really made things better.  But when they all showed up in his house suddenly, it was quite a shock.  The elven girl was still as haughty as ever but the black dragonborn kept her at bay and they did agree to help the other Drow in Waterfordshire.  So, he traveled with them with Tra'Laga's urging and headed back to his home of a couple years.

     Things had changed in the last few months since he had left.  The Mayor had been turned into an undead and had been killed by the General.  With no heirs to speak of, the General took over thinking he would be voted during the spring session.  He had taken the opportunity to roust the Drow from the catacombs, flooding the underground system, and had captured those who tried to escape.

     Enirich's old teacher Marcus, was working to find someone else to go against General Lockborne in the election, but except for himself had not found any suitable candidates.  The city had been ruled by a King not 50 years before, and the Mayor had taken over at a fairly young age without an election (which made him King, but he tried to put on airs that he had set up a Democracy).  Enirich hoped that his teacher might actually try to get elected, but Marcus never really liked politics.

     There were a few other smaller officials who started to look like they were interested in taking over, but they were deathly afraid of Lockborne, and kept quiet.

     With a possible landslide election looming, Enirich worked with Marcus in secret to help the group with Garig to take the few pitiful imprisoned Drow out of town and take them North to get them help.  They started scheming and things seemed to be going along fairly well... but Lockborne had a whole lot more ears and eyes in the town then Marcus or Enirich had imagined.

     The night before they were about to proceed with the operation, the General was on high alert and locked down the bridges, closed down the waterways, and put new guards at the gates.  They had only just managed to have the correct guards at the Northern gate the evening they were going to make the getaway.

     However, Lockborne had caught wind of it and had set a trap.  As Enirich and Marcus finalized their plans to head to the northern gate themselves, Lockborne's men captured them.  They were taken to jail to be questioned.  

     Meanwhile, hell broke lose as the Drow made it out the North gate, but a dragon attacked... The General and his men fought those at the gate making the escape, but there was also a huge earth elemental that broke down the Southern gate.

     Enirich had a feeling he knew who caused this interruption, but didn't say anything, disappointed that he had trusted the group with Garig not to destroy his town.  But, he and Marcus couldn't do anything as they were currently in chains, locked up.

     The elemental plowed through building after building for 45 minutes or so, fires from chimneys lighting a chunk of the city on fire until it just sunk back into the ground and disappeared.

     By then the city was in chaos and word soon spread that a giant ape had killed the General.  Again... it could only have been the work of ONE particular druid.  

     Enirich and Marcus were able to convince the guards who were keeping them that the General had gone crazy and that they needed leadership in order to bring things back to order.  So eventually, albeit reluctantly, the guards let them go and Marcus soon took control of the situation.

     The old wizard who ran the magic school managed to put out the fires and started to help the townsfolk pick up the pieces within the town.  Enirich fell into his old habits with his friends from school and they all started working together to get things back together again.

     He did get word briefly from Garig at one point that the Drow had escaped and they were making their way north.  He sent word again from Tra'Laga, wondering if he was okay and if she should come down to meet him, but Enirich figured it would be maybe another month and then he would join her once again.

     Also, he didn't want to face those adventurers, and the longer he stayed away from Glenhaven, the better his chances were they'd be gone by the time he arrived.

     Enirich settled into life in Waterfordshire in his old apartment again.  Trade resumed in the town again, the catacombs were allowed to be closed off again, although now there were no Drow to take up residence again, they did find what was left of the black market, flooded and worthless.

     Marcus managed to convince a few of the government officials to set up, if not an election, something like a cabinet in order to bring order to the chaos that had befallen the city over the past year or so.  He and the other Bronze Stars started an effort to bring some sort of peace back to Waterfordshire.

     

     It had only been about a week when word came from Glenhaven that they were planning on taking the Drow to a city in the North called "Northwynd".  Tra'Laga was planning to go with her brother X'Ranth, and wanted him to come with them.  He said there was still work to do, which was true, but also because he wasn't sure of himself anymore.  He liked the Drow woman, but she... he wasn't sure he wanted to move hundreds of miles away from where he grew up either.  His friends were here.  So he kept telling her he'd catch up, but wasn't quite sure if he actually would.

     Then, something unusual happened.  The Tritons arrived.

     Enirich had heard of these creatures in the past, they were what old fisherman called "Merfolk".  According to Marcus, they would typically arrive in town once or twice a year, passing their way through town with items to trade, and then would go on to other port cities.  The Tritons looked almost as much like fish as like man, but they spoke common with ease and he was appointed to the welcome committee since he had become Marcus's Lieutenant in the last week or so (although unofficially he supposed).

     The Tritons had a ship, although it looked like...well, it could go completely under the water, so a submarine?  But it was long and sleek, and when it breached the water that afternoon, it was the most foreign thing he had ever seen.  A male and female stepped out onto the shore, skin glistening in the daylight, and they had weapons at their waists, and looked incredibly strong.

  

     "I am Lorelei, High Guard of the Emerald Guard of the Triton, and this is Delnis, Trade Chairsman of the Ruby Pearl, our Ship behind us.  We wish to trade wares."  Lorelei stood about as tall as Enirich, her skin a light blue that darkened at the fingers and toes (all of which he could see were webbed) and teal hair.  Her build was muscular, probably making her an excellent swimmer and a fast fighter both on land and in the ocean.  Her partner had more of a silver coloration to his skin, and as he moved Enirich could see that they were both covered in fine scales.  They breathed air but also had gills.

    Enirich stepped forward, "I am Enirich, Lieutenant of the Bronze Stars here, we welcome you to Waterfordshire.  I do have some unfortunate news however, our city just saw a large disturbance recently, and many of our merchants have fled town temporarily."  He bowed slightly, "We will do our best to try to offer you what we can but we are hurting."

    Lorelei stepped forward, "It wasn't the Water Elemental again, was it?"

    Slightly shocked at her response, Enirich shook his head, "No, Earth Elemental actually... what's this about a Water Elemental...?"  He started to think back to his time in Waterfordshire over the past few years but he hadn't ventured very close to the shore or talked to the sailors or fisherman, although he had heard tales told about creatures in the ocean.

    Looking a bit relieved, Lorelei tuned to look at Delnis, "We had fought back a Water Elemental near your shores about a year ago and took it back to the Plane of Water.  We're not sure where it came from, but it was quite strong and almost overtook a ship before it was pushed back by some warriors on board the ship.  But this Elemental...you are sure you do not have anything you can trade?"

     Shaking his head, "We are happy to have you here and we will do what we can, but we just recently lost our Mayor, and now our General, and the government is just trying to rebuild.  The ones we think caused the Elemental's rampage headed north and we're discussing whether or not to send someone up there... and now that you mention a Water Elemental a year ago..."  He drifted off, could that Druid have caused even more havoc then he had originally thought?

     "You say someone summoned the Elemental?"

     Enirich merely nodded.  "A fairly powerful Druid.  She and her party headed north a little over a week ago, but they were in this town about the time you mentioned the Water Elemental showed up."

     "I would... like to see this druid you speak of and question her.  One should not be taking creatures from their natural planes and just plopping them here and there to create havoc."  Lorelei crossed her arms over her ample chest.  "You will take me there and Delnis and the others will help you rebuild the city so we may finish our trade before we head West."

     "I...um...well, I wasn't going there myself..." Enirich sputtered.  The very muscular arms of Lorelei made him nervous.  The more he looked at her, the more he was fairly sure she could fold him in half if she wanted to.  "But, I suppose maybe I could arrange..."

    The triton shook her head, "No, you will do.  You can take me there.  Make arrangements, we will start off tomorrow morning."  She turned, speaking in some other language to the other triton and they headed back to the ship.

     Enirich stood in an opened mouth confusion.  What just happened?!  He had just decided he wasn't going to head North again, would let Tra'Laga go ahead to Northwynd and never see her again...and now he was going to show up with a mermaid trailing behind him...?

     He started to wonder if he could just escape at night and maybe hide out for awhile.  He turned, thinking he'd start packing when the fish woman turned, "Oh no... I need you to help me pack, come with me."  And she grabbed him by the arm, hauling Enirich behind him to the ship.

    And thus, Enirich's new mission had begun....whether he liked it or not.

Glenhaven's Son Enirich - pt. 3 (Short Story)

   The Winter Winds were already starting to come to Glenhaven.  Enirich was used to Winter coming quickly upon the heels of the final harvest and most of the town was already finished with laying in the crops and stocking up the wood.
     There were many more here in this little village now.  So....so many more.
     From the northern area where they caravan parked four times a year and then extending out into the farmlands to the East, cobbled huts and tents were everywhere.  People whose faces were a pale to deep dark grey, walked among these homes, eyes shaded from the sun when it actually came out, wrapped up tightly against the cold winds that had begun to blow from the Northern mountains.
   
      Enirich's grandfather told him once that nearly five hundred years before the Drow lived here.  The ones that no longer could stand the darkness of the deep came here, dug out the mines, created the town, and worshipped their goddess.  The statue in the middle of town was once Elistraee, the Goddess of the Moon.  They were successful and eventually outgrew this tiny town and extended down to create the city of Waterfordshire, and also built villages to the far Northeast.
     That city grew large and successful.  Drow lived in peace on the surface, hired humans from the surrounding lands and sent them north to Glenhaven where they would help with the mines.  And for a time, perhaps two or three hundred years, the Drow had their region, the Elves to the South, the Dwarves to the West, and other races to the far East, and to the far, far South, the Dragonfolk.
     But something happened.  The great city of Centralia was leveled.  A powerful human wizard with the help of devils and dragons destroyed them.  The Elves went into hiding.  The Dwarves fought back until they were able to drive the evils back and secure their city.  But the Drow had nowhere to go but back into hiding underground.
     Kratos ruled above the region in a giant tower that floated on a cloud.  He despised the other races and wanted more than anything to destroy them.  For nearly a century his tower could be seen in the sky above the cities, sending evil magic to take out his enemies.

     Then one day, it stopped.

     The history books were vague about what happened.  Enirich had tried to research it in Waterfordshire but the libraries at that time were destroyed as well.  The verbal history that remained said that the humans left on the surface took over Waterfordshire and their self-appointed king, a powerful man of magic himself, was able to help rebuild the city.
      Even in the Academy Enirich had been told the king was once a Drow himself, able to save his people, who, even now, lived more or less peacefully in the catacombs below the surface.  The soldiers would drive them back underground or arrest the ones that were more dangerous, but otherwise, they were left alone.
     Kratos' tower had landed in the mountains to the East.  Those that ventured there never returned, but some said there was a Queen there who looked down upon the villages below from a tower window.  Others said Torganzantine the Queen of the Reds had brought the tower down to its final resting place.  Others yet said that the old Wizard had just died, and that's where the tower landed.  No one really knew, and it was so hard to get there that only the most hardiest adventurers attempted the journey...none would survive it.

     In Glenhaven, so the story went, Enirich's great great great great grandfather had hidden with their family within the mines of the Drow, and sealed off their escape hatch into the mountains.  The Drow would not be able to return to the surface the way they came, and he took advantage of that to take the city for the human race.
     Thinking about it now, as Enirich looked around at the many Drow who were living here now, he was rather ashamed at his ancestor.  These people just wanted to live as he did.  They wanted to live in peace and harmony, and yet...

     The Underdark was coming.

     The first signs were in the early spring, Caspian told him.  An opening to the underground was open, and the first small creatures had started to arrive, even as he was starting his third year at the academy.  Myconids and giant spiders were getting lost on the surface.  A dryad had gone crazy, and the unicorn in the forest had fled sometime that summer.  The magical fountain where it once lived had dried up.
     In the middle of the summer, Maribel and Matthew had gone hunting for herbs for a potion for someone who was sick and had discovered a newly hewn entrance...or perhaps exit was the right term, from the Underdark.  A darkness spell covered the area, killing the trees and plants.
     Not long after had Enirich returned to his home town to find that the Drow from Waterfordshire were on their way.  They were a rag-tag army, but they had been driven out of the catacombs... Immense creatures were pouring through the underground system.  Driders were hunting and killing and kidnapping those Drow that remained.
     A man whom Enirich was once told to capture, X'Granth N'zul was leading a caravan of immigrants North that Autumn.  He looked exactly like the wanted posters that bore his name.  He explained that they had nowhere else to go, but they would fight and protect their original home.  A few of these Drow, including himself, had grown up in Glenhaven as children.  Back then it had been called "Havenwoods".
     X'Granth took long journeys south to Glenhaven, pulling more of his people out, but by then the darkness from the woods had begun to extend down the valley, blocking off the road and access to the city.  It was dangerous to travel the roads now unless you could see in the dark as the Drow could.  Enirich was afraid of leaving, but he also had too much work to do as they fortified the city with more wood, large stakes, and closing off all entry points that they could.
     Caspian warned, time and again that they might have to fight all winter and to collect more stores of food for the people here.
     X'Granth volunteered to take a party south to Centoria, see if they could come back with more.  He didn't say he'd try to get help, he doubted his distant cousins the High Elves would help, and knew the Dwarves would not either.

     Just a few days ago word returned that Centoria was no more.  Caspian was seen in his shop performing a very long and daunting ritual and no one was allowed to see him for a few days.  When he was finished, the knob on his door no longer had the color which led to Centoria.  Instead, it led to some other place Enirich had never seen before... Caspian said it was in case they had to evacuate the city, but said no more.
     X'Granth sent word that he was on his way back to the village, but that the darkness was spreading further South now, and with Winter upon them, it would be a few weeks before he could make it back.

     Enirich's uncle the Mayor had hoped now that the snow was starting to fall that the Underdark would leave them be, but he was wrong.  A platoon of Duregar and creatures they had never seen before came from the caves, slaughtering a band of warriors from their village until they were finally pushed back.  Enirich had been with the band, and he was seriously injured until a lovely Drow woman came to him and healed his cuts.  Most of his soldiers survived, but the city was on edge now.
     Tra'Laga visited Enirich's bed a few different times over the next day or so as he recovered.  She brought him maps of the valley and they sat in his home, pouring over the notes.  Matthew and Maribel came to bring them food and give them more intel.  The cliffs surrounding the city were almost all completely shrouded in magical darkness.  The Drow could fight in it, and they were also the ones who came and went from it with information, but the humans were at a loss here.
     "We may have to escape," Tra'Laga looked downtrodden, her long white hair covering her lilac eyes.  Enirich could only just barely remember what it was like to be against Drow...he thought they were rather beautiful, once you got a good look at them.  Their grey skin almost sparkled in the daylight.  It could be just his hormones too...he wasn't really all that sure.
     "Caspian wants us to wait for X'Granth.  He said he has been slowly working at enlisting more help as they travel North.  But he's not sure if anyone's going to come."
     Maribel, sitting at the small chair nearby looked up, "Maybe our heroes will come?"
     Enirich shook his head, "I doubt it.  I took them as murderers, and they see me as their enemy, so I doubt they'll want to help this place again."
     The young girl looked downtrodden and Matthew patted her shoulder from where he stood at her side.  "I doubt a little group such as that could help something this big.  We'd need an army for that."
     "The army isn't coming..."  A new voice stated from the doorway.  Everyone turned to look at the small figure of Ellabee.  She pushed the door closed as a sharp wind filled with snow whirled inside.  Pulling a the hood down from her cloak she shook her head.  "Sorry to barge in so suddenly, but X'Granth just sent word that Centoria is in ruin.  The Black Shields and Golden Circle are on their way to push the dragons that have invaded out of the city, but it will take time.  Something drew multiple dragons there..."
     "Torganzantine has roosted again?"  Enirich leaned back, his brow creased.  "I mean, I know it's been around a hundred years...my textbooks said..."
     Ellabee stomped her feet and walked into the room, "No...  Caspian doesn't believe so.  Something much worse... A Dragon Lich."
     Maribel laughed awkwardly, "That's silly...there isn't such a thing."
     "Maybe not before."  The room went silent as Ellabee helped herself to tea from the fireplace.  She turned with both her hands around the small clay mug.  "There's also word that Tiamat is stirring from below... Bahamut has come to the land.  Caspian..."  Ellabee takes a sip slowly, swallowed it, and then continued, "I shouldn't say anything, but the Balance has been shifted.  Evil knows this is the time and they can draw on that to take over.  Something is causing it, something has created this evil and unless it is stopped, the planet is in danger."
     Enirich could feel a sharp pang in his stomach.  The cold breeze that had blown in just moments before was not the cause of his goosebumps this time.  "But, what can we do?  Run away?  We have only a handful of magicians and other types and Caspian isn't doing anything.."
     Ellabee waved a hand at him, "Oh he's doing plenty.  It doesn't seem like it but he's concentrating on spells right now to keep us in the daylight..."  She drifted off, "I probably should get back to him to make sure he actually eats and drinks something.  He forgets to take care of himself.  Even an Elf needs to meditate... recharge..."  Setting her mug down she pulled the hood back up over her head.  "Right now the immediate danger is the Underdark.  We need a plan to get that opening closed up again.  Then we'll worry about...whatever else comes."

     The four sat in silence long after Ellabee left them.  They could hear what sounded like a blizzard blowing outside.  It was traveling fast.  Matthew said he was pretty sure it would be done by morning, as he remembered storms like this one.  It would be headed to the mountains, and perhaps would give them a day or so to breathe from the attacks.
     "Too bad we don't have a way to destroy that cave..."  Tra'Laga mumbled, tapping the spot on the map.  "I'm sure it would take time to dig out...give us more time."
     Enirich and Maribel suddenly turned to one another.  Cousins of the same family of miners who had been blasting in the caves for centuries..."Blast powder!!"  They both exclaimed at once.
     Tra'Laga and Matthew both jumped, "Wha-what?!"
      "We just have to get into OUR mine!" Enirich jumped up from where he sat, leaned over and gave Tra'Laga a long hard kiss right on the mouth.  "You're brilliant!"  He turned to Maribel who already was pulling her coat on.  "We just need to get to the mine using the storm as cover and blow it up!"

     The two cousins were already moving to the door in sync, the first time the awkwardness had finally evaporated.  They had, as children, played as sister and brother, being only a year or so apart.  But they had spent a lot of time in the mine with their fathers as it was the town's main source of income, but also its biggest secret.  Matthew had learned of it only a few months ago, but had not known how the mine worked...blasting powder was the secret. 
     "We'll need your help Tra!  Neither of us can see in the dark..."  Enirich pulled on his coat, tossing his friend hers.  "I practically know the route by heart, but it'll help to have someone with us who can actually see."
     "And cast faerie fire?"  The Drow was still sort of in a daze from her first kiss.  She didn't know it was that nice, quite honestly.  But she was always business first, pleasure later, as her father told her.  The Black Fist was a hard business to run, but she helped out when she could.  "Let's go.  Faster gone, faster back."
     "Not without me!"  Matthew said, finally following the others.  He took his bow from a hook by the door, strapping on his quiver.  "You'll need someone to watch your backs."
   
     The group pushed its way into the blizzard.  It would be a long night.

Glenhaven's Son Enirich - Part 2 (a short story)

      The summer heat bore down on the caravan as it traveled up the Great road to Glenhaven.  The bugs and the humidity were hardly kept at bay by the taught canvas covers over the wagons.  The speed that the horses took the heavily rutted roads barely created enough breeze to cool the sweat from their faces.  Miserable and nervous, the drivers and guards kept a close eye upon the densely packed trees of the Black Oak Forest, looking for bandits.  The woods had been full of them in the summer, but for some reason, it was oddly quiet.
     Menirel, the leader of the caravan, looked at the miserable group.  The wagons were packed full of items ordered for the small town to the north.  There were six wagons this time around, and additional guards were ordered, besides the AWOL solider that sat in the second wagon, looking very beaten up after his journey back to Waterfordshire.  The young man had asked Menirel to join the caravan, and even though the two stars on his uniform said he was in the middle of training, he had no discharge papers and seemed distraught.  Feeling for the young man who seemed vaguely familiar, but was so beaten and bedraggled that Menirel couldn't place his name, he allowed the young man to ride along.
     Enirich had managed to get back to town after his failed attempt to bring the murderers to justice, searched up the caravan, and hadn't said a word since he found a place on the second wagon.  His thoughts were scrambled and miserable.  His first thoughts once the rage and need for revenge had waned, was that he should go home, see that his parents were properly buried, and that he needed to figure out where to go next.  It would be difficult as he knew that Glenhaven believed he had been killed along with his parents, according to the report that had returned from the city.
      The spring rains had ceased and the roads needed repair, and Menirel was surprised that there didn't appear to be any work done on them yet.  The wagons bounced around and they eventually made their way back to the bridge which had washed out on the way in.  The bridge was in the middle of repairs, and a couple of men were at the side of the road having lunch, wiping their brows with dirty rags.  "Ho there, is the bridge in order yet?"
     Standing up, one of the men wave to Menirel, "Is it that time already?  Just take it easy, one wagon at a time.  The railing on the right is still loose so you may want to walk them over."  He moves over to the side of the bridge as the drivers each get down, taking the reins of the horses on each wagon and slowly the six wagons make it across.  The men working on the bridge don't see the miserable solider in the second wagon as he sits in the back with his head bowed.
     Things looked different when they arrived in the city.  The statue of Chauntea had been uncovered once again, and things looked fairly peaceful, but the normally friendly citizens of the city looked uneasy as the caravan made its way through the city to the park where they would make camp for the week.  As they pulled in to the small round about at the north side of the city, Menirel noticed there were quite a few new graves in the graveyard by the church.  The fresh plots were just starting to grow the first few blades of grass, but otherwise still looked new.  The church was wide open this day, and the Father was working at pruning the bushes near the front.
     "Welcome to Glenhaven, folks!  If you're a guard, please come and receive your payment, otherwise we'll start setup closer to sundown.  We'll be here for six days, so let me know if you're planning on taking the trip back!"  Menirel stepped down and after pulling his gold from under the wagon seat, he started handing out payments.  The young solider did not come to collect, but rather stumbled off back down the street.  He shrugged, and returned to the business as hand.
     Enirich gazed around him at the familiar, yet unfamiliar streets.  Things looked like they always had, but he had fully planned never to return here.  He didn't want to be a disappointment to his father.  He had been a weak child and even though he had left to get stronger, he had found a place in Waterfordshire.  They probably wouldn't take him back there either, he mused, now that he had caused so much stir and had gotten some good men killed.  Could he even find a place to be now?
     The Stablemaster Gantz glanced his way briefly as he lead a horse out of the stable down toward the parked caravan, but he didn't say anything if he recognized Enirich.  So the young man moved on, saw the young Maribel and stablehand Matthew walking hand in hand down the street, turning into the General store.  No one seemed to pay him any mind.  Maybe he was a ghost.  Maybe he was already dead.
     His home of many years was boarded up.  Enirich stared at it with blank eyes, the home of his parents was closed off and no longer welcoming as it had been for his entire childhood.  He walked around it, trying the back door, then pulling out the key from a hidden spot under the back porch, he let himself in.
     Things had been disturbed.  Someone had been in here, had searched the place, but it didn't seem like things were missing, just messy.  But there were no signs of his parents, no signs of anything left behind.  He wandered upstairs to his old bedroom.  The room was almost like an oven since it had not been opened up for the summer.  There was evidence that someone had been living there since he had left.  Enirich scratched his scraggly beard and looked around.  There was a journal sitting on the desk, and as he flipped through it realized that it looked strikingly similar to his own handwriting, but he had not been here and had never seen this journal before.
     Opening up the window above the desk, a slight breeze came through, and the light from the setting sun shown down upon the bed.  Enirich sat down with the journal in his lap and started to flip through this journal "he" had written, but had never seen before.  As he flipped, the sun moved across the bed.  Details were surprisingly thorough, and it talked about "his" life in the village over the past year.  Someone who apparently looked like him had impersonated him and had convinced his parents to do horrible things and join a cult!  How could they?  Hadn't they always worshipped Chauntea, the goddess of the harvest?  How could they have suddenly turned their back upon her?
     Enirich continued to read, learning about how he had tried to woo the young Maribel, his own cousin, to try to marry her until she had seen his true form...true form?  And then he had tried to kill Maribel, but when that didn't work, he was forced to convince the town that she needed to be sacrificed to the gods of the darkness.... the Under Dark.
     Shifting, Enirich realized that the sun was already setting by now, and he hurried to light a candle on the night stand to continue reading.  The journal detailed the attempted poisoning of Maribel, of the new adventurers who had appeared and had helped Caspian heal her.  Of the plot to sacrifice her, of the raising of the cockatrice and the basilisk.  His parents helped in raising these beasts that "he" had brought with him?  How?  Why?  He shook his head and continued reading.
     The adventurers had left town, and "he" was excited that his plans were working.  Once Maribel was out of the way, "he" would kill his uncle and take over the city and with the help of Gantz, take over the mine.  The mine?  Why would he want a defunct mine?
     "Oh..."  Suddenly a conversation he had in Waterfordshire had come to mind.  The first night in a new city, he had just joined the school to become a solider and was celebrating.  A man had bought him a few drinks after he had started to talk about the riches in the mine.  His father had always told him that it was a direct entrance to the Under Dark and had been the hiding place for vast riches.  When he got drunk, he had told this stranger all of this, and even though he didn't really believe in it, he knew that his father had wanted the secrets to the mine and had tried to get him to marry Maribel himself in order to get the secrets.  Enirich had told the man that he wasn't going back there and waved the letter that he was going to send the next day telling his parents he wasn't coming back.  He didn't want to see the disappointment in their eyes ever again.
     The stranger said he was headed that way and had offered to take the letter...  And because he was drunk, Enirich had agreed and had forgotten it in his hangover the next day.  But now, as he read this, he realized that this man was the man who had impersonated him.  He had somehow convinced his parents to follow him, and as Enirich flipped through the book, the letter he himself had written, fell out.  Unopened.
     For a long time, he watched the flame of the candle flicker along the walls of his old bedroom.  His parents were dead.  They had been convinced by a stranger to do terrible things.  The city had turned in on itself.  And everyone had thought it had been HIM.
     A noise downstairs startled him, and Enirich hurried to blow out the candle, heart pounding.  Something was shuffling around on the first floor.  He went down to the floor and slowly crawled over to the top of the stairs and peered down.  A small figure was going through the house, turning things over, looking for something.  Enirich pulled his dagger and slowly crept down the stairs.
     The figure didn't see him as he crept to the bottom stair.  It was preoccupied with something on the far side of the room, and Enirich, crouching, started to stalk toward the figure as he had been trained.  He had almost made it up to the four foot figure, when suddenly a candle flared to life and it turned, face to face.
     "Ahh!"  A shriek came out of the figure, and it scrambled back and the candle flickered out.  "Don't hurt me, I'm sorry!  I wasn't doing anything, honest!"
     Enirich dropped his dagger and backed up.  "Who are you, why are you in here?"
     "I...well, I was told that..."  The voice was feminine and wispy, "I was told to clean this place up since the boy was coming back..."
     "The...boy?"  Enirich put his dagger back in his sheath, feeling around for the candle that had been dropped.  After a moment or two of fumbling, he managed to light it, and looked in the eyes of the small figure.  "Bee?"
     A female gnome looked up at him, blinked, "Enirich?  Is that really you?"
     Enirich took a breath and let it out, slumping to the floor.  "...Caspian knew I was coming back, did he?"
     "Yeah, although I guess his timing was a bit off."  Ellabee got to her feet and her head was just a bit above his sitting.  She brushed herself off and pulled over a pillow that had been thrown to the floor at some point and sat down on it.  "I could hardly believe that you were still alive, we all thought you were dead.  But then an hour ago the old man says, 'he's on his way, go get his house cleaned up.'  I hate how he knows these things but that's a wizard for you."
     "Did he say who or what that thing was that pretended to be me?"  Enirich saw a surprised expression come over her face and he scrambled to explain, "I found a journal upstairs.  It was written in my handwriting but I didn't write it... said something about his 'true form'.  I'm so confused, my parents are dead and I thought I knew who was to blame but now I just don't know..."
     Ellabee nodded, "It was a doppleganger.  Not many people know that though.  My theory was that he had used some kind of magic to convince them, but there wasn't any magic on them when they died, so whatever they did at the end, they did of their own accord."  She reached out a small hand and set it on Enirich's knee.  "I'm sorry that they're gone, but they were bad people when they died.  They tried to kill those adventurers and so they were killed."
     "So, I have no one.  No where to go..."
     The gnome sighed, pulling back her hand and reaching into a small bag at herself.  "Here, Caspian told me to give you this."  Handing him a scroll, Ellabee closed her bag once again.  "It's important that you know there's a war coming.  I'm sure you had an idea from your training in Waterfordshire, but this little town is going to be the first line of defense and we don't have a Chief anymore.  Your father had known about it.  The Orcs to the north have joined forces with the Underground folk.  It's only a matter of time now."
     Enirich pulled open the scroll.

     Young Enirich,
I know this has been a difficult time for you, but you will need to forget your revenge for now and work on getting an army ready.  Our city has very little time to prepare before it is slaughtered by the oncoming armies.  Your training will help in this matter, and I shall help you take back your place in this town.  Please come to see me when you are ready to undertake this great task.
     Caspian

     "War?  How can I prepare for war?  This is a tiny town!  I have only been training for a few years!"  Enirich let the scroll drop to the floor.  "I'm worthless!  I couldn't even protect my family, how can I be depended upon to save an entire village?"
     Ellabee shook her head, "I don't know, but Caspian believes in you.  I know he's always been rather mysterious, but he knows the future and the past, and if he says it's coming, it's coming."  She stook up from her pillow and straightened her tunic.  "Your uncle the mayor has been keeping the village guard trained for the past few months, but he's struggling with the balance of that and trying to get the defenses rebuilt.  Maribel shows no interest in following in his footsteps.  She has gotten pregnant with Matthew's child and they plan to be married in the fall, so he's been pulled in multiple directions.  Talk to Caspian, he will help you smooth things out with your uncle."
     With that, she set up a fallen chair and headed toward the back door.  "I'll leave you to get some rest, Enirich.  Come see us tomorrow.  We have much work to do."  And then Ellabee left without another word to the young man as he sat looking at the scroll he had dropped.

     The next day after a restless night, Enirich set out before sunrise to Caspian's shop.  The wizard was standing in the doorway with a steaming mug of coffee which he handed to the young man.  "Come in, I was waiting for you, we have much work to do."
   

The Mid-Life Crisis (A Story)

     I'm taking a break from my mental health series for a short story.  It's mostly just a story about me, but since I think I've burned myself out a bit, maybe taking another approach will be a good coping mechanism.  Perhaps.  If you've been reading any of the previous posts, most likely you will have 'heard' all of this before and can just skip it.  Then again, if you haven't read any of it (or very little) maybe a different format will be of interest to you.  It's up to you.  Enjoy.

     There once was a woman who had decided upon her fortieth birthday that she was not going to have a mid-life crisis.  After all, even though a lot of people considered the big 4-0 "over the hill", she fully planned to live until she was one hundred years old, so at the very least, she had ten more years to plan for the mid-way point.
     Her life was a fairly peaceful one.  She approached it with a mild curiosity, seeing all of her friends get married in their late teens and early twenties, having a few children early on, and then eventually getting divorced, or just deciding they wanted changes by the time they were in their late twenties to early thirties.  She, after all, didn't do any of these things.  She lived at home with her mom until her late twenties, found someone to marry after much consideration, knowing that he would not be like those her friends married who cheated on them or fell out of love early, she had, after all, waited until later in her life.
     The woman had graduated college, debt-free (which was almost unheard of in her generation and the one that followed) and had gotten a full-time job that she had begrudgingly accepted to be her career.  She hadn't actually decided on one, and she's sure there were plenty of people who thought that working the way up the retail ladder was for them, she'd just sorta fallen into it.  People would leave, they'd need someone who knew the job, and she'd be there and had stepped up to the task.
     But not long after moving in with her boyfriend, changing cities, and eventually buying a house, she finally moved up into management.  This seemed nice.  The pay was okay, she knew what she was doing, and things seemed pretty stable.  After all, she worked in a place where people came to get things to create other things, so while stores were closing all over the place, the store she worked was thriving.  People needed things to "make" things for themselves and it was a good racket.
     She didn't notice, since up until this point everyone had been very positive about her moving up, that a spiteful woman who was just a bit ahead of her had started to despise her.  She should have noticed.  The signs were all there just as in her previous stint in retail in her early twenties, the woman started blaming her for all of her problems.  Some of the same things were starting to happen to her with this new manager, but because everything was going so smoothly, and the fact that her manager kept blaming her boss for any issues, she just kept with her upward trend and never looked back.
     Spring, a few year's ago, she started to have an inkling something was wrong.  She came back from vacation to find that she had been demoted.  But not quite enough to get a severance package.  She probably should have quit then, but the idea of finding a new job seemed so impossible.  She'd been in that place for some 10 years or so, how could she just leave and start again?
     So she stuck with it, took the demotion, and kept working, making less than before she became a manager, but it was money, it was still full time, she was still working with people she liked, and even though she did attempt to job hunt for awhile, things were okay at home and things were paid for and she just shrugged and kept plowing along.
     And it actually paid off.  Surprisingly, the woman who took her job left to another store, and the manager acted upset but when the woman didn't come back immediately, she had to replace her with someone else and the mid-thirties woman got to have her spot back again.  Things went okay during that year because the store was working well and they got a new district manager around that time and this new guy seemed much nicer than the older one.
     It was around that time, however, that she really realized that it had nothing to do with that previous district manager.  It was rather, all this spiteful woman she'd inadvertently angered at some point.  She thought it was the district who had made the call to demote her, but it wasn't.  She'd been kidding herself thinking that, because only about a year later, her manager was trying to do it again.  And it was that same lady again.  But she wouldn't give up what she had worked so hard to get back, so the lady didn't re-join them until almost a year later when the manager basically got rid of yet someone else.
     Things began to fall apart soon after that.  The manager just kept getting rid of anyone she didn't like.  The problem with that is a lot of those people were actually really good workers.  They just didn't listen to her because she was a terrible manager and they knew it.  So they listened to our heroine and things rolled along okay, but soon they were all gone, only leaving a handful of good workers, a bunch of good part-time people, and then this manager and her useless friend and of course, our lady.
     Until the manager found a way to get rid of her.
     Honestly, our heroine didn't even know if the manager was intelligent enough to hatch this plan on her own, but she later realized she probably didn't have to, there were two or three other people working against her to.  But she thought she was safe.  She thought by following orders and trying to keep her head down, that things would get better again as spring passed, but she was wrong.  The manager set her up.  Told her to keep an eye on shoplifters all the while knowing that by doing so she could turn her in to get into trouble.
     See, the manager had found out, most likely the week before she left on vacation, that they were going to make a rule that no one could follow shoplifters because an employee had gotten maced somewhere.  And after her vacation she was very careful who to tell this fact to.  Then she continued doing things as always until making everyone sign a very vague email about 'the new protocol' which had nothing to do with being fired and only stated that no one was to follow shoplifters out of the store or put themselves into harm's way.  Then she waited.
     Our lady, who by this point was only a few months away from her fortieth birthday, had known something was up the day that she was tracking her first shoplifter.  Oddly enough the manager sat in the office the entire time and never said a word.  She was careful not to leave the store and never accused the lady, merely tried to dissuade her by being nearby.
     The next day she received an email, a text message and a phone call from corporate wanting her story.  What in the world??  What was this about?  Why was she being asked about this?  She didn't even do more than say a few words and then stand in the doorway at the store and call out the license plate in case her manager wanted to call it in.  That's what they had been doing for years, so why a phone call about it all of a sudden?
     Scared to death, she didn't follow anyone or if she did, didn't say anything in the store about it.  She was told to follow people still, so she did as she was told, and a week or so past and nothing came of the first incident, so she figured all was well.
     It wasn't.
     Another incident, and this time there was only one other witness, but she was in a good mood as she got the merchandise back peacefully and the manager wasn't there to see it happen, and she decided it wasn't worth reporting it.  But she did mention the fellows to the closing manager and told her what happened.
     It was the wrong person to tell.  Apparently she was one of the people who were also against her, just waiting for any chance she got to rat on her.
     The next day they had a phone conference which said, in no uncertain terms, if someone did something that was dangerous they were to turn them in.  She thought about the previous night's incident and was glad she had not reported it.  She'd even looked into the emails to see if the closing manager had and didn't see any sent emails.  And when the call was done, she looked at her manager, wondering if the previous incident was going to lose her the job, but then the manager said, "I don't know about that one, but I have to report last night's, and I don't know about that one."
     Life crashed.  That mid-life crisis she had been trying so hard to avoid all of this time was suddenly knocking at her door and she tried her best to hold it together, but fell apart in the breakroom shortly after.  Her manager really was out for her.  She really did hate her.  The spite that she had in her expression that day cut through to the very bone and she realized just how long this woman had been planning for her downfall.
     The day would pass by uneventfully for another seven hours as the manager ran in, ran out, took a long lunch, came back and avoided everyone and took phone calls.  And when all was said and done, an hour before her shift was to end; once she had covered all of the breaks and lunches necessary, the terrible, hateful manager fired her.

Knock knock!  Mid-Life Crisis here!

     She couldn't even argue.  She wasn't even sure what to say, what to do, just handed over her keys and left.  Then messaged all of her friends that worked there a warning in case the hateful woman came for her too.  Then she drove home in silence, trying not to cry, but then broke down the moment she saw her husband.  It was over.  Over sixteen years of being in retail, of being good at her job, of tolerating her job and trying to live through the stress that this woman had caused in her life... over.

     Changes during this period of life are difficult.  One doesn't feel young enough to start over completely, but not old enough to retire and start over that way either.  She felt like she should continue on in the same line of work, at least for a little while, get back on her feet, at least have a job.  She wrote out a resume, applied for some jobs, waited.  After no responses, she switched tactics, moved to new lines of work and tried applying there.  She was very close to getting a job, but again, if she had been younger then maybe this job would have been better for her.  It didn't offer enough, so she turned it down and went on her way, but nothing else came.
     Her husband said it was fine.  He knew she could take some time off and recover from the stress of this previous job.  She was already acting happier, wasn't she?  So, take some time to figure out what you wanted to do.  So she started plotting some things she had been putting off for a long time - getting into a craft, maybe starting a business of her own.  But it was slow going and she kept getting distracted by other things going on in life.  Plans that they had made when she thought she'd still be working.  She had all of this time open now and yet she didn't think she was getting much accomplished.  She tried doing housework and even tried making her 'home business' a job and yet she kept getting sick, one cold after another, and instead of doing her work she sat on the couch, listless.
     The depression became worse.  She wasn't accomplishing anything and after ten different applications sent out she'd had one 'almost' job offer (she was certain she would have gotten it and fretted now it was her only chance but had turned it down because of low pay and location).  About the same time she had also received a phone call for an interview but missed the call and by the time she was able to return the call it was too late.  She'd screwed up and it crushed her.
     So, swallowing her pride, she applied for unemployment, hoping that perhaps she could at least help her family that way, get some money to live on for a little while.  But she got flagged immediately about breaking the rules and even though things seemed to go on normally (getting sent emails to submit job applications, etc) she got no confirmations about if she was going to receive the money or not.
     This made her doubt herself.  What if other people saw that she had been fired for something that she didn't really do but that was accused of and since she didn't fight it the black mark would always be on her record, forever?  What if no one wanted to hire her because she was a 'bad person'?  What would she do?  She couldn't live off her husband forever, this wasn't the 1980's when men made enough to support a family of four.  Hell, she didn't even have children, no was she planning on them, but she still didn't feel comfortable enough letting him take care of her!  She'd vowed never to be completely dependent upon another human unless she physically couldn't anymore.
     So she updated her resume again, put more details in, peppered it with anything she could think of, and then started sending it out again.

     But then her friends, who were also trying to get out, started to get interviews.  From some of the same places she herself had applied at!  What happened?  Was that black mark really a thing?  Why was this happening to her?  She found out they were getting out, but she hadn't received a single phone call since those first couple weeks.
     Her tenth anniversary past and she was miserable.  This was supposed to have been a fun time.  She was supposed to have taken paid time off to go on a vacation.  She was supposed to have money to be able to take a trip, maybe even finally do their honeymoon, at long last!  But they hadn't planned anything early, and now she had no money coming in and she felt worthless.  She felt like she was a complete and utter let down.  She had wanted to plan all of these special things to do with her husband, and they'd really have a good time together, maybe on a beach somewhere or maybe they'd go somewhere they'd never been before.  But it was too late.  Her anniversary was over, and nothing had come of it except for going to eat at a neat restaurant but she couldn't even enjoy it because she kept thinking about the fact that she wasn't getting interviews or even call backs and no one wanted her.
     She tried telling her husband how miserable she was, but he didn't say anything in reply.  He would say that he was fine, and he'd get upset when she'd tell him that no one was calling, and he'd make noises of concern, but for the most part he just kept to himself.  He didn't want to hear it, she was sure it made him uncomfortable, but he also stepped up and managed to get a raise at work, so at least it was something.  But she knew he was looking for another job too because his job had been rather uncertain since the recession.  Somehow he had kept on only by taking the money they offered and not asking for more until he really needed it.

     And now she had exactly two weeks until she was to turn forty.  She had originally thought she'd hold herself a big party and invite everyone.  Her mom would come down and she'd have her friends over and they'd do a big shindig thing in the backyard and it would be fun.  But...now she didn't feel like she deserved it.  She didn't feel like getting to forty was anything special.  Especially since she was a worthless loser with no job and no direction.
     Maybe this was mid-life.  Maybe this was the crisis.  Maybe there was no way out of this.  Maybe she was going to be stuck with this black mark on her life.  Was it because she chose to wait so long to get married?  Was it because she chose not to have children?  Was she being punished for not popping out a bunch of squiggling babies?  Was it because she hadn't made a life decision of what she wanted to be when she grew up?  She still hadn't completely grown up, had she?  Was there a point?
     Memorial Day weekend came and she realized she wasn't going to hear anything from anyone during the weekend, so she should instead try to buckle down maybe and do things to make herself happier.  So she bought some flowers and did some planting.  She knew she shouldn't have spent much money on it, but things like that made her happy.  She did some trimming around the yard and got some chores done.  She did some cleaning.

     Then she sat down on her front porch with her laptop one day and decided to type out a short story about how miserable she was.  Maybe she would feel better if the words were out on paper.  But she'd been typing these same words over and over; telling the same story over and over again, and she still wasn't feeling any better.  The words weren't getting her a new job.  The words were simply words.
      Her friends were getting out, or at least attempting to get away from that terrible lady, and maybe she was helping make that go by faster.  Was this her actual reason?  Maybe her not getting these jobs that they also applied for meant that they were getting out finally?  Maybe their happiness would eventually lead to hers as well.
     But in the back of her head she worried this was all the beginning of an end of something that had just started.  She'd had some friends, but only recently had made more through that job, and now that she no longer worked there, would she still remain friends with them all?  Would they still be friends if those people also left to find new places?  Would they be able to get together still?  Would they start thinking she was a complete loser if they all got jobs and she didn't?
     These miserable thoughts were always with her now.  When she tried to be confident, those thoughts would start to creep up again.  If she started to think about her friends she would start thinking about that job she was forced to leave, and she'd miss it.  By God, she missed being with those people and being at that job even though it made her absolutely miserable by the end.  She tried to tell herself it wasn't healthy, that she needed to move on, go somewhere else, find a new purpose in life, and she wanted to but she had all of this baggage no  Husw, and she just couldn't shake it.
     It was like she was at an airport with far too much baggage and she kept dropping it to the side and trying to give it to other people and they just kept bringing it right back to her.  And the misery of feeling like she had abandoned everyone - even though she had honestly been forced out and it wasn't her choice - she felt like that baggage just kept coming back.  The mental load all of all of those years was so unbearable that only once in awhile did she feel like maybe the wait had been lifted.  But it would come crashing down again and she kept shrugging it off - trying desperately to get rid of it.
     Writing it down was her way of getting rid of it.  Of trying to work through it.  But it felt miserable and repetitive.  Like this baggage was hers and hers alone to suffer with.  Telling people wasn't working.  They'd bring it back up but also inadvertently make her feel miserable as they'd go on to other things.  One got multiple calls and interviews.  Another started more art and started creating things (something she had wanted to do at one time but felt she had failed at because her other job took too much of her time) and the others were content or at least had jobs where they weren't completely drowning.  Her husband had gotten a raise.
   
     So she wrapped up her blog and saved it.  Closed the computer and decided she was going to avoid thinking about it for awhile.  Gave herself permission to not think about it for awhile, whatever good that would do.  It was a beautiful spring day.  The sun was shining and flowers blooming and maybe thunderstorms in the evening, and it was a day she used to hope to have off from work to enjoy.  So...why couldn't she enjoy it anymore?

Because it was a crisis.... her crisis... one she hoped she could overcome before it destroyed her.

Glenhaven's Son Enirich (A Short Story)

     A bit of a backstory first.  Since July 2017 I have been working on a D&D campaign with a few friends of mine.  Instead of doing a pre-written campaign I thought I'd homebrew it, thinking that we would play a few months.  Well, it's been over 6 months now and the story continues on.  Well, I'd come up with this sort of neat backstory that has been going on behind the scenes that my players will probably never discover.  So instead of letting it disappear into oblivion as the campaign continues, I thought I might jot it down into a short story that I might share in the future with the group once the story of Enirich ends.
     First off, you pronounce it "Ein-Rick", and he's a young man in his late teens/early twenties and I really feel for the guy, but as you read on you'll see why.  My players, however, see him as a re-occurring bad guy that they have to kill or get rid of somehow.  But in his point of view...well, I thought I'd share his point of view with you today....  Enjoy!

     The small town of Glenhaven was situated in the northern most lands to the south of the Black Mountains, in a small valley where the Black Oak Woods ended and a small stream fed the farms and made the land rich.  The mountains to the north, some two thousand years ago, swarmed with a breed of elves those that called themselves "Drow" but the Drow came out of the mountains into the dark woods and some of them set up a small town which was a haven from their lives in the darkness.  These Drow kept a mine filled with gold and other riches, and kept themselves wealthy as needed, and they eventually traveled to Southern lands and one family set up a city around a canal some five day's south.
     Humans of this area were peaceful with the elves, and for a few thousand years they remained at peace.  But the Drow were dying out, and those that were left behind in Glenhaven bestowed upon their human friends a secret to the mine that was the font of their gold and wealth.  They had hoped, as they departed this world for the next, that the humans would share the wealth and continue to live happy, prosperous lives in this land so close to the magic lands they had left so many years before.
     As it happens, however, human beings are petty, cruel, and jealous creatures and the ten men who were told the secret to the mine fought viciously for ownership of the mine.  Eventually only one family knew of the secret location and they would spread the wealth to others in the town, but in essence, the mayor's family guarded it with their lives and would not tell anyone of the location.
     The Glenchester family would keep the secret for generations, until two sons were born.  The eldest, Mark, inherited the fortune.  The youngest son, Morden, was told that he would not get the secret unless something happened to his brother.  However, upon the death of their father, Mark, being a good man, shared the secret of the mine with his brother in return that he would stay and be the constable of the town and help keep its secret.  Morden, in his younger years, agreed to this arrangement and the town of Glenhaven was peaceful for a decade.
     Soon, Morden welcome his son Enirich into the Glenchester family.  His son was weak and got sick often, and for awhile they feared he would not make it past his fifth birthday.  Morden sent to Caspian, the town's wizard, for medicine, and eventually the young Enirich would become stronger as he grew.
     Mark, the Mayor now, also had a child, but his daughter Maribel, would be strong and willful and because she was in line as the heir to the mines, Morden became worried that he would lose the fortune if she married someone from another family.  He started training Enirich to follow in his footsteps as the town Constable, but the young man was still weak from his childhood.
     Enirich was sent south to the larger city where a soldiery school of the Bronze Stars so he could attend in hopes it would strengthen him.  Enirich did well at school, he grew stronger and fought to earn his stars as he spent a few years in training.
     After he earned his first star, he and a bunch of his buddies went out drinking at the local bar, the White Stag Inn.  They were fairly inebriated when a stranger came to share their table with them.  Enirich told him about the town where he grew up and that there was a secret Drow mine where there was tons of gold and his whole town was rich but that he wouldn't inherit the treasure because his cousin Maribel was.  So he had decided he'd just become the best solider he could and that he wouldn't bother to ever go back to the city.  He even held up a letter that he had penned to his mother telling her that he wasn't going to return.  The stranger said he was headed to Glenhaven himself and that he would be happy to deliver it for him and save him the money for the caravan post.
     Not being a very bright individual when drunk, Enirich gave over the letter to the stranger that evening and then went back to the dorms.  In the morning he had a hangover and had forgotten the incident.
     Meanwhile, the stranger continued up to the town, but as he drew near Glenhaven, his appearance changed....to look like that of Enirich.  He was, unbeknownst to everyone, a doppleganger.  And when he arrived in the town, he sought out the Constable Morden Glenchester and his wife Marge, and admitted to them, as Enirich, that he had quit school and had a plan to win Maribel's hand in marriage and that he would then inherit the mine.
     The Constable welcomed his son back with open arms and they never questioned his return, and since the actual Enirich chose to stay behind, they never knew their son had been replaced.  Instead they followed this new, smarter Enirich, and gathered up the tools to take over the town.  Enirich worked on wooing Maribel, but one day, as she used a mirror to brush her hair, it revealed to her Enirich's actual form (for it was magical, left behind by the Drow, but she had not know this) and so she turned him down, stating that she was going to marry the stablehand Matthew instead.
     When the doppleganger realized that she had seen him for what he really was, he decided to try to poison her.  But as the poison was taking hold, a group of adventurers came into town and helped Caspian with a cure.  Angrily, Enirich had to come up with a way to kill Maribel another way, but to get everyone else on board.  So he started a rumor that every one hundred years a member of the family would have to be sacrificed to the god of the Drow to keep the town prosperous.  He enlisted the help of a group of cultists that he had known during a previous journey, and they helped to convince the town of the truth of the rumor.
     It took a bit of convincing, but eventually the whole town believed, even the Mayor Mark (although it took a lot of magic and threats to do so) that Maribel must be sacrificed.  Unfortunately for the doppleganger, the cultists were found out by the adventurers who came into town and they came back just as he was plotting the murder of his 'cousin'.  The sacrifice failed, the adventurers came into the town and managed to kill the doppleganger...but also the Morden family who were under his magical control.
     The only person who knew the doppleganger's true nature, besides Maribel, was Matthew, apprentice to the Stablemaster Gantz Lockbourne, had hoped to also gain access to the mine.  He had spent many years playing both sides of the Glenchester family, and had fingers in both sides, hoping to either get in on the Constable's scheme, or to marry his son off to Maribel.  However, he also discovered upon searching the house of the Constable, that Enirich had written a letter that he had stayed in Waterfordshire.  So the Stablemaster sent word to Enirich, thinking the boy might still be alive.
     And thus, a week or so later Enirich discovered that a group of murderers had killed his mother and father and that the town he loved was in tatters.  He initially thought of returning there, until lo and behold, the murderers in the Stablemaster's description were in Waterfordshire!  He didn't think he'd find them so quickly, as murders tend to hide and not stand out in the open as this group did.  But he discovered a small urchin boy following him, and when the boy admitted to who hired him, he brought him back to that same small inn where it had all started.
     That was when he came face to face with the murderers.  They looked innocent, a black haired elf, a tall cloaked male, a dwarf cleric and a black dragonborn, but these were the murderers, he just knew it, and when he talked to them, they didn't deny his allegations.  Rather, they started to argue with him that his family were all evil, that they had done terrible things...his parents, do something evil?  How twisted were these people?  But the General and the Constable in this town refused to arrest them as they had been helping with an investigation.  Instead they said they would send word to Glenhaven to investigate.
     Enirich sent the fastest messenger north, praying that the murderers would not escape town before he got back.  He paced and hoped and prayed and the town was filled with zombies and a necromancer was ravaging the town but Enirich could only think about his family and how much he missed them and had wished that he had not sent that letter, that he had gone back to see them just one more time.
     When the messenger returned less than a week later, he told the tale of the adventurers who killed his parents without stopping to think that they might be under a spell, that they had killed other townsfolk who had also been under the spell.  Enirich went with the messenger to relay the information right as these 'adventurers' slayed the necromancer and thus became the town heroes.  He thought, perhaps, that they were maybe good after all...maybe he was wrong, maybe they were innocent, that they were only doing what they thought was right...
     But they disappeared that night with a bunch of pirates and were gone without facing their trial.  Enirich was upset, he had been fooled...the whole town had been fooled.  They'd saved the day, killed the necromancer, saved the town from hundreds of dead zombies wandering the streets, and how could a bunch of heroes be murderers?  The Constable and the General decided that it would be unwise to follow them, to let it go.
     Enirich couldn't.  He knew it wouldn't bring his family back, but after weeks...he just wanted to see justice had, to know the truth, to see for himself what these people were about.  So he asked a friend, another solider named Gerald, to accompany him as he placed wanted posters down the Main Road to Centralia.  Eventually they had to end up there, as everyone ended in the central city.  Gerald agreed, and as they traveled south they formed a band of rag-tags and mercenaries and other travelers, hoping to make some of the gold that Enirich promised on his wanted posters.
     They traveled at a good pace, but it slowed as they gained more of their band.  And then as they came to the small Tinnigel Village, a group of three men came running in, telling him that they had just seen the murderers from his wanted posters.  They formed a larger band from the village then, and headed at top speed to follow them.  He hired on a ranger, and half-orc merchant also decided to tag along to see what money he could get once the reward was had.  They traveled a few days, following the horse tracks.
     But then, they stopped.  He wasn't sure what happened, but the Ranger investigated what seemed to be a murder scene...but discovered it was a ploy, and as they spread out to see if they were set up for a hijack, discovering nothing, they traveled on.  That evening they came to a small caravan clearing set up outside of a town that had been destroyed recently by a traveling group of gnolls.  Setting up a guard and enjoying a peaceful evening with a few other groups of travelers, a strange creature appeared in the clearing.
     Suddenly a great wave of water washed into the clearing, knocking Enirich and a few others to their backs, and from another direction a small storm erupted, sending the clearing into darkness as the campfires were blown out.  The creature roared and moved to attack - killing the first man that came after it.  Chaos ensued as Enirich tried to get to his feet.  He came suddenly face to face with the dark-haired elf that had sent the urchin to spy on him.  She told him to stop following them, to leave them alone....
     "Leave you alone?!  You killed my family!  My mother, my father, in cold blood!"  Enirich attacked, hitting her with his sword and then getting knocked back again.  The elf showed no mercy as she attacked him, and Enirich suddenly realized he was no match for this woman.  He fumbled for his bag, as he'd been given a special scroll in case he ever needed to escape.  He turned to see Gerald fall, as other innocent bystanders ran from the clearing and a group of six men were knocked dead instantly as they huddled in fear.... he was outmatched...and he would never be able to revenge his parents like this.
     The scroll.... he read the words, praying with all his might that Caspian had not failed him in its creation.  And then he stepped forward, and stepped out into the woods some thirty feet or more away from the clearing.  From there, he ran.
     Enirich didn't look back, but he knew from the sounds behind him, that it wasn't long before the men who had followed him were mostly, if not all, dead.  He regretted sending these innocent men after these powerful murderers.  Scared, he ran until he came to a burned out building that still smelled from fire that had caused it to fall.  Enirich hid within the fallen beams and shivered as the storm passed overhead and fell asleep, scared for his life.
     In the morning, buzzards swarmed overhead.  He decided to find the main road again, and followed it from a distance in the woods.  Alone, scared, and not sure what to do, he continued south, hoping perhaps, that the knights in Centralia would somehow be able to help him kill these murderers before they reached the central city and wreaked more havoc there.  He also hoped he might find some of the others that escaped... there were witnesses this time, after all.

(First draft - I may have to revise this later, so I apologize for the choppiness of the writing and any errors... I'll try to work on it some more later.  And of course, also when the game progresses I'll add more!)

A Moonlight Chase (Short Story)

A Moonlight Chase - a short story by R. Thompson

     Down through the streets, hooves pounding, breath, small gasps of cloud expelled into the air, racing, heart beating within a chest; it wouldn't be long now.

     No....they will catch her soon.

     She raced down the paved streets, ducking into a yard, across two grassy plains that held nothing of interest to her if she had been hungry, no, this was artificial turf, she should not have come this far into the land of those who hunted her, who sought her, who wanted her for what she could never be for them.

     The sounds of her pursuers faded away as she crossed another lawn, leaped a fence, ran over another road, the sound of her hooves sounding too sharp on the black top, too loud, they'd find her for sure...  But the footsteps were gone now, all she could hear was the sound of her own breath, of her own heart, the hooves on the grass now, it faded away, she could fade away now, there was a small stand of woods here, but it wouldn't be able to hide her during the daylight, only this moonless night would be able to hide her slick, white body and the magic that it held within.

     She was a unicorn.  Probably not the last, she had seen others like herself far, far, to the north.  She had heard stories from the humans that there were so few of them now that no one believed they existed.  Well, perhaps most didn't.  Some wanted to believe, and she'd seen enough t-shirts and posters and small, porcelain figurines to prove that, but she doubted they would actually think she existed.  It was okay.  The humans who once hunted her no longer did.  They wouldn't believe what they saw, blinking twice, the vision of the lovely unicorn there and gone, only a blink of the imagination, really.  She didn't mind.  It wasn't as if she missed them...

     No, that was a lie.  She did miss them.  She missed the small girls with their flowing hair and the flowers they braided together into her mane.  She missed the laughter of the young boys as she took them for rides in the forest.  She missed the old women who would ask her help with curing the sick.   Those were the days she missed the most, and it was the reason she came here, tonight, of all places, to see, if perhaps things had changed enough to go back to those days.  But, they didn't see her.  Not all of them, only a few...this man with a rifle being one of them.

     What were those weapons he held?  Did he think he was seeing what he saw?  Or did he think she was an albino deer?  Probably the later, she mused.  He sent one shot up into the air and it missed her.  Not that it would have stopped her, the weapons of mankind had long ceased to hurt her.  She was immortal, a whisper, a light breeze, a ghost perhaps.  But not so effervescent as to float away into nothing, but not substantial enough to be hurt by a mere bullet.

     He had given chase, and she had allowed it, not so much out of fear but out of the chase, of the game. The horseman chasing the fox in the woods.  Although they had stopped that long ago as well.  The only proof of the old hunt was in the ancient tapestries that were woven so long ago.  Were these the same humans that used to capture her kind for luck?  There were terrible stories, but most of them were false.  Her kind wasn't so easily taken down, taken apart, and sold for it's magical items, although the rhino...  They had seen better days, their magic stripped away and for what?  A piece of fingernail?  Nothing.  Her ancient ancestors would weep for the poor creatures who had long since lost their magic.

     The unicorn brushes through the small stand of trees and came out into yet another small neighborhood.  These dwellings for humans were compact, house next to house with barely a patch of inedible grass in between.  Some had fences, others did not, but they were stacked next to one another like so many dominoes.  She felt sorry for them.  They had forgotten what it was like to live in the woods.  They had forgotten how to grow things, to feed themselves, to see one another as special beings.  There were no voices speaking to one another around communal fireplaces, no happy singing their children to sleep.  Instead, there were murmurs and flashes of lights from televisions.

     She started to turn, noticing the moon was now rising in the East.  If the hunter was still out there, he would surely spot her white hide when the moon rose.  But a sound in the thicket surprised her.  She turned back, wondering of the sound, a snap, a murmur, and then a purr.

     "Who goes there?"  She asked, not sure if the creature understood her language.

     She needn't have feared a lack of understanding though, as the creature came into the moonlight, sulky and black as a shadow.  The cat brushed up against her hoof.  "It is I, your majesty.  What brings you to a place like this?"

     The unicorn blinked her pale, violet eyes, seeing the cat better now as the moon rose.  It was solid black but for a few white hairs upon its chest.  "I'm no majesty, small creature.  But I am a traveler who has run into a bit of a chase tonight and hoped to find some place where I might sleep.  Do you now of a place nearby one such as myself could nap in peace for a short time?"

     Rumbling now, the cat intertwined itself around her foreleg, then the other and then replied, "I can do better than that, I could show you a place, but you would need to give me a ride, as I do not travel as fast or as far as easily as one such as yourself."  It stopped circling and came to sit, looking up at the unicorn, eyes slowly blinking in interest.

     "I do not see why not," the unicorn replied, "Jump upon my back and tell me where to go."

     But cats are still magical, and the moment she said it, he disappeared.  The unicorn stomped her hooves, turning around herself, looking for the beast, not feeling it upon her back, nor sensing its presence.  "Darn beast..."  She muttered.  "Cat!  Where did you go?"

     There came no reply, and not a rustle of leaves within the small wooded area, nor sound of the creature running away.  The unicorn sighed, knowing that besides having the nine lives that humans always swore cats had (they did) but they also could, what did humans call it?  Teleport.  Yes, but it was more like they could hop out of time and into time and reappear somewhere else.  Humans only glimpsed this from time to time when they thought a cat was in one room and it appeared in another, or perhaps they wondered how a cat could escape and they would see it outside even though they just knew it was inside.

     Unicorns occasionally partnered with the creatures, but depending on their age, how many lives they'd had, and how wily it might be, they couldn't always be trusted.  However, the unicorn felt that if it had even bothered to speak to her at all, there must have been some chance that...  there, there it was, up ahead.  She tilted her head forward and walked toward the creature, "Is that you, cat?"

     "Yes.... it's not safe here..."  The cat ran quickly back up between the houses where it had disappeared to, and then hopped lightly onto the unicorn's back.  "Head straight down this road, fast as you can, use the front lawns, it will keep your hooves from making too much noise."  His claws dug into her shoulders as he braced himself for the run.  "Now!  Quickly!"

     A sound...a new rustling behind her... the unicorn leaped into action, running as the cat directed.  She turned at the end of the road, his claws in her shoulders directing her which way to go.  She could feel a deep hum at the base of her neck as the cat purred it's excitement.  And ever so often she could feel a twitch of the tail as he looked back behind them.  "Quickly now, jump over this fence!"

     She no longer felt the cat upon her shoulder at this moment, it must have hopped off as she jumped, but she landed softly into a peaceful little garden.  The cat was beside her now, standing by her side on a small stone wall.  "Now, get down, as low as you can, we will have to wait here for them to go by."

     The unicorn did as she was told, kneeling to the ground until she was hidden behind the short stone wall.  She could hear voices as well as some sort of vehicle.  Humans ran by the fence, not seeing her, they were in the shadow of the house, no moonlight could reach her here yet, it was too low.  And the small wall and fence hid her from sight.  The cat paced the stone, disappeared for a time, and she could hear more voices of humans, "You've got to be kidding me.  Let's go home, there's no deer out here..."

     "I swear I saw one... albino I'm sure of it."  The voices continued away, and she heard a drift say, "I've heard of them up north, maybe they've made their way down..."  Then all was quiet.  She could hear her breathing, her heartbeat, the sound of frogs, and the moving of the earthworms in the grass.

     "So...was that your trouble?"  The cat said after a time.

     "Yes, I suppose it was, and I owe you thanks."

     "You'll owe me, alright...but I don't need another favor from a unicorn.  I've already lived more than nine lives due to the last one, and I think I'm almost ready for heaven."  The cat said, jumping back up onto the wall from wherever he had been hiding moments before.  "You can stay here probably, for awhile, it's a safe place I've found in this strange place that humans call the suburbs.  The humans are good, and they don't own a gun.  They feed the birds and they treat the young ones within well."

     With the phrase 'young ones', the unicorn's ears perked.  "Children?"

     The cat laughed.  It sounded bright and filled with mirth.  "No, no, kittens, my kind.  On their first lives, the lot of them.  Although in my previous life I lived with one of them.  I check on her from time to time.  But no... children are a strange mixture of terror and hatred nowadays.  They fear every little bump and scratch, but they hate being coddled, but they don't know any better.  They aren't raised to learn anything of the land, parents fight, children become filled with disdain and don't understand magic."  The cat settled down, hiding its paws from the chilly evening.  "I'm sorry, unicorn, but your kind is just a fairy tail now as much as my nine lives are."

     "So, why here?  Why do you stay here if you hate what they've become?"

     "I don't hate them.  They give good scratches, and I've been around long enough to know that things could always get better.  There's still hope."  The cat turned its eyes to the house where a light had turned on and a woman walked to the window and looked out into the back yard.  "Because of people like that one.  She was good to me once, back in another life.  I think she believes that it's me in one of the young cats in her care, but it's not.  Very few cats seek the magic that we once used to cling to, that which keeps us alive.  But, that's not for now.  What are  you doing here?  You should return to your forest, to your peaceful ways."

     The unicorn watched in fascination at the woman in the window as she turned and stroked the head of a cat that was on the table within.  "Because...I wanted to see if anyone still wanted to ride a unicorn."  She turned her eyes back to the cat once the light inside the house went off again.  "I wanted to remember what it was like to be appreciated again.  But, I suppose it's too late for that.  I have lost my magic, or at least the magic they believed I once had, and now it is just me, and humans only want me because they think I am something I am not.  It's okay, I was bored, really, immortality is a long, sad, journey."  She set her head down on the ground before her and the cat jumped down onto her back, kneading with its paws and then settled.

     "Anyway, I thank you for helping me find somewhere to stay, albeit temporarily.  Once the moon sets again I will leave.  You have been surprisingly helpful."

     The cat purred, and then said, "You are welcome."  It yawned, and then with a tail twitch said, "I think I may have decided what you owe me in return."

     "Yes?"  The unicorn asked, not lifting her head as her eyes were heavy and she wanted to sleep.

     "I would like you to take me with you for another ride."  The cat said, now closing its eyes as well.  "I know how long eternity feels, and if you should like the company, I am old, and my last life is nearing its end."  The purr turned into a rattle, and for the first time the unicorn realized it wasn't long for this last life.

     "Okay, cat, after this last nap."

     "Yes, that would be acceptable," replied the cat.

     And the moon rose and the shining white hide of the unicorn almost seemed to turn to crystal.  A tired woman peered out through the darkness down at her garden.  There's that cat again, she sighed, the one that made the cats she owned pee all over the house.  Hopefully it didn't come up to the porch and pee all over the door again, she didn't think she could handle cleaning up another spray fest.  But her weary eyes noticed a shimmer... something else out there in the yard.  It sparkled in the moonlight, like faint bubbles, fading away before they popped.  Was the cat curled up on something?  The woman strained to see...  But she closed her eyes and rubbed them.  It was late, she should go to bed, her husband and cats were waiting upstairs.

     "Good night cat..."  The woman whispered.  "Good night..."  She smiled slightly, the moon had risen, giving more form to the shape in her yard.  It couldn't be what she thought it was...but it had to be, there wasn't any other explanation.  But she was older now.  Not young enough to be a child, but not old enough to need the help of the unicorn that slept there.  She wasn't a maiden.  But that was okay, because no one would believe her anyway.

     The unicorn smiled, as well as a unicorn could.  Maybe there was hope for them after all, like the cat said.