Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 18:06:09 +0000 From: Tommy KnightHawk <alpha_wanderer@hotmail.com> Subject: Alpha Wanderer: Chapter 3 Joy and Sorrow Disclaimer All these works aren't intended to look like anybody else's. If it does I'm sorry but it wasn't intentional. Also if you would like to use one or all of my characters just ask. Also I have no betas so if someone would like to they can be the first to read the new post to check for errors. If you would like to be a beta tester or if you just want to send feedback you can contact me at alpha_wanderer@hotmail.com. Thank you for your time. ***************************************************************** Review of Chapter 2 I again used this ability to locate and lock the ability to see magic. I was sure that most people, if not just me, couldn't see magic or its symbols. As I allowed it to network I set a small portion of my mind on translating the symbols so I could better understand it. Once I had everything from the past three days sorted out, I allowed my mind to go strait to sleep rather then pull out completely. When I awoke next I was alone in the bed and Borak was sitting against the wall, greenish liquid poring from his eyes. End of Chapter 2 On the Run ***************************************************************** Allot happens in this chapter. Some things may move too quickly but I was kinda lost on the inspiration levels this chapter. I hope the others flow easier. Thanks ***************************************************************** Chapter 3 Sorrow and Joy I rose and crossed the cavern quickly. While moving I scanned him to see if something was wrong physically. "What's wrong?" I asked. Borak looked up at me and gave a small snort. "Don't pretend you care. You're just using me!" I took a step back in shock. The gruffness in his voice was reserved in Orcish for the vilest of things. "What is wrong with you?" I asked again. "Hah! Trying again are you? You just want me to help you until Talcorath then you'll be done with me!" He continued on but his speech became tangled together and I could no longer understand him. As he ranted his control over his spells broke and sunlight poured in on us. Before I could even react to this new development dozens of arrows flew through the cavern opening. Quickly dodging into a cleft I yelled for Borak to find cover. I turned when I felt a rip in my senses. "NOOOO!" There lying on his side was the form of Borak. I saw no sign of arrows and soon realized why as magic slammed into my makeshift shield that I had thrown up. My anger flared as magic again slammed into my shield. I grunted as I was pushed backward. Whoever was attacking me was very strong. I glanced back at Borak and felt a great rage build in me. I had felt this before but this was the first time I allowed it to consume me. Building up all the magic I could, I blew the strongest firestorm I could muster out of the cave just as another blast of magic came. I heard a strangled cry and sprinted out of the cave. I was surprised to find a Halfling. He was badly hurt but when he saw me he threw a ball of fire at me. Without thinking I created a wall of water and blasted it towards the fiend. I watched as the water picked him up and slammed him against a tree. Summoning an earth spike, I drove it straight through his head. I ran back into the cave and examined Borak. He was barely breathing. He looked up at me and whispered, "He was controlling me. I meant not the things I said." His head dropped off to the side and I heard his body slow. "NOOOO!" I jumped back and screamed. I clamped down the emotions and grabbed onto Borak. "Don't die on me Borak." His mental voice was low as he said, "Enter the Astral plane." I allowed the physical to fade and pulled up the Astral plane and there I saw him, softly shining in his orb. The orb pulsed as he spoke. "I will die Tucan." "No! I'll do anything to save you Borak. I promised that I would take you with me so I am responsible for you!" "There is a way but I'm fading fast. You must allow me into your mind. Pull me in Tucan!" I reached out to the orb and pushed it against my mental self. I didn't realize it but in the physical realm I had pulled Borak to me and kissed him. I felt his mind enter mind and begin aligning with my body. "We have to let my body die." Borak said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "What! I thought you said you could save yourself." My confusion almost turned to anger but I reined it in, in time. "The spell I know is to raise newly dead bodies. It is designed to use against your enemies. You raise a body then infest it with a demon to fight for you. Instead of infesting it with a demon I'll reenter my body." The explanation made sense but something of his feelings leaked through. "So why are you apprehensive?" I asked, "What causes your doubt?" "There is a clause to this spell..." Borak paused as he gathered his thoughts, "The caster is forever connected to the body. You will always know where I am, what I see, what I know. You will never be able to shut it off. You will never be alone again. This is what I'm asking of you Tucan. This is why I'm doubting." While I knew how it could affect us I also was elated instead of put off by his confession. "You don't understand Borak. I never want to be alone again. I have been alone for my whole life. Cast the spell the life has left your body already. I give of myself to make you whole." The orb if possible grew even brighter and I could feel his joy of my acceptance. The next instant I felt a tremendous pull on my connection to the manna continuum and promptly blacked out. ***************************************************************** When I came to I saw Borak sitting in a mantra pose staring off into the depths of the cave. I cautiously approached him and waved a hand in front of his face. When he didn't respond I backed off and allowed him his space. I went outside to see the carnage that I had caused there. The stench of the fiend's blood greeted me as I approached the body. Summoning a small water spell, I washed away the blood from the fiend and started striping the body. I first removed his pack and then proceeded to remove his clothing. When I pulled the shirt over what was left of his head a twinkle caught my eye. I reached down to find a small golden medallion on a string of braided hair. When I touched it I could feel that it was magical but couldn't tell what it would do. I dismissed it and put it in the pack along with the shirt and pants. I then pulled up a block of earth and shoved the body in the hole, replacing the dirt after he hit the bottom. As soon as the dirt settled down a small glow came out of the pack. I looked in and saw that the braid of hair was disintegrating. While it interested me, the medallion was sent to the back of my mind when I felt Borak open his eyes. The feeling was incredible. I could feel the life that circled through his veins and could feel that it was my magic that put it there. I also had a detailed knowledge of the spell he had cast to bring him back to life. I knew that he was attracted to me and was very aroused by his dream of fucking me. I also knew that something unexpected had happened. Being that he had been the one to cast the spell, even though he had been in my body, the spell had changed some things. The connection wasn't as complete as he had said it would be. This was the main reason of his meditation earlier. He had been trying to figure out what had happened. He found that through the connection I would only know the things he wanted me to know but that it also worked in reverse. He could also know the things that I wanted him to know. I ran back into the cave and dropped the pack and sat next to Borak. "Your alright!" I exclaimed. "I only have you to thank." Borak formally offered his hand to me in the typical Orcish fashion of someone whose life had been saved. "My life is yours to command." "Gladly." I said as I grabbed his hand. "We will journey to Talcorath. We will deliver this message to the town hall and then we will find where our destiny leads us." "You are truly a good friend Tucan" "Let us be off Borak. Our time in this cave is done. Both sorrow and joy have been found here and we lost the Orcs. Our journey can only get better from here." A groan escaped Borak. "What?" "That, my friend is the easiest way to make it worse!" "Hey!" I said as I realized I'd been had. Together we worked to clean up our camp, leaving no trace of our passage. As we headed off I realized that we had many adventures left on the road to Talcorath. ***************************************************************** We traveled most of that day making our way out of the forrest. We would check every so often for people following us and were pleased to find that the Orcs were no where to be seen. We talked about a lot during the day because we could commune with out actually speaking. Speaking with telepathy made it so we could be quite while walking but not be bored. That night we were both very tired and quickly made camp, falling asleep almost as soon as our heads touched the ground. The next morning I awoke to the smell of roasting rabbit. Borak was hunched over a small fire slowly turning the meat. I quickly arose and treated the skin that he had left to one side. It would come in handy later. After eating our fill I set about making it look like we had never been there. By throwing the rocks around the fire into the stream and spreading out our bed of leaves over where the fire had been it appeared as if the place had been undisturbed for years. Borak watched with interest and seemed to understand why. "Come!" He grunted and motioned toward the stream. He striped and jumped into the water, quickly washed himself and waded to the other side. I watched him while he did this and noticed that he only stepped on rocks both in the stream and out of it. I striped off all my clothes and bundled them with his clothes and the animal skins and tossed them over the stream. As Borak got dressed I slipped into the stream, careful to step only on rocks like he did. The water was freezing and I sucked in a breath as I quickly washed down. I jumped out of the stream and quickly put on my clothes. "Let's go." I grunted. Borak smiled and nodded his head, and we began to head toward the road to Talcorath. It took three days to reach Talcorath. In those three days we had become almost rich with resources. The firs alone of the animals we had caught to eat would bring a nice price in Talcorath. Also the second night I had fashioned two bows and about twenty arrows for us. Borak had made two lances that we used to carry the firs and he had found an old sword that he had cleaned up. We must have been a sight when we walked into Talcorath. With Borak dressed as a slave and me being a Halfling. When we stopped outside the city hall many people stared. Luckily Talcorath was no stranger to Hal-flings. The only reason they didn't stop Borak at the gate was because of his "slave" status. The city was not as biased as Korison was. I quickly delivered the message and then continued on to the market place. After selling the firs, Borak and I went around making a mental list of all the things we wanted to buy and where to get them the cheapest. The firs had brought a tremendous price because of the warring that was going on. Many trappers had been drafted and the prices for firs had hiked up so far that most couldn't buy any. With the money from the firs we bought supplies enough to last a month. Also we had the sword forged and I got tools for making spear and arrowheads. I stopped in a magic shop but again they wouldn't let a Halfling buy. Borak went in and purchased a book of Elfin magic and a tome of Human sorcery. The merchants all thought he was stupid because Orcs can't use Elfin or Human magic. After making our purchases we started to leave the town, but at the gates I was stopped by the sentry and asked to return to the city hall. I sent Borak ahead to make camp near the city and returned to see what the problem was. When I entered the town hall I knew immediately that something was wrong. Guards are not usually allowed in the town hall but now there were at least a dozen. The high elder cleared his throat and spoke. "We have been watching you today," His voice grated on my nerves like the grinding of the sharpeners wheel, "and we would like to know about your companion." "Good sirs," I started, "your question is understandable. I can see how my coming from a town under siege by orcs with an orc is questionable." There were murmurs among the clergy. "Borak, my companion, was an outcast of another tribe of orcs. As you can all see I am half orc," I saw no reason to let them know my full heritage. If they knew I was half elf and only part human they would have not trusted me at all. "So I hold a connection to the orcs as well as the humans. I took him in, in good faith, and he has proven himself a capable slave with sword and club. As you should all know, Korison is under attack but the Kulak orcs," There were some gasps at this, "who have not taught their young the art of war but the art of magic. Instead of carrying swords they carry books of magic. Borak couldn't be in league with them because he is of Teion origin. As I'm sure your spies noticed his accent doesn't match those of the Kulak and he carried no book of magic." My long-winded speech seemed to affect the high elder, mainly because he had told no one of the siege. "Vary well sir," He grated, "You have answered my questions, and you may leave." "One moment please." One of the younger clergy spoke up. "If indeed the Kulak orcs are on the move we need to do something about it. They are the strongest magic orcs our spies have ever seen. We need to..." "Silence!" bellowed the high elder. His face had gotten redder and redder as the young clergy had talked and now he was actually sparking around the eyes. "You will speak no more before this Halfling." Well it was obvious who was biased in this group. "Vary well, I will go." I bowed and strode between the guards that had escorted me here. As I left the hall I could hear many excited voices behind me but paid them no heed as my job here was done. I exited the city and followed the track of Borak into the forest. It didn't take long for me to locate Borak 's camp. After leaving the noises of the city I just cast the locater spell that he had taught me. With the wind at my back I walked into the camp and sat down by Borak. "They wanted to know about me?" Borak grunted. "Yes but I set them off track." "Good" We sat in silence for a couple moments. "What is to become of us?" Borak pondered. "All shun us both!" "We'll do something." I said, determined. The rest of the day was spent preparing for travel. All the goods we had purchased needed to be sorted and some prepared. After the goods had been packed away Borak went to work on the meat, smoking it so it would last longer. I sat down with the tomes that he had purchased from the magic shop and tried to make sense of it all. The book about Elfin magic was written in Elfin, a language I only knew how to speak. The Human tome was readable but many of the words I didn't understand. It kept going on about how to use Sorcery I would need a source, hence the name. The only problem was that it didn't tell me what a source was or how to find one. Disgusted that I wouldn't be able to learn anymore tonight I put those books down and pick up the Orcish tome. The Orcish tome had many interesting qualities. Unlike the Human and Elfish tome it was made solely by magic. It was very thin and had all the spells stored. Only by thinking of the spell could you read it. As I opened the book I concentrated on translation spells. I was again disappointed when the page turned out blank. The book would only show the spell if the user was ready for it. I closed the book as thought about the next spell I was supposed to learn. The book had the order in which Orcish students learned their spells and I was following that order. When I opened the book I was surprised to see a level one possession spell. I read and re-read the instructions making sure I knew what to do. I told Borak I was going to test a new spell and went out into the forest so see what animal I could find. The spell book said that I could possess any animal within sight for a period of one hour. After the hour was up I had the option of re-casting the spell no matter where the animal was or terminating the spell. I carefully snuck through the forest looking for an animal to possess. Finally I say a falcon and quickly cast the spell. I knew it worked immediately because I could see what the falcon could see. I directed the falcon to fly over to me. Although the spell gave me control of the bird it was vary hard to make the bird do anything. The spell didn't give me the natural ability to fly, I had to either learn or let the bird do the flying while telling it where to go. After telling the bird to fly around a bit I picked up on the basics of flying. I then took control and flew the bird onto my hand. It was amazing. The control over the bird became almost complete when he landed on my hand. Physical touch enhances spells, all spells. I knew almost everything about the bird, it was like I could read his mind and had his memories. I allowed the bird to know about me, sending information back through the connection. I then asked the bird to fly around Talcorath and come back to my camp so I could see what he had seen. I then terminated the connection because I understood that the bird, when he had connected to my brain, had become tamed and would always return to me. Although this wasn't in the spell book I put it up to my elfish background. I returned to camp to find Borak had finished smoking the meat and was resting in the shade. After telling him of my experiment he asked to see which spell I had used. After showing him the spell he pointed out that it shouldn't have worked the way it did. I agreed with him and told him about how it could have been changed by my human and elfish background. He gave that some thought then asked me to do all the other spells I had learned. Sense the time he had given me his spell book and now I had only learned the four elemental spells and now the possession spell. I concentrated and chanted the Orcish spell for fire. A small ball of fire appeared in my hand and I threw it at the fire we already had. The fire exploded into a raging inferno for an instant then died down. Borak nodded his head and motioned for me to do the other ones. I chanted the words to the water spell and shot a ball of water towards the stream. The water level rose for a few moments then settled back into its bed. Again Borak nodded and motioned for me to start the next spell. I whispered the wind spell and mad a small dust devil between him and me. Borak smiled and asked for the next one. I chanted for a wile and caused the ground in front of me to rise and fall. Borak grunted for me to stop then motioned for me to watch. He went through all four elements except kept wind and earth in balls like fire and water. He then started combining them. When he combined water and earth it formed mud. He then combined fire and wind to create a firestorm. He concentrated for a few moments and caused the mud to form a small dagger. He then combined the dagger and the firestorm to bake the dagger into solid rock. He smiled and me then used wind and water to cool it. I stood amazed watching him combine simple level one spells into deadly weapons. I saw the potential of the combined spells and started experimenting right away. Borak smiled and my eagerness and sat down to watch. I practiced doing the same thing Borak had done then expanded my efforts to see how far I could go. I created a firestorm that was about five feet wide and three feet tall then shattered it with a water spell. I created a block of ice so big I could touch the top of it then simply made it disappear. Then an idea occurred to me. I concentrated on the earth spell and focused on the symbols, changing the so that instead of gathering dirt it only gathered metal. I then used the same technique that Borak had used to make about thirty metal arrowheads baked to maximum hardness. Borak looked surprised at my control but then demonstrated that he could do the same by making a sword. It was a majestic Elfin sword worthy of any skilled dwarf. I watched in awe and he gilded the handle and added gems of green. He crafted a scabbard for it and gilded that with gold as well. I tried to call up gold as well but couldn't do it. When I looked closer I could see the symbols swirling around as he worked were different then the ones I had used before and stored them in my mind for studying later. When he finished the sword he presented it to me. Although shocked I took it with a bow and vowed to return the favor some day. I knew that not every magic worker could do what Borak had just done. The combination of spells and the concentration it took to fold the mettle just so was astounding. As I practiced with the sword I marveled at the precision and balance it had. No human or elf could have crafted this with pure magic. These Orcs had a gift but because of the constant war they were in they never saw it. That night Borak and I talked for a long time. We learned a lot about each other and much of the back ground we had come from. He never touched on why he was banished but I understood that he would tell me when he was ready. ***************************************************************** End of Chapter 3 Joy and Sorrow ***************************************************************** Thank you again for reading my story. Feedback is necessary for fuel for the next chapter. If you have any suggestions for the plot or if you want to be a beta tester feel free to contact me at alpha_wanderer@hotmail.com. I look forward to your feedback. Thank you again.