"Horse of Mist"

So my last story idea kind of fizzled out. I want to try to get back to it, but no idea when that will happen. But in the meanwhile... I've had a new idea, one that promises to be maybe a little easier to stick with, because it involves one of my favorite things- horses!

I've been mostly doing character pictures in Painter, but I've finally gotten around to writing some of it. This is a history intro to the world it's set in, just to give folks an idea of the background. And those pictures I did- I couldn't mention them and not show them off, right?

So, have a story about god-horses, people, and a world that exists only in my head- now that's a scary thought! Enjoy!

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At the beginning of all things the Higher Power called Artoes into being, having grown bored with the universe that was. He grew the mountains and the forests, then placed the animals and people on it, to do what they willed. He was happy with what he had made, until he looked closer and saw the people all milling around in confusion, not knowing how to care for themselves or the world they were given. The Higher Power was at a loss, so at last he turned to his brothers and sisters- the Lesser Powers, strong and wise, lesser in name only.

He put his request to them, and after conferring among themselves for a bit they accepted. The Higher Power sent them to Artoes, then gave them a choice of shape to take. After further debate, they chose the shapes of great horses, and after receiving their mortal forms, they went among the people to teach them how to live. The people accepted them happily and learned all they had to teach, and for centuries there was peace and prosperity.

Amadar

But not everything went according to the Higher Power's plan. From someplace outside the world, a Darkness came- one that had never been seen by the Powers Higher or Lesser. It came to live among the people, feeding off them and subverting them to its own twisted ends. The Lesser Powers in their horse-shapes gathered themselves and the people into a great army, and after a battle that lasted for years, they managed to drive the Darkness away. It was not destroyed- they didn't know how they might do that- but it would be a long, long time before it would be able to return, if at all.

But the Darkness left something of itself behind, in the hearts and minds of the surviving people. They remembered and feared the Darkness, and they remembered that it was the Horses that brought them together to fight it. After several generations- for human lives were short- the people's stories got mixed together so much, they began to believe that the Horses had brought the Darkness on them. And so they began to hate and fear the Horses as well.

The Horses, for all their wisdom, didn't see what was happening until it was too late. The people they had nurtured and taught began to drive them away, and it wasn't long before the first Horse was killed. Now, the Powers were immortal and couldn't be destroyed, but their mortal bodies could, and it took time to prepare a new body to replace each one that was killed. And so the Horses found their numbers dwindling alarmingly, and finally decided they had to do something about it.

On a cold spring morning they gathered together, discussing what they might do. The talks lasted all through the day and into the night. Finally, after much debate, they made their decision to withdraw from the humans' world.

Rhisovan

The very next night a mist came up from the ground. It seemed like an ordinary mist, except that it covered every inch of ground over the whole of Artoes. It grew thicker and colder, driving the people into their homes, where they huddled by fires and muttered among themselves of witchcraft and Darkness returning. When morning's light finally broke over the world, the mist- and every trace of the Horses- was gone.

But not completely. In the northeastern region, the mist had condensed itself, shutting off an area encompassing several hundred square miles. Those that discovered the mist refused to enter it, saying that unearthly voices echoed in the mist, and it swirled and roiled in a most unnatural, unfriendly way. The nearest people packed up and moved their villages to a more comfortable distance, and their lives resumed as normal.

Vardigen

But the mist had done more than remove the Horses. It also removed all memory of the Horses' previous history with the humans, so that all they remembered was the fear and hatred. And so the Horses stayed in the sanctuary they had created for themselves and watched the humans from afar, and the humans went about their lives unhindered. All in all, it was not a bad arrangement, although many of the Horses missed the close companionship they had once had.

Things stayed that way for two thousand years. Then a whisper came to the Horses in their secluded home; a whisper of returning evil, of Darkness. Fearing the return of Darkness more than anything the people might bring, the Horses began sending out probes to the villages and towns, searching for humans that might take up their cause, and return things to the balance that had been. It was slow, careful work, but they were rewarded by the discovery of humans that would accept them, work with them, and live among them as before. These people were few in number at first, but they increased steadily. And they all had one thing in common- something that their fellow humans called "Magegift."

The Horses trained these budding Mages, then sent them back into the world to watch over the people, to teach them of the Darkness of old and try to warn of its return. And they continued to search for more humans that would accept the old ways, for among them would be one that could be the key to success, to survival, and- perhaps- the way to destroy the Darkness for good.

Vardigen and Karee

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I made this a bit... "formal-sounding" I guess? on purpose (I was actually thinking of how older Bible versions were written. >.>). The rest of the story won't be written like this, I promise.

I do plan on posting more of this once it's written, though probably not the whole thing, since I may be trying to make it into an actual book. Stay tuned in for more!

Ohai! and a little extra!

Oh hey, I found my blog!!!

Besides RP writing for WoW and occasionally for LOTRO, I've semi-recently started dinking around with a story idea of my own. This will eventually be turned into a book of some sort. Someday. When I, you know, finish it. Eventually.

... It's just going slow, okay?

I have no interest at this point of actually getting it published, but while I whack away at it, I thought I might put up some tidbits here now and then. Constructive criticism and comments are much appreciated, since I have no clue what I'm doing.

So anyways, here's an introduction of 2 of the main characters, who are elves. Yes, I have elves in my book. And humans, orcs, goblins, and dwarves. And a mad necromancer to top it all off, because mad necromancers are fun. Right?

..... Okay, enough of this. Here it is.

* * * * * * *

The first time Bracchus laid eyes on his mate Dymera, she was less than a day old.

An old comrade from the Orc Wars was expecting his first babe, and Bracchus happened to be staying only an hour's ride when the happy event occurred. When he heard the news he had no objections to going and seeing his old friend's offspring. He arrived at the house and entered, to find that the infant was not happy at all about being out in the world; in fact she was squalling at the top of her already-considerable lungs, showing a hint of the temper she would have later in her life.

Bracchus felt a pull when he heard her cry, and followed it to the nursery, where the new father and her appointed nurse were frantically trying to hush her. The elven warrior drew close to the baby Dymera, brushing off his friend's apologies for the noise. He stared at the infant for several minutes, then gently took her from the nurse. The female elf started to object, but subsided at a word from her master, who was watching Bracchus intently.

Bracchus had lifted the baby to his face and was studying her curiously when abruptly she stopped her wailing completely, opening eyes of crystalline gold and meeting his gaze boldly. And Bracchus, the most dour elf in the whole elven army, who had never cracked a smile- or so it was said- during the entire War, suddenly found himself grinning like a fool.

A Personal Note from Buster the Cat

Halloween is still a week and a half away, but Buster wanted me to remind everyone that while most of us are thinking of costumes and candy, there are some not-so-nice people out there too. So keep your kitty-cats safe this year- keep them indoors whenever possible and away from the ones that use the holiday as an excuse for some unsavory activities.



If you have no idea what I'm talking about, there's a decent article here, with links to more info. Have a safe and happy Halloween, everyone!

Ilfariel & Elgo

Still been thinking about Lord of the Rings even when my internet is screwing up and I can't play. *ahem* So, I thought I'd figure out the story behind two of my characters.

I realized a long time ago that I'm a romantic. I like having my characters paired up with someone, because hey, no one really wants to be alone, right? So back when Ilfariel started getting into my head, one of the first things I thought of was "Is she in any kind of relationship?" It took a while, but I finally figured out that yes, she's with Elgo, my champ. They're very happy together, and planning on getting married as soon as the war is over. This is some of Fari's backstory, along with how she met Elgo and what proceeded from there. And yea, they're a pretty mushy couple, but it's cute.

The one thing I kind of regret is having only one account, which means I can't play them both together. So all their RP together happens in my head. But it works for now.

(Mild PG warning >.>)
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Ilfariel grew up in Gondor, the middle of five offspring. where she helped run her mother's shop while her father oversaw their "main" business. They dealt mostly with cloth and leather goods, importing and exporting both raw material and finished products, with success enough to make them fairly wealthy. The inevitable odds and ends from each shipment, and any new products that they wanted to test the market for, wound up in her mother's shop in Minas Tirith, which was also where the family home was.

Ilfariel's brothers were more than capable of helping their parents, and stood to inherit it all anyway, so by the time she was twenty she had decided to "find her fortune" however she may, and left with her family's blessings. There had been rumors and more concerning the war even then, and Ilfariel decided to head to Bree the moment she heard of them. Her weapon skills were sufficient that she thought she could help the guard there against goblins and brigands.

She was accepted, the moment she got there and spoke to the captain in charge in fact, and once signed in she was assigned a guide until she knew her way around well enough. The guide was a young man, about her age, named Elgo, a native of Bree. They got along famously right from the start, and after just a few months they seemed inseparable. The guard captain noticed this, of course, and began worrying about when he would have to split them up. No one patrolled with another- they just didn't have the bodies to spare, and the threat wasn't great enough- yet- to warrant more than single patrols. Still, he found himself putting off the moment that he would have to separate the two young guards.

After Ilfariel had been there four months, however, there was no more reason to delay it, and he finally pulled Elgo back to his former duties patrolling the southern Bree-fields. Fari he set to patrolling up around Archet, where she would have little chance of running into her friend. The separation was unexpectedly hard on her, and she found herself missing Elgo fiercely. Still, it took her a few weeks to figure out that she had been falling in love with the young guard.

She had no sooner realized that when something happened that was both good and bad. Good, because it distracted her from her thoughts- bad, because the thing turned out to be bandits and brigands near Archet. When she and her fellow guards had fought enough skirmishes to know this was not just a minor threat, Ilfariel was sent back to give the captain a report.

The captain was understandably grim when he heard her report, but then he surprised her. "I'll need to think on this before I send you back with new orders," he told her. "Also, I need to speak with the town's leaders. Why don't you take tonight and tomorrow off? I'll send someone for you when we've decided what to do."

Ilfariel was only too happy to follow his command. As she reached the Prancing Pony and was about to head inside, she was suddenly stopped by a hand on her arm. She turned and came face-to-face with Elgo. Without thinking, she gave a happy cry and flung both arms around him in a hug. Immediately she knew that that was not the proper thing to do, but by then Elgo had his arms around her too, and was chuckling in her ear. "I take it you missed me, too?" he asked as he, mercifully, let her go. Fari tried to hide her growing blush by straightening her jacket, which really didn't need straightened. "Well, I umm..." she began, then his words registered and she stopped, looking at him in surprise. "Too?" she asked, then blushed again. Elgo chuckled again as he took her arm. "Come on, love," he said gently. "Let's find a place less crowded for supper, eh?" Fari could only let him lead her on.

They found a quiet inn and had supper there, then spent the rest of the evening walking about town, filling each other in on their adventures, or lack thereof. Elgo mentioned that he'd had a few scuffles with bandits, but mostly the Fields had been quiet. He seemed as disturbed as the captain when he heard her tale, but they both agreed there was nothing to be done about it for now.

It was getting quite late by the time they reached the rented room Ilfariel kept in the city. Elgo paused at her door, suddenly looking very self-conscious but obviously reluctant to leave. Fari could guess what he wanted to say to her, however, and beat him to it when she asked him, very softly, "Stay with me tonight?" He looked at her, startled, then nodded and followed her in.

* * * * * *

Morning dawned with clear skies. Ilfariel woke shortly after dawn, taking a moment to simply enjoy Elgo's warm, strong arms around her before quietly slipping out from under the covers. She found her pants and a clean shirt and dressed quickly, then went to the window and stood looking out, thinking.

She heard a soft yawn behind her and turned to see her lover stretching and blinking awake. He spotted her and smiled. "Come here, love." Fari smiled back and crossed over to the bed, sitting on the edge near him. He brought one hand up to rub her back, looking at her face searchingly. "Any regrets, Fari?" he asked her softly, using her nickname for the first time. She shook her head firmly. "No, love. None from me." She quirked an eyebrow at him, and he smiled again. "No, love. And I love you. In case I didn't say it often enough before." They both chuckled, then he nudged at her. "How about letting me up, love?" he asked her, half-joking, and she grinned back at him as she stood.



They had all that day together, which they spent in the city and nearby countryside again, and it took little convincing for Ilfariel to get him to stay that night as well. In the morning, however, they left her room to find a runner waiting for her. The boy was clearly startled when they came out together, but was tactful enough to say nothing and merely handed her a note from the captain before trotting off. Ilfariel read it quickly, then looked at Elgo with some regret. He simply nodded. "Duty calls, m'love. Nothing to be done about that," he said, then gave her a quick hug and a kiss before letting her go on her way.

Ilfariel took her orders from the captain- they weren't much changed from their previous ones, just stating for them all to stay alert- and headed back to Archet. This time, however, she had memories of Elgo to warm her when she grew too lonely, and she knew he would be waiting for her whenever they could manage the time.

* * * * * *

They'd been together for almost eight months now. Ilfariel had sent a letter to her parents as soon as she could, and knew that Elgo had done the same, and now he was courting her truly, with her parents' blessing. Despite all the trouble from the war that everyone felt was coming, Fari couldn't be happier.

Silence...

I feel like I ought to apologize. I honestly don't mean to let so much time go between posts, especially since I don't like when other bloggers do it (apologies to all said bloggers, I meant no offense). The fact is that lately I've been so tired that I haven't had the energy to even think of a blog post.



Anyways, so what have I been doing lately? Mostly I'm still playing Lord of the Rings Online. It's fun, it's interesting, so... I've been getting a good bit done too- Elgo the champion and Solanthe the hunter have joined the others in my level-20+ group, and Ilfariel is up to 31! Wardens are still mega-fun, though champs and hunters are started to get up there too. My budding runekeeper has finally gotten some playtime as well, I got him up to 11 in one day (although he went back to gathering dust afterwards >.>).



Allods has lost it's shine for the time being, though I don't doubt that I'll be getting back on it sometime. The biggest reason for that is my brother's PC is having... issues. Yea, those kind of issues. So until he gets it fixed, he can't play, and that was the biggest pull for me as far as the game went. I do have my fingers crossed that he gets it fixed up soon.

WoW has been... well, just kinda there. I've logged on a few times for some RP, and gotten Lark exalted with the Silver Covenant finally to boot, but other than that? Eh. I am still writing stuff for it, just haven't been itching to play it lately. I guess I'm in the pre-Cata limbo that's claimed so many others.


So, besides all that? Haven't been doing much. I'm finally back to a normal schedule at work, though I can't say I'm really recovered from my crazy stretch. I do have another week of vacation coming up soon, which will just be a sit-around-home-and-recup type of vacation, so that ought to be fun.

It's starting to get... well, not cold yet, but chilly. Winter is definitely on the way, which I'm not really looking forward to, but oh well. We've just had a few days of rain, which compounds the tiredness, but it seems to be over now.

That's all I can think of for now. Hopefully I will think of interesting things to post in the near future, instead of getting ideas which I forget about as soon as I get home. >.> Til next time, ciao!

Why I Like Google

Out of boredom I was poking around on Google image search a few days ago, and I found some stuff I wanted to share. Meet a few of Lark's pets. >.>

Firstly, the first ever Tuah. Just add the scars on her ear and cheek.

I wondered what Quiloe looked like exactly. Then I found this. I'm undecided about the white spot on her chest- Quiloe might have one, but it's likely smaller than this.

Meet another of Lark's older pets. Rage was probably the biggest panther you'll ever see, with an attitude to match. (Yes, he's got his own story, which I'll probably finish someday. >.>)

And finally, here is... not a pet- this is what Pitch's catform looks like. Although you'd have to imagine it being jet-black instead of spotty-looking. :P

Still writing bits and pieces, and job has been killing me this week with a wacky schedule. I just finished working 6 days in a row with no days off, but I'm off tomorrow. Then I go back again for another 3 days straight. That's 9 out of 10 days at work, for those that don't want to do the math. Yeesh, no wonder I'm tired. -.-



/passout

Ilfariel: A Horse of Her Own

In honor of Lord of the Rings Online going free-to-play, I thought I'd post the one completed story I've written about my warden, Ilfariel. She adores horses, and she was a little excited *cough* when she finally got one of her own. (>.>) Enjoy!
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Ilfariel blinked at her captain. "The Lone-lands? Are you sure, sir?"

He nodded. "We're getting more recruits that we can handle at the moment," he told her. "We have enough men-at-arms here to keep the city safe, and they need someone with experience out there. I'd like for you to leave within the week, if you can."

She nodded. "I can, sir. It's just... unexpected."

He chuckled. "But not unearned. You've proved your worth many times over, Ilfariel, and now you can show it to others. Now, dismissed. You should start packing soon." She nodded and saluted crisply, then turned to the door. The captain stopped her, however, before she could turn the knob.

"Oh, there's one more thing," he said casually. "I'd like you to head north first, to the horse-farms. You'll be doing a lot more traveling at your new post, and I think it's about time you had a mount of your own." Fari whirled and stared at him wide-eyed, then broke into a wide, dazzling grin when she saw he was serious. Forgetting decorum, she swept out the door and was gone.

* * * * * *

Ilfariel stroked the bay gelding's neck soothingly as he tossed his head. The stableboy hovered near, watching. "He's well-broke, spirited but gentle, and real sure-footed. The boss wants a fair price for him, but the Guard's supposed to be handling that, so you shouldn't need to worry."

She scratched around the horse's ears as he nudged his nose into her chest. "I'll take him," she said softly. "What's his name?"

The boy shuffled his bare feet in the dust. "He doesn't really have a name, miss. None of our horses to be sold do. You can name him what you'd like."

Ilfariel studied the warm brown eyes that looked into her own, then offered an apple slice on her palm. The horse happily lipped it up and munched it. "I'll call him Villox," she said at last, and the gelding snorted his approval.


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(You know the best thing about F2P is? I get to play the game with my sister again, woot!)