View Full Version : Desire or Deception Solo
It was up in tell recently that Salem only thought his problems for lack of better words; recent and never ending changes had brought him to his current point and time. He had no idea who he was or in what manner to express himself. He was a human in a Drow’s skin. He had moved from here to there bouncing around after receiving similar questions. Finally he came to understanding he had no clue.
Salem had found a small community gathering of his people just outside of Alerar nearing the Dwarfen mines. The small patch of land was odd to him. Trees covering the land thick with leaves and lots of debris that grew around them helped to remain unseen. Furthermore, even a bit a magic; being used to keep out all, but Drow. Salem had been there close to three weeks now meeting others and found out he knew nothing of living like a Drow; something no text book or history class could teach him.
Small huts were placed throughout the camp with wide opened areas at each end. Combat on one side and tradecraft on the other. Through expression of one’s self was very common here. Salem took a watchful eye to these daily activities. Nothing was too small or looked done as for one skill to another. Each Drow practiced their chosen art to a point of perfection and then some. The social standing was quite different than others would believe. To most people, the understanding that for Drow the women are of top standing or leadership however that could not be said here. Salem had yet to understand what decided such.
Smack…
Salem had been hit with a bundle of clothing.
“You know being a part of something it’s not a mystery, you can’t be a part something standing from the outside looking in”, Quilolg said smiling. Quilolg or Quil for short was a friend toward Salem mostly because of connection of age and being a smart ass.
Salem looked at the plan clothing unfolding both the purple top and black pants. Hmm, Salem thought he figured there was some truth to his words. He stood up disregarding any eyes that may look his way. Salem pulled off his garments one at a time in a brisk manner. Choosing to go without shoes like male standing near him, Salem figured why not.
“Now come actually step into the pit instead lurking like a lost pup”, Quil said with a laughable tone. Salem wanted to hit him for it yet knew he most likely would fail. So with a shrug of his shoulders Salem turned and followed Quil.
Salem was happy to be here although he wasn’t sure exactly the name of place yet. Odd as it was, being with simple folk was what he need. Besides maybe this would be just another pit stop or a place to call home.
Would Salem change his ways and find himself or lose himself to an illusion he never understood?
The scenery was not what he expected to be, but of course what could he expect when he didn’t know anything about drow or dark elves. Like a common village of wooden cabins and various huts the difference however was that every commonly built home had a touch signature. The chimney of one home was built of a stone with green veins that stretched out like a spider web across the structure. The stone work superb. Still he strolled along he took note of a house with a carving in the wood that looked like a master piece. The deep swirls that were craved in the house looked like scenery of beauty only scene of television.
It wasn’t about the objects used in the builds he took note of, but the expression of “Inner Self” that fascinated him so much.
Finally, he had arrived to “The Pit” Salem thought. Training of combat in a way he had never scene. Some think of a skinny guys fighting with speed. Well from what he seeing was based on speed, agility and yet pushing his or her attacker in a way that brute force would be useless.
“It’s referred to as the dodge and walk” Quil spoke still looking at the arena. The attack would come at the trainee in a various maneuvers and from what Salem could tell the objective was use the momentum of the attack to “dodge?” and then attack. “How can you dodge and attack at the same time?”, ”Then step away?”; Salem spoke the words clearly with a sense of no understanding. The point to fighting was to finish it. He watched as each attack ended up with the trainee landing a hit to come opposite side or part of the body, like being hit from multiple attackers.
Quil paused slightly before speaking.” Masters of the art are referred to as the silent killer and brag that they have never been touched”, “Learning to dodge and end you opponent in a single blow". Salem whistled at the statement. Easier said than done he knew for sure. He watched with perfect concentration. Salem would stay in his current position for days without blinking.
There is nothing ending your fight in only one hit every time and never take a hit. “Why not find out for yourself?” Quil smiled. Salem eyes brightened up to the challenge.
Salem had been learning for days on end. His last clear memory was a life time ago. He remembered looking to the pit with excitement and now he stood in the pit getting his ass whooped. The first week was learning to understand what he seen. Not to just kill his opponent. He would watch for the unbalance motions even if his opponent didn’t know he or she had made one. Using their attacks to not step away but into the attacker motion and strike at the moment; easier said than done.
The next being just like the last four hundred in his mind was turning into a projector reel showing the same scene over and over. His opponent would step in for tha stab and pull in a single direction which did change time to time. Salem watched as the attack come and without a thought he step forward and left into the male sword arm pull his blade from under cutting a main vein. Then using his free hand to push the guys arm up and over he dragged the blade across his mid section.
Of course in all this somehow the dulled blade were “Spelled” to not cause harm but give the opponent the exact feeling if such were real.
Quil spoke with a tilted head” Better but still not quite getting there”. Salem looked at him sit on the side lines watching for weeks. So he had to call the bluff “ You think your better?”, Salem toyed with the weapon pointing to his friend.
Quil squared up with Salem. His grin if seen by others would have a fairy tale wrote about the word his face expressed without even needing to speak. They both charged with a furious attack. Salem with a reverse grip of his steel dagger in his right hand came from the high right followed by his left from straight up the middle. Quil with his own dagger danced around the him like it was child’s play. He he hit Salem with the blunt of his dagger in his stomach then followed a “ SSMMAACCKKKKK”.
The sound was on par with the raddle of his brain or it at felt that way when he woke up the following day around noon. “Damn”, Salem breathed as he felt the lump on his head. “You’re awake?” the women spoke which sounded more like question that a statement. Rising to pull him from the bunk he reached for the wooden edge. He rose to his feet and staggered for the door hearing “You’re not well” along the way. He was keen on ignoring that little sound he found the steps and took a seat.
He actually didn’t feel hurt just sore along with a little memory loss. He had no clue what had happened. The last thing he remembered was his a sparring match between friends. So just as he began to wake up so to speak the fog was raising from his mind when a middle aged male walked up.
“You took a nasty one mate”, the elder man spoke. With a sharp nod of respect before he spoke Salem replied in respectful tone “Actually I don’t remember much”. “It’ll come to you” he spoke and before Salem he could help himself, ”Sorry I didn’t catch your name sir”.
“Azuhe ‘Xi’ Uvozen “, Azuhe spoke calmly. Salem went to stand up in a hurry nearly falling back from his clumsy footing. He did catch himself. “Sorry Sir”, he was sure he would kicked out of the camp for disrespect. It had hit him when he had heard that name. The community had eight leaders. Each with their own expert knowledge on several areas of life anything from livestock, war, and etc… The list could go on and on; Salem was actually surprised he was as young as he looked. Although, he of course would not ask his age for fear of getting knocked up side his head. Azuhe was the leader of the community as the general. A cordoning to Quil he was one of the fiercest commanders years ago. Azuhe has a talent for tactical warfare and mastery of most combative styles of his people.
“Come with me”. Salem moved with a purpose to Azuhe walking to his side and walking in stride only a few inches behind his elder; somehow this too was to show respect. Azuhe briefly went over events of the community and along with other oddities of small talk. Then, roughly ten minutes after ward Salem had suspected there was a more important reason for his visit and he was right.
“Salem, I like you, as does the community” Azuhe paused for effect;” Although you are more than welcome to stay here it is time for you to earn your keep”. Salem looked over his shoulder with a firm nod. He knew Azuhe was right. “You seem like a fine warrior even though you’re still learning.”
“I’m willing to bet with a few weeks training you will make a fine hunter, and you will work with the others as well”, Azuhe finally put it to him straight. Of course Salem knew he wouldn’t like it but he would do what was needed to stick around.
“Yes sir”, Salem nodded yet again. He was beginning to feel like a yes man at this point.
Later on that day he ran into Quil “Hey Man”, Salem smiled. He had just finished talking with Azuhe and wanted to share the good news. He looks at Quil and just be before he could bust the surprise … “I heard you’re getting stuck in my group as the new trainee” Quill grinned.” You Ass”, Salem didn’t mean it of course. His grin showed such. Quil done it on purpose he knew but still yet he was excited. “You know you are missing something right?”… Quil eyed with a face he couldn’t read.
“Really, how can you hunt without a bow?” Quil laughed at the look on Salem’s face. Then he pulled it out from under his robes. An object wrapped in old discolored cloth. He took the gift in both arms and unwrapped the wooden bow and shoddy dozen arrows. He strung the bow and give it a test pull. He looked at Quil “I have no idea how to use this thing…”
His friend fell nearly fell over laughing. Catching himself on the nearest tree he took a look around and with nod he said “Follow me”. They both took a trip to the surrounding never ending forest that acted as a fence hiding them from most.
“Not Bad”, Quil spoke. Salem had only been practicing none stop for just over five hours. He could finally hit a target. He refused to go to his instructor in the morrow and look like a fool.
So much for not looking like a dork Salem was doing terribly. He could barely the outer three rings of the six ringed target set up. He could feel the stares of others and could hear the commentary of the spectators. “Why Me?”, Salem mumbled under his breath. As he hit very edge with his next shot. Though the course of the day he worked the target or rather it worked him. His muscles ached with a soreness he was not use to. With a flex of his muscles and bending slightly backward Salem could feel and hear the pops.
“Cra cra crac crack”, the sound was louder than normal. His movements were becoming stiff and very unrelaxed more so than normal, as well. He had finished for the day heading to shower, eat and call it a finished day. More so a wasted day Salem felt was more the truth than that anything he wanted to believe.
It wasn’t tell later that day he ran into Quil. “I think I get your biggest problem mate.” Quil spoke as he looked at Salem. Jumping in and cutting him off Salem felt and acted a bit defensive,” Hey, what’s that suppose to mean?” The look on his face matched his attitude. Salem was not ready to hear what was about to come next. Very few knew about him originally being human. Even though such felt like a like life time ago and maybe it was at this point. However; maybe, it was time to move on. He had mentally or so he thought.
“You still move like a stiff mate. Your physical limit is that of a human.” Quil pointed the words directly to him and he could feel the strength of the belief laced within those words. “Hmmm”, the verbally expressed thought from Quil was going to kill Salem. He couldn't just hear a {Hmmm} he thought.
Finally, Quil looked as if he was gathering some thought of worth or maybe an idea of understanding as to what he was about to say, maybe… Salem wasn’t sure at this point what he was about to say next.
“Follow Me”, Quil said only before turning and leaving without so as a clue to where he was heading.
Salem was doing just that and when he went to reach down to grab his shoes “ No leave your shoes”; Quil cut in. “Ok”, breathed and with that Salem was worried. He walked side to side with Quil only with a set of daggers with him like normal. He felt tired and wore slap out. Why was they heading to the dge of the tree line. The night time air was getting chill as the sky was darkening but not a huge degree. The sun shine would still out for at least the next three to four hours.
Just as they entered the forest Quil begun to speak again “You speak like us, your educated as we are, but you don’t understand like use”. “You move like you’re still human” Quil finished the long winded sentence. He gave it a thought and he wanted to deny the statement and even point such out,but he couldn’t. Quil took off running leaving Salem. Confused as to why or what running in the forest had to do with the price of beans to the topic at hand.
Yet, he too took off running. Why, he had no clue but he hopped over logs and run through trail Quil ran to. He felt natural, so of course he had no clue what he possible learn from running. With a few minutes later and have passed by he had caught up to Quil only being fifteen to twenty foot behind. He ran and worked around or over the obstacles in the path way just like any other day. He actually didn’t seem to give what he seeing a thought in tell he noticed something pretty odd.
He felt his movements than seen Quil’s own movements. He would place hand on a tree trunk and hop over. Whereas Quil would just jump over the same tree trunk; Salem watched as they done everything completely different. Every foot placement was completely trusted. As for Salem, he would glance down at times. Slowly started doing what he seen happen in front of him Salem started jumping clear over and object or turn sideway and as jumped through air as he would fly through a “V Necked” pair of trees. He could feel the smoothness of his movements.
This went on for just over an hour. Having just arrived back at the starting point Salem slumped down. Covered in sweat and with his breathing was heavy Salem wanted to fall over. He looked at Quil “ I see what you mean but I doubt running could change that completely.”
Quil looked at him “ This is just the beginning”. The face Salem made could have been painted and sold for thousands. The look of horror was picture perfect moment that left Quil rolling in the laughter.
The next day as he trained was shorted than expected only to surprise Salem. Quil popped up saying” I told you that was only the beginning”.
“Why me?”, Salem’s response was what anyone would expect to hear and say if they were in his shoes. Yet of course no one at that time really was in his shoes. A elf that wasn’t really a dark elf. The laughter could kill a elephant if that said elephant was nearby.
They took off to the woods again. This time they only ran for just under thirty minutes. The path was still the same and still yet he felt only a little more of ther understanding he felt the day before. Salem was still at a loss for the however dreadfully long amounts of going to be spending in the woods running around like idiot with no brain.
So with this being his like sane thought this and several other methods of training ranging from combat to your standard hunter skills went on for weeks. This was when the anger started to set in. The longer he went the longer he felt this was becoming to be horse crap. It all came to a hill the day Salem seen something he wasn’t suppose too.
He seen the man he met weeks ago kill another. Never saying what he saw, Salem went about his daily routine of doing what he was told. He was actually getting better at the various skills. Tell he found his own truth. He knew something was up. No one trained this hard to a hunter. Salem had the skill to kill wild beast for mere supper. He wasn't learning to fee his supposed family.
Deception was a nasty beast, but desire was a sweet, sweet fruit that tasted like no other.
He went looking for something that added up with his ideas. At any given time he would slip away searching through the community for any more oddities. Although he did find a few pieces here and there it wasn’t what he wanted nor was it what he searching for. Seeing random acts of violent behavior or someone cheating in a trivial game was not his concern.
After a few short days Salem took it upon himself to look in his best friend’s room. He couldn’t believe what he found. A journal log of the events of several weeks, months even. From the time he start his training tell the just last night. With a side note of “He is still not mission ready”, the written text sent him in a rage. Salem stormed out the doorway. His yellow eyes blazing, Salem felt betrayed. Salem a simple minded youth was being groomed as an assassin. What was worse about the matter at hand, he was too dumb to see the simple signs. Learning to move at a higher than normal pace without making a sound. Even being taught to shoot a bow with little trouble no matter the distance. Salem was furious no matter how hard he wanted to hide this fact he couldn’t so he left for a time beings hiding out in the forest only to return for one last deem.
Salem would kill his lying best friend and disappear into the night learning the simple truth of deception. And so he did just what his thoughts had been. Although the task wasn’t easy. He snuck into the room of Quil. Holding a dagger in his hand he edged to the bed of the lifeless male. Salem grabbed a fallen bellow from the floor. Still gaining ground on the still knocked out young male. HE place the stuffed leathery object over the males face and continued to slit the neck of who was his best friend. It was soo seemingly easy yet he had never understood what his mind felt at this moment. Salem fled that night.
He would never be the same boy he use to be. Yet, he still a child in many ways. Salem would never look back but swore to the gain the necessary skill no one would ever cross him again.
Philomel
04-26-15, 05:31 PM
Name of Judgement: Desire or Deception (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?28829-Desire-or-Deception-Solo&p=248094#post248094)
Type of Judgement: No Judgement
Participants: Salem
Salem (http://www.althanas.com/world/member.php?17567-Salem)receives:
880 EXP
110 GP
Hysteria
04-28-15, 06:57 AM
xp and gp added!
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