Friend of Many Friends

"This is the life!" I said to the others.

"Yes it is!" said one of our troop.

"Yes it is!" said the others.

We travel north to a new land from an old one that we want to forget, and we collect others of our kind as we go.  Our adventures on our long road are many to retell, and those that we remember in farther days, we shall share with our next generations in times to come.

We shall tell them of the red swamplands, and of the bears that we found as we passed through there with our lives.  We shall tell them of the woodlands, and of the dangerous wolves that we fought there.  Of the men that we encountered along the long roads, those stories may be the most dramatic.

We shall also tell them of the delicious field chickens that we found in the sunny and warm pollen valleys, and of the wild roots that sustained us as we crossed the snow and ice of the frozen mountain passes, with skinny bones and cold feet.

Yes, we had many adventures.  We became good friends as our group grew, and we were sad when others of us went their own way, or remained in the valleys and prairies with others of our kind that lived there.

It is a great and wide world, and it is wild with adventure and new lands to explore.

One day, I myself shall return to visit many of those lands that we crossed on our long road.

Spotted Brown Stripe - Friend of many friends.

Just a relaxing Spring scene.

This is just a peaceful scene with a wrongly placed moon.  Yes, I know that the moon isn't in it's proper place, and in the wrong phase, but I wanted it in the scene for dramatic reasons.

I built this scene six years ago, and posted it here to give it a new life.  I am inspired to re-build it.

It doesn't have a story behind it, it is just a relaxing Spring scene.

"The Steps of Arae" Illustration

This image is part of a series of illustrations that I built for a story that has remained incomplete for approximately five years.  I keep pushing off some stories in order to work on others.  I have so many of those these days.  At first, I thought that this story was one of the many that were lost in the great flash drive smushings of 2009.  I lost many complete, incomplete, and story ideas.  It was such a tragedy.

Luckily, this one and others were saved elsewhere.

As you can tell, this one is a fantasy set in an unnamed land.  I usually do not like to use common names and places in my stories, so this story is not set anywhere as in ancient Europe or anything.  Maybe it took place on an ancient land that only existed only until the last time that the continents moved, or centuries before then.

Oh yes, the title of this illustration is not the title of the story.  In the story, Arae is the name of a land where a dark fortress stood.

Well, eventually I will complete the illustrations, and more importantly, the story itself.  With those illustrations, it will make for a pretty substantial ebook size.

We'll see what happens.

p.s., if people are interested in this story, and what it is about, add a comment.  Perhaps I will put aside my current project and complete and release this one next.

G

Monarch Hill

"The monarchs that come here in the summertime have been known to blanket the long grass and wild carrot of these rolling hills.  What a sight it is!"

That is what Maya Mulberry, the pony rancher would say.

We asked about her when we went to the Honey Festival.  The long-time residents of the area said that she was part of a caravan that was heading north.  The residents said that the caravan stopped in the town for the night before moving on.

Well, as fate would dictate, the caravan left early the next day.  Unfortunately, the child Maya was left behind.  One of the nursemaids found her, and immediately notified the watch.  The town elders sent a rider in search of the caravan.

The rider found the caravan, and those who led it.  He informed them of the child that was left behind.  When the rider returned, he gave a letter to the elders that had been written by the leaders of the caravan:

"Dear good people,

We are survivors from the lands in the southeast.  We were besieged by raiders that would continually attack our little village.  Over time, the raiders became more brazen, and eventually started to do in our people and take over their homes.  We had a council in secret, and decided that it would be best to leave.

By cover of night, we packed our things and left.  Some of us returned to the abandoned village and set fire to every building.  If we weren't going to be left alone, then the raiders weren't going to have what we had built.  The last of us said that he saw the raiders return to find smoldering buildings and ruined fields.

Of the child, we do not know who she belonged to.  It was possible that her kin were victims of the raiders."

The long-time residents said that it did not take long for the people of the town to become smitten with the child, and that she was immediately claimed by a couple that still lives in the town.

Maya had become a member of the town, and it was clear that she was beloved by everyone.

The long-time residents also said that she married and moved to a newly founded town north of Monarch Hill.  They said that she lives there with her husband and three children, and often comes down and visits her parents and the town.

Perhaps, we will visit the pony ranch one day.

Forgotten Room

When the cursed prince reigned in his kingdom in the circled mountains, the nobles did conspire amongst themselves to destroy him.  They risked their lives to do so, for amongst those of his family before him, he was the most evil.  They risked themselves so to be free of him.  The evil prince survived many attempts at his life; in doing so, he obtained many wounds, and thus, consulted dark beings to heal him and to extend his life.

The evil man retaliated against the nobles and the people in his kingdom by many vicious means.  He used the power of warlocks and other dark beings for his own protection.  He surrounded his castle with fallen soldiers and creeping things that would haunt the streets of the surrounding towns and villages in the night.

As time passed, many adventurers offered their skills to the nobles, and ventured into the prince's castle.  It was said that many entered the shrouded place, but none escaped to claim the rewards offered by the nobles.  At times, several adventurers entered the dark woods surrounding the castle, but as it always went, none ever returned.

Brave companies of men who ventured as far as the outskirts of the dark woods claimed to see bones strewn about the trees, and the silent forms of dark things waiting amongst them; they beckoned the brave to enter.  At times, the prince himself would come forth, and lead great armies of fallen soldiers to raze towns and lay siege to kingdoms.

He would then return triumphant to his dark castle, and dark laughter would be heard in the fog-covered woods.

Of the few adventurers that did manage to enter the towers, none would never return, nor their souls escape, for the evil prince had more than evil minions to wander the hallways and chambers of his castle.  One such adventurer was heard saying: "Hold my ale, and my gold reward ready, for I shall return with the prince's blood on my sword!"

Waiting for the Good Fish

Most days, we go about our business as we do.  We wake, prepare ourselves, go to work, come home and spend time with the family for a short time before going to bed.  Others have their lives, and they spend it as they do.

Most days, we neglect to focus on other things; like the bird that sings in the tree as we prepare ourselves for a new day.  We do not pay attention to the flowers that face the sun, or of their scent as we rush out of the door.

We should take the time to appreciate the world and those around us.  While we work away at our assigned position, the world is passing us by, and before we know it, our gray hairs begin to outnumber our colored ones.

More than being just an image of two children fishing with a pole that may likely never catch anything, this is also an image that represents two children that wish that their father was with them rather than at work.

It is too soon when they grow and go their own way, and the fishing pole that never caught anything sits propped up in the garage collecting dust.

The Goat Tree

The following story is taken from real life.  It is my own account of a event that I actually experienced as a child.  To this day, when I think about it, It still gives me the freak-outs.  I certainly have no explanation for it.  It is just something that happened, and cannot be explained.  Well, here it goes...


The Goat Tree:

As a child, we would visit family far in southern Texas.  Although I haven't been there in decades, I remember a particular path that joined our relative's house, and the main road that led into town.  In that part of the land, and in those days, much of it was still undeveloped and so, much of it was still wild land.  There were wolves there, some wild horses, and wild boar there that could take your leg if you weren't careful. 

Anyway, as I remember, we would often sit before a campfire while the older family members would tell stories.  One night, after everyone had gone to bed, I awoke to go to the outhouse.  I was walking along the small path, when I heard a goat bleating.  Well, it may not seem like something that would be scary to you, but you must understand that I was about eight years old at the time.

I knew that our family did not have goats, and that wild goats weren't common there.  I remember looking around the flat land and seeing nothing.  The only thing close by was a dead tree.  I started walking again, and again I heard the goat bleating as if it were no more than five yards from me.  There was nothing there, and for an eight year old, I can say that it was a terrifying experience.

Well, I kept that experience to myself for some years.  One day, I mentioned it to an elderly relative who used to live in that area.  When he told me what old dead tree was used for, well I was freaked.  He said that when he was a boy, he remembered that relatives and neighbors would tie goats to that tree for "meat processing", and that it was known amongst his childhood friends as the goat tree.  He said that he didn't like going near that tree because he would hear things there. 

The tree itself has been long gone by many decades now.

It may not seem all that scary to you, but to me, it was a frightening childhood experience that haunts me, and remains unexplained to this day.

Inspired by Vermeer

I was in a contest once where basically the rule was to take a painting by a famous artist and try to reproduce it using 3d software.  This image was inspired by Jan Vermeer's Girl with a Golden Earring.

The figure itself is a Poser character.  I built the headdress and the earring myself.  It was a very interesting project.  I imported it into Vue, and rendered the scene.  I added the Scratch post work in PhotoShop.

Excerpt of: Mr. Cobbler's Paradise

The elderly man looked angry, as he turned to stare at the ceiling.  After a few moments, he looked at the younger patient again.

“Who are you?” the elderly man asked, “are you one of those people looking to sue someone?  I heard that some people look for crime victims to make money off of other people or companies.  I don’t like that!”

The younger man could feel anger in the elderly crime victim’s voice.  Clearly, he had heard, and perhaps even seen many negative things that opportunistic criminals do in order to exploit the elderly.

“I’m sorry sir, I’m not a, uh, ‘ambulance chaser’ or anything like that.  I’m just a victim like you are.  I’m just a man that was shot for walking along.” the younger man said, “I just arrived in this city, and already I hate it.”

The elderly man looked at him; the response from the young stranger was something that he could relate to.  

“So you were shot too, eh?” the elderly man said, “I was shot in my shoulder by some stupid jerk.  He was probably on a drug or something like all of the other junkies like him are!”

The young man listened.

“Why does this city have to be so cold, and so full of useless killers, druggies, hookers, and all of that?  You can’t even go to the corner store to get something, without one of them pushing you, demanding money, and smelling of stink!  They’re everywhere! There are so many of them!” the elderly man said, angry frustration in his voice.

The two men’s attention was caught by an altercation at the far end of the hallway.  Frustrated with waiting, one of the other patients stood, and walked to the doors at the far end of the hallway.  He pushed at the doors, and looked in.

Mr. Cobbler's Paradise

I have released my latest ebook: Mr. Cobbler's Paradise.

"Mr. Cobbler's Paradise" is a story that takes place in a hospital, and in a crowded hospital hallway in particular.  An elderly crime victim is brought into the noisy hospital and placed on a gurney.  As he waits silently for his turn, a young reporter, who unfortunately is also a crime victim, starts to make conversation.

Soon, the young reporter decides that the elderly patient would make for a good interview.

The story that the elderly man tells is one of remembrance, sorrow, joy, anger, pain, love, and loss.

It is a story that takes place in the big dirty city.

A "Dangerous Situation" project

I built this 3D image for an artist's challenge depicting "a dangerous situation."  It was one of my earliest projects.  The only changes that I made for this upload was the addition of the smoky environment, and the application of a filter to add detail.

The "endangered" adventurer was actually a time traveler that had wandered into a dangerous situation in a strange time and place.  She actually went in search of a colleague that had gone to the same place in search of something, and who had not returned.

It would make for an interesting book cover.

The Bio Overseer's thoughts

"Ah, good! We have another one, and this one shows even more promise!" the bio overseer said to himself as he watched the scientists examine the specimen of the hybrid species that they had developed long before.  It has only been a small fraction more than twenty million years since we developed this hybrid."

"They were perfectly compatible with the planet, much more so than we were.  For centuries, they served us well.  They were excellent resource collectors, and now I see now that they have begun to evolve again.  Such a short amount of time, and some of them have already shown biological compatibility." the overseer said.

"Despite their greed, prejudices, and other shortcomings, this sub-species may be what we need.  It has been some time, but I believe that their molecular structures shall serve us again!" he said as he watched.

When the primary search vessels discovered the somewhat toxic planet, it was considered just another planet with primitive life.  When the vast amount of resources were discovered by chance, the small planet became the focus of a newly developed collection project.

The visitors quickly discovered the toxicity of the planet to their biology, and developed special protective clothing for their workers.  Over time, conflict arose from the working classes over the fact that they no longer wanted to perform the dangerous work of stripping the planet of valuable resources.  This led to bloodshed between the working class, who had become wealthy, and those who benefitted from their work.

In the end, it was agreed that a new native species would be developed with a contribution of the visitor's own genetics, to produce a hybrid that would be better adapted to the planet itself, be intelligent, and would become a slave species that would perform the menial and dangerous work of mining valuable resources.

"Soon, the time will come when these creatures will serve us again," the bio overseer whispered to himself, "soon we will collect the better evolved ones, re-engineer them and produce a variety of species.  They shall be specialized for mining various planets, and they shall be compatible with their new environments."

"Such is our way of ever expanding our kind across the universe, and using the resources of the universe in order to do so!"

Why Me?

"Just a few days of babysitting, and I can pay my rent," Rie thought to herself, "the park, the petting zoo, the back yard, how hard could it be?"

Mr. and Mrs. didn't believe in television, they were more of the "outside" type of people.  The poor girl had never babysat before, and being between work, she took the position.

"Yes, Mr. and Mrs, I'll take care of the kiddies while you go to work," Rie said cheerfully.  Mr. and Mrs. looked at each other, and smiled.  "She's the one!" Mrs. said, and Mr. agreed.

The thought of why their parents went through babysitters like water did not pass through her mind.  Rie's only thoughts were of making a good impression, doing the job, and paying the rent.

When the first child, the shy one, stood at the door, Rie was pleased.

"This is going to be easy," Rie thought.

When the other three, the more rambunctious ones ran through the door and encircled Rie, she almost jumped out of her boots.

"O.k. then," Mrs. said, "we're off."

With that, the front door closed, and Rie was alone with the four children.

"What will we do first?" one asked.

"Will we eat breakfast at Poofy Bear's Restaurant first?" asked another.

Another ran through the door, and the fourth began twirling around.

"I like pancakes!" the fourth said, "I like jelly!"

Rie looked around, and realized that being a babysitter may not be as easy as she thought.

After breakfast at Poofy Bear's, the five went to the petting zoo.  After the petting zoo, they went to the park.  A scraped knee, a brushing of bird feathers from hair, a chasing of a cat, and finally getting one of the children down from a tree later, it was time to eat lunch.

Finally, it was time to go home and wait for the arrival of Mr. and Mrs..

Rie was exhausted, as the four children played on the swings in the backyard.

"There was never a time when I had that much energy!" Rie thought to herself, "and it was only the first day!"

Mr. and Mrs. came in through the gate, and noticed the children playing and Rie slumped into a wooden chair.

"Ah, I see that everything is just fine!" he said, "I can tell that the children really like you."

The children saw Mr. and Mrs., and the four ran towards them.

"Is Rie going to come back tomorrow?" one asked.

"Will we go back to the petting zoo tomorrow?" asked another.

Rie wiped her brow.

"What have I gotten myself into?" she thought to herself, "well, I guess that it'll pay the rent."

Tempestuous Ashen Planet

It took them thirty-seven years to get there.  Most said that it was to be a costly project, and such resources would have been better served elsewhere.  There were always two sides to every argument.

The day that the group set out on their long assignment, they said their farewells, for it would be that they would never see their families again.  It was a project not only for exploration, but one that could provide a new home, for the planet had shown signs of failing.

The seven explorers and their three robotic companions left the planet, and all that they had known.  They were on course for a distant planet; one that could provide a new life for their species.

It was a long voyage.  It was one that had it's share of risks, and dangerous situations.  Many times, their little exploration vessel suffered damage, attacks from space-born creatures, and other deadly encounters that exist everywhere from one solar system to another.

During the long travel, the group lost one companion to infection while collecting necessary resources within an asteroid field, and three others to a solar flare and it's radioactive effects.  It was to be expected.  They lost one robotic companion as two of them collected biological material that was necessary to produce valuable fuel for the explorers.

When the battered vessel arrived at the distant planet, the four surviving explorers found quite a discovery.

It was a planet of ash.  It was a planet of burned material that had formed from a long extinguished supernova that had occurred at some time in the distant past.  Gigantic spires jutted up from the highly alkaline seas, and within those, a strange teeming of life forms that had evolved within it's depths.

Strange poisonous clouds lined the skies in stranger formations, and huge spheres floated amongst them.  They provided highly corrosive rains, that wore away at the spires and other formations that continually jutted upwards into the ashen planet's alkaline skies.

Five moons shot around the planet so quickly, that caused the most turbulent of seas on most of the planet's surface.  Great monstrous creatures that had evolved from the smallest of life forms lumbered across the hostile surface; their monotonous voices and their massive forms caused fierce rumblings across a far distance from where they slowly moved across the ever-changing continents.

The four surviving explorers noted all of this.  They explored more of the violent planet, and discovered even more.  They looked at each other, and after a few moments, they gazed to each other.

"They said that we would fail.  They said that our quest was one for fools.  They said that we would perish long before we reached this planet.  What we say, is that now, at last, we have discovered our new beautiful home."  They said to each other, as they sent back signals to their failing planet, in hopes that soon many vessels loaded with settlers may make their way to their new home.

Telling ghost stories

"Do you remember the one about the windmill that used to stand on the hill?" she asked, as the wind blew leaves and fog across the inn's reinforced windows.

"Of course," he replied, glancing at the windows, "although, that one was way before our time."

The wood in the fireplace crackled, startling the two as they sat near it.

"What about the one that used to haunt the slate caves near the fallen trees; you know, the one that chased the cart makers when they were young, and would do so every time that they passed with supplies?" she asked.

"Yes, I heard that one too," he replied, "that was a good one.  I remember visiting that turn in the road when we came home from school once."

"It seems that we've heard all of them," he added, "we even heard the ones from before our own time that the elders tell every night here in the inn."

They glanced over at the elders who were sitting further from the fireplace.

The two spoke on about the local wood ghosts, mountain shadows, and wispy apparitions that seemed to plague the townsfolk and passing travelers in the old mountain land.

"Well, you know, that other people used to live here, and that they had their own lives to live.  It makes sense that they would love this land so much, that even after they were gone, they wouldn't want to leave." she said, having taken the candle from his hand.  "They seem to like to make themselves known to anyone, especially to those who are alone in the wild."

"Yes, I believe it.  But, I wouldn't go out after dark if I were you, not even with a candle.  It would be too easy for a wispy ghost to blow it out, stand an inch from your face, and say: Boo!"

Why us?

"I'm glad that they're gone!" the poor green frog said, favoring his left flipper that had become a target for a thrown empty can.  "Those noisy creatures with their clompy feet, and their annoying laughs, they were so irritating!  Things were much more quiet and peaceful before they came along."

The poor green frog's little friends sat next to him on the riverbank.

"I agree!" said a smaller yellow frog, "nobody used to come around to pollute the river with bottles and cans and half eaten ash-smelling burned meat.  Bleh!"

"I agree!" said a reddish blue frog, "things were much nicer back in the old days.  There wasn't anyone to drive away the juiciest flies with stinky smoke."

The poor green frog noticed a carton of something float by.  It snagged itself against a branch for a while before breaking free and floating away on the current.  Moments later, an empty can, not much unlike the one that had been thrown at him, followed it along.

"Phew!" the small reddish blue frog said, "I smell smoke.  Those annoying creatures are around here again."

The three frogs sighed in disappointment.

"Maybe it's time for us to move further up the river where we'll find peace!" the green frog stated.

The others agreed.

So off they went, the three little friends.

They passed through hills and wide fields.  They crossed dirt roads and hopped through thickets of bramble and abandoned houses covered with spiny vines.  They rested on mossy stones in the evening, and feasted on various insects during the hazy days of their long voyage.

Eventually, the three friends found a quiet place further up the river and in the deep woods.

"At last!" said the green frog.

"At last!" said the others.

"Now we have peace and quiet in our own little world! Perhaps now we can find some nice female frogs, and…" the green frog started to say, when the three noticed more of those huge, noisy, and clompy creatures walking along the riverbank.

The three little frogs sighed in disappointment.

The Survivor

"Corporal! Corporal Ran! We are losing your position!  We can no… longer…" the connection between the last surviving human in the fueling outpost on Jupiter's fourth largest moon, and the command vessel twenty-seven million miles away, failed and went out.

In the last six hours, he and the rest of the three-hundred and ninety nine personnel began to fight off an invasion.  The aliens had been able to reach the surface of Io, and they did it quickly and undetected.  The commander believed that it had to be a traitor amongst the forces on Io. It had to be.

Before long, the aliens and their superior armor and weapons, quickly dispatched the security forces in a strategic attack.  Panic ensued, and before long, several scientists and assistants barricaded themselves in the various reinforced safety zones.  It did not take the aliens long before they pinpointed the safety zones, and eliminated everyone in them.

The commander was gone, the security forces were gone, and all communication systems were destroyed.  Being the last survivor on the Io station, Corporal Ran contemplated his situation.  The aliens wanted the fueling outpost, but why?  What was the purpose of invading and taking a somewhat insignificant resource?  Why would they chance a significant invading force to pierce enemy lines and attack the refueling post, when there were much more valuable and vital targets further out and near the battle fronts?

Corporal Ran could not understand why.

Having been assigned to Io, the Corporal had been trained in defense.  If that defense was lost, and invasion had been accomplished by the enemy, his secondary assignment was to destroy the station.

"Destroy it, and deal with the consequences later.  Set the destruct process, and make my way to the hidden transport and escape vessels!" he said to himself, thinking about the process, "don't allow the enemy access to our technologies and collected resources!"

Io was a very valuable moon, and the nuclear devastation that would result from destroying the station would not harm it very much, but the aliens would not have it.  The Corporal made his way from corridor to corridor.

He entered the seemingly insignificant room where the detonator systems had been housed.  He set the destruct process, and quickly left the room.  He hoped that soon enough, he would be in the hidden transport hangar, and out into the deep of space.

Explosions rocked the corridors, as Corporal Ran noticed that the aliens had discovered the hidden hangar.  He entered and discovered several destroyed vessels all around him; the remains of several aliens lay smoldering amongst the chaos.

Braving the intense heat, the Corporal moved throughout the hangar, and found one intact vessel.  Climbing in, Corporal Ran initiated the hidden hangar doors.  Several aliens ran towards the small vessel, as the Corporal turned it and flew it out into the cold of space.

He watched his monitors as massive explosions spread across the surface of Io.  It was the only home that he had known for several years.

He turned to see several alien vessels all around him.  Behind them, the command vessel and many of his own fellow forces, finally arrived to engage the alien force. Later, Corporal Ran would discover that a massive deposit of vital materials had been discovered deep under the surface of the moon, which the aliens had detected.

The battle itself would be known as the battle over Io, and he, the hero of Io.

Seleinit's Folly

The elder witches taught her how to cast spells, and she became adept at it at a young age.  Seleinit was one who was eager to learn, and even more so than the others.  Night after night, she spent hours practicing in the tower.  This concerned her elders.

"You spend most of your time at your studies," an elder said to Seleinit, "why do you not spend time with your friends?"

Seleinit herself did as was suggested, but her desire was to learn more.  Over time, her interest in casting spells became a compulsion.  Behind locked doors, she began to delve in darker works.  She began to associate with others who practiced more dangerous subjects.

From them, she learned how to conjure dark things, and her desire was to delve further.  Soon enough, Seleinit grew darker and more open about her practices.  When the others objected to her activities, Seleinit left for a relative's remote home on the coast.

There, in a dark castle that lay atop a cliff by the sea, Seleinit invited others who had similar interests.

One night, she conjured a dark being.  She ordered it to perform simple tasks, and it did so.  Later, she ordered it to retrieve objects from across the countryside, and it accomplished it.  As Seleinit became more adept, she also noticed that the being no longer obeyed.

One night, the thing lashed out at her, and demanded her servitude.  It took all of her skill to fight it off.  Finally, the thing turned and left the castle on the cliff, and it disappeared into the trees of the forest.

Exhausted, Seleinit realized that the thing that she had brought forth was growing in size and growing stronger.  She realized the error of her actions.

"Woe am I," she thought to herself, "for by my arrogance, I have unleashed a dark thing upon the world!"

The Bog Witch

"Yes, my grandson, it is true!" the elderly man said as he brushed his gray beard.

The boy sat transfixed at his grandfather's admission.

"the old stories that you heard from the others are true, and by my judgement, it seems that you are now old enough to know." the old man added.

The boy stopped throwing stones into the river, and turned and stared at his grandfather.

"Well then, the stories about the old witch are true; she was once a villager that chose to practice mysterious things.  She learned how to conjure dark things from dark places, and send them out to do mischief, and other sorts of things like that. Oh, I knew that.  It's been common knowledge amongst my friends for a long time.  You're not telling me anything that I or my friends don't already know" the boy replied.

The old man saw a sense of "smirkiness" in his grandson's face.

"Grandfather, if I may tell you something, we were in the bog two nights ago!" the boy confessed.

The elderly man sat staring.

"Yes, it is true!" the boy said with a grin, "in fact, we go into the bog quite often, my friends and I, we go in search of the old witch!  Although, we've never actually found anyone in that festering place."

Disbelief replaced disappointment in the old man.

"You go into the bog?" the old man asked, "you go in search of the witch?"

The boy smiled.

"Yes grandfather, we do.  I have to say, that the old stories that you and the others tell at the inn, well, they are nothing more than old tales.  They are no more ghostly or dark as the shadow that now crosses the trees on this fine fall day!" the boy said, confidently.

"If any traveler were to stop at the inn and hear those old men's tales, well, he would receive nothing more than a quiet laugh at the listening of it.  He may find it enjoyable for a time, but nothing more," he added.

The old man remained sitting as his grandson stood.  The boy threw one last stone into the river.

"Well grandfather, I've had fun.  I have to tell you, that you spend too much time with those other storytellers.  You have to start spending time with others who aren't so confused!" the boy said with a laugh.

The old man watched him leave.

"Well, my grandson, perhaps it may be time that you meet the old witch," the old man said to himself, "perhaps it may be time that she teach you, and your brave little friends, something about… respect."

Broken Sword

I never knew his real name.  In all of the time that I was a member of the crew, I doubt that any of the others knew either.  I served aboard The King's Sorrow for well over nine months; having been shanghaied off the eastern coast after a night of drunkenness and carousing.  It was a common fate in those parts, and I should have kept wary of it.

Our captain was known only as Broken Sword.  He was a giant of a man, and pale as the foam that lingers off of the rocky death that line the many islands and coast lines of the sea.  In all of the time that I spent on The King's Sorrow, I have never heard him speak.  He never addressed us, or has he ever acknowledged us.  We were to do our duty, and that was that.

As I said before, we did not know his name.

I would hear stories about him from the other crew mates.  There were some who had sailed with Broken Sword for years.  They spoke of the most fearful adventures that they had the misfortune to experience while aboard The King's Sorrow.

It was said that the captain was now one who had interest in gold or gem of any kind.  It was said that he did not care for drink or plunder, for his interest was in other more supernatural goals.  Before long, I would learn that Broken Sword's obsession was to seek out a corsair.

It was said that a particular corsair, who was captain of a vessel named The Spectral Journey, had caught and plundered a ship named The Quoirel that was bound for a distant shore.  It was said that the captain's wife had been on that vessel, and that the corsair and his men had burned The Quoirel will all aboard.  Were it not for a crewman that had escaped in a dingy, and made his way to the coast, none would have learned of the fate of The Quoirel.

They say that on the deck of The King's Sorrow, during a heavy storm, and with all of the crew present, Broken Sword swore to find and destroy the corsair in vengeance.  The men said that he swore not to rest until he himself destroyed the corsair, and that if he could not do it, that he would curse himself never to rest until the end of the world, or when he engaged the corsair's ghost in battle.

Months after, Broken Sword would learn that the corsair had been killed by soldiers who had been hiding aboard a merchant vessel that he and his men had boarded.

So now, we serve on The King's Sorrow, and we follow him.  We follow him on his never ending journey in search of the cursed vessel The Spectral Journey.  I scoffed at the thought of such an adventure, and more so at the possibility of finding a phantom vessel, but the crew mates did not laugh.

They did not laugh with me, for they had seen The Spectral Journey, and they had seen the corsair himself.  They had seen him, and they knew that as ship mates aboard The King's Sorrow, they were also bound to the captain and to his curse.

The crew of The King's Sorrow sat in the dark, and I sat with them.  My fate had been sealed, and I too would remain aboard The King's Sorrow, until the end of the world, or until we and our captain, Broken Sword, finally engage the cursed corsair and the phantom vessel called The Spectral Journey.

Cavern Explorer

"The deep places of the earth hold the greatest of treasures!" his old professor used to say.  But, many adventurers who were brave enough to take the risks, did so for the sake of discovery and and more so for adventure.  It was also true that of the many that set forth, most of them never returned to tell of their tales.

It was said that when Fidiope set his mind on exploring the greatest caves in the deepest of places, none could discourage him.  He ignored those that said it would be a fool's adventure, and that only a fool's misfortune would come of it.  Others asked that should he return, if he would bring back diamonds and other valuable objects of the earth for them as tokens of his victory.

He always scoffed at their requests.

Some of those that thought as him, said that he may even find long lost civilizations in the darkness; Civilizations that had once flourished in the sun, and had great histories, but had been buried in some long forgotten cataclysm and forgotten by men.

But, it was 2317, and in such a day, science and technology would support him as he went on his way exploring.  Technology would keep him alive and nourished, and allow him to find great treasures that had been lost to humanity.  He would say that the stories of extreme danger were over exaggerated, for technology had trumped the old ways, and the old risks.

Well, off he went, and in the late of night, so that the naysayers would be dreaming their seventh dream, and would not be there to attempt to discourage him in his need for adventure.  Off he went into the darkness.

It has been many years since his departure, and some say that he chose to remain to live out his life with some nameless people deep within the caverns of the earth, or to wallow amongst the purest gold and diamond caves, living off of the sweetest fungi and blind of fish.

Perhaps he will return one day, and share his great adventures with us, those who were the skeptical.

The Associates

Pardon us, Oh devastating one!

We come from a distant forest that you may catch a glimpse of if you were to climb a high mountain and face to the east.

We traveled along a great river, and floated along on a log of wood for many miles.  We hid in a human's cart, and ate some of the barley that we found in it.

We chased rabbits and chipmunks on our road to the great desert until we finally reached it, and here we are.

My associate and I were traveling by the edge of the desert on our way to our final goal; the distant feeding grounds.  We could not help but notice that you have quite an amount of saber-toothed chicken there, and we would like to offer our services in assisting you to dispatch such a bounty.