Legends of Belariath

ShaKaSelu

The Snow Maiden

"Son of a bitch! Must Fate always take a piss on my life?", I hissed these words as I limped away from Unigo with another quest on my shoulders, "why do I always take these jobs" , after I asked that question, a little voice told me to look down at my hand, and I saw why...I get very nice magical items for it, thats why. Anyways, my mission this time, was to take this Snow girl back to her home in the mountains...some mountains called the GoldPikes. As I clutched the map, I summoned my floating disk and jumped up on it. As I zoomed off towards the inn to meet the girl, I took a peek at the map Rincewind reluctantly handed me, it was a detailed map of the mountains, most notably is the mountain in the middle, my eyes widened as I saw that the mountain was the largest I had ever seen, not to mention that it was a helluva long ways away. I did not have much time to ponder this however, as I was quickly coming upon the Lonely Inn and its porch. I immediately noticed several figures on the porch, most notably Story, my very disturbed and mentally deep friend, although he would prefer the word partner to friend. Also, I noted my former slave Aphris, who had admitted to having feelings for Story ever since she helped to get him ressurected. Waving to them both as I passed by, I headed into the inn and began to look around for my intended rendevous with this "snow girl". I did not have to look long however, for I caught a glimpse of some wolven accosting this girl in the corner, she was being grabbed and groped by him and she was constantly pushing at him and shouting the word "NO" over and over. Sighing to myself, I headed over and tapped the creature on the shoulder, as he turned, I gave him a hard right to the side of his head, effectively sucker punching him to unconsciousness. The girl turned out to be the Snow Maiden, although she verily did not look the part, her hair was mussed and muddy, as were her clothes, a beautiful white gown turned brown and green from mud and grass stains, despite all these superficial flaws, her face was quite beautiful, for a human's anyways. I was still partial to my betrothed's face and I kept telling myself that throughout my conversation with the SM. The maiden told me that she had fallen into a mud puddle and that as she was climbing out of it, a strange elven woman held her hand out to her for assistance. I asked the girl who this elven woman was, but the maiden responded with a shrug and continued her story. She told me that the elven woman had on this strange helm with feathery wings coming out the sides, before the girl could continue, I said the word, "Ehlanna..", when asked if I knew her, I said yes I did, and that she was my partner in a business endeavor called "The Naked Bird". The maiden blinked at me for several moments and asked if she was a nice person, to which I scoffed, "Of course, although you should not get indebted to her..*smirk*". The maiden smiled for a moment before looking down and mumbling something about paying her debt. I reached out and lifted her chin, asking her to repeat the question. She smiled and blushed deeply, before telling me that Ehlanna extracted "payment" for helping her out of the pit, and that is where the grass stains came from. I merely held my hand up and shook my head, saying, "dont continue..please..I could smell her on you..come on". I stood up and headed for the door, the wolven immediately moved out of my way whilest holding his head in a protective manner. Once outside, I handed her the map and told her to follow me, before striking out north, through the forest and towards the Goldpike Mountains.

Several hours into the journey, several, SILENT hours, the maiden finally spoke, "what is your name sir..so that I may know who to thank?". I smirked and looked over at her as we walked through several clearings, "I am Sha-Ka..that is all you will need to know for now.". She smiled and nodded submissively, placing her hands behind her back as she walked. She did not stay quiet for long however, she eventually asked me where I came from, why I was at the inn, why I wanted to help her, and why am I not as evil as other drow, all in that order. I chuckled and pushed my cloak back before speaking, "I came from a small forestry village...the inn..drew me towards it somehow...I met many friends and set up a life there...I am helping you because...besides the obvious reasons of reward...I feel a need to atone for sins of the past...and sins of the future." The snow maiden looked at me for several moments, nearly tripping over an uplifted root as she did, before finally nodding her head, more to herself than to me, as if she was making a decision. I guess she sensed my watchfulness and turned to me with a giggle and a blush, she told me that as a rare mountain elf, she has never been exposed to her underground cousins, and that I was not as evil looking as many have told her. I smiled and scratched my head a bit since the leaves were tickling it, and responded, saying that I am like no other drow...except for my temper of course. She frowned for a moment at the mention of a temper, then smiled again, saying that she had a temper herself, although she has only shown it once, and to a very unfortunate halfling. I chuckled once again and told myself that this trip should not be TOO bad, I mean..the reward just -has- to be good considering how difficult this journey is.

We walked for another hour and a half, stopping to camp when the sun began its descent in the west. As I set out my bedroll and began collecting firewood, I began to think back to a few months ago and how I became so entrenched with the activities and peoples of the Lonely Inn and its surrounding areas. It all started when I wandered in..a scruffly little thief with nothing to lose and everything to gain, I had already made an enemy 2 days into my stay, yet I had also made a friend and love in the form of a High Elven maiden named Nidawi. We had been through numerous ups and downs in our relationship, but had seemingly settled on an even course, even giving birth to two twin girls, Tarrina Analese and Alexandrya, the proverbial "apples" of my eye, although I am not that fond of apples..let us use that term for now. Anyways, I was quite the whelp for many months, until a number of unfortunate occurences required me to forsake my thievery for a more noble cause..the cause of the knight. I was shaken out of my revelry by a loud scream emanating from the clearing I was camped out in. I dropped the twigs and branches I was carrying and dashed back, but before I could even take three steps into the clearing, I was nearly floored by what I saw, the Snow Maiden had a goblin by his testicles and was squeezing, what seemed to be, very hard, causing the goblin to scream that familiar scream. I did not know whether to jump in and help, or whether to laugh, I opted for jumping in, quickly drawing my dagger and putting the goblin out of his misery. Later that night, after the maiden had cooked a scrumptious meal for us both, I sat her down and asked a question that had been bugging me for the past day.

"What IS your name anyways?", I asked, she told me that it was Yuris (YU-REE), and that she was separated from her home when she went out to gather berries for her breakfast, and slipped down the mountainside, luckily, she was in the snow mostly, however she did lose memory of where her home was and could not make her way up the mountain because of it. Well, that and she did not know how she made it up in the first place. I just sat there, somewhat astonished at her misfortune and naivity, however I did not let it affect my comments and I asked her how she came to Unigo, in turn, she told me that as she was wandering the forest and just came upon the white ivory tower and a small strange little man with a dirty hat that had "Wizzard" scrawled on it. I immediately said the word "Rincewind" and she nodded, she then continued to tell me that he offered the services of Katarein and Unigo in hopes that she would find her home again. "He was awfully shy though..he would not even look me in the eye." I nearly laughed outloud at that statement before asking her how she was dressed to cause him such discomfort, to which she responded by telling me that these were the first clothes she had ever worn, and that she was naked when she came upon the weakling wizard. That revelation caused me to cough and spit out a piece of the rabbit I had caught earlier, into the fire. This action caused her to giggle very loudly, her voice echoed off the trees and the distant foothills. I just looked at her for several moments before bursting out into laughter myself, we shared a few minutes of laughter before turning down the fire and crawling into our perspective bedrolls for the night. I had just closed my eyes when I felt a form scooting up against me and curling itself around and behind me, turning my head, I saw Yuris snuggled up to me and dozing gently. Not wanting to wake her up, I laid back down and closed my eyes, wishing for sleep and for a new day, as the crackling of the settling fire soothed me into unconsciousness

I awoke that morning to find that Yuris' hand had inadverdently slipped and cupped my crotch, a part of me wanted to go back to sleep like that, but the sensible part of me pushed that down and forced me to push her hand away and get up. I shook her awake and told her that we needed to get a move on and that time waits for no one. She moaned and yawned at the same time before standing up and letting the covers fall off of her, revealing to my surprise, her nude form, although I averted my eyes...I did take note of her body and its curves however. She appeared to have modest breasts and a willowy body, proving her nymph heritage. She blushed as she caught my lingering glance and asked me if her body offended me. I smirked as I looked out into the forest and replied, "No...no...just that it is not proper for me to watch a stranger in the nude...thats all". Yuris merely giggled and shook her head before putting her clothing back on. As we started for the foothills, a strange sound caught my attention, and I jerked my head to the right. A rustling in the bushes was the source of the sound, and from the looks of it, a huge something was pushing its way through the sharp brush, growling each time its warty green skin lost bloode due to a warning scratch from a stray bramble thorn. I quickly backed up and withdrew my masamune, its blade reflected the early morning sun. I squared my feet off and prepared for whatever might emerge from the shrubbery. Before I could blink, 3 large, and hideously ugly orcs jumped through the greenery and charged me head on, shouting something in orc that I could not decipher....oh if only my brother in arms Story was there! I swiftly dispatched the first one, horizontally cleaving it in two before it could raise its club properly. The last two backed up a bit once they saw how their comrade was easily slain. Instead, they turned on Yuris, brandishing their blades and clubs and advanced, licking their chops hungrily...or was it lustfully? Either way, they did not lick them for long, as I charged, Yuris muttered a few words under her breath and over two dozen green vines and thorny bushes grew up beneath their feet, entangling and cutting them. Yuris merely giggled and pulled out a small knife, which she then proceeded to drive into each of their skulls, eliciting a short scream from the both of them. Shaking my head and sheathing my sword, I walked over to the dead creatures and searched them for anything of value, no use in killing if you do not know why they killed or if they were worth killing. I found a small parchment on the sword wielding one, it was pinned to his jerkin under his tattered leaher armor. It read:

To whom it may concern...

The third son of Yivonia is at The Lonely Inn, he is known to wander the forests and surrounding areas of said inn as well. 600 mhl to the person or persons who can bring this bastard in. As per usual, discussion of this with the law is a penalty subject to death.

~~~~~~~~

I looked up from the letter, my eyes a mixture of rage, curiousity, and hope. On one hand, I had a bounty on my head by what I would assume to be a sect of Drow Priestesses. On the other, I knew my mother's name, what was I to do? I was not sure if my mother was alive or not, yet, this letter led me to believe that she might still be alive for now. I turned to Yuris, quickly switching my mind back to the mission at hand and told her that we must get going now. She merely gave me a strange, almost piteous look, before nodding and following me out of the clearing and into the foothills. The foothills were not like any foothills I have ever seen, they were blackened, ash covered, plains, extending upwards in a nearly steep slope, however not so steep that it was unclimbable. Yuris rushed ahead, giggling gleefully as she tried to scale a large rock. I quickly ran forward after her, just in time too, for she fell and landed safely in my arms, still giggling madly. I merely shook my head and set her on the ground, and then proceeded to trudge up the side of the steep volcanic looking foothills. Our journey only continued for 20 minutes, yet it felt like 20 hours, the atmosphere felt like a sauna. I only hoped it was not going to get much worse further to the top....Drow are not known for their affinity to heat, after all. Yuris did not seem affected at all, in fact, she nearly reveled in it, sweat was pouring off of her, yet she kept on grinning like she had found a million mehrials and it was all hers. I did not have time to think of more similes for her comfort in this hellish environment for long however, we did not take more than 4 steps before a loud crash was heard, followed by two more. Yuris quickly drew her knife as I drew my katana blade, we watched the large rock from which the crashing was emanating. As it turns out, the rock was the one doing the crashing...it was a rock troll, a large one at that, easily 4 men tall and 3 men wide. I looked down at Yuris...or rather, the cloud in the form of Yuris, as she had sped off towards the huge rock troll, screaming something in nymph over and over again. I ran after her, but stopped short when I saw the troll lean down and allow Yuris to scramble up his form and sit on his shoulder. Yuris called out to me, "Sha-Ka! this is my friend Turro....Turro Troll!", the troll waved its huge rocky hand at me and grinned, still remaining silent. Yuris hopped off of the troll and ran back over to me, taking my hand and nearly dragging me onward, waving to Turro as she did.

"Seeeeya Turroooo!", she screamed as we continued onward. I asked her how she could remember him and not where she lived, to which she replied with a laugh and said that he was her very best friend and she could never forget him. I had, by now, adjusted to the heat, although I regretted taking my cloak along with me. DAMN was the ground hot! I felt my boots sticking to the ground a bit as we walked. I was about to take my boots off and bear the heat and pain, when I suddenly remembered...I had ice magic...duh! I told Yuris, who had curiously kept her boots off, to stand back. Thanosee yoritoso....fafsa cokoo! Those words caused a very serious blast of ice shards to come out of my hand, slamming into the rock and cooling it a bit...even IF the spell was meant to cut and not cool...the cold worked nonetheless, besides, it was the only cold spell I had...heh. However, the ground did not cool enough, in fact, it only stablized the temperature! Sighing, I looked at Yuris and noticed that she was...FLYING?! It suddenly dawned on me that if you cannot walk...why not float? This new revelation in my mind, I jumped into the air, a very thin layer of boot sole coming off, and uttered a cantrip, causing a wide white disk to appear below me. As I landed on the disk, I sighed as the slightly cooler surface refreshed my melting soles. I quickly made my way further up the mountain, Yuris tagging behind me the whole way as we went. It was nightfall when we finally arrived at a small plateau with a tiny alcove on it. We set up camp there and I told Yuris I would keep watch for the night seeing as I did not (and still dont) need sleep. The night passed relatively uneventfully, just a few bats here and the moon causing some coyotes below to howl. I stayed awake that whole night...thinking about what Yuris and I were going to do the next day. I was quite distressed, although I hid it well. I let my mind wander to why my soul was what it was....why it felt as if there was something trying to tear itself out. I did not know why I felt such...maleviolence in me...I only know that I had to stop it...whether it was atoning for past deeds by doing good ones, helping as many people as I could by 'protecting' them, or even helping a common inn slave adjust to her surroundings...I just had to stop it from manifesting itself fully. I did not dwell on this for long howver, because it was soon sunrise. A new day had begun, and I was ready to get this girl up this damned mountain and back into her home as soon as possible. As I stood up, I took notice of the sky, and it was quite...quite...quite....dark and gloomy. I shook my head and sighed, calling for Yuris to awaken so we could continue. As I the words left my mouth, lightening struck the mountain below us, causing my hair to raise and frizz slightly. Growling, I shot an energy bolt into the sky, yelling out for the gods to leave us alone.

However, the gods were not merciful that morn...another bolt of lightening flashed out and struck the ground next to where I was standing, followed by a voice...a sultry, lustful, yet hate-filled voice that said, "Sha-Ka...leave this petty quest an come back to your rightful mistress....Lloth!"

I merely spat on the charred rock and yelled back that I was no one's slave, especially Lloth's. That was clearly a mistake, the voice yelled out that I will never have peace until I accept my true heritage and succumb to the Drow instinct. I narrowed my eyes at the sky, but I felt a ring of truth to it. I knew that I needed to accept my instincts...my heritage...I knew that I could not keep acting like a high human in a dark elf's body, for it would be unnatural and self-destructive. I dwelled on those thoughts no longer however, I had a job to do, I turned and kneeled down to shake Yuris awake. She did not move for a moment, but she eventually opened her colorful eyes and arose nude. I turned my head and muttered 'Vith!...never will get used to that'. Shrugging, I gathered our things up and bade us trudge onwards. A few hours up the mountain, we were shaken by some mysterious force. Looking up, I thought I saw a few shadows flitting through some rocky crags, and some eyes peering out from them, I shook me head and rubbing my eyes, looking up again, I saw nothing. I thought for a moment that the sky had something in it, waiting and watching over my head like eyes from every direction, but it was only the sky, there was nothing in it at all.

"THWACK!" I fell to my knees as another large rock struck me about the face, my cheek was cut up and bloodied, Yuris was unconscious beside me, her own blood seeping from her forehead onto the warm ground. It had been ten minutes since I thought I saw something lurking in the crags above my companion and I. Turns out, I was right...it hit us like a bird of prey, right on our heads. They were shadowy creatures, they were still concealed behind some crags about 50 meters away, however, very large rocks were being hurled at us, they were being thrown at great volumes so fast, that it looked like a cloud of hard limestone and shale was descending upon our heads. "Fuck this...tired of being nice..." I drew my sword in one hand and started blasting through the rocks with small energy bolts, leaving Yuris covered up in my cloak as I ascended the small built in pass between the looming crags, destroying rocks all the way. As I ascended the side of the mountain slowly, blasting away at rocks, they seemed to increase as the air and sky around me was darkening....or was it that they were decreasing and the sky had turned to black...whichever, I finally got to the crags I saw the shadows hiding behind. Readying my sword, I jumped into the craggy alcove to face......

Nothing...nothing at all. Just a large dark place with a couple scorpions crawling around, nothing of importance. As I turned to walk out, I heard a demonic growl behind me, I spun around to see the scorpions with red eyes...red eyes and an increasing height and transformation, transformation into a large panther like creature...the only difference was that it was completely black and shadowy, and that it had an innate ability to melt into a shadow puddle. That was the same innate ability it was using right now. The shadows sunk into the ground and came under my feet, all of a sudden, I flew up into the air and hit my head on a piece of rock jutting out from the mountainside, falling back down, I landed on one knee, grasping my head. As I looked up, I saw this massive shadow cat staring down at me, instead of 2 red eyes...there were 5, scrambling backwards, I bumped into its companion, shadow cat two. I swung my sword on a reflex, unfortunately, that was not fast enough, the sword passed harmlessly by the shadows. In return, the shadows shot out razor sharp (or what appeared to be razor sharp) tendrils at me, I dodged two of them, but the other two caught me in my shoulders, piercing them and running me through, pinning me to the rocky surface.

So there I was, pinned to the cave wall by these two shadowy cat things, they were advancing, my sword was useless, I thought I was done for when I remembered my magic...maybe magic would work...I weakly lifted my hands and let loose with the biggest pair of energy bolts I could muster, closing my eyes and ready to face the consequences if I failed. The shadows were torn apart by the intense yellow energy, and there remains dissolved in mid-air. Smiling a little as the tendrils dissolved with it, dropping me to my knees, I muttered a generous thanks in drow to no one in particular before passing out.

~~~~~~DREAM SEQUENCE BEGIN~~~~~~

I woke up on a large soft surface, the sheets...felt softer than even silk. I blinked a few times to bring things into focus. As I looked around, I noticed that my surroundings were nearly pitch black, save for a few torches here and there. As I gathered my bearings, I noticed a very alluring drow woman sitting in a chair in the corner, watching me with aloofness as she strummed on a lyre, shifting my eyes from her, I caught sight of another drow woman leaning over me with a pitcher and a mug, with a third drow woman leaning against the wall looking quite put out. I asked, "Where the ...where am I?", to which the girl leaning over me responded while pouring this purple liquid into the mug, "In the underdark you male...now drink this". I took the mug in my hands and slowly lifted it to my lips. Inwardly I was screaming at myself, telling myself to stop, but it was like I was watching myself...someone was controlling me as I took in the warm liquid. I lowered the mug, having emptied it. I sat up fully and took in the three women once again. The harpist and the one who gave me the drink, looked at me as if I was the first male they had ever seen, yet I knew that not to be true. The first two introduced themselves as Celea and Trivana, the third kept quiet still, just observing me. Celea told me that Trivana and Minerva were her sisters and that I was in the Q'uellar of Nanzabarran, and that I was 'the one', now, what that term actually meant, I do not think I will ever know, because as soon as I asked, I was whisked away once again, back into the land of consciousness, the only sounds were the words, "Follow your heart...no matter where it takes you...the true path will be revealed".

~~~~~~DREAM SEQUENCE END~~~~~~

My eyes popped open and I sat up quickly, but immediately paid for it with an intense searing pain in my shoulders. I looked around frantically and grasped around for my sword as I did so, but as my eyes came into focus, I realized I was still in that craggy cove, my head being cradled by Yuris. Yuris looked down at me with a slight smile and said that I was badly hurt and nearly died, and would have if she had not gotten to me with her healing magic. I slowly stood up, wincing again as the left over pain of being skewered slowly melted off of my body like ice on a hot summer day. I looked further up the mountain and pointed, "Yuris...we have only a few...perhaps 7000 paces or more left to go". Yuris nodded quietly and followed me, giving me enough direction to adjust my course when necessary. We advanced further up the mountain, travelling for a few hours until Yuris caught sight of her home...except...it was not like any home *I* had seen, I had expected a quaint common cottage on the peak of some grassy plateau...what I saw...was not quaint...common...OR a cottage...it was red, hot, molten magma...We had climbed a goddamn volcano! When I turned to Yuris, she merely smiled and said, "I am a magma nymph...I remember now...this...this place is my home!" I merely gawked at her.

"What do you mean your 'home'? This place is a fuckin volcano, girl!" Yuris merely giggled and shook her head, as she opened her mouth, the ground beneath us shook and rumbled, and the magma in the volcano boiled and bubbled. Yuris and I looked around, wondering, waiting, what it could be, when it came...I did NOT want it. From out of the volcano emerged a large...what could only be called a magma arachnid. It growled out the words, "My" and "Mountain" before charging us head on. I pushed Yuris out of the way and drew my sword, jumping over and onto the spider. As I raised my sword to strike, I was hit hard from behind and knocked off and onto the ridge of the volcano, nearly falling in and becoming a crispy Shaka. As I looked up to see what had struck me from outside my periphrial vision, I saw a large scorpion tail, interlaced with wisps of magma, just like the rest of the creature. I scrambled to my feet and sent a stream of ice shards at the monster, more out of reflex and without the normal concentration, I urged the shards to do SOMETHING...to strike this monstrosity down before it could us. My prayers were answered, somewhat, when the shards hit the monster, he slowed a bit, and the magma seemed to freeze and darken for a moment before heating up again and he resumed his stalking towards me. "Hmm" I said, "seems ice is not this spi...scor..arachnid's friend...YURIS! Fire any ice spells if ya got 'em!". As I said this, a giant pincer/leg came towards my torso, trying to snip it in two. I rolled out of the way and fired another volley of ice shards, Yuris followed suit with her own salvo. The molten creature slowed when my spell hit it, but it just shrugged Yuris' spell right off. "What the hell...why do only my spells work?" I ducked another attack by the monster, my clothing ripping a bit from the swipe. I charged forward to make another strike, intent on putting this creature down for good, I concentrated, raising my hands, sending one large, focussed surge of energy through the edge of the blade and at the magma creature, effectively cooling it down and knocking it off the side of the volcanic mountain, causing a small avalanche.

Turning around to face Yuris, I was amazed to see her stepping into the volcano! I screamed her name, screamed for her to stop, but she did not desist. As she fell into the magma, I expected a 'FWOOSH' sound, signifying her death, instead, I felt an intense cold, like I was being fried on the inside and frozen on the outside...a badly cooked meal in fact. I looked down into the pit and saw nothing but white, shiny, glimmering ice, growing and climbing up the sides of the volcano like a thief climbing the side of a mountain. The ice swept under my feet, causing me to immediately slip and fall. As I laid there, half-dazed, I looked up and saw the maiden floating in the air, clothed in all white...snow white...she floated down towards me and touched my forehead, healing my wounds and helping me to my feet. She explained how she remembered how she was separated from her home, she told me that the magmatic creature cursed her and her mountain...turning it into a volcanic home for him and banishing her to the earthen ground. As I listened to this, it dawned on me...the bare feet on the hot ground...the ineffectual ice spells...this girl had lost her memory and full powers as a snow thingamajiggy! I backed away slowly and bowed to her, she merely giggled and kissed me on the lips, her tongue dancing out to tease my lips for a moment before she pulled away and headed back into the now iced over volcanic pit. I merely shook my head and headed back down the mountain, before I took three steps though, I came across a piece of infamous Goldpikestone, found only at the peak of the mountain. I pocketed it and told myself that this would prove I did the deed, I then resumed my journey down the mountain, thinking about the girl, the magma creature, and most of all...the dream.

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