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Old 01-15-2004, 05:36 AM   #197
Hilde Bracegirdle
Relic of Wandering Days
 
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: You'll See Perpetual Change.
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Sting

Rauthain

Noting as best he could, where he was, Rauthain had given up the trail and headed with all speed south and east. And though he keenly felt the weight of the decision, he had made it easily, choosing not to be blinded by the enduring shadows of the past, but to finally live, taking action without being governed by their far, demoralizing reach. Even as he felt his own life a ruin of former times that itself lingered overlong in this new age, when seeing the new and subtly wrought changes in Kaldir, he began to hold the spark of hope for a better future. And so he went.

As the sun lowered in the sky, he came upon two orcs traveling back down the ravine ahead of him, arguing as they wandered. As fortune would have it, they had not noticed him yet, so close upon their heels, for he stayed in the deep shadow of the western side of the crevice.

Bow at ready he moved, positioning himself and let fly a quick succession of arrows, piercing one of the orcs well, before the other could locate him amidst the brush. As the first slowly gave way to his injures, the second spotted him and raising his crude weapon, charged half-blinded by the slanting rays of the sun.

Throwing his bow well behind him with his left hand, Rauthain drew his sword with his right, cursing Toby as he did so, for well he knew his blade dull. And his rage spent upon the brush had done little to help matters. But what he lacked in edge he hoped to overcome by strength, and so gripping his sword with both hands he fought until a chance opening, when with all his might he leveled a blow hitting the orc along his shoulder and sent him hopping sideways to regain his balance.

Then the orc showing a wicked grin advanced, rushing at Rauthain, who saw that his adversary perceived his dilemma and grew all the more reckless for it, quickly bloodying the old Ranger’s arm and shoulder. Fending off the orc as well as he might, he bided his time assuming a more defensive posture until the orc became over confident and another opportunity presented itself. This time aiming the flat of his blade at the temple, Rauthain struck the fiend knocking him to the ground, where upon he ran the creature through, hastening it’s death.

As soon as it lay quite still upon the ground, Rauthain bend over the lifeless figure and reaching in the pouch at the orc’s belt, relieved him of the blood red whetstone that lay hidden there. Loath as he was to take such a foul stone off the corpse, covered as it was with black runes he did not understand, he did not wish to revisit the scene he had just experienced though his own misguided principles. And so he took it and also the sword, which had wounded him, before continuing in the ever-deepening evening.

Traveling down the ravine, following a small stream that ran along the center if it, Rauthain rode in the night, ever impatient for some sign of the others and ever cautious of what might be found along the way.
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