--Dawn of Ages--

[GameCrackers 7]

Chapter 1          

  The noise of the rain drops was constant, the wet sounds of the small but fat drops hitting the cobble path, it was night, and quite dark, a dim light in the middle of the path was lit, illuminating a very small area in the middle of the dark. The cobble path was quite old, small pouches of grass grew between the small cracks of the stone, giving it a more natural look to it. The path was quite deserted, not a single building, walls, or anything nearby, empty, only the sound of bugs, and the of the rain drops falling over the cobble path. The path seemed infinite, some said the path went through the whole continent, others said that the path led to the Forbidden Lands, others say that the path leads to Golenvard, the place where the heroes of the land would rest after their death, destined to fight and drink all through eternity, and if ever Dashma would have to fight Yerlin in the Great Battle of Aces, the Heroes would go down to fight with her. All mockery…Heroes never existed, Gods, Divines, whatever you call them, they never existed and they never will, at least that’s what Jesh said, that’s what he thought, the gnome never really believed in the Way of the Gorsh, or really believed that Golenvard even existed; in his mind, only one thought ran through his brain “Once we die, we die; we lay lifeless, limp where we fell, or where someone moves us, limp and out of breath, as worms, bugs and Nirns eat our flesh and rip the eyes out of our skull” quite the morbid thought, but he had to face the reality, he was no longer a child, and he had no time for fairy tales.

 

            Jesh was a gnome, a seventy years old gnome, or conversed into the human age, only thirty. He was small, like all gnomes yet he didn’t found that bad, he uses his size as a weapon, as a tool and an advantage, he was a Powder Gnome (all Gnomes at the age of thirty five have two paths to choose and that will change how their life will change, where they will work and how they will affect the community, there’s the Powder Gnomes, that will follow the way of the mechanism, redstone and machinery, many of them learn the art of Technomancy, a mix of magic with machinery; the other choice is the Star Gnome, Gnomes that use a special kind of magic that they believe that came from the stars, that it’s a gift from their Gods, many of these become clerics, healers or some, Paladins. There’s no record of any gnome actually being able to use any other type of magic besides those two, thus, its said that Gnomes can’t learn any other type of magic), and he was proud of it, he always loved how the machinery worked, how to move powder around and that would make something good happen, he could make traps, ambushes, mechanical miners, all of the sort by simply building machinery that could do it for him. At least he was trying to learn how to do it, how to improve himself, yet he knows that’s simply something that will take ages.

 

 

 

 

 

            In this very path, Jesh walked, following the cobble path, his head staring down, his bright blue eyes hidden under the goggles that he used almost all day long, his darkened red hair that almost seems light brown was all wet now and fell on his head, gluing to his forehead as the rest on his neck. His black coat was all wet, humid from the rain drops, thankfully it was over his white buttoned shirt that always seemed to be fully buttoned all the way, his brown pants had leather braces attached to it that went around his chest making a small cross on his back, a holster stood on the side with a small flintlock pistol that he had, and a small steel dagger on his hilt. The gnome gave small steps, his boots making a regular sound, almost like following a pattern as he walked along the wet path, stepping on small puddles of water creating a little splash.

 

            The gnome grumbled a few words to himself, repeating the words of a small song that his mum used to sing

 

“Lollay, lollay, little child
Why wepestou so sore
Nedes mostou wepe
It was iyarked thee yore
Ever to lib in sorrow
And sich and mourne evere
As thine eldren did er this
Whil hi alives were

 

Lollay, lollay little child
Child, lollay, lullow
You have come into
An alien world”

 

            It was a beautiful song, one that he adored and one that he always recited when nervous, it made him a bit sad whenever he sang actually for it remembered him of his deceased mother, a woman he loved dearly, and this is one of the only gifts he has of her, her song, the memory of her sweet voice on his head, forever stuck, or so he thinks.

 

            He had not a very big mind on where he was directing, possibly home, but who knows where home is. As the gnome walked he started feeling the smell of burnt wood, of burnt flesh…if one would look at him, they would notice the smoke leaving from a cave on the end of the dirt path that diverted from the cobble one. A smirk could be seen on the gnome, and as soon as he passed beneath the light, if one would look closely, they would see drops of blood on his coat, and a malefic smirk on his lips, the light did a small reflection on his goggles, creating a rather sinister look on him, one that would be seen rare on gnomes, a scary one. And the gnome kept walking, the noise from his footsteps soon faded, disappearing, and now, only the noise of the rain could be heard…falling over the cobble path…falling over the water puddles…

 

Edited November 12, 2015 by GameCrackers

[GameCrackers 7]

Chapter 2

 

            The echoes of battle rang on Christopher’s ears, his green eyes gazing upon the burning buildings, upon the orcs who pillaged the village, he couldn’t do anything, he was too scared, his face was all dirty, with a bruise on his forehead, because one of the orcs hit his head with the pommel of its sword, he had tried saving his goods, yet he wasn’t half as strong as those damn orcs. His eyes fell on a green orc, who had a battle-axe, he saw as he fought with Jenkins, one of his friends, the small gnome didn’t had the size enough to fight with the orc, yet he was quick and moved quickly, avoiding the beast’s attacks, then the sweep came, and Jenkin’s body was cut in half, not even a scream was heard from him as the body fell behind and the legs forwards, the intestines and guts clearly seen falling from the torn body. Christopher had to look away, the poor gnome has never seen this amount of gore and blood. Cristopher was a Star Gnome from the village of Jrolvesken, a village just below the ground, they had made a giant hole and created various levels of it with wooden buildings along the walls, in the end of the hole, below was the small Assembly that every gnome city needed with its Kun, a representative of the city. The above level of that would have various workshops by and markets by the various gnomes, this floor was by far the most packed with small gnomes, buying, selling, trading, and chattering. The two levels above would have the housing area where every gnome lived. This was a perfect city before. Now…now everything was burning as Orcs targeted the small people as they tried to run and even some tried to fight.

            Who would think that the traps and the defences they had would be destroyed? In such a way that it’s now impossible to fix, he knew some of the Engineers were in the process of building new ones but it was all destroyed now…gone…burnt with no way of recovering it. The Orcs had used this chance to attack and they had no way of attacking back, gnomes weren’t good fighters and the ones who knew how to fight were no match for the orcs, at least in this town, that was simply a few miles away from the main capital of the Gnomes, Arlma.

            Christopher rose to his feet, his white hair was wet from the sweat, he was tired, stressed, confused, and his eyes widened as he saw the massive Orc running towards him, axe ready to strike, Christopher froze in fear, he couldn’t move, he couldn’t do a thing, he only braced himself for impact. He waited for the pain, as the orc raised his axe, but instead of feeling pain he could only hear a grunt. He opened his eyes, slowly, and saw the orc falling to the side, a gnome was on his back and jumped down before the body fell, his dagger filthy with the blood of the orc. The gnome was hooded, using a black mask to cover his face as well as grey leather armor, who was this gnome? If he even was a gnome! He didn’t knew but as the gnome fled, Christopher went after him, he looked to the side to see his people being slaughtered, some ran, some tried to fight but only in vain, a couple dozens of orc bodies on the floor, their legs almost as big as them, they jumped over them. The death toll of the gnomes was so much bigger than the orcs and that was clearly seen.

            Cristopher didn’t knew where he was going but they seemed to be running to the second level, that couldn’t be good, they were walking straight into where the Orcs were! Cristopher thought in returning back but after a scream from a gnome he evaluated better his choices and knew he wouldn’t live enough to survive that long, his chances of survival were better with this one. The nimble gnome walked towards a small house on the side, near some burning ones. As he entered, Cristopher quickly followed, why a house? They were sitting ducks here! He closed the door behind him and looked at the gnome with the black mask, still confused, the Gnome walked to the stairs and punched the wall in a place, and then punched again but this time in another place, and again on the same place before kicking it a bit to the left. Suddenly the wall opened, turning into almost like a door. Cristopher’s eyes glowed with surprise and wonder and quickly rushed before the door closed on him. As he passed inside he heard the banging on the door…Orcs…the doors closed and the two gnomes were alone…alone in a dark place…the floor beneath him was cold, and the walls around them surely weren’t made of wood, they were too hard, stone? Perhaps. Then, a flash of light and he had to squint his eyes from the sudden change of darkness to light. He looked back to see the small gnome with a torch on his hand, and he could see that the floor and walls were made of stone, and they seemed to be in a rather large corridor, as the gnome walked, Cristopher slowly followed him “So hmm…I just wanted to thank you for…saving my ass back there” Christopher said to him, only a grunt was heard from the gnome and they kept walking “My name is Christopher” he said to the black masked gnome, another grunt was received as an answer, this time Christopher simply followed him, he was done with questions, at least for now…for now…he was curious…

[Elad™ 560]

Moved to the Archive. It shall be sorted into the appropriate category shortly.