Onward to Adventure: Chapter 6

Suddenly, as though he was kicked in the chest by a horse, he was sent back to the night he decided he would fight the monsters of the world. He smelt the ashy air all over again, the warm campfire on his face. The long horned ants were chirping and the wolves were howling in the distance.  He remembered this night very well, it was the third week of the Harvest and the whole village was abuzz.  This night however, his brother Bjorn took him out camping in the woods, Brinvok and Bjorn always took a few nights around this time of the year to get away from the town.  He opened his is to see his brother sitting on the opposite side of the fire roasting their dinner.

“Hey there brother,” his brother Bjorn said, “You just dozed off, wouldn’t want you to fall into the fire wouldja?”

“No haha no we wouldn’t, I prefer the food to be cooking rather than me.” Brinvok responded.

“Yeah Brinny, say, isn’t the night sky magical? You can see all of the moons in the sky tonight, the sky is a blend of purple and black, I knew I picked a nice night to go camping.”

Brinvok felt a chill run down his spine, Bjorn was the only one who ever called him by his nickname.  Suddenly, there was a loud crash from the forest and Bjorn began to grow uneasy.

“Maybe we should get out of here, that could be a bear.” Bjorn said.

“We can take a bear, relax brother, is the dinner almost done cooking?” Brinvok stated.

“Um yeah it’s done, let’s dig in,” Bjorn said, who took the bird off of the skewer and handed one of it’s legs to Brinvok.

Suddenly there was a closer crash, it sounded like a whole tree was knocked over.  Bjorn ran to the tent and took out his double edged axe and threw Brinvok his quiver and bow.  The two crept behind their tent and prepared for whatever it was that would be that would attack their campsite.  Then out of the darkness came a forest troll.  The troll had stubby legs and a thick, stocky body.  Forest trolls have four long huge arms that end with big meaty hands that have three fingers as thick as three fingers of a normal person.  The whole body is covered in coarse brown hair.  They have long ears, almost resembling a foxes and has two short horns on its head.  The face almost resembles a human however, it’s nose is hoggish and the face is wrinkly.  

Suddenly the troll let out an earth shattering roar and charged towards their tent.  Brinvok dodged and shot an arrow into the troll’s back.  Bjorn however was unable to dodge and was thrown into a tree by the troll.  Then the forest troll picked up Bjorn with two of his arms and beat his chest with the other set.  Brinvok felt completely cold as he watched the beast rip his brother in half like he did all those years ago.  The sheer anger washed over Brinvok again and he went to the upper half of his now dead brother and took his axe and ran at the creature.  The troll was not paying attention to Brinvok as it was throwing around Bjorn’s torso.  Brinvok sunk the axe deep into the troll’s back, the beast let out a deep, low groan as it slumped to the ground like a ton of clay.  

As the adrenaline went away, Brinvok felt cold again, he felt as though his mind was removing himself from the situation.  As he went higher and higher into the night sky he saw the face of the Baolab on one of the moons.  It sneered at him and said in a voice of pure malice.

“The fun has just begun Brinvok, I am going to break you.”

‘Why are you doing this?” Brinvok shouted in response.

“I am doing this because you are the biggest threat to our plan.  If I am successful in bringing you to insanity, then there is nothing stopping us from taking back our land from you filthy humans.”

With that Brinvok felt the familiar feeling of being cold and was flown through to another memory.

Onward to Adventure: Chapter 5

The Baolab is one of the smallest guardians, they stand ten meters high and is known for its hypnotic gaze and its intellect.  It is reptilian in appearance, it walks on two legs and has a long whip like tail with a sickle shaped bone at the end.  The Baolab has four arms, two long ones with vaguely humanoid shaped fingers,  it has another set of  arms below the main arms, these arms appear first as little bumps when the Baolab is about a year old,  these arms grow for the next several years and then stop developing.  These arms curl inwards towards the body and only unfurl to grab unsuspecting prey.  It has a long crocodile like head and bright purple eyes that it uses to hypnotize other animals, including humans.

The Baolab and our hero locked gaze and it was then that he felt fear, for the first time in years, he felt its icy grasp on his throat and he stood motion as the Baolab lumbered over to him.  He assumed the worst as he was paralyzed by its gaze and its tail wrapped around his legs like a snake.  Suddenly, he was yanked into the air and held close to the creature's gaze.  Our hero felt a soft voice in his head, he knew it was not his, it sounded like thunder in the distance.  He struggled to listen to it but when it became audible, it felt as if his whole being was drained of all hope of winning this battle.  It was the Baolab, it was trying to talk to him, he heard that they were smart but he was now terrified that they were capable of communicating with humans.

“Hello there Brinvok”, the beast’s voice echoed in his head.

Brinvok was terrified, he never told anyone his name, hearing someone else say it startled him.

“You think you are so strong don’t you?  It must be a jolt to be in such a powerless position, it is people like you, those of you who call themselves the heroes who make my kind feel powerless.  Well we are coming back to reclaim this land for the beasts once more.  You are nothing against us anymore.  We can access the deepest parts of your mind any time we feel like.We will use this to break you, to make you feel as powerless and as lame as we have felt for a millennium. ”

With that, Brinvok felt a searing pain in his forehead as the Baolab dove into the deepest parts of his mind.  He felt it sift through his memories, trying to find those that he locked away.  The monster unlatched Brinvok’s mental vault and smiled a smile of pure evil as he gazed at his findings.  Brinvok felt a pain in his heart as he suddenly was transported back. back to that night.

Onward to Adventure: Chapter 4

He walked down the dusty trail back to the familiar fork in the road which will bring him back to the village.  He looked to the other path and saw that it lead through the winding hills of the northern province of Triopia. He wondered if the path would lead him to the swampy southern province, or perhaps to it lead to the eastern province, a volcanic wasteland where little life could survive. He quickly dislodged such thoughts from his head, as he thought it was childish to let his mind wander when he still had his job to finish. He had to return the skull to Scarlett, the Quest Mistress in the village tavern.  

The road was almost invisible in the dark of night, he did his best to stay on the trail.  The faint glow of glowflies on the long strands of grass helped as a boundary for the trail back towards the village.  The lights of the village got closer and closer until he reached the gates.  

“Halt,” said the guard at the gate “the village is in lockdown, no further entry to the city”

“What is the meaning of this? I need to get into the city, I have to deliver this skull to Scarlett.” The hero explained

“That is irrelevant, a Baolab is loose in the square.  All gates are shut until we can capture the beast.”

With that a loud boom was heard from inside the walls and the guard ran back into the city.  Luckily, the gate was left unlocked and our hero snuck inside.  The city was almost destroyed, the thatched roofs that looked so quaint earlier that morning were now ablaze and the wooden carvings of animals on the pillars were now unrecognizable due to the sheer number of scratch marks on them.  Buildings were smashed and the sky for miles was thick with black smoke.  

Our hero knew that the bounty would have to wait, he hid the skull in a nearby pile of hay and made his way to the square.  The city was quiet, the guards had probably evacuated the city and they were the only ones remaining, there was however, soft yelling that grew louder and louder as he approached the square, where the guard at the gate said the Baolab was.  Suddenly a guard was flung right by our hero,  who looked to where the man was flung to see the Baolab.