Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
From: aaron@space.ualberta.ca (Aaron Humphrey)
Subject: [KQ] Maleiu[TGMOAB 5.x]: A Hunter Is Not Finished So Easily
Message-ID: <1992Nov23.051320.19991@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca>
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 05:13:20 GMT

Maleiu's mind noticed only gradually that there was a way up.  It had been sunk
into such a morass of self-hatred and pity that it had almost forgotten any
other state.

Then there was a sensation that was definitely different.  It had to do with
pain, and separation, and loss--but not his own.  Another's.

His own feelings paled in comparison.  And in that sense of proportion came the
return of memory.

He was Maleiu.  He was a hunter.  He had killed an opponent dishonorably, but
he owed a greater debt.  He was fighting the minions of an opponent that toyed
with men's minds, and he was getting more and more tired of it.

He was bleeding badly from the leg.  He lifted his arms, and noticed how weak
he was.  But even with his weakened arms he managed to rip off a strip of his
shirt--something he'd never gotten used to wearing in the first place.  He
lifted up his leg with an effort--it was stuck by a huge clot of blood to the
floor, and in separating it he started blood flowing anew.  But he quickly got
the strip under his leg, and then set about tying a tourniquet with it.  Soon
the blood flow slowed.  He bound it with another couple of strips.

He vaguely caught someone--'Raelf?--calling for retreat.  Have we won or lost?
Maleiu wondered.  If that sense of loss was truly Great Mother's, then perhaps
we have won.

'Raelf seemed to be forming some kind of magical gateway.  Suddenly Maleiu was
filled with a great repulsion for magic.  Who knows where, what mind-twisting
place that gateway would lead to?  The chamber seemed to have undergone some
kind of upheaval while he had been dead to the world, and cracks had appeared
everywhere.  He got unsteadily to his feet, nearly collapsing from the rush
of blood to the rest of his body.  The doors to the chamber had been similarly
destroyed, and he hobbled in that direction.

Looking back, he saw that most of the others seemed to be heading for 'Raelf
and his gateway.  But Captain and Azzar seemed to coming his way.  He was glad
of that--as much as it would pain him to admit it, he would probably need their
support to get out of here without collapsing.

Speaking of collapsing--the upheaval whose effects he had noticed was still
going on.  He saw more cracks appear, and then a shower of rubble that buried
the place where he had been, and the corpse of A'aa.  Rest easily, warrior, he
thought.  He hoped his soul was freed of its servitude to Great Mother.  He
spat at the thought of such evil.

Then Captain and Azzar reached the doorway, and, Maleiu leaning on Captain's
shoulder, they made their way out of the chamber.

--
---Alfvaen(Looking for "October's Baby")
"Lucille was secretly thrilled when Norman sucked her toaster."
   ---B. Kliban
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