From: hsexauer@vax.cns.muskingum.edu (Rapunzel) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [JOI] Recriminations Message-ID: <1993May3.171405.5147@vax.cns.muskingum.edu> Date: 3 May 93 17:14:05 -0400 Aleric stepped back from the corpse warily. He had made a mistake that time and Kyar could have paid with his life. Aleric berated himself. Aleric continued cursing himself mentally for his lack of alertness. He sheathed the two daggers he had drawn the instant he heard Darkin's knives whistling through the air. Still tense and angry with himself, Aleric knelt next to the body of the demon to inspect it closer. The figure resembled the smaller demons from the forest closely, having the same black scaly skin and gnarled body. But this one was much larger than the others and was double jointed. His head was shaped much like an elongated dome with a blunt point to the back of the skull. The mouth was outsized and filled with razor sharp serrated teeth meant for tearing the throat or flesh from whatever unlucky being was its prey. The claws, fore as well as hind, were also very sharp and curved inward to complete its natural armament. One slash from those could disembowel a man easily. Kyar was lucky it was only a glancing stroke. The demon was obviously a killing machine, meant for only the one purpose. Aleric wrinkled his lip in disgust of the creature. He certainly didn't want it lying around the camp. He went to the pile of equipment and found a small spade the would service. He then turned back to the Reaper and wrapped it in its own cloak and dragged it off into the woods somewhere. Once there, he very carefully removed Darkin's knives and set them aside. Drawing Xel-ha, Aleric hacked off the Reaper's head and limbs, and split the torso in half. He wrapped the head separate from the rest of the body, careful to keep his hands out of the foul ichor that oozed from the pieces. Taking the spade, he dug a deep hole in one place and buried the head. Following the same procedure for the rest of the body, he carefully buried each piece at some distance from the others. he thought. When he had finished the gruesome task, Aleric looked at Xel-ha's blade and Darkin's knives. All three were covered with the ichor. Grimly, he picked up his beloved sword and thrust it into the earth. He followed suit with Darkin's knives. Pulling them free again, he saw that most of the ichor had been cleansed. He thrust them all into the earth a second time and wrenched them free. This time all the ichor was gone. He inspected the blades carefully for any sign of corrosion or lingering poison. As far as he could tell there was none. Still disgusted with himself for his mistake, he wandered down by the river bank and, folding his legs under himself, sat at the base of a large tree. He stared moodily into the water. This wasn't the first time his inattention had nearly cost a companion his life. His younger brother had once been on a mission with him, and the two had watched out for the other's safety. During an orc invasion he and Jaerodyn had fought together, but when Aleric pursued the orcs' leader he became separated from his brother. Jaerodyn fought valiantly but soon was surrounded and gravely injured before Aleric could return to save him. Sure, Jaerodyn was fine now, but in his own mind Aleric condemned himself for his brother's injury. And now he had once again jeopardized a valued friend's life by inattention. He vowed silently to never allow it to happen again. The night was now well advanced toward the dawn, and Aleric still sat below the great tree staring into the water. In the darkness of the hour, he saw little. But he wasn't really looking at the water. He heard a thought gently inserted into his mind, He ignored it. In his recrimination he wasn't interested responding to anything. the voice said again more stridently. he replied with a dull tone. Kyar refused to be ignored. Aleric sighed. He slowly climbed to his feet. he answered resignedly. Aleric retraced his steps to the camp where he found Kyar standing at the perimeter on guard. Kyar said nothing as Aleric passed him. He pulled a blanket out of the packs and lay down by the fire, rolled in the blanket. He didn't feel Kyar's discreet probing as he closed his eyes to sleep. In the space of a few minutes, he slept.