Shadow of the Fallen

Thrin, in the echoing silence, had returned to his dark brooding mood, and the sudden interuption was leaving him ill at ease. He wondered what sort of man would be able to find the elvish dwellings, especially wood elves.. Such beings did well to hide their existance. He bound all that questioning and the grim mood he was in into a single, stone-shattering glare that would have cut steel with equal ease. "And you are..?" People had this odd way of jumping into conversations without any introduction..

Thrin's dark brooding and the memories that flooded from the hidden recesses of his mind soon vanished with the arrival of the newcomer. Apparently, he was very unexperienced as an adventurer, as was shown in his dress and his manner. Thrin would have guessed that he had only began a few moments ago, had he not known better. He knew there were a few in the tavern that would belive such a thing though.. He took a swig of his ale, as he had been doing more often in this conversation since he had become part of it. A thing he did against his own emotional instruction, a thing born of the mind and not of the heart. For where the heart carried the passion and the resolve, the mind carried the knowledge and experience to know what was best for the heart. In guesture of welcoming, Thrin then called out, "you there, wood elf! Come here and give us merry preamble of the conversation you wish to partake in. Do not be frightened of us, for we are only old drunkards singing a merry tune without the songstress or musician." A jeering tone was evident in his voice, though not directed at anyone in particular. He was making a joke to everybody about everybody, in such a way that it began to break the ice in the room.

IC: "True, brenton maidens have some of the fairest singing voices.." He trails off as he is lost in memory. Something seems different in the way he ponders this new thought. Perhaps it is a subject best left alone. When another speaks he wakes from his idle thought and takes a drink, asking "What?" afterwards.. Not being the one spoken to he returns to his brooding.

"Why the whole head?.. Why not just an ear or a tounge or something?.. Heads are too difficult to carry around for my liking, and they are the most God-awful things to preserve..." He takes another long drink, "and still there are many things I would not know about you, and many darknesses within us all that must stay hidden.. Come now, why do we continue to speak of such solemn things?.. Were Benrii here at the moment, he would want us to be joyous, even in the light of his passing!!" He looks at the other patrons with a sarcastic glare, "well, have you no merry song among the lot of you?"

"Though Ben never spoke of anything you say, I do not doubt that.. He did things taht were so out of character.. A man with such reagard for life was always willing to throw his away for almost any cause... I never understood. Maybe this news will help me understand the meaning of some of his actions.. It may bring me peace of mind.. I thank you." Taking another drink, he asked Warrior-of-Shadow, "Have you calmed yet? Or are you still making a mockery of yourself?.. If it is the former, you are welcome to join us in song and drink, for we have no reason to hold anything against you."

Thrin listens intently as Ken tells his tale. He smiles grimly at the part about being called a murder and later on living up to it. "I have slain hundreds, if not thousands of men. If not by my blade, then by my word. I commanded a company of no more then 200 men. And we alone slaughtered armies. Not by weight of numbers, but by tactics. We would perform lighting raids when our enemies pants were down. Sometimes, we would force their pants down, litterally.. I remember poisoning a water supply one night. And the next, when half the army was sick with the s***z we struck them down. We didn't even lose a single man on that mission, but the enemy lost close to a thousand." "Say what you wish about me though.. We had no honor. We were the walking dead, our souls sold to the Keeper of death. We each took oaths of death, to be dead until our debt of souls was fulfilled. I pledged 500 hundred of my enemies to damnation, and repaid the debt with ease. There was no honor for dead men, and we fought with none.. Perhaps I will tell you more of it later."

"..His name..." Thrin hesitated, it was this that he had been avoiding, the mentioning of his companion's name.. The taste was so bitter when once it had been so sweet, "His name is Benrii... He and I served in wars far to the south, on another continent, where the land was broken into many factions... All were attemting to seize controll of the entire continent, and eventually the world, but they were vain and ignorant..." He looks to the group, "We served in the army of those who still had sense, who wanted the peace that our ancestors had.. Though the world has changed, men still follow a code of honor which was governing in the days long past. Now, the world can no longer handle the responsibility of being honorable." "Now.." he looked away from the group, not wanting to meet the eyes of those who were about to hear, he took another drink, "Now, our land is barren and wasted, and though the army of those still honorable succeded, the purging was brutal and merciless.. Benrii and I only found out too late that our leaders were capable of being as evil as our adversaries.. That was when we left, fearing for our safty and that of our families. Though both decorated heros, we are dispised by our own people as traitors." "Soon after I left my homeland, the Imperials invaded, and the land is now under their government. I know not the fates of the friends I left behind." "I do not know how you would know of the group of assasins.. But then I do not know what would be considered common knowledge for your people. If you're of a mind, you may name the orginazation you are thinking of, and I may tell you of the one that it is.." He took another drink, fearing the response of the people, and perhaps if one might be looking to bury their blade in him. His hand instinctivly moved near his waist, where his weapons are, and grasped the hilt of an axe, though he dared not draw it.

He takes in all Has-Big-Axe has said, and all the other arguing.. And regards it calmly. "Just as you, Has-Big-Axe, regard me as a freind now, I consider you the same. What the imperials do is of no consequence to me. Though I have no compassion for them as a whole, I have met individuals who I call freinds. A race or people cannot be judged altogether as if they were one entity.. There are those who stand out within any society and have no regard for the ways of thier own people." He turns to the other Argonian, "But you, the gods have mercy on your soul.. For one so ignorant and remorseless despite the simple truth of individuality is forsaken. If you are not willing to see the good in others then they will never see the good in you. Make the name of your people worthy of you as their representation, for if I was as ignorant in my thinking as you I would reagard all of your people the same as you regard mine!" Satisfied now that he has delt with the main problems, he continues about his freind, "Yes, people had cause to kill him, and I, though why it was he they decided to slay yet evades me. He was a war hero, and the assasin was of our foes from the past. If anything, he was worthy of rememberence. And, as I said, there were those who whished to kill us, they hate us with a vengeance like no other." He took a swig from his drink, "they are to bitter to let the things of old slip away.. They are lost in their own self perfection that they fail to see the error of it all."

OOC: "Well, this one time, at band camp, he..." :D IC: Thrin didn't take a liking to the new mans words, but he understood the reasoning. "What is your name sir? So that I may not simply call you 'good sir' for the remainder of the night?.." Thrin took his drink from the barkeep and paid the man as he waited. What Hogosha said was true, but it was lost on his ears.. That is what he had fought for, so long in those wars did he battle endlessly.. Trying to prevent the suffering that seemed to travel on his heels... His comrade(sp?) had been lost to that sorrow.. He waits to tell the tale until the mans name was revealed, seeing it better then continuing rudely..

"Assasinated." Thrin stated matter-of-factly to Shazdon (I did spell it right didn't I?) "I saved him a quick death by the skin of my teeth. Had I known my attempt to save him would be fruitless, I would have tried anyway. Even if it had ment my death, he was one of those friends... One of the ones you never forget... I only managed to knock out the assasin, not kill him, with the first blow.. And I listened to my friends urgent last request as his murderer slept on the ground beside him." Thrin took the opportunity to spit at the ground and curse the name of the assasin. He didn't mention what he did with the man. Though his torture was a pleasently creul endevor.. Thrin had not let it end quickly, instead, for every second of pain his friend had endured in his last moments Thrin gave the assasin an eternity of the same medicine.. And while he had buried his friend and sworn an oath to carry out his last request, he did not give the assasin the same honor. He also made a point of not using his friends name, though not noticable to the other patrons, he was avioding it. The name would sit with him and be forever welcomed in his mind, but the pain of speaking it was more then his muderers punishment could measure up to. Thrin ordered a drink from the bar tender during an idle in the conversation.

"Perhaps they do.." Thrins says, considering the meaning of such a thing carfully as he takes a seat next to Hogosha. He drifts out of his thoughts, "I am here because I was told to be here.. I am simply following the advice of a good freind," Thrin looks the man in the eye directly, "He died yesterday." He breaks the penetrating look after he finishes the words. It wasn't a threat, though it could have been taken as one, and he slightly regrets speaking them. Still, they held a certain meaning to him at the moment, and it was they only way the words could have been spoken from his lips. Were this the man who had slain his fellow, Thrin would have cut him down on the way in without a blink. Regardless of how nice he was or wasn't. But he wasn't and Thrin had to remember that.. These people were not out to kill him, and he recognized none as a true threat.. But it was hard to just let the emotion go.. It was hard even for him to suppress it with drink. Too long had he held rage within himself as a defence against his enemies. Now he was recovering from not only the loss of his friend, but his anger. Sorrow loves company. He thought to himself, as he waited for the mans response, hoping his words would not be as harsh on his ears as they first sounded.

I'd just like to make a note on the original post, I know its a bit dated... It is hard to get more <radio edit> gothic then talking about death itself.. Read my post! Death is an excellently plotted short story. And everyone round yonder loves it... No more to say on a topic that was last dicussed on Nov 7 2003, 10:56 AM

Thrin takes a moment to consider the mans words... And his own actions.. What was he thinking?! The only thing he could think of is that he was having a moment of lapse.. A thing he highly disliked.. But yet he did not say flat out that he was wrong.. Though he was speaking of a different matter, this man talked of the meaning, Thrin had spoke of the flow.. In this way, they had both spoken the truth. With a sigh, he responded slowly, "I apologize for rash thinking on my part.. We speak of two things, both intertwined but still very different. You are talking of the meaning, I am talking of the flow... Again, you have my apologies for my rude actions," he held out his hand in goodwill to the man, "My name is Thrin, of Ashvale. I too know a little of the sorrow you speak of.. And the desire to numb such things."

OOC: Because what's-his-name is not responding, im going to move on to a more fruitful conversation now... IC: Stops his smile as he hears this, and turns in his chair to stand, "would you then, good sir, be trying to tell me that you have the miraculoous ability to see though the eyes of the gods and see the whole picture of the world.. As it seems to me," he begins to rise, "you are but a man yourself, and must therefore posess the limited understanding of the world around you that all other men have.. For you can be in but one place at one time, and the lives of men, as I recall, are not at all long enough to hear all the tales that are spun each and every day.." Standing now, he regards the man with a hard glare, clearly disliking his sentiments, "why then, being a man of such understanding as you claim to have, be ignorant of the truth. The fact is, you cannot see the big picture, being only mortal, without missing the little details.. And while you claim to see this "big picture" what you would see would be a simple rug, set out before you eyes, and you would draw simple conclusions... Typical are the stylings of men, we are lazy in our ways.. But what you are missing is that life is a vast and extravagant tapestry that cannot be behled by those who do not understand the difference.. With a vast and more complex tapestry, one could draw complex conclusions, for they would see the whole picture to its fullest extent..." "Now what I am trying to say is that what you propose to tell me is literally impossible... It cannont be done by men, I daresay the gods can hardly manage it. Though why you refer to everything as being to complicated is beyond me, and is the fundamental flaw of your very nature, driven by the laziness and ingorance which you so freely embrace.." Thrin sighs, aggrevated with even this simplistic comment from the man. After a moment, he points to the glass the man is drinking from, "if that is liquor, good sir, I can understand why such foolishness would come from you. Numbness of mind promotes no good. Just remember that the minute details are what make the extreamly limited part of the tapestry we can see more complex, and thus easier to draw conclusions from..."