Path: usenet.ee.pdx.edu!cs.uoregon.edu!sgiblab!swrinde!howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!uunet!not-for-mail From: guido@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de (Guido Roessling) Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.archives Subject: STORY: Qelrik part 45 Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc Date: 13 Oct 1994 13:44:42 -0400 Organization: UUNET Technologies Inc, Falls Church, VA, USA Lines: 179 Sender: smm@uunet.uu.net Approved: smm@uunet.uu.net Message-ID: <37jrma$4i@rodan.UU.NET> NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net Awakening ========= As the sun crested the horizon, a woman stirred in a secluded grove. 'Gods, am I sore!', she thought, stretching her shapely legs. She sat up from the bed of soft grass where she lay and surveyed her surroundings. Once again, she remembered little of the previous night, only that she had come a long way and would need to sleep soon. A short distance away, a trickle of a stream flowed quietly along. She brushed her long, midnight black hair out of her face and examined herself. Although she was unwounded, every muscle in her body ached like she had just finished battling an army single handed. She was clad only in a simple cloth dress which clung tightly to her breasts and left her shoulders bare. The bottom of the dress came down below her knees on one side, but rose to mid-thigh on the other side, revealing long, muscular legs. She rose stiffly to her feet and padded barefoot to the little stream. She waded into it and found that even in the centre it only came half way to her knees. She stooped down and splashed water in her face to clear her head. Feeling a little better, she looked around. At the edge of the grove, she was startled to hear the sound of something fighting through the undergrowth. In a moment, a large orc appeared, followed by two other smaller orcs. The orc looked up and saw her, a startled look crossing his face. After the initial surprise, however, he leered and his gaze caressed the full length of her body appreciatively. He made a comment to his fellows and they agreed whole-heartedly. "Well now, pretty thing!", he said with a wicked grin. "I think you're just what me an' the boys here were lookin' for!" Sword still drawn, he advanced toward the stream. Thinking quickly, the woman made a few quick gestures, and the two orcs behind began to curse loudly. The lead orc looked around to see what the commotion was about, and found the other two fighting with vegetation that seemed to have come alive. Long grass wrapped tightly around the orcs, and roots entwined around their feet. Branches whipped across their faces, momentarily blinding them to the havoc of plant life around them. The lead orc turned back to face the woman, his mouth open in surprise. Quickly, he regained his composure. "So, the little wood nymph knows some magic, does she?" He gave her a lewd smile. "Let me show you some of _my_ magic. It's a little different sort though." By this time, the woman had backed to the far side of the stream. As he approached his side, the woman shouted out a series of strange sounding words. Five feet of gleaming steel materialized in her hands, and she held the longsword out in front of her defensively, using both hands to hold it. The orc blinked in astonishment. Suddenly the quick rape he had envisioned seemed a little further away. "You wanna fight?", he asked. "That's ok by me. I like my women feisty." He advance into the stream, swinging his sword in front of him as he walked. Meanwhile, his companions where still fighting a losing battle against the plants and their cries of dismay could be heard. The woman shook her hair out of her face and faced the orc with a look of determination in her eyes. When the orc was close enough, she made a quick swipe with the sword. He stepped back quickly, and watched in surprise as she gracefully pivoted, turning the sword in her hand with practised ease. The blade whooshed and spun over her head as she whirled around, then descended as she quickly lunged forward toward the surprised orc. There was a resounding clang as the orc barely got his blade up in time to parry the quick swing. Drawing back quickly, she again spun the blade around in her hand in a quick arc. It flashed above the orc's head and he ducked, raising his sword above his head to parry the blade as it sliced by. With uncanny grace, she jerked the sword upward to avoid the orc's blade and continued the arc to swing low at the crouched orc. The orc brought his blade down, but wasn't quite quick enough to completely block the blade. The tip of the woman's blade scored a scratch nearly the entire length of the orc's muscular arm. With a howl of pain and surprise, he leapt back, just in time to avoid another strike from the woman. 'Quick as a cat', he thought to himself as he blocked another furious strike from the strange black haired woman. Rage built inside him. No woman was going to show him up like this. With a snarl, he swung his heavy sword at her, but she leapt back just in time. Quickly, he stepped forward and brought the heavy blade down on her again. She blocked the strike with her sword, but a small cry escaped her lips as the orc's strength and weight nearly tore the sword from her grasp. Seeing an advantage, the orc swung again, but the woman jabbed inside his guard as he swung, and the point penetrated through his leather armour into flesh. He backed up with a pained cry and tried to swing again, but she was too quick for him. A quick swipe scored the inside of one arm, and another traced a jagged line across his armoured chest. He attempted to avoid her sword, and his swing went wild, missing the woman completely. Another quick slash landed across the orc's sword arm, making him drop his sword into the now-muddy water of the stream. He lunged for the blade, but had to roll to the side as the woman's blade flashed toward him. She quickly move to where his sword was under the water and stood on the hilt so he couldn't grab it. The orc backed to the edge of the water and watched her, breathing heavily and clutching his wounded arm. Once again, she held the sword defensively in front of her. Slowly she reached down and pulled his blade from the water. The orc glared at her. Behind him, the other orc's cries had grown quiet, and they were nowhere to be seen. 'Cowards!', he thought to himself. 'With all three of us, we could teach this bitch a lesson!'. "Do you want your sword?", she teased in a light musical voice. The orc snarled at her again. "Is that a yes?", she asked innocently. The orc glowered at her. "I think it's a yes.", she said certainly, and she threw the heavy sword at the orc. He grunted with surprise as the blade whooshed at him and tried to block it with his forearm. The blade connected with his arm, landing a deep cut and bouncing off into the grass. Blood ran down his arm and he stared at the gaping wound for a moment. Realizing he was likely to die, he lunged for his sword and came up fighting. The woman avoided blow after blow, startled by the ferocity of the attacks. She knew if she tried to parry, the orc's strength would likely wrench her blade out of her hands. Knowing she had to end it before she got hit, she ducked under one of his swings and lunged at him with all her weight. The sword point penetrated the leather armour with ease, and with her weight behind it, pushed it into the orc's stomach on an angle up and through the centre of his back. The orc made a harsh cry and stumbled back. Her sword came out of him easily and he stood there in shock, watching the blood pour from his stomach. In a second, his legs gave out and he collapsed into the river, dead. She stared at her bloody sword and the dead orc for a moment, before dipping the sword in the water to clean it. Suddenly, a large hand closed over her forearm and pulled her arm quickly behind her. Her sword flew out of her grasp to land point first at the edge of the stream and she squeaked in surprise. Battle instinct took over, and she twisted around, knee connecting with the place she knew would do the most damage. The orc holding her managed to twist to the side just enough to soften the blow, but not enough to avoid it. He grunted in pain, but held her forearm in a grip of iron. At that moment, the second orc grabbed her other arm, which was descending to strike the first orc's face. Held by the two orcs, she soon found herself powerless against their superior strength. Exhausted from the previous battle, she soon stopped struggling. Both orcs where also tired from their fight with the plants, but they still managed to tie her up tightly so she couldn't fight. After witnessing her in battle, neither orc dared take advantage of her. Instead, they went over to examine the sword she had called from thin air. Glaring at them, her green eyes ablaze with hate, she spat out several arcane words, and the sword vanished as they reached to touch it. They gave each other startled looks, then swiped where the sword used to be. Finding nothing, they returned to where she was tied up. One of the grabbed her feet, and the other her arms, and they proceeded to head back toward their lair, leaving the body of the leader behind. *************************************************************************** This story is a collaboration of seven people: one German, two Canadians and four Americans. Comments about particular characters should be forwarded to their character's "owners": Finn Ambrose - Sheryl Ann Galchutt* - fi48@sol.acs.unt.edu Gernodt - Guido Roessling - dida@pu.informatik.th-darmstadt.de Dahlarin - Brent Hughes - bhughes@student.business.uwo.ca Kyle - J.E. Mason - ** no current mail address ** Fox - Barbara French - bcfrench@mailbox.syr.edu Will appear in future chapters: Gladrial - Jennifer Immel - bhughes@julian.uwo.ca Sir Percy - Bret Rudnick - rudnick@cfatrw.harvard.edu If you have WWW access, you can also read the chapters there. The site is http://rbhp62.rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de/~guido/qelrik.html ************************************************************************** ************************************************************************** Legal stuff about Qelrik All characters contained in this story are the sole and exclusive property of their authors. They are the copyrighted property of the authors, and may not be used for any reason without the express written permission of the authors. Qelrik is (c) 1993, 1994 Guido Resszling, Brent G. Hughes, John E. Mason, Barbara C. French, Jennifer Immel, and Bret Ryan Rudnick. Gernodt T'Slorung -- Guido Roessling Dahlarin -- Brent G. Hughes Growler --