The dark times of Alterra
PREFACE
"Kneel," his harsh voice rang clear in the suffocating silence around me. I kneeled. "So the great and noble Elf Queen has finally been humbled," he chucked softly to himself. "You b****," I whispered. "You always were a fighter," he said. "I hate you," I whispered. "Oh, I know," he chuckled. "Kill her," he said turning towards the gaurds. "Goodbye Allyssa, I always loved you," The sword came down and-
**30 years later**
The pickaxe came down with a satisfying thump. I picked up the small chunks of rock that I had managed to break apart and put them in the basket. It was going to be a long day. Then again it always was. I chuckled softly to myself. "R'aven! Get back to work you lousy good-for-nothing joke of an Avian!" Sigh. I geuss I should explain a little. I "worked" in the sandstone caves onyx mine. It used to be nice here or so I'm told. My parents used to tell me stories about how Alttera was before Nazth took over, they said it was a wonderful place full of wildlife and all sorts of beautiful things. Now? It's just a barren wasteland with anything with even the slightest bit of value ripped up and carted away. Take forest haven for example; it used to have trees ( I don't even know what a tree looks like) now all it has is, well, nothing really. And what happens to us, the people? We get hauled of to build Nazths buildings and mine his mines until we die. So, yeah it's pretty bad. "R'aven what did I tell you?" Our "overseer" yelled. "Sorry sir!" I called back. I hated submitting but it was better than the alternative. At that moment a large bird of prey landed and off of it steppedu Nazth himself. "You there come here," he said menacingly. Me? I mouthed back. "Yes you, you imbecile," I stepped foward slowly...
End of part one
I climbed onto the bird wondering what could have possibly made Nazth come here and why in all of Altrra did he want me? The bird flew away slowly and Nazth chuckled softly to himself, "They're all here now," I was to scared to wonder what he meant. We landed at his palace a couple hours later. I got of the bird and attempted to wok some of the soreness out of my arms. "Follow me," he snapped. I gulped and looked around the palace was massive. Nazth turned around
and raised one eyebrow. I hurried forwards. not wanting to get vaprorized. He lead me into the throne room where several others were standing. He sat. down onto his throne, " Well, now that you're all.here I thought I should explain to you why; you see you are the direct decendants of the Elf Queen's elite gaurd," "So what are you gonna do to us?" asked an elf. "My dear, Clementine, quite simply? I'm going to kill you"
End of part two
"But, but," the elf named Clementine stuttered. Nazth laughed. "Kneel! All of you" he shouted We slowly got to our knees. The gaurds stepped forwards brandishing swords. "Kill them" said Nazth. The swords rose and fell and half the prisoners were dead. I couldn't look. They stepped towards me. "Not that one he might be... useful" Nazth said. The gaurds picked me up and threw me roughly by the throne. "Ah R'aven it is your time like your father before you" Nazth said softly. "Time for what?" I managed to choke out. "Time for you to become part of the,ah, elite guard; take him away"
End of part three
The gaurds took me to a large room somewhere deep within the palace. In the room there was a stone table and many dangerous looking needles and blades. "Lie down" one of the guards said, I couldn't tell which one it was very dark. I hesitated the table didn't look to comfortable... "If you don't lie down I'll push you down" the same guard said. I climbed onto the table. The guard snapped his fingers and straps jumped up and held me down. "Don't try to escape it will only make it worse" the other guard said calmly. "Make what worse?" I yelled. That's when the needles came down and stabbed into my skin and started injecting a foul smelling black liquid into my blood vessels...
End of part four
Pain. Unimaginable pain. Endless pain. My whole world now. Pain... it felt like being ripped to pieces dropped in acid and getting burned to death. All at the same time. I couldn't move, I couldn't think. It was awful. I don't know how long I liwd there but evantually I could here voices...
"How much longer" one of the voices, it sounded like a female. "Not long now, Jennifer"the other one said. "Hmmph" the one called Jennifer said. They left. That's when I realized the pain was, well, not quit fading but more like it was changing.
I didn't know how much later it was when they entered the room "It's time" somebody said. The pain grew larger then ever until, it stopped, along with my heart. I opened my eyes and looked around in
awe...
End of part five
Everything was clear, sharp, so well-defined. I could hear so much and smelling, wow! I inhaled deeply wow, just, wow. I didn't realize that I wasn't alone until someone lightly poked me on the head. My response was immediate and totally unexpected. I tensed up, stopped breathing and three myself off the table faster then I would have thought possible, but the room remained startlingly clear. I landed by the far wall in a defensive crouch. I quickly assessed the situation. By the other wall there were three people, an elf, an avian, and a ursan. They looked, scared almost. "Who are you and what do you want?" I spit through my clenched teeth. "See I told you he would be trouble" said the elf. "Hush, Jen" said the avian. "We're not here to hurt you" he extended his hands out, palms up. "We're just here to get you acclimated" "Acclimated to what?" I almost screamed. "To being a vampire" he said calmly.
End of part six
"A what??" I said, even though I'd heard him perfectly. "A vampire" he said slowly as if he were talking to a mentally handicapped creature. "You're joking" I said in a low, menacing voice. "Sorry, but I'm not" he replied evenly. As I stood there I slowly came to the realization that, maybe, (and this was a big maybe) I was a... vampire. "Oh, can we just skip this part and go hunting already? I'm getting hungry" the elf said in an annoyed sort of voice. "Patience, Jennifer he still needs time" "hmmph!" Said the one called Jennifer. "Hunting?" I spit out. "It's, ah, what we prefer to call our method of eating" he said the last word reluctantly. That's when I noticed just how hungry I was. My stomach felt emptier then I would have thought possible, and I was beginning to feel uncomfortablely lightheaded. "What do we eat?" I said looking around the room for food; there was none. "Blood" the avian said simply.
End of part seven
I started at him blankly for a while. "Blood?" I asked. "Yes" he said softly. I stared into space for a while, processing that. "You're kidding, right?" I said. "No" The, elf, Jennifer walked, maybe walked wasn't the right word; glided was more like it, to the my side of the table. "Come on, you stupid bird, figure it out! I'm hungry!" That's when I snapped, I hit her in the head, she went flying across the room and crashed into the wall. Everyone was silent. Then they started to laugh. "Well, this one's strong!" The avian manges to choke out around his laughter. "I'm Hi'aren, by the way and that's Vlod" he said gesturing towards the ursan who had been leaning against the wall. He nodded at me. Hi'aren, the name seemed familiar somehow... "How old are you?" I asked "806" was the reply.
End of part Eight
