Story Snippets

Arcane Trouble

(DISCLAIMER!!!! This was inspire by a book series named The Arinthian Line. The lore, along with Mrs Stone, in this story is from this series and is not my own original idea, although the three main characters are my own.)

Putan felt metal digging into his wrists as he lay on the cold ground. He groaned softly, aching all over his beaten body. He slowly opened his heavy, grey eyes, looking around at the dirty cell he lay in. His brown skin was littered with wounds and scratches, his black hair matted and dirty. He was too tired to sit up, choosing to just let his arms suffer as they stretched from the restrains on the wall. He licked his dry lips, tasting blood, and muttered something. His hand fizzed to life with green ivory encircling his wrist, the green glow painting the walls in shadows. He groaned as he slowly sat up, his arms beginning to lose all feeling from lay on the ground. "All of this....because I wouldn't join their army..." He muttered in a deep voice, spitting out fresh blood from the bitten flesh of his cheek.

"At least you're not a healer..." another man said, his voice smooth and soft, with a smirk, his arms hanging in the same fashion as Putan. His red hair was as messy as his, brown eyes shining with green light. His pale skin was stained red from wounds, but his ruggish smile was not broken. He sighed and leaned his head against the wall, looking up at the ceiling, "Of course...neither am I."

Putan chuckled softly and shook his head, "Yeah...and a good thing too. If you couldn't hold back five men being an ice warlock...I worry for those you would have to heal if you were one." The man laughed, only to cause the guard outside to bang on the door for silence. The two fell silent and Putan looked at his companion. He shared a secret smile just as a sewer grate began to jiggle softly. It lifted and out came a young girl, looking about 16, silent on her feet. She quickly extinguished her crackling lightning enveloping her hand the instant she did. The guard took no notice as she slipped out of the grate and approached the two men.

"Sorry I'm late...but they were chasing me all over and I couldn't get away." She said softly, her brown, fluffy hair framing her tanned face. Her brown eyes looked at the two of them and she frowned, "Man...they really did a number on you two..." She pulled out a lock pick and worked on Putan's companion.

"Watch the skin Ruby..." He said softly, wincing as she worked.

"Sorry Cam..." She whispered, "but you'll have to bear the pain...these things are difficult to use." She jingled with his restrains for a bit more, pausing every time they clicked, until they finally fell off. Cam rubbed his red wrists while Ruby moved on to Putan.

"How did you shake them?" He whispered softly as she worked.

"Had to keep them busy. Used my guardian spell." She answered, finishing with his shackles. He gladly let his arms drop and his light extinguished. Ruby did her own, blue light flooding the room from her crackling lightning. "We've got to go." She said quietly, glancing at the door.

"Right..." Cam said and stood. Just as Putan was getting up, the door burst open and in walked a women wearing necromancy robes. She scowled at the scene, his arm bursting to life with ten rings of fire, encircling her arm brightly. Ruby ignited her own, seven rings of lightning, and brought up a shield of black lightning as she launching a fireball at them.

"Go! Get out! You don't have the arcane energy to help!" She yelled, sending a fireball flying back at the women using the shield. Cam and Putan quickly went down the sewer hole.

"Get them you idiots!" The necromancer screeched at the guards ran off. The women turned back to Ruby, "You meddling little girl..."

Ruby shot lightning at her and used the spell Push, speaking the trigger word, "Baka!" She quickly closed the door with Telekinesis and jumped down the hold, not bothering to put the cover back on. "The Legion has gotten more warlocks..." She muttered to herself as she ran out. Putan and Cam ran ahead, both clearly exhausted. Ruby quickly caught up and pulled them along, "Hurry up you two!" She said and they went deeper into the sewers of the place.

"Why are we going down?" Putan asked, watching the darkness deepen.

"I've got a Group Teleportation Scroll." Ruby answered, hearing the running footsteps of soldiers coming after them, "We just need to get away."

"Too bad none of us know the actual Spell." Cam said and Ruby thought about her studies as a lightning warlock.

She sighed, "Let's not worry about that now." She took a sudden turn, the shadows hiding them from a rush of soldiers all clad in black armor. The symbol of the Legion, a flaming sword, burned into Ruby's mind as memories of her won home being invaded burst through her thoughts. Putan watched with a sad look and Cam held his breath with an apprehensive expression. Ruby brought out the scroll and grabbed their hands, "Mrs Stone is waiting for us." She said softly and she began the complicated stream of words that were required for the scroll. They were gone, a crunching sound ringing through the halls of the fortress.

They landed in the snow covered woods away from the place. Putan lay on the ground, feeling sick while Cam groaned, leaving what was left in his stomach in the white snow. Ruby shook off the nausea quickly and wen to the two, "Teleportation is not a regular thing for you two I see." She helped them up and they moved along through the trees. 

An elderly women met them outside a villiage, her silvery hair in a braid, a staff in her hand with the tip bright and shining. She didn't seem surprised as they approached, "Finally, I was beginning to think that you were all killed." She gave them harsh looks and Cam looked away with a red face.

"Sorry Mrs. Stone, but we were separated and they got captured," Ruby said, "But we did get what you wanted." She fished through her pouch until she pulled out a map. Mrs. Stone took it and her lips turned into a thin line.

"Good, now we can find that castle much better." She looked at the three of them, "But I must know why you were captured in the first place. The next town was not crawling with Legion soldiers."

Putan sighed, "It was actually on our way back, we ran into a bit of trouble..." Mrs. Stone shook her head, but didn't reply and the four of them headed back to the village.

(Once again, this lore and Mrs. Stone are not mine, they are from The Arinthian Line.)