text:
Relative dating utilizes six fundamental principles to determine the relative age of a formation or event the first principle is the principle of superposition which states that in an. The purpose of this lab is to introduce the principles and concepts associated with both relative and absolute dating the relative ages of the five samples. Relative dating is the science of archaeologists and geologists used relative dating to determine ages of materials though relative dating principles of. Start studying key principles of relative dating learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. What are the five principles of relative age dating - 5 whys - wikipedia russia , country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern europe and northern asia.
Relative age dating determining the age of rocks and fossils 1 new york state standards 1 principles of determining relative age to show how ages of rocks. Quiz & worksheet - relative dating quiz to answer questions about the age of inclusions found dating - law of superposition, principles of original. Relative dating age and evidence of past life relative dating uses the principles or laws of stratigraphy to order sequences of rock strata. There are two basic approaches: relative geologic age dating, geologic age dating explained geologists draw on it and other basic principles.
Utah demonstrate the principles of stratigraphy of radiometric dating, which gave it and the stratigraphy it was based a relative age on. Relative age-dating -- discovery of important stratigraphic principles roger steinberg assistant professor of geology del mar college 101 baldwin. Determining the relative ages of rock formations relative dating is an earth science term that describes the set of principles and techniques used to. Start studying exercise 175: applying physical principles of relative age dating learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Relative age of the fossils in relationship to the other fossils principles of geology: relative dating worksheetdoc.
They compare one event or rock layer to another there are many principles that help scientists with this process principles of relative-age dating 1. Relative dating is used to fossils are important for working out the relative ages of bring relative dating principles to life with the activity. Relative dating is a dating method that used to determine determine the relative ages of geologic strata, the principles of relative dating for continuous. Relative dating (steno's laws): long before geologists tried to quantify the age of the earth they developed techniques to determine which geologic events preceded another, what are termed.
Which of the following is not a principle of relative-age dating a sediments are deposited in lateral sheets b if one rock contains pieces of another, the pieces are older. View notes - 111_chapter_9_sp2016 from gel 111 at wake tech chapter 9 - geologic time five principles of relative age dating unconformities radioactive dating and correlation to fossils. View dating from geology 101101 at washington state university key points for today what are the 5 relative age dating principles and how do you apply the principles to determine a geologic. Basic principles for relative geologic dating relative dating utilizes six fundamental principles to determine relative dating vs absolute dating 4 principles of geology the relative age of. Answer to in this exercise, you will apply the principles of relative age dating and your knowledge of geologic structures (chapte.
¥principles of stratigraphy : ¥deposition, relative age dating principles correlation of stratigraphic. Principles of relative dating 1 - superposition, horizontality, cross-cutting principles of relative dating 2 relative age-dating of rocks. The geologic time scale the age of the earth by using the principles of relative geologic age, , sometimes referred to as the principles of relative dating. Full answer these principles are used to determine the age of rocks through relative dating scientists also employ numerical dating, which looks at radioactive decay to figure out the.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
President Obama Catches Fainting Woman During Obamacare Speech
Via White House Press Corps:
The woman who nearly/briefly fainted during President Obama's health care speech today has been identified by the White House as Karmel Allison.
She recovered and walked away as the audience applauded.
Per an earlier WH description of people who stood with POTUS, Allison is a "prospective ACA beneficiary."
Karmel, wearing a red dress, got wobbly toward the end of Obama's lengthy speech and was assisted by others standing with POTUS. The president stopped his speech to turn to her, as aides came over to help.
"there you go, you are ok. I'm right here. I got you.", "No, no — you're okay. This happens when I talk too long."
She later wrote on Twitter:
I'm ok world- just got a little lightheaded.Thanks, @BarackObama for catching me! And good thing this pregnant diabetic is pregnant :)
— Karmel Allison (@karmel_a) October 21, 2013
Allison is from San Diego, according to her Twitter page.


text:
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New home construction
@jenniferrose86 (49)
United States
February 16, 2007 1:42pm CST
What is the typical percentage a builder charges for a new home construction after the materials and labor for their own benefit? We are looking into getting a house built, but need to know details of how much exactly this could cost. Has anyone had a house built recently?
1 response
@dizzybizzy1 (978)
• United States
16 Feb 07
That would really depend on the contractor as they all very in prices. The absolute best thing to do is get many quotes from many different contractors. CHECK REFERRALS AND PAST WORK!!! You do not want a contractor that is only going to actually be there maybe an hour a day. Remember, in the contracting world, you do not always get what you pay for. The most expensive contractor may not always be the best and the least expensive contractor can sometimes be the best. Check your contractors HARD before you decide on one.


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Hoyt believes that not all bowhunters are created equal. Therefore, not all bows are created equal either.
Hoyt's all-new 2018 REDWRX Carbon RX-1 Series is engineered for those bowhunters who demand everything. They are built to perform and survive in the most extreme conditions imaginable. The concept allows you to pick the configuration best for you and put it to the test.
Check out this video for a closer look at the new Hoyt Rx-1…
Hoyt says that they engineer more than just bows; they engineer form. "Reaching" your head forward to your peep is more than just uncomfortable, it's inconsistent. Hoyt engineered the ZT Hyper Cam Systems to promote comfortable, strain-free posture at full draw by increasing the distance between their cams at full draw. This broader cam-to-cam distance at full draw creates an ideal "flatter" string angle and brings the peep to you. These innovations allow a more relaxed, strain-free posture at full draw, and reduce facial contact, string pressure, and eye fatigue at anchor. The days of "reaching" are over; your days of tight, consistent groups have arrived.
SPECS on RX-1
Axle-to-Axle – 32″
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Brace Height – 6″
Speed – 340 fps
Weight – 3.9lbs
See more on the complete RX-1 Series of bows at www.hoyt.com.


text:
No Heroes
Printable version
The dead world: A
scary story told to children by children. But before the scary story came the
cautionary tale, before the cautionary tale came the legend, and before the
legend came the fact. Embellished over time perhaps, gaps filled in by the
imagination, exaggerated for a captive audience, but fact nonetheless. And
before the fact, there was life in the Dead World. Some scholars maintain that
there still might be life after the fact. However, it would be most
-- Verdance Lasce, The End of a
detective Horne..."
Franklin Horne sat in the witness stand. It was one of those aspects of the job
which you can't help but hate, where you have to stand up in front of the whole
world and show them your little macaroni painting of evidence and circumstance.
But what he hated even more than that was the lawyer in front of him, one
mister Jenkins, the sort of smug, self-satisfied waste of carbon who had built
a whole career on destroying good, well-meaning people for the sake of his
paying clients. He hated the man's voice, he hated the man's mannerisms, the
man's… Aura, if you will. To Franklin, the man positively oozed malevolence
wrapped up in fake concern and scripted indignation.
He wondered if he was the only one who noticed.
"Tell me…" mister Jenkins continued. He reached inside his jacket and produced
a piece of paper, which he unfolded theatrically. "Is it true that at one point
in time you referred to my client, mister Delao, as…" The lawyer focussed his
attention to the paper, put on a pair of reading glasses, and articulated
slowly as he read. "a puke-stained bag of piss? And that," he continued,
"God created him when he flushed the toilet?"
Franklin looked at the lawyer. His face, he was certain, was chiselled from
solid rock.
"I don't know," he replied in as neutral a tone as he could manage.
"You do not," Jenkins said. "Do you regularly call the citizens of Varsity a puke-stained
bag of piss, detective?"
"I mean, I don't remember every word I say," Franklin said.
"Really?" The lawyer feigned surprise. "Yet you recall word for word what my
client told you!"
"It was a confession and a threat." Franklin said.
"Ah yes," Jenkins said. "And so you testify that my client told you, upon his
arrest, that he would 'gut' Juan Rodriquez just as he had 'gutted' Dewey Cole.
"And only you, detective Horne, heard him say these words."
"The rest of the squad was in the building--"
"Detective Horne," mister Jenkins spoke severely, "did you or did you not call
my client" – at this point the lawyer referred to his note again – "a puke-stained
bag of piss, and did you not say that God created him when he flushed
the toilet?"
"I may have, yes," Franklin said. He could feel his façade cracking as
he struggled to get his words right. "I don't know that I did."
"Detective Horne," said Jenkins, ever so civilized, "would it be fair to
say that there is animosity between you and my client?"
Franklin froze. Animosity… Delao was not even a cold-blooded killer,
he enjoyed it! People like him were the reason he got up every single
morning to deal with one depressing case after another. Why he poured his heart
and soul into a job with a poor hours and poor pay for a city that is nearly
bankrupt. To keep the bad people away from the good people!
To make this a better world...
And then there are the people like Jenkins. Animosity!
But he didn't say any of that. Instead he said:
"So, let me get this straight, detective Horne," Jenkins said. "You do not like
my client. In fact, you seem to utterly despise my client, is this not
"Yes," said Franklin, because he was an essentially honest man.
"And as you arrest my client," Jenkins continued, "he just happens to
conveniently confess to you, a confession that, as it so happens, only
you are witness to."
Jenkins paused, and drew in a deep breath.
"Is this correct, detective Horne?"
"Yes," Franklin said.
"Then I have no further questions, your honour."
that pretty much summed up the day of detective Franklin Horne, before it got
* * *
large, flaming boulder was flung through the air, momentarily lighting up the
battlefield below. Above it, the skies were stained with smoke, below the
ground soaked with the blood of warriors. Defiantly, the unified forces of
mankind pushed on, inch by inch, towards what had once been the ruins of
Issyldir, Black Stone Tower. Now, a new tower had arisen to mark the end of the
Age of Man. It trembled as the boulder impacted against its dark, freshly hewn
stones, raining fire and death on the undead forces below.
Upon this impact, black dust trickled down from the ceiling and landed onto the
broad head and broader shoulders of a large, stone creature. A thin black film
had already accumulated there; a troll at rest often requires more effort to
start moving than it cares to expend.
"Hey, Bek?" it asked.
Fifteen feet away, on the other end of a large cast iron fenced door between
them, a small griffin stood holding a pike. It had a deadly looking, serrated
double blade. He leaned lazily on it.
"Yeah?" it asked.
"D'ya think we'll be paid extra?" the troll asked.
"Blood money?" the griffin asked, moving the pike to its left claw so as to
shift his weight to his other foot.
"Well, Lark…" the griffin said. It leaned further to the left, catching a
momentary better glimpse of the battlefield below from the nearest window
before pulling back towards safety. "I think that really depends on whether
Scyce is here in time."
The troll processed this for a moment.
"Not going well, huh?"
"Nope," said the griffin. It took a few slow steps towards the door and peered
into the darkness behind it.
"Hey you guys!" he called out, to no response. The troll looked at him.
"They awake?" he asked.
"They're always awake, Lark," the griffin said. He changed the grip on his pike
by tossing it up and catching it by the end of the handle. "I think the boredom
just shuts down their minds."
With a broad, slashing movement he ran the sharp end of the pike along the bars
of the door, filling the room with an earsplitting racket.
"Hey!" he called out.
The darkness responded with: "Beeeeeuuuuuh…"
"Tha's better," said the griffin, putting down the pike. "Hey, there's some
people coming up the stairs. You know? Human flesh? Yummy yummy?"
"Beeeeeuuuuuh…" said several voices in the darkness.
"So you better get ready, okay?" the griffin added.
From the darkness several figures lurched forward. Zombified human remains,
toothless, hairless, occasionally even skinless or armless, pressed themselves
against the door, reaching fruitlessly through the bars while watching the
griffin with dead, rotting eyes. Behind them movement suggested that a large
pile was shrinking as it turned into shambling silhouettes which pressed
themselves into their peers up front as they tried to reach through the bars..
The griffin leaned back, pulled his head back to protect his beak.
"Right," he said. He let out a deep sigh and said to no one in particular: "I
hate these things…"
"They don't look so different from regular humans to me," the troll said.
"Sure," said the griffin, walking away from the door in disgust as the zombies
began to moan quietly among themselves. "Except for the dead part."
"Hey, remember that undead griffin?" the troll asked, with all the added
enthusiasm that comes with the act of reminiscing.
"You think I'd forget? You could see his skin! Like my grandfather just
crawled out of an egg." The griffin involuntarily brushed off his arms with his
claws. "Gaw…."
"He was very strong," the troll noted.
"Right, fists like bricks," the griffin said. "And he flew like one too! Ol'
Askelter wasn't the sharpest beak in the rookery, was he?"
"Guess not."
The griffin walked up to the troll. His chagrinned beak was at about waist
"I said I'd never work for a necromancer again, and here we are… "
"Yeah, but--"
With that, the moaning of the undead suddenly gave way to excited guttural
hollers. The undead up front began clawing excitedly at the open passageway
that led into the room as the ones in the back tried to climb over the ones in
"You know," the griffin said, gripping his pike and narrowing his eyes. "I think
someone's coming."
He spun around, aiming his spear at the passageway, perking his ears to try and
listen over the moaning and hollering from the cell behind him. The troll
lifted a leg and planted its foot two feet to the side, bracing himself for
A figure appeared, running up the stairs. It wore shiny metal armour and a
cap adorned with a plume of large, fancy feathers. It continued running into
the room and stopped somewhere halfway through. The griffin and the troll
"They're right behind me!"
It was an orc, a young lieutenant in the army of Gizmet. The living branch. He
made a valiant effort at a display of authority though his voice was shrill and
his body scrawny, and he leaned on his bloodied halberd, panting heavily.
The griffin smirked up at the troll, and they exchanged a glance.
"Oh deary me," he said.
"We have to hold them!" the orc spoke both forcefully and fearfully at
the same time.
"What, the three of us?"
The young lieutenant glared at the griffin before his eyes were drawn to the
undead horde. He struck a pose, pointing his halberd at the door.
"Unleash the undead!" he ordered. "Now!"
"… Sure," said the griffin. With a single stroke he swung his pike at the
door's latch and knocked it open. Under the force of the impatient undead horde
the door immediately gave way, swinging open to unleash a flood of zombies that
engulfed and then trampled the unfortunate orc.
The griffin, meanwhile, walked in the other direction.
"Come on, Lark," he said, beckoning at the troll. "Let's go see what's upstairs
and guard that."
tower shook again. Acting Commander Ferrick, several floors lower, raised a
small leather shield over his head to catch the falling dust.
Ferrick was a Acting Commander because he, well, Acted like a Commander. He was
fair-haired and lean bordering on scrawny; no one had ever appointed him, nor
had anyone presented him with any symbol of authority, but on the battlefield
all this tended to be a small hindrance. How could a man shouting orders be
anything but a commander? At this very moment three sergeants and one
lieutenant were below holding the line against the undead forces seeking to
come after them, on his personal order.
Surely only a commander would have that kind of authority.
Currently he paced along the cleared path of the tower with three young foot
soldiers in tow; when he found them separated from their group, he had decided
to adopt them. Their names – Ferrick made it a point to remember names – were
Darren, Weth and Astor – soldier second class Astor. The huddled behind
him at a permanent five foot distance.
"Sir?" one of them, Weth, said. "That was very close, sir."
"Not really," said Ferrick, inspecting some shadows for unsuspected passageways
to plug up.
"Sir, what if the tower collapses, sir?" asked soldier second class Astor in
forced even tones.
"Well, that would be perfect, wouldn't it?" Ferrick replied. He prodded a
motionless, rotten body lying on the floor. "Solve all our problems all at
once, it would."
"Ferrick's ears tended to take people by surprise. The were slightly pointy;
some said that they gave him a somewhat elfish quality. What they also did,
though, was hear really well. He heard Darren's whisper. He knew
it was Darren because Darren was taller than the others, and the whisper seemed
to be aimed downwards.
"Excuse me?" he said.
He could hear the little troupe freeze even before he turned around.
"Go back?" he said. "Go back? Turning back is death, gentlemen.
Death for you, death for your mothers, for your friends, for everything and
everyone you have ever known…"
He stepped closer and spoke slowly.
"The world rests on our shoulders now," he said, glaring at each one of
them in turn. They shrank away from him. "No," he said. The tower shook once
more. "We won't be going back down."
He turned their back on them to face the stairwell ahead of them.
"We're moving up."
Lark said. "I don't think we've ever been this far up."
"No," Bek said. This was as troubling as it was true; so far they had passed
two small columns of orcs charging in the opposite direction. This was how he
had known they were headed in the right direction. But now the spring of orcs
seemed to have run dry completely, and while up ahead the tower seemed
disturbingly silent, behind them the battle only seemed to be catching up. It
was starting to make him nervous.
Using his pike as a lethal walking stick the griffin pushed himself further up
the steps of yet another winding staircase.
"Lark, new rule," he said, "No more necromancers and no more godsdamned
"Okay," said Lark.
"I mean, why do people make these things? What's so important about being a
frigging mile above ground?"
Lark said nothing.
"And what's with all the damned black anyway?" he added. "You can hardly see
what you're doing…"
"There's light up," Lark observed.
Bek stopped. He squinted past the torches lining the wall. Lark was right:
there was light up ahead; a different light, cast under a different
"Come on," he said, and headed further up the stairs.
Though Lark the troll walked – or rather, thumped – several steps behind him,
their difference in size meant that Lark's head surfaced first into a wide-open
space at the end of the staircase. Bek only surfaced just in time to hear a
prickly voice say:
"And why is a troll entering my eyrie?"
Bek gaped for a moment. The voice added, with a bit more interest this time:
"And a griffin. Well well…"
They had entered a large, round room as wide as the tower itself at this
height. Unlike the rest of the tower this room was circled by wide, tall
windows, bathing it in the light of the setting sun. In fact, there seemed to
be more window than wall, reducing most of what walls there were to mere
pillars supporting the top of the tower.
A large nest lined with down told him to tread very carefully indeed...
Just as he turned his head towards the voice, its owner walked into view. A
large, female griffin walking on all fours circled the opening of the stairwell
observing him from above.
"I'm sure there's a very good reason for this," she said. "Yes?"
Bek knew he was a small griffin even for a male, but she, she was enormous even
for a female. He could probably fit two Larks inside of one of her, provided he
pushed hard. And they had entered her eyrie. You never enter an eyrie
without permission!
"We were ordered up here," he said, because 'someone told us to' was often the
most effective lie in the tookit of a mercenary.
The female griffin gave him a contemptuous look. Bek returned an indifferent
stare; he pegged her as someone who would sooner believe in someone's stupidity
than his disloyalty.
"By who?" she demanded, sitting down.
Bek shrugged. "Orc sergeant," he said. "All look alike to me. We had set up
defence up here."
The large griffin looked him over. Bek remained impassive.
"So," she said, after what seemed like an eternity. "It has come to that,
has it?" She turned away and took a few steps towards one of the lofty windows.
"Scyce, you idiot," she muttered.
"Erm," Bek said.
"You may enter," the griffin said sharply. She turned back to them and sat
"I," she said, "am Arda. I am your supreme commander. From now on you take no
more orders from anyone other than myself and Getlar himself. I assume you know
enough monosyllabic words to explain the situation to your friend there."
"Yes ma'am," Bek said. He bowed with the required reverence and turned back to
Lark. "Don't get near the nest, don't get near Arda," he said. "Oh, and don't
fall out the windows."
Lark nodded dutifully, and Bek was grateful that the troll was smart enough to
play as dumb as people expected him to be.
As they stepped into the eyrie proper, he took a quick inventory of his
surrounding. He had already noted the windows and the nest, but another
interesting feature were the bones. Bek knew of griffins who would on occasion
eat any person or persons straying too close; this was in a way to be expected,
and he tried never to judge.
Arda, though, from the looks of it, did not seem to eat people so much as
entire villages, and it seemed unlikely that entire villages would have strayed
too close to the Black Stone Tower. Of course, the sprawling piles of bones
and skulls could mean she was merely untidy rather than an insane
Looking at the human and orc graveyard that was the eyrie, Bek could not help
but wonder is any griffin bones had found their way into the piles, but decided
not to press the issue. Instead he focused on a spiral staircase, circling a
thick pillar up to the next floor.
"What's up there?" he asked, looking at it.
"Up there?" Arda said. "Nothing," she answered bitterly.
"That's right," said Arda with a fake little smile. "Nothing. What should
be there is the Sky Horde, but Scyce wished to take them on his precious
campaign in Greater Enton…"
"Ah," Bek said. It seemed to him that if Arda's could spit fire, the tower
would have combusted in an instant. He thought to change the subject again.
"And… Beyond that?"
"Beyond that?" Arda said. Her vexed features now twisted until they formed a
mean, mean smile. "Beyond that," she said, "lies the Dead World…"
"Ah," Bek said. And then: "Wait, you're kidding!"
against the outer wall of a winding staircase lay an unfortunate soldier. His
stomach was a mess of blood, the worst of it covered by his hand, pressing down
desperately on the wound. He used his other hand to stay upright, so as not to
slide down the steps.
Ferrick squatted beside him. He gently took the man's wrist between his
fingers, and raised the hand off of his stomach for a few seconds to look under
"I'm sorry," he said.
The soldier nodded.
"I need to know if you were with the paladin," Ferrick said.
The soldier pressed his lips together, and shook his head weakly.
"Alright…" Ferrick said gently. "But do you know where he is?"
This time the soldier turned his head to look up the staircase. He uttered a
grunt while doing so.
Ferrick breathed out slowly, looking down at the man.
"Darren, Weth, Astor," he said. "Up the stairs. Look for the paladin and join
him. Go on."
Wordlessly his little army of three proceeded up the stairs, squeezing past
him. When they had turned the corner, Ferrick drew his weapon, a long, thin,
lightweight sword.
"Would you like me to help you?" he asked.
"Very well," Ferrick said. He stood up and looked down at the young man.
"What's your name?"
By the time Ferrick rejoined his adopted little squad the next battle was
already underway. In a hall too small for any real battle the remaining forces
of the Light made a valiant, if chaotic stand against the next wave of undead
pouring in from the staircase ahead. The mindless animated bodies threw
themselves into the fray, onto swords and into shields, pushing back the
attackers only by sheer force of numbers and willingness to die a second time.
Ferrick stepped aside and ducked to avoid a slap from an undead rotting hand, currently
without owner, and ran into the battlefield. Almost immediately a terrible arm
of shredded flesh and chipped bone clawed at his face. Ferrick rolled on his
back and saw a bloodied sword swish overhead, cutting into the head of what was
once a long- and grey-haired woman, but now only an animated harbinger of
Rolling on his knees Ferrick cut into the creature's ankle with a swipe of his
sword. He got up and stumbled forward, into a cluster of soldiers occupied with
protecting each other's back. A hoarse bellowing behind him alerted him just in
time to duck behind the protective line. The attacking zombie fell to the floor
beside him, on all fours, and prepared for another leap when a single finger
touched its forehead.
"You may rest now," a lady's voice said. In an instant life seemed to leave the
creature's body, and the remaining corpse fell face-down onto the flagstones.
"This is a tower of death," said the owner of the finger both matter-of-factly
and grimly. It was a small woman, with long black hair. She wore no armour but
seemed to wear several layers of clothing. She was also covered in blood.
"How are we doing, Kara?" said Ferrick, losing little time.
Kara turned back to the body of a soldier lying beside her. He was breathing
heavily, his breastplate had been torn off, and a ghastly wound covered most of
his chest.
"Galen is up ahead carving us a way," she said, producing a small green bottle
of unidentified liquid from one of two leather pouches. "But our numbers
dwindle." She poured some of the liquid onto the wound, and as she did so the
soldier screamed out in pain.
Ferrick pressed down hard on the body as Kara calmly washed the wound clean. As
she did so, she not only seemed to wash away the blood, but actually the wound
"Will you have enough strength left?" he asked.
"Yes," said Kara, sifting rapidly through the contents of her pouch, holding
one hand onto the wound. "But this one will not fight anymore today." She
screwed the top off a little brown jar and proceeded to tap a light brown
powder onto what remained of the wound.
"We will need your aid," she said.
"Not much longer now," said Ferrick, concentrating on holding the man still.
"And yet, perhaps too long," said Kara reproachfully.
Ferrick pushed himself back onto his feet and tried to peer through the brutal
chaos of battle. The undead were perhaps not the most skilled warriors, but
their mad, unthinking, unfearing nature and sheer number had worn down their
invading army to a near-standstill. And waiting beyond every horde of these
crazed monsters lay a horde of only slightly less crazed orcs in waiting. There
was no telling how many were still left.
For a brief moment he spotted a red tunic amidst the sea of metal, flesh and
bone. He ducked into the battle, back to back with one of their own, and wove
his way towards it.
Galen's armour shone even now. It shone with the light of the righteous. It
shone with the belief of his order, the faith he carried into battle. This was
the power a paladin carried into battle; the prayers of an entire order to
protect him, and a mace like a sledgehammer to take down the unrighteous. The
tears and cuts in his tunic only allowed more of the armour's light to shine
"Galen!" Ferrick called out. "This must stop now!"
"Protect the wizard!" the paladin called back. He caught a leaping zombie on
his shield. It may as well have leapt into a wall face first: it hit with a
sickening crack and dropped motionless to the ground. Behind Galen a wizard in
his battle robe stood meditating with his forehead rested against his staff.
Ferrick sped over and pressed his back against that of the wizard. On the edge
of hearing he could hear the wizard muttering his spell even as Galen crushed
the chest of another undead creature with a mighty blow. Not even the speaking
stone he carried around his neck allowed him to understand the words; these
were old words, the meaning of which he did not know in any language. He
caught a zombie on his sword, and kicked it into the sword of a fellow warrior.
The hairs on the back of his neck were beginning to stand on edge.
Suddenly the wizard roared out words he did understand.
"Those who are not the sons of man, the heavens strike you down!"
It was too late to brace himself. With a stunning blow against the back of his
neck, Ferrick's world went black.
Ferrick was drowning. At least, that's what it felt like. A great pressure on
his chest pinned him down. As he tried to push against it, he was simply pushed
down even harder.
"Hold still," he heard Kara's voice say. "I said hold still!"
"Is he alright?" asked another familiar voice.
Ferrick opened his eyes to find himself on the ground, and greeted by the face
of Weth, peering at him with curious concern. He glanced down at his chest,
where Kara's hand was pressing down hard.
"This'll only take a moment," she said. "Just lie still…"
For one confused moment it almost felt as if Kara's hand reached all the way
down into his chest. Then the weight on his chest was lifted. Kara's hand
closed around a small, bright purple dot, which she carried with care.
"Help him up," she said. A pair of strong hands grabbed him under his armpits
and hoisted him up onto his feet. The world came into focus, and a dull red
anger began to fill his mind.
"What was that!?" Ferrick demanded, wavering slightly.
"A smite spell," said Kara. She placed both hands around the purple dot and
quenched it with a quick squashing motion.
"Diluted for a large number of recipients," said another voice. Ferrick turned
around. Next to Galen stood the wizard, looking exactly as tradition
prescribed. He sported a long white beard, a thick blue battle robe and a
matching blue cap. His staff was as long as he was tall; apparently this was
important, though Ferrick did not know why.
"It seems, mister Ferrick, that you are either more than human, or less."
"You don't say," Ferrick muttered. "And you are?"
"Master Trellas," said Galen. "Come to join us from the Order of Indar."
"Four of us entered Issyldir," Master Trellas said. "Of which I am the last."
"And the best, I hope?" Ferrick asked. Amidst the many slain undead bodies he
noticed a disturbing number of their own.
"A point of debate, mister Ferrick," said the wizard. "And a moot one at that.
I suggest we move with speed."
Ferrick nodded. His thoughts were racing back in place now.
"Yes. Galen, we--"
Through the window, from the battlefield below, the sound of a lone clarion
drifted in: a long low note, two high notes, another long low note, two more
high notes, again a long low note and finally three more high notes. Shortly thereafter
various clarions repeated the pattern in a cacophony of high an low notes.
Ferrick's mind did not freeze, because it rarely did. But its thoughts now ran
around in wildly, bumping into each other and running in circles. He looked at
Galen, and then at Kara, and finally at Master Trellas. It seemed they had all
understood as well.
"… Sir?" Weth asked, rather meekly for one who had just survived a slaughter by
the forces of the undead. "… Is something wrong, sir?"
And Galen said:
peered out of one of the large open windows. The slaughter that passed for a
batllefield below continued unabated, but something was amiss on the human
side. New command flags were hurriedly raised at the human command tents.
Chaotic troop movements seemed to be the result, and the line they had been was
beginning to be pushed back.
"Something's going on!" he called back over his shoulder. Arda, who had been
consulting with the last remaining orc captain, immediately ignored him and
headed over to the window.
"What is it?" she said.
Bek pointed at the troop movements below.
"There seems to be in some kind of panic," he said. "They've been raising new
Arda studied the battle of the ants below with an intent gaze. Then she looked
up, stepped back, and headed to the west side of the great aerie. Stepping on a
pile of bones she looked out the window, and a nasty smile appeared on her
"This could turn out to be a good day after all," she said. In the distance,
over the horizon, a small swarm of specks hovered up in the sky, approaching
"Everyone upstairs!" Galen boomed. "Now!"
Ferrick felt like he woke up. He turned sharply to what remained of the
invading forces of Light.
"You three!" he bellowed. "Go with the wizard! The four of you protect the
healer at all costs. The rest are with me!"
If there was movement when the paladin bellowed his orders, it was nothing
compared to the frantic motions of the miniature army upon Ferrick's command.
Within seconds three chaotic columns charged up the next staircase. Ferrick
paced to catch up with Galen, a large man and a siege engine in his own right.
"We're running out of time. We will have to break through the last lines,"
Ferrick said. "Can you do this?"
"You will have the time you need," Galen said firmly.
"I will come back for you when I can," Ferrick promised.
Galen nodded, and no more words were spoken.
Sky Horde approached fast. Dragons as large as a cart, red, green, blue and
gold; griffins, large and small; a single roc– a giant eagle – ridden by an
extravagantly scarred orc the size of a small horse. Above them hovered a
dragon, sleek as an eel, as black as the approaching night. For a few moments
it seemed as if the entire human army held its breath.
Then it exhaled, its breath taking the form a hail of arrows tearing the clear
sky into pieces.
"Go!" shouted the black dragon, and upon that single command the Sky Horde
pointed its trajectory downward. Splitting apart they wove through the hail of
arrows, dodging them, deflecting them, catching them. A single golden dragon
caught several of them in his wings and plummeted down into the raging mass of
human warriors. A large griffin was caught in the stomach by a large steel
harpoon and screeched to its doom. A green dragon fell lifelessly from the sky.
But now the Horde reached the human army. They tore through the lines with
claw, tooth and beak, spreading panic and disorder as bodies flew. The distant
siege weapons now helplessly pointed towards the very army they had intended to
defend. A blue dragon soared low towards the command tents, shaping crackling
lightning between its front claws which it conducted through its throat at the
defending bodyguards. Now a red dragon flew overhead, blasting fire and
engulfing the tents in searing flames. The flag poles snapped under the
combined might of the dragons' claws. Further ahead a small deployment of
griffins and dragons were tearing the siege engines apart, bombarding the
owners with the broken pieces.
Up in the sky, beyond the reach of projectiles, the black dragon surveyed the
progress of battle. Hovering without the aid of its wings, it spread its claws,
which vaguely began to glow.
the tower the remains of the army of light ran up the staircases. The battle
below was distant, but the screams were still too close.
Turning a corner they were faced by the orcs' last line of defense.
"Charge!" Galen roared without breaking his stride for even a moment.
With his mighty mace raised he ploughed into the lines, sending orcs piling
into each other. Almost immediately the orc army enveloped him, but the mace
swung violently and the armour glimmered with the sheen of faith and power.
Then the rest of the army charged in with a collective primal, desperate roar.
The orc lines broke as their weapons, shields and flesh met. Pushing aside the
orc forces a smaller number of them emerged on the other side.
"You will have your time, Ferrick!" Galen called out. The paladin now stood
between them and the orcish defenders. His red tunic and shimmering armour
clashed as violently as his mace with the dark and green armour and skin of his
"I'll come back when I can!" Ferrick called back as he rushed their army to the
top of the tower.
black dragon's eyes scanned the sky. The energies that magic bends were
everywhere, but the trained eye could see the flows. They wound and wove their
way through the sky like currents of air, part of an invisible climate. This
was were true power lay.
The flows moved. They curled and wound and shifted their way towards the
dragon, curling around his body, flowing over his spread wings. One such flow
crossed through his right claw. Another flowed around his left. In between, the
dragon began to glow a white light, first faint, but very quickly bright until
he was a bright star against the twilight sky. The tower, the battlefield and
all that surrounded it lit up in the beautiful glow of the dragon.
The Sky Horde scattered. The tower defenders backed away fast, flowing like
water around the tower base to the other side of it. Within moments the
battered and shattered human army found itself completely alone under the light
in the sky.
The dragon dove. At first he simply fell, but then fell faster,
accelerating beyond mere gravity. That the approaching point of light would
blind those standing under it was, in a way, only merciful.
cried out Bek. A bright explosive flash blinded him and the deafening shockwave
of the impact knocked him off his feet and into a pile of bones. The entire
tower seemed to shake so violently that for a few moments he feared that it
might snap in two. Even Arda seemed to need all her strength simply not to fall
"Scyce, you fool!" she screamed at the window when the worst had passed.
"I will murder you!" she added, making the word 'murder' somehow sound
much worse than the mere killing she usually seemed to busy herself with.
Bek groped around uneasily to find some footing amidst the bones before Lark
picked him up and gently placed him back on his feet.
"What happened?" the troll asked.
Bek blinked a few times as his eyesight returned and walked back to the window.
He looked down.
"I think… We won," he said rather bemusedly. Of the battlefield below only a
few scraps at the edges remained. The human army had been reduced to a steaming
shallow crater. Even the siege engines had been removed from sight, though upon
further inspection he saw a few remaining pieces scattered what seemed like
more than a mile away. The Sky Horde returned one by one and lined the edge of
the crater.
"Not yet," said Arda, and she turned her head towards the staircase into her
aerie. Running footsteps rapidly approached. The few remaining orcs swiftly
encircled the opening with pikes and swords.
"They will be desperate now," said Arda. It should have been a warning, but it
sounded like an added bonus.
Bek reached for his pike and aimed it carefully towards the circle orcs. Lark
spun around with surprising speed for a walking rock, and planted his feet
firmly onto the ground. Arda, meanwhile, padded slowly towards the stairs,
keeping well behind the orc defensive line, but with the corners around her
beak turned up in a sadistic little way.
They waited in silence, and there was a lot of it now. With the battle over,
the only thing to reach the ear were the wind and the approaching footsteps, which
seemed to take forever.
Finally there was a unified battle cry, and a gaggle of dishevelled humans
burst from the staircase. The pike of the front orc was knocked down by a swift
blade, disappearing between the feet of the front runner. The human was cut
down by another orc, but not before the first orc had been struck across the
face by the same blade. The defensive little circle broke up quickly, and about
ten humans poured in.
"Crap," Bek said. "Lark!"
As a trained team, they moved quickly. They strategically circled the battle
and took up defensive position near the staircase leading further up, far away
enough from the main battle, but close enough not to draw comment.
Arda, however, leaped into the fray. She stabbed her claws into the back of a
human warrior engaged in battle with an orc, paused for a moment to savour the
scream, and then swung him over her head and into the flagstones so hard that
Bek thought he could hear the bones crack. Arda's chest heaved a bit
with a silent snigger before scanning the room for her next victim.
What she found was a small human woman with long black hair, giving her an
intent, threatening stare.
Arda cocked her head and smirked slightly.
"You are not a warrior," she said to the woman. "And you are not a wizard," she
said, taking a step closer. She smiled. "Pray tell, what are you?"
"I heal," said the woman, with a voice that could cut to the bone.
Arda's smile broadened.
"Then you are weak," she said, "and you will die," she added slowly, savouring
each word.
"We are all weak," the woman said simply. With that, Kara stretched out her
arms and spread her fingers upwards. She closed her eyes shut and said, as if
speaking to someone else: "Your time is now."
There was motion in the edges of the aerie. It clicked, it shifted and it
shuffled. From the piles of bones rose creatures made of the remains of others.
Orc skulls on human chests on orc legs, human skulls, orc arms, they all
combined and rose and stood, watching Arda with a malice that should not be
possible with mere eye sockets.
Arda hissed furiously.
"Dark arts!" she spit at the healer. "You are no healer!"
"No art is dark," said Kara. "Merely the intent." Her eyes were closed, but
there was no doubt in Bek's mind that she was watching through every eye socket
in the aerie.
"I'm not liking this…" he said, circling slowly around Lark to stand
back-to-back. Lark raised his fists. But the skeletal remains seemed to have no
interest in them. They approached quickly at Arda. She slashed at them with her
claws, furious more than anything, screaming indignation. The first few
creatures fell at her feet before they overtook her. As she struggled, more and
more piled on top of her, tugging at her wings, clawing at her face. The
griffin fell to her knees.
"You are dead!" she screamed at the unflinching healer. "I will murder
you! I will slaughter you!" She pushed herself back on her feet and,
half staggering, half running, propelled herself into one of the narrow walls.
Bones shattered with a loud, collective crack. The remaining skeletons yanked
at her, dragging her to the side as her claws scraped across the flagstones.
Screaming profanity, she teetered over the edge of the aerie and, skeletons
clutching at her wings, fell out of sight.
"Guess we make a stand then," Bek growled. He shifted his feet, lowered his
head and raised his pike, and with a screech he launched himself at the nearest
enemy soldier. A swift swing of the human's blade pushed the pike upwards. Bek
pushed back down, and with the aid of his wings leapt up over the blade,
kicking both legs into the man's chest. The soldier landed on his back with a
meaty thud, with one griffin leg on his chest and another on his stomach. Bek
tossed up the pike and caught it near the blade, about to thrust it down when
another body impacted in his side, sending him and his assailant tumbling
across the flagstones.
Bek kicked back his attacker, scrambled on claws and knees and looked up into
the face of a somewhat scrawny human, with long white hair. He was already
getting up and about to swing his sword when Lark's fist came down on him.
Ferrick only just managed to roll to the side before the mighty troll fist
smashed into the aerie's floor with a sharp thud. What trolls thankfully lacked
in stealth, they made up for in brute strength and toughness. Holding on tight
to his useless sword out of sheer instinct, he jumped up on his feet and faced
the troll. He cast a quick, impatient glance out one of the many windows, and
readied another leap for safety.
Bek picked up his pike and barrelled at the attacker with a primal screech.
Ferrick quickly side-stepped the blade, spun around and swung his own blade at
the griffin's face, but got the wind knocked out of him by the wall that was
Lark's body before it could connect. The griffin fell on its back, and Ferrick
quickly pushed himself away from the troll, narrowly missing the swinging fist,
spun in the direction of the griffin and, with both hands at the heft, brought
his sword down tip-first at the griffin's chest. The troll's rock arm swiftly
inserted itself between the blade and the griffin's chest, deflecting it with a
painful clang, and in one swift motion grabbed Ferrick by the clothing on his
chest. The world swirled past and Ferrick found himself struggling high above
the battlefield, looking down at the angry features of the troll's face.
Suddenly there was a mighty blow to the troll's chest; the grip on Ferrick's
clothes was released, and he fell to the ground as the troll stumbled back
several steps. In between himself and the troll stepped Master Trellas,
swinging his staff at the creature in a threatening manner.
Instinctively Ferrick leapt back, thereby only narrowly avoiding the blade of
the griffin's pike. He circled away from the rest of the battlefield, around
the snarling griffin, and readied his sword. The griffin bent its knees
slightly, raised his wings in an instinctive display of physical superiority
and aimed the pike's terrible blade at his neck. They stood motionless for a
few seconds, testing each other's defences with their eyes. When Ferrick only
briefly glanced over the griffin's shoulder he saw Master Trellas delivering blow
after blow on the troll's body.
The griffin began to growl softly, raising its feathers slowly, spreading its
wings further, capitalising on the most basic human fears of tooth and claw,
perhaps even without any awareness of doing so. To some griffins, human beings
were no more than prey, and the very place they were in had been littered with
bones. Ferrick spread his feet slightly further, ostensibly for added balance,
but mostly in defiance of his inner instincts. He took comfort in the knowledge
that there was more than one predator in this room.
… He could sense it. He could feel it. He could not explain how, but he
always knew. It was there. Night had fallen.
The moon.
He looked at it, through one of the great windows. He could not help not to,
even if it was just for a moment. His blood turned warm. His heart started to
pound like a hammer on an anvil. His mind felt like it were in a vice,
squeezing out nearly all senses. The floor and everything on it sank away
before his eyes. A sense of euphoria came over him, which he suppressed with
great discipline. Before the eyes of the griffin, Ferrick grew, changed… In
mere moments his arms turned into a mass of muscles, his hands turned to claws,
his feet angled and grew to burst out of his shoes. His face extended, his
teeth became sharp and plentiful, his ears grew out. Silver grey hair grew out
of every inch of his skin. The leather armour stretched, the straps that held
it together unfastened.
And at the same time the griffin's feathers settled back down, his wings
lowered to the ground and its ears flattened against its head.
It looked up at the great, fearsome werewolf with an expression of unashamed
"Oh… Man," it said.
Galen swung his mace once more, and the last orc fell to the ground, amidst its
slain brothers. Now there was silence. The paladin waited for a moment, his
muscles tense and his senses on alert, and then relaxed. Covered in the blood
of his enemies, he allowed himself to rest back against a wall, panting wearily
as he dropped his mace to the ground.
He thought better of it, reached down to pick up the mace again, and instead
sat down on a small set of steps that elevated part of the corridor. With a
tired sigh he wiped the blood off his face.
And waited…
He heard the footsteps already, the heavy thuds, the click of talons. He had
hoped for a little more time, but he was a man who performed the work of gods,
and simply had to deal with whatever they put before him.
He rested a little while longer while the footsteps approached, and then stood
up and faced their general direction. They moved urgently, but with restraint.
They moved… Angrily. And there were other, much lighter footsteps.
Scyce turned the corner, around him a small entourage of undead warriors. For a
moment the black dragon paused, taking in the sight of the bloodied paladin
amidst the bodies of the Black Stone Tower's army. Galen glared back, and
allowed his heart to be filled with a burning hatred.
Scyce, slayer of armies.
Scyce, destroyer of Avadera.
Scyce, scourge of the righteous, burden of the weak, harbinger of the undead
blight… Murderer!
Galen raised his mace and shield and thus issued his challenge.
"Hold," said the dragon, his calculating eyes trained on the paladin. His
zombies obediently shambled back. The dragon Scyce, on all fours, took a few
steps forward, lowering his head, flaring his wings and swinging his tail
"Mm," he growled. "A hero. Making a stand."
Galen said nothing.
"Your army is dead," said Scyce, still approaching. "Your cause is dead."
Galen remained motionless. The dragon stopped and studied the remains of his
tunic, displaying the crest of the Order of Alissa.
"And before today's end," Scyce said with a grin, "Your order is dead."
With a scream that seemed to be uttered from his very soul, the paladin threw
himself at the dragon.
leapt up, flapping his wings wildly to get away, but the werewolf leapt after
him and grabbed him by the leg.
"Bwarck!" he uttered as the sudden change of acceleration travelled down
his spine and yanked the pike from his claws. An enormous hairy claw smashed
into his chest and pushed him down to the ground. In a moment of sheer panicked
instinct Bek dug his claws into the werewolf's arm and bit down hard as he
climbed up towards the shoulder. Though its skin seemed to be made of hardened
leather, the werewolf roared in pain. As it flung its arm violently, Bek held
on for dear life, digging and biting as hard as he could while the world became
a blur, and then a wall coming straight at him.
"Yeep!" he exclaimed. He quickly let go, spread his wings, landed with claws
and feet on the wall and jumped off of it away from the massive creature. He
landed with scraping claws, and jumped for his pike.
"Yeah, not that easy, is it!?" he snarled with a tinge of pride as he
grabbed his weapon, only to see two rows of sharp teeth coming straight at him.
With an instinctive flap of his wings he raised himself over the wolf's head
and rolled down its neck, hooking the pike's staff under its snout. He quickly
grabbed for the other side of the pike and yanked hard, pulling the staff into
the wolf's neck. It reared on its hind legs, and Bek quickly dug the nails of
his feet into the wolf's back for balance, biting into the base of the neck for
good measure.
The wolf seemed to go into a rage. It hooked its claws behind the staff,
pushing it away from its neck, but Bek pulled at it for fear of his life. It
staggered back, growling fearsomely, and slammed into a wall. This knocked the
wind out of the griffin. He lost his grip on the pike, and in a swift moment
the wolf grabbed him painfully by the wing and swung him through the room.
Bouncing off an orc he disappeared screaming through a window.
Ferrick breathed heavily and cursed under his breath. The little—His ears
perked up and he quickly turned to face the charging troll, caught its fist and
pushed it back with a pound in the chest, where Master Trellas delivered a blow
with an upwards swing of his staff that sent the troll flying into the ceiling,
which it hit with a loud, dusty thump. It then remained there, lying on the
"Always tricky work, gravity," Master Trellas said, slightly out of breath. And
then: "So… More than human then, mister Ferrick?"
"Some would say…" said Ferrick, and he leapt into the battle at hand.
the battle raged in the aerie, so did it below, where the paladin and the
dragon engaged in combat. The dragon side-stepped the paladin's initial attack
with surprising agility for its bulk. In turn it opened its mouth and spewed a
green streak of acid from between its horrible jagged teeth. Galen managed to catch
it on his shield, from where the terrible liquid sprayed all around him; where
it touched rock it began to bubble, and a suffocating gas started to permeate
the air.
Next, the dragon's massive claw slammed into the shield, propelled by all the bulk
of the dragon itself. It connected with a loud, dull thud. The force of the
blow resonated through all of Galen's armour as his boots slid several inches
across the corridor's flagstones.
The dragon retracted its claw and stepped back, giving the paladin a
calculating glare. A human several orders of magnitude smaller than him had
successfully blocked a blow that would have felled a tree. In turn, Galen
stepped back as well, away from the acid spewing mouth and away from the
corrosive gas that was slowly attacking his lungs.
Scyce lowered his head back to the level of that of Galen's, and observed him
carefully. The paladin was breathing audibly. The dragon slowly moved his head
left, then right, and dragged three deep gouges into the corridor's stone floor
with his claw, growling menacingly. Galen regarded him with unmoving
Then, in an instant, Scyce charged forward. His claw lashed at the paladin's
face, and was caught on the shield with another blow that vibrated through his
bones. His other claw immediately lashed at the paladin's legs, but Galen had
already started to jump back, narrowly avoiding the dragon's rock-gouging
talons. He landed a few feet back and immediately resumed his unmoving stance.
Scyce charged forward again, this time landing blow after blow on the shield.
It should have bent, or shattered, or torn from the paladin's grip, but it
held, and so did the paladin. Every blow was fiercer than the last, and pushed
Galen further back down the corridor, his armour ringing in his ears as it
vibrated with every blow.
Finally Scyce dropped back on his front legs and, retreating a few steps to a
safe distance, panting slightly.
"Indestructible armour." he snarled. "Your order's faith must be
Galen glared at the dragon over the rim of his shield. It had held against
the mightiest foe he had ever faced, and insofar the dragon was right: it had
taken everything that was thrown at it. But even faith had to falter at some
"And what is it they believe in?" the dragon asked. "The goddess Alissa? Or
maybe their champion?" He took a small step forward, keeping his eyes locked
with that of the human.
"How strong would their faith be without you, paladin?" he asked scornfully.
"The hero in the glistening armour, behind the unbreakable shield. How strong
is their faith in you?"
Galen took a careful step back. The dragon raised his head, looking down at the
paladin with what looked like the beginnings of a humourless smirk on his
"I'll tell you how strong," it said.
The dragon leapt back, reared on his hind legs and in one swift motion wove a
bright blob of energy between his front claws which he tore in two and threw at
the walls on either side of the paladin. The explosions upon impact blasted in
Galen's ears as his armour rang, absorbing the impact. He stumbled back too
late to dodge the ceiling coming down on him, and hid his head behind his
shield as he fell back and black rock rained down on him.
It took a while for all the sound to truly die away; small bits of debris
continued to rain down even as the dust settled. Scyce stepped towards the pile
of black rock, placed a front claw firmly there where he expected the paladin's
chest to be, and brushed some of it away. From underneath the rock emerged the
bright red shield. He latched a single claw around its top edge and ripped it
from the paladin's hand so hard that he screamed in pain. It clanged down the
Now the paladin's face was visible, part defiance, part fear. Scyce placed his
other claw onto the pile of rubble, leaning down hard on the paladin's chest,
and stretched his neck to look the paladin in the face.
"Not. Strong. Enough," he said.
Galen struggled, but the rock was uncaring and unforgiving. The combined weight
of the rock and the dragon was weighing heavily on his breastplate. He looked
up at the dragon's face, with its acid-spewing mouth with its sharp, jagged
rows of teeth.
"A hero," huffed the dragon. "You parade around in your beautiful armour, and
the world loves you. They believe in you, and you believe them. Where
would you be without their love, hm? Who would you be? Their champion? Their
protector? Their saviour?"
Scyce lowered his head, and the tip of his snout touched Galen's nose. The
dragon made a face carved of hatred and disgust.
"You are no hero," he growled. He raised his head again and looked down on the
paladin, now but a pitiful face at the mercy of the mighty dragon.
"This world has no heroes…" said Scyce. "Just people like you."
And with that he opened his mouth wide, and the streak of corrosive green acid
was the last thing that Galen ever saw.
the same time, Ferrick's silvery furry claw was the last thing the orc saw. The
impact flung it at least 15 feet from its original position before it even
touched the floor, only to bounce and slide to a halt beside the giant nest.
Bearing his teeth and growling ominously he looked around for any more foes,
but found two swords and a halberd trained at him, held by the three human
warriors still standing. Two of the weapons were trembling noticeably. One of
them belonged to Weth, alive against all odds. He looked the very picture of
divided loyalties.
"Weapons down," said Master Trellas soothingly. With the weight of his staff he
pushed down the sword of a young yet battle-hardened soldier.
"As you may notice," Master Trellis lectured, "mister Ferrick is a lycan,
colloquially known as a werewolf." He walked up to stand beside the
great wolf. "I can assure you, however, that – like many – mister Ferrick
retains control of his faculties. He is, still, on your side."
The eldest of the three soldiers looked up sceptically at the giant wolf man.
He looked to be a veteran, if such a distinction could be made under all the
blood and grime of battle.
"That true?" he asked of Ferrick.
Ferrick nodded once, after a brief pause.
"Mister…?" began Master Trellas.
"Jonas," said the man, not letting the werewolf out of his sight.
"Mister Jonas," said Master Trellis firmly, "If he wasn't, you would not be
alive to ask the question. Shall we go before the actual monsters show up?"
Ferrick looked over the head of the one yet unnamed soldier, behind whom Kara
was kneeling beside one of their fallen.
"Kara…" he said.
"You were too late," she said bitterly.
Ferrick grunted, which in his current state had a definite growly flavour to
it. He looked down at the soldier below his line of vision.
"What's your name?"
"Beddick, sir," said the soldier, and he promptly twisted himself in an
uncertain half salute.
"Beddick, you and Jonas join Master Trellas and guard the rear. I'll take
point. Protect the healer… Er, Weth…"
Now Ferrick looked at Weth. In a battle that had ground up the combined armies
of four different states somehow this young man, this… Boy… Had managed to stay
alive. It was as close to a miracle as you could hope for on a day like this.
Ferrick's heart nearly sank at the thought of losing him now.
Weth stood to a sort of attention and said: "Sir?"
"You're with me. Stay right behind me," Ferrick said. "Kara!"
The healer put something back in one of her pouches and stood up in almost
stately fashion.
"I gave him something that will help him," she said as she walked past
stoically. "for so long as it will be necessary."
Ferrick looked at her back as he headed for the spiral staircase to the next
level, and rumbled an aggravated sigh.
"Let's go," he said.
It took only a few seconds after the party disappeared up the staircase for a
small claw to latch itself onto the windowsill of one of the windows. A pair of
eyes under a feathery cranium scanned the aerie carefully, and then turned into
a full griffin head. Bek carefully climbed back in and surveyed the room.
"Lark?" he asked quietly, trying to identify any horizontal slabs of rock
amidst the human and orc bodies.
"Bek?" came Lark's deep, rumbling voice. It came from above him. Bek took a
moment to process this particular piece of information, and then looked up.
Lark lay spread-eagled, faking death, which was not the first time a troll
employed that particular trick. To Bek's knowledge, though, they did not often
employ it on the ceiling.
"What are you doing up there?" Bek demanded in panicked, whispery tones.
His wings flared involuntarily at a sudden attack of vertigo. Lark returned an
annoyed stare.
"Alright, hang… Up… There," said Bek. "I'll get you down."
He looked around the floor and, to his immense pleasure, located his pike. He
ran over to it, snatched it off the ground, and leapt at Lark, flapping his
wings awkwardly. He made a few efforts to get close to Lark, and hit his head
on the ceiling.
"Ow!" he hissed.
"You okay?" asked Lark.
"How do you land on a ceiling!?" Bek hissed in frustration. "Alright, give me
your… Reach… No, grab my claw. Yeah…"
Bek now dangled from Lark's arm, clutching his pike in his free claw.
"Bek?" said Lark.
"Yeah?" panted Bek, flapping his wings carefully to get closer to the troll. "…
Arch your back."
The troll did so.
"What if I'll always fall upward now?" it asked.
"You won't, Lark," said Bek as he managed to slide the staff end of the pike
under the troll's back.
"But what if I do?" insisted the troll.
"Then we can rent smaller rooms at the inn, now can't we?" Bek said. "Very
efficient." He swung himself under the troll's body and managed to grab the end
of the staff that came out on the other side. "Now push," he added.
Lark pressed his hands down onto the ceiling and pushed hard. Bek, at the same
time, pressed his feet up against the ceiling and yanked at the staff as hard
as he could. For a few moments it seemed like something would give, and then it
did. The troll's back swung away from the ceiling and Bek was launched at the
ground with a yelped "Wark!" and a thud that sounded more like a splat.
"Bek? You okay?" The troll's voice was worried.
The griffin groaned a few times, squeezed his eyes shut, and then opened them.
Lark loomed over him. He was standing on his feet again, which was a definite
improvement except that they were still connected to the ceiling.
Bek allowed himself an extra groan, and pushed himself back on his feet with
the pike.
"Alright," he sighed. "We're making progress here. Give me your arm."
Lark obediently lowered his arm within reach of the griffin. Bek jumped up,
grabbed it, and tried yanking at it a few times, to no discernible effect.
"Great," he muttered.
And then there were footsteps. Most of them were the familiar 'splat-splat'
footsteps of the undead hoardes, but one set was larger, heavier… Both Bek and
Lark turned their heads towards the staircase that led into the aerie. Four
zombies stepped out, with a kind of menacing obedience that was normally
difficult to attain from an undead shell of a man.
Amidst them, the heavy footsteps stopped, and with it a sleek, black dragon.
Standing in the staircase, Scyce looked at the spectacle with a look that could
mean anything, but mostly bad things.
Very slowly, Lark raised his arm to bring the hand to his temple in a salute,
dangling griffin and all.
And Bek said: "Reporting for duty, sir," and grinned.
this was going on, Ferrick led his troupe up the last staircases. He knew now
that they were near, and he knew there would be no more opposition.
He could practically smell it.
Still, to be sure, he made sure to keep some distance between himself and the
rest of the group, so any trap would be sprung on him first. Still trailing
right behind him, occasionally beside him, was young Weth.
"Sir?" he asked.
"Is the healer mad at you?" Weth accompanied the inappropriate question with a
sincerely curious frown.
"Kara… Thinks I can change whenever I want," Ferrick said.
Weth seemed genuinely surprised.
"Is that true?" he asked. But Ferrick said nothing.
After the second flight of stairs, there were no more. They found themselves in
a circular room, about as big as the aerie, again with large, open windows. But
this time it was really only a circular hallway, encompassing a smaller
circular room on the inside. It had no windows, and a pair of small but heavy
doors as its only entrance. They were closed.
"We've made it," said Ferrick, noting the relief in his own voice. He tested
the doors, first by rattling them, then by punching them with a flat claw, and
finally by dragging claw marks in the woodwork. They were unyielding.
"Master Trellas!" he called down.
Master Trellas was an accomplished wizard. It took only a few calculated knocks
of the wizard's staff to make the doors swing around their hinges. The inside
of the windowless round room was…
Not dark at all!
At the precise centre of the round room within the round corridor atop the Black Stone Tower a globe hung motionlessly in the air. It looked like a bubble of water,
suspended in the air. Or perhaps more precisely, it looked like a bubble of
air, if all the air was water. And it was beautiful: it shone with a perfect
light that illuminated all surfaces around it equally, no imperfections. The
shadows it cast on the walls as the party slowly filed in were crisp and dark
as the night.
"What in Freck's name…" breathed the oldest of the soldiers.
"Gentlemen," said Trellas, "We lucky few have reached the source of our foe's
power. Without this, Getlar will be nothing but a minor menace."
"Kara," Ferrick said softly. The healer knelt down before a round altar,
located precisely under the great ball of light, and the only thing in the room
other than the globe itself. It had a spherical indentation at the centre which
would fit the globe perfectly, around which were carved various runes.
"But what is it?" the soldier asked. He reached out very tentatively at the
globe, and stopped immediately as the wizard held up his hand in a halting
"This," he said, "is an entry point to another world. We call it the Dead
World. I suggest distance."
"The Dead World," breathed Weth, in awe. Kara was producing small, black stones
from under her many dresses, and placing them evenly around the perimeter of
the altar.
Ferrick, meanwhile, padded to the doorway. He grabbed each door with a claw and
faced the party inside.
"Stay here," he said solemnly. "Protect the healer. This is what we came
to do."
He gently closed the doors, leaving the rest of the party in only the light of
the Dead World. Then he turned around, dropped to all fours, and bounced
towards the staircase. There was a friend in need down there.
"You are familiar with the Dead World, young man?" asked Master Trellas after a
few moments of silence.
"I read a book," said Weth, gazing up at the shimmering globe. If he looked
well, really well, it was almost as if he could see starlight, captured
and ordered inside black rectangles like a collection of butterflies. Almost…
"From this point on," said the healer, breaking the spell. "I may not be
Using his staff as a momentary delineation, Trellas led the rest of the party
back towards the wall, away from the healer. Kara sat down cross-legged, hid
her hands into her sleeves, and began to gaze intently at the wonderful ball of
"That was with the Yssildrian wars, wasn't it?" whispered Weth.
"Yes," said Master Trellas. "The Yssildrian city discovered a fissure to
another world. Its wizard kings began to harvest this world's energies for
their own, and became the mightiest power in the world."
"I thought it ran out," said Weth.
"No," Master Trellis said. "The wizard kings destroyed themselves. But not
before draining this poor world of most of its energies. That was millennia
ago. Nothing can live there now."
"What if something does?" the veteran soldier asked, and he regarded the globe
with a healthy amount of distrust.
"Then it is very unfortunate," Master Trellas stated.
"How do we destroy a fissure to another world?" asked Weth in whispering tones.
"We don't."
The group fell silent. The healer had spoken up. Her eyes were now ablaze with
a white light, as if defying the light of the globe itself. She looked intently
at it.
"We will heal it," she said. "Please do not disturb me any further."
There was a noise outside. A thump, a clang, and then a roaring voice.
"Barricade the doors!" it called out.
Master Trellas was the quickest to react. He swung his staff to horizontal
position against the door in time to catch the first blow against it. His boots
slid across the smooth stones that made up the floor, and he stumbled forward
only just in time to catch the second blow. The third, however, sent him
flying. The doors swung open, under the force of Ferrick's massive body being
shoved into it by an equally massive troll. Instantaneously four zombies leapt
in after them. One found itself flying face-first into Master Trellis' raised
staff, while another splattered into Lark's flying stone body as Ferrick kicked
him back out the room. The other two piled on top of Jonas, the veteran
soldier, who had been the quickest to position himself between them and the
"Aargh!" he screamed, pushing back with hands and halberd as the zombies
clawed at his face. The remaining two soldiers immediately leapt into action,
of which Weth was yanked back by a great claw that grabbed his armour around
the back of his neck.
"Stay here!" Ferrick commanded as he deposited the young man next to the
healer. She still defiantly glared at the bright globe; it now glowed in a pale
green light, growing brighter by the second. Weth bit his lip, took a deep
breath and raised his sword defiantly in defence of the healer.
Ferrick, meanwhile, stepped forward and roared furiously at the dragon in the
doorway, grabbing one of the undead and flinging it into a wall for good
measure. Scyce growled back in a low tone, and for perhaps a second their gazes
were locked until the troll threw itself back at the werewolf, knocking him
down to the ground.
"Hold'im down! Hold'im down!" cried out the small griffin, now appearing from
behind the dragon, brandishing his horrible pike as he ran up to the werewolf.
"Aside!" commanded the wizard as his outstretched hand smacked Bek into
the surrounding wall in a thin floating streak of feathers ending in a pathetic
squeak. In turn the dragon's black wing knocked the wizard through the room.
Scyce growled in frustrated tones as he now descended upon Weth, looming
thunderously over the boy. Weth stared up into the dragon's mouth, as mobile as
a block of granite.
Ferrick once again pushed the troll off of him, reached out his right claw to
catch the once again charging griffin and with a single fluent motion swung Bek
to send him flying into the side of Scyce's head. A streak of corrosive green
slime flew past Weth's cheek, some of it disappearing into the globe – Now
glowing a bright green –, the rest smearing itself across the flagstones with
an audible hiss. The griffin landed next to it and whimpered softly.
With a furious roar the dragon, after perhaps a mere second of confusion,
launched himself at the werewolf. Ferrick, still lying on his back, caught the
dragon's front claws in his own and the rest of it on his knees, rolled with
the motion until he was on top, and leapt off as another acidic streak flew
past his cheek.
Lark already advanced once again, but Scyce cut him off by stepping between
"Stop the healer!" the dragon snapped, keeping his eyes on the werewolf. "I
will take five seconds."
"For Gavin!" Ferrick roared, flinging his mighty claw at the dragon's face.
Scyce caught the blow with a swing of his front claw, and with the other
blasted the werewolf in the chest with a stunning burst of energy. For a few
seconds Ferrick felt nearly every muscle in his torso contract as he stumbled
back. Scyce growled joyously and charged forward, thumping the werewolf in the
chest with the top of his head and shoving him into the wall. The impact
knocked the wind out of Ferrick, and he slumped to his knees.
At the same time both Bek and Lark advanced on the healer from opposite sides.
Kara now glowed from the inside out, pure light flowing through her veins, as
green as the bright sun that the globe seemed to be becoming. She was trembling
with effort. And in the middle of this triangle stood Weth. He looked at the griffin,
then at the troll, weighed his chances carefully, and then hurtled himself at
Bek with a raised sword and what he no doubt thought of as a blood-curdling
scream. Bek caught the sword's swing on his pike. Clutching the heft of his
sword in both hands Weth landed blow after blow, causing the griffin to inch
Then Lark grabbed Weth by the pants and yanked him up in the air, away from his
quarry. With a lazy but swift motion Bek spun his pike so that the blade at the
end ended up mere inches from Weth's face. The soldier stopped struggling and
stared at the tip.
"Second rule of fighting: pick your opponents." Bek said. "Third rule of
fighting: pace yourself. Who taught you to fight, kid?"
"S-sergeant Kinnicky," Weth said with a clenched throat.
For a brief moment, amidst the battle, both Bek and Lark stared at the young
man. Then Lark said:
"Them's a rhetorical question."
Scyce counted down. "Three… Two… One… Five seconds…"
Ferrick was on his knees. His chest burned, and he could not find that gasp of
air that would return his strength. He managed to look up hatefully at Scyce,
who was watching him with a mixture of mockery and distaste.
"A lycan in the Light," said Scyce. "Thinking himself human."
The dragon placed a claw onto the werewolf's head and, in one swift motion,
slammed his head down onto the stone floor. Ferrick's world became a split
second of agony, followed by a woozy headache as the dragon stood on his head,
glaring down at him with its snout near his ear.
"Thinking doesn't make it so," he spat.
Scyce stepped off the werewolf. He turned around. He paced over to the healer.
She was aglow in her own little world, a human flame burning next to the little
green sun.
Ferrick struggled to get on his feet. He saw the dragon raise a claw.
He saw the dragon swing it down on Kara.
And he saw the world shatter.
could not move. In fact, it seemed like there was no world to move in, no time
for the movement to take place. And yet at the same time there was time to be.
All around was the blackness of nothingness. The only source of light in the
world was the healer, flaming as bright as ever.
She briskly turned her head and looked up sternly at the dragon.
"You have disrupted the spell," she stated.
She looked down and reached into her chest, and when her hands emerged they
crackled with a bright blue energy. With narrowed eyes she looked up at Scyce
again, and she thrust her crackling hands at the dragon's chest.
The blue bolt hit him like lightning. Scyce yelped as he was flung upwards, and
momentarily he balanced on his hind claws before he fell on his side.
He coughed as the healer stood up. She looked down at him.
"What…" he growled. All others remained frozen in emptiness: The troll
clutching the human and the griffin threatening it. The human warriors and
their undead counterparts battle. The wizard, lying to the side. The werewolf,
casting a desperate, hateful stare towards him. They were like insects in
resin, floating motionlessly in nothingness.
"In a few moments time and space will heal," stated the healer. "The rift to
the dead world will be open, an unstitched wound in the world. And it will
swallow us."
Scyce climbed back on his feet, which was remarkably hard. His legs were still
shaking, and there was a distant rumbling on the edge of his hearing. He felt
"What did you do?" he managed to groan. The healer seemed to ignore him for the
sake of her lecture.
"In there you will protect me, Scyce, destroyer of Avadera," she said. She
spoke with certainty, as if it were a command that cannot be disobeyed. "You
will be my guardian. You will be my saviour."
"Over my… Dead…" Scyce breathed. The rumbling became louder. It was not merely
something in his mind. Something approached, something as big as… As big as…
The world itself! He struggled against disorientation and lack of control.
The healer rummaged under one of the several dresses she was wearing. After a
few seconds she produced a small, harmless looking knife. Nevertheless Scyce
watched it suspiciously as he took a small step back. The healer rolled up her
sleeves, one at a time, and in a demonstrative fashion put the sharp end of the
blade on the skin of her arm.
With a swift motion she slashed a cut in her arm. A sharp and burning pain in
Scyce's front leg surprised him, and he fell down with a yelp.
When he looked down at it, there was a cut. It bled mildly.
"Yes," the healer said emphatically. She held up her arm; the cut there was
similar to the one on his leg. A single drop of blood ran down her sleeve.
The rumbling had become quite loud. Scyce clambered back on all four legs and glared
at her with a more panicked expression than he had wished.
"I will not be a slave!" he called out over the noise.
"No, perhaps some day you won't be," the healer spoke up. "But for now," she
continued, as her voice was being drowned away by the noise of the approaching
world, "you serve the forces of the Light!"
Scyce's reply was lost in the roar of the oncoming world, but he screamed it
with foul, foul eyes, and then, with a bright green flash and a terrible clap,
the world snapped back into place.
whipped around Scyce's ears, and the first instinct he had was to dig a claw
into the stonework of the floor. With an immediate second thought he grabbed
the healer's arm just as the wind lifted them both off the floor and left them flying
like a wind fane towards the bright green light of the rift. There was
screaming all around, barely audible over the wind that was tearing at his
Human bodies, alive, dead or undead, flew past and into the rift. The werewolf
lasted little longer. The healer screamed, and he could feel the pain in his
own front leg where he was clutching her around the arm. It made it difficult
to hold on…
The troll slid towards the rift, a human soldier and the griffin both wrapped
around its face. It struggled, tumbled back and fell in, followed only moments
later by the last of the zombies as it clawed impotently at the flagstones.
Scyce held on with only the tips of his talons as they slowly slipped out of
the grooves. A small part of him cursed the way how everything had suddenly
gone so wrong. Another part was afraid of what the Master would say. But most
of him feared the future.
His claws slipped, and through the rift it embraced and enveloped him.
It was an open sky, and it was full of stars.
felt like he was falling.
He had been in a tower. He had seen the world shatter. He had seen…
Other things; he wasn't quite sure anymore. And now his senses were telling him
he was falling.
With a snap his mind put itself back together. He was falling!
screamed Bek. The ground had vanished; hell, the whole world had
vanished! Lark was plummeting like the rock that he was and the human was
grabbing at both Lark's head and Bek's legs in a state of utter panic.
"BEEEEEEUUUUUUUHhhh…" uttered a zombie as it soared past. Bek rolled his eyes
at it and paid it no further mind. Instead he grabbed the pike right by the
staff right under the blade, absentmindedly kicking the human in the ribs, and
stuck the other end out in front of Lark's face.
"Lark!" he screamed. "Grab hold!"
spread his wings as the momentum shot him tumbling through the sky, and felt
the mild jolt of pain in his own wrist as he yanked the healer up against his
chest. There were stars above and lights below, this disoriented him and in
turn enraged him. With a frustrated roar and a few mighty beats of his wings he
stabilised himself. With a wide arc he turned back towards his entrypoint.
"Where is it!?" He roared. Clutching the healer to his chest he swooped
erratically through the night sky. His wings beat frantically to keep up with
his mind, battling gravity that seemed to be pulling him down harder than he
had ever experienced.
In a single broad motion he swung Kara in front of him, dangling her by the
cloth on her chest. He regarded her windswept and twisted face with furious
"Where!?" he demanded.
wall soared past Ferrick, positively exuding light from its windows.
Ferrick tried to grab it, but his claws bounced off painfully. Next he tried
his feet, kicking down with all his might. A sharp pain stung his toes as he
hit his mark and he propelled himself away. For a moment he flew, until his
back slammed into another wall. He scrambled at the wall as he toppled further
down, and yelped as a ledge broke yet more of his fall.
Lark uttered wide-eyed. Both his mighty hands were clumped around the staff of
the pike, now horizontal, as Bek flapped his wings with all his might. It
worked only about as well as could be expected.
"Lose the human!" Bek commanded with a strained voice.
"No!" screamed Weth, as Lark grabbed him by the back of his tunic,
letting one hand go of the staff in the proces. The makeshift contraption
instantly lost balance.
"Wark!" Bek yelped as it yanked him down even faster, spinning
helplessly towards the unyielding ground.
below detective Franklin Horne shifted gears and gently depressed the gas
pedal. The engine lowered its tone and raised it slowly as the brightly lit
windows of shops and eateries moved past a little faster.
"It's bullshit, that's what it is." This was his passenger and partner, Pete
"And what would you have'em do, hn?" Franklin shot back. "After the little show
"It's bullshit!" Pete reiterated. "We need you!"
"You don't need me," said Franklin, irritated.
"We need everyone we can get," Pete said.
Pete sat back, but did not relax.
"You know what I mean," he said. He spoke quickly, the tone of impotently angry
men. "This whole case is falling apart."
"Which is why I'm off it!" Franklin said angrily. "Goddamnit, I should
learn to keep my fool mouth shut."
"It was low," Pete asserted.
"And it worked!" Franklin countered. "Look, can I drop you off at--"
There was a silvery streak from above, and with a crunching smash Ferrick
slammed back first through the roof of a parked car in front of them.
"-- Holy shit!" screamed Franklin as he slammed the breaks. "Jesus!"
Pete added immediately.
"Call this in!" Franklin exclaimed. He swiftly unbuckled his seatbelt and
practically leapt out of the car. A small crowd was already forming around the
wreck, and his mind already raced through the steps: get them at a safe
distance, assess, assist. He pulled out his badge and held it out in front of
him with an outstretched arm.
"Police! MPD!" he called out, running towards the flattened car.
The words drifted into Ferrick's consciousness even as he was losing it. His
fading eyes were fixated on the moon above.
It was the wrong moon. Hew felt himself shrinking, losing strength and fading
He saw Scyce.
His vision dimmed.
He heard:
"Aw geez… Pete! It's some guy!"
And then the world went away again.


text: So, apple got a history in releasing an iPhone and then a year later release an improved version of it, as we saw with 3G/3GS and 4/4S. Do you believe that there will be a 5S version? What do you think they'll put on it? I personally believe that they're going to put NFC and an quadcore processor... And a better battery, also. If Apple decide to join the full HD display battle, I wouldn't doubt about a "cornea" display (what a dumb name, wtf). So, what is your opinion?


text:
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