Dragon's Gate Six
Jan. 8th, 2005 01:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
joegodaThe ship was long and sleek, black and silent as a snake through high grass. It sailed along the twin river, looking for whatever it could find, and taking whatever it wanted. The men that crewed it were hard, hard, hard; as hard as nails, as hard as stone, as hard as.. hard could be. They had seen hundreds of battles and won every one of them. Each man carried a thousand scars, some visible, and some only worn on the heart.
The captain, a man called Deth, was the hardest of them all. He stood very tall, and wore a hat that made him seem even taller. It was black, like the ship, like his boots and long coat, and shaped like a stovepipe, which is exactly what it was called. When he got angry, it would not have been surprising to see smoke boiling out of it. It never happened, but it would not have been surprising in the very least.
He was the winner of thousands of battles, some real, some imagined and some that were a mixture of both. His men would follow him through the deepest forest, and through the hottest fires, and stand beside him against the greatest enemies. He was not a good man; he was not a great man. He was a man that inspired people to him by fear, by being the meanest dog of all the dogs there were, and those dogs that followed him followed him because they knew that their captain could beat any dog there was.
And what they did, as their long, black ship slid through the waters was to move from town to town, from village to village and steal what they could steal, hurting and killing and burning and looting.
They were thieves. They were murderers. They were Pirates with a capital P.
Understand, gentle reader, that I do not like to speak of these things, but they do exist in the world, even such a world that would contain the Village of ShopKeepers
And so it came to pass that these pirates were slinking down the river when Gladure said goodbye to Kajira and shed his tear. It was just by the slimmest chance that the captain happened to be looking that direction from many miles away and saw the sun reflected from the single tear. He ordered his men to find the source of the light and so they struck out, to find where the shine came from. It was in his mind to capture that shine, and to make sure that no one else would ever hold it.
They didn't stop attacking towns and villages as they searched for the light, and so it took them many, many months to find the hidden fork that led to the section of the river that poured down to the valley where the Village was. And even from there, it would take many weeks to reach the dock that sat on the forked river and was the entrance to the Village.
The Village of Shopkeepers is a wondrous place full of magic and happiness. This is not to say there was not sadness in the Village, nor is it to say that everything was as rosy as it could possibly be. There were times when people passed away, there were times when things were stolen and there was one time, which hadn't happened yet, when the entire Village was almost destroyed by a.... but that's a story for another time.
When the ship was first seen, it was far, far off, and the Villagers became very excited. It had been a long time since anyone had found the hidden fork and came calling. They were prepared to welcome their visitors in grand fashion, with a feast and demonstration and music and parties galore. Every Shopkeeper was alerted and they were all preparing some marvelous and magic prize to give the visitors, and every Shopkeeper was hoping there was at least one small child on board.
As the ship came closer, slipping down the river, silent as clouds at midnight, it could be seen that there was a black flag flying on it's mast. Those that had lived on the outside world, that had come to the Village because it called them from their lives in the mundane world, the black flag meant only one thing, and hurried to warn all the other Villagers.
The Villagers, doing what they felt was necessary, did all that they could to hide what they felt was valuable. The children first, as they are the most valuable commodity, then the women, and then the old ones. The buildings they couldn't hide, and the things in the buildings they couldn't hide. The Villagers believed that the Village would protect itself, and so didn’t worry about any of it. There were the farmers, though, and the Villagers that lived on the outside of the Village. Those buildings could be destroyed, and the people could be hurt.. or worse.
So it came to pass that the Village of ShopKeepers prepared to do battle, for the first and only time in their lives.
I leave you here, beloveds. No funny speeches, no happy noises. This is a scary part, and I may just hide my eyes from it for a time.
The captain, a man called Deth, was the hardest of them all. He stood very tall, and wore a hat that made him seem even taller. It was black, like the ship, like his boots and long coat, and shaped like a stovepipe, which is exactly what it was called. When he got angry, it would not have been surprising to see smoke boiling out of it. It never happened, but it would not have been surprising in the very least.
He was the winner of thousands of battles, some real, some imagined and some that were a mixture of both. His men would follow him through the deepest forest, and through the hottest fires, and stand beside him against the greatest enemies. He was not a good man; he was not a great man. He was a man that inspired people to him by fear, by being the meanest dog of all the dogs there were, and those dogs that followed him followed him because they knew that their captain could beat any dog there was.
And what they did, as their long, black ship slid through the waters was to move from town to town, from village to village and steal what they could steal, hurting and killing and burning and looting.
They were thieves. They were murderers. They were Pirates with a capital P.
Understand, gentle reader, that I do not like to speak of these things, but they do exist in the world, even such a world that would contain the Village of ShopKeepers
And so it came to pass that these pirates were slinking down the river when Gladure said goodbye to Kajira and shed his tear. It was just by the slimmest chance that the captain happened to be looking that direction from many miles away and saw the sun reflected from the single tear. He ordered his men to find the source of the light and so they struck out, to find where the shine came from. It was in his mind to capture that shine, and to make sure that no one else would ever hold it.
They didn't stop attacking towns and villages as they searched for the light, and so it took them many, many months to find the hidden fork that led to the section of the river that poured down to the valley where the Village was. And even from there, it would take many weeks to reach the dock that sat on the forked river and was the entrance to the Village.
The Village of Shopkeepers is a wondrous place full of magic and happiness. This is not to say there was not sadness in the Village, nor is it to say that everything was as rosy as it could possibly be. There were times when people passed away, there were times when things were stolen and there was one time, which hadn't happened yet, when the entire Village was almost destroyed by a.... but that's a story for another time.
When the ship was first seen, it was far, far off, and the Villagers became very excited. It had been a long time since anyone had found the hidden fork and came calling. They were prepared to welcome their visitors in grand fashion, with a feast and demonstration and music and parties galore. Every Shopkeeper was alerted and they were all preparing some marvelous and magic prize to give the visitors, and every Shopkeeper was hoping there was at least one small child on board.
As the ship came closer, slipping down the river, silent as clouds at midnight, it could be seen that there was a black flag flying on it's mast. Those that had lived on the outside world, that had come to the Village because it called them from their lives in the mundane world, the black flag meant only one thing, and hurried to warn all the other Villagers.
The Villagers, doing what they felt was necessary, did all that they could to hide what they felt was valuable. The children first, as they are the most valuable commodity, then the women, and then the old ones. The buildings they couldn't hide, and the things in the buildings they couldn't hide. The Villagers believed that the Village would protect itself, and so didn’t worry about any of it. There were the farmers, though, and the Villagers that lived on the outside of the Village. Those buildings could be destroyed, and the people could be hurt.. or worse.
So it came to pass that the Village of ShopKeepers prepared to do battle, for the first and only time in their lives.
I leave you here, beloveds. No funny speeches, no happy noises. This is a scary part, and I may just hide my eyes from it for a time.
