I just had to look over the first thread, and listen to the old music I used to listen to when I wrote it, then listen to green fields... I myself shed tears in memory of Fale Thimaiyilo... I love these characters... it's really one of the things that's given the story its power. Writing these stories has been in and of itself an adventure in some ways. To be honest, Fale and Blitukus are probably the best characters I've ever thought of, writing their story somehow took all of my ideas and combined them to form something over 10-fold the sum of its parts. Looking back on it... all of those conditions that had to be just right for this to start, were, especially since beforehand I was afraid of publishing anything due to my perceived lack of skill, and in my previous hobby, refused to publish anything because I thought I wasn't good enough. I'm just forever glad that one night two months and a day ago, something changed and "i figured why not." Thank you all for being so supportive. If someone told me I would've gotten here writing this when I first started, I would've thought they were either kidding, not thinking straight, or being blindly supportive... yet here I am.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blitukus sighed through his nose... his nervousness subsiding. No matter what he faced within... he would find the power to succeed. He must... for the existence of his mother, his best friend, his hero, his closest family, depended on it. He felt his determination renewed. His heart was complete but it still carried a force to drive him that exceeded even what a dragon could block. He would see this quest through until the very end, for better or for worse. These thoughts still drifting through his mind and his soul, he focused himself... and found that teleporting himself through the closed door was easier than the time before. He stood and smiled... this would become second nature after a while. Unfortunately, such things would only work easily in the days of the ancients... even Dracha was a bit dependent on crystal power generators to be able to do anything big in 1085... magic would only fade further the further into the future one looked.
Blitukus walked down the halls, following the same path, but when he reached the top of the stairs, he stayed to the left side of the path, away from the walls, close to the window. Nothing sprung out to catch him... but he did notice small deformations in the floor and wall... he avoided these deformations. HE stepped around the small dents in the floor... but missed one. He felt it with his foot, and immediately lunged forward. A net grazed his back, continued without him, phasing through the window, falling outside. Blitukus got up, and continued slowly and carefully. Eventually he reached the end of the corridor, turned right, and saw the corridor continuing down straight, several intersections with perpendicular corridors and a wall at the back. A blue snakeman crossed an intersection, traveling through a perpendicular corridor, not noticing Blitukus. Blitukus stealthily approached the first intersection, placed his back against the wall, and kept an eye out. Blitukus noticed something odd... usually snakemen are legless, using their tails for propulsion. These ones have both legs and a tail, allowing for better traction and maneuverability as well as a good top speed. A snakeman passed through the corridor right by him, not noticing him pressed against the wall. To Blitukus' right, a snakeman walked up to an intersection, and slowed. Blitukus noticed it turning right... it would spot him. Blitukus quickly slid into the adjacent corridor, and walked down it. He rounded a corner, and found he was in the right-most corridor, all intersections only going off to the left. He heard soft footsteps as he approached an intersection, and held still, pressing himself against the wall. The snakeman entered the corridor from the left, Blitukus off to his right. Blitukus for a moment felt very nervous... but the snakeman turned left. Blitukus followed it down the corridor, staying far enough away to not attract its attention. They neared a corner... but Blitukus heard a snakeman approaching an intersection behind him. If it turned to see him... he would be stuck between two of these enhanced snakemen with no way out. The snakeman ahead of him was nearing the corner. Blitukus followed closer and closer. The snakeman Blitukus had heard entered the corridor and turned left... Blitukus just barely escaping detection, having just rounded the corner. Just ahead... an exit out of these interconnected corridors to the right, the middle corridor to the left. The snakeman ahead of him began to turn left, but then a snakeman walked into the corridor from the left ahead of them both and turned right, spotting Blitukus. He uttered some kind of word in his lisping tongue, and pointed right at Blitukus. The snakeman in front of Blitukus stopped, and since Blitukus was looking behind himself rather than ahead, he stepped on the snakemans tail. The snakeman immediately coiled around and snapped at Blitukus, and he would've gotten Blitukus by the neck hadn't Blitukus dove backwards. Another case of proof, snakes absolutely hated being stepped on. Blitukus got up... ahead of him, two snakemen ran toward him, one ran toward him from behind. Luckily, the corridors were large enough for a dragon to fit into, albeit barely. Blitukus leapt to the side of the corridor, causing the two immediate snakemen to miss him. He then ran towards the exit, slamming into the third snakeman and bouncing off. The third snakeman immediately grabbed him by the arm, another snakeman grabbing his other arm. Blitukus grunted as they both pulled on him, apparently fighting over who would get to throw him out. The snakeman closer to the exit pilled Blitukus away from the other, allowing Blitukus to move over behind the snakeman. The snakemen were extremely strong, apparently somehow born that way... but Blitukus was also extremely strong, from years of metalworking and mining. Blitukus leveraged himself free, then ran towards the exit. On the other side was a dark room, with what was once a bridge going through the middle. The bridge was broken, a crane holding a mithril beam between the two parts, suspending the beam within a gaping hole in the bridge. The beam was a small beam, but held level by two pistons, each filled with a sort of liquid. Blitukus noticed that even though he was perfectly agile, the snakemen were still gaining on him... luckily not by much, and they were behind him by a good margin. He ran forward, onto the broken bridge, then leapt off off the end, into the hole, catching the rope that held the beam. He clung to the rope, his momentum being transferred into the rope and beam, which began to sway slightly. The three snakemen stood on the end of the broken bridge, the one in front hissing a deep word in snakeman tongue that although Blitukus didn't understand it, he recognized carried a profane tone. Blitukus heard an odd voice from above, faint and almost inaudible, "Ok... sacrificing a bit of speed for a bit more strength in the next line... it'll give 'em a good long-jump I bet." Blitukus slid down the rope then sat down on the beam, rocking with its motion, making it sway more and more. As it swayed back to the opposite side of the bridge, Blitukus dropped off of the beam, landing on solid ground on the opposite side from the snakemen. He then grabbed the end of the beam, and hurled it down, sending it towards the snakemen at a much higher speed. The snakemen simply stepped out of the way, one hopping on the beam to ride it to the other side. The beam swung to the other side. The snakeman hopped off, Blitukus jumped on. The snakeman then jumped on, trying to reach to get hold of Blitukus. Blitukus hopped off... leaving the snakeman alone on it as it began to sway back towards the other snakemen. Blitukus pushed the rear of the beam downwards as it swung by, causing the other end, where the snakeman was, to rock upwards... then it rocked downwards again even further than it previously was. The end of the beam slammed into the broken bridge, crushing the snakeman between the bridge and the beam, the crushed snakeman plummeting into a chasm as the beam then swayed back toward the middle. The voice above continued, "Hah, one less prototype to dispose of! Still a ways to go before perfection is reached... but it's much better than those snakemen the other mages have created, don't you agree, kobold?" Blitukus looked up, then continued on, climbing another set of stairs.
On the other side, the hall was lined with crystals... occasionally, an arc of energy would jump between crystals. Apparently it was likely part of a power generator... but it also served as a formidable obstacle. Blitukus walked up to the mana collector, its innards permeating the hall ahead. He began to notice a pattern to the arcs... he stepped back, and waited for the right moment. When the arc ahead, before the vacancy, cleared, Blitukus lunged forward. He was ever so slightly too late. An arc struck him. He felt as if his entire body had burst into an inferno, and was knocked back, flat against his back. He yelled sharply... but felt the pain dull. He was dizzy, but still conscious and alive. He felt kind of shaky, but as he slowly got up, that feeling also began to subside. It seemed that the healing effect didn't apply just to regional borders in these days of magical miracles. After a few moments, he was back to normal... although he did smell a slight scent of cooked kobold... The voice above laughed, "That looked like it hurt!" Blitukus reexamined the arcs... and found his estimation of the pattern worked... he just needed to lead his target. Blitukus lunged forward just before the preexisting arc cleared. It cleared by the time he got there. Blitukus stopped and jumped backward, an arc firing right in front of him. He then lunged forward, an arc firing behind him, then fell to the ground, laying on his belly as an arc fired across above him. He then scrambled to his feet and ran forward, making out of the opposite end of the mana collector. He found another set of stairs, and continued upward.
The voice above spoke, "Good, quite a few people would turn back at that one." He heard no footsteps but his own... he treaded the cold mithril floor, into a sprawling series of convoluted, intermingling corridors. There was a clicking sound as he entered the corridors. He often found himself at a dead end... but began to mentally map the corridors, eventually narrowing it down to one spiral-like corridor, finding a staircase in the middle. He climbed up the staircase. As he exited that level, there was another clicking sound. The voice above spoke, "4 minutes 7 seconds, not bad at all! You're half way through."
On this level, he saw several cages, each containing a creature seemingly disabled and deformed in a rather sickening manner. He saw one of the creatures eyes was full of despair. One of the cages was a large, double reinforced adamantine cage. The adamantine was bent in a few places, and an angry growl emanated from within. The voice above spoke, "Just a few things that didn't work, they won't be suffering for much longer... keep an eye out for my trusted dungeon keeper, one of my larger scale projects." Blitukus walked down the crossing corridors... only that one corridor had cages, the rest were empty, aside from some occasional crates. He saw the staircase up ahead... but between him and the staircase was an elephant-man, standing 4 times as tall as Blitukus, a red glow emanating from its eyes, its body partially consisting of flesh, partially of mithril, and on its mithril left forearm, the name "Dwarfbane" was etched into it. It walked toward Blitukus, a thudding sound emitted with every footstep. It tried to pick Blitukus up, but Blitukus jumped forward, running under it and behind it. The elephant-man turned around, and saw Blitukus running for the stairs. It held out its left hand, two strings shooting out of its mithril arm. Blitukus tried to jump out of the way, but the elephant-man simply swept to the side with it. The upper string wrapped around Blitukus' head, the other around his lower body. Blitukus fell to the floor, and the elephant-man began to reel him in. The elephant-man forcefully threw him into a cage. Blitukus grunted as he landed, stunned from the impact. He saw the elephant-man was going to lock him in... the cage had a strong, adamantine lock on it. As the elephant-man searched for the right key, Blitukus found a small scrap of metal on the ground below him... he picked it up, and wedged it in the keyhole of the lock when the elephant-man wasn't looking. The elephant-man tried to lock the cage but found the key wouldn't properly fit. The elephant-man then forced it... breaking the lock and causing the cage to spring open. Blitukus darted out, heading for the exit. The elephant-man gave chase, the ground shaking ever so slightly with its footsteps. Blitukus found a chasm separating the corridor, and on the other side, an enormous weight with a rod on top of it, precariously placed near the edge... apparently it was meant to fall off should Blitukus try to leap across the chasm, taking Blitukus with it... he was stuck between that and nearly a metric ton worth of an annoyed guard. Blitukus was still perfectly agile... this gave him an idea. He stepped back from the edge, took in a deep breath, then darted forward. He leapt off, angled towards the wall. He landed on the wall briefly, leaping off the wall to extend his jump. The elephant-man let out a brief roar in frustration, then fired its strings again, trying to intercept Blitukus mid-air. When the strings reached the other side, Blitukus was behind the massive weight. The elephant-man inadvertently cought hold of the rod on top of the weight rather than his intended target. The elephant-man grunted and punched the wall, leaving a dent in it, the dent seeming to undo itself after a few seconds. Blitukus grinned, and whistled at the elephant-man. The elephant-man looked at him... then his face turned to an expression of horror. Blitukus had tangled the strings. He then shoved the weight off of the edge with his foot. The weight plummeted, the stuck strings causing it to take the elephant-man with it down a rather deep chasm. About two seconds passed. WHAM! WHUMPFH! Blitukus laughed. The voice from above laughed, "I should've seen that coming!" Blitukus walked up the stairs.
The voice from above continued, "You've just matched the record for the farthest a kobold has ever made it... let's see if you can make a new record! Although, heh, this next one is just about guaranteed to stop you... it's just about guaranteed to stop anyone in fact!" Ahead of Blitukus lay a vast array of crystals... ball lightning of sorts drifting and firing across a twisted corridor... there was no pattern, it was random... he had no pattern to observe, the ball lightning would be guaranteed to hit him should he try to cross. Apparently it was some sort of gas processing rig... although its innards were built into a corridor to become an obstacle as well. It was still a machine in a way, even if its inner reactions were a projected map of an individuals willpower... Blitukus noticed it was producing some sort of literally random mixture, a crystal array on a panel near it arcing energy out of some sort of mana container in a cyclical flux... but each discharge took energy out, which took time to fill, and it would only discharge if a certain amount of energy was there. It was random, and generally the uptime and downtime of the crystals allowed for a relatively constant stream of discharges... but it didn't have to be so. There was a probability that it could be lopsided... Blitukus walked up to the corridor, ball lightning buzzing about before him, tendrils of energy finding their mark on the metals around. Blitukus concentrated himself on that panel... he saw the discharges, and started projecting his willpower toward unifying them. He shut his eyes... but opened his eyes on the astral plane... he found he could drown out the sound of it in his mind... he was unobserving, and his soul, empowered by magic, sensed the fields of probabilities. He sharpened his willpower by what his soul saw, and projected the direct and concise determination out, forcing it into the reality around him. He held his hand out, and made himself feel the discharges synchronizing from a jumble into a single wave, projecting this feeling out with his willpower. His willpower united, he opened his eyes and ears once more. The discharges were still seemingly happening at random. Blitukus sighed... but then, the left half and right half started to come together... for a moment, all was silent. ZAPP! All of the crystals fired simultaneously. The mana container was emptied by the enormous drain, and the entire rig began to make a humming sound. It all stalled, and the corridor cleared. Blitukus sprinted through the corridor... forced from above were projected down, causing whatever that "machine" was to restart... luckily, with Blitukus on the other side. The voice from above spoke, "Bah... no fair! Only high mages are supposed to know that trick! You're not a regular kobold, that's for sure!" Blitukus smiled, reached the stairway up, and climbed it... this was the last one.
After this, whatever came next, he would finally meet Arkus... whether that was to be looked forward to, or dreaded... he didn't know. Blitukus found himself in a large room, almost cubic, ramps and short stairs leading up to an exit on the top end of the far side of the cube. Several beams and platforms were around, and the walls were charred... apparently this was a sort of testing room. Blitukus looked up... on top of a long mithril beam, nearly 30 feet up, was what looked like an adamantine statue of a lizardman... Blitukus smiled at it. Its eyes suddenly glew blue, and It looked at Blitukus, and returned the smile. It seemed to fill with mana, the mana becoming a sort of artificial soul, filling the highly complex crystal glass substrate under the adamantine. It hopped off from the beam, plummeting down. As it fell, the voice from above spoke, "Meet Kazo..." Kazo, the adamantine lizardman statue turned golem of sorts, landed smoothly, ending up in a crouched position, one hand on the ground, the other behind his back. Kazo looked at Blitukus, and tilted his head. The voice from above continued, "... he's my greatest masterpiece!" Kazo had a long tail, spikes on its back and the top of its tail. Spikes were also present on the very back of his cheeks, pointing towards the back... it almost gave him the same type of look a dragon has. Unlike most lizardmen, however, he was the same size as Blitukus, and had 3 fingers per hand, 3 toes per foot, rather than 4... Blitukus then remembered what Kazo looked like, Kazo looked rather like a dinosaur. Kazo ran towards Blitukus, mouth open. Blitukus jumped out of the way, his foot kitting Kazos leg, just as Kazo was about to stop. Kazo skidded but lost balance and fell, giving Blitukus time to run towards a ladder up. Kazo got up, and pursued. Blitukus scrambled up the ladder, then ran up a ramp. Kazo watched from the ground... but just before Blitukus reached another ladder, Kazo crouched down to the ground, then seemed to jump upwards 9 feet, pulling himself up, standing between Blitukus and the ladder. Blitukus ran to the side, ducking around Kazo... but Kazo was faster. He blocked Blitukus, and knocked Blitukus to the ground. Blitukus started to get up, but Kazo kicked Blitukus down again. Blitukus rolled away, then got up. Kazo leapt forward, and shoved Blitukus towards the edge. Blitukus grabbed Kazo by the neck and placed his leg behind Kazos leg, using the force of the shove to trip Kazo up and pull Kazo over. Kazo was sent to the ground once more, giving Blitukus time to run for the exit.
Yes, it's a good idea I never pursued that powered armor... even the masterpiece construct of a genius of a nearly star-faring civilization has a balance inferior to that of true living beings.
Blitukus scaled the second ladder, and ran for the exit... Kazo leapt up to the third level, and ran after Blitukus, catching up rather quickly. Blitukus skidded to a stop, and ducked down, tripping up Kazo again. Kazo growled annoyedly as he got back up. Meanwhile, Blitukus was closing toward the exit. Kazo got to his feet again, and leapt toward Blitukus. Kazo landed in front of Blitukus. This time, he tripped Blitukus up, and then pushed him. Blitukus fell right over, then skidded off of the side of the pathway. Blitukus grunted loudly as he fell a ways, landing on a mithril platform. The platform then tilted over, dumping him another several feet onto the ground. Blitukus coughed, finding himself stunned and rather dizzy from the falls. The voice from above spoke, "Ouch... This is fun to watch!" Kazo leapt from the top of the room, and landed smoothly right by Blitukus. Kazo pulled Blitukus up, holding him by the shirt collar. Blitukus grunted as Kazo slashed him across the face. Kazo growled, "I HATE getting tripped!" Kazo slammed Blitukus against a wall, then punched him hard across the cheek, knocking Blitukus unconscious.
When Blitukus regained consciousness, he found himself still dizzy, but his senses slowly came back to him. Blitukus heard a voice coming from near him, "That's more than enough, Kazo! Leave him alone." As Blitukus' senses returned to him, he found himself looking up to see Kazo standing above him, looking down at him. A dragon, scales a combination of peaceful blue and obsidian black, also stood over him. The dragon was wearing an intricate and beautiful ruby-and-adamantine amulet, a detailed adamantine cloak, and emerald eyewear, seemingly goggles, but all of the eyewear, frame and all, was emerald. The dragon spoke to Blitukus, smiling, "So then it's conclusive, you're determined enough to earn my attention and smart enough to keep my attention. Welcome." The dragon gestured for Blitukus to stand. Blitukus checked himself, then stood... he found thanks to the ambient healing powers abound, the injuries he had suffered had all healed. He had finally managed to meet Arkus. Arkus continued, "You're a spectacular example of your species, kobold! You're the first to make it all the way and I have to say you using the probabilities trick was a surprise... where did you learn that?" Blitukus put the rather unpleasant first impression behind him, and replied, smiling, "I saw it first hand." Blitukus found this dragon was unique... Arkus couldn't be placed on the alignment scale... Blitukus sensed he simultaneously had good and evil tendencies, as well as orderly and chaotic tendencies, yet his soul didn't seem to be in conflict at all. Although, he realized... he might be stuck with this dragon all day. It would be best to keep on his good side.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I found a lot of typos, so there might be even more. Maybe not. Maybe I should start using a better word processor :p
[ December 10, 2007: Message edited by: AlanL ]
Author
Topic: A Kobold's Quest II (Read 76142 times)