Sebilis' Gates

This is a short story based on the online roleplaying game Everquest II
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The little guy never stood a chance. Four arrows now stuck out from where its decayed facial features used to be. What cursed, artificial “life” was left in it compelled its arm to give one last swing before lying still. A drawn out, gurgling croak somehow emitted from the creature's exposed and rotting vocal cords before finally falling silent.

I glanced back at our party's two female rangers and smirked. “I think we got him,” I said. “Though I think your aim is getting a bit lazy, Cerilynn. You seem to have missed the center of this one's pupil.” I shook my head in mock disappointment. She rolled her eyes and casually returned her notched arrow to her quiver and her bow to her shoulder. She waved me on, insisting that I continue through the dark corridors of the city. Dispatching of undead frogloks was not why we had come to Sebilis. But still, I could not help but make a bit of fun out of this grim business.

I narrowed my eyes and locked onto my next two targets. Two more undead froglok guards, deceitfully appearing devoid of any spacial awareness, stood just 60 meters away. One stuck its tongue through a hole is its jaw to slap a fly that had landed on its exposed bicep muscle. When it looked up, all it saw was the bright purple glow of my spell before it was smashed back into the wall in front of which it stood. His companion let loose a stuttering croak before hopping toward me, its spear leading the charge. I waited until the point of the weapon was only inches from my throat before I dropped my right shoulder and spun to the side, slamming the edge of my shield into the back of the creature's head as I completed my turn. Stunned, but still caught in its momentum, it hopped sideways into a wall.

I ran back from where I came just as the first froglok recovered from my spell and had began hopping into the fray. I rounded a corner and stopped, waiting for the two frogloks to catch up. As they came around the same corner, I sat down. Being the shell of creatures they were, they did not even give notice to my strange behavior — nor to the female Tier`Dal ranger who just emerged from the shadows. Two quick arrows were their wake up calls. The arrows hit with such force that both of them were slammed into the corridor's walls with a loud squish.

Persistent, they staggered toward me still. Just as one was about to chop into my skull, a dagger protruded violently from its gut, spraying some sort of putrid yellow fluid onto my armor. The dagger pulled out and the creature fell, revealing to me our halfling, rogue companion. A quick smirk was all he gave before ducking, spinning and back-slashing with his off-handed weapon into the right leg of the other froglok that was about to come down upon him. The creature fell down before me. I still sat, glancing into its lifeless eyes for several moments. Was anything left in there? Or was this truly only a shell? It tried to rise, but two more arrows slammed violently into the corpse, pinning it to the floor.

A faint breeze of air blew past my face as the undead froglok's head slumped. I could have sworn the creature smiled.

I stood up and made a show of wiping off my armor. The others lightly chuckled. There would be more stained armor before the day was done. Finished with the lifeless pawns of Sebilis, our goal was now the city's Mercantile District. There we would draw flowing blood; there we would fight an enemy afraid to die; and there we would disturb the comforts of the overconfident Sathirian Empire.

Northward dream

A night spent stirring
A day spent dreaming
And endless cycle of thinking and learning
Singing songs to drown out the worry
Convincing myself I'm not in a hurry

Is who I am who I can be
Is I all I have, all that I need

A note goes higher
My thoughts go deeper
The tune in my soul goes out to the reaper
Of all things that are lost and are gone
Then I look to the north and see it all wrong

Quiet

Quietly falling to my knees; In a room not much larger than its key.
Success meets distress. Harmony meets calamity.
In quiet surrender I raise my head. But not too high or I'll hit my bed.
Is it here? Or is it there.
It is me? Or is it she?
Ambitions left unmet; time not used left to regret
...breathe
A peace unlike others--comforting like a mother.
Yet more inside, more true.
Not subject to the bias that comes from the womb.
Yet still I wonder; still I write.
And hope to God the End's in sight.

The Weary Sleeper

Greeted by warmth, departing to heat
The sudden cool breeze awakens my sleep
Images of fantasy find root in my eye
Resting again I can only smile

God's cool grace transcends the strain
But my roaming thoughts condemn the tame
If it is not peace that I seek
Then please find me sleep

And tomorrow maybe, I'll find to keep

Beyond doubt's shadow

A shadow of a doubt has never felt so real.
Clouding my senses the cliché takes face.
Of more than just a saying but a darkness I feel,
A shade overcoming the brightest of days

The 12 o' clock sun only hides affliction--
Only a distortion of truth that gives me small rest,
Before extending it out in another direction.
Only extinguished by passing the test

Of surrender to self, where God's way is the best.

Cold hopes

The frost on my breath,
On the quiet commute
To a place I hardly know.

The sights, the sounds,
The people on the streets,
With their humble bench seats.

Are my dreams so set,
Like this weather: so frozen?
Or more like a cool breeze, blown?

I'd like to think I'm strong;
Confident and founded,
Yet I can't help but think,
Is it ever-grounded?

Into a tunnel I fear

A daily rush of abject striving,
Surrounded by a hope of surviving,
All I keep so sweet and precious,
Locked inside for fear of chiding.

A stroke of pen so loose, untidy.
A feinted word I find unabiding,
To any thought of human flair,
Rather a whisper of deep despair.

Peace in longing, strength in the tear,
Defines a life bent on ambition,
Called by God to a place undared.
Please, excuse me, if I am scared.