A Path Less Taken

[Ashaun]

The hot wax dripped down the sides of the candles like rain drops. The sounds of chanting echoed throughout the temple. Voices called out in prayer, some in pleading. Life here was.....well it was good, men, women, children, all respected eachother. All worked for the betterment of the soul, life was important. Everyone here worked to the goal of bettering your mind body and soul. To make your body a temple unto the Light.


The temple rang true of life, it held over a hundred souls, all dedicated to the Light. Life was so very good here, they had food, they had water, they had people to speak with and could trust. Imagine lookin to the man or woman to you left and knowing that without a hint of doubt that you could trust them with you most darker secerets. These were true friends, brothers and sisters, this was what it meant to be a family. All of this could have gone on for much longer..........


I say could, because at this very moment several hundred scourge were charging towards the temples gates. Creatures of such horror, abominations of life. Things not meant for the realm of the living, they came. They came with a muderous desire, with a lust for carnage and feasting. They have brought the plague with them, it surrounds them. It resides within their rotting destroyed corpses, it is the essence of what they are.


War machines took up places amongst the ranks of the scourge. Sick twisted machines of necromancy and engineering. From a great distance they hurled corpses over the walls and into them as well. But these were more then just corpses, they were filled with plague and harder things. Things capable of actualy breaking the wall, the projectiles slammed into the gates over and over.


The paladins stood just on the other side ready for them to come. Their would be no escaping this, they would fight to the end. Light help them, they would fight till the bloody end. In the far rear of the formation stood the Scarlet mages. Magics gathering about them and taking shape. Ready to bring their most potent spells to bare on an enemy of untold savagery.


In the center of the formation, able to heal paladin and mage alike, stood the Priests. Those that were of the most pure loyalty, of faith, stood closest to the paladins. Their magics of protection and Light began to glow on all of the surrounding soldiers. Their, they stood ready to heal, to raise the fallen, to banish the dead back to the grave from whence it came. Their stood Ashaun, ready to serve the Light until the earth called him back from whence he had come.

Prayers were uttered, songs sung, the men and women of this temple stood ready to defend it. The children hid with a few elders in the deepest parts of the temple. Safer there then here, but still in danger. Metal bent, sharp sounds of metal snapping could be heard as the hinges gave way in certain parts. The gate began to give way under the barrage of death it was recieving. A moment of silence washed over the men and women of the Scarlet Order, standing silent and true they watched as the final barrage crested in the air toward the gates that protected their home.

Crashing to the ground the gate split asunder, at at the very same time the undead hordes rushed forth with madened abondon. They were met by wave after wave of holy energy covering and reaching out over the ground. The first wave of undead ghouls dropped as if they were nothing but toys. They kept coming though, and eventualy so many undead covered the very ground that the paladins light could not touch them.

Moving across the body of their fallen comrades, the forsaken moved quickly and bridged the gap to the paladins. Hammer and plate armor met bone and flesh. Together they danced a horrid dance of death and carnage. The priests did all they could to keep the paladins alive, and for now it was enough. The holy warriors fought hard and well, their wounds seemed to heal just moments after recieving them. Hope, this had given them hope, they were holding against the storm.

Till from out in the distance they could be seen, coming in at a rate of speed which shoved and destroyed their own scourge brothers. The abominations, they came towering above all, heedless of any who stood in their path. Just as they were about to smash into the ranks of the paladins the mages had finished their words, and the castings had completed. Giganitc red and yellow burning orbs flew forth from their hands, all the size of a small wagon.

The fire washed over the abominations, surged through the ranks of the scourge. The small man sized undead were gone in a blink of an eye. Burned to ash, nothing left except what blew away in the wind. As the smoke cleared a sick realization set it. The abominations were burned horribly, but they were only slowed. And as they pressed forward again, they attacked with such power. They had so much strength they were actually able to kill a paladin in one or two hits.

Ashaun and the others tried, by the Light they tried. But they could not heal at the rate their brothers and sisters died. The mages tried to get their spells off, tried so hard to finnish the long words that it took to bring their magics into this world. Ashaun stood at the forfront of the priest line, watching as the line of armored plated men and women broke before him. This was the end he knew, none of them would escape this.

Looking up at the large abomination that now stood before him, Ashaun smiled weakly and whispered, "Light be with us, forgive us of our sins, and please protect the children from the horror."
The large abominations meat hook came down at him with lightning speed, and just as it was to hit a plate shield appeared in it's path. The abomination's weapin imbedded into the shield, and the paladin holding it looked to Ashaun and yelled, "Priest get to the children, take them to the tunnels! Go now!"

Ashaun knew what he had to do, turning and running he uttered a brief prayer, and everyone around him all of a sudden was healed of their wounds. Then running at full speed he headed to the temples steps. Bounding two sometimes three at a time he entered and headed into the deeper chambers. Finding them in one of the small sanctuaries he smiled as he counted them. "Ahh good children please come with me, we must get you safe."

Counting all sixty of them, Ash lead them to the main alter. There he pressed a combination of stones and symbols and the alter slid back to reveal a stair well. As he motioned for the kids to go he then turned to the elders, "Take the children, I will hold here as long as I can. Get them to safety, get them from this war, this plague."

As the last elder was about to enter the tunnel he turned to the priest and smiled slightly. His wrinkles and spotted skin showed his age for what it was. And reaching into his robe he brought forth a dark purple and black orb, "Good priest, please take this item. May it offer you some protection for the things to come in your future. When the things come for you, focus on the orb, look into it. It will aid you and you will see life again." With that the old man gave an odd smile, one of knowing and trickery. Then he was gone and down the stairs.

Ashaun closed the entry to the passage and looked about the chamber. It was quiet, it hear you could hear nothing of what went on outside. Turning back to the alter he got down on his knees and set the orb aside. Bowing low so his forhead touched the floor he prayed for the children and for the souls of all that yet live. He was lost to his prayers for only a few moments before the sound of screaming and thrashing undead could be heard coming down the halls. Picking up the orb he looked into it, an odd thing it was.

His mind raced as he tried to figue out how this thing would offer him anything. As he focused in on it he saw a purple glow begin to form in the center of it. Then as the magic became alive, the orb disolved into a purple smokey train that wraped its way around the priest. Shocked Ashaun did not know what to do, he stood there trying to figue it out when the undead found him. In his last moments of breath, the only thing he could think of was he had found Sanctuary in life. He hoped he could find Sanctuary in death.

[Yemana]

((I love it!))

[Ashaun]

((Thanks, part two is coming soon. Still working on the details of it but it is almost ready))

[Ashaun]

Time flowed unhindered by the ravishings of the scourge. The elders and children had long since fled the burned out remains of the temple. The wind blew against the remains of what stood, nothing but a few moss covered stones. All it's glory, built in love and kindess, built with a unity of brothers and sisters that is hardly ever seen in the world. Blood, sweat, love, joy, kindess, all these were added to the mix that made up the temple. What took weeks to build was decimated in moments. But it was gone and time shed no tears for what once was. Time went on, never hesitating, never pausing, it continued on it's course like a mighty river.


So much time had passed, the ground had become covered in rotted vegitation. All over plants that grew wilted and rotted into sick and twisted forms of life. The remaining stones that were covered in moss and vines were sickly colored and breaking down. So much darkness now covered the remains of this temple, so much evil existed over this once great area. It is almost as if this once great holy area was now a twisted dark corner of the world. Time had left it's mark here, this place was now as equaly as dark and evil as it holy so long ago. This was the fate of any who so long ago stood against the scourge, stood to hold it's own against the storm.


The sun had just begun to set, eve was slowly begining to turn into night. The reddish orange sky burned, as if the very heavens bled. The fact that night was approaching did not stop the six human men who had just rode up at the bottom of the hill. This area was deadly durring the day light, at night not even the birds sang. Their was no life here, only death, and now and then when life tried to push forth death would swoop in and rip into it.
The six men dismounted from their horses and the wagon they had pulled with them. As they moved around to the back of the wagon, they starded pulling out shovels, axes, various tools for the task at hand.


What little Light was left in the sky relfected off their daggers and short swords. The sound of chainmail rang through their clothing, these were no ordinary explorers. Rough voices echoed through the rotted vegitation, the sound playing through the few remaining stones.

"I am telling you fools, this place was the site for a great temple! Their are bound to be holy artifacts we can sell, hell that we can use. We stand to make a good profit here boys, just make sure to keep your eyes wide and alert. Their is rumor of something guarding this place, I aint takin no chance on disturbin it." The leaders voice was harsh and gritty sounding, much like people took turn punching him in the throat to many times.


The others filed out and began to push their way through the lack luster plant life. Spreading out and finding places to start digging, to start chopping. They each took their own place about twenty steps apart from eachother. Just enough to stay within eyesight, they did not wish to take chances. The sweat dripped poured forth as they worked, dripping into the rotted earth. One of the men stopped for a moment and stripped off his armor, droping his weapons to the ground as well. After only an hour of digging he was hot and tired. One of the members brought up lamps from the wagon and lit them so as they could see their task at hand.


As the man stood shirtless and armorless digging in the ground a strange light in the distance caught his eye. It was odd, no one noticed in the day light, but in the lamp light it was as if it just reflected the light back to him. Looking at his comrads he saw they were to busy grunting and digging to have noticed the odd reflection of light. This loot whatever it may be would be his alone. Grinning the man moved off into the night toward the light reflection, leaving his armor and weapons, even his lantern.


Passing through some old vine wrapped rocks he disapeared from sight, if his friends were watching they would have noticed he no longer was digging and was not even in eye sight. Rubbing his hands together the shirtless man looked around. Pushing through some larger fern like plants he found what seemed to reflect the light. Pushing out and up from the very earth that rotted all around was a single white rose. It stood alone, none of the dark twisted plants grew near it. It stood alone, a beacon of light amongst the encroaching darkness.

The man was awe struck, how this plant could grow here like this was not possible. This perfect pure white rose, unblemished in anyway stood tall and strong. His face twisted in a sick smile, teeth rotted and missing could be seen.

"I am gonna be rich, their must be some sort of magic keepin this here thing alive. Looks like it's time to get me a bit of bonus coin." His whispering voice shook a bit with laughter.


Stumbling forward the man ran to the white beacon of truth, reaching out he lightly ran a finger over one of the pedals. It was so smooth, smoother then silk. Reaching down he quickly started to dig up the plant, his fingers grasping for purchase in the soil. He clawed, he pulled, he flung dirt everywhere for what seemed forever. But finally he had dug out all the dirt surrounding this odd plant. Reaching down he attempted to pull the flower from out of the ground. Yet it would not come free, it seemed stuck. Looking down he noticed a single root growing down into the ground.

Anger at this stuborn plant rose into this humans face, and greed drove him to hurry. Pulling hard he ripped the plant lose from the ground, smiling as he held it in his hand he looked about. For some reason the surrounding area seemed to darken, seemed to actually absorb the light from area. But it mattered little to this man, he had what he came for. Turning he rand back to his friends to show him his little bonus.

"Hey looky what I found me friends! I got me a lucky bonus!" The excitement in his voice caused his friends to turn and look. But glee and happiness were not what was reflected in their eyes. The man with the rose stopped short and looked at them, not sure why they seemed to be afraid. "Hey idiots, whatcha doin, this plant is gonna be worth a fortune. Hello? Hey whats with ya all?"

The others did nothing, they were frozen where they stood. Horror reflected in their eyes, fear, the very desire to flee was there. They wanted to run, they wanted to run off into the night but were unable to move. The shirtless man looked at them a moment and then looked down at the rose. In his very hands the rose wilted and died, twisting into a dark corrupted thing like the other plants here. Throwing the rose to the ground he stomped on it once. Anger in his eyes at having lost his prize, then looking back to his friends he finally noticed they were looking at something behind him.


Turning around slowly shirtless saw what had the others frozen in terror. Their stood a rotted creature, his robes were tattered and rotted. The emblem of a scarlet priest barely visible. The eyes of this undead being were glowing yellow orbs, so bright full of life it almost seemed. The undead was just standing there and then as if it just dawned on him he looked at the humans.

Raising one hand and pointing at the one who smashed the rose he said something in a language the human could not understand. Black energy began to focus and form around the undeads hand, then all of a sudden the energy was released and the shirtless man screamed in pain. Turning around he faced his friends as purple and black enegery wrapped about his face. It burned, it decayed, it broke apart in front his friends.

The remaining five humans turned and fled as their friend fell to the ground a lifeless and faceless corpse. They fled screaming in the night, their voices echoing and gaining the attention of other creatures that existed in these wilds. None of them ever saw the light of day again, each met a fate he deserved. Some were fed upon, others just gutted where they stood. They were meat to the things that lived out here.

Ashaun turned back to what was once the temple. A tear fell from his eye, a single drop from a body that could never have produced such a thing. He felt pain and sorrow, he looked at the body of the man he killed and suddenly had the urge to feed. Moving forward he dropped onto the body and began to devour it. After a few moments he stopped and pushed himself back, "What am I doing!? I.......I am the very beast I stood against!"

Standing he made his way to the horses he heard in the distance. Answers, he had to find answers, why would the Light punish him? Why would he be the very beast he fought so hard to protect others from. His soul tore and felt pain, his soul was still with him. It had somehow remaind this entire time. "How could I still retain my soul? Am I being punished by the Light?" He had thought he had done something wrong.

The pain was great, it hurt him so much he did not know what to do. Then out of nowhere the memory hit him, he saw the old man giving him the odd orb. He remembered the old man said he would yet see life again, but he did not say how. A trick, some dark sinister trick was played here. Ashaun hated himself for what he was now. As he walked passed the horses he continued on not knowing where he would end up. All he knew is he must find the one responsable for this, and by the Light he would make him pay. With that last thought he felt a peace settle over him, felt the Light fill him once again.

Ashaun was with the Light once more, now he would continue his path with the Light. He would be a high priest once again, but first he had to find Sanctuary away from things. A place to call home, a place to find peace....

[Vilmah]

((Oooo love it!))