Storytime and Rhymes with Brother Grimes

[Vlaid]

A small collection of children's tales, rhymes, and various literature aimed at children. A copy of this collection is kept within the public bookshelves of the Priory, the Mistlockian library, and overtime begins to find their way out into the populace as more are scribed.

[tface=fellsc]Storytime and Rhymes[/tface]
[tface=fellsc]w i t h[/tface]
 [tface=fellsc]Brother Grimes[/tface]

 [tface=walter]by[/tface]: [tface=callig]Brother Grimes[/tface]
[tface=fell]"In loving memory and dedication to Sister d'Enferr; for all the good works she did for the children of Mistlocke and beyond."[/tface]

[Vlaid]

[tface=fellsc]The Cave,[/tface][tface=fellsc]
The Creature,[/tface]
[tface=fellsc]a n d[/tface]
[tface=fellsc]The Craven[/tface]
[tface=walter]by[/tface]: [tface=callig]Brother Grimes[/tface]
[tface=fell]"Sweet child...it is not what you see in the shadows you should fear; it is what you do not."[/tface]

 

 [tface=fell]A long time ago, in a village not so very  different from Mistlocke, there lived a husband and wife with two sons.  Their names were Christoph and Horatio, each proudly wore the crest of  their family on their shirt; that of a flying gryphon. They lived  happily within their village, wanting for nothing, their days filled  with peace and happiness. Their father had but one rule: STAY AWAY FROM THE CAVE IN THE FOREST![/tface]

[tface=fell]The two sons were each very different. Christoph was daring  and wild; climbing and exploring the wilds against his father's wishes.  Horatio was quiet and smart. He spent his days quietly observing the  world while his brother happily skipped through the forest....until.....

One day Christoph dragged Horatio with him on one of his adventures into  the forest. They had been gone for hours and Horatio had begun to  become worried they should return. "You're such a big baby! I just want  to get a little closer to the cave, I think I saw something moving  inside last time!" Of course both Horatio and Chirstoph knew they were  told to stay away from the cave, but as young boys are often to do, they  thought they knew better.

And so closer they crept to the cave. The forest grew eerily quiet as  the two boys inched closer yet to the mouth of the cave. *WHOOOOSH*!!  "What was that??" yelped Horatio, lacking the courage of his brother he  backed away from the cave. Christoph stuck his fingers in his mouth and  made a loud rasberry at his cowardly brother "Baby, baby, big baby  Horatio!" Christoph knew the taunts well to spur Horatio forward, and so  the two moved closer yet, to the very edge of the cave, just beyond the  edge of darkness where the light of the forest stopped...*WHOOOSH*  something big moved within the cave again!

Something turned about inside the cave, two red gleaming eyes peering  out through the darkness shrouding it's appearance to the two boys. The  creature spoke in a gravelly, otherworldly voice. "GRHRAHHHH?". The two boys froze in fear, staring into the floating red eyes, all they could see of the speaker.[/tface]

"THREE BY THREE THEY IMPRISONED ME.
TWO BY TWO THEY VISIT ME.
TWO SONS. ONE TO BURN, ONE TO LEARN.
ONE BY ONE THEY COME TO SET ME FREE."

[tface=fell]The stunned fear they first felt seemed to fade as the thing  within the cave spoke. Their fear of something dangerous turned to  boyish excitement and curiosity. The brothers looked at each other and  giggled madly, skipping in front of the cave as the unseen speaker  continued speaking in his mysterious ways.[/tface]

"ONE TO IMPRISON ME.
ONE TO BURN.
ONE TO LEARN.
WHICH ONE IS THEE?"

   
[tface=fell]Horatio, finally getting anxious of their  dangerous game, tugged on Christoph's shirt "Chhhrrrriiissss it's  getting late! Pa's going to tan our hides if we're late for  dinner....AGAIN!" With a mischievous grin they raced back to the hamlet,  forgetting all about the cave... for now....

Late that night, the two brothers crept out of their beds, sneaking off  into the woods, torch in hand, to visit their new playmate. And so they  stood before the cave, waiting for it to speak once more. A deep,  otherworldly growl issued from the cave, the loud crack of something BIG  thrashing against the confines of a too small space. Their previous  curiosity and excitement turning to a freezing chill of fear...[/tface]

"TWO BY TWO THEY RETURN TO HEAR MY PLEA.
DEAD OF NIGHT. THEY BRING ME LIGHT.
WON'T YOU VISIT ME?"

[tface=fell]A hideous, ghastly claw stretched out through the mouth of  the cave, a hiss of burning flesh filling the night as it crested past  the shadows of it's shadowy-home into the torch light. It's fell-claw  beckoned them forward ominously...

Horatio stood perfectly still frozen in fear. His brother was not so  timid however and slowly began to step forward. With each step forward  the beckoning call of the claw grew more demanding, the red gleaming  eyes more sinister.

Suddenly a blinding flash of blackened light erupted as Christoph, torch  in hand, crossed the threshold. The woods were deafened by the loud  crack of magic. Horatio was thrown to the ground, dazed by the eruption.

Blinded as he was, he knew what happened with disturbing clarity with  his other senses. First he felt the scorching heat, a terrible inferno  of heat the likes of which Horatio had never felt before. Next he heard  the cacophony of scratching claws biting into the ground near him,  matched by a screeching and wailing of the same as they clawed at  something. Then came the horrific screams for help from his brother. A  horrid sound he could not reply nor ever forget. Then the screams died  away, far far away.....and then all of the nightmarish sounds stopped,  leaving the forest in a dead silence. Horatio's sight returned, his  brother gone. The silence was soon replaced by the creature's fell voice  growling out of the cave.[/tface]

"ONE BY ONE THEY DANCE TO THEIR DOOM.
ONE TO BURN. ONE TO LEARN.
WON'T YOU INVITE ME TO YOUR ROOM?"

[tface=fell]The voice rang out in the poor child's head, crimson liquid  dripping from his ears. The words were not a question as they were  heard, but a spell laid upon him. Each frightening word the creature had  spoken since they first met; a line of an incantation to set itself  free.

And so the child, no match for such craven magics nodded his timid head,  drained of all color in his face. "Y-yes....y-y-y-you are i-invited  t-to m-m-my room." With another flash of fell magics, the creature's  gleaming eyes, it's outstretched claw, the pervading darkness of the  cave....all gone. What remained were only two things. A blackened scorch  upon the ground where his brother once stood, and the long since dead  body of a child inside the cave, wearing the same flying gryphon sigil  of young Horatio's house. Overwhelmed, Horatio fled through the darkness  of night, tripping and falling over every twisted  tree in all of the forest on the way in his frightful run. But Horatio was never again seen by mortal eyes.

But the tale does not end there. No, back in the home of the children,  their father was roused from his sleep by loud sounds within the boys  room. So he nervously moved into their room, the creek of the door  opening seeming to be the loudest sound the father had heard in all his  life as he peered within.

His heart plummeted into his gut as he looked on. A grisly scene  unfolded before him. At first the sickening sound of still fresh meat  being torn from limbs, accompanied by bones cracking and breaking like  twigs under the strength of something not of man. Then the smell. The  smell of burnt and decaying flesh mingled with sulfur. Then, the sight.  The room was covered in blood, transcribed into the walls in runes,  sigils and markings of the occult. Not one inch of the walls were bare  of the horrific writings. There was no sign of the victim.

As the father, horrified, swept his gaze of the room, his eyes fell upon  Horatio's bed. The sheet was bulging upwards over the silhouette of a  creature far larger than any man he had seen before, accompanied by that  of a small child of similar size to his own. The gravelly, malevolent  voice of the creature from the cave rumbled out to the man.[/tface]

"THREE BY THREE, YOU IMPRISONED ME.
A PACT MADE.
A POWER GIVEN.
A DEVIL PAID."

[tface=fell]The father ripped the sheet from where it rested upon the creature and the  child's head, revealing naught but darkness where the creature's  outline once was, but in place of the child, a horrible, twisted image  of his once son Horatio. Marked by a forked tongue with glowing red eyes,  it unfurled it's child-sized leathery wings, screeching and braying like a creature not of this world. And in a flash  of fell magic, the father was left alone with his sorrow, without son to  carry his name and blood beyond his time.[/tface]

[tface=fraktur]The Lesson[/tface]: [tface=fellsc]Let this be a  lesson, young readers and listeners. There is always a price to be paid  when dealing with creatures not of man. No matter how sweet and honeyed  their words, never forget the price. Never forget the darkness you  invite into your home when you show mercy to the wicked.[/tface]

[Vlaid]

[tface=fellsc]Roar[/tface]
[tface=fellsc]o f[/tface]
[tface=fellsc]t h e[/tface]
[tface=fellsc]Dragon[/tface]
[tface=walter]by[/tface][tface=walter]:[/tface] [tface=callig]Brother Grimes[/tface]
"...he is an implacable foe to the wicked which will not be swayed by sacks of gold. Nay, he knows only one word when addressing corrupt men and craven creatures. That word is BURN."

[tface=fell]Our story begins in the town square of a small village, the name of this village lost to the ages. This town had fallen on hard times; civil unrest, drugs readily available to keep the poor from climbing above their lot in life, evil wizards manipulating the government with threats of magical violence, slavery on the verge of legalization, yet through it all there was a distinct pallor of hope hanging across the township.....of change.

A crowd of citizens nearing a hundred had gathered before a creaking stage on this particular day. They gathered to settle a heated debate before the eyes of the public.

 

*RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE*
The town square literally shook with the tremors of civil unrest flowing through the crowd, their ire directed at the gathered men on the stage.

There were four men on the stage. On the far left, a shifty, physically fit looking character with expensive finery highlighted by purple. He was known to the people as Renkle, representative of the house of Crethos. To Renkle's right stood a man in similar finery garments highlighted by purple. But this man was far "larger", a rotund gut born from too many expensive meats, cheeses and wines. He was known as the mayor of this small village, his name Thorwin.

To his right, a grim knight clad in gleaming plate armor. This man was known as Sir Roberts, a representative of an order of knights known as the Dragon Knights. And finally, on the far right, a representative of house Andar known as Andrias. Clad in dull brown and golden chains.

The first man to speak was Thorwin, mayor of the town.

"People people-"

*GLORP*
                     His words were cut short by a handful of rotten fruit hitting his chest.

The embarassed mayor nodded off to the side, in response a contingent of armored men waded through the crowd. Moments later the grunts of pain as mailed gauntlets struck the open face of the offending citizen ran out. A murmur of disapproval ran through the crowd as the man was dragged off to the dungeons for his crime.

After the commotion from the scene had settled, the mayor Thorwin began again to address the crowd.

"People...." he paused, surveying the crowd for more signs of flying fruit before continuing "These are trying times, I bed you greetings on this cold day. Rumors of rebellion run rampant. But I implore you, I have always served this town faithfully. Do not buy into the lies that are set against me. I ask only patience as these issues are resolved....thank you."[INDENT]

[INDENT][INDENT]        The crowd murmured in response, many of the faces of the crowd looking to each other to gauge the reactions of their friends and family.
[/INDENT][/INDENT]

[/INDENT]

Civil unrest again gripped the crowd, shouts of distrust and resentment coming from the increasingly upset crowd "My husband hasn't been able to make a living since you took office! And now he's hooked on the drugs YOU let into our town!" Then another child weeping "....daddy's not the same anymore." to which a loud crack as a strung-out man beside the girl slaps his errant daughter for her words, which only draws dark glances from those nearby. Then another "You've signed the soul of the town over to evil wizards! You won't have our souls! We won't let you!!"

*RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE*
The crowd murmured in agreement to the sentiments being shouted yet again...

 

Next to address the crowd was Andrias, representative of the house of Andar, mutual bitter rivals of house Crethos. "Citizens, I address you this day under dark tidings. Our town has been bought and sold by house Crethos, this mayor is merely a puppet!. The mayor sells off our people to violent wizards, allows drugs, slavery and all manner of corrupt men to go free when they should be executed for vile crimes! Join us in retaking the town, do not let these dogs sway you with their lies!"

A roar of applause drowned the square. Yet as it began to die down, it suddenly quieted, no man wishing to be easily identified as a supporter of the rebellion.

With a contemptable sneer, Renkle, representative of house Crethos rose his voice before the crowd, casting an absolutely superior look upon the representative of house Andar whom had just spoken.

"Listen not to this jealous wretch's words. Jealousy, tis all it is. They have lost the battle for the hearts of the village and now seek to unseat our fine government and replace it with their own. Selfish to the last, do you think they REALLY care at all what happens to you peasants? They are using you just like everyone else. Only we do not try to hide it, you know what you get with house Crethos. Honesty and prosperity."

The crowd seemed satisfied with the answer, murmuring in approval some commenting about the wealth of coin coming into the town while others commenting about their personal prosperity of late, or more precisely, the lack of it.

Finally, the grimly silently knight stood before the crowd. His armor shone through the crowd, commanding attention from the crowd. The commentary from the crowd died down to a respectful din of citizens speaking under their breathe to their neighbors.

"Citizens, guards, merchants, commoners and children....I address you as a man of the Dragon Knights but also as a man of this village we call home. We have long been vocal of the corruption that has spread through the ranks of our goverment officials. Laws are raised and changed by the weight of gold that others would give them. "Law" has been twisted and subverted so that it has become a shield used by the corrupt to protect themselves from the hand of justice from my order."

The crowd, awed by the knights even and assured words, devoid of dramatic emotion, kept it's awkward silence...

Sir Roberts removed a gauntlet from one hand, placing it above his vizer to guard against the sun as he looked out over the crowd, spying one child. The side of the child's face was red raw from a strike from her father for speaking out about his drug problems.

"Know this, my friends of this dear village. I and my brothers grieve for the pains put on you all. But it has long since come that many of you have turned your backs on our faith, refused our teachings, and yet.....now you beseech us to save you from the wicked ways you have sown by rejecting the harsh truth of our ranks. Now it is YOU who must prove yourselves worthy of salvation, prove that you will not stand the actions of corrupt men plucking the food from your mouths, coin from your pockets, and pride from your hearts. Take up blade, take up torch, take up your own fate with your own hands and CHANGE it's course. Do not be content with contemptable men guiding your lives. Until the day the people speak loudly, roar the roar of a dragon against the corrupt....my brothers will only watch in grieving silence as our town falls to the wicked. When a dragon roars....he does not do so with a whimper."

The crowd murmurs, some applauding with tears in their eyes and drawing forth blades and torches yet doing nothing, while others boo and jeer at the pompous knight upon the stage.

As the crowd murmured and looked between itself, attempting to gather courage that would not come, for none dared to stand to be the rallying cry of the people, a stricken child ascended the stage, demurely standing before the mayor, tears in her eyes.

Mayor Thorwin, for the first time looking genuinely touched by anything during the meeting, drew down to a crouch, a far different softness to his face as he looked into the childs tear-stained face. "What is it child? Fear not, these are just the loud words of angry men."

The child stared at the mayor's face at eye level, whispering a softly in the beaten down words of a child born to a violent father. Yet the girl's words held a certain grim seriousness far beyond her size and years....

"You took our food. You took our gold. You let fathers and mothers wither under addiction and poverty. Speak not one more word to me, filthy liar."

Mayor Thorwin started to attempt a reply, only to feel a certain soreness. He gurgled his response, suddenly clutching at his neck where a dagger had been thrust into his throat, the hilt protruding. The eyes of the child staring at him hatefully as crimson drops of blood spurted across her face, still eye-level with the mayor.

Suddenly the square exploded in commotion. Men with blades already drawn hacked down men loyal to the Mayor and men of both houses. A group of guardsman loyal to mayor Thorwin grabbed him by the shoulders, ushering him out of the square quickly as rioting consumed the town.

As the day grew on, little more was spoken of the unrest, of the possibly dead mayor, nor of the talks that he had barricaded himself in his home with his guards. Rumor had spread that a contingent of Dragon Knights had made their way to the mayor's estate. It was said that as they passed, not a man addressed them, not a man tried to stop them, and to a last not one looked upon what they did upon leaving the square.

Only one thing is known for sure about this ancient tale; never again did the corrupt mayor Thorwin complain about the cold air of the village.

 

 [/tface]

[tface=fraktur]The End[/tface]