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1995-07-20
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Path: usenet.ee.pdx.edu!news.reed.edu!nntp.teleport.com!psgrain!news.uoregon.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news-e1a.megaweb.com!newstf01.news.aol.com!uunet!in1.uu.net!not-for-mail
From: Guido Roessling <dida@pu.informatik.th-darmstadt.de>
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.archives
Subject: STORY: QELRIK part 78
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc
Date: 18 Jul 1995 07:40:19 -0400
Organization: TU Darmstadt
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This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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Check out the QELRIK WWW Page at
http://www.pu.informatik.th-darmstadt.de/dida/qelrik.html
if you have WWW access!
***
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Dreamdevil
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He landed softly near the mouth of another cave. He was nowhere near the
clearing he had just looked down upon, but was in a part of the woods he had
never been before. A whimper caught his attention. It came from the cave.
He turned around to see the most horrifying creature he had ever seen. Even
his most far-fetched imagination could not have prepared him for what he saw.
The *thing* stood about four feet tall, but it was hard to tell since it was
haunched over so much. It's skin was leathery in appearance, brown and tough
and sparsely populated with stubby black hair. It had claws for feet, and
claws for hands, and a tail that looked like an agitated snake, the way it
whipped back and forth. Its most remarkable feature was its head, which was
huge for such a short creature. Two goat-like horns protruded from its
forehead above its large, red eyes. If the creature had ears, Kyle could not
see them. Its mouth was long, with the end of its chin reaching down to its
belly. A row of vicious looking teeth extended down from the joint of the jaw
to the end of the chin. Each tooth was a fang, and each fang was larger than
the last, fighting for room in the creature's mouth with the other teeth so
that they pointed this-way and that. A large chunk of red flesh hung from one
edge of its mouth as if the creature was caught mid-way through its evening
meal. Blood dripped constantly from the meat, forming a reddish-black puddle
at the creatures feet. The creature just stood there, at the mouth of the
shallow cave---more like an outcropping of rocks---staring at Kyle, holding
the piece of red flesh to its jaw. The rocks surrounding the creature
continued up and out, so the only direction the thing could go would have been
to go through Kyle.
Kyle stood petrified, terrified to move lest he provoke the creature to attack.
Surely, the thing could tear his head off in one bite of its horrible mouth.
But the creature did not attack. It just stared back at Kyle. He heard a
whimper escape from it's throat.
The whimper was drowned out by a rustling of bushes, leaves, and angry voices.
As the voices grew louder, Kyle's fear subsided. He recognized the voices of
the people he had grown up with---who occupied the village of Trelham. They
made no effort to silence their approach as they angrily advanced upon him
and the creature in the shallow cave. The angry mob was led by Tjahlem, an
unpleasant young man who thought he owned the town, or would own it someday.
"There it is!" he cried. "We've caught it! You thought you could escape us,
creature from Hell! But the gods have turned your blood-trail to a glowing
path for us to find you!"
Kyle, whose fear had vanished, found himself between the creature and the
crowd. He wondered if they even saw him as they approached with bows, spears,
and swords raised to kill the creature. Even the towns gentlewomen were among
the throng, brandishing knives.
Looking down at the trampled foliage left by the townspeople's careless
pursuit, Kyle could see a clear trail of softly glowing spots on the ground.
There was no other indication of the creature's passage through the underbrush.
"Out of the way, knave!" shouted Tjahlem. Apparently, they could see Kyle.
Tjahlem gave him the same respect, or lack thereof, that he usually had.
Kyle looked at Tjahlem and the white-eyed crowd, then back at the horrible
creature. Surely it was a devil of some kind, wicked in its ways and hateful
of living things. But its mannerisms were of a creature afraid, who knew of
the peril it faced yet did not understand why.
"What has the creature done?" Kyle asked, holding his hand out to the crowd to
stay them.
"What?!" Tjahlem laughed. "Do you jest? That's a demon! And it must be
destroyed before it can wreck its havoc on us!" Tjahlem's statements were
seconded by the crowd.
Kyle looked again at the creature. "Don't you see that it's terrified of you?
Why, I've been standing here at arm's length from it's jaw and it hasn't
attacked me at all. The creature is harmless."
"The demon has affected your mind!" Tjahlem shouted. "Now get out of the way
so you won't get hurt!" Kyle took a step back toward the creature as Tjahlem
advanced a step forward. The crowd gathered around. The creature whimpered
again, as if to complain that with no where for it to go, Kyle was too close
for its comfort.
"Wait!" Kyle shouted to stop the crowd once again. "Listen to me. My mind
has never been clearer. Look, since I've been here, the creature has only
been interested in eating its dinner, which we've interrupted." So saying,
Kyle indicated to the crowd the chunk of flesh still caught on the edge of
its mouth. But Kyle was standing closer to the creature than he originally had
thought, and so touched the piece of red, bleeding flesh. He heard a gasp
rise from the crowd as he stared at the red rag he held in his hand.
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