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CHAPTER ONE IS FINALLY HERE!!

Chapter 1: Memories of the Past

Norpse woke up uncomfortably in his bed writhing around from his nightmare. Blankets and sheets entangled him in a constricting cocoon. He wriggled around trying to free himself and landed on the hard bare floor. Sighing loudly, he stood up and looked out the window. He knew it was today, his birthday, which would forever be his most mournful day for the rest of his life. Most people enjoyed their birthday, celebrated their day of coming into existence, but for the past five years, Norpse loathed the day. He saw his reflection in the window and saw his tired face, which was odd for an elf too look so tired and worn, especially at only twenty-two years old.
Norpse was very young for his race, but he had more experience in hunting then most, and had a lot of amazing training in hunting and tracking. He pulled his chestnut hair back into his ponytail, which signified his pride in his family name and his race. His chestnut eyes gleamed dully with pain and hatred for this day, and he noticed he looked gaunt, haunted, and underfed. He decided to go into the kitchen and grab something to eat.
His mother was awake and making tea and bread for them to eat. “Good morning Mother, did you sleep well?” asked Norpse, as he did every morning.
“Yes dear, I slept well, and you…” she started, then turned around and stopped in the middle of her sentence. She noticed that Norpse had started crying silently. “Obviously didn’t. Still bothered by those dreams?”
“Ever since that day I can’t stop thinking about it. Especially today. I just can’t stop thinking that it was my fault mother! I can’t and it’s driving me insane.”
“Don’t ever think it was your fault. You could do nothing about it. You tried to save him, but it was impossible, you are very brave to have tried it. I lost him too son, and I miss him every day, but we’ve got to learn to move on. We still have each other, and we still remember all he has taught us! Don’t ever forget that.”
Norpse’s mother walked over to the bench he was sitting on and sat beside him, rubbing his back and hugging her beloved son. “I love you Norpse, always, and I am thankful I still have you. You can’t blame yourself. It will do nothing to bring him back. It will only hurt you, and that hurts me.”
“I can’t help it mother. It wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for me. I can’t stop thinking about it no matter how hard I try. It never should have happened, and it never leaves my mind.”
“Your father would be ashamed to hear you saying this. He taught you all he knew to make you strong, and your allowing yourself to forget all he taught you. It’s shameful and dishonorable. I’m appalled that you think such a thing.” Said Norpse’s mother sternly.
“Do you forget all he taught you? How happy he was when you first picked up his bow when you were just four years old? You shot a target one hundred feet away, a feat unchallenged by anyone under the age of sixteen! It was an amazing show of your natural skill and your father and I were elated when we knew how magnificent a son we had created!”
“I do remember that. It was amazing. I felt so right holding the bow, even back then. That was the day father was visited by Akouzi.” Said Norpse, smiling from the memory.
“I despised that man. He would take your father away for months at a time for meaningless jobs that frequently risked his life. But your father was amazing. He even found time to teach you all he knew, hunting, tracking, potion making, and herb identification. He even taught you how to master your fighting skills.”
“He taught me all he knew?” said Norpse, unbelieving.
“Yes. Your father still lives whether you know it or not. He lives in you, and me. He lives in all those who love him, as long as they never forget him. You most of all. He spent so much time with you, and for you to be loathing of yourself for his death is very much the same as you hating your own father.” She looked at Norpse lovingly.
“I know but the day he died. It was all because of me. He wouldn’t have been in that situation had I not had him come along for my trail of manhood. He would have been here, safe.” Replied Norpse mournfully.
“It was not your fault for the last time!” screamed Norpse’s mother. “It was the man who killed him! It was all his fault! You could do nothing about it! You even tried to help! But you were overpowered, don’t feel bad over something you couldn’t help because you did try! And that took more bravery then most of our most feared warriors have!”
Norpse stared at his mother, disbelieving that she screamed at him with such praise. He stopped to remember all that had happened on that dreadful day.
“Mother…Have I ever told you the whole story? About everything that happened during the Trial?” asked Norpse, trying to recollect if he had ever revealed the truth to anyone.
“Actually, no Norpse, you haven’t. All I really know is that you brought your father back to the village, dead, and you told us he was murdered, and that you tried to save him but couldn’t. Other then that, I am unaware of anything else that happened. Why?” asked Norpse’s mother.
“I ask this because I want to tell you everything that happened. That day so long ago, Father told me it would be the hardest trial I’d ever face. Somehow I doubt that, but I still heeded his advice and took caution.”
Norpse stood up and walked to the window and leaned against the sill, taking in the sight around the village. Children and adolescents ran around alike, laughing and smiling and enjoying the beautiful day. The sun was still low in the eastern part of the sky. Beams of light trickled through gaps between tree branches, and illuminated the village. In and out of doors people went among their daily duties paying no attention to Norpse, who was in the window crying.
“It all started out simple enough. I walked into the Forest of Trials and followed the track dad left, climbing trees or cliffs when I needed. For several hours I hiked and finally I jumped to a branch and I saw dad. He was sitting there making a potion, and he saw me and smiled.” Said Norpse, turning towards his mother.
“After a few minutes of conversation in the tree, he said we should be off. We leaped down off the branch and he showed me to the cave entrance where my trial would take place. Countless hour Dad and me fought side by side; taking down wild animals and creatures of the abyss that attacked. We slaughtered hundreds as me and dad unleashed flurries of arrows and blows with our swords for the few that got that close. At that point I thought me and him were unbeatable, I felt invincible. And what an honor it was to fight side by side with father. I’ve never been so proud.” At this time Norpse sat back down next to his mother and grabbed another cup of tea.
He paused for a moment to add sugar to his tea and then he continued “Eventually we made it to a giant hole in the cave floor. If dad hadn’t seen it I would have fell straight down. Before we went down he pulled me aside and handed me a small set of vials. Three potions he had made before I arrived. They were filled with a deep amber liquid.” Norpse opened his field pack and withdrew two amber filled vials and placed them on the table in front of his mother, who examined them teary eyed.
“He told me they were adrenaline potions. One sip would instantly imbue the one who drank it with immense power. Tripling his strength ten fold. It would give that person unlimited power, but only for so long. It really is short lived. It sharpens every sense one person holds. Vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, all of it increased to an amazing threshold. It can give an infant the power to overtake a fully grown man.”
Norpse took several sips of his tea and swirled the cup around causing a whirlpool in his cup as he paused for a few minutes. A few tears fell from his face again into the cup of tea, and as the droplets recoiled from the cup sparkles flew up, illuminating the table. Several more star shaped lights floated from the cup and revealed a shining flat plate, revealing a picture of the hole. Norpse looked up at this new apparition in amazement. Then everything that happened that day took place in order in that floating aura.
“What is this? I’ve never done that before. Mother have you ever seen anything like this before?” said Norpse, startled that his tears formed a motion picture of the events that had happened.
“No, never in my life. This is amazing. How did this happen?” replied his mother, inspecting the aura inquisitively. She reached to touch it and a bright glow issued forth and the picture started to move. The room was filled with sounds from the cave. The gust of wind that issued forth from the hole was fully audible throughout the kitchen. The sound sent chills down Norpse’s spine as he recalled the icy winds that blew out of that hole.
Norpse and his mother stared in astonishment as they watched the vision. The next thing Norpse and his mother heard unsettled both of them. Falroth, Norpse’s fathers voice.
“This is the last part of your test. In here you will face the scariest thing you can fathom. We will rest for a few minutes so you may gain some of your strength back, but realize that I can not help you with this task. This is your show from here on out. I will keep any small creatures away from you but the final fight is all up to you. If you fall, I can not pick you up, I would have to watch you die.”
In the aura Norpse saw himself as he looked five years before. Not much different, but it was unnerving seeing a younger persona of who he was. It was even worse seeing his father like this. In the aura Norpse’s father put his arm on his son’s shoulder and started to cry and hugged his son. Norpse recalled that moment as he watched it happen. Tears began to flow freely from Norpse’s eyes. That was the last hug his father had ever given him.
Throughout the room Norpse’s voice resonated, and it scared the present day being he now was. “Let’s go father, I’m ready.” In the vision father and son looked at each other, nodded, and Norpse turned to the hole and leaped in. The vision followed Norpse down the hole. Several perilous stories down Norpse landed with a soft nearly inaudible “thump” next to an elven corpse that was impaled upon a sword.
Norpse turned his head at this part of the vision because he knew what would happen. Norpse’s mother kept watching, unable to turn away from the screen. Norpse winced as his voice filled the room again, louder then ever. “Father! No!” The sound chilled Norpse in a way unlike any he had ever experienced before. He began to shake violently and couldn’t stop his flow of tears. Norpse’s eyes fell towards his mother as he saw her face change from passive to complete horror as she saw what Norpse knew was his father landing on the blade that the corpse had been impaled by. A loud scream reverberated off the walls of the kitchen and into Norpse and his mother’s ears. Norpse looked back at the floating screen and saw himself kneeling beside his father.
“Father. Let me help you up. We need to get you into town, mother can heal your wounds, you’ll be fine.”
“No son. You need to finish your test. You’re more important than anything else in my life! I don’t care about this if it means losing you!”
“But,” began Falroth, “You need to finish this test. It proves your manhood. This is your only shot. I don’t want you to waste that.”
“Father. To hell with tradition! I refuse to lose you over my need to be a man! Let’s get you home now. I don’t care if I’m considered a child forever.”
“Alright. I love you son. I wish you’d finish though. You are so close to the…” but Norpse’s father was cut off mid-sentence by a loud rumbling that had filled the cave. The vision revealed what had made the noise and the look of pure terror on Norpse’s face. A giant cave spider that nearly hit the cave ceiling with its back end issued a series of clicks and snarls.
In the vision Norpse withdrew his sword and sliced through the spiders left pincer before it could react. The speed in which he did so was incredible. At this time both Norpse and his mother could not stop watching. The vision revealed how Norpse leaped back several feet at a time, and brandished his sword threateningly, retaliating against blows from the spider, and after a few minutes, Norpse was panting heavily, and the spider at last had a significant advantage over it’s prey.
Norpse saw his younger self take out the same amber filled vial that now rested on the table, untouched and gleaming in the light. Young Norpse uncorked it, and drank the whole vial without a second thought. Another loud yell, this time shouted by Norpse filled the kitchen. Young Norpse stood up and breathed heavy. His muscles had grown to an unimaginable size, he looked deeply intimidating.
Young Norpse jumped into the air, twisted his body so he was upside down, and planted his feet on the firm cave ceiling. Using that leverage he leaped down using his strength to force his speed into amazing power, and with that advantage, Norpse drove the blade through the hideous arachnids head, killing it instantly. Young Norpse smiled in the vision as he saw his accomplishment. Then he ran around the giant spider to tell his father he had won and Norpse watched horrified as he saw again the dreaded terror on his younger self in the vision.
The vision revealed the worst part of that day. A man in a silver mask and black tattered cloak had Norpses’ father at knifepoint. Then Norpse saw the dreaded smile that haunted his dreams every night since the real Trial had taken place. The man in the silver mask grinned a malicious taunting smile, then slashed through Falroths neck as if it were water. Instantly Norpse’s father dropped dead, and then the man in the silver mask and black cloak did the worst thing ever. He laughed. A cold, dark, taunting laugh that echoed throughout Norpse’s mind as it sounded through the vision.
Anger flooded through Norpse and his eyes turned pure black. He stood up so abruptly his mother shook and stepped back, clearly startled. Norpse drew his hand back and punched the shining aura, which in its own defense crystallized. The sound of shattering ice surrounded the area. Norpse screamed as his fist blasted the plate into thousands of pieces which fell harshly onto the table and vaporized, leaving no trace of itself. Norpse’s mother stared at him in astonishment and fear and he stood up, ran into his room, grabbed his armor, sword, shield, and his bow and quiver.
Norpse sprinted out of the house leaving his bewildered mother behind in the kitchen, scared and crying. Norpse remembered nothing, all he knew was in his mind was nothing but Revenge. Revenge. Revenge. Run. Get that man. Revenge. Avenge your father. Coward. Run! Norpse did not know where he was going, but he ran for hours before finally coming to his senses and collapsing underneath a giant oak tree. The sun set and he fell into a deep slumber.





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