The serpent God - the story

This is a work in progress, i am not sure yet were I am going to end up with this or how it will turn out yet, but bear with me here.

more details see the tread in 'members worlds' Called 'the Serpent God'.

also i would prefer any coments and question to be posted there aswell. i dont like to much OOC chatter in between.

In the corner of a busy bar sits a man next to a table filled with empty kegs of beer. His nose is red and his hair is grey. Several scars decorate his face. Drunk as he is he is he suddenly begins to yell at the bard for playing to load. Just then a man in cloak enters the bar, immediately he notices the yelling drunk and walks over to him. “you look like a man with a story to tell” he tells the drunk. The drunk looks at him surprised, as if nobody ever talked to him before. “aye, I do” he tells the cloaked man. “but you would not believe me if I do”. The man in the cloak smiled. “try me, I have seen my share of the unbelievable” the man said as he ordered a round of kegs. The old gives his new cloaked friend a look of surprise. “alright lad, ill tell you my story.” The old man takes a long sit of his new keg of beer and begins to tell his story. “it all began 34 years ago...”

…I was a young lad in the service of the Royal army. At the time of was stationed in a southern outpost in the Yulliga Forest under commander Marcus Thane. Marcus was one of the greatest Commanders I ever met, not that I met a lot mind you. He was heroic, strong and kind. There was a rumour going around the camp that he defeated 20 orcs single-handedly. At the time I did not believe it but it would not take me long to find out that this rumour was very close to the truth. He was known to keep some strange company though. An Elf by the name of Sephina and a man called Kage always hang around the camp though they weren’t official members of the royal army. Sephina was gentle and caring, she did not always know when to keep her mouth shut but she always meant well. she always had a Eagle with her. Apparently she could talk to it just like we are talking right now. At first I was sceptical about it, but there were things she knew that she only could know if she actually had seen what the bird had seen. And Kage… he was something totally else. He was cold, grumpy and never opened his mouth unless it was of the utmost importance. His face I have never seen either, because he always had a metal mask on. rumour had it that his face was scared so much that he always kept his mask on not to frighten anyone. But personally I think he just did not want anyone to know who he really was. I doubt Kage was even his real name. Nonetheless he was unmatched with his bow, and a master at sneaking around and setting up traps and ambushes.

I remember they day it all began well. I was a new recruit fresh out of training, I had never seen real combat before but from the stories I heard for the soldier stationed there a bit longer I knew it would not be long before I would see my first fight. There were many orc sightings in the area. Wich by itself was not unusual this deep in the Yulliga forest, after all, it was the home of several orc clans. Usually though we tried not to interfere with the orcs, the spend so much time fighting amongst themselves that the weren’t as big a tread as the could be. Besides attacking them would just give them a reason to band together and attack their common foe. But Marcus ordered an attack on every passing band of orcs he could find.

And so did he that day 34 years ago. I was on guard duty and I spotted him and the Elven woman Sephina on their way back form on of their ‘scouting missions’. The two of them always went on missions like that and you could imagine the rumour that spread around the camp because of it. but I am wondering… that day Marcus and Sephina returned from their scouting mission. Without even taking a breath he ordered me to sound the horn and rally the troops. Imidiatly after sounding the horn the silent and calm camp turned upside down, people started running and screaming for other to get out of the way. The quartermaster started to hand out weapons and armour who the soldier quickly put on and in less than 5 minutes the entire battalion was fully equipped and lined up for further order. Marcus, in full body armour dismounted his Very large white steed and slowly started walking up and down the line carefully inspecting his troops. When he was done inspecting he held a short speech about valour. I can still remember his finishing sentence. “…Time to spill some blood!” to my surprise some of the more experienced soldiers laughed at the expression. I did not understand why the laughed, The expression had the opposite effect on me. ‘time to spill some blood…’ it made it sound as we are just animals out for blood and it scared me. But there was no time to think about it, Marcus ordered us to move out and my mind wandered to the battle ahead.