In
the Shadow of Death
an illustrated tale
page 1
The sun shown brightly down upon Garalt and his
companions, there was a nice breeze and few clouds in the sky. Overall
it was turning out to be a good day. It had been a few days since
the great battle between Ethelred and Ulmerad, and though Garalt's injuries
had been healed, his body was still sore. But now that Ethelred's
forces had been weakened, it was now time to find the key that would awaken
the true power of the tower of Olyian.
"So what exactly are we looking for, Greylen?" Moraine
began. The entire group halted their march to the tower and turned
to face the mage.
"Well, like I had said before, I couldn't decipher
some of the writings, but if I understood them correctly, whatever the
key is to unlock Olyian's true power, it's hidden in a cave near the tower.
I couldn't find any reference to what exactly we're looking for."
"A cave, huh?" Garalt looked at his mentor, "Isn't
there a cave right near by where we are Kullvox?" Kullvox looked
at the young knight and nodded slowly.
"How convenient," Garn said with obvious sarcasm.
"How far is it, Garalt?" Demonclaw began inspecting
his staff.
"Oh, its a good hours hike on foot." he said, looking
at Kullvox for approval.
"Then we best get going. Every moment we spend
out here, Ethelred's forces grow that much stronger." Moraine motioned
for Garalt to lead the way. Garalt nodded and took point, leading
the group to the northwest. The walk seemed longer than just an hour,
the terrain was rough but rather featureless. There were few trees,
mainly grassland.
But sure enough, Garalt lead them to the side of
a small, rocky hill. There, only large enough for a small child to
walk through upright, was a hole in the rock face. Garalt bent down
slightly and peered inside.
"Doesn't look like much of a cave, Garalt." Moraine
did nothing to hide his doubt in the young knight.
"Looks can be deceiving, Moraine," Kullvox reminded
the paladin, "you above all people should know this by now." Moraine
clenched his jaw slightly in disgust.
"And you could not decipher anything as to what
we're looking for?" Garn looked over at Greylen, who shook his head slowly.
"It's been years since I studied the ancient texts,
I'm afraid I've gotten a bit rusty at translating them. However I
have a good feeling that we'll know what we're looking for when we see
it. It'll stick out like a sore thumb."
"So like a big golden chalice on a stone pillar
surrounded by a mound of gold sort of thing, right?" Demonclaw got excited
at the thought.
"Well, I suppose it could be that, yes," Greylen
spoke, raising an eyebrow at his friend. The other four just chuckled.

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All characters contained within this page and website are purely fictional, any resemblance to persons either living or otherwise is purely coincidental. All material contained herein are copyrighted 2002 by and property of Anthony J. Sava III. Any copying or reproduction of said material is strictly prohibited except with expressed written authorization.