Quest for Glory
Chapter 1
"Well, that's one skeleton that won't be walking again", Kileran said to himself as he finished the job, smashing the skeletons skull under his foot. It wasn't enough to just smash a skeleton's bones, as they would heal, giving the skeleton life again in time.
"You know, I once talked to a man that believed people who talked to themselves were insane. Please tell me he was wrong", came a sudden voice from behind him.
Kileran whirled around, seing what he had expected. Kajaras, a lifelong friend, had re-entered the room. They had split up when the fight had begun. "I take it thet you had a little trouble with your group?" Kileran asked, as he noticed a large cut on Kaj's chest.
"Awe, it's nothing, I just got a little cocky, and one of em got a lucky shot. The wound will heal, and I'm not too woried about this cheap leather armour". Kajaras had only bought the oil hardened leather breast plate and suit three days ago, but already every one of his friends and aquiantances knew that he had hated it. "What a waste of money. Almost no protection, and it cut's down my swing by almost a foot. This is the first and last time I wear hardened leather."
"Yes, I know, I know". Kileran had been listening to these complaints for some time now, and was growing quite tired of it. "Well, I guess Larco will be happy that the skeletons are taken care of. The money he's supposed to be giving us for the job should be, or should I say better be enough to buy that suit of chains that you were looking at."
"I certainly hope so. You know, we should probably start charging a set rate for our services. It seems lately that a lot of people are trying to take advantage of our good nature, and our pay cheques are getting smaller and smaller."
"Well, I certainly know what you mean by that", Kileran replied, as he started to poke through the skeletons rotting clothing. "Did you find anything interesting on any of the skeletons that followed you through to the other room?"
"Yeah, check out the front right pocket's of those ones." Kajaras said, surveying the room.
"What the hell", Kileran said in disbelief as he pulled a small gold medallion from each of the skeletons in the room. "Is this what you were talking about?" he said, showing Kaj one of the medals.
"Yeah. My guess is that the skeletons were put here to protect something, and the crest on those medals is the mark of the wizard that created them."
"Well geez, maybe your not all muscle afterwards" Kileran said slyly. He know that Kaj had a fairly good mind to go with his hulking exterior, but everyone still liked to bug him about it.
Kajaras Jenner, standing 6'10" and just under 250 pounds, was definitely a lot for the eye to see. On top of this, he carried a huge 50 pound axe, which he always kept in the best of repair. The axe had been passed down to him by his father. His father had been a mercenary fighter, in his better years. On his last mission, he had encountered a powerful wizard, which, in battle, had cast a spell on him, rendering him more feebleminded than any person Kajaras had ever seen.
But, in the tradgey, Kajaras had found more pain than anyone. When Kajaras had heard the news about his father, he had vowed to destroy the mage. The only problem was that 1) Kajaras was only 9 years old at the time, and 2) the mage had not been seen since then. Over the years, Kajaras had found ways to get over his hatred, and had moved on.
At the age of 15, Kajaras decided to take over the life of his father. His father, using his last ounces of sanity, blessed the thought, and told Kajaras that he could have, in time, all of his fighting gear. This had included, his axe, a suit of specially crafted armour, a large shield bearing his family's crest, a beautiful broad sword with runic markings all along the blade, and an amulet that his father had claimed all his life had the ability to make a person stronger, just by wearing it.
Kajaras, knowing his father had been a very level headed man in his better years, had believed his father, and had been wearing the amulet ever since his 16th birthday when his mother had given it to him.
The only other thing from his fathers equipment that Kajaras had taken, had been the axe. He liked to feel the extra crushing weight under his hands, that he did not feel when he used a sword. Although, he had taken a little training in the use of a sword, simply because he knew that on smaller, quicker creatures, a large heavy weapon was ineffective.
The armour, although beautiful, and surprisingly perfectly fitting to Kajaras, had also been left behind. Kajaras knew that if he wanted to use the armour effectively, and use the weapons in an equal respect, that he needed much more training. The armour, although the best quality that anyone in town had ever seen, was very heavy, and unless used correctly, was also very encombersome.
His life had been quite plain, as mercenary lives go. He didn't like to travel much, so that cut down the number of jobs that were available to him. He was able to keep his life going though, so he didn't mind it much. Mainly sticking to protection services, he was able to have fun interacting with his clients while he worked. The presence of Kileran on most of his jobs made them go a lot easier too.
It had just been these last few months that things had started to get harder. About a year ago, he and Kileran had met another team of mercenaries, and had developed a sort of partnership, splitting the jobs between themselves. The problem with this was that now there were only half as many jobs available to them. There was still enough to get by on, but living had gotten tough.
Then this job had come. A farmer had been checking his fields one night, when he noticed a large hole in his field. The next morning, when the sun rose, he had returned. What he saw was a shock. Running around in the hole were hundreds(or so he said) of man sized skeletons.
And so the local mercenaries had been called in. Kileran and Kajaras were the only ones to be found, however, the other two away on an escourt mission.
Arriving at the scene, they figured there was no real danger, and jumped right in, literaly. After landing, getting up, and brushing themselves off, they were attacked. Kajaras beconed a group of them and moved to another area of the dungeon. The battle had gone smoothly, and had been over in a matter of minutes. When all was said and done, and the bodies counted, the hundreds had somehow been reduced before they got there, to 18.
"Well, I say we take the medalions, but keep them hidden. If he doesn't pay us enough, or tries to pull some IOU crap, then we take the medallions as payment. They're solid gold, they gotta be worth something to some one. Gold is still Gold," Kileran said.
"True. But I think we have a more pressing issue that needs to be dealt with first", Kajaras replied, looking up at the hole that had been their entrance.
Looking along Kaj's line of sight, Kileran realized what he was refering to. The hole that had given them access to these small caves, was now more than 8 feet above their heads. "What do you think Kaj? We know that all them chickens that came and woke us up this morning are back at the Tavern, cowering in fear, so there is no-one that can hear us. I dont even have a rope."
"Well", Kaj said, undoing the snaps on his armour, "You wanna learn to fly?"
"What?" Kileran gasped in surprise, taking a step back.
"Just relax. I'll just toss you up over that edge, and then you can go get a rope, tie it onto something, and I'll climb up on it."
"Ok, lets see if I've got this right. You want to throw me out of the hole?"
Kajaras stopped and looked at Kileran seriously. "And you say I'm the slow one? Come on, take off that armour and your gear and get ready."
Kileran realized that there was no reason to fight. If Kajaras wanted to try something, there was no stopping him. He slowly started to take off his armour and gear.
Kileran Dufose, standing 5'10", and weighing a meek 150 lbs when wet, was not nearly the site that his companion was.
But that didn't mean that he wasn't to watch out for, either. Kileran's life had been anything but easy. Right from the time that he had joined school, he had always been the outsider. All that came of this though, was a lot of fights. The bullies at his school had never liked him, and therefor picked on him a lot. But, no bully ever picked on him more than once, as they all had to wait for bones to repair.
All the time that Kileran had been spending alone, he had been using it to tone and perfect his muscles. This gave him a few advantages. One, he had a rather small and wiry structure, that concealed his rather strong muscles. Another major benefiet of this was that noone ever knew what to expect of him. And most often, they guessed wrong.
The day that he had met Kajaras was a good day for him. Kajaras, being the new kid in school, was getting the treatment that most new kids did, and being bigger than most kids his age just gave them more names to call him. Kileran had seen the rucus, and had proceeded to start a fight, like usual.
This fight was not like his usual ones, as now he had someone to help him, and man, was it a good choice too. Kajaras had much more strength, and almost all the skill that Kileran had spent years to develop. The fight proceeded until they were stopped by thier teacher. Seeing the odds they were against, the teacher mearly stopped the fight, and did nothing to the two boys, except congradulate them under her breath.
The friendship had been immediate, as they found they were perfectly suited to each other. They remained friends throughout their entire childhood, and on through their teenage years, until the time that they decided to join as mercenaries, and began a small business. And if one thing was for sure, business for these two was good.
"Are you sure that you can get me up there? The last thing I want is to go up a few feet, and then fall back, because you overestimated your strength" Kileran said as he removed the last of his gear.
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
"You know guys, I hate to say it, but this looks really sick. You havn't been stuck down there that long that you're already taking your clothes off for one another, have you?" Came a female voice from above.
Kileran looked up, realizing that he couldn't see the person who had spoken, due to the light that was now shining in his eyes.
"Katharas, that had better be you, cause if it isn't, your gonna die for that comment," Kajaras Growled.
A man's voice now spoke, from the other side of the hole. "Do you really need to ask that question? Who else in town would have the guts to come all the way out here, besides the other two members of your quartet?
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