Erik Prefer
Memory
Deniva had turned down an alley and waited until she no longer heard her name being called by the strangers who sat with her in the tavern disappeared into the blizzard to look for her. Suddenly, she heard snow crack behind her and drew her sword. A man in a brown cloak, wrapped in worn out furs stood behind her. “I thought I’d find you here.” He said. Deniva scoffed “I thought we’d parted ways long ago, ranger. He said roughly “I didn’t come here to argue about the past but to help you.” Deniva laughed and stabbed her sword into the snow to leaned on it “And when have you ever not talked about the past, much less helped me.” The cloaked figure pulled down his hood to reveal his keen eyes. “You may think what you’d like, but we both know that I am the only one who could get you into that mountain. And in your state, I doubt you’ll be much use in a fight. You need another.” The woman answered, “Denghal, you of all people know why I go alone.” Denghal countered, “Whatever wedge that has been put between us does not make me care for you less. I will not abandon a friend on a suicide mission.” Deniva screamed, “Well you picked a bad time to care! We could have used you the first time around.” Denghal shouted, “Am I not here now! Focus on now, Deniva. You said not to speak of the past.” Without another word to each other, the two began to walk together toward the mountain.
…
Ioraial was not expecting to see such strange visitors to Miria’s Chapel. Caelorian, Kerthir and Claire, unable to find Deniva, went to her order’s temple and looked for her there. They would not accept it, but began to realize that Deniva had gone off to the mountains alone. “Are you sure you saw Deniva?” the halfing cleric asked. Kerthir nodded “She has a broken arm, ruined armor, and bad head wound. I think those are unusual things.” Ioraial sighed, “Deniva is a troubled soul. We have tried to heal her, but she will not accept our council.” Caelorian said, “We believe she’s gone back to the mountain.” Ioraial’s shoulders dropped “We forbade her from doing that. We were fools to think we could slow the undead advance on the city with the Order’s troops.” Claire said urgently “We must get to her then.” Ioraial knelt down behind her desk and stood up holding a morningstar and crossbow. “Well, I guess I’d better come too. Strength in numbers, right?”
The heavy blizzard that had picked up as soon as they had gotten to the base of the mountain heavily impaired Claire’s vision. In the distance, however, she could still see two figures walking together, due to her low-light vision. Kerthir could see it too, as he was the one who pointed this out to the group. “I can see two humanoids in front of us. Not too far off, in this blizzard I doubt anyone could move much.” Claire and her group pressed onwards, blocking the wind with their arms. Ahead of them was a lantern’s faint light, the light that they were following.
Deniva and Denghal pushed onwards into the storm, letting the blizzard batter their faces without a care. These two were not unused to the cold; they’d survived in harsher climates before today. Denghal was at the front, watching the ground, the sky, anything that might be a sign of danger. His eyes were sharp and keen, gifts from his great, great, great grandfather, an elf from long ago. Denghal might not have enough elf-blood in him to be “half” elf but he certainly had more sensitive eyes than most men. Deniva walked behind him, paying no attention to her environment, focusing only on the top of the mountain. “Deniva.” Denghal called “Which way did you go from here?” Deniva took her eyes off the mountain and looked around her, she had no recollection of this place. She was about to say so when she saw something gleam under the snow.
The paladin walked towards the sparkling metal under the snow and put her hand in the snow to grab it. When she pulled her hand out, she held a shattered sword, the sword of one of her companions. In a split second, the paladin doubled over in pain, grabbing her temples as the memory returned to her.
…
“Deniva!” The paladin spun around to see Hilamti under attack from a skeleton. Its joints cracked in the cold but it was not slowed. The creature swung its mace with such force that Hilamti’s shield began to buckle after the first two hits. As Deniva drew her sword to aid the cleric, Andona’s shrieks filled her ears. Andona was surrounded by skeletons, which jumped at her and began to rip at her flesh with there talons. Deniva decided to run to Andona’s side, kicking off the undead and trying to smash their bones with the flat of her sword. Her efforts proved in vain, as the skeletons ignored her and slit Andona’s throat when the cleric fell to the ground, covered in skeletons.
Unable to save the female cleric, Deniva ran towards Hilamti, who had lost his shield. His mace had made quick work of the skeleton, but a ghoul now attacked the cleric. As the cleric swung for its head, it grabbed his arm and broke it with inhumane strength. The older man fell to the ground, screaming in pain. He grabbed his holy symbol and thrust it at the ghoul, who in turn only laughed. Deniva’s voice rose in a battle cry as she drove her sword into the ghoul’s chest. It grinned until she channeled divine light into the creature through her sword. It screamed and clawed at her blade, trying to remove it from its chest. Deniva grit her teeth and twisted the sword and cut through the ghoul’s collarbone.
Deniva turned to help Hilamti to his feet, who had healed his arm so he could at least move it. “Deniva we must save the others!” Hilamti screamed to her. In front of them, swarms of undead were killing clerics and paladins. Some of the undead burst into dust as the clerics held aloft their holy symbols, others just laughed. When had the undead become immune to divine power? Deniva left Hilamti behind, telling him to stay back, and charged into the fray. She sliced at ghouls and kicked skeletons, but her efforts were unable to even slow the horde.
Deniva was soon swarmed as well, and fell to the ground. Skeletons bit at her arms and neck were her armor was weaker. Those attacking her arms bit through her chain shirt, into her right arm. She screamed in pain, savagely striking at them with the pummel of her sword. She heard screams of the dying, prayers being whispered, crying and then silence. Deniva shouted at the sky “Miria! Where are you?” A ghoul walked over to her and looked her in the eyes with his sickly green ones, “Your patroness will not save you, paladin. It is time to die.” Hilamti’s mace slammed into the ghoul’s cheek, breaking its jaw and lower skull. Hilamti pulled Deniva to her feet, bashing the horde as it jumped up after her. “Go Deniva! Run! There is nothing you can do here! Return to the city and live your life in service of others. One day, by Miria’s grace, return here and avenge us. For now, go, run!”
Hilmati pushed Deniva down a small hill, away from the battle. As Deniva rolled to a stop, she heard the sounds of snapping bones and ripping flesh, but no scream. Hilmati had died instantly. As Deniva stood, a ghoul threw a stone at her. The projectile collided with her left temple. She crumbled to the ground again, seeing stars dance about her and her blood flow down her face. Deniva staggered to her feet and began to run, towards Northport, towards the light of the next day. Towards the revenge she had sworn…
…
Deniva’s eyes shot open to see the face of Denghal next to hers. Deniva was on the ground, but her upper body was supported by one of Denghal’s arms, and her neck by the other. Denghal was startled when her eyes opened, as if he’d been lost in though, or maybe a dream, a sweet dream. Deniva snarled at him as she pulled away “What are you holding me for?” Denghal withdrew from her side quickly and said “I caught you before you hit the ground, I didn’t want you to hit your head again.” Deniva stood with a certain amount of annoyance “I told you, we are done. Don’t you ever even think about us being together again.” Denghal suddenly shouted at her “I wasn’t the one who ran off to join the clergy! I wasn’t the one who caused what happened!” Deniva hissed at him “I don’t even know why I let you come here. Get out of my sight!” The ranger looked like he’d been slapped in the face, but he refused to move. Deniva shook with rage and screamed again “Get away!” Without a word, the ranger’s head sunk down and he turned around, walking towards the bottom of the mountain.