Hey hey and welcome back to the gates of Enverdolmal
I hope as always that this finds you well and in good spirits!
I want to shout out the places that have been actively reading along weekly and even daily!
(I appreciate ALL of my readers, nonetheless, the system only tracks the most popular places or the places with the highest reader count I believe, so if you don't see yourself listed, it's okay!)
The English Readers are mostly in the United States, with the rest (that the system knows of) being in:
-In no particular order-
Myanmar,
Canada,
Germany,
and Turkey! A total of just over 14.7K Readers!
On the Spanish Readers' side, Peru is where the majority of the Readers live apparently!
with the following making up the remainder of KNOWN places:
Dominican Republic,
Nicaragua,
Columbia,
Mexico,
and a splash of folks around the United States! A total of just over 6.4K Readers!
You all are amazing and loved and deeply appreciated!
By myself, Bastion, Laxe, Ripton, Kyric, Chip, Roary, Great Horn Groutaxus, Vander, Liko, Davien, Davien's Gatemen Automaton, Amoura, Boongaloot, Ajor, Laroon, Borut, Dunda, Urik, Sir Ivin, Himora & his crew, Gideon, Windrom, Lorenza, Bretani, Vraylin, Kit, Mira, Calt, The Beast, Genrik, Lysin, Zandara, Jedfey, Porubus, Rayden, Jonta, Filot, Pomilio, Leena, Akua, Midnight, Bob-Bon & Don-Don, The Thing Beneath Halfmann, Rat King Vectus, Oonagi of the Unari, Kolibree, Spider Queen, Gob-lob, Ahgo & Ahmay, Slycenbite, Vlamaira, Dewdren, Seth, and even the Black0robed Man!
I have more new chapter parts on the way and many more new and exciting characters and support characters as well, so keep an ear open and an eye out!
I have a new chapter part here for you all that I hope you will enjoy.
It's been a very busy month for me and I have been trying to find time to just daydream you know?
That is how I write best when I am just lost in my head for a while.
No plan.
No story line.
Just things happening.
A head full of daydreams.
I really do just write off of the top of my head most of the time you know?
But alas, I am starting to see patterns and connections and a whole story coming together in my mind, and I hope you all love it.
I mean, I have IDEAS lol.
Concepts.
But for the most part, I tend to focus more on the creation of the character, and then I toss them into a situation and try to make it make sense and THEN connect it with the rest of the world.
On the spot mind you lol.
Enough of me babbling, I hope you all enjoy this little slice of Vander's tale in the mean time.
The build-up will be worth it. You have my word.
See you all back here at the gates soon enough.
Enjoy!
-------------------------
*'Pissing out your Aether' is a term used in many regions of Enverdolmal, it means that one has been wasteful of their Aether in one way or another.
I know that seems random, but it'll make sense later lol.
Enjoy!
-------------------------
The start of the day had brought decently heavy rain.
Rain in which Vander had been caught.
This hadn't done much to aid his dark mood, a mood that was always that much darker on days like the one that he was currently living though.
Today he would be preforming another Rusaltide.
The "Ever Rest" as it was called by the Elder Monks among the Gregrin people.
It was not a task that Vander was overly fond of.
He never found solace in this part of his responsibility to his people...
He could never bring himself to enjoy any part of what he had to do...
But alas, it was his duty as an Atlas Warrior Monk -or "War Monk" as the people had taken to calling he and his kind- to not only serve and protect those within his region who could not do so for themselves, but to insure that the roaming bears were just as equally served and protected.
Two sides of one strangely balanced coin.
As one could imagine, this would be made a lot more difficult should one have to "serve and protect" both sides of that coin at once.
It was by A Monk's hand, and a Monk's hand alone that the Elder Ashen Atlas could be led to the light of the after life.
To the embrace of Ashouka the First. The first Atlas Bear to be born with fiery Aetheral abilities.
The one who is now the very deity that Vander and his people pay homage to.
To say that he and his people were close to these bears would be a severe understatement.
The Ashen Atlas was their Totem.
Their symbol to the world of who they were as a tribe.
Their deity even.
Thousands of years before his people had set foot in the great Beirklou Mountains, the first of these large and fierce Atlas Bears lived in and about the vast cave systems that dotted the mountainous region.
Even then, when Humans and Humanoids were still in the earlier years of societal building, the Atlas Bears were both feared and respected.
Unfortunately with time and growth among the bipedal species, would come more organized and effective Hunters.
With the rise of the new "Mountain Hunting" profession came the organization of trade routes and mass trapping.
With this came the market and traveling Merchants.
With them came greed and poaching.
The numbers of the Atlas Bear began to fall rapidly and without pause for several Human generations, and soon they were on the verge of being erased as a whole from the face of the world.
It was then and in their darkest hour as their numbers fell to less than half of a hundred, they were chosen by the ever-roaming spirit of the Dragon of Fire to become one of the few and exceedingly rare "Blessed Beast" of lore and legend. While this blessing is typically bestowed upon a single individual among a species, there were so few of the Atlas Bear left that the gift was simply split between the last of those who remained in order to grant them the ability to save themselves.
With time, the Dragon's blessing brought new life for the species as a whole in the form of great and terrible power.
Power in the form of brilliantly blazing and all-consuming Aetheral fire that warmed them from their very core.
Their thick and heavy coats began to show streaks of both deep burgundy and silvery-grey, a departure from the solid and pure white that normally defined their mountainous kind.
This brought about the new title of "Ashen" Atlas Bears.
They began to birth cubs that could breath fire and would only ever consume flesh that had been first charred to near-ash by that very same flame.
Ashouka the First was the very first of her kind to bare signs of the Dragons blessing in full.
The new generation learned to both summon and manipulate flames, rendering themselves nearly immune to the effect of fire and its heat in the process.
The gift of the Aetheral flames would cause their kind to experience a great and unchecked resurgence in the wilder and still unsettled parts of the Beirklou Mountains, as they would become that much more formidable of an adversary to any who were foolish enough to still try their luck at the hunt.
Their near-extinction was quickly long forgotten, and the people of the mountain tribes would eventually come to see the great and mighty flaming beast as the respected mountain deity that it is worshiped as till this very day.
The hunting of any such beast would become outlawed by pain of death, with even harming one being seen as an afront to all of Atlas and the deity Ashouka herself.
Unless of course you just happened to be a Warrior Monk.
This brings us back to our man of the hour.
The reports had begun to come in just shy of a tenday ago: A dozen tales at first of sightings and close encounters, none of which had been deadly thus far thank the gods.
An Ashen Atlas Bear had been spotted to the South and East of Atlas, and due East of a small and relatively new town by the name of Hillside.
While this fact in and of itself was nothing outside of the ordinary or even any cause for alarm, the latest reports that had made their way to Vander's door had indeed been a bit more bothersome...
It was the news that both he and the C.E.M or Counsel of Elder Monks had been waiting for.
The news that would see himself or one of his fellow Warrior Monks deployed.
The bear had been confirmed as not just any average Ashen Atlas bear...
It was an Elder Ash.
This fact had escalated the level of attention and urgency to be given to the matter to a much more relevant degree.
And so here we find our Monk, well on his way, and as ready as he could be for what was to come.
The rain had left just as quickly as it had come but an hour ago, yet the clouds that had brought it remained. In its place came flurries of chilled and stinging ice flakes as the temperature had dropped rather noticeably during Vander's morning trek.
The cold bothered him little, it was the rain and its constant moister build-up that bothered him most this time of year...
He would have to remember to have a word with the residential Blacksmith concerning the fur that lined the interior of his armor. It had the tendency to retain water and thus leave him uncomfortably wet for prolonged amounts of time unless he used some of his Aether to rapidly and constantly keep it dry.
He couldn't be the only Monk to find it unbearable...
He shook the thought from his mind. He had much more pressing matters to see too.
It was going to be a tough day for Vander, but also one that he would not soon forget.
As he made his way South and East towards Hillside, winding as he went along the muddy and soon, snow-covered trail, a sudden long and booming roar filled the air around him, echoing as it reverberated off of the many juts, cliffs, and rock walls that composed the greater part of the mountain region.
He was understandably jarred from his musing of history as the sound reminded him fully of what he was tasked with getting done this day.
With a quick glance about, he deduced that he couldn't be more than a quarter of a mile from Hillside.
This was both good and bad news...
That roar had been much closer than he would have liked it to be.
Much closer to the town then he was by his reconning...
He dropped all of his other thoughts and was off at full speed, the bottom of his feet starting to warm as a Low magic spell found its way to his lips.
He leaned into his run, hitting full-tilt as he forced Aetheral jets of fire from the bottom of his boots, each tuft granting him more and more speed with its expulsion as he shot forward and toward the town.
He wouldn't have much time, and a rage-filled, confused and displaced Elder Ash would surely not leave him much to work with.
He pushed himself harder.
-------------------------
"Not cool! Not cool! Not cool!"
Likosplitz thought to himself for the 28th, 29th, and 30th time that day consecutively.
He could hear his own heartbeat in his ears as it pounded in his soaking-wet chest.
His shield bounced on his back.
His short sword swung at his left hip.
He had sweated his way through hit light armor in his exertion.
He had tossed his helmet aside as it was hot and suffocating and only seemed to make the pounding in his ears echo about in his head, fogging his thoughts.
His sore and blistered feet pounded the ground before him as the Elder Ash seemingly pounded and slashed what was left of the forest behind him to firepit-sized chunks.
His breath came hard and labored and he pushed himself harder than he ever had in her life up until this point.
The great and angry beast was not far behind him.
The strong and looming gates of Hillside were not far ahead of him.
he could hear the alarm bells ringing.
He could see the towers to either side of the gates that were half way up the hill that gave the town its name. They -in his desperation and fear- looked as if they were reaching out for him, beckoning him to make all haste.
The last half hour had been what he would simply call "Hellz on Enverdolmal" if ever he was asked what it had been like...
IF he survived to have anyone ask him any way.
The rampaging beast had been relentless.
It had not once given him pause for a break, a breath, a plan.
It had given nothing but chase.
Likosplitz was no newbie.
He was a well-seasoned, and well-trained member of the Hillside Guard.
He was fleet of foot, strong of arm and back, and full of wit and instinct.
There were few if any animals or monsters that he did not know how to deal with in some fashion or another.
Hellz! He had even taken down a bear or two in his day, as he was just over 34 and no novice in the ways of the Hunter ands Trapper as well.
But THIS?
This was different...
"This was an entirely separate level of fack it all!"
He though to himself as he simultaneously prayed that he would make it in time for the gate locking.
Liko could not for the life of him fathom how any single man or woman could face, fight, let alone defeat such a thing as the thing that was not far enough behind him...
The horrible thing he was miraculously managing to outpace.
It made no sense.
A Mountain Lion could be slowed and killed with a properly placed blow!
A Boer goat could be outwitted and thus laid low if necessary without to large a struggle.
A Goblinoid, an Orcis, even a Giant for fakes sake could be slain with enough tact and strength of arm.
But an Elder Ashen Atlas Bear?
This beast...no, this MONSTER was the thing that the nightmares of mountain-bound folk were forged of...
Worse still, there was nothing that he could legally or even realistically do against it but run.
Liko had no idea how or why the Gregrin people worshiped the damned things so much!
He didn't have time to contemplate the concept any further.
Nor would he ever dare ask that question to any of the hardy folk.
"BAH! Of all days!"
He lamented aloud this time.
It was his BIRTHDAY dammit!
He refused to die on his birthday of all fackin' days!
He lowered his head and pushed on.
Reaching the base of the hill that began the accent to the town, Liko allowed himself a second of reprieve to catch his breath as the noises that were once so close behind him had suddenly become a lot less so.
He dared a glance back and could see the accursed thing shambling towards him!
It wasn't running he noted, but its stride length was long enough that it really didn't need to.
He made to move but suddenly found that he could not...
"I really pissed out the Aether back there didn't I?"
He thought to himself as he stood bent over trembling with his hands on his knees.
Sweat pooled between his feet as it dripped from his face and drenched hair.
This was it.
He thought...
He was exhausted, and his Aether pool was nearly empty.
He had spent to much of it without keeping track.
Without thinking.
That was hard to do while fear and desperation clouded ones mind.
He could hear the Elders breath as it grew closer.
Its massive clawed paws snaped twigs and left six inch indentations in its wake.
Birds and land-bound animals alike scurried in any direction that would get them away from the walking death bringer.
It huffed and wheezed, tufts of flame flared at the edges of its mouth where drool should have been.
The living flames seemed to climb up either side of the beasts face, rolling back over its head and into what looked like a shaggy burgundy-streaked mane.
Its eyes, the size of apples and bloodshot from lack of sleep and over exertion, were locked on the lone figure before it.
30 yards now.
Liko could smell its musk from where he stood.
It was rank. Potent.
It was sour and bitter and pungent.
It was the smell of death.
It was enough to get him moving once again.
20 yards.
He forced his feet to move.
He had nearly 200 steps to make before he would reach the gates.
He also had no choice.
Liko closed his eyes and whispered a prayer to whoever was listening that help was either heading down the stares towards him, or would appear any second now.
With shacking limbs, he started up the steps.
He could almost feel the things breath on his neck.
He ran.
-------------------------
Hey!
Good?
Bad?
Say something people!
lol I am kidding, your words will come when they come lol.
I will see you all back here soon for another new and thrilling chapter!
I have several new characters cooking that I think you all will like, and things will start to link soon enough.
I can't thank you all enough for your loyalty.
I can't find the words so easily.
But I do love you all and I hope that these little breaks from reality help you just as much as creating them for you helps me.
Take care of yourself and your loved ones and we will meet again, seen enough.
Till then, and as always:
Stay safe.
Stay healthy.
Stay vigilant.
-Redd.