07-11-2011, 04:12 PM
(This thread is mostly here for me to dump random short stories that I write involving my characters. How often this gets added to depends on my own motivation.)
Some people underestimated the power of dreams, both sleeping and awake. Dreams could drive a man forward to seek something, they could reveal things about someone that was otherwise hidden, but they could also bring back memories a man would rather forget.
One man in particular learned to hate his dreams.
Sir Gunnar Murray was a simple man. Raised by the church and trained as a paladin, then joined the military only to end up with guard duty in Stormwind. He never complained, he just did his duty as he thought he should. He drudged through his life, with few real aquaintances, fewer friends, and a life bound only by duty, law, and his faith in the Light. Had things continued as they had, perhaps he'd still be in that same position, toiling day by day.
Things didn't continue that way, however. With a single event, his life had utterly changed.
Kidnapped from his home and brought to an island in the middle of the Frozen Sea, he had seen more death in a single day there than he had in the rest of his life. Men and women viciously murdered, runes etched onto their skin and strung up on the ceiling of the cave to be used as macabre light sources. Every day he was stuck in that cave, he'd look up at those bodies and cringe, while saying a prayer for them. He lamented their fate, that he didn't even know their names. Who would tell the loved ones of these people of their ultimate fate? Who would miss them?
Who would have missed him if he died there, too?
It was not his trial alone, and he had escaped from that cursed island. Nonetheless, his dreams haunted him. When he was finally out, the first thought was whether he was dreaming, and that he'd wake up back in that cursed cave with the corpses for torches. Instead, he visited that place again in his dreams, every night seeing those people strung up and staring back down at him with their lifeless eyes. Even the living world was different and imperfect now...apparently, his captain wasn't amused when Gunnar reported that his two week absence was due to being plucked from his home and imprisoned on a distant island.
Yet, it was funny. Perhaps being kidnapped was the best thing that could have happened to him, as he suddenly realized what little he had really been doing with his life. As he walked the streets of Stormwind, peering about at the place he had known for so long, and yet seemed so different now, he came to realize that he didn't want to be alone and forgotten his whole life. He resolved to socialize more...and now he needed to occupy his time as well, to prevent his mind from going to back to that cursed island.
Time to get drinking, and find a hobby.
Gunnar - Corpse Lights
Some people underestimated the power of dreams, both sleeping and awake. Dreams could drive a man forward to seek something, they could reveal things about someone that was otherwise hidden, but they could also bring back memories a man would rather forget.
One man in particular learned to hate his dreams.
Sir Gunnar Murray was a simple man. Raised by the church and trained as a paladin, then joined the military only to end up with guard duty in Stormwind. He never complained, he just did his duty as he thought he should. He drudged through his life, with few real aquaintances, fewer friends, and a life bound only by duty, law, and his faith in the Light. Had things continued as they had, perhaps he'd still be in that same position, toiling day by day.
Things didn't continue that way, however. With a single event, his life had utterly changed.
Kidnapped from his home and brought to an island in the middle of the Frozen Sea, he had seen more death in a single day there than he had in the rest of his life. Men and women viciously murdered, runes etched onto their skin and strung up on the ceiling of the cave to be used as macabre light sources. Every day he was stuck in that cave, he'd look up at those bodies and cringe, while saying a prayer for them. He lamented their fate, that he didn't even know their names. Who would tell the loved ones of these people of their ultimate fate? Who would miss them?
Who would have missed him if he died there, too?
It was not his trial alone, and he had escaped from that cursed island. Nonetheless, his dreams haunted him. When he was finally out, the first thought was whether he was dreaming, and that he'd wake up back in that cursed cave with the corpses for torches. Instead, he visited that place again in his dreams, every night seeing those people strung up and staring back down at him with their lifeless eyes. Even the living world was different and imperfect now...apparently, his captain wasn't amused when Gunnar reported that his two week absence was due to being plucked from his home and imprisoned on a distant island.
Yet, it was funny. Perhaps being kidnapped was the best thing that could have happened to him, as he suddenly realized what little he had really been doing with his life. As he walked the streets of Stormwind, peering about at the place he had known for so long, and yet seemed so different now, he came to realize that he didn't want to be alone and forgotten his whole life. He resolved to socialize more...and now he needed to occupy his time as well, to prevent his mind from going to back to that cursed island.
Time to get drinking, and find a hobby.
Have you hugged an orc today?
- I am not tech support. Please do not contact me regarding technical issues. -
- I am not tech support. Please do not contact me regarding technical issues. -