Finished story as submitted for the contest. I may work it over some more depending on feedback.
The Stalking
Crimson Eye slowly awoke, the day fire was waning and soon it would be time to hunt. The lithe Dragonet stretched to his full length as he arose from his modest pile of coins, jewels and various trophies taken from his victims. Measuring 6 feet from nose to tip of his tail, his ebony skin seemed to drink in light rather than reflect it. As the sun dipped behind the numerous towers that ringed the city. Crimson Eye padded over to the door of his present lair and nudged it open with his blunt snout. His current “employer” had thought he had done him a favor by removing the handle, Crimson Eye wasn't about to disabuse him of that notion.
The Dragonet moved down the hallway of the tower that was his present abode. This was not the first, nor likely the last, wizard that Crimson Eye had been associated with. The present one called himself something or another “The Red”. Crimson Eye wasn't horribly interested in what he chose to call himself and thought of him simply as the wizard. The wizard had said he had a target for his hunt tonight, Crimson Eye knew that meant it would be interesting.
Hastaff The Red was a cruel man, his focus was knowledge and he didn't care who he hurt to gain that knowledge. Presently he was hurting a sage, the old man was hiding something from him, or maybe not, Hastaff didn't really care, he just wanted to hear the old man scream. Suddenly he became aware of another presence in his lab, he spun quickly, the words to a deadly spell on his lips. Crimson Eye stood behind him looking at him with head cocked and a quizzical expression on his face. Much to Hastaff's dismay the Dark Dragonet was only 3 feet from him. Much too close for the mage's comfort, he had seen the beast kill before, if the beast had wanted him, he would have had him.
Hastaff lowered his hand “I told you not to sneak up on me” he informed the Dragonet.
“Wasss not sssneaking” answered Crimson Eye “not Crimsson Eye fault wizard no hear Crimsson Eye, now what Crimsson Eye hunt this evening? It iss time.”
Hastaff smiled thinly “yes indeed my friend, it is time and past time for this hunt.” The wizard proceeded to given his Draconian ally what information he had on his target for the evening.
Crimson Eye glided through the still night air above the great city of Siel. He was careful to avoid the area around the palace and the adjacent temples. Siel was a city steeped in goodly religion. On the one hand it made a wonderful hunting ground, on the other, it made it a very dangerous place for a creature of evil such as himself. Shortly after coming here Crimson Eye had learned to avoid the air above the temples and the temple grounds. The priests had some powerful allies and Crimson Eye had no interest in repeating the experience. His target dwelt in one of the isolated towers that dotted the city and he silently made his way towards it.
A sole light shown from the white marble tower. It came from a window on the upper floor, as the wizard had predicted. Crimson Eye circled the tower twice from a height. He was able to pick out the two guards the wizard had told him would be there. They were humans, Crimson Eye knew that meant they were basically blind. This was too easy. Crimson Eye waited until one of the guards looked away from the edge and then swooped in silent as death itself and grabbed a perch just below the parparet. He waited until he heard the faint sound of the man's boots shifting as he turned around. He then very lightly scratched the side of the tower with a claw tip. The footsteps stopped, he waited a couple seconds and scratched again. Now the footsteps approached the edge. He scratched again and then the head and shoulders of the guard appeared framed in the starlight from above. The human looked down the tower and again Crimson Eye was amazed at the blindness of humans. He was barely 2 feet away but the human saw nothing. Crimson Eye struck, like a snake, his coiled neck shot forward his jaws filled with teeth like small daggers clamped on his victims neck. He tasted the sweet taste of blood. An overwhelming sense of ecstasy filled him as the man died, he could taste the goodness in him, the smell of it always disgusted him, but the taste, oh the taste. Crimson Eye clamped down and held the man still, letting the life drain from him silently. So swiftly had he struck, that the man had made no noise.
“Jon, what is it?” called his companion. Crimson Eye let the dead man go and swooped downward and around to where the other guard could not see him, then gained altitude. He watched the other guard discover his friends corpse and turn to give an alarm. Then he folded his wings and struck the man from behind, altitude accomplishing what his small mass could not alone and bowling the man over. The second guard died with Crimson Eye's jaws clamped to the back of his neck and strong rear claws tearing his spine out from behind. The man died as his companion had, without a sound. Crimson Eye took only a token bite from his prey, he had bigger game in mind.
The Dragonet made his way across the roof and reached the entry to the tower proper. He carefully sniffed the area around the hatch without touching anything. He caught the telltale stench of magic and snorted. Wizards are so predictable, he went back to the second corpse and dragged it to the hatch. The latch mechanism was a simple lever. Using his dextrous front hands, he grabbed the dead guards arm and used the mans rapidly cooling hand to manipulate the latch. Once the hatch was open he let the guards arm fall and silently slipped into the tower. Sensing no danger on the other side he closed the hatch and moved deeper into the tower.
Miltus the Virtuous knelt in front of the small altar. As usual he struggled to maintain his focus, he was a devote man, but he spent his life serving two masters. One he prayed to now, his lord Falkar accepted only the most pure as his clerics. His other master was knowledge, Miltus was both a cleric and mage. As always he struggled between the two, his prayers were of the utmost importance to him, but his mind raced with his current studies into transmutation and polymorph. He knew he was on the edge of perfecting his new spell. He would never regret the time he spent in prayer, but sometimes it was hard to concentrate with so many thoughts racing through his mind.
Crimson Eye moved silently through the tower passageways. He was pleased to find the passageways wide and well lit. Some might find it strange that the stealthy hunter was pleased with well lit areas. But Crimson Eye was old for one of his kind, he was experienced and wise in the ways of humanoids. Well lit meant his prey saw poorly in the dark, well lit meant his prey feared the dark, well lit meant lots of shadows. Shadows were Crimson Eye's friend. He flitted from dark pool to shadowed niche, the wide passageways making it easy. The many side passages, alcoves and doorways provided all the shadows any being could want. He encountered no one, never the less he halted in the shadows after every flight. When he did so he looked and listened, he smelled and plotted his next move, always with an alternate if a door should suddenly open. Crimson Eye had not become old among his kind by being careless. The very AIR of this place stunk of good. On a humans map if they did not know what lay beyond the edge they stated, “Here be Dragons”. On Crimson Eye's mental map the whole tower was marked, “Here be Death.”
Miltus knelt before the image of his Lord. The image had been carved from a solid block of blue glacier ice by a Dir craftsman, Miltus had frozen it for all time with his own magic and asked his Lord's blessing upon it. The Dir, or “ice folk”, as some named them, did not worship Falkar and his companion, the dwarf Varse. They did however, honor them. The two heroes figured in a portion of the Dir history. Figures of their goddess were not allowed, the Dir however excelled at ice carving and had no problem carving the figures of other dieties. The figures of both Falkar and Varse were life sized and occupied a place of supreme honor in both Miltus's residence and his heart.
Crimson Eye could hear a being chanting, the words made no sense at this distance but none the less grated on his very being. Prayers to a goodly god no doubt. Crimson Eye knew the dangers of confronting a true believer before the very altar of his god. He decided it might be best to wait until his prey left the chapel before making his move. With that thought, he found a dark corner in a niche containing some sort of statue of a rotund humanoid and settled in to wait.
Miltus finished his evening devotions, for some reason his prayers did not leave him feeling relaxed and enlightened as they usually did. Instead he felt a vague feeling of uneasiness as if something evil lurked nearby. However his mind quickly turned to his research and he hurried from his sanctuary heading for his workshop.
Crimson Eye tracked the human with his eyes as he entered the passageway, this was his prey, the man reeked of goodness. The man hurried past Crimson Eye never glancing in his direction. The Dragonet could have struck them, but caution held him back. He let the man move ahead then took wing and glided silently after him, again moving from shadow to shadow. He tracked his prey through the passageways until the man entered a chamber reeking of magic. The door to this chamber, unlike many they had passed, was a plain, sturdy, unadorned wooden slab bound in iron. The man entered the room closing the door behind him. As he did Crimson Eye noticed that the door didn't fit the opening exactly, there was a small gap at the top that showed light from the room. The lithe Dragonet perched above the door and craning his neck, applied his eye to the gap.
Miltus entered his lab, cringing a little at the crudeness of the temporary door that currently closed the opening. The original had been destroyed when one of his experiments had gone awry and the replacement was not yet ready. He made a mental note to send a man around to the craftsman that was carving the new one to see if he couldn't rush the job a bit.
Crimson Eye could see little from this angle, but he could see the chamber was much like any other mage workshop, littered with odd items, random stains and odd smells. It was reminiscent of a predators nest. His prey moved rapidly around the room lighting candles, checking various apparatus and generally doing incomprehensible things. The Dragonet knew he was not the only being who found the actions of mages confusing. Luckily, Crimson Eye didn't have to understand the mage, he just had to kill him.
Miltus lit some candles and checked a potion he had simmering, he then crossed to his spell book and reviewed his notes. Confident he was ready to begin, he quickly cast a “protection from Evil” spell over the room. He was about to add another to prevent scrying when an inhuman screech erupted from outside his doorway. The door glowed in a way that let him know something of evil had touched the barrier of his first spell. He grabbed out his wand and quickly crossed to the door and threw it open.
Crimson Eye was in pain, and very angry, mostly at himself. He had been so engrossed in watching his prey he had failed to be cautious when the human cast a spell and the result was a badly burned eye and some scorched skin. That he could deal with, his reactions were such that he had suffered no real harm. He had yanked his head back at the first touch of the spell and avoided any real injury. The bad part was that he had voiced his surprise and consternation and the human was now aware that he was not alone in the tower. His element of surprise was now gone, and for a Dragonet that element was one of the greatest tools of the hunt. He had vacated his perch and immediately glided to a back up spot down the hall.
Miltus was at the doorway within seconds, but what ever had hit his shield had fled. Stepping into the passageway he looked quickly in both directions but saw nothing. Tucking his wand in his sash he cast a hurried “detect evil” spell, his voice and hands rushing through the familiar spell.
Crimson Eye observed his prey burst into the hallway with wand in hand. When the prey went to spell casting he knew he had to act. He couldn't know what the mage was casting, but whatever it was would make the hunt harder. His target was too far away for guaranteed success with a physical attack. The Dragonet, however, had other weapons at his disposal. Turning his head towards the mage he opened his mouth and breathed a jet of fire at the mage. The jet of fire struck the mage in the chest and more importantly across his gesturing hands.
Miltus had barely begun his spell when a jet of flame struck him, scorching his hands and disrupting his spell. He ducked back into the doorway and drew his wand. He wished he had grabbed something more powerful. The wand he held was one of his own devising that threw balls of force. It was meant more as a deterrent than as an actual weapon. Miltus found it useful in certain situations, this was not one of them. He had no idea what he was facing, the jet of flame had come from a high point in the passageway and was not very strong, his hands and chest hurt but he felt he could still cast with the singed fingers.
Crimson Eye was gratified his flame had stopped the mage's spell, but he was not one to waste time gloating. When the mage moved to duck back in the doorway, Crimson Eye moved too. There was a reason he was retained by the best, and he was about to prove his worth.
Miltus extended his wand around the edge of the alcove and triggered it several times. The balls of force chipped cornices and shattered statuary. He then quickly stuck his head out and looked down in the direction he had fired, searching for movement. If he was lucky he had hit whatever it was and stunned it. As he looked, he could see nothing but broken statuary. Then a shadow seemed to descend from directly above his head.
A great weight seemed to slam his head to the ground. He smelt brimstone, as teeth like daggers gripped the back of his neck. Hooked knives seemed to pierce his back, searching for his spine. Then Miltus the Virtuous knew no more.
Crimson Eye glided through the silent night. The day fire would rise soon, it was time for him to sleep, his belly was full, he was liable to do so for several days. After that, he would have time to think and consider his next move. This city would become more dangerous now that a prominent citizen had fallen. Ever a long thinker, Crimson Eye had planned for this moment. His modest treasure pile would be moved as agreed to his new lair, with a rather large addition. The young mage who had approached Crimson Eye had agreed to do this. He had wanted only one thing in return. Crimson Eye would wait until he hungered again, then a certain wizard, something or another “the Red” would fall and Crimson Eye would move on. He doubted he would stay long with the young mage. The youth had not the skills or wealth to support such an alliance long. Such a thing didn't bother Crimson Eye.
After all, they were all prey eventually.
Jan 22 2010, 01:46 PM
