WaywardSonRising's profile

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but naivety kills people.

Crows scattered when we came upon the first corpse, a wiry maid of twelve or so, maybe younger. We found her sprawled out just off the roadside in a patch of mud and wild grass, the earth around her all muddy and torn by horse’s hooves. Her only clothing was a bloodstained dress sewn from dirty roughspun and that had been hiked up past her waist. Her hair fell across her pale face in a thick, mousy tangle, crusted and matted with blood from the head blow that killed her.  “Sh...

A lone man paces along the quiet, white hallway. Tension eats at his nerves, sweat slicks the palms of his hands. Behind locked doors a woman screams. He jumps, bits his fingernails, continues pacing. She screams again, blood curdling. _It wasn’t supposed to be this way_, thinks the man. The screams won’t stop, and minutes drag by like hours. Footfalls echo down the empty, white hall. The locked doors click and open wide. A new man steps out, all dressed in white. Blood stains his gloved han...

“Are you sure this is the place?” Grady asked. The tavern was suspiciously small, and far on the wrong side of town. “Of course this is the place,” Osferd laughed. “What were you expecting?” The little tavern sat squat between two other establishments, both just as sleazy. Dingy yellow light leaked out from its stained windows, and old tar stains blotted its warped roof. A crude sign hung above the door by rusted chains. _The Happy Tavern_, the sign read in crude brushstrokes, _Where Every H...

Wind whispered through the dark leaves overhead, and branches creaked at its passing. Even as the sound came rustling by the air felt lifeless and dead, and the taste of ash crept deep into his throat. Vahris spat once, the again, and wiped at his tongue with his tunic, but still the taste was strong. The taste of fire was one he knew well enough. He had brought it to all of the Free Cities in turn, from Warsong in the north with its round holdfasts of rough hewn stone, all the way south to ...