Xandur Ashen Axe

Huddled behind a craggy boulder deep beneath the ground a battered dwarf bites down on a bandage wrapped around his arm. An ever seeping blob of crimson oozes into crude cloth. Squeezing it tight with a wince and tying off the end, Xandur leans on his axe and hauls himself to his feet. Leaning against the rock he peers the darkness.

His clanmates scattered around him in the cave, all dead. Ambushed while piling the corpses of Kobolds to burn from a recent raid.

He looks down at an armored clad Duergar corpse beside him, lying in a pool of his own blood.

"Sorry Brother"

He mutters through broken teeth.

"If I make it out of here, I'm going to need this"

He reaches down and rips a medallion off of his best friends neck. Taking a moment to stare at it, twinkling in the last light of a few torches. The admiration is ripped from his face as he turns, hearing the patter of small feet and incoherent chattering.

Baring down he readies himself.

"I'm here! I'm waiting, there's one of us left!"

A throng of shadow slowly approaches from the darnkess.

"Have at me you stinking curs!"

Ten.. maybe twelve sets of feet. I like those odds he thinks with sarcasm. Fear is out the window, rage is all he feels and his bloodlust grows with the approaching shadow.

A clash of steel and screams and out of the darkness come the first few. Backing himself into a small opening Xandur dispatches them one by one, eating blow after blow takes his toll and after a hard fought battle he prevails.

Toying with the last Kobold he pins it down with his foot, looks over to Bodors corpse.

"This is for you Brother!"

The last Kobold's skull shatters beneath his boot.

He drags himself back behind the rock, grabbing Bodor by the foot and drags him off into the darkness.

From that day forward his life was in shambles, the loss of his brother was to much to bear. He went from a proud warrior to a drunken mercenary, broke and drunk and stumbling down alleys. Until he came across a strange wizard, who told him of a new life on the island of Anphillia.

nodelete

Added this story to new "The Tavern" section of http://anphillia.tk/

Song also playable...