Post by Kiddo on Feb 7, 2006 2:35:43 GMT -5
A few rules of being part of the moderating team of the NTWF. When Lady Patjade calls a meeting of the entire staff, show up. Show up on time. Don’t fall asleep during the preamble. Don’t antagonize the pirate if you’re a ninja and don’t antagonize the ninjas if you’re a pirate. Don’t fall asleep. Or did I mention that one already?
I’m Kiddo, the resident fox-phoenix and leader of the ninjas. I broke all but the ‘show up’ rule. Stayed up a bit too late the night before and wound up taking a nap a bit too close to the meeting time. When I woke up it had already started and I wound up being fifteen minutes late.
“Brilliant, Kiddo,” Spot said as I strolled in, “Way to be on time.”
“Had someone to kunai on the way over or something?”
“Or was your monthly flea bath running overtime?”
I snarled at the group and sat down in the only opposite chair. It just happened to be opposite Rider. Patjade cleared her throat and resumed her narrative.
“So, to recap for Kiddo, several members have complained about odd noises coming from the underground passageways of the NTWF.”
I was only half-listening. Rider was giving me a smug ‘I was on time and you weren’t look’ from across the table. I consoled myself by kicking her under the table. Only problem was, she kicked back. So I kicked back. Then Stal managed to get his ankle caught in the crossfire.
“Jeez!” he exclaimed, “Do we have to separate you two?”
“Yes,” I mumbled.
“No,” Rider protested.
Patjade fixed us both with a glare.
“As I was saying,” she continued, “We have had enough requests to warrant an investigation into this matter.”
By enough requests she means one. Since its an all-staff meeting that probably means two is closer to the number, or maybe even three. The NTWF can be quite dull for staff, which really, isn’t a bad thing.
“Did we hire someone to check the plumbing?” Linnen, being all practical near the front of the table. I wondered if I could snag her wand after the meeting and hold it for ransom.
“Well, we don’t know precisely what the noises are.”
Then Stal took a deep breath. Muttering under my breath, I sunk lower into my chair and huddled my wings around me. Stal taking a deep breath was never a good sign. He was about to launch into a full-blown explanation on what we should do and what we shouldn’t do complete with itemized lists, diagrams, and a works cited page.
Alright, so it wasn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be. But either way, my tendency to fall asleep at the drop of a hat kicked in and by the time he finished I was unconscious. No one woke me either. In fact, they continued their meeting like nothing was unusual and even gave Rider the privilege of pulling the chair out from under me at the end. And telling me what they had decided.
“Morning, sunshine,” she said, beaming from above me. “We’ve elected you to investigate the noises. Seems like they’re coming from the underdeep no less. Enjoy!”
I stared around at me.
“Who volunteered me for this!?”
“Blame Crystal.”
I stared over at my fellow ninja. She just smirked.
“Yep. Totally blame me. Brilliant, no?”
And so the meeting adjourned.
A word about the underdeep. The NTWF is shaped by our conscious imaginations and partly by our subconscious as well. The underdeep is what lies beneath the underground tunnels of our home and is formed by the subconscious nightmares of closed spaces, darkness, and the things that lie within. I suspect my being volunteered wasn’t as much a matter of me falling asleep, but me being expendable.
The evening before I went down there I pulled out a number of my feathers, tied them together, and handed them over to Crystal.
“If I don’t come by sunset assume something bad has happened. Burn those, keep the ashes safe, and hopefully I’ll be able to reincarnate out of that pile.”
Insurance. I didn’t want to be trapped down there. And then, with no more reason to delay, I shouldered my spear and headed down into the tunnels.
There are five levels of the underground documented. After that it turns into the underdeep. Tdyans had mapped out the quickest way to get to the underdeep the day before and I had memorized it and shoved a copy into my belt pouch. While confusing, the underground wasn’t impossible to navigate as long as you kept your head. For light, I carried a flashlight – unused – a bracelet enchanted to give off magical light, and an old-fashioned torch. The presence of fire helped reassure my nerves.
Yes, I’ll admit it. I was terrified of going into the underdeep. There was a reason we all avoided and unfortunately, I wasn’t the best to send down there. I had a vivid imagination and was sure I could conjure up a host of creatures with ease. There were nightmares of old lurking in the recesses of my brain and the fluid nature of the NTWF had plenty of my dreams to pick ideas out of. Many of my dreams were unpleasant. As I reached the entrance to the underdeep I wondered which of them I would meet.
The door to the underdeep is a massive iron structure reinforced with silver inlay in runic patterns – wards to keep things down there. Now, I will say that the NTWF is supposedly harmless to those that rule it. Our will shapes it and our will should control it. Of course, sometimes our wills was not enough to override fear, and so we took precautions to protect ourselves from well, ourselves. I took a deep breath and placed a palm against the door. It responded to my urging and I heard the machinery inside the door start to move, the booms echoing through the dark corridor. Anything down there would have heard that.
And with that thought I backed up a few paces. I had imagined it, so it would be there. Sometimes I hated this particular nature of the NTWF. The door slowly split and I could see utter darkness beyond. Beneath the creak and moan of massive gears came the slither of skin and as soon as the doors stopped moving red eyes lit the darkness. I stepped forwards, thrust my torch out at the monster, and said a single word.
“No.”
The creature vanished. Just like that. I took a deep breath to steady myself. Walked past the gate into the underdeep. My will would manifest here so I just had to keep it under control.
I had once read a book, Blue Moon Rising, as had my friends. We all had the same nightmares. The mine beast. The demons. The blue moon. The sequel to it, and the horrible cold, all the dead, and the monstrosity buried beneath the earth.
The forest of Black Sun Rising, Hunter’s domain, where the ground itself sought to devourer intruders and the great wolves hunted perpetually. The Neocount of Merentha and his coldfire sword and his personal hell.
The Book of the Dun Cow and Sub Terra Sub Wyrm and Cockatrice. The basilisks and their venom bite. The rising waters.
The Relic and Reliquary. The creature ripping apart those trapped in the building and then pursuing poor souls beneath the surface of the city.
The legends and fairytales I had read. Grendel sneaking through the darkness and tearing the sleeping warriors asunder. Vampires silently taking mortals away without a sound and leaving them dead before morning. Kelpies dragging people into dark waters.
My hands were sweating and I could feel beads of it slipping down the back of my neck. I was barely five feet into the underdeep.
“Stop it Kiddo,” I said, “Just stop it.”
Two more steps into the darkness. Then something happened to take my mind off all the horror being dredged up. I heard the noises reported to us by NTWFers. No, not noise. A voice. A single voice, singing, far away in the darkness.
“Can’t make it easy for me, can you?” I whispered, and holding my torch high, started off in pursuit.
I’m Kiddo, the resident fox-phoenix and leader of the ninjas. I broke all but the ‘show up’ rule. Stayed up a bit too late the night before and wound up taking a nap a bit too close to the meeting time. When I woke up it had already started and I wound up being fifteen minutes late.
“Brilliant, Kiddo,” Spot said as I strolled in, “Way to be on time.”
“Had someone to kunai on the way over or something?”
“Or was your monthly flea bath running overtime?”
I snarled at the group and sat down in the only opposite chair. It just happened to be opposite Rider. Patjade cleared her throat and resumed her narrative.
“So, to recap for Kiddo, several members have complained about odd noises coming from the underground passageways of the NTWF.”
I was only half-listening. Rider was giving me a smug ‘I was on time and you weren’t look’ from across the table. I consoled myself by kicking her under the table. Only problem was, she kicked back. So I kicked back. Then Stal managed to get his ankle caught in the crossfire.
“Jeez!” he exclaimed, “Do we have to separate you two?”
“Yes,” I mumbled.
“No,” Rider protested.
Patjade fixed us both with a glare.
“As I was saying,” she continued, “We have had enough requests to warrant an investigation into this matter.”
By enough requests she means one. Since its an all-staff meeting that probably means two is closer to the number, or maybe even three. The NTWF can be quite dull for staff, which really, isn’t a bad thing.
“Did we hire someone to check the plumbing?” Linnen, being all practical near the front of the table. I wondered if I could snag her wand after the meeting and hold it for ransom.
“Well, we don’t know precisely what the noises are.”
Then Stal took a deep breath. Muttering under my breath, I sunk lower into my chair and huddled my wings around me. Stal taking a deep breath was never a good sign. He was about to launch into a full-blown explanation on what we should do and what we shouldn’t do complete with itemized lists, diagrams, and a works cited page.
Alright, so it wasn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be. But either way, my tendency to fall asleep at the drop of a hat kicked in and by the time he finished I was unconscious. No one woke me either. In fact, they continued their meeting like nothing was unusual and even gave Rider the privilege of pulling the chair out from under me at the end. And telling me what they had decided.
“Morning, sunshine,” she said, beaming from above me. “We’ve elected you to investigate the noises. Seems like they’re coming from the underdeep no less. Enjoy!”
I stared around at me.
“Who volunteered me for this!?”
“Blame Crystal.”
I stared over at my fellow ninja. She just smirked.
“Yep. Totally blame me. Brilliant, no?”
And so the meeting adjourned.
A word about the underdeep. The NTWF is shaped by our conscious imaginations and partly by our subconscious as well. The underdeep is what lies beneath the underground tunnels of our home and is formed by the subconscious nightmares of closed spaces, darkness, and the things that lie within. I suspect my being volunteered wasn’t as much a matter of me falling asleep, but me being expendable.
The evening before I went down there I pulled out a number of my feathers, tied them together, and handed them over to Crystal.
“If I don’t come by sunset assume something bad has happened. Burn those, keep the ashes safe, and hopefully I’ll be able to reincarnate out of that pile.”
Insurance. I didn’t want to be trapped down there. And then, with no more reason to delay, I shouldered my spear and headed down into the tunnels.
There are five levels of the underground documented. After that it turns into the underdeep. Tdyans had mapped out the quickest way to get to the underdeep the day before and I had memorized it and shoved a copy into my belt pouch. While confusing, the underground wasn’t impossible to navigate as long as you kept your head. For light, I carried a flashlight – unused – a bracelet enchanted to give off magical light, and an old-fashioned torch. The presence of fire helped reassure my nerves.
Yes, I’ll admit it. I was terrified of going into the underdeep. There was a reason we all avoided and unfortunately, I wasn’t the best to send down there. I had a vivid imagination and was sure I could conjure up a host of creatures with ease. There were nightmares of old lurking in the recesses of my brain and the fluid nature of the NTWF had plenty of my dreams to pick ideas out of. Many of my dreams were unpleasant. As I reached the entrance to the underdeep I wondered which of them I would meet.
The door to the underdeep is a massive iron structure reinforced with silver inlay in runic patterns – wards to keep things down there. Now, I will say that the NTWF is supposedly harmless to those that rule it. Our will shapes it and our will should control it. Of course, sometimes our wills was not enough to override fear, and so we took precautions to protect ourselves from well, ourselves. I took a deep breath and placed a palm against the door. It responded to my urging and I heard the machinery inside the door start to move, the booms echoing through the dark corridor. Anything down there would have heard that.
And with that thought I backed up a few paces. I had imagined it, so it would be there. Sometimes I hated this particular nature of the NTWF. The door slowly split and I could see utter darkness beyond. Beneath the creak and moan of massive gears came the slither of skin and as soon as the doors stopped moving red eyes lit the darkness. I stepped forwards, thrust my torch out at the monster, and said a single word.
“No.”
The creature vanished. Just like that. I took a deep breath to steady myself. Walked past the gate into the underdeep. My will would manifest here so I just had to keep it under control.
I had once read a book, Blue Moon Rising, as had my friends. We all had the same nightmares. The mine beast. The demons. The blue moon. The sequel to it, and the horrible cold, all the dead, and the monstrosity buried beneath the earth.
The forest of Black Sun Rising, Hunter’s domain, where the ground itself sought to devourer intruders and the great wolves hunted perpetually. The Neocount of Merentha and his coldfire sword and his personal hell.
The Book of the Dun Cow and Sub Terra Sub Wyrm and Cockatrice. The basilisks and their venom bite. The rising waters.
The Relic and Reliquary. The creature ripping apart those trapped in the building and then pursuing poor souls beneath the surface of the city.
The legends and fairytales I had read. Grendel sneaking through the darkness and tearing the sleeping warriors asunder. Vampires silently taking mortals away without a sound and leaving them dead before morning. Kelpies dragging people into dark waters.
My hands were sweating and I could feel beads of it slipping down the back of my neck. I was barely five feet into the underdeep.
“Stop it Kiddo,” I said, “Just stop it.”
Two more steps into the darkness. Then something happened to take my mind off all the horror being dredged up. I heard the noises reported to us by NTWFers. No, not noise. A voice. A single voice, singing, far away in the darkness.
“Can’t make it easy for me, can you?” I whispered, and holding my torch high, started off in pursuit.
Keep up the good work!
Me likes muchly, Kiddish. ^_^[/glow]