Swords and sorcery

This one is an adventure story set mostly in the future and is a sword and sorcery story...

Image by Karen Smits from Pixabay

ZEN MEETS BORNU

“Where are my friends?” said Zen as she supped her drink in the deserted ale house. She stayed there and drank too much and then danced on the tables until finally she was thrown out and cursed by the landlord. So she got on her horse and rode away muttering: “I miss my friends.”

Along the road, she came across a man who wasn’t looking where he was going and was hurrying so much he bumped into Rainbow with such force he fell over backwards cursing.

“What’s your rush stranger?” said Zen.

The man got up and brushed himself down.

“I’m in a hurry. I’ve got to find a way into the castle for my lady has been captured and I mean to rescue her,” said the man.

“By whom?” asked Zen.

“Kelek said a mist came down and took her away. It could only have been Coffee Stark’s mist,” said the man.

“Kelek you say. Where is he?”

“We were in an Inn. It was called The Ghoul Inn and it is not far from here,” he said breathlessly.

“Tell me what happened,” said Zen.

“Kelek and my lady Belilia, fell in love at first sight, but when they went outside my lady was spirited away. Kelek then came for us to give chase. After I said it most likely was Coffee Stark who had sent the mist from his castle, Kelek was all set to rush blindly upon the castle gates and smash them down, but I persuaded him otherwise for caution as the gates are five feet thick of solid oak and even Kelek could not gain entry that way,” said the man, eager to be on his way.

“The lady Belilia,” said Zen with an indrawn breath.

“You know her?” asked the man.

“She was to meet me at sun-up to take me to someone I must see,” said Zen.

“Then you must be Zen,” said the man.

“I am she,” said Zen. “I will help you with the search.”

“Nay,” said the man. “I will go quicker by myself. If you will go to Kelek and tell him you saw me and await my return.”

“If I know Kelek he won’t wait long,” said Zen and rode on to the Inn of Ghouls. The man ran on somewhere else to seek a way in to the castle.

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A SMALL INTRODUCTION TO COFFEE STARK

Coffee Stark ripped his vest apart with hands seemingly possessed. Like a madman he tore his clothes from his body with a mounting wail that rose like a banshee’s dirge as pieces of expensive silk shreds littered the floor. The room was in chaos. On the bed lay a wanton desire. Naked. Her clothes torn from her. Breathless. Waiting for him.

With the last remnants of his attire flung behind him, Coffee dived upon his plunder. Flesh met flesh. Lips compressed lips with abandoned burning. Coffee pressed his hard body on top of the girl slave he had made take a potion to render her pliable to his lusts. She moaned, rubbing her hands over the ridges of his muscled back. Then he entered her.

Penetrated her deep. She was ready for him and accepted his ardour, crying: ‘yes, yes,’ echoed by his groan of ecstasy.

Her back arched. Her legs entwined his. He reached to her core, feeling him, wanting him, calling his name, calling for more. His fingers pushed into her hair, massaging her scalp then pulling her face to compress her lips. His tongue flicked deep. Her tongue met his, pushed him back and then accepted him more. Deeply he pushed into her being.

Deeply she met him. She said she wanted him, all of him: his manhood so hard, his smell, sweat and his hands on her with his desires. His lust-sex desires were met. Then falling into her he collapsed upon her. Later she cried as he sent her back to the hall with the other naked slaves.

Image by Enrique Meseguer from Pixabay

A CAPTIVE IN THE TOWER

Later, in the tower she had been put in, Belilia the young woman stolen from Kelek was fighting for her sanity. Lines trapped the seeing. Purple coloured fog, Coffee Stark’s potion in her veins. Belilia’s memory was hazy. There was someone she couldn’t remember. A memory that was fading.

The night invaded through the tiny windows. She was frightened. What was happening to her? Coffee Start had forced her to drink his wizard’s potion then moved back and laughed. Then he and the wizard just stood there looking as she choked on their foul brew. As her sight grew dark, full of whirlpools, the wizard left them there in the dark cell. Coffee Stark’s grinning, laughing face invaded her mind, her heart. She couldn’t escape as it all closed in on her.

She fought. She cried. A cry for help froze on her lips. Then a vice-like hand took hold of her heart and squeezed until a drop of pain splashed through her mind, coloured it. She saw trees, a field. Someone was running towards her, arms out-flung. She ran towards him. There was a pain in her side.

What could it be? Her lover enveloped her in his arms. As she reached to his face to be kissed the pain in her side burned to her soul and she collapsed at the feet of the monster, Coffee Stark. Then everything went dark.

“Damn her,” said Coffee Stark. “She would have been mine. What went wrong?”

The wizard who had been waiting outside the door came in on hearing his master’s voice in anger. He went over to the supine body of Belilia and examined her. When he had finished he rose up.

“Well?” said Coffee Stark.

The wizard dropped a small blood smeared knife at his feet.

“That is what she used. She gauged it into her side and the pain brought her back enough to deny you,” said the wizard.

And so saying he passed through the doorway into the darkness.

Coffee Stark bent down and picked up the small knife and looked at it for a few moments, then placed it into a pocket of his bed robe.

“When you have recovered from this little fiasco you will have another potion and the next time I shall personally see to it that there are no knives about for you to play with,” he said.

The heavy door banged shut and Coffee Stark went away to his next conquest. Belilia’s body twisted and turned as her dreams, nightmares tormented her.

Image by Enrique Meseguer from Pixabay

THE ADVENTURERS

After the young woman had been kidnapped from Kelek, Kelek ran back into the lodging house to gather his friends to search for her. After railing at Kelek for being a fool, Bornu said the kidnapper was probably Coffee Stark, the king of Dongor and that he even now would have her in his castle at his mercy. After some discussion, Bornu went off to procure a way into the castle whereby they all could sneak in and rescue the lady Belilia. Kelek and George waited impatiently in the ale house for Bornu to come back.

In the ale house, Kelek was drowning his sorrow and George was getting drunk. They were too drunk to notice that the ghostly figures of the other drinkers were ghouls.

“You’re getting very full of ale,” said George to his friend who was propping up the bar.

“Not half as full as I hope to be,” said Kelek.

After some more drink, Kelek realised he was getting past it.

“Here, take my sword so I don’t lose it,” said Kelek passing the sword to a ghostly hand that he thought belonged to his friend but was in actuality his own hand that had materialised from the future to claim his sword for a fight to the death with the monster Coffee Stark. Kelek finished the jug of ale. His head swam and then he fell over with a loud crash. All there looked at the drunken hero who had fallen over. Even George who had just come back from venting his bladder bent over and said: “Kelek. Are you all right?” Kelek didn’t move or say anything.

He had drifted away, up above himself to where he could see everything: The whole city, the castle on the hilltop overlooking the sea at the top of the steep cliff which it was on, the tower where Belilia was being held captive against her will without any means of escape not even a hair rope ladder. (And so far not even a gallant knight on a big horse to charge up and save her.) Poor Belilia. What will become of her?

The parts before this... https://steemit.com/powerhousecreatives/@wales/playing-dice

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