Outcast: Episode 2

By popular request, here is episode two of Aldernia: Outcast.

          Now inside the building, Mahtek paused for a moment.  The warmth from the fire reminded him how cold it was outside.  His cloak provided secrecy, but was not designed for warmth.  He closed his eyes and enjoyed the heat for just a moment.

          Remembering where he was, Mahtek opened his eyes and kept one on the guard, who currently faced away from him.  He tiptoed down the hallway.  Now out of sight, he took his cloak off again to reveal his furry face and limbs and simple studded armor jerkin.

          Mahtek was a makir, one of the many humanoid races of the world, Aldernia.  And, like most makirs, he had thin white fur covering his body, retractable claws on his hands and feet, blood-red eyes, and the ability to move with great quickness and agility.  He stood just taller than an average human, and his face bore a few lines of age.  A scar from a battle long ago left a fur-less line just beneath his left eye; eyes that rarely brooked any mirth.  He had had little to laugh about since the war began.

He knew his cloak would not hide him inside these close corridors, and he didn’t want to remind anyone about the stone-colored side of it.  He put it back on, black side out.  He continued on his way, encountering no one.  To the king of Imnos, the war with Gilneyad was far more important than this building.  Most of the army was needed at the front lines, accounting for the sparse guard here and elsewhere in the city.  Navigating the familiar corridors, Mahtek found his way to the room he was looking for.

          He looked at the door.  “Hopefully it’s been fixed,” he muttered to himself.  He began to open it slowly.  It creaked loudly.  Mahtek winced and looked around.  Nothing had changed in the empty hallway.  He slipped inside, leaving the door open behind him.  There it was: a chest marked “evidence”.

He opened the chest and found what he was looking for: a small sword with an unfamiliar insignia on the hilt.  It bore what looked like the bright sun of Gilneyad, Imnos’s enemy, but without the lines of radiance, and with a small dagger and drop of blood.  Mahtek knew that this insignia was the key to the plot against him.  He tucked it into his belt, and stepped out of the room.

And froze.  There, just a few feet away, was the guard from the window.  A young ferric, sinewy and with reptilian scales, he looked just as surprised as Mahtek.  He stuttered for a moment, then shouted, “You!  How did – how did you get in here?”  He began to reach for his sword.

Shaking off his momentary paralysis, Mahtek drew the blade he had just stolen, roared, and charged the guard at full speed.  Panic in his eyes, the guard fumbled for his blade, stumbling backward.  Mahtek tucked his shoulder down and crashed into him.  The guard fell to the ground, blade still sheathed.  As Mahtek ran on, he put away his sword and rubbed his shoulder.

He ran through the hallways quickly, no longer concerned with stealth.  Dashing around the tight turns, he soon reached the window where he had entered.  Looking back, he could hear quick footsteps.  The inexperienced guard did not know this building as well as Mahtek had when he was on duty here long ago, but he would catch up soon.

He removed his cloak and stood on the high sill.  Taking one end of cloth in each hand, he took a deep breath to focus himself, then jumped.  The cloak above him did not slow his descent at all.  He managed to hook it over the corner of a lower building’s roof, hoping to transfer his momentum through an arc.  But just before the bottom of his swing, the cloak slipped off the corner.  Mahtek crashed to the ground and struggled back to his feet.

He looked around.  He was back in the alley where he first climbed to the window, but closer to the street on the back side.  He looked back up at the window.  The guard had just reached it, and saw him below.  “The outcast is in the city!” He shouted loudly enough for anyone nearby to hear.  “Mahtek Reyin is in the city!”  The patrolling guard on the other street heard the shouts, and shot a plume of flame from his hand into the sky.

“Dierz!” Mahtek cursed, “Now the whole city knows I’m here!”