C8kiemonstr

Part one can be found here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...t-story-part-1

Spring, the flowers have long since won their fight to press up through the dirt, the winds blow cool and calm across the fields north of a small quaint village. Atop the crest of a hill he sat, below an ancient Oak, reading a book of histories and civilizations passed, dozing off between pages of clumsily choreographed explanations - or so how he saw them. Down the hill he could see his home, a small wooden structure with a field of seed being tended by his ox of an older brother, Kai. A half breed of Orc and Human, though he was quite sure there was far more human to him than Orc. That is, unless he was in the local tavern's brawling circle, but even then he seemed to hold back. Kai was always his preferred company on days such as this, however with the seasons change there was far too much work to be done for them both to be able to get away for long.

"Ander! Where are you boy?!"
He could here the calling of his mother from forever away it seemed.
"How can such a small woman be so loud?" He thought to himself as he stretched his arms and legs to begin his hike back across the field.

"Why is it you're never to be found when there's work to be done?" Chided Kai leaning against the fence post with a grin.
"Cover for me?" Ander asked not so much as a question and more as an expectation.
"You owe me." Replied his older brother as he lumbered through the doorway that was almost too small for his large form.
"Not after last week's brawl at the Tavern I don't. Unless you don't mind dad finding out.."
Kai slugged him in the arm playfully. Somehow playfully was still hard enough to hurt-
"Even, then." He said chuckling.

"Where were you?!" Demanded his mother, a frail frame adorned in a blue dress and topped with a messy coil of hair atop her head.
"He went into the field to get my bag, I forgot it." Answered Kai kicking his bag across the floor and into the other room before she saw it.
"I swear, you two are such trouble. It'll be an early grave for me due to you. Mark me!"
She bustled back to the kitchen.

A sweet aroma of apples and cinnamon caressed their noses as they approached the kitchen.
Sitting on the other side of the kitchen at a small table was their father, one leg propped upon the other leaning back whittling a block of wood.
"Giving your mother a hard time again I see.. You're both far too old to be so trying. Ander, you're turning 16 in just a few days. How about you help your mother more than worry her, yeah?"
A penetrating gaze of emerald eyes peered through Ander, "Yes father, won't happen again."
"Oh, and how's that book?" He added playfully wearing a dubious grin.
"Uhh. Good." Answered Ander slipping away into another room.

The remainder of the evening passed quickly, dinner was remarkably peaceful. They ate, and spoke with one another of their days. Anderson: His day working with the village elder making house calls.
Sera: Making a trip to market and preparing dinner
Kai: Tending to the fields and animals, and planning on venturing to the Tavern after supper for a drink and 'relaxation.'

Ander didn't speak much about his day. What was he to do, spoil Kai's cover up of his afternoon long escape into his book? Although there was no doubt his father already knew.

The peace had not lasted long, as a pounding at the door had interrupted their evening. Anderson got up and excused himself from the table. He returned quickly, walking to the other side of the table and whispered something into Sera's ear. Her face, unlike Anderson's, was easy to read. Something terrible has happened.

She whispered back to him, got up and spoke as calmly as she could to the boys, "We need to leave, there's an Ort/c raiding party on its way here."

All of their eyes shifted toward Kai, Ander could tell he was somewhere else within his mind. His expression frozen in a pained anger, his body tense and his eyes staring out the window.

Being pushed out of the room by his mother and father, Kai barely seemed to react, Ander followed closely behind them as they went outside, into the field and stopped in what seemed to be no place of consequence.

Anderson spoke quietly to Sera, almost to quietly for Anderson to hear.
"Trust me- things you don't know- safe-"

Sera was clearly upset, tears began to well up in her eyes, she clenched onto Kai's arm and Ander's hand. Anderson stepped back clicked is finger and said a word Ander had never heard before, it definitely wasn't a language he knew, and out of thin air a large bound book appeared in the hands of his father. Anderson's eyes glowed with a new brightness, the green of his eyes seemed to bleed out into the surrounding area, markings of a magnificent, rippling, emerald emerged on his skin. He began speaking rapidly, but in no discernible language, the glowing grew more intense welling up into Anderson's hands, he closed the book and kneeled down and placed his hand upon the ground.

It gave in, not just crumbling under them but moving and warping around them until it had surrounded and enveloped them closing above them.

They were underground, but how? Anderson could see clearly around him thanks to an odd eerie green glow permeating the area. They were in what seemed to be storage, books piled up higher than he could reach, a desk with candles, a pen, inkwell, and paper strewn about. His astonishment and intrigue were interrupted by his mother frightened tone.

"Anderson what is going-" He interrupted her by raising a hand.
"I am sorry my love, there are things that you do not know about me, I had a life before I met you, one that I left behind for you. I need you to stay here until I return. You will be safe."
"Kai," the name seemed to vibrate in the room, "I need you here, with your mother and brother. You have to protect them should I fail."

Kai shifted his weight seeming to have come back from whatever world he had been in within his head. "With my life." He answered In a rough deep tone that didn't befit the cheerful boisterous brother Ander knew.

Anderson reached over to the desk and grabbed hold of stick, wrestling it out from under a mound of paper. It was long, and at the end, when finally rescued from it's paper tomb, was carved into the likeness of a dragon, perched upon the end, it's tail coiled around the rod. Ander noticed that in the mouth of the dragon was an emerald, glowing faintly with a twisting swirl within.

"I am sorry, I wish I had time to explain, but I must go." Anderson tapped the staff upon the ground and vanished.

"Not, please come back!" Screamed his mother reaching out for where Anderson once stood. She fell to the ground sobbing, Kai leaned down to comfort her, Ander kneeled down to join them as well.

It was impossible to tell how much time had passed in the perpetual green glow of the strange cave. Sera had stopped sobbing and steadied her breathe, she sat at the desk clutching the chair staring at the floor. Kai had begun pacing back and forth stirring up dust in his wake. Ander grew restless as well, and curiosity had gotten the better of him. He began rummaging through the books and papers, all of which he found were in languages he did not understand.

It seemed like hours had passed them by, yet Anderson had not returned. The ceiling had begun to flake of small pieces of dirt from what Ander had guessed was walking above.

Suddenly, there was what seemed like a quake, that shook everything in the room into heaps and piles. The stacks of books came falling all around and onto them, the ceiling fell in chucks rather than bits, and the room plunged into complete darkness as the glow was snuffed out.

Fumbling around in the dark, sprawled over and and under an assortment of books, Ander couldn't breathe, the air was damp and thick with dirt, the darkness seemed to press upon every inch of his body holding him where he was.

"Ander. Ander, get up." The rough pained voice pierced through the darkness, breaking the shackles that held him.

"Kai? Are you okay? Where mom?" He could hear his breathing now, shallow, as he had done when they raced home from the fields so many times.

"Yea, I'm fine. Mom is under me, but she isn't moving. There's a light over here, I can see her, but I can't see you. Can you follow my voice?

Ander probed his surrounding for leverage and lifted himself the books giving way to his weight. He crawled toward a faint blue glow, until it was within reach.

"A scroll? It's huge." He exclaimed reaching for the light.

"Don't." Warned Kai, "We don't know what it is."
It then dawned on Ander that he still hadn't seen his brother, but it seemed that his voice was above him. He looked up and his heart fell, fell further into the darkness and depths then they already were.

There stood Kai, arms outstretched muscles bulged to sizes they've never been, a pained grimace upon his face. The ceiling had caved in, and his brother was the only pillar of support keeping them from death.