Misc. Books Shades of Steam

Hey, Amanacer Fiend here. I apologize for the lack of new content being done. I know that there is no good excuse for this, but I am working on the latest chapter of Super Metal Bros, very slowly since this new story is my main focus for now. I wanted to write something else and this is it, an original story. Unlike the others, where I was literally writing without any kind of forethought except their endings, but this I have mostly all planned out now, so I should be putting these out faster.

So here we are, my latest story which I hope you all enjoy.

Now enough of my rambling, please enjoy and give any critiques if you have any.

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><p>The sun was just coming over the horizon as the light of dawn slowly shined over the woodlands.<p>

In one woodland area, hiding in the treetops, were a pair of peeping brown eyes peering down at a passing horse drawn carriage with two pairs of horse-riding knights surrounding it and one more leading them. Each knight wore armor decorated with an emblem of an eagle holding a bundle of arrows in its talons and a branch of holly in it's beak. The knight in the front was more decorated with a red cape and his armor had gold trimmings.

The leading knight suddenly heard a stick crack. He raised his left arm, signaling the caravan to stop.

"What is it?" asked one of the knights in front of the carriage.

The door on the carriage opened forcefully as a portly man in the garb of an english nobleman walked out.

"Crimenee-eth!" shouted the man, "Sir Wallace, why did we stop!? Unless ye have forgotten, we have places to venture!"

"Sir." The leading knight Sir Wallace said, "Return inside post-haste."

"And for what reason would that be?" The nobleman barked, "We have no time to dawdle!"

Suddenly a voice was heard whispering in the surrounding woods.

"A fell voice haunts these woodlands." One of the other knights said.

The nobleman looked at the knight and said flatly, "Thank thee for calling out the obvious."

The voice in the woods started to get slightly louder, causing the nobleman to show fear on his face.

"Sire." Sir Wallace spoke again as he slowly grasp the handle of his sheathed sword, "Return to thy carriage, now."

"Aye... Of course." The nobleman agreed as he entered the carriage.

After the door closed, the whispering stopped. After a few tense seconds, the leading knight said, "We continue forth, quickly."

"Sir!" The other knights said.

The caravan then moved forward at a slightly quicker pace. The figure in the treetops leaped down from his spot and onto the ground behind some foliage. It quickly started to follow the carriage, keeping up with the speed.

One of the knights at the back asked to the other next to him, "What does thou suppose that was?"

"You've never heard?" The other knight replied, "There's said to be a monster that prowls in these woods."

"A monster?" The first knight asked, "Like a dragon?"

The other knight shook his head, "Nay, they say it is a man."

"A man?" The first knight with a small laugh, "Thou must jest, what be so horrific about a man?"

"Thou would not smirk if ye has heard." The other knight said, "They say he was born dead from his mother's corpse, brought to life with the dark arts from his heretic father. It's been said that the father murdered the mother while she beared his child, sacrificing her to some dark god in exchange for power."

"Good lord." The first knight gasped.

"Yes." The second knight said, "He used that power to bring his unborn child to life, as an abomination."

"I wouldn't believe all the tales ye hear if I were thee." whispered another voice, this one was that of a young man.

The two knights were suprised and immediately turned their heads to see a cloud of purple dust come flying into their faces. They started to drop onto the necks of their horses as they fell to sleep. The horses were slowing down when the man grabbed their reins and quickly pulled them into the shaded forest. He waited until the caravan was out of sight before he got to work.

After pulling the sleeping men off their horses and propping them up next to a tree.

"Sorry gentlemen." The man faked an apology as he removed their swords and tied them to one of the horse's saddle, "You won't be needing these."

After he made the horse with the swords run in the opposite direction with a quick slap to it's rear, the man saddled himself onto the remaining horse.

"Let's ride." He said as he gave a quick kick to the horses sides, making it gallop towards the carriage.

From the beams of light that shined through the treetops, the man was in full view. He looked to be a young adult with a green bandana and cloth that wrapped around his head and mouth to show only his dark brown eyes and bits of brown hair. He was dressed in a green, long sleeved tunic that had spots of dirt splattered on it and a few crude stitches around the mid torso, brown pants with a small burlap bag and dagger in a sheath attached to the belt, and finally brown mud caked boots to match.

He nudged the horse to speed up slightly until he could see the carriage. When he was almost twenty feet from the carriage, he made the horse slow down to get closer without being detected by the knights.

He looked above the carriage to see a pair of yellow beady eyes in the tree tops looking at him. The man quickly nodded, making the beady eyes respond by flying out of the tree branches in front of Sir Wallace and the two other knights. What the eyes were attached to was a bat the size of a small hawk, dark gray with a pair of markings shaped like skulls, one inside of each wing. The horses reared back in panic, and stopped the caravan while suprising the knights.

"Sir Wallace!" cried the knight on the left, "It be a Deathwinger!"

The other knights knew what this creature was. Deathwinger were considered by everyone in the land to be a bad omen. Anyone who was visited by a Deathwinger, was to expect bad luck or something worse to follow.

Sir Wallace did not let the stories of this beast fear him, as he had drawn his sword and shouted, "Away foul beast! Return to the shadows you crawled from!"

He prepared to swing his sword to drive off the creature, but suddenly a vial of some dark liquid flew over him and shattered as it hit the ground, creating a large billow of smoke to cover him and the rest of the caravan in a smokescreen. The thief immediatly dismounted, ran to open the door, and slinked inside. The nobleman inside was holding a large bag that looked full of valuables.

"Sir Walla-" The nobleman started to shout, but the thief sped to cover the nobleman's mouth with his left hand while his right hand held the dagger to the portly man's throut.

"Not... One... Peep." whispered the thief as he enunciated each word with a tap of the blade's edge on the exposed neck. The nobleman nodded his head in fearful agreement.

Meanwhile, the knights were busy trying to see through the heavy smoke.

"Knights!" Sir Wallace shouted, "Protect the carriage!"

"Sir!" his knights replied as they dismounted and went to guard the door. The knight to the door's right suddenly asked, "Sir Franklin, where be-eth the others?!"

The knight Sir Franklin shrugged and said, "I haven't the slightest-"

Suddenly the door was busted open by a mud caked boot, the door slamming into Sir Franklin making him fall to the ground by the sudden impact. The other knight looked at his fallen comrade then back at the doorway, only for a hand to reach and opened the knight's visor. Then a fist punched the knight in the face, making him back up and hold his face as he groaned from the pain and blood dripped from his nose.

"Thou doth realize that thee are embarrasing thyself?" Said the thief as he exited the carridge with the burlap sack of tresures and what appears to be the nobleman's hat in his left hand, "Thy king's knights must be spending more time having drinks and mutton than train for-"

The thief heard a battlecry from behind and immediatly jumped to his left to dodge the sword slash, dropping the hat in the process. The smoke started to clear as the thief looked at the attacker: Sir Wallace.

"If thou intend to flee, then flee." Sir Wallace said as he readied himself, "Don't thee start boasting like a fool."

"Oh sod." the thief said under his breath as he noticed the fallen knight was getting back up. He looked around to see the smoke starting to clear, so he immediatly darted into the smoke.

Sir Wallace sheathed his sword and looked at the carrage driver and ordered, "Driver, my crossbow."

The driver reached behind him and pulled out a crossbow with the bowstring at the ready and with a crossbow bolt inside. He tossed it into Sir Wallace's arms, who then took aim. He aimed it into the thick mist and waited, until he saw a brief opening in the smoke, showing the thief running through the woods, and he pulled the trigger. The bowstring fired, sending the bolt at the thief before the opening closed. There was a loud thud and a shout of pain, and Sir Wallace knew that he had been successful.

"Great shot sir!" Sir Franklin said.

Sir Wallace walked to the carridge and gave back the crossbow, then looked at Sir Franklin and said, "You, see to the nobleman." He then pointed to the other knight and ordered, "You, go find the other two. I'll go after the thief."

Sir Wallace drew his sword and darted through the rapidly thinning smoke into the forest to chase down the injured thief. The other knight went down the way they came as ordered, leaving Sir Franklin to the carriage. He looked into the open door to see the nobleman unconcious, his nose red and swollen, dripping blood, and his balding head showed the absense of his hat.

Sir Wallace was getting close to his target, his years of training had made him somewhat agile even with the heavy weight of his armor. He could see the fleeing bandit barely through the trees and foliage, but he continued his pursuit. The thief suddenly dropped from view, causing Sir Wallace stop immediately. He trotted slowly until he ended up at the edge of a cliff that overlooks the lower section of the woodlands. He looked down to see a large, fast moving river, a fifty foot drop below the cliff's edge, just quick enough to see a large splash.

"That fool." Sir Wallace uttered, "No man can survive a drop like that."

He suddenly looked at the heavens and said, "May the lord have mercy on your soul."

The head knight then turned around and started to run back to the carriage to tell the news of the loss of the money and of the bandit's passing.

However, down the stream, about sixty feet from where the splash was, the thief finally surfaced with a loud splash and a big gasp to take in some air, and coughed slightly to clear his lungs of water. He fought his way through the current towards the shore, still holding onto the sack of gold that he stole. He finally reached the bank, tossing the sack of valuables up first, then crawled himself out until only his feet were still in the water.

He laid there for a few seconds under the shade of the trees until he heard a flapping of leather wings. He looked up to see the bat that suprised the knights earlier was hanging upside down on a nearby tree branch.

The thief chuckled slightly and said, "It was too close. But we still won in the end Echo."

Echo dropped off the branch, and glided down to ground level. When it touched ground and was a foot from the thief's head, it crawled around until it climbed onto the thief's back.

"What is wrong old friend?" He asked. He moved his right arm to reach behind him, feeling around until he felt the wooden shaft of the crossbow bolt lodged in his back. It had hit the right side of his spine under the shoulderblades, possibly punctured his right lung, and cracked one or two ribs. However, what is most strange is that the wound was not bleeding in the slightest.

"Oh." the thief uttered, "I had forgotten."

The thief started to slowly stand up, finally placing his feet on dry land. While doing so he felt the bolt shift slightly but it was nothing too painful. When he fully stood up, Echo moved to the thief's left shoulder. He took off the pouch that was tied to his belt, opened it and slowly dumped the water that was inside onto the dirt, careful of the important contents.

The thief tied the pouch back on and then noticed Echo crawling down his arm and onto his left hand, so he raised his arm up to see the bat at eye level. The bat showed a look of concern on it's face.

"Do not look so alarmed Echo." He said with certainty, "This is not worth worrying."

The thief then reached behind his back with his free hand, and felt around for a second before he found and gripped the arrow shaft. He pulled delicately, manuvering it around to keep the arrowhead from getting caught on something inside. A few seconds later, the arrowtip was fully removed from his back. The thief was relieved, as he felt as though he removed the mother of all splinters from himself.

He looked at the bolt, then he looked back at Echo and said, "What did I say, friend? Not worth worrying."

He tossed the arrow to the ground. He reached back again and found the hole the shaft left behind.

"That can be repaired." He assured. He lowered his left arm, making Echo crawl back onto his left shoulder. The thief looked towards his companion and asked, "Shall we return home?"

The bat nodded in approval, and the thief grabbed the bag of valuables and started to run the long trek back home, with the jingle of the treasures ringing inside their prize bag.

After a few minutes of running, the sun was just over the trees, bathing the woodlands with it's glow. A few miles from where the thief had done his ambush was a small village of nine thatched-roof cottages, one slightly larger inn, a windmill next to a wheatfield, and the local church. The village was on an edge between the forest and a large clearing that had a narrow river a few yards away with a channel dug towards the town, near the farm lands and wheat fields.

The thief was close to the forest's edge, so he slowed down to keep the jingling of his newly aquired money bag from ringing too loud. He was heading to a near-by cottage that had an open window facing the woods. When he reached the window, he looked around to see if the other villagers were up. He heard the somewhat muffled sounds in the next door cottage of a denizen waking up from his or her slumber. In a hurry, he climbed through the window and landed feet first on a straw matteress underneath. He then pulled the window shut and pulled the curtain until it completely covered the windowsill.

The home the thief entered was just one decent size room. To his right on the wall was two shelves that had a number of labeled clay jars on them. Under those was a small table with a stone mortar bowl with a stone pestle laying beside it, a large jug on the floor to the table's left and a candle on the far upper right corner of the table. Next to the table and shelves were a string of garlic cloves hanging by a wooden peg on the wall. On the front wall on both sides of the door were a pair of windows that were covered with cloth shades.

To his left on the floor was a plain wooden chest, above that ,hanging on three more pegs, was a grey, short sleeved tunic, an off-white long-sleeved undershirt, and a pair of trousers.

The thief gave out a quick sigh of relief as walked over and placed the money bag on the table with Echo crawling down the arm and on top of the bag. He then took off the bandana and cloth around his head, showing his short brown hair that was still wet from his little swim and a few strands in his face. He was in his early 20's, but his skin was somewhat pale with a very faint tint of green. The thief took off his soggy shirt and tossed it to the wooden floor, showing his pale torso and arms that also had a tint of green; furthermore, on the front part of his torso, were a few thin but very visible scars that looked barely healed with stitch marks and a slightly larger wound on his back.

"That was quite a venture wasn't it?" The thief said to his bat as he walked over to the chest, "Though not without it's pains."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a key, which he used to unlock the chest and opened it. The inside of the chest was completely empty, until the thief reached the sides of the bottom and picked up the false bottom, which showed a rather large tome with a leather cover and a small bundle of three glass bottles. One was labeled "Powdered Sleeping Root", another was labeled "Shade Thyme / Dark Water", and the last was labeled "Rotting Death Extract".

The thief picked up the bottle of Rotting Death Extract, looking at the bottle that was half full of a pitch black liquid that seemed to bubble slightly.

"Sod." He said, then he turned towards Echo, "We are running low on extract."

He looked back down in the chest at the bottle of Shadow Thyme and Dark Water, seeing that it was only a fourth of a swirling black and purple misty liquid left inside.

The thief sighed, "We will need to restock to make more smokescreen also." he added.

With a shrug, he uncorked the bottle of Rotting Death Extract he was holding. The smell coming from inside the bottle was horrifying to say the least, for it was like a mixture of fermented grapefruits, sour lemons and a sweet hint of cherry. He took a large swig of the liquid, which made him cringe hard at the taste that was not just like what it smelled of but also if it was poured from a boot worn by a farmer that was working hard during a hot day.

Every impulse in his body wanted him to spit the heinous drink out, but he had to push through his gag reflex and force the drink down his throut. After he felt the liquid go down, he shook in revulsion. However he started to feel a soothing sensation all around his torso as he felt the cracked ribs started to knit back together, his right lung had healed the hole that punctured it, and finally the skin around it in his back started to form scar tissue that closed the wound. After the sensation and the horrible taste in his mouth was gone, he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, relieved he didn't have to take anymore extract for now.

"With that over with..." He said as he turned to look at Echo, "Let us get ready for the people."

With that said, he put the cork back on the bottle and placed it back in the chest, he also picked up the money bag from the table and placed that in the chest also. After putting the false bottom back inside and locking the chest shut, he started to get dressed for the day, putting the fresh shirt and new pair of trousers he pulled from the the pegs hanging over the chest. After getting dressed, he walked over to the table and sat down in the chair, Echo jumped off the table to lie on the straw mattress to catch up with its sleep. He reached up the shelves and pulled down the jar closest to him, opened it, and then dumped a few fresh leaves into the mortar bowl. Then after he put the jar back in it's spot, he picked up the pestle and started grinding up the leaves for a new mixture.

Outside his small cottage, the rest of the village's denizens had risen from their beds. An hour or so later, after a light meal of bread and ale, the majority of men in the village exited their homes for another day of hard work in the vegitable and wheat fields. At the local church, a brown robed man passed through it's front doors from inside, feeling the sun's warm light touch his face. He was a somewhat tall middle-aged man with short, grey hair and beard. His blue eyes showed that he is a man who is both wise and kind for his fellow man.

He walked down the church's stairs and looked forward at his home, seeing his fellow men and women walking about doing what needs to be done for their community. He left the church grounds as he walked through the village with a warm smile on his face.

"Good morning, Friar John!" He heard a man call to him, making him stop and turn to see the man. The peasant was busy chopping a few logs.

"Ah." Friar John said, "Good morning to thee sir!"

"Off to see young Daniel aye?" The man asked.

Friar John chuckled, "Well he does need to rise up for this fine morning."

"True that." The man replied, "But I heard that the merchants are coming here soon. That boy's going to miss them if he's still sleepin'."

"I will make sure to tell him, thank thee." Friar John replied back, "And God bless thee."

"God bless thee as well Friar." The man called back as Friar John continued his walk until he ended up at the thief's cottage, the door had a sign pinned on it saying "Knock First".

Inside, the thief was poaring a green liquid from a small bottle into the mortar bowl until he heard someone knocked on his door, causing him to jump slightly and spilled a small bit of liquid onto the table.

"Daniel?" he head a voice from the other side of his door, "Daniel Upior, are ye awake?"

'The friar!' the thief, Daniel, thought. He looked at Echo who was awakened from the knocking. He quickly made a shooing motion with his hands to Echo, the bat recognized the command and went off the mattress to bury itself underneath the straw and keep still.

"Daniel?" Friar John said slighty louder.

"Just a moment!" Daniel called back as he placed his bottles on the table, got up from his chair and rushed over to the door. He opened the door and saw Friar John standing there about to knock again.

"Ah, Daniel." Friar John said, "Good morrow."

"Good morrow Friar." Daniel replied with a small smile.

"May I come in?" the friar asked.

"O-of course." Daniel said as he stood to one side and let the friar in and closed the door. The friar looked at Daniel's work table with the bottles and other equipment, "Working on another concoction I see?" Friar John questioned.

Daniel replied with, "It is aloe vera with crushed myrrh and thyme."

There was a moment of silence before Daniel spoke up, "So... what is happening today?"

"Oh yes." the friar said, putting down his arm, "I heard that the merchants are on there way here today, and I wanted to make sure thou are awake."

Daniel perked up when he heard this, "Ah splendid!" he replied with a slight smile as he walked over and sat back down at his table to work, "I am in need of a few ingrediants for my other projects."

Friar John looked on and then his smile dropped. He walked over to Daniel and placed a gentle hand on the boy's shoulder making Daniel stop and look up at the old man.

"Daniel." Friar John said softly, "It be also that time of the year today."

Daniel paused for a second before looking back at the table and slumped his shoulders. "So soon?" he asked.

Friar John didn't reply, and it was all that Daniel needed for an answer. Another moment of quiet passed and Daniel then looked back at the friar and said, "I will be there at dusk, thee?"

"Nay." Friar John said as he took his hand of Daniel's shoulder, "I think thou can be there without me this time. It is truly thy buisness after all, if that be alright?"

"I do not mind." Daniel replied as he turned back to his work and continued, "I just need to prepare."

"Very well." Friar John said as he turned and walked to the door before stopping and said, "I apologize for dampening thy spirit so early today."

"No need for apologies." Daniel said with a slight chuckle, "I would have forgotten if thou did not remind me."

The friar smiled a little as he finally walked to the door and opened it, not before looking back at Daniel and said, "Good day Daniel, and may God bless you in your endevors."

Friar John then turned and exited the cottage and closed the door. After a few seconds, Echo dug itself out of the straw and climbed back ontop of the mattress, looking back at Daniel.

Daniel looked at the bat, "I guess thou can be by my side this year." Daniel said with a small smile, causing the bat to nod it's head. Daniel looked back at the mixture in his mortar bowl. He then rolled up his left sleeve and scooped a small portion of the mixture with his right index finger and smeared it on a small bit of his left forearm. He waited for a few seconds, only to look slightly downtrodden with the lack of results.

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><p>And that's it for chapter one, and like in the beginning, please leave a critique.<p> 


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Misc.  Fantasy, Sci-Fi