<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=96676.msg4254985#msg4254985">Quote from: Narianna on 13-02-2011, 13:09:11</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote"><strong><span class="bbc_u">Drache’s Dream</span><br/><br/>Drache found himself standing in the middle of the battlefield that had changed his life. The dead bodies were all about his feet and the late night mist swirled the edges. The moonlight shown down and revealed a dark figure walking toward him. The man was clad in black and rose golden armor with a long black cloak. His loose long black hair bounced as he strode with a wide determined gait.<br/><br/>Vultures circled overhead and let out a loud cry as Ares approached Drache. Ares grabbed hold of a handle and rested a foot atop an impaled body. Drache immediately recognized the body of his father. Ares pulled his spear free of the man with a wet tearing crunch sound as the bone and skin let go. His eyes were both menacing and vicious and he waited, staring at Drache, as Drache dealt with the emotions roiling through him.<br/><br/>“Use it,” was all Ares said for a moment. “Take those feelings with you and go to the Redwood Forest in California. You will need those emotions for your quest. Learn to harness them and use them in battle,” Ares’s voice was riddled with wisdom, sincerity, and harshness.<br/><br/>One of the circling vultures came from above and Ares held out an arm. The vulture lighted on his arm, its yellow beak and beady black eyes turned toward Drache as it cocked its head to focus on him. It stretched its long red neck and let out a screech before spreading its golden tipped black wings and fluttering to Drache’s shoulder. Ares nodded in a gesture of presentation, denoting the vulture as a gift.<br/><br/>Ares balled a fist and placed it over Drache’s heart saying “Use it” in that firm ton once more before turning and walking away, leaving Drache alone on the battlefield with his new vulture.</strong><br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>With a start Drache woke. He had not had a dream he could remember in a long time. There was still a slight ache on the side of his head, a remnant of the battle. Only yesterday he had found his father dead, perhaps the blow and the memory was causing his dream. But to dream of Ares, that was odd. Had he still been with the tribe Drache would have spoken to the shaman. He often had dreams and told the tribe about them, explaining their meaning. Old Salbei was no longer. Like the other in the village, all those years ago, he was dead. Eviscerated and impaled upon a spear, his head removed. Whomever had attacked the village had feared his power and removed his head lest he heal. That is what Drache had been taught, always remove the head of a shaman or they can heal and unleash their abilities and fury.<br/><br/>He stretched and watched the light rain fall outside the simple shelter he created. Sitting up he rubbed his face pondering what he would do. Turning his head he was going to grab his chain mail shirt when he saw it. The sight causing him to jump back, "Be gone! I am not dead!" The vulture was watching him and did not do more than cock its head at his words.<em>What is this?</em>He thought as he reached for his axe. Using the butt end he poked at the bird and it moved out into the rain but did not fly off, "Why are you here, bird?" It then turned its head once again and the image came back to him, it was the same look as the vulture in his dream, the head cocked just so before it stretched its long red neck and let out a screech, just like in the dream.  Quickly Drache dressed, pulled the hood of his cloak over his head and rushed out of the shelterk knocking it over as he departed. He turned back and watched as the bird spread its wings and flew after him. Drache ran, weaving and swinging his axe to try and drive off the bird.<br/><br/>Eventually, he gave in. the bird had simply kept after him, now, as Drache held his axe against one shoulder the bird was perched atop the blades.  Catching his shadow when the sun broke through the clouds he laughed at the image. It was like a specter of death, his cloak pulled up and a vulture perched atop his weapon. "You may help me yet, bird. No roving band of thieves would wish to attack me as I look now. No, they would fear you too much." He kept walking for another hour before he stopped to rest. The vulture jumping from the axe and moving about in search of something to nibble on. Watching it, Drache thought about the significance. If the dream was true then he was a champion, chosen by Ares for some task. He thought back to Marrund, and how he joked with Drache about the axe and chain mail, "You've been chosen by the Fates for some task. In time, you will learn what it is. That is why only you can carry that weapon and armor. Only you, Tree Trunk." Now, here he sat with a vulture sent from Ares himself. Ares, that came to him in a dream. Never had he heard of anyone but Salbei, the shaman, having a dream of meaning. Perhaps this meant he was the last of his people. The only one to remember a tribe time would forget.<br/><br/>There was no time to dwell on his past. His father had taught him that life was war. A constant struggle to survive. Dwell on the past and you would be dead. The gods chose why things happened, we only go along and fight the war, day in and day out. Standing he looked at the vulture, "Come, bird. We must find a port city. We have a long trip to take and I cannot swim that far." Without waiting for it he began to walk toward the West. He knew there was a port city in that direction and he could ask at some town. Hopefully, the bird wouldn't scare anyone and they would answer him. Of course, he could always force someone to tell him. The choice would be that person's, Drache did not care. He was on a quest given him by Ares, the one god that understood his people.<br/><br/>It was three days later that he reached the port city. Drache had never been in such a large place, the number of people, the size of the buildings, it was a strange sight and he could not understand the need. Many of the people ignored him, those that managed to look at him gawked at the sight of a man with a vulture. A scowl was usually enough to drive them off, other, he ignored as he made his way through the busy streets.  For nearly an hour he walked through the city, the roads twisting and turning until he found the docks.  Once there, it wasn't long before he found a ship willing to take him to Crete where he could find a larger ship that would carry him to where he wanted to go. They would leave in the morning.