Untitled

My Will

Chapter Three

My Will

"You looked surprised" the figure continued. 

"Well, I was just expecting something a bit more evil" answered Merry hesitantly. 

"More evil" the figure echoed. "So you mean more evil than drugging me with Berskar and having me murder my sister for their amusement?". 

"I guess not" whispered Merry. 

"You see, it's their ingenuity and lack of self inspection that makes them true horrors. They dub other beings as monstrosities, so they assume they must be inherently good. Yet they abandoned my kind in the battle of Elrif, and then used the massacre of my people as a ploy to buy more time".

Merry thought the elf was finished when he then asked him, "have you ever heard of the Akarna battalions?" 

Before Merry could answer that they were a myth, the sound of approaching footsteps silenced him.

They were blindfolded and led along passageways, heading to what seemed to be above ground. 

"I don't know why we bothered to bring this fat one all the way here" said a captor behind Merry. 

"What do you mean?! I can't wait to see him fight! Twenty gold he goes done last, easy!" answered another. 

"You don't have twenty gold dimwit! Besides he'll charge first thing, go down first. My money is on the little buddy" said the one leading Merry.

They had stopped, blindfold suddenly removed, Merry blinked and tried to study their surroundings. It looked they were standing in a quarry. Encircling them were gray stone walls ten feet high. Also, there were skeletons, some old and some of them still fresh. They were humanoid, some of them definitely either children's or halfling's. Behind him Merry saw his captors shut a large black metal door that left just the three of them in the enclosed space. Above them sitting around drinking and placing bets, were the men.

They were a scrubby dirty lot of around twenty. While some of them sported rusty armour, all of them carried swords or bows. 

"Welcome to the goblin arena! Soon you'll be dead, so any last words?" cried a tall commanding figure. Standing on the edge of the wall, he was donned with rusty chainmail, dirty gray hair and a cruel smile.

"Where is your conscious? Grandor will punish you for eternity!" Replied the elf angerly. 

Laughing, the leader announced: "the Gods are dead!"

"The gods are dead" intoned all the rest of the bandits.

"I was a company commander in the war, three times my men torn apart and then replaced with new recruits! Where was Grandor then? The only thing that matters is my will, I will not bow to your silly notions of good and evil!" he said brandishing a book. "I follow Neizars teachings, a being of true power and wisdom. Life is short, so I'll live it as I see fit!"

The fact that they were virtually helpless didn't bother Merry as much as the fact that some of the notions displayed by this "commander" struck home. Life was short, and Merry did live as he saw fit. He never conformed to the standards of others. The fact that principles so similar to his own could lead someone to such evil deeds was deeply disturbing.

Braga, who seemed to be recovering from some sort drug, simply growled: "I'll kill you puny coward". 

"Enough talk!" proclaimed the leader. "The keys to your chains lie at your feet, and your weapons to your left behind those rocks. It's time, time for you to meet our champion" he said with a wicked smile. 

At the word "champion" all the men started to cheer and stomp their feet in a steady rhythm.

The metal door behind them started to open and out came said champion. Stepping into the light, a scarred thickset grinning dwarf stomped into the makeshift arena. To Merry's regret, he was buck-naked. Weirder still, he was green skinned and oozing a sickly green liquid. From his hand where he wielded a wicked looking axe, the haft was smoking, as if slowly burning. Looking at the three of them, the Karna warrior opened his mouth to spew out more of the ooze and with a gargling voice told them: "you die now."