Where Lies Adventure!

           “Or is that three?” the shorter man joked. “Damned right it’s three!” Van shouted as he hugged this small man. The small man hugged back with equal force.   Van was impressed.   Finnian Pell had gotten much stronger since the last time Van saw him.   They released each other and Van was suddenly struck by something. “Are you drinking two ales at once?   Why order three?” “It’s a day of celebration my friend.   Thrace has been made captain of his own militia.   He should be joining us at any moment to share in the festivities,” Pell said. “Thrace is a captain now?” Van asked.   “I’m not surprised.   He was always the most ambitious of us.   The most disciplined.” “It’s true.   But to be a captain at only twenty eight years old is no easy task, even for one who works so hard,” Finnian replied. “You gentlemen can sit,” Cecily said.   “I’ll bring your ales to the ta...

CHAPTER 1          The Vagrant                    The tavern was mostly empty.   Not unusual for the early afternoon.   Most men were working the fields, dreaming of a few short hours from now, when they would be able to end their day with a mug of the finest ale in all the town of Rookwood.   But Van was making his dream come true.   Sitting at the bar, he finished off his third mug.   There was no work for him today.   Truth be told, there had been no work for him for quite a few days.   “Another?” he heard Cecily ask.   Van looked up from his mug then.   He had been daydreaming; but no dream could be lovelier than Cecily.   He had known the young barmaid all his life, and she had never ceased to impress him with her beauty.   Her red hair always unkempt and loose, while her green eyes probed into him searching; always searching. ...

         The knight quickly scanned his immediate surrounding area for the strongest vine he could find.   He found a beautifully thick one a few feet to the right of where he was standing.          He turned his head back to the giant just in time to see his massive arms coming down in another tremendous attack.   With sword in hand, he jumped out of the way just in time.   The reverberation from the blow caused him to lose his footing, but the warrior jumped up as quick as he could and sprinted toward the vine.          He grabbed it, and without missing a step, turned toward Alteus and began running toward the son of earth.   Alteus was readying his tentacles again, but just before they shot out the earth shook.          The knight was surprised.   He hadn’t expected t...

            And not a moment too soon.   The giant’s arm had fully re-grown, and it was on the offensive once more.   It approached the young warrior slowly - a drawback of its incredible girth and earthen attachment.   The young man kept his eyes on it, even as he addressed the dwarf.          “Can you at least tell me what this thing is,” he asked of the deity.          “An earf giant.   I thought that would’a been obvious.   Name’s Alteus, son of the very earth itself.   He’s got brothers all over the world.   It’s been a while since I’ve named’em all, but I can try…”          “Why are his legs growing out of the ground?” the warrior said hurriedly, cutting the dwarf off from an hours-long genealogy.   That was the way to the dwarf’s heart,...

              The stalwart knight quickly rolled out of the way as two gargantuan masses of vines, branches and bare earth came crashing down upon him.   The creature they belonged to was comprised of little else, and it used these appendages as arms.             In frustration, the monster grew to its full height and threw back its head, as if to roar.   Instead of noise, however, the earth underneath it shook.   The young knight had been dodging the giant’s attacks for some time now, but this new development caught him off guard.   He fell on his face, still clutching his sword, and as he looked up at the beast before him he was finally able to see it in all of its horror.                It stood ten feet tall; a giant borne of the earth with a torso as wide as ...

              The cries for help were coming from all directions now, but the voice belonged to one person: Princess Cecily.   Berk’s eyes were open wide with a look of frantic excitement.   He scanned his surroundings as thoroughly as he could, choosing to rely on his eyes and trying to ignore the deceptive pleas that would lead him astray.               He could see nothing, even with the rising sun providing him with the light he needed.   The manic excitement that had gripped him just an instant ago began turning to a fearful doubt that he could feel in the pit of his stomach.   What if he couldn’t find the princess?   What if he couldn’t save her?   No, he knew from experience that he couldn’t give way to such thoughts.   He tried blocking it out and while he was mostly successful there were nagging wisps of ...

         Night was quickly falling on the jungle.   The young hero kept walking, as he had done that entire day.   An unearthly mist still clung to the forest floor, shielding the young man’s eyes from what lay beneath.   The certainty of finding the captured princess, which had been inflamed by his arrival through torrential storms and a violent ocean, was quickly dying down.   He had no way of tracking Berk if he couldn’t see any tracks.          He sat down, putting his back to a tree as he thought about his next move.   He’d tried everything he knew of.   As much as he had tried shutting them out, he reverted back to Berk’s lectures in his mind.          “The best way to track an animal or a man is their footprints.   It’s simple and effective.   You can often tell how close what you’re chasin is ...