Kepic
Your friendly neighbourhood Alien Abductor
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2000
- Posts
- 1,163
[Arabian Nights style background. I shall introduce my character here, with a few others mentioned briefly for others to possibly take up]
The desert sands whipped about me, as I stumbled over the next dune.
How had I, Hal-aji, master thief, been so foolish?
The job had seemed easy enough, but they all did now, for one of my talent. Was I too confident? Had I let down my guard? No, I was sure I took all the precautions that were necessary. The sorceress Aisha had provided me with magical protection, in exchange for the usual cut if the job was a success. And that cut would be ample. Assuming I made it back to deliver the jewel I held in the pouch at my hip.
Now, I was fleeing across the desert like some flea-bitten camel running from its master.
Except, I was running from something much worse.
An enraged efreet, a genie of fire.
How had I come to such a predicament, you ask? Ah, that is almost a tale in itself...
Three days ago... three, short days... a woman approached me in the bazaar, a dusky beauty whose figure was ill disguised by the volumptious robe she wore, a woman who would surely be the jewel of any Sultan's harem. Her eyes were like emeralds, and her lips like rubies, and her hair dark as the sky between the stars at night.
She gave me the name Jara, though I never doubted that was not her real name. No-one hires Hal-aji and gives their real name. But her payment was real enough, and she paid me a hundredweight in gold dust before I even agreed to the task, or even thought to ask her who had sent her to me.
'There is a temple, an old temple, half-hidden by the sands of the desert' she had said, 'inside a statue, cast of pure gold and over five metres tall. In its forehead, an opal the size of your fist is set. Bring me that opal, and I shall reward you with a thousand times the gold dust I have just given you".
An old map, the edges of the parchment crumbling, she gave to me. Oh, how I should have refused her, but her voice was like honey, and the rich reward she offered even I could not ignore.
I found the old ruin easily enough, you don't keep your hands for as long as I have without being able to read a few maps. There had been traps, magical and mundane, which I avoided or disarmed.
But I had not expected the fiery monster which was trapped inside the golden statue. By removing the opal, I had freed it.
Efreet's don't take kindly to imprisonment. No genie does. But this efreet had not been bound by Soloman, no ring or lamp to contain it, no wishes was it forced to grant to prevent its anger from being immediately unleashed upon its poor unleasher. In this case, me.
So I ran. I had run for my life before, true enough, from countless guards and soldiers, swords and spears, arrows and knives. But never had my life ever seemed so close to ending as it did then. Fire licked about my ankles as I fled the ruin. Bolts of fire had flown past me. Screams of rage from the bellowing efreet had rolled over me like pure heat.
Now, now at last, I could no longer hear its wrathful roars. Perhaps it had last realised its freedom more important than mere vengeance, taken out against one such as myself, when its true captor was likely an ages-dead sorceror, one now beyond its reach for revenge.
I sat in the shelter of two jutting rocks from the sand, and pulled out the opal. It was truly a marvellous gem, and even through my years of thievery, I could not recall seeing such a bounty. I admired it for a few moments, then I kissed it, imagining it to be the last job I, Hal-aji, would ever have to take. I could retire upon the reward Jara had offered for this single stone.
Suddenly, the opal grew bright, streaming light in all directions. I dropped it, startled, covering my eyes.
"What is your bidding, oh master?" a voice said. A voice that made Jara's own honeyed tone seem like some cheap back-alley harlot's in comparison.
I blinked the light away from my eyes, seeing the opal laying in the sand before me, no longer glowing. But a pair of dainty female feet caused me to raise my eyes swiftly upwards, following the contours of a likewise shapely legs and sleekly muscled thighs. A woman of unearthly beauty now stood before me. I managed to tear my gaze upwards quickly past her ample charms, to look into her face. By Soloman, no woman could be so beautiful.
"Master?" she said.
Master? my mind echoed, and then I realised why no woman could be so beautiful. She was a genie. If I had to guess, I would say a Marid, a genie of water, which would suggest how the opal had so confined the efreet. After I had managed to regain my wits, I answered her.
"What should I call you, oh genie?" I said, as I picked up the opal and slipped it back into the pouch at my waist. So, this is the real jewel Jara sought. What wonder's could this genie work? Thief I may be, but I had taken a job, and I considered myself honour-bound to deliver.
[OOC: Just in case anyone thinks I'm planning a little master-slave role with the genie, I'm NOT (where's the fun in that?). I intend to take her/the opal back to Jara, probably with a command, back to the city... where plenty of other characters can jump into the 'plot'/thread...]
[Edited by Kepic on 09-10-2000 at 04:33 AM]
The desert sands whipped about me, as I stumbled over the next dune.
How had I, Hal-aji, master thief, been so foolish?
The job had seemed easy enough, but they all did now, for one of my talent. Was I too confident? Had I let down my guard? No, I was sure I took all the precautions that were necessary. The sorceress Aisha had provided me with magical protection, in exchange for the usual cut if the job was a success. And that cut would be ample. Assuming I made it back to deliver the jewel I held in the pouch at my hip.
Now, I was fleeing across the desert like some flea-bitten camel running from its master.
Except, I was running from something much worse.
An enraged efreet, a genie of fire.
How had I come to such a predicament, you ask? Ah, that is almost a tale in itself...
Three days ago... three, short days... a woman approached me in the bazaar, a dusky beauty whose figure was ill disguised by the volumptious robe she wore, a woman who would surely be the jewel of any Sultan's harem. Her eyes were like emeralds, and her lips like rubies, and her hair dark as the sky between the stars at night.
She gave me the name Jara, though I never doubted that was not her real name. No-one hires Hal-aji and gives their real name. But her payment was real enough, and she paid me a hundredweight in gold dust before I even agreed to the task, or even thought to ask her who had sent her to me.
'There is a temple, an old temple, half-hidden by the sands of the desert' she had said, 'inside a statue, cast of pure gold and over five metres tall. In its forehead, an opal the size of your fist is set. Bring me that opal, and I shall reward you with a thousand times the gold dust I have just given you".
An old map, the edges of the parchment crumbling, she gave to me. Oh, how I should have refused her, but her voice was like honey, and the rich reward she offered even I could not ignore.
I found the old ruin easily enough, you don't keep your hands for as long as I have without being able to read a few maps. There had been traps, magical and mundane, which I avoided or disarmed.
But I had not expected the fiery monster which was trapped inside the golden statue. By removing the opal, I had freed it.
Efreet's don't take kindly to imprisonment. No genie does. But this efreet had not been bound by Soloman, no ring or lamp to contain it, no wishes was it forced to grant to prevent its anger from being immediately unleashed upon its poor unleasher. In this case, me.
So I ran. I had run for my life before, true enough, from countless guards and soldiers, swords and spears, arrows and knives. But never had my life ever seemed so close to ending as it did then. Fire licked about my ankles as I fled the ruin. Bolts of fire had flown past me. Screams of rage from the bellowing efreet had rolled over me like pure heat.
Now, now at last, I could no longer hear its wrathful roars. Perhaps it had last realised its freedom more important than mere vengeance, taken out against one such as myself, when its true captor was likely an ages-dead sorceror, one now beyond its reach for revenge.
I sat in the shelter of two jutting rocks from the sand, and pulled out the opal. It was truly a marvellous gem, and even through my years of thievery, I could not recall seeing such a bounty. I admired it for a few moments, then I kissed it, imagining it to be the last job I, Hal-aji, would ever have to take. I could retire upon the reward Jara had offered for this single stone.
Suddenly, the opal grew bright, streaming light in all directions. I dropped it, startled, covering my eyes.
"What is your bidding, oh master?" a voice said. A voice that made Jara's own honeyed tone seem like some cheap back-alley harlot's in comparison.
I blinked the light away from my eyes, seeing the opal laying in the sand before me, no longer glowing. But a pair of dainty female feet caused me to raise my eyes swiftly upwards, following the contours of a likewise shapely legs and sleekly muscled thighs. A woman of unearthly beauty now stood before me. I managed to tear my gaze upwards quickly past her ample charms, to look into her face. By Soloman, no woman could be so beautiful.
"Master?" she said.
Master? my mind echoed, and then I realised why no woman could be so beautiful. She was a genie. If I had to guess, I would say a Marid, a genie of water, which would suggest how the opal had so confined the efreet. After I had managed to regain my wits, I answered her.
"What should I call you, oh genie?" I said, as I picked up the opal and slipped it back into the pouch at my waist. So, this is the real jewel Jara sought. What wonder's could this genie work? Thief I may be, but I had taken a job, and I considered myself honour-bound to deliver.
[OOC: Just in case anyone thinks I'm planning a little master-slave role with the genie, I'm NOT (where's the fun in that?). I intend to take her/the opal back to Jara, probably with a command, back to the city... where plenty of other characters can jump into the 'plot'/thread...]
[Edited by Kepic on 09-10-2000 at 04:33 AM]
... yes, by all means! consider the 'genie of the opal' character to be yours for the taking, I (eagerly) await your next post.
