The not-so-good short-story.

This is about Drune Silentarrow, an elf thief. This is my first (and I think worst) short-story about him. Tell me what you think about it.



Drune was passing through a small trading town when he heard tell of ghosts haunting the town. Intrigued, he sought out the local priest, seeking what information he could get from him. The priest was hesitant at first, but, after a few gold traded hands, he grudgingly told me what he could.

"The ghosts," said he, "Are not related in any way that I can tell. There are about six of them, and they are all different. Two of the ghosts are enemies, one is a friend of the sheriff, another ghost is a trader who passed through frequently, and the two others are said to be recently passed away boys, they drowned in the well, a very unfortunate accident. All have recently passed away. When I try to speak with them, they say something about a 'wizard', but we know it cannot be Krather, our resident wizard, for he is always locked away in his tower. That is all I know, now be gone." Not wanting to incite the wrath of the priest or his god, Drune left.

Drune decided to go and investigate this wizard. He knocked on the front door, with no response, He decided to sneak in and take a quick look around.

Drune scaled the walls until he found an unlocked window. Slowly, he crept inside, careful not to disturb anything. He snuck around, looking for anything a necromancer would have, but didn't find anything even slightly necromantic, except for the occasional mummified animal. He found many interesting items that he was tempted to take, but decided against it, you never know what you might find in a wizards house. Drune was heading towards the exit when he found the wizard, or, the wizard found him. First he was reaching for the window, the next, he couldn't move.

"My, my. What do we have here?" came a sarcastic voice from behind him, "A thief? But he doesn’t not appear to have stolen anything. You have ten seconds to explain why you are here." He said the last part in a flat, unentertained voice. Drune felt his mouth relax and was able to speak.

"I... I was trying to investigate the ghost hauntings, and tried to talk to you, but you did not answer your door, so I came in to investigate. Please... don't kill me."

"Not kill you? But still... Your story is almost crazy enough to be true. I'll tell you what. You go about on your little 'quest' and report to me ANYTHING that you find about the ghosts. Also, you bring me any magical items you find and I get the bounty, and you get to keep your life. How is that for a deal?"

He tried to nod his head but it didn't budge, "Yes, anything."

"Good, now here," He leaned forward and rolled up one of Drune's sleeves, baring his upper arm. "This will make sure you keep your promise." He whispered a soft word and touched Drune's upper arm, burning it, making a symbol on his arm. "Now go, and this time, knock when you com back."

Drune felt his body relax and he hit the ground, he quickly got up and bandaged the burnt arm, then left by means of the door. He searched town, scouring it for evidence, until he felt the symbol burning. He took the hint and headed over to the Wizard's tower, this time when Drune knocked, the door opened of its own accord. Carefully, he crept inside, trying not to step on any of the junk on the floor. As he was settling himself into an over-stuffed arm chair, the wizard came upon him.

"Ah, I see that you hearkened to my call," he said in that sarcastic voice of his, "I was mulling this over when I thought about my former apprentice, Brenkil. He was interested in animating things, a little TOO interested I might say. Anything he could get his hands on he tried to animate, until one day, I caught him trying to animate a dead mouse. I rebuked him and he seamed to calm down a bit, but a little while later, he said he had learned enough and left. I want you to go over to his house and check on him." he handed me a paper with directions on it.

"But..." Drune started to say, but a flash of searing pain came from the symbol. He gritted his teeth and said, "Fine."

"That's a good boy, on your way!"

Drune followed the directions to a rundown shack on the edge of town. It had a thatched roof, one closed window, and a door that barely seemed to stay on it's leather hinges. He knocked on the door, and it opened with the force of his knocking. He slowly peered inside, and found himself in a dusty one roomed building. He entered, searching the place for any sign of life. As he searched he found tracks of a sandal shod foot dragging many large objects in, but not out. He searched long and hard for what the person had done with the objects, until he found a trap door underneath a set of loose floor boards.

Carefully he lowered himself down through the trap door. Drune let my eyes adjust to the dimly lit corridor. The corridor spiraled down and to the left.

He slowly crept along, barely making a noise. He soon came upon a brightly lit room. In the room were tables and shelves full of powders, vials, scrolls,
and other arcane looking gizmoes. On the far side was a great table with a large corpse on top. Next to the table was a figure hunched over the corpse, sprinkling powders and doing other things to the body. Carefully Drune stepped out into the light.

"You! What are you doing with that body?" The figure whirled, Drune could see that it was a human male in is early 30s. He had pale skin, as if it had never seen the light of day, his dark brown hair was thin and straggly.

"Who are you?" he said in a high, thin voice.

"If you are Brenkil, then I am here to check on you. But if you are not," he glanced at the corpse, "then I am here to kill you for practicing

necromancy, I have a little stress that needs relvaing."

The figure guafed, "I am BOTH, but you shall not kill me this day! Golem, ARISE!"

With those last words the corpse shuddered, sat up and got to its feet, then he could see, as it towered over its creator, that it was indeed golem. Drune took a few steps back, not wanting to be near the monster. Brenkil laughed and quaffed a potion, turning invisible. The monster started lumbering toward him. Looking about he saw a few daggers lying near, so he picked some up and let loose with one of the daggers, sending it flying through the air. The dagger hit it and let of a burst of flames, the golem roared and flailed about, Drune heard an "Oofff!" then something hitting the floor. Brenkil's body slowly came into view. Refocusing on the golem Drune saw it had stopped and was twitching slightly, then, without warning, it started smashing everything around it. Drune slowly made his way around the golem and checked on the fallen wizard. He cursed, the cursed wizard was still breathing. Intent on riding himself of Krather, he started dragging Brenkil out before the golem killed us all. Drune made it out the trap door when there was a muffled BOOM! He dragged the unconscious wizard to Krather's tower. Drune was let in and he explained the outcome to Krather.

"I thought some of my scrolls were missing, but well done." The wizard started to leave.

"But, what about the symbol an my arm?"

"What about it?"

"Well, I did your dirty work, take it off."

"No."

"NO?! Why not?"

"I may require your services again."

"So what am I? A little servant that you can order around at your beck and call?"

"Oh, no. You can go on your marry little way, and don't worry, I will reward you for your services." As Drune was leaving the wizard called out.

"Oh, and don't try killing me, you wouldn't like the consequences."