To fight, or be forgotten: The Journal of Laisren Ua Tiernan

[Maverick 40]

He rushed forward into their mists, uncaring and unafraid. There was nothing that would keep him from reaching her, nothing short of the lord of death himself. The first blade swiped and the first claws reached when he disappeared into the shadows. Sliding upon his knees, bending his back just beneath the blade and under the lunge of the red eyed wolf. The moon elf then reappeared behind the first wave of vampire. He then drove his twin elven short blades deep within the back of the first blood sucker he saw.

The creatures eyes grew wide as it felt the tables turned upon its self, the blades drinking of the vampire's own life force. It swung around to slash its longsword at the living elf, only to reach air. The ducking elf stepped back then drove back forward while the vampire lye exposed. This time the both the elf's blades to drink. Then, suddenly he could feel the rush of air and hot breath as the red eyed dire wolf back upon him. But, just as it was to bare down a flash of white fur was all he could see as he let loose his blades and rolled back to avoid snapping jaws.

Laisren tumbled over backwards watching his own companion, the white wolf Orlain, ram into the undead predator to break its lunge midair. Then suddenly arrows rained down all around them. Acid soaked, the kind the wood elf Slade specialized, followed by pure petrified oak, the kind used by the wild elves with great success.

The first line of materialized vampire were completely caught off guard as the Wood Elf Fhaeo slamed into their ranks with his shield and hammer. Following behind the blade dancer Vaelor, slashing and dancing through the wake of Fhaeo's charge. Laisren himself once more disappeared into thin air, leaving the vampire whom began to surround him confused and caught off guard. The unceasing volleys of arrows and the sudden charge of the warm blooded elves now left vampire suddenly off guard.

Before long, the number of undead defenders turned stunned and retreated back to the center of the temple. Laisren reappeared with the ranks of the attacking wood and wild elves. He closed his eyes and began speaking words in arcane, warding his companions and offering them strength for the coming battle. Across the temple lurked dozens, upon dozens of vampire, like a wall of death seeking to keep them from what lie beyond.

The moon elf opened his single blue eye, pulled forth his bow and took aim. He drew back the string and let forth his first volley of three fire arrows which struck it's intended target near unerringly. Then near two dozen other wild and wood elves followed suit as a rain of fire fell on the ranks of undead which opposed them. Laisren let out a battle cry as he let loose his next volley of shots, dropped his bow and took up his blades charging the vampires front line.

That was when he saw her, though it was not her, not as he had ever known her! She stood within the ranks of the dead, a crown upon her head, but pale and without life. Laisren began to slow, nearly stopping, as the first vampire ushered forth to greet him. "My love...", he said in a whisper of utter helplessness. He saw the Vampire rushing in blade, and fang but he slowed to a walk as he reached their rank.

"Laisren!!!", he heard a male voice call behind him but it was not the voice he hoped to hear as he continued toward the onrushing of death. Just as the first dozen vampire were to greet him, he entered the shadows. They swiped, blade and fang, in the air before him. He felt battle being entered as his wolf Orlain, the Guardian Wood Elf Fhaeo and Blade Dancer Vaelor began their assault, with the two dozen Dharashan and Wild Elves behind them. Laisren moved like an apparition through the ranks of the dead, moving once more to be with this woman he loved.

Then he was before her once more, the woman he told he would return for, if the Gods would permit but now he knew, he would not let even the gods stop him from returning to her once more! "Saline...", he whispered to her from the shadows but as she turned in his direction he did not see the bright hazel green eyes that were his loved one's but instead blood red glowering orbs. Still, somehow as he peered into ther eyes, they suddenly looked saddened. She spoke in his direction, "Laisren...?".

Suddenly her chest imploded from an impact of arrows, knocking the woman backward toward the ground. "NOOO!!!!!", Laisren screamed as he exited the shadows to rush forth and grab her before she hit the ground. Three arrows, those laced with acid protruded from her chest. "NOOO!!!!!", Laisren continued to scream as the last of the battle between elf and undead began to silence within this great hall around him.

Many elves rushed forth, only to be hushed by the sight of what lay before them. The death of the Queen, the woman they had all known, the woman whom they all loved but none more so than the elf whom now held her in his arms.....

The woman once known as Saline, as Queen of the Wild Elves, then looked up and spoke, "the..child...". Laisren could barely recognize her words as he lofted her up. Closing his eyes he called out the words in arcane give him the strength of a bull and to hasten his speed. He opened his one true eye, looked down at this woman he loved and ran for the rays of morning sunlit which rang through the great doors of this place of death.........

((to be continued))

[Maverick 40]

It had been a ten day since they had returned the Wild Elven Queen to the Dharashan village in the Misty Forest. There, the elders of the village took her to the Skyway Place and had commanded him to leave while they worked to restore Saline Ua Tiernan. Laisren had to leave her side, watching her body writhe and convulse as he exited the room. He paced back and forth outside the door as unnatural shrills and screams, like the ones called forth by banshee came from the room.

He attempted to enter once and was customarily removed by the guard at the command of the elders. So, there he did wait, just as this woman he loved had done for him those years ago. He waited for word that she was going to be alright, that she was going to be the same woman he loved. As the ten day passed, he did not take reverie, nor food. The Elders came and went, taking shifts in their care for the Queen. Laisren could feel their glares as they exited the room, each time, their eyes bore down in his direction. "Elder, is she alright?", he would ask in response but each time he got little more than a look of dejection.

Finally, the moon elf received his answer on the tenth day. Of the three Elders at Vigil, two stepped from the Skyway Place onto the platform outside. Laisren, whom was quietly sitting by the doorway, slowly stood. He seemed almost reticent to ask, "....is she alright Elde...", he began but Elder Endrain cut him off, "Elder Silverleaf will see you now", he said curtly to Laisren. Laisren feared the worst but rushed passed them anyways, his eye welling up with tears. When he entered the room, their was a strong smell of incense competing with a pungent smell of mold and rot.

The Queen's body lay upon a bed, candles and incense burning at it's foot, while the Spirit Shamaness Silverleaf stood at praying by Saline's side. She lay there still but breathing, Laisren could see her chest heaving slowly. He rushed forward to Saline's side, opposite of the vigilant Shamaness, he took her right hand within his own and began crying tears of joy it. After a moment of silent wailing, he attempted look up into his former lover's eyes. Her large Hazel eyes peered back into his stoically, without emotion. They had shared this gaze a thousand times before he knew but for the first time watched her head away from him dispassionately to look in the other direction.

A great pain struck Laisren in his chest. He sat there speechless, his mouth open but not knowing what to say as she slowly took her hand away from his. He looked up at the Shamaness, as if she were to have some kind of answer but she herself remained still for a time before finally breaking the silence. The Shamaness turned her emerald gaze toward Laisren, her eyes seemed to bore down into the center of him as he sat there, his emotions laid bare as an exposed nerve. "She has been through much child of shadow", the Shamaness told him coldly.

Laisren did not know why she addressed him this way but he did not attempt to rebuke her. He simply listened, waiting for the prognosis of the Elder in the case of the woman he loved, this woman whom now spurned him. "If it not for the fact that my visions portent your nature not to be evil, you would not be here now", the Shamaness continued to speak enigmatically. "I don't understand.....", Laisren said, seeking the woman to further clarify her statement, though he did not know how to begin his investigation. "This woman's Bond has been severed from her Bondmate.", the Shamaness stated with an errant frankness.

Laisren looked perplexed at the Shamaness, before calling to Saline, "What does she mean....?". "I mean to say that her Bondmate is dead.", the Shamaness continued and the moon elf's gaze whipped back around on her. He stood their incomplete disbelief, was this really happening, was he dreaming, what was going on, he thought to himself as he fell back from the bed. The Shamaness looked back at the moon elf, her eyes tightening and watching his reaction.

"You did not know this did you, of course not....", she said, as her face contorted and head turned slightly to the side. "What an elaborate ruse, to create a shadow of a former person and not explain it's purpose but rather let it absorb the identity of it's origin", the Shamaness gaze turned back to the moon elf, as did Saline's. The Moon Elf crawled back up against the wall beside the bed, shaking his head disbelieving, grief distorting his already scarred face.

He was dreaming, what was happening, he wanted to wake, he wanted the throbbing pain which ached in his chest to stop. The elf sat there feeling as if he were underwater and gasping for air......

(to be continued/edited)

[Maverick 40]

The one eyed elf backed into the corner of the room as the Shamaness turned round the bed and began slowly walking towards him. "What you have to fear is the truth and not my words", the Shamaness said passionately, intimating that she wished him no harm. Suddenly, he began to dissipate in the shadows which danced in the corner of the room with the flickering of the candle's light. "Do you not wish to know what happened to you, how you came into being?", the Shamaness told the shadow in the corner of the room.

"I know how I came into being, I am the son of Moonshae elves.....", an angered voice returned from the shadow. "Yes, Laisren Ua Tiernan was, the bondmate of this woman but that is not whom you are.....", the Shamaness said with a sad hint in her voice. "You say I died, how can you say this?!?", the shadow retorted. "Because I saw the vision of the Queen, I know what her people's Druids could not, when she fell ill", the Shamaness said. "She fell ill before her abduction because her Bondmate died but the Queen refused to release her bond, it slowly began to pull her soul from this plane as she sought to keep the door open for his return", the Shamaness said confidently.

"How do you...", the Shadow spoke but was interrupted by the Shamaness, "Because I have the gift of sight and as I sought to heal this woman's body, so to did I seek to heal her soul". "If you portent to care for her, then you must help me shadow", she told him. "Let me enter your spirit, I can tell you what happened to you, why you have come to exist and who you are?", she explained. "I don't believe you", the shadow retorted, "how do I not know that you work for one of those whom abducted my wife...?". "You do not, but neither do you have a choice and so your path is set", the Shamaness explained.

"Please.....", was all the meager response that Saline could muster as she looked up toward the shadow in the corner of the room. It was all she needed to say, as suddenly a lithe form began to materialize. It's glass eye first shown in the light, then it's pained face looking at the woman lying there feebly on the bed. It's crystal blue eye was filled with tears but finally it gave in, turned to the Shamaness and nodded................


The one eyed elf submissively watched the long dainty fingers of the Shamaness reach out to him. He watched as they gently curved to caress his chest, her palm coming to rest at his heart. He looked up into her emerald eyes, her straw blond hair seemed to dance as if she floated in water. A purple aurora surrounded her figure but it was her eyes that transfixed his own. She nodded slightly, in a suggestive fashion. He did not know whether he felt compelled but he nodded in return.

Suddenly, all the weight of the world around him was lifted. He became as smoke floating in still humid air. He felt scared, he did not like this, this feeling of being out of control but he could not stop it now. He now moved toward the dark orbs within the fields of emerald. The darkness began to pinch into tight oblong shapes, then they began to expand once more as he moved through them into a vast nothingness......

He was now nothing, in a void of great darkness, floating ever on. Then he saw it, a shadow on a twilight's horizon......

It was the same image he had seen before in the field of grass but this time, there was no field. There remained the tree but all around there was a vast, cold empty waste underneath the Moon's mournful gaze. The day's light danced along the horizon but failed to overcome the clutch of night. All this his eyes breathed in until he recognized her form, still bound by the clutching shadows of the tree.

The woman he knew as a boy, whom loved him like no other. The woman he knew as a man, whom he loved like no other. Their faces combined, ever changing, shifting. One and the same but not fixed. This figure wore the same golden gown he now remembered in his dreams. Suddenly, he felt his feet once more cast upon the cold hard ground. He rushed forth to the woman.

Then as he grew near, the tree shivered and seemed to recoil. The sun's light grew stronger upon the horizon. Then he was before her, tearing at the shadows with his mind as well his arms, commanding them to release this woman. The light upon the horizon grew and the tree's shadows began to relent until the woman broke free their malicious grip. She fell before him gasping but when she looked up, she was not the same women he had seen previously.

Before him sat heaving the same straw haired woman whom brought him to this place. It was confirmed when she caught her breath turned her emerald gaze back towards him. She looked to him in shock, her pupils now large and round, expressed a terrible concern upon her once serene face.

Then, this face changed from oblong almond, straw haired and emerald eyes, to sharp cream colored, raven haired and crystal blue. "You will have a choice, shadow of what once was...", the voice of the woman told him the it spoke as a melodious sound of all the women. "....to continue the life of the man you follow, or set a new course for the world that comes", she finished as her features changed once more, this time to round complected, with auburn hair and round hazel eyes. "You are the child of shadow, born from a child of fire and light", the figure of Saline Ua Tiernan told him.

Then ground beneath his feat began to shake as the horizon once more began to lite into a terrible blaze. Light once more entered this seemingly forgotten field but with it there came a terrible fury. He looked looked frantically around, as if a place might be found, a shadow for which to hide but as the fire drew in around him, he knew that there was none.

He turned back around looked into the large hazel orbs of this woman and he could see the visage of all three women staring calmly back at him. He shook his head not understanding at first. The woman looked up to the moon, then back to him and smiled. Suddenly a calm serenity overcame him. He looked into her eyes as the fire on the horizon rushed towards them, melting the ice at their feet. He could feel the blistering heat bearing down on him and he nodded to this woman. Then there was searing pain as he felt the fire overcome him and a crushing of gravity drawing him back into his corporeal body.

There he knelt in the corner, as two of the women in his vision bore their sights down upon him. To the shamaness he simply looked up and nodded his head in acceptance. He stood and moved briskly for the door in the room. The Shamaness did not move to stop him but just as he reached the door, he turned to Saline still lying on the bed. "He will have always loved you", the one eyed elf told her as water filled his eye.

He paused for a moment, looking longingly toward Saline, long enough for the Shamaness to speak, "Choose wisely shadow, we will be watching you...". Then he was gone.

[Maverick 40]

The fresh air did little to abate the sour taste in his mouth. The sound of the breeze blowing through the leaves only added to the weightless feeling in his chest as he looked down upon the people of the village. It was the same children playing while their parents worked around them but this did not bring the same sense of joy, or contentment it once did. "Why did he leave her, what had happened.....what happened to me...?", continued to play and replay within his head.

After the guilt, came the confusion, "Why am I here, whom am I...?". His mind raced while his one good eye tensed trying to remember what happened? Then the voice came to him, like shrill sound in the night.....

"Do not worry boy, your precious Saline and her green elves still have a role to play in the great war that is to come. So too, will your child..........."

The words flashed into his head like a searing fire and his eye shot open. How did he know these words? The carrier of this voice, he was the one! He was the one whom sent him here but why? He was sent here for a purpose, but for what? The fiends had Saline's child, but what did this have to do with him?

Then he thought, the Wild Elves had broken all communication with the outside. They had retreated deep within the Moor. None had known their position, not even the fiends. Then he came, with the people of this village. It was them, they had provided the means, they had provided the distraction. NO! He had provided the distraction, he had hunted her down, in his incessant need to be with her, the woman his heart told him he loved! They used him to get to her, they used all these people but how!?!

Suddenly everything since his return became clear to him but for one fact, who was he? Then the anger set in. He could feel the contents of his chest as his heart began to beat heavily. His face began to sneer, his muscles began to tense and a fire raged in every fiber of his being. It did not matter whom he was, no one deserves this!

He watched the children playing below, the men and women working, not knowing the great game that was being played out before them. This game that threatened how many of their lives? Perhaps the wise ones knew whom he was, he did not. Perhaps they feared what he was, though they should not. The hooded man with the blue lips, that one did know! He had taken the life of Laisren Ua Tiernan, he had nearly killed Laisren's good wife and he had taken their child.

None of this mattered anymore, because this same blue lipped wraith had made a terrible mistake. He had stoked the flame that now burned within the heart of this one! There could be no doubt, he had created this man to serve his own will, to use him, to snuff out the very lives this being had been told were precious to him! But this apparition had made one fatal error, his minions had not killed him, had not killed this woman. This creature he knew, it would pay dearly for this mistake! By the flame he now carried within his heart, this phantasm would burn............

[Maverick 40]

((to be continued))