Posted 9:17 PM by Tim
Bronn stood and stared at the small glinting object across the room. It was a small gem, mostly unremarkable in it's appearance. A somewhat shiny purple colour, with a ragged red fissure of another kind of stone which ran nearly all the way through it. It glinted in the small shaft of sunlight which poured down on it from overhead.

The sunlight did not come directly through the ceiling - none dared let such light shine upon the stone directly - rather, it was reflected several times though an ingenious system of mirrors, and through several tinted glass lenses which dampened the strength of the light until it was that of twilight even on the brightest of days.

Bronn looked at the stone, and then at the floor between him. He knew of the traps that lay below the seemingly innocent stone tiles. Had heard the other keepers talking of the poor fools who had been blinded by the stone's power - and who had walked across the floor as if entranced. Once, he had even seen the body of such a fool, or at least, what had been left of him. Bronn was no such fool. He stayed his feet, even though he could hear the stone's calling echo in the back of his mind. He suppressed it.

"Bronn!" came an old, dusty croak of a voice. He knew it instantly: it was his master, Garouda. He ignored it. "Bronn!" came the voice again, louder this time. The old man had probably hurt his throat calling so loudly. Bronn turned to face Garouda.

"What is it, old man," he said with an icy tone, "I've no time for your prattle now."

"I know why you have come!" said the man, limping as best as he was able down the long stone hallway. "You have come for the Stone of Garresh."

"That is correct! And I shall have it." Bronn's tone was supremely confident.

"You are a keeper! You know why none must possess the Stone more than anyone," protested the old man.

"I am not a keeper. I did not yet take the oath!"

"A formality," said Garouda.

"A triviality," smiled Bronn, "I've no desire to waste away my life guarding this power from others. I only wish to take the power for myself. To use it to my own ends, and to bend it to my will."

"Have you learned nothing from your time here? From the legends?"

"The legends are merely fanciful tales of woe. There is no truth to them." Bronn sneered. The call of the Stone rang louder in his mind. He forced himself to stay put.

"They are all true! Each word of them. You must belive that, or you would not desire the Stone so.

"No. The rumours of the powers of the stone told in legend are true, but the lessons they teach are false. The stone does not corrupt. Those who have had it have been corrupt all along, the stone merely let them show their true selves. The powers of the stone are great indeed, but it does not strike down it's weilder with curses and accidents and fate. The people who wielded the stone brought these things upon themselves. Their own flaws and desires and foolishness brought their doom upon them."

"And what of you?" asked Garouda. "Will you too fall victim to your own flaws and desires? Will you show that you too are corrupt?"

Bronn laughed. "Of course I will," he said, "I am not perfect. I am nothing more than a man. But with the stone, I shall change myself. Mold myself into a being which cannot be stopped. That no man can strike down. And if I fall, it shall be from my own hand."

"Do you seek to aid your fellow man? To use the stone for good, and not for your own purposes?"

"Are you truely such a fool that you would ask me such a question?" Bronn smirked at Grouda, then his face suddenly fell. "You roused the keepers, didn't you? You told them of the threat to the stone and they are coming, aren't they?" Bronn could hear the sound of footsteps - many footsteps - coming closer, behind them the shouts of the keepers and their warrior men.

Bronn smiled, "Perhaps you are not a fool after all," he said to Garouda, "But you have failed. This room is set with traps to kill the unwary. Even those who know of them cannot avoid them all. Yet, there is something that none but the oldest texts have mentioned. That the stone issues forth it's power to all who are near it. That it bolsters the strength and speed and hardiness of all those who are in it's presence. Even you cannot say that you have not felt it's call standing in this room." Garouda dropped his head slightly, and Bronn smiled a broad, wicked smile.

"You're prattle has been meant to delay me, old man, but it has also allowed the stone to fill me with power." Bronn could hear the jingle of the armoured men at the far end of the long corridor. They would be upon him in only moments. "Enough power to do this!" Bronn turned from the old man and took a full step before leaping into the air. He sailed long across the room, clearing the trapped floor in it's entirety before slamming bodily into the small pillar that held the stone. As his feet touched the floor, it began to crumble and fall away.

He snatched the stone from it's perch and felt the full power of the stone wash through him. The world, or at least his perceptions of it, changed and fell away. He gripped the stone tightly in one hand, and braced himself against the small pillar. He heard the whistle of arrows flying towards him and he brushed them aside with his had as if they had been little more than flies.

Across the room, stood the keepers, stranded from him by the traps of the room, swords drawn and ready for battle. Several bowmen readied more arrows. Garuda, who stood in their midst wept openly for what he had allowed to happen.

Posted 3:51 PM by Tim
I woke up face down on the floor. I say "woke up" instead of "came to" because it was morning when I woke up, and before that it was early evening. Why I was on the floor, I'm not exatcly sure. It wasn't until I tried to move that I noticed just how much pain I was in. Everything hurt, and I mean everything. But not all in the same way. My head was a dull throb, mixed with a buzzing pain in my teeth. I checked with my tongue, gingerly, seems as if I had a few less than I'd had yesterday. My right side burned with pain, especially my ribs. They seemed to grate on each other when I tried to move, so they were probably cracked, maybe even broken.

My arms tingled, and my legs had shooting pains in them. Honestly, I couldn't feel my feet. It seemed like there was simply too much pain for my brain to handle at once, becuase it would sort of fade in and out or I'd suddenly notice a new pain somewhere, like my left eye, which felt swollen and probably blackened.

After three excruciating attempts to get up, I settled for simply laying on the floor. I couldn't see anything out of my left eye, but that was just as well as it was the one closest to the floor. The cold concrete seemed to help with the pain on that side of my face, so I just lay there. I looked around with my right eye. I won't call it my "good" eye, becuase it certainly wasn't. What I could see was blurry, and tinged with a little bit of red around the outside. I couldn't see much. Looked like a dusty warehouse. Tall shelves and dirty windows that let a little bit of sunlight in.

I listened for a while, but couldn't hear much. A constant high-pitched tone sounded in my ear and seemed to overpower the other sounds of the warehouse. For a while I wondered if there was actually something that was making the sound, but I later figured someone had just hit me hard enough to make them ring, and keep on ringing.

While I lay there, I wondered why whoever did this to me hadn't just killed me. Thinking was hard with the pounding in my head. I came to the conclusion that since I didn't know where I was, or how I got here, that it really didn't matter if I was dead or not. I certainly wasn't going anywhere. I wondered if maybe whoever had beaten me was just taking a break so that they could come back for round 2. That thought made me try to get up again. I was reminded quickly why I was laying on the floor as I passed out from the pain. When I woke again I resigned myself to whatever fate brought.

I don't know how long I laid there like that. Wondering about how I got there and how long it would be before someone found me, or worse, before they came back. Whoever "they" were. I think I may have passed out a couple more times while I lay there, but its hard to tell.

Posted 2:58 PM by Tim
It was pissing rain again. Third day in a row. The skies had been every shade there was from light grey to black in the last three days with no sign of the sun whatsoever. It wasn't a bad thing though, he preferred it grey, and a little rain never hurt anyone. Still, he was running out of dry shoes and jackets.

Normally if it had been a rainy day he would have stayed indoors and rotted his brain with some mindless reality TV program or other. He really hadn't had that option this week. He'd been called in to work an extra shift twice. He really couldn't have refused. He was still short for rent money. His shift tonight might just cover it if he could make enough in tips. He wasn't looking forward to what Mrs. Grimble, his landlady would say if he was late with rent again.

Posted 8:30 AM by Tim
I've not posted in here since February. Likely, I promised to post more often. Yeah. Ok. Isn't happening. I can say that I've been mulling story stuff in my head for a few weeks though. So, maybe I'll get to working something up at home. Can't say that it'll make it out here, but it might.

That's the best I can offer for now.

Posted 6:35 AM by Tim
I've been getting the starts of storylines in my head again. It must be time to start writing again.

Posted 11:35 AM by Tim
Um. I finished the NaNoWriMo novel. Should have said something about that. Thought that I had.

Anyway, on to today's babble. I had this thinking going on, thought I'd share it in a sort of play fashion.

Bob: Hi! I'm Bob, I'm a devout Christian.

Dan: Hi! I'm Dan. I'm athiest.

Rick: Hi! I'm Rick, I'm agnostic.

Bob: Aren't you guys worried about going to Hell when you die?

Dan: No.

Rick: Sort of. If there is one, that is.

Bob: Why not? The bible says, if you don't believe, you'll go to hell.

Rick: Doesn't it also say that even if you do believe, if you don't repent you'll go to hell too?

Bob: Yes. That's true.

Rick: So, you'd need both, right?

Bob: Yes.

Dan: Look, explain this to me. If I don't believe in God, and I also don't believe in the Devil. Then there's no way that I'm believing in Hell - other than as an interesting metaphor. So. You're telling me that when I die, I'll go to a place that doesn't exist? Isn't that the same as being regular dead anyway?

Bob: No. That's not right. Just because you don't believe in it doesn't mean that it's not there. You believe you have a soul, right?

Dan: No.

Rick: Yeah. Or something anyway.

Bob: So, you're saying you don't have a spiritual side at all, Dan?

Dan: I don't believe in that otherworldly-mumbo-jumbo stuff. No Heaven, no Hell, no gods, no angels, devils, creatures of the great beyond and no souls. Its all stuff made up by people who didn't have a more rational explanation for things going on around them.

Bob: What? Its the word of God, man. People were inspired by Him to write these things and they were collected and put into the Bible.

Dan: Hogwash. The whole Bible thing is just a bunch of stuff people wrote that got collected together because it fit together. There's lots of other stuff from the same period, in the same vein that didn't get included. Look at the Torah or the Quran. Same basic story, different content.

Bob: Those aren't right though. The Bible is the only true book of religious belief.

Rick: But, isn't that what the Muslims and Jews say too?

Bob: Yeah, but they're wrong.

Rick: What makes them wrong, and you right?

Bob: The Bible tells us that we're right.

Dan: And the Quran and Torah say the same thing. We're not getting anywhere here. What you're telling me is this: You're right because you believe what this book tells you, and it tells you that you're right. Even though, other people believe book that tell them the same thing. For some reason though, you're right and they're wrong.

Bob: Yes. It comes down to faith. If I believe, and have faith, then it must be true.

Dan: And you don't see any problem with that sort of thinking?

Bob: No.

Rick: I do. I mean, each of the religions keep telling me that they're the right one, and all you need is faith to see that that's the case. But, if they're all saying the same thing, what happens to me if I make the wrong choice? I'll go to Hell, right? I mean, if I pick Christianity, and it turns out that the Jews were right, then I'm gonna go to Hell, yeah?

Dan: Yep. If there were anything to any of this.

Bob: No. Because the Jews don't have it right. They're wrong.

Rick: But how can you be so sure?

Bob: Faith.

Rick: Don't you have any doubts?

Bob: Sure, now and then. But with faith, you move past those doubts.

Dan: You mean with more rhetoric and the convincing of other people, you drown out rational thinking.

Bob: No. With faith.

Dan: Like I've already said. We're going nowhere. I think you're wrong, you think I'm wrong and neither of us is going to move. You've got your faith, and I have my rational thinking. At least, from my point of view. Rick here, doesn't seem to have either - or he wants both.

Rick: I want to believe in something. I mean, I believe there's probably something out there, but I don't see any proof of it.

Dan: There isn't anything. That's why there's no proof.

Bob: There's proof everywhere. Look any anything that is. That's proof.

Dan: You only think that's proof because that's what you believe. I say it's not proof, because there's nothing to suggest that it is proof - other than belief.

Rick: So, Dan's saying: There's no God because there's no proof of God, and there's no proof of God becuase there is no God. Sounds circular to me.

Dan: No worse than what Bob's been saying: I believe in God, so he exists for me to believe in Him. That's just as much a circle. That's why we're not going to get anywhere. Neither of those circles allows for anything else. I'm not going to budge from my point and he won't, even can't budge from his.

Rick: And I need more time to figure out who, if anyone, is right.