Tread softly in paradise for in the grass is a snake.
The land of Homm is a rich and prosperous kingdom near the south sea. Life there is lived at ease for those that are fortunate to be citizens under the king and his judges. It is a paradise. Or so say citizens that live there. The normal people don't say much at all. Within the kingdom are the six stars. Oracals or power. Water, Earth, Fire, Air, Ice, and Crystal.
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Cloud slipped out of the ally and troted up to the doorway unseen. "Hello there! This is where the McCally party is being held today?" He walked right up to the doorman hopping that the ill fitting cloths didn't attract any attention. They were one size to large for him but all he could get off the line. It seemed to work as he was bowed into the room.
It was a large room with pillers holding the roof far overhead. An awe to anyone foolish enough to look up. The people were spread over the room like chickens. All of them were citizens with their best jewelry on.
Cloud could only smile. There were good pickings here in this room. He went to work on the drunkest set first. Picking pockets and finding small change and the occasional paper note. Mostly he was just warmming himself up for the big show. Idly he listened to the conversations around him as his fingers found their way deep into other peoples pockets and pouches.
As thiefs went Cloud was not the best in the world. He had managed to never get cought playing his trade. Good thiefs don't get cought in the Homm kingdom. Bad ones are all dead.
He perked his ears and watched as there was a comotion near the front of the room. Then he saw one of the Judges! "Now that biddy ought to have something interesting." Slowly he worked his way over to the judge. He didn't know one from the other and didn't really care.
In just a moment of contact Cloud snagged a folded cloth out of their pocket. Then made his way out of the house into the night. It was best that he didn't play with his trade to much. Some missing items will be an annoyance. To much and people will start asking more questions then would be good.
It was a few hours later that he sliped into his hideout. Putting a candle he dumped out his catch for the night. "Coins, love letter, list?, and this pouch." Cloud brushed most of it out of the way and worked on the silk cloth.
The moment the cloth was open Cloud was blinded by a flash of bright color. Then he looked again at what he had. "Oh no!" Even to his eyes he knew what he had. One of the six. "What do I do?"
The oracal dimmed. "Run. If you stay here you will die."
Cloud looked down at what was most likely the greatest thing he had ever casually fished out of someone's pocket - The Oracal of Fire! But what struck him even more was that the darn thing could talk! "Did... did you just say something?" he asked incredulously.
The oracal winked at him. Then it said: "Yeah, yeah, I can talk... now get moving or you won't be talking any more!"
Cloud snatched up what he could grab and ran off to the stables to pilfer a steed and get the heck out of the city. Snatching a mount was no big problem, but where to go on such short notice? Cloud decided to make his way across the desert - there he would be less likely to run into any inquisitive strangers.
After what seemed to be endless miles of riding at full speed he noticed his steed was getting tired, just as he pulled up to
the first of the towering cliffs which marked the border of the kingdom of Homm. The ruddy red rock burned in the final brilliant light of the sunset, casting a color on the white sands benieth them that seemed ominously reminicient of freshly clotted blood. Beyond this point the laws and lawgivers of Homm did not dare extend their reach, for the lands beyond would be far to poisonous and wild to grasp. A small wellhead stood in the shadow of a shattered brick wall, and marked on a marble tablet facing it was a dire warning written in the skrit of the old ones warning all but the stoutest travelers to reconsider their journey, and turn back from the road facing them should they leave their land.
Cloud sighed deeply and pulled the painted mare he sat astride up to a complete halt as they came to the dreary and deserted outmarker, and hopped off, hoping that the well might still reach to whatever aquafer might lie benieth the endless dunes. He trod over to the carved stone column, and tried with all his might to pull back the bolt on the iron hatch covering the shaft, but it was so fouled with sand from years of disuse that he instead had to content himself with worrying the handle back and fourth to knock the crud out of the slide, and hopefully get it to move enough that he could yank the door open.
Cloud peered into the horizon as he fiddled with the blasted bolt, watching the last of the burning sun dip benieth the curve of the distant hills, and imagined that he could just barely see the lights of the tallest Ziggeruts [sp] of the city blazing, their prepetual bonfires always stoked to their highest in the early evening, and sighed mournfully to himself. "What a fool I was. Bah. I should never have thought to take anything from a Judge... the gods themselves must be punishing me for my this. But... what should they expect from me? Egads. Perhaps if I just dump this oracle into the well if I ever get the cursed thing open no one will ever find out, and I can go back to the city. I have no business being out here. I have nowhere to go... what shall become of me?"
Cloud was shaken from his sololiquey by an angry voice from his pocket " Throw me down the well, eh!" [indeed]
"What does it matter to you, anyway?" Cloud snapped, "Do I look like a judge? Am I going to use your power for some worthy cause? I don't see why you care if I toss you down a well, or into a dune, or... gah." He slammed the bolt in frustration, then staggered over to the wall to cradle his bruised hand. The oracle didn't answer.
Not until hours later, when Cloud, still brooding in self pity, heard the faint jingle of a horse's tackle. He didn't really need the oracle to tell him to run.
Cloud leaped on his mare and headed down the cliffside path, without water, without a destination, and without an answer.
The world fades from your mind and six dancing bunnys come hopping into your minds eye with loud music playing. "Hello Hello and Hello! We are Bunnybuns from the land of Bun! All of our fur is clean and shiny and Rainbow soup is selling our secret furcleaner today! Yes! You can that clean fur too! Only $19.99! Buy it now in a store near you!"
The six dancing bunnis fade into the mist of your mind.
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Cloud blinks and wakes up with a start. "What a wierd dream!" He shakes his head and gets up. He passed out soemtime last night on the cliff. After a moment he looks for his stead. "Not anywhere in sight... Where is that old nag?"
His pocket blurts. "She ran up the trail and is up in a nice valley eatting grass."
Cloud snorts and starts walking up the trail again. The oracal goes on. "I wouldn't go there if I were you though."
Cloud looks down at his pocket. "Why not?"
"There is the dragon for one."
Foul breath washed over Cloud the next moment and he looked up into row after row of very sharp teeth.
"SNACK TIME" said the gaping maw of the huge Ice Dragon towering over him.
Cloud froze, tried to run, tripped, froze again, and generally ended up being more amusing than effective. The Ice Dragon bore down upon him, icy breath blowing his fur back from his face, ready to strike... Cloud fumbled in his pocket at the last second, pulling out the Oracal and holding it up in front of him defensively.
The next thing that happened surprised Cloud as much as the Dragon; a stream of flames shot forth from the red item in his paws and hit the dragon right in the mouth. The dragon virtually exploded, showering icicles and bodyparts all around. Cloud was doused in droplets by then, and didn't really recover until a voice from his hands said: "Great. Were you trying to feed me to that thing?"
Cloud just shook his head, as much from the shock as in negation. "Alright then, get up and get that striped pony so we can get moving again."
Cloud made his way over to the grassy valley, hopped on the banth pony, and took off riding towards what appeared to be sea of blue grass.
Cloud looked around him a bit nerviously after some minutes of riding, gazing across the apparently endless plain of short bluish greenery. By turning around in his saddle and looking back the way he'd come he was rather disconcerted by how plainly he could see the crag in the rocks that he'd come to this valley through... and how obviously the footprints of the horse stood out. Someone would have no difficulty seeing him for miles yet should he be followed, and even if he did get out of sight the soft, nearly spongy turf would likely not recover from his passing for days. He spurred the horse to speed up a bit, and tried to decide where to go from here. In the distance to the north another row of cliffs could be seen, these ones a chalky white as opposed to the blood red of the desert, while heading more to the south he imagined he could see what appeared to be an ocean, or at least a very large lake. *sigh* He didn't exactly have time to steal a map before leaving... assuming there even were any maps of this place.
Cloud rode onward for several more miles, still undecided as to where to go, until suddenly the choice was forced upon him. His horse rounded a bump in the ridiculous turf, and suddenly snorted in terror and put on the brakes so hard that it nearly sat down, for the land just... stopped, before them. A crag a mere hundred or so feet across but perhaps a mile deep, or seemingly so, cut across the landscape like a dagger gash from some angry giant, with the sound of a rushing torrent faintly audible from its inky depths. Cloud dismounted and carefully edged up to the maw and peered in, suddenly reminded of his thought of disposing of the Oracle. Dratted thing, anyway. Thinking for a moment, he sat down on the edge, and yanked the small object out of his pocket, and held it out so its carved eyes stared down into the abyss. "Okay, you. If you're all knowing and whatnot, where should I go from here?"
"That BASTARD," replied the oracle, "You have to find a way across."
"Shouldn't *you* be giving the solutions? I'm not the oracle here."
"I know what you have to do. I can't hold your hand ever step of the way. I'm not your nanny."
"What do you mean, *have* to do." Cloud asked, turning the oracle to face him. "And who were you yelling at? And what --"
Cloud's voice faltered as the Oracle glowed brightly, and lifted out of his hand to hover in the air before him. "The oracle of Fire has chosen you as its champion. The other elements will stand in your way, and you must defeat them in my name!"
Cloud blinked.
"That's it," he said, "I'm out of here."
A wall of super hot air surrounded Cloud and stopped him from going anywhere. "Where do you think you are going Cloud?"
Cloud turned around to glear at the Oracle. "Away from you! I am just a thief. Not some world saving hero!"
The oracle made something of a sniff sound.... "You don't know who you are Cloud. Find this dream."
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The dream was fuzzy around the edges as a fine female roo came out of the front of a small low hut. "Ok ok... who is there?" Cloud asked the fire oracle.
"Your mother Cloud. You don't remember her do you?"
Cloud huffed as the dream changed to a man at the edge of a small village. He was dress finely and was drawing his sword. "Whats this guy?"
The oracle laughed... "Think Cloud... Your father. He is the king of Bard."
Cloud blinks... from what he remembered Bard didn't exist anymore. Homm had counquored it. He went on watching the fuzzy dream once again. It drifted back and showed the army behind the king. All with weapons drawn and read. The dream drifted more and he could see the Villagers running away from the army.
"Hey... What is going on here Oracle?" The dream drifted in and out of fire and flames. Flashed images of his father killing people.
"I thought you should see what your father was like. Not really a nice guy at all."
Cloud turned away from the killings and his dream reformed on his mother. His father was at the hut this time. With his army. Only this time he didn't burn the place down.....
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Cloud blinked. "I didn't know!"
The Oracle nodded. "Wasn't very nice. Now then. You have to get a move on. There is an invisable bridge two miles to the south. After that you will find the kingdom of Fitz. He is your grandfater. Now move!"
The confuszed thief hopped on his horse and rode south, making sure to stop on the way at a small stream for some much-needed water for himself and his mount.
Cloud pocketed some sand from the water's edge before continuing on... he eventually made it to exactly 2 miles south and tossed some of the sand out into the gorge... where some of it 'floated' nicely on the Invisible Bridge(tm) which had been placed there many centuries ago by a deranged genie... anyway he guided his horsey carefully onto the bridge and they made it across with only a few stops to regain balance after a gust of wind nearly knocked them off.
They rode on for most of the day, heading towards the capital city of the kingdom.
The sun was sinking low in the west again as Cloud entered a land of rough rocks and boulders strewn here and there, as if some untidy children had been interrupted in the midst of playing with a rather poorly made set of blocks. The vegitation thinned out to scrubby grass and thorny, twisted trees growing helter-skelter among the rubble, which while being perhaps unwelcoming actually made Cloud less nervious then the provincial lawn of blue he'd left behind. At least there were hiding places here, if nothing else. As the sky faded to a bluish purple, and the stars poked through one by one, Cloud dismounted his horse and led it some yards off the path to a small hollow sunk against the hillside, and tying it to one of the stunted bushes proceeded to build a small fire, and settle down for the night. Hiding the Oracle in a crag in the rock, happy to have it off his person for at least a little while, he fell asleep to the gentle crackling and popping of the dry wood being consumed to glowing embers.
*thunk* Cloud's eyes opened fitfully some hours later, some heavy noise disturbing his slumber. He peered about blearily, unable to see much but the blue-black of the sky, and the pale orange glow left in the fireplace. Nothing seemed to be awry, or at least, nothing that his painfully worn out body could be convinced to investigate. He laid his head back down, staring with half closed eyes into the glow, and was about to slip back to sleep when suddenly a black shape flitted across the light. He started awake, but it was too late. A dozen small but strong paws fell upon him at once, and he was bound tight with nary a struggle, a hood drawn over his head. His small captors then started carrying/dragging him away, his body bumping painfully over the rocks.
"Um... Cloud?" came a voice, from a crack in the rock, "Cloud?"
A black-furred paw reached into the crag, clutching the oracle. "There you are. I thought for a second you'd been... oh, wait a minute, who are you?"
The raccoon stared at the oracle of fire in awe, tilting it this way and that to throw flecks of light across the ground and rocks. "A... a talking shiny?"
"Rak, you have to run. The wallabies will be back any second, and they won't be amused that you took their shiny."
Rak wideeyed in horror. "Wallabies!?"
"Get on the pony and ride, Rak," the oracle said. "I am the Oracle of Fire, and I have chosen you to be my champion! We must get to Fitch!"
To Be Continued another day.