Talison, Sylas, and the old man (Part One)

The old man had told them that they could find the ruins in the forest east of town. The old man told them that the creature that was attacking the town was inside the ruins, coming out at dusk and taking children from the village. The old man told them that they'd be saviors to the town; saving the kids was reward enough, but they weren't going to turn down the 200 gold reward either.

That old man lied.

Talison and Sylas had been all over the forest, and they never found any ruins. Talison's scale mail was starting to weigh him down, but he kept moving, though he began to use his glaive as a walking stick after a while, the runes he had placed on the blade glowed faintly in the daylight. Sylas's dark green robes were getting dirty, and her long, light blond hair was getting caught in the low hanging branches, so she had to make it into a ponytail. She was leaning on her staff more then she was before they started. They were tired and worn out with nothing to show for it.

They said nothing on the way back to town, both of them were pretty mad about the situation. They were going to have words with the old man when they got back, that's for sure. As they came to a clearing, Sylas suggested that they rest for a bit.

Talison laid he pack down and sat against a tree, he dug into his pack and pulled out a bread roll and gave it to Sylas. He took another one out and took a bite out of it. Sylas sat a little ways away from Talison, and laid down. They had been walking non-stop for hours, and she was getting tired, not to mention that they did not eat the entire day.

"I can't believe that old man lied to us," Talison said, he calmed down some by now. "I bet he was bribed by some other adventuring group to give them the right info, and everyone else the wrong direction to the ruins."

Sylas rolled onto her side to face Talison, still eating her bread roll. She swallowed and said: "What are we going to do about it? I don't think there's anything we can do. It's not like we can rough him up or anything. Most we can do is yell at him."

"We could take his cane away, maybe. That'll teach'em." Talison said with a laugh. "Lets see him work at that orphanage of his then, with all those hyperactive kids running around."

Sylas laughed and said: "Aww, but who will take care of those kids then if he can't stop them from running a muck? He's probably have a heart attack trying to stop them all from tearing up the place without his cane."

"Sylas, you're assuming that he HAS a heart to begin with."

"Ha! Maybe he's the monster killing the kids!"

Talison stopped for a second, the bread roll inches away from his open mouth. He turned his head to look at Sylas, who was giggling at the thought of the old man turning into a monster and eating the kids in a comical fashion. What if she's right? What if the old man was actually the one eating the kids and got the mayor to issue the bounty on a fake monster, just so that he can keep on munching kids? Talison's mind was racing with different old-man-eating-kids scenrios.

Sylas finished eating her bread roll and saw Talison mulling over the idea in his head. "You don't actually think that the old man might be doing all this, do you?" She asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Well, it makes sense, doesn't it? The old man works at an orphanage, which has an ever decresing orphan count. When asked about the bounty, he told us that we could find the monster here, but we've scoured this entire forest, and no sign of the ruins or the beast have come up. If he is behind it, no one is going to assume the old man is behind it because he's just a frail old man who works with kids."

Talison quickly drank some water from his water skin and got up, he held out his hand to help Sylas up. She looked up at him, still not sure is she buys into his theory, but knew that Talison wasn't going to be swayed. She took his hand and got up, brushing off anything that might have gotten on her robes. She scooped up their packs and they started to head off to town, with the sun starting to go down in the horizen.

Welcome to my humble abode.

Welcome to No Saints, No Sinners, a blog set up so that I can place my writing up online for everyone to see. Feel free to comment on my posts and offer your criticisms.

As for the content on this site, I'm going to be writing fiction, usually based in a fantasy setting (think Lord of the Rings or the Dragonlance books), though I may do some stuff in the same vein as the World of Darkness, whatever comes to mind.

Whatever I end up writing here, I hope you enjoy your stay here.