Kiri- The Story by Khalad (Quest Entry)

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Bluestar
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Kiri- The Story by Khalad (Quest Entry)

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Kiri - the story
Old are the worlds between reality and fate......
Kiri awoke dazed and confused, instinctively reaching for her staff, an oak stained length of wood, covered in runes from end to tip where strapped with leather rested a large blue stone. Picking herself up and dusting off her robes, she pulls her hood over her head and lets her eyes adjust to the light.
She notices a subtle blue light radiating from a scroll placed neatly to one side of her on the ground. Kiri utters the words 'fly' and raises her hand to catch the now floating scroll. The scroll is rolled and sealed with a red ribbon, Kiri closes her eyes and mana flows from her hand into the scroll, an image is projected into her mind *level 155 Immortify*.
She regards the scroll by tapping it a few times in the empty palm of her other hand, 'I wonder who this belongs to' she asks herself before placing it in her robes,
She frowns as she tries to remember how she came to be here. 'The last thing I remember' she thinks to herself, 'was the image of my parents, embracing each other and smiling down on me, a figure behind them reaching out, a blinding flash of light, and then .....here'
Kiri looks around the un-used alley, apart from a few old crates that line the walls and a shuttered window, the end of the alley was empty.
The hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, her head turns suddenly as in the distance a child screams. taking control of her mind and focusing on her inner force, she shimmers and enters the astral plane...with an intake of breath she focuses her mind and let's herself be drawn to the spirit of the child in peril.
Her body shimmers into existence next to a young boy, who is being beaten senseless buy a drunk, Kiri utters 'blind' and the drunk stumbles backwards flinging his arms up to cover his eyes 'ahh me eyes, I can't see nothin' he wails
Kiri utters 'bamf' and the drunk disappears in a cloud of blue smoke.
'What have you done to my father' screams the child, 'I didn't want him to die..*sob*.. now I have no-one left..*sob*..who is gonna look after me...'.
Kiri allows herself a resounded sigh and shakes her head 'I didn't kill your father' she says softly to the child, 'I just sent him away, he was hurting you.'.
The boys crying ceased enough to say 'bring him back..*sniff*.. please mam, bring him back, I don't care if he hits me, he's my only dad..'
Kiri nods towards the young boy and says 'I didn't mean to upset you, I will bring him back, he shouldn't hit you like that'
She closes her eyes and reaches out with her mind, 'summon' she utters.
The boys father appears soaking wet dripping blood and covered in giant leaches screaming 'gett'm off me, arrrrgh!...'
Kiri covers her grin with her hand, 'dispel magic' she says, and the drunk regains his sight, 'flame strike' she whispers and shoots a flame from her finger hitting a leech square on the back, again and again she squirts flame from her finger until all the giant leeches are nothing but powder.
Kiri walks up to the drunk and looks down on him, he cowers and averts his eyes, 'Listen to me drunk, stop your drinking, and if you hit this child again, I'll send you to a place far worse then the leech swamp, understand?'.
The drunk slaps his gaze back to Kiri with a hint of defiance in his eyes, 'faerie fire' she directs at the drunk who screams as imaginary flames encompass his body. After a couple of 'yes mam....arrgh..' from the squirming drunk, Kiri dispels the magical flame and lets the drunk stand and run as fast as his soggy boots will let him, the boy easily keeping pace behind. Kiri smiles to herself knowing the man will continue his drinking, but will think twice before hitting his son again.
After taking a drink from the fountain, she notices a few bystanders have gathered to watch the drunk get his just deserts, she smiles at them and absorbs her surroundings, she stands in the centre of a huge square, surrounded by at least half a dozen shops, most of them were void of business, those few that were trading had attracted a few sneaky little thieves. The path split four ways at the fountain, each went as far as the eye could see. One building stood out from the rest, above the entrance was inscribed 'Temple of Calathar'. Kiri knew she should go there but was unsure why.
She followed her instincts and proceeded to the temple on foot, as she began to walk up the steps to the temple entrance, a kid appeared out of nowhere, bumped into her, and then began running, Kiri spun around and casts 'web', the kid stops dead in his tracks and drops to the ground paralysed, 'fly' she casts again and a scroll hovers over to her from the sleeve of the pick pocket, she replaces the scroll inside her robes. 'This place needs some guards' she thought to herself as she turned to enter the temple.
A warm priest greets Kiri as she enters 'Welcome my child, I knew you would come'. Kiri smiles at the old man 'Do you know me priest? Why do I not know you?' the priest nods and beckons Kiri to come closer 'I am called Clericus, come child and sit, we must talk' and with that he turns and strides away to sit near a central alter. Kiri walks over sits down next to Clericus. 'You have been chosen Kiri, to defend and guide this barren realm we call home, you have shown yourself to be selfless, with a regard for others, such compassion is rare here, we need you to find others, like yourself, that can re-open trade routes to this once fine city, and keep them safe, you have seen how quiet our town square is, full of thieves and drunks, the people here grow sour and their hearts sad, for so long now we have been awaiting someone like you, to come and breath life back into this humble town' Clericus pauses for a moment to let the weight of his words sink in, 'I know what we ask from you is a lot, you will have to make many sacrifices and take on a great responsibility, but the rewards, believe me the rewards from helping others..' his eyes glaze over and his smile grows broader 'that is why I do what I do, I would have it no other way'.
Clericus studies Kiri's face for a moment, realising she is not going to say anything, he continues 'all I ask is that you consider it, take a walk around the town and meet some of the people, look into their hearts and you will see they are worth saving, the fate of Calathar rests with you Kiri, I will leave you to consider my words, you are all I expected'
Clericus stands and bows deeply before turning and walking towards a small door set in the side of the temple.
'Clericus' Kiri calls after the priest, who stops and spins on his toes to regard Kiri
'what would you ask of me my child?' he lifts an eyebrow,
Kiri raises her eyes to meet those of the healer and asks 'when I awoke, and found myself here in Calathar, I found a scroll, a powerful scroll, do you know anything about it?'.
Clericus shakes his head 'sorry, I know nothing of this, if this scroll is as powerful as you say, I believe you should keep it, if it falls into the wrong hands...'
Clericus bows again and departs. Kiri takes a deep breath exhales slowly to calm her mind as she considers what has been asked of her,
'why me?' she thinks, 'If only I could remember more of before I awoke here, am offered immortality and the responsibility of saving a town, if only I could remember ...'
Kiri's heart slows as her mind becomes one with her body, she falls into a trance, and begins to dream....
..as the demon knight swings his vicious blade at Kiri's head, she drops to a knee and spears the tip of her staff into his belly, knocking the wind from his lungs, standing tall she spins the staff up to connect the knights jaw with the butt, and a final swipe to the temple forces the Knight to stumble backwards and fall unconscious to the ground, she hears a noise behind and spins just in time to deflect a dagger plunged at her back, she kicks the man in the groin and slams the front of her staff into his face, breaking his nose with a resounding crack, with un-natural speed he recovers and tries to land a kick in her ribs, leaning back and out of range she hooks her staff behind his remaining leg and pulls it out from under him, he falls and hits his head on a rock, she sees a small pool of blood begin to form just as a fireball barely misses her head from behind, pain erupts from her ear and the air fills with the stink of singed hair, turning and dropping low to the ground she spots a sorcerer preparing to throw another fireball from his vantage above the trees, 'dispel magic' she counters quickly at the sorcerer, who's fly becomes inoperable, he muddles his spell and burns himself badly as he falls to the ground, 'fireball' she counters with her own which burns the unprotected sorcerer to a crisp, she turns to regard the two who still breath, 'earthquake' she mumbles and watches as the ground swallows them...
A single tear trickles from the eye of Kiri, she can't help it, whenever she is forced to kill, she feels saddened, she normally tries not to kill the evil that follows her, try's to avoid the conflict that plagues her life, but these were the ones who took her family away from her, and they deserved their fate, but now she is lost, without a purpose in life, what is she to do with herself now? With a sigh she picks herself up and begins to walk south, 'this path must lead somewhere' she ponders....
Kiri's eyes focus on the alter, she remembers, joining the academy after her parents death, finding out the truth from her master and leaving to roam the land looking for her parents killers, and then, after finding and dealing death to the three fugitives, walking for many moons on a path that seemed to go no-where, her life now empty, her only goal complete, she collapsed to the ground, curled up into a little ball and cried, cried until she had nothing left to cry, and finally losing consciousness...
Her parents appeared in her dream, telling her of their undying love, and their pride in their daughter, saying something about a 'greater purpose', and 'the ancients', and then there was a robed figure, standing behind her parents, an aura of peace radiating from him, his hand started to raise before him, she hears her own name spoken into her mind, a light erupts from his outstretched hand......her mind became peacefully still.

Kiri takes a deep breath, she has decided, her old life has ended, she will start another here, this is what she was born to do, to help others, 'but immortality?' she asks herself 'immortality is forever'.
The Saga of Kiri has just begun...


---Khalad---
~Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.~

-Ralph Waldo Emerson-
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