As you may know, if you take a lok at my blogroll, I follow Anna over at Too Many Annas. I do try to do the Friday Five's, and the Friday Fivehundred's, but I usually don't have the time. And yes, I do know that one day before the new one comes out is a little late, but seeing as I've already got it written out, (In my magical WoWPad.) and I have the time, here goes!
Unlike the usuall prompt, the starter for this one is just five words that must be included in the story: fog, book, bread, sailor, and horse. Other than thatm the only other requirement is that it be at least around 500 words. My entry for this week is focused on Xhazmor's early life, of which is mostly unknown. (Xhazmor is my Death Knight by the way.) As a child, he was a herb gatherer on the coast of Westfall, collecting herbs for rich scribes to buy on the market...
Xhazmor sighed as he watched the sailors step off the boat, looking like a ghostly procession snaking towards Ratchet's sole inn. He held a loaf of bread in his hands,but he didn't feel hungry. He knew he should eat it, he needed to keep his strength up for the long journey back to Booty Bay. As soon as Maiden's Virtue had unloaded it's cargo, they would be off, back to the goblin city and the steaming jungles of Stranglethorn Vale.
Only six more months, and he would be free. He knew now Mr. Rabbleshnick had overcharged him for the room and the journey from Westfall. After the old man out on the lighthouse had told him of the bountiful herbs of the Barrens, Xhazmor had packed up and left everything to make his fortune.He said his farewells to his family and set out for Sentinel Hill.When he got there however, he was broke. He was begging on the street when Mr. Rabbleschnick found him and offered him a job aboard his ship.
Caught up in his memories, Xhazmor nearly didn't see the rider until it was too late. One moment he was staring at the black canvas of the fog, and the next the horse's jet black hooves shattered his daydream like fragile glass.
Xhazmor got behind the protective barricade of the ships side and grabbed his musket. A cheaply made thing, the musket had been given to him secondhand after one of the sailors fell out of the rigging crossing the southern arm of the Maelstrom.
"Halt! Who goes there?" Xhazmor's voice quavered out of the darkness. He tried to make himself taller, to try and look braver than he sounded.
The man hopped down easily off the magnificent horse and strode proudly up the gangplank.
"My name, is Terathos Nightblaze, and I need to see your captain." The man spoke with enthousiasm and aurthority, and Xhazmor instinctivly trusted him.
"My captain is off-ship currently, and so you will have to deal with me, the ship's officer currently." Terrified he may be, Xhazmor was always a smooth liar. It wasn't too much of a lie, anyway; as the only person on ship right now, he could be considered the ships officer. Terathos instantly saw through the young boy's lie, but decided to go along with it. The boy was probably an orphan, tricked into a life at sea by the heartless goblins. He pitied him.
"Well then officer, I suppose we should discuss this in your quarters, for 'tis a cold night for one like me born and raised in the heat of Stranglethorn." He said with a twinkle in his eye. Xhazmor was pleasantly surprised by the fact he had conned this man. obviously a noble, into thinking he was an officer!
Xhazmor and Terathos talked all through the night, and only left once the sounds of the crew returning were in the air.Xhazmor spilt his heart out, and told Terathos of his hard childhood in Westfall. Terathos told Xhazmor of his adventures in Kalimdor, and how the Ratchet Innkeeper ewas keeping a very special book, his sole faily heirloom, for ransom, and so Terathos was being forced to steal it back. And that was why Terathos so needed a boat out of Ratchet, to escape. He didn't care where it went, Theramore, Darnassus, it didn;t matter, He just needed to leave. And never, not once did they give up the pretense that Xhazmor wat the ships officer.
*
It was a bright sunny morning when the Maidens Virtue set off for Booty Bay. They sailed under a cloudless sky, and the sun sparkled like diamonds off calm waters. It was perfect. But Xhazmor was worried. Maidens Virtue was about to leave, and Terathos was still somewhere in Ratchet.
Suddenly there was a loud crash, and the distinctive 'pop' of a goblin blunderbuss. Terathos appeared, bursting out of the top window of the Ratchet inn, book in hand, an angry innkeeper on his heels. Just as the ship was about to sail out of reach, Terathos leapt, and landed in a heap on the ship's deck.
Xhazmor heard the captain storming up from his cabin. He remembered that the Maiden's Virtue's 'illustrious' captain was close friends with Ratchet's innkeeper. Terathos didn't have a chance. Suddenly, the captai stormed out on deck. He stank of ale. Even worse.
"What's the meaning of this!?(Sorry, my keyboard won't type interrobangs.) I get woken up with reports of passengers stealing from the respectable Ratchet inn?" Shouted the red-faced captain. "I should throw you overboard for this!"
"But sir!" Xhazmor jumped in. "The book wasn't his! The innkeeper stole it from Terathos!" To this day, Xhazmor never really knew why he intervened, but his heart told him to, and he leapt into action.
'Enough! I won't hear of it!" You're both obviously liars!" The captain was nearly screaming now. Then he turned around to face them,this time with an evil gleam in his eye. "If you're so quick to defend him, maybe you can join him! I'll dump you both off on the coast, and damn what Rableschnick says!"
And so Xhazmor found himself in the Barrens, but not the way he imagined in the slightest. Oh well.
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