Re: Second Annual .Org Writing Contest
1000 words precisly, if youre not counting the title, wich i hope you dont
The Stranger's Quest
It was a beautiful night. The sky was bright and the pale moonlight shined upon a rider. If you’d looked closer you’d saw a deadly tired face. From were did this stranger come. Miles away from here that was sure. At an inn he stopped as he dismounted his horse, the stable boy arrived. “Take extra care of my horse,” the stranger asked as he tossed a coin to the boy. Then he stumbled inside the inn.
He asked: “Host can I have a hot meal and a place for the night?”
“Yes you can, stranger,” the host replied. “That will be 17 silver denarii’s.”
The stranger pulled out a little leather sack out of his pocket. With greedy eyes the host looked at it. How more coins the stranger took out of it, the wider the eyes of the host opened. Never had he seen so much money. After he had paid the host he walked back to an empty table in the corner of the inn. He sat there resting for about an hour when his meal arrived. It looked delicious. He ate and he ate, till he could eat no more.
When he was finished the host came to him and asked: “did you enjoyed the meal, Sir?” “Yes I did, it was delicious,” the stranger answered gentle. “Now I would like to know where my room is.”
“Wouldn’t you prefer to play some cards with me and those gentlemen over there?”
“No I don’t, I’m very tired and I would like to sleep now. The undertone in the strangers voice made clear that he couldn’t be persuaded to loose his fortune in one night. Now the host had to seek another way.
“Just follow me, Sir,” the host said onderdanig as lead the way upstairs.
In the middle of the night when the stranger was sleeping, the host sneaked into his room. He silently searched for the little leather sack. He was so busy searching that he didn’t noticed that the stranger was awake. His two eyes were waiting to cross the eyes of the host.
“Hello, what are you doing there,” the stranger asked nicely when his eyes crossed that of the host. Stunned by these words the host didn’t answered.
“What are you doing there?” This time the stranger became mad.
“I…eh…I.” That was all the host could bring out. The stranger stood up from his bed. This was where the host was waiting for, he hief his knife and tried to stab the stranger in his back. But with a fast move of the stranger’s leg, the host flew through the room and fell on the hard wooden floor. He lied there dazzled by the hard crash.
“Now I want to know where Sir John’s castle is,” the stranger asked with his normal gentle tone.
“I don’t know where you’re talking about,” was the answer. Without saying anything the stranger reached for his sword. Immediately the host changed his mind and said:
“Go west, go west and ask it there.”
“If you’re lying I shall return.” And he disappeared from the room.
When the sun set, you could see a rider appear on the horizon. No one knew who he was, but he was going west. He quickly got up with a farmer that was bringing his goods to the market.
“Sir John’s castle, where can I find it,” the stranger asked the farmer.
“You must follow this road till it splits in two, then go north,” the cheerful man answered. “Though I wouldn’t go there if I was you.”
As the stranger neared his target the night begun to fall. When he had finally reached Sir John’s castle it was pitch-black. He decided to wait for the day, for the castle gates were then opened. He kneeled on the ground and prayed:
“Oh god, may I succeed in my quest.
Let me finish what tried to finish me once.
May the Ancestor strengthen my hand and guide my blade
I too shall be brought low be death
But until then let me have glory”
Thunder broke the brittle silence of the land. A surge of raw energy lifted the stranger’s body into the air and briefly, in the heart of the flash, he saw the face of god. Glory surged through him and radiance surrounded him. All things were possible with blessings of the Divine.
With these new powers he decided to wait no more and kill the man that haunted him in his dreams for a decade.
He walked straight towards the guards at the gate. Stunned by the mere presence of the Stranger, the nimble guards quickly fell on their knees. He didn’t paid attention to these unholy men, and continued his path as the gates opened by the touch of his magic. A rain of arrows descended but none of them seemed to hurt him. They all fell dead on the ground inches before their target. The soldiers didn’t believe their eyes. That stranger had just survived a vicious rain of deadly arrows. Many fell on their knees and prayed to the Lord to rid them of this devil.
Sir John that had awakened from all the noise. Stumbled down the stairs to the main hall, what he was about to see would haunt him the rest of his short life.
“Do you remember me,” a powerful voice asked. Sir John looked around but saw nobody.
“I’m the son of Leonin Kha, the one you’ve so cowardly killed in his sleep.”
“No…that can’t be.” “You must be dead, no man can rise from his grave.”
“I didn’t died that day, but you did.” “Now I come to finish what you didn’t.”
The stranger pulled out his sword and with one mighty blow he beheaded Sir John.
Seconds after this event the guards came in to only find Sir John dead. The only thing that betrayed that the stranger had once been there was a black cape on the ground.
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