What in the name of the serpent gods had possessed him to get involved with a troll, Slithis would never know. Daily he scratched his scales in wonder at the things that came out of that monstrosity's gaping hole he called a mouth...and even worse, watching what went into his mouth when he decided it was time to eat. The maggot infested meat that the troll was willing to shove into his snaggle-toothed maw...Slithis shuddered at the many memories.
Enough thinking about such things. He was likely to be viewing it again shortly.
"Wot yoo teenkin' about Siltus?" Shub looked back at the iksar, who was following the troll through the mud sucking swamp of Stinger's Bog.
"It'ss Sslithisss you sslack-jawed troglodyte...how many timesss do I need to repeat myssself?" Slithis, crouching near a tree, pushed himself to his feet off the staff he leaned on.
"Dunno." Shub shrugged and shook his head back and forth. That guy was so grumpy in the mornings. I guess that's what happens to those cold blooded types when the sun was slowly working it's way toward warming the day. "Joo hongry Siltus? I shore am! I wunder wot dere is ta eat 'round here." Shub turned back and forth, his hand shielding his eyes from the morning sun. He shrugged again and trudged ahead, lazily grabbing the occasional wriggling creature off random moss ridden trees and jamming them into his mouth as he walked by.
Slithis shook his head again and followed, snapping at his minion to follow along as well. The zombie clanged its two weapons together and ran after it's master, groaning in acknowledgement. Sometimes, Slithis thought, I think I have better conversations with my minions than this mountain of slime covered troll. Still, he thought, Shub was a formidable companion. His strength and fortitude could not be denied, and although rudimentary and simple, Shub's ability in his own brand of magic was quite powerful. It had saved his scales more times than he dared to count.
Sometimes we get to choose our companions for companionship, sometimes we choose them because we just plain work well together. As much as Slithis hated to admit it, he and Shub worked very well together.
He still remembered that first day of leaving his brood to venture out on his own in the bog. He had been studying the cast off books that his brothers and sisters left lying around. He was the runt of the brood, and was barely noticed, let alone able to become apprentice to a master of the arts of the dead. He had to learn on his own. And the failures he stumbled through to get where he was now...he preferred not to think about those times. The creatures that he had summoned since had slowly gotten more powerful as he perfected his art…writhing in agony, moans echoing through their tortured corpses.
Those first few times though, he remembered the troll’s introduction at the most inopportune time. He had fought long and hard on his own to destroy one of the roaming undead in the bog. Back and forth he had run for what seemed like hours, throwing what few spells he could muster up against the shambling, creaking skeleton. Finally the think died in front of him...blood dripping from what must be a hundred wounds. He snapped off as many bone chips as he could carry and limped his way back to a spot near the city, where he could work in relative peace.
He sat in an alcove near the city's entrance and closed his eyes. He willed the healing of the serpent gods into his thoughts, slowly feeling his natural regenitive powers healing the cuts and scratches along his whole body. The robe would be reduced to a tattered ruin, slowly turning into rags as he ventured along on his many adventures with Shub, but his skin underneath the scales, but that was now, and he was busy thinking of then. His skin healed at an extraordinary rate. An hour later he was looking at his new scars appreciatively. Battle trophies he thought to himself.
He knelt down and grabbed one of the bone chips, gripping it in his left hand. The right hand drawing symbols in the air and the mud in front of him. He mumbled the words he remembered from his studies and held the shard of bone tightly in his hand, so hard that the knuckles were forcing the scales outward on the outsides of his hands. He began the summoning he had read about in his brood sibling's books. He was in the final sequence of the summoning, staccato words biting into the stagnant air as he motioned in front of him. He stopped speaking when he felt a pointed thudding on his shoulder. His concentration completely broken, in a spell induced daze he looked up to see a barely
clothed troll standing in front of him.
"Wot joo doin’ scaley?” it asked him.
“What doess it look like I am doing fool?” Slithis snapped at the slimy mountain in front of him. He ran his hands across the runes in the mud in fury, clearing his slate for a new summoning.
The troll scratched at his backside as he pondered the question. “I tink joo making skellie right?” His eyes brightened and looked at the iksar, nodding his head, sure he had the correct answer.
Slithis ran his hand across his snout in frustration. “I can ssee you’re one of the, uh, more educated trollss. Maybe you sshould run off and go learn ssomething ssomewhere elsse.”
“Naw, it okay. I like watchin joo! I t’ink I will get more edj…oo…mu…kay…tudd,” Shub nodded and said with more confidence “edj-oo-ma-kay-tudd watchin’ joo!”
Slithis hissed in frustration. “Lissten to me you wretched, usseless piecsse of…ugh.” His diatribe was cut short as his shoulder collapsed underneath him by the smashing of a mace. The iksar had a brief vision of the troll’s eyes opening wide in surprise before he started to lose consciousness.
Minutes later, the iksar groaned and blinked. He started to move and winced, collapsing back to the ground.
“Joo not move iksar. Joo hurtin’ up purty good. Almost done here and joo feel much more betta’. Slithis could feel the energies of spell casting surrounding his damaged body. He could feel the shattered shoulder mending, and there was no pain as the bones seemed to reset themselves. He crawled to his feet, staggering a bit from the blood rushing from his head. He shrugged experimentally and found no pain. He looked down to see the remains of one of the frogloks lying in a pool of blood.
“Him try to smash leezard. Me tott him lesson.” The troll grinned and nodded at the corpse.
“Thank you troll…hrmm…what iss your name anyway?”
“Me Shub,” he put his palm against his chest when he said his name. “Who’re joo?” he asked.
“I am Sslithiss. Thank you for ssaving my life.”
“Nice ta meetcha Siltus! Wadn’t nuttin! Me glad ta help! Dem frog’s good eatin!”
Slithis looked down and noticed that the froglok was missing a limb. He glanced back at the troll, seeing that the troll was taking another bite from the frog leg he held in his hand. “When you’re done with that, let me have the bones. I need it for my exssperimentss.”
“Wot kinda eck-spar-munts joo doin’?” he asked, spitting out chunks of raw frog between words.
Slithis took a deep breath and tried to answer patiently. “I’m ssumoning a minion to do my bidding.”
Shub laughed. “I tott dat was wott joo were doin’ afore dat froglok show’d up! I wuz just about ta tell joo sometin’ when dat frog int’rupt’d me. Joo don’ need no bone chips for dat! Dat’s prolly why you couldn’ summon nuttin! Hands too fulla bones to cast spells.”
Slithis groaned inside, thinking that he knew less than a troll, and that is about the biggest insult he could think of.
Shub saw his look of sheer and utter dismay. He grinned and patted him on the shoulder. “It no big deal. Me only know dis because my daddy is strong knight for Grobb city. He summon dem miny-yun things you talkin’ ‘bout all da time and I never see him wit’ bone chipses. Doah, we call ‘em skellies, not miny-yunz like joo calls ‘em. So I dun knew sumptin’ was wrong. Hey, joo wanna go git more frog legs? Me still have one more ta eat, but I gonna still be hungry after dat. Joo wanna?”
Slithis nodded and looked back at the troll. Maybe they should stick together for a while. He just had to learn patience…a lot of patience.
Enough thinking about such things. He was likely to be viewing it again shortly.
"Wot yoo teenkin' about Siltus?" Shub looked back at the iksar, who was following the troll through the mud sucking swamp of Stinger's Bog.
"It'ss Sslithisss you sslack-jawed troglodyte...how many timesss do I need to repeat myssself?" Slithis, crouching near a tree, pushed himself to his feet off the staff he leaned on.
"Dunno." Shub shrugged and shook his head back and forth. That guy was so grumpy in the mornings. I guess that's what happens to those cold blooded types when the sun was slowly working it's way toward warming the day. "Joo hongry Siltus? I shore am! I wunder wot dere is ta eat 'round here." Shub turned back and forth, his hand shielding his eyes from the morning sun. He shrugged again and trudged ahead, lazily grabbing the occasional wriggling creature off random moss ridden trees and jamming them into his mouth as he walked by.
Slithis shook his head again and followed, snapping at his minion to follow along as well. The zombie clanged its two weapons together and ran after it's master, groaning in acknowledgement. Sometimes, Slithis thought, I think I have better conversations with my minions than this mountain of slime covered troll. Still, he thought, Shub was a formidable companion. His strength and fortitude could not be denied, and although rudimentary and simple, Shub's ability in his own brand of magic was quite powerful. It had saved his scales more times than he dared to count.
Sometimes we get to choose our companions for companionship, sometimes we choose them because we just plain work well together. As much as Slithis hated to admit it, he and Shub worked very well together.
He still remembered that first day of leaving his brood to venture out on his own in the bog. He had been studying the cast off books that his brothers and sisters left lying around. He was the runt of the brood, and was barely noticed, let alone able to become apprentice to a master of the arts of the dead. He had to learn on his own. And the failures he stumbled through to get where he was now...he preferred not to think about those times. The creatures that he had summoned since had slowly gotten more powerful as he perfected his art…writhing in agony, moans echoing through their tortured corpses.
Those first few times though, he remembered the troll’s introduction at the most inopportune time. He had fought long and hard on his own to destroy one of the roaming undead in the bog. Back and forth he had run for what seemed like hours, throwing what few spells he could muster up against the shambling, creaking skeleton. Finally the think died in front of him...blood dripping from what must be a hundred wounds. He snapped off as many bone chips as he could carry and limped his way back to a spot near the city, where he could work in relative peace.
He sat in an alcove near the city's entrance and closed his eyes. He willed the healing of the serpent gods into his thoughts, slowly feeling his natural regenitive powers healing the cuts and scratches along his whole body. The robe would be reduced to a tattered ruin, slowly turning into rags as he ventured along on his many adventures with Shub, but his skin underneath the scales, but that was now, and he was busy thinking of then. His skin healed at an extraordinary rate. An hour later he was looking at his new scars appreciatively. Battle trophies he thought to himself.
He knelt down and grabbed one of the bone chips, gripping it in his left hand. The right hand drawing symbols in the air and the mud in front of him. He mumbled the words he remembered from his studies and held the shard of bone tightly in his hand, so hard that the knuckles were forcing the scales outward on the outsides of his hands. He began the summoning he had read about in his brood sibling's books. He was in the final sequence of the summoning, staccato words biting into the stagnant air as he motioned in front of him. He stopped speaking when he felt a pointed thudding on his shoulder. His concentration completely broken, in a spell induced daze he looked up to see a barely
clothed troll standing in front of him.
"Wot joo doin’ scaley?” it asked him.
“What doess it look like I am doing fool?” Slithis snapped at the slimy mountain in front of him. He ran his hands across the runes in the mud in fury, clearing his slate for a new summoning.
The troll scratched at his backside as he pondered the question. “I tink joo making skellie right?” His eyes brightened and looked at the iksar, nodding his head, sure he had the correct answer.
Slithis ran his hand across his snout in frustration. “I can ssee you’re one of the, uh, more educated trollss. Maybe you sshould run off and go learn ssomething ssomewhere elsse.”
“Naw, it okay. I like watchin joo! I t’ink I will get more edj…oo…mu…kay…tudd,” Shub nodded and said with more confidence “edj-oo-ma-kay-tudd watchin’ joo!”
Slithis hissed in frustration. “Lissten to me you wretched, usseless piecsse of…ugh.” His diatribe was cut short as his shoulder collapsed underneath him by the smashing of a mace. The iksar had a brief vision of the troll’s eyes opening wide in surprise before he started to lose consciousness.
Minutes later, the iksar groaned and blinked. He started to move and winced, collapsing back to the ground.
“Joo not move iksar. Joo hurtin’ up purty good. Almost done here and joo feel much more betta’. Slithis could feel the energies of spell casting surrounding his damaged body. He could feel the shattered shoulder mending, and there was no pain as the bones seemed to reset themselves. He crawled to his feet, staggering a bit from the blood rushing from his head. He shrugged experimentally and found no pain. He looked down to see the remains of one of the frogloks lying in a pool of blood.
“Him try to smash leezard. Me tott him lesson.” The troll grinned and nodded at the corpse.
“Thank you troll…hrmm…what iss your name anyway?”
“Me Shub,” he put his palm against his chest when he said his name. “Who’re joo?” he asked.
“I am Sslithiss. Thank you for ssaving my life.”
“Nice ta meetcha Siltus! Wadn’t nuttin! Me glad ta help! Dem frog’s good eatin!”
Slithis looked down and noticed that the froglok was missing a limb. He glanced back at the troll, seeing that the troll was taking another bite from the frog leg he held in his hand. “When you’re done with that, let me have the bones. I need it for my exssperimentss.”
“Wot kinda eck-spar-munts joo doin’?” he asked, spitting out chunks of raw frog between words.
Slithis took a deep breath and tried to answer patiently. “I’m ssumoning a minion to do my bidding.”
Shub laughed. “I tott dat was wott joo were doin’ afore dat froglok show’d up! I wuz just about ta tell joo sometin’ when dat frog int’rupt’d me. Joo don’ need no bone chips for dat! Dat’s prolly why you couldn’ summon nuttin! Hands too fulla bones to cast spells.”
Slithis groaned inside, thinking that he knew less than a troll, and that is about the biggest insult he could think of.
Shub saw his look of sheer and utter dismay. He grinned and patted him on the shoulder. “It no big deal. Me only know dis because my daddy is strong knight for Grobb city. He summon dem miny-yun things you talkin’ ‘bout all da time and I never see him wit’ bone chipses. Doah, we call ‘em skellies, not miny-yunz like joo calls ‘em. So I dun knew sumptin’ was wrong. Hey, joo wanna go git more frog legs? Me still have one more ta eat, but I gonna still be hungry after dat. Joo wanna?”
Slithis nodded and looked back at the troll. Maybe they should stick together for a while. He just had to learn patience…a lot of patience.