Grim Ruination, Birth of a Soul (On Hiatus)

The Gifts (1/2)

Susain followed Gregory frantically through the streets of Vanderin. She'd wandered through the town hundreds of times. She thought she had mapped it out in its entirety in her mind's eye. But now, with the abrupt chaos and destruction around her, she didn't recognize anything. As if she had randomly wandered into a town for the first time. The only guide she had was her older brother in front of her.

On their trek through the town they called home, they had come across several gnolls. Most of which were in the process of eating or killing (or both) a citizen of the town. Gregory handled most of them with a heavy blow of his hammer to their head. Some, however, had managed to sneak up on them. In which case Susain was the one to end them... most of the time. At times she was too slow to carve a rune into the air and the gnoll would reach her, only to have their skull caved in by the steel head of a hammer.

"Stay near me, Susain. I can't protect you constantly if you're far from me." Gregory shouted as he swung his hammer at another encroaching gnoll.

"I've never been-" She was cut off when Gregory grunted as he brought his hammer down.

"Doesn't matter. We are almost there. Hurry." He ordered, taking a quick glance back at his sister before bolting down the street.

"Going where? You don't tell me-" She stopped her rant half-way as she bolted toward her brother.

Finally, he stopped in front of a large stone building. Susain stopped at the foot of the small steps to catch her breath as Gregroy stepped forward toward the door. "If you want to protect me so much, why do you keep-" Her voice was cut off by a loud crash as Gregory violently kicked the door off its hinges.

Gregory stepped through the door frame into a dimly lit room that the gnolls had seemingly yet to break into. The room was nearly pitch black due to the fact that nothing but the moon and stars hung in the stars. The only light in the room was the faint silver light flowing in from a small window at the edge of the room and the new hole where the door used to be.

Susain quickly stepped inside, glancing outside one last time as she ducked aside, out of sight from anyone outside. Then she bumped into something with a deafening clang. She turned just in time to catch a metal shield that had fallen from its rack against the wall. "Gregory," She grunted as she carefully set the shield back in place. "Why are we in the armory? And how has no one gotten to it?" She mumbled to herself as she carefully walked toward her brother, being careful not to bump into anything.

"The gnolls attacked too quickly. No one had enough time to grab any weapons. The few guards in town were quickly overwhelmed. I saw their corpses on my way to get you. As for why we are here," He picked up a shortsword from a weapon rack next to him before facing its handle toward Susain. "Take this." He said.

"I don't need-" She began, but Gregory just dropped the sword into her hands before walking to an armor rack. She set the sword back in place before walking toward her brother. "I don't need these weapons. I have magic."

Suddenly, Gregory stopped before turning to his sister. "Your magic is slow and a hindrance. its better for you to use a weapon untrained than to take time to cast a spell."

Susain took half a step back. "I-I killed at least 3 gnolls before you got to me y'know. I can fight."
"And you'd've killed twice the amount with a blade." Gregory said.

"My magic can freeze things solid. It doesn't take much to hit the gnolls before they get close." Susain said.

"And what if they get to you like they did before?" Gregory asked. "You know how to cast your spells but you don't know how to fight." He explained. "You need to-" He was cut off by a sudden low growling sound from the doorway.