This post was inspired by a writing prompt in the Worldbuilding Community - Echo
It's intended to fit into a body of lore I'm starting to put together to detail the bronze age of my Dungeons & Dragons world. Eventually I'll have enough to enable running a game with a deep background !
This tale links in (indirectly) with another post I made recently; The Coppersmith's Kingdom
Enjoy !
Image created by AI in NightCafe Studio
The tunnel was pitch black. Behind Akilos the entrance was just a dot, a pinprick of light. With his left hand brushing the wall, he advanced slowly, carefully, and as silently as he could. In his right hand was his most prized possession, his bronze axe.
The axe was a gift from Elasos, his friend and king. Of course, a gift as valuable as a metal weapon came with obligations. Which was why he was feeling his way down this cave tunnel one fingertip at a time.
His minds' eye recalled the scene a fortnight ago clearly. Two visitors had come to the Court of Elas begging for help. They were from a tribe in the foothills of the mountains to the northeast. They couldn't be directly seen from Elas, but there was frequently a distant patch of cloud in the sky over them which could be seen.
Akilos knew that somewhere in this cave was a monster. He'd been sent to defeat it, to destroy it utterly. But he had been warned that looking directly at it was death. He really didn't have to worry about that right now.
Stopping and holding his breath, he listened intently. Yes.... there was movement up ahead. Slow, stealthy movement. It was getting closer.
Carefully picking up a handful of pebbles from the cave floor, Akilos threw one. He heard it bounce down the tunnel, each strike echoing along the natural amplifier that the shape of the cavern made.
Then another stone. This one only bounced once. Then it hit something with a soft smack, before bouncing off and disappearing with a clatter into the darkness. Whatever it hit emitted a sharp, multi-tonal hiss, a sound which conveyed anger and hatred.
Wondering if the monster was as blind in the darkness as he was, Akilos raised his axe and threw another stone. His heart stopped. Whatever it hit was right next to him !
He swung the bronze axe in an arc with all his strength. He felt it crash into flesh and bone. The monster screamed, wrath and agony in it's voice.
The hissing was incessant now, something was flashing past his head repeatedly, missing him by mere inches. He couldn't see it, but he felt the wind of it passing, as it struck and withdrew, struck and withdrew.
Fighting blind, he tried to remain as silent as he could. Every breath he drew sounded like a hurricane in his ears, giving away his position each moment.
A clawed hand grabbed his arm. The monster knew where he was ! In moments, it would strike ! He slashed desperately with his axe, over and over. Twice, three times he swung and hit only air. Then he connected as he swung horizontally.
The axe slowed as it chopped through meat. Then it passed through, and the lack of resistance carried Akilos off balance. He fell. As he did so, he heard two thudding sounds, one louder than the other. The monster's body and it's head, hitting the ground a fraction of a second apart.
To break his fall, Akilos stuck his arm out through blind instinct. The axe he held scraped against the cavern wall. There was a massive shower of sparks, a glitter of silver reflection. This wasn't rock, it was metal !
The brief light showed him the monster, harmless now it was dead. A twisted female form, and nearby the head, covered in dying writhing snakes. One bite from them would have killed him.
He used a digging stick to pry some of the strange shimmering silver metal from the rockface, then returned to the waiting tribe he'd saved.
When Elasos had sent him, he'd said "If you can save them, join them and build a stronghold, a place fortified enough to protect them from the greenbeasts. You can rule it in my name."
Which is exactly what Akilos did. He named it Orilan, after the metal he had discovered. It became wealthy from the mine it owned, and the metal was orichalcum.
Aaaa man you're really creative with the worlds. You should totally consider working for Hollywood or the big time movie companies.This was awesome man. I almost fwlt like I was right there in the cave with Akilos. That twist with the Medusa creature was just art bro
Thank you ! I reckon it's only a matter of time before AI video technology advances to the point where ordinary people can put out their own films. That's going to be fun 😁
I heard the studio that made the "Divergent" series are looking to start making pure AI movies with a budget of under $15m each, and Hollywood is worried. In the meantime, I might see if I can turn a few posts into something self-published on Amazon or something. The hard bit is that I've realised my style mostly revolves around some kind of plot twist at the end of each post, so I'll have to work out how to adapt that to longer pieces !
!BBH
Woah man Divergent... That's one of my favorite movies of all time. And the storytelling the team has was just too good. To have AI power is just going to make it 10 times better.
Aha! Another Bronze-age addition to the history and lore of your world! Good job!
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