Stone Song
The story of Aeger the Red


Chapter one, Aeger the Nord

Aeger sat down on the corpse of a recently killed bear, Mara knows how. He had been lost for three hours, and when walking through a completely white sheet of ice, time goes slowly. He sat, trying to catch his breath, talking to himself. "Okay, what did father say, umm, don't stop going left, I think.Oh, why couldn't it just be fighting some trainer instead of going hours away from the village and bringing back the body of a Draugr?". Aeger was confused, lost and soon to be in danger of his life. He thought back to the hours before he left, saying goodbye to friends and family, packing his backpack with three knives, two torches, a net and among other things, a currently useless map.

Aeger started hacking at the Bears body with his knife. Though he was a pretty good fighter, many of is best skills included a knife and an animal, for his mother skinned animals and made pelts while his father added them onto and inside of armour's and sold them. He kept hacking and cutting, his strong muscles strained as they helped him do so. Within twenty minutes he had an increadibly large pelt made of Bear skin and fur. He wraped it around his lightly armored body. He packed the meat of the Bear and said a prayer for the poor lifeless Bear and started walking left again.

Left, right, left, right, left, right, his walking was like the beat of a drum. Aeger loved drums, the way they made his heart pound, the loud, booming sound they created, the way they could accompany any instrument, Aeger loved them. Aeger kept walking and thinking of drums, almost forgetting about all of his problems. He kept walking until someting caught his eye, which was a cave with a large boulder infront of it. He walked cautiously to the boulder and examined it. Words had been carved into it, but obviously not with a tool or wepon, for it was neat and well organized. Aeger took atleast twenty minutes pushing the rock as hard as he could before using his new bearskin "robe" as a sleeping bag.



Chapter two, The cave of sharp words


Aeger woke up half out of his "sleeping bag", appearently he had gotten too hot in the bearskin. Aeger looked at the stone again, and thought long and hard. "Hmm" said Aeger, coming to a conclusion "What if I read these passages, maybe it will help me understand how to open it". Aeger was a smart man and thanked the gods for that. There were many paragraphs and stories, many of them Aeger had seen before, but one was very strange, and read;

Kind gods, please forgive our feeble attempts. We thought we could stop these men but the bodies felled in the water proved us wrong. Please let this boulder stand forever as a monument to those who died and let it remind us to never again be this arrogent when faced with danger. These men have been killed and stored in their writeful tomb, except for their captain, who we have locked up in the tomb and left to die. These are trying times in our village, so we sing our songs and curses into this rock and our riddles too. I just hope that the Draugr we have placed in the tomb is enough to keep it safe incase our riddles and songs cannot. Leki help us.

Aeger was amazed by the informative paragraph, but had many questions that could only be answered by entering the tomb. Aeger kept pushing and pulling, lifting and even trying to turn, but nothing helped. Aeger read more of the stone, but much of it was just old poems and riddles, but one riddle was very intrigueing.

Inside you want, outside you are. The eye comes first, then the third, then the first. Greedy you sound, but in you go.

"one, two, three, six. No? umm, twelve?" Aeger was really confused by the riddle, so he kept guessing and thinking. "Inside you want, outside, greedy, something about an eye. Could it be that I'm greedy? No, that's to far off. Oh, maybe it's inside, outside, read, but." Aeger went on thinking for ten minutes, reading the riddle at least eleven times, until something in his brain clicked, for no riddle was too hard for a brain like Aeger's, which constantly thought of questions and answers. "Oh! see. This is kind of like that read my words riddle. Eye want inside!" a loud snapping sound was heard, and Aeger was able to push the boulder a third of the way to be completely open. Aeger squeezed through the crack, happy he would not have to answer any more riddles. There was an old, cracked door about ten feet from the boulder, and it was covered with three sliding locks and one enourmous turn lock. Aeger used much of his strength to turn the lock which scratched and scrapped the cold hard rock that surrounded the door.

Aeger looked around the cave, which had horrors deeper than death. Deep scratches had been etched into the walls and large pools of water had long ago eroded large tunnels into the seemingly ancient walls. Aeger suddenly felt weak and dizzy, and soon fell down to the ground breathing heavily. A mysterious force pushed his body hard into the ground as if a rock of ebony had been tied to his back. Whispers hit his ears harder than screams and his vision started showing black, white and green dots and said dots started to grow and move. Aeger's mind started going blank, the millions of questions he was thinking were starting to dissapear until only two thoughts remained. The thought was echoed throughout the caves and tunnels and answers were screamed back. What if this was the place the gods ignored? What if this was the place that was it's own blasphamy? Aeger was disturbed by the answers the cave yelled back. NO GOD STANDS IN THIS HIGH HATE! THE LOST LORD STANDS UNDER LOST! Soon Aeger passed out and as he fell to the floor, he watched as the stone closed the way once more.


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Ok, soon you will know more of the Shakur and RP tie-ins. This is my subbmission for the contest and it will be updated on a irregular basis. Enjoy!

Niice! Really good honestly....you´ll do good in the contest...

Maybe you should consider more paragraphing....makes it even better!

A very scary place Aeger has found... Some great descriptive writing here, as well as suspenseful story-telling.

Thank you Minque, it's still going through creation and rough though, so its still got a ways to go. This is a bit of experamentational writing as well as a contest entry, I've never really made such a dark story before. Also, my favourite part is the whispers that deeply impact him.

Okay, new rough copy, hope you all love it and remember to post comments.


Chapter three, High fear and a man named Serjo


Aeger regained conciousness eventually, though he was dizzy and cold. The cave was quite and was now brighter than before, though there was no visible source of light. Aeger walked around the cave, it was covered in lichens and mosses and plants that Aeger had never seen before. He kept walking through the opening near the cave opening. More moss and lichens covered the walls, and as Aeger walked, he felt more and more scared. Aeger looked around the lighted cave, but there was nothing. No Draugr, no Bone Hounds, just mosses and lichens. "This is rediculous, why am I so terrified?" Said Aeger as he walked through the tunnel, now on the verge of crying. He took four steps until he stopped at the opening of a room.

His fear diisapeared and was replaced with awe. Axes, spears, swords, daggers and any other wepon you can and cannot think of were hung on the walls and laid on small shrines. Paintings of gods, heroes and battlefields were hung throughout the room. Aeger walked into the room, and watched as the cave lost all of its light. Aeger pulled out his favourite dagger and after thinking the situation through, pulled out a torch. A flint and steel. He forgot to bring a flint and steel. Laughter was heard in the cave. A loud, rude laugh it was, and it was followed by coughing. "Son of a... house of th... decrepit piece of... no, no. Just calm down, it's only a bit of darkness. if the light came go that quickly, it can come that quickly, so I'll sit here and wait".

Aeger waited for twelve, long, scary minutes. Twelve minutes that felt like an hour and a half. And after that time, or what ever time Aeger thought had gone by, there was a flapping sound, and then light filled the cave. It was as bright as an imperial temple, though the interior it iluminated was not exactly temple like. Aeger walked farther into room, and noticed the large square cut into the middle of the room. It was big enough to hold four men laying on their backs side to side, and that was what it did. Well, to be exact, four long dead men.

The four skeletal men were wearing bear and wolf armors, with enchanted wepons laying beside them. One caught Aeger's eye though. A double sided axe with nordic words whispered into it, expensive no doubt. He started to reach for it, but saw a note under the head of the axe. He pulled the note out, and read the madness written onto the paper;

You are smart to check this letter, Serjo. Me and the others have left our calm house and now reside inside of this crazy den. The others don't say much anymore, but they're still good to have around. But enough about me Serjo, this is about this axe. Now, those Skaal are smart, but I have figured out a way to get this axe. The axe has a very powerful shock spell that goes off in the handle when touched. There are gloves of shock absorbtion in the next room, but you'll have to avoid another trap. Talk to you in a few minutes, Serjo.

Zavim Gherusib,
Necromancer.

Needless to say, Aeger was shocked and confused. A necromancer lived here? And a man named Serjo was here? And their was others? Aeger's thoughts were interupred by a cracking noise, and then a deep moan.Aeger thought quickly, and drew his dagger. There was a very long hissing sound, and then a roar. As the sounds got closer and closer, louder and louder, a ten foot tall bonewalker entered the room, much of its height was added through adding bones and flesh. It moaned, then hissed and once again, cracked a bone. It walked closer and closer, drooling what looked like blood. The bonewalker had a stomach of criss-crossing bones, and Aeger knew that thats where he had to attack. Aeger ran to the side of the undead bohemoth, but when he went to stab, the bonewalker knocked him backwards with a hard push. Aeger started to lose balence, which the bonewalker used as a oppertunity. The undead skinwalker punched him hard in the side of his arm, sending Aeger into the pit with the dead bodies. his face fell onto the head of the huge axe and, nothing happened. "The shock is in the handle!' Aeger exclaimed. The bonewalker moved back, and furrowed the flesh and bone that used to be his eyebrows. Aeger picked the axe up from the head and pushed the handle into the bonewalker's criss-crossed stomach. The bonewalker felt the enourmous shock, and died instantly. Well, re-died instantly.

Aeger had killed the beast, and now, to take a trophy. Aeger took the axe by the shaft above the handle and swung into the bone walker's neck, seperating head from body. He put the head into his pack, along with the note. "Now let's just hope that was the last of those horrible monsters. Though now that I have this, I should be able to take them" Aeger said, feeling proud about himself. And he had every right to be, killing a horrible monster using only his wit and cunning.

Chapter four, Of Narcisists and Assasins.

Aeger collected himself, taking a few deep breathes. He turned right into the only visible room other than the one he had entered from. Aeger looked around, the room was an almost perfect circle excluding two doorways and a rock sticking out from the ceiling. Aeger inspected the walls, they were covered in Lichen. But when Aeger removed some of the Lichen, he found a hole. Aeger cut the rest of the Lichen down, finding a doorway and a room.

The room was suprisingly furnished. Chairs and tables in appropriate places with cutlery and silverwear set as if a dinner was about to be made. Aeger thought the room was some sort of respectful chamber to show love for the dead, but it still scared him. He stepped farther into the room and noticed something, the walls were covered with paintings of the same man in different posses. He wore a red flowing shirt with a black jacket with expensive red pants to match. The most strange thing in the paintings was in the background of each and every picture, was a man clad in black who in every painting got closer and closer to the man until a dagger could be seen at the rich man's neck. Aeger was frightened greatly by the disturbing paintings and started to think, "What is the trap that this Necromancer spoke of?" said Aeger.

Aeger searched the room looking for a note or anything of interest. He lifted plates and moved cushions, though he put each one into it's respectful places afterwards. He searched and searched until he had searched semingly everywhere that was reachable, well, except for the covered dinner plate. HHe was terrified of doing that, he thought there must be a human head or a poisened food that would seduce him. He got his strength together and lifted the cover fast and stepped back fast. There was a piece of paper in place of the human head he had expected. He lifted the paper with a sigh of relief. it read;

You have made it far, Serjo. Farther than Andamussan would have for sure. But don't start getting happy, you are about to face more peril. You may have noticed the book case in the corner. There are sixty books in all, each of them less and less comforting in this situation. Personally my favourite title is "The room of paintings and dead adventurers", or possibly "The cave of horrible and bloody murder". Anyways, all of these books were made by a man who was imprisoned in these caves long ago. He wrote these books to scare you, but made a vital mistake. He wrote notes of escape routes and artifact locations he had learned of in his last book titled "The man who reads this will be greatly disturbed and murdered by his best friend". Read only the ninety seventh and ninety eighth page by only looking at the page numbers. Do not, under any circumstance, read any sentences other than those of the pages I have mentioned. It will lead you to the gloves which shall lead you to further chances of living.

Zavim Gherusib,
Necromancer.

Aeger put the note into his pack, and went to the book shelf. The books weren't in alphabetical order, but order from most to sane. Aeger looked at the bottom right section of the bookshelf and grabbed out "The man who reads this will be greatly disturbed and murdered by his best friend" and took a deep breath. He opened the book at a random point, which to his suprise, was ninety four, so he had a short three pages to skip. The page had pictures and descriptions, including a hand drawn map of the cave and the area below it. Aeger looked and at the bottom of a large set of stairs, there was a room that said "gloves" with a arrow pointing to a note that said "invisible floor covering spike pit. the area around the gloves has no foor". Another point of interest was a note of the room he was currently in. It said "fake wall beside the book shelf. A good push should do".

Aeger looked at the moss covered wall beside him and the bookcase. He pulled out one of the notes he had found and folded it in half. He put it between the pages ninety seven and ninety eight before dropping the book into his bag. Aeger positioned his hands on the wall, pushing hard, straining his muscles. The wall barely moved, and Aeger sighed. "A good push? Yeah, A good push with a battering ram should do. Looks like this writer was quite the muscle" Aeger said as he sat down to meditate and rest his arms.




Ok, another chapter. Also, Shakur fans, updates coming soon. Now if you could all be so kind, crank out the comments.

The content is good and I find it well organised to keep the reader interested and not confused by what's happening with your characters. Very good Red , keep it up.

Thanks Kiln. Well, looks like Aeger can't get a break can he? Gets an axe but can't use it properly, finds the trap door but can't open it, has a book and can't read all of it, poor Nord.

Fascinating method of delivering the story- Aeger being drawn ever deeper by the notes. Nice solution to the axe problem, as well.

Yeah, I thought it would be best for him to get beaten up before he uses it though, you know, to show he's human. A cool part is coming next chapter that might help explain a lot so keep on reading everyone. The new chapter should be here in about, a week and four days because I'm visiting relatives for about a week.