ShimmerQuill, (Interactive story, you decide, I write)

I thought D sounded interesting Never mind.

(This is actually very fun. It helps my writing since your choices gives me direction and then I just go for it. And if you wonder what makes me decide if something bad or good happens, it sometimes depends on a dice roll, just so you know.   I am glad that you like the idea.  )

Quill decide to ignore his fear and points at the woman.

"Is that the woman that you want as your leader? Someone who not only makes you show respect, when she clearly shows none for you, but one who take the money you need to survive, to buy some fancy, purple dress or solid, but cold armors for her men so that they can punish you for things that isn't even.."

Suddenly, the woman starts to laugh. A laugh that send worrisome shivers down Quill's spine.

"Stupid adventurer. Do you really think your pityful words would even make a dent in my power over these people."

She waves a hand at a man that Quill had missed earlier, probably because he was a halfing, a man who looks a lot like a human, but is half as long, and this one is an short halfling. The halfling is dressed in a purple robe and has weird symbols painted, or possibly tattooed, on his face. The halfling nods as she waves and after a couple of second of focusing, at least that's what Quill think he is doing, 

Quill see a flash of what can only be fire coming towards him. He tries to jump off the statue, since the head where he stood isn't broad enough to stand on the statue and move from the fireball that is heading towards him. But as he jumps, Quill feels an agonizing, blazing pain that sears on his right side of his face. The pain exterminates all the previous thoughts he had, leaving only his primal instincts left. 

He lands crooked, making Quill fall to the ground and hurt his ankle. Slowly, Quill regains some own sense of will and thought, and though his vision is blurry from the flaming light and his hearing unbalanced with only his left ear working properly, he can still notice the panic that outbursts because of the display of the magic. Someone actually comes to Quill’s rescue, helping by acting like a guide through the chaos. 

When he is out of the way and Quill is about ready to give in to the torturous pain, a scream cuts through the air. It is the leader woman who just tried to execute him that is screaming and she is in pain. Will Quill…

A. Stay with his still unknown helper and accept his, or hers, help, whatever he/she, can give.
B. Ignore the helper and try to find out why she is screaming.
C. Ask the helper to help him find out why the woman is screaming.
D. Try to find Bran to see that he is still okay?
E. Try to put as much distance between that woman and him.
F. Scream in agony, and be generally useless.  
G. Continue with the uprising attempt, using the injury and chaos to his advantage.
H. Other? (Your own suggestion)

H - Take advantage of her pain and distraction, and attack her with his elemental powers.

Have to say, LMAO at option F

(I know, right.  )

Quill ignores the pain and sees this as an opportunity to hurt her like she hurt him. Indirectly, but still.

He starts to move from this unknown ally who appears to be male as he mutters with a dark voice something like "Ungrateful piece of..." Quill hadn't even thanked the man, but no time to think about that now. He starts to move and after a while, the blurry vision becomes clear again, though his vision is still damaged on his right side, but one ear is enough to hear the woman scream at his soldiers from the other side of the town square.

"How can you miss that someone cuts my arm!?! You are nothing but useless pieces of metal. Very expensive metal!!!"

When Quill moves to the side, he gets a visual on the woman and her men. One of the knights stutter an answer.

"He was..as s...oo sma..small, just a kid."

The calm woman who had insulted you just moments earlier now looks bewildered as she with a bleeding wound on her arm yells at her men with eyes almost shooting out poison. Quill is not certain that she is not able to do just that.

"Do you think it is better that you let a damn kid cut me!!?! Out of my sight!!"

The men bow at their master and say.

"My lady." Before distancing themselves, leaving the woman alone. 


She is making this way to easy. Quill focuses on the pain, which a normal person would avoid, but he thinks it can help. He focuses on the searing pain, the pain who intensifies every second instead of relieves. 

Energy starts to build up from a source inside of him, like that one time before, but the energy feels different from before. Before it felt like electricity, playful and light. This time it feel intense and overwhelming, like an unnameable force. It almost take control over his body completely. Do you like fire, B-itch!? Then Like this!!

Vaguely, Quill senses how he once again draw attention to himself, but he is more aware of the fiery force that now acts like it has its own pulse, before it fills Quill with a roaring before and shoots out in the form of a swirl of glowing flames, licking the ground as it heads toward the woman who is his target. Then everything turns black. 

Quill wakes up with an incredible headache and his skin feels like its burning and for a moment, he is worried that his attack backlashed. But soon he feels how it is only his right side of his face that has a constant burning feeling, the other is more like if you have a fever, which he probably have. 

He open his eyes and at first he sees nothing, but as his eyes gets used to the darkness he sees that he is in a lousy and rundown apartment that have furniture seemed to be made by hand with materials found on the ground, which may very well be the case.

Otherwise the apartment seems empty. Will Quill...

A. Snoop around the apartment and figure out where he is and how he got here.
B. Actually rest and regain some strength.
C. Say "Come out, I know you are here." to see if someone comes out.
D. Yell until someone comes.
E. Just be passive for a while and listen for sounds.
F. Other? (Your own suggestion)

I would suggest E, good sir.

Quill decide to listen closely and hopefully hear something useful. First there is nothing and then there is a voice he recognize. It’s Bran!!  

“He is my friend, let me in.” Bran says. 

After a while of silence, the other voice, a female stranger’s voice, answered.
“Alright, but hurry up. Cindra may be hurt, but her men is everywhere.”

Soon, Bran comes into the room, and Quill smiles. One of the few good things that have happened all day. But then he see it, Bran has been hurt too. 

“It is just some small cuts from escaping from the guards.” Bran says like it is nothing. Once again Quill get the feeling that he shouldn’t be so grown up. He should not have to be this strong.

“Why did you have to escape from the guards?” Quill asks but as soon as he had asked the question, he figured out the answer.

“I was the one who cut the woman who hurt you.”

Quill suddenly feels so many emotions at once, that it is almost overwhelming. Gratitude for getting help, guilt for not being there for Bran, anger at the woman and her men for everything they have done to the people.

Then the stranger enters the room making Quill more focused on her than his mess of emotions. She comes in with what could have been an adventurer’s clothing once, and having her blonde hair bound in a bundle. She looks no older than him and wonder if she had been like him. She seemed extremely tired, her eyes almost looking hollow, but still friendly. There is so many question, but which one should Quill ask first?

A. Who are you?
B. Where am I?
C. Did you save me? 
D. How can I still be alive? After all,  
E. What happened after I collapsed?
F. What’s your name? You can never forget common courtesy.
G. You really need to sleep, don't you?
H. Other? (Your own suggestion)

A

Quill asked the most obvious question first, trying not to sound way too forward.

“Who are you?”

The woman smiles tiredly and introduces herself.

“I am Mara. And I bet you have a lot of questions, but first, eat this.” 

She says and hands Quill a primitive bowl filled with something that at least is supposed to look like soup. First, Quill is considering skipping the food to not risk food poisoning but his hunger is overwhelming, and so, he takes the bowl and takes a first gulp. The soup isn’t half bad. The young woman smiles as he eagerly finishes the bowl.

“You are probably wondering how you got here. Well, you see, after you collapsed from your incredible display of magic, people started to calm down and organize, building a line which protected your body. Everyone in unison. It was actually pretty amazing.” She says, the memory bringing back some life into her eyes. 

“Our queen, Cyndra and our men couldn’t kill that many citizens without it causing them indirect damage in form of economy. So they retired to her fort and everyone wanted to keep you safe, so we decided it would best to keep you here, in safety.”

“Where is here? Quill asks back.

“You are in my own apartment in the east side of the city, very close to the fort itself, and therefore one of the last places the guards and Cyndra would look for you.”

Quill was about to ask something when Mara interrupted him.

“And yes, you hurt Cyndra pretty bad, she is in worse shape than you, but her wrath is out of control. Her guards are going around town, doing everything they can to find you, even killing innocent people.”

Quill chuckled a little, which made him cough hysterically.

“Great, but that was not what I was going to ask.”

“No?” she repeated, a little surprised.

“No, I was going to ask…

A. If we could talk later, I feel kind of sleepy.
B. …nevermind, nothing. It is always good to seem mysterious. 
C. You out to dinner.
D. Why you are doing this for me? It is an awful big risk you are taking.
E. If I could get my bag, I need to go and stop those guards right now.
F. If I had killed Cyndra, but I guess hurting her badly will have to do.
G. You to go to sleep and that we can talk about this later. You look like you could use some shut eye. 
H. If you could look at Bran’s wounds, I don’t want them to get infected.
I. If you could look at my wounds. They hurt like hell!!!
J. Other? (Your own suggestion)

J - What the plan is?

“…what the plan is?”

“The plan?” Mara asked.

“Yeah, the plan on how to stop all this. Stop the guards from killing and Cyndra from ruling.” 

“Oh, of course. You will have to excuse me. I haven’t slept in days. Well, a big amount of people have created a group called the “Resistance”. I know, not very creative, but what can you do?” 

she said, trying to giggle, but sounding more like a sigh.

“And what do they have in mind?” Quill asked back, yawning and pushing back the drowsiness himself.

“They are starting to pull together everyone that can fight and collect everything that can be used as a weapon and plan to storm Cyndra’s fort now that she is weak and take over the town.”

How does Quill feel about this plan?

A. Hell yeah!! Let’s do this! A strong defense is the best offense, or was it the other way around…? Ehh..whatever…   
B. Shouldn’t we try something…well…more intelligent?  
C. Maybe we could try setting up an ambush or trap instead? After all, Cyndra seems blinded by revenge so it should be easy to surprise her.
D. Whatever makes me get to see her corpse burn…
E. Never!! We should plan to escape while we still can. I want to keep my hearing on one of my ears, thank you very much.
F. Other? (Your own suggestion)

C

I'd say A And it is the other way around.

I know it is the other way around.  Needed to have something as a comical relief.

When are you going to write/post the ambush/trap?

(It is coming, have been away on vacation the past days, almost a week, but are back now. So will work on the post soon. )

(Oh, kk. You never mentioned that Hi btw )

(Sorry for the delay, and sorry that the story is going a little slower than expected. This is not the ambush/trap post, sorry about that. This section became longer than I had expected. This was a lot of sorry's, but anyway, enjoy!  )

Quill made the grimace he made when he was thinking and scratched the hair that was beginning to grow on his chin, making him look older than he actually were. 

He then turned to Mara and asked.

“Wouldn’t it be better to try and set a trap and use this attack that they have planned as a decoy, but actually there is another group who is waiting to ambush Cyndra and her men as they attack?” 

“That is actually a really good idea, you can bring it up when the resistance come here.”

“Is Iron-Fury coming here too?” Bran asked worryingly, surprising Quill since he almost had forgotten that the boy was sitting next to him. Bran’s eyes shone of dread for a moment, before the glimpse of emotion disappeared behind the facade that Quill was sure, Bran kept up. 

Mara chuckled, which just made Quill more confused, which must have shown in his eyes, since Mara then explained who this Iron-Fury was.

“Iron Fury is the town’s blacksmith, or was until the forge had to close down when Cyndra started draining everyone’s resources, stealthily so no one would notice it until it was too late. And the forge was one of the first businesses to go bankrupt because of lacking customers. No one can afford to buy weapons when they barely have enough money to buy food. Anyway, Iron Fury’s real name is Neville, but lately a rumor has spread that Neville really is a berserker and that he kidnaps kids and keep them in his cellar..."

Neville!? But that is the guy that Bran called his master…
Quill heard Mara continuing explaining what a berserker is, but it was like her voice was tuned out, like it flowed to the back of his focus and instead Quill could only focus on Bran. His head was tilted down, like he was looking down on his lap, and Quill could swear that he heard sounds of sobbing from his little body and see his chest heaving up and down in an unsteady rhythm. And was that tears streaming down Bran's face...?
 
Quill went up for bed and made a gesture for Mara to stop with her talking. He then kneeled down to Bran and took his arms in his hand, and Mara ended her explanation abruptly.

“Bran?” Quill asked gently. The sobbing sound stifled the boy’s silent response, but Quill was still able to hear the word.  

“Yeah?” 

“Bran, listen to me. I have promised to help you so that you never have to be afraid of him again; I will not let you down. I am here for you.” Quill said comforting, almost not able to keep down tears himself. 

He took his forehead and placed it on Bran’s and squeezed the boy’s arms reassuringly. Bran lifted his gaze and they found solace in each other’s eyes. 

Now it was Mara’s turn to be confused, after a moment of comforting, she carefully tapped Quill’s shoulder, and when he turned, he saw her confused and worried expression.

“Have I missed something here?”

Quill rose to his feet and dragged Mara aside, so that Bran couldn’t hear what they were saying.

What should he tell her?

A. The truth.
B. A lie.
C. That it is personal.
D. That she should drop it.
E. That she should continue telling the rumor, but without Bran.
F. That she should continue telling the rumor with Bran to, but try to be a little gentle about the topic.
G. That she should ask Bran.
H. Other? (Your own suggestion)

A