Monday, December 24, 2012

Red and the winter festival part 2



It was the night before Christmas and Yule town was just finished setting up for their Christmas Eve party. Red stepped into the town square and saw tables set up outside full of food and various drinks. There was eggnog, spiced wine and brandy and for the children there was juice, hot coco and some kind of fruit punch. The food was an assortment of cheeses, roast meat with garlic cloves, lots of fruit, cakes and pies. Red was getting hungry just looking at it all.

The mayor walked up to the center of town and stepped up onto a newly built stage. “Greetings people of Yule, let us begin the joyous celebration at once!” Said the mayor. The people in the town square cheered. The party had officially begun and Red couldn’t wait to dig into a little bit of everything. There weren’t many partygoers at first, but as time passed villagers joined the party until the entire village was there. The stage now had a band on it. They played happy, festive music that filled the air and mixed with the sound of laughter and talking.

The entire village was dressed in colorful red and green and white clothes, some had little sprigs of leaves with berries pinned to their hats or dresses and some walked around with long walking canes painted like candy canes. Red was quickly caught up in all of the merriment and festivities and for a brief time forgot the danger that forced him to flee to the winter land in the first place. As Red danced and drank a man walked up to him. “Merry Christmas!” Red said happily, not really looking at the man. “Yeah, yeah. I need a word with you” Said the man gruffly. Red turned and focused on the man standing in front of him. The man wore an old fashioned black cap, with a scarf wrapped tightly around his face, he was dressed in plain winter clothes that were colored black, gray and tan. His clothes were so plain he almost stuck out in the crowd of people dressed like candy canes and Christmas trees. Red followed the man to the edge of the party.

As soon as they were away from the rest of the villagers the man spoke up. “Listen, I’m just a messenger. I’m here with a warning. You’ve made some powerful enemies and running into the winter lands isn’t going to save you. There is someone on the outskirts of town here to kill you. If you don’t meet him in an hour, he will destroy this precious town” Said the Messenger. Red was stunned. He couldn’t believe someone found him all the way out here. “who’s after me? And who are you?” Red asked. “I was paid to tell you to go face your doom outside of town or the town gets destroyed. You don’t need to know my name. You know who is after you, the question is who did they send to kill you. I don’t know the answer” The messenger said. Then before Red could reply, the man walked off and left the village.

Red didn’t want his trouble to effect the town so he went to meet with the mysterious assassin. Red walked for an hour and finally saw a tall thin figure standing in the distance. The figure quickly disappeared and reappeared directly in front of Red. The man wore pale blue robes with a hood, had white hair and bluish skin. The man put his hood down and stared at Red. “I am the Warlock of the winter wasteland. I live so far north that neither man nor animal lives there. It was to my surprise that a messenger from a far off land found me and offered me anything I want, the only thing I would have to do is kill a young man named Red. I used my magic and tracked you down. Now I am here to kill you. What do you have to say, Red?” Asked the Warlock. Red wasn’t sure what to say. It seemed desert assassins couldn’t survive the winter lands, so they hired one of the inhabitance to kill him. Red knew he couldn’t talk his way out of this and wasn’t sure if he could even win this fight, and he could only think of one thing to say “What was your price?” Asked Red. The Warlock smiled “Your not going to plead for your life, or bargain? I respect that. All I asked for Women, full of energy and life. Young and beautiful women are a rare commodity out in the wasteland.” Replied the Warlock

Red clenched his teeth. Red didn’t want to die, but now he knew that if he did die, helpless women would be shipped to the freezing wasteland like cattle, used as payment. Without a word Red pulled out two black and silver pistols and began firing. Streams of bullets flew at the Warlock with incredible speed and accuracy. Red never had to reload or buy bullets. His gun was given to him by Death itself and these guns could shoot bullets made of pure silver and death’s own decaying magic. The silver bullets would rip through undead and werewolves with ease and the decay magic would rot away at living tissue.
The bullets all zoomed toward The warlocks head, but before they hit, the warlock vanished in a puff of snow. “As long as there is ice and snow, I cannot be destroyed” Said the Warlock, his voice echoing through the valley. “We will see about that” Red said. He stood in place and slowly turned in a circle as he held his guns up ready to continue shooting. He wasn’t going to let the Warlock sneak up on him. A gust of freezing air and snow rushed up from underneath him, causing all of his muscles to stiffen and he was thrown off balance. The cold was so extreme some of the skin on his face and neck felt like it was burning. Luckily heavy clothing, a long coat and leather gloves covered the rest of his body.

The warlock appeared as Red tried getting the ice and frost off of his face. The Warlock grabbed a hold of Red’s neck and Red could instantly feel his skin burning from frostbite as his air way was slowly crushed by the Warlocks strong, bony grip. Red fired off shots at point blank but the Warlock was gone in a split second. Red gasped for air and coughed. Red was hunched over but tried to regain balance. He waited for the wintry bastard to reappear. The Warlock did appear again and was about to strike, but before he could, he was hit with a blinding light.

Red stumbled back away from the evil Wizard and opened fire. Two shots hit before the Warlock disappeared again. Red looked back to see where the light came from. It was from the village. it was almost midnight, which meant Christmas and the village lit up their tree and placed a bright shining star on the top. Without even realizing it, the village of Yule might have saved his life.

            The Warlock reappeared but was moving slower as the decay of death slowly poisoned him. None could escape the grasp of death, wizards and common men alike were at Death’s mercy. The Warlock pushed out his hands and shot a blast of ice. Red dodged it and opened fire. The bullets flew out like a machine gun and hit the Warlock. The evil wizard’s hands, chest and head were now full of bullets. The Warlock didn’t bleed, because he had no blood or humanity left in him, instead he just stood with a shocked expression, then a strong wind blew and his body faded into the snow.

            Red was badly injured but was able to hobble back to Yule town. Just as he arrived he heard a roaring cheer from the villagers. “Merry Christmas!!!” they said in unison. It was Christmas. The lights from the village glowed bright and sparkled like stars in the sky. Despite his injuries, Red felt an overwhelming sense of calm and joy. This is what Christmas was about, Joy and being with loved ones. Red knew he had to leave in the morning, to avoid any further threat to the town, but he would treasure his time in Yule town and always remember the Joy and happiness of Christmas.

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