Thought of the Week: Another Little Story

Screen Shot 2012-12-09 at 10.04.17 PMThis week, Ash continues his journey through the lands of Mavelor, the Axe of Darkness in his possession. There are still many dangers still to face, though, and he will face the fiercest demons yet in his quest for the remaining Dark Weapons.

 

 

Three Dark Weapons

The Dagger of Hands

 

 

By Little Satis

 

 

Chapter One

Waves rocked the boat back and forth as Ash sailed through the Sea of Sadness. The water was the color of fresh tears.

Ash was in his cabin. He had long left Sath, and was now going to the Land of Mountains to collect the Dagger of Hands. The Axe of Darkness lay on the table. Ash was polishing his sword when the ship stopped moving.

Ash looked out of the window and saw that the ship had hit an island. He went outside to have a look.

Ash walked onto the island. Suddenly, a girl about his age jumped down from a tree. She punched Ash, and he stumbled back. Ash found himself on the ground with the girl looking over him. She took his dagger and ran away. Ash got up and followed her.

 

Chapter Two

Ash followed the girl up the tree, and into a sort of treehouse. The floor was made of twigs sewn together by old leaves.

“Who are you?” said Ash.

“Get out!” said the girl.

“Who are you?” said Ash again.

“I am Emily,” said the girl. “What do you want with me?”

“Why did you take my dagger?” said Ash.

“I need it to survive after Shadow Lord killed my parents,” said Emily.

“How would you like to destroy Shadow Lord?” said Ash.

“I want to, but I can’t,” said Emily.

“Yes you can,” said Ash. “I’m on a quest to save Mavelor. I have the Axe of Darkness already.”

“I will come,” said Emily.

 

Chapter Three

Ash was sailing again in no time. Emily was examining the Axe of Darkness, and Ash was polishing his sword again. Ash had let Emily keep the dagger.

The ship hit land ten days later. Ash and Emily walked onto the land. They were in the Land of the Mountains, and there were mountains everywhere, but the one that stood out was Dark Mountain. It was taller than the other mountains, and it was black. There was a ring of thunder clouds around the top of it.

Ash and Emily started to climb it.

“Ah!” said Ash as a stone came loose and he slid down a couple of feet. Then — a giant spider landed in front of him.

 

Chapter Four

The spider took a leap. It landed with a thud, causing a mini avalanche. Ash drew his sword, and Emily took out her dagger. Ash stabbed one of the spider’s many eyes. It howled in pain, but kept fighting for its prey.

Emily leapt on the spider, but was thrown off. Then the spider attacked Ash. He got out of the way, and cut off the spider’s leg. Then the spider jumped onto Ash. It looked at him, then planted a strike on Ash’s shoulder.

He yelled, and cut off another of the spider’s legs, and then jumped on its neck. Ash dug his sword into the spider’s neck, and cut off the spider’s head.

Ash made a splint for his shoulder out of two twigs.

“I’m glad that’s over,” said Emily.

“Me too,” said Ash.

 

Chapter Five

Ash and Emily kept climbing until they saw a tree, and most surprisingly, it had leaves. They had seen other trees, but they were dead with no leaves.

Ash saw a stone with writing on it. Emily read it.

“Follow the line into the sky,

“take the scroll.”

They saw a line leading up into the tree. They climbed up, and on the branch was a scroll. Ash read it.

“Gone too far you have,

“to the spider you must go

“into the cave goes the bear.”

“I think we need to go to where we got attacked by the spider,” said Emily.

“Come on,” said Ash.

 

Chapter Six

Ash and Emily stood where they had got attached. There in front of them was a cave. It was filled with smaller spiders, but they were big enough to kill a man. They went in.

Walking slowly and quietly, they went through. They saw a spider with a scroll tied to it. Ash untied it, and the spider woke up. It hissed, and more spiders woke up. Ash drew his sword; Emily already had her dagger out.

The spiders jumped on them. Ash swung his sword at them. Emily sliced two spiders completely in half.

“I killed eighteen spiders,” said Ash.

“Twenty,” said Emily. “Make that twenty-one,” as she stabbed a spider.

Ash stabbed the last spider.

“Thirty,” said Ash.

“I got thirty-seven,” said Emily.

“Darn!” said Ash.

 

Chapter Seven

Ash read the scroll.

“Go into the mountain

“through the door,

“one wrong turn

“and you’ll end up with Thor.”

“Thor is the god of thunder,” said Ash.

They went through the metal door. They walked onto a stone bridge. It had two paths. They went through the door on the left. They found themselves in a chamber.

Suddenly, there was a loud thunder clap, and the chamber collapsed. They got out just in time.

“That’s what the scroll meant by Thor,” said Ash.

They went through the door on the right, and there was a troll. It had four small beady eyes, and a giant club. Ash drew his sword, and Emily took out her dagger.

 

Chapter Eight

The troll swung his club, but the club was so big it was not hard to dodge. They dodged the attack. The troll swung again, but it missed. Then, it hit the ground behind it, and hit Ash. He dropped his sword as he was sent flying back. It was up to Emily now.

She dodged an attack, and jumped on the troll’s head. Then she stabbed it, and jumped off. Emily landed on the ground on her feet.

Ash got up. They went into the next chamber. There was a dragon. It was black, and obviously evil. Riding it was a Shadow Knight, and he held the Dagger of Hands.

 

Chapter Nine

Ash drew his sword; Emily took out her dagger. The dragon roared, and fire came out of its mouth.

Ash spotted a blue ring on the ground. He recognized it instantly — it was a magic ring. He put it on, and with his finger made a symbol:

Up Symbol

It turned into a shield. Ash took it as the dragon breathed fire. The shield broke, but protected Ash. Suddenly, Ash knew what to do. He jumped, avoiding a great jet of fire. He stabbed the dragon in the mouth. It could no longer breath fire.

They jumped together — and a dagger and a sword pierced the dragon’s eyes. It went wild, and flew into the air. It flew around the chamber, hitting many walls. Then, it fell.

The Shadow Knight freed himself from underneath the dragon.

“I am Woulf,” said the Shadow Knight.

“Seriously?” said Ash.

Woulf attacked. He held the Dagger of Hands’ underside. Ash tried to parry, but his sword met nothing but thin air. Then he felt a pain in his stomach. He fell to his knees, and dropped his sword.

 

Chapter Ten

“No!” cried Emily as Ash fell to the ground. She grabbed her dagger, and clashed with Woulf. She parried an attack. She kicked Woulf, knocking him off balance. She took her chance. She delivered as many cuts and wounds as she could, and finally, she stabbed Woulf in the heart.

She ran to Ash, and took the ring off his finger. She made yet another symbol:

Down Symbol

It blasted into Ash. Ash stood up.

“Thank you,” he said.

He and Emily walked out of the chamber. It was a long trip down the mountain. They sailed toward their next destination, but neither of them knew the danger yet to come.

The Redemption of Erâth: History of Erâth – The Third Age (Part VI)

(vi) The Building of the End of the World

With the return of the Duithèn and the rebuilding of the kingdoms of Darkness, the men of Thaeìn were now facing the very end of their world. Their own strength had waned greatly since the end of the Second Age, and it appeared they would not last long against the storm that was now gathering against them.

What little hope remained was in that the Bridge of Aélûr remained broken, and so there was no connection yet between the kingdoms of Aélûr and Thaeìn. As such, it was impossible for the men of Aélûr and their terrible allies to reinforce the forces of Thaeìn; though together they might well crush the kingdoms of men swiftly, separate their strength was not yet great.

It was the hope of the Duithèn that the finding of Namrâth might change all this.

Fortresses of Urkûl and Dûnra

The Duithèn were enraged when the lords of the skøltär would not aid them in their quest for Namrâth. They threatened to destroy their new kingdom and turn their own subjects against them, but the lords of the skøltär laughed and called them spirits of the air, and […]

Read the complete section here.

Movie Night: Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars Episode V_ The Empire Strikes BackAll right…I’m a bit of a Star Wars fan(atic). Nothing adventurous this week for Little Satis and I, just good, old-fashioned fun.

We’d been talking about Star Wars in the car (specifically about Star Wars music), and were humming different theme tunes to each other. I stumped him with the asteroid chase music (you know: dum, dum-dum-dum, da-dum, dum), and this brought us onto The Empire Strikes Back, and frankly, there wasn’t any more question about it.

It’s interesting to watch these movies with the consideration of all that’s come after. Most die-hard Star Wars aficionados will claim that The Empire Strikes Back is the defining film; the one that epitomizes Star Wars in all its glory. It’s hard not to agree; the bigger budget compared to A New Hope paved the way for some spectacular special effects, and the story became quite rich in dynamics, without pandering (as some will say Return of the Jedi does). In particular, having just been reminiscing about the asteroid chase scene, I was particularly keen to relive this, and twenty-two years later it still stands up. The unrefined, authentic realism of the early Star Wars movies is untouchable by the CGI eye-candy of the prequels. A part that stands out to me is when Han rides his Tauntaun into the hangar bay on Hoth. The senses are flooded with the sights of a busy mechanic’s garage: welders, sparks, smoke; debris scattered on the ground; all of these qualities that are utterly missing from almost any modern film, and especially the prequels.

However, another thing that stood out to me with the knowledge of the prequels (and the extensive Star Wars literature) is the surprising consistency between the stories of twenty-five years ago and today. People are quick to point out the plot discrepancies, but I find there is far more continuity than one might think. This is particularly evident in the dialog between Yoda, Ben and Luke as Luke struggles to decide whether to help his friends or not. They tell Luke that he still can’t control the force, that he will be tempted by its ease to use the dark side to defeat Vader. When I first watched this (and many times following), this always seemed like fairly generic philosophical banality. Now, however, it suddenly takes on a much deeper meaning. Yoda tells Luke that if he truly believes in the cause Leia and Han fight for, then he would let them die. Luke is unable to break his emotional attachment to his friends, and rushes in regardless. This is exactly the same behavior we see with Anakin; his emotional attachment to Padmé blinds him to the corruption that is befalling him.

It’s curious, really, how well these things fit together. Given that over twenty years passed between the releases of Episode IV and Episode I, George Lucas either quite genuinely had the three prequels in mind at the time, or he deliberately left historic events vague enough that the prequels could tie into them. There are discrepancies, yes; Ben says that Yoda trained him, while we know that in fact, Qui-Gon Jin was mainly responsible for Obi-Wan’s Jedi training. But the whole ties together wonderfully well.

Ultimately, I still feel that The Empire Strikes Back is the quintessential Star Wars. The rawness of A New Hope lends to it a timeless quality anyway; Return of the Jedi pushed the effects of the time to their limits, and delivered a highly-polished Hollywood blockbuster. The Phantom Menace, The Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, despite their many shortcomings, actually delve much deeper into the history and intrigue of the Star Wars world, and paints an exceptionally realistic portrayal of the downfall of an entire civilization into tyranny. But The Empire Strikes Back remains the one where everything just suddenly fit together. The characters gel seamlessly, the plot flows uninterruptedly, and, of course, we get an awesome asteroid chase scene. It also contains one of the best, most relevant pieces of wisdom not just of Star Wars, but of perhaps any film at all:

Luke: I don’t believe it.

Yoda: That is why you fail.