A chill morning

[DoS Archive]

From: cyranthered@aol.com (Cyran the Red)
Date: 20 Dec 1999 23:32:06 EST

The wind blew lightly from the north, carrying a chill artic air upon it. The sun was shinning down on a fresh blanket of snow nearly as deep as the average man's foot was in length. Cyran awoke and slowly pulled himself from under the snow-cover pine tree he had used as shelter the previous night against the winter storm. Cyran shivered slightly from the breeze, sending
small amounts of snow that had settled on his shoulders to fall to the ground. Stretching, he stepped away from the pine, to gaze down the mountain he had found just outside of RhyDin. The mountain was nearly half the size of the one he called home back on Faerun, and he longed for the comfort of his layer, a natural cave heated and cooled by nature year round. He had found a few small caves upon this mountain, but none to suit his liking as a home.
Cyran stopped near a trail the ascended the mountain and looked upon the twon below.
From his vantage point, Cyran could see children on the outskirts of town, building a snowman. Other childrem were throwing snowballs and playing various games. Cyran stood for at that point seemed an eternity. Never had he been able to just stand and watch any children play, nor had he ever been so close to human children. He stood quietly, watching the children play. It seemed impossible to him that back in his home
world, these innocent beings would be transformed into hatefull hunters of his race.
A rumble in his belly captured Cyran's attention from the frollicking children. He smacked his lips together, deciding that a plump sheep or stag would satisfy him for a day or so. Giving the mountainside a quick scan, he spotted a rogue mountain goat. A grin crept across Cyran's face just before he lept into the air.
A few strong beats of his wings and Cyran was soaring towards his quarry. The goat, unsuspecting was grazing from random patches of winterwheat growing wild along this side of the mountain. Within moments Cyran was directly over the goat, he circled waiting for the animal to step away from the large rock it currently stood on. The wait wasn't long, the goat either seen Cyran's circling shadow, or just sensed the danger. Either way, it jumped from
the rock and trotted towards a small patch of trees nearly one hundred yards away. A goal the animal never met.
No sooner than the goat could step from the tuft of winterwheat, Cryan dove straight in. Arms extended, with practiced precision, Cyran's massive hands locked around the doomed animal's neck as his weight suddenly fell upon it. the goat died instabtly from the attack, it's neck being broken along with it's main body being crushed by Cyran's girth. Not even a whimper was able to squeeze from the goat's diaphram. Cyran stood and shook his head, the
dive made him slightly dizzy, he shurgged the feeling off. Crediting the dizzyness to not using that particular attack in a long time.
Cyran was about to enjoy his kill when he turned his head, hearing the joyus laughs coming from the town below. He shook his head and heaved the fallen goat over his shoulder, taking it back to where he had spent the night. If any of the children had seen him take the goat's life, they had said nothing, but somewhere in his mind, Cyran haf felt that he shouldn't not take the chance of the children seeing him eat, not this instance anyway.
He returned to the pine that had been his shelter, and nestled himself into a comfortable sitting position withing the shielding needles and enjoyed his kill.