Role

Chapter 2

The door burst open, the frame splintering like kindling. Standing in the
doorway was a huge orc, its breath puffing out in clouds between its jutting,
yellowed tusks in the cold night air. The firelight from inside the home
highlighted the orc's massive frame, while the fires and thick smoke outside
from the burning neighboring homes provided a terrifying backdrop that made
the figure seem more demon than mortal creature. Celedyl cringed against the
back wall of the home, trying to somehow make himself hidden or flat,
invisible, something. But there was noplace to hide. The orc raised its
massive mace to its shoulder, smiling and taking two thudding, heavy steps
forward into the fireplace light.

Just then, Celedyl's father dashed into the room from a hallway, placing
himself between Celedyl and the orc. He was clutching a short sword in his
hand. "Celedyl! Run!" his father shouted. At first, Celedyl could not move,
paralyzed by fear and revulsion of the orc. "RUN!" his father shouted again,
as the orc closed the distance.

Celedyl bolted for the hallway his father had just come from, thinking only of
escape through the rear door beyond. His feet tangled on a rug, as he was
driven to the floor. He heard the sounds of steel on steel behind him. Then
another sound, like a wet slap. He heard his father cry out in pain! Rolling
on the floor, Celedyl looked up just in time to see the orc bring down his
iron mace on his father's prone form, and where once his father's head had
been became a tangled mass of gore and bone.

"FATHER!" Celedyl screamed. He awoke with a start.

His voice echoed in the dark, enclosed space, followed by muffled groans from
unseen people around him. At first, he was disoriented as the sleep slowly
drizzled away from his anguished mind. The orc. His father. Yes, he had been
dreaming. Dreaming of how it had begun for him, days ago. Months ago. He did
not know. Time had no meaning here. Only pain had meaning. He had been
dreaming a nightmare of how it had begun, and now he had woken from that
nightmare into this one.