True History

After following several hints and rumors given by a few of the servant people the intrepid young woman stands in front of a massive door.  Finding this place wasn’t easy, trekking through the twisted corridors of the wizards tower only to stumble into a portal that took her back to the main entrance way was enough to drive her half-mad.  But she made it.  And through dogged persistence she would know the truth of things.  Following the instructions she got from the servants she knocks three times on the door and waits...  And waits... and waits some more.  Then she knocks three times again.  And waits... and waits...  She shifts uncomfortably and knocks again more urgently, getting more than a little annoyed.  The servants had warned her that this would happen, but she didn’t think it would take this long.  After another long wait she begins pounding on the door with her fist, but still no answer.  Finally she sits down resolving not to move until that door opened.  And she stayed there until she fell asleep.

***************

She wakes up to the smell of a wondrous scent.  She looks down to see a cup of tea sitting on the table in front of her.  She picks up the cup and takes a deep whiff of the heady aroma, taking in wonderfully relaxing scent.  She admires the cup, which seems to show a curious jungle scene.  As the tea drives the fog from her brain, she stiffens realizing she is no longer outside the door.  Cautiously she looks around.  She finds herself in a large yet tastefully decorated room. 

“Do you like the tea?” Comes a deep, yet smooth voice behind her.  “It is a special blend that I make myself.”

She stands up and turns around quickly, making sure not to spill the tea.  “Yes, I like it very...” The words freeze in her mouth as she realizes whom the speaker is.

Though she has never seen one before in her entire life, she has heard many stories about them and at this moment she can see how they could be true.  “An ogre...” she whispers.  Not one to be considered tall by any means, she looks up, craning her neck way back to look up into the face of her host.

He is not handsome by any means, yet she also finds that he isn’t nearly as ugly and brutish as she was told they were.  Oddly enough, he seems quite well groomed.  He smiles reassuringly at her, his teeth a bright shade of white catching the light and reflecting out.  “Well there were tales of one or two exceptional ogres, this must be one of them.”  She takes a deep breath to calm herself.

“Thank you. Please sit down.”  He moves over to another chair across from her and sits down, for which she is very grateful.  This makes it a lot easier for her to look at him without breaking her neck, plus she feels slightly less overwhelmed by his sheer bulk.  “I’m sorry to have kept you waiting for so long, but I was out in the garden and didn’t hear you.  Did you have something you wish to ask?”

She takes another sip of tea and steels her nerves before speaking in a quiet firm voice, “I want to know the truth behind the recent unrest in the valley.  We’ve been quiet for nearly a thousand years.  So why all of a sudden is everyone thirsting for everyone else’s blood?  Is it a planetary alignment?  Did some curse come into effect?  Did a spell wear off?  Some one forgot to pay taxes?  Vampires invade the countryside? What...” She suddenly stops realizing that perhaps she may have been too bold.

The ogre frowns and says, “Well... that is a story that goes back a long way and I don’t think I could tell it to you in detail because it would probably take the rest of your life.  So I’ll try and summarize it as best I can.”

“Over eleven hundred years ago, our ancestors were at war.  Once could say it was a war between the gods for supreme power.  But he’d be wrong.  It was a war between the two disciples of one god.  Everyone else just got dragged into It kicking and screaming whether they liked it or not.”

“The story goes back into mythology.  If you know anything about the Gaean religion you’ll know that they believe that Gaea gave birth to everything and created one race to rule the planet.  The members of that race adapted to their various environments and some of them soon gained power and called themselves gods.   A term by the way, which means, ‘lord over all’.  When Gaea decided to play the god game with her ‘children’ she recruited a disciple called Tara.  And as history has shown Tara became a goddess in her own right.  What isn’t known is that Gaea played both sides of the field.  She also recruited another being, an elf, whose name is lost to time.  This elf sought power to rival no other so he gathered followers and went searching for the legendary dragons.”

“The Dragons were one of the first creatures to adapt a new form from the original race, they were incredibly powerful by today’s standards.  They ruled the world for quite a while.  Then for reasons no one can fathom... they left.  They found hidden places around the world and entered what they called the ‘Great Sleep.’  No one knows why they did this and no one knows how long the ‘Great Sleep’ is going to last.  But we do know that the dragons are not dead.  So they may one day awaken and rule again.”

The ogre takes a sip of tea from a cup the size of her head.  Her eyes go wide at the sight and she looks quickly down.  She notices that her cup is nearly empty.   It is then that she notices the delicate-looking pitcher set to one side of the table with the steam coming out of it.  She reaches over and picks it up pouring herself more tea.  She briefly wonders how he could have used such a delicate thing with his huge clumsy looking hands.  She pushes the thought to the back of her mind as she looks up determined that nothing will distract her from getting her answers.

“This nameless elf, “he continues, “and his companions found the hideaway of one of the Dragons. They overpowered the lone Orc caretaker and performed some horrendous act of magic.  I’m told that it made such an impression on the Orc caretaker that when he left he told what he saw to his people and it frightened them so much that they radically changed the way they do magic.  I don’t have the details.  But apparently they did something very drastic so as to make sure nothing like that happens again.  No one truly knows what happened in that cavern, but the result was that the Dragons in that enclave were gone as were the elves.  In their place were creatures that were both and neither.  These creatures later became known as the Drackenwa.  The Drackenwa resurfaced centuries later with only one goal on their minds, conquest and devastation.  They were the complete opposite of Tara and the then fledgling Universal Harmony Church.  It is theorized that their leader is also the elf recruited by Gaea.  But only it knows for sure as it soon became a god after the Drackenwa reappeared.  The Drackenwa were the founders of the Church of Chaos.  And they warred with every other living thing on the planet.”

“Over the next several centuries the fighting continued.  The Universal Harmony Church was the hardest hit.  They finally retreated to a strong hold.  And after forming an alliance with several other nearby churches, they launched upon a daring escape plan.”

“Olive Valley...” she whispers without thinking.

The ogre nods approvingly, “Exactly, they came here.  This was intended to be the final stronghold of the Universal Harmony Church.  Sealed against the Church of Chaos by a barrier of permanent non-aggression.  Unfortunately something happened and the barrier was never fully deployed.  As you know elves, humans and dwarves cannot kill each other.  But no such restriction lies between them and the Orcs...or even my people.”

As the words sink into her brain, her eyes widen with fear as a horrifying thought rises to the surface.

“Your suspicions are correct.  For eleven hundred years this valley has remained the hidden stronghold of the Universal Harmony Church.  Sealed off and hidden from the rest of the world by the barrier of non-aggression, impassible mountains on all sides and a few other significant barriers beyond that.  But now the Church of Chaos has finally found us.  That means the Church of Chaos has finally won the war outside the valley and now they can bring their attention to bear upon us.”

He pauses and holds up a huge meaty hand.  He begins ticking off points on his fingers, “An infestation of monsters, a town besieged by strange troops, a suggestive word in the ear the not-to-stable followers of Lord Enerius causing massive damage, callous random attacks on both the Orc and Allied sides, each attributed to the other.  Some justified, some imaginary.  These are not unrelated events.  They all have one purpose: to push followers away from the Universal Harmony Church, to weaken its base of power and ultimately destroy it.  Look at how this war is working to their advantage.  In order to fight the Orc horde, good men and women who would normally join the Harmony Church and spend a lifetime of spreading joy and contentment are instead joining the Elemental Church to become battle priests.  The more violence and chaos there is, the more people are going to respond in kind and weaken the power of the Universal Harmony Church.”

“Wait a minute”, she objects, “Wasn’t Tara supposed to be from this valley?”

“Show me where in the scriptures of the Harmony Church that is says she was from this valley?” he counters.

This gives her pause before she responds, “Then why isn’t this other one mentioned in Gaean mythology?”

“Good question.  The leaders of this sect of the Gaean church are descendants from those who ran from the war.  Why would they openly admit that their own Goddess, the mother of creation, was responsible for the monsters that wish to destroy them all?  I don’t think they’ve ever denied it.   They just stopped mentioning it and people forgot over time all memory of the other disciple of Gaea.”

She would say more, but she suddenly finds herself drained and tired.  She realizes she hasn’t eaten in quite sometime.

“Come this way.” He says, “You can sleep in the guest room and in the morning after a good breakfast we can talk again.”

More tired than hungry she wearily follows the large ogre to the indicated door and goes in.  She stumbles to the comfortable looking bed and passes out on its soft pillows.  It does not occur to her to ask why he has furniture built for normal sized people, nor does it occur to ask how he got into the room considering he’d never get through the doorway without major structural damage...

Fin...for now