The Demon and The Maiden

The lady sat upon the fountain in Val Miran, beneath the golden banner that flapped erratically in the brewing storm. Intently she stared across the square toward the east, impatiently awaiting the arrival of her one and only love. The steady breeze became a gust and the waters began to ripple. The patter and splatter of rain drops soon pelted the fountain and surrounding square. Not to be dismayed, or diverted by the storm, she quickly wrapped a scarf about her head. As the sprinkle graduated into a heavy hardened rain, the wind took on an icy chill. A look of slight concern was plain upon her face, as she eyed the dark clouds coming that stretched as far as she could see.

From the vantage of the seat, upon a throne of blood and bone, a very large Demon watched the troubled woman with anticipation. He had sent the storm that placed worry in her heart. The Demon knew her true loves fate, that he was weakened deep in winter and never would survive. A smile flashed quickly across the demon's face, a wicked vile smile exposing rows of razor sharp teeth. Pleased with his own brilliance the demon then set his evil plan in motion. Conjuring magic smoke out of thin air the Demon began to wrap himself in a fog of many colors. Moments later the fog took on a very familiar shape. The same wicked smile, the same rows of terrifying teeth, slowly grinned as the smoke cleared. Sitting upon the throne the Demon sat grinning from the replica of the Maiden's one true love.

Back in the square the rain finally slowed, after she waited for what felt like hours, the maiden finally gave up on her love. Blaming herself, and then blaming him, she finally relented to the fact that he must have been in dire trouble to have stood her up. She would at least give him the chance to defend himself. Frustrated she headed east in search of her love, and she was quite surprised when she came across him. She found him laying in the open road that lies between Val Miran and Rheydin. More troubling, he lay asleep in the arms of a half naked nymph. Angry at the betrayal, and shaken by the discovery, her mind raced headlong, her thoughts chaotic. She wanted to kill him and the and the nymph. A priestess of compassion she knew she could do neither, in the end she succumbed to her grief and took her own life.

Pleased by his actions the Demon smiled once more and remarked that he would have to do this again one day. So pleased was he at causing the woman to take her own life that he almost missed the finally. Wearily a tall slender man wearing heavy armor and suffering from extreme frostbite, wandered in through Val Miran's east gate. He had barely made the eastern square before the awful news was related to him. Broken by the extreme struggle of his journey, the tragedy proved more than he could stand. He could not bare the thought of life without his love. He too, left his heart and life, on the streets of Val Miran.

Scribed by Faulch, Spinner of Tales