The Journey Of Mark

Prolouge: in the land of syrien there once was a great king ruled over the land and governed it with great discernment. Over the years he journeyed around and visited many exotic lands and had many extravagent adventures. On one of his travles the king found an ancient underground civilization and in it's heart was a pair of gloves. Each glove was intricately inscribed with a majestic falcon. The king donned the gloves and immeadiatly a great power engulfed him: the power to harness the wind and the power to flye, one power in each glove. The king returned to his kingdom with high hopes for the future, he ruled for many many years and the kindom thrived under his rule. Unbeknownst to him when he removed the gloves from the ruins under the earth's surface he shattered the seal to a truly ancient and evil power. Under the Earth the evil power plotted and schemed all the years that the king ruled. The evil power raised a darke army and began to grow in power and force and when the king was old and grey the evil power swarmed his kingdom and overran it as there were no troops or defences in a time of peace. The evil power struck down the king in the kingdom's last stand and seized the gloves from the king's corpse. The evil power's newfound strength doomed the kingdom to an age of sorrow and pain. The kingdom's people graduly faded into a dismal existance and almost an age of toil. A hero arrose and gathered the power of the gods to his cause drawing upon the power he rallied from the gods he slew the evil powers most elite minions and eventually reached the evil power's throne room. Upon the brink of defeat he once again drew upon the power of the gods and let loose an unearthly blast which obliterated the evil power tearing his essence apart. The falcon gloves were flung far across the land and were not seen or heard of for many an age. The heroe refused to become the kingdom's ruler and set out in search of a new land to rule as his own. Many of the kingdom's people went with him but still many remained. Many years went by and no threat arose to the kingdom. King hildregarde was a fair but lazy king and did not do much other than eat and make new laws and raise the taxes. Evil shadows crept back into the lands far corners and grew there,the evil power had returned. Although not all of it's former power had returned it still had enough to challenge the kingdom and in the ancient chamber where the gloves had once lain untouched for almost an age he waited.......

Chap 1: Mark
Mark swept through the streets. Halfhazardly swerving around different vendors and almost bowling over a farmer and his family on thier way to the market."ohh man I can't be late" he thought to himself with a grimace. This was the day he had waited so long for so feverantly hoped for: the day captain trelawny drafted all able bodied men or lads who showed ability to be a seamen. Mark had dreamed to leave the sleapy village of kadom for most of his life and he wasn't going to miss this chance. He swerved around another corner and dodged the passing carts shot down an alley way and came out into the bussling hub of the port. Mark crossed the square and swung open the door to a rickety shack in a concelead corner of the port"creak" "ello" came a voice from the back of the shack. "hello cap'n it's me Mark"he called. "oh yes Mark I suppose you're here to try for a spot on our upcoming trip to the royal city" "yesir" was the prompt reply. "well I'd sure like to give a spot to ya but I can't in good consious give a spot on my crew to a lad under 18" "I'm old enough to go cap'n telawny please let me come" "no Mark" said cap'n trelawny, stepping out of the shadows with the thick smoke from his linean cigar "that is my final answer. I know you want to get out of here but........" SLAM. Mark was already out of the door and running down the alleyway blinking back tears and raging in his mind "I'll show them they'll regret making me stay I'll show them All"

Chap 2: Ideas
As mark doggedly trudged through the muddy dirt n gravel road on his way back to his hollow in the forest glade, he seriously wondered about giving up. " I really have tried my best haven't I?" he thought "why wouldn't cap'n trelawny let me go? I'm ready! He reached the glade, padding his way through the soft moss to the tree-hollow. Mark grabbed a slightly overripe banana and grimaced as he ate the mushy fruit. " I bet I could build a ship" he thought confidently! " I could sail to the garlompian islands and hire myself out as a deckhand." Yeah" he thought " that's what I'll do! So as mark went to sleep on his potato sack stuffed with moss and pine he silently planned out his journey and the supplies he would need on it.

Chap 3: The Baylen
Mark handed over the last coins from his money pouch to the stubby merchant with the gimpy leg and sighed. He had saved nearly 3 whole years to have this much money and now he had gone and spent it. Mark had bought all the supplies he would need for a journey to the garlompian islands and all the tools he would need to build the boat. He loaded the last of the supplies onto his "borrowed" mule and led it home into the forest. It had been nearly a month since mark had first had the inspiration to set out for the garlompian islands and it had been a hard month. Getting some of the merchants to trade off thier goods was like making a mule fly. Mark unloaded the mule and gave it a good swat in it's rear with a shirt to send it on it's way out of his camp. Man he thought to himself I've only just started the job and he warm seasons almost over already. Over the next 2 weeks mark worked nonstop on his boat. Feeling he should not leave all of his home in the forest glade behind him, he fashioned a branch from his tree hollow in the glade into a graceful prow for his small schooner. After the 2 weeks the small vessel was at last finished. She was a small sailing schooner, barely longer than one and half average men she really was fit for only one person. Her prow was carved into the image of a graceful stags head, eyes staring boldly forward ready to get it's first taste of the sea. Now mark encounterd a problem: how would he get the boat to water? He had built the boat all inside his forest glade and the thought had not crossed his mind how he was going to transport the boat to the sea. He couldn't drag the boat along, it would scrape and damage the carefuly shaped hull and might wreck it. An idea came unbidden to him in an instant and he immeadiatly began walking down the path towards the town. " if I can get a mule or horse to drag it I can put it on top of logs and as it rolls on top of those logs I'll grab them and bring them up to the bow again. It was in this crude and tiring manner that mark managed to transport his boat to the pier. When he arrived at the dock he slowly eased the little boat into the water and tied her firmly to the dock with a practiced knot. As mark turned around to get something to drink from the nearest cantina an unintelegable grunt stopped him, he looked around to find the source and his eyes fell upon a grubby sailor who was beckoning for him to come closer. When mark approached the sailor mumbled " that's a fine craft, where'd ya get er? ". " well " replied mark " I made her. " " ha " coughed the sailor " don't lie to me, no kid could ever make a ship this good." " but I did!" mark insisted " I built her from the tree I used to live in!" " alright alright don't have a fit" the sailor chortled to mark. " I believe ya" " good" said mark gruffly" next time mind your own buisiness".the sailor continued " if I could , would you tell me er name at least?". Mark stopped and stared dumbfoundedly at the sailor. He had forgotten the most important part: the name! " she does have a name." the sailor inquired, worried by marks reaction. " yes" replied mark, thinking off the top of his head" her names the Baylen!"

Chap 4: Journey Bound
Mark pushed the baylen off the side of the dock with his newly-bought paddle, excited that he was finally leaving his homeland. The journey to the garlompian islands would take almost 5-6 days depending on the sea's conditions. Mark hoped he'd be able to make the sail in 4 days at best so he'd be able to sign up for a fine ship called the SwiftWolf. A foreign ship, the Swiftwolf would take mark to far distant counties and lands. The baylen sailed beautifully and mark, having almost no experience sailing a boat was able to man her quite well. All the way through the first and second days mark encountered no trouble. He adjusted he sail and fixed his meals in a small stove that ran on oil. He had bought it at the pier and it served his culinary perposes wonderfully. But on the third day a strange calm came over the sea and a cold wind whipped through marks scanty tatters of clothes, chilling him and filling him with a sense of dread. He pressed on not acounting the cold stillness to anyhting. Because mark was no expoerienced sailor he did not recognize the telltale signs of a huge stormfront rolling in. Eventually mark noticed a dark shadow drifting towards the baylen across the sky but by then it was too late to do anything. The harsh winds began to tear at the sail and mass and began to rock the little boat and stir up waves around it. Suddenly with a loud crack of thunder the storm launched from brewing trouble into full tilt devastation in a matter of seconds. The baylen was spun around and around as the waves grew steadily larger and larger. "oh no!" bought mark feverently, frantically searching about for a way to relaese the tension from the sail. The answer came in the form of a small buck knife mark had purchased in the traders market. Mark grasped the knife with a firm grip and knowing that his hopes of joining the Swiftwolf would be dashed, he swung the kinfe and slit a gaping hole through he sail and the tension eased immeadiadtly. Mark breathed a sigh of relief and turned around just in time to see a humongous wall of water desending down upon him. He sucked in a huge lungful of air as the huge wave crashed into the schooner, sweeping mark around like a loose leaf in the wind and sweeping him off the baylen. Mark struggled against the force of water and clambered back aboard the baylen only to swept off again by another wave. Mark had had no time to get any breath and his vision began to cloud and darken. As mark's consiousness faded he struggled to tie the baylen's anchor rope around his waist. He achieved this and let himself go slack, slowly fading away. As mark's vision blackened and spots swam at the sides of his eyes a white sheen blotted out the world and mark saw no more.

Chap 5: Rescue
Marks eyes flicked and opened with a start. He glanced around and realized he was lying on a hospice bed...NAKED! Mark jumped up and looked around frantically searching for his clothes. A young nurse came in and blushed at the sight of him naked running eratically around in search of clothing. She took out fresh clothing out of a laundry basket she had been carrying. He snatched away the fresh clothes and slid into them, looking anywhere but at her. She giggled and said " you're finally awake, you've had the whole hospice in an uproar. Ever since you washed ashore tied to your boat the whole towns been asking about you." "how long have I been out?" mark asked sheepishly avoiding her inquisitive concerned glance." About 3 days now. A fisherman found you around 5 in the morning last Friday, you were nearly dead" " 3 days!" thought mark unhappily" now I'll never be on the Swiftwolf". " what's wrong?" asked the nurse, noticing his dissapointed look." do you know of the Swiftwolf has left dock yet?" he asked the nurse, not really wanting to hear the answer." well," she said, cocking her head as if to think" I've not heard of the swiftwolf in csarlands port since a few years back"WHAT?!? Thought mark, Ive never heard of csarland before. I wonder where the heck I am? " I've never heard of csarland before." mark said" where exactly is it?" the nurse, looking slightly indisposed replied " it's the smallest province in the country of bartonia" hmm thought mark I think I've heard of bartonia before. It's supposed to be under constant distress and there's rumored to be an evil entity haunting this land. " well ummm" mark awkwardly asked " can I get some more rest?" " oh of course you need your rest I've completely forgot." the nurse fretted looking flustered " I'll leave you to your rest" she got up to leave and lifted her basket from the foot of his bed, turning toward the door. " wwait " mark stuttered " what's your name?" the nurse's face reddend and she replied " my name's Melanie"

chapter six melanie will be up on here as soon as i write it be patient
-Minx31214