The Assassin

While I was working on the Fabulae stories, I would often write short bits in my spare time, like in Church or during Study Hall. In these cases, I didn't want to continue with the main story because I was doing that on the computer at home. Instead with pieces of scrap paper, I would write little short things connected with the Fabulae world.

The main problem was that in 15 minutes before the end of study hall, or 20 minutes during the Church sermon, I never was able to make it all the way to the end of even a short story. So I ended up with a lot of half finished stories on scraps of paper, most of which I just threw away. In fact this is the only one that survived, and it also isn't finished. In fact it never even gets passed the set-up.

What I was trying to do was write about the famous Assassin mentioned briefly by King Recab in Dishon Chapter 1. (This obviously goes back in Fabulae's history to the days of the Calet empire, and is not connected with the main story line). I wanted to make him into sort of an anti-hero. Not completely a good-guy, but somewhat sympathetic and with a reason for what he does. It was a rather ambitious project for 15 minutes of study hall, but you can see the beginnings of it at least.

Tolak calmly walked through the streets of Stator. His mission was one of violence. His trademark was that of zealously. His help was from the Elves, and his tools were those of magic. His soul was all he had to loose.

Tolak was known as "The Assassin." It had been five years since that fateful day when he had a sudden reversal of loyalties. At that point Tolak had been a loyal citizen of Calet. He was commander of all her armies, a very powerful position. He had achieved that status at sixty, a wonderful thing for a Nathorite who still had half his life ahead of him. His power had seemed to him to be infinite. It looked as though there was nothing he could not achieve in time. But Tolak would soon learn the treachery of power.

It so happened, as it frequently does in the history of Fabulae, that the Elves were stirring up trouble again. The Elves were one of the few races that refused to assimilate. They maintained their own identity with an almost fanatical sense. Of course, they could do almost nothing about being conquered by Calet, but they still fought to maintain a sense of uniqueness.

Calet had conquered Elvin groups by the hundreds so that at the height of its power (Tolak's time) every single Elf group had been conquered. These groups had eventually united and formed a single state, Elf Land, deep in a large wilderness area close to the heart of Calet. It was here that they were able to enjoy the forests that they loved so much and, for a large part, govern themselves, although Calet still reserved final say. As the years went by, their supervision became less and less until they were almost completely left alone.

Then the trouble came. History has a long legacy of passions becoming stronger than logic. Any fool could have realized that the Elves stood no chance against Calet, but so fierce was their desire for independence that they paid no attention to reason, and in the freedom they now enjoyed, prepared for a war for complete independence.

Their first attack was a small skirmish along the boarder. Then, once they had formed an army, they started to destroy and loot the nearby towns. Tolak was immediately called to action.

An appropriate number of soldiers were immediately led into the war. The Elves, made overconfident by their victory against the civilian towns, assembled their armies and haughtily challenged Calet's forces. The untrained Elves were butchered and sent fleeing back to their forests.

Soon after, Tolak found himself in a meeting to decide how to punish the Elves. Many of those present favored harsh retaliation, extending even to killing many of the Elves, than scattering the rest so that no Elf was in ten miles of another. Tolak was against this, pointing out the losses the Elves had already received. The King, however, favored more severe measures.