Of Many Fates

**Ardvark** Mon Jul 25, 2011 6:22 pm

I heard my footsteps as I ran; jump a hedge, roll, dodge a tree, keep running. The footsteps behind me continued growing louder with every second; the howls and the barking rung in my beaten and bruised head. It certainly had been a long time since I had escaped from that crash pod, fighting Jellies and Keskafos back in the forbidden zone on Cradle. I still had very few conections up above in Haven, though the nice old lady at the bakery could always sneak me a free loaf of bread in the morning. I liked her, and right now, I really wished that I was up top, enjoying those fresh pies she made from the gustava berries I found in the Gloaming Wildwoods. But I was a long way from there, down in Tier 2 by orders of Captain Zale up top. He'd sent me on missions liek these before, I don't think he liked me. A skeleton sudenly burst from the shrubs to my right. With no time to fight, I simply shield bashed him over the edge;a one way ticket to the core. Inevitabley though, I was a goner. My right arm had been smashed up pretty badly by a ghast, and my calibur had been caught in some poisonous thorn bushes. All i had was my shield, and a blaster. Fat lot of good that would do against the wolver packs on my tail. Perhaps I could use it to hold them at bay before I hopped the edge and found out what the core really looked like. Another zombie, accompanied by two friends of his cut off my front path. I skidded to a halt, as I dropped my shield and unloaded 2 clips into them. One fell, another jumped at me. I dove to the side, but he landed on my ankle and I heard a crunch. "Son of a BITCH!" I yelled as I ripped off its own leg and beat it to death. I really had some anger management issues to deal with. There would be time for that in Valhalla though, I supposed. The wolvers burst through the treeline, slobbering and basically trampling eachother to a freshly canned Spiral Knight treat. "Well, this is the end," I thought. I attempted to stand up, but my mangled ankle let a soothing shock of intense pain let me know that I wasn't going anywhere. They were all over me. As they fought for my well protected torse through my well made wolver coat, another tore at my left leg. To God's credit, none of them went for my right leg. I guess a semi-painful death was what I was in for. My right arm was still bleeding badly though, so I sharply whistled. It got the attention of the one going for my face, who stopped as I sucker-punched his jaw and sent him reeling back into the shrubs. I then grabbed the collar of another and threw him over my shoulder, which lead to him being replaced by two more wild little devils. My left glove fell off, and one bit my hand. I rewarded it with a yelp and a left-knee to the face. I tore off my mask, using it as a club. One lunged for my face, and it's true what they say; when you're about to die, your life does flash before your eyes. But today was not my day to die, as two knights appeared nearby. One was wielding a massive plate shield and an Ascended Calibur, while the other was dressed in light armor with a striker and an undefinale shield. The first simply began cutting through the wolvers on me with his calibur, while the second held them at bay with fast, decisive attacks.
"My name is Shiran, you're going to make it," he said with a smile on his temporarily unmasked face.
"Shiran, uhm, hate to bother you, but I appear to have lost my sword," shouted the one who I later learned to be named Damienlightgale. He was beating all sorts of sence into the wolvers who were stupid enough to get near his shield, and Shiran had to abandon me for a moment to finish cleaning up the mess. When all was said and done, they picked me up and dragged my very pale body to the elevator. They slammed the up button, and just like that, I was on my way home.
The next day, I woke up in the field hospital with Damienlightgale asleep in the corner. Shiran was nowhere to be found, but that didn't matter too much. I waited quietly as Damien finished his nap; as all knights respectfully should. You have to understand that we sleep whenever we can becasue we don't know the next chance we'll have to rest. It's a curtousy really. But he awoke with a start, and saw that I was watching him quietly from my bed. "Listen, I don-" he cut me off.
"We saw that you were in trouble from our perch up at the forest entrance. We quickly followed the impressivley large trail of bodies you left behind right to where you were. We saw your determination, and how you fought until you were almost dead. We also descovered how funny you were on the way up, and you're one of the better Knights we've met here on Cradle. It's your choice, but we'd liek to invite you to join us in our guild." he concluded with a smile. I surprised hime with an immediate smile back as I offered my hand. He took it as I replied "Any way that I can help, let me know." Its been a long run since that day. We've fought through the Roarmulus Twins, conquered the Jelly King, defeated the Snarbolax, adn if we have our way; We'll be mounting the head of a certain fiery king on a mantle, as we descend to the ever evasive core.

This will conclude the 3 part pilot of this little series of Spiral Knights stories. I may come back and continue writing from Ardvarkling's perspective, but i will be focusing a lot of time on Dragon Nest and playing that. If I become familiar with each character I can write a small adventure story for all of them. But that will have to start tomorrow. Until then, Cheers ~ Ardvark