Tales of Dimensia: The Hood
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Creative Souls :: Writing :: Your Stories :: Fantasy
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Tales of Dimensia: The Hood
I guess you can call this a prologue? I dunno.
13 years ago...
Seven Years Later...
13 years ago...
As the forest remains silent in the night, all is calm. The moon shines in the skies over the land of Dimensia. The canopy created by the treetops breaks apart in some places, allowing the heavenly light to seep through. Suddenly someone is seen running through the forest. They've a case on their back filled with arrows and in one hand, a magnificent bow. On their head a hood, so concealing their face. It is obviously a man. He leaps through the forest as if he knows every corner, every stone, an every tree. Then he stops. Arrows fly from the darkness in the woods that remains untouched by the moon's brilliant rays. He steps out of the way as if time had slowed for him. Before long he escapes from the forest to find himself in a small village. The sound of pursuing soldiers rolls over the hills behind him. One emerges from the forest ahead of the others but his heart is met by a single arrow, shot perfectly from yards away by the hooded man. He climbs up onto a rooftop and like a warrior of the night, he swiftly navigates the buildings until he comes to one. Jumping down, he knocks on the door. A large man answers the door, surprised to see the hooded figure before him and welcomes him in. "It has been a long time, old friend", says the large one.
"Aye, too long, in fact. I've a request for you, my friend. We are both aware that I can keep this up no longer. I am too old. But I've no successors", the hooded one resonds.
He sits in a seat to the far end of the room, as far away from the door as he can manage.
"You think I can follow you up?" The larger man laughs. "You are ill in the head, friend. I am no more suited than you."
"Of course you aren't. I would never ask such a task of you. You have a life here in Dimensia. I could never eprive you of such a glorious arrangement. I wish you would do me a favor, however, and find someone more youthful than you and myself. Perhaps a youth itself."
At this the larger man's expression grew grim. He stands from his seat, towering over the hooded one. "Now you listen to me. I shall wish no such path on any child. The path of a rogue is one of great peril. To even consider such lunacy is beyond comprehension, especially if it be the child I believe you to mean."
"Hear me out, friend. Your niece is perfectly capable. Her prowess with a bow and arrow very much surpasses my own at her age."
"The child is an infant, only three by age."
There is suddenly a loud knocking on the door followed by the hurried ramblings of royal soldiers. They demand to be let in before they force their way. The hooded one removes the arrow case from his back and places it into his friend's hands then too hands him the bow. Afterwards, he removes the hood and the garment it is sewn to. His face is that of a red headed man of at least his mid forties. He leaves it in his seat then climbs into a back window. "Long live King Richard", he says expectingly.
"Down with Prince John," his friend responds. "We shall always remember Nottinghamshire and Sherwood Forest, Robin. They be in good hands now."
"No, John. Since King Richard's untimely demise and Prince John's son, Prince Edmond's rise to power, they are not in good hands. But should you make the right choice as I know you will, they shall be."
Robin then disappears through the window and into the night. The Royal Soldiers barge in through the front door moments after John has hidden every article his friend had given him. They hold their crossbows to him as they investigate the area but they do not shoot. They've no jurisdiction in Dimensia other than the pursuit and capture of fleeing criminals. They'd also had no power to John. King Edmond had never recognized John as a criminal for he'd left Nottinghamshire before Edmond had ever risen to power. After a thorough search, they leave. John's wife scurries down the stairs, a child in her arms. "He was here, wasn't he?" She asks, holding the child close
"Aye, he was."
"You knew all along that it would happen one day. The day she shot that arrow before him in play, you knew he'd come."
"Aye, that I did."
"What will you do?"
John marches up the stairs and into a room. In that room is a young girl in bed, only an infant though older than the one in the arms of John's wife. "I don't know. Oh Lila, what am I going to do with you? You may very well be...The Next Great Hood." The child turns over in her sleep. The moonlight beams through the window and onto her beautiful face as she slumbers, unaware of the path she may very well take. Her hair, nearly as white as snow, glows in the light and gives her a certain radiance. She is truly meant to do great things one day.
"Aye, too long, in fact. I've a request for you, my friend. We are both aware that I can keep this up no longer. I am too old. But I've no successors", the hooded one resonds.
He sits in a seat to the far end of the room, as far away from the door as he can manage.
"You think I can follow you up?" The larger man laughs. "You are ill in the head, friend. I am no more suited than you."
"Of course you aren't. I would never ask such a task of you. You have a life here in Dimensia. I could never eprive you of such a glorious arrangement. I wish you would do me a favor, however, and find someone more youthful than you and myself. Perhaps a youth itself."
At this the larger man's expression grew grim. He stands from his seat, towering over the hooded one. "Now you listen to me. I shall wish no such path on any child. The path of a rogue is one of great peril. To even consider such lunacy is beyond comprehension, especially if it be the child I believe you to mean."
"Hear me out, friend. Your niece is perfectly capable. Her prowess with a bow and arrow very much surpasses my own at her age."
"The child is an infant, only three by age."
There is suddenly a loud knocking on the door followed by the hurried ramblings of royal soldiers. They demand to be let in before they force their way. The hooded one removes the arrow case from his back and places it into his friend's hands then too hands him the bow. Afterwards, he removes the hood and the garment it is sewn to. His face is that of a red headed man of at least his mid forties. He leaves it in his seat then climbs into a back window. "Long live King Richard", he says expectingly.
"Down with Prince John," his friend responds. "We shall always remember Nottinghamshire and Sherwood Forest, Robin. They be in good hands now."
"No, John. Since King Richard's untimely demise and Prince John's son, Prince Edmond's rise to power, they are not in good hands. But should you make the right choice as I know you will, they shall be."
Robin then disappears through the window and into the night. The Royal Soldiers barge in through the front door moments after John has hidden every article his friend had given him. They hold their crossbows to him as they investigate the area but they do not shoot. They've no jurisdiction in Dimensia other than the pursuit and capture of fleeing criminals. They'd also had no power to John. King Edmond had never recognized John as a criminal for he'd left Nottinghamshire before Edmond had ever risen to power. After a thorough search, they leave. John's wife scurries down the stairs, a child in her arms. "He was here, wasn't he?" She asks, holding the child close
"Aye, he was."
"You knew all along that it would happen one day. The day she shot that arrow before him in play, you knew he'd come."
"Aye, that I did."
"What will you do?"
John marches up the stairs and into a room. In that room is a young girl in bed, only an infant though older than the one in the arms of John's wife. "I don't know. Oh Lila, what am I going to do with you? You may very well be...The Next Great Hood." The child turns over in her sleep. The moonlight beams through the window and onto her beautiful face as she slumbers, unaware of the path she may very well take. Her hair, nearly as white as snow, glows in the light and gives her a certain radiance. She is truly meant to do great things one day.
Tales of Dimensia : The Hood
Seven Years Later...
The fields just outside of Dimensia is alive with laughter and excitement as ten year old Lila sits on a blanket eating with her aunt, uncle, and cousin. She first takes large bites from a watermelon almost the size of her entire body. John laughs as he observes her warrior's appetite. His wife, Sarah, giggles admirably as well then wipes the seeds from around Lila's mouth. Her and John's eight year old son and Lila's cousin, Ronald, too attempts to gorge himself but Lila seems to have the advantage of a second stomach and continues to eat while he falls over from tiredness. Later that evening, Lila wanders through town on her own. She sees a fruit cart and reaches for an aplle but her petite hand is swatted away by the merchant. "Filthy street urchin, leave here now," he says, scolding her as if she were a disobedient pet. But his loyalty soon changes. "Unless you have any money." Lila disrespectfully sticks out her tongue and leave, disappearing around a corner.
Within a matter of seconds, a blur dashes by the cart. An apple is missing. The merchant does not notice. It happens again, this time catching the merchant's attention. The blur speeds by again, this time grabbing multiple apples. On a rooftop above is a small girl with a hood pulled over her head, hiding her face. She looks down on the confused merchant with a giggle and chomps on an apple but suddenly she's lifted by the collar. Behind her is her uncle. She nervously waves to him with a cute smile as he scolds her. "You realize how unacceptable that is?"
"But you said that," she begins.
"Bite your tongue there, child. I've told you that it is your job to steal."
"That's what I was," she starts again, still getting cut off.
"From the Rich so that you may give it to the poor."
John pulls the hood from her head. Lila suddenly ceases to speak at all. She sinks rapidly into a state of remorse. "I'm sorry", she says as if the life had been robbed from her body. Her uncle suddenly notices that her eyes had been blood red only a second ago but they'd quickly returned to green when he removed the fabric from her cranium. "Can we go home now, uncle John? I'll pay him for the apples I stole."
"That's...that's alright. I will pay the man now. You head home, then. Keep that hood off of your head", John warns her as she runs off.
Within a matter of seconds, a blur dashes by the cart. An apple is missing. The merchant does not notice. It happens again, this time catching the merchant's attention. The blur speeds by again, this time grabbing multiple apples. On a rooftop above is a small girl with a hood pulled over her head, hiding her face. She looks down on the confused merchant with a giggle and chomps on an apple but suddenly she's lifted by the collar. Behind her is her uncle. She nervously waves to him with a cute smile as he scolds her. "You realize how unacceptable that is?"
"But you said that," she begins.
"Bite your tongue there, child. I've told you that it is your job to steal."
"That's what I was," she starts again, still getting cut off.
"From the Rich so that you may give it to the poor."
John pulls the hood from her head. Lila suddenly ceases to speak at all. She sinks rapidly into a state of remorse. "I'm sorry", she says as if the life had been robbed from her body. Her uncle suddenly notices that her eyes had been blood red only a second ago but they'd quickly returned to green when he removed the fabric from her cranium. "Can we go home now, uncle John? I'll pay him for the apples I stole."
"That's...that's alright. I will pay the man now. You head home, then. Keep that hood off of your head", John warns her as she runs off.
- Chapter 1:
- Later that week, Lila sits in her room. The house is empty aside from her. Her uncle and aunt had gone out and taken the boy with them, believing Lila capable of watching after herself. She sits there in her room, writing a letter to a friend. Suddenly there is a tap on her window. She peaks out to find that her friend, the one she'd been writing to, was standing there, waving. He had brown hair and bright jade eyes. He grins widely as Lila approaches the window. "Hi, Lila!"
"Roy!" Lila exclaims, rushing from her room and outside, through the front door. "What are you doing here?!" She launches herself forward as she leaves the doorway, wrapping her arms around him in a friendly hug. "I thought you were still in Nottinghamshire."
"Well, my father is a merchant. He came here and let me come with him. We'll be leaving at the end of the week."
Lila's face suddenly becomes more worried than friendly as she unwraps herself from around him. "You made that dangerous trip here yourself?" She closes her own green eyes and sighs to herself. "You really have all kinds of adventures. I wish I could be you, if only for a short while."
"Maybe your uncle will let you come with him to Nottinghamshire as he did when we met."
"I don't think so. He doesn't like to go there. It has some harsh memories for him. I had to beg him to allow me the first time."
Roy tilts his head curiously as Lila retreats into the darkest corners of her mind. She seems entirely distant for a moment until snapping out of it. "Well, do you want to have some fun while I'm in Dimensia?"
"Of course, I do! Let's go, my uncle and aunt won't be back for some time!"
As the two young ones venture off into town, a dark figure peaks around the corner of the house and sneaks inside.
Meanwhile in town, the two children stroll, searching for adventure. Lila then sees the same merchant from earlier that week. He scolds her viciously as she passes by, hiding behind Roy. Her innocent eyes catch the merchant's gaze, softening him. He picks up an apple and looks into its shine. He then calls out to the children. "Little ones, wait a moment, please," he says, catching up to them. "You are the girl from before. You never got your apple, did you? Here, you may have this one."
"But I didn't pay for it", Lila responds, her voice small.
"No, no you didn't. However, your uncle gave me more than necessary for the apples you'd taken. It was just enough to afford this", he says, handing Lila an apple.
As the apple graces Lila's hands, it's shot away with an arrow. Down the pathway, there stands a short man with a bow. His stance is to make him seem much larger than he truly was. He marched down the street, almost in a waddle. "Taxes for the king!" The man says. He stops short at the merchant, who hides his cart. "Alright, you, I've warned you that if I ever saw you selling these again without setting aside some for our, oh so generous king, that I'd have you in chains."
"Well sir, you see, I..."
"You haven't any gold in that pouch, have you?" Lila and Roy begin to sneak away when, suddenly, the tip of this man's blade touches the back of his neck. "And where, prey tell, are you two headed?"
The world suddenly slows around Lila's head. She glances back at the blade on her friend's neck and holds one hand over her hood. The short old man, the sheriff apparently, has dark, thinning hair. His eyes are a deep blue and his face is round, round as his body. He raises one hand and cleanly swipes Roy across the back of the head. "You will answer me, boy." As he raises his hand again, Lila sees Roy, paralyzed with fear. She quickly pulls the hood over her head. Grabbing his hand before he can swipe Roy again, she switches her grip and tosses him back.
Roy watches, dazed by what is happening before him. Lila undoes hr dress and steps out of it, revealing herself to be dressed in more flexible clothing, designed for a rogue. Her eyes are lost in a sea of red, feeding her anger. The Sheriff stands and readies an arrow. Lila stands perfectly still and as soon as the arrow leaves the chord of the bow, she steps to the side and, as if a blur, runs down the pathway. She appears before the sheriff and launches herself into a back-flip, kicking the bow from his hand. "You leave him alone!" Her mind is lost to a vengeful presence as she attacks him.
The Sheriff stumbles to his feet an tries to evade as best he can. One punch, thrown by this little devil, throws the round old man back into the apple cart, breaking the cart apart and causing the apples to collapse and burry him. As one of Lila's arms extends to remove the hood from her head, the other intercepts it. The girl before them is no longer Lila, it is the Hood itself. the vicious little girl lunges toward the disabled Sheriff but in her fury, she fails to recognize his plot. Quickly, he stands and rushes forward with his rapier. She side-steps and rolls off to the side. But even she isn't fast enough to prevent catastrophe. The Sheriff, unable to stop, stumbles into the merchant with his rapier.
The cry of a dying man, to Lila, is a new sound. The Sheriff opens his eyes, the coward he is, and finds that he's pierced the wrong heart. He removes his blade from the merchant and wipes the blood away with a cloth. He then runs off deeper into town. Lila gets up and looks over her shoulder at the dying merchant. The world slows around her yet again. Birds seem to stop in mid flight. The wind doesn't blow. It grows dark, her vision clouded. "What, this is...my fault," she thinks. Something suddenly stirs in her mind. Her eyes flicker in colors as she experiences mixed feelings of anger and sorrow. They finally stop as one eye remains green and the other, red. She sees the hooded figure standing before her within her mind.
"This isn't your fault. It's the sheriff's You can get him back for it if you want to", she says.
"No, I don't want to hurt anyone else. I can't."
"Can't or wont?"
Lila kneels over the merchant, a tear running down her right cheek, the side of the green eye. The red eye stares coldly at the corpse. But a small shine can be seen in its corner. Lila takes a deep breath and begins to reach for her hood to try and remove it, recieving much resistance. "This is all your fault. I won't put you on ever again. Do you hear me? You cause too much pain. I am done with you," she says miserably, tears now running down both sides of her face. "I am done!" She grabs hold of the hood and pulls it down from her head forcefully as it begins to rain. The rain hits hit soft, glowing skin. Her pure white hair glistens as the purifying waters grace. She stands it leaves the hood on the ground as she walks away, her red eye reverting to green. "I will never go back. I am the Hood no more."
Roy sits in the rain, staring at the hood on the ground. He sees people approaching the scene then picks it up and runs. He goes to Lila's home, surprised to find that she isn't there. He turns over the letter she'd been writing him and quickly enscribes a message on the back then places it in the hood. Fromt here, he runs from Lila's room and finds her uncle's. He places it on the bed and leaves.
Last edited by Mercury on Sat 11 Dec 2010, 2:27 pm; edited 1 time in total
Re: Tales of Dimensia: The Hood
So yeah it's like a Robin Hood aftermath with me very clearly toying with the actual Robin Hood stories a bit but it's really all about the girl. I'll try to have a first chapter soon.
Re: Tales of Dimensia: The Hood
It's awesome! You're an excellent writer. Great descriptions. Can't wait to hear more!
Tolly12bells- Rising Star 2
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Re: Tales of Dimensia: The Hood
Chapter 1 is up. Forgive me if it seems a bit rushed. I had a deadline for it but I have a school project now that will take a bit longer so I did this first.
Re: Tales of Dimensia: The Hood
Aww... That's sort of sad. It wasn't very rushed, truly. But good... O.o More soon?
Tolly12bells- Rising Star 2
- Posts : 6116
Points : 60020
Reputation : 18
Join date : 2009-09-19
Age : 27
Location : On a midnight train going anywhere...
Re: Tales of Dimensia: The Hood
If I have time. I'm trying to set up Witch Hunter of Red Riding Hood (wow, just noticed 2 hooded characters) by the end of tonight.
Creative Souls :: Writing :: Your Stories :: Fantasy
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