The doors of the Church closed behind him as he stalked off, angry with himself but even more--angry with the priests he had just left behind.

Rale Elizarm was an Aasimar. A being with the blood of the celestials coursing through his veins. He was a good five and a half feet tall, with golden blonde hair that hung just above his shoulders. His overall appearance gave him the impression that he was around 17 human years old, but in actuality he was much more than that. Rale wore a serrated edged longsword at his side, forged from mithril. He named his blade Balbain, after his deceased father.

“Why?” Rale asked himself as he started back towards his house. He was a bit infuriated at the fact that the head priest of his church, Malvern, had just given him a very strange mission. It was to go slay the snow yeti that hid itself far in the northern icecaps.
Rale still couldn’t get over what the priest had asked him to do. Never once had Rale ever questioned the Church’s motives. Now he was beginning to wonder.

There had been reports of people missing along the main road to Teramesh. Whole wagons being attacked, but no bodies had been left behind and no signs of struggle.
The priests had sent out some of the more willing townsfolk to go investigate, but that was two days ago. No one returned. Rale wanted to tell the priests that he thought sending mere peasants into the icecaps was an ill-fated plan, but he held his tongue.
Now it was his turn to go out—alone.

Too many things didn’t add up for Rale. No blood, no remains, no signs of struggle. A yeti attacking the people? Surely not, Rale thought to himself as he arrived at the gates of his small settlement of Teramesh. As he began to head out he heard a very familiar voice shout from behind him. “Rale, please don’t tell me you’re going off again?”
Rale turned around to see his close friend Taanfa trotting up to him. Taanfa was an elf going on about a hundred and sixteen years of age, roughly the time when elves reach adulthood. She stood just over five feet tall, with icy blue eyes and hair the color of midnight. She had a petite frame all over and wore a beautiful amulet around her frail neck depicting the symbol of her deity, Obad-Hai. Her clothes consisted of greens and tans-moderately tight fitted tunic and greaves. She also wore a forest green hooded cloak. She caught up to him and gave him those eyes of worry. “Rale, whatever you’re doing today, please don’t get hurt, okie?” Rale always fell for the eyes-always. He had known Taanfa for a whole year now and yet neither of them had the courage to tell the other how they feel. In any case, the two had gotten very close. Taanfa was a great archer and could track just about anything anywhere. She carried a long bow across her back and a quiver of twenty arrows.
He nodded and responded, “I won’t. I promise.”

“Mother and father said I’m not allowed outside the village because of the yeti,” she spoke with hesitation. “I can’t believe a yeti would do this to our people. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
“And to me, either.”
Rale and Taanfa were thinking the same thing; perhaps someone else was orchestrating this to make the yeti seem guilty—but for what reason? The yeti was just a yeti. Aside from his coat being rare and expensive, he would be a good target for poachers.
But a poacher couldn’t kill wagons full of people without leaving a single stain of blood.
Rale shook his thoughts aside and took Taanfa’s hands in his own.
“I won’t be too long, Taanfa. I too believe the yeti is not responsible for the attacks. So I will go and confront the yeti to see his intentions myself.”
Taanfa looked to Rale with her eyes locked to his and slowly leaned her head against his shoulder, “Please be safe.” Rale put his arms around her waist in a small hug and replied softly, “I will.”
With that, she lifted her head off of his shoulder and watched as he turned away, heading off onto the trail.
-------------------------------------------
Three figures stood atop one of the many hills overlooking Teramesh. The smallest of the three smirked and spoke, “It seems they’ve sent a mere boy out all alone to wage war against the horrible yeti.” He ran a hand through his course curly brown hair, chuckling to himself.
One of the other two figures spoke with a bellow, “With him out of the village, it should be easy for us to take what we need. It’s becoming harder and harder to come by supplies these days. It’s nothing against them, but it’s what we have to do.”
This was Gregorio, an ex-gladiator from the city of Hallspire. He was bought by Treagan, the small halfling thing with the curly brown hair. Gregorio was freed from the slavery of the gladiators but in turn he now assists Treagan in his endeavors.
Gregorio was also a half-orc.
The third figure was in a kneeling position, tightening the laces on her boots. She rose to her full five and a half foot height and rotated her head. The cracking noise made Treagan wince. He looked to his female comrade and spoke with a smirk, “Are we getting bored already?” The slender half-elf rogue turned her head halfways around and responded, “There’s no way any of this is going to work, Treagan. Your scheme is based too much on chance, and it’s going to fail.”
Treagan raised his eyebrows, slightly annoyed by her comment, “The yeti possesses something I want. The swordsman will dispatch the yeti for me and take what I will have from him. We will occupy this little settlement and wait for him to return. If your information is correct we will be able to obtain the item from him with no difficulty, so long as we hold his elven treasure for ransom, yes?”
Gregorio watched the two speak, but caught his eyes wandering over to the small object walking away from the village and into the icy mountains.
“Hey, yous two. He’s leaving. Let’s get a move on it.”
The other two noticed the figure leaving and they smiled and nodded. The three began down the hill and into the village of Teramesh, wondering what to do first.

Nice. Sounds kinda like Avantasia's story line as far as the church and stuff goes.

Oh??
Hmmm...
Haha well it will get quite nice when we get to the action

very nice!!!
\m/,

Not that I'm saying my own doesn't sound like Sentient Six meets Guilty Gear X meets Dune meets Star Wars meets FFVII meets Conan meets a lot of heavy metal meets 300 meets kingdom of heaven.

Here's more of the story:

Rale arrived at the path leading up to the icecaps near sunset. He had been to the icecaps before during some of his training exercises with his father. One day during a sword fighting lesson, the yeti had come down to fight. Rale’s father fought against the yeti, scoring a striking blow to the monster’s left shoulder. Accepting its loss, the yeti returned to whence it came. Rale was hoping that the creature would recognize him and there would be no trouble.
The swordsman began to ascend a few cliffs with little difficulty. Most of the snow and ice had melted off already; the climb was easy enough. He had reached a point where he climbed up and over to see footprints ahead. They looked to be varied sized prints; two sets were similar to Rale’s own while the third set was much larger prints.
I wish Taanfa had come along.
He thought to himself as he looked ahead, seeing in the distance an entrance to a cavern.
This could be it.
He noticed the prints went into the cavern and strangely enough, there was a burnt torch stick lying on the snow nearby. Rale picked it up and sniffed the end.
Very fresh.
He pulled two pieces of flint from his small belt pouch and knocked them together, creating enough spark to create a flame in which to re-light the torch.
Successful, he put the flint back in his pouch and proceeded forward. All was very quiet, and this bothered Rale. He was never one for quiet time. He would constantly get in trouble at his lessons for not having enough patience to wait when he was told to.
Rale eased himself around a corner to look ahead. Nothing.
He reached a fork in the tunnel—a left and a right.
He thought again to himself, I REALLY should have brought Taanfa along.
He looked left, looked right, and went—right. Two steps into the path he heard a click to his right. Instincts took over, and he rolled forward, and out of the roll he unsheathed his sword. By that time, he saw small crossbow bolts hit the other side of the tunnel.
They were meant to go through my skull.
Rale stood to his feet and wiped his forehead, “Whew.” He gave the trap little thought and resumed his course forward. After about twenty minutes of slight turns and twists Rale arrived at a large set of red double doors with two long golden handles. He thought that this seemed a bit out of place, and he examined the door for a few minutes to see if he should say a prayer to his God before trying to enter.
He touched his amulet and whispered a prayer to himself, and slowly reached for the doors—and he opened the doors.
As soon as he saw the yeti rising from its slumber, he set his sword back into its sheath.
The large snow white creature ruffled its white mane and adjusted its crimson eyes, seeing a humanoid figure in his den. Enraged beyond reason, the monstrous creature stood on its two back legs and let out a deafening roar. Rale winced and took a step back and his right hand slid to the handle of his blade.
“Maybe he didn’t remember me after all.”
Rale shouted to the monster, “Wait! Do you not remember me? I was in your territory with my father not too long ago. You fought with my father and he gave you—he gave you that wound—“Rale pointed to the still healing wound on the yeti’s left shoulder. The monster answered Rale’s statement by charging full speed at him, ready to slaughter.
Rale wished now he had gone left instead of right.

Nice! Hey, maybe you can check out the little blurb I added about my concept

Taanfa was so tired of studying. She closed her book and leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes. She never could focus on her studies for a long period of time. Perhaps if the content weren’t meant to put someone in a coma, she thought to herself, maybe I’d be more interested. She then thought of Rale and one of the days where they spent talking in the golden wheat fields in the countryside. Taanfa always felt so calm with Rale like nothing else could be more important.
And then that’s where she decided what to do. She spoke to herself, “When he gets back, I’m going to tell him that I want him to be mine.” She smiled to herself and wondered why she waited this long to tell him.
Her thoughts where interrupted by screams coming from outside. Taanfa opened her eyes and ran to her window and cracked it open. She gasped in horror to see a half-orc monster stalking towards a young boy across the square. The monster unsheathed a horrible looking greatsword which was dripping with a substance that sizzled the ground as it dropped.
Acid.
Taanfa’s eyes widened, and suddenly her attention was adverted to another individual. He was a small one, somewhere around four feet tall with curly brown hair and a rather large nose. There were several of the townsfolk knelt around him with heads down.
“What in the Hells is going on here?” Taanfa spoke as she reached for her bow. She flew open her window and readied an arrow-she aimed for the huge brute towering over the crying boy.
She shot.
The arrow struck the mighty monster through the back of its right leg, coming out on the other side through his shin. The half-orc let out a frustrated grunt and wheeled around to see who had fired the accursed missile.
Taanfa ducked down quickly and was breathing very heavily now.
She heard a voice from the outside speak, “Gregorio, where did you get that arrow from, my dear lad? That’s not a good place to store our arrows.” The half-orc responded by reaching down and pulling the arrow out through the front of his shin! He winced and tossed the arrow aside and looked around. He saw—an open window. He then looked to a large building with emerald green doors. Those doors opened up, and about five humans came running out armed with shortswords and small wooden shields. They screamed as they ran at the half-orc fighter, ready to strike. Gregorio roared and charged forward, gripping his ferocious sword in both hands. He almost seemed to glide across the ground with his mighty stride. The first human came at Gregorio with a horizontal slash aimed for the brute’s mid-section. Gregorio batted the puny blade upward, and he swung in a half circle, slashing low, and his blade hacked clean through both the man’s legs, sending the poor human’s body to the floor. The man screamed in agony as blood spurted from his new bloody stumps. Gregorio yelled at the other four warriors, who stopped dead in their tracks with mouths wide open. He said through gritted teeth. “Come, miserable little sacks of dung. I’ll slice you all to ribbons.”
The four dropped their swords and shields and ran back towards the large building.
Gregorio laughed as he turned back around.
Treagan took a few steps past the kneeling townsfolk and clapped,”Well done!”
Taanfa had taken this entire time to get out of her house and position herself at the corner of the house to the left of her own. She wondered where her mother and father had gone; they weren’t in the house and she didn’t see them—wait!
There-in the midst of people kneeling down, she saw her mother and father with their eyes closed, muttering incoherent speech.
What did he do to them? Some form of sorcery?
She turned her attention back to the little man and the half-orc. She took aim at the little man and uttered, “This is for mother and father—“
Taanfa felt cold steel against her throat and a sultry female voice spoke to her, “I’d think twice before letting that arrow fly, elf.” Taanfa could smell blossoms; a very intoxicating scent. She dropped her bow and let her arrow hit the ground. The figure behind Taanfa slowly started to usher her out of the shadows and into the sunset lit area.
Treagan and Gregorio both turned to look at their comrade with her dagger to the throat of a young beautiful elven girl. Treagan widened his eyes with pleasure, “Ah, so that must be the lovely Taanfa. We’ve heard some things about you, my dear. But fear not, your life may be spared today should you cooperate with us.”
Taanfa narrowed her eyes towards the halfling and spoke with disgust in her voice, “Why are you here? And what did you do to my parents?” Treagan smirked and raised his eyebrows, “I used my—reasoning to help your people understand that they should not fight against us. It would be harmful to their health, as demonstrated by my large friend Gregorio over here.” He motioned to the half-orc, who sheathed his greatsword and walked over to the unfortunate man who had his legs severed. He was still alive and trying to crawl somewhere. Gregorio knelt down and lifted up the dying man’s head and said in a very assuring voice, “Do you wish to get to the other side quick, human?”
The man spat blood at the brute, and Gregorio stood up and looked back at the girl. For a moment all was quiet. The half-orc looked to Taanfa with cold, hard, madness-ridden eyes. She knew she was in trouble. The men at the church had tried to go against the savage, and one of their own had fallen victim. Gregorio grinned, and then let out a sky cracking scream as he brought his right boot down on the man’s head, crushing it into a massive spray of blood and brains!
Taanfa let out a cry and tried to turn her head away, but the blade at her throat forced her to watch.
Treagan looked to Gregorio and gave him a satisfying nod and then back to Taanfa, “Now my dear, let it be known to you that your church is afraid of us. Your little warrior men will tell the priests of what they have seen and they will stay in their church. As long as they do that they will not meet Death today. You are all we need.”
Taanfa couldn’t help but to cry. Tears of sorrow streamed down her face and the voice behind her mocked, “Aw, look—the little elven whore cries for her people.”
Gregorio let out a chuckle, “So was it her that managed to shoot me so tactfully?”
The half-elf nodded, “Indeed. You should be more careful. She seems to know how to use a bow.” The rogue spoke then to Taanfa, “My name is Katris. And we are holding you prisoner until your “lover” returns. If he is smart, you will both live. If he is unwise—you both will die.” Katris removed her dagger and quickly grabbed Taanfa by her hair, pushing her forward. Taanfa managed to get free of the rogue’s grasp, and turned to run-slamming right into a large half-orc. Stunned, the elf looked up and the last thing she saw was a huge backhand coming for her face.

Rale figured that closing the doors wouldn’t be the best of ideas. With his sword already out he decided it was best to charge forward as well. He ran-and rolled, missing a swing from the left arm of the hulkish yeti. He rose to his feet and swung with an overhead slash. He scored a hit, slicing a deep wound into the back of the creature’s left shoulder blade. The yeti roared and launched itself forward clasping both of his fists together. Rale attempted to dive off to the right, but the yeti curved himself to match Rale’s movements and managed to nail him in the side, sending the swordsman flying into a wall. Rale hit the wall and then the floor, now holding his ribs with his right hand.
Ah, dammit, did he break my ribs?
The thought diminished as he rose to his feet in a hurry to sidestep a massive straight jab that cracked the stone wall. The creature’s strength surpassed his own by fifty fold.
Rale had a quick idea. He ran at full speed to the other side of the room and turned around, waiting. The yeti roared, and propelled itself off of the ground to fly forward at Rale with its right arm back, ready for a horrible swing.
Rale muttered, “Please father, help me out.” Rale let the beast get within a few feet from him, and he decided to strafe to the right.
Success!
The yeti struck so hard that it lodged its own arm into the wall! Rale yelled to the beast, “Forgive me!” The swordsman swung down with all his might, severing the right arm all the way through the bone. Blood gushed onto the wall as the yeti reared back, squealing in pain. Rale took his amulet and ran his sword along down the side of it. As he did, his blade began to emit a light blue light. He ran forward and dodged the yeti’s random thrashings with its good arm. He thrusted forward shouting, “By the power of Bahamut!” The words caused the blue light to surge into the yeti, sending it toppling backward, its fur smoking. Rale was breathing heavy and his ribs were killing him. He looked around the room and saw that there was a door at the end of the room. He walked over to it and noticed it was cracked. He pressed it the rest of the way open with his boot and saw inside there was a small jeweled box. Rale went over and saw that the box had a small padlock on it. He shook the box and heard a small rattle.
He slid the box into his belt pouch and made his way out. He said a small prayer to the dead yeti, offering his apologies. “Friend, I do not fault you. Something more grievous is at work here. I am most sorry for not being able to help more. Your eyes told me that you were no longer your self.” Rale bowed his head and left the cavern. He didn’t bother to go down the other way. Something was very wrong here, and he sought to get back to Teramesh. He also realized that it was nightfall. No fun at all.

Ahh, this is good stuff, Chris!
More!

FOkken main dude! I like it, keep it up!

verr naz

Rale hurried back to the best of his ability. His ribs were killing him, and breathing heavy was impossible. He looked up seeing the moon rising and asked once again that Bahamut take care of him. He felt that he hadn’t uncovered what he wished to uncover at the cavern. Something inside Rale told him that something was highly awry. Upon arriving to the wrecked gate of Teramesh he saw desecration. There were some houses completely broken into and people were hanging outside window sills, some gashed open with large wounds. Rale’s mouth dropped in horror, looking around to see the slaughter that had taken place while he was gone. He looked ahead and saw a body with a bloody pool where the head used to be and some legs not too far from the scene. Ahead he saw that the church was still intact. He started in that direction and quickly looked to Taanfa’s house.
Running inside quickly, he burst through the door—to find that the house was empty. He jumped out through the window and headed to the church, his senses going haywire. The doors were shut tight. Rale used all his might to push the large doors open.
Inside, the swordsman saw the horrific sight of several more townsfolk slain and slaughtered. A few were dead on the floor, while others were draped over benches, gutted open with entrails everywhere. Rale’s attention turned towards the altar where—he saw Taanfa tied down with chains lying on her back. Her mouth was bound with cloth, but he could hear her desperate cries beneath the muffle. Her clothes were torn and she had some small bruises on her thighs and arms. Rale’s anger started to stir and he ran forward. Taanfa frantically shook her head at him almost as if she was trying to warn him—but her warning was in vain. A crossbow bolt came soaring through the air and struck Rale in the back of his right shoulder. He winced and turned around. He saw nothing at all. He wheeled back around to see a small man step out from behind the monument next to the altar; from the other side emerged a huge half-orc wielding a barbaric-looking greatsword that dripped a nasty vile looking substance. Rale tried to focus his attention on the two figures, but his vision went blurry and he felt nauseous.
Poison.
Rale swallowed hard and reminded himself that lives were on the line. “Who are you?”
Rale managed to get the words out though he strained some. The gnome grinned and answered, “My name is Treagan-and this is Gregorio.” The large monster nodded his head and gave a sadistic smirk. Treagan stepped forward a good three paces and said to Rale, “And you are Rale Elizarm, yes? I’ve heard many stories about you, lad. You see, little did you know that you going to fight the yeti was very worthwhile to me. For I—I know that you have what I want. Hand it over to me and I will release the elf. The suffering will end here. This I promise you.”
“And what is it that you want, Treagan?” Rale was a bit confused, trying to make sense of the little man’s words. The swordsman scratched his head, pondering. He remembered then—that he had picked up a small locked box at the yeti’s den. Rale opened his belt pouch and took out the box. Treagan’s eyes widened with glee, “Yes, that’s it, boy. That’s what I seek!” Rale’s main concern at this moment was Taanfa. The poor girl was chained to an altar crying and bruised from whatever savage treatment she most likely received earlier. Rale drew out his sword with one hand, and slowly advanced, “Unchain Taanfa. We shall make the exchange at the same time. Forgive me for not trusting you.” Rale gave the gnome a hard stare. Gregorio hoisted his sword over his shoulder and grinned at the swordsman. Treagan looked back to his large comrade and nodded. Gregorio leaned over and reared back with his blade and swung down hard, snapping through the chains that bound Taanfa. She yelped and as soon as she was free of the chains, she rolled off and landed on her feet. Treagan snapped his fingers, “Now, the box.” Rale, a man of his word, tossed Treagan the box. The gnome took the box and cackled. Gregorio scratched his head and bellowed, “Are we done here? We do have places to be, yes?”
Treagan looked over and said, “Gregorio----kill them.” Rale snarled and retorted, “I should have figured you to be a liar earlier.” And from behind Rale and Taanfa a beautiful half-elf female stepped out of the shadows wielding a hand crossbow. She smirked at the pair and said, “What a fool you are, Rale. Your gullible nature has doomed you and your elf.”

Surrounded, outnumbered, and injured, Rale and Taanfa prepared for the worst as their adversaries started to advance with murder on their agendas.

Oh, I like this! You have to keep writing more now.

your writing makes me feel lazy. THAT and I have a HUGE headcold right now..