The price of loyalty

A loud scream of pain was heard in the, until now, silent jungle. Alain the bretonnian cast a curse, this time as silent as he could. His rigth leg was wounded, and blood was now pouring out of his flesh. He stood up with a jump and began running as fast as he could. He was fleeing, he was alone and he was scared.

His thoughts were far away, in his Lyonesse county, in his wife and five children. Maybe he would never see his beloved country again."Noooo!", he can be safe if he can run and reach the near fort!!! "Run Alain, move your butt now, cry later!!".
"All this adventure is a crazy thing", his wife had told him. "Do you think that gold and gems can be taken with nobody to claim thir ownership?".

But Godofred marquis of Niesse, indeed came back from his adventures in the far west with enough gold for buying all the nearbies counties, and he was now the richest man of the region. Alain's master, the duke of Flandiesse, was in desperate need of gold, and decided to follow the trail of Godofred.

More than one year has passed since then. And for almost six months they navigated west, six months of fear, fear of the migthy Sea Serpents, fear of the corsair fleets, fear of the arrogant and fast high elf vessels. But the lady of the lake was with the expedition, or so the duke told them. They managed to reach the coast, and they built an improvised fort. Almost half of them had died from extrange diseases.

Alain was a hardened veteran, as a commoner he had fought for his lord against orcishs hordes, and even the terrifying undead. He was brave for being of common blood, an arrogant knigth told him, without looking at him of course, before he slew some animated skeletons with his halberd. That feat gave him the honour of carrying his lord colors into battle in an elegant standard, "A cow or some hens could be better!!" his wife told him. But his children were proud of him, "I am Pierre son of Alain, standard bearer of the first halberd unit of his eminence the duke, who are you?", Alain was happy then...

His Master was slain, his brother was killed, many friends were dead of the most horrible and painfull diseases. He only wants to plow once more the wheat under the sun of Bretonnia!! "Run Alain, you are almost there", but the pain was in a horrible "crescendo".

The Jungle surrounding the fort was strangly silent. When his lord asked him to raise a group of "volunteers" to explore, and "find where all the gold and gems are", he knew that the jungle was hearing them, watching them, he felt it. They traveled almost five miles, nobody said anything, but the jungle, all the vegetation, birds, insects where in silent, all of them felt the gazes on their neckbone. "Spirits" whispered Micheal, Alain's Brother.

"Spirits!!!", he will be glad if they where spirits, he doesn't fear the undead now, He would not be running for his life if spirits were marauding them that day.
"Thanks, to the lady!!", He now can see the fire in the top of the centinel tower, "Dont break down Alain, you will reach the gate, and convince the people to take sail back to the Old World!!", "No gold or any stuff of some worth can be found here, our master is death, we have nothing to do here!!!"

Indeed they weren't spirits, but what the hell were those hunters? He doesn't know what ambushed them and killed them, marching in the rear he only saw some kind of reptiles, maybe orcish, slaugther his fellows, he dodged a blow, and killed one of those monsters, and began runing. As he ran he could hear his lord claiming vengance upon those "sons of the chaos gods" and then silence......

"Almost there Alain, run, run, " "Heeey, Heeey, Open the gate please!!", the sentinel can't hear or see him yet. "Just some moew steps, you can do it!!". Suddenly he feels a dart in his back, not very painfull but all his surroundings become dizzy. He falls down like a death corpse.

When Alain wakea up he can see the full moon high in the sky. He was too tired and sleepy to feel fear. He can hear a rythmic sound of drums, and some sounds like rattle!, or some kind of speech? He remembers the feeling of terror as he recovers the sigth of the reptile-man killing his fellows. He is tied, with his face to the sky, he can't move or see what is happening. He is in the top of some kind of hill, but he is alive.

How much time he was there tied up he couldn't know, maybe an hour, maybe some minutes, when the most horrible sigth he could ever imagine emerged, walking up the steps at his rigth!!!

A giant toad, totally covered with blood, and carrying an obsidian knife is looking into Alain's eyes deeply.

"You was chosen!", Alain almost can hear that but he knows that that horrible monster was communicating with him by other means!!
"You was chosen, you must be pleased!!", Now Alain can see the whole thing, it is so heavy that four strong reptile-men struggle to carry the palanquin, where the fat body rests. But now he is strangely calmed, strangely....
"You will serve now the Old-Ones in their inmortal halls!!!" The sound echoes in Alain skull.
"If you serve them well, you will be happy indeed!!"
"You must be proud and pleased!!"
Alain can't scream when the agile hands of the Toad-like slash his chest. A deep wound indeed. A mortal and studied blow.
"Damn, its hard to be a Brettonian Commoner!!!. Even in death we must serve a lord!!" Was the lasts thougths of Alain, as his eyes saw his own heart in the raised hand of the Toad-like, pumping out blood in all directions, and the drums and rattle music was so loud that even the frigthened brettonians in the fort can hear it....