Reaching them, he went toward his father first, and pulled him
close to himself in a tight embrace.  His father didn't move too much, and
still smelt badly of carrion, but Kaladorne guessed it was because his
father had just been dead, and that they were standing near a pile of other
dead people.  After hugging his father, Kaladorne hugged his brother in
much the same manner.  His brother also suffered from the lack of emotion
that his father was currently experiencing.

        Kaladorne was then pulled away from his newly ressurected family by
one of the necromancer's men, and was brought back to him.  The necromancer
again spoke, "Well, now that I brought these two back from the grave, you
must accompany me back to my tower and begin your training."

        This new twist of fate surprised Kaladorne, and he replied,
"Training?  Am I not to become some slave of some sort, running little
errands and the like?"

        "That is the fate of most, yes.  But then again, most don't possess
the skill that you do, my boy.  Yes... MY boy.  Like I said before, you do
have a bit of skill with that sword of yours, and it should be refined
further.  That will be the first part of your training." said the
necromancer, grinning broadly by the time he had finished speaking.

        "And the second part will be?" Kaladorne asked.

        "That will be my little secret until the time comes." with that the
necromancer began cackling in an evil fit of delight.  After a second, he
waved at the man holding Kaladorne's sword, and he handed it back to him.
Kaladorne took it, and stared at it for what seemed like years to him, and
then ran with it over to his father, brother, and the pile of bodies, and
dropped it in front of them.  He, against his better judgement, began
rifling through the pile of lifeless flesh, blood, and broken bones, until
he found his father's sword.  After retrieving it, he ran back to the
necromancer with the sword on his back, and said, "I'd like to keep my
father's sword as a remembrance of him and my brother, if that's alright?"

        The necromancer slowly nodded to him, and then had a horse brought
up for him to ride, and then he and the necromancer rode off, leaving the
men that lived to gather the bodies for the necromancer's experiments.

        On the road, the necromancer tried to make Kaladorne feel
comfortable, making idle conversation, trying to learn all he could about
the boy.  How he grew up, what his family was like, the things that
Kaladorne liked and hated, and exactly what else his father had taught him.
Kaladorne also had questions for the necromancer, as to what his training
was for.  The necromancer wouldn't reveal this, but said that after the
training, Kaladorne's swordmanship would increase ten fold, maybe more
depending on his actual potential, and how much he wanted to learn.

        After riding almost the whole day, they stopped and made camp.  The
necromancer had Kaladorne build a fire for them to cook some salted meat
over, and to give the men following something to find them by later in the
night.

        Kaladorne awoke the next morning to sounds of men talking loudly,
and sometimes laughing.  Kaladorne could also smell what he thought were
eggs being cooked, and decided to open his eyes now and get something to
eat.  Sitting up slowly, he found his father's sword, now his, lieing next
to him where he left it.  Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, his vision
cleared up and he saw a small tent set up with a fire built under it, as an
extremely light rain was falling, barely noticable.  Actually it was more
of a fine morning mist.  He returned his sword to his back, and walked out
of camp for a few minutes to relieve himself, and then walked back heading
straight for the tent, where he now saw a few men holding pots over the
fire.  When he got close, a few of the men snarled at him, a few patted him
on the back smiling, and the rest just ignored him all together.

        "Hungry?" came from behind him.  He spun quickly to find the
necromancer standing there, holding a pot in one hand, and three eggs in
the other.  Kaladorne nodded, and the necromancer handed the pot and three
eggs to him.  He then walked over to the fire, finding a spot not too close
to any of the other men, and cracked the eggs into the pot and started to
swirl the pot around, attempted to mimic what the other men were doing.
After a few minutes, the yolks had broken, and the eggs had turned into
something solid sitting on the bottom of the pot, he looked around, and
found a pile of forks, spoons, and small knives lieing on a cloth.  They
looked pretty clean, unlike the rest of the men.  He grabbed a fork and
sat down a few feet from the fire, and began to eat whatever it was the eggs
had turned into.

        The necromancer sat down next to him, and inquired, "Don't you know
how to cook?"

        Kaladorne looked up from his pot, and with his mouth full of egg,
simply shook his head, "No."

        "That's something we'll also have to work on then.  You won't
always have a cushy inn to sleep in, or other people to reply on for
food."  Kaladorne just looked at him, then went back to eating his food.

        After morning-feast, Kaladorne had the job of packing up the dirty
pots and forks, spoons, and knives.  Packing them into the saddle bags of
the pack horses was an interesting task.  It wouldn't have been too bad,
but the pack horses were also carrying wheeled carts full of decaying
bodies.  Kaladorne nearly puked three times while stowing the dirty pots
and such.

        After he had the equipment put away, they began riding again, and
this time they only rode until they came to a small flowing stream.  They
stopped for midday-feast here, and Kaladorne also was made to wash the pots
out before midday-feast, and then again after midday-feast.  At least this
time someone was cooking his food for him.  A few of the ment went hunting
and came back with a few of the creatures that live on the plains.  They
were roasted up nicely, and everyone had a plateful of meat to eat.  Again,
Kaladorne was made to put the pots away, and staring at a few bodies this
time, he did lose it.  Luckily he didn't dirty any of the pots he was
carrying.

        They rode following that procedure for almost a week, and during
that time, Kaladorne was taught by a few of the men, the basics of cooking,
hunting and fishing.  Kaladorne also passed on some things his father
taught him to them about the local plants and vegetation.  Eventually, they
came to a clearing where no grass grew, and seperating the area where grass
was growing, and the area that was only dirt was a black line.  The whole
caravan, moved inside, with explicit instructions from the necromancer to
not touch the line.  After that, he removed a scroll from his
belt, and began to intone the runes contained on it.  The black line
started glowing, and quickly everyone felt a little dizzy, and then there
was a sudden flash of intense, but black light.  When next everyone looked,
they were in another clearing, only this time, there was a huge tower almost
a quarter mile from where they were.  As soon as everyone got their balance
back, they rode toward it.

        Nearing the tower, Kaladorne noticed skeletons moving around, their
pearl white bones standing out against the blackness of night.  There were
almost twenty of them.  He felt very scared, and then the necromancer got
off his horse, and called to Kaladorne to come join him.  Kaladorne did so,
and then he noticed the twenty skeletons getting closer to the seven men
that rode in with them.  The skeletons then pulled long swords and began to
attack the men.  Kaladorne watched, puzzeled and scared, and the
necromancer simply laughed.

        The first was very interesting to watch.  One of the men would hack
down a skeleton, and begin concentrating on another, only to have the first
one rise up again and hit him while he wasn't looking.  A handful of
skeletons didn't come back though, and after about fifteen minutes, the men
were all dead, and sixteen skeletons began dragging all the bodies off
toward the opposite side of the tower.  The necromancer looked at
Kaladorne, then at his tower, and started walking toward the large double
doors, and Kaladorne followed.  When they got within about five feet of the
tower, the necromancer waved his right hand, and the doors just swung open.
They both walked in, and the necromancer showed Kaladorne to his room,
which was conviently right next to his own.  Before closing the door, the
necromancer said, "I'd not walk the tower at night just yet.  The other
creatures that reside here don't know you yet, and might kill you.  They
won't however enter this room.  Oh, and my name from this point on is what
you will call me, it is Tygor."  With that, he slammed the door closed, and
Kaladorne turned around to take in his new surroundings.

        Glancing about, he saw a large elegant bed in the far corner, with
a wooden frame, and black covers.  He also noted the large writing desk on
the wall opposite the bed, and a bookshelf on the wall directly opposite
the door.  It reached from the floor to the ceiling, and was currently
devoid of books.  He walked slowly to the middle of the room, making sure
there was plenty of space for what he was about to do, and then removed the
sword on his back from its scabbard and swung it around a few times.  He
sighed, and then put it back, and hung the scabbard on the back of the
desk chair, along with his clothes, and then walked tiredly over to the
bed.  He grasped the bed sheet, and found that it was black silk.  This
surprised him, but he climbed into the soft bed, and as soon as his head
hit the pillow, he fell into a deep sleep.

                            (To be continued!)
SAUCE00Kaladorne - Part 2                 Executioner         Blade               19950906'
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