The Hero and the Fiend

THE HERO AND THE FIEND

by GLENN G. THATER

All: Brave men are dead

Heroes are cowards

Brave Heroes are only myths and legends

---- from "Only Knights"

by Glenn G. Thater

(Excerpts)

Two vile creatures of Chaos stalked the moonlit streets of Lomion that night, preying upon hapless citizens in an attempt to sate their unending hunger for blood and souls, the very stuff of life. These fiends were so horrific in aspect no words could accurately describe their features. All that could be said with certainty was that they had two arms and two legs and walked upright. Such creatures as these nightmarish fiends had no place, in fact no right to even exist anywhere in the world of man, little less in the bustling metropolis of Lomion. These were unspeakable, maleficent, outré beings whose origins were rooted somewhere beyond the pale. Where they went only chaos, madness and death followed. They were likely brought over to our world by some foolish power-hungry mortal in search of unholy magic or forbidden lore long since lost to antiquity. No doubt all the conjurer received for his troubles was his own premature demise and the eternal torment of his immortal soul. Or perhaps the fiends were here all along, remnants of that ancient bygone age before the dawn of man when their kind walked the earth and called it their own. If so, they had existed for countless millennia haunting the nether regions of the world. Some say their kind are masters still of the darkest corners of the globe, beyond the farthest outposts of civilization and on certain mysterious foreboding islands and bizarre subterranean depths.

Not far away, a grim veteran warrior rode slowly through the chill moonlit streets astride a huge tan charger. The warrior stopped briefly to drop off a curious package at the small brick building where Iret Zale lived and plied his trade, and then made his way down Shield Street and across Marble Avenue toward one of his favorite inns, Baylock's Rest. He stabled his horse in the small barn at the rear of the inn, tossed a stable-hand a Silver Star, and walked through Goblin Alley to reach the front entrance of the Rest.

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If the above excerpts from the story "The Hero and the Fiend" have caught your attention and you'd like to read more - please let me know - click on the 'comment' button at the end of the post and leave me a comment. I'm considering including the full version of this story in an upcoming collection of my stories that we be available for purchase on Amazon.com