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Path of Rememberance
Suddenly she awoke to find herself where she had fallen...What a horrible nightmare she had had. As she rose a sharp pain in her big toe caused her to flinch. She looked down at it to see blood oozing and drying around a rather nasty looking wound. She leaned down to inspect her wound more closely and realized the thorn may have been of a poisonous variety. That could've been the cause of the hallucinations and dreams. She clenched her teeth together and pulled up the rest of the way to a standing position. Looked around and appraised the situation. She realized that it was growing dark and she would soon be in danger. She was in the open and the Driders while not emerging in the daylight would have few objections about emerging in the cool night air with a sky lit only by the stars and moon. They were a swift horror sent after people who were sentensed to death. Those the Drow didn't need brought in alive or more important, those the Drow wanted dead. Being paralyzed and consumed alive by a Drider was one of the worst ways known by her to die. Ignoring her pain she began to run at a slower loap along down the path while reflecting on thoughts of the lady dragon and hoping against hope the Drider and the Drow hadn't done away with her, but something inside of her felt the empty dread and a lingering saddness. She was just sure that they had. How could they not discover the dragons lair and kill the holy dragon that dwell hidden within. She suddenly was taken back to a time of story telling and teaching when her Mother, Matron Mother that is, was warning her of the various known dragon lairs located throughout the Underdark closer to the surface regions and how she wasn't to take any hunting parties assigned under her command to those locations which were marked on the map given to her. How beautiful her Mother had been, how beautiful and powerful, she ruled her house with flawless tact and strategy, though they were still among a lower ranking sect of houses they were still considered powerful and were still respected or maybe it was feared. As the eldest female child, she was being groomed to one day rule as a Matron herself. Mother always kept her nearby and on hand. Her brother, older than herself, was not what you would consider a normal male. He seemed to have something wrong with him yet Mother didn't kill him for weak, but rather seemed to prize and favor him. His name was Dreg and he had some very feral, almost animal like features. He seemed very cruel and demonic in the ways he both looked and killed. She always felt uneasy around him. She had over heard her Mother speak once about a ritual ceremony held by the Graduating Drow which involved demon invitations or was it demonic invocations? It had been suggested almost in seeming jest, that Dreg was the son of a demon. He was first born child and he was first among the males. Dreg was often refered to as a "gift." Then the day came and it happened...the thing that any and all houses dread. The silent attack comming from a lower ranking house trying to gain in power, but this time they had conspired with the house ranking just above hers. The two houses slipped in and decended down upon the members of her house with a clash of swords and flashes of spell magic. They moved throught the house and being still young she felt a horrible fear overwhelm her. She ran to her Mothers chambers where she found her Mother rapidly casting one spell after another, spell after spell and among those her eyes turned to look upon her daughter and narrowed as the words slipped out, "The enemies victory will never be complete so long as even just one of us survives...I won't let her win," her Mother uttered with hateful spite in her tones. "Avenge us Shadow..." Then the spell activation words were heard and Shadow was wisked far away and safely unaware until it was too late. In only moments of her unwilling departure her Mother had been slain. Murdered by her own sister, Matron of a house just one rank lower than Shadows. Shadow wondered at the evil it would take in ones heart for one to slay their own sister, nieces, and nephews. How aweful...a wave of nausea began to fill her.
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