Times of Jolly Despair

“Raziel, let’s go.” A voice beckoned within the relatively small guild building. It only had a few fancy features, and generally appeared like nothing more than an inn, but with two storeys instead of one. At a large board filled to the brim with various papers, a young man snatched one off of the board and began walking to the front door.

As he stood, he tapped his right foot slightly. His waiting progressed, and his taps grew louder and faster. A minute passed, two minutes passed, and the person he was waiting for still hadn’t arrived. He punched the wall, causing a slight tremor; turned around and shouted, “RAZIEL! Hurry up you little mut!” Instantly afterward, a howl resounded in the guild. The rest of the guild members looked up momentarily; realizing it was a daily occurrence, they simply went back to their own lives. “Jeez, I’m coming, calm down.” There was a rather deep voice echoing from the back of the guild, and when it appeared, it appeared rather strangely.

The voice, which was clearly that of a man’s, was that of a wolf’s. The wolf, named Raziel, had dark blue fur and highly sharp canine looks. “Raziel, please stop taking so long with whatever you do in there, it really causes a ruckus.” A man with an eccentric outfit and blond hair, known as Alejandro Malberg moaned to Raziel, who simply dismissed his comments with, “Tell that to Mr. Artemis Reznik over there.”

Just then, the full figure of the young man who was shouting had been exposed. He had rather coarse, somewhat dull blond hair which was remarkably spiky, despite the many claims that it was natural, everyone had their doubts. He was quite muscular and broad as well, wearing a fitting choice of attire to – inadvertently – show off his figure. He simply adorned a black tank-top over a pair of dark jeans, bound by a single black belt.

Artemis groaned, “Alright, the daily farce is over and done with. Can we leave now? We have a job to do.” Raziel barked back, “Ahem, you want a job to do; I was sitting inside eating, thank you very much.” Artemis’ forehead nerves popped out, and with an expression of irritation he dragged Raziel by the tail. “You’re coming with me you damned mutt!” He shouted at him; dragging him outside of the guild and into the open fields.

And this was a day in the life of a guild known as Desperados. It was a minor guild, not many had been able to join it, but it was a guild formed from the like-minded individuals whose homes had been tarnished. Wandering for days in ruin, in despair, a man lent his hand out to those in need, much like he was once himself. They clutched his hand, as if it were a baby’s hand wrapping around a father’s finger.

Realistically, the analogy wasn’t a bad one. After all, nowadays he is known as “Father” around these parts. The man was Randall Flagg, a man of tremendous power; but above that, he was a man of overwhelming kindness. He was plagued with the life of a Dark Mage prior, his power eradicating all that was in his way, and yet after his own defeat, he fell victim to the disease of humility. Though in an ironic twist of fate, this disease cured him from his evil nature, and so he left the ways of the dark, dragging his personal assistant, Alejandro along with him. Of course, there are the other members of the guild no doubt, but we won’t go into great detail about them just yet. After all, there’s a time and place for everything, isn’t there?

Racing across the unimaginable terrain filled to the brim with craters, dunes, mountains and everything else that could possibly be wrong with the world were Artemis and Raziel. They didn’t particularly understand what they were doing, but they were doing it nonetheless. As he evaded yet another crater, Artemis posed a question to Raziel, “Why are we doing this again?”

As Raziel ducked another rock structure, Raziel retorted with, “We’re only doing this because it is fast.” Jumping over another tremor, the young mage sighed and continued on with his irritating job. After about an hour of jumping, ducking, side-stepping and everything else, Artemis and Raziel both panted and ended up at the corner of the large terrain.

“So…are we done?” Raziel asked Artemis, who looked at the pathway they created. “It looks decent enough. Nobody will die if they go on the path…ideally.” He replied with a rather bland expression, still in awe at the task they had just completed.

“Well, it looks like we have to report to the rich dude. Let’s go, Raziel.” Artemis began walking off, with Raziel strutting along behind him. After walking through their own designated path without any signs of strain, the duo went along a far cleaner terrain that ended up leading them to a very large and flamboyant mansion. Their eyes sparkled – figuratively in the least – as they envisioned the riches and rewards they might have reaped from this job.

As they got closer to the door, they noticed more and more details of the mansion that they overlooked prior. It was a mansion of tremendous height and weight, completely cream but with inscriptions. Embedded across the front of the house, and trailing off around the corners of the house were vine-like patterns; going closer, one could find a variety of names inscribed into the said vines, holding an unknown significance.

But the stare of the duo was soon cut off with the arrival of the owner of the house. Bewildered, the two Desperados mages took a step back as they noted the owner. He was a surprisingly fit man for someone who held such wealth; rather feminine, but sharp features trailed along his face, keeping his appearance dignified. This was then enforced with a variety of royal robes, patterned with a number of incarnations, roses and sunflowers which were ornamented with a glitter of sorts.

As he spoke, Artemis and Raziel were dumbfounded, “Finished are ya’? Good good, I was gonna do it m’self, but I got lazy, y’know?” His informal tone didn’t match his regal appearance one bit, leaving the two somewhat dazzled. Quickly, Artemis regained his composure and asked the man, “Our reward, sir?”

The man immediately replied, “Ah yeah.” Taking out an innumerable amount of jewels, he gave the currency to Artemis. After counting, and very pleased with his reward, he bid farewell to the man. “Right, that’s half-half for both of us.” Artemis split the money between him and Raziel, patted him on the head, and began walking off to the guild, with Raziel alongside him.

On their way to the guild, as they were about to get into the street that held their building, the unexpected happened. It conjured by itself; a magical blast of such potency that Artemis’ entire figure was enveloped in its unholy gold color! What happened to Artemis…was left to be seen…

Fin