Finally!  Another update.  My contests are finished, and I'm awaiting judging.  Now I have time to focus more on this.  Thanks to all of you for reading!

Chapter 6

He was in an empty village.  He wasn't sure why he was there, or how he got there, but he was there nevertheless.  The small primitive homes lined a narrow dirt road, which was deserted.  The houses were all dark and quiet.  He wondered what time it was.  It was night, so he guessed the townspeople were sleeping.  That must be why it was so quiet, but that just didn't seem right.  A sense of foreboding came over him as he started walking.



He walked down the empty street, cold darkness spreading through him with every step.  Something in his mind warned him to stop, but he felt strangely pulled.  He tried to fight the feeling, but was unable to do that, either.  

And then he saw it, a small hill in the distance, just outside the village.  He walked towards it.  An acrid odor hung in the air, burning his nostrils.  As he approached, the stench worsened.



The hill was a compiliation of death.  Skeletons were interspersed throughout, becoming one with the dirt.  Though they had no remaining skin, the air smelled of rotting flesh and stale blood.  It was almost overpowreing.


 

Tim reeled from sight of the death mound.  He could almost hear the screams for help, the cries for mercy.  He felt an intoxicating mixture of emotions; rage, despair, anger, fear.  Who or what was capable of doing such a loathesome thing?  He broke out into a cold sweat and his head started to spin.



He lost his balance and fell on one of the bodies.  It made a sickening squish/crunch beneath him.



He heaved uncontrollably, his stomach in knots.  As he was wiping his mouth on his sleeve, a mocking laughter started somewhere in the distance.  He looked towards the sound, but saw nothing.  The sound grew louder, suddenly seeming to come from everywhere at once; a hideous cackle that caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand on end.



Suddenly, atop the hill, there stood a woman dressed all in black with long, flowing silvery hair.  

"Ileeya," he whispered.
"Fool!" she hissed in a demonic voice.  



The bodies spontaneously combusted.  The sudden force of air knocked Tim backward.  The fire was close enough to singe him and he smelled the sweet odor of his own burning skin and hair.  He tried to crab walk away from the blaze, but no matter how fast or hard he tried, he couldn't get any further from away from it.



He heard the laughter again, deafening this time.  A horrible demon with bedraggled white hair and silver-white eyes swooped down at him from above.  It was inches from his face, breathing, hot, rancid air at him.



The demon picked him up and threw him, bodily, into the flames.  He felt himself roasting, his skin blistering and charring, his hair melting.  He screamed in sheer agony as he tried to roll out of the fire, leaving a trail of burnt skin and clothing.



He awoke as he rolled into the stone wall of the cell.  He sat up with a start, then lied back down, pressing his sweat drenched body against the cool stone wall.  All he could do, for what seemed like an eternity, was lie there, shaking.  



When he finally started to regain his senses, he got up and splashed a little water on his face.  He downed a cup of water as well, to moisten his dry mouth and throat.  He was just making his way back to bed when Ileeya started stirring in her sleep.



She was mumbling incoherently and thrashing about, apparently having a bad dream of her own.  Her voice rose and now she was speaking in a desperate high pitched voice.  Naturally, he couldn't understand her native tongue, but one name kept popping up frequently:  Shirra.  He wondered who Shirra was.  Just when he began to worry that Ileeya was getting out of control, she started to quiet down and become still.  Her breathing evened out and she slept normally.


Tim spent the rest of the night curled in a tight ball, trying to warm himself up and fall asleep.  He missed his comfy waterbed back home, with the gentle waves of the mattress rocking him to sleep.  This mattress was hard and unyielding.  He tossed and turned the remainder of the night.

Hmmm.  I think we need more female crap.  Just kidding, Beosboxboy

I like the idea of different body shapes and heights.  Sims 1 had more variety in that department.  Better looking skin/eyes/hair and more choices for both.  Nannies that aren't stupid and burn themselves alive while insisting on making a Baked Alaska.  Stupid sims that don't put food in the oven and walk away from it.  Sims that aren't obsessive about feeding the babies or bathing the toddlers.  That drives me nuts.  I think you should be able to buy your clothes from home (that internet idea sounded really good).  More male clothing and hairstyles - good ones, because Maxis ones suck.  Matching furniture.  This drives me crazy everytime I want to put a table and chairs in a dining room.  All the wood grains are different colors, and sometimes the ones that are supposed to match are off color from each other.  Grrr!

I think some of my biggest beefs are:  I like to play a lot of challenges, unfortunately, many of them require you to marry townies.  I hate all the freaking ugly townies.  Maxis (or EA) seems to be very skilled at making really ugly sims.  Most of them have ski slopey noses or squished flat ones.  And what's with the carp mouth?  Also, I think when you create a new neighborhood, there should be random townies - I have 14 neighborhoods in my game, and I'm sick to death of Marisa Bendett, Sandy Bruty, and freaking Goopy Gilscarbo.  And that damn Marsha Bruenig stalks all of my adult sims!  How many kids come home with your sim kids on the bus, then obsessively call the child's parents to chat every. freaking. day?  I swear I'm going to start growing Marsha up in every neighbord and killing her off.  More variation for townie names - why do you need 3 Ivy Copurs in any given neighborhood or 2 Jessica Ebadis?  That's stupid and unrealistic.  Dogs that actually attack the burglars instead of just watching them, or sims that can attack them.  I get so tired of challenges where I can't have a burglar alarm or phone, then helplessy watch while the burglar steals me blind - while my stupid sim makes a sandwich or takes a bath because they can't interact with the burglar.  Moronic.  I want to whip out a gun and shoot th SOB.  I also think the animal adoption pool should be random for each 'hood.  My sims are always wanting to get a puppy.  How many times must I adopt Max?  And why does the adoption pool never refill?  With sims constantly wanting puppies and kittens, and only two or three to choose from, most sims don't get that want satisfied.  And why doesn't your pet having puppies satisfy the 'get a puppy' want?  

Okay, I think I'm done bitching now.  Not that my computer would be able to handle TS3, anyway.  I had to upgrade big time just to be able to play TS2, lol.

Hey, Lola!  You just saved me from going to page 2!  I was down at the bottom of page 1, lol.  Thanks for your compliment - I'm glad you are enjoying it so far.  I'm sorry I haven't been able to get an update, yet.  I'm in a couple of contests and they're taking a lot of my time.  And, I must confess, I've been simming a little bit, too.  Sometimes I just feel like playing the game that I bought, lol.  But I think one of my contests is done, and the other is getting close to the end, so I'll try to get an update next week.

I'm confused, Katrina.  Why can you only take one picture at a time than load it up?  Are you using the 'print screen' button on your keyboard, or taking in game snapshots?

That sounds pretty cool, Peatonear.  I can tell already that you have a natural flair for taking nice photos, and your plot sounds intriguing.  I'm looking forward to your first chapter.

Very happy to see you working on this again.  I love your unique story style.

Well thank you!  I really enjoy the compliments!

I'm very disappointed to reach the end already.  Now I'll have to wait in agony with everyone else for an update!  

You have a beautiful writing voice and a sophisticated style.  Your writing flows smoothly, and is addicting to read.  You give such life to everything, like you touch everything you see with your words, leaving nothing forgotten.  Your pictures are phenomenal, and again, detail is not spared, even down to the smallest thing, like a couple of mushrooms in the foreground.  Your story is a joy to read and look at, and I look forward to reading more.  And I'm afraid I'll have to go with the masses and say Leef is a hottie.  But both characters seem very real and deserve sympathy for their own reasons.  This is truly a great piece of work.

YH, you just made my day!  You don't know how thrilled I am to have something out there that people like.  And thanks for your compliments on my pictures.  I don't know my way around photoshop much, so I try to do as much in game as possible.  I really try to take interesting photos, but it's still a learning process.

Thanks Vicky and Squirt!  I'm glad you are enjoying it.  I'll try to do another update sometime next week.  I've got contests going on this week, sick kids, a birthday party for my middle kid, and parent/teacher conferences next week!  Ugh!  But I'll try to work on this mid-late next week.

Welcome, LadyA.  I'm thrilled to have a new reader, and more importantly, a new reader who is enjoying the story!

But that doesn't explain where he got the big fish lips from, lol.

That's an interesting concept that Alexander was fathered by aliens.  It would explain why he looks so different than the rest of the family.  I could never understand how such a homely boy could spring from the union of Bella and Mortimer.  I like your theory better.

Wow!  Thank you guys so very much!  Thanks, Sadie, for your compliments on both my entry for BB&B and Sheldyn.  I'm having fun with the contests and I'm pleased with the way Sheldyn turned out.  Thank you simfreakkristen and wawayaya for taking the time to read and comment on my story.  You all have made my day!  I feel like doing another update.  It's not terribly long, but the point where I end it makes a fairly good cliffhanger.  I hope you enjoy this section.

Well, I had a big ol' brain fart!  I didn't realize I already had a Part 3 before I named my last part 3, also.  I've renamed them correctly.  I'll get the hang of this, I promise!

Chapter 5

Despite all the questions now running rampant through Tim's brain, the only somewhat logical thing he could think to say was, "Does that ring enable you to speak and understand any language?"


"Yes. Any language it's exposed to. I can't understand or speak a new language until the ring hears it first."

"Okay, now I'm really confused."

"Well, like when I first met you. I couldn't communicate with you and you couldn't understand me when I spoke to you. But after you finally spoke, the ring was able to pick up the new language and translate it to me. And now we're able to communicate."


"How come they haven't taken it away from you?"

She shrugged. "The people of this world have no interest in silver, only gold and platinum. As for the ring being magic, they either don't know or don't care. Often I work as a translator for the guards."

"Where did you get your ring?"

"It was a gift from our father."


"Our," Tim asked.

"What?"

"You said it was a gift from 'our' father."

She chuckled nervously. "I'm afraid you are mistaken. I said my father. It was a gift from my father." She said it as if she were trying to convince herself as well as him.

"He gave it to me for our--I mean my birthday."


There. She said it again. He distinctly heard it this time. He had almost believed her when she said he was mistaken about what he had heard the first time, thinking maybe he was still dizzy from his fight with Aark. But this time there was no mistaking what he had heard. She was hiding something. He decided to ask her more details about her past.


"Do you have any siblings?"

She paused a moment before answering. "No. I'm an only child."

"Me, too. It can be pretty lonely growing up without any brothers or sisters, can't it?"

"Yes," she said almost inaudibly. She absently picked loose threads off her dress. Something was definitely going on here. He had stirred up painful memories and regretted it.


"Are you okay? I'm sorry if I..."

"I'm just fine," she answered, but when she looked up at him her eyes were moist with unshed tears.

"Look, Ileeya..."

"We better get some sleep. It's getting late."


He decided to let the matter drop for now. For the first time since coming to this strange world he remembered he had a watch on his wrist. He pulled up his shirt sleeve and was surprised to see that it read nearly 1:30 in the morning. It had only been 6 p.m. when he took his dog out for a walk, just before he 'arrived' here.


Tim crawled into bed wearily, his muscles already beginning to stiffen. He lied in there, staring at the wall thinking of Gertie and Bones. What would they do when he didn't return? A wave of despair washed over him. He didn't want to be here. He wanted to go home.


In the royal conference room, the king sat in a meeting with a few members of his court.

"What is your report?" the king asked his high priest.


"My liege, I have carefully reviewed the old prophecies, and this, Tim, matches the description exactly."


"Then it is our duty to prepare him. Have one of our best train him well. Ileeya or Jondak should prove sufficient."


"But sire, if he dies in the Grand Tournament, he cannot fulfill his destiny."


"If he dies in the Grand Tournament," the king replied stoically, "then he is not the one."

Or a gnome.  Check out these links, these items can really help a lot.  I love them!  

http://www.insimenator.org/showthread.php?t=42093

http://www.insimenator.org/showthread.php?t=42499

Well, thank you so much, Squirt!  I feed off the compliments, lol.  I'm still kind of feeling my way around this new territory (storytelling with sims) and sometimes get a double pic or realize I don't have as many pics as I would like.  Add to that my gross disorganization and three kids pulling on my sleeve everytime I turn around, and sometimes I wonder if what I've done even makes any sense, lol.  I hope to get better at it.  Fantasy/romance/horror is my passion.  Sheldyn, my entry for BB&B, will be a story I do sometime, as well.  I'd created her several times, just for fun, but didn't really 'feel it' until I made her for the BB&B.  Now I feel compelled to tell her story.  But I'll finish Tim's adventures, first.

Thanks again!