New Story/Vote!

The undead asylum was an exceptionally boring place. There was barely anyone to talk to, or at least, barely anyone who could respond with anything more than a gargling whimper. The only living beings around who weren’t the aforementioned whimpering hollows were huge demons that would crush anybody who wandered too close! Well, them and a weird talking crow who kept asking for warm things, but everyone seemed to just ignore her.

It was because of this unforgiving lack of stuff to do, that Yorke of Reeds was stood just outside his cell, poking one of the hollows in its face with a stick he’d found lying on the floor. It wasn’t much but at least it served to keep him mildly entertained. Watching the undead’s face contort in confusion gave him a small amount of pleasure. It didn’t seem sure if it should interpret this as an attack, so instead resumed wailing in hopes that it would scare the strange man away.

Finally deciding to leave the hollow alone he wandered back to his cell. It was a small place but he’d come to call it home, or something like that, ever since he’d awoken here with no real memory as to how he’d arrived. The cell was built quite poorly in all honesty, the door had literally fallen off it’s hinges the second Yorke had prodded it, mere minutes after waking up. Still, he couldn’t complain, it meant he had a lot more room to move than most of the hollows who seemed confined to their cells.

Murky water ran freely through the room, one of the less pleasant features of it’s decor. Yorke had spent quite some time trying to figure out the source of it, but with no luck. The few times he thought he had found it just turned out to be rat holes who were extremely annoyed that he’d just blocked up their home with a piece of cloth. The plethora of scratch marks on his arms reminded him not to do so again.

Yorke took a look around, trying to figure out what he could do next. Perhaps he could try and explore one of the other wings of the asylum? He quickly shook that idea from his mind, the doors were all locked and even if they weren’t, there was no way he could handle any of the potentially dangerous creatures in them. At least this place was safe, if boring.

That was out of the question then. Maybe he could go and try to hold a conversation with the crow? Again, no. Snuggly (as he’d begun referring to the crow) never seemed interested in talking about anything but warm and soft things. Yorke had once tried offering her this mucky doll he’d found in another cell, but the bird had refused it saying “No, no. That one belong to another.” The little bird was freaking impossible.

Also out of the question. Yorke really didn’t want to deal with Snuggly’s confusing needs. Maybe he could go and attempt a daring escape, fighting past the various undead and finally coming upon the great demon that guarded the exit, slicing him in two with only a broken sword hilt!

. . .
Yorke burst out laughing, nearly falling over in the process. His chuckles seemed entirely out of place in the dreary asylum, but that didn’t stop him. He leaned against the wall, slowly collapsing to the floor as he giggled like a madman. In what reality would something as ridiculous as that ever happen!?

Still chuckling, Yorke stood back up, his mish-mash of armor clanking slightly as he grasped the wall of the room. Once he felt steady enough to move, he walked back out the cell. With nothing better in mind he decided to simply tour the cells again, in hopes of finding somebody new. Preferably someone un-hollowed too, that’d be nice.

As he wandered around, Yorke began to notice something odd. It seemed as though there was a sharp increase in the amount of corpses around today, not only that, but these ones weren’t moving. For some reason this was unsettling, which in itself was also unsettling. A big clump of unsettle-y feelings which were not particularly welcome.

Pushing those incredibly confusing feelings to the back of his mind Yorke continued walking. He passed a great many cells on his way, but unfortunately none of them contained anything more than a gargling hollow or in the case of one cell, a particularly pretty rock. Still, that didn’t exactly help him do anything, so he continued walking.

After a good five minutes of walking, Yorke noticed something. The floor was shaking. Violently. Not only that, but he was fairly certain that he could hear roaring coming from the Demon’s room. This was not good. Yorke was torn as to whether or not he should investigate, but the question was answered for him when the roaring suddenly stopped, accompanied by the hissing sound which normally accompanied something’s death.

The large door in the courtyard opened again, and a being wearing knight armor strolled through it confidently. He walked up to the bonfire in the center and sat down for a moment, before standing up again and turning back to the doorway. Yorke quickly realised that this person was no hollow, and he scrambled to get the knight's attention.

“Hey! Hey you! Knight guy, look over here!” Yorke shouted, waving his arms maniacally to try and get this person’s attention. The knight stopped for a moment and turned around, tilting his head at the crazy man. Yorke quickly sprinted down the nearby staircase, nearly tripping several times as he made his way into the courtyard.

“Fuck, man you have no idea how good it is to see another human!” Yorke exclaimed, skidding to a halt just in front of the knight. He looked up expectantly, waiting for a response. He didn’t get any. Yorke straightened up, giving a confused look at the knight. “Uh, hello? Can you hear me?” Still no response.

Well, this was awkward.

Then, without a word, the knight turned around and sprinted back through the demon’s chamber, rolling through the giant porcelain pots on his way.

“Hey, wait for me!” Yorke yelled as he ran after the guy, stumbling as he went. It was only now that Yorke realised how badly out of shape he was, and this crappy looted armor wasn’t helping him move any faster.

His energy was already depleted as he reached the staircase leading up to a cliff at the edge of the asylum, running past Snuggly’s nest as he went. She gleefully greeted him with a “You! You!” but Yorke had no time to respond, he had to see where the hell this guy was going!

He arrived at the top of the staircase just as the knight fucking leapt off the cliff, his arms spread in a V shape and his legs straight as an arrow. Yorke just stood there, mouth agape as he tried to process what had just happened. His utter brain-melting confusion was interrupted however by an incredibly loud caw, followed by the flap of huge wings.

A massive crow shot up over the cliff edge, and Yorke was surprised to see the knight held in one of its talons. Although Yorke couldn’t see his face through the helmet, he could almost feel the knight’s smug grin as he shrugged in it’s grasp before the bird carried him away.

It took a good ten minutes before Yorke could finally formulate a response to what had just happened, though it was admittedly not the most eloquent. He felt as though maybe he should swear vengeance or something, make a comment about how he would find another way out of the asylum and then hunt down the knight, make him regret this choice. But Yorke had never really had a talent for the theatrics, so instead opted for something a bit simpler.

“You utter fucking prick,” he muttered, still staring at the place where the gigantic bird had been.

“Caw! Prick! Caw! Prick!” Snuggly added helpfully. Yorke sighed as he sat back down, propping himself against one of the gravestones.

“Shut up, Snuggly.”

~~~

So! In case you guys couldn't tell, this isn't a pony story. Sorry! People who know me personally, or have seen some of my other posts may already know that I'm a huge fan of Dark Souls, and this is the result of that raging bo- I mean love of the series. So, two things

A: I have a fanfiction.net account now, on which the story shall be posted soon! Link here; https://www.fanfiction.net/~deepshift
B: This is where I need you guys. I'm stuck between two titles for this story
Soulful Incompetence and Chasing Fate. The second of which would make more sense from the second chapter onwards. SInce I'm a bit of an indecisive guy, I figured I'd ask y'all what you thought was better, so please help me! ^_^

Anyways, I hope you'll read this once it starts going up, It'd be nice to see you guys over at fanfiction.net ;)

Later everybody!

~DeepShift, the Chosen