Everfree Weather

by Midknight Defender

Prologue

"You dare show your face here, without it?"

Askr the Lost was in a rare and spectacular fury. I didn't know an elf could turn that shade of purple.

Without, you know, being a dark elf.

"You dare!"

Eeeyup. I'm gonna die. Word of advice: never piss off the personal prophet of a god. You can't kill them. And if they don't forget you and your friends after you save their napping deity's geriatric keester from being offed by a usurper and they decide to celebrate by disappearing on vacation for five hundred years, then I know they'll never forget when you piss them off.

"Askr. It was just a necklace. It's not like Karana needed it to be able to go on Rainkeeping, or anything. He's a god."

Were those... thunder clouds forming around Askr's fists?

"And besides, he said I could ask for anything. You wouldn't blast a guy for taking a god at his word, would you?"

KRA-KOWWW!!!

Blinking furiously, I try to clear my eyes of tears and the searing purple streak where the lightning bolt had crackled past my face.

"And if he did need it he could have asked for it back, any time!"

"You lost the Amulet of the Rain!" Time to duck again.

KRA-KOWWW!!!

"You try keeping track of every magical doodad you've ever collected when the world is literally being hammered into pieces by falling bits of exploding moon!"

"You... Aaarrgghh!!!"

KRA-KOWWW!!!

"ENOUGH, ASKR."

Was that...?

"Yes, milord."

Enter Karana, God of Storms. He may be a geezer, but he knows how to make an appearance. That bit with forming his body out of swirling clouds? Totally awesome.

"RETURN TO THE BASTION, ASKR. WE HAVE VISITORS. AGAIN."

Making his voice out of bursts of thunder? Completely radical.

"I AM SURPRISED TO SEE YOU STILL ALIVE, MORTAL."

Even the flickering lightning that served to highlight his hair and beard was cool.

"Rainkeeper." I kneel. What? I'm not stupid. Rule one of the Adventurer's Guide to the Planes: don't mouth off to gods. Especially not the one that granted you magic to begin with. Not that many folks get to meet them face to face in this day and age―well, until recently.

"Rise, Kalamadea."

I look up to see an apparently-average old man gazing around curiously. Mundane flesh and blood. Bushy white beard. Oh, good, I'll still have my hearing at the end of the day. I was starting to get a little worried.

"Tell me, where is your brother?"

I wince at that. More than four hundred years still wasn't long enough. "Dead. As it turns out, wood elves and half elves have different lifespans."

"Ah. I'm sorry. I did tell Tunare that would cause problems, back when she decided the first animals she'd made weren't interesting enough to fully represent Life."

Oh no, geezer alarm. Don't let him get started on another story about how he was around for Creation. Subject change!

"I'm sorry about the Amulet. It was in my house on the Butcherblock coast. The town was washed out to sea after a piece of the moon crashed offshore."

Karana's eyes narrow, glowing ominously.

"It's not there, mortal. The explosion of the Luclin Nexus caused enough damage to the weave for the impact to send the Amulet flying across the planes, to a realm beyond our pantheon's borders. I can just barely sense it, damaged and leaking my divine essence.

"And I need you to go find it before it causes a war with the local deities." Oh, crap.

KRA-KOWWW!!!

Author's Note:

I'd been thinking for a while that I really ought to write something for this site, as much enjoyment as ya'll have given me here, but I've never been really inspired with ideas.

Tonight, I was bored, didn't feel like watching tv, didn't feel like reading more, so I tried to take a stab at a story-start.

The only inspiration I have right now is: cross MLP with EverQuest. Which would be easier if I had more recent experience with the lore of Norrath: it has been a while, and they cancelled the sequel that was due to come out a few years ago. Luckily, I won't be sending ponies there (I think?) and I have a lot of recent experience in different versions of Equestrian lore to draw on, so I can probably muddle through. Consider any lore mistakes to be artistic liberties for the sake of storytelling.

Typo-busters are welcome. I'd like to think there's slim pickings, so bring a snack pack.

We'll see how long I can keep this going!