Rebirth

Melgrin was lost. He had traveled farther from the caravan than this in the past, and always found his way back. But this time he had somehow gotten totally turned around. His father was going to punish certainly this time. He had already been gone eight hours. Melgrin was scared, but not because of the possible punishment. In less than an hour it would be dark, and the desert was a terribly cold place at night. Hunger gnawed at his stomach. There were also the nasty creatures that came out at night to deal with. He began to run. Melgrin ran until his lungs burned, and he dropped to his knees. The panic subsided slowly. He buried his head in his hands for a few minutes, and got his breathing under control. Finally, he got to his feet and surveyed the area. Sand for miles. Actually hundreds of miles he thought. That was when he spotted it.

A dark spot in the sand a few hundred paces away. He jogged towards it. It was a hole in the sand, a cavern leading downward. More importantly, it was shelter from the night winds. Feeling a bit better about his situation, Melgrin the young nomad began to scale down the loose footing of the cavern. Maybe things would be better in the morning. At the bottom, which was about 100′ down, the ground was covered by a thick carpet of fine sand and dust. A fine bed he thought. It appeared that a tunnel used to head off to the north, but it had long since caved in. Melgrin gave the cavern a quick once over, making sure that no nasties were residing. The light of day far above was slowly deminishing, and so Melgrin curled up in the deep dust and was soon falling asleep. Unfortuantely for the youth, he had failed to notice the bleached bones and scraps of dark, tattered cloth, which were mostly buried in the sand about twelve feet away. Of course he never could have detected the crown which was buried directly below him about one foot.

After a short time, dreams began to invade Melgrin’s sleep.

“Below you, young one”, the entity willed,”Sense me…Find me…” “Find me. You shall be rewarded”

Melgrin awoke. He looked around. Nobody. It was just a dream. Shrugging, he rolled over again, but sleep would not come to him. He stared at the sand by his head for a while, and then rose to his knees. He scanned the cavern again.

“Here”

Melgrin stood, a daze overcoming him.

“This way…”

He walked to the far side of the shelter.

“Dig….”

Within minutes Melgrin had unearthed the plain, iron crown. He picked it up. It was cold, heavy. Something was terribly wrong he vaguely thought, but for some reason he just didn’t care. Without thinking, and gripping the crown firmly in one hand, he walked directly to the pile of bones that he had missed earlier. He knelt and with his free hand began to brush away layers of dust, carefully placing to the side any bones that he came across. Until he came to the skull, which was intact.

“Place me upon the skull…NOW”

Melgrin did just that, and truelly awoke. Hearing a hissing sound, such as that which acid makes upon a surface, he looked down. He was holding a skull, with a crown upon it,which was somehow in the process of fusing itself to. In fright he dropped both, and ran to the wall of the cavern, and began to crawl his way up. A wind, at first gentle, but soon powerful began to race around the cavern, stirring up dust, sand, and bone. As he was climbing, Melgrin made the mistake of looking back. What he saw was a number of bones that were joining together upon the ground, in the shape of a complete skeleton. Tattered bits of dark cloth, the remnants of a jet black robe, wrapped themselves around the form. A blue light surrounded all, illuminating the cavern. The light turned white, and intensified to a point that Melgrin could no longer see well. He lost his hand hold, and slipped, landing on his back. The fall rendered him unconscious. Melgrin became aware of something tickling his face. Painfully he opened his eyes. In horror he realized that a skeletal hand was poking at his cheek. The robed terror bent over him, empty eye sockets glaring at his features, both bony hands silently caressing his face. The crown upon the skull glowed with a feint blue light. Melgrin froze.

“I’m sorry, but I need something from you…”, the thoughts from the figure entered Melgrin’s mind.

“No…”, was all that Melgrin could stammer.

“Only your flesh boy, it’s not as if I want your soul…” the figure mocked. And with that an unbearable pain overcame the nomad as his flesh was ripped from his body. The sinewy organic matter whirled around the liche, and meshed thinly over the bare bones. The process complete, the figure rose to his full seven foot height, and released a completely silent howl of victory. Though his new vocal cords could not yet muster a sound, the liche was exultant. He had had his first taste of power again.

A light above caught his attention. Kulas Dar peered up at the sliver of the moon that was visible through the opening of the caver, and released a second silent howl of pleasure.