The following is a short story to help give an idea of the motivations of each characters that appear in the Black Mask & Pale Rider series. All will be written in the first person. This is Shani Wennemein.
The Adventures of Black Mask & Pale Rider by Tim Holtorf is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada License.
Based on a work at https://taholtorf.wordpress.com/bmamppr/the-series/.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at https://taholtorf.wordpress.com/.
Now this here is an interestin’ predicament.
Y’all want me ta talk ‘bout me. That ain’t exactly somethin’ I am used ta doin’. Not much, anyways. Now, I don’t wanna go tellin’ tales outta school, but you will find I am the damn best gun hand this here human world, ‘r even my own elven world, has ever seen. I would dare go so far as ta say that either will ever see.
Now, y’all might say I’m just bein’ a bit of a bragger, an’ I admit, there is a time ‘r two when I over state my accomplishments. But it ain’t any worse then what them dime store novelists try an’ write ‘bout me. Fer example, I did not fight off an’ kill twenty men in a bar room poker game gone wrong with my bare hands in Deadwood, South Dakota. There were only four. An’ I was usin’ my dagger an’ a pistol. An’ it were in Carrolton, Arkansas. See, its them little details that often get overlooked.
I do have my talents an’ my advantages. I am capable o’ disappearin’ before someone’s very eyes. That is the gift o’ a shadow walker. Though, I cannot do it at will. It is a defensive mechanism in the event that my life, ‘r the lives o’ them I consider my close friends an’ kin, in order ta protect myself an’ others. I cannot shot ‘r stab someone while I’m walkin’ the shadow ether.
Many o’ y’all may find my life excitin’, an’ I will say this; stop readin’ them dime store novels. My life has a duty bound by them I descended from on my mama’s side. My mama came from a long line o’ Mohawk protectors who would walk the forests an’ fight back the venomous an’ evil creatures ta protect all them who would be oblivious ta ‘em.
That has not changed since I walked through the gates b’twixt worlds an’ found myself here in the human world. The difference is, it ain’t so much spiders an’ snakes that could cut venom into a person’s blood, but other humans. Greed runs rampant here. Greed fer money, power, an’ power over other people.
This world is young, an’ the humans ‘re short lived. They ‘re like children compared ta us elves. I will do what I can in whatever way in order ta protect them who ain’t nary the ability ta protect themselves.
The name’s Shani Wennemein, known as the Black Mask, an’ I am a Shadow Walker.
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