View Full Version : Fading Memories
((My first Solo quest, and a really confusing one at that too, Incase your wondering, this one starts at the end and works its way to the beginning))
This is not how it was supposed to be, she ran as hard as she could but he body was bruised and too tired for her to keep running for long, she stopped when he lungs finally gave up on her and she fell to her knees still clutching the small item to her chest. Her crimson eyes slowly opened as she looked ahead, she could see it, the white tower that stretched upwards into the sky, she was nearly there, nearly at the docks, soon she could get help and these images that haunted her would fade, what did they mean?
An army of darkness was behind her, she knew it without even having to look back, she just knew that they were still there, but who, the only image her mind gave was like a sea of ink flowing through the forest, with the sun setting behind her she knew that the darkness would soon catch up. Yet it was only now since departing and seeing the white tower, was that place truly safe, the darkness was only one of the fears that held a grasp on her, other images haunted her mind, the man with the monstrous arm, where was he, who was he. Who was the man who looked like Canen, was it him at all and why would he be chasing her of all people, mostly her mind was plagued with images of her running through forests fleeing some unknown force that she could only guess was this army of darkness, this force that wanted to swallow her up.
Then something happened which threw all her fears out of the window, the item that she clutched close to her chest, no it wasn’t an item, it was a small creature that looked very familiar to her, it was out cold and was bleeding heavily. Just what was this rabbit sized creature, where had it come from, Dusk could not recall holding the thing mere moments ago, nor could she recall why her body hurt, her mind was on the verge of insanity. She gently put the creature on the ground and put a hand onto her head to find that it had been bandaged up, and that her head cried out in pain from under its touch, not only that but her scarf was missing, she never lost her scarf, or her jacket, and considering that her gloves were missing, the jewel that served as the sheath for her sword was also gone. At least now she understood why she was vulnerable, and with the soft snap of a twig from within the trees around her, she wanted to dart for the tower, but as she slowly stood she spoke out loud.
“That isn’t where I need to be” her voice was calm, but at the same time it could not hide the fear surrounding it, her crimson eyes turned towards the trees to her right, not really surprised to find several men in dark black armour wielding swords, each one stepping out to surround her. Dusk then looked to her left to find several more, they slowly circled her trapping her before she slowly turned around to face the darkness that had chased her up to this point. It was the Man who she had first thought to be Canen, but looking at him now, stood before her, he was nothing like her “Uncle” nothing like him at all, she felt like she had insulted Canen for ever thinking that.
Dusk lowered her face but her eyes remained locked onto the man, defiant to the end, her father would be proud of the stand she is taking now, she had finally stopped running and was now facing this unknown enemy, no he was not unknown, like the creature this man was familiar. “This is not how it is Supposed to end” she said out loud slightly confused to the meaning she had meant, but the man with the long black hair smiled, a cruel smile that allowed Dusk to imagine what Canen would look like if he were Sadistic. “Child … This is how it always ends” Again the meaning was lost to her, were it not for the huge hole in her head, she was sure that she would be able to recall what happened.
Dusk could only blink in utter confusion, "What ... where am i?" not only was she standing in the middle of nowhere with trees all around her, she shook her head trying to recall an answer, but that only hurt her head. The bandages held tight and the movement had made her a little dizzy, and her mind also hurt because nothing could answer her, it was frustrating that Dusk felt the urge to draw out her sword and attack the closest thing. The main problem with that was that she did not have her sword, it was missing along with several other items, this only worried Dusk now as she found her hand automatically holding onto some paper, maybe it was important or something.
The note Read
***
To Dusk – Kaiserin
If you are reading this then you must have once again lost your memory, here is the deal, your suffering from a kind of Short term amnesia, I am sorry I could not be much more help than that since I am not a real doctor.
Remember in your current condition the main things you need to do is
• Write down anything you remember, like where you are from
• If you get bored then read a few of the books in the room, please look after them
• Get sleep, I can’t stress this enough
Yours truly
Raphael Lagret
***
Ask the Twins about a possible way out through the magic fence
***
Trust Max
***
Dusk then gripped her head when she questioned the note, where had it come from, why couldn’t she remember, was he mind that messed up that she could not recall when she got this note, or how she was hurt. It all made little sense and all it accomplished was giving her one giant head ache, one that persisted as long as she continued to think about it. Without noticing, she fell to the floor sitting down while paralysed with pain, she forgot the letter no thanks to her so called short term amnesia, she had not even noticed the wind carry it away to who knows where.
“Dusk!” a faint voice called out, it broke through the pain instantly, it was familiar but she didn’t know why, dusk let go of her throbbing head, the pain was forgotten now that her attention was elsewhere, she was also instantly to her feet looking around for the owner of the voice. “Dusk!” it called again and Dusk then found it flying towards her full speed, it stopped in front of her floating in the air, it was a strange little creature, no bigger than a rabbit, it constantly waved its small arms around while its red eyes looked all around as it stuttered trying to find the right words to say.
“Dusk, This is a very bad place to be, There coming, right behind me, we have to get out of here now!, if not there going to” the little guys words were silenced as an arrow flew past, luckily for them both it had missed, but the arrow tip had scraped against the creatures head and almost bounced off, however the arrow was at too much of an angle to kill the guy, but dusk did not know better as she caught the creature before it hit the ground. Without thinking she clutched it tight and recalled enough of her training to look in the direction the arrow had come from. A soldier of some kind in black armour holding a black bow stood within the trees, out of place but soon more appeared only they had swords and Dusk recalled that her said weapon was missing.
Biting her bottom lip she did what she could only do while holding a wounded creature about to take on a small squadron of unknown origin, she turned around and ran, Dusk ran as fast as she could, and she saw in the distance a white tower. That was it, that was the dock, she was so close that she could finally begin her quest, but all she had to do now was run, run like there was no tomorrow, and slowly without realising it, she had ran so far, that she felt like she had missed it, slowly she stopped running with so many questions in her mind, but none more than the creature she cradled in her arms, and the fear of those in black.
It felt strange, like waking up in a strange room after a sleep that had lasted for weeks, Dusk looked around startled to find she was in the middle of nowhere sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree in some forest, “What on…” she said silently before scratching her head. Dusk was surprised to find her head in a neat layer of bandages, and the slightest touch made her flinch with pain, that wasn’t all either, now that her mind was absorbing her surrounding she realised that she was harshly beat up, that was probably why she couldn’t remember anything.
“You rested up now?” a strange yet familiar voice called out, and Dusk turned to greet the stranger, the familiar stranger, she frowned unable to recall who this person was, if she knew him at all she corrected. “err yeah I guess … Urm who are you” the man had short brown hair and his clothes were just a little better than rags, he didn’t carry a weapon but he did have an untreated cut on his cheek. He looked surprised and placed his monstrous arm on his forehead, Dusk was a little surprised at not seeing that before, that clawed arm. “That was quicker than last time” he said to himself. He walked over and pointed to the note in dusk’s hand, why didn’t she notice that before.
“That note will explain some things, but we have to hurry, if we wait around any longer there going to catch up to us” Dusk was startled to say the least and quickly read the letter, it didn’t make much sense
To Dusk – Kaiserin
If you are reading this then you must have once again lost your memory, here is the deal, your suffering from a kind of Short term amnesia, I am sorry I could not be much more help than that since I am not a real doctor.
Remember in your current condition the main things you need to do is
• Write down anything you remember, like where you are from
• If you get bored then read a few of the books in the room, please look after them
• Get sleep, I can’t stress this enough
Yours truly
Raphael Lagret
***
Ask the Twins about a possible way out through the magic fence
***
Trust Max
***
The notes had been in her own handwriting, she recalled enough to know that, but how could she have amnesia, she remembered who she was and what she was doing less than a weak ago. Dusk shook her head clear and read her last note again before looking up at the man. “Are … you Max?” he nodded then his eyes looked around them before picking out something in the distance. “See that?” he asked, Dusk looked and nodded suddenly feeling excited “… That’s the Docks!” she nearly yelled with joy, she had seen it once before, when she first came to Althanas, yet she could not recall a forest being so close to it.
“The Docks eh? “ Max said looking over his shoulder at dusk; he shrugged to himself before looking back supposedly the way they had come, after muttering something under his breath he spoke up once again. “The sooner we get there the better, come one, there getting closer” Dusk froze with fear “Who are they?” she asked trying to hide that fear, it didn’t seem to work. “They? They are the one who did something to your mind, I told you before, and that’s how they work so that if you escaped you would not be able to get far” Dusk felt that fear but steeled herself “Right … I want to go now”
Max nodded and helped dusk onto her feet before they took off at a slow run towards the white tower, there seemed to be nothing in there way except the distance, but after a while Max came to a stop holding out his arm, he seemed worried as he turned back “Something isn’t right … its too easy … I will scout ahead, and please stay where you are … “ Dusk nodded as Max ran on ahead, leaving Dusk alone in some kind of clearing, she felt alone here, no she felt anything but alone, she had a feeling that there was a trap close by and hidden eyes were on her.
Dusk closed her eyes trying to tell herself that everything was ok, she kept on chanting this to herself over and over, until she gradually felt calmer. Dusk then opened her eyes to find herself in a strange place, and her mind started to go into overtime wondering what had happened to her.
Dusk shook her head as though she had just woken up from a strange dream, but it was even stranger to find someone pulling her through a strange forest with a monstrous arm at that. Dusk stopped herself and wrenched her arm free favouring it with her other as though she had gotten a disease through touching this man. The stranger stopped and turned around with a sense of worry on his face, but he was far more agitated than Worried, he found between his deep pants of air as dusk found herself doing the same, just how long had she been running with him. “Who … What are you” she demanded while stepping back allowing her body to fall into a fighting position, but with her body mysteriously battered and aching, she really didn’t feel like it.
“It happened again didn’t it?” he asked keeping his voice as calm as possible, Dusk however didn’t say anything but keep herself in that defiant stance, Max had noted it and chuckled “I swear that your going to be defiant even in the face of death” Dusk only narrowed her eyes, she was really in no mood to put up with a stranger. “Ok then Dusk … here is a new question for ya … Where is your ring?” Dusks eyes shot open, the question made her realise that there was indeed several items of hers completely missing, her sword included. “T-that’s impossible … there is no way I could misplace them” she said reaching deep into her pockets for that special ring; instead she pulled out a crap of paper; she stopped when the Stranger held it up. “You gave me this, to prove that I am your friend here, they really did mess”
Dusk frowned at the sight of that ring in his hands “There is no way I would give my fathers ring to anyone” The stranger shrugged “You don’t even know what we talked about 5 seconds ago” he shot back pocketing the ring, and although dusk didn’t like that fact she dropped her guard and sighed, something was wrong but she didn’t know what. “The names Max … and like it or not I am the only friend you got at the moment” Dusk mostly ignored him but she did recall the slip of paper in her hand, she read it, just to get her mind of Max, she was startled to find it was addressed to her.
It read
To Dusk – Kaiserin
If you are reading this then you must have once again lost your memory, here is the deal, your suffering from a kind of Short term amnesia, I am sorry I could not be much more help than that since I am not a real doctor.
Remember in your current condition the main things you need to do is
• Write down anything you remember, like where you are from
• If you get bored then read a few of the books in the room, please look after them
• Get sleep, I can’t stress this enough
Yours truly
Raphael Lagret
***
Ask the Twins about a possible way out through the magic fence
***
Dusk was officially freaked out now, when did she get a short term amnesia, Dusk wasn’t entirely sure she had it, but Max confirmed it. “What you got there?” he asked trying to peak over the top like a child, Dusk was silent for a moment before looking up at Max. “You’re my only friend here” he nodded “Then tell me what’s going on”
Max shrugged, “why bother you will probably forget in a bit again,” Dusk gritted her teeth and nearly yelled at Max “I don’t like being left out of the loop, if there is something important then I want to know what!” Max could only sigh and place a hand over his head.
“Like I said, there after you” “Who?” dusk interrupted “The keepers, there after you, you have been recalled, you see you escaped somehow but they already did the damage with your head, you have been going in circles without me” Dusk frowned wondering if it was ok to believe his words “This is the truth” Max nodded and dusk sighed with frustration before taking out a pen and writing down a note
***
Trust Max
***
“Hey listen … you wait here for a moment while I scout around ok” Dusk nodded and found a seat on a fallen tree; she took a seat and watched Max walk off into the forest. Who were the keepers, and what had she escaped from exactly, in truth it sounded like a crazy joke because she could remember hiking through the fields of Althanas towards the docks after hearing a crazy roomer. Had the Silvets truly returned and that her father had was ahead of her to see this for himself. It was so clear it seemed like yesterday, but she felt her body ache with the strange wounds; even her head was bandaged up, what had she been up to while her mind was away?.
Soon it didn’t matter, as now her thoughts returned to her surroundings, finding it peaceful yet at the same time, confused as to why she didn’t recognise it at all. ‘ what’s going on? ’
Sleep, that’s all her body wanted, sleep, rest and relaxation, if not for the constant foot nudging her she would be enjoying the peaceful rest, as her mind began to reinsert itself into the world around her she realised that she was lying in a patch of mud. It was quite a startling discovery that she was instantly on her feet with surprise, whenever her mind decided that sleeping in mud was a good idea must have been one influenced by heavy drinking. Dusk then turned her eyes to the strange man who had woken her up, his clothes looked no better than rags and she mistook him for a beggar, in the middle of a forest? That wasn’t right. Dusk noticed him smiling but ignored it as she tried to get the clumps of dirt out of her silver hair, yet at the same time she noticed the bandages around her head, the tender touch hurt, but this also made her realise that the rest of her body was hurting as though she had been in a war.
“I am glad that I found you again” the strange man said as Dusk turned her attention to him, he had short brown hair and seemed youthful, but his monstrous arm seemed a little, out of place. “I know you?” dusk inquired, but if she had not just woken up it would have been safe to assume that Dusk would have realised something was wrong earlier. Max just grinned “You forgot again didn’t you” Dusk was about to call him crazy but he was indeed strangely familiar, there was a pause as her mind hurt trying to recall who he was. “…Max?” she asked and the man smiled “Whoa, your mind must be getting better there” Dusk shook her head springing away from the man terrified for some reason “No … Who are you … I don’t know you” silence “I don’t Know You!” Dusk yelled at the top of her lungs, Max was startled and for a moment he thought the whole forest had silenced with curiosity.
“Will you keep it down” he suggested while waving his hands around, “They might hear you if you scream like that, and I will have no choice but to silence you because believe it or not, I am your only friend here” Dusk shook her head, why should she believe him, she had no reason to, did she, other than the fact she knew his name. She knew him, that thought suddenly calmed her down, if she knew him then she should trust him, but why, what was going on to cause her to forget something like that?
“What’s wrong with my head” her voice was more terrified now, her hurting body just increased the fear, what had happened to her, for all her fathers training it had certainly not prepared her for a situation like this. “It’s ok … they do this all the time, it to make sure you don’t escape from them, they mess with your mind, you can’t think long enough to escape because you can’t remember what your running from” His words scared her, and yet it made her more willing to trust him “Why did they do this, who are they, what do they want with me?” she said holding back tears but only her steel resolve held them in, Max could only shrug at the question. “They call themselves the keepers, as for what they want I don’t know, but … us rejects have to stick together you know” he said looking at his arm, Dusk looked at it again, perhaps they saw her tail as something similar, the thought made her reach back and pull her tail forwards favouring it for a moment, she knew what a touchy subject it can be.
“Look all you have to do is trust me, every time you forget I will remind you” Then Max held out his hand while seemingly listening out for something beyond Dusks own hearing, “Crap, there coming … quick we have got to get moving … you was heading for the docks right” Dusk nodded a little excited that this Man was going to take her directly there and without much thought she took his monstrous arm as he then led her through the forest fleeing from the strange enemy. After a while the two ran in silence, but as Dusk blinked she finally wondered where she was, but her most frightening discovery was the arm that was pulling her through te forest, she initially freaked out, stopped running and yanked her arm free, she looked at the owner confused, he was familiar but … what was he?
Dusk stirred in her sleep, shifting into a completely different position on the bed, her dreams was peaceful, the tool her body had been going through lately had effectively knocked her out as soon as her head hit the pillow possibly only seconds before. Dusk briefly stirred awake only for a moment as a tired eye scanned the room, she didn’t recognise it but it didn’t really matter at the moment, the bed was comfortable and her dreams begged her to return. Yet now that she had stirred she noticed something she had not before, the bandages around her head seemed tight, like they had been applied earlier that day, also her head was sensitive to the touch. Dusks mind became amused, playfully telling her that she had walked into a tree or something, and with the image in her mind she restfully fell back into the land of nod.
But something wasn’t right, her ears strained to listen, but to what, there was nothing but the wind outside the rooms window, but still she listened for that strange whisper she had heard before, there she heard it again, louder closer, but soon it seemed to fade away as though they had passed by her door on there way to there own rooms, and with the false sense of alarm, she cursed it and turned her concentration back to her pillow. Dusk soon wished she had not cursed her sense of danger, because it was right on the mark, as soon as something … a hand? Covered her mouth, Dusk was instantly awake, several other hands seem to come from nowhere grabbing her arms and legs trying to stop her from thrashing about.
Dusk used her only option she bit the hand over her mouth hearing a youthful voice whimper as he withdrew his hand, and before she could scream out something was tied there, a part of a bandage? She didn’t know as they abducted her from her room, while Dusk frantically struggled to get free, and several times she did until whoever had her stopped and a young voice called to her from within the Darkness. “Please, Calm Down Kaiserin … we are doing this for your own good, if you stay here they are going to find you” Something about that hit hard with Dusk, yet at the same time it also demanded a high amount of trust. She stopped struggling and followed the guidance of the hands willingly, until they came to a point, a magical fence of some sort.
Dusk was now at least allowed to see and turned back to see two young twins, one of which was nursing his hand, and there was another, a large man who was the one with te strength keeping her from escaping. “Ehh … Sorry” she said to one of the young boys but he just nodded shyly while the other stepped forwards, “This is the hole in the fence” Dusk turned around to see the glow of the magical fence yet, there was a patch that wasn’t as bright, it was dim. “What is this?” Dusk asked wondering exactly what was going on and … when exactly, did she met these people.
“This is the only exit that is not known by the keepers” Dusk looked back at the large man and then her eyes turned to the twins while she looked at them with a face full of questions “The Keepers” the one who had not been bit sighed with agitation. “There is no time to explain, just get out of here, you are in a lot of danger if you stay” Dusk nodded somewhat understanding the need to hurry, Dusk chanced the magic barrio and went straight through, before looking back once more and just ran, she ran as fast as she could. Eventually her lungs burned and she stopped leaning against the tree looking around in the darkness of a strange forest, all that accompanied her was her own heavy breathing and her mind felt like it was shutting down from exhaustion “Ehh … maybe I should have waited till morning before getting dragged out of a nice comfy bed” She groaned before collapsing against the tree slowly letting her eyes close to let sleep take her once again.
When morning came, Dusk wasn’t really rested, and what was worse was that there was a foot constantly nudging her awake now, it got to the point were it had successfully woken her up, Dusk was surprised to find she had been sleeping in mud, but even more surprised at the stranger who had woken her up.
((OOC: I estimate around 22 more posts before we get to the beginning … some Feedback would be nice about now too ^_^))
Dusk groaned before waking with a start at her dream, she sat up in the bed she was in scared to death, in her dream there was a man, although he resembled Canen, it was not him, but there was another one, one with short brown hair, what did these dreams mean? Dusk soon found out that the dreams were the least of her worries as she looked around the strange room, what happened to her this time, then she felt the bandages around her head, yup she had gotten into so much trouble she must have received a good whack and now she could not remember anything.
Dusk found the strange room intriguing, it appeared to be a spare room, or rather, one that was used as an office, whatever its purpose it was cosy and had a window, and with the light pouring in, it seemed to be getting ready for sun down … or sun rise she realised that she had lost all concept of time. Dusk walked over to the window and looked out wondering exactly where she was, “Is this even Althanas?” she pondered out loud, there was some way to tell right? Deciding that thinking like that will just make her paranoid she looked around the room some more. There was a bookcase with all different kinds of reading materials, alchemy, all about magic, archery tips, how to keep your sword in top condition for dummies. It wasn’t all about weapons or fighting, the majority of the books were about medical science, biology, psychology, and to be honest it wasn’t really her interest.
Instead what dusk had just found was much more interesting, it was a note on the bedside table, for her too, she read it and frowned, she did not usually give out her real name, she had once been told that it sounded to much like her fathers and so she decided that her nickname was more suitable, still …
To Dusk – Kaiserin
If you are reading this then you must have once again lost your memory, here is the deal, your suffering from a kind of Short term amnesia, I am sorry I could not be much more help than that since I am not a real doctor.
Remember in your current condition the main things you need to do is
• Write down anything you remember, like where you are from
• If you get bored then read a few of the books in the room, please look after them
• Get sleep, I can’t stress this enough
yours truly
Raphael Lagret
***
Who was Raphael, and what does he mean by amnesia, surly her memory had not left her, she could easily remember what happened yesterday, or was that a week ago, ok there was something strange, like there was a hole in her head. “That’s gonna bring a head ache” she said with disdain setting the note back down, noting the pen nearby. Dusk wanted to leave the room now, yet she found that she was locked in ‘ I don’t think someone wants me to leave ’ her mind stated the painfully obvious, and she stepped back ready to attack the door by summoning her sword, the only problem was that her sword was MIA, and so were several other items. “…Ok … now I know the definition of … this sucks!”
Dusk didn’t know either to hide when she heard the door being unlocked from the outside, or immediately attack as soon as it was open, but for all her wit she stood rooted looking at who entered, or rather the people who entered. They were young, very young, blonde hair, blue eyes, fangs and silver furred arms. The concept should have been strange to Dusk, but she had her own features of a slowly swinging fully functional tail, the only part of her body that didn’t seem hurt. “Err … are you a reject?” Dusk was startled to say the least, but there was another meaning here, and for some reason Dusk was able to grasp it after thinking quickly, she shook her head before deciding to ask her own question “but … who are you two?” the two looked at each other and the other stepped forward “Around here were known simply as the Twins … I am Rio, and this is my brother Ray” It would be hopeless trying to remember who was who. “Dad thinks you’re a reject” there was that meaning again, this time Dusk had to know what it was “What do you exactly mean by rejects” the concept that scarred Dusk the most was the fact that she had no idea what was going on, it was definitely making her more timid. “The bad people who live on the other side of the fence … the Keepers keep them away … but if you’re a Reject then the Keepers are going to hurt our dad, you have to go”
Awkward, that’s what dusk felt right now, because she still didn’t fully understand what was going on, and who were these ‘Keepers’ to her ears, it seemed like it was a familiar word. “The fence … keepers what … just what is going on” seeing Dusk in a weakened state would make anyone else feel more confident. “The keepers keep the Rejects out with magic gate” the other twin spoke this time, but still the question about the keepers was ignored, was it because they themselves did not know?
Sighing was all dusk could do at this moment, but there was a ray of hope still left “Is there a way out of here” Dusk asked and one of the twins spoke up, almost too fast to realise he spilled there biggest secret “yeah we know a way ---“then his brother covered his mouth “Ray!” he said sternly before looking back to Dusk “If you are a reject you can’t stay, our dad will get hurt if you do stay” again awkwardness as they left the room, locking it behind them, how was she supposed to leave if the door was locked, jump out the window? She was in no condition for that. What was it that letter said, something about writing notes, she took the pen and jotted it down.
***
Ask the Twins about a possible way out through the magic fence
***
And then she placed the pen and the note aside but hesitated, something like that should not be lying around, and if she did have amnesia then she should keep hold of it, and so she placed it into her pocket before remembering what else it had said, plenty of rest, sure that sounded good, because her body was still tired like she had just fought through twelve wars or something. So she slipped under the covers falling into a deep sleep, she only stirred awake once, and then went right back to sleep, yet something was wrong, she was suddenly being attacked and all she could do was flail around to try and wriggle free!
Never before had she experienced anything like this, she must have died, she felt no pain instead she felt at peace, what seemed like clouds wisped by her tingling her face, it was calm, nothing could go wrong. But yet again it did go wrong, the heavenly setting soon turned red and crimson lightning soon exploded all around her, her calm drift through the clouds then turned into a rapid decent, falling faster and faster with no end in sight. That wasn’t all, once again there was a shadow behind her, falling with her but easily catching up, she didn’t know exactly what it was but if it caught her then … well it would make hell seem like a paradise, but then again wasn’t she already there?
Dusk shot up like a catapult, waking in a cold sweat unaware of the bed she was lying in, or the fact that her body was once again racked with countless pains, there were several people in the room, all of whom held no resemblance for her, and the newly applied bandages slowly made them-selves known to her. The ones surrounding her stepped back; they seemed to be in awe as though she was there little experiment, it was unearthing but at least there company was much better than that dream. One of them men stepped forwards, there was a vague resemblance but that was stretching the truth, he had long blonde hair tied back into a loose pony tail and small glasses that made him look mature, but that was off set with his smile. “How are you feeling Kaiserin” Dusk blinked with confusion, how did he know who she was, “What the … you know me?” she asked, hoping that his answer would clear up her confusion “heh, guess you were too out of it to remember the other times you have woken up” he then placed his hand on dusks forehead, on the little part that the bandages did not expose, Dusk noted that whoever bandaged her head was not very good, several strands of her silver hair spilled through the wrappings to fall in there usual style. The man pulled his hand away seemingly relieved at something.
“Ahh good, your fever is gone, but I am willing to bet that you have no idea who I am or where you are?” Dusk shook her head, unable to recall what happened to her, yet for some reason she could guess, this was not the first time her mind had asked this question, it was possibly a snippet of a memory that had managed to leak through the amnesia block she was not aware of, but it was only a feeling. “What happened to me?” she asked ignoring the question completely, the man smiled and waved for the people to leave the room. As they filed out the man introduced him-self, possibly for the twelfth time, “I am Raphael Lagret, you said before that you was in Althanas, you wasn’t for of, this is an island just of the coast I think” he wasn’t completely sure, he had never really left this village, Dusk guessed, hey did she remember something. “As for what happened to you I am pretty sure that from your wounds you have been in a fight with several people, its mostly just cuts from blades, and you have wounds on your head but I am not sure if it’s the cause for your amnesia” Amnesia, ok that was one thing Dusk new she did not have, she could remember things just fine, she could even recall what she had eaten yesterday, although she could no longer recall its taste.
“no … I think your wrong, and what kind of doctor are you saying your not sure all the time” her tongue was like ice, unintentional of cause and it landed on deaf ears anyway, “Whoever said I was a doctor, I have studied how to be one but your technically my first patient, and I think you have short term amnesia” he explained, it sounded crazy, like she had just woken up from a sick dream … oh wait.
“didn’t you say I had a fever, and that I got beat up, well if I got my noggin hit that could explain why I don’t remember anything” Raphael laughed out, Dusk however did not find the situation funny. “Who is the doctor here” he asked with a grin, “Not you” she replied with her quick wit but now she found something funny in that. “Ok here is why I think you have amnesia, while under my care you have woken up at least twelve times, and each time you managed to talk with me despite a fever, and you forgot the next time, that and you have no recollection of that strange little creature you carried with you here” Dusk frowned, it once again sounded something like what a dunk would come up with, but this man seemed sober, still the whole thing seemed out of proportion, and he even said she wasn’t even in Althanas, like she was going to believe that.
“Creature? … Look Doc, there isn’t nothing wrong with my head!” she said by tapping it, wincing under the intense pain, she whimpered before correcting herself “Except that” she favoured her head within her hands while keeping her eyes on the man “Well that creature was also pretty beat up, Ray, my son is currently looking after it” That meant little to dusk because she had no idea what it had to do with her. There conversation would have gone into more depth had a knock on the door did not come, he answered it talking with a hushed voice at a mysterious person before he came back in the room “I am sorry, but I must go … “he said pulling out a slip of paper from a desk and started to right a note “Your name was Kaiserin right … that’s spelt with a E-R-I-N … right?” Dusk nodded but added “I prefer Dusk” The man stopped writing and looked back seemingly confused. “But Kaiserin is such a powerful name; it means ‘Empress’ does it not?” Dusk nodded, but that was also why she hated it, her father’s name, ‘Kaiser’ Translated into Emperor, and her name was simply a spin off of his name. “I have my reasons” was all she said to Raphael before he turned to continue to right the note. After he had done he placed it on the bedside table then walked to the door.
“I am going to lock this door, someone in your condition needs more rest than excitement, and wondering around this village is a bad idea if you catch my drift” Dusk shrugged, like she had any choice in the matter, but the prospect of sleep was really what the doctor had ordered, quite literally, and with the sound of the door locking, Dusk retreated to the bed rested on top of the quilts looking up to the ceiling realising just how strange it looked, was what that man had said true, and that she was on some kind of island … or was that really just a sick joke, she eventually drifted off plagued by a similar dream from before, only less intense, she woke up countless hours later with a start, but she found herself in a very strange room.
What the, dusk had been walking minding her own business one moment ago, and then she turned around to find herself staring down the street of some town or village that she has never seen in her entire life. At first she questioned if it was real or not, of cause dusk would have been able to tell straight away, even magic illusions left behind some clue, and Dusk could see the magic particles spread around to create the illusion, but this was no trick, at least none to her eyes. Was it to her mind, her head thumped like she had recently tried to beat a war galleon into submission by head butting the damn thing, and with the current condition of her body, wracked with pain and mysterious cuts and bruised, she guessed that she must have started with its crew first.
This of cause didn’t explain why she was suddenly in a town, and in the street people moved around, normal people yet some had features that Dusk didn’t realise anyone could possibly have. One for an instance had an owl head, what race has an owl for a head? Still this village would probably welcome someone such as her, as she looked back behind her too her tail, smiling as it waved back to her. She half expected to be nothing but forest foliage when she turned around again, but nope, the town was still there and she started to walk forwards, “ Curiosity killed the cat ” she could hear her fathers voice in her ears, to which she always answered “ But Satisfaction brought it back” she used anything to counter her fathers wisdom, and he was usually to laid back to make a counter for that, it was one of the things she missed.
As soon as her presence was noted, she felt one hundred eyes descend on her, and that didn’t help her head any better, and she raised her hand hoping that its presence would ease her mind, it did no such thing as it gradually got worse, leaking strange images she would rather have ignored. So much for feeling welcome here, they looked at her like a bad child, holding back there children to stop them from possibly becoming contaminated, it was clear this was a town that did not like newcomers, luckily Dusk reminded herself, she was just passing through. It eventually came to a point that she lowered her hand looking back with a concerned look, what were they thinking “What?” she asked plainly and suddenly everything around her became active, whispers, talk “she can talk” “is she really a reject” “Looks to me like she went through the outer world” Dusk looked to the people on the other side of the street finding the same situation.
Dusk would have ignored it, but the tension around her only seemed to provide a drum stick for her already pounding head, and what was once a bongo in her head then became a full blast rock concert, it was too much as she fell to her knees clutching her head in pain. Something else was wrong, her memories, where had they gone, flashes, flashes of what had been happening, in an instant she remembered everything happening to her so far, and the pain in her head was the result of a damn of memories breaking all at once. Max, Meep, Althanas, everything was so clear for her, and she tried in vain to keep hold of them, but they slowly slipped through the grip of her mind, and the sudden emptiness of her head was both welcome and disturbing, because as her mind suddenly went, so did her body, becoming limp and lifeless.
Dusk woke up with her head pounding away, she was surrounded by strange people who she had no idea could even exist, she pleaded for a drink as a blonde haired man seemed eager to know who she was and what she was doing, but she found she could not remember and constantly slipped into unconsciousness at least 11 times, all of them forgotten in an instant
“What the?” Dusk yelped in surprise, for a moment she stood her ground looking on ahead, what the hell just happened, one second she was minding her own business then the next she is stood looking over some crazy field, her body suddenly becoming battered and bruised, not to mention the blinding light she had just seen. That why she stood here now looking on ahead, only partially aware of the furry thing she held in her arm, there was something wrong with the scene though, like there was something watching her. Dusk payed no attention to it before looking down to see the strange creature in her arms, she curiously looked at it, not recognising the species, its long tail fell limp beside her, the whole 3 feet of it. It had a large silver mane that made a strange contrast with its dull red fur, dry blood was crusted along it’s the fur on its head, it was wounded, had she taken pity on this thing, when was this and when had she become so injured.
Then that feeling returned, the feeling of being watched, she knew her sword was missing, because the glove that hid the jewel was also missing, and whatever gave her that creepy feeling was close, so close that. Dusk turned around not really expecting to see what was in front of her, stood at 10 feet tall and weighing in at seven hundred pounds, the biggest Mammal she had ever seen, its dark brown fur looked well groomed despite the smell of death surrounding it, its claws and its teeth were almost yellow, and its blood red eyes, it made hers look timid. “That’s the biggest puppy I have ever seen” she said in regards to no one other than herself as she cautiously stepped back, her fear to scared to even show itself as it watched her, its throat was not really growling but, then again it probably didn’t have to. “Call me that again and I swear I will kill you where you stand” It spoke, that giant hell dog just spoke and with a strange accent too, Dusk took the threat and narrowed her eyes, still slowly stepping back. “Hey stop it, lets just carry on ok?” said another voice, both dusk and the hell hound turned to look at this man who seemingly stepped up from behind the creature. “We still have a ways to go yet” then his blue eyes turned to Dusk, but she just saw his moistures arm and gritted her teeth, when the hell had she fallen into hell, ‘ Dammit, I got no choice here ’ then dusk turned and ran as fast as she could, glad that the hell hound was not chasing but instead giving his companion the same confused look.
No more running, her body was still too sore to go on for long, and after running over the plain and into a forest she really needed to stop and catch her breath, still was her breaths came and went her eyes turned back to the creature, what was it, was it important, she felt like it was important. Dusk wanted to continue running as soon as her breath returned but instead she found herself sitting against the tree instead looking up at the sky through the leaves and the foliage, from a rough guess it was spring time, the sky was more orange than blue, but there was no way it was morning, definitely afternoon with a few hours of sun light left. Dusk found herself starting to brood at her current condition, it was too real to be a dream, it hurt too much, truly she didn’t want to think about it, she found that the creature in her arm’s made a good focus, with memories being the key word.
~~~
“… What’s this” A younger incarnation of Kaiserin asked, it was very typical of her younger self, dressed in the loose fitting Gi that was easy and comfortable to fight in, her hair had also been tied back and her brow, full of sweat from the training exercises. Her red eyes turned to her father; he appeared quite young also with silver hair and red eyes. Kaiser looked back, his eyes turning to the strange sword he had recently found and dragged back home, and he scratched his head unsure. “You expect me to know?” he asked while trying to get a respectable answer, his daughter however just frowned “Aren’t you always telling me that with age comes wisdom” Kaiser just laughed and messed up her hair. “True, but Experience isn’t what a person has done, its how he has done it, and as for me … I simply have never come across anything like this … tell me what do you see?” She turned back to look at it, and shrugged after a glance. “It’s just a large sword” Kaiser grinned again, “Even I know better than that, what do you really see” She sighed and looked back at the sword, it was indeed strange, it was surrounded by a dark aura, or rather it was absorbing a dark aura that constantly surrounded it, but frequently, a small white particle would escape from the black iron.
“Ok … I don’t have a clue either” she frowned again while her father sat himself down and she followed his actions. “Experience … you truly do not know until it happens. Now we have seen something like this, our future selves will be able to recall this moment … I believe its some sort of seal, why its in the shape of a sword I don’t know, I don’t even know what is inside that thing”
~~~
“ …It was the seal release … My sword” Dusk frowned while holding her head, the lump under her hair was really sore to touch but her hand felt welcome on it, she hated that fact that she was injured and didn’t know why, and she was even more angry at the fact that her sword was missing, she hated that she ran away, and she hated the fact that hating everything made her head feel worse. ‘ calm down now or I swear your head is going to spontaneously combust! ’ her demanding inner voice worked and her head calmed down as she started to think about nothing.
“Hey you” a strange voice called out, dusk was instantly awake, even onto her feet despite the pain, she looked around spotting a man in rags quickly approaching her, the first thing she noticed was the beard, the long white beard that he was almost tipping up on. Dusk held her ground thinking her was harmless, but she was also curious “Food, is that food” he asked looking to the creature in her arms, he frowned as soon as he got a good luck “Bah, Those critters taste worst than bathing in skunks” he seemed dismayed but then he turned to Dusk herself and went wide eyed, so much that Dusk could clearly see life in his dulled green eyes. “Its you!” he almost gasped, Dusk merely frowned, and she had met him before?
“IT’S THE WANTED!” he yelled at the top of his voice at least three times, and then the whole forest seemed to come alive, each direction she faced, people arrived, mutated people by the looks of it, people so horribly disfigured that anywhere else they would be frowned on. Dusk got the feeling she was completely surrounded, and she also was yearning for her sword, don’t know what you got until its missing eh? “Get her, GET the WANTED” the crazy man yelled out over and over, and dusk stood rooted until someone tried to make a grab for her. She ducked under the mans arms and pulled away aware of the people close behind her. She found that he pains were put on hold, as though they agreed to stop annoying her to allow her to escape. Running in a random direction she leapt past several other people feeling there hands, or what passed for fingers stroke past her. She broke from the circle and could hear them following ‘ Your always running aren’t you ’ she could hear her fathers mocking voice, it only steeled her ‘ and you need to shut up ’ her minds voice yelled back.
A blue wall, what the hell, Dusk came to a skidding halt as soon as she came across a blue magical wall, and what’s more was that there were building on the other side, she looked back at the strange people chasing her and made a decision. She ran up to the closest tree and leapt for the lowest branch with one free arm, her other still carried the creature. Her strength was valuable here, she pulled herself up before turning back to the magic wall and leapt as hard as she could for it, she sailed over and landed with a thud on the other side, it was now her wounds returned to her. Dusk looked back with a sly but wounded grin, “Gotta be faster than that” then she turned her attention upwards to the village and then her eyes went back to the creature, after sighing and presuming that someone else would find it, she placed it down on the grass, pleading that someone would notice, it was guaranteed because she got the feeling that it had been noticed.
“C’ya little guy” she said softly before standing up and turning around, there was a brief pain through her head, it started pound like bongos, but she was suddenly marvelled and confused that there was a village in front of her, when did she step into a village?
Dusk held her head in pain, she could recall that she had been chanting something, but trying to recall what it was, but only caused more pain to flow through her head. It stung, more on the inside too, she wasn’t sure but she thought there was a voice, calling out to her, but the pain was creating too much of a high pitched scream for her to truly take notice. Slowly the pain died down, what was left of her battered body was slowly healing itself, everything started to grow quiet “Yo, Kaiserin, Wake up … you ok? Dusk? Come on answer me already” there was that voice, who, who was calling out to her, had she truly been knocked around the head so bad that she could not recall who she was travelling with, slowly her ruby red eyes opened, settling on the young man standing over her. He smiled as she looked at him, her face seemed emotionless but he could tell through her eyes that she did not know who he was. “Aww man, don’t do something like that again”
Do? What could she have done to earn such concern about her, she was puzzled, her body was also hurt, but it didn’t seem to be broken, and for some reason she got the mental image of head butting a war galleon, sounded like fun, she grinned at the thought before slowly pushing herself off the forest ground. The young man helped her and she didn’t refuse his help, this was when she noticed his monstrous arm, she felt uneasy, but he had already proved that he was a friend of some kind. “What exactly happened?” she asked, unsure about her surroundings. “What happened? Heh … you ran straight into a tree, I think you must have knocked yourself out for a moment” was his side of the story, Dusk was a little doubtful, why the hell would she run into a tree? “Yo Ares … she’s A’ok “ he said looking over his shoulder, Dusk could not help but follow his gaze, and imagine her surprise to found an oversized hell hound sitting nearby with a sly grin across its face. “If you say so, but how’s her mind, that should still be messed up” it said back startling Dusk more. Max just shrugged and turned to Dusk “You have no idea who we are do you? Eh like I said all you really need to know is that we are friends, and all have to do is trust us” This confused Dusk as she looked up “Trust you? I don’t even know you” Max just grinned “Ah … but we know you Kaiserin, your looking for your father right, heading for the docks to get to that island right?” now dusk was really surprised, how did they know that, did she really damage her mind, but no matter what she could not shake the feeling that they were hiding something.
“I will let you get your head together ok?” he said while walking over to the hell hound, dusk just moved up against the tree wondering where some of her items were, her sword, her jacket, scarf, and her fathers ring, it was all missing. But in the corner of her eye she spotted the strangest little creature she had ever seen. It was small, and it was wounded, Dusk scampered over to it and nudged it, to her surprise it responded to the touch, but it was knocked out cold. “Poor little thing” then she frowned, more at herself than the creature. ‘ wait … are you … supposed to be important? ’ she pondered before scooping it up in her arms, holding it close. After a while max came back over and frowned at the creature, but he hid that from dusk as he questioned about the creature “What you got there?” Dusk shook her head “I don’t have a clue … I just get this feeling that its important” Max shrugged “Well ok … can you move … Ares thinks there getting closer” Getting closer? What was getting closer, Dusk got onto her feet and stared deeply into Max’s blue eyes “What’s coming” she said with an ice cold voice, one that startled him, but then again he was the one with the hell hound. “The Keepers … look you’re a Wanted ok, and there after you, us, were exiles, a few of the only good ones, were going to get you out of here, remember?” he said but Dusk didn’t remember any of this.
“Look lets just go ok” Dusk had little choice when they were moving, it didn’t feel like this was the first time either, it was a slow walk, one that allowed the hell hound to lazily follow behind them. Its presence was unnerving, very unnerving so Dusk decided to walk on ahead a little, minding herself to keep the other two within ear shot. Soon she really did pull out in front, to the point where she could no longer hear the other two behind her. “Screeeeaaa” What the hell was that? Dusk looked around frantically before finally glancing upwards, that hell hound had nothing on this; it was perhaps the most single strangest thing she had ever seen. High above her, flying very high above her, was a creature whose size would be legendary, its white feathers and scales considered beautiful. It’s body was like that of a snake, but it had two large wings, a wingspan that dwarfed its length of snow white angelic winds, its head was covered in a mane, but she could not see anything else of this creature, as it flew over a bunch of clouds away from her view, “Eos” that was a name, that was a name that ran through her head, its meaning was lost on her however.
Eh? What did she just see, she stood looking over a plain without any recognition of what she had previously been doing, and stranger still was the small creature she cradled in her arms ‘ Huh? What just happened? ’
“Hey, are you hungry?” Dusk turned to meet the stranger, she frowned for a moment not recognising him, but she also became surprised to find herself automatically putting one foot in front of the other. Dusk then noticed the other standing on the other side of the stranger, a large hell hound he appeared to have a little difficulty moving through the tree’s so much that it had to split up from her and the stranger a couple of times. Dusk found herself openly staring as the man patiently waited for an answer, she shook her head, declining the offer, and she knew it was rude but her eyes automatically were drawn to his monstrous arm, now you really don’t see that very often. “ … I am sorry … but, who are you” The man just smiled, on the verge of laughing out loud, he kept it back and instead changed his expression to one of worry “You don’t know” Max asked, Dusk could only shake her head, and as he mind, ‘woke up’ she felt the wear and tear refit itself across her body, and aside from this man she began to wonder what she had been getting up to.
“Not again … My name is Max, and …” he turned around to not find the large hell hound, he paused and sighed before looking back at Dusk “Anyway, my friend is Ares” Dusk nodded, it didn’t explain much, and she frowned unsatisfied with the introduction “Yes, now I know your name, but I still don’t know WHO you are” she said stopping in her tracks, Max also stopped frowning for himself, dusk noticed his monstrous claw clench tight “Were Rejects … like you and you’re a Wanted,” What the hell was that supposed to mean, Dusk clenched her fists tightly, but the tension was then cut when Max grinned “Man, your different every time” Every time? Again he spoke words that meant little to her. “Oh yeah, you wouldn’t know … The Keepers messed with your head, took away a few or your memories and keep on making you forget something every few minuets” “What?” Dusk added, very surprised, that made no sense, she had her memories, ok she didn’t know how she had become so injured, but still, Keepers, Wanted, Rejects, was she on some forsaken island or something?
Then Ares appeared, but by now she … no she had not judged them “Whatever … but what does that make you two to me?” she asked calmly sizing up the hell hound, she had noted with disdain that her sword was missing, she only hoped that they were friends “Were friends, ok … look your heading to a dock right, were taking you there, ya see without our help you would be walking around in circles, its how the capture those who have escaped” he explained, a crackpot story, maybe, but Dusk felt that in her condition she should give him the benefit of the doubt. “… Yeah? … Well if there is something wrong with my head … then who am I to doubt you” she said and slowly the three resumed there walk, Dusk often stole glances at them both; they had not yet shown that they were hostile, and they did seem to be her friends. “DUSK!” a third voice yelled out, Dusk stopped and turned towards its source to find a strange creature flying towards her, it stopped short of ramming her, jumbling its words up with its squeaky voice, Max and Ares stopped to look at the curious creature. “Dusk, I got a message for you … it’s … Oh no … Dusk, what you are doing, and those people they are …” The red furred creature looked at max and Ares with fear, it lowered its little brow and Dusk watched as its grey mane rose into the air like spines “Don’t listen to what they tell you, there liars, cheats, thieves!”
“Liars?” Dusk asked turning back to Max and Ares, for some reason, she now got the very same impression, Max held his arm out to Stop Ares’ from seemingly pouncing, he gave the creature a cold look “Dammit, how could one of there little spy’s find us so quickly” “Spy’s?” Dusk said out loud again, it was now she learned that not having her memory really left her in a state of confusion, and proved to her that it sucked “Spy, Ha is that the best you can come up with? Dusk the Keepers have done nothing to your head, you have Amnesia Remember … “ It paused for a moment thinking carefully “ok, amnesia and Remember do not go in the same sentence” it corrected itself before turning its attention back at Max. “It is a Spy, it just wants to confuse you to not trust us, we have to take you to the Dock.” The creature shook its head “Not a chance, more likely there leading you to a Trap dusk”
Dusk would have stayed there for hours trying to think of who to believe, that was until max charged for the floating creature attacking with his claw, Meep avoided the blow by gliding backwards letting out a yelp as it did, its fairy resolve now turned to fear. Before Max could attack again Dusk moved in front of him using her strength to push him back a little “Stop it, that won’t solve anything” Max just gritted his teeth, and Dusk never saw it coming as she honestly believed that he was a friend, a punch to the gut, the powerful blow caused Dusk to fall to her knees trying to recover to stop Max. A Yelp that’s all she head as she turned to see Max holding Meep in his claw smiling wickedly as he slowly started to squeeze his hand. “I swear if I had my sword I would run you through right now!” Dusk yelled at max, he turned with an expression made of ice, Dusk glanced at the hell hound, that thing seemed odd, having a grin amused at what was going on. Dusk got to her feet again clenching her fists as Max approached.
“You want some to eh freak!” he tossed the creature aside he fell to the floor limp, whatever that thing was, it had just helped Dusk more than it would ever know. “Playing me for a Fool, I swear I will kill you!” Dusk replied, despite being injured she was sure she could get to his throat before he could get to hers with that claw; she tried not to think of the hell hound interfering. “Cute … real Cute … Your our ticket back into the village you know, besides, in a few seconds your going to forget everything” he said with a grin, dusk just glared at him confident that she could kill him before that “oh I am sure I will kill you before that happens” and then Dusk charged, Max was thrown of guard as her first landed a perfect blow to his face, it was however harder than she had imagined, failing to even bruise the monster. Still it had stunned him and that was enough for her to use her imagination. The Iron chain she wore attached to her right wrist seemed mostly for show, and it was with the small dragon symbol at the bottom of it, that was one her items still present, she gripped the end of it and threw it over his head as she passed him, it wrapped around his neck and she pulled as tight as she could. Max however had managed to catch the chain from breaking his neck with his claw as he fought against her strength in a life and death struggle, and he was slowly loosing.
Dusk never saw it coming, she had totally forgotten all about it, but one a huge paw struck the back of her head, her body instantly went limp as she fell to the floor clutching her head in pain, it was bad enough her head was pounding as it was, but that was overkill, and before that huge hell hound could attack again Max swiped his claw it it, missing but gritting his teeth saving Dusks life. “Idiot! … If you kill her then kiss good buy to our ticket back into the Keepers garden” Max hissed, Ares just shrugged and backed off, Max looked over his shoulder to dusk “Although killing her right now would be very tempting … hey Dusk, can you hear me, When we hand you over they are going to cut you up, just to see what make you tick, the Keepers are going to slowly kill you.” He leaned down grapping Dusks collar getting her attention again “Of cause it is about time you forget this ever happened” Dusk gritted her teeth, no, there was no way she would forget this “There is no way I will forget!” she roared in his face, he just grinned “I beg to differ” he said while standing back up letting Dusk go “I will remember, I will remember, I will remember” she said over and over, trying to find the strength to get up, but as it was she needed to recover, and slowly she felt fear, he was right, everything that just happened, she could feel the events slipping away from her, even as she chanted she would not forget it.
Dusk stopped her walking, placing a hand up against the bark of a tree, for a few moments she stared at it, concentrating as though she was trying to listen to its words, her eyes held no recognition for the world around her, it wasn’t until a gently breeze flew past her did her eyes snap back to life, her emotions once again showing themselves. The first thing she did was look around, she could not recognise the forest, but then again, forests were so hard to remember, only someone who spent a lot of time in a forest would be able to notice the smallest things, and as it was Dusk element was more within a village. Dusk let go of the tree to hold her snow white hair from her eyes while the gentle breeze seemed persistent to keep her hair in her way, this sharp movement caused dusk to realise her current condition, and no recognition of how she came to be here, or what she had currently been doing.
“Oh man … Calm down Kaiserin … “ Dusk was unsure how to handle this situation, while noticing her sword was gone there was little she really could do, her sword was her strength, well not really but she had little talent for other than hacking people in half, and now she felt fear. Fear? Oh no you don’t, Dusk mentally wrapped that emotion up in a bag and tossed it off the nearest cliff, she no longer felt afraid of her surroundings, but instead curious, wondering if it was a dream, if that was the case … Dusk glanced at a shallow cut on her arm and gripped the wound aggravating it, Dusk flinched, Since when do dreams come with free pain. ‘ Ok … so this is real … the big question is … how did I get into this situation ’ she rubbed her head, wincing under the pain, the bandages yet to come, she had a large lump on her head, maybe that was why her head felt a little fuzzy, still was proof that she was still alive and not dreaming.
Dusk began to walk in some random direction, unsure if it was the way she came, it was a moment of peace and Dusk felt like she could admire the calm beauty around her. The tree’s were very healthy, the leaves as green as they could get, the ground although dark and dirty had a nice layer of fallen leaves that hid the dark ground, Flowers of all types surrounded her, they each had a name but she did not know them. Dusks eyes caught sight of a familiar glow, the presence of magic, although it should be invisible to another, to her it was bright, she loved it when she knew she could see magic for what it truly was, the hidden beauty, even a simple dagger, when enchanted with a magical element, the hidden beauty behind it, and Dusk was sure that only she could appreciate it, because others felt magic, but she could see it. Oh yeah, glowing magic source, Dusk fought with the decision of going to investigate or staying but, in the end curiosity won this day. ‘ Curiosity killed the cat ’ she heard her father’s voice, say in her mind, a pleasant memory of her child hood ‘ Yeah but, Satisfaction brought it back ’ she had heard that saying from someone in the same village as her say that and she had used it to counter her father many times. Dusk rested her back against the tree, and peered around the corner, inside the mouth of a small cave sat an old man, leaning over some kind of cooking pot, either way the source of the magic was the contents of the pot, and a sense dominated her mind, her belly ached from remembering a little specific detail, she was hungry, and whatever it was, although smelling a little strange, did hold a certain appeal to it.
Dusk started again daring to get closer through the use of the trees, she almost fainted when the smell became too much. “Well now … usually one runs away at my cooking” Chuckled the old man to himself, Dusk was surprised and wondered if he was talking to himself, she stole a glance and noticed he was looking in her direction, embarrassment crept up on her, more easily than she had on this old man, she just was not stealthy. “If you introduce yourself I might share with you” he said, ok Dusk just smiled, she had forgotten what kindness was, the last she could remember anyone being kind to her was … well not since her father actually, but that had been some time ago. Dusk stepped out from behind a tree still a little embarrassed, “err … hi … my name is Kaiserin” he waved his hand for her to approach and she did like a lost dog hoping to be fed, she was reluctant however to take a seat. “Kaiserin eh? Powerful name … you don’t use it often do you?” he asked, or rather he questioned, strange as it was Dusk didn’t really mind, “Not really, I usually go by the alias of Dusk” the old man smiled, and looked up to her ruby red eyes “you have the look of a very seasoned fighter” Now dusk was surprised, no one had said that before, it wasn’t really true either, she considered herself only moderate in fighting, she posed a threat mainly because of her sword … wherever that is?
“Not really” she said looking away, also noting that by instinct she had folded her arms, her eyes turned back to the old man to see he was still grinning “You misunderstand me … I was referring to your mind, although it seems confused there is no mistaking it” Dusk felt confused all right, but not in the way the old man had meant. “Err … yeah sure …” ‘oh man, if I keep this conversation up he is going to start telling me that I am actually some kind of chosen one who must embark to save the world … and that isn’t what I need right now’ she could be painfully sarcastic, but yet she was glad she mentally voiced that instead. “What exactly are you making anyway … you got so much magic going on in that pot it’s … Ehh what’s the word?” while Dusk struggled to think of the most appropriate word the old man seemed surprised “oh … I was not under the assumption you could feel magic energies” Dusk shook her head, but noticed that the old man had his attention on his pot of magic stew “ No … I don’t … but I can see it” the man nodded to himself “Ah, that explains it then … Your not talented with magic are you?” Dusk then sat down thinking that it was going to take a while before food was actually ready, and that the old man was going to ask over one hundred questions anyway “Nope, never could control the stuff” she said almost drooling at the smell of the stew, the man then took an empty bowl from beside him and dipped it in before handing it to Dusk, he apparently only had the single bowl. “Thank you” she said before taking it and almost drank the stew, there was something strange about eating the magic stew and after swallowing she had to wonder “What’s the magic for?” the man smiled as Dusk gave the bowl back to him “It’s mostly to make it taste nice … but it can also keep you full for quite some time … I would give you the recipe but … I don’t think you could make it” Dusk understood why, but she felt the stew working quickly and her body felt like it had just eat a big meal. “Thank you again”
Before the old man could delve into his share there was a sharp whistle as they both turned to face the stranger, the mans face however lit up with recognition for him, dusk however was just as confused, but the meal had tasted so good, even her satisfaction was mirrored with her tail. The younger stranger waved the old man over, he groaned while standing up and walked over, before they started to speak out of earshot, once again her mind tried to make a choice, but curiosity lost this round, she just wasn’t interested enough. “HEY!” the old man shouted turning back to dusk who lazily got up and walked over to answer the old mans call “Yo” she said approaching but startled by the seriousness of the other two? “Are you the Wanted?” the wanted? What was that, oh no she was some kind of chosen one, he was going to force he to go save the world, luckily the answer was … somewhat kinder. “The wanted … What’s that?” she asked, when suddenly the stranger spoke out “White hair, Red eyes, Tail … you are the wanted the keepers want back … Everyone … the WANTED is here” he yelled out, when suddenly the whole forest seemed to come alive. And slowly people started literally pouring from the tree’s different people all of whom had unique features. Remember the fear Dusk had mentally thrown over a cliff; well it was back, back with a bandanna and a whole wad of bubblegum ready to kick her ass. “Ahh crap”
Well, that could have been her famous last words, but a new surprise shocked both her and those around her, a huge hell hound charged seemingly from behind some foliage and started to chase off anyone within 20 feet of Dusk, ‘ Holy … you don’t see that everyday … ok I am really scared now” her inner voice yelled at her, but then another charged to her seemingly rescue, a monstrous arm gripped her wrist and pulled her in another random direction, she had long ago lost the sense for which way was north. “Who are …” she began “…Shut up!” he finished; they ran for quite a while before the hell hound caught up with them, jogging beside them with ease. All three of them stopped and Dusk yanked her arm back from the man looking at him with confusion “Who are you?” but he did not answer, he just grinned at her holding back laughter, suddenly he lunged out gripping dusk by the neck. “Wow … am I glad I did not kill you when I had the chance” Dusk knocked his arm away, gritting her teeth at the threat “look, I don’t know who you are, but do that again and I am going to strangle you!” Max just laughed out, still grinning “Yeah? Do that and my little friend here will make short work of you” Dusk saw the threat, and unfortunately knew that she would indeed have no chance “But in the meantime … lets be friends” he said sarcastically like there was a meaning behind it, he then pointed with his hideous black and green scaled arm, pointing with that long dark claw “Now start marching” Dusk felt the urge to flee but … she knew her chances with a hell hound like that, so she complied. After a while of silently walking in the direction they wanted her to go, she had to wonder what was going on, when did she get thrown into hell, still her mind was interrupted by a comment after a while “Hey, are you hungry?”
The sound of a twig snapping, that was all the world needed to snap the running girl back into the world around her, her expression was one of anger, her lungs burned, her leg were pained, she had been running for quite some time, running that had been pushed on by the unmistakable emotion of hate and anger. Dusk now stopped looking around, left to right her eyes scanned, looking for any indication as to where she might be, it was lucky that she had stopped on a hill. Dusk asked herself questions, why was her body hurting, why was her memory not remembering, questions that she found oddly familiar. Dusks eyes caught sight of something in the distance, surrounded by trees was the structures of buildings, a small village lay in that direction, she was sure, her eyes looked around again, this time looking into the distance at a tower that pointed towards the sky like a spear head of white and silver.
“… Where am I?” she said in a quiet voice, refusing to let fear get the best of her, her current condition, and situation called for a strong mind, one of a seasoned veteran, to bad there was no one of that description around, yet Dusk knew one thing, she could keep calm so long as she carefully thought things through. ‘… right … well there is a village up ahead, so I should be able to go get some supplies, that and get patched up ’ so she started to walk in that direction, but half of her mind was elsewhere, still trying to dive into a pool of her memories, to seek out ones that held answers.
~~~
“Well … I guess this is it”
Kaiserin turned around, she found the large sword hard to wield, and carrying it around was hard work, yet out of all of the weapons she could have chose, this black iron slab of a sword was her choice, the first stage of her current sword. Her red eyes settled on the face of her father, the usual air headed father she grew up with, now had a serious face; it was strange to see, but not unsettling. Kaiserin knew what he had meant as she turned back to look at the cross roads, had that even happened, or did it just seem fitting that the crossroads would represent the day they last saw each other. “So this is good buy then?” she asked looking back to her father who just had his eyes closed, although he hid it, Kaiserin could tell he was putting up an emotional barrier. “Yeah … I guess it is … unless of cause you like hanging around your dear old daddy” he teased, the barrier was much more pleasant, even his childish grin, she would miss it. “I am pretty sure that I can take care of myself … the first thing I plan on doing is Finding Canen” Kaiserin said while unsheathing her sword before thrusting it into the ground, she let go glad she was free from it, still she wondered if she would ever get used to it.
“Falcon eh? I haven’t seen him in quite some time … tell you what … when you do see him, tell him I said ‘I am going to eat that stupid crow of his’, that is … if it’s still around” Kaiserin questioned what her father had meant, but there seemed to be a bit of an inside joke with it, still she smiled and nodded” “oh yeah” Kaiser said like he had forgotten something, infact he had as he pulled his tail to his front and took a small ring off holding it out to her. “here you go” Kaiserin looked at the ring, she took it and examined it, sure she had seen it a thousand times, but never before had she been free to examine it with her own accord. “Yeah and?” she said still confused as to why her father was giving her this ring “… well … lets just say that I am returning it … when you do meet up with Canen I want you to give it him” Kaiserin nodded, and put it in her pocket, saying good buy was hard, and when she did meet Canen she had forgotten all about the ring.
~~~
‘ The ring was gold, with a small ruby that had been carved into a dragon, the detail was overdone and although it looked like it, it held no magical properties … huh?’ Dusk blinked a few times, she found herself still walking, the memory must have made her seem like the walking dead, or sleep walking at least. ‘Cute memory … but not the one I was looking for’ she said to herself before taking in a deep breath, the sky overhead was bright, blue with very little cloud, yet the ground was wet, perhaps it had been raining before.
Dusk steeled herself once again mentally diving into the pool of her memories, her search this time was a little closer to the one she wanted.
~~~
“Seriously!” Dusk nearly yelped in surprise spinning around from the window to the kind face of her aunt, several species removed “Dad seriously passed through here” Crystal nodded her head before placing a hand under her chin, she was only part silvet, but as it was she was even less silvet than Dusk, Crystal still had dark hair and lacked a tail, and unknown to Dusk she had once been quite the fighter, but that was so long ago, since then she had settled down, married and had a score of a few kids, one of them even ran between the two of them. “Yes, he passed by a couple of weeks ago, he was in one of those ‘I am a little serious at the moment, but that won’t stop me from teasing everyone’ kind of moods” she meant the mood where he actually just pissed everyone off within a five mile radius, it was understandable when Crystal said he didn’t say long, probably chased out of town.
“I could hardly believe him when he said he had heard a strange story” Crystal paused for a moment “Huh?” Dusk said within this pause “Who would have thought that all those people, would suddenly come back, Still I guess Silvets have a knack for getting in and out of trouble” Silvets were back? This was huge news indeed for someone who was more silvet than human, “Whoa, Silvets are really back?” Crystal nodded while Dusk gained a huge grin, if this was true then, then she would be able to find out what her race was like, only her father was an example, Crystal was far too human to be an effective example. “I wish Kaiser had the same enthusiasm about it than you did … when I talked to him about it he became strangely serious, he wasn’t thrilled at all” Dusk raised a brow expressing her confusion, she then walked towards the table and pulled a chair out for her to sit on, “He wasn’t thrilled … and he was serious … that can only mean a few things … Hey by any chance did he mention where he was going?” Crystal nodded “As a matter of fact he did the island he mentioned was not far from the Scara Brae, just get a ship from there to the new island everyone is talking about.” “Hold it, hold it, and hold it! New island? Islands don’t spring up out of nowhere!” Crystal grinned, that wasn’t exactly true, and they kinda did along with a volcano. “It’s not really a new island … but it has been a deserted one … now there are ships patrolling around it, buildings there too, the apparently there have been sightings of a huge tower”
~~~
The flames were always hypnotic, the world around her was put aside as she simply watched the flames dance around, she could not find the right words to describe it, but for the most part is was what it was, hypnotic. “So how you feeling now?” said a strange voice, Dusk looked up startled to find someone else sharing the fire, that and the large creature he was leaning against, the largest hell hound she had ever seen. “Huh?” she said but then put up a fake smile before answering “Yeah … peachy” she said sarcastically, because right now her mind was in overtime working out a logical explanation, her body hurt, items were missing and the hole in her memories, she also had to wonder what she had been getting up to without her mind knowing.
“Great … so you were saying?” Dusk looked up surprised, not knowing what he meant, she felt a little embarrassment but she also ignored the mans monster arm, after all she had a tail and was just as easily a freak in the eyes of a human. “Err … about what? … and on that note who are you?” Max grinned, and looked back to the hell hound “Told you her head was messed up” he turned back and explained “You seriously must have hit your head hard, you can’t even remember what you was saying just a second ago” Dusk grey frustrated “I can remember just fine thank you!” Max still grinning placed his hands behind his head “Ok then … tell us who you are and where you’re from” Dusk gripped her left hand, only to notice there was no glove there, and no glove meant no pendant which meant no five foot long sword, the realisation made her more timid when she saw the huge beast behind the man.
“I am Kaiserin Nightwind, but I usually go by the alias Dusk” the man nodded understanding that part at least, infact just who was he, appearing out of the blue just to be sharing the same fire as her, her eyes scanned around at the equipment as she began to wonder, if this was hers or there camp, she settled on that it was there’s and continued. “Anyway, I came here following my father, there is some kind of story going around that says my race has returned on some island, I am heading for the docks to find out” Max nodded again and interrupted “Ahh but what about you, what race are you” the question seemed strange still, not many people knew what a silvet was, there homeland had been wiped out hundreds of years ago, and it was a miracle how long her father had lived for, considering his knack for getting into trouble. “I am a Silvet” she said simply whilst moving her tail behind her to get there attention “Heh, I thought you was one of those Neko’s when I first met you” Neko, Dusk reflected upon it, she could not recall the last time someone confused her with one of them, infact she never had been.
“Yeah, my father seems to think that’s silvets have come back, but something just does not seem right and I am going to help him out” She said whilst leaning back “Kaiser eh?” Max said while turning back to the hell hound with a grin “…That’s not what he told us” Dusk was up like lightning, with a questioning look at that, “He said that he made it all up so you would go on a wild goose chase” Dusk narrowed her eyes “You forgot to mention the part where you know my father!” Max just grinned and sat forwards, dusk wasn’t sure if he was being serious but in her condition she really didn’t know “He also said that he hated his whiny daughter, and well, no offence but after spending some time with ya … I see where the dude is coming from” Dusk was then onto her feet clenching her fist into a tight ball, the flashes of her real father trying to dispel the evil lies. “Liar!” she yelled and he just shrugged “Whatever … Hey Ares, we gotta hand around more people like this, its quite funny to get them all angry and confused” “SCREW YOU!” Dusk shouted over the mans words and walked off gritting her teeth in anger. All she could hear behind her was there laughter slowly fading into the distance, oh how she wished she had her sword, oh how she wished she could see his face when she stood over him, ready to thrust her sword into his head and carve him it little pieces … then she would see if he still laughed about it.
The story about her father, it had to be a lie, it just had to be, and there was no way her father would say that … would he? No, she started to run, for the docks, she didn’t care what was happening around her, all she wanted to do was to catch up and to confirm it with her own eyes and ears.
“You!” Shouted a voice that snapped dusk out of a strange trance, the world around her quickly snapped into view, it was dark around and in front of her was the arm light of a camp fire, however stood behind the flames was a strange man, one who she had never met, there was no possible way she would forget an arm like his, black and green scales. His face was better looking than his arm, he looked very human, short brown hair, and he gritted his teeth getting ready to pounce “I am going to kill you!” He then leapt over the fire while dusk watched him surprised at what the hell was going on, his hands gripped her bare shoulder and pushed her backwards, but old habit die hard as she instantly grabbed the collar of his shirt, put a foot against his chest and rolled backwards using his own momentum and then launched him away from her.
‘ what was that about? ’ she mentally thought while looking back to see where he had landed, he groaned and dusk turned to get back up but found another problem, standing in front of her now was a demon, or rather a hellhound that dangerously growled at her, oh boy, what had she gotten herself into now? She could not gather enough time to form a question as she felt that monstrous arm reach over her and grab her neck, and in one surprising easy motion she was swept back into her feet and thrown against the bark of a tree. Dusk gritted her teeth as the stranger then grinned keeping her pinned “This is so gonna feel good” he muttered raising his monstrous arm ready to punch as hard as he could “What the hell do you want from me?” Dusk asked, and max frowned as he gritted his teeth in anger “Don’t play dumb with me … you think your gonna get away with messing with me and my friend, then you can think again” Max then punched but his fist hit the tree instead as Dusk knocked away his arm and escaped the blow, she had dashed towards one side of the fire, wondering where her sword was, and fearing the demon dog from hell, and this man, they each stood around the fire making a triangle between them.
“Mess with you? I don’t even know who the hell you are!” she yelled, honestly, she clenched her fists tight preparing for an inevitable strike, one that strangely did not come, instead the demon dog spoke, it SPOKE! “she speaks the truth Max” it said simply and Max looked at his friend with confusion, but he was still posed ready to strike, his attention slowly changed back to dusk “Do you have a Twin or something” What the hell did he mean by that, dusk placed a hand to her forehead wincing in pain, all this excitement was hurting her head, there was a hole, in her mind, just an empty space where she knew memories should linger. “I … I have never met you before in my entire life!” again she shouted, this time scared, not at her opponents but at the fact that she did not know how she came to be here, to be attacked for something she had no recognition of doing.
“So you don’t remember about before” Max asked more confused than angry at the moment, once again dusk yelled out in a near fit of hysteria “Before … Before I was heading to the docks … and it was quit … but what happened after that … how did I get hear” She placed her other hand on her head, it was now she realised how wounded her body was, they weren’t fresh, but they did appear to have been treated in some way, but it was the lump on her head that scared her the most, how did she get that little beauty?
“Whoa … she is a right mess” said max looking over to Ares, then looked back towards Dusk, maybe he felt pity, maybe he thought something else, but to see Dusk freaking out on the going like that, well he know what it was like when the Keepers cast people out as Rejects, he had seen it so many times, but never this bad. “… Look … whatever … you can stay here at least … but first thing tomorrow you are gone, I don’t want to see you ever again” Dusk sobered up and gritted her teeth at the man, she was confused and Ares saw that she seemed very dangerous at the moment, mentally at least “Max, she really does not seem to remember before” Max spun around to the demon dog “I know, I noticed that … “ he paused while crossing his arms, the position seemed ill suited for him. “ … I reckon her head must be really messed up if she can’t remember that” he seemed to think for a moment before walking over to the demon dog grinning, “I wonder if its permanent” he then turned back to dusk who seemed to have calmed down considerably “What is the first thing you recall?” Dusk looked at him, confused as to why he was helping her now, especially after he had attacked “You attacking me just now” Max then started to laugh, before falling down into his seat “Right, right and I suppose your really the tooth fairy!” Dusk frowned at him “Don’t make fun of me … I am not in the mood to be the blunt end of your jokes” but then she sighed falling back into her seat, trying to block the other two out. There was comfort in the flames, it was almost as if they held her missing memories, how could she lose them in the first place, what kind of event would put her through that?
She blinked, that’s all she could do as suddenly as though waking up for the first time in her life, everything around came into existence almost like she had not paid any attention to it before, and on that note she could barley notice the strange creature flying at her at top speed. Of cause, she wasn’t given any chance as the creature bashed into her head at full speed, head first, causing a comic effect as the two suddenly fell away from each other both in a world of hurt and daze. It was dusk who had recovered first, sitting up to nurse her already wounded head, but her mass was bigger than this creature, and by the looks of it, the poor thing was out for the count, but she still had to wonder what that things skull was made from.
“What the hell … what was that for” she said to an imaginary person, anything to say to test her own voice, there had been a strange feeling that it would not have worked. Shaking off the daze her eyes glanced over to the small creature, it was odd that was for sure, like a rabbit but with a bigger head, it had a brownish red fur covering the most part of its half a foot body, and a silver mane around its head and arms, its tail was also extremely long and she guessed that it reached 5 foot easily. “Eh … what are you” she muttered moving herself so that she was leaning over the thing, gently poking its body wondering if it was still alive.
Slowly it stirred under the pokes and it opened its eyes, and did a smile cross it little face, its expression was unmistakable it was one of a cocky grin “Ha-ha, I got you good, that’s what you get for trying to hit my with a stick!” Dusk was confused; she had tried to attack it with a stick? Err when was that? “What are you talking about … I have never seen anything like you … ever!” she replied finding it strange within herself that she found that this creatures ability to talk, was not very strange at all, but then again its voice also echoed, like it wasn’t really talking with its mouth, but instead, projecting its thoughts out to those around it.
“What do you mean you have never seen me before? Didn’t I just recently fish you out of that river … AND didn’t we meet in that cave when you so rudely disrupted my hibernation” Dusk sat back to let the little creature have some room to stand up on its hind legs “… I am sorry but I can’t remember” The creatures expression changed again, this time it was more of confusion for itself “That’s not the first time you said that … how does your head feel” it asked, as though concerned with something, in truth it was as it levitated off the ground and started to float around her head. “I don’t know … my head hurts … thanks to you” she grumbled rubbing the point of impact, but her hand also traced over another wound “Ehh … when did I get that one?” she asked wincing under its touch, the creature then immediately went to see for itself. “Whoa!” it said in an almost childish kind of awe, it poked it a few times before resuming flying around her head again. “Wow, I didn’t notice that before, you must have really hit your head hard, or something hit you … your memories must be like a couple of scrambled eggs!” it said beaming with pride as it seemed to know what it was talking about, “I bet you don’t even remember me patching you up with my magic?” it asked pointing to one of the many wounds she had, she frowned, the work had not been impressive “… it’s a really shoddy job”
The creature groaned, but its squeaky voice made it sound more cute than anything “and like I said before … It does not heal the wound … it just stops infection, and keeps it protected until it does heal on its own” Now dusk groaned, all this talk of the wounds made there presence more known than they should be, they were a real nuisance. “… sorry” she said softly but the creature picked up on the apology “What for” dusk the smiled, she wasn’t even sure that she was even capable of saying sorry to anything “For attacking you with a stick” The creature landed shaking its head “Its no biggie, were even now anyway … look we got to get you off this island … after talking with that guy I really thing you in trouble”
“Hang on what guy?” Dusk asked, confused at what the little creature meant by it, but it didn’t seem in the mood to repeat a story “My old freind, he had white hair and a tail like you” Her father, it had to be, there was no one else of that description, not since her whole race was wiped out many years ago, oh wait, wasn’t she currently investigating the possibility of there race returning, and what island, she had not even reached the docks yet. “Look stick with me ok … I will lead the way” Groaning dusk stood up as the creature floated upwards and slowly started to show her the way, she could not help but hear the faint sounds of a river, but she did not feel thirsty. “Hey … what’s your name” the creature chuckled at the question and spun around to float on its back “It’s to complex for your tongue to get around … but your kind of people used to call me Meep” Meep …. Right that was a very strange name “err … why?” She asked and then Meep made a little shrill cry that actually sounded like a Meep, named after the noise it made … Ehh this creature was beginning to become to cute for her to bare.
She followed in silence, more concerned at what was happening, and why she could not remember, it went on for a while, until, “Oh crap!” Meep called out freezing in fear as it sniffed the air “We gotta go NOW!” and then it spun around flying in the direction they had come from, but dusk stayed put and looked on ahead to see a faint glow, ‘ Curiosity killed the cat ’ she heard her fathers voice ‘ Well … yeah, but satisfaction brought it back ’ she countered the voice with her own and stepped forwards. She stumbled on a make shift camp and sitting on the other side of a fire was a large creature, and sat leaning against it was a young man with a strange arm who shot up at the sight of her, first he was surprised, but then he became really angry.
She shivered, why, she didn’t know, her clothes were pretty much soaked, her hair matted against her forehead, her tail was visibly shaking with drips of water falling from it. That wasn’t the strangest thing, the strangest thing was that she was wounded, quite badly, but the wounds felt like they had just been healed, that or her wounds were glowing because they felt pretty, no magic was at work here, cleaning her recently fresh wounds, but from what? Kaiserin wanted to stand up, she couldn’t she had made one feeble attempt before realising that she didn’t really have the will power, let alone the strength to get onto her feet, was the magic eating her strength to heal her? In fact who had healed her, she could not have done this, her ability with magic was all but useless, she just could never grasp the concept of using it, unless it was an item, then she had little or no problem with it. Her sword was the same, when needed she could summon it from its crystal sheath from beneath her hand, ah, but where was her glove, and where was the jewel that usually contained her sword, where was her scarf, the one she cherished, and her jacket that should be providing warmth. “… I want to go home” she muttered, she was not enjoying this strange trip out, her mind hurt to thing, so all she could do was wrap her arms around her knees.
There were strange noises in the distance, but she payed them little attention, right now all she wanted to do was sit there, recover her strength and find a way to go back home, wherever that was. She had long ago left her home, saying good bye to her father as she left, she remembered the crossroads, the perfect symbol that represented the day where they would go there separate ways, he had said after all, that she would not want to hang around her old man for all her life. ‘ that would be true … but … I miss that stupid grin of yours ’ when had she become like this, so weak willed that she did not even have the energy to stand up, her fiery spirit, where was it, had it been distinguished as she took an unknown swim in perhaps a break down of her mental stability, she would be lucky to know what that even meant.
~~~
‘ If you think I am going to let you go in your condition then you are mistaken ’ ‘ Leave me alone, who are you anyway!’
~~~
Whoa where did that memory come from, the voice, the second was hers, but the first, sounded familiar, like it belonged to someone she knew, but that wasn’t possible it was too … mature to be the person she was thinking off. Then again was that memory even real, or just her mind playing tricks on her, she shook her head not wanting to thing about it, all she wanted to do was to listen to the sound of a nearby river, flowing constantly. But there was that strange sound again, breaking through the top of the tree’s at seemingly an impossible rate, this worried her, she immediately got up and pressed herself against the tree, startled by the sudden action she just accomplished, the need for action had relit her will power. She glanced around the tree to spot one of the strangest creatures she had ever seen, it seemed to be foraging on what the forest could give it. Suddenly it spotted Kaiserin and started to float over with a mouth full of nuts. ‘ hmm … snack time? ’ she thought while banding down to pick up a stick, she grinned as it came closer, but it slowed down confused.
Kaiserin then leapt from her cover; stick over heard like a sword, she swing downwards but the creature evaded it by swiftly moving to the side, it gave a comical cry as it did. Then Kaiserin went to attack again, only this time horizontally, she didn’t catch what happened, the stick hit the creature, knocking it away like in a game of base ball, it came to a stop looking extra confused but angrier. Her stick had splintered, this thing certainly had a hard head, she driopped it curiously looking at the creature. “Pay back time!” it yelled out startling her, it then charged for her, head first.
What now, what situation could she possibly be in now? Well she felt like she was floating, actually more like flowing along the river of time, she also could not breath, that was startling, she wondered if she was dead, then her senses all kicked back in. She wasn’t dead, not yet at least and it suddenly dawned on her, she was drifting in a river, with what energy she had to spare she kicked her legs and waved her arms quickly ascending to the surface for some much needed air. Her head burst out from the river gasping for a much needed intake of oxygen, she also took this time to looks around, a river? This looked more like a rapid; still there was a bank to the side. She started kicking her legs and waving her arms again making her way for the river bank, but it was now good, her body was hurting too much, fresh wounds made it hard for her body to move, and instead of getting anywhere she felt like she was slowing down, like she would never be able to reach it.
‘ This is it, I am going to die before I know what happened ’ she thought but at the same time she felt something grasp onto her collar pulling her upwards and towards the bank, she must have thought she had gotten a second wind, and started her struggle fro the bank, eventually reaching it and pulling herself onto the calm shore, she just collapsed where she fell, feeling the need to sleep it off. “No don’t go to sleep, Come on Dusk, cough it out” came a worried cry, she didn’t know who it was but she obeyed picking herself off the ground, feeling water in her lungs, it all came up in one cough spitting it out as much as heaving it out. But then she fell back onto her side, she could barely look at the condition of her arms, she was sure, that if she had just not took a swim then she would be covered with blood, it felt … un settling, how much blood had she lost.
“No … I said don’t go to sleep, stay awake” she then felt something soft and furry climb onto her side and leaping in front of her line of vision, she was surprised to find a strange creature there, one she had never seen in her life, a silver mane, and red fur, its red eyes constantly looked at her and then to her wounds, she had many, and all of them she didn’t know how she got. “Aww man … come of Dusk, stay awake” she couldn’t help it, she felt herself slipping, but suddenly it didn’t seem so bad, this dying business, she then felt warm, and thought a glow was surrounding her, and the pain was slowly going away. Of cause Dusk snapped to full attention after the healing spell had kicked in, suddenly fuelled with energy she did not have before she snapped alerted, upwards into a sitting position wondering if she had just died.
“Phew … your hard to heal” said the small creature that had earned all of her attention, it sat down next to her looking just as tired as she had been, but slowly her wounds started to hurt again, she looked at them, seeing the magic still working, this was of cause something only she could see. “… What are you?” she asked, but the little creature chuckled “That’s a strange way of thanking me Dusk, that guy was right, you don’t say thanks often do you” Ehh what guy, but whatever and whoever this creature was, it was right, she had not said any form of thank you, especially after the little guy had just saved her life. “Thank you” she added hugging her knees with her arms, which started to hurt again despite the healing spell.
The creature then recovered its strength and floated upwards poking the wound, Dusk had not the strength or energy now to make him stop. “Wow, you are hard to heal, still, its working, you might feel pain, but at least they won’t get infected … or bleed, but it will be a little irritating” wow, she really owed this little guy “Thanks” it then rolled onto its back chuckling “oh so now you give out the thanks” it mocked her and all she could do was look up at it, she had questions, but never asked them. “Do you think you can walk?” Dusk nodded, and shockingly stood up, and followed the creature a few steps into the forest, but then she fell down again. The creature looked like it was contemplating the meaning of life the way it crossed its tiny arms “So the healing spell is sapping your strength eh … well no problem, you wait here and good ol’ Meep here will find some yummy food” Dusk groaned “I am not hungry” she muttered but the creature flew around her head, one, twice “Yeah … but I am!” and then it took off into the forest at an impossible speed, Dusk watched it leave before grinning “what a strange little creature”
Of cause, this place was very familiar to her, she looked around, and smiled, the old wooden floor was the same as always, a large open space, but the walls were decorated with many weapons, even her future weapon rested there, still in its sealed form, the black blade, that was so much harder to carry back then, it weighed almost as much as she did, so evading attack was next to impossible, but it did offer a nice wall. Oh yeah, the walls were lined with so many different kids of weapons, from lances, to simple long sword, her eyes then turned to the huge tapestry, it was one of a red dragon, the symbol was the same on her ring, and the same emblem she had attached to the chain on the bangle around her right wrist.
She then looked forwards to see two legs clad in white kick for each other, blocking at the same time, ah she remembered this very well, the larger of the two, the man, held back a little while his smaller opponent launched kicks and punches at him, but in the end he ended in one swift movement when his tail wrapped around her leg tripping her up. Kaiserin’s younger incarnation beat her hand to the ground yelling up at her father he was grinning “You Cheater, you used your tail” he just shrugged “Yeah but, at the same time, you didn’t use yours, you’re a great fighter, but your lacking focus, I wonder if we should do more to help you focus” Her younger self jumped back to her feet sighing releasing her anger “Who cares about focus, a good warrior is able to handle anything thrown at them” she said narrowing her eyes, but once again her father just chuckled and messed up her hair with his hand “Yeah but … if you can focus, then you can face someone stronger than you” but Kaiserin groaned at that “Yeah but your too strong for me … why don’t you ever tell me about your past?” heh, she remembered a lot of these talks “Maybe when your older, I have done a lot in my past, and I don’t want to bore you, besides, that’s not what’s important right now … hey, you want to try again?” she then ginned and leaped backwards into a fighting stance “Now I know that I should also keeps a heads up for you tail … your not going to get me again.
‘When I was growing up, my father used to train me a lot, of cause he was on his own, I didn’t know my mother, she died when I was born, but I don’t know what I am missing. And besides my father was not bad, except he really knew how to piss people off, I saw that a lot around town, he was always making some joke. I … really don’t take after him in that respect, yeah sure I will crack out a comment now and then that’s funny. But I never really just kicked back to relax, then again, I am a lot more serious, and now that I know what my father did, I must say I am impressed, he and Canen are very old friends, I would like to get to know him better, I suppose he is kinda like an uncle’
~~~
Opening her eyes was a painful feat, but as her mind slowly started to reactivate, she knew instantly that she was moving, but she also knew that her body was hurting, bleeding. She opened her eyes, it fist it was blurred and she was looking down, but she could see on her bare left hands, drops of blood slowly escaping from her body, she looked like she had just come out of a war zone. But she also knew that someone was carrying her, who it didn’t matter but she was grateful, she would be even more grateful if whoever it was could get her some medical treatment, and a bed, yeah a bed would be nice, she felt like she could sleep for eternity.
The person carrying her over his shoulder stopped and looked back, possibly at the trail of blood, he silently cursed before continuing, “… hey” Kaiserin said weakly, she was startled at how weak her voice was. But once again the person holding her stopped “Your awake?” he said surprised, the voice was kind of familiar, but at the same time it wasn’t, he gently placed her down next to a tree, once again glancing at her wounds, but then her turned to her face “Kaiserin … come on stay with me” But opening her eyes was hard, but she felt that she had to, she looked on at her supposedly saviour, and was surprised, he wore a very dark helmet, one that seemed to fit one of her nightmares, but it was the person behind it that she was thankful for. “W… what happened?” again her voice was embarrassing but she could do nothing about it. “You got into a fight with the wrong people, you killed about two of tem, but you could not handle the others, you were wounded too quickly” Kaiserin bit her bottom lip, that didn’t sound like her, she looked to her hand and saw the jewel missing, her saviour saw this and spoke up “That’s one hell of a weapon you got there, its not like your last one eh? Don’t worry, its safe, in your condition I had to take it or you would think I am an enemy”
Kaiserin once again looked at him confused, who would she thing that but she didn’t want to seem pitiful, so she started to climb to her feet with the aid of the tree, “Hey … what are you doing?” She shook her head, remembering her destination “I got … to get to the docks” she whimpered but he then he placed a hand on her shoulder “you think I am going to let you go in your condition then you are mistaken” but then Kaiserin found strength she didn’t know she had and shrugged his hand away while stepping away from the tree, constantly moving backwards as he followed “Leave me alone, who are you anyway” she cried out, the man seemed stung however, and stopped as she continued to move back.
Then he looked up “Stop!” and then he started to run forwards “There’s a Cliff –“ he never managed to finish what he was say, Kaiserin had took too many steps backwards and fell backwards down to the river below, the man frantically ran to the side looking down where he ripped off the helmet letting his white hair fall all over the place, his red eyes quickly scanned the area, he had a scar over his left eye, but more than that, his identity was unmistakable “MEEP GET HERE … KAISERIN HAS –“
Kaiserin stopped walking for a moment to look on ahead, she blinked a few times, had she just been daydreaming and she ended up somewhere that she had never seen before, what had drawn her to enter a clearing such as this? She shrugged it off and flicked one of her scarf tails back behind her, and sighed. She was heading to the docks; it also felt like she had been on the road for months now, and eternity of walking with no destination in sight. Kaiserin snapped to attention at the unmistakable sound of a twig snapping under a foot, she turned to her left in the direction on the sound, but all she saw was a shadow retreat back in just an instant. “… Hello?” she asked, wondering who or what was there, she also went to scratch her head but winced under a huge bump, whoa, when had she got that little beauty?
A sound, from behind her, she span to look at its owner but saw nothing but the end of a shadow, she then heard it again, but this was also from behind and when she turned to look, nothing was there. “What the hell?” Her words were a cue when suddenly a shadowy figure leapt from behind her, she turned with her teeth gritted not really sure she was believing what she saw. A man in very dark armour, it looked black, maybe with a slight tint of blue, maybe purple, his face was covered under the black iron helmet of a strange design she had never seen, he held a sword, the blade also black, it resembled obsidian, weather it was or not she didn’t know. His sword was over heard and he swing downwards, but it was stopped, a blue light had stopped it but that soon quickly materialised into a sword with blue threads of light. She then swing her blade throwing her attacker away, but he landed without much trouble, but as he landed so did five others, Kaiserin was surprised, this was one hell of a random attack, maybe this was some event in the citadel, and she had just forgotten.
With her five foot blade in hand she swung it upwards then drove it into the ground while the strange men started to surround her, all she could do to make this easier, was to take a deep breath, pull away her scarf from around her neck, and slip her jacket off before pulling her sword from the ground mentally preparing. ‘Six of them … I … I have never fought this many at once before’ she was hesitant about this, but she still gripped her sword tightly waiting for something to happen. One of the men charged forwards, in fact it was the one in front of her so she was able to block the blow, but the action never separated, that was because three other came from behind while her weapon was busy locked with the first attacker. She pushed him as hard as she could successfully knocking him backwards, she then swiftly turned around swinging her sword catching the first in the air and swatting him away with a huge gash in his side, she had no momentum for the other two as they swung there swords.
It stung like hell, that’s what it felt like, the two swords cut into her arms, yet on instinct she had mentally blocked out the pain to raise her sword and run the other through, the third backed away at the horrible sight, Kaiserin twisted her blade and pulled her sword from his middle to rip out of his side spilling his innards, she looked like a demon as she turned around to them, with blood spraying onto her face. “Fucking Try that again! I DARE YOU” she basically roared and charged forwards at one of the startled men raising her sword high and swung downwards, her sword crashed into the ground but she had missed, one of the other attackers had dived in to knock his comrade out of the way. “Dammit, don’t let your guard down … be careful she already took down two of us”
Well, well, they weren’t an army of the dead, they were sentient, and had a brain, which was going to make things harder. But had she intimidated these men? “Spread out, she is alone!” and so the four of them spread out around her again, it was hard to keep an eye on all of them, and well, they all attacked at once, and she was never able to put up a guard, there sword strike flew across her body, but they were just wounding her, they had technically not tried to make a death blow yet, but these attacks were really starting to sting. She fell to her knee, which was all that her body would let her, ‘ this sucks! she silently cursed, looking up to see one of them starting to fashion some kind of spell, she could see the magical energy swirling around him, licking at his body as he focused it into a single area “Time for you to sleep” he said, she was sure he also said it while grinning, he threw the strange spell forwards, but out of determination, and half of a fall she evaded it and the spell hit the strange attacker behind her.
“Dammit, you Muppet you hit our own guy” the other yelled, “What, don’t blame me, he was stood right behind her, I was I supposed to know she would move!” it was comical, but Kaiserin was not smiling as she struggled to her feet, and struggled to raise her sword, she would not go down like this, she refused to go down like this. “… Come … and get me” she hissed getting the soldiers attention once again, but before they attacked there eyes grew wide at something, but at the same time, Kaiserin found herself blacking out, maybe because all this excitement was overloading her sensitive mind at the moment, still before she completely blacked out she did hear a voice calling her name “Kaiserin, Kaiserin … Dammit I gotta get –“
“Well it was fun talking with ya, but I gotta go grab a bite to eat”, the fur ball then ascended into the air and took flight at an impossible rate, Kaiserin stood there blinking, “… what the hell was that?” she said in utter confusion, she had only a brief glimpse of it before it was off, red fur and a silver mane, not to mention an impossibly long tail. Kaiserin scratched the back of her head before looking at her surroundings, finding herself lost wasn’t knew, but finding herself here so suddenly was. She stood at the entrance to the cave, it was located on a small hill barely reaching as high as the tree tops, so that must mean there is a forest in front of her. Her ruby eyes turned back to the cave, she had the impression that she had come from that direction, but her lack of a memory of travelling through doubted that feeling.
Kaiserin then shrugged her shoulders too it and set off forwards, she felt a small chill on her exposed skin, but she was glad that she had her trusty jacket and scarf to keep the cold wind at bay, the weather did seem strange, like storm were very frequent, but of cause she was no expert on the weather so it was a wild guess at best. As she walked on another question crossed her mind, just where was she. Like her father before her she travelled without a map, there was a reason behind this, because of the simple fact that you can discover more when you’re lost. Yeah, great excuse, she was lost, she didn’t know where she was and worst of all, she touched her head and winced under the bump, her mind was a little fuzzy in the memory department.
The walk was boring and uneventful, all she really did was walk forwards avoiding tree’s that were in her way, but recently, her ears strained to listen, and faintly voices were heard from deeper in, well maybe whoever it was could give her some directions, unless they were talking about how lost they were. As she approached she saw one person, he had short brown hair and wore a large cloak, and he was currently talking to someone who was hidden within the shadows of the trees. “I got what I could, but I had to escape or the Keepers would have chewed me out for looting some of the stuff.” Kaiserin stepped back pressing her back against the tree, for some reason she didn’t feel like interrupting this conversation. “you should see some of the stuff I got, I got this cloak, a flute, and some fancy ring with a ruby dragon on it” Ruby dragon, Ring, Kaiserin immediately went to fish in her pockets but she couldn’t find it, her ring was missing, assuming the worst she guessed that the stranger had it.
She rashly leaped from her hiding place glaring at the mans back with her fists clenched tight, if this was her ring then she had to get it back, “Max, look out we got company!” said a dark voice from the shadows, Max then turned around, he looked at Kaiserin with an awkward look “Eh… get lost, go back to the other rejects” he said waving his arm in a random direction, Kaiserin however just continued to stair “Not until you have shown me that ring, I gotta know if its mine or not” she reasoned, hopefully this person would be reasonable “Not a chance” he said falling back into a fighting stance, raising a monstrous arm from under the cloak, ‘What the hell?’ she shook her head, in her dismay she knew that she was going to have to fight him, but, she had to know if it was her ring.
“Oh good, I was getting a little hungry” said the deep broken voice, max just grinned and relaxed, looking back at the shadows “that’s good, I guess I will leave this to you then” he then started to walk away much to Kaiserin’s disapproval, but he had to move out of the way for his friend, oh boy. That was not a shadow behind those tree’s that was its dark body, the whole 9 foot of it, Kaiserin gulped, but steeled herself and summoned her sword, it arrived on the battlefield in its usual, beautiful, mystical way. The beast in front of her was a hell hound, which was the only way to describe its presence. It charged forwards, the power behind it seemed impossible yet, Kaiserin noticed that it was a little on the slow side, slower than her at least, she leaped to her left and out of the way of the beast, she also made an attack as she passed but it seemed to only scratch the beast, ‘It’s way too strong for me’ an interesting thing to think after only one attack, but that was the reality of it, this thing had the power to crush her. It’s whole body turned around, like a tank if you will, and Kaiserin immediately backed off, but she went a little too far, but she noticed Max make an attack with his claw, Gritting her teeth, she swing her blade catching his arm with the blunt side of her blade swatting the attack away, but.
As she turned around she found the hell hound about to deliver one tremendous head but, it would send her flying, and she had let her instincts deal with this, she leapt upwards into the air as the beast went to throw its large head upwards, by some mirical she managed to get a foot hold on the beasts head as it ten went to launch her like a catapult upwards into the air. Without really thinking her hand gripped onto one of the branches in a tree, stopping her instantly, but she also dropped her sword as she went to grab onto with her other hand, but her tail wrapped around the hilt stopping it from falling. “Well what do we have here, it’s a monkey” the man called, “Bastard” she called back, her sword had too much weight so it began to disappear back into its sheath, without the extra weight she managed to pull herself onto the sturdy branch to look down at her taunting foes. They left after she gave them the finger, but she also sighed as well, just what was going on, she dropped backwards but wrapped her tail around the branch so she simply hung upside down with her legs and arms crossed. “This is all too much, where the hell am I? Where is my ring, and just who or what were they.” She knew the answers would not come to her like this, so she dropped the large distance, landing heavily. She ten groaned to her self before continuing on, she didn’t want to follow those two, that thing was definitely way too strong for her
When one is lost, they usually stop to look around at there surroundings, Kaiserin was currently wondering if walking face first into a stalactite counted. Of cause she pulled back holding her face wondering who’s bright idea it was to put one there, but slowly she looked around the cave, she was in a cave, okay, when did she come here. Whilst rubbing her sore face she did look around, she even turned around 180 degree’s to see where she had come from, well she could not see a light at the end of the tunnel. Kaiserin then turned around again, surprised at how well lit the cave was, of cause there were cracks in the roof, one that let blinding white light into the darkness of the cave. She had been walking in this direction for a reason, what reason she didn’t know but she found sense to continue in that direction.
This cave seemed very smooth, and very open, how did the stalactites form here anyway, weren’t they usually made because of water wearing down the rock. Well what did the description of this cave mean to her anyway, all she really thought about the cave was where it was taking her, and they way all the stalactites looked like a pair of teeth? “Oh god, I hope I am not in a dragon’s mouth” still it was too large, and unless the dragon enjoyed being cut open she doubted it was a belly. Her feet hit the ground softly, yet there was haste behind her movements, she was edgy, why? What had happened, she could tell because of her tail, if she had forgot something, well her tail seemed to know why, but half the time it’s movements were based on her subconscious.
More adventuring into this cave was really starting to grate on her nerves, it was boring, she had half expected that at least by now an undead skeleton warrior would rise from the ground to beg for her to destroy its existence, but no, this was one of those Normal caves, it was nothing special. “If that’s the case … why the hell am I here” she thought about turning around or going, but what if she had already searched the cave and was currently heading back to the entrance, why couldn’t she remember something like that.
Well, no matter how much you whine about your situation, soldering on was worth it as she now say light at the end of the tunnel, but now she did stop, at the strange sound, it was like a growl, but it was too soft to be from anything dangerous. Kaiserin got a little curious and started to search behind every nook and cranny, before eventually finding the source of the growl. It actually wasn’t a growl, but constant snoring, and from a funny little creature too. It was small, maybe about the size of a rabbit at best, around its pointy little head was a white mane, not to mention it had the largest ears she had ever seen, they could pass for wings. In contrast to its white mane it had dull red fur, and its tail wrapped around the edge of its nest three times.
What bright idea she had, she thought it would be funny to poke the little creature, so she did, nudging its tiny arm, the sounds it made were a little funny, like little squeals that passed of as groans, but eventually its eye’s started to flutter open and the first thing its saw as Kaiserin’s face up close. “Wha … That’s some freaky eyes” and then it closed its eyes again, confused and disappointed Kaiserin leaned back folding her arms. “m’kay…” she then wondered about just going on, and wondering how good it tasted. “HOLY PANTS ON A STICK!” the creature was suddenly wide awake and flying upwards, until its head hit the ceiling, it groaned for a moment holding its head while looking upwards “oww, who put that roof there?” then its gaze turned to Kaiserin, who silently was amused and watched the little creature. “Whoa! a silvet! I haven’t seen one of your kind since Eos blasted it all away”
“Come again?” she said, wondering how a little fuzz ball would know about her ancestry, “How do you know” It did a back flip while floating and waved its arms about to stop itself from going again “I saw the whole thing! Whoosh all gone, glad to see your not all extinct, hmm” it sniffed the air for a moment “HOLY … I have been asleep for about 300 years … that was a long nap” Kaiserin just looked at the creature, blinking, staring “… you can tell by sniffing the air” it then shook its head “I can tell by my own BO I need a shower whoa” it said while waving a hand under its armpit, the little creature was a natural jester, it was already making Kaiserin smile, appreciating its humour.
“What, who are you?” it chuckled “My name is Mepelious gratious confatius … or just plain old Meep, as for what I am … I don’t have a clue dude, I am just me” it then flew around Kaiserin once as if to show off “Right” she said not really knowing to believe it or not. She continued on walking as the two left the cave to overlook a forest. “Hey, who are you?” it asked, Kaiserin felt nice enough to answer “I am Kaiserin Nightwind, but people call me Dusk” it blinked a few times “err, why?” good question, why was her nickname Dusk, it was just a nickname, however she did not answer as a growl for Meeps belly disrupted her thinking “Oopsie, I am hungry, it was great talking with you, and thanks for waking me, and all, well-“
“Sir what do want us to do?” The tall man turned to his general and then turned his attention back to her, “Your coming with us”. Kaiserin shook her head, her mind returning back to reality, no, this wasn’t right, she had just been stood here, she knew that much, talking, to this man who resembled Canen. But that’s all that was there a resemblance; from when he dressed all in black, but this man was clad from neck to toe on heavy black armour with a cloak around him. But, was it a whisper, from before her memory failed her, this man, nothing good will come of him.
Kaiserin found her body automatically getting defensive as her hesitance called one of the strange soldiers around her too approach. “Hey didn’t you just hear what he said?” he barked, with a hostile voice, Kaiserin meanwhile just looked at the soldier then back at the strange man. “Who are you … I don’t know you … just … who in the hell are you!” confusion registered on each one of there faces, and it was the mans general who spoke first in a soft voice “Captain …” The captain then unsheathed his sword and aimed it at her, she immediately retreated and summoned her weapon to her hand, mimicking the stance, the tension increased, she could tell, you could almost cut it with a knife.
“You … your not one of the Rejects are you?” he said narrowing his eyes “You were on that ship” his voice said again with growing anger, but eventually it peaked like a volcano “Trespassers are not Welcome here!”. His voice boomed, and it also served as an order, behind the man, and all around her she could see, all the men, even those on the beach slowly unsheathed there weapons looking on towards the silvet with dangerous eyes. ‘Ok … there are at least fifty, maybe sixty people here with there weapons at the ready to attack, I can think on one course of action to take right now.’ her sword vanished and she turned around dashing away, into the dense foliage of the forest before her.
“Run away!” she yelled for no reason, but it did strike some more confusion into the soldiers, it looked too comical to truly believe it had just happened. The man with the black hair raised his sword into the air and pointed it towards Kaiserin “You know how this is going to end!” he yelled ten turned to his general, “Track her down … now!”. Kaiserin had heard what the general had shouted; she frowned and concentrated on running harder. Her pace was good, she ran along the worn road at an easy lope while concentrating more on her breathing than on who or what was chasing her, ‘ Things don’t always end the way you expect them too ’ She could hear the roar of the soldiers behind her start to give chase, the feet pounded on the ground and she could feel it every time her foot landed on the ground, they were chasing her.
Her ears were suddenly assaulted with the sound of a whistle, no it wasn’t a whistle, she quickly leapt to the side and turned around to see two arrows strike the ground; dammit she was an open target running down this road. She then dashed into the trees leaving the road behind, she just ran, there was no tactic needed other than staying ahead of them. But they had numbers and slowly she could see them approaching on either side, one infact had leapt out at her, but she had seen him and ducked under his leap, but she caught his leg with her tail and forced him to land a little too early. She had the choice of taking her sword and impaling him to the ground but instead she backed away and resumed her fleeing, she heard the sounds of voices gathering around there fallen comrade.
Up ahead, a cave, she ran directly towards it and dashed into the darkness without even looking back, she found that the cave was surprisingly well lit and up ahead was a cross roads, it looked a little familiar to her, and she took the same path she had last time at one, she went left and slowly she failed to feel or hear the sound of her chasers, good she had managed to outrun the bastards, now to see where this cave lead.
Her head hurts, could she possibly make that any more clear, her head, well, her mind really, hurt, it felt like someone had drove a nail there and she had somehow survived. Not only that but her head was hurting a lot, like she had been hit over the head, or had a head but contest with a ship. Her eyes slowly started to flutter open, they were heavy, and the first thing she noted was the sunny sky above her, the clear cerulean sky, maybe one or two peaceful white clouds too, her fingers were wet, and as her eyes turned to investigate her arm was leaning over the side of the small row boat. She was not moving, no it was on land, maybe a beach, whatever, the calm salty water once again rose to meet her fingers, and the sound of the waves were starting to lull her to sleep.
‘ Hey, don’t go asleep, come on! ’ she once again rekindled her will power and sat up in the boat, from what she could tell it was a mess, bits of wood had broken off from something bigger and had fallen into her small boat, possibly she had fallen on herself. Strangely the rest of her body seemed to still pack the strength she usually had, but her mind made it feel like she could hardly move, an odd sensation, maybe it was because she had been lying in the sun for too long. She noted the way her boots sank into the golden sand of the beach, she also glanced around at the near perfect serenity, strange it wasn’t exactly what she was expecting. But then again what had she been expecting, she was thankful that the boat she was in had drifted here and not to some forsaken cliff face.
Her ruby red eyes scanner to her left and then to her right, but ultimately they failed to spot anything, sighing she brushed a loose strand of her white hair out of her eyes, and her tail flicked with irritation as she groaned before voicing her feelings. “…Where the hell am I?” in truth she didn’t even know how she got onto a boat, she walked down the beach a little before looking back and frowning, exactly just how did she get into a boat, she looked towards the ocean and could see a continent just on the horizon. For some reason she looked back on the roomer, the personal quest she had began to look for her father about the supposedly revival of the Silvets, for some reason she didn’t feel very motivated to carry on, like she had already tried, and failed. Still it wasn’t a complete loss, she looked around the beach and had the urge to just hang around in the sun getting a tan, she may have done that if the urgent matter of being, possibly on an abandoned island didn’t appeal to her.
Yet suddenly bursting from the forest that hid this little beach a dark shadow started to pour towards the boat, no it wasn’t shadows, soldiers in a very dark armour, or uniform just ran by her towards the boat quickly investigating, Kaiserin backed away while watching them with confusion but felt glad that they were ignoring her, even though she was giving them 50 or 60 soldiers her full attention. “You come with me!” Kaiserin spun around at the feminine voice, a supposedly general of this small army, she looked at Kaiserin with a passive look “This area is off limits, if you leave now we will take this no further”, huh, Kaiserin just looked at her dumbstruck on what to do, or say, in the end it was her hesitance that this general took for an answer “…Very well, follow me” she turned around walking further up the beach to supposedly where a small command post had been made, Kaiserin followed with the lack of anything better to do, and an answer too.
She arrived hearing the words “Around the beach, oh here she is” and then the man, supposedly the captain of this little task force, he had long jet black hair and green eyes, at first Kaiserin mistook him for Canen, a man who she considered as an uncle figure, yet Canen didn’t have a tan, and this persons eyes did not seem to glow, no he was human. “Care to explain yourself “Reject”?” at first Kaiserin frowned, that was an odd way to insult someone, it sounded more like a title the way he had addressed her “Huh … you know, I really don’t have a clue as to what’s going on here” the man frowned for a moment, seemingly to ponder something “You are a “Reject” yes? No … answer me”
Kaiserin already didn’t like him, how was she supposed to answer when his loud voice stopped her from even talking, but finally she was given a chance “Reject? What are you talking about; I don’t even know where the hell I am” The man was effectively silenced, and it took his general to ask another question “Were you on that boat?” Kaiserin nodded her head, “I … I don’t know” Kaiserin was getting scared of that fact, why didn’t she know. “Humph … whatever, General, I have no time to be dealing with the rejects’ complaints at the moment”
The rum tasted good, the captain thought as he swirled the drink in the mug, it ought to be, it was after all his private stash. His old eyes once again looked over the maps as he looked at the island that was there destination, it was a strange one, up until recently that island had been dead, but with new activity surrounding it, and a lot of roomers too. His client had been following on of these roomers, and she had slyly managed to get herself a ride on his ship along with all the gold she owned, of cause she would only give it to him after safely dropping her off, and returning a week later to pick her up. After a few minuets of reminiscing on how the girl had managed to beat up two of his best men still scared him, bam a single punch to the face and they were down, the third was humiliated by her tail within the bar.
There then was three hard knocks on the door followed by a voice “Captain, were getting closer to the island” he could tell by the voice it was the first mate, always such a whiner too, he was first mate because he knew how to get a ship through a storm, not to mention he had some amazing luck. “Quit yer bellyaching Lad, I will be out in just a moment” The captain called back while fingering the hilt of the dagger currently keeping his map in place, and once more her thought back. In truth it was a really slow day, and he would have taken her to that island for free, but she had offered the money and his crew’s dignity, so it was all fair her guessed. He lifted himself out of his chair which groaned in protest to his movement, now he wasn’t a large feller, a little plump but it was mostly muscle, well to him it was. He reached and opened the door surprised to find his young first mate there, he frowned it him and kicked him in the shin “What are you doing here lad, we got a guest, you could at least be entertaining the lass” his voice boomed through the ship, but the first mate shrugged.
“Her idea of having fun is sparring with me and winning, and my but is already sore from the last round” his first mate complained and the captain slammed his palm into his head “I got a crew of wuss’, I swear if any pirate finds out about this they be attacking us only” The captain then grabbed the head of one of his crew who was in the way and tossed him aside just for being there, he didn’t even look back “Maybe we should spend some more time on actually learning to fight rather than to sail…” he pondered to himself. The Captain took a deep breath of the salty sea air as soon as he stepped out on deck, it was a fine day, the sun was high, the sky was clear, and such a lovely breeze coming in from the west. “Well who wants to try me next” Came the taunt of there lovely passenger, she stood with a foot on one of his crew members upturned butt that stuck into the air while he could only guess the poor guy was out cold. “If you keep fighting my crew then none of us will be able to take you to that island!” the captain called getting the attention of the silver haired girl, she grinned over in his direction and left the poor crew alone to talk to him.
“What’s the island called anyway?” she asked in a cheerful tone, she apparently had been very amused kicking the snot out of her so called challenges of the regular folk, “Gondwana or something… its not an island that people like to visit, they say it brings bad luck” the girl laughed at this news, and looked at the captain with unbelieving ruby red eyes “It shouldn’t be anything I can’t handle, I have never felt better, I am the top of my game” that or her ego was huge after kicking his crews assess up and down the deck.
“Captain! Ship on the starboard side” cried the person in the crows nest, naturally the captain and half the crew rushed to that side of the ship to look at it, the Captain was surprised “How the hell did you miss that, it’s right on top of us!” he barked out yet, “Any problems” asked the girl walking up behind, the captain looked back and mumbled his answer “There is if they are pirates … What Flag is she under?” he cried to the person in the crow’s nest. “There isn’t one!” now, Kaiserin was no sailor, but she instantly recognised that as a bad thing “what are your orders captain” came the usually worried voice of the first mate, but silence was given. But that was easily broken by the sound of a cannon firing and the ball hitting the water just ahead of there ship.
“Holy blazes … Turn this ship around, that was a warning shot to keep us away, Turn us around now!” he barked and then turned to there client “I hope this has not ruined your plans” Kaiserin was disappointed yes, but all she did was cross her arms “I can live with the set back, but can’t you fight them off?” “With WHAT? Incase you didn’t notice we travel light, that means we have no cannons, we usually travel in a fleet missy and…” he stopped himself and calmed down and then went to rephrase his words “No we can’t fight them, maybe you should look for another ship with cannons when we get back to the docks” he said calmly and Kaiserin nodded in agreement “I understand”, then she started to feel the entire ship turn around yet, the other ship fired another cannon ball this time that one landed even closer causing there ship to shudder. “What the hell … were already turning around, someone go wave a white flag or something”
Then there was another shot, no one saw it coming but the front of there ship seemed to explode into tiny pits of wood and splinter that flew everywhere ‘There gonna sink us anyway’ cold the harsh reality to Kaiserin, she felt lost on this ship, unable to take the fight directly to her opponent this time, those bastards were going to kill them and there was nothing she could do. There came three more shots each one blasting a hole in there ship, it was apparent that they truly were in danger when someone from below ran up on deck “Captain, were taking on water and we can’t stop it!” “Dammit, everyone get to the row boat, hopefully they will stop shooting at us” “But what if they take us prisoner” bellowed another crew member “DEAL WITH IT” came the captains reply as he grabbed his head an tossed him towards the boat “Now get that tub into the water!” They work fast, Kaiserin was willing to admit that, they were all hunched together ready to get in, but at the same time they were also lined up to die, the sound of the cannon in the distance was there death, coming at them as moments later the deck which they were stood on exploded into the wooden mess the rest of the ship was becoming.
Kaiserin had not been in the vicinity, she would have looked around if she through there was a survivor, but she would also hate to admit that she thought her life came first, she made a mad dash from the boat, hopefully she would be saved, yet the sound of the cannon in the distance fired again, and she could feel the deck behind her explode and at the same time a heavy object hit her in the back of the head, but that was all she recalled as she fell forwards unconscious.
Kaiserin Sprang from the bed in a cold sweat, her eyes raced around the room, it wasn’t familiar, but then again, recently things had not really been familiar to her. The room was very boxed in, and there was the heavy sound of life from outside her window, she had recalled everything in an instant, but it was still taking its time to fully settle in. Slowly she looked around the room once again, it was basic, bed side table, chest and draws, but then she began to laugh, oh man there was no way. ‘There … was no way all that was a dream’ she stopped laughing and got out of the bed examining her bare arm, sure enough her supposedly, wounds were not there, she then felt her head, and was startled it was wrapped in bandages still, and was sore to the touch. What had happened, she bet she had been simply walking around town, got hit over the head and dreamt the whole thing.
“If that’s the case then I am such a looser” she said out loud before lazily walking over to the window and opening it, her face was suddenly hit with the fresh air as she looked outside. She grinned she had to grin, of cause, this was one of the many towns you would find in Scara Brae, she looked over the left and laughed, sure enough there was the dock she had been struggling to get to in the so called dream, she brushed a hand through her hair, ignoring the bandages “all a dream eh … I suppose that’s possible … but wow that dream was so real, did I actually feel pain?” then she looked back into the room glancing over to the only chair, she smiled, her scarf and jacket were placed on it, and around her neck was the pendant that stored her sword. But there was another item in the room that she had previously overlooked; it was a note, or letter on the bedside table. Curious she walked over towards it and opened it up to find the familiar handwriting Raphael Lagret. Her heart fell into her stomach then leaped all the way into her threat as she stared at the latter, her eyes almost jumping right off her head, how could she forget this letter, how was it here, was all she went through real or not, then if that was the case, how did she escape back to Scara Brea?
Her eyes scanned the familiar notes and then she looked on the back of it, sure enough there was a small essay there, that was a letter written to her by her father, she openly fell to her knees as she started to read it. It was telling her, everything that had happened, at least from his point of view, as she began to read she knew that it had all been very much real, her father had been there, he had saved her.
---
“It’s you!” They both screamed pointing at each other, Kaiser the Silvet and Meep the … thing, they just pointed at each other in shock, there was no way. But soon that silence was broken into a random rant on how they had not seen each other in nearly three hundred years and that the last time they did; Meep had said farewell to Kaiser as he stood on the deck of the ship after Eos had pretty much destroyed there home. “Where the hell have you been?” the giddy silvet asked pulling on his friends ears “I been sleeping dude” giggle the little creature who in turn grabbed the silvets nose. This was a messed up greeting. “What are you doing here?” asked the little creature. “Would you believe me if I said I was tracking down the silvets” Kaiser said still overjoyed at seeing a very old friend of his. “nope” Kaiser then grinned “Your right, this whole island, something is up, they are like housing some uber rare species or something in a strange little town, some guys called the Keepers or something, they don’t like trespassers too much either” yet his story was cut short when Meep’s little belly began to rumble
“heh, I recently just got woken up by a girl and I am uber hungry” Kaiser chucked “No problem, I will give ya a holler if I need you or something” the creature nodded “Right I will find you as soon as I am done stuffing my face” Kaiser seemed to reminisce about food “Sounds good little guy, I will c’ya around then”
---
“And that’s what you get for Messing with the Great Kai-huh?” Kaiser stopped taunting his knocked out foe, all of his black armour was now on him leaving the knocked out guard naked in the forest. Kaiser turned to investigate the noise and quickly followed, he pressed his back to the tree to find his own daughter of all people fighting off at least six of these dark soldiers. ‘ what is she doing here … did she hear about the silvet roomer too? ’ he wondered biting his bottom lip, he looked around again horrified to see 4 of the remaining soldiers attack her all at once, that was the last straw, he watched one of them try a magic attack but his daughter evaded it despite her wounds, he was proud. But it was now good she was about to faint from the wounds, he could tell, he slammed on his helmet that he had recently stole and charged from behind the trees, unsheathing his Katana jumping into the small group and using speed and confusion quickly dealt death blows before running over to his daughter picking her up in his arms.
“Kaiserin, Kaiserin … Dammit I gotta get you some medical treatment … huh hey stay with me … Dammit!” he was worried, what father would not be worried when they held there bleeding daughter in there arms. He pulled her limp body up and held her arm over his shoulder, he would get her to his little hide out even if it killed him, there was no way he would let her die. It however was taking longer than he thought and he stopped looking back at the trail of blood his daughter was leaving, ‘ I seriously hope we are not being tracked ’ but then to his father relief his daughter stirred awake.
---
“Stop … there is a cliff –“ Kaiser could not finish his word as beneath the helmet he wore he watched his daughter back up over a cliff, part of him wanted to scream but the other part just watched in complete horror, something about that just didn’t register. He did neither scream nor fall to his knee’s he ripped the helmet off his head and ran to the cliff face looking down somewhat thankful that there was a river there to soften his daughters landing, but scared to hell when he could not see her. “MEEP GET HERE … KAISERIN HAS FALLEN OVER A CLIFF!” he yelled out and thankfully the little creature had been true to his word the little creature raced onto the scene “What, What, what?” it cried in confusion “quick you gotta save her, help her out!” The creature known as Meep nodded and charged off down the river “The other way!” Kaiser called, Meep spun around and charged down the correct way “I knew that” it said as it passed by.
---
Kaiserin stopped reading; she found that she had tears in her eyes, but there was still more to read, the last thing she truly remembered out of this whole ordeal was giving this Canen look alike the most defiant look she could give him while she looked pathetic and beat up. “Come on Kaiserin … lets find out how it ended”
“This is not how it is supposed to end” Kaiserin spoke boldly, although her mind was far from clear, and it was so close to the verge of insanity. He smiled back at her sadistically gently patted the blade of his sword into his gloved palm, “Child … This is Always how it ends” this … this was a reference to her past, one that was now no longer held behind a void, no now it was a blurred memory, not quite clear, but it was something to cling on too. “Like I said, we do not like trespassers, it does not matter how far you have gotten, and your life is forfeit” He may not be Canen, Kaiserin had noted with amusement, but he sure can talk like him, she would have laughed if her body had not been so hurting at them moment, but she did grin. “Oh, have I said something to amuse you” Kaiserin looked at the man then looked around at her surroundings, trapped by at least 10 men, strong, she stood in an open field as behind her was the tower that she had been struggling to get towards.
“Do, your really need all these men for me?” she asked breathing heavily; she knew that her death was not far away, so she cherished each breath she took. “You are the trespasser aren’t you?” now this was a new side to this story, she had never been called that, but apparently, she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. She knew this too be true as the blade of one of those obsidian long swords was suddenly put to the captains throat, the action had been so quick that they never expected one of there own to pull this sort of stunt. The stranger then moved himself around so that he now stood in between the captain and Kaiserin. “That would be me?” said a cocky voice from behind the helmet, but once again Kaiserin found it oddly familiar, she had heard on this island once before. The Captain just gritted his teeth, his stance was one of raw emotion, there was no strategy behind it, or any sign of a mature warrior. “And who are you?” he said, indeed he was very much like a Volcano, one who was spilling his anger over the top. Slowly the stranger reached up to his helmet and took it off his head, revealing his short white spiky hair, the unmistakable red eyes, and the scar over his left eye.
“Names Kaiser of Captain Imperious and I am glad to introduce myself as your local trespasser” he said with a grin, Imperious was fuming mad now, and Kaiserin was utterly speechless. Since the first time leaving each other at the cross roads she had finally met up with her father again, no this was the second time wasn’t it, it was a shame that it was not under better circumstances. “What the hell do you people want, can’t you see we are simply protecting these people” Imperious bellowed but never did Kaiser’s smirk leave his face, or Kaiserin’s confused expression leave hers. “Whatever you say dark one, I wish you could say the same about those Rejects eh? I am sure there all warm and cosy, but I am not here to judge, Kaiserin here is just in the wrong place at the wrong time following a stupid roomer that brought me here too… isn’t that right?” he asked turning his eyes back to his daughter.
Kaiserin just shook her head, tears started to pour from her eyes, she was happy, but at the same time, confused, frustrated, hurting, she didn’t want this right now, she wished she could forget, but she already had “… I don’t know what’s going on … where am I, who are these people, they hurt Meep, I didn’t even recognise him” she cried looking up at her father, who in turn had lost nearly all of his attention on Imperious, it was now that he understood what was wrong with his daughter, he felt torn again, between his parent side, and his warrior side.
But where ever this was heading it soon took a nose dive off the motorway, a huge roar erupted across the sky, birds began to fly away in sheer terror, even imperious looked terrified, Kaiser just looked in the same direction baffled. Kaiserin Knew very well what had made that roar, and the screams of soldiers in the distance seemed to add to the horror and further prove to Kaiserin, it was the hell dog Ares! “Dammit it’s that hell dog” imperious announced mainly to his soldiers around him, but Kaiser could not help but pick up on that “Hell dog … there is a Hell Dog here?” Imperious temporarily forgot his rank and where he was, he turned to Kaiser with venom in his eyes “it came in with the others, but it was too dangerous we cast it out as a reject” Kaiser looked even more horrified “Hell dog eh? Well as long as its just a regular one” Kaiser saw in his peripheral vision, his daughter shaking her head looking down “not if you count it being 9 foot high” she said still sat down on the ground, she had known, she had met it before, talked to it, even briefly fought it with no success.
“What? Child Tell me your kidding” But she never spoke to imperious and instead it was Kaiser who did “Wasn’t 9 foot tall when it came here was it … fine … here is the deal, I help you out and you let me and her go free” Imperious spun around to Kaiser with anger in his eyes “You are in no position to make that kind of bargain!” Kaiser grinned, in all of the situations he grinned; Kaiserin had really missed that “Ah. But are you in a position to strike a deal?” Suddenly a lone person burst from the tree’s he stumbled onto his knees before getting up and running towards the small group, Kaiserin recognised the man instantly, it was Max, but never had he looked so scared in his entire life. “Ares has gone berserk …” he stopped panting for his breath, but turned to imperious “You should have told your general to include him in the deal, now he is really pissed off” there was another roar, another scream, Max looked back and pushed past Kaiser to run to the tower but only met Kaiserin’s fist.
“You … have my ring!” she said, and knelt down looting his dazed form for her ring, she found it and slipped it into her pocket, Kaiser just watched silently wondering what his daughter had been getting up to, “Fine Keep it” said max as he got to his feet and ran away, just in time too, the demon dog had just leapt from the tree’s, needless to say the small group felt fear rise up. The beast now looked more like a lion than a dog; it had a large midnight blue mane over its jet black fur, its eyes crimson red as were its claws newly stained with blood. “Imperious … I am going to kill you” it roared out eyeing them in the distance. “… Well … Good luck with that” Kaiser said very bluntly and turned around to his daughter “I think we should go now” but the chuckling of imperious attracted the silvets attentions “it’s on a blood lust, you won’t get far … so this is indeed how it all ends” Kaiser bit his bottom lip knowing that the sleaze bag was right, he grunted. “Keep her safe … I mean it … if you cause her any harm I will hunt you down” then Kaiser bravely started to walk across the plains to challenge the beast, during this moment, Kaiserin heard Imperious mutter “But what makes you think you will live through that” there was a pause as they all watched Kaiser march on “Argh … I hate not being truly evil … Men on my order CHARGE… NOW!”
Kaiserin watched as the men on the dark armour, the keepers charged alongside Kaiser to deal with this monster. From Kaiserin’s point of view, she felt like she was witnessing a memory, one that Canen told her, Imperious had already been noted for looking like him, and they seemed to be playing out a scene from history, it was a thing to behold, that was until the hell creatures huge claw swatted on off the soldiers aside in a crumpled mess No it was not a thing to behold it was a massacre. One, two more soldiers fell to the beast as the others seemed to valiantly but in vain to slay the beast. Kaiserin eventually looked away, she could not bear to watch, and she could not bear to watch her father be slain by that creature. She felt useless, what good was she when the battlefield came and all she could do was sit there and watch from the sidelines, no she could not even watch it, her eyes were anywhere but. Then she looked down to find the last thing she expected, the jewel to her sword, here it was, her sword, right there, oh how she yearned for it throughout this whole mess.
“KAISERIN” yelled out her father’s voice and she looked up, the beast was now charging straight towards her madness in its eyes, cuts and gashes along its legs giving it curious red stripes. This whole scene was actually familiar to her, she had done this before, it was about to catapult her, yeah she had done this when she had first ran into those two. “Kaiserin!” he yelled again but now she looked upwards at the beast, it all played out like before, she stood up with the pendant wrapped around his left wrist, her fists clenched tightly as she waited, despite all pain she waited. The beast lowered its head, and it the right moment Kaiserin leapt upwards just as the beast was about to ram its whole head into her, her feet landed on the creatures head as the whole thing shot her upwards, high into the air, the difference was, last time she had a tree branch to grab onto, there were none in this plain.
“Kaiserin!” She heard her fathers voice once again as she ascended into the air, and it was about here she looked down and summoned her sword, it appeared through the threads of light forming as fast as she could have unsheathed a normal sword, yet she had reached the peak of the launch and was now facing downwards to fall back towards the beast. ‘is this for real... or is it a dream?’ she continued to look down and now as gravity reclaimed her she started to descend faster, the initial launch and sent her at least 30 foot into the air easily. “THIS ISN’T HOW IT’S SUPPOSED TO END!” she yelled, raising her sword upwards and just as she came within reach of that head once again, she threw hew sword downwards with all the strength she could muster, she don’t know how it happened, but her sword shot straight trough the beasts skull through the roof of its mouth and came out the bottom of the jaw. The whole sword was impaled in its head, and before Kaiserin could fall to the floor and cripple herself, Kaiser came sliding in from nowhere catching her in his arms. “You fool, don’t you ever do anything like that again!” Kaiser ordered but Kaiserin had reached the end of her strength and simply fainted, Imperious then caught up and frowned, he looked at the corpse of the dead hell dog and frowned at the two silvets “So what do you want to wrack now” Kaiser just turned around to look at him “I just want to go home”
---
“So that’s how it ended huh? What about Meep, is he ok?” Kaiserin question still kneeling in her room, she clutched the note tightly to her chest; this was all the proof she needed to say that all this had not been a waste of time.
((OOC: It’s done? Holy crap I actually finished a quest … hope you enjoy reading this as much as my hand hurts from this last post))
Introduction: 3
~~~ What was I supposed to suppose was the introduction? Was it the beginning? If so you, need to add more of a reason your doing things. Who were you running from? Where exactly where you?
~~~ If I was supposed to suppose it was the end, or maybe just before the end, then you gave me at least a little more. Your reason for being on that ship was missing, as far as I could tell though. Your reason for not seeing your father was missing completely. The pirates not having a banner may have meant something to you but I missed it. There are little things that you need to give to the reader to make the thread enjoyable.
Setting: 3
~~~ I need more. What you gave me was an island, probably a name for it, some forest near a dock, and a boat. You did not elaborate on the island. You gave little description of the forest. Where was this dock that you were getting to? Was it part of a town? Why was it where it was, what was there? The boat was at the end, and got the most probably.
~~~ I’m not saying that you need a paragraph every so often explaining every little detail, but you should at least add it in somewhere. Some people choose to simply write the setting and then work from there. Other people like to add it in, as in they brush against things while they move, or the sun hits them while they walk, little things like that. Rustling in the brush while you wander the forest, anything that can help explain the surroundings without breaking the flow of the story.
Strategy: 3
~~~ Umm… I don’t even know what to say about this. Your fighting was lack-luster, at best. You did not describe your blade much, or the way you were using it. Work on imagining the weight and composition of the blade… think about how it fits into the environment. USE the environment itself. If you are surrounded by trees and need to fight use the trees as shields. You did use a stick when you didn’t have your sword, which was good, work on that a bit more though.
Dialogue: 4
~~~ Separate dialogue ~~~ Dear lord yes. You need to separate the dialogue. If someone else starts talking start a new paragraph or something. From what I got were giant paragraphs with two people talking, each responding and talking more. It was hard to follow and made the flow near stop. Try separating all the dialogue in your posts. Put in reactions, or even setting while you talk or something (if you don’t want to put one line responses). As it stands the story is really hard to follow with the dialogue all jumbled as it is.
~~~ Don’t worry about the posts being long. I’d rather them be long then have all the dialogue blocked together and rather hard to follow. It was good dialogue, just hard to follow.
Character: 3
~~~Who IS dusk/Kaiserin? Why is she were she is? Why is she looking for Canen? This Max fellow… why does he appear so often and in so many different roles? I don’t understand who you are supposed to be, or who the NPC’s you created are supposed to be. Elaborate more on what role each fulfills. You do not have to outright say ‘This guy is the antagonist, this guy is the protagonist, I fit in here’, but it would be better then just putting in people seemingly at random. You gave the ‘Meep’ a personality at the end (technically the beginning) but that did not carry on… or earlier… that’s confusing.
~~~Work on explanations of certain words relating to your character. You say that Kaiserin is supposed to be a ‘Reject’. What is that supposed to be?
~~~ You also need to give your character a true personality. Give her feelings, emotions, actions and reactions to events. What you wrote in this was hard to follow, but what I got out of it was that she fights with a big sword. She is a Silvet, though what that is I wasn’t given any descriptions, and that she is injured.
Rising Action: 2
~~~ Because the entire thing was written backwards, basically, the rising actions was also backwards. You saw the fight, then read the next post. That post led from one point to the beginning of the fight. I detracted heavily from rising action.
Climax: 2
~~~ What climax? There was, I suppose, a hint at a climax at the end, if that was supposed to be the conclusion also. I’m lost as far as that goes, but from what I got it was. The writing style, having to read the entire thing backwards, detracted highly from the climax just as it did from the rising action.
Conclusion: 2
~~~ I did not see a true conclusion. If you wanted to count the very first post of the thread as the conclusion I guess you could have. It did not make sense though, and gave no concrete conclusion to the thread.
~~~ Or perhaps the last couple of posts were supposed to be a flash back to after the first post… I’m not sure. I couldn’t follow well enough because of how it was written. Be careful next time, work out a good conclusion, and make sure it’s written so that people know it’s a conclusion.
~~~ Yet again, the writing style, having to read the entire thing backwards, detracted highly from the climax and the rising action, just as it did from the conclusion.
Writing Style: 3
Re-read all your work.
~~~Punctuation, spelling mistakes ~~~ There were quite a number of them. You should pay attention to where comma’s need to be put in and where question marks and periods should be placed. If you use word it should give you a squiggly green line under grammar mistakes. If you don’t then you need to just watch out for them.
~~~Run on sentences ~~~ I noticed this in all of the posts. Sometimes you simply have a paragraph that consists of only two sentences, though it is a full paragraph. Try splitting up that super long sentence and elaborating on it a bit more. A lot of your sentences could easily be split into two, sometimes three sentences, and are only held together by multiple comma’s that aren’t needed.
~~~You use ‘of cause’ instead of ‘of course’ ~~~ The biggest thing I continually noticed. Instead of ‘of course’ or just the word ‘course’ you used ‘cause’. Read over your work. You also need to remember to capitalize the Proper Nouns, names and such. There were numerous times that you said Dusk, but did not capitalize it.
~~~Work on symbolism? Something as ---- as something… ~~~ You use that often at the beginning.
~~~Repetition ~~~ I somewhat understand what’s going on here… but you repeat things way too much. The note for example was repeated without additions, or missing parts, twice at the beginning. Another thing was the ‘curiosity killed the cat’ bit… you repeated it 3 times that I counted.
Wild Card: 4
I love what you tried to do with the quest. My suggestion for this one on how to do it next time. If you want to have a flashback type quest, or work backwards to the beginning, then do it creatively. I understand what you were trying to do, and luckily I can think backwards to a certain point… but this was REALLY hard to follow.
Next time I suggest you start with the ending, as you did. But the posts after that you write as memory. Start from the beginning, in your memory. Give the story in a forward and normal way, but work towards the first post. From there give your conclusion or something. That would be FAR more coherent then this.
I can imagine what you were trying to do, can see that you attempted something with creativity and ingenuity, but try doing that with an easier way to read.
SCORE: 29
Rewards:
Exp: 300
Gold: 50
((Don’t let the score discourage you. If you have any questions just PM me and I’ll be glad to help or explain anything. Or you can contact me via AIM, my SN is TheTaskmienster. Good luck in the future…))
Thoracis
06-02-06, 11:44 AM
Final rewards added:
500 EXP
100 GP
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