View Full Version : Getting sidetracked
((Solo, I Did the entire thing without posting it so that I could actually proof read it a few times without missing something I had if I posted it. After the last Solo I did, I feel like I gotta make up for it))
Peaceful, it was a place of a calm tranquillity, far from any town, and further still from any other person. The road that past through the forest failed to give any indication of this hidden beautiful area, a crime in itself. The grass was as green as emerald, the trees healthy and tall, and the simple stream was cleaner and clearer than a polished crystal, and still that never took into account for how fresh it was.
For some it was the final length, from a time on the land of Scara brae, and soon enough you would be arriving at the next town, and heading on a ship to Corone, where the real fun could begin. All that was left to accomplish would be to pass through the forest, but with a road it shouldn’t be too hard, they had named it the “Evergreen” forest for some reason. The discoverer of this little solitude knelt beside the calm stream, his shirt and jacket beside him, and his hair loose and flowing downstream. He slurped his thirst away, acting like an animal as he drank, although, by the presence of his tail alone, that fact may be more apparent.
Kai, as healthy as always, was enjoying the fresh water of the stream taking its cool and soothing taste, and something he needed to get his mind of the events two nights past. Kai had recently been to the peaceful promenade, although he questioned how peaceful the place could be when he was there, and fallen angels too quenched there first for beer there.
The whole Fallen angel thing nearly got out of hand, it had left him somewhat on edge, especially when he realised he would be travelling in the same direction as that guy, although not willingly, this was the only road he could take to get to Corone. Getting there was taking longer than he had expected too, just a simple walk, that’s all he thought it would be, that’s all he kept on saying, and that was at least 3 weeks ago since he started saying that.
With all thought of that fallen angel behind him he lifted himself out of the water gasping for air, and followed it up by cupping his hands in the stream and splashing his face twice before dunking his hair. While his attention was elsewhere or rather when he had let his guard down, he thought he saw something in the corner of his eye, something or someone standing downstream, all he caught a glimpse of was a ghostly blue light against the usual blue sky. When his eyes focused on that spot, there was nothing there, nothing out of the ordinary except.
“ … Neagh!
Kai recoiled slightly waving his hand in front of his nose, what a strange smell, it was so strong, too foreign to be natural to his surroundings, yet not strong enough to be the spray of a certain little black and white creature, named appropriately, a skunk. The stench quickly vanished, and kai pulled his long hair out of the stream, fretting over when the hell he was going to braid the nearly whole five foot length of his hair again.
Kai frowned for a moment, and not because of his hair which he tossed behind him intent on ignoring for now, he simply stood up, closing his eyes, listening carefully. There was a certain distinctive sound, like a breeze making the tops of the tree’s dance, only, more violent, hostile, and forced. Kai spun himself around reaching out to grab, what he caught was a mans wrist, the coming attack had been quite obvious, he had heard that sound so many times in his life time, his countless scars visible along his body was proof that he had often made the mistake of dropping his guard at inappropriate moments.
“Sorry … did you need something?”
Kai then took in the appearance of the man who had attacked him; he held a sickingly curved knife, like a snake slithering about. Such a weapon, yet the man who attacked him, was neither assassin nor thief, he was just a simple man, so old he was even balding on top of his head, his clothes suggested he was from the main city of Scara brae, which would never have mad eth silvet guess he was a psychopath. The thing that was the most disturbing, was the way his eyes looked, if they had not been showing an uncontrollable amount of rage they would have seemed absent, like the lights were on but no one was home. He struggled to free his hand from kai’s tight grip thrashing around and becoming more frenzied, Kai frowned at the man’s weak attempt, wondering what would have made him want to attack.
“… Wha … dude you really need to cool off “
Kai overpowered the weak man easily enough, almost tossing the man into the cool stream; he landed with a splash and lay there for a moment letting kai contemplate on how to handle the situation. The Psion blade, or maybe the hook to the face … nah he definitely slap some sense into the poor fool.
Maybe it was the way the man got back to his feet, his clothes soaked, and drenched; it did little to cool off the maniac who was wearing it. As far as normal people go this one took the cake, but seeing him in a deranged hatred, almost blinded by it, was simply put, disturbing. Kai really wasn’t totally sure how to go about it, just ward off the attacks and try his best to subdue him, or just let loose and attack? The man stepped out of the stream and charged for Kai, who just stood there without his guard, when the deranged man attacked, trying to stab the silvet once more, kai slammed his iron armband into his attackers wrist, and judging from the cry and the fact that the knife had been dropped almost instantly, it was presumed fractured at least, kai however didn’t really care for the mans condition, as long as he didn’t have the knife anymore, that made things easier to handle.
With more grunts and angered breathing, the strange man seemed to fight for his balance; he stepped all over the place as he looked curiously at his wounded wrist. Slowly his anger returned and shot through the roof, he screamed out like a raged demon arced his arm back and punched out as hard as he could. Kai still a little on the baffled side raised his arm to defend, and to his disliking he felt it, not the pain, but the vibrations, of the mans wrist breaking, dislocating and snapping, he even felt the vibrations of the mans flesh being torn from the bone within.
“WHAT THE!”
Kai almost screamed out, as the man ignored all pain and punched with his other hand, the blow hit but the man was weak, kai grabbed the mans good wrist and flung him away once more. He observed as the deranged man take no heed in his now shattered hand, kai started to wonder if he was some kind of undead, no not quite, there was warmth, the mans face was red with the anger, if he was undead then kai was a dwarf.
“ This guy h-he’s sick, crap if I don’t do something he is going to end up destroying himself just to stand up if this continues”
Kai found it an odd situation, to help the person who was attacking him, he would have to knock them out; he could not say that in over 400 years he had encountered this situation many times, not even once. His surroundings had nothing for him to use, except for the stream it was mostly plain and a short jog towards the forest. Kai’s best weapons were his fists anyway, and some well placed blows would easily knock the man into next Friday, so …
“ … Ready … Set …”
Kai was broken off as the man was up again and lunged for kai, leaping into the air arms outstretched in an attempt to get a hold of the silvets neck, what the man got was something else entirely. Kai turned as he dropped to the ground, like a movement of water kai’s leg snapped upwards into the gut of the man, this move was one of kai’s favourites, quick, deceitful, and one hell of a blow to it.
Little skill was needed for it; all that was required was a little flexibility and a lot of strength. The move would often miss at times, accidentally hitting a lower softer target, an honest mistake on kai’s part but the move did call for a name, and for some reason kin slayer seemed appropriate.
That one move, should have knocked the man out for a month, he literally was kicked like a ball away from kai and even bounced when he hit the floor several meters away, and yet, to kai’s unbelief, the man stood up once more. The silvet was now convinced that this thing was not human, it looked human, it was fragile as a human, but there was no way, not in hell was that thing an average day by day human. Blood dropped from the mans wrist, his mouth, even his nose, kai just looked at it like it was one of those things his race had become, mindless and down right crazy, right now he didn’t care if he spared it or not.
“ … You should really piss off!”
Kai kicked himself forwards, his frame almost gliding above the ground as he steadied his right arm back, when his target was within his range, he let his arm rocketed forwards, full force, he felt the mans face literally cave in with the impact that sent him flying away. Kai was reluctant to believe that his attack truly downed the man, even with another one of his favoured moves, even the one he dubbed the kin slayer proved that it was not capable of stopping his foe.
The man was silent; kai watched it with a seemingly never ending expression of curiosity and unease, yet still the deranged man did not move. With every passing second kai grew more relaxed, if the man wasn’t dead, he was doing his best impression of a vegetable. Kai openly sighed; the lack of movement was a big enough answer for him, the silvet wasn’t about to look at the man’s face, presumably if it had caved in like he felt it had.
Kai turned around to claim his items and simply carry on, too long had it been since he had last seen his best friend, hell even his own daughter would be in Corone, that reminded him, he had to look for some kind of gift for them. Kai stopped in his tracks, he could feel, he could sense, hell he just knew something was terribly wrong, and as he spun around his instincts once again were proven correct.
That man, whoever he is, or whatever it was, was stood up, he looked like a puppet, his stance seemed almost gravity defying, yet also limp, his face was indeed smashed in, yet any indication of pain was lost on it. Kai quickly flicked his long hair behind him and adopted his fighting stance.
“Ya know your really starting to piss me off!”
It was undead, it had to be, there was no other explanation was there, or … hang on … that smell again, the strong sensation he had smelt before. There was no mistaking a smell like that, only a few places reeked with an odder like that, and kai only knew it to be after a slaughter. Kai stepped out of his guard and calmly started to walk over to this strange opponent, the freaks arms started to reach out his good hand trying to grab the air while the broken just flapped around.
Kai too reached towards the man who offered no resistance when he grabbed his neck; the man still offered no resistance, except that he too still tried to reach out for the silvets neck. His face wasn’t a pretty sight, before and after kai remoulded it, even if it was alive, should any conscious thought return its world would be a living pain, the merciful thing to do would be to best end it quick.
Kai hand squeezed and once again his body suffered the vibrations of the mans throat being crushed, there was a little struggle but the man’s part, his body shortly went limp and when the silvet let go it fell to the ground, the smell also fading away once again. Kai took a few steps back feeling even more uneasy, and it wasn’t because he had killed, anything but that, he was on edge because he had a gut feeling the thing would stand up once again.
Kai once again reluctantly turned to reclaim his possessions, he stopped half way and looked over his shoulder, this time he wasn’t surprised, the freak was up once again, now surely it was undead, and that smell was back, that foul smell. Kai turned around and failed to raise any guard, there was no need, with the distance between them and it’s walking speed, kai would be attacked in about two hours.
“… ok this is beyond a joke now … someone just tell me what I have to do to keep you dead!”
If kai believed in gods, he would claim that they love to fuck with everyone’s heads, they had a cruel way of answering the silvets question, but it certainly would be the solution to his little “keeping the opponent down” business. A towering behemoth seemed to charge from the foliage, it charged for the freak and with a colossal sword struck it down, kai wasn’t sure if the thing had been slashed or simply crushed.
The thing was not a behemoth, close, but instead it was a man, and holy crap was he huge.
The man stood at a total height of 8 foot, and his sword stood even higher, his whole body seemed to be made up of nothing but pure muscle clad in a steel skin of armour. His head seemed small on his body, but it was there none the less, he was a seasoned warrior, he had seen many winters too, he was beyond his prime and entering his retiring years; that much was for sure. He was somewhat clean shaven showing of a strong dominant chin, and his one good eye averted its cold grey look from the twitching corpse and looked towards the silvet.
“Nothing personal whelp”
He said with a strong yet a tired voice; kai could only watch as he hefted his sword onto his shoulder and charged for him. Kai snapped out of his own horror when his eyes locked onto his one good eye, he saw the need to act and stood ready to evade as quickly as possible. The huge mans sword arced in the air and crashed into the ground where kai was but moments before stood, the silvet had leapt to his right, quickly altered his momentum to stop and leap up into the air.
His attack would be in self defence yet, he never got a chance, the huge war veteran lashed out with his left arm to swat kai out of the air, and that pretty much happened, the only thing kai could do was raise his feet to spring board of the arm to a safe distance. The mans strength was something else, in one single move kai easily cleared the stream and was close to landing near the tree’s on the other side of the clearing. His landing could have used more friction, as he desperately tried to grip the ground to stop him self, his moment stopped just short of him crashing backwards into a tree, and he sighed while staying in place as he watched the man ready his sword onto his shoulder for another charge.
“IS this guy for real … Talk about monstrous strength, it’s definitely not natural and…”
The man started to charge, and very quickly too, kai was surprised at his land speed, especially when he had to leap up to avoid the horizontal swing of the sword. The tree behind kai was effectively cleaved in half, standing no chance against a sword that size and the strength this man had. When kai landed he was given his opening and he took it as he leaped into the air again readying his arm for a punch, but the punch never came, something happened to make kai simply reach out and spring board himself behind the man, and land running.
The distraction had come from his own mind, he saw what would happen should he continue, and it was not a pretty sight. He heard the man start to chase him, heavy foot falls behind his quick light steps that allowed him to glide rather than stomp across the small plains. As he came to his possessions he scooped them up and rapidly turned around sliding along the ground as he faced the man, closer than kai had presumed getting ready to strike.
And yet another blow never came, the man was looking elsewhere with his eyes closed sniffing the air, kai had not noticed it but he had now, that smell had returned, the strange scent he could only describe as a scent after a massacre. The man let his stance loose and looked at kai with distrust, yet he held a sense of urgency.
“You’re a lucky kid … get out of hear before I do have to kill you!”
He warned before he charged off following the scent, he disappeared into the foliage and kai almost fainted. Too close to death was this encounter, too close indeed, never had such an amount of raw strength assaulted him, the man was a giant who could have, very easily carved the unarmed fighter up. It made kai realise that there were some opponents that were simply out of his league, but at least he could still contend with the majority.
But that smell, this all started with that stench, clearly that man was more interested in it than kai, as soon as he noticed it he didn’t even care about his current opponent, maybe leaving would be a good idea, just let it all blow over, let the big guy go about his business.
“Curiosity killed the cat … so that saying goes … well lucky for me I am not a cat nor am I interested in what the hell is going on”
It had been half an hour since that crazy encounter, the one with that freak that would not stay down, and then with a behemoth of a man, kai sat on a convenient log of a fallen tree busy attending to his long hair, roping it up into a single tail. The process of winding it seemed to drag on forever, yet it did give him some time to think things through.
The forest seemed like it was different, and not only in appearance, the climate had dropped a couple of degree’s, the air had become denser and the types of trees had changed drastically, not only that but when kai returned he failed to find even a trace of the road he was following before. He sighed as soon as he finished, flicking it behind him as he looked around, cupping his chin with his hand, he could not work out his dilemma, and what the hell had been going on, who was that massive brute, and how did he have so much strength.
So many questions the silvet had, and no one was around to answer them, unless he found some way to communicate with the tree’s he had no hope in ever finding out. Still he was going to find nothing by simply sitting around, getting to his feet the silvet carried on in the direction he had been walking before stopping to deal with his hair.
He chose to do his travelling on the floor, with the major reason was that these tree’s were not exactly strong enough , they were all shooting upwards, and hardly any sturdy branches to create a high road as kai put it. Come to think of it, there was another thing missing … animals, where were the chirps of the birds, the rustling of the rabbits, the warning growls of the local pack of wolfs … it was instead deathly silent.
Kai was unnerved now, his alarms were jumping off the scales and he didn’t even need his knack for guessing that he was in danger to know it was all around him. Kai resisted the urge to just let the fear over take him and propel him onwards racing until he simply collapsed by exhausting himself.
There was something at work here, he knew that much, kai walked over to the nearest tree and began to rapidly climb upwards, the branches protested with his weight but they held together to allow him to get higher. Kai literally popped his head out of the tops of the tree’s looking around for any distinguishing marks, it all seemed normal enough, mountains in the distance, plains over in the other direction, only … there was no road, he couldn’t see the road.
He descended as fast as he climbed and rested against the bark of the tree just looking on ahead at nothing in particular, his mind, while trying to ignore the danger and figure out the next move failed to really notice a distinguished shape, not until it was just vanishing amongst the tree’s in the distance.
“ … hello … is anyone there?” kai yelled out but there was no answer, he looked on for a moment, before adjusting the collar on his jacket and deciding to go find out what he had just saw, when he approached that location he could not help but notice that stench again, but it was only a whiff, and it was gone.
Kai stopped suddenly, he almost fell back with his surprise but a quick adjustment of his tail saw that he remained on his feet. The little thing that literally sat on the branch in front off him was weird, it was a creature whose shape had been distorted, in truth the thing was a spirit, a small spirit that had a simple face, one that was easy to read with its changing expressions too.
“Wha … what are you supposed to be?”
Kai asked the thing, kneeling down so that his head was level with the spirit, out of sheer curiosity kai poked the little thing and it laughed, or rather it squeaked with laughter. Kai wasn’t sure how that was possible, his finger had easily passed through its body like it was just a simple little cloud. He poked it again and this time the little thing laughed and reached out to poke the silvets nose, kai however didn’t feel its touch.
“Heh … aren’t you a funny little thing … well take care”
When kai stood up he realised something was wrong, he spun around looking everywhere, and everywhere he looked thousands of these little spirits had appeared. They all seemed curious looking at kai with an unbreakable attention. To test this attention kai dashed to the nearest tree and began to climb it until he reached a branch covered in the little things.
After dropping back down and dashing on to what seemed like another variation of a forest, the tree’s here seemed huge there roots twisting around each other and into the ground, and there branches, oh man they were as big as the trunk itself, it gave a whole new meaning to a twisted road.
Yet the silvet stopped in his tracks and stopped, more of the thing were in front of him, simply sitting watching with that strange curiosity, he could not help but notice one of them had a creepy happy face.
“… ok, I get it. I am the big funny one right?”
The little sound they made slowly seemed to turn into a calm chorus, a peaceful yet creepy majestic sound, it was not unfamiliar, and kai had heard something like this when he was just a boy, no taller than his own knee. The resemblance was uncanny, yet it wasn’t exactly a duplicate, some of the notes differed, some subtle while others more obvious.
The forest seemed to grow darker, the tree’s around him felt like they would rip there roots from the ground and come to life, hollow groans surrounded him as though the forest seemed to reply to the strange spirits.
“Hey monkey kid … didn’t I tell you to piss off”
Kai looked around for the source of that vaguely familiar voice, he found it lower of the forest floor below, kai felt a little anger, and at the same time relief to see something only just normal, but surprise was the dominant thing here.
“You?”
“Ok, lets see if I got this clear, you name is maverick and you’re hunting down a witch”
Kai said out loud, almost yelling as he looked at the man who had attacked him before; kai was perched on the branch of a tree ignoring one of the spirits that was still hanging around. Maverick, so he said was his name, opened his eyes and looked at kai still annoyed, it appeared as though his agitation had been turned up a notch.
“You have a real gift for understatement”
Kai grinned at what he took as a compliment and brushed his hand through his hair, truth was maverick had not really let on much about why, or who he was really, just a name and his mission. The forest around them seemed to half calmed down quite a bit, almost becoming peaceful once again, if it was in the first place.
“That all depends on my mood … although I don’t understand why your hunting a watch, I mean, no one has really hunted one in over 300 years as for as I can recall”
Kai concluded showing a surprising amount of maturity, maverick gave an approving huff, unfolded his huge arms to lean against his sword which he had planted into the ground. Although Kai naturally knew that he was older than maverick, and in some ways wiser, he knew he would never be able to achieve the look of a warrior so wise that, maverick himself did not realise how ancient, how mythic he seemed.
“I am surprised you know that much, although most witch hunts these days are all unofficial” Kai grinned at mavericks surprise.
“That’s because of some rights, not only witches but its supposed to stop potential racial hatred towards demons and other such things related to any dark art”
Kai spoke of an unwritten law, although he wasn’t sure if it was often portrayed the way he had, he felt like he had made a valid point, after all a so called “witch” was mealy another form of magic used by mages, they were as different to a mage was a sorcerer was, although less obvious.
“If you know that much then why haven’t you used that smart brain to get out of here already?”
Maverick asked, and kai knew he was going to ask it sooner or later.
“… Don’t get me wrong, I am not the curious type, as soon as you told me to book it, I did. Only, it appears I have not covered as much ground as I thought”
Maverick sighed leaning away from his sword and pulled it out of the ground, in his show of strength he lifted it up with one hand so that the tip was directly in front of kai. The silvet seemed indifferent about the gesture while maverick’s eyes were showing an iron will, one who had seen too many wars, and at the same time, there was no real threat in his one good eye.
“Threaten me all you want, I really don’t have any desire to tag along your little hunt, nor do I wish for you to judge my life as forfeit”
Kai spoke while reaching out and testing the swords sharpness with his thumb, he also concluded that the deranged man from before, was indeed crushed more than sliced in half, the blade was surprisingly dull, almost blunt. His calm green eyes turned back to maverick, he had only recently noticed the curious looking earring, although the shape and size was the same as his own studded earring, this looked like some kind of crystal, almost magical at that, kai disregarded it and looked back to the sword.
“… humph … just leave before this witch sets her sights on you” maverick once again warned, although this time was calmer
“Gladly”
And with that, maverick sheathed his sword onto a strap on his back and started walking off with neither a wave nor a good buy. Kai watched him before turning to look at the strange little spirit who was mimicking the his movements, even as far as going as to use a stick to mimic the tail, kai just watched it with a passive expression until it turned to look up at him.
“… Sorry I don’t need a side kick”
Kai sighed and backtracked the way he came a little bit, traversing through the giant trees was a lot easier than the normal sized ones. Who knew what he thought he could accomplish by heading back the way he came, and now that he thought about it, he should have asked maverick directions. The silvets movements stopped when he reconsidered his previous thought, he took it back assuring it was better to be lost and have some dignity than to be found yet embarrassed.
“Maverick probably would not know either way”
Kai continued on using his normal monkey like agility to traverse his way along the twisting branches and roots, incase you didn’t get how thick these were, they were as tall and as thick as a small house, it was like he had been shrunk. Still nothing eventful happened as he finally gave up, deciding that he was getting even more lost, nothing looked familiar to him, far from it, it was as if someone took a huge chunk of the forest and twisted it into there own little world.
Kai had eventually lost track of time, the sky had been growing dark for hours now, thankfully the weather had remained somewhat peaceful, stirring very little, but the adrenaline that kept on surging due to kai’s uneasiness were taking its toll. He recalled finding a hollowed out part of a tree not to far back, although it was only a passing glance, the idea of being able to find refuge there was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Kai climbed up inside the large hole that he marked as its entrance, he sighed at the inner contents of the hollowed out portion of the oversized tree, and it wasn’t what his imagination had led him to believe. He had pictured a nice flat surface, along with a camp site. The truth was, it wasn’t as flat as he had hoped for and kai forgot his camping equipment over 300 years ago.
“… How the hell do I keep on surviving…?”
He questioned no one, all the while grinning like a mischievous kid who actually did hold an answer, all you need is already around you, all you have to do is just go and look for it, how many times had he heard words of wisdom like that, he had lost count some time ago.
*
Kai had spent the remainder of the day light leaping around the area gathering materials, from a huge collection of leaves, especially the huge ones near the tops of the oversized tree’s, to simple stones and fire wood, all scattered around, under nooks and crannies. By the time the light had faded kai had just emerged into what would be his house for the night, and although it was crude it should be very effective effective.
With the many leaves he had collected he had furnished a bed, while not exactly the quality of an inn, it was better than sleeping on the actual ground. With the many stones he had created a little hill to set his little fire place on, he did this so that the rest of the tree would not go up in flames, he was worried, he wasn’t sure if it would work the way he wanted.
Kai started a fire and yet waited near the entrance ready to flee incase the whole room caught a blaze, luckily it didn’t and it would appear that the fire was content to burn the wood he had amounted on the mountain of rocks in the centre of the hollowed room.
“… cool … right, now what am I missing?”
Kai was answered by his belly, oh so typical that kai forgot the most important thing, food, but wait, how could he go looking for food when he had not seen any sign of anything else alive apart from maverick in the whole stinking forest. Kai sat down on his make shift bed and sighed casting the thought about food away, if worse comes to worse he could always eat his own arm.
“… Eww”
The fire had just died, it’s strength had become little more than glowing embers still fresh from the flame that had burned the firewood, the smoke rose lazily to the ceiling, before escaping through the hole in side of the hollowed tree. The silvet slept rather peacefully, his worries should have kept him awake however the running himself around with adrenalin really knocked him out when he had drifted off, no doubt he would be out for hours.
The darkness remained undisturbed for hours more, with little happening except the one in peaceful slumber rolling over in his sleep. Only now was the darkness disturbed, at first the change was unnoticeable, but slowly a form began to literally float upwards out of the ground, an ethereal blue light, the form was that of a woman, yet if this was a spirit then something about it was just plain off.
Whatever this ethereal form was, it emerged from the ground and walked over to the sleeping silvet reaching out its ghostly hand for his head, kai woke up, or rather he shot up like a bullet and the ethereal spirit faded away like smoke. Kai sat up with his eyes half open, he yawned and he stretched, possibly failing to even notice the strange unwelcome guest.
“… Gotta … pee”
Were his undying words of wisdom as he awoke from his dreams, he grudgingly stood up and walked like a zombie towards the entrance to the tree, there he proceeded to urinate into the darkness of the forest without a single care if someone was watching him? As he started to run on empty he finished up and returned his pants to around his waist, he was about to wake up a little more, but the fresh feeling of something hitting his chest with such a violent force was enough to render him completely awake, and completely stunned too.
Although his senses were now in a mess he vaguely recalled something hitting him in the face, a pouch of some kind that released its powdery contents, the smell was awful, nothing like what he had ever smelled before, then his head started to beat, like someone from within was beating two huge drums in a never ending beat getting louder and louder until he simply passed out.
*
The first thing that came to his mind was the softer drum beats pounding away, while it did nothing to aid his migraine, at least he was conscience, if somewhat not pleased about it. At first he tried to open his eyes, but it was met with a simple orange glare, then he tried to move himself, but his arms and legs were bound tightly, and had nor the will or the strength to really do anything or care about it.
Kai tried the eyes again. Very slowly, it wasn’t easy but when the painful glare faded and the blurriness coming into focus he found that he was still in his little make shift home, only the fire had been restocked with wood and relit. His gaze carried on until he thought he was now dreaming, what appeared to be a jester was kneeling down looking at him like he was some kind of rare animal … oh wait. Kai simply stared back at the strange black and red jester before groaning loudly. The one who had been looking at him smiled and turned back and spoke with a cheery voice.
“Looky, looky, our hosts awake”
Spoke the giddy jester, the first thing about her kai really noticed about her was the oversized twin sock like hat, her heavily white face paint showing her cheery smile, and the pantaloons she wore, one side was red while the other black, the same could have been said for her top. Kai also noted her yellow gloves, very large compared to what they should be, kai really wasn’t sure what race she was, even after spotting the bat like wings, the best his guess led him too was some kind of demon.
He never really got a chance to ask, after his quick observation someone else had walked over and picked up his limp form and pushed him back against the wall of the hollowed out room. If he had voiced his words out at the moment he probably would have said “oh crap”. Stood there was a rather irritated female Neko, and of the stories he had heard, well he felt like his worry was justified.
“Okay kid, you’re going to start telling us what the hell you did to make the whole road disappear the way it did”
For a Neko she only possessed the cat like ears and tail, so far as he could tell, from the clothes he gained the impression that she was a female ninja, kunoichi as they preferred to be called. Her hair was very dark, yet it seemed to have a purple tint to it, to no doubt match those purple coloured cat like eyes. Kai was almost outraged for her to accuse him of such a thing, if anything he had more right to put the blame on her, he only refrained from doing so when he recalled that his arms and legs were tightly bound stopping him from really moving at all.
“Just grand, blame me for it, go get you facts straight before accusing people, I am innocent!”
Kai protested his innocence, yet the aggressive woman threw him down, then like she had won over some powerful opponent she placed a foot on top of kai leaning on her knee while showing a smirk, one that really put kai on edge, even if he was showing a less than content mood.
“You know sera … maybe he didn’t do it, he doesn’t really seem capable of using magic”
Said the jester to the Neko, and despite the serious claim, and insult, her voice was still as cheery as her face was, even if she seemed a little absent at the moment. She then raised her large hand holding up a finger, recalling something so pointless that both the Neko and kai were utterly dumbfounded.
“Like the time I tried to teach my pet rabbit magic … poor little guy could never handle the fire”
There seemed to be an awkward silence, the jester simply looking at the other too with a happy face while both kai and sera just looked at her as with a worried feeling. Kai was the one to break the awkward silence; he had somehow returned things to how they were moments before the jester recalled her story.
“… So … are you going to set me free now?”
“And let you cast a spell … not likely” sera countered
“But I don’t even use magic” Kai added with a little hope of it working
“… I actually don’t care if you can” sera said unsheathing one of her weapons, and pointed the tip so that it was touching kai’s nose. Kai got a close look at the Sai, but instead of showing any fear he was actually more annoyed at how stubborn she was being. Her movements took the point of the weapon from his face, he felt her trace the tip all the way down his back and then he felt a jerk, it actually took a moment before he realise there was no pain, and the his legs and arms were now free.
“Tell me this … if you aren’t the one messin with the forest then who is?”
“A guy named maverick said he was hunting down some kind of witch, I didn’t really ask him about it”
Kai said nursing one of his wrists that had been rubbing too tightly against one of the ropes, the skin was red and raw and stinging, and he had to remove one of his iron bracelets just to stop it from irritating him more. Sera, the Neko had retreated back to the clumsy bed kai had constructed, he was glad to see someone was making use of his hard work …Bitch. She was currently toying with the Sai she had used to cut his ropes, shifting its weight in her hand, and tossing it into the air only to catch it again, she looked slyly at kai with that grin.
“That’s all you got out of that guy … your not very smart are ya?”
Kai almost glared at her, but let it drop, he sighed and momentarily paused himself to look over at the jester, she unlike her Neko friend was actually quiet, and listening intently, it seemed so out of character for her, “Heh don’t let me stop ya”. Kai turned his attention back to the Neko and chose to forget about the comment and continue on.
“And what may I ask, are the reasons for a kunoichi and a jester to travel with each other?”
Kai was more interested in these strange people than the abnormality of the forest outside of this hollow tree, but these two people seemed to contradict each other, one was meant to be silent and the other, loud and entertaining. Even now the jester was fidgeting around despite her curiosity; she had found a way to vent that energy by toying with a large bell attached to her fluffy purple collar.
“Hardly, we just met shortly after the road was eaten up by the forest” Sera responded as though it were an everyday occurrence.
“Yup, gobbled it all up, so the roads gone now” added the jester.
Kai sighed, disappearing roads, being eaten by the forest, it made little sense, but really kai had not even been following a road, he had avoided in favour of travelling the old fashioned way … getting lost. Ok so maybe it’s not the best way to get to a certain place, and maybe he could blame the time he was wasting on simply being lost.
“… Ok … but we still have no idea who or what is behind this, so called “munching the road”
Kai was somewhat reluctant to believe this was all because of a witch someone else was hunting, although something about the subject of the witch bothered him, now what was it that maverick had said …
“… humph … just leave before this witch sets her sights on you”
Kai recalled the giants’ words but it just raised more questions than answers, why would a witch, of any kind be interested in a silvet, last he checked there wasn’t anything special about his race, nothing that any part of his body that can be used to construct a meaningful spell.
“What do you think of this Jesty?”
“Well I feel like a pair of curtains … so I guess I should pull myself together”
“…”
“ … I really don’t know what’s going on … maybe were actually in an alternate dimension where people are watching our responses for entertainment”
Again with the awkward silence at the jester
Kai snapped out of it to continue his pondering, for a split second he thought one of these two could be the witch, or even both of them, then again doing that would be pointless. There seemed to be nothing really special about these two, the kunoichi was pretty mean at creating drugged powders that really had a mean beat. The jester had a few possibilities, the witch might be curious to know what race she was; kai certainly had no idea what she was.
“Hey Mr Monkey … do you know?” asked Jesty snapping kai alert, he looked at the jester again, and dismissed the thought about the witch being curious; she would have to be insane to willingly want to study her.
“Mr Monkey? … My names kai … and how …”
Kai’s sudden pause was alarming and alerting, suddenly the only noise that had became apparent was the soft sound of the simple fire, “Do you hear that?” kai asked breaking the tension, sera nodded but Jesty shook her head, she was unable to hear what the other two were listening too, but it was funny to see Sera’s ear twitch the way it did.
“Its … haunting” Sera commented and slowly even Jesty began to hear what the other two were. At first kai had thought it to be those spirits gathering up again and singing in union to some greater force, this was just as haunting, but the song was different, this was the voice of one person.
“Time to get some answers … do you think you two can follow in shadow?” Sera said taking charge of the situation; however kai was the first one to the entrance looking around for the source of the voice.
“Better idea … you two follow in the shadows”
The silvet said jumping towards the closest branch leaving the Neko and the jester behind, the ninja, no doubt fuming that the silvet had ignored her order.
Kai descended down the giant tree faster than he had initially planned on doing, but with the strange voice singing that haunting sang getting louder, he found himself thinking of the need to go faster. He landed on each branch as he came to them, and used the huge trunks of the others like a slide until he once again arrived on the forest floor running towards that voice.
‘ A ninja and a jester … they had better be on my tail or … ’
Nothing much short of completely outstanding or surprise was enough to cut off his train of thoughts, yet the silvet came to a skidding halt when he finally, finally got his chance to look at that strange ethereal being that he had once caught a glimpse off. Kai initially frowned, believing this to be that so called witch, and that he had just charged head first like a fool.
‘no it couldn’t be … could it? ’
Yet something seemed off, this was no witch, no matter how he looked at the ethereal being, even if it was far away, his accusation of a witch seemed false. Her singing continued even as she looked over his ghostly shoulder towards kai and she continued on, walking away along with the ethereal light that surrounded her. Kai followed, quickly running up to where the strange person had been, and from there he once again looked around for this glow, only to struggle to find it.
‘ has anyone I have met been real at all?
He could still hear the song, but from first hearing it found it hard to follow, it seemed to echo of every tree, making it feel more mystic than it should have been. Kai finally spotted the light once again, but it was wrong, he judged the speed of which she had moved and by all rights she should never have gained that kind of distance.
“Does she know I am following?” ‘and just what the hell is she?’
Kai raced on once again, having already forgotten about the Kunoichi and the Jester entirely and forgetting to keep an eye out, he didn’t exactly feel alone, and he had to question the authenticity of that. By the time he had caught up to her, he was surprised to have found her waiting for him this time, she stood on a pathway of stairs looking over her shoulder, kai stepped onto the bottom step, he questioned why he had not tried to hide himself, but the question seemed pointless right now.
“… Who are you?”
She didn’t answer, merely continuing with her song she started to ascend the staircase around the base of these giant trees. Before giving in to his urge to follow, the silvet had knelt down to inspect the stairs, it was an odd place to find them here, and even odder still to find that they had been made from real marble, that and not one branch or leaf rested on its cold surface. Kai stood up once again and this time only ran as much as he had to catch up, and then once he was behind the ethereal being he followed at the same pace.
As she led him to who knows where he started to really notice the song she sang, it was haunting to say the least, different from the way she was singing it before too, there seemed to be something extra, like another voice singing in perfect harmony. The oversized forest around him also seemed to join in, no animals, and no groaning of the tree’s just an icy wind that seemed to have blown in just to hear her song.
Kai’s attention to the song was soon becoming distant, infact everything was becoming distant, it felt like his senses were dulling, no, not dulling, they weren’t exactly under his control but not dull, no his senses were being focused, all on this ethereal like woman.
The song, the back of his mind that still belonged to him was screaming at the front that it was the song, enchanted melody’s really had a way of sneaking up on you and kicking you when you least expected it too, he recognised that he was under a sirens spell. He recognised it and was unable to do little more than just watch, he followed her though the winding staircase until finally she led him too a surprising flat area, the floor made entirely from marble, and not a trace of a leaf or branch was on this too.
Kai would have to guess that the area was the size of two foot ball courts placed side by side, he didn’t even need to have any control of his senses to realise that this area, was soon going to be a witness to some kind of battle. Kai was still unsure about what to do and yet … wait hang on, his nose twitched with the scent, that unique smell, this woman reeked of it and …
In the centre of this grand place stood a simple wooden shrine, its doors open, kai could see the inside of a very cosy bedroom, no seriously … there was a bed there, and from what he could see he saw many scented candles. The ethereal woman started to loose her glow as she walked towards this small shrine, her robes were revealed to be a very clean white, gliding around her body with that ghostly freedom, her hair was whiter than snow, a usual give away that she was older than she appeared, which must have been what? 25?
She stepped into the shrine and with her alluring aqua coloured eyes she looked back over her shoulder to lure the silvet, the only thing was, when she looked back the monkey boy was no longer there. The woman’s ghostly visage faded as she walked outside the shrine again to find this silvet, she had not noticed that he was perched on the roof of the shrine behind her.
“Looking for me?”
He said with a grin, indeed she turned around quite startled that he had not directly followed her, by rights he should be completely in a trance, yet there he was, fully aware, when only moments before he was locked under the spell. As she was about to ask, or start singing again, kai held up his finger, and still he had that cocky grin as he used the same finger to point to his nose.
“It’s the smell, it was enough to knock some sense into me … I was also wrong, it’s not the smell of a massacre … its death”
After he had said massacre his grin had faded into a rarely seen look of the aged person he was, he dropped down from the roof and adopted a fighting stance. His legs were spread apart, knee’s always bent while the left foot was up front, his left arm guarded his front, with half of his hand clenched and his other open, his right was tucked by his side fully clenched.
“And there is no doubt, that all this was orchestrated by you. Everyone here aren’t real, there all illusions created by you, was it all some kind of test? What the hell do you want from me?”
“… What I want … what does anyone want? I am afraid I was wrong about you … I have no need of a smart lapdog”
She finally spoke, there was a surprising maturity there, she may have looked young but he voice was aged, almost wise, and at the same time, it genuinely almost scared kai. It was about now that he realised exactly what he was up against, the way an ancient being raised there hand, to form what would be a simple spell so easily on a whim. Kai watched the fire swirl around her hand; the way it curved to avoid directly touching her skin, the silvet heard his own throat swallow in what could be his last, as the spell gradually started to grow.
In what could have been his final moments, kai had barely registered the huge movement flow past him, he didn’t even notice it charge through the entire wooden shrine behind him until a huge hand gripped the woman’s head, using raw strength to drive her head into the hard marble floor before tossing her away like a rag doll. Now kai registered who and what the hell just happened, he was surprised, with his recent theory that he believed in he had thought this person to simply be an illusion.
“Maverick … y – your real!”
“… off cause I am fucking real you idiot, now close your mouth before ya swallow a fricking horse!”
Kai’s awe turned into a grin, it wasn’t so bad now that backup had arrived, a very powerful back up at that. The silvet had always thought that the concept of a knight in shining armour applied only to a damsel in distress, who knew it applied to monkey boys too, he also had to question that, why the hell did he have a knight in shining armour, the concept wasn’t as shiny as he first thought.
“Funny … I thought I would haf’ta kill ya both while you were making sweet love”
Joked the giant, kai side glanced him while retaking his fighting stance, he felt insulted, if he was going to die then no one had any right of killing him before he was finished, then again, as he watched that ghostly figure fade away, he realised it must have been a doll of some kind, because the real one appeared with the disappearance of it, and despite her beauty, she didn’t look very fetching looking so annoyed like that.
“I am gonna go out on a limb and guess that the witch story was not entirely accurate”
Kai asked waiting for something to happen, but right now it was at a standoff, maverick unsheathed his sword and held it typically in front of him in a calm demeanour, he truly looked like he belonged in some army, ready to lead troops into battle and carve a line in an opposing force. Without changing his mood or turning to look at kai he explained, somewhat briefly at the given situation.
“I don’t know what manner of creature she is, she stole my granddaughters face and killed my family … This entire place is just an illusion we have fallen in … I must have forced her to relocate at least 16 times now”
“Yes. 16 times you have been a thorn in my side; killing my servants, my pets … this time I will make sure your dead, I will cast your ashes to the wind!”
Responded the woman who had yet to reveal what or who she was, maverick guessed that not once during there previous encounters did he ever stop to ask her name, just a constant mind set to hunt, that’s what made him more dangerous than that strength of his, kai was sure that was his true strength.
“ even when I try to stay away from these situations I get dragged into it anyway … so what’s the thing I gotta look out for?”
Kai asked maverick yet he stayed, quiet, and when kai looked forwards to the woman he saw her wave her arm in there direction, kai wasn’t sure but he had been standing one moment and then the next wham, his feet had left the floor, and what felt like a small concussion blast had uplifted him throwing him back, over what was left of the wooden building. Kai actually never really landed, but instead was caught in the air by landing against some kind off bubble; kai bounced off it and was able to recover himself, landing on his feet with mostly the air knocked out of him.
“You said to stay hidden, but ya looked like you needed help to me”
Kai looked up, and for once he was glad he had been wrong with his overactive imagination, sat on top of that strange magic bubble was the jester, Jesty her name, or most likely her nick name due to her profession.
“I am pretty sure Mr ego here has it all under control and that he let himself get blown away stupidly”
Came the sharp cruel response of Sera, and once again kai was glad he was wrong about making the assumption that these people had been part of the illusion, dolls like the one she had created to take the punishment of mavericks surprise.
“Maverick!”
Kai was reminded so suddenly that he spun around to see what had happened after the initial attack, he was surprised to see Maverick pressing the attack, swinging away in a blind rage, his strength allowing him to with stand the assault of wind attacks she kept on using to hold the giant back. They really were beyond kai’s ability to fight; he even bet the jester was a better fighter than he him self was. He judged with the way he had frozen up, when she aimed an attack, he felt ashamed to have frozen like that, but also tried his best to shake it off.
“The big guy is on our side right?” asked Jesty
“Come on … he is going to get all the fun!” answered Sera unsheathing her sai’s, her grin seemed to coax the silvet into wanting to join in on the fight too, regardless of it being private or not.
“Word of warning, ghost like people may be soul sucking psychopaths” kai added, and it was Jesty who led the attack by using that bubble like a trampoline to spring board herself forwards followed by Kai and Sera.
Maverick swing his sword downwards, crushing the marble floor, his one good eye was furiously locked on the she-devil of a witch, who had evaded it by taking advantage of his boringly slow attacks. Without even lifting his sword he swing his entire body to the right pulling the sword behind him until it got enough momentum to launch off the ground, he spun around once with the blade flying horizontally yet his opponent had used her free time to slip out of the swords range, she mockingly grinned at him.
“How many times must be defeated, you’re just too slow to hit anyone”
“Hold still NERIS!”
Yet she only chuckled before glancing off to the side, she saw the monkey boy quickly making his hasty return to the battlefield with those who had no doubt also fell into her trap, while she liked company, there were too many too soon. The Kunoichi raced on ahead, swiftly gliding between the huge hulking giant startled by her sudden appearance and surprised to see her go directly in for an assault for Neris. Sera had gone to stab her with her left Sai, and although the blade came dangerously close, it glanced off some kind of protective screen that surrounded Neris now.
Jesty came flying over Maverick flipping at her peek while somehow obtaining a sledgehammer from nowhere, she spun again while descending until her weapon crashed down into the ground where Neris had just been moments before. Again the giant had been confused, but instead of using the time to attack, he felt horrified that he would miss out on his chance for revenge.
“Get lost … she is my kill alone!”
“Yeah, Looks like your dancing with her to me … look let us slow her down a bit then you can go for the kill”
Answered kai stepped up beside the giant once again; he spoke with a grin confident that the four of them could defeat this opponent, of cause he had not banked on Neris doing anything quite as drastic as what she was about too. Kai didn’t even see her coming, nor did maverick, until it was almost too late, she had pretty much leapt towards the giant and placed her hands around his head, and the next thing anyone knew she was gone.
“… wha-where is she?”
Asked Jesty looking around with a hand over her eyes to prove to everyone that she was looking for her, Kai didn’t know what to think, at one point he was hopeful that it was somehow over, but when he turned to look at maverick, it seemed pretty obvious at what had happened.
“… oh shi-!!!!”
Maverick’s huge fist seemed to fit perfectly against kai, as his huge bulk sent the silvet flying once more, the silvet didn’t know how he managed to recover from his fall, but as soon as he was back to his hands and knee’s he coughed up quite a bit of blood. Such a strange metallic taste, with his current state of mind he had forget what had just happened and was instead wondering why the hell vampires enjoyed feeding off this stuff, even if it was there natural food a couple of gold coins in the mouth could be a good substitute.
Sera had come sliding right next to the silvet with a worried expression, kai had missed it but after attacking him, maverick had turned on the other two, and right now, as his blurred vision looked on, Jesty was keeping maverick busy by using those bubble things like a trampoline, seemingly dancing around him.
“ … She fucking possessed him … what a BITCH!”
Kai yelled out in anger. Sera on the other hand, after seeing kai was still alive knelt down beside him wondering if maverick had any weakness, her question was rather no surprise to kai, yet he didn’t actually have an answer for fighting the giant.
“So how do we beat your friend, any weaknesses?”
“… What makes you think I know, all I can tell is that he is the strong slow type, Dammit, what a sucker punch!”
“… What does that enchanted earring of his do?”
Enchanted earring? Maverick didn’t have an enchanted earring, sure it looked like a crystal instead of a usual studded earring but, kai pondered on the subject of if it was or not. Kai could have laughed at the realisation, to think that mavericks strength came from a simple earring, while humours, it did offer something to use as a weakness. It had to be the source of his strength, before when they first met, kai was catapulted to the other side of a field, even then it felt so unnatural for him to be that strong.
“… I bet he couldn’t swing that sword of his so well if he lost it”
Kai made his way back to the battle, again, this time knowing he would have to face maverick, and this time he wasn’t going to get spared, nor was maverick in any condition to stop himself. The bright side was that Kai wasn’t alone this time, the Neko kunoichi, Sera, and the Random Jesty with the sledgehammer was going to help him.
… Where did Jesty get that hammer from anyway?
“ Get the earring and cripple his strength; of dear god I hope Sera is right ”
“Ready kai?”
“No … how about you?”
Sera just grinned, kai returned his attention back to the possessed Maverick nearly succeed in finally swatting away the jester from pestering him, not that she actually attempted to strike, but she was handling the guy and keeping him distracted. Kai spat out a little of the blood that gathered in his mind before trying to concentrate, mavericks moves, were slow, yet deadly powerful, Stay moving, don’t stop, keep around his attack and go for the earring. “Right!”
Kai charged forwards quickly entering the battle by sliding in front of maverick, holding his usual grin to see if he couldn’t agitate him, or that thing that was possessing him, Maverick almost straight away looked at kai and with his sword behind him raked it up over his shoulder to crash down on him, the slow moves were comforting, but the shock kai felt as it crashed where he had been moments ago was not so comforting.
Kai broke off to his left slipping behind maverick forcing him to turn around in order to keep an eye on his opponent, no wait; he stopped re-discovering the Jester, having already leapt up with her hammer ready to make the blow to the head. Maverick was low in attacking but he was excellent at counter attacking as he quickly got to the jester in mid air with his free hand, Jesty would have been sent flying had she not put up one of those bubbles between herself and the fist, she was mostly thrown by the bubble but the fist still looked like it had to hurt when it hit.
“Kai now!”
Both kai and Sera had managed to place themselves on both sides of the huge Maverick and both moved with a similar motion at leaping upwards towards the exposed head of there current opponent, both also kicked out at the same time, kai landing a hit behind the giants head, while Sera scored her own hit in front of the giants head. Both quickly sprang away in there respective directions, watching as Maverick seem to stumble a little bit before falling backwards. At this point Sera charged forwards with the intent of removing that earring they presumed granted the giant most of his strength.
“I got it”
Kai had got his hopes up too high, because before she had got any chance to do anything, a his huge hand grabbed her from behind and tossed her away to protect himself as he stood up once more. How the hell are we going to remove that thing anyway … , kai questioned adopting a fighting stance ready to just about try anything. He stood there for a moment watching as the possessed Maverick get back onto his feet, and with his absent eyes on him, recovered his sword and started to walk menacingly over to the silvet.
“Forgive me …”
Kai said waiting, for the first attack and his opening, Maverick raised the sword up high, still he did not seem to learn that his sword just couldn’t hit them, even though it looked like it could knock a dragon for six, it was still just too slow, his point was proven when he attacked and kai had time to spare to leap to his right. This was the opening he needed, he charged forwards, it was slightly reminiscent of when he first met the giant, but before he attacked he quickly grew scared and evaded him. This time kai leapt onto the man’s shoulder, and spotted the earring, and without hesitation he reached for it and pulled it with all his strength, and leapt away before the possessed knight had any chance to retaliate.
Kai quickly backed off while watching maverick scream with pain, before gritting his teeth and looking at kai with a really pissed off good eye, kai was sure that the possession had failed and that the giants anger really had taken control of his body again, and the silvet was actually wishing for him to be possessed again if that was the case. Maverick raised his sword up high; something both Sera and Kai really didn’t think was possible now that kai had stolen the so called enchanted earring.
“… heh … shit he looks kinda pissed with me”
Maverick approached still carrying his sword, kai watched him get closer, even as he dropped the sword to his side and menacingly dragged it along. Kai could not even glance around to see where Sera or Jesty were, all he could concentrate on was the enraged giant knight. Maverick slowly stared to have a little trouble with his sword, unable to drag it along anymore, the silvet just watched this before looking at the earring again, heh, maybe it was enchanted after all.
Maverick however then abandoned his sword and began to charge for kai empty handed, he however never exactly reached the monkey boy as Sera came in from nowhere and through a pouch at his face. At first he simply stumbled backwards as the orange powder spread around his face, then he began to stumble around before he fell over and the demon that had been possessed him seemed like it had fallen out of him by rolling away coughing at being exposed to that powder.
Sera dusted her own hands together as she smugly walked over to kai, showing off he accomplishment at bringing down Maverick, Kai didn’t seem to impressed as he still held the earring in his palm wondering just one thing.
“Why didn’t you do that earlier?”
“Huh … well I thought that thing would leave his head now that he couldn’t fight properly … I am not a mind reader ya know”
Kai glared at the Neko, already there was a certain disliking he had taken to her, but at the same time he could not deny that other aspects about her that he genuinely liked, or not as she proved to him how manipulative she was.
“And while were at it Sera … what on earth makes you think this ring is enchanted in the first place”
Sera looked from kai to the earring he held out in his gloved hand, she half shrugged as she poked its crystal like surface; she straightened up and smiled at kai.
“It looks enchanted, so it must be enchanted … and besides you saw how his strength faded like that”
Kai didn’t know what was worse, the fact that Maverick would slaughter him when he regained his senses, or that Sera’s rationality not only put him in a stupid game of risk, but was so unfounded that she may have caused more harm than good. And the scary thing was, she was correct, although kai still doubted the authenticity of the item in question, did it really enhance your strength, or did maverick simply tire himself out.
“Erm, guys … she is up again”
Came Jesty’s somewhat worried voice as she hobbled over towards them, the damage from the punch she had received earlier must have been more than what kai had thought, that or she landed funny, either way he had to question why she was using her sledge hammer as a crutch. But she was right none the less, Neris stood up again, although she seemed a little dazed, like some of that powder had affected her. Either way, Kai found no reason to want her dead, after all Maverick was literally on a crusade for that, and kai didn’t really want to take that chance from him, but Maverick was in no condition right now to kill anyone.
Kai took a few steps forward even as Neris continued to stagger towards the group anyway; he clutched the earring tight, not really thinking about putting it in his pocket. Kai had to openly sigh, he felt like he had done enough fighting to last him a while, in truth he was tired and hungry, the last thing he had eaten was at the last bar and inn he had stayed at.
“Let us go creature … Maverick is the only one who has a right to your life!”
“… you are a fool, what do you intend to do, simply walk away, nothing leaves this place unless I say they can leave”
She replied, it wasn’t exactly comforting, kai sighed again making the mistake of closing his eyes, when he opened them again, the creature was before him, her hands quickly snaking around to grab hold of his head, it had been what she had done earlier to possess Maverick and right now, all kai could see was his own horrified face in her glowing aqua eyes, what a fool he was, he should have struck when he had the chance.
Kai then saw a flash, and for a moment, he thought it was the sign of that creature making a nice new home within his head, but instead of seeing himself in her eyes he found that he was instead looking at the metallic side of a blade. Neris pulled back screaming, and kai finally realised what had happened, at the last second Sera had stepped in, stopping the creature by stabbing her hand in one clean strike, the Sai was still imbedded in her hand as proof. Kai gritted his teeth, finding his rage once again, he held his right hand, the one clutching the earring, and crossed his arm with his left, a blade shimmered into life, by all means the transparent blade looked like it was attached to his knuckles, initially a green mist surrounded, but that was eventually drawn into the transparent blade.
“Stop messing with my head already!”
The silvet yelled before uncrossing his arms from in front of his face, the arm that had the blade attached fell by his side as he charged forwards, his Psion blade then angled itself out before he thrust it forwards, like a punch, even if there was a blade attached onto it he still treated it like a fist, one that hit the creature hard and fast into her gut. Yet kai wasn’t really the one to deal the killing blow, he hadn’t noticed it yet but Sera had thrown her other Sai, and as the creature fell limp kai looked over to the Neko who appeared less than thrilled about the prospect that she would have to answer to maverick.
“Stop dropping your guard kid!”
She scorned Kai anyway.
Peaceful, it was a place of a calm tranquillity, far from any town, and as far as they knew, secluded. The road that past through the forest failed to give any indication of this hidden beautiful area, the grass was as green as emerald, the trees healthy and tall, and the simple stream was clearer than a polished crystal, and still that was no praise for it freshness.
The final length, from a time on the land of Scara brae would soon enough lead to the next town, and soon enough the way to Corone would be revealed. The discoverer of this little solitude sat on a rock looking over the calm water stream, his shirt was removed in favour of bandages wrapping around his aching body. And yet he still wore his jacket. The silvets his hair was once again loose and flowing within the calm wind. The Kunoichi knelt beside the calm stream slurped her thirst away, her rhythm of breathing through her nose while at the same time drinking with her mouth allowed her to stay there long enough for Maverick to grow concerned.
“You’re going to drown if you keep that up”
Kai Grinned as she turned around swiftly cupping her hand in the water, splashing the giant as she stuck out her tongue, Jesty was left on the floor laughing at the dumbfounded face of maverick. He slowly became annoyed before letting it go with a sigh and grinning himself as he stood up free from his heavy armour, he walked over to the stream and used his strength and larger hand to soak the Neko. This time Kai was nearly rendered to the floor, in fits of laughter, Jesty must have burst a gut at that.
“WHY YOU!”
“That’s one for one lass, try again if ya want but you’re the one who doesn’t like water”
The two argued, allowing kai time to recover, he had to stop because his laughing caused him to really feel the strain, most of the damage had come from the surprise sucker punch, and after ignoring it for a while it had turned into the largest bruise that had covered his entire chest, so he was feeling very fragile at the moment. Kai had been surprised at mavericks sudden change in personality, kai switched his position so that he could rest his arm on his knee, so that he could openly enjoy the view of watching the antics between Maverick and Sera.
Definitely a huge 180 turn for him, as soon as he regained consciousness and Sera told him that she had dealt the killing blow. He had seemed angered at first, but the poor guy just broke into tears, proclaiming that it was over, that it was all finally over. Kai could not even begin to imagine what it must feel like to have someone murder his family, mainly because his mother had died long ago, and that his own daughter was still healthy, he had to wonder how he would react if he ever learned of his daughters death.
“Hey Monkey boy, kai … you gonna sit there all day?”
Sera taunted, trying to coax kai it getting closer to the stream so that she and possibly maverick could soak him with a few well aimed splashes, His grin widened as he absently waved his other hand thinking of giving the warning for sera to keep an eye on Maverick ready to drench her more from behind, Kai never got the chance as she quickly turned the tables getting a little pre-emptive revenge.
Once again his mind seemed to dive into what had been recently taking place, he felt like he had returned to the point where Neris had fallen over, failing to notice as the illusion she had created all around them simply faded away, along with her own body, it was as if none of it had ever taken place, but each of them had some kind of wound to prove it, that or they had been attacking each other without knowing it. Kai was still oblivious to the creatures intentions were, even more so as to what she actually was, a creature that stole a face, and possessed her foes. The silvet figured it would be simply just to figure out her motives, and from what he could gather, was that she was simply a megalomaniac looking for some slave luvin, of cause no one had to even tell kai that he was the worst person to ask for a theory.
Maverick had spoken of retiring, as it turned out, he was never on a mission to hunt down a witch, that had been the cover he had used to hide that he was on a blind rage for vengeance.
He had also said that he used to work in the Corone military guard; or rather he used to teach the new recruits how to fight, or rather, how to toughen them up, but I digress.
His purpose for hiding that fact was actually simpler than what you would think, he said it was official government business because people usually don’t want to stick there noses into his business after learning about that. As a result when kai had went to return his earring of strength, once kai was certain he wasn’t going to chase him down with his sword which at that point he could no longer lift. Maverick seemed like he honestly didn’t care about the trinket anymore, he was retiring and what use was it to him, he had said at that point that if kai didn’t want it then maybe sera could find more use out of it.
The crystal like earring was currently now replacing his old one, its cool crystal features were mostly hidden behind his unkept hair, though, hiding most of the beauty that it possessed.
Jesty and Sera however, to the silvet, remained the mysterious ones he had met over this ordeal; both had said nothing about there past. and the silvet didn’t want to be nosy about it, neither did Maverick for that matter, on the other hand, in comparison, out of this small group, only Maverick’s past had been revealed, Kai had not said anything about his either. It was nice to think of someone else’s point of view, and yet before kai seemed to even blink, each one seemed to leave.
Sera had opted to take Care of Jesty until they found a healer for her almost crippled leg, and Maverick had decided to head off to the main city of Scara Brae, that left Kai the only one heading in the opposite direction, in the way that would take him off this small island and towards the more dominant land.
“ in the end I figured it out, There are simply some things beyond my understanding, and rather let myself be distracted by it, I would rather handle it as it comes along ”
((Spoils:
Earring of strength: At first glance it would be easy to presume it would be a simple earring stud, made from a cloudy blue crystal like material, and even if it wasn’t enchanted its appearance alone makes it a unique trinket. The enchantment placed upon it Increases the users strength by a certain degree, the effects being more noticeable if the wielder is already naturally strong. Such examples would be to give an average villager the strength of a soldier, and a soldier the strength of an Orc, etc.
Because kai was naturally weaker than maverick the earring does not grant the same level of strength it did with Maverick, instead the effects are less, but are certainly notable, it would allow him to most certainly leap higher and attack with more force than he could do normally
Costume #2: Kai still dons his usual jacket, however he lacks a shirt and in place is usually a few left over bandages from some fight he has recently been in, there have been no changes to his lower attire, or his arm wear, the only other major difference is that he may have his hair loose, or tied into two ropes instead of the usual single braid.))
((I plan to use these Npc’s again some time, so should I make some kind of profile for them or something. Oh yeah, sorry again for posting it in separate posts, but I thought it would be easier to chew if it was in parts … meh))
GENERAL NOTES: First off, there’s nothing wrong with writing an entire quest in Word and posting it all at once. Whether you do that or you put up one post at the time while writing, you basically spend the same amount of time writing it, so it really makes no difference. As far as NPCs go, I think it would be best if you added their profiles to your own on your next level up. However, if you don’t want to wait that long, you can always do a mid-level update, where you basically just add the NPCs, but don’t upgrade your character. Or you can just create NPC profile. I think the first option is the most painless one since it would be best that they were all in your profile thread, but it’s up to you. Anyways, without further ado, the numbers...
INTRODUCTION – 5
Generally good, but a bit confusing. You gave me a clear reason why Kaiser was where he was, before hitting it off with some action. Personally, I like the quests that start of with something like a fight, it hooks the reader and makes him interested in the story. However, there were some confusing aspects of this intro. While it was nice to give some background on what happened before the current events, I was left rather confused when you spoke of Fallen angels and what not, while not elaborating on it. So now I knew something happened, but I had no idea what actually happened. Also, I never quite got who or what the unbeatable thing was and why it attacked Kai. All in all, you did a good job here, but you should try to make your intros a bit more clarifying.
SETTING – 6
Given the fact that it was more or less a generic forest, this wasn’t done badly. It was certainly interesting to see the setting go from usual forest to a forest with giant trees and no wildlife in it. On occasions I would’ve liked a bit more of it in your writing, especially during the final battle that by my reckoning took place on a plateau on a huge tree. Here you scarcely described anything around you or interacted with anything, and being that high in air would definitely allow you to utilize your environment. On the other hand, using a hollow in the huge tree was a nice detail. One minor thing though. Scara Brae is not a huge island so traveling through it for three weeks should’ve gotten you somewhere by then. Also, those funny looking ghost things reminded me of something I saw in Princess Mononoke I think, but it was a while since I saw that cartoon.
STRATEGY – 6,5
I didn’t score you higher in this because of two things. One: the idea that the earring is giving Maverick the power came a bit out of nowhere. It was an assumption that turned into a gist of your plan way too fast to be realistic. Two: knocking out Maverick with that sleeping powder might’ve came in the critical moment, but I feel that it should’ve happened earlier. When a big motherfucker is coming at her with a sword, the first thing on Sera’s mind would probably be to knock it out. But aside from that, the strategy was simple and believable, from Kai using his agility to evade and fight his foes, to ganging up on the quest’s boss in the end and the witch possessing the strongest fighter in the bunch.
WRITING STYLE – 4,5
I remember judging a battle that you did on your Kaiserin account and I have to admit that you’ve improved since then. The fact that you wrote the entire thing in Word probably helped as well. But there were still quite a lot of mistakes that Word doesn’t pick up. Most notable were the mix ups of words that sound alike. You often use “there” that is an adverb that determines the location of something instead of “their” which is a pronoun that signifies to what something belongs to. Or instead of using “trees” which is a plural of the word “tree”, you use “tree’s”. This errors Word processors usually don’t pick up so keep an open eye when proofreading.
Second thing that I would like to point out are the run-on sentences. You just try to say too much in a single sentence, trying to say three different things in one sentence that comes out as five lines of text separated with a dozen of commas. This really breaks the flow of the story. Example:
Kai charged forwards quickly entering the battle by sliding in front of maverick, holding his usual grin to see if he couldn’t agitate him, or that thing that was possessing him, Maverick almost straight away looked at kai and with his sword behind him raked it up over his shoulder to crash down on him, the slow moves were comforting, but the shock kai felt as it crashed where he had been moments ago was not so comforting.What you do is try to pack three separate thoughts in one sentence, the fact that Kai entered the battle, the Maverick prepared to attack and that the slowness of his attacks was comforting. Why not break it up in three sentences then:
Kai charged forwards quickly, sliding in front of Maverick and holding his usual grin to see if he could agitate both him and the thing that was possessing him. Maverick instantly shot Kai with his glare, raking his sword up over his shoulder and sending it in a devastating downwards slash. Even though the power behind his attack was tremendous, the slowness was comforting for Kai.See? You use the same amount of words and the whole thing flows a lot better.
Other then that, keep your eyes open for capitalization. Oftentimes you fail to do so with names which can get confusing.
RISING ACTION – 7
I think this was where your story was the strongest. Usually quests that start with a battle water down during the middle of the quest and then end up with an unsatisfying climax. That wasn’t the case here, mostly thanks to the Jester and Sera that you introduced as a bit of a twist. I expected either the witch of Maverick to come to Kai while sleeping, and the entrance of these two was a nice refreshment. However, after that the story was pretty much predictable so the tension didn’t really rise as high as I hoped. I got a feeling that Maverick would intervene when he did and the battle wasn’t as fierce as I hoped it would be. Putting somebody in mortal danger or even killing off one of the NPCs would add more flare to it for certain. Still, a good job here.
CLIMAX – 6
Again, not bad. When the witch came out of Maverick and came at Kai, reaching for his neck, and Kai struggled with her, almost succumbing to her before the bitch got stabbed, that was played well. The reason why I didn’t score this higher was the fact that Maverick’s reaction to it all was a bit bland. The witch killed his entire family, so I would expect at least some mulling on the fact that he didn’t get to exact his vengeance. So all in all, a good job but there is still room for spicing it up and making it even more tense by adding more emotions into it.
CONCLUSION – 5
At first, I really liked the conclusion. Maybe I’m a sucker for happy endings, but seeing Mav mellowing down and the girls playing in the water and the forest back to normal, it seemed everything was well. And then you mention in the last paragraph that all of you merely went your own way. No goodbyes, no emotions, nothing that would show just how dangerous the peril was and how relieved they were to survive. I expected for them to bond after such experience, but they all went their own way in the end. However, I noticed you were planning to use these characters again and I’m glad because they seem like an interesting bunch.
DIALOGUE – 5
You need to work on your dialogue a bit to make it more believable and comprehensible. When you put a one liner without explanation who the speaker is, it can get quite confusing from time to time, especially in longer exchanges. Clarify who the speaker is and put in some details about the tone of his voice, the gesture of his body, anything that would make it look like a real character was speaking. Also, try to avoid the modern words in your dialogue. Most of Althanas is still in medieval time. Words like “ok” and “piss off” and “cool” in the context you put them probably weren’t used like that in medieval times.
CHARACTER – 6
I liked Kaiser’s character. He wasn’t the usual do-gooder that would instantly jump to help Maverick in his battle at first sight and he’s smart enough to run when he deems it necessary. I would’ve liked to see more depth from the NPCs, most importantly the witch that seemed a bit like a generic boss that is evil because she likes being evil. I reckon that in your future quests, the jolly bunch you met here would become much more realistic as you keep interacting with them.
WILD CARD – 6
Kaiser wakes up and says: “Gotta... pee”. Oftentimes, when I read stuff, I notice how writers usually ignore the bodily functions that aren’t sex. Kudos to you for this detail.
TOTAL SCORE – 57
Congratulations!
Kaiser receives 750 EXP and 100 GP
The spoils are approved, but you still have to run the earring ability by RoG at level up
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