And So This Is Christmas

[matthewkuch]

Closed to koli and dracoboy8. Note: this is for you black_shadow, I have no money to buy you a real Christmas present so... Enjoy

Gavner found himself once more in a dark alleyway. After just having returned Matthew to the superhuman colony, he was now in The City of Beinost thinking things over. He noticed that he hadn't fed in awhile and that he was becoming hungry. The vampire crouched down in the shadows of the evening as he waited for night to fall, as he waited for his hour to work.

The sun sank low over the lake, Gavner knew not because he looked at it but because he recognized the malevolent orange light that emanated from the sky at this hour. The orange light that was produced during the subset was among the most deadly to vampires. Even though it was almost night time, the last leg of day had to be waited out or else. Although vampires did not die instantly, 30 minutes if exposure would cause bad burning which would become severe after an hour. 4 hours in the sun and Gavner would be nothing more than a pile of ash.

The setting sun's rays were among the worst for a vampire. They were two thirds more powerful, and a vampire would be severely burned in 20 minutes. The rising sun had a similar effect, but the rays were only one third more powerful than the mid day sun. A mere 20 minutes would burn them fairly badly, but Gavner had not much experience with the rays of the rising sun. The worst part about the sun's rays was that cloaks or clothing could not shield a vampire from their effect. Thick material could greatly reduce the burning, but nothing was perfect. Children of the night did not belong in the day...

[dracoboy8]

"Drake, demons did not get their strength from satan, but from The Boss. Now they wander the dimensions leeching energy from the innocent. Your power is limitless because you still get it from The Boss, so the fight is not about strength but willpower. If you can out-will your opponent, you have won the fight."

Much easier said than done father, Drake thought to himself, much easier said than done.

As a young Half-Angel trying to earn admittance to the Ninefold Celestial Hierarchy, Drake had been venturing through dimensions to find suitable fights. It was angering to walk away from a demon who was leeching energy from a human because it was too powerful for Drake to fight, but this was not an uncommon occurrence. Earlier Drake had ventured out of his body into the astral plane to find an opponent and came across a young demon attacking a child. This infuriated Drake who attacked the demon. The fight was unmatched because Drake was much weaker than the demon, but Drake could not stand when demons preyed on children....

[Koli]

Koli walked through the woods, trying to find peace. Often times he sought comfort in the forests of Althanas. It was quiet and easy to think in the forests. With so much going on and all of the thoughts and memories flooding his mind, Koli often looked for tranquility in his everyday life. No place cleared Koli’s mind like the woods, however. There were no bustling towns or looming evil to complicate things; no unrighteous or lowly beings to try and lead him astray or curse him. Koli looked around at the forest and took in a deep breath of air that smelled of pine needles.

The trees were so closely grown that all of the pine needles had become interwoven, casting a great shadow over the forest. Light leaked through in several places, but was very dim for the most part. A gentle breeze swept through the trunks, rustling pine needles and branches. Closing his eyes and listening carefully, Koli could hear the movement of creatures and animals in the forest. Hearing something draw near, Koli opened his eyes to see a doe staring at him from behind a tree.

For some reason most animals were not afraid of Koli. He would often attract the company of several companions when he ventured into the woods to think. The priest did not know why, but animals loved to be in his presence. Looking over at the doe with kind eyes, Koli used his Eyes of Hero on the doe. She watched, mesmerized as the priest’s white irises turned into a soothing green. Koli smiled as she relaxed and began to trust him, walking over to the priest. Reaching out his hand, Koli gently stroked the head of his new friend’s head. This was why he loved nature…

[matthewkuch]

Feeling empowered by the light of the full moon, Gavner watched intently as he spied somebody walking down the alley towards him. Still concealed by the shadows, Gavner shifted his weight to his toes as the figure drew near. When the man reached the vampire’s hiding spot Gavner pounced, striking the man in the back of the head. Flustered, the man had little time to react as Gavner wrapped his arm around the victim’s neck and until he was rendered unconscious.

Dragging the man down a shadowy crook in the alley that was out of sight from the rest of the world, Gavner made an incision in the man’s arm and placed his mouth on the wound. Drinking from the man, Gavner relished the taste of the brilliant flavor. Salty with a bursting vibrance made the vampire’s nourishment delectable. Gavner enjoyed feeding, but he did not let himself like it too much lest he begin to indulge. The moment a vampire allowed himself to indulge in blood from the living was the moment he was close to the point of no return.

Gavner had seen it happen to vampires before. A vampire would allow himself to drink until he was completely satisfied and the human would become harmed. The more a vampire allowed himself to indulge, the more he would need to become satisfied in the future. Eventually he would drink a person dry, killing them. This was against the laws of the vampires. Members of Clan Anoterish were not allowed to suck humans dry or they would be punished. Gavner never wished to drink that much from any one human, he was very conscious of the lives of those he drank from. It was not only for sediment and care of the person’s life, but for honor. If a vampire lost his honor, he lost nearly everything.

[dracoboy8]

Materializing a longbow, Drake pulled an arrow of brilliant golden light from a quiver he had created and shot it at the demon who deflected it and threw a knife at his assailant. Drake dodged the knife and lunged for the demon with a knife materializing in his hand. This process continued on for hours on end, fruitless fighting. Drake was ready for the battle to continue for days, if needed weeks.

The demon landed many more blows than Drake did, but the half-angel had a much larger pool of willpower than his enemy; both fighters knew this. As the duel raged on the demon began to tire as his will to fight waned. He became careless and made more mistakes than when the battle began. Creating a crossbow Drake aimed at his foe’s gut and fired from less than 2 feet away. For the first time in the battle one of the opponents broke the membrane of the astral body. The demon’s shield of willpower had been depleted and now he was damaged. His energy began to flow endlessly out of the hole in his body, releasing into the dimension in the form of red and black light.

Drake did not stop here; creating a katana of white light the angel ran it through the demon’s chest. The defeated opponent roared in rage as he attempted to lash out at Drake but he could not reach his adversary. The roar slowly died down as the demon slowly lost its energy. Soon the demon collapsed to the ground and stopped leaking energy. Letting go of his sword it disintegrated and Drake concentrated on the demon’s hands as he brought them together. Focusing all of the energy in the air into a single mass, Drake created a metal mold of golden material that encased the demon’s hands. Matthew showed Drake how to create these, and now the demon was harmless to Drake. Now there was one last thing to do before Drake returned the demon to hell; drain the rest of its energy. Standing up Drake began to kick the crap out of the demon, draining more and more energy with every blow…

[Koli]

Relaxing as he sat on his stump, Koli stroked the bunny that had curled up in his lap. He had now attracted three doe, one buck, a baby deer, two wolves, six squirrels, and a bunny. The wolves were completely tranquil in Koli’s presence and did not attack any of the animals or the priest. Koli admired all of the animals and the beauty that they brought to the world.

When Koli had his fill of thinking, he got up and began to exit the forest. He held the bunny in his arms as it had fallen asleep in his lap, and the rest of them followed him to the clearing. One by one the animals dispersed until only the bunny remained in Koli’s arms. Reaching the middle of the clearing, the priest gently set the bunny in the grass and continued on his way. Koli loved wildlife, it was hard not to get too attatched to each animal that loved him. He loved them all in return, but to focus on animals was a waste of purpose. Then there was the opposite of animals…

Koli heard a rough growl come directly ahead; he recognized this growl. The noise had come from a Pudijat, one of the most common monsters in Dheathain. It was a large mutant cat with a scrunched up face and no ears. It’s tail was a scorpion’s stinger, and it had nine inch claws. Being able to breathe poison through its nose, the Pudijat could cast an aura of noxious fumes around it, making the area lethal to those who were not careful. Koli was careful. Not only was he careful, but he was also very experienced in fighting monsters. In fact, fighting monsters had once been the purpose of his life. Instilled skills are not easily unlearned…

[matthewkuch]

Standing up, Gavner left the man in the nook to wake up in the morning. The vampire made sure to wrap up his unconscious victim’s arm so he would not bleed out before he woke. Walking across the town, Gavner breathed in the crisp cool air of the late year. Air flooded his big lungs, stabbing the hungry cells that passed through for oxygen. Holding his breath, Gavner kept the air in for several seconds before releasing it in a puff of thick water vapor.

The cloud of condensed vapors swirled as they rose in the crisp night, vanishing into the atmosphere. Gavner continued his stroll down to the docks where several ships were ported for the night. Gavner had a lot of history in this city. It was where he had teamed up with Ioder, an old friend that Seraphim hunters wanted to kill, and helped them fend off an onslaught of enemies. Here he and a team of vampires had attempted to seek out a council of dark elves that did not exist. Here he had met Matthew.

Gavner rolled his eyes when he thought of the quirky, immature teenager. He had allegedly been exploring a cave in which he fell down a bottomless pit that ended with a wormhole. The wormhole had brought him from his human world to the world of Althanas. When Matthew had found Gavner he tried to convince the vampire that Althanas was a role playing website on some fancy invention called the internet that nearly everybody had access too. Apparently Matthew had created Gavner as a character, and Matthew’s friend had created Gavner’s best friend Black Shadow. Sometimes Gavner thought it was a bunch of rubbish, but some of the things were far too strange to be a coincidence…

[dracoboy8]

The universe consisted of several different dimensions. Each dimension had different vibrational levels that gave the dimensions specific inhabitants and classifications. The higher the vibration, the higher the nobility of the inhabitants were. The lower the vibration, the lower the nobility of the inhabitants were. Two examples of polar opposite vibration levels were heaven and hell. The inhabitants of Heaven were of the highest nobility and vibration, the inhabitants of hell were of the lowest nobility and vibrational level.

There were 152 dimensions in existence, and they were all connected through the astral plane. Everybody had a physical body, along with an astral body. The physical body was the one that people carried out their everyday lives in, but the astral body was the one that few knew about. Throughout the day, peoples’ astral bodies were interwoven with their physical bodies, but when they went to sleep; however, they could leave their physical body with their astral body and roam the astral plane.

The astral plane was an exact copy of the physical plane, except at a higher vibrational level. Due to the increased vibrations, people on the astral plane could not interact with those on the physical plane, with astral bodies that is. After astral projection takes place, energy is the currency by which tasks are carried out. The astral body was connected to the physical body with the silver cord, a direct link between the two bodies. Needing energy from somewhere, the astral body took small amounts of energy from the physical body to do things. If the astral body was attacked by another astral body, entity, or demon, the astral body would defend itself by spitting out energy to shield blows. This would essentially drain the energy from somebody, weakening their physical body.

If the physical body had too much energy taken from it, it would not be able to perform basic life processes like breathing or pumping blood. This would essentially kill the person.

[Koli]

Using the natural weakness of the Pudijat, curiosity, Koli baited the monster with his foot and kicked it under the chin as it tried to bite him. While the monster was in a daze, Koli used his advantage and stomped on its tail pinning the cat to the ground by its rear. Kicking the cat once more in the face, Koli stepped off of the tail and watched as the Pudijat hissed at him and ran back into the woods.

Continuing along the beaten path, Koli drew near a village that he had been looking for; his home village. Koli was raised as a monk in a brotherhood, a brilliant and righteous organization that fought for the safety and wellbeing of the town in the name of God. All this had taken place, of course, before the death of the head priest. After the head priest and Abbas Amo, Koli’s biggest mentor, had died the brotherhood slowly began to decline. Jalaphar, a young and aspiring priest had seized control of the head priest position and turned the brotherhood in the opposite direction that it had originally stood for.

Instead of fighting to protect the city, the brotherhood fought for control of the city. They now ran the village that they had once protected, they fought for power instead of righteousness, and the organization was greatly expanding. The monks who had once learned survival skills, arts of illusion, and mastered all sets of martial arts were now learning solely combat martial arts. The monks were not judged on how powerful of a heart they had, but on how many opponents they could defeat. The major crisis led to the hardest decision of Koli’s life…

[matthewkuch]

After spending weeks together, Gavner had developed an involuntary bond with his creator that linked his emotional state with that of the teenager. Gavner could feel any potent emotions that Matthew felt, such as fear, anger, sadness, or heartbreak; but this was not the weirdest part. After spending several more weeks with Matthew, Gavner had developed a physical link as well as an emotional bond. Whatever physical pain Matthew felt, Gavner felt as well. This was especially irritating when Matthew sparred or got into fights with other kids, but the bond weakened with distance.

The whole time that Gavner was with Matthew, the teenager had been hounding his creation about a holiday called Christmas. Gavner had no idea what Christmas was all about, but Matthew had said it was supposed to be a big celebration about the birth of a savior. He said that in celebration of the holiday, people would give gifts to friends and family or people whom they loved. When the vampire became tired of the boy’s persisting he asked Matthew what he wanted.

“I want you to get a present for somebody you love,” Matthew replied.

“I do not love anybody.” Gavner said flatly.

“Yes you do, your best friend.” Matthew replied. “Get a new bow for Black Shadow.”

Now that Gavner thought of it, that wasn’t that bad of an idea…

[dracoboy8]

“Sheesh big guy, why are you such a fatso!”

Drake had dragged the demon through the astral plane for almost an hour, and he was only halfway to his destination. He felt no remorse when he beat all of the energy out of the demon because demons could not feel pain. Drake had forced this evil entity out of consciousness for at least a week, which gave him enough time to return the demon to the place where he belonged and then return to his body for some well-deserved rest.

The astral plane was very grey and dull. It may have been a higher vibrational level than Althanas, but it had no color to it. The grass, trees, and flowers were all grey. Water was grey, dirt was grey, and even the sky was grey. A thick layer of fog covered the plane, obscuring vision of anything farther than approximately 20 feet away. The only thing that held any color was entities, and those are a story for a different time.

After dragging the demon across the expanse of the astral plane, Drake and his prisoner of war reached a cliff that dropped off into blackness. All dimensions ended here; all of them led to an endless abyss. Snapping his fingers, Drake conjured a glass bridge that stretched the expanse of the abyss. Dragging his enemy across the bridge they reached a mass of land that had charred grass and extremely large iron gates bound by flaming chain and brilliant golden lock. Drake had reached his destination.

[Koli]

Looking at the village was like looking at an old drawing of himself. Koli remembered what it was, and compared it to what it was now. The village was left in ruins, for monsters had ravaged the town. The only structure that remained was the church in which the brotherhood resided. It had been added to, and was now a magnificent towering building of pride and elegance. It put the surrounding rubble to shame.

Circling the church from afar Koli noticed that the herb garden for potions and tonics was overgrown and the vespers site had been destroyed. The only facility that was still in use was the combat training zone, which was being used by about 15 monks. There was a fairly large line of monks waiting their turn to practice their martial arts, and Koli knew that this was no longer a brotherhood for God, but a cult for power. These monks were being set up for failure; their sous would surely reach hell at the rate they were going.

Koli remembered when he had once lived at this church, when he had once helped out the cause. Back then the brotherhood took strength in God, strength in helping others. They may have been a fairly small organization, but few were cut out for the task. Nowadays, everybody wanted power and glory. Although they claimed to be a righteous organization, Koli knew the truth. Evil had corrupted the brotherhood he had once known, the brotherhood he had once called home. This was the very reason why he left in the first place; because it had turned into a wicked cult.

[matthewkuch]

Gavner had no idea what kind of bow that Black Shadow wanted, but he knew who would. Walking into the sailors’ tavern, Gavner approached a group of drunken men who were laughing and having a good time. Getting the attention of one of them, Gavner thought about what he was going to say.

“You there,” Gavner said, “have you any idea where I might be able to find a messenger?”

“Aye, indeedeth my kindeth ladeth,” the sailor said mockingly. “Inneth yonder corner shall ye findeth the man you seek.”

Gavner wanted to punch the man in the face, but he knew that now was not the time. Using every ounce of willpower that he had to not punch the ignorant human, Gavner walked away and sought the man in the corner. A middle-aged sailor sat in a booth, studying maps and moving around small colored pieces. As the vampire drew near the man looked up from his work.

“Good evening sir, how might I be able to help you tonight?”

Gavner was taken aback by the kindness of this man, but he quickly realized that the man was out to make money. “I heard that you could deliver a message.”

“Aye, for a price that is.”

Gavner sighed. Humans were so greedy in their workings, Gavner wished to somehow help the man see the insignificance of money, but he needed the service that the sailor provided.
“How much?”

[dracoboy8]

Kneeling down over the demon, Drake placed his hands together and bowed his head. Closing his eyes he prayed, and he prayed hard.

Boss, this demon knows not what he is, or what he does. He is still young and rather impressionable, is there any way we may be able to help reform him and shape him to the ways of the angels?

The Boss always heard Drake’s prayers, and answered almost instantly.
[Drake, my dear boy; your kindness for all is righteous. I will see what I can do.]

Thank you Your Majesty, I know this entity is simply lost and he can be restored.

Looking down at the demon, Drake pulled down the hood that was obscuring his face. The angel took note of his foe’s ugly features; his face was red with black designs. He had a ring through his nose, and no hair. Metal studs were imbedded in his cheeks and around his face. Pulling up the sleeves of the entity Gavner noticed that his skin was red and he had many tattoos of evil symbols in black. His nails were several inches long, and solid black in color.

Drake could only imagine what he had been through…

[Koli]

Taking one last look at the monastery that he once called home, Koli turned to leave. He walked a ways down the path looking at the ground, but when he looked up he saw a peculiar sight. Standing in front of him was a man that appeared to be a sailor, but the priest could tell this was a mere illusion. Having been trained in the art of illusion, Koli could recognize when a low skilled illusion was cast because it had a certain element to it.

The illusion approached Koli and said, “Are you the priest who once belonged to the Iusti brotherhood?”

Koli nodded his head. He knew that this illusion was now for message delivering purposes. The priest did not know who would be sending him a message, but he was never one to turn down those who needed him.

“Master Koli, please stand by as your message is transmitted:
‘Dear Koli,
Your presence is required in Istraloth. Please report as soon as possible as there are very important matters to attend to.’ Thank you and have a nice day.”

With that the illusion faded away and Koli started for the nearest dock.

[matthewkuch]

“I charge an initial rate of 200 marks to find and transmit a message. If you wish to send 2 messages, the price is only 300 marks.” The sailor said greedily, smirking as Gavner sighed.

“So you can find anybody in Althanas?” Gavner asked. He did not know where Koli would be at this time of the year.

“I am the best messenger you will find. I can find anybody, anywhere.” The sailor replied, “So long as I have a description of their appearance and a trademark of their personality to go off of.”

Rolling his eyes, Gavner took his black knapsack from his back and placed it on the table. Opening the top Gavner peeked in and smiled as he found a sleeping Eva, the baby wolf cub who Gavner had rescued. Her family had died and Gavner took her in so she would not suffer the same fate. Thinking back on what Gavner had said to Matthew, he realized it was not true. Gavner did love somebody; he loved Eva more than anything in the entire world.

On second thought, Eva was his entire world. She was one of the very reasons that Gavner fought as hard as he did to stay alive; he had to take care of his baby wolf cub. Being careful not to wake her he opened one of the side pockets and pulled out a small bag in which he held his money. Reaching in, Gavner counted out 200 marks and placed them in the sailor’s hand.

The sailor grinned menacingly as he stared at the money. “Thank you sir, thank you very much for your generosity, would you happen to have any other messages you would like delivered?”

[dracoboy8]

Speaking once more to The Boss, Drake collapsed face down on the ground as he prayed fervently.
[Boss I see this thing’s face and I see a face of somebody who has been through so much, much more than I could ever fathom. Perhaps he thinks he is past the point of return. Might you touch him with your all-healing hand and restore unto him his body? Satan has distorted his image so he knows not who he is. Maybe if he saw himself as his true self then he may lift his face to salvation.]

“I will,” Drake heard somebody say from beside him.

Opening his eyes and looking towards the direction of the voice Gavner saw the figure of a man standing next to him. He glowed with bright white light and had brown hair that came down to his shoulders. Kind brown eyes looked at Drake as His face held the shape of an hourglass the man smiled. He had a neatly trim beard that grew about his jaw line all the way down to his chin. Garbed in a white robe with an ivory colored tunic underneath, Drake noticed that He was barefoot. Spreading His arms, he pulled Drake in for an embrace, sending warmth and a sense of peace all through his body. Pulling away He took a look at the demon and began to look sad.

“Manfred,” The Boss said softly, “I still love you…”

[Koli]

Walking towards the coast, Koli made sure to take routes through wooded areas. While proceeding through forests, the priest began to attract more followers and companions to keep him company. Birds fluttered by him tweeting happily, deer walked by his side, and he even attracted a shy fox. Noticing the fox who was keeping his distance, Koli looked at him with his Eyes of Hero and his new friend came close to Koli. Not paying attention to any of the other animals, the fox walked in front of Koli, leading everybody. The foxes were often ostrasized by the rest of the animals, so they usually walked alone.

Koli was surprised that no monsters interrupted his route, but he did not complain. He did not feel like fighting any monsters at this time. Reaching the final edge of the forest, Koli could smell the salty air of the ocean. Bidding his animal friends farewell, the priest stepped out into the clearing and spotted the coastal town. This was the town in which Koli had friends from the brotherhood.

Following the path, Koli stopped to admire the rare occurance. A resident of Dheathain was hard pressed to come across a day that was dry and sunny, but a sunset over the ocean was very rare. The orange and red colors burst out through the sky, exploding in vibrant excellence. The last time that Koli had seen a sunset he was a young child. Abbas Amo had brought him specially to this town to watch it from the crow’s nest of a ship. The priest soaked up his chance to enjoy natural beauty, as this would probably be the last one he had for a while.

[matthewkuch]

Gavner thought about his mission. To get an absolutely amazing bow, Gavner would more than likely not be able to buy it. If he could not buy it, he would have to find it. Finding a tree that would yield such bow was only the beginning, extreme perils and dangers were surely to follow. Koli was an expert in fighting monsters, but Gavner and he could not hold off extreme amounts of monsters at any one time. He had to call upon the help of an additional friend, but who? If he picked an amazing fighter, the party would be doomed if one of them got hurt. If somebody got hurt the party would have to take care of them. Then Gavner remembered who Koli was with when Gavner and Black Shadow stumbled upon him with. Drake.

Drake was a half angel that had medical experience and could even revive people from the dead. If needed he could also call upon divine intervention, Drake was essential if this mission was to take place. Counting out 100 more marks into the sailor’s hand, the man set to work.

“Names and descriptions, please.” The man barked. He had gotten what he wanted, now he had to pay up with his end of the bargain.

“The first one is a priest garbed in all white from the Iusti brotherhood. His name is Koli.” Gavner said.

The man closed his eyes and remained there for a time. Gavner stared at him expectingly, and after awhile he began to grow impatient.

“I’ve found him,” The sailor said after a time. “What would you like me to tell him?”

Gavner wrote on paper and slid it to the sailor. “The second man-boy actually- that I want to send something to is Drake. He has blonde hair, a small frame, and is a half-angel.”

Suddenly a man appeared next to Gavner. He had short brown hair that suited his younger looking face well. He looked like one of the same age as Drake, about nineteen, and had green eyes that glowed with passion. He was garbed in a long white traveling cloak and had a leather tube strapped to his belt.

“Did somebody say they had a message for Drake?”

[dracoboy8]

Touching the face of the unconscious demon, something absolutely astonishing happened. As The Boss touched Manfred’s face, his rough red and black skin turned smooth and peach-colored. A crop of short brown hair grew from his bald head, and the metal studs in his face fell out. His nose ring disappeared and the long nails on his fingers receeded. Two grey wings grew from his back, and Drake now looked into the face of a teenager, not even seventeen years old.

“Thank you for having so much compassion, Drake.” The Boss said, “you have made me proud today.”

Before Drake could answer, Gabriel appeared on the glass bridge. He usually wore a white tunic with sandals but today he was dressed in a white cloak with black boots.

“Drake, I am afraid you have been summoned.” Gabriel said to the half-angel.

“By whom?” Drake asked.

“I am sworn to keep his identity secret. He said to have you report to Istraloth immediately on important terms.” The messenger replied.

“Very well,” Drake sighed, “to Istraloth it is then.”

[Koli]

Koli walked up to the gates of the seafaring town. The gates were always opened upon sight of a member of the brotherhood, and no different was the case with Koli. Walking through the opened gates, the priest passed through the town square in which children were playing happily in the rare sunset. People were standing at their doors, enjoying the rare treat. Koli was happy to slip past most of them, unnoticed.

Walking to the large structure on the dock, Koli approached the head of the sea company’s business house. The owner of the company usually worked odd hours, but Koli always counted on him to be in there, working through nearly all hours of the night. Bringing his hand up to the door, Koli softly knocked on it three times and waited. The skipper usually took awhile to get to the door because he always finished the thought he was recording. This could take up to 10 minutes at times, depending on the severity of the thought.

The door opened and the face of an old friend popped through the opening of the door. “Koli, how wonderful to see you!” the skipper said jubilantly. “Come in, come in. What can I do for an old friend?”

[matthewkuch]

“I am sorry,” The man in white said, “I was passing through the area and could not help but overhear your description of my friend.”

“So you know Drake?” Gavner asked.

“I do.”

“Can you take a message to him for me?”

“I can.”

Gavner looked expectantly at the sailor. “No refunds!” he said snatching the money that Gavner had given him to his chest.

“Whatever,” Gavner said rolling his eyes, “can you tell Drake to meet me in Istraloth so I may discuss important matters with him?”

“Very well,” the angel said.

“Thank you,” Gavner replied as the angel turned and began to leave. “And sir?” The angel paused. “Be sure to keep my identy concealed.”

“You have my word.” And with that the angel disappeared .

[dracoboy8]

Drake walked through the astral plane, returning to his body. As he made his trek through the foggy dimension, he noted the peculiar nature of the place he was in. All attributes of the real world made up the astral plane, but there were no colors of the natural world. Everything was in black and white. Anything that was in color symbolized the supernatural. If it was colored on the astral plane, it was invisible to those in the world.

A dirt-colored path led through the astral plane, signifying the road one had to take to their destination. It was invisible to the real world, but led wherever the person wanted to go. It was almost as if the astral plane knew where you wanted to go, so it created paths for you before you entered. As Drake was on his way back to his body he recalled his first visit to the astral plane. What a disaster!

Matthew the archangel, father of Drake and brother of Michael the archangel, was with the half angel showing him around the astral plane. When Matthew had to leave on official business, Drake was sent back to heaven where his body rested. Guards, however, blocked the entrance to heaven and Drake was denied admittance. Drake was left to wander the astral plane, and came across several entities that scared him. As he got scared, his vibration dropped and negative entities were attracted to him. As he was fleeing from the frightening entities, Drake ran directly into a demon who almost destroyed him. If it wasn’t for a passing angel who noticed his trouble, Drake would have been dead meat. Since then he had grown stronger and learned the ways of the astral plane, but he had not yet mastered the mysterious dimension…

[Koli]

Koli pointed to one of the ships in the harbor, and the captain smiled.

“Aye, so we wish to take a voyage do we?” Said Skipper. Koli nodded. “I don’t blame you. If I were you I would be getting as far away from that blasted organization as I could.”

Koli sadly looked down at the table. It indeed was a shame, the corruption of the brotherhood. He wished to leave but he just couldn’t. Instead he took on several quests that always led him far away from the site of his mourning.

“The bloody brotherhood has changed all of their methods. They forced me to give them a ship! Oh it will only be for a few months and we will fully compensate you. Have I seen one penny of that ship? No!”

This enraged Koli. The brotherhood had taken their treachery far enough, but stealing from merchants crossed the line. He prepared himself to walk right out the door and speak with Jalaphar, but Skipper brought Koli back to Althanas.

“So where’d be you traveling?”

[matthewkuch]

Gavner sat at a table, studying a map of Althanas. Before Gavner sent the messages to Drake or Koli, he had the merchant search their locations in the world and noticed that both of them were closest to Istraloth. Koli was on the continent of Dheathain, and Drake was Fallien. The merchant had suggested that Gavner meet with them in Istraloth, as they both could access it quickly; it was only inconvenient for Gavner to reach the island.

The vampire had never been to Istraloth before, but he had heard many tales of it. Some said it was a tropical island with many nomads, but that was before it was practically wiped off the face of the world. Everybody knew of it, but nobody went there anymore. Nobody knew why, the place became a forgotten memory. Matthew had talked about it briefly but nothing came to mind for Gavner right now.

After threatening the sailor, Gavner had acquired a map of Althanas and was now planning his way to Istraloth. With the extreme speed of the vampires on his side, Gavner was able to “flit” or run at super speeds as a means of transportation. The approximate flitting speed was very unclear, but it ranged anywhere from 600-2000 miles per hour. It was not so much the vampire running, but the world passing the vampire by. It was extreme, and it was ungodly.

[dracoboy8]

Walking through the sandy dessert he had now reached, Drake strolled into the town in which he had left his body. Walking into the inn where he rest, Drake passed through the door and ascended the stairs. Walking down the hall Drake found his door and walked through it into his room. Sitting on his bed, he lay down in his body and closed his eyes. Drake’s astral body fused with his physical body and he drifted out of consciousness into the land of dreams.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After he woke up, Drake figured he would get right to his mission.

[Hey Matthew,] Drake called out telepathically to his father, [I need to get to Istraloth. Do you think you can take me?]

Drake waited for a few minutes and an answer came back in a voice in Drake’s head; [Of course. I will be there within the hour.]

Drake packed up his blankets and spare clothes, preparing to leave. Walking down the stairs, the half angel approached the bar tender and asked for an omelet. The tender required cash up front and Drake was left to ponder the meaning of money. He did not understand why it was so important to humans; you couldn’t take it with you when you passed from this life, along with many other things. Drugs, sex, and violence was only a temporary pleasure that most were able to feel. Even exhilarating adventures would not last long at all.

Giving the bartender a smile, Drake paid up and gave him a little extra. Looking at the money in surprise, the associate got to work on Drake’s food right away. The small amount of happiness he had caused made the half angel jubilant, it always paid to make somebody’s day.

[Koli]

Koli looked at the captain and realized that he was going to give the priest passage. Walking over to the map of Althanas, Koli noticed that the top of it was clear and lines were drawn all over it. Lines marked currents and tradewinds, courses and routes to all continents; all continents except Istraloth that is. Koli found the spot on the map where Istraloth should have been and noticed that a thick layer of dust obscured the island from view. Placing his finger over the spot where the tropical island would be Koli rubbed off a streak of dust and revealed the circular land mass.

“Istraloth?” The captain said in surprise, “but nobody has been there in years. Decades even!”

Koli looked at the captain with his unfailing white irises. The priest needed to go to Istraloth, and nothing was going to change that.

“No, no we can’t do that.”

Koli stared at the captain.

“It’s far too dangerous!”

Koli held his gaze.

“There are sea monsters and terrible storms on the way from here!”

Koli squinted.

“Plus, nobody in my company has sailed a ship to Istraloth. They have no idea how to get there or deal with the horrors that are on the way.”

The priest looked at the captain who stared at the priest for a long time. Koli then walked up to Skipper and pointed his finger at the sailor’s chest. The captain’s face drooped. He knew he had no excuse any longer. He was the only one who knew how to get to Istraloth, and Koli knew it.

“Alright,” The captain said. “We leave at midnight, the sooner we get on the water the better.”

[matthewkuch]

Gavner made it back to the house that he had bought in Beinost before the first rays of morning light to get some sleep. He waited until almost noon with Eva before they went to sleep until sunset. Gavner planned to flit from Beinost directly to the Tular Planes. When at the Tular Planes, he would continue to the coast where the vampire and his baby wolf would camp out for the day. At first moonlight, they would flit across the water directly to Istraloth, where he would find his friend.

He needed a few supplies; however, before he left. Putting Eva, his map of Althanas, and a bottle of blood he had taken from a human in his black knapsack, Gavner headed out into the town in search of supplies. Entering the shop of the blacksmith that the vampire had once robbed, Gavner asked the metalworker if he had any thick canvas that could be used for shelter from the sun in hot weather.

“Tha’s Rovan bear skin right ther,” said the blacksmith handing a canvas to Gavner. “Made and enchanted to keep out the sun of Fallien.”

“How much will it cost me?”

“N’rmally I charge 500 marks for a fine canvas ‘ike this, but it’ll only cost yeh 200.” The blacksmith said, “A t’ravelin gift for yeh, sonny.”

“Thank you sir,” Gavner said counting out the money. “Your kindness means a lot to me.”

“Yer ‘elcome lad.” The blacksmith replied. “Jus’ be careful.”

[dracoboy8]

After having the omelet that the bartender made for him, Drake left an extra tip and left the tavern. He basked in the morning sun before it turned scorching hot. Drake had been chilled all night in the astral plane; there was no energy to keep the astral body warm while it was in the unnatural dimension. Looking at the slightly different position of the rising sun, Drake could tell that he had been asleep for 3 days after his journey in the astral plane. The sleeping time was always long after a journey, energy regeneration always took a fair amount of time.

Drake’s gaze snapped to the opposite side of the inn as a figure emerged from the side of the building. Looking closely, Drake found that it was his father. Rushing up to the angel, Drake greeted him eagerly. He hadn’t seen his father in over a month.

“It’s nice to see you too, Drake.” Matthew said. “How has your journey fared?”

“Well, actually. I’ve been learning more and more.” Drake replied.

“That is very good. I am very proud of you. Now,” Matthew said, “To take you to Istraloth…”

[Koli]

Koli looked out over the water as he was basked in the moonlight. The sea was choppy, but the ship had a dead tail-wind that pushed them straight towards their destination. Koli walked to the bow of the ship and looked straight ahead. It had been forever since the priest had been able to watch a sea going vessel cut through the harsh waves of the sea. Koli could smell the salt in the air as the wind from the sea blew up into his face. It penetrated through his hood and found his nose.

Deciding that he was too tired to stay up any longer, Koli went below deck to turn in for the night. Reaching his hammock, the priest lay down and drift off to sleep only to be awoken several hours later by a crack of lightening. Rushing up to the deck, Koli found the captain shouting orders to the crew as they were frantically tying things down to the deck. Koli began to help answer the orders of the captain.

The storm drug on for what seemed like hours, but it still did not die out. The ship could not be maneuvered in a storm like this, so it was simply a matter of waiting out the storm.

“Blast it Koli, we could both die on this voyage! What do you need to go to Istraloth for so badly?”

Koli looked at the captain and pointed to his own heart. The priest knew he had business in Istraloth, but if it was left unattended he would never live it down. Realizing this the captain stood down and accepted the situation that he was in.

“I understand, Koli. You better pray to your god that he will keep us safe.”

“Do not worry,” Koli said; speaking to the captain for the first time. “God will surely protect us.”

[matthewkuch]

Gavner watched as he watched the dark landscape zipping past him from all directions; a blur of trees, mountains, and plains all illuminated by the full moon. Gavner cut through the atmosphere like a lubricated knife, no air hit him nor did he get hot from the friction off the atmosphere. Vampire scholars had studied flirting greatly and had the physics down, but Gavner was not one of these scientists. He did know; however, that flitting generated a huge amount of static electricity.

Gavner had been flitting for several hours by this time and started to become weary of his surroundings. He had to pay attention to the landscape so he would know when to change course. Recently he had passed a river, so he knew he had to be close. Sure enough, after about ten minutes he found the geography of the region he was in begin to change greatly. No more trees existed, and the landscape began to flatten out.

Deciding that his course was now requiring a direction change, Gavner slowed to a sprint, and then a jog. Gavner did not want to stop because he knew that if he did he would want to stop and take a breather. He did not have time for a breather; he was over halfway to his destination and the sun would be up in three hours and twenty six minutes. Accelerating to a sprint, Gavner pushed himself even farther to reach flitting speed. The world began to zoom past him once more and he was on track, just as planned.

[dracoboy8]

Matthew dropped Drake off on an island about 400 yards off the main land mass of Istraloth. He found himself in the midst of a seemingly abandoned civilization. There were brilliant structures of marble, pillars and towers with sophisticated buildings of stone resembling houses for giants. All of the structures were roughly fifteen times the size and height of Drake, and the ruins stretched as far as Drake could see in both directions.

Looking towards the main land mass of Istraloth, Drake found a series of mountains that jutted out of the ground in a mountain range that curved away from him in both directions. Rocky land mass surrounded the mountains on the outside, perhaps 200 yards, and it had a mix of small wooded areas, pools of stagnant liquid, patches of sand, and small to large streams. In between the mountains were raised land areas that Drake could not see over. Water was flowing over the rock barricades between the mountains and forming streams that leaked into the ocean water. All of the sea water surrounding Istraloth was a beautiful shade of aqua blue that Drake could see through to a shallow bottom of wrinkled white sand.

Drake wanted to get to the main part of the continent so he could find shelter for the night, but he was unsure of the creatures that were native to Istraloth. The half angel had no idea what was waiting for him, or how it would react to him imposing in it's home. Then there was his summoner to think about. Drake knew that the person who had summoned him to Istraloth most likely was not here yet. Drake planned to hide and catch him by surprise in case he was hostile. Drake also needed to have good insight to judge if his summoner was even hostile in the first place; it would be very embarrassing if he came out prepared for a fight and it was one of his friends. Drake did not have many friends in the first place though.

As the angel played out all scenarios in his mind, he was jolted awake as a faint roaring noise came from the other side of the mountains. Whatever was beyond those land masses did not seem too friendly.

[Koli]

The captain jumped, startled. "Koli, you can speak?"

The priest nodded his head. After the death of Abbas Amo, Koli had never felt the will to speak. He adopted a policy with himself that he would never speak unless it was absolutely nessicary. This irritated many of the monks at the brotherhood, but Koli always found a way to communicate with them about things he needed to.

"You haven't spoken to me ever." The captain said. Koli shrugged his shoulders and the captain sighed. "Can you speak more often, so it's easier for me to know what you want me to do?"

Koli shook his head and pointed at the captain. He then looked up at the ceiling and pointed up. Shortly afterwards he placed his hands together in prayer position. The captain sighed as he knew what Koli wanted him to do. Skipper had not prayed in over a year. When the brotherhood turned, the company owner had lost all faith in The Lord. He looked at his old friend and shook his head.

"Koli, you will be the death of is."

The priest shook his head. No captain, Koli thought, your prayers will be the life of us.

[matthewkuch]

Gavner jogged across the ashy landscape with his best friend Eva by his side. With every step they took, ash puffed up in a beautiful cloud behind them. A large mass of ash and dust was kicked up behind Gavner and Eva as they slowly made their way through the Tular planes. A thick layer of volcanic ash coated the ground of the planes from the disastrous and unforgiving landmasses. The Tular Planes was a large expanse of land that was constantly flooded with molten rock from seismic and volcanic eruptions.

The ground began to shake and Gavner saw ash begin to puff away from an area far off to his right from a sudden release of gas.

"Flit left!" Gavner shouted to Eva over the eruption, and they accelerated with insane speed away from the eruption site.

As Gavner and Eva zipped away from the area of danger, a pillar of fire and lava exploded from the ground where Gavner had seen the sudden discharge of gas. The release of fire and lava shot up into the air like a beacon in the night. Even though Gavner and Eva were far enough away from the eruption, the heat felt like it singed the hair on his head.

Slowing to a jog once more, Gavner and Eva continued to chug along the Planes, they came to several close calls, but before the night was over they reached their last leg. Gavner had heard of the volcanos on these planes, but this one was the most renown. It was called the sleeping giant. An enormous pillar of marble stood randomly in the middle of the desert, signifying the presence of this disaster waiting to happen.


The Tular Planes south of Alerar were a mine field to begin with, but there was one volcano that was the most dangerous among the rest. Volcanic activity was a normal occurrence in the planes, but the sleeping giant was larger than all of the other volcanoes. Towering higher than any natural, the sleeping giant was a volcano that remained dormant for completely unpredictable ammounts of time, but could become active and erupt in a matter of seconds. When the sleeping giant erupted, the entire mountain exploded. The volcano was decimated and a spurt of lava gushed into the air for weeks, even months. When the mountain was large enough the top sealed off and pressure began to build. According to one of his informants, Gavner found that the sleeping giant had not erupted in over a year. It was long overdue.

[dracoboy8]

Drake was now faced with two real possible situations as the sun began to set. He could find a way to the continent where he would seek refuge and find food among the natural vegetation, or he could find shelter in the ruins. Possibly making use of the old structures, Drake might be able to find something useful from the ruined city, but the vegetation provided far more cover. After a few minutes of contemplation, Drake decided to make his way to the main land mass while svabenging the ruins for anything useful.

Walking to the edge of the sand bank he was on, Drake figured he could easily jump the distance between him and the nearest island. Stepping back, Drake ran and cleared the gap with extra room to spare. The island was about 100x50 feet, and he did not find anything useful in the rubble. The second island, he found, was going to be more difficult to clear than the first. It was a bit farther, but Drake thought he might have been able to clear it had he had a running start.

Backing up, Drake sprinted for the edge and landed with one foot in the sand and one foot in the water. Stumbling up onto the island, Drake shook the water off of his foot. It was not as he had expected. The water was warm and tropical as opposed to the winter frigid waters that he was used to. Drake was completely unfamiliar with the climate of Istraloth, but now that he thought of it the weather was not extreme or bad. It was not what he had expected at all. Drake looked back into the water, and then at the next island. If he was going to make it to the main land mass without getting wet, he was going to in for a difficult task.

[Koli]

“Aye lads,” the captain shouted, “we’re not going to make it out of this one on the other side. Alter course for Scara Brae!”

No! Koli thought, we can still make it!

Koli started for the higher deck but as he approached the captain he remembered that Skipper knew what he was doing. He was far more experienced in sailing than Koli had ever been, and Koli would do best to let him captain the ship.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
About thirty minutes after the course change, the ship seemed to be moving out of the storm. The rain and lightning stopped, the sky began to clear, then Scara Brae was visible. Koli began to wonder how they were sailing so fast, but they were intercepted before he could ponder on it too much. Koli was up on deck as they began to make port.

“Unidentified vessel,” They heard from the dock, “prepare to be boarded.”

Raising the merchant flag to signify their innocence, the captain came down on the deck as four soldiers and a uniformed officer stepped on board. They were dressed in white, and the officer had an angular hat.

“State your name and business,” the officer said producing a quill and clipboard.

“Skipper Daily, owner of Dheathain Trading and Shipyard Company.” The captain replied.

“Skipper,” said the officer. “What is so important that you would personally captain a ship? You haven’t sailed in over twenty years.”

“Aye, I remember the days of being an old seadog.” Said Skipper, “Commandeering a vessel to work my way up the ranks. Anyways, we encountered a terrible storm and found ourselves ill prepared so we sought refuge here.”

“Very well, be on your way to port.”

[matthewkuch]

Making it safely past the sleeping giant, Gavner and Eva made camp for the day. Protected from the sun by the bear canvas, Gavner and Eva slept safely until sunset. Gavner had taken out his map and was making a rough estimate of the distance from the end of the Tular planes to Istraloth. Gavner noticed that his map was drawn mostly to scale, and it would probably take him all night to reach the island. Lying down, Gavner soaked up the last bit of sleep he could get before the big night ahead of him.

Rising at the first light of the moon, Gavner packed the bear canvas and placed Eva into his knapsack. She was still exhausted from the day before, and Gavner had been going easy on her. Now that he thought of it, he could go much faster and maybe make it to Istraloth in ¾ the time. Gavner backed up about 100 yards and prepared to flit the water. He had only flitted on water once before and that was with Fintin, Gavner’s mentor. They had merely gone over the art of flitting on water, and Gavner did not flit for very long.

Gavner began to walk for a few feet, and then he accelerated to a jog. Reaching a full-fledged sprint with about 75 yards of space, Gavner soon hit flitting speed. Instantly Gavner was on the water, and all landscape disappeared. He felt Eva stir in his bag, but Gavner could not stop. If he stopped when he was on the water, he would sink. After sinking into the water, Gavner could not reach flitting speed because he could not normally run on water. No, there would be no stopping now until he reached Istraloth.

[dracoboy8]

Drake was now on the last island. There was now one gap of water between him and the main island of Istraloth. The only problem was, there was no way that Drake would clear the space.

“Well, I guess I could get a little wet.” Drake said.

Walking to the edge, Drake removed his backpack and threw it over the clearance. Backing up, Drake ran to the edge and leapt as far as he could. He made it about ¾ the way and fell into the warm, tropical water. As soon as his feet hit the water though, Drake wished he wouldn’t have entered the water. Off in the distance to his right, the half angel saw a shadow rising out of the water. Higher and higher the figure emerged, and Drake knew he was in trouble. Swimming hand over hand as fast as he could, he made it to shore and ran for the inland.

When he was about 15 feet from the shore, Drake looked back at the water to see the green and scaly head of a sea-serpent that was swimming in the water. A shudder ran through his body as he thought of the chaos that could have befallen him. Picking up his backpack, Drake looked at the shore that he was on. The rocky plain extended about 500 yards until it reached the base of the huge mountains. Drake stared around in awe as the sun set on Istraloth. There was a forest to his right, small streams up ahead of him that led into the sea, and another forest about 200 yards to his left. Sand pits scattered the open land, but they held a different color than normal sand.

Ignoring the rest of the landscape, Drake walked into the forest and began to explore the strange terrain.

[Koli]

With midday approaching, Koli sought out Skipper.

“Koli, what is it?” The captain said. The priest made a motion as if he was checking a time piece with his hand. “Ohhh, I understand.” The captain replied.

“Phillip!” Skipper shouted, “What’s the ETA on those preparartions?”

“I’d say we got ‘bout 2 hours of beefin’ up to do cap! After this she’ll be ready for any storm ‘ats thrown her way!” a sailor shouted from the mast.

“Thank you Lad!” The captain shouted back. “Nice kid. It looks like you have a bit of time to yourself Koli, go and enjoy Scara Brae. You deserve a few hours of relaxation.”

Reluctant to leave, Koli hung on the deck for a half an hour before he finally entered the small town. Not wishing to mix with the crowd of the tavern, Koli found the marketplace and listened to a man who was telling a story.

“And there I saw it, a knife of pure Adamantine!” The man said excitedly.

Koli was suddenly stricken with the memories of his childhood. He remembered learning about Adamantine when he was a boy, all monks were taught about materials of Althanas, but he never learned much about it afterwards. Koli knew that it was the strongest metal in the world save icemold but that was the extent of his knowledge. Abbas Amo told Koli of a mage in Eluriand that knew the secrets of Adamantine, but Koli had yet to set out to find him.

The priest looked around the market for awhile, but he soon grew restless and returned to the ship. After what seemed like far more than 2 hours, Skipper finally got the okay that the ship was ready to go. Setting out, Koli looked at Scara Brae with many things on his mind. The priest drifted off, dreaming of what could be waiting on Istraloth.

[matthewkuch]

Gavner collapsed on the rocky shore of Istraloth as the last light of the moon. Gavner lay on the shore for about a half an hour while tropical waves flooded his boots. Realizing that the sun was going to be rising soon, Gavner rose and started for the wooded area. Pitching the canvas, he and Eva slept once more, all through the day. Waking up at the first moonlight, Gavner noticed the extreme hunger pains in his stomach for the first time. Telling Eva to wait, he started off into the woods to search for game. He soon came across a giant mass of fur that seemed to be sleeping.

Thinking that it was some sort of Bear, Gavner found what he thought what its head was and drew his sharp nails across its throat. The beast ceased to breathe and Gavner examined it to identify what kind of feast he had just acquired. He was startled to find that it had the face of a llama.

“Having fun killing animals?” Somebody said from behind him.

Pulling up his hood, Gavner stood up and whirled around to find a hooded figure waiting for him. “I have not had a decent meal in a long time.” The vampire replied.

“Decent meals are difficult to come by. As are interesting battles,” the hooded figure said.

“So it is a duel you want… Then a duel you will get.” Gavner replied leaping at his opponent.

[dracoboy8]

Walking into the wooded area, Drake scanned the dimming terrain. He spotted trees of different species and very little plant life. The trees seemed to grow directly out of gravel, and there were no familiar leaf patterns on them. The ground did not sport fallen leaves or dirt, but was made of thousands of very small rocks. Drake did not see any disturbances in the gravel, so he did not know if any wildlife existed here or not. Walking up to one of the trees Drake examined one closely and noticed that what looked like bark was actually hundreds of very small spikes that stuck out from the tree. Lifting his finger to one of them, Drake thought of touching it but he pulled back in fear of the unknown. Pulling out one of his Shurikens, Drake gently touched the tip of one and examined his weapon.

It was difficult to see in the low light, but Drake found that a dark substance had been deposited on his throwing star. This was no doubt poison for intruders like him. Pressing down on the spike harder, Drake found that it exploded sending the dark stuff all over his weapon. Enlightened about these malicious trees, Drake made sure not to touch them as he drew near. Examining the leaves, Drake found that they had five main sections and one rounded edge. He noticed the frightening resemblance between this leaf and a human hand. Continuing on, Drake noticed the first animal he had seen here. It looked like a giant llama that was 2x the size of a normal one. It walked very slowly, almost carefully, with it's ears back the whole time. It was almost as this animal was stalking, or avoiding.

Deciding that here was a better place than any, Drake lay down and wrap himself in his warm grey wings. They were not yet charged, so he could not fly. Matthew told Drake of a day he could fly, but that day was not any time soon. Drake drifted off into a light sleep, but was awoken about 2 hours later to the sound of crunching gravel. Drake stood up and sweeper the area with his eyes. It was dark and difficult to see, but Drake was able to make out a dark figure. Slowly following the person at a distance, Drake saw him crouch down to something. Drake thought it looked like a rock at first, but then he realized that it was the llama.

"Having fun killing animals?" Drake said. It made him angry that this person would kill an innocent creature like this. Perhaps this person was a poacher.

"I have not had a decent meal in a long time," said the figure. This upset Drake even more. How could somebody eat a llama.

"Decent meals are difficult to come by," Drake said. "As are interesting battles."

"So it is a battle you want," the figure said. By this time he had stood up and was staring at Drake with glowing red eyes. Drake defiantly stared back with his glowing blue irises. "Then a battle you will get."

[Koli]

This time the captain was confident when the ship hit the storm. The vessel gracefully cut through the waves despite the howling rain and sideways wind. At this time Koli began to notice certain instruments on the ship. Out of all the sails on top that were furled, one was released in the middle of the mast. It was relatively small, it only had to be 2x2 feet, and it was orange colored. Approaching the captain, Koli pointed to the sail and looked at his friend puzzledly.

"Oh, did you know that this is the fastest ship I own? I worked on it myself for years. Just as I finished it the owner of the company stepped down and gave the whole thing to me. That is a wind catcher, no matter what direction the wind blows, the sail captures all wind in a 20 foot radius and feeds off it."

Koli now knew how the ship was so fast, but he was still puzzled as to how the ship was modified to withstand the storm. He would ask the captain later.

About 6 hours later the ship cleared the storm, and the sky remained dark. The moon began to show itself, but Koli knew the night had just begun. Relaxing as the ship sailed smoothly through the water, Koli dozed off without realizing it. When he woke up, he found that the captain was gently shaking him.

"Evening Koli," said Skipper. "We're here."

Taking the captain's extended hand, Koli stood up and started for the edge of the ship. Looking out over the landscape Koli found that the ship had been sailed directly up to the main landmass of Istraloth. He did not have much light, but he would observe the island in the morning. Shaking the captain’s hand in thanks, Koli leapt off the ship and onto one of the sand banks. He was now on Istraloth.

[matthewkuch]

Gavner closed the distance between him and his opponent. The hooded figure was not extremely quick, but Gavner was exhausted by this time. The assailant sent a round kick at the vampire’s face, but Gavner jumped at the last minute in attempt to avoid it. Missing his face, the kick hit Gavner just below the shoulder. Landing on his feet, Gavner switched to a defensive mindset. The hooded enemy sent a well placed punch at Gavner’s face, but he easily avoided it due to the basic attack.

Pushing his foe in the chest, Gavner sent the person stumbling back and messed his balance. Stepping back, Gavner waited for the next move. The assailant ripped something from his belt and threw it at Gavner’s face. Bending back, Gavner watched as a shiny piece of metal soared overhead. While he did this, his hood fell down revealing Gavner’s identity. Gavner was glad that he could see well in the dark; being among the children of the night had its perks.

Standing upright, Gavner leapt for his enemy and tackled him to the ground. Forcing his enemy to tumble backwards, Gavner pinned the person on the ground by his shoulders.

[It took you long enough] Gavner heard as a voice flooded his mind. This startled Gavner. He was not fond of anything invading his mind. Eva had established a telepathic connection with him, but that was it.

[Ahh, Eva, help!] Gavner cried as he felt the invasive presence…

[dracoboy8]

Drake saw the hooded figure leap towards him. Wasting no time he dealt a round kick and aimed right for the enemy’s head. Leaping in the air, the enemy evaded the blow with his face but nursed it in his arm. As his foe reached the ground, Drake punched his enemy’s face but caught nothing but air as the assailant evaded and pushed the angel in the chest. Drake knew what to do; he had to teach this poacher a lesson.

Yanking a throwing star from his belt, Drake gracefully sent it flyihng at his enemy’s face. The poacher bent backwards at the waist with exceptional poise and snapped back up. When the enemy had bent back his hood had came down. Drake was now staring into the face of an old friend.

“Gav-“ Drake started, but it was too late. His friend tackled him and pinned him to the ground. Knowing that the ally would not hear him out, Drake spoke to him telepathically.

[It took you long enough.]

The man stared at Drake for a few more seconds and Drake began to feel a sharp pain sting through his mind. A headache was forming, and the angel’s attention began to wander.

“No, Gavner it’s me Drake!” The celestial cried out. The pain in his mind quelled and Gavner got off of Drake at once.

“I had suspicion, that’s why I did not kill you.” Gavner said. “Good fight.”

“So why are we here?” The angel asked, “I’ve never been to Istraloth before.”

“Neither have I, but it was the place most convenient for all of us to meet at one time.”

“All of us?” Drake asked puzzled.

“Yeah, I told Koli to come too.” Drake became excited at this. Koli, Drake, Gavner, and Black Shadow had once before gone on a quest. They made a great team, but he was eager to reunite with his allies as well.

“Let’s go ambush him.”

[Koli]

Koli began to walk on the banks of Istraloth, not knowing who had summoned him here. The priest was on edge, waiting for a challenge. He did not wish to kill anyone, or to fight quite yet, but he would be ready if he had to. There were large mountains to his left, a forest in front of him, and sea to his right. A wide array of islands and ruined old buildings littered the sea for miles outwards. Koli wanted to explore Istraloth, but finding his summoner was his top priority.

Approaching the woods, Koli walked to the banks. Just before he stepped in the woods, the priest heard a forlorn-sounding roar in the distance. He had not heard a roar quite like this one before, but he assumed it was not friendly.

Looking down, time seemed to stop as he saw the foot of an attacker rushing at him. Out of the corner of his eye, Koli could see the shadow of another enemy out of the corner of his eye, and he knew that he was not only being attacked by one person. Grabbing the foot of the person with his right hand, Koli twisted it upside down and threw it up in the air in a matter of seconds. Crouching low and turning around Koli stepped towards the person on the other side and grabbed the assailant’s leg over his right shoulder. Standing up Koli threw the person over his back and turned around to meet the first attacker who was undoubtedly up already.

Watching as the enemy charged at him, Koli waited until the person was less than two feet away to turn sideways and slip past them on the right side. Stepping behind the person Koli got low and grappled them between the legs once more and threw the person over his shoulder. Leaping to his left and turning to his right, the sea was now to Koli’s back. The first enemy had gotten up and was now waiting for the second. As both of them got to their feet Koli noticed that the two of his enemies were hooded. They both began to close in on him and Koli once more waited until they were less than 3 feet from him. One began to make a move but Koli stepped forward and leapt up into the air.

Practicing one of the moves taught to him by Jalaphar himself, Koli kicked both assailants each in the left pectoral- each with one foot. This pressure point knocked the wind out of both the aggressors and sent them to the ground. Koli stood over both enemies as they lay on the ground gasping for air. Koli waited to see if they would attack him again, but he was not one to make the first move. He did not want to hurt these people but he would act in self defense.

“Okay Gavner, I think he beat us.”

[matthewkuch]

“No, Gavner it’s me Drake!”

Gavner had known it was Drake all along, but he was just unsure of himself. The vampire was so exhausted and was eager to stop this fight.

[It’s okay Eva, you can stand down,] Gavner said.

Gavner told Drake about how he figured it was him, and how Koli was coming as well.

“Let’s ambush him,” Drake said.

“Drake, I am not sure that is a wise idea.” Gavner replied. “Koli is far more skilled in combat than we are.”

“Oh come on, it won’t be that bad.” Drake said. “We outnumber him.”

Before the vampire could protest Drake headed off to the edge of the forest. Gavner followed and they waited at the edge of the forest. They waited in this area for a time, and Eva came to Gavner dragging his knapsack.

“Oh, thanks Eva,” Gavner whispered to his baby wolf. “That was very sweet of you.”

“You talk to your wolf cub?” Drake said.

“Shut up.”

“Shhh he is coming!”

Gavner looked out at the beach where he saw the priest approaching, garbed fully in white with a white hood. He walked all the way to the edge of the woods without noticing the two attackers ready to pounce just feet away. A distant noise caught his attention, and Drake slipped around behind him. Gavner knew that this was the time to attack, so he stepped out and sent a kick directly for Koli’s face.

Everything happened so quickly, Koli reacted instantly and Gavner was flipped over and fell to the ground on his stomach in a matter of seconds. Getting up to his feet Gavner noticed the priest throwing Drake over his shoulder. Lowering his center of gravity, Gavner charged at Koli who did not evade. At the last second the priest sidestepped the vampire and picked him up from behind. Throwing Gavner over his shoulder, the priest slipped out of range.

Gavner got to his feet and noticed that Drake had been waiting from him. They both cornered Koli, and he had nowhere to run. They really had him now, Gavner did not know how Koli was going to escape this one. Before he knew it, Gavner and Drake were on the ground with the wind knocked out of them. Their sneak attack on Koi had severely backfired, and Ganver was ready to claim defeat.

“Okay Gavner, I think he beat us.”

[dracoboy8]

Drake felt like a fool for talking Gavner into attacking Koli. Drake should have just trusted the vampire and greeted the fellow warmly, but Drake wanted to play a trick on the priest. What a backfire.

“Okay Gavner, I think he beat us.” Drake claimed, defeated with no breath left.

“Finally some words of sense out of your mouth.” Gavner sneered. “Koli it is okay, just Gavner and Drake here.”

The priest walked over to Drake and extended his hand. The half angel took it gratefully and stood up. Koli made the same gesture to Gavner who brushed himself off after getting to his feet.

“Thank you for coming Koli, I have brought you here for a reason which I shall explain later,” Said Gavner. “Right now I am starving. Let us eat.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Koli started a fire from the sticks on the poison trees (only the bark had spikes) as Drake looked for some natural seasonings. Gavner cut up the llama that he had killed and began to cook it over the fire. Gathering up some natural herbs, Drake returned to camp to find Gavner chatting with Koli about his trip up. The priest never replied, but Drake knew that he rarely spoke to anybody. He did; however, speak to the party before on their previous mission so Drake did know he could talk. Koli just did not talk often.

Koli only ate the herbs that Drake offered, but Drake and Gavner ate the giant mountain llama seasoned with the herbs that Drake brought back. After eating, Drake and Gavner noticed the sun was rising so Gavner pitched a tent out of some fancy skin and curled up with his little wolf cub.

“Goodmornign guys,” Gavner said. “I will talk to you in the evening.”

“Goodmorning,” Drake said as he curled up in the gravel wrapping his wings around his head to keep out the sun.

Koli merely nodded and sat up, keeping watch.

[Koli]

Koli was relieved to find that his two attackers were his friends. The priest did not want to kill, or senselessly fight people who would keep coming when they could not defeat the elite.

“Thank you for coming Koli, I have brought you here for a reason which I shall explain later,” Said Gavner. “Right now I am starving. Let us eat.”

Koli did not notice his hunger pains until now, but he still did not think too much of them. Gavner asked if Koli could make a fire, and Drake volunteered to get herbs for the food. Taking branches that he could scavenge, Koli used a technique that Abbas Amo had taught him while training him for outdoor survival and a fire was going in under five minutes.

“So Koli, how have you been lately?” Gavner asked.

The priest shrugged stared into the fire. He did not know how he was feeling. Feelings, after all, were just emotions right? All emotions were merely temporary and consequently were insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Emotions were as temporary as a flower. They were present for a season, and then they disappeared. But comparing emotions to flowers was comparing emotions to life, and life was temporary. But if one were to look at his life as temporary, he would see it as insignificant. Such would be a waste of one’s life.

Drake brought back plants that Koli took gratefully. When everybody had finished eating, they turned in so they would be able to speak with Gavner the next night. Koli, however, remained awake for half of the day. He wanted to watch over his friends, protect them. Save them.

[matthewkuch]

When Gavner woke up, the sun was setting on the horizon. Koli was sleeping as Drake lay with his face wrapped in his wings. He looked at Eva who was fast asleep in his arms. Gavner remembered when he had first met her; her family had found him in the woods and lain on him to protect him from the sunlight. He tried to leave but he couldn’t, and they died in the end because of it. Eva had been spared and Gavner took her in. They loved each other so much, and they both mourned for her family every now and then.

He reached out to her mind to see what she was dreaming of. Little Eva was running around in a meadow of daisies with her parents. She felt very happy and Gavner could feel the rich emotion flowing through his veins. Eva’s emotions were more potent than any others he had ever felt before. She often shared them with him telepathically, and Gavner shared his with her as well.

Drake began to stir, and Koli opened his eyes as if he had been awake the whole time. Koli and Drake cooked dinner as the sun went down and Gavner waited until dark to emerge. After everybody had eaten, Gavner addressed his friends to tell them why he had gathered them in Istraloth.

“I need your help, Koli. Recently I have been informed of a holiday, Christmas it is called, and it celebrates a concept unknown to us at this time. I am not sure that I fully understand it now, but in celebration of the concept friends give each other gifts to show how much they care for each other.”

Koli nodded, and Drake leaned forward with interest.

“I am going to get a bow for Black Shadow, but I have no idea what kind of bow to get him. A quiver of arrows would also be nice. Vampires never use these weapons to fight with, so naturally I have no knowledge of them in any way shape or form. Can you help me select a bow and obtain the materials necessary to create it?”

[dracoboy8]

Drake could not fall asleep. He tried nearly everything; he counted wings, he thought of random things, he tried to plan out what he was going to do next, but somehow he kept finding himself awake. Rising from his spot on the ground, Drake made sure not to disturb anybody, and exited the small wooded are that they took refuge in.

Maybe I can get some fish for us.

Drake thought as he walked out. Looking over the landscape Drake shielded his eyes with his hand as the sunrise shone into his eyes. The angel stretched out his wings and closed his eyes, letting his hand down. Stretching out, Drake basked in the sun as it drove away the night. The half angel knew that he would not be seeing much of the sun if he were to be around Gavner. Last time he was on a quest with the vampire they never traveled during the day due to his sensitive skin. Up ahead away from the wooded area, there were more ruins. Drake still wondered who had lived here, but he knew that he would never know. This island was nothing but a huge mystery.

Walking into the ruins, Drake found a large box made of wood. It was about as tall as him, but one of the sides were destroyed. Walking into the box, Drake found a large spool of rope and a net on the floor. Drake checked the supplies and found that neither of them were too rotted or destroyed. The half angel knew that the ropes wouldn't hold extreme amounts of weight, but they would hold. Looking around he found two double pulley systems; the civilization must have been much more advanced than Drake had suspected.

Dragging the fishing supplied over to the wooded area, Drake brought the huge spool of rope into camp where Gavner and Koli were sleeping, making sure not to bump his wings on the trees. Unraveling rope from the spool, he grabbed Gavner's hand and used his razor sharp fingernails to cut the rope like a knife. After cutting two long pieces of rope, Drake left the rope and returned to the seashore. Tying two of the ropes to the net he placed it in the water while fastening the other ends of the ropes onto trees and rigging the pulley systems. Walking into the camp, Drake unraveled more rope and made himself a bed on the hard gravel. He gently tapped Koli and pointed to his own bed, asking the priest if he would like Drake to do the same for him. The priest shook his head buts Drake made him one anyways. Wrapping his head in his wings once more, Drake went to sleep.

[Koli]

Koli peacefully kept his eyes closed, listening to the waves wash onto the shore. Another menacing roar rang out in the distance and Koli wonder what waited on the island. Drake rose and walked out of the woods. Koli did not know what the angel was doing, but he assumed that Drake would return. The angel did return and made a bed for himself and Koli before leaving once more. This time he returned, the angel stayed. Koli dozed off for most of the day, but Drake began to stir at sunset. The two friends made dinner as Gavner could not step into the light of the setting sun.

The food was done, and by the time they had finished eating the moon had begn to rise. Gavner came out and sat by the fire with Drake and Koli.

“I need your help, Koli.” Gavner said.

As soon as Koli heard the question that Gavner had proposed, the priest’s mind raced. Among all the bows and wood he had come across in Althanas, there was a certain type of bow that was so powerful that it was the awe of all archers; an Ulder Livol bow. Crafted out of some of the rarest wood in all of Althanas, it was extremely deadly. The only problem; the only place Koli knew he could find it was in the Red Forest.

[matthewkuch]

“Ulder Livol.” Koli said in his ominous, articulate voice. “Most powerful bow make in Althanas.”

Gavner did not know anything about trees but just by its name he could tell it was teeming with power. As for the Red Forest… Gavner had never been there but he had heard of the place before. Those who ventured into the place rarely made it out. Those who made it out to tell the tale spoke of vicious and ungodly mutations and variations of monsters and deadly creatures. This trip would be an unforgiving one.

“Ulder Livol!?” Drake cried, “that’s a death sentence!”

Koli nodded and Gavner smiled. Drake’s reactions to things always had a certain effect that brightened the vampire’s day.

“I suppose you want adamantine arrows too?” The angel said sarcastically. Koli nodded and Drake’s eye twitched.

“Then we had best be ready. Are you in, Drake?” Gavner asked.

“Well the Red Forest is singlehandedly one of the most dangerous places in all of Althanas, and it is virtually impossible to obtain new adamantine…” The angel scoweled.

“Why not,” he said smiling. Drake laughed and playfully punched Gavner in the arm. “You didn’t think I would let you have all that fun on your own would you?”

“Well then,” Gavner said smiling, “let us get to work!”

[dracoboy8]

“So I am dying to find out what is on the other side of those mountains. I want to go and explore a little before we head out if that’s okay.”

Drake was always very curious by nature, but Istraloth seemed like a forgotten land that had been lost in time. It wasn’t every day that somebody got to tour an abandoned island.

“Very well,” Gavner said, “but just for one day. Tomorrow night we set off for Raiaera.”

When Gavner and Koli were ready to set out, they headed out for the sea shore. When they reached the open area they headed out towards one of the mountains. The moon shone brightly on the water and illuminated the waves as they rode to the shore. Looking up at the mountain pass, Drake had a feeling that something was not right. When they three reached the base of the nearest mountain, Gavner led the way up the side. The vampire led them on an extremely strenuous trek vertically up the mountain.

“Hey Gavner,” Drake panted after about five minutes, “do you think we could take some switchbacks? This incline is killing me.”

“Sure,” the vampire replied and he began to veer off to the side.

About halfway to the side of the mountain they came across a path that led up the mountain in perfect switchbacks. The party trooped up the mountain and Drake had to call to Gavner for several breathers. They got three quarters of the way up the mountain and ended up reaching a clearing of trees. From here to the top of the mountain, there were no trees; the peak of the mountain was bare. They found, after walking around to the other side of the mountain, that a stone ledge was cut into the side of the mountain. An abandoned mine shaft entered the giant stone mass from the side, but what they found when they turned around was much bigger a discovery than a mine…

[Koli]

Koli could not understand how Drake was getting so tired so quickly. First he asked if the party could take switchbacks, which would only slow them down, and then he tired very quickly.

Teenagers, Koli thought.

Most of the mountains on Istraloth were forested, so the group was constantly weaving around trees. These trees were nothing like the trees below on the sand which Drake pointed out. Istraloth had a wide array of plant species and vegetation that littered the forests and banks, but the only animal species he had seen was the llama that Gavner killed.

They made it three quarters of the way up the mountain and all trees ceased to grow. Gavner decided to take the party around the mountain. On the other side of the mountain there was a stone ledge cut into the side, and led to an abandoned mine shaft. Koli heard a gasp from behind him and turned to see Gavner staring out into the middle of the ring of mountains. Curious to see what was happening; Koli glanced in and was awe-stricken.

In the middle of the ring was a huge lake that extended in all directions. To the left and right the mountains extended and curved in a circular pattern, but they disappeared out of view. Over the mountains and the lake were enormous beasts with scales and wings. Some were larger than life, and some were rather small, but they came in all different colors. Fire lit up certain sections of the sky as some monsters were fighting and others were flying from mountain tops to mountain tops.

Koli had only ever heard legends of these beasts; Istraloth had become a dragon haven.

[matthewkuch]

“What is Istraloth?” Gavner asked. He and Matthew had been talking on the way to the superhuman colony and the subject of the continent had come up.

“Istraloth is a dead forum.” Matthew replied, “It used to be its own place to write but nobody really made any stories there in the first place. They closed off the posting permissions and archived the whole forum. Nobody has been there ever since.”

Everybody knew about Istraloth, but it was of such little significance that people forgot about it. Nobody cared enough to go there. Looking around at the island, Gavner could tell that this place was abandoned. A once beautiful island full of life and bustling with people was now dead and desolate. Nothing but vegetation and very few animals lived there, the geography had changed, and land itself looked forlorn.

But even though the continent had been forgotten, a nearly extinct race had risen out of the ashes and made it their stronghold. Nobody had ever truly seen a real dragon, but everybody knew somebody who had seen a dragon before. Everybody had heard stories of the ancient and mythical beasts but they were only stories. Now, living on a continent that shared the same fate, the dragons found a way to continue their race on a forgotten continent.

“Woah,” Gavner marveled, “dragons!”

[dracoboy8]

“Have any of you ever actually seen a dragon before?” Drake asked.

“Not until now,” Gavner replied. “There are legends but that’s pretty much it.”

Drake was amazed. The dragons really were everything that the legends had described them to be, he could only imagine what they would be like in the day time. Gavner started marveling to Koli about their find but Drake heard something in the distance. Turning around he walked to the other side of the mountain and saw a huge black Dragon flying directly towards their mountain.

“… what this means! We can learn dragon lore and-”

“Umm, guys?” Drake said running back to them as Gavner was still talking to Koli.

“If we could somehow get an egg, we would have a hatchling to raise.”

“Guys!”

“I could not imagine raising a dragon.”

“GUYS!”

“What, Drake? What?” Gavner said irritably.

“First we need to get away from that Dragon!”

[Koli]

Gavner and Koli looked up at the peak of the mountain as a jet black Dragon swooped over and spotted the three on the mountain ledge.

“Get in the mine!” Gavner shouted and they all sprinted for the shaft.

Koli picked Drake up and threw him into the abandoned mine entrance. Gavner was next, and Koli brought up the rear making sure that the other two made it safely before him. The Dragon landed on the edge of the mountain and snapped at Koli who had made it into the mine just in time. The Dragon’s head was far too big to fit into the mine, but he kept slamming against the entrance.

“Deeper into the mine before it caves in.” Gavner commanded.

The party continued farther into the fissure, away from the moonlight and into the suffocating darkness. They ran down the tunnel, not able to see anything. The dragon could still be heard pounding on the mine, but now it only sounded like the dull throbbing of a resting heartbeat.


“Okay I think we can stop now,” Koli heard Gavner say from several feet away. “Drake, let me lead. I can see in the dark.”

“Do you think there is a way out?” Drake asked.

“There should be, the miners should have dug multiple exits and secondary shafts for air in case of cave-ins. It’s just a matter of finding them.”

Koli looked around, no light was available. “God please help us now.”

[matthewkuch]

Gavner knew that Koli was a priest but he rarely heard him speak, let alone about God. Gavner remembered Matthew talking to him about this God, but he was not interested in it. Matthew said he was not ready yet or something but Gavner had not paid much attention in general. The tunnel that Drake Koli and Gavner were in was musty and damp, but rather large. There were no tracks for mine cars but it looked like wheelbarrows and mining tools littered the walls.

“Come on, there has to be some sort of light around here…” Gavner muttered as he searched the place. He did not have perfect vision in the dark, his eyes had not fully matured into those of a vampire yet, but he could make out shapes and silhouettes of things.

“Aha!” Gavner exclaimed as he searched a wall and found a torch.

The vampire walked up to the side of the tunnel and stuck his hand on the wall. Carving out a stone with his sharp fingernails Gavner yanked out a roughly cut rock. Placing his other hand on the wall to repeat the gesture, he felt something on the back of his hand. The vampire did not bother to look because he thought it was merely his imagination, but then he felt a sharp pain stab into the back of his hand, and a fire-like pain burn all up his arm. Flipping around his hand and slamming it against the wall, Ganver heard a loud pop, followed by a screech and the feeling of slime splattering all over his hand. Quickly grabbing the other stone, the vampire struck the two rocks together over the torch and it instantly came to life. The vampire looked at the back of his hand and noticed a nasty inflammation about the size of a golf ball surrounding two holes.

“Um, Gavner?” Drake said. “I know this may be a bad time right now but… look at the walls of the cave.”

The vampire looked up to see hundreds of eyes staring at him from the walls and ceiling of the tunnel.

“Xczunge.”

[dracoboy8]

“I think it’s time we got going…”

Drake grabbed the torch and took off down the tunnel followed by Gavner, Koli taking up the rear. The angel came to a bend in the tunnel. He spun right and sprinted down the mine shaft as fast as he could. The sound of spiders following them rang out through the tunnel; it sounded like a huge gust of wind.

“Holy crap, there must be way more than we thought!” Drake shouted back.

Drake came to a ‘Y’ in the path, and he heard Gavner shout for him to go left. Altering his course quickly, Drake barreled down the tunnel which led into a huge cavern. Everybody was blinded by an extremely white light that exploded throughout the entire cave. Blinking out the blindness, Drake stared around in awe to see chunks of white metal lodged into the surrounding grey rock. The flash off of the white metal had blinded their eyes that had not yet adjusted to the drastic change in lighting.

“What are you doing, keep going!” Gavner yelled as Drake stood gaping at the cave.

Drake ran to the exit at the other end of the cavern and sprinted through another tunnel. The stone enclosures had tons of twists and turns, bends and forks. Different paths, Ys and forks that all made the party unsure of themselves, but they always pushed through. Drake came to another cave, but this time it was filled with beautiful blue chunks of metal.

After running through the mine for over a twenty minutes, Drake finally felt a draft against his face. He followed the fresh air, and found an exit shaft which Gavner, Drake, and Koli burst out of and ran down the hill. Koli now led the way, down onto the beach and along the shoreline. He finally stopped and Drake did not understand why he had brought them here.

“Where did you take us?’ Drake said irritably, “we could be at camp by now.”

“You should have taken better routes!” Gavner shouted, “you were the one leading!”

“Well I wouldn’t have had to lead if you wouldn’t have gotten us lost in the tunnel in the first place!”

[Koli]

“We would not have had to go in the tunnel if you would have warned us about the stupid dragon sooner,” Gavner yelled back.

“I tried,” Drake exploded, “you were too busy talking to Koli about the stupid dragons!”

Koli stepped between the two fighting friends and extended his arms, keeping each other an arm’s distance away. Using his calming Eyes of Hero, Koli looked into the eyes of Gavner who’s expression softened upon looking at the green irises of the priest. Koli repeated the gesture into the glowing blue eyes of Drake whose muscles relaxed. Letting his arms fall to his sides, Koli looked at Drake and pointed to Skipper’s ship which was anchored at one of the islands farther out.

“Oh…” Drake said looking down. “Sorry Koli.”

The priest rubbed Drake’s shoulder and smiled at him, signifying that everything was okay. Koli loved his friends, and he did not want them to fight. They needed to save their energy for the perilous journey ahead…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Koli, welcome back,” said Skipper. “I see you have brought some friends with you.”

Koli nodded after shaking Skipper’s hand in greeting.

“So are we returning to Dheathain?”

The priest shook his head and gestured for his friend to enter his quarters. Skipper laughed at this because usually the captain led his friends into the captain’s quarters. Koli found the captain’s map and pointed to Shanghiv, a port at the southernmost part of Raiaera.

“Shanghiv, why do you need to go there?” Skipper asked.

“Dangerous journey,” Koli said. He pointed to The Red Forest.

“Aye,” The captain replied, “dangerous journey indeed.”

[matthewkuch]

Gavner groaned as he once again found himself hunched over a barrel, victim to seasickness. Ever since he had been bit by the spider Gavner had been nursing a high fever with chills and sweating, but he always got sick when he went to sea. Drake and Gavner had been nice to each other ever since their altercation at the mines, and they knew that they had been silly. For some reason, Gavner had the odd feeling that Drake was his brother. Clearly they could not have been, but they shared many similarities.

"Hey Gavner," Drake said as he came below deck. Gavner always stayed below deck during the daytime because of the sun, but Drake and Koli often came to visit him. "How are you doing?"

"Better," Gavner said wiping his mouth, "the scexzing venom is still taking its toll on me."

"I'm sorry Gavner," Drake said, "I wish I could heal you but I don't know how. I can only close up wounds."

"That's alright, maybe we will come across an antidote in Shanghiv. How are you enjoying he voyage?"

"It's okay. Fishing is the main attraction. The waters of Istraloth held hundreds of weird fish and sea creatures; Koli and I are studying them to see if we can make anything with them.”

“Well I hope you deem success,” Gavner said, “We need some of that.”

[dracoboy8]

“Okay,” Drake said after visiting Gavner, “maybe we should try this oddly shaped orange one?”

Koli shook his head and pointed to a vibrantly colored squid. Drake took the knife that the captain had provided him with and sliced open one of the tentacles. Inside the suction cups there were small sacs of liquid, Drake presumed to be poison.

“So if something has a poison, does it also have an antidote?”

Koli bobbed his head from side to side contemplating the question.

“Sometimes?”

Koli nodded.

Drake cut open the base of one of the tentacles and found a larger cache of liquid.

“I need some fresh air,” Drake said. “I will be back.”

Wiping off his hands, Drake dunked them in a bucket of saltwater and exited the makeshift lab. The sun shone brightly on his face, and Drake stretched out his wings once more. He could not wait to use them. Drake walked to the mast and looked out over the sea. The sun was high overhead; midday was at hand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~
After seeking for an antidote to Gavner’s spider bite with no avail, Koli and Drake went out to the deck once more for some fresh air. Night was almost upon them as the sun had begun to set. Gavner could soon come up on deck. They would have dinner and hopefully Gavner would be feeling better so they could plan their journey.

All of a sudden the head of a giant sea serpent shot out of the water and let out a horrible roar. Green and scaly, the evil creature had tendrils coming off of its face and spikes that sprouted from its head. Looking over the deck, Drake saw segments curling out of the water and then returning into the water.

“All hands on deck,” Shouted Skipper, “it probably followed us from Istraloth! Teach that no good sea snake a lesson boys!”

[Koli]

Koli stood at the mast, sizing up his foe. Serpents and snakes alike all had one weak spot on their head that one could destroy their skull through; it was all a matter of finding that spot. Rushing to the left side of the monster Koli observed the scales. Nothing on this giant snake-like creature seemed out of the ordinary so he rushed to the opposite side. He spotted a single deformed scale on the jaw of the monster.

“Koli get away from that thing!” Skipper shouted, but Koli was not going to back down now.

Planning his attack he rushed to the mast and grabbed a rope. Just as he was about to attack the serpent, the priest spotted Gavner up on deck, looking at all the commotion. Dropping the rope, Koli rushed over to his friend and pointed below deck.

“No Koli, I-” Gavner coughed violently, “I can help!”

Koli did not move.

“I can do it! I am fine.”

Koli picked the vampire up and walked below deck with the kicking vampire. Setting him down, the priest pointed at the ground and returned to the fight up above. The serpent had just grabbed a crew member and threw him into the ocean.

Let’s try this again…

[matthewkuch]

Hearing the commotion above, Gavner forced himself to get up out of his hammock. The vampire could not let his friends fight a monster without him; to abandon one’s friends is to doom those you love. As Gavner stood up, Eva walked in front of him.

“No Eva,” Gavner said, “I have to do this.”

She looked up at him and whimpered.

“I have to.”

She sat on his feet as if to say “You’re not going anywhere,” and a memory flooded Gavner’s mind. He was on his way to Balthazar Jenkins’s providence so he could assassinate the wicked vampire but he had just met the wolves. The time came for him to leave but the wolves did not like that idea. They all rolled onto their backs and began to howl and whimper sadly. Eva got to her feet and somberly walked up to Gavner, head down, and sat on his feet. The vampire looked down at her and she was staring up at him with sad puppy dog eyes. Tipping back her head, she gave a higher pitched howl; the howl of a baby wolf.

This memory hit Gavner like a brick wall, and the vampire knew that she had shared this memory with him. For a second, Gavner almost stayed; but then he remembered what had happened the last time. He picked her up and set the baby wolf on his hammock. Turning around, Gavner walked up the stairs and into the battle scene.

[dracoboy8]

Fear exploded in Drake’s chest as the serpent erupted from the sea, but the half angel quelled it quickly. Wrapping up his wings so they would not be injured, Drake looked at the monster at hand. Drake noticed that it had protective scales all over its body except in two places; its eyes and its nose.

Making a break for the makeshift science laboratory, Drake threw open the door and began to search through all of his slimy specimens. At this point the ship began to rock back and forth and nothing was tied down. Cut sections of fish meat and creature guts slid of the table here and there. Slime splatted all over the floor and blood got on Drake. He did not care; he had to find the deadliest poison that he could.

Digging through the entrails, Drake grabbed a deep sea dweller and ripped out one of its teeth. Shaking it, he noticed a green liquid seeping from it, and he thanked The Boss. Pulling one of the throwing stars from his belt, Drake shook the tooth onto it covering it with venom. He repeated this for his other two stars and ran out onto the deck. Drake carefully took aim for the serpent’s eye and threw it, anticipating the serpent’s movement. Drake’s aim was true, and the serpent reared back and gave a terrible roar…

[Koli]

Koli grabbed the rope and began to climb the mast. When he was about ten feet off the ground, He leapt off and swung around directly for the sea monster. The serpent had reared back and was now roaring in pain; somebody had struck it in a sensitive spot. Swooping through the air, Koli realized that he would not have enough rope to reach the serpent. At the peak of his swing he let go and flew through the air towards the sea monster.

The priest had estimated his velocity perfectly, as he soared through the air and landed on the head of the monster. The serpent reared back angrily and jerked around in attempt to buck Koli off, but he grabbed the tendril on the monster’s nose. Koli did not have a dominant hand, which proved useful in this instance. Extending his left hand, he fabricated a brilliant sword and stabbed the serpent in the specially colored scale.

With a final roar of defeat, the serpent made one last ditch effort to buck off Koli, but he pulled the sword up with all his might and destroyed the skull of the mighty beast. Yanking the shuriken from the eye of the serpent, Koli ripped a few scales from the head of the serpent and leapt from the head onto the ship. The monster sank back into the sea in defeat, dead at the hands of one who was specially skilled in killing its kind; monsters.

[matthewkuch]

The ship pulled into port when the moon was low in the sky. The night was very old, and Gavner realized they only had forty minutes until the sun rose. The sick vampire walked up to the captain and shook his hand.

“Thank you so much sir,” Gavner said. “I have no idea how we can ever repay you.”

“Think nothing of it, and please call me Skipper.” The captain said, “it is a gift to my friend Koli, and to my new friends Mister Gavner, and Master Drake.”

“I am honored, Skipper. You would not happen to be sticking around Raiaera would you?”

“Do you need passage to someplace else?” Skipper asked.

“I am afraid we may…” Gavner said. “I would hate to take advantage of your generosity.”

“Not at all, Mister Nahs. You and Koli, along with Master Drake, have reminded me how I love to sail. I plan on taking to the sea for the rest of my days.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bronze coin. “Should you need sea-fare again summon me with this. Koli will know how to use it.”

“You have no idea how much this means to us,” Gavner replied. “Thank you.”

“You’re always welcome,” Skipper said, “Plus I have business in Raiaera and Scara Brae anyways. Be careful in The Red Forest.”

“We will. Farewell, Skipper.”

[dracoboy8]

“Gavner have you ever kissed a pretty girl?

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Answer the question.”

Gavner, Koli, and Drake were at a table in one of Shanghiv’s pubs planning out their route. They had bummed a map from the bartender and were trying to learn all that they could about the area.

“Well no. Why?”

“Just wondering.”

“Okay,” Gavner said pointing to the center of the forest. “The type of tree that we need is right here in the heart of the-”

“Have you ever kissed anybody?”

“Drake, I think this is a bad time to have this conversation.”

“Did you?”

“No,” Gavner sighed, realizing that this was going nowhere. “What is on your mind?”

“Well there’s this girl…”

“Go on,” Gavner coaxed leaning in. Koli perked up as well. “Is this one of your angel friends?”

“Well yeah…”

“Was she crushing on you?” Gavner inquired.

“I think.”

“That does not sound too promising.”

“But I haven’t seen her in a while and… I don’t know. I’m still new to this angel thing. I don’t know if angels date, or if angels can love each other.” Drake said. “I don’t know if she is with somebody else.”

“Then try to woo her.” Gavner said, “bring her back something from The Red Forest.”

“Well like what?”

“What does she like?” Gavner asked.

“I’m not sure; she is an angel of healing.” Drake replied.

“So get her a healing tonic.” Gavner suggested. “We can pick up a recipe on the way.”

[Koli]

“The Red Forest? Ye’d be damned fools goin’ thar!”

Gavner had asked an old man if he knew anything about the place or where they could find any useful information about the inhabitants of the area.

“Wolves tha’ shapeshift into trees, vines that eat yer face! No map can guide ya in that mess.”

“Do you know where we can learn about it?” Gavner urged the old man.

“The natives’ll take ya ‘bout a mile in but thas it.” The man started to walk away from them. “Good luck to ya, ye’ll need it.”

“What does he mean native?” Drake asked.

“I do not know, but we had better find out.” Gavner replied.

Koli could tell that the vampire was nervous. There were many tales, but nobody actually knew what The Red Forest was like. They were essentially walking into the unknown. After a half an hour of asking around they finally got somebody who would tell them a bit about it. Koli put together a list of things they would need, especially food, water, and warm clothing. According to the locals, the forest was almost 300 miles long and 50 miles wide.

Temperatures at night in The Red Forest were completely random and unnatural. There was absolutely no pattern to the weather occurrences and no way to tell or predict what they could be. As for monsters; their biggest threat was called the Fealotë, or Soul Blossom. This type of flower would reach out with its vines and steal the souls of travelers and eat it. The thing would store the soul of the victim in the fruit of its flower, trying to break it down. Weaker souled people could usually last up to 6 days but the stronger souls could last for a time.

Koli looked at Gavner and Drake and knew that they could handle whatever this forest had in store for them.

[matthewkuch]

“Okay Koli, let us see that list of yours.” Gavner said.

Taking the list from Koli, Gavner skimmed over some of the necessities.

“All right; 6 days of food, replenishing water skin, medical supplies, antidote- good thinking Koli, we will probably need lots of that- map, compass, saw, change of clothes… Koli I think this is way too much. Granted, yes we need all of this stuff, but we don’t have the energy to carry it all with us.” Gavner said taking out his bag of money and distributing some to his friends. “I want everybody to split and be back here in an hour. Buy the essentials.”

Gavner walked about the town in search of things he could not do without. He grabbed some casings of salted beef, a never-ending supply of water in a water skin, some venison for Eva, and a metal rod that contained a fire spell. When the top section of the rod was removed, a flame would spurt out.

“I see you are going off into the red forest,” somebody from the market said.

“Yes,” Gavner replied, “do you have any information that might help me?”

“Never travel alone.” The man said. “Get good companions who have your back. You’ll see things in that forest that you have never seen before, and never want to see. It will change you. Be ready to come back different, if at all. The forest claims more lives than can be counted.”

[dracoboy8]

“Healing tonic, healing tonic, healing tonic…” Drake muttered to himself.

He looked around the marketplace. There were many stands and shops, but the angel did not need food or potions. Drake tried to check out the other end of the town. The angel looked at the shop names as he crossed the sea-faring town until he spotted one that said ‘Knowledge Dealer.’

The half angel walked into the shop and began to browse through the scrolls and such. There were special techniques, certain spells, and potion recipies. Drake found the tonics and immediately started to look through them.

“Close any wound, regrow a limb, bring back one dead-AHA!” Drake exclaimed, “Remove any ailment, disease, or poison. She will love this!”

Walking to the clerk, Drake produced the scroll.

“Is that all?”

“Yes.”

“That will be 700 marks.”

“Seven hundred!?”

“Seven hundred.”

Just then Gavner stuck his head in the door.

“Drake, you have been gone for awhile. Is everything okay?” Gavner said. He always had the most impeccable timing.

“I found a tonic I want, but it costs 700 marks. I only have 300. Do you have any more?” The half angel replied. Gavner scowled and entered the shop.

“Is there a problem here, sir?” Gavner said approaching the clerk.

“No not at all, so long as your friend pays up here.” The man sneered.

“He owes you 300 for the scroll,” Gavner said politely.

“No. That scroll costs 700.” The clerk said.

“I do not believe you heard me correctly,” Gavner said in a deadly tone. “He owes you 300 for the scroll.”

“Sir, I don’t think you know how valuable that scroll is. I am practically giving it away at 700 marks. So pay up or get out.”

Gavner’s face darkened. Drake became scared at what his friend might do.

“Now that was rude.”

In a flash Gavner leapt over the counter and pinned the clerk up against the wall by his neck. The man clawed at his throat desperately as his face grew a dark shade of red. He struggled to breathe and then his hands began groping around on the wall for something. Gavner let him go and he fell to the floor gasping and sputtering for air.

“How much is the scroll?”

“Three- three- three hundred.”

[Koli]

Koli grabbed a bottle that said “Quick Revive.” We could probably use this, Koli thought.
The priest knew that if they were going to make it in the red forest, they would inevitably run out of food, and medical care was a must. After setting out to the market, he set out to one of the taverns. Usually skilled warriors or adventures could be found in the taverns at late hours of the night and early hours of the morning. Walking into one of them, Koli approached a band of adventurers.

“…so the Dur'Taigen had closed in on us. There were three of us encircled by a pack of twenty-five.” The adventurer said. “They all attacked at once, left right and head on. I managed to kill three but then one of the blasted things sliced my shoulder open. Boles took one to the throat and dropped like a fly, but Richardson and I killed the rest. Richardson knelt down to see if he could help Boles, but he was already gone. He cursed the gods and when he did, a soul flower snatched him away!”

Most of the men gathered around the table gasped as they heard this gruesome news.

“I couldn’t help him! I was the last one as it was, so I beat feet and made it out of there as fast as I could.”

Koli grabbed a napkin and wrote a note. “Going into The Red Forest. Do you have any information that I could make use of?”

Walking up to the circle of adventurers, Koli stood there and listened in. He didn’t last very long because the men on the far side of the circle didn’t take a liking to him.

“Hey! Who does this guy think he is!” the man called.

“You looking for trouble, mister?” The man nearest Koli said, “I assure you’ll find plenty of it here.”

Koli merely shook his head and handed the man the note he had written. The man looked at it and laughed.

“Ey boys, he thinks he can ask for info on The Red Forest.”

Everybody laughed, but one of the men remained silent. Knowing how the events would play out, the man backed up and watched the events unfold.

“We better teach him a lesson.”

“Yeah, nobody goes into The Red Forest without our sayso.”

“Get him boys!”

Two, four, six, eight… There were only eight men. Koli could handle this situation easily…

[matthewkuch]

“Thank you sir, how generous you are!” Gavner exclaimed with a smile. “Have a nice day.”

Drake returned to the cache of scrolls and took a few more. Gavner and Drake left the shop but shortly after exiting, a bell rang out through the town.

“Oh great, where is Koli…” Gavner said.

Running to the market Gavner scanned the area and found that Koli was nowhere in sight. He was not in any of the other stores either.

“Where else could he be?” Drake asked. Gavner thought for a moment.

“If I were Koli… If I were Koli I would get… Advice. Advice from people who have already been to the forest! Drake he is in a pub.”

Sprinting through the main square and down a major road, the two burst into a tavern and saw 8 men knocked out and lying around the tavern. Koli was standing in the middle of the scene.

“Fools!” Gavner said, “you never attack Koli…”

A man walked up to the priest with his hands in the air as a gesture of surrender.

“Somebody has rung the bell,” he said in a light voice, “the militia will be here any minute. You have proven yourself worthy, sir. I have been to The Red Forest many times and I know which herbs are safe to eat. I also have done research and mapping. I can help you.”

Gavner could tell that Koli was contemplating the situation, but men could now be heard shouting in the streets. Looking at the man, Koli nodded.

“Good, now let’s get out of here!”

[dracoboy8]

Drake felt as if he was on a mission with two elites. He was the dull inexperienced one, Koli was the mysterious one who never suffered defeat, and Gavner was the leader. Looking at these two men, the half angel was awe-stricken.

“Come on, let’s move!” Gavner urged as he ushered the party to the window in the back of the pub. The vampire sprinted at the window and smashed through to make way for the rest of the party. Koli gave Drake a gentle push and once more, held up the end of the party.

Drake leapt through the window as Gavner did and landed outside the tavern. The party tried to sneak around the town square, but the man from the knowledge shop ended up spotting Drake and Gavner.

“That’s them! They are the thieves!”

Everybody in the group sprinted through the town square and barreled for the gates. Now was the time that they needed to escape, and they needed to escape fast.

[Koli]

The priest had easily taken on eight men by using a little bit of Aikido, but he knew that it would be a lot more difficult to take on an entire village. No it was not impossible, but he would probably end up killing somebody and that was not his goal. Koli worked to preserve lives, not take them. The party reached the gates and made a break down the path. When they were about one hundred yards from the town, Koli looked back to see how many were following them.

“Twenty five,” Gavner said stopping as well. “Do you think we can take them?”

Koli nodded and stood square. Drake stood next to him, and whipped a throwing star at one of the men’s faces when he came within ten feet of the party. Gavner closed the distance between him and the enemies with a giant leap, and Koli intercepted the men as they came in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
“We are not safe. We must leave now,” Gavner said after the fight was over. Out of all twenty five men, 12 had been killed and the rest were knocked out. Gavner killed 9 in a massive rampage, Drake killed 3 with his shurikens, and Koli knocked out the other 13 with Judo as they came at him singly.

Koli pointed to the men and raised his arms asking what had happened.

“A greedy shop owner was charging far too much for a scroll, and he insulted me. What was I supposed to do?” Said Gavner.

Koli shook his head. The sooner they got into the forest the better.

[matthewkuch]

Gavner figured that he should stock up on blood before he eft. He might as well feed while it was available than be starved of blood and weakened when he was in the forest. Crouching down, Gavner made a hole in a dead man’s neck with one of his fingernails. Opening his knapsack he gently shook a sleeping Eva who woke with a start.

“It is okay,” Gavner said, “it is all right. You had better feed before we go into the forest. Who knows when we will have this much available?”

Gavner and Eva drank as much blood as they could without becoming sick. At this rate, Gavner could go a month without blood, maybe more. Standing up, he stretched and took a look around. The party had started off down the path while Eva and Gavner were busy. They were in a grassy plane that stretched out over a large expanse. The sky was cloudy, but the moon was still high in the sky. They had spent a night on Skipper’s ship before heading out to the market.

“Well, this is it Eva.” Gavner said. “No turning back. You ready?”

She barked happily. Close your eyes, she said telepathically in her kid-like whisper of a mental voice.

When Gavner closed his eyes, he found himself reliving several memories. He and Black Shadow were both cracking up, doubled over in laughter. A dwarf had just slipped on a banana peel that Gavner had thrown on the floor without even eating it. The dwarf got up and fell out the window of Al Konvar. Gavner and Black Shadow rushed to the window but it was too late, the dwarf had already fallen down the side of the mountain. The dwarf began to tumble down the hill, and he formed a gigantic snowball. By the time he reached the bottom of the mountain, the snowball was roughly the size of a large boulder, and it exploded on impact. The dwarf got to his feet and began to shake his fist at the two.

[dracoboy8]

“Hey Gavner,” Drake called back, “you coming?”

The vampire snapped back to reality and looked up from the distance. “Yeah go ahead I’ll catch up.”

He began to walk at a snail’s pace, Eva strolling along beside him.

“Sheesh,” Drake said, “he is in lala land.”

Koli nodded and Drake inquired of the new person.

“So who are you?”

“My name is Archibal,” he said. “I am a native to Shanghiv and I have been to The Red Forest countless times.”

“How did you survive?” Drake asked.

“Well,” Archibal said, “I go for merely scientific research. I don’t go to raid the forest.”

“What do you mean?” Drake replied.

“I don’t have sticky fingers. Adventurers learn quickly that there are many desires in the forest. I suggest you only go in there to get what you need, if you don’t you could be in there for years.”

[Koli]

“Only go in there to get what you need.”

That is exactly what Koli planned to do. The priest had heard tales of strange valuable things that were stored in mysterious ruins of the forest. There were random villages that had been overgrown and destroyed, but the civilizations were highly advanced. Their weaponry and technology were beyond that which anybody could fathom.

“Hey Archie,” Drake asked, “How did The Red Forest become The Red Forest?”

“Well during the war, Podë of the Forgotten had cursed it. It is now said to be where her spirit resides. She wanders the forest punishing everybody who trespasses.”

“And we are cutting down a tree at the heart of the forest!?” Drake said, startled.

Koli touched his shoulder and Drake looked at the ground. Koli knew that Drake was young and impressionable, but Koli wanted to teach him that he could overcome anything. The priest touched the area over Drake’s heart, and the angel looked at Koli.

“Thank you Koli, I know we can do this.”

[matthewkuch]

Eva kept giving Gavner memory after memory as they slowly walked down the path, guiding him through his own mind. Some of these things she had not even been there for, but Gavner had shared them with her before. Gavner was sleeping below the storage area of the ship on the cargo deck when he heard people stomping around above.

“Here it is,” he heard one say. “The trap door!”

Gavner walked up to the trap door and slammed it up as hard as he could, throwing everybody back. Leaping up out of the room, Gavner saw three men approaching him, one with a cross, the other with a bottle of holy water, and the third with a wooden stake. Black Shadow had just entered the room, seeing that these men had found Gavner’s hiding place. Gavner grabbed the bottle of holy water from the man and drank it. He destroyed the cross in his hand and snapped the wooden stake. After killing the three men who had found him, all of the passengers stormed the storage area and Black Shadow and Gavner had no choice but to kill everybody. Black Shadow had found a baby girl in a barrel stuffed with blankets and he insisted on keeping her.

Eva led him to another memory of the two men when they had fought gallantly with Vir Fortis, a vampire prince from an allying clan of Anoterish (Gavner’s clan). The vampire had saved their lives, and Gavner remembered when they buried the vampire in Dheathain. Gavner now realized why Matthew had wanted him to get Black Shadow such a big present.

“Come on, Eva.” Gavner said. “Let us catch up with our friends.”

[dracoboy8]

“It’s about time,” Drake said. Gavner had been lagging behind for over a half an hour and now he caught up.

“My apologies,” Gavner said. “Drake, who is this gentleman accompanying us?”

“I am-”

“That’s Archie,” Drake interrupted. “He is a scientist.”

“How many times has he been to The Red Forest?” The vampire asked.

“Two hundred times!” Drake said.

“Well I haven’t been there quite that many time-”

“Two hundred times!?” Gavner exclaimed.

“Yeah that’s what I said!” Drake replied.

“I never said I have been there two hundred ti-”

“Archie, we need your experience.” Gavner said. “Would you care to be our tour guide?”

“Well I uh…”

“Good! Thank you so much sir,” Drake said. “Anything in the forest that you want, we will help you get.”

“This is going to be a long expedition…” Archie said.

[Koli]

The party finally reached a river, and The Red Forest was now in sight. Separating them from this horror was a crystal clear flow of water. The river was rather large, and glinted in the moonlight as it passed by. There was a single bridge that led across the natural barrier, a bridge that appeared to be rotting and broken.

“So that’s the red forest,” Gavner marveled.

“Woah,” Drake said. “It’s a bunch of trees.”

Right away, the forest was not anything like Koli had expected. Trees towered over twice the size that they normally get, and those were merely saplings. The grass surrounding the forest was brown and dead, and even in the middle of the night the priest could see the deep crimson color of the leaves on all the trees. Koli assumed that the only way one could tell the type of tree was by the shape of its leaves.

“What did you say was in that forest?” Gavner asked.

“More things than you’d ever want to see. I know, the first time is always the hardest,” Archie said as he led the way across the bridge.

[matthewkuch]

The edge of the red forest was an amazing sight to behold. Brown trunks led up into layers and layers of blood red leaves that covered the sky. Crimson red littered the ground everywhere, brown dirt was visible underneath but the red stood out at anybody who peeked into the forest. Gigantic rocks littered the forest floor, and vines hung from the trees.

Sprouting up between trees and rocks were large bushes and vegetation. Koli stepped in front and a machete formed in his hand. The priest began to slice through the vegetation until they were about 200 feet in. After that the plant life died down. Gavner looked around at all of the plantlife and abiotic factors.

“I haven’t seen any monsters yet,” Drake said.

“Oh they’re here.” Replied Archie.

“Sheesh, what a dump. Who would want to live in a place like this?” Gavner voiced.

Just then a massive ogre stepped out, reared back his head, and let out a massive roar.

“I like that boulder; that is a nice boulder.”

“Run!” Archie yelled.

“This way,” The vampire called as he took off to the right. Another ogre stepped out and Gavner veered to the left. Looking back he saw that Drake had been caught and so had Archie. Koli was nowhere to be seen. “Xczunge.”

[dracoboy8]

The ogres were nearly three times the size of a human, and they were completely green. They wore loincloths and carried massive spiked clubs that looked like they were the size of half a tree. Drake was thrown over one of their shoulders like a sack of potatoes and carried deeper into the forest.

“Ahh put me down put me down!” Drake shouted, hitting the ogre’s back, but it was no use. He might has well be speaking a different language.

He did notice a change in scenery though. The trees were gradually getting taller as they continued into the forest, and the vines got longer and thicker. The sizes of the rocks varied, some were larger than life, and some were very small. The ogres could walk through nearly anything; they would push through a barrier of plants, walk over a cave, even wade through a swamp. They took the entities deep within the forest until the leader stopped.

The biggest ogre, presumably the leader, had stopped and was now grunting to the other ones. The ogres seemed to comply and set down Drake Gavner and Archie against a tree. One of the ogres stood there and watched the trio while another pulled out a rope and tied them to the tree.

“Hey Gavner, I don’t think they can understand us.” Drake said.

“Maybe not… Let us find out.” Gavner replied. “Hey garden gnome, your mother was a hamster!”

The ogres did not even seem to notice. They could now plan without worrying about the enemy overhearing them.

[Koli]

When Koli was separated with the party, he began to track the ogres instantly. He knew that they had a lair, as all monsters did, but it was undoubtedly close to the heart of the forest. Koli had to find the lair without being caught. Rushing through the vegetation Koli looked around as the sky began to lighten. The priest could only imagine what was happening to his friends at this point. He remembered how Gavner had put Eva into his knapsack and wondered how that was going.

Now that Koli thought of it, he supposed that Gavner and Drake would find a way to escape. He had to meet them in the middle of the forest. Koli saw a doe in the distance. She had her back turned to the priest, and Koli wondered how deer could survive in these conditions. Approaching it from behind Koli drew nearer and nearer. The doe kept her back turned to the priest and continued to graze on vegetation. Koli finally came within twenty feet of the animal and he began to suspect that something was fishy here.

Before it was too late, Koli turned around and walked away from the doe, but she stuck in his mind. He could not shake her. The priest wanted almost more than anything to turn around and run to her but he could not. When he was about 50 feet away from the doe once more, he simply stood there and waited. About ten minutes later an ogre stumbled into the clearing and ran for the deer, but thousands of vines came down and restrained him. The ogre struggled and roared, but he could not escape the grasp of the thousands of vines that were holding him in place. Flower pedals from the ground seemed to be lifting up, like a flower closing up into a bud. The ogre was in the very center of the flower. The pedals closed up around the ogre who gave one final roar and fell silent.

Koli was up against way more than he had imagined…

[matthewkuch]

The sky began to lighten and Eva rustled in Gavner’s bag.

[I am sorry Eva I am doing my best not to squish you, give us a few minutes we will be out of here in no time.] Gavner said telepathically to Eva.

It appeared as if the ogres slept during the day and moved about during the night. If the party could break free as soon as the ogres fell asleep, they could run all day and lose them by night time. All the ogres lay down on the ground, but one lay down with his face right in front of the tree that the three were tied to. The waiting game was torture; it seemed like the ogres were never falling asleep.

Gavner looked around at the scenery. A large boulder was in the center of the camp and the trees were taller than Gavner had ever seen before, almost reaching 60 feet tall. Light streamed in through the leaves but none of it was hitting Gavner, for which he was thankful. Vegetation grew all over the camp, crawling on the forest floor. First ogres, what would be next?

[dracoboy8]

Looking around, Drake began to tire. The ropes restraining him turned into not so much as a blockade, but more of something to let him lean on. Closing his eyes and dozing off, Drake woke up to an elbow in his side. Archie was glaring at him and Drake noticed that the ogre in front of him was now snoring.

“Oh, sorry.” Drake whispered and stopped leaning on the ropes. Gavner cut the fibers with his sharp nails and they fell to the ground. The party was now free, and they quietly snuck to the other side of the tree. From there they sprinted away as fast as they could.

“Drake, you might want to tuck those wings of yours away. You never know what could get caught on them,” Gavner called over to the angel.

“Thank you,” Drake called back.

After about ten minutes, they stopped for a quick breather. Drake looked around and noticed a drastic change in scenery. They had run into a large clearing between trees, but a canopy of crimson leaves still covered the sky. But ogres were the least of their worries now; something much worse was coming about…

[Koli]

Koli was jogging west through the forest when he came to rest at a truly gigantic pile of rocks. Looking around at the trees, the monk knew that he wasn’t even close to the heart of the forest. All of the leaves on the trees were red; the only way to tell what type of tree each was by the shape of the leaf. Koli had only encountered yew and oak so far. The priest knew that this would be a long endeavor, but he was making his way through it.

Something about this large heap of rocks seemed off though. Koli did not know if it was just the ominous nature of the forest, or if he was actually suspecting something. Koli looked down and saw a little bunny hopping around. It looked up at him and its nose twitched. The priest squinted at it, because he knew that things in this forest were not all that they seemed, and so did the bunny follow this law.

It opened its mouth and razor sharp fangs showed themselves. The bunny gave a roar that sounded demonic, and leapt for the priest’s face. Koli ducked and forged a sword in his right hand as he turned around. The bunny had flown about ten feet past him, but was now turning around in midair and coming straight at the priest. At the last second, Koli stabbed his sword through the air and vanquished the evil bunny by running it through. Slamming his sword towards the ground the bunny slid off with the force from the blade and Koli stomped on the creature’s head. What kind of messed up world was he in?

[matthewkuch]

“Um Gavner?”

“I see it Drake.”

Tons of vines had been slowly creeping towards the party from above.

“Archie, this is your forte,” Gavner hissed.

“Blood vines.” He said.

“Weakness?” Gavner asked urgently.

“Fire.”

Gavner slowly reached back into his bag, and all of the vines darted for the party. The vines latched onto any part of Gavner, clothed or bare. The vampire managed to fend them away from his face, but they latched onto his arms and Gavner felt a piercing in his skin. The vines were sucking out his blood, and Gavner felt the flame rod.

Groping around, he tried to get a good grip on it but the vines were jerking on his limbs. Eva began to bark and Gavner forced himself to grip the rod tightly. A vine jerked on the vampire’s hand and the rod flew out of his hand and 7 feet in front of him. Gavner heard a yip from behind him and Eva sent him a feeling of pain.

[dracoboy8]

Drake tired quickly while running through the forest; something in the air was getting at his lungs.

“Hey Archie,” Drake said while they were running, “is there something in this air?”

“I feel it too Drake,” Archie said pushing up his spectacles, “I never was the most physically fit person.”

“Hey, would you be able to help me make a healing tonic?” Drake asked pulling out the scroll he bought with Gavner’s discount.

“Let me see,” Archie said reaching out his hand. Drake handed the scroll to the man who tried to steady it in his bouncing hands. “Three parts red leaves, four parts ripweed- one and a half parts Livol sap?? Do you know how hard this is going to be to make?”

“Yes, that’s why I need your help.” Drake replied.

“Sheesh kid, you don’t know what you’re getting into.” Archie said.

“Yeah, that’s why you’re my tour guide.”

[Koli]

After taking a drink from his water bag, Koli dispersed his sword and started jogging west once more. He had no idea where the rest of his party was but he knew that they would meet up soon. He had faith that God would bring them together. A startling crack was heard to the right, and Koli saw a tree falling directly for where he was going to be. He started to stop and let it fall down in front of him but as he did he heard the same noise and another tree began to fall behind him.

Koli ran as fast as he could forward and the tree had just missed him, but he began to hear the same noise over and over again. Koli ran through the trees, a minefield of deadly falling masses. Each tree shook the ground as it slammed down, jarring the forest and sending blood red leaves in all directions. Even though the trees fell, the canopy did not break. The constant sea of red leaves in the sky maintained its presence; none depleted nor added to. The mysteries of this forest never ceased to amaze Koli.

Veering to the left Koli sprinted between the trees, trying to shake the zone of timber. Trees kept falling left and right until Koli finally found a break. Observing his new surroundings, Koli found that he was now in a swamp. Trees grew out if the marshy wetland as green liquid bubbled around. Koli noticed that he was actually close to falling into the swamp, the trees had stopped just before this area. Something had been leading him here.... Looking out over the swamp again Koli saw an apparition floating over the water.

[matthewkuch]

Instantly Gavner was engulfed in rage. Nobody messed with Eva. Period. Gavner let out a roar of pure fury that instilled fear into the hearts of his other two party members and anything that was around to head. The vampire suddenly had four times his strength and double his speed. Leaping forward Gavner snatched up the rod and ripped off the top.

There was an explosion of screeching and scattering as all of the vines let go and sprang away from the flame, but this wasn't enough for Gavner. No, he needed more. Letting down his knapsack Gavner spun around to see the vine that had attacked Eva and grabbed it. The vine jerked and flailed around, desperately trying to get away from the fire in Gavner's hand, but the vampire held on with a death grip. Higher and higher the vine ascended, farther and farther Gavner flew into the air with the evil creature.

The vine reached the canopy and Gavner grabbed onto a branch. Gavner found the base of the vine at the branch and shoved the flame up against it. The vine screeched terribly and flailed in all directions, but it could not escape the blazing fire that was destroying it. Soon the vine slackened and grew limp. Gavner climbed over to the tree and climbed down to the forest floor

"Onward, shall we?"

[dracoboy8]

Gavner was always somebody whom Drake admired, but the vampire absolutely terrified the half angel when he was angry. Eva had been bitten by one blood vine and Gavner went on a rampage. The vampire literally went berserk and killed every vine in the vicinity. Drake knew that Gavner was protective of Eva but he didn’t know the vampire was that protective over her.

The party began to run once more, Gavner had placed Eva on the ground and let her run with them, but something did not seem right here…

As they continued deeper and deeper into the forest things started to become more peculiar to them. Drake began to see trees that had what looked like two feet long canine teeth at their base. There were bushes with wiggling things on them. Drake approached one and found it to be something that resembled a fish. Drake picked one and it squirmed out of his hand and swam away in the air. This place was so weird.

[Koli]

In the middle of the swamp floated the figure of a woman in a red hood with a staff. She stared directly at Koli and hovered silently over the poisonous wetland. Her face was beautiful and forlorn, yet Koli knew she was nothing but deceitful. She held an ever fast scowl and glared at the man.

“You trespass on my land…” She said malevolently. “You will die, priest.”

Koli remained still and stared at the ghost. She raised her hands and 3 skeletons rose from the swamp. They trudged towards Koli who created a sword in his right hand. The queen rose 7 more skeletons and 2 inferi. They came at Koli in slow, lumbering steps. Koli was stormed by the undead, but they were no match for the priest. All of them found themselves dead once more on the ground, decapitated with no limbs. The witch glided towards Koli who moved his right foot back in defense. Dispersing his sword, Koli raised his arms at the approaching witch.

“In the name of God…”

[matthewkuch]

Gavner, Drake, and Archie slowly made their way closer and closer to the heart of the forest. 3 days had passed and there was no sight of Koli. There were many encounters with the blood vines, but Gavner always had the fire enchantment rod nearby in case something happened. They would jog for several hours and stop for a twenty minute break. They drank water, ate rations, and simply relaxed between runs, but they continued nonstop.

By this time Drake and Archie were ready to drop dead, and Gavner was looking for a place to rest. He found a wall of trees that had no blood vines near, and he slowed to a stop.

“Okay guys, I think this is where we will make camp.” Gavner said.

“Thank God,” Archie said collapsing onto the ground.

“I thought we would never stop!” Drake said following suit.

“You guys deserve a good night’s sleep.” Gavner said. He still was not tired; it took a lot to tire a vampire.

Gavner climbed up one of the trees that the party was going to be sleeping under. Hand over hand, Gavner reminded himself of a spider. He made it all the way up to the top and began to saw branches off with his nails. When Gavner had cut about 2 inches through in about 5 minutes he kicked it as hard as he could and it fell to the ground below. He continued this for about an hour until he had a nice pile below.

“Hmm… Rywan wood. We must be getting fairly close.” Archie said.

“Oh thank goodness, if I have to stay in this place for any longer I swear I’m going to go nuts!”

[dracoboy8]

Drake leaned against a tree as he looked into the blazing fire in front of him. Gavner had gone out to hunt and left Drake and Archie back at camp to rest. Drake wanted so badly to drift off to sleep but he told himself that he could not sleep. Archie was not skilled in combat and who knew when Gavner would be back. The more Drake fought, the more he drifted, until he was fast asleep.

Drake found himself on a ship, a ship with tons of squid walking around on it. Drake began in the bottom of the ship and tried to make his way out of the ship but the octopuses kept blocking his way and telling him that he could not go. Finally when Drake made a huge attempt to escape, an octopus blocked his way while holding 8 knives in all his tentacles.

“Either you stay here, or I will make you stay.” The octopus said.

Drake scowled and grabbed one of the knives and cut all of the octopus’s legs off. Running up onto the top deck, Drake saw that they were sailing in a sea of sand in Fallien. Fire storms raged around the landscape, raining down flames and fire tornadoes . Drake looked around to find all of the octopuses working on the ship as the crew. A gigantic fireball fell down on one and Drake smelled cooking meat. He awoke with a start to find Gavner cooking venison in the fire.

“Holy crap…” Drake said. This forest was messing with his mind.

[Koli]

Two golden beams of light shot from Koli’s hands and directly into the ghost of the witch. The apparition screeched and disintegrated. The priest kneeled on the ground where he stood and bowed his head.

[Dear Boss, thank you for delivering me.]

With that, the priest stood and continued on his way. He picked up a jog and ran without a break for 2 days straight. Koli did not tire until the beginning of the second day, and when his muscles began to burn he reminded himself that he was in total control of his body, and he was no longer sore. It wasn’t until the next day that he stopped to give his body a rest. The priest looked through the vegetation and found a few mushrooms that he was familiar. Gathering a handful of the fungus he slowly consumed the sustenance.

Koli stared off into the distance as his mind began to wander. He figured that he would rest for 2 hours to regenerate some energy in case he encountered a foe. Koli closed his eyes and allowed himself to absorb everything in the surrounding nature. Koli’s senses became extremely heightened, and he could sense anything that approached from twenty feet away.

[matthewkuch]

After lighting the fire to fend off any creatures from Drake and Archie, Gavner set out in the dark to find some game. He had seen several deer but he hadn’t thought of hunting them before. Gavner had realized that their food supply was dwindling and now thought to himself that he should obtain more.

Gavner sprinted through the forest, nothing more than a shadow in the night. He was now the lone creature of the night that he was made as. Gavner was a deadly predator in forests, cities, even the water. A creature among the elites of the predatory races that stalked wherever he pleased, a creature capable of instilling fear in the hearts of all who encountered him.

In the distance Gavner saw a lump of fur that had settled down for the night. Without a noise, Gavner crept up to the mass and pounced. The creature was dead as soon as Gavner had reached it. Slinging the deer over his shoulder, Gavner promptly returned to camp and began to cook it. He looked at his allies and found that both Drake and Archie were fast asleep.

“Sleep, Gavner said softly, “you need it.”

[dracoboy8]

When Drake woke up, he found that Gavner had dozed off by the fire. Looking to his right, Drake saw that Archie was gone. A piece of paper and a map lay in the spot where he had been sleeping; nothing else remained.

“Gavner,” Drake said softly, “Gavner, Archie left. He’s gone.”

“Huh-what?” Gavner stuttered. “Wait he just Left?”

“Look.”

“Xzcunge,” The vampire cursed. “I guess we will have to do without him.”

“How are we going to find Koli now?”

“I do not know. We have to find him though.” Gavner said.

“We had better get going then.” Drake said, “Koli could be anywhere.”

Gavner and Drake left their fire going because the wood Gavner lit on fire wasn’t even close to burning down. If Drake had to guess he would have thought it still had about 2 more days left to burn. After eating the deer that Gavner had caught, they set out. Eva jogged next to them as they slowly worked their way into the heart of the forest.

[Koli]

Waking up after about two hours, Koli ran for another few hours before he noticed smoke in the distance. Approaching the smoke, the priest encountered another field of trees that randomly fell, but this was a very small area. After Koli had cleared the area of falling trees, he looked back at them and noticed the trees straightening back up.

Approaching the smoke, Koli found a fire blazing and two large oak trees with two feet long canine teeth at the base. Koli suspected that something off about those trees, but he had to investigate the fire. This could be a clue as to where Gavner Drake and Archie were.

Koli did not want to approach the trees so he walked over to a nearby rock to rest on. It was half his height, but he still leaned on it. This was the first time that Koli had touched a rock in the forest, and he sure got a start out of what was to come. The boulder actually unraveled itself, almost like it was a small creature curled up in a ball, and looked at Koli.

The priest stood at this creature in awe. Koli had no idea that rock monsters actually existed, or what their alignment was. The rock monster stared back at Koli and for a moment, neither of them knew what to do.

“Rah rah bulah.” The rock monster said in a deep gravelly voice.

Koli continued to stare at the entity in confusion. This forest kept getting weirder and weirder.

[matthewkuch]

As Gavner and Koli worked their way deeper and deeper into the danger of The Red Forest, they came across the ruins of a civilization. Gavner wanted to bypass the area but Drake insisted that they do some exploring. He wanted to find some ingredients for the potion he would give to Seraphina.

“Hey Gavner, what did Matthew say that Christmas was all about?” Drake asked.

“Well I really did not understand it. Matthew explained it but it did not apply to me.” Gavner replied. He knew nothing about any God.

“Try me; I may be able to explain it a bit better.”

“Well he said that Christmas was the day Christians took to celebrate the birth of their so called savior, what was his name? Jamie? Jordan?”

“Jesus.”

“Yes, Jesus. How did you know?” Gavner asked. The vampire felt stupid that Drake knew more about this than he did.

“Well, in the beginning there really wasn’t anything here.” Drake said. “The Boss decided to create the world and all 152 dimensions, the angels, the animals, and man. Haven’t you ever wondered how everybody got here?’

“Well yeah but where did your Boss come from?” Gavner asked.

“He just kinda was. He has always existed. Anyways, The Boss told man not to do something, and he disobeyed Him; thus creating sin. Sin is disobeying The Boss in any way shape or form.”

“Have you ever sinned?” Gavner asked.

“Everybody who is human has sinned, Gavner. It is a part of life.”

“But you are an angel.” Gavner countered.

“I am half angel. The other half of me is human, which is prone to error. Not even I am perfect,” Drake said with a smile.

[dracoboy8]

“Anyways, The Boss loved his creation of man so much that he came down in the form of a man, or Jesus, and was absolutely perfect. He never sinned, and he died as a sacrifice for all of our sins. That is what they are celebrating on Christmas; the birth of the savior, or Jesus.”

Drake hoped that his friend would get what he was saying, but the half angel knew that it was a lot to take in. He understood if Gavner still didn’t know what he was talking about.

“So everybody gives each other gifts in celebration?” Gavner asked.

“Well yes we exchange gifts, but not merely in celebration. We love our friends so much that we would do almost anything to make them happy, and to show that love to our friends we convert it into the form of a present.” Drake said. “It is not required, but it is more of a tradition than a requirement.”

“So Christmas is not about the present, right?” Gavner asked.

“Absolutely not. Many petty humans think that presents are the true meaning of Christmas, and get wrapped up in the materialistic part but we know otherwise. That is most peoples’ downfall.”

Just then Drake saw something that looked like an enormous praying mantis peek over one of the walls of the ruins.

“Gavner,” Drake said in a deathly tone, “don’t move a muscle.”

The vampire didn’t seem to know what was going on, but he listened to what Drake said. The angel’s eyes were glued to the giant insect. He had no idea what this creature was capable of, but
Drake did not want to take any chances. Gavner’s back was turned to the foe, but Drake knew what was going to happen next, and he knew what he had to do.

Just as the mantis raised its hand, Drake leapt horizontally in front of Gavner. The gigantic bug had been aiming for Gavner’s heart, but Drake passed between Gavner and the mantis just in time; a human meat shield. The angel fell to the ground with the object lodged in his chest and the world began to grow dim. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, Gavner was shouting something at Drake but the angel could not make it out. All he wanted to do was close his eyes, and sleep…

[Koli]

Koli had tried feeding the rock monster mushrooms, wood, even grass but it did not want any of it. Looking down at his feet, Koli noticed a small rock that was about the size of his fist. Picking it up to make sure it was not another monster, Koli held it out to the rock monster who jumped up happily and opened his mouth. The priest tossed the rock in and the rock monster began to demolish the rock and swallow it.

Koli smiled. This was one of the most peculiar creatures he had ever encountered. Koli turned and began to walk towards the fire and the rock monster began to follow him, stomping and shaking the trees as he walked. Koli stopped and gestured for the rock monster to stay. He simply looked at the priest and cocked his head. Koli shook his head and turned around once more. The giant oak trees were gone, and Koli approached the fire.

The rock monster still followed the priest to the old campsite, who tried to ignore it this time. Koli looked around the camp and found that there were bones of a deer by the fire, and matted down areas where people may have slept. One set of tracks led in one direction, out of the forest; two other sets led the opposite direction, deeper into the forest. Koli began to jog, following the tracks that led deeper into the forest and the rock monster curled up into a ball. Koli was relieved to see this, until he realized that the rock monster was now rolling right next to Koli as he jogged.

[matthewkuch]

“Drake! Drake you bastard do not die on me!”

Just then Gavner heard a yip from his right and he looked over to see Eva with a green stick-like projectile lodged in her side. Gavner completely lost it. By the time he was done with the praying mantis, it was nothing more than a pulverized slime on the ground. Gavner had torn its head off, stomped on it, ripped its body limb from limb, decimated it all with a brick from the ruins, and lit it on fire; all while screaming his head off in the meantime.

Gavner was overcome with grief, sorrow, anguish, and rage. He ran throughout the ruins and destroyed everything that remained, all glass, all pottery, even the walls he knocked down and smashed into tons of pieces. This was far more than a temper tantrum on steroids; Gavner’s best friend Drake, and his whole world Eva had been taken away from him. Gavner’s poor little Eva who never did a thing wrong in her entire life other than try to help.

The spike had been aimed for Gavner, and yet it missed and hit Eva. Gavner should be the one dead by now. He knelt by his baby wolf cub, and lay down beside her. She had closed her eyes, and drifted off into a long sleep. Now that Gavner thought of it, this whole expedition had been a failure. Koli was gone from the beginning, Archie ran off on them, Drake was dead and now Eva had left. Gavner was all alone in the red forest.

Gavner saw a vine sneaking towards him. He didn’t’ move, and it wrapped around him. A flower drew near his face and opened up, sucking Gavner’s soul right out of his body.

[dracoboy8]

Drake closed his eyes and felt a sensation of warmth envelope him. He started to become extremely comfortable, colors and images started to form in his head, then it all disappeared. Drake felt as if a bucket of ice cold water had been dumped on him, and he sat up whilst taking a deep gasp of air in. His lungs were starved of oxygen; what a wonderful feeling it was to breathe. Opening his eyes, he saw Koli kneeling at his feet.

“You! You found us!” Drake exclaimed. “Koli I’m so happy to see you!! Did you see Gavner? Hey Gavner Koli is he-”

Drake looked over and saw, lying on the ground face up and his eyes wide open. His chest moved up and down; he was breathing, but he looked paralyzed. Lying next to him was Eva. The fur on her side was soaked with ebony black blood that had seeped from a wound in her side, but it was no longer secreting any fluids. Perhaps she had been poisoned by the stave and her body was healing.

“Koli, has Gavner been eaten by a soul flower?” Drake asked.

Koli looked at Drake uncertainly but he nodded after awhile of contemplating.

“This is terrible! We have to get him back!”

[Koli]

Koli and the rock monster jogged faster than usual. The priest had found proof that his friends had passed through the area, all he had to do was find them. Checking his compass, Koli found that he and his rock monster were running due West, straight into the heart of the forest. Noticing the different shapes of leaves, Koli suspected that they were getting close to the rare trees.

The rock monster and he kept jogging and jogging for hours; Koli was surprised that the creature did not get tired. Not tired by his muscles or by willpower, Koli continued on for several more hours. He would have kept going if he had not heard the screams. Far off in the distance, Koli heard somebody giving out a roar of anger, grief, and sadness. He could hear it in the yell.

Sprinting towards the sound, Koli found himself drawing nearer and nearer to the sound of the yelling. Reaching the site of an abandoned city, Koli heard the screaming cease. He ran through the ruins desperately trying to find what had happened, the rock monster smashing through all of the ruins as well, but he was too late. The soul flower had just taken Gavner by the time the priest had reached him.

[matthewkuch]

Eva started awake. All she remembered was Gavner lamenting over Drake and the monster shooting something at him. The bitter smell of vampire blood stung her nostrils as she looked down and noticed that she had been wounded. This made Eva sad, and scared. Closing her eyes she began to whimper and cry. Usually Gavner came to comfort her by now.

Where was Gavne-

Gavner…

Right next to her, lying on the ground, Eva found Gavner. He lay still on the ground, his eyes open staring at the forest ceiling. He was breathing, but he was not there. What had happened to him?

A wave of pure sadness overcame Eva. Gavner was truly, all she had to live for. She couldn’t bear to be without him! And now he had gone and left. She sadly stepped up onto his chest and sat down looking at his face. Tipping her head back, she let out the saddest, most defeated howl she had ever made in her entire life. When she ran out of breath, she took another and continued her howl. Nothing could express how much sorrow and grief she felt…

[dracoboy8]

Drake watched as Eva sat on Gavner’s chest and cried. The cry of a baby wolf cub was one of the saddest things in the entire world, and it brought tears to Drake’s eyes. It was so depressing to hear the story in that one lonely pitch that she released. She had no family, nobody who loved her. She felt abandoned and lonely, sad and deprived of happiness. The only thing in life that she had ever cared about was now gone.

Drake buried his face in his hands, but that did not help. He had given his life to protect one of the people he cared most about, but he had been stolen away by an evil creature of the forest. The angel sobbed, and Koli came to comfort him. The priest hugged the angel and backed up to look Drake in the eyes. For the longest time Drake could not bring himself to look into the eyes of Koli, but then he gave way.

All of the stress and tension melted away from Drake’s body as Koli’s eyes changed from white to a light shade of green. He had seen this green before; it was soft and mesmerizing. Drake’s rampage of emotions quelled and now all he felt was a sense of regret. He wished that Gavner was still here, so he made up his mind that he and Koli were going to find Gavner.

[Koli]

As the priest stared into the tear-stained eyes of the angel, his heart was broken. He wished he had gotten there in time, but he had been on the wrong course. Maybe if he would have followed the tracks the whole way he could have made it in time to save Drake and Gavner, but his regrets were short lived. Abbas Amo had always taught Koli to not live with regrets because he could not change the past. All he could do was change the future; which was exactly what Koli planned to do. Then he heard the others.

Eva had been howling for over ten minutes by this time, but now it was not only her that was howling. A chorus of lonely and sad howls had joined hers, and Koli spotted about ten extra wolves who had gathered around the baby wolf cub. They all had reared their heads back and were now giving a depressing and lonely howl out into the night.

Koli watched as more and more came to join Eva. First it was just ten, then five more came. Three more wolves, here, a lonesome wolf there, but they kept coming. By the time they had been howling for an hour, several hundred wolves had congregated in the area. They did not care about Drake or Koli, they simply gathered around them, but a whole congregation of wolves were now surrounding the site of Drake’s death and the theft of Gavner’s soul. Eva stopped howling and all else fell silent. All the wolves looked at her as if a leader.

[matthewkuch]

Reaching out mentally to all the wolves in the vicinity, Eva shared with them how hurt she felt, and how much Gavner meant to her. Out of all the wolves who had gathered, none of them could handle these potent and extreme emotions. They whined and whimpered, some cried and others began to howl again. One barked and looked in the direction that the flower had come from. He then growled.

The entire congregation of wolves growled and took off in the direction of the soul flower. Eva ran with the wolves, desperate to find Gavner. She reached out with her mind to find him, but he was nowhere near them. They continued running and running for what seemed like forever to Eva. After about 10 minutes, Eva caught wind of Gavner’s mental frequency.

The baby wolf barked and shared her find with the rest of the wolves. Everybody stopped and looked around at the surrounding scenery. About 13 feet from the farthest wolf of the pack there was a giant bush that had an enormous flower on it. Eva barked at it and every single wolf attacked the evil plant. The wolves clawed and bit, scratched and gouged at it until finally the fruit was broken and it exploded with a sparkle. The entire plant instantly turned brown and withered, dying immediately.

[dracoboy8]

Drake watched as Gavner came to life, just the way he did. Koli and he also watched as all of the wolves stormed into the clearing and pounced on Gavner, licking him and playing with him. The vampire seemed to be confused, but when he saw Eva he exploded with jubilation. Just seeing this made Drake smile.

All the wolves wanted to play with Gavner at the same time, but Eva got all of the attention. Gavner was holding her and hugging her, petting her and telling the baby wolf to never scare him like that again. Drake looked at Koli, who was sitting on a large rock and smiling at Gavner.

“Hey, where did that rock come from?” Drake asked the priest. Koli shrugged his shoulders and continued to stare off into space. “Thank you, Koli. For rescuing me.”

The priest smiled and nodded. He pulled out a potion bottle that was labeled “Quick Revive.”

“Well that quick revive saved my life.” The angel said. “You’re one of my best friends.”

[Koli]

Gavner decided that the whole party might as well have taken a break, so they set up camp for the night. The wolves that helped Gavner were not just any wolves, actually. They were a special breed called the Dur'Taigen. Drake knew that if Eva hadn’t been there, the wolves would have killed the party, but they had come to give Eva help and any friend of Eva’s was a friend of theirs. At least that’s how Koli viewed it.

The priest knew that they would be soon reaching the part of the forest that they needed to get to, so Koli searched the ruins for a utensil that would be able to cut the wood. Koli walked to an abandoned section of the ruins that they were not using for camp and began to look. The rock monster followed, and waited as Koli looked through the rubble.

Koli looked up from his work and couldn’t help but smile. The creature loved Koli for some reason, and he could not simply let that go. Picking up a stone from the rubble he tossed it at the rock monster who ate it right away. He repeated this several times and the rock monster began to do tricks. The mass would roll over, jump up in the air, or turn into a boulder. This was enough for Koli, as it made him extremely jubilant. When he reached down to pick up another rock, Koli found a metal saw that looked like a titanium-damascus tool. They had found what they needed; now they were ready to go.

[matthewkuch]

Gavner smiled as the party lay around the fire with several hundred wolves cuddling up to them. Eva had crawled up onto Gavner’s chest and was now fast asleep. Gavner had cleaned up her fur and she was now extremely fluffy. He looked at her and remembered how melancholy he was when she had left. When the flower took him, he became lost. He started forgetting things, like who he was and who his friends were. He was almost gone, then Eva and the wolves saved him.

The next morning Gavner had Eva tell the wolves that they had to leave. They all howled and whined but Gavner was insistent.

“Come on guys, we’ll see each other again soon! You all just have to get to your families.”

It took about an hour of convincing, but slowly the wolves began to disperse one by one. When all had left, Gavner and the party continued on into the forest. It did not take too long for them to finally reach their destination, they had already gone most of the way, but they were now very weary of monsters. They had walked for about 3 hours, and then Gavner saw it.

By far, the biggest tree he had ever seen in his life towered over all the rest of the trees. It had to be at least 500 feet tall and the first branch wasn’t until about 40 feet up in the air.

“Well Gentlemen, I think we have reached our destination.”

[dracoboy8]

Drake walked up to the tree and saw that it was one of the smaller of its kind. It was solid red, and teeming with power. Just looking at the tree sent shivers down Drake’s spine.

“Hey Gavner,” Drake said, “How are we going to get a branch from this thing?”

“Very carefully.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~
“AHH!!” Drake screamed as he dodged a metal rod that fell from Gavner’s pack. “I thought you said you were going to be careful!”

“This is me being careful!” Gavner called back.

The vampire had climbed 40 feet up in the tree with a saw and was working through the first branch of the tree.

“Are you almost done? You’ve been up there for the past 3 hours.” Drake called.

“Yeah, you might want to get camp set up this might take awhile.” Gavner called back.

“Ugh,” Drake grunted. His patience for the red forest was growing very thin. The sooner they got out, the better.

[Koli]

When the fire was started and mushrooms with herbs were cooking over the fire, Koli set out into the woods to play hide and go seek with his rock monster. The priest would go out into the woods and the rock monster would be hiding behind a tree. Koli could blatantly see him because he was roughly the size of a boulder, but he pretended to not see the rock monster.

The priest would slowly walk by the area where the rock monster was hiding and then look at its hiding spot, and the rock monster would disguise itself as a boulder. Koli would walk over and sit on the rock, then get up and start to walk away but look over his shoulder and catch the rock monster. This was one of the friendliest monsters that Koli had ever met.

When Koli made it back to camp it was dark, and Gavner was still sawing away at the limb. Deep purple sawdust sprinkled down from the branch as Gavner attacked the limb with everything he had.

“How’s it coming along there Gavner?” Drake asked.

“I’m almost halfway there,” The vampire replied.

“Eva misses you.”

“I know that, she keeps telling me.”

“Well she is whimpering and crying.” Drake said.

“Do you mind picking her up and comforting her?”

Oh dear, Koli thought, this is going to be a long night.

[matthewkuch]

“Almost there,” Gavner said, more to himself than anybody. “Almost there, come on you can do it!”

Gavner began to saw faster and faster, he was almost through the branch. He had less than a centimeter to cut through, then he remembered his friends below.

“Hey guys you might want to move. This thing is coming down.” Gavner called.

“Woooo!” Drake exclaimed, “we finally get to leave!

Gavner sawed with all his might, and the entire branch fell off the tree.

“Timber!” Gavner yelled as the limb fell to the ground below. “Now let us get out of here!”

[dracoboy8]

Drake, Koli, and Gavner didn’t even wait to rest up. They packed up camp and left immediately. Just as they were about to leave, Drake saw Koli walk over to a boulder that turned into a monster. The priest fed the boulder a rock, and then returned to the party.

“Hey Koli, what was that?” Drake asked. The priest shrugged. “You just fed a rock to that boulder. Is that your pet rock now?”

Koli shook his head but Drake kept pressing the issue.

“We should give him a name!” The angel exclaimed, “How does Rocky sound?”

Nobody answered so Drake walked up to the rock monster.

“Hey little guy, it’s okay I’m not going to hurt you.” Drake said in a coaxing voice.

“I think I’ll call you Rocky.”

“Okay Drake,” Gavner said, “stop playing with rocks and let us get going. I can not carry this by myself.”

The branch was about 10 feet long and as thick as a basketball in some areas. Drake, Koli, and Gavner all held it on their shoulders and trouped north out of The Red Forest.

[Koli]

The trek out of the forest was a lot faster than the trek in. Nobody stopped for breaks and they made it out in under a week. As soon as they made it out of the forest Drake collapsed on the ground and began to kiss the land dramatically.

“Give it a rest Drake, do not be so dramatic.” Gavner said.

“I,” Drake said puffing out his chest, “am Drake the Beautiful. I am the king of drama.”

All three of them looked at each other and burst out laughing. The trio hadn’t laughed in quite some time. Koli was happy that he and his friends had reunited, he also could not wait to see Black Shadow again.

“Hey Drake, did you ever make that healing tonic for your girlfriend?”

“Actually,” Drake said pulling out his bag, “I found all of the ingredients; it’s just a matter of putting them all together and making the potion.”

“Well I’m sure Koli can help you with that,” Gavner said. “Speaking of which, Koli, do you know where we can have somebody make this into a bow for us?”

“Eluriand,” Koli said in his strong voice. “I know a man who can help us there.”

“Well then to Eluriand it is,” Said Gavner.

[matthewkuch]

“So has anybody actually been to Eluriand?” Gavner asked as they camped just outside The Red Forest.

“Nope,” Drake said. Koli shook his head.

“Great, it will be a new experience for all of us.” Gavner said.

“I’ve heard it’s full of elves,” Drake said, “lots and lots of elves.”

“Well Raiaera is a primarily elven country,” Gavner replied.

“At least Shanghiv had some humans in it,” Drake said.

“Yeah well, beggars cannot be choosers.” Gavner replied. “I remember when I grew up, my town was nothing but humans.”

“Lucky,” Drake said, “I didn’t even have parents!”

“I had parents until I was sixteen.” Gavner replied.

“Eh, it happens.” Drake said.

“Yeah. I am just glad that I got to spend as much time with them as I did.” Gavner said. “But it is getting late. Let us get some sleep and then travel as far as we can tomorrow night. Good morning guys.”

“Good morning, Gavner.”

[dracoboy8]

Waking up earlier than everybody else, Drake decided to make everybody dinner. The angel walked along the meadow looking for things to eat and he was delighted to find a gigantic egg and a cache of fruits and vegetables. Overjoyed at his find, Drake started to return to camp, but then he found out whose nest he was raiding.

Turning around after picking up the food he had found, Drake ran smack dab into an ostrich. The huge bird stared at the angel and inclined its head.

“Ohhh, this is your stuff…” Drake said, talking to the ostrich. “I’m sorry.”

The bird began to peck Drake on the top of the head and he ran the bird followed him the entire time, pecking him on the head. The ostrich chased him around the field and almost into The Red Forest again, but Drake was done with that place. Veering to the right Drake barreled for camp as fast as he could, hoping for some help.

[Koli]

“Back you bird! I saw it first!” Koli heard somebody yelling from the distance. “No, this is my stuff!”

The priest opened his eyes to an amusing sight. Drake was being chased around by a large bird who was pecking him on the head. The angel was carrying an armful of something, and frantically trying to avoid the bird. Koli got up and walked towards the commotion. He had enough running during his time in The Red forest, so he took a nice stroll.

“Koli!” Drake yelled, “A little help here?”

The priest walked up to the place that Drake was going next and waited for the bird to catch his eye. Upon seeing Koli the bird became tranquil and ceased to chase Drake. The half angel hurried off to camp and left Koli with the Ostrich. He walked over to the bird and pat the top of its head. The ostrich cocked its head at Koli. This was awkward.

[matthewkuch]

Gavner woke up to the smell of cooking eggs and burning vegetables. Drake was cooking a very very large egg and burning vegetables in the fire.

“Drake, what is all this?” Gavner asked.

“I am making dinner.”

“Oh that is nice. Listen, Drake. I want to thank you for saving my life in the forest.” Gavner said.

“No problem,” Drake said. “That’s what friends do.”

“I am glad to have a friend like you.” Gavner said.

“I’m glad to have friends like you and Koli,” Drake said. “I love you guys and I would gladly give my live to preserve yours.”

“I feel the same way.” Gavner replied.

“As do I,” Said Koli from the corner of the camp. Neither Drake, nor Gavner had noticed him there. The trio ate dinner, and then set out for Eluriand.

[dracoboy8]

The wide expanse of landscapes fascinated Drake as the party trouped through the land with their valuable piece of wood. For the most part the weather was cloudy and on the brink of raining, but the rain never came. Drake knew that the journey would be a lot worse if it were raining on them. Trees littered the grassy landscape, and soon they were at a large river.

“Well now what do we do?” Drake asked. The river was very large and they would undoubtedly have to swim to get to the other side.

Rocky walked up to the bank and turned into a boulder. He then rolled across the river, and he was above the surface the whole time. He turned into a rock monster and shook himself dry when he reached the other side.

“Hey thank you rocky! The river is shallow enough to walk through.” Gavner exclaimed.

The party trudged through the ankle deep water and Drake gave out a high pitched shriek as soon as the water hit his foot.

“Drake, do not be a baby,” Gavner scolded.

“Yeah but its c-c-cold!” The angel replied.

[Koli]

“I understand that it is cold, but we all have to deal with it,” Gavner said to Drake who fell silent. They made it halfway across the river and a fish shot out of the water and hid Drake in the face. Koli was rather amused, but he was not compelled to laugh; Koli never really laughed. Drake fall over, holding the log, and took everybody down.

Completely submerged with water, Drake shot out of the river and gave an even louder shriek than the first, but this one was very long.

“The branch,” Gavner yelled, “get it!

Gavner and Koli splashed to their feet and sloshed down the raging river. The limb that they had worked so hard to get was now just floating downstream. The vampire resorted to taking great leaps down the stream to reach the piece of wood. Koli could not jump that far, but he still ran as fast as he could. Drake was still shrieking up river.

“Drake, hurry up,” Gavner called he drew closer and closer to the wood. “I will not be able to take this to the other side by myself.”

The vampire finally leapt in front of the wood and stopped it. He heaved the branch up, but he could not hold it level. Koli was just behind, and he made it to Gavner just in time, to support the other end.

[matthewkuch]

Gavner and Koli forced their way towards the other side, but the current here was much stronger than upstream. Drake came running down and was able to help them make it completely to the other side. When they made it, they collapsed on the ground and lay in front of the wood. Gavner looked farther downstream and noticed that there was a huge drop off; a waterfall they had not seen before.

“Hey guys imagine of this would have gone into the water fall,” Gavner said laying back. “All that work for nothing.”

Just then Gavner heard something that sounded like a base note being shot off. Looking up he saw an ostrich staring down at him.

“Hey, get out of here.” Gavner said to the giant bird. “Shoo! Go away!”

The ostrich simply cocked its head at the vampire and gave out a massive bass call (found Here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kYiJAwVbEs)).

“I mean it,” Gavner said, “go!”

Eva got out of Gavner’s knapsack and began barking at the bird. It walked away and Gavner closed his eyes.

“Thank you,” he said, but the ostrich wasn’t done with him…

[dracoboy8]

Drake woke up with the warm rays of the sunset streaming onto his face. Gavner had pitched the tent underneath his bearskin and was now resting up for their next trip. Everybody had consensually agreed that they would not be stopping now until they reached Eluriand. Drake heard a massive bass sound and he froze. There was only one thing that made that noise…

They were back for him…

Walking over to the river bank, Drake smeared lines of mud on his face; he needed war paint for this occasion. The half angel removed his shirt and fastened a headband out of his belt which he tied around his forehead. He grabbed a large stick and sharpened it with one of his throwing stars. Drake would be ready for the assault; this was war…

If Drake’s enemies were willing to stalk his camp, sneak up on him, and attack his friends, they were dealing with an entirely different enemy; nobody messed with Drake’s friends. Drake realized that if they stood any chance, they had to hold their position. The angel found about thirty sticks and sharpened both ends of them all. Fortifying their camp, Drake stuck an end into the ground and angled them outward so anything that tried to enter their camp would be stabbed. Now all Drake had to do was wait, and listen…

[Koli]

Koli woke up to Drake yelling and an ostrich pecking him on the head. Drake hit the bird with a stick he was holding, but it was like a leaf to a rock. The ostrich cocked his head at Drake and looked at the angel confusedly.

“Avas ye, foul beast!”

“Drake what are you doing?” Gavner called tiredly from his tent.

“There is an intruder!” Drake shouted.

“It’s probably just an ostrich, let the nice bird be.”

“No, no! He has come to declare war on us! I say, war it is.”

Without further ado, the ostrich inflated its neck and let out a huge bass noise. It actually did sound like a war call to Koli. Before he knew it, he heard many more of the calls the ostrich had just given out. The sun had just gone down by this time, and the light was fading. Even in the little light, Koli could notice what was going on. Drake had just declared war with the ostriches.

[matthewkuch]

Gavner rose and packed his bag with the bear skin and Eva, but then he noticed that Drake and Koli were being very still. Gavner looked around and noticed what they had noticed as well.

“Ohh xzcunge.” Gavner cursed. They were now surrounded by ostriches, who were all staring at them intently.

“Hey Gavner,” Drake whispered, “don’t ostriches have really small brains?”

“Well yeah but apparently they understand the word war Drake!” The vampire hissed back.

“Can ostriches kill people?” Drake asked, but before Gavner could give an answer, six ostriches approached the Ulder Livol branch and picked it up onto the 3 ostriches’ backs.

At this point all of the ostriches turned tail and ran, forming a protective barrier around the three that had the branch on their back. All members of the party instantly took off after them.

“It’s an ostrich heist!” Drake yelled.

The birds sprinted north, and it was all the party could do to keep the birds in sight. By the time they had reached a constant pace Gavner had to estimate that they were running about ten miles per hour. Gavner kept going; he was not about to let his trip to the red forest go to waste

[dracoboy8]

The party continued on after the ostriches for hours. Any time they began to go out of sight, Gavner pushed them extra hard to catch up.

“Hey Gavner,” Drake panted, “do you ever think that they will stop?”

“I do not know, maybe if you would not have declared war on them then we would not have this problem right now.”

Halfway through the journey, Gavner stopped to let Eva out of his pack but after that she ran with them.

“I’m sorry Gavner,” Drake said. “I didn’t mean to upset you or the ostriches.”

“It is okay Drake, but tell that to the birds who stole our Ulder Livol.”

By this time the ostriches seemed to be tiring of running with the wood. They slowed down and came to a halt up ahead, and the party ran to catch up with them. They all looked at the trio as they approached and cocked their heads at the 3 men who drew near. They seemed to be done.

“Where are we,” Drake mumbled, and then he saw it in the distance. The ostriches had led Gavner Drake and Koli straight to Eluriand. “Oh my gosh thank you guys!” Drake shouted and he began to hug the ostriches. Drake had thought these ostriches were enemies, but they had actually been helping him all along.

[Koli]

“Uh, Drake?” Gavner said to the half angel.

“Yeah?”

“Would you mind putting your shirt back on?”

The group had decided that it would probably be best if Koli went and found his contact as Drake and Gavner guarded the Ulder Livol branch. The priest prepared to enter the city, and the other two found a sufficient hiding spot.

“We’ll be here if you need us,” Gavner called to Koli from under a tree and a whole bunch of logs. The priest nodded and started into the city. He was somewhat nervous to meet this man, but he knew the day had to come when he faced his past. All his life the priest had forgotten about it, but now was the time for him to ask questions and learn about it.

The priest looked around at the scenery as he approached the city. For the most part, the city was on a flat plane and it was mainly grassland. There were some lone trees, and a few clusters that grew here and there but that was the extent of it. To the right of the city, Koli saw a fast flowing river, and to the north he saw mountains behind the city. He had never been to Eluriand before but there was a first time for everything.

[matthewkuch]

“Gavner, I’m hungry.”

“Well whoop dee doo.”

“Do we have any food?” Drake asked.

“No.”

“Can we get something to eat?”

“No.”

“How about now?”

“No.” Gavner said irritably.

“Now?”

“No.”

“I have to pee!” Drake said.

“Too bad.”

“If you don’t let me go I will pee on you.”

“Fine, go. But be quick.”

Teenagers, Gavner muttered to himself. He is almost as bad as Matthew.

Gavner remembered when he had first met Matthew again. He almost killed the youth because he brought up the sensitive issue of Eva’s parents, but at the last moment he uttered Gavner’s middle name. The only people who knew Gavner’s middle name were dead, and that was something that the short-tempered vampire could not ignore. Gavner took one last moment to admire the moonlight as the moon set and the sky began to lighten.

Pulling out the bear skin that he took refuge under during the night, Gavner once more curled up with Eva and got ready to sleep. Drake came back and stuck his head under the canvas. Gavner jumped as the blonde hair of the youth appeared in his tent, and the face of the child popped into view. Gavner sighed because he knew what Drake was going to ask, but he let it happen anyway.

“Say uh, Gavner…” Drake said. “It’s pretty sunny out there… Would you mind if I slept with just my head in here?”

“Go ahead,” Gavner said sleepily, “Just try not to touch me, please.”

[dracoboy8]

As Drake closed his eyes, he saw a yellow ring in the center of his vision. When this happened, Drake knew that it was time for him to venture out into the astral plane. Focusing on the center of the circle, the yellow ring began to grow brighter and become fluorescent. The angel could feel energy building up within him, energy storing itself in his torso so it could deposit energy directly to Drake through his silver cord when he was on the astral plane.

Finally the ring got so intensely bright and the energy built up so great that Drake was forced out of his body. He opened his eyes and found himself floating on the astral plane. He could see Gavner’s astral body floating just outside his physical body, but both were fast asleep. The tree that they slept under was brown with green leaves in the daytime, but now it was just grey. The faded green grass was now grey, and everything was black and white. Looking towards the city, Drake saw that Eluriand was much more than a wall with buildings coming out of it now. The entire city was a gigantic castle that almost resembled the citadel, except much much larger.

The whole city of Eluriand went on for miles, but a castle now stood where the entire city was. There was a dark aura about the whole structure, and its many towers and rooms extended up for miles. This was by far one of the biggest structures Drake had ever seen, real world or astral plane. Dark entities were coming and going from this place, but Drake could tell that there was nothing good about it.

[Hey Gabriel,] Drake called out telepathically, [we have a problem.]

[Koli]

“Halt!” called the guards, “who goes there?”

Koli did not say anything, he merely stopped as he was told to do. One of the guards came down and stared at Koli, looking him over.

“State your name and business her in Eluriand.” The guard barked. Koli did not say anything still, and the guard’s patience was wearing down. He called the other guard down.

“Take down your hood, show us your face.”

Koli’s hands found the side of his hood and he pulled it back just enough for the guards to see who he was.

“He has the cross of the Iusti,” The guard said upon seeing the cross tattood on Koli’s face. “Get him!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~
Koli made sure to keep to the shadows in Eluriand, the military would surely be looking for the person who had just incapacitated 13 guards at the gate. The streets led through buildings and between large structures, but the wall surrounded the entire city. On top of the wall were guards patrolling, keeping watch on the city and outside the city.

Koli walked through the streets of Eluriand and sensed nothing but pure evil in the city. He knew that something was about to happen, he did not know what, but it was not going to be good.

[matthewkuch]

Gavner woke with a start. He sensed that something was wrong, but he did not know what. Eva was curled up in his arms, fast asleep and Drake was peacefully resting on the ground with his face wrapped in his wings again. Still something about this scene did not seem right. Gavner wondered if Drake felt this too, and he began to gently shake the angel. Drake did not wake up, and Gavner knew that something was going on.

Poking his head out of his makeshift tent, Gavner saw the ostriches in the distance. Taking a walk, Gavner approached the flock which was about thirty feet away, and began to pet them. They stared at him and then closed in for a big ostrich group hug. Against the tree, Gavner saw a lonely boulder resting. He approached the rock and the ostriches followed him.

“Hey Rocky, are you okay?” Gavner asked.

The rock monster opened up and looked at the vampire that was surrounded by ostriches. He looked at the ground and appeared to be very sad.

“Aw it will be alright, Koli will return soon.” Gavner said. “Until then we just have to be patient.”

Gavner realized how silly he must have looked, surrounded by about 80 ostriches, comforting a rock. Gavner did secretly hope that Koli and Drake would return soon though, until then he was going to remain at camp and guard Drake and Eva.

[dracoboy8]

[What's up bud?] Gabriel replied.

[I think you want to come over here,] Drake said, [and bring Matthew too.]

[I’ll be right there.]

Five minutes later Gabriel appeared with Drake’s father. They looked as they always did, Gabriel looked to be about Drake’s age, and Matthew looked in his mid-twenties. Matthew had dirty blonde hair and a muscular frame with a sheathed katana on his belt. Gabriel had short brown hair and a tube on his belt that usually held messages from The Boss.

“Look,” Drake said pointing to the massive castle.

“Do you know what this is?” Matthew said Drake shook his head. “The seventh.”

[Koli]

Koli walked through the town, looking as hard as he could for his person. The Iusti brotherhood had a secret crest that nobody else knew about, if the person that Abbas Amo had told Koli was really still there, he would be displaying the secret crest. As Koli reached the back end of Eluriand, sure enough he found a house with the crest in the window.

Koli had no idea who this person was, but he did know that they needed his help. The house was out in the open, and Koli had to give up his cover for a few seconds to approach the house. There were no guards walking around at this time, but if one came around the corner they would clearly see Koli. The priest knew that his description must have been given to every military member in the whole town, and the entire force was out to get him.

The empty cobblestone street ominously glared at Koli from the other side, he knew that somebody could have stepped around the corner at any moment. Without contemplating any more the possible downfalls of his plan, Koli stepped out into the open and started for the house. Every step he took brought him closer and closer to danger.

[matthewkuch]

Gavner looked around as he started to notice strange things happening. The wind was picking up and a massive storm cloud began to form over Eluriand. Gavner felt a freezing cold mass of chilled air reach him and instantly he shuddered. The leaves on the tree above him began to rustle and the storm over the city began to swirl. Lightening flashed and thunder cracked out through the atmosphere.

The rain clouds began to pour and the ostriches all huddled around Gavner under the tree to stay dry. Everybody was shivering, including Eva who had jumped up into Gavner’s lap. The weather beat down on the group for about twelve minutes until the moon began to shine from the west. An area of clear, beautiful weather was pushing the storm back from the west.

The clear weather and the nasty weather clashed, each trying to push the other back. The good weather passed Gavner and the ostriches and instantly they were hit with a blast of warm air. Gavner looked around at the events that were happening.

“I hope Koli is okay.”

[dracoboy8]

(Intro to awesome music begins (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvoRWFjq-OE))
With a snap of his fingers, Matthew called out something in tongues and angels began appearing out of nowhere. They came in large groups, small groups, or one at a time, but they did not stop coming. Looking around, Drake saw hundreds of angels, all armed with silver weapons and clad in angelic armor. The angels seemed to be simply radiating with energy and power.

An army of angels amassed to the west of Eluriand; Matthew, Drake, and Gabriel at the front of them. Raphael, another one of the three archangels, appeared next to Matthew, and Seraphina appeared next to Drake. Instantly Drake felt nervous, but he tried to quell it. Right next to him was standing the angel of healing, and the only girl that Drake had ever liked. She had curly blonde hair that was put up in a bun with golden strands of locks coming out of it. She was clad in silver armor with gold trim, and her wings glowed a soothing white color.

“Nice of you to drop in,” Drake said with a smile.

“This is worse than I thought,” she said. “I did not think that the seventh had established such a large stronghold.”

The seventh were an organization of demons that attempted to overthrow The Boss, led by Satan himself. The Boss cast them out of heaven, and the three archangels have been leading battles against them ever since.

“Come,” Matthew said, “it is time to begin. Drake do you wish to partake in this battle?”

[Koli]

Without knocking Koli entered the house. He did not have much of a choice; he either knocked and risked getting caught, or entered and inquired of the man afterwards. As soon as Koli stepped inside, the weather outside began to act very strangely. The wind picked up and he started to hear thunder. Looking outside, Koli saw guards pass through the streets. Koli had been watched over.

“Who are you?” Koli heard a voice say from behind him. He turned around and saw, standing behind him, somebody garbed in all white. This man appeared as if he had isolated himself from the brotherhood long before it had fallen. A white hood covered his face as Koli’s did, and the wrinkled skin of what visible face he showed made him appear to be ancient.

Koli brought down his hood, showing what he kept hidden from most of the world; the cross that was tattooed on his face. The tattoo was to distinguish to everybody that he was a man of God, and not a person of the world. The Koli’s generation of the brotherhood was one of the last to implement the cross tattoos on the face. Now they tattooed the public Iusti crest on the monks’ left arms. The man drew down his hood as well, showing Koli the cross that was tattooed on his face as well.

[matthewkuch]

“Drake,” Gavner called out into the storm, “Drake! It is okay you can fight. I will protect your body!”

The vampire knew that a celestial war was going to take place soon, and he did not want his friend to miss out on this. Gavner did not know the ways of the angels, but the ways of the vampires suggested that every able-bodied soldier fought. Even if this wasn’t the case, Gavner thought Drake would want to climb ranks among the angels. If this was true, he would need to fight in every battle that he could. By the looks of this, a pretty nasty battle was ahead.

By the looks of it, the battle was about to begin. The storm over Eluriand was raging worse by the second, and the night was very young. Gavner took a station by his friend and looked once more over the horizon. Camp had been made to the Eluriand, and Gavner could see so many things in the distance. Looking behind him to the west, the vampire saw a river in the distance. Leading up to the river was nothing but grass; no trees grew on the flat land. The one that Gavner was standing at was the last one for miles.

To the north was a wide expanse of nothing but browning grass and trees. Mountins littered the Northeast, and of course Eluriand was due east. Gavner looked to the southwest and remembered that this was the direction in which Dead Man’s Drink was. He thought of Black Shadow, as this was where Gavner first met him. They had gone on a quest to end the war between the dwarves and the elves. This was where it all began.

[dracoboy8]

Drake had never been in a fight against the seventh before. He had heard of huge battles that raged on between the forces, but Matthew had always told him he was not ready yet. Drake thought of Koli and wondered if he would be able to protect him. During a battle with the seventh in a true dimension, the demons went nuts and attacked everybody.

“Yes, sir.” Drake said to his father. “Requesting personal objectives, sir.”

Drake vowed to himself that he would always be respectful to his father. Even though he was Drake’s dad, he was still his son’s commanding officer. Drake treated the authority like any other angel in The Boss’s army would; a highly respected angel who has triumphed over demons many times. Matthew was singlehandedly one of the most powerful angels in all of heaven.

“Go on,” Matthew said.

Drake thought about what he was going to say. Angels were still appearing and gathering in the army; all of the angels were preparing for battle, brandishing all types of weapons, shields, and armor. Drake did not have any real armor or weapons, but he was in his astral body. All of the other angels were in their true body which could pass through all dimensions at their own will.

“Sir, my friend Koli is in the city. May I have permission protect him?”

“Permission is granted.”

[Koli]

“Welcome to my home, young one.” The ancient man said, “I am Xerxes, monk of the Iusti brotherhood. How may I help you?”

“I-” Koli said, fighting against his instincts to remain silent, “I am Koli.”

Xerxes smiled. “Koli. I remember you; Amo’s boy.”

Koli nodded.

“Abbas Amo was a fine man. I was very happy to hear about his passing on. He had completed everything that The Lord wanted him to do in this world.” Xerxes said. The thought of Abbas Amo dying deeply troubled Koli, and his gaze fell to the floor.

“Why are you sad, child? He is in a much better place with our creator.” The monk said. “I only wonder when my time will be up as well, but clearly I am still needed here. Now tell me, how can I help you?”

[matthewkuch]

All at once the battle had begun, and Gavner knew it. There were random flashes of white and red light all over the plane and loud sounds of yelling and mighty clashes. The spectating vampire was filled with pure awe and amazement at what was happening.

[Gavner,] somebody said to the vampire telepathically, [this is Drake. I am going in the city to protect Koli from demons; Raphael put a blessing on the tree that shows any demons within 20 feet of your position and makes them tangible to your attacks. Fight well.]

“Oooohhhh,” Gavner said, “Gavner gets to kick some demon hiney; me likey!”

[dracoboy8]

Matthew shouted something in tongues, and it rang out all through the land. Every entity heard, angelic or demonic. Whether they were on the good side, or the bad side, the battle had just begun.

“Raphael,” Drake shouted over all the commotion, “my friend Gavner is protecting my body. Can you help him fight off the demons?”

The archangel looked at the vampire and smirked. Raphael was never one to leave the innocent for dead, but neither was he one to underestimate a person.

“He looks like he can handle himself to me; all I have to do is make them tangible to his attacks.”

“Thank you.”

[Gavner,] Drake said to his friend telepathically, [this is Drake. I am going in the city to protect Koli from demons; Raphael put a blessing on the tree that shows any demons within 20 feet of your position and makes them tangible to your attacks. Fight well.]

With that the half angel set off running towards the stronghold of the seventh, towering over all else.

[Koli]

Koli had motioned to Xerxes, making the movement of drawing back a bow.

“You want me to make a weapon?”

Just then lightning shattered the silence outside and Xerxes rushed to the window.

“Koli, the time has come. The seventh have resided in this place for a long time. I have stayed here trying to restore order and destroy the organization from the inside out but it was taking too long. His Majesty’s army has come and is now taking the city. We must leave; I will help you with your weapon if we survive this.”

Disappearing into his house, Xerxes returned with a brazen medallion. The elder put the object around Koli’s neck.

“This will allow you to see the demons when they roam the city; you cannot attack them but you are able to see them.” The monk said. “You need to make it to their leader. He is the demon that is controlling them all; of all the weapons in this dimension, icemold is the only one tangible enough to harm a demon. I had this sword forged of icemold specially for the demon lord, strike true Koli.”

“What about you?” Koli said.

“My place is here, with the people. Do not worry, Koli. All will work for His eternal plan.

[matthewkuch]

The vampire watched as the land lit up, all around the city. Lightning flashed periodically and thunder shook the land. Yells and battlecries could be heard throughout the area of combat, and all Gavner could do was wait. He hated demons. Most people mistook all vampires as evil creatures closely related to demons. Some were, but this was not the case with Gavner’s species of vampires.

Gavner was a vampire of the Shan species. This species of vampires was unlike most other kinds that existed. These vampires were mortal; they could be killed. They organized themselves in clans and held themselves to the utmost honesty an loyalty. For a vampire, it was worse to lose his honor than his life.

But vampires rarely had trouble being loyal. Most vampires would gladly give their lives for their friends or their clan. They always did so because they wanted to, not because they had to. Vampires could not turn into bats, they did not go ‘blah’ nor were they burned by holy water. As for wooden stakes, well… a wooden stake would kill anybody. They could be killed by sword blows, and their skulls could be bashed in. Even a well-placed bullet or arrow could kill them. Most vampires were confident in their abilities. Gavner well…

“Those demons will be wetting themselves when I get a hold of them.”

[dracoboy8]

Making it to the gates was like forcing his way through a minefield. Demons were bursting out of the gates and throwing themselves at the oncoming angels in ranks about 150 strong at a time. The Boss’s army would advance, only to be pushed back by wave after wave of demons. Celestial warfare was a terrible thing when the demons fought hard enough. When an angel was killed, his body would remain on the battlefield for several hours and then it would disappear. When it disappeared, it was actually being transported to heaven where The Boss would revive the entity.

The Boss was always very kind; he urged the angels to return to the fight after death but always gave them the option of sitting the rest of the battle out. It took a lot of energy from an angel when they died. But the difference between angels and demons was that the angels could return to the fight. Demons could not. When a demon was killed by an angel, he returned to hell where he came from. Every two days or so several demons could escape from hell and into the plane, but when a demon returned to hell he was confined there for 2 days in which he could not escape.

Most angels were a lot more skilled than demons though. Usually for every 5 demons that died, only one angel was felled. Demons relied on sheer numbers to triumph, whereas angels worked smarter, not harder. During battles with the seventh, usually 2 archangels were present. One fought, and the other protected the portals between dimensions. Drake was going to be an archangel someday, but first he needed to learn how to win against a demon every time.

[Koli]

(Intro epic rage music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAzTIKoF8rA))]
Before Koli knew it, he was out in Eluriand in the midst of the battle. Slaughter was more like the word for it. People everywhere were coming out of their houses and being murdered by thin air. Men and women, elves and human, adults and children all alike; all running around and being killed. The sight disgusted Koli. He had to help them; he had to save this town before it was too late and there was no town left.

All of a sudden Koli saw a demon come into his range of view. The entity had a black hood up and fire was leaking out of his nostrils. Black engulfed his face and Koli only saw the glint off of his eyeballs. Cloaked in black and engulfed in fire, the demon stared at the priest and brandished long black, razor sharp claws. Looking at this evil being and all of the vicious and vile things they were doing, Koli was overcome with rage. Hatred for the evil and unnatural beings. Sprouted up within him.

Koli’s eyes turned a color of solid black, and he was completely changed at this moment. Without knowing it his body was drawing from his heroic energy and he felt like he had the strength of 20 men. Holding out his hand and putting his whole heart, soul, and willpower into his limb, a massive Zweihänder appeared in his hand. Koli took a Tai Chi stance with his rear leg extended out and his weapon lifted and pointing at the evil being.

[You have never known death; until now.]]

[matthewkuch]

Gavner took a defensive stance right in front of Drake’s body. The vampire would let demons destroy his friend when Fallien froze over. A demon stepped into his 20 foot circle and Gavner prepared himself for a fight but an angel stepped in and began to battle him. It seemed almost as if the angels were being pushed back.

“Come on guys, you can do it!” Gavner shouted as the flashes of light got more and more furious. “You are angels, do not be a bunch of pansies!”

A demon stepped into the circle around Gavner’s tree and glared at the vampire. The demon was one of the ugliest things that Gavner had ever seen, its hood was drawn, but horns still stuck up out of the cloth. A shadow was cast over its whole face and the skin on its hands was tough and red, stained with black.

“You filthy cur,” Gavner said, “Do not you dare look at me.”

[dracoboy8]

Drake ran up to the front lines and examined the gate. Ranks of demons were bursting out of the gates and charging at the lines of angels that were ready to intercept them. Drake created a huge shield of golden light and thought to himself [There’s got to be another way in…]

Backing up for a running start, Drake burst through the front lines of angels and charged diagonally for the side of the city. Demons began to pursue him, and Drake held on to his shield as hard as he could. They began to shoot arrows at him from a distance, but Drake held up his shield and blocked them, channeling extra energy into his shield.

Drake made it out of immediate fighting range and examined the large castle. There were the front gates, which were larger than life, but the side of it was more exposed. There weren’t many demons storming out of that side. Maybe he could find a way in…

[Koli]

The demon leapt at Koli but the priest was faster. With nearly 2000lbs of crushing force, Koli smote the chest of his foe and the demon was instantly on the ground. Koli walked up to the evil entity who was lying on the ground, raised his sword, and brought it down on the demon’s torso as hard as he could. The demon exploded and black energy with hints of purple rose into the air as it dissolved and its body disappeared.

Koli saw a man running to a square 40 feet away and Koli was in the area with one mighty leap in less than a second. Instantly 8 demons came into view, all chasing and terrorizing people. Koli jumped at one who was about to smite a little boy, and brought his unforgiving blade down onto the head of the demon. One other demon saw this and started for Koli from behind. Koli sensed this entity and merely spun around with his blade extending, obliterating the evil.

All of the demons in the square turned to look at Koli. The priest merely pointed his sword in their direction.

[matthewkuch]

Gavner sprinted towards the demon as it sped towards him. Pulling out his energy knife, Gavner dodged a swipe from the demon and stabbed at the demon who dodged that blow and kicked Gavner. The vampire flew back and slammed into the tree from the force of the kick.

“You will not fell me that easy,” the vampire said standing up and cracking his back.

Leaping at the entity, Gavner dodge rolled and sprang up behind it, stabbing this time at its side from behind. Anticipating the evil being’s next move, Gavner ducked under the arm motion and drove his stab even harder, plunging his knife into the left breast of his foe. The blessing from Raphael made the demon tangible to Gavner’s weapon and electrocuted the enemy. Gavner loved his knife.

[dracoboy8]

Approaching the castle from the side, Drake came closer and closer to the gates. He started to believe that he may be able to enter the castle when he saw it open and ten demons exiting the city. The enemies spotted the angel and rushed towards him furiously. Drake prepared himself for one of the most difficult fights of his life.

As the demons drew near, Drake materialized a jailcell out of energy around 9 of the demons and let one at him. The demons slammed on the bars and Drake felt all of the energy in his body slowly fading away as he contained the demons, but it was absolutely nessecary. Creating a bow, Drake shot the oncoming demon with an arrow and he roared in rage.

[This is Drake, I need backup,] Drake called out, [anybody, please help!]

[Koli]

The more demons Koli killed, the more he attracted. About 10 demons were on standby just waiting to try their luck at destroying the priest. The more he destroyed, the angrier he got at the entities. He looked in the streeets and saw murdered children and women and his rage increased tenfold.

Demons came at him, 2 and 3 at a time, but they never got very far. Koli was too consumed in his rampage to remember that he had to slay the king, all he could think of was that he had to vanquish demons. Demons of all shapes and sizes stormed him, but the priest did not even think about what they could do or how powerful they were. He simply stepped forward and destroyed the next demon.

Then he heard it.

[This is Drake, I need backup. Anybody, please help!]

[matthewkuch]

The demon stiffened due to the energy coursing through his body, and his hood fell down. A hideous red face with black tattoos and metal studs brandished into the atmosphere. He did not have any ears and his nose was pierced with a ring. A look of confusion spread across the face of the demon. Gavner ripped the knife out and watched as the demon fell to the ground, convulsing.

Gavner kicked the demon until he had rolled over onto his back. “What is wrong buddy, not used to something we mortals call pain?”

Crouching down Gavner began stabbing the demon in the chest over and over and over again, sending new currents of electricity through his body and giving him third degree burns at the entry wound. Finally the vampire knelt down on the demon’s chest, sank his hand into the thing’s neck, and ripped its throat out. One last roar echoed and then the creature remained silent in defeat.

[dracoboy8]

The demons banging on the cages were too much for Drake. His body was running out of energy, and fast. Drake was just about to let the jail cell disperse when Koli burst through the wall of Eluriand, exploding the section of the 50 foot tall and over 3 foot thick barrier. Koli was unlike Drake had ever seen him before; he looked deadly and extremely frightening.

He boasted a 6 foot long Zweihänder and his eyes were pure black. An outline of a cross glowed through his hood on the priest’s face, and he looked completely infuriated. With one swift motion the priest leapt forward and destroyed all 9 demons in the cage with one swing of his Zweihänder and they all disappeared in a roar. Drake let the cage disperse, but the priest was not done. He sprinted forward and completely obliterated the demon that was fighting Drake.

“Woah… Talk about The Boss’s priest.”

[Koli]

Koli sprinted through the streets of Eluriand towards the west gate. The priest did not know exactly where Drake was, but he strongly sensed his presence in this area. Koli sprinted through the city streets and down alleyways. Any demon in range of Koli attacked him, and the priest vanquished them without even saying. There was not a single chance for these entities with Koli around.

Reaching the wall, Koli found that there was no exit, but instead of slowing down the priest barreled full speed at the wall. Without even thinking he hit the wall with full force, and full velocity breaking through the barrier. Less than 6 feet away, Koli saw 9 demons gathered together in a cluster. Leaping towards the cluster, Koli raised his Zweihänder and annihilated every demon in the group. But this wasn’t the last demon in the vicinity, no. An evil entity was attacking Drake; Koli’s best friend. This demon was going to pay.

[matthewkuch]

Dropping the throat of the demon, Gavner looked at his hand as the thick black and sticky blood dripped off his hand. The liquid was so hot it was steaming as it came off of Gavner’s hand. Smelling the blood, Gavner bent over and retched all over the demon he was standing atop of. The blood content was pure evil, and just the smell of it turned the vampire’s stomach to acid.

There were some vampires who loved the taste of evil, but Gavner did not fancy it. It was said that the more a vampire drank from a certain type of personality trait, the more of that trait he would gain, but if he killed one he drank from he would become evil; no matter what type of being he killed. Looking at this evil entity, Gavner felt as if he had done the world a favor by killing him.

[dracoboy8]

“Koli, are you okay?” Drake asked the priest. He just looked at the angel, his black eyes full of rage. “Koli stop you are scaring me.”

Drake’s friend stared at him almost as if he didn’t know how. Just then Rocky rolled up and turned into his rock monster self. Koli looked at the creature, and slowly his eyes turned back to white once more. His cross ceased to glow, and the rage melted away from his face. Drake hated to see Koli like this. Essentially the priest had been heartbroken; Drake could see that in his friend. Whatever he saw in the city of Eluriand, shouldn’t have happened.

And yet there was still something about this priest that amazed Drake. Even though he had gone on a rampage, it was 100% righteous. His anger was not fruitless or for no apparent reason, he had only killed demons as Drake could tell, and he was doing it all to save the town. The priest’s rampage was not a curse, but a blessing.

[Koli]

“Koli are you okay?’

No. The priest was not okay. Demons were inside the town killing innocent children. The thought of this revolted Koli, and made him want to throw up. Who could kill an innocent child? Only a being of pure evil would kill an innocent child for no apparent reason.

“Koli stop you are scaring me.”

Koli hated to scare people… Who was he scaring? Only demons were on this plane. Demons that the priest had to get back to killing. The demons were murdering families and destroying the town; imagine what they had done by now. He looked down before he left and found Rocky staring up at him. Instantly a memory of the priest feeding the rock monster flooded his mind. Koli then realized what was happening. Instantly he cut off the tap to his heroic energy and he felt his extreme strength waning. The Zweihänder was getting heavier and heavier in his hand until the priest finally let the blade drop to rest on the ground. What had just happened?

[matthewkuch]

Gavner ripped the knife out of the demon’s chest as its blood began to harden on his hand. The burning hot temperature had subsided and the blood started to stiffen. Closing his hand with all his might, Gavner shattered the hardened black shell that was on his hand and picked up his knife. He returned to the tree; guardian of his friend and waited for more enemies to come.

Then something else happened…

Gavner looked out over the landscape he was to guard, and noticed a man approaching him. It looked like a man at first, then Gavner noticed the blood red wings that had extended from his back. The man had medium length blonde hair and handsome features. He was slim yet muscular, garbed in a fine golden colored tunic. He had malevolent purple irises, and Gavner knew from the moment that he saw this man, that he was the biggest enemy of all.

[dracoboy8]

Drake watched as the priest’s massive sword melted away into a primitive longsword of degraded toughness. When Koli was in his rampage, his sword was of such a high vibration that it could harm demons; now it was not that strong any more. It was time for Drake to protect Koli.

“Koli, did you get any instructions from your man?” Drake called out to the priest.

Drake’s friend nodded and pulled out a sword from a sheath on his belt. It was made of a solid blue ice, and Drake recognized this to be ice mold. The angel now knew what their job was, and he had to mentally prepare himself for this. They had to venture to the heart of the stronghold, and vanquish the demon lord that was commanding the seventh.

[Koli]

Koli and Drake entered the city once more, this time Koli kept to the shadows again. Drake was the one on the astral plane, so he could see the demons from afar and avoid them. If Koli saw them, it was too late. They would already be too close and have already noticed the two. Koli suspected that Drake knew where the demon lord was because he was leading the way.

The priest now thought and realized how much he cared about his friends. He wondered what Gavner was up to now, or how he was faring. Stopping Drake, Koli turned to his friend.

“Gavner?” the priest said once more in his unfailing voice.

“Oh, I am not on your plane. I have no idea how you can see me, but this isn’t my real body. Gavner is protecting my body by the tree. “

[matthewkuch]

As the man drew nearer Gavner scowled. The vampire hid both of his knifes behind his back and watched as the most evil approached.

“Gavner,” he said in a rich voice that sounded like it was echoing in a corridor. “How have you been, my child?”

“I am no child of yours,” Gavner said spitting on the ground.

“Now,” he said, “that wasn’t very nice.”

The man raised his hand to shoulder level and Gavner instantly felt like his chest was going to explode. His insides felt like they were going to burst out, and he instantly had a killer migraine. Gavner fell to his knees in the intense pain, screaming through the torture.

“You should respect your elders, Gavner,” he said with a sinister smirk, “you may learn a thing or two from them.”

[dracoboy8]

Drake was in the astral plane, so he could see all of the features of the castle, but Koli was not. The angel hoped that there would be some place in the city that he could transport his friend through the dimension and then venture to the room of the demon lord. Drake took Koli to the end of town, and found that there were no demons in this area.

“Koli, you check to see if everybody is okay and I will try and find a portal to the demonic dimension.”

Drake split off from Koli and searched the town. There were lots of staircases, but they did not lead to anywhere. Astral plane knowledge 101: if you don’t know where a door or staircase leads to then stay away from it; it most likely leads to another dimension. Drake was not looking for link to another dimenstion though, he was looking for a portal.

[Koli]

Koli ran through the streets and threw open the door to the first house he saw. Food sat on a table, but chairs had been overturned and the wall was covered in blood. Two adults lay on the floor, dead. Koli was beyond the point of rage; this sight just made him sad. He walked through a doorway and found a small room with a bed and mattress in it.

The door was decimated and a small child lay on the floor in a pool of his own blood. He clutched a teddy bear in his right hand, and his eyes were glued open as if he had seen a ghost. Koli was very close to going back into a rampage, but he heard a sniffle from the other side of the room so he controlled his anger.

[matthewkuch]

Gavner lay face down in the grass as every inch of his body was aching. He had been tortured for thirty minutes, and the man had just given him a break to speak.

“You are making this a lot harder than it has to be, Gavner.” He said. “Just hand over Drake and it will all stop. I will even reward you.”

“I will hear no more of your lies!” Gavner grunted out. “You will never get Drake, nor will I ever tell you where he is!

“Gavner, Gavner, Gavner,” the man sighed. “You leave me no other choice.”

The man stepped forward and severed Gavner’s right hand from his arm in a single blow from a weapon that was on fire; never before had Gavner felt this much pain.

[dracoboy8]

“It’s got to be around here somewhere.”

Demons usually took pleasure on disguising themselves and coming on to the physical plane so they could experience the pleasures of the world. Most demons lived on the astral plane, but they always had a portal near one of their strongholds that allowed them to transition from planes. Demons were angels, but when they joined the seventh The Boss had taken a few privileges away from them.

The Boss took away the wings from all angels that joined the seventh, and He took away all armor and weapons that they had wielded. He also took away their ability to pass freely from dimension to dimenstion. Some demons would gain that ability if they rose high enough in the seventh, and others would be granted weapons to wield, but it was very difficult for a demon to advance in the seventh. The way it should be.

[Koli]

Koli turned around and found that the source of the noise had come from a nearby closet in the room. The priest walked up to the door that was slightly ajar, and gently opened it. Inside the closet was a little girl who was curled up into a ball and crying. She closed her eyes and fell silent when Koli opened the door, and pulled her dress up to her face to hide behind it.

Lifting her chin with his hand, Koli gently brought her gaze to his eyes, and drew from his heroic energy. Using his Eyes of Hero, the girl stared into his green eyes and began to calm down.

“There there, everything will be okay.” Koli said in a kind, soft tone. Opening his arms she gave the priest a big hug. He patted the child on the back, comforting her in his arms. These demons have wreaked enough havoc already, but this gesture crossed the line.

[matthewkuch]

“AAAHHHHHHHGGGGGHHH!!!!!”

Ganver just had a stave of glass stabbed through his shoulder and into the ground below him.

“Gavner, you are being very uncooperative.”

“Go to hell!”

The man stabbed Gavner’s other shoulder with the stave and the vampire let lose another yell of agony.

“You know I created vampires?” The man said, “why have you been telling people that I didn’t?”

“No creature as vile as you created the noble vampires!” Gavner spat.

“Oh but I did.” The man replied, “you are simply unwilling to accept it.”

Gavner thought on this for a moment. What if vampires were actually spawns of Satan? Everything he had learned, everything he had believed, was all a lie.

“If you created vampires then why are you torturing me.”

“A parent must punish their child when they are uncooperative.”

“I am no child of a cur like you!”

[dracoboy8]

Drake finally reached the final expanse of the town and was ready to give up. Maybe these demons were freakishly undrawn by the physical world. He turned to start back to Koli but he caught something out of the corner of his eye. Something in the simplest of all places, but that he had not thought to look closely at.

Looking at the wall enclosing the end of Eluriand, Drake saw a stone archway that had a dim film over the gap between the two pillars on either side. Could this be? There was only one way to find out! Drake began to rush back to Koli but off in the distance he saw a demon at the doorway of a house.

“No you don’t!”

[Koli]

Koli now sat on the bed with a crying little girl hugging his arm. Koli hated to see children cry; it broke his heart, but she had to let it out. Grieving people had to release tension and stress before they could be calmed down; it was just the way of life. Every second that passed Koli grew angrier and angrier. He was so done with these demons and the way that they were acting.

A loud noise was heard, a noise of the front door busting off its hinges. The little girl shrieked and jumped up onto Koli, hugging him and curling up into a protective ball once more. Koli wrapped her in his arms, as he looked and saw that it was a demon. The priest was ready to go into rampage, but just before he did…

[matthewkuch]

[Please,] Gavner prayed, [Boss, God, whoever you are. Please save me from this…]

[ That is enough, Lucifer.] a voice said authoritively.

The man who was torturing Gavner looked up and screamed in terror.

[No! No you will never control me!] He screamed at the man who was standing behind Gavner.

[ Right now I will tell you what to do. Unhand my child.]

The evil man screamed and ran away.

[Seraphina, fix Gavner up. His friends need help.]

[dracoboy8]

Drake approached the demon whose back was turned, and formed a crossbow. Shooting an arrow at the foe, Drake made the projectile explode on impact with the demon’s back. The creature shrieked furiously and turned around. Drake was already one step ahead of the game. He was up to the demon when he turned around, and the angel channeled so much energy into the knife he had created that it pierced right through the demon’s willpower and cut into his energy.

The creature roared as energy spurted from its stomach and it slowly deflated like a dying balloon. Drake kicked the creature on the way down, over and over and over and over until it was nothing more than an empty shell on the ground. Even after that, Drake still stomped on the demon in rage. This battle had taken its toll on everybody.

[Koli]

Just at the last moment, Drake showed up and killed the entity faster than Koli had ever seen him destroy a demon. Holding the little girl tighter, Koli assured her that everything was okay and the creature was gone. Drake walked into the room and found Koli comforting the crying girl.

“I think I should call some backup,” Drake said.

Soon an angel with a katana, had appeared.

‘Raphael,” Drake said, “take care of this one for me. Make sure she doesn’t remember a thing.”

The angel nodded and picked the little girl up. He tapped her forehead and she was fast asleep in his arms.

“Hey Koli,” Drake said, I found the portal. Follow me.”

[matthewkuch]

The angels had encircled the city and now had taken the walls. All demons were contained in the city of Eluriand now. Gavner took Drake’s body and left Eva to guard the Ulder Livol branch, and he was off into the city. A man, Jesus he said his name was, had blessed Ganver to have the same enchantment that the tree had on him.

Gavner headed for the city carrying Drake in his arms and being extra careful with him. Gavner reached the side of the city wall and noticed a hole blasted in it and a boulder at the base of the wall. Bursting into the city, Gavner sensed Drake to his left. Not being able to contain himself, Gavner sprinted down the streets to find his friends.

[dracoboy8]

As Drake and Koli began to exit the house, Drake began to feel himself jarring around.

“Oh crap,” he said, “something is happening to my body.”

Drake looked at Koli. He knew now that they had to stop. If something had happened to Gavner and his body was now under attack, it would only be a matter of seconds before his body pulled him back with his silver cord. He did not want to leave Koli alone in the astral plane.

“Koli we have to wait,” Drake said, “I can’t leave you alone in the astral plane.”

The priest nodded his head and they waited. The waiting game was the toughest part; Drake was never quite good at waiting. He supposed he needed patience inorder to be successful, but it was just so hard.

[Koli]

Just as Koli was about to tell Drake he wanted to go on his own, Gavner ran around the corner carrying Drake’s body. Drake’s astral body zoomed into his physical body instantly, and he woke up.

“Gavner!” he shouted, “why are you here?”

“The Boss saved me. He told me you guys needed help,” Gavner replied.

“Your timing is impeccable.” Drake said, “We are just about to slay the leader of the demons.”

“Oh lordy lordy,” Gavner said, “You thought you could have all the fun without me?”

They all laughed. Koli was very happy that Gavner was here, but at that moment something complicated things even more. A black orb appeared about 200 feet away from them, swirling with darkness and evil energy.

“Guys,” Gavner said, “I think we have company.”

[matthewkuch]

“Follow me!” Drake said and ran to the left. The party quickly followed the angel, Koli taking the rear once more and Gavner in the middle. Drake weaved through a bunch of buildings and objects and finally came to a halt at the end of Eluriand’s wall. An archway stood at the end of the road that led directly into the wall. The road seemed to go nowhere, nowhere but the arch that is.

They all looked at each other, in awe of what they were just about to do.

“You ready?” Drake asked, “there’s no telling what is in there, but I can tell you for sure that there will be danger, and a demon lord who wants to kill us. Once we go through, there could be no coming back.”

Gavner looked at Koli, Koli looked at Drake, Drake looked at Gavner who put his hand in the center.

“Let us go and kick some demon hiney.”

[dracoboy8]

The whole party jumped through the archway at the same time, and they found themselves in the castle of the seventh. They were in a long corridor that had many fancy paintings on the wall and red carpets. The castle itself was stone and there were demons walking around. Many walked past the trio, but none of them seemed to notice.

“Are we invisible?” Drake asked.

“That’s what it looks like,” Gavner replied. “Do you know where to go, Drake?”

“I think so,” he said, “he will be in the throne room at the center in the top. We need to find a staircase.”

The trio walked down the corridor and into a dimly lit hallway. There were hundreds of demons all over the place, but still none noticed the party. Drake’s jaw dropped as they turned the corner and saw exactly what he did not want to see.

[Koli]

The large black orb of swirling darkness and black evil energy was actually a dimensional tear. Demons were all filing towards it, circling around it, and walking through 15 at a time. Upon seeing this Koli, Drake, and Gavenr knew that they had to pick up the pace. They were going at a snail’s pace, and the demon lord needed to be vanquished very soon.

“Where could the stairs be?” Gavner voiced out loud.

“I don’t know. If I were stairs where would I hide?”

“Maybe behind a tapestry?” Gavner suggested.

“Gavner, you’re a genius!”

“Well I do not like to brag, but, well, uh-”

“This way!”

[matthewkuch]

There were so many tapestries in the demons’ castle. Gavner didn’t know why they needed so many decorations, but their vanity was ticking him off.

“Why when I get my hands on that demon lord I swear I am going to rip his head off and feed it to the dogs.”

“What dogs?” Drake asked.

“It is a figure of speech Drake,” Gavner said. “Duhh.”

“So were there a lot of demons that attacked you?”

“No, there was only one,” Gavner replied, “but I ripped his throat out.”

“Wow,” Drake marveled, “I wish I could do that.”

“Someday you might, young child, some day you might.” Gavner said, “but first we need to find this staircase!”

[dracoboy8]

The party searched everywhere trying to find the staircase with little avail. The more time that passed, the more casualties were suffered on both sides. The city of Eluriand was probably destroyed by now, and the angels might have even been pushed back out of the city by now. Drake had been horrified by what the demons had done to some of the families and homes in the town. The angels had a lot of restoration ahead of them.

Tapestry after tapestry with no avail, the trio searched and searched for a set of stairs. They walked down all of the corridors searching for some, but it wasn’t until they returned to their starting point that they noticed where some stairs were. The arch was almost up against the wall, but if they followed the corridor that the arch was in all the way to the end, they found a big set of stairs.

[Koli]

“I think we have found our way to the demon lord.” Gavner said, “no matter what happens up there I just want to thank you guys for everything. You mean a lot to me.”

“Thank you Gavner,” Drake said, “you are one of my best friends.”

Koli pointed to his friends and then to his heart. It was true, each of them held a special place in his heart. They ascended the stairs and found themselves on the upper floor of the castle. This floor layout was drastically different than the one below. There was one large wall that was in front of them, and a single corridor that led all the way around a square. This square was a special room; the throne room?

[matthewkuch]

The trio walked up to the huge doors and prepared to enter. It was very large; presumably over fifteen feet tall, and had a single circular ring to open it. Gavner looked down at the blood red carpets and at some of the paintings on the walls. They were of demons, undoubtedly demon lords, and the man that had tortured Gavner.

The vampire walked up to one of these paintings and ripped it from the wall. Crouching down on it he shredded the canvas with his fingernails and stomped on the face of it. He then relieved himself on the face and returned to the door.

“Feel refreshed?” Drake asked the vampire.

“Very. Now let us do this.”

[dracoboy8]

Gavner did the honors of pulling open the door, and inside they found exactly what they came to. When they opened the door, the most uncomfortable sensation hit their faces, pure heat. Dry, hot, unbearable heat filed the room as if it were an oven just waiting to bake all who entered. Drake furled his wings so they did not get burnt. The sides of the room were filled with lava, and room was entirely red.

Heat waves were visible, and they obscured what lie at the end of the room. Despite their discomfort, the trio continued into the room, deeper and deeper into the heat. It was extremely difficult for Drake to breathe, and it only got worse the deeper they went, but an angel’s got to do what an angel’s got to do. The party approached the demon lord until he was fully visible sitting on his throne.

[Koli]

Koli did not flinch as the immense heat hit him, nor did he change his breathing patterns. There was not one bit of moisture in the atmosphere, but he kept breathing as normal. He kept telling himself that this was all just a state of mind. He had to get in, kill the demon lord, and escape so he could see Xerxes. Koli wanted to know about his parents. He had to know…

An arrow soared through the air and lodged itself into Koli’s shoulder. The arrow exploded tons of pain into his system, but Koli did not flinch. Red blood soaked through his robe, staining the garment crimson red to match the room, but Koli recognized that the pain was merely a state of mind. Gavner made the first move against the demon lord, brandishing a knife and charging at the entity.

[matthewkuch]

The vampire rushed at the demon lord but as he leapt to attack it, it seemed as if time had stopped. Gavner completely lost track of time and was engulfed in his own memories. Not good memories either. The image of Balthazar murdering Eva’s parents, the praying mantis killing Drake and shooting Eva, Vir Fortis dying in his arms. All of this broke Gavner’s heart.

The vampire found himself flying into the door and slamming against the mass of wood. His shot was now over, he had failed at killing the demon lord. He felt extremely depressed and did not have the will to even get up. After all, what was even the point in the first place?

[dracoboy8]

Drake watched in horror as Gavner leapt at the foe, and locked up. He fell directly into the demon lord’s kick, which sent him flying into the door and knocked unconscious. Drake was going to avenge his friend’s defeat, he was going to destroy this demon lord. The angel stepped towards the enemy, a swift and timely assault, but things did not turn out the way he had expected.

The demon lord disappeared and was behind Drake all of a sudden. The enemy bashed Drake over the head and knocked him out cold. While he was out, Drake felt as if he was drifting through time and space. He did not know who he was, or what he was. He came back to his body and opened his eyes just in time to see Koli and his attack against the demon lord.

[Koli]

Instead of foolishly squandering a chance at attacking the demon lord, Koli was wise and let the foe approach him. Koli appeared to be completely unarmed, and the enemy saw this. The assailant knew that he was up against a wiser, more experienced opponent. He spotted the arrow in Koli’s shoulder and smirked.

“A little presssssent for you,” he hissed into the priest’s face.

Taking advantage of his opponent’s arrogance, Koli unsheathed the icemold longsword and pierced the demon. Koli’s aim was true, and the sword drove directly through his heart. The demon gave a terrible and menacing scream, and disappeared almost instantly. Looking around, Koli noticed the palace was about to come down on top of him…

[matthewkuch]

The vampire awoke with a start to find Koli shaking him awake.

“Oh hey Koli, are we dead?” Drake mumbled, but he noticed that the priest was more urgent than ever. He pulled Gavner up by the hand and yanked the door open to the outside corridors.

“Koli, you got an arrow in your shoulder,” Gavner said, feeling loopy for some reason.

The priest rushed him to the staircase and firmly said “Archway.” He then rushed back into the room and Gavner thought about what he had said.

“Archway… Oh archway!” Gavner took off down the stairs as he heard a rumbling noise from the surrounding castle. He had to escape fast before the entire castle came down on them.

[dracoboy8]

Koli rushed off after killing the demon lord, only to return and pick Drake up.

“Hey Koli,” Drake said feeling the same loopiness that Gavner had felt. “Where are we going?”

The priest did not answer, but carried the angel out into the corridors. Down the stairs and through the whole other corridor. Through the archway and into the city of Eluriand they went. Koli lay Drake on a bed in a house that he took the angel, then left. Drake saw angels patrolling the streets and the town. Right now though, he just wanted to sleep.

[Koli]

After killing the demon lord, Koli had to prioritize. Gavner was a vampire, so he could take more damage than Drake could. Grabbing the vampire’s hand, Koli led Gavner out of the throne room and told him to go to the arch. He was a bit worried about the vampire, but he knew that Gavner could handle himself.

Drake was going to be a challenge, on the other hand. Koli rushed into the throne room and scooped Drake up off the floor. The angel said a few loopy things to the priest, but Koli knew that it was just the effects of the demon’s castle. Speaking of which, the castle was coming down on him and the priest booked it for the nearest exit.

[matthewkuch]

Coming to his senses, Gavner realized that the castle was coming down around him and set off for the exit as fast as he could. The vampire booked it down the corridor and through the arch way back to Eluriand. Looking out over the town Gavner found that the demons had all turned and were killing each other.

It was absolute chaos, and the angels had come in to restore order. Koli bolted through the arch way with Drake and went into a house. He came out and Gavner smiled.

“Good job Koli, you saved our butts there.” Gavner said, congratulating the priest for a job well done.

Koli merely shrugged.

“You might want to get that arrow out of your arm.”

[dracoboy8]

Drake came to in a house with an old man that had a tattoo like Koli’s.

“Are you Koli’s grandpa?” Drake asked.

“No,” said the man, “but I am from his brotherhood.”

“Hey, Koli’s grandpa,” Drake said, “guess what…”

“What is it son?”

“Chicken butt!! Hahahahahaha I got you!” Drake said. Clearly he was still a bit out of it from the battle with the demon. He heard Gavner and the man talking in the distance, but he decided not to get up. He was very tired and he just wanted to sleep once more. He forgot all of his cares, all of his worries, all of the things that had happened, and just slept.

[Koli]

When Koli returned to Eluriand, he found that order had been restored by the angels. The priest could now do what he had to. He found Gavner and gestured for the vampire to follow. The two men searched the town for the house, and found that it was intact. This time the priest knocked on the door, and it opened right away.

“Koli,” Xerxes said in the doorway, “welcome. And who is this?”

“I am Gavner,” the vampire said, “a friend of Koli’s.”

“Any friend of Koli’s is a friend of mine. Please, come in.”

[matthewkuch]

The monk that looked like one of Koli’s kind invited Gavner into the house.

“I am pleased to meet you Gavner, tell me,” said the monk, “was that your Ulder Livol wood out by the tree with this darling little wolf cub?”

Gavner saw as he entered the house, Eva sitting on a chair and happily wagging her tail.

“Eva!” Gavner yelled and rushed up to hug her. The man smiled as he watched Gavner adore Eva. “Yes sir, that was our wood.”

“I hope you do not mind that I took the liberty of creating a bow for you.”

Looking on the table, Gavner saw a beautiful black bow with 4 strings and a quiver of arrows next to it.

“A bladesinger bow, a rare find these days.” Xerxes said. “I made it while all of the commotion was going on and tested it out on some of the demons. It is a fine weapon; you chose an excellent branch.”

“But- how- I do not know what to say!” Gavner exclaimed. “How could I ever repay you?”

“I want you to make somebody really happy with this bow,” the monk said putting it into a box that was stuffed with cotton. Putting the lid on it he wrapped it in a brown paper bag and handed it to Gavner. "That will be payment enough."

“Take these too,” he said handing Gavner a quiver of arrows, “black diamond. Some of the finest arrows you will find around. Say, Koli. What have you got there?”

The priest handed the arrow over to the ancient monk whose face lit up.

“What an incredible find,” Xerxes said, “This is a demon lord arrow. They never give up these unless they are defeated. A demon arrow has one of the strongest metals as a tip, and always returns to the owner after fired; so long as the owner’s name is engraved on it. Who did you want to give this to?”

[dracoboy8]

"Bye Gavner bye Koli!" Drake exclaimed as he left the house. He had lots of business to do and so little time to do it in. He really wished he got a chance to see his friends again soon though; they made him happier than almost anything in the world. Drake walked along the countryside and saw all of the ostriches. As Drake walked by the massive birds they all followed him.

"Ugh," Drake grunted, "not you again."

[Koli]

Koli was with the ancient monk, sitting at his table.

"You fought well, Koli."

The priest looked attentively at the monk.

"You are always welcome in my home, any time you like just drop by for a visit."

Koli knew that this was going nowhere, so he nodded and rose to leave.

"Koli," The monk said. Koli stopped and looked over his shoulder. "We can talk about your parents, but not now. Maybe some other time."

Koli nodded, and then just like that he had vanished into the bustling city.

[matthewkuch]

Gavner set out, box in hand and quiver slung across his back.

"Now remember, tell your friend that he must replace the special arrow in the quiver between shots," the monk said, "it needs to recharge before he can shoot it again, but any time he shoots it the thing will return to him if he is farther than 5 feet away from it for more than 5 minutes. It will attract to him and remain suspended in midair until he takes it."

Gavner couldn't wait to give Shadow his new bow for Christmas; perhaps this wasn't a hoax holiday after all.

End of story; thread will be submitted for judgement.

Requested Spoils:
1 Bladesinger Bow as a present for Black Shadow; to be given to him in a later thread
1 quiver of 10 black diamond arrows
1 Demon Lord Arrow (arrow tip strength equivalency of Adamantine; returns to Black Shadow after being shot and is away from him for over 5 minutes. Flies through the air and stops 2 feet away from him, suspended in midair. Cannot hurt anybody when returning to Black Shadow. Cannot hurt anybody when suspended in midair. Must be placed in quiver for 2 minutes before it can be shot again.

[Philomel]

Thread Title: And So This Is Christmas
Judgement Type: No Judgement
Participants: matthewkuch, dracoboy8 and Koli

Rewards:

matthewkuch receives:
6390 EXP
100 GP

dracoboy8 receives:
5325 EXP
330 GP

Koli receives:
4840 EXP
330 GP

All three participants level up. Well done!!!

Spoils requests:
Bow is granted. Described as "1 Bladesinger Bow as a present for Black Shadow; to be given to him in a later thread." Note: for all purposes, as requested by the admins, this bow should be defined as being "better than 'The highest tier of wood.'" It is a longbow, made with high quality, using the top teir of wood - Liviol Nihon Redwood.
Bow amount: 1575 GP.
Demon Lord arrow is granted. Described using the following: "arrow tip strength equivalency of Adamantine; returns to Black Shadow after being shot and is away from him for over 5 minutes. Flies through the air and stops 2 feet away from him, suspended in midair. Cannot hurt anybody when returning to Black Shadow. Cannot hurt anybody when suspended in midair. Must be placed in quiver for 2 minutes before it can be shot again." Price calculated with high-quality, top-teir metal with enchantment.
Arrow amount: 90 GP
Diamond arrows are granted. Described as, "1 quiver of 10 black diamond arrows." Price calculated using diamond-tipped arrows of a quiver of 10, at high-quality pricing.
Arrows amount: 450 GP

Total price after spoil item discount = 2010 GP

All items to be granted to matthewkuch.

Money is taken thusly, with given permission and special requests from participants involved, asking it to be solely done in GP, if possible, including GP from their accounts. I can confirm by messages the matters below, if messages are requested. (each name has a link to account):

Matthewkuch (http://www.althanas.com/world/member.php?17109-matthewkuch) is left with 100 GP for spoils from this thread.
Please take the 469 GP from his account.
As requested the remaining 801 GP is taken in equal amounts from the spoils GP of dracoboy8 (http://www.althanas.com/world/member.php?17423-dracoboy8) and Koli (http://www.althanas.com/world/member.php?17504-Koli).
You may also take 100 GP off Philomel (http://www.althanas.com/world/member.php?17225-Philomel)'s account for the trouble, here, and to leave Matthewkuch with something.

Please note: This is still under consideration so long as the admins are okay with this investment. Otherwise I will change the outcome and request that the items be taken off matthewkuch as EXP from this thread. In this case leaving matthewkuch with: 5050 EXP and 740 GP.

[Lye]

EXP & GP Added!

I imagine some serious leveling just occurred.