Praxis: A Sacrifice Fit for a King.

[INDK]

(Closed)

Lornius

Lornius was buzzing with action, because the LCC was about to begin. Damon had learned a great deal from his newfound friend Ashiakin. He knew now what tournaments were about, the kind of dedication that they took, and the practice that was necessary in order to win in them. However, there were many things that the reborn child had yet to learn again, about the way adrenaline could surge through the body, about the way rationality was compromised in split second decisions, the pain of a sword as it sliced straight through the chest. In all those matters, Damon was blissfully unaware, leaving the boy with nothing but unbridled excitement now before the tournament.

His excitement was infectious on the crowd. Many participants stayed locked up in their hotel rooms, strategizing and attempting to scout other competitors that they expected. Damon, however, was completely different. He reveled in telling stories about previous battles that had never happened, about how he intended to dedicate victories in the tournament to all the nice people that he’d met in Lornius, and most of all, he praised the city. It was rare that strangers would praise Lornius, given how riddled the city was with corruption and decay. Syndicated crime ran the island, but somehow Damon was able to look past that. To the boy, how a place as wonderful as Lornius could be stricken with so many problems was a mystery. The people were attendant, kind and often willing to humor a boy whose stories often bordered on the incredulous. Most people had wished him luck, a few laughed with him, but all of it was in good fun. Everyone in the bar was having a good time, and it seemed like it would be a rare tavern night in Lornius that passed uneventfully.

However, two orcs in the bar remained considerably less than pleased.

“Doessss he evar shuddupp?” one asked the other, pointing at Damon as the boy began to regail the audience with another fictional tale of his valor. “Id’d be da same story, ovar an’ ovar… always killen um vampurs.”

“Yah, don’ he get tirr’d” the second orc replied. It had been a tiresome day. Lord Ashiakin had assigned the two orcs the duty of keeping an eye on Damon, probably because the ice elemental had better things to worry about than a child’s story telling. The problem was, so did the ice elemental’s minions.

If it wasn’t for the lashings they would receive for failure, the two orcs would have been content to let the boy continue talking. However, they were stuck in the bar, sticking out like sore thumbs in the midst of humans and elves. They had no choice but to console themselves to drinking ale that was watered down to their sensitivities, and endure the bigoted looks of strangers that naturally assumed that such orcs were up to something violent.

Damon hadn’t noticed the two, nor even understand their significance. The orcs had been told not to engage him, and that was why the boy said nothing to his two guardians before he slipped off towards the washroom.

It was only ten minutes later, when the boy failed to return, that the orcs grew a little nervous.

(Bunny of Ashiakin approved)

[Torin Reahkari]

"Wow am I ever sick of this place." my crewmate sighed, taking another swig from his bottle of rum.

"How can you be sick off...of this?" I laughed, my speech slurred slightly. The rum was beginning to kick in.

"This place is basically heaven on Earth. Perfect weather year round, an amazing ship to sail with, a skilled crew, and not t'mentionnn...lotsa drinks." I replied, followed by a series of hiccups.

"Alright..time to put the bottle down." I thought, stumbling towards the Vault as I took one last drink then tossed the half-empty bottle to the ground by the fire, right beside the other twenty that the crew had downed.

"Torrin.." a voice called, from the left near the Norian Forest.

"Huh?!" I garbled, trying to grab the handle of Tanzalis but missing repeatedly.

"Torrrrrrin...[/i] it called again, slightly closer this time. Harder and harder I tried until I finally got my hand over the handle.

"TORIN!" the voice snapped, bringing me to my senses, finally recognizing the figure of a cloaked person in the forest.

"What is it? Whooo'rrr..you?" I mumbled, staring into the face of the mystery person.

"That..isn't important. Take this." he replied, exposing his hand from his cloak to reveal a glowing rock.

"Heyyy...waitaminute! Yur an elf! I could have you killed just for being here, you know.." I slurred even more, becoming angry.

"I would love to see you try, but it doesn't matter. Here." he continued, slamming the rock onto my hand. I felt a tug, a jerk, and light filled my eyes. I closed them as to not go blind, and felt sweat beading from every pore on my body. Suddenly, I lurched forward with a thump and landed on hard ground, the sweat turning cold.

"What the..where in Valsharess'ss'ss name am I?!" I stuttered rolling over and sitting up.

[INDK]

Hrenta Nodos

Even though the boy suffered from a lack of experience, Damon was still certain that what had just happened to him was not a common event. He now stood in the middle of a dim bazaar, with hazy red light having replaced the sun. Above him, was nothing more than solid earth. A more seasoned Althanian would have known that he had been transported to the netherworld of Althanas, the demon underground known as Haidia. An experienced adventurer would have even felt more cause for alarm. This was not Vainta or the forests, the drab stores and looming presence of the Deimis made that clear. This was Hrenta Nodos, a place so dangerous that few outerworlders had ever survived adventures there. Even the demons knew to stay away.

However, Damon was far too young to be frightened. He was curious, a bit confused, but he saw no reason not to consult with people nearby. The boy was armed with the machete he had stolen earlier, so there wasn’t a considerable cause for alarm. However, Damon didn’t even consider unsheathing the moment when he was accosted by a rough voice and grabbed by the shoulder.

“Come with me,” boomed the voice of a large demon. Almost completely human, save for the odd tones of hair and eyes, this demon loomed larger in size than even most of its own kindred. Over seven feet tall and quite burly, Damon would have been quite intimidated had he known the ways in which physical strength could quickly translate into brutality.

Damon still followed. Not because of coercion, but because he was genuinely confused and hoped that the burly demon would be able to explain a few things. The boy remained mostly silent as he followed after the demon, trying to appraise where he was, and how he had gotten there from a bathroom in Lornius.

“How far is Lornius?” Damon asked, only to get a grunt as a reply.

The boy asked again, and again, and again. Eventually, Damon had given up, deciding that his escort was rather rude. The boy didn’t care much for the demon, especially when he found that their destination was a dilapidated shack that smelled of rotten milk. Still, Damon offered no protestation as he was shunted into a large cage, and only began to get suspicious when the demon bolted and locked the door on him, and then left him in the darkness of an otherwise empty shack.

“I want an answer soon…” he called out frustratedly, wondering why he would have been castigated to such darkness. The boy certainly didn’t need a nap.

[Torin Reahkari]

"Get up."

...

"Get up, now" The voice repeated.

"Ugh.." I replied, my head throbbing. Suddenly, a spear and a large sword were pressed against my throat, urging me up.

"Alrightttttt! Calm..down. Hey what's with the lights?" I asked, noticing the red dull glow everywhere.

"And..wasn't therrre..a sky twosseconds ago?" I continued to question, staring up.

"Move." the gruff voice said again, poking me in the back with it's spear.

"Ok!" I muttered angrily, trying incredibly hard to walk in a straight line. Where the hell was I? A second ago I was drinking in Etheria, and now I was..here. Getting pushed around by.....

....

"Hey, waitaminute! Who are you guys anyways?!" I cried, turning around to be faced by two full-fledged, in the flesh demons.

"Ohhh....nevermind...." I sighed, continuing to walk towards a small broken shack, still being pressed forward by the demons. Suddenly a stench hit me so hard I faltered, feeling the point of the spear press slightly into my back.

"I think you guys should know..something big and already very smelly died a few days ago here..you should get it looked at." I giggled. The demons merely grunted, pushing me through the door into what seemed like eternal darkness, until my eyes finally adapted to it.

"What's with the cage?" I mumbled more to myself than anyone else, and was fairly surprised when I was roughly shoved into it, pitching me forward onto the floor, which I hit with a small 'oof'. I could hear the door slam and a lock be placed on the door.

"Wow, this bites." I sighed, sitting with my arms around my legs, my head being supported by my knees. My immediate surroundings...nothing of any use. I was stuck.

“I want an answer soon…”

"What the...who said that?!" I called, reaching for the Adamantite dagger I kept in my boot.

[INDK]

“I did,” Damon replied adamantly. He had been demanding answers for quite some time now. For the time he’d been left in the cage alone, right up till his captors had arrived again, this time with another prisoner. By now, the boy had figured that he wasn’t going to get out of this situation merely by the guard’s goodwill. They had locked him up, though Damon truly had no idea why. “I got locked up in here before you.”

The boy now wasn’t sure as to whether or not he should be glad to be joined by another person in the cage. For all he knew, he was stuck with someone hostile who was going to try and hurt him. Plus the air around him was growing increasingly stale. With another person in there breathing, it was going to grow even worse. However, Damon was not completely unawares of the positives of this new stranger joining him. It was likely now that they were locked in the same cage, their fates had been linked together. The boy knew little about his surroundings, and even less about how one was able to escape a metal contraption like the one that held him. Hopefully, this stranger would be more willing to come to his aid.

Thus, Damon figured he was going to have to put his best foot forward. “I’m Damon Kaosi, or Glen Lambert,” he said. “I use both names, because some people don’t like to call me Damon Kaosi because there was a general before who had the same name. I just remembered the name Kaosi, so I took it, because I don’t remember much else about anything…”

After introducing himself, Damon paused for a moment before realizing that he probably also should detail everything he knew about the situation. “I was in Lornius a few minutes ago, or maybe sometime longer. But I was telling stories about how I’m going to win the LCC… they weren’t all true, but at least they were interesting. Then I touched some shiny thing that I probably shouldn’t have, and I ended up in this place with no sky and red glows and really hot temperatures… then someone brought me here.”

The boy summed it up like it was the extent of his life story, though given how little time he’d been alive, that was essentially true. Cautiously, he looked at his fellow captive, trying to make out as much as he could in the dark cage. Had he known that the stranger had drawn a weapon, then Damon might have been a bit more nervous. However, he was receiving no future vision of any kind of hostility, and the darkness concealed most movement. Thus he folded his hands across his chest and waited for a reciprocal response.

[Torin Reahkari]

“I’m Damon Kaosi......."

Was it possible? Had he really returned to Althanas? I had to send word to Praenua to stop the search!

"D..Damon.." I stuttered, dropping my dagger, my hands shaking. I had missed him. Missed his guidance, his friendship. I had missed the feeling that no matter how few or many enemies I had, there was always someone who would help me. However, this voice, was very unlike the Damon I knew. A few tears of fear dropped from my eyes. What if this was an imposter, someone who had killed Damon and taken his place?

No, impossible. Damon would not let himself be killed by a child..would he?

"...Then I touched some shiny thing that I probably shouldn’t have, and I ended up in this place with no sky and red glows and really hot temperatures… then someone brought me here.” The boy concluded.

"I..I see." I managed to stutter, my throat very dry from the earlier rum, and the increasingly stagnant air in the cage.

"Well...my name's Torin. Torin Reahkari. I was just sitting around a fire with some friends from my crew when an elf offered me a glowing rock, which teleported me here..where ever here is. I've never been to this part of Althanas before. That is, if we're even on Althanas." I concluded quietly, my voice barely above a whisper. I could feel myself becoming more and more aware of my surroundings and my situation..the alcohol was wearing off.

"But..Damon Kaosi. I used to know him. You say you only remembered the name Kaosi.. Are you his son? Or of some relation to him? You are very different, just by your voice alone I can tell you're not at all like Damon." I murmured, seeing a black outline of the boy shifting around.

"What now?" I thought, looking around. There didn't seem to be any concievable way out of this cage, and it was very obvious both he and this boy were captured for a purpose.

I sighed, wishing I had a cigarette. I didn't have time for this, Borna would be in Ettermire in two weeks.

[INDK]

Damon wasn’t sure whether or not he should be excited by meeting someone who purported to know his namesake. The boy had wanted to learn about this other Damon Kaosi, primarily because he was still uncertain as to whether or not they were the same person. However, the uncertainty of the situation precluded the boy from asking all that many questions. Plus, Torin’s question had made him contemplative. The boy didn’t know how sons were born, but for all he knew, he may have not been the same Damon Kaosi of lore, but a son of that Kaosi, a lesser known and perhaps more insignificant one. That thought made the boy feel a bit embarrassed. While he hadn’t wanted to admit it, part of the reason Damon had felt such a license to tell tall tales was that he thought that he might somehow be that Damon Kaosi that everyone else talked about. The possibility of being a famous general had given the boy confidence, and without that, he couldn’t help but fear that he might be completely insignificant to Althanas.

“I- I- I don’t know,” he stammered, his voice taking a subtle tone of hostility as he replied to Torin. “I don’t know you, and I don’t even see how I could know if I’m that Damon, or his son. I never said I was, did I? If you wanted to, you could have called me Glen Lambert… I said that I wouldn’t mind. You shouldn’t ask me questions about whether I was that Damon’s son, how am I supposed to know? I just woke up one day, I had no memory and I was naked in the Corone bazaar! People keep asking me questions about things I don’t know… and I don’t know the answers. If you guys have been born for so long, then you’re the ones who should know.”

After finishing his diatribe, Damon exhaled violently. There was a definite hint of impertinence to his voice, revealing both that he was nervous and overwhelmed. It had been an odd mix for the boy, who normally showed surprising maturity barring his naiveté, but he had felt pushed to the limit now. He had hoped for some kind of an answer that would help him from Torin, about how they’d be able to escape their cage, or at least how in Althanas they had ended up in this place which had no sky.

However, it looked like Torin wouldn’t get much of any time to respond. The door opened, revealing a pair of figures clad completely in black. Save for two eye slits, there was nothing that would have made these people any ways intelligible. They spoke with a generic tone, as if modifying their voices to remain anonymous. They had brought a torch with them, giving a bit of light into the room and giving Damon his first opportunity to get a good look at Torin Reahkari.

“Kinda skinny,” was Damon’s first impression. He had figured that if Torin had known the other Damon Kaosi, then it would have gone without saying that Torin was a great warrior himself. However, this skinny stranger didn’t look all that old and was certainly in need of a haircut. Dressed almost completely in black, the boy supposed that Torin at least had a good fashion sense, so perhaps he had been the other Damon’s fashion designer. There may have been muscles concealed underneath the coat, but Damon didn’t think to check when there were two other strangers in the room.

However, the boy’s thoughts were soon interrupted by the conversation between the two black clad strangers. “You get the black one… I’ll take care of the kid.”

Soon, both Damon and Torin were sprayed with a gas that made all of their limbs go numb. It was only then that the two strangers entered, carrying ropes and other tethers.

(Torin feel free to bunny)

[Torin Reahkari]

After the kid's rant, I began to wonder. Such blind confusion would not befit a son of Damon. This must be an imposter.

“You get the black one… I’ll take care of the kid.” a voice called. I looked up as the door opened up, a fire light opening my eyes to the child. He certainly was not related to Damon. I finally noticed the two fully black clad people toying around with a canister of sorts.

"What exactly is it you want?" I shot angrily, watching them open the canisters and spray it's contents all over us.

"What is this?!" I tried to yell, but found myself to be so relaxed, I could not move. I cried out in silence as my entire body fell into this numbness, the gas slowly dissipating in the air. With that, the two men came in with ropes and tethers, tying both our hands and feet together, also blindfolding us. Why, I have no idea. It's not like we could see anything of any use here.

I could not tell if I had been thrown off a cliff or still in the cage, as my arms and legs were completely feeling free. I knew they were there, but could not feel anything happening to them.

After what seemed to be hours, the blindfolds were removed, and we were both tossed into what seemed to be a wagon of sorts, underneath a black cover. Again, doused in complete darkness.

"So..any ideas on how to escape?" I mumbled, staring at the area where they tossed Glen. I could feel the wagon moving now, riding towards an unknown destination. Just who were these people, and why the hell was I a captive?

[INDK]

Damon had suffered largely the same fate as Torin. The boy had his eyes covered while his limbs had been rendered inert, had been shoved into the back of the wagon and underneath the black cover. The boy had gotten one little glimpse at the hazy red light of the mysterious place he’d found himself in, but only just enough to shock his eyes before he was shoved into the covered wagon. The doors were soon shut behind him, and Damon tried not to whimper.

Now, Torin was asking the boy if he knew how to escape. Had Damon’s nature been more sarcastic, he would have been quick to come up with a retort about how if he had known how to escape he certainly would have used it. However, the boy was far too polite, even with a skinny man that likely knew nothing about how to escape from these kinds of scenarios. Torin’s question reconfirmed Damon’s initial suspicions, Torin Reahkari had never been anything other than the other Damon’s fashion designer. Anyone competent enough to have been the ally of a general would certainly have been able to escape from two peons who didn’t even have the decency to reveal their faces.

“I wouldn’t… know… anything,” the boy replied, each sentence coming after a set of grunts when he tried to loosen the ropes around him. The power of his limbs had returned to him, but now Damon’s wrists and ankles had been tied together behind his back. It was to no avail, it was vlince binding, sturdy enough even for a boy who had more strength than most. Sulking, he bit down on his lip, wondering why he had even been set forward on this adventure. All he had wanted to do was stay the tavern, have a few drinks and tell a few stories… be in Lornius. Now he was somewhere else, and he was tired of being pushed around and not being told what was going on.

Eventually, he got tired of fighting his bindings and let out a very deep exhale. “If I had known that this would have happened, I never would have followed that man earlier,” Damon thought with a sigh. It was quite uncomfortable, lying on his stomach and his hands and legs were beginning to feel stiff. The boy was tempted to take it out on the fashion designer with a tirade of complaints, but he realized that it would just be foolish. Whatever their problem was, it seemed neither of them knew how to solve it, meaning that they were going to have to rely on each other. The boy was not without martial prowess, and Damon figured that Torin had to have at least some kind of useful ability.

“Can you move at all?” Damon asked. “I’m stuck on my stomach under here and its uncomfortable. We’re going to have to help each other if we’re going to get out of this…”

[Torin Reahkari]

"I..might be able to." I replied slowly, flexing my wrists as I pushed them apart as hard as I could, using all my strength to do so, slowly, I felt the tie loosening, the sturdy metal wire cutting into my wrists, but I didn't care.

Snap!

My wrists were free.

"Uh..yeah, I guess I can." I laughed a little, pulling my dagger out of my boot again, cutting easily through my ankle bindings.

"Hold on, kid." I grunted, cutting his bindings as well. I rolled him over so he was on his back at least, his limbs not strung up like some prisoner.

"So..Glen. Do you have any idea why you're here? Or, better question, why they captured you?" I asked quietly, hearing the wagon continue to roll on.

**will edit later**

[Zieg dil' Tulfried]

Thread closed and moved due to inactivity.