Fated (Chapter Thirty-Two)
Wednesday, September 9th, 2015 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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mindcrackloveChapter list: http://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/382.html
Map of the continent: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/F
Character status spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet
Chapter Thirty-Two
Kingdom of Illian, Minecraftia. October 4, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
Adrian’s claws flashed as he brought them down at Niel, aimed at the boy’s chest with full intent to kill.
A roaring purple figure slammed into the monster, clawing at his neck and face as it knocked him off balance. Nessy opened her jaws and bathed the creature’s fur in flames, but Adrian must have been immune, as he ignored the heat and swatted her away. He roared in fury and slashed at the half-dragon with his claws, infuriated that he had been denied a kill and been assaulted in the process.
Nessy circled around him and was about to strike at the base of his skull to either paralyze or kill him when Niel’s shout stopped her.
“Don’t hurt him! It’s Adrian! Nessy, don’t hurt him! Please don’t! Please!”
Nessy paused in surprise, costing her a precious moment as Adrian whirled around and shredded her left wing with his sword-like claws. She screamed and fell to the ground as dark red blood poured from the shredded membrane, marring the color of her scales and darkening the ground below her.
A winged dragon that is grounded is, more often than not, a dead dragon.
Adrian roared and lashed out at her again, almost taking her head off but narrowly missing as she ducked. She quickly scrambled past him and up a tree, perching in a higher branch. As Adrian opened his mouth to blast more flames, she jumped over him, landing on his back.
Adrian tried to shake her off but the flat side of her tailend slammed into the base of his skull once, twice, three times before he lost consciousness and fell forward onto the ground.
Nessy stayed there, not releasing her grip, as she breathed heavily and bled into the monster’s fur. She looked up at Niel, who appeared to be just as frightened as she was, before stepping off of Adrian and moving towards him.
Nia crashed through the bushes a moment later, Kaen no Mai drawn back with an arrow on the bowstring. She surveyed the situation quickly before lowering her bow. “What happened?” She demanded immediately. “You raced off and I had to follow you, but…”
Nessy made a vague motion at Niel, but as Nia’s gaze drifted over to him, he just burst into tears.
Nessy shook before her legs gave out, making her collapse. “I heard his screaming.” She managed, flicking an ear at Niel. “And the roaring. That’s…Niel says that’s Adrian. That thing…it was about to kill him.” Nessy shuddered, stretching out her injured wing but refusing to look at it. “Potions.” Her purple eyes locked on Nia’s, even as they were hidden by the blue glass of her goggles. “Hurry. Please.”
Nia nodded, slinging her bow onto her back as she returned to the river, moving quickly. Teramelle looked up at her curiously as she raced up to the boats, seizing the bag with the potions. “Stay here.” Nia ordered before running back, feet pounding heavily against the ground. She tripped over a root and fell, fortunately not breaking any of the potions. She scrambled to her feet and kept running, frantic.
Her friends were counting on her to get those potions to them.
She burst through the trees and ran past Adrian (who had transformed back into his human form but was still unconscious) to reach Nessy, who was in the worst state. She pulled out the unique healing potion that was labeled for Nessy’s use only and uncorked it. Nessy opened her jaws and allowed Nia to pour about half of it down her throat before she shuddered and flexed her wing.
Nia tilted the potion to stop the flow of the liquid and watched in fascination as the membrane of Nessy’s wing slowly began to grow back, patches of leathery skin stitching together.
Draconic healing potion. Highly dangerous for any mortal to consume; even half dragons must be careful with heavy dosage potions.
“Nia…” Nia’s head shot around at Niel’s pathetic whimper.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, Niel.” She had completely forgotten about his injuries. Nia corked the potion and shoved it in her back, grabbing a regular potion and opening it before handing it to him. Niel’s hand was shaking pretty badly as he drank the potion, flinching as its effects spread across his wounds. He reflected that he was lucky that his pants hadn’t burned very much, although most of the material below his knees had been burned away, and his shoes were unusable.
The burns on his legs tingled as if they had fallen asleep, and he stared as the burns slowly faded to be replaced with only slightly red skin. The gash on his arm patched itself up as well, leaving only the faintest of marks that would likely fade in a month or two.
Nia wiped the blood off of Niel’s arm and hugged him gently. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
Niel shuddered violently, adrenaline still pumping from his brush with death. Tears still poured down his face in both terror and relief. “Thank you…” He glanced at Nessy as he said this as well.
“I couldn’t let you die.” Nessy responded. Her voice was a slightly lower pitch and somewhat raspier in her dragon form, but it was still recognizable. She stood and flapped her wings a couple of times before transforming back into a human. “I’m only glad I could help.” She moved to check on Adrian, who appeared to be fine other than a few scratches that didn’t warrant the use of a healing potion.
Nia sat back, away from Niel. “Let’s get back to the boats.” She said quietly, getting to her feet. “We’ll talk about this there.”
~~~
“How did this happen?” Shred demanded after returning to the boats half an hour later. Nessy had gone searching in the woods to find her and bring her back, the others unwilling to wait until she returned. Adrian could awaken before then, and they had no way of knowing whether or not he would be in his right mind.
“I don’t know.” Niel whispered. “One minute he was fine and the next…he roared something at me and then he just…lit on fire. I almost died when he lashed at me the first time, and I’d be…be dead if Nessy hadn’t heard.” He was still shaking, clearly scared out of his wits. Mira whimpered quietly and moved over to him, nuzzling his hand with her head to try and comfort him.
“That certainly explains the time that he ran off into the woods and the destruction that was around him when we found it.” Shred muttered. “It doesn’t explain why this happens. Nia, do you have any ideas? You’ve known him pretty much your whole life.”
“No. He’s never done this, as far as I know. He’s been really…stressed, though, since we left the Wilds. I wonder if that place had some kind of effect on him…” Nia glanced at her cousin, worried. Adrian was a kind person that wouldn’t hurt anyone unless they deserved it, and if anyone in the group deserved to die, it certainly wasn’t Niel.
“Hmm.” Shred crossed her arms.
“What are you thinking?” Nessy tilted her head slightly.
“I’m thinking he’s dangerous. My instincts are telling me to kill him now-” Nia and Niel both shouted their protests, “-but I’m not going to do that for obvious reasons.”
Both a part of the prophecy and their friend.
“What do we do, then?” Nessy demanded. “If he can transform at any time…”
“We’ll just have to deal with it.” Nia snarled. “We can’t just kill him or leave him. He’s my cousin. If you’re going to-”
“We’re not doing anything to him.” Shred snapped. “Nessy, stay here and watch Adrian. Knock him out again if you need to. Nia, Niel, help me gather food like we’ve been meaning to. We need provisions, and badly. We’ll figure out what to do with Adrian when that time comes.”
Niel whimpered softly as he got to his feet, red areas on his legs and feet still sore. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do about the lack of shoes.
Or Adrian, even. He tried to push the matter out of his mind, but he couldn’t, even when he followed his friends into the trees.
Adrian had tried to kill him.
~~~
“Hold it.” Marcus held up a hand, stopping the group.
“What?” Baltbee demanded irritably. He was getting sick and tired of Marcus’ superior attitude, like he was stronger than everyone else (he probably was) and like he was the best (absolutely not true).
“There’s someone there.” Marcus’ voice was low.
“What? Why-”
“Shut up!” Marcus covered Baltbee’s mouth, silencing the sheepman, who had been talking normally. “Do you want them to hear us?”
Baltbee pulled Marcus’ hand away. “Sure. Why not? HELLO, PERSON!”
A slight jerk in the darkness told the group that Marcus hadn’t been lying. “Oh! Uh…hi!” A figure hesitantly stood but didn’t move towards them.
“Hello!” Katrin called, voice friendly. “Who are you?”
The figure shifted. “My name is Xullos.”
“It’s late at night, kid! Why are you out? Don’t you know terrors lurk in the darkness?” Marcus demanded. Xullos shrank back momentarily from the hostile voice, but quickly took a step forward to stand his ground.
“I like to watch the stars. Nothing’s attacked me so far. Who are you?”
Marcus sighed. “Whatever. Not important.” He looked back at Zel, ignoring Xullos’ question. “Let’s keep moving. Thought he might be a threat.”
“How did you even see me?” Xullos asked. “It’s really dark out here.”
“Quit asking obnoxious questions!”
“Then quit being confusing!” Xullos fired back. He fumbled with something and sparks were visible before flames suddenly flared up. Xullos held up the torch in order to see them better.
Marcus hissed at the light, but after a quick evaluation of the kid, he crossed his arms. Xullos had dark brown hair and intense blue eyes that seemed to burn with curiosity and a kind of wonder about the world around him, as well as what lay beyond.
He also had short tusks coming out of the corners of his mouth, similar to a pigman’s.
-~-
Kurt grinned excitedly, staring into his orb and trying not to bounce a little. “Look!” He whispered. “Zisteau, look!”
Zisteau leaned over and peered into the orb, eyes widening slightly. “Tusks…?”
“He must not be entirely human.”
“Poor kid.” Zisteau muttered, remembering how his own child had been picked on for being a hybrid between human and pigman. “He must be teased mercilessly about those tusks.”
“Hopefully not by this group.” Kurt mumbled. “Or…or…”
“Or you’ll have me beat them up?” Zisteau asked teasingly.
“Something like that.”
Meanwhile, in the other room, Aureylian paced anxiously. Her descendant had almost killed Nessy and Niel, and he apparently had no control over himself while in his monstrous form. Glancing at Vechs, she could see that he was just as stressed, although a great deal of that was from what he could see of the Hostiles.
Aureylian looked over at Etho to see that he still looked disturbed, even hours later, at his descendant nearly slipping into death’s embrace. She could tell that he would be like Coe if his orb were to shatter- upset and depressed that he had watched his own descendant die while there was nothing he could do.
Aureylian glanced into her own orb, at her unconscious descendant in the boat, and shuddered.
It was almost as bad having a descendant who could murder his friends without feeling, without remorse, until he transformed and realized what he had done.
That, Aureylian thought, is one of the worst fates there is.
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Date: Thursday, September 10th, 2015 02:20 am (UTC)LET US ALL CELEBRATE \(^_^)/
-Random Anon
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Date: Saturday, September 12th, 2015 11:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, September 15th, 2015 11:28 pm (UTC)-Random Anon
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Date: Thursday, September 10th, 2015 02:46 am (UTC)But poor, poor Adrian ;-;
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Date: Thursday, September 10th, 2015 06:08 am (UTC)And gosh darn it, guys! Seriously, quit getting so injured you need potions when it's not even a FREAKING Hostile! Gah! You're all gonna die, and it makes me sad. :(
Niel's not dead! YAY! I feel sorry for the Mindcrackers, though. They must feel so helpless.
And new descendant! KURT'S descendant! Yay! So many things happened this chapter.
Many cookies, because everybody survived the recent episode. (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Thursday, September 10th, 2015 10:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, September 10th, 2015 09:55 am (UTC)/#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/
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Date: Thursday, September 10th, 2015 03:58 pm (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Thursday, September 10th, 2015 05:53 pm (UTC)good chapter!! :D
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Date: Saturday, September 12th, 2015 03:07 am (UTC)Neil didn't die. That deserves cookies!!!
(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)
And Kurt's descendant seems pretty cool. Marcus kinda scares me tho.... And Adrian, for that matter.... But I guess that means job well done, right? :P
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Date: Sunday, January 3rd, 2016 12:10 am (UTC)>:c