Fated (Chapter Thirty-Six)
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Chapter Thirty-Six
Kingdom of Illian, Minecraftia. October 13, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
Zel seemed relieved that Samuel could lead the way and fell back in the group, preferring to not have to lead if he could avoid it. Instead, he focused on keeping his eyes on Tranpar and Tim, who were both highly curious about the world around them and had a habit of running off. He preferred to watch and not be watched, and was good at keeping track of multiple people at once.
Samuel was grateful for Zel's help in that regard, as he was preoccupied leading and looking back at Tarsen. He was worried about his friend, who had lost his usual cheerfulness and arrogance in favor of a silent, depressing demeanor. He walked to one side of Aldobiva, shooting her a sad look every now and then.
The loss of Vorna had hit him pretty hard and seemed to have drained the life from him. Samuel couldn't believe he was wishing for the old, flirty, obnoxious Tarsen back, but that was definitely an improvement over this depressed and broken Tarsen.
The group was silent for several hours until Baltbee's voice rang out. "This silence is killing me! Can we have a sing-along or something?"
Axid sighed softly as Carl and Katrin jumped on this bandwagon, the three immediately bursting into song. Axid pretended not to wonder what she would sound like if she could sing, rubbing her throat momentarily. Her mood dropped further until she felt someone take her hand.
She raised an eyebrow at Trymdas, who had stepped up next to her while his brother was distracted by the singing. She hadn't known him to do anything this bold before.
"I won't ask why you're upset if you don't ask why I'm trying to help." Trymdas' voice was quiet and he didn't look at her. Axid just nodded, looking ahead again.
The song soon ended but Baltbee launched into another, this time joined by most of the group. Even Tarsen was pulled out of his misery to join in, convincing Aldobiva to do the same.
A much needed change in mood.
The group continued on like that, singing through the night until dawn.
~~~
"So, Velloh." Shred began. "Do you have any particular fighting abilities?"
Velloh looked up at her from Mira, as he had been playing with the little dragon. He thought for a moment but then shook his head. "Not really." He confessed. "I'm not as strong as most of the other guys." He looked down at the bucket he had with him. "I can fight with this."
Shred took a closer look at it and noticed that it was faintly shimmering with purple. "A magical bucket?" She sounded skeptical.
"It can hold or be immersed in lava without melting." Velloh explained. "And if anything is put into it, it won't change temperatures or solidify or anything as long as it's in there. And I can hit people pretty hard with it when I want to."
Shred nodded slightly. "That's better than nothing, I suppose."
Niel patted Velloh’s shoulder. “She means at least you’re more useful than me. I’m kinda terrible.”
“I’m sure you’ll get better with practice.” Velloh said helpfully. “Sometimes we’re born with a disadvantage and can just…work past it. Just takes effort.”
Niel sighed and looked away. “I don’t think I can. I have…breathing problems. It means I can’t do anything physical well.”
“So do I! I believe in you- if I can do it, you can.” Velloh smiled at Niel, earning a grin back.
Adrian sighed slightly. Velloh sounded a lot like him when it came to encouraging Niel- so much so that it kind of hurt.
Broken, downward spiraling thoughts.
It’s probably best if I’m replaced. Velloh isn’t as dangerous as I am. He-
Adrian jerked in surprise when Nia suddenly jumped to his boat, shaking both boats and making Shred swear at her. She sat down next to Adrian and grabbed his arm when he tried to pull away.
“You look so sad all the time! Come on, let’s try to cheer you up.” She hugged her cousin and dropped her voice to a whisper. “You’re not a monster. That thing isn’t you, so don’t let it define you or it will be. Okay?”
Adrian nodded slightly. “Okay.”
Nia pulled away and smiled at him. “Focus on the fun of the adventure. We’re going places we never dreamed of, we’re saving the world, we’re meeting new people, we’re-”
“Fighting shatterbeasts and two-hundred-year-old monsters?” Adrian offered. “Getting ripped to shreds and set on fire? Oh, yeah, loads of fun.”
Nessy burst into hysterical laughter, almost tipping over the front boat. Niel and Nia joined into the laughter, even earning an amused smile from Shred. Velloh looked confused and slightly frightened.
“It would be more fun if we had walked.” Shred put in.
“Not really. This is so much easier.” Nia told her.
“It’s less direct.”
“It’s faster.”
Shred pulled the map out of the bag and looked critically at it. “They’re about the same.” She said finally.
Nia shook her head and muttered something about a useless navigator, earning another laugh from her cousin.
Hours later, Nia retrieved the map again and looked it over. She glanced at the afternoon sky and back at the map once more before giving them a status update. “We should be in Ahnrak by late tomorrow. That does involve some walking, and then we have to walk to the east of Sunspire, which will make Shred happy.”
The Skullblade grunted, having no particular comment. Mira echoed the noise, followed by a cheerful cry of “Shred!” and a tiny lick of flame. She blinked and noticed how the light of the flames reflected off the glass bottle in Velloh’s belt and went for it for the eleventh time that day. He quickly shoved her back, insisting that the potion was not for little dragons and highly dangerous.
All that Mira seemed to understand was “for little dragons” and went back to Shred, tugging at her arm as if asking for her help in obtaining the potion. Shred shook her head, an amused smile spreading across her face. “No, Mira. That’s not for you.”
“Shreeeeed!”
“Noooo.”
Mira whined dramatically for another three minutes until she became distracted again.
Ah, the joys of a short attention span.
-~-
Zisteau listened to the echoing sounds of his hooves as he walked through the caverns, searching for his friend. In one hand he held his orb that showed his descendant while the other hand was empty. He figured bringing a weapon would only make Vechs more likely to freak out and attack him.
He paused, thinking he heard footsteps other than his own. As his faded away, he could hear steps like scaled feet with claws against stone. He turned down a passageway that opened up into a larger room lit with torchlight. It seemed to be otherwise empty except for Vechs himself, who was pacing back and forth.
Vechs glanced up when Zisteau entered the room and began to back away, but Zisteau held his hands up. “It’s me! It’s Zisteau! You’re okay. It’s okay.”
Vechs narrowed his eyes from behind his goggles and shook himself, ridding himself of the hallucinations temporarily. “Zisteau?” He took a half-step back. “No, no! Get away! I don’t…I don’t want to hurt you! I…”
“You won’t hurt me.” Zisteau’s voice was gentle. “Calm down. Breathe. I need you to return to human form. Can you do that?” As Vechs started to shake his head, the pigman continued. “You’re safe. I’m here. I’ll keep you safe. Okay?”
Vechs slowly nodded and transformed back into his human form, shaking slightly. Zisteau stepped forward and took one of Vechs’ hands. “Aureylian wants to see you. She’s okay, she’s awake. It’s completely safe and it wasn’t your fault she was hurt, and she’s okay. Okay?”
Vechs nodded again and allowed himself to be led back to Spawntown by his friend. He felt vulnerable in his human form, but the presence of Zisteau calmed him somewhat.
Zisteau took him through the halls and into the medical wing, leading him into the room reserved for Aureylian. He had to practically drag Vechs in, but once the mapmaker had entered, he let go of Zisteau and rushed to Aureylian’s side.
Aureylian was awake but pale, and her eyes didn’t seem particularly focused. She did, however, recognize Vechs and did her best to hug him with her aching limbs and pounding head. He took a seat beside her and continually apologized and asked if she was okay.
Zisteau looked over at Etho, who was standing in the corner, and nodded silently. Etho ghosted forward and carefully opened a pocket of Vechs’ toolbelt, removing one of the two orbs. He double-checked that it was the right one, shut the pocket, and moved over to Zisteau.
Zisteau didn’t speak but jerked his head at the door, motioning for Etho to complete the final stage of the plan. Etho nodded and left the room, quickly and quietly heading down the hallway and into Blame’s room.
“Here.” He said simply, handing the orb off to the Skullblade.
“Good. Hopefully this thing being gone will ease some of Vechs’ hallucinations.” Blame peered into the orb, noting that it was locked on Kyilld at the moment, who had taken the form of the Kalt’onian king. He shivered and pulled his eyes away.
“Where will you hide it?” Etho asked.
“I don’t know yet.” Blame looked around his room, thinking. “Somewhere Vechs won’t think to look.”
“One of your maps, maybe?”
“Maybe.” Blame stuffed the orb into a small bag on a chair and pulled the drawstring closed, slinging the bag onto his back. “I’ll figure it out. Zisteau and Aureylian will keep him distracted long enough.” He hesitated. “I hope.”
-~-
It was the second night of walking for the two combined groups. Spirits were high as Samuel had informed them that there was a little over a day to go when it came to travel time. The group was singing again, and once again Trymdas had taken Axid’s hand in a silent reassurance that she was no different than them. Onai had joined in as well, taking Axid’s other hand.
As time wore on, however, they would not remain undetected.
Loud groups at night attract all kinds of attention, primarily the negative kind.
An arrow whizzed out of the darkness, slamming into the box on Tim’s head but bouncing off. He screamed in terror and hid behind Zel, who immediately turned with his powers at the ready. The singing of the group cut off abruptly as they realized what was going on.
A ring of skeletons had closed in on them, most of them with bows but a fair number carried swords as well. There were a good three dozen skeletons, all looking just as merciless as a descending blade, neither caring nor uncaring, simply existing to kill without thought.
“Defend yourselves!” Tarsen shouted, drawing his sword and charging a skeleton. Samuel pulled out his spear and moved to defend those that could not defend themselves- Tranpar, Tim, and Trymdas. Zel motioned him back and created a rock wall around the three, keeping them safe from the skeletons and allowing those who could fight the ability to do so without worrying about them.
One skeleton received an arrow to the spinal column where its neck should be, breaking the enchantment and sending it to the floor in pieces. Aldobiva turned to the next skeleton, a sudden fury burning in her heart.
She wouldn’t, she couldn’t lose anyone else. Never again.
Three skeletons were absorbed into a wave of darkness, vanishing forever into the darkness. Onai stumbled from the effort and Axid caught him, only avoiding being sliced in two by a skeleton due to quick action by Baltbee as he slammed his skull into it.
“Watch yourself!” The sheepman yelled, going back on the offensive immediately thereafter.
Overall, they were a capable group and dispatched the skeletons easily. Carl had an arrow in his calf and Valkan had suffered a deep cut to the shoulder, but other than that the group was unharmed if minor injuries were discounted.
Zel lowered the wall around the three he had protected while Samuel looked over everyone’s injures. He bandaged Valkan’s shoulder and Carl’s calf (after the arrow had been carefully removed) and continued to lead the way once he was sure everyone was alright.
Carl was thankful that he had been the only one with an injured leg, as he could ride Vynx and not slow down the group. He did bring up, however, the question as to where the skeletons had come from.
“Probably left over from some necromancer’s reign.” Tranpar reasoned. “Or there could be a lot of necrotic energy around here. We are near Sunspire, where the mate of Vallor’roth died and was buried. She probably had a lot of power around her. Stuff gets weird around magical energy. That’s why Sunspire and the Vicious Wilds are so dangerous, you know- creator magic and stuff. Although she wasn’t exactly a creator, she was made by one and the mate of one, but I think it still counts. Anyway that’s also why Dalania got so wrecked, I’m pretty sure there’s a creator sleeping under the ground there, and-”
“Enough.” Marcus growled. “You’re giving me a headache.”
“What, you have extra-sensitive hearing or something?” Carl smiled slightly at his own joke despite the pain he was in, but wiped his expression the instant Marcus whipped around.
“Fuck off.” The vampire finally decided, facing forward.
Carl exchanged looked with the rest of the Valdrar group and tried not to laugh.
At least the night had been eventful.
no subject
Date: Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015 05:45 am (UTC)I feel sorry for Adrian. I wish that Vechs could be with him to teach him about his Monstrous form. He needs it.
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015 10:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015 02:08 pm (UTC)-TLL
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Date: Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015 10:38 am (UTC)G.C. (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)
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Date: Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015 07:40 pm (UTC)-Derpy Anon
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Date: Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015 10:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015 02:06 pm (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
no subject
Date: Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015 03:30 am (UTC)I feel that Baltbee and I have a deep spiritual connection, as that is exactly what I would have done with the sing-along.... I can't stand awkward silences!!
All in all, great chapter!! I love the cute friendship between Trymdas and Axid.
(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)
no subject
Date: Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015 02:07 pm (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker