Fated (Chapter Seventeen)
Wednesday, August 5th, 2015 05:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanadin posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
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 Seventeen
Kingdom of Ilian, Minecraftia. September 22, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
Nessy groaned softly, wishing that her wounds were healed already. She was riding on Teramelle’s back, by order of Samuel to avoid irritating her wounds. She was still in pain, but wouldn’t be hurting herself like she might if she walked. She had insisted that she walk for the first couple of hours, but had finally listened to him around noon. She was glad that she had- if she had walked all the way to sundown, like it was now, she would be more than sore.
She glanced behind her at Tarsen’s brown horse, which was carrying Tranpar and most of their camping equipment. Beside him walked Vynx, carrying Carl and some more of their things.
“How are you doing?” Niel asked Nessy quietly, looking up at her. He was walking alongside Teramelle, keeping pace without any difficulty.
“I’m alright. Still in a lot of pain, but better me than you.”
Niel frowned. “But you’re way more useful than I am. Why do you say that?”
Nessy shook her head. “You’re worth more than me. Trust me on this one.”
She ignored Niel’s further questions in favor of closing her eyes, sighing softly.
“How much further until we get to the Wilds?” Nia asked, looking at the map in Samuel’s hands. “It feels like we’ve been walking for ages.”
“A couple of days.” Samuel glanced at her. “We’ll get there when we get there. Is there really much of a rush?”
Nia sighed. “I suppose not. I just want to be there.”
“We’ll stop and camp at the river. We’ll cross in the morning.” Samuel informed the group, raising his voice.
“I admit I’m wishing this journey was faster as well.” Shred muttered, patting Mira’s head. “She’s getting heavy.”
“Shruh!” Mira squeaked in response, thumping her tail against Shred’s side.
“Shred.” Shred corrected. “Shr-ed.”
“Shruh!”
“Close enough.” She smiled and shook her head, amused with the little dragon.
“Shh!” Aldobiva held up a hand and froze, listening.
“I don’t-“
“Shh!” Vorna covered Adrian’s mouth with one hand, also stopping. The group paused, straining to hear what Aldobiva’s ears had picked up.
Screaming.
“This way!” Aldobiva set off through the trees, the others scrambling to keep up. Niel quickly pulled himself onto Teramelle’s back with Nessy to avoid being left behind as the unicorn quickly raced forward.
They quickly encountered the river that they had meant to cross and immediately saw the issue- two boys, one a couple of years older than the other, were under attack by three bizarre creatures that none of the group had ever seen before.
They looked like bipedal creepers, covered in green fur and with mouths filled with sharp, black teeth, but their eyes weren’t black. Instead, they were reptilian, with slitted pupils and colored irises. Two of the creatures had yellow irises while the other had orange. Their legs were built like animal legs, set up to run and jump more than a human could. Both their feet and hands had claws, with three on the feet and four on the hands, all just as black as their teeth. As the orange-eyed one opened its mouth to hiss at them, it was revealed that two of its teeth were larger and longer- fangs meant to do huge amounts of damage.
All three of the creatures appeared to be wearing some kind of leather armor, expertly crafted by hands that weren’t human.
The orange-eyed creature’s ears perked up further and it seemed to puff itself up, hissing at them to back off. The younger human, who was on the ground and scrambling away from one of the yellow-eyed creatures, looked over at them and cried out for help. He had wounds on his chest from the claws of the creatures. The older boy was fighting back the other yellow-eyed creature with a stick and looked somewhat less wounded, but had a gash on his forehead that was bleeding and making seeing difficult.
“Vynx, go!” Carl urged the panther forward and she leaped across the river. The moment she hit the ground she was swinging at one of the yellow-eyed creatures. It jumped back and hissed at them, slashing with the sword it carried. Vynx shrieked as the metal bit into her paw and she lashed back in response, but backed away to get some distance.
The orange-eyed creature suddenly jerked, receiving two arrows to the chest; one from Vorna and one from Aldobiva. Nia’s arrow whizzed right past its head. It stumbled back, staring at the arrows in its chest.
“Shakrah, sais!” One of the yellow-eyed ones shouted. “Sais! Kszar massh valshkon!”
Skarish, language of the skettisren.
The creature that had been shot didn’t need to be told twice- it stumbled away into the trees, quickly picking up speed and vanishing quickly.
“Sar drash galrosh!” The other yellow-eyed creature spat at the older human, snapping his stick with its claws. “Delsheh maal yah-kan!”
Two more arrows thudded into its side, a third striking it in the head. It screamed once before it fell dead. The final creature dodged Carl’s strike and held up its hands. “Sahs! Valsen paaroks!”
Carl paused, frowning. “What?”
“Mahs grash piiren.” The creature said reasonably, moving towards the corpse. “Pahks.” It picked up the body and walked slowly backwards, away from the group. It never took its eyes off of Vorna and Aldobiva, who had arrows trained to it.
The moment it vanished into the trees, the older human spat and roughly yanked the younger up. “Thanks. Those things were not friendly in any way.”
Teramelle jumped the river, Nessy and Niel both shrieking as she did so. She sniffed the two and tossed her head.
“We’ll get you patched up.” Carl told them. “Let’s just…get everyone across.”
~~~
“Thanks for the save.” The younger human said quietly once everyone was across and Samuel had bandaged their wounds.
“Yeah. Thanks.” The older one muttered. “Dunno what the fuck those things were or what they wanted, but they sure as hell didn’t like me.”
“I think those were skettisren.” Shred glanced in the direction of the forest where they had vanished. “Thought to be extinct, but they’re exactly like the carvings in the history of the Skullblades…”
“Great. Fucking fantastic. Now I know what they are. Who the hell are you, again?”
“Shred the Mainframe. Ashenhorn Skullblade. What about you?”
The older human, who had spoken previously, sighed. “Valkan Sharran. This is my brother, Trymdas Sharran.” The younger brother waved a little, shyly. They were quite clearly related, with light brown hair and similar facial features. Valkan had intense green eyes while Trymdas had softer brown ones.
“So how did a group like you get formed? It’s not often you see a Skullblade outside of Ashwatch, nevermind in this kind of company.” Valkan asked, frowning slightly.
“Prophecy.” Aldobiva muttered. “It sucks and it’s stupid.”
“Fantastic. Mind if we stick with you for awhile? If those things come back, we won’t be able to defend yourselves.”
“I was just about to ask you that.” Nia put in. “I think you’re part of our group too.”
“Fan-fucking-tastic. I doubt that, but sure, fine, whatever.” Valkan shrugged. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
“You could be mauled.” Tranpar said cheerfully. “We’ve run into those skettisren, a lokolang, and there are these things called Hostiles that we’re supposed to stop and they sound really nasty.”
“We’ll be fine.” Adrian insisted. “We have been so far, haven’t we?”
“Nessy literally got mauled two days ago.” Tarsen said, shooting him a look.
“We’re fine.”
“If we run into that purple dragon that Carl saw, I’m out.” Baltbee muttered. “Dragons love to eat sheep.”
“Eep!” Mira echoed, flapping her wings a little. Baltbee backed away from her, scared, earning the laughter of some of the group.
“Purple dragon?” Trymdas asked, voice suddenly quiet. “Is it dangerous?”
“Well, I mean, it chased me into their camp.” Carl shrugged. “I would assume so.”
“We’ll just shoot it.” Aldobiva said confidently. “First sign of something dangerous, two arrows smack into it.” She mimicked shooting a bow.
“We sure took out that settisven without difficulty. A dragon wouldn’t be that much more difficult.” Vorna reasoned.
“Skettisren.” Shred corrected. “And they had fur, not scales. They didn’t breathe fire, they couldn’t fly, and had no elemental powers or magic. A dragon would tear you apart.”
A dragon is a force to be reckoned with.
Mira opened her mouth and released a tiny tongue of flame as proof.
…Except perhaps when young.
Tarsen patted her head. “You can’t burn down villages quite yet, but you’ll get there.”
~~~
As time went on, Carl noticed that Trymdas seemed to be afraid of both Mira and Vynx and so was staying closer to Teramelle, who was grazing on the grass by the riverbank. His brother kept making sure that he didn’t go too far, seemingly less out of worry and more wanting to know where he was at all times to make sure he didn’t do anything that Valkan disapproved of.
Carl frowned slightly, watching Trymdas sit a ways out of the group. Carl knew how easy it was to just slide into this group and find someone to talk to, but Trymdas didn’t seem like he wanted to do that. At one point he started talking to Niel but Valkan interrupted, dragging Trymdas into a conversation for a few minutes until Niel had moved on before ignoring his brother again.
Carl sat beside the quiet kid, making him jump. “Hey. You okay?”
“Yeah. I’m okay.” Carl noted that when Trymdas spoke, he spoke with a sad note in his voice.
“You sure? You don’t seem to be enjoying yourself or even getting to know anyone.”
Trymdas shrugged. “I never do. I don’t talk to people.”
“Why?”
“…They scare me. And Valkan keeps me safe, away from people. You should probably go before he notices you.”
Carl frowned. “He doesn’t control you. Why are you listening to him? You’re, what, fifteen?”
“Sixteen.”
“Even worse. You need to have some time to be yourself, you know?”
Trymdas shook his head. “No. Trust me. Listening to Valkan is safer.”
“But is it good for you? I don’t mean about how safe it is- I mean mentally and emotionally, that can’t be good for you.” Carl frowned. “It’s not good to be bound to only one person.”
“I…I…I don’t want to talk about it.” Trymdas jumped to his feet and quickly walked over to the riverside, sitting down a few feet from the water. Carl sighed and just watched him. He seemed like a nice guy, just shy and not sure how to socialize. He flinched when he heard Valkan’s voice- rough and harsh by comparison- calling Trymdas away from the water. The younger brother sighed and got up, trudging back to camp. He sat a few feet away from his brother, staring up into the sky.
-~-
“So your descendant’s an asshole and mine’s scared of him and everything else.” Sevadus said, looking up at Adlington.
“Pretty much. Guess our lines crossed somewhere.”
“All very interesting, but what bothers me are the skettisren.” Blame was pacing once again, orb placed on his seat. “I thought they were extinct, except for Doc and his descendants. It’s possible that, like the Ashenhorns, they’re all descendants of one, but…”
“The skettisren were never extinct.” Doc muttered. “We just hid underground for a long, long time.” He was leaning against the wall, arms crossed. His own orb was deactivated, but Blame had insisted that he be present the moment that Sevadus’s and Adlington’s orbs had activated and shown the skettisren. Doc seemed troubled, though, but refused to explain why. All he would say is that ‘the times are coming around again.’
“I was unaware of that. Why did you hide?”
“With the death of Skarthon and the hunting of our kind by the Skullblades, we thought it best to retreat underground and build a network of tunnels. We are fiercely territorial.”
“Why have you never told us any of this before?” Aureylian asked, tilting her head.
“It was never important before.” Doc said reasonably. “But it is now.”
Blame’s head snapped around as he heard Vechs hiss softly, pacing. “Something wrong?”
“I still can’t find the Hostile orb.” The mapmaker mumbled. “It’s really stressing me out.”
“I took it, calm down.”
“You what?” Vechs’s head snapped up to glare at Blame. “Why-“
“You’re obsessing over the damn thing! Focus on your descendant, not the monsters.”
“But-“
“No buts.” Blame glared at him. “Do I need to knock you out again?”
Vechs’s protestations faded to bad-tempered muttering as he sat down beside Aureylian, crossing his arms.
He shivered as he tried to ignore the figure that he thought he glimpsed in the shadows, trying to shake off the paranoid hallucinations.
And, yet, he couldn’t shake the feeling of impending doom.
no subject
Date: Thursday, August 6th, 2015 12:26 am (UTC)G.C. (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)
no subject
Date: Thursday, August 6th, 2015 04:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, August 6th, 2015 02:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, August 6th, 2015 02:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, August 6th, 2015 04:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, August 6th, 2015 02:28 am (UTC)In other news, yay Adlingont! And Sevadus too I guess!
no subject
Date: Thursday, August 6th, 2015 04:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, August 6th, 2015 06:47 am (UTC)I'm really curious about the dragon. They're gonna have at least one on their side, I bet. Remember what the dragons were saying in Residual? The descendants are totally going to be helped by one. Or more.
I think that Valkan is more of a jerk than Tarsen, even. And I feel sorry for Trymdas. I want to learn more about him.
I'm too lazy to type out cookies on my phone, so lets just say that I gave you 20 cookies.
-the lurkiest lurker
no subject
Date: Thursday, August 6th, 2015 08:30 pm (UTC)And yeah. Valkan's an asshole.
no subject
Date: Thursday, August 6th, 2015 09:28 am (UTC)/#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/
no subject
Date: Thursday, August 6th, 2015 08:31 pm (UTC)