Fated (Chapter Twenty)
Tuesday, August 11th, 2015 04:48 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 Twenty
Kingdom of Ilian, Minecraftia. September 25, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
As Samuel was evenly splitting the potions that the woman had given them the next morning, he noticed something else in one of the bags. He pulled it out and looked it over, noticing that there was a slip of paper attacked with the name ‘Dalania’ written in light blue ink. He called Nia over and handed her the small package.
Curious, Nia unwrapped the package to reveal a pair of goggles with blue lenses and a note included. She opened up the paper and read it, raising an eyebrow as she did so.
Nia-
It’s a bit of a family tradition that started with Vechs to have goggles of some description. I’m not sure why or how this started, but it just became a thing over time. These were made for you when you were born but when the Shattering happened, they were lost until I found them. I thought you might like them returned.
Speaking of the Shattering, perhaps you deserve to know what happened and how you ended up in the care of your aunt. When Dalania began to break, your mother tried to escape with you as your father and his advisor, Guardian of Sanity (who I believe is one of the uncles of the Skullblade you travel with) fought back the first of the shatterbeasts and ultimately fell to them. Your mother almost reached the border and found her cousin- Adrian’s mother- before dying of her wounds caused by both the breaking of the earth and the shatterbeasts.
Contel, pregnant with your cousin, took you to her husband’s sister, Velana. Her husband was lost to the Shattering, but she stayed with Velana until she died shortly after Adrian’s birth, leaving both of you in her care.
I found your goggles as I picked through the ruins weeks after the Shattering, once the shaking of the earth had ceased completely and the worst of the fires had burned themselves out of fuel. I had been hoping to find you, but was relieved to find you in the care of Velana and Contel. I left you there, knowing that you would do better with them than with me.
You are the last heir to the Davion throne. The Shattering may have taken your kingdom, but it didn’t take your life or your name.
Good luck against the Hostiles- you’ll need it.
-Skera Davion
P.S.- If anyone but Nessy drinks that potion meant for her, they’ll burn up into a crisp. I wouldn’t advise trying it.
A powerful potion, indeed.
Nia blinked a couple of times after reading the letter, then carefully folded and pocketed it. She had never known how she and Adrian had ended up in Aunt Velana’s care, and the letter held several key points of information that she wanted to reread. She was grateful to Skera for including them.
Skera. That name rang a bell in her head, but she couldn’t place where. She shrugged it off in favor of looking at the goggles that she had received.
They had blue lenses and were shaped vaguely rectangular, but with the top inside corners of each cut off, giving them the impression of angry eyes. The cut started at the top outside corners and ended at about halfway up the inside vertical ends, meaning that considerably more than just a tiny corner had been cut.
(( Very rough drawing of goggles: http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l488/DramonFireclaw/nia%20goggles_zps9xnbfs5w.png ))Nia smiled slightly and slipped them on, looking over at Adrian. “How do I look?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Like an idiot.”
“Fantastic. I love them already. You with your cloak and me with my goggles: together, we’re clearly unbeatable!”
“Especially when you throw in Shred with her mask.” Adrian put in, making them both laugh.
Few were free of odd apparel.
“There.” Samuel announced, sitting back. “The potions have been distributed. There are six healing potions per group, and then Nessy has her potion. I’ll check over her wounds, we’ll double check that we know where to go, and then we’ll split up.” Samuel stood, slinging the bag with the potions for his group onto his back, and walked over to Nessy.
“You heal very quickly.” He remarked as he removed her bandages. “It’s like you were attacked a weeks ago, not just a few days.”
Nessy shrugged. “I’ve always healed quickly.”
“Almost inhumanly so.” Samuel frowned slightly before shrugging it off. “In any case, you should be fit to walk, just don’t agitate that shoulder. Since it’s your non-dominant side and you fight one-handed with a sword, that shouldn’t be an issue. Just don’t decide to pick up a shield and have a house fall on it, alright?”
Nessy smiled and nodded. “I won’t. Thanks, Samuel.” She hesitated. “Good luck. You’re dealing with both Valkan and Tarsen.”
“Don’t remind me.” Samuel muttered. “At least we don’t have to go as far as you do. Ahnrak is on the other side of the world.”
“Don’t remind me.” Nessy parroted, standing up. “We should get going.”
“Right.” Samuel cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. “Okay. Let’s go over this one more time. Nia, Adrian, Shred, Nessy, and Niel are going to Ahnrak and the pigman village. Tarsen, Tranpar, Valkan, Trymdas, and I are heading to Tirisk. Carl, Vorna, Aldobiva, Baltbee, and Zel are going to Valdrar to try and find the Battlemaster. Any questions?”
“Can we get going?” Valkan shouted.
Samuel looked around at the three groups, seeing that most of them appeared to be nervous but ready. “Yes. Let’s move out.”
The groups said their goodbyes, pulled out their maps, and set out.
Three points to reach, one point to return to.
~~~
“Are you sure it’s a good idea to let Shred hold the map? She led us in circles last time she was navigating.” Adrian hissed to Nia after about an hour of walking.
“We were not going in circles.” Shred called back to him.
“How did you hear me?” Adrian demanded.
“I’m a Skullblade. We hear things.”
“I’m just relieved to be away from Tarsen.” Nessy admitted. “That guy gives me the creeps.”
“And Valkan.” Niel said, shuddering. “He gives off bad vibes. Poor Trymdas…”
“I’m sure the Tirisk team is having a lovely time.” Nia informed them, trying to keep a straight face and failing, bursting into hysterical laughter. “I wonder who to feel the most sorry for.”
“Samuel.” Nessy and Shred said in sync.
“He has to put up with three annoying people and one person that won’t say anything.” Nessy elaborated. “I don’t think he thought that through too well.”
“Actually, I think he did. He might have been sparing everyone else the agony of having to deal with them.” Shred reasoned. “That, however, does not make his job any easier.”
They continued on in silence for about ten minutes until they felt the earth rumble and heard screaming.
Shred jammed the map back into one of her pockets and drew her swords, advancing forward. The others prepared their weapons as well, a few seconds slower than the trained Skullblade.
“Fan out.” Shred ordered, just seconds before a rift in the ground opened between them. Adrian barely managed not to fall and Mira screamed in terror, leaping up onto Teramelle’s back. The unicorn drew away from the rift as well as the screaming, bolting the moment that a massive roar was heard. Her top priority was to protect the little one.
Trees fell beside the descendants as a tail that appeared to be made of stone knocked them over, exposing the view of events before them.
By the river, a massive stone dragon had risen from the ground and was terrorizing a group of shoddy-looking people- possibly bandits- and had happened to do this just as the descendants were passing.
Upon closer inspection, however, the dragon wasn’t made of stone- not entirely.
It was about forty feet long and looked unfinished, as only the areas above the chest (back, top of head, top of neck and tail, wings) had overlapping stone plates in the place of scales. From the chest down it was made of muscle that seemed to function perfectly well without any sort of skin or scales. The bottom of the creature, including legs and lowest areas of its body (most of lower jaw, bottom of ribcage, etc.) was bone, working flawlessly as if it wasn’t exposed at all.
Shred shouted something along the lines of “What the everloving fuck,” drawing the creature’s attention. Its head swung around, glowing red eyes locking on the descendants.
Spalor. Their first Hostile encounter.
“Excellent. I was beginning to get bored.” The dragon rumbled, turning slightly and swinging at the group with her claws. Shred ducked and the others scrambled out of the way, getting themselves relatively separated.
Spalor drew back her head and blasted flames directly at Shred, forcing the Skullblade to roll further from her friends. The dragon’s keen eyes picked up on Niel trying to get back to Adrian and Nessy and she struck the earth with her tail, using powers she had been gifted with to open up a rift beneath him.
Niel howled with fear as he went down, grabbing at a tree root to stop his fall and not hearing Nessy scream his name. Adrian reached out to try and stop Nessy as she raced for the rift in the ground, knowing she had only seconds before Niel lost his grip and fell to his death.
To Adrian’s horror, she leaped down the chasm. He heard the sound of flames and Niel screaming and raced to the edge, looking down.
He was almost knocked over by the purple dragon as she rose from the earth, beating her wings furiously to offset the weight of Niel as she held him awkwardly in her claws. She set him down on the ground several feet away from the chasm before flying forward and attacking Spalor’s eyes to distract her from Shred.
Niel and Adrian could only stare as the purple dragon clawed and flamed at her opponent’s eyes, dodging swipes from the stone dragon. A flaming arrow struck the stone dragon’s head a foot or so away from her eyes, almost hitting the much smaller dragon.
“Go! I’ll keep its attention, you get going!” The little dragon screamed, dodging the claws of the stone dragon. “Go!”
Nia didn’t need another invitation. She slung Kaen no Mai onto her back, seized Adrian’s arm, and ran back into the woods. Niel scrambled after them, having difficulty keeping up until Shred knocked him off his feet, scooped him up, and ran with him after them. He sighed, slightly embarrassed but mostly just scared shitless.
Anyone would be in his place.
Flames blasted the tree to Shred’s left as she ran past it, but she quickly got out of line of sight of Spalor and slowed once she had reached the Davions’ location. She put Niel down as she started to speak.
“We need to keep moving. Teramelle will meet up with us la- where is Nessy?” Shred hadn’t made the connection between Nessy and the purple dragon yet, only now noticing that they were missing a teammate. She frowned as Niel and Adrian exchanged glances.
“The purple dragon is Nessy.” Adrian explained. “We, um, have a dragon in the group. Apparently. And we had no idea.”
Shred swore viciously as she motioned for them to follow, setting off at a quick pace away from the stone dragon. After about a minute she quickly climbed a tree and looked back at where they had come from, noting that the roaring and shaking had ceased. Her suspicions were confirmed when she couldn’t see either of the dragons anymore.
“Either Nessy got away and the stone one gave up, or it ate her and then went home.” Shred announced as she dropped down beside them once again. “We’ll have to hope for the former. Losing someone to the first monster we run into after splitting up would be both inconvenient and embarrassing.”
“Inconvenient and embarrassing? Nessy could be dead! She just saved our lives and that’s all you have to-” Niel’s angry rant was cut off by the sound of space being torn in ways it shouldn’t be. A dark rift ripped through the air to their right and a very tired purple dragon practically fell through it. The rift closed as the dragon struggled to stay awake, clearly exhausted beyond usefulness.
As her eyes flicked up to look at her friends, she flinched slightly and let herself transform back into her human form. Nessy closed her eyes and let herself lose consciousness, glad that she wouldn’t have to see or hear their reactions.
If they were going to judge her, she could deal with that when she woke up.
-~-
“You were not kidding when you told us your descendant was a dragon.” Blame mumbled, looking over at Nebris. “I really thought you were kidding.”
“Nope. And I’m pretty sure she’s a half-dragon. She’s so small and doesn’t have as much power as a dragon her age should have, so she can’t possibly be full dragon…” Nebris trailed off, frowning at the image of his descendant passed out on the ground. “I worry about her.”
“Niel almost died back there.” Etho remarked quietly. He had almost shrieked when Niel had fallen into the earth and the relief he felt was very clear. “He really needs to learn how to take care of himself, and fast.”
Meanwhile, Vechs was smiling at the image of Nia. He had laughed when she had pulled the goggles out of the package that Skera had left, and had laughed even harder when he learned of the fact that it had become a sort of family tradition. He was still jumpy from the events of yesterday and hadn’t touched the cracked orb, but had burned down a door before realizing that it wasn’t a threat. Aureylian insisted on being with him at all times to try and calm him down and assure him that he wasn’t in danger- usually in vain- as she was worried about Vechs getting himself hurt.
Vechs glanced at the blanket on the floor and shuddered. His curiosity drove him to go retrieve the object from under it, but his fear held him back.
The appearance of Spalor, however, made him want to check to see where he had gone. He shook off the urge and leaned against Aureylian, trying to bury his worries and failing.
I’m not going to have a good time of it until the Hostiles are defeated, am I?
no subject
Date: Tuesday, August 11th, 2015 10:10 pm (UTC)YAY FOR CROSS-STORY QUOTES
*dies*
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Date: Tuesday, August 11th, 2015 10:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, August 11th, 2015 10:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, August 12th, 2015 03:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, August 11th, 2015 10:20 pm (UTC)G.C. (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)
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Date: Tuesday, August 11th, 2015 10:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, August 11th, 2015 10:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, August 11th, 2015 10:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, August 12th, 2015 06:47 am (UTC)I'm trying not to get too worked up about the Hostile encounter, because that wasn't very bad. It's hard, though. Also, poor Samuel.
I think one of my favorite parts of every chapter is the Mindcrackers talking about what just happened.
You get lots of cookies because everybody's okay! (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Wednesday, August 12th, 2015 08:15 pm (UTC)