Fated (Chapter Thirty-One)
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mindcrackloveHave fun with this one, guys. c:
Chapter 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-One
Kingdom of Variat, Minecraftia. October 3, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
Tarsen wasn’t paying attention to where he was going as he discussed the city’s layout with Samuel and ended up tripping over a large wooden box. He tried to roll to break his fall but only ended up falling on his side. He groaned in pain while Samuel stopped to make sure he was alright. Tranpar laughed a little as Tarsen got to his feet.
“I don’t laugh when you fall over.” Tarsen muttered, dusting himself off. “Now what-”
As he turned to look at when he had tripped over, the box shuffled backwards. He frowned and stepped towards it, prompting it to shuffle more.
“Hey, hang on!” Tarsen knelt down to look through the slit that had been carved in the front of the box, where two green eyes were peering out. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to run.”
“S-sorry.” The owner of the green eyes whispered, trying to shuffle back further but only hitting a wall. The box seemed to be made from old, light wood and roughly put together, clearly beaten by years of disrepair and exposure to the elements.
“Hey, no, it’s fine. I wasn’t paying attention.” Tarsen tilted his head slightly. “Why are you in there?”
The kid- the voice belonged to someone around fourteen or so- shuffled around inside the box. “Home.”
“You live in there?”
“Yes.”
Tarsen frowned. “That’s no way to live. Trust me, I know. Come on out.”
The box shuddered. “No. My box.”
“I won’t take your box. I don’t live here, not anymore.” Tarsen held out a hand. “It’s okay.”
The kid shook his head, eyes still peering out of the slit. Tarsen slung his bag off of his back and pulled some food from it, then held it out. “Here. I know what it’s like. You’re really hungry, right?”
The kid stared at him, disbelief in his eyes.
“Take it. It’s yours.”
A dirty hand reached through the slit and took the offered food, pulling it back into the box. By the sounds of frantic munching, the kid was wolfing it down.
“See? It’s okay.” Tarsen smiled a little at him as the green eyes reappeared.
“…Thank you.”
Samuel watched all of this with an eyebrow raised. He wasn’t entirely sure that his friend was really Tarsen and he had to lean over to look at his face a few times before he was sure. He had never seen Tarsen like this before, but he seemed to just…know what this kid was going through.
A mirror of a situation long past.
“I won’t take your box.” Tarsen promised. “Do you want to come out? We have more food.”
The kid hesitated before pushing the box off of him, revealing his shaggy brown hair, light green eyes, and ragged clothes. He shifted to half-sit in the box, as if worried that Tranpar or Samuel would take it even though Tarsen said he wouldn’t. He watched with nervous eyes as Tarsen pulled out some more food and handed it to him.
“Hey. You’re okay.” Tarsen watched him devour the food and then look back at him, eyes wide.
“Thank you.” The kid looked at his hands, then back up at Tarsen. “Why? Why do you care?”
“I’ve been here.” Tarsen’s voice was quiet. “And no one ever helped me until a couple of kind girls came along and got me out of this city. Just…passing it on, I guess.” He shrugged slightly.
Samuel felt a pang when he heard Tarsen mention Vorna and Aldobiva, remembering his horrible feeling that one of his friends had been lost. He shook it off, sure that the chances of him being right- or of it being one of them- was very, very low.
The kid smiled. “Thank you. So much.” He hesitated. “My name is Tim.”
“I’m Tarsen. These are my friends Samuel and Tranpar.” Tarsen held out his hand to shake, and Tim carefully took it. Tarsen smiled and shook his hand. “You’re okay. See?” He held out his other hand, palm up, to Samuel. Samuel understood and handed him the glowing stone.
“We’re looking for certain people and I want to know if you’re one of them.” Tarsen held out the stone. “Hold this.”
Tim hesitantly held out his palms, letting Tarsen drop the object into them.
Tarsen grinned as it lit up, taking it back and handing it to Samuel. “You can come with us.” He informed Tim. “We’re-”
“We’re part of a prophecy to save the world! It’s a lot of fun!” Tranpar interrupted bouncing a little. “We’ve got a lot of cool friends and it’s way better than just sitting around all day!”
“It’s not the safest thing in the world, but you’ll have food and people to keep you company.” Samuel added.
“What do you say?” Tarsen tilted his head slightly.
Tim looked between them, then at his box, before his eyes met Tarsen’s.
He nodded.
Tarsen grinned. “Welcome to the team, Tim. You’ll have to watch out for Valkan, but he’s a pissbaby and I can punch him in the face if you want.” Tarsen stood and held out a hand to help Tim up.
“Let’s get back to the group. We’ve found everyone we’re looking for.” Samuel started to lead the way back, but Tim made a quiet upset noise and picked up his box again.
“You don’t need that.” Tranpar told him. “It’s kinda old and-”
Tim whined and pulled it over him, taking Tarsen’s hand and following him with the box over him. Tarsen didn’t really react other than glance at him occasionally, as if to make sure he was okay. He seemed abnormally worried about the kid, something that surprised Samuel more than anything he had seen from Tarsen so far.
Samuel’s mind turned over what he had learned about Tarsen over the course of knowing him as he walked. Tarsen had lived here, in Tirisk, as poor and starving as Tim. He had only gotten out when Aldobiva and Vorna had found him and taken him with them to Traz’madar, where he had eventually become a bandit until meeting up with Nia and Adrian. He acted like kind of a trashbag but he was a decent person and a loyal friend once you got to know him.
Samuel reflected that his friend was a lot deeper than he had realized. He resolved to talk to Tarsen about all of this when he got a chance, but now was not the best time.
No, he wasn’t ready to talk to him until they were far, far away from the city.
Too tense to speak about such important things.
He glanced behind him at his friends and shook his head slightly. How a single, fateful meeting with an odd group can change your life forever.
-~-
Generik grinned as his descendant took the hand of Bdoubleo’s, looking up at his friend. “Guess some friendships are genetic!”
As the B-Team chattered excitedly about their descendants, Mhykol and Arkas sat quietly, watching their descendants communicate. Arkas was having difficulty reading Axid’s hand signals, but could guess as to what she was saying by Onai’s replies. Mhykol glanced at Arkas when Onai mentioned that the final descendant had been found and that they could head back.
“He always knows.”
“Yeah.” Arkas glanced up. “Do the shadows talk to you, too?”
“No. Just him.” Mhykol shrugged. “I wonder where he picked up the ability.”
“Your line crossed a line of shadow elementalists.” Jsano said, leaning over into the conversation. “Katrin could have ended up with no powers, but she didn’t, and I’m honestly kinda glad. Having a water elementalist on the team will really help them out.”
“Zel will be helpful as well.” Blame added. “Having three elementalists…that’s a lot of raw power right there. I think they’ll do pretty well.” He hesitated. “But they will lose some.”
“You’re a downer.” Aureylian told him teasingly. She had convinced Vechs to sit back in the main room with the others and he was very quiet, a blanket wrapped around him and an orb in each hand. He was leaning slightly on Aureylian and jerked slightly as she spoke, but relaxed when he realized that she was just teasing Blame. He went back to ignoring the conversation, not even hearing Blame’s next words.
“We’ve already lost one.” Blame continued, gaze darkening. “Be careful.”
Etho felt a chill run down his spine as he glanced at Niel, leaning back in the boat and chatting quietly with Adrian.
He had a horrible feeling that his descendant wouldn’t be okay.
-~-
It was early morning on the fourth of October when Shred informed the group that they were out of food and needed to find some more. She and Nia pulled the boats over to the shore and secured them before Shred ordered everyone out.
“Gather anything you can find.” The Skullblade ordered. “If you can get some meat, do so, but if not, we can settle for whatever we can get our hands on.”
The group split up into pairs- Nia and Nessy, Adrian and Niel, then Shred went by herself with only Mira for company. Teramelle stayed with the boats, grazing and keeping watch over their belongings to prevent any random people from walking along and taking their things.
Adrian and Niel had been wandering, picking fruit that they knew was safe whenever they saw it, for about fifteen minutes when Adrian felt that blazing heat run through his blood. He shuddered and his eyes locked on Niel. So helpless, so…weak. Such easy pickings.
Adrian tried to shake off the sudden violent urge but it was overwhelming. It had been building up for awhile now and right as he thought he had pushed it down, it had struck at the worst possible time. He tried to shout for Niel to run but only managed to get out a strangled shout before the fire in his veins overwhelmed him, encasing him in flames.
His claws broke the fiery circle and almost hit Niel as he roared his rage at the world. The terrified boy jumped back, eyes wide, as he beheld the monster that had appeared beside him with little to no warning. He had known that Adrian hadn’t been feeling well lately, and that time he had run off had been worrying, but this was something he could never have expected.
Monstrous and with no control.
Niel quickly took in the seven-foot-tall monster before him, covered in thick red fur with claws as long as his forearm. Its eyes were the same green as Adrian’s, but were narrowed in rage and hostility as flames licked from its fanged jaws. A single horn protruded from its forehead, one that looked almost as deadly as the creature’s claws. It was on its back legs, slightly hunched over, and leathery wings extended from its back. Its tail lashed and moved to balance the creature as it stepped forward, the action making Niel’s instincts finally kick in.
Niel screamed as the monster’s claws slashed at him again and barely managed to move back enough so that only his left arm was torn and not his chest. He scrambled backwards but tripped, falling on his back. The flames from Adrian’s mouth blasted him, searing his feet and lower legs, making him scream louder.
His eyes met the monster's as what was once Adrian raised its claws for the killing blow.
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Date: Sunday, September 6th, 2015 09:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, September 6th, 2015 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, September 9th, 2015 06:45 am (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Saturday, September 12th, 2015 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, September 6th, 2015 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, September 6th, 2015 10:01 pm (UTC)Whyyyyy :(
*Hugs Niel*
-A random Anon
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Date: Monday, September 7th, 2015 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, September 7th, 2015 10:03 pm (UTC)-Random Anon
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Date: Monday, September 7th, 2015 05:25 am (UTC)-awkward anon
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Date: Monday, September 7th, 2015 05:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, September 7th, 2015 10:26 am (UTC)/#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/
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Date: Monday, September 7th, 2015 10:42 am (UTC)Unknown Anon
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Date: Monday, September 7th, 2015 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, September 7th, 2015 09:57 pm (UTC)-Random Anon
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Date: Tuesday, September 8th, 2015 08:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, September 9th, 2015 06:39 am (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Monday, September 14th, 2015 05:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, September 12th, 2015 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, September 7th, 2015 02:50 pm (UTC)As much as this chapter hurts, I think this was needed
It adds some more tension, and will keep readers alert as this shit can come from anywhere
Great chapter :D
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Date: Monday, September 7th, 2015 05:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, September 7th, 2015 04:28 pm (UTC)-ivy
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Date: Monday, September 7th, 2015 05:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, September 7th, 2015 08:09 pm (UTC)TOUCH HIM AND YOU DIE TANADIN!!!
*falls and breaks into a ball of anxious tears
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Date: Monday, September 7th, 2015 08:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, September 7th, 2015 09:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, September 9th, 2015 06:40 am (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Tuesday, September 8th, 2015 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, September 9th, 2015 06:43 am (UTC)And Tarsen is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters. Good job.
You get TWO cookies because no one died. (::) (::)
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Wednesday, September 9th, 2015 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, September 10th, 2015 05:58 am (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Monday, September 14th, 2015 05:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, January 2nd, 2016 11:55 pm (UTC)Yes
Yes!!
YAS