Fated (Chapter Forty-One)
Tuesday, October 6th, 2015 09:10 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 Forty-One
Kingdom of Traz’madar, Minecraftia. October 23, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
It was late, a couple of hours before midnight, when Vynx’s ears twitched and she raised her head to gaze into the trees. She bared her teeth and growled quietly, prompting Carl to draw his sword. The two had been patrolling around the camp to check for threats, and the teal-haired man feared that they had found one.
He heard quiet footsteps stop and the sound of swords being drawn and a bowstring being pulled back. He gulped, tightening his grip on his sword. “Who’s there?”
Silence for a moment, then, “Carl?”
“Nia?”
“Carl!” Nia burst from the trees, lowering her bow and grinning up at him. “I was beginning to think we’d never get here!”
Carl looked up as the rest of her group- the four from before as well as several newcomers- appeared as well, relaxing as they realized that he wasn’t a threat. Carl sheathed his sword and allowed a smile to spread across his face. “Thank the creators. I was thinking that I was completely and totally fucked.”
“Your Highness, who is this?” Nak urged his horse to trot up beside Nia, frowning at her slightly. He wasn’t a huge fan of her habit to go running on ahead.
“Lord Nak, this is our friend, Carl. He’s with the… Valdrar group, right? Is the Tirisk group here yet?”
“Yeah, we were just waiting on you! Come on, camp’s just a little ways ahead!” Carl turned Vynx around and led the way back to camp, raising an eyebrow at Nia as they went. “Your Highness?” He queried.
“Nak’s taken to calling me that.” Nia rolled her eyes.
Velloh jumped off of Teramelle’s back and trotted ahead to look at Vynx as they walked, clearly enthralled. “Is that a Sunspire panther?”
“Yes, she is.” Carl looked pleased. “Her name is Vynx, and mine is Carl. Who are you?”
Velloh saluted him slightly. “I’m Velloh. Why is your hair so teal?”
Carl groaned. “If I had an emerald for every time I’d been asked that, I’d be a very rich man.”
“If I had an emerald for every time someone pissed me off, I could buy the entire continent.” Claire added, making her sister sigh.
“Everything pisses you off.”
“Exactly. That’s why I could buy the whole continent.” The albino beamed at her sister, clearly pleased with herself.
Velloh giggled quietly, clearly amused by Claire’s antics.
A place that he fit in without the stain of his past bearing down on him.
~~~
Niel waited until Adrian was asleep in their tent before slipping out into the camp itself. The group had been greeted warmly by the others (those still awake, anyway) before going to sleep as they were exhausted. Niel, however, needed to calm himself down before he got any rest, and the best way to do that was to relieve some of the pain in his torso.
He moved a ways into the trees before sinking to the ground, sitting down with his back to the tree. He sighed before tugging off his shirt, reaching to unwrap the bandages from around his chest. He hated doing it, but Nessy had insisted that he give himself a break sometimes and he had to admit that it felt good to breathe properly.
Niel pulled his shirt back on once the bandages were loose and leaned against the tree again, closing his eyes and taking a series of deep breaths and coughing occasionally. It felt good to let his lungs expand fully.
He must have dozed off there, as he awoke several hours later to the sound of footsteps. He quickly sat up, then realized that his chest was still unwrapped. He realized he didn’t have time to fix it and covered himself in his camouflage cloak, practically vanishing into the dark leaves and tree trunk that he was leaned against.
The one skill that he was adept at: hiding.
Niel tensed as he watched Velloh quietly walk past his hiding place, stopping in a small clearing a few yards away. He looked around nervously before pulling what appeared to be a candle out of his bag. He struggled with a flint and steel for a moment before the candle lit with an intense violet flame. Velloh put the flint and steel back in the bag, set it down, and stuck the candle a ways into the ground. It was about fifteen or so centimeters, so it still stuck up a decent amount.
He knelt before the odd candle that burned with violet flame, bowing his head. He whispered something in the rough, guttural language of the pigmen under his breath for a couple of minutes before pausing, and then resuming speaking, this time in a language Niel could understand.
“Hey, torgah… sorry it’s been so long since I talked to you. I’ve been on a wonderful adventure with Davions. Davions! Can you believe it? I wish you could have been here to meet them, you would have loved them…” He trailed off, swallowing a lump in his throat, before continuing. “I’m sorry, you know. I really am. It was my fault… my fault you’re gone. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry… But I’ll make it up to you, okay? I’ll save the world and keep everyone in the village safe. Maybe I can redeem myself. I know that some people don’t forgive me, but I hope you do… or that you will, at least.”
Velloh remained there for about ten more silent minutes before blowing out the candle, returning it to his bag, and leaving the clearing. Niel waited until long after the pigman’s footsteps faded before removing his cloak.
He was very confused and he felt like he had intruded on something very private. He shivered, mind trying to process what he had seen.
-~-
Blame sighed, watching the clock tick on. It was late, almost dawn in Minecraftia, in fact (well, where the descendants were in Minecraftia), and Blame was well aware of what day it was.
He sighed, glancing at the calendar. It was the twenty-fourth, and it was hard to ignore the twenty-fifth beside it.
October twenty-fifth. The day Iirkolav had died, two hundred years previously. Blame knew he should be over it, but he couldn’t forget it. He always shut himself in his room or in one of his chunks during the twenty-fifth, and oftentimes the days before and after as well. He became lost in thought as he watched the clock again, almost missing the flash of movement in the corner of his eye.
Blame whipped around, eyes searching frantically for the being in the room, but he saw nothing. He mumbled something about paranoia and looked back at the clock, watching it continue to tick on.
He eventually opened the drawer beside his bed and pulled out both orbs. He set aside the one showing Shred sleeping and checked through all of the Hostiles, reassuring himself that there were only the ten, and neither were Saltar’vesque or Glar’ren. He shivered slightly and slipped it back into the drawer, practically slamming it shut.
Blame lay down on his bed and stared at the stone ceiling, knowing that he wouldn’t sleep.
~~~
Vechs, meanwhile, couldn’t sleep for another reason.
He was practically bouncing, occasionally glancing at his orb despite the fact that Nia was asleep. He was excited to have all of the descendants that had been found so far together in one group, and without the Hostile orb causing really bad hallucinations (the occasional minor one was still there but that wasn’t a huge deal) he wasn’t quite as down as he had been.
Granted, he would likely feel like shit once the Hostiles started showing up and wreaking havoc again, but for now he was doing okay. He hugged Aureylian and hummed quietly, earning a laugh from her.
“I’m glad you’re feeling better.”
“I am too. I just wish Blame was.”
“It’s that orb, isn’t it?”
“It’s the date.”
Aureylian opened her mouth to ask, but suddenly remembered what Vechs was referring to. She shut her mouth and nodded, suddenly solemn.
Vechs sighed quietly. “I wish there was a way to help him.”
Aureylian nodded. “I do too…”
-~-
The red dragon flared his wings at the approaching figure, breathing flickers of flame to illuminate his scales. It was more of a warning that he was there and guarding something than a threat, but the approaching dragon paused. After deciding that the red dragon meant no harm, the second dragon continued to approach. He stopped several meters in front of the red dragon and bowed his head.
“Mokdal, Spinelash has told me that I must bring word of what I have seen from the stars to the Nightwing.”
Mokdal raised an eyeridge, lowering his head to the smaller dragon’s level. “What is it you have seen, Iespin?”
Iespin, the blue dragon, looked up at the starry sky before answering. “Only the Nightwing and Spinelash are to know. I’m sorry.”
Mokdal frowned. “She has not awoken for decades.”
Older dragons hibernate for long periods of time: Spinelash was a rare exception.
“I know, but this is important.” Iespin looked back and forth to make sure there was no one else around before lowering his voice. “It has to do with the Mindcrackers.”
Mokdal snorted and raised his head, shaking himself from nose to tailtip. “I will awaken her.” He turned and walked into the cavern behind him, stepping down the tunnel. He paused when the cavern opened up into a huge, dark room, filled with the sound of a large dragon breathing softly.
Mokdal lit the braziers, watching them alight with dark blue flames, before speaking. “Awaken, sleeping one. Your guidance is needed.”
The light from the flames accented the edges of the dragon’s black scales as she shifted slightly in her sleep. Iespin watched as Mokdal stepped forward and nudged, prodded, and poked the elder dragon before she finally sighed, shifting and mumbling under her breath.
After a few more seconds, the bright purple eyes of Aoxdorren slid open.
She raised her head and yawned, stretching her wings to reveal the starlike patterns on their dark undersides. She had to be a good seventy feet long at this stage of her life, being a breed of dragon that reached their hibernating years and the massive sizes that came with them earlier than some others.
Aoxdorren evaluated the two dragons before her- one was Mokdal, whose scales were a middling red and with eyes that shone like life in a desolate wasteland. The other dragon was smaller than Mokdal by about thirty feet, making this newcomer a very young dragon, perhaps three years old. He was maybe fifteen feet long and light blue with two darker horns and three white spikes on each side of his face, pointing backwards. He had lighter backspines and triplepoint tailend, with intelligent bright red eyes and an orb a darker red than Mokdal’s scales set in his chest. He radiated powerful magical energy, as cosmic dragons were known to do.
Cosmic dragon: A type of dragon that can use the power stored in their chest orbs to let them fly at the speed of light when in space. They don’t need to breathe, although they can, and the older ones can go decades without food or water.
“I have a message that was written in the stars, o Nightwing.”
Aoxdorren blinked. “Nightwing? Is that the title I have been given?”
“Yes.” Mokdal nodded.
Aoxdorren shook herself. “Nonsense. My name is Aoxdorren. I’m not some kind of legendary figure. Speak, young one. What do the stars say that concerns me?” When she saw him glance at Mokdal, she motioned for him to speak anyway.
Iespin hesitated before speaking. “This has to do with the Mindcrackers, or, more specifically, their descendants. The time of the Hostiles is now, and with the blessing of the Nightwing, the dragon-friend of the Mindcrackers the color of human blood will return to guide the new generation to victory.” Iespin clicked his claws on the floor. “Um. That’s what they say.”
Aoxdorren snorted. “Did I sleep through the Bloodshadow reaching its zenith?”
“Umm. Maybe?” Mokdal looked sheepish.
“Dammit, Mokdal! Very well. It’s quite clear what has to happen, isn’t it? We’ll figure out where they are, and then off you’ll go, Mokdal…”
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Date: Wednesday, October 7th, 2015 02:30 am (UTC)G.C. (@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)
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Date: Wednesday, October 7th, 2015 02:38 am (UTC)Also Claireeeee :D :D :D
-Random Anon
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Date: Wednesday, October 7th, 2015 06:18 am (UTC)I knew you couldn't leave Blame alone for long. Do you hate him or something? I saw "Blame has a bad day" and I'm like, "I KNEW IT."
And yas, familiar dragonssss! This makes me happy. I like Aoxdorren.
(::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Wednesday, October 7th, 2015 01:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, October 7th, 2015 08:52 am (UTC)(but i'm glad the groups are back together, but what the heck is velloh up to o.o)
/#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/
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Date: Wednesday, October 7th, 2015 01:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, October 8th, 2015 05:45 am (UTC)Realize that in all likelihood, Niel wasn't actually kicked out of the Shadow Walkers for being trans (directly). The much more probable scenario is that he was kicked out because of his lack of skill (which is, however, due in part to the bandages).
Another reason that he may have been kicked out is because his family disowned him (which could very well be because of the bandages), and even though that may have been caused by his trans-ness, his trans-ness was not a direct factor in him being kicked out. (It's very probable that the Shadow Walker organization/officials that made the decision didn't even know he was trans.)
- The illusive (official) unofficial beta
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Date: Friday, October 9th, 2015 02:44 am (UTC)pretty much yeah. :P
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Date: Friday, October 9th, 2015 09:14 am (UTC)I think I just worded that horribly.
Thank you, r7, for taking the time and effort to outline reasons why I (and another anon) made assumptions without enough thought.
-Anon Cami
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Date: Friday, October 9th, 2015 07:53 pm (UTC)STOP
LEAVE BLAME ALONE
-iirkolav anon
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Date: Monday, February 22nd, 2016 09:52 pm (UTC)Hmmmmm
Do I smell a "Wings of Fire" reference? c:
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Date: Monday, February 22nd, 2016 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, February 23rd, 2016 04:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, February 24th, 2016 12:11 am (UTC)