Fated (Chapter Forty-Two)
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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-Two
Kingdom of Traz’madar, Minecraftia. October 24, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
"Why are we here, Samuel?" Nia asked, looking up at him from the map. It was early evening, and nothing had happened so far that day other than some talking between the people in the group. "The only interesting thing for miles is Sunspire. You're sure we're in the circle that Skera drew?"
"I'm certain. She said someone would show up, right? Maybe they've been waiting for all three groups to get here."
"We'll just have to wait and see." Shred sounded unhappy about it. "Maybe we could send out some groups to look around the area for people."
"It couldn't hurt." Nia agreed. "Maybe-"
She was interrupted by Valkan as he walked up, clearly in a bad mood. "I'm sick and tired of this place and this stupid adventure. I was told we'd be killing shit and that would save the world or some shit. All that's happened is that I've been hauled across Minecraftia by an idiot wildman and almost died to a tree with an attitude."
Nia growled at him. "Shut up, Valkan."
"No. Who died and made you leader? Or you?" He pointed at Samuel. "Or you? Or ANY of you? This is fucking stupid and unless I get a reason to stick around, Trymdas and I are leaving."
Nia got to her feet. "You've been nothing but unpleasant and an asshole, you know that? We'd be better off without you on the team, but the prophecy says-"
"I bet you made that whole damn thing up, didn't you? You Davions with your inflated sense of self importance!"
As Nia and Valkan argued, Adrian shuddered, shutting his eyes tightly. His blood was burning in his veins, anger building in his system. Even just seeing Valkan disturbed his monstrous blood, but the argument Valkan was having with Nia was only angering Adrian further.
A great deal of emotional investment in his cousin.
He couldn't take anymore when he heard Valkan inform Nia that clearly her ancestors hadn't been smart enough to escape a burning castle so she was likely to lead them all directly into flames. Adrian surged to his feet and stormed forward, standing between Valkan and Nia.
"You shut the fuck up."
Valkan sneered at him. "What, are you going to make me?"
Adrian took a swing at him, but Valkan ducked and kicked him in the knee. Adrian stumbled and fell, getting a kick in the head as he tried to stand. Adrian struck at Valkan’s feet but was only kicked again.
Adrian snarled and flames shot from his mouth at Valkan's legs and feet, making Valkan and those trying to stop the fight scramble back.
Adrian roared as fire covered his body, expanding, transforming into the creature that few knew about and even fewer had seen.
His claws lashed at Valkan, barely missing him as Adrian got to his feet. He screamed in rage, spreading his leathery wings and preparing for another swipe.
Most of the camp scrambled back or screamed, not having expected one of their teammates to turn into a large angry monster. Shred reacted first, drawing her swords and shouting for Adrian to calm down. As Valkan dodged another swipe, Shred charged the monster, taking a swing at him with both blades.
Adrian turned and snapped both metal blades with his claws before turning back to Valkan, leaving Shred startled and dumbfounded. She hadn’t expected for him to be strong enough to do that with such little apparent effort.
Adrian stepped forward, but paused when he felt something slam into his leg. He looked down to investigate, blinking with slight surprise at what he saw.
Velloh had recovered quickly, having guessed that one of the two Davions had the monstrous blood and had been suspicious of it being Adrian for a time. He had quickly realized that he had to distract Adrian long enough for someone else to come along and knock him out, and the best way to do that was to hit him with a bucket.
Prior knowledge.
He had charged Adrian with the bucket and hit his leg with it, not causing anything more than a sting but it got the monster’s attention.
Adrian roared, swinging his claws faster than Velloh could backpedal. The claws caught him in the left side of his torso and tore three massive, gaping wounds diagonally up, shredding his internals and sending him flying backwards.
Blood poured from the wounds and Velloh gasped for air with his slashed windpipe. He scrabbled feebly for the rotting potion at his hip for a few seconds before the lights in his eyes died and he fell limp.
The descendant of Zisteau had fallen.
The descendants stared for a few seconds as Adrian roared in victory before beginning to turn again, raising his arms to-
A crossbow bolt shot out of the trees and slammed into Adrian’s side, making him roar in fury and pain. He blasted flames and looked around wildly for the source, getting a second in the shoulder.
As Nia raised her bow in the direction of the crossbow shots, the powerful tranquilizer coating the bolts took effect. Adrian collapsed, passing out after a few short seconds. As his consciousness faded, he transformed back into his human form and curled up on the forest floor.
“Shahz! Ssketh ezk pes sel!”
“Wait. Isn’t that-“
Shred stopped speaking as about fifteen skettisren appeared from the trees around them, most of them holding crossbows.
“Well, shit.” Nia muttered.
-~-
Zisteau shrieked as his orb shattered, turning to bronze dust as the glass shards fell. Vechs looked at him mournfully before looking back into his orb, scared about what Adrian would do to the others.
As the skettisren showed themselves, Doc stepped into the room, looking down into his orb with eyes wide in shock and a level of fear.
“Your descendant might kill ours.” Aureylian whispered.
“Knowing my people, they might…”
-~-
A yellow-eyed skettisren with an enchanted diamond sword stepped forward, shouting something incomprehensible. “Sshak wez pross jes traksek! Kes keer ssek!” It waved its hand and the others readied their crossbows.
Nia suddenly remembered Skera’s instructions. “Wait! Davions! Davions!” She held up her bow. “Kaen no Mai!”
“Shez? Vak seh-“
The skettisren with yellow eyes was cut off by an orange-eyed one, racing forward and lowering its blade. “Cezveth! Sahk sseh mezzen!”
The two got into a quick argument before the yellow-eyed skettisren stepped back. The other looked back at the group, stepped forward, and spoke.
“I’m sorry for the imbecile over there. He never listens to a damn thing I say. Are you Nia Davion?”
Nia blinked in surprise. The skettisren had a slight accent that she didn’t recognize, but she was able to understand it with no problem. “…Yes. How do you know my name?”
“The spirit of Skarthon spoke to Ahzzen, telling us that you and others of the prophecy to save the world would arrive. I’m a member of your team.” The skettisren looked around at the group, frowning slightly. “My name is Mitven. This is an odd group you have here. Shame about the pigman.”
Everyone suddenly remembered about Velloh, having been caught up in the realization that they were possibly under attack. The group quickly turned to look, but Samuel had knelt by his side seconds after the light had faded from his eyes. He shook his head and several people hung their heads, primarily people in the Ahnrak group. Niel walked over to Velloh’s side and fell to his knees, looking into the lifeless, mismatched eyes of his friend.
“He’s a murderer.” Carl pointed a shaking finger at Adrian. “He’s a monster. He could kill any one of us.”
“What are you saying?” Nia demanded.
“I’m saying he’s dangerous and needs to be put down.”
An argument sparked in the group, ending in angry screaming and Valkan eventually advancing on Adrian with his sword drawn.
Mitven leaped forward, standing between Valkan and the unconscious Adrian. She was about as tall as Nia, and looked like she had no qualms about kicking Valkan’s ass.
“Considering what you’ve done, you might not want to piss me off.”
Valkan changed his mind and sheathed his sword.
“You’ll come with us.” Mitven told them. “Pack up and let’s go. I’m supposed to help you summon one of our ancestors, right? We’ll need to get moving.”
“What about him?” Zekara motioned at Velloh’s corpse.
“Leave him. There’s no time to bury him. If we don’t get this summoning ritual done soon, we’ll have to wait months- this thing’s on an exact timer and it’s really convenient that you happened along just in time.”
“It was fated.” Onai told her.
“Yeah, whatever.”
Niel protested at them leaving Velloh to rot.
“He deserves a decent burial! He was a good person…”
Samuel put a hand on Niel’s shoulder. “I know he was. But it’s up to us to save the world. Burying him won’t help that.”
“But-”
“I’m sorry, Niel.” Samuel got to his feet and helped Niel up as well. “But we have to.”
~~~
Once the camp was packed up (and the sun was down enough to allow Marcus to leave his tent without complaint), Mitven and the other skettisren led the way into the trees. The group was shaken from Adrian’s transformation and Velloh’s death, so they were, for the most part, silent.
Tranpar, however, was curious. He raced ahead to Mitven’s side (Samuel not far behind) and immediately began to ask her questions.
“How can you speak to us? Don’t skettisren usually avoid humans?”
“Yes. We do. But I took an interest in humans and have done a lot of reading. I’m glad I speak the language as well as I do- I only get to practice occasionally with the few others who know it.”
“How did you know we were there?”
“We heard the commotion of the roaring. We thought it might be one of those Hostiles- we’ve had guards posted at every entrance to the tunnels, just in case.” Mitven shrugged a little. “It turned out to be you guys. I’m glad it was- we lost quite a few skettisren to one of those monsters earlier.”
“Where are you taking us?”
“Right here.” Mitven motioned for them to stop as the yellow-eyed skettisren from before- Cezveth- grabbed a stump and pulled it upwards, revealing that it worked on a hinge to unveil the entrance to a tunnel. He entered the underground without a glance backwards, the others following close behind.
Niel, caught between terror and grief, had a horrible feeling that things wouldn’t quite go according to plan. He took the unconscious Adrian’s hand and squeezed it, receiving a sympathetic look from Zekara, who was carrying him.
He didn’t feel confident at all.
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Date: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 12:28 am (UTC)No.. ..
aslso, NOOOOOO
/#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/
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Date: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 12:30 am (UTC)TANADIIIINNNN *Waves pitchfork around*
Also "It was *Fated*.” Good job Onai XD
-Random Anon
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Date: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 12:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 01:45 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: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 06:16 am (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 01:50 am (UTC)D; WHY?!!
Two descendents down and a possible 28 to kill . . .
-Anon Cami
PS: Does Shree get a descendent?
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Date: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 02:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 02:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 06:14 am (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, October 11th, 2015 02:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 06:13 am (UTC)Velloh was a GOOD person! VALKAN needs to die! If he doesn't, Valkan needs to shut the heck up and never open his mouth again. What a JERK! He basically got Velloh killed! Idiot.
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, October 11th, 2015 02:41 am (UTC)(WHY DID YOU HAVE TO HAVE ADRIAN KILL SOMEONE? WHY?!!)
Are you trying to inflict psychological torture or something?!
-Anon Cami
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Date: Sunday, October 11th, 2015 06:20 am (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Sunday, October 11th, 2015 07:22 am (UTC)-Anon Cami
no subject
Date: Sunday, October 11th, 2015 03:22 pm (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Sunday, October 11th, 2015 06:19 am (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 08:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, October 12th, 2015 06:46 pm (UTC)