Fated (Chapter Three)
Wednesday, July 8th, 2015 03:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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mindcrackloveSorry this one's a little shorter, I just had to end it where I did. :3
Also, if I hear one more joke about the unicorn, I'm gonna send Saltar'vesque after you guys.
Chapter list: http://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/382.html
Map of the continent: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/Fated-map-544073443
Character status spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RKoeOLYhQctmZ5McNHc_kid0tjfb1BxyuD8i95FmFQE/edit?usp=sharing
Nia gave the woman an odd look. “Who are you, anyway?"
“That’s not important- I’m not really relevant.”
“You look like me, though.”
She made a vague dismissive gesture. “We’re distantly related. It’s not important how or why- I’m here to help you, but not for long.”
“Help me? How?”
“I’m here to tell you what you’re supposed to be doing. All hell has broken loose across Minecraftia, and it’s important that you do things in a very specific way.”
“And if I don’t?”
The woman shrugged a little. “The world ends.”
But that’s not for awhile, yet.
Chapter Three
Kingdom of Traz’madar, Minecraftia. September 3, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
The three had walked for several hours until they reached the trees, indicating that they had left Dalania and were now back in Traz’madar. Adrian has insisted that they stop and rest, and so they had.
Shred awoke shortly after dawn and let the other two sleep for an hour before waking them up. She wanted to get them to Ashwatch as soon as possible- the thought of missing the hatching of the valk’vanor was unbearable.
After about three hours of walking along the chasm, they heard what sounded like soft crying.
Shred held up a hand for them to stop and approached the noise, which was coming from behind a bush, with her hands on the hilts of her swords.
The moment she started to push past the bush, the crying sounds stopped and a figure rose out of nowhere, sword drawn and pointed at her.
Shred immediately drew her blades and moved to defend herself from the attack, but it never came.
What had jumped up was a kid, around Adrian’s age, whose bright blue eyes were bloodshot and face was stained from tears. He seemed to know how to use his sword, but the three could see in his eyes that he had no real drive to attack or defend himself.
Just a scared 15-year-old-kid.
He was a couple of inches shorter than Adrian and wore dark green, almost black, clothes that covered almost his entire body. He had a vest of some kind with pockets that went over his outfit, colored a barely brighter shade of green. He had a hood but it was pushed back, showing his silvery hair that had the occasional wisp of brown.
Shred and the boy stared at each other for a good ten seconds before realizing that the other really had no intent to harm them. The boy lowered his sword.
“Who…who are you?” he asked finally. He definitely sounded like he had been crying and he spoke with zero confidence. Nia also noted that his voice was really quite ambiguous when it came to gender- she was just assuming he was male based on appearance.
“You drew first. You answer first. Who are you?” Shred shot back immediately. She didn’t lower her weapons and her voice was filled with hostility, which made him step back a little. He looked terrified.
“Oh, leave him alone! Can’t you see he’s not only scared shitless but that he’s been having a bad time?” Adrian pushed at Shred’s arms and she growled before lowering her weapons.
“Don’t tell me what to do.” she snapped.
Adrian ignored her and turned to the boy. “I’m Adrian. That’s my cousin Nia, and the Skullblade is Shred. We’re friendly- well, Nia and I are. Who are you?”
The boy sniffed a little and sheathed his sword. “Niel.”
“Niel.” Adrian repeated. “That’s a good name.”
“Thanks?” He seemed unsure as to how to answer.
“What’s bothering you, Niel?”
“We don’t have time for this.” Shred protested. “We-“
“Oh, who put a stick up your ass?” Nia fired back. “This guy’s had a rough time. The least we can do is talk to him.”
Shred sighed and sheathed her swords. Unfortunately, Nia was right.
Adrian coaxed Niel to sit down with him. “Hey. Don’t pretend like you’re okay- we heard you being upset. What’s wrong?”
Niel looked at him sadly. “I got kicked out of my home.”
“What?! Why?”
“My family didn’t like me. They didn’t agree with me. So they kicked me out.” Niel shook a little, and Adrian put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him.
“Hey. It’s okay. Sometimes people are assholes. Why didn’t they like you?”
Niel shook his head. He didn’t want to talk about it. “Some…stupid reason.”
“I see.” Adrian nodded. “It’s okay. I don’t dislike you. Hey, do you have anywhere to go?”
Niel shook his head again.
“You could come with us.” Adrian offered. “Our Aunt Velana could probably take you in or find somewhere for you. You can’t live alone in the woods forever.”
Niel looked at him hopefully. “R-really? She’d do that? You’d…do that?”
“Of course.” Nia chimed in. “She took us in. And while you’re not related, she likes to help people, and so do we.”
A smile stretched across Niel’s face. “Really?!” He hugged Adrian and then Nia. “Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you!” He jumped up and bounced a little. “You two are my favorite people right now!”
Kicked out of his home, directly into another.
Shred rolled her eyes. “Let’s get moving.”
As they walked, Niel practically skipping, Adrian continued to talk to him.
“So where are you from, anyway?”
“Eastern Traz’madar, in the forest.” Niel hesitated. “I’m a shadowwalker in training. Or…I was.”
“Shadowwalker?”
“A small, secretive group of people, first formed by the second Dalanian ruler, Queen Mora, and one of her advisors.” He glanced around nervously. “We’re good with swords and walking through the shadows, as well as moving really quickly. I’m…okay, I guess. I was…I was never very good. And then I got kicked out…”
Adrian tried to ignore the sad parts of what Niel said, wanting to lighten the mood. “So, you’re a ninja?”
“Pretty much.”
“That’s really, really awesome.” Adrian grinned at him. “I can use a sword and I have a unicorn.”
“A unicorn? Really?”
“Yeah! Her name is Teramelle and we go everywhere together.” He hesitated. “Except when we’re chased by angry earth elementalists into Dalania.”
“Except when what?”
As Adrian told the whole story, Nia laughed quietly to herself.
This was already turning into an interesting, if accidental, adventure.
-~-
“Shadowwalker?” Vechs asked, looking at Etho skeptically.
Etho shrugged a little. “Mora’s idea to pass my training onto others. I guess it kinda carried on.”
“What would cause him to get kicked out, though?” Aureylian wondered, frowning at the image of their descendants walking that was displayed in her orb.
Etho shook his head. “I don’t know.” he admitted. “Maybe due to how little skill he says he has? But I can’t imagine…”
Vechs sighed. “We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.”
He hated waiting.
-~-
The four of them walked the rest of the day, finally reaching the end of the chasm and gaining the ability to go to the other side and start walking back towards the forest. They had transitioned to the plains some time ago, and Niel was looking very uncomfortable.
“I’ve never been in such a wide-open area before.” he admitted quietly to Adrian. “It’s kind of freaking me out. There’s nowhere to hide or anything.”
Adrian privately agreed with him, being very used to the forests as well.
Right as they were about to make camp, Adrian heard the sound of hoofbeats.
He looked up, towards the east, and saw one of the most welcome sights he had ever seen.
“Teramelle!”
The unicorn.
Niel stopped to stare as the silvery horse, practically shining, galloped up to Adrian and nuzzled him, careful not to stab him with her horn. Adrian shouted in joy and wrapped his arms around the unicorn’s neck, clearly pleased.
Nia moved forward to pat Teramelle’s nose as well, smiling.
“Sorry about ditching you.” Adrian told her. “We got a little preoccupied with running.”
The unicorn snorted, as if this was no excuse.
Niel took a hesitant step forward, totally in awe. Even Shred had paused what she was doing to look at her. She stepped forward and nodded her head respectfully.
“You have a good heart, Adrian Davion. Unicorns don’t trust just anyone.”
“I know.” Adrian smiled at her. “Hey, Teramelle. Anyone distrustworthy here?”
Teramelle moved forward to sniff Shred, then Niel, and then looked back at Adrian with her shining green eyes.
“At least the unicorn likes you.” Adrian said cheerfully to Shred. “Come on, Niel, you can pat her.”
“Can I?”
Teramelle snorted softly and moved closer to Niel, as if inviting him to. He hesitantly reached out and touched the unicorn’s neck, but slowly gained confidence and was soon petting her mane and grinning broadly.
Adrian’s expression matched. “Isn’t she great?”
“Yeah!”
Shred nodded. “She is amazing, but we need to set up camp.” She looked at the sky. “Hopefully it doesn’t rain.”
Nia rolled her eyes. “It doesn’t look like rain.”
“Out here on the plains, it rains without warning.” Shred informed Nia. “Believe me.”
“I want to be back in the woods.” Niel muttered softly.
“Soon.” Adrian assured him. “We’re almost there.”
Teramelle snorted a warning and pawed at the ground, pointing with her nose at a group of approaching figures.
Shred took one look at them and drew her swords. “Bandits.” she growled. “Prepare for battle. This might get ugly.”
-~-
Millbee practically tripped into the room.
“Orb’s up! Orb’s up!” he shouted.
Aureylian, Vechs, Blame, and Etho all suddenly looked very, very concerned, glancing back at their own respective orbs, at their descendants looking at the group coming towards them.
Millbee jumped up and shook off the fall, glancing back at his orb. “He’s not doing too well.” he admitted.
“Please tell me he’s not a bandit.” Blame leaned over to look at Millbee’s orb.
“Nope. Looks like a prisoner. Hopefully your descendents free mine, huh?”
Vechs sighed in relief. “At least he’s not a bandit.”
Bdoubleo stepped into the room as Vechs spoke.
“No,” he said slowly, “but I think mine is.”
Also, if I hear one more joke about the unicorn, I'm gonna send Saltar'vesque after you guys.
Chapter list: http://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/382.html
Map of the continent: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/Fated-map-544073443
Character status spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RKoeOLYhQctmZ5McNHc_kid0tjfb1BxyuD8i95FmFQE/edit?usp=sharing
Nia gave the woman an odd look. “Who are you, anyway?"
“That’s not important- I’m not really relevant.”
“You look like me, though.”
She made a vague dismissive gesture. “We’re distantly related. It’s not important how or why- I’m here to help you, but not for long.”
“Help me? How?”
“I’m here to tell you what you’re supposed to be doing. All hell has broken loose across Minecraftia, and it’s important that you do things in a very specific way.”
“And if I don’t?”
The woman shrugged a little. “The world ends.”
But that’s not for awhile, yet.
Chapter Three
Kingdom of Traz’madar, Minecraftia. September 3, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
The three had walked for several hours until they reached the trees, indicating that they had left Dalania and were now back in Traz’madar. Adrian has insisted that they stop and rest, and so they had.
Shred awoke shortly after dawn and let the other two sleep for an hour before waking them up. She wanted to get them to Ashwatch as soon as possible- the thought of missing the hatching of the valk’vanor was unbearable.
After about three hours of walking along the chasm, they heard what sounded like soft crying.
Shred held up a hand for them to stop and approached the noise, which was coming from behind a bush, with her hands on the hilts of her swords.
The moment she started to push past the bush, the crying sounds stopped and a figure rose out of nowhere, sword drawn and pointed at her.
Shred immediately drew her blades and moved to defend herself from the attack, but it never came.
What had jumped up was a kid, around Adrian’s age, whose bright blue eyes were bloodshot and face was stained from tears. He seemed to know how to use his sword, but the three could see in his eyes that he had no real drive to attack or defend himself.
Just a scared 15-year-old-kid.
He was a couple of inches shorter than Adrian and wore dark green, almost black, clothes that covered almost his entire body. He had a vest of some kind with pockets that went over his outfit, colored a barely brighter shade of green. He had a hood but it was pushed back, showing his silvery hair that had the occasional wisp of brown.
Shred and the boy stared at each other for a good ten seconds before realizing that the other really had no intent to harm them. The boy lowered his sword.
“Who…who are you?” he asked finally. He definitely sounded like he had been crying and he spoke with zero confidence. Nia also noted that his voice was really quite ambiguous when it came to gender- she was just assuming he was male based on appearance.
“You drew first. You answer first. Who are you?” Shred shot back immediately. She didn’t lower her weapons and her voice was filled with hostility, which made him step back a little. He looked terrified.
“Oh, leave him alone! Can’t you see he’s not only scared shitless but that he’s been having a bad time?” Adrian pushed at Shred’s arms and she growled before lowering her weapons.
“Don’t tell me what to do.” she snapped.
Adrian ignored her and turned to the boy. “I’m Adrian. That’s my cousin Nia, and the Skullblade is Shred. We’re friendly- well, Nia and I are. Who are you?”
The boy sniffed a little and sheathed his sword. “Niel.”
“Niel.” Adrian repeated. “That’s a good name.”
“Thanks?” He seemed unsure as to how to answer.
“What’s bothering you, Niel?”
“We don’t have time for this.” Shred protested. “We-“
“Oh, who put a stick up your ass?” Nia fired back. “This guy’s had a rough time. The least we can do is talk to him.”
Shred sighed and sheathed her swords. Unfortunately, Nia was right.
Adrian coaxed Niel to sit down with him. “Hey. Don’t pretend like you’re okay- we heard you being upset. What’s wrong?”
Niel looked at him sadly. “I got kicked out of my home.”
“What?! Why?”
“My family didn’t like me. They didn’t agree with me. So they kicked me out.” Niel shook a little, and Adrian put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him.
“Hey. It’s okay. Sometimes people are assholes. Why didn’t they like you?”
Niel shook his head. He didn’t want to talk about it. “Some…stupid reason.”
“I see.” Adrian nodded. “It’s okay. I don’t dislike you. Hey, do you have anywhere to go?”
Niel shook his head again.
“You could come with us.” Adrian offered. “Our Aunt Velana could probably take you in or find somewhere for you. You can’t live alone in the woods forever.”
Niel looked at him hopefully. “R-really? She’d do that? You’d…do that?”
“Of course.” Nia chimed in. “She took us in. And while you’re not related, she likes to help people, and so do we.”
A smile stretched across Niel’s face. “Really?!” He hugged Adrian and then Nia. “Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you!” He jumped up and bounced a little. “You two are my favorite people right now!”
Kicked out of his home, directly into another.
Shred rolled her eyes. “Let’s get moving.”
As they walked, Niel practically skipping, Adrian continued to talk to him.
“So where are you from, anyway?”
“Eastern Traz’madar, in the forest.” Niel hesitated. “I’m a shadowwalker in training. Or…I was.”
“Shadowwalker?”
“A small, secretive group of people, first formed by the second Dalanian ruler, Queen Mora, and one of her advisors.” He glanced around nervously. “We’re good with swords and walking through the shadows, as well as moving really quickly. I’m…okay, I guess. I was…I was never very good. And then I got kicked out…”
Adrian tried to ignore the sad parts of what Niel said, wanting to lighten the mood. “So, you’re a ninja?”
“Pretty much.”
“That’s really, really awesome.” Adrian grinned at him. “I can use a sword and I have a unicorn.”
“A unicorn? Really?”
“Yeah! Her name is Teramelle and we go everywhere together.” He hesitated. “Except when we’re chased by angry earth elementalists into Dalania.”
“Except when what?”
As Adrian told the whole story, Nia laughed quietly to herself.
This was already turning into an interesting, if accidental, adventure.
-~-
“Shadowwalker?” Vechs asked, looking at Etho skeptically.
Etho shrugged a little. “Mora’s idea to pass my training onto others. I guess it kinda carried on.”
“What would cause him to get kicked out, though?” Aureylian wondered, frowning at the image of their descendants walking that was displayed in her orb.
Etho shook his head. “I don’t know.” he admitted. “Maybe due to how little skill he says he has? But I can’t imagine…”
Vechs sighed. “We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.”
He hated waiting.
-~-
The four of them walked the rest of the day, finally reaching the end of the chasm and gaining the ability to go to the other side and start walking back towards the forest. They had transitioned to the plains some time ago, and Niel was looking very uncomfortable.
“I’ve never been in such a wide-open area before.” he admitted quietly to Adrian. “It’s kind of freaking me out. There’s nowhere to hide or anything.”
Adrian privately agreed with him, being very used to the forests as well.
Right as they were about to make camp, Adrian heard the sound of hoofbeats.
He looked up, towards the east, and saw one of the most welcome sights he had ever seen.
“Teramelle!”
The unicorn.
Niel stopped to stare as the silvery horse, practically shining, galloped up to Adrian and nuzzled him, careful not to stab him with her horn. Adrian shouted in joy and wrapped his arms around the unicorn’s neck, clearly pleased.
Nia moved forward to pat Teramelle’s nose as well, smiling.
“Sorry about ditching you.” Adrian told her. “We got a little preoccupied with running.”
The unicorn snorted, as if this was no excuse.
Niel took a hesitant step forward, totally in awe. Even Shred had paused what she was doing to look at her. She stepped forward and nodded her head respectfully.
“You have a good heart, Adrian Davion. Unicorns don’t trust just anyone.”
“I know.” Adrian smiled at her. “Hey, Teramelle. Anyone distrustworthy here?”
Teramelle moved forward to sniff Shred, then Niel, and then looked back at Adrian with her shining green eyes.
“At least the unicorn likes you.” Adrian said cheerfully to Shred. “Come on, Niel, you can pat her.”
“Can I?”
Teramelle snorted softly and moved closer to Niel, as if inviting him to. He hesitantly reached out and touched the unicorn’s neck, but slowly gained confidence and was soon petting her mane and grinning broadly.
Adrian’s expression matched. “Isn’t she great?”
“Yeah!”
Shred nodded. “She is amazing, but we need to set up camp.” She looked at the sky. “Hopefully it doesn’t rain.”
Nia rolled her eyes. “It doesn’t look like rain.”
“Out here on the plains, it rains without warning.” Shred informed Nia. “Believe me.”
“I want to be back in the woods.” Niel muttered softly.
“Soon.” Adrian assured him. “We’re almost there.”
Teramelle snorted a warning and pawed at the ground, pointing with her nose at a group of approaching figures.
Shred took one look at them and drew her swords. “Bandits.” she growled. “Prepare for battle. This might get ugly.”
-~-
Millbee practically tripped into the room.
“Orb’s up! Orb’s up!” he shouted.
Aureylian, Vechs, Blame, and Etho all suddenly looked very, very concerned, glancing back at their own respective orbs, at their descendants looking at the group coming towards them.
Millbee jumped up and shook off the fall, glancing back at his orb. “He’s not doing too well.” he admitted.
“Please tell me he’s not a bandit.” Blame leaned over to look at Millbee’s orb.
“Nope. Looks like a prisoner. Hopefully your descendents free mine, huh?”
Vechs sighed in relief. “At least he’s not a bandit.”
Bdoubleo stepped into the room as Vechs spoke.
“No,” he said slowly, “but I think mine is.”
