mindcracklove | Fated (Chapter Four)

This chapter took ages to write and it might not be the best, but here it is. Things are starting to get more interesting...

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

Chapter Four
Kingdom of Traz’madar, Minecraftia. September 3, year 573. Time instance 483Z.

Adrian pulled himself up into the saddle on Teramelle’s back and drew his sword from where it was strapped, feeling more secure on horseback and with a familiar weapon. Nia readied a copied arrow on Kaen no Mai’s string and started shooting the moment that the armed group started to fire at them.

Niel hid behind Nia, knowing that he wouldn’t be too helpful in the fight.

As the bandits approached, they could see that there were about twenty of them, most of them with shields. There appeared to be a prisoner in the back, tied to the back of a very dirty horse. He appeared to be a mixture of a human and a sheep, but it was impossible to see details.

“Get the unicorn and the Skullblade! Kill the others!” shouted one of the bandits as he blocked an arrow from Nia’s bow. The second arrow struck the edge of his shield, almost hitting him. The third arrow ended his life as it arced into his head.

Adrian prompted Teramelle to charge forward, easily killing a bandit with a swordstroke and blocking a hit before the unicorn took him out of the fight for another charge. She disliked being in the battle itself except for brief charges, knowing that she and her rider were both unarmored.

Shred was already in the midst of battle, attacking the bandits with her silvery blades and not taking a single hit- she either parried the blows or killed the bandits before they could hit her.

Suddenly, however, the bandits had another threat.

One bandit suddenly shouted, “On guard, asshole!” and whipped around, stabbing his comrade in the chest. The prisoner on horseback cheered.

A planned event.

“Get ‘em, Tarsen!”

Tarsen ducked under a swing from Adrian with a roar of “I’m on your side!”, proceeding to strike at another bandit.

An arrow slammed into the bandit about to stab Teramelle, causing Tarsen to pause and stare at the effects that it had. “Holy shit…”

Shred finished off the last bandit and turned to Tarsen, blades ready but not attacking. “Who are you and what are you doing?”

Tarsen held up his hands when he saw the bow being pointed at him. “Tarsen Harex, ex-bandit as of a minute ago. Will you let me free Baltbee over there? He’s kind of why I turned on my group.”

Shred shook her head and motioned for Niel to do it. He hesitantly walked over to where the sheepman was bound and cut through the ropes. Baltbee practically fell off of the horse but got to his feet, brushing the dirt off of his rainbow-colored wool. “Thanks. I couldn’t feel my hooves.”

“You can’t feel hooves anyway.” Tarsen protested.

“Eh. Whatever.” He seemed to notice the others threatening Tarsen for the first time. “Oh hey wait a minute! He’s cool, leave him alone!” He stepped forward towards Tarsen to prove his point, placing a hand on his shoulder. “He’s not a bandit, not anymore.”

“The whole ‘kidnapping people and selling them’ kinda crosses a line for me.” Tarsen said, shrugging. “Plus I had this weird dream that I needed to help the sheep guy and find a Skullblade.” He looked over Shred and whistled softly. “I think you’re the one I’m looking for.”

Shred glared at him through her mask. “Go away.”

Teramelle snorted and glared at her.

“You can’t be serious.”

The unicorn looked dead serious, even stepping forward to sniff both Tarsen and Baltbee.

“I think she agrees they need to come along.” Adrian said weakly. “Dreams like that aren’t to be messed with.”

Nia lowered her bow and put the arrow back in the quiver. “So, wait. They’re coming along?”

The way a group forms is not always logical.

Teramelle snorted and nodded her head several times.

“Oh, no.” Niel backed away from Tarsen. “I’m not getting anywhere near you. I know what bandits are like.”

“Ex-bandit.” Tarsen assured him. “I’m fine.”

“I’ll vouch for him.” Baltbee said cheerfully. “When I was captured, the leader wanted to sell me off. Tarsen protested but had to shut up to keep from being killed. He plotted with me that, next time the bandits got into a fight, he’d switch sides, kill them, and free me. Turns out we get along pretty well. His weird dream was right about that, and about finding a Skullblade in his next confrontation.”

“I hate destiny.” Shred sighed, wiping her blades clean and sheathing them. “I should have known I’d pick up a following if I went after Davions. Fine. You can come along, but one false move and I take off your head. The unicorn may trust you, but I don’t.”

There was about a minute of silence before Adrian broke it. “Might as well make camp.”

“Not here!” Niel protested. “Not with all these corpses.”

Shred sighed. “Fine. We’ll keep heading that way for a little ways and then we’ll make camp.” She wasn’t too thrilled with the thought of camping near corpses, either.

“I didn’t mean right here.” Adrian protested. “You can’t take me so seriously.”

“Your bloodied sword says we should.” Shred noted. “As does the unicorn.”

“Camp.” Baltbee reminded them. “I’m looking forward to not sleeping tied up.”

“I’d make a comment about that but you’re fourteen, so no.”

Baltbee swatted at Tarsen, who only shrugged. He was looking at Shred again, who seemed to be trying to ignore him.

She didn’t like him. Not one bit.

~~~

The next day, Velana wasn’t too surprised to see not only her niece and nephew return with the unicorn, but also an Ashenhorn Skullblade, a very bad ninja, a sheepman, and an ex-bandit.

Velana was a short woman, only about five feet tall plus four inches of black hair styled to be wrapped in a kind of tall, vertical bun on top of her head. She had bright green eyes and wore a light blue robe.

As the seven figures- including the unicorn- entered the clearing by the river where Velana had her home, she paused to evaluate them.

Pieces of a prophecy.

Adrian and a boy around his age were both sitting on Teramelle’s back, the boy looking like a shadowwalker reject. Nia walked alongside them with a faintly glowing bow strapped to her back, clearly enchanted and of much better make than the one she had in her room. A Skullblade who must be near gaining her second rib walked by Nia, eyes hidden by the shadows of her mask but clearly alert. Velana noted the dual blades she carried.

A little behind them walked a sheepman with rainbow-colored wool and gray-blue eyes, who looked maybe fourteen. He looked like he’d been through a rough time, with dirty wool and a healing scratch on his face. Beside him was someone who honest-to-Notch looked like a bandit riding a brown horse. He was dirty and wore leather armor with a sword at his side. He looked about twenty and radiated this clear overconfidence, looking around at the others from time to time as if to make sure they weren’t going to attack him. He had brown eyes and hair, and despite the fact that he was filthy and had some dried blood on his armor, he looked like he cared quite a bit about how he looked.

Velana glanced at the small spritedarter, Fey, that accompanied her everywhere. Fey was about six inches long and looked like a mix between a dragon and a butterfly, colored green and blue and orange with bright yellow eyes. She flicked her tongue out in response to Velana’s look.

Velana sighed softly and stepped forward to greet them. “Adrian, Nia. Are you alright?”

“We’re fine.” Nia stepped forward to hug her aunt, Adrian jumping off of Teramelle to do the same.

“I’m glad. I was worried.” Velana made a motion at the others. “I imagine you have an explanation?”

Shred stepped forward. “I am Shred the Mainframe. My mother, one of the seers of the Ashenhorn Clan, informed me that I must find these two Davions and bring them to Ashwatch to witness the hatching of the valk’vanor. She-“

“I understand.” Velana nodded and waved a hand at the others. ”You will bring them as well.”

Shred shook her head. “No. My mother-“

“-does not know everything.” Velana interrupted. “I had a dream last night. The others must accompany you to Ashwatch. You will encounter others along the way, and once the valk’vanor has hatched, things will become clearer to you.”

“How can I trust you?” Shred asked, eyes narrowing.

Fey made a quiet clicking sound, drumming her claws on Velana’s shoulder as she perched there. Velana raised a hand and watched as swirls of arcane energy drifted between her fingers.

“Dreams don’t lie.” she said simply. “Not ones sent by the creators themselves.”

Shred hesitated, then nodded. She felt like she could trust this woman.

“So!” Velana clapped her hands together. “You’ll need equipment for your trip to Ashwatch.”

-~-

Blame gave Vechs an odd look. “Who the hell is this Velana person, anyway?”

Vechs shrugged. “Why do you expect me to know? All I can tell is that she’s probably not related to me. Too short and the facial structure is all wrong.”

“I look forward to the valk’vanor hatching.” Aureylian said cheerfully. “…Except for the whole unleashing the Hostiles thing.”

“I look forward to that as well as the valk’vanor, honestly.” Blame muttered. “I can’t wait for this entire thing to be over with.” He sighed. “I just wish I could be present at the hatching…looking and listening through these orbs isn’t good enough.” He glanced back at the orb, where he could see his descendant helping gather some supplies and putting it in the saddlebags of the brown horse.

“At least your descendant isn’t a bandit.” Bdoubleo muttered. “Although I honestly expected Genny’s to be hangin’ out with him. Wonder where his line got off to if they stopped hangin’ ‘round with mine.”

“Not sure.” Millbee looked critically at his descendant. “Anyone else think that Baltbee here has a dumb name?”

No one answered, but Vechs noticed that Etho hadn’t joined in on the conversation much. He tapped the other’s shoulder gently.

“Hey. You okay?”

“Not sure.” Etho admitted, not looking away from the image of his descendant. “I’m worried about Niel. I can’t imagine what would get him kicked out of his home…”

Nebris, who was with them despite his orb remaining dim, put a hand on Etho’s shoulder. “I don’t know. He should be okay now that he’s found these guys, though. They can’t be too bad if they’re descended from us.”
Etho sighed a little. “I don’t know about that.” he admitted. “I don’t know…”

-~-

Meanwhile, unknown to the Mindcrackers, a small yet relevant dragon zipped through the mountains within the ruins of Dalania. She had been living on the northeastern coast where the fires hadn’t reached for far too long.

She soared high over the chasm filled with magma below her, the heat making her wings feel brittle and dry, but she knew that it was doing nothing to her.

She hoped that none of the dragons from the Dragonlands would come this far south- running into one of them could be deadly, plus she didn’t have time to deal with them. She needed to get west as quickly as possible. She was on a timer that was quickly running out.

Her purple form moved quickly through a gap between two mountains the moment she had crossed the chasm, and she wished that she was there already. At only ten feet long, she wasn’t cut out for flying long distances and tired easily.

Too easily, she reflected as she set down to rest for a couple of hours in a cave. Too easily.