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mindcracklove2015-07-24 04:22 pm
Fated (Chapter Eleven)
You can thank Seven's cat for inspiring the scene with the bird, though.
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 Eleven
Ashwatch, Minecraftia. September 14, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
Niel stopped walking as he felt water drip onto his arm. He looked up in time to get a raindrop in his eye. He shook his head and wiped the water from his face. “It’s raining.” He complained as the rate of drops picked up.
“We could go back to the tent.” Adrian offered. “It would be dry in there.”
“I don’t want to be stuck in a small tent, though.” Niel mumbled as he turned to start walking back. “Too cramped.”
“Well, I mean…we might be able to hang out with Nia and Shred in the house. I can’t imagine they’d kick us out if we only wanted to stay for a little while.”
“You think they’ll be okay with us being there?”
“Yeah!” Adrian grabbed Niel’s arm and tugged him up to the door- they hadn’t been that far in the first place. He knocked and was answered by Shred.
“You want in?”
“Yes please.”
Shred rolled her eyes and opened the door, moving out of the way to let them in. Adrian and Niel quickly darted into the house, not wanting to get rained on more than they already had.
Nia greeted them cheerfully as they came in and stood beside her. “How have you guys been?”
“We’ve been fine. Wandering around Ashwatch a lot- it’s really pretty and totally safe.” Adrian grinned. “I don’t know why, but it feels more alive than the woods around our home.”
“It’s way better than the plains.” Niel added. “I feel safe here.”
Just as Shred was about to sit down, someone else knocked on the door. She sighed and opened it to reveal Ragebent Blade and Fatewriter and then motioned for them to come in. Spire slipped into the house along with them, carrying a bird in his mouth.
“How did you manage to catch a bird while it’s raining?” Shred demanded, closing the door. The cat looked at her and meowed, dropping the bird. The bird, who was apparently not dead, jumped to its feet and quickly took off, flying directly at Niel.
He shrieked and jumped backwards, slamming into Adrian and knocking them both to the floor. He struggled to get free but only managed to tangle them both in their cloaks.
Not the most logical of reactions.
Nia yelped and the bird changed direction, running into a window before continuing its crazy flight around the house. Fatewriter immediately pulled out her bow and tried to get a shot off, but both Shred and Fade had rushed to try and catch it. Nia quickly joined them as Ragebent Blade shouted for them to try and direct it out through the door.
“Get out of the way! Let me shoot it!” Fatewriter shouted, but no one was listening as they tried to catch the bird. Only the cat seemed to be unconcerned, cleaning behind his ears.
This went on for several minutes until the bird ran into a window then made for the ceiling, not getting far as Fatewriter’s arrow struck it in the chest and knocked it to the floor. Everyone paused to look at her, and then became aware of laughter. They looked slightly to her left to find Seer of Pathways in the doorway, howling with laughter and leaning on the doorframe.
Niel and Adrian finally managed to get themselves untangled. Niel quickly got up off of Adrian, face red, and helped up the other. “S-sorry…”
“It’s fine.” Adrian told him, trying not to laugh. “That was pretty funny.”
Seer, still giggling, came inside and shut the door. “I don’t know how…how the hell that happened, but…that was the funniest damn thing I think I’ve seen in years.”
Shred sighed and scooped up the dead bird. She tossed it outside and rolled her eyes. “Now that that’s over with, why are you here?”
“Right.” Ragebent Blade cleared his throat. “It’s my twentieth birthday today, and I need to know where your bonecarver is. I need to obtain my second set of ribs.”
“Fragment of Bone? He lives closer to the lake. His doorway is decorated in white dragonbone, you can’t miss it.” Shred told him. “Oh, and happy birthday.”
“Happy birthday.” The room chorused.
“Thanks.” Ragebent Blade nodded and left, Fatewriter tagging along behind him. Shred caught him muttering something- “I could order you around now, if I wanted.”
“Don’t you dare. You’re only forty-one days older than me, asshole.” Fatewriter replied before they were cut off by the door closing.
“Well, that was exciting.” Seer remarked. “Would anyone like anything to drink?”
~~~
Late at night on the sixteenth, a small dragon slipped into the waters of the lake. She took a deep breath before diving down, enjoying the feeling of swimming but wanting to minimize the chances of her being seen. While not built for swimming, she was still decent at it and could hold her breath for a couple of minutes as long as she didn’t do anything too crazy underwater. Her eyes were adapted for seeing in the dark, so the light from the almost-full moon overhead was good enough to let her see at least vague shapes at the bottom of the lake.
As she neared the center of the lake, she noticed something moving that was too large to be a fish. Her head snapped around to look, but it was gone. She narrowed her eyes and kept swimming.
She saw it again, mere moments later, out of the corner of her eye. No matter how quickly she turned to look, it was always gone before she could see.
Getting an idea, she paused, keeping her position in the water, and waited for the movement to appear again. This time, she didn’t move her head, but instead just shifted her eyes to watch it creep slightly into her vision.
It appeared to be the shadow of a dragon, but it wasn’t of her build- it was stockier and smaller, with a shorter jaw and stronger limbs. While the purple dragon was built for speed, this one was clearly made more for combat, but it was still quick.
Not her shadow.
When the dragon looked around, she noted that she was alone in the lake when it came to other dragons, and yet, this shadow was here. She was unsurprised to find it gone when she looked back. She mentally sighed and made for the surface in order to get another breath.
As her head broke the surface of the water, her eyes picked up on the shadow again, this time as it slipped from the water and moved into the forest. It fell as if there were a dragon there to block the light, but no such creature was evident. She frowned and swam quickly to the shore, pulling herself out of the water and following the shadow.
Unfortunately, she lost it quickly between the trees as it slipped through places that she could not, dismissing her theory that it was somehow magically camouflaged. She sighed and sat, glancing up at the sky to look at the Bloodshadow in the sky. She remained like that for about an hour, watching it just barely slip past the moon.
Soon. The Skullblades had been speaking of it happening in two days. Soon, the purple dragon could leave this place.
She had been here too long already.
-~-
Blame paced in his room, orb resting on his bed.
Two days. The valk’vanor would hatch in two days. The Hostiles would be freed in two days.
He didn’t know exactly how to feel, so he was filled with this intense anxiety that he couldn’t get rid of. He couldn’t bring himself to focus on anything else or sleep. Instead, he just paced. He wouldn’t talk to anyone and didn’t want to be bothered. All of the Mindcrackers were tense, but he and Vechs were the worst.
He didn’t want to see the descendants of the Mindcrackers die to the same monsters that had almost killed them two hundred years ago. He didn’t want to watch the world end. He didn’t want to watch the valk’vanor fall into the wrong hands and become corrupted. He couldn’t stand if any of that happened.
But he had to. He had to watch, he had to keep up with what was going on, no matter how events played out. His curiosity drove him to look into the orb whenever something happened.
And something would happen very, very soon.
~~~
Vechs almost fell off of the wall when he thought he saw the movement of something purple in the corner. He jerked to look and almost lost his grip on the wall, but quickly got a better hold. He was working on a project that he had been creating off and on for a few decades now- one that had no business shifting purple things around. He pushed off from the wall and spread his wings to soar over to where he saw the movement, but there was nothing there.
He jumped as he thought he saw it again, but it was just Aureylian, walking into the large cavern to find him. “Vechs?”
He swooped down from the darkness, scaring the crap out of her, and landing in front of her. Aureylian jumped back and almost fell, but Vechs quickly grabbed her arm to keep her from falling. “Sorry. I forget that you can’t see in the dark as well as I can.” He shifted into his human form. “Is something wrong?”
“N-no.” Aureylian shuddered and regained her balance. “I was just wondering where you were and if you were okay, is all. I know you’ve been seeing things lately- you’re really, really paranoid, and very tired.”
“I’m not tired.” Vechs protested.
“You’ve been working almost nonstop on these projects and using huge amounts of energy to create things, plus you haven’t slept in almost a week and haven’t eaten in almost that long. You need to rest.”
“No, I don’t.” Vechs glimpsed movement and looked quickly to the left.
“There’s nothing there.” Aureylian assured him. “You’re jumpy because the Hostiles will be returning soon. You’re seeing them everywhere.”
“N-no I’m not!” Vechs tried to ignore the flash of movement he thought he saw, tried to ignore the laugh that echoed in his mind, the same laugh that had haunted his nightmares for the last few months…
“Vechs.”
“…Maybe I am, but just a little.”
“Vechs, you broke a bowl because you thought it was Saltar’vesque’s face. He’s not even alive anymore.”
“It bore a striking resemblance, okay?!”
“Vechs, it was orange.”
“See? Similar.”
“You’re okay, Vechs.” Aureylian hugged him. “They can’t hurt you. You’re okay.”
“They can hurt the others, though.” Vechs whispered. “They can hurt the descendants, the Skullblades, and everyone else down there…”
“I know.” Aureylian hugged him tighter. “And there’s nothing we can do. It’s up to Nia and the others…”
Vechs whimpered quietly. “What if they can’t do it?”
“They can. I know they can. Nia has Kaen no Mai, and they all seem as good as we are. They’ll be okay.”
“I hope they can do it, or we’re all dead.” Vechs mumbled. “All of us…”
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On another note though, the valkvankorldvafha thing is hatching soon, meaning the plot is hatching soon! Yay plot!
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THE DEATHENING APPROACHES. TANADIN, LORD OF THE DEATH OF FICTIONAL CHARACTERS SHALL DESTROY ALL. PREPARE YOURSELVES, MORTALS.
I even composed a haiku for the occasion.
Tanadin now says
Die everything die die die
I will kill you all
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Good times... Yep, good times...
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(Anonymous) 2015-07-24 11:02 pm (UTC)(link)-awkward anon of awkward.
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*is shipping adriel*
*is amused by the shenanigans in this chapter*
/#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/
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(Anonymous) 2015-07-25 06:32 am (UTC)(link)I just had a thought. No one on the ground knows what they're going to be facing. Only the Mindcrackers know, and they can't do anything. No wonder they're freaking out. Poor Vechs. He's haunted.
-the lurkiest lurker
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And I'd love to update more often but I simply can't handle it. I did in Monstrous and it was too much.
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(Anonymous) 2015-07-26 07:43 am (UTC)(link)It's really scary to know about the Hostiles when the mortals don't. I can't imagine what it must be like for the Mindcrackers. I feel you, Vechs, I feel you. (The scene with Vechs and the orange bowl is as funny as it is saddening. Poor guy.)
-TLL
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I'm still excited :p
And more dergon?! *gasp*
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(Anonymous) 2015-07-26 06:48 pm (UTC)(link)G.C. (@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)
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