Fated (Chapter Fifteen)
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mindcrackloveChapter list: http://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/382.html
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Character status spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet
Chapter Fifteen
Kingdom of Ilian, Minecraftia. September 20, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
As the creature snapped at them with its jaws, Nessy yanked Niel back with her as she retreated several feet. “Get going!” She screamed. “Go! This thing will not hesitate to kill you!” She yanked her iron sword out of its sheath and struck at its head.
Niel listened to her and started to run, but the creature wasn’t about to let him go so easily. It ran after him, pouncing and only narrowly missing him. It roared, purple fur bristling.
Nessy had already identified the creature as a lokolang and thus knew how to kill it- a blow to the stomach, neck, or eyes would likely put it down, but the difficulty was getting a good hit in. She charged it, trying to get around to its neck, but it whipped around and struck the sword out of her hands with one paw. It went flying into the bushes somewhere, and as Nessy stumbled back to avoid its claws, she knew she wouldn’t have time to find it.
She noticed Niel quickly scaling a tree and drawing his own sword, clearly not completely sure how to hold it. Her eyes widened. “No, Niel, don’t-“
The lokolang struck again, faster than she anticipated, and its claws slashed her left arm. She howled in pain and automatically returned the strike with her uninjured hand, feeling some of her powers activate.
The lokolang yelped in pain as her powers tore a gash in its face. It shook its head to clear its eyes and prepared to pounce.
Niel dropped from the tree onto its back, driving his sword into it. The lokolang threw him off with a quick motion, throwing him to the ground. It bared its teeth and struck-
“No!” Nessy screamed, instincts fueling her spatial manipulation. Had she been paying more attention, she would have been blown away by the amount of power in what she did.
One moment, Niel was on the ground and she was standing. The next, their positions were swapped.
Nessy cried out as the lokolang’s fangs dug into her left shoulder, kicking at it but feeling her energy drop quickly from both the creature’s life-draining effects and use of her powers.
Lokolang life drain.
“Go…” She choked out, motioning at Niel. She couldn’t even summon the energy to save herself. “Run…”
Niel shook his head and stepped forward, but was stopped by the roar of a second creature.
Vynx pounced on the lokolang, digging her claws into its back and seizing its neck with her jaws. The lokolang roared, letting go of Nessy, and tried to shake Vynx off. An arrow slammed into its head, inches from its eye. The lokolang reared up onto its back legs to try and shake off Vynx, but only managed to topple onto its back. The cat growled as she hit the ground but tightened her grasp on the lokolang’s neck.
A second arrow slammed into the lokolang’s windpipe, barely missing Vynx. The lokolang gave a final defeated scream before it fell limp.
Vynx growled and released the corpse, struggling to get out from under it. A fully grown lokolang was slightly larger than she was.
Nessy was left on the ground, bleeding and breathing heavily, fighting for consciousness.
Niel scrambled over to her and dropped to his knees. “Nessy! Nessy, are you okay? What was that?! How did you-”
“Spatial…manipulation.” Nessy gasped, noting how the world was getting darker and darker.. “Swapped…positions. Never…did it…bef..ore…”
And then, nothing.
~~~
“Nessy? Nessy?!” Niel shook her gently, panicking at how much blood there was and how she had stopped responding.
Nia was at his side a moment later, feeling for a pulse. “She’s alive.” She decided. “Just injured and very, very exhausted.”
“H-how did you find…”
“We heard the screams of the lokolang. Carl and I came running.”
“What about-“
“We were closer than the others were. I think they’re right behind us.”
Niel glanced over at Vynx, who was being checked over for injuries by the teal-haired boy from earlier, then back at Nia. “Do you think that Nessy will be okay?”
“Yeah, if we get her back to camp. Come on.” Nia picked Nessy up with some difficulty and motioned for Carl to bring Vynx over. She placed the purple-eyed girl on the cat’s back. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t fall off. Carl, you lead the way.” Carl nodded and motioned for Vynx to follow.
Shred, Samuel, and Tarsen came running up seconds later, weapons drawn.
“It’s dead.” Nia informed them. “We need to get Nessy medical attention.”
Samuel nodded and motioned for Carl to keep leading the way.
“Sorry it took so long to get here.” Shred muttered. “These two don’t run as quickly as I do and I couldn’t run on ahead because I only caught up to them a few seconds ago.”
Niel frowned. “Why were you behind?”
Shred shot him a look. “I was occupied.”
“She was being a Davion and peeing at an inconvenient time.” Tarsen explained.
Nia immediately began to protest, but Tarsen continued. “That’s also why Adrian isn’t here yet. He might not have even known there was a problem.”
Woops.
As they reached camp, Adrian raced up to them. “Where the hell did everyone go?!”
“We heard screaming.” Shred told him. “We’ll explain once we get Nessy patched up.”
As they pulled the bleeding girl off of the battle cat, Samuel raced into his tent to get medical supplies. He quickly set about cleaning the wounds and bandaging them, nodding for Niel to tell the group what had happened.
Niel’s voice shook as he spoke, mimicking the shudders that ran through his body. When he got to the part where Nessy was injured, his voice broke, and he sobbed, “It’s all my fault! She wouldn’t be hurt if I had just run like she said!”
“You tried to help her.” Adrian reassured him, hugging him tightly. “You’re okay. She’ll be okay. Everyone’s okay.”
Niel whimpered softly and hugged Adrian in return, burying his face in the Davion’s chest.
He didn’t move from there for a long, long time.
-~-
Nebris paced in his room, arms crossed, orb placed on the bed. He was worried about his descendant. She was one of the more complicated descendants they had encountered so far, and he wasn’t really sure what to make of her. Considering all he knew about her…
“She’ll be okay.” Etho assured him, standing up to put a hand on his shoulder.
“I know.” Nebris sighed. “I just worry.”
Etho nodded and hugged him. “I worry about Niel too.”
They glanced back at their respective orbs, side-by-side on the bed, showing images of their descendants- one in the arms of a friend, and the other passed out in a tent with a guardian watching over her.
~~~
“We fought some lokolangs.” Aureylian said finally, looking up at Vechs. “Remember? Those creatures in the Vicious Wilds.”
“I remember.” Vechs shuddered, remembering how their life-draining bite felt. “I remember quite well.”
“Wait.” Blame frowned. “The Vicious Wilds? Why was there a lokolang in Illian, then?”
“They live all over.” Vechs informed him. “My mother told me about them. They’re mostly attracted to dragons, but they’ll feed off of the life energy of any creature they can find. I’ll bet Mira was like a beacon for that thing and it just happened to encounter Nessy and Niel first.”
“I hope they don’t meet any more of those things.” Chad shuddered. “I don’t want a lokolang to get to poor little Mira.”
“It won’t.” Blame assured. “Shred would die for that dragon. Skullblades are fiercely loyal and we’re damned determined too.”
“And stubborn.” Vechs added. Blame rolled his eyes.
“That too.”
“I like how tough Vynx is.” Chad put in. “That’s one ass-kicking cat. I’d never heard of a Sunspire panther before, though.”
“There’s some scary stuff in that jungle.” Blame muttered. “The panthers are not often seen- they avoid humans but can be tamed if you are kind, persistent, and bring lots and lots of food.”
“Are they always that big?”
“They can get bigger. Never large enough to carry two people, though.” Blame shrugged. “I’m not an expert. A Sunspine could tell you more. From what I know, though, I’d say that Vynx is an adult. I wonder how Carl managed to tame her…” He trailed off, thinking.
“Maybe it’s the teal hair.”
“Maybe your family has an obsession with odd colors. Didn’t your son dye his hair varying shades of orange and yellow?” Vechs asked, raising an eyebrow.
“It looked awesome!” Chad protested. “I was tempted to do that, myself!”
“But then we couldn’t make jokes about your red hair.” Aureylian made a vague motion at his head. “Plus Sevadus would be sad.”
“He’d be okay with any color I wanted to dye my hair.” Chad sniffed. “He doesn’t just love me for the red hair.”
“Are you sure about that?” Vechs raised an eyebrow.
“Yes.” Chad crossed his arms. “Do you just love Aureylian for her hair?”
Vechs shrugged. Aureylian swatted his arm, earning a laugh. “Of course not.” He hugged her.
“Exactly.”
Blame rolled his eyes at their nonsense, then pointed at Aureylian’s orb. “You may want to pay attention to that.”
She immediately looked down, taking in the scene…
-~-
Niel eventually sighed and pulled away from Adrian. “Thanks…” he whispered.
“Anytime.” Adrian smiled at him. “She’s okay. You’re okay.”
Niel nodded. “I think I want to go to sleep now. Maybe things will be better in the morning…”
“Good idea.” Adrian got to his feet and helped Niel up. He led the way to their tent and held the flap open for Niel before following him in.
He noted that Niel seemed to struggle to get comfortable, tugging at his shirt and wiggling for awhile before sighing in defeat and lying still. He thought back to what he had seen in Ashwatch- the bandages wrapped around Niel’s chest.
Bandages that seemed out of place.
He had no idea why Niel would have those, but he had a suspicion that they were still there and that they were quite tight. He frowned slightly. Maybe that was why Niel had difficulty breathing and complained of chest pains often. But if he was injured, why wouldn’t he tell someone and get help for it? Samuel was clearly at least somewhat qualified to deal with wounds, and Niel knew he could trust him…
Adrian sighed. He had no idea what was going on, but he knew he was worried about Niel. He reached out a hand to take Niel’s. The ninja smiled slightly and Adrian mimicked the expression, closing his eyes.
He didn’t know what was going on, but he knew he cared a lot about his new friend, and would be there for him no matter what.
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Date: Saturday, August 1st, 2015 07:45 pm (UTC)but nessy, my baby ;-;
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Date: Saturday, August 1st, 2015 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, August 1st, 2015 07:46 pm (UTC)NIEL
SHRED UR UNHELFUL PEEER
SHIPPY
ADRIEL <3
HAIRRRR
WAFFLES /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ ?#/ ?# /#/
no subject
Date: Saturday, August 1st, 2015 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, August 1st, 2015 07:56 pm (UTC)G.C. (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)
no subject
Date: Saturday, August 1st, 2015 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, August 1st, 2015 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, August 1st, 2015 11:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, August 2nd, 2015 12:04 am (UTC)Because then you'd be in my house and I would be quite frightened.
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Date: Saturday, August 1st, 2015 08:12 pm (UTC)Well done. You have impressed me
Evil writing+well written= impressed Emma
Have cookies
(Because evil is hard work that deserves cookies)
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Date: Saturday, August 1st, 2015 08:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, August 1st, 2015 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, August 2nd, 2015 04:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, August 1st, 2015 11:03 pm (UTC)Best line. :D
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Date: Sunday, August 2nd, 2015 04:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, August 2nd, 2015 04:41 am (UTC)Nadrian? Nedrian? Adreil?
And don't deny it Chad, he only loves you for your hair :P
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Date: Sunday, August 2nd, 2015 04:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, August 2nd, 2015 06:44 am (UTC)I'm worried, though. After seeing how they deal with ONE monster (and it's not a Hostile, I was wrong,) I'm seriously afraid for their health and wellbeing later on.
Also, weird hair color family is awesome! Hahaha. Orange and yellow indeed. *shakes head and smiles*
Good things get cookies! (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Sunday, August 2nd, 2015 03:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, August 2nd, 2015 04:30 pm (UTC)And I know that Kyilld, Shara, Spalor, Arcvain, and Altair are all still alive...that's a good half that don't have the immunity.
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Date: Sunday, August 2nd, 2015 06:53 pm (UTC)-TLL
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Date: Sunday, August 2nd, 2015 04:27 pm (UTC)Also, they're fucked.
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Date: Sunday, August 2nd, 2015 06:51 pm (UTC)And great, I was right. They're screwed. (Please don't let this be true!)
-TLL