Fated (Chapter Sixteen)
Monday, August 3rd, 2015 04:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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mindcrackloveAlso, happy birthday MC! I would have introduced your descendant this chapter, but I have other plans for him. (Sorry Scott!)
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 Sixteen
Kingdom of Ilian, Minecraftia. September 21, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
Nessy woke up the next morning and immediately tried to sit up, panicked and worried, but yelped and had to lie back down as her wounds screamed at her. She gasped for breath to avoid passing back out at the agony that lanced through her system.
Nia glanced over at her as she evaluated how hurt she was. “You’re awake!” The Davion smiled. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been mauled.”
“Well, that’s accurate, at least.” Nia shrugged.
“Is Niel okay?”
“He’s fine. He wasn’t hurt.”
Nessy relaxed some at those words. “I’m glad. That lokolang could have easily killed him.”
“It almost killed you!” Nia informed her.
“I’ve fought them before.” Nessy protested, trying to sit up again. Nia pushed her back down.
“Don’t get up. And why have you fought them before?”
“There are a lot of them to the east, where I come from.” Nessy explained, shrugging a little and flinching at the pain in her shoulder. “And I need to get up. We need to get moving, don’t we?”
“We’re not in a hurry, I don’t think.” Nia shrugged. “And you’re injured. We can rest a day. I don’t think we’re going anywhere as Shred wasn’t up at dawn shouting for us to get moving.”
“Shred wasn’t up at dawn?”
“Oh, she was, she just didn’t wake everyone else up.” Nia shrugged. “You know her.”
Nessy laughed quietly, remembering one time that Shred had to literally knock the tent down in order to wake up Baltbee. “Yeah. I do.”
Nia sighed and lay back down. “That was really brave of you, protecting Niel like that. He told us all about it.”
“I couldn’t let him get hurt. He doesn’t deserve that.”
“You don’t, either.”
“More than him.”
“Hmm.” Nia looked at her oddly but didn’t remark on it. “Apparently you switched your positions, though. How did you do that?”
Nessy looked at her hands. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “It just…happened.”
“Is that a common thing?”
“My powers doing things without me intentionally doing anything? Yeah. When I get into life-threatening situations or when I’m protecting someone…” Nessy trailed off, uncertain. “At least, that’s apparently what happens. I’ve…never really protected someone before. I haven’t been around people a lot.”
Nia nodded. “I understand. It’s just been Adrian, Aunt Velana, and I for a really long time. This is all new and really, really weird. I wish Aunt Velana had come with us…” She sighed.
“What w-“ Nessy was interrupted by the unfamiliar voices of two girls, both yelling the same thing.
“Tarsen!”
~~~
Tarsen looked up at the sound of his name and grinned widely. “Vorna! Aldobiva!”
Lesbian sharpshooters.
“Who in the world are they?” Shred demanded as the two girls raced up to Tarsen, one limping slightly, almost knocking him over as they hugged him.
“Woah, woah, calm down!” Tarsen pulled away from them, looking very excited. “You guys are okay! I wasn’t sure, after that shatterbeast-“
“We thought you were dead!” scolded one of the girls, the one with the slight limp. “We had to run and when we came back you were gone with only shatterbeast tracks and blood at the bottom of the chasm!”
“How did you get here?”
“We were tracking a lokolang and found it dead, and just followed the tracks back here!”
“Tarsen.” Tarsen looked over at Shred, who had her arms crossed. “Explain?”
“Oh, right!” He turned to her. “Girls, this is Shred, a friend of mine and part of a prophecy I got stuck in. Shred, this is-“
“Vorna Star…” The girl who had spoken previously put in. Her white shirt was sleeveless and there appeared to be a tattoo of a blue star on her left shoulder.
“…and Aldobiva Unpause.” said the other girl, who was darker and had a couple of feathers in her hair. Both had bows and quivers on their backs. They bowed in unison, clearly jokingly.
“The lesbian sharpshooters I told you about.” Tarsen added.
Mira squeaked quietly and uncurled from where she had been by the remains of the fire, looking over. Her ears perked up and she stood, walking over to them. She sniffed the two girls and rubbed against their legs before going back to Shred. She squeaked and butted her head against Shred’s knee, a signal that she wanted to be picked up. The Skullblade rolled her eyes and scooped up the baby dragon.
“Dragon.” Vorna said immediately, reaching out a hand, but stopped herself. “Can I…?”
“They’re trustworthy.” Tarsen assured, seeing the uncertainty on Shred’s face.
She slowly nodded and let the two girls approach and pet the dragon gently. “Her name is Mira.” Shred told them, voice quiet.
Other members of the camp approached shortly thereafter, introducing themselves and greeting the two girls.
“Hey, wait! Do you think they’re part of the prophecy?” Tarsen asked suddenly, looking at Shred. “Mira seemed to like them, and Teramelle is pretty fond of them.”
Shred sighed. “Probably. We seem to be tripping over our group members.” She rolled her eyes. “Welcome to the prophecy party. I’ll tell you all about it- Carl, you better get in on this too, you seem pretty confused.”
“Oh boy. Fate.” Aldobiva muttered sarcastically.
-~-
Pause and Coe looked at each other, grinning widely.
“Finally, we get a viewpoint.” Pause glanced back at his orb. “I was tired of this thing not doing anything.”
“I can’t wait to see them in action. They look like they could do some serious damage with those bows.” Coe put in.
“Between them and Nia, they have ranged power covered.” Blame noted. He looked up to find Vechs, but frowned. “Where’s Vechs?”
“Room.” Paul sighed. “Norazdomu left him a second orb, one to check on the Hostiles, and he’s been obsessively checking it since. Aureylian had to hide it from him earlier but he found it again.”
Blame frowned and stood, pocketing his own. “I’m going to talk to him.”
“Good luck.” Paul muttered. “He won’t listen to anyone.”
Blame put a hand on his shoulder as he walked past. “He’ll listen to me.”
Paul looked up into the masked face of the Skullblade and nodded. “Somehow, I think he will.”
~~~
“Vechs, please. You can’t just keep cycling through the Hostiles.” Aureylian begged.
“I have to make sure that they’re not hurting anyone. I have to-“
“That won’t change anything!”
“She’s right.”
Vechs and Aureylian both looked up at Blame’s voice. He came and sat beside the mapmaker. “Watching them won’t help anything. I think Norazdomu left you this to ease your mind, not to make you stress out further.”
Vechs shook his head. “No, no, no. I have to…have to watch. Have to make sure…”
“Vechs.” Blame’s voice was sharp and the mapmaker looked up, suddenly worried about his tone.
“Wh-“
“Put that thing down.”
“But-“
“Now.”
Vechs shook his head. “No. I can’t-“
“Vechs, please.” Aureylian put a hand on his shoulder, making him look over at her. “It won’t help anything. It won’t change anything. Yes, they’re destroying things and it’s awful, but your knowledge of that won’t help the descendants.”
Vechs began to shake his head again when he felt an intense pain at the base of his skull and blacked out.
Blame quickly caught him before he slumped to the floor. Aureylian helped him pull Vechs up onto the bed and lay him down comfortably. Blame sheathed his sword.
“Sorry about that.” He mumbled to the unconscious Vechs. “But you needed to shut the hell up.”
“I can’t believe I’m thanking you for knocking him out, but, thanks.” Aureylian smiled at him a bit, looking tired.
“He needed it. Maybe he’ll finally get some rest now.”
Aureylian sighed. “He hasn’t slept in ages. All he does is pace and hallucinate seeing the Hostiles everywhere.” She picked up the orb that showed the Hostiles off of the floor. “I don’t know where to hide this where he won’t find it.”
Blame took it from her. “Leave that to me.”
-~-
Are they aware of their time limit?
No. And I won’t be informing them for awhile, yet.
Why?
If they knew now, they would rush and get themselves killed. No, best let them believe what they wish to believe at this stage.
Your logic never ceases to confuse me, Norazdomu.
Your unwillingness to understand baffles me in return. My advice to you is to not worry about it and let me do my job.
I take interest in them as well.
I don’t deny that. But you have no knowledge of the timestream like I do.
That doesn’t change the fact that they’re on a time limit. Can’t you hurry them up? Just a little?
They will encounter the others soon enough. Twelve of them are currently united- nearing half of them. Soon, all thirty will be relevant, but perhaps not together at once.
What do you mean?
I won’t explain entirely, but all you need to know is that not all of them will get through this alive. Some will never make it out, and you shall greet them before the corruption is purged.
~~~
“I hate prophecies. Fate is bullshit.” Aldobiva muttered once Shred had finished explaining and had told them the prophecy.
“Except for us being fated to be together.” Vorna put in, shoving her a little with her shoulder. “Don’t forget that.”
Aldobiva rolled her eyes. “Right. Oh, and by the way, if anyone was thinking of making a move on either of us…” Her voice rose to address the whole camp.
“Aldobiva, don’t you-“ Vorna was interrupted by Aldobiva pulling her close and kissing her fiercely, as if trying to prove a point.
“-embarrass me in front of our new friends.” Vorna finished weakly when she pulled away.
“Oops.” Aldobiva grinned, showing that she had done that intentionally and wasn’t the least bit sorry. Vorna laughed quietly and leaned against her.
Shred rolled her eyes. “I imagine you two will be sharing a tent- if so, try to keep it down, we have children in camp.”
A rare joke from the Skullblade.
Both immediately started to protest but Shred ignored them, instead going to sit by Samuel, who was roasting up some animal that he had killed earlier.
“Almost done?”
“Soon.” He assured. “Is Mira hungry?”
Shred glanced at the little dragon, who was staring intently at the fire. “You tell me.”
Samuel laughed quietly. “I would assume so. She looks pretty intense.”
“I wonder when she’ll begin to speak.” Shred mused. “All dragons can talk, and I’d imagine that a valk’vanor is no different.”
Samuel shrugged, then suddenly looked up. “Where’s Tranpar?”
“Pestering Carl. He seems pretty responsible. Tranpar will be fine.”
Samuel relaxed, sighing quietly. “I worry about that kid.”
“I know. I think we all do.”
~~~
“Why is your hair so teal?” Tranpar asked, looking up at the hair in question.
Carl sighed. “If I had an emerald for every time someone asked me that, I’d be able to buy every country in the world.”
Tranpar shook his head. “You’d need everyone in the world, including dragons, you ask you like that five times in order to get that many. But I’m gonna guess you exaggerated and won’t go on about it.”
Carl looked at him oddly. “Are you always like this?”
“Yep!” Tranpar grinned.
Carl sighed. “Well, my hair is teal because I dyed it. It’s not naturally this color.”
“I like it. I think it’s cool.” Tranpar grinned at him. “Can I ask you about Vynx?”
Carl rolled his eyes and sat down, leaning against the panther. “Sure. I’m not doing anything important.”
“Sweet. How did you convince her to be friends and to not eat you?” Tranpar sat beside him.
Carl grinned and closed his eyes, thinking back. “That’s a long story involving a lot of meat, some tracking, breaking my leg, and my ex-boyfriend.”
“Ohhhh! Was your ex-boyfriend a Sunspine?”
“Yes. He was.” Carl sighed, opening his eyes again. “That’s why it didn’t last long. He was a Skullblade, and I…wasn’t.” He crossed his arms, deep in thought.
Relationships with outsiders were looked down upon.
“Oh.” Tranpar frowned a little at him. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
“Thanks. I’d rather not.” Carl patted Vynx’s side. “I have Vynx now, and that’s all that really matters.”
Tranpar nodded. “How big are her teeth, do you think?”
“Huh. I never thought to check.”
“Let’s do it!” Tranpar jumped up. “I want to know if they’re big enough to drive through a statistically average human’s neck! It’ll be fun!”
Carl shook his head as he stood. “You’re a weird little kid.”
“Heck yeah!”
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Date: Monday, August 3rd, 2015 10:02 pm (UTC)And yay nessy for not being too hurt
And things and stuffs and things XD
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Date: Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 01:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, August 3rd, 2015 10:07 pm (UTC)I like Tranpar :D
Also #Shrenia and #Adriel
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Date: Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 01:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, August 3rd, 2015 10:23 pm (UTC)also yay Tarsen! More Tarsen! :P
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Date: Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 01:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, August 5th, 2015 03:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 01:33 am (UTC)G.C. (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)
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Date: Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 01:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 01:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 01:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 02:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 02:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 06:18 am (UTC)I feel so sorry for Vechs. He's panicked and can't do anything about the Hostiles. His encounter may have happened 200 years ago, but it left him with serious mental scars.
(::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 03:46 pm (UTC)Poor Vechs. ;-; I do feel bad about him.
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Date: Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 06:45 am (UTC)Excellent chapter ^^ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/
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Date: Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 03:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Tuesday, August 4th, 2015 04:52 pm (UTC)Tranpar is my favorite charachter, prpbably because he reminds me of my br... Hehehe.
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Date: Wednesday, August 5th, 2015 05:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Wednesday, August 5th, 2015 11:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, August 10th, 2015 04:49 am (UTC)