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Aphelion
Level 75
Fright Master
Joined: 5/14/2016
Threads: 116
Posts: 9,856
Posted: 3/19/2018 at 6:48 AM
Post #1
Time will be turned around. The sun will rise from the west. We fly on wings of Night- There is no beginning. There is no end. There is no temporary. There is no forever. So what are we?
Everything is only just beginning.
Table of Contents Prologue..........4
Chapter I..........5
Chapter II..........8
Ping List
Silverlite, Ravengard, Clemenceau, Dragongem23
Please don't post on this thread!
If you are interested and want to be added to the ping list, shoot a PM my way and I'll do that for you :) Also, PM me for any comments or suggestions, and if enough people request it, I might make a thread for comments about this story. Who knows?
~I need an editor/proofreader! I will pay money if needed~
I need characters for the story! If you want your character to be in the story, PM me a picture and a description of their personality and backstory. There's only one requirement, and that is that your character has to be a Sylesti. Otherwise, you have free reign! Feel free to make your character a villan or an awesome good person.
Edited By Dragonrider1542 on 10/12/2018 at 8:21 AM.
Aphelion
Level 75
Fright Master
Joined: 5/14/2016
Threads: 116
Posts: 9,856
Posted: 3/19/2018 at 7:48 AM
Post #2
Characters & Whatnot
The four deities + The Fallen Qezalt - The North, The Keeper of Time/The Past, The Cold, The Forgotten
Svitan - The East, The Light of Day, The Shining, The Guide
Xoloat - The South, The Weaver of the Future/The Pathfinder, The Ever-lasting, The Remembered
Kno'an - The West, The Whisperer in the Night, The Dark, The Deceiver/The Enchanter
The Fallen, The Forsaken, The Nameless
Normal Characters Nychta
Lady Nocturna
Princess Zephyr
Kiergard
Mel-tan'uk
Blood
Santare
Kara
Nox
Nuit
Edited By Dragonrider1542 on 6/26/2018 at 2:31 AM.
Aphelion
Level 75
Fright Master
Joined: 5/14/2016
Threads: 116
Posts: 9,856
Posted: 3/19/2018 at 8:01 AM
Post #3
Extra spot
Aphelion
Level 75
Fright Master
Joined: 5/14/2016
Threads: 116
Posts: 9,856
Posted: 3/19/2018 at 8:13 AM
Post #4
Prologue
The hatchling was violently thrown into the air and he hung there, suspended for what seemed like an eternity, as his mind ran helpless circles, contemplating what would happen next. The question was answered as he roughly slammed into the ground, tumbling down a steep rocky slope, yelping as sharp rocks poked into his back, causing the first pain he had ever felt so far in his lifespan. He continued down in his unstoppable tumble, vaguely aware of other furry things tumbling down the slope with him. He didn't think much of it; all of his thoughts were mainly focused on how he could survive this fall that could very possibly end his life right there and right now. Fortunately, it thumped to a stop at the bottom of the slope, pebbles that had been dislodged by his body now ramming into his side, but then stopped as no more fell. He was so exhausted; what had he done wrong to deserve this? He whimpered, staggering to his feet and narrowly avoiding another falling hatchling.
It looked up, up towards the ledge it had been thrown off of. The sun was just rising behind it, casting a ironic halo around the silhouetted lupora up top. He squinted, trying to see properly against the harsh shine, but to no avail. If he remembered correctly, the lupora, the very one that was throwing him and the others off, was his mother. Or, what used to be his mother.
"You... you vile creatures!" The rough female snarl from above echoed down the slope at the hatchlings, bouncing around the rocks in the small depression they were currently being thrown into. The hatchling whimpered, ears pinned back. He felt fear; for the first time in his life, the very first emotion he'd ever felt. Above him, the female continued to howl her curses at them. She was the one; taking out the trash. The trash of the tribe; the unwanted hatchlings, the ugly hatchlings, the cursed. She was the one, taking away all of their futures, throwing them away as carelessly as she had thrown them down the steep slopes. Her voice abruptly stopped, allowing him a moment of blissful silence as he watched another silhouette join her on the high ledge.
"We have to go. That's enough." The new voice said firmly, and somehow gently. The hatchling immediately knew he liked this voice better than the female lupora's, but that didn't stop him from feeling hatred against the two. Before he could say anything, the two silhouettes vanished from the ledge, swallowed by the glare of the sun.
The hatchling blinked uncomfortably, turning away from the sun. To stare into the sun for long periods of time; it probably wasn't good for his eyes, and it was going to leave blotches. However, it was too late. The sun had burned into his mind, the black patches shaped like soulless animals outlined against the glow, forever carved into his mind.
He now felt hatred. The very second emotion he ever felt in his life. Hatred towards the world, hatred towards what used to be his mother, hatred towards the tribe. He kicked a rock across the rocky but now otherwise flat ground, glaring into the Earth as his muscles slowly regained their power and he took a couple of steps, raising his eyes up to scan his surroundings.
They were in a large, rocky depression surrounded by steep slopes. Steep, rocky, slippery slopes. The hatchling understood at once; they were thrown here to die. Starve to death, fight to death, anything. This was a place of death. But eerily, the rocky depression was devoid of bones. Was that a good sign? A small chill went down his spine, but he shook it off. In the center of the depression, there was a patch of withered black trees, so thick together and thorny that the hatchling could see no more than a couple of meters inside of it, and the rest was left in darkness.
He looked away from the environment and focused on the other hatchlings. Some were dizzily standing up, some still lay limp at the bottom of the slopes, but all looked confused. Faces of confusion, none of them had realised what had happened, unlike the hatchling, who knew. As he watched them, a thought blossomed into his mind. He had thought about revenge as he was being yelled at by the lupora, and yet he had never noticed how close he was to getting that revenge, never noticed; until now. He could use the other hatchlings. Grow up with them, teach them his ideas. They were all so young, and young minds were easily manipulated.
The hatchling suddenly shuddered, realising his thoughts. What was he thinking? How could he have thoughts like this? He was a hatchling, like the others. Young, like the others, with a small newborn mind he shouldn't have been able to come up with all of this! He suddenly felt a presence beside him. A rough aura, radiating darkness and fear. Turning, the hatchling tried to locate this intruder, but he couldn't make out anything nearby on the rocky slopes except for the other hatchlings.
Never mind any of that, he thought, as he began padding his way to the nearest hatchling. Even if he wasn't able to come up with the plan, it was still a good plan and it could be carried out. He would extract his revenge in such a manner the tribe would regret existing, let alone throwing out the hatchlings for dead. With thoughts swirling in his mind, he came to a stop next to the other hatchling, another lupora, brown fur marked with swirls of grey, who was standing and looking at him with her head tilted, probably still confused.
Seeing him come over, she blinked. "What happened? Whats going on? Why are we here? Where's mother and father?" Her voice shook a bit, but she remained strong on the outside. The hatchling could sense she had a strong spirit, a great will, something that would help him a lot.
"They left us." He snarled, putting his plan to work. "They threw us out. The tribe doesn't need us! They don't love us! We are left here to die." He inched closer, his lip curling upwards as he explained roughly. The other hatchling pinned her ears back, but didn't step back in fear. The first hatchling nodded mentally to himself, satisfied. Definitely, he could use her as a companion in his quest for revenge.
"Why? We did nothing wrong!" She protested, her tail lashing in angry circles behind her.
"Exactly. We did nothing wrong." He said, managing a grin full of malice. "And so, we will make them regret that."
"But maybe it was a mistake!" She still argued, seeming like she didn't want to give up on the fact that they still had hope.
In a sudden movement, the first hatchling surged forwards, snarling as he pounced on her, knocking her to the ground again. He pinned her down with both paws, leaning down with all his weight as he glared into her amber eyes. "Listen here." He snarled slowly in a low tone. "They don't want us. I heard the female call us vile creatures. Surely, you cannot deny that. Don't hide from the truth. Don't deny the truth." He ended in a snap and she flinched back a bit, but something in her eyes died, a flame flickering out.
"I suppose you're right." She said slowly, very slowly, but he could see he had succeeded, just as he expected. although he was surprised at how fast she had given in. "What do we do, then? What do you mean by making the tribe regret throwing us? We're hatchlings. We can't do anything."
"Yes, we can." He growled, straightening and stepping off of her, letting her sit up again. "We will grow up. We will fight. They will be gone when were done." As he said this, he noticed that the commotion had drawn over a circle of other hatchlings, all watching with wide eyes, although some of them were nodding as if it made somewhat sense. "You're all in, then?" The first hatchling demanded, glaring at them all. Some shrunk back, but otherwise didn't protest. "We have a powerful protector with us!" He yelled, speaking of the rough aura he'd felt earlier. "We all will understand when the time comes. Now, just follow me. Follow what I say, and well be out of here rather than starving to death as the tribe wants us to."
"You... you're going to lead us out of here?" Another hatchling asked, stepping forwards slightly out of the group of onlookers. It was a zolnixi, cream fur littered by the rocks and dust it had picked up when it had tumbled down the slope.
"Yes. Im going to lead us all out of here. The strong ones will remain until the fight of the end." The first hatchling roared, stalking away from the group and towards the thorny, dead, dark forest in the middle of the depression. The others watched him, then slowly fell in line behind him. The female lupora hatchling from before bounded to his side, loyally staying there, glaring and growling at the forest as if it was some threat. "What are you doing?" He asked her, a bit confused by her actions.
"You are our leader now." She snapped without turning her gaze away from the forest. "And I'm going to protect you."
He paused in his steps for a moment, looked at her, then continued. "What is your name? Or, do you not have one yet?"
She laughed, a laugh mixed with a fierce growl. "Hah. No. I am Ragnir."
"Ragnir, hmm? Nice name." The first hatchling replied, somewhat flatly. "Go relay this back to the others. I am Narock, and I will get us all out of here."
Ragnir seemed a bit unhappy with the order, but did as she was told. Soon, the small ragged brigade of hatchlings reached the treeline of the dead forest. Everyone peered in, unsure what to expect, and a bit fearful. Narock strode in, head held high as his red eyes swept across every branch, every twig in the forest, watching for danger. Now that he was their leader, he still had to keep them safe, even if he was going to use them to get revenge in the future.
"Yeep!" A hatchling yelped and Narock whipped around, quickly padding over. It appeared that the hatchling had bumped into a small hill of black scales, the scales icy to the touch.
"Get back. Don't touch that." Narock commanded, and the hatchling scuttled away behind him.
"What's this?" Ragnir appeared by his side.
As Narock opened his mouth to reply, the scaly rock shifted, and a jet of mist shot from the ground, and Narock stepped back a bit, snarling at the rock. However, the rock had decided it wanted to stop being a rock. It shifted again, and by the ground, a heavy lid shot open, revealing a pale, icy, reptilian eye, the slit staring right at Narock.
The hatchling inside Narock wanted to run, but the more primal guiding instinct told him to stay. After all, he had nothing to fear; for some reason, he knew that the rough aura force from before would protect him. The rock, which apparently was some sort of black lizard, reared up into its full height. In the shadows of the dead forest, the hatchlings could barely make it out, but they all knew in their hearts what it was. It was a creature of myths, never had anyone dared to think that they were real: A ny'vene. The dragon roared, revealing rows of deathy white sharp teeth at the hatchlings, and Narocks head echoed with their terrified screams as his hackles rose while he faced the ny'vene with Ragnir at his side.
A vicious smile appeared on Narocks face as he returned the icy glare of the ny'vene. He may still be a hatchling, and he may be a dwarf compared to the great dragon, but he knew that he would win.
He would win, and the dragon would be his to control, another step to revenge.
~o-*-o~
Drip. Drop. Splash.
The calming sound of water echoed lightly through the cavern, drops from the stalactites of crystal diving down into the glowing lake in the middle, surrounded by lush, dark green grass. This underground haven was the perfect place for life, and everything thrived, yet it was unusual, because it was a place the sun never reached. Everything was also completely silent- nothing, save for the dripping of water.
Play? Shall we play a game? Yes, then, game I shall play
The soft voice floated through the cavern.
A bond, a bond. A bond between four, yes? Beyond, beyond. Yes, the bond will be.
There was a pregnant pause, even the water seemed to stop dripping to hear what the female voice would say next.
Come, come. Bestowed with great power, yes. But for a great blessing comes a price, and with the price comes a curse. It will be done, it will be done.
The water resumed dripping, but at a much slower pace. Each drip into the glowing water sent ripples in the light that lit up the cavern. Each drip, like a heartbeat.
Memories be gone, memories be gone. Now, awaken, shall you? Time will tell. Look for those who paid the price, and those who bond you will have found.
Silence.
Edited By Dragonrider1542 on 4/10/2018 at 8:45 AM.
Aphelion
Level 75
Fright Master
Joined: 5/14/2016
Threads: 116
Posts: 9,856
Posted: 3/20/2018 at 6:30 AM
Post #5
Chapter I
The serene castle sat atop the dark hills, its eastern side glowing as the rising sun cast its morning light onto the pale stone spires of the place. Tranquility- everywhere, the quietness of dawn, the moment when everyone holds their breaths in hopes for the day. Quiet chirps of birds could be heard here and there, and a small rustle every now and then from a small animal slipping in and out of bushes. Everything seemed so perfect; so perfect it could have been one of those fantasy oil paintings and nobody would have noticed the difference.
"Nyyyyyyyychtaaaaaa!" The high pitched, shrill voice cut through the dawn silence like a knife through butter. It echoed down the hill the castle was situated upon, surprising birds as they took flight.
"Nyyyychtaaaaaa!" The voice repeated itself, its owner, a fancy lady puffadore, storming down the hallway of the castle towards an elegantly arched door at the end. "Dawn's here! Get up!" Her loud voice reverberated down the hall as she threw open the arched door, thundering into the room. "Get up get up get up!" The lady's brown fur glowed orange in the light of the dawn sun and her thickly draped clothing swished against her legs as she came to a stop in front of a plush bed, the figure inside of the bed still in the grasps of dreams.
The unfortunate figure was jerked from its sleep when the lady puffadore seized the blanket and hauled it off the bed, followed by a shove to the mattress, the sleeper tumbling painfully to the ground on the side that faced the window. The lady puffadore stood there, looking cross, as the other puffadore untangled herself from the remaining sheets and blinked drearily, raising a paw to shield her eyes from the light of the rising sun.
"Nychta, you know you have to get up early! Today's an important day!" The lady yelled into her ear, causing her to flinch back and pull her ears down, flicking an antennae at the lady.
"But... Nocturna..." Nychta groaned, only to be cut off by the lady.
"That's Lady Nocturna to you, girl!" Nocturna hollered into her face again.
"Okay, okay... please stop yelling in my face?" Nychta complained, raising a paw to Nocturna's face and unsuccessfully attempting to shove her away. "Just... I'm awake, kay?" She shifted, her mechanical paw reflecting the glare of the sun into Nocturna's face, causing the lady to screech and finally back off a bit.
"Hurry. Up. There's no time to waste." Nocturna continued to berate Nychta, not wanting to leave until the girl finally got ready. "You know your mom and dad are waiting, right? Look at you! Daughter of the Grand Duke and Duchess, here. What a lazy thing."
"I just want to sleep." Nychta muttered, hoping she wasn't heard by the lady, but seeing the glare she was given, she assumed that she was quite unfortunate this morning. Without dilly-dallying any more, she hurriedly clicked her mechanical paw into a more mobile state for everyday life and she stretched, her mechanical wings popping out behind her with sproing sounds.
"So, how's that twisted paw going? Does it show any sign of healing?" Nocturna seemed to have calmed down considerably, for the moment being, and was asking Nychta about the paw under the mechanical braces, the paw that Nychta liked to call her 'mechanical paw'.
"I'm not sure, really. The doctors say it's going to stay that way, so I probably will have to wear this mechanical paw my whole life. Not that I mind, of course." Nychta said absent-mindedly as she shook herself out, trying to make herself presentable.
"Then what about that weird-shaped scar?" Nocturna approached Nychta and began helping the girl smooth her fur out. Nychta didn't need to ask to know the Lady was talking about the scar on the bottom of her twisted paw, shaped like a triangle with a gash through it. She didn't know where it came from, and the unusual shape bothered her a bit.
"Well, I'm not a medical expert, I don't know anything. Again, I'm just a normal girl." Nychta pawed at her head, trying to smooth down the tuft of fur above her brow and somewhat succeeding at the task. Nocturna snorted, but otherwise didn't say anything.
"Well, hup hup. Off to the throne room you go." Lady Nocturna tugged the sheets that had been restricting Nychta's movement free of her feet, and yanked the girl out from the makeshift nest she had dug in the blankets on the floor during the time they had been getting read. "Go go go!" She hit Nychta on the head gently with one of her antennae and hustled her out of the room into the hallway. "Well, don't keep your parents waiting. I'll clean up your room."
"Thanks, Nocturna!" Nychta called back at her caretaker before quickly padding down the corridor and towards the circular stairwell at the end of it. As she did, she wracked her brain for what was going on. What did her parents say about today, again? They'd probably kill her for forgetting. She looked out the slitted windows of the stairwell as she hurried down, quickly muttering a small prayer to Qezalt, The Keeper of the Past, in hopes that maybe the deity would be kind enough to help her remember.
Unluckily, her mind remained blank all the way until she stood at the door of the throne room and the puffadores were opening the door for her, and the thought suddenly sprung into her mind, taking form very urgently. It was the day the king and queen of the neighboring kingdom would come, and their daughter would come with them. Definitely, it was to arrange things for Nychta's brother and the princess of the other kingdom, for future reasons and kingdom peace reasons.
The heavy doors finally inched open, and Nychta saw the waiting faces of her mother and father who were reclining on their thrones, and her brother, who stood by her father's side. Quickly, she hurried over the plush grey carpet and took her place by her mother's side, her mind spinning circles. Hopefully, she wasn't late and the royal family from the other kingdom were here already.
She relaxed as her mother turned to her gently and smiled. "Well, Nychta. Aren't you up early for a change. It's a big day for your brother." Nychta's fear melted away a bit and she smiled back at her mom, internally thanking her mom for being so supporting.
She scanned the room, watching everyone move around and get into place before the others arrived. She saw the same decor, the drapes and tapestries the colour of dawn, and the beautiful silver arches that supported the ceiling of the throne room. She knew everyone here by sight; she knew Aria, Lady Nocturna's daughter, her playmate in many situations. She saw Khore, by the long window, the mage of the house. Nychta felt secure and safe, although she knew that one day, like the princess in the other kingdom, she would have to leave home. Secretly, she wished that she could do it on her own terms; leaving home to explore the world instead of being the wife of some noble or royal. She was jerked from her thoughts by an unfamiliar sight. In the shadows behind one of the drapes, Nychta squinted, seeing what seemed to be a griffi in dark colours.
A griffi? That was very unusual... the land her father ruled over belonged in a kingdom what was currently at war with the kingdom that consisted of griffis. She opened her mouth and was about to tell her mother, and blinked, finding that what seemed to be the griffi had disappeared and Nychta shook her head. She was probably nervous; too nervous for her own good, and now she was seeing things.
A trumpet sounded, causing Nychta to jump and jerk into a very straight position as she faced the doors, which were now opening again, probably to admit their visitors. The loud voice of the herald announced officially,
"King Avalon and Queen Sierra, with their daughter, Princess Zephyr, of the neighboring kingdom Falren!"
Edited By Dragonrider1542 on 3/26/2018 at 6:05 AM.
Aphelion
Level 75
Fright Master
Joined: 5/14/2016
Threads: 116
Posts: 9,856
Posted: 3/26/2018 at 6:00 AM
Post #6
~o-*-o~
They came like the wind, regal, yet somewhat cold. The king and queen of Falren swept in, Zephyr in between them, followed by two large luporas in glinting mechanical armour. Nychta's mother and father stood up from their thrones and descended from the dias to greet them, her brother Kulvar following closely behind them. She herself had no idea what to do, and after all, she wasn't a very social person, and the only people she really felt relaxed around was Lady Nocturna and her daughter, since she didn't speak to anyone else really. She felt awkward, sitting along on the dias next to the throne, but she didn't know whether she should go down as well to greet the monarchs from the other kingdom or whether she should stay put where she was, as she reasoned that the things discussed would have to do with Kulvar and Zephyr's future, and probably wouldn't impact her own that much. She decided on the latter, but still sat rigid straight, scared to relax.
So, she settled on observing the newcomers. Sierra and Avalon were very similar in colour and dress, white like the snow with gems that glittered like ice against a cold backdrop, nothing very special, considering that Falren was north of the kingdom that Nychta's dad ruled in, it was probably very cold and white fur could do as camouflage.
The one who caught her eye immediately after was the princess, Zephyr. Unlike her parents, Zephyr's fur was jet black, but that wasn't the most unusual thing about the princess. It was her eyes that surprised Nychta the most. Her eyes were a deep red, almost like blood, and they were bright and alert, with a touch of fierceness. Nychta could tell that Zephyr had no care in the world about the business that was going on between her parents and Nychta's parents. Zephyr was looking about the room, fiercely scrutinising everything in sight with a slightly bored look on her face. The wandering blood red eyes finally found their way to Nychta and locked onto Nychta's pale yellow ones, carefully sizing her up. Nychta shrank back a bit, feeling uncomfortable to be making eye contact with someone that she didn't know for so long, and she broke away the link. However, Nychta could still feel the blood red orbs boring into her, and she looked back, not knowing what to expect.
Zephyr noticed Nychta had looked back at her and mouthed a word. Nychta raised an eyebrow, confused. She was never good at lip reading. The princess had apparently noticed her look of confusion and rolled her eyes before repeating whatever word she'd wanted to say, but with exaggerated motions, and this time, Nychta could make out some words... something along the lines of 'be careful'.
Nychta tilted her head in confusion and mouthed back 'what?' but apparently the princess had already lost interest or something and wasn't looking at her anymore. All Nychta could do was watch the very boring exchange go on between her parents and the other parents while the sun outside rose higher, so she watched Kulvar, wondering what her brother was thinking or doing during the process. Her brother apparently had been standing behind her father the whole time, watching Zephyr, and therefore saw the exchange between the princess and Nychta. Now he looked at Nychta with a questioning gaze and Nychta gave him a shrug indicating she didn't know what happened.
Kulvar gave her another doubtful gaze before turning back to the conversation and once again, observing Zephyr. In Nychta's eyes, Zephyr surely was an unusual one. She didn't look like her parents, which according to her classes, that wasn't very possible unless some sort of unusual mutation had happened, but Nychta doubted that was the case.
She was shaken from her thoughts as a sound of thunder boomed from outside the castle, causing everyone to look outside, including Nychta. The outside was about as sunny as it was this morning when Nychta had woken up, so Nychta thought it was very unusual as she stood up and paced towards the nearest long arching window, but saw no storm at all. People in the throne room were now chattering uncertainly amongst themselves, and a couple of guards left the room to check what it was, before the entire castle shifted and jerked to the west, and a cracking sound was heard. The sound was followed closely by another thunder boom, and one guard rushed back into the room towards the king, queen, grand duke and duchess.
"They're here, and we don't know how they did it!" The guard panted, clearly shaken, a light layer of rubble dusting his fur and a couple of scrapes here and there. "The griffi are here!"
"What?!" Grand duke Tenebris roared, taking a step towards the guard, but the castle floor shifted again, and he stopped. "We have to get out of here! How did the lookouts miss them? We're on the tallest hill in the area surrounded by flat plains!" He growled, the fur around his neck beginning to stand up straight as his antennae began lashing furiously. Prima looked on, a bit worried, before hurrying towards the royal family from Falren, then looking back at Tenebris and the guard.
"We can't afford to lose time by yelling around here! We have to get out of here!" She said, snapping at the two. She turned her head to look at Nychta, who was still by the window, but kind of paralysed by fear. "Nychta! Get moving! Come on!"
The two lupora guards of the Falren royal family growled and closed in on the family's sides, protecting them from any potential threat. Looking around, Nychta found that everyone else had already pretty much everyone had evacuated with the help of the mage, Khore. How they got out that fast, Nychta could only wonder.
Not wanting to waste anymore moments and risk dying in the collapsing throne room, she rushed towards her father and mother, quickly making her way behind Kulvar.
The Falren royal family was looking around dubiously and doubtfully, especially at Nychtas mother and father, as if they suspected that they were the ones that brought the griffi to attack, and from the looks in Nychtas mothers eyes, Nychta could see that her mother thought the same about the royal family.
Then again, now was not the time for doubts. The small ragged group, with the help of the remaining guards and the two massive lupora, managed to escape the throne rooms collapse just seconds before the entire layer shifted again, and the entire room slid sideways, breaking off from the rest of the castle in a cloud of dust and grit, tipping over and falling in almost slow motion to the forest at the base of the hill that surrounded the castle below.
Everyone stopped to catch their breath for a second in the hallway, which was rapidly crumbling, as they watched in silenced horror of what was going on. Nychtas own thoughts were spinning in their own little hurricane as she wondered how possibly the griffi managed to completely shear off a room from the entire castle. There were many spires and whatnot, and it was built out of very sturdy stone, so unless the griffi managed to get their hands on some very advanced technology... it wasnt going to happen that way.
Duchess Prima took the lead again, hustling everyone down the hall, allowing the Falren family and the luporas to go in front before following, Tenebris, Kulvar, and Nychta coming after her, and then the guards.
"Head down the hall! Up the twisted staircase! There should be a small pass from the Eastern spire to the Western spire, and then another staircase that goes down! We should be relatively safer in the Western wing than here in the Eastern wing!" Nychtas mother barked, speeding up everyone's steps. Behind them, the sound of thunder continued to boom, and the cracks spread across the wall more and more, and Nychta could hear chunks of the wall and windows crash, break, and fall into the forest below the castle. A part of her worried for everyone else and Khore, whom she'd not seen ever since the group had left the throne room.
"Watch your feet!" Nychta yelped as they tumbled into the spiral staircase and everyone tripped on each other trying to get a grip on the somewhat slippery stone. Reflecting on past events, Nychta realized that this was the same staircase she'd come down this morning to get into the throne room. However, it was barely recognizable as the elegant curving staircase set with silver carvings anymore. It was more like ruins, and Nychta was amazed at how little time it took for something so beautiful to become something of relative ugliness.
The brigade continued up the stairs as one, the luporas in the front growling and snapping every second or so, upping everyone's adrenaline and sense of danger. Now, nobody knew where the enemy was, and which way was safe. The only thing everyone knew was they had to get up, and get out. As they ran past a slit window, Nychta glanced outwards. Everything outside was still the same, seemingly oblivious to the events happening at the castle. The sun was rising like it did every day, and it now hung in the sky like the glowing disk it always was, watching the commotion, turning a blind eye to it. Nychta shook her head sadly, wondering where the deities were and if they really cared at all, or even if they existed.
They burst onto the second floor of the castle, the hallway which contained Nychta's room at the other end.
"Continue! Up! Up!" Prima continued to yell at the group members, ushering them to go faster, but by now, even she was beginning to get tired, as Nychta could see.
"Where's Zephyr!?" The panicked, shrill cry shot over the rumbling and cracking sounds around the small brigade. "Zephyr is gone!"
Edited By Dragonrider1542 on 4/10/2018 at 5:43 AM.
Aphelion
Level 75
Fright Master
Joined: 5/14/2016
Threads: 116
Posts: 9,856
Posted: 3/27/2018 at 7:01 AM
Post #7
~o-*-o~
The lupora surrounding the Falren king and queen immediately swung around, baring their teeth and snarling at Nychta and her family and companions, suspicious of what they possibly could have done to the princess of Falren. They advanced a couple of steps down the stairs, blocking the way up and wasting precious time as the Falren king and queen watched from behind them.
"We can't stop now!" Tenebris growled, taking a step forward, causing the luporas hackles to rise as they snarled even louder. "We can try to look for the princess later! I trust she's smart enough to find her way to safety?"
Apparently taking that as an insult, the two luporas started advancing towards Nychtas father, causing her father and her mother to start backing up. Unable to take it anymore, Nychta burst forwards between her mother and father and snapped at the luporas, teeth bared. The lupora, surprised by this little puffadore daring to come at them, backtracked a couple of steps before gathering themselves and launching at Nychta, claws outstretched. Nychta yelped and jumped backwards, not expecting them to attack, and Tenebris and Prima came to her rescue, shielding her with their bodies.
"Stop this nonsense!" King Avalon roared over the sound of cracking and thundering of the castle around them. The luporas immediately stopped, even though they looked hesitant to leave, the obediently returned to the King's sides. "Move up!" He looked at Sierra. "Zephyr will be fine. I'm sure of it." The queen gave him a hesitant worried nod, but turned and continued up the stairs, but a bit slower than before as she was looking around for the princess.
After clambering up two more flights of the stairs, the small group emerged onto one of the roof turrets. Nychta caught her breath, gazing out at the magnificent landscape before her. She'd never been up here, on the Eastern spire, and she'd never imagined how much she could see from here, as she looked towards the east, towards the direction of the sun, then down at the forest below. She was immediately hit by a sense of fear; they were so high up, and there were very minimum safety rails on this place. After all, this place wasn't designed exactly so people could run along the top.
Another blast shook the castle, and the group looked towards the south, at the direction the shockwaves came from. The sight was truly ghastly; thick plumes of black smoke billowed up from the walls, obscuring all view of what was happening in there. From this height, the Sylestis could only see small dots moving around, and they could only hope that they were their own people and they were safe, even though many other lifeless dots littered the sides and forest treetops.
"Come on!" Prima had climbed over the railway and onto the steep rooftop, moving along the edge on the very thin strip of flat rock towards the Western spire in the distance, which Nychta could see, poking out over the roofs of the multiple structures in the castle. "Move it, we have to do some roof hopping, I hope everyone's okay with that!" The grand Duchess continued, looking at the luporas and the Falren family. "Have your guards help you across if you need help! Go go go!"
The King and Queen from the neighboring kingdom appeared to not need any more motivation as they made a dash towards the next roof, vaulting over the rail and running past Prima on the very narrow pass, nearly knocking the Duchess off. They were quickly followed by the lupora, who ran with large, elegant strides, and seemed to not be fazed by the huge drop right next to them.
Tenebris had also clambered over the rail and was now behind Prima, both of them moving along and looking back expectantly at Kulvar and Nychta, trusting Nychta to bring her brother along.
"You see the Western spire over there! We trust you can get there by yourselves, we should split up to avoid detection." Sierra yelled over the sound of explosions and the screeching of the winds above - they were nearly high enough to get into the high wind area - and the grand Duke and Duchess left, hustling along the edge.
"Kulvar, are you ready?" Nychta turned around, ready to bring her brother across, but her eyes widened. "Kulvar?" Her brother was shivering and stuttering, withdrawn to the mouth of the stairwell that they had come out of earlier, and he was eyeing the edge of the spire with terrified eyes.
"Ny... Nychta... do we really have to go across?" He asked, voice drenched in horror and fear, causing Nychta's heart to plummet. Why hadn't she realized earlier? Of course! Kulvar was scared of heights. Even though she herself somewhat feared heights, she didn't have acrophobia, which Kulvar had. Her head spun, and she worried about what she could possibly do to help Kulvar across without him falling or freezing in fear halfway along. Looking back towards the roof, she noted that her parents and the Falren family were already gone from view, probably already on the next roof. She padded back to Kulvar, trying to slow down her breathing and clear her head of her spinning thoughts in order to actually come up with a plan.
"Kulvar... we have to go across." She said gently, trying to keep her voice from trembling but failing spectacularly. "There's no other way." She tried flapping her mechanical wings, testing their strength. They seemed to be strong enough, but she didn't know if they could carry the weight of more than one puffadore, and she didn't even know if it would be sufficient to carry even herself, as she'd never flown before.
"Can't we go back down, go another way?" Kulvar had squeezed his eyes shut and was pressing his back against the stone wall of the spire. Nychta could see her brothers chest rising and falling at a very unusual pace, filling her head with worry. If she didn't come up with something now, her brother may pass out, and the griffi might even notice them and catch up.
There was a shout from down below on the south ramparts, and Nychta knew immediately her fears were real. They had been noticed; two light yellow and blue objects against the dark rough stone backdrop. She hurried to the edge of the spire and looked out, seeing a couple of griffi-shaped dots ascending the side of the castle, flying up towards them, getting bigger as they approached.
"Kulvar! They've seen us!" Nychta said urgently, padding towards her brother. According to what she saw with the griffi, she estimated it would take a couple of minutes for them to fly all the way up the spire, or unless they took the spire down with whatever weapon they'd used to destroy the south side of the castle with.
"No. No. No!" Kulvar yelled, lashing out with an antenna and causing Nychta to jerk back. "I don't want to go! I can't!" He was desperately hanging onto the stone, his claws digging into the mortar between the blocks as he buried his face into the stone. Nychta panicked, her entire body shaking, not knowing what to do. What could she do? She couldn't really do anything. Black began to creep around the edges of her vision; her breathing was way too fast for the sufficient amount of oxygen to get into her lungs, but Nychta was too busy worrying about her brother and their survival to care about that.
"Be careful. Breathe." A smooth, soft, but still sharp voice sounded from behind Nychta, and she felt a brush of soft fur against her tail. She jumped and whirled around, nearly tripping over her own feet as she did so urgently, and she was confronted by a familiar mass of black fur and the two, piercing blood-red orbs.
"You! Zephyr!" Nychta cried, eyes wide in surprise, desperately attempting to calm down her breathing now that she realized the black creeping around the edges of her sight. "Where were you? Your family is so worried!"
At her words, Zephyr simply smirked, and gave her a mysterious look. Nychta didn't know what to make out of it, and she wished the princess would stop being so vague, but she reminded herself it was not the time to request things like that. Looking over back at the spires stone wall, she noticed Kulvar had looked away from the stones and was looking at them now, still with an expression of terror.
"Now's not the time, tch." Zephyrs voice floated past Nychtas ear, and suddenly she was past the Nychta, standing by Kulvar's side, murmuring softly into his ear, coaxing him gently away from the wall. Nychta watched with growing concern, but made no move to stop the princess. Something was telling her to trust the other girl, so she did exactly just that, although that didn't stop her nervousness.
She quickly tore her thoughts away from the princess and her brother and turned them back towards the griffi in the south. Now that the griffi had seen them, they might see their escape across the roofs into the Western wing of the castle, and their whole escape operation may fail. She then did some calculations as to how much time they had left; she was by no means an expert on keeping track of time, so she could only guess that one or two minutes had gone by, although with everything going on, she was sure that it may or may not have been seconds, or it may have been half an hour.
She focused back on the two other puffadores in front of her. Zephyr had convinced Kulvar to climb onto her back and hold on tight, which he had done, and was now squeezing his eyes shut and trying to hide his face in the princess thick neck fur to avoid looking down when Zephyr gracefully jumped over the railing and landed on the other side, half on the steep roof and half on the thin strip of flat area, although she still kept her footing. Without looking back, the princess took off in a blur, her footsteps nothing more than whispers, and soon, the two rounded the roofs corner and vanished.
Nychta hurried to the rail herself, steadying herself as she began climbing over it, her mechanical paw scraping on the metal of the railing. A rumble shook the spire, nearly throwing her off, and she gulped, staring at the couple hundred meters fall below her. One misstep, and that misstep would be her last step in her rather short life.
The swooshing of wings and the cracking of ice alerted Nychta to her new visitors. She turned slowly, lowering herself down so she stood firmly on the floor, her back pressed against the thin railing rather painfully behind her. Before her stood a group of five massive griffi, them staring her down with eyes so cold they seemed to burn. Their icy wings cracked and reformed in the warmth of the sun, but it didnt seem to bother them, as their wings were made of ice in the first place, and there was some sort of magic keeping them together.
"Where are they?" A golden and grey griffi stepped towards her, its footstep seeming like it shook the entire footstep. "Where!?" It roared, and Nychta flinched back, pressing her eyes together for what seemed like imminent death, but it never came. She hesitantly opened her eyes to meet the griffi's, whom she now got a better look at. His eyes blazed with an orange of fire, the rest of his face masked by a skull. A skull of what Sylesti, Nychta didnt want to know.
"I don't know!" She yelped quickly, hoping they wouldn't kill her, although, frankly, she knew how horrible and unbelievable her lie was. But, she still had so much to live for! She didn't want to die exactly right now.
"Don't lie." The masked griffi advanced even closer, towering over her and causing her to squish herself even more backwards against the rail, and was probably about to say something else before something in the spire cracked and snapped, the entire thing swaying dangerously and beginning to tilt. The griffi swore under his breath and shot into the air, flapping his wings, as his squad followed him.
Nychta's world spun dizzyingly as the tower tilted way past a safe degree, her muscles frozen in shock. She saw the stone, then the sky, as the pressure behind her back finally became free as the railing behind her snapped, allowing her to slip backwards, tipping over the edge towards the yawning void below.
She fell, her paws scrabbling uselessly against the stone, trying to grip something, but to no avail. Her weak claws met air, and she let go, knowing there was no more for her.
Edited By Dragonrider1542 on 4/10/2018 at 5:44 AM.
Aphelion
Level 75
Fright Master
Joined: 5/14/2016
Threads: 116
Posts: 9,856
Posted: 3/27/2018 at 7:12 AM
Post #8
Chapter II
Nychta had heard from somewhere that when in danger, one's senses peak out and everything moves slowly- ever so slowly.
That was not the case. Nychta's senses dulled to a point where she no longer felt anything, and all she saw was a blur with her eyes, frozen in a wide-open position of horror. There was no Time in this state, everything passed like a blur. Minutes? Seconds? Hours? She'd lost track, but she did know she'd fallen quite some way, with the looming cracked walls above her, the spire she'd fallen from, so far up. Her dull yellow and blue fur whipped around her as she continued downwards, her antennae trailing behind like small banners. Her mechanical wings clicked and clanked uselessly behind her, probably breaking under her in the process of the fall.
Was she even falling anymore? She felt nothing, nothing, nothing like the void inside her. Her mind quietly noted the specks of griffi, the commander's distinct yellow ribbons upon his side flapping as they began to dive after her, his squad following. Nychta gave herself a hopeless smile, knowing that they, even if they didn't catch her mid-air, would catch her when she smashed to the ground below in a couple of seconds, still her, but probably as a pile of broken bones and flesh.
Suddenly, she stopped falling. Everything jerked to a stop around her, no longer shooting upwards as things did when one was falling. Yet, she felt nothing. Nychta felt no force supporting her, and she stayed frozen, paws up in the air, afraid that the moment she made another move, another fall was in store for her. But from her point, she could see the griffi were continuing to dive down towards her, but something was off... as they came closer, Nychta noticed their eyes were focused left of where she actually was. She was curious why they were not coming for her, but at the same time she was terrified and frozen in shock, so she decided not to look.
There was a faint disturbance in the air beside her, and Nychta tensed up even more, not daring to look to her right.
Dear, dear. I've caught you, my child. A voice echoed in the depths of her mind as the presence floated closer to Nychta's rigid body. There's nothing to be scared of. Relax.
Nychta refused to move and was going to reply, but having a dead tongue in her mouth didn't help at all, so she shook her head the slightest bit, but then yelped as she briefly bobbed up and down, feeling gravity again for two seconds, and she whimpered, curling up more into a ball.
Come, now, look at me. The voice seemed to be amused. I've just jiggled you a bit, don't you see? It's rather safe.
Reluctantly, Nychta craned her head towards the right, almost rolling over in shock at what she saw. A ghostly shadow of a creature, it's tail vanishing into smoke, the same kind of smoke circling it's elegant long neck as orbs floated circles around it. It's dull eyes, still glowing with intelligence, watched her, an amused expression on its face.
Nychta gasped, one antennae subconsciously going to cover her gaping mouth. This was a creature of legends, one only heard of in stories, one she never expected to see. A ryori.
Why the face? The ryori asked, probably knowing full well why Nychta was making the face.
Nychta shook her head vigorously and fell over, wings making a cracking sound and she yelped as she flipped, but relaxed when she noticed she was not plummeting to the ground again. Her eyes flicked upwards again, focusing on the griffi that were about a couple of seconds away from grabbing her, their taloned claws hurtling towards her at terrifyingly high speeds, causing her eyes to snap shut again, waiting for the claws to close around her throat.
A whoosh of air beside her, ruffling the tuft of fur above her head as if something had passed, and a gentle touch on her shoulder, but no pain. Her eyes cracked open again, once again meeting the eyes of the grinning ryori.
You're not dead. He said with some sort of pride in his voice, some sort of satisfaction. Seeing the face Nychta was making, the ryori chuckled. You want an explanation? I'll give you one. Look down there. He put his paw on Nychta's face and pushed lightly, turning her face downwards.
Apparently the griffi had flown right past her, thus the whoosh of air, and down towards the forest floor. Nychta could make out a dull yellow blob on the floor, a blob the griffi were racing towards. She looked back up, using an antennae to move the ryori's paw out of the way in the process, her eyes looking to him for an explanation of why the griffi didn't just kill her on the spot.
I'm a ryori. I bend light. He sighed and began to explain. That's you down there... your reflection, at least. I've bent light so that you here, are reflected down there. Weird? Sure. They won't notice until they get close enough. Sure, I could do spells and stuff, but, you know. He batted Nychta's antennae aside as a roar rose from below, echoing through the forest and causing a couple of birds to fly away.
"What...?" Nychta opened her mouth to question, but the ryori put a claw to her mouth, shushing her.
It appears that they've found out it's a fake. He notified her, eyes twinkling mysteriously. I'll be taking my leave now, dear child. As for why I'm here... Nychta internally jumped, wondering how he knew what question she was going to ask. I was asked by a... friend? a patron? of yours to tell you, keep an eye on your goal. You have one, yes. Don't let your disabilities bother you. Learn to fly! With one last enigmatic smile, he disappeared.
Once again, Nychta was falling.
Edited By Dragonrider1542 on 4/7/2018 at 12:49 AM.
Aphelion
Level 75
Fright Master
Joined: 5/14/2016
Threads: 116
Posts: 9,856
Posted: 4/8/2018 at 2:47 AM
Post #9
~o-*-o~
Learn to fly? How ironic Nychta thought furiously as she plummeted again towards the ground below. The griffi were down there somewhere, in the forest, but she could tell that before the ryori left at least he'd given her the courtesy of a different direction of fall, directed towards a patch of the forest where the griffi were not in. That still didn't mean that the griffi wouldn't find her once she touched down.
A very conveniently placed hole in the sea of trees allowed her to fall through the canopy with very minimal noise, giving Nychta some sort of relief that the griffi wouldn't be alerted but as soon as she realised that, her relief was squashed. She was going to crash land on the floor instead of the trees, and she was still going at a high speed.
Her mind gave her a warning that she had one or two seconds left to spare before she smashed to the floor, so she began work, or attempted to. Nychta's back muscles churned as she tried to make use of the mechanical wings she'd been given ever since she got her mechanical paw, but, unfortunately, the wings seemed broken, snapped when she'd pressed herself back on the railing on the spire back then.
No more time was given to thought as she crashed down into the ground, the thin layer of leaves somewhat breaking her fall, but not breaking it enough. Nychta heard more cracking from her wings and a bit from her mechanical paw; they were probably now too damaged to be of any use. A dull throb spread through her body from the point of impact - her back - and took over her entire form in an aching, pulsing pain. It was an unusual type of pain, too, but she shook it off as she fought her way to her feet, shaking a leaf or two off of her head, and abruptly felt a bone in her spine pop. Her mouth opened in a soundless wail of pain as she once again collapsed to the ground, her entire body going limp.
Sounds of movement not far from where she was alerted her of her condition. She was going to have to move quickly, or she was going to have to risk getting caught by the griffi. A feral shout confirmed her fears; the griffi were close. Mentally cursing the ryori for being rather inconsiderate, Nychta struggled to her feet once again and began to stumble off in the opposite direction of the shout. Her mechanical wings and paw were broken now, which meant she had to walk on a limp on top of all the injuries she probably sustained from the fall, and she bit her tongue, trying to ignore the continuous pain that constantly washed over her body in new wave after wave.
She could only hope her friends and family were okay by now, looking upwards and seeing a tiny bit of the castle through the tree limbs and the smoke obscuring the south side of the castle. Looking down again at the floor, Nychta limped on, noting the ground was now sloping downward, deciding it was a good sign, seeing that the castle was on top of a hill and if she kept going, maybe she'd reach the small village at the base of the hill, the village that supplied the castle with everything it needed and the village Nychta's father and mother ruled over and protected. Hopefully, by now, the citizens had evacuated through the underground tunnels of ancients and gone somewhere else, wherever the tunnels leaded, which Nychta guessed was a safe spot. Maybe, just maybe, if she got to the village before the griffi, she'd be able to escape through the tunnels as well.
Taking a small tumble caused by a slip down the side of the hill and probably further aggravating her injuries, Nychta paused for breath, gritting her teeth together with such force it hurt, probably good to distract her form the pain of her other wounds. She was getting close to the tree line, now, but she could also hear her sounds of yelling and crashing around from her pursuers behind her. Definitely, they'd have found her crash site and were now hot on her tail.
Nychta stumbled forwards, urging her splitting paws forwards into a somewhat loping run, wincing every time she put her twisted paw down. The first thing she would need to do when she found safety was find a mechanic, and a good mechanic, one that was capable of fixing her paw so she could walk normally again. She could see the village now, through the thin trees, and she weaved through the last few woods in a hysteric pace, half running half tumbling down the side of the shallow hill.
Somewhere behind her, she heard a tree fall. What where the griffi doing now? It probably wasn't good. They were closer, though, as they probably should be, seeing that she was slow with all her wounds and the twisted paw. However, Nychta was determined to survive. Determined that she would live, and she would somehow fix everything that had happened, even if none of it was her own fault. She had friends and family back there, she had to fix things. Why did the griffi have to attack now? She was getting closer to the tree line now, and she could clearly see the deserted buildings of the village before her. Good, she could trust the villagers to be safe.
Just as she broke away from the tree line, something yanked her back, tugging on the thick fur of her tail and Nychta screamed in pain as something in her back cracked again, going limp and useless, as her unknown assailant loomed over her from behind, unmoving and towering over her, as if deciding whether to kill her or not.
"Please don't kill me!" Nychta squealed out in a high-pitched whimper, attempting to curl her broken body up into a ball, refusing to look upwards at her attacker. She knew, this time, it was not a ryori, as it felt much more different. Whatever creature stood over her made no sound nor no move, and it seemed to continue to watch her, observe her, and Nychta was aware of a very cold feeling seeping into her spine.
"I can see something!" The gruff voice of a griffi rang out from behind Nychta and the mysterious Sylesti and Nychta heard a slight rustle as the Sylesti watching over her turned its head towards the call of the griffi.
"Find her! If you can see something, go check it out!" A roar, very distinctively the roar of the griffi captain that had threatened Nychta from earlier. She wanted to move, she wanted to move so much, but it was as if her muscles had completely given in and were now ignoring all orders from her brain to move. The creature towering over her finally moved, a pair of cold claws seizing Nychta's body and with a woosh, she was carried upwards into the trees, something that seemed like feathers wrapped around her body.
In an instant, she was hovering above the forest floor, in the claws of some beast. The claws, very gently, set her down on a somewhat sturdy branch. And again, suddenly, the presence was gone from behind Nychta, and she felt the air behind her back again as she dug into the wood with her claws and tried not to fall off. By now, the griffi had arrived. The creature that had brought Nychta up into the trees was nowhere to be seen.
"She's up there!" The griffi, a young, red-furred male in high spirits yelled towards his teammates, shaking the tree in which Nychta crouched in. Nychta's mind spun in high speeds, wondering why the creature had just brought her up and left.
"Move aside!" The rough voice of the golden griffi from before ordered, and the troupe moved, admitting him to the tree. "The little girl is trapped now, look at that." He sneered up at her, golden eyes glowing through the skull's eye sockets, causing Nychta to whimper in fear. "You'd better be a good kid and come down from there, now." He continued in a mocking voice.
I'm not a little girl, mind you. Nychta retorted in her mind, although she didn't dare speak it out loud in fear that her words would infuriate the griffi. Instead, she settled on furiously shaking her head and making dissatisfied noises at the griffi.
The griffi laughed, a haunting, dark laugh that echoed through the forest. "And what of your friend? The one that brought you into the tree?" He was pacing, now, back and forth, with an amused look on his face. Nychta knew very well that even though she was in the tree, he could very easily just fly up and end her life right there right now.
"She's with me." A smooth voice intoned, dripping with coldness as something large spread its wings and alighted on the branch beside Nychta, folding its wings and causing the branch to bob up and down dangerously from the weight of the newcomer. Nychta looked to the side, eyes meeting blazing red ones of a monstrous, huge nytekrie, and she skidded backwards as much as the branch allowed her to, still trying to keep her claws in the wood as she backed up in fear of the giant raptor-like sylesti. The nytekrie seemed unamused of her and turned its head back to face the griffis below, who were now bristling and growling dangerously. "I believe we had an agreement, your kind and mine." The female nytekrie continued in disdain, the glowing marks on her body flashing in some sort of warning.
"We have the rights to her." The captain griffi, the yellow and gold one, snarled back at the nytekrie. "Hand her over, and nothing bad will happen." His tone carried a warning, but as Nychta looked over to the nytekrie, it appeared that the nytekrie would have none of the griffi's nonsense.
"Oh, resorting to threats now?" The nytekrie remained cool as she fired back her reply, not fazed in any way of the griffi. "We had an agreement. Between you, and us." She repeated, her voice now with some chilling undertone beneath it. Us? Nychta shivered a bit as she felt the atmospheric temperature drop degrees beyond a comfortable warmth. The nytekrie beside her continued to have a stare down with the griffis, composed, elegant, silent, and non-moving, yet somehow appearing very dangerous and lethal.
Nychta could now see that the griffis were becoming rather unnerved by the entire exchange and the red griffi that had first found her before was muttering something about leaving to the lead captain griffi, who snapped at him to shut up. A lot of time was passing as the griffis glared at the nytekrie and the nytekrie returned the glare as a cold distasteful stare, and Nychta could feel her muscles cramping due to the amount of stress she was placing on all of the wounds and broken bones from the fall. She rested her head sideways on the branch, trying to find a comfortable position to relax, but couldn't, as she was on the thin end of the branch.
"Fine. We leave." The golden masked griffi snarled after a long, pregnant pause, causing Nychta to half jump, as she was nearly dozing off in her pain. With a last glare, the griffi turned stiffly and stalked off back into the forest, his team falling into line behind and following. Nychta's fur on her neck rose uncomfortably as she realised that this would not be the last time she confronted the griffi. Perhaps next time she'd be alone and then she'd die. Who knows?
After a sufficiently long period of time, Nychta finally realised that the nytekrie was watching her. Observing her, rather. She opened her mouth to speak, but the raptor-like sylesti cut her off.
"Nychta. Nice to meet you." The nytekrie said nonchalantly as if nothing had happened. "And please, don't worry about me killing you. Today is not the day you die."
"Excuse me, what?" Nychta was surprised this sylesti knew her name. Sure, she was the daughter of a noble, but she didn't do much to earn a name for herself and she seldom left the castle, and she surely had never met this nytekrie before, so she had no idea how this sylesti could possibly know her name. She was a bit suspicious, and refused to relax, even though she had started to earlier.
"I said, Nychta, nice to meet you." The nytekrie replied patiently, but rather coldly. "The name's Blood." Judging by the colour of Blood's plumage and fur, Nychta could have guessed that.
"Ah... cool, nice to meet you too!" Nychta gave a nervous smile, unsure what to think of Blood. Again, she wasn't exactly the social type, and she felt really awkward.
"Try not to over-exert yourself. Your mechanical paw will break beyond repair if you continue doing that." Blood spoke again, in that punctual style of hers, and Nychta, surprised at her words, looked down at her mechanical paw. Unsurprisingly, the paw was pretty bashed up, but she was impressed that the nytekrie could tell she was even wearing one at this point, given how much mud, grass, and leaves she'd picked up. "Anyways. I will be your travelling companion for the time being, and, a friend of yours says hello." Blood added, swinging down from the tree, grabbing Nychta and setting her on the ground.
"Who...?" Nychta said, open mouthed, mind still trying to process everything that had happened.
"Never mind any of that." Blood shook her feathers and began walking off towards the village. "Come along, now."
Edited By Dragonrider1542 on 4/9/2018 at 6:48 PM.
Aphelion
Level 75
Fright Master
Joined: 5/14/2016
Threads: 116
Posts: 9,856
Posted: 4/9/2018 at 8:55 AM
Post #10
~o-*-o~
Nychta began to follow Blood, but hesitated.
"Who are you even? How can I trust you?" She was still skeptical about this unusual nytekrie who apparently knew who she was. Then again, she'd never given her public appearance much thought, so maybe people knew her more than she realised.
Blood stopped abruptly, then turned slowly to face Nychta. "Of course. You don't trust me." She spoke slowly, as if remembering something. "So that's how your mind works? How interesting." The nytekrie began to pace back and forth, her eyes still fixed on a very uncomfortable Nychta. "Hmm. You'll have to trust me for the moment, then. I saved you from the griffi." Blood gave a tight smile and swept off, Nychta noticing that the smile dropped the moment her back was turned. Interesting, this Blood sylesti.
Having no other choice, really, Nychta began to stumble after the nytekrie, finally arriving at the bottom of the small hill, out of the forest. She looked up at the sun and squinted; it was still high in the sky, so it was about noon, she supposed.
"Yes, we'll get a replacement of that paw of yours." Blood had spoken in a clipped voice, and Nychta looked back down from the sun at the dark red nytekrie, scanning the surroundings for the possible person the nytekrie could have been adressing. She saw no one, and made a face, continuing to follow the sylesti. "I'm talking about you." Blood whipped around, facing Nychta coldly again, and Nychta nearly bumped into the feathers of Blood's forearm.
"Ah, yes, of course." Nychta replied quickly and looked down, not wanting to meet the scary eyes of Blood. The nytekrie was beginning to creep her out a bit, however, she decided not to say that. But, Blood had already turned away and left, already making some progress towards the first paved streets of the deserted village. Nychta shook herself and hurried after her, trying to keep up with the nytekrie's brisk pace.
The two stepped onto the paved streets, Blood's claws clacking on the stone and Nychta's padded paws hushed, except the paw which had the mechanical enhancement, which clanked uncomfortably. The fur along Nychta's back rose as she noted the empty houses, and she was overcome by a feeling of loneliness, desolate coldness.
She looked to her left, watching the eccentric nytekrie. Blood had somehow become silent in movement now, no longer did her claws clack against the stone streets. The nytekrie was coldly observing everything around them, and Nychta felt like the blazing red eyes were probably seeing and noticing things that she'd missed. They stopped briefly as Blood made her way to one of the houses, peering through a window into the dark interior.
"Hustle along, now." Blood reached up with a claw and nonchalantly tore down the shutters around the window with a snap that made Nychta wince. "Into the building." There was no room for protest as the nytekrie, once again, seized Nychta's body in one of her claws as she swooped into the building, squeezing slightly through the window, and landing with an ever-so-light thump on the wooden ground on the other side. Nychta was placed down once again as the nytekrie began to observe everything curiously, and Nychta followed suit.
The room was plain, with a bed shoved up against the door, a small table in the center of the space, and a small cooking fireplace in the corner. Pots and pans were stacked rather lop-sidedly on top of each other on the mantle of the fireplace, and a cauldron still hung over the long gone ashes of the fire. Other than that, the room seemed to be bare.
Blood, however, seemed to have noticed something out of the ordinary, Nychta thought as she looked over at her companion. The nytekrie had approached the fireplace and shoved some of the pans aside, pressing something down. The something clicked, and beside Nychta, the table shook slightly and slid upwards and sideways, revealing a small hole in the ground. It dawned on the puffadore that this must've been one of the secret passages the villagers used to escape during the attack by the griffi. Peering down, Nychta could make out, just barely, a rickety ladder into the darkness. It appeared that while the hole itself was small, the tunnel that went down was actually relatively wide.
"Hup, hup. Down the hatch." Nychta jumped as the icy voice of the nytekrie came from right behind her, nearly falling down the hole headfirst as she whirled around to see Blood standing right behind her. Blood looked impatient as she spoke again, this time in a rather sarcastic voice. "Please do take your time. We have all day, after all."
Nychta gave a small frown, but tried to follow her directions. Her probably broken back screeched in pain as she put her paws down the first rung, stretching herself backwards as she descended. Blood seemed to not make a move, but instead, watched Nychta as the puffadore went down.
"Maybe, you could have like, helped me or something?" Nychta snapped rather indignantly as she lost her footing on the fifth or sixth rung and tumbled down some way to crash land at the bottom of the chute. She was really tired of falling now, and she was getting very annoyed.
"You have perfectly got to the bottom without problems. Spare me a lecture." Blood replied without a beat of waiting, somehow swooping down the hole and ignoring the ladder completely, landing without a sound, towering over the puffadore. "We have places to go." She took off again, Nychta hurrying to follow, as the tunnel was dark and there was absolutely no light except the faint light from Blood's markings.
The pair continued in silence, the only faint sound was that of Nychta's uneven gait and the clank of her broken mechanical paw.
"How did you know?" Nychta broke the silence between them after some time of blowing off steam. "The secret passages, I mean."
"I know what you mean." Blood's head did not turn, but Nychta knew she was still addressing her like before, about the mechanical paw. "It was very simple. The village's inhabitants had gone, the castle was under attack, and anyone saw fleeing would have probably given up their lives. Your castle is situated upon a forested hill surrounded by the village, then surrounded by a huge extend of prairie. Anybody leaving would very obviously be caught, thus they must've had some other way. But what other way, if not over land, and especially not through the air? There is no water nearby, so we come to the conclusion that they must've escaped through the last option, which is underground. Now, of course, the entrance wouldn't be so obvious, because the enemy would spot it very easily. Of course, that probably means that you've been attacked multiple times so they've adapted this system of escape. Through an indoors means, then, the entrance to the underground. When I looked into the house earlier, and you may have noticed as well, the door was barred with a bed. Not the best way to stop someone from entering, but good enough for a villager. So, the secret entrance wouldn't be under the bed, because they moved it with so less consideration, and as you probably missed it, there were tracks in the dust on the floor indicating the bed had moved. The table, however, hadn't been moved. Was it permanently stuck to the ground? Probably. Possibly so, or possibly not. The fireplace, a very classic place to hide a secret entrance, was not the key. The ashes showed no sign of being disturbed, and the cauldron still hung above the ashes in the center, and probably would have been moved at least a tiny bit if someone were to go past it or under it, but it wasn't moved, so that eliminates the fireplace. Anyways, I then went about to find the switch, as there was no obvious hole in the wall or floor. Classically, it could have been a stone in the wall or under a beam in the floor. What caught my eye was the stack of pots and pans on the mantle, obviously put there in a hurry, and some showed traces of not being cleaned properly. Why would they be there and in such a flurry? Perhaps, to hide something. So I went along my way, moved some over, and tapped around until I found a loose stone. And guess what? It was the entrance."
"Wow." Nychta couldn't think of anything to say apart from that, some seconds after Blood's explanation. She had no idea how the nytekrie could put together puzzle pieces so easily, and was amazed. Maybe Blood's eccentric personality also came from this quirk. "Where did you learn this?" She asked, curious.
"I have a brain, I use it. I have eyes, I use them." Blood scoffed, then fell silent, the markings on her body becoming dim as if she wanted to melt into the darkness slightly. Nychta felt a claw on her back and jumped, looking up at the nytekrie, and saw the look of warning in her eyes, telling her to be quiet. She snapped her mouth shut, as she was going to comment more but decided against it. Somewhere in the tunnel ahead of them she could hear splashing, and no doubt her unique companion had also heard the sound, followed by a slight curse.
"A friend of yours?" Nychta squinted as she whispered, trying to locate where Blood's head was, the task becoming increasingly hard as the glowing markings were disappearing.
"Don't be silly. I don't have... friends." Nychta heard the nytekrie hiss a reply, soon followed by the complete disappearance of the glowing marks. Nychta could only shrug to the statement and flick her ears, attempting to locate the splashing, now.
The splashing was coming closer and closer, when the sound came to about twenty meters or so away, it disappeared, and there were sloppy sounds, the sounds of wet paws against hard earth. Whatever it was, it was coming in their direction. The atmosphere became tense in anticipation as the steps neared, and Nychta could feel her heart beating faster, from fear or excitement, she didn't know. She could feel the calmed, slow breaths of Blood as she pressed up against her companion, trying to calm down. Blood flinched away silently, and Nychta took it as a sign that the nytekrie didn't want physical contact, so she settled down by herself, desperately trying to calm her hushed but still panicked breathing.
"Hello?" A male voice floated through the air, its origin centimeters away from Nychta's face.
A/N: Does anyone really read this? If you're reading this, at least let me know by sending me a message or something
Edited By Dragonrider1542 on 4/9/2018 at 9:29 AM.
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