PlaneShift
Fan Area => Roleplaying (Communitive Storywriting) => Topic started by: Moogie on May 13, 2005, 03:08:18 am
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Title subject to change. I restructured it a bit, made some minor modifications, and collapsed the first two chapters into one. More will follow soon. Leave feedback!
Chapter 1.
The rain beat down hard against the cold stone streets of Ojaveda. The gathering puddles in the road reflected the dim light of the street lamps, and shadows danced and shifted across the walls like invisible creatures; unseen spirits worshipping the darkest of nights there had ever been in Moogie\'s memory. The Enkidukai was late getting home that evening; she had been falling behind in her guild duties recently due to one particularly difficult target that her agents had been having trouble tracking. She knew almost nothing about the man she was following- only that he was of Xacha origin, and was not once spotted near any public establishments such as inns, taverns, temples or even the bank since they began attempting to track him. Rumour had it that this mysterious figure had been meeting with the Lord of the now-defunct guild, Incensio Tenebrae; Seperot Darkstorm. Since the Enkidukai\'s sudden disappearance several months ago, the Shadowkin of the Feline\'s Lair guild had been contracted by the local Octarch officials to unearth any information they could find, and Ayshe had immediately given the order to follow any possible leads which may indicate his whereabouts.
Moogie sighed tiredly as she hurried. Gripping her rainsoaked shawl tightly around her shoulders, she jogged quickly through familiar backalleys and across deserted streets. She felt an uneasy forboding in the night air; an undescribable scent faded from her senses before she could make out exactly what it was. The white-furred feline was eager to reach the safety of home and the warm fire that awaited her within. Quickening her pace, she turned the corner and trotted straight ahead towards the old welcoming door of a humble-looking home.
Barely two steps away from the door, the girl was suddenly seized from behind. She yelped as a heavy, gloved hand wrapped itself over her mouth roughly, another powerful arm gripping her by the waist and lifting her off her feet silently. Dispite her frantic kicking and wriggling, Moogie couldn\'t escape this iron grip, nor could she make much of a sound through the soft leather that kept her mouth sealed. She was stolen quickly away into the dancing shadows.
The feline awoke suddenly in an unfamiliar setting. Her first instinct was to bolt upright and check her surroundings, but something roughly stopped her from moving. It occured to her that she was bound, hand and foot, laying on a concrete floor beside a stream of oddly tinted water. As her eyes cautiously drifted around, she began to recognise the sewers beneath the city. She had been kidnapped and dumped underground, but what for? How long had she been like this? She didn\'t like to think about it.
The ropes dug harshly into her wrists as she tugged at them with her teeth. They were painfully tight; it was not hard to guess that, whoever had brought Moogie here, didn\'t care too much what condition he left her in. A feeling of overwhelming dread suddenly overcame her. Her keen ears picked up the sound of footsteps approaching from behind, and she froze, not daring to move a muscle. She opted to fein unconciousness in the hopes that, whoever it was, would be fooled and give some clues as to his identity. If there was one thing Moogie\'s Shadowkin training had taught her, it was that knowing your enemy is halfway to defeating them.
She listened to the sound of heavy boots treading through the damp towards her. A tall, cloaked figure passed slowly by her head and stopped several steps infront of where the girl lay.
\"Ahh, this is a rather familiar circumstance...\" The voice rumbled in a heavily aristocratic accent, native to the dark caverns of the first Xacha explorers of Yliakum, toned in the deep growl of a well-aged man. The sound sent cold shivers down Moogie\'s spine; he was aware of her conciousness, and had not even turned around to face her. She recognised his scent... he was the one who had kidnapped her before. After some hesitation, she managed to find her voice.
\"What... who are you? Why have you brought me here?\" she growled. The tall man chuckled leisurely and turned to face her. His face was half buried under the collar of his heavy coat, with a bandana around his face shielding all but his eyes from view. Moogie looked at him quizzically.
\"You will know me soon enough, Alpha of the Shadowkin. I do apologise for the bondage...\" He smirked under his mask. \"...but I\'m thoroughly aware of your skills. I had to make sure you would not leave unduely.\" His dark red eyes glowed like embers, barely visible under the hem of his black slouch hat. He approached her and bent down to untie Moogie\'s hands, but the second the knot was loose enough, her hand flung at him to snatch away his mask. But his speed and reaction was unnatural; he caught her arm in mid-air and wrenched it down painfully to her side. Moogie cried as the pain shot up through her shoulder, squeezing her eyes shut in a vain attempt to block it from her mind. The man\'s eyes thinned in mild annoyance.
\"Do not make me hurt you again.\" He ordered. Moogie nodded meekly, and he released his grip. Grimacing, she held the limb with her other arm and looked up at the man as he straitened.
\"Tell me who you are, what the hell you want from me!\" yelled the defeated feline. He contemplated her for a few seconds, before slowly pulling down the mask that hid his face. It took the girl several moments to recognise the haughty grin of Camazotz, the man she thought she had been following for weeks; it appeared it was she who had been lead by him.
Moogie listened in silence, watching Camazotz warily as he reached into his pockets and pulled out a pair of leather gloves. As he pulled them over one hand, then the next, she remembered their rough texture from the night he had taken her. Seeing them again suddenly made her much more nervous, and in the back of her mind, she wondered just how long she had been down here with him.
\"You know who I am. But I do not think you know quite *what* I am. Infact, you know so very little about me, sweet Moogie...\" The girl narrowed her eyes at him in distrust, but he simply grinned and continued. \"Allow me to introduce myself fully. I am Lord Camazotz, Xacha of the Old World. I come to you as a Seer, a guide, a prophet, but most of all... a protector.\" Before the girl could ask anything, the Xacha turned to Moogie, reaching inside his coat and revealing a small, triangular glyph. The object, gripped between the finger and thumb of his glove, eminated a soft yellow light and shone brightly even in such a dark place as this. He eyed it for just a moment before flicking his wrist up, sending the glyph spinning into the air. However, instead of falling to the ground, it simply stopped. Moogie blinked in confusion, watching it spinning there above their heads of its own accord.
\"How did you-?\" She began, but Camazotz shushed her quietly. The glyph began to spin faster, the yellow light pulsing stronger and stronger, untill the glow illuminated every crack and niche in walls, and the water in the sewage canal sparkled brightly. It soon became so intense that Moogie had to shield her eyes from looking directly into the light. Camazotz, however, seemed comfortable; infact, he didn\'t even flinch as the ball of light seemed to spontaneously burst infront of them, spraying shimmering pillars of energy in all directions. In the center, an image slowly took shape, colours drifting in from the surrounding air and populating the magical visage like liquid paint. Moogie slowly lowered her hand and sat forwards; she could not believe what she was witnessing. Something in the image was moving, flickering... flames, reaching out of broken windows, fire creeping across the roof of a small house that stood at the end of a street, wrecked and ruined, and burning to ashes. The girl gaped at it, speechless. Words were too much to manage as she stared at her home being destroyed before her eyes.
\"This happened on the night I took you.\" Camazotz offered, watching her reaction from the corner of his eye. Her gaze turned to him.
\"How long... have I been here?\" Moogie whispered.
\"Just a few days. As I said, I\'m here to protect you. I didn\'t let you leave because I wanted to keep you safe. Away from this...\" the Xacha motioned at the floating image, which burned brightly. \"I kept you asleep incase you tried to run. It\'s a dangerous place down here for a pretty little girl like you.\" He grinned, briefly glancing over her slim frame. But the girl wasn\'t about to accept this. She couldn\'t. During the glyph display, she had been gently untying the rope that bound her feet together. Now, with a quick kick, she was free, and the feline bolted away immediately, running as fast as her feet could carry her down the stone tunnels. Camazotz smiled, shaking his head.
\"Silly girl...\" he chuckled. He lifted his hand and leisurely clicked his fingers. Moogie, who had turned at least three corners by now in her bid to escape, looked back to check for her persuer. Suddenly she ran into something, so solid that it knocked her back uncontrollably, sending her skidding across the slippery wet path on her back.
\"Whaa!\" she exclaimed, reeling from the blow. Stunned, it took her several moments to glance up from the floor, catching sight of the claws that came swiping viciously across her face. The force knocked her aside, some droplets of blood spraying into the green water. Moogie scampered back a few steps and climbed quickly to her feet, facing a large, dirty-looking Gobble with fresh blood on its hand. It laughed- an odd sound resembling the croaking of a manic toad. It took a step forwards, focusing on the girl who refused to turn and flee. She knew she wouldn\'t be able to get past Camazotz unarmed, but at the same time, she didn\'t find her chances with the Gobble very appealing either.
The festering creature sat back quickly on its haunches, ready to spring into attack at a split-second. But just as it launched itself forwards, a thin blade of metal came protruding from its neck, blood bursting from the wound. Moogie shrieked and watch as the Gobble slowly fell flat to the ground, a silver Sai buried through its neck, and an expression of wide-eyed panic as it twitched and groaned in near-death. Moogie looked beyond its body to see the cloaked Xacha standing there, arm still outstretched from where he had flung the sword just in time. He approached the pathetic body of the Gobble, reaching down and yanking the Sai from its cold flesh. Camazotz looked towards the bloodied feline, who stood staring at him in fearful silence.
\"Don\'t make me tell you again...\" he said simply, before passing her back down the tunnel where she had come from. Without a word, but with some hesitation, she decided to follow.
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Superb imagery. There is more, right? I gotta hear more :)
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Originally scrawled by Moogie
Enjoy the first two chapters ..... Leave feedback!
*bows*
As you command. Interesting story, my lady. An enjoyable start that leaves me asking for more. I like the \'dancing shadows\' personified as invisible spirits. Not something I would have thought of, though it does remind me of something I wrote in CoS. \"The candlelight played a soft symphony of light and shadow across the canvas of her bare skin.\"
Now this Camazotz is very mysterious...which is good, I like mysterious. You were able to capture his essence in very few words. I would suggest keeping us guessing at him. Don?t tell us everything. ;)
One thing I wonder at, is why you divided that into two chapters. It seems to me like only one. Though... *looks at CoS* ...I guess you could call me a poor judge of when to stop a chapter. :D
I have always enjoyed your works, so please continue. :)
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Thank you for your comments, Moon. :)
Camazotz is a character that a small handful of people may recognise from one of my unfinished works. I decided to link him with both of my RP characters to give him some extra depth, since I really enjoy writing about his sneery personality and ever-so-slightly kinky attitude towards females. ;)
Chapter divides is a tricky thing for me also. I tend to look at two things- the length of what I\'ve already written, and the current situation. If it seems like an appropriate place to \'break off\' and switch to a new scene, I will seperate it to another chapter. I try to keep them short as I feel it helps me moderate myself and not go overboard packing in unneeded details.
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It has arrived! And it\'s bloody big, too.
Chapter 2.
The fields of Oja\'Renin basked in the warm glow of the midday Azure light. For as far as the eye could see, they quilted the landscape like a tapestry of multicoloured fur that rippled gently with the passing breeze. Leilani stood upright and stretched out her arms, releasing a lengthy yawn. The Ylian girl spent most of the year working in the fields with the rest of the villagers. The season was coming to an end, and the crops were finally being harvested. It was a time of hope and prosperity for her people; soon the great Pterosaur caravans would arrive from the east, bringing with them wealthy travellers and merchants from the nearby Enkidukai city of Ojaveda, eager to buy as many supplies as their animals could carry. Although the Tria paid in comparison was not as large as one would expect, it was pleasing enough to the village folk, who cultivated these lands all throughout the year. The earnings allowed the older generations to pay their children\'s way in the world, encouraging them to travel with the caravans and broaden their horizons beyond the settlement\'s humble log fences.
Leilani was still young. She had been awake since dawn, ready to spend her day tending to her family\'s healthy crop of Sekich\'Kui along with her mother, Helitia. The year had been good to them; the plants grew tall, spreading their firm tendrils up to the sky, and then slowly, over the course of many months, allowing lucious pink flowers to grow from the tips of each. The heavy buds dangled down as they grew bigger and bigger, and then one night, every single plant in the entire area suddenly burst into bloom; layers of petals folding back on themselves untill each flower resembled a delicate, woven pinecone. This overnight burst of life signalled the height of the plants\' growth, and was a beautifully clear indication that they were finally ready to be harvested. The girl sat down amongst them, taking in the colour and smell of the fresh petals all around as whisps of her soft chestnut hair danced with the wind. This place was home.
\"...But it\'ll always be here.\" She sighed, frustration showing in her big blue eyes as she ran her finger idly through the dirt. \"It\'ll never change. I\'ll be in this same boring little world all my life, digging this, planting that, over and over...\" Leilani was an outgoing 15 year old. She loved to have fun, but hated the way life never seemed to change in the village. Life here bored her; she hungered for something more, but it was something she knew she would never have. Without realising it, she had carved a little stick figure in the ground with a tail and pointy ears, surrounded by flames. It was an image she had seen many times before, a dream she had since she was a small child; she remembered it well. A white enkidukai... the deafening roar of flames all around... she was falling away, the figure reaching out to grab her, save her from death, but then... A voice called to her in the distance. Leilani jumped in suprise; she had been daydreaming, but now she could hear her mother calling from the farmhouse. After a moment of hesitation, the girl wiped her hand destructively across the picture and leapt up to her feet, running all the way home.
That evening saw the biggest festival of the year for the Oja\'Renin people, celebrating a successful season and the biggest harvest they had seen in their whole farming history. Wine flowed like springwater into every cup, and the people danced joyously by the midnight fire as it tenderly roasted the meat spit above. This annual event was called Samota Decoleta; which roughly translated from Enkidukien meant \"We give thanks for our crops\". Though most of the farmers who lived there now were human, the settlement was first constructed by the Enkidukai people who travelled west from the young city of Ojaveda, many centuries ago. Everyone in the village, both young and old, left their houses and gathered in the central square, where there were crude cloth banners hung between tall wooden poles, and tables pushed together end-to-end, filled to the edges with fruits and meats and food of all kinds.
The people gathered to sing and dance, and everyone was happily enjoying the occasion. That is, all except Leilani. She sat on her own away from the crowds, a small bowl of food by her side- untouched by the somber teenager. She sighed, watching her family and friends laughing and singing songs. She was fed up of this place. She loved her parents, of course, and normally a festival of this sort would be the perfect excuse to let her hair down and have some real fun for a change. She was a mischievious girl by nature, but her parents were strict, and the punishments she received made her think twice the next time she encountered an opportunity to spice up an otherwise boring day. But she could no longer stand the same scenery, the same people, the same work day in, day out. It had been many moons since she first began having thoughts of running away and finding her own life in the world, for she knew that only the boys would one day find a large pouch of Tria waiting for them on their 18th birthday; the day they would be allowed to leave their homes for good. The women of Oja\'Renin were expected to stay and live in the village all their lives, and for such an adventurous young Ylian as Leilani, the \'simple life\' was simply not an option.
The girl sat back and looked towards the night sky. It was the same as always. Boring.
\"Hey! What\'re you doin\', Lani? Come and have some fun!\" The cheerful voice called as he approached. Leilani turned her head to the side to greet him with a smile.
\"Hey, Sam. Nah, I\'m gonna... just stay here for a while.\"
\"Is something wrong?\" He sat next to her, putting his arm comfortably around her shoulders and hugging her. \"You know you can tell me anything... right?\" he spoke quieter, his voice losing its enthusiasm in concern for his sister. Sam was two years older than Leilani. He was her best friend; he could always make her laugh when she was sad, and if she got into trouble, he would take the blame for her. Ever since she was born, even at such a young age, Sam would follow his little sister and play with her, keeping her entertained. Leilani hugged him in return, but said nothing. Now all she could think about was his birthday tomorrow. Great. He would be 18. Sitting there, hugging him... there were some things she wish would never change. Of all the things that could be different, this is what she wished for most of all- that he would never leave her. But some days ago he had announced to his family that he would be leaving on the first day of his independance, and heading for the great city of Hydlaa to find a new life. Leilani didn\'t want that. By the gods, death would be better than being stuck here forever without him to keep her company.
\"Lani?\" He was watching her, reading her for clues. He had already guessed that his departure would make her upset, and he felt torn between his want for a new life and his love for his sister. But he hated life in the village as much as she did. He had to do it. \"I\'m really sorry, Lani...\" he offered. The girl looked up at him, teary-eyed, but smiling. She had already decided that she didn\'t have to watch him disappear forever. It didn\'t have to be that way; she would leave with him tomorrow.
\"You won\'t be leaving me. They can\'t stop me following you.\" Sam shook his head meanfully.
\"You can\'t just leave Ma\' and Pa\' like that. Do you ever intend to go back?\" The girl pulled herself away from his arm and stood up.
\"Well I might visit, sometime, maybe, I don\'t know... but I\'d rather till rock than live here for the rest of my life!\" She argued. Sam frowned, learning forward with his elbows on his knees.
\"Leilani. I\'m sorry. I am so sorry, but you just can\'t do this to them. Don\'t be so selfish!\"
\"But you\'re leaving too!!\" Leilani turned towards him and yelled defensively, but thought, afterwards, that perhaps it wasn\'t such a good point to argue. Sam looked down, closing his eyes. He was finding this difficult as it is, but she did have a point. He was leaving them all for his own selfish needs, and what right did he have? Infact, according to tradition, he had every right, and he was expected to do this. But it was so hard to abandon his parents and his beloved sister after all these years... so heartwrenchingly difficult, especially as he noticed the tears in her eyes and the pain in her voice. Leilani stood unmoving, surpressing a pitiful sob. She had surprised even herself with this outburst, and suddenly became overwhelmed with guilt. She was old enough to understand that other people have the same feelings that she does, and she could tell that her one short sentence had struck a painful chord in him. \"I... I\'m s-sorry...\" she sniffed, turning to leave and go back to their home. Sam stood and ran to catch up to her, stopping infront of her to block the path. Leilani kept her eyes on the ground as he took her shoulders gently.
\"No, I\'m sorry... I know it\'s not fair for you. And it\'s not fair for our folks either...\"
\"Then-\" she began, but he stopped her, shaking his head defeatedly.
\"No, listen... they knew this would happen.\" He sighed. It was time he told her something he had promised to keep secret untill this day. He took a deep breath before he began again. \"They knew you would want to come with me.\" The girl lifted her eyes slowly. \"I didn\'t want them to be left alone like this, but they told me that if you want to do it, they... they won\'t stop you.\" Leilani was silenced in hearing those words. They would let her leave? When did they decide this? Did the Elders know they were allowing a girl to leave the village? \"The Elders don\'t know about this, Leilani. You\'ll have to run away like you planned. But... you will say goodbye to Ma\' and Pa\' first, won\'t you?\" Sam finished, knowing this would take some moments to sink in. The girl nodded slowly, still not quite believing her ears, but he smiled reassuringly. \"I\'m glad I won\'t have to leave you, Lani.\" Leilani took his arm in hers, and they started to walk home slowly. This was a revelation, to say the least. But she was happier than she could ever describe. She couldn\'t believe they were going to let her travel with him. She couldn\'t get rid of the smile that had glued itself to her face all the way home, and that night, in the room that had been hers all her life, she began getting ready to leave for good.
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Very nice. :) Some people would say there is not enough action, but I am not those people. ;) I like reading about the emotions, relationships, and inter turmoil of characters. Really brings them to life more than any amount of action could.
One thing, though, and it is more of a preference of style than anything. I never particularly liked \'third person omnipotent\' where the writer sees into and switches between the minds of multiple characters with no clear separation. Such as a new chapter or a mid chapter break. I\'m not criticizing you, just stating my opinion. ;)
Carry on. :)
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You want action? Wish granted. :)
Chapter 3.
\"I don\'t believe you. You did this! You destroyed my home!\" She felt the cold stone pressing hard against her back. But the closer to the wall she stood, the futher from him Moogie could be. She didn\'t trust this. None of it. The Xacha had lead her back silently through the sewers, here to where the glyph had made its terrible display. \"How can you say you\'re my protector? You nearly yanked my arm out of its socket!\" She protested, her uninjured arm protectively holding the painful limb. \"You kidnap me in the middle of the night, tied me up so tight I can still feel the ropes burning my wrists... and then you have the sick idea to pretend you\'re not behind my house just spontaneously bursting into flames!?\" she cried. He regarded her thoughtfully.
\"You are a clever girl, Moogie. But your youth, your inexperience, shines through you like a beacon of naivety. It points the spotlight of your cautions on every little detail... blinding you to the bigger truths.\" Camazotz approached the cautious feline, looking intently into her eyes, even as she turned to hide them. \"There are other forces at work here. They are the ones that want you dead, girl, not me. They have powers beyond your most terrible nightmares.\"
\"You can say what you want, but I don\'t believe you. If you\'re going to... kill me, then just do it! You\'ve had your fun!\" She growled, her voice betraying the contempt she had for this man and this whole situation she had been forced into. \"If you really were the \'good guy\' in this you wouldn\'t be trying to break my bones.\"
He leaned in close, his accented voice barely an audible whisper. \"I\'m here to keep you alive, Moogie... that is all I need to accomplish. Asides from that...\" His lips turned up into a cruel grin. \"...I can do whatever I want with you.\" Moogie\'s heart turned cold upon hearing those words. She had to escape this madman before he...
Her thoughts were interrupted by a thunderous explosion from above. The ground beneath them shook violently, and even Camazotz was taken by suprise, struggling to keep his footing as he quickly took hold of the girl and sprinted away from the crumbling ceiling. Carrying her firmly under his arm, he dodged massive chunks of falling stone as the walls caved in all around them. The once-still water roared in anger as each falling rock caused a spray of liquid to pierce the blooming dustclouds, chasing him with the raw anger of the earth. The Xacha\'s unnatural speed and agility sent Moogie\'s mind spinning into a dizzy haze of blurred sights and sounds that seemed to echo forever in her head as she helplessly watched the floor rush by her eyes. The fleeing Xacha urgently looked ahead for an escape to the surface; It was then that he saw it- a ladder resting against a nerby wall, basking in the light of the above world which pierced the thick haze of the tunnels below through a small metal grate. It was their only chance.
Leaping effortlessly to the other side of the sewer, Camazotz sprung high towards the ceiling and caught hold of the ladder near the top. He began throwing his weight upwards, his shoulders painfully smashing against the iron bars that blocked their only means of freedom. Moogie was clutching his waist tightly, dangling above the sewers below.
\"DAMMIT COME ON! OPEN!!\" He yelled through gritted teeth, as Moogie shrieked in horror at watching the wave of destruction charged towards them like a stampede of wild Tefusangs. Time seemed to slow down as the rocks and dust flew out from the carnage towards them. Her life flashed before her eyes; images of her childhood, her good friends, of Seperot laughing and justling with her when they once were so much in love. Good memories. Happy ones. Of all the joyous things she remembered in that eternity of a splitsecond, one particular vision stood out to the girl; it didn\'t belong. She suddenly saw a dream; one she had seen many times over the past years, but its recollection had always slipped through her fingers before she could take hold of them and remember it. There were flames. Burning trees all around. A young girl was falling away from her. Falling... into a great chasm of fire. Moogie reached out to catch her as the image slowly faded from her sight,leaving her with the present; arm outstretched towards the fiery death that flew towards them. She couldn\'t even feel the shudder of the Xacha\'s body as it smashed through the iron grate, pulling her upwards as her world faded to black, the roar of the flames disappearing from her mind.
Moogie came to slowly. She opened her eyes, fuzzy sight greeted by the shimmering of the dark night sky. Thousands of small crystals embedded in the cavern ceiling reflected the dull light of the Azure Sun, appearing as beautiful burning stars. Her head felt groggy... where was she? She felt warm. A glowing light flickered just beyond her view, and turning her head for a better view, she could see a small campfire glowing softly. The hard ground beneath her body was uncomfortable, rousing her into a clearer conciousness. She tried to remember how she got here- she was in the sewers, a huge explosion, she was being carried... he was trying to escape, to save her too, but then... what had happened then?
The girl sat up warily and rubbed her eyes. She was hungry; the smell of roasting meat caught her senses and the need for food overwhelmed her thoughts.
\"Here.\" The voice said simply, as if reading her thoughts. A skewer was handed to her from above, filled with chunks of tender steak. She took it and immediately began tucking in messily. Moogie liked to consider herself a \'lady\', but when it came to food, there was no such thing as \"too fast\". Camazotz stood above her, watching for a few seconds before sitting beside the fire once again. He chuckled, kicking a stray log back into the flaming pile. \"You\'ll choke.\" He warned lightheartedly. Moogie swallowed the last scraps of food, wiping her mouth with the back of her arm and turning to him with a satisfied smile.
\"Mo samoti, thank you. I really needed that, I was starved... I didn\'t think you\'d fed me ever since you stole me away from the hot dinner I had waiting for me back home.\" She said mockingly, but genuinly appreciative that she could finally silence her growling stomach. \"Have you already eaten?\" The Xacha didn\'t respond. Moogie\'s satiated mood dipped slightly as questions began remerging in her mind. She still didn\'t fully trust him, but she believed at least that he honestly wanted to keep her alive... for whatever reason. Right now, his motives didn\'t matter to her, but she needed to know what was going on.
After an awkward silence, she decided to drop the question. \"...What happened back there in the sewers?\" Camazotz didn\'t move, keeping his eyes on the flickering flames as he spoke.
\"They call themselves \'Strangers\'. Something of a cult, you might call them; they are followers of the Black Flame.\" He explained. \"But they shouldn\'t have known where you were. I made sure nobody followed us...\" His voice betrayed a hint of uncertainty, so uncharacteristic of the man who, up untill now, had been in complete control. He frowned in mild annoyance. Moogie leant back on her elbows, listening closely. \"There is a Prophecy that connects you with their ultimate demise in the future; I have seen it; it is true. And so they want you dead.\"
\"Prophecy?\" The feline tilted her head to the side quizzically. \"I don\'t know anything about this...\" She had heard of the Black Flame before, but only through rumours and whispers; forbidden words spoken quiet enough that no details could be heard... not that any sane person wanted to get involved with such shady goings-on. All she knew was an old tale that Laanx one day left her people, and while she was gone, an evil spirit known only as the Black Flame came and claimed control of her people, poisoning their minds with its unholy energies.
\"So you believe in this \'prophecy\' and you\'re protecting me so I eventually do something to blow them all up?\" She asked. Camazotz shook his head slowly.
\"I believe what I have seen for myself, and no more than that.\" He replied. \"I think the burning house and exploding sewers speak for themselves, wouldn\'t you agree?\" He turned to her, the grin returning to his pale face. At that moment, it struck her as an odd colour, illuminated by the campfire. There was something so unnatural about him. But she would ask later; right now, what he had said made a lot of sense. Someone definitely was trying to get her killed, and it was not him.
\"I guess...\" She sighed, picking the empty skewer up off the ground and tossing it idly into the fire. She looked around, noticing the rolling hills and fields surrounding them. There was a small settlement barely visible by the horizon. \"Where are we, anyway?\"
\"I brought you east of the city. Nowhere in particular. I believe these fields belong to the Oja\'Renin village nearby, but I suggest staying away from people for now.\" Moogie nodded in agreement, stifling a tired yawn. \"Sleepy?\" he asked. she nodded again. \"Then rest. I won\'t touch, I promise.\" The Xacha winked suggestively. Moogie shot him a cold glance and made herself comfortable, resting her head on her arms and slowly letting the crackling of the flames lull her to sleep.
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Heh, heh... I never wished for action, my Lady. I merely said that others may. ;) Very good though. You give a nice sense of urgency and uncertainty. And now the Prophecy comes into play. Can\'t wait to see where this goes.
Hmmm... seems as if everyone is adding onto their stories but me. I\'ll have to fix that.
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Moogie! o/
write more :P
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Edit: Finished chapter! Although I havn\'t read through it fully. It\'s all too much! Please say if the pace sounds weird or anything. Dankoo. :)
Chapter 4.
Moogie drifted in and out of conciousness as she lay there on the soft ground. The sounds of the world around her faded and merged together in her ears; the crackling of the campfire flames seemed to gradually weaken untill there was nothing but the rolling breeze and the occasional howl of some wild animal to be heard. In her sleep, she thought she heard some movement, but soon it was gone, and the world passed by silently again. She could still sense the dim light, but the warmth had gone. Infact, the fire had been left to smoulder through the night, and now all but some blackened ashes remained in its place; thin, whispy smoke gently drifting up into the dawn sky like a dark spirit released from its vanquished body. She opened her eyes. It was still relatively dark; the crystal had not yet begun to shine its full light into Yliakum from the surface world. Her body was shiverring lightly in the cold morning air. There were thick, grey clouds in the sky, she noticed, seemingly poised to release their tears onto the lands below. The girl lay there for what seemed an eternity; staring at the sky, letting her thoughts and worries invade her mind and compete for her troubled attention. She hated the fact that she could not understand what had happened during the past few days. It seemed she had been pulled into a prophecy that she knew nothing about; nor did she want to. She just wanted to go home... but now that was impossible. Someone wanted her dead, and not just anyone; whoever this was knew exactly what they were doing. It scared and frustrated her at the same time; she was in the dark in more ways than one.
With a worried frown, Moogie sat up and looked around. There was the campfire, untended and lifeless. Amongst the debris she could see the skewer that Camazotz had offered to her the night before. Camazotz... where was he? She glanced all around, but he was nowhere to be seen. She hurriedly stood up, eyeing her surroundings with fearful suspicion. How long had he left her alone out here? She inspected the floor carefully, eager to find tracks of some kind; and she did. His heavy boots left imprints in the soft earth, and using her keen feline eyes, she began to follow them cautiously. After a few meters, she looked up. The direction was unmistakable; he was heading towards Oja\'Renin.
\"That\'s odd... he said we should be avoiding people...\" she muttered to herself, squinting at the distant town. She could see tiny pillars of smoke rising from the crude chimneys of the underdeveloped houses, a sure sign that the place was at least inhabited. The girl wondered if he had sneaked away purposefully, leaving her to succum to the harsh wild beasts that surely prowled these hills. Or the killer that seemed bent on getting rid of them both. Maybe he had abandoned her to save himself? After all, she saw no reason why he should be putting his life on the line for a cause that didn\'t seem to involve him in the slightest. Then again, she knew too little to make any sort of guess about any of this. She sighed, rubbing her eyes. Moogie focused again on the ground and the tracks the Xacha had left. \"Well, there\'s only one way to find out...\" And with that thought, she set out towards the village.
Leilani watched her brother as he passed through the wooden gates and stepped out into the free world. She stood silently, back pressed against the wall of the building that hid her from the view of the crowd, who cheered and congratulated the young man as he departed. She had planned her escape the night before, after having approached her parents with tearful thanks and promises that she would one day return. Their understanding and sacrifice had left her stunned for most of the day; she felt guilty now, after such a gesture of trust and love, but she was also immeasurably thankful that they had allowed her to find her own life beyond the usual fate of Renin girls. Before she left the house that morning, her mother had braided a beautiful Sek\'Uchi flower into her hair; the flower had been blessed with crystal magicks that kept it preserved and full of life for as long as she kept it worn. It was a gift, a symbol of her parents\' love for her, and she vowed that it would still be as bright and beautiful when she returned to them.
She idly fumbled with the braid as she waited for the crowd to disperse. Although she knew her brother would wait for her outside of the village, she was still nervous. Having never left Oja\'Renin before in her life, she was anxious to meet up with him again as soon as she could. She watched friends and family talking and waving by the gates, some sobbing and wiping their tears away with cloth hankerchiefs, others comforting eachother with proudful hugs. An opportunity suddenly arose- nobody was looking this way! Leilani dashed towards the village wall and a small hole dug in the ground at its base. Heart pounding, she prayed that she wouldn\'t be spotted; if someone saw her trying to leave, the Elders would be furious. She couldn\'t let that happen. The hole was barely large enough for her to squeeze through; her short skirt caught on a rock as she passed underneath the wall, tearing it slightly. She pulled her body back up on the other side with great effort, wriggling somewhat as her hips almost trapped her halfway through. As she stood up, clothes muddy and torn in several places, she sighed hugely.
\"I could\'ve thought of a cleaner way, damn!\" She exclaimed, patting herself down in a vain attempt to remove the smudges. With a huff, she gave up. The road leading from the village disappeared into the trees of a nearby wood, so Leilani ran towards there quickly before she was seen. She was so excited; this was a brave new world for the young Ylian. Her sadness and guilt melted completely as she trotted happily down the pebbled path, watching the towering trees as they swayed freely in the breeze. Under their sheltering gaze, she felt equally as free, and giggled delightfully as she spotted her brother up ahead, and began running towards him.
Moogie had entered a small forest on her journey towards the village. The trees cast dancing shadows on the ground all around her as the rustling leaves sent cold shivers down her spine. She felt alone, uneasy in this unfamiliar territory. She had never visited these regions before; her duties took her to many large cities and castles, places with many citizens and rich nobles, places ripe with corrupt minds in need of the careful observation of her Shadowkin. But never had she been sent to such a desolate place before, and certainly not alone. Moogie was no fighter; she had seen her fair share of combat, but only as support for the brave souls couragous enough to weild a sword at a bloodlusting beast. She used her innate Crystal magic abilities to sooth wounds, ease pain, and speed up the healing process. When it came to defending herself, quick reactions and a speedy retreat was all she had to rely on.
She spotted a figure up ahead. Was it Camazotz? No... there was something... strange about him. He stood awkwardly, arms limp to his sides. She quickened her pace, wondering if she could do anything to help the stranger. She noticed it as she drew closer; a barely visible, thin black spike protruded from the man\'s motionless chest. It curved wickely inwards, like a claw... The feline stopped in her tracks, staring intently as the claw retracted back through the man\'s body, letting him fall lifelessly to the floor. His shocked expression did not change as his face hit the gravel with a thud, blood from the corners of his mouth splashing along the ground. There, standing just behind him, was a creature that resembled a slender female elf, with skin dark as coal. Her fingertips ended in incredibly long, thin claws, one now dripping with blood. Two leathery wings held closed pressed losely against her back, large enough to carry this creature into flight, Moogie guessed. It had a silver amulet hanging on a chain around its neck, an unfamiliar symbol embedded at the center. She stared at it, afraid to make a move. It looked fast, agile, and extremely dangerous.
Without warning, the monster shrieked, throwing its head towards the sky, its wings reaching out, stretching powerfully in a display of primal anger. Its purple, flaming eyes suddenly fixed themselves on Moogie, who immediately turned and fled, sprinting into the undergrowth. It charged with full speed, powerful wings beating heavily to propell the beast forward. The feline dodged back and forth, over fallen logs, inbetween trees, changing direction at a whim. She struggled to hold up her dress, panic striking her every time she felt it snag on a twig or a plant. She cursed under her breath; It was slowing her down. The gargoyle was closing the gap quickly; Moogie could hear its thumping wingbeats so close now. Her mind raced as she leapt over another dead tree, but landing awkwardly, losing her footing and tumbling uncontrollably down a steep hill. She cried out as she heard the distinct crunch of bone as her body landed heavily on her arm at the base of the slope. Unable to move from the pain, she watched helplessly as the creature dove towards her, claws outstretched for the bloody kill.
Her view was blinded by a billowing black cape; Camazotz seemingly appeared out of nowhere and placed himself between Moogie and the creature. Almost instantaneously, Moogie heard him grunt as the gargoyle slammed heavily into him, unable to change its course in time. Their bodies were thrown several feet back by the force, and they rolled along the ground, locked together untill they stopped, the Xacha on top, gripping both the creature\'s claws in his hands. It struggled and screamed, eyes flaring at him, but it could do nothing. Moogie would have simply awed at such strength, but the pain had become unbearable. She could no longer move her arm, and lay clutching it in agony. Camazotz sneered at the monster beneath him, and moved his knee to hold one of the claws down while he used his free hand to unsheath the silver Sai from his belt; the same weapon he had used to kill the Gobble. But the creature\'s shrieks turned into a cackle, and as it began to laugh, its body was shrouded in a cloud of dark mist. The Xacha stood up, backing off. He cursed as the creature disappeared from sight, the fog dispersing into the wind.
\"Gren\'Fkur!\" He growled, sheathing his weapon in anger. He turned to Moogie. \"Can you stand?\" He demanded. She noticed the urgent tone of his voice, and took his question as an order. She struggled to her feet, yelping in pain. Camazotz approached her quickly, sweeping her up off her feet and attacking the slope with speed.
\"Owww! Be careful, you! I think I broke my arm, slow down!\" She protested, but her pleas fell on deaf ears as he swiftly transported her back through the trees towards the road.
That was like... omg so long! *scream*
Edit: Some fixes
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The pace is fine. It seems as if you are moving towards a conjoining of your two storylines. I hope that is what you were going for...or perhaps I am wrong.
Very creepy description of the \'claw\'. I am sure that will give someone nightmares if they ponder it too much. *begins envisioning it, with that omnipresent X Files blue spotlight in the background* Ya, that\'ll do it. But I hope that dead man isn\'t who I think it might be.
Camazots seems to like picking up Moogie a lot, doesn\'t he? ;)
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Great writing Moogie! I especially liked chapter 2, because of the nice emotional display. I think that\'s what differentiates between a writer and an even greater writer; the abilty to present a character\'s psychology to the reader. Keep it up, and I\'ll keep reading.
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Chapter 5
The forest had begun to settle again, nervous and silent in the wake of the deadly chase which had ripped through the secluded world. But it would not last. A high pitched scream pierced the air, sending birds scattering panicked from the trees high above. The girl stood infront of the pierced body of her brother Sam, lying on the path before her, wounded and lifeless. She stood, hands covering her mouth, unable to stop the painful sobs escaping her bosom as her eyes searched his body, tears streaming down her soft cheeks. She knelt urgently beside his head, cradling it in her arm, hoping, praying that he was still alive- but he lay still. His unblinking eyes stared past her, hollow and empty. He was...
\"Your brother is not dead.\" A voice said simply. Leilani, startled, leapt to her feet and turned to the source; a tall Xacha stood there, his clothes slightly messed from the brawl moments earlier, gently lowering a white Enkidukai to the ground. The feline\'s eyes brimmed with pain, but her expression seemed more concerned as she quickly approached Sam\'s body the second her feet touched the ground. The Ylian girl could only watch in confusion as Moogie checked his vital signs, before turning her head quizzically to Camazotz.
\"But... h-he has no pulse...\" Moogie whispered.
The Xacha approached them, crossing his arms and letting his eyes wander up to the towering canopy of leaves above them. ?That demon...\" he began to explain, \"It is not a naturally occurring creature. It is a creation. A construction of Mages...\" He trailed off, lowered his head, eyes viewing the lifeless figure on the ground. \"Its proper name is Callicantzaros. It doesn\'t kill its victims; that isn\'t its purpose.\"
Leilani, who had been quietly sobbing to herself as she listened, decided to speak up. \"So what does it do? What has it done to my brother!?\" She pleaded, clasping her hands together tightly.
The Xacha looked at her directly. \"It steals their souls.\" His reply was devoid of emotion.
Moogie rose from the ground, holding her broken arm, more annoyed than concerned by its insistent pain. She looked at Leilani, then to Camazotz, her brow knit in concern. \"Like some sort of... vampire?\" She thought aloud. An unfamiliar, almost invisible emotion glinted in the Xacha\'s red eyes as he turned from them.
Leilani scampered around to his front urgently, gripping his coat with both hands. \"You mean he\'s alive? My brother isn\'t dead? That means we can get him back right? How do you know all this? You can help me can\'t you? Please help me get him back!!\" she begged pitifully. His eyebrow raised, unexpectant of this sudden outburst, but he let her shake him for a while longer until she suddenly realized what she was doing and stopped. With an odd look of confusion, she took a clumsy step or two backwards. \"Who are you guys anyway?\" She asked nervously. Moogie and Camazotz glanced at each other.
\"It would seem some introductions are in order.\" The Xacha shrugged, leaving the small talk for Moogie to handle.
***
It was midday, and the light of the Azure sun penetrated through the gaps between trees as they sway steadily back and forth, the rustling of leaves reminicent of the sound of waves breaking in the distance against a calm shore. Camazotz had taken them into the forest and found a suitable clearing where he lay the body of the man under a tree, and began a campfire nearby using a Fire glyph to ignite a pile of sticks and twigs. He instructed Moogie to search for a special herb that they would use to keep Sam preserved and slow his decay. The white-furred feline didn\'t fully understand his reasons, and was beginning to feel dizzy as the pain in her arm throbbed ever harder, but set out to do as she was instructed. Her own pain could wait; there was not much time. The humidity of the forest would speed up the decay of the body and soon there would be no hope of saving him. Leilani sat by her brother, staring silently at the ground, her mind deep in thought. She glanced up as the Xacha approached, crossing his arms again. She felt as gloomy as he looked.
\"I know you have many questions. Ask whatever you wish.\" Camazotz spoke after a moment. \"You are young; I can tell you\'ve never experienced death before. It must be... a sombre experience.\"
She nodded. She had so many questions, she didn\'t know where to begin. After some fumbling, she decided it was best to start at the beginning. \"Okay... so, where did you guys come from? You just suddenly showed up... and knew all these things...\" she said, the confusion evident enough in her voice as her thoughts struggled to form a coherent sentence.
Camazotz looked thoughtful for a while. \"We are on a journey. You can think of me as a prophet; I have seen these things before, and I know the path ahead.\" There was some doubt in his words, however. He had forseen the death of the girl\'s brother- not the taking of his soul. And he hadn\'t anticipated the chase that nearly cost him the feline he was struggling to protect. If he had seen the future in so many visions, why were events changing now? His thoughts were disrupted by the girl\'s voice, bringing him out of his reverie. She seemed oblivious to his uncertainty.
\"Wow... so you can see the future? So why are you travelling? If I could see the future I think I\'d become a professional gambler at the Skyrider races!\" She exclaimed, seemingly forgetting all about the body of her brother laying a few feet away.
The Xacha chuckled. \"You\'re a noisy one, arn\'t you?\" He grinned slightly, though his smile was once again masked under the dark scarf. For some reason, this girl\'s youthful energy was a welcome respite from his usual circumstances. But Leilani took his comment as one of scorn, her smile disappearing as she lowered her eyes to the floor disappointedly. His grin widened in amusement, but he decided to stay quiet. At least if she was going to be joining them, he would need her to be obediant- and what better way to keep a child in line than to frightened them?
Moogie appeared a few moments later, scampering towards them with an armful of leafy herbs. She approached the campfire, kneeling and dropping them on the ground infront of her. She immediately held her arm again and squeezed her eyes for a few seconds. \"I hope these are the right ones?\" She asked labouredly, looking over at the two.
Camazotz nodded and stepped forward, Leilani following to watch what they were doing. What he did next amazed her. Reaching into his inside pocket, he picked out a glyph of Water, and after a short moment of concentration created a ball of pure liquid that shimmered and rippled in the air. At the same time, he presented yet another glyph, rough in texture, resembling a regular quarry stone. This one, Moogie had learned, was used in the formation of a magical protection called Rock Armour, and as they watched, the water became encased in a hollow shell of rock that surrounded it completely. Leilani gasped in amazement just for seeing magic working before her very eyes, but Moogie was more impressed by the Xacha\'s resourceful use of the glyphs.
\"That should do it...\" He said, reaching out to catch the ball as it fell the moment he hid the water glyph back in his coat. Using a nearby stone, he broke open a hole in the top of the rock sphere, revealing the trapped water inside, which spilled slightly from the force. \"Now, put the herbs inside here.\"
Moogie did as he ordered, breaking the leaves up small enough to fit and then dropping them into the container. He then ground them for at least five minutes using a stick picked out from the fire, before taking the mixture over to the body. Leilani, being young and niave, didn\'t fully understand what was happening, and fumbled nervously with her hands as she watched Camazotz pouring the mixture into her brother\'s mouth.
Moogie came up beside her and gave her a reassuring hug. \"Don\'t worry... when someone leaves their body behind, it starts to decay, just like a plant that doesn\'t get enough water, you see?\" she softly explained.
\"So you\'re... watering him?\" The girl whimpered. Camazotz grinned again, barely able to contain his amusement.
\"Uh, I guess... in a way... yes, yes we\'re watering him... so don\'t worry, okay Leilani?\" Moogie comforted her with a warm smile.
The girl returned the feline\'s hug, feeling somewhat less alone and scared now than she had been before. \"Call me Lani.\" She sniffed, wiping her eyes.
Camazotz, having finished the task, rose to his feet. \"That should be enough for a few days, but we need to put him somewhere the air can\'t get to him,\" He looked around, adding, \"Not to mention the wildlife.\" His eyes surveyed the area, but he couldn\'t see far through the thickness of the trees.
\"Camazotz?\" Moogie ventured, unable to keep her silence any longer. She made sure Leilani stayed where she was and approached the Xacha to stand closely by his side. \"Why are we doing this? Is there hope of bringing his soul back...?\" She whispered cautiously. He nodded.
\"If we can find the Callicantzaros before the body rots too badly, yes.\" Camazotz replied thoughtfully.
\"But I don\'t understand... You want to help this girl? Out of the kindness of your heart? I mean, call me crazy, but... I just don\'t see you doing this unless you need something out of it.\" She hushed her voice again, realising her anxiety was picking up the tone. Leilani watched their backs as they whispered, trying to read the movements.
Camazotz chuckled and shook his head. \"No, sweet Moogie. I think you know what to expect by now. We need to speak to this man. The Callicantzaros belongs to the very cult who\'s prophecy I\'m tracking.\" He explained. \"It doesn\'t last very long in this world, you see. It must be summoned. He was surely confronted by the cult before the demon was called here, so he may be able to help us.\" The Xacha turned to look at Leilani, who was by now at least five steps closer. She quickly feigned uninterest, stubbing her toe on the ground and swinging her arms in pretend boredom. He turned back to the feline indifferently. \"The girl can\'t come with us.\"
\"Why not? I-!\" Leilani stopped herself as they turned and found her on tiptoes beside them. She stammered for a while, her eyes shifting to the floor. \"I can\'t go back to the village... they would keep me there my whole life, don\'t you understand? Girls don\'t ever get to leave! And I... I left with my brother... for a new life...\" Her eyes began to fill up tearfully again in sorrow.
Moogie took the girl by the hand and looked into her eyes. \"You\'re coming with us. Don\'t worry. I\'ll keep you safe, I promise.\" The look in her eyes told Leilani she was serious. \"We\'ll get your brother back to you, but it\'s going to be dangerous. You have to promise to be good and do exactly what we say, okay?\" The girl replied with a sincere nod, and Moogie smiled, satisfied enough. \"Okay.\"
\"Moogie.\" The feline turned towards Camazotz, gasping when she saw Sam\'s body slung over his shoulder and a serious look in his eyes. \"I will take him somewhere safe. I want you and the little girl to head south from here. As long as you stay quiet and out of sight, you should stay safe.\" Leilani mumbled quietly about being called a \'little girl\', but the complaint went unheard.
\"Why south?\" Moogie asked, fatigue weighing her voice. \"Camazotz, I really need to see a healer for my arm...\"
\"Trust me.\" And with a sly wink, he turned away and began running. His speed increased exponentially as he departed, and soon he was gone.
Leilani whistled in disbelief. \"Wow, how does he do that?\" She gasped, eyes wide in wonder.
But Moogie could only shake her head. \"I\'ve never asked...\" Taking the girl by the hand, she headed south through the trees. She just hoped that the Xacha knew what he was doing; there had been enough deadly suprises for her lately, and leaving them alone here didn\'t sound like a good idea at all.
Took all day to write, seriously. I\'m not sure how well the pace is going here... how do things sound? Thanks for the comments as always. :)
Edit: Moon, thank you so much. :) I made one small alteration to the changes you suggested, but the rest was perfect, and I\'ve restructured the whole thing by your PMs.
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*edit after Moogie\'s edit* Glad to help. Editing your story gave me the most awsome idea for CoS III. ;)
Damn! I knew it.. I just knew it. It had to be Sam, didn\'t it? Good twist with the soul stealing, though I like to call them Auras ;). I\'m glad he\'s not really dead, as that would be just too sad for Leilani. And Moogie ignoring a broken arm?! She\'s one tough cookie, she is.
Buuuut, some parts are a little hard to understand at first reading. I had to stop and look back a few times to figure out who was talking/thinking/acting. Give me a PM if you would like me to point out where I mean. :)
Oh, and sorry for messing up Camazotz\'s prophecy/visions/whatever. My bad. ;)
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This story is fascinating. I get the feeling that there is a much larger story being woven here, and we only get to see glimpses of it.
I don\'t think this is a tale to dissappoint!
Eagerly awaiting the next chapter :)
- Ayshe
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Chapter 6.
The girls had been walking steadily through the forest for several hours. The dry sound of countless leaves and twigs crushed underfoot played a tuneless marching beat as they travelled, a background sound which became almost inaudible as the long day wore tirelessly, endlessly on. After what seemed like an eternity of walking, the pain in Moogie\'s arm had become unbearable for her. She needed a place to rest, so they stopped at a nearby fallen tree and sat in the shadow beneath its arching bow. The ground was bare here, save a few rotting leaves and some shrubs growing at the base of the unfortunate stump.
Using Moogie\'s knowledge of simple first-aid, Leilani set to work gathering some strong sticks from the surrounding area in order to construct a splint for the broken limb. \"You know, my brother means everything to me...\" Leilani began, kneeling to pick up a small piece of wood from under a nearby bush. \"Do you think you can really get him back?\" She sounded doubtul as she returned to where Moogie sat, measuring it to the length of her friend\'s arm.
Moogie regarded the girl with sympathy in her eyes. \"I really hope we can, Lani... but I don\'t know. There\'s so much about this I don\'t know.\" She sighed. Her arm throbbed with pain, obscuring her thoughts, which struggled once again to piece together the situation, inevitably failing like they had many times before. Little vexed Moogie more than feeling so lost and helpless.
\"So what do you know?\" Leilani asked, searching the feline\'s pink eyes. \"You look like you\'re almost as clueless about all this as I am!\" she exclaimed, as she began pulling stray twigs and branches from the bark, stripping it as smooth as she could.
Moogie sat silently for a few moments, gathering her thoughts as Leilani carefully snapped another stick. She explained slowly, her mind drifting back to that cold night she had been working late. It seemed so long ago now. \"I... live in Ojaveda. I was returning home that day from work- well, if that\'s what you\'d call it. I was tracking him... Camazotz. My guild needs to know who he is.\" She told the girl. \"I was caught so off guard when he suddenly appeared out of nowhere and took me. I guess he must have used some sort of chemical to knock me unconcious, because the next thing I remember was waking up in the sewers, my hands and feet bound. I have no idea how long I\'d been there, but I\'m guessing it was at least a few days.\" Her nose wrinkled as she recalled the pungent smell of the sewer.
Leilani listened with growing interest, urging her to continue. \"So what happened then? How did you escape?\" Moogie winced as the Ylian gently lifted the broken arm and placed it over a piece of wood. The girl stopped and looked around, searching for something.
\"Here,\" The feline offered, helping her. \"You\'ll need to tie it with something. Use my dress, I don\'t mind. It can hardly look any worse than it already does.\" She mused.
Leilani smiled at the remark. She ripped the material from the hem of Moogie\'s dress, using it to hold the sticks firmly in place. The two girls looked like they had been living in the wild for years; their dirty, torn clothes looking more suited to city street beggars.
Finishing the last knot, Leilani sat down next to Moogie and rubbed her hands together. \"All done!\" She smiled, proudly looking over her work. Moogie thanked her, checking the ties to make sure they were tight enough, before resting a while longer under the bow. Several rays of light danced and shimmered over the fallen tree like tears; the gaps in the canopy above mourning the death of the giant which once stood here, tall and proud. Its absence allowed the Azure Sun to penetrate the thick shield of leaves, illuminating the sheltered earth below. The feline looked around at the beauty of the scenery, momentarily forgetting everything, wishing she could live in such a serene place. Everything was quiet, save the rusting of the wind through the leaves all around them. Leilani, too, listened to the calm, taking in the magic of the forest. All of this was new to her, so wonderful and compelling. So much more interesting than the endless crop fields and the same old, crumbling buildings of her village. Her mind drifted back to her brother, and she wondered where the Xacha had taken his body.
Soon, they decided to continue their journey south. However, Leilani found it hard to stay as quiet as her friend, who had been deep in thought ever since. She watched the feline for several minutes, untill she couldn\'t bare the silence any longer.
\"So, carry on...\" She urged. \"What happened after that?\"
Moogie, shaking her head, cast her eyes down as she walked. She took several moments to reply, her troubled thoughts still clearly occupying her mind. \"I... guess I never really escaped. He appeared just after I woke up, and showed me a magical image through one of his Glyphs. My house... it was burned to the ground. All that\'s left are ashes...\" She spoke sadly, holding her arm once again. \"He said that some people wanted me dead, something to do with a prophecy... I still know very little about it, and I didn\'t believe him at the time. I ran away, trying to escape, but I didn\'t get very far. Those sewers... I don\'t know what gets dumped down there, but I ran into one ugly looking creature. It was Camazotz that saved me from it, or I probably wouldn\'t be here today.\"
The two were coming to a break in the trees. The undergrowth stopped abruptly, replaced by a layer of smooth gravel on top of a hard, packed dirt road. The road ran from the west and curved south, so they decided to follow it.
\"So why were you following him? And what did he want?\" Leilani pressed, eager to hear more of the tale.
\"...I guess it doesn\'t hurt to tell you,\" Moogie shrugged, after some hesitation. \"Apparently he was the last person to be seen with a very important Hydlaan figure, an Enkidukai called Seperot Darkstorm...\" Leilani\'s expression was one of blankness. It took Moogie a second to realise the girl must have lived a very sheltered life in her village if she hadn\'t even heard of such a prominent person. It was no wonder her desire to leave home was so compelling. \"He was a guild leader, an important one. He was... just someone I used to know. So this mission was more urgent than usual, that\'s all.\" Leilani shifted her eyes to the passing floor and shrugged.
\"Anyway,\" Moogie continued, \"Camazotz explained that some people, apparently a cult following of the Black Flame legend, have some sort of prophechy involving me and their destruction or downfall. I guess he believes it too. Though I don\'t know why he\'s bothered so much about me; we\'ve never even met before. He says he\'s some sort of Seer, and that he\'s seen the future.\" She shrugged, still unsure whether she could believe such a story. Seers were myths; there were none known to be alive in this day and age. Anyone who claimed to be able to tell future events were tested by elders in the guild of the Arcane Order, and always proven to be false.
The young girl nodded in acknowledgment. \"Yeah, he told me that too. Do you think he can really do that?\" She questioned, playing idly with the flower in her braid.
Moogie shrugged as she walked. \"I don\'t know. But just after he explained this, there was a huge explosion. We could\'ve been killed, but he carried me away from the flames and...\" Moogie\'s words trailed off. She remembered the dream she had seen, staring into the approaching flames. The girl in the dream... she stopped and turned her gaze towards Leilani, who looked back oddly at her.
\"...Moogie? What\'s wrong?\" The girl asked with concern.
The look in her friend\'s eyes was difficult to read, but Moogie quickly glanced away and nodded. \"Sorry, nevermind.\" She dismissed. Leilani frowned, unconvinced, but stared silently at the ground again as her friend resumed down the path, a little quicker than before. The girl fell into step beside her as she continued the tale.
\"I passed out before I saw what happened, but Camazotz must\'ve escaped; the next thing I knew, I was lying by a campfire, out in the fields near your village. Oh..!\" Moogie suddenly stopped again, this time looking into the distance. The edge of the forest was near; she could see the road laid out beyond where the trees stopped, and bare grass beyond. The girls glanced at eachother excitedly, before racing down the road and towards the light. Before long, they were jogging out into the open air, the sky above welcoming them back from the dark undergrowth as they slowed to a walk, breathing heavily through their joyful laughs. The air was fresh and sweet out here; a pleasant breeze drifted by, ripping the grass that covered the hills before them. The road they had been following wound its way towards the distance, leading to a huge visible structure which Moogie instantly recognised.
\"The Winch!\" She exclaimed happily, pointing ahead.
\"Wow, what is that?!\" Leilani gasped, staring wide-eyed at the horizon.
Moogie took a step forward, hands clapsed together as she spoke. \"The Winch, we\'re at the edge of the level! Beyond that building there is just empty space, all the way down to the very bottom of the world!\" Her voice was filled with excitement and wonder. The center of Yliakum was truely an awesome sight, no matter how many times one visited the edges.
\"And we\'re going there!?\" Leilani jumped excitedly beside her. Moogie grinned and nodded, moving on with a newfound enthusiasm down the road, Leilani following along quickly. The building before them seemed almost as wide as the sky itself, growing bigger the closer they drew.
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Excellent! You don\'t need me anymore. ;) I love the way you describe the forest and resting spot. Beautiful. And the interaction between characters is perfect. I\'m really starting to get a sense of who they are.
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yay! more story. now only another 5 hours or something of school left. fun!
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Moon, I have mostly you to thank for showing me a new way of structuring dialog and making the whole thing flow smoothly. It has helped me more than you can possibly imagine! In the past, my bumpy, awkward style is what often lead me to give up; it simply took too much energy to fiddle with chapters untill they could sound bareable enough to read. But now there\'s no stopping me! ;)
Since I\'m in a thankee mood, I\'ll say that Ayshe also deserves a huge Hug of Gratitude +5. It must cause waves of dread every time I say \"I\'ve finished a chapter!\" because Ayshe knows what comes next... ;) \"will you read it through for me?\" Hehe. If it wasn\'t for his critiqu? and encouragment, I wouldn\'t have gotten so far. Thank you. :)
Oh, I almost forgot... Drey! You... um... you\'re good too. :D
Now to start on Chapter 7. ^^
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I loved writing every minute of this. :) Camazotz is fast becoming my favourite character in any story I\'ve ever written.
Chapter 7.
\"What am I doing...\" The Xacha muttered under his breath. His fingers flipped another page of the old tome that lay before him, eyes closely scanning the text within. His black leather gloves rested nearby on the old oak table, tiny particles of dust from its ancient surface spiralling into the air as another page was turned. One of many. Glimpsing light for the first time in untold centuries, the paper\'s fragile, yellowed surface was observed by a pair of searching red eyes; and then, just as quickly, buried in darkness again.
His sturdy hat had also been removed and placed to one side, allowing a few strands of long, white hair to fall freely infront of his face as he read; his features were sharp, cold, but suprisingly youthful, despite his aged voice. The rest of his ragged hair was held back in a loose ponytail, hidden beneath his long coat. A small brass gas lamp sat beside the open book, its weak glow patiently burning ever since he had arrived. An hour ago, though it felt like a lifetime. Its yellow flame flickered through the cobwebs that clung loosely to the aged glass, wispy tendrils waving softly in the air.
Another page turned. Camazotz sighed impatiently. It had to be here somewhere. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair, furniture that hadn\'t seen use in countless years. He couldn\'t remember how long it had been since he was last here. His old home.
The room was small. Stale air and a musky odour clung to every object. A heavy wooden door filled an aperture in one of the walls; two thin strips of grey light crept through gaps underneath it, barely penetrating the darkness. A strong wind could be heard howling outside, but the air within remained still- all save for the occasional turning of a page, and a tired sigh from the seated figure hunched over his cluttered desk.
\"This is all wrong...\" He brooded. This wasn\'t the path his visions had shown. This isn\'t how things were meant to be happening. The Strangers couldn\'t possibly have known where he had taken Moogie on the night of the explosion, and Sam should have been killed outright that day. As for himself, he should already be at the cult\'s doorstep, his retribution at hand, his freedom conquered... He had seen it!
He had seen it...
He rubbed his temples, frustration showing in his brow. He closed the old tome and set it aside. Without a pause, he reached for the next in line and carelessly threw it open somewhere in the middle, resuming his unwavering search.
\"It\'s got to be in one of these acursed texts...\"
The stone walls were cold; their cracked surfaces flat and bare, yet much of the crumbling interior was hidden behind tall bookcases that nearly reached the roof- not that this dark hovel boasted much of a stature. The old shelves were filled with all manner of books, thick and thin, tall and short; their covers packed together in messy lines all the way across, spines displaying titles in some old archaic font.
There were books piled everywhere. Some open at a particular page, others left to clutter the floor, thrown away in neglect and forgotten. Stacks of books balanced precariously on the table, on the floor, in corners of the room. Forlorn, quilted in cobwebs. Undisturbed for decades.
Camazotz suddenly jumped to his feet, throwing the chair back across the floor. \"There!\" He exclaimed at the page, his voice shattering the icy silence. His finger urgently followed the words as his eyes reread the sentence, doublechecking his discovery.
\"Finally!\" He announced, as a triumphant smile spread across his lips. This was just what he had been searching for.
Swiftly, he grabbed the book and made his way around to the front of the desk. Here on the floor, a small, rusted circle of metal formed a handle, and as the Xacha pulled it up, a whole section of the floor swung open heavily, groaning as it shifted. A choking cloud of dust was thrown into the air as the hatch was opened, and it dispersed slowly, revealing a stone staircase that lead omniously down into the dark. Without hesitation, he slipped inside, book held firmly in his hand.
He decended into darkness. But this place was not dark for long. His presence seemed to trigger a hidden mechanism; wheels could be heard turning behind the walls, moving and clattering, the sounds echoing in the pitch black as if nothing else existed. Suddenly, a flame exploded outwards from a torchhead in the stone. Then another, this time on the opposite wall. And another on the first wall, further along. And again on the opposite side. As each torch burst into life, the previous settled down to a gentle flicker, and gradually the way forward became gently lit in a warm, orange glow. Camazotz proceeded quickly as the last of the torches were lit, making his way through the tunnel ahead towards a small, dome-shaped room at the far end.
A large chandelier hung, suspended from the ceiling of the circular room, by a long, rusted metal chain. Its branched arms, four twisted tendrils of metal, held a number of candles that burned a ghostly blue light, illuminating the rocky walls with a tinted hue. Directly below stood a long slab of polished marble; its length took up most of the floorspace, draped with a thin, black sheet of material. It seemed there was something hidden underneath the silky fabric; something that had been laid there not long ago.
Camazotz already knew what it was as he approached, grabbing the fabric with a spread hand and yanking it to the side. It flew gracefully from the altar, crumpling as it landed on the gritty surface of the floor. The man stood silent, observing before him the cold, stiff body of Leilani\'s brother Sam. Still perfectly preserved, yet it was only a matter of time before the herbal potion wore off. His limbs could no longer easily bend, and his features were sunken. Dark grey circles encompassed the area around his staring eyes, his mouth slightly open, dry on the inside. Nothing but a corpse. The girl would break in two if she saw this, he reflected morbidly.
Placing the book carefully on the edge of the smooth marble, beside a lifeless hand, he focused again for a few moments on the text he had found hidden amongst its pages. Camazotz closed his eyes, and raised his arms above the altar; palms down, fingers outstretched, like the claws of an animal as it bears down on its prey. All was silent, as even the crackling torch flames seemed to hush down in anticipation. With a deep, unearthly growl, he began slowly to read the passage aloud. He was fluent in its language; each syllable rolling from his tongue with knowledge and understanding.
\"Muh\'rah ke hush\'kunta, ha khara\'mi tash\'ara... Humah\'rah tuhm harala, tehrei kanna hush\'rala.\"
There was silence as he finished. He stood motionless and gradually opened his eyes.
The ground rumbled.
The chandelier, watchful from above, began to shake from the vibrations. The flames of the candles suddely grew to twice the size, reaching furiously into the air and glowing brightly as they licked the metal chains. The torches behind the Xacha were blown out, snuffed by an invisible wind that picked up as the atmosphere became darker, and the world seemed to fade to black. All that was left were Camazotz, the altar, and the body, basking in a burning blue light.
Camazotz remained motionless as the corpse\'s eyes rolled in their sockets to face him, a gargled groan escaping its crusted lips. Necromancy. Purest, darkest magic. The Glyphs in the Xacha\'s pockets buzzed angrily at this surge of innate energy. Burning... He let it flow through his body freely to his fingertips. The Xacha kept his arms raised, gritting his teeth with the effort of sustaining the power.
\"Show me of your death, soulless cadaver!\" He commanded.
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Dirty Magic \\o/
Its true, Camazotz is interesting. he even has cool z\'s... two of them :P
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*jaw hits floor*
Fantastic...
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WHaT?! Somehow I missed an update?! Luckly I caught this or I may have lost my self imposed title of \'Reader of Everything\'. ;) Musta been my narrator distacting me. :rolleyes:
That being said, *agrees with Ayshe*. Good to see that good ole Cam\'s feathers can be rufled once in a while too.
[[Ignore any typpos in this post, as it was posted when I should have been sleeping (or maybe am). Thank you for the lack of sleep Moogie.]]
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Why... why is it so long!? The first part is... meh... it had me stuck for many days due to its unmovingness. Thankfully it decided to move on and I wrote the entire second section in one day. I had to split the two into seperate posts because it went over the character limit. Rejoice, for it is the first time it\'s ever happened to me! xD Enjoy~
Chapter 8.
The Winch was a truely impressive structure. Built in centuries past by the first settlers of Talad\'s capital city, Hydlaa, it provided essential transport between the first and second levels of Yliakum. It was called the Winch because it used a unique system for moving groups of people and many tonnes of cargo at a time: Gondolas. Pulley-controlled storage cars as big as the average Ylian city house. Many thick cables of finest quality woven Tefusang-hide rope served to support the weight of the Winch\'s multiple pulley systems. While one Gondola was at the station below, its counterpart would be here at the top. There were five pairs of these, aptly named Docks, lined up along the deck with spacious halls linking them to the main building. The marble floors echoed the sound of hurried boots as people passed through, and though it was all very man-made and industrial in its design, the administrators had made an effort to add some colour to the dreary metal structure by adding hanging plants, potted flowers, and other greenery to the walls and floors.
People of all races hurried back and forth through the building, each with their own important missions, deadlines or adventures to reach. Nolthrir nobles conversed with Ylian legislators, Enkidukai parents scolded their cubs\' restlessness as they tusled and played. A lonely dwarf with a large sack slung over his shoulder watched the crowd as they waited for the next transport to arrive from the level below, their shining armour glinting in the light, backpacks full to the brim with supplies and rations.
The cliffs stretched out to the east and west of the Winch for hundreds of miles, curving ever so slightly as their outline disappeared into the mists of the horizon. Winged and feathered lizards soared, glided, and swooped about in a dazzling display of colour over the bottomless expanse of air, darting away as mounted Pterosaurs arrived and left carrying passengers and cargo from level to level, sector to sector. It was a bustling hub of import and export, travel and communication; by far one of the most important structures in the entire world.
Moogie sat quietly in one of the many glass observation domes, gazing through the clear windows at the beautiful view beyond. It was spacious and peaceful here. Cool air breezed through openings in the roof, carrying with it the sweet smell of summertime flowers. The cream-coloured seats were luxuriously soft and comfortable; Moogie couldn\'t help but lounge back and be soaked into the soft, fuzzy material as her tired body ached from exhaustion.
At least she no longer had to worry about her arm. She happened to bump into someone she knew here when they first arrived; Zabeal, a powerful Dermorian female. Zabeal had set out on a journey of discovery from her village, and was waiting by the main entrance of the Winch, suited up in heavy armour. On noticing her friend\'s injury, she presented a glyph of the Crystal way, a gift from her people, and healed Moogie\'s broken arm perfectly. Refusing the small sum of tria the feline had offered in return, she left the Winch and set out on her quest.
Moogie watched the birds outside as they chased eachother. Such beauty and elegance, she marvelled. Nothing but life itself troubled these little creatures. They had no busy meetings to attend, no deadlines to reach. They didn\'t have to travel all over the world just to earn money to live. They simply existed, the way life intended. Moogie breathed deeply, wishing her own life could be so simple. No secret cults trying to kill her. No demons chasing her, no prophecy weighing heavily over her head, and no dead bodies left behind in its wake...
She wondered how Leilani was truely feeling. Ever since they arrived here, the young girl had been touring the building like a sightseer on holiday. Cheerfully greeting everyone she met, skipping through the halls and curiously peering at all the strange technology. Moogie kept watch from the dome, brooding silently. Did Leilani know that her brother was technically dead? Did she just not accept it, placing her full unquestioning trust in Camazotz\' ability to find his soul, reunite it with the body, and all live happily ever after? Moogie doubted that it could be so simple. The girl\'s youthful energy masked any hint that she had just lost her brother. Her face showed no sign of ill emotion. No sadness. No grief. To Moogie, the demeanor seemed most unhealthy.
She took a sip of milk from her glass, placing it back down on the smooth table infront of her with a \'klink\'. She licked her lips thirstily; Warm and refreshing. She felt much more relaxed sitting here than wading through the forest, watching the shadows stalk her and listening to the trees whispering secrets to eachother in the gloom. It was crowded in the main buildings. Many eyes, watching everywhere. A deadly assasin would surely be noticed before he got anywhere near his target.
Or at least, that\'s what she hoped.
A head suddenly poked inside the doorway, startling her. To her relief, it was Leilani, wearing a big grin that grew even wider when she saw the feline\'s reaction.
\"Hehe, sorry Moogie!\" She cherped. Moogie shook her head dismissively as the Ylian sat down beside her. \"This place is so big! I almost got lost twice and somehow ended back at the Docks,\" She said, testing the bounciness of the seat. Moogie watched her silently.
A short Dermorian man in a pristine uniform appeared in the doorway, bowing politely. \"My Lady Moogie, your car is about to arrive.\" He informed them, his hands held behind his back respectfully. He gave Moogie a warm smile and bowed again before turning to leave.
The title struck Leilani as odd. \"My Lady Moogie?\" She questioned, eyebrows raised.
Moogie giggled and felt her cheeks flush bright red. \"Yes, umm... well I used to come here often. I was a full-time cleric and healer of Aliathi back then. I spent most of my time tending to wounded travellers.\" She explained.
Leilani nodded and decided to resume testing the chair springs. \"So,\" She said, in between bounces, \"Are we going go to before Cama gets back, or wait for him?\"
Moogie wasn\'t quite sure. He had told them to travel south, to trust he knew the direction. He obviously knew they would reach the Winch. But were they supposed to decend to the second level? She shrugged her shoulders and stood up.
\"Well he would have told us to wait here if not,\" She decided. Leilani agreed, and together they left the dome and headed for the Docks.
The milk in the glass rippled. The birds outside fled suddenly. A dark mist filled the room; it swirled together, sucking the light from the air around it, gradually solidifying, forming a sinister outline. Its malevolent purple eyes burst to life, feiry orbs that followed Moogie as she padded towards the Docks.
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The Gondola car made its way slowly down the face of the rocks. It rattled and clattered, jostling its passengers as it lowered itself steadily down the rope path. The people inside sat in rows of wooden seats, shielded from the jagged rock face by its protective frame as it decended. Some large crates and sacks sat unsteadily on the roof, strapped tightly together by criss-crossing straps of leather.
There were seven passengers in this particular car. In the seats next to Moogie and Leilani sat an old Ylian man and his chubby wife. She fussed over his suit, adjusting his tie and brushing dust from his shoulders. His brow furrowed in silent protest, but he didn\'t dare speak up.
Behind them were two teenage Diaboli girls; the one by the window grabbed a twig as it passed by in the rock, snapping it off and bringing it in. Her friend scolded her, saying it was dangerous to reach out of the windows. The girl did it again some minutes later, sticking her tongue out in mocking spite at her friend.
Opposite them, snoozing quietly, a balding Ylian man in brigadine armour held his sword between his knees to keep it secure. His breath reeked of ale and he mumbled endlessly about unruly vagabonds.
Leilani sat beside Moogie in the car, shivvering slightly.
Sensing her fear, Moogie gave a reassuring smile and put her arm around the girl, hugging her tightly. \"It\'s okay, Lani, it won\'t take long...\" She told her. Leilani nodded nervously. Her stomach felt like it was tying knots in itself.
The Gondola snagged against a stone jutting out from the cliff and shook violently for a few seconds, causing the Ylian behind them to rouse groggily from his sleep and Leilani to shriek and practically jump into Moogie\'s lap.
\"Shh, shhh it\'s okay, we\'re safe, we just hit a stone is all, it\'s normal.\" Moogie comforted, sliding the terrified girl back into her own seat. Moogie chuckled to herself; she remembered being this nervous on her first Gondola ride.
It took a while for Leilani to settle again, but after ten minutes she had forgotten about it and occupied herself with the view through the window next to her seat. Moogie took a deep breath, lay her head back, and closed her eyes. Perhaps she could nap for a while untill they reached the level below.
Or perhaps not.
The car suddenly shuddered to a halt. Both Moogie and Leilani turned towards eachother quizzically, then to the other passengers, who were looking equally as confused. Their hushed murmers turned into paniced screams as the car groaned, lurched, and began to drop sickeningly downwards.
It stopped abruptly, as if caught on something that held it up, precariously dangling there in limbo. The jolt threw them all to the floor. Heart racing and eyes wide, Moogie leaned over the curled, shaking ball of hysterics that was Leilani, and poked her head out of the window.
Nothing but cloud beneath them; if they fell, it would be a *very* long way down.
She turned her gaze upwards. They had come a long way already; the Winch was difficult to see through the mist, but something seemed odd. The line that held the car was... shaking? Moogie squinted, unsure what she was seeing. Was something... climbing down the ropes towards them? The car rattled as the disturbance travelled down the line, coming ever closer.
\"Moogie!\" Leilani cried, hugging her knees fearfully. Moogie pulled herself back inside and held the girl in her arms. \"What is it? What did you see?\"
\"Something... something\'s coming towards us...\" Moogie whispered closely, not wanting to panic the other people. If they start rocking the Gondola now, she thought...
\"What\'s that you say!?\" The balding man behind them roughly rose from the floor, thrusting his upper body out of the window and peering up towards the sky. The other passengers held eachother. The Diaboli girls weeped fearfully.
\"Is it someone coming to help?\" Leilani asked, sounding vaguely hopeful. Moogie shook her head. Even if someone was stupid enough to climb hundreds of feet down a thin rope, it certainly wouldn\'t do anything to help their situation.
Something landed with a sharp thud on the roof. Then there was silence. Moogie held her breath; this wasn\'t good.
The Ylian man yelled suddenly. His limbs flailed inside the car, hands gripping the edges of the window as he was viciously dragged outside. Moogie darted over the top of her seat and tried to catch hold of his legs, but she was too late; he was gone. All of them cowered as they heard a bloodcurdling scream and a sickening crunch. A limp figure fell lifelessly passed the window, disappearing into the mist below.
\"Oh Rogde, what are we going to do!?\" The old wife blubbered, huddling against her husband. They moved away from the windows, crouching in the central walkway. Moogie held Leilani protectively; her mind raced, eyes darting about the small car, desperately searching for safety. But there was none.
Before she knew what was happening, a creature appeared through the window and reached in with its long, skeletal claws, gripping Leilani\'s head with such raw aggression she thought it would be crushed. Realisation dawning on her like a crack of thunder, Moogie recognised this demon. Callicantzaros.
\"No! LANI!!\" Moogie shrieked, pounding the creature\'s arm and trying to wrench its fingers away. The girl kicked and screamed, her skin pale and clammy as she struggled in blind terror, but her efforts were in vain. With a cruel, bloodied grin, the creature snatched Leilani out of Moogie\'s protective grip, carrying her back to the roof in the same fashion as it had the doomed man.
Moogie no longer thought; she just acted. Overcome with emotion, she clambered through the opening after it. Had she been more aware of her actions, the act of scaling the outside wall of a Gondola several thousand feet in the air would have made her faint then and there. But as she pulled herself onto the roof of the car, all she could see was Leilani\'s frightened eyes, and the wicked claws that covered her mouth chokingly.
\"Let her go right now! It\'s me you want, well here I am! Come and get me, demon!\" The challenge rang loud against the stone. The evil eyes of the Callicantzaros flared hungrily at the feline, its primary target, and it grinned maliciously. Its plan to lure her out of the Gondola had worked deliciously.
Moogie already knew it was a trap, but she didn\'t care. \"I said let her GO!\" She yelled again, eyes resolute and fixed forward, fists clenched in defiance.
The creature looked down at its prey, considering. It shrugged, turning its gaze back to Moogie, and tossed the girl over the side.
Moogie\'s heart skipped a beat. She couldn\'t even scream. Her eyes followed Leilani as she fell into the abyss.
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:O cliff hanger h8
i think this may be my faveourite chapter yet, i was liking the description of the poeple on the docks and also the beginging of the journey.
no you must write the next one super fast.
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Oh wow...
This tale started pretty good, then just got better and better. You\'re quite the storyteller, Moogie.
Clifhanger... weep! Now we have to wait two weeks to hear of Leilani\'s fate!
Heh. Top stuff.
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Two post chapters, I know all about them. Though I did kinda find a way around that pesky 12345 limit. My last post in \'Soul\'s Mirror\' happened to be 26700+ chars. ;)
But on to the compliments! Brilliant portrayal of the bystanders. And the creeper...wow. And I do so love a good \"cliffhanger\". ;)
*goes off grumbling to himself*
Darn Moogie, stealing all the reviews. Well, if I can\'t beat her in reviews, I shall beat her in shear volume.
*begins writing next chapter*
*writes nearly the entire next chapter* :P
Also in edit, clean out your inbox, Moogie! :D
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Short in words, but as the Great Ayshe did say: not lacking in action. :)
Chapter 9.
Leilani couldn\'t scream either. Her breath escaped her silently as she slipped through the air, falling through oblivion towards certain death. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, and images of her short life flashed before her eyes... settling on one memory of her brother. He stood before her now, in her vision, smiling his brotherly smile. He was always so proud of me. He always protected me. The image vanished; he was not here to protect her this time.
She watched her hair as it reached up towards the sky, rippling and waving as if it could somehow hold on to the air, somehow stop the decent. Her thick braid flapped about before her eyes, untill the flower her mother had given her ripped from the material, too weak to withstand the force of the fall. She left it behind as it began floating down on its own. Too slowly; it mocked her with its weightlessness. Soon it was gone. She felt a twinge of sadness, and a single tear escaped her eye. Her mind gave in to the realisation that she would never see her family again. She realised she was about to die.
Lights danced about infront of her eyes. More visions? I don\'t want to feel the grief anymore. Let me just disappear, she pleaded to the Gods. She couldn\'t stand having failed to bring Sam back. She couldn\'t stand losing her mother\'s precious gift. To see their faces again would be- No, but these looked different. They looked real. Her eyes focused; time quickened again. She felt strangely warm as the lights multiplied and gathered around her.
She wondered if this was a trick of the mind. Perhaps she had died already? Maybe this is what it feels like? She felt as if she was slowing down, resisting the pull of gravity. Slightly, ever so slightly... but it quickly grew stronger. She realised how sickened her stomach was before, because now she felt as light as a feather. She felt safe, in the grip of an ethereal hand that encompassed her in its gentle energy.
Soon she had stopped falling completely. The braided flower fluttered slowly past her; its petals had become remarkably withered and colourless. To her suprise, she began moving upwards again. The phenomena frightened Leilani. What\'s going on? How can this be? In her confusion, the girl barely missed the sight of a large, black creature plummeting past her. Her pained eyes fixed on the shape. No, please... please don\'t let that be the demon...
She watched from above as the creature spread its leathery wings, turned in mid-air, and began speeding back towards her. Panic filled her thoughts, and she began struggling in the magical binds. However, they continued relentlessly to power her ascention towards the sky, gaining speed as the creature below drew ever closer. But she wasn\'t gaining enough, and she couldn\'t free herself. Even if she could, she would just fall anyway. Either way, she was still going to die; this wasn\'t her day.
The strong beat of enormous wings was upon her, now moving roughly the same speed as her helpless body. She closed her eyes in suspense, not noticing the glow around her as it faded. She was softly released, but the drop still made her yelp in suprise, untill she was caught by something- but not the vicious talons of a murderous beast, as she had expected. In reality, she was now sitting on its back, and she realised it wasn\'t the Callicantzaros at all. Infact, she had seen one of these particular creatures before. Some merchants favoured these over Pterosaurs, being able to more swiftly carry passengers over harsh terrain. It had a small head, attatched directly to its thickly furred torso. The leathery wings looked almost skeletal, with long, boney fingers outstretched, a thin membrane attatching each digit to the next. They pumped the air powerfully, propelling it upwards at amazing speed. A Megaras. Which means she was now sitting with its rider.
Still fearful, she craned her neck up to see who had caught her. A familiar grin met her eyes, brimming with all the usual emotions; confident, cocksure, arrogant. But now it seemed also genuinly pleased to see her.
She smiled back at him. \"Thanks, Cama...\"
Camazotz tipped his hat, and gave her a wink. \"I was just passing. Thought you might need a lift?\"
\"Oh no!\" The girl\'s smile suddently vanished as her mind fell back to reality. \"Moogie! Moogie\'s still up there with the demon!\" She cried.
\"That\'s where we are headed now.\" Though calm, his voice held a sense of urgency. The Xacha kicked his heel into the side of the Megaras, pushing the creature to the limits of its strength. It had been a tough decision, to choose whether to save Leilani from falling to her death, or lose her and ensure Moogie\'s valuable survival. He had passed Moogie on his way down the cliff; she spotted him, eyes brimming with concern as he decended into the deep mist. In doing so, he had put the Prophecy at risk; Moogie may already be dead by now.
Leilani felt nauseated. They were travelling fast, but she could only just make out the bottom of the Gondola car in the distance. She feared they would be too late. How long can one possibly survive, standing suspended thousands of feet in the air, on a square platform with a bloodthirsty monster trying to kill you? As the Megaras drew up level with the car, she got her answer: as long as it takes.
Moogie half-stood, knelt on one knee, near a corner of the car\'s roof. The boxes under her feet shook as the Callicantzaros charged at her again; she barely dived out of its path, receiving long gash across her face. It matched the others she already suffered on her leg and chest, dripping blood down her cheek as she winced in pain. The demon would have fallen off the roof from the miss, had it not the advantage of its wings, which it used to turn in mid-air and take a more powerful swoop towards the helpless Enkidukai. A thunderous bolt of electricity sent it crash-landing onto the cargo, thwarted by Camazotz\' everpresent Glyph collection.
Moogie turned to him and limped to the edge of the Gondola. \"Quickly, catch me!\" She cried. The stunned demon shook its body and pulled itself to its feet, quickly recovering. The Megaras moved in close and landed on the side of the car, its huge wing claws piercing the frame as it held on. The screams of the passengers inside was audible now, their calls no longer drowned out by booming wingbeats. The sudden weight of the creature started the Gondola rocking unsteadily, and Moogie barely managed to stumble onto the animal\'s back, helped on by the others. Pulling at the Megaras\' reins, Camazotz took them into flight again. Now he had a score to settle.
With fierce eyes glowing like hot coals, the Xacha commanded his mount to grab the Callicantzaros with its claws. The huge bat screeched in delight, lunging at its prey with cruel playfulness. The demon darted about the platform, narrowly avoiding the razorsharp talons that thrashed and sliced the cargo boxes in their wake. Meanwhile, Camazotz quickly grouped together several Glyphs and started to call on their combined power for a more potent spell- one that Moogie instantly recognised.
With a shocked gasp, she pulled his arm back as he raised it to begin casting. The action disrupted the spell, causing him to nearly drop his Glyphs as his hand became burnt with the discharge of the spell\'s unreleased energies.
\"What are you doing?\" He yelled, turning to her in annoyance. \"Don\'t you want it to die?\"
\"You were going to cast Flameburst! What are you thinking?\" Moogie gestured urgently towards the car. \"There are people in there! They would be burned alive!! Ah!\" She was forced to grip his waist tightly as the Megaras took another swipe at the demon. The Callicantzaros took to flight, swinging around to flank the more cumbersome flyer and charging relentlessly at its passengers. The attack was met with the Xacha\'s re-casting of the feiry spell, that sent a ball of explosive fire hurtling towards the monster.
Barely pulling away in time, the bat and its riders narrowly escaped being engulfed in the flames of the resulting impact. To Moogie\'s utmost horror, however, the Gondola was not so fortunate. She watched as the explosion ripped through the open windows of the car and instantly burnt through the cables holding it safely in the air. The screams of pain and horror echoed endlessly in her ears as she watched the destroyed car plummet down the cliff.
Camazotz made no effort to follow. They were unimportant to him. Staring intently at the thick black cloud at the center of the dying flames, he saw that the demon was gone. Not even its charred corpse remained for him as a trophy as the smoke lifted. But he knew that it had survived, unsummoned by the Strangers that controlled it, who were watching them even now from the Winch station above. He threw an expressive hand sign to the sky, growling in anger as he signalled to the Megaras to start decending.
Leilani cowered before him, and Moogie held on loosely from behind. Their tears streamed freely down their faces. Moogie, in particular, felt a pain like no other. Those people had nothing to do with the Prophecy. She wanted to save their lives. She thought she had. She had stopped Camazotz\' casting- she warned him that they would die. But he did it anyway. He didn\'t even glance down as the rope had burned through and released them. He... killed them.
\"...You killed them all...\" she whispered.
-
:O people dies.
other than that i am lost for what to right, not because it was bad. My brain is just broke.
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Chapter 9 is bursting to get finished (it\'s almost there already) but I suddenly noticed a small problem with my writing.
I\'d like to get something clarified... which is correct:
\"Let\'s get to wherever we\'re going so I can get some answers.\" The feline sighed.
or
\"Let\'s get to wherever we\'re going so I can get some answers,\" the feline sighed.
?
Note the use of the capital letter, and the punctuation that ends the spoken sentence.
I\'ve been using the first method pretty much all the way through the entire story, but suddenly it seems... wrong, somehow. :/
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another spectacular addition ^^
I say top one is fine *nodnod*
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Originally posted by Moogie
\"Let\'s get to wherever we\'re going so I can get some answers.\" The feline sighed.
or
\"Let\'s get to wherever we\'re going so I can get some answers,\" the feline sighed.
Strictly speaking, the first is grammatically correct, if she\'s not sighing the quotation but rather speaking it and then sighing. Two seperate sentences for two seperate events. But if she\'s sighing the quotation, then the second version is the way to go. I kind of think that\'s better stylistically, too (the second one).
EDIT: In my excitement over the prospect of showing off my grammatical skills, I forgot to mention that this story is awesome. This story is awesome!
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Properly...the second, following the rules stated above, although I don?t know if you use the same rules over there across the pond.
And Cam is a bastard.
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I guess I could have clarified a bit. :) Yes, she\'s sighing the sentence. Thanks for the help there. :)
And Cam is a bastard.
Aww, give my favourite guy a break. :P Hehe. He\'s quite unstable at the moment. Next two chapters will tell you everything important about him.
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New to this chapter, proper speech punctuation! :P Thanks to the people above.
Chapter 10.
\"What??\" Camazotz watched as Moogie finished applying the last of her bandages to her wounded leg.
\"I said I\'m not going with you anymore.\" She replied grumpily. She stood, tested her weight, before limping over to the merchant who\'s stall she had borrowed the first aid equipment from. The marketplace here sprawled out over the fields before the Winch of the second Level, receiving good business from passing travellers and adventurers. Unlike the station above, it was not illegal for anyone to set up shop here and sell whatever they liked- so many people did exactly that.
\"Why?\" The Xacha turned to her with a puzzled look. Moogie shot him a cold glare that could freeze a Fire Elemental\'s heart, but ignored the question. The wounds on her face and chest had been cleaned and stitched. They would be sore for a long time without the help of a curative spell. She thought of asking to borrow a Healing Glyph from Camazotz, but her high emotions made her keep her distance. The fact that he didn\'t even offer the Glyph freely made her even more sour.
Leilani returned from the midst of the market with a backpack full with food and other supplies. She set it down on the dirt nearby and took out a large apple, which she started munching hungrily. Moogie approached and also picked out some food to eat. Camazotz didn\'t move from his spot. She wondered if he was ever hungry; at one time, she would have offered him something, but not anymore. She didn\'t want anything to do with him anymore. Still, Leilani was not so unforgiving; she did owe him her life, after all.
\"Rrr you goimt to eat anyhinm, Camm?\" The Ylian spoke with a full mouth of food. He shook his head.
It occured to Moogie that he always seemed to avoid questions about himself. She had never seen him eat a thing. Did he even need to? Why are his eyes so strange? Where did he come from? And, most importantly to her, why did he care whether she lived or died? He didn\'t seem to care about much else, let alone other people\'s lives. Yet, he had saved Leilani. But why? What was his purpose?
She finished her mouthful and decided to approach him. If she was going to go this alone, she needed the answers from him now.
\"I want to know everything you know.\" She demanded.
Camazotz raised an eyebrow. \"Everything I know about what, exactly?\"
Moogie snorted in annoyance. \"About me, and this prophecy, and why you care so damn much about it! Who are you really, Camazotz? What are you doing here??\" Her questions came unrestrained and demanded to be answered. She couldn\'t take it anymore. She wanted answers right now or she would refuse to be any part of this anymore.
He turned his head as if to physically avoid her questions. \"Now is not the time, Moogie.\"
\"Now is the ONLY time!\" She yelled back at him. Leilani looked over at them in concern. \"I\'m not going to travel with a ruthless murderer who can\'t even tell me why I should have ever followed you in the first place! I\'m not putting anyone\'s lives in danger just because you don\'t care about anything but your stinking Prophecy!!\" Moogie spat, seething with rage. Unphased by the animosity, Camazotz glanced wearily over her shoulder at Leilani, who tilted her head questioningly in response. His eyes returned to the feline infront of him.
\"...Despite what you think, there are some things I do care about- besides our fated futures.\" He replied quietly, after a brief pause. \"I\'ll tell you. But not infront of the girl. These are things that I was only fully able to understand today. Her involvement has changed the path of the future beyond what I saw in my visions. But today, I... was shown the truth... about many things.\"
Moogie didn\'t understand at first, but a gut-feeling gave her a terrible inclination. \"This... has something to do with her brother, doesn\'t it?\" She whispered, her rage dissipating and replaced by a greater concern for the girl. The Xacha glanced at the girl again, before silently turning away. The feeling inside her doubled. In truth, it had been a comfort to believe he had known what was happening all along. She could take comfort in the fact that he would be in the right place, at the right time, protecting her from harm. But now she didn\'t know how to feel. She didn\'t trust him anymore. She was still angry at his disregard for the lives in the Gondola, but now, she felt there was a dark, forboding reason behind it. Something in him had changed that day, and it had something to do with Sam...
Leilani had only overheard part of the conversation. \"I guess this means we really have to hurry if we\'re going to track down my brother\'s soul again, right?\" She said, as Moogie approached her and sat down again. \"I mean, it\'s been a long time now. Those plants must have been really strong.\" Either she was still unaware, or she was still fully in denial.
\"Right. Real strong,\" Camazotz murmered. Moogie ignored them both, deciding to pack up the food and get them moving again.
\"Let\'s get to wherever we\'re going so I can get some answers,\" the feline sighed.
*********
The three travelled in a north-easterly direction for several miles, riding the Xacha\'s Megaras for speed. Camazotz sat at the front, holding the reins, with Moogie and Leilani behind. The terrain below was an endless plain of grass and rocks; there was none of the vast farmlands seen on the first level. The light was noticeably more dull here than the girls were used to; the Azure Sun could still penetrate the rolling mists with ease, but it was weaker the further into Yliakum it travelled. Perhaps that\'s why farming isn\'t so popular here, Leilani wondered.
Suddenly feeling very curious, the young girl leant forward. \"Hey Cama,\" she called, \"What\'s your Megaras\'s name?\"
He turned his head slightly to reply. \"Zenyiel. She was... nevermind.\" He hesitated, but dismissed the thought quickly.
\"Umm... okay. Well she\'s a pretty thing,\" she complimented, stroking the creature\'s fur. Moogie remained silent, her mind occupied with the many questions she felt would soon be answered. Somehow, she felt she wasn\'t going to like what Camazotz had to tell her.
They landed nearby an unremarkable outcrop of stone at the foot of a small mountain range. The wind whistled through the short, scraggly grass as they dismounted and approached the formation on foot, Camazotz leading them. With caution, he inspected the base of the stone. It looked undisturbed. He frowned.
\"I know this is the place...\" he pondered, stubbornly resolute as he searched for any signs of writing or symbols on the stone. He bent down in order to inspect its base again.
Moogie folded her arms impatiently. \"Maybe if you told me what you\'re looking for I could help,\" she offered.
He stood, refusing to take his eyes off the stone. \"Their lair... it\'s close, I can feel it. I feel drawn to this... this is the entrance, somehow. I just know it is.\"
The feline shook her head. \"You mean... we\'re going right into their very home? Are you crazy?\" Moogie stepped up beside him. \"Camazotz, if we just waltz in through the front door they\'re going to notice, you know?\"
\"This isn\'t the front door, so don\'t worry about it,\" the Xacha replied simply. Moogie looked at him for a moment, incredulous, but finally decided to trust him despite her better judgement.
She watched him circled around the object; suddenly, her keen ears picked up a small click. It sounded like it had come from the ground underneath Camazotz\' feet.
\"wait, you triggered something...\" she warned, backing away cautiously. The stone began resonating, humming a low, lonely tune to itself. She heard the sound of rumbling stones behind her, and turned to see a hole appearing at the base of the mountain, large rocks and boulders rolling away from its entrance. A pair of black, raven-like lizards perching on the limb of a nearby tree fled the disturbed area. The rumbling soon ceased, leaving the way forward open to them.
Camazotz turned to Leilani as she approached them. \"No. You\'re staying here,\" he ordered coldly. The girl wanted to protest, but stopped when she spotted Moogie shaking her head, warning her not to try. Leilani crossed her arms and sulked as Camazotz moved towards the cave mouth.
\"Lani,\" Moogie approached her. \"I think you should find somewhere to hide. I don\'t think it\'s safe to be alone out here, but he has his mind set. I just hope he knows what he\'s doing...\" She looked over at the man, who was fishing in his inside pocket with one hand, searching for a Glyph. Leilani nodded, and hugged the feline before she left.
\"Be careful in there... I have a bad feeling about this...\" she warned. Moogie nodded and gave her a grateful smile. She turned and quickly ran to catch up with Camazotz, who had found his Glyph of Light and was already venturing inside.
-
Oh ho. So he\'s got feelings after all. Very good all in all. I like all the inner tumoil. Too bad about Sam, though. Lucklily you didn\'t develope him very far. It hurts to let a character you\'ve become very close to die. :(
*edit* Forgot to thank you for adding on to that 40 hours. :P
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i read moon\'s post, but not moogies, when i read the chapter i liked. Sounds like things are gonns get even more interesting soon when we gets some explinations.
She can poke me later if there were any changes
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Chapter 11.
Moogie tried hard to breathe silently as she decended the stone steps into the heart of the cavern. Every careful footstep seemed to echo for miles ahead, and she wondered if their presence was not already known by everyone inside. Camazotz didn\'t seem to mind the noise; he pressed on, his hand raised, pillars of soft light streaming through his fingers, soaked up by the glistening rock walls. The Glyph in his clenched fist glowed warmly, lighting the surrounding area, but giving no indication of what was ahead. The ground beneath them was roughly chiseled into a staircase that sloped down in a gentle gradient, and tiny pebbles raced eachother to the bottom from their feet. Not that Moogie could tell how long this path went on for.
\"Well, now that we\'re alone, Camazotz...\" she whispered, feeling both nervous and eager to hear what he had to say. She could sense something was eating away at him. His whole countenance had changed since that day in the forest. Since their first encounter on the street, on that fateful rainy night, he had begun to warm to her. He had almost become a friend. But now, it was all gone. He seemed distant. Cold. But somehow she knew he wanted to tell her just as much as she wanted to hear it. There was an awkward silence as they decended further.
\"I was born in the Klyros capital of the Seventh Level,\" he began, his voice hushed. \"My mother was a herbologist. My father, a Necromancer. From a young age they would practice their crafts infront of me, teaching me their skills. My mother would tell me that not all potions were created to heal; she taught me their colours and smells, and I learned to tell the properties of a liquid without taking a single sip. Similarly, my father told me that calling aid from the spirits of the world was not always an evil act. He said that the dead exist without purpose, without minds, and his trade simply put them to good use.\" Moogie listened carefully, keeping close behind him as the light from the cave mouth faded more and more in the darkness. The walls echoed their voices, copying every word several times to ghosts in the dark.
\"I was ten when they were both killed in an attack by a small invading army,\" he continued. Moogie was about to comment, but he didn\'t pause. \"My mother hid me away in the shelter below our house before she was murdered, and my presence went undiscovered for several days. Eventually I left the rubble of my home and was taken into care by a teacher at the Academy of Arcane Arts, where I lived and trained for another ten years or so.\"
Moogie, who was still listening carefully, found something odd about his words. \"The Academy of Arcane Arts? That still exists? I thought it was pulled down centuries ago...\"
There was another awkward silence. Moogie wondered if she should feel embarassed for not knowing, but she had never visited the Seventh Level and decided her ignorance was easily justified. Camazotz continued after a pause. The only light now came from his clenched hand.
\"I was always the most skilled student in the school, and I knew it. Eventually I proved it to everyone else; I bested the Guildmaster in a controlled duel of Magic in the Academy arena. I had every right to demand his position.\" The feline stayed silent, noting the growing anger in his voice. \"And if they were not such spineless cowards, if they were half the people my mother and father were, I would have gotten it. But I had a reputation for practicing, what they called, the \"Dark Arts\". I made no effort to hide my interest in the skills my father had shown me.\"
\"I guess I can understand why,\" Moogie reflected.
The Xacha grunted. \"Well I could not. They didn\'t trust me, my talents. So be it, then. It was not me who was to blame for the rage that grew inside me, untill one night, where I rose the corpse of the Guildmaster\'s own father from the cemetary and sent it to murder him in his bedchambers as he slept.\" The girl gasped in shock, stopping dead in her tracks. She would have stayed there, if Camazotz had turned to her with some sort of reaction. But he continued to decend, and since he was taking their only lightsource with him, she felt pressed to follow. She swallowed hard.
\"Camazotz, that\'s... that\'s terrible... how could you do that?...\" She asked nervously. She had been travelling with a murderer much longer than the Gondola trip, it seemed.
He shrugged, seemingly indifferent. \"A court trial inevitably found me guilty for the deed, and I was exiled from the entire city. But I regret nothing. He was not a worthy man for his position. As my father always said, the dead can be useful for many purposes. Ironically it was the skeleton of his evening meal one day that told me of the sordid affairs he frequently got involved with. Quite funny, really.\" But his words lacked any emotion, not least of all humour.
The steps beneath them evened out into a solid floor at last. Up ahead there was lit torchs on either side of the tunnel, and further in seemed also adequately lit. Camazotz decided the Glyph was no longer needed, and put it back in his pocket silently. They moved forward carefully, scanning the opening ahead for signs of movement. Shadows from the torchheads danced about on the walls, making the butterflies in Moogie\'s stomach quickly join in.
Camazotz peeked his head around the corner. The room beyond showed signs of habitation; there was crude red markings on several of the tunnels leading further into the complex. He recognised their meanings.
\"This room leads to... Summoning Chambers, the Den of Sacrifice, and the Hall of Numbers.\" He whispered, reading them each in turn.
\"I\'m really not sure I want to be here...\" Moogie stammered. Camazotz quietly unsheathed his silver Sai from his belt, holding it loosely in his right hand. Moogie was unarmed, and felt even more helpless now than before. \"Camazotz?\"
\"Don\'t worry,\" he whispered, \"I know what I\'m doing.\" Perhaps Moogie was just paranoid from fear, but that sounded awfully forced to her. Her mind screamed, why are you still following him, you know he\'s a murderer! Where are you going!? but she lacked the confidence to turn around now. If he had told her his past before they entered the cave, she probably would have stayed outside. Maybe that was just why he had made sure to stay silent untill now.
He lead them through the middle archway, which was marked with a kind of horned animal skull surrounded by a circle. Moogie guessed they were heading for the Summoning Chambers.
\"Why are we going here?\" She whispered, keeping her voice as hushed as she could. Up ahead she could hear voices, chanting, and an unearthly hum of energy. Her heart was racing.
The Xacha remained silent as he crept forward, and they pressed against the wall as they came to the doorway, hiding themselves behind the large frame of the door. The room beyond was dark, lit only by some small torch flames to the sides and a ring of candles in the center of the room, burning with dark purple flames. There were several people gathered here; cultists, Moogie guessed, clothed in long robes that hid their whole body. Even their faces were in shadow, undicernable from eachother. The chanting came from them as they each faced the circle, tracing strange symbols with their hands.
Camazotz leant close to Moogie, his voice barely audible. \"This is the source of the Callicantzaros\' powers. It was originally summoned here... a tortured, shattered soul of a Klyros woman, sucked into the magically preserved body of an ancient type of demon that once inhabited this place,\" he explained quietly. Moogie glanced past him, her eyes exploring the room. She deduced that Camazotz was going to attempt to kill the creature by destroying it\'s summoning circle, but she didn\'t know how he hoped to do it without alerting everyone present.
As if on cue, the chanting stopped. Camazotz, who had picked out yet another Glyph from his seemingly endless pocket collection, put his arm against her and pushed her back against the rock. \"Stay very, very still,\" he told her, the look in his eyes deadly serious. Moogie nodded, and suddenly her vision was clouded in a strange grey hue. Sounds became thick and blunt, as if she were listening from underwater. The feeling made her scared to even breathe. Camazotz hid the Glyph by his side as their bodies vanished from sight- and just in time. The cultists filed out through the narrow doorway, oblivious to the intruders, apparently finished with whatever empowering rituals they had been performing. Perfect timing, Moogie mused. Somewhat too perfect, her paranoia added.
The sound of footsteps and whispers gradually faded. There was no longer any noise coming from within the room. Camazotz decided they were safe, for now, and deactivated the spell of Invisibility. Moogie blinked a few times and rubbed her ears.
\"Wow... that was weird,\" she gasped.
The Xacha peeked into the room again to confirm it was empty, before stepping through the doorway. Moogie hesitantly followed behind. The air was stuffy, and the scent of wax floated from the candles in the center of the stone room. There were symbols all over the floor; she noticed Camazotz deliberately avoided stepping on several particular runes, and decided it was best to do the same herself. He knelt next to the circle, reading the texts within.
\"I don\'t know how you can read this stuff. I\'ve never seen such writing before...\" She moved around to the back of the circle so that she could keep her eye on the door. Now would not be a good time to get caught, her mind worried.
-
\"Here,\" Camazotz spoke up suddenly. \"This is describing the three elements the demon draws its powers from. Three times a day the Strangers pour power of a particular magic Way into the gathered energies of the circle; one to keep the spirit trapped, one to keep the spirit controlled, and one to keep its body alive,\" he decyphered.
\"Great,\" Moogie said with a pleased smile, \"So how do we break it?\"
He studied the circle for a moment. Finally, he nodded. \"My best guess would be to counter the magic energies with their opposites. Currently it seems to be fully powered. Spells of the opposite ways will cancel out the ones in effect and weaken that aspect of the Callicantzaros.\"
\"Sounds easy,\" Moogie replied. Too easy, her mind added, who\'s unwanted opinions began to annoy her. She shook her head. Get a grip, Moogie... he knows what he\'s doing, everything will be fine, she reassured herself. If only she could believe it.
\"You\'re shaking. Cold?\" The Xacha suddenly asked without looking at her.
Slightly taken aback by the unexpected comment, she stammered a response. \"N-no, just... I guess I\'m a little... scared... especially, you know, after...\" she hesitated to finish the sentence. \"After what you told me...\"
Camazotz looked directly into her fearful eyes, an unrecognisable emotion suddenly flashing across his face as he tried to mask it. She couldn\'t quite put her finger on its meaning; it seemed almost like pain. But before she could read more, he deliberately pulled his eyes back to the circle.
\"It seems we need to cast Brown, Blue and Crystal ways, in that order,\" he said, quickly returning the subject to the task at hand, \"to counter the Azure, Red and Dark energies here. I think you practice these much more than I do. Do you think you could gather enough power to cancel the circle?\" he questioned.
Moogie scratched her head. \"Umm... I can try. But I don\'t have any Gl-\" She didn\'t need to finish her sentence. The Xacha presented three Glyphs and a smug grin. She tried hard to smile back, but found it impossible. There was just too many thoughts swimming around in her head right now to find humour in anything, least of all from Camazotz. He didn\'t expect her to say anything anyway.
He moved back towards the edge of the room and watched as Moogie took a position infront of the circle. She wished she could cast the Crystal Glyph first; it would be the easiest for her. Nevertheless, she took up the Brown glyph in her hand, and began to focus her mana. Suddenly, a loud voice from behind her interupted her thoughts. In her panic she spun around, only to be greeted by an incoming bolt of energy that suddenly split into a thousand twisting, organic tendrils that wrapped themselves firmly around her entire body, pinning her arms and legs together so tightly she immediately fell over.
\"That will be as close as you ever come to forfilling your purpose, girl...\" The Stranger haughtily grinned as he approached from the doorway, seeing his prize squirm helplessly on the floor. Her mouth gagged with vines pressed so tightly that she couldn\'t speak.
\"As for you,\" the cultist turned to Camazotz, \"You have more than sufficiently served yours.\" He suddenly started to laugh, his lips contorted into a victorious grin. \"Now the Prophecy is ours to control! We will shape our own future!\"
The Xacha stepped forward and sheathed his Sai. Moogie stopped struggling, watching him. Her eyes became filled with horror as he spoke.
\"I hope you intend to keep your end of the bargain,\" he said flatly, his eyes narrowed and fixed on the cloaked figure. \"Do whatever you must to keep your silly little cult alive. But I trust that my spellcircle will be dismantled before morning.\"
The Stranger nodded, placing his hand on the Xacha\'s shoulder. \"Your freedom shall soon be granted. We have just one more menial task for you...\" Camazotz nodded. He turned to Moogie, reaching down, his expression blank. Even his burning eyes looked cold and lifeless.
Her world turned black.
Gah! I had to doublepost again. I feel like squealing; finally! Secrets! Secrets! Muahahahha! *falls to psychotic mania*
Edit: *screams indecypherably as she fixes all the errors*
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:O they catched her, and just when Camazotz was starting to get really cool he had to go and be all bad. His past was all dark and interesting i still want to see more of him.
chapter 11 better come just as quick, i think we all must know what happens...
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8o
I dont have much else to say on that matter
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Chapter 12.
Moogie awoke to the feeling of cold, smooth metal. She was curled up, laying on her side. Where am I?
She opened her eyes slowly. The floor she lay on was stained with dirt. She could see tall, thin bars a few inches from her face, stretching up beyond her vision. Through them she saw a distant brown rock face. She sat up, feeling slightly queasy, and looked around her cage. It was small, circular. Barely tall enough for her to stand, and too thin to stretch out on. It was swaying gently; it seemed that she was suspended in the air. She rubbed her eyes, squeezing them shut. I\'m alone...
She reached out and gripped the bars, using them to pull herself to her feet. She had to stoop slightly to avoid hitting her head. The cage was hanging high in the air, over a walkway that stretched across an endlessly deep, dark pit. The height made her fearful to move around much.
\"I\'m toast...\" she muttered to herself.
Moogie\'s ears pricked up as she caught the sound of footsteps from below. She steadied herself as the cage suddenly began to decend, the clatter of chains above ringing loudly in her ears. She pressed her head against the bars and looked down as far as she could, but who stood there made her stomach lurch, and her heartbeat quicken. It was Camazotz.
She backed to the opposite end of the cage as it landed with a light thud on the stone bridge. Camazotz stood before her, arms crossed, his eyes hidden in the shadow of his hat. A small metal lever protruded from a pillar of stone beside him. His mouth was once again covered by the scarf she hadn\'t seen him use in a long time, but his voice was still clearly audible through its fabric.
\"It\'s good to see you awake at last.\"
Moogie remained silent, her back pressed to the bars. The Xacha regarded her, hesitant to speak. There was an awkward silence.
\"...I\'m sorry.\" His apology came as a whisper, as if the words were difficult to force through his lips.
\"Sorry for what?\" Moogie couldn\'t help but reply, her own voice choked with tears. \"Sorry for lying to me? For giving me hope? For betraying me? Sorry for leading me here to my death!?\" She stormed to his side of the cage, her fist reaching out to grab his coat in unbridled anger. \"JUST WHAT PART OF THIS ARE YOU SORRY FOR, YOU BASTARD!?\" She cried, sobbing loudly, her eyes spilling over with painful emotion.
Camazotz went to touch her arm, but she pulled it away quickly, sinking down to her haunches, her chest heaving as she cried uncontrollably. His red eyes remained fixed on her curled, pathetic form for several long minutes as her grief poured out of her. After a while, she calmed down enough to speak.
\"But it\'s not your fault, you know...\" She shook her head wretchedly. \"No, it\'s mine. Me. How could I be so stupid? Heh... Why did I ever trust you... why?\" The question was rhetorical, of course. There was no answer. Her anger turned to self-hatred, and as she inwardly cursed her own fallability, a single thought suddenly cut into her mind; an injection of reality coupled with a sense of terrible, urgent concern.
\"Lani...\" She whispered, her eyes suddenly staring ahead in realisation. She turned her gaze to Camazotz, who hadn\'t moved an inch from his spot. \"Where is Leilani!?\" she yelled.
He took a calm step backwards as she threw herself at him again, this time unable to reach through far enough to ruffle his coat.
\"If you\'ve harmed her I swear I\'ll-!\"
\"She\'s okay. Leilani is still outside.\" He interrupted quietly. But Moogie wasn\'t satisfied.
\"Like I\'m going to trust anything you tell me now, you horrid, backstabbing snake!\" Her words were cutting and brutal. She threw the full force of her emotions into every syllable, though she suspected every word was just bouncing away from his protective aura of cold indifference. \"Show her to me!\" She demanded.
He knew instantly what she was referring to and fished around his pocket. Moogie stopped reaching through the bars and took an untrusting step away. A moment later he presented the same yellow Glyph she had seen in the sewers, and used it in the same fashion as before. He flicked it up into the air, where it hovered, it\'s spin gaining speed, untill the energy harmlessly exploded and formed a magical image of the grassy area outside. The Xacha used his hand to spin the view around, searching for the girl.
Moogie waited.
He turned the image full-circle.
Leilani was nowhere to be seen.
Moogie growled. \"You lying-\"
\"Be quiet.\" He retorted, sounding irritated. \"You did tell her to hide. Well she\'s hiding, ok?\"
\"No it\'s not okay. I don\'t trust you!\" She glared at him as he impatiently snatched the Glyph out of the air, immediately dispersing the energy and causing the window to disappear.
\"Look,\" he sighed, crossing his arms again, \"Maybe you would understand better if I finished my story. I wasn\'t done...\"
\"I don\'t want to hear it.\" She sulked. There was a moment of silence before he decided to speak anyway.
\"...After my exile, I spent several years travelling the many Levels of Yliakum. Eventually I settled in a small rural town on the fourth level,\" he recounted. \"I met a beautiful woman named Mhara there, and we courted. In the next year we were wed, and she bore me a healthy child whom we named Faemal. I hoped to pass everything I knew to him one day...\" His voice trailed towards the end. Dispite herself, Moogie felt tempted to hear more.
\"So?\" is all she could muster, not wanting to sound too interested.
The Xacha turned and leant back against the bridge\'s stone railings. He closed his eyes. \"I was on the outskirts of the village when they came,\" he recalled sadly. \"Several members of the Arcane Academy\'s high council decided to take vengeance on me. They had been tracking me for months. But I... I wasn\'t home when they came.\"
The feline was silent. Camazotz\' voice seemed choked, barely able to make a sound. It came as a suprise to her, but not as much of a suprise as what he told her next.
\"Mhara and Faemal were both at home that day. The assassins let themselves in- broke down the door. The child- he was little more than two months old, if I remember correctly- they simply wringed his neck. My wife, they...\" He paused in mid-sentence. He wasn\'t sure if he could say it. \"...They raped her... so viciously, that she had bled to death long before I got home.\" He grit his teeth painfully.
-
Moogie didn\'t quite know what to say, but he wasn\'t finished.
\"That was my fault,\" he murmered. \"I wasn\'t there to protect them. The assassins had fled before I got home, deciding this was a far better punishment for me than death. And they were right.\" He turned to look at the feline, who\'s face showed both anger and sadness, fighting to decide which was more appropriate to display.
\"Heh...\" He shook his head slowly. \"But I couldn\'t live with myself, of course. So I thought of something fitting. There was an old dead tree where I had been practicing my magic that day; I went back there shortly after coming home to my dead family,\" he explained. Moogie tilted her head slightly. She wasn\'t sure she was quite following this. \"At its base I created a spellcircle. I made it so that it would trap any spirits caught within, and channel the pain and decay of the dead tree endlessly into them. A torture chamber for souls; I thought it quite ingenious.\" He smiled, shrugging absently.
\"I don\'t think I understand...\" Moogie started nervously. Camazotz approached the cage, coming close to the bars, and held them loosely with both hands. His glare was piercing.
\"On the longest limb of that tree, just above the spellcircle...\" he whispered, his face drawing ever closer. \"That is where I hung myself- that is where I died, so long ago.\"
Moogie\'s face, were it not covered in fur, would have run pale.
\"D-died?\" She stammered.
He nodded slowly, releasing the bars. \"And my plan sort of worked, too. The circle trapped and tortured my soul as it left my body. Two centuries of time passed by outside- though inside, it felt like an eternity. Eternity, that is, untill I was stolen from my own prison.\" He backed away, gazing around the expansive room. \"These self-involved, pathetic little cultists decided I would make a powerful Callicantzaros. And I did.\"
Moogie shook her head; she couldn\'t believe what she was hearing. \"You\'re another Callicantzaros...? But how? You don\'t look like one...\"
\"I was plan two,\" he growled. \"I was made to gain trust and move unhindered through the world, unlike the first. That one\'s just a killing machine.\"
\"No, this doesn\'t make sense...\" Moogie interrupted, gripping the bars. \"Have you known this all along? Known what you are?\"
He turned away, his voice calmer than before. \"I did from the beginning,\" he replied, \"I found you, played a little game, gained your trust. That explosion in the sewers was triggered by me, if you were wondering.\"
Moogie frowned in contempt. \"I knew it...\"
\"No, but you didn\'t. That was the beauty of it.\" He turned to her again. Moogie wondered if he was grinning cruelly underneath his mask. She narrowed her eyes at him.
\"Why go through such an elaborate scheme to trick me when it was so easy for you to kidnap me and just snap my neck or something?\" she asked.
He chuckled. His response was unexpected.
\"Because something is wrong with my circle, and they don\'t realise it.\" He was certainly grinning now.
\"Something...wrong?\"
He reached into his pocket. Expecting to see another Glyph, Moogie was shocked when he presented a a large iron key. She was even more suprised when he unlocked the door of her cage and swung the heavy object open. She gaped at him, her eyes wide.
\"Yes,\" he continued, \"The part holding control over my spirit is broken somehow. I have some limited free will.\" He winked at her.
Moogie was hesitant, still untrusting of him, but slowly stepped out of the cramped space onto the bridge. She stretched her limbs gratefully.
\"So how limited is your free will?\" she ventured cautiously, wondering whether to believe him this time, or whether it was yet another ploy. Either way, it felt good to be on solid ground (or near enough) again.
\"I had to bring you here, no matter what. That was my main purpose. It was never to kill you,\" he explained. \"I was fully under their control up untill the girl\'s brother was drained, and not fully killed, in the forest. That\'s something the other Callicantzaros did on its own; I\'m still not sure why. The change from my visions confused me greatly.\"
\"Sam...\" Moogie cast her sight to the floor sadly.
\"The Strangers told me of their prophecy, and showed me with dreams how they wanted events to occur. The other soul seems to have a differing opinion. Something about it feels... strange. I lose focus when I see it; I think only of destroying it, like it is just as much a threat to me as it is to you. I wonder...\" he pondered. \"Perhaps its circle, too, is also damaged? I fear it may be out of control.\"
\"Look, Camazotz... I don\'t know if I\'m buying this.\" Moogie glanced around nervously. \"I don\'t know what to believe anymore...\"
He smiled weakly, visibly disappointed.
\"I understand,\" he sighed. \"But you should know that my intentions were never false. I never wanted harm to come to you. I freely lead you here in the hopes you might actually achieve what the cult wants you dead for, so it didn\'t make sense to just knock you out and bring you here over my shoulder. But I\'m still bound to their will,\" He held his wrists, as if to feel the invisible chains locked around them. \"and I can\'t leave here. And very soon, when they release me, I won\'t even exist.\"
Moogie\'s eyes filled with concern. \"There must be something I can do,\" she offered, but he refused it.
\"No. I don\'t want to be here.\" He chuckled. \"I\'ve never wanted to be here. I just want to go back... back to my prison. I\'ve seen enough of this horrible world.\" Moogie stepped forward, placing her hand on his chest comfortingly.
\"Are you sure that\'s really what you want...?\"
Her ears pricked up suddenly. \"Footsteps- someone\'s coming!\" she hissed, jumping back into the metal cage. \"Quick, close the door!\"
Camazotz shut the bars closed and began hoisting the cage into the air just in time as the Stranger came into view.
Another doublepost... :| This one was only 100 words over the limit. Growl!
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more secrets :D , more story still needed :/
i also must say today moogie has been quite the writing machine, one chapter when i came home a bit earlier and now another after school. both extremly good.
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\\o/ huzzah! for the story! :D, now i suggest you rest a bit before you bit yourself up over chapter 12 Moogs, you\'ve been pretty locomotive lately, not everyone can be a UtM :)
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You are more evil than I am. Not even I saw that coming... Well done, young one. :D
And I agree with Drey. A writing maniac! :P
*edit* @ Dem> HA! I am completely burned out after last weekend. I think I shall let Moogie have the spotlight for a bit. And well deserved, too.
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You really are a great writer Moogie. This stuff is fantastic! In fact, I have to admit that in some twisted, demented way I\'m dissapointed that it\'s so good, because it makes me feel like my writing is total crap, which it is, but... :P I\'m jealousssss....
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Well, Moogie... I know I allready commented on this chapter...but I have just reread the whole thing from the begining and would like to compliment you on the confidence that has grown in you as you have written Camazotz character. He has grown from good to great to astounding.
I also wish to congradulate you on reaching 22000+ words. Another 14000 and I will have to bow down and give you the title of \'Writer of the Longest PS Story\'. That is untill \'Soul\'s Mirror\' is complete. ;)
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:O How can this be true! Two chapter sevens!? *looks*
...
By Laanx! You\'re right! Thanks, I had absolutely no idea. I\'ll fix the numbers right away. I think it must have happened due to my habit of copypasting the chapter seperations when I start a new one in my notepad file. Sometimes I forget to knock the number up. :P
Well then, I give you, chapter THIRTEEN. :D
(For anyone who\'s played FF9 before, the second section can be thought of as one of those \'Active Time Events\', funny little things happening in other places while the story goes on somewhere else. :) )
Chapter 13.
\"Ah, there you are, my little demon,\" came the man\'s smug voice. His dark red robes were different from the rest of the cultists; the edges were lined with a golden hem, and a belt of sapphire gems sewn on a thin strip of leathery material hung around his waist, loosely tied at the front. Like all of the Strangers, his hood was up, his face hidden in shadow, but his eyes shone a deep blue so bright that they could be seen in the darkest of rooms.
Moogie watched him approaching for as long as she could, untill the cage had climbed too high up for her to see. Her nerves were again on edge. She wondered whether he had come to order her execution, or whether he suspected Camazotz was aiding her to forfill the prophecy. Camazotz stood calmly by the lever below as the cultist stopped infront of him.
\"Heh heh, teasing the prisoner are we? Good, good. It is all the more sweeter to see them suffer a little beforehand. You have proved quite versatile in your uses, Camazotz,\" the man praised, his voice sounding old, but steady and unwavering. He held his hands behind his back as he talked. \"We are making preparations for her sacrificed. The Black God will be pleased to have her soul at last.\"
Camazotz remained silent as the man stepped forward, showing him the palm of his hand. The Xacha saw a Glyph resting there, pulsing with its own dark aura.
\"Take it,\" the Stranger commanded. Camazotz picked the object out of his hand and pocketed it. \"You will use it tonight to drag the soul from her feeble body. Once they are seperated you need no longer hold it; her circle will do the rest.\" His hand returned behind his back.
\"And then?\" Camazotz pressed.
The cultist chuckled. \"All in good time, Callicantzaros.\" He turned to walk away.
\"Strethos, our deal was-\"
He stopped and turned to face the Xacha. \"Watch yourself, Camazotz. You are in no position to be making demands,\" he chided firmly. \"Your new purpose has already been set to the circle that binds you. You will do this regardless of your loyalties.\" He glanced up at the suspended cage suggestively before turning to leave again.
Camazotz silently watched him as he left the bridge and exited through the archway. The man told the truth; the Xacha could already feel the shift in his mind. His logic faught to disapprove of what he had to do, but somehow it was the only thing that made sense. He took a deep breath and decided to lower Moogie again.
The chains clattered, and the cage thudded once again on the bridge. Moogie swung the door open, cautiously peering at both ends of the bridge before she stepped out.
\"Great to know I\'m going to die tonight,\" she mumbled. \"It\'d be nice if I knew what time it is. How do these people keep track down here?\" She dusted herself off from the dirt in the cage.
\"I have to kill you...\" Camazotz uttered.
Moogie turned to him. His eyes told her he was trying desperately to disagree, but she knew he couldn\'t.
\"Do you know where your circle is?\" she asked.
\"Yes,\" he replied, matter-of-factly. \"The circle I took you to. That is mine.\"
Moogie looked suprised. \"Yours?\" she repeated, gasping. \"So you mean if I had succeeded...\"
\"I know,\" he interrupted apologetically. \"But I\'ve not come this close to freedom in a long time. To see you so close to it, all I could think about was...\"
\"Was leaving me here in the middle of nowhere after I unknowingly killed you?\" Moogie finished his sentence vexedly. He sighed, crossing his arms. She sighed aswell, turning away from him. \"You really don\'t care, do you...\" she whispered.
Camazotz observed her. \"I\'m trying to,\" he said quietly. \"What do you expect from a tortured spirit trapped in a dead body? I think I\'ve done pretty good, if you ask me.\"
\"It\'s not good enough...\" Moogie sighed.
\"Maybe you don\'t realise how much I\'ve had to fight myself to keep control.\" he argued back. \"I\'m not perfect. There are some things that can\'t be helped. Things that don\'t matter to me, like the people in the Gondola, or Leilani\'s brother.\"
Moogie turned to him, her expression brimming with anger.
\"Perhaps you would expect a normal living thing to feel... compassion for those people. Moogie, I am nothing more than a demon. I promised the girl I would save her brother so that she would follow us. Did you actually believe I wanted to help him?\" he snorted contemptuously. \"I don\'t have time for such pointless diversions. Asking it of me is too much. Even in life I doubt I would have cared. The dead have more use to me than the living anyway.\"
The feline could stand no more. Her hand came around and slapped him hard across the face, knocking off his slouch hat. Her claws drew four thin strips of dark blood from his cheek. Her seething eyes were drained of anger as she watched his demeanor darken; perhaps it wasn\'t the best of ideas. She backed away, anticipating a retaliation.
A growl from behind took her by suprise. She dropped to the floor just as the other Callicantzaros dived for her, colliding instead with Camazotz, who had spotted it moments ago. Moogie realised his reaction had been stirred by the creature, and she retreated from them as they exploded into a fight of claws and teeth.
This isn\'t good, she thought as she watched them. The gargoyle threw itself at him again, its claws ripping through his coat as he defended. He grabbed it\'s foot and powerfully swung it over the edge of the bridge. It\'s wings burst into action immediately, saving it from the endless drop below.
Moogie could only look on as the winged demon dived at the Xacha, throwing him through the stone railings as it slammed into him. Camazotz reached up and grabbed the demon\'s leg splitseconds before he fell, but their combined weight was too much for the Callicantzaros\' wings, which fluttered desperately as they plummeted together into the abyss.
\"NO!!\" Moogie shrieked, running to the side of the bridge. She could do nothing as she watched them, still clawing at eachother, as they disappeared into the darkness. Their growls faded quickly from her ears, and soon, there was nothing but the creaking of chains and the sound of a distant breeze echoing in the hollow void.
Her heart sank. \"Camazotz...\"
She waited for what seemed like forever, but they didn\'t return. Not even the winged demon alone, having shaken off its enemy. Nothing.
Eventually she decided she had to leave. She had to get out of this place. But she had no idea where she was or how big the Strangers\' underground lair could be. She glanced from one end of the bridge to the other, wondering which way to take, but then suddenly she spotted Camazotz\' dejected hat still sitting on the bridge. Her eyes saddened as she approached and picked it up. She prayed that he had somehow survived, though she couldn\'t see how it would be possible.
Moogie had to think logically. Whichever way the Stranger left was probably deeper into the cave, so she took a deep breath and began trotting nervously towards the opposite exit. As she reached the archway, she glanced down at the hat again. With a despondant smile, she placed it over her head, before disappearing through the exit.
***********
Leilani lay on her stomach behind some large rocks near the cave. She crunched another hole through the stalk of a flower with her fingernail, and then picked another from the patch of colour infront of her, stringing the new flower\'s stalk through the seperation. The chain of tiny flowers was already four foot long. An empty, forlorn patch of grass watched her sadly from nearby. It\'s colour all but picked clean by her ineffable boredom.
She sighed. I\'m soooooo bored...
The girl rolled onto her back, watching the flowers bunch together on her chest as she lowered the long string down onto it. She gazed at the sky for a while, yawning sleepily. Booooooooored...
Her eyes began to close. She hadn\'t realised how tired she was. She wondered how long Moogie would be and what they were doing in there; she hadn\'t heard anything but the howling of the wind from the cave entrance, and it was way too dark and scary to go inside.
She felt something tickle her leg. \"Silly bugs,\" she mumbled, blindly brushing it away with a hand.
\"Oof!\" came a little squeak. Leilani paused. Oof? She sat up slightly and looked around. Seeing nothing, she decided she was more tired than she first thought, and rested her head back on the grass.
The daylight was starting to wane and dark clouds gathered overhead. The girl drifted peacefully in and out of sleep.
\"Food?\" cheeped a distant voice.
\"Mmh?\" Leilani half-mumbled.
\"Food?\" it repeated in its tiny, high-pitched tone.
The girl frowned, becoming slightly annoyed. \"There\'s... no food... here...\" came her groggy, sleeping response.
Something clambered onto her stomach, rousing her from her sleep. Lifting her head up, she spotted a tiny white ball of fur, with two tails and beady little eyes looking up hopefully at her. She squealed, jumping to her feet and fleeing towards the cave in hysterics, ignoring another little \"Oof!\" as it plopped onto the grass and was buried in a snow of soft white and yellow flowers.
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Really, very good.
*pouts that he\'s not as good a writer*
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8o
managed to distract me from my new offspring CD....(thats saying something) now to watch the DVD with extra noodles \\o/
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AAYHHHH! A cute fuzzy thing! Big big :D.
And don\'t worry \'bout the chapter thing. I never \'member what I\'m on.
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Just incase you\'re wondering what that little ball of fluff was:
http://www.albinomoogie.net/images/Rui.jpg
:)
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Chapter 14.
Moogie was grateful for her Shadowkin training. She had needed to dart into the shadows several times already to avoid being seen. The tunnels sprawled on endlessly, every path marked with yet another symbol that she couldn\'t read, much to her annoyance. The hat had been suprisingly useful in aiding her to hide, as she was able to crouch behind it, her white fur hidden behind it\'s wide brim, melding her seamlessly into the shadows.
Somehow she guessed she was in the Hall of Numbers. There were many rooms here, each marked with a slightly different rune; they appeared to be dormitories. Unfortunately for her, they were not empty, and people walked back and forth through the hall, talking in pairs, or alone, reading strange passages from small leatherbound books.
As the whole complex seemed to be using an ancient cavern system, many of the tunnels were chiselled into neat square corridors and supported by wooden beams that ran along the ceilings to minimise the risk of cave-ins. Gas lamps hung from the rafters, illuminating small areas at a time with a soft yellow light. Moogie crept along the wooden support beams, hidden in the shadows above the masking glare of the flames. She had to move slowly; the wood was old and groaned with pressure as she stepped over the beams. One Stranger had already glanced above his head as she passed, forcing her to freeze in place for what seemed like an eternity, untill he decided nothing was there and moved on.
She passed over a group of acolytes who were talking together in hushed voices. Her nose twitched as it snagged a cobweb, and she brushed it away in annoyance. A piece drifted to the floor, to her restrained horror, but fortunately it seemed to go unnoticed. However, as her eyes followed it down, she spotted a peculiar pendant hanging around the neck of one of the cultists.
I\'ve seen that before... she thought, squinting to see it clearly. A small oval of metal; an eye. And within, a reptilian iris. Yes, of course... the pendant the Callicantzaros was wearing. I wonder if Camazotz has... had the same...
Her ears twitched as she eavesdropped on the conversation below.
\"Strethos has ordered them both to be recalled,\" spoke one. He glanced over his shoulder to ensure they were not overheard. \"Apparently something\'s wrong, but I havn\'t heard what yet.\"
Another joined in, his voice a deep whispering. \"Ah. No, the first began acting strangely some days ago. And the second, well, we havn\'t been able to follow him since he was sent out. I say it\'s a miracle the damned thing returned here at all...\"
\"Well they can\'t ignore their primary orders, no matter what,\" said the one with his pendant showing, \"so he would have brought her back eventually. But after the trouble we had with the third, Strethos got fed up and decided to call a Council gathering.\"
A third? wondered Moogie, narrowing her eyes.
\"When is that?\" the first speaker asked curiously.
\"Shhh... keep your voice down,\" another warned. \"I heard it was pretty soon, probably half an hour or so from now.\"
The group were interrupted by another Stranger who approached them from behind. \"What are you lot gossiping here? Get back to your chambers!\" he commanded angrily. They mumbled a few apologies and dispersed, each finding their quarters and locking their doors behind them. The bossy cultist grumbled something about a meeting to himself and strided out of the hall. Moogie moved on through the rafters in cautious persuit. Sounds like a meeting I shouldn\'t miss...
The Stranger lead her through the twisting labyrinth, muttering and grumbling to himself for a good twenty-five minutes, untill he came to a pair of tall, sturdy doors, both marked with the reptilian eye symbol stained onto the surface. He heaved them open on their huge, rusty hinges and stepped through. To her disappointment, they swung shut behind him before she could follow, and she was left standing in the tunnel with no way of getting inside unseen by the people within.
Dammit, she cursed. Glancing both ways, she approached the doors. Maybe I can still hear them from here...
She placed her ear flat against the wood. There was a large gathering inside, she judged from the noise. A hammer was tapped lightly on a wooden surface and the chaotic talk finally subsided.
\"May our words and thoughts here be spoken with truth and for the greater purpose,\" a familiar voice called. It was Strathos. The sounds of many seats sliding forwards as the people sat down filled Moogie\'s ears. \"We gather here today to discuss the recent issues concerning the Callicantzaros. Why was I not informed of the problems with the first two, before the creation of the third?\"
Moogie heard a chair scrape across the floor as someone stood. \"Speaker of the Flame, no major problems were seen with the first two before the third summoning,\" he replied. A murmer went through those gathered and the hammer was tapped again.
\"Councillor Morgal, you could not even track the movements of the Xacha. Is that not seen, in your eyes, as a major problem?\" His voice was greatly agitated.
\"Speaker of the Flame, it was not seen as a hinderance, merely a minor inconvenience for the Watchers. He brought the prophecised one back just as planned.\"
Moogie\'s keen hearing heard footsteps coming from down the hall. She quickly leapt up to the ceiling where she hid untill a pair of cultists passed by underneath and disappeared through the opposite door. Carefully dropping to the floor again, she resumed her position infront of the doors. Strethos was now speaking.
\"-can not afford any more of these setbacks. I have already re-summoned the third Callicantzaros, and I am pleased to report to the rest of the Council that it is now working at its full capacity. The others must be called back to receive the same correction, after which we\'ll have no more of this nonsense about them making their own haphazardous decisions. They will do exactly what we tell them, when we tell them, and nothing more.\" There was a pause. \"Where are they? I thought I requested their presence here in this meeting. Well?\"
Someone else stood, stifling a nervous cough. \"Speaker of the Flame. There is, uh, another recent problem. Camarenzis and Camazotz both reappeared in their circles simultaneously some moments ago, and the Xacha tells us they have been... somewhat... in disagreement,\" he stammered.
Moogie\'s jaw dropped. He\'s alive...!
\"What do you mean \'in disagreement\', Councillor Baram?\"
Baram hesitated. \"Well... it seems that Camarenzis thinks Camazotz should... not live.\" He swallowed so hard that even Moogie outside picked up the sound. \"And Camazotz... uh, disagrees of course. He thinks Camarenzis should die instead.\"
Distainful murmers grew loud from within the room. The feline almost missed the sound of more approaching footsteps from the corridor behind her, and was able to dart into the rafters again before another cloaked Stranger appeared. In his hand he clenched the end of a chain made of a strange metal that seemed to eminate a bright yellow glow from each link. It seemed to be magically fused, and Moogie could guess why; behind him, following closely in tow, were the two Callicantzaros. She thought it odd that they wern\'t fighting. They wern\'t even making a sound. They looked subdued, somehow in a hypnotic state of obedience, and the thick strips of glowing metal clamped around their necks suggested they had been forcibly restrained.
The Stranger swung the doors open and lead them through. As they closed shut, Moogie took up her listening position again, her eager ears aching even more now to hear the rest of the meeting.
\"Ah, finally.\" Strethos welcomed the Stranger as he entered the room.
\"Speaker of the Flame, my apologies for the delay,\" the newcomer apologised. \"For some reason they are having difficulties tolerating eachother\'s presence. They fight as soon as they spot one-another. Restraining them was the only way to bring them here together.\"
Moogie heard a chair move, then footsteps. They came relatively close to the door and then stopped.
\"I shall cast a simple enchantment on their pendants. It will be a temporary solution to their disobedient tendancies, for now. See to it that they are not removed untill we have had time to perform their re-summonings,\" ordered Strathos. There was a sound of a lock being freed, and the chains fell heavily to the stone floor. Footsteps lead back to the far end of the room and the speaker sat down. \"Since the girl is to be sacrificed in a few hours time, it would be best if Councillor Baram personally oversees the rituals.\"
Moogie swallowed, her stomach churning.
\"They will take place immediately. This Council is adjourned.\"
She didn\'t have much time before her disappearance from the bridge room was discovered, and then there would be no hope of her escaping at all.
There was much talking and chair-scraping as the cultists ended their meeting and moved towards the door. Having leapt back up into the shadows already, Moogie watched silently as they filed out of the room. The two Callicantzaros, and the Stranger who Moogie could only assume was Baram, were the last to leave. They took a different route to the others who were heading in the direction of the dormatories.
I need to get that pendant off of him somehow or I\'ve got no hope, Moogie frowned, lowering herself cautiously down as to not alert the keen senses of the demons. She skulked forward a few steps to see where they were being lead. I hope Leilani doesn\'t decide to come down here... she worried.
********
Leilani peered nervously over the rocks at the small animal. It was sitting on a bed of flowers, chewing one in its mouth as it spotted her and looked up curiously. The girl ducked.
Don\'t be silly... mice can\'t talk... she tried to persuade herself again. Nevertheless, she was face-to-face with a mouse that could say \"Oops\" and \"Food\" in a language she spoke. She peeked, very slowly, back over the rocks. It was still looking directly at her.
\"...Hi?\" Leilani whispered, feeling somewhat foolish. It squeaked back, it\'s tiny mouth still stuffed with petals. Leilani relaxed.
\"I knew it, I must be going crazy...\" the girl sighed.
\"Moodie?\" it cheeped. Leilani froze. Now it was calling her names. Feeling quite silly for herself, she attempted to reply.
\"Who are you calling moody, furball?\" she scorned softly.
\"Moo...die?\" it repeated. A gust of wind blew across the plains and whistled through the grass between them. The petals sticking out of the creature\'s mouth acted like a windsail, rolling the fluffy mouse onto its back with a familiar \"Oof\". Leilani couldn\'t help but giggle in amusement.
\"You\'re an odd little thing, arn\'t you?\" she said, feeling braver as she approached it and knelt down on the floor. It picked itself up off its back and toddled towards her. Climbing up onto her knee, it lifted itself onto its haunches and sniffed the air.
\"Moodie food?\"
\"Hmm,\" the girl mused. \"You\'re not saying \'moody\', are you...\" She stroked the little creature\'s head with her index finger. It closed its eyes happily. A small petal still poked out of its mouth.
Having gained Leilani\'s trust, the mouse jumped onto the grass and started shuffling away. The girl followed, towering over it on all fours, giggling delightedly. That is, untill she realised the direction it was leading her to.
\"Moodie...\" she whispered, standing up fully, her eyes fixed on the cave mouth and the small white ball that ran purposefully towards it. \"You mean Moogie, don\'t you?\" She stepped forward cautiously.
\"Moodie!\" It squeaked again, glancing between the cave and the girl.
\"How do you know that name, hmm?\" she asked. \"Hmm, maybe it wants me to go in... maybe something\'s wrong!\" She gasped, peering into the darkness. \"I hope not... it sure looks dark in there...\"
The creature sniffed around, slowing edging into the cave. Leilani held her arms frightfully as she followed. She wondered why she was following a mouse into a den full of evil madmen, but the thought that her friend may be in trouble compelled her forward regardless.
\"Lani to the rescue, eh mousie?\" she tried to joke bravely. She was already trembling in fear.
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Very, very good. Although you spelt \"scrape\" \"strape\", but I won\'t hurt you for it this time. :P
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Yeah, I\'m making so many typos lately it\'s scary. I think it\'s something to do with my ears.
Err, eyes.*
...brain*
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maybe your pushing yourself too hard ^^ take a break, other then that when your sleeping ;)
it\'s brilliant so far, hope it keeps getting better, you\'ll kick stephen king\'s ass xD
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Are my chapters getting shorter??
Chapter 15.
The Summoning Room was once again filled with men, hidden underneath their grey robes, chanting in unison. To an onlooker, they all might aswell have been clones of eachother. The archaic symbols covering the floor pulsed randomly, their glowing soft, barely tinting the floor around them. They were focusing their energies, cleansing the room, and preparing for the resummoning rituals to come.
Baram lead the two Callicantzaros to a dank, moist cavern further inside the lair. He passed through the entrance, greeting the lightly armoured guard who stood vigilantly by the doorway. Moogie took stock of the man from afar, not daring to approach further; he wore the same dull robes as most other cultists she had seen, but it was open at the front, revealing a protective dark brown leather tunic over his chest, and thick padded pauldrons paired with some heavy cloth boots. A longsword was sheathed at his side by a sturdy black belt with silver studs running across the front. His gloved hands were held loosely by his sides, the circles of metal on each knuckle reflecting the orange of the small brazier flames at either side of the door. He looked well-enough equipped for his duty.
Baram appeared again some moments later from within the room, stopping to give instructions to the man.
\"I\'ll be returning with the girl soon. See to it the Callicantzaros stay put in the meantime; Strethos will have my head if anything else goes wrong today,\" he instructed unsteadily.
\"Yes Councillor.\" The guard nodded. Moogie was eternally grateful for all the ceiling supports as Baram passed by underneath her, heading for the bridge room. Somehow, she had to get inside that room without being seen, and quickly. As soon as Baram found her cage empty, the whole complex would be searching for her, and she knew she couldn\'t hide forever. She had to think quickly.
The guard, now alone, leant lazily against the wall and crossed his arms, visibly bored. His eyes began to close, untill he noticed some movement ahead. Thinking Baram had returned already, he straightened up and composed himself.
But nobody came. He scratched his head in mild confusion.
A piece of rubble rolled into view from the tunnel ahead. His eyes narrowed.
\"Someone there?\" he called, gripping his sword. No reply came. He took a step forward, leaning towards the wall for a better view.
Another pebble hit something out of sight and rolled back across the tunnel.
\"Ahh, tricky one are we? Can\'t fool me that easily...\" the guard whispered under his breath, grinning to himself slyly. He carefully drew his sword as quietly as he could and edged forward. \"Come out, come out, wherever you are...\"
A shadow moved, and the guard jumped out into the passage, sword swinging before him, grinning triumphantly at having seen through the ploy and facing in the opposite direction from where the disturbance had come. But nothing was there.
\"Huh!?\" He swivelled around in confusion, thinking he had been duped. The other tunnel was also empty. Not an intruder in sight.
His sword arm dropped in disappointment. \"Well what the hell...?\"
A pair of white furry legs dropped from directly above him and wrapped themselves around his neck before he could react.
\"Gak..!\" was all he could choke out, as he dropped his sword and started clawing at the strong limbs as they denied him precious air.
\"Kinda stupid, arn\'t you?\" Moogie held on to the beam above her head, digging her claws in furiously as he tried in vain to struggle free of her grip. For a few minutes, it seemed he would outlast her strength, but eventually his flailing subsided, his movements slowed, and his body went limp. The feline held him for a few moments longer incase he was still awake, but eventually released him to collapse on the floor. She dropped gracefully down beside him.
\"Sorry about that,\" she grinned, quickly moving towards the newly unguarded room ahead.
She peeked inside. The smell was terrible, like rotting meat and animal excrement. It was dark and stained with dirt and blood across the floors and walls. Lining the far wall was what seemed to be an enormous ribcage jutting out of the rock, the bones dark and ancient. Moogie suddenly realised this was a prison room. And within the bone cell, the two demons waited patiently to be released. She gulped, terrified of what the reaction might be as soon as they saw her approach. But she had no choice; she had to remove the pendant from Camazotz; she needed his help.
She stepped down into the room quietly. From the deep shadows behind the blackened ribs, two pairs of eyes flashed up at her as they noticed the intrusion. They came to the bars immediately, eyes fixed piercingly on her. Moogie froze.
There was silence.
Where she had expected calls of alarm, or mad scrabbling to break out and apprehend her, there was nothing. Just their cold, haunting eyes following her as she cautiously approached. Moogie glanced between the two, fearfully unsure of how close she was safe to be, but neither of them flinched. They stood like living statues, stone gargoyles whos gaze could not be avoided from any angle.
\"C-Camazotz...?\" she whispered, peering into his dulled eyes. They watched her silently, unblinking. A shiver went down her spine.
She inched forward. Her whole body was tense, ready to jump back at the first sign of movement. Her claws pressed against the moist rock under her feet. Slowly, with one hand, she reached forward. Slowly, and even slower the closer she came.
There was still no reaction. Moogie even wondered if they could move at all. Her hand came closer to the chain around his neck. It begged to her. Her heart raced. His eyes narrowed. But she noticed too late.
A hand flew out between the bars and locked itself around her neck before she could even pull her arm back in suprise. She felt herself lifted from the floor. His eyes no longer moved as his fingers clenched harder. Too hard. Unbearably hard. Moogie\'s senses overloaded with panic and pain flooded her mind.
As the images of the world blended together and began to fade, a small noise went unnoticed beside her.
\"Release her!\" came an urgent call, so distant in her failing ears. She barely noticed as she was dropped immediately to the ground, her head hitting against the rock. Darkness decended all around her.
\"You stupid creature!\" Strethos reviled, his fist clenched threateningly at Camazotz. \"What use is she to us dead out here? If I knew you were this broken I would have just fed you to the Fenhounds.\" The two demons\' eyes remained fixed on the girl as she lay unconcious by his feet.
\"My apologies,\" Camazotz said flatly. \"My instructions were to kill her when she was next presented to me.\"
Strethos grunted in anger. \"When she was presented to you in the Den of Sacrifice, you fool...\" he seethed through gritted teeth. Baram quickly approached from the doorway, kneeling down to check the feline\'s pulse.
\"I knew she\'d probably come here if she escaped... s-she seems to be alive, at least.\" He stood up, turning to Strethos. \"His circle is ready... S-shall I escort him?\" he fumbled nervously.
Strethos nodded as he turned to Camarenzis. The dark creature looked back at him, expressionless. \"Now, you listen carefully to this order, or I will trap your soul in a glass bottle and bury you under the Eighth Level seabed.\" The demon gulped. \"You are to remain here with the girl and ensure she does not leave this prison on her own. If she tries to leave before one of my men come to claim her, do what you must to restrain her, but I do NOT want her dead. Is that understood fully, wretched creature?\"
The Callicantzaros nodded slowly, baring its teeth in what could be considered an ugly, forced grin.
\"Good,\" Strethos settled, recoiling slightly in disgust, before turning to leave. Baram unlocked a makeshift cell door at the end of the ancient ribcage.
\"Come with me, Camazotz.\" He gestured with his hand, and the Xacha stepped out through the door. He moved over to pick up Moogie\'s body and put her inside, before moving away to allow Baram to lock the door again. The Stranger turned to him, holding out a glowing Glyph, his eyes closed as he cast the spell within.
A twirling spike of energy rose from his palm, twisting around itself and forming chainlinks. They wrapped around Camazotz\' neck, forming the magical brace Moogie had seen him locked in earlier at the meeting room. It tightened around his skin, and his body shivered. His eyes became drained of colour. Baram nodded, satisfied he was secure, and lead him out of the room after Strethos.
The room was quiet once again, save for the dripping of water down the walls and the buzzing of flies around a festering piles of bones in the corner. Alone with the girl, Camarenzis sunk to all fours and approached Moogie\'s motionless form, it\'s tail flicking from side to side in delight. The creature\'s lips turned into a cruel grin as it extended one of it\'s incredibly long, thin claws and turned her onto her back. Peering closely at her body, it found an area of skin on her chest that was not already injured or stained with blood, and began scratching a small symbol into it. Blood was drawn and formed tiny streams of red liquid that weaved through her fur and down underneath the dirtied material of her clothes. The Callicantzaros cackled to itself as it finished the mark, and stood up proudly, kicking Moogie roughly back onto her stomach.
\"Kromshuul be pleeeashed...\" it gurgled to itself gloriously. \"Shtrangers deliversh meee what I neeedshed, kreehehehe... shoon, Kromshuul, he comesh to take shem all... even your presshious Xashca will be hisshh. Weaksh little girl... weaksh little humaansh, kaaahehehe!\"
Somewhere in the darkness, the unearthly sound echoed distantly in Moogie\'s head. But she couldn\'t move. Even as she felt herself being picked up and carried away over someone\'s shoulder, whispers of a sacrifice floating faintly in the air, the darkness wouldn\'t lift. She struggled against it in vain as she was carried away.
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oh noes 8o whats going to happen to poor moogie?
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I am enjoying Drey\'s comments almost as much as Moogie\'s story. :D
And that creature is one creepy bugger.
28K<36K but not by much. ;)
...
...
And stay safe.
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im not a creepy bugger
*runs off crying*
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I think he may have been talking about Camarenzis... :) if not, I\'ll send a slap through the wires, postage address: UtM\'s cheeks :P
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Chapter 16.
A crack of thunder tore through the darkness, leaving a streak of pain across her cheek. Moogie winced, struggling to open her eyes. She sensed she was upright, yet her legs felt free of weight. Something cold was digging into her wrists painfully as she hung in limbo between sleep and conciousness, her feet barely touching what she thought might be the ground.
Baram brought his fist swifly across her face again, waking her more successfully this time. She groaned, her eyelids straining themselves open, her head rolling as she tried to make sense of the situation. Pain made its presence felt as an aching sore around her neck. She struggled to remember why.
\"Enough, Baram, she wakes.\"
Had her senses been more focused, the voice of Strethos would have filled her mind with a terrible sense of dread. As she struggled to lift her head, she glimpsed a blurry image of someone moving away from her, decending some steps and heading towards the center of the room. Her eyes gained their focus gradually.
Familiar; it was dark. Shadowy figures lined the edges of the stone cavern. Moogie\'s ears twitched; she noticed the ghostly sound of their voices, chanting as one. She wasn\'t quite sure whether they had just begun or whether the low hum had been echoing through the cold room since before she had even awoke. Someone stood at the center of the room amidst pulsating runic symbols, carved carefully into the stone and arranged in some unfathomable pattern. His back faced her, but the Xacha was instantly recognisable.
\"Cama...\" she uttered weakly, her voice barely breaking into sound. Yet he heard, turning slowly towards the feline from within his runic prison. Several loose strands of hair hung deftly infront of his emotionless face, free from the ponytail he kept hidden beneath his coat, their pale colour contrasting brightly with his eyes. Such strange eyes, she noticed again. Yet as he looked over her weakened form, they held hints of sadness and despair. The usual glow had faded once again underneath the cruel magical binds that subdued him into a state of zombie-like obedience.
But as she looked back into his eyes, she saw him; he was still inside there, somewhere, chained and helpless, just as she was. Desperate and loathing, locked away. It was then that the realisation dawned on her of what she was about to witness. This ritual was his re-summoning; the Strangers were about to make him \'perfect\' to them, to remove the last scraps of free will he still held. Her own eyes cried out to him silently, but he could not answer.
The preparations were now all but complete; the Strangers stepped forward, lifting their hands above their heads. The humming grew louder as Strethos began reciting his ancient dark magics, one hand holding a heavy book from which he read, the other marking symbols in the air as he spoke. The runes on the floor pulsed brighter, faster, their light reaching up, threatening to engulf Camazotz in a blinding yellow haze. Somewhere inside the mass of chains that locked his mind away from his body, he tried desperately to free himself, to escape before all hope was lost. But there was no way out. No time left.
Strong, sudden vibrations rumbled through the floor as the circle threw up a pillar of sheer white light around him, flooding the room with its intensity. The cultists stepped back, bowing their heads, using their hoods as shields to protect their fragile eyes. Moogie gasped, also quickly turning her gaze away. The impermeable light cloaked the Xacha within from view, yet his tortured cries drowned out even the rumbling of the cave. The noise cut through Moogie\'s mind like a dagger, and she could do nothing to help. She could only imagine what pain flooded every nerve of his body as his soul was ruthlessly ripped out of it.
Strethos was the only Stranger close to the circle now, his face resolute, his teeth grit hard. With outstretched fingers he pulled at the air, controlling the unnatural force that was dragging Camazotz\' spirit roughly through his burning skin, every particle of its energy grasping at the fibres of its physical form. The ground shuddered violently as Strethos\' arm suddenly jolted backwards, his fist clenched into a tight ball. He struggled to keep hold as the spirit flailed wildly; confused, overwhelmed, and angered by its sudden freedom.
\"NOOO!!\" Moogie screamed, a loud sob escaping her lungs as she heard a heavy thud from within the spell circle; realising, horribly, the sound of the man\'s empty body falling lifelessly to the floor. The rumblings subsided, and the chanting fell silent. Even Strethos had finished with his book, for now, and set it down on the ground by his feet. The light faded gradually.
It took Moogie some minutes before she gathered the courage to turn her head back and look at the scene. When she finally did, it was too much for her to bare. The Xacha\'s body lay face down in the circle, as lifeless as the runes that surrounded it. Floating in the air above, a small orb of light was encompassed by a larger, shadowy form. Deep red spikes of Dark magic shimmered across the imprisoning mass of energy, trapping the soul helplessly within as it pressed itself against the boundries. It seemed almost magnetically drawn to the body on the floor. The air hummed with the disturbance of ethereal screams that made no audible sound; the feeling sent a cold shiver down the feline\'s spine. She looked on in despair, her eyes filled with tears of grief, her arms straining painfully against their chains.
\"This can\'t be real...\" she choked pitifully.
*********
The world temporarily lost all meaning. Where once the light that surrounded him flooded his senses, drowned his vision, now there was nothing. When the pain had become too much, and every nerve in his body had screamed in agony, now nothing was there to feel it anymore.
Darkness.
Silence.
Time stood still. There was no conciousness. No memory of what was happening.
No thoughts.
No feelings.
Nothing existed. Not even Camazotz himself.
The split second passed as quickly as eternity and suddenly he felt the opposite. Every movement in the air, every sound within a hundred miles screamed through him like the waves of a stormy sea. It was not that he could see, or hear, or think. The information just seemed to be absorbed, like streams running into a larger river, merging, disappearing, becoming one and the same. Everything shimmered; ripples and waves disturbed the very fabric of existance, moving together, working in perfect unison, unseen and unnoticed to the larger world. But something here felt wrong.
Something unbreakable disturbed his energies; trapping, constricting. It kept him still and controlled, where he should be free to meld with the world, travel its length and breadth in a single heartbeat of time. Whatever it was, it kept him whole, as an existance, as a being of the physical world. The unnatural aura emitted something that could almost be described as pain; so deep and terrible, unrestricted by the limitations of the physical existance. His energy screamed and threw itself against the invisible forces, again and again, but it was no good. He could not free himself.
Underneath this, however, there was something larger waiting to happen. A steady vibration, something everpresent, which seemed to grow stronger by each passing second. Its presence felt heavy. It tugged at the soul, and a dark whisper entered the world. He had felt it some time before, even with his living body; a strange tingling in the air, almost unnoticeable, but now the sound made a terrible kind of sense. Then it happened: a shape appeared before him. Tiny vibrations shuddered together, creating an outline in space inperceptable to the world- yet he sensed it there clearly, moving, rising up out of the ether, its form growing bigger, tiny movements combining with others, growing in strength. As it threatened to engulf him with its sheer size, he felt a familiar pattern rushing through the world\'s fabric. Its ripples washed though him strongly- a scream, frightened and desperate. Someone he recognised. And then, all hell broke lose.
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**********
It had started so quickly; Moogie screamed again. A paralysing arch of energy burst from the circle and hit her in the chest, knocking the wind out of her and latching on like an anchor. The symbol scratched into her skin spat blood from the wound; she tried to wrench her body away from this agonising embrace, gasping for air, but the force was stronger than anything she had ever felt. The floor shook as the ceiling began crumbling onto the gathering below, rocks and dust thrown amidst the unsuspecting cultists.
\"What\'s going on!?\" Strethos yelled, sweeping up the book with a swift hand as he jumped back to avoid the falling chaos. The Strangers fled in a panic towards the exit, but some did not make it in time. Moogie\'s overloaded ears somehow still heard their suprised cries as they were crushed under the weight of the earth. Trapped in her chains and pinned by the energy, she watched fearfully as the spirit and Camazotz\' body were abandoned, lost underneath a mountain of debris; carnage that would soon kill her too if she could not get free.
Through the deafening roar of the cave-in, and the calls of the men as they pushed others out of their way in a desperate bid to escape, Moogie heard an obscured voice urgently calling her name.
\"Is someone there? Help me... please...\" Her strained voice could barely manage a whisper, and the effort drained her immensely. To her suprise, the figure scrambling through the rubble was a young girl, her clothes becoming rapidly quilted in layers of grey dirt as she stumbled blindly towards the feline. Moogie recognised Leilani as she hurriedly began pulling at the chains restraining her arms.
\"Lani... Oh Gods... hurry!\" she gasped. The girl tugged at the chains, vainly searching for a way to release her friend. But she could do nothing with the crackling blue arm keeping a stranglehold on the feline\'s chest.
\"What\'s happening, Moogie? How do I free you!?\" The roar of the cave-in almost drowned out her words. Leilani couldn\'t yank the chains free; there was no way to pull them away from the metal poles buried into the stone, and the links were much too strong to break with her young, delicate hands. She wanted to embrace her friend, tell her how sorry she was, but Moogie gasped and shook her head.
\"No, Lani... get... away. You can still... ugh! Before it\'s too late...!\"
Leilani could see her strength failing, but she couldn\'t just abandon her here. The chaos inside the cavern room was loud, but Moogie could hear the girl\'s defeated sobs above anything else.
\"It wasn\'t your fault, Lani...\"
Both of them prepared to feel death crush them from above in the next heartbeat. But that instant, another thick bolt of energy from the circle pierced the debris and threw itself upwards through the roof. A sudden blast of hot air from above knocked Leilani off her feet and sent Moogie thudding into the stone wall behind her, knocking her unconcious. Panicked, the young Ylian scuffled on all fours away from the source of the light, but there was no escaping this. Another wave of burning oxygen threw her across the stone like a toy. She found herself plunged into darkness.
It felt odd. She was weightless, but awake. Yet the world seemed... gone. It struck her that she still lived, somehow, as a dark, whispy voice penetrated the infinite shadows, deep into her mind. It\'s sinister tone dripped poison in the darkness; Leilani felt flooded with emotions of hatred and unmeasurable pain as it reached with icy fingers into her soul and whispered without words.
\"So these little Flame fanatics thought to steal my powers and my Callicantzaros, did they? Well no longer... I have come to reclaim what is rightfully mine...\"
She shuddered involuntarily. The voice made her feel physically sick. It seemed to contemplate her for a moment- a long, drawn moment of silence that seemed to last longer than it actually had. Her sobs echoed in the quiet blackness.
\"Two tiny mortals I see before me. Swallowed and lost, deep within the bowels of the earth... You do not belong here, Ylian. But the other... she has served her purpose well.\"
\"W-Who are you?\" The girl clutched her mouth in suprise as no sound came out of it.
\"Go home.\"
Suddenly, there was silence. The scent of the air changed; no longer stuffy and claustrophobic, it felt fresh, slightly dewy, and sweet with the smell of... Sekich\'Kui?
Leilani opened her confused eyes and was greeted by a wide open area. Fields of crop quilted the landscape all around her. All was silent- she no longer felt the voice, or the rumbling of the earth. The wind washed gently over the plains and through her hair. The light was dimming above.
\"Moogie...?\" she called weakly, her eyes searching around her. But Moogie didn\'t reply. She was alone. And worse, it dawned on her that she recognised this place. She stood slowly, the breeze drying her wet cheeks.
\"I\'m... I\'m home...\" she whispered. Her fists clenched and her eyes welled up. \"I\'M HOME!!\" she screamed. Her voice was carried away, and nothing but the wind answered her pained cries.
\"I\'m so sorry Moogie...\"
Something wriggled next to her. Confused at first, the girl realised she had almost forgotten one small detail. From a small pouch tied to her waist, she gently brought out the fluffy mouse she had kept hidden there. She stroked its little body, her eyes filled with tears.
\"Moogie...\" she sobbed, lifting her head to the sky.
\"Moodie?\" the little creature echoed innocently.
Whoops, I forgot to use the Doublepost-B-Gone trick. Oh well, I\'ll use it next time. :)
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finally you took ages :| i swear you said to me it was nearly done or something way back.
but you still manager the same standards \\o/
Editation! is it me or do like all my post sound like they are thoughts rolling out of my brain and getting typed out in any random way.
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Chapter 17
**Guest Chapter! Kindly written by Ayshe**
The stone and hide city of Ojaveda was a bustling centre, well deserved of it\'s place as the fourth largest settlement on the first level of Yliakum. It was a city that never truly knew night, as the trade Dsars of Sarraghi and Akkaio especially were open at all times.
Ojaveda was largely inhabited by Enkidukai, and just as day and night meant little to hunters who could spot prey well in either, a new kind of hunter and prey had evolved over time amongst the bleached white stones. Pick any typical street of Akkaio, and it was guaranteed to be filled end to end with the tight press of bodies, hawkers, pickpockets and merchants. Here between rare herbs, trinkets and bolts of fine cloth, the new hunters of the Enkidukai city - the merchants - sought their less dangerous but no less cunning prey - the customer and their tria.
One could buy rare gems, momentoes of the \"surface\", food, clothes, potions to give life, take it, bring you love, wealth, magical crystals and even affections... all for the right fee. A newcomer to Ojaveda, green from the fields and heavy of tria was a helpless malksa amongst the hunters.
Of the other dsars, all had a purpose. But here in the Blikau dsar, the housing district, there was something unusual. On this street of white stone, there was a blackened twisted shape nestled amongst the buildings.
The heat from the fire had been incredible. The stones themselves had spit and crackled, shattering into bright glassy shards in places. Of the wood structure, there was just a fine ash. Of the possessions in the house, much the same fate had arisen. Yet something was wrong, and the short Nolthir - an Akkaio vigesimi - standing by the wreckage with his official quill and scrolls, had no clue what to write.
From the sheer tortured destruction of the building, the very paving stones should have shattered. The vigesimi looked at his feet and saw the cobbles unblemished and covered only by a light sand, that blew in from the dunes to the east. Looking around, black tongues of soot reached across the surrounding buildings and dirtied them. Yet there was no other damage, and the vigesimi knew that the black soot should not have come from this fire, for the heat was too intense. It was as if someone had created a massive amount of heat and flames, but confined it to this building alone. An act of malice, but what powers could have done such an act, and for what purpose?
The scene made him very uneasy.
Footsteps behind him made him turn. There, on the street him were two enkidukai. One male, one female by the looks. Both wore blue and silver clothing, with some sort of stylised motif woven in to the fabrics. A guild of some kind. He did not have time for gawkers. Besides, he was not fond of Enkidukai.
\"Clear off\" he rasped, his throat drier than usual. \"Official business. Move along\"
The male stepped forward, mouth open to protest. Full of indignant pride. Oh these arrogant furred creatures were always trouble. But the female placed a hand on his shoulder. The male looked at her and nodded, stepping back. Strange, that. She stepped forward and spoke to the Nolthir.
\"We are here to ask questions about this building\" she asked. Before the Nolthir could reply, she had pulled out a signet ring embedded with a special glyph that he instantly recognised.
\"Official business\" she said with a smile that held no warmth or humour.
The Nolthir resigned himself to obliging. This enkidukai was either a Vigesimi, or on vigesimi\'s business. Given her appearance, he guessed the latter.
\"What would you ask? Intense fire, no surrounding damage. No deaths. It\'s an insignificant house owned by a nobody. Probably a prank\"
He saw the enkidukai\'s eyes narrow at the mention of a \"nobody\". He found himself uncharacteristicly startled. Her eyes, blue and clear held something in them... he felt as if she was staring through him and focussing a few feet behind his heard. The effect was rather intimidating, and he faltered in his speech.
\"No deaths. Are you sure?\" the enki demanded.
\"Y-yes... a sounding was performed. No souls departed this place recently enough to have been the fire\"
He turned back to the building. \"Small building, no death. So pointless, and so much paperwork for me\" He growled and turned back, but the enkidukais had gone. He caught a glimpse of them walking briskly to the city gates. Fine by him. He returned to his report, irritated.
The offices of Ayshe Alchamet, current leader of the Felines Lair were brightly lit. Three enkidukai sat in this room, all deep in thought. Ayshe, standing by the window, reading a report so new the ink was barely dry. Mordon Thoth, the scholar, and Zaxim, Moogie\'s second in command of Shadowkin - the order of spies for Felines Lair.
Ayshe finished reading the hastily coded report and addressed her companions.
\"The accident was deplorable. So many deaths... and still no one knows why. A carriage was found, impacted into the second level transit station. Scorched, twisted wreckage and a lot of very dead passengers. The cable was sheared through. This is a piece of the puzzle\"
Mordon cocked his head. \"How are you sure?\"
\"Because Moogie was seen boarding the carriage by a few eyewitnesses, with a young Ylian. Yet there were no enkidukai in the wreckage.\"
Ayshe nodded at Zaxim, thanking him for his contribution to the report.
\"What we know is that Moogie did not return home that night, and that her house was utterly destroyed some time in the early hours of the following morning. She was not seen until a few days later, boarding a carriage for the second level. She did not reach the second level, but she did not return to the first. The only eyewitnesses are dead.\"
Mordon shrugged. \"So what now\"
Walking over to a sturdy cabinet, Ayshe undid a complicated lock and withdrew three intricate and unique chainmesh gloves, each with a small blue lionhead glyph mounted in the center of the palm. Zaxim could see a large device carefully packed in to the cabinet. A present from a retired kran, he knew... a very dark contraption indeed. Ayshe was the head of a special order in the Felines Lair. One that dared to go a place that was as far from the light as it was possible to go.
Ayshe locked the cabinet and put the glove on that held glyph she had been personally bonded to. The blue crystal glowed faintly as it touched her paw.
\"Get me Keder and Hart.\" - Two of the other members of the Order, and the most experienced in the Death Realm.
Zaxim looked at his guildleader, in a mixture of mild awe, fear and admiration. \"What\'s the plan?\"
Ayshe clenched her palm, wincing at the memory of the last trip she had made using the glyph. \"We need to speak to those eyewitnesses in the Death Realm. We have to act quickly, before they are claimed...\"
Thanks Ayshe, that was great! :)
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Bravo! Well done!
*is speechless other than those two phrases*
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Sorry, sorry... I know, my attentions have been elsewhere as of late. I don\'t have a full chapter to post yet, but I\'ll show you the first half. It\'s not much but it\'ll have to do for now. :/ Enjoy.
Chapter 18.
Drip.
Drip?
Drip.
Where am I...?
Moogie opened her eyes. Her body felt numb. A white furry paw lay blocking her vision; her own. She moved it away slowly. The floor stretched out beyond her gaze... was it a floor? It shimmered somehow. Light patterns danced like liquid over the smooth surface. There was a small puddle of water a few feet away, almost unnoticeable. It\'s glistening skin was the only thing distinguishing it from the rest of the sea-blue stone. Another drip from somewhere high above plopped into the water, causing a tiny splash. The noise echoed a few times.
The... caves. I remember. But it felt like I was... moving?
Somehow these surroundings looked unfamiliar. Moogie could remember no water in the vast tunnels and caverns of the Stranger\'s lair. The air here felt heavy; she felt dizzy from the pressure, as if the room itself pressed down on her, dampening her strength and tensing her mind.
\"Get up.\" The voice was stern, and so close that it made Moogie jump with a start. She sat up and turned, slowly, to its speaker.
A mix of emotions crossed her face as she recognised the Xacha. He was a familiar sight, one which made her feel somehow protected. She felt suprised and relieved to see him alive, standing before her. But after what she had just witnessed, could she still trust him? And he looked different... strikingly so. His coat, once hanging straight and sturdy from his broad shoulders, was now in tatters, particularly towards the bottom and around his cuffs. His hair was dirty, and loose for the first time she had ever seen it. The white strands were just beyond shoulder length, straight, but in parts gently curled, particularly at the back. It was messy and stained with blood and dirt. The rest of his attire was also in a state of dishevelment, but the detail that shocked her the most was his face.
\"It\'s rude to stare, girl,\" came his deep voice, in a tone Moogie hadn\'t heard since she had first met the man, but she couldn\'t help it. The left side of his face had been marred considerably; presumably from when the cave roof had collapsed over his body. A thick, ugly scar ran vertically from his brow to the base of his cheek, passing right through the middle of his eye socket. The lids were closed, and the skin seemed sunken over the orb.
\"I said \'get UP\'!\" His other eye shone brightly as he grabbed her roughly by the arm and pulled her up onto her feet. Moogie instinctively retreated a few steps, fear and concern struggling for domination of her delicate features.
\"I... I saw you die. You were dead, and then... the cave, it...\" She could barely form a complete sentence. Her thoughts complained silently of blindness, clouded by a storm which fed and grew on each new question, each new twist in the truth. Camazotz calmly approached the feline, his cold eyes fixed on hers.
\"The Master is here. The Master needs you. You will go to him.\" He placed a hand on Moogie\'s shoulder, the leather material still barely intact enough to cover his skin in most places. Her expression lightened slightly.
Master? Did he somehow save us from the Strangers? Does that mean... I\'m safe now?
Her thoughts stopped abruptly- sharply interrupted by something thick and cold plunging through her stomach. The pain was fleeting; as the blade of his silver Sai buried itself up to the hilt in her flesh, a small trickle of blood escaped the corner of her lips. Somehow she managed to look down, her vision quickly blurring. His hand gripped the weapon firmly, pressing the metal against her bleeding dress. A red stain creeped through the material from the mortal wound.
With the last of her strength, she looked back into his undamaged eye. She no longer saw him there. It was empty, staring back at her with emotionless indifference. Her body went limp in his arms.
\"Fear not...\" the Xacha whispered, slowly lowering Moogie to the ground. \"In Death, you will bring him life... I will see you again shortly.\"
***
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Wow, Moogie, I LOVE your story. I can\'t wait to read the rest of it!
EDIT: Hmm, I feel like I should say more.
GAH! Moogie DIED?! ... I never understood how people could kill off their main character, even if there is more to the story.
Still, awesome story, amazing description, nifty characters. ^_^
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8o ....
well that was interesting, i still didnt get round to reading it and it all gets spoiled :/
i hate you Jjairr
[size=0.5](well not really hate but i use that word for dramatic effect)[/size]
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*is not talking to Moogie.*
Just kidding. Great start, but you can\'t leave us hanging like that! \'Tis not fair!
*goes back to not talking to Moogie while grumbling something about Kathy Bates*
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What I just came back and Moogie kills her main character?
Please tell me your going to bring her back!
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waaaa! moogie how could you!
so yeah i finnaly read it. definatley not my favourite chapter (not in a bad way that, mainly due to the events). im not sure what my favourite chapter is, maybe the one with Zabeal in it. the one at the winch that was my favourite.
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Dammit Moogs >.< i was about to do that in my story... well not stab you but... ah nevermind *throws notepad in the bin* stupid mmphflflmphngrn
:D
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(CHAPTER 18 CONTINUED)
\"Home...\" Leilani whispered to herself again. She couldn\'t believe she was back in the village. So much had happened outside, yet here, as she stood at the gates of Oja\'Renin, it seemed like a whole other world, secluded from the evils that ravaged the land beyond its borders; nothing had changed. It looked just as she remembered; old Mrs Margey made her way towards the town market to buy food as peaceful birds twittered and hopped across the roofs of scattered houses. Children joyfully played games of Hags, chasing eachother through the village, squatting behind barrels and stacks of hay, while Hernon and her brother Sam loaded sacks of grain onto a merchant\'s cart waiting outside the town hall.
The girl took in the scene, her eyes wandering through her home in disbelief. The detail took several moments to hit her. Her jaw dropped in shock as she recognised him, working with a carefree smile, not a scratch on his body.
He was alive.
\"SAM!?\" Leilani yelled, but he didn\'t notice her cry. She stood for a moment in disbelief. Her mixed emotions of relief and suprise laid bare across her face.
He was alive.
\"SAM!!\" she called again. She couldn\'t believe it. Tears of joy streaked down her face, as her feet carried her forward, a sprint fuelled by raw emotion. She kept running. Oh god, he\'s alive... my brother... Sam\'s alive!
Her mind raced with questions. Not least of all was how far away he seemed to be. Infact, she felt no closer than when she\'d first seen him. Her expression dropped slightly. Worry flashed across her eyes. The questions momentarily ceased in her mind.
No...
Her brow knit with determination as she doubled her efforts, tiring legs powering her across the gravel track as hard as they could. Her mind locked away the growing fear and closed its ears to the painful dawning of realisation.
No. This is real. Sam is alive... My brother is alive...!
The image of her brother and everything infront of her stood still; she was not moving. Her head felt heavy, pain throbbed in her temples. She would not accept this.
\"No..!\"
An exhausted sob escaped between laboured breaths as she squeezed her eyes closed and ran as fast as she could. Her feet threw themselves at the floor, every ounce of energy draining from her limbs in a final effort of breaking this horrible nightmare. Gasping for breath, the girl looked up, hope sparkling in her eyes.
And then was lost. She still hadn\'t moved.
Leilani slowed to a pitiful walk, from which she dropped to her knees, unable to contain her emotions any longer. Defeated. The blurry image of her brother taunted her from across the way. He turned to her, a warm smile fixed on his face. Did he see her there at all? The girl held her hand out weakly to him, her voice no longer strong enough to make a sound. Broken. She slumped to the floor, shivering uncontrollably. Lost. Sam turned away, seemingly unaware of her. The village continued to live and move, ignoring the little girl that lay clutching her head in its midst. This was a world that couldn\'t welcome her. It didn\'t exist. It wasn\'t real. But it wouldn\'t go away. Leilani lay there, alone, for a long time.
******
Moogie was getting tired of waking up in unusal places. What had just happened? Looking down, she noticed that the blood on her dress had dried to a dark brown stain. The material was neatly ripped in the center, right where the blade had pierced her body without warning. Her face ran cold; she had been hoping it was just a dream. She gulped.
Am I... dead? The question provoked an irresistable urge to find out. With one hand, she gently poked her fingers through the hole in her dress and touched her skin. Queazy, she expecting to feel a festering wound, a gaping hole torn through her skin, oozing precious lifeblood... but it was smooth. Soft fur covered the area where she had felt the sword had passed through her. There was no sticky, matted bloodstain, no throbbing sensation of the pain of a mortal wound. The memory was crisp in her mind, yet there was nothing on her but unbroken, heathly hair. Feeling slightly braver, she peered underneath her dress. Her fingers hadn\'t lied; there was no injury at all. Had it been an illusion? If that was the case, then why was there blood on her dress?
\"WELCOME.\" A voice boomed through the air, startling her so much that she leapt to her feet and spun around. Only then did her surroundings become apparent; her wide, fearful eyes momentarily overwhelmed by the scenery. Looming timelessly above her, a dark and stormy sky rolled with thunder somewhere far in the distance. It\'s ancient groan rumbled through the rock platform that was ground for Moogie\'s feet. A chilling wind whistled past as she stood wearily in this unfamiliar enviroment. The rocky perch was no more than a circle of stone, surrounded by an endless expanse of space. It was empty and featurless, save for the Enkidukai herself, and a small pool of red liquid a few feet away. From an unseen height above, a constant drip disturbed the puddle, it\'s lonely echo fading into the still air. Her eyes lingered on its reflective surface; it looked oddly familiar.
This can\'t be real...
A strange ripple in the air caught Moogie\'s attention. As she turned to its source, she was shocked to witness a large form appearing in the air before her. She glanced around the platform again; there was no escape, and nothing she could use to defend herself. Moogie sent a hurried prayer to Aliathi that she would be needing neither.
The outline shimmered, as a throne with a tall back faded into view. Blurred at first, the form sharpened untill it was crisp and solid. The throne seemed to be almost entirely carved from bone, and every edge of the dark object was studded with large animal teeth; canines near the base, but growing into large fangs as they drew near the top corners, giving the appearance of two viciously armed jaws. An inhuman figure sat between them, with boney fingers clenched around the bulbous ends of the thone\'s arms. Moogie took an involuntary step back from this ghostly visage, her breath caught in her chest.
The large skeletal figure, which she guessed was male (despite looking more demonic than human), leant forward slowly in his seat. His icy blue eyes pierced the darkness that shrouded his features, sending shivers down the girl\'s spine. She couldn\'t imagine what horrific appearance lay hidden behind those shadows, and was somewhat thankful that her eyes were saved from such an image. His attire was crumbled and rotted with age, but their style and faded colours suggested that, a very long time ago, the clothes would have been in pristine condition- and look kingly enough to suit a throne of gold. However, they still managed to suit the throne on which their king sat now, surrounded by the ancient, blackened remains of long-forgotten monsters.
The dark throne floated in the air some feet away from Moogie\'s platform, glowing with dark, whispy flames. The figure spoke slowly, the voice as dark and forboding as his appearance.
\"Long have I awaited this day. You...\" he pointed a sharp, fleshless digit at Moogie, \"...you will forfill the prophecy yet. Yes... you are still useful.\" He rested back against his throne again and chuckled. The girl stood motionless, her eyes fixed forward. After a moment of deliberation, she somehow managed to find the strength to respond.
\"Prophecy...\" Her brow knit in confusion, but a faint sparkle of hope appeared in her eyes. \"You\'re... you\'re on my side?\"
The question was met with an amused laugh. Moogie\'s expression dropped, and fear crept ever further into her senses, danger screaming in her ears as she listened to his hoarse voice. She glanced around again, but knew nothing had changed. There was still no escape. She was completely at his mercy.
\"That Xacha... haha, what a fool. He always did love himself too much to realise how stupid he really is.\"
Moogie frowned. He knows Camazotz...?
\"It was he who first gave the idea of a prophecy to the cultists, many years ago when they first uncovered his soul. And now to you, at the advent of my awakening. But they, and you, AND him... had no idea... hahaha. It was I who planted the seeds of this false prophecy in his mind. It was never true.\" His eyes flashed brightly. \"Heh, no... the REAL prophecy... is why you are here, Mogura.\"
Moogie\'s heart jumped at hearing her true name. Nobody had called her Mogura since her first arrival in Yliakum, and few now even remembered she was ever known by it.
\"Who are you...?\" she asked, as defiantly as her voice could manage. If he knew her and held the answers to all of this, she needed to know. The figure chuckled to himself again, falling quiet after a few seconds. After a long pause, he replied, his voice darkening as he growled.
\"I am Krenshul... Once Master of the Academy of Arcane Arts. I was murdered, and then bound back into service by the Academy council\'s most powerful sorcerers. I was angered by this... I did not ask to be brought back. They left me there to rot for eternity once the Academy fell in the war... but I broke free of my chains...\"
Three more figures suddenly faded into view beside him, floating effortlessly over the bottomless edge of the rock platform. Moogie recognised the first two as Camazotz and Camarenzis, but the third she had never seen before. Thinking back to the things she had heard in the Strangers\' lair, she remembered there had been talk of a third Callicantzaros. Could this be him...?
The throned man continued slowly. \"In life, I had three main enemies. You see them before you now. Camarenzis, a beautiful Demorian girl who managed to seduce me, and then disappear with half of my wealth. This little whore caused me much grief and shame... and cost me my family. As you can see, I punished her... fairly.\" Moogie saw clearly. The ugly, winged gargoyle she saw before her now had once been young and beautiful. In a dark and twisted way, the punishment certainly fit the crime.
\"Camazotz, my murderer. Infact he had been after my position for most of his teenage life. Foolish child... he has no complaints now. He is mine to command.\" He paused, glancing over to his bound demons. \"The last is Camayev... once my closest advisor and friend. He commanded the Academy mages to bound me to their little shrine and put me to work as their slave. Hah. And now who is the slave? Hahaha.\"
Moogie watched the Callicantzaros from the corner of her eyes. They remained motionless, side by side, without expression or emotion. Each was completely bound to Krenshul\'s will now. He had taken them back under his control. The empty look in their eyes, even in Camazotz\', proved this beyond any doubt. She suddenly feared their presence more than anything else in this strange place.
\"Now, I have my Callicantzaros back under my control. The prophecy of my revenge is at hand. And soon, all will pay for the injustices done to me... ALL WILL PAY. And you... you are one half of the key to unlock the destiny. My final retribution will soon be forfilled.\"
\"One half..?\" Moogie whispered. As suddenly as they had appeared, the figures, including the throne, shimmered and disappeared before her. Her eyes widened.
\"No... no, wait! Don\'t leave me here?!\" she cried. The echo of her voice was all the reply she received. Turning back towards the center of the rock circle, the very air seemed to change colour, becoming darker and drawing inwards, so close that she squeezed her eyes shut in terror.
...
...
Drip.
Drip...?
Drip.
Cautiously, she reopened her eyes. She was back inside the blue cavern. The pool of liquid nearby was no longer blood, but clear blue water again. She sat down on her haunches, rubbing her eyes with one hand. She could hardly understand what had just happened, but one question now repeated louder than anything else in her mind... a question she feared to discover the answer to. She was one half of the key... Who, or what, was the other half? Did he already possess it?
Was the true prophecy already becoming forfilled?
Phew, finally, chapter done. I don\'t like it. I don\'t like iiiiiiiiit! *whines* I don\'t like it!! *cries* oh well, it reveals alot of the plot, but really horribly. This could have been so much better... :(
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O come now Moogie I thought that last chapter was quite good.
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quality hasn\'t dipped in comparison with the previous works at all, you just hate your own work, like everyone does
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That was beautifully written and twisted, Moogie. Scary and sad, but a good read. As always, I await more.
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You may now have CoS beat, but I would need to count your words first. If so...
*bows to the Queen* :D