Fantasy Character Castle Chronicles n.1
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“What door should we choose?” Alessio, the Bearer of Fire, said. Malvat could see the rage seething in his thoughts and decided that now was not the best time to appear callous. (Cathy: IKR?!?!? There would have been a Dragon vs. FireBoy duel right then and there. XD)
Ignoring the girl who crept up behind Alessio and began murmuring to him, Malvat surveyed his surroundings. Four doors, four cages. One with a giant griffin, another with some kind of glorified bee, a third with a writhing snake, and the fourth – no! What was that idiot doing?!!? He should’ve read the shapeshifter’s thoughts sooner, and now that he could, he was pretty sure this would turn into a blood bath pretty soon.
How to get you free without alerting those losers? she thought, nuzzling the creature through the bars of its cage.
And yet, Malvat stayed his rage, just watching her. Emotions were beneath each of her thoughts – emotions he could use. Disinterest, selfishness, even the slightest twinge of shame: the perfect concoction. (Emily: sorry if I’m reading Lupa wrongly – Malvat can read thoughts (obviously XD), so he’d probably get pretty close, so apologies if I’m off a bit. ;))
Turning away from Alessio and the girl – Mayra, was it? – Malvat silently glided up to the cage, watching the wolf’s ears perk towards him as it noticed his approach. “Good choice,” he murmured, quietly enough only she could hear. He knew he’d have to tread carefully, or Lupa would turn on him. “Question is, will you allow me to come with you when we leave those two behind?” He motioned with his silver eyes towards Alessio and Mayra, still in their conversation, and Brendin (is Jericho still here? I can’t remember XD). He could gain Alessio’s powers later. For now, he needed alliances.
Especially with a shapeshifter like himself.
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@skylarynn (are you still with us?)Alessio catches Malvat conversing with Lupa who…in one of the cages? Uh sure, whatever, doesn’t even make the top thousand weird and traumatic events of the day. It’s productive… probably
“Can you get the door open without letting it out?” He asked moving toward the cage a little, but he glanced back at Mayra, wondering if it was ok to take her hand, he just didn’t want to lose her in whatever the next disaster would be. But it was a childish instinct to think as long as you were touching someone you could protect them.
@joelle-stone @kimlikesart @millennium @irishcelticredflowercrown @skylarynn @crazywriterTo be a light to the world you must shine in the darkness.
Lupa–who had shrunk her wolf form, slipped through bars, and then returned to normal size again–glared at Alessio through the bars, her yellow wolf eyes narrowed. She bared her teeth and shook her head, disgusted at the idea of keeping such a creature confined.
I’m going to free this creature and let myself out. Follow me if you can. She thought, though no one would understand her if she spoke it aloud. Accept maybe another shapeshifter…her gaze scanned the dim room again. But she didn’t care if they made it out.
Could she even get the door open? Where were the keys? She whispered in wolf-speak to the creature–hoping the other shapeshifter in the room didn’t hear–asking as to where the keys were.
The wolf giant tipped its massive grey head and pointed its muzzle to a point to the center of the ceiling where a fifth lantern had appeared, and she was sure it hadn’t been there before. A set of keys–one for each cage–hung attached to the lantern.
Lupa growled to get the people closest to the cage to pay attention and then angled her own golden muzzle at the keys, indicating they bring the set to her.
@joelle-stone @kimlikesart @irishcelticredflowercrown @skylarynn @crazywriterOne day you'll be someone's favorite author.
Now Alessio wasn’t certain but he was pretty sure the wolf was glaring at him. Not that he was scared or anything but he backed away from the bars just a little. Actually he had a bit of a phobia for the giant wolf which, while it looked very different from the pack wulfs in the Surreala Guild, it was still close enough to make him nervous.
Lupa growled and motioned to the keys with her muzzle.
“Only if you can promise that thing won’t eat us.” He said, looking more at the large wolf than at her.
To be a light to the world you must shine in the darkness.
Evie cracked her eyes open, shaking her head against the pounding pain. That last portal experiment had clearly not gone as planned.
She felt at her belt for her knives and sighed with relief when the hilt of her dagger slipped into her hand. Her sword was still strapped across her back.
She rubbed her eyes and groaned. She officially hated portals.
An answering moan sounded from a few feet away, and she glared at Dominic lying on the stone.
“I believe you’ve taken us to the wrong place, brother,” she muttered.
Dominic groaned again and stared at her. “You think I care?”
“Nope.”
Evie surveyed their location and quirked an eyebrow. This was new. They were in a stone hallway that stretched into darkness both directions. Doors lined the hallway, each with different runes written on them.
Evie drew her dagger and bared it, prepared to take out an enemy.
This isn’t Auroriatown, she transmitted to Dominic.
“Yeah. I got that.”
Her brother appeared beside her, hand on the hilt of his sword.
How about a door?
“Sure.”
Evie smiled and drew another knife. Then she turned the knob of the door in front of her, and all of a sudden there were cages.
Cages and cages and cages full of feral wolves clearly in the mood to eat something.
Evie’s eyes widened.
There was the food, back on the other side of the cages.
The food was actually a strange conglomeration of people.
And they didn’t really look all that safe…
"The darkness is seldom complete, and even when it is, the pinprick of light is not long in coming."
Lupa shrugged at Alessio as much as a wolf could and glanced at the giant wolf who huffed, reluctantly agreeing not to eat anyone.
Turning back to Alessio, Lupa nodded and pointed her muzzle back to the keys.
One day you'll be someone's favorite author.
Lupa shrugged her front biceps not at all reassuringly, but she then seemed to get some sort of confirmation from the wolf before she nodded to him and motioned insistently at the keys. Alessio let out a low measured breath. Normally he’d be able to tell whether someone was lying or not, but reading the emotional subtext of animal’s body-language is an entirely different beast there (*haha, see what I did ther…you’re right it’s an awful pun I’ll see myself out of the Fourth Wall now…*). He didn’t really have much of a choice, though, they all needed out.
“I’m going to regret this so much…” Alessio grumbled, very reluctantly taking down the keys to unlock the stupid door so the giant wolf that’s apparently promised not to eat them can get out so he can eat them. Back in Casumbra wulfs were used to track people–namely..him, and they were trained to be brutal.
Needless to say Alessio hated the idea of letting the wolf out.
At that exact moment the door inside the cage peeled open to the faces of a boy and girl, clearly siblings both with dark hair and eyes. The wolf turned to them, probably thinking what a delicious meal he wasn’t forced to promise not to eat. Alessio deliberately looked at Lupa.
“Do I still have to unlock this?”To be a light to the world you must shine in the darkness.
Evie stared in horror at the dude who was literally about to let the wolf out.
Why? Why would he do this???
Evie snapped her knives back into their sheaths and drew her sword, wishing for perhaps the first time in her life that she could actually shoot a bow – and that she had one with her.
No matter.
She’d take the wolf out on her steel instead.
The guy turned to look at her and Dominic.
Then he looked back at another… wolf? That was loose?
Evie growled and flipped a strand of loose hair out of her eye. They were multiplying.
“Do I still have to unlock this?” he asked.
Evie chuckled. “No,” she muttered under her breath.
Dominic elbowed her.
She glared at him briefly.
Then gripped her sword.
“Get your weapon, Dom,” she snapped.
Dominic sighed and drew his sword too.
She smiled.
This was (not) going to be fun.
Although, on the plus side, they might get some wolf meat for dinner.
Assuming the weird group of people back there didn’t try to make Evie and Dominic dinner…
"The darkness is seldom complete, and even when it is, the pinprick of light is not long in coming."
Alessio was so. Done. With this.
And now the new girl had decided to be threatening and rude. Buuut. She was still on the other side of the cage.
“Get your weapon, Dom,” She snapped at–apparently–Dom, and they drew swords, naturally. So Alessio kinda sardonically backed a reasonable distance from the cage with the keys still in hand. Nithel would’ve been nicer to them…He briefly glanced at Mayra just to assure himself she was ok and wasn’t gone. Brendin was still there and Malvat and everyone else, mostly.
“It’s been a very. Long. Week.…existence actually.” he said “So can we just skip the whole ‘I’m lost and scared and will attack anything that moves’ and just part our separate miserable ways or try to work together to escape or at least survive this…traumatically horrific-existential-crisis-in-a-box with a side of a malevolent menagerie?”
Nithel would’ve been so much nicer to them…
But Nithel was gone, he was probably somewhere much better, Alessio didn’t want to think about it. It was so selfish that he just wanted him back. By now he should’ve learned to be self-reliant, really. He was trying to erase it all from his memory to get back to the normal that kept him going and doing something because he didn’t have time for emotions…To be a light to the world you must shine in the darkness.
“…traumatically horrific-existential-crisis-in-a-box with a side of a malevolent menagerie?”
Peace settled over Jericho. Peace she’d not had in a long time. With a faint smile she began to fade away, gently laying a hand on Alessio’s shoulder to assuage as much of his anxiety as she could before she vanished. And then she was gone.
Appearing beside Alessio was a tall, lithe man, probably in his twenties, with dark hair and eyes. He wore a drab grey cloak with a flap cut to grant access to a quiver of long-shafted arrows of varying thicknesses. On his shoulder was a stout longbow. Beneath the cloak he wore a loose white shirt and tight-fitting open vest covered in embroidery. His trousers were tucked into heavy trekking boots and tied with a vibrant sash.
Startled, Jango instinctively nocked an arrow to his bow and glanced around. There were all manner of strange people, animals in cages, and an actual dragon within the room. By Kiaan, where am I? But he did recognize one person in the motley assortment of creatures. Brendin Warin, Lord Northiron’s nephew. He’d been kidnapped from the University by Ingor’s maeres nigh on six years ago, presumed dead. Or worse. Yet there he stood, alive and well.
“Lord Warin,” he greeted in Kith. “What’s going on here?”"Remember, you go nowhere by accident. Wherever you go, God is sending you." - Rev. Peter R. Hale
Nithel pants, leaning back against a large tree. Dust cakes his sweating body, and he looks around. Much of his long hair had slipped from its tie, and was pasted to his face and neck with dried sweat. He waited, listening to the darkness, but most is silent now except for small wind through the leaves. Hope dying… taking its last breath.
He swallows hard, his chest aching as he looks at it all.
His son had not been found with the dead. The jeers of some men, and the sincerity of others, rang in his ears. But Nithel wasn’t sure that was preferred. He swallows hard, fighting tears, and just barely starting to catch his breath. He fingered the five wooden pieces around the leather string tied around his neck. Fingering them each, thinking of what they represented.
He’d been searching the field of dead for days. His son was not here.
The sword at his belt felt like a thousand pounds had been added to it, and the blood on his hands felt like it was stained deeper than it had been. He sighed deeply, then pushed off the trunk and straightened, not knowing if he could go on. But he had to.
But then he was falling. Falling like he hadn’t sense climbing that tree with his son years before.
And he landed on cold stones, for the first time since he was a young man. A time he’d thought was a dream.
It’s a dark hallway. Cold. No light._______________________________
@joelle-stone @this-is-not-an-alien @irishcelticredflowercrown @millennium @denali-christianson (Hi!) @skylarynnJominkreesa
'Forth now! And fear no darkness!'
Alessio had been so preoccupied with…well everything, he didn’t notice Jericho until her touch made him flinch. Why couldn’t he just stop flinching at everything…Her hand was warm, after everything it made him want to just let himself fall apart like there was nothing else to worry about. So tired of trying to suppress everything to keep functioning. Alessio was safer here than he’d ever been anywhere else and it was beginning to really hit him how pathetic that was. Most people…actually weren’t as wretched as…that. Most people were essentially caring, especially if it was safe to care…
Alessio found himself trying to remember Mayra’s song, but all he could recall was the sense of…life somehow called back into his soul. It reminded him that people could care…
With more assurance than he thought he should feel, he looked up at her gratefully. Nithel had liked her so why could h…Before Alessio even finished the thought she faded right in front of him, just like Nithel. His friend faded, she faded, they’d all…
In just as quick a flash another stranger appeared so close sudden sparks of fire triggered through Alessio before evaporating as he jumped back instinctively notching his bow. It was awkward, because the stranger reacted the exact same way, minus the fire of course. (His arrows were of varied density, Alessio totally wasn’t fascinated while slightly fearing for his life. Longbows were much better than recurves.)
The first thing the new stranger did was address Brendin in another language, that confirmed they were from the same world, apparently. Devils, Alessio didn’t want anyone from his world appearing that was for sure. And just when he thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse, someone else appeared. What was the Castle working overtime? But unlike most of the stranger this new person crashed onto the floor so Alessio compulsively moved to him.
“Are you, uh, alri…” The man’s long golden hair was tied back just like…That…that wasn’t possible, Alessio saw his friend disappear only a few minutes ago. How could…how…was he dreaming? He was afraid to touch Nithel because he might disappear again, he couldn’t be, he looked older and different but…it was him, wasn’t it?
“Nithel?” He barely even whispered, almost making a move to embrace him but he was terrified if he did maybe Nithel would fade again or he’d find out he was just hallucinating or things had changed so much that…@KIMMILIKESART!!!! @joelle-stone @irishcelticredflowercrown @millennium @denali-christianson @skylarynn
To be a light to the world you must shine in the darkness.
Nithel breathed in and out, trying to catch his breath. Trying to understand. Had he fallen in a pit? Unlikely. Voices. Stone ground.
He felt at his side to make sure his sword was still strapped to him. Someone was talking to him. Voice kind. He didn’t know if he believed in kindness-
No, he did. Nithel pushed his chest up a bit, then his chest jumped when the one speaking said his name. Who– His brows furrowed. A youth. I’ve… seen you before. *thoughts/trying to remember* Nithel’s throat was dry as he swallowed. “Hello.” He let out a wary breath, the greeting was more guarded than he would have liked. Not the customary one, or hospitable, but he had done it. Nithel looked away, eyes running over the packed room, seeing where he was.
More dread filled his heart the more he saw, and he really felt like he’d been in this place before. Memories tickled the back of his mind, and fear. No. Nithel’s eyes darted back to the youth. Serious, not believing. No. It wasn’t real… Except for the leather strap around his neck, that had been real. Apparently it all was.
And the youth knew him._______________
@joelle-stone @this-is-not-an-alien @irishcelticredflowercrown @millennium @denali-christianson @skylarynnJominkreesa
'Forth now! And fear no darkness!'
Malvat stared – four newcomers, all at once. The first two were obviously brother and sister, obviously nervous and disoriented, and obviously not able to guard their thoughts (Denali?). Evie and Dominic, if he read their minds correctly. Evie would be hard to manipulate – her dislike of animals was clear in some of her memories. But Dominic… he might be useful.
The next was harder to tell. He thought in a different language (?), one Malvat didn’t know, but he recognized the word Brendin. They knew each other. Hopefully they were enemies, so this new man wouldn’t stand in the way of Malvat’s schemes.
And the fourth caused Malvat’s scales to tighten. His eyes narrowed as he took in the blonde hair, tied back with a leather strap; the muscular frame, hardened with years; the deep eyes, full of wisdom and deja vu.
Nithel.
Malvat barely kept his low growl of the word from being heard. His tongue flickered out as fire began to blaze in his belly. Curse you, Kening! Must you foil my plans? I long for justice, not annoyance. And this worm stands in my path.
He said nary a word, just watched. Waited. His time would come soon.
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