Till the monster stirred, that demon, that fiend/Grendel who haunted the moors, the wild/Marshes, and made his home in a hell./Not hell but hell on earth. He was spawned in that slime/Of Cain, murderous creatures banished/ By God, punished forever for the crime/ Of Abel's death. —Beowulf, pg. 26. Lines 101-108
It was not supposed to be easy. That was the thought that consoled him after a fashion as he spent much of the evening, and many before, sitting on his rocking chair on the front porch of his homestead far and away from the bustle of the city, all the while working on an equation that was necessary to operate the trans-dimensional Hyperbola Gate on the distant island, Tempest. His wide patch of land encompassed a large meadow, nestled within the embrace of a deep green forest. Here he spent the lion's share of his time, it seemed, so wrapped up in trying to make the equation work that he forgot he even had a life left behind with friends and adoptive family in the inns, taverns, and dueling venues in Rhy'Din City. But it was the only way; without a solution to the equation, he could not take the next step in his life's journey. Without it, he would forever be locked in a vicious Mobius Loop of repetitive action, living a life stuck in neutral, going nowhere fast with all of the frustrations that such a life brings. No, Creation would find a way to bring him to the solution, if he just exercised the patience he was known for.
Alec glanced up from the qala-crystal tablet that rested on his lap, a series of Ippon numerical glyphs glowing a sullen red on its face. His face was tinged with a mild but growing disgust as he sniffed the air and scanned the tree-line with his hazel eyes. There was something foul in the gentle winds that swept over the meadow from the south, carrying something that reeked of rotting carcass and decay. Had something died out there in the woods surrounding his meadow" It certainly wasn't unheard of, and the journeyman thought nothing more of it for the next few minutes. He turned his attention back to the tablet, his forefinger brushing over its face, manipulating the symbols that were displayed there into new lines that flowed into...nothing in particular. The new arrangement for the multi-vectored equation failed once again to resolve into an acceptable solution. Damn! He ran his hand irritatedly through his blond hair and dove back into the quagmire of numbers and symbols before him.
Once again that putrid smell in the air caused the journeyman to glance up at the tree-line, as he arched a slender eyebrow in idle curiosity. The scent was getting stronger with each passing moment, and he swore he could detect subtle variations in the scent, as though it were coming from several different sources, each with the same generally malodorous quality but with slight differences here and there. Alec set the tablet down on the porch and directed his awareness into the tapestry of tau, that sub-spatial energy that comprised the form and function of Creation and everything within it. The visual facade of light and matter faded away into the swirling violet-blue mists and lines of tau, and his awareness went searching off into the distance around the homestead, patrolling the parameter of the meadow in search of the source of the stench that was wafting through his property. There was at least one dead carcass out there that needed removal, he reckoned, and probably more than one.
It was then that he saw a veritable platoon of creatures stalking about the forest around the meadow, observing and plotting a manner of attack in the way that beasts often assessed their prey before moving in for the kill. Alec tensed and studied the makeup of their tau signatures in an attempt to discover the nature of the creatures when he remembered the massacre that happened during the Shamrock Shindig last month, and the reports of the monsters that descended upon the festivities that night. Reports of foul-smelling beasts that consumed, and were immune to, magic.
Sivanna!
His wife was the Archmage of Twilight Isle, and keeper of great celestial magics as a consequence of her title. And as a great and high practitioner of clerical and hermetic magics, she would be an inviting target for creatures such as they. Their home was chock full of magical items, with everything from wands and rods to scrolls and spellbooks. That, plus their home was powered by mystical qala-crystal technology such that this place must stand out like Caesar's Palace to creatures who had a taste for consuming items with mystical utility.
It was too dry outside. And that wasn't necessarily saying anything about the actual weather conditions, or even the simple fact that the location of Sivanna's and Alec's home wasn't deep enough into the forest to make Sivanna comfortable all the time. After all, the way Silvanesti was structured, the cleric may well have argued she grew up in a woodland city. Homes and structures there had been built into the very trunks and branches of trees, lending each edifice a living, breathing personality that connected every last one of them. The forest was something Sivanna made a point never to be far from. But it wasn't the forest that she found dry that evening. No. It was the rote paperwork that she busied herself with in the living room, her fountain pen scratching angrily across a clipboarded page by firelight as she lounged comfortably on the futon. This. This work was why she felt parched all the time. Like it was slowly but surely draining the life out of her and leaving her some shriveled raisin of a living being. For the fifth time in three minutes, the cleric's hand drifted to the floor where her glass of water sat, took it up, and indulged in a long, greedy sip that did nothing to quench her thirst. Setting it back down, she sighed and removed her cardigan, leaving only a black tank top and slacks. Irritated, steel eyes landed on the crackling fire at the hearth. That certainly wasn't helping.
Alec returned his awareness to the material world and quickly stood up from his rocker, rushing inside and slamming the door shut. He worked the lock and bolted the door. A foul stench followed him inside to waft through the living room. "Sivanna," he said evenly, turning towards the cleric as she worked. "Pack up whatever magic items in here that you can get to quickly and get to your Citadel." Mental images flashed to her across their Bond-connection, images that, while he had never seen them firsthand, pertained to the creatures that attacked the Shamrock Shindig last month. The front door bolted, he went over to the hook on the wall beside the fireplace and grabbed his weapons harness with its twin holstered SigSauer 9mm pistols and Ippon sliverblades. The blades he unsheathed and placed on top of the hearth, for while they themselves were not enchanted in any way, they were manufactured by mystical means and he was unsure that they would be effective against such creatures. He turned his gaze onto Sivanna for a moment, then started off towards the stairs lead towards the basement. They did not have much time.
Even before the door slammed shut, Sivanna had felt Alec's panic through their Bond connection. That dry paperwork was abandoned in a flurry of movement; by the time the first leaf of parchment alighted onto the floor, Sivanna was in their bedroom closet, yanking tomes and scrolls of their shelves and throwing them into an open trunk. Oh, she knew about the denubae. The cleric had had the unfortunate experience of trying to fight one with Neo not six months ago. Once the closet's innards were secure in that trunk, the elfess dashed across the bedroom and dug through a set of drawers near their bed, where she kept a set of wands and several bottles of explosive tonics. All were swept up into the crook of her arm and carried back to that trunk to be piled within. In a loud slam, the cleric locked the vessel and dug a piece of chalk out of her pocket; with this, she immediately went about inscribing a transmutation circle upon the trunk itself, then on the floor beneath it, all the while hissing out an incantation that would hopefully transport her magical materials to the Citadel of the Stars without destroying them.
The journeyman made haste down the stairs into the basement as he affixed the weapons harness to his torso, where it tucked the holstered pistols a few inches under his armpits. Once at the bottom of the steps, he went over to the wall to his immediate right and slapped a cleverly disguised panel of faux cinder-block. This opened up a larger panel in the wall that covered a cubbyhole, within which were racks of various firearms, ammunition, explosive devices and other tools of a deadly trade. While Sivanna rushed to clean the place of magical items, Alec would now busy himself by selecting a Kalashnikov assault rifle, one prized for its dependability in the field, a bayonet, an ordinary steel combat knife and a canvas field satchel which he slings over his shoulder, the strap situated diagonally across his torso. Into the satchel he quickly placed three magazines of 7.62mm rounds for the rifle and a shrapnel charge with an adhesive strip.
As that trunk slowly dissolved, leaving only a faded circle of chalk, Sivanna ripped her wool coat off a hanger and pulled it on hastily. Kneeling, she glanced over her shoulder once, before placing her palm firmly on one of the floorboards where the chest had sat. Her eyes blackened as she uttered a soft enchantment, disintegrating that panel to reveal a titanium-enclosed crevice beneath that housed what appeared to be a seamless, onyx box roughly the size of a dictionary. Her hands shook as she carefully wrapped the case in a velvet scarf from a nearby shelf, extracted it from the gap, and rose, holding the container as close to her body as she could without touching its sides directly. Still barefoot, the elfess made long, quick strides back into the living room, and called to her husband, who as far as she could tell, was arming up for war. "Alec! Let's go!" It had been at least three minutes since she had felt the magic ward she had long since constructed to protect their home fail.
As he hoisted the rifle and made for the utility room across the way, he heard his wife calling for him upstairs. I'm not leaving, Sivanna. Go. They could attack at any moment, if they are not already. Reaching the door to the utility room, he threw it open and hurried inside. Taking up most of its space was the qala-crystal power generator that powered everything in their house and heated their water, and it was on that device he threw open the insertion port. Carefully he extracts one of the vertical red-glowing crystals and deposits it in the satchel. Next he flipped a series of four switches on the generator's control panel, powering down the system. Slowly the glow and the thrumming of the remaining crystals died down, sputtered, and fell dark and silent. Turning, he made his way out of the room and up the stairs, walking into the living room and not the least bit surprised to see that the cleric was still there.
Of course not. It wasn't the first time Sivanna had been too stubborn to follow her husband's orders, after all. Artifact in hand, the cleric stared at the journeyman as he made his way upstairs with a mixture of infuriation and disbelief. "Are you crazy" I'm not leaving with you, you pas thyr!" she cursed. Having slid some shoes on in the past ten seconds, her heels clicked against the floorboards as she made for Alec, holding out a hand. "Come on. I can bring us. Take my hand. Let's go."
Wonderful language for invective, Elvish, he thought wryly. "Sivanna." Once she was in reach, he placed his hands on either side of her shoulders and held her there. "This was Ramius's home. It's our home, and I'm not going to let those bastards ransack it if it can be prevented. I'm going to kill them all...and hopefully that'll send a message to rest of their kind that this source of food has too high a price tag." Alec opened his satchel and showed her the crystal inside. "I think that I can lure them away with this, but that won't work if you are here. Now go. Please, dai'sha. I'll contact you when this is over." Alec knew deep down that the smart play was to leave with Sivanna...but damned if he wasn't just a little too stubborn not to collect some scalps when the opportunity presented itself. Besides, once those creatures had finished turning their home inside out for whatever they could find to sate their hunger, they would undoubtedly move along and accost others at a future time. This was community service, something he had learned the value of during the Scathing.
Even Sivanna wasn't such a fool as to want to stay behind; even worse, if she asked to help the journeyman, she knew that she would only slow him down, if not get herself killed. For precious seconds, the cleric stood there, rooted in place, as she searched her husband's thoughts for some kind of hesitation....something to feed off of and encourage him to come with her. But there was nothing. He could be as stubborn as she at times, and that was saying something. Her expression pained, the elfess gazed at Alec reluctantly. "I....I can't stay. You know I can't stay," she murmured. Her blood turning to ice, she took great care to keep that artifact from touching her journeyman as she quickly leaned forward to cover his mouth with hers in a passionate kiss. If you die....I'll kill you. All this lasted mere moments before her body dissolved beneath his touch, taking her to the Citadel's library.
Somehow Alec did not think that her passing thought was meant as a joke. Who knew what sort of feats she was capable of? It wouldn't surprise him at all if she had some means of resurrecting him, only to shove a fireball so far up his posterior that it burned out his eyeballs. I'll be careful, my love. Even in the confines of the Citadel. she would hear his thoughts and be able to keep track of what he was up to. He hefts the rifle and makes haste towards the back porch.
Alec walked out through the back door, slapping a clip into the Kalashnikov and sliding back the action to chamber a round. It snapped forward with a satisfying click, letting him know that the assault rifle was ready for action. He adjusted the shoulder strap of the satchel, the warm garnet glow of the qala-crystal within it providing little comfort of the task at hand. He detected movement within the forest as his hazel eyes scanned the perimeter of the meadow, and he stepped off the back porch with determined gait towards the woods, thumbing the safety on his rifle and resting his finger on the trigger. With Sivanna and her magical items safely spirited away to her Celestial Citadel and the crystal generators inside their home powered down, the only hint of mystical energy remaining in the area was the crystal in his satchel and whatever energy the journeyman was giving off in his capacity as a tau-jin warrior. The creatures were soon taking the bait as they charged into the meadow; three of them, all converging on his position as he continued towards the trees. Alec raised his rifle, pressing the butt securely against his shoulder, his gaze traveling down the sighted barrel of the rifle as they closed the distance with one another. The canine-esque beasts were stomping on all fours at a full gait towards him, rows of pointy sharp teeth in evidence inside open jaws, their claws rending the flowering weeds and grasses of the meadow as they did. When they came within thirty meters, Alec depressed the trigger and sent a three-round burst at the middle of the three monsters, the loud retort of the rounds cracking through the clearing. The targeted creature stumbled and dropped, bellowing in agony as he swung his sights to the right-flanking one and repeated the action, dropping it in a similar manner. The last remaining beast had managed to get within ten meters before the journeyman opened fire on it, the discordant cacophony of discharged ordinance once again filling the meadow as the brute was sawed nearly in half through the waist by the hail of 7.62mm bullets sent its way. While that one was left in its death throes on the ground, he was amazed by the fact that the other two were starting to rise up, attempting to reengage him as though they had never been injured in the first place. Alec finished them off with the remaining rounds in the magazine, their skulls exploding with pink and scarlet gore by more precisely targeted bursts from his his assault rifle. He pulled the clip out and tossed it aside, then replaced it with a fresh magazine and chambered a round.
More creatures were trouncing into the meadow as he heard even more of them closing in the distance behind him, flanking the house in their mad dash to surround him before he could get to the tree-line. He scowled and charged off in a dead run into the forest, leaping into the limbs of the nearest sturdy tree and crouching down to survey the ground beneath. He saw three more of the creatures moving to box in his position before one began to scale the trunk of the tree he had taken refuge in. A burst of rounds from his rifle had it careening back to the earth below, and a targeted barrage of fire bought him enough time with its companions to leap to the limbs of another tree. Now Alec would find himself the focus of a pursuit away from the homestead, deeper into the forest as he leaps from one tree to the next, with a dozen or more of the creatures not far behind...some leaping in the trees in his wake, others preferring to remain in pursuit on the ground beneath. This would suit him fine, as it was his intention to get them away from his home. A few moments later, with a large amount of distance placed between him and the homestead, Alec leaps towards the limbs of a large conifer with bushy green needle-leaf foliage to find that one of the creatures was waiting in ambush there.
Alec yelped in surprise and quickly brought the butt of his rifle crashing down on its skull, landing with precarious balance on the branch before thrusting the tip of his bayonet into its throat. As the creature gurgled and thrashed in protest, Alec squeezed the trigger and ended its life with a vicious burst of fire that quite nearly decapitated it. The beast fell lifeless to the ground, but in its place a pair of its comrades, or perhaps competitors, were scaling the trunk of the conifer with death in their glowing red eyes. "Sh*t," he muttered, turning and leaping towards the next tree, proceeding deeper still into the forest. This he was able to do for a good fifteen minutes without any further molestation from the pack of magic-eaters, until he came to rest upon the sturdy branch of a barren hardwood where he took a moment to pause and survey his situation.
Disconcertingly he found that there was no evidence of further pursuit. Alec squeezed the grip of his rifle, refusing to believe that the creatures had given up on him, and he remained in place for another few moments. Soon her heard the sounds of rustling paws on the ground below, and all around him he saw them begin to climb into trees situated in a perimeter roughly seventy meters in all directions...well beyond the accurate range of his Kalashnikov. Immediately he recognized what they were trying to do - by surrounding his advantageous position, they could close on him from all sides. While he could certainly pick off some, possibly most of them, he would not be able to get them all before the survivors could pounce on him, ripping him to shreds just to get to the qala crystal he carried in his satchel. Hmm. Bastards have some capacity for strategy. Well. We'll just have to see about that, won't we"
He reached into his satchel and produced the shrapnel charge he had placed in there earlier, slapping the adhesive side to the trunk of the tree as the creatures began leaping limb-to-limb towards him. Sliding the arming switch, the charge beeped once while the indicator light changed from green to red. He slings the rifle over his shoulder and grips the remote detonator, removing the safety cap to reveal a red button that, once pressed, would explode the charge. Now he waited as the ten remaining creatures closed in, the corners of his lips turning down into a determined frown was he watched in forlorn fascination the sleek, foul-smelling beasts that came at him. I'd love to learn of the evolutionary process that led to such creatures coming into existence. If they evolved naturally, anyway. Once most of them were within one leap of pouncing on his position, Alec fell backwards out of the tree. Adjusting his awareness, everything passed in slow motion as they found themselves in midair to attack a spot he no longer occupied. Helpless, they could only watch as the journeyman thumbed the detonator, and the shrapnel charge cooked off in bright explosion that tore through the trunk of the hardwood. A shower of ball bearings radiated out from the spent charge and tore through the flesh of the airborne creatures, rending them to shreds of fur-matted meat that rained down from above as Alec managed to land safely on his feet on the ground below, but as he did a sharp pain shot through his right leg, gave out from under him, and he collapsed into a heap right then and there. He screams in abject distress, clutching his thigh and rolling over onto his rump. Leaning forward to examine his leg, he sees that one of the ball bearings in the shrapnel charge has shot clean through the meat of his thigh.
Meanwhile, on the Citadel, Sivanna's shriek reverberated against the walls of the library. She stared long and hard at her thigh in those precious seconds Alec had earned from the charge he detonated, almost fully expecting to see blood seep through the fabric of her slacks. Shakily, the cleric ran her palm coldly against the perspired surface of her face, willing herself to reattune to Alec's situation from a firsthand perspective. Nuitari, Alec" she managed through the Bond, leaning over a granite table in the library. The helplessness nearly ate her alive. Letting go of her own reality, the cleric once again let her surroundings fall away. When she looked down again with Alec's eyes, she was in the forest, and gazing upon a spreading stain above his knee. Have to stop the bleeding"
"Ah, damn!" He shouts, thumping his fist on the earth beside him and realizing that in his rush to prepare himself to lead the creatures on a chase away from the homestead, he neglected to pack any first aid supplies. After taking a moment to examine his wound, he unfastens his belt buckle and removes the belt from the loops of his black trousers. With it he manages to fashion a makeshift tourniquet above the wound, affixing it tight around the circumference of his thigh. Making sure that it should stay in place, he struggles back to his feet, using his rifle as a crude crutch and looking around to see that the ground has become a fetid and bloody mess, the rotten smell of the creatures mingling with the scent of smoke and charred flesh...a strangely satisfying aroma. Smells like...victory, he thought with a morose smile as he started off towards home with a very pronounced limp.
After a while Alec heard the sound of a snapping twig somewhere behind him. He came to a sudden halt and spun around on his good leg, securing the butt of the rifle to his shoulder and scanning the woods around him. Nothing. Not even the sway of underbrush to tell him that he was not alone here. The journeyman was not buying it, and he sent his awareness back into the tau. searching. Searching. When suddenly one of the creatures came bursting out of his periphery, catching him unawares and sending him crashing to to ground.
He rolled away from the beast, getting to all fours and leaning back to a kneel as he unslings the rifle and aims at it. He squeezed off rounds in a mad dash to drop the creature, punching bloody holes in the beasts torso when it, unfazed, charged him again. Alec thrust the bayonet into its gut, but it did not seem to care when it knocked the rifle away and swiped at him with its claws. He rolled away once again, unholstering a SigSauer 9mm from his body harness and opening fire on his attacker. Once again a myriad of wounds opened up on its torso and abdomen, stunning it but leaving it quite alive by the time the action locked open on his pistol. Taking this as a cue to run, Alec staggered back to his feet and began to hobble away. It wasn't long before he heard the beast's enraged howl, and he quickened his pace to the limits of what was possible with his injured leg.
*******
The beast trampled through the forest in search of its prey. Its preying being not only the journeyman with his tau-infused body, but also the tasty qala crystal he was carrying. The fact that he had managed to kill off the rest of his brethren only meant that there was less competition for the delicious meal the two represented. And while it, too, had suffered many wounds in the pursuit, they were not life threatening and would heal after a few days. No, it instinctively continued its pursuit of the journeyman and the mystical item he carried.
Mmmyes. Tasty, tasty morsels of mystical goodies. I can smell it. Taste it in the air. Must find. Mmmyes must find and consume.
Soon the beast came upon a clearing of stunted grass on the edge of a deep ravine. Laying on the ground was a plain brown leather satchel, the telltale ruddy glow of a qala crystal emanating from within.
Yesss! Successss!
The beast falls upon the satchel ripping it apart to get to the crystal within when suddenly out of nowhere the journeyman appeared, bellowing in anger and charging madly at it. There was a sharp pain in its chest as he fell upon it as a blade was thrust into its chest, and the momentum of his charge had the beast reeling backwards until, locked in each other's clutches, they both tumbled over the edge into the ravine.
Alec feels a sense of weightlessness as he plunged end over end down that long fall when he felt a sharp sting in the small of his back. This would suddenly be made a secondary concern when with a loud splash the battle-locked pair fell into the raging torrent of a river at the bottom of the ravine. Alec managed to free himself from the creature's grasp as it became more concerned with its survival that its meal. For his part, he struggled to get to the surface as his limbs began to feel like unresponsive casts of of lead. Gasping for air, his biofeedback abilities make him aware of a powerful neurotoxin coursing through his bloodstream, and he frantically makes for the river bank, disregarding the creature in lieu of the urgency of his own predicament. The use of his limbs slipping away, Alec swims awash on the bank and claws across the sand, his vision blurring and darkening as the toxin begins its work on his consciousness.
Sivanna...he manages to send across the Bond-connection to his wife before he succumbs to the neurotoxin's effects, collapsing unconscious to the sand.
(Special thanks to the player of Sivanna Cyredghymn for her wonderful participation in this story.)
This story links to the Sinister Plot storyline, with my thanks for allowing such open participation to such a fascinating idea.
It was not supposed to be easy. That was the thought that consoled him after a fashion as he spent much of the evening, and many before, sitting on his rocking chair on the front porch of his homestead far and away from the bustle of the city, all the while working on an equation that was necessary to operate the trans-dimensional Hyperbola Gate on the distant island, Tempest. His wide patch of land encompassed a large meadow, nestled within the embrace of a deep green forest. Here he spent the lion's share of his time, it seemed, so wrapped up in trying to make the equation work that he forgot he even had a life left behind with friends and adoptive family in the inns, taverns, and dueling venues in Rhy'Din City. But it was the only way; without a solution to the equation, he could not take the next step in his life's journey. Without it, he would forever be locked in a vicious Mobius Loop of repetitive action, living a life stuck in neutral, going nowhere fast with all of the frustrations that such a life brings. No, Creation would find a way to bring him to the solution, if he just exercised the patience he was known for.
Alec glanced up from the qala-crystal tablet that rested on his lap, a series of Ippon numerical glyphs glowing a sullen red on its face. His face was tinged with a mild but growing disgust as he sniffed the air and scanned the tree-line with his hazel eyes. There was something foul in the gentle winds that swept over the meadow from the south, carrying something that reeked of rotting carcass and decay. Had something died out there in the woods surrounding his meadow" It certainly wasn't unheard of, and the journeyman thought nothing more of it for the next few minutes. He turned his attention back to the tablet, his forefinger brushing over its face, manipulating the symbols that were displayed there into new lines that flowed into...nothing in particular. The new arrangement for the multi-vectored equation failed once again to resolve into an acceptable solution. Damn! He ran his hand irritatedly through his blond hair and dove back into the quagmire of numbers and symbols before him.
Once again that putrid smell in the air caused the journeyman to glance up at the tree-line, as he arched a slender eyebrow in idle curiosity. The scent was getting stronger with each passing moment, and he swore he could detect subtle variations in the scent, as though it were coming from several different sources, each with the same generally malodorous quality but with slight differences here and there. Alec set the tablet down on the porch and directed his awareness into the tapestry of tau, that sub-spatial energy that comprised the form and function of Creation and everything within it. The visual facade of light and matter faded away into the swirling violet-blue mists and lines of tau, and his awareness went searching off into the distance around the homestead, patrolling the parameter of the meadow in search of the source of the stench that was wafting through his property. There was at least one dead carcass out there that needed removal, he reckoned, and probably more than one.
It was then that he saw a veritable platoon of creatures stalking about the forest around the meadow, observing and plotting a manner of attack in the way that beasts often assessed their prey before moving in for the kill. Alec tensed and studied the makeup of their tau signatures in an attempt to discover the nature of the creatures when he remembered the massacre that happened during the Shamrock Shindig last month, and the reports of the monsters that descended upon the festivities that night. Reports of foul-smelling beasts that consumed, and were immune to, magic.
Sivanna!
His wife was the Archmage of Twilight Isle, and keeper of great celestial magics as a consequence of her title. And as a great and high practitioner of clerical and hermetic magics, she would be an inviting target for creatures such as they. Their home was chock full of magical items, with everything from wands and rods to scrolls and spellbooks. That, plus their home was powered by mystical qala-crystal technology such that this place must stand out like Caesar's Palace to creatures who had a taste for consuming items with mystical utility.
It was too dry outside. And that wasn't necessarily saying anything about the actual weather conditions, or even the simple fact that the location of Sivanna's and Alec's home wasn't deep enough into the forest to make Sivanna comfortable all the time. After all, the way Silvanesti was structured, the cleric may well have argued she grew up in a woodland city. Homes and structures there had been built into the very trunks and branches of trees, lending each edifice a living, breathing personality that connected every last one of them. The forest was something Sivanna made a point never to be far from. But it wasn't the forest that she found dry that evening. No. It was the rote paperwork that she busied herself with in the living room, her fountain pen scratching angrily across a clipboarded page by firelight as she lounged comfortably on the futon. This. This work was why she felt parched all the time. Like it was slowly but surely draining the life out of her and leaving her some shriveled raisin of a living being. For the fifth time in three minutes, the cleric's hand drifted to the floor where her glass of water sat, took it up, and indulged in a long, greedy sip that did nothing to quench her thirst. Setting it back down, she sighed and removed her cardigan, leaving only a black tank top and slacks. Irritated, steel eyes landed on the crackling fire at the hearth. That certainly wasn't helping.
Alec returned his awareness to the material world and quickly stood up from his rocker, rushing inside and slamming the door shut. He worked the lock and bolted the door. A foul stench followed him inside to waft through the living room. "Sivanna," he said evenly, turning towards the cleric as she worked. "Pack up whatever magic items in here that you can get to quickly and get to your Citadel." Mental images flashed to her across their Bond-connection, images that, while he had never seen them firsthand, pertained to the creatures that attacked the Shamrock Shindig last month. The front door bolted, he went over to the hook on the wall beside the fireplace and grabbed his weapons harness with its twin holstered SigSauer 9mm pistols and Ippon sliverblades. The blades he unsheathed and placed on top of the hearth, for while they themselves were not enchanted in any way, they were manufactured by mystical means and he was unsure that they would be effective against such creatures. He turned his gaze onto Sivanna for a moment, then started off towards the stairs lead towards the basement. They did not have much time.
Even before the door slammed shut, Sivanna had felt Alec's panic through their Bond connection. That dry paperwork was abandoned in a flurry of movement; by the time the first leaf of parchment alighted onto the floor, Sivanna was in their bedroom closet, yanking tomes and scrolls of their shelves and throwing them into an open trunk. Oh, she knew about the denubae. The cleric had had the unfortunate experience of trying to fight one with Neo not six months ago. Once the closet's innards were secure in that trunk, the elfess dashed across the bedroom and dug through a set of drawers near their bed, where she kept a set of wands and several bottles of explosive tonics. All were swept up into the crook of her arm and carried back to that trunk to be piled within. In a loud slam, the cleric locked the vessel and dug a piece of chalk out of her pocket; with this, she immediately went about inscribing a transmutation circle upon the trunk itself, then on the floor beneath it, all the while hissing out an incantation that would hopefully transport her magical materials to the Citadel of the Stars without destroying them.
The journeyman made haste down the stairs into the basement as he affixed the weapons harness to his torso, where it tucked the holstered pistols a few inches under his armpits. Once at the bottom of the steps, he went over to the wall to his immediate right and slapped a cleverly disguised panel of faux cinder-block. This opened up a larger panel in the wall that covered a cubbyhole, within which were racks of various firearms, ammunition, explosive devices and other tools of a deadly trade. While Sivanna rushed to clean the place of magical items, Alec would now busy himself by selecting a Kalashnikov assault rifle, one prized for its dependability in the field, a bayonet, an ordinary steel combat knife and a canvas field satchel which he slings over his shoulder, the strap situated diagonally across his torso. Into the satchel he quickly placed three magazines of 7.62mm rounds for the rifle and a shrapnel charge with an adhesive strip.
As that trunk slowly dissolved, leaving only a faded circle of chalk, Sivanna ripped her wool coat off a hanger and pulled it on hastily. Kneeling, she glanced over her shoulder once, before placing her palm firmly on one of the floorboards where the chest had sat. Her eyes blackened as she uttered a soft enchantment, disintegrating that panel to reveal a titanium-enclosed crevice beneath that housed what appeared to be a seamless, onyx box roughly the size of a dictionary. Her hands shook as she carefully wrapped the case in a velvet scarf from a nearby shelf, extracted it from the gap, and rose, holding the container as close to her body as she could without touching its sides directly. Still barefoot, the elfess made long, quick strides back into the living room, and called to her husband, who as far as she could tell, was arming up for war. "Alec! Let's go!" It had been at least three minutes since she had felt the magic ward she had long since constructed to protect their home fail.
As he hoisted the rifle and made for the utility room across the way, he heard his wife calling for him upstairs. I'm not leaving, Sivanna. Go. They could attack at any moment, if they are not already. Reaching the door to the utility room, he threw it open and hurried inside. Taking up most of its space was the qala-crystal power generator that powered everything in their house and heated their water, and it was on that device he threw open the insertion port. Carefully he extracts one of the vertical red-glowing crystals and deposits it in the satchel. Next he flipped a series of four switches on the generator's control panel, powering down the system. Slowly the glow and the thrumming of the remaining crystals died down, sputtered, and fell dark and silent. Turning, he made his way out of the room and up the stairs, walking into the living room and not the least bit surprised to see that the cleric was still there.
Of course not. It wasn't the first time Sivanna had been too stubborn to follow her husband's orders, after all. Artifact in hand, the cleric stared at the journeyman as he made his way upstairs with a mixture of infuriation and disbelief. "Are you crazy" I'm not leaving with you, you pas thyr!" she cursed. Having slid some shoes on in the past ten seconds, her heels clicked against the floorboards as she made for Alec, holding out a hand. "Come on. I can bring us. Take my hand. Let's go."
Wonderful language for invective, Elvish, he thought wryly. "Sivanna." Once she was in reach, he placed his hands on either side of her shoulders and held her there. "This was Ramius's home. It's our home, and I'm not going to let those bastards ransack it if it can be prevented. I'm going to kill them all...and hopefully that'll send a message to rest of their kind that this source of food has too high a price tag." Alec opened his satchel and showed her the crystal inside. "I think that I can lure them away with this, but that won't work if you are here. Now go. Please, dai'sha. I'll contact you when this is over." Alec knew deep down that the smart play was to leave with Sivanna...but damned if he wasn't just a little too stubborn not to collect some scalps when the opportunity presented itself. Besides, once those creatures had finished turning their home inside out for whatever they could find to sate their hunger, they would undoubtedly move along and accost others at a future time. This was community service, something he had learned the value of during the Scathing.
Even Sivanna wasn't such a fool as to want to stay behind; even worse, if she asked to help the journeyman, she knew that she would only slow him down, if not get herself killed. For precious seconds, the cleric stood there, rooted in place, as she searched her husband's thoughts for some kind of hesitation....something to feed off of and encourage him to come with her. But there was nothing. He could be as stubborn as she at times, and that was saying something. Her expression pained, the elfess gazed at Alec reluctantly. "I....I can't stay. You know I can't stay," she murmured. Her blood turning to ice, she took great care to keep that artifact from touching her journeyman as she quickly leaned forward to cover his mouth with hers in a passionate kiss. If you die....I'll kill you. All this lasted mere moments before her body dissolved beneath his touch, taking her to the Citadel's library.
Somehow Alec did not think that her passing thought was meant as a joke. Who knew what sort of feats she was capable of? It wouldn't surprise him at all if she had some means of resurrecting him, only to shove a fireball so far up his posterior that it burned out his eyeballs. I'll be careful, my love. Even in the confines of the Citadel. she would hear his thoughts and be able to keep track of what he was up to. He hefts the rifle and makes haste towards the back porch.
Alec walked out through the back door, slapping a clip into the Kalashnikov and sliding back the action to chamber a round. It snapped forward with a satisfying click, letting him know that the assault rifle was ready for action. He adjusted the shoulder strap of the satchel, the warm garnet glow of the qala-crystal within it providing little comfort of the task at hand. He detected movement within the forest as his hazel eyes scanned the perimeter of the meadow, and he stepped off the back porch with determined gait towards the woods, thumbing the safety on his rifle and resting his finger on the trigger. With Sivanna and her magical items safely spirited away to her Celestial Citadel and the crystal generators inside their home powered down, the only hint of mystical energy remaining in the area was the crystal in his satchel and whatever energy the journeyman was giving off in his capacity as a tau-jin warrior. The creatures were soon taking the bait as they charged into the meadow; three of them, all converging on his position as he continued towards the trees. Alec raised his rifle, pressing the butt securely against his shoulder, his gaze traveling down the sighted barrel of the rifle as they closed the distance with one another. The canine-esque beasts were stomping on all fours at a full gait towards him, rows of pointy sharp teeth in evidence inside open jaws, their claws rending the flowering weeds and grasses of the meadow as they did. When they came within thirty meters, Alec depressed the trigger and sent a three-round burst at the middle of the three monsters, the loud retort of the rounds cracking through the clearing. The targeted creature stumbled and dropped, bellowing in agony as he swung his sights to the right-flanking one and repeated the action, dropping it in a similar manner. The last remaining beast had managed to get within ten meters before the journeyman opened fire on it, the discordant cacophony of discharged ordinance once again filling the meadow as the brute was sawed nearly in half through the waist by the hail of 7.62mm bullets sent its way. While that one was left in its death throes on the ground, he was amazed by the fact that the other two were starting to rise up, attempting to reengage him as though they had never been injured in the first place. Alec finished them off with the remaining rounds in the magazine, their skulls exploding with pink and scarlet gore by more precisely targeted bursts from his his assault rifle. He pulled the clip out and tossed it aside, then replaced it with a fresh magazine and chambered a round.
More creatures were trouncing into the meadow as he heard even more of them closing in the distance behind him, flanking the house in their mad dash to surround him before he could get to the tree-line. He scowled and charged off in a dead run into the forest, leaping into the limbs of the nearest sturdy tree and crouching down to survey the ground beneath. He saw three more of the creatures moving to box in his position before one began to scale the trunk of the tree he had taken refuge in. A burst of rounds from his rifle had it careening back to the earth below, and a targeted barrage of fire bought him enough time with its companions to leap to the limbs of another tree. Now Alec would find himself the focus of a pursuit away from the homestead, deeper into the forest as he leaps from one tree to the next, with a dozen or more of the creatures not far behind...some leaping in the trees in his wake, others preferring to remain in pursuit on the ground beneath. This would suit him fine, as it was his intention to get them away from his home. A few moments later, with a large amount of distance placed between him and the homestead, Alec leaps towards the limbs of a large conifer with bushy green needle-leaf foliage to find that one of the creatures was waiting in ambush there.
Alec yelped in surprise and quickly brought the butt of his rifle crashing down on its skull, landing with precarious balance on the branch before thrusting the tip of his bayonet into its throat. As the creature gurgled and thrashed in protest, Alec squeezed the trigger and ended its life with a vicious burst of fire that quite nearly decapitated it. The beast fell lifeless to the ground, but in its place a pair of its comrades, or perhaps competitors, were scaling the trunk of the conifer with death in their glowing red eyes. "Sh*t," he muttered, turning and leaping towards the next tree, proceeding deeper still into the forest. This he was able to do for a good fifteen minutes without any further molestation from the pack of magic-eaters, until he came to rest upon the sturdy branch of a barren hardwood where he took a moment to pause and survey his situation.
Disconcertingly he found that there was no evidence of further pursuit. Alec squeezed the grip of his rifle, refusing to believe that the creatures had given up on him, and he remained in place for another few moments. Soon her heard the sounds of rustling paws on the ground below, and all around him he saw them begin to climb into trees situated in a perimeter roughly seventy meters in all directions...well beyond the accurate range of his Kalashnikov. Immediately he recognized what they were trying to do - by surrounding his advantageous position, they could close on him from all sides. While he could certainly pick off some, possibly most of them, he would not be able to get them all before the survivors could pounce on him, ripping him to shreds just to get to the qala crystal he carried in his satchel. Hmm. Bastards have some capacity for strategy. Well. We'll just have to see about that, won't we"
He reached into his satchel and produced the shrapnel charge he had placed in there earlier, slapping the adhesive side to the trunk of the tree as the creatures began leaping limb-to-limb towards him. Sliding the arming switch, the charge beeped once while the indicator light changed from green to red. He slings the rifle over his shoulder and grips the remote detonator, removing the safety cap to reveal a red button that, once pressed, would explode the charge. Now he waited as the ten remaining creatures closed in, the corners of his lips turning down into a determined frown was he watched in forlorn fascination the sleek, foul-smelling beasts that came at him. I'd love to learn of the evolutionary process that led to such creatures coming into existence. If they evolved naturally, anyway. Once most of them were within one leap of pouncing on his position, Alec fell backwards out of the tree. Adjusting his awareness, everything passed in slow motion as they found themselves in midair to attack a spot he no longer occupied. Helpless, they could only watch as the journeyman thumbed the detonator, and the shrapnel charge cooked off in bright explosion that tore through the trunk of the hardwood. A shower of ball bearings radiated out from the spent charge and tore through the flesh of the airborne creatures, rending them to shreds of fur-matted meat that rained down from above as Alec managed to land safely on his feet on the ground below, but as he did a sharp pain shot through his right leg, gave out from under him, and he collapsed into a heap right then and there. He screams in abject distress, clutching his thigh and rolling over onto his rump. Leaning forward to examine his leg, he sees that one of the ball bearings in the shrapnel charge has shot clean through the meat of his thigh.
Meanwhile, on the Citadel, Sivanna's shriek reverberated against the walls of the library. She stared long and hard at her thigh in those precious seconds Alec had earned from the charge he detonated, almost fully expecting to see blood seep through the fabric of her slacks. Shakily, the cleric ran her palm coldly against the perspired surface of her face, willing herself to reattune to Alec's situation from a firsthand perspective. Nuitari, Alec" she managed through the Bond, leaning over a granite table in the library. The helplessness nearly ate her alive. Letting go of her own reality, the cleric once again let her surroundings fall away. When she looked down again with Alec's eyes, she was in the forest, and gazing upon a spreading stain above his knee. Have to stop the bleeding"
"Ah, damn!" He shouts, thumping his fist on the earth beside him and realizing that in his rush to prepare himself to lead the creatures on a chase away from the homestead, he neglected to pack any first aid supplies. After taking a moment to examine his wound, he unfastens his belt buckle and removes the belt from the loops of his black trousers. With it he manages to fashion a makeshift tourniquet above the wound, affixing it tight around the circumference of his thigh. Making sure that it should stay in place, he struggles back to his feet, using his rifle as a crude crutch and looking around to see that the ground has become a fetid and bloody mess, the rotten smell of the creatures mingling with the scent of smoke and charred flesh...a strangely satisfying aroma. Smells like...victory, he thought with a morose smile as he started off towards home with a very pronounced limp.
After a while Alec heard the sound of a snapping twig somewhere behind him. He came to a sudden halt and spun around on his good leg, securing the butt of the rifle to his shoulder and scanning the woods around him. Nothing. Not even the sway of underbrush to tell him that he was not alone here. The journeyman was not buying it, and he sent his awareness back into the tau. searching. Searching. When suddenly one of the creatures came bursting out of his periphery, catching him unawares and sending him crashing to to ground.
He rolled away from the beast, getting to all fours and leaning back to a kneel as he unslings the rifle and aims at it. He squeezed off rounds in a mad dash to drop the creature, punching bloody holes in the beasts torso when it, unfazed, charged him again. Alec thrust the bayonet into its gut, but it did not seem to care when it knocked the rifle away and swiped at him with its claws. He rolled away once again, unholstering a SigSauer 9mm from his body harness and opening fire on his attacker. Once again a myriad of wounds opened up on its torso and abdomen, stunning it but leaving it quite alive by the time the action locked open on his pistol. Taking this as a cue to run, Alec staggered back to his feet and began to hobble away. It wasn't long before he heard the beast's enraged howl, and he quickened his pace to the limits of what was possible with his injured leg.
*******
The beast trampled through the forest in search of its prey. Its preying being not only the journeyman with his tau-infused body, but also the tasty qala crystal he was carrying. The fact that he had managed to kill off the rest of his brethren only meant that there was less competition for the delicious meal the two represented. And while it, too, had suffered many wounds in the pursuit, they were not life threatening and would heal after a few days. No, it instinctively continued its pursuit of the journeyman and the mystical item he carried.
Mmmyes. Tasty, tasty morsels of mystical goodies. I can smell it. Taste it in the air. Must find. Mmmyes must find and consume.
Soon the beast came upon a clearing of stunted grass on the edge of a deep ravine. Laying on the ground was a plain brown leather satchel, the telltale ruddy glow of a qala crystal emanating from within.
Yesss! Successss!
The beast falls upon the satchel ripping it apart to get to the crystal within when suddenly out of nowhere the journeyman appeared, bellowing in anger and charging madly at it. There was a sharp pain in its chest as he fell upon it as a blade was thrust into its chest, and the momentum of his charge had the beast reeling backwards until, locked in each other's clutches, they both tumbled over the edge into the ravine.
Alec feels a sense of weightlessness as he plunged end over end down that long fall when he felt a sharp sting in the small of his back. This would suddenly be made a secondary concern when with a loud splash the battle-locked pair fell into the raging torrent of a river at the bottom of the ravine. Alec managed to free himself from the creature's grasp as it became more concerned with its survival that its meal. For his part, he struggled to get to the surface as his limbs began to feel like unresponsive casts of of lead. Gasping for air, his biofeedback abilities make him aware of a powerful neurotoxin coursing through his bloodstream, and he frantically makes for the river bank, disregarding the creature in lieu of the urgency of his own predicament. The use of his limbs slipping away, Alec swims awash on the bank and claws across the sand, his vision blurring and darkening as the toxin begins its work on his consciousness.
Sivanna...he manages to send across the Bond-connection to his wife before he succumbs to the neurotoxin's effects, collapsing unconscious to the sand.
(Special thanks to the player of Sivanna Cyredghymn for her wonderful participation in this story.)
This story links to the Sinister Plot storyline, with my thanks for allowing such open participation to such a fascinating idea.