Topic: The Strange Case of Demons in Old Temple

Limelenath · Date: 2013-03-07 01:57 EST

((Tied to this playable http://rdi.dragonsmark.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=174353#174353))

Her mother, Rachael, was burning the midnight oil in her office as Limelenath slept. The offices were on the main floor of the building and what amounted to an efficiency apartment was upstairs. The sun porch at the back was Melly's favorite perch. She could hear the songs of the winds and trees even in the dead of winter. Being a half-elf, the nine year old wasn't as susceptible to cold as most children. It was her place, her corner of the universe. It was far from the treehouse in Mellor, where she spent her summers, but it was the closest thing to it in the city. The glassed in room afforded a view of some evergreen trees behind the building and if she sat on the sill, she could look down into the garden patio of the restaurant next door.

Unlike her younger cousin, Mairead, who spoke the languages of most animals, Limelenath, spoke to the plants and trees that grew around her. It was the heritage of her father's people, the elves, that had encouraged and brought forth that gift.

The Khul-din · Date: 2013-03-07 01:58 EST

Eons ago, the Khul-din had been a child itself in the far-away city of Edge. It is not capable of remembering its youth, or that its mother had red hair and freckles, or that its father sang it songs of the forest and of the moon and the mountain. It cannot remember being made a victim by the Khul-din demon that turned it; merely the echoes of damnation and regret and innocence lost sound eternally in the depths of its forlorn soul.

Tonight, it hunts through the Old Temple District. Blind, in a way, it can yet sense the shape of the quiet office - and it can feel a magical heat emanating from the porch like the sun's warmth on a hot summer day. To it, things inanimate and unliving are but shadows, midnight and hungry. Within the structure, it can see a crimson shape swirl, the aura of Limelenath's mother and the love and protection she would offer her daughter. It avoids the crimson, fearing it even more than the darkness that it has grown accustomed to.

Tonight, it seeks the bright white light and the safety and comfort it promises. It is incapable of understanding its own curse, or the subconscious need to seek out something that is as it once had been - young, loved, innocent and full of wonder and dreams. And yet, it hunts.

The small, thin Khul-din moves from one shadow to the next, slinking through the cover of the nearby Evergreens. Its long, ape-like arms dangle, sharp claws dragging behind the demon in the dirt as it crept towards the glass door of the porch. Its hunger grows unbearable as it draws near to Melly; slowly, its long, almost needle-like tongue begins to escape from its bony lips. Acidic saliva pulls at the corner of his hideous mouth, dribbling down to burn the grass at the demon's feet.

Tonight, it hunts. Tonight, it will drink a young girl's dreams while she sleeps, and if but for a mere moment - it will know love. This is the nature of the Khul-din, the child demon, the drinker of dreams and Myr'Khul's most loathed servant.

It reaches for the porch's doorknob, knowing nothing but loneliness and a desperation that no book, or song, or poem could ever begin to share.

Limelenath · Date: 2013-03-07 01:59 EST

For those that could hear them, the trees began to whisper, a warning, perhaps? The sensation of something being amiss. A small glow of light came from an object on a night table. It was not a candle or flashlight that had been left there to light the pages of a book that had also been left on the table. The light flickered and dimmed as the child stirred in her sleep. Melly's dreams were filled with treks through the woods. Her elven grandfather had been teaching her to hunt with a bow and arrow. Those lessons and warmth of his company filled her unconscious thoughts. She slept peacefully without a worry as children often did.

The Khul-din · Date: 2013-03-07 02:00 EST

The blank stare of the Khul-din is invisible to all but the eyes of children. Melly is asleep, however, when the porch door creaks to a close behind the invader. It creeps towards the girl, towards her light, while she dreams. Ambling, the demon stradles her where she lies, its long tongue like a serpent, dancing from side to side, as it stretches ever further.

The rough surface of the Khul-din's tongue rubs against the outside of the girl's ear. For a moment, she shifts, uneasy, though unaware of what is happening to her. And then, the demon's tongue slides into the child's ear canal, probing deeper, pushing against the soft tissue of her brain. And with a slow, almost silent slrrrrrrp, the Khul-din begins to feed on Melly's dreams, feeling an unholy joy.

Limelenath · Date: 2013-03-07 02:00 EST

In her dreams, Melly encountered a hideous beast. It looked like a bear whose skin had been flayed. When its maw opened for the growl to escape, the girl saw a spinning hole. It was like the black holes she'd learned about in her science class with her tutor. The bear beast was on its hind legs and sending a huge paw at her grandfather. The elderly elf went flying into the side of a tree. The girl's fingers trembled as she nocked the arrow and aimed it. When the beast turned to face her, she prayed that her courage wouldn't fail and that her unsteady knees wouldn't buckle. "I'm not your dinner today," she muttered and drew back on the bowstring. The bear kept coming. When he roared again, his breath was foul like something that had crawled out of the pits of the deepest circle of hell. Her emerald eyes squeezed shut as she loosed the arrow into the creature's gut. It slowed in its movements, but didn't stop. Terrified, Melly made for the nearest tree and climbed. Full grown bears couldn't climb, she hoped that the creature planning to eat her couldn't either! She could feel its breath on her heels as she climbed higher.

In the waking world, the glowing light on the night table sparkled like a bright moon. Unlike the child, it had been awakened. A small bit of magic, just a small bit, but wrapped within the tiny ornament, was the love of the grandmother that had fashioned it. While the Khul-din went about feeding, the light formed into the shape of guardian that had granted light. There was the sound of a horse whickering, but it was a ghostly noise.

In her dreams, Limelenath heard a familiar voice. "This is your dream, your world. You are its champion." She shuddered and stared down at the beast. Hand over hand like one might a ladder, she climbed up the branches. When she reached a branch that was steady and thick enough to hold her weight, she locked her legs around it. The beast had started to climb. She screamed, but all anyone in the waking world would have heard was a strangled cry. She tried another arrow, but the creature had climbed too high to get a clean shot. Blindly, she searched her belt for hunting knife her grandfather had given her on her last birthday. Another roar and the sound of a thick jaw snapping came from just under her feet. Her breathing was ragged, she wanted to cry out for help, but her mother hadn't come that day.

It had taken a while for her grandmother's voice to sink into the mind of the terrified girl. She thought, I'm not alone. I never will be. Her fingers curled around the knife as the bear snapped at her feet. She swept the knife downward as she silently offered a prayer to Elbereth for her aim to be true. The swing was blind, but the tree began to bend. Her father's mother was a treesinger. The trees had answered the prayer if Elbereth had not. The knife went through the bear's skull. The hilt broke from the blade, but it had been enough. When tree moved again, the bearlike beast lay at its roots. Dead. Limelenath remained in the safety of the tree's branches. It her dream, she slept.

In the waking world, the ghostly unicorn stood watch over its charge.

The Khul-din · Date: 2013-03-07 02:01 EST

Tonight, something has gone terribly wrong. The Khul-din is vaguely aware of this truth. Never before has feeding caused it pain. In truth, never before has the child demon felt pain; it has known fear and despair, all too well. The sensation is strange to the creature. It attempts to flee the dream, to release itself from its prey, but it cannot.

In the waking world, the Khul-din's tongue snaps off, broken nearly in its middle as though by some physical force. The thing staggers backwards, tripping over Melly's legs. It begins to shiver, subtly, as the warm light that it sought to drink grows brighter than anything it has ever experienced. Engulfed in that blinding light, it sees, then, the unicorn - a figure so much clearer than the swirls and shapes and shadows that have haunted its loathsome existence.

The demon is dying now. And yet, it does not fear the white magic that assaults its being. It does not fear the unicorn. The majestic, spectral guardian is beautiful to the child demon. For a moment, it can almost recall a story that a kind red-haired woman had once told it of such a creature, but the ghostly memory fades along with its life-force.

The Khul-din does not thrash, or struggle, or scream as it dies. It welcomes Oblivion.

Minutes pass. Its malformed, tortured corpse lies still upon the ground, visible now. Mist rises from it in soft tufts that disappear back into the crisp winter air.

Half of the slain demon's tongue remains, still entombed in the sleeping child's ear.

Rachael MacLeod · Date: 2013-03-07 02:02 EST

When the morning sun filtered through the glass, it wakened the nine year old. She batted at her ear thinking that one of the dogs was licking at her. The dogs weren't there. In her half waking state, she finally batted away the piece of the Khul-din's tongue that remained on her. Hearing the slap of something meeting the floor, she leaned out of her bed to get a better look. It was too big to have been an insect that managed to slip through window cracks. Melly's face twisted into an expression that was a mix of curiosity, disgust, and fear. "MAMA!" she cried out. This time, she had a voice!

Her mother answered her call with a thick piece of firewood in hand. It was the first thing she could grab. "What is it, Melly?" Rachael's voice was weary. She had been preparing real estate documents for a client's will.

The girl hadn't gotten out of bed. She was just pointing the floor to her side. "I....I don't know what that is!! It was on me!!" her voice trembled.

Before Rachael got to her daughter's side, she found something or, maybe, it would have been better to have thought of it as someone else. Unlike the reaction some might have had, Rachael MacLeod's was one of pity. Whatever the creature was, it was dead. There was something childlike about it. As she went to comfort her own child and take her inside, she found herself wondering whose son or daughter that creature had once been. Was someone still looking for them'

Once Melly was settled, Rachael made arrangements with her sister to take care of the body. Cremation, most likely, was the best choice. Even in death, it was clear to the empathic woman that the Khul-din had suffered more most would in a hundred lifetimes.