The Banished and the Forgotten
" James, you do realize that we've been walking in circles now for about two hours?" asked Tanai as he trudged along a deserted cornfield. Acres of land that were once occupied by miles of corn now lay naked and barren. Tanai and James continued to march along as the rain picked up in intensity, starting off as a light shower and now evolving into an all-out downpour from the heavens. Both Tanai and James had cast the Impervious Charm on themselves but it seemed to only obscure their vision even worse than before.
The silence was killing Tanai, who needed some kind of noise or interruption to distract him from his thoughts of Keylara. Above all questions that ate him alive after the events of last week there was one that seemed to be taking some pretty large bites. Why had they held him back? He could have rescued her; there was no doubt in his mind about that. Hey may have been weakened from the bites he had received but even so he was still more than strong enough to save her. Then he remembered the look. The look that had been so gruesomely pasted upon Dumbledore's face the instant he had received his first bite. The look of pure horror, the same look he had seen his father give him when he had transfigured a wooden chair into a kamikaze stickman (This was of course due to the fact that his father had been beating him at the time) and commanded it to attack him. But in this case he had an overwhelming feeling that Dumbledore hadn't been looking at him, but through him. But what could have made him look like that? What horrible creature had he seen? Was it Voldem…?
" She's still alive you know," said James suddenly, causing Tanai to lose his train of thought.
" Who?" questioned Tanai in a rather snappish manner.
" Keylara. Dumbledore told me yesterday," replied James coolly.
James continued to walk along, completely oblivious to the fact that Tanai had come sudden stop at the mention of Keylara's name. James turned around and expected Tanai to be surprised and perhaps even relieved from his last comment. He did not, however, expect what had happened. Tanai's eyes had turned ecstatic shade of blue, not something James had seen any other black man do. In addition to this his face had become contorted with fury. Fists trembling, Tanai continued to suppress his anger while James took a few hesitant steps back. He knew from his past experiences with Tanai that upsetting him was never a good thing to do, for even in his weakened state Tanai could easily tear James from limb to limb if aggravated too much.
" So you're saying Dumbledores been in contact with Keylara?" Tanai spat through gritted teeth while trembling. He was shaking so badly that James thought for a second that in his anger Tanai might have accidentally cursed himself with a shivering spell.
" I don't know T.K…. Honestly…. I don't know much of anything nowadays. I don't know why we had to hold you back last week, I don't know how or what you summoned that day, and I REALLY DON'T KNOW WHY WERE HERE!" shouted James at Tanai as he began to shake with anger as well. " You really don't know what it's like do you?!" questioned James as he ran his hand through his hair in an attempt to calm himself, something he had not been forced to do in quite a long time.
" Know what what feels like?!" said Tanai, who was apparently not interested in what was bothering James. It was now pouring, and both Tanai's and James' clothes where soaked.
"What it feels like to be powerless! To not be able to fight or defeat something, I'm not like you Tanai, I'm not able to…"
BOOM.
" Did you feel that?" asked Tanai. A large crash had intervened in James's lecture, which had given off an explosive sound like thunder. Tanai's look to the sky was curious, for no lightning had escaped from the skies above and struck the earth.
" Just thunder," replied James who was still somewhat upset with his partner.
Tanai once again stopped his continual march and put his arm out to stop James. When he turned to face him James quickly caught the look of confusion upon Tanai's face.
" Since when did thunder make the ground shake?" questioned Tanai as he delicately unsheathed his wand from his cloak pocket.
BOOM.
The ground had defiantly shaken this time. From out of nowhere birds began to approach from all directions, closely followed by deer and an assortment of other animals that occupied the grassy wasteland.
" Something's not right," muttered James as he too took up his guard and unsheathed his wand in a rather sword-like way.
" You know James, you really have a bad habit of stating the obvious," laughed Tanai as he carefully scanned the horizons.
The air had suddenly been consumed by a strange odor, one that neither James nor Tanai could put a finger on. The animals that had begun fleeing from their original home had now formed a sloppy circle around the wizards, surrounding them completely from whatever was coming. The rain seemed to never end, and instead of easing up it seemed to grow more and more intense. James's hair was now flat on his face as he desperately searched for the source of the disturbance.
BOOM BOOM.
Tanai suddenly had an awful realization. " They're footsteps," said Tanai miraculously, " but…how?"
" They cant be footsteps," said James, " I mean, think about it, even if they were the beast they belonged to would literally have to be enormous. Trolls and Giants are big but they're not that big. These plains stretch for miles on end. I mean, think about it. Something that big would be visible from where we are!" James had acquired a hint of bewilderment in his voice, which may have been due to what Tanai was proposing. He and Tanai were now back-to-back scanning the plains in unison.
" They do not wish to be seen," said Tanai.
" What do you mean they do not wish to be seen?" cried James in frustration.
" They're…n-n-no, they cant be…then they must…oh no…"
At the sound of these words James immediately whirled around to face Tanai, who had once again retained his position in the back. His usually calm and handsome face had now grown disfigured; this was due to the mixed emotions he was feeling at the moment. His once brilliant green eyes were now narrow and consumed with anger, each one like lightning bolts waiting in the heavens prepared to strike down on Tanai at any moment. Tanai began to stare at his feet, unable to take James's smoldering gaze any longer. " Tanai, I am only going to ask you this once. WHAT in bloody hell is out there?" said James menacingly.
" Titans," said Tanai, though it was somewhat muffled because of the combination of the rain, the never-ceasing footsteps, and the fact that he was still staring at his feet.
James ruffled his hair in exasperation once again. " And may I ask what exactly is a Titan?"
Tanai did not reply to this last question. He merely raised his wand and executed a series of complicated wand waves. Suddenly a luminous violet light shot out of the wand tip into the sky and exploded only seconds later. A white flash had emitted from the explosion, causing James to rub his eyes. When he was done he opened his eyes and glanced at Tanai, but quickly looked forward again because he had seen something moving. When he look back to see that nothing was there he began to scan the horizon, looking left and right and finally looking backwards in search of the so called Titans.
" That is a Titan."
If it weren't for the fact that it was attached to his face James's jaw would have most likely fallen off. At a glance he would have most likely mistaken the monster with one of the nearby mountains due to its enormous size. The beast had irregularly large limbs, each one roughly two hundred feet in length and about fifty feet in width. Its three fingered hands were a rather brutal shade of green; each one sporting an assortment of bruises and cuts along with ten-foot long claws that resembled the shape of a curved dagger. The Titan seemed to sport no clothing and as far as James could see it didn't need any. Yet the thing that seemed to stick out the most about the gruesome creature were its eyes. There seemed to be some sort of magnetic force between James and the Titan, disabling him from turning his head away. The Titans eyes were a stormy shade of gray, and in the center of the pupil was a single red dot that gave the distinct impression that it was generating some sort of mist.
" Why…" began James.
"…Is it misting from the eyes?" said Tanai as he finished James's would-be-question. " Well, when a demon is banished and dies it becomes a Titan. During the banishing process most demons are stripped of their soul, disabling thought process, free will and personality. But…but some demons are different…some are actually able to save bits and pieces of their soul, giving them the title Solista Titans…"
" Would you just shut up and tell me why it's misting?" said James. He had obviously been growing impatient with Tanai's thorough explanation, owing to that his face had been going redder and redder until he began cursing. Red and green sparks shot out of his wand tip, mirroring the fiery hot anger that lay inside him.
After what seemed like eternity he finally spoke again, yet his words were drowned out by four more footsteps. Tanai had abandoned his study of James and began to scope out the area for more Titans. There were hundreds of them: the closest one was at least five hundred feet tall, sporting a huge singular eye in the middle of its forehead. The beast was brandishing a rather menacing chain that was badly rusted and spotted in a dark red liquid that Tanai was sure was blood. He suddenly realized that the Titans were surrounding them, entrapping them to the barren hell of a wasteland they had been condemned to travel through. The rain was now accompanied by a barrage of hailstones, causing Tanai and James to cast the Shellacorvus charm on themselves to prevent the stones from hitting them. An eerie moan had escaped from the depths of the mountains that lay some miles ahead of the wizards, and had now reached where they stood, giving off the impression that the mountains were crying.
" Looks like we've managed to land ourselves yet again in a peculiar situation," commented James as he scanned the area, taking note of the fact that they were surrounded. " Any ideas?"
James turned to look at Tanai, but quickly took note of his frantic expression and knew that he was just as clueless as him on what to do.
" STUPEFY LACORPUS!" cried Tanai suddenly as he sent a hurricane of stunning spells toward the nearest Titan. Upon hitting its skin the spells immediately bounced off and ricocheted in all directions, some hitting the other Titans and bouncing off again and some toward Tanai, which he easily deflected with a shield charm. James began to destroy the wild spells with great haste, knowing that even Tanai's weakest stunning spell could easily put a giant on its back.
The hailstones had suddenly begun to enlarge to the size of basketballs, and there speed increased dramatically. Explosions from the stones hitting the ground could be heard everywhere, even in the distant mountaintops and especially those that fell upon the Titans. These made a rather horrid noise, but from James's perspective no damage was being done to the Titans. It was like they were invincible to all forms of attack. James immediately began to look for an explanation and had to look no further than where his partner stood. The corners of Tanai's face were squeezed together tight in concentration and his arm was pointed skyward, rigid as a board. His once dormant wand was now engulfed with a great blue aura and a bar of white light was connecting his wand and the starry sky. He stood there transfixed in his own spell, making the stones fall even faster and causing them to enlarge even more until a white flash exploded from the tip of the wand, returning the charmed stones to there normal speed and size.
The Titans were steadily closing in on the wizards, the nearest one being one hundred yards from Tanai.
" Tanai, I believe now would be the proper time to apparate," said James shakily as the Titans became even closer to the duo.
" Can't," said Tanai.
Tanai felt James grab his arm and spun around to face the desperate look that seemed to have sewn itself upon James's face.
" What do you mean we cant apparate out of…"
" THIS FIELD IS ENCHANTED WITH THE SAME SPELLS AS HOGWARTS JAMES!" screamed Tanai. " It is magically bound, you cannot apparate into, within, or out of it. We are screwed, we are stuck, we're whatever you want to call it but as you can see where not getting out of here any time soon!" raged Tanai.
James face had grown hot with anger, not only because he was tired of arguing with Tanai but also at the situation that lay before them. Yet the thing that seemed to bother James was that as soon as Tanai had stopped yelling he had grown oddly calm. A large jolt of hope suddenly rose within his stomach, a feeling that James knew to be an indication that something horrible was about to happen, the same gust of hope he had received last week before the vampire attack.
The temperature had dropped dramatically since the arrival of the Titans, causing goose bumps to rise on James's skin. He was searching for a way out of his predicament, but quickly abandoned this thought as each of the Titans took another step forward, causing the ground to give another dangerous shake.
" I've got it," said Tanai, though this time he had spoken with a large amount of certainty, and the hope that had risen in James chest exploded with joy, giving James reassurance of their escape.
" What are we going to do then?" said James.
" You aren't going to do anything. I, on the other hand, am going to call an old friend," said Tanai.
And with that Tanai closed his eyes and pointed his wand at the ground. The tip of his wand suddenly caught aflame and began to shake very violently as James stood frozen where he stood, unable to move in pure fright. As the wands dark red flame became even brighter, the ground was suddenly succumbed in purple flames that seemed to form half a dozen circles around Tanai; some of the flames began to draw lines within the circle while others began to make strange symbols outside of the inner most circle. The symbols begin to spin wildly, starting off slow at first and then increasing in speed to the point where they had become nothing more than a purple blur. They then rose into the air a few feet, giving off a strange purple aura as they went higher up, until they finally dived into the ground. Or at least they appeared to have done in James's eyes, for they had disappeared, leaving only a small trail of mist in their wake.
James had suddenly grown fearful; the symbols that the purple fire had formed were the same symbols that had appeared last week during the vampire attack, and right after he had seen them the ground had turned to water and a huge water serpent had emerged from the depths of the water.
" Tanai…," whispered James warningly.
But Tanai had either not heard him or had chosen not to listen to him because he remained standing with his eyes closed. He whispered a few words and then, as though coming out of a trance, opened his eyes and turned to face James. The rest of the purple flames had immediately disappeared when Tanai had opened his eyes, yet a fog of purple mist still remained as tribute to what had just happened.
" James, whatever happens from this moment on is for your eyes and your eyes only," said Tanai in the most serious voice James had ever heard him use in there time together.
James opened his mouth to speak but right as he did a small hole burst in the ground, and a bright red light containing a string of fire shot through the hole and made its way into the night sky. The fire within the light seemed unaffected by the onslaught of rain and hail.
" Promise me James."
Another hole exploded, this one much larger than the last one. An identical red light also shot out of this one, and made its way as well into the sky. Tanai stood still, completely unaltered from the explosion, as though it was normal to him for the ground to explode randomly. He continued to stare at James as his eyes turned yet again from dark brown to a ravishing shade of blue.
" Promise me James."
" I promise."
And with these words several events took place at once: A loud hawk like cry pierced the air as a dark blue dragon-type creature soared in from the sky, followed by a strange white and blue human female; Tanai tackled James only seconds before the ground on which they stood exploded and a large demon-like beast with brown, muscular skin and jagged horns emerged from the hole; Another birdlike creature had appeared from a bolt of lightning that had struck the ground some hundred yards from the wizards.
Tanai stood up, stored his wand carefully in his robes, and looked down James, who was still heavily winded from the tackle. James recovered quickly and adjusted his glass while wiping the dust off of himself. He suddenly stood up to face Tanai and pointed his wand directly at his heart.
" What in Merlin's beard have you done?!" whispered James in a low undertone, not wanting to disturb any of the nearby demons that had arrived.
Tanai did not reply to James's inquiry, instead he took his out and pointed it at James's sternum, causing James to shift slightly in fear.
" I've done what I had to do," said Tanai while pocketing his wand, "…and if I were you I'd just accept it. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a demon to catch."
With these words Tanai crouched down slowly in preparation and leapt two hundred feet in the air. As soon as he began to fall, a pair of ruggedly curved wings sprang out of his back, and he flew towards the blue dragon-like demon.
The creature was roughly fifty feet in length and about one hundred feet wide due to its wingspread. Its skin, instead of being covered in fur like the demon that had risen from ground, was extremely smooth and reptilian-like, and its color seemed to be a combination of blue and gray. At the end of its body was an extremely long tail, at least the length of its body. The tail was also a combination of blue and gray, and at the end of it was a black, spade shaped point. A long thin spike extended from the middle of the pint, giving James the impression that the spike was its main defense mechanism. How, James thought, is that going to defeat the Titans? He then noticed the face of the demon, taking note that it did not possess any visible eyes, except for the empty holes where James assumed its eyes should have been. The wings were probably its most fascinating feature, for they showed an uncanny resemblance to a dragon's wings besides the five-foot long spikes that bordered the edges. As James searched for his partner, he noticed that there was a man standing perfectly still on top of the flying demon. A dark man, whose eyes seemed to be radiating a blue light…
" Bloody hell…" whispered James in amazement. Tanai was actually standing on the creature's back, apparently unaffected by the dangerous maneuvers it was performing. But James did not have long to stand in awe, for the Minotaur-like demon had suddenly yanked him from the ground and placed him on his back. James reached desperately for some type of leverage, seeing that his carrier was headed full-tilt for the nearest Titan. He quickly performed the Grapoliviate Charm and grabbed the long metal chain that had sprung itself from the tip of his wand. He then wound this chain several times around the demon's neck, tied it around his waist, and held on for his dear life. He clutched to the demons neck in preparation for the impact.
The most horrible screams James had ever heard were emitted from the attacked Titans, and seemed to actually cut through the rain and into James's head. It seemed to take forever for the demon's fist to reach the nearest Titan, but when it did the force of the impact was incredible. There was a loud crack as the Titan's jaw was broken, and James winced horribly as the chain cut into his sides. The Titan now let out another horrific scream that he had heard not but two seconds ago from where Tanai was. The demon now drew back from the Titan and held its hands out as if it was holding something. But just as James began to worry a swirl of red fire appeared in its hands, and as the Titan screamed yet again the demon released the fire ball, and as it made contact the Titan seemed to deteriorate very slowly until it suddenly exploded, sending blue flaming skulls in every direction. Most of them tore flew off toward the other Titans, doing no damage to them, but one of the escaped skulls flew right through James, and for a fraction of a second he felt the most horrible pain he had ever experienced.
It was as if he had been succumbed in a dungeon inhabited by a million dementors. He could literally feel all the hope inside himself of living being sucked out. Blood began to dribble down James's nose (due to that his demon had jumped several hundred feet and landed on a stationary Titan) as he continued to reminisce on the horrible feeling that had entrapped him. But it wasn't even what James physically felt that truly unnerved him; it was what he had seen in that moment. He had seen a young woman, roughly twenty years of age, with long, unfolding black hair that reflected from a light coming from an unknown source. Her eyes, though clouded with tears, were a striking shade of purple, and within the depths of her pupils James could see his reflection. As continued to stare the light became sickening shade of red, and the woman's face began to twist from a desperate expression to a look of pure horror, and instead of his reflection he now saw a creature with a long black cloak and a hood over its head, and it was enclosing upon the woman, its dark fleshless lips spread wide in an attempt to kiss her. And as the hooded creature made contact with the woman's lips James felt the most revolting sensation. He could actually feel his memories being sucked out of him, except they were her memories, each one flashing by and disappearing into nothingness, and her eyes, though well hidden from the rush of memories, seemed to be losing their focus. Once the memories had stopped she immediately ceasing sobbing, and her breathing became inhuman, like a lifeless machine working only for its survival. Realization dawned upon him as quickly as the vision had passed. A dementor had obviously kissed the woman, and her soul had obviously escaped from the Titan, but why it was inside the Titan was still a mystery to James. The vision had come and gone so quickly that James was quickly losing recollection of it.
James quickly snapped back to reality, seeing that his demon had already deteriorated ten other Titans during his vision, and was now making its way toward one of the smaller ones. He suddenly realized that he had no clue on where Tanai was, and immediately began searching for him, though with much difficulty due to his demons tendency of jerking forward and backward without notice. He looked behind himself very quickly, rubbed his neck from the whiplash he had received, and looked to the right of himself.
" Merlin's beard…" whispered James, who was once again in awe of Tanai.
Several Titans had been closing in on Tanai, but were quickly destroyed by several blue beams from the demon that he was riding's tail. Tanai seemed to be commanding the demon to stay out of reach of the blue skulls, for the demon was making insane maneuvers, flipping in out of harms way. The population of blue skulls had now grown rapidly, the fault of this mainly being placed upon Tanai's demon and an ice demon that was freezing several Titans at once nearby.
James winced in pain again as the chains cut into his sides once more, leaving a nasty mark on his lower back. He began scanning his surroundings once more and noticed that the number of original Titans had decreased dramatically. We're winning, thought James, and the small gust of hope that had once been overcome with uncertainty was now bubbling with confidence.
" Hey!" shouted James as the demon he was attached to suddenly ducked. He looked up to see what the disturbance was and was greeted by a rather peculiar sight; Tanai and his demon were now engulfed in a strange blue as they soared over James's head, and Tanai seemed to be holding some sort of sword-like object that was possessed by the same strange blue light.
Tanai let out a shout of triumph as he twirled his sword around his head and darted to James's left. James quickly turned his head to find Tanai's destination and looked no further than what lay a few hundred yards in ahead of him. It was the largest Titan that James had ever seen, towering a menacing 5,000 feet from head to toe, and the thing that seemed to separate this monster from the rest of the Titans was that its eyes were shooting out some sort of red light. James quickly took note of the high level of damage the red light caused when the lightning demon soared down in an attempt to attack the monster, but once the red light reached the demon it too deteriorated just like the Titans, except instead of releasing thousands of blue skulls it merely disappeared in a flash of light. James watched in horror as Tanai dodged the red beams, having several close calls but never touching them.
And then it happened. Time itself slowed down completely, and yet the only things that James could see who wasn't affected was Tanai and his demon. Everything else was moving one-fourth of their normal speed, enabling Tanai to dodge the red beams with incredible accuracy, yet just as fast as it had happened time returned to its normal state. Tanai was only fifty yards away from the Giant Titan when he suddenly leapt from his demon, brandishing his sword while still engulfed in the strange light.
The sword that Tanai was holding was now pulsing with the blue light; almost lifelike in the way it throbbed. The blue demon that he had been riding had now opened its mouth, and the same blue light that had surrounded his sword was now also throbbing within the demons mouth. James watched in wonder as Tanai pulled the sword over his head, and as he did so the blue light began to grow larger, not just within the sword but within the demon as well. The size of the light seemed to never end until finally Tanai, with a cry of war, swung the sword from the back of his head and brought it to the face of the Titan. Time seemed to stop completely as the blue light extended itself from the sword to the Titans head, and also from the mouth of the demon. It did not return to its normal state until both beams of light made contact with the Titan, making no noise upon impact but causing two large holes to appear in its head and stomach. The Titan let out an ear splitting scream, one that echoed throughout the theater and into James's ears, yet for a second he believed that the beams had done nothing to it, until the Titan suddenly imploded, sending hundreds of thousands of blue skull spirits in every direction. The demon Tanai had been riding flew right through the barrage of skulls, dodging all of them effortlessly. Tanai continued to soar through the air, performing several difficult acrobatics until he finally landed effortlessly on top of the back of his flying demon.
James let out a whoop of exhilaration, punching his fists in the air while laughing. The death of the giant Titan seemed to have triggered some sort of reaction, for as soon as it had had exploded each and every other Titan began to explode as well, each of them releasing hundreds of blue skulls. James's demon seemed to have gotten the impression that the blue skulls weren't a something it wanted to run into, for it was now dodging them at all costs, taking a few sharp twist here and there causing James once again to wince in pain. Tanai and his demon soared over to them, a mild expression upon his sweaty face.
" Not a word, James," said Tanai as he wiped sweat from his eyes.
" Not a word," said James, echoing Tanai's last comment.