Ch.3 Horses thunder

The white mare carrying Rien thundered across the hills and uneven ground followed by four other horses that galloped behind her. Skelar pushed his black horse to keep up with the others as they charged across the landscape.

"What are we going to do when we get there?" Toc asked over the galloping horses.

"Find out why they took Sell!" Rien replied. "They know what she's capable of! They're trying to keep her from turning!"

Toc and Des looked confused. "Turning into what?"

Skelar hit Rien's arm as he was pulling up next to him. "Don't say anymore! They don't need to know!"

Rien shook him off. "They're my sons! I decide what I tell them or what they should know on this subject!" He looked over his shoulder at them briefly. "Your sister will be turning into a Skeletal Being tonight! If we don't make it before that happens then the enemy will have our Queen!"

"Now he refers to us as chess pieces!" spat Lones angrily. "Really?!"

"Skeletal Beings?!" Skelar spoke up. "I thought that was just a fairy tale?!"

Skelar face palmed himself. "Damn it!"

Rien pushed his horse faster. "Enough of this chatter! We're to get Sell back! That is our goal!"

Toc, Des, and Skelar were curious on hearing more of this subject but decided that it would have to wait for later. "They won't do anything bad to Sell, will they?"

Rien and Lones eyed one another feeling uncertain. "We don't know. They could hide her forever some place and never let her see the light of day again."

"Lets just hope that doesn't happen," spoke up Skelar as his horse was catching up to his fathers. "Knowing Sell I don't think she'd go down without a fight."

Rien hoped that this would prove truthful. If the enemy hid his daughter from him he wasn't sure how he'd be able to handle it.

Hel teleported back to his Masters base that he had hidden. He tossed a pice of sand to the left of a stone rock and watched it get sucked up by something under the dirt. A disguised stone door opened by the use of pistons. Hel walked through the door stepping on a pressure plate to close the door behind him throwing him into darkness. He blinked as his nightvision helped him see and manuver through the room to his Masters chamber. Socaza looked up from his work towards his door to see Hel standing there blending in with the darkness almost perfectly. "Hel, welcome back. What was said?"

Hel strode forward to his Masters desk and leaned over to be near him. "He'll pay you a price that he see's fitting for the girl. Other than that nothing else was brought up." Hel pulled away to stand straight again.

Socaza glanced at his paperwork. "Did he ask if she was trained or not?"

Hel nodded. "Yes. I told him what I had found out. He seems rather pleased with it all."

Socaza chuckled leaning back in his chair. "He sees the potential that the girl has. For being untrained her possibilities are quite big. Hell, I could have some use for her."

Hel stood there in silence as his Master amused himself. Socaza sighed pushing himself up from the desk. "Very well. Lets get this trade completed. Go grab the girl."

Hel nodded turned on a heel and walking out. His tails fluttering behind him as he walked. Socaza stared after him for a moment before turning his head to a man that materialized out of the darkness. "Aeno, go greet our riders that are approaching. You know the drill."

Aeno bowed to his father in silence and left him to do his job. Socaza narrowed his eyes at Lord Rien's quick action. "For someone of his stature I'm surprised he got here so quickly. Too late though."

The portal maker left his office to stand in the front room waiting for Hel and the girl.

Hel stood in the observing room staring at the sleeping girl named Sell. She had placed the hoe head down and was leaning on it for support. He snorted teleporting into the room. Her eyes opened at a noise that had come from Hel. "Who's there?"

Hel stared at her in silence. She couldn't see him through the darkness. He reached out grabbing her mouth with his hand as she screamed and retaliated but was taken away by a teleportation to stand next to Socaza. "We're ready."

Socaza looked to the struggling Sell. "Calm down, Sell. You'll be alright. We're just making a trip to see a certain someone."

"Bastards!" she cussed angrily as she forced Hel's hand away from her mouth. "My father won't allow this to go any further! Where is he?!"

"Not here," chuckled Socaza. "He never even came for you. Isn't that sad?"

Sell glared at the man. "Who the hell are you? Why do you have me?"

Hel struck the back of Sell's neck knocking her unconscious. He gathered her into his arms and followed after Socaza to the stables where they mounted up and raced out the back tunnel that wound under the land before emerging in a winding valley that sloped up and over into a thick jungle where they would use access tunnels that had been carved under the hills to make travel faster. As Sell leaned against the hard body of Hel she dreamed something deep and dark. Like she hadn't left the one square pillar that was over the void.

"Where am I?" she asked as her voice echoed around her.

The darkness seemed to have a rhythem that she hadn't noticed until just now. Almost as if it was breathing. As if the darkness was something that lived. "Walk." spoke a voice that whispered in the darkness.

Sell's body obeyed without hesitation. She wanted to pull away and remain where she was but her body wouldn't allow it. "No! Stop it! I won't go with you! Where am I being taken?!"

A dark hand stroked her cheek briefly. The darkness seemed to sigh into her face making her squint. "You are weak now but it won't be long for you to truly understand what power you will possess." The voice whispered disappearing into the darkness. "The beat of hooves strike a chord with the earth showing you the way."

Sell looked into the darkness confused by what that meant. "What are you talking about? I don't understand."

"Listen."

Sell stood there in the darkness holding herself. There was nothing there to listen she heard was a rapid beating heart that pounded repeatedly and sometimes over lapped itself. She stopped then to listen to it. That didn't sound like a heart as she paid attention to the sound.

She looked up into the darkness where the sound was coming from. There was more than one horse. There were many. As they pounded through the darkness Sell heard her father telling her the story of Lady Ananon. Was she remembering this?

"Lady Ananon came from a distant island that was hand built from the ground up. She was there when Hatos was created from a Ghast and then she herself was possessed. She had been following Hatos for many years when she joined up with the founders of the Skeletal Beings. She helped to battle the long raging war between Hell and the Living. In a brash decision during a war she went off to face Hatos by herself and wound up dying to him in the end.

"There's a prophecy that was written up and scattered all around the world about a woman who would come to be and take her place, taking up the title as Lady once more. Even Lady Ananon herself will recognize and honor this woman that she had chosen upon her death. The woman that she chose will be the savior for the clan and all of the living that live around them."

Sell wondered why she was recalling the story. There was no reason to think back to that now. She was in danger.

"I'm waiting," hissed a voice from within her. "I've been waiting. Think of fire."

Sell wasn't sure about this voice or from where it came. She decided that it was just a dream that she was having. Then again, how long had she been out for? Sell struggled awake and found herself laying in a great room that had torches lighting the room dimly. A man strode in from the side to sit on a throne and look upon her with a skulled mask on. "Sell of Minoport? Daughter of Lord Rien of the Damned?"

Sell blinked trying to adjust her vision as her head throbbed from where she was struck. "Y-Yes. Who are you?"

The masked man spread his arms wide. "Welcome to your new home. I will be your new father. My name is King Hatos. I am your founding father and leader of your race. You probabaly didn't know that but you do now. You will give me utmost respect and loyalty just as my adopted son Hel has."

"Hel?" Sell asked looking to her right to see the man that had knocked her out. Something within her churned with anger but it wasn't for Hel. It was for the man that had called himself King and founding father of her. Something within her detested and hated this man that she knew nothing about. "I reject your demands. I will not follow or be loyal to someone who demands it. I will follow those that I want to follow and that I respect. I have no respect for you."

The King sat there for a moment looking Sell over. "The instinct. That's what you're going by. Don't listen to it, it is blind."

"Blind I am not and I will show you the light here and now," hissed the voice from within Sell. "Think of fire! Think of it raging the lands with its heat and fiery tongues! Call upon it and it shall come!" The voice hissed and spat within her causing her to feel a great fever within her chest just between her breast.

Sell bent over starting to pant and clutch her chest. "W-What the hell...? What's happening?"

Hel stared at her and instinctively grabbed her hair, lifting her up. "Do not bow or wince in pain until the King says so!"

Sell's eyes focused on a nearby torch not understanding why but her soul seemed to leap as the flames danced. "To be born anew and carry on, fire and light within each hand she serves but one purpose. One purpose that all respect. That is to chase away the darkness forever." Her eyes alight with a fire within causing them to glow brightly. "I will stand what I feel is right. This is not right. Unhand me now and I will spare your life!"

Hel looked to his father who sat there unmoving. "Why has her tone changed?"

Hatos stood removing the skull mask. "Alas, I knew this day would come when I would see you again, Nystherdyn."

Sell's eyes flashed brightly as a growl came from her chest. "Why are you doing this, Hatos? Or should I say Cryhendon?"

Hatos chuckled allowing himself to take his Skeletal Being form. "You never missed a trick did you, Nystherdyn? Yes, it's me, Cryhendon. I wonder how our two other brother's faired when the spirits began to become reborn?"

"That doesn't matter right now. I want this girl to be gone from your sights and live normally. She deserves that much!" Sell hissed towards Hatos. "Lady Ananon would've wanted this child to live a normal life and not take her place as was written within the Prophecy."

"Lady Ananon..." Hatos gave a growl of displeasure at the name spoken. "She might've been this man's child but I was never one for offspring of Minecraftian's. That wretch tried to kill me! Tried to kill her own sire! She got what she deserved from me!"

Sell felt as if she was watching something with her own eyes but was not there herself. She stared up at the man that had been called Hatos. Did he just say that he had killed Lady Ananon? How could that be? That battle was over forty years ago.

"You've gone quiet on me, Nystherdyn. Has your holder stirred within?" Hatos asked with a sly grin. "I wonder what she thinks of this topic that we're speaking of? We've been around since the beginning almost."

Since the beginning? Wondered Sell as she stared in silence. When the world was created? When the Minecraftian's first walked the world? Since then?

"She's confused on something it seems," Nystherdyn said softly. "I will allow her to come fourth and ask questions to better understand where we're coming from."

Hatos's flame eyes seemed to narrow. "Your soft side is showing."

A growl came from Sell as he showed displeasure in the jab from Cryhendon before allowing Sell to become herself once more. She blinked feeling the familiar sense of being back to reality in a sort of living way. "I am confused about many things. The battle between Lady Ananon and her father was forty something years ago. Are you her father?"

Hatos's Skeletal Being skull changed into a horse's skull as he stepped towards her from the throne. "This man is Lady Ananon's father and forfather of all Skeletal Beings. He was the very first one to be made into a Skeletal Being."

"Has this been documented?" Sell asked as she watched the man stand before her. "Are there documents on all of the Skeletal Being lineages?"

The horse skull nodded. "There is a Stronghold with all documentation of each lineage. There were four lineages that came from him that gave birth to the children that now hold up the lineage. Some need to be eradicated but I'll handle the weeding later. You, however,are a special one that they all look towards."

Does he mean to kill those that are weak? She wondered as a chill ran over her. "How am I so special? I am just a child. I don't understand this fully that we're speaking of."

Hatos gave a chuckle behind his horse skull as he reached out to touch her face but a fire barrier kept him from being too near. Sell stepped away as the barrier startled her. Hatos withdrew his hand shaking it from the flames of the protection barrier from Nystherdyn. "Hm, still quite protective yet you died with little power back then. Such a shame."

"What do you mean?" Sell asked as Hatos turned away back to his throne. "How did you all die?"

"In a battle when Lady Ananon died." Cryhendon said as he retook his throne. "I and Nystherdyn were the last two fighting. Back then it was Lord Rien's father and Hatos. It was a neck to neck battle. Each of us not wanting to back down and tried to over power each other."

"Who won?" Sell asked as she was very curious over this story.

"Nystherdyn. Though he died from his wounds afterwards." Cryhendon said with a smirk in his voice. "Now I'm standing before the daughter of Lord Rien that holds Nystherdyn within her body once more. Here I thought I'd never meet you or that bastard again."

"Why do you want me for?" Sell asked staring at Hatos as she fell back into seriousness once more. "To kill me? To rule the world as Nystherdyn said?"

The horse skull stared at Sell with a hanging silence as he thought over what he would say. "Yes. I don't want the Prophecy of Lady Ananon to come true, yet I think I'll keep you and use your abilities for myself."

Sell gave him a glare. "What will you have me do?"

"I'm not sure yet. Though if you are the one that the Prophecy speaks of then I will have the power that you will be possessing to strike fear into your bretheren and have power above all." A smile crept across Hatos's face as he thought over the plans with happiness. "Hatos's son will be called The Devil's Prophecy as he controls the future Lady."

Sell's body shook with anger and fear as she thought this over. People seeing her with fear and living within shadows. "No. You will do no such thing with me. Not now, not ever! I will fight for my freedom. I will fight to keep my freedom! My grandfather's lineage of protecting the innocent and himself free from evil will continue through me!"

The scythe that Sell had taken with her when she had been captured by Hel ripped out of Hel's other hand that he held it in and flew to her grasp. Nystherdyn came forth as flames erupted around her and a tiger's head was created out of swirling fire roaring at Hatos and Cryhendon before being swirled away. "May history make its loop once again between us!"

Hel cried out letting go of Sell as flames burned his arm causing him to teleport away out of danger. Hatos watched as Nystherdyn protected the girl, not changing her appearance. "This will be interesting. Throwing the girl into a fight with her not knowing how to fight in return. How foolish are you, Nystherdyn?"

"Don't look down on me!" Sell barked out at him holding the scythe like it was a sword. "My father has been practicing with me. He called it the Reaper's Game. Sword fighting with scythes. Come at me!"

Hatos withtook his body back as he suppressed the spirit within him. "Very well then. I'll play this game of yours." He took up his scthe that had been laying at his feet and removed the horse skull to place it on his throne. "We'll do three rounds. The first one to land six blows to the opponent is the winner."

Sell sprang forth with an empowering yell as she raised her scythe for an attack. Hatos sprang bringing his scythe sideways for her. The two scythes locked as a tiger's head was made out of fire above her roaring as it clashed with the head of a horse's made from the same fire though it felt different. Something spiritual and on a different level than Sell's. Sparks flew as the room was illuminated from Sell's fire of protection. History had made its loop once more and a new war had begun to unfold between the young heir of the Skeletal Being lineage and its forfather once more.