A/N: This story was inspired by sketches form NekoChronicles. If you haven't checked her work do it! There's a link to her page from her profile. If you can't find her profile, she's like the only one that's reviewed this little collection. XD


The Court of Daemons


Summary: Things go horribly wrong for Keiss and Layle during a mission and the Selkie must find away to save them from a nest of cunning Lizardmen.

Characters: Keiss, Layle

Warnings: Fighting, violence, injuries in detail

Stand Alone One Shot


The first thing he knew when he opened his eyes was that his body was alerting him to several points of pain pricking at his skin. Pricking at his skin, through his muscles, down to his bones. Everything on the right side of his body hurt. The pain made it hard to breathe. It felt like his chest was struggling against itself just to contain enough air for him to look around.

He tried lifting his arm only to find that made the pain worse. It shot through him setting all of his nerves on the right side of him on fire. He coughed and chocked down a startled gasp.

Just what had happened to him?

He rolled his head to the side to see the metal walls of his airship's cockpit still around him. In front the controls were sparking from broken panels and exposed wires. There was a bit of pale sunlight coming through the glass of the cracked windshield, though it was obstructed by the trunks and limbs of large pale petrified trees. A slight wind was blowing, coming through the broken door of the cockpit.

Did he crash it?

He blinked a few times realizing moisture was running down his face. This time he raised his left hand and touched the side of his skull. The blue bandana he wore around his head was wet, so was his hair, and the entire side of his face. He pulled his fingers back and rubbed his thumbs over the red, slick fluid. He couldn't help but lick his lips as he thrught about it, taking in just a bit of the liquid into his mouth, awakening all of his taste buds with the iron flavor.

Bleeding and crashed it.

"How long have I been lying here?" His voice sounded soft as he spoke, but it was still ragged. Tired and beat from the experience of slamming into the trees and from blacking out. What had caused him to crash his ship?

Again he tried to get up, a bit slower this time taking a deep breath, as deep as he could anyway, as he got up from the chair. He put his hand to the right side of his body knowing that that wouldn't ease the pain, but he had to fool himself into thinking it did. He managed to get up out of his seat and stumbled out the broken open door of his airship.

His wrecked Acote.

He fell down as soon as he was out, landing on his knees and extending his left hand forward to catch himself. He started coughing, even the short fall was jarring, and spitting up blood. His chest strained with each cough, probably a bruised or broken rib. Or two. He lifted his gaze, red eyes searching over the ship for the other occupant. There should have been another in the crow's nest. He would have thought that his partner would have done something to stop the ship from crashing.

He struggled up to his feet and leaned against the hull of his ship. Now that he was standing he could see that the ship still wasn't on the ground. It was suspended several dozen feet high in the air by the mighty limbs of petrified trees. A limb he was standing on right now. They crisscrossed high above the forest floor making a network of roads and pathways that animals could cross. Animals and monsters. The other occupants of places such as this.

He didn't want to be here for when the monsters crossed by.

"L-layle!" He shouted tilting his head back. He was trying to call up to the crow's nest to see if the other was awake. But no one answered.

"L-l-layle! Are you up there?" Still no answer. He sighed and shook his head. His red bangs were slowly staining a darker color as he moved about. He had to find his partner and treat his wounds and get out of here. He continued to lean up against the side of his ship as he forced himself to move forward toward the ladder up to the nest. Each step he took made every inch of his body cringe.

All he could do was try to think past it. Try to think about how he ended up here.

He remembered getting a contract in the mail from Cid, a request to fly out over the Selepation Forest and look into odd storms that had been brewing up in the area. He'd been warned to be careful as quite a few airships had gone down before, but he was a careful pilot. And between him and his partner, there wasn't anything that impossible for them to do.

Selepation was once a vast network of caves and underground tunnels that were homes to terrible creatures. Giant worms that tunneled through the ground and sucked in anything they could with great aeroga spells. Their magic was so strong that Clavats used to claim that they created the winds of the world. They were extinct now, though the tunnels they'd carved still existed, but had been swallowed up forests.

When the miasma all but cleared from the world, the Clavats of Fum began to use the open area to grow hardwood trees to use for building homes and expanding cities. The forest had been fantastic for logging, until the Lizard Men took it over. They drove out the loggers and the Clavats and made it their home. Oddly enough they continued to cultivate the forest expanding it and using their own monstrous magics to reinforce it into their own domain. They'd turned the trees to stone, making it impossible for anyone to cut them down and chase them out.

Lizardmen were viciously smart for monsters.

He took hold of the rungs on the ladder and started to pull himself up. He remembered his father used to tell him terrible stories about how smart Lizardmen could be. They studied other monsters and humans alike. The used Coeurls and Cockatrices as guard dogs; fought with swords and shields; built traps, and stole from villages. Sickeningly smart for a bunch of monsters.

That's why so few people fought them.

There were old bed time stories that the beast used to have their own fort in the days of caravans. That they had learned that humans sought out myrhh trees and so they built a fortress around one to capture humans and dine upon them.

He gasped as he pulled himself up into the seat on top of his airship.

The Acote was a stealth fighter built for two. It was an older model, and could use some work, but she was still a good ship. He fell into the seat and groaned.

No one was there. His partner wasn't there.

"L-ayle!" He screamed as loud as he could. This was exhausting. Where was the Clavat that had come with him on this mission? He couldn't have gone far. Layle was irresponsible, but he would never leave him wounded and beat up in the ship. He gasped for air and pulled his hand back from his side. Maybe he'd rest just a little bit, just tiny bit while he thought of where the Clavat could have gone.

Maybe he went to get help? With his powers he could easily get to the forest floor in no time.

However he could have taken him too. He tilted his head back. The Clavat was born a Crystal Bearer with the power over gravity. And he had come to find endless ways of using and exploiting that power. Not that he was complaining. Goodness knows he was grateful for the Clavat's abilities. They came in handy more often than he could count.

The red head sighed and closed his eyes. Where was the gravity Crystal Bearer now?


"-eiss-!"

He twitched in the crow's nest.

"Ke-!"

He let out a long sigh and gasped as he opened his eyes. The sunlight was gone. The forest was dark. When had it become night?

"-Keiss-!"

He must have fallen asleep. He tried to lift his head again, but his body was stiff. His muscles had cramped in on themselves from pain. He could barely move.

"K-eiss!"

But someone was calling his name. He was in such a daze, he could barely make it out it sounded a little gruff, but it sounded like Layle. He had to be nearby. If only he could manage to move. He had to will himself to uncurl from the position his body had pulled itself into. It was in his blood to be limber. All Selkies were. He had to will his body to regain that dexterity their limbs were known for. He slowly was able to move, unwrapping his arms from around his torso and able to pull his legs down from his chest. Just over the rim of the crow's nest he could see a light. A torch. Layle was coming back. Hopefully with help.

"T-thank the crystal…" Keiss slowly pulled himself to the rim of the nest ready to call back to his partner as he heard his name said again. But the relief he felt was quickly washed away by what he saw. He was expecting to see the familiar blond and cocky Clavat walking around the airship, but instead he saw a monster.

It stood four feet tall, not including the rim of long sharp scales rising up off of its head. Its body was covered in dark green scales, and its neck was long, accounting for at least a solid foot of its four feet of height. Its head bobbed as it walked and held its torch aloft in its clawed hands on the ends of short arms. With every step it took, its toes curled slightly, the long talons on the ends of its feet scratching at old dead tree. Its snout curled and its lips pulled up revealing sharp teeth and lashing tongue. And to his dismay the creature spoke.

"K-eissss!"

He shrank back down into the crow's nest. A Lizardman. A Lizardman was here and calling his name.

How did it know his name? It couldn't have guessed that information! It had to have learned it!

"Layle…" He muttered under his breath. Keiss raised his head again to see what the monster was doing. It was now poking its head into his airship and sniffing about. It was looking for him. Wonderful. But how did the Lizardmen come upon Layle? Had he fallen out of the ship when it fell? How did they crash? If only he could remember…

He watched as the monster pulled back and raised the torch sniffing the air, "Keiss-!"

It wasn't going to leave. And now it was sniffing its way over to the ladder. Keiss leaned back against the wall of the crow's nest and slowly pat himself down. Did he have any weapons on him? Any at all? He could hear the sound of the Lizard's talons tapping against the metal of the ship as it climbed up towards him. Keiss felt his hand gun still tucked in the inner lining of his leg armor. He slowly drew it out as the light from the torch grew closer, slowly illuminating his hiding place. He pushed himself down further trying to escape the light with the shrinking darkness. The Lizardman was still uttering his name with its mimicry of Layle's voice.

His fingers struggled with the weapon as he tried to hold it steady and release the safety. His blood and dirt smeared fingers strained with the simple task. The pain in his right arm made it almost impossible to complete, and his anxiousness over the approaching monster made him shake that much more. The first hand of the Lizardman gripped the edge of the seat as it hissed his name once more. The gun clicked and the light stopped.

Keiss raised his head and gulped looking up at the rim of the crow's nest. For a moment nothing moved until he saw the Lizard's face rise up suddenly over the edge of the seat. Its mouth was wide open, all of its sharp and yellowed teeth exposed. The creature's hot and rancid breath washed over the crow's nest and the Selkie's face. It was enough to bring tears to his eyes. The monster let out a mangled roar of his name and Keiss fired. He fired right down the monster's throat, his shot tearing through the back of its head. The Lizard cried and its tongue lashed about as it fell from the ladder.

It fell and hit the branch of three thrashing and wailing. Keiss pulled himself up and fired down at the monster two more times ending its life.

The torch lay beside it slowly flickering. In its orangish light he could see that the Lizard's crude armor was adorned with a familiar pair of smoke tinted goggles. He let out a deep sigh and looked out into the pitch black forest.

"Layle… Just what did you get yourself into?"


Keiss managed to climb down from the crow's nest and decided he was going to have to rescue Layle from wherever it was the Lizards had dragged him off to. It took him an hour of searching but he managed to find the medical kit he kept in the ship. It came with the basic Selkie treatment supplies. A few bandages, some rubbing alcohol, and a large bottle of Cactuar Juice. He remembered the last time he had to patch himself up out in the field. Layle was there to help him, though the Clavat questioned why the Cactuar Juice was needed. And Keiss had told him it was for severe pain.

As he drank from the bottle he thought to himself there was no pain more severe than this. The Juice itself was supposed to be mixed with something, never taken straight, but he didn't have time. Nor did he care. The red head had shed his shirt to inspect his body, he was covered in cuts and beep bruises along the right side of his torso. The process of treating himself was almost as painful as being hurt to being with. He held the bottle of Juice in one hand and dumped the rubbing alcohol over his cuts with the other. The burning it caused made his nerves tingle long after. He pulled out bandages and gauze and ripped them with his teeth to patch up his simple wounds and wrap up his ribs. He found that with no stitches for the deeper cuts the easiest thing to do was to heat up one of his knives over the torch and press it to his skin.

And to chug the Juice to keep from crying out.

By the time he was patched up he was sure he looked worse than before he started.

The Selkie then searched the Lizard hoping to find clues on where to go. To his surprise he did find a map. It seemed out lay out a path across the tree tops to a location deep in the forest. With the Cactuar Juice numbing his body and his wounds crudely patched up he gathered up what weapons he had, Layle's goggles and the torch and started into the forest.


He wasn't sure for how long he walked before he saw signs he was on the right path. Eventually he started to see torches in the trees and opted to put out his own. As a former Guild Member he knew better than to rely on something that could give away his position. He was sneaking into enemy territory and pulling off a rescue. He couldn't afford to be found out, not until the last possible moment.

Keiss kept close to the tree trunks and took the branches under the lit paths when he could. The shadows were his best weapon the closer and closer he got to his destination. Especially since the further in he went, the more Lizardmen he saw.

The creatures communicated by hissing and snarling at each other. They carried weapons and sported armor stolen from the corpses of men they'd slain. They'd built look outs and stations into the trees from airship husk and wagon bits they'd hauled up into the tree tops. Some of them walked with Coeurls and Cockatrices on chains as they made their rounds.

There was an entire society of them up here in the trees. Devoted to scavenging off humans and devouring whatever they could get their clawed hands on.

What if they'd devoured Layle?

Keiss shook his head and took another swig from his bottle. The Juice was almost gone.

He ran his hand over the bandages around his ribs and his right arm. They didn't hurt any more, which was good for him. Soon he'd be fighting and he didn't want the pain to slow him down. And while he had made it to the Lizardmen's camp, he had no idea where to find the Crystal Bearer.

As if fate was answering his question, there came a loud roar that caused all of the Lizards to turn their heads. Slowly they all moved deeper into the camp. Keiss watched them form his hiding place. He could swear that as they were marching he felt the wind pick up.

The Selkie followed them, making sure to hang back in the shadows as he followed the waves of monsters to the center of their camp. Here they had fashioned a large platform made up of metal and wood from the various object they'd collected over the years. The platform made a giant circle with a massive hole in the middle. The branches of the trees seemed to have been cut and torn away both above the platform and below it, though Keiss was uncertain how. He slowly climbed up higher in the trees to get a good look at the area.

He might not have felt the pain any more, but he could still tell his movements were slow.

Once he was high enough to look out over the large gathering of Lizardmen something about the sight seemed familiar. In the center of the platform, the large vacant circle dropped off into nothing; there was one lone rope that stretched across the top of it. Keiss could make out the shadows of tree trunks in the torch lights, but they were also obscured by rocks, and twisted together like they had fallen over and stacked up over the years. He could have sworn he'd seen it before, but from much much higher. It was an unusual sight to say the least.

Not to mention there seemed to be a steady breeze coming up from the hole. It caused his hair to whip around and the lights to flicker.

Again there was a loud roar, and Keiss turned his attention to the far end of the circle. A large Lizardman had entered the area. He stood at least three times as tall as the others, his scales were red like fire and he was adorned with armor molded from the helms of airships. A large horn grew out from the top of his snout and he carried what looked like an old Gatling Gun from a fighter plane for a weapon. He let out a mighty roar and the others responded by raising their weapons and crying back at him.

The wind bursting up from the hole seemed to swell.

Off to the side there was a commotion as a group of Lizards brought forth a wagon carrying, what looked like to Keiss, an assortment of odd statues. The Selkie looked around before climbing higher still to get a good look at what they were up to.

He watched as they unloaded several statues of animals collected from the forest floor and the surrounding farms. The entire time the wind was picking up, causing the platform to shake and the trees to creak. A Lizardman carrying a staff and a bag at his side came forward as the others loaded the stone carvings onto a wooden platform. Keiss watched as they hooked it onto the rope that ran over the middle of the circle and started to pull. As the platform slowly pulled away from the ledge the Lizardman with the staff waved it over the statues and threw some powder over them.

The statues slowly started to crumble and shake. With each passing second they changed from rock sculptures to living creatures. They weren't statues at all. But animals petrified by the power of the Cockatrices the Lizardman kept. The animals were trapped on the platform dangling up high over the pit. As the gust of wind grew stronger it shook and the beast cried out. Frantically they moved about trying to steady themselves until finally a cow stolen form a farm was knocked off. It fell into the pit its mournful cry echoed long after it disappeared.

Until it abruptly stopped.

Keiss thought it had hit the bottom, until a nother great swell of wind burst up from the hole tilting the entire platform. The animals started to fall in and nearly all the torches were extinguished from the gust. But before they could disappear from sight something horrible rose up from the pit. A large monster. A horrible worm like creature, with grey skin, spiraled horns growing from its sides and great gaping mouth of gnashing, churning teeth rose up from the darkness. From its mouth it was casting a great aero spell that whipped around the area, even dragging in a few Lizards that were too close to the edge. It sucked the animals in to their deaths before it receded into the pit.

The giant red lizard cheered and so did its followers.

Keiss shakily took another swig form his bottle.

A Great Worm. He'd thought they were extinct. How long had it been here? How long had they been feeding it? Why were they feeding it?

Did he really want to know?

He looked up at the night sky over head gasped. The aero spell the worm had cast had caused the clouds over head to twist and turn. It looked as if the winds themselves were slowly taking the shape of a funnel. Another gust from it and a storm would surly form.

"A storm that would knock us out of the sky…" Keiss looked back down at the circle. Now he knew why he'd seen it before. He'd flown over it earlier that day. "The Lizards are making storms… That's what caused me to crash-"

Before he could finish his thought the Lizards were getting ready to feed the worm again. Keiss turned his attention back to the wagon as they unloaded another statue. This one was wrapped up and weighted down with chains. He didn't understand why at first until the Lizard holding it set it down. Even from this distance he knew who it was.

"Layle!" He leaned forward form his hiding place. Certainly the statue was the Clavat frozen in mid battle, down on one knee. The Lizards had prepared ahead for his release by wrapping him up. As they brought forward the next platform the Selkie started to panic.

What was he going to do?

They were going to feed Layle to that worm and he was all the way over here. He was too far away to help him, and too wounded, and outnumbered. What was he going to do?

"…What would Layle do if it was me down there?"

Keiss reached into his pocket and pulled out his gun. "He'd tell me to handle it solo- but…" The Selkie raised his gun and took aim for the pouch at the Lizard Wizard's side. "He can't handle it if he's turned to stone!" Just as the monsters were sliding the Clavat onto the platform Keiss fired his gun.

The bullet tore through the Lizards pouch spraying the powder within everywhere. Due to the winds coming up from the pit it was carried across the area. The Lizards at once started to roar and search for the location of the shooter. Keiss pulled back and pressed himself against the tree he was hiding in, but it was too late. A few had seen him and were pointing and snarling. The nearest group started to rush the trunk of the tree. The Selkie drew his sword ready to fight them off.

Just as one climbed up over the branches he swung his blade down into its head. Keiss kicked the creatures face to knock it back down as two more climbed up over the branches. Once swung a club at him, the other its claws. He managed to avoid the club but the other's talons ripped into the bandages on his arms. He hissed at them and made a broad sweeping motion with his weapon chopping off the tops of their large finned scales.

More and more were climbing the tree trying to get at him. And he was certain he was done for until he heard another roar. Back at the pit the Lizards where shrieking and crying out as they were being knocked into the pit. Keiss could see burst of blue light sending them flying up into the air.

Layle was back.

And while the Clavat's limbs were held down to his body by pounds of chains that didn't stop him from ramming into Lizards and kicking them with burst of magic to get them out of his way. Keiss could hear him shouting his name at the top of his lungs. The Clavat must have been calling for him when he was stoned as well. That's where the Lizards learned to imitate his voice. Keiss pushed off the tree and jumped down into the mass of Lizards. He held his sword's blade down and let it sink into the face of the monster that was unlucky enough to be where he landed.

He ripped the blade out and started running for Layle. The Clavat was also making his way toward him. The Lizards he tossed into the pit caused the Great Cave Worm to stir again. It created another spell sucking in more of the Lizardmen and petrified animals that ran to close to the edge. The monsters' leader let out a mighty roar and started to open fire across the pit trying to shoot Layle. He shot his own men causing them to fall into the pit and tore up the platforms around the circle.

Layle jumped and started to use the heads of the falling Lizardmen as stepping stones to get away.

"Keiss!" The Clavat could see the red head fighting his way towards him past Lizards and their pets.

"Hang on! Just hang on!" The Selkie ran forward and sank his sword into the nose of a Lizard. He used him to vault himself forward and fly over the group. He landed just feet away from Layle as the edges of the platform finally broke away, causing the Clavat and the group of Lizardmen he was fighting through to fall over to tumble.

Layle struggled to pull even just one arm free from the chains. But the fact of the matter was he was just as hurt as Keiss. He hadn't gotten out of the crash unscathed. In fact he had been thrown from the ship when it went down. The branches of the petrified trees had been gracious enough to cut up his face and his legs. His already faded and worn jeans were torn and smeared with dried blood from the cuts he'd sustained during his fall. Not to mention the additional stabs he'd received from the angry Lizardmen he fell into. He was sure the experience had broken his left arm; the more he tried to pull free the more it hurt. He could hear the bone twisting and grinding as he fought, and the feeling of it rubbing against its broken pieces sent a terrible pain through him. His left hand felt numb, at least what he could feel of it, only reinforcing the fact that something was broken underneath all those chains. But he had to fight through the pain and numbness to get free.

However now he was dropping. And with his arms bound and busted he didn't think he could catch himself.

The Clavat screamed his partner's name again and felt his drop come to sudden halt. The chains wound around his torso pulled tight and he let out a gasp of pain as they rattled his broken bones yet again.

Keiss struggled to hold onto him. He had one hand on the hilt of his sword, whose blade he'd buried into the platform and his other hand had grabbed Layle's chains.

"H-hold on!"

"Hold on to what!" Layle shouted at him. The Lizards started to charge at where they were hanging on for dear life and down below Layle could see the Worm coming up for another meal. "I've got an idea!"

"Great!"

"Drop us into the pit!"

"…Are you fucking stupid!?"

"Just! Do! It!" Layle looked over his shoulder at the Selkie. Keiss yanked at his sword and pulled it out of the wood. A few Lizards swung their clubs at him as he dropped down into the pit striking him in the back of his ribs. He let out holler of pain as he felt another one crack.

Layle stretched out his legs focusing his magic downward. As the worm opened its mouth to cast an aero spell Layle met its magic with his own. Though by far the Cave Worm's spell covered a larger area, Layle had more than enough adrenaline coursing through him to match the strength of the massive aeroga spell. When the two collided it created a barrier that shot both the Clavat and his Selkie partner upward. The Worm however was pushed down. Its own spell rebounded of the shield and was pushed back into the creature's mouth. The force of the spell tore through the worm causing it to tear apart from the inside out. Its body rocked and crashed into the sides of the pit taking out more of the platform. Keiss and Layle soared upward and over the destruction.

The Lizardman King raised his gun and fired at the two as they were falling through the air and as the platform was crumbling beneath his feet.

Keiss pulled himself closer to Layle and wrapped his arms around the Clavat as he created a shield with his magic to protect them. The force of the bullets from the gun knocked them off course and the two came crashing down into the trees.

Every injury they had from the crash of the Acote was reawakened as they collided with the branches.

The two finally stopped falling and struggled to look up. The Lizard King, his followers and the platform were all gone. Bits and pieces of it were still falling off from the tree tops, and a few Lizards could be seen struggling to hang on here and there before they fell off.

The boys panted, and coughed, and in Layle's case spit up blood at least once.

They both sat still for a long time just staring at the pit and taking in the silence.

And the fact that the wind had stopped blowing.