Luz stands at the edge of a dark pine forest, having come to it following the trail of the juvenile Slitherbeast she... killed. Umbra, the demon sword of Clavicus Vile is held firm in her grip. Moonlight shines across the polished surface of the sword, reflecting her grim expression. She still feels a pit in her stomach; Having accepted ownership of the sword, Luz is now the wielder of a sword doomed to curse her with murderous insanity until the time it chooses a new hand to pass into.
"It's for your friends, Luz!"
Her words of encouragement hardly help. To have the ability to save the ones she cares about, Luz has essentially made a deal with the devil.
The teen huffs angrily and starts her journey into the forest, following a path of broke trees as a guide. Whether this will lead back to the mother beast or not Luz isn't sure, but it's the only lead she has. She can't quite understand why, but she has a pretty good feeling she's heading in the right direction.
Even with the limited light she managed to find her way through the forest and out into a clearing leading up to a large hill. Jagged rocks litter the field, many of which sport signs of being used essentially as sharpening stones for something with claws. Big claws.
Many of the rocks sport old slashes perhaps a year old while others have almost been ground into nothing after what could only be generations of use.
Luz shivers at the idea of there being a pack of murder-beasts, but manages to find some comfort in the thought of there only being one now if Umbra was in fact telling the truth.
Following the tracks out of the forest, they lead her through the field of sharpening stones and up a fairly steep path that leads around to the backside of the lonesome hill. A large beast would have little issue climbing up, but Luz is small and none too athletic. After a good fifteen minutes climb she finally reaches the apex.
Facing outwards Luz finds the vantage point of the hill can see out into a vast portion of The Knees landscape. Focusing, she notices that she can see the lights of fires, ranger stations and other campsites easily for miles.
"This must be how it hunts! All it has to do is stand up here and it can see basically the whole Knee!"
Luz even spots the location of her group's site barely a stone's toss away. Unwitting, they had walked right into the feeding grounds of a family of flesh hungry monsters. Her fists clench and she turns around and stares into the entrance of a huge, gaping cave leading into the darkness.
No more! She won't let anymore innocent people die! She'll take on the last Hulking Slitherbeast and avenge the countless victims it's no doubt eaten over the years!
Eda, Lilith and Bendu stare at the soundly sleeping monster before them, its chest rising and falling as it breathes slowly. The beast, which Eda has no doubts is the legendary Udenfrykyte, had ambushed them as they all slept for the night and trapped them in a super sticky, resin-like secretion before nabbing them back to its lair and sticking them high up on the wall, no doubt to have as a morning snack.
All around them blue crystals grow from the icy rock, a blue light gently shining just enough for them to see the slumbering behemoth of a Slitherbeast before them. Normal ones are white and while quite large, twelve feet at the shoulder is the biggest they typically get.
Udenfrykyte, lying on its belly, is already at that height. If it stood the beast could stare them all in the eye, and they're stuck nearly thirty feet high! Its fur is a scruffy black with many lines of hairless scars all over its body. Even while lied down the bulky muscles are clear to see. Udenfrykyte is a powerful beast!
If Lilith were to guess, the size and scar damage would have to make the beast at least a hundred years old. Even older than Edalyn and herself combined!
There had been two, with no father beast seen, but the youngster had left after its mom had kicked it out for being too rowdy. Despite their (heh!) sticky situation, Eda can't help but be worried by a tiny little fact.
"Luz is missing!"
"Shh!" Lilith hisses to silence her sister, "You'll awaken it if you keep talking loudly like you always do!"
"Well sorry Lilith if I still have a heart that gives a damn!" While still fuming, her voice is quieter now, "My kid's out there with the Uden-baby and there's not a damn thing I can do about it!"
A hurt look crosses the older sisters face. Eda huffs and tears her eyes away from her sister. Lilith's pointed ears droop and she turns away with a sigh to look at Bendu nearby.
"What about you? Is there anything you might be able to do?"
The archmage wriggles around, but the cocoon of green resin has his arms firmly stuck to the wall. The Staff of Sheogorath is stuck to the same wall, however it is out of his reach and use. Ciirta's eyeball stares coldly at him. If it could show expressions, he's sure it would be glaring at him for allowing it to be covered in a disgusting secretion.
"No can do. I can't cast with my hands covered like this, and I'm pretty sure my staff won't help out of spite." The eyeball rotates and turns away from him, confirming it.
"Damn stick! How can we remove this resin?"
"With fire!"
Eda gasps and looks at the ground floor to see Luz staring at them triumphantly. Her whole front half is coated with a red liquid and in her right hand is the black sword Bendu had brought with him.
The archmage fixes Luz a hard look. The teen flinches and shies away her gaze away. "I know... I'm sorry, the sword tricked me!"
Eda and Lilith turn to Bendu expecting an explanation. The old wizard shakes his head and only keeps his eyes on Luz.
"We'll discus it later, apprentice. Look around for my bag, I dropped it nearby when we were placed up here. Inside I have a weak fireball scroll you can use to free us."
The teen does as such. She carefully tiptoes around the slumbering monster and finds the familiar satchel bag half buried in nearby snow. She opens the primary flap, but looking into the bag reveals only a dark void.
"How deep does this go?! How am I supposed to find anything in here?!"
"It's a Craft Bag, they obey your will. Think of the scroll and it will appear."
Luz concentrates and thinks of the words 'weak fireball scroll'. Suddenly from the darkness a rolled up paper scroll flies out and smacks her in the face. Luz hisses and rubs the sore abrasion on her forehead.
"I've got the scroll, now what?"
"Concentrate on the idea of activation. The magic is already stored in the parchment, it just needs willpower to unleash it."
Luz holds the rolled up piece of paper in her free hand and thinks about turning something on. Light switches, her phone, her computer. Slowly the paper becomes more warm, and after a few more seconds of concentration the paper suddenly catches fire and turns into small orb of fire hovering above her open palm.
"Oh my gosh! This is amazing!"
"Focus!"
She nods and pulls her arm back and launches the fire like a baseball. It strikes the wall near the trapped adults where the intense heat weakens the resin until Eda and Lilith fall thirty feet down where thankfully they land in a fluffy pile of snow
Bendu is freed from the resin, but he doesn't fall the others. A faint purple circle hovers under his feet, holding him up in the air. He literally walks across the open air and frees his staff from the resin with a fire touch spell. The eyeball rotates around wildly, seemingly showing happiness.
"Yeah-yeah, laugh it up, Ciirta! You're covered in the throw up, too!"
He descends back to the floor and meets up with the three. Eda and Lilith search nearby and eventually find their own staves buried in the snow mound. Luz shifts on her feet uncomfortably as the archmage stares down at her. Somehow he feels like a fifty foot giant compared to her. She hasn't felt so small like this since the last time her mami screamed her ears off for breaking the living room window.
The former hero unlatches the empty scabbard still tied to his belt and hands it over to Luz.
"We'll discuss your fate later. For now, keep all parts of the sword to yourself. You don't want to anger a daedric artifact by losing a piece of it."
Silently, Luz accepts the scabbard and ties it to her belt. It's not heavy, but it feels slightly too long. Suddenly, the scabbard and sword shrink down in size by several inches until the length of the blade is about two feet with the scabbard sized down perfectly to fit it.
"Umbra changes itself to fit its wielder. A seemingly perfect sword made to trap and ensnare the unwitting."
"...I'm sorry."
"Sorry means nothing now. You'll simply have to face the consequences."
Eda cuts off their conversation, "Look alive you two!"
The ground shakes as the huge Slitherbeast awakens with a roar that vibrates the whole cave. It stands on its legs rising ten, twenty and finally almost thirty feet in the air. The party looks up at the wall of scars and black fur and scatter as it brings a fist down to crush them.
Bendu opens his palm and a swirling purple energy flies out and opens a portal to Oblivion. The portal vanishes and in its place is a massive mountain of pointy gothic armor wielding a wicked looking longsword.
"Dremora, kill the beast!"
"I SMELL WEAKNESS!"
The daedra lunges upwards, far higher than anyone would expect from someone in plate armor, and drives its sword into the shoulder of Udenfrykyte. Distracted by the demon repeatedly stabbing its shoulder, the monster fails to react as electricity flies from Bendu's fingers and strikes the dremora like a lightning rod.
"HRGBURLWR!" The lightning flows through the dremora, into its sword and then directly into the deep flesh of the monster. Quickly the dremora falls to the ground dead, but the Slitherbeast survives with a now fried arm.
"What the heck was that sound?!"
"Not now, Luz!"
Enraged, the beast lashes out with its good arm and tries to slash everyone to ribbons. Eda and Lilith dodge to either side of the monster on their staves while Bendu stands in front of Luz and holds his hand out and casts a reflect spell.
Udenfrykyte screams in pain as its claws smash into the barrier. The kinetic energy of the blow is reflected back entirely onto the beasts hand by the spell, shattering the claws and likely fracturing the bones inside.
Lilith conjures two lengths of magic blue rope and throws one to Eda. Together they both throw the rope at either arm where it wraps itself around each. The sisters pull their ropes, toppling the top heavy creature where its head crashes into the ground hard enough to shake the cave.
In front of the beast another portal opens. This time a creature like a mix between the Hulk and a crocodile is summoned. The Daedroth bellows at Udenfrykyte and wrestles with its head to keep it pined down with strength equal to the larger creature.
"Luz, go! Use Umbra and finish it off!"
The human nods with a fire in her eyes and races towards the monster, ready to end it all. Luz jumps in the air and prepares to drive her sword directly into the brain of the feral monster. Seeing her coming, the beast in a burst of strength pulls against Lilith's rope and yanks her off her feet.
Lilith's eyes go wide as she collides with Luz mid air. Both are knocked away to the far wall where they collide into it with great force. With an arm free, the Slitherbeast grabs the body of the Daedroth and squeezes. Blood, guts and bones burst as the top half of the daedra explodes like a confetti popper from the extreme power of the grip. It throws the body at Bendu and knocks him back to the far wall.
Eda releases the rope she has as Udenfrykyte pulls on it and hops on Owlbert to swiftly fly away as it tries to squash her. The beast turns to Lilith and Luz whom were both knocked out cold and bares its sharp toothed mouth ready to devour them.
"Oh no you don't!" Eda flies to the roof of the cave and kicks down several of the pointy stalactites dangling over the massive creature.
Several of the spikes fall down and barely pierce the top layer of the monster's thick hide. It looks up and spots Eda ready to kick another free. Before she can fly away, the beast jumps into the air and swats her down like a tennis serve. Eda crashes hard into the wall and falls to the ground with a weak groan. Seconds later she's unconscious, completely at the mercy of the monster.
Suddenly the beast screeches as a blast of lightning blasts it from the side. Without hitting the sword still lodged in its shoulder, the electricity is mostly absorbed by the hide and fat of the beast's body. Keeping the sword faced away, Udenfrykyte slowly approaches Bendu as he lets off more lightning.
The monster looms over him and raises a hand to squash him. Bendu simply smirks and vanishes into thin air. Confused by his disappearance, it fails to notice Luz before its to late. With a swift slash she brings Umbra down on the heel of the colossal monster and slices clean through.
It roars and reaches a hand around to grab Luz, but it brings its hand back now missing all of its fingers.
Sensing the battle is lost, Udenfrykyte tries to retreat but only goes so fast due to the damage.
"Oh no you don't!"
Luz pursues the Slitherbeast, slashing, hacking, dodging and stabbing the monster all the way to the mouth of the cave. Weakened from Luz's fury, the monster can move no further. It makes one last slow swipe at Luz who simply rushes forward and drives Umbra into where she suspects the heart to be. With strength unnatural to her, Luz pushes the monster off her sword and over the edge of the hill.
Udenfrykyte falls hundreds of feet down the snowy slope where it crashes into a jagged stone and is finally impaled to death. Umbra seems to hum in pleasure in her hand as the sword greedily absorbs the soul of the second and final black-furred Slitherbeast.
Bendu appears beside Luz out of thin air. The teen flinches in surprise, but relaxes quickly. The two of them stare down slope at the dead form of the mighty Slitherbeast. Both are silent for a while. Luz finds it difficult to form words while Bendu simply waits and gives her the time she needs.
"Have you ever..." She starts out soft and unsure, "Have you had to kill things, before?"
"Yes. People too."
"Oh..." She's takes a while to continue, "Am I a bad person for killing them?"
He turns to her with a quirked eyebrow, "They tried to murder and eat you unprovoked... and you think you're the bad person?"
Luz flushes in embarrassment and rubs the back of her neck unsure, "W-well I guess when you put it that way..."
"You're still young. It'll take some getting used to. This is apart of it, Luz. The world of adventure isn't a children's fairy tale. People die, lives are ruined and eventually you die too, but you die a life fulfilled. I think you're doing marvelous already. Maybe you'll live long enough to retire? That's the reality of it. Now, let's get back to the others. I'm sure Eda's splitting hairs in worry."
Lilith stares down into the small tunnel she discovered in the back of Udenfrykyte's cave. Deep claw marks and gashes in the rock and ice indicate that it had tried to get at something down the tunnel before eventually giving up.
"What's down there?"
"I don't know, Edalyn."
Before they can decide, Bendu saunters past them with a ball of light hovering by his head, whistling as he goes. Luz follows suit and tries to mimic the same tune as well. Eda groans and runs her hand down her face, wincing as she accidentally run across the bruise on her cheek.
"Everyday I'm turning more and more into ma, Lily."
"Well... you do have her grey hair now."
"LILY!"
Lilith chuckles and races into the cave after Luz and Bendu, leaving her sister behind.
"Ugh, I can't believe I'm the group mom now!" She groans and jogs down the tunnel and quickly catches up with the rest of the group. The tunnel was tight and dark, but it eventually led into a small natural room illuminated by the same glowing rocks found in the main cave.
Scattered about the room are old chests filled with precious ores, a pile of furs and other magical items Eda recognizes as being from the black market. Everyone meanders about the room, perplexed by the out of place nature of the mysterious items.
"This must be an abandoned smugglers cash," Lilith reasons, "Bootleg crystal orbs, potions and gear. It's a big problem we dealt with in the Emperor's Coven."
"Guess you guys never tried looking out here, then. Plenty of guys I know use the forest to hide stuff and only bring small amounts into the city at a time incase they get busted."
"Looooore."
"Luz, you're being a nerd again." - "Sorry." - Eda clears her throat and continues, "I bet these guys stashed this stuff then probably got eaten by Udenfrykyte."
Bendu reaches down into a large chest filled with junk and pulls out an odd, extravagantly decorated book with seemingly random designs, drawings and colors stitched to the leather. His eyes widen in astonishment as the archmage recognizes the ancient artifact instantly.
"Unbelievable, it's," -Technically his. The Folium Discognitum was a legendary tome of the first Sheogorath that supposedly disappeared after the Planemeld of the second era. The book is said to contain immense and profound wisdom, but deciphering it is hard as the words in the pages move around and change. One has to be incredibly dedicated if they're to uncover any secrets within.
"This is an ancient book of power that vanished from my world over a thousand years ago. Countless wisdom-seekers have been driven mad by the knowledge said to be contained within. Lives, maybe even kingdoms have collapsed trying to comprehend the forbidden knowledge... So I'm gonna take it home with me."
"WHAT!"-"WHAT!"-"WHAT!"
"...Ouch, my ears."
"Are you mad?! You literally just said it drives people insane!"
"I'm with Lily here. Anything that old is dangerous, and there's no way you're bringing it in my house!"
"Bad book! Bad book! Any book that old is evil as heck!"
Bendu rolls is eyes and stuffs his tome into his satchel. Maybe he shouldn't have said anything after all?
"My specialty is working with artifacts such as this. If it makes you feel better, I'll leave it in my bag until I return home. There's people I know there who specialize in this sort of thing."
He leaves out the fact that those people would really just be himself and Haskill asking the book questions and seeing what happens. Sometimes experimentation is simple and fun like that.
"I'll have you all know I have quite the good luck with these sort of thing. It's not as if there's a bad omen!" He leans on the nearby stacked pile of furs. Luz screams in shock as some of the furs slide down to reveal they were wrapped around the frozen corpse of a small boy.
"...I appear to have spoken too soon."
Eda, Lilith and Bendu stand around the body. Eda and Lilith recognize the deceased boy, even after thirty years since they last time either had seen him.
"Dammit, Jorgie! You shouldn't have come here alone!"
Jorewulf, the missing star of Eda and Lilith's Beast Track class has finally been found. The young boy no older than thirteen is huddled with furs wrapped around his body, frozen in place for decades. His dark hair, skin and clothes are still preserved with his eyes closed, as though he was fast asleep.
"He must've gotten chased in here by Udenfrykyte and froze. I bet that old bitch stayed guarding the exit until he just... passed away in his sleep."
Eda had placed Luz back into the main cave. Business like this needs to be handled by adults.
"What shall we do with him, Edalyn? I am... unfamiliar with any burial rites."
"Yeah... me neither. Maybe we should bury him? Titan, that would take days. The ground is frozen solid."
"If I may," The sisters look at Bendu, "The Nords of my world honor their great deceased with pyres. I think it might be fitting here, no?"
Lilith and Eda share a look between themselves. They don't need to verbalize anything, a pyre is exactly how their old friend would've wanted to go.
The remaining hours of darkness were spent moving the body downhill and chopping down trees to build a pyre. Bendu's summoned dremora made the cutting and construction faster until by sunrise they were already complete.
Bendu banished the strange demons whom made... interesting sounds as they were and then helped Eda and Lilith place the boy on the wood. Luz stayed relatively far from the body, but did her best to help setup everything despite her sour mood.
Finally prepared and ready to go, Eda and Lilith step near the pyre to say their final farewells.
"Well... here we are. Dammit, Jorgie, you were supposed to be the best of us! You coulda' been great, kid... coulda' been great... Sorry I let you down. I should've knocked some sense in ya' and kept your ass in Hexside! Ah... dammit! Lily, you gotta take over."
The eldest Clawthorne looks sadly at the body. Fond memories of her childhood with their friend flash through her mind. Things were always so much simpler back then. Back before things became complicated and evil.
"Farewell, Jorewulf. We mourned your absence, and now we'll honor your final passing. May your spirit be at peace with the Titan."
She can't think of much more to say. Anything that was has already been said by dozens decades ago.
Bendu lights the pyre, and in an instant the magical fire rages around the body.
Luz finally lifts her head up and looks at the burning body. Thankfully, something about the spell used prevents the body from smelling as it burns, but the comfort only does so much.
As the body burns away, Luz finds her mind wandering back to the conversation she had with Bendu on the ridge. He's right, death is apart of this life. She easily could've been like this boy plenty of times. Impaled on a spike! Torn apart by the Owl Beast! Burnt to a crisp in grudgby!
She's... not like the others. She wasn't born into a world like this. Her home on Earth is tame, she never had to worry about any kind of violence! It's easy to look at the boy and think of him as a metaphor for the lost simplicity of childhood. Does that make her bad for thinking that?
Maybe that's all there is to it? Is the death here some lesson they're all supposed to learn?! Goddammit, why did he have to die like that?!
For now, she has no answers. All she can do is bow her head and pray to whatever deity is listening that the feeling of death and looming doom is just childish fear and not some premonition.
Luz bows her head and weeps for the passing loss of childhood innocence.