Review Response:
Erin Rose Larse: Yes, indeed Tom will be pissed (just hope he doesn't find out...)
Rubber Duck: Oh, Phi's dead but the game has just begun. There are a couple chapters left, and many things could happen (if I feel inclined to make them happen...) :)
Jadestar 123: Sorry that it's taken so long; I had to reorient my self with my surroundings before I was able to write again.
Timra: Hmm, I don't like to be ordered (or doubted, which can be seen from other reviews)...we'll see what happens. But still, thanks for the review...
OoOoOo
Back on top of the hillock, Devic (y) pulled Luke closer to him as the icy wind continued to howl across the barren plains unceasingly. His nose was raw and both of their cheeks were flushed, goosebumps covering their arms and legs as the wind passed right through their light cotton pajamas. Luke let out a soft sniffle, "Devic...I wanna see Mommy an' Daddy..."
"Me too, but we gotta stay here! They told us not to move..."
"But...but what if they're in trouble?"
"They know what they're doin' Luke, they're grown-ups."
"But what if they need our help?"
"They don't."
"But what if they do?"
Devic sighed, "Then they would come back an' get us..."
Luke stared up at his older brother, his wide brown eyes curious, "But what if they can't?"
"I dunno! Stop askin' dumb questions!"
"It's not dumb!" Luke frowned, crossing his small arms and turned away so that his back was turned, pouting.
Devic sighed and pursed his lips; little brothers could be such pains.
They stayed that way for a few moments before Luke spoke up again, his voice plaintive, "Can't we go down an' see them?"
"No! You heard them! We gotta stay here, I told you that already!"
"But what if they're callin' us an' we just can't here them because of the wind?"
"They're not..." Devic frowned, unsure. Actually, he had heard something...It sounded a little like his Mom's voice, but it was probably just his imagination, or the wind or something.
"But what if they are? Besides, if they come back up, we'll run into them on the road, right?"
Devic nestled his chin onto his knees, "Ya, I guess we would...maybe..."
"Ah, come on! It's too cold up here anyways!"
Devic looked back up, "It is a little chilly up here...After all, we might catch a cold or something if we stay up here..." Luke nodded solemnly and Devic continued, "So we might as well go down anyways, just to get out of the wind...Mom wouldn't like it if we got sick..."
Luke nodded again, "Nope, she wouldn't."
Devic started to stand up, excited, "And if we're goin' down, we might as well find them, just to make sure they know we're okay, right? I mean, that's what they'd tell us to do anyways..."
"Probably..."
Devic grinned and motioned for Luke to get up, "All right, we'll go. But just because it's what they want us to do."
"Right." Luke rose shakily to his feet and hurried to catch up with Devic as he began to walk down the hill towards the small forest where his parents had disappeared.
OoOoOo
Alex stared at the old man from a distance as he sat perched on the marble steps that led up to the compound, anger boiling up within him. Devic's face darkened and he touched Alex's shoulder, "Come, let us get this over with...He seems much more frail than Trycos is..."
Alex nodded as they began to walk forward, "Although if I've learned anything from coming here it's that you definitely shouldn't judge people by how they look..."
"So true...But, if he could actually fight he would not have the need for that animal of his..."
By now the two had nearly reached the stairs and stopped in their tracks, both simotaniously drawing their swords as Alex called up, "Hey! Old man! We want a word with you!"
The ancient man slowly turned his gaze towards them, staring down at them with his judicious, unblinking eyes. Once again, when he spoke there was no sign that his mouth was moving behind the old man's scraggly white beard, "You two have come to slay me I suppose..."
"How'd you guess?"
Devic frowned and called up, motioning with his blade, "Draw your weapon, and prepare to defend yourself!"
They thought there was a slight glimmer in the ancient's eyes as his voice seemed to fill the air, "My, Trycos seems to have stepped up a bit, hiring assassins that care to have their targets armed before they are struck down..."
Alex scowled, "We're no assassins, and Trycos didn't hire us, he blackmailed us! We're just here to make you pay for what you did!"
The old man's bushy eyebrow's raised in subtle surprise, "Oh? Not assassins? Then why are you working with Trycos?"
Devic glanced quickly at Alex before responding. He was not expecting their opponent to ask so many questions; he had just anticipated a quick attack, what was going on? "We are only doing so because the lives of my friend and his family were at stake! Now, prepare to fight so that we may avenge our loved ones who have been slain by your beast!"
The old man stood and held out his frail hand, "Wait a moment, do not be so impudent... I have questions to ask...Now, tell me what has happened here..."
Alex narrowed his raging eyes and spat, "Why? So you can kill us while we're distracted? Listen, I have to go and tell my kids that their mother's dead, so why don't you just come down here and let us kill you?"
"Be quiet!" The ancient turned his head suddenly so that he was gazing straight at Alex. Alex cried out in surprise as he felt his body tremble with some sort of spasm and then freeze up. He tried to speak but his voice was stuck in his throat. Devic started towards Alex but froze as the old man spoke again, "Young fool. Now, tell me what has happened here today, or I shall immobilize you as well."
Devic turned back to face the stairs, his body and voice trembling with rage as he spoke, "I do not why past events interest you so, but sense it seems I have no choice to do otherwise...we arrived here after being guided by Trycos. We were assigned to slay you in exchange for my friend and his family being able to return to their home; another dimension. When we arrived, his wife and my younger cousin were stolen away and we entered the building to find them. When we arrived in a room located inside that labyrinth, your monster had been unleashed and my cousin was already dead; his wife badly wounded. We ended up escaping and I laid my cousin over there, underneath those trees and we left his wife sitting against the trunk of another. We went back inside to slay the beast and were able to do so. When we came back outside, my friend's wife was dead, probably from loss of blood. We went in search of Trycos to kill him; he escaped. And now we stand before you..."
The old man lowered his eyes and picked up his walking stick slowly, his limbs moving awkwardly and unhurriedly. Step by step the ancient mage descended the steps before stopping so that he was nearly five feet from Devic and the motionless Alex. Devic's grip tightened on the hilt of his sword as he examined the old man; this was the closest he had ever gotten to any of them. He had barely any hair on the top of his head, and his skin was pulled tightly across his face. His cheeks were hollow and his light blue eyes pupil-less, as if he were blind. His hands were thin and bony, veins traced clearly underneath the skin in blue as his fingers clutched his wooden stick. His robe clung to his thin shoulders loosely, but the rest of his body was undistinguishable as it was hidden underneath the folds of his gray cloak. As he moved closer, Devic was startled to see a pained look in the old man's eyes.
When he spoke, the old man's voice was dry and broken, "I believed that you were all assasssins...That is what Trycos had said to me, or so I thought...I never meant to hurt anyone...No, not hurt any innocents, no one...Not again, never again..."
Devic narrowed his eyes, "What are you talking about? Who are you?" His curiosity had gotten the better of his, but the man was so odd, so intriguing...
The ancient sighed, his sigh sounding like dried leaves, "I am many things and have many names, and each belonging to something which I once was. I no longer know what to call myself by, so few have asked in the past few years, so few...The person whom I was that would seem to interest you the most would be the student that I was. I was a student, a long time ago, in a Scanran city that has long since been taken off the maps. I could not afford to go to a regular academy so I searched for a private tutor who I could serve as an apprentice until I was able to master my Gift. But my Gift was different, strange, and it was not easy to find a mage who would agree to teach me. However, I was growing older and ever more desperate for knowledge on how to control my odd powers, for as I grew, so did they and I was beginning to injure people, strangers and loved ones alike. Finally, after years of looking, I found one; a teacher who had mastered his own Gift and was willing to train me for no fee, a teacher who was not only a master as his own Gift but also possessed a Gift that was eerily similar to my own...That man was Trycos..."
He paused for a breath, his frail body seemingly winded after his short anecdote. Devic frowned, "Continue..."
The old man nodded, "Very well...For years I trained under Trycos, learning to contain my Gift and to use it to my advantage. I no longer had to struggle to hide it, and was able to control it with greater ease, or so I thought at the time. After a while, Trycos's interests seemed to change and one day he asked me to try to complete a nearly impossible task, or so it seemed to me, as part of my learnings; I had to focus, and enter the mind of every person in the city, young and old, and then concentrate on a single one, read his thoughts, then report back to Trycos what he or she had been thinking. To an accomplished man like Trycos, such a task would prove daunting at the most, but I was inexperienced and didn't know what I was doing. I had trusted him as a student trusts their teacher and foolishly obeyed, however, I did not realize the risks that I was taking. The moment I had entered the mind of all the city's occupants, I lost control. It was so overbearing, consuming, I was unable to exit properly and something went horribly wrong. When I tried to pull away, I took something out of their minds, like a part of their soul, and every single one of them died in great agony and pain. It is so hard to explain...It was such a sensual experience, it is nearly impossible to us words to describe the feelings that I had at that moment. From the part of their minds I had stripped away, a being formed from their wounded memory; that great beast that you claim to have killed, that monstrous dog. It was created from the pain and suffering of dying souls; it cannot die, but it is not an immortal, it just is not alive, so therefore it cannot be killed. By the end of the day that beast had destroyed the whole city, the buildings consumed in flames. In horror I fled to these woods, and the hound followed me. To make sure that it would not leave again I encased it in a spell, but it seems that when your friend touched it's statue, blood from his fingers awakened the dog and it is once again free to roam the land, it's only aim to destroy. I am guessing that when you saw it fall, you nearly slowed the thing down, it will hunt you down and confront you shortly..."
Devic straightened up, his lips pursed, "So then you do not control the beast? You are not our true enemy?"
"No, and it seems that you are not my enemy either..."
"What about the hound? Is there no way to destroy it?"
The old man sighed again, "When I sealed it in the statue before, I was much stronger, much younger. But now I do not have the strength...However...There may be something I can do for you if you are able to encase the monster back in the stone..."
"How would we go about doing that?"
"You must return to the room where the statue is with the beast and merely force the beast to touch the pedestal where the statue used to be, then the spell I laid should pull the hound back onto it and hold it there for all eternity, wrapped in a sheet of marble..."
"That sounds easy enough, but what will you do for us?"
"I shall tell you later...Now, you and your friend have some fighting to do..."
Devic narrowed his eyes again, "What do you mean?"
"Here comes my monster..." With that the old man stepped calmly onto the grassy clearing and drifted off into the surrounding woods.
Devic whipped around and turned just in time to see the large black dog emerge from the complex, it's jowls drawn back and snarling under it's read eyes. He moved towards Alex and watched as the other man unfroze and stumbled a bit trying to regain his balance, a little unnerved. "Alex! Are you all right? What do you think of all of this? Were you able to hear all of that?"
Alex scowled, "Every word...I think that we have a dog to take care of..."
Devic grinned dryly, "Right, and this time, let us make sure that it is defeated before we celebrate, shall we?"
Alex glanced at him and nodded, "Sounds good!" The hound began to growl, a deep snarl echoing through the air. The two men steeled themselves for an attack and Alex smirked mirthlessly, and turned to face the beast, "Whenever you're ready, come and get it..."
OoOoOo
A/N: Ack! That dog again? And another fight scene? Why do I do this to myself? This chapter was mostly for explanation, but I hoped you still enjoyed it. Sorry I was gone so long, but now I'm back, so there!
Erin Rose Larse: Yes, indeed Tom will be pissed (just hope he doesn't find out...)
Rubber Duck: Oh, Phi's dead but the game has just begun. There are a couple chapters left, and many things could happen (if I feel inclined to make them happen...) :)
Jadestar 123: Sorry that it's taken so long; I had to reorient my self with my surroundings before I was able to write again.
Timra: Hmm, I don't like to be ordered (or doubted, which can be seen from other reviews)...we'll see what happens. But still, thanks for the review...
OoOoOo
Back on top of the hillock, Devic (y) pulled Luke closer to him as the icy wind continued to howl across the barren plains unceasingly. His nose was raw and both of their cheeks were flushed, goosebumps covering their arms and legs as the wind passed right through their light cotton pajamas. Luke let out a soft sniffle, "Devic...I wanna see Mommy an' Daddy..."
"Me too, but we gotta stay here! They told us not to move..."
"But...but what if they're in trouble?"
"They know what they're doin' Luke, they're grown-ups."
"But what if they need our help?"
"They don't."
"But what if they do?"
Devic sighed, "Then they would come back an' get us..."
Luke stared up at his older brother, his wide brown eyes curious, "But what if they can't?"
"I dunno! Stop askin' dumb questions!"
"It's not dumb!" Luke frowned, crossing his small arms and turned away so that his back was turned, pouting.
Devic sighed and pursed his lips; little brothers could be such pains.
They stayed that way for a few moments before Luke spoke up again, his voice plaintive, "Can't we go down an' see them?"
"No! You heard them! We gotta stay here, I told you that already!"
"But what if they're callin' us an' we just can't here them because of the wind?"
"They're not..." Devic frowned, unsure. Actually, he had heard something...It sounded a little like his Mom's voice, but it was probably just his imagination, or the wind or something.
"But what if they are? Besides, if they come back up, we'll run into them on the road, right?"
Devic nestled his chin onto his knees, "Ya, I guess we would...maybe..."
"Ah, come on! It's too cold up here anyways!"
Devic looked back up, "It is a little chilly up here...After all, we might catch a cold or something if we stay up here..." Luke nodded solemnly and Devic continued, "So we might as well go down anyways, just to get out of the wind...Mom wouldn't like it if we got sick..."
Luke nodded again, "Nope, she wouldn't."
Devic started to stand up, excited, "And if we're goin' down, we might as well find them, just to make sure they know we're okay, right? I mean, that's what they'd tell us to do anyways..."
"Probably..."
Devic grinned and motioned for Luke to get up, "All right, we'll go. But just because it's what they want us to do."
"Right." Luke rose shakily to his feet and hurried to catch up with Devic as he began to walk down the hill towards the small forest where his parents had disappeared.
OoOoOo
Alex stared at the old man from a distance as he sat perched on the marble steps that led up to the compound, anger boiling up within him. Devic's face darkened and he touched Alex's shoulder, "Come, let us get this over with...He seems much more frail than Trycos is..."
Alex nodded as they began to walk forward, "Although if I've learned anything from coming here it's that you definitely shouldn't judge people by how they look..."
"So true...But, if he could actually fight he would not have the need for that animal of his..."
By now the two had nearly reached the stairs and stopped in their tracks, both simotaniously drawing their swords as Alex called up, "Hey! Old man! We want a word with you!"
The ancient man slowly turned his gaze towards them, staring down at them with his judicious, unblinking eyes. Once again, when he spoke there was no sign that his mouth was moving behind the old man's scraggly white beard, "You two have come to slay me I suppose..."
"How'd you guess?"
Devic frowned and called up, motioning with his blade, "Draw your weapon, and prepare to defend yourself!"
They thought there was a slight glimmer in the ancient's eyes as his voice seemed to fill the air, "My, Trycos seems to have stepped up a bit, hiring assassins that care to have their targets armed before they are struck down..."
Alex scowled, "We're no assassins, and Trycos didn't hire us, he blackmailed us! We're just here to make you pay for what you did!"
The old man's bushy eyebrow's raised in subtle surprise, "Oh? Not assassins? Then why are you working with Trycos?"
Devic glanced quickly at Alex before responding. He was not expecting their opponent to ask so many questions; he had just anticipated a quick attack, what was going on? "We are only doing so because the lives of my friend and his family were at stake! Now, prepare to fight so that we may avenge our loved ones who have been slain by your beast!"
The old man stood and held out his frail hand, "Wait a moment, do not be so impudent... I have questions to ask...Now, tell me what has happened here..."
Alex narrowed his raging eyes and spat, "Why? So you can kill us while we're distracted? Listen, I have to go and tell my kids that their mother's dead, so why don't you just come down here and let us kill you?"
"Be quiet!" The ancient turned his head suddenly so that he was gazing straight at Alex. Alex cried out in surprise as he felt his body tremble with some sort of spasm and then freeze up. He tried to speak but his voice was stuck in his throat. Devic started towards Alex but froze as the old man spoke again, "Young fool. Now, tell me what has happened here today, or I shall immobilize you as well."
Devic turned back to face the stairs, his body and voice trembling with rage as he spoke, "I do not why past events interest you so, but sense it seems I have no choice to do otherwise...we arrived here after being guided by Trycos. We were assigned to slay you in exchange for my friend and his family being able to return to their home; another dimension. When we arrived, his wife and my younger cousin were stolen away and we entered the building to find them. When we arrived in a room located inside that labyrinth, your monster had been unleashed and my cousin was already dead; his wife badly wounded. We ended up escaping and I laid my cousin over there, underneath those trees and we left his wife sitting against the trunk of another. We went back inside to slay the beast and were able to do so. When we came back outside, my friend's wife was dead, probably from loss of blood. We went in search of Trycos to kill him; he escaped. And now we stand before you..."
The old man lowered his eyes and picked up his walking stick slowly, his limbs moving awkwardly and unhurriedly. Step by step the ancient mage descended the steps before stopping so that he was nearly five feet from Devic and the motionless Alex. Devic's grip tightened on the hilt of his sword as he examined the old man; this was the closest he had ever gotten to any of them. He had barely any hair on the top of his head, and his skin was pulled tightly across his face. His cheeks were hollow and his light blue eyes pupil-less, as if he were blind. His hands were thin and bony, veins traced clearly underneath the skin in blue as his fingers clutched his wooden stick. His robe clung to his thin shoulders loosely, but the rest of his body was undistinguishable as it was hidden underneath the folds of his gray cloak. As he moved closer, Devic was startled to see a pained look in the old man's eyes.
When he spoke, the old man's voice was dry and broken, "I believed that you were all assasssins...That is what Trycos had said to me, or so I thought...I never meant to hurt anyone...No, not hurt any innocents, no one...Not again, never again..."
Devic narrowed his eyes, "What are you talking about? Who are you?" His curiosity had gotten the better of his, but the man was so odd, so intriguing...
The ancient sighed, his sigh sounding like dried leaves, "I am many things and have many names, and each belonging to something which I once was. I no longer know what to call myself by, so few have asked in the past few years, so few...The person whom I was that would seem to interest you the most would be the student that I was. I was a student, a long time ago, in a Scanran city that has long since been taken off the maps. I could not afford to go to a regular academy so I searched for a private tutor who I could serve as an apprentice until I was able to master my Gift. But my Gift was different, strange, and it was not easy to find a mage who would agree to teach me. However, I was growing older and ever more desperate for knowledge on how to control my odd powers, for as I grew, so did they and I was beginning to injure people, strangers and loved ones alike. Finally, after years of looking, I found one; a teacher who had mastered his own Gift and was willing to train me for no fee, a teacher who was not only a master as his own Gift but also possessed a Gift that was eerily similar to my own...That man was Trycos..."
He paused for a breath, his frail body seemingly winded after his short anecdote. Devic frowned, "Continue..."
The old man nodded, "Very well...For years I trained under Trycos, learning to contain my Gift and to use it to my advantage. I no longer had to struggle to hide it, and was able to control it with greater ease, or so I thought at the time. After a while, Trycos's interests seemed to change and one day he asked me to try to complete a nearly impossible task, or so it seemed to me, as part of my learnings; I had to focus, and enter the mind of every person in the city, young and old, and then concentrate on a single one, read his thoughts, then report back to Trycos what he or she had been thinking. To an accomplished man like Trycos, such a task would prove daunting at the most, but I was inexperienced and didn't know what I was doing. I had trusted him as a student trusts their teacher and foolishly obeyed, however, I did not realize the risks that I was taking. The moment I had entered the mind of all the city's occupants, I lost control. It was so overbearing, consuming, I was unable to exit properly and something went horribly wrong. When I tried to pull away, I took something out of their minds, like a part of their soul, and every single one of them died in great agony and pain. It is so hard to explain...It was such a sensual experience, it is nearly impossible to us words to describe the feelings that I had at that moment. From the part of their minds I had stripped away, a being formed from their wounded memory; that great beast that you claim to have killed, that monstrous dog. It was created from the pain and suffering of dying souls; it cannot die, but it is not an immortal, it just is not alive, so therefore it cannot be killed. By the end of the day that beast had destroyed the whole city, the buildings consumed in flames. In horror I fled to these woods, and the hound followed me. To make sure that it would not leave again I encased it in a spell, but it seems that when your friend touched it's statue, blood from his fingers awakened the dog and it is once again free to roam the land, it's only aim to destroy. I am guessing that when you saw it fall, you nearly slowed the thing down, it will hunt you down and confront you shortly..."
Devic straightened up, his lips pursed, "So then you do not control the beast? You are not our true enemy?"
"No, and it seems that you are not my enemy either..."
"What about the hound? Is there no way to destroy it?"
The old man sighed again, "When I sealed it in the statue before, I was much stronger, much younger. But now I do not have the strength...However...There may be something I can do for you if you are able to encase the monster back in the stone..."
"How would we go about doing that?"
"You must return to the room where the statue is with the beast and merely force the beast to touch the pedestal where the statue used to be, then the spell I laid should pull the hound back onto it and hold it there for all eternity, wrapped in a sheet of marble..."
"That sounds easy enough, but what will you do for us?"
"I shall tell you later...Now, you and your friend have some fighting to do..."
Devic narrowed his eyes again, "What do you mean?"
"Here comes my monster..." With that the old man stepped calmly onto the grassy clearing and drifted off into the surrounding woods.
Devic whipped around and turned just in time to see the large black dog emerge from the complex, it's jowls drawn back and snarling under it's read eyes. He moved towards Alex and watched as the other man unfroze and stumbled a bit trying to regain his balance, a little unnerved. "Alex! Are you all right? What do you think of all of this? Were you able to hear all of that?"
Alex scowled, "Every word...I think that we have a dog to take care of..."
Devic grinned dryly, "Right, and this time, let us make sure that it is defeated before we celebrate, shall we?"
Alex glanced at him and nodded, "Sounds good!" The hound began to growl, a deep snarl echoing through the air. The two men steeled themselves for an attack and Alex smirked mirthlessly, and turned to face the beast, "Whenever you're ready, come and get it..."
OoOoOo
A/N: Ack! That dog again? And another fight scene? Why do I do this to myself? This chapter was mostly for explanation, but I hoped you still enjoyed it. Sorry I was gone so long, but now I'm back, so there!