Chapter 6

Cain's plan

Cain walked towards the gates of the city, he never thought he had to go alone to retrieve Carol, especially when the killer, Bane, was out there in the forest. He firmly gripped his staff and rifle, then he walked into the forest, using the gem on the head of his staff as a light to guide his path, but dim to hide from the thieves. He didn't want any fighting when thieves guarded the forest.

"Damn it, why did Ariaz have to escape, my plan was working perfectly. All right, it was the purple vixen, must remember that."

Cain came across the tree, slowly climbing up not to make a noise, but then he remembered that Ariaz would jumped down, looking for how he always knew, he found a trip wire, this wire signaled Ariaz of an intruder, so he climbed around the tree top and looked directly at the haven, unnoticed by everyone. Everyone was asleep in their houses and huts, giving Cain the perfect opportunity to search the area, hoping he would find Carol before he lost his job and ruin his plan. He checked the windows of houses, still he could not find Carol until he came to Ariaz house, or manor, he peered into the window and looked away, ready to vomit of what he saw, he looked back inside, they started to fall asleep on each other, giving Cain the time to strike now. He crept into the manor, it was huge inside with all the stolen artifacts and paintings, he looked down at the two and placed his staff over them, a small powder fell onto their faces, keeping them asleep through any loud noise or movement of their bodies. Cain picked up Carol's naked body and carried her away, leaving Ariaz with only his sword and pants intact.

"Finally, I have the girl, oh Krystal, it will be great to watch you fall!"

Morning

The thieves gathered around Ariaz as he sat in sadness, nothing in the entire haven or Cerina could make him happy without Carol, he needed her, but she wasn't anywhere to be found on the haven.

"I'm sure there are more females out there sir."

"I don't care about those females, I care about Carol."

A fat lion thief ran towards Ariaz with a small cube in his paw, panting from the small run, he was sweating from just taking about twenty steps.

"Sir (wheeze)…you should (cough) see what happened last night!"

Ariaz took the small cube and stared at the small footage of lasts night recording, his eyes went huge with anger, when it ended, he clenched the cube and broke it in his hand, looking at Bane and Blitz, signaling them to follow him to the town. On the cube was a small writing: Made of Adamantine, Cerinian craftwork.

"I'm getting Carol, I'm not letting Cain, not Krystal, not even a damn army stop me from getting her back!"

Court (empty)

"So…you're the one that took Ariaz's heart?"

Carol looked at Krystal, her mouth bleeding of the tortures she was put through by the guards, she didn't know why Krystal was doing this.

"And…you're the other prisoner from that ship?"

Carol nodded her head, some blooding shaking off her face.

"Ah well…tell me…why did you take Ariaz away?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about my old friend Ariaz who's now the king of thieves!"

Carol wondered why Krystal even cared, Ariaz had already told Carol everything he said to Krystal, why was Krystal still picking at the subject?

"Why…do you still care?"

Krystal straightened her back and looked back down at Carol, her look at her made Carol feel nervous.

"Because he was my friend first…that gives you no right to take him."

"He doesn't…even care about you."

Krystal cocked her head and kicked Carol across the face, more blood coming from her mouth and she lowered her head, too weak to fight back.

"Take her away."

Krystal walked away to her quarters, alone in the hall, then she felt a swift blow to her head from a staff, she fell to the ground, holding her head in pain, looking at the blood. She tried to look at her attacker, all she saw was Cain, who brung down another blow to her head with his staff, knocking her out.

"It's mine now, your majesty. Take her away, put her with that purple Vixen."

Cain walked up to the throne, and sat down, a rumbling came over the town, the markings of royalty and the new leader of Cerina was burnt into his skin by magic, he was now king of Cerina. A guard knelt down to the new king.

"What is your first order sir?"

Cain rubbed his chin, then snapped his fingers.

"Bring me Ariaz, I like to thank him for making this possible."

Another guard stepped forward and saluted to his new king

"Sir, the potions are complete."

"Good...Ariaz will soon get his reward."

Cain's small chuckle the turned into an evil laugh, what ever he had planned for Ariaz, it wasn't going to be good.

At the gates

Ariaz kicked the gate like he was punching a punching bag, he wanted to get into that town, Blitz following behind them, his bow readied with an arrow, Bane with his naginata in paw, and Ariaz with his sword in hand and another sword in the other hand.

The gates slowly opened up as two guards walked out looking at each other.

"So we just find Ariaz and ask him to come with us to-"

The two guards looked at the thief king and looked back each other, then back at the group.

"Well that was quick."

The second guard cleared his throat.

"Ariaz of the thieves haven, Our king Cain has-"

"WHAT! CAIN IS THE NEW RULER?"

"Yes, he insists-"

"OUT OF THE WAY!"

Ariaz shoved the two guards to the sides of him, making his way into the town, he was putting this to an end, tired of the guards chasing him, especially wanting revenge against Cain for threatening Carol. He was seriously angered.

Guards ran forward, holding small bottles of liquid in their paws, throwing them at the small group. Blitz was terrified, knowing what the potions contained.

"Ariaz! Don't get splashed by that stuff, it does horrible things to you, I mean horrible!"

Ariaz jumped out of the way with great evasion, running forward towards the guards, dodging each bottle, but then barrages of bottles came, Ariaz rolled forward to evaded the bottles, he jumped and leaped out of incoming bottles, moving to the sides, moving backwards, he couldn't dodge them all forever. One bottle was coming right for him, all of them were, he was cornered, everything stopped when they didn't strike him, he looked up and gasped, Bane took the barrage for him, there was no more bottles left to be thrown at the small group. Bane fell backwards, landing hard on the ground, glass and silver and gold liquid was splashed over his whole body, he was aching in pain and his skin bubbled, burned and ripped as scales pushed out through the fur, his tail blew up and a long silver tail took its place, the scales pushed up through his flesh as he coughed up blood. He cried as his skin wasripping open and scales came up from his torn flesh, a dragon head was his new head, wings burst out of his back with blood dripping and flesh dangling. His bones were shifting around his body, cracking his spine and legs. His spine started to form spikes, pushing through the scales, leaving him in further pain, he held his head, horns popping out the back andstabbed his claws.He wasn't a wolf anymore, he was a silver dragon, a black X across his chest and a black stripe on his head with short black hair.

"Bane?…Wha…what happened to you?"

"I…Don't know…it hurts!"

Blitz ran towards the two, but felt the human strength of Ariaz and he was pressed against the wall hard.

"What the hell have they done to him!"

"The liquid changes the body…of a normal being into a Cerinian, but if it is used against a Cerinian, they change…into something else, something that is not from Cerina!"

Ariaz hadlet go of Blitz, releasing his choking hands from Blitz's neck and helped Bane onto his feet, placing Banes left arm over his neck. He looked at the palace with an evil glare, anger was apart of his stare.

"You've gone too far Cain, too far!"