Lunatic Pandora1: They're only cheering for Kain because he saved them from demon guy. I'm sure if he ever returned to Uschtenheim in the future they will not treat him so kindly...
Varyssa: Once more... thank you! And I have. Here's chapter 3, so uh... I guess... enjoy??
Smoke: I'll have to look it up. I'm not sure yet. It's definitely after the Raziel's sacrifice. If I put it before... I'll just get everyone else and myself confused. Right now, the Sarafan and Moebius's men are in a state of total confusion. All they know is that the Hylden have recently poured into the world and things need to be fixed. I hope this chapter lends another hint...
Jumana: Well. If he's got a big old cloak, he doesn't need it. And I don't think he's so skilled as to keep his identity hidden if he's smacking around a demon while everyone else is watching. And I think Jumana sounds pretty... like, all African and stuff. Is it? I like it. "Pearl"... Hey! Can I use you for a character?
Chapter 3
Termogent Forest
--Kain
A bird stood in the chill evening air, the sun's last warm touches fading and leaving the world eerie and gray. Silver points of light puckered out to the east where the sky was darkening ever so slowly, like an ink stain trickling across cloth.
Amongst the shadows I felt other animals' heartbeats after my presence startled the bird into frantic flight. I could have caught squirrels and divulged their secret blood with one swift bite, but I was too full of pride to coerce the animals to me and drink. Brigands and scrawny thieves would cross my path, no doubt about it, as well as the few loyal Sarafan hunters who remained true to their task despite Moebius's death.
"I believe your time has… run out," I mimicked in the old codger's voice. Had Amanda known that man, she would have spent every available opportunity to make complete mockery of him.
I walked briskly, jumping up to an old cliff marred by time and claws of others who had gone before me. There was a ladder past that, which I also ignored and chose to jump instead, clambering for a foothold before throwing my weight onto the flat rock above. Over this short cliff it dropped and fell swiftly to a quiet pond, which was long and deep near its center. It was almost, I dared to wager, a lake in and of itself. I did not recall having seen it there before.
I stood up, shivering that I should perish in these waters. I had taken liberties to bathe before I left for Nosgoth, but what if it was only because Earth's water was different from my own? That only Nosgoth water had the hidden properties needed to kill a vampire?
I couldn't stand here and deliberate such unknowable possibilities. I could faintly discern a vampire presence lingering near the edges of my awareness, directly ahead of me and this body of water was the only thing keeping me from it. So, I stepped to the edge, and peered down. It looked deep enough to jump into. It wasn't as if I hadn't jumped a long distance before, nor certainly fallen.
I would laugh myself to death if I fell headlong. If only Amanda could see me shivering at the water's edge like a puppy, I thought cheerfully, before stepping off and letting the gravity take me down.
The water gulped my body into the darkness. The sounds of the forest were silenced, only to be replaced by the disconcerting echoes of the deep blackness below me. I had not swum in many, many years. I immediately cursed myself for my foolishness. It wasn't so improbable that Nosgoth's savior couldn't swim, was it?
I kicked my legs and burst my head through the surface, gasping for air that I really didn't need. My hair floated around me like bright, shiny ice. I brushed my hair back and looked around, then up. The cliff were I stood was still there, and I was only a little way from the base, where the fossils of ancient mussels were embedded in the stone. The deepest part of the lake was fifty or so feet away, and all I had to do was cross it.
Pity that I didn't notice the humanoid skull sticking out at such an angle that its bright white head seemed only like a rock. I turned, and manipulated myself into learning (or relearning) how to swim. A few motions of my arms and legs and I ducked my head under water and dove, kicking hard. I was ecstatic, only aware that I couldn't stop smiling. In the darkness of the water, I never noticed anything moving, so I felt perfectly safe just to enjoy myself for awhile.
I came up later, since I didn't need to breath, with a piece of green sea plant stuck to my forehead. I plucked it free and gave it a toss, watching it spiral and flash bright neon before it landed in the water in the dying rays of the sun. The sky was almost entirely navy blue, peppered with white stars and the rising bone moon. I paddled over to the opposite shore and staggered onto the sand.
"I suppose my muscles aren't used to that sort of activity anymore, eh?" said I, grinning and wringing out my mercury white hair. I didn't know who I was talking to, only that I should speak because otherwise I may find myself as equally mad as Raziel, whose poor spirit resided in the sword.
I checked to make sure I hadn't lost anything, then I resumed my journey leaving drippy, wet footprints in the dirt. The vampire presence was not much closer and maybe even farther away. I lunged on ahead and was stopped by an unsettling vision – one such wagon, spilled over with every content cast higgledy-piggledy in all directions, and blood staining most of the ground around it. There was no sign of the attackers or any survivors, only this horrible silent mystery.
Amanda was not capable of such a thing on her own. Barring Amanda and I, there were no more real vampires in Nosgoth. The ghosts of this travesty would forever remain lost without vengeance, unless…
I slowly overturned the contents of a small box with my black boot. It fell open and a tinny, tingling song came from it. It cast a bitter glow from a tiny light inside, probably cheap magic. I bent to pick it up, and saw a small representation of Nosgoth turning around on a small plate, inside a beautifully carved wooden edifice. Wolves and lions bordered the edge; the lions with flowing manes, wolves with bright curved teeth and eyes. I picked it up and dusted it off, closing the lid, then opening it again. The glow came from underneath the turning glass piece, stained glass and tiny stones that represented places.
I listened to the song, its traitorous lulling keeping my attention from being focused on the surrounding region. Otherwise I was helplessly in love with the small box and its strange, detailed beauty. What would such a treasure be doing in a place like—
A bottle went skittering from behind the wagon. I snapped the lid of the box shut and closed my trembling fingers on the warm, eager sword that still thirsted – that would always thirst – for the souls of its victims. I watched the night-darkened shadows keenly, knowing only that the demons were around me and there was nothing I could do but fight them.
"Hylden filth, reveal your dark, ruined bodies so I might cut them down and quench my hunger!" I roared, putting the box in my small pouch. To emphasize the gravity of the situation, a swelling rush of voices echoed back, dark promises of the flesh, promises of death, curses of eternity of thirst with no respite, not a drop of blood to ease my pain.
I smiled, for their threats meant nothing. Then my lips fell and were instead drawn into a tight scowl. My temples were beating with the thirst and no demon blood would sate me. It was filthy and would make me very ill.
"Come and hurry to your execution, then," I snarled back, brandishing the Soul Reaver with yet another vibrant sweep of the weapon.
Rivers of lesser Hylden demons poured from the trees, their eyes pulsating green in the darkness. Each twisted arm was bent to the grotesque semblance of a wing, their skin black and grey and pale, death-white that was mottled with black veins. Some demons were huge monstrosities, elemental in nature and not so easy to dispatch.
"So be it!" I threw myself at the heart of them, the Reaver screaming for joy. There was a sickening resemblance to any of Raziel's deathly roars of rage, mixed with the holy voices of the Balance Emblem guardians. The discordant chorus cried again and again, while I dealt an end to the demons' immortality.
My body swerved and arched, catching their claws in my flesh which only worsened my hungry state. While I slaughtered them without mercy, I suffered for my reckless rage. When they were all mostly slain, their bodies simmering and then vanishing into thin smoke that drifted to the skies, I collapsed to the ground and lapped up the spilled blood from the earth with disgusted satisfaction. It would hold me – for awhile.
The vampire presence was frustratingly dim. I ran to catch up to it, but I could no more pin-point it than I could pinpoint the location of earth in the stars. I grimaced, feeling my own patience draining. I stood still, and invoked my Whisper ability to shout as loud as I could, AMANDA!! For pity's sake, can you hear me? Is there any hope that you can answer back to me?
I detected a tremor, like reverberations along a spider's web of silk. There was nothing else but that, and it was barely enough to reassure me.
--Amanda
It took a great deal of practical maneuvering to get myself through the village. I hadn't the skill to really make myself too invisible except for my witchcraft, which required too much of my own blood to power it. I let myself simply hide amongst the shadows and pant miserably in the darkness, watching my cold breath pant no fog in front of me. I was totally alone as usual, but that familiar horse in the stable calmed me. It was exactly the horse I had ridden through the woods before scaring the pants off of that young man. On the chance that he would have taken my advice and ridden to safety, now I watched with great anticipation for some sign of him to emerge – or for trouble to stir on account of 'his' presence.
Nothing so far. The horse behind me supplied me with a few lovely mouthfuls of musky animal blood, and didn't seem to care about having been bitten since I made it as swift and painless as possible. It regarded me when I looked at it with a certain sort of quiet animal understanding, then he turned around and ignored me. Good boy.
Vampires didn't really bother the animals unless they were making a show of it. Kain once told me that older vampires are the ones that stir animals into fear unless they practice the dark skills necessary to make themselves really unnoticeable. But a fledge like me, who could barely cause any trouble, was likely to be viewed as uninteresting as a rock to any mammal – neither living, nor quite dead, thus undeserving of proper curiousity maintained by creatures of considerable intelligence.
So I hid in the stable, staring through a busted out board, just watching and listening for awhile. I was too afraid to talk to anyone – the last people who I had seen was that boy and the strange men on horseback who seemed to be after the guy.
Finally, one of the doors opened and cast a buttery glow on the frozen snow. Twin clouds of steam burst from the nostrils of the cloaked man, before he shut the door and treaded across the treacherous, icy cobbles.
He stopped once and checked his belongings – lord knows a tavern wench could steal your clothes off one's back, I guess – then he resumed his way to what appeared to be another building. A man answered the broad door, dressed in a grey old robe. They stood black against the bright candle light inside the room beyond, strange ghosts in an even stranger town. The robed man took on a bossy tone that the other individual didn't like.
"Listen here," the cloaked man growled. "I told you I couldn't find him anywhere but the horse is right in the stable! He could have taken off with a different horse for all we know!"
"I want him found!" the robed man nearly screamed. "We lost him during that demon slayer's battle in Uschtenheim before, and if we lose him again-- If he isn't brought to them, the Sarafan priests will be stampeding here to find the truth! They'll have our heads as penance! Now get on your horse and start looking!"
The cloaked man straightened, then stood a step forward. Robed man, although angry, was not brave and he retreated into his home a few paces. "Don't try my patience," growled the dark cloaked warrior. "Don't presume that you can order me about. You forget who it was that gave you the stone, and I can get it back – one way… or another."
"I understand, but please… find the boy. Without him, it just won't work."
The fellow nodded his head, then he swung his head in my direction, before walking toward me. I scuttled back until my rump hit the horse's leg. It made a disconcerted snort and shuffled off to the side, swinging his head around with his ears back in a most disturbing look of warning. 'Watch where you're sticking your butt, human!'
I was almost positive they were talking about that boy now. Something about a 'stone'? What exactly were they talking about? His eyes came back to me in a brief flashback when I told him to run. He looked so grateful and relieved.
Suddenly the stable doors burst open and the man stepped into the darkness, his breath puffing in the light from behind him. Then he vanished into a stall and emerged guiding his own horse from the shadows, the clomping hooves echoing in the small space. He mounted swiftly, and trotted out of the village and rode out as hard and as fast as he could.
