Chapter 2: Where am I?
The cruel winds howled across the twisted landscape, biting into Raven's skin despite wearing winter clothes as she struggled on through the snow. Her cloak tugged at her violently as it sought to fly away with the wind. She was cold all over, but she struggled ever onward. Where she was going, she had no idea, all she knew was that she needed to keep moving. Her foot suddenly caught on something hidden beneath the snow, and she fell over with a startled yelp.
"By Azar, why does this happen to me?" she asked herself as she struggled back up, trying to shield her face from the stinging winds. Casting her eyes around her once again, she found naught but snow and rocks, just like last time. No light existed for her in this hellish land. The sun had not been seen in a very long time, nor were there any stars visibly in the sky. How long had she been wandering again? Had it been minutes? Hours? For all she knew, it could have been days.
Whatever the case, one thing was certain, she was cold. Not to mention tired and hungry. Alas, wherever she was, it was not a place plentiful with food. As a matter of fact, she had not found anything edible. Feeling desperate, she reached out with her empathic powers, trying to find life somewhere. Just like last time, she recoiled immediately when her senses brushed against that foul energy that flowed through the land like air through lungs. It always sent chills down her spine, how this tainted daemonic power not only flowed freely here, but how the very land felt saturated with it.
It was always there, lurking just beyond her normal reach, constantly scratching at her mind's defenses. This foul power, it was like a pack of wolves to her. it prowled around her, poking and prodding for entrance, and it was driving her insane. Keeping her mental guard up was nothing new to her, but never had it been tested to such extremes, and she was paying the price for it. Ever since arriving, she had suffered such a terrible migraine from the strain of keeping this vile sorcery out of her soul.
How a place such as this could even exist was beyond her, and she cursed whatever deity or stroke of bad luck that had doomed her to be stranded here. Another strong wind almost brought Raven low, the cold slicing into her like icy knives. By Azar was she tired of this. Her legs were beginning to ache from all the walking, and she was frozen. Maybe a rest would do her good? Just for a short while, to recover her strength, and then she could keep moving. Her eyelids had begun to drop when she snapped out of it. She could not fall asleep! Not now! She would freeze to death out here. She needed shelter.
"Need to keep moving. Need to keep moving," she mumbled tiredly as she forced her stiff leg to continue moving. For a moment, she considered simply levitating, but quickly dismissed that idea. It would not be possible, not in this storm. No, she needed to stay on ground level. But she had barely taken a few steps before her boot caught on something else hidden beneath the snow, and she fell over again. But this time, she dragged with her whatever had been buried in the snow. Raven gave an annoyed groan as she untangled her legs and turned to whatever had tripped her. She promptly let out a shriek of terror and scrambled backward on all four.
It was a human body, frozen solid like an icicle and just as blue. Once that fact registered with the terrified Raven, she topped crawling away and gazed at the corpse with wide eyes. Finally, once her heart rate had slowed down again, and she had managed to swallow her fear, she began to tentatively crawl towards it. She came to a stop once within arm's reach as she beheld what lay before her with trepidation.
As suspected, he was dead, and had been for a long time. A big brute of a man who seemed to be only made of muscle. Long blonde beard grew wildly from his chin, and all he had apparently worn at the time of death was a fur cloak and pants. The cold climate must have preserved his body as it had been at the time of death. Not that it had been in a very good state then. The head was crushed and mangled, a few dangling pieces of meat was all that remained of his left leg and… something had clawed his stomach wide open and scooped out all the intestines. Raven felt like she was about to hurl then and there, and only kept her precious content down through sheer force of will.
But above her illness at seeing the state of his body, she also felt sadness. Raven was raised on Azerath, and fought with the Titans for over two years. She had grown up to learn that all life was precious. Killing was against everything she stood for, and it saddened her to see needless deaths like this. 'I may have never known you, and never will now, but you didn't deserve such a cruel fate,' she silently mourned. Raven wanted to bury him, to at least give him that small dignity, but already knew it was pointless. The ground was most likely frozen solid.
Standing back up on her feet, she had planned to keep on walking, but something stopped her. An object strapped to the man's belt, a knife. Her pragmatic side instantly recognized the value of such a tool, and urged her to take it. Her moral side felt like it was desecrating the man.
"It was his in life, it would feel wrong to steal it like this," she thought.
"He's dead, I'm still alive. He doesn't need it, I do," her rational side reasoned.
"Am I going to stoop so low as to rob dead people?" she asked in disgust. But even to herself, it did not sound as convincing.
"I doubt a clear conscience will save me from the cold, or the hunger," of course, that was the truth. She could not afford to be picky, not if she desired to live. So she bent down again and tentatively reached out towards the knife.
"I need to survive," Raven was not sure whether she was addressing herself or the corpse on that one. But in the end, she retrieved the knife, a big and sturdy one, meant to skin thick hided animals and carving met. Frost had made the blade get stuck inside its sheath, but after a few strong tugs and some small help from her sorcery, she managed to draw it. Had some rust to it, but was otherwise still highly usable. So with that inspection done, she sheathed it again, strapped it to her belt and began walking again. Where she was going, she had no idea whatsoever. All she knew that she needed to find shelter, and fast, or these accursed winds would finish what Slade had started.
She left behind her the corpse of the unknown man, who had a strange symbol carved over his heart: an eight-pointed star.
"Can't stop now, must keep moving," Raven kept telling herself that over and over as she forcefully trudged through the snow, but those words were starting to ring hollow to her. What had she achieved so far? Nothing. She had found nothing but snow-ridden wastelands as far as the eye could see. Admittedly, that was not very far, what with the nighttime and snowstorm. Despair was beginning to settle in, for she was beginning to wonder if she would ever make it. Parts of her body were already starting to grow numb, and worse would soon follow if she did not find warmth and shelter soon.
Her strength was beginning to leave her now. She was spent now, exemplified by how she collapsed to her knees in the snow. Her eyelids began to drop dangerously low again, yet she struggled to keep them up. Could not risk falling asleep now. But why keep struggling? What would that bring? A few more days of living in this frozen hellhole? Was it even worth it? Maybe it was best to just lie down and die, to get it over with. She could almost hear Robin scream and berate at her for even thinking that.
"I climbed down to the depths of hell itself to save you, and now you're going to let a little chilly wind kill?" if she was not so tired at that moment, and convinced that she was only imagining those words, she would have laughed at them. But she drew strength from them, bolstered her resolve to keep going. Robin would have wanted her to keep going, her friends would have wanted her to survive. And by Azar, she was going to do so!
"Get up, Raven. Come on, you lazy bastard, get up!" she spoke to herself as se forced herself back up on shaky legs.
"I will survive. No matter what, I will make it out of this!" with those words, she set off again, fighting against the winds whipping at her form. Her perseverance finally brought a reward, for after struggling on for a while longer, she was met with a most welcoming sight. A forest loomed ahead of her, its ancient trees bent and twisted in unnatural ways from the chaotic power that coursed through the land. At the moment, Raven could care less about how it looked, all that mattered was that she had found protection from the wind.
With newfound determination, she rushed towards the forest with all haste. To her great relief, the trees provided a measure of protection against the cruel winds. Raven walked deeper into the forest before she finally allowed herself to slump against a tree. Now she had definitively reached her limit, she needed to rest for a moment before continuing. Collapsing to the ground, she leaned her back against the unnaturally twisted tree and took long, deep breaths.
"I've made it here. Now what?" she asked herself. She still needed a shelter of some sort. But for the moment, she was too exhausted to care. All this running around in this inhospitable land had drained her, and she needed rest. Rest that she was unfortunately denied. For her empathic senses suddenly alerted her of danger. A prickling at the back of her mind only, but it was growing stronger. Raven was instantly back up again, to the great protests of her drained body, as her eyes wildly scanned the forest around her. She could have extended her empathic reach, but she dared not risk it, not with that vile daemonic energy flowing freely around her.
Limited to sight and hearing only, Raven finally realized how vulnerable she was. Even with her daemonic blood granting her a bit keener senses than regular humans, she was still barely able to see anything beyond a few feet. The darkness was all around, smothering her with its dark veil. Raven was not going to deny it, she was scared. She struggled to keep it under control, to not let it overwhelm her, but the signs were still there. Rapid breathing, nervously darting eyes, shaking limbs. That fear only grew worse when whatever was out there drew closer.
As the distance shrank, her empathic powers could sense them better. All she sensed was bloodlust. Whatever it was, its only interest was in killing. No, not it. Them. There were more of them, coming from all sides. They had her surrounded. Raven could hear them now, soft steps that lightly crunched the snow, heavy breathing as they sensed their next prey just waiting for them. Yet still she could not see them, and it terrified her. Then, she saw something!
A pair of eyes, shining ominously red and glaring at her murderously. But as swiftly as they had appeared, they vanished. Something suddenly moved at the edge of her vision, but was gone by the time her eyes had turned in that direction. Something growled loudly at her from behind, yet there was nothing there when she turned. A shape approached her from the side, but backed into the safe embrace of darkness when she turned to face it. She never had time to even distinguish its shape.
Fear still pumped freely through her body, but a spark of anger was beginning to grow as well. She could see it now. Whatever was out there was simply toying with her! Her anger spiked at that, and a burst of dark energy escaped her and crushed a tree, causing her to swiftly wrestle her anger back under more manageable levels. But she decided then and there that this would end now.
"Whoever you are, come out and face me! I grow tired of this game!" Raven boldly shouted into the silent night. Silence was what first greeted her challenge. In fact, the silence was worse than earlier. It was as if her words had frozen her attackers up in surprise. She waited with baited breath, and then her challenge was finally accepted. Dark shapes began to advance against from all around her, melting out of the oppressive shadows that blanketed the forests. Taking a deep and calming breath, Raven encased her hands in her signature dark energy, waiting for her foes to appear.
The eyes were the first things she made out. Blood red eyes, shining like jewels from the pits of hell itself, and there were many of them. Then, body structure became a bit more distinguishable. Whatever they were, they were not human, if judging by the way they walked on all fours. Finally, they were close enough that she could see them better. And what she saw sent chills of terror down her spine.
Raven guessed that they might have been wolves once, fierce and pride beasts that prowled the forests in packs. What she saw before her were cruel and twisted mockeries of those animals. Thick and unnaturally large muscles bulged under their skin, at least under those patches of skin that weren't covered in thick and hard fur. Bone spikes grew from the spine from top to bottom, sticking out of their skins like spear tips. Even their tails bore spikes. Horns grew from their skulls and curled forward alongside their snouts. Wide jaws opened and closed, dripping saliva to the snow and displaying rows of wicked-looking teeth.
But all of that paled in comparison to what she felt with her empathic powers. All living creatures possessed the ability to feel, no matter the size or the intelligence. But animals were generally limited only to basic survival instincts, no deeper feeling than that. These… creatures, if they could even be called that, they did not even possess that. All she felt were rage, bloodlust and a need to kill. There was nothing else to these things, nothing but an urge to kill until there was nothing else to kill. They were just empty husks of flesh, no life or purpose beyond the next kill.
That such twisted abominations even existed both disgusted and terrified Raven. What manner of cruelty could have spawned such a pitiful life form? Alas, those were questions for another time, because these creatures were in the midst of attacking her. And Raven preferred to stay alive just a bit longer, thank you very much. Reasoning or even scaring these creatures away would be pointless, so fighting was inevitable.
"Come on then," she challenged the monsters as she drew on more of her power. A risky move, for the daemonic power already flowing through this land began to gravitate towards her with increased vigor. It became a three-way battle; fighting to keep her powers under control, fighting to keep the foreign power at bay, and fighting off the monsters surrounding her. Then, one of them attacked with a giant leap, jaws wide open to clamp around her delicate neck.
Raven acted quickly and summoned a barrier of dark energy in its path, causing it to smash headfirst into it and fall to the ground in a slight daze. But that proved to be the signal for the others, as they sprang into action. A large fist of dark energy swept three of them away, but another nearly managed to jump atop Raven before she formed a barrier to shield herself. More came at her from the front, and Raven sent a crescent wave of dark energy at them. It knocked five of them over, but the four that came behind them just jumped over the wave and kept on charging.
They were nearly upon her, and so Raven phased through the tree behind her to avoid them, but found another six waiting for her already as they attacked. She sent two flying with a wave of her hand, and knocked a third unconscious with a blast of dark energy. The remaining three were too quick and too nimble, and the ones behind her were closing in, so she levitated herself into the air. The creatures temporarily stopped, confused by their prey's ability to fly. But they would not be denied, and were soon in motion again, hungering for her flesh.
Another blast of energy sent another three of the creatures into unconsciousness, but it was taking its toll on Raven. The longer the fight dragged on, the more strained her mind became from trying to fight all of its enemies at once. Already, the mild headache that had plagued her since arriving in this accursed land had grown to such levels that it felt like her head was about to split wide open. 'Can't give up now, need to endure,' she intoned to herself, drawing upon whatever shred of strength she could find. Which was not overly much.
But Raven was about to receive a nasty surprise from her bestial opponents. Blinded by a primal bloodlust no living being should be able to feel, they lost all sense of pack instinct and self-preservation. Since they could not reach Raven from ground level, they sought ways to level the height advantage. And so they threw themselves at the trees, scrambling with all their might to climb up them. Ebony black claws dug deep wounds into the ancient trunk while rage fueled muscles heaved their bodies upwards. They did not even wait for their fellow beasts to finish climbing before the next group launched themselves at the trees, climbing over the bodies of their own pack mates and forming a living ladder.
"By Azar, is there no way to stop them?" Raven asked herself in dismay as a blade of dark energy cut down one tree infested with these creatures, sending them tumbling back to the ground. A sudden spoke of pain in her head made her momentarily lose focus, causing her to drop in altitude. She regained concentration just in time and kept herself well above the slobbering jaw snapping at her from ground level. But unfortunately, she was now low enough that those few who managed to climb the trees were close enough. They promptly hurled themselves at Raven, who was forced to erect a dome around herself to stave off the assault.
Strained as she already was, the dome swiftly began to crack up, and so Raven forced herself higher into the air. But it was now a fight to see how long she could maintain that altitude, a struggle she was swiftly losing as the pounding in her head only grew worse. She could have killed those beasts, to bring this fight to a swift end, but it went against all her teachings. Mindless beasts or not, they were still living and breathing creatures. Killing them would be breaking a promise she had held for a lifetime. No, she was not going that far, not just yet. There was thus only one option left for her; flee.
"Azerath Metrion Zinthos!" she chanted, drawing as much of her power as she dared, and then she was off like a missile. Emerging out of the treetops, she thanked whatever deity which had decided to take pity on her that the winds had calmed down. They still bit into her clothes with their chilling grip, but now she could at least levitate safely here. So she took off as fast as she dared, leaving behind her attackers, who howled in rage at their prey getting away. Raven cared little about that at the moment, all she cared about was getting as far away from those beasts as possible.
"I just hope I can maintain this," she mumbled to herself, already feeling like her mind was close to breaking down from the strain.
After a very long time in the air, Raven found something that might prove to be her salvation. A mountain range stretching for miles in every direction. But it was primarily the cave opening at the base of the mountain that had Raven transfixed. Already strained to her limit, she swiftly descended for a landing at the cave entrance. The mental pain that had plagued her all the way proved to be too much however, and her control finally broke. She ended up crashing harshly into the snow, bouncing and rolling from the speed before finally coming to a stop.
At first, all she did was lay there like a corpse, having no strength to do differently. Then, she uttered a pained groan as she pushed herself up on all fours. Her head hurt like never before, her body felt close to giving up, yet she persisted and stood up on her two legs. With wobbly steps, she advanced into the awaiting cavern looming ahead of her. A storm was once again brewing on the horizon, but at least now she had shelter over her head. She stumbled like a half dead drunkard inside, and only managed a few feet inside before her legs gave up. With a startled cry, she fell on the heard and unforgiving ground.
No longer having the strength to stand, she crawled over to the wall and leaned her back against it, hissing in pain as her tired body protested against these movements. With nothing else to do, her cloak was wrapped like a blanket around her as she curled into a fetal position. The day had taken its toll on her, she no longer had the strength to keep going. Whether she liked it or not, she needed to stop and rest now. Not that she could have gone anywhere with the storm picking up strength just outside the cave.
Unbidden, her mind found itself wandering to her friends, and worry began to gnaw at her. Where were they? Did they miss her? Were they okay? Had her sacrifice managed to save them? Were they even at this moment searching for her? So many unanswered questions, so many horrible possibilities, and they all conspired to slowly grind away at Raven's sanity. She missed them already, she missed them so dearly. Not since her father's reign had she felt such levels of helplessness. But back then, she had her friends who stood by her the whole way, who fought for her, bled with her, and won alongside her.
But here? She was all alone. All alone, in a land so cold and twisted with foul daemonic power that it sent her stomach churning. It was only really now, after countless hours of fighting through the harsh climate, that Raven fully grasped the cruel reality. She was all alone here. Chances were, she would die alone as well. Despite how much she struggled to suppress it, a tear found its way out of her eye, then came another, and soon enough her other eye was crying as well. A sob tore its way out of her throat as more tears now freely flowed down her pale cheeks. To show such weakness was against her nature, but she could not stop herself anymore.
"Please, someone, anyone, help me," she whimpered as she buried her face in her knees, loudly crying for the first time in years. The sound of her visible weakness would forever be lost as the howling snowstorm outside drowned out all noise.
Far away from where Raven was cowering, a battle was taking place. Okay, battle may be the wrong word, more like slaughter.
"For the Dark Gods!" a Norse man shouted in his guttural tongue as he charged with twin axes held high above his head. A single swing from his opponent had his stomach wide open and his entrails spilling out on the frozen earth. That did not deter the remaining Norse marauders, big and bare-chested brutes the lot of them. Raising their own assortment of weapons, they charged headlong against their lone opponent. Moving faster than any natural human could possibly be capable of, he systematically cut them down. Each enemy was felled with but a single swing, with no retaliatory blow ever landing on him.
Finally, it grew quiet again, the slaughter was over, and only one man still breathed. No shout of joy or roar of victory came from him, he just silently watched as his enemies' bodies grew cold in the frigid climate. Then, without a sound uttered, he turned and began walking away. But without warning, he stopped. There was something, a feeling, a whisper, compelling him to go somewhere. Suddenly, saw what lay ahead, what he had been tasked to do. He did not understand it, he did not even question it, he just accepted what he now knew to be his duty.
So without another word, he sharply turned around and headed in the opposite direction from where he had been going. How he knew where to go, he neither knew nor cared, he just kept on walking to where he felt he had to walk. Somewhere ahead of him, many miles from where he was, there existed a little cave. And in that cave, was a very special girl crying.
Fire. It was all around him, burning away all traces of civilizations. Mounds of corpses that reached to the heavens were abound. Unnatural storms that sparkled in impossible colors ripped the sky asunder. Beyond the horizon, the remaining vestiges of elven, dwarven and human culture was eroded away under a relentless tide of chaos and madness. It was death and destruction on a scale far beyond what he had ever seen, at it honestly terrified him. Chaos could not have possibly grown this strong, not this fast at least. Something had gone horribly wrong, some unforeseen variable was at play here.
Then he saw it, a shape, calmly walking through the destruction, inspecting it with the same care as a gardener might tend to his garden. Without having to be told anything, he knew. He knew that this being was the cause of all this destruction. He tried to shout, to say something, but no words would leave his throat. He could only stand there, powerless as this creature continued its foul work. But it seemed like it suddenly became aware of his presence, as it swung its gaze to his. The image he saw then and there would be forever burnt into his mind, the image of four red glowing eyes glaring at him with such malevolence that it froze his blood solid.
It proved too much for him, and he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he was back in his room, still seated in the lotus position he had taken when he began his meditation many hours ago. He had meant it to calm his mind, but it had done the opposite here. He was visibly sweating and breathing heavily from what he had seen. those visions, far too real and terrible to be mere dreams. There could be no denying the truth he had just witnessed.
"Something is stirring in Norsca," he murmured to himself in contemplation, when a knock sounded at his door.
"Lord Teclis, are you well?" a servant's voice asked from behind the wooden door of High Elf Lord Teclis' room. At first, he received no answer from his master, who was lost in deep thought. What could have possibly affected him so much? He was not sure he wanted to know the answer to that.
"I do not know, I honestly do not know," Teclis finally managed to answer as his eyes went out an open window in front of him, gazing out at the beautiful night sky with its hundreds of shining stars. 'The darkness is growing in the North. We must prepare, or we will all be swept aside by this fearsome tide,'