We return to Ionia.
Chained O'Father
In the Bowel of a Beast
We Fight for Freedom
Spirit Quest VI
Call of Hirana Part II
Irelia shivered as the chill wind of the northern ocean found its way past her protective clothing and into the crannies of her protective clothing.
She turns back to Udyr, unbothered by the wind, eyes locked on the far horizon as he piloted them across the ink-black waves.
He had proven instrumental in turning their salvaged fishing vessel into something truly seaworthy, offering gruff advice over several days, though tension remained at his sudden arrival.
"You have a connection to Hirana?" she had asked one morning as she had found him staring across the waves as the distant shadow of the monastery's home island.
"Yes," he says, looking at her, a surprisingly wistful expression in his aged eyes, "It is where I learned to be. To find peace in me."
"Is that why you feel called to defend it?" she continues.
He is silent momentarily, bending down to pick up the boards he'd been treating.
"No. Not entirely," he states, returning to their work, sending one concerned look back towards the waves.
The others were anxious and focused, Erath preoccupied with keeping Henrietta calm in the choppy waters, Akali scanning the waves with trepidation. At the same time, Rakan pats his locket against his hands while staring at the bottom of the vessel, lost in thought.
"Do you know what we will face in Hirana?" Udyr calls over the splash of the waves and cry of the wind, "My home was always dangerous, the Ruination simply focusing its intent, but Ionia…."
"Had been turned into a dark mirror." Irelia finishes, "I can not say. The nature guardians have turned feral. The very land often rises to combat us or spits free the ancestors that should be resting peacefully."
"Viego, the bastard in charge," Rakaan interjects, shaking free of his introspection, "Awoke a Titan to combat us before he struck down the God Willow. Ever since…things have only gotten weirder. Azakana everywhere."
"Azakana?" Udyr asks as he shifts the ship to avoid a shard of shifting ice.
"Demons, nominally weaker, but the Black Mist has empowered them." Akali states, "They overran my home."
"How?" Udyr asks.
"My people were deeply linked to the balance of the Spirit World," Akali remarks, reaching up and gently touching the hilt of her master's weapon, "Ionia was alive, and we were deeply tied into the Spirit's wellbeing when everything went wrong. They suffered for it. My master…I do not know what befell him when we fled Kinkou, but what we saw was…."
"Absolutely fucking terrifying," Erath states.
"Then we should be prepared." Udyr warns, "Hirana was a place deeply connected to the Spirit World, where those with deep connections to the beings within learned to tame and control their bonds. With everything warped, I can not say what we will find."
"Just one more problem to add to the pile," Irelia mutters, turning back to the horizon and seeing the snow-swept Ralin Isle grow closer and closer.
"I think that problem comes first," Akali notes, pointing, drawing all of their eyes towards a tall pale fin racing towards them, Black Mist bubbling up from the ocean.
"Of course." Erath spits, drawing his rifle, Irelia spinning her blades into the air, Udyr grimacing and shifting the sail to attempt to catch more wind.
"Brace!" he bellows, a feral edge filling his voice, one of his tattoos beginning to gleam with a brilliant grey light.
He attempts to open his eyes but finds only darkness. He feels something trying to worm into his mind and buffers it back.
He can not speak or move, but he can feel the threads of Black Mist attempting to pull him apart while around him, some vast being stalks, waiting to consume whatever remains when the work is done.
But he refuses to give in.
This, too, will end, as all things do.
Onward to a brighter tomorrow.
He chuckles silently as the Black Mist shudders as his eternal optimism sinks into its despair-fanged maw.
"You poor things," he thinks, wishing to console it, but it rebuffs him even as, momentarily, a flash of silvery blue appears in the darkness of his prison.
"I see you." he thinks, "Help is coming. Help is coming."
Rakan spits out a fountain of seawater as he struggles to stand.
"It's official, I hate sailing." he snarks, shaking the already freezing water from his ears and staring about.
Akali was perched atop a boulder, staring about them for any sign of the others, "Good, you're awake."
Beside them was half of the ship, shorn clean in half.
"Where are the others?" Rakan asks, hopping up next to her.
"I don't know, that thing struck so quickly I didn't even have time to-wait, there!" she cries, pointing.
Rakan turns, spotting the sail poking out amongst some snow-covered trees.
"On it!" he states, bolting towards it in a flurry of golden light, skipping and leaping across the uneven rocks of the shore, skittering to a halt to find Erath trying to calm down Henrietta, who was in a complete and absolute revolt.
"Don't get any closer!" Erath warns, as Akali skids to a halt next to him, the former holding up a hand and clutching his side where blood was seeping from beneath his armor.
"You're hurt, did she-" Rakan begins, looking to Henrietta, who was clawing at the ground and snarling at the three of them, clacking her jaws together in distress.
"No!" Erath states, gesturing to Akali to lower her blades as she draws her kunai, "No, it's from the wreck. Just stay back. She's pretty pissed at the moment."
Henrietta bellows and charges for them as if to prove the point of her rider.
"No!" Erath commands, but she ignores him.
Rakan pushes Akali back, drawing pistol and blade, a shield already beginning to form around them, but a swiftly propelled blade embedding into the ground between them startles Henrietta back.
Turning, they see Irelia racing toward them above the waves, her blades kicking up a white cap as she slides to a stop, one hand extending toward Henrietta.
The great lizard steps back, shivering and snapping.
"Is everyone alright?" Irelia demands, not taking her eyes off the snarling beast.
"Stranded on an island with dangerous beasts ready to rip out heads off if we try and get too close to her owner." Rakan snarks, "Pretty baseline by our standards."
Irelia's eyes flick briefly to Erath, "You're injured?"
"Flesh wound," he mutters, though the raspiness in his voice doesn't provide confidence, "From when that thing shattered the ship to splinters."
"Flesh wound my feathered arse." Rakan returns, attempting to step towards him. Still, Henrietta pivots on him, snow was beginning to come down harder, and the additional cold only seemed to rile the reptile more, though her movement was growing sluggish.
"You two alright?" Irelia asks, sliding towards them, still in her defensive stance, blades slowly flitting about her.
"Peachy." Rakan remarks.
"Bumps and bruises, I'll cope," Akali mutters, fiddling with a smoke bomb on her hip.
"What of Udyr?" she finishes.
"No sig-" Erath begins, only for a cascade of water to erupt next to the stone beach, drawing all of their attention.
Rising out of the water was the pale form of the beast that had cracked their vessel like an egg, a snow-white shark with glistening blue eyes.
And atop its back, roaring like a wild bear, lightning rippling across its form, was Udyr.
The vast beast collapses to the ground, eyes dull, and Udyr leaps down.
Henrietta shrieks and charges him.
The others move to intercept, but Udyr reacts first, bringing his arm up, gleaming blue claws turning to thick steel hide, metallic furred hump emerging on his back, and the brief squeal of an enraged swine leaving his lips. Henrietta clamps down on his arm and lets out a pained rasp as his teeth find no purchase.
He raises his other hand, a shard of ice snapping together, his fingers becoming bird-like talons.
"Wait-" Erath begins, but Udyr chuckles softly as Henrietta continues to gnaw on him.
"The cold is not good for you, is it?" Udyr mutters, "Here."
The talons went from an icy blue to a verdant crimson, and the ice cracked apart, revealing a vibrant glimmering flame.
Henrietta releases him as he grabs some driftwood and ignites it, laying it on the ground. The great lizard immediately falls to the earth next to it and baths in the radiating heat.
Rakan darts for Erath and pulls his hand away from his wound, revealing a sharp, fist-sized shard of wood embedded in the boy's side.
"Flesh wound my feathery arse indeed!" he snaps, "Sit down!"
Akali follows and offers the handle of her kunai for Erath to bite down silently as Rakan grabs the shard, his other hand coated with healing magic.
"To mimic our gruff friend not that long ago," Rakan states with a piercing look, "Brace!"
Erath bites down and grunts in pain as Rakan pulls the shard free and quickly moves to heal the wound.
Looking over his shoulder, he sees Irelia approaching Udyr, who is staring up at the great shark with a mournful expression.
"What is it?" Irelia asks.
"This is a Berg Shark." Udyr returns, "A great hunter, a proud animal, but rarely a danger to humans, too small. Just another victim damned by some distant petulant boy. Rest well, sister. May this Ruination stay far from your bones."
He rests a hand on the carcass, and crimson flames snap across its form, and for a second, Rakan swears he sees Udyr take on the briefest aspect of a shark, a spectral image of sharp fangs and finned limbs superimposing over him but vanishing with a blink.
"Now what?" Erath asks.
"We move forward. Hirana awaits." Udyr states, "We have nowhere else to go."
"The lack of ship makes that abundantly clear." Akali snarks, "How will we leave?"
"We cross that bridge when we get there." Irelia returns.
"Can't wait to see what weird shit tries to kill us next," Rakan mutters, pulling Erath to his feet.
The trek across Ralin took days, but eerily they faced little resistance, coming across familiar scenes of empty villages and abandoned work. However, what awaited them at Hirana was not what they expected.
People.
Dozens and dozens of villagers peacefully rest around numerous vast fires, looking tired but healthy, steaming food resting atop several large tables in the courtyard outside the main door to the temple.
Rakan stares as an Oma walks up to him, holding a butter knife, a tray of bread, and warm jams.
He turns to the others, "I refuse to die to an old woman with a butter knife."
He steps back, and the woman gives him an odd look before turning to Erath, whose stomach growls enough for all of them to hear.
"Are you safe, Oma?" Irelia asks, imposing herself before Erath and slyly slapping his hand down as he reaches for the food.
"Of course, dear, the Shojin has guarded us well in these trying times." the woman states.
"The Shojin?" Udyr asks recognition echoing in his voice.
"Yes, the Dragons students have protected us since the trials beset the mainland." the woman says, with a broad smile, "Please rest and eat. There is much to share."
"The Shojin don't live in Hirana." Akali mutters as the woman walks away, "What are they doing here?"
"I do not know." Irelia states, "But I do not trust this."
"You shouldn't," Rakan states, breathing in and tasting the magic in the air, it was…pleasant for the first time in months, tasting of fresh grass, berries, and the sweet pies of home, but there was an acrid undertone, ozone, and sulfur, "But Akali's vision was right, he is here…."
"But there is something foul in the air." Udyr finishes, scenting the air and grimacing.
"Ozone and Sulfur?" Rakan asks, the giant nodding in assent.
"Then we move cautiously, feign comfort." Irelia states, "And stay ready."
They move to the gate, and it opens. A small woman dressed in purple and white vestments emerges, a white triangular tattoo adorned her forehead, and her brown hair is undercut and pulled back in two halves into frayed pigtails. A worn wooden staff was clutched in her hands.
Udyr grunts in recognition, stepping forward.
"Hui Ning," he greets, bowing to the smaller woman, the others following his example.
"Udyr, I am glad to see you, though I wish it were under better circumstances." Hui Ning returns, bowing as well, "Why have you come, and who are your compatriots."
"There will be time for that after we enter into the Temple." Udyr states, and Rakan notices a hint of desperation filling the larger man's voice, "Is Lee here?"
"Yes, he will be quite happy to see you." Hui Ning also states, turning to the others, "Any assistance would be appreciated."
Rakan narrows his eyes. Her words seemed genuine. Her body language was relieved and sincere, and yet, still, the wrongness lingered.
A glance at Irelia showed that she was also ill at ease, and Akali lept, glancing back as if she recognized something the others were missing.
"How has your order fared?" Akali asks, stepping forward, "With the Spirit Ruined, the Kinkou…have fared very poorly."
Hui Ning looks at her, her face apologetic, "I mourn your loss, but the Will of the Dragon is vast. We would not be claimed so easily."
Her words were sincere, her tone sympathetic, but the choice of words felt like a barb, and he could tell by Akali's raised eyebrows and clenched fists she had felt its sting harshly.
"I must see to the villagers," Hui Ning states, standing aside so they may enter, "But Lee Sin and the others will greet you gladly. I am sorry I can not join you, but as the Eye of the Dragon, I must remain vigilant!"
"Of course," Udyr states, the pair bowing to each other. He looks to Irelia, "May I go first?"
"Of course." Irelia returns, "It might be good that you are the first face the Shoujin see."
"Almost certainly." Hui Ning agrees.
"My mount won't be an issue?" Erath asks eyes narrowed slightly, not as able to hide his suspicion as the others.
"Not at all." Hui Ning remarks, "But are you all certain you would not like to eat first? She looks quite starved."
"Later." Udyr remarks and Hui Ning nods, a pleasant smile on her face.
Rakan's hackles are up. This peaceful moment will turn, but for now, he agreed with Irelia to feign comfort until it all went to the Hells…again.
Udyr enters, Rakan and Irelia a step behind, followed by Erath, leading Henrietta and Akali a step behind.
Hui Ning smiles as the door shuts behind them.
They were suspicious: good.
It would make the real trap all the sweeter.
And she turns, to their invisible companion, with a shake of her head.
"I can see you," she states, a dozen reptilian eyes snapping across her body, the villagers around her rising, the Azakana puppeting them, gnashing and laughing. Yet, no sound would make it to the heroes, now trapped within her lair. Their lair.
The Dragon's Will was Strong Yes.
But the Desire to Protect their Prize was so much stronger.
Their Pride had doomed them one by one.
Yone steps from the ruins of the Spirit World, Twin Blades at the ready, "You think you can beat me, Snake?"
"For all your power, you are but a man, Yone." Hui Ning returns, lifting scaled hands, sharp fangs emerging from her mouth, "We are much more than that."
Yone shakes his head, "I expected one who can see so much would not hold such foolish thoughts."
And he strikes, carving at the Eyes of the Beast, while the rest of the corrupted entity coils in anticipation, stalking the new visitors as within its warped heart: another silvery-blue flash sparked in the darkness.
And scene.
Sorry, life has been crazy, things have been happenin', but hopefully, the third chapter of Return will be out on Thursday.
The Beast lies within Hirana, zealously guarding its prize, or is Hirana the Beast itself?
As always, comments, questions, and critiques are appreciated. This has been VerBeeker, signing off!