Hello beloved readers! Finally the story begins, which is sort of weird to say after 5 chapters, but I couldn't just throw this one in there first and have the characters seem deep and even teh slightest bit interesting.
And to reply to my beautiful reviewer Kazuha-sama: Youre about to find out! :D
"Where is she?" Trianna screamed at the leatherworking apprentice, her eyes filled to the brim with hate as she grasped his shoulders.
"What?...I left her in the cave!" he exclaimed in his defense, the elves eyes alive with shock, he winced as the female elf's nails dug into his skin through his linen shirt, "I-I had to return to work, I thought she would be fine!"
"FINE?" the female elf roared, catching much attention from the elves inside the tailoring and leatherworking shop," She rode off into the darkness and not one being saw her but you, you filthy little vermin, I'm going to string you up by your manhood from the highest tree in this forest!"
"No!" the young elf screeched, "Please listen to me, I didn't have anything to do with this, I only saw her in the abandoned cave in the forest. We drank and we both fell asleep, but I had to return to work. I could not wake her, so I thought she would be safe there while I was away!"
"I'm not only going to cut off your disgusting little manhood, ill cook it and feed it to the nightstalkers in the woods. I'll make sure they know exactly how you taste and then they can come after you for more!" She hissed- her eyes terrifyingly bore into the elf's own.
The panicked man jerked from her grasp and escaped back behind the tailoring building and beyond the north bridge. She spat on the ground in anger and clutched the reins of Zydien's horse that had wondered back to Trianna earlier this morning. Angry tears fell upon her cheeks in the moments of silence that lasted during the walk from the shop to her home. Zydien's uncle was speaking to two hired hands to find his dearest niece, one a draenei and another of dwarven decent. Many of the elves did not see Zydien, the new comer, as someone they should worry much about so Saenorin had to find those willing to work for a wage. However, Trianna's two friends, the hunter Silvaria and the rogue Anadyia, were already searching for the missing girl.
"...Auburn hair, pale skin, emerald eyes, simple blue robe, she is also a priest, please you two, she is very dear to me. Earn your pay, now go!" He stated, rushing them along, pointing toward the forest.
"I received word that she was last in the abandoned cave in the central mountain, please find her." Trianna added as they mounted up and equipped weapons.
"Aye," the blue haired draenei and dwarf answered.
"Worry not elves," the draenei called with a swift salute.
They both rode off toward the forest, the bone steed and Brewfest ram galloped quickly down the path past the Ancient of War.
"Where did you find those two, beloved?" Trianna asked, "It is uncommon to find hired hands in Darnassus with it being such a rarely visited place for strangers."
"They said they were traveling to each alliance city searching for work," he answered, "Luck is on our side today."
"I do hope so," she sighed, her hand meeting her lips in worry.
"Come, let us join the search." he stated, jumping upon his striped cat.
The odd duo of draenei and dwarf crossed under the archways of the guard tower, the eyes of the sentinels followed their every movement.
"Do we have any clue on what part of the forest has already been covered, or if the lass is still here?" the dwarf called over the rush of wind and the thunder of the hooves on the ground.
"No idea," the deathknight answered, "Maybe a good fight will be waitin' for us, ey?"
"Not every hired hand is willing to bare down on an axe, lass. Would you take a coin that wasn't earned from blood?"
"Never." Scai the Hallowed laughed, her giggles filled with delight.
The dwarf rolled his eyes, his black beard tossing about in the wind. The ram jumped off the path, heading south toward the Ban'Ethel Borrow Den.
'Now where are ya, Zydien..," Scai thought out loud as her gaze scanned the forest for any movement, "I'm betting...North, at the waterfall."
However, the waterfall was not where the girl was to be found, but in the east, her eyelids begun to rise.
Zydien's vision was blurred, her eyelashes casting darker than normal shadows over her eyes. Realization hit her as she noticed she couldn't move her hands or her ankles. She looked around at her surroundings and for the time of day the sun shone very little in this alcove. Three trees blocked most of the grassy meadow from the light.
'That vile little elf tied me up here! I would take a bet that he is planning on laying another hand on me, but not if I have anything to say about it!' Zydien thought angrily, sitting up.
'Blast it all, I can't cast a spell without moving my hands.' she thought with a growl and began twisting in her bonds.
"Be still..." a calm but strikingly malicious voice whispered inside her head.
Zydien's eyes shot up and her body froze, her gaze franticly searched every shadow, knowing good and well that the leather worker she had bedded the night before was not behind this demonic prescience.
"Show yo-rself!" Zydien called, her voice cracking horribly in her distress.
Small giggles were heard inside her head, the laughter became more and more intense, to the point where the vibration rang in her ears. The priestess groaned, shaking her head, her auburn tresses mangled and full of sticks and leaves. Soon the manic voice broke into insane shrieks, Zydien gasped at the pain inside her head, her teeth clenched as she bent over.
She gagged and vomited blood onto the grass, coughing raggedly. The blood glistened in the little sun that shone through the canopy of leaves. Her stomach rolled, and horrid dry heaves followed. Zydien began to panic, the pain inside her head growing.
More laughter was heard, but this time not inside her head, at least... Zydien believed it so.
"Where are you?" Zydien shrieked her eyes bloodshot from her painful gagging.
"Don't get all excited, little one..." a sharp whisper was right by her ear, the heat of someone's breath was felt on her skin.
Zydien jerked back to find nothing but an empty space. She could barely see eyes beginning to show in the shadows...several...no hundreds of eyes, all staring at her. Snarling rose from the darkness and Zydien's breathing became rapid. The many eyes glowed, glowed so bright. They began to separate, pairs of eyes moved into a row, so many of them. Dark, morbid forms of beasts beyond her most vivid nightmares began to appear. All of them hissing and grunting with such sinister voices. The dark outlines of these beasts moved closer-hooves, paws, and claws all stretched forward...ever so closer to the bound human girl.
"No, get back! STOP! No...NO!" She shrilly screamed and birds rushed from the canopy in surprise at the sudden noise.
Scai was beginning to get restless; the forest was all but empty of any life. Lowly beasts plagued her with empty threats and annoying young elves asked so many favors, who only wished to waste her time. She hadn't seen the dwarf for hours, but she wasn't worried about him. Starbreeze Village was, as always, infested with the Gnarlpine who insisted to take over just about any settlement in the forest. The deathknight wondered why the elves let such weak creatures take their things, but they believed in something about harmony between nature or..some other rubbish.
As she dismounted from her steed a familiar smell entered her nostrils. She sniffed, analyzing the air she breathed. The scent was that of summoning powder, the sort only used in dark magic. There was also a hint of some other volatile chemical, but she was unaware of what.
"Such an odd thing to appear here, the demonic forces of the outland have not entered this forest, Felwood is very far from here and the elves keep such contamination away from their home forest..." She thought to herself, squatting down and taking a handful of earth, she took another whiff and still had no idea what the second substance could be or of its origins.
A panicked scream caught her attention, and her tail flicked in excitement. The sound was faint but still heard by the draenei's keen senses. She dug her hooves in the ground and dashed off into the distance, a smile on her face. Leaving her steed behind, she raced to the source. The brush flew beside her, ducking beneath fallen trees and jumping over rocky clusters. The glint of her wicked smile was that of bloodthirst as she tossed her heavy axe from her back and held it in her hands. The thick brush broke into a dark clearing and her hooves planted hard into the ground, skidding as she landed. Her pose was intense; she snarled loudly, her fierce battle cry was met with silence. No enemy waited there for her, only that of a mangled body.
Scai was disappointed but also curious as she jogged to the injured humanoid for a closer look. The draenei kneeled down and turned the body over slowly.
"...Zydien?" Scai gasped; shocked to see the condition the priestess's body was in.
Scai held the girl's head in her palms, her axe forgotten to the earth. The human's robes were torn and ragged, her breasts and most of her body shown to the light. Her wrists and ankles were cut and bleeding from the bonds wrapped around them. Blood pooled beneath the girl, and her face was caked with dried and fresh blood that flowed from between her lips. Marks were left on her skin that looked as if a demon had been gnawing at her bones. Scai slowly unbound the human, the girl crying out shrilly as the ropes were pulled from her flesh.
"Hurry, get up!" Scai growled, "this isn't right, it's a trap and we cannot sit here any longer."
The human groaned, but only her lips moved. The sound of her voice was only a whisper and Scai leaned down to hear.
"pl..ease..run.." her voice breathed, but she coughed hard, spewing blood onto Scai's armor.
"You really don't know me, girl," Scai mumbled and pulled out her horn, blowing into it to call for her comrades.
"Re..new" Zydien gasped, raising her bruised hand as she cast the healing spell upon her body.
"Don't you have something a bit more powerful than that?" Scai snorted, helping Zydien sit up, "Here, take this."
Scai pulled an odd looking dagger from her belt and put it in the girl's hand. The knife fell to the glistening grass; the human was far too weak to wield it. The girl's eyes lazily moved to Scai's, tears fell to her cheeks.
"Stop weeping; it is no good to be unarmed in the state you're in priestess. The thing that harmed you will return, now get the hell up!" Scai snapped.
'Oh, but I never left.' A voice sighed absently in Scai's mind; the tone was that of a child who was left with nothing to do after her new toy had broken.
"You aren't the coward I believed you to be then," Scai laughed as she stood, picking up her axe from the ground, "show yourself and we can have a nice little time, ey?"
"In time…in time, I suppose," the voice was full of boredom, "the girl isn't much of a fighter, is she? So droll."
Zydien attempted to stand with dagger in hand but could barely hold herself up. She held her stomach and coughed a bit more, collapsing to the ground with a thud.
"Strong one aren't you?" the voice laughed sarcastically inside Zydiens head, the echo reaching Scai's as well.
"Get out here and draw your weapon instead of playing with our minds," Scai huffed in an irritated tone, "No one is here to play."
"Oh, but I have drawn my weapon, and I've used it quite well on your friend," the echo reverberated inside Scai's skull,"...Corruption."
Zydien doubled over, her knees pulling to her stomach in pain. Blood escaped from her lips onto the grass, her heaves were violent as she cried. Scai watched in horror, but turned in anger at the emptiness before her.
"I said to bloody show yourself!" Scai snarled, her teeth bore, showing her sharpened fangs.
A sudden pain entered Zydien's back, leading to her immediate wails of agony. Scai turned suddenly and ran to Zydien, standing over her. The human screamed repeatedly, her body throbbing but her lungs began to halt, leaving her paralyzed. Her eyes looked up at Scai, terrified. Scai tossed her head side to side, hot anger running through her veins, knowing well that more than one being was responsible for this torment.
"FIGHT ME!" Scai challenged, "Why attack this defenseless, stupid girl?"
"Tsk, tsk…why are you insulting someone so dear to you? So very harsh to the human, are you not Scai?" The voice chided inside of the deathknight's mind.
"That is not what I am concerned with, you coward, show me your face, show me the face that I will rip off! It'll look so nice slapped on to the taxidermy boar head I have hanging in my cabin."
"So many threats …so much ignorance… you have nothing to defend yourself against my prestige..."
A shrill ring hit Scai's senses as if her skull had been crushed by a rampaging cleft hoof. Her hands slammed against her ears, a cry of surprise cut the air, forcing the deathknight to her knees beside the wounded human.
"Come now, you say I am weak, but look at you, so very helpless yourself, deathknight, so very weak…" The voice laughed mockingly, amused by its antics.
Scai gasped for air as the ringing stopped, and she began to search her surroundings for any sign of life, standing in this opening has left her with nothing but weakness. Giggling erupted from the forest around them, this time not inside their minds, but it still echoed, eerily it rushed around them with no place of origin. Scai had had enough of this, it was time to end the game. Her keen eyes skidded around her, searching for anything..anythign at all that could resemble an attac-THERE! Behind that tree, there was a flicker of violet, a flicker of something that could be her enemy.
"DIE!" Scai wailed as she thrust herself into the brush and tossed her axe wildly, trying to scan the forest before her for a target but none was there.
A piercing yell caused Scai to turn back and look at the scene before her. Zydien was hovering in the air with dark runes surrounding her, they began to pulse then enclose so tightly. The girl's arms snapped sharply, the sound of ripping flesh and shattering bone was all too familiar to Scai, the screams of excruciating pain from the human seemed to be that of a forgotten memory. Scai dashed forward, looking up at the girl, feeling more helpless than she had ever before in her life. Zydien's eyes were beginning to bulge, and her gasps of air had turned to gagging. Zydien's back began to twist awkwardly from the rune rings as the bushes ruffled behind Scai, and she turned, more than willing to face the demonic presence.
"By the Makers!" the dwarf gasped but his earthen voice was nearly unheard.
The horn that Scai had used had finally drawn her comrade, and more of Zydien's friends and family followed him into the clearing.
"Zydien!" Cried Trianna as she ran to her beloved niece, arms held up to try to pull the girl down.
The others stood in shock, Saenorin was quick to his senses, "Go, look for her attacker!" he called as he jumped into the surrounding woods. The others were quick to follow, the hunter and rogue rushed in different directions.
"Oh, I am so outnumbered, why do you play so unfairly?" The voice shrilly laughed, wildly twisting inside her mind, reverberating inside her skull before it faded away and the prescience she had felt since she entered the clearing had finally left her.
Zydien fell to the ground with a sickening thud; her broken arm had fallen awkwardly beneath her, twisted in an unnatural way at her elbow. Her hair was matted with blood and her eyes were vacant. No sounds emptied from her lips except for the drip of blood onto the ground, still pouring from her beaten insides.
"I.." Scai stared at Zydien, "I couldn't..."
"Zydien, my dearest child," Trianna's voice was so soft but edgy, filled with worry, as she cradled Zydien in her lap, tears coursing down her cheeks, "It'll be alright my darling..it'll be alright..yes..yes it will."
"Nothing is to be found in the forest save for a few footprints of humanoid nature." Silvaria stated softly, "I have searched for any other tracks or scents and I am left with nothing. Please forgive me, Trianna."
"No forgiveness is needed," The elf whispered, still cradling the unmoving girl, "Thank you for your efforts."
The hunter and rogue stood aside, letting Saenorin between them to sit beside his wife and niece, his hand brushed Zydien's face softly. Scai stood, staring blankly at the scene, feeling as if her one purpose in life had gone. If she could not protect the priestess, the girl who needed her help the most, why was she still breathing? Why didn't the damned beast kill her instead?
Poor Zydien, she can't catch a break, and well, Scai's history is finally catching up with her. Please review, review, review!