Well, this should be the last of the past for the time being. i'm not trying to follow the story so closely but it just kinda flowed that way. hope you all enjoy this, and please, drop some reviews!
Krazoa Palace
Krystal held her breath as she listened to the Sharp Claw shamble by, knowing she had no chance against it with out her staff. The footsteps slowly receded, Krystal letting her breath out, relieved. She had made some progress into the palace, finding several corpses of the Earth walker Warriors that had sent the distress call, still not finding a single living one. There were several dozen dead Sharp claw she had passed as well, but they all had already had anything of use stripped of them, leaving her still weaponless. She closed her eyes for a second, trying to focus her telepathy. After a minute or so, she started to pick out the different collections of thoughts that made up those roaming the halls, a strange energy seeming to fill the halls of the palace. She could feel what she thought was the source, not far from her. The problem so far, had been reaching it. Between the roving sharp claw, looking for things to kill, and the damage to the palace, it had been near impossible to find a way to the source. She finally opened her eyes again, slipping through dark hallway after dark hallway, trying to keep heading toward her goal. She smiled when she saw a corridor that looked as if it lead where she was going. Her feet carried her too the hall, looking down it to see light at the far end. Her feet carried her to the end of the hall, opening into a relatively small chamber, relative being in comparison to other chambers she had seen. It was at least thirty-five meters long, with nearly a ten meter ceiling, a section of which had fallen in where a support pillar had collapsed. The lack of rain or light coming from the hole showed that there was more palace above the camber. The chamber was about twenty meters wide, the afore mentioned support columns, extremely ornate in their carving, lined the center of the chamber, evenly spaced in two rows of four, the one on the far right being the collapsed pillar. There were several Sharp claw corpses around the hall, a single Earth Walker lying dead center of the hall. At first, she thought it was dead, until it looked up, turning its head roughly toward her as it struggled to get on it's feet.
"Who's there!?" the hoarse shout was filled with pain, Krystal quickly moving forward as she responded.
"A friend. Are you al…" her voice cut off as she saw the condition he was in. one of his eyes had been gouged out by what looked like a mace hit, the other flooded with blood from a gash over the eyelid. One of his legs was clearly broken, a hole in his side letting blood flow fairly freely from his flank.
"Don't worry about me, young one. We need to protect the Krozoa spirits! Their shrines…. The Sharp Claw can not have their power!" Krystal couldn't help but be confused, having no clue what he was talking about. She gently touched the side of the dinosaur's muzzle, only to gasp as images seemed to rip though her mind. "You see now. now go! You must ensure that the sharp claw can not take them!" She nodded, sighing as she knew she was leaving him to die. But by what she saw, if the sharp claw got even one of these spirits, they could control every living thing on this planet with ease. Most of it didn't make any sense to her, seeming more like magic than anything she had encountered, but his beilief was all she needed to know that whatever these things were, they held some sort of real power.
"I will. I'm sorry that I cant help you." He seemed to not care at all, just shoving her off.
"Just go!" she turned away from him, toward a side chamber almost adjacent with them. Inside was a tiny room, just barely large enough for a small raised dais, looking like it was made of crystal with intricate ironwork inlaid in it. above it was a similar circular dais, almost identical in fact. The strange energy she had been feeling seemed to emanate from the two disks. She stepped up onto it, unsure what to do as she stepped into the center. Before she had time to think, she was being swathed in blue light, quickly feeling like she was nothing at all, just before the light seemed to compress and fade, but she was now somewhere else entirely, as if she had been teleported. Although the room she was in was the same, still standing on a raised dais, there was a door in front of her to a room filled with a soft blue light, accenting the gorgeous stonework of the room almost too perfectly. It was designed much like the main chamber the earth walker had been in, but the wall across from her was dominated by a massive circular mirror like object that seemed to be rippling like water from it's center. She cautiously stepped into the elongated room, noticing a strange pattern in the floor, almost like six faces with long goa tees, arranged like an elongated hexagon. When she reached the center, a voice seemed to reverberate throughout the room, coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
"You….. Are not of this world….. and yet, you may still be worthy to carry us….. Prove it to me, and I shall let you return me to my rightful place…" something felt off, like it didn't belong to the energy she had been feeling. A bust of one of the faces depicted on the floor pushed out of the liquid like surface of the wall, it's mouth agape as a strange purple glow emanated from it, just before something shot out of it's mouth, slamming into Krystal. She had no chance to react to it, excruciating pain ripping through her as she lifted into the air, feeling the energy she had been feeling now flowing into her. "Indeed you can…. Take me to where I belong…. You know the way." Before she knew what was happening, she was surrounded by the same blue glow, dissipating as she had done before.
Natalie slumped up against the stone wall of the palace, trying to slow her breath down. She had managed to run into a group of Earth Walker soldiers on their way to try and retake the Krazoa palace, but it had ended up futile. The Sharp claw were now packing primitive muzzle loaders, technology way beyond what she had ever seen them capable of. The large bore weapons, large enough to shatter a human's shoulder just by firing the weapon, were powerful enough to easily slaughter the dozen or so earth walker warriors she had been with, Natalie barely managing to slip into the palace, having been chased through the unfamiliar halls with no idea where she was. She sub-consciously reached up to her quiver, cursing as she discovered that there were only two arrows in it. she had always avoided the Sharp Claw soldiers in the past, never learning just how tough they were until today. She had pounded multiple arrows into ones chest, barely even slowing the creature down. The only one she killed, she had put the arrow through it's eye. Her breath slowly settled, her eyes closing for a few seconds.
A hand gently touched her shoulder, causing her to jump up, drawing her combat knife, nearly slicing the purple vulpine's head off, stopping the blade on her neck.
"God, you scared the crap out of me." The woman had an equally startled expression on her face, her hands up in surrender as she leaned away from the knife.
"Yeah, I didn't mean to. I'm sorry. Can you put the knife down….. Please?" Natalie relaxed, her heart pounding in her chest yet again. Although she lowered the knife, she kept it in her hand, at the ready for anything. Natalie almost startled again as she looked the woman in the eyes, the woman's eyes now glowing purple.
"your eye's! they're… well, glowing!" the woman gave her a bewildered expression, clearly not know what she was talking about.
"What do you mean?" she seemed to be perfectly calm, and if her eye's weren't currently glowing, would seem absolutely normal.
"I mean, they are glowing purple! Seriously, they are!" she seemed to shrug, turning to step out from the small store room Natalie was hiding in.
"I guess it's just a side effect. I'll explain later. Come on, I could use your help." Natalie nodded, slipping the knife away before she scooped her bow up, nocking an arrow. They were quiet as they moved through the halls, Natalie occasionally glancing at the woman until she noticed her Staff being missing.
"What happened to your staff? And it's Krystal, right?" she nodded before responding, looking away.
"Yes, that's my name. and I lost it. knocked from my hand." Natalie nodded, letting silence fall between them once again. After a few minutes, and several seemingly random turns, Krystal, stopped, turning to face Natalie.
"Alright we need to get past a pair of Sharp claw guards ahead. I need your help. Think you can handle them?" Natalie nodded, trotting forward of her own accord. The two soldiers were guarding a T-intersection in the hall, their right sides illuminated by an eerie blue light that seemed to dance and swim like a liquid. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly and calmly as she drew the string back on her bow, taking careful aim at one of the creature's eyes. Once her breath had left her lungs, she let the string slip out of her fingers, the arrow launching off toward it and burrowing itself into it's skull. It's companion startled, shocked as its fellow collapsed to the floor, and not reacting to the second arrow she had already launched, finding it's mark in the side of it's skull. It howled in pain, Natalie drawing her knife and rushing forward, slamming into the creature to force it to the ground, followed by plunging the weapon into it's chest again and again until it stopped moving. Blood covered her knife hand as she stood, trying to shake blood off the knife.
"What ever you need to do, make it quick, the others are bound to have heard that." Krystal rushed forward, headed toward the strange light, which was flowing from a circle around a strange bust at the end of the hall. The other end was what looked like a massive chamber, blocked off by a force field of some kind. Natalie quickly followed the vulpine, seeing her stop in front of the bust, falling to her knees. "Krystal?" the woman suddenly shrieked, something seeming to rip out of her chest and shoot into the bust, the bust shaking as it sunk into the wall, disappearing in the glowing liquid like substance around it. Natalie dashed to her side, gently grabbing her shoulder, trying to see if she was harmed. There was not a mark on her as she placed her hand on Natalie's, a faint smile on her face.
"I'm fine, just had the wind knocked out of me." Her eye's opened to reveal that they had returned to normal, no longer glowing.
"Your eyes! They're back to normal!" she smirked, shakily standing before her head suddenly snapped around, looking up at the ceiling some twenty feet away. she started slowly backing away as she spoke.
"No…. it can't be…. You're supposed to be…." Her voice cut off as she was sent flying backwards, knocking into Natalie and sending her sprawling. An echoing boom filled Natalie's ears as she looked up, seeing a stream of energy being shot from the round mirror like object the bust had disappeared into, Krystal floating inside the energy. Natalie began to scramble to her feet, but not in time, as Krystal launched down the hall, through the force field and into the chamber. Natalie rushed to the rippling field, stopping at it to try to see into the chamber beyond. The beam of light was shooting into a large purple crystal in the center of the room, Krystal now somehow locked inside. Natalie whacked the field with her knife, only to be blasted onto her back, the knife knocked from her hand. Her head slammed onto the ground, her world going black on impact.
Thorntail Hollow
Present Day
I trotted into the courtyard Fox had been investigating, seeing the dead Sharp Claws around the area. Two of them had been carrying massive muzzle loading rifles, clearly the source of the two gun shots. Fox was at the base of the entrance, on a knee, one hand on his forehead.
"Hey, McCloud, you haven't gone and hurt yourself have you?" he shook his head, standing up only to sway for a few seconds and drop back down.
"No, I'll be fine, just gimme a bit." I sighed, beginning to look around when I noticed four more Sharp Claw rushing toward the courtyard. I was instantly reacting, my weapon raising as I rushed to the wall, using it as cover as I began to fire. A loud bang accompanied each squeeze of the trigger, my HUD showing me where I was aiming. The two lead creatures had seen me moving and aiming, both raising shields and crouching to cover their feet. Even with the armor piercing munitions I was firing, the rounds seemed to being no more than blasting a few splinters off the wood covered steel shields. The two rear soldiers were toting more of the black powder rifles, using the lead elements shields to aim and fire, their inaccurate rounds ripping out with booms that were dull and elongated, vastly different to the sharp cracking booms my rifle produced. One of their rounds slammed into the wall almost three meters away, blasting the stone into chunks. The other went wide, hitting the structure behind me. Them firing gave me an opportunity, seeing one of the riflemen's head. A single round and he was toppling, the back of it's head blowing out from my fast moving round obliterating as it moved through its head. Another one of my rounds found it's self in the toe of one of the shield soldiers, causing it to slump over, gripping at the wound. A split second decision and an empty magazine caused me to grab out a frag grenade, tossing it at the stalled group. I ducked down as the weapon detonated, blasting the enemy group off their feet. I watched the bodies for a few seconds, satisfied when none of them moved. I quickly reloaded as I moved back to Fox, helping him stand up.