All righty, since I got bored and have loads of uber-time now, I wrote out this entire next chapter and posted it, just to see what the reviewers say~. Mweh. This is one of those tell-the-evil-doer's-story-and-get-some-connections type of chapter, and I'm fairly sure the next one will be more interesting, I hope. The story evolves. What can I say? Enjoy, read, and you know you wanna review! ^_^
PRONUNCIATION: 'Fervior' is pronounced 'Fel-vohr.' The first 'r' has an 'l' sound. However, the other 'r' is pronounced an 'r'.
Summary: Kurt is a Fallen, an indescribably beautiful race of demon–angels. Kitty is a fledgling priestess with a hidden power. Kitty knows that Kurt isn't her enemy, but can she prove it?
Fallen Angel
7. The Tale of Fervior
Kitty sat on her deck, watching the sun rise. There was no training today—Fira had to bring messages from the other Fallen tribes—apparently there were more than just Treehaven, and the separate Fallen who lived in the Forest.
She sighed to herself—she missed Kurt. He'd disappeared in the Forest, in the early afternoon, when Kitty had been still training with Fira in the sandy hollow. At first, no one had suspected anything, until someone had found a symbol etched into a tree's trunk—the one identical to the one on Kitty's piece of metal. She had looked over it many times over, to try and see if there were any hidden clues on it, but there was still only the symbol and the terrible words:
He will be the first.
You will be next.
She just didn't understand! And everyone had been avoiding her too, like if she confronted them, they wouldn't tell her what she needed to know! She hadn't seen Shade yet, and Fira was off getting messages, Kurt was gone, and who even knew where Sparks was (and Kitty doubted she would be able to find the girl)
She jabbed at the metal scrap, her anger at being left out finally surfacing. Why would no one tell her anything? Why was she stuck here, when she could be doing something productive (if, of course, she knew what she was up against!)
Kitty grabbed her metal scrap and swung down from her porch, landing lightly on the ground. She walked to the sandy hollow anyways; maybe someone would be waiting for her.
But her hopes were too high, or perhaps she had simply wanted to believe them. There was nothing in the training arena, and she sat on the rock and poked at the metal shard…again.
Shade appeared when the sun was directly overhead—Kitty was still sitting there glumly.
"Geez, what's eating you?" muttered Shade, plopping down next to Kitty with a yawn.
"No one's telling me anything!" grumbled Kitty, frowning.
Shade raised her eyebrows in a questioning way and looked over at the metal in Kitty's hand. "What's that you've got there?"
"What, this?" Kitty gave it to her, watching as she looked at the symbol, her expression unreadable save for the anger flickering in her eyes; then she flipped it over and read the nine words on the back, eyes widening. "Do you know what this means?"
"No. No one's told me anything! I have no idea what's going on!" growled Kitty, punching the rock angrily, then wincing and rubbing her hand. Then she remembered what Sparks had told her—it was vague, but it was something. 'The symbol is the sign of the greatest evil in the forest' or something like that.
"Hmmm… There's a story for that, you know," Shade said, tapping the metal. "Although I'm not entirely sure you're supposed to know…"
"Tell me anyway! I'm sick of not knowing!" Kitty said, eagerly waiting.
"Fine… Just, if anyone asks, I didn't tell you this, all right? You heard it from someone else," Shade relented, leaning back.
"Okay." Anything to know what's really going on, Kitty thought.
Shade nodded. "The story begins with a Fallen called Fervior. This was many years ago, and I learned this story from my mother. Fervior had a strange gift—he could use metal and bend it to his will. Most gifts had…adaptations, I suppose is the word, or variants, but no Fallen has ever had a gift quite like his. His gift could work on any form of metal—including iron in blood." Shade paused, as if waiting for effect. "He soon discovered that he could use the iron in blood to manipulate people—human or Fallen—to do his bidding. Some say it made him mad. Others say he was insane to begin with. Either way, he was thrown out of the village because he was caught experimenting on live subjects."
Kitty was imagining this, quite gruesomely, and she shuddered involuntarily at the images her imagination provided. She realized now that it was not the best thing to let her imagination run away with the ideas, each different and more scary than the last.
Shade continued, and Kitty's attention snapped back to her. "But that was not the last we saw of Fervior. Deep within the swamps of Mantikor, to the southwest, he fled, preparing for his revenge. The swamps, though abounding with living creatures, failed to bring him the necessary equivalents that a human's body could. So, he began luring humans from the settlement known today as Firkin, but then it was called Herzac. One or two humans disappearing into the swamps with their strange mists weren't anything new to the humans, and so they did nothing. And Fervior's plotting, however much we may try to deny it eventually came full circle. He wanted revenge."
Kitty was staring with rapt attention; this story was more interesting then she'd thought, but what did it have to do with Kurt and the fact that he was missing?
"Kitty, are you listening?" asked Shade, annoyed.
"Oh, yes, continue!" Kitty waved her hands in a 'go on' gesture.
"Anyways, as I was saying, Fervior wanted revenge. Slowly but steadily, he gathered an army of swamp monsters and rouge Fallen—mercenaries, if you will. He launched his attack at dawn, easily overpowering the village's defenses and slaying as many Fallen as he could. And in the end, only one thing stood in his way."
"What was that?"
"A priestess with the power of all the elements—like you, Kitty, although she was born Fallen and not changed as you were—and her name was, aptly, Karma. Karma defeated Fervior easily with her power, saving Treehaven and the Forest. She did not kill Fervior, though, instead saying he should be punished justly for his crimes. But on the night of his sentence, he escaped from his cell—before you ask, we don't know how—and disappeared into the Forest, where we hoped never to see or hear from him again. Some even dared to believe he had died out there." Shade sighed. "However, fate doesn't seem to be all that kind to us. For there are rumors that Fervior will return. And we must be ready."
Kitty's throat was dry. "Do you think…he'll come after me?"
"Highly likely. In fact, plan for it. You hold the same powers as Karma did, and he will seek revenge on one like her first. But Kurt's disappearance seems to add up to a different plot…"
"What do you mean?"
"I think that he plans on trading you for Kurt. However, I'm pretty sure there's something else, another crucial part to his plan that he needs answered." Shade looked at the piece of metal, tapping it absently.
"Huh? Isn't there only me?" Kitty was confused.
"Yes, you are the only all-elements wielder since Karma's death, but there is another great source of power within Treehaven. Not as great as yours, but still powerful in its own rights. I'm afraid that Fervior will try to maneuver that into the plot as well."
"Another…great power?" Kitty's voice trailed off.
Shade explained. "You have some of it, actually. You've met the person who wields it."
"Huh?" Kitty's mind had gone blank after the story.
"It's the dragonfire!"
Hmmm, the plot twists are added too~ Just to clarify things, Fervior's gift is kinda like Magneto's, but I wasn't entirely sure that Magneto could manipulate humans' minds through the iron in their blood, so if that's plagiarism (spelling correct? I choose not to use the spell check due to the annoyance of all my weirdly spelled names) I didn't know it, and it makes for a better story, just so you know. I may or may not update again on Saturday, depending on if I can finish the next chapter in time. I have the rough outline complete, but the story evolves, so I'm not sure yet. We have a day off on Friday, yay! You guys should be happy I'll get more time to work on this story, you know you love it~! ^_^
~Shadey