|
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 7
The sun was bright through the leaves, the day well into the evening, and laughter was in the air. The wind blew through the village as if it had always been this way, even though she had never felt the breeze in the marketplace.
Her father was there, speaking to a couple in front of the Old Village Oak, the very center and lifeforce of their village. He was laughing like she had never seen him do before, and he had a smile from ear to ear. It made her insides burn with the love that only a daughter could give.
The air was sparkling with magic, pixies and faeries flittering around gayfully, having a wonderous time with the small Elven children, barely 10 years old. She remembered being so young and fragile, when everything in the world was new and fascinating. That was a time of bliss, and ignorance.
She hadn't known of the world back then as she does today, almost 24 years later. She didn't know about the darkness, and greed, and lust that distort the minds of beings all over the world. She didn't know of the Dark Lord and his followers, wreaking havoc on Emex and turning many helpless people into slaves and laborers. Nor of the deteriorating supply of magic and life that was once abundant on Emex, which would soon destroy the planet once the strain of loss becomes too much.
Turning toward her home, she walks through the arched doorway, pushing aside the leather flap that sheltered the open archway. She stopped in disbelief to see Toby and Hitan standing in front of her. She was about to give them her best smile, but her heart was filled with horror and fear as their faces began to warp into the disgusting, disfigured faces of a beast.
In her mind, she didn't know what the Dark Lord looked like, having never seen him. But her heart had shown her without discretion what the Dark Lord meant to her.
She wanted to scream, but no sound would escape her lips. She opened her mouth wide to try to scream once more, turned to scramble for the door, to call to her father who would have surely protected her from such monsters. But her body was paralyzed, the beasts closing in on her, their contorted bodies changing into a black smoke that surrounded her, taking away her breath, her life, her happiness. She was trapped...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Samara fluttered her eyes open. She lay there on the hard forest floor, leaves falling off trees around her from the gentle breeze that blew by. It was bright, but she didn't mind. The light of the sun was better than the black smoke that had almost engulfed her in her dream.
She had wished many times before that she didn't have the blood of a mage inside of her. It was this blood that caused her to dream. Normal elves did not dream, nor did they have any such magical attribute other than living incredibly long lives.
Samara sat up slowly, forcing her mind to escape from dwelling on the horrible nightmare she had awoken from. She wished not to think about such things, even if her father had explained that many of her dreams would be premonitions. 'If you pay attention to your dreams, you will have the ability to change the future,' he had once told her.
At the time, she thought it was something special, a gift that only she had, that she could use to her advantage. But she had soon realized that it was more of a curse than any gift she ever wanted. Seeing the deaths of her friends in the near future, the outbreak of wars, the conquering of nations. It had become too much for one elf to handle alone. So the Counsel had given her an enchanted bottle where she would be able to store the dreams that she wished not to remember.
Now she wished she had brought it along...
Samara looked around their makeshift campsite. The fire was only a pile of light ashes that blew away in the wind. Toby was asleep a few feet away from her. She didn't notice the drool dripping down his chin. She glanced around for Hitan, who had finally given them his name last night, and found him sitting on his stone seat around the firepit. He looked distraught.
Pushing her hair behind her ears, she wiped her eyes free of sleep, and got up to walk to the stone beside him. She looked at him with worry, something that was unfamiliar to her except for the little ones back at the village. How she missed them so. It hurt her heart to realize she wouldn't be able to see their smiling faces again for a long while.
Hearing Samara's footsteps, she saw Hitan look up and practially jump to his feet, stepping back, away from her. She gave him a puzzled look at first, but decided she had merely surprised him.
"I'm sorry if I startled you." she apologized, bowing her head slightly. "Are you alright, Hitan?"
He gave her a quizical stare, but nodded sharply. He seemed as though he was avoiding her gaze. She wondered why he was acting so skittish, since she had never seen him like this before. It was a bit nerve-wracking.
Samara nodded slowly in return. "Um, okay then. I guess we should be waking Toby and heading off. We should be getting into town today and we should probably--"she was cut off when Hitan was beside her, holding his hand over her mouth. She was caught off guard by his silence, but stopped her rambling. She wondered what he was doing, when she heard something moving in the nettles beside their camp. Her eyes averted toward the sound, and could see the bushes swaying with movement, as if something crawled through the leaves.
What could crawl through nettles and not get stung or cut by the leaves? she thought to herself, as Hitan carefully removed his hand from her mouth and down to where his sword lay comfortably on the ground. Is it something hostile?! she thought frantically. Even though she was a mage, and had some very effective threatening techniques, she still didn't know how to use her power to fight in a real battle. She barely knew how to burn a fire without literally blowing something up...which was why she didn't dare use her magic last night building their campfire.
She stood silent and still, hoping that whatever was crawling so close would merely pass by them, and leave them be on their way. She figured she should probably wake up Toby, but she didn't dare move, since she didn't want the creature to notice her presence.
Hitan had his sword in hand, unsheathed, blade gleaming in the sunlight. His eyes were focused, intense, and almost made Samara want to hide behind him so that he wouldn't confuse her with the prey. She would hate to be in the path of those eyes, which, if they were a blade themselves, would be able to slice through a slab of marble.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 8
Toby was dreaming. Something he hadn't been able to do in a long while. Though what his dream was about, he couldn't remember, since he was so abruptly awakened by the screaming of a loud voice and thundering footsteps.
He sat up quickly, his eyes focusing just in time to realized he should probably move out of the way. Hitan was being attacked by something that it seemed neither himself, nor Samara could see. It looked rather riduculous having an immensly muscled man swinging his sword all over the place hitting what seemed to be nothing but air. Toby had to stifle a laugh, though it wasn't all too hard considering he had to leap out of the way of Hitan and whatever he was being attacked by, rushing over to Samara.
He stood between Samara and Hitan, still swinging his sword dangerously close to the two of them. Toby turned quickly and pushed Samara back into the cover of the trees leaving Hitan to fend for himself. But he was given resistance when they passed the edge of the clearing.
"Toby! We have to help Hitan!" Samara said frantically. She was looking over her shoulder as she was being nudged still farther away from their campsite.
Toby just gave a sarcastic sort of laugh, sounding rather insulting, and kept right on pushing. "There's no way we can get between a crazy person and his imaginary nightmares." he told her confidentally.
Samara spun out of his grip, causing Toby to lose his balance and fall onto his face in the dirt. He heard her footsteps running back to the clearing. What does she think she's doing? You can't cure a mental case! he thought to himself, frustrated that she was going back to him. He was dangerous, but she still wanted to help him. Maybe she was crazy herself.
But still, Toby couldn't leave her there alone. So he pushed himself up off the floor, spitting a large wad of saliva and dirt out of his mouth before jumping up, brushing himself off, and sprinting back toward the campsite. There he found Samara dangerously close to where Hitan was now fighting some creature that resembled a large lizard in human form. It had...well, Toby couldn't really tell what color skin it had, since it kept changing depending on what was behind it.
The only reason they could see it now, was because Hitan was forcing it to move too fast and it's camouflage mechanism couldn't keep up, and was now just flashing different colors uselessly. It's face had an expression of worry and fatigue, having been fighting for a while now, against Hitan, who even Toby wouldn't want to battle against.
Despite the fact that Samara was in very close range of the two battling beasts, Toby wasn't going to dare go near them. One false swipe of Hitans sword, or of the chameleon-beast's large spear, and both of them would be dead. So instead, he just yelled at the Elf Maiden, hoping she had some sense and get away from them.
"Maiden! Samara! Please retreat from the battle area, unless you wished to have your head sliced off!" he shouted, though whether she was ignoring him, or just didn't hear him, she kept herself facing the two monsters brutely attacking each other. From where Toby crouched, behind a little holly bush, he could just barely see the look on Samara's face as she observed. She looked as if she was about to jump right in the middle, which caused much confusion and worry for Toby.
She really has gone crazy! If she tries to interfere she'll surely be hacked to pieces! Toby thought.
But what he saw next would stay with him for the rest of his life. He watched her eyes, that seemed to glow an eerie red-orange. They looked as if there was a fire burning brightly inside them, and as he watched, he could see her slender fingers begin to smoke. Was this the power of a mage at work?
He observed as she brought her hands up in front of her, palms facing the sky above them, completely unaware of the battle inching ever nearer to where she stood. He could see Hitan try to push the beast back away from the elf, but a hard blow to the stomach with the blunt end of the spear made him jump ever closer. Toby merely had to watch Hitan's face as he glanced back at Samara and realized what was about to happen.
Toby winced as Samara pushed her hands forward and a bright flash erupted from her fingers. A smoking flame burst from her palms and sparks emerged from her fingertips surrounding the fireball, blasting toward where Hitan and the Chameleon continuously attacked each other.
Right at the last minute, Hitan parried out of the path of the electrical fireball, which cleared the way to the Chameleon, hitting it squarly in its chest. The beast burst into flames, and collapsed to the ground as it got electricuted, it's eyes exploding in its head and large amounts of foam overflowing in its mouth. Just a few seconds later, the Chameleon lie dead on the forest floor.
Toby stayed where he was, filled with mixed emotions of fear, shock, and amazement. He just stared dumbstruck at the power unleashed by such a small girl. His attention was caught by movement near where Samara had now fallen onto her hands and knees to the ground. Hitan was standing over the Chameleon, jabbing it with his sword, making sure it was truly dead, instead of helping Samara.
Selfish b*****d... Toby thought frustrated.
He jogged over to Samara, and kneeled beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder. He heard her breath was heavy, and she looked very tired. "Samara? That was amazing!" he told her with a smile, "You really saved the day!"
He saw a slight grin appear on her face, which made his insides flutter. Though why, he didn't know. Just the fact that she was smiling was enough to make him happy. Perhaps this feeling was a part of the magic that runs through the elf's blood. That must be the cause of his erratic emotions around her.
Samara sat back onto her knees, placing her hands on her thighs palms up. Toby had to move his head out of the way of the rising mix of steam and smoke that floated from her hands. She heaved a sigh, and looked up at him, her eyes still glowing with a faint red light that remained from the fire that had burned in them a moment earlier. When he stared at them, he could actually see the light fading slowly, though he wished that they stayed that way forever.
"No, I just helped it move along a little faster." she told him modestly. She glanced over at Hitan, now crouched beside the Chameleon's head, rolling it back and forth examining what exactly happened to it, watching it's charred skin flake off onto the ground. "I'm sure Hitan could have handled it himself."
Toby watched Samara close her eyes, and managed a quick glance to Hitan himself, who was gazing intently at the Elf Maiden as if she was something of great value, a prize that could be had. This angered Toby, though he knew Hitan wasn't paying any attention to him and his leer of death that he sent in Hitan's direction.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 9
Hitan knelt down next to the now charred Chameleon-beast that Samara so helpfully took care of. He was a bit upset that he didn't make the final blow, and that it was a woman, no-less, that took it away from him. He jabbed the beast with his sword, it's scales and flesh falling like ash to the ground. The smell was horrific, but Hitan barely acknowledged it.
Though he had to admit, he was a bit sceptic about the whole battle. He was afraid that Samara could have gotten hurt, which wasn't like him at all. His emotions were confusing him, and he had a headache from trying to figure out what was so different about this elf woman. He made it a chore to keep his mind away from such thoughts, at least until Samara was no longer around to stir them back up again.
Hitan lifted his gaze from the bubbling, steaming beast under his nose to Samara, who was now sitting with her hands smoking, eyes closed, and Toby annoyingly close to her. What was up with this guy anyway? He's just so...clingy. Hitan thought to himself. He, however, was not as interested in Toby as he was with Samara's power.
This entire situation got Hitan thinking, that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to bring along the elf woman on his travels to find this 'ancient relic' that the Dark Lord wants to possess. Since it wouldn't be an awful idea to have a little extra power when trying to destroy the Dark Lord, perhaps he could bargain with her. In exchange for her power, he would offer something in return. Though it also depended on what she wanted from him. A lot of things, he just won't give.
He felt, rather than saw, the glare that Toby shot in his direction, though Hitan ignored it to the best of his ability. He felt a pang of regret for an instant, as his thouhts plumaged through the idea of using the elf woman as a weapon, but brushed it off just as quickly. He shouldn't, couldn't, get attached to people, or anything else. It's not good for his line of work.
Sighing and looking up into the sky, Hitan noticed that it was later than he thought. Now almost midday, Hitan stood and looked over to the two 'lovebirds.'
"Boy! Elf! We should be heading to town. How long until you get us there?" he asked, his deep voice easily penetrating the sounds of the forest and wildlife that lived there, his dark brown eyes now gazing directly into Samara's own radiant blue. He noticed her shutter slightly, barely enough for even himself to notice, so he knew that Toby hadn't. Hitan chuckled in his head.
The elf cleared her throat. "Uh...well, if we leave now, we should be there by mid-afternoon, or perhaps later depending on how many stops and interruptions there may be on the way." she said, with, surprisingly, no hint of hesitation or intimidation evident in her voice.
Hitan merely nodded, taking a step toward the two, sheathing his sword, and waiting for Samara and the boy to get their bearings together. He didn't bother gathering up his sleeping blanket. It was expendable. Though he watched with boredom Toby and Samara gather up their belongings and store them away in their bags. He was, however, intrigued with Samara's small pouch, that seemed to hold an immense amount of things for being so compact. She later explained that the pouch was enchanted by Elder magic, but Hitan didn't understand the most of her explanation.
They remarkably got throuh to the edge of the woods around mid-afternoon, just as Samara had told them. They had to stop but once all day, since the drink Samara had given him last night went right through Toby, or so he said.
The town was a little over half a mile from the forest's edges, surrounded by a river that blocks off any entrance except for the main gate. They had to cross the only bridge over the river in order to reach it, but it proved to be more challenging than expected.
It took everything he had to keep his sword in its sheath, and stop himself from taking out his frustration and hunger(which he wouldn't admit to) on the guards that wouldn't let them pass. If not for Samara, he probably would have killed Toby as well. That boy just annoyed him to no end.
"Please sir, we wish only to stay the night. If there is an Inn or pub inside, we would surely stay there. We don't wish to cause trouble." said Samara, who had been trying to get the guard to let them through for almost an hour. The man in the armor towering over the girl merely eyed her suspiciously. That eye would look perfect with a little black and blue. Hitan thought, but restrained himself from blowing all their chances of getting inside.
"You're an elf, and elves are not allowed into the city without written permission." said the guard, who glanced over to Hitan, who was just about the same height, and fidgeted nervously in his black, bulky armor. Hitan noticed the man was trying very hard not to look over in his direction. Heh, probably because he's a little weakling underneath all that shiny metal. Hitan thought bitterly, giving the man a glare as he glanced at Hitan just once more. The man kept his hand on the hilt of his sword, which in turn just made Hitan more annoyed and ready to bolt right into a battle. He resisted only because Samara had given him a quick look that told him to behave nicely, or else.
"I do have a parchment from my father, but I was told it was for the village Elder. So perhaps you could escort us to him so I could give him the message!" Samara bargained. The look on the guards face made Hitans insides boil. And to refrain from doing anything that all three of them would soon regret, Hitan turned on his heel and walked away. He heard the elf begin to mumble something, and stuttered between finding what to say to get Hitan back and get the guard to let them through at the same time. Toby just stood back and watched, his arms across his chest, looking as if nothing bothered him and it was the best day of his life.
That just topped it, and if the people stumbling across the bridge into the town saw the steam rising from his head, they failed to mention it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 10
Samara pleaded with the guard to let them pass, possibly with the guard escorting them to where they needed to go. But he denied their request, as he had for the past hour and a half. Samara let out a tired, frustrated grunt, lightly stomping her foot on the ground.
She glanced over at Toby, just standing there with an odd grin on his face, arms crossed over his chest. She mumbled under her breath because neither of her two companions were helping her out at all, then turned to Hitan. Except Hitan was already off the bridge in the opposite direction.
"Hey! Hitan! W-wait a minute!" she shouted after him, turning back to the guard with a glare, "Ooh, you...you...ugh!" Samara jabbed the guard in the chest hard, only hurting her own finger on the mans black armor instead of really intimidating the man. She kept it to herself, attempting to keep her eyes from watering from the pain, and hoping the man didn't notice she had hurt herself.
She turned quickly and ran toward Hitan, who could have won a marathon race with the way he was walking. She didn't even look back to see if Toby was following, though the crunching of grass and footsteps told Samara he was right behind her.
"Hitan! Come back! Wha-" she asked, as she grabbed his arm to stop him from getting away from them. "What's your problem? What are you doing? We need to get inside, and you losing your temper isn't helping the matters." she told him. She tried to sound important, figuring that Hitan might actually listen to her that way. Though, in the short time that the trio have been together, something told Samara he wasn't going to listen anyway...or even speak to her for that matter.
Well, she was wrong.
"I don't have a problem. It's the guard that has the problem!" he began shouting at her. Samara was shocked. She had never heard him like this, and it was rather frightening. She merely stared up at him as he continued to scream at her, a knot in her throat that prevented her from talking back. "I wanted to get into the town to lose you two! And I can't even do that because of that idiot!"
She saw him look over at Toby, but she couldn't remove her gaze from Hitans face. The only thing that distracted Samara was the fact that Toby had now jumped up and punched Hitan right in the face. She gasped and was pushed back onto the grass by Hitan as he reached across to Toby's neck, grasping it easily with one hand. Samara saw that Hitan's nose was bleeding from the punch, and she wanted to jumped on his arm to let go of Toby, but it didn't seem like Toby was hurt.
"Don't ever do that again, you little welp." Hitan mumbled in Toby's face. Toby had a defiant look on his face, refraining from showing any signs of fear or regret for what he did. He just stayed silent, falling onto his butt unexpectedly as Hitan let him go, realizing that Hitan had him almost a foot off the ground.
Samara stayed on sitting on the ground for a few more moments before making her way over to Toby, a few feet away from her. "Are you alright?" she asked while he rubbed his neck, keeping a nasty looking glare fixed on Hitan. He nodded, but didn't say anything. She looked up at Hitan, who wiped his bloody nose with his arm.
Standing up, she saw Hitan glancing over at the bridge, and turned around to see what he was looking at. The guard was standing facing them, his sword in hand, watching them. Great...just what we need. Samara thought to herself, as she let out a frustrated grunt.
She opened her mouth to say something about it, but stopped herself as she saw Hitan walk briskly past her, toward the guard. She inhaled deeply as she grabbed Toby by the wrist, pulling him up onto his feet, and began heading quickly in the direction that Hitan was going.
"Not good, not good, not good..." she said frantically, trying hard to catch up to him before Hitan did what she thought he was going to do.
But Toby pulled his wrist out of her hand, and looked at her with the same look he's been giving Hitan for a while now. "Let him go. It's his fault we can't get into the village anyway." He told her. "Let him do what he wants. It makes no difference to us."
Samara couldn't believe this. He sounded so cold, nothing like the Toby she remembered the first night they met. He was so open and cheerful that night. And Hitan...sure he was quiet, but now he was just frightening. She had no idea he felt that way about them, and something inside of her made her want to do what Toby had suggested. Leave him there and let him do what he wants. But she couldn't...despite what they might think, she thought of them as friends now.
So ignoring Toby, she turned and ran toward Hitan, grabbing his arm just as he swung his other arm to punch the guard in the nose. The strength he used caused him to have to use his entire body, thus causing the arm Samara had grabbed onto to lift her up off the ground as easily as if she was a doll, though it was only for a second. She hung on as she watched the guard fall backwards, his entire face bleeding profusely, making a loud clash of metal on stone as he landed hard with his armor. The mans sword landing in front of Samara's feet, and before she could think of anything, Hitan had grabbed her arm and began dragging her across the bridge and into the village.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 11
Toby stood back, watching the scene between Hitan and Samara. Hitan was probably the one person on this earth that Toby would have more pleasure in killing right now than even the Dark Lord. The way he spoke, or rather screamed, at Samara just made Toby lash out. His anger had been building for a while now, but seeing Hitan reprimand the Maiden for nothing caused him to lose his self-control.
Toby turned to head back toward the forest, ignoring the fact that Hitan had now punched out the guard blocking their only way in, and dragged Samara into the town. His frustration and anger kept him from rushing in to 'rescue' Samara from "Hitan the Brute." But his...admiration for Samara overcame it quickly.
Heaving a sigh, Toby turned around to face the bridge, now bustling with activity as guards and other personnel began gathering to form a search party for the intruders. He scratched the back of his head, debating whether or not he should head to town to save the two. He would much rather leave the authorities to Hitan, though he couldn't quite see Samara in a jail cell.
Finally, after a few more excruciating minutes of mental torment, Toby decided he wasn't going to make Samara spend so much time alone with Muscle Man...mostly for her own sanity.
He rushed over to the bridge, wishing ever more he still had his sword, and began pushing people out of his way, trying to get through. He knew the extra guards weren't going to let just anybody in, now that they let two unauthorized visitors through the gate, so Toby had to think of something. Though that didn't seem to pose much of a problem.
Toby moved to the very edge of the crowd, to the section where the guards were thinned out. He crouched behind a barrel, slinking past one of the guards yelling profanities at a bunch of traders trying to get in to sell their useless trinkets. He stayed quiet, and slipping past the guards seemed surprisingly easy. If he hadn't already known the intelligence level of the Guards here, he would have suspected something.
As he walked through the gate, he was greeted by shouting, and the loud hum of people in conversation. He had entered the Market, which was filled with people from places Toby had probably never even heard of. When he tuned in once in a while, he could hear many languages unlike his own. He saw children running through the crowd, small enough to sprint and weave easily past the legs of the merchants.
But getting back to what he had come for, he began scanning the crowd for Hitan, since Samara was probably too short to be noticed. It wasn't too difficult to target Hitan in this crowd, since he was the only one with a giant sword on his back and shoulders that were so broad he probably couldn't walk through a doorway without turning sideways. A closer inspection showed that Samara was right behind him, shouting over the crowd so that Hitan could hear her. About what, Toby couldn't tell, but she looked very angry.
Toby began working his way through the crowd. More than once he'd been pulled aside by merchants trying to sell their goods, but Toby neither had any use for them nor had the time to shop.
Finally, the crowd began to dissipate as he entered the center of the town. He was impressed by the way the town was built. Most of the buildings were made out of a white stone that almost glowed in the sunlight. He thought at first it was marble, but he realized that this wasn't any stone he had seen anywhere before. The streets were also made of stone, though they weren't the same white stone as the buildings, but rather a deep red rock. The first thought that came to mind for Toby was blood. He wondered why they would make their streets the color of blood.
The other strange thing Toby found about this town was the large wall that surrounded it. Of course he'd seen it from the outside, but when he looked at the town and how immense in size it was, he wondered how long it must've taken them to build it.
Scanning the open square, he finally spotted Samara and Hitan. They were standing conspicuously in a dark alley between two of the larger buildings in the square. Hitan was leaning agains the wall, his arms across his chest, his normal expressionless face staring down at Samara, who seemed rather excited and was speaking rapidly.
Toby took one more glance around him, searching for any guards that may be nearby. Finding the place authority-free, he ran over to the other two. When he stopped behind Samara, Hitan looked up at him. Samara immediatly stopped talking and spun around to face him.
"Toby! What are you doing here?" she asked with an apprehensive tone in her voice. "I thought you had made it clear you didn't want to help us." She squinted her eyes at him, which made Toby chuckle a little nervously.
"Uh, well...I said I wouldn't help him. I never said anything about leaving you to fend for yourself." he explained, putting one hand on his hip. "And besides...I wouldn't want to drop Hitan on my worst enemy." Toby shot a nasty glare in Hitan's direction.
Hitan grimaced, pushing off the wall with his foot, and reached over to grab the front of Toby's shirt. "I could be your worse nightmare, you fat mouthed weakling."
Toby breathed out through his nose, as he stared directly into Hitan's eyes, their faces inches apart. "Try it."
But before Hitan could do anything, Samara slipped underneath his arm, and pryed Toby from his grip. "Come on you guys, we can't keep bickering like this, or else we won't get anywhere. We came here for a reason. Whether they be different from each others, it doesn't matter, we still have to get it done. Now let's do what we came here to do, and try not to lose any limbs in the process, huh?" she told both of them. She spoke gently, as if scolding two children, though it seemed to work just as well with two grown men.
Hitan grunted, standing up tall, as if trying to intimidate them. Toby pulled on the bottom of his tunic, straightening out the loose part of his shirt that Hitan had grabbed. He was surprised Hitan hadn't wripped the cloth.
Toby saw Samara pat Hitan on the forearm, trying to get him to calm down some before something else happens. The contact between them made Toby's insides flare, though the emotion he couldn't quite identify. He could feel his face get hot, and hoped that neither of them noticed his face turning red.
Hitan was staring at him, and Toby noticed his left eye twitch. This guy has serious issues. Talk about the need for some self-control. He needs to learn how to keep his temper under control...damn barbarian. Toby thought to himself.
They both turned to look at Samara, who had cleared her throat rather loudly to get their attention. "Sorry to interrupt your little silent skirmish, but I think we may want to get out of here." she said barely above a whisper, pointing a long, elegant finger across the town square to where the street lead to the Market. Toby saw two guards, clad in the same black armor as the idiot who wouldn't let them pass earlier. One had his sword drawn, and was searching the square for the three of them. The other had his helmet on, noticeably shorter than his partner, and kept his sword in his sheath, though it hung securely at his hip. God, I hope I can get my sword back soon... Toby thought longingly.
There was a silent agreement between the three of them, that they won't argue until they were completely safe from any guardsmen around this city, and they all slipped out of the square and into a side street that lead straight to the Main Square. They would need a safe place to stay while they were here, and what better place than with other tourists. Upon arriving in the Main Square, they immediatly chose a random inn and stepped inside.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Chapter 12
They all stepped inside the inn, closing the large oak door behind them. The moist air and the smell of alcohol was overwhelming. Hitan realized that the inn they had chosen doubled as a bar, and there were many people sitting at the scattered tables around the room. There was a space in the far corner reserved for musicians. A man playing a violin sat there, along with a dancing woman who accompanied him with a flute.
Hitan came in last, Samara in the middle of Toby and himself, and had to make sure he didn't hit his head on the low doorframe.
He looked around, recieving a variety of different expressions from the people in the room. A few looked at the new group with suspicion in their eyes, while others gave them each a polite smile to greet them. Most of the drunks in the place didn't even acknowledge their entrance.
Samara walked up to the bartender, and leaned over the bar so she could speak easily over the live music playing. Hitan stayed back and observed at first. He didn't want to do anything that could offend any of the people here. They couldn't afford the attention.
He noticed Toby watching the woman in the corner, and could barely see Toby's head bobbing up and down with the beat of the music. Hitan found it rather difficult not to do the same. The tunes they were playing were almost entrancing, though he also noticed that Samara didn't show the slightest signs of being affected by it.
She came back a few minutes later with a key in her hand. She pushed her hair over her ears, to keep the fact she was an elf as unnoticable as possible, and dangled the key in front of Toby. "Here you go, guys. The room's upstairs, I think I'm going to stay down here for a little while. Why don't you go up and get settled." she told them, and she walked away toward the two musicians.
Toby looked back at Hitan, a confused look on his face, and shrugged. Hitan was just as confused, and wondered what was on the elf's mind. He sighed, and decided to just ask her about it later.
He followed Toby up the stairs to emerge into a long corridor carpeted with the same color red as the streets outside. The walls also resembled the town in being almost the same white, except these walls didn't glow like the buidings did. The doors were each a different color, and there were three doors on each side. The number on the key Toby was given was 3, which opened the last door on the left side. It was a dark green color, with a golden number three hanging on it.
Toby unlocked the door and walked into their room. There were only two beds, and one window, but it had a seperate door that led to their own bathroom, so they didn't have to share the public one down the hall.
Hitan stayed in the doorway, examining the room. He saw Toby jump onto one of the beds, put his hands behind his head, sighing, and closed his eyes.
"So who's sharing with Samara?" he asked with a grin on his face, opening one eye to look at Hitan. Hitan could feel his face flush. "Hmph, nobody. I'll sleep on the floor." he said uncharacteristically humble. He decided to check out the bathroom, hoping that Toby didn't notice his behavior.
It was almost an hour before Hitan decided to head downstairs. Toby was asleep on his bed, but Hitan spent most of his time contemplating what they were going to do from now on. His plan to get rid of these two had disappeared, and Toby didn't have any intention of leaving, so they were stuck together.
Hitan shut the green door behind him and wandered down the steps. He was amazed that they couldn't hear any of the music from upstairs, considering it was pretty loud. He spotted Samara easily, since she was the palest one in the room, and her champaign colored hair stuck out amongst the black and brown around her. She was sitting at a table with the woman from before. Now that he looked at her, he noticed she was also an elf, along with the man who accompanied her. The man was now playing with two other men who must have come while Hitan was upstairs. There was no lack of entertainment in this bar.
Hitan walked over to Samara, and stood behind her chair. The woman she was with looked up at him and gave him a very pleasant smile, but she didn't speak. Samara turned around in her chair to look at who was behind her, and smiled as well. "Hitan! Have a seat." she said cheerfully, and he did as he was told. He pulled over a chair and sat down with them. The woman was still smiling at him, though he noticed something about her that didn't seem quite right.
"Hitan, this is my sister. Her name is Madora." Samara said happily, gesturing with her hand toward her sister. "She's 40 years my elder, and taught me everything I know about music." Hitan took the hand Madora extended out to him, and shook it gently.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Hitan." Her voice was smooth, elegant. Samara and her sister sounded almost exactly alike, though Madora seemed more refined than her younger sister. She wore a gown made of fine silk and lace, her hair was covered in a pale green mesh, and her feet were bare. She only wore two colors, green and brown, and it made her look natural, yet very out of place.
"I asked her where I could find the elder of this town. She said that I had to ask the Mayor." Samara explained. Hitan nodded as she told him what they needed to do from here, but he couldn't help but get distracted by her sister, who hadn't taken her eyes from him. He also noticed that, unlike Samara's radiant blue eyes, her sister had very light grey, that gave her a very eerie look. They seemed distant, and unfocused, and that's when Hitan realized she was blind.
"...so the Mayor will know the whereabouts of th elder. We just have to figure out a way to get to him without the authorities finding us first." she concluded her explanation. Hitan nodded again, finally able to tear his gaze away from Madora, and back to Samara. "When will we leave?" he asked in his usual, expressionless tone.
"We should be out of town by the day after tomorrow. We'll go find the Mayor after we get some rest." She turned toward her sister. "I guess I'll be leaving you again, Madora. It was great to see you again." she said as she pushed her chair back to stand up. Madora did the same, and walked around the table to give her sister a loving hug. "We'll be seeing each other in the future, I'm sure."
They left the elegant Madora downstairs, as Hitan followed Samara up the steps and to their room. They had to knock for Toby to open the door, since it automatically locks from the inside. It took him a while to open the door, and Hitan figured he was still sleeping when they knocked. Samara took her phanny pack off her waist and opened the flap, reaching in to take out some extra clothes. Once again Hitan was amazed at how much that pack could hold, even though he was already told that it was due to magic.
Hitan took one of the pillows from Toby's bed, and used a spare blanket he found in the closet. He settled himself down on the floor, realizing that he was more fatigued than he thought, and was asleep before Samara even crawled into bed.
 Temptation_bloodlust · Mon Oct 23, 2006 @ 01:49am · 0 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ok...so now I shall begin with the story.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 1
The trees rustled in the breeze as the setting sun shined an eerie yet beautiful orange and purple glow over the forest. The twilight was amazing, nothing Samara had ever seen before. Up until now, she had never been outside of her village. There had never been a need to. Everything she needed, anything she wanted, was right there. But now, ever since the despicable Dark Lord came into the picture, everything's changed. Just thinking about it made Samara's heart ache. Why was the Dark Lord destroying this beautiful planet. She felt the earth's lifeforce almost like it was her own, another attribute from her mage blood. As if being of Royal blood wasn't enough, now she had to save the world as well?
She heaved a sigh as she walked down a dirt path, practically completely covered in undergrowth from lack of use. When was the last time anyone had ever walked through here? She was sure she must be the first living being to walk here for fifty years, or more. Her elven nature told her that no remnants of a living creature had been here for a very long time. This saddened her, but nonetheless, she had a mission. Her father had put his heart and soul into this journey, getting her mentally prepared, and giving her all the necessities she would need in order to get to the next village. He even gave her a parchment, explaining everything for the next village elder, so that there would be no misunderstandings on what she was to be doing.
Funny. She sort of felt as if her father was overprotecting her from something. Or as if he thought she couldn't do this on her own. But she wasn't a child, and no matter how much saddness, or loneliness she felt on this journey, she wouldn't go back to her village until she had found this 'ancient relic.'
The village elders had told her how to find it. Though their words didn't help her much.
"Follow your instincts. Your senses will lead you to it. Once you find it, nature will aid you in bringing it back," they had all said in unison. It was actually quite eerie, hearing all twelve of the elders speak together, as if they were one bellowing voice. She had spoken with them many times in the past, but she could never get used to it completely. At least she had figured out how not to show her feelings on her face around them, or else face unnecesary questions that she just didn't care to answer.
But despite the fact that Samara was on this journey against her freewill, she had never felt more freedom than she did right this moment. She looked up into the sky. Or at least, the amount of sky that was visible between the thick leaves above her. The slight breeze was warm, something she wasn't used to back home. And my Gods, the stars. She had never seen the stars before. Her village was hidden amongst the tree tops, and the sky was always blocked by the glowing green leaves that seemed to be alive on their own. She had never wished to see the night sky, until now. She had wondered how she ever lived without such beauty.
As she watched the stars twinkling in the sky overhead, her reverie was interupted by her unruly clumsiness. Tripping over a root in the path, Samara let out a yelp as she fell to the ground. She landed on her hands and knees, dust and leaves flying up around her. She breathed in heavily, calming her racing heart, and looked behind her at the root that had so rudely caught her foot. If it wasn't a part of a living thing, she would have burned it. That was one thing she had learned to do with her mage blood before she left the village.
Samara shook her head, stood back up onto her feet, and brushed off any unwanted dirt from her wardrobe. She bent over slightly reaching down to her legs, and saw a small trace amount of blood on her skinned knee. She let out a frustrated growl, and straightened herself up. This wouldn't get her down. It was just a scrape. No big deal...it was just irritating. And now it stung too.
She reached down again, picking up her pack she had dropped on the way down to meet the nice, moist ground. Fastening her small phanny-pack to her belt, she sighed once more and continued on her way through the forest. She wondered how much farther this town her father had described was...if she was even going the right direction.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 2
The sun was just setting, the warm breeze from the south causing an updraft through the trees. The leaves rustled gently, and Toby glanced up at the night sky through the canopy. He had always enjoyed the forest at night. So serene, and calm, it almost made him feel at home. Sometimes it even scared him a bit, knowing that when he felt that way, it was almost better than truly being at home. But those images only left more scars on his conscience, remembering that fateful day when the Dark Lord had finally emerged from his hatchling of hell, spreading his evil ways across the land, starting with his very own village.
The joy of the night forest was shattered by his thoughts, as he looked down to the ground instead. The woods smelled of fresh mildew, though sweeter than what he remembered from his prison at the Emperor's castle. The sweet scent, however, still didn't dampen his horrid reveries. He had come to the conclusion that nothing, neither sweet nor joyous, could ever tear him away from his past, and his destiny. He swore that one day he will kill the Dark Lord with his own two hands. What else did he have to live for? While he was alive, he would always feel the weight and torment of his family's souls.
Toby heaved a sigh, something he found himself doing quite a lot lately. He always felt on edge, as if someone was constantly watching him. Though with what's been going on inside him, nobody could really blame him. He didn't even know what he was becoming...or what he had become already. All he knew is that he is now a different being than before he was sent to prison, before the Dark Lord and his reign of terror swept over Emex.
Once again, his thoughts were interrupted. This time by a loud noise in the underbrush, very near to where he stood. Surprised to hear a woman's voice cry out, he crept to a bush to investigate what was truly going on. He found it hard to believe that anyone would be out here alone, in the forest at night, let alone a woman of any sort. Even an elf, as his eyes so boldy showed him, as he peered through the thick branches of a berry bush.
Tripping, and skinning her knee, he watched, silently. Besides the obvious facts that she was a woman and an elf, there was something different about her. The way she felt. Her aura, as most of his kind referred to it. It seemed strong...stronger than anything he has ever encountered, whether in battle or just as a passer-by. It seemed to carry a sense of...magic. Though he had only ever known the loyal servants of the Dark Lord to possess such gifts. Only one rational assumption was made in Toby's mind -- that she was a part of the Dark Lord's army.
He withdrew from the berry bush in which he spied the young Elven Mage, grasping habitually for his sword at his side, only to remember it was taken from him many months ago, by his captors at the Emperor's castle. This wasn't much of a deal for him. He had trained many years in the art of hand-to-hand combat, but he had never actually fought a mage before, and he had no idea what sort of powers she could lash out at him.
So instead of fighting as is his usual custom, he slowly crouched alongside of the Elf's path, it being straight and full of purpose. Why was she, he wondered, out here alone, with none of her comrades to protect her, and no weapon but a phanny-pack more than likely filled with only provisions? Was she so heavily dependant and confident in her skills as a mage, that she feels she has no need for protection?
He seemed over curious about her, which was most unfamiliar for him. He had been trained to eliminate threats and problems, not to observe and examine. That was what the doctors were for, and only ever examined dead bodies. So what about her made her so intrigueing to Toby? Perhaps it was the fact that he had never seen an elf face to face before. Somehow, he doubted that possibility. He only had to be careful not to expose his presence to her. Which seemed rather difficult when he was too preoccupied with her appearance, smell, and aura to be paying attention to what he was doing. Which in turn caused him to screw up is concentration, and run directly into a tree trunk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 3
The forest was quiet. The silence was almost deafening for Hitan. Just this morning he was in the busy village of Cordigal, the 'almost' center of trade. There were so many people, from dawn to dusk the trading commenced, with no rest for the weary. Hitan had gotten used to that environment, having had to stay there for a record time of two days. He hated staying in one place for too long while there were businesses to see and people to kill. He tended to get rather itchy.
But he was finally out of that human infested town, and he had to admit that he wasn't used to the calm and quiet of the forest. Not that he minded too much, but it still gave him an eerie feeling, and more than a dozen times already, he's unsheathed his sword to face an opponent that was merely a shadow, swaying with it's tree-bodied host against the wind that blew by. He hated being so skittish, especially when his cash so depended on his cunning and concentration.
Though, the underlying cause of his unrest wasn't just in his head, as he's been telling himself for over two hours. It had been just a few hours before, that dusk had fallen, casting him into twilight, and then to the darkness of night. Even with the cast of the moonlight upon the breezy trees, he could barely see between all the foliage and intertwining branches that he had to practically crawl through. He's been relying solely on his demented senses that were out of practice because of a mere two days. This in and of itself gave him chills.
However, something in the distance had caught his attention. Movement, so subtle that he figured nobody would have been able catch it except for it's delayed change of color. What sort of creature changes color to match it's environment? Hitan couldn't remember any such creature having existed. But then again, ever since the Dark Lord showed up, all different kinds of creatures have been emerging from shadows, showing up where they shouldn't be and scaring people half to death because they're so unpredictable. Perhaps this was one of them.
Just to be safe, Hitan kept his already drawn sword at the ready, being prepared for whatever this creature had to leash out at him. Though considering it hasn't moved since he'd been there, he wasn't sure it was going to do anything at all. In fact, if Hitan hadn't seen it move once, he probably would have walked right by it without even realized it's presence.
Cautiously, Hitan scuttled across the dirt floor, keeping his body facing the creature, his sword pointing towards it as well. He walked step by step, carefully sideways, crossing one foot in front of the other, making sure not to step where he shouldn't. It seemed like a lazy enough creature, but nonetheless, he was paying close attention.
When he had gotten about twenty feet away from the creature, without disturbing anything around him, and no hint of the thing moving at all, he began relaxing his shoulders. He lowered his sword, and stood straight, turning around to face the path that was now ahead of him. But of course, you should never let down your guard in the forest at night.
Not even two steps he had taken, when he felt a blunt, and overwhelming pain in his back. He let out a grunt as he stumbled forward, nearly dropping his sword in the process, and put a hand to his chest, where he could feel his heart practically skip a beat. Turning around to face his opponent, he noticed that what had hit him was a very large boulder, one that created a large indent in the dirt from landing so heavily. He was surprised he was even still standing after being his so squarly by it. Heh, I amaze myself sometimes, Hitan thought to himself.
Though looking around, he couldn't find any beast or threatening creature that he could fight. Still, he wondered what sort of animal could have enough strength to throw a huge boulder that far and with so much force.
As if by him calling, something lashed out and hit him directly in the middle of his chest, making him fly backwards nearly fifteen yards. His grip on his sword tightened, so as not to lose it when he landed. He hit the ground hard, leaving him gasping for breath as he sat up, still unable to find what was attacking him. This was making him angry, and his temper would only make Hitan stronger, and more a challenge to defeat.
A slight rustle in the woods close to where he was gained his attention. Perhaps it was that creature, finally figuring how dangerous Hitan was and making a run for it before he found it and killed it. Barely catching his breath, Hitan was up and running, straight toward the noise. He felt some lifeform close, and he lifted his sword above his head as if to swing down on it from above. Letting out something like a war cry, he rampaged through to a small path, and saw what had created the noise. At the last minute he dodged out of the way of the Elf Maiden, barely skimming the side of her arm with his chest as he fell onto his back on the dirt path.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 4
Samara didn't know what to be more surprised about. The minute she looked up, everything seemed to happen at once. Out of nowhere, some brute of a human emerge suddenly in front of her, more than likely attempting to kill her. She didn't know what to do at first, having been so shocked to see something randomly coming at her with a sword that could probably cut through a large boulder from sheer size. Though if he was actually trying to kill her, why had he dodged out of the way?
And then there was a loud 'thunk' she heard nearby. She had glanced over quickly before she was so rudely attacked by the screaming annoyance, and noticed a man had run into a tree trunk. What kind of person runs into a tree? Had he no sense?
She stood stock still, not able to move her body for a few moments because of the sudden shock. As she heard the man behind her moan from the fall he had taken trying to get out of her way, she wheeled around frantic, finally able to comprehend how close to death she had actually been...had he actually swung down his sword.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, you moronic cretin!" she spat at him, as the man sat up looking at her, with almost as much surprise evident on his face as herself. However, now she was just very upset that she had almost been whacked to death by a retched human. "You don't just go around chopping people's head off in the middle of the woods, not knowing who they are! You could have killed me, you halfwitted human!"
She would have kept on ranting, though realizing that they were both being watched by another being, standing just behind them, she ended up stopping. She turned around to look at the other man, who had run into a tree. He had a bruise forming on his forehead, and he looked stunned to see her. Had these people never seen an elf before? Samara thought to herself. "What are you two even doing out here?!" she practically growled at them, wondering what on earth humans were doing in the forest.
They were both silent for what seemed like an incredible amount of time. But finally, the man on the ground stood up, grunting in her general direction as he straightened himself out. She was amazed to see how much taller he was than herself. He had to be at least 6 foot 3 inches, about a foot and three inches taller. He didn't seem like the speaking type, so she didn't expect much from him conversation-wise. So instead she looked at the other man, who's expression had now changed from shock to amusement. For what she didn't know.
"What's your business, Maiden?" said the man. He had a tone in his voice that suggested he didn't trust her, and something else not quite so evident. Though the reasons for that she didn't understand. She didn't do anything to make her seem untrustworthy, had she?
"My business is none of your concern, Sir." Samara said in a very matter-of-fact manner. Which is true. A human has no need for concern in an elf's affairs, unless of course the human would try to benefit from it. This is simply the way of the humans, or so she understood.
He simply gave her a suspecting glare, as if he accused her of something terrible. She was getting annoyed by this humans ignorance. Now she knew why she had never any need to leave her village. Her father probably didn't want her to hang around these idiotic humans who don't know what's going on around them.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I have work to be done. If you'll be so kind as to leave me be, I promise I won't char you to death." she told him, rather threateningly, using her leverage of being a mage to get past these beasts. Samara gave both men one last glare, and walked past the shorter man, who kept his eyes on her every move. It made her rather uncomfortable, but she showed no sign of it on her face.
She could hear both the men behind her, the larger man (she could tell because of his much deeper voice) began to speak with the smaller one, about what she couldn't hear from this distance, so she kept on walking. She had to get to the next town before the next sundown or else she would have to spend the night in the forest again, and she really didn't want to sleep on this disgusting, bug-infested floor.
Suddenly, she felt something on her shoulder. She gasped and flung around, hitting whatever it was, and stopping before she launched a fireburst at the smaller man, who had simply placed his hand upon her shoulder to get her attention.
"Woah, woah, woah!! Hold it, lady!" he said loudly as he took a few frightened steps backward, almost running into the silent one standing behind him, his arms crossed across his chest, that same expressionless look on his face. "We don't want any trouble! We would just like to ask you something...if you don't mind, that is." he added, looking at her hands like they were some sort of poisonous creatures that could attack them at any moment.
Samara looked at them suspiciously, putting her hands down after a few moments, and placed one on her hip. "Yeah, well what is it?" she asked, annoyed.
She watched them as the smaller man swallowed nervously, watching his adam's apple shift up and down in his throat. She could sense his tenseness, though he had a 'pokerface' that nobody could see through. This made her grin.
"Well, young Maiden, you seem to know where you're going, and we were wondering, if at all possible, you could tell us which way the nearest human settlement is. Neither of us are as tuned to the forest as you are, my lady, and we're seeking help from you." he explained politely, completely different of how he had acted just a mere two minutes before.
After eyeing them first, she finally heaved a sigh and shut her eyes, crossing her arms across her bosom, thinking about what she should do. If I just tell them where to go, they'll probably get lost...and I wouldn't hand over these two onto anybody. She thought. If I let them come with me, they'll just get on my nerves, but at least they won't become a burden to anybody else, and they won't die, which would be a plus for the forest.
"Fine. I'm heading to a human village myself, so I suppose it would be alright to come with me." she told them, disappointment and frustration both evident in her voice. "Just don't do anything stupid, like is your nature, and I won't have to dispose of you. I'll leave you in the village when we get there, and you can go about your business there. Is that good for you?" she asked both of them, though directed most of what she said to the smaller one, who seemed to have more of an accepting nature.
The taller man was still as stoic as ever, which somewhat bothered Samara. How was she going to make it even the next day with these two humans? What have I done? she thought, whining to herself. But the smaller man was very appreciative. His face lit up when she had told them that they would stay with her, probably because he hasn't eaten in days, and suspected she had some sort of nourishment with her. The first thing he would do when they got to the village was take a bath, too. Or at least, that's what she hoped.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter 5
Toby was glad to be able to persuade the Elf Maiden into taking them to town. Despite how embarrassed he truly was about asking her for directions, he was honestly very grateful. He didn't know how much longer he would have lasted out here, having already been wandering the woods for two days after waking up there. It's not like he even had the type of knowledge to know what was good to eat and what wasn't. Now if he had his sword, that would have been different, but of course it had to have been taken away from him when he was put into prison.
He nodded toward the Elf Maiden, answering her question. "Yes! Thank you so much for helping us!" he exclaimed a little too happily. Clearing his throat, and trying not to bounce around like a little child, he added as he gave a little bow, "My name is Toby Nol Ciel. It's a pleasure to meet you, Maiden."
He stayed half bent for a few seconds before lifting his head to meet her gaze. Her eyes seemed softer than they had been a few minutes before, but she still seemed disgusted. Had elves always been raised to despise humans? he thought to himself, careful not to show any hint of curiosity on his face.
He could tell the Elf Maiden was debating in her mind whether to introduce herself properly to them, or just walk away. But in the end, which Toby was grateful about, she finally did. "Samara is what I'm called." she said casually, though tension was obvious in her voice. "And if you annoy me on this trip, you will regret it." she just had to add as she turned in one swift movement and began walking toward what Toby was to believe was the next human settlement.
He stood up straight, looking after Samara for but a few moments, glanced up at the man standing behind him, who had still never introduced himself to either of them, and quickly jogged to catch up with her. She walked like she was on hyper-drive, having gone farther than he would have anticipated in just a few short seconds. But nonetheless, he was determined to keep up, not wanting to get on her nerves for fear of what she would actually do to them, considering she happened to be a mage. This he was certain of, and not only because of her threat.
After a few torturous hours ticked by, he surveyed their surroundings. How this Elf Maiden knew where she was going was beyond his own comprehension. Everything around here looked exactly the same, and he was putting all of his trust in Samara's sense of direction. Which for him, seemed rather foolish...but hey, he was desperate for some human interaction. Staying isolated in a prison chamber then waking up suddenly in the middle of nowhere wasn't exactly the best of predicaments.
A few times he had almost wanted to ask if she knew where she was going. And not only that, he genuinely wanted to make some friendly conversation...and speaking to that uptight, stiff brute walking clumsily behind them didn't exactly seem like a very promising event. So before this silence almost killed him, he blurted out something that was on his mind since they first met, now almost half a day ago.
"What's an elf, like yourself, wandering around the woods alone for?" he asked bluntly, making it sound more intruding than he wanted. But it was already out there, and he knew he couldn't take it back now. But the way she answered was exactly what he had hoped.
She looked over at him, stepping gracefully over a large treetrunk in their path, and spoke as if she was used to these types of things. "I'm on a journey to save the world." she said casually.
Toby couldn't help but stop in his tracks, just staring at her as she ignored his pause and kept right on walking. He would have stayed there had it not been for the taller man coming up behind him and pushing him out of the way so he could walk on following Samara. Toby quickly had to catch up again.
"Save the world?" he asked, dumbfounded. "What exactly does that mean?"
Samara merely sighed, turning her head to look at him as they continued walking, stepping over rocks, roots, and bushes. "Exactly what I said. I would hope you're familiar with the presence of the Dark Lord and what he's doing to the land?" she told him. "And if not, then you are even more ignorant than I could have possibly imagined." she added in a more harsh tone. Even though her disgust towards humans was evident, it didn't seem like she hated his guts anymore, which made him feel much better. Especially if he had to put his future in her hands...if what she said about saving the world was true.
He didn't know what else to say, or what to talk about, so another hours of silence rolled by. Toby looked up at the sky, which was turning an ash-grey, and he noticed that they'd been walking almost the entire day without his realizing it. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't eaten yet, and he could almost feel the energy in his legs seeping through his skin. Surely elves had to eat, unless they just ignored their hunger and fatigue all the time.
"Samara, right?" he asked, making sure he hadn't forgotten her name. "Uh, would you mind if we rested for a bit? Maybe have something to eat?" he asked as if pleading, and found his stomach to be growling as he spoke. He looked down, almost embarrassed. He glanced back at the other man, who still stood straight and true, as if nothing was wrong, but Toby could see in his eyes that he was just as tired as he was. He heard Samara sigh behind him, and turned to look at her.
"Fine. I guess this path was longer than I had expected." she said walking back over to them, pulling up a rock to sit on and began making a pit for a fire. "I was hoping I'd get to the village today, but the trees had grown so thick since the last time my father walked the path that it slowed us down to make the trip another day longer."
He stood there silently, wondering who her father was. She spoke of him lovingly, though with great respect and authority. Perhaps he was someone very important to her village? He wouldn't know, he had never been to an elven village before. He hadn't even known where they existed, since no elven village was ever written onto a map.
It was a few moments before he realized that he was staring at her. Her movements were fluent, almost as if they were water, and he wondered how anyone could move so gracefully. Her eyes were intent though somewhat unfocused on what she was doing, as if she had many things on her mind that she had troubles sorting out. Toby didn't know what to do. He had never felt this way before. Watching her made him feel awkward and clumsy, and almost as if he wasn't worthy of even walking beside her.
Quickly he rushed to her side, and began helping with buidling a fire. Now that he thought about what he was previously doing, (staring at an Elf Maiden as if entranced by her beauty) his faced flushed as he worked. He tried to turn his head away a little, so as not for her to see, and hoped she would think it was from walking all day if she did notice.
He heard the other man walk over noisily, pushing over two more large stones to put them around the pit, and sitting down, not even bothering to help with the fire.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Chapter 6
Hitan watched both the man, Toby, and the elf woman, Samara, begin building a fire. He eyed them both suspiciously, though he knew neither of them were paying any attention to him. Why was he with these weaklings anyway? he asked himself. If he really wanted to, he could have found his way out of here without their help. It's not like he was lost...just temporarily misplaced.
He averted his attention to gather more stones around the fire that the other two were trying to build. After find two large-enough stones, he rolled them both over to the pit. He nestled them into the ground so that they didn't roll anywhere when sat upon, and when he was satisfied, he rested on his own seat. He waited patiently for the fire, and the warmth it would bring when the moon shone brightly.
He briefly caught a glimpse of Toby casting him a resentful glare. What was his problem? he thought to himself. I didn't do anything... These two were getting on his nerves. Yeah, sure, maybe Samara was an elf, and maybe she was a mage, but he could take her on. He wasn't afraid of some woman. Now if she carried a sword, that would be different. Then maybe she would be some sort of challenge, but her current appearance showed no signs of hostility, and if she didn't have the heart to kill, he would always win.
But he didn't expect her to fight him. She was too passive. It sort of got on his nerves. How could anyone live without the burning passion to fight? It just didn't make sense to him. Sharpening his skills as a fighter and mercenary was his purpose in life, and without it, he was nothing, just a useless piece of flesh.
Now that I think about it...whatever happened to that creature that attacked me before? he began pondering to himself, I wonder if it's somewhere around here? What sort of beast has the strength to chuck boulders? Though he kept himself calm, he remained alert and on the prowl, looking for any signs of the creature. Ever since they met up with each other, he felt a lingering presence, as if something was following them, observing them, waiting for the opportune moment to attack. And damn it to hell if it thought it was going to catch Hitan off guard.
Finally, after a half hour of tedious work and more than a dozen deathly glares from Toby, the two weaklings got the fire to burn. It was about time too. The mosquitoes were beginning to get annoying, and the smoke from the fire tended to divert them away from the group. The sun had set quickly, the night changing to a dark navy blue as the moon began to rise.
Not that he cared what color the sky was...
"You know, you still haven't told us your name." said a voice that sounded familiar to Hitan. Looking up from the cracking, flickering flames of the fire that Hitan had lost himself in, he saw both Toby and Samara looking at him. The voice belonged to Toby, the only one out of the two who would actually dare to talk to him...which was another thing that got on his nerves.
Hitan merely gave him his usual stone-hard gaze. The gaze that would normally send most weaklings running didn't even seem to phase Toby. What was his deal?? he thought angrily, It's like he isn't afraid of anything...
"Hitan..." he finally forced himself to say. He didn't particularly enjoy conversation, and thus ended up becoming somewhat anti-social. It wasn't that he didn't like people, it's just that, he'd rather kill them than speak to them. That's just how it was. Besides, what does he get out of talking, when he made his living by taking lives?
Toby gave him a smile, which made Hitans eye twitch. If either of them noticed, they showed no signs of it, since Toby just kept right on talking to him. Hitan chose not to listen much, catching only glimpses of his conversation. He was rather disgusted at how the elf woman seemed engrossed in what he was saying, like it was anything worth mentioning. Hitan merely faded in and out of his speech, hearing only a few words and phrases of his life's story. "Dark Lord" and "prison" and "taking away my sword" and "blackouts" and "can't remember" among most of what Hitan actually heard.
Soon, Hitan began getting a headache from the constant rambling of the man sitting across from him. He nibbled on a piece of rationed meat Samara had brought with her, that each of them cooked over the fire, thinking. He intended to leave this group as soon as they reached the village, since he didn't know how much longer he could stand this. Now he knew why he hated people...
~~~~~~~~~~
Light came through the canopy, shining through his eyelids, waking Hitan from a fitful sleep. He looked up into the bright blue sky, his eyes not quite used to the light just yet. He squinted into a cloud, as his eyes adjusted quickly, and figured by the sun that it was just around mid-morning. He sat up from his blanket he spread out on the moist forest floor on which he slept, and looked around. The fire had burnt out ages ago, and Toby and Samara were still asleep.
Hitan looked at them both. They certainly seemed all chummy last night. he thought to himself bitterly. All they did was talk last night, until he fell asleep. What they did afterward he didn't know. It made him angry how well they got along. It was so annoying. How can they stand each other for so long? He would have killed them by now had it not been for the fact that the elf seemed to know the quickest way to the next village. Though now, he wasn't so sure. How did they know she wasn't just taking them in circles?
He gave a closer look at Samara, sleeping soundly. He also noticed that she was practically touching him. Her slender fingers were just barely brushing his arm, which made him actually jump. He scrambled to his feet, and looked around, his face flushing. He ran a large hand through his ruffled dark brown hair, and walked to one of the stones around the firepit. What the hell is wrong with me? What was that?? he though frantically. He heaved a sigh as he rubbed his weary eyes. "Maybe I'm sick..." he mumbled, thinking aloud.
He glanced at Toby, who was still sleeping like a baby...a rather ugly baby that had an endless supply of drool. Then he turned to Samara, who had curled tighter together, bringing her knees practically to her chin. He saw a strand of champaign colored hair fall into her face as she slept. Maybe he would just move it...
Hitan covered his face in frustration. "This is a curse...I horrible curse that one of my targets put on me before I killed them. I just know it..."
Temptation_bloodlust · Mon Oct 23, 2006 @ 01:44am · 1 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
|
They all stepped inside the inn, closing the large oak door behind them. The moist air and the smell of alcohol was overwhelming. Hitan realized that the inn they had chosen doubled as a bar, and there were many people sitting at the scattered tables around the room. There was a space in the far corner reserved for musicians. A man playing a violin sat there, along with a dancing woman who accompanied him with a flute.
Hitan came in last, Samara in the middle of Toby and himself, and had to make sure he didn't hit his head on the low doorframe.
He looked around, recieving a variety of different expressions from the people in the room. A few looked at the new group with suspicion in their eyes, while others gave them each a polite smile to greet them. Most of the drunks in the place didn't even acknowledge their entrance.
Samara walked up to the bartender, and leaned over the bar so she could speak easily over the live music playing. Hitan stayed back and observed at first. He didn't want to do anything that could offend any of the people here. They couldn't afford the attention.
He noticed Toby watching the woman in the corner, and could barely see Toby's head bobbing up and down with the beat of the music. Hitan found it rather difficult not to do the same. The tunes they were playing were almost entrancing, though he also noticed that Samara didn't show the slightest signs of being affected by it.
She came back a few minutes later with a key in her hand. She pushed her hair over her ears, to keep the fact she was an elf as unnoticable as possible, and dangled the key in front of Toby. "Here you go, guys. The room's upstairs, I think I'm going to stay down here for a little while. Why don't you go up and get settled." she told them, and she walked away toward the two musicians.
Toby looked back at Hitan, a confused look on his face, and shrugged. Hitan was just as confused, and wondered what was on the elf's mind. He sighed, and decided to just ask her about it later.
He followed Toby up the stairs to emerge into a long corridor carpeted with the same color red as the streets outside. The walls also resembled the town in being almost the same white, except these walls didn't glow like the buidings did. The doors were each a different color, and there were three doors on each side. The number on the key Toby was given was 3, which opened the last door on the left side. It was a dark green color, with a golden number three hanging on it.
Toby unlocked the door and walked into their room. There were only two beds, and one window, but it had a seperate door that led to their own bathroom, so they didn't have to share the public one down the hall.
Hitan stayed in the doorway, examining the room. He saw Toby jump onto one of the beds, put his hands behind his head, sighing, and closed his eyes.
"So who's sharing with Samara?" he asked with a grin on his face, opening one eye to look at Hitan. Hitan could feel his face flush. "Hmph, nobody. I'll sleep on the floor." he said uncharacteristically humble. He decided to check out the bathroom, hoping that Toby didn't notice his behavior.
It was almost an hour before Hitan decided to head downstairs. Toby was asleep on his bed, but Hitan spent most of his time contemplating what they were going to do from now on. His plan to get rid of these two had disappeared, and Toby didn't have any intention of leaving, so they were stuck together.
Hitan shut the green door behind him and wandered down the steps. He was amazed that they couldn't hear any of the music from upstairs, considering it was pretty loud. He spotted Samara easily, since she was the palest one in the room, and her champaign colored hair stuck out amongst the black and brown around her. She was sitting at a table with the woman from before. Now that he looked at her, he noticed she was also an elf, along with the man who accompanied her. The man was now playing with two other men who must have come while Hitan was upstairs. There was no lack of entertainment in this bar.
Hitan walked over to Samara, and stood behind her chair. The woman she was with looked up at him and gave him a very pleasant smile, but she didn't speak. Samara turned around in her chair to look at who was behind her, and smiled as well. "Hitan! Have a seat." she said cheerfully, and he did as he was told. He pulled over a chair and sat down with them. The woman was still smiling at him, though he noticed something about her that didn't seem quite right.
"Hitan, this is my sister. Her name is Madora." Samara said happily, gesturing with her hand toward her sister. "She's 40 years my elder, and taught me everything I know about music." Hitan took the hand Madora extended out to him, and shook it gently.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Hitan." Her voice was smooth, elegant. Samara and her sister sounded almost exactly alike, though Madora seemed more refined than her younger sister. She wore a gown made of fine silk and lace, her hair was covered in a pale green mesh, and her feet were bare. She only wore two colors, green and brown, and it made her look natural, yet very out of place.
"I asked her where I could find the elder of this town. She said that I had to ask the Mayor." Samara explained. Hitan nodded as she told him what they needed to do from here, but he couldn't help but get distracted by her sister, who hadn't taken her eyes from him. He also noticed that, unlike Samara's radiant blue eyes, her sister had very light grey, that gave her a very eerie look. They seemed distant, and unfocused, and that's when Hitan realized she was blind.
"...so the Mayor will know the whereabouts of th elder. We just have to figure out a way to get to him without the authorities finding us first." she concluded her explanation. Hitan nodded again, finally able to tear his gaze away from Madora, and back to Samara. "When will we leave?" he asked in his usual, expressionless tone.
"We should be out of town by the day after tomorrow. We'll go find the Mayor after we get some rest." She turned toward her sister. "I guess I'll be leaving you again, Madora. It was great to see you again." she said as she pushed her chair back to stand up. Madora did the same, and walked around the table to give her sister a loving hug. "We'll be seeing each other in the future, I'm sure."
They left the elegant Madora downstairs, as Hitan followed Samara up the steps and to their room. They had to knock for Toby to open the door, since it automatically locks from the inside. It took him a while to open the door, and Hitan figured he was still sleeping when they knocked. Samara took her phanny pack off her waist and opened the flap, reaching in to take out some extra clothes. Once again Hitan was amazed at how much that pack could hold, even though he was already told that it was due to magic.
Hitan took one of the pillows from Toby's bed, and used a spare blanket he found in the closet. He settled himself down on the floor, realizing that he was more fatigued than he thought, and was asleep before Samara even crawled into bed.
Temptation_bloodlust · Tue Aug 01, 2006 @ 11:06pm · 2 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Toby stood back, watching the scene between Hitan and Samara. Hitan was probably the one person on this earth that Toby would have more pleasure in killing right now than even the Dark Lord. The way he spoke, or rather screamed, at Samara just made Toby lash out. His anger had been building for a while now, but seeing Hitan reprimand the Maiden for nothing caused him to lose his self-control.
Toby turned to head back toward the forest, ignoring the fact that Hitan had now punched out the guard blocking their only way in, and dragged Samara into the town. His frustration and anger kept him from rushing in to 'rescue' Samara from "Hitan the Brute." But his...admiration for Samara overcame it quickly.
Heaving a sigh, Toby turned around to face the bridge, now bustling with activity as guards and other personnel began gathering to form a search party for the intruders. He scratched the back of his head, debating whether or not he should head to town to save the two. He would much rather leave the authorities to Hitan, though he couldn't quite see Samara in a jail cell.
Finally, after a few more excruciating minutes of mental torment, Toby decided he wasn't going to make Samara spend so much time alone with Muscle Man...mostly for her own sanity.
He rushed over to the bridge, wishing ever more he still had his sword, and began pushing people out of his way, trying to get through. He knew the extra guards weren't going to let just anybody in, now that they let two unauthorized visitors through the gate, so Toby had to think of something. Though that didn't seem to pose much of a problem.
Toby moved to the very edge of the crowd, to the section where the guards were thinned out. He crouched behind a barrel, slinking past one of the guards yelling profanities at a bunch of traders trying to get in to sell their useless trinkets. He stayed quiet, and slipping past the guards seemed surprisingly easy. If he hadn't already known the intelligence level of the Guards here, he would have suspected something.
As he walked through the gate, he was greeted by shouting, and the loud hum of people in conversation. He had entered the Market, which was filled with people from places Toby had probably never even heard of. When he tuned in once in a while, he could hear many languages unlike his own. He saw children running through the crowd, small enough to sprint and weave easily past the legs of the merchants.
But getting back to what he had come for, he began scanning the crowd for Hitan, since Samara was probably too short to be noticed. It wasn't too difficult to target Hitan in this crowd, since he was the only one with a giant sword on his back and shoulders that were so broad he probably couldn't walk through a doorway without turning sideways. A closer inspection showed that Samara was right behind him, shouting over the crowd so that Hitan could hear her. About what, Toby couldn't tell, but she looked very angry.
Toby began working his way through the crowd. More than once he'd been pulled aside by merchants trying to sell their goods, but Toby neither had any use for them nor had the time to shop.
Finally, the crowd began to dissipate as he entered the center of the town. He was impressed by the way the town was built. Most of the buildings were made out of a white stone that almost glowed in the sunlight. He thought at first it was marble, but he realized that this wasn't any stone he had seen anywhere before. The streets were also made of stone, though they weren't the same white stone as the buildings, but rather a deep red rock. The first thought that came to mind for Toby was blood. He wondered why they would make their streets the color of blood.
The other strange thing Toby found about this town was the large wall that surrounded it. Of course he'd seen it from the outside, but when he looked at the town and how immense in size it was, he wondered how long it must've taken them to build it.
Scanning the open square, he finally spotted Samara and Hitan. They were standing conspicuously in a dark alley between two of the larger buildings in the square. Hitan was leaning agains the wall, his arms across his chest, his normal expressionless face staring down at Samara, who seemed rather excited and was speaking rapidly.
Toby took one more glance around him, searching for any guards that may be nearby. Finding the place authority-free, he ran over to the other two. When he stopped behind Samara, Hitan looked up at him. Samara immediatly stopped talking and spun around to face him.
"Toby! What are you doing here?" she asked with an apprehensive tone in her voice. "I thought you had made it clear you didn't want to help us." She squinted her eyes at him, which made Toby chuckle a little nervously.
"Uh, well...I said I wouldn't help him. I never said anything about leaving you to fend for yourself." he explained, putting one hand on his hip. "And besides...I wouldn't want to drop Hitan on my worst enemy." Toby shot a nasty glare in Hitan's direction.
Hitan grimaced, pushing off the wall with his foot, and reached over to grab the front of Toby's shirt. "I could be your worse nightmare, you fat mouthed weakling."
Toby breathed out through his nose, as he stared directly into Hitan's eyes, their faces inches apart. "Try it."
But before Hitan could do anything, Samara slipped underneath his arm, and pryed Toby from his grip. "Come on you guys, we can't keep bickering like this, or else we won't get anywhere. We came here for a reason. Whether they be different from each others, it doesn't matter, we still have to get it done. Now let's do what we came here to do, and try not to lose any limbs in the process, huh?" she told both of them. She spoke gently, as if scolding two children, though it seemed to work just as well with two grown men.
Hitan grunted, standing up tall, as if trying to intimidate them. Toby pulled on the bottom of his tunic, straightening out the loose part of his shirt that Hitan had grabbed. He was surprised Hitan hadn't wripped the cloth.
Toby saw Samara pat Hitan on the forearm, trying to get him to calm down some before something else happens. The contact between them made Toby's insides flare, though the emotion he couldn't quite identify. He could feel his face get hot, and hoped that neither of them noticed his face turning red.
Hitan was staring at him, and Toby noticed his left eye twitch. This guy has serious issues. Talk about the need for some self-control. He needs to learn how to keep his temper under control...damn barbarian. Toby thought to himself.
They both turned to look at Samara, who had cleared her throat rather loudly to get their attention. "Sorry to interrupt your little silent skirmish, but I think we may want to get out of here." she said barely above a whisper, pointing a long, elegant finger across the town square to where the street lead to the Market. Toby saw two guards, clad in the same black armor as the idiot who wouldn't let them pass earlier. One had his sword drawn, and was searching the square for the three of them. The other had his helmet on, noticeably shorter than his partner, and kept his sword in his sheath, though it hung securely at his hip. God, I hope I can get my sword back soon... Toby thought longingly.
There was a silent agreement between the three of them, that they won't argue until they were completely safe from any guardsmen around this city, and they all slipped out of the square and into a side street that lead straight to the Main Square. They would need a safe place to stay while they were here, and what better place than with other tourists. Upon arriving in the Main Square, they immediatly chose a random inn and stepped inside.
Temptation_bloodlust · Thu Jul 27, 2006 @ 06:48am · 2 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Samara pleaded with the guard to let them pass, possibly with the guard escorting them to where they needed to go. But he denied their request, as he had for the past hour and a half. Samara let out a tired, frustrated grunt, lightly stomping her foot on the ground.
She glanced over at Toby, just standing there with an odd grin on his face, arms crossed over his chest. She mumbled under her breath because neither of her two companions were helping her out at all, then turned to Hitan. Except Hitan was already off the bridge in the opposite direction.
"Hey! Hitan! W-wait a minute!" she shouted after him, turning back to the guard with a glare, "Ooh, you...you...ugh!" Samara jabbed the guard in the chest hard, only hurting her own finger on the mans black armor instead of really intimidating the man. She kept it to herself, attempting to keep her eyes from watering from the pain, and hoping the man didn't notice she had hurt herself.
She turned quickly and ran toward Hitan, who could have won a marathon race with the way he was walking. She didn't even look back to see if Toby was following, though the crunching of grass and footsteps told Samara he was right behind her.
"Hitan! Come back! Wha-" she grabbed his arm to stop him from getting away from them. "What's your problem? What are you doing? We need to get inside, and you losing your temper isn't helping the matters." she told him. She tried to sound important, figuring that Hitan might actually listen to her that way. Though, in the short time that the trio have been together, something told Samara he wasn't going to listen anyway...or even speak to her for that matter.
Well, she was wrong.
"I don't have a problem. It's the guard that has the problem!" he began shouting at her. Samara was shocked. She had never heard him like this, and it was rather frightening. She merely stared up at him as he continued to scream at her, a knot in her throat that prevented her from talking back. "I wanted to get into the town to lose you two! And I can't even do that because of that idiot!"
She saw him look over at Toby, but she couldn't remove her gaze from Hitans face. The only thing that distracted Samara was the fact that Toby had now jumped up and punched Hitan right in the face. She gasped and was pushed back onto the grass by Hitan as he reached across to Toby's neck, grasping it easily with one hand. Samara saw that Hitan's nose was bleeding from the punch, and she wanted to jumped on his arm to let go of Toby, but it didn't seem like Toby was hurt.
"Don't ever do that again, you little welp." Hitan mumbled in Toby's face. Toby had a defiant look on his face, refraining from showing any signs of fear or regret for what he did. He just stayed silent, falling onto his butt unexpectedly as Hitan let him go, realizing that Hitan had him almost a foot off the ground.
Samara stayed on sitting on the ground for a few more moments before making her way over to Toby, a few feet away from her. "Are you alright?" she asked while he rubbed his neck, keeping a nasty looking glare fixed on Hitan. He nodded, but didn't say anything. She looked up at Hitan, who wiped his bloody nose with his arm.
Standing up, she saw Hitan glancing over at the bridge, and turned around to see what he was looking at. The guard was standing facing them, his sword in hand, watching them. Great...just what we need. Samara thought to herself, as she let out a frustrated grunt.
She opened her mouth to say something about it, but stopped herself as she saw Hitan walk briskly past her, toward the guard. She inhaled deeply as she grabbed Toby by the wrist, pulling him up onto his feet, and began heading quickly in the direction that Hitan was going.
"Not good, not good, not good..." she said frantically, trying hard to catch up to him before Hitan did what she thought he was going to do.
But Toby pulled his wrist out of her hand, and looked at her with the same look he's been giving Hitan for a while now. "Let him go. It's his fault we can't get into the village anyway." He told her. "Let him do what he wants. It makes no difference to us."
Samara couldn't believe this. He sounded so cold, nothing like the Toby she remembered the first night they met. He was so open and cheerful that night. And Hitan...sure he was quiet, but now he was just frightening. She had no idea he felt that way about them, and something inside of her made her want to do what Toby had suggested. Leave him there and let him do what he wants. But she couldn't...despite what they might think, she thought of them as friends now.
So ignoring Toby, she turned and ran toward Hitan, grabbing his arm just as he swung his other arm to punch the guard in the nose. The strength he used caused him to have to use his entire body, thus causing the arm Samara had grabbed onto to lift her up off the ground as easily as if she was a doll, though it was only for a second. She hung on as she watched the guard fall backwards, his entire face bleeding profusely, making a loud clash of metal on stone as he landed hard with his armor. The mans sword landing in front of Samara's feet, and before she could think of anything, Hitan had grabbed her arm and began dragging her across the bridge and into the village.
Temptation_bloodlust · Thu Jul 06, 2006 @ 06:31pm · 2 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ok, I'm gonna need some opinions here before I start the next chapter.
Your Favorite Character:
Toby-1
Hitan-2
Samara-#
Please leave comments for this poll. This will greatly affect the storyline. (Still debating on the love match.XD)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hitan knelt down next to the now charred Chameleon-beast that Samara so helpfully took care of. He was a bit upset that he didn't make the final blow, and that it was a woman, no-less, that took it away from him. He jabbed the beast with his sword, it's scales and flesh falling like ash to the ground. The smell was horrific, but Hitan barely acknowledged it.
Though he had to admit, he was a bit sceptic about the whole battle. He was afraid that Samara could have gotten hurt, which wasn't like him at all. His emotions were confusing him, and he had a headache from trying to figure out what was so different about this elf woman. He made it a chore to keep his mind away from such thoughts, at least until Samara was no longer around to stir them back up again.
Hitan lifted his gaze from the bubbling, steaming beast under his nose to Samara, who was now sitting with her hands smoking, eyes closed, and Toby annoyingly close to her. What was up with this guy anyway? He's just so...clingy. Hitan thought to himself. He, however, was not as interested in Toby as he was with Samara's power.
This entire situation got Hitan thinking, that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to bring along the elf woman on his travels to find this 'ancient relic' that the Dark Lord wants to possess. Since it wouldn't be an awful idea to have a little extra power when trying to destroy the Dark Lord, perhaps he could bargain with her. In exchange for her power, he would offer something in return. Though it also depended on what she wanted from him. A lot of things, he just won't give.
He felt, rather than saw, the glare that Toby shot in his direction, though Hitan ignored it to the best of his ability. He felt a pang of regret for an instant, as his thouhts plumaged through the idea of using the elf woman as a weapon, but brushed it off just as quickly. He shouldn't, couldn't, get attached to people, or anything else. It's not good for his line of work.
Sighing and looking up into the sky, Hitan noticed that it was later than he thought. Now almost midday, Hitan stood and looked over to the two 'lovebirds.'
"Boy! Elf! We should be heading to town. How long until you get us there?" he asked, his deep voice easily penetrating the sounds of the forest and wildlife that lived there, his dark brown eyes now gazing directly into Samara's own radiant blue. He noticed her shutter slightly, barely enough for even himself to notice, so he knew that Toby hadn't. Hitan chuckled in his head.
The elf cleared her throat. "Uh...well, if we leave now, we should be there by mid-afternoon, or perhaps later depending on how many stops and interruptions there may be on the way." she said, with, surprisingly, no hint of hesitation or intimidation evident in her voice.
Hitan merely nodded, taking a step toward the two, sheathing his sword, and waiting for Samara and the boy to get their bearings together. He didn't bother gathering up his sleeping blanket. It was expendable. Though he watched with boredom Toby and Samara gather up their belongings and store them away in their bags. He was, however, intrigued with Samara's small pouch, that seemed to hold an immense amount of things for being so compact. She later explained that the pouch was enchanted by Elder magic, but Hitan didn't understand the most of her explanation.
They remarkably got throuh to the edge of the woods around mid-afternoon, just as Samara had told them. They had to stop but once all day, since the drink Samara had given him last night went right through Toby, or so he said.
The town was a little over half a mile from the forest's edges, surrounded by a river that blocks off any entrance except for the main gate. They had to cross the only bridge over the river in order to reach it, but it proved to be more challenging than expected.
It took everything he had to keep his sword in its sheath, and stop himself from taking out his frustration and hunger(which he wouldn't admit to) on the guards that wouldn't let them pass. If not for Samara, he probably would have killed Toby as well. That boy just annoyed him to no end.
"Please sir, we wish only to stay the night. If there is an Inn or pub inside, we would surely stay there. We don't wish to cause trouble." said Samara, who had been trying to get the guard to let them through for almost an hour. The man in the armor towering over the girl merely eyed her suspiciously. That eye would look perfect with a little black and blue. Hitan thought, but restrained himself from blowing all their chances of getting inside.
"You're an elf, and elves are not allowed into the city without written permission." said the guard, who glanced over to Hitan, who was just about the same height, and fidgeted nervously in his black, bulky armor. Hitan noticed the man was trying very hard not to look over in his direction. Heh, probably because he's a little weakling underneath all that shiny metal. Hitan thought bitterly, giving the man a glare as he glanced at Hitan just once more. The man kept his hand on the hilt of his sword, which in turn just made Hitan more annoyed and ready to bolt right into a battle. He resisted only because Samara had given him a quick look that told him to behave nicely, or else.
"I do have a parchment from my father, but I was told it was for the village Elder. So perhaps you could escort us to him so I could give him the message!" Samara bargained. The look on the guards face made Hitans insides boil. And to refrain from doing anything that all three of them would soon regret, Hitan turned on his heel and walked away. He heard the elf begin to mumble something, and stuttered between finding what to say to get Hitan back and get the guard to let them through at the same time. Toby just stood back and watched, his arms across his chest, looking as if nothing bothered him and it was the best day of his life.
That just topped it, and if the people stumbling across the bridge into the town saw the steam rising from his head, they failed to mention it.
Temptation_bloodlust · Mon Jul 03, 2006 @ 05:13am · 2 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Toby was dreaming. Something he hadn't been able to do in a long while. Though what his dream was about, he couldn't remember, since he was so abruptly awakened by the screaming of a loud voice and thundering footsteps.
He sat up quickly, his eyes focusing just in time to realized he should probably move out of the way. Hitan was being attacked by something that it seemed neither himself, nor Samara could see. It looked rather riduculous having an immensly muscled man swinging his sword all over the place hitting what seemed to be nothing but air. Toby had to stifle a laugh, though it wasn't all too hard considering he had to leap out of the way of Hitan and whatever he was being attacked by, rushing over to Samara.
He stood between Samara and Hitan, still swinging his sword dangerously close to the two of them. Toby turned quickly and pushed Samara back into the cover of the trees leaving Hitan to fend for himself. But he was given resistance when they passed the edge of the clearing.
"Toby! We have to help Hitan!" Samara said frantically. She was looking over her shoulder as she was being nudged still farther away from their campsite.
Toby just gave a sarcastic sort of laugh, sounding rather insulting, and kept right on pushing. "There's no way we can get between a crazy person and his imaginary nightmares." he told her confidentally.
Samara spun out of his grip, causing Toby to lose his balance and fall onto his face in the dirt. He heard her footsteps running back to the clearing. What does she think she's doing? You can't cure a mental case! he thought to himself, frustrated that she was going back to him. He was dangerous, but she still wanted to help him. Maybe she was crazy herself.
But still, Toby couldn't leave her there alone. So he pushed himself up off the floor, spitting a large wad of saliva and dirt out of his mouth before jumping up, brushing himself off, and sprinting back toward the campsite. There he found Samara dangerously close to where Hitan was now fighting some creature that resembled a large lizard in human form. It had...well, Toby couldn't really tell what color skin it had, since it kept changing depending on what was behind it.
The only reason they could see it now, was because Hitan was forcing it to move too fast and it's camouflage mechanism couldn't keep up, and was now just flashing different colors uselessly. It's face had an expression of worry and fatigue, having been fighting for a while now, against Hitan, who even Toby wouldn't want to battle against.
Despite the fact that Samara was in very close range of the two battling beasts, Toby wasn't going to dare go near them. One false swipe of Hitans sword, or of the chameleon-beast's large spear, and both of them would be dead. So instead, he just yelled at the Elf Maiden, hoping she had some sense and get away from them.
"Maiden! Samara! Please retreat from the battle area, unless you wished to have your head sliced off!" he shouted, though whether she was ignoring him, or just didn't hear him, she kept herself facing the two monsters brutely attacking each other. From where Toby crouched, behind a little holly bush, he could just barely see the look on Samara's face as she observed. She looked as if she was about to jump right in the middle, which caused much confusion and worry for Toby.
She really has gone crazy! If she tries to interfere she'll surely be hacked to pieces! Toby thought.
But what he saw next would stay with him for the rest of his life. He watched her eyes, that seemed to glow an eerie red-orange. They looked as if there was a fire burning brightly inside them, and as he watched, he could see her slender fingers begin to smoke. Was this the power of a mage at work?
He observed as she brought her hands up in front of her, palms facing the sky above them, completely unaware of the battle inching ever nearer to where she stood. He could see Hitan try to push the beast back away from the elf, but a hard blow to the stomach with the blunt end of the spear made him jump ever closer. Toby merely had to watch Hitan's face as he glanced back at Samara and realized what was about to happen.
Toby winced as Samara pushed her hands forward and a bright flash erupted from her fingers. A smoking flame burst from her palms and sparks emerged from her fingertips surrounding the fireball, blasting toward where Hitan and the Chameleon continuously attacked each other.
Right at the last minute, Hitan parried out of the path of the electrical fireball, which cleared the way to the Chameleon, hitting it squarly in its chest. The beast burst into flames, and collapsed to the ground as it got electricuted, it's eyes exploding in its head and large amounts of foam overflowing in its mouth. Just a few seconds later, the Chameleon lie dead on the forest floor.
Toby stayed where he was, filled with mixed emotions of fear, shock, and amazement. He just stared dumbstruck at the power unleashed by such a small girl. His attention was caught by movement near where Samara had now fallen onto her hands and knees to the ground. Hitan was standing over the Chameleon, jabbing it with his sword, making sure it was truly dead, instead of helping Samara. Selfish b*****d... Toby thought frustrated.
He jogged over to Samara, and kneeled beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder. He heard her breath was heavy, and she looked very tired. "Samara? That was amazing!" he told her with a smile, "You really saved the day!"
He saw a slight grin appear on her face, which made his insides flutter. Though why, he didn't know. Just the fact that she was smiling was enough to make him happy. Perhaps this feeling was a part of the magic that runs through the elf's blood. That must be the cause of his erratic emotions around her.
Samara sat back onto her knees, placing her hands on her thighs palms up. Toby had to move his head out of the way of the rising mix of steam and smoke that floated from her hands. She heaved a sigh, and looked up at him, her eyes still glowing with a faint red light that remained from the fire that had burned in them a moment earlier. When he stared at them, he could actually see the light fading slowly, though he wished that they stayed that way forever.
"No, I just helped it move along a little faster." she told him modestly. She glanced over at Hitan, now crouched beside the Chameleon's head, rolling it back and forth examining what exactly happened to it, watching it's charred skin flake off onto the ground. "I'm sure Hitan could have handled it himself."
Toby watched Samara close her eyes, and managed a quick glance to Hitan himself, who was gazing intently at the Elf Maiden as if she was something of great value, a prize that could be had. This angered Toby, though he knew Hitan wasn't paying any attention to him and his leer of death that he sent in Hitan's direction.
Temptation_bloodlust · Mon Jun 19, 2006 @ 12:02am · 2 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The sun was bright through the leaves, the day well into the evening, and laughter was in the air. The wind blew through the village as if it had always been this way, even though she had never felt the breeze in the marketplace.
Her father was there, speaking to a couple in front of the Old Village Oak, the very center and lifeforce of their village. He was laughing like she had never seen him do before, and he had a smile from ear to ear. It made her insides burn with the love that only a daughter could give.
The air was sparkling with magic, pixies and faeries flittering around gayfully, having a wonderous time with the small Elven children, barely 10 years old. She remembered being so young and fragile, when everything in the world was new and fascinating. That was a time of bliss, and ignorance.
She hadn't known of the world back then as she does today, almost 24 years later. She didn't know about the darkness, and greed, and lust that distort the minds of beings all over the world. She didn't know of the Dark Lord and his followers, wreaking havoc on Emex and turning many helpless people into slaves and laborers. Nor of the deteriorating supply of magic and life that was once abundant on Emex, which would soon destroy the planet once the strain of loss becomes too much.
Turning toward her home, she walks through the arched doorway, pushing aside the leather flap that sheltered the open archway. She stopped in disbelief to see Toby and Hitan standing in front of her. She was about to give them her best smile, but her heart was filled with horror and fear as their faces began to warp into the disgusting, disfigured faces of a beast.
In her mind, she didn't know what the Dark Lord looked like, having never seen him. But her heart had shown her without discretion what the Dark Lord meant to her.
She wanted to scream, but no sound would escape her lips. She opened her mouth wide to try to scream once more, turned to scramble for the door, to call to her father who would have surely protected her from such monsters. But her body was paralyzed, the beasts closing in on her, their contorted bodies changing into a black smoke that surrounded her, taking away her breath, her life, her happiness. She was trapped...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Samara fluttered her eyes open. She lay there on the hard forest floor, leaves falling off trees around her from the gentle breeze that blew by. It was bright, but she didn't mind. The light of the sun was better than the black smoke that had almost engulfed her in her dream.
She had wished many times before that she didn't have the blood of a mage inside of her. It was this blood that caused her to dream. Normal elves did not dream, nor did they have any such magical attribute other than living incredibly long lives.
Samara sat up slowly, forcing her mind to escape from dwelling on the horrible nightmare she had awoken from. She wished not to think about such things, even if her father had explained that many of her dreams would be premonitions. 'If you pay attention to your dreams, you will have the ability to change the future,' he had once told her.
At the time, she thought it was something special, a gift that only she had, that she could use to her advantage. But she had soon realized that it was more of a curse than any gift she ever wanted. Seeing the deaths of her friends in the near future, the outbreak of wars, the conquering of nations. It had become too much for one elf to handle alone. So the Counsel had given her an enchanted bottle where she would be able to store the dreams that she wished not to remember.
Now she wished she had brought it along...
Samara looked around their makeshift campsite. The fire was only a pile of light ashes that blew away in the wind. Toby was asleep a few feet away from her. She didn't notice the drool dripping down his chin. She glanced around for Hitan, who had finally given them his name last night, and found him sitting on his stone seat around the firepit. He looked distraught.
Pushing her hair behind her ears, she wiped her eyes free of sleep, and got up to walk to the stone beside him. She looked at him with worry, something that was unfamiliar to her except for the little ones back at the village. How she missed them so. It hurt her heart to realize she wouldn't be able to see their smiling faces again for a long while.
Hearing Samara's footsteps, she saw Hitan look up and practially jump to his feet, stepping back, away from her. She gave him a puzzled look at first, but decided she had merely surprised him.
"I'm sorry if I startled you." she apologized, bowing her head slightly. "Are you alright, Hitan?"
He gave her a quizical stare, but nodded sharply. He seemed as though he was avoiding her gaze. She wondered why he was acting so skittish, since she had never seen him like this before. It was a bit nerve-wracking.
Samara nodded slowly in return. "Um, okay then. I guess we should be waking Toby and heading off. We should be getting into town today and we should probably--"she was cut off when Hitan was beside her, holding his hand over her mouth. She was caught off guard by his silence, but stopped her rambling. She wondered what he was doing, when she heard something moving in the nettles beside their camp. Her eyes averted toward the sound, and could see the bushes swaying with movement, as if something crawled through the leaves.
What could crawl through nettles and not get stung or cut by the leaves? she thought to herself, as Hitan carefully removed his hand from her mouth and down to where his sword lay comfortably on the ground. Is it something hostile?! she thought frantically. Even though she was a mage, and had some very effective threatening techniques, she still didn't know how to use her power to fight in a real battle. She barely knew how to burn a fire without literally blowing something up...which was why she didn't dare use her magic last night building their campfire.
She stood silent and still, hoping that whatever was crawling so close would merely pass by them, and leave them be on their way. She figured she should probably wake up Toby, but she didn't dare move, since she didn't want the creature to notice her presence.
Hitan had his sword in hand, unsheathed, blade gleaming in the sunlight. His eyes were focused, intense, and almost made Samara want to hide behind him so that he wouldn't confuse her with the prey. She would hate to be in the path of those eyes, which, if they were a blade themselves, would be able to slice through a slab of marble.
Temptation_bloodlust · Fri Jun 16, 2006 @ 10:30pm · 2 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hitan watched both the man, Toby, and the elf woman, Samara, begin building a fire. He eyed them both suspiciously, though he knew neither of them were paying any attention to him. Why was he with these weaklings anyway? he asked himself. If he really wanted to, he could have found his way out of here without their help. It's not like he was lost...just temporarily misplaced.
He averted his attention to gather more stones around the fire that the other two were trying to build. After find two large-enough stones, he rolled them both over to the pit. He nestled them into the ground so that they didn't roll anywhere when sat upon, and when he was satisfied, he rested on his own seat. He waited patiently for the fire, and the warmth it would bring when the moon shone brightly.
He briefly caught a glimpse of Toby casting him a resentful glare. What was his problem? he thought to himself. I didn't do anything... These two were getting on his nerves. Yeah, sure, maybe Samara was an elf, and maybe she was a mage, but he could take her on. He wasn't afraid of some woman. Now if she carried a sword, that would be different. Then maybe she would be some sort of challenge, but her current appearance showed no signs of hostility, and if she didn't have the heart to kill, he would always win.
But he didn't expect her to fight him. She was too passive. It sort of got on his nerves. How could anyone live without the burning passion to fight? It just didn't make sense to him. Sharpening his skills as a fighter and mercenary was his purpose in life, and without it, he was nothing, just a useless piece of flesh.
Now that I think about it...whatever happened to that creature that attacked me before? he began pondering to himself, I wonder if it's somewhere around here? What sort of beast has the strength to chuck boulders? Though he kept himself calm, he remained alert and on the prowl, looking for any signs of the creature. Ever since they met up with each other, he felt a lingering presence, as if something was following them, observing them, waiting for the opportune moment to attack. And damn it to hell if it thought it was going to catch Hitan off guard.
Finally, after a half hour of tedious work and more than a dozen deathly glares from Toby, the two weaklings got the fire to burn. It was about time too. The mosquitoes were beginning to get annoying, and the smoke from the fire tended to divert them away from the group. The sun had set quickly, the night changing to a dark navy blue as the moon began to rise.
Not that he cared what color the sky was...
"You know, you still haven't told us your name." said a voice that sounded familiar to Hitan. Looking up from the cracking, flickering flames of the fire that Hitan had lost himself in, he saw both Toby and Samara looking at him. The voice belonged to Toby, the only one out of the two who would actually dare to talk to him...which was another thing that got on his nerves.
Hitan merely gave him his usual stone-hard gaze. The gaze that would normally send most weaklings running didn't even seem to phase Toby. What was his deal?? he thought angrily, It's like he isn't afraid of anything...
"Hitan..." he finally forced himself to say. He didn't particularly enjoy conversation, and thus ended up becoming somewhat anti-social. It wasn't that he didn't like people, it's just that, he'd rather kill them than speak to them. That's just how it was. Besides, what does he get out of talking, when he made his living by taking lives?
Toby gave him a smile, which made Hitans eye twitch. If either of them noticed, they showed no signs of it, since Toby just kept right on talking to him. Hitan chose not to listen much, catching only glimpses of his conversation. He was rather disgusted at how the elf woman seemed engrossed in what he was saying, like it was anything worth mentioning. Hitan merely faded in and out of his speech, hearing only a few words and phrases of his life's story. "Dark Lord" and "prison" and "taking away my sword" and "blackouts" and "can't remember" among most of what Hitan actually heard.
Soon, Hitan began getting a headache from the constant rambling of the man sitting across from him. He nibbled on a piece of rationed meat Samara had brought with her, that each of them cooked over the fire, thinking. He intended to leave this group as soon as they reached the village, since he didn't know how much longer he could stand this. Now he knew why he hated people...
~~~~~~~~~~
Light came through the canopy, shining through his eyelids, waking Hitan from a fitful sleep. He looked up into the bright blue sky, his eyes not quite used to the light just yet. He squinted into a cloud, as his eyes adjusted quickly, and figured by the sun that it was just around mid-morning. He sat up from his blanket he spread out on the moist forest floor on which he slept, and looked around. The fire had burnt out ages ago, and Toby and Samara were still asleep.
Hitan looked at them both. They certainly seemed all chummy last night. he thought to himself bitterly. All they did was talk last night, until he fell asleep. What they did afterward he didn't know. It made him angry how well they got along. It was so annoying. How can they stand each other for so long? He would have killed them by now had it not been for the fact that the elf seemed to know the quickest way to the next village. Though now, he wasn't so sure. How did they know she wasn't just taking them in circles?
He gave a closer look at Samara, sleeping soundly. He also noticed that she was practically touching him. Her slender fingers were just barely brushing his arm, which made him actually jump. He scrambled to his feet, and looked around, his face flushing. He ran a large hand through his ruffled dark brown hair, and walked to one of the stones around the firepit. What the hell is wrong with me? What was that?? he thought frantically. He heaved a sigh as he rubbed his weary eyes. "Maybe I'm sick..." he mumbled, thinking aloud.
He glanced at Toby, who was still sleeping like a baby...a rather ugly baby that had an endless supply of drool. Then he turned to Samara, who had curled tighter together, bringing her knees practically to her chin. He saw a strand of champaign colored hair fall into her face as she slept. Maybe he would just move it...
Hitan covered his face in frustration. "This is a curse...a horrible curse that one of my targets put on me before I killed them. I just know it..."
Temptation_bloodlust · Mon Jun 12, 2006 @ 03:04pm · 1 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
