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L i b r a r y
§ Level 1T a p e s t r i e s
§ East WallG r o u n d s
§ CourtyardP o r t a l s
§ Sun GateC o p y r i g h t s
Site © Tala DracoD O O R W A Y: T H E B E G I N N I N G
These were not role-players, but rather Hunters, come from their usual posts for a very uncanny purpose. One of the older Hunters had discovered some information regarding a colony of magical creatures. Such a pitiful piece of information, but each of the Hunters had flocked here just the same. That little tidbit was more than most of them ever got. In truth, most of these Hunters had not seen a magical creature in a long time. Many had started to grow desparate. They just couldn't believe that their foes had all been taken care of.
So when this information became known, it seemed like God was showing the way again. Of course all the evil beasts hadn't been destroyed. That was what each Hunter thought.
So now they were meeting together to discuss plans of attack. Each group of Hunters from each region elected a leader to talk for them at a Council of War.
This meeting was an unprecedented act. Hunters were natural loners. To work together like this was unheard of. But they were desparate.
This meeting was only the beginning, too. Soon they would lead the concentrated force of Hunters deep into the Swiss Alps and hunt the last of their deadly foes. They would finish the final hunt. After that? Only God knew.
~~~~~~
The meeting was not going well. Tala sighed as she listened to the arguments going back and forth around the table.
"I just can't believe it," said a particularly rough-looking griffin. "How could they find out where we are? We're well-hidden."
"Besides, this is a good location. It's impervious to attack."
"We can't ignore this rumor though. We must look into it."
"I disagree. It's unlikely we face any troubles. Even if all this were true, we are talking about the Hunters. No force on earth or in heaven could possibly force them together."
"Right. They'll either spend most of their time in petty arguments, or in satisfying the lust of the flesh."
"True that is. We have nothing to worry about. They'll never band together."
Throughout the discussion, Tala looked around the table burning each of the five members of the Council into her mind.
The griffin, Bladen by name, was the unofficial voice of the Council. He was a large creature, the largest there and perhaps in all the hidden city. He was half eagle and half lion, majestic in everything about him. His eyes, at one time, had been able to peirce right into your soul. Now they seemed dead to the wolf-dragon watching.
A unicorn sat next to him, a beautiful white creature with a two foot long horn spiralling from the center of her forehead. She had once been a symbol of purity, but years living away from the world had turned her normally placid demeanor haughty.
Twin gnomes sat side by side, quiet throughout the whole procession, except for voicing their opinions for preparing in case of an attack. They were beardless, but a crop of dark brown hair curled out from underneath the pointed hats the two miniature wizards wore. Their eyes twinkled with light.
The last creature was the only one who hadn't spoken. Rather diminuative, even compared to the two and a half foot tall gnomes, the only human on the council had remained completely silent. She was small, not short or fat, but she just never seemed to be completely there. A shock of white blonde hair hung straight down her back and her blue eyes took in everything, much like Tala herself.
The two of them met each other's gaze and held it. Tala knew this woman, though wise beyond her years, would flow in the direction of whatever the other member decided. This woman was the tie-breaker. Whenever the Council was at odds, and evenly split - which happened quite often - this woman was the one to break the ties.
Tala fixed her glance on that woman, but it would have been no good. The gnomes, Hermel and Jibbity Jam, were being swayed over to the no-action course. Tala clenched her fist on the table, willing patience on herself.
After a couple of deep breaths with her eyes closed tightly, she stood up. "I won't say how much a fool you are all being. But know this. You have been sheltered here. You sought to protect yourselves from the Hunters by shutting yourselves off from everything God has made. But let me tell you this. Time hasn't stopped for those outside. There are no more of us out there for the Hunters. If you were in their shoes, do you really think you'd just live in peace the rest of your lives? Those men and women were made for the Hunt. Without the Hunt, they are nothing but empty shells.
"They will gather together. They will form an army. Not out of love for each other. Not out of anything else but the Hunt. They are desperate. Everything they have lived for is starting to unravel and reveal to them what their lives are truely worth. They don't want to see that. And there is nothing more dangerous than a human running from the truth.
"They know where you are. They will come. An army of Hunters bent on covering the truth with more lies. And when they have finished digging your graves, they'll continue on. They bury the world beneath their desparate race against time.
"I'm leaving now, to find some people who might be able to help us out. Trained warriors. But they won't do you much good if you aren't willing to protect the very things you used to hold dear."
She didn't wait for a reply, knowing if she gave them a minute, they would find some other excuse. But what had she expected? These creatures had lived in peace for a long time. Once they had been among the wisest creatures in all the earth, sought after by millions for their love... their justice... their knowledge...
Now they were just a small rabble of scared farmers. Tala couldn't really blame them for being scared. They'd had to lve in fear for a long time. They were all that was left. All their families and loved ones had left to the new world.
Tala couldn't blame them... but if they had any love of life, they'd fight. She just had to make sure they had help if it came to that. As she shifted again, back into her dragon form, she let a small shudder of fear pass through herself. A shudder for the future she hoped would not come to pass. Then she lifted her black scaled wings and raised herself into the sky, taking off back to the city where James would be waiting for her, hopefully with the information she desparantely needed.
~~~~~~
The night was calm, but James was not. His breath came in ragged gasps and his eyes darted around, peering into the shadows. There was one around here. A Hunter. James was being hunted. Already both his parents were dead. James would be soon too. He had no illusions about that.
James had gone into this line of work because of the adventture. The knowledge that he could be killed. Not that he was suicidal, but the subject of death had always been an avoided topic in his parents house, and he had always rebelled against his parents. He wasn't suicidal, but he was a risk-taker and nothing gave him a rush more than being a runner for Tala.
She had come to him. Without knowing who his parents had been, without caring, she had asked him for his help. And he had given it. Because his parents had told him to stay away from the ones like her.
They had always been afraid of the Hunters. And now they were dead. Because he had disobeyed and worked for Tala. Did he care? Sure, some part of him ached that they were no longer around to annoy. But mostly there was no fear.
What there was was the knowledge that he couldn't let Tala down. He had the information for her. And though he'd never cared about wanting people to look up to him or depend on him, it was different with Tala. He couldn't let her down and so he ran from the Hunter who was chasing him. He'd stash the papers near their usual meeting spot. He knew Tala would find them. Find them along with his dead body.
James would die, but not before completeing this vital task for the one woman he ever loved.
~~~~~~
Tala landed in a small clearing a few miles east of the city. She shifted, from dragon to dog, knowing that this would be the only way she could approach the city quick enough without being spotted. There were many strays in the city and she chose the form of a black labrador for their ability to meld into the shadows.
She was early - by almost a day - and she opted to seek out James rather than wait. This task was becoming ever more vital as each hour passed and any delays could cost them greatly.
She entered te city and immediately knew something was wrong. There was an overhwelming scent of blood and death, one that assailed her canine senses to the fullest degree. She sniffed around, following the blood trail that only a dog could see.
The city was strangely quiet as she paced through it. Even though it was still early morning, there should have been some activity. It worried her.
The scent led her directly to the cemetery, where it seemed as though every single person had turned out. Tala was able to place the scents now. One was that of James. The other two, familiar but previously unrecognizable, Tala now knew were James parents. All three were dead.
Why? How? Was it the faults of the parents, whom Tala knew to be wizards? Or had James gotten into something bad? And who could have killed them? They had been killed. Murdered, according to the priest speaking out for their souls to be taken into God's arms.
Then Tala recognized a new scent. One she scolded herself for not having noticed before. It was a pungent smell, as of someone who had not bathed for a long time, but also an aroma of tree's and nature.
There was a Hunter in the city.
Tala could have kicked herself. Most Hunter's don't kill humans. It was against their codes or something. But James parents were wizards and to a Hunter, wizards were less than human. But why James? Because he was their offspring? Or had the Hunter realized James role in her own life? So mant questions and Tala had no time to answer them. Callous as it may have been, she needed to find out if James had completed his task before he was killed... or if the Hunter had destroyed the information.
Lowering her head, she began to sift through all the different odors, searching for the one that would tell her James' route the night he died.
She could picture it in her head. James, no doubt, had returned home - for whatever reason - and found his parents murdered, lying in their own pools of blood. What had clued him in? A dart perhaps. Or else the Hunter may have been just finishing. The latter was unlikely or James would not have survived to run away.
James did run. He knew he was being hunted. He had to have known. As Tala followed the scents left behind for her, she continued to peice together what had happened. Some of her thoughts were simply conjecture, but some were coming from her gift. She knew James had run. She could almost see him clearly now.
He had not been afraid. Why he had not was beyond Tala, but there was no hint of fear in either the image she saw or in the odors she picked up. But he had run and Tala now knew that he was running because he had the information she wanted.
He was going to hide it somewhere she would be sure to find it.
She ran back to their usual meeting place. James' smell was strong here, but she found the small envelope he had left for her.
Sad, she reached down to grip the envelope in her teeth. Then the wolf-dragon stopped, for she realized that James had not died here. He had left the envelope and then led the Hunter away from it.
Tala was torn between hurrying on her mission and finding out exactly where James had died. James had been loyal, if nothing else. Always doing as she asked. She knew she owed it to him.
The Hunter. He was still in town. Waiting? Perhaps. She didn't pause to wonder why he had not gone to meet the other Hunters. She only ran on, searching out the last leg of the journey James had made that night. She followed it back into the forest, along the edge of the trees. It curved around the outside of the city limits and then it stopped.
A dark mark stained the ground at her paws. She didn't even have to bend down to know what it was. And she didn't have to be psychic to know that the Hunter was now behind her. She turned her head slowly to peer at him. He was a short man, with a belly that threatened to pop the buttons on his pants.
"So you are the emanation I felt." he curled his lip in disgust. "A little doggy. What devilry do you practice?"
I could have laughed out loud. He didn't know who I was. All Hunters have the ability to 'sense' magic. And he felt that. He just thought I was a smart dog.
He didn't know how smart. I turned completely around to face him and bent the front half of my body down toward the ground. I laid my ears flat against my skull and let forth a low growl. It was a challenge in the language of canine's, but I had no doubt he understood the meaning.
He did. "Please. Do not think to threaten me. And stop playing silly games. I know you can speak, so do it. Plead for your life while I take it from you. Pray to satan for mercy."
"Satan does not grant mercy," I said aloud, my voice straining against the dog's natural vocal cords. "And I do not beg for anything."
He laughed, smug and haughty and disgusting - to my eyes. "You're a mutt. A mangy flea-bitten scoundrel that the devil has chosen. You are a hellhound, and a pitiful one at that."
"And you are mistaken for thinking that you have me figured out. Under normal circumstances, I'd leave you be and let you try and find me. If you really wanted. But circumstances are no longer normal and you have killed innocent humans."
"Bah. There are no innocents. Anywhere. Humans see magic happen everyday and despite everything... despite God Himself forbidding it, they do nothing to stop. They simply turn and look the other way. Satan has forced his way onto the earth and those stupid humans don't care."
I straightened out and sat down on my haunches instead, looking bored. I knew better than to reason with him. Hunters thought they were God's chosen. They had no idea of the truth. Not anymore.
He scowled when I opted not to reply. "You minions of evil will be obliterated. We will crush you like ants. God has given us this task and we'll not let Him down."
He lifted a crossbow, moving almost too quickly to seen and fired a dart at Tala. But before the dart ever reached her, the wily wolf-dragon had already moved, speeding along, back the way she had come. She ran between the Hunter's legs, knocking him off balance and ran headlong, deeper into the forest.
She heard him curse and start after her, abandoning the silent lurking for crashing into the dense copse of trees. But while he was fast, she was faster still and outpaced him far enough that she had time to stop and shift again.
She couldn't have shifted in front of him because the change took too long, but now she had time, and she chose her next form carefully. She shed the fur and took on the appearance of a griffin. Half eagle, half lion, her talons were twice as long as a large man's hand and her beak could cut stone.
She wasn't going to take chances, not with a Hunter involved. Tala had shifted to this form because griffins were very fierce in battle and they had a great sense of justice. Whenever Tala shifted into a creature other than her own normal form, she gained some of that creature’s natural aspects. The knowledge that this Hunter had murdered an innocent boy would drive the griffin aspect into punishing the murderer, thus giving her even more strength then she normally would have had.
The Hunter burst into sight then, skidding to a halt as he gazed up at the fearsome creature before him. He was scared of nothing, but he had never faced a griffin before.
Tala grinned, the act making her look cruel, and stepped forward, ready to join in battle with the killer.
C o p y r i g h t :
This layout and everything with it are copyrighted to Darkmis29. The image is from Anime Visions and the brushes used are credited in my credits page.