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| .: Stats :. |
ID: sm013m STAGE: Egg PARENTS: Wild x Wild 1 NOTES: Will probably be more prone to a darker alignment. |
| .: Story :. |
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"The forest that never sees the day." She murmered to herself, her gaze lingering on the strange sky -- a dusk sky, the moon and the setting sun sharing the heavens in a kind of ethereal dance. A sky that never changed. She had heard stories of these woods -- how they were cursed, how they never aged. She found it hard to believe. But as she had entered the shadowy treeline, the pure magic hanging in the air had made her gasp. These woods were not cursed, as many had come to believe, but ensorcelled. A spell far more powerful than she could comprehend had somehow stopped the stars themselves. And surprise had quickly turned to fear -- and curiosity. Who could possibly have so much power, to create a spell like this with so little effort? For powerful spells like this one were almost always accompanied with an aura of pain, or sometimes even death -- magic took its energy from the caster, and if it was too powerful...it would take all of the energy the caster had. And sometimes, more. That's what made sorcery so dangerous -- misjudge the price of a spell, and you would find yourself dead -- as well as everything else in the area. For spells were not like a raging fire -- once they ran out of fuel, they would not simply dissipate away. They would keep going, seeking out that fuel. But this forest had no clinging aura of death, no residual pain or fear. Whoever had cast this spell had either been extremely powerful, or immortal -- or. Or there was one more option, one that allowed even the weakest sorcerer to cast unimaginably powerful spells. It was a forbidden art, but it was still practiced by those who worked...outside of the law. Sacrifice. Killing others, then stealing their soul to fuel a spell. This left no traces of aura to accompany the spell -- only the aura of an everyday murder, which was limited to the area of the killing and no further. And this is what she was going to find, if it was indeed what had happened here. That was her job. Spiritual detective...who would have guessed. Her, a child who had never exhibited any out-of-the-ordinary powers. But that had all changed... She tore her mind away from the past with reluctance. She was on the job. No time to think about anything else -- if there was a powerful sorcerer in these woods, dealing in sacrifice, she would have to be on her gaurd. Always. She took a swig from the small metal canteen that hung from her leather-clad waist, and continued her treck. -+-+- The mission she had been giving wasn't an easy one. To find the murder site, she would have to be within a mile or so of it, and even then she would only detect the faintest whisper of death. This forest spread out over more than fifty miles of land. But that wasn't the hardest part of the job. Once she found the bodies, she had to track down whoever had set the spell -- and either capture them alive, of kill them. Admittedly, tracking down the sorcerer wouldn't be incredibly hard. The spell wasn't too horribly old -- this forest had been perfectly normal a few hundred years ago. Considering how strong the sorcerer was, he would probably still be alive. But if he was alive, that would make her task a whole lot harder. Life extension was very hard to perform -- if he had lived for two hundred years he must be very powerful indeed. And her own magical powers were far from adequate -- she had no natural talent for sorcery, even though her paranormal senses were very acute. Gritting her teeth, she pushed on through the underbrush, her grey eyes flitting back and forth as she pushed her senses to their furthest extent. It was taxing work, indeed, and she wouldn't be able to keep it up for long. That was when she discovered another effect of traveling through this ensorcelled forest. No way to keep track of time. When she had entered, it had been midmorning, but who knew what time it was now? Her watch had stopped working the second she had set foot in the forest, so she had no reliable way to tell. It could be midnight, it could be midafternoon. She figured the only way to go would be to keep walking until she was too tired to go on, then sleep until she woke on her own, since her alarm had stopped working along with her dead watch. A few -- hours? minutes? -- later, she began to feel fatigued. Not terrible, but enough that she had to sit down and rest a bit. It seemed that she wouldn't be finding what she was looking for today. But she was patient, and well aware that it might take her weeks to find the bodies -- not that time had much significance, here. By the time she found a campsite, her eyelids were drooping with weariness. She unrolled her pallet, using a prepared spell to extract it from the small rucksack she had been provided with. Laying down on the soft fabric, she closed her eyes with a feeling of relief, and was soon fast asleep. But she didn't sleep long. She was awakened by a crackling of leaves and the snuffling of a large animal. She hadn't been asleep long -- her limbs felt leaden and her eyes refused to open for a moment, fatigue magnified by the bare tease of a nap she had just recieved. Sitting up, she felt herself slowly become fully aware. The crackling had gotten louder. Her eyes narrowed as she quickly rolled out of bed, snatching up her black iron pistol and loading in a clip of silver etched, .45mm bullets. When one worked with the supernatural, you could never be too careful. The thing that had disturbed her camp seemed smaller than her, but it sounded as if it weighed at least as much as she did. She knelt on one knee, dead leaves pressing against her flesh, and leveled the pistol at the surrounding forest. The constant dusk made it hard to see very far, but she managed to spot a shadow moving slowly around her camp, circling. The thing was about a hundred feet out, and partially concealed by the underbrush, but she thought it was about three feet high, with a solid build. It also seemed reptilian, but she couldn't tell from here. Still, the way it moved reminded her of the little lizards she used to catch as pets when she was small. And it was undoubtedly stalking her. Circling was a predatory action, meant to get behind the prey. Taking no chances, she sighted on the beast, and squeezed off two quick shots. There was a squeal -- she shuddered; it sounded almost human -- and the thing turned away, running off through the trees. She gathered her pack, holstered the pistol, and started off walking in its direction. After all, it was as good a direction as any -- she would have to search this whole forest, eventually, so she might as well start here. She didn't have to worry about getting lost -- her GPS was still working fine, although the time function had frozen -- so she could proceed in whatever pattern she wanted. With one last glance over the camp, she was satisfied that she had left nothing behind, and set off through the trees. The thing, whatever it was, had left a trail of broken branches and crushed saplings in its wake -- it must be too panicked to worry about stealth. She didn't blame it; if a silver ball came out of the trees and stung her, she would panic, too. It probably had never even encountered humans before, unless the sorcerer himself lived here. As she walked, however, the trail became harder and harder to follow. She had adequate skills as a tracker, as long as the beast stayed in this thick brush, but if it was adept at evading pursuit she had no chance. Which turned out to be the case. Not long after the lizard -- because that's what she thought of it as, now, whether it was or wasn't -- had seemed to regain its senses, the trail became almost impossible to follow. She soon gave up, and just traveled in the general direction they had been going. With luck, she would run into it again and be able to get a good look at it. After perhaps an hour of walking in the same direction, she discovered another problem with her mission -- boredom. The constant half-light made everything look the same, trees standing silently and monotoniously as she passed them by. Each step came after the other, her only reprieve being the giant tree roots that occasionally blocked her path. She stifled a yawn -- already she was feeling the effects of her shortage of sleep. She debated stopping for a bit to catch up on her rest, but thought better of it. If she had any hope of meeting that creature again, she'd better keep moving. She walked on for a long time. She wasn't sure how long, but her feet had gone numb for quite some time before she was forced to pause. A tree had fallen across her path, and the surveyed it to find the easiest route to climb over. It was large, and looked to be very old, the trunk perhaps seven or eight feet wide and stretching on for over a hundred feet. The trunk had been stripped by some powerful force, and only broken, splintered stumps remaining where there must once have strong, powerful branches. Ah, well, she could use them to help her climb. She walked up to the log, grasping hold of the lowest handhold, and slowly pulled herself up. It was painstaking work, but once she got to the top she could rest. She doubted anything would bother her -- the only living creatures she had seen so far were the lizard and a small bird. It didn't take her very long to reach the sloping top of the log. With a sigh of relief, she lay back on the rough bark, her muscles crying out in joy as she let them rest. With a yawn, the sat up to activate the spell and release her bedroll...and froze. Standing tall and proud, narrow head pointed directly at her, was the lizard. She saw now that it was not a lizard...if she was forced to discribe it, she might have called it saurian. Its long, slender legs ended in segmented toes with jet black claws, but its long tail was covered in scales or skin, not fur. It was a mottled black -- if she had had better light, she might have been able to distinguish another color blended in, maybe crimson or a deep purple. Its head was saurian, two long, ebony horns sprouting from the temples, the deep red eyes housing a twin set of slitted pupils. A thick, graceful mane flowed over its long neck, continuing down to the middle of its back. Looking closer, she saw a thin, shining line of fluid trickling down its haunch. This was the same creature that she had shot back at the camp. It must have doubled back...and been stalking her. It took a threatening step towards her, and she scrambled backwards, getting to her feet. Behind her back, she was slowly and silently drawing her pistol. The beast took another step forward, and she stepped back again, using the motion to cover her action as she finished drawing the weapon. Her weight shifted slightly, and the beast narrowed its glowing eyes, taking yet another step forward. But this time, she did not step back. She had her pistol leveled in under a second, but in that time the creature had closed to a distance of less than ten feet. Now it froze, in mid-step, eying the gun with anger and perhaps a bit of fear. Ah, so it had seen a gun before. Her eyes narrowed, and shot the beast point-blank in the chest. A blossom of red exploded outwards from the thick, black hide, and the creature screamed as it fell backwards off the tree. The scream echoed through the forest, echoing unnaturally. She ran to the edge of the trunk and looked down, but could see no sign of the beast through the thick underbrush. Breathing hard, she turned -- And found herself face-to-face with pair of slitted red eyes. With a scream, she stumbled backwards, falling onto the bark and scrambling to get a hold as she started to slip over the edge. It stepped forward, directly over her now, the spot on its chest that had before been spurting blood now sporting a sticky scab. She felt her hold break, her body slip off the trunk, and there was nothing was air, and pain...and black. -+-+- A groan escaped her lips, every bone in her body burning with pain. Her cheek was pressed against something wet and cold, and the ground beneath her was hard and unforgiving on her stiff muscles. She cracked open a single eyelid, wincing as the minute amount of light seared her retina. She was laying in a cavern. A layer of damp covered the grey stone, and a single tunnel sloping gently upwards was the only light source. She sat up, and groaned again. Her head felt as big as the room, and it throbbed steadily with each heartbeat. She wondered what had happened to her. Had the creature brought her here? If it had, there was no sign of it now. She had been dumped uncerimoniously on the cold rock, near the corner of the chamber. The only exit was the dark, gloomy tunnel she had seen when she first came to. Getting shakily to her feet, she noticed that her rucksack and weapon were gone. She must have dropped them when she fell...or they were taken from her afterwards. Either way, they were probably gone for good, now. Which meant she was alone in a strange cave, with no weapon, no food or water, and absolutely no way to find out where she was. Well, she wouldn't give up now. Grimacing at her protesting legs, she started walking unsteadily up the tunnel. She hadn't been walking for long when she noticed a small patch of twilight ahead, whispy tendrils of dark gray creeping down the stone wall towards her. The tunnel led straight to the surface. That was good; at least she could forage now, and not have to worry about running out of food or water. Assuming she would be able to find any, even outside the cave. The tunnel let out into a small clearing, bathed in the eerie twilight that occurs just before the sun sets. The trees seemed to lean inwards, threatening to smother the tiny patch of grass with their imposing branches, casting long shadows that blending with the dim light. The grass was soft and green, although it looked almost blue in the shifting shadows. And in the center of the clearing was an egg. She could tell right away that it wasn't an ordinary egg. It was large, with a vaguely iridescent light grey shell. It wasn't glowing, but she got a strange impression from it. Almost as if it was the opposite of glowing. She wondered if that was possible...if it was giving off some sort of light that she couldn't see. It was sitting on a nest, of sorts. Cradled in long-cut grasses, set carefully down so that it rested over the softest part. This egg was precious to someone, it was plain to see. She wondered if that someone was still around. Certainly the clearing hadn't been tended in a while -- the grass was long and unruly, leaf and stick litter was scattered about. But the egg looked brand new, as if it had been layed yesterday. She stepped forward, kneeling down next to the nest. She reached out, slowly, her fingers shaking, and brushed them against the shell...and for the second time that day, the world went black. -+-+- She came to her senses much quicker this time. Her eyes were closed. She opened them, blinking away the sleep. And blinked again. The world looked...strange. Everything had taken on a grainy appearance, as if she was looking through a giant, broken television screen and was viewing everything through a layer of translucent digital snow. There was no color, either...just black, and various shades of grey. She rubbed her eyes, but her vision did not clear. And that's when she saw the bodies. A pile of them, laying in the center of the room, dark blood seeping out across the concrete floor. She recoiled in terror and disgust, then turned away and retched. Wiping her mouth on the back of her sleeve, she stared in horror at the gruesome scene before her. She had seen death before, but not on this scale...she guessed that there were a thirty or forty bodies piled there. And all of them had been brutally murdered. Except for one. Jutting out of the corpse-strewn ground was a single post, and tied to it...was a man. He had been secured several feet off of the ground, and hung there, bound to the post. He looked to be sleeping, until he suddenly awoke and began writhing in terror. She followed his gaze, and saw the sorcerer for the first time. There was no doubt that the man standing in the now-open doorway was who she thought he was. His cloak was drawn up over his head, and glowed a painful black. His shoulders were straight and proud, his gait easy and relaxed. She could not see his face, but she would have placed him as not a day over twenty...even though she knew he had to be over two hundred years old. He was holding an ornate, twisted dagger in his fisted hand. Slowly, he made his way across the floor, in no hurry to finish the task he had set himself to. The man trussed to the post was begging now, pleading for his life. The sorcerer stopped directly in front of him, and for the first time she noticed how tall he was -- even though his victim was being held a couple feet off the ground, they were looking eye to eye. The sorcerer slowly lifted the dagger, and gently licked the length of the blade. The bound man sobbed, and increased his frenzied pleading. Gently, the sorcerer lifted the glistening blade and traced the trembling man's jawline, then pulled the man's chin forward until they were so close, they might have been kissing. They stayed there for perhaps a second, the victim shaking with his eyes scrunched shut, the sorcerer's shrouded face turned ever so slightly upwards as if in bliss. And then the man screamed, a bloody froth erupting from his lips, as the sorcerer drove the blade directly into his heart. Time seemed to stop, the man arching his back against the ropes, the blood spurting forward from his mouth and chest. But the blood did not fall to the ground...it streamed up, twisting around itself, coalescing into an amorpheous blob of glimmering, black fluid. And as she watched, the blood throbbed, pulsating in and out, spinning frantically in midair...and, suddenly, exploded. Droplets of blood were flung outwards in a hollow, expanding sphere, each drop glimmering like stars in the night sky. And as each drop flew forward, the glimmer...stayed behind. And she noticed then that the blood had stopped moving out, and were now moving around, like a black, wet planet, the glimmering light streaming into the center of this planet and slowly forming into a cold, white orb. So white, it hurt her eyes, and she had to partially avert her gaze. The last glimmering light streamed into the orb, and suddenly everything...fell. The blood evaporated into midair, steaming away into nothing. And the orb dropped into the sorcerer's outstretched arms, glowing whitely, providing such a contrast to the painful black of his cloak that her eyes hurt just to look at them. The sorcerer yelled, then, a shout of pure jubilation, holding the sphere over his head. The orb responded, glowing brighter and brighter until she had no choice but to look away. Then the glow faded, and she looked back, to see that the orb had dissapeared. She blinked incrediously, but the orb had vanished into thin air. And the sorcerer had turned to face directly towards her. She gasped, and began slowly backing up. He stepped forward, slowly and purposely walking towards her. He looked up and caught her gaze...and she froze. He had no face. Inside his hood...was nothing but black. Black that was somehow even blacker than his cloak, a black that chilled her to the bone and filled her with such dispair that she fell to her knees. Two bright, glowing eyes looked at her from that darkness, meeting her gaze and holding her helpless. She watched, trembling, as the sorcerer slowly stepped across the bloody, concrete floor, until he was standing directly in front of her...and then he was behind her, stepping through her, taking no more notice of her as if she was a speck of dust...or a ghost. And then it didn't matter anymore, because once again, the world had gone black. -+-+- She awoke sitting up, her knees folded beneath her, her trembling finger bare millimeters from the shell of the strange egg. She crumpled to the ground, all strength leaving her body, and slept. She awoke again a while later, feeling refreshed. Her sense of time was distorted, but by the way she felt, she must have slept for well over twelve hours. With a yawn, she sat up, staring at the egg. It no longer seemed as alien, the strange not-glow it had been giving off faded into nothing. In fact, it appeared quite ordinary, now. She picked it up -- it was surprisingly heavy -- and was surprised to see a soft, hide pouch nestled in among the grasses. She picked it up, turning it over. The craftsmanship was extraordinary, microscopic seams joining together a piece of soft, supple leather. Delicate, arcane runes decorated its surface. She placed the egg gently inside it, and discovered that it was a perfect fit. Well, that was one problem solved. Tying it securely to her belt, she stood, stretching her muscles with a sleepy groan, and set off to the north. She had seen the sorcerer, and no matter how frightening it was, she now knew where to find him. Her directional sense screamed at her, pulling her along...and she had a feeling she knew where she would end up next. -+-+- |