ENDLESS JOURNEYS (O/A)

[Nova Blancke]

"Do you recall that man earlier? With the two swords? I didn't like that fella. We got away from him but it seems the kids are now his next targets." Nova recalled, staying in character.  

[PixelMuse]

"Damn it! My magic led the man to them." She sighed to herself. Trinity had no idea where her shadow would lead the man. It only had one direction to head toward for a while. She had no idea that it just so happened the same direction as the kids were. In some ways she hoped it would be an opportunity to bring them back to the party, especially if they can prove to lift their own weight.  

[ChaliceKing]

Veran Krauss felt another jerk and the blade came loose. He immediately felt his body descend towards the wolf below him, gravity now greedily grasping onto his body to accelerate his drop. There is still time. I can still salvage this. There was something gnawing at his mind now...not Alexa but something ominous. Like there was something he could feel, but was out of his reach as to what it was. He had to salvage this fight and fast.

"You have no more time whoever you are. Make up your mind now...fight me or take my offer! I cannot ask again!" Whatever this feeling was he could tell it did not bode well for him. Right now, even more than his revenge, all he wanted was to avoid Alexa's wrath.

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Rikki Tikki Travi

Kerana

 

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

Kerana

Kerana's forehead was beginning to moisten with sweat. She was trying to think of a way out of this... without thinking too much for fear of letting the debris flatten her like a pancake. She felt she couldn't call for Alec, he had to deal with the man with the rune covered blade. Wait a minute... runes... that's it! At that moment the debris slipped a little closer. She focused on the debris and wrote the runes in a shadow.

"I, Kerana, call upon the daughter of shadows to appear before me."

Shade's silver eyes pierced the darkness from the center of the rune as they gazed to Kerana.

"You seem to be in quite the bind, little fox. Is there some way I could assist?"

ChaliceKing

"You have no more time whoever you are. Make up your mind now...fight me or take my offer! I cannot ask again!" Whatever this feeling was he could tell it did not bode well for him. Right now, even more than his revenge, all he wanted was to avoid Alexa's wrath.

As the bandit made his descent, Alec hopped back and placed a moderate cyclone where he expected the man to land. It wouldn't be enough to lift him back up, but it would be enough to suspend him temporarily and be left at Alec's mercy

"Keep him at this, Pup. By what he was saying, that is a cursed blade that requires a regular blood offering to be kept at bay. The fool is a slave to a weapon. You can smell his fear and desperation, can you not?"

Alec then felt the presence of something else beneath him. It was close to where Kerana was. He couldn't quite put his finger on what sort of being it was.  

[ChaliceKing]

Rikki Tikki Travi

As the bandit made his descent, Alec hopped back and placed a moderate cyclone where he expected the man to land. It wouldn't be enough to lift him back up, but it would be enough to suspend him temporarily and be left at Alec's mercy

"Keep him at this, Pup. By what he was saying, that is a cursed blade that requires a regular blood offering to be kept at bay. The fool is a slave to a weapon. You can smell his fear and desperation, can you not?"

Veran cursed at he plummeted into a small vortex of wind. He couldn't see well enough to try and throw Alexa and have her hit someone. The wind was whipping him around too fast for him to focus. He had to get out of there! Still, as he struggled against the wind, he felt a twinge in his arm. His worst fears had come to life...Alexa had lost her patience and chosen him instead.

The physical pain shot through his arm and flew directly into his chest, cutting off his air to scream. The next was far worse. Alexa laid into him with her full unforgiving wrath, not holding anything back for his failure. Images plagued his mind. Flashing images of fire, of water, of a cave with an ancient pedestal and the eyes! The eyes had returned!

He twisted and writhed trying to escape even though he knew exactly how futile that notion was at this point. She wouldn't let him go..not till she was done punishing him. Finally the pain started to spread along each and every fiber of his body, allowing the pent up scream to be released. It's volume screeched along the air and shook leaves from their branches with it's vibrative power. The images now flashed in front of his eyes like a twisted movie and even closing his eyes did nothing to quell the pain.

The scream lasted for almost a full two minutes without a single breath to pause. When it was silenced, Veran Krauss had fallen into a deep realm of unconsciousness, his body being tossed around the wind vortex like a broken rag doll. Just after he lost consciousness, the runed sword Alexa slid itself back into the scabbard on Verans side, also lulling back into sleep. The ice blade would collapse to the ground beside him and, like him, lay still.  

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

Alec could feel the onslaught of the cursed blade from where he was. It wasn't until the bandit started to scream that he shirked away. He folded his ears down and did his best to cover them with his hands in spite of having his right shoulder dislocated.

"By the elders, when is he going to shut up?!" he asked no one in particular.

Below the rubble Shade's eyes squinted with a disembodied Cheshire smile in regards to Kerana's request. "Why certainly. I just need a little something from you first."

A shadowy tendril steadily worked it's way from the seal and wiped some blood from Kerana's brow. It retracted itself just as quickly, taking it's payment with it.

"Do not worry, little fox. This is necessary when requesting action from an Ancient. It is one of those old rules that I can do nothing about. But I digress, one exit coming up."

Her eyes and mouth disappeared within the seal and everything around Kerana went dark for a moment as the shadows spread around her like fog. Less than five seconds later she was placed outside of the building's dark side.

Once more the eyes peeked out of the shadows toward Kerana. "There you are. Safe and sound. I'd go to your guardian quickly though. Whatever happened in there appears to have injured him. Farewell for now. I hope we can meet again under more pleasant circumstances."

The eyes faded away, and Shade returned to the shadow realm from whence she came.

Inside, the small vortex of air dispelled and dropped Veran harshly just after he became unconscious. Alec dropped to his knees, gripped his right arm tightly so as to reduce motion as much as possible. He sniffed the ground, then the air, and found that Kerana's scent had moved outside. He sighed with relief, glad that she was no longer underneath the rubble.

It was then he saw a wolf forged from wind trot it's way into the building. The wolf spirit recognized it, and thus so did Alec.

"Heh...I actually did it without you this time. Maybe I'm not as weak as I thought I was." he mused aloud.  

[Nova Blancke]

The wolf looked at Alec and howled. A signal to let Nova know where they were. Afterwards it walked up to the unconscious man. It looked back at Alec then focused on the man again. It simply stood over him. He was baring it's fangs but that was it. For the moment he was only standing there in case the man did wake up with the wrong intent.

A few minutes afterwards Nova arrived with Trinity and his other stowaway. He quickly assessed the area and Alec. The kid was hurt but not worse than he initially though. Good, he needed a victory and this was a good one.

Nova gave him a genuine smile. " Good job Alec. Looks like you didn't need me after all."  

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

Alec smelled Kerana as she came closer. He turned in the direction of the scent and saw her tail peaking out from behind the rubble.

"Kerana, are you alright?" he called out to her. "I could use some help if you can manage. I don't know how much longer I can maintain this transformation and still keep my arm in a workable position."  

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

Alec sighed with relief as the pain subsided. He finally allowed himself to relax enough to revert to his usual self. He silently thanked his wolf spirit for granting him the power to stop the bandit.

He looked Kerana over to make sure there was nothing wrong with her. Satisfied, though still curious as to how she got out from underneath him, he turned his attention to the unconscious bandit.

"Idiot. I tried to warn him." he muttered.

Kerana

Nova Blancke

 

[Nova Blancke]

"He attacked us as well or at least wanted to." Nova commented calmly. "I came back after sensing that blade of his. But thankfully I wasn't necessary. Do not pity your enemy. Alec, you'd do best to leave him like that when the two of you decide to continue."