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 Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 6:44 pm
"Mr. Waren! Mr. Warren!"
Something was shaking at his shoulder, something cold and tirckling was spilling onto his nacked back.
"Mr. Warren! Please wake up!"
He was tired, oh so tired. He hurt all over, his lungs burned, his back was in great pain, he could feel the skin blistering and blackening with some unnatural heat.
"Mr. Warren, pelase! They're comming!"
His eyes slit open, looked at Bode. She was so sweet, crying for him. "Bode..." he tried to reach out a hand to brush the tears from her cheek, but it would not work. It was snapped at the elbow.
"Mr. Warren?" She was frightened. Please don't leave me Mr. Warren. Whatever happens, I can make it. Just please don't leave like mommy did.
"Bode..." he whispered, couldn't raise his voice. "Bode, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." A single tear slipped from his eye, splashed on the ground. He didn't want to go like this. One regret...
"Mr. Warren please, it's time to get up!" She reached around, tried to pull him along by the arm that wasn't broken. But she couldn't move him. And she couldn't leave him either.
The darkness, soothing and inviting, called out to him. The light form his eyes began to fade. "Bode." That's it Warren, give up. Fade away into me, become nothing, let it all go.
Die here and now...become nothing....
Give up....
No...I don't want to give up. Bode, she's alive. She's a child....darkness, leave me alone for not two mintutes. The death of one such as I will will not upset the balance, give me two minutes..
The darkness receded.
He opened his eyes once more. "Bode."
"Mr. Warren?"
"I'm sorry bode." He smield softly at her. Now that resolve had settled, he was at peace with himself. "I am sorry I could not see this through to the end."
With the snapping of bone in one arm, the crackling and bleeding from his back, and the through and through muscle pain, Warren forced himself to stand. He thrust out his amrs at the persuing lab coats. He called on his one last strength. For the child...
He felt the life leave him as Wizard's Life Fire spewed from his chest, traveled down his arms, and fired at the attackers. The ball grew, and spread. It burned whatever it touched, spreading it's way through the corn fields, incinerating those before him. His final act.
And then he was falling backwards. His eyes closed, he did not feel the impact as he hit the ground. The Earth Mother was ready to recieve him.
Bode was crying, but the ooze had stopped.
Rydia watched the event unfold as if watching a film that had been slowed to a crawl. The young wizard hit the ground, and suddenly speed had gone back to normal. Something hit her as well...
"Warren!" Shocked and shaking, she ran to cover the distance btween them.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 6:54 pm
Eliot came to a cross roads. She stopped for only a moment, long enough to discovere that her prey, as she now refered the them, had gone north-east. She wasn't even bretahing hard anymore. keeping her nostrels flared to catch the scents, she tore off down the correct path.
A few moments later she felt as if her heart had burst into flames. She fell to the ground, crying out loud. she curled into a ball and screamed her silent scream, a deadly sound if one was near for it was to high pitched for ones mind to handle. It was scream she could not re-creat on her own, it had come only one other time in her life when she had lost her sister to a hungry puma.
She had killed the puma with that scream.
In a moment the pain dimmed to a silent simmering. She got to her feat, tears streaming down her face, and she ran again. Thinking that she had no reason to run. She was to late. But she couldn;t do naything else.
She ran.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 7:11 pm
"Warren!" She ran down the rows of corn, the way before her lit by a fire that would not die.
She dropped to her knees beside Warren's prone body. "Warren, Warren!" She rembered, oh god she could remeber. The Wizen Watch Tower, he had studied with ehr there. HSe kenw him, they were freinds of sorts...She placed a hand on the man's shoulder. A little girl had thrown herself across the young wizards chest, was crying and would not let go of him.
"Warren!"
He smiled softly, and his eyes opened. "Rydia?" He was already half gone. he could see the darkness, welcoming him, unfolding motherly arms and embracing him. Her voice came to him from far away.
She was only half relieved to here his voice. It was clear to her tht he was on his way out of this life, and into the next. "Warren..." her voice grew softer, and a tear slid down her cheek. Survaying the scene before her, the blackned humps that were once people, the smoldering cornfields, the little girl who was crying...she quickly put two and two together.
Wizards Life Fire. The last act of a wizard, produced only as lide was leaving their bodies, taking that life and throwing it into their magic, creating a weapon that oculd only be sued to protect the life of another.
"Rydia."
"Yes, Warren?" The smile on his face was eery, as she watched the light of life slowly leave his eyes. His skin was turning blue with cold and death.
"Rydia..." he spoked softly, and contentedly, as if he did not feel any paing form his wounds anymore. "PLease, see to Bode? Bring her somewhere safe?"
"O-Of course."
He heaved a sigh, and his fianl breath was followed by a smile. He coudl rest in peace, now that Bode was safe.
Choking back the pain in the back of her throat, Rydia prided the little girl form the man' body. "Coime now. it's all right. Rydia is here to tkae you home." It took some time to get the girl to relinquish the body. In the end Rydia was not even sure the girl knew she was being taken away.
Hoisting the child onto her hip, she ran form the fields to rejoin her father. They would take Bode to the Wizen Watch Tower ruins, and there she would seek out her family.
A litte red whisp seemed to fall from the folds of Rydia's claok, and lightly touched Bode's cheek a moment. Then it spead off into the darkness and Rydia and Stone shapper left the scene.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 7:28 pm
That little wisp came to a pacing Onyx in his room, though he did liek the new look to his wings. the little wisp floated in came to his hand like so many thousands of others. but this one had something to tell him. Warren was dead. sacrificed for Bode's safety, it had seen that form teh cloak it had been hiding in. now a girl had bode. knew warren. they had left from the oracle's home.
"Moonstone! you better be able to fly again. We're leaving, and I mean right the hell now."
Onyx flexed his wings, and hey, if the dye came off, it came off. he'd done like asked.
"We have a Captian to see and an Oracle."
Onyx didn't wait for his brother, and lept out the window, taking to the air and climbing to glide most of teh way toward the Oracle. he was pissed again. this time becasue he had immediatly assumed that the woman was in league with the captian, adn that ment he wanted to make another slave out of bode like he had whirlwind.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 7:30 pm
Eliot hadden't known where the strength had come form, but she was running in her wolfen form again, barely even noticing that she was runnign through the Hooded man's base of operations. She knew exactly where she was going and she no longer used her sence of smell, she ran on instinct.
she passed many of the soulless, but no one saw her, even if they could have they would not have been able to stop her, she was running on enery that was not her own and it would not be subdued.
She tore into the corn field, the smell stung her nose and she ran past fire, blackening the hairs on her body.
And then she stopped. In the middle of the fire, she could see Warren. Becoming human, she creapt closer to him, hoping she was mistaken, smoke burning her eyes.
But she was right, there was the skinny wizard, a scrap of robe tied around his waist. She dropped to her knees beside him. Silent.
She couldn't stop the tears. And they fell, sliding down her cheaks and falling onto the body below her. She reached out a shaking hand and touch the wizard's face.
"I'm sorry." She wispered. "Even if you do not care, I'm sorry I left without saying goodbye." She gasped, tryign to keep the tears at bay. As small as she was she couldn't lift Warren, skinny or not. She cried harder, he doesn't deserve to have his body rest here, and become fodder for the plants that would grow here again, once the fire died.
She lifted his shoulders, not noticing the black sludge that covered his body, and she held him to her breast. Tears, pure and full of pain, spilled down Warren's back. Her heart pumped against his.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 7:45 pm
Warren heard nothing, saw nothing. The blackness surrounded him, yet it had not fully embraced him. Pulsing with a cooling light, the blackness swelled. Who are you? He asked. He did not speak the words so much as he felt them.
There was a soft chuckle, again felt from somwhere. Do you not know me, dear child?
The voice was familiar, soft, and soothing. Are you my mother?
There was a short pause. In a way, you are all my children.
What am I dong here, mother?
You are dieing, son.
Then why am I not yet reeased into your darkness? Why am I suspended here in this...purgitory?
Because I have decided not to except you.
But...Earth Mother...I have no wish to live in a body that is broken and weak...please, let me rest.
A chuckled agian. When you finally realize what waits for you in that broken body, you will learn to live again. The Earth Mother reached out, covered Warren in a comforting embrace before she let him fall back inot his body. You look just like your father.
Warren's body drew ina shallow breath.
"Onyx! Wait hold on!" he turned to Kat. "Sorry, we gotta go." He quickly followed his brother out the window, catching up. "Onyx! OCme on, what's going on? He flapped his wingds somewhat painfully in an effort to keep up with his brother. Damn it was going to be a long night!
"Why are we going to see the Captain and the Oracle?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 7:50 pm
"Because the Oracle lives with the captian, and I'm goign to rip his spine out of his back though the frontside of his chest. Bode's been found. Warren gave his life to save her form whereever they both apparently were. she's with a woman, who came form that house. it's not Whirlwind, so it has to be one of the captian's slave crew. which means he'll attempt to turn her into another of his slaves like he did whirlwind."
He was pumping his wings fast, claws around unsheathed, never noting the figure below, running through tree and ground on foot, keeping one eye always to the 'sky' as the case maybe.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 7:54 pm
Eliot's crying stopped short. she had felt something.
Her heart was no longer beating alone. She was afriad to look, afraid she was imagening it. And then she not only heard it, but she felt it, Warren had taken a breath.
Her face was wet with tears, but slowly she turned, placing a hand on Warren's back to steady him. She brushed sludge and blood from his eyes.
"...Warren?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 8:06 pm
Breathe in, breath out. Breathe in, breathe out.
That was instinct now that kept him alive. He knew nothing in the daze of unconciousness, but it was not the comforting coolines of the drarkness that was the Earth Mother. This was the utter blackness of the mind.
In his little wolrd of nothing, he groaned.
"Onyx stop! Who's to say the Captian is even at this place? Or that this...woman who has Bode is going there?"
He stumbled in the air a bit, but managed to keep himself upright. "Whirlwinds told you what she believes and..." uh oh, sudden thought.
"You idiot! The Oracle has a dragon!"
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 8:18 pm
Eliot carefully laid warren on his back.
"Warren! Oh gods! Warren!" she was breathing hard, happy that he was alive. "Warren please! You need to get up!" She took off her cloak, and darped it over the wizard, hopign to give him some warmth.
"Warren we need to leave!" She didn't know how to wake him up, she had no water to splash on him, no scents to wave beneath his nose, all she had were weapons.
Her eyes were still yellow, she felt no fatigue at all. She knew, the strength, it did not belong to her. She recoginized all of the sudden, the waves that ran through her body.
"Mother!" She whispered. although it came out as a whine. "Please Mother, Warren needs the strength more than i do, please." She felt it more than saw it. Somethign rushed from her body, almost causign her to colapse ontop of Warren's stomach. She felt Warrens' body lift a little as her mother's spirit, rushed into his being.
She still needed to wake him, she bent and kissed him lightly on his cheak.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 8:49 pm
"So? the Oracle has a dragon. I'm not interested in hurting the Oracle. I want to hurt the captian, not her. the dragon is bound to her, not him."
A glance back at his twin, and a snort.
"I'm not going to have Bode become another pawn on that dark elven b*****d's chessboard. that simple. and I don't care whom or what I got to go through to make sure that doesn't happen."
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 8:56 pm
Warren's pale face might have blushed at one time, but he couldn't spare the blood. His eyes oepned into slits though, and they were coloured yellow.
"Eliot?" Barley more thana whipser. "What's going on?"
He groaned and tried to stand up, but his legs gave out and calpsed beneath him.
"You fly over there with fands and claws bared then the dragon isn't going to care who you're after!"
He was greatly struggling now. "Who says the Captain is taking her? Maybe it was just coincodence that one of his wizards has Bode."
Rydia and Stoneshapper made there way up the back path to the keep. "We'll stop here a moment," said Stoneshapper, looking with some concer at the bawlign child. "Why do you want to take her to the Wizen Tower Ruins?"
"Because the aura of that place is strong, and hopefully will help ease the girls troulbes, if not help her find her family." The ooze had began to flow again, and had made traveling difficult.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 9:07 pm
Eliot caught Warren the best she could when he fell, she couldn't hold him but at least she smoothed out his landing. She looked at him with her crystaline grey eyes.
"I don't know Warren, I thought you had died! I thought I was to late!" She helped him to sit up a little. "Warren what strength you have is not your own, but my mother can only lend so much before hers will run out as well. We must leave! before we're found!" She morhped, so to speak, into her wolf body, she would not last long but she would be stronger. She urged Warren to hold on to her fur, tugging him along slowly. She had an idea, but they needed to get outside first.
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 9:14 pm
Not relaly knwing what was going on, and understanding very little, Warreen threw an arm over Eliot's neck, and with her help he crawled out of the cornfields. The gooing was slow, and rough on his hands an knees. They were scratched abd bloody by the time they got out og the place.
Something kpet running through his head. I thought you had died...he wasn't ded then?
"I tohught I was dead too."
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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 9:29 pm
Eliot couldn't talk english in this body, her body wouldn;t allow it. She carfully managed to get warren to let go of her so that he could sit against the cliff face. She walked to the edge, and takign a deep breath she howled as loud and long as she could.
She hoped the dragon would hear her, she did not have the srtength to stay in this body any longer. she colapsed to the cold ground as a human. She brethed deeply for a moment. Then she crawled to warren.
"Yes, you are alive." She pulled a small bottle from the waste of her pants and uncorked it, it was water. She pressed it to Warren's cracked lips. "You're alive."
She didn't know if Warren even wanted to be alive, but she was happy he was still here. The burning in her heart twinged for a moment and subsided to a comfortable warmth.
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