Solo Journal Entry
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It was pretty late by the time Cordelia got to Durem, the meeting with Cruz back in Gambino and the train ride having already taken up a great bit of her time for the day. Still the snake was determined. She would solve this mystery today if she had anything to say about it! Luckily it was late afternoon and Ebby would be working well into the evening in Barton, too busy to even stop for a proper dinner let alone think about what Cordelia was up to. Adrian on the other hand would only be preoccupied with his tinkering in the basement for so long before venturing upstairs for a bite to eat. He was typically okay with her going off on her own and “living her life” as he would put it, yet even an easygoing grandfather such as that would question if his granddaughter weren’t around once the sun went down. Searching a town as big as this in such a short time frame meant she had to be logical in her methods and not waste time with places she had already been and knew were dead ends. So the question now was, where to start?
Floating out of the station, the raven haired Frei drew in a deep breath before letting it all out in one gust. This wasn’t going to be easy. She’d been over a good part of the city already and still not as much as a blip on her radar to indicate that something or someone was waiting for her nearby. She was beginning to wonder if she really was looking in the right area at all. Maybe she was right to be in Durem, but wrong to be looking in it? This question really got her thinking now. What was around Durem then? Delia closed her eyes, crossed her arms over her chest and thought long and hard. Thinking back to her lessons in geography, Cordelia began physically pointing to each direction as she remembered what was that way. To the south was the smaller Halloween Town. To the east was some waste facility, which honestly she knew couldn’t be where she needed to go cause eww that was just gross. To the west, the huge cemetery and the Von Helson Manor. Delia had no intention of going anywhere near those places since she knew it was a notorious stomping ground for non-societal vampires and the like. And finally to the north was the Durem Caves.
Before her finger could finish pointing in the direction, Cordelia’s eyes snapped wide open. Just the thought of caves, those caves, seemed to send a wave of pure longing crashing along her insides. So it was the caves and not the city was it? What the hell exactly could be all the way out there for her anyway? Should she even trust these odd feelings to begin with? The smoky Raevan sighed, combing her delicate digits through her sleek hair. Maybe she was thinking too much and should just let these feelings guide her where she needed to go or at least where they wanted her to go. After all, she hadn’t really been full of thoughts when they had led her to Durem in the first place before right? Besides, she needed answers and she was determined to get them no matter what.
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Cordelia was glad she’d had the foresight to stop by a convenience store to purchase a flashlight before heading to the caves because by the time she got there the sun was already on it’s downward course towards setting, the sky a menagerie of blues, violets, oranges and reds. With the fading light outside, the inside of the caves were most certain to be an inky blackness. And though she had no real fear of falling to her death obviously, ramming her face into walls and whatever else was in there did not sound any more pleasant either. Thus standing at the dark, gapping mouth of the cave entrance, Delia took a moment to steel herself before switching her light on and floating in. Something was telling her she was meant to be here now.
She was actually surprised by how absolutely ordinary this place looked. For some reason she had pictured a place full of rats, bats, a multitude of insects and perhaps a well placed skeleton here or there. Instead Cordelia was meet with mostly solid slabs of rock, the gentle growth of soft moss as well as the soothing drip of water from various stalactites further off in the distance. She could honestly say that this place probably would make a great home for someone if they liked quiet and isolation from the city. And it wasn’t like telemarketers were too keen on bothering you if you lived in a “creepy” cave as it were. She was starting to understand why Bruce Wayne preferred it to his overly posh and stuffy mansion.
It was pretty straightforward and uneventful for the snake until she got to a three-way junction.
“Great…now which way should I go?” This was something she hadn’t thought about, getting lost in the caves because she didn’t have a map or anything. She had nothing on her to use as a marker, but luckily she’d been trained well by her guardian to know that she’d just have to use whatever was around to create one. Locating a few loose stones, Delia quickly constructed an arrow in the middle of the area before the tunnels pointing towards the way she’d come from to know later that that was the exit. Satisfied, the smoke girl dusted off her hands and made her way down the middle tunnel.
It wasn’t long before she stopped dead in her tracks. Jaw dropped open wide; Cordelia was in awe of the destruction that lay before her. A cave in (and a violent one at that) had occurred at some point creating a giant chasm of which made it impossible for anyone stuck to the ground to get around it safely. Being a Raevan came with its advantages. Curious about what lay below, the dark Frei made her steady descent into the ruins.
Something wasn’t right down here. Cordelia felt that the darkness should be more so given that she was going underground, yet it seemed somehow lighter than where she’d previously been. Turning off her flashlight to test a theory, the snake realized there was a second light source coming from off the left of her. There a natural entryway had been created between two giant, leaning slabs of rock allowing dancing shafts of light to pour forth into the carnage of the cave in. Floating closer, Delia peeked in slow. Her jaw dropped for a second time at the sight before her. Vast mountains of gold, gem encrusted jewelry, even various amounts of priceless art such as vases and portraits. With a fortune like this, Ebby would never have to work a day in her life again! Hell maybe even the entirety of the Lab’s guardians!
Though the thought of being absolutely, filthy, stinking rich was entertaining, Cordelia knew she could never carry this entire treasure home right now by herself. Besides her guardians would be more than curious to know where she’d found it all and that was a can of worms she did not want to even contemplate opening right then. Thus she pushed the thought aside to be addressed at a later date. After all she wasn’t here for treasure. Or at least she didn’t think so? Who knew? Maybe once she’d found (or didn’t find) what exactly she was searching for, then maybe she could think about taking some of this gold home. For the mean time, Cordelia continued on with her quest.
As the smoky girl made her way slowly past the heaping mounds of wealth, Delia could have sworn she’d heard voices whispering off in the distance. Yet they were too low or perhaps too far away for her to make out exactly what it was they were saying. Then again, and Cordelia was leaning more towards this hypothesis, maybe it was just the fact that she was all alone in such a strange place that she was hearing things. In fact she wouldn’t be surprised if she started seeing things too, like one of the many stone statues suddenly springing to life and attacking her.
Speaking of stone statues, Cordelia couldn’t help letting out a loud gasp then as she rounded a corner and found herself face to face with a rather large and unusual one. Though the others had been made in many strange and differing attire, they all had one common theme, they were all humans or at the very least humanoid. This one was anything but that. Exquisitely detailed, the long, tubular body was covered in large scales of which one could only come to the conclusion that it was some sort of giant snake and yet, the wild mane of feathers encircling the head and the clustered patch that finished off the tail begged to differ. Whatever it was, Cordelia thought it absolutely magnificent and breath taking. Transfixed upon the beauty of the creature before her, the Raevan was unaware of herself floating closer until she was mere inches away from the head. Smiling, the girl reached out a hand to touch the cool stone.
Cordelia seized up as if she had been shocked with an electrical current, unable to move her hand from upon the statue. Violent and vivid images flashed through her mind so quickly then she was unable to truly process what it was she was seeing. Yet there was no mistaking what she saw and felt last. Something metallic glinted at her as it made to quickly come at her. She felt herself tense and try to stare it down, to use some power of hers to keep it from moving again, but for some reason it didn’t work and the thing just kept coming. It was too late to try and get away as she felt something slash into her belly. Cordelia grabbed her chest tight with her free hand and struggled to breathe through the pain. The girl became even more frightened when things started getting colder and her vision began to blur and darken and she fell to the ground. She couldn’t lift herself up, everything felt so heavy. Interesting enough, just when she was wishing Ebony was there, that’s what she saw. The Brit was obviously out of breath, sweat dripping from her face, the purple haired woman threw something aside, a dented shield and bloodied sword. She was talking to someone, a white haired man who seemed just as out of breath as the other was. Aphi? A great relief washed over her then like a rubber band snapping on whatever it was that was keeping her grounded and Cordelia felt herself lifted and slipping away from the dull pain in her body. The last thing she saw was Ebony and Aphismet looking in wonder at a glass bottle full of green smoke.
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She must have blacked out at some point because Cordelia found herself lying on the dirty ground. Somewhat confused, the girl sat up and looked around before realizing where she was still. Reality hit like a ton of bricks when she saw the basilisk statue before her again. No, not a statue, a body, her body, her old body she had before she was a Raevan. Quickly the girl scurried as far away from the thing as she could, hitting her back against a pile, the ripple quickly moving through it and loosening many coins that rained upon the Frei. And yet Delia ignored it. At that moment it felt like something had broken inside of her. The one person she thought she could love and trust above all others had been lying to her since day one. Without knowing it, the thing she’d been searching for all this time had been the truth.
Just as a low whine started at the back of her throat and tears began to swell large in her eyes, Cordelia caught sound of a series of sinister hisses. Then came the voices again, but much closer and clearer this time.
“Whatever it was, it came from over here.” declared a boyish, male voice.
“Are you sure it wasn’t just another rat?” mused a most feminine voice.
They never got an answer as a large, scale and feathered tail slammed hard right in front of Cordelia. A new strong, male voice joined the other two and it become clear very quickly of whom it belonged to.
“Found you prey.” Grey eyes filled with fear locked with the fierce, golden gaze of a young basilisk. He wasn’t as big as the one Cordelia had been, but he was plenty so next to her now as a Raevan.
“That’s funny…” replied the female again, slithering out from behind a pile of gold and jewels followed by what Delia could only guess was the other snake she’d been conversing with earlier.
“…it doesn’t smell like prey. Well, not completely anyway.”“Yeah yeah! Xia’s right! It smells like fear, but something else. Something more like…” He sniffed the air deeply then.
“…like smoke and…us?”“Us?” the one starring Delia down then scoffed.
“What are you blind? It’s so obviously nothing like us!”“Perhaps, but it’s not like any other creature we’ve seen thus far either Zale. Perhaps we should-“ Xia began, but was so rudely interrupted by her brother.
With a great roar that shook the cavern,
“No matter what this thing is, it is still an intruder! If we sit here and continue discussing the thing could easily get away! And then what?! It could come back with others for the treasure! You know how greedy these things can be!”As the three argued, the last one’s name apparently being Zaki, Cordelia’s fear was slowly subsiding as her mind tried to think of how she could make her escape quietly. It was plenty obvious she couldn’t go the direction in which two basilisks were and yet the other way didn’t seem any better even if it was only blocked by the one. This Zale didn’t seem the type to allow just anything to slip past him. And yet she had to escape now! If she didn’t, Delia was quite sure she was as good as dead. It struck her then that she could simply dissolve into her vaporous form and sneak away.
Just as she was about to implement her plan, Zale’s outrage took hold of her attention at the moment.
“You are too soft and indecisive Xia! What would mother have thought of you?!”For all her banter, this was the one thing that shut the girl right up. The uncomfortable silence grew painful most literally as the three looked to the statue of Cordelia’s former self in mourning. Another hit of reality sent the Frei sliding to the floor, tears welling in her eyes once more.
“Mother…” Delia managed to croak out as fuzzy memories drifted through her head.
“…I was…a mother…”The three basilisks snapped their heads towards Cordelia now, looking upon her as if they had just noticed her presence there. They seemed confused as well as astonished. Since when could prey understand them, let alone speak back in a similar tongue?
“Did it…just speak?” asked Zale, certain he was going mad then.
“What did you say?” asked Xia at the same time her brother had spoken.
“I was a mother…your mother…” Cordelia replied as she looked up into three sets of golden eyes, her own silver ones teary, but having yet to release their deluge completely.
This was enough to spur Zale’s wrath and he lunged at the Raevan, but his sister was quick to intervene, wrapping herself about him as a means to slow him down.
“Stop! I want to hear her out!”“OUTRAGEOUS! LIES! HOW DARE YOU MOCK THE MEMORY OF OUR BELOVED MOTHER?!” It was quite clear he was beyond reasoning with at the moment and Xia knew she couldn’t keep him contained for much longer as he was most definitely the strongest of the three.
“URRUGHHH! ZAKI! GET HER OUT OF HERE!” the female basilisk roared as she tried to keep her brother within her grasp.
“But…” the boy whimpered, confused about what was happening.
“JUST DO IT!”And with that Zaki quickly grabbed Cordelia by the collar and headed for an exit. But it wasn’t long before Zale had broken free of Xia, slamming her hard into a nearby wall, enough to render her unconscious and unable to help anymore than she already had. Luckily for the Raevan, where Zale was the strongest, Zaki was the quickest and managed to dodge every single one of his brother’s attempts at snatching them, quickly zipping between the piles of treasure with such ease as if it were merely a grand game of chase.
But of course this was no schoolyard folly as the young basilisk was quite seriously enraged and determined to destroy that which dared to claim him as kin. Reincarnated mother or not, her memory would be avenged. In a renewed fit of rage, Zale decided it was best to try a more direct method at getting at them and started bursting through the surrounding golden mountains instead. Shining coins and glittering gems showered them and yet Zaki kept going for Zale was, for all his determination, gaining on them steadily.
It wasn’t far now. Cordelia immediately spied the crack in the wall of which she’d entered. The basilisk’s roar was an unusual hissing one that was for sure, but it still held all the boom and horror that a giant monster of its magnitude could muster and caused the smoke Raevan to look back in utter terror. Zale was so close now that any minute he’d surely catch his brother’s feathery tail as the wall was a straight shoot now and Zaki could no longer elude the other.
Delia was just opening her mouth to warn the young serpent of his brother’s closing proximity when she was suddenly thrown roughly from the boy. Groaning in pain from the impact, the girl quickly scurried to find what had happened. She could see she was out of the snakes’ den; the boy having thrown her straight threw the crack. Dust rose and rocks fell from above as the two basilisks fought on the other side.
“ZAKI!” Cordelia screamed. She tried to float back, but was stopped short when a huge stalactite fell right in front of her, sealing the entrance to the lair once more. Faintly she thought she heard him answer back over the noise of the fight. Run…and don’t ever come back.
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