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 Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 7:46 pm
Victory.
It was brief but the warmth of accomplishment that washed over Iorek's trembling form felt amazing. It was absolutely wonderful and for a moment, just as contact was made, he was happy.
But the raw joy vanished in a puff. Dust spewed across Rek's vision as his target, his prey, the man he sought to end shattered against his strength. There was no time to celebrate as he was instantly sent into a tail spin, toppling head over ribbon as he collided with branch after branch.
The beast grasped desperately for something to latch onto to stop the dizzying motion but the only thing to lend a hand was mother nature's hard earth. A loud crack sounded the demise of yet another stone on Iorek's damaged arm and the growing cracks that webbed across his skin.
Pain. The feeling sickened him.
The gargoyle grunted as he pushed himself off the ground. The hunter was gone but not in the way Iorek had hoped. He had vanished. Disappeared without a trace. He was STILL out there. Another trick...another trap...
Anger rekindled Iorek's desire to keep fighting but with the damaged arm he was beginning to waver. He was just so tired.
At least he was until Reks was attacked by a blurred force. The gargoyle snarled as his weary body was jostled violently by the enraged arachnid. She may not have been able to sink her pinions into him but it still hurt. His skin, which had already proven it could crack and bleed, was under attack.
He was going to break. He couldn't break.
There was no concern for his fellow teammate whatsoever when Iorek quickly latched onto her and tossed her to the side like a sack of potatoes. He just wanted to get the pressure off so he could breathe. Anya may have been fierce but an angry and panicked gargoyle would not tolerate her antics.
Reks barred his teeth and stalked towards the spider queen. He didn't like being attacked. He didn't like being pushed around. And he didn't like her. At this moment in time, as Iorek stared down at her, he couldn't recall who she was but oh...the bile that bubbled up his throat told him he didn't like her.
It was time to squash this pesky bug.
The beast raised his bloody fists to pummel her before she could attack again and possibly end him but the fresh scent of blood enveloped his senses. It wasn't the hunters but oh it was delicious and after all this he had been through Iorek was feeling hungry.
He needed food to survive and the hunter could still be tracked once he was sated. Why waste time on a itsy bitsy spider when he could fill his belly?
And then, just like that, he was off again. After withstanding several bumps and bruises the gargoyle was moving slower but he hurried off in Cesc's direction in hopes of devouring something he hadn't had the taste of in so many years: fresh meat.
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Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 9:37 am
As Iorek took off once more, it wouldn't be long until he felt a wave of dizziness hit him. He had lost too much blood and his body couldn't cope with all his excessive force and movements. The world started to blur and swim around him as vertigo hit, and he would find himself falling head first into a thick bush.
However, if the both of them would've calm down and sense the forest for the hunter, they would find that he no longer exist. There was no more movements in the trees aside from the occasional tree animal, which is very rare at the moment. Anya would not be able to sense him anywhere, no matter how far she reached. And the smell of spice and earth that Iorek was tracking? A faint trace of it came from the shattered clay doll at the bottom of the tree.
Could it really be... that the hunter was not really alive to begin with? It was just a puppet that was controlled by someone, or something, and once it was caught, it was no longer useful so the puppeteer had let it go...
For the moment, the trio would find themselves separated, but alone.
The air was completely still and the complete silence was deafening as Cesc traveled downhill. There wasn't any rustling in the trees, there wasn't a single living thing around aside from the young stag. However, in the distant he could see something moving, glowing a golden yellow, just like his own eyes, something staring straight at him.
The trees thinned into open air as Cesc approached, and the Frei would find that he is at the tip of a cliff with a sharp drop. Disturbingly, around the cliff he could only see darkness. There are no distant mountains, not even a hint of a silhouette. The cliff fades into black about a hundred feet below them, and no one would be able to see the bottom.
When the Frei got close enough, he would realize that the golden eye was floating atop someone. From his current angle, he could only see the man's body and legs, his head was obscured by the black pillar with which the glaring eye stood upon. The many shadowy tendrils wrapped around the man, like it was claiming some sort of prize. The man looked like he is in very very poor condition, or is likely dead. His limbs were skinny like bones, and through his tattered shirt Cesc could almost make out the shape of his ribcage. Whoever he was, he was not the man he used to be. However, Cesc could also see something else... the man had a head of white hair! Is this... is this really Kyou??!
A weak groan was suddenly heard. It was so weak that people would normally have missed it if the surrounding darkness was not as silent as it is now. The man... is alive!!
DO NOT GO NEAR KYOU when you found him, even if he seemed like on the verge of death. WAIT FOR ME!!!
Oddly enough, Jeremy's words rang through Cesc's mind at that moment. What should he do?
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Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 6:20 pm
It was impossible not to notice the silence as it descended around him, the stillness of the jungle shadows as they overtook the foliage. The figures of trees and branches whizzing past his peripherals slowed and melted into an inky nothing, and all the discordant sounds of the jungle went along with them. Cesc could hear only his own ragged breathing as he went into the black.
The sudden descent continued below him, but Rhedefre came to an abrupt stop as he saw a flash of gold close -- lord, too close -- beside.
A giant golden eye, straining for him, bulging as it stared at him, as though trying to reach him. His own eyes widened as he stared at it, and suddenly he could hear his heartbeat like war drums in his head.
This was his opposite, this gold-eyed creature of darkness and fear and loss. This was the end.
He knew it was. The signal to Kyou stopped here. He had arrived, and he knew it. His heartbeat continued to speed even though he had stopped, and the sudden lack of motion made him feel light-headed and queasy, his chest tightening. He was near his limits and he knew it, and he'd leaked out enough blood that his head wanted nothing to do with the rest of him. His throat tightened, then opened. He swallowed air, gasped in air, trying to calm his body down.
Rhedefre had never been in the presence of something like this. He saw the body lingering beneath it, white-haired and shallow-breathed, legs and arms like a bunch of sticks with leather wrapped around them. His mind gave him a sudden picture of one year ago: a garden party where he met a man, a tall, broad, black-haired man of bright eyes and an easy smile. A man who'd offered him a drink and had smiled upon seeing him, and whom he immediately felt pride in. Respected.
The stag bent suddenly, dry-heaving, unable to expel anything but unable to keep the emptiness down. It was too much. Too much for him alone, and he knew it. A year ago that man had been what he should be. Safe and protected and competent and whole. A year ago Rhedefre had come out of his maze, dirty but amused, with a new friend and a story to tell.
God, he'd gotten so dirty that day. He thought he'd never get clean.
But that was different.
Now he was disgusting. He felt disgusting, inside and out. His face was caked with mud, and he could taste it when he retched, in his teeth and on his tongue. There was dirt all over him, and moss, and bark, and sap, and muck, and jungle bugs. His antlers were bruised and his ears were heavy with grime. He was all sweat and blood and soot and scratches all over, and now he spat into the darkness to get a taste out of his mouth that only spread.
That eye ruined him. Ruined his friends, his creator. He watched it strip the competence and vivacity from Zeke. The poise and regal nature from Anya. The kindness and compassion from Iorek. The life from the one who'd given him life.
It ruined him. It gave him a deep and living fury that he did not know how to exorcise. He felt disgusting, down to his core. He felt he would never be clean, or pure, or whole again.
His left hand curled around the arrow he still carried, his fingertips blunt against its sharpened edge. He wanted to hurl it into the golden eye. To stab it. To put his antlers into it. He wanted to take the flare and to shoot it directly there, to shatter it like glass. Like a mirror. Terrible golden-eyed things that they were together.
They could go together. Destroy each other like matter and anti-matter. Collide and explode and disappear.
Hey.
It was Shepard's voice, quiet in his head.
Or was it Zul's?
Iorek's. He couldn't focus. What did it matter?
...... cesc.
Vivi's. Melisande's. Zurine's.
Rhedefre sucked in a breath. His eyelids fluttered over the feverish brightness of his eyes. Was he still being followed? Did he even care?
He frowned and tried to concentrate on the voice. Louder now.
Cesc.
Luka's. Eiry's.
His fingers twisted over the flare gun. He looked up into the black leaves of the canopy he knew was still there. He mustered his strength and flew up, into it, his eyes still down at the bulging golden eye beneath him.
He held the gun over his head and squeezed the trigger and let a rain of green splinter the black all around them, light exploding in every direction.
That's right, the unrecognizable voice said in his head. It sounded proud.
Light breaks dark.
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Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2013 10:29 pm
'We need to stop...'
A snarl and a harsh 'No' silenced the quivering voice that rang over the rustling and breaking of leaves and branches.
'We're not going to make it...'
Yes I can.
'We're falling...'
The voice, soft and concerned, whispered it's worry to the gargoyle as he pushed and darted through the jungle. But this time, as a sickening feeling spread across Iorek's fluttering form, the angry voice had nothing left to say.
The raw power that drove him forth could not stand against the wall of exhaustion. The blurring of the forest was no longer a showing of speed but of illness. Beast had been the scourge of the forest and try as he might, there was no way of stopping his falling star descent.
Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Like a hurtling meteor, Iorek fell through the jungle's trees. The forest sang joyfully as the gargoyle descended into it's depths. The jungle, now a broken mess, at last held the the terrorizing monster in it's clutches. Finally he was put to rest.
Iorek was back to his senses and the most unfortunate time. Wind rushed past his face along with leaves, twigs, bark, and anything else he toppled into. Did he just hit a possum? No matter how hard he flapped his wings or how much he struggled to grab at something, the raevan plummeted and collapsed in a loud heap on the jungle floor.
Exhausted, the raevan just laid in his mess. He could barely recall how he got here or what brought this on. Everything in his mind at the moment was all a scrambled puzzle that he was just too tired to put back together. Right at this moment, Reks thought it would be best to lay in this particular spot, amongst the mud and greenery, for a thousand years. Oh what a delight that would be. Not only did the heaviness of exhaustion fill him. It had brought along a friend, the terrible ache of pain.
Besides, Iorek decided with his face resting against a pillow of mud, it was better this way. He'd been a harbringer of trouble for his ragtag team up until this point. Nothing he'd done at gone right. But he did feel a warmth of satisfaction over some fuzzy memory he had yet to clean. What could it be? What was strong enough to ease the hallow feeling of failure?
It was just then a brilliant green light exploded above him. Iorek cast his gaze to the Heavens and stared at the beautiful glow that spread across the sky.
A flare! What did that mean again? Oh! Kyou had been found! And he was close, so close if Iorek would get a move on he could help. Even if he'd stumbled several times during this excursion there was still hope that somehow, someway, he could be of use. He wanted to be a hero! And heroes never quit. Even when they faced their greatest foe and were down to their very last ounce, they found a way to win over evil.
And so would he.
Slowly and carefully Iorek found the strength to push himself up. He kept his focus on the light in the sky that ignited his hope. Iorek had been beaten but he was not going to give up. His friends needed him. So he began his trek towards the light. The raevan stumbled this way and that and he was hovering so low to the ground his ribbon caressed the earth.
Just a little bit more. He told himself as he made his way forward. As soon as this was over he could sleep for weeks, but until Dr. Kyou was sitting on the bus he had to use every ounce of strength that was left in him to head towards the beautiful green glow.
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Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2013 7:53 am
When the creature that had attacked her revealed himself to her, Anastacia had a moment of perplexment. The beast - for that was what he was in her eyes at this very moment - looked familiar and the Virus Frei felt as if she knew him from someplace or sometime before. This moment didn't last however, as before she knew it she was being tossed aside like trash. A startled cry left her lips as she once more spun head over ribbon before correcting herself in midair as before. That first sound died as quickly as it came and was just as quickly replaced by another scream of fury as her newest attacker turned tail and ran.
Without missing a beat, Anastacia pursued. The hunter she had been chasing was now long forgotten and Anastacia was oblivious to his missing presence in this glade. She had a new quarry now, and damned if this one would get away from her!
Find him. Hunt him down. Make him pay.
On his knees with his forehead pressed against the jungle floor with his eyes pinched shut, Zeke would have missed Iorek if not for the Gargoyle's less than stellar landing into his midst. The crashing of all types of flora under the crashing Raevan's drew the veterinarian's gaze skyward in time to watch the fallen meteor crash land in the brush off to Zeke's left. He followed the descent and Zeke could only gape at what he saw, his mind blank and buzzing.
It couldn't be...
Then the meteor began to move. It was a slow, haggard movement but there were wings, massive purple-streaked arms, and Zeke had seen enough of the back of Iorek's head to know that the sweaty, leaf and mud-caked hair belonged to the Stone Frei. Zeke could see all this but he didn't immediately move even as his teammate struggled. His mind was a blank slate and he was trying to piece together what had once been written upon it.
Zeke was acutely aware of his heart hammering a mile a minute in his chest and a tinny flatline of a sound in his ears. It was Iorek, it was clearly Iorek. But there was blood on the trees and a trap and there had been roars of pain from the Gargoyle. He had been so sure Iorek had...
A scream ripped the still air in twain, one that sounded like victory and rage hitting a crescendo. Zeke put a crick in his neck from turning his head so fast, but caught sight of Anastacia leaping from a tree down toward their fallen companion. She was on the Gargoyle in the blink of an eye; wings raking against his stone skin, hands tearing at his hair, and a very arachnid-sounding hiss emanating from deep withing her partial chest.
Zeke finally moved.
His legs felt like lead when he got up, but he did get up and he put all his strength into clearing the distance between himself and the two Raevans. Anastacia had not seen him - too preoccupied with harming Iorek to notice her Guardian's approach - and the vet used that to his advantage.
"ANYA STOP!" He grabbed the Frei from behind and ripped her from her prey. Immediately she began to struggle in his arms, her wings flailing uselessly at the air as he pinned their bases to their bearer's skin. That arachnid sound grew louder and Zeke felt his Raevan's nails rip at his forearms as she struggled to and fro in his hold. He bit back the pain and used a new surge of adrenaline to turn and throw Anya as far as he could. She went spinning and Zeke placed himself between her and Iorek, arms stretched wide.
"...Oh my god..."
The words came out without thought but were excusable when one saw Anastacia the way Zeke saw her now. She righted herself then turned to face him and she was almost unrecognizable. Gone was the stoic beauty and chilly aloofness his Anya carried like a banner. The Black Widow that floated before him harkened to her soul more than he had ever seen before. Wings and crown were spread wide and readied for attack, her face was a distorted look of pure rage, and her eyes - the pupils of her lavender pair were so dilated they matched the set of four on her brow perfectly.
In that moment, after everything they had come through and everything they had experienced, it was she who now scared Zeke the most. He took a step back - the step of a prey creature and the step of a scared man - still shielding Iorek. They had to go. They had to get away. But he couldn't just leave her here.
As she looked at the man now standing between her and the familiar-yet-not coward of a beast, Anastacia felt the same thing she had when Iorek had revealed himself to her. This one she knew somehow, somewhere, someplace far away. But that didn't matter. He had come between her and her quarry and had done what Iorek had just done - thrown her away.
He was now a target.
She could handle two of them with ease.
This one was particularly fleshy, as the blood on her silk spewing fingers and the blood trickling down his forearms proved.
Just tie them down. Make sure they can't move. Then she could do with them as she pleased.
She saw the second target - a bloody creature; shirtless and caked with sweat, mud, and jungle refuse - take a step back from her. That smile that had vanished in her pursuit of the stony creature returned. She looked half mad now and the look of fright and despair on the human's face grew deeper into the lines and shadows of his face. She found she liked that.
He said something - a name. It sounded like hers and it sounded like pleading but the crackling in her ears muffled it to the point where she found she didn't care. He had gotten in the way and now he was prey. And she had been sitting here staring at him for far too long! She made her move, but then green light blasted through the darkness and blinded her.
"Iorek, run. IOREK, RUN!" The scream of pain Anastacia made made the vet's heart ache, but he knew they couldn't linger and wait to see what would happen even as she covered her eyes and doubled over, hissing and spitting. She was not his Anya right now, that was plain as the look on her face, and the green light beckoned.
Zeke turned on his heel and grabbed a hold of the Gargoyle and half dragged, half lifted him across the jungle floor. They only had a few precious moments and a head start was imperative. As he pulled Iorek along, his muscles screamed and begged for rest but Zeke ignored them as he had before. They had to get there. Cesc needed them; Dr. Kyou needed them!
But despite the danger they left behind in the form of his daughter, Zeke didn't have it in him to just leave her there; alone, angry, in pain, and in the returning darkness. Every other step he looked over his shoulder and with each look he called for her.
"THIS WAY!"
"OVER HERE!"
"ANYA!"
Over and over he said those things and more, listening to the initial screams of anger from her and the following sounds of her pursuit in the canopy above.
We just have to get there, he told himself, once we do, everything will be okay.
Soon enough the trees began to thin and shortly thereafter Iorek and Zeke broke clear of the treeline. Zeke had the first note of Cesc's nickname on his lips as soon as he saw the shadowy form of the Stag from several yards on and as he and Reks exited the forest, the last part of the Dawn Frei's name left him. It was not on the roar he had been expecting however, but soured and faded as Zeke saw the Eldritch Horror that had plagued them and waited for them since they first entered the jungle.
"Holy s**t." Iorek sagged off his shoulder, Zeke's grip suddenly lax. The great eye in the darkness, which emanated from this thing like an aura. The source of all their fears and self doubt. The cause of all of this.
Zeke reached for the knife and found it missing. It didn't matter, not when he was suddenly eye level with the ground, the wind knocked out of him once again, and feeling the weight of his Frei on his back.
The human had gone down and with him went Anastacia, who steadied her fall with the hydraulics of her over sized wings. Zeke was dazed, but lucid or not it didn't matter to her. She got him and now that she had him, he was hers to finish off for interfering and attacking her.
Warm, sticky gobs of silk pooled under her fingernails and she pressed them to her Guardian's skin. Once they held, Anastacia pulled her hands back and with them made strands of silk. She was going to wrap him up first. Bite him and run him through second once she had attacker number two in such a bind as well.
Find him. I did.
Hunt him down. I have.
Make him pay. I will.
Beneath her Zeke struggled, coming back to his senses and coughing out for help. His left hand grabbed one of her pinions and squeezed hard, but she had another, and damned if she wasn't going to make him stop. She raised her right wing and her torso as well, head pulling back with the motion to pinpoint the place she was going to run him through with. Her eyes went up for the barest of moments and it was then that she saw what Zeke had been staring at and it captured her attention just as it had his.
The hunter who had lead her on a wild goose chase had been forgotten. She had been oblivious to his lack of presence when Iorek had bowled her over and off that tree. Here and now though it hung in the air like a foul odor in a closed room and she was pulled back to her original motives for breaking off from the group. This was the hunter. This was her attacker, her original one. The one who had pierced her skin with an arrow and put the crackling sound in her ears. The one who had led her on that godawful chase through the jungle and left traps and tricks for her to find and rip from every tree.
"You son of a b***h."
She ripped Zeke's hand from her captured wing with the barest of glances then rose from the raver's back. He could wait. Iorek could wait. The brown thing hanging off to the side could wait. In a time like this, Anastacia would do things in order, thank you very much.
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