Rythmear
Survivor
Age : 19
Joined : 09 Dec 2007
Posts : 941
Location : The place you fear.
 |  Subject: A Long and Bitter Hatred - Temi and the Patriarch  Sat Jun 14, 2008 11:33 am | |
| "It's been great to see you again Crisis." Temi smiled affectionately and poked her friend's stomach, which was still bulging from meal she had just devoured.
"Don't be such a stranger you hear!"
Crisis nodded with a grin, and absent mindedly picked a tiny sword out from between her teeth as she hugged Temi.
"Always fun Temi." She smiled brightly and released the embrace, turning to slither away back towards the great tree. "Don't get yourself into any trouble."
Temi giggled and winked. "Would I do that to you?"
With those words, she lifted herself into the air, her wings fluttering as she turned to make the trip back home...
...
And the pair of massive clawed feet padded slowly after her...
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Temi hadn't been in the air for more than a minute before she felt something amiss.
She began to scan the forest floor, diving lower and narrowing her eyes to get the best view of everything. And that's when she saw her.
The fairy lay bleeding and badly injured, her wings tattered and a long gash over her stomach. Her skin was pale from blood-loss, and a trickle of crimson had spilled from her mouth and down her neck. Temi opened her mouth in shock and dove down, alighting beside the downed fairy and inspected her more closely.
"What happened to you?" She asked, quickly thinking up the nearest locations for healing herbs that would help her patient. "And why haven't you begun to heal?"
The fairy didn't respond. She was out-cold, and despite Temi's best efforts, she refused to awaken. It became obvious to Temi that she wouldn't be able to heal her right here, and that if she didn't figure out what was preventing the fairy from healing, she would most likely die from her wounds.
She leaned in close and sniffed at the blood that oozed from her stomach...
Poison.
"Don't worry, I'm going to get he-"
The only warning Temi got of the impending attack was the shattering of a branch as a razor sharp claw tore through it, striking at her throat.
She threw herself backwards and leaped off the ground, rising rapidly out of range of her attacker, a massive hooded figure which now stood over the dying body of the fairy, its long purple skinned claws flexing just where Temi's neck had been moments before.
Her heart was pounding as she stared at the age-old gray robes, the worn red trimming... And then the snarl came. It was a sound that few would hear in their lifetimes, and was a sound that Temi had hoped to never hear again. It oozed with hateful menace, and echoed from the cavernous lungs of the massive creature hidden beneath the robes. Close to a hundred feet in height, it rose from its hunched attack position and turned slowly on the spot, flexing its claws and turning its head up to face Temi.
The long fangs...
The wrinkled purple skin...
The glowing pools of red...
"I... hate... you..."
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It had all begun many years before. Crisis had been merely a child then, just days out from her almost lethal encounter with the Tonorion...
"I'm going to gather some supplies from the human encampment. I need them to brew this stuff for Crisis. She's got some spirit in her that one..." Temi smiled and wandered outside, thinking affectionately of the little Naga curled up in the roots of the tree.
"Where is Layla?" Melany asked as Temi walked past.
"She said she was going hunting around the village... she's probably still there, I'll send her back when I arrive."
Her feet left barely a print in the soft ground as she walked, focusing on projecting the illusion of being a human around her, which would prevent any of the people of the village from seeing her wings. She picked up the nurses disguise she had taken off one of Melany's victims, and she pulled it on as she took to the air, making haste towards the town.
"Don't take too long." Melany called, stretching back and yawning, rubbing her hand over her stomach and drifting off to sleep.
However, when Temi got there, the place seemed to be unusually quiet. She touched down at the village gates as was her custom, and she wandered inside, expecting to be stopped by the city guards. The guards did not stop her, and indeed were noticeably absent from their posts. She peered around, looking at the deserted streets.
"Hello?" She called out, not wanting to catch anyone off guard.
There was no response - every lamp in the city was still on, but nobody was there to answer the fairy's call.
She shrugged and made her way towards the medical clinic, assuming that Layla had just gotten a little rambunctious again and scared the townsfolk into hiding indoors.
As she paced the streets however, she found no trace of anyone hiding... no shutters creaked open to watch her, no doors slammed, and no whispers could be heard in the dark.
Just as Temi neared the clinic, she began to hear it...
It sounded like a low groan of pain, issued from the mouth of something vast. She slowed down and listened carefully, trying to locate the source of the noise. Her senses directed her towards the town square, a few blocks from where she was.
One block away - Temi discovered why there were no guards at the gate. Bits of limbs lay sprawled all over the ground, blood coated the walls and weapons were scattered in every direction.
Dropping her illusion for the moment, she took to the air, floating a few feet above the blood and gore as she entered the square - and let a gasp of shocked horror escape her mouth.
There on the ground before her, vast and scaly, was the twitching corpse of a Tonorion. Several of its legs were broken and its neck was snapped. One of it's forward claws lay snapped and tossed aside, a bloody stump where it had been previously attached to its nightmarish body. All around the tonorion were the bodies of the villagers, soldier and peasant alike, which had been either sliced in half or crushed under the weight of the beast in its death throes.
The only creature that continued to breathe was at first mistaken by Temi to be a purple skinned male naga - but as she drew closer to it, she saw legs pinned under the corpse of the tonorion. The giant was bare, its skin bald and smooth, and save for a loin cloth that appeared to be made from tents that had been stitched together, it was naked. Its face was contorted in pain, and its hands were limply grasping the Tonorion's second claw, which was piercing the giants chest.
Temi was at his side in an instant, her hands at the wound, healing essence washing over it. However, something about the giant made him hard to heal, and the wound was unresponsive.
"Hello? My name is Temi - I'm here to help you. Why won't my magic work on you?"
The giant winced and turned its head slightly, opening its eyes a sliver, the pupils silver.
"I am immune to conventional magic unless I will it otherwise... I shall try and lower it for you." He gritted his teeth and his body seemed to tense. The healing around the wound seemed to accelerate, and Temi smiled.
"Thank you... we need to get this claw out of you. If I give you enough strength back, do you think you can manage it?"
"I think so... please hurry."
Temi's fingers glowed, and with a pulse of mental power, she invigorated the giant's limbs. With a roar that sounded like it came from a wild beast, the giant wrenched the claw free in a spray of blood. The small fairy darted aside so as not to get drenched in the stuff, and watched as it spattered the ground... and then she noticed another figure lying in the dirt beside the tonorion.
"LAYLA!"
Temi swooped down off the injured giant and landed next to the young fairy child. The fairy was human sized, having not yet mastered the ability of growth. She lay in a pool of her own blood, and her eyes were closed, her silver hair glinting in the moonlight. She hadn't learned any defensive spells, and she hadn't even grown old enough to know what her elemental magic was...
"No... Layla... wake up!" Temi placed her hand against the young fairy's cheek and closed her eyes, looking desperately for a life spark.
"She was hit full force... I doubt she survived." The giant grunted, his voice stronger now that the claw was out of him, and he continued, "The tonorion was in the area, and I had been tracking it. It came to the village, and I arrived minutes later, finding most of the villagers already dead. The fairy was there too, but she was taken out the moment I arrived... I tried to kill the tonorion quickly, but it was a vicious one, and I was sure it had me - till you showed up... thank you. I believe I shall be fully healed in a few minutes."
Temi barely heard him speak, but she registered it all the same... but she was distracted by Layla. She was far down the road of death, but she could still be saved... there was still a spark within her.
"She's alive..." she whispered, pouring all the energy she could into the fairy child, trying to ignite the spark and turn it into a fire.
There was a pause...
"What did you say?" The giants reply sounded surprised, with a hint of something Temi couldn't perceive.
"She's alive! I can bring her back, it'll just take a minute."
"No... that's not possible." The giant said, his voice shaking.
Temi smirked and waggled her finger at him. "Don't underestimate my healing powers."
And within a few seconds, Temi's glowing hands lowered, and Layla coughed back into life.
"... I don't believe it." The giant said breathlessly, the wound on his chest almost fully healed, and his fingers flexing restlessly.
"Layla? Layla?" Temi patted the child's cheek, and watched as her green eyes flicked open, darting around. "It's ok... the Tonorion is dead, you're safe."
"What about the other?" The girl whispered, fear in her voice as she tried weakly to rise.
"There was another Tonorion??" Temi said in alarm, but the girl shook her hair.
"No... the big bad man... the one that tried to eat me."
The roar was deafening, and only Temi's exceedingly fast reflexes dragged her and Layla out of the way, her wings lifting her into the air, her arms wrapped around the child.
Down on the ground below, the purple giants fist had slammed into the pool of blood where they had just been. With a growl of anger, the beast rose to its feet, and its image appeared to flicker.
"Clever little fairy... fast on its feet."
The smooth, handsome skin began to pulse and ripple, wrinkling visibly and becoming more hunched - bony... The human hands elongated and thinned, becoming long, visceral claws...
And then it lifted its head, revealing to Temi a most hideous spectacle. Where before there had been a hairless human head, there was now an elongated skull... a bony, sinewy mask of beastly hate, with rows of razor sharp teeth and two pits of glowing red for eyes. The slitted nostrils flared as the massive creature snarled its defiance at Temi, who was hovering just outside arms reach.
"What are you..." Temi breathed, clutching the terrified child in her arms.
"I am the one who will devour you, helpful little fairy..."
Temi was totally unprepared for the force of the giant beasts leap, its legs not even bending before it propelled upwards at her, its claws snatching out and grabbing her and Layla tightly, landing in a crouch on the corpse of the tonorion, its monster face staring at Temi.
"If that Tonorion hadn't interrupted my feeding earlier, she'd be in my stomach like most of the townspeople... but I shall rectify that mistake now, thanks to you... goodbye."
Temi was struck with the horror of its massive, gaping jaws as the razor sharp teeth opened wide... it was a nightmarish moment, and if the air hadn't been squeezed from her lungs, she would have screamed...
But then - she felt a hot feeling against her belly, where she was protectively holding the barely conscious Layla...
She looked down, and saw Layla's silver hair beginning to glow orange, then yellow, then red... she opened her eyes, and the tiny fairy girl screamed a high pitched cry that echoed out, hurting Temi's ears and momentarily confusing the giant creature.
Then, in the instant following, the fairy-girls whole body ignited, white hot fire pouring forth from her skin and enveloping her. Temi barely felt the flames, but her natural protection was clearly not felt by the beast...
It roared in agony and released the pair of fairy's from its grasp, clutching the blistered skin. Its eyes were closed in pain, and Temi took the opportunity to quickly take flight again, turning to flee. Layla's momentary burst of fire had finished, and she had fallen unconscious once more.
When the beast opened it's slits and gazed after the fleeing fairy, its mind filled with images of a fairy whose healing powers were matched only by its mastery of fire... a being that could cause him harm, and heal those who he tried to destroy...
"I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!" It roared, watching Temi darting away, the little fairy-girl clutched against her. "I WILL DESTROY YOU - YOU HEAR ME?! YOU ARE GOING TO DIE, INSECT!"
And that was the first time Temi heard it... the long, hateful snarl that rumbled from the throat of the beast... it sent shivers down her spine, and instilled a fear in her she had never felt before...
As she vanished into the night, the beast turned and licked at its wounded hand, and retreated into the inky blackness beyond the city walls...
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Until now, Temi had thought she had seen the last of the creature. It had never attacked the Nemyra kingdom, and none of her friends had ever reported seeing it. She had hoped deep down inside that it had been killed, but it was obvious now that it had not...
But what worried her more were the robes that the beast wore around him... they were the robes of the Cult of Zoe.
"So you've banded together with that load of fanatics... can't say I'm surprised - I know they share your hatred of fairy's." Temi said, a tremor in her voice as she tried to sound calm.
"Foolish fairy... I AM the cult of Zoe! I created it... who else do you think had the capability to boost the Naga Zoe's magical resistance to such absurd levels? ME!" He glared at the fairy, who hovered just outside range of his flexing claws.
"I... hate... you... and I will kill you... and if you run from me, I shall kill all who come between us until you are dead."
He gestured at the dying fairy, her breath ragged.
"Leave her alone... she's innocent. Let me heal her... please..."
"It causes you pain to see your kind in agony, doesn't it?" The patriarch's teeth glittered, his sinewy face contorted in a despicable grin.
Temi said nothing, but looked desperately at the fairy, unwilling to get closer, knowing her magic was entirely useless against the murderous assassin.
"I shall get you Temi the fairy..." The huge claws reached down and wrapped around the wounded fairy, lifting it up towards its slavering jaws, "And you shall suffer the same fate as this one..."
Temi couldn't even watch... fear and disgust overcame her, and she fled from the beast as it set about feeding...
She had hoped that she would never have to tell anyone, hoped that Layla could go on believing it was all a bad dream, hoped like crazy that the purple skinned monster wouldn't return to trouble her again...
And all her hope was gone...
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