The blow was swift and well placed. The moment Nadiel's forearm struck Hebron's neck her whole body went limp and she collapsed to the ground, dragging her blade with her. Having it pulled from his lower chest so suddenly and forcefully caused Nadiel to let out a long hiss of agony. The excruciating pain caused him to drop to his knees and breathe heavily, but his senses remained intact. He heard something creeping around in the brush some distance to his left, but recognized the pace at which it moved. "Talya, I know you're there." he called to his skittish lieutenant, who had observed the whole exchange."Come out, I need your help. Its alright, I've only incapacitated her." Witnessing two of her superiors fight with such strong intention to kill was a frightening experience, and she could hardly believe his words. After taking a few moments to build up her nerve she cautiously took a few steps closer. The fact that he hadn't already shot her dead was good enough reassurance, so she did as he said and came fourth to try and have a look at the wounds sustained by both commanders. Hebron's injuries were all relatively minor, with only a little patchwork she would be fit for duty as soon as she regained consciousness. Nadiel, however, was a bloody mess. Apart from his stab wound just under his ribcage and the gash that ran across the side of his head, there were still several other cuts sustained in the duel, along with several additional injuries from his previous adventures that had not yet completely healed even with the help from the Felaryan soil. Before he could even be looked at, Nadiel spoke up and explained exactly what needed to be done. "This place isn't safe for you, take her and head back to wherever she left her garrison. Lead them back home. Tell them that I never tried to betray our village or abandon my post. I was simply doing what was necessary." His lieutenant reluctantly agreed, she hated to leave him behind but even if she didn't he would have died from blood loss long before making it home. She departed, and once again Nadiel was left in solitude.
He no longer had the strength to move and was left helpless, lying on his back and bleeding to death. His vision began to blur and his hearing faded away. At this point he had little to hope for. It would only be a matter of time before he was found by any one of the myriad of creatures who were just dying to make quick work of such a tasty morsel. Soon enough he was found, and though he couldn't see or hear who was there, he could feel the touch of fingertips delicately stroking his nearly lifeless body. Whose fingers they were, he couldn't say. He couldn't even tell if he was being treated so gently from being pitied or being prepared to be consumed. He had made peace with the latter possibility, even if he was to be eaten, at least the predator wasn't doing it errantly. He somehow managed a chuckle at the chance that he was being caressed so that his body might serve some good by being treated as some sort of sensual delicacy. But something strange happened. The moment he laughed out loud the fingertips ceased to touch him and something else did. There was no way for Nadiel to know for sure what this was, but if he didn't know any better he could have sworn it was teardrops. He strained himself to speak. "Why did you stop? I can't fight back or do any of my tricks. My body is yours for the taking. Its broken now, it has no more value to me, but even if it only makes for a sub par meal at least it can do you a little bit of good." His attacker had quite a response to this, but Nadiel simply couldn't hear it. By the time he had finished the sentence he had already blacked out.
It was quite a shock when he somehow found the energy to open his eyes some time later. It was even more shocking that when he looked down at the rest of his body he found that for the most part it was in one piece. His surroundings had changed, though they were vaguely familiar. He had been here before, but he couldn't remember where 'here' was. He still couldn't quite pull himself upright, and was left staring helplessly at the emerald canopy above. His gaze was interrupted when a certain blonde bent over him to see if he had finally come to. "You're finally awake" said Crisis with her usual smile. "Oh, its just you" Nadiel replied in perhaps the most depressing tone of voice he had ever used in his life. "Who were you expecting? No one else around here promised not to eat you." This caught Nadiel's interest. "Promise, you say? To whom did you make such a promise?" Crisis' smile grew, she even giggled, but said nothing. Nadiel didn't expect her to admit that she had been fraternizing with the object of his search, but it had been worth a try. Instead he changed the subject. "So how long was I missing?" he asked. Crisis had to think hard to remember exactly how long it had been since she had found him lying unconscious in the middle of the jungle, but it had been more than two days. Nadiel was surprised to hear than when he was found his bleeding had already been stopped and that he had been placed far closer to the great tree than he was when he had collapsed. But something wasn't right, if it was Ryoko who found him, why did she leave him afterwards? If it wasn't his kind that was keeping her from revealing herself, could it possibly be hers? Moreover, if Crisis wasn't going to give him any juicy details, who would? And beyond that, even if he knew who to ask, he had nearly run out of ammunition and his equipment was still ruined by the jamming signal that had been used to track him. He needed to resupply, but heading all the way back to his village would have been very foolish indeed. It so happened that Crisis' breakfast that morning had been a messenger who had been on his way to Negav, and his satchel contained one particularly interesting document. The news was that the mighty Nadiel family had been redeemed when its last surviving member had been confirmed to have sacrificed himself for the betterment of his village, and at his funeral he was given the highest accords of valor. This gave Nadiel quite a laugh. Fancy that, he had been buried as a hero. The last thing he needed was to show up and ruin that distinction.
There was only one other place to he could go to procure the supplies and parts he needed, so he took the messenger's satchel and prepared to head to Negav himself. The last thing the Negavians needed was to see a ghost, so it would be better if they got all of their news save one piece of information. Nadiel left behind his mask, generator, and rifle scope. They were all worthless now so he figured that if he couldn't use them, perhaps Anna could at least have some fun playing around with mysterious Ellisian combat gear. He was still quite fatigued, but managed to make it to the west gate of Negav with plenty of sunlight to spare. It had been three years since he had last laid eyes on the city's magnificent walls, and its even more impressive interior. As he strode through the bustling streets he was just another face in the crowd, but one that got a little more attention than he wanted. Even if the locals didn't know that he had been pronounced dead it was just a bit too much of a coincidence that only a few days earlier some of his kinsfolk had been looking with great urgency for a man of his exact description. He could barely imagine the looks on their faces if they knew that it was a dead man that was walking around their city. But it was not the human inhabitants of this place that he was looking for. He headed north, towards the neko quarter. Somewhere in there was where he would find the items he was looking for. The nekos were significantly more warm towards his arrival. To them, the Ellisians were the great avengers, who delivered justice to the various races that plagued them so. As Nadiel entered their neighborhoods he was quickly surrounded by curious faces eager to know just how many monsters he had slain that day. A few audacious youngsters even tried to peek under his cloak to see how many weapons and trophies he carried. But he had no time to answer questions, the one stop he made was to toss a coin to the neko equivalent to a gypsy girl who had been dancing to some street performers. The prospect of watching this foreigner try and use a neko rope bridge also drew a sizable crowd. The house that he arrived at looked no different from any of the others surrounding it, if anything it appeared more modest, but in there was Nadiel's secret weapon.
With a knock on the door Nadiel was met by yet another of his obscure acquaintances. It appeared to be a youthful neko male, but this was quite the deception. The effects of the Felaryan soil had done wonders for this individual, and in truth he was more than a century old. But that wasn't the only thing that wasn't obvious about this fellow. In fact he was one of the most esteemed neko mages, but perhaps the least well known. He was, for all intents and purposes, a secret weapon. "Aryeh, old friend, I need your help." Aryeh took a good look at his visitor, and seemed puzzled by who it was or what he wanted, but after a moment he snapped to attention and took Nadiel into his home with open arms. Even for a member of his race he was unusually prolific, and in no time Nadiel was up to his neck in Aryeh's veritable herd of offspring. There were quite a few more than Nadiel had seen in his previous visit, so he was temped to ask just how many more litters Aryeh had fathered since then. With a hearty laugh Aryeh insisted that Nadiel take up the issue with his wife, who was glaring at him for having forgotten the answer himself. But it was obvious that Nadiel did not come simply to keep tally of his children, so the time came to figure out what it was that brought him all this way. It was quite the tale to tell, and the truth always was stranger than fiction, but it was clear enough that there was more than enough necessity for Aryeh to unveil the project that Nadiel had commissioned to him a few years ago. While a handful of his daughters began to tend to Nadiel's remaining injuries, Aryeh scurried off and fumbled through his workshop trying to find the item he had long since completed.
"So what do you plan to do with these?" Aryeh inquired while still trying to locate his contraption. "Simple," Nadiel replied, "I'm going to take back what's mine." Aryeh already knew precisely what that was, but some questions remained. "Will your master approve of this?" being chief among them. "Probably not, but he does not need to know that I haven't given up the search." Nadiel retorted, as he handed over the announcement of his funeral. "Don't you know? You're speaking with a dead man." Aryeh sighed heavily. "This isn't wise my boy, your place is to become the next Lord Ellis when the time comes, and that will be most difficult if you've already passed." Nadiel winced at the prospect. "Believe it or not I have no intention of becoming yet another Lord Ellis. I like having my own life and personality, having them erased to fill the old man's shoes does not sit well with me." "That is disappointing." Said Aryeh, "I remember when the first Ellis came to me when he had just begun to build his little village, asking for the same help that I'm giving you right now. You do him great credit, Its quite a shame that you will not continue the work that he had begun. Ah! I've found it!" And with that Aryeh stood and presented a glistening object. This had been the fruit of his labor for all of those years.
Subject: Ch. 6 -Reunions and Recompense 
Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:26 pm
