Post by mourninglife on Apr 18, 2012 21:55:07 GMT -5
Soft chirping filled the air as the sun slowly rose up from its brief break during the night. Several birds weaved through the air and around the winding branches before landing for a brief moment, letting out a trilling chirp and fluffing up their feathers to groom themselves for another short flight. They took off, lightly disturbing the leaves, and flapped around. One of the birds soon broke away from its group to investigate something dark on the ground. It flapped its wings several times before landing on the broad side that seemed to have faint veins running through the thin skin.
That particular bird chirped before deciding to peck at it in quick succession. Suddenly, the ‘ground’ flexed and lifted up quickly, scaring the small bird away as the wing settled back down on the real ground. A groan emitted from the crimson shape as it moved to sit upright.
“Ugh….” Ao moaned, wincing at the slight movements required to sit up properly and carefully felt the crusted cuts on his torso. He glanced down to see some blood slowly oozing out between the cracks within the crust. He let out a sigh and shook his head as he stood up, shuffling his feet to catch any wayward weight.
For a split second, he felt the guilt tugging at his heart, attempting to convince him to return to where he had placed that odd elf. He glanced over his shoulders for a moment, seeing nothing more than peaceful green scenery behind him. He scoffed as he turned his head to face the same scenery in front of him and begun to walk, his tail swaying lightly. He could not go back, for the path was always forward.
The hybrid soon encountered a river and dipped a hand into it, sipping the escaping drops of water and putting it back within the gentle flow of the river. He repeated this process until he felt that he was sufficiently hydrated. His emerald eyes scanned the area around him in a search for some kind of rags he could use. No such luck presented to him and merely disappointed him.
“I have to clean these cuts before…” He murmured, once more glancing at his wounds. He certainly did not want it get infected and cause him bigger troubles than what he had right now, which was to find food as quickly as possible. However, He could not strain himself too much out of fear that the pain could cripple him momentarily, which could be enough for the prey to either flee or attempt to harm him. His eyes brought his attention to a bunch of fruits. At least, he could eat some fruits while healing.
The drake halfbreed stood up carefully and walked over to the fruit. A soft noise, almost like something had been snapped, as soon as he had stepped closer to the fruit to where he could reach over to it. His head jerked up at the sound before the net had flown upwards. He had no time to react properly since it was a surprise trap. For a moment, gravity did not force its pull upon him as he was lifted upwards and dropped slightly, causing something to ring. The sharp ring echoed and hung in the air, causing the captured man to hold his breath out of fear that someone was there, watching him.
Soon, it became clear that somebody was coming from the sounds of twigs breaking and loud rustling noise. He moved around and swiped at the top part of the net with his tail-blade. The ropes that made up the net and held it up fell apart easily underneath the metal blade, dropping him to the ground. Flipping expertly, he landed on all fours and leaped away from the site, not bothering with the fruits.
The hybrid glanced around as he ran through the foliage and found no one was chasing him yet. Letting out a huff, he continued to run in great bounds his body could allow while ignoring the stabbing pain within his wounds. Surely, he could clean it later when he wasn’t walking into traps. He finally found a quiet area and sat down, panting from the run itself. Once more, he glanced around and found himself mostly alone, aside from the creatures that roamed through the jungle, be it on land or air.
“Augh… If they can find me soon, I’d be amazed.” Ao said to himself, reclining into the grass to relax. A soft rustling noise announced itself to him and he sat up quickly to see some sort of vines heading towards him. He took a step backwards from what he was seeing, getting too close to the vines behind him. They suddenly reared up, much like snakes when enraged or protective, and made an attempt to wrap themselves around his body.
He leaped from his spot and landed, ready to run away when he felt some vines clamping down on his tail and rear legs. A snarl escaped from the drake as he allowed some uncharged electricity to burn most of the vines off before running away as quickly as possible. He growled as he ran, unhappy that he had to run away so soon, however, he did not want to get caught by those odd vines. Was someone else hunting him after all?
As he disappeared into the depths of the jungle, a booted foot stomped on the exact spot where he had leaped from.
“DAMN IT, I TOLD YOU HE’D DO THAT!” A masculine voice shouted. The owner of that voice glared at his companions as they shuffled around to make some space for their spell they had used to locate Ao in first place. They chanted briefly and an image popped up, showing the hybrid’s location amongst the forest.
“Here he is. About half a meters west from us.” A cloaked woman spoke up, allowing her hands to fall to her sides. Her cold, golden eyes glanced in the general direction of where that monster was at. She slowly raised a slender hand up into the air to cast a magic spell.
“Don’t. Not yet. He still has some strength left. It’s better if we attack those wounds and make it deeper.” The other man cackled, rubbing his dirty hands together. The woman merely wrinkled her nose and lowered her hand.
“Hm… Imagine the reward! Did you see the size of that thing? It’s probably the biggest Mag I’ve seen so far! Hah, we should milk that stupid Dwarf until he gives us all of the money for the trouble he caused on us!” The solider elf interrupted the brief talk, smiling as wide as he could. Oh, the riches he could get!
“What should we do to further weaken him? Mithos has already given him a weak spot, from what Leit’s creatures has told us.” The Elvan man grinned, his dirty face contorted in twisted glee. He was already creating plans within his mind.
“Hah, just get vines in there and restrain him. Leit, send out some small golems to distract him. Maybe, this time, we can actually wound him more than that failure.” The first elf muttered, folding his arms as he considered his plans. It seemed to be foolproof to him.
“Alright Enthm. Don’t blame us if Mithos somehow knows you called him a failure when he finds out about this.” Leit muttered, bringing both of her hands up in front of her, palms facing downwards as a spell circle expanded until it was barely touching the fringe of her cloak. It was rather simple for a spell circle for a reason.
She chanted a simple line and brought forth several small earth golems, each coming after one. She stopped her spell when there was four golems present, all lined up before her. All of them were quite short, barely coming up above her knees, and was created out of nothing but rocks and masses of vines writhing underneath the rocky surface.
She smiled a cold smile as she gazed upon her successful results of that summoning spell. After all, this was a jungle, right? So why not take smaller versions of Earth Golem and put them to work? Sure, it was a bit underhanded but, in the end; it was all up for grabs.
Wasting no time, she swiftly moved her hand in the general direction of Ao. The golems moved with surprising speed, curling up into rocky balls, and spun towards their target as they moved around the trees.
“Cozek, do your best. If you can get him down, then we can find something nice for you, hm?” The Elvan woman murmured, placing a tender hand upon Cozek’s dirty arm.
“Yes, big sister.” Cozek managed a kind smile at the woman before turning around to follow the rumbling golems.
Enthm walked up behind the woman and muttered, “Move. You need to stay within range for those golems to work properly. Otherwise, that thing will destroy them. It clearly has enough power to completely annihilate that huge Shade.” With that, he lightly shoved her towards the direction where everyone was running to.
“Don’t push me! I know what I’m doing.” Leit snapped with a huff and walked into the jungle, followed by the male solider.
She could feel the golems’ quick progress as they made their way and had one golem stop for the dirty Elf to catch up. Even if she had cold surface, she still cared for her little brother, unlike the solider that was busy trudging behind her, his armor hindering him greatly within this environment.
As she heard another curse rise up from the man behind her, she rolled her eyes and sighed. How this man made his way through ranks within the famous city was beyond her. He was so clumsy and frequently misjudged his timing with his sword. Perhaps, when fighting against something that was worth their time, he would fight properly this time. If he had any chance, that is.
The woman couldn’t help but to chuckle at her thoughts until she heard a grating screech.
The crimson tail smacked against the advancing golem, sending it flying towards the tree, where it broke until it somehow had repaired itself. However, Ao had to focus on other two, attempting to shock them once again. It didn’t work, just like his earlier attempts when they first rolled in his sights and had jumped on him. He let out a frustrated growl as he was forced to use his tail yet again, wincing at the pain now blooming from his tail. If he was going to continue smacking some heavy moving rocks, then his tail was going to break and remain that way.
The hybrid growled in a draconian way as he hopped back to dodge the rolling golem, obviously distracted at the moment. A golem noticed this and took advantage by curling up into a ball and rolled into him at high speed. However, he heard the tell-tale sounds and flapped upwards, easily dodging the rolling golems. He proceeded to chuckle at the apparent stupidity of the golems until they had thrown themselves from the ground with sheer power alone.
“What the f-, “ He started to say in shock before a golem had tackled right into his gut, causing him to fall and hit against his back. A cry of pain escaped past his lips before he gasped for air. He attempted to get up but, to no avail, he was held down by the golem’s weight alone.
“Hm… Good. Keep him there.” Cozek called out, surprising Ao. However, the dirty man had not stayed long enough to hear his probing questions. He needed a thorny vine for the part of Ethem’s plan to work. He had his doubts that the part would work, due to the fact he noticed the monster’s scales mixing with his regular skin.
Could he not just harm him…?
With this in his thoughts, he went back and walked out to reveal himself to the draconian being.
“Who are you?!” The mag demanded, glaring at the dirty elf with hatred. How could he be caught by this one person and his golems?
“My name is Cozek. Can you just come with us peacefully? I promise we’ll take care of that wound.” He spoke, now sitting on the balls of his foot. He stared at the oozing wounds that sat across his torso and right leg area.
“… I can’t let myself be caught. I’d be a disgrace to the dragon race.” Ao muttered, continuing his glare at this odd man. Taking a minute to calm down, he spoke again, “So, Cozek, wasn’t it,” He received a nod from Cozek, “Why do I have to go with you and your group?”
“Um… It’s for money. I know it sounds selfish but… We have no choice. After all, Ethem-“
“Cozek! Do you have him now?” Leit spoke up, finally caught up with the golems and her little brother. She glanced at the now raging hybrid and watched him struggle fruitlessly against the grip of the golems.
“Um… I think… That answers your question.” Cozek replied, pointing at the golems.
“Yes, it does. Will he come with us peacefully?” She asked, still staring at Ao as she moved to create some sort of holding device out of her own golems around the hybrid. Luckily enough, he felt the need to try to attack her with his claws, which enabled her to complete the bottom to form a solid, yet flexible prison cube.
Ao let out a roar of rage as he attacked the bars with his tail-blade but it did not budge at all. He looked around for any weak spots but was unable to find any. He was now captured and was probably ready to be destroyed.
“Well, lookie here! Hah, you are as big as I thought! Maybe your head will fetch a pretty price…” Ethem spoke up as he walked up, finally caught up to the entire group. He smirked as he viewed the rage-filled face of the so-called ‘monster’.
“You-!” He spat out, attempting to strike him, despite the fact that his attempts would be wasted. An enraged snarl emitted from his throat as he glared daggers at the solider. How could he be caught so easily while Mithos had obvious troubles with him?!
“Shut up, pest.” The soldier said before unsheathing his sword and jabbing it into the hybrid’s right leg, causing a painful shriek to sound out. Somehow, it had gone past the layer of scales so easily!
Ao quickly pressed himself against the opposite side, his new cut now pouring blood all over his leg. He let out a pitiful whimper as he lay down and covered himself with his own wings. How he wished this was just his attacker and not the group! He hoped there was still some time before they had to go back to the city. Perhaps…that elf would come along and-
No, that was a stupid thought. There was no way he’d care enough. If he had wanted to kill him for nothing more than money, then why he would care enough to save him? He curled up further and did his best not to cry at his pitiful situation.
That particular bird chirped before deciding to peck at it in quick succession. Suddenly, the ‘ground’ flexed and lifted up quickly, scaring the small bird away as the wing settled back down on the real ground. A groan emitted from the crimson shape as it moved to sit upright.
“Ugh….” Ao moaned, wincing at the slight movements required to sit up properly and carefully felt the crusted cuts on his torso. He glanced down to see some blood slowly oozing out between the cracks within the crust. He let out a sigh and shook his head as he stood up, shuffling his feet to catch any wayward weight.
For a split second, he felt the guilt tugging at his heart, attempting to convince him to return to where he had placed that odd elf. He glanced over his shoulders for a moment, seeing nothing more than peaceful green scenery behind him. He scoffed as he turned his head to face the same scenery in front of him and begun to walk, his tail swaying lightly. He could not go back, for the path was always forward.
The hybrid soon encountered a river and dipped a hand into it, sipping the escaping drops of water and putting it back within the gentle flow of the river. He repeated this process until he felt that he was sufficiently hydrated. His emerald eyes scanned the area around him in a search for some kind of rags he could use. No such luck presented to him and merely disappointed him.
“I have to clean these cuts before…” He murmured, once more glancing at his wounds. He certainly did not want it get infected and cause him bigger troubles than what he had right now, which was to find food as quickly as possible. However, He could not strain himself too much out of fear that the pain could cripple him momentarily, which could be enough for the prey to either flee or attempt to harm him. His eyes brought his attention to a bunch of fruits. At least, he could eat some fruits while healing.
The drake halfbreed stood up carefully and walked over to the fruit. A soft noise, almost like something had been snapped, as soon as he had stepped closer to the fruit to where he could reach over to it. His head jerked up at the sound before the net had flown upwards. He had no time to react properly since it was a surprise trap. For a moment, gravity did not force its pull upon him as he was lifted upwards and dropped slightly, causing something to ring. The sharp ring echoed and hung in the air, causing the captured man to hold his breath out of fear that someone was there, watching him.
Soon, it became clear that somebody was coming from the sounds of twigs breaking and loud rustling noise. He moved around and swiped at the top part of the net with his tail-blade. The ropes that made up the net and held it up fell apart easily underneath the metal blade, dropping him to the ground. Flipping expertly, he landed on all fours and leaped away from the site, not bothering with the fruits.
The hybrid glanced around as he ran through the foliage and found no one was chasing him yet. Letting out a huff, he continued to run in great bounds his body could allow while ignoring the stabbing pain within his wounds. Surely, he could clean it later when he wasn’t walking into traps. He finally found a quiet area and sat down, panting from the run itself. Once more, he glanced around and found himself mostly alone, aside from the creatures that roamed through the jungle, be it on land or air.
“Augh… If they can find me soon, I’d be amazed.” Ao said to himself, reclining into the grass to relax. A soft rustling noise announced itself to him and he sat up quickly to see some sort of vines heading towards him. He took a step backwards from what he was seeing, getting too close to the vines behind him. They suddenly reared up, much like snakes when enraged or protective, and made an attempt to wrap themselves around his body.
He leaped from his spot and landed, ready to run away when he felt some vines clamping down on his tail and rear legs. A snarl escaped from the drake as he allowed some uncharged electricity to burn most of the vines off before running away as quickly as possible. He growled as he ran, unhappy that he had to run away so soon, however, he did not want to get caught by those odd vines. Was someone else hunting him after all?
As he disappeared into the depths of the jungle, a booted foot stomped on the exact spot where he had leaped from.
“DAMN IT, I TOLD YOU HE’D DO THAT!” A masculine voice shouted. The owner of that voice glared at his companions as they shuffled around to make some space for their spell they had used to locate Ao in first place. They chanted briefly and an image popped up, showing the hybrid’s location amongst the forest.
“Here he is. About half a meters west from us.” A cloaked woman spoke up, allowing her hands to fall to her sides. Her cold, golden eyes glanced in the general direction of where that monster was at. She slowly raised a slender hand up into the air to cast a magic spell.
“Don’t. Not yet. He still has some strength left. It’s better if we attack those wounds and make it deeper.” The other man cackled, rubbing his dirty hands together. The woman merely wrinkled her nose and lowered her hand.
“Hm… Imagine the reward! Did you see the size of that thing? It’s probably the biggest Mag I’ve seen so far! Hah, we should milk that stupid Dwarf until he gives us all of the money for the trouble he caused on us!” The solider elf interrupted the brief talk, smiling as wide as he could. Oh, the riches he could get!
“What should we do to further weaken him? Mithos has already given him a weak spot, from what Leit’s creatures has told us.” The Elvan man grinned, his dirty face contorted in twisted glee. He was already creating plans within his mind.
“Hah, just get vines in there and restrain him. Leit, send out some small golems to distract him. Maybe, this time, we can actually wound him more than that failure.” The first elf muttered, folding his arms as he considered his plans. It seemed to be foolproof to him.
“Alright Enthm. Don’t blame us if Mithos somehow knows you called him a failure when he finds out about this.” Leit muttered, bringing both of her hands up in front of her, palms facing downwards as a spell circle expanded until it was barely touching the fringe of her cloak. It was rather simple for a spell circle for a reason.
She chanted a simple line and brought forth several small earth golems, each coming after one. She stopped her spell when there was four golems present, all lined up before her. All of them were quite short, barely coming up above her knees, and was created out of nothing but rocks and masses of vines writhing underneath the rocky surface.
She smiled a cold smile as she gazed upon her successful results of that summoning spell. After all, this was a jungle, right? So why not take smaller versions of Earth Golem and put them to work? Sure, it was a bit underhanded but, in the end; it was all up for grabs.
Wasting no time, she swiftly moved her hand in the general direction of Ao. The golems moved with surprising speed, curling up into rocky balls, and spun towards their target as they moved around the trees.
“Cozek, do your best. If you can get him down, then we can find something nice for you, hm?” The Elvan woman murmured, placing a tender hand upon Cozek’s dirty arm.
“Yes, big sister.” Cozek managed a kind smile at the woman before turning around to follow the rumbling golems.
Enthm walked up behind the woman and muttered, “Move. You need to stay within range for those golems to work properly. Otherwise, that thing will destroy them. It clearly has enough power to completely annihilate that huge Shade.” With that, he lightly shoved her towards the direction where everyone was running to.
“Don’t push me! I know what I’m doing.” Leit snapped with a huff and walked into the jungle, followed by the male solider.
She could feel the golems’ quick progress as they made their way and had one golem stop for the dirty Elf to catch up. Even if she had cold surface, she still cared for her little brother, unlike the solider that was busy trudging behind her, his armor hindering him greatly within this environment.
As she heard another curse rise up from the man behind her, she rolled her eyes and sighed. How this man made his way through ranks within the famous city was beyond her. He was so clumsy and frequently misjudged his timing with his sword. Perhaps, when fighting against something that was worth their time, he would fight properly this time. If he had any chance, that is.
The woman couldn’t help but to chuckle at her thoughts until she heard a grating screech.
The crimson tail smacked against the advancing golem, sending it flying towards the tree, where it broke until it somehow had repaired itself. However, Ao had to focus on other two, attempting to shock them once again. It didn’t work, just like his earlier attempts when they first rolled in his sights and had jumped on him. He let out a frustrated growl as he was forced to use his tail yet again, wincing at the pain now blooming from his tail. If he was going to continue smacking some heavy moving rocks, then his tail was going to break and remain that way.
The hybrid growled in a draconian way as he hopped back to dodge the rolling golem, obviously distracted at the moment. A golem noticed this and took advantage by curling up into a ball and rolled into him at high speed. However, he heard the tell-tale sounds and flapped upwards, easily dodging the rolling golems. He proceeded to chuckle at the apparent stupidity of the golems until they had thrown themselves from the ground with sheer power alone.
“What the f-, “ He started to say in shock before a golem had tackled right into his gut, causing him to fall and hit against his back. A cry of pain escaped past his lips before he gasped for air. He attempted to get up but, to no avail, he was held down by the golem’s weight alone.
“Hm… Good. Keep him there.” Cozek called out, surprising Ao. However, the dirty man had not stayed long enough to hear his probing questions. He needed a thorny vine for the part of Ethem’s plan to work. He had his doubts that the part would work, due to the fact he noticed the monster’s scales mixing with his regular skin.
Could he not just harm him…?
With this in his thoughts, he went back and walked out to reveal himself to the draconian being.
“Who are you?!” The mag demanded, glaring at the dirty elf with hatred. How could he be caught by this one person and his golems?
“My name is Cozek. Can you just come with us peacefully? I promise we’ll take care of that wound.” He spoke, now sitting on the balls of his foot. He stared at the oozing wounds that sat across his torso and right leg area.
“… I can’t let myself be caught. I’d be a disgrace to the dragon race.” Ao muttered, continuing his glare at this odd man. Taking a minute to calm down, he spoke again, “So, Cozek, wasn’t it,” He received a nod from Cozek, “Why do I have to go with you and your group?”
“Um… It’s for money. I know it sounds selfish but… We have no choice. After all, Ethem-“
“Cozek! Do you have him now?” Leit spoke up, finally caught up with the golems and her little brother. She glanced at the now raging hybrid and watched him struggle fruitlessly against the grip of the golems.
“Um… I think… That answers your question.” Cozek replied, pointing at the golems.
“Yes, it does. Will he come with us peacefully?” She asked, still staring at Ao as she moved to create some sort of holding device out of her own golems around the hybrid. Luckily enough, he felt the need to try to attack her with his claws, which enabled her to complete the bottom to form a solid, yet flexible prison cube.
Ao let out a roar of rage as he attacked the bars with his tail-blade but it did not budge at all. He looked around for any weak spots but was unable to find any. He was now captured and was probably ready to be destroyed.
“Well, lookie here! Hah, you are as big as I thought! Maybe your head will fetch a pretty price…” Ethem spoke up as he walked up, finally caught up to the entire group. He smirked as he viewed the rage-filled face of the so-called ‘monster’.
“You-!” He spat out, attempting to strike him, despite the fact that his attempts would be wasted. An enraged snarl emitted from his throat as he glared daggers at the solider. How could he be caught so easily while Mithos had obvious troubles with him?!
“Shut up, pest.” The soldier said before unsheathing his sword and jabbing it into the hybrid’s right leg, causing a painful shriek to sound out. Somehow, it had gone past the layer of scales so easily!
Ao quickly pressed himself against the opposite side, his new cut now pouring blood all over his leg. He let out a pitiful whimper as he lay down and covered himself with his own wings. How he wished this was just his attacker and not the group! He hoped there was still some time before they had to go back to the city. Perhaps…that elf would come along and-
No, that was a stupid thought. There was no way he’d care enough. If he had wanted to kill him for nothing more than money, then why he would care enough to save him? He curled up further and did his best not to cry at his pitiful situation.