Something was different today.
I felt so refreshed, I felt good, like I just had the greatest rest in my life. I was plenty rested, but I just felt so comfortable and decided to continue to rest, not sleep, just enjoying the moment was my goal. I was cuddling with Draxson, he didn’t protest my affection, so I slept holding onto him while I nestled up to his body, sharing my warmth with him. I had gone to sleep with my right arm hanging over his left side while my left was under Draxson as I embraced him. Draxson wrapped his right arm around my back holding me to him as he gently stroked my hair and scratched behind my ears. With such wonderful stimulation I easily went to sleep.
and as I said, I slept so well and woke up rested.
But none of that was what really made today feel different, it was that I got to share a moment with Draxson, this time his whole heart being in it, not shying away from my affection or hiding his deep underlying pain from me; it all just felt perfect and so right. Draxson finally told me how he truly felt and accepted that I could love him despite the things he thinks would disqualify him from it. I know one heart-to-heart moment like that wasn’t going to fix him, nor did I want that to be the case, because it might sound selfish of me but I wanted to be there and be a contributing factor for his development as a better person, I don’t want him to leave me because he suddenly overcame
his issues with little support, but I also didn’t want him to be tormented by his feelings of shame, guilt, fear, hate and so many of his conflicting emotions.
Yeah it probably sounds like I’m ranting here, and I’m not making any sense, ok fine your right about me ranting, but I wouldn’t share something about my or my lovers life with you if it wasn’t important, but if you feel this is too boring for you then feel free to skip ahead to the more stimulating parts of my recounting of my parties grand adventure and many misadventures. It may all be a strange format of how I’m telling you the history of the war and the events that led up to it, but if
you stick with me and read till the end of my, Draxson’s, TreeLif’s (and our many other friends we met along the way), recounting our journey then you’ll understand and see it all made sense. Anyways back to that day so many years ago at the time of editing this and sharing it with you, but felt like it was only a few days ago that I added the day’s events in my journey notes.
I love Draxson, and I’m glad he opened up to me, and that we were finally together no matter how complicated or challenging our unorthodox relationship would become in the following days, weeks, months and years, etc etc. But I think I’ll leave this topic as it is for now and
get back to what you actually wanted to read, My recounting of our grand journey;
I moved my hand from its place holding Draxson and began rubbing his neck with my right paw to wake him up.
“Nnngh, good morning to you as well Sopheia, my love <3”
Draxson Scratched behind my ear eliciting a soft purr of delight from me. Still I scratched at his neck and poked him with a claw on my left hand. Draxson pulled
me closer to him resting my head on his neck before whispering in my ear “hey love, I enjoy spending this time with you but I think it’s time we get up and start our day.” Draxson said before planting a kiss on my forehead. I decided to get up and cease my lying about and decided to instead crawl up unto Draxson to sit with my legs crossed on his stomach, smiling down upon my love as I was gently poking him in the chest with my index finger claws. “Hey cut that out Sopheia, please don't sit on my stomach like that, its getting hard for me to breathe and we should stop messing around so we can sooner get back on the path our journey is taking us.” Draxson was being his super serious self, he often
did that in his elf form, always thinking and acting super serious while he only fights and rushes into action without thinking in his Dragon form; it was such a strange contrast between his personalities, but that’s what I loved him for <3!
I took Draxson’s request literally and instead of getting off him so we can get back to adventuring, I made it appear I was getting off his chest, when I really was just shifting myself to lying on my stomach on across his abdomen, stretching my limbs out in front of and behind me as I yawned and feigned an attempt to go back to sleep.
Muahaha, my ultimate attack rendering my love unable to move without disturbing my sleep and pushing me off him, either action Draxson wouldn't dare take. But he did, he grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and plopped me onto my tail end in the crook of his arm. Draxson sat up and wrapped his arm around my waist and took my left hand, looking lovingly into my eyes as he asked “Could you remind me why I tolerate your shenanigans all the time, Love?” My dear Draxson sillily asked.
I happily replied back with;
“Because you love me, because I’m cute, extremely adorable, smart and full of surprises, and because I won’t leave you alone to mope all day in your head.”
“I tolerate your “super” seriousness because you're smart, strong, a good sparring partner, make awesome food, and because I love you as more than a friend, my silly little lizard. I would be mad at you for disturbing my beauty sleep but I’ll let it slide today since I feel so well rested.” I yawned as I laid my head on Draxson’s shoulder purring loudly as I rubbed my head against his face. “I guess we can get to making some breakfast then start our day so we can get back to our adventure and whatever quest TreeLif wants us to assist him with.”
“So what are we waiting for my love? Do you need my assistance to get up from the comfortable bedroll you forced me get out of” I said dramatically, holding the back of my right hand to my forehead.
“Oh you…” Draxson said looking at me with a goofy smile, I returned his silly expression “Oh you…” Draxson pulled me close to him bringing his lips close to mine
*Smooch
I lean in to kiss Draxson back before we break apart seconds later, Draxson smiles as he makes a silly noise “Mwah, I love you my blizzard kitten. What should we make for breakfast dear?” I replied with “How about you and I made some omelets and toast this morning?”
“Sure, let's do it my love.”
Many hours later when everyone was fully awake.
We were walking on our southward path only deviating in favour of going southeast to avoid a monster nest TreeLif had on his map. We were all content to walk in silence and enjoy the early morning peace of the forest’s ambient noises; the lovely songs of the birds and rustling of leaves. Draxson was the one to break the silence as he addressed TreeLif. “TreeLif, I have a question for you. Would you mind answering it for me?”
“Yeah sure I could, whats your quest-”
TreeLif was interpreted as Draxson pushed him against a tree holding him pinned with one hand as the other hung by his side, a sign that he at least for now, wasn’t going to use force to get answers to the questions he discussed with me as we made breakfast earlier.
“Okay Treelif i’m only not beating you against this tree right now to get the answers to my question right now because I had some time to think about it and decided it wasn’t best for me to abuse the party's new member especially in front of the ladies. So you better start answering my questions before I have to force them out of you.”
TreeLif raised his hands in the air to show he wouldn’t resist, he tried to look calm and collected on the surface, but between the cracks of his mask fear and surprise appeared on his face for but a moment.
“Okay, okay Draxson, I’ll tell you what you want to know. It's a very long story but I’ll give you the short version. I have been actively hunting Metal monster and those Assassins, but they always escape by the time I destroy their Metal golem like constructs and their little devices that fly faster than birds. I’ve been hunting these dangerous people for the last 2 years to get revenge for what they did to my home and so I pursue them so I can protect others and nature from suffering the same pain those monsters made. I’m not sure if their all like the one I finally got to catch and interrogate, even if that didn’t yield much import. But that’s beside the fact, they are all monsters, they need to be captured/ and or terminated, all they do is kill and steal the resources of our world. I looked into that girls mind, but I was only able to see some surface memories thanks to you Draxson…” TreeLif said before he was interrupted by Draxson.
“Whatever, just shut up about that and tell me what you learned with your disturbing method of torture.”
Draxson applied a bit more pressure on TreeLif’s chest, nudging TreeLif to continue.
“Okay I will, Just calm down please, you have to understand, they’re only here to kill us, to kill the inhabitants of this world that get in the way of their mission to gather the resources of the land and exploit the blessing of majic that resides in our world’s plants,creatures, and resources. They are so sick in the head that they think they are doing us a favor by ending our “uncivilized lives” if we oppose their invasion or decide not to help them. I don’t have any idea why they would think this, but they need to be dealt with. And that’s why I made a deal with the world’s spirit itself to lend me the power to call upon the spare energy of nature around me in exchange for devoting my life to riding the world of parasitic people that would seek to harm nature or significantly affect the balance of death and life.” TreeLif rambled, his mask of serenity cracking further as he breathlessly explained himself.
“Look I’m sorry for not telling any of you my true mission, I was foolish to think you would just help me if an incident with those Monsters were to happen. I saw you were all capable fighters and foolishly acted when I tried to join your party and recruit you to help with my quest. I just thought you looked like a bunch of adventures eager for some fighting but I was wrong, and because of such I am very Sorry Draxson, Sopheia and, Phaz , for the problems my presence has caused so far and forcing you to risk your lives and limbs to support a cause you weren’t well informed about. It was foolish for me to not explain what accomplishing my quest would mean. I know I messed up but please don’t leave me to do it on my own. Please I need all of you to help in the capture and destruction of those compassionless assassins in their shinny armor.” Treelif desperately cried, not caring to maintain his composure any longer if it would help convince us to keep helping him.
The drawn out conversation was annoying me so I interjected despite my earlier disinterest in being the one to tell Treelif how messed up his plans and actions have been. “TreeLif I didn’t want to have to tell you this because I hope you would pick up the hint but Draxson’s words seem to be lost on you. You can’t just use people like tools and expect them to be friendly with you afterwards. What you did was irresponsible and foolish, one of us could have died fighting that, that“thing”, you could have better prepared us for what we were going to face but you didn’t and were nearly the cause of our deaths. And if Phaz hadn’t stepped in when she did we would be lying dead in that snow just like those other adventurers!”
I said heavily, layering my voice with anger.
In my hot displeasure I continued “I’m very angry at you for what you did, and I really think I should probably let Draxson beat some sense into you. You don’t use people like tools, you fool. We can still help on your quest if you will, not just possibly, but will better prepare us to fight those metal monsters. And you need to promise you won’t do something so foolish as to put our lives in danger or lead us into a battle we have little chance to win.”
“If you can’t do that then we will part ways right here, because we’ll never be able to get along if you don’t stop treating us like a means to accomplishing your goals. So what’s it going to be TreeLif, will you treat us with the respect we as your teammates deserve and share information that could be key to our survival, or do you want to try catching one of those assassins on your own again?”
TreeLif looked like he was about to cry but refused, instead he apologized again and made a promise, “I swear to all of you that I will present you with all the details of my missions and quest so you make the choice of whether or not you still wish to help me on my quest. And I think it's fair to let you know that it’s likely only going to get harder to fulfill my quest as they send more and better soldiers plus metal monsters to hunt me down and eventually all of us if we keep getting in their way.” He extended his hand out to me, I took it and shook his hand as Treelif said “Could we start this all over again? If we could I propose a handsome payment and the lending of my strength to you if you would like to help me on my perilous quest. It’s probably going to make your lives a lot harder but I promise that when it’s done it's going to be beneficial to everyone once this wicked force is removed from our world in whatever capacity it takes. What do you say? Would you be willing to help me for at least a little longer my fellow adventurers?”
I blinked rapidly, taking in and digesting everything he just said. I took my hand back and looked to Draxson and Phaz for their thoughts on the proposal, and received a nod from the two. I turned back to TreeLif and offered a fist bump, “I honestly didn’t understand everything you said because you just dumped your thoughts into your throat, but we can forgive this and your mistake; just don’t spend to much time thinking about your mission that you forget to let us in on it, like someone else I know. We’re a team, right Phaz and Draxson?”
“We sure are” Draxson said, “I guess so” Phaz wrote in the air.
TreeLif suddenly smiled, catching me by surprise for a moment, then he briefly hugged me and Draxson whispering thanks to us for giving him another chance. He looked down at Phaz, whom was just lying on the snowy ground as if she were a bored teenager, it was a strange thought, but she kinda did act like a teenager, just a beastly one. TreeLif bent down to hug Phaz, the words “Please don’t” appeared floating above her; but he still went to his knee and gently hugged Phaz. Phaz looked like she wanted to snap at him, but for some reason held her peace and licked TreeLif’s face a single time before she barked at TreeLif to let her go. TreeLif complied and stood back up, then he took his bag off, set it on the ground and fetched a large roll of parchment from a pocket.
TreeLif stood up and turned back to us, spreading his scroll open for us on the empty air where it hung suspended when Treelif let the paper go. “Alright if you want to help me with this part of my plans to ruin the plans of those horrible people. I’ll first explain what the mission is and you can decide if you want to assist me or not. Okay the plan is in theory simple, but is probal going to be the most annoying thing you’ve done so far. This is going to be a lot so I hope you’re ready to spend at least an hour going over the plan.”
Treelif took a deep breath and exhaled, inhaled again, before his rattled off his detailed plan. “So the plan is to lure some of their metal monsters to a place we could ambush them using me as the bait, but this is going to rely on…….”
Yeah I ain’t going to repeat his complicated plan here, I couldn’t even do so if I wanted, and besides you would probably be just as confused so I’ll summarize how our plans worked out. But to do that I’m going to skip a few uneventful days of the journey, so please forgive the gap in details.
9/2/1385
We spent a majority of a month finding and luring Metal Monsters to where we could ambush and destroy them. We destroyed about 3 of the large golem like constructs and 6 of the 10 flying ones that would watch over us every time we defeated a Metal monster, we had stayed in the snowy region a few days travel east of Levies Da Tru. I initially protested when TreeLif told us that we would be stating in the cold north for a while longer, I really wanted to get to the grassy plains of the continents central region, but I settled for feeling the soft green grass on my skin later.
Speaking of grass, we would finally reach the grassy plains by the afternoon today. An hour ago we had just passed the our campsite from a few weeks ago. But something felt different today, I kept the uneasy feeling to myself because I just dismissed it as being anxious to be in a different warmer climate. But as we grew nearer to where TreeLif showed us the grassy plains of central Efosha would be in relation to our current location. Treelif said his bird companions helped him figure out our approximate location on his map that roughly detailed the important features of the land. His map was severely lacking in other important details, but I didn’t have the energy to waste arguing with him abou the importance of a well detailed map, not when I could spend my energy moving towards lush grassy plains.
A half hour later Draxson voiced a question, “Could we perhaps stop and rest for a moment, we’ve been walking since the moment the sun rose. Do we really need to reach the grassy plains so badly? Didn’t Treelif say we were going to reach it a few hours before sunset? Could we just rest for an hour at least?” Draxson pleaded
“I want to see the grass and feel it’s softness on my skin already, but I guess we could stop for a moment.”
We rested for a moment, and when we got back to walking the feeling that something was wrong, like we were being watched, grew stronger as we left the forest and crossed the snowy threshold and finally arrived into the suddenly warm climate of the grassy plains.
I felt eyes on me again, I frantically looked around for the person or creature that’s been watching us for the last few hours. When I couldn’t find what was stalking us I turned to my party, “I think we’re being watched I felt something watching us earlier and just thought it was an animal in the forest, but I think were being watched by them. Would you be able to find where they’re hiding?” I asked panic seeping into my voice, and causing my breathing to become heavy. I was so terrified, I felt we were about to be ambushed and greatly out numbered. “Oh no, I couldn’t have prepared any of you for this and I’m sorry, but I think were in for a bad time.” TreeLif said, his grave words only adding to my fear pushing me to the precipice of hyperventilating.
TreeLif untied the helmet he had scavenged from that armoured assassin, off his bag, he had found out how to utilize its powers. It had been instrumental in our search and destruction of Metal Monsters and quick stealthy flying things, “drones” TreeLif named them because of the sound it made as it flew around. TreeLif pulled the helmet over his head to covering his face and allowing him to see through the special lenses of the helmets interior visor. He held the side of the helmet since he didn’t have the armor that would hold in place for him, TreeLif did a quick scan of the area around us, then he suddenly looked up into the sky, where he spotted something. “Guy’s I don’t know what that is up their in the sky but I have a feeling that theres a dangerous weapon in that larger than a carriage flying contraption above our heads. You were right Sopheia, and there was nothing we could do about it, this might just be the end If we don’t give this fight everything we have and more.”
“May the forces of life and the spirit of Meealvegr be with us during this fight for it may be our last, and if that happens to be so, then I am glad to die fighting beside my friends.” “To live loving well and to die protecting the beauty of life, there’s no other way I would have it, can I get an amen my brother and sisters?”
“Amen, such is the way I would want my life to be.”
Said Draxson.
“Amen, if the battle is to be lost we shall be avenged by the forces of love in the winning of the war.” I said.
“Amen, if I am to die today, I can say it was at least a fun life while it lasted” Phaz said suprising us all, we all turned to look at her standing besides us in her beast-kin form for a moment before she reverted to her more practical to fight in wolf form.
The fyling carriage TreeLif spoke of, suddenly revealed itself as a metallic pair of doors swung open,revealing a figure that stood in the open door way, a radiating light akin to the brightness of the sun illuminated the figure of a shiny armour assassin; the light additionally reflected off the lustrous suit of armour.
A few minutes prior
Today was the day, The day I would put an end to the major annoyance of TreeLif LeFatt the disruptor and his new companions. The High Society would, once again show it’s dominance and might as it has with every revolution and rebellion it has faced and quelled with ease. TreeLif, you won’t escape from us this time, you especially won’t escape from me.
Assistant communication system:
Agent Aerie Bengal, the ships cloaking system has been breached and your drop ship’s energy signal has been detected and your ship’s location has been discovered. Connecting you with leadership, connection success. transmission received.
*Transmission: “clearance to drop on the targets at anytime has been granted, and permission has been granted to use a 30 round magazine loaded with Cahotin blue bullets, we trust you will use them well, Agent Aerie Bengal.” Connection with leadership terminated, all of the ships controls have been granted for you to use as needed to complete your mission.
“Reduce ship transparency to zero, and open the ships rear doors, maintain altitude, set the ship to shadowing mode, and keep the underside weapons system on standby.” I said pulling on my helmet as the ship's system pinged me in acknowledgement of the orders I issued.
As I waited for the doors to open all the way I tapped away at my suit’s control panel, opening the music app, queuing some songs. I left the music selection screen, turned the screen off my suit’s control device (basically a small Ipad external affixed to her left arm bracer, in case you were wondering)
My suits assistant program repeated my music selection to me as the rear ship doors opened for me to deploy out of.
EVO Suit Assistant Program/ESAP :
Now playing “Drop it like its hot”, by Snoop Dog, and playing next in queue is La Roux-“In For The Kill (Skrillex remix)” and “Bangarang” by Skrillex, then lastly “Breaking the Habit” by Linkin Park
Ship announcement system: Commencing deployment sequence, doors are open, weapons are primed,ship is set to shadow mode, you are clear to deploy. Have a nice assasination!
I stepped out onto the ship's deployment ramp, keeping my balance on the slanted surface with my boots engaged magnet function. The Brilliance of Superiority
Emanated from my suit, bathing my barbaric targets in my blinding brilliance. When my targets covered their eyes in aversion to my splendorous presence, I disengaged the magnetism of my boots and pounced on my prey.
TreeLif Pov
Assassin Awww man.
“I guess it could possibly get worst, Sorry Draxson, Sopheia and oh yeah you too Phaz, sorry I drug you all into this mess.”
“It doesn't matter, we said we would help you and it looks like there isn’t the chance for us to just decide to not be a part of this fight, besides you’re our friend and traveling companion, it would be pretty messed up for us to leave you. Let's do it!” Sopheia exclaimed.
“Uuuuugh. I guess it's time to KILL AND CAPTURE, or die trying, Oh well I guess, at least I get to let loose again. Oh boy, let's go!” Draxson enthusiastically quipped.
“Woof. Arf. (I’ll fight if it’s fun, you know what I’m saying? Translated from ethereal Phantom wolf language? Courtesy of TreeLif)
We all looked over to Phantom, surely not only I but everyone else was looking at the massive iridescent wolf in confusion. Phantom smiled awkwardly back at us displaying her many terrifying teeth.
“Hey, focus everyone, there right ther-” Draxson Shouted to us, interrupted mid declaration, as the armoured assassin kicked Draxson in the chest, sending him a hard to calculate distance towards the forest where he probably crashed into a tree, and is probably dying at this very moment, even with his superior constitution surely being sent flying more than a dozen meters into the rough surface of a tree would probably kill anyone else and likely severely wound Draxson.”
Ah Dragon turds, this is already going bad.
The assassin landed, standing upright on their feet an instant after sending Draxson flying, likely to his very unfortunate and untimely death.
Through my hacked/ forcefully utlilized helmet, I heard a buzzing “nnngh”, followed by a sudden “click”. The assassin was patching herself into my helmets communications system, it felt like the same phenomenon as when the pilots of the Metal Monsters spoke to eachother in those giant constructs of metals.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Helllloo TreeLif LeFatt, I’m Aeire Bengal, and I’m sorry to let you know but you’re not going to be able to use my name to your advantage, because your going to die today by my and comrades hands; So I’m oh so sad to tell you that the High Societies, little dance with you is coming to such an abrupt end, and for that I am truly sorry, but surely you understand why you filthy roach. But just incase your as dense as those tree roots you’re always manipulating to such great affect as to get so effectively in our way, for which I applaud you for, I truly believe what you have managed to do to stop us and how long you’ve managed to survive fighting against us. But let us not get distracted and make your profoundly abysmal and insignifigant suffering and your worthless life, and bring it to a definitve end; no one will remmeber your name. Not your friends, not your family, no one who ever heard of you will remeber your name or your existence. You’ll just be one of the many examples we’ve made of those who thought they could beat us.”
She leaned in next to my head, I should’nt have been stunned and rooted in place like I was, but some inexplicable feeling of fear like none I had ever felt before not even when my sisters life was so close to being ended by the first Metal Monster I came across. It must have been some power of the suits no one else had except this obviously elite soilder. I couldn’t even speak, an impossibly large lump, that felt like I had a boulder stuck in my throat kept me from being able to even send a prayer for salvation of this wretched and foul beast, this vile woman was far exceeding any and all I expectations for how much of a b***h someone could be. But I was powerless to do anything, so I Instead was forced to listen to this egotistical she-demon whisper her wicked words into my helmet from hers.
“(in a whispering tone): But rest assured we’ll throw the grandest party in your honor, we’ll kill you here, bring you back to life so we can display your heavily damaged and dying body to every single citizen in our town; then once the parading of not just your body, but the bodies of all your companions here and eventually your other friends, family, and kin will be publicaly executed by majic killing anti-regeneration cannon rounds, one for everyone you love and or has helped you rebel against us. Then Once you’ve all be executed we’ll gather your blasted-in-to-many-peices bodies and bury them in a seculded portion of our cemetary dedicated to the High Society’s greatest enimes and most worthless rebels, its there where you’ll be forgotten and thought of just as you are. Worthless and unimportant, But you won’t be alone you’ll be with your even more worthless friends, family and kin. If there is some afterlife for you barbaric and inferior people, you’ll surely be comforted by the loathing and hate everyone you cared about, and you’ll forever live with the guilt of single handedly ruing the lives of everyone around you, when all you had to do was just stay in your place like the valueless and revolting insect you are.” She paused for a moment, then continued speaking in the next.
“So to sum it all up for your poor underdeveloped and inferior mind, you so magnificently messed up your life and the lives of so many others that you deserve an award for your stupidity, and I’ll personaly grant you it. I’ll give you the honor of your jarred brain matter being carried on me for the rest of my life. So sad to say, but I have to make this horribly long and-certainly confusing to you- speech come to end. I actually almost liked talking with you, but you let me down with your lack of entertaining resistance that you’ve become so infamous for. But oh well, I guess not even TreeLif LeFatt the grand Disrupter, the bane of the High Society’s northern Efosha division, could resit in the suffocatingly divine presence of Aeire Empress Bengal, the grand assassin extraordinaire for the Lady Evo Division of the illustrious High society. This is Goodbye. Meet my best friend and your demise; GUN.”
BANG!!!!!! BANG!!!!!! BANG!!!!! BANG!!!!!! BANG!!!!!! BANG!!!!!! BANG!!!!!! BANG!!!!!!
Eight bullets fired out of Aeire “EMPRESS” Bengal’s large hand cannon/ or gun as she called it. Eight bullets fired faster than speed of sound buried themselves in my heart. Eight new holes the size of my fist went all the way through my heart, shattered part of my spine, and exited out my back. Eight fatal wounds I couldn’t save myself from. Eight defeats at once by the hand of a wretched she-demon. So swift was my passing that I didn’t even get to see my life flash before my eyes. I died so brutaly, with such finality. It was truly tragic. My death was near.
That’s it.
I was dying.
In a moment I would be dead, but at the very least I would express a fraction of my hatred for this “Woman”.
“Burn in ‘annar heimurhel’, (Other world/Hell in old
norse{Source:1 ) You abhorrent, ugly and cowardly bit—-” I screamed through the communication device in my helmet before I was abruptly interrupted by a heavy metallic boot stomping my neck and crushing my throat, forcing all of my air to escape my throat before I could finish my statement.
Aerie, Empress, Bengal made her helmet transparent to reveal her devilishly alluring face, wearing the most disgustingly beautiful smile I had ever seen on her face, as she aimed a long barreled and large “automatic rifle” at my skull, as she made one final statement.
“You may have powerful majic, but it’s nothing compared to my special ability; GUN. Bang!
Just like that I was shot in between my eyes, in my brain.
F— I’m Dead.
Sopheia POV
<
Those were the words that majically echoed in my head, the words so grim and depressingly to the point that It felt so unreal, like it was some sort of joke the majics would play on novice spell casters, I didn’t want to believe it, but It was the most truthful and plainly said fact of my life. TreeLif Was dead. I didn’t want to believe it, who would want to believe something so tragic is true, that’s why there's 4 other steps before acceptance right?
Well I say screw all that nonsense. “I Reject the reality that TreeLif is dead, I-I-I OBJECT, he may be gone, but he can be recovered if I’m fast enough” I shouted talking myself into overcoming the soldiers with the strobing lights radiating-which were making me dizzy and disorientated- from their suits. It was time to pull my weight and save someone for once.
3rd person POV
Enter Draxson,
<
Draxson suddenly awoke when the grievous declaration had been made, the terrible news repeated in his head, sparking Draxson’s spirit to rise from his position, slumped against a tree. Draxson grunted in pain as his fractured spine resisted his movements to get up. Draxson continued to struggle to even get on his knees to crawl. With a burst of energy Draxson was able to get his knees under him and began to crawl, dragging his weight on the incrementally thinning snow covered ground. Draxson raised his right arm above his head, then swung his clawed hand into the ground in front of him and pulled himself as far the strength in his right arm could sustain alone.
Then Draxson Swung his left arm in an arcing motion like he was swimming, yes swimming across the thinning snow, barely making any progress forward. A little over a foot of distance is the best pace Draxson could sustain without straining himself more than he already was. Come on body, I know we can do better than this, I need to get back in their. I need to help Sopheia and Phaz before they’re killed too. “I will do my best to avenge you, TreeLif LeFatt, but if I can not, I will get the rest of the party out of here and rally reinforcements to help us fight this threat.” Draxson said as he incrementaly increased his pace, now crawl-swiming a couple of feet forward a second.
“I know you would want us to get out of here, and I will do my best to see your wishes fulfilled.” Draxson said to himself as he inched towards the unfolding battle between Sopheia, Phaz and the assassins.
Several seconds later Draxson was finally able to see the battle and found TreeLif’s body being looked down upon by the assassin that dropped out of the ship. This angered Draxson, it infuriated him to the point that for a brief moment he forgot his pain and stood up with the intention of rushing that assassin that killed TreeLif.
Draxson was able to hobble run a few feet before a sharp pain in his back reminded him his spine was heavily fractured and broken in places. Draxson put his left hand to his back as if that would have some counter affect to his back burning in pain. Draxson fell on his back with grunt and a shout. Luckily for him his cry of pain was heard by Phaz’s keen hearing allowing her to react first to aid her companion before the assassin realized hw was still alive.
While Draxson lied on the ground silently groaning in pain, Phaz asked Sopheia to toss some Calcium vials in the direction of Draxson, while she would distract the assassins with her color distortion and phasing out of the way of the bullets fired at her. She and Phaz would reapear a moment later, Sopheia slashing out at an assasin while Phaz tried to pry a weapon from them. When the firing would start anew after everyone targeted the two elusive and fierce women, thousands of strands of color would disperse into the air from where Phaz and Sopheia stood respectively. A moment later bundles of the colorful energy strands would come together and reshape themselves into the form of the respective being they originated from.
(The strands of energy essentially reformed the person and creature back to their living form is what Is meant)
The synergistic and dynamic (And not to mention lovely) duo phased back into physical form right behind the most secluded assassin of the group and attacked them. Sopheia swung her sword as hard as she could against the armored legs of the assassin to knock them off their feet. As the assassin was thrown off balance and sent to the floor with the attack they dropped their large rifle, it landing softly on the grass a second later while, in a moment that passed so fast that it was nearly instantaneous to the naked eye, the assasin drew two automatic pistols from their holsters at the assassins waist.
As they fell towards the ground the armoured assassin contorted their body pivoting on the waist so fast, that they were able to land in a semi prone position, their dual automatic pistols aimed at Sopheia and Phaz, both being fired upon by akimbo rapid fire automatic pistols. *Bleetz *Bleetz *Bleetz *Bleetz *Bleetz *Bleetz, The rapid fire pistols screeched as they collectivley fired dozens of rounds a second. But that was of little importance when their targets were capable of phasing out of existence for an ample amount of time to avoid being impacted by the flesh tearing projectiles so recklessly panic fired by an unfortunate High Society Soilder. Phaz gripped the helmet of the soldier, bitting into its metalic surface as she swiftly pulled the helmet off to unmask the vile monster hiding behind. The revealed man was violently panicing, their face sweating rivers as their eyes widened and filled with the fear anyone (especially a man currently vulnerable to being mauled by such a fierce, and LARGE wolf capable of biting a deer in half, its midsection being the point of division.) But instead of eating the face off the scared human man, Phaz instead chomped somewhat tightly on the throat of the human; ultimately resulting in the assassin’s airways being restricted.
The desperate man in an act of desperation expended his decreasing energy to the depressing of a button below the trigger to release the each of the pistols magazines, both mags dropping from the gun towards the grass. Releasing the depressed button(s) when the amunition loading chambers were free of obtruction dual [CDAHA]’s (Compresive Dimensional Aparatus for Housing Amunition ) were magneticaly drawn-fromtheir quick&easy-acess magazine holders affixed to evo belts- into the magazine housing compartment of the pistols, filling in empty slots.
And just like that the weapons were reloaded and being aimed at Phaz within mere miliseconds of being primed to fire again. Phaz barely phased out of physical form as the bullets flew at her, her unbelively fast reflexes also resulted in the assasin’s airways being unrestricted. Consequently the unmasked man had enough time to collect a breath and started to get themsleves off the ground so they could gain the upperhand of the situation. But in opposition to the assains goals stood Sopheia Neyko of the frozen cat-nye village of Fornull.
Sopheia didn’t risk breaking her blade on the wretched mans armour so she instead casted an ice spike, gathering all of the latent frost majic in her system to form a meter long lance like ice spike and drove it into the assassins stomach, the crystal went through both sides of the plating to pin the man in place. The skewered man expressed a grunt of pain accompanied by angry yelling as they tried to force pull the crystal pinning him down out of the grass. With the development of Sopheia rendering their target imobile Phaz became physical again and pushed her front paws deep into the neck of the High Society Soilder, imbuing her energy into him so she could make them phase out of the physical realm long enough to disarm the soldier and take his weapons for themselves.
For a moment the grunts and groans of the impaled soldier ceased as he turned into a transparent energy form and was no longer physically affecting the world, it was for just a moment because of the strain it had on Phaz to make just the man phase away, but that moment was enough for the grip the soldiers metallic gloves had on the pistols to be released. The guns dropped to the ground.
Sopheia caught them and resolved that she would have to use the weapons that have caused so much death and suffering in her life and the lives of many others. Sopheia decided at that moment that she would kill these people if it's what it took to save her companions and prevent others from suffering the same fate as TreeLif or those adventures from 3 weeks ago.
The time for talking and showing mercy were gone.
Sopheia Ney-ko was no longer going to show mercy to these murderers.
They will all die. Sopheia thought as she took aim and emptied her automatic pistols into the bodies of the High Society Soldiers.
Die
Die
Die
Die
Die
Die
Die
Die
Die
…
And that is the sad tale of how Sopheia started down the route of vengeance and would one day become the greatest thorn in the High Societies side and the greatest thwarter of their evil plans.
That is the story of how Sopheia the terror cat, devourer of (evil) hopes and dreams was born…
But let's forget all that stuff for now. You’ll have to keep reading to see Sopheia and her friends grow, learn, love, die, and suffer on their many other adventures before we get to the destruction of The High Society. Now I will pass the narration back to Draxson.
Draxson POV
She was a beast. Sopheia and Phaz sowed so much destruction and slaughtered our enemies.
The sight of Phaz and Sopheia both wielding the weapons of the armoured assassins, which I would later be told “High society soldiers” is what we will say instead of “Armoured assassins” when mentioning the vicious murderers.
I had somehow found the strength to get off my back and crawl/drag myself across the ground within the sight of my remaining companions. Phaz spotted me and pointed me out to Sopheia. Sopheia swiftly turned to confirm what Phaz told her. A smile washed over her face, replacing the fierce look of anger she wore when she was firing upon the rapidly dwindling High Society force. Phaz phased Sopheia over to me so my wounds could be treated and I could help take down the monster that killed Treelif. We would avenge TreeLif and revive him if we could but first my wounds were treated by my wonderful girlfriend Sopheia.
She lifted me off the ground and embraced me, wrapping her arms around me in a warm hug.
The pressure of Sopheia’s embrace hurt my back a little and I let Sopheia know she was crushing my spine. “Hey Sopheia love, my spine is hurting, I think I fractured it, please don’t hold me so tightly.” I said, groaning quietly.
Sopheia loosened her embrace, alleviating my pain with the removal of the pressure.
“Oh I’m so sorry Draxson, I’m so sorry my love, I’ll fix you up, Just hold still I’ll repair your spine and get you back on your feet. Here Draxson drink these and lay on your stomach for me after you do.” Sopheia said opening a pair of calcium elixirs for rapid bone repair, then she poured them down my throat one at a time. We were very lucky to still have some of the calcium elixirs but we would need to get more soon.
After the contents of the elixir went down my throat, Sopheia gently laid me down on my stomach so she could work on my spine with her healing majic to numb the pain and strengthen the calcium’s rapid bone repairing effects.
“This might hurt for a moment Draxson, but please don’t move at all while I do this, please no matter how much this hurts, you have to remain calm and relaxed or else your spine could improperly heal and leave you disabled.” Sopheia said as she placed her hands along my spine and started imbuing her healing majic into my fractured spine. It hurt like my fathers dragon breath, I felt like I was being burned alive and simultaneously crushed in between dragon fangs, as Sopheia set my spine back into place and the calcium mended my bones back together and filled in the gaps where bone shards chipped off. But it wasn’t just the healing of my bones that was causing me so much pain, it was mostly the stress the clusters of nerves around my spine were under as they were rewired and repaired of the damage the tree had done to it and the tears caused by me foolishly trying to stand up.
“Draxson, you shouldn’t have tried to move after such a dangerous wound, but if you hadn’t I wouldn’t have gotten to you so soon if you didn’t get within my sight and shown me you lived. There’s no time to scold you about the harm you're doing to your body, so you better make it through this so I can lecture you on how you're treating your body.” Sopheia whispered as she healed my spine.
“Just push through the pain my love, I’m almost done, the healing is almost complete. I’m a horrible doctor in training to ask this of you and feel terrible to ask this of you my love but, I need you to help us clear out our enemies and recover TreeLif’s body at the very least if we can’t defeat our enemies. Again, I’m so so sorry Draxson but we need you, I promise you’ll get to rest later but there will be no later if we fall here to these “High Society” murderers.” Sopheia said sarcastically, referring to our enemies.
“Ok Draxson, you're healed to the best of my abilities for now, but it's time to destroy our friends' murderers. It's time to get up, my friend. We have monsters to slay.” Sopheia said, grabbing me by the shoulders, lifting me off the ground. She held onto to keep me balanced as I rose from a kneeling position to standing up. I got one leg up under me as I pushed myself off the grassy earth.
I was standing upright several seconds later, with Sopheia by my side as we looked upon the unmoving “High Society” assassin that killed TreeLif. I would have hugged Sopheia and planted a kiss on her lips, if the situation hadn’t been so grim. I instead placed a hand on her left shoulder and gave it an affectionate squeeze since her hands were preoccupied with the compact death machines she took from one of the assassins she and Phaz defeated. Sopheia looked at me, not saying anything, the look in her eyes conveying her love and wish for my well being. And that was enough there were no more words we needed to say, it was time to fight. We charged TreeLif’s killer together.
{musical vibe continues- Square up with me, I can take your right, throw a left-}
I slammed my fist as hard as I could into the head of TreeLif’s killer, my spiked knuckles threatened to break as they made contact with the unfathomably durable helmet the assassin wore.
My punch didn’t move the assassin a noticeable amount, it was like I punched an unbreakable wall. The assassin slowly turned their head from watching Phaz phase in and out of the physical realm to avoid bullets while also firing her own bullets at the remaining six or so “High Society” assassins. I couldn't begin to describe what was happening in that exchange nor do I care to tell you. My mind was set on killing my opponent.
The expressionless face of the assassin's helmet bore into me, a feeling of uneasiness washed over me as lights flashed off the shiny color changing suit the assassins wore. I stumbled over to my right, feeling queasy and disoriented by the sudden flash of light.
The assassin bashed me in the head with her rifle and kicked me in the back, sending me roughly into the ground. My spine was fractured again, but I tried to rise up anyway. I was pushed down by an oppressive metal boot pressing down on my spine. My spine broke with a loud crrrriiick and a crack. I screamed in pain, I desperately tried to get up but my body refused to move and instead my nerves screamed at me in pain for a moment, until they suddenly stopped. I tried to move my head to look for my allies, but I was unable to move my neck when the metal boot of the assassin pressed down on my neck. I looked forward and gazed upon TreeLif’s lifeless body, it filled me with such anger, so much rage, but I was useless. My death was near it seemed.
But then Sopheia fired the remaining bullets in her guns into the assassin standing over me. Each bullet making a tink tink tink sound as the bullets ricocheted off of the assassin's armour and sped towards the ground, the rebounding bullets barely missing me.
Sopheia POV
I tossed away the weapons I stole from an assassin, the portable death machines were useless to me without any ammunition. Besides sword and spell was more my style anyways. I drew my sword with my right hand and prepared a fiery blast in my left hand, as I braced myself to launch myself into the air.
I leaped into the air, sending a fire blast at the woman hiding in her shiny armour and behind her intricate mask/helmet. I twisted my body in the air performing a curving summersault to get behind my opponent and slash them across their back. I executed the move perfectly and braced myself to cut my enemy down. As soon as I got proper footing I Slashed out and cut a shallow gash across the back of my enemies metallic armour, sparks flew at me as the metals scraped against each other. I felt my blade getting close to snap as it was resisted by the armour's toughness. I sheathed my blade to switch to my last armour breaker dagger, but before I could reach for the blade on my waist, a hand roughly pushed itself into me and I phased out of the physical world and became an energy phantom.
Phaz phased her and I through the High Society soldier. Then we both went physical again as Phaz kicked behind her and phased the High Society soldier a few meters back. “Grab Draxson, I’ll grab TreeLif, we need to get our tails out of her now.” Phaz barked at me as she lunged to pick up TreeLif’s lifeless body and swung him unto her shoulder as I tried to lift Draxson off the ground, but I took too long for Phaz’s liking so she transferred Treelif over to me. Phaz grabbed Draxson by his collar and dragged him with her left hand while she ran offering her right hand for me to take. I ran with all my might to catch up to Phaz and take her hand.
I reached out and as soon as I clasped Phaz’s hand, we began turning into energy as Phaz prepared to phase us away. With a loud sploosh we came back to the physical realm, multicolored liquid form energy flowing off us and creating a puddle of color stained snow beneath our feet.
We made it away from the assassin and the rest of the High Society soldiers. I was so relieved that we all made it off with our lives. But the relief left me as quickly as it came to me, when I realized that not all of us made it out alive.
Not all of us.
TreeLif. I panicked and pushed everyone aside to get to TreeLif. I bent down to take off my bag and retrieve my healing supplies. I felt at my shoulder where the strap would be, I found it was missing. Oh no we left my bag, I thought as I frantically got up and started to discern the direction of the battlefield we left mere moments ago. I muttered to myself as I paced around “I gotta get my bag, I need to get my bag, without it we're going to die. I won’t be able to save TreeLif or heal Draxson nor will I be able to…heal myself” I said, feeling part of my shirt sticking to my skin. I placed my hand on my hurting stomach and felt a wetness as the substance stuck to my hands. I pulled my hand away from my stomach and it came back stained in the red hue of blood.
I looked down at my body and saw I was peppered with small circular bullet wounds and I was leaking blood from my wounds. So much blood, I’m surprised I even had enough strength to resist collapsing due to the heavy blood loss. But whatever energy was keeping me awake and ignorant of my injuries was starting to wear off. EVERYTHING hurt, my legs burned in pain from heavy exertion, my arms were sore from swinging my blade and wielding those heavy guns. My chest had at least a dozen holes in it, I was lucky that all the bullets missed my heart, but the sheer amount of wounds my body was covered in would bleed enough to kill me if I didn’t stanch my wounds and down a healing potion or two before I could attend to and save my companions.
I held my hands against the greatest wounds applying pressure to momentarily pause the flow of blood. Still some blood trickled from the wounds I tried to block off in addition to my many other uncovered bullet holes in my stomach. “Phaz I need you to go get my bag, I’m going to die and be unable to save the party if I die. Please find it and bring it, I think I have a couple of minutes at best before the adrenaline or whatever wears off… Oh no! I don’t feel so good, large red potion,” I said woozily as the bloodloss was getting to me. I desperately needed a potion before I would die, and then we would all die, fear, regret and shame washed over me as I realized something.
We were all going to die. All because of me, we would die in this forest, our loved ones wouldn’t ever see us again. I started to tear up and cried into the bloody palms of my hands. Blood mixed in with the tears and trickled down my face, some even got in my mouth. The taste was horrible. I sharply inhaled air into my lungs as I prepared to scream with a loud Yowl.
“I’m so damned worthless, I dragged Draxson along with me and look what I’ve done, I got him killed and now Dralalisis and Frieldelian won’t have a brother in a few hours and never even know it. I’ve killed Solina and Draganarther’s son. And dad. Oh God Selia, her only sister was going to die without her even getting the chance to say goodbye. I’m abandoning her, and leaving her all alone with dad, just like how my mother left us and created a void we could never fill. And now I have created not one but so oh so many voids in the hearts of my parties loved ones. Draxson’s family would never be whole again, my own family would never be the same, and everyone of my friends from my village would lose a friend, comet would bring the news to my dad, who would then pass it on to Draxson’s family, I’m sure TreeLif’s companions would do the same and notify his people but, everyone would be too late to recover us in time for a proper revival. And poor Phaz, I really hoped she would live, because if she didn’t her brothers would be all on their own and her pack would lose a member.
No one, not even the unbelievably fast Draganarther in his Dragon form would be able to reach us in time, all because the comet wouldn't get to mine and Draxson’s parents. If I was lucky my animal companion wouldn’t fly over to find me like this, and stay far away from here.
“Damn it all” I choked out as I cried. “I’m the wor-” I started to speak as I fell on my back the sky seemed destined to be the last thing I saw. It felt like the world itself was taunting me, showing me the beautiful light blue hue of a mid afternoon sky. Such a vast expanse of beauty and tranquility the birds got to freely traverse and enjoy while I, a mere mortal, would die on the ground. My life ended by the unnatural and destructive weapons of an agency full of murderers.
“I’m the worst…” I muttered as my heart stopped.
I was jerked awake from my death’s dark slumber as
I felt my heart jump within my chest. It had started back up a moment after it first stopped. That's 2 of my lives gone now and I was likely to lose the other 6 in a few hours. The sporadic beat of my heart paused, my wounds too great for my racial trait of returning from death to save me from the absurd lack of blood in my body.
Sploosh
I felt a cold liquid pour on my face, some of it getting in my mouth. It was a healing potion, improperly applied but that's fine. I opened my mouth wide to accept the life restoring liquid. I wouldn’t give up on my party, not like I had a choice at this point. I had never asked for whatever This adventure had become.
Thinking about how everything went wrong and what could have been diffrent was making my head pound. That is all I wish to share concerning that misadventure.
Draxson pov
Watching my friend die and come back to life moments latter in a sudden fit caused by her body strugling to out heal her many wounds, then because thw wounds were so grievous and many she would die again moments later. Sopheia died a total of 5 times today. 5 out of 9 lives spent within 20 minutes. Watching my friend and the woman I loved die and suffer because I wasn’t more useful was depressing. I could’nt do a single thing about it with my spine destroyed and my nerves severed leaving me very paralized; It all just made me feel so hopeless that I couldn’t make good on my promise to my mom and dad that I could protect Sopheia, but here I was unable to do a damn thing for her.
“Why am I this way?” I asked myself
“A stupid half breed Friel Dragon that can’t accomplish anything… Now we’re so terribly LoSt, If this keeps going I think I’m gonna break down….
Forces of life I beg you end this bloody suffering and
HELP USS!”
I violently screamed out into the open air, before I fell into slumber not wanting to be continue watching my friend die. I went to sleep hoping I would be dead and punished for my failure.
I thought that was the end of my life, only to wake again many, many hours later when Phaz dropped us to the ground. Being dropped to the ground I morphed back from the pure energy state that Phaz transported us in. I looked around and saw nothing but a forest of tall pine trees as far as I could see.
We were LOST. And I had the uneasy feeling we weren’t alone.
{The end of Chapter 27}
Auxiliary sources
1
:https://valhyr.com/blogs/fun/old-norse-translator?srsltid=AfmBOooUoVeoQ7GDHrtRT4JO1cOax_nbsRx7jSDEO-Ezk60-qcjOEYIR