Non Magis Umbra

[Riley Oran]

The wilds of Iota were no place to be left unconscious, for any period of time. Alexander was only out for four or so minutes, but in that time passersby had him trussed him and tied, while already transporting him to some out-of-the-way location. Alexander came to slowly as he was bounced over the hide of a horse... or at least, what he thought was a horse. In truth it wasn't that different from such an animal, and looked much similar to a horse. Its neck was somewhat longer, and its body stockier. The mane ran from the base of its skull down its tail, and upon its hips Alexander was bound, confused and somewhat relieved that he wasn't trapped in hell anymore.

On the flip-side of things, he traded chains for ropes. His eyes traced about the creatures around him, and he became curious. They seemed fairly human in shape, but much more slender. They wore masks to cover their faces, and minimal clothing that seemed to be made of leather hides. Their ears were pointed, and they were speaking a language Alexander did not comprehend.

"Sindfara sîr." Alexander could not tell which among them spoke-- the masks made it difficult to source the noise.

"Istan," replied another. At least, Alexander thought this was a reply.

"Excuse me," Alexander interrupted, causing the rider of the horse to turn their head towards him. A few others also cast their attention briefly at him before returning to their attention back to one-another, or forward on the trail while others paid him no mind at all. In fact, they were used to their victims kicking and screaming. The fact that this one was fully conscious and not panicking bothered a handful of them. The one on the horse returned his attention to guiding the horse, but kept his ears open. Alexander started with his first question. "Do you speak my language?"

"Some," the man on the horse replied apathetically.

"Alright, some is good," Alexander told him. "Where am I?"

"Iota wilds," replied the man. "We taking you back to village."

"Ah," Alexander replied, "and I'm not tied up for my own safety," Alexander stated. As he rustled his hands he noticed that Clarent's chains were used to bind his hands, with the rope as just a precaution. They would have done better to bind Clarent to his arm.

"You are 'Rui'," he told Alexander.

"I am what?"

"You are our Hunt," the man clarified.

"Oh, like food," Alexander told him. "Yeah... I have to pass." Alexander's sword dangled from where the chain had been tied off, and he flipped it into the air the sword rotated and came back, easily slicing the rope and stopping on its own chain. With the rope binds gone, Alexander managed to work his hands free of the chains, but not before the scrapping of metal against his iron-chitin arm attracted the rider's attention.

"Násë lhain!" The rider reached for his sword, and as he pulled it free Alexander rolled off of the horse, slamming to the ground as Clarent banged against a rock, making a sharp 'thunk' as it did so. Alexander was on his hands and toes like a feral animal before a few second passed, the man on the horse bringing it around as they rest of the creatures turned to face Alexander, weapons drawn. "Surrender," called the horseman, "You will be not harmed."

"Yeah," Alexander replied, "because I supposed being your... 'Rui' meant I was going to be fine." Alexander stood in his feral position, moving as an animal on his fingers and toes, dragging Clarent through the dirt. He could feel their emotions-- nervousness, anger, fear-- feeding him and his power. There were twelve of them, counting the horse-thing. Though without any idea where he was, fighting these people accomplished nothing. From the back, one of them rushed forward extremely quick, but as they brought their sword down Alexander rushed forward, ramming the man with his metal shoulder. He stumbled and dropped his sword, and Alexander retreated to his feet and raised one of them high, bringing it down as a great axe onto the stumbled man's shoulder. He uttered a syllable of some-kind as his mask came free and he fell unconscious, revealing his face to Alexander.

Alexander blinked as he brought his foot down. The man was different than a normal human, or even beastkin. He was far lankier with darker skin, his face flatter and more oval than he had become accustomed too. Without really meaning to say anything, Alexander identified its race with a flash of knowledge that ripped through his brain. "Wild Elf," he declared silently, and then his head was engulfed in pain. He clutched his face and stumbled, grunting and confused but as he withdrew his hands from his face another elf, followed by two more had rushed forward. Its sword raised the first elf brought down its blade, but it clanged against Alexander's metal appendage as he caught the sword and snapped through the blade.

Using the broken section of blade, Alexander parried another elf's incoming strike from his left, while he ejected his foot forward and knocked the one in front of him in the stomach, staggering it. Another one rushed him from his right, shoving the off-balance one out of the way and onto the earth. A blade came forward towards Alexander's chest, and as the tip of the sword penetrated the skin was halted by the dense, metallic bone beneath it. Taking the opportunity, Alexander took his chain-riddled forearm and used it to parry the thrust, knocking the sword out of the man's hand. He broke the engagement on his left side and directed the sword towards the ground, bringing the metal hand against the other's face as he pivoted on his right foot.

His left foot came up and smacked the other in the face, sending him reeling into the dirt. The other who received the metal appendage went down as well, leaving four of the twelve defeated. The one seated atop the horse grunted in derision, before raising his hand. The palm began to glow, as he shouted, "Nárfiru!" A surge of fire shot forward from the man's hand, and Alexander could only raise his arms up in defense. The heat surged over Alexander, and he felt the intensity of the scorched air. The heat kept up for a few moments, and once it receded Alexander let his arms fall, staring fearfully at the beings before him, who stared back in awe. Steam rose from Alexander's metallic parts, but other than that the fire did not injure him. Even the ground that he stood on was scorched, but nothing upon his body was burned. He was merely sweating lightly.

The one on the horse lowered its palm, its expression hidden behind its mask. One of the others next to the horse-creature spoke softly, "Hráva." Amongst the group, whispers became a panicked cry of, "Nassëráva, náráva!" Alexander was freaked out; they could use fire like Jericho! He turned and fled into the forest, leaving the group of hunters behind while praying they would not follow. He didn't understand what had just happened. The intense heat and the flames-- only one person he had ever encountered could use what Alexander and others had called 'magic'. He didn't stop to contemplate, merely ran, and he kept running until he found shelter. Deep in the forest, he came across a cave and headed inside it.

The cave was a small, unsuspecting area somewhere near Iota's capitol city, though Alexander didn't know much of that. Had he not been so panicked, he might have stopped to realize that the area was totally unfamiliar. In fact, it even missed the smell of ash and burnt land that his world had in the background. He did not consider himself in the proper mindset, and even after an hour in the cave was still greatly worried. However, he had calmed down. He was starting to realize that he needed to get his thoughts situated before he continued anywhere else, and that he needed to use his knowledge of geography to figure out where he was. Then, just like earlier another world tore through his mind: Tedranog. Another bought of intense pain, and Alexander rolled over on his side, screaming in agony.

The pain settled just a few moments later. His vision was blurred this time, and he started to cough as his body convulsed slightly. He wasn't sure what was happening, but now he was sure he was in a different world. Alexander put hands to his head, and began to deny this suddenly known fact. "No, no, no," he called out. "No, that's not possible." Memories of other impossible things flashed through his mind, and he recanted his statement. "It... it is possible," he admitted. "It is possible." Laying on his side in the cave Alexander curled up into a ball and sighed, closing his eyes. "Fuck." He fell into slumber for a few hours more, consumed by nightmares. Dissident can never dream.

He was roused a few hours later by the sound of thunder resounding through the cave. His eyes opened, now adjusted to the darkness and feel upon an oval object at the end of the cave. It rested in the darkness, and that's when Alexander caught the crackling of lightning from its form which revealed that it was an egg; yellow and small. It struck Alexander as strange that one would place such an item here, away from the warmth of the sun. There seemed to have been no mother, as during Alexander's duration here there was no visitor other than himself. He rolled onto his knees and crawled towards the egg, staring at it curiously. "I've never seen something like you before," he said to nothing in particular.

Another crash of thunder, and he noticed some water was building up in the cave around the egg. "That's not good," he said, taking it into his hands. "You can't hatch if you're wet," said a concerned Alexander. If the egg got cold, wouldn't it die? Alexander looked around,, trying to find something he could shield it with. He had already decided to take it with him, and not seeing anything else to wrap the egg in he ripped a part of his blue jeans from his leg, and created for the egg a warm wrap. He kept it tucked under his body as he ran hunched into the storm, immediately realizing that this was a terrible idea. He turned to head back into the cave, when lightning descended from upon high and consumed his form. Alexander screeched as the electricity surged through his body and caused him great pain, and funneled itself into the egg that he clutched.

He feel to his knees, struggling to stay conscious. His vision blurred, and he felt dizzy. His body was already healing the internal damage to his organs and nerves, but for the moment he was stunned.

[Kate]

The lightning instantly shattered the egg revealing a small yellow dragon. The hatchling's instincts told her that Alex was her parent. The dragon did not bother standing up. It was content to stay lying down in Alex's hands. When Alex's eyes focus he would notice he was no longer clutching an egg but a small yellow dragon. If his hearing was ok he might even her the quiet sound of the dragons purring.

[Riley Oran]

Alexander's body shuddered, and his sense flooded back to him. His body aching, he scrambled out from the rain and into the Cave, not noticing the egg had broken from within his bundled and torn jean fabric meant to encase it. He rolled from the mud onto the rocks, panting heavily while his body pulsed in agony. It was beyond intense, and beyond description. He peered at the egg and to his surprise it had hatched somehow. The small creature laid in his hands, in his bundle of cloth and seemed to be purring happily. Alexander could only blink at what appeared to be...

"A dragon?" It certainly looked like one. Small and yellowish, reveling in his hands as it seemed close to sleep. "Wow..." Alexander was consumed by wonder, his eyes fixed on the small creature in his hands. He scrambled up onto his but, laying his back against the cave wall as he stared at the small creature in his hands. The silence became as a cloak, and a pin could have dropped to shatter the world. Instead, thunder boomed outside the cave, and Alexander quickly tossed his head towards the entrance, then turned his eyes back towards the small creature.

No way... he couldn't grip the tangible reality before him as it had started to slip through his fingers like sludge, becoming toxic too all he knew to be real. In the poison haze he smiled, and spoke to the small creature in a soft voice, saying, "Hello". What more was there to say?

[Twilight]

Twilight appeared outside the gave that the man names Alex was in. She was invisible to all simply because she chose it to be. Twilight could sense the man and she knew he was leaning against the cave wall. There was no more perfect time than this. Twilight changed the cave wall that Alex was leaning against into a portal out of her realm. With nothing to brace himself Alex would fall backwards into the portal. Twilight was glad to finnaly be rid of the man but she was very upset about that her baby dragon that rested in his hands which was going with him. She supposed it was a fitting punishment for her actions. She swore Alex had better take care of that dragon and rise it like it was of his own blood. 

With things taken care of here Twilight left in order to mourn her loss and prepare for the responsibility to come with her new position.
[exit]

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