Creative Corner

Oh this looks very interesting! gonna keep an eye on this. Good luck!

You can pick any which one on the last page on my lazier on the last three slots, the unnamed ones

@Phooka aaa thank you, I'll add you right away!

@Chezameed thank you as well! I don't normally get this many readers I'm sorta amazed really hahah

@alxias

Pinglist please.

@MasqD

Added!
I'll be submitting part 1 today; got a little behind; work kills me. rip
I'm now ready to cry a lot; as per my previous Nuz has proven will happen. lol

---

It was nearing dusk when Fiend had found a measly lump of rock she could consider 'shelter'. It was a small dugout that had been made by something a tad larger than her many moons ago. She had crossed over into the fire territory after many long hours in flight, and her wings were absolutely killing her. Everything felt so utterly pointless at this point, she was sure the huntress on her tail was only ever so slightly far away. Resting any amount of time was a danger to her, even if she felt 'safe' for this short period of time.

Her 'shelter' was between two large cooled vats of what she could have only assumed to have once been magma, but she'd never seen anything like that in her life; so she was unsure as to what exactly it was. It was far hotter here, than it was in her 'home' back in the ice fields. She'd gotten used to the chilling wrath of the winds, and now she felt burdened terribly by her feathers under the pressure of the grueling heat.

Coiling into a small ball at the back of the dugout, she placed her head over her paws, and closed her eyes to the outside world.

It took mere hours before she 'felt' off. It was a different 'off' though. It wasn't Tim, it wasn't the person hunting her. It was something else. Fiend stood, stretched out her back and wings as best possible in the little dugout, and peeked outside. There; not far from where she'd been sleeping, was a Ridgeback, curled tightly against a tuft of fur hiding between his claws from the outside world. He seemed to sheild the fur from the heat with his wings, leaving less to be discovered by eye without getting close.

Fiend thought about speaking, about saying hello.. But her recent encounters with outsiders had been anything but peaceful. Instead, she crept silently along the path until she could stand up on twos and try her best to peek between his sharp claws. He was rather small for a ridgeback, couldn't be very old. But the tufts of fur were coiled together sleeping like fluffy rocks. Two baby tundra.

She felt some maternal instinct rear its' ugly face, she'd never been a mother but something just felt wrong about leaving these poor things out here when Tim had to be so bloody close by. She closed her eyes, took a shallow gulp, and placed a hand on the ridgebacks' shoulder. "I'm sorry to wake you, 'sir but--"

At first his eyes flashed open, and he gripped for his little followers even tighter, but loosed quite quickly, tilting his head at the newcomer. "Howdy." He blinked, "I'm sorry miss, I wasn't aware this spot was compromised. We can shamble off, if need be."

"N-.. No, I was more wondering if you wouldn't mind me tagging along? I've got someone following me and I could use someone like you around." She stammered, averting her gaze. "Not that I can't take care of myself or anything but, this person is deranged and I think it'd be best if we stuck together regardless."

He seemed to think for a moment, opening up his claws the moment the little female tundra popped her head out and sniffed diligently at the air. She made adorable baby sounds, and flopped clumsily out of her hidey-hole, stepping on her brothers' head and giggling up a storm.

Fiend felt an ache, these babes were so young, she'd despise herself if Tim got to them-- because she knew she would inevitably hurt things smaller than her. She always did. In cruel and unjust ways peppered in shade-fueled-disgust. "S-so.." Fiend wrung her hands nervously, "What do'ya say?"

He shrugged, sitting up and allowing the tiny pups to play and wrestle with each other, sqeaking in anger when one toppled over the other. "Sounds alright with me, and I don't know about them, but they don't seem to mind you being around either." He paused, "Name's Scourge, this is Atom.." He pulled the girl off of her brother and held her squirming form up with one claw. "And this is Prota."

She bit him and he dropped her, she did a sassy little wobble-walk head held up in the air in 'anger' and went straight back to gnawing on her brother. "They're my uhh.. responsibility. I found them abandoned a week or so ago, they sure do eat a lot for how tiny they are."

She wanted to laugh at them, to play with them but this was not the time. Time wasn't far behind, she could feel the darkness in her gut. Something was suddenly so very off. It took her several moments to shake it off. "We should go. If we move at night, she won't be expecting it."

He made a grave nod, grabbed the tundras and plopped them onto his back; and stared down at Fiend. "Were're we headed boss?"

She shook her head, "I.. I guess southwest." She started off towards full-on fire territory. She had some hope that the farther inland she went, the less of a chance Tim would follow her through the terrain-- but somewhere in the confines of her mind, she knew that was bull. Once Timora locked onto someone, they were a runner until they met their end. But perhaps?? Perhaps with her newfound help, she could possibly overcome... It was a stupid idea.

"You're quiet. Are you always this quiet?"

She folded her wings tightly to her back, they still hurt terribly. "I suppose I am. I'm lost in thought most of the time, the person following us is Shade-Corrupt. She's hunting me, but I don't know why. Nothing really clicks, nothing makes sense."

"You never did anything to her?"

"No, not a thing. I wasn't even part of the clan she'd tried to damned hard to wipe out last 'summer'." Fiend sighed, "I'd met her near a riverbank, we spoke for a short period of time once, she told me I held potential that not many other have. She claimed that I had 'what it took' to be 'mentored' but I have no idea what that means. It's odd but, I swear to you I went by another name before I met her. It feels like I'm a different person-- the moment I left her by that river, I lost part of myself."

The ridgeback snorted, "You sound like you were dreaming."

"No, not this time." She sounded like an idiot, crazy, even. "I mean.. I.. I've had dreams about her before, but they're the reason I went looking for her. That's really happened. It was a flaw on my part, but.. I went looking for trouble, and here we are now, being hunted because I refused to be a part of her 'almighty plan'."

"Refused what exactly?" He glared back at the babies as they fought even on his back. The settled as soon as they met his gaze, and squeaked in glee.

"She offered me whatever I wanted." She sighed, exasperated. "There are two problems with this situation. One, I don't rightly know what I 'want'. I'm still trying to remember who I am because of her. Two? She demanded my soul for the exchange. She told me that the gods will never be able to see me again; I will never know agony, for I will be immortal."

"Shadeshit, I presume?"

Fiend nodded, "She called me a 'fiend' and 'cursed' me or at me, I don't know.. That's the only word I can remember being called so, I'm in theory Fiend. That's me."

"It's certainly not much of a flattering name." Scourge sighed, shaking his head. "So what you're saying is, this woman is chasing you and you need help."

"I mean.. yes.." Fiend swallowed again, hard. "But you have little ones to look after, and I'd feel terrible if anything happened to them because of me."

"Listen," He paused, "We came from a place where lightning is our best friend. Where there are entities far beyond the power of the 'Shade' and just as frightening. I've seen it before. I've seen things that none have ever spoken of before. I'm not afraid of the dark, Fiend. And neither are my babes. We'll shock the hell out of anything that crosses our paths, you get that? We're a team now, and even if we're cornered we're not going to give up."

For the first time since she'd be snarled at by Tim; she felt part of the pressure lift. "Thank you." She managed, continuing on. Far off in the distance, she could swear she saw towers, and the outline of a decrepid castle that sat catty-cornered against the dark moonlit horizon.

That's where they were going. She didn't know why, or how her brain knew that but.. She knew something drew her towards it, and Scourge could feel it too.

[quiet screaming]

@vanadium

The babies, they kill me.
Prota is such a sass-master.

//gently screams at the duo to turn tf around u giant nerds

AAaaaaaa!

---

The walk was tormenting, Fiend was tired despite the gravity of the situation and the babies were complaining of hunger. Eventually they just stopped. "I suppose we need this rest, but we really need to watch our time and who's where."

"Don't worry so much, I haven't seen any trace of that mirror in what feels like hours." Scourge rumbled, setting down the little pups and digging through his stores to try and find some plants. "Hold on your squealing impatient furballs."

"I'm amazed you're capable of taking care of babies this young to start."

"Someone has to do it, I couldn't just leave them all alone out there, that's wrong. And-- I mean look at how playful and personable they are!" He laid out a plentiful amount of strange leaves and plants and the babes started to instantly go to gorge themselves, falling quiet albeit their quiet crunching.

"I feel something nearby." Fiend said, "It's emotions are.. staggering."

"What's that supposed to mean? You sure you're not picking up Prota? She's a little weird sometimes."

"No, no this is different. Seems just as innocent given the brain patterns, but.. I don't know. You stay here, I won't go far." She stretched, and moved gently through the dead underbrush. The closer they got to the core of the fire territory, the less likely they were to see any living vegetation at all.

It took her several moments to come across what looked to be a shattered golden dome, within it was a large dried vatt of blood, among several less-than-lively corpses of young. She made a shaky exhale and went to turn around, but her foot felt caught in some sort of tree root..? She slipped it free, took yet another step, and fell straight on her face. How the hell were there plants here. Was her first thought-- but not her last. She struggled to stand, and brush herself off, glaring around as if to think this was Tim messing with her, but she was very wrong.

She heard a little-- yet deep, growl and turned to see that only one of the tiny golden corpses was not yet a corpse at all, and glared at her with giant green narrowed eyes. At its' sides were spiky masses of sharp looking roots and vines.

"Calm down little one, I'm not here to harm you." Her words felt hollow, even to herself. Obviously something had already killed the rest of the tiny faes' family, what made her so different. It was astonishing that something this small and young even had control over her element this well.
Fiend didn't really know what else to do besides head back and maybe have Scourge come take a look at this angry little thing. He seemed to be good with children and babies. She certainly wasn't.

Fiend exhaled, stepping back into the fray of their resting ground. The feeling she'd get when she could sense Tim nearby was distant but there. She wondered if they were just being watched; or if she was on the move. It was hard to tell. "I found a little one." She echoed, gathering a few bugs from inside of the sack at her side. They were dead, but they were food.

"Another baby?" The ridgeback tilted his head up, but was instantly yanked back down by the tiny female, who giggled and stuck her little tongue out.

"A little fae, but she's seemingly the last of her nest, something killed off her parents and her siblings and something tells me she fought off the intruders herself. She's amazing with her element and she's just likely a few days old."

"Huh." Scourge stood, and stretched, despite the hatred of his actions denying the tiny fluffs under him their cuddles. "I'll go check it out, watch these little troublemakers."

She didn't want to watch the babies. She was bad enough at keeping herself in one piece, let alone watching tiny babies; but she did as she was told, it was far better than being alone if things went to hell. The next thing she knew, they were all over her, climbing and chewing mindlessly with their slobbery little mouths. She made a disgusted noise, but it didn't buffer their means of play what so ever. It wasn't until Scourge returned with the tiny vine-wrapped child on his head, coiled safely around one of the spines on the top of his head glaring angrily down at her; that she was able to free herself from the disgusting children.

Fiend scuttled away from the fluffs, and began wiping herself down with a bundle of rags from inside her bag. She shook her head the whole time. "How are we going to supply these things the food they need?"

"Don't you worry about that." Scourge rumbled, laying a wing down so that the babies could climb up. "Lets get moving, I hear something while I was out there, something sounds like it's tracking us from afar."

A shiver ran down her spine, she hadn't felt anything close? How could Tim have gotten close without her feeling tht raging dark energy nearby? Unless.. Unless Tim had gotten smarter. The idea sickened her, as she grabbed her back and moved on behind the ridgeback.

"I think if we can make it to the city before night we'll be fine." He rumbled, "It feels like we need to go there, hopefully something there can help us."

She prayed he was right but; despite her feeling the same feeling, something still felt off about all of this. Everything felt out of place-- a part of her wished Tim would show her face if only once, so that she could be totally sure how far away the woman was.

She wasn't much paying attention and slammed into the back of Scourges' leg. "Why'd you stop?"

He grunted, and tilted his head downward but was overall silent.

She felt jarred; if there was a threat ahead their mission would get less and less bearable bu-- "You giant baby it's just a stream."

He snorted, glaring at her.

"We have to go over it, if we go around it'll take us at least two days. Besides, it's hot as hell out here, we'll dry near instantly."

"Not the point." He grunted, tapping the water uncomfortably with a claw, withdrawing it so quickly the tundrapups on his back let out little squealing giggles.

"Even the babies are making fun of you." Fiend snickered, but her play was damn near instantly over; she should have known that there was literally not time for games while on the run; but some part of her wanted to be free of the fear. It was impossible here.

Tim wasn't the one that appeared; searing pink eyes turned the corner of trees behind them; he was larger than Tim, more bland in colour, but no less fast. "GO, GOD DAMN SCOURGE, GO." She hissed, as the mirror took leaps in their direction charging up some blackened arcane ball in his mouth. Scourge kept hesitating until the ball slammed into a portion of his back, effectively hitting one of the pups and rendering them unconscious instantly. Scourge pulled his wing tightly to his back to keep the pups from falling off; and dove into the water, letting out sounds of disgust as he waded across.

Fiend showered the mirror in powerful bolts of shadow; but he hardly flinched, instead opening his maw and letting out some horrible sound that echoed into the fathomless pits of reality and back. It was unnatural, there was no way anything living could make that sound. His lips trailed together like some sort of stretching and dripping goo, and his teeth were covered in a thick black goo. He stopped at the stream, stalked back and forth at the waters' edge and instead of walking away, he just.. phased into nowhere. He was gone.

A very uncomfortable Scourge was at the other side, trying to get the little girl to wake up. HE hated touching it, but splashed water on her little face, but she refused to move. "She's breathing, but.. She's not responding to anything." He brother made the saddest little call, whimpering in fear. The fae was dead silent, looking back at the male mirror that had vanished into nothing.

"Pick her up, we'll find a cave around here somewhere and rest for the night." Fiend was still shaken from the mirror. "What kind of sound was that..?"

"I have no idea." He pulled the babe into his maw carefully, and gazed around.

She took the lead and eventually found an obsidian cave; the cool glass kept it a tad cooler inside and for this she was thankful. The rest of the evening was trying to get the little girl to wake up; while Fiend kept watch from the entrance; but nothing ever appeared.