Creative Corner

Aaaaaaa!

Also, gosh darn Snoots and their hydrophobia.

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Prota never woke. It'd been days since they last moved, and Fiend was getting antsy about staying put in one place for too long. She'd stalk at the front door, watch outside, and talk to herself. Things felt heavier here, more weighted, like the world was threatening to crush her beneath its' powerful claw.

Scourge spoke, but his words sounded drowned beneath some vast ocean, all she could hear was herself. Frantic, mental screaming. Clustered voices that rampantly caved in on one another until they too were indistinguishable. "Fiend?"

She glanced up, the word-- her name, was still very distant but she heard it. "Huh?"

"I don't think we'll get anywhere just sitting here, can you carry her in your bag? I'll watch these two; we're damned close to that city now, if we walk throughout te rest of the night we should arrive there by mid-day."

She nodded; "That sounds doable, yea." She used her bag, made room; and tied the little floppy tundra pup to her back between her wings. The group then ventured out of the cool cave, back into the depths of hellterrain. After many many hours of walking, finally the city was within tangible veiw. She cold feel the cold air as it radiated off of the broken and battered city. "What happened here..?"

Scourge poked around, the little fae hissing every so often. "I don't know." He said with a bit of hesitation. "Feels dark."

"Shade, dark? Like Tim?"

"Never met Tim, remember? But a lot like that other mirror. Yea." He grunted, Atom was still a sad fluff, curled up between his shoulder-blades; not even willing to explore. "Where are you going?"

"The that castle. If there's any better place to make camp, you let me know right away, but if anyone had protection I can guarantee it was the king and queen." Fiend said, moving off with the ridgeback on her tail. "We seal the doors as best we can and try and set up camp for a while. Get these guys stronger and maybe we'll stand a chance."

He liked that idea, "I hope little Prota is okay.. I.. It was my fault she was hit. I should have swam."

"Shut up, you." Fiend growled, "It's nto your fault. She's alive, she's just out cold. She needs time to heal, and a place to do that."

Fiend was never really one for words; she just kept on walking, and he followed behind like an obedient pup. The castle was partial sunken into a fathomless pit in the ground. long-since picked clean carcasses littered the area, but she thought nothing of it. Most of them were from beasts; a few from dragons. She stumbled across a fractured pearl and stared at it for a few seconds before picking it up and stashing it away. By the time she'd managed to find a way inside, it was already becoming dark again; and she had no means of setting any fires other than the tinder in her bag. The largest room consisted of a long since-devoid bed, blankets were piled along the floor where the frame probably stood long ago.

She stepped foot on them to shake out the dust into the hall and return to put the tiny tundra down in the blankets. She'd just managed to sit when she heard a sound down the hall. She could feel a rush of confusion and fear; nothing like that other mirror or Tim; but something that needed checked out regardless. "Stay here Scourge, watch the babes. I'll be right back."

Again, she vanished out the intricate doors. Stalking down the hall; and following the feelings she could almost choke on; she nearly rand straight into another skydancer. He growled at her, and she stumbled back. "Wha-- Who are you?"

He snorted, "Torres is my name." He grunted, "And you're a little too close to my nest, if you would back away I would gladly leave you alone."

"Nest..? Here..?" Fiend rose a brow. The man seemed to buckle under himself; the sense of worry that rushed from outside the door he stood at was suffocating. "I can feel her worry. Let me see the eggs, I promise I mean no harm. I come here with three babes and a ridgeback. We're just down the hall."

He hesitated, but broke. Desperately clutching for something to hold onto, he led her into their dimly lit room. A small teal pearlcatcher lay, exhausted curled around four dull eggs. No sense of magic drifted off of them what so ever. The physically bared her teeth at the intruder, but Torres shook his head. "She's here to help."

Fiend ran a hand over each egg, sensing life in some; but not all. She pulled her hands back and looked at the mother-- than the father, and back to the mother again. "Do you want the truth?"

The pearlcatcher felt tears well in her eyes, "Yes."

"These children will not house magic, the magic in this place is gone. There is no god watching over this domain." She started, "Because there is no blessing, there will be no magic, and no magic means they survive out of pure will to survive." She paused, "Two will survive."

The girl shook her head, "No, no that can't be true, I've watched them all so closely!"

"It has nothing to do with you, it's the fact that this place is damned, and surviving in a world like this is nearly impossible; to be honest? Two is a lot better than I'd feared." Fiend stood. "I'll be down the hall treating the injured child; if you need me, come get me."

"Cease." The girl spoke in a trembling voice.

"Excuse me?"

"My name, it's Cease." She sighed, "T..Thank you."

"Not a problem at all, I'm no healer, but I can sense magic, and feelings, and the like. We're a rather small group but, if you need help protecting the little ones when they hatch, my friend is a massive baby person. He's got three random babies he's adopted on the way right now."

Torres smiled softly, "We'll meet with you a little bit later."

After that, Fiend turned; and went back to their room. Atom and the little fae were playing on the floor; Prota was lifeless, with Scourge curled around her body to keep her warm. He too was out cold. Gently, she wondered what it was like to have eggs. To be a family. To feel safe and warm around someone.

To be normal.

rip Prota

But the band grows in number!

Torres did meet with them hours later; Cease stayed with her nest. He cradled little lifeless Prota in his arms, and whistled a sweet song. "If she can hear me, this could help."

Fiend didn't see how singing was going to help but she stayed quiet. "I know this is the safest place we can be but something feels.. Very odd."

"We've felt it since we arrived a week or more ago, but nothing has surfaced. It's just something you gotta learn to deal with I think. This place is crawling with things that shouldn't exist." Torres said gently, swaying with the little pup in his arms. "Wakey wakey little one, it's time to wake up and eat."

The babe didn't much move even at the mention of food, but the ground shifted just a little, and he looked up in fear. "It's happening again, everyone stay close to the wall."

Fiend glared at him. "What is happening again..?"

"I wish I could explain it, things live under the castle. Sometimes they shift."

"They'd have to be some pretty big things to make a castle move." Scourge grimaced. "I don't like the thought of what I have in my head."

"Honestly what you're thinking about is probably down there, with more heads." Torres muttered, no crack formed in the ground, and he exhaled the moment the movement had stopped. "I'm going to go check on Cease." He stood, and exited.

Fiend and Scourge looked at one another with the same daunting expression; but the pup Torres had left on the floor suddenly stirred, Prota popped her eyes open and growled terribly at the corner of the room. Her hackles raised and she bared her fangs at the floor. Fiend moved over but hastily grabbed for the baby and squinted at the black hole in the floor. For a fleeting moment she swore she saw a cacophony of eyes but then they were gone.

"What the--.. I don't.. I don't feel anything here, but.. Scourge where the hell are we?"

"Old Emberash." He muttered, "Queen Reign lived here years ago, before it fell to Miasma. I've only heard stories of this place being haunted but now.. Gods there are emperors in the floor and voices and--.."

"..You can hear them too?" Fiend hissed, "I.. oh gods. Tim led us here. This isn't safe! Nothing is safe! What the hell are we supposed to do now?!"

"Peep." Said Prota, who squirmed free, and plopped back to her corner. "PEEP." She growled into the floor, which echoed back-- accompanied by a much deeper response of 'peep'. She giggled, and peeped again.

"STOP PLAYING WITH THE DARKNESS." Fiend grabbed her and threw blankets over the hole. "No more peeping."

Prota wilted, and returned to chew on Scourge and brother. "Well at least someone can commune with the darkness."

"Shut up you doofus." She sighed, "I'm going outside before it gets dark, I'll see if I can find something we can burn."

"Go grab Torres, don't go alone."

Fiend hated relying on people but he was right. She shuffled to the other room and knocked on the door. "We need to go find firewood, you wana come with?"

Torres nodded, pushing the door open and stepping out. "It's likely best not to be alone, I suppose. We heard shouting, is everyone alright?"

"Prota woke up and decided to chat with the abomination under our room." She hissed, "I told her to stop."

He chuckled. "I've never seen the things pysically harm children. They just whisper us all to death."

"The Shade is really slacking if that's the truth."

"They're waiting." He said. "For their leader. For now..? They're terrifying but.. Not near as strong as they will be."

"Tim?" She inquired.

"I don't know who. I just know we heard one talking. A little one, a sad one. They get really angry and stop responding after a while, then things go dark and they vanish." Torres said, "Whoever their leader is, they're powerful. I'm not looking forward to them coming to be honest. I hope we've found a new place by then."

"We won't be leaving."

"What?"

"Tim led us here, if she's not the leader, she knows who is. She's got us trapped here. We won't be leaving."

@Alxias
Pinglist please?

@Lotuscatdragon Aaaaa of course!!

@Alxias
Thank you!

Sorry for such a short little entry after so many days, I've had a tad of a crisis over the past two weeks, another part will be up soon!

Part 5: Connection

Pinglist: @Kaial, @vanadium, @DraconicLegacy, @Vosa, @Phooka, @MasqD, @Lotuscatdragon

Nerdsquad: @SpectralDragon, @Sallin

---

There were days that went by that made things seem almost easier. Fiend would find herself in the cold, dark room watching the babies and thinking out loud to herself-- receiving small coos or peeps from Prota in attestation of her efforts to get responses from babies. When Scourge would come back, he'd stoke the fire, and curl himself around the babies-- and sometimes her too.

Scourge was warm. She would bury herself against his side, and hug his tail close. He never once seemed to mind her mindless cuddling. She thought herself crazy-- was she falling in love in a place like this?? In a situation where life and death were... just a pindrop away?? No, no, there was no time for this, there were other things that were far more important.

At that realization, she'd let go of his tail, turn into the opposite direction; and pass out. Her tail.. draping over his.. Scourge would just gently smile before drifting off.

Dreams were voids; no one dreampt here. She was sure even the babies didn't venture in their sleep. It was hard to really keep track of any sense of time here as well. Cease had started a calendar of sorts by marking things on the wall with coaldust. A clock had been concocted in the sun outside.

They were rarely bothered by the creatures under the surface. Nothing ever moved the blanket in the corner, and Prota never made any effort to play with them anymore either. Every so often one could hear heavy splooshing under some of the stairways, and a thick smell of fuel. Something they really rather desperately needed at this point. It was the last day that the smell wafted through the halls that Scourge made it a point to make a plan.

"I'll go, Torres can go, and we'll turn on some valves. Easy as pie." The ridgeback announced, "Something is leaking so we'll have to stay away from there but, overall turning the lights on is a simple plan."

"What if whatever is down there finds you?" Fiend muttered, toiling in babies. "And what if I suffocate under children..? You know that little fae hates me."

"You and Cease will be bedding together in her room away from the hold in the floor. It's warmer in there and the calendar is there too." He murmured, "But we shouldn't be gone more than a day at the very longest."

"And if you don't come back within that day?"

"You worry too much, give me some faith here." He sighed, dipped his head down, and gave her a little nuzzle before pulling away. "Come on, I'll help bring the babies to Cease, then you two make friends."

Fiend exhaled, picking up Atom, and the others chirped happily being carried by 'dad'. She exited the room with the tubby little tundra in her grasp and made it down the hall to Ceases' chambers. Torres was already missing. "Where did your man go?"

Cease gave a shy shrug, her eggs sitting idly at her front; she still seemed wrapped around all four, even though none of them gave off light. They babes inside were all warm as could be despite their lack of magic-- or adaptability. She knew only two would live, but kept up her guard as a mother regardless. Fiend curled a few feet from her side, Atom flopping and playing in a lump especially when hie sister was placed near him. The two began to fight.

Scourge exited the room quietly, and then and there..

That's when Fiend felt things start to go amiss.