Generation 2 - Heir Selection, Part 2
Winds so quiet, he could hear the crunch of leaves.
Marlais reentered the borders of their lair’s area to be welcomed by nothing. His father wasn’t patrolling as he said he would, nor was there any indication that his mother was on watch. He glanced around wildly. Nothing was there. Panic rising despite the lack of danger, he hastened to the lair’s opening. Not even the winds howled.
Blood trailed back into their home.
Shouldering the door open, the pounding silence rose only to a hush. His brother was sobbing, curled around something wet with blood, a few wounds barely wrapped and only the ones that could be reached without moving him. His father was tense, gathering his armor and a scavenged tool used for killing, scavenging, and skinning. His mother wouldn’t meet his gaze, eyes wide once she saw Corinthia.
He didn’t see Sarannah or Lin.
“Stay here.” Quentrell squeezed his shoulder, right as Marlais went to lay Corinthia down on the couch.
He tried summoning his voice, it nearly failing him. The crimson eyes flashed in the back of his mind, full of menace even dulled by death.
“W-wait.” Marlais stuttered, his claws shaking. “M-Mirrors. Mirrors attacked us.”
“Mirrors?” Quentrell paused, sending him a sharp look.
Marlais nodded, moving aside as ZeroHour finally flitted over to look at Corinthia.
“Is she…?” she faltered.
“Injured. Her wing or shoulder is broken. She… overexerted herself.”
ZeroHour nodded, opening her mouth to say something. She pursed her lips and took a deep breath instead. Her gaze turned upward as she tried to quell her trembling.
“What about the Mirrors? Are they still there?” Quentrell asked, setting himself against the entryway with a clink.
“She killed them.” he murmured, casting his eyes to the sandy floor. A quiet stare bore into him. “There were...four maybe? I think, I think it was four? I don’t know. She collapsed and I, I just managed to get her back here.”
He fidgeted his wings, briefly looking up again when he felt the stare move elsewhere. His father left with a click. Marlais only hoped he was going to watch from the lookout and not go out on his own.
Dread burrowed into him as the next hours passed. ZeroHour merely nestled near her daughter, the only one from what Marlais gathered. He still checked the door every few minutes, hoping that one of them would burst through. Assiel’s sobbing only ceased when he fell asleep. Quentrell didn’t return.
-
Assiel awoke to the smell of blood. He shot up, moving and looking around frantically. He strained to hear something, anything. Nothing. Only the panging of wounds tearing open and the soft sound of bandages ripping. Glancing at his leg, he saw it. The maroon coated pearl next to his own.
They were gone.
A quiet voice gaze him something to turn his attention to - the anger, the frustration, the guilt and sorrow.
“Are you alright?”
Marlais. His only brother. He was perched up near Lin’s little makeshift area.
“No-!”
Her voice rung in his ears, the serpent moving to block him with its gleaming fangs and glaring eyes. He should have moved it. He should have stopped it.
“Assiel?”
The Pearlcatcher squinted, looking at Marlais again. Marlais’ wings twitched back and forth as he moved around to look down on him, eyes glancing over the pearls.
He was alive. That was good.
Assiel looked around the lair, but no one else was with them.
“Where are the others? Where are mom and dad?” he stared at Marlais again.
“Father left last night. Apparently he didn’t come back for a while, but I know I didn’t see him. Mother said he went to go look for a healer. Mother's out by the lookout now.”
When Assiel didn’t respond, merely blankly staring at whatever his gaze had fallen on last, Marlais fluttered back down and onto the couch.
“Corinthia hasn’t woken up. That's what the healer is for.”
Assiel froze as her name and the fact that she was alive clicked. Timidly, he turned and looked over the couch. She was laid out, breathing shallow but there.
The pair sat together in silence for a while longer, but Assiel’s thoughts wouldn’t cease. The serpent flashes, Sarannah’s laugh, Lin’s cries, it all repeated again and again.
“Come on.” he said roughly, stalking towards the doorway.
“What?” Marlais froze in place.
“We’re going to get their bodies. They should at least be buried.” Assiel said gravely.
“B-But, Assiel!”
“Come with me or stay here. Watch Corinthia. I’ll get the bodies.” he growled, prowling out of the lair.
Marlais hovered in place. Corinthia barely breathed in and out. The pearls gleamed out of the corner of his eye. He didn’t want to stay as his brother got killed.
He flew out to follow Assiel.
Once he caught up, Assiel said nothing simply continuing on. The most Marlais got was a brief look, an almost surprised eyebrow. His eyes turned forward, as they assumingly retraced the trio’s steps from the night before.
The telltale hissing was drowned out by a fatal lunge, as sharpened claws ripped through a serpent Marlais didn’t even see until it crumpled. Blood dripped from Assiel’s claws, but it might as well have not been there. A red haze surrounded them, pushing Marlais to ready his own magic.
Assiel jumped back from a tail crack, retracting a claw instantly. Marlais readied a bolt, but it missed its target as the serpent wriggled away and around to flank Assiel. The Pearlcatcher moved towards it to counter, both brothers’ striking it again. Its scales molted at the plague’s touch. It fell with another round with Assiel deftly dodging each attack. The two pressed on, Assiel pushing his injured claw into the ground with each step.
The scent of death and rot grew heavier with each step, until a chittering could be heard. Nochnyr. Assiel’s fur prickled at the sight as he prowled forward with every intention to rip the whole pack to pieces. They left the bodies be to face him.
Once again, Assiel took the first hit, claws raking across the bandages that guarded his chest. They unraveled as he twisted to bat them back and avoid another hit. Marlais unleashed bolt after bolt in a daze. Each one struck with a dull, barren sound as if the creatures were stitched together like dolls. Assiel tried repeatedly to strike them with magic, but each missed its mark. He resorted to fighting claw-to-claw, as Marlais darted between them with each wave of magic.
Even when he braced himself for each hit that he couldn’t avoid, Assiel’s already injured condition made it hard for him to guard his weak points. The nochnyr jabbed at him repeatedly, the Pearlcatcher merely growling at his shredded skin. Marlais dropped near his brother as a wing was grazed, leaving him to flap the other harder as blood and bone piled around them. Marlais finished the next with a well placed bolt, but two more took their place.
The creatures tore into them both, tearing Marlais to the ground and cleaving another gash into Assiel. Assiel struck the beasts off of Marlais, and the two glowered as they poured the last of their attacks into the fight. Assiel roared, blood soaking his much of his fur. Both were near collapse when the shredded thing pounced.
In defiance of its death throws, it sank its claws into Marlais.
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RoyalSorceress @
FallowFreckles @
IronPen @
FlufferLover @
queenmedusozoa @
ElectriWinter @
Drakenhart @
Preheatedlizard
The heir of generation two is Assiel.
The battle was very close. Scary close. Both dropped down to 12 health - low enough to where one hit would finish them. Marlais dodged a deadly hit, but the next connected. More to come soon.
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IronPen
It didn't quite answer in detail on the Mirrors, that'll come soon. That's how they got paired up though. If you want Marlais, he doesn't necessarily have to be dead. Just very badly injured.
Click for the next chapter - Generation 2 - The Healer
