Lith's Blog

I flitted through the trees, recovered fully, and using my health to move swiftly almost in time with Unknown Third as he flew with Cati. I was worried about her...

I sprang from tree branch to tree trunk to the ground to a tree branch again. My leg, completely healed, helped me regain my power of strong jumping, making me leap from tree to tree; a sleek panther on a tactic mission.

This was what I was made to do.

Darvire flitted in and out besides me and ahead; always there, keeping up. My shadow.

The morning noises arouse slowly around us, chorusing a song without a beat or tune; a ruckus that made up a melody of the sunrise. The swish of wind through out the trees were the strings and winds, the slow tremolo of birds were the brass, and the sudden howls and cries of the wild made up the choir. I felt alive with anticipation, my cheeks flushed with the overwhelming sense of recklessness of nature. I've never really went this deep into the forest surrounding the Base. You never caught sight of a rabbit darting into the underbrush, or the swift casual flick of a fox tail as it went home for the day. The wild was afraid to approach us. But now, with it all around me, it was making my spirit--once captive of the Mistress--feel fearless.

The earth warmed slowly; nightly tones taking on a new attire. Ominous trees lighting. Shadows disappearing. And we were slowly going up hill.

Darvire's sudden breath right by my neck almost made me loose concentration of landing on a tree branch the size of the width of a piece of paper. He had appeared out of the shadows to take the leap right over me. He landed on the branch above, as graceful as me with my Blessed elven powers. He looked calmly at me, but yet, his face was expressionless. "Stop at the crest of the hill. Tell the others."

A mask of eerie shadows enveloped him in a cloak, shrouding him from my night vision. He disappeared.

I sensed Unknown Third and Cati flying by. I touched the space right below the lobe of my ear with my two first fingers. "Cati, Unknown Third, rendezvous at the hill."
I leapt into space.
"Copy that." Unknown Third's voice.

I broke through a tangled mess of vines and landed cat like at the top of the bare hill... which was weird. Trees led up to it, but at the rounding top, the stopped, suddenly. Darvire was standing there, hold his side painfully. Soon after, I saw a little flash of skin as Unknown Third and Cati touched down. The invisibility blanket was taken off, and Cati appeared, looking slightly pale, her head in the crook of what I would have guessed Unknown Third's neck.
"So?" Cati croaked, weak, but still sounding like... well... Cati-ish. "Where are all your fantastical people you were telling us about?"

"Arriving just now." Darvire said softly to her.

Out of the tree, arriving the opposite of the way we were coming from, four figures emerged and appeared at the top of the hill. Darvire regarded them respectfully, and the others regarded him with even more.
One was a tall proud centaur. He had the structure of a Clydesdale horse. The human torso was insanely built of muscles, and his shoulders, upper chest, and lower arms were covered in leather armor. Over a shoulder he slung had slung a bow and quiver. Hard stone like eyes looked at me kindly. Long, knotted and tangled sandy hair was tied in a complicated looking pony tail. Pardon the pun. Elfish ears poked out of the mess of hair. He was young, for you could see his youthfulness in his sharp face. He had a lance in hand.
Next in line was a short, square, and built figure of a drawf. He had a big pointy blue hat with a wide rim on that covered up a bushy bunch of reddish brown hair. You could see twinkling black eyes under his thick eye brows, a round nose above a very full and bushy beard. He wore a dark blue tunic that was suited for night, and black pants that were tucked into a large set of brown boots. A short sword hung from his side.
The brownie who sat besides him was a fierce little thing to behold. I hadn't seen a brownie for the longest of times. Like all brownies, she was a large looking cat, the size of a puma, but more lynx in characteristics. She had big purple eyes, more humanish front arms and hands, and big lynx-ish ears that were twitching everywhere. I belt could be seen under her light brownish/gray tabbied fur with bags hanging from it.
The next creature made all take a deep in breath. I hadn't seen one since my Blessing night. Cati and Unknown Third had never. The elf was a slender, graceful figure that stood proudly. He had fair blond hair that was so fine, it looked like it was made out of moonbeams. It hung down his wide shoulders more straight then I could ever manage with mine. Half of it was braided back into a half pony tail, ferns were seen woven into it and through out his head. His face was ageless, but familiar to me... possibly because I looked the same: sharp cheek bones, slanted eyes, slender neck, and a perfectly sharp nose. His eyes were green--like mine, but more dead like a decaying leaf, then mine, which were like a newly budded one. He wore a fine green tunic with a dark brown trailing jacket over it. Light brown leggings went into his fine gray slippers. On his back was the same as the centaur, and on his waist there was the same as the drawf.

Out of the four, the elf looked like he was the most unhappy to be here. When he laid his eyes on me, they lit up... if for the briefest second. It was only then he realized that I wasn't of his kind, he went back to looking too good for his assignment.

Darvire introduced them to us in order, "Mannix, Bria, Branduff, and Driscol." And then us to them. All of them nodded their heads politely, but for Driscol, who crossed his arms in an arrogant way.
I automatically liked the other three, and loathed the elf.

"Bria, if you don't mind..." Darvire started, still holding his side carefully. I thought he was going to ask the brownie about his wounds, but instead, he pointed to Cati, who looked entirely surprised. "She needs attention."

And then,

Darvire fainted.

I gasped and rushed over to his side to kneel. Bria was there seconds later. She had the smell of old spices and underbrush in her fur. She looked at me for a second then back at Darvire's unmoving form. "Ah, that little boy." She said, showing her catt-ish teeth, and having her voice startling me. It was one of a young lady, strangely sore around the edges. "Seems like he took a little nap." She lifted his shirt up to reveal a gory wound. Three large gashes had pierced his side, showing off part of his rib cage in one, something that appeared to be his stomach in the other, and just layers of muscles in the last. Oddly, a blueish liquid was pouring from the wounds. If I wasn't used to seeing things so horrible, I would have been sick. I was amazed he had survived that long without tiring.

Behind me, I heard Unknown Third lay Cati on the ground and come over to peer at the horror with us. "Wow." Was all he said. Bria looked at the air, trying to find his face. "You know what?" She asked, not expecting an answer, "I heard you were invisible, but I never knew it would be annoying for me..." She then questioned us, "How long was he traveling like this?" A pause. "20 minutes, I think." Unknown Third answered. Bria whistled. Actually, she hissed, but it sounded like a whistle. "That's a record." She sat back and crossed her arms.

Unknown Third and I starred. "W-what?!" I managed a strangled whisper. "Record? R-record for what?!"
Bria knowingly said, "That's the longest time this guy has lasted with those sorts of wounds and didn't pass out right away. His last one was only 9 minutes and 39 seconds. I remember. He'll be alright, though. He's a vampire. He can't actually die unless you shred him into millions of pieces. But the price you pay is dealing with the pain. It'll take him a couple of hours to recuperate. Until then..." She turned and trotted off towards Cati. "Let's have a look-see, hon." Unknown Third squeezed my shoulder briefly before he followed the little hairy thing.

Crunching foot steps neared. I looked up into the faces of Mannix and Branduff. Actually, with Branduff's case, I only tilted my head up a fraction. I stood and hastily brushed off my knees. "Well, Lith, since our leader needs some time to get him self together," Branduff started with his low, gravely voice, totally unfazed by the vampire's bleeding form inches from his feet, "We's were wondering if you could tell us why he came to be about, seeing you were late and all..."
"Oh..." Still not getting over Darvire. He seemed so helpless laying there.

Abruptly, Driscol was at his side, a pillow under Darvire's head and a blanket covering him up. He flickered his eyes at me, and half smiled. It disappeared within seconds.

"Well?" He asked coolly.

I was so close to thinking he actually cared for a moment.

Shaking my thoughts into place, pride inflamed by this arrogant elf, I recapped my side of the story, unwavering. The three males listened intently, even Driscol. "It was after capturing Darvire that I realized who he was: the vampire who Blessed me on my Blessing night. We had Bonded, quick and without realizing it. It was until I saw him again, the Mistress's brainwashing and controlling techniques suddenly snapped, and had no power over me. I had a rebellious mind. I then continued to break the snare of the Mistress on Cati and Unknown Third. Cati did so almost automatically since we were Bonded, but it was difficult. Very. If you haven't been under Her influence, you have no idea what it is to regain your self control once again. We plotted, got overheard and attacked. We escaped planned again, and went back to rescue Darvire. The Mistress, unaware and too arrogant (my eyes met Driscol's), wasn't able to assemble the Guards or other Specials to stop us. Before I reached his holding cell, a Elite Special known as the Beast attacked me. I barely managed to defeat it. I got Darvire out, as well as other convicts, and attempted to get out of that facility. Thanks to the Beast, I had lost a major amount of blood, and fainted. I woke up later to find that Darvire had addressed my wounds. During this time, Cati and Unknown Third had hacked into the computer room where the Elite Special called Patchwork attacked them there. They escaped also. The details are unknown to me. We were all heading towards this meeting place, when I got shot with a tranquilizer. I woke up in the forest with Darvire still carrying me. We met up with the others after a slight mix up, and I rested in the cave. I was out when we did find each other. Darvire has an amazing singing voice (the men looked at eachother knowingly). Unknown Third addressed my wounds. We soon after left after we found out Darvire isn't the run-of-the-mill vampire. Heading out in the forest, we encountered numerous Specials as in the Harpies and the Cats. Unknown Third and Cati were first attacked by the Harpies, which I think they succeeded in killing them both. The Cats, on the other hand, attacked me and Darvire. I was still crippled at the time..." I faltered here, trying to think of how I was going to explain the next part. "Darvire was ending up fighting two brothers on his own... I... I suddenly came overwhelmed with this... power, you could say. I can't remember much other then the fact that my wounds were completely healed in the process, I kicked some major butt--according to Cati--saved Cati after she saved Darvire... and I... I..." I stopped, not daring to look at any of them. "I guess I told Winda--the leader of the Cats--to... leave. And then they did. Both Cati and Darvire were hurt in the process, as you can see here, we traveled here directly after our showdown with the Cats, and that's basically our adventure in a nut shell. And that's minus all the details."

Mannix and Branduff looked impressed. Driscol, of course, was unimpressed-looking.
"That is quite the story." Mannix said in his deeply handsome voice. "Amazing for someone of your talents." It was just after he said that that the sun peeked over the mountain range, showering us with light.

Branduff clapped happily. "Ah! Perfect! Time for breakfast!"