Day 12:
Slippery
“You are nothing more than a child playing pretend.”
Dlmor’s launched itself at the stranger, giving him the chance to see who they were up against. The stranger looked human, though whether or not it was the same face as the ranger he couldn’t remember. But instead of the ranger’s uniform, the man looked ready to tackle temperatures far colder than what they were now. He watched as the man didn’t even look at Dlmor before the creature was thrown aside by something he couldn’t see. Dlmor collided with Belvren. The other Shadow absorbed the impact, barely moving backwards from it.
Lora let off another arrow. It shattered against something he couldn’t see. Belvren snarled at the something, or so he assumed, because whatever the others were seeing, he couldn’t see it.
Something grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air. He choked on a cry for help. It wouldn’t have done him much good. Lora was raised into the air shortly after he was and with how she was gripping at the air around her neck, she was in a very similar predicament to his own.
“Children, the whole lot of you.” The stranger brushed off his coat as if something had gotten on it, stepping farther into the cabin. “Now that we have put everyone in their time out corners, let’s talk business, shall we?”
“Why did you follow us?” Lora ground out.
The stranger laughed. It agitated the headache he had. “If you have to ask, then you have no idea what is in your possession, Walker. What you keep as company is something far more valuable than you could ever dream.”
“You can’t have him.”
The stranger laughed again. “You think you can stop me? You, a lowly Walker, stopping someone of my caliber? Please. You’ll be just as successful as your pet was.” The stranger looked at him. “He can’t even see the Second Plane despite what he is. You will have no aid from him either.”
The thing around his neck tightened. He choked as panic shot through his core. He didn’t understand, didn’t know what was going on, and the pressure on his neck was making his headache feel like his skull was coming apart with every beat of his pulse.
The pressure vanished.
His eyes snapped open as he fell a few inches. Dlmor had claws buried in a creature that he didn’t recognize, didn’t understand. The creature screamed. It shot pain through his head and he lost his ability to see. Something strong, solid, and warm wrapped around his torso. It kept him upright as he fought to get his sight back and his legs back under him. His vision cleared enough to catch Dlmor tearing the creature down and tearing into it. The other creature lost its form but Dlmor didn’t stop. Its teeth sank into what should have been floor and tore out a glowing object. It shattered as Dlmor chomped down on it.
Two other creatures launched themselves at Dlmor. Panic filled him but Dlmor was far more prepared for this than he was. The creature got low to the ground like a panther on the prowl. In a flash, the tail separated, leaving him supported by a piece of Dlmor as the creature collided with the other two. The one in Dlmor’s right claws lost its form immediately as the one in its left let out a furious scream. Dlmor ignored the creature that had lost its form, going for the one still in its left claws. The other creature returned the attack and he lost track of the forms in their flurry of attacks.
The piece of Dlmor holding him up slowly started to sink to the floor. He got his feet under him as he watched what had been around him give up its shape and splatter to the floor. It didn’t move, didn’t go rejoin the rest of Dlmor like he had expected it to. Instead it stayed there like an ink stain on the hardwood floor.
He glanced over at Lora.
She was still hanging in the air by her throat but he could see the other creature now. It had also pinned Belvren but he couldn’t tell what the creature was doing to Lora’s Shadow.
There had to be something he could do, anything to help her and her Shadow. He looked back at the black on the floor and thought of Lora’s bow. Could he make the same thing? Or could he make something better?
What about simpler?
His head gave a painful throb as he bent over.
He dragged his hand through the substance. It behaved like a thick liquid and as he pulled his hand up out of it, the substance stayed in his hand and stretched from source to his hand. Blackness swam at the edge of his vision but he was determined to help. All he could see, all he could focus on was the creature’s head. As he pulled his hand back to throw what was in his hand, a glint drew his gaze. It wasn’t quite at the creature’s center but it drew his focus. He fought to keep upright, to keep his focus on that one spot. He had to hit it-no. He had to pierce it, make it shatter like Dlmor had done with the one that had lost its form. If he could shatter it, then that would be one less creature.
As the blackness threatened to fill his vision completely, he threw the thing in his hand with all his might.
A wretched scream tore through his head.
There was no way of tracking time as he drifted in nothing.
There were no real thoughts as he drifted through that nothing. Only the enjoyment of the lack of pain.
Except, he couldn’t quite remember why he should be relieved to not be feeling pain. Had he been in pain? Why? What had happened?
Did he actually want to know the answers? Surely knowing the answers would bring the pain back and if he was in this much bliss without it, surely he didn’t want to return.
No, there was something important he was forgetting, something he had been trying to do before he ended up in the nothing.
But surely if it was something so terribly important, he would remember. Right?
Pain flared in his shoulder, agitating the pulsing agony in his head. He cried out from it, curling around his shoulder.
His hand closed around a mass protruding from his shoulder and his eyes snapped open.
Dlmor yanked the claw from his shoulder. There was no physical damage but it hurt as if the creature had actually punctured his shoulder. A flicker of the camper when he had been talking with Beckett popped into his head as he pushed himself to his feet.
How he managed to stay standing was beyond him. The entire world spun sharply to the left and the pain in his head only worsened, surprising him. It was already unbearable. How could it get worse?!
He didn’t the chance to ponder it for long.
Dlmor’s tail wrapped securely around his chest and yanked him out of the way of an attack he had been too distracted to see coming. His feet skid on the floor as he rotated in Dlmor’s hold to face the coming threat. It was like instinct drove his hand to pull at Dlmor’s tail, pulling some of the creature’s form from the main form. It formed in his hand into something straight and pointed. He didn’t focus on it enough to know what it was as Dlmor’s tail fell away from him. The two creatures collided and he drew his hand back.
He staggered sideways when his balance didn’t hold. A snarl pulled itself from his throat and he planted his feet in what he hoped was a more stable stance. He reeled back again and held it long enough for Dlmor to move out of the way.
For the blink of a second it was in the air, dread shot through him. His aim was off. He was going to miss.
Dlmor made sure it hit right with a solid shove at the creature.
The scream had him on his hands and knees with vision that took its sweet time to return.
A hand - a very human hand - wrapped around his throat and hauled him to his feet. The world spun dangerously to the right and he lost the strength in his legs from it. “You,” the man snarled in his face, “are a slippery one and I’m done playing games.”
There was a solid thud off behind him as he watched Dlmor get pinned by two new creatures. The man glared at the two new creatures. “Make sure it comes with without leaving any permanent damage. And so help me, if you let this one escape, I will gladly end you both myself.”
The two creatures didn’t respond but they snared Dlmor. The stranger looked at him again. “It seems you and I have a lot of work to do.”
Darkness spiraled out from under the stranger before exploding across the floor, up the walls, and converging at the ceiling. There was no cabin, no Lora, no Belvren. He couldn’t even see Dlmor. The only thing in that darkness was him and this stranger.
“It’s time you became what you are supposed to be, Ylmra.”
The darkness shattered and he barely had time to react to the blinding light before his head felt like it exploded. Nausea rolled through him, thick and hot like the air that slammed into him. The hand holding him up moved. For a moment he thought it was because the man was forcing him onto his own two feet but then an arm and blessed darkness wrapped around him. It took far too long before he realized that his face was against this stranger’s chest.
He really ought to have shoved the man away, made some move to get back to Dlmor and then back to the others, but the thought of dying by light exposure wasn’t overly pleasant.
“How much damage have you taken?” the man demanded, though the tone sounded more disbelieving than irritated. The man shifted, words suddenly not directed at him. “And you’re going to tell me you did everything you could to make sure he wasn’t injured.”
There was a spike of pain but it didn’t last.
“Of course you had. And now he’s suffered who knows how much brain damage and I have to fix it.”
Anger finally made its way through his system and he shoved at the man. He didn’t get very far, the man’s coat and arm still snuggly around him. Still, he snapped back, “Hey, I never asked for you to come get me, thank you very much. Let alone scare the shit out of my friends and me.”
“You seem to be under the misconception that I care,” the man countered.
“Well, clearly you care enough to keep me sheltered from the light.”
The coat and arm vanished; his body reacted immediately. He couldn’t see, could barely feel anything beyond the prickling of strength leaving him. He wasn’t sure if he was standing or lying on the ground. The roll of nausea was so strong, he wanted nothing more to just puke and get it over with.
The coat returned but the arm didn’t.
“And that is why I am keeping you in the dark,” the man pointed out. “You are of no use when exposed like that and I will not carry you.”
“Pity,” he ground out, feeling coarse sand beneath his hands and arms. He rubbed at the itch on his forehead and felt sand fall from it. He frowned. “Where the hell are we, anyways? The desert?”
“Close in there to,” the man confirmed.
He bolted upright, momentarily forgetting the headache. “What?!”
The coat went flying off his person and the light smacked into him as sharply as the heat of the land did.
Dlmor’s launched itself at the stranger, giving him the chance to see who they were up against. The stranger looked human, though whether or not it was the same face as the ranger he couldn’t remember. But instead of the ranger’s uniform, the man looked ready to tackle temperatures far colder than what they were now. He watched as the man didn’t even look at Dlmor before the creature was thrown aside by something he couldn’t see. Dlmor collided with Belvren. The other Shadow absorbed the impact, barely moving backwards from it.
Lora let off another arrow. It shattered against something he couldn’t see. Belvren snarled at the something, or so he assumed, because whatever the others were seeing, he couldn’t see it.
Something grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air. He choked on a cry for help. It wouldn’t have done him much good. Lora was raised into the air shortly after he was and with how she was gripping at the air around her neck, she was in a very similar predicament to his own.
“Children, the whole lot of you.” The stranger brushed off his coat as if something had gotten on it, stepping farther into the cabin. “Now that we have put everyone in their time out corners, let’s talk business, shall we?”
“Why did you follow us?” Lora ground out.
The stranger laughed. It agitated the headache he had. “If you have to ask, then you have no idea what is in your possession, Walker. What you keep as company is something far more valuable than you could ever dream.”
“You can’t have him.”
The stranger laughed again. “You think you can stop me? You, a lowly Walker, stopping someone of my caliber? Please. You’ll be just as successful as your pet was.” The stranger looked at him. “He can’t even see the Second Plane despite what he is. You will have no aid from him either.”
The thing around his neck tightened. He choked as panic shot through his core. He didn’t understand, didn’t know what was going on, and the pressure on his neck was making his headache feel like his skull was coming apart with every beat of his pulse.
The pressure vanished.
His eyes snapped open as he fell a few inches. Dlmor had claws buried in a creature that he didn’t recognize, didn’t understand. The creature screamed. It shot pain through his head and he lost his ability to see. Something strong, solid, and warm wrapped around his torso. It kept him upright as he fought to get his sight back and his legs back under him. His vision cleared enough to catch Dlmor tearing the creature down and tearing into it. The other creature lost its form but Dlmor didn’t stop. Its teeth sank into what should have been floor and tore out a glowing object. It shattered as Dlmor chomped down on it.
Two other creatures launched themselves at Dlmor. Panic filled him but Dlmor was far more prepared for this than he was. The creature got low to the ground like a panther on the prowl. In a flash, the tail separated, leaving him supported by a piece of Dlmor as the creature collided with the other two. The one in Dlmor’s right claws lost its form immediately as the one in its left let out a furious scream. Dlmor ignored the creature that had lost its form, going for the one still in its left claws. The other creature returned the attack and he lost track of the forms in their flurry of attacks.
The piece of Dlmor holding him up slowly started to sink to the floor. He got his feet under him as he watched what had been around him give up its shape and splatter to the floor. It didn’t move, didn’t go rejoin the rest of Dlmor like he had expected it to. Instead it stayed there like an ink stain on the hardwood floor.
He glanced over at Lora.
She was still hanging in the air by her throat but he could see the other creature now. It had also pinned Belvren but he couldn’t tell what the creature was doing to Lora’s Shadow.
There had to be something he could do, anything to help her and her Shadow. He looked back at the black on the floor and thought of Lora’s bow. Could he make the same thing? Or could he make something better?
What about simpler?
His head gave a painful throb as he bent over.
He dragged his hand through the substance. It behaved like a thick liquid and as he pulled his hand up out of it, the substance stayed in his hand and stretched from source to his hand. Blackness swam at the edge of his vision but he was determined to help. All he could see, all he could focus on was the creature’s head. As he pulled his hand back to throw what was in his hand, a glint drew his gaze. It wasn’t quite at the creature’s center but it drew his focus. He fought to keep upright, to keep his focus on that one spot. He had to hit it-no. He had to pierce it, make it shatter like Dlmor had done with the one that had lost its form. If he could shatter it, then that would be one less creature.
As the blackness threatened to fill his vision completely, he threw the thing in his hand with all his might.
A wretched scream tore through his head.
There was no way of tracking time as he drifted in nothing.
There were no real thoughts as he drifted through that nothing. Only the enjoyment of the lack of pain.
Except, he couldn’t quite remember why he should be relieved to not be feeling pain. Had he been in pain? Why? What had happened?
Did he actually want to know the answers? Surely knowing the answers would bring the pain back and if he was in this much bliss without it, surely he didn’t want to return.
No, there was something important he was forgetting, something he had been trying to do before he ended up in the nothing.
But surely if it was something so terribly important, he would remember. Right?
Pain flared in his shoulder, agitating the pulsing agony in his head. He cried out from it, curling around his shoulder.
His hand closed around a mass protruding from his shoulder and his eyes snapped open.
Dlmor yanked the claw from his shoulder. There was no physical damage but it hurt as if the creature had actually punctured his shoulder. A flicker of the camper when he had been talking with Beckett popped into his head as he pushed himself to his feet.
How he managed to stay standing was beyond him. The entire world spun sharply to the left and the pain in his head only worsened, surprising him. It was already unbearable. How could it get worse?!
He didn’t the chance to ponder it for long.
Dlmor’s tail wrapped securely around his chest and yanked him out of the way of an attack he had been too distracted to see coming. His feet skid on the floor as he rotated in Dlmor’s hold to face the coming threat. It was like instinct drove his hand to pull at Dlmor’s tail, pulling some of the creature’s form from the main form. It formed in his hand into something straight and pointed. He didn’t focus on it enough to know what it was as Dlmor’s tail fell away from him. The two creatures collided and he drew his hand back.
He staggered sideways when his balance didn’t hold. A snarl pulled itself from his throat and he planted his feet in what he hoped was a more stable stance. He reeled back again and held it long enough for Dlmor to move out of the way.
For the blink of a second it was in the air, dread shot through him. His aim was off. He was going to miss.
Dlmor made sure it hit right with a solid shove at the creature.
The scream had him on his hands and knees with vision that took its sweet time to return.
A hand - a very human hand - wrapped around his throat and hauled him to his feet. The world spun dangerously to the right and he lost the strength in his legs from it. “You,” the man snarled in his face, “are a slippery one and I’m done playing games.”
There was a solid thud off behind him as he watched Dlmor get pinned by two new creatures. The man glared at the two new creatures. “Make sure it comes with without leaving any permanent damage. And so help me, if you let this one escape, I will gladly end you both myself.”
The two creatures didn’t respond but they snared Dlmor. The stranger looked at him again. “It seems you and I have a lot of work to do.”
Darkness spiraled out from under the stranger before exploding across the floor, up the walls, and converging at the ceiling. There was no cabin, no Lora, no Belvren. He couldn’t even see Dlmor. The only thing in that darkness was him and this stranger.
“It’s time you became what you are supposed to be, Ylmra.”
The darkness shattered and he barely had time to react to the blinding light before his head felt like it exploded. Nausea rolled through him, thick and hot like the air that slammed into him. The hand holding him up moved. For a moment he thought it was because the man was forcing him onto his own two feet but then an arm and blessed darkness wrapped around him. It took far too long before he realized that his face was against this stranger’s chest.
He really ought to have shoved the man away, made some move to get back to Dlmor and then back to the others, but the thought of dying by light exposure wasn’t overly pleasant.
“How much damage have you taken?” the man demanded, though the tone sounded more disbelieving than irritated. The man shifted, words suddenly not directed at him. “And you’re going to tell me you did everything you could to make sure he wasn’t injured.”
There was a spike of pain but it didn’t last.
“Of course you had. And now he’s suffered who knows how much brain damage and I have to fix it.”
Anger finally made its way through his system and he shoved at the man. He didn’t get very far, the man’s coat and arm still snuggly around him. Still, he snapped back, “Hey, I never asked for you to come get me, thank you very much. Let alone scare the shit out of my friends and me.”
“You seem to be under the misconception that I care,” the man countered.
“Well, clearly you care enough to keep me sheltered from the light.”
The coat and arm vanished; his body reacted immediately. He couldn’t see, could barely feel anything beyond the prickling of strength leaving him. He wasn’t sure if he was standing or lying on the ground. The roll of nausea was so strong, he wanted nothing more to just puke and get it over with.
The coat returned but the arm didn’t.
“And that is why I am keeping you in the dark,” the man pointed out. “You are of no use when exposed like that and I will not carry you.”
“Pity,” he ground out, feeling coarse sand beneath his hands and arms. He rubbed at the itch on his forehead and felt sand fall from it. He frowned. “Where the hell are we, anyways? The desert?”
“Close in there to,” the man confirmed.
He bolted upright, momentarily forgetting the headache. “What?!”
The coat went flying off his person and the light smacked into him as sharply as the heat of the land did.