Curse

Mercedes · May 29, 2009, 07:35 AM // 07:35

"You have everything Zelda?" Asked the blond girl is hushed tones.

"Yea, yea."

"You sure your brother doesn't know?" She asked in an even quieter whisper. "You know he's a tattle..."

"Why are you whispering...?"

"Are you sure you have everything Zelda?"

"Kyra?"

"Oh my god, this is so exciting. Did you grab the map?"

"Kyra!"

"Yes?"

"Relax, my brother has been through those caves millions of times and he's a wimp. We'll be perfectly fine!" Her golden eyes twinkled impishly.

"Way to trivialize our little adventure, Zelda..." Kyra gave a sarcastic smile and waggled her head side to side. "If that's the case then why hasn't your brother gotten the treasure that's hidden there yet?"

The girl grinned, her teeth a stark contrast to her dark skin. "There's a couple of reasons Kyra. Firstly, he doesn't have the map we have." She reached back, gathered her long white hair and tied it into a ponytail. "Second, he's not as strong as we are. Together, nothing can touch us!"

Kyra rolled her eyes. "My, my. Aren't we humble..."

"Girl, I'm a De Leone and you're a Frostraven! I'm the best Necromancer in my class and you're the best Warrior in the whole school... Well, you're the best Warrior girl..." Zelda laughed and balled up as Kyra punched her in the shoulder.

"Let's get real here... You're fifteen and I'm seventeen. You have a few more years yet to be considered an actual Necromancer, I have one more year to be an actual Warrior and neither of us have real combat experience."

"And this is our chance to get some experience and have a leg up on everyone else Kyra! Think of the stories we can tell and how we'll have groupies and make all those stupid elementalist kids green with jealousy at how awesome we are." Zelda clapped her hands together with glee at the prospect.

"Seems that White has gotten under your skin." Kyra said with a smile.

"You're damn right he does! I mean firstly, what kind of name is White? All the first born men in his family are named that!" She throws her arms up in frustration. "White Wasabi. Blech. Sounds like food that's gone spoiled. Always 'Oh, look at me! I'm such a completist! I'm so thorough! I go above and beyond what's taught in class!' Someone kill me. Him first."

"Why don't you tell me what you really think Zelda?" Kyra laughed heartedly.

The sun still low in the east, slowly made it's way to the highest point in the sky as the day wore on.

"We did get through the hard part. I thought we were gonna get caught for sure trying to sneak past the guards. We've avoided any patrolling guards as well." Kyra said before she sunk her teeth in some flat bread.

"We're also still an hour away at least." Zelda's exaggerated sigh punctuated her sentence. "Gods, the traveling part of an adventure is so boring.... Kyra?"

"Yea?"

"You ever wonder what kind of people our ancestors were like? What their adventures must have been like?" The white haired girl turned to look at her friend.

"Well one thing I know is for certain," Kyra turned her head to smile. "They must have been really close friends because my mom told me that back in the day before all of these dragons our ancestors were in the worlds strongest guild and everyone was close knit." Bits of bread flew out of her mouth as she spoke.

"Yea." Zelda spoke softly under her breath with a smile.

Kyra tipped a flask of water into her mouth to help her swallow the bread. "And back then I know they have to have done some really heroic things! Slay powerful demons and monsters, liberate cities and save the world. Think about it, we might be destined to have great adventures! So many generations have passed by and we're still like family. That has to count for something."

Zelda giggled as she held her friend's hand. "I heard the same thing from my parents. How my grand parents were friends with your grand parents all the way up. In a way, it's like we're still in a guild together. I was looking through some of my family books and I found the earliest recorded ancestors I have are Z and Mercedes De Leone. And it seems that all the women in my family have white hair which is odd..."

"I was looking through my family's tree and I found...." Kyra trailed off and stopped walking as she noticed a few corpses all over the road in the distance. "Zelda... look!"

Zelda's eyes followed Kyra's finger and then immediately ran toward it.

"H-Hey! Wh- where are you- wait! It's dangerous!" Kyra yelled as she took off after her.

Her white ponytail whipped behind her as she ran and yelled back. "This is our adventure Kyra! We can't pass this up!"

"Zelda please! This could be a trap or an ambush! There can be monsters around still!" Deep anxiety creeping into her voice.

"Kyra! There should be no one around for miles." Zelda stopped running and went to survey all the bodies. "It looks like highwaymen got to these guys and they didn't want to give up whatever they had. Bad choice."

"They can be hiding behind any of these massive trees all around us! Okay Zelda, this isn't fun anymore. Can we please go back? I don't feel right about this anymore. Please!" She tugged on her arm.

"Alright, we can go-" Her eyes grew wide as she made eye contact with a snarling Charr soldier. She screamed and tripped over a body as she tried to scamper away from him.

Kyra spun around and unsheathed her sword. "The Charr... why are they here? Why are they so close to our city?" She gripped the handle of her sword tightly and held it at the ready.

Zelda stayed on the ground, paralyzed and shaking with fear. "I don't wanna die... I don't wanna die... I don't wanna die..."

"Zelda! If we're going to get out of this alive I need your help!" Kyra slowly moved away from the Charr, keeping distance from him as he made his way towards the blonde warrior.

"I-I...I can't... I c-can't... I d-don't w-" Tears rolled down her face as she saw her brave friend protect her from a fierce Charr.

The Charr loosed a growl-like laughter and unsheathed a very large butcher's cleaver which he easily held in one hand.

"Dammit Zelda, I don't think I can do this by myself!" Kyra's voice cracked as she struggled with all her willpower to keep her fear under control. Her heel bumped into her paralyzed friend. No more room to retreat. Kyra's adrenaline coursed through her body like electricity. Breathing rapidly, she reached deep inside herself and bellowed a warcry as she charged toward the enemy that would make her instructors proud.

A roar thundered from the Charr's lungs as he swung his massive cleaver at Kyra's head. She dove foward and rolled toward her oppenent with the intent to thrust her sword in his belly. She never saw his foot coming.

The impact lifted her off the ground, flipped her backwards and deposited her face first on the ground. Kyra heard and felt her own heart pounding in her ears. She tasted copper and her vision was blurred. She heard Zelda's voice in the distance. She rolled her head to the side and looked up.

"Please get up Kyra! Please get up!" Zelda stood between Kyra and the Charr, a sword held in both her trembling hands. She visibly shook, but her jaw was set. The Charr rumbled with a low laughter as he leaned in and snorted foul air at the young necromancer. He grinned, displaying rows of yellowed and sharp teeth and then suddenly shoved his gauntleted hand forward into Zelda's blade which cleaved into her face, sliced her lips apart and incised her eye.

She fell to the ground, her now bloodied hand clutched to her face as she screamed in terrible pain. Her pain was drowned out by the monstrous laughter.

Kyra stood. Blood stained her teeth and dripped from her nose as she snarled up at the monster. She defiantly gripped her blade and attacked. One slash, two slashes, each were deftly parried. Her opponent seemed a bit confused, his movements sluggish. She continued her onslaught, each block seemed as if still did damage. She slashed horizontally and the Charr allowed the blade to cut him. He took this opportunity with an overhead swing which caught Kyra by surprise.

She held up her blade to block it and expected the power to shatter her blade and split her in two, but she caught the blade. She looked up at the Charr and he himself seemed surprised. Even more so by the blood coming out of his snout. Kyra took this moment to shove his sword aside with all her strength and then plunged her blade into his chest. She snarled at her defeated foe. "This is for messing with descendants of the proud Zealots of Shiverpeaks." She yanked the sword from his chest, spun around and in one strong motion decapitated the Charr.

Now drenched in Charr blood, Kyra turned to face Zelda. She found her on her knee, completely out of breath and Necromantic Magic billowing off her body. The left side of her face was a mess. Blood was everywhere and it was a disaster in her eye socket. Kyra kneeled and wrapped her arms around her friend and embraced her tightly. "We're alive Zelda... we did it together... we're going to be okay..." She whispered to her and lovingly caressed her ghastly and somber face.

Zelda's body shook as tears left bloodless trails on her face. "I couldn't.... I-I couldn't bare the thought of losing you... I won't lose you because I was too much of a stupid coward..." Her words slow and slurred, pain washed over her face as speech was hampered by her injury.

"Shh... shh... it's alright. You were amazing..." Kyra's voice trailed off. She whimpered and moved her mouth noiselessly as the rest of the fallen Charr's companions come into view. They see the corpse of their comrade and erupt into shouts of rage.

"Oh... what the hell did I do to piss of the gods...?" Kyra muttered under her breath.

Zelda stood and clenched a bloodied sword in her hand. "Kyra, it's my turn to protect you."

Kyra shot to her feet. "One nearly got us killed, how can we handle three?!"

"This time it's the two of us."

As she readied her sword, Kyra venomously quipped "Will you please stop your stupid one liners, Zelda..."

"Heh." She gutturally uttered as her sword raised toward the advancing Charr. Necromantic power erupted from her body like green fire. One by one all the corpses littering the road split open and undead minions surrounded the Charr. A hulking juggernaut emerged from the fallen Charr and furiously attacked the closest enemy to it.

Kyra rushed back into combat; her first attack left a huge gash into the side of the Charr Shaman. He stumbled a bit and then chunks of his flesh melted off his body. He fell to his hands and knees and Zelda's undead swarm was upon him. Kyra then ran to her next target just as he was finishing crushing the last of the undead minions that surrounded him.

Suddenly, Kyra felt herself become refreshed, her aches and pains melting away. And for a moment, she thought she noticed her sword glow. As her blade met the blade of the Charr warrior, she recognized the sluggish movements and she even heard him grunt in exertion.

The Charr took a large swipe at Kyra's head, but his magically slowed movements were easily read. She ducked under the path of the blade and swung her sword upward, detaching a tendon in the monster's elbow. Already feeling victorious she unwisely let her guard down again and almost dodged kick to the side. She rolls with the blow and as she gets back to her feet she feels nearly immediately better, probably thanks to Zelda's Necromancy. She internally scolds herself for assuming and goes in to finish the job.

It hurt to breathe and darkness bled into the edges of her vision as a flu-like affliction spread throughout her body. Since the moment the fight broke out, there had not been a moment in which Zelda was not casting. She had more enchantments maintained that what she could mentally support. Her minions were the batteries she used, but the Charr have nearly defeated all of them forcing her to resort to sacrificing her own blood to continue her hexing and enchanting.

The Charr's hammer connected with the flesh golem with a dull thud. It wobbled a few paces backward, lost it's balance and crashed to the ground with a sloshy thump. Zelda's strength faltered, she lurched forward and fell to her hands and knees with a cough; blood stained the ground in a wide pattern. She is completely spent. All her enchantments fail and her minions turn to dust.

Blood matted to his fur and clearly exhausted from the battle with the flesh golem, the Charr eyed the injured necromancer who's caused him so much trouble, on the ground so he ran at her with the intent to extinguish that life.

Zelda forced her head up with all her remaining willpower. She reached forward with her shaking hand. She she only saw her thumb; the tunnel vision was so severe. With her last remaining strength, Zelda's hand heaved Necromantic energy and in an instant as the Charr ran past the golem corpse, it detonated in an ear splitting explosion and completely consumed him before it flung his burnt remains meters away.

And then Zelda fell into nothingness.

(Helpful criticism would get a tremendous blessing)

turbo234 · May 29, 2009, 03:43 PM // 15:43

cool story bro

Mercedes · Jun 01, 2009, 03:38 AM // 03:38

Short, labored breaths. Tired arm letting the bloody sword rasp against the rocky, snow covered ground. Her breath visibly puffing into the wind with the sleet pelting her in the face. Her feet drags leading her westward toward Kryta. She isn't even a quarter of the way there. Her head is dropped, no longer having the strength to hold it straight and proud. She hasn't eaten in days. She was weak. A great slayer of the Charr destined to die alone in the Shiverpeak Mountains. She wasn't even paying attention to where she was going. She walked on for the sake of walking. Passing a high snow bank, she scooped some snow in her hand and placed it in her mouth. Drank what little water it provided. Her breath raspy and strained. Her strength faltered for an instant and her knees buckle. She hits the ground with a billow of snow rising up around her. She considered giving up. Lying there and freeze to death. She was comfortable. She was exhausted. She got up using her sword as support. She walked.

Frostraven saw this from where he and his men were perched.

A man walked up beside him and whispered into his ear. "She is as good as dead. Her armor is worth a pretty penny as it appears to have been made in Orr. I can take a small group of men and end her misery if you allow it."

Frostraven watched the Necromancer for a moment before answering. "I'll allow it."

"My lord." And he dissapeared behind him.

The girl's walking slowed to a halt. Out of the corners of her eyes, she found her self surrounded. If she had the strength to, she would have given a cheshire grin.

The leader approached the girl with a confident smirk on his face. "Your gold or your life!" He chuckles at his own joke and looks around threatenly, forcing others to laugh nervously. "I've always wanted to say that." He struts towards her. "I assume you have no gold, so I take it you're ready to die then?"

The frail looking girl says nothing.

The man grins and looks around to his group. Nervous laughter again. He stoops over to look the girl in the eye. "What? Are you so afraid you're unable to talk?" He reaches out and puts a finger under her chin to make her look up. "You should at least look at the person who's gonna... gonna... what...." The man staggers back and clutches his wrist. He stares in horror as his flesh slowly burns away. "W-what's happening to me?" The girl weakly pushes the man in the chest and he falls down. Immediately he has trouble breathing and begins to claw at his chain mail. He peers down and notices his skin is melting away from the point where the girl touched him. Knees pin him at the shoulders and the familiar burning sensation spread from those points. He looks up into the girl's yellow eyes as her sword pierces him through the mouth. Instantly, his corpse prunes and blackens.

"My lord, we should go and help before it gets out of hand. She's a Necromancer!" A monk whispers into Frostraven's ear.

"It's a fitting end for one with loose lips." Frostraven crosses his arms. " I want to watch this girl a bit longer. To be so near death and still fight for the right to live, it's quite interesting actually."

Life returns to the once frail girl and she once again stands tall and proud. She grips her sword and yanks it out of the corpse and gives a rather primal snarl to the men who nervously surround her. She holds up her sword and calmly points it at someone. The poor bastard drops his weapon and falls on his knees screaming at the top of his lungs. One guy near him goes to the victim to help but just as soon as he touches him, the skin on his hands begin to melt away. As he also screams, the people near him all scurry away as they finally realize that whatever the victim was inflicted with, it spread it you touched them.

"DIE YOU CRAZY WITCH!" Was the warning the girl heard from behind her. She tried to spin around to avoid the attack, but the attacker's sword plunged into her lower abdomen. Both the girl and the attack fell to the snow, blood splattered outward. The soldier got up excitedly believing he slayed the Necromancer. Until his muscles completely froze up and was nearly unable to move. The girl, clutching the wound in her abdomen with one hand and his sword in the other walked around to face him.

"Here's your sword back." The boy could do nothing as the girl punctures his breast and with all her strength drives it to the hilt before he hit the ground. As soon as she gets to her feet, an arrow pierces her in the upper thigh. She looks up towards the now much larger group than what she faced. She angrily grabs the arrow with one hand and snaps it off. She reaches down for her sword and another arrow, straight into her bicep. She falls to the ground and with her free arm snaps the shaft off the arrow. She grabs her sword with her off-hand and forces herself to her feet. Balancing on one foot, she begins to point her sword at the large group, with another arrow whizzed by her head and clipped her ear. She falls to the ground again, still not emitting a cry or a whimper. Again she forces herself to her feet.

Z raises his bow to fire again but Frostraven puts his arm out and lowers his aim. He walks toward the Necromancer and his monks rush to the aid of those inflicted with the magical disease. Frostraven confronts the girl's blood lusting gaze. "You have two choices. Join us or die."

The girl stares hard at the man. Then she stares at the ground rushing up to meet her.

Her eyes open to stone walls orange with the glow of torches. She carefully sits up, her muscles achy and her bones weary. She holds her head in her hand wishing the headache would leave. She surveys the room and finds all of her belongs inside a large open chest. She slowly gets on her feet and using the wall as support, walks to the chest. Peering inside, she notices that the suit inside isn't the one she wore. She inspects the fabric and is pleased to find it to be a thick leather with a warm and fuzzy interior. She removes the gown provided by her hosts and slips into suit. She checks herself out and is very pleased, a black suit with yellow trims that match her eyes. It was thoughtful of them. The leather produces stretching noises as she walks about the room. It's tight in many places, almost like a secondary skin, but it is very comfortable. She walks back to the chest and is happy to find her favorite sword is there complete with a brand new sheath and as she pulls the sword out is able to see her face in the metal.

Behind her, she hears voices. She pulls the sword out of the sheath and hides next to door. The voices are very near. One of them is a joyous female, the other, no two of them. There's three of them as far as she can tell. Wait, there might be a fourth, his voice sounded different from the others. Can't be sure. Too late, the door is opening. The girl holds the long sword in both her hands and waits. The door is swung open and the group enters the room.

"That's odd, our guest must have taken a stroll." A candy elementalist. The girl remembers their kind.

A ranger walks into the room. He looks familiar. "I'm telling ya Snow, we should have locked the door, she's nothing but trouble." He turned his face and the girl saw his profile. The ranger who shot her. She was on him. Her blade cut low through the air but the ranger saw it coming. He easily parried her strike with a dagger and took a step back. The girl swung again at his head, but he ducks under the swing. Her sword glides through the air and then strikes the stone wall. The violent vibrations causes the girl to drop the sword in pain. She brings up a hand to cast a spell on the Ranger but is blindsided by a powerful electric shock that sends her reeling to the corner of the room out of breath.

The ranger slips his dagger on a sheath attached to his chest. "Nothing but trouble, what did I tell you."

"Well you do have a face only a mother can love. I'm surprised strangers don't attack you all the time." Said Snow as she carefully approaches the necromancer. "We're not your enemies. There's no need for violence." She holds out a hand. "My name is Snow, and we call him Z."

"Don't touch her Snow, she'll hex you with a disease spell..." Z warns the elementalist. The girl shot a hateful glance at Z.

"Shut up Z, you're not helping." She smiles at the girl, her hand still extended. "What's your name?"

The girl hesitates for a moment and then grabs Snow's hand. "Mercedes. My name is Mercedes." She allows Snow to hoist her back to her feet. "I still haven't forgotten that you've shot me, Ranger."

"Oh cry me a river little girl." He sneers in reply.

"You have to sleep sometime."

"Stop egging her on Z!" Snow waves a threatening finger.

Z sulks. "She started it..."

"You shot me!" Mercedes shouts.

"It's all in the past. We're friends now." The third voice presents himself. "I'm sorry, my manners. My name is Eagle. I should explain to you what happened out in the mountains three days ago."

"I was out for three days?" Mercedes was taken aback.

"Any normal person should have been dead Mercedes. I watched you walk through the mountains for a few hours and in that time I watched you fall down many times and each time you got up like if it never happened. I guess I should ask you why you were in the mountains alone."

"That's none of your business..." Mercedes mutters loud enough for everyone to still hear.

"I don't want to force you to do anything, it's not my intention. But I am curious about your sword. It was very bloody. Yet when I back tracked a ways, there were no dead creatures."

"I was held prisoner by a warband of Charr. I had to kill them all before I left."

"That's impossible! I don't think you realize how big a Charr warband is little girl. There's no way." Z scoffs at her tale.

"If you wish, I can show you firsthand a few techniques I used to fell the Charr." Her eyes flash murderously sending chills into Z.

"Where are you from Mercedes?" Snow asks kindly.

"The Desert city of Moroc."

"Wait a minute, wasn't Moroc destroyed about a month ago?" Eagle asks.

"Yes." Mercedes grins.

"Do you know how?" Eagle presses.

"She'll probably tell us that she destroyed the town herself." Z says jokingly.

Mercedes smile turns into a cheshire grin. "I did."

The room was silent for a moment as it dawned on all of them that they're in the same room with a psychopathic killer.

"Am I a prisoner here?" Mercedes speaks up.

"No, of course not. In fact, we were sent here to check up on you and invite you to dinner if you were awake. I'm certain you're hungry."

"I am starving. Or do you think this twig-like figure is my normal look?"

"Yes." Says Z seconds before they had to pry Mercedes' hands from his throat.

"You can say I'm Frostraven's eyes and ears." Said Eagle. "I caught wind of someone stealing provisions and selling them for profit. Eventually, I found out it was the guy you executed for us. He was a loud moron. He called him Lord Twinkie the Second. Don't ask me where he got that title from, I haven't the slightest clue."

Mercedes turned her head slightly to Eagle's direction as she inquired. "ll want to know why your leader selected me as his 'Executioner'." She curled her fingers at both sides of her head imitating the quotation sign.

"Like I've said before, I'm Frostraven's eyes and ears. It's my job to know as much information about everything that I possibly can. I firstly noticed the armor you wore in the mountains. They are a kind of ceremonial Necromantic armor used to focus the mage while dealing with death magic. If you were worth anything as Necromancer," Eagle paused for emphasis. "- and it was a gamble I know, but if you were a well trained Necromancer you would have greatly benefited from having some ignorant warriors as sacrifice."

Mercedes couldn't help but grin with pride.

"As I predicted, you preformed wonderfully. You actually exceeded expectations as you nearly wiped out his entire party. I humbly apologize for the methods used to stop your frenzy, but at the rate you were going, without healers on standby, you could have probably wiped out a a significant chunk of our men."

Mercedes glowed. "Flattery gets you everywhere, Eagle." She cooed.

"Kiss ass..." Z muttered under his breath.

"So what exactly do you guys do here in the mountains?" Mercedes asked.

"Well..." Eagle hesitated.

"We kill, pillage and loot from those dwarven bastards. No raping. Thier women have thicker beards than Eagle there." Z laughed heartily. The rest of the group chuckled politely. Mercedes simply scowled at anything Z did or said.

"Actually, we help out the dwarves from the north from being wiped out by the dwarves from the south." Said Snow. " Those dwarves in the Southern Shiverpeaks have some serious anger issues toward humans."

"Why do they hate humans so much? I would think the humans and dwarves would help each other out against the Charr." Said Mercedes.

"Well, it's like this." Said Z. "A few years ago there -"

"I don't recall myself every speaking to you Ranger." Mercedes spat out venomously.

"Why I oughta..."

"That's right, come and hit me. Then you'll spread the disease to everyone in this hall, which I might add, there are no healers nearby to save you from the long, painful and agonizing death. And while everyone is dying, they're last thought would be, 'It's all your fault Z'." She smirked.

"Mercedes, the story behind the dwarves is far too complicated, long and full of political garbage. I just simply don't have the energy to dictate it and answer all your questions I'm positive you'll ask." Eagle said wearily.

"Lets talk about something else please." Said Snow. "Preferably after we fill our plate with food and sit down." Snow pulled down on the door lever and forced the door open with her back pressed against the grainy wood. It swung open to the dining area packed full of people being eating, drinking and being merry.

Mercedes pushed her empty plate forward with a happy sigh. She was afraid to try the yak meat at first, but once she bit into it, she was all over it like flies on dung. The table conversation was simple small chat, nothing too important. At least, not important to Mercedes. She would add a little spice to the conversation here and then, but she had ulterior motives. She would steal glances at Z, waiting for a chance to catch him alone. An hour rolled past since they arrived in the hall when Z finally excused himself from the table. Mercedes waited a few moments before she followed him.

She followed the Ranger for almost a full minute before he turned right and dissapeared into an adjoined hallway. As she rounded the corner, a flash of metal caught her eye. She nearly avoided the dagger thrust aiming for her chest and instead was sliced in the upper shoulder. The armor absorbed most of the cut, but it still made it through and she felt the warm blood begin to seep out of the fresh wound.

Z expertly pulled a throwing knife from a sheath and threw it at Mercedes, but his aim was quite off as it completely missed her without any effort on her part. The girl grinned and charged him. He thrust his knife forward, but again missed without any effort on her part. He caught a right hook to the jaw and staggered to a door. Before he regained his bearings, Mercedes tackled him through the door and they both ended up on a carpeted ground inside an vacant room.

Z, who had dropped his knife when he was tackled into the room, grabbed Mercedes by the collar and keeping the backward momentum of the tackle, threw her backward straight into a a table. The table obviously broke as two legs gave out under the crashing weight.

It finally dawned on Z. He wasn't dying of that degenerative disease. Something wasn't right. Does she really want him dead?

But she was already up on her feet. And her foot hurt him when it connected to his chest. As she went to kick again, Z caught her leg and sent her stumbling face first into the now closed door. He got up and backed away from Mercedes. Her hair was in a dissarry and she had a shallow scratch on the side of her face from hitting the door, but the disturbing part was that she was wearing that devilish cheshire grin.

It then hit Z like a ton of bricks. His limbs felt like they weighed a ton and he found it hard to stay on his feet. Z knew he was in trouble. He realized what happened in the hallway. He kept on missing because he was cursed. Her blows felt stronger because he was cursed. He feels weak because he's cursed! Dammit, she's proficient in Curse and Death spells! Z feebly brought his arms up in a fighting stance. Little good that did him. He saw the punch coming, but found it so hard to move. Right in the rib. Ow, the other rib. Counter punch, Z, counter punch. Missed, should have saw that one coming. Punch right in the gut. Defenses dropped. He felt her claw-like hand wrap around the back of his neck and then felt her knee drive into his stomach. Once more. One more time. His knees buckled and he stumbled backward. Grabbed by the collar. Tossed to the side like a large dog with a rag doll. Landed on a bed. Straddled by Mercedes?

He tried to throw a punch up at her, but she caught him by the wrist and held it above his head. He struggled to get free. Then she bit him. "Ow!! What the hell are you?? A cannibal?!" He shouted at her. "Oh god, I can see it now! The talk of the Zealots. 'Z was devoured by a cannibuuuuuu -"

His speech slurred to a stop since he couldn't use his bottom lip. Mercedes had it between her teeth. She let it go and wore that devilish cheshire grin again.

"Y-you're not y-your w-wait what?" Z stammered as he realized what the hell was going on. "No! Absolutely not! You crazy bitch! Get off me now!"

"I broke you." Mercedes purred. "You're my bitch now."

"No you did not! I choose death! Kill me now, you coward!!" Z was red in the face and very furious.

Mercedes slithered a bit up and down Z's body. "Your mouth says no." She cooed. "But your head says yes."

Z desperately tries to writhe free of Mercedes' grip, but the curses still had dire effects on him. "YOU TRAITOR!!!!"

"Sit back and enjoy the ride Ranger. I'm gonna cripple you and enjoy every minute of it."

"Nooo!! NOOOOO!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!@#

Snow, with a puzzled look on her face turned to Eagle and asked, "Hey, did you feel that?"

"Feel what?"

"I felt... a disturbance through my arcane links..."

"I'm not a mage, I wouldn't really know." He shrugged and nibbled on his bread.

............................

Zelda quickly sat up, her head hurt something fierce. Her breathing was heavy and labored. What kind of vision was that...? She reached up to touch her face and noticed her depth perception was off.

Her eye!

She touched and prodded at the empty spot where her eye was. She rolled her eye in disgust and anger. She attempted to get up but then her pounding headache convinced her otherwise. She noticed her sword in the corner of her room. The same sword in the dream. She lay in bed and replayed the vision of her ancestor in her head again.