The Scope of Battle
Story by Tiaris on SoFurry
Imported from SF2 with no description.
Zander:
We rush out of the campsite in the direction that Cheshire pointed in Shadow staying behind to guard Gwen and Cheshire. I hear rustling ahead of us Starburst lands next to me when a vaguely human individual steps out and I see a puff of smoke come out of our annoyed Dragon’s nostrils. Starburst speaks, “I didn’t know any of you remained.” I spot reddish tinged eyes and fangs poking out of the human appearing person.
The odd human vampire speaks in a very rough voice as if it doesn’t speak often. “Your mother will be so pleased to know that like your brother you have chosen to assist the Hunter against your own kind.” I swish my tail in annoyance, this thing knows who Starburst is; that can’t be good. The creature turns to me then, “and she had a mule watching her as well.” He looks about then, “where is that annoying mind mage who ‘woke’ your Hunter up?” Good for Gwen I guess, but now we have to deal with this thing.
Cheshire sighs and speaks into my ear, “this might get tricky.” He jumps down and turns to me, looking at Ecthelon first, “I am going to assume you can see yourself out?” Ecthelon nods his head, “once you can get her out I will. I will not endanger her.” Cheshire nods then looks to me again, “that vampire had locked you inside your own mind where your fears could prey on you. I have to get you out of your own mind without causing your mind harm. He turns to look at where the odd vampire was, “interesting how he shows up while I was ‘away’ for my own people. I need to find out which of my people is feeding her side information, however considering this happened I am not leaving your side while we are outside the City.”
Zander:
I turn my head to Starburst, “what exactly is that?” I ask pointing to the human looking vampire. The creature looks slightly offended and speaks in it’s off tone, “so the mule doesn’t know about the history of humans. Then I shall educate it, and it’s pony friend.” I feel Alberich next to me as he stands absolutely still.
The vampire grins at Alberich, “don’t like my name for you pony? I’d love to meet your adopted daughter, I bet she tastes very sweet as young as she is.” The minor bit of background ‘mind chatter’ from Alberich went silent as he becomes furious. I don’t blame him, I am not happy about this threat to Cassie either.
The vampire turns back to us and before he can speak Starburst does, “he is a Cro Magnon. One of the early forms of human, the early human form of vampire in his case. There had only been twenty of them that survived over the Ages, I had thought they were all dead now. Or I would have informed Damion about this one existing.” Starburst waves a talon in the vampire’s direction, “the general vampire community put a bounty on them a very long time ago. As they hold the same views as my mother does about how they deserve to do what ever they wish just because they are the most powerful.”
The vampire grins and speaks, “because we are powerful prince. We are stronger and quicker than even those pitiful elvan vampires, we are proud to be members of your mother’s society.” He turns to me again with a gleam in his eye, “we will rule our food beasts. The ones we don’t slaughter immediately, those pitiful creatures in the City of the night will be put to death. We don’t need any of their viewpoints infecting those we have working for us.”
I see the vampire grin again and Starburst without a thought incinerates him with a blast of fire. He turns to me once the charred corpse falls, “sorry Zander. I could not risk him being faster than you and Alberich, and fire is one of the only ways to kill them; they are just that powerful.” I watch the corpse as it starts to disintegrate, he blasted it so fast the thing didn’t have time to scream; a Fire Dragon’s flames are pretty powerful without the Nuclear option added in. Maybe later we should find a way to see how hot his fire actually is, if we could find a way to compare it to one of the more dangerous types. I shake my head and say, “it’s alright Starburst; but I think this.” Pointing at the charred vampire, “warrants you telling Gwen about your lineage now. Not later, you were lucky her uncle didn’t tell her.” Starburst nods his head, “agreed; though I am afraid of how she will take it.” I shrug my shoulders and turn to head back to the campsite.
“Ok Gwen, this might feel a bit ‘odd’; and you might have a splitting headache when you wake up.” I nod my head, wanting out of my head. He continues, “I need to semi drag you out. Semi because if I fully drag you out of your mind you could develop split personality disorder or worse. All I am going to do it pull enough to let your own body wake you, after the three days you’ve been unconscious. Your body should do so swiftly once I can pull you close to the edge of your mind.” He gets a serious look on his face, “mind scapes like this one we are in are designed to prevent the person from finding their own way out. People in comas have this problem, a good mind mage can get them out if people had believed in magic in the last age.” I nod my head, what he said made sense as the city just seems to repeat itself; he continues.
“These areas are made from your own mind without any direct way out because it is using yourself against you. So an outside mind needs to see the path your mind won’t let you see, it’s also generally very simple.” He looks around a moment, “alright I know which way to go.” Cheshire changes into a large cat bigger than the twin gryphons, “climb on my back. Hold on and keep your eyes closed, as I need you to not see. Your mind has real physics applied to your mind, which isn’t necessary. If it was I couldn’t be this size. I don’t have enough mass to be this size.” I nod in agreement and climb onto his back griping tightly and closing my eyes.
I open my eyes again once I feel a breeze on my skin and I spy Zander and Alberich walking out of the forest. The breeze was Starburst landing nearby, everyone looks concerned. Even Cheshire who stretches as he hops off of my chest and I go to sit up when I get a blinding pain in my head. Zander rushes over and Cheshire speaks, “she’ll be find. It’s an after effect of coming out of her mind in the manner we did.” He turns his head to the guys, “did you get it?” Zander nods his head and Starburst moves his head into my field of vision a concerned look on his face.
“Gwen,” he starts looking like he lost his best friend. Zander pokes at his snout, “come on ; you said you would.” Starburst nods his great head and takes in a deep breath, “I have something to tell you.” I shake my head trying to make the pain go away, Alberich places a damp towel in Zander’s hand and he places it against my head and my head feels slightly better. “We had Gilorndir give us a med pack for every possible thing, who’d have thought we’d need the migraine towel?” I give Alberich a quiet thank you and turn to Starburst. I feel annoyed at having one secret revealed to me at an inopportune time. “So let me guess it’s on par with Ecthelon and me being Perfect Mates?”
Starburst looks stunned and looks at Cheshire who looks out into the forest, “they couldn’t keep him out of her mind. My guess is he had a ‘reaction’ back in the city when she was trapped in her own mind. He had to have been knocked unconscious so he could ‘jump into’ the mind scape she was trapped in.” Starburst turns his head slowly towards me, “I’m sorry Gwen. It is on par with that, in my case it was due to me not wanting you to hate me for it.” I shake my head, “I won’t; just tell me.” I hold a hand to my head, the headache wasn’t fully gone; but it certainly was bearable now.
Starburst takes in a deep breath and speaks, “I’m the Matriarch’s only child.”