Nightmare in the Dark Forest

[meridy]

Making sure her hood was positioned correctly, Meridy quickly walked up the ramp, and motioned for Drake to follow. Wary citizens looked at her as she stood at the top of the ramp, muttering betwixt themselves. "Oi, stranger. What race are ye?" A burly woodsman asked, his axe resting on his shoulders. "I am not a halfbreed." Meridy replied calmly, though this answer didn't seem to do much. "So are you one of those high and uppity elves? Or a human like the rest of us?" The woodsman asked, his voice taking an iron edge.

"Why do you wish to know? I am a traveler, not one who seeks citizenship of this area." Meridy replied, only to grasp for, too late, her hood, as the breeze blew it down. "Lookey here! An Elf! Let's give her a warm welcome!" The woodsman sneered, as several lads left for a few moments, only to return with produce. "Be thankful you're not a halfbreed, you prissy Elf, or we'd give you the rotten stuff" the Woodsman stated, picking up a fruit and holding it up for Meridy to see.

[Drake Aurelis]

Drake could not believe this. He couldn't stand and watch. He stepped forward and said, "We aren't looking for any fruit." to the rude man, with some finality. "Come on Meridy, let's ignore him." Drake heard the man snarl, "And whadda we have here? A human traveling with an elf? So, you were deemed worthy to be in her presence then? Should I be honored to be graced by someone so worthy?"

Drake clenched his fists. "No, I'm no one so important that you should bow down to me. However, do not push your luck, or you might find yourself kneeling anyway... In pain." The man scoffed. "Nah, you're prob'ly her slave then. What's that on your hand, the mark of servy-tude?" Drake was officially at the edge of losing it. He felt his eyes change, as he said "You know what, just be quiet, nothing that leaves your mouth is worth anyone hearing anyway.

The man looked startled. Then he snarled again "Make me be quiet, demon-eyes!" That was it. Drake lost control right there. He crouched down, and delivered a fierce uppercut, jumping into the air as he did. However, he didn't come down. Instead, there was a flash of light, and then... Not demon-eyes... Dragon eyes! Drake was in dragon form, and very angry. Some small part of him in the back of his mind was facepalming at what he'd just done, but the main part of him didn't care, he just wanted to scare the man.

Sure enough, the man was scared. Oh, he was scared. Drake looked down fiercely. So, any clever comments now? he asked.

[meridy]

"D-Dragon!" The man cried, running away, followed by the rest of the citizens. A few minutes later, they returned with the elvish woman that Drake had known as a "grandmother" "So my wayward 'grandson' is found? With an Elf too! Oh how fun!" The woman began to laugh, the eerie noise echoing around the village. "Let's take you back home so Grandmother can start her experiments!" the elf woman cackled, the man who had run moments earlier now smiling smugly. "Thought we were 'elpless did yeh? This 'ere elf woman has good credit with us, an look now! She'll take you n that uppity elf away an' lock you up!" the Woodsman sneered.

"An unforeseen development.." Meridy murmured, one of her hands reaching back up and pulling her cloak's hood back down to conceal her mouth, even as she murmured the words to a spell. Meridy hoped she wouldn't have to use it, things could get very, very bad if she let loose Fireball here on top of all this wood...

[Drake Aurelis]

Drake couldn't believe it. She was here?! Why, how?! Estressa?! That old witch... Drake couldn't stand her, but he knew she was too strong for him right now. Or probably for much of anyone. Even in sword training with wooden swords, she had come close to breaking his bones. He had also seen her put a crater into the ground with a simple lightning spell.

Drake cried out to Meridy We need to run, now! I know her, she's insanely powerful! He really hoped Meridy was listening Trust me, we can't fight her! We need to run, NOW!!!! He flew off, hoping that Meridy was following. If not... She would be torn apart.

[meridy]

Meridy heard the were-dragon's warning, and quickly unleashed her spell. Aiming it towards the villagers, she watched as her fireballs ignited on the dry wood of the houses, as well as the wood that made up the platform of the town. "We must flee quickly" Meridy shouted, watching as the plumes of smoke from the flames went into Estressa's face and made her cough before her spell was done.

Running quickly, Meridy freed her sword from its sheath, and held it ready. As she navigated Ozette, she eventually came to the second exit ramp, running down it, she burst through the exit onto a flat plain. "I've got to move quickly, those people will undoubtedly kill me with no hesitation." Meridy murmured, running towards Altessa's with as much speed as possible. Off in the distance she could hear the cries of the Ozette citizens.. as well as an enraged scream.

[Drake Aurelis]

Drake heard a scream, and looked back... He didn't see Meridy! Drake couldn't take this, he flew back towards the town. Where is she? Drake wondered. Surely she hasn't been vaporized... No, she was there in the distance, he saw her running. He tried to follow, but suddenly, he felt himself being pulled by an invisible force... Towards Estressa!

He struggled, but she said "You're mine now. You can never escape, my little guinea pig!" Drake glared at her... And roared! His roar almost hurt his own ears, and he saw Estressa flinch. He was freed from her magical grasp, and he flew off again. By the time the witch had recovered, Drake was out of reach, even from that horrible reaching magic of hers... Or not. He heard her shout "Be sliced by pain, Wind Blade!" Drake kept flying as fast as he could... Not enough.

He felt impact, and went crashing to the ground, next to Meridy. He was bleeding... He shifted back to human form in a flash of light. As before, he was kneeling on the ground, but this time... "Ah!" he let out a cry as he tried to get up. Shifting apparently didn't heal wounds... He managed to get up though. "L-let's hurry and get out of here." he said to Meridy. Of course, even if they did get out of there, what would happen next? They couldn't pass through Ozette again, that was for sure...

[meridy]

Meridy helped Drake to stand, and began to mutter the words to a spell. A few moments later, the words stopped, and Miredy shouted out two words that must've sounded good to Drake, "First Aid!" As the healing magic wrapped around the were-dragon, the wounds from Estressa's spell began to mend. "Let us continue on to Altessa's" Meridy stated, sheathing her sword and walking whilst supporting Drake.

Meanwhile in Ozette..
The town, using rainwater collected within a specially designed basin, had put out the flames easily. Estressa had left, no doubt to plan a new scheme to collect Drake, and the townspeople were busy putting a coat of wood polish on everything the fire had touched, as for some reason, the fire had not penetrated too deeply into the wood. Thus, aside from the smoke, most of the damage was cosmetic.

[Drake Aurelis]

That healing magic felt so good... Drake stood up. Meridy tried to help him walk. Drake said to her "I'm fine, don't worry. That First Aid spell helped, and it didn't do that much damage anyway from that distance." What he didn't mention was that if he'd been hit at close range in human form, rather than long range in dragon form, it probably would have sliced him right in half...

Estressa was powerful beyond belief. He didn't know why, but she was. He sighed, he was not looking forward to meeting her again, as he inevitably would. Nor going back to that town... He said to Meridy "Once you're done at Altessa's, what are we going to do. The people of Ozette will probably try to kill us if we go back..." He sighed. They were stuck. Well, technically, Meridy was stuck, Drake could probably fly up over the cliffs. He didn't want to leave her like that though...

[meridy]

"Come, let us head forward to Altessa's then. Also, healing magic or not those wounds looked quite severe. I can patch up the flesh, but the blood you have lost does not magically reappear also." Meridy stated, continuing to help Drake walk. Several minutes passed in companionable silence, as the two trudged onward to the door built into the cliffs in the distance.

"So... I would rather appreciate telling me why that woman called you her grandson. Also, you seemed to be afraid of her. I would be quite accepting of the reason why, though I will not force you to answer." Meridy opened with, breaking the silence.

[ShiningDrake]

Drake sighed. "She... She raised me. However, she was incredibly abusive. When I was twelve, I tried to run away. Of course, it wasn't that easy. I ran into two dragons... They kept me from escaping, and one of them bit me on my right hand." He pointed to the mark on his right hand with his left.

He continued his story "She made me come back again. However, something was different from that day on. I would have strange dreams, or rather, what I thought were dreams, this mark appeared on my hand, and my eyes would sometimes change. Also, I seemed to be stronger. She began teaching me swordplay and magic, of which she had insane power in both."

He sighed before continuing "In training with wooden practice swords, she would nearly break my bones, and I've seen her blow away spots on the ground with simple lightning spells. Just a few days ago, she was talking with some very odd people. I wondered more than ever what was going on. Next time she left, I broke into her room and read her journal."

He shuddered, remembering what he had found. "What I found... Was not pleasant. That book revealed that my parents had both been half-elves, who were also were-dragons. They were the same dragons I had encountered four years ago, and who had bitten me, giving me these powers. They had been trapped in dragon form by her experiments. And then my entire life with her was all some sort of mind trick she wanted to play on me."

He became angry, feeling his eyes change at the last part. "She had been planning on beginning experiments on me to turn me into some sort of super-soldier or something. She was going to sell me to those strange characters she had been talking to. That was the last of what was written there. I ran away, and then you found me in the forest... That's it."

He sighed yet again "I hadn't wanted to talk about this yet. My entire life so far... It was all part of her twisted game..."

[meridy]

"What are games, but for winning? Let not her early success depress, you, rather allow it to let you come back from behind and take victory out from under her." Meridy replied, a small grin gracing her face. "We ought yet to be at Altessa's soon." Meridy murmured, as the two walked. Thinking about the exsphere made her wonder, what was that strangely dressed half-elf doing near Gaoracchia?

The slow march continued in a heavy silence. Meridy wrapped in a shroud of thought, Drake perhaps, the same, or otherwise occupied whilst they walked. Soon, soon they would be at Altessa's, a good thing too, as Meridy looked up and saw clouds approaching as the afternoon sun began to die down into the cool realm of night.

[Drake Aurelis]

"What are games, but for winning?" Drake laughed a bit. "You're right. If I can get strong enough, I might be able to beat her at her own game..." he sighed "No, there's no way I can get that strong. If I had the right allies, then maybe..." He trailed off.

After a while though, he spoke up again, "Once this is over, once you've done what you need to do at Altessa's, and once we manage to reach the other side of Gaoracchia forest again, maybe we could travel together? Since I have no real goals right now..." He then thought of something "You know, Meridy, I've pretty much told you my entire life's story, but I know nothing about you. What did you need Altessa to craft for you anyway?" He sighed "Sorry if I seem intrusive, I want something to talk about, to break this silence..."

Indeed, it was silent. More than that, it was almost completely still The birds weren't chirping, there were no other animals in sight, the sky was suddenly gray and overcast... There wasn't even any wind. It... It scared him. Something just didn't feel right...

[meridy]

"We should split up, so as not to be easy targets for the townspeople." Meridy stated, before walking off to Altessa's. Calling over her shoulder, Meridy spoke before she left the range of Drake's hearing. "Mayhaps we'll meet again, till then we must part, though I hope tis on good terms. Fare thee well youngling" finished Meridy.

Meridy continued to walk to the dwarf's home in the cliff. Her steps steady and quick, yet as quiet as possible so as to be able to hear if someone was trying to sneak up on her. After all, a raging townsperson with a pitchfork can still kill.