Fantasy ~ FableWood ~

[Bea Delaine]

Two unoccupied gargoyles sat in wait for a figure to be revealed behind the dark and menacing clouds which began to lift. Their wings spread and their metallic bodies were arched as though the creatures had a personality of their own.


"It's okay Leo. You need to defend the others as well."


Elena's gargoyle made the same motion, prepared for her areal attack. All three shot up in flight towards the opening clouds. Her sword was held right and her gargoyles body morphed around her own as protection.


"Ward!! Shoot down anything that isn't me when it descends!!"

 

[Lioness075]

Luness anxiously watched Nyr and her father above while her pack and Falarion bravely kept the enemies at bay around her.


At one point, a dread raven began to dive towards Luness, but a packmember came flying seemingly out of no where and tackled the bird aside, protecting Luness.


Watching Nyr's father launch an attack at Ward, Luness tensed and was about to run in the direction of Ward when the spell fizzled out.


Confused, Luness then saw that Nyr had pierced her father's stomach with her own scythe. Wincing at the sight, Luness then shouted to Elena, who seemed ready to strike Nyr's father down, "Wait, don't attack!" From what Luness could see, Nyr was now holding her father. Surely she could fly him down to the ground without being attacked again, right?


@Bea Delaine

 

[SilverFlight]

Leia had no idea what was happening up where Nyr was but she was sure it wasn't good.


"Hang on Luness!" She directed Tad and Lee back to her, the storm they had created now had its own momentum and carried on without their power to fuel it. She had had an idea a while back, but never been given a reason to try it.


"Let's see if this works..." creating the image in her mind she pushed it out to the two elementals, who exchanged glances and then got quite excited.


Lee shot around Luness, creating a case of ice about her chest from which grew an intricate set of wings made entirely of ice and water. Tad gusted, filling them so Luness could feel the tug of lift.


"They can get you up there, I think you can direct them too! I hope you know how to fly!"


@Lioness075


Ward held on for dear life as the gargoyle he was on lifted off. he didn't much like the thought of flying without his own wings, but he would follow Elena as far as she went. He kept a tight hold of the bow and slung the quiver over his armour. "Anything for you!" He shot at her with a grin, trying to keep the mood light, despite the circumstances. When they got closer he frowned. "Something isn't right!" Nyr's father was unmoving, limp in his daughter's arms.


"What happened?"


@Bea Delaine @DawnAntalios

 

[Lioness075]

Luness quickly hid her fear of flying, as she was more focused on getting to Nyr and her father.


Her heart raced, as she directed the elemental spirits and soon she was airborne, doing everything to keep herself from looking down.


Approaching Nyr and her father just as Ward did, Luness coasted to a halt within a few feet of Nyr and then tentatively asked Nyr, "Are...you okay, Nyr?"


@SilverFlight @DawnAntalios @Bea Delaine

 

[Bea Delaine]

Elena stopped short, following Lunesses warning. She saw a deeply saddened Nyr and what was as she inferred from the previous battles and what she knew, her fAther. She slowly crouched by the dread raven man and looked to Nyr with deep concern.


"Is he..?" To answer her own question, she timidly placed two fingers on his neck, moving them gently to the artery. She felt a very light and weak pulse.


"He is.. Barely alive I believe."

 

[DawnAntalios]

She sobbed as she looked up at them. The storm still raged on but seemed to ignore them completely.


" I... " she started but her voice died away. She was still not sure how to say it, or what would they say. But they were in the middle of a war, she could not waver. " I am fine, but he... he needs medical attention quickly. " looking at their dismayed looks she strengthened her resolve " You heard me right. I know it is much to ask, but I ask you to trust me. "


In the meantime Erzaul watched the demise of his second in command. Frowning he muttered to himself.


" Worthless bird. " he rumbled " An expendable casualty. " He brought the heroes closer then he served his purpose... "

 

[Bea Delaine]

Elena nodded in agreement. She didn't know why she should, but Nyr is Nyr. She is a friend, an ally, and A smart and motherly person. If she trusted this man, personal connection or not, Elena would too.


"Of course, Nyr. Right away. We should find Leo. He has training for these things. Would you fly down with us?"

 

[DawnAntalios]

Looking around she nodded.


" Yes, let us head back down. " she said firmly " We might have abolished the darkness from my father but the arch demon is still out there, waiting for us. We must prepare. "


She started to descend into the fray, sweeping demons around while they were landing. She decapitated a few to clear the way to the surface.

 

[Lioness075]

Luness nervously eyed Nyr's father the whole time that Nyr and Elena spoke to one another, finding being so close to be unnerving.


Suddenly, Luness felt a flashback and suddenly saw her father in Nyr's arms instead of Nyr's father. Her heart started pounding in her chest, and Luness quickly looked away and directed Leia's spirits to guide her back down to the ground. Urging them to be quick about it, Luness then leaned forward and was soon diving towards the ground, her eyes tearing up at the speed.


Once she was near enough, Luness warned the spirits and they slowed her descent in perfect timing for Luness to land on all fours, right on top of a demon as well. The impact alone was enough to kill off the enemy and Luness soon was diving back into the fray of things, desperate to get her mind off of her sudden flashback.


As she tore through several enemies, Luness let out a yowl to call her pack to her and they soon arrived, enemies seemingly parting the way as they tore through the ranks to get to their Alpha.


With her pack at her sides once more, Luness thanked Leia's spirits for their aid and told them that they could return to Leia now.


Soon, Luness felt the ice wings on her back and encasing her chest melt away and then she felt unshackled in her movement once more, fluidly weaving about the enemies and bringing them to their knees while also creating yet another dent in the dark forces' army.


@SilverFlight @DawnAntalios

 

[SilverFlight]

Ward steered his gargoyle down as well. Leia saw them and held her sword up to let them know.


"The infirmary tents!" He shouted. "We need Leo!" The dread raven looked in fairly bad shape. Ward hoped they could do something.


"I will use my influence with the healers, we will find him a safe place."


Leia waved her blade to say she understood. The big cat was easy to spot and Leia nimbly made her way to him. She ducked under an axe swing that took the head off an unsuspecting goblin and shouted.


"Leo! Ward and the others need you!" She pointed to the sky were they flew on. Suddenly she recognized the figure fighting by Leo's side.


"Ban! You're back!" She said with joy. Just then her spirits returned. She didn't see Luness, but that was expected given the chaos.


((Bed time for me))

 

[zCrookedz]

Leo's continued his an slant on the enemy forces, unaware the others had gone up to help Nyr. Dread raven and bat demon alike fell to his blade one after another. He began to notice that he sought them out instead of letting them come to him. One after another the enemy's feel, and Leo's mind began to revert back to his primal panthera state. He stopped only for a moment as he felt a tug on his mind. There was nothing around him but corpses, and the terrified faces of dread raven, bat demon, and even his own sides warriors. With a sharp pain to his mind, he felt as if someone had mentally slapped him. "get a hold of yourself. Your a guardian, not a wild animal." slowly he felt Lily fade away from him until she was only there as support once again. Leo looked around and caught a glimpse of his team mates returning to the ground. He began sprinting after them. He stopped just short of their landing sight. Fearing the worst for Nyr he burst through the spectators "is everyone alright?"


@SilverFlight @DawnAntalios

 

[SilverFlight]

Leia caught up to them with a bit of effort. Tad and Lee were a large help for that.


"Someone's injured, they need your help saving him." Lee floated by the big Lion and mewed.


"Lee will help you.I don't know who it is..." but as she looked her face fell, wasn't that the guy trying to kill them in the first place? Nyr was horribly concerned, and if it was important to her...


@zCrookedz


The battle raged on, the demons closest to Nyr's confrontation had seen their general fall. Some continued to push forward but some allowed the look of fear to creep onto their faces and begin to stumble back. Briar forged on, in the thick of battle right beside her people. Halberd ran up beside her, taking the sword arm of a demon in his jaws and wrenching it away from the princess.


he dispatched the offender with a short short of battle claws.


"Something's happened Hal!" She cried. August blocked a sword strike with an armoured shoulder and rammed another beast, standing on it promptly when it fell.


They looked up and saw Nyr fly over, holding the limp form of a dread raven. An uneasy feeling crept up on her, but she trusted the heroes. They would make the right decisions.


"Well that's one down. Do you think that was the leader?" the captain asked.


"I doubt it." Briar answered. "The horde doesn't seem too rattled.


Briar raised her sword and yelled a rallying cry. Those who still stood would regroup to her and forge on.

 

[DawnAntalios]

Erzaul seeing the momentary panic on the face of his underlings were furious. He never allowed them to feel anything - least of all pain and fear, the soft hands of the raven made them vulnerable to such emotions... for a moment he even thought that the elder sage betrayed them from within but quickly dismissed the idea. Frothing in rage h extended his shadowy fingers, sending out a burst of darkness to random demons, empowering the ones they touched.


" The dark one does not allow disobedience. " he thundered " Fight or die - or face my eternal wrath... "


Nyr knelt on the ground, still clutching his mortally wounded father close. All along it was just a charade? A plan? He did all this for her?


" Why father... " she whispered, her tears pouring like rain " Why did you do this... "


The elder one opened one eye slowly and through his ragged breath spoke.


" I did... what I had to to save you from the shadow... " he panted heavily, fighting the pain " You were the one I placed my hopes in... the hope of our entire race. Where we succumbed... you resisted the call of darkness. "


Now Nyr could no longer hold her composure and cried. Cried as hard as never before.

 

[zCrookedz]

Leo looked down at the man laying before them. Nyr tears hurt Leo and he wanted to do everything he could to help her. But there were rules, and Leo didn't know how it would work. He next down and place one hand gently on the man's wounds and the other on his forehead. He turned to Nyr, "Nyr, when I evoke the healing powers the forest gives me, it is a bargaining chip. I have to make the best possible argument for the use of that power, and then the forest spirt judges if that power is misuse or not. I will try to heal your father, but I can make no promises for an agent of the darkness." He turned to Leia and Lee "If the worst happens, only Lee might be able to save your father." he turned back to the man and looked him over with his good eye. He closed his eye, "Oh merciful spirit of the forest. I bring before you a body who is broken. A body that is beaten. A body, that has wronged for the sake of those he loved. Thought it may have been misguided, this body requires your assistance so that he may right the wrongs and return to those who need him." the green power emitted from Leo's hands enveloping the man.


@DawnAntalios ((Edit for Leia @SilverFlight))

 

[Hel]

Anya had ran along with Leia, fighting along the way. She saw all that happened and stayed quiet, until Leo brought up his worthiness.


"If you know your own weaknesses well enough to know it's pointless to waste your energy on fighting the darkness, so instead you spend that energy on saving your daughter, does that not make someone worthy? People who do bad things can be good people- isn't there some way to save him from his temptations of darkness, too?" Anya asked. Maybe she sounded like a fool, but it was what she felt.


Alexander spent his time flying low over the enemy forces, laying sheets of fire in the thickest portions, and snatching enemy's with his claws to drop them from the air. Quincy was with him on his back shooting arrows. In the distance he noticed Ashley, and headed towards her, away from the battle, he landed in front of her horse, and his voice exploded in her mind/ 'if you insist on being out here to fight, at least climb abord a safer steed, you can liter the ground with arrows from the sky, like quince is, and not risk the loss of your child.'

 

[Lioness075]

Luness and her pack continued to clash with demons, everything becoming routine for them. Duck, slash, dodge, bite. Over and over again, demons fell from the pack and Luness' skills at fighting as one.


It didn't take long before Luness found a wide berth being made around herself and her pack. The demons were trying to avoid her after seeing the growing pile of dead bodies around Luness and her pack.


Snarling, Luness charged back into the fray, leading her pack as they dispatched more demons, creating an empty circle around them wherever they went, as the demons quickly recognized the dangers of trying to face Luness and her pack.


Caked in blood and gore from the countless demons, dread ravens, and more that had fallen before her, Luness had no idea if any of the blood on her armor, fur, or hands was her own or an allies. With the strong adrenaline rush coursing through her veins, she didn't even know if she was injured herself.


Not that Luness cared at this point. The more she fought and killed the enemy, the less of a chance she had for any flashbacks or moments of weakness.


@DawnAntalios

 

[DawnAntalios]

The elder raven looked up weakly at the forest guardian who attempted to heal him - but he knew that the forest spirits would deny that request anyway. Slowly he put his clawed hands on his, looking in the eyes of Leo.


" Noble guardian, waste not your power on me. " he said, smiling " My time is short - I was dead when our race fell to corruption. "


He turned his head towards everyone around him and spoke out one last time.


" I can not ask for your forgiveness - I can not atone for the sins and atrocities I have committed for they were horrible beyond explanation. All I ask... all I... "


He coughed up a big amount of blood. He knew he was on borrowed time.


" All I ask... is that you look after my child... please, succeed... where I... have... failed... "


And after that his old eyes closed and finally darkness eternal claimed the elder raven. Nyr did not say a word, just held the lifeless body of the old sage in her hands. The sounds of battle have vanished, her sight blurred... all she saw was him and her, reunited finally after a long, painful exile only for him to die in her hands... by her hands. Her spirit and heart shattered into pieces, seeing the one she always hated and despised to give everything for her. His final sacrifice, his final gift to her was supposed to be peace - that everything was just part of a plan. But this knowledge brought no serenity, no joy to Nyr - only more anguish and suffering. The last of her family was gone - forever.

 

[zCrookedz]

Leos face was grim. In his mind it felt as if a gentle hand hand been placed in front of a streams to channel the water away from its usual path. As the elder raven placed his hand on Leo's his magic stopped. He watched the old raven as the final words escaped his lips. He placed has hand on Nyrs back "I am sorry Nyr, but he was correct. There was nothing anyone could do.He is at peace now, the darkness can no longer take him as its puppet." Leo stood and surveyed the battle field. The battle raged on, mage light illuminating the carnage of the two armies in way some might say a dark and menacing gloom. Leo sighed "This battle as already claimed so many that did not need or deserve to die. We are plagued by a darkness that is both malevolent and merciless. It possesses the power to destroy our lives one person at a time until we are nothing more than hollow husks of ourselves. But it does not understand that the more it takes from us, the more determined we become to destroy it. Our determination, our love for those who have fallen, and our vision of seeing our world freed from its tyranny will give us the strength we need to make us all strong enough to destroy it forever." Leo turned back to Nyr and the others "Let us not let his sacrifice be in vain." He held out his hand to Nyr to help her to her feet.


@DawnAntalios

 

[SilverFlight]

Before his last breath Lee circled the dread raven, upon returning to Leia she whined and shifted in the air. "Can't you do anything for him?" Leia all but begged.


The familiar shook her head sadly. It was too late. Leia watched Nyr as her father faded. She knelt and put her arms around the her friend. Tears streaking her face as well.


Ward jumped off the gargoyle's back and joined them.


"I am so sorry...Nyr."


@DawnAntalios


Suddenly a triumphant yell rose from the troops nearby. The soldiers here had the enemy on the run. Every moment there were fewer and fewer of the dark horde. Ward looked up in disbelief.

 

[Lioness075]

As the enemy began retreating, Luness snarled and charged after them, leading her pack in killing as many as they could while the enemy tried to retreat.


Soon, Falarion saw no point in attacking any further and he had to tackle Luness to the ground to stop her from continuing to slay the demons and dread ravens that fleed.


Luness growled at Falarion for doing auch a thing, but he remained expressionless and said, "Alpha, it's done. They're retreating, let them go."


Luness continued to struggle against Falarion, but he was far stronger than she was and there was no way she was going to stop him from holding her down. Resigned to this fact, Luness stopped struggling and the darkness that had enveloped the white in her eyes began to fade away.


While Leo and Ward had dispelled most of the darkness from Luness' body during their first encounter with the archdemon, Luness still had a fair amount coursing through her body. Everytime one of Luness' dark emotions flared up, so too would the darkness within her.

 

[Bea Delaine]

Elena stood in a grieving silence. Though she had not known the man, his death was tragic and left Nyr crying more than she had ever seen the other. Death itself was something Elena resented, whether it be the "good" or "bad" guy to fall into it's shadowed clutches. She waited until something more dyer took its place. This interruption happened to be the retreat of the enemy forces. Triumphant cheer could be heard, though Elena was stunned and dissatisfied.


"this isn't.. No. Nyrs father wasn't the voice I heard in the labyrinth. That thing both the demons we fought were so scared of.."


She shook her head, knowing it was far from over. Whatever they were fighting.. It now had time to restore its forces. She sighed in resignation and allowed her gargoyles and weaponry to disappear for the time being.


She still had to speak to the princess as well, about staying, as well as continuing to rebuild the city. Another fight lingered in the near future, she was sure.

 

[DawnAntalios]

She did not move. She did not want to move. She did not even care about the triumphant roar as she just silently wept.


" Go... away. " she told everyone silently " Go, leave me for now. You have a demon to slay. I will catch up to you. "


She looked up, her entire face soaked in tears.


" Go! Leave me here! Hurry and finish it! "


The arch demon grinned as he saw his army retreating... just as he intended. Their lives were meaningless but the heroes. He rose from his tentative state, bellowing in a dark voice.


" Well done, heroes! " he yelled " My army is in disarray! Come, face me and meet your doom! "

 

[zCrookedz]

Leo was saddened to see Nyr in such a state. His heart broke to see a friend in such disarray. But as she wanted, Leo turned away from her retracting his hand. Turning to the triumphant yells of the army before them, he watched as they turned tail and ran the opposite direction. He wanted to smile, even through all the heart ache he wanted to enjoy seeing his side of the battle so victorious. But that was short lived as the booming voice of malice roared through the heavens. Leos brow furrowed as he reached for his ax betwixt his shoulder blades. "Its time we finished this my friends. Could someone give me a lift?"

 

[SilverFlight]

Leia withdrew from Nyr, wiping her face in the back of her sleeve. Suddenly a booming voice thundered over the battlefield and made her jump.


Suddenly she was angry. All the fear and grief that had sat inside her ever since they had come back to Branbern suddenly hardened. She was fed up. Fed up with being afraid, or sad, she was fed up with watching her friends suffer.


"This guy? He's going down."


If Ward had been a gryphon then he would have growled. Being human however he had to be content with glaring, but he drew his sword for good measure.


"This foul evil will not escape today." He said quietly.


"Everyone! Let us end this!"


He did not know how to reach this evil, but running toward it was a good start. Leia followed the gryphon, her spirits in hot pursuit.

 

[Jecklyn]

Banba twisted and turned and twirled and ducked and dashed around the crowd, felling one demon after another dread raven. She didn't notice the group of friends surrounding Nyr and her father. She didn't notice anything until the army turned tail and ran. The shifter ran after them, until she passed Luness being held back. Skidding to a halt, Banba landed on her back end, feet splayed in front of her. She looked around Idly as the voice boomed overhead, Ward running past. She scrambled up, running on all fours after him, growing into a large, but short deer like creature, big enough to hold a few people on her back. She grinned to ward, the smile unnatural on her furry face. Gibberish fell out of her mouth, eyes unblinking.