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Post by spyder on May 26, 2006 5:10:02 GMT -5
^ You already know what happens...But anyway...
The determination to get out of here with Rose, it fuelled me, powered me with a burning of passionate energy running through my body that felt like it would never leave. But it wasn’t enough, the odds were stacked high against me. There were two of them, one of me, they had reinforcements, I didn’t and they were both armed, but I guess that’s not a problem seeing as I can breathe fire from my mouth.
So I stood watching the two of them, my eyes shifting left to right, right to left, waiting to see who made the first move. But neither of them did which really didn’t help. I felt the tension rising, the suspense killing me slowly as I stood there watching them cautiously in dead-still silence just waiting for one of them to strike.
But I guess the Huntsman wanted his pupil to succeed in slaying his first dragon, alone. And as his mentor left him in the middle of the battlefield alone, we walked towards each other eventually meeting only a few feet apart from each other.
‘You ready, dragon?’ Scythe asked holding his Hunts-stick pointed a few inches away from my neck.
‘You bet,’ I replied and then held my hands up in a ready-position, glaring into Scythe’s eyes as he stared back. I had to keep my eyes on him at all times, if I lost focus for a second he could use that to his advantage and capitalise on it. All it took was a second and he could have me dead, and then Rose would be completely helpless.
Staring into his eyes was also good for my reflexes, which I would really need. This kid was really swift and he was armed, I didn’t want to let my guard down for a second. I was ready from the moment he took his first shot, directed the stick at my torso and slashing it hard and fast. I leant back to avoid, feeling the jagged edge narrowly miss me. He didn’t waste a second following with another slash of the Hunts-stick after the first was unsuccessful. I leapt out of the way of that shot too and I was getting kinda tired of the Hunts-stick. So the next shot he took at me, I moved out the way and kicked from his gripped sending it flying across the room. He went for it again, I tripped to stop him by tripping him onto his back. But he threw at his hands, preventing himself from hitting the ground and springing back on his feet with them.
He ran in and immediately threw a punch at my head, which I blocked and tried to give him one in return. He caught it and turned slightly, drilling his elbow into my chest. I bent down slightly and he put his right foot on my head, kicking off of it and back flipping landing on his feet. He was distanced a few feet ahead of me now and I ran lunging forward with a kick at his head, aiming high.
While he had intended to dropkick me at my knees, knocking me flat on my face, aiming low. The result, we completely missed each other (me going over, him going under) and damaged ourselves, hitting nothing but the floor. We were both up immediately though, yet still feeling the effects. I felt sharp stings running through my elbow from when I feel on it, and I saw Scythe shaking his hand; he must have hurt it when he landed. But he still he came running at me fast, ready to strike, but I tricked him.
I shot fire out a few inches from where he was about to run, instinctively he dove straight into the air and that was when I lunged forward, kicking him hard to the ground. He crashed hard, landing awkwardly on his hand. He took a moment to stay on the ground, shaking his hand trying to get some feeling back into it before returning to his feet. He stood up a few feet away from me again and we took a moment to face off again, glaring into each other’s eyes, both tired and badly damaged.
I guess Scythe was too tired to fight alone anymore. Because as I watched him get up slowly, he suddenly sprung to his feet and dove out across the floor grabbing at his Hunts-stick. I noticed him do this at the last second and immediately lunged out to stop him, but he grabbed it and lashed out at me as I dove for it. I dove down to the floor to avoid his shot, but pulled myself back up quickly, knowing I was gonna have to avoid a few more.
He threw shots at me, from all directions. I keep a good look in his cold, merciless brown eyes, but it almost wasn't enough. I was narrowly avoiding shot after shot, feeling the force of his fast, aggresive blows grazing my skin. He then drew his stick back in momentarily after I ducked a shot directed at my head and threw down his hunts-stick aiming directly for the top of my head as I remained still crouched after ducking.
Luckily I saw it coming down and quickly moved to the side, stepping out of the way instinctively. His hunt-stick went all the way and cracked into the ground after I moved, he glared over at me as he pulled from within the decrepit tile it was now stuck in.
But I guess after I side-stepped the shot, he intended on cutting me in two with, he just got I annoyed. And followed up with three consecutive shots really fast. I saw the first one he aimed for my head so I ducked feeling the force of the blast over my head. Then a second was thrown at my feet and I instinctively leapt into the air to avoid it, that’s when he drove it forward targeted my chest. I really didn’t know what to do there I thought I was done for sure, I had to avoid it somehow and I only had a split-second to act yet everything seemed to be going so slowly.
I tried my best to lurch across in midair to avoid being hit, I really thought I could do it but I didn’t know how wrong I was. He got me, I didn’t get out of the way in time and once I saw it coming I instinctively covered my body with my arms, that was when I felt the cold, jagged, hard edge of that serrated blade tear through my skin, dig into the flesh. Followed by my nerves exploding from the sheer pain ringing through my arm, my head was rushing and I let out of scream in pain as I dropped to the ground holding my right arm.
And then the most horrible feeling came over me as I lay flat out on my back. Not only did my surroundings turn cold, not only did I feel chills and shudders running up and down my spine as I lay against the hard, cold concrete. The slash I’d received from Scythe’s Hunts-stick had made me lose my dragon powers. I was in my human form, defenceless laying flat on my back. I felt Scythe’s shadow as black as the heart beneath him tower of me, I looked up and saw him raising his Hunts-stick ready to plunge it deep into my chest.
At that moment I really thought I was done, I was certain that was it for me. I'd given him everything I'd had but it hadn't been enough, I was paying with my life because of one bad move. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as I looked up at him standing over me his Hunts-stick raised, every part of me certain that that was the last thing I'd ever see. But it wasn't, I looked across and saw Rose, and at that moment everything came back to me. What I was fighting for, to be with her again, to leave everything behind and start over. Seeing her eyes filled with sorrow, with worry for me, brought everything back.
I felt myself grow stronger, the determination driving my body, striving for me to go one and the undeniable power rushing through my veins, through my body, driving me, powering me, bringing all the strength I’d lost back into me. The unbelievable power behind the love for Rose, the love deep inside me, just seeing her and remembering what I was fighting for brought it all back. Scythe stood over me holding his weapon before he spoke.
‘Once I’m done with you,’ he said slow and serious, making sure I heard every word ‘They will be no one stopping me from killing that traitor.’
He threw his Hunts-stick down the moment, expected to drive it straight into my chest. I felt the breeze come down from his swift movement and threw up my hands, instinctively grabbing onto the stick, stopping it inches away from my chest. Scythe continued to try to drive it into my chest, putting all his strength into it. I held on firmly gripping the blade hard, I saw blood seeping from my hands I held the blade so tight, but I didn’t care.
The pain was nothing against the strength I got from the true love in my heart, the determination to save Rose. I slowly inched the blade further and further away from my body, Scythe pushed back hard with all his might, but it wasn’t enough. I finally pushed up hard on the blade; throwing Scythe back I got up to my feet and immediately he tried to lunge at me again but I saw it all coming. It was almost like I could predict every move before he’d even thought himself of doing it.
He slashed directly at my head and I ducked, I side-stepped another intended to cut me down the middle. He tried to drive the stick forward into the top of my skull, but I caught it around the middle stopping him and side-stepped around drilling an elbow into the side of his head. He staggered back and took one final slash with his Hunts-stick; I ducked down and let it graze slightly over my elbow. I grabbed Scythe’s hand holding it and threw him over my shoulder, judo style watching him crash onto his back.
He rolled over and got up again, trying to ignore the pain but once he was up I inflicted some more upon him. Throwing rights and lefts cracking him hard into the jaw and the side of his face, he staggered back and tried to hit with me a right of his own but I caught and wrenched it behind his back and shoved him forward.
He turned back and raised his arms ready to fight again. He glared at me and I felt myself glaring back, anger and hate burning inside of me. He lunged at me again with another 'fist of fury', but I caught his hand and threw him over my shoulder a second time and he hit has back hard again, groaning in agony after the fall (Note: his back is still in pain from the last time he fought Jake, Chapter 6, I think ).
The damage seemed to have finally gotten to him, he'd taken a lot and dished a lot of his own out as well, but really fatigue had set in on him, he couldn't continue. And as I watched him breathing heavily on the ground, I actually considered showing him some mercy but that was my head taking. Really deep inside of me my anger burnt over and I couldn't really control my actions.
Deep down I wanted Scythe to suffer, I wanted him to be treated the same way he'd treated Rose. So when I saw him turn over and get to his knees, trying to get back to his feet I kicked him hard in the side, right in his ribs laying him hard on his back again. I just kept kicking him arrogantly, along this corridor eventually we were a few feet away from Rose. That was another mistake. That was me not thinking logically again. Bringing one of the guys, who'd kidnapped her in the first placed right over to her, real smart!
But I couldn't contol my actions, my mind knew it was a mistake but every part of me seemed to want revenge, it wasn't focused, it wasn't taking in every little important detail. He rolled over after I kicked him again, sharply in the ribs. But eventually, when he found his composure again, he also found something else. As I saw him pull himself up I noticed I'd bought him back over to his Huntstick again.
It was right in his hands and was able to pick it up without even having to stretch his body. I tried to lunged forward and knock it out his grip but he immediately pointed at Rose’s helpless body, tied defenceless up in the net. I backed of a little bit; I didn’t want Rose to get hurt.
So I stopped, immediately in my tracks at the mercy of Scythe as he used Rose as a weapon, a weapon wounding my insides. The anger in my body was no longer boiling over; it was replaced completely by returning feelings as concern and anguish, freezing me, completely still.
‘What are you going to do now, dragon?’ he said smirking and moving the Hunts-stick even closer.
I looked down, thinking exactly what Scythe had said to me ‘what was I going to do?’ I had nothing, so I just stayed there. Dead still and watched in awe, my hands still held up as if ready to do something, but what? I had no idea what Scythe was going to do, even worse, I had no idea what I was going to do.
‘Yeah, that’s right nothing.’ Scythe said as if reading my mind ‘You’re not going to do anything. Because see, granted you’re a good fighter as a dragon and at times, as a human. But the truth is inside like everyone, you have a weakness. And now I’m going to do what no-one had ever been able to do. I’m going to beat the American Dragon and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop me.’
‘Oh, really?’ Jeff said Scythe turned in shock only to get thwacked in the skull by the thick chunk of marble in Jeff’s hands the same one he'd smashed into Jeff's jaw. He crumpled to the ground on all fours holding his head, possibly concussed.
‘By the way,’ Jeff said getting on one knee at Scythe’s height ‘If you’ll remember correctly you never even came close to slaying me, and never will.’ He cracked the marble again over Scythe’s back who rolled in his side, and Jeff dropped the tile to ground cracking it again.
‘You a’ight,’ I said looking at the thick puddles of blood, staining the right leg of his Jeans.
‘Yeah,’ he replied ‘you?’ seeing the deep cut that had freshly slashed across my arm and the ivory liquid which now seeped thickly from my hands.
‘I’ll live,’ I replied 'we better get out of here, though.'
'Hey,'Jeff said back, stopping me 'Aren't you forgetting something?'
And then I felt my heart skip a beat, I felt my stomach lurch as I looked around me. Scythe lay on the ground, the Huntsman (who was here a minute ago…) seemed to have disappeared, was everything safe? I turned to look across from me, to look over at the face of my mortal enemy, the face of the girl of my dreams, I stared down at her and noticed she was staring back as we sat in a dead still awkward silence.
I heard the movement of feet beside me and I saw Jeff stepping over and picking up the Hunts-stick Scythe had dropped, he held it in his arms watching over the limp body of Scythe, just in case he got back up.
‘C’mon,’ he said ‘You don’t know how much time we have. Let’s go!’
I sighed and bent down on my knees next to the net that held Rose captive. I powered up my dragon claws and took a hold of the Sphinx Hair that made the net, carefully slicing against it, taking my time despite Jeff’s wishes.
I didn’t want to rush this, if I went too quickly I cut have cut Rose by mistake and this was also good time for me to, think of something to say when I’ve saved her. It wasn’t as simple as just casually saying hello and then thinking we could just let everything go.
‘S**t!’ I heard Jeff say, he moved closer to me just in case I didn’t hear ‘the Huntsman’s coming and he’s got reinforcements! Hurry!’
‘You’re kidding,’ I said back.
‘No,’ Jeff replied ‘he must have snuck off while you were battling Scythe.’ And with that Jeff dropped the Huns-stick he held in his hands and powered up, becoming a dragon for probably the third time. He stood in front of the archway at the end of the corridor that the pairs and pairs of feet echoed, trailing their way towards us.
‘C’mon,’ I heard Jeff exclaimed again.
I rush-fully cut through the last few ropes, but I guess in my hurry I accidentally cut Rose with one of my claws.
‘Ow!’ I heard her say as she held her hand to the arm that I’d accidentally cut.
‘Sorry,’ I replied and my eyes meet her again but once they came into contact we both tore them apart immediately, it was unbelievable! We could hardly to stand to look at each other after everything we’d been through. I sighed and took hold of Rose’s hand helping her to her feet.
‘Rose,’ I said ‘this is really getting dangerous. I need you to get outside and wait for us there.’
‘Here,’ Jeff said to me and threw me Scythe’s hunts-stick.
‘Thanks,’ I replied catching it and giving it to Rose ‘here take this, but only use if you really need to. Get as far away from here as possible and when you think you’re safe, wait for us we’ll meet you there.'
She nodded and took the weapon in her hands and turned to head down the corridor
'Rose!' I said stopping her, she turned and came back to me. I took her hand and looked deep into her eyes, she stared back unsure of how to react 'Just be careful out there,' I said and gently wiped away the trickling of blood forming on her arm.
'I will,' she said (I was so happy to hear her voice again!) before turning and running out of the door down the corridor, which would hopefully lead her to a way out. My eyes snapped back to the other side of the room when I heard footsteps growing closer, drawing louder and louder.
‘Dragon up,’ I said as walked nervously over to where Jeff was standing by the doorway. I stood beside him ready, waiting, yet still nervously wondering if we’d ever make it out of here alive...
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Post by twg519 on May 28, 2006 2:05:56 GMT -5
Hurry! Get off you @** and write some more!!! I love this stuff!!!!!!
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Post by spyder on May 28, 2006 5:39:58 GMT -5
Wow, okay...Here you go...
Chapter 18 - Something Familiar Jake’s P.O.V The footsteps paced down the hallway, getting closer and closer by the second. Jeff stared at the door not blinking. He was staring at the archway at the end of the corridor, as if trying to figure something out, as if trying to make sense of it. I concentrated mainly on the sound of the voices and footsteps echoing down the long corridor and bouncing off of the cracked tiles and decrepit, worn walls. I could hear them clearly with the super senses of my dragon ears, but I still couldn’t make out exactly how many they were. All I knew was, there was definitely more then 1 and there was definitely more then 6, which got me worried.
I was still worrying that Jeff and I wouldn’t make it out of here alive, but I knew we had to. We couldn’t come this far and then not go all the way, I can’t speak for Jeff but I know I would be doing everything in my power to make it out of here.
I hadn’t felt nervous about doing this, until right now. It was strange, it wasn’t until now that I realised what I was fighting for, it wasn’t until now that I realised the consequences of me failing here. I would die, Jeff would die, Rose would die, the American Dragon would be dead and there would be no one to protect the magical creatures of New York, my parents, my friends, no one would know what happened to me, I had to make it out of here alive and I was leaving alone.
As the footsteps drew even closer I saw Jeff had moved across and was hiding, leaning up against the wall on the left side (my left/his right) of the archway. He suddenly gestured for me to get on the right side, I moved swiftly other, curiously to the right and pressed my back up against the wall, exactly like Jeff was doing.
‘Okay,’ Jeff whispered looking left to face me ‘I’ve got another idea,’ even in a serious situation like this, I couldn’t help but laugh slightly to myself. It was just something about Jeff; he always seemed to be coming up with crazy ideas and schemes. But the funny thing was they almost seemed to work almost every time.
‘Okay, what?’ I replied,
‘They can’t see us right?’ he said to me
‘As far as I know,’ I said
‘Alright,’ Jeff said ‘then the moment they’re about to come through this entrance, let’s both take them out.’
He put it pretty simply, but I kinda got his idea. They couldn’t see us, so if we leapt out and took out this first two Huntsmen, we would get an advantage hitting them with a surprise ambush. And by taking down the first two men, we would even the numbers up a bit more.
Jeff took a risk in peering around the wall to see the Huntsmen coming closer.
‘Alright,’ he said ‘give it 5.’
I felt suspense in me begin to build as I heard the Huntsmen edge closer and closer
‘5…’ Jeff whispered as the footsteps slowly grew louder and louder,
‘4…’
‘3…’
‘2…’
‘1…’ He breathed; I was just able to hear him we had to remain really quiet now. The first two Huntsmen at the front of the line stood right outside the room, inches away from us with out knowing.
I looked across to see Jeff mouthing something, probably ‘come through, come through, come through,’ exactly what I was thinking. The suspense killed me. I continued wait a second more, I stood ready, ready for the exact moment when Jeff would yell out to me and we would lash out at the guards taking them off their feet. The two guards at the front of the line eventually drew closer; they were standing right outside the archway, inches away us.
‘Were the hell are those dragons?’ said one of them.
At that moment we both leapt out at the Huntsmen, who saw us one second and then next the Jeff and I both lashed out taking them down swiftly. I tripped my foe with my dragon tail, sending him to the floor and Jeff had thrown the other onto the ground with a leg sweep, he fell onto his back hard, snapping his neck.
Jeff had been right about one thing, it was a surprise ambush. The Huntsmen had just been really ready for it. The moment we leapt out, lashing out at the first two Huntsmen and smashing them down, I heard another loud crash, followed by more smithereens of the wall being blown of by an explosion. An explosion of green flame, narrowly missing me and crashing into the wall, my eyes lashed across the room to se one of the Huntsmen armed holding a crossbow like weapon. He fired at me a second time and moved out of the way at the last second and it blasted a hole in the frail wall across from us. I heard another explosion coming from a shot fired at Jeff, who’d taken a dive to avoid the shot.
He got back to his feet and stood across from me, we both had our arms raised ready to fight. But I heard a shuffling from behind me and Jeff and I both turned to see the two guys we’d supposably taken down, getting back up. Two stood behind us, six in front, they surrounded us in a circle of eight. Six of them had hunts-sticks raised, the other two loading their crossbows again.
‘Aw man!’ I said.
Rose’s P.O.V
I had no idea what I was doing, I had no idea where I was going, all I knew was that I had to get out of here and fast. But the real question was how? I’d gone through one door that had lead to another corridor with several doors either side, I tried to remember where I’d been taken in from, maybe if I made my way back to the cell I was held captive in I could work my way from there? I didn’t know this was all too confusing; I just needed to find a window or something. Just so I could find out where I was.
I ran down the corridor, Hunts-stick still in my hands as my feet echoed loudly off of the tiles. My eyes sprung around both sides of the corridor checking the doors occasionally, making sure one of them didn’t snap open when I wasn’t looking. I made it to the end of the corridor safely and swung open the door at the end of the corridor, hoping to the feel a cooling breeze flow in leading me outside, I wasn’t so lucky. I didn’t really expect to be on the ground floor yet, when I left my cell with the Huntsmen I only went down about two stories, so I was exactly surprised when the door didn’t lead outside.
It lead into to another room, that was large and completely empty a door on the left side and one on the right, but straight ahead of me was another barred window. I ran to it and gazed through just to get a glimpse of were I was.
When I stared through I expected to again be looking down at the old, decrepit city surroundings that had been a prisoner of my tormented mind for the past few days, but strangely I didn’t. When I looked out the window, it wasn’t a city surrounding me, it was the middle of nowhere, miles of grass plain with occasionally bush and trees.
‘What?’ I said to myself, looking down in disbelief
The window in my cell had had a view of an old abandoned city, now suddenly in another part of the building, looking out another window I was seeing lush, empty grass plains stretching for miles.
’How is that possible?’ I thought still staring down out the window.
As Rose had her back turned looking out the window. She didn’t hear the armed figure sneak through the door and creep up behind her.
Scythe crawled closer and closer, having taken a few seconds to recover from his encounter with Jake and Jake. He’d regained his composure and was now raising his Hunts-stick above his head looking to drive in straight down into her skull.
‘Wait,’ I said now realising ‘the Huntsman, he must have changed the view from the window magically, so if I was able to call for help I wouldn’t be able to tell anyone else where I really was…’
Suddenly I think a saw a flicker of light reflecting off of something behind me, something metal. I suddenly saw in the reflection of the window behind me, his hunts-stick raised was the Hunts-boy. I gasped and managed to move out of the way at the last second, he threw his Hunts-stick down hard shattering the window I’d once been standing in front of. I rolled out of the way and raised my own Hunts-stick at him, unsure of what to do; I’d never fought anyone armed with the same weapon before.
I’d never been taught what to do in this sort of situation, but suddenly he lashed at my mid-section fast with his Huns-stick, I instinctively threw out my Hunts-stick to block the shot directed at me. He quickly drew it back in, but then immediately threw it done hard at my head. I put my Hunts-stick out to blow it hitting me, but hadn’t been fully prepared for the shot. I fell back slightly from the force of the blow, and not putting enough strength into my block.
The result, I fell onto my back and my grip loosened on my Hunts-stick, so the Hunts-boy was able to hit from my hands with little effort. He struck my stick from his, sending it slightly out of my reach. I dove out to reach for it, but he kicked it even further from my reach and then threw his own Hunts-stick down, looking to drive it into my side. I rolled out of the way and his Hunts-stick cracked into the tile, I’d once lay on.
He pulled at it, trying to get it out. I suddenly realised it was stuck and got to my feet, lashing out and kicking his hand gripping onto the Hunts-stick hard. He let go of it in pain, but after a moment of shaking his hand, he glared back at me and raised his hands ready to fight again. As if trying to prove a point that he may have been hurt, but he was still tough.
We both circled the room, arms and hands both raised, eyes not leaving the others, just waiting to see who would make the first move. But as I watched him I noticed something, something about him, something in his eyes seemed familiar. I didn’t like that, I didn’t like that feeling. The last time I’d noticed some familiar about one of my enemies eyes, I’d found out Jake was the American Dragon. But now it was different, now I was fighting a human it would be much easier to reveal his human identity.
Suddenly Hunts-boy lashed out fast, with a straight punch, I awakened from my contemplation and rose up my arm to block, retaliating with a left punch which he ducked rolling under and rising back to his feet.
I quickly turned to face him again, and noticed the Hunts-stick I’d dropped just a few feet behind him. Luckily though, he hadn’t seen it, but I had and needed to get a hold of it.
So when he lunged back at me my first intention was to somehow bring him down momentarily, long enough for to run over and grab it. I ducked under the kick he threw and tried to leg sweep, but he threw down his left arm blocking my leg and lashed and then lashed with his right throwing a backhand at my head and this time, he got me. I held my head were he’d hit me with his fist and staggered back slightly the Hunts-boy took that as an opportunity to move in for the kill.
He at me and leapt forward, throwing his left leg forward and putting all his body weight behind it. I ducked it and he went right over me completely missing the kick and landing hard on his side, smashing his ribs against the marble.
The moment I saw him make the slightest effort to get back to his feet, I ran in and lashed out with a swift spin kick which caught him hard in the side of the face, he lost his balance and fell to the ground on his knees. I took that time to run and over and grab the Hunts-stick on the other side of the room. I grabbed it in my hands and quickly ran back over to the Hunts-boy again, who’d just found his feet again. I raised the weapon up at him and made sure I was standing in front of his Hunts-stick so that there was no way he could get to it, no way he could be armed again.
I slashed at his head with the Hunts-stick but he ducked and then side-stepped to the left of a shot I threw directly downward. I went low at his legs and he leapt into the air and threw out a spin kick at my head. I saw it coming and moved back just to avoid it. He landed on his feet and had to leapt back again as I tried to jab the Hunts-stick directly into his chest.
I came in again and threw another shot with the Hunts-stick down directly at his head; he got his hands up this time and caught it around the middle, stopping it from going any further. I tried hard to push it down, as he tried to push it further away from his skull. But I soon stopped and leapt over the top of him; using the Hunts-stick he held in his hands to vault over the top of him and land on my feet behind him.
He’d lost grip of the Hunts-stick once I landed behind him, but was quick to react immediately turning slightly and throwing out a kick to knock the Hunt-stick right out of my hands. I watched it hit the ground to the left of me again, I wasted a second trying to reach out and grab it again and Hunts-boy took that time to run in at lunge at me hitting with a kick right to the head that knocked me straight off my feet. I hit the floor hard, and felt my arm stinging from the pain, but then I saw Hunts-boy walk over and talk the Hunts-stick in his hands before turning back over to me.
I backed off, trying to get away from him but eventually, I hit the wall. A dead end, I had nowhere else to go from there. He continued forward and raised his weapon, looking to drive it straight through me and into the cracked brick behind me. He came in at a fast pace, I guess he wanted to do this quick so I wouldn’t have time to react.
But as he began drive the weapon down, looking to slash straight through me, instinct suddenly took over me and I did the first thing that came to my mind. The moment he came into my reach I immediately used both my right and left legs to trip him forward by his right leg. I moved out of the way and sent him forward, crashing into the brick wall and got to my feet.
Huntsboy on the other hand, sprawled forward and ran head-first into the wall, cracking the side of his skull against it. It was a sickening sound, as head thudded against the thick, concrete wall. I picked up the Hunts-stick and held it in my hands again, raising it up staring over the Hunts-boy, who was moving only slightly after hitting his head.
‘Something familiar…’ I heard my brain ring again and I dropped the Hunts-stick next to me and walked over to the Hunts-boy, who was just getting back to his knees, his back to me.
I move swiftly over and snatched his mask, ripping it off of his head fast, and even though all I could see was the back of his head, and his longish jet-black that sat atop it, I could kind of tell his facial expressions just through his body language and the way he acted, but it was weird.
I noticed he suddenly realised what had just happened, but he didn’t look shocked at all, he didn’t show any worry or fear of his human identity being exposed and he showed that to me, by slowly turning, turning and facing me.
Suddenly I felt my stomach lurch again, my brain was rushing trying to find an answer the moment I saw his face. But even through the thick blood that covered part of his face I knew he was a total stranger to me. He looked a lot older then what I’d expected, he was pushing on 15 maybe 16 years. He had brown eyes and thick jet black hair that fell over them in places.
Logically, I knew I’d never seen him before, yet something, somewhere inside me was telling me somehow I knew the boy beneath that Hunts-mask, but my mind, my memory didn’t have any recollection of him at all. Yet somehow, I truly believed I knew him but I apparently, I was right.
‘Look familiar, Rose?’ he said as he pulled himself back to his feet (with some support from the wall).
‘Who are you,’ I said, still trying to figure out where I’d seen him before.
He walked closer to me and I almost backed off instinctively, but stayed watching him as he came closer. The usual ‘pissed off’ expression that seem to suit his eyes, was gone now, replaced with a more serious, yet in a way still intimidating look.
‘What’s the matter Rose?’ he replied ‘Don’t you even recognise your own… brother?’
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Post by The Pantheon Dragon on May 28, 2006 7:07:58 GMT -5
Sweet balls of gum... ^_^ That was excellent and...her brother?That's a shocker.Continue plz!
LP
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Post by spyder on May 28, 2006 7:13:36 GMT -5
I can continue right now if you want...
Chapter 19 - Another Close Call Jake’s P.O.V
Huntsmen surrounded Jeff and I in a circle, from all directions, eight of them, all armed and ready loading their bows or raising their sticks threateningly. Just reminding us of their numbers advantage and their advantage of having weapons, trying to get inside our heads and psychologically put us off. They moved in closer from all different directions, slowly, waiting for the right moment to strike. Jeff and I stood, literally back to back, having trouble finding space in this confined hallway and with the Huntsmen edging closer and closer in by the second it was getting a pretty tight squeeze.
I looked at four Huntsmen coming directly at me and stared over my shoulder to see the one’s coming in toward Jeff behind me.
‘So, got any other ideas?’ I whispered over my shoulder to Jeff
‘Yeah, I got a few,’ he replied and suddenly without warning took right off into the air, flying above the heads of the Huntsmen. Almost immediately they raised their weapons, the two with crossbows immediately fired at Jeff. He lunged side to side in midair avoiding the shots they took at him and occasionally letting some fire of his own fly back at them. It was obvious what role Jeff was playing, like in most of his plans he was the distraction and I was the one who be making the surprise attack.
I looked at all the men surrounding me. They were all only a few inches away from me, yet I’d been completely forgotten.
I leapt up into the air and did a 360 in midair, lashing out with my dragon-tail in the process. The result, all the Huntsmen took a nasty whip across the back of their heads, but it wasn’t enough to take any of them out. They all turned angrily and raised their weapons at me. But unless I’m mistaking that was part of Jeff’s plan all along. Now he’d been completely forgotten about and all the attention was on me.
That was when Jeff shot fireballs directly at the Huntsmen in front of me, who with their backs turned didn’t expect a thing. They yelled out in pain as the immense fireballs burnt through the material of the uniforms, through to the skin. Jeff flew further forward and shot fireballs over my head, directed at the Huntsmen behind me. These men however had seen what had happened the first time, and with their eyes on Jeff being able to see everything he did they were able to get out of the line of fire unlike their men with their backs turned. After Jeff shots missed their targets I assumed that was where I came in again and I turned, lashing out at the nearest Huntsman. I knocked him off his feet and hard onto the solid ground with a spin kick that crashed into his head. He fell backward, but still had a grip on his Hunts-stick and lashed out at me with it again. I stepped back and felt the blade narrowly graze my skin, almost slashing my arm for a second time. As I leapt back he took that time to return to his feet and lunge at me with the stick again. I side-stepped the first shot and then ducked the second one and then took him off his feet again with a leg sweep tripping him onto his back.
No sooner did I get him down but I was hit from behind by another Huntsclan member, getting kicked hard in the back of the head. I staggered forward a from the surprise attack and then turned to face the Huntsman who’d just hit me. He had his stick raised and was fully intent on using it. I quickly looked over my shoulder and saw that the Huntsman I’d just taken down a minute ago was returning to his feet and then I saw the one in front of me again and got an idea.
I jumped back to avoid the first shot the Huntsman in front of me threw with his Hunts-stick and when he took another I did the same again, deliberately trying to get myself closer to the Huntsman behind me.
Eventually, I was standing right in front of him and he’d just right returned to his behind me. He saw me and immediately grabbed his Hunts-stick and then threw it out hard aiming for my head, the exact same time the Huntsman in front of me had also thrown at his Hunts-stick looking to cut me across the head.
I ducked, deliberately at the last second, just so they wouldn’t notice what I was planning. Because when I did and they both missed me, their shots went right over my head and since they’d been standing inches away from me, either side, when I ducked they both missed me and each hit other.
They screamed out in pain, completely in unison, after stabbing each other at the exact same moment right across the neck. Theycollapsed to the ground, their eyes rolling into the backs of their heads. Once they were down I looked over to see how Jeff was doing.
He was still in the air, firing fireballs at the two Huntsmen on the ground below him. He flew across the room to avoid the shots they fired back at him, sending green flame flying and crashing into the brick walls. Jeff kept retailated, but was getting showered on by flying brick and debri cracking off of the brick walls where the Huntsmen's shots hit. I guess he knew it was time to fight upon the ground again.
Hefired a few last fireballs, before landing back on his feet. And once he did he immediately had to leap across to avoid being cut down the middle by a Hunts-stick, he kicked the stick from his foes hands and sent it flying across the room, but then had to dodge a shot from the other guard across from him.
I ran in to help him sending more flames firing at the Huntsmen who’d already been scorched quite a bit at the hands of Jeff. More screams of agony echoed through down the corridor as hot flame singed across the legs of the Huntsmen. Jeff and I then both leapt up and lashed out kicking them and knocking them to the ground. They fell back and lay motionless on the ground after both getting hit hard in the head.
I studied the room, it was clean. We were done here, no Huntsmen left we were fine. We’d escaped what could have been a total disaster, dodged another bullet.
‘Next time,’ I said looking across at Jeff ‘I’m coming up with the plans!’
‘Well I’ve got another plan,’ Jeff said ‘How bout we get the hell out of here?’
‘Sounds good to me,’ I replied ‘but how are we going to do that.’
‘We could go outthe window,’ Jeff said pointing to the one at the end of the corridor, making me feel pretty stupid.
‘We’ll that’s a bit unoriginal,’ I replied, following him over to it ‘what happened to those eccentric, unpredictable plans of yours.’
‘Oh, I’ve still got plenty of those,’ Jeff said back, grinning ‘but I think we’ve had enough of those for one day, don’t you.’
‘No, what would make you think that?’ I replied sarcastically and he punched me playfully in the arm.
‘Alright then,’ he said ‘let’s go,’ andI shattered open the window that was locked shut. It took awhile, but we were both eventually able to struggle our way through and glide back onto the ground.
It was nice to be outside in the fresh air, with my feet against the cool grass. But I knew it wasn’t other yet, there was no time to relax. We still had to find Rose.
‘Where is she,’ I said looking around the grassy plains surrounding us.
Meanwhile back with Rose:
‘No,’ she whispered to herself ‘It can’t be possible,’
‘Well it is,’ Scythe (and apparently her brother) said with an evil grin, still standing, mask-less within a few inches of her. The dry blood on his face, like thick red paint, sticking to his skin, clogging his pores.
‘But you don’t remember any of this, do you?’
‘No,’ Rose said with utter confusion still written upon her face.
‘Well that is because,’ he continued, trying to get the focus off of what he was doing as he slowly moved closer to the Hunts-stick ‘Since you were born there was something about you that gave our father the idea to have you move with another family, there’s something about ours you wouldn’t be able to live up the reputation to.’
‘What is that?’ Rose asked intently, little did she know Scythe was inches away from grabbing the weapon.
‘I’m afraid if I told you, I’d have to kill,’ he threw his hand out and grabbed up the Hunts-stick in it ‘but I guess that can be arranged.’
And immediately he lashed out at Rose with the Hunts-stick, she hadn’t seen it coming but she sure felt it. The jagged, cold metal cut into the soft flesh of Rose’s chest, tearing through her shirt, bloodying the fabric.
She let out a scream in her anguish and clutchedher hand against the seeping wound, as blood slowly spilt from her dripping onto the marble tiled ground. She collapsed down to her knees and eventually fell to a heap on the ground, holding the cut deep beneath her skin. Scythe watched smirking sadistically, as if satisfied with his evil doing. He leant on one knee beside her, tore of his glove and hissed into her ear showing her the Hunts-scar upon his hand as he spoke.
‘Do you realize now!’ he said ‘Do you realize what you’ve done? You’ve spat in the face of your ancestors; you’ve turned your back on your faith on your life’s purpose. You’re nothing to us now, not until you’ve learnt your lesson…’
He raised the Hunts-stick again and looked to bury it right into her side. But as he pulled it back he suddenly stopped, hesitating for a moment as if trying to figure something out. Suddenly he dropped the Hunts-stick to the ground and picked Rose (who still lay helpless) up into his arms.
Carrying her, he looked over at the window, looked out down at the plunge below and another evil smirk grew across the corners of his mouth.
‘In death,’ he said ‘you will realise your whole life you’ve been running on borrowed time,’ he took and lowered her out of the open window ‘it’s all gone now.’ And with that he let her go, but kept watching, spitefully, anxious to see her hit the ground. ‘Where is she?’ I repeating to Jeff, who’d just come after through the window. I couldn’t see her anywhere, she was nowhere to be found.
‘Man, I dunno,’ Jeff said quickly scanning his surroundings ‘are you sure she’d have come out yet?’
‘I can’t be too sure,’ I replied ‘but it can’t having taken too long. I mean, how long ago to she leave?’
‘I dunno,’ Jeff replied ‘but it was something like twenty minutes or so. What if she got captured?’
‘Well, hopefully,’ I said back ‘she should be fine. C’mon, she used to be the Hunts-girl and we gave her one of those sticks, she’s going to be fine. I’m sure she’s just preoccupied with something.’
‘Like defending herself from Huntsmen?’ Jeff said, worrying me a bit.
‘Hey,’ I said, trying to reassure Jeff and myself ‘don’t worry, she’ll be fine.’
We both paused and stood still for a moment, just studying the area waiting for her to come out or appear from hiding behind a bush, or some other hiding spot. About ten minutes passed and Jeff and I were still standing outside the lair waiting for something to happen. I felt the anxiety and the tension in slowly build as it pushed on about fifteen minutes and she still hadn’t come out. It wasn’t long before my fears were realised and my worst nightmare had become a reality. It all started when I heard Jeff yell out in terror.
‘Oh my god,’ he said the first part quietly, it took him a moment to realise what was happening to Rose was going to life threatening. ‘Wow, nuts!’ he said, much louder this time ‘she’s up there!’
My eyes immediately flashed right other to where Jeff was pointing. If this hadn’t been a really serious situation he would’ve been jumping around taunting and saying ‘I told you so! I told you so!’
Because, right up to about the seven floors or so, I saw Rose, unconscious in the arms of…Scythe! I felt my heart race.
‘What is wrong with this guy,’ I thought ‘how could do something like that?’
He had her in his arms dangling her over the plunge of the seventh floor, all he had to do was let her go and she’d be dead.
‘He’s not gonna…’ Jeff said in disbelief ‘I mean, no one could be that…’ but he was answered before he could even finish, Scythe let her go.
Rose who seemed completely defenceless, completely helpless after what she’d been through with Scythe remained immobile, not moving a muscle. Even when Scythe let go and gravity took over as she plummeted towards the ground, she was still curled in a ball, completely motionless. I felt my heart race and stomach lurched as she fell, a terrible feeling completely took over my body, a combination of shock, fear and determination. But it was really the determination that helped, because the moment I saw her begin to fall, fall towards the ground at full speed yet, as if trying to torture me so slow at the same time. I let instinct completely take over and did what any other dragon would have done if they saw someone they cared for in a similar situation.
I flew over at full speed, as fast as I could possible go. I felt myself push myself harder then I’d ever done before in my life. She was falling faster, a few feet more and she would pass me and I’d be too late. I still felt that same feeling inside of me, feeling shock over what was happening, feeling fear over what could happen if I didn’t get over to her. But the one emotion I never, ever let leave my body the one had kept me going when at any other time I would have quit while I was ahead. That determination, that had fuelled me, powered me since I started had suddenly become more powerful then ever. I knew for the sake of Rose that I had to do this, I knew I would never be able to forgive myself if I failed and as I pushed myself harder and harder, getting closer and closer to Rose I suddenly realised that what I thought was determination, wasn’t determination at all. The determining feeling that rushed through my veins, pushing me to give everything when I had nothing left was not determination, not determination but love.
‘Come on!’ I said to myself as I flew forward faster then I ever had before ‘Come on I’m almost there.’
Every single part of me was telling me to give in. Physically, every muscle, every bone, every part of me was running on empty, could not go on. But deepin my heart,I knew I had to believe I could do this otherwise, the outcome would have been disastrous.
Rose was right in front of me; she’d already passed and was now a few inches below me.
I lunged downward following her as she fell, flying as fast as I could possible go, desperately trying to reach her. I was nose-diving toward the ground, unsure if I could make it, but at that moment something somewhere deep inside of me pushed one last time and gave me the second win I’d needed just to make it, just to get there in time.
I heard the voice ring inside my brain.
‘Don’t give up; don’t ever, ever give up!’ and then I saw the mental image of Rose hitting the ground in my mind, my worst nightmare, I knew I didn’t want that to happen.
‘No!’ I heard myself scream I lunged out across, throwing myself at Rose in mid-air, powering down into my human form at the same time. I felt myself wrap my arms tightly around her, catching her. But it was hopeless now; I had to power down into my human form again to catch herbut if I became my dragon form again she would get burnt by the fire covering my body and I would drop her again. I had no choice we were both dead but in a way that didn’t bother me. At least in death we would also be together forever. I took a moment to forget about everything around me, to forget the fact as I plummeting slowly to my death and took a moment just to look into her eyes.
‘I love you Rose.’ I said and with that I wrapped my arms around her again, holding her close to me as I felt tearssting my eyes and roll down my cheeks beforeI shut themtightly.
And as I fell, I felt the wind lash at my face at full speed, my face crumbled up, braced for the impact of hitting the ground. But I guess I got so wrapped up in saving Rose, I completely forgot about Jeff. I forgot he was here and forgot the fact that he was dragon.
He flew right underneath and caught us on his back, flying off at full speed.
‘You okay man?’ he asked the moment I landed off his back and he was a distance from the Huntslair.
I released the tension from my face and opened my eyes, I saw Rose still in my arms and looked down seeing we were both safe on Jeff’s back as we flew slowly away from the Huntslair.
‘Yeah, I’m fine,’ I said ‘thanks.’
‘Hey, don't worry about it,' he said 'Now let's get outta here, this place gives me the creeps.'
And with that we flew off into the horizion, passing up high in the clouds soaring into the golden sunset that light up the semi-darkness forming as the evening slowly trailed on...
Scythe stared out the window, watching Jeff with Rose and Jake on his back fly off into the horizon. Turning back to the room behind him he yelled in fury and threw his Hunts-stick hard into the ground smashing it through the marble floor, he kicked at the wall in aggravation.
‘That d**n dragon!’ he yelled ‘Always getting in the way, always meddling in our affairs, just like he did before. Well, he’s screwed with us for the last time!’ He turned back to the window again and looked out of it, just in time to catch a glimpseof one of the two dragonswho he despised most in the world, disappearing into the distance. But as he watchedhim fly away it wasn’t long before another evil grin crawled across his face.
‘You got lucky, Rose,’ he said ‘but one day your luck will run out and that day, I will be there, waiting to strike. And when I do you better watch out, because nobody will be able to stop me, living or dead!’
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Post by static on May 28, 2006 8:29:51 GMT -5
^ Wow, long chapter...Too...Many...Words XD It was good though...What the hell's that line at the end supposed to mean though?
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Post by twg519 on May 28, 2006 11:48:12 GMT -5
When are you gonna finish your story on ff.net??? It's so good I have to find out what happens, and are you gonna make the sequel?
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Post by spyder on Jun 1, 2006 5:44:34 GMT -5
Yes, I'm going to make the sequel...It's just been taking me awhile to upload the most recent chapter...I'm sorry for the hold-up, and I know everyone's getting sick of hearing this but, I will have it up soon, I swear...
Chapter 20 - And so it begins... Jake’s P.O.V
Everything was fine; it had all gone to plan. We’d found Rose, escaped our own capture, rescued her and now the Huntslair was already miles behind us. Yet something still didn’t feel right, something was wrong.
After having spent a full five minutes flying off frantically into the horizon, determined to get as far away from the Huntslair as possible and avoid being to followed, Jeff eventually slowed the pace when we’d gotten a safe distance away, I mean he’d need a break sometime.
I sat on Jeff’s back, with Rose’s lying limp across from me. Even through all the distress she’d been through the past few days she looked peaceful, perfectly still. And even with the cuts and dirt upon her face, even with her beautiful sapphire snapped tightly shut she to me she looked even more beautiful then ever. As I sit next to her holding her hand, she was alive I knew that much
But I still felt concern from her I was really frantic and worried about her. I found it hard to believe that less then an hour ago I’d confidently told Jeff Rose who’d have been fine on her own. How wrong I was.
She didn’t look like she’d taken it too well. Apart from the obvious, numerous cuts she’d received, just like Jeff and I, upon her face and arms. There was a nasty gash she’d taken across her chest; I hadn’t noticed it right away. Through the black ninja suit she still wore from being Huntsgirl, it was hard to see the blood staining her clothing. I felt the anxiety burn up inside of me, eating away at me. I couldn’t ignore it sitting here, her hand in my mine, looking down at her watching the colour slowly draining away from her face. At that very moment, I won’t lie to you, I was terrified and that shocked even me.
I was the American Dragon, I was never supposed to be scared, I could never fear. But now suddenly, it was almost like it was all I could feel. The very thought of something happening to Rose consumed my body with this phobia and it was long before I knew we had to stop, but I still didn't say anything. It was Jeff who broke the silent ambience.
‘Okay, you think we’re alright?’he said eventually, looking left and right and then trying to look back to make sure there were definitely no Huntsclan around.
‘Yeah,’ I replied blankly not looking up, Jeff noticed that but it wasn’t exactly hard to see either. It was written upon me, through my face, my body, the life that had drained from my face, you could cut the fear in my body with a knife.
‘What’s up?’ he said, there was a puzzled look upon his face and I guess I knew why. I shouldn’t be troubled, I should be relieved. We overcame every odd (and there were a lot of them) that was stacked against us, found Rose, even saving her from death and lived to tell the tale, everything had gone exactly to plan, but it wasn’t over for me.
‘Nothing,’ I lied ‘I’m fine.’
‘C’mon,’ Jeff replied ‘you’re tired, you’re hungry, your cut and bruised from head to toe, I feel like nuts now and you seemfar worse, so you should be going really bad right now.’
‘Why’s that?’ I said blankly
‘You know why,’ Jeff said and then he gestured to the figure who lay beneath my feet.
Eventually I gave in.
‘You right,’ I said after a moment or two, looking down into her face as I still gripped her hand, determined not to let go of it ‘I’m worried about her, I don't want to see anything happen to her,I really think we should stop’
Jeff took a moment to look back and smiled
‘That’s more like it;’ he said ‘after what you’ve been through you really need the rest. I do, she does… We all do.’
So after a moment of two of searching around the grassy areas, we found an area pretty well secluded by trees and other bush a perfect grassy spot with small lake in the middle of it. Jeff glided down and I climbed carefully off of his back taking Rose with me. I bent down on the ground with my knees, holding her in my arms and looking down at motionless Rose that lay beneath me trying to find some form of life.
Jeff powered down into his human form and walked over to me from behind, staring at her from over my shoulder.
‘What do you think the problem is?’ I asked Jeff, not looking at him, still not keen to take my eyes off of Rose for a second.
‘I dunno,’ he replied ‘but it can’t be too serious, probably just fainting from blood loss.’
‘Really?’
‘Yeah, sure,’ Jeff replied, sitting down by the edge of the lake and examining the cut on his leg. I stared back down at Rose and then got some water myself from the lake and gently splashed it across her face, but it didn’t work, I tried again but was unsuccessful once more.
‘Rose,’ I said after trying a third time ‘C’mon, Rose wake up!’
‘Here,’ Jeff said coming over, with some water cupped in his hands.
‘Open her mouth,’ he said and I opened it for him, he poured it into her mouth and she came to after that. Her eyes jerked open and she sat coughing and spluttering over the water.
‘Thanks,’ I said to Jeff who returned to the riverbed.
‘Jake?’ Rose said, her eyes fluttering open once she’d revived herself from her cough attack.
'Yes, Rose,' I replied 'It's me.'
She looked a bit anxious, and opened her mouth to say something. I don't know what it was going to be, but I knew what it was going to be about. I put my finger to her lips silencing her.
‘Don’t worry about itRose,’ I said taking her hand again ‘It’s all over, I’m here now. You’ve gone through a lot today, you really should take some rest.’
‘I…I missed you,’ she managed to get back before lying back down and shutting her eyes again almost immediately falling asleep.
‘I missed you too, Rose,’ I said watching her sleep peacefully for a moment. But then the silence in one of my real life dreams was broken by the sound of more water splashing.
I looked over at Jeff was sitting in on the edge of the lake slowly drizzling water upon his cut, wincing at the sting. I got to my feet and came over to him, forgetting Rose for a moment.
‘How is it?’ I asked, as I rolled the slave up on my jacket and examined the cut of my own.
‘It’s not too bad,’ Jeff replied ‘I’ve had worse.’
‘Really?’ I said ‘Are you sure? That was pretty bad what you took back there…’
‘I know it was,’ Jeff said very seriously, cutting me off ‘But I’ve felt worse. I may be scarred on the outside but all the pain my mind seems to concentrate on is inside of me…’
And then he just sat there in an awkward silence staring out onto the slow, rolling ripples upon the lake and the golden light reflecting upon them. I always thought something about Jeff was really messed up inside, but not to this extent.
‘What happened?’ I asked
‘That’s the worst part of it all,’ Jeff eventually responded, he sounded close to tears ‘I can’t remember.’
I stood there, still stunned.
‘What does he mean?’ I thought, ‘I mean, I know he means he can’t remember, but how? How could he not know?’
‘No,’ he continued ‘No, I don’t remember what happened that got me this way; I just know somehow it happened and I know it must have been really, really bad…I just can’t seem to let it go…All I know is, what caused this in the first place...’
I stayed still, not making a sound, listening intently, not wanting to break his state of mind, wanting to hear what he was taking about.
‘There’s something about me don’t know,’ he continued sitting on his knees and adjusting his glove. Pulling it back and fourth slightly, inch by inch, I strained to see what lay beneath it but didn’t get a glimpse.
‘I’m diseased,’ He said, which puzzled me, once again I didn’t know exactly what he meant ‘the blood that runs beneath my veins in tainted, the heart that pumps it is black, deep inside of me there is an unspeakable, unimaginable evil and the worst part of it all is, I don’t control it, it controls me…’
I didn’t say anything, I just stood there in silence, taking in his every word, his every action waiting to see what he was getting on about, what he meant.
‘The source of all my power…’ he said pulling slowly at his glove again ‘Yet, the source of all my pain…’ he suddenly pulled the glove right of his hand and showed me what was underneath it, I gasped the moment I saw it.
‘I am marked,’ he said, ‘A marking that runs deep within in my core, for the past 15 years of my life it’s consumed and I’ve never even know…’ he showed me the dragon shaped birthmark that coiled around his wrist and up his hand.
‘How can this be?’ I thought ‘He’s a dragon…and a member of the Huntsclan? It’s not possible.’
That mark, was way too familiar, I’d seen it before and as usually it was in the last place I would have ever expected. I started to back away from him, my arms raised expecting anything.
‘No wait!’ he said stopping me in my tracks ‘It’s not what you think, let me explain.’
‘Explain?’ I yelled back ‘What’s to explain? You’re with them! You’re a member of the Huntsclan and you never told me! All this time I thought you were an ally, but your really were the enemey! I thought maybe I should have been fighting with you, but all this time I've needed to fight against you.’
‘No!’ he said again ‘I’m not with the Huntsclan.’
‘Oh really?’ I shot back ‘then what’s that mark on your hand supposed to mean?’
‘I think maybe you should take a closer look at it,’ Jeff said holding up his hand.
I reluctantly moved in, to get a closer look I stared down his hand. I didn’t know what he was talking about it was the exactly the same…Except…The head of his was, was different. It had the normal head of a dragon, but at the end of it sticking out of it’s were, two horns?
‘What?’ I said, with a puzzled expression in my face, in my voice ‘What does that mean.’
But suddenly before he could even begin to explain,something really weird happened. The scar of Jeff’s hand started to glow, it was glowing white and the moment the entire dragon’s body was light up Jeff suddenly shrieked out in pain and grabbed his wrist, holding onto it and bending down onto his knees hiding his face behind them.
I tried to walk in to see what was going but he whenever I went near him he just shrieked out in agony again, almost as if I was the cause of his pain. But suddenly he just stopped, like right away one moment he was halfway through a scream the next he was completely still, silent.
Now I really needed to know what was going on.
‘Are you okay?’ I said eventually breaking the silent ambience around us. He looked up and I gasped at the site of his face, it wasn’t his. Their was red markings across his forehead and his eyes were glazed over; completely focus on me, not blinking for a second it looked almost like he had a concussion yet he didn't seem out of it at all.
He suddenly raised his hand and looked at it and screamed out again, not in pain thought, this time it sounded almost like a battle cry or something. Almost like, he was enjoying the pain.I watched in sheer disbelief as I slowly saw a horn grow out of hiselbow breaking through the skin, and then the same happened on his left wrist and then suddenly I saw two appear from his head, either side, sticking forward.
Then, his shirt ripped open and he stood up as I stared in awe. He was completely the same (in a way), unlike becoming a dragon, his height and size had stayed were his the same as his human form, he looked generally the same. But he wasn’t. His eyes were glazed over, there were horns growing out his head, he now had black wings from his back, not like dragon wings but two actual black feathered wings andblack markings, swirling linesalmost like Chinese writing upon his chest, his back, armsand his forehead. I could tell those markings upon his body meant something, but what?
Standing there seeing Jeff with the wings and the horns, it almost like he almost had a splitting image to, the devil.
I looked across at Rose, who’d just gotten up since we revived her. She’d heard Jeff, she heard me, she knew something was wrong. But the moment she saw Jeff, a look of shock and a combination of fear and disbelief, filled her face, she went pale again and I saw a look in her face like she'd knew too much about this, like she'd seen this somewhere before and knew it wasn't good news.
Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed in a heap upon the ground, strangely I noticed she was shuddering about something before she fainted.
‘Rose!’ I said to her, shaking her trying to get her to regain consciousness again ‘Rose!’ I repeated.
Jeff moved in closer, his arms raised, glaring at me, ready to fight me, but why? I wanted to know why, but all I could hear was a voice running through my head, Jeff’s, something he’d said earlier.
‘I don’t control it, it controls me.’
Jeff then stood within in two or three feet of me, glaring at me with his creepy, sinister eyes, suddenly laughed out, really psychotically and evilly before slowly snarling out a sentence to me in Chinese.
‘And…And so, it begins (Translated from Chinese)’
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Post by charles finley. on Jun 1, 2006 11:57:34 GMT -5
*pokes* Update soons or feel my poking! And the werid looks!!XD *pokes, poke, poke* XD
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Post by spyder on Jun 3, 2006 2:58:05 GMT -5
Chapter 21 - Right from the devil's mouth Jake’s P.O.V
‘Jeff?’ I said as he moved in closer to me his hands raised ‘Jeff?’ I repeated.
I didn’t get any answer from him, he just slowly walked towards me, his eyes still glazed, yet still focused burning with evil intentions running through his mind. I waved my hand in front of them, trying to get him to snap out of this trance he was in.
‘What’s wrong...?’ I said, unsure of who Iwas real speaking to‘who, who are you?’
‘Who?’ he said, stopping for a moment ‘I am Jeff Irvine, youknowthat much!I am a child of destiny, heir to the cursed blood, of the devil gene…’
I lowered my hands slightly, still puzzled. He knew who he was, but he didn’t seem to know anything else about himself. It was almost like he was possessed…possessed by an evil spirit, perhaps of the devil? I wasn’t to sure.
‘And now,’ he continued moving even closer in to me ‘I am here to terminate you!’
He shrieked and lashed out fast at me kicking me hard in the chest and sending me flying back, I crashed hard on the grass hitting the back of my head hard against the trunk of a tree.
This, Devil Jeff, moved in swiftly and then looked down at me; I suddenly saw the horn that was sticking from his head (on the right) was starting to glow, a red ember like colour.
‘Uh oh,’ I said and moved out the way at the last minute, narrowly avoiding, a burning beam of fire at me, that strangely came straight out of his horn! It crashed right through the tree I was just leaning against, killing it, and turning it black as several black crows rose from where the shot had been fired. I stared puzzled, still trying to contemplate what was happening as I saw the trunk rot away and the black birds open their wings and flutter madly in all directions. I lost focus for a second and payed for it getting hit hard again by another kick from Jeff. I crashed heavily into the floor.
‘Damn it, dragon!’ he said, hitting me hard again‘Transform,’
I tried to kick him while lying on the ground, but he caught my leg and kicked me hard in the side of the ribs again, he then fired another beam from the horn upon his head and I once again narrowly again.
‘Transform now!’ he ordered ‘Or I just kill you as a human.’
I slowly got up to my feet, not taking my eyes of Devil Jeff for a second. I didn't know what to expect, except I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but something told me that I was going to have fight Jeff, beat him, to get him out of this state of mind.
‘Dragon up,’ I said but I was cut off. Literally, the split-second I became a dragon Jeff lashed out and kicked me again sending me to the ground.
I could tell already he wasn’t afraid to fight dirty and was going to take every advantage he could. He grabbed me by the right hand and started pulling me up, but he stopped momentarily and began ripping at the claws on my dragon hand, as if trying to tear one out. I use my tail to trip him hard onto his back, getting him off me and rose back to my feet as did Jeff.
We ran in at the same time before exchanging ourblows, I struggled to get a shot in on Jeff as he did to me, we were really evenly matched. Whatever I did, he seemed to know how to counter it somehow, and whatever he did... Well I guess you get the idea.
I threw a punch to Jeff, he blocked it and came back with his own, I caught it and wrenched it behind his back, so he ran to a tree and kicked off it, boosting himself in the air and backflipping over my head, landing on his feet. I turned round immediately and he lashed at me with a kick, but I ducked and he hit the tree, it cracked slightly at Jeff's new found, supernatural powers.
I lashed at him with a spin kick and caught him in the chest, he bent forward grabbing his stomach. I tripped tripping him down again with my tail, but he leapt up in the air and began flying up higher.
'Right,' I said 'he can fly too.'
I fired fire at him while he was in the air, he flew faster to avoid it and eventually fired back some more burning embers from his horn. I doved out of the way, hearing the flame singe the grass inches across from me. As I lay on the ground, I had my back to Jeff, who swopped down at me or something (I couldn't tell, because like I said, I had my back to him), but Rose who'd distanced herself from the battleground Jeff and I fought on, saw him and tried to warn me.
'Jake!' I heard her yell, I turnedto look ather'Look out!' She yelled again, pointing at Jeff who was directly above me.
'Huh?' I said looking up and seeing Jeff, but at that moment it was too late. He lunged down from where he'd been hovering above me and lashed out kicking me real hard in the hard. I felt myself tumble over and held my head. As I lay completely dazed, DevilJeff capitalized, he came over to me and kicked my once again in the head, knocking me silly. He grabbed me by the throat and pulled my face so he was facing me, I saw his horn glowing, he wanted to finish me now.
'Fear...' he said'the wrath, of the devil,' (Translated from Chinese)
Roserealised it could be the end of me if she didn'tdo something and hit Jeff in theback of the head with a branch she’d found on the ground. It cracked him hard in the back of his skull, but he simply turned around and stared at Rose evilly, focusing his attention on her, unaffected as if she’d just hit him with a toothpick.
Iwatched in awe, I couldn’t believe it. Becoming a devil hadn’t changed Jeff’s sized, but it seemed to have given some form of psychotic super-strength. I mean, Rose isn’t exactly what you’d call weak and the shot she’d given him must have been hard, the back of his head started bleeding! Seeing as it that was quite a thick branch and again, this wasn’t Rose’s first fight, let me tell ya!
But Jeff just took the shoot like it was nothing and then grabbed the branch from Rose’s hand tossing it aside and shoved her down. That got me really mad. I know, Jeff probably was having difficulties controlling his actions right now but seeing him hurt Rose like that just got me livid. I got up before,flying up getting a little air and with his back turned on me I was able to smash him hard in the exact same spot he’d just been hit with a kick of my own. I lashed out with all the strength I could summon in my body, focusing it on my leg and throwing out my foot, cracking him in the skull with a sickening thud.
He crumpled forward to the ground, feeling the effects of my surprise ambush and I pulled him back to his feet throwing out another kick, but Jeff was still able to find the energy to block and come back with a right hand of his own. I caught it and wrenched it trying to flip Jeff head over heels, judo style; he threw his hands to the ground in attempt to spring forward somersaulting back to his feet. But I dunno, I guess his wings our something got in the way and he when landed, he staggered losing his balance I took that time to lunge back in and knock him off his feet, sweep my leg at his heels and sending him on his back.
‘Ha, not so energetic now are you?’ I said leaning down over him, but I guess trash-talking and standing right over him wasn’t the best option.
While lying on his back he threw up his leg, kicking me hard in the back of the head. I hadn’t expected it and I fell forward, directly to the right of where he’d just been laying and he sprung quickly back up to his feet. He kicked me in the ribs as I was on my side and forced me along the ground eventually running me into a tree. He leant my backright up against it and began kicking me hard in the chest, three or four times cracking his foot into my stomach as the force behind it ran my back into the tree.
He then distanced himself from me, as I struggled to my fight with the help of the tree after his abuse. He looked over me and his cold, steel eyes flashed mine once more, I could see he was moving in for the kill.
‘I….’ he said ‘I, will take everything!’
At he ran in at me fast and lashed forward throwing out a big kick aimed at my head. I took a split-second to look behind me; just making sure I was still standing exactly in front of that tree, I was. I knew exactly what to do I ducked down and he went right over me, missing the kick and crashing hard into the tree directly behind me. He ran straight into it rib first and I heard his leg crack from the impact, before he landed hard on the back of his head, thudding the soft grass like it was concrete. I walked over and stood over him.
‘Gee,’ I said looking down Devil wrapped in a ball holding his leg and his chest in agony (I came up with the best lineI could off the top of my head.)‘It’s too bad you’re not as smart in the head as you are in the horns.’
It was weird how I was always socky, regardless of how weird or freaky the situation was.
Devil Jeff got up to one knee, holding his chest and then I suddenly noticed something. The focus was returning into his eyes, his breath rate seemed to be steading and sounding less and less deranged each time, he seemed to slowly calming down. I backed off a bit, still unsure of what to expect from the devil but then I noticed the horns upon his were slowly started to submerge themselves back into his head, the same happened with the ones on his elbows, followed by his wings. But as this happened he seemed to be shuddering, shaking as he slowly returned, to normal.
Curiosity drew me back in and I came back over to Jeff
‘Are you okay,’ I asked again, and just like last time the moment those words left my mouth and I came in and placed my hand on his shoulder, shaking him, trying to snap him out of this trance there was another burning sensation going over his body. I could tell, I could hear the sound of something singeing and then I looked down at his back and saw the black markings that were upon them slowly burning away, becoming no more. I noticed this happen to the markings upon his arms and chest; I turned him round to face me, just in time to see the marking upon his forehead slowly disappear.
‘Jeff?’ I said, shaking him again making sure he was completely out of this state of mind. I saw Rose reluctantly walk over, checking to see what was happening.
‘Yeah...’ he replied, groaning slightly, his hand held to his head ‘...I’m here.’
‘So…,’ Jeff said eventually, between pants for breath ‘I guess…I guess, I’ve, got some explaining to do, huh?’
‘I guess so,’ I replied, I guess we were going to get the truth, right from the horse’s, or I guess in this case, devil’s mouth.
‘Alright…,’ Jeff continued, finally regaining his breath ‘It’s a long story though,’
‘I’ve got time…’ I said back folding my arms impatiently
‘Okay,’ he replied ‘look, why don’t you just ask the questions? It would be easier that way…’
‘Alright, uh,’ I replied ‘how about? Um…Oh yeah, what the hell was that about?’
‘Well, I guess I had that one coming,’ Jeff said sheepishly, I didn’t laugh back.
‘Okay,’ he continued ‘well I guess the easiest way to put is, being a dragon isn’t the only destiny I have inside of me. In fact, I don’t live in a family of dragons like you; I was the only one…’
I didn’t reply, once again, puzzled by what Jeff was saying.
‘You see, for generations,’ he continued ‘my family have been plagued, we’ve all been marked and diseased by the devil gene.’
‘Which is?’
‘Well the devil gene is an evil spirit that lives inside of you and whenever you have any malicious thoughts or intentions this evil spirit wells up inside of you, slowly, to a point where you can’t control it anymore and that’s when the devil appears…and once the devils taken over you, you can’t control your own actions anymore. They’re controlled for you, by either the devil or someone else of a higher power, in my case, the Huntsmaster. He was trying to control me, to get to you, to have you dead…’
Once again, silence from me. Well I guess there isn’t much you can say after hearing ‘Oh by the way, I’ve been sent here to kill you…’
‘But that wasn’t easy for him, you see…There are two sides to the magical world, good and evil, and in this particular situation most dragons were considered to be to ‘the good guys’ so to speak, but devils…Devils were the spawn of pure evil and hostility, they were ruthless, merciless, cold-blooded killers who live solely upon the suffering of mankind. Most of them roam free, unguided, with no direction, just going round leaving a path of destruction upon anyone who tries to get in their way. The only ones who could stop them of course being dragons, who apart from protecting magical creatures were destined to do so.’
‘Anyway, the moment the Huntsmen found out about the devils they knew they wanted to tame them, make them their own secret weapon they could use for a power advantage over the dragons. They could help each other, and both get what they wanted, the termination of all dragon kind and that’s what my family decided they wanted in life. To either become members or strong allies to the Huntsclan one day hoping to wipe out the entire dragon population and become the most powerful, feared force to be reckoned with in the entire magical underworld.’
He took a moment to cup some water in his left hand and pour it upon his Devil mark. Steam literally rose up from it when he poured it on, he winced at the pain but continued telling his story.
That’s my history, now here’s my story…I only have a vague memory of my life, so this won’t all make sense, but it’s all I know and I will figure it out one day.’
He then took another second to clear his throat and strain his head, as if searching to find the answer; I guess he did say he couldn’t remember earlier.
‘I was born a dragon,’ he started ‘and was henceforth destined to stop devils, which were my own kind, my own family. But being an Irvine I still had the devil inside of me, but because of my destiny the devil was never supposed to come out. But the moment the Huntsmaster found out I was a dragon he knew what he had to do. He had to fulfil for me what I was never meant to fulfil, unleash in me what could never be unleashed.’
Rose and I sat across from him, listening intently to what he could remember of his bizarre, twisted, life story.
‘The gene was always inside of me,’ he continued ‘but because I was a dragon, a good guy, I had no evil and that made the devil inside of me a lot harder to bring out of me…But that ruthless Huntsmaster, he knew exactly what to do to me. I have little recollection of what exactly went on but I know from the early age of six I was tortured. He ordered huntsmen to tie me down, beat me, whip me, scold me, everything you could imagine.’
‘When I was no older then8 he trapped me in a punching bag and had his students and men practise their kicks on it with me inside. When I was about11 he locked me in a trapdoor underground, three feet wide, three feet in height and I was five feet tall at the time. He locked me in their, not enough room to lie down; no enough room to stand up, it was horrible. There was an open chain link fence above me, like on a cage, so he could torture me more mentally showing me the wide open space outside that I was missing out on. He kept me there forwhat seemed like a year,and if that wasn’t enough, everyday he would order the Huntsmen to pour all kinds of parc over me from buckets through the gaps in the chain link roof. Blood, guts, boiling water, freezing water in winter, sometimes he’d even drop spiders and scorpions on me, just for fun, just to hear me scream.’
I looked down at the bare parts of Jeff’s body, his back, his chest, his arms, they all had scars, burns, bite marks and bruises I’d never seen before, some older then others. But listening to this story it wasn’t hard to figure out where they came from.
‘I’d hearing him laughing from the outside,' he continued 'it drove me mad inside, it built up all this rage inside of me, it summoned all the evil spirits from the devil gene until they just got so strong I couldn’t control them. When I was 15,I couldn't take it anymore and lost control of myself, it wasn't long beforethe devil came out and when it came out, and the evil in my body completely consumed me, in a fit of rage I killed more then 12 Huntsmen and left their lair in ruins, I was woken up the next morning by an unknown voice in my head, I was in the middle of a forest that surrounded me, completely destroyed and when I found the dragon claw in my hand I knew I had done this, I knew it had been my doing…’
'A dragon claw...' he said speaking slowly and seriously 'That's all it takes when in a half human, half devil form...That's all it takes, to go...'
He swallowed before finally answering 'Full Devil...'
'So that's why you...' I started, remembering him trying to pull of one of my claw's during our fight
'Yes,' he answered, cutting me off 'Yeah, that's why...It wanted me to do it again, I can't control myself...'
After those words left his mouth he held his face in his hands, looking down, ashamed, I guess I wasn’t 100 sure. But Rose and I both sat there just staring at him, still trying to take all this in. I didn’t know what to feel, I didn’t know what expression was writing up my face. Pity, hate, spite, apprehension, confusing, worry, they all seemed like obvious options, but I could pick one of them out. It was like they were all grouped up inside of me, all built up to equal degrees and I was completely unsure of how to feel.
‘Is there any cure?’ I eventually heard myself say
‘I don’t know,’ Jeff replied pulling his face from his hands ‘I’ve spent all of what I can remember of my life, trying to find an answer, trying to find a cure but I’ve found nothing. All I know is that if this keeps eating away at me I don’t know how much longer I can hold out, I’ve got to figure this out, I’ve got to find out who or what’s behind this evil spirit, and when I do, I have to kill them… That’s the only way…’
‘Well,’ I said ‘we’re with you all the way, me and anyone else I can find who may be of use to us. I’m going to help you get through this, I promise, besides, I’ve got some scores of my own to settle with the Huntsclan and you can be the one who helps me in return…You’ve just gotta try and maintain your composure, try and keep all these bad thoughts out of your body...'
'It's not that easy,' Jeff said 'It picks away at any negative emotion, any slight feeling of hate, jealousy, spite, anger even depression, or stress, anything that makes you feel, not right...'
He stood there in the silence, staring out at the creek in the semi darkness of the late afternoon. Jeff really was a confused individual, I thought it was hard to figure him out from the day I met him, but it was weird to realise sometimes Jeff couldn't even figure himself out.
'Look if you want out of this, you can go,' I said eventually breaking the silence
'I can help you,' Jeff said
'Are you sure?'
'Yes,' he continued 'I can do it, I have to...No just for my sake, but for the sake of all the Irvines leaving and dead who've had to live with this evil, I have to do it for them, good must prevail, I have to rid myself and anyone in the future of this evil...I can help you, I know I can...You just have to trust me. Do you?'
I took a moment to contemplate what he was saying in the dead still silence. He couldn't control himself, he could turn against at any moment without realising, but can I blame him for that? I had scores to settle with the Huntsclan and so did Jeff, Rose too, and we were going to need all the help we could get, devil or not.
'Yeah, I can trust you,' I replied 'I just hope you know what you're doing,'
'That's the problem,' he said 'I don't, destiny is my only guide. But I'm sure you can understand that...'
'Yeah, I guess so,' I replied chuckling slightly, almost getting Jeff to laugh back, but he apparently didn't have time to swayed by emotions.
'We better get back...' he said eventually, sounding serious again, staring into the dark sky 'We'll wanna make it through the night this time.'
'Yeah, okay then,' I replied 'Let's go.'
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Post by charles finley. on Jun 3, 2006 18:19:19 GMT -5
*pokes* update or the poking stick will return!! XD *pokes*
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Post by spyder on Jun 8, 2006 6:22:09 GMT -5
^ You'll like this next chapter, I can tell already... Okay, for any one reading this story on FF.net, I've uploaded the newest chapter, Chapter 30...So yeah, if you wanna check it out...It's there, anyway... Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the song "Far Away" It is of course, a Nickelback song... Chapter 22 - Setting it straight Rose’s P.O.V It was a beautiful night, and sometimes just looking around the breath taking ambience I couldn’t help but leave reality, losing myself in my own world. I could see everything, without a watchful eye, it was so clear to me. Every corner of our surroundings, seeing every significant detail in the majestic grace of the night. In a way I sort of envied Jake and his dragon powers, anytime he wanted he could just soar up into the air, leaving the hustle and bustle, the mad rush of city life and venture in the mysteries of the night. I guess, being held captive, experiencing two near death experiences, all helped me really appreciate the sublime beauty of the natural world, it really helped me appreciate being…..Alive. I felt the cool wind lashing at my face, at my bare skin; I held my arm over my stomach feeling the sting from the wind lashing against my cut. I stared up, seeing the crescent moon above is, spilling its light upon even the darkest of shadows, upon the vast fields of grass and tress towering several feet below us rustling gently in the wind as if whispering, speaking, sending each other secret messages through the night. I looked down and saw Jake’s face, seeing the moonlight shining upon it, reflecting off of his eyes, his beautiful eyes, which even in the darkness seemed to shimmer at me just like the thousands of stars glistening above us. It was something I’d always recognised of Jake’s his beautiful eyes. That was what I’d always found familiar about the American Dragon, I knew those eyes reminded me of someone, I just never knew who and even when it was shown right in front, even when I saw it with my very own eyes…I still couldn’t believe, I still didn’t want to…And staring into the again now, reminded me of something more, everything that had happened between Jake and I. The memories, the pain, the scars, every part of me just wishing it could all just go away, I could just forget or maybe wake up tomorrow and realise it was all dream, but I knew I couldn’t. Like I scar upon my insides, these memories would stay with me forever. Whether I chose to let them down or not was really up to me. But so far, it didn’t look hopeful. Not even returning to my real home made me feel any better it just reminded of where it all started. The towering, unforgiving skyscrapers, our battle grounds, almost like they had faces seemed to stare angrily down at me, as if knowing everything I’d ever done. I don’t know why I had to blame myself, the Huntsclan was all I ever had, the only family I knew, the one thing I never choose to do but always seemed most focused in achieving, my destiny, so focused on one day slaying a dragon. I never realised what I was doing, I never stopped to think that I wasn’t just killing a dragon, I was killing a person, someone who could be loved, someone who could have friends and a life outside their destiny, someone I might even…Know. ‘Okay,’ Jeff said eventually breaking a silence that seemed to have lasted forever ‘I’ve gotta get back to my place, I was supposed to be in bed like 16 hours ago.’ ‘Yeah okay I’ll see you,’ Jake replied ‘If I’m not grounded for the next ten years.’ And with that, I watched Jeff fly gracefully off in the other direction, heading to his home. Sometimes it was hard to believe that even someone as messed up inside as Jeff still had a normal life, with a family awaiting him at his home, probably really worried. I wish I could have that, I wish I could have somewhere to be, somewhere to call my home. I wish I had family, real family, not the dysfunctional kind, all I knew. My uncle, the boy who was supposably my brother, they weren’t my family, not after the way they treated me. I had nothing left now; they were all I knew and know I had lost everything… And as Jake landed us down upon the rooftop of his grandfather’s shop, I remained in an underworld of lost thought, still with questions plaguing, still wondering if I could ever let this down. I climbed down from Jake’s back and stepped out onto the rooftop staring out at the several others stretching for miles as the sunlight from the early struggled to burst through black cloud that covered the blue sky. I walked over to the very end of the building staring out over the edge, staring out into the horizon. Staring out and seeing everything I’d left behind, though only a few days had passed this city suddenly felt strange to me like I never knew it, liked I’d never been here for years. Didn’t I recognise or didn’t I want to? Did I just want to completely everything that had happened to me here? Good and bad? Was simply returning reminding me of the fate that I’d left behind? I couldn’t sure, it was all too confusing, and why couldn’t I have just been normal? Why did I have Huntsgirl when all I wanted was to be Rose? Rose, a normal teenage girl, with a family and friends and a life of my own where I could be free to make my own decisions. ‘This life,’ I thought ‘Why did it have to be so complicated? Everything seemed right, until I discovered my fate, that’s where it went wrong…’ I sighed at the thought. Jake who stood just a few feet behind me heard. He could tell something was troubling and I’m sure he knew what it was about. He just apparently felt accustom to ask. ‘Rose? What’s the matter?’ he said approaching me, standing directly across. I turned away, trying not to meet his glance. He sighed and shook his head ‘You can’t look at me, can you?’ I sighed again and held my face in hands in despair, in regret for everything that had ever happened. ‘I’m sorry Jake,’ I said ‘It’s just too hard. I can’t stand to have to face you…Not after what I’ve done...’ ‘You can’t blame yourself’ he replied ‘It wasn’t your fault, you didn’t know.’ ‘Yes I did,’ ‘All along I knew it, deep down inside I knew it, that little voice in my head kept telling me, but I just never wanted to believe, I never wanted to be true…And even was shown right before my very eyes I still couldn’t believe…’ ‘That’s why I had to leave,’ I continued ‘It was just too much for me to take.’ ‘It doesn’t bother me that you left,’ he said, still trying to reassure me ‘You did nothing short of what I would have down, the only difference was I couldn’t bare to leave you…All care about is that you’re here now, that’s all that matters…’ ‘Nothing else matters to you?’ I replied ‘You’re just going to let it go that easily. It doesn’t work that way, you can’t just pretend it never happened…’ ‘But it did happen.’ Jake continued ‘I know that, you know that. It happened and it can’t be changed no matter what we try…How you choose to take is really up to you.’ ‘But all I know is that destiny can change who I am, it change how I act, but it change the way I feel… ‘Well it’s changed how I feel,’ I said back ‘Now I can never be the same again. Thanks to my fate, I don’t know who my real friends are, I don’t know my real enemies, I don’t know where to go from here and worst, I don’t even know how to feel anymore…I’ve got nothing left…’ And I cradled my face in my hands again, feeling my throat tighten and my eyes slowly start to water Jake's P.O.V I hated to see Rose this way, as she stood looking over the edge of the building, looking down on herself, holding her hands over her face in dismay. I didn't blame her for the way she felt, I didn't blame her for how she was acting now. She'd been through a lot over the past week or so, and I felt like the only person left in the world who could comfort her. 'Rose,' I said soothingly, but she didn't respond 'Please Rose, look at me...' She turned her head in my direction but was looking down, staring at the ground,a sign of shame, a sign of low self-esteem. I didn't want to see her like this, I wanted to see her face. I gently put my hand 'It'll be alright,trust me...' 'How can you be so sure?' she replied eventually I took a deep breath, almost likea sigh and looked around me, taking in my surroundings before looking back at Rose again. I didn't know why I felt that way, something deep inside of me was determined everything would work out fine, it had to, I knew that. But I had to rack my brain coming up with an answer, I searched every memory, every thought I'd ever had but really it wasn't that hard, it was simple... ‘I just have to believe...It's like' I took another deep breath, taking another second to harness the right words, to make, the right answer 'They say everything that ever happens in life, happens for a reason…Everything has a purpose. On that may seem blind at first, blind or too hard to see…Too hard to realise, why? Why did this have to happen...? But in the end, it all sums up, everything makes sense...’ ‘That day will come.' I continued 'Maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow or the next day, but I swear, one day everything will make sense…Everything that’s ever been wrong will somehow become right, you just have to believe…And I know it may sound crazy but, I know this all happened for a reason…’ ‘This didn’t happen to break our love,'I said'but to prove it. To let us realise everything we’ve missed, everything that’s ever happen against our will, or our wishes. This is not the darkness; it’s the light at the end of the tunnel. What we all want to know, what lies at the end, what do we live for? What is the meaning? What waits at the end? The unexpected, the unpredictable and unknown…The light seems so close, yet is always so far.’ For, it will not be the today we have upon us, but the tomorrow…The tomorrow that may never come. The tomorrow where everything will make sense, the tomorrow where everything will have happened…For a reason. The tomorrow will come, and it will last us an eternity. Whether we choose to waste it wallowing away, our live for the moment and cerise everything we have, taking it close to us before it all…Goes.’ ‘It’s always better to have loved and lost, then to have gone on wondering what could have been, and I’m sick of wondering, I need to know….’ I took her hands in mine, they fit perfectly like they had moulded to exact shape she looked at me stunned she didn’t know how powerful my love for her was but she would soon. I remained fixated upon her gleaming blue eyes, the perfect moment as we sat hand in hand, she never realised my love for her had become so pure and until this moment, quite frankly I didn’t completely realise it myself. And slowly, just like I had several times before in reality, in my dreams, I began leaning in slowly, moving closer to her. This time, This place Misused, Mistakes Too long, Too late Who was I to make you wait Just one chance Just one breath Just in case there's just one left 'Cause you know, you know, you knowBut suddenly, all the years of waiting and wishing, all the desires in my body couldn’t hold out any longer and I gave in waiting, leant in and I kissed her soft lips for the very first time. Suddenly I felt my stomach in a knot I didn’t know whether it was excited, or the relief after almost an entire year of eagerly awaiting this moment or maybe it was still nerves either way I didn’t care I just kept kissing her. All the anticipations, all the desires, all the love I had for her I had in my body was put into that kiss. It was perfect and felt so right I wanted it to last for an eternity, but I knew it wouldn’t. Yet the time it lasted, seemed to go longer then I ever imagined, the feelings I got were stronger then I'd ever realised, I knew how I felt now... That I love you I have loved you all along And I miss you Been far away for far too long I keep dreaming you'll be with me and you'll never go Stop breathing if I don't see you anymoreAnd slowly I reluctantly drew away from Rose, still holding her hand in mine as I drew away from her soft lips and stared deeply again into her beautiful eyes... 'And that's why,' I whispered to her, still in the heat of the moment 'I can be sure, because I strength I get from you, the strength I get from our love. Nothing will break it, nothing will change the way that I feel. I don't care about what my destiny says, destiny can make me who I am or who I'm meant to be, but it can never change the way I feel, and it never will...I would go through everything, I'd take it all, just to be with you, and I don't want that to stop...' On my knees, our last Last chance for one last dance 'Cause with you, I'd withstand All of hell to hold your hand I'd give it all I'd give for us Give anything but I won't give up 'Cause you know, you know, you know'Don't worry,' Rose replied eventually, smiling'It won't...' and with that she pulled mecloser to her and locked her sweet lipsupon mine once again, as another amazing feeling lifted me, I felt almost like a warmth from Rose's body as she pulled hers closer to me, wrapping her arms around me. I kept kissing her back, gently running my hands up down her, almost like I was studying every part of her body, the touch of her skin, her face, I still had a knot in my stomach, and chills running up and down my spine, but I felt warmth inside of me...Warmth inside of my heart, for it now was fulfilled. That I love you I have loved you all along And I miss you Been far away for far too long I keep dreaming you'll be with me and you'll never go Stop breathing if I don't see you anymore
So far away Been far away for far too long So far away Been far away for far too long But you know, you know, you knowI wanted I wanted you to stay 'Cause I needed I need to hear you say That I love you I have loved you all along And I forgive you For being away for far too long So keep breathing 'Cause I'm not leaving you anymore Believe it Hold on to me and, never let me go Keep breathing 'Cause I'm not leaving you anymore Believe it Hold on to me and, never let me go Keep breathing Hold on to me and, never let me go Keep breathing Hold on to me and, never let me goAnd as the two teenagers drew closer once again, the sunlight broke through the thick,black, empty clouds, as darkness disappeared and there was light...Light from the sunshine, streaming down upon Jake and Rose who still held each other close, as the rays of hope that beamed down upon them guided the way through the darkness that clouded their minds...They would make, they would overcome every odd placed in their way, but the sun did not light up all darkness, for there was a downside. Fate was playing with their emotions yet again. For after all fists had been thrown, all bodies tormented, after the battle of all battles,not absolutely everything would be okay. Good would triumph over evil, but when it was all said and done, someone would not be making it out alive...
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Post by charles finley. on Jun 9, 2006 10:43:20 GMT -5
Yush, u know that I like this chapter...Me the hopeless JxR shipper! ;D
UPDATE SOONS OR THE POKING STICK SHALL RETURN!!XD *poke poke poke*
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Post by spyder on Jun 16, 2006 7:27:01 GMT -5
^ Yeah, I knew you would...
Anyway, as usual, for anyone reading this story over FF.net chapter 31 (The Devil Within) is up...Please R&R...
Chapter 23 - Retrospect Jeff’s P.O.V
Creeping carefully up the stairs, struggling through darkness, only being able to see because of dragon sensors, tiptoeing carefully my face wrapped in a knot from tension, desperate not to make a creak. If my dad caught trying to sneaking back in, after sneaking out, he would freak! But I guess he’d only be able to freak if he was here. Dad was really into his work, hardly ever home, always working as many shifts as he possibly could, doing way more then his far share. You’d think he was having problems with money or something.
Eventually, I reached the door to our apartment and readjusted the strap of my knapsack which I’d hidden in the shrubs outside of our apartment building as a cover up. I’d packed it a couple of days ago, just before I’d left with Jake. Packed it some clothes, a sleeping bag and a torch, leaving a note for dad saying I’d be spending a few nights at a friend’s house (which wasn’t exactly a lie). I’d even crammed a history textbook and a couple of other old exercise books, just to make it look like I’d being doing an assignment or something.
The moment I’d gotten back and uncovered the knapsack, I immediately got changed into the new set of clothes and did my best to wide all the blood away from my face and legs, but it wasn’t easy and I hadn’t had much time, the sun was already coming up and I needed to get into bed, fast!
I gently placed my hand on the doorknob and turned it carefully, slowly, my ears pricked up, hoping not to hear the low, screeching drone of the creak coming from the old, rusted hinges holding the door in place. I opened it all the way peacefully, after a fair amount of time and
After what I’d been through every part of my body ached. The old scars and bruises that marked the skin beneath me were accompanied by several more markings I would hold upon me for what was left of my life. The fresh cuts and scars upon my back, my arms and my legs stung like crazy when I got into the shower, the Luke-warm water felt like acid upon my anatomy. I stepped out of the shower and dried myself, having to be gently over any cuts before changing and heading straight to bed, at quarter to seven in the morning!
Even lying on my back upon my bed, staring up at the ceiling I felt the pain, but as usual it wasn’t the physical pain that was getting me the worst, it was what I was feeling deep within me, the scars on my inside, the hole upon my soul. Everything that had happened on Jake’s little expedition, his dire plan of rescue, somewhere along the lines, something must have happened to me that build up negative emotions inside my body, that sooner or later welled an evil spirit up inside of my, which harnessed those negative emotions and soon consumed my body with pure evil, the pure evil, of the devil.
Up until now the life I had in the past, everything that had happened to me before was liked waking up and trying to remember what it was you were just dreaming about, everything was only vague. I remember the horrible, blood-curdling screams, the merciless, cold laughter and eventually a sound of seer, rage and evil, a cry of a tormented soul finally snapping. I never would have guessed that that soul was my own.
Becoming the devil again had bought back all those memories, I could see clearer now, I could remember the days I’d spent getting beaten, getting whip, getting treated a lesser form of human life, all because of my destiny. I remember the hell I went through and the fact that I couldn’t remember it and as far as I knew I was just living a normal life, as the Huntsman continued to give me memory potion after each little torture session. He never wanted me to know who was to be blamed, who I should take my anger out on, and because he knew that I would attack him in devil form and become his enemy when he wanted me as his ally.
In the end, when I’d lost it, when I’d given in to the evil and the devil consumed me in a fit of rage and confusion I just destroyed the entire Huntslair and from what used to be me hearing the sound of one high pitched shriek of rage and insanity from the devil, it now became a crystal clear image in my mind of me, completely possessed, maiming these men, destroying them and then destroying their lair altogether, as the cowardly Huntsman watched from the distance satisfied by all the more destruction and human sufferings.
Thinking about the Huntsman and all the things he’d done burnt anger up inside of me, which I quickly did my best to calm down. Jake was right, I had keep control of emotions until further notice; something had to be done about the Huntsman. I don’t know what exactly, but somehow I had to stop him from controlling me. But for the now the only way to do that is to not go devil form in the first place, but I could only do so much to prevent that from happening.
I stared briefly over at the desk across from me on the opposite side of my bedroom and saw the time, displayed upon the clock it was quarter to eight, getting pretty late into the morning and despite the fatigue, and complete emptiness of energy running through my body, I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it to sleep. The sun blazed through my window; even with the blinds shut I could still feel the rays searing my pupils and I knew it was hopeless now, I really felt like I was just wasting my time, so I got up.
I pulled myself out of bed, still feeling tired, but not wanting to sleep, not wanting to lose the thoughts I had on my mind. I dragged myself out to the kitchen (limping on my bad leg) and sprawled into a chair, resting my elbow on the table and holding hand against my chin, staring out the window far into the horizon just thinking about the things that had happened to me.
My life (from what I could remember) had been hell. Most of it, I couldn’t even remember, I had to piece together the clues and the hints, I had to make it, make sense just to get a slight idea of what had happened and what was going to happen next. But every time I uncovered something about my past, I would have another nightmare, another vague flashback, a blurred vision, something that I knew I was going to have to figure out myself. Black magic, blocked all the memories I’d left behind so I couldn’t tell what had happened, so I couldn’t tell who was to blame for everything bad thing that had taken place in my life.
But over the years, I’d figured it out, I knew who to blame now, I knew who to take my frustrations out on. I would never forget and I would never be to let go what the Huntsman had done to me, I knew I could never ever forgive him (Not that I was even considering doing that) after how he’d scared me, inside and out, just to make his life a little better, just to make himself a little more powerful.
And for all the torture he and his sidekick Scythe had caused me in recent weeks, in recent years, wouldn’t be forgotten either. I didn’t care who strong the gene was inside of me, I didn’t care how little or how much control I had over it, I would stand bye Jake side and we would settle or scores together in the final battle of the Huntsclan. But I was still a little rusty, after not having fought as a dragon for more then three years I almost came to death back in the Huntslair where they were holding Rose and I wanted to make d**n sure that that wasn’t going to happen again. By the time they got back, I would be ready to fight.
I stood up from the table and picked the phone up from the counter and I dialled in Jake’s number, before standing there, holding the phone to my ear waiting as the call connected.
‘Hey Jeff,’ he said from the other line, recognising the number that was calling him.
‘Hey Jake,’ I replied ‘…Listen, I need some help…’
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Post by charles finley. on Jun 19, 2006 18:29:02 GMT -5
I repiled to Chapter 31.....Just so u know...Go on soon or the stick shall return *poke* XD
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