Dawning Skye

“What’s a human doing here?!” A medium-sized troll asked as it applied pressure, and kept her pinned.

Realizing that she must’ve broken her concentration when she had puked and released her magic, Sheri replied in a pitiful voice; “I just wanted to go home..”

The troll softened a bit; “Well, then you never should’ve come into the forest. Didn’t the other humans warn you? My people eat your kind.. Was your family in the group we took?”

Sheri forced a grin to stay off of her face as she replied with semi-fake tears; “Aye, my husband.. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t know if I can survive without him.”

A sympathetic expression crossed the young troll’s face; “You must’ve cared for him greatly.. If you stay here, my family will catch and eat you. There’s a celebration for the Goblin King’s heir soon, so the forest will be full of my kind. You Must be careful.. Run that way, and don’t look back, understand? Or you’ll share your husband’s fate.”

Sheri felt torn as she wiped her eyes clean. The tears were there from her puking, but she played them off as being the sorrowful kind very well. After thanking the young troll for letting her escape, she took off running in the direction he had pointed, which just so happened to be the direction of their camp.

As Sheri headed back, Marco chimed in; “Double back after a kilometer, and continue your mission. Remember what that creature looks like. I’d like to thank it personally for not killing you..”

Sheri wanted to protest, but knew it was pointless. The only thing she could do was try to get the young troll to flee before her King and his men attacked the caves. It would be difficult to do while also not technically doing anything to betray Marco. Otherwise she would feel the pain from her shard again.

.....

As Sheri did as she was told, Marco grinned to himself. He was happy to learn that the Fae in the forest weren’t all mindless beasts like the Barghest. They were all still beasts to him, but having self-awareness made better soldiers. They could do more damage in battles by wielding weapons, and sticking to coordinated attack patterns set by their commanders.

While Marco daydreamed over their possible applications to his forces, Sheri stopped..

She had gone far enough to be out of the troll’s sight, so she gargled some of her water, then used her magic to conceal herself again. Looking backwards, she smiled at the partially cleared path she had made as the troll had watched her go; to make doubling back quieter. As she walked back, Sheri thought about how little difference there actually was between her and the others.

Aside from her unstable loyalty to Marco, deep down: Sheri enjoyed battle as much as Draco and Benzo. They openly reveled in it while she tried to conceal her satisfaction. It was one of the few ways that she could vent her pent-up frustrations, and forget who she was, and what she’d been through.

Marco held her life, and her family’s lives in the palm of his hand. If his plan was successful, even just part of it, then he would have the power to kill them all. As it stood, he could only hurt her, which she could deal with. But her two brothers that were in the capital also had targets on their backs; if she betrayed him..

‘For now, all I can do is bide my time, and keep my family safe.. I know it’s cowardly; the entire kingdom is at stake.. But I can’t give up mine and my family’s safety; possibly even our lives on maybes.. I’ll have to bet on Skye..’

As Sheri came close to where she’d met the young troll, she pushed her thoughts to the side, and focused on her surroundings. The caves were within eyesight, but not close enough to make out details. As she inched closer, a group of goblins came out of a decent-sized crack in the ground about ten feet away from her.

As she froze, one of the goblins sniffed at the air, and said something about how it could smell a human. The others laughed and commented on ‘the delicious smell in the air’, but it shook it’s head, and said that something ‘fresh’ was nearby. As the others started to sniff at the air and walk closer to her, Sheri built her magic..

“I think it’s over there!” One yelled as they all felt a surge of magic power.

As they started to walk towards her, Sheri tweaked the acidity in the water that she was controlling. She lowered the Ph level to below three, like Skye had taught her to, making the water that she controlled similar to acid. As the group of goblins came close, she covered them in it..

Screams of agony filled the air as Sheri watched the goblins’ skin melting off. She smiled as she watched their bodies contort and flail until a rank smell started to fill the air. As their movements became still, Sheri could hear a ruckus coming from outside of the caves.

The goblins’ cries had carried and alerted the other Fae. Sheri cursed under her breath as she heard her King’s voice in her ear; “Benzo and Draco, circle back and meet me. Sheri, keep you magic up and move forward. Ahriman is still waiting for you.”

“Aye, My King,” came the unanimous chorus from his guards.

As Sheri trudged on, Benzo and Draco ran back towards camp. Marco was leisurely walking amongst the brush towards them with an amused expression on his face. Since Skye had come to the capital, he had been showing more of his emotions, but that didn’t necessarily mean a good thing.

His dark and twisted nature was becoming apparent to those around him, even Magnus. The spell that Marco had him under allowed for him to freely manipulate his father’s thought process, and make him disinclined to listen or remember negative things associated with him. He had actually done it to most of the royal inner circle, but Skye’s Shaman trait seemed to cancel out it’s effects.

It was annoying for him to have to watch how he worded and did things now, but it had also brought a little challenge into his life. Marco was rarely denied what he wanted, and felt entitled to everything around him due to his status. Food, trinkets, people; it was all the same to him: all things existed for his pleasure.

As he walked towards his two guards, Marco smirked while he said; “You two know what to do. And make sure that you don’t let my power touch you when the time comes. If you do, you’ll wish that you could’ve died bloody instead..”

The two nodded their understanding, then turned and readied themselves for what was about to happen..

Norvis walked to the edge of the camp with a horn of some kind, and stared into the greenery. He knew that once he fulfilled his part, things were going to get loud and messy.. ‘Let one of those fucking beasts come my way.. I made something special for Benzo to help him deal with Shasta.. I hope something gets passed them so I can test it! She may be fast, but not faster than light, hehe..’

A wide grin stretched across Norvis face as he took the biggest, deepest breath that he could, then blew into the horn. It was made from a large ram’s horn, and made a deep, reverberating sound that shook the trees closest to him. A few minutes afterwards, Norvis could hear the cries of the Fae.

Doctor Stein came up to Norvis’ side as he said; “Oh goodie! More parts and test subjects! Will you help me play puzzle pieces later?”

“What’s that?” Norvis asked as he leaned away, trying to avoid the doctor’s foul stench.

Stein beamed; “That’s when we look at all of the parts available to us, and build the perfect soldier! Oh, and there’s no limit to the parts, either! King Marco said that I can make whatever I wanted out of whoever I wanted! Even if they’re still alive! It’s that just so generous of our King?!”

“...Man, you need meds,” came Norvis’ reply, then he turned back to the forest as he built up his magic.

“You’re missing out! I’m gonna go get my tools ready! The fresher the better when it comes to making soldiers! King Marco is the Best!”

Norvis glanced back at Doctor Stein with a sneer.. ‘Fucking psycho.. Why would someone want to play with rotting flesh when metal is so much better? If the kingdom was better developed, I could’ve made an army of robots for King Marco.. Zombies are disgusting.. King Marco wouldn’t need his powers then!’

While Norvis worked himself up, a few bushes started to rustle. He was happy to see a couple Fae emerge; it gave him a target for his anger. As a Hellhound and a Barghest ran at him, Norvis slowly raised his hand as he said; “I was hoping to have a little fun, too.. Guard duty sucks when there’s no threats.”

************

Marco, Benzo, and Draco all walked through the forest like they were in a park. They saw a few Fae in the distance, but they didn’t notice the human intruders until Norvis blew the horn. As soon as their eyes locked on, they ran at the three with murderous intent.

“Go,” was all Marco said before Benzo and Draco took off.

They ran straight at the three goblins and two orcs, then veered to the sides right before making contact. Benzo immediately zipped backwards, and slashed two of the goblins. Seeing his targets anticipating his moves based off of Benzo’s attack, Draco added a zig to his zag, and cut the heads off of the two orcs.

The last goblin charged at Marco, but he just smiled as it barreled towards him. When it was about four meters away or so, it lunged at the future king..

A massive cloud that look like black watery goop surge out from behind his back, and wrapped around the goblin’s neck like a whip. As it hung in the air clawing at the suffocating ooze, Benzo and Draco took off into a group of Fae. Laughs and screams of pain filled the forest as the two lost themselves to their bloodlust.

The goblin Marco had caught fought and struggled, but to no avail. As the world started to fade from it’s vision, Marco asked; “I’m curious: do beasts like you fear death? Do you believe you go somewhere afterwards, or do you just return to the earth?”

The noises of panic and anger that the goblin was making weren’t anything intelligible, so Marco slowly snapped it’s neck. He wanted to see their durability and pain threshold, but the one he’d caught was pathetically weak. It flailed and screeched with terror in it’s eyes until a sickening snap noise echoed out.

Marco tossed it’s motionless body aside, then looked up to see a massive orc heading his way. Instead of having his Dark and Ether magic kill it, he ran at the creature while tapping into his new Tank trait. Mimicking his guards; Marco veered to the side, then doubled back with his sword drawn..

With one clean slice: the orc’s head left it’s shoulders, and landed with a loud thud. As Marco’s feet touched the ground, he heard the war cries of the Fae in the distance.. ‘Draco and Benzo must be having fun. I hope that they’re saving some for me.. Sheri should be flushing out the cave dwellers right now.. This should be quite entertaining..’