Finding a home...

[Anonymous]

“That doesn’t sound strange at all. I…� his voice trailed off. How could he begin to express his gratitude? Considering the impending horrors he faced, one ally didn’t seem like much, but to him it meant a lot. There was fear and despair in going up against a bunch of vengeful archdemons alone. To have her fighting at his side not only increased his chances of survival, but also gave him much-needed hope. He was infinitely glad she had offered, because the combination of politeness and pride that dwelt in him would never have allowed him to ask. And it was nice to know at least one person he could call a friend.

“Narvess, I… I cannot put into words just how much I appreciate this,� he finally said. It was visible throughout his entire body; his hands weren’t quite as shaky and he wasn’t leaning on the windowsill to hold himself up anymore, he didn’t look so tense, he wasn’t so pale and an open smile brightened his face, the kind of smile few ever saw on him and few would ever see- a genuine smile, utterly and honestly reflective of his actual mood. He felt so much better. There was a long pause during which Nyci simply basked in that hope of survival like a fish that had just returned to water after a long time on land.

The shafts of sunlight that entered between the boards that covered the windows were turning slowly from golden to orange, a sign that, outside, the sun was setting. “I know, Narvess, that I haven’t said much about exactly what got me into this mess. I apologize for that. If there’s any question you find important, you may freely ask me at any time and I will try my best to answer it.� He knew she would have the common sense not to ask him in public, because of course the dark talents he’d mentioned before weren’t technically magic to him but would no doubt be considered so by Connlaothians, but no one would hear them here unless he was being stalked by humans now too. As if there weren’t enough things stalking him already.

“Also, I… I’d like to know that even if I’m killed, you’ll be safe. My future looks bleak, you see. So I do this-� here he pulled one hand away from the windowsill, revealing a splintered piece of wood embedded in his palm. He pulled it out roughly, and from his lack of reaction it became apparent that he was accustomed to pain. He sprinkled some of the blood on her front claws. “-for your protection. If anything happens to me, scratch an X into the earth with one of your claws. A path will appear before you. Follow this path to the end, and it will lead you to a friend of mine who’ll take you in if you tell him Nyci Choirscream sent you.�

(Ah that's alright, I'm just majorly glad you're back now! *glomps*)

[Anonymous]

((Just a warning Twitchy, I'm going to be slow for the next few weeks as I adjust to full-time college classes  And I apologize for the short posts, I just can't get 'em any longer right now))
 
She tilted her head to one side, studying Nyci for a moment after he'd sprinkled the blood on her claws and explained that it was for her protection.  His situation must serious indeed.  She inspected her claws, then looked back up at him and spoke in an unusually soft tone.  "Anything you can tell me would be appreciated.  Like how you got mixed up in this...whatever this problem is."
 
She made herself comfortable, curling her tail around herself.  "I don't believe I'd be mistaken in thinking your tale is a long one."

[Anonymous]

(Okay thanks for warning me, and don’t worry too much about post length because a short post is better than no post at all. Congrats on college, too.)

The uncharacteristic softness in her voice was calming. Nyci tried to sort out just exactly how he was supposed to explain his situation; the details of the past were quite complicated, and the present was downright confusing to him. Of course, in reality it wasn’t that complicated, but to Nyci it seemed so because of his current mental state. He was restless, haunted, and guilt-ridden.

He nodded at her next statement. It was a long story. The half-demon sat down beside her on the floor and leaned gingerly against the wall, trying his best to get comfortable. He couldn’t seem to stay still for very long. “You are quite right,� he confirmed, “it is… a very long tale, and not an easy one to tell.� There was a brief pause while he organized his words and then he finally began. “It starts, I suppose, with the murder of my brother.�
   
Where he’d grown up, it was not socially acceptable to show too much obvious emotion, so he turned his head to hide the sorrow in his eyes. “I was young at the time- twelve, I think. I was a tiny little thing, much too young for the life I led. Politics is a nasty thing, Narvess. Don’t ever get mixed up in it. He went somewhere one day, and he must have known he was going to his death because he told me to stay home. Came home with a knife in his back.� This part was the hardest for Nyci, because he still remembered that feral reckless look in his brother’s eyes, the wild desperation of a man who had nothing left to lose because he was already dying. “What I didn’t know was that someone had made a deal with him that he could come back to life- if his death were avenged by a family member. He asked me to swear revenge on his killer, and I, unaware of what exactly I was committing myself to, took the oath against my better judgment.�

Nyci took a deep breath and sighed wearily. He didn’t feel well at all; his joints ached, his head hurt, and he was very, very tired. He was not a vengeful person and did not hold grudges, but this was not his fight. “I am bound by more than simply my word to fulfill my promise to him. I’m chained by blood, magic, fate and a whole bunch of other things I can’t even explain, and my brother didn’t really know what he was getting me tangled up in. He was under the impression I’d just have to kill the one who stabbed him. Instead, it turns out that I had to unearth a huge, twisted, deep-rooted conspiracy in which he was only a pawn, and to free myself I have to reap vengeance on everyone involved.�

Nyci’s voice cracked toward the end of his last sentence, so he paused. This was tough on him, and he needed a moment to recover from having to relive the experience before he could continue the story of how he ended up in so much trouble.

[Anonymous]

A day, two days, three… a week passed by in relative peace on the outskirts of Reajh; seven days of apprehension since the evening that Nyci had met a giant lizard. He spent the time reading or holding books for his new friend, carefully running short errands into the city when needed, repairing security precautions around the dwelling such as the wooden boards on the window which seemed almost perpetually to damage themselves, or ill in bed- but most of all, he spent the majority of his time training to the point of overexhaustion. He was already quite dangerous; a creature of lightning reflexes and fearsome strength, graceful, steady-handed and startlingly agile even for a half-demon-half-angel… but still he felt the need to improve his skills, as if someone might attack him at any minute; not thinking of the fact that, if overexertion left him in a weakened state, he couldn’t defend himself as well. He barely ate and he rarely slept- but all of these things were merely the result of stress and the threat of imminent annihilation.

He had told Narvess so much about himself so soon- everything from his brother Jalael’s murder at the hands of Wrath to the resulting massacre of his family, and the division of the five siblings who were left afterward. Jezebel to serve the demon queen Lihilith and occasionally write him threatening letters; Nemesis to join with the rebel leader Ba’atseba, and become a feared mercenary; Naene to his death at the hands of the archangel Raphael, the only family Nyci had left; Josiel captured by Lihilith and turned into a mechanical monster; and Nyci himself, sent out into the wicked world to resurrect his murdered brother.

As he continued, he had beseeched Narvess not to think badly of him for the violence that followed; he had fought a long and drawn out battle with everyone, each and every one of them, who had played even a tiny role in the original murder. Finally, badly injured and half-conscious, he had led them into a trap and left them there to die while he went into hiding to recover. It had been almost a year before word of any escape had started to spread; now the most powerful among them had managed in small groups to fight their way out, and rumour had it that they were heading straight for him. They sought to return the favour, to end his life. It was a sad tale, a true tale, a grim and bloody one; but it was not yet over.

On the seventh day, Nyci woke up aching after less than three hours of sleep, still wearing the clothes he’d had on the day before. He leaned over a sink and vomited blood for some time, then pressed a cloth soaked in cool water to his forehead to ease his headache. He cleaned away some of the congealing blood from the wound that reached all the way from his right hip to his left shoulder, then combed his short-cropped brown hair and changed into some freshly washed clothes. He looked worried and pale but otherwise alright as he stumbled down the hall into the living room, checked the windows, and made sure the door had remained locked and boarded throughout the night.

It was about this time that a shimmer of green scales became visible around the corner, and in a moment an entire horse-sized lizard was standing in his living-room. “Good morning, Narvess,� he said with a weak smile. He slipped a book off the shelf as he spoke and moved to sit down near the stone hearth, thinking to relax for a few minutes until his vision stopped spinning, when suddenly a board one of the windows- the same troublesome one he had yanked back into place after coming home exactly one week ago- creaked and splintered and a clawed hand revealed itself.

(Sorry for the longass post, my next one will be much shorter- I promise. Also sorry about assuming Narvess was getting up, I had to put something more in to reply to.)

[Anonymous]

"Essie, there's nothing more we can do. It's time to leave.

"I can't abandon these people!"

"Narvess!  We have to leave.  It's over."

"If loyalty means so little to you, then go."

For a long while after waking, Narvess had laid in the same spot, thinking about the words she'd heard in that dream.  Herself, talking...no, arguing with another.  She'd tried to match a face, a name, anything, to that voice, but to no avail.  She simply couldn't remember enough.

She had spoken relatively little in the past week, instead she had listened.  Listened to Nyci's past, filing away the details in her memory.  And trained.  She wanted to help him.  It was far more productive than trying to recall memories that seemed lost forever.

She supposed she'd latched onto Nyci's friendship so quickly out of a desire to have at least one person to remember.  A face, a name, a being that she knew...it was a comforting thing.  Not being able to remember anyone, made it harder to remember one's self.

Finally getting to her feet, she stretched and headed to the living room, claws clicking against the wooden floor.  Hearing his greeting, she moved across the room to return said greeting when the boards across the window creaked.  She glanced over in time to see the boards splintered and a hand poking through.  

Her placid mood gone in an instant, she turned to face the window, the muscles in her shoulders and haunches tensing as her talons dug into the wooden floor.  Crouching like an overly large tiger about to pounce, she snarled, the sound deep and threatening, promising to attack should the owner of that hand come through the window...and the sheer volume made it sound as if it were coming from a creature twice Narvess's size.

She didn't bother stopping to say anything to Nyci, no doubt he'd understand the warning.  And make his own preparations...

[Anonymous]

In less than an instant, all thoughts of relaxing were gone from his mind. The young man was suddenly armed with a metal shaft about three quarters his own height, an inch in diametre and tipped with a large jagged blade on each end. It looked as if he had just pulled the strange weapon out of thin air- of course, he hadn’t. He barely had time to register a deafening growl in his mind as he bolted down a short hallway; the most important thing right now was an escape route, and there was no way Narvess was fitting through that window.

If they remained in the house, they’d both be sitting ducks.

An arm and then an entire torso crashed through the boards in the living room, and when he reached the end of the hall someone else had already started at the door. He finished the job for them, and the sound of him savagely tearing the boards away was followed by a series of yowls and shrieks, like two tomcats fighting in an alley. Nyci emerged victorious with nothing more than a small bleeding clawmark on his cheek to show for it, and numbly kicked aside what to a human probably would have looked like an unnaturally large cross between a toad and a vulture. To Nyci, it looked like a distant cousin.  

“Narvess! This way!� he called, just in case she hadn’t already gotten the idea. “We’ll have a better chance in the open forest!� His voice sounded weak but still somehow urgent. He slipped an apparently empty hand into his shirt-front pocket and it returned equally as empty, which would perhaps have made an observer wonder why he’d done it. Then, with a devilish grin, Nyci fixed his gaze on a large black dragon that now faced him.

[Anonymous]

As the intruder made his way further in through the window, Narvess made good on her threat.  In comparison to the racket from Nyci's brief fight, this struggle was silent, Narvess's fangs and talons doing their deadly work far too fast for her victim to react.

And now she came bounding out of the house, jaws and talons still smeared with blood.  She stopped by Nyci, her attention fixed on the large dragon in front of them.

She shot an incredulous sideways glance at Nyci before settling into the odd half crouch, her tail lashing from side to side, as she waited for the dragon to make the first move.

((Apologies for the shortness))

[Anonymous]

(Ah sorry for the boring length, I'm sure I spent most of this post rambling.)

As he heard clawed footsteps come down the hall, Nyci blinked in surprise. Narvess had blood on her, meaning she must have killed whatever came in the window- but it didn’t smell like demon blood, and there had been no screams either. No demon or angel would have died that quickly; they were made to suffer and as a result their deaths were slow even when they were completely obliterated.  Raising his weapon to protect himself, he risked one glance back to see that she had killed a… human. Satan’s horns, just who was sending humans after him?

It was not long before the overgrown black reptile struck, curling a long whiplike tail around Nyci’s slight form. Good, just what he’d wanted. A loud shriek, halfway between a scream of rage and a growl, echoed as the creature’s tail- several feet of which were now limp- quickly retreated, leaving a trail of blood behind it. As he was preparing to defend himself from the next attack, he was ambushed from behind by a snarling humanoid-looking demon with obscenely long claws that threatened to scissor his throat- oh, damn his human ears! Agh, he’d have to leave Narvess to deal with the dragon.

Nyci struggled with the frenzied enemy for a long time; for an angel/demon crossbreed, and especially one who trained as much as he did, he really wasn’t very strong in terms of pure muscle power. He relied more on quick reflexes and impeccable aim, and of course a proper dose of stealth and cunning. But that didn’t work so well in this human form he’d been disguising himself in to avoid becoming bait for the mordecai. The two wrestled as Nyci wondered if it was a bad idea to shapeshift or if the Connlaothan authorities would be coming anyway. Finally he stood over a writhing, dying being whose ribcage had been run through by his unique metal weapon. As the limbs went limp, the claws and horns vanished. There had been no tail in the first place- must have been a half-human.