Mycasi observed the thirteen pale, scaleless figures. From behind the thick foliage and branches, it seemed like five of them were asleep.
Of course, there was still seven to deal with. The job description had been to ambush three or four untrained mercs. Not thirteen cultists, or whatever they were.
It was always the first few seconds of observation that counted. In five seconds flat Mycasi had formed an opinion of the humanoids. And it was not good.
Mycasi narrowed her eyes at the guards. Something about them made her feel uncomfortable. The seven flat-faced, armoured warroirs stood in wary stances, eyes constantly flitting from tree to tree, rock to rock, ready for anything.
No, Mycasi did not like it one bit.
Finding work was difficult, though, and although Mycasi wouldn't have any trouble fending for herself, Mycasi was a Wyvern.
And Wyverns need gold.
One breath of darkfire would sort out the campfire and the lanterns- as long as they weren't enchanted. Then the rest would be sitting ducks, easy prey for her talons and dragonflame.
Her decision made, Mycasi crouched low against the branch, her muscles tense, her breathing steady.
A second later, darkness gushed forth from her mouth, encompassing the entire camp. Cries of alarm sprang out, destroying the beautiful silence of the night.
In a bound, Mycasi was among them. The first guard fell before he could even register what was happening: another one dropped to the ground, shredded by her claws. All was going well.
A spurt of white-hot fire erupted from Mycasi's mouth.
But, instead of crumpling to the ground, as they should have, the two guards stood their ground. It was impossible! How could they resist her flame?
Then their tunics began glowing, and Mycasi stumbled back, her mind reeling. They had flame-proof armour! It was a trap! A trap!
Suddenly more soliders burst through the wall of trees. The 'sleeping' soliders leapt to their feet.
But Mycasi was no coward. If this was a trap, the perpetrators would pay! Her roar shook the earth. In a bound she was upon an unfortunate soilder, snapping his backbone in an instant. But before she could take off, Mycasi was propelled back forcfully with swords and lances. Again and again she charged, never quite able to clear enough room to fly. With her fire useless and all the soilders well equipped, she was wearing down fast.
As the gashes and cuts began to cover Mycasi's scales, her energy faded. She was a fighter. A warrior, single-handedly fending off the constant attack.
The soilders charged all at once. A gash above Mycasi's eye made it impossible to see properly, and worn down, almost devoid of energy, Mycasi gave a last-stand charge.
At least, thought Mycasi as she hit the ground and remembered no more, I went down fighting.
Chained and thoroughly restrained. That is how she'd wake up. Eye in eye with Limadan sitting infront of her. Gazing.into her eyes. A heavy silence in the desolate and ruined building they were in. His eyes slowly radiated and pulsed with the dark green corruption.
Waking up trussed up like a turkey ready for roasting, Mycasi raises her eyes and meets the eyes of the human. Uttering a gurtal growl of anger and hatred, she snaps forward in a vain attempt to decapitate him.
Realising it is no good, she falls back on her haunches.
"Who are you?"
"I'm the demon that will torture you, skin you and then kill you," he snarled. Obviously, he wasn't happy. A thick aura of dread emanated from him. "Why did you think attacking my elite was smart?"
Mycasi's frill puffs out and she bares her teeth in distate.
"I have to work. And, as for skinning me, you'd be surprised how hard it can be."
Limadan tilted his head, letting out a menacing chuckle from behind the mask, before he slowly stood up. "I think you fail to see your position here," he murmured as slow antagonised screams resounded, green, spectral bodies clawing themselves from the floor, their hands touching the wyvern and using her as a leverage to pull themselves up.
"And I think you fail to see my power."
Mycasi shivers silently and resists the urge to scratch her scales. Silence falls over her like a blanket and, in a bout of vulnerability, she curls in a ball.
"Good." Limadan answered with a slow grunt, the corrupted soldiers of his spectral army still whaling as they softly plucked against her scales. "I'll ask again. Who paid you to attack my elite?"
Still partially curled up, Mycasi faces Limadan.
"Client confidentiality. Can't tell you." she growls, although she's still thoroughly shaken by entire thing. Her scales ache and tiredness is pulling at her.
The giant didn't seem a least bit pleased by that.
With a low snarl, Limadan stepped forward and pressed his leg down on her throat. Hard. Showing not only his superior strength, but his dominance.
"Don't make me repeat myself."
Instinctively, Mycasi snaps at his leg in a vain attempt to grab his leg.
"I'm not some cowardly human, to cower in your presence. I will not be bullied by you, human."
He only forced the foot down, "I AM NOT HUMAN," his voice thundered trough the dark room.
The pressure on her windpipe is antagonising, and Mycasi's eyes bulge in pain and fear.
"Karkroth..." she hisses.
"I am Limadan of Harmaa! I am the third Vanguard! I AM THE KING OF RUIN!" He yelled as he pressed his foot down more, before he pulled away. "Karkroth?" He asked with a soft pant as he calmed down again.
"Karkroth... Sent me." gasps Mycasi, bearly able to speak.
"Karkroth..."
"Karkroth.." He chuckled slowly. "Treacherous bastard." He lifted his foot, turning around. "You will die soon, infidel," he said to Mycasi.
Somehow managing to raise up enough strength to spit at the human, Mycasi staggers painfully to her feet.
"I don't die easily, Limadan."
"Good," he glanced over his shoulder. The smirk hidden behind the mask could even be heard in his voice. "That makes it more fun, weakling. You shall die. Become part of my army and service the mistress eternally."
Straining her muscles to the limit, Mycasi finally breaks free of her bindings.
"One of the many blessing of being a Blood-crown Wyvern. You will never bind me against my will, in life of death, no matter what your rank of title, human scum."
Limadan turned around again as his eyes widened and irisses narrowed. With a deep and ominous thrum, the corpses.crawled on his back and morphed together in dreadful wings that extended six meters to each side.
"I. AM. NOT. HUMAN!" He roared out, the room they were in shaking under the sound and the sheer force that gathered around him.
Mycasi is laughing, a low, ominous, laugh, one of a person with nothing to loose.
"Death does not scare me, no matter how painful it is. I have no family friends or ones I care for. I have nothing to loose. You cannot, will not harm me or bind me. I am the last Blood-crown Wyvern. I will not be constrained."
Limadan tore.the metal gauntlet off of his arm as he charged forward. His hand was completely black. Seething with corruption. Green, spectral chains running down from them. In the charge, he smacked a.tremendous punch against Mycasi's nose, the chains wrapping around her head and pulling her towards the fist.
"Do not underestimate me, filth!"
The chains around Mycasi's muzzle begin to glow red with heat, and she lets loose an inferno of darkfire, burning with hate rage and unwilling wisdom.
"Limadim, you scum."
With a powerful slam of his wings, Limadan got at her back, pulling the chains back against her throat. Choking her with the blazing chains. They didn't even as much as budge under the heat, the fire not even close to hitting him. "You are millenia too young to challenge me."
Mycasi coughs and chockes, thrashing in midair for a few seconds before her body becomes limp and the fire dies in her eyes.
"You... Never... Bind... Me."
THe chains loosened around her neck as Limadan was positive that Mycasi had passed out, with a tremendous kick to her ribs, he snarled. "I am doing such right now."
Mycasi utters a feeble groan and slumps to the floor, her ribs crushed. Her head lolls to the side.
He turned.around and walked away, "I will return. And I will kill you. In the name of our lady," he murmured as he stepped through a large door.
Mycasi lays slumped on the floor. Her eyes are partially covered in dried crusted blood and she's bleeding hard. She really is unconscious and won't be waking up for a long time. The only sign of life is the slow, shallow breaths rattling through her body.
With a loud slam, the door closes behind Limadan.
After two days, the door would open again, Limadan stepping in and throwing a severed head on the ground. "He was informative," he noted, the head being Karkroth's.
Mycasi is awake. Still breathing difficultly, but alive and awake. Her eyes rest on the head then leave it, slightly disturbed.
"I see that he posed no threat to you."
"Perceptve," Limadan snarled as.he pulled the shortsword from his back. "You're strong. A pity you took the wrong side," he said, a hint of pity in his cold, deep voice.
"There is no wrong and right in the world :only survival and winning."
Mycasi showes her teeth in a crude impression of a leer.
"I survive because I refuse to be trapped by fear and love."
"And yet, here you are at the losing side," Limadan answered easily. "I am surviving. And you are in the way of my survival," Limadan let out a soft chuckle. "I am stronger. So it is only fair that you die here."
"Yes, but since when was the world fair? And there is other strenght then strength of body." Mycasi acknowledges his startement with a tip of her bronze head.
"I never stated the world to be such," Limadan answered. But. She had a point. Strength and power came in many forms. Be it of knowledge or inheritance. He found his curiousity peaked by Mycasi. Something that rarely happened.
He folded his arms. "Serve me. Become strong and take what you will." He said with a cold voice.
Mycasi's eyes glow with curiosity.
"And if I refuse?"
"You die here," Limadan answered with a shrug.
Mycasi hadn't really expected any other answer, so she wasn't really surprised. It would be nice, she thought to herself, for once, to have something to believe in again.
"In that case, I accept." Mycasi tilts her head towards Limadan in a half-bow."
Limadan nodded slowly. "A wise decision. Do you swear you serve our lady. In life and in death?"
Mycasi considers for a moment, before finally reciting solemnly:
"I swear, on my oath as a Blood-crown Wyvern, to serve the grey lady, in life and in death."
"I am glad. I will prepare your joining." Limadan turned ariund, slamming the doors open. Warm, orange light from a soft afternoon fillzd the room. "And I will send a healer for you."
"Thank you." Mycasi awkwardly shifts on the spot, her broken wing sticky with blood and sticking out at a strange angle, her scales also coated in blood.
Limadan appeared with a small and elegant woman. Dwarfed by his appearance. "Do you think you can heal her, Mai?" He growled inquisitivly. The woman nodded and walked over, kneeling down and pushing Mycasi's wing back in place, before her hands started to glow a soothing gold, healing her and soothing her place.
A soft sigh escapes Mycasi's mouth as she closes her eyes, enjoying the warmth of her bones and muscles knitting back together.
"Thank you." she repeats.
The woman, Mai, seemed to smile softly. "Just rest," she whispered gently, glancing at Limadan. "He can be quite.. Rough." She whispered, Limadan only snarled softly in response.
Mycasi doubted that Limadan was only rough, but, nevertheless, she was tired and drowsy.
"What comes next?" she asks Limadan evenly.
"Your joining," Limadan said with a soft sigh. "Of what use are you to me? You're fierce and strong. But how would you go about in serving the army of grey," he sighed. "Name any way possible."
"I may be a Wyvern, but I am also a Blood-crown Wyvern . I am strong in mind as well as body, and as I grow, so will my power. I can intimidate, I can destroy, I can guard, I can create." Mycasi states in a strong, firm tone with only a hint of pride.
Limadan folded his arms. "So..the frontlines would suit you?"
"Yes." Mycasi nods in answer.
Limadan nodded slowly. "Good." At that, he turned around and left. Mai chuckled softly. "He likes you," she murmured to Mycasi.
Mycasi was about to reply that she didn't think it was possible for Limadan to like anyone, but decided against it. Instead, she gestures to the healers hands.
"How did you do that?"
"Not all of us are brutes that enjoy killing," she sighed slowly, "even though Harmaa tells us to bask in the blood of our foes, there are those like me who prefer to follow the lady of grey peacefully. So we tend to the wounded." She let out a soft giggle. "The Vanguard, Limadan, protects us. But we're looked down upon frequently."
Mycasi smiles. "Yours is a rare gift. I wish I had it." she pauses for a while, then queries "What next?"
The healer chuckled softly, "thank you," she said as she sat back. Having fully healed Mycasi. "That isn't for me to decide. But for the lady of grey."
Mycasi cocks her head curiously to one side. She has heard rumours and myths about the Grey Lady, but nothing concrete.
"Do you take orders directly from the grey lady herself?" she asks.
Mai shook her head. "She has been in the void for a long time. She picks a Vanguard, they embody her will. We follow them. Limadan has been the third Vanguard."
Mycasi nods. It makes sense. Cautious not to offend the healer with her ignorance of what the grey lady says and is, she sits down and waits for Mai to speak.
Mai looked at Mycasi and slowly rose to her feet, head inclined. "Your joining will be held soon, good luck."
Mycasi rises to her feet too, also gently imcling her head.
"May the night breeze always ride under your wings and the stars of the forgotten ages protect you from harm."
Mycasi pauses.
"Will we meet again?"
"If the lady wills it," she nodded towards the door. "Don't keep him waiting."
Mycasi nods again and approaches the door, nuding it open.
Mai stood up and dissappeared into another room.
As the door opened, she'd be revealed with the sight of a ruined village that seemed hastily patched up. Met by fierce aswell as vicious men and woman alike. All no doubt warriors following the word of the lady of grey and her Vangaurd. But, not all of them were, like Mai stated.
There were normal women, even children in the village. And surprisingly, all looked happy.
Mycasi observes in awe the seemingly peaceful environment of the makeshift village. She'd actually only briefly visited them: villagers weren't too welcoming to a Wyvern - much less one that was know as a hired mercenary- and the tranquillity of it almost overwhelmed her as she scans the village for Limadan.
Limadan stepped next to Mycasi, arms folded. "This is what you tried to disrupt," he stated with a bitter tone of spite in his tone.
Mycasi hisses sharply, turning to face Limadan
"It was my job!" she snaps "How was I know what effect I would have? I have to live. They were fighting men, soilders. I would neve have killed hatchlings or mothers! Never! No blood of innocents stains my scales."
"They were men following commands. Luckily no one was killed," Limadan answered, ignoring her rage. "And the blood of innocents will always stain your scales. Be it willingly or not."
"Why is that?" Mycasi asks, quietly curious and disbelieving.
"You kill soldiers, people that can fend for themselves, perhaps true," Limadan took a deep sigh. "But these men often have family aswell. How many lives do you think you've ruined?" He glanced at Mycai. "This is no lecture, mind you. I am guilty to destroying countless lives."
Mycasi pauses as she thinks it over.
"Perhaps what you say is true." she admits "But I did what I had to to survive and I will not feel regret over what I have done. The past is in the past."
Limadan shrugged softly. "It doesn't matter now," he answered as he took several steps forward. "You are strong. I can value that. Everyone here in the village can."
Mycasi follows Limadan, at loss for anything else to do, waiting for him to speak.
"Your joining," Limadan started as he glanced at Mycasi. "Bring me Mai's blood."
Over the years, and through many painful failures, Mycasi had learned to controll her immediate emotion response. However, she can't stop the flash of confusion that crosses her face.
"You want me to kill Mai?"
"Bring me her blood," he merely answered. "I will not answer any more questions about it."
Mycasi was about to retort, but gave up in the end, snapping her mouth shut with vehement force.
"As you wish." she snarls, flexing her muscled, sinewy wings with force, and springing lightly into the air.
She had no desire to kill Mai, of course, and in the end decided that a trickle of blood couldn't do the healer much harm. Her nostrils flared as she reached the hall where Mai had treated her, attempting to track where she had gone.
Her scent was somewhere in the rooms of the crumbled church, away from the main hall.
If Mycasi would enter.the room, she'd find Mai, healing a child that seemed to have lost his leg. A worried elven mother holding him close as bone and flesh regrew under her hands.
Instead of entering directly, Mycasi stops before the door, her keen hearing working in overdrive as she hers more than one person inside.
She round the building once for windows feom which to observe Mai's business inside the church.
As soon as she was done, the mother thanked her with tears in her eyes, before leaving. Mai sat down at a small desk and started writing again.
Mycasi peered into the small, high, glassless window she's found. She observed the end of the healing process, and sat back, thinking.
She wants so much to be one of a group, to be one of them but as she looked through the window jer anger spiked.
Mai hasn't done anything wrong. These people need her. Mycasi will not harm her.
Decision made, she's in the air before anyone can see her. She lands before Limadan, head raised defiantly high.
Limadan folded his arms as Mycasi landed infront of him. A prideful pose. It intruiged Limadan. "So you have returned."
"I have. I will not kill Mai or harm her. She is needed by so many people and she is innocent."
Mycasi stated firmly, partly to cover up her inner doubt.
"Innocent? Mai?" A soft chuckle came from Limadan. "She killed her own family. I found her and took her in. She sparednorthe eldest, nor the youngest of her family." He shook his head, "she is far from innocent, Mycasi."
"I worded myself wrongly, Limadan. No one is innocent in this world. Were is your proof that she has not repented, and that she indeed did commit the crime you accuse her of?"
"I found her, the knife still in her hands, covered in blood, the corpses of her family strewn around her," he let out a soft chuckle. "She didn't repent, for the simple reason that she does not believe she did wrong."
Mycasi turns to look at Limadan, and then looks him him square in the face.
"Then I will do as you asked."
"Do not dissappoint me again," Limadan answered, quite honestly curious as to how this wouod play out.
"I did not fail, Limadan. I merely reconsidered."
With one last flap of her wings, Mycasi jeaded for where she last saw Mai.
"Intruiging you reconsidered," Limadan noted dryly. It wasn't like she had a choice in her joining. There was a task she had to complete. And knowing Mai. It wouldn't be easy.
The person in question, Mai, was still in the small room, sat behind a desk and writing on a sheet of paper. A beautiful, caligraphed writing.
Peering through the high barred window, Mycasi confirmed that Mai was still there.
If Mai was indeed as Limadan had said, she would need to be careful.
Mycasi moved slightly to see If Mai was indeed alone in the room.
She was alone. No other soul present in the room. Merely softly humming to herself and writing.
A small determined frown pushed its way onto Mycasi's face. From her perch, she made out a wooden door situuated opposite from Mai. She began to move stealtily towards the door, praying noone was in the nearby vicinity.
Mai didn't seem to come out of the room. Nor was there anyone on approach.