Bringing out the dead

[majortom]

Kataroe settled down into his bed for the night. He groaned as he thought of the prospect of manual labor again after he woke. It wasn't that he was up to the challenge, he did find it terribly boring though. That was life for now though. It was better than being homeless though, which is exactly where he was before. Homeless and having to steal to keep his belly full. Petty theft like that went against his moral compass. He also wasn't a big fan of having to help raise the food he at though. Of course there was the occasional raid to contend with as well.

Kataroe had been traveling. The town he had flown into hadn't been a good fit for him right now. Maybe he could find a bigger city and find some work there. He came upon a village though, positioned on the southern side of the mountains that he'd heard called the Thunderblacks. When he found this village it was being raided. He didn't bother trying to sneak past, no he charged in head long and the first raider he saw had his horse cut from under him, catching a dagger to the temple on his way down. Kataroe moved like a whirlwind, the raiding party retreated, finding that continuing there assault probably wasn't worth it. The village was already in shambles and burning, and now there was this ferocious little man treating them as a scythe would corn. That had been a fun day. The days he had decided to spend helping rebuild were not.

Kataroe tossed and turned tonight. Maybe the boredom of simple life was getting to him finally? He couldn't stop thinking about the next time a raiding party was going to show up. Maybe it was time for him to leave and continue his journey. They had been dealing with raids long before he showed up. He gave up on sleep for now, he pulled on his rough grey pants and his simple white shirt. He slipped his feet into his boots and walked outside. He took in a deep breath of night air and stared up at the sky. He could smell death on the air. He frowned and walked farther away from his little hut. The smell was getting stronger. Rotting corpses and old earth. That couldn't be a good sign.

Kataroe moved quickly back into the house and strapped on his sword belt. He moved back outside and now he could see them. Some were running on foot, others mounted on horses. He made a large gesture to the bell at center of the village and it moved back and forth quickly, issuing a loud gong with each swing. "RAID!" He shouted as he freed his sword from it's sheath. He rushed forward to meet the first of the raiding party. He had put the smell out of his mind for the moment at the thought of violence. He vaulted himself into the air, clearing the horse and with a swing of his blade took the man's head clear from his body, which fell from the horse shortly after. Well...the head had belonged to a man at some point.

As he looked at the raider's now he noticed they all had fatal wounds, some had large portions of bones exposed, internal organs showing or hanging free. Then the smell made sense. They were already dead. His free hand came alive with white hot fire which shot forth with a deadly roar as another un-dead approached. It burned a whole clean through it's torso, separating it's body into two parts, both burning quickly. There were more and more raider's coming though, screams arising from the village behind him. This was going to be hopeless. A horde raiding for some slave or supplies could be deterred. These things would keep fighting until they were destroyed.

Kataroe fought his way out of the path of the oncoming horde. He looked back to the village. It wasn't on fire, the raider's weren't even actually inside of the village. No they were being repelled by something. After they crossed a certain point they simply collapsed. Many of the villagers he could see were out of their homes at this point but he wasn't sure who was doing what. There was some sort of holy man residing there, maybe he actually did have some power behind him. He closed his eyes for a moment, upon opening they were glowing, a sign that he was using his sight. He could see the energy trail that the undead had left, and so he began to follow it.

[Ice]

The darkness was falling upon the land not to far from the village. There in her camp a girl was performing her dark magic. Now some said that she was crazy. Others said that she was just plain evil. But she was neither of these things. She was just a human girl who had little control over the very powerful magic that she possessed. And quite frankly she didn't care much about learning to control it either. She thought all the trouble she caused was funny and worth the pain a terror it caused. To say the least she was a strange woman to deal with.

As the dead started to come up out of the ground she laughed. It was going to be fun to see where these monsters ended up going. So she willed them to go straight. For a few minutes that worked. Then as more and more started to rise she knew that she was going to lose control. Then she would have to hide or get eaten.

As he control over the dead message moved to a place that was out of their reach. Right up a tree. She watched as several of the dead circled the tree wondering where she was. She was glad that zombies were so stupid. It meant that she would not be in to much danger. And after a while they would wander off to cause mayhem and all that. Or the would die because her magic would stop making them live. Either way she was good with that.

She knew well that as funny as unleashing the dead was it was also very dangerous. However she just simply did not really care. She laughed as she saw the dead starting to wander off. Now she could get out of this tree and be on her way. At least that was the plan.

As she started to climb out of the tree she heard the sound of footsteps. She wondered if more undead were coming. Well if that was the case the kind of chubby necromancer would just have to Waite until they left too. After all she certainly did not want to end up being eaten.

[majortom]

It hadn't been a terribly long walk until he found the source of the magic, or at least where the trail ended. He shut down his sight, his eyes losing their bright glow as he did. The source appeared to be the top of a tree. Simple deductive reasoning lead him to the conclusion that there must be someone in the tree. Sure he'd heard of cursed trees before, even trees that brought the dead back to life, but usually there were legends about such things and he hadn't heard any about this one. He stopped for a moment, waiting for something to move. He pulled one of his daggers free from it's sheath and held it ready to throw.

He saw her, making her way slowly down from the tree. Kataroe nearly threw the dagger into her and lit the tree up but decided against it. She looked a bit to young to be throwing around that kind of magic. He began walking towards her, continuing his approach even after her descent stopped. His left quickly lit up with wicked white flames and he aimed his dagger at her. "I suggest you just keep on coming down that tree nice and slow." Kataroe stopped his approach, simply taking steady aim now. "If you do, I might not feel the need to burn you to a crisp."

Necromancy was always something that had left a bad taste in his mouth. A necromancer willfully unleashing a horde of the undead on a more or less defenseless village, that was no longer mildly disgusting, it was a problem that had to be dealt with. Most of the necromancer's he had faced before were not the sort to climb trees though. They were either very old and wouldn't have been able to climb them, or they simply had no need of doing such things. After all who needs to climb a tree when you have undead warriors surrounding and protecting you? This one didn't seem to fit the usual mold though.

[Ice]

The young necromancer gave a cringe as she now heard the voice of a man behind her. He must have come from the village. she wondered how he had found her.s he then saw the white flames on his hand. he must also be a magic user. that might not be a good thing though. He could kill her in that case. Well he could probably kill her anyhow.she gave a shiver at that thought.she would rather be eaten by the dead in that case.

She frowned at what he had said to her. She now thought that he intended to punish her. At least she was pretty sure he did. It sounded to her like he was a bit upset at her. She thought now that she might be in trouble. " There's no need for violence. I didn't attack you."  She said softly. Yes she was lying in a way. But in anouther way she was not. It wasn't her who attacked him it was the dead who did that. She just brought them to life.she didn't attack him herself.

She now had gotten all the way out of the tree. Slowly she glanced at him but remained still. She did not want to provoke an attack. She shifted nervously now feeling a little afraid. " So what are you going to do? I mean are you planning to punish me somehow?" She asked not really wanting the answer to that question. She was pretty sure she wasn't going to like what he was going to do. She just hoped that it would not be too painful.

[majortom]

Kataroe watched her as she continued to make her way down the tree. He kept his dagger held in throwing position and his hand pointed toward her, the flames crackling violently around his hand.  He scoffed as she stated that she didn't attack him. "You raised a horde of corpses. Let's not play semantics here. You were the root of the problem whether or not you personally attacked me." He changed his grip on the dagger from holding the blade to holding the handle. He flipped the blade up in his hand so that he had a normal grip instead of a reversed grip.

Kataroe hadn't really thought about what he was going to do to her at this point. He had been expecting some cackling fiend, not someone hiding in a tree. The former he would have attempted to take by surprise and landed a successful one two punch with his dagger and flames before rushing in with a sword to the neck and finishing the job. "I haven't quite decided yet." He said quietly as he stepped forward. She looked to young to be wielding that sort of power. Not only that but usually a necromancer was taught a little better than what she seemed to have been.

"There are people in that village." Kataroe didn't make eye contact. "People who get raided enough by the hordes from the planes." He shifted his weight back and forth from one foot to the other. "Good people, little boring but good people all the same." He shook his head. "So how about we start with what exactly you were trying to do? Obviously you weren't adding to your own horde of undead, those corpses all came from around here, part of them I killed not long ago. There certainly wasn't anything that would have been of interest to you in that village." He waited for her answer, standing still now. His hands were both lowered to his sides, the flames had dwindled some, no longer glowing white, instead they had dropped down to an orange-red color.

[Ice]

Cinda frowned when she heard what the man said to her. Well what he said was true she supposed. He got a strange look in her brown eyes. She wondered if she would need to take care of this man. Though judging from the way those flames looked on his hands she really did not have much chance in a fight with him. " Well you got me there." She stated. Her voice carried no hint of regret. She really did not care about innocent people unless they were her friends. Then she was quite the opposite.

She now turned a bit to glance at him. Most would never believe that she could summon the dead. In fact the way she dress was the opposite of dark and gloomy. It was in shades of pink and green. Her favorite colors of course. Even her long nails were pink. She backed up slightly when he moved to come closer. She didn't want him to get very close to her.

She kind of rolled her eyes when he spoke about how good the people in that town were. She did care about others but not enough to mind  hurting them with the undead. The undead were often fun to watch if you asked her. " There are good people everywhere. " She stated to him. You want the truth though I was just having fun. Playing a mean joke I guess." She stated with a wave of her hand. She still had to wonder what he planned to do to her. She then gave a smirk as an amusing thought passed her mind.

" Well at least you won't spank me." She said sarcastically. After all she was still young and sometimes her mouth over ran her common sense. She did not think about the fact that he could do things that were far worse to her. Though as he could probably tell thinking was not her strong point.

[majortom]

Kataroe could not believe what he was hearing. She was treating this whole situation like it was a big joke. Maybe she had quite a bit more power than what he guessed she had. Maybe she really was just that evil. It was beyond him that she didn't seem to have a purpose other than a cruel joke. Business he understood. Making a play for more power he understood. Doing something like that just because she could, that sounded to much like a spoiled brat. Magic required discipline, necromancy required more than other schools if you wanted to be effective with it. What happened, did she lose control? Is that why she was in the damn tree? Now that was just reckless and irresponsible.

Kataroe sat still for a moment after she made the joke, inhumanly still. Magic surged through his body and he rushed forward with inhuman speed. The flames on his hands died as he charged her but quickly sprang back to life when he stopped. His blade was close to her throat and the flaming hand close to her face, the white hot flames having sprung to life again. The joke at the end, that's what set him off. He wasn't prone to fits of rage, and that's not what this was. Had it been the forest would have been ablaze already. His eyes were cold, his expression calm.

"Money, power, owing someone a favor." He spoke softly. "These are things that I understand. I've done terrible things because it paid well. Most of the time the people probably deserved it." He inched his hand closer to her face. "I've killed and maimed for the sake of money or to help out a friend. Hell I used to fight in a pit just because it was fun to test myself against someone who was supposed to know how to fight. But a reckless use of power, power that you can't even control?" It was a guess, a somewhat educated guess that he hoped to strike a nerve with. "That eventually lands you in a situation like this. So tell me, how much fun are you having now?"

Kataroe thought about it for a moment, how he was going to handle this. Especially now that she just seemed like an uneducated brat. This was new for him. Killing her would almost make him feel bad. Had she fought back when he approached there would have been now question in his decision, had her magic not fizzled out due to distance (or perhaps the supposed holy mans power), there would not have been a question either. Whole village slaughtered definitely deserved a dead body in response. The village was still standing as far as he knew though.

[Ice]

If there was one thing to note about cinda it was the fact that she had a very bad habit of not thinking things through. No she more or less just did whatever came to her mind first. Most of the time this was not a smart desesion for her. Though to be quite honest she also had the bad habit of thinking that she could get away with anything that she did. She never stopped to think about the consequences. Her parents never taught her discipline. She pretty much just did whatever she wanted. Which was why she was now in trouble with this strange man before her.

She noted how quite he got after her little joke. She got the bad feeling that she may have really upset him. Then ahe was very surprised at how fast he moved towards her. She cringed at how close his blade was to her throat and how hot the flames were against her face. She listined as he spoke. Now she was used to getting yelled at for misusing her gift. The thing was that her powers were not taught from books. She had the gift naturely. She wasn't sure how but he mother was the same was. They just naturly knew how to use their magic. Atleast to an extent. They had to be taught how to refine and master their gifts. Her mother just was unable to do that with cinda. This was why she had little control over her powers.

She moved ger face back slighly when her moved his hand closer. She shivered now feeling scared . She really did not wish to die just because she played a nasty joke on some dumb locals. " okay I get it I ticked you off. Like I said no need for violence. " she said stuttering slightly. " if I meant to kill anyone I would have told them to eat the entire town. But that wasn't my intention. This gift makes me have some pretty dark thoughts. Unlike those who go to school for the dark arts my gift is natural" . She said. " so.it's very hard to control. At least that is what mother always said. " she stated . She was hoping that her explanation was good enough for her not to be killed. She did get the feeling that ge would kill her without much thought. That really frightened her.

"For the record im not having any fun now." She said in a smart mothed tone.sometimes her moth though faster then her common sense. She looked at the man now wondering what was on his mind. She knew well that he meant bussness now. So what did one do with a young and perhaps spoilt brat of a necromancer anyway. She knew that she would soon find out.

[majortom]

That was it, the reaction he was hoping for. She was scared. He didn't pursue when she backed away from him. He dropped his hand to his side and shook it, the flames dying down to nothing. He sheathed his dagger and crossed his arms across his stomach, hands still close to his blades. What could he do with her? He couldn't kill her, well he was fairly certain that he could, but at this point she was just as likely to end up killing herself anyway. His friends from a previous life would have been more suited for the task of dealing with this problem. He couldn't lay curses or bindings, and that would be the easiest way to deal with her.

"You don't want violence? Then I'll make you a deal." He had a wicked grin come on his face. "And it would be in your best interest to take it." He closed the distance between them again. "I don't know a whole lot about necromancy, never really wanted to learn more than how to combat it." He looked her up and down. "I do know that I it requires a lot of focus which you don't seem to have. It requires a lot of willpower and self control that you don't seem to have. These are things that I can teach you." He nodded. "That way at least if someone has to kill you that don't end up feeling bad about it, and you won't have to worry about getting eaten by your own minions." He shook his head. "Did you ever stop to think about how embarrassing that would be?"

Kataroe looked at her again. At least he might get some food out of this deal that he didn't have to grow. She certainly wasn't skin and bones anyway. Not only that but training accidents were bound to happen, he was certain he would get to kill some of undead minions that got out of control.

[Ice]

Cina was relived that he seemed to calm down after she spoke to him. She was happy that ge no longer seemed to want to kill her. At least not yet. She noted that ge let her get some distance between them for a few minutes. She did not like getting too close to others. Even less wgen she made them upset at her first. She noted that he did not look like one of the locals. Maybe he was a traveler of some sort. That would explain why he would want to protect them she gussed.

She now listined as he spoke to her. That was kind of odd that he was now wanting to teach her to control her gift. She wondered if he took in to account that she would probably be a naughty student to teach. Though she would probably be careful not to get killed while doing that. She was just a brat by nature.

" well i would let you teach me. But I will say.this. You would have to get used to my since of humor. After all I can't stop being my self for you." She said to him. She then smiled slightly." Though I gusse you would probably find unpleasant punishments for me if I do something wrong." She stated. She wasn't sure if she liked that thought. She wondered just how creative he would get. Hopefully she would not have to find out that much.

She supposed she would have to pay this man somehow. But she did not see a problem there. She had plenty of money and she was a very skilled hunter. So food money and all of that was not a problem for her at all.

[majortom]

Kataroe thought about just how much crap he could possibly getting himself into for a moment and then gave an inward shrug. He really didn't have much of anything else to occupy his time anyway. He listened as she spoke. Looking to her as he lowered himself into a squatting position. "I like how you think I was really giving you a choice in the matter, that's cute." A smirk crawled across his face, drawing a sharp contrast with the cold  stare he was giving her. "Do you have any food by the way? I'm getting kind of hungry and I can get rather cranky when I get hungry."

Kataroe slowly stood up straight again and moved toward her. "As far as your attitude and sense of humor goes..." He looked her up and down slowly. "I've spent time in heaven, hell, and even longer with the living." He placed his hands on her shoulder's and moved his lips close to her ears. "I've picked up some very creative things along the way." He moved back from her slowly. "Of course, I find it works better to reward good behavior than to just punish bad behavior. Using either by itself just isn't nearly as effective.

He had managed at this point to give himself the creeps. Especially with as fast as he shifted gears like that. Sure he had picked up the ability to bluff and intimidate, and had quite some time to work on it, but he wasn't just bluffing. He really had picked up the art of torture. It had became a necessity in hell. No one gave up anything easily there, and for the most part it was rather hard to threaten any of them with death because they were already dead.

[Ice]

Cinda was finding that this man made her feel a little bit uncomfortable. She did not care for they way he smirked at her. She shifted when he got close again. This guy really needed to learn about personal space. At least his breath wasn't horrible. And she didn't think he smelled that bad. So those were good to note. She looked at him with a frown  when he asked his question. She did have food with her. And the last thing she wanted was for him to be grumpy.

"Yeah I have food. " She said taking a bag from her side. She then held it out to him. " It's in here" she said to him. She really didn't like for him to get that close. She pondered rather she should voice that thought. It might not be a wise idea at this point. She listed as he spoke to her touching her shoulders as he got closer. She wiggled a bit not liking being touched. "Oh I see. You know you definitely need to learn personal space." She snorted at him. He did not make her comfortable at all.

She was now wondering if she could run away from this man. As he was thinking this she moved a bit further away. She needed to get away from him. But she was afraid that if she ran he would follow her. She didn't want that.

[majortom]

Kataroe took the bag from her and pulled out some bread which he tore a hunk from before giving her the bag back. "Hmm, thanks for giving one more way to get under your skin." He said as he bit into the bread. "You need to work on not looking mortified when someone gets close to you or touches you." He took another bite and smiled, his eyes having lost the cold dead stare.

Kataroe noticed her start to edge away from he slowly. "You can run, but when you do I'll come find you." He held a hand up and wagged his finger. "Your aura leaves this trail. One of the bad things about working with the sort of magic you work with." He stuffed the last of the bread in his mouth and swallowed it. "Of course normally necromancers and powerful and have an army of minions at their disposal so it's usually not a big deal if they are easily identifiable and track-able."

He brushed his hands on his pants and crossed his arms over his chest. "So, first things first. Do you have a drum? A book? Anything that will make at least a thump when you beat on it?"

[Ice]

Cinda watched him look in the bag. She had enough food to last a while. And if she ran out she could always get more anyhow. She actually liked hunting herself. She took the bag back with a frown. Really she just listened to what he was telling her now. Oh now he was an expert on how she should act. That was just great."oh your welcome. " She said sarcastically. Then she sighed and added. " I'm not a person who likes to be touched."  She actually hated that feeling.

Cinda cringed a bit when he said that he would come and find her. That was kind of creepy to her. She did not realize he was that persistent. "Well that's not creepy at all. " She stated still sarcastic. She then looked at him and gave a sigh. She would have to find a way to cover that up one day. " Looks like I might need to learn how to hide that." She mumbled under her breath.


She looked at him with an evil smirk when he asked his next question. Oh she could think of something to hit that would make a thump." How about your head?" She said with a laugh. To her that was funny. Probably not very smart to say that though.

[majortom]

Kataroe smiled, she was making things entirely to easy. Touching her was enough to get at her. He didn't even have to worry about feeling bad if he used that one. "Oh, we are going to get along just swimmingly." He said with a chuckle. "And creepy, charming, you can call it what you like. I prefer persistent." He shrugged. "I do my best not to half ass things. No use in scaring you if I don't actually do my best to turn you into somewhat respectable of a necromancer, now does it?"

He heard the joke and chose to not respond to it. Responding only by dropping his smile into a simple straight face and raising an eyebrow. "So I'm guessing nothing to beat on then? Well we'll have to think of something else then." He moved to the tree that she had been climbing out of when he found her and sat down, leaning his back against it. "So are you able to control anything that you raise and if so for how long?"

Kataroe didn't close his eyes, he wasn't confident that she wouldn't run away if he did, then he would have to catch her and he really didn't want to have to be scary again tonight. Took to much work shifting his personality like that. He leaned his head back against a the tree and looked up. "Can you actually make them do anything? I mean, I know they are dead and complex commands do not tend to be their forte. You need something a little higher class than a basic zombie for that. But stand in place, jump up and down, go this way?"

[Ice]

Cinda just smirked at what he said. Well at least he didn't seem to want to be to terriably creepy anymore. That kind of made her feel better in a way. " Great I'm overjoyed." she said back to him. she them smiled at his other statement.  she wasn't really sure about the charming part. she supposed in a way he could be. " hehe I bet you could be charming in a way in a creepy way. " yes she was still being smart with him. though anouther thought hit her.Maybe he wasn't too bad after all. Maybe.

She saw him give a straight face again. She just smirked a bit. She liked getting on people's nerves a lot." Like I said just your head. " She said back to him. She perhaps was purposely not taking him seriously. That was the way she was mostly. That and a little nutty at times. She thought about his question for a second then smiled." A little bit. Until they get out of my site. As you found out." She told him now. She then smirked slightly and giggled to herself .


She was watching him now. She wondered how fast he could run. Probably faster than she could she guessed . She was quite for a few seconds then smiled to him. " I can point them in a direction and tell them to attack everyone. That's about it." She said with a smile. She was always almost smiling it seemed.

[majortom]

"Right then, so get used to hitting yourself somewhere then." He said purposefully ignoring her suggestion of beating on his head. "Keeping a rhythm, a steady beat. Something about it supposedly helps keep undead things under your control. Something to do with reminding them of the heart beat they used to have." He shook his head. "It also helps you to keep focus, which you obviously need since I found you hiding in a tree."

Kataroe pointed at her. "And that pretty much means you can't make them do shit by the way." He pulled his legs underneath him and pushed himself to his feet. "I could read a spell from a book and do that much with them. You have to have to make sure that your commands stick with them. They are slaves they don't need thoughts of their own." He paced around in a little circle.

Kataroe wasn't sure how well this was going to turn out. Not only did he have to try and teach her control, he also had to try and beat it into her head that randomly killing was not a good idea. If he didn't then he could potentially just be arming someone he might have to take down later. This certainly wasn't the best situation he could have put himself in. A smile crawled across his lips, what was the point in living if you couldn't make life interesting though.

[Ice]

Cinda listened as the man was talking. She couldn't careless about what he was going on about honesty. However she did pretend to be listening. She nodded her head as he spoke and kept a neutral look on her face. " Yeah okay."  She said ideally . She only heard about a third of what he said to her. Though she did not figure hed notice.

She folded her arms in front of her. She thought about how late it was getting now. She wondered just how determined he was to teach her. He noted that he was now standing and seemed to be done talking. "Mmm hmm  okay." She said with a nod. Like she really cared about any of this stuff.

Cinda backed up a little more. The thought of running was still there. Though she knew that it would not be a wise move. Though maybe she could get away if she distracted him.  She then took another step back. She needed to get out of here.

So taking a breath she tried to bolt away from him. She figured that if she ran fast enough she might lose him. It was not like she really left some magic trail. Right?