Let the fanfics LIVE AGAIN!! ::insert maniacal laughter::
Respond to this message
Original Message
Part 2
Willow Posted Jan 16, 2003 10:11 AM
Alternate Adventures
Volume One:
Part Two
By: The CRWS
Vallen’s world was spinning around her in a cascade of colors that left her breathless and dizzy. It was like she was in a tunnel made of the colors, twisting and turning to make her want to vomit. She had already screamed herself horse, but kept it up even when she couldn’t any more. She knew that her friends weren’t with her by the many times her flipping had sent her looking backwards. A part of her that wasn’t panicking wondered where they were and what was happening to them.
*********
Bryant’s mind flashed in lightning thought as he saw his men die around them. He looked at his two friends, Will and Geoffrey, who fought at his side valiantly. His mind made up. He wouldn’t risk any more lives. “Fall back and regroup!” he yelled.
His command was relayed across the battle grounds that Alexander had so graciously teleported them too and his men broke off the fight and backed up to regroup.
“What’s going on!?” Will demanded as they moved away.
“I have a plan,” Bryant said simply. “Wave the white flag of truce!” he ordered.
The two men stared at him.
“What!?” Geoffrey yelled. He stared up as the white flag was raised.
There was a quiet lull in the air as both sides saw the whiteness against the overcast sky.
“So you are willing to surrender?” a harsh voice yelled from the other side.
Bryant finally got a good look at them from across the field. He was surprised that there was a lot less of them then he thought. He stood tall before his men and shouted across the field, “We do not, but I will challenge your leader to a one on one battle for victory!”
There was silence and he saw the man who had spoken consulting with some men around him. Many long minutes passed before his response came. “I accept the challenge!”
**********
Aerielle Kevlehan brushed a strand of plum hair out of her face, studying the battlefield. A flash of light in the sky caused her to blink. *I wonder....* "Come, Liam, we must see what this is about." The large, elegant silver fox looked up at her then cachet his head in a certain direction. Aeri followed his gaze. A purple comet streaked towards them. "A pixie?" she guessed.
The purple comet continued to streak away from it's pursuer. "HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP! SOS! SOS! SOS! SOS! HHHEEEELLLLPPPP!!!" it continued it's high pitched squeak of distress. It noticed a couple of larger size people and changed it's course straight to them. "HELP ME!!"
"What's wrong, pixie?" she asked in a soft lilting voice.
The purple comet abruptly dove into the hair of Aerielle and shuddered. "That big mean monster is after me!!" it wailed. The purple comet popped it's head out of the hair and it revealed a small face framed by long burgundy hair with wine and purple streaks and highlights with large frightened blue eyes. Apparently the pixie was still not an adult yet. Her butterfly wings flapped in fear. "It just came out of no where and tried to eat me!!"
Aerielle ignored the tickling feeling the pixie's wings made against her neck. "What is trying to eat you?" she asked calmly.
Liam watched in amusement.
The shuddering winged creature dove underneath Aerielle's hair again as a large, clawed, dark beast came out of the forest following the same trail that she had taken. "T...that monster is..." the young pixie wailed in terror. The beast itself was horrible-looking and frightening and would tower over a normal human. To a small pixie it seemed like a giant of titanic proportions of a beast.
Aerielle stared at the creature, Liam growled. "Ah… hang on pixie." She moved her staff into a defense position.
The creature's nostrils flared as it caught the scent of the pixie. It lunged toward Aerielle. She jumped back, then used her staff to block the creature's claws. The creature roared impatiently and stepped back. Aerielle stepped back then jumped up arcing her staff with it's long curved crystal blade over her head and down thereby splitting the creature in half. Liam sniffed the fallen creature, then headed towards the edge of the forest. The pixie poked her head out of Aeri's hair and stared in astonishment at the fallen creature.
The pixie cautiously and curiously flew out of Aeri's hair and flew over to the creature and tentatively poked it. The creature didn't react. The pixie did a flying look around it and saw it wasn't even twitching. She then looked up at Aerielle and her face lit up into a wide beaming smile. "THANK YOU!!" the enthusiastic young fey-child said as she flew up and hugged Aeri's neck the best she could. The purple comet turned out to be a 3 inch tall humanoid looking creature with large butterfly wings attached to her back with waist length wavy hair and a penitent for light purple judging by the knee length type dress the small creature was wearing. "You're really strong!!"
"I'm not that strong, just well trained. And the creature was slow." Aerielle replied modestly. "What are you called, pixie? My name is Aerielle and this," she pointed to the fox, "is Liam."
Liam watched the pixie flutter near him. His gold eyes held amusement.
The pixie flew around Liam and hugged him and tried to pet him the best she could, until she got frustrated. Then she flew up and size-shifted into a still fairly short humanoid figure with large butterfly wings. She then bent down and petted Liam. "I am called Ari or Amethyst. Which ever you prefer." She smiled sweetly. "I can't tell you my full name I'm afraid though."
Aeri smiled, "That's okay. Will you accompany us to the castle? Something has happened and I want to know what's going on." She wiped the blade clean on the damp grass then walked toward the edge of the forest and the rest of the battle which sounded as if it had ended. Liam followed.
"I'm sorry, I cannot accompany you." Ari pouted sadly, fluttering about Aerielle and Liam in distress. "I was on my way elsewhere when that mean monster attacked me. I thank you for your help though!! Thank you!! And good luck on your journey!!" with that, the small pixie buzzed off on her way. Aeri and Liam watched her go with a smile, and turned back to their own path.
**********
“Bryant are you sure this is wise?” Will asked. His attitude was cold and indifferent as he spoke, but the others didn’t care. They knew this was natural for a Vessel and had gotten used to it.
“Yes I do. It’ll prevent more lives from being taken.”
“But can we trust him to keep up their end of the bargain?” Geoff asked.
“No, but it’ll give you two and the other Magic Casters time to recover and cast spells to stop them if they do.”
“You’re insane,” Geoff muttered.
“Good luck,” Will said dispassionately.
Bryant shrugged and gripped his sword tighter walking resolutely out into the open to face his opponent.
The man was huge, towering over the Prince by a good five inches. He wore blood red leather armor and was bald, his eyes a startling blue. He carried a large bastard sword in his hand and glared menacingly at Bryant. Bryant looked calmly up at him, no fear showed in his face and eyes.
“Begin,” Bryant commanded.
The fight was on in earnest. Blocking, slashing, parrying. The sounds of metal against metal rang out above the roars of the two crowds as they cheered their leader on. Then silence.
It was over.
Bryant had won.
He had unarmed the big man in a move like lightning before he had time to react and block, thus ensuring his victory.
Bryant drove the point of his sword slightly deeper into the man’s throat drawing blood. “Leave,” he growled.
The man blanched, truly a coward in the right situation. “I will....” he muttered.
Bryant pulled his sword away and raised it above his head in triumph. His back was completely open.
The big man wasted no time and grabbed his bastard sword from where it lay on the ground raising it to strike Bryant down.
“Look out!” Geoff yelled.
He didn’t have enough time to save himself.
A scream ripped the air as from high up there was a flash of light. The two armies and the combatants froze in surprise. The big man didn’t wait long to find out and stabbed forward yelling. He nearly reached Bryant-
-then something landed on top of him, hard, and he was knocked out.
Vallen moaned, she could barely register the body underneath her or the handsome man standing over her with a look of surprise. “Oh kami....” she breathed before she passed out.
**********
Seraphim took her own little tumble through the void, the intense shifting and swirling of light and darkness enough to make the girl extremely dizzy, if not nauseous on the spot. She suppressed the urge to retch, since it's not nice to barf in the Time-Space continuum and all, besides, this was one of her favorite outfits, and it wouldn't be too cool if she vomited all over it, and besides, wherever she was going to end up getting dumped might not have a washing machine readily available. *With my luck, I probably got abducted by aliens or something.... that'll teach me to pay more attention to the X-Files....* she thought dryly, just before she passed out.
A jarring thud, and the feeling that she'd landed on something jolted Seraph out of unconsciousness, and her blood-red eyes slowly opened, only to find herself face to face with a corpse, the neck nearly severed through, and the blank eyes of the lolling head staring up at her, a thin trickle of blood running from the corner of the parted lips. "Sh*t!!! Oh sh*t...." she gasped as she scrambled up and off the body, dusting herself off while staring down at it fighting down a reflexive urge to be sick once more, and checking herself to make sure she didn't have any blood or entrails on her. "It figures that I'd end up getting deposited on a corpse... what the hell happened anyway?" she muttered, brushing a few strands of scarlet hair away from her deathly-pale face as she surveyed the area. If she didn't know better, she’d say she ended up in the middle of some bizarre period piece, but the dead looked, felt and certainly smelled, as she'd caught a face full of the offensive odor upon landing on a corpse, far too real for that to be the case. Sighing, she gathered up her long black velvet skirt and stepped carefully over the bodies, hoping to eventually find someone alive... and hoping they wouldn't decide to put an arrow or something similarly unpleasant through her.
**********
Liz felt sick. The world had dissolved into a plethora of colors, all spinning together. All the noise and confusion from the extremity of the continuum was giving her a very big headache. She seemed to be traveling through a tunnel, a spinning one at that, and she had curled into a little ball, repeating to herself not to throw up. She was terrified, and the dizziness and stomach-churning didn't help. She cried out to her friends, heck, she even yelled for Monica, but none of them appeared to be with her in the colorful vortex. She suddenly lurched down and screamed as loud as her lungs were able as she spiraled downward.
The horrid, looming creatures prepared to strike. They had foot-long claws and black, leathery skin. Their gaping jaws displayed razor-sharp teeth that were already stained red from blood. The group of Enchanters and Enchantresses who had been trapped inside the castle away from the battle stared up in fear at them. They stood in the Great Hall, oblivious that the battle was over.
Atop one of the monsters sat a speaker to magical creatures, clothed in a black soldier's uniform. He had a sadistic smirk on his face. "So, you thought you could outwit us, did you? Pathetic. You should've known you didn't stand a chance. Why don't you just surrender?" he asked. The group glared at him. They prepared ice and fire spells in their hands as he continued to talk.
"Now, we'll have no need for that. If you surrender now, I promise to give you all quick deaths," he said.
"Never," Enchantress Catherine replied as icily as the spell she held in her hands.
"Very well. Kill them," he said, but as he waved his hand to command the beasts, a bright light appeared over his head and something, or rather someone, fell on top of him. The group took that moment to fire, their spells engulfing and killing the beasts. The person fell off of the man she had landed on, her almost unconscious body caught by Enchanter Marvin. The others fired again, killing both the man and his creature.
Liz was dizzily stood up and heard an entire group of people talking to her at once. She wasn't quite sure what they were saying, for their voices blurred together in a mishmash of indistinguishable sounds. She tried to shake her head of the blackness that was creeping into her vision. She whispered softly, "Where am I?" before passing out.
**********
Corey knew something had happened. As if it weren't obvious something had happened. Just a moment ago she had been standing in the movie theater. Now she was flying through some kind of space rip. Or maybe a time rip. "Been watching too many sci-fi movies again, Cor," she told herself, her voice echoing around her. She had originally screamed in shock and fear when the flash came, but had calmed herself down moderately. She'd told herself that there was no use screaming- no one could hear her anyway- and that maybe if she waited, she would find out what happened. And what was going to happen. After all, she had to be in the tunnel for some reason, odd though it might be. She wondered where the others were. She hadn't seen them since the light had come. "Maybe they're behind me. Or farther ahead. Yeah, that's gotta be IT!"
Corey screeched as the flash of light came again and she found herself a few feet above a creek. *Dear gods I hope it's deep!* She fell into the freezing water and had trouble keeping herself from inhaling sharply at the shock of it. Looking around as she gradually slowed in the water, her eyes widened at the sight of another person. Except this man seemed to blend with the greenish-blue of the water. She pushed away and up to the surface, gasping for much-needed air. After she began to breath somewhat normally, she headed for the bank, pulling herself through the sluggish water with slow forward strokes. Pulling herself out of the bank, Corey slipped once and almost returned to the icy water, but regained her grip and made it out. Waiting until her back was against a tree and her behind on solid ground, she relaxed, letting her limbs go limp.
*That was some crazy s--- back there.... What the Hell happened?* She didn't have time to think about the last question, because a low growl swept her thoughts away. Her eyes snapped open and locked with a large, shaggy, silvery canine's. She tried to control her heartbeat, but it was hard. It was standing a few feet from her. Its eyes were unsettling. *Wolves can smell fear. Don't widen your eyes. Don't narrow your eyes. Wolves can smell fear.* She couldn't help but gasp when the wolf began walking towards her. *This is it. I'm dead.* She shut her eyes tightly and waited for the attack.
A warm, wet tongue laved her cheek.
Corey peeked through her lashes at the beast and was astonished to see it sitting next to her, licking her face. She sat in shock for a moment, before tentatively reaching up and petting its fur. Its tail whapped the ground once and it continued licking her. After a while, she tapped the muzzle gently and he- she'd tried to be discreet in looking, seeing as how he probably wouldn't have been pleased with her lifting up his leg- stopped. "You're a sweet fellow," she murmured. "You remind me of this wolf I once read about in a book. His name was Brokefang." Her mind zipped over names that somehow had a connection with the names in the Wild Magic series. She looked at him curiously. "I think I'll call you Aramil, chico. Maybe just Aram, for short."
He slapped his bushy tail on the ground again, then picked up her hand in his teeth and tugged, never breaking the skin.
She was bewildered as the wolf got up and tugged insistently on her hand toward the opposite side of the forest. She got to her feet, the large animal leading her along by her hand like a small child leading its mother through the toy aisle. "Where are we going?" she queried. *Right, as if he can answer me. Idiot.*
They came to the edge of the forest and Aram let go of her hand, staring at a broken circle of men, another group on the other side of the obvious battlefield, but they were disappearing in flashes of light. Most of the men had weapons in hand. One man stood in the center, while two other bodies lay at his feet.
Corey squinted at the colorful form on top of the other. "Vallen?" she whispered to herself. *That can't be Vallen.... But if we were all taken at the same time, then we must be going to the same place, right?* "Vallen?" she called louder, striding toward the half circles. She stepped over the corpses, ignoring them completely.
Some of the men heard her and alerted their companions. Soon most of them were looking at her, including the one standing in the middle.
She felt the warmth from Aram beside her after a moment of emptiness in which he had stayed behind in the forest. "What have you done to Vallen?" she yelled at the men, confusion and anger building a blush in her cheeks.
**********
Willow slowly began to open her eyes, then immediately wished she hadn't. Colors and lights were swirling all around her. *This is going to make me sick....* she thought mournfully as her stomach began to lurch violently. Fortunately before anything drastic happened, the insane spinning stopped. Unfortunately, she found herself falling belly-flop onto the ground. Twisting herself wildly in the air, she managed to land mostly on her feet, stumbling wildly to and fro to maintain her balance before flopping with a heavy thud on her buttocks. She winced and tried to stand, mumbling to herself. "Well, that was a dramatic entrance, Wil. Not a good one, but dramatic at least....ow...." It was then that she took time to realize her surroundings. She was nowhere NEAR the video arcade, in fact, she didn't think she was anywhere near her own time! She had landed in the middle of a forest.
"Where is everyone else?" She silently mused, before catching a glimpse of a familiar head across the creek. Willow stood up and hurriedly limped over to the water. She was sure of it, that was Corey's head!
"Hey, Corey!!!" she called out. Her friend was too far away to hear her though, so Willow rolled up her jeans and started to wade across the creek. The moment she entered the water, she regretted it. It was COLD. And very... wet. She braced herself and crossed as quickly as she could, the desire of not being left alone outweighing her desire to stay clear of the frigid waters. She crawled onto the other bank and continued her pursuit.
"Corey! Wait up!" She called, before noticing what Corey was walking towards.
It was a battlefield and from the looks of it, the battle had just ended. A group of men stood around a handsome man and two figures, one of which she knew. It was that one who Corey was pointing to.
"Vallen?" she wondered. Willow picked up her speed, not wanting to be left out of things.
**********
Seraphim continued to pick her way through the dead, holding her skirt up off the ground with one lace-glove clad hand so that it wouldn't end up getting covered in blood, bits of entrails or other assorted nastiness, the other over her face trying to filter out the stench of blood and vomit that arose from the bodies. It figured that she'd end up in the part of a battlefield where the dead were thickest.
Flocks of carrion crows fed upon the corpses, and even more circled overhead, waiting for their chance to feed, their raucous cries the only sound in the otherwise silent area. One cawed reproachfully at her and flapped his wings a few times before taking to the air once more, and she couldn't help but smirk.
"Sorry if I spoiled your dinner, but I have to get out of here before I lose my lunch," she murmured. She kept her eyes to the ground, trying to keep from stepping on any of the corpses, and so, she didn't notice anyone else in the area until a cold, sharp object was pressed to the back of her throat.
"Don't move, witch. That is, unless you want to die...." a cold voice came from behind her.
Seraph froze, though she lifted a black-stained lip in a silent snarl, and her blood-red eyes narrowed. She felt the point of the blade travel around her throat, just below the spiked collar she wore, as the person who had addressed her moved into view.
He was obviously a soldier, and severely wounded, yet still alive, and he had a sword blade laid against her throat. Upon seeing her face to face, his eyes widened slightly as he took in the blood-red eyes, the deathly-pale complexion, the spiderweb drawn under her right eye and down the right side of her face in black pencil, the black-stained lips and the fake fangs slipped over her eyeteeth. "Witch or daemon... whatever you are, you’re coming with me. I’m sure you'll be wanted for questioning," he said, the blade still at her throat.
"I'm not a daemon," she growled. Geeze..no matter where she was, she always got sh*t due to her appearance.
The soldier let out a humorless laugh and pushed the blade a little more firmly against her throat. "You can't fool me, hell spawn, no normal human girl looks like you do. Now come along, before I kill you on the spot and send you back to hell," he replied.
Seraph growled once more, but she complied in the end, walking along with the soldier's blade at her throat. Figured... not five minutes, and she was already knee-deep in sh*t.
Gadine squeezed herself as tightly as she could into her hiding place in the far corner of the stables. Her leathery wings were pressed firmly to her back, and she hid her massive head under her claws. Large tears tumbled from her eyes.
"Mommy!" Gadine wailed. She wished she had listened when her mother had told her to stay hidden there. But no, she had to go see the battle, she had to peek out the door just in time to see her mother speared, then mobbed by those things that were attacking.
After a while, Gadine had cried herself out. She did her best to pull herself together. Her mother had agreed to protect the castle. Now that her mother was dead, it was her job to protect the castle. Even if she wasn't half even half grown yet.
Gadine crawled to the door and peeked out. The battle was more or less over. A flash in the sky made her look up. A body fell out of the light, landing right on top of a corpse. Gadine winced inwardly. Whoever that was did not have the best of luck either. She tried to muster up enough courage to walk over there and see if the human was all right, but her acute fear held her motionless at the door. It was not common knowledge that dragons were hired to help guard some castles, and the few she had actually come in contact with, besides the higher ranking, had just run screaming.
The human picked herself off the corpse. She looked like she was going to be sick, and picked her way over more corpses, though Gadine wasn't quite sure where she could be heading. It was hard to tell for sure from this distance, but was that human unusually pale? Maybe she was mistaken about it being human. That gave Gadine a bit more courage. non-humans generally seemed friendlier...well, the non-castle attacking sort did anyway.
She moved partway out, stopping when something moved by the girl. A soldier now had his sword at her throat. Gadine's eyes narrowed. Always suspicious of the non-humans, they were. She looked around for any more left alive. Seeing none, she stalked carefully out of the stables and headed towards the two, both heading slowly away from her.
As she drew near, she could see the soldier was in very bad shape. She was surprised he was able to walk. in the distance, she could see a good part of the soldiers, their attention turned to something in the other direction. He turned, his eyes growing wide when he saw her. His sword leaving the girl's throat to be brought into a defensive stance. Gadine glared at him, she was on his side for heaven sake! It almost made her want to cry again, or rip his head off, but that wouldn't do, for her newly acquired duty came first.
**********
Drew squeezed her eyes shut. The swirling and tumbling and colors didn't seem so bad with her eyes closed. She could almost pretend it was a carnival ride. Of course, how the heck did she get on, and when could she please get off? She prayed this was a new arcade game. And if it was, she was seriously going to injure whoever created it.
A hard thump, and a whole lot of pain in her back, butt, and head, told her when the ride was over. Drew stayed where she had landed, unmoving for a long time, until the pain eased. She opened her eyes. Sky. How did she get outside? Slowly she sat up. She blinked. It was not possible that she was where it looked like she was.
Drew stood up carefully. She had landed on the roof of a building. That looked suspiciously like a castle not far away. Movement caught her eye. The red hair and black clothing was unmistakable even from that distance. She looked around, but didn't see anyone else. But if Seraphim was here, the others probably were too.
Drew looked back to her friend. Someone else was over there too. She didn't recognize that person, but from the distance, it was hard to pick out details.
"Ok." She said under her breath. "First things first. How do I get down?" Drew inched over to the nearest edged and looked over. She jumped back, suppressing a scream. Inching back on her hands and knees this time, she peeked over again.
A tan/gold dragon, at least she thought it was a dragon, about the size of a large horse, slowly emerged from the building she was on. Drew groaned when she saw where the creature was headed. She got back to her feet, and found herself a way down. She would have to run, but hopefully she would beat the creature to its goal.