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Chapter 8: Fear, Dancing With Death - Section 3 |
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Sorry. xP What with journals being "updated" yesterday, I was delayed. ;o; ~ Forest of Angels Chapter 8: Fear, Dancing With Death Section 3
But, as the day wore on, Tsano and Ileno retched, covering their noses with their hands as the horrible stench Tao Chi had mentioned overcame them in a wave of unease. “What is that smell?” Tsano gasped. Tao Chi had pulled her shirt up over her nose by that time to lessen the reek, her eyes squinted against the powerful odor. “I told you I smelled something.” She muttered to them, walking a few paces forward and looking about again. “It’s not another troll, is it?” Ileno moaned anxiously. Tao Chi shook her head, shivering. “No, this smells like…death.” She said quietly. They all paused, including Ileno, staring around the trees. Tao Chi walked further into the growth of black trees and shrubs, disappearing behind one, and screamed. “What’s wrong?” Tsano asked, rushing to her, Ileno hiding behind his back with her hands partially covering her eyes. Tao Chi gulped and pointed a trembling finger in front of her towards another tree where a young looking elf was pinned, dead; his eyes wide open in terror. Two other elves, a younger one and an older woman, were in a heap beside the tree, also dead. Ileno let out a cry and held on to Tao Chi’s leg as Tsano approached them, pulling his shirt over his nose. “Yep,” he said. “Definitely dead.” He bent closer to inspect the elf pinned to the tree, shutting the young elf’s open eyes as he did so, and saw two very bloody but small holes on the necks of all of them. Tsano shivered. “Vampire…?” He breathed to himself. “Just like on the sign…” Ileno cried again. “Brother, lets go.” She whined. “I don’t like this, not one bit. Maybe we can consider flying this time?” “Vampire?” Asked Tao Chi, giving Ileno her hand to quiet her. “What do you mean?” Tsano pointed to the holes. “This isn’t an ordinary bite. I don’t know much, we need Reika for this sort of thing, but I’ve seen something like this in one of my old textbooks. This is surely a Vampire bite.” As they continued on the way to the “Witch’s lair”, checking about them for any lurking Vampire they may encounter throughout their walk, they saw more dead Elves, Humans, and even something that looked like a baby troll lying in heaps along the path. The more of this they saw, the more uneasy they all felt. Ileno whimpered occasionally, now riding on Tsano’s back. “Do you think we’re going to run into the Vampire?” Ileno sniffed, tense. “I…don’t think so.” Tsano said, trying to convince himself as much as Ileno. “We’ll be fine, I’m sure he’ll, uh, listen to reason.” Night fell on them in Labrynuu and the frost began, as it had all the other nights. They settled down, but neither of them fell asleep, for they were all on their toes with the smell of death all about them. Ileno was still shivering and whimpering, but she said nothing. She clung to Tsano’s arm as they all sat around the fire, Tao Chi staring off in the distance and Tsano thinking hard about the Vampire and how they would avoid it if it, indeed, was hostile towards them. ...Would it be? Within half an hour, Ileno was asleep, shaking in the frost in Tsano’s arms as he hugged her to keep her warm. The next hour, Tao Chi was asleep, curled up on the ground like a cat, trembling with cold. Tsano alone remained awake as he magic-ed up some blankets for the two sleeping girls, still thinking. The night dragged by, getting colder by the minute until Tsano’s fingers and toes became numb. He rubbed them together to keep himself still standing. He didn’t want a blanket. Tsano paced, he stared around, and he practiced his magic, anything to keep him from falling asleep. Although, at one point or another, Tsano found himself leaning against a tree, bowing his head and hugging his knees with the cold, mist now rising up in spirals above his head.
[Meko-Meko] · Sun May 27, 2007 @ 02:24am · 2 Comments |
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