Birathi (No longer accepting)

Haven

He heard Pelleas' words and leapt to his feet beside Lamika. Damn are elves are quick! He thought to himself while on the outside a snarl of pure beastial nature escaped his lips. He could feel the beat of the horses hooves, smell them on the wind and he felt, hungry. For the hunt, for the kill. The world slipped away to indistinct voices of my compatriots. The beast knew something was coming. He could feel it prowling up and down, waiting for its time. Finally the world swam back into focus.
"Lamika, you should go," he whispered. I do not want her to see this, he thought. He heard the pad of her feet as she rushed off, followed by the scuff of shoe on tree as she climbed.
"Protect her." Barked Jenko. His reply was a simple nod. At that moment the horsemen rounded the corner.
Wyverus lashed out with a spike of pure shadow which peirced the chest of a horseman only to fade away. In that frozen moment as the first of the mans crimson lifeblood flowed from his chest the beast struck, tearing its way out of my skin.
"I can't ... I can't hold it. ARRRRGGGGHHHH!" He stood in the fire light, his body stretching and warping like some hellish demon. The sound that escaped his lips left little to the imagination. Finally he stood. The torn shreds of his skin covered the forest floor around him. Stood tall and proud, his shaggy blonde hair now a thick mane, his spine stretched into a tail, his skin covered in golden fur, yellow eyes staring out at the world. He flexed his hands, claws glinting, and roared his challenge into the sky, vicious incisors exposed to them all. One horse bolted, it's rider desperately trying to regain control before an arrow took him high in the shoulder.
Haven fought for control, desperately trying to identify friend from foe for the beast. Finally his will power faded and the world turned simple. Scent, chasing, leaping, claws slicing, teeth buried into something thick and meaty.

Wyverus

Wyverus' eyes darted left and right, examining the positions of his allies, he didn't want to kill anyone he needed. Lamika was staring deeply into Havens eyes, as he warned her to get away, which made Wyverus slightly jealous. Taur was fetching his battle-axe from the tent, and God knew where the others were. Wyverus saw a horse appear from the corner. He reacted almost immediately by expelling a tendrill into the riders chest, before wrenching him from his stallion. Nineteen more men approached from behind the fallen knight, 'Wow, all this for just a bunch of travelers?' Wyverus mused to himself.

'Do you require assisstance?' Taur asked, arriving from behind Wyverus.

'Don't let me steal your pleasure', Wyverus grinned 'but we could do with a couple of reinforcements'. Wyverus thrusted his palm downwards, and a few seconds later several small cracks appeared in the ground. The cracks grew, and ten skeleton men emerged from the earth. 'I call them Hollow Men' Wyverus informed Taur. 'And they're my friends' he laughed.

'What are we waiting for? Lets get stuck in!' Taur laughed before following a lion-like man into combat. Wyverus was confused for a second, before realising that Haven had let himself go.

'Hollow Men!' Wyverus yelled, 'Attack!'.

Jenko

He was very glad that the Necromancer had enhanced the makeshift weopon, because it was only moments later when Jenko had to fend off a soldier trying to ride over him. With to extra boost, he was able to knock the man off the horse. The beast ran off, escaping the terror of the sudden battle field.

Checking to make sure the soldier wasn't dead, but safely unconcious, he called Firego out from his place in the trees.

"I want one them left alive," he instructed. "We need to know how they found us."

Taur

Taur strode forth, spinning his battleaxe in his hands. He felt the weapon's weight, remembering how it had felt to weild it in combat.
One of the riders broke from the group and began to ride towards him. He took a wide stance, gauging the distance between him and his enemy. He waited until the last moment to strike, leaping high and bringing his axe around in a curve, decapitating the man in a single strike. His horse carried on running.
Taur landed slightly awkwardly, and stumbled. 'Ease yourself in slowly' he thought to himself. It had been long since he had had to defend his people, and he had lost his edge.
Another rider charged at him from the side, catching him a little off guard. 'Very slowly...'
He grabbed the horse's bridle and wrenched it's head to the side, pulling it off course with his sheer mass, while thrusting upwards with the end of his axe. The rider fell, hitting the floor with a cry.
Taur released the horse and moved to dispatch him. He hefted his battleaxe, repositioning his hands for the optimum efficiency.
Before he could strike, Taur was knocked to the floor by something flying through the air. He felt the wind get forced from his lungs as he hit the earth, and lost his grip on his axe. He looked up.
Haven had pounced on the man and was ripping into him with ferocity Taur had not seen in all his years. He stared, taken aback, as the Werelion horribly maimed the fallen rider before moving on to his next victim.
Taur heared a shout behind him, and turned to see a rider beginning to charge at him, speartip shining in the firelight. He scrambled to rise, only to fall in agony to the floor.
His knee was dislocated, and the rider was nearly upon him.

Wyverus

Taur was down and a man was brooding over him, spear in hand. Wyverus merely had to look at the man before a Hollow Man had intercepted to thrust and had knocked the soldier from his feet before the skeleton stabbed the pike into the enemy. 'Damn', Wyverus grunted. He wrapped his tendrills around the man's neck and pulled him back into Firego's custody back at the tents, the Hollow Man however seemed quite jolly in using it's new weapon. Wyverus picked Taur up to his feet, using the tendrill (Taur was way too heavy for the necromancer to lift using sheer strength). 'You ok?' Wyverus asked.

'Just a bit rusty', Taur chuckled 'sixteen more, lets not count our chickens before they've hatched, shall we?'

'Let's make a bet here. I bet 15 silvers I can kill more!' Wyverus grinned.

'Make it 25, then we have a deal my friend'

'Deal', the two shook hands and headed straight back into battle.

Lamika

At the very beginning of the fight Lamika had shot the first arrow and killed the first enemy. Yet now all she could do was watch from her concealed spot in the tree. What kind of men had joined her group? She wondered, awed at the power that her companions demonstrated. Wyverus and his dead army were perhaps the most terrifying, though that just made them all the more impressive. However, she was more impressed by taur's inmense body and the ease with which he swung his ax. then there was Jenko. She had never seen him fight before, but it was clear from the start that he had had practice when she wasn't looking.
Still, her eyes locked on Haven. Was it possible that the same boy who had been gently asking about her life and laughing at the boringness of his own life was now ruthlessly killing as though he had never done anything else? No wonder he had been one of the few survivors when his pride was attacked. It seemed impossible that anything could ever happen to a warrior like that. Suddenly Firego dropped from the tree and had an arm around one of the men. the soldier's knife neared Firego's throat.
Quickly she shot an arrow through the man's arm, although it also scrapped Firego as it flew passed. the man was pinned to the ground, and his moment of confusion gave Firego enough time to bound him and knock him out. Quickly, Firego shot Lamika a grateful glance before disappearing from the clearing with the prisoner. As soon as he was gone Lamika turned to look for the rest of her party. She could see no sign of Godric or Pelleas, and instantly fear crept into her, though she was not sure if she was afraid of them being hurt or of them in general.

The Beast

The beast ran rampant, his body simply a vessel for a deeper, more primal power. Kill or be killed. There were no grey areas, no if's or but's. The beast couldn't understand those concepts if it wanted. It struck, killing with speed and precision before moving but somewhere deep inside squirmed Haven the Man. Haven the Man who knew this had to end, that he had to take back control and guide both his body and the beast. Both to protect his friends and save his mind. So the beast continued it's rampage while it could biting, clawing, disembowling. One man rode past and the beast leapt, unseating him before tearing out his throat and casting the red evicerated globules into the darkness. THen it all began to fade. The beast through all its will into retaining control but for nought.

Haven

He could feel the beast. The thrill it was getting from the hunt. The intense pleasure it experienced with each prey it brought down and for a while he revelled in it. The sheer freedom his conciousness experience in this time. But it had to come to an end. If not everything could go wrong. What if the beast ran out of prey and turned on his compatriots? What if it chased prey off out into the night only for Haven to awake cold, naked and lost? Fuelled by these fears and with sheer strength of will he forced his way back into control. It was almost as if his conciousness were swimming up from the depths of a lake to the golden light of dawn. He could feel the beast wrestle for control but it had had it's time and Haven the Man refused to be defied. His will burned with the strength of a thousand suns and the beast recoiled, sinking back within him.
He looked down at himself, blood drying into his fur, meaty chunks in his now pointed teeth and shivered. He looked around to see the others fighting now a mere eight men. Taur and Wyverus seemed to be taking a truly vicious toll but i could see other bodies around the clearing. Torn up as if by some wild animal. Or some vicious beast, he thought forelornly.
"Haven look out!" Lamika yelled from her treetop hiding place. He crouched and spun, the wind whistling through his fur. A man was charging him, sword held over head ready to come down in a deadly overhead blow. But he never got the chance. Havens reactions took over. He stepped toward the man and brought his hand up, grabbing the man by the neck and lifting him off his feet before slamming him into a tree with a sickening crunch. The mans body bounced away and the tree visibly shook, only for Lamika to come tumbling down and land in Haven's waiting arms.
"Wow. You really are fast." The catch had winded her but she seemed happy for the comfy landing.
"Indeed," smiled Haven, his teeth glinting. The others seemed to have it under control so he placed her gently onto her feet. Then the tiredness hit him in a wave and he collapsed, curled at Lamika's feet like some common house cat.

Wyverus

Thanks to Haven, there were now only nine soldiers left to take down. "Selfish dog" Wyverus laughed as Haven pummeled another enemy into a tree. The necromancer turned to see eight of his hollow men in the slightly less effective form of a pile of bones. He withdrew the energy from them and decided to try something a little different.
He turned back to the tree Lamika was standing to check if she was watching. Instead she was gazing into Haven's eyes, in his arms. The rage built up inside Wyverus and he turned back to the four oncoming soldiers. He took a deep breath, drew his fists to he chest and the soldiers stopped and looked on, horror stricken. A dark cloud was enveloping Wyverus, growing darker, bigger. Finally he thrust his arms outwards and a large surge of dark aura hit the soldiers like a wave of darkness. Dark Pulse it was called, and it was absoulutely lethal. With his rage expelled, Wyverus felt a lot better. He noticed Taur hacking apart the last two enemies. "Damn" Wyverus said, as he walked over to Taur.

"I counted five," Taur grinned, "you?"

"Four", Wyverus grumbled back.

Taur raised his hand and Wyverus shook it, dropping the coins from his pocket into his allies palm. Wyverus turned back to were Haven and Lamika were. They were both on the floor, unconcious. "Oh, they must have just caught the edge of the pulse" Wyverus moaned, now his in for it, not just from Haven and Lamika, but the brothers too.

"It's late", Taur said "I'll grab Haven and get him to his tent, he may need a bit of medicine after the exhaustion from the beast".

Wyverus nodded and walked over to Lamika. Taur wrenched Haven onto his shoulders and Wyverus cradled Lamika in a platt of the tendrills. He sighed. Tommorows going to be a long day.

Pelleas

"No, no, no, no, NO!" was all he could think. It wasn't as if he could move his mouth.

Crimson on black, crimson on hands. The pain was overwhelming, then unnoticeable. The night swam like a fish, jumping in and out of reality. Crimson on metal, metal in throat. The chances were nigh on impossible. One shard of a broken shield, no purpose, total chaos. Only that element of improbability could've snuck past Pelleas' senses. The razor sharp piece of metal has snared not only Pelleas' throat, but his life too.

One last look into the obsidian skies, one last wish on all his mortal life. The howl of a wolf, ripe with glee, chained down no longer by the ties of an old spell. Thus came the end of Pelleas.

ooc: Dreamingforever is apparently going to be away for a few weeks, so unless we hear otherwise let's assume the Godric will stay hidding in the tent. Cam, are you dead then? Or do you need us to come and try to save you? I'm going to postpone reacting until I know better.

Jenko

Jenko glared at the necromancer. He suspected it wasn't entirly an accident that Wyverrus had zapped his sister. While he was thrilled that both his friend and his siblings seemed to have made it through the battle unscathed, he really wasn't so pleased with the friendly fire.

Biting back his accusations he went to where Firego was struggling with the ropes. It took the both of them to make sure their captive was completly secure.

"Are you alright?" Jenko asked his brother. The younger man nodded, but he was looking a litttle pale. Actual combat was obviously nothing like the stories.

"What do we do now?" Firego asked.

"You go sit with Lamika until she wakes up. I'm going to try and get some information from this guy."

He'd never interrogated a prisoner before. In fact, he had no idea where to start.

Wyverus

Wyverus emerged from Lamika's tent, and was intrigued by the sound of a deadly choking sound. He followed the sound to the back of Palleas' tent to find him drowning in his own blood. Wyverus rushed to his side, calm but shocked. "Palleas?" he said, gently. Wyverus knew he was dead, but the end yet. He had never done this before, but he had observed his masters demonstrations. Wyverus was going to try and raise the dead, back to life.

He placed his hands over Palleas' throat and tore the piece of metal that took his life out. He then placed his hands on the Soulweaver's chest and muttered an incantation, the shadows flowed into the corpse. They rushed back to Wyverus however, giving no hint of success, but Wyverus wasn't going to give up. He repeated the action several times but it was no use, his powerful rival had fallen at the knees of the Grim Reaper. Wyverus took a deep breath and exhaled, quickly mourning the life of his ally before pulling him into his tent.

Wyverus stepped out of the dead man's tent to see Jenko staring him down. Oops.

Jenko

"What's going on here?" he demanded. "Is that Pelleus? What's wrong?"

"I tried to save him, but I was too late," replied the necromancer.

Jenko knew he was telling the truth. Wyverrus might engage in some harmless excesses, but he wouoldn't let a team mate die. Not if he could do something about it.

He looked down at their fallen comrade. Jenko hadn't known Pelleus very well. In truth they were pretty much strangers. The man had kept apart, dealing with his own very real demons. They hadn't been travelling together long enough to get better aquainted.

"I suppose we should just bury him," he said mournfully. "I don't think he had any family."

Lamika

Lamika awoke in a quiet tent feeling sore and tired. After a few minutes where the world spun dizzyingly she was able to focus on Firego's concerned face staring over her. Her flashed a smile, but she could barely return it.
"What happened?" she then noticed Wyverus standing behind Firego, his own face a mask to her. Was there a hint of anger in his eyes, jealousy? Or was he simply still overcome by the adrenaline of the battle. Struggling to remember what had happened all she could picture was Haven slumping to the ground and then a surge and a flash of blackness.
"My spell affected you as well as the enemy, the soldiers are dead, we lost Pelleas. Godric refuses to speak to anyone. Jenko and taur are interrogating the only living soldier." Lamika noticed that not a word was spoken about the only one she truly wanted to hear about. Was it possible that Wyverus really was jealous? She tried to find some hint in his eyes, but instead he turned around after giving her a look that was as cool and uncaringly casual as his voice. She realized sadly that she would never understand him and his inmense power. Yet, mixed in with the fear and curiosity she felt towards him was awe and curiosity.
"How long has it been?" Lamika tried to keep away the quiver in her voice, but Firego noticed and put a reassuring hand on her forhead.
"Not long. Don't worry, now that we're sure you're okay we're going to burry the dead. We'll be sure and change camps as soon as we're all rested." So Firego knew that she could smell the blood and death of the corpses scattered about in the leaves outside.

Taur

Taur felt pain in the aftermath of the battle. Not just physical pain, but something etherial. Death did not weigh well on him.
He took a moment to look at the man bound and tied in front of him. The captive soldier glared back with spite in his eyes- Taur knew the man would kill him if he could. He pondered the thought. There was too much rage in the world, too much spite. It was what had put the King in power, and it was why he had to be removed.
Taur stepped outside of the tent for a moment. Jenko could go it alone for a few minutes, he was sure.
Taur headed towards the tent where he knew Pelleas' body lay. As he grew nearer, he felt growing unrest in the pit of his stomach. Spirits were gathered here. Clearly there was more to the man than Taur had learned in the time they had been together.
Taur knelt- something he knew he shouldn't be doing after sustaining such an injury. Pain surged in his brain, threatening to overwhelm his senses, but he held the position until it subsided. He breathed deeply.
Reaching into his medicin satchel, he took out a small piece of Rogar wood. It grew only in the mountains, where no other trees could, and his race had relied on its properties for many centuries.
Carefully, he began to carve the symbol of the mother river into on side of the wood fragment. It was a delicate process, but one with wich he was well acquainted.
That done, he turned the wood over and began to etch the life glyph into the other side. This he had not done for many, many years; extra caution was required, or faliure would be certain.
The life glyph took him several minutes to complete, but once done, he could feel the energy of the Rogar wood being released. He had little time.
He rose difficultly and entered Pelleas' tent. His body lay stratched out on the floor before him. He placed the Rogar chip on the man's forhead, stopping to gently close his eyelids.
He reached once more into his medicine bag and removed a vial of water from the mother river. Bowing his head in reverence to the lifeblood of the earth, he opened the vial and let one drop fall to land on the Rogar chip. Immediately he felt relief as, one by one, the spirits found their peace and returned to the clouds.
Taur turned to leave, only to find Lamika had entered the tent without his knowing.
"Have you..." she left the question unsaid as Taur shook his head.
"The spirits return to the clouds," he replied, "I can do nothing more."

Haven

He woke in his tent, still curled up but underneath a thoughtfully placed blanket. With what was almost a purr he stretched, arching his back and flexing his once again human fingers and toes. After a swift scan of the tent he found some clothes and hurried pulled them on. All the while his mind was screaming at him.
Did i hurt anyone? Why did I change? Is everyone alright?[i] Questions, questions, question and he could only muster the answer to one. [i]I changed because I can't fight, he thought. I have to risk it all and release the beast because i'm too weak. He emerged from the tent with inhuman grace, desperate for answers. Looking around he spotted Wyverus, quiet, dark but knowledgable Wyverus.
"Wyverus," he called out, walking over. "Wyverus are you alright? Is everyone alright? I thought i saw a flash of black and then i was waking up in my tent." The questions rushed out of his mouth like water over a waterfall.
"I'm fine." There was pause, laden with unspoken sadness. "Pelleas didn't make it."
Those three words hit hard. Pelleas. Dead. All that he could have been, snuffed out by some pretender Kings lackey. This little group and already one of us had been taken.
"We're going to bury the Kings men and then give him a proper seeing off." Wyverus toned had varied little but it seemed as if he was almost trying to be comforting.
Whilst death may not bother the necromancer, i think he can see it bothers me. Haven was thankful for that.
"Just tell me when and where and i'll get digging. Where are the others?" Asked Haven.
WIth that Taur limped from a tent and Lamika emerged, clearly disheartened.