*~*~*
Knall slowly opened his eyes. It was dark…very dark. He looked around as his eyes quickly adjusted to the lack of light. He looked down and noticed he was sitting on a thick branch and slowly stood.
His head was swimming and he felt as if he would fall off the tree. He regained balance, however, and put a clawed hand on the trunk of the tree to support himself. He looked around once more and quickly realized he had no idea where he was.
A cry of a small animal sounded far off and the sounds of metal crashing, and running, brushing through the branches and leaves. He leapt off the branch towards the various sounds and nearly missed the branch ahead of him because of his balance being disturbed.
He rested on the trunk of the tree and quickly remembered why he had come back. With a new determination he continued on, more carefully. He eventually reached a small clearing with a large tree in the center. He looked across and saw himself looking over the edge of the tree. With the baby griffon lying next to him.
Knall had to make an effort not to run and save himself from the human boy who eventually defeats him, him in the past. He crouched down so he wouldn’t be seen by himself. A rustling came closer and Knall looked down to the human boy who stopped to look at the large tree in the center of the clearing.
Knall watched himself jump from the tree and land in front of the human boy. He also saw the boy shoot a pillar of fire at himself. Knall tensed and saw himself shield against the unprovoked attack. He saw the battle unfold in front of himself. From a distance the battle looked even more intense.
Eventually the boy trapped his past self inside a force field. He saw the boy jerk up and was obviously alarmed by something. The boy released the spell and dragged himself off. Now, now is the time! The present form of Knall leapt to the next branch and eventually made it to the trunk of his tree. He quickly scaled the tree and made it to the intersection of the branches.
When he reached the area he violently ripped back a sheet of vine and saw a dead creature leaning over the baby griffon. The griffon screamed and seemed to be crying. Knall gave out a monstrous roar. He ripped the sheet of vine into small pieces and rushed towards the dead creature.
It jerked its head up and the stitches ripped off of its mouth and it made a shriek. The cry crawled in Knall’s head and ran around wreaking havoc. Knall clutched his head and fell to his knees. The dead creature strolled up to the wrenching Knall and watched him with its mouth hanging open.
Knall looked up. The cry was now spreading out through his body and made him throb around and thrash on the floor of the tree. He looked directly into the dead’s eye sockets and reached up. His hand easily covered the creature’s head… and squeezed.
Its head caved in and turned into ash. The ash flew from Knall’s fingers and soon the entire body flaked and blew away. The cry in Knall’s body died out slowly and the pain it made soon began to sink in. He crawled over to the griffon, who had stopped crying.
Knall fell on his face, exhausted. The griffon walked up and licked Knall’s face. He looked up and saw the griffon had gotten larger than when it was first born. It looked down on him and gave an encouraging squawk.
Knall wrenched himself up and stood vastly above the small griffon. He bent over and extended his hand. The griffon crawled up his arm and rested on his massive shoulder. Knall covered the griffon’s body with his hand and jumped over to the next branch. He was still completely exhausted but knew the dead-things would be here very soon.
~*~*~
Khor’s head was so heavy. The first thing he realized was that he felt very warm. Not hot, but not comfortably warm. It was very dark. He couldn’t see anything. Then he foolishly realized he had not opened his eyes. When he did it was still very dark.
He was on his back. Looking up at the stars. He also noticed his jacket was removed and he was wrapped in a heavy, scratchy blanket. His belt was resting on a far away rock and Melden stuck in the rock close by it. Then he saw the flickering light of a camp fire. He turned his head towards it and saw the figure in the black cloak starring back at him.
“Ah. Awake. Maybe now you’ll be useful.” Khor moaned and looked away.
“Is that how you treat your rescuer? Anyway, you’re completely drained of all your magic and it’ll be best if you rested a bit longer before you start traveling again.”
What is he talking about? Traveling? Where am I anyway?
Almost as if reading his mind, the figure replied, “You haven’t moved very much. Still on the same cliff. Overlooking the same burning city.”
Khor moaned again and he still felt the weight on his chest, although it was lessened. “Come on get up.” Said the voice again. Khor felt like he was barely able to remain conscience, how could he possibly stand?
Without being touched the blanket rolled away, folded itself, and laid itself down neatly next to him. Khor reached out and put it back over himself roughly. He pulled it up over his head only to have it roll away again.
He groaned and looked over at the figure. He could fell the sweat roll off of his brow and said “What do you want?” weakly.
The figure stood there, silently, thinking. “I want to finish my job.” He walked over to Khor and held out a hand.
Khor looked at it and reached out. He was brought up violently. On his way up he clenched his hand into a fist and hit the figure directly in the face. He stepped back and Khor stood, watching him.
The figure dabbed his unseen face lightly and his hand came back slightly bloody. He looked up at Khor and laughed. His laughing hardened. Then, in an exact second he summoned a silver sword and thrust it towards Khor’s throat. It stopped and lightly rested on his neck while Khor’s sweating increased.
He looked across at the figure who was now looking extremely serious.
“If they didn’t tell me not to kill you, ha. You’re lucky they want to keep you alive. I don’t know why, but I complete all my missions.”
With this, he lowered the sword as it folded in on itself.
Khor relaxed. The figure went back to leaning on a tall rock. “Get dressed. We’re leaving in ten minutes.” Khor looked at him confused. “Oh come on, it’s not that hard. Pick up your things, put them on, then follow me.” Khor stood still.
“Fine. What?” The figure asked. Khor was still dumbstruck.
“Umm… you tried to kill me and you murdered everyone in Cyte.” The figure laughed hard and long. “If I wanted to kill you I would have when you were born.” Khor’s eyes widened.
“What?!”
“Aaagghh! It’s not that hard! Come on!”
“Y-You’ve followed me since my birth? What, Why? Who would be interested in me?”
“That’s what I’m asking.” The figure muttered in reply. “Anyway. Just follow me and be quiet.”
“Why should I?” The figure rubbed his head.
“Don’t make me do this. It will be much more inconvenient for me.”
“Do what?” The figure raised his hand and said,
“!” Khor’s head swam again. But this time it was pleasant. He fell down and was almost instantly asleep. He could hear the figure stepping closer and tried to wave him away pathetically. Then, he slept.
