[#28] Monstrosity
Okay, I know I haven't posted to this community in...years...and I know that there haven't been any posts in this comm for...many months...And...I'm also aware that the deadline for Challenge #28 was back in JANUARY OF 2007 but...BUTBUTBUT...It's such a GREAT prompt that I just COULD NOT pass it up. Also, I think this community needs to be brought back to life. *nodnod* Also, no one declared the challenge closed, heh!
This little ditty is set in my original world of Aerdus and uses original characters. (Which shouldn't be a big deal but IS, considering what an obsessive fanfiction writer I am. @_@) For more Aerdus ditties or to know more about what the heck this Aerdus place is, visit my account here on LJ, or my deviantART account, linked on my profile. *noddles* :3
Title: Monstrosity
Author: Ashari
Challenge #: 28
Rating: PG-13. For blood.
Disclaimers/Warnings: Begins in medias res. Watch your step. >3
The ground erupted beneath his feet again. Will’s equilibrium went shooting to hell; the next thing he knew, his back had slammed into the ground. Hard. His chest spasmed, pain-wracked muscles attempting to make the lungs work in vain; spots danced in front of his eyes as his brain panicked from the absence of oxygen.
“You bastard--!”
He could hear Bethany’s voice somewhere far above his head; it sounded distant, he mused, as if she were a mile into the sky.
The haze began to clear just as the clash of steel on steel grated his ears. Or was it the sound of ringing weapons that drew him from the fog? The jolt of panic accompanying the sound certainly helped to clear Will’s head.
The teenager heaved himself to his feet, battle adrenaline powering his movements despite the bruises, not to mention the lacerations of varying seriousness. The flare of panic that had seized him spread into golden eyes.
Bethany stood in a deadlock with the earth mage, pushing against the man’s halberd with her dagger, grimacing and huffing in fury. The mage looked at her like a cat would a beetle, a bored expression in his empty grey eyes. He wasn’t even trying to block her attack. She was nothing more than an annoyance to him.
“Bethany!” Will cried, lurching towards her, but he stopped short after two steps. “Guh…!” The teenager clutched his side and dropped to one knee, grimacing against the wave of dizziness, against the pain and blood loss. That halberd had opened up a gash between Will’s ribs, one too deep for his budding regeneration abilities to handle.
“Bethany,” the boy grated, “stop! It’s useless-”
“You SHUTUP, William Phelan!” the girl shrieked, surging forward with all her weight only to be effortlessly pushed back by the earth mage. “You think I’m just gonna sit here an’watch him slice you all up to ribbons?! You’re MAD!”
But it was useless. The blade of the earth mage’s halberd had a notch, one designed to do exactly what he was doing-to catch a blade and hold its wielder immobile. For some reason, the gigantic man had decided not to kill Bethany just yet, merely letting her struggle against his enormous weight and impenetrable defensive techniques. For every slice, he had a parry, for every slash, he had a way to deflect it; except now, Bethany couldn’t pull her dagger free for fear of shattering the blade. And she didn’t dare release the dagger either for fear of leaving herself wide open.
Not only did the man have the obvious advantages of size and strength over the pre-teen girl, and not only did he have a weapon with a much longer reach than hers, but he held a tower-shield in his left hand that allowed virtually no weak spots. And what points were left exposed on his body-the face and neck-could not be pierced by projectile weapons either. As if the earth magic, the shield, and the halberd weren’t enough, this man also had mastery of Blocking magic.
But by the time the dizzied boy had caught his breath and opened his mouth to tell Bethany all of this, the earth mage spoke. Words died on Will’s tongue; it was the first time their attacker had uttered a sound.
“Stand down.” As expected from a man with a girth and towering height like this one, his voice rumbled a deep baritone. “I’m not here for you, girl. I’m here to kill William Phelan, only.”
Will stood, hiding the pain and wooziness behind another surge of anger. His hands balled into fists. “Back away, Bethany.” Eyes of molten gold seared the earth mage’s face. “This isn’t your fight.”
“Like hell!” the girl spat, still glaring up at the giant of a man with unadulterated rancor. “I’m sick of you thinkin’ you can’always do everything yourself, Will! Lookit you! Yer bleedin’ all over!”
The earth mage didn’t deign to look at Bethany at all. He continued to hold her at bay with ease, his bored grey eyes locked onto Will’s face. Will met the silent stare with one of his own, except his golden eyes smoldered with wrath.
“You an’I set out on this journey together, Will,” Bethany continued, her freckled face red from passionate fury. “An’we promised we’d look out for each other, remember? So I don’know where you get this crazy idea that you gotta do it all, or that this ain’t my fight! You’re an IDIOT, Will Phelan, and I’m standin’ RIGHT where I BELONG!”
The earth mage spoke again, addressing Will as if the girl before him hadn’t said a word.
“Phelan, is it?” his rumbling voice mused. “I thought the gold eyes and hair were familiar. You are of a noble clan, a bloodline descended from the land of my fathers. It seems a shame to extinguish your life.”
“What?!” Bethany raged, her voice hitching in incredulous fury. “If it’s such a shame t’kill him, then STOP TRYING, you towering idiot!”
Wrathful as Will’s eyes were, they still had room for startled disbelief, especially as they widened. “The land of your fathers?”
“The Kingdom of Gildhelm.” The grey eyes narrowed, not in suspicion or anger, but in a studying, contemplative manner. “You do not know your own lineage?”
Will felt at such a loss that for a moment that he forgot this man had just been trying to murder him. “I’m not Gildhelmdern,” he blurted. “I’m Mylaner.”
“The Phelan clan hails from northern Mylan, but the clan’s ancient blood is half Gildhelmdern.”
For a wild moment, Will wanted to tell Bethany to back away from the man again, not simply for her own safety, but because he wanted to speak with him. He had answers. Somehow, this assassin knew about his family name, knew things about his lineage that no one had ever been able to tell Will. Or that no one had cared to tell him. Again he felt that urge seize him, that all-consuming hunger, an orphan’s burning desire to know: where do I come from, where is my family, who am I, who am I?
It still remained a strong part of his being, as it remained a strong part of every child who had lost their parents, an inclination driving them to go to any lengths just to know.
But there was yet a stronger part of Will’s being, a more powerful inclination: protect.
He began walking towards the Gildhelmdern, bare feet rolling silently over the grass, face once more set with quiet rancor. “Bethany. Back. Away.”
“I JUST TOLD YOU I AIN’T MOVIN’!” the girl shrieked. “Me standing ‘twixt you and him’s the’only thing keepin’ you alive!”
But the earth mage recognized the challenge in the boy’s voice. Unlike Bethany, he was well aware of the fact that this time, Will was out for blood. “Shame as it is to kill you, I’m being paid a generous sum for your head.”
Bethany heaved against the trapped dagger with all her weight, but once again, the earth mage deflected the blade away from him with little more than a wave of his halberd.
“You and every other mage within a hundred miles,” Will hissed, dropping into an offensive stance. “This ends now.”
The gigantic man smiled; Bethany felt totally disarmed. His smile was of neither malice nor of battlelust; it was not a look of malevolence, but a look of…approval. It seemed as if the assassin was proud of the child before him, proud that this tawny-haired boy would assert his own right to live.
“Very well.”
The blade of the halberd flashed. Before Bethany could get out a gasp, her blade shattered; all it took was one deft twist. Another deft twist-slice, spin-push, and Bethany went flying.
Will boggled. It was all he could do. For such a large man, his speed-and Bethany had already had all her weight on that dagger, so all he had to do-
She hit the ground and fell still.
A flash of red tore at Will’s eyes. The scent of flesh and iron tickled his nose. Blood.
Bethany’s blood.
She’s-
There was no battle cry. Not so much as a curse word; not so much as a feral yell.
But the look on Will’s face was feral enough. Golden eyes bulging, right hand raised with fingers curled like claws, face drawn back in a snarl, teeth bared like a wolf leaping at his prey, he charged.
The man of Gildhelm smiled.
Red lightning crackled between Will’s fingers. As his blow landed on the earth mage’s shield, Destruction energy surge through it, decomposed it, shattered it with explosive force. The physical barrier was gone as if giving way to Will’s hand, which dove onward and hit the wall of the man’s Blocking. The air seared with red light, and the magical shield sizzled as it broke down. Will didn’t stop until his fingers met flesh. Flesh ruptured; skin broke and folded, gave way to the red energy assaulting it, gave forth its life fluid as a sacrificial offering. Blood burst from the man’s chest as the Destruction energy decomposed his insides.
Blood is everywhere.
Will’s mind spun. Inside the distance between two seconds, his attack had penetrated the earth mage’s every defense, but that was nothing, not an achievement because now, now…
can feel the inside of the skin bones just beneath muscle somewhere heart is pulsing smells like blood blood blood blood
Will withdrew his hand as if burned. He stumbled backwards and clutched his head as if his brains were about to ooze out of his ears. His vision blackened, the world spun, and he fell.
Time never passed in the darkness.
Will jolted, gasping as he emerged once more into the world. He realized he lay on his back, looking up at a blue sky dotted with clouds, and grass tickled the back of his neck. The smell of blood filled his nose, sent him shaking.
Suddenly, Bethany was there. That worried look Will hated so much crinkled her freckled face. She seized both of Will’s hands and grasped them between her own.
“Buh…blood is everywhere,” Will croaked, voice wavering, teetering.
Bethany shook her head; one of her pigtails fell loose. “Not everywhere. Just on your hands.”
“Y-you were-are you okay?” He tried to sit up, but as he heaved his core muscles and commanded them to lift him, they rebelled, sending him falling back to the grass again. It was like the last time he had used Destruction magic-it felt like every speck of energy had been sucked from his body.
“I’m alright,” the redhead assured him. She squeezed her friend’s hands and gave him a reassuring smile, one that didn’t reach her russet eyes. “It’s just a scratch, nothin’ much. It’s stopped bleedin’ now.”
But he would not be comforted. The stench of fresh plasma would not leave him be. “The mage, is he-is he dead?”
Bethany shook her head. “He’s bleedin’ somethin’ fierce from his chest, but he’s breathin’. He ain’t getting up for a piece, I think. Maybe not at all. We can sit here for a minute.”
“Not…getting…” Will’s breath hitched, and his vision fogged. He tried to fight the phobia, tried to assert control over his own body, his own emotions, but that God-awful smell would not go away.
“It’s alright!” Bethany jumped in, squeezing his hands again and once more offering a smile, though this time her eyes were panicked. “He ain’t gonna die, Will. But he ain’t conscious. He’ll leave us be. It’s okay. We’re safe now. You saved us.”
Saved…?
Blood is everywhere.
“Just on your hands.”
“My hands…”
Will pulled one of his hands from Bethany’s grasp, surprised at how easy it was; it slid free as if greased. He held the shaking limb up before his eyes, struggling against the energy drain to keep it aloft, struggling against the phobia to keep it still.
Red. It was slicked with solid red. His whole hand, wrist, fingers, under his fingernails, soaking his sleeve almost to the elbow. Red.
Bethany saw the hysteria rising in her friend’s face, saw his eyes begin to glaze over, heard his breath hitch, and she darted her hand out and seized his. She pressed his hands together, pressed them to her face and hunched over them, protective, desperate. “It’s alright, Will,” she insisted, though her voice choked now as she fought to keep the moisture off of her face. “It’s alright.”
Will’s tears disagreed. No, it was not alright; this was wrong and what he’d done was wrong and he was scared and he hated this.
Bethany felt just a tiny bit grateful as he spoke again, for the sound of his rasping whisper hid the soft sob fighting out of her throat. But his words defeated her.
“I’m…I’m a monster.”
Her tears won.
This little ditty is set in my original world of Aerdus and uses original characters. (Which shouldn't be a big deal but IS, considering what an obsessive fanfiction writer I am. @_@) For more Aerdus ditties or to know more about what the heck this Aerdus place is, visit my account here on LJ, or my deviantART account, linked on my profile. *noddles* :3
Title: Monstrosity
Author: Ashari
Challenge #: 28
Rating: PG-13. For blood.
Disclaimers/Warnings: Begins in medias res. Watch your step. >3
The ground erupted beneath his feet again. Will’s equilibrium went shooting to hell; the next thing he knew, his back had slammed into the ground. Hard. His chest spasmed, pain-wracked muscles attempting to make the lungs work in vain; spots danced in front of his eyes as his brain panicked from the absence of oxygen.
“You bastard--!”
He could hear Bethany’s voice somewhere far above his head; it sounded distant, he mused, as if she were a mile into the sky.
The haze began to clear just as the clash of steel on steel grated his ears. Or was it the sound of ringing weapons that drew him from the fog? The jolt of panic accompanying the sound certainly helped to clear Will’s head.
The teenager heaved himself to his feet, battle adrenaline powering his movements despite the bruises, not to mention the lacerations of varying seriousness. The flare of panic that had seized him spread into golden eyes.
Bethany stood in a deadlock with the earth mage, pushing against the man’s halberd with her dagger, grimacing and huffing in fury. The mage looked at her like a cat would a beetle, a bored expression in his empty grey eyes. He wasn’t even trying to block her attack. She was nothing more than an annoyance to him.
“Bethany!” Will cried, lurching towards her, but he stopped short after two steps. “Guh…!” The teenager clutched his side and dropped to one knee, grimacing against the wave of dizziness, against the pain and blood loss. That halberd had opened up a gash between Will’s ribs, one too deep for his budding regeneration abilities to handle.
“Bethany,” the boy grated, “stop! It’s useless-”
“You SHUTUP, William Phelan!” the girl shrieked, surging forward with all her weight only to be effortlessly pushed back by the earth mage. “You think I’m just gonna sit here an’watch him slice you all up to ribbons?! You’re MAD!”
But it was useless. The blade of the earth mage’s halberd had a notch, one designed to do exactly what he was doing-to catch a blade and hold its wielder immobile. For some reason, the gigantic man had decided not to kill Bethany just yet, merely letting her struggle against his enormous weight and impenetrable defensive techniques. For every slice, he had a parry, for every slash, he had a way to deflect it; except now, Bethany couldn’t pull her dagger free for fear of shattering the blade. And she didn’t dare release the dagger either for fear of leaving herself wide open.
Not only did the man have the obvious advantages of size and strength over the pre-teen girl, and not only did he have a weapon with a much longer reach than hers, but he held a tower-shield in his left hand that allowed virtually no weak spots. And what points were left exposed on his body-the face and neck-could not be pierced by projectile weapons either. As if the earth magic, the shield, and the halberd weren’t enough, this man also had mastery of Blocking magic.
But by the time the dizzied boy had caught his breath and opened his mouth to tell Bethany all of this, the earth mage spoke. Words died on Will’s tongue; it was the first time their attacker had uttered a sound.
“Stand down.” As expected from a man with a girth and towering height like this one, his voice rumbled a deep baritone. “I’m not here for you, girl. I’m here to kill William Phelan, only.”
Will stood, hiding the pain and wooziness behind another surge of anger. His hands balled into fists. “Back away, Bethany.” Eyes of molten gold seared the earth mage’s face. “This isn’t your fight.”
“Like hell!” the girl spat, still glaring up at the giant of a man with unadulterated rancor. “I’m sick of you thinkin’ you can’always do everything yourself, Will! Lookit you! Yer bleedin’ all over!”
The earth mage didn’t deign to look at Bethany at all. He continued to hold her at bay with ease, his bored grey eyes locked onto Will’s face. Will met the silent stare with one of his own, except his golden eyes smoldered with wrath.
“You an’I set out on this journey together, Will,” Bethany continued, her freckled face red from passionate fury. “An’we promised we’d look out for each other, remember? So I don’know where you get this crazy idea that you gotta do it all, or that this ain’t my fight! You’re an IDIOT, Will Phelan, and I’m standin’ RIGHT where I BELONG!”
The earth mage spoke again, addressing Will as if the girl before him hadn’t said a word.
“Phelan, is it?” his rumbling voice mused. “I thought the gold eyes and hair were familiar. You are of a noble clan, a bloodline descended from the land of my fathers. It seems a shame to extinguish your life.”
“What?!” Bethany raged, her voice hitching in incredulous fury. “If it’s such a shame t’kill him, then STOP TRYING, you towering idiot!”
Wrathful as Will’s eyes were, they still had room for startled disbelief, especially as they widened. “The land of your fathers?”
“The Kingdom of Gildhelm.” The grey eyes narrowed, not in suspicion or anger, but in a studying, contemplative manner. “You do not know your own lineage?”
Will felt at such a loss that for a moment that he forgot this man had just been trying to murder him. “I’m not Gildhelmdern,” he blurted. “I’m Mylaner.”
“The Phelan clan hails from northern Mylan, but the clan’s ancient blood is half Gildhelmdern.”
For a wild moment, Will wanted to tell Bethany to back away from the man again, not simply for her own safety, but because he wanted to speak with him. He had answers. Somehow, this assassin knew about his family name, knew things about his lineage that no one had ever been able to tell Will. Or that no one had cared to tell him. Again he felt that urge seize him, that all-consuming hunger, an orphan’s burning desire to know: where do I come from, where is my family, who am I, who am I?
It still remained a strong part of his being, as it remained a strong part of every child who had lost their parents, an inclination driving them to go to any lengths just to know.
But there was yet a stronger part of Will’s being, a more powerful inclination: protect.
He began walking towards the Gildhelmdern, bare feet rolling silently over the grass, face once more set with quiet rancor. “Bethany. Back. Away.”
“I JUST TOLD YOU I AIN’T MOVIN’!” the girl shrieked. “Me standing ‘twixt you and him’s the’only thing keepin’ you alive!”
But the earth mage recognized the challenge in the boy’s voice. Unlike Bethany, he was well aware of the fact that this time, Will was out for blood. “Shame as it is to kill you, I’m being paid a generous sum for your head.”
Bethany heaved against the trapped dagger with all her weight, but once again, the earth mage deflected the blade away from him with little more than a wave of his halberd.
“You and every other mage within a hundred miles,” Will hissed, dropping into an offensive stance. “This ends now.”
The gigantic man smiled; Bethany felt totally disarmed. His smile was of neither malice nor of battlelust; it was not a look of malevolence, but a look of…approval. It seemed as if the assassin was proud of the child before him, proud that this tawny-haired boy would assert his own right to live.
“Very well.”
The blade of the halberd flashed. Before Bethany could get out a gasp, her blade shattered; all it took was one deft twist. Another deft twist-slice, spin-push, and Bethany went flying.
Will boggled. It was all he could do. For such a large man, his speed-and Bethany had already had all her weight on that dagger, so all he had to do-
She hit the ground and fell still.
A flash of red tore at Will’s eyes. The scent of flesh and iron tickled his nose. Blood.
Bethany’s blood.
She’s-
There was no battle cry. Not so much as a curse word; not so much as a feral yell.
But the look on Will’s face was feral enough. Golden eyes bulging, right hand raised with fingers curled like claws, face drawn back in a snarl, teeth bared like a wolf leaping at his prey, he charged.
The man of Gildhelm smiled.
Red lightning crackled between Will’s fingers. As his blow landed on the earth mage’s shield, Destruction energy surge through it, decomposed it, shattered it with explosive force. The physical barrier was gone as if giving way to Will’s hand, which dove onward and hit the wall of the man’s Blocking. The air seared with red light, and the magical shield sizzled as it broke down. Will didn’t stop until his fingers met flesh. Flesh ruptured; skin broke and folded, gave way to the red energy assaulting it, gave forth its life fluid as a sacrificial offering. Blood burst from the man’s chest as the Destruction energy decomposed his insides.
Blood is everywhere.
Will’s mind spun. Inside the distance between two seconds, his attack had penetrated the earth mage’s every defense, but that was nothing, not an achievement because now, now…
can feel the inside of the skin bones just beneath muscle somewhere heart is pulsing smells like blood blood blood blood
Will withdrew his hand as if burned. He stumbled backwards and clutched his head as if his brains were about to ooze out of his ears. His vision blackened, the world spun, and he fell.
Time never passed in the darkness.
Will jolted, gasping as he emerged once more into the world. He realized he lay on his back, looking up at a blue sky dotted with clouds, and grass tickled the back of his neck. The smell of blood filled his nose, sent him shaking.
Suddenly, Bethany was there. That worried look Will hated so much crinkled her freckled face. She seized both of Will’s hands and grasped them between her own.
“Buh…blood is everywhere,” Will croaked, voice wavering, teetering.
Bethany shook her head; one of her pigtails fell loose. “Not everywhere. Just on your hands.”
“Y-you were-are you okay?” He tried to sit up, but as he heaved his core muscles and commanded them to lift him, they rebelled, sending him falling back to the grass again. It was like the last time he had used Destruction magic-it felt like every speck of energy had been sucked from his body.
“I’m alright,” the redhead assured him. She squeezed her friend’s hands and gave him a reassuring smile, one that didn’t reach her russet eyes. “It’s just a scratch, nothin’ much. It’s stopped bleedin’ now.”
But he would not be comforted. The stench of fresh plasma would not leave him be. “The mage, is he-is he dead?”
Bethany shook her head. “He’s bleedin’ somethin’ fierce from his chest, but he’s breathin’. He ain’t getting up for a piece, I think. Maybe not at all. We can sit here for a minute.”
“Not…getting…” Will’s breath hitched, and his vision fogged. He tried to fight the phobia, tried to assert control over his own body, his own emotions, but that God-awful smell would not go away.
“It’s alright!” Bethany jumped in, squeezing his hands again and once more offering a smile, though this time her eyes were panicked. “He ain’t gonna die, Will. But he ain’t conscious. He’ll leave us be. It’s okay. We’re safe now. You saved us.”
Saved…?
Blood is everywhere.
“Just on your hands.”
“My hands…”
Will pulled one of his hands from Bethany’s grasp, surprised at how easy it was; it slid free as if greased. He held the shaking limb up before his eyes, struggling against the energy drain to keep it aloft, struggling against the phobia to keep it still.
Red. It was slicked with solid red. His whole hand, wrist, fingers, under his fingernails, soaking his sleeve almost to the elbow. Red.
Bethany saw the hysteria rising in her friend’s face, saw his eyes begin to glaze over, heard his breath hitch, and she darted her hand out and seized his. She pressed his hands together, pressed them to her face and hunched over them, protective, desperate. “It’s alright, Will,” she insisted, though her voice choked now as she fought to keep the moisture off of her face. “It’s alright.”
Will’s tears disagreed. No, it was not alright; this was wrong and what he’d done was wrong and he was scared and he hated this.
Bethany felt just a tiny bit grateful as he spoke again, for the sound of his rasping whisper hid the soft sob fighting out of her throat. But his words defeated her.
“I’m…I’m a monster.”
Her tears won.