AEP 11 - pt1
Title: An Exiled Parrot
Chapter : 11 / x
Author: verite_knight
Words: 7510
“. . . .” denotes normal talking
:. . . .: denotes thinking to themselves
denotes Gaelican talking
~italics~ denotes telepathic talking
Chapter 11:
Celestiana's pace slowed down, allowing herself to fall back into the pack, middle to be exact. She walked in a straight line, the middle person, with Kyiuma on her left, and Raize on her direct right side. Next to Kyiuma was Gloreal, and Raize was sandwiched between a thief, whose namme was unknown to him, and Celestiana. He felt rather safe, but at the same time, when the group had immediately sped up, and then locked Celestiana and them in the middle it had the two humans a little worried.
No one had seemed to see that Dragan was no longer with them. As they kept walking, Celestiana and Gloreal didn't say anything to each other, but instead just kept walking. Many members of the group, looked rather slimish - hair disshelved, in need of a cut, and the outer appearance looking like it was in need of some attention. However to them, it didn't matter. After all, they were on the bad section of the planet, and it was seriously showing. As soon as they had stepped out of the hangar, the terrain became very rough, and multiple loose rocks gave the thieves a start. The pretty walking places had disappeared, and it appeared that the outcasts lived in this section because there was trash lying everywhere. There were random people walking around, however the appearance of this group of thirteen didn't seem to affect them in anyway. If anything they looked up, saw the group, then went back to whatever it was that they were doing.
For many of the older members they were rather use to Celestiana's random short orders in regards to some of their missions. They were also use to being led blindly, at times, but it didn't matter that they were again being led. They didn't care that it seemed that they were walking to a random destination. With each step, the thieves stood their ground; their weapons ready and the adrenline running through their veins willing to sacrafice themselves for their leader. Another step was taken, and the random path took a sharp turn to the group's left, and it appeared that they were walking in a zig-zag pattern.
--
Dragan stepped out of the hangar and stepped out on the dirt path and smirked. It had appeared that the group was approaching their unknown location soon enough. As Dragan kept on walking on the dirt path, he saw his other, hated leader standing there. As he stopped four feet from the Gaelican general, he hit the ground with his left knee and he lowered his head to his chest. As his aqua coloured eyes stared at the ground, he heard someone walking up towards the king and then bowing their head.
Shortly around the King and his three generals, the light sounds of someone walking towards the ground were heard. As Dragan’s senses flared up, he tried sensing who was coming. As he felt the energy, he couldn’t help but feel his jaw tighten and his hand curl into a fist. The footsteps were getting louder, and soon another person hit their knee into the ground and as a pair of boots entered Dragan’s vision, he tried to swallow the knot that had formed in his throat. As the King saw his last general stand in front of Dragan, the King’s deep voice rang out for everyone to get to their feet. The soldiers then pulled apart from each other, into their specialty pods behind their respected sgeneral.
As Dragan raised himself, and moved towards his specialty section. The general of the ranged weapons, specialty of arrows, walked towards his group of ten men and smirked.
“Well, if it’s not all of us back together again. For some of us, it’s been awhile.” The general said in a low voice. “I am going to make this rather quick and painless. Everyone in here is a ranged weapon, with their primary being a bow and arrow right?” All ten men nodded, or grunted.
The general looked around his men, again. The old group was still one of the same original groups that had not been torn apart by people switching or getting killed. As the general nodded to his men, he saw the multiple auras appear around them, as they got their weapons and ammunition ready. The general walked over to Dragan who was staring up at the sky; the archer’s aura wasn’t pulsating with energy yet, and it appeared that he was oblivious to everyone and everything around him.
“Dragan, you were thinking about that leader of yours?” The general asked quietly. Dragan’s honey coloured eyes snapped towards the voice.
“No. Who are you talking about?” Dragan bit the inside of his cheek, hoping that the general wouldn’t say anything in regards to her.
“You know, you really stink at hiding the truth. Gear up, we’re leaving in two.” The general replied before turning to the rest of the group. As the group started to walk away from the rest of the generals, Dragan followed suit falling to the back of the circle allowing his aura to faintly show it’s yellowish colour. With each step, his aura got a little brighter, and the general soon fell in step next to the archer. His deep, husky voice and wine coloured eyes looked up at the archer standing next to him.
“Dragan, it’s fine. I know you’re one of the spies we’re trying to find. You do a rather well job at hiding it.” The general grinned at the archer.
“You know, it’s been far too long, General. When you called the ship, I knew it was you. Also. . .” Dragan was cut off as his head snapped up to feel that two all too familiar auras fluctuating up and down in energy. Dragan’s aura glowed sunshine yellow, as energy particles gathered in his right hand. As the bow took shape, Dragan’s eyes side glanced at his general, who nodded, and turned a complete one hundred and eighty degrees with Dragan. The two archers stood shoulder to shoulder, staring at the King’s right hand man and the Captain over their sector.
“I thought I might find you walking out here. General Kaldrea, you are an archer yourself?” Triploli grinned at the general.
“I am an archer, yes.” The general responded.
“What can do I to get you of some men to kill someone?” Tripopli grinned at the general.
“I would try asking, and I might consider it. Of course, it has to be sanctioned by the King.” The general nodded. In response, Triploli didn’t say anything, but he frowned.
“What if I were to say it was an order?” Dragan’s eyes widened in knowing what was going to happen next. The archer raised his yellow energy bow, pulled back and felt the energy pulsating around his hand, as he let go of the bow’s energy string, the energy particles broke and reformed as an orange arrow. As the arrow split through the wind, Dragan felt the other familiar aura appear behind him. As the arrow hit on contact to Tripoli, the orange particles broke apart, and Dragan had Tripoli coming at him with an blue energy sword.
As Tripoli raised his sword over his head, to pull down, a clashing noise was made. On impact, the blue sword hit a lilac energy something, as specks of lilac coloured energy particles were hitting the ground. Dragan’s eyes widened to find the familiar aura was Celestiaña’s. Her white eyes bore holes into Tripoli’s sky coloured ones, while her right hand tightened on the energy sword, while her left hand set itself on the hilt of the small Chinese war sword. Her left hand grabbed the sword, removed it from it’s hidden spot and pulled it around him and left the curved blade on the back of his neck. His eyes widened as he realized all she had to do was add a bit more pressure and the blade would squarely take off his head. Dragan stepped out, nodding to the general, who raised his left hand and his bow with an arrow nocked pointed directly at Tripoli.
Celestiaña stared at the men, and added some pressure to the Chinese sword, letting her purple energy sword disappear. As she added pressure, Tripoli’s jaw clenched, and his men stopped moving closer to her. Kaldrea’s eyes looked at the female leader, and smirked: It was time.
Kaldrea took the sky, as did the rest of his members leaving Celestiaña’s on the ground with Tripoli. The general looked at his specialized team, and then noticed Dragan was half way between himself and his female leader. He growled at Dragan, and then saw the archer come to the same level as the rest of his teammates. In a hushed voice, the general said, “You stay near her, and you’ll be suspected as the spy immediately.” Dragan locked his eyes with his general’s then nodded slightly. Dragan raised himself into the air and watched at the battle between his leader and the major. As he watched intensely, as the Jachnue moved through the group, stopping four feet behind Tripoli, in Celestiaña’s line of sight.
From inside the group, the king nodded and Kaldrea, turned on his head, and pointed to the west. Dragan let his senses expand out, and he noticed to the west was the group of thieves who were wandering around. As Kaldrea’s boots hit an invisible surface, as the rest of the archers took off with their capes billowing out as the wind caught their movements through the sky.
Dragan, however, remained to watch the scene. He lowered himself to the ground, allowed his energy to dissipate and his aura to disappear. Celestiaña felt the power of someone walking towards her, and as she looked up her lilac eyes met with the one person she couldn’t sit there and ignore. Jade coloured eyes hardened as the person holding the sword lifted their head. Tripoli’s eyes widened as he felt the pressure from the Chinese sword disappear from the base of his neck.
The major was pulled by his shoulder by the jade coloured man away from Celestiaña As Celestiaña’s gaze was locked with the jade coloured gaze, she felt her grip on the sword loosening. She was staring into the eyes that were cold as gemstones, and yet, she could not figure out why the eyes were as familiar to her as they were. White eyes never left the locked gaze of the jade ones. The jade coloured eyes took several steps towards Celestiaña, and was now in front of Tripoli and as the man was getting closer, Celestiaña was taking small steps back.
“Why are you running?” The man asked. Celestiaña did not say anything, but let her eyes narrow and her lips press together to create a line. “You aren’t going to answer me are you?”
Celestiaña’s mind ran quicker than she could form a plan. She let eyes close for a minute, allowing the tears to gather in her eyes. She was defeated and she knew it. As she opened her eyes again, she caught those jade eyes again and let her senses expand out. The archers were moving towards the west, while Dragan was behind her, and her father was right in front of her. Seeing how she had no choice, she brought both of her feet together, straightened her stance, let her powers settle down into a calm, allowed her eyes to shift back to their white colour and pulled her arms behind her back, and crossed her arms at her wrists. Jachnue walked behind Celestiaña, placed one cuff on her left wrist and the other one on her right wrist. He also looped a roped through another circular piece of metal which he opened the clasp and placed it around her neck.
~Dragan, I need you to get back to your group, and do not get caught. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.~ Celestiaña projected into Dragan’s mind, hoping that it would get there before the curricular piece of metal was placed around her neck, and her powers were quickly lessened by the chains. As she heard the familiar click of the clasp, and soon felt the cold metal around her neck, the tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. The jade coloured eyes placed his hands on her petite shoulders, and she felt rather helpless. Instead of walking towards the King and Major Tripoli, she found herself walking towards Dragan. Her breath hitched as she found herself unable to do much other than let herself be steered to her second in command and with each step the tears threatened to fall down her cheeks.
Celestiaña found herself stopping two feet in front of Dragan, and found him standing alone. The tears remained at the corner of her eyes, and as she closed her eyes she heard the exchange between the two military officers.
“What are you doing here?” The man asked Dragan. The jade coloured eyes remained fixated on the captive however.
“Well, sir -“ Dragan found himself unable to say anything else. As he tried to form an answer, behind him he heard a small jingle of medals hitting each other as someone was moving closer to him.
“Sir, I asked him to stay behind as the representative of the arches section.” General Kaeldra answered behind Dragan.
“General, why did you not stay yourself?” Jachnue asked.
“I wanted to get the rest of the group moving, before we lost any more time. We’re moving west, and it will easily take us two days to get to civilization at the rate we’re going now.” Kaeldra looked at Celestiaña, and then looked at Dragan. The two were lost in a gaze that no one had noticed, except Celestiaña’s eyes were closed. Dragan’s eyes were fixated on her closed eyes. Kaeldra let his aura flicker for a minute, which snapped Dragan out of his trance, and looked at his general.
“. .. Sir, I understand. It will not happen again.” Kaeldra supplied Jachnue. Jachnue nodded to the Kaeldra and Dragan. As Celestiaña opened her eyes, her head tilted slightly towards the right and out of the corner of her eye she caught her father. As she looked up, Jachnue looked down at her, and quietly whispered to her, “You make this so much harder on me, than you realize hija.”
Dragan smiled at Jachnue before turning on his heel and following Kaeldra, who had taken towards the air. As Dragan felt his power lift him into the air, he gave a side look at his leader, smirked and then gave one last remark telepathically to Celestiaña.
~Take care of yourself. We’re moving West, and we’re going to end up meeting with the group. Kaeldra chose the west for a reason. No one will get hurt, I promise. Take care of yourself.~
Celestiaña felt herself moving back towards the group, as she was walking, she walked through the middle of the group and found herself staring into the King’s hazel coloured eyes. She soon found herself lost in those eyes as she often did in his son’s eyes. Without her realizing it, she soon found herself being slapped across the face with the King’s backhand, and while it processed through her head, she felt the enormous power of Tripoli hitting her from all sides. As she fell to the ground, panting, she felt someone’s cold hands on her left arm, pulling her left arm out to the side and a needle being inserted.
Celestiaña’s pupils slowly changed from their white colour to a gray colour, her two-toned coloured hair changed into a solid black colour and as the needle’s contents started to take effect, she whispered loudly for a few to hear her say, “I will never bow down to you.” Jacnue pulled the needle out his daughter’s neck, saw her eyes fluttering closed and then soon felt her weight leaning onto him as she fell into a slumber. He picked his daughter up, and started to walk with the King as they wanted towards the embassy.
--
In the air, the wind whistled by the archers and Kaeldra eyed all ten members of his speciality group. It was an honour to say that leading ten of the best archers in the Gaelican military. Each one of the men in ahead of the General had their capes billowing out, their auras flared and their senses running at the highest points awaiting for the first sign to release the arrows that each one held with their bows nocked with arrows.
Kaledra gave a side glance to Dragan, who seemed to be off in his own world while his body was running and keeping up with the rest of the group. Unlike everyone, he knew they were going to be hitting his other group first, and hoped nothing would happen to them. He told Celestiana before he had left her that he would keep them safe from any harm. The thief’s aura wasn’t flared out, and if anything he archer didn’t appear to be worried about where they were going. His body just seemed to be moving on it’s own accord while his brain was somewhere else.
As Kaledra looked at his group again, he noticed he had nine pairs of eyes on him, and he pointed towards the ground. The bad section of the planet was coming up. As the General looked towards Dragan, he saw that the archer was already on the ground walking in the direction. As the group of ten arches reached the ground, they kept walking and they had all noticed that Dragan’s outfit changed from his military outfit to an almost everday outfit. The archer’s outfit was black pants with a black muscle shirt. His shoes were that of black combat boots, and the pants covered the top of the boots. As he walked, it seemed that everyone else filed behind the thief, and Kaledra raised an eyebrow. Kaledra lifted himself in to the air and then lowered himself with his eyes staring into the maroon coloured ones.
“Dragan, stop.” The General’s voice was commanding. Dragan’s eyes flicked towards the General.
“You know where we’re going. Your going to end up hitting them. I’m trying to stop any conflicts that might happen if they see you, before me.” Dragan’s eyes hardened as his mind wandered off into the thoughts of what would happen.
“I’m not saying that your wrong, but you need to give your other group a bit of idea what they’re walking into.” Kaledra raised his head. He gestured out to the group and they turned towards the General. As Dragan’s eyes looked through the group, he turned on his heel and lunged into the air. The archer’s stood there looking at Dragan, and then nine of the archers were on the floor before they even knew what hit them. Kaledra and Dragan were the only ones standing at the moment.
Kaledra looked with a fascination at Dragan, and then saw a familiar orange flow send the attacker flying through the air. Dragan lowered himself, and pulled out a gun. As he raised the gun into the air, Kaledra felt his aura spike and then collect itself in the barrel of the gun. As Dragan’s index finger let go of the trigger, the energy was released from the barrel and went upwards into the sky with a yellow ring around it, and in the centre of the yellow aura was a brown section. Kaeldra’s eyes were fixated on the energy that was spouted out from the barrel that he did not realize that Dragan was coming at him, and knocked him to the ground.
Dragan pushed Kaledran to the ground, and Kaledra looked at Dragan crazily. The two men felt a small breeze hit them, and Dragan growled something. As Kaledra looked up, he saw someone standing with wings out of their back. Dragan let Kaledra sit up, and Kaledra looked around for his men. His nine trained archers were just taken down by a group of low-life gypsies. As Kaledra’s archers started to walk near him, he noticed there was another circle of people, holding weapons and glaring at Kaledra and his men.
Dragan however was unfazed and glared daggers into Gloreal’s back. As he growled when the angel went over him, Gloreal stopped and stared at Dragan, and then as the angle realized who it was, his eyes widened.
“Stand down.” Dragan’s voice carried no emotions, and was rather growled out than said. Kaldrea’s mind started to form some conclusions in his mind, while the other archers stood there staring at Dragan.
One of the thieves put away the maul, and put their hand out to shake the closest archer’s hand. Dragan stared at Hinarie and smiled.
“If any of you hurt these archers, your life is mine. I don’t care what Celestiana thinks of it; I will personally kill you, without any arrows.” Dragan’s voice was calm. As he turned towards the General, he smiled and said “See what I meant?”
He then turned towards the other archers, and grinned before saying, “What I’m about to tell you do not leave this circle. I am one of the spies that the King is worried about. I’m so close that he doesn’t realize this. Thieves this is the group of Specialized Archers under the Gaelican military. Gaelican archers, this is Celestiana’s underground thievery band.”
Soon the thieves had pulled the closest archers into their outer circle, and soon each archer was surrounded by two thieves. Gloreal pulled Kaledra next to him, and soon Dragan stared at the two. The pair, angel and General, stepped into the circle, and the thieves spread out to connect the circle again.
“Everyone, this is General Kaledra. He is the General of the Specalized Archers Group, which I’m in. Additionally, this here-“ He gestured towards Gloreal and then said, “is Gloreal. To the thieves he’s the third in command under Celestiana and myself. To the archers, he is a healer as well.”
Gloreal took the queue and picked up for Dragan. Dragan pulled Kaldrea off to the side and had quietly speaking to him privately. “Yes, you are on the planet of Artheon, and yes . . .we are going to be in the ‘bad’ section of the planet.“
As Dragan and Kaledra walked back to the group, they both noticed the thieves were glaring at the archers, and the archers seemed to be scared out of their skins to be around thieves. Dragan growled softly while Gloreal stared at the second in command while Kaledra raised an eyebrow.
“Will you stop that?” Gloreal snapped at Kaledra. The angel was being followed like a hawk by the general.
“I am merely watching my surroundings.” The general replied and Dragan rolled his eyes. As the group walked under the city gates, the military’s metal boots started making noises as they walked. The archers moved themselves into an inner circle while the thieves assembled themselves in an outer circle. Dragan raised an eyebrow at the maneuver was impressed; he didn’t think the thieves would have accomplished something on that nature without being told.
As they walked through the city the amount of trash on the ground was nauseating for anyone that this was their first time. Each time Dragan came to this side of the town, he had to stop himself from wanting to gag and whenever he got away from this side of the planet, he wanted to do nothing but run into a shower. As he looked around the group, he smirked. He was commanding ten Gaelican military archers, and fifteen Gaelican thieves, the irony of it all.
As Dragan nodded to Kaledra, the archers took to the skies, roughly four feet above the thieves. As the thieves took the lead, Dragan let his mind wander back to their female leader and wondered how she was doing. While Dragan’s mind wandered the thieves and archers kept moving to their destination, in which no one other than Dragan knew where exactly it was; all they knew was the general direction.
--
As the thieves kept on walking, the archers pulled together closer and tried to get away from the lowlifes that seemed to be everywhere. The amount of trash, sewage and just filth was mind numbing. Every corner seemed to have a stench that was different from corner to corner.
Kaledra looked at his archers again, and then sighed. Dragan had taken the lead again and they were walking down a narrow alleyway. There would be no way that they were going to fly through the narrow alleyway. As Kaledra looked ahead and tilted his head slightly upwards, he saw the clothes line from window to window with assorted articles of clothing. It was rather sad that people still lived like this, in this day and age. As the General started to descend towards the ground, he felt the archer’s stares at his back, wandering if he was crazy or not. The General did not make any movement towards the archers, but instead the nine of them followed his lead and descended.
As the archers were half way through the alleyway, half of the thieves disappeared from their line of sight, and Kaledra felt his men starting to get worried. He knew his men were leery of this: walking with thieves. Kaeldra pushed the worry to the back of his mind as he saw Dragan disappear from his sight as well. The General bit his lip and expanded his senses. He found that the archer had actually moved behind him, and the thieves had sandwhiched the arches between two groups of the thieves. It was a smart move, but at the same time, Kaledra couldn’t help but worry for the archers.
~Is this necessary, Dragan?~ The General asked the thief-archer.
~I wish I could say that it wasn’t required.~ Dragan’s monotone voice ran through the General’s brain.
~Why is it required?~ The General asked before ducking under some clothes. As he passed underneath he felt a few droplets of water hit his shoulders.
~You’ll see why, here in a second.~ As the archer relayed that information to the General, the entire group was out of the alleyway, the group soon found themselves’ staring at the inside of a metal cage.
The archers looked around in worry while the thieves moved about the cage. While the cage was not small, it was rather large and it held everyone comfortably. Each thief positioned themselves next to a hole, and held their weapon hidden, out of sight, and if needed in a moments’ notice they could strike. The archers on the other hand, stood in confusion as the cage started to rise.
As the cage was lifted, Dragan released an orange beam that was headed straight for the ground. It stopped four feet from the ground, and was then headed parallel to the ground straight for the metal door. As it collided with the metal door, the metal door started to open. Dragan gave a curt nod to Hinariæ who had wiggled her way out of the cage’s holes and dropped herself to the ground from the ten foot high cage.
As the purple haired thief walked up to the metal door, which was now fully open, she quickly dispatched the guards who were standing guard. As she pulled out a knife, she threw it above her head, and it struck a guard in the chest, and the cage was now falling lopsided back towards the ground.
From inside the cage, Dragan pulled out a throwing star and threw it through a hole in the cage, perfectly catching the rope which the guard was holding which successfully dropped the metal cage on the ground with a hard and loud thud. Everyone inside the cage was a little rattled. As they stared at the cage, it did not seem that it was possible for anyone to get the cage open.
Hinariæ looked at Dragan who nodded to the thin, pale, purple headed thief. She turned on her heel and walked through the door. Her retreating figure disappeared quickly, and the rest of the thieves and archers were left on how to open the cage.
With Hinariæ gone, Gloreal pulled out a rope and cracked it like a whip with energy flowing through it. The rope was then snapped across the top corners of the cage, and as Gloreal’s wings expanded out, he grabbed the top piece of the cage and moved upwards. With the top part of the cage gone, the archers and thieves scrambled out of the cage as quickly as they could. Gloreal dropped to the ground again, and threw the top of the cage on the opposite side, towards the alleyway and as it hit the ground it made a rather large clanging noise.
General Kaledra was rather impressed with the techniques of the thieves. These people were resourceful. As his eyes looked at Gloreal, he did not see the rope anymore, and suspected it was lying somewhere else. As he turned his attention back towards the metal door, he saw the purple thief walk to the threshold and smirk in a very Celestiaña way.
As the group moved towards the metal gate, Dragan whispered something to the purple haired thief who in turn just frowned. As the second in command smirked at the thief, she nodded and then turned on her heel, falling in step behind her leader. Kaledra couldn not help but shake the fear he was really feeling. It was like they were walking blindly into the trap, and no one knew where they were.
The group came to a pair of stairs, and as they walked down the stairs, they soon found themselves in a tunnel of sorts, underground. Kaledra raised an eyebrow to Gloreal and asked,
“I did not know that thieves were this resourceful. It’s like you have your own little society that only thieves know about.” He commented.
“Actually, not many people know of this area.” Gloreal answered. As they walked through the corridors, the walkways were getting smaller, and the smells of sewage was overpowering. As they rounded another pair of stairs to go up, Hinariæ growled at Dragan. Dragan did not answer her directly, but as he tried to take the lead, she pulled him off of the stairs. Dragan’s glare did not faze her, and as he picked himself from the ground, she never saw the orange beam that was released from his left palm. The beam hit her and sent her across the sewage ‘stream’ and pinned against the wall.
“Dragan. . I did not. . .” Hinariæ struggled to breath and talk.
“Do not say a word, Hinariæ. You know your place right now.” The archer’s tone was icy cold, showing no emotion. As he closed his hand, the purple haired thief was released from the wall, and was teleported back onto the side of the thieves.
Dragan started to walk up the stairs, not toughing the algae and slime filled railings. As he poked his head up on the other side, the first thing he heard was,
“Dragan! Celestiaña! Dragan! It’s you, by some moon and planets, you’re here!” Dragan winced as he heard Celestiaña’s name. As the archer pulled himself up through the opening, he knew the rest of the group was coming up behind him. He waited until the entire group was through, and he saw Gloreal come through the tunnel, and replace the manhole covering.
“Sythaxan, it’s good to see you, my friend. It’s been awhile. . .” Dragan responded.
“Dragan, you do not know how long it’s been since I’ve seen you, my boy.” Sythaxan answered.
Dragan started to walk towards the voice and as he walked he had a huge grin on his face. It was until Sythaxan asked, “Where’s Celest?” Dragan’s eyes turned cold blue gems at this question.
“Sythaxan, I can not answer that question at this time.” Dragan’s answer. He was not going to tell the group he was leading that she was taken again. After all, this was her most prized possession.
“Why doesn’t everyone come into my home and you can say it there.” Sythaxan turned around and everyone followed him through the corridor. As they entered another corridor, everyone except Sythaxan had to duck, or walk on their knees, seeing how the tunnel was half of the height. Sythaxan chuckled as he turned back around and saw Dragan glaring daggers at his back.
As they exited the corridor, they came to a large circular table. As Sythaxan took a seat at the table, he motioned for everyone else to take a seat as well. With everyone seated, he called out to no one in particular for drinks, and within in moments everyone had a drinks in front of themselves, and Sythaxan stared right at Gloreal and Dragan.
“So, tell me what happened to Celestiaña.” His voice trailed off, not really asking a question, but more of a demand. Kaledra looked around at the place that they were at, and he could tell that they were rather far below ground because the stench was rather heavy and the air felt like it was humid.
Kaledra drew his attention from Dragan and Gloreal to look around his surroundings. As he stood up from the table, he grabbed his drink and walked around. As he moved about the room, a few people looked up at him from their work and then turned back to what they were doing. Kaeldra walked from station to station and bumped into a young girl who looked up at him and glared. As he moved out of her way, he made a quick dodge towards the ground as he saw a glint of metal come from a balcony headed towards his head. As he hit the ground, Sythaxan’s eyes darted straight towards the balcony in which the metal came from. As the blade neared the table, Sythaxan put his hand out, palm towards the metal and the blade hit the ground.
“Perhaps it’s better if we move into the deeper section, where we won’t be bothered.” The leader said, before he grabbed his drink and led the group into another quieter room. As Kaeldra raised himself from the floor, he stared at the metal blade before grabbing his drink and turned to walk towards the group in the other room.
When the entire group, included Kaedra, had entered the room, Sythaxan waved his hands and the large doors closed behind the group and the servants disappeared as the doors slammed close. No one said anything as Sythaxan sat down at a table.
“Sit, and some of your are Gaelican Military?” He said as he looked at Dragan. Dragan nodded and released a small chuckle before replying.
“Some of us are Gaelican Military, Sythaxan. You should know that.” Was the reply., Gloreal stood up and released his wings.
“You know, you might want to conceal anything relating yourselves that you are related to the Gaelican Military. Dragan, you know this. Now where is Celest, dammit?”
“Sythaxan . . . Celest . . . the King. . . her father . . . um - her father. . . caught her again. She’s under the authority of the Gaelican police again. She will probably be executed at this rate.” Dragan’s eyes fell to the table as his response was quieted. The group of Gaelican archers frowned while the thevies all bowed their heads.
“That is not good. However, I think I know of someone who might be able to help us.” Sythaxan said before standing up, and raising his hand motioning for someone to come into the room. Quietly, a little girl of three feet with pink hair walked into the room.
“What do you want?” The words were released from her lips, with her corners turning upwards into a smirk.
“Get him. Tell him ‘it’s time’. Meet me at the corner of Crithm and Swaton. Actually, tell him the normal place on that corner.” Sythaxan replied as the girl jogged out of the room. With the girl out of the room, Sythaxan turned to the group of nineteen and stated “If you are part of the Military, I suggest changing into your rags. Conceal your weapons as well. Meet me in the main room in twenty minutes.”
--
Celestiana woke with a start, and excepted to find something hard beneath her, however it was soft under her. As she slowly moved around, she found that her arms and legs weren’t restrained like she initially thought. As she opened her eyes and looked around, she couldn’t place where she was until she heard someone enter the doorway.
“Celest - my little girl.” Celestiana’s eyes narrowed in on the voice.
“What does the King think I should get some special treatment?” Her voice was raspy as her limbs felt like they were being weighed down and unresponsive. As she attempted to stand up, she found herself falling and staring at the carpeted grey floor. However she didn’t hit the floor, as she found herself in the arms of her father. She stared into his gemstone coloured eyes with confusion pouring through her white eyes.
“I’m going to help you get out of here, alive, Celest.” With that he helped her get out of the room, and by the time they were outside, the pair took off to the sky, flying at the fastest speed to the South.
--
Sythaxan led the group to the corner of Crithm and Swaton. As they got there, Sythaxan pointed upwards to the tallest building. Dragan grabbed the shorter man by the waist and slowly started the ascention upwards. Gloreal looked at the thieves, and then to the Archer General. The general turned around to his men, and soon the archers were paired up with a thief. The archers did not seem content being that close to a renegade thief. As the entire group was headed up to the roof of the tallest building on the corner, Gloreal’s stopped half way up the building and stared to the east.
“Dragan!” Gloreal shouted.
“What do you want, Gloreal?” Dragan responded as his feet touched the roof. Dragan did not wait for a response, as the others started to land on the roof besides him. Gloreal who was still in the air, flicked his wrist and an energy ball was sent towards the east. Sythaxan gaped at Gloreal before saying,
“Dammed Angel, you’re going to get us killed you know that? You need to be discreet. However that’s almost impossible with your wings. If your female leader was here. . . .” Sythaxan trailed off as he was suddenly surrounded by the thieves who were glaring at him.
A low, tenor voice, was chuckling in response. “You know, if she heard you saying that, then you might not even be living Sythaxan?” The response came.
“I did not ask you, peanut gallery.” The dwarf answered.
“I know you did not, but it’s a good thing you’re just here with her second and third in commands. Not to mention, the Gaelican Archer General.” Kaeldrael looked around for the voice, and his left hand curled into a fist with energy pulsating in the middle of his palm.
“There’s no need to attack me now, Kaedrael. I’m friendly. Celestiana knows me well; Dragan knows me extremely well and Gloreal has treated me multiple times. Not to mention, the Gaelican military knows me as well.” The voice replied.
“Then show yourself.” The response came from Keadrael.
“I can’t do that until Celestiana’s here.”
“Then you might be awaiting a while.” Dragan answered.
“I think not.” The last response from the low tenor voice before the group heard a ruffling on the other side of the roof. Everyone visibly tensed up and directed their attention to the other side of the room. However Gloreal turned faced the east and lifted into the air, expanding his energy around the top of the roof.
The ruffling stopped, and an outline of a person was seen on the side other side of the roof. The sun was hitting him, so the group could not tell what he was wearing or what he looked like. However, he raised his head to the sky, and released his aura. The red aura pulsated around him, and mixed with Gloreal’s blue energy created a violet colour. The group visible took a few steps back, and did not relax.
“You’ve got a red aura.” Kyiuma spoke for the first time, almost forgetting that she had a voice while she was surrounded by so many of these un-humanlike people.
“Shh.. yes, he’s part of the ruling family, then.” Raize answered Kyiuma’s question, and hopefully the man did not hear her question.
“And? Are you surprised, human?” The man taunted Kyiuma. However, he did have not long because Gloreal’s aura fluctuated and Sythaxan went to Gloreal’s side. The small man jumped up on the railing, and pulled out an energy gun and released some of his energy into the barrel of the gun, firing off a teal coloured energy waves. As the energy bursts were released towards the east direction, the group saw the teal energy burst into small particles.
The man chuckled to himself again. One of the thieves asked the man, “What is so funny over there? Just because you’re part of the Ruling family, doesn’t mean that your not in trouble. Besides, what are you doing on this side of the planet, anyway?”
No one had time to respond because no more than five feet away from the group was Jachnue floating with his emerald gemstones glaring past the group and at the red aura man. The second energy stopped nearly fifteen out behind Jachnue, and then lowered to the ground. Jachnue moved slowly towards the ground, and smiled at Gloreal.
“Gloreal and Dragan, it’s been awhile hasn’t it?” Jachnue nodded to the two men, before flying over and touching on the railing, nodding to the group and then the red aura man. The group did not have long because they heard an explosion on the other side of the building. The thieves and archers immediately all got into their positions for an attack.
--
As Celestiana hit the ground she took off running on foot towards the building. She tugged at the metal collar around her neck, and with no success at pulling getting it off, she grabbed her two daggers from her hip and connected them. As she got to the building, she ran around the building, and started scaling up the building.
“Well. . . lookie here. The big bad lady thief can’t use her powers. . .” Tripoli taunted Celestiana. Out of the corner of Celestiana’s eyes she saw the energy blast coming at her, and she released the building, throwing herself away from the building, and letting the blast collide with the building. She growled as her powers kicked into full effect once again. Her eyes changed from their white colour to a deep purple and her clothing taking on the appearance of her combat outfit. Her two daggers that were connected, she disconnected them, and awaited the fight that was going to come.
Tripoli grinned as he knew her. He flew at her, his energy tripled and they two connected as the energy between them pulsated out and clashed. Tripoli looked into Celestiana’s eyes, and then saw what he ran into. Her single dagger was again connected, to two others, creating a nine inch long blade. Each of the hilts were removed, and glinting on the ground from the sand. Tripoli grinned, as he pulled himself off of the blade that was embedded in his stomach.
Celestiana increased her energy sending the Gaelical High Council Member up in the sky. As he went flying back, Celestiana shot off towards the sky, her energy pushing Tripoli back further and further. As Celestiana was even with the roof, she turned around to see her underground group of thieves, her father, the Gaelican archers and someone she hadn’t seen in awhile.
Her voice was nothing more than a whisper as she locked gazes with a pale sky blue eyes and says “Xajuntás.” In her distracted state, she never saw Tripoli toss an energy sword at her. As he connected with her chest, she was sent into the roof of the building, and as she collided with the roof, a scream was released from her lips as the metal collar around her neck shattered and her eyes closed.
Xajuntás looked at Dragan, and Gloreal, before turning to Tripoli and let his aura flare out, before stating: “Major Tripoli, last time I saw you was on Earth and you were guarding a cell. Are you still hiding under my father’s cape, trying to raised through the ranks?”
Type your cut contents here.
Chapter : 11 / x
Author: verite_knight
Words: 7510
“. . . .” denotes normal talking
:. . . .: denotes thinking to themselves
~italics~ denotes telepathic talking
Chapter 11:
Celestiana's pace slowed down, allowing herself to fall back into the pack, middle to be exact. She walked in a straight line, the middle person, with Kyiuma on her left, and Raize on her direct right side. Next to Kyiuma was Gloreal, and Raize was sandwiched between a thief, whose namme was unknown to him, and Celestiana. He felt rather safe, but at the same time, when the group had immediately sped up, and then locked Celestiana and them in the middle it had the two humans a little worried.
No one had seemed to see that Dragan was no longer with them. As they kept walking, Celestiana and Gloreal didn't say anything to each other, but instead just kept walking. Many members of the group, looked rather slimish - hair disshelved, in need of a cut, and the outer appearance looking like it was in need of some attention. However to them, it didn't matter. After all, they were on the bad section of the planet, and it was seriously showing. As soon as they had stepped out of the hangar, the terrain became very rough, and multiple loose rocks gave the thieves a start. The pretty walking places had disappeared, and it appeared that the outcasts lived in this section because there was trash lying everywhere. There were random people walking around, however the appearance of this group of thirteen didn't seem to affect them in anyway. If anything they looked up, saw the group, then went back to whatever it was that they were doing.
For many of the older members they were rather use to Celestiana's random short orders in regards to some of their missions. They were also use to being led blindly, at times, but it didn't matter that they were again being led. They didn't care that it seemed that they were walking to a random destination. With each step, the thieves stood their ground; their weapons ready and the adrenline running through their veins willing to sacrafice themselves for their leader. Another step was taken, and the random path took a sharp turn to the group's left, and it appeared that they were walking in a zig-zag pattern.
--
Dragan stepped out of the hangar and stepped out on the dirt path and smirked. It had appeared that the group was approaching their unknown location soon enough. As Dragan kept on walking on the dirt path, he saw his other, hated leader standing there. As he stopped four feet from the Gaelican general, he hit the ground with his left knee and he lowered his head to his chest. As his aqua coloured eyes stared at the ground, he heard someone walking up towards the king and then bowing their head.
Shortly around the King and his three generals, the light sounds of someone walking towards the ground were heard. As Dragan’s senses flared up, he tried sensing who was coming. As he felt the energy, he couldn’t help but feel his jaw tighten and his hand curl into a fist. The footsteps were getting louder, and soon another person hit their knee into the ground and as a pair of boots entered Dragan’s vision, he tried to swallow the knot that had formed in his throat. As the King saw his last general stand in front of Dragan, the King’s deep voice rang out for everyone to get to their feet. The soldiers then pulled apart from each other, into their specialty pods behind their respected sgeneral.
As Dragan raised himself, and moved towards his specialty section. The general of the ranged weapons, specialty of arrows, walked towards his group of ten men and smirked.
“Well, if it’s not all of us back together again. For some of us, it’s been awhile.” The general said in a low voice. “I am going to make this rather quick and painless. Everyone in here is a ranged weapon, with their primary being a bow and arrow right?” All ten men nodded, or grunted.
The general looked around his men, again. The old group was still one of the same original groups that had not been torn apart by people switching or getting killed. As the general nodded to his men, he saw the multiple auras appear around them, as they got their weapons and ammunition ready. The general walked over to Dragan who was staring up at the sky; the archer’s aura wasn’t pulsating with energy yet, and it appeared that he was oblivious to everyone and everything around him.
“Dragan, you were thinking about that leader of yours?” The general asked quietly. Dragan’s honey coloured eyes snapped towards the voice.
“No. Who are you talking about?” Dragan bit the inside of his cheek, hoping that the general wouldn’t say anything in regards to her.
“You know, you really stink at hiding the truth. Gear up, we’re leaving in two.” The general replied before turning to the rest of the group. As the group started to walk away from the rest of the generals, Dragan followed suit falling to the back of the circle allowing his aura to faintly show it’s yellowish colour. With each step, his aura got a little brighter, and the general soon fell in step next to the archer. His deep, husky voice and wine coloured eyes looked up at the archer standing next to him.
“Dragan, it’s fine. I know you’re one of the spies we’re trying to find. You do a rather well job at hiding it.” The general grinned at the archer.
“You know, it’s been far too long, General. When you called the ship, I knew it was you. Also. . .” Dragan was cut off as his head snapped up to feel that two all too familiar auras fluctuating up and down in energy. Dragan’s aura glowed sunshine yellow, as energy particles gathered in his right hand. As the bow took shape, Dragan’s eyes side glanced at his general, who nodded, and turned a complete one hundred and eighty degrees with Dragan. The two archers stood shoulder to shoulder, staring at the King’s right hand man and the Captain over their sector.
“I thought I might find you walking out here. General Kaldrea, you are an archer yourself?” Triploli grinned at the general.
“I am an archer, yes.” The general responded.
“What can do I to get you of some men to kill someone?” Tripopli grinned at the general.
“I would try asking, and I might consider it. Of course, it has to be sanctioned by the King.” The general nodded. In response, Triploli didn’t say anything, but he frowned.
“What if I were to say it was an order?” Dragan’s eyes widened in knowing what was going to happen next. The archer raised his yellow energy bow, pulled back and felt the energy pulsating around his hand, as he let go of the bow’s energy string, the energy particles broke and reformed as an orange arrow. As the arrow split through the wind, Dragan felt the other familiar aura appear behind him. As the arrow hit on contact to Tripoli, the orange particles broke apart, and Dragan had Tripoli coming at him with an blue energy sword.
As Tripoli raised his sword over his head, to pull down, a clashing noise was made. On impact, the blue sword hit a lilac energy something, as specks of lilac coloured energy particles were hitting the ground. Dragan’s eyes widened to find the familiar aura was Celestiaña’s. Her white eyes bore holes into Tripoli’s sky coloured ones, while her right hand tightened on the energy sword, while her left hand set itself on the hilt of the small Chinese war sword. Her left hand grabbed the sword, removed it from it’s hidden spot and pulled it around him and left the curved blade on the back of his neck. His eyes widened as he realized all she had to do was add a bit more pressure and the blade would squarely take off his head. Dragan stepped out, nodding to the general, who raised his left hand and his bow with an arrow nocked pointed directly at Tripoli.
Celestiaña stared at the men, and added some pressure to the Chinese sword, letting her purple energy sword disappear. As she added pressure, Tripoli’s jaw clenched, and his men stopped moving closer to her. Kaldrea’s eyes looked at the female leader, and smirked: It was time.
Kaldrea took the sky, as did the rest of his members leaving Celestiaña’s on the ground with Tripoli. The general looked at his specialized team, and then noticed Dragan was half way between himself and his female leader. He growled at Dragan, and then saw the archer come to the same level as the rest of his teammates. In a hushed voice, the general said, “You stay near her, and you’ll be suspected as the spy immediately.” Dragan locked his eyes with his general’s then nodded slightly. Dragan raised himself into the air and watched at the battle between his leader and the major. As he watched intensely, as the Jachnue moved through the group, stopping four feet behind Tripoli, in Celestiaña’s line of sight.
From inside the group, the king nodded and Kaldrea, turned on his head, and pointed to the west. Dragan let his senses expand out, and he noticed to the west was the group of thieves who were wandering around. As Kaldrea’s boots hit an invisible surface, as the rest of the archers took off with their capes billowing out as the wind caught their movements through the sky.
Dragan, however, remained to watch the scene. He lowered himself to the ground, allowed his energy to dissipate and his aura to disappear. Celestiaña felt the power of someone walking towards her, and as she looked up her lilac eyes met with the one person she couldn’t sit there and ignore. Jade coloured eyes hardened as the person holding the sword lifted their head. Tripoli’s eyes widened as he felt the pressure from the Chinese sword disappear from the base of his neck.
The major was pulled by his shoulder by the jade coloured man away from Celestiaña As Celestiaña’s gaze was locked with the jade coloured gaze, she felt her grip on the sword loosening. She was staring into the eyes that were cold as gemstones, and yet, she could not figure out why the eyes were as familiar to her as they were. White eyes never left the locked gaze of the jade ones. The jade coloured eyes took several steps towards Celestiaña, and was now in front of Tripoli and as the man was getting closer, Celestiaña was taking small steps back.
“Why are you running?” The man asked. Celestiaña did not say anything, but let her eyes narrow and her lips press together to create a line. “You aren’t going to answer me are you?”
Celestiaña’s mind ran quicker than she could form a plan. She let eyes close for a minute, allowing the tears to gather in her eyes. She was defeated and she knew it. As she opened her eyes again, she caught those jade eyes again and let her senses expand out. The archers were moving towards the west, while Dragan was behind her, and her father was right in front of her. Seeing how she had no choice, she brought both of her feet together, straightened her stance, let her powers settle down into a calm, allowed her eyes to shift back to their white colour and pulled her arms behind her back, and crossed her arms at her wrists. Jachnue walked behind Celestiaña, placed one cuff on her left wrist and the other one on her right wrist. He also looped a roped through another circular piece of metal which he opened the clasp and placed it around her neck.
~Dragan, I need you to get back to your group, and do not get caught. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.~ Celestiaña projected into Dragan’s mind, hoping that it would get there before the curricular piece of metal was placed around her neck, and her powers were quickly lessened by the chains. As she heard the familiar click of the clasp, and soon felt the cold metal around her neck, the tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. The jade coloured eyes placed his hands on her petite shoulders, and she felt rather helpless. Instead of walking towards the King and Major Tripoli, she found herself walking towards Dragan. Her breath hitched as she found herself unable to do much other than let herself be steered to her second in command and with each step the tears threatened to fall down her cheeks.
Celestiaña found herself stopping two feet in front of Dragan, and found him standing alone. The tears remained at the corner of her eyes, and as she closed her eyes she heard the exchange between the two military officers.
“What are you doing here?” The man asked Dragan. The jade coloured eyes remained fixated on the captive however.
“Well, sir -“ Dragan found himself unable to say anything else. As he tried to form an answer, behind him he heard a small jingle of medals hitting each other as someone was moving closer to him.
“Sir, I asked him to stay behind as the representative of the arches section.” General Kaeldra answered behind Dragan.
“General, why did you not stay yourself?” Jachnue asked.
“I wanted to get the rest of the group moving, before we lost any more time. We’re moving west, and it will easily take us two days to get to civilization at the rate we’re going now.” Kaeldra looked at Celestiaña, and then looked at Dragan. The two were lost in a gaze that no one had noticed, except Celestiaña’s eyes were closed. Dragan’s eyes were fixated on her closed eyes. Kaeldra let his aura flicker for a minute, which snapped Dragan out of his trance, and looked at his general.
“. .. Sir, I understand. It will not happen again.” Kaeldra supplied Jachnue. Jachnue nodded to the Kaeldra and Dragan. As Celestiaña opened her eyes, her head tilted slightly towards the right and out of the corner of her eye she caught her father. As she looked up, Jachnue looked down at her, and quietly whispered to her, “You make this so much harder on me, than you realize hija.”
Dragan smiled at Jachnue before turning on his heel and following Kaeldra, who had taken towards the air. As Dragan felt his power lift him into the air, he gave a side look at his leader, smirked and then gave one last remark telepathically to Celestiaña.
~Take care of yourself. We’re moving West, and we’re going to end up meeting with the group. Kaeldra chose the west for a reason. No one will get hurt, I promise. Take care of yourself.~
Celestiaña felt herself moving back towards the group, as she was walking, she walked through the middle of the group and found herself staring into the King’s hazel coloured eyes. She soon found herself lost in those eyes as she often did in his son’s eyes. Without her realizing it, she soon found herself being slapped across the face with the King’s backhand, and while it processed through her head, she felt the enormous power of Tripoli hitting her from all sides. As she fell to the ground, panting, she felt someone’s cold hands on her left arm, pulling her left arm out to the side and a needle being inserted.
Celestiaña’s pupils slowly changed from their white colour to a gray colour, her two-toned coloured hair changed into a solid black colour and as the needle’s contents started to take effect, she whispered loudly for a few to hear her say, “I will never bow down to you.” Jacnue pulled the needle out his daughter’s neck, saw her eyes fluttering closed and then soon felt her weight leaning onto him as she fell into a slumber. He picked his daughter up, and started to walk with the King as they wanted towards the embassy.
--
In the air, the wind whistled by the archers and Kaeldra eyed all ten members of his speciality group. It was an honour to say that leading ten of the best archers in the Gaelican military. Each one of the men in ahead of the General had their capes billowing out, their auras flared and their senses running at the highest points awaiting for the first sign to release the arrows that each one held with their bows nocked with arrows.
Kaledra gave a side glance to Dragan, who seemed to be off in his own world while his body was running and keeping up with the rest of the group. Unlike everyone, he knew they were going to be hitting his other group first, and hoped nothing would happen to them. He told Celestiana before he had left her that he would keep them safe from any harm. The thief’s aura wasn’t flared out, and if anything he archer didn’t appear to be worried about where they were going. His body just seemed to be moving on it’s own accord while his brain was somewhere else.
As Kaledra looked at his group again, he noticed he had nine pairs of eyes on him, and he pointed towards the ground. The bad section of the planet was coming up. As the General looked towards Dragan, he saw that the archer was already on the ground walking in the direction. As the group of ten arches reached the ground, they kept walking and they had all noticed that Dragan’s outfit changed from his military outfit to an almost everday outfit. The archer’s outfit was black pants with a black muscle shirt. His shoes were that of black combat boots, and the pants covered the top of the boots. As he walked, it seemed that everyone else filed behind the thief, and Kaledra raised an eyebrow. Kaledra lifted himself in to the air and then lowered himself with his eyes staring into the maroon coloured ones.
“Dragan, stop.” The General’s voice was commanding. Dragan’s eyes flicked towards the General.
“You know where we’re going. Your going to end up hitting them. I’m trying to stop any conflicts that might happen if they see you, before me.” Dragan’s eyes hardened as his mind wandered off into the thoughts of what would happen.
“I’m not saying that your wrong, but you need to give your other group a bit of idea what they’re walking into.” Kaledra raised his head. He gestured out to the group and they turned towards the General. As Dragan’s eyes looked through the group, he turned on his heel and lunged into the air. The archer’s stood there looking at Dragan, and then nine of the archers were on the floor before they even knew what hit them. Kaledra and Dragan were the only ones standing at the moment.
Kaledra looked with a fascination at Dragan, and then saw a familiar orange flow send the attacker flying through the air. Dragan lowered himself, and pulled out a gun. As he raised the gun into the air, Kaledra felt his aura spike and then collect itself in the barrel of the gun. As Dragan’s index finger let go of the trigger, the energy was released from the barrel and went upwards into the sky with a yellow ring around it, and in the centre of the yellow aura was a brown section. Kaeldra’s eyes were fixated on the energy that was spouted out from the barrel that he did not realize that Dragan was coming at him, and knocked him to the ground.
Dragan pushed Kaledran to the ground, and Kaledra looked at Dragan crazily. The two men felt a small breeze hit them, and Dragan growled something. As Kaledra looked up, he saw someone standing with wings out of their back. Dragan let Kaledra sit up, and Kaledra looked around for his men. His nine trained archers were just taken down by a group of low-life gypsies. As Kaledra’s archers started to walk near him, he noticed there was another circle of people, holding weapons and glaring at Kaledra and his men.
Dragan however was unfazed and glared daggers into Gloreal’s back. As he growled when the angel went over him, Gloreal stopped and stared at Dragan, and then as the angle realized who it was, his eyes widened.
“Stand down.” Dragan’s voice carried no emotions, and was rather growled out than said. Kaldrea’s mind started to form some conclusions in his mind, while the other archers stood there staring at Dragan.
One of the thieves put away the maul, and put their hand out to shake the closest archer’s hand. Dragan stared at Hinarie and smiled.
“If any of you hurt these archers, your life is mine. I don’t care what Celestiana thinks of it; I will personally kill you, without any arrows.” Dragan’s voice was calm. As he turned towards the General, he smiled and said “See what I meant?”
He then turned towards the other archers, and grinned before saying, “What I’m about to tell you do not leave this circle. I am one of the spies that the King is worried about. I’m so close that he doesn’t realize this. Thieves this is the group of Specialized Archers under the Gaelican military. Gaelican archers, this is Celestiana’s underground thievery band.”
Soon the thieves had pulled the closest archers into their outer circle, and soon each archer was surrounded by two thieves. Gloreal pulled Kaledra next to him, and soon Dragan stared at the two. The pair, angel and General, stepped into the circle, and the thieves spread out to connect the circle again.
“Everyone, this is General Kaledra. He is the General of the Specalized Archers Group, which I’m in. Additionally, this here-“ He gestured towards Gloreal and then said, “is Gloreal. To the thieves he’s the third in command under Celestiana and myself. To the archers, he is a healer as well.”
Gloreal took the queue and picked up for Dragan. Dragan pulled Kaldrea off to the side and had quietly speaking to him privately. “Yes, you are on the planet of Artheon, and yes . . .we are going to be in the ‘bad’ section of the planet.“
As Dragan and Kaledra walked back to the group, they both noticed the thieves were glaring at the archers, and the archers seemed to be scared out of their skins to be around thieves. Dragan growled softly while Gloreal stared at the second in command while Kaledra raised an eyebrow.
“Will you stop that?” Gloreal snapped at Kaledra. The angel was being followed like a hawk by the general.
“I am merely watching my surroundings.” The general replied and Dragan rolled his eyes. As the group walked under the city gates, the military’s metal boots started making noises as they walked. The archers moved themselves into an inner circle while the thieves assembled themselves in an outer circle. Dragan raised an eyebrow at the maneuver was impressed; he didn’t think the thieves would have accomplished something on that nature without being told.
As they walked through the city the amount of trash on the ground was nauseating for anyone that this was their first time. Each time Dragan came to this side of the town, he had to stop himself from wanting to gag and whenever he got away from this side of the planet, he wanted to do nothing but run into a shower. As he looked around the group, he smirked. He was commanding ten Gaelican military archers, and fifteen Gaelican thieves, the irony of it all.
As Dragan nodded to Kaledra, the archers took to the skies, roughly four feet above the thieves. As the thieves took the lead, Dragan let his mind wander back to their female leader and wondered how she was doing. While Dragan’s mind wandered the thieves and archers kept moving to their destination, in which no one other than Dragan knew where exactly it was; all they knew was the general direction.
--
As the thieves kept on walking, the archers pulled together closer and tried to get away from the lowlifes that seemed to be everywhere. The amount of trash, sewage and just filth was mind numbing. Every corner seemed to have a stench that was different from corner to corner.
Kaledra looked at his archers again, and then sighed. Dragan had taken the lead again and they were walking down a narrow alleyway. There would be no way that they were going to fly through the narrow alleyway. As Kaledra looked ahead and tilted his head slightly upwards, he saw the clothes line from window to window with assorted articles of clothing. It was rather sad that people still lived like this, in this day and age. As the General started to descend towards the ground, he felt the archer’s stares at his back, wandering if he was crazy or not. The General did not make any movement towards the archers, but instead the nine of them followed his lead and descended.
As the archers were half way through the alleyway, half of the thieves disappeared from their line of sight, and Kaledra felt his men starting to get worried. He knew his men were leery of this: walking with thieves. Kaeldra pushed the worry to the back of his mind as he saw Dragan disappear from his sight as well. The General bit his lip and expanded his senses. He found that the archer had actually moved behind him, and the thieves had sandwhiched the arches between two groups of the thieves. It was a smart move, but at the same time, Kaledra couldn’t help but worry for the archers.
~Is this necessary, Dragan?~ The General asked the thief-archer.
~I wish I could say that it wasn’t required.~ Dragan’s monotone voice ran through the General’s brain.
~Why is it required?~ The General asked before ducking under some clothes. As he passed underneath he felt a few droplets of water hit his shoulders.
~You’ll see why, here in a second.~ As the archer relayed that information to the General, the entire group was out of the alleyway, the group soon found themselves’ staring at the inside of a metal cage.
The archers looked around in worry while the thieves moved about the cage. While the cage was not small, it was rather large and it held everyone comfortably. Each thief positioned themselves next to a hole, and held their weapon hidden, out of sight, and if needed in a moments’ notice they could strike. The archers on the other hand, stood in confusion as the cage started to rise.
As the cage was lifted, Dragan released an orange beam that was headed straight for the ground. It stopped four feet from the ground, and was then headed parallel to the ground straight for the metal door. As it collided with the metal door, the metal door started to open. Dragan gave a curt nod to Hinariæ who had wiggled her way out of the cage’s holes and dropped herself to the ground from the ten foot high cage.
As the purple haired thief walked up to the metal door, which was now fully open, she quickly dispatched the guards who were standing guard. As she pulled out a knife, she threw it above her head, and it struck a guard in the chest, and the cage was now falling lopsided back towards the ground.
From inside the cage, Dragan pulled out a throwing star and threw it through a hole in the cage, perfectly catching the rope which the guard was holding which successfully dropped the metal cage on the ground with a hard and loud thud. Everyone inside the cage was a little rattled. As they stared at the cage, it did not seem that it was possible for anyone to get the cage open.
Hinariæ looked at Dragan who nodded to the thin, pale, purple headed thief. She turned on her heel and walked through the door. Her retreating figure disappeared quickly, and the rest of the thieves and archers were left on how to open the cage.
With Hinariæ gone, Gloreal pulled out a rope and cracked it like a whip with energy flowing through it. The rope was then snapped across the top corners of the cage, and as Gloreal’s wings expanded out, he grabbed the top piece of the cage and moved upwards. With the top part of the cage gone, the archers and thieves scrambled out of the cage as quickly as they could. Gloreal dropped to the ground again, and threw the top of the cage on the opposite side, towards the alleyway and as it hit the ground it made a rather large clanging noise.
General Kaledra was rather impressed with the techniques of the thieves. These people were resourceful. As his eyes looked at Gloreal, he did not see the rope anymore, and suspected it was lying somewhere else. As he turned his attention back towards the metal door, he saw the purple thief walk to the threshold and smirk in a very Celestiaña way.
As the group moved towards the metal gate, Dragan whispered something to the purple haired thief who in turn just frowned. As the second in command smirked at the thief, she nodded and then turned on her heel, falling in step behind her leader. Kaledra couldn not help but shake the fear he was really feeling. It was like they were walking blindly into the trap, and no one knew where they were.
The group came to a pair of stairs, and as they walked down the stairs, they soon found themselves in a tunnel of sorts, underground. Kaledra raised an eyebrow to Gloreal and asked,
“I did not know that thieves were this resourceful. It’s like you have your own little society that only thieves know about.” He commented.
“Actually, not many people know of this area.” Gloreal answered. As they walked through the corridors, the walkways were getting smaller, and the smells of sewage was overpowering. As they rounded another pair of stairs to go up, Hinariæ growled at Dragan. Dragan did not answer her directly, but as he tried to take the lead, she pulled him off of the stairs. Dragan’s glare did not faze her, and as he picked himself from the ground, she never saw the orange beam that was released from his left palm. The beam hit her and sent her across the sewage ‘stream’ and pinned against the wall.
“Dragan. . I did not. . .” Hinariæ struggled to breath and talk.
“Do not say a word, Hinariæ. You know your place right now.” The archer’s tone was icy cold, showing no emotion. As he closed his hand, the purple haired thief was released from the wall, and was teleported back onto the side of the thieves.
Dragan started to walk up the stairs, not toughing the algae and slime filled railings. As he poked his head up on the other side, the first thing he heard was,
“Dragan! Celestiaña! Dragan! It’s you, by some moon and planets, you’re here!” Dragan winced as he heard Celestiaña’s name. As the archer pulled himself up through the opening, he knew the rest of the group was coming up behind him. He waited until the entire group was through, and he saw Gloreal come through the tunnel, and replace the manhole covering.
“Sythaxan, it’s good to see you, my friend. It’s been awhile. . .” Dragan responded.
“Dragan, you do not know how long it’s been since I’ve seen you, my boy.” Sythaxan answered.
Dragan started to walk towards the voice and as he walked he had a huge grin on his face. It was until Sythaxan asked, “Where’s Celest?” Dragan’s eyes turned cold blue gems at this question.
“Sythaxan, I can not answer that question at this time.” Dragan’s answer. He was not going to tell the group he was leading that she was taken again. After all, this was her most prized possession.
“Why doesn’t everyone come into my home and you can say it there.” Sythaxan turned around and everyone followed him through the corridor. As they entered another corridor, everyone except Sythaxan had to duck, or walk on their knees, seeing how the tunnel was half of the height. Sythaxan chuckled as he turned back around and saw Dragan glaring daggers at his back.
As they exited the corridor, they came to a large circular table. As Sythaxan took a seat at the table, he motioned for everyone else to take a seat as well. With everyone seated, he called out to no one in particular for drinks, and within in moments everyone had a drinks in front of themselves, and Sythaxan stared right at Gloreal and Dragan.
“So, tell me what happened to Celestiaña.” His voice trailed off, not really asking a question, but more of a demand. Kaledra looked around at the place that they were at, and he could tell that they were rather far below ground because the stench was rather heavy and the air felt like it was humid.
Kaledra drew his attention from Dragan and Gloreal to look around his surroundings. As he stood up from the table, he grabbed his drink and walked around. As he moved about the room, a few people looked up at him from their work and then turned back to what they were doing. Kaeldra walked from station to station and bumped into a young girl who looked up at him and glared. As he moved out of her way, he made a quick dodge towards the ground as he saw a glint of metal come from a balcony headed towards his head. As he hit the ground, Sythaxan’s eyes darted straight towards the balcony in which the metal came from. As the blade neared the table, Sythaxan put his hand out, palm towards the metal and the blade hit the ground.
“Perhaps it’s better if we move into the deeper section, where we won’t be bothered.” The leader said, before he grabbed his drink and led the group into another quieter room. As Kaeldra raised himself from the floor, he stared at the metal blade before grabbing his drink and turned to walk towards the group in the other room.
When the entire group, included Kaedra, had entered the room, Sythaxan waved his hands and the large doors closed behind the group and the servants disappeared as the doors slammed close. No one said anything as Sythaxan sat down at a table.
“Sit, and some of your are Gaelican Military?” He said as he looked at Dragan. Dragan nodded and released a small chuckle before replying.
“Some of us are Gaelican Military, Sythaxan. You should know that.” Was the reply., Gloreal stood up and released his wings.
“You know, you might want to conceal anything relating yourselves that you are related to the Gaelican Military. Dragan, you know this. Now where is Celest, dammit?”
“Sythaxan . . . Celest . . . the King. . . her father . . . um - her father. . . caught her again. She’s under the authority of the Gaelican police again. She will probably be executed at this rate.” Dragan’s eyes fell to the table as his response was quieted. The group of Gaelican archers frowned while the thevies all bowed their heads.
“That is not good. However, I think I know of someone who might be able to help us.” Sythaxan said before standing up, and raising his hand motioning for someone to come into the room. Quietly, a little girl of three feet with pink hair walked into the room.
“What do you want?” The words were released from her lips, with her corners turning upwards into a smirk.
“Get him. Tell him ‘it’s time’. Meet me at the corner of Crithm and Swaton. Actually, tell him the normal place on that corner.” Sythaxan replied as the girl jogged out of the room. With the girl out of the room, Sythaxan turned to the group of nineteen and stated “If you are part of the Military, I suggest changing into your rags. Conceal your weapons as well. Meet me in the main room in twenty minutes.”
--
Celestiana woke with a start, and excepted to find something hard beneath her, however it was soft under her. As she slowly moved around, she found that her arms and legs weren’t restrained like she initially thought. As she opened her eyes and looked around, she couldn’t place where she was until she heard someone enter the doorway.
“Celest - my little girl.” Celestiana’s eyes narrowed in on the voice.
“What does the King think I should get some special treatment?” Her voice was raspy as her limbs felt like they were being weighed down and unresponsive. As she attempted to stand up, she found herself falling and staring at the carpeted grey floor. However she didn’t hit the floor, as she found herself in the arms of her father. She stared into his gemstone coloured eyes with confusion pouring through her white eyes.
“I’m going to help you get out of here, alive, Celest.” With that he helped her get out of the room, and by the time they were outside, the pair took off to the sky, flying at the fastest speed to the South.
--
Sythaxan led the group to the corner of Crithm and Swaton. As they got there, Sythaxan pointed upwards to the tallest building. Dragan grabbed the shorter man by the waist and slowly started the ascention upwards. Gloreal looked at the thieves, and then to the Archer General. The general turned around to his men, and soon the archers were paired up with a thief. The archers did not seem content being that close to a renegade thief. As the entire group was headed up to the roof of the tallest building on the corner, Gloreal’s stopped half way up the building and stared to the east.
“Dragan!” Gloreal shouted.
“What do you want, Gloreal?” Dragan responded as his feet touched the roof. Dragan did not wait for a response, as the others started to land on the roof besides him. Gloreal who was still in the air, flicked his wrist and an energy ball was sent towards the east. Sythaxan gaped at Gloreal before saying,
“Dammed Angel, you’re going to get us killed you know that? You need to be discreet. However that’s almost impossible with your wings. If your female leader was here. . . .” Sythaxan trailed off as he was suddenly surrounded by the thieves who were glaring at him.
A low, tenor voice, was chuckling in response. “You know, if she heard you saying that, then you might not even be living Sythaxan?” The response came.
“I did not ask you, peanut gallery.” The dwarf answered.
“I know you did not, but it’s a good thing you’re just here with her second and third in commands. Not to mention, the Gaelican Archer General.” Kaeldrael looked around for the voice, and his left hand curled into a fist with energy pulsating in the middle of his palm.
“There’s no need to attack me now, Kaedrael. I’m friendly. Celestiana knows me well; Dragan knows me extremely well and Gloreal has treated me multiple times. Not to mention, the Gaelican military knows me as well.” The voice replied.
“Then show yourself.” The response came from Keadrael.
“I can’t do that until Celestiana’s here.”
“Then you might be awaiting a while.” Dragan answered.
“I think not.” The last response from the low tenor voice before the group heard a ruffling on the other side of the roof. Everyone visibly tensed up and directed their attention to the other side of the room. However Gloreal turned faced the east and lifted into the air, expanding his energy around the top of the roof.
The ruffling stopped, and an outline of a person was seen on the side other side of the roof. The sun was hitting him, so the group could not tell what he was wearing or what he looked like. However, he raised his head to the sky, and released his aura. The red aura pulsated around him, and mixed with Gloreal’s blue energy created a violet colour. The group visible took a few steps back, and did not relax.
“You’ve got a red aura.” Kyiuma spoke for the first time, almost forgetting that she had a voice while she was surrounded by so many of these un-humanlike people.
“Shh.. yes, he’s part of the ruling family, then.” Raize answered Kyiuma’s question, and hopefully the man did not hear her question.
“And? Are you surprised, human?” The man taunted Kyiuma. However, he did have not long because Gloreal’s aura fluctuated and Sythaxan went to Gloreal’s side. The small man jumped up on the railing, and pulled out an energy gun and released some of his energy into the barrel of the gun, firing off a teal coloured energy waves. As the energy bursts were released towards the east direction, the group saw the teal energy burst into small particles.
The man chuckled to himself again. One of the thieves asked the man, “What is so funny over there? Just because you’re part of the Ruling family, doesn’t mean that your not in trouble. Besides, what are you doing on this side of the planet, anyway?”
No one had time to respond because no more than five feet away from the group was Jachnue floating with his emerald gemstones glaring past the group and at the red aura man. The second energy stopped nearly fifteen out behind Jachnue, and then lowered to the ground. Jachnue moved slowly towards the ground, and smiled at Gloreal.
“Gloreal and Dragan, it’s been awhile hasn’t it?” Jachnue nodded to the two men, before flying over and touching on the railing, nodding to the group and then the red aura man. The group did not have long because they heard an explosion on the other side of the building. The thieves and archers immediately all got into their positions for an attack.
--
As Celestiana hit the ground she took off running on foot towards the building. She tugged at the metal collar around her neck, and with no success at pulling getting it off, she grabbed her two daggers from her hip and connected them. As she got to the building, she ran around the building, and started scaling up the building.
“Well. . . lookie here. The big bad lady thief can’t use her powers. . .” Tripoli taunted Celestiana. Out of the corner of Celestiana’s eyes she saw the energy blast coming at her, and she released the building, throwing herself away from the building, and letting the blast collide with the building. She growled as her powers kicked into full effect once again. Her eyes changed from their white colour to a deep purple and her clothing taking on the appearance of her combat outfit. Her two daggers that were connected, she disconnected them, and awaited the fight that was going to come.
Tripoli grinned as he knew her. He flew at her, his energy tripled and they two connected as the energy between them pulsated out and clashed. Tripoli looked into Celestiana’s eyes, and then saw what he ran into. Her single dagger was again connected, to two others, creating a nine inch long blade. Each of the hilts were removed, and glinting on the ground from the sand. Tripoli grinned, as he pulled himself off of the blade that was embedded in his stomach.
Celestiana increased her energy sending the Gaelical High Council Member up in the sky. As he went flying back, Celestiana shot off towards the sky, her energy pushing Tripoli back further and further. As Celestiana was even with the roof, she turned around to see her underground group of thieves, her father, the Gaelican archers and someone she hadn’t seen in awhile.
Her voice was nothing more than a whisper as she locked gazes with a pale sky blue eyes and says “Xajuntás.” In her distracted state, she never saw Tripoli toss an energy sword at her. As he connected with her chest, she was sent into the roof of the building, and as she collided with the roof, a scream was released from her lips as the metal collar around her neck shattered and her eyes closed.
Xajuntás looked at Dragan, and Gloreal, before turning to Tripoli and let his aura flare out, before stating: “Major Tripoli, last time I saw you was on Earth and you were guarding a cell. Are you still hiding under my father’s cape, trying to raised through the ranks?”
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