Chapter VIII ~ Fox Trails, Elven Sacrifice, Human's Complextion

Ronneir and Xoro were peacefully having dinner, Xoro had roasted a Salamando Dodonix and stuff it with a strange mix of scorpion and vipent. Ronneir cut open the dodonix when it suddenly exploded and little scorpions and vipents flew out everywhere.

Ronneir couldn’t move, but only watch as Xoro looks at him and tries to fend them off with the carving knife. She yelled out something but a deep grumbling deafened him. He tried to move towards her, but slowly everything grew smaller and further away. Then the grumbling sound shattered everything.

Everything flashed and he saw Xoro lying in front of him in pieces. She mouthed him something but a grumbling sound perverse the words.

Blood appeared everywhere; Ronneir was in the middle of an unnatural white, stained by dark crimson, as they dripped out a message. But again a rumbling rippled the bloody letters away. Only to be replaced by a face of Xoro, looking at him and screaming out in pain.

Ronneir awoke, sweating and panting. His heart racing all too fast, and gasping for a breath of free air, he climbed out of the tent and broke the silence of the night. A waning moon in the sky only danced enough light for him to see.

“Xoro... please be ok.” He whispered.

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Furry was awoken by the faint rustling outside of her tent, her ears, accustomed to danger pricked to it. Footsteps. Her eyes widened, and body tensed and ready for a battle. But then she heard Ronneir’s voice. Relaxing, she then thought about Lagalos, how he was doing right now.

Usually by now, he would have returned, but this time his absence was longer than usual, and without a very detailed explanation except for the note he wrote on her hand. Don’t tell anyone about the Secret Order,will be danger, but I’ll be back. She only knew so little about it, considering it’s a secret, but none the less she kept that information to herself.

When she heard Ronneir go back into his tent, she looked over to her side, and found Minty in deep sleep. Sigh, you shouldn’t sleep so easily, not with so much danger. Minty’s arms wrapped around Furry’s waist as she suddenly felt a tighter squeeze.

“Don’t go.” Minty sobbed. Furry confused at what was happening turned to see Minty was still sleeping. Tears were rolling down her cheeks as she sobbed more things.

“Mom... Don’t let Dad go...” The grip got tighter as Furry’s need for air grew. Furry put her arms around Minty and stroked her head.

“Shhh shhh shhh... everything will be ok.” She whispered into her ear. Minty’s sobs died out and her arms went limp. Furry then still stroking her head, realized that there was a place for every person. And here was not it.

Quietly turning over and getting up, Furry wrote a message and placed it beside Minty. Then with a sweeping motion, she leaped out of the tent, turned into a fox and disappeared into the night. Your not leaving me behind because it’s dangerous. I’m going to find you.

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Lagalos and the Secret Order all looked at the world’s map, and with pins indicating past attacks, concentrations of members and known bases.

“As you can see they worked secretively, had maybe fifty powerful members who spread out across to populated places and recruited five thousand more members each that was indigenous to the allure of power and wealth. So with that, we know that they have at least around two hundred and fifty thousands members.” Deblo circled out fifty hot spots on the map. Then someone let out a whistle.

“Yeah that’s a lot isn’t it, but it’s worse, they came up in the span of one year. All of them, Ronneir’s got this down to a perfect schedule, no mess up and no one saw this. Imagine that, over two hundred and fifty thousand men at his disposal in under a year. “ Then he pointed out at the crosses on the map.

“This is where he launched attacks, he doesn’t do random ones. They all someone give the members a reason to justify their actions. They’re not monsters like him.” Lagalos uncomfortable with all this left the table.

“Where are you going?” Deblo said. Everyone turned around and looked at him.
“Where do you think? I’m going to find Ronneir.”
“And then what? Talk to him? Damnit Lagalos I know he was your friend and all but things change, people change.”
“Your right... Deblo you’ve changed, but just because it turned out your wife cheated on you doesn’t mean..” Before Lagalos could finish, Deblo’s hands were around Lagalos’ throat, crushing away the next words.

“You cocky elven piece of shit, maybe your too proud to admit you made a mistake in trusting shit like Ronneir. But don’t you go fucking around thinking your better than me. I got your throat before you could do anything, so you better fucking listen.” Some of the other members tried to step up to help Lagalos but then were held back. Lagalos was known to be a maverick and filled with odd ways of doing things.

Deblo’s hand loosened a bit giving Lagalos enough breathe to say, “faster than me?” as he raised his arms and showed the belt and blade hoister of Deblo’s in his hand.

A few people gasped, and a few chuckles rippled through the others as they tried very hard not to make an outburst. Deblo then looked down and realized Lagalos had pulled out his belt and blade right before he grabbed him by the neck.

He let Lagalos go and then quickly stoop to pull out his pants as he threw a smashing punch at Lagalos, only to make contact with the wall, Lagalos was already behind him, pants him again and then jerked it back. Deblo fell face first into the wall as Lagalos used the belt to hogtie him. He looked at him and everyone else, “Sorry, guess temper got the best of him.”

“You fucking piece.... AAARRHHH” Lagalos tired of his voice was stepping on the back of his head, slowly crushing it into the wall.

“Don’t you dare tell me that I’m cocky, that would just make me just like you; A stupid human who doesn’t learn. Oh and by the way, even if Ronneir is the evil Nefarious leader, you won’t win.” He looked at everyone in the room, then gave a graceful bow.

“I’m resigning from here, not because we differ in ideals, but we differ in how to lead a world to peace.” Lagalos walked out and then in the waning moon of the night, he breathed easily. His thought was clear on what to do.

“I’m going to find you Ron. Then you and I will have a nice chat, for old time’s sake.”

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Panting along down the path, warriors looked by wondering if they had the War Robe. But only seeing Ronneir carrying Lagalos down, they knew that both of them just got lucky and escaped.

“Common man, hang in there, don’t give out on me yet, I’ll find someone to help.” Lagalos was on Ronneir’s back as he sprinted down and then taking a gamble, slid down an almost vertical side of the mountain to the ground.

The boots slid well as they both were grinding down the mountain at a dangerous rate.
“Shit shit shit shiiiiiiit.” As Ronneir slipped right off the mountain and free-falled with Lagalos on his back the last thirty metres. Crap this is really going to hurt.

Ronneir landed with both legs on the ground and felt an explosion of blood warmth and pain rip through his ankles. Still trying to cushion to impact Ronneir fell forward to reduce as much harm to Lagalos as possible.

Immobolized by pain, Ronneir couldn’t even scream or move anymore, yet all he could do was think about Lagalos bleeding to death from the wound.

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“Minty wake up.” Rebel was lightly tapping and shaking her awake. “Come on wake up.”
“Huh? Muh?” Minty still drowsy rolled over and fell asleep. Sighing she saw a note and went out to get Stealth, Goon and Ronneir.

“Damnit now Furry left!” All of them looked at Rebel in disbelief.
“What why? I thought she was going to help us find Xoro.” Goon protested.
“She wrote that she was going to find Lagalos and bring him back.”
“Fine whatever, we need to focus on how to find Xoro right now.”
“Guys, I think I know how.” Everyone turned to Goon, uncertain of whether he was serious or not.
“It’s not going to be easy, and we’re not going to be proud of it... or like it...”
“Tell us Goon, and don’t worry, I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of or liked.” Ronneir’s eyes twitched a bit, and a hint of surprise flickered through.

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A numbing sensation pulsated with pain rang through Ronneir’s body and cycled back to his legs. Waking up moaning, Ronneir felt hardly any strength left in him. Merely able to tilt his head, he felt a shocking pain coursing through every limb. He saw Lagalos on the bed next to his, unmoving and without a sign of life. A slight tear formed from his eyes as more collected and soon he was uncontrollably crying.

“Shhh... quiet down human, you’ll wake up the poor elf.” An elderly voice whispered as she walked into their candle lit room.
“You mean he’s alive?” Ronneir felt a wash or relief and joy overcome his pain for a mere second.
“Yes and no, right now physically he’s going to die, but since he’s an elf, his spirit keeps functioning. He can heal his wounds but at the sacrifice of the elves long life.”
Ronneir was too tired to reply, but his slight nod encouraged the old woman to keep going. Why Lagalos never said this about his people, Ronneir didn’t know.
“I bet he never told you about it. Well don’t feel bad, it’s because it’s one of the higher ranking secrets honed and guarded. Actually so much that many elves die without using this secret to keep it unknown to others.

Hmmm yes the average life span of an elf is maybe seven hundred to eight hundred years. But every time something like this happens, and the elf does magically restore their body, they age. In a scale to show you what your friend is wasting, let’s say he has a deep cut in his leg. He can heal that but that would take away maybe a decade’s worth of longevity.”

Ronneir then realized Lagalos’ predicament, Lagalos may heal his entire wounds but then due to the damage would die from rapid aging. But he doesn’t know if anyone was around to witness it.

“Mmmm I think your friend won’t do it. He doesn’t seem like an elf to take risks. Ahah but then again you two did go to the Darkest to get the Robe didn’t you?” Wheezing in irony, the old woman got up and re-bandaged Ronneir.

“I know you know this will hurt, so be a man and take it.” She worked fast, but the pain was still unbearable to the point where Ronneir passed out multiple times.

The old woman had left after feeding Ronneir some food, and he lay there, watching his friend decide to risk exposing an ancient secret of his people, or keep the secret safe.

“Wake up damnit...” Ronneir croaked before closing his eyes for rest.

He awoke several days later to find the bed beside him empty, slightly in a mixture of hope and fear, he tried to get up but unable to with the pain that was immobilizing him.

But then footsteps, light ones came in. “Ron?”
“L-l-laga?” Ronneir smiled and with his broken voice, laughed in short intervals.
“Man I heard what you did, jump off the mountain? Your nuts.”
“Well in the end your ok.”
“Kind of.”
“Why how much did you aged?” Lagalos walked around so Ronneir could have a look at his face.
“Oh shit...” Lagalos’ short black hair grew long and turned white. Wrinkles started to form around his face.
“I got maybe three hundred years left, I lost maybe four hundred.” He said with a tint of sadness. “Oh right, you won’t believe who the old woman is.”

“Our saviour?”
“Well yeah, but she and her husband, who’s a bit more shy on seeing injured people are retired beast hunters.”
“No way.”
“Yes, and they said they’re willing to train us so we can beat the Darkest.”
“Why?”
“Because I told them about what was happening, and they immediately insisted on helping us get the War Robe.”
“That’s nice, so when is training starting?”
“Already has for me, and tomorrow you start.”
“But I can’t move...”
“That’s what I told them, but they said the training will require no movement.”
“Weird...”
“Yeah they’re a bit eccentric but they’re strong... they deflected my spells and arrows without even getting up.”
“Wow... that’s... wow...”

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Choco and Huck were at Dreamweaver’s port, and both were in a wooden box.
“Quiet now so they don’t hear us.” Huck told Choco.
“Ok ok,” Choco turned behind her, “Jumbo shhhhh... we don’t want them to find us out yet.” Then they heard feet shuffling outside and went all silent.

“Whoa matey, that’s one hell of a box... Where the heck did this come from?”
“Don’t know probably some loser at packing section that came up late.”
“Those jerks, what the heck is in here? An elephant?”
“Ahah yeah right man, oh oh and also there’s a tiger in there along with a chocolate bar.”
“Ahah yeah man, ok lets see if we can get the entire crew to slide this thing in.”

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“Ok now for this part of your training, I’m going to show you to fight properly.” Anak Sky, husband of Elise Sky was standing with Lagalos in a cavern.

“But I know how to fight.”
“Show me then.” Lagalos pulled back an arrow and before he could do anything, Anak smacked the bow out of Lagalos’ hands, and placed his hand at Lagalos’ throat.

“Now your dead. But lets try it again until you know why your doing this.” Lagalos picked up his bow and pulled back an arrow then Anak smacked it away again.

“Hey...” Lagalos picked it up and then Anak smacked it away again.

Lagalos went to pick it up the last time and when Anak smacked it away, Lagalos punched him in the face.

“Oww ow ow ow, that was uncalled for.” Anak was staggering with his hands checking to see if his nose was bleeding.

“Oh no I’m so sorry Anak ah jeeze it’s that you kept smacking my bow away, and I just punched you.” Anak smiled through a small stream of blood from his nostril.

“Oh I get it.”
“Exactly all archers are useless without their bow really. And now that you know that, we can change that.”

In a room close by, Elise was feeding Ronneir lots of honey when suddenly she said, “Training time.”
“Huh?” A confused Ronneir had not time to react when all of the sudden Elise globbed honey into his eyes, ears, nostrils and mouth. Then yelling at him, Ronneir heard “practise hiding your presence by being as still and breathless as possible. These hurt and are easily aggravated.”

Ronneir didn’t know what she was talking about, until he suddenly a bunch of things tickling his arm where he twitched, then a sharp pain pinched him there. Moving again, he had another painful sensation.

After experiencing twenty or so stings, he realized what it was, they were bees or wasps or some sort. And that’s why he had to stay still. They were building a hive on him.

Thinking a thousand things to do after killing Elise, he then realized the hard part is when they were glossing his chest and his breathe kept cracking and breaking the hive. That led to more stings. He had a hard time breathing through the honey, but it was fine, he didn’t want them going inside of him.

Then finally Ronneir had dropped his breathing point to almost none at all, he could no longer tell if he was conscious or not. But he thought he heard Elise say that they only live for one day without food before they go violently suicidal.

Lagalos had finished a long session with Anak, but when he tried to visit Ronneir, Elise stopped him and said that he was doing his training. Hearing a small explosion inside it, Lagalos was stopped again.

“But there was an explosion!”
“No it’s almost over, the bees are just spontaneously exploding.”
“The what are what?”

When Lagalos got to see Ronneir, he could not find him until he realized that the hive was him. So slowly tearing apart the hive, he found Ronneir twice as big, and bumpy all over.

“You know what you look like?”
“Hhak uht” Ronneir’s mouth and tongue were swollen.
“A toad.”

I like the blending of past and present !! Yay Ely our master story teller !!!

I bet no other faction has one of those !!

lol nope, no other faction does what we do =P. [Because no other faction likes to spell out their entire words and have inspirational sources like you guys!].

LMAO !! An elephant a tiger and a chocolate bar !!

Damn right no other factions have you Ely! Stop grinding and write more!

lol awww but then Rina wouldn't like that too much... or would she? =/ it's a win-lose situation.

OK, I see your point. Just keep up that perfect mix of writing and grinding then!

'Cause no other faction has imagination anymore XD

Should have called this faction Imaginary. Yeah... that sounds cool... but awwww that does sound cool... [slowly creates another faction.] Shhh...

Ahah no I can't do that ^^. I love it here, but though if you could change faction names.... ahah..

well technically we could create anew faction and transfer all the members

this is just awesome, sori for the late reply lol im kinda late reading it heheh but its awesome, gets me really thrilled hehehe ... and lol new faction eh heheh lol talk about wasted 1m for faction lvl lol

Aww we can't do that ^^, Rhythm is the beat that each march to on our own =P. Maybe I should go back in and time and tell Master Strider to *********************************************************************************************************************************************************** [has been censored for spoiler free posting].

And then I'll go ********************************************** [has been censored for spoiler free posting]. And then we both go ********************************** [has been censored for spoiler free posting].

=P, yeah.

Elyia wrote:Aww we can't do that ^^, Rhythm is the beat that each march to on our own =P. Maybe I should go back in and time and tell Master Strider to *********************************************************************************************************************************************************** [has been censored for spoiler free posting].

And then I'll go ********************************************** [has been censored for spoiler free posting]. And then we both go ********************************** [has been censored for spoiler free posting].

good idea ely! u should do that! xD