Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 01:56:37 -0400 (EDT) From: Rune Therain Subject: Harbingers: part 6 Okay here it is. Part six. And I have to admit something. I posted part five and then went to the archives and discovered the voting for the awards was happening and I didn't put anything about them in part five. So I'm doing it here. I'm really pleased that I got nominated for some categories. And I'm really happy just to have my name next to those other authors. Go vote, if you haven't already. The authors really deserve your support. On the e-mail front I have to say that only two people e-mailed me about the last installment. (pouts) I normally get at least five. I mean I survived and all, but just barely. I'm an e-mail junkie and I don't deal with withdrawal well at all. But thanks to those two that did e-mail me. You can get me at either Mist_dark@hotmail.com or Mist_dark@yahoo.ca either one will work. I'll respond as quickly as possible. Special thanks to Kenitra, Shade, Aeoros, Di, Aphrodite, Matt, Hamado, and Tom. There are a lot of other people, but these are a few of the regulars. On the legal end of things: this story in no way is suppose to imply anything about the members of Nsync. If they're gay it's not my business. If you're too young in your area, or it's illegal to read this, please leave. If homosexual themes offend you I'd leave as well. Parts of this story are based of the RPG Rifts. All trademarks belong to Kevin Siembieda and Palladium books. Anyway, read the note at the bottom of the story. And remember to vote for the awards. Enjoy the story. Until next time, Rune PART SIX "Come on Joey," Justin whined. "Move faster. You're taking forever." "Justin," Joey sighed. "We're going to get there. Just calm down, we're going to get there." "We'd move faster if you let me fly us there," Justin grumbled as they continue walking through the forest. "And if I let you fly we'd take twice as long," Joey countered. "Just try to relax we won't be too much longer." "Why would it take twice as long?" Justin wanted to know. "I can fly really fast." "But you'd have to go above the trees," Joey pointed out. "And I only know the way through the trees." "You sound to parental," Justin muttered. "Evelyn sort of rubbed off on me," Joey said wistfully. He was quiet for a moment. He shook his head to clear it. "Anyway, that should be it over there." Joey pointed to a large cliff face that was visible through the trees. The cliff face rose impressively into the sky. It practically blotted out all of the light from the mid-day sun. They hadn't seen it from the forest because of how tall the tress were. A few brave bushes and other plant life clung to the side of the cliff in various places. A great deal of scrub growth grew along the base of the rocks. "Okay," Justin said slowly. "Now where? I don't think I've seen a nicer rock face in my entire life Joey. But I'm noticing a distinct lack of dragon." Rolling his eyes Joey walked past Justin. "Smart-ass," he muttered under his breath. "Hey," Justin called after him. "I heard that." "You were suppose to," Joey said simply. "Now we're looking for a tree about ten feet tall. It's kind of scraggly looking." Justin floated six feet into the air and floated gently left and right. "Like that one?" He pointed at a tree fifty feet away. "Let's check it out," Joey said. He started jogging toward the tree Justin had pointed to. Joey let out a startled cry when Justin picked him up and whisked him toward the tree. Justin set him down first and then touched down next to him. "What?" Justin asked. He attempted to look innocent, but failed. "It was faster this way. So is this the three or what?" Joey walked over to the tree and pushed it aside mentally. He saw a thin crack just behind the tree. "Yep, this is the one." "Cool." Justin leapt forward but was stopped suddenly. "Joey?" "Okay, there's a sleeping dragon in there," Joey pointed out. "And though I don't technically know a whole lot about dragons I don't think they take well to being woken up." "But it's Pyre," Justin pouted. "Are you sure he's going to know it's you when you go barging in there and wake him up?" Joey asked. "And are we absolutely sure you'll survive if he decides to breathe fire at you?" "I hadn't thought of that," Justin admitted. "I guess I got wrapped up in the moment." "We'll just have to be careful," Joey said. "Now let's see what our little dragon is dreaming about." "Alright," Justin said. "Want me to go first?" "Probably be a good idea," Joey said. "The crack shouldn't be too long, but it'll be a tight fit." The pair carefully worked their way through the crack. They couldn't walk forward in a number of places. They had to slide sideways in order to fit. Like Joey had said, it was a tight fit. They scrapped their backs in a number of places, but nothing serious. They could hear the heavy breathing of the sleeping dragon as they grew closer. They stepped into a large cavern. "Pyre," Justin whispered. His eyes had adjusted to the gloom and he could make out the dragon. The reddish-gold hide gleamed dully in the gloom. Pyre's wings were folded neatly along his back and his tail wrapped around his legs touching the tip of his nose. "Sort of reminds you of a cat, doesn't he?" Joey grinned. "Granted most cats can fly or breathe fire, but it's still there." "He kinda does," Justin admitted. "How do we wake him up?" "Shake him?" Joey suggested. "I don't know." "Worth a shot I guess," Justin said. He walked over to Pyre and gently tapped the dragon's snout. The dragon didn't even register the touch. Justin pushed the head slightly and then let it fall back into place, but nothing happened. He looked helplessly at Joey. "Pyre forgive me." He poked the dragon in the eye. The dragon's head shot upward knocking Justin across the cave. A bellow pain issued from his mouth. The eyes were instantly alight with golden fire. Without even looking around the cave Pyre began breathing fire. Justin jumped up and flew upward to avoid the flames. Joey looked in horror as the wave of flame made its way toward him. He raised his arm and a bluish shield appeared. It covered his entire arm and extended down to the floor. The flames hit the shield and curved around it. He was completely untouched, except for a few threads on the back of his shirt. Pyre roared again. In part from being jabbed in the eye, and in part from being disturbed from his rest. He inhaled deeply to unleash another blast of fire to purge the cave of whatever annoyance had woken him. "PYRE!" Justin screamed while dodging more fire. "IT'S ME! JUSTIN!" "Justin?" Pyre said with hope dawning in his voice. He flames abruptly vanished. He scanned the cave looking for Justin. Justin flew down and hugged the dragon tightly around his neck. "I've missed you so much." The blonde began to cry, but he didn't care. "I have too," Pyre said. A crying dragon is truly a sight to behold. Golden tears of pure fire rained down his scales and burned the stone of the cave. Slowly the dragon began to change his shape down to his human form. He never let go of Justin while doing it, and the moment his form would allow it he pressed his lips against the youth's. A kiss that Justin readily returned. "Um.." Justin said after he broke the kiss. "Joey could you...?" "Already ahead of you Justin," Joey said. He was halfway into the crack again. "You've got an hour, and try not to make a whole lot of noise." In my years of researching I have come across several interesting pieces of information. Most of these I have included in my various essays, and one of these I will discuss here. The topic that will be talked about here is the creatures that exist beyond our perception. I am not simply referring to ghosts and other spirits, or the multitude of creatures that lack a corporeal body. Instead I am referring to creatures that could only be discussed in a theological sense. These creatures do exist, or rather the effects of these creatures exists. This should be taken in the same sense that the wind is. One has never seen the wind, but only the effects thereof. In the same sense these creatures can't been seen, felt, or heard. They none the less exist. The first and most notable of the three creatures is the one I like to call the Creator. The concept of the creator is not a new one and I won't discuss him in depth. I should also note at this point that I am using the male pronoun for simplicity rather then accuracy. The Creator is exactly what his name suggest he is. He is the being that created everything this is, was or ever will be. It is impossible to comprehend how he created everything when one must realize that he had nothing to work with. In that sense he literally made existence by willing it to appear and then shaping it to his liking. I have spent countless hours attempting to comprehend this concept, but I am unable to do it. There are a number of spells that will `create' something out of nothing, but when one stops to study the spell they will realize that they are simply converting the air into something else. They aren't creating anything, but simply changing what already exists. The Creator alone is the only creature that has been able to perform that event. The other two creatures are ones that I have recently discovered. In my years of researching I came across references to beings known as the Guardians. Beings that guard the Balance. For many years I believed that these creatures were the top of the power chain. No being, even the creatures calling themselves gods, would stand opposed to even a single Guardian. However, besides the creator there are two other creatures. Once again I will be referring to them as male for simplicity's sake. I affectionately call them the Gamers. They are the Good and Evil of the world. Opposites forever competing with neither winning for long. Dealing with them, Good and Evil that is, is always a difficult task. Obviously we would like to look at them in the proper light and when one does so they will realize a number of things. One of the most important is that neither Good nor Evil is good or bad. They are opposites and their purist form are equal, and therefore one is not inherently better then the other. The way our society is based (human, elven and dwarven societies that is) it is impossible for us to look at true evil and not be repulsed. That is because our society is based on rules, and therefore order. And Order by its very nature is akin to the forces of Good. Chaos by its nature is allied with Evil. It is one of the rules that our world is based on. If any form of Chaos were to infiltrate our society we would purge it. We are creatures of order, just as goblins are creatures of chaos. This of course raises the interesting question of the men and women who have signed themselves over to the forces of evil. Why have they done this? And why have some creatures, like the goblins or orcs (as individuals of course) signed themselves over to the forces of order? The answer to that is fairly complicated, but does explain why I refer to these two creatures as the Gamers. Picture if you will, a chess board with two players. This is the representation of the forces of Good and Evil. Each of their pieces is an individual person, and the board is that person's life, or the series of events that surround a particular person. The only difference between this particular board and a normal chessboard is the size and number of pieces. This board is existence, and there is a piece for each person. Now each creature is, in theory, allied to a particular force at birth. They have no choice over this. Just as they have no choice over their skin colour, eye colour, sexual orientation, psychic abilities, station in life or race. These are all factors determined before their birth, some by heritage and some by forces high above them. As such they will be called to fight for their particular side when the need arises. A number of people believe that they are neutral. They aren't. Everyone has a side to fight for. Some simply are never called because the need is never there. This accounts for the vast majority of people. They never directly interfere with this cosmic game. But their actions alone affect things. Looking the other way when a man is calling for help, or smiling at a stranger for no other reason then you can. The tiny things can have a vast impact on events. The Gamers will be forever locked in their battle for dominance, but will never succeed. A sad thought if you stop to think about it. Perhaps the Creator would interfere, but I doubt it. He has completed his objective, he seems to be content to allow the two to struggle for eternity. Or perhaps he is simply waiting for one to succeed in dominance and destroy everything he has created, so that he can begin again. Arvick, A text found three hundred years after his death. JC gently dabbed the woman's forehead with the damp cloth that he had made from the remains of his shirt. Yesena had finished torturing them for the time being and had left them in a room together. She hadn't bothered giving the woman back her clothing and had simply had them both dumped in the room. He had come around about an hour earlier and had tried to make the unconscious woman as comfortable as possible. She had some answers that he wanted. He had taken some torturing at Yesena's hand, but nothing compared to what the woman had. His chest bore a few marks from where the vampire had sliced him with a few knives. Mostly his torturing had been done by the tiny needle like device. It could wrack the body with agony and not leave a physical mark anywhere. Every time it touched his skin he had shrieked in pain. After the first few times the screams started melding into one constant scream. He had passed out before more then ten minutes had elapsed. The woman lying in front of him groaned in her sleep. He had covered her naked body with a tattered blanket that he found in a corner of the room. She had a very attractive figure, but he didn't want to embarrass either himself or her when she woke. She had taken far more abuse then he had during the torture session. Yesena had started out with the needle and then moved onto the knives. After that she used hot pokers and then a whip. None of this should on her body anywhere. Not a mark was to be found. Every time a wound was inflicted the shapeshifter would unconsciously alter her form slightly to cover it up. Leaving the skin unblemished. Yesena thought that this was wonderful. The pain was still there, but she could go for ages without breaking the body. In the end the woman had passed out from the pain and Yesena had moved onto him. He dabbed her forehead again and she groaned. Her eyes flickered open and she stared up at him for a moment. She sat up quickly and moved backward wrapping the blanket around her. "Where are we?" She asked "I haven't a clue," JC said. "I was hoping you'd know." "Great," she muttered. "Locked in a room in who knows where with a man who I don't even know." "I'm Josh," JC said. He offered his hand. The woman took it. "I know. I'm Calypso by the way." "Nice to meet you," JC said. "Not to sound rude, but are you always this polite in possible life threatening situations?" "Sorry," he apologized. "Nervous habit." "Don't worry about it," Calypso brushed his apology off. She looked around the room. "So any ideas about what to do now?" "Well I thought about escape, but I don't think we can get out of here with that vampire out there. That and I didn't want to try dragging you through the halls while you were unconscious." Calypso arched an eyebrow. "I see. Well now that I'm awake we'll see what we can do." She stood abruptly and the blanket fell to the floor. An amused expression crossed her face as she watched JC turn a bright red and turn away. "Let me guess. Nudity bothers you." "Um.yeah. In most cases yeah," JC said. He made sure he didn't look at her while he said this. "Alright then." Calypso's form shifted slightly and she was covered in a fine layer of white fur. "It's safe to look now. I'm decent, so to speak." "Thanks," JC said as he looked back. "Not a problem," Calypso said. She walked over to the door and ran her hands over it. She leaned into it testing its strength. "Think we can get through the door?" "How much noise can I make?" "It's after sunrise. I know that for sure. So we should be able to make a fair bit of noise without worrying too much." "Alrighty," JC said. "I'd move away from the door." Calypso arched her eyebrow again but didn't say anything. She stepped around JC and stood behind him. The singer took a few deep breaths and began to hum a tune. Quietly at first and then gradually louder. The door began to hum in sync with the song and then it began to rattle at the same pace. It soon tore itself to pieces trying to keep up with the tempo, which JC was fluctuating rapidly. "Effective," Calypso congratulated. "I wouldn't have guessed you were a siren." "Why not?" "You're male for one," she said. "And for two, you don't look aquatic." She pointed to the gapping hole where the door used to be. "Let's get out of here." "Sure," JC agreed. The hallways were deserted. Calypso had been right about the sun. It had risen a number of hours before. It was probably just after noon. They looked down the hallways and made their way to the left. They were in a mansion of some sort, and oddly enough, they seemed to be above ground. Layers of dusted covered everything. This wing of the mansion probably wasn't used very often. "Be quiet," Calypso told him. "We've no idea what's around here." "But all the vampires will be asleep," JC said. "They aren't the only thing we have to worry about," she replied. "Human servants, and other nasties could be anywhere." They made their way to a flight of stairs and carefully moved down them to the floor below them. This area seemed to be far more used then the one they had just come from. Dust wasn't to be found and everything was neat and tidy. "I think we can get outside from here," Calypso said. She took a few steps away from the stairs toward a pair of double doors. A flash of light suddenly encompassed the room. "Damn." "What was that?" JC whispered to her. "A ward." Calypso pointed to where her foot had touched a marking almost invisible on the dark wooden floor. "I don't know what it did though." "You've got three guesses," JC said pointing to a number of golems that were closing in on them. "And the first two don't count." Calypso swore lightly under her breath and dodge the blow from one of the statues. She spun and knocked it off its feet. Rubbing her leg she got back up and threw herself away from another blow. "I don't think we can beat these things Josh. They're too fast, and I can't hurt them." "I think I can," JC responded. He sidestepped a golem's blow and began to sing again. This time the noise that came from his mouth wasn't beautiful. It could only be described as a shriek. A concessive wave slammed into the nearest golem. The statue shattered the moment the song touched it. Without pausing JC pivoted and took out two more golems. Calypso dodged around the room until she was standing behind him. There were only a few golems left when JC stopped singing. Calypso turned to him to see why he had stopped. "Josh?" She asked. "Why did you.." She gasped. A metal plate covered JC's mouth. A look of panic was rising in his eyes. His fingers were frantically pulling at the edges and he was sucking air through his nose quickly. "Who.." Calypso scanned the room. Her gaze stopped on a robed figure by the stairs. "Who are you?" "One of your hosts," the man replied. "Sayer, if you must know. And I'm afraid I'm not going to let you leave here. We have far to many uses for you." He walked toward them. A gesture at the remaining golems sent them back to wherever they came from. "And those would be?" Calypso asked. She put a protective arm around JC's shoulders. Trying to calm him down. It wasn't working very well. "The most important one is bait," Sayer told her. "You're going to have to go back to your room. And this time you won't be escaping." "And you're going to make us?" Calypso asked. Her body started to fill out and become more muscled. "Nice try," Sayer said. He flicked a wrist at her and she was hurled across the room. She slammed into the far wall and slumped into a heap. A moment later JC joined her. Neva stalked through the corridors of the castle. She hated wearing human form, but she had to. Her natural form wouldn't fit in the walls. She had chosen a slim female figure with white hair and ice blue eyes. She wore a simple dress that was pale blue in colour. Tiny trails of cold mist filtered around her body. "I will repay you for this indignity Sayer," she whispered. It didn't take her long to find the scent she was looking for. Dragon's senses were far more heightened then most people realized. She could smell a man hundreds of yards before she saw him, and she could easily see him at a mile. The scent led her toward what she guessed to be the library of the castle. She rounded a corner and nearly ran into a dark haired man. "Whoa," he said. "Who are you?" "Move," she said. She shoved him in the chest and he sailed down the hallway on his back. Not pausing she continued following the scent. "Hey bitch," the man called. A moment later a fireball struck her in the back. she staggered forward from the impact. When she didn't go down another hit her. "You are annoying me human," Neva said calmly. And edge of anger was apparent in her voice. She took a deep breath and exhaled a wave of frost. She swiveled her head to covered the entire hallway. The edges of a table and the tapestries sparkled with a layer of frost. The floor and walls were quickly coated in full ice. In less then a minute a solid wall of ice stood between her and the man. "I do not annoy well." She turned back to the scent. It was still strong. She would be able to track it for a while yet. It led her past the library and toward the sleeping quarters. She had passed several doors when another fireball hit her. Spinning around Neva hissed at the man. "Bad move human," she snapped. "If it weren't for Sayer's commands you'd be dead right now. Go play with the Gemini." She waved her hand at him and he flickered out of sight. Sighing she pushed open a pair of double doors. The scent was strongest here. The man she wanted was inside. Sleeping most likely. TBC. Well that's it for now. I'm leaving for college on the 23rd. And I'm losing the phoneline on the 18th. So this will be the last installment for a while. Until I get the internet at my grandmother's. (isn't staying with relatives great?). I'll keep writing, but I probably won't get anything posted until mid-September. So this will have to do. And if I don't respond to my e-mails for a while, that's why. Until next time, Rune