Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2000 06:10:27 +0100 (BST) From: Lashrac Subject: Tormented Soul Chapter 2 DISCLAIMER: I bloody hate these things, there is no point to them But because it's the law then I'll hafta say something. U can't read this if you are under the legal age limit (18 or 21 or watever it is your country says). And to make this a real bummer, no-one mentioned in this story (Nysnc or A1, U gotta love these guys, and I know, they are the ones in Destiny's Decision) is gay, although it wouldn't hurt if they were. Well I actually started this story with the intentions of getting it updated fast, unlike my Destiny's Decision which I always put off, and ends up being updated like once a month. But if this goes well then it will be updated frequently, unless other things get in the way, of which I will post up a delay message. But I hope u enjoy this story, because I love writing fantasy stories, and because I love the ppl in it. I want to recommend so much stories, but I really can't be bothered going through them this time, so if you really want to know them, just go to the first chapter. Enough from me, so here it is, chapter 2 ------------------ *previously on Tormented Soul* 'Goodbye Lunar, goodbye my brother, protect the 9, you must succeed in this, we have lost too much. We shall meet again, in the realm of Gods.' As his last breath was taken away his arms stopped flailing around, and his legs stopped kicking, his head fell back onto the ground and the BreathStealer vanished. All that was left was a pale body, a lifeless body, a body which once belonged to Solomon, known as the Mage of Fire, Lord of Calimor, brother of Tyrashk. ----------------- **TORMENTED SOUL** **Chapter Two** Lunar crashed through the forest, searching for the spot where she left Solomon. She inwardly cursed herself for letting him take on the Hellhound, but at the same time his brother, who didn't care enough to even go look for his body, to even shed a tear for his dead brother. She finally reached a clearing, one that was not there before. She then realised why, it was all burnt down, everything was burnt to ashes, it was the place where Solomon and the Hellhounds fought. Then she noticed it, lying there in the middle of the clearing, someone clad in red, someone with short black, red tinged hair. She raced towards the body. "SOLOMON!" *Back at the cave* The stranger walked towards the cave, he saw someone move within the darkness. As he entered the cave he spotted them, on his left were 4, and on his right were the other 5. In the darkness he was barely visible, his hood and cloak covered his whole body, save his hands. When he spoke his voice seemed to penetrate their soul, it was as if it could wake the dead. "We must leave, they know of our location and it won't be long before more creatures arrive." "But what about Lunar, where did she go? and Solomon?" JC spoke up, he seemed to speak for the 9 of them. "JC, Solomon is dead, as for Lunar, it is best if we do not disturb her, she will return when she wishes to." He spoke with no emotion in his voice, and as he finished he turned and began walking back outside. When no-one followed he spoke, still with his back facing them. "Do you wish to come with me? or do you want to stay there and wait for more unimaginable creatures to find you?" His question seemed to stir them as they began to slowly walk out. They hesitated when they were all out, they looked around the clearing as if expecting more creatures to appear. "Um, I guess you know our names already, but we don't know yours." Christian seemed to be the only one to notice. "I am who I wish to be, and am what people say I am, I have many names but also have none." He spoke in riddles, just like Solomon did. "Some call me the Master of Nothingness, the Mage of Immortality, Destroyer of Souls and even Summoner of Demons. But to a select few, I am known as Tyrashk Konisk." On the final words he began to walk into the forest, but alongside the boulders. The others quickly followed, many of them giving glimpses to each other about this stranger that was leading them to nowhere. After a few minutes of walking, they arrived at yet another clearing, this time though there were no creatures there to ambush them. They were there waiting instead. There in the clearing were 6 dragons. 2 were ancient and the others were barely adults, but at least well trained and obeyed without question. Tyrashk continued walking, while the others stopped at the edge of the clearing. Tyrashk noticed their stop and turned around. For the first time since their encounter Tyrashk reached up and pulled his hood back, then undid his cloak so that it swayed in the wind. His hair was a pure black, it was short and was strangely spiked up like Lance's. His face lacked all signs of facial hair, and his eyes were a dark maroon, almost black. All the while his face remained stern and emotionless, and he motioned with his hand for them to come over to him. They slowly made their way over, still cautious of the beasts that were behind Tyrashk. When they were at where Tyrashk stood, he turned and walked towards the second largest of them, the blue ancient. The great beast bent its head down and Tyrashk placed his hand on its snout. He nodded once and the dragon seemed to understand what he wanted. It extended its huge webbed wings and took to the air in an instant, as if it weighed nothing at all. A few seconds later it was gone beyond visibility. Tyrashk walked back to the guys of Nsync and A1. "Where do you send it to?" Justin seemed intrigued by the creatures, but was still having a hard time believing in them like the others around him. "I have sent it back to Lunar, she will need it to return to Kelgar's Castle." He turned around. "It is time for us to leave." He began walking back towards the dragons, with the 9 pop stars behind him, all still confused, lost and speechless. Tyrashk stopped at the largest of the dragons, it was also an ancient except its scales were as black as night, its wings were ebony black, and its eyes glowed a crimson red. "Ben," he looked towards him, "you shall ride with me," then he looked towards the others, "and you guys pair up and hop on." "Um...ok..." Ben spoke silently, he turned and looked at the others, who were just as confused as he was. Justin paired up with JC, Chris with Joey, Lance with Christian and Mark with Paul. After a full half ann hour of clambering and climbing, they had finally settled on the backs of the dragons. "Um....we dunno how to ride these things..." Justin and Mark said simultaneously, and it was followed by a group of 'Oh yeah's. "You don't need to, they know what to do." Tyrashk answered casually. "But what if we fall?" Chris seemed to ask the most important question. "You won't.......you can't unless it wants you to, or if someone knocks you off with magic. You will remain seated on the dragon's back even if it is up-side-down." The last sentence seemed to bring more fear into the guys, but before they could protest Tyrashk took off, and so the other dragons followed. After a few minutes of flying Chris seemed to notice something. Even with the wind rushing into their faces, he seemed to still hear everything with ease. "Hey Tyrashk...how come I can't hear the wind? and I can hear everyone so easily?" "They are creatures of magic, they do many things beyong your imagination. One of which is the ability to understand and speak every known language, but telepathically." With the final words of Tyrashk's explanation, everyone heard a voice in their heads. "WHAT WAS THAT?" they all said in unison. "That was your dragon, you can speak to it as you speak to me, it will understand." With that he looked over at Chris, Joey and Justin who all had smirks on their faces. "We are almost there." "Let's have a race to the castle!" Chris yelled out. He was answered by several 'yeah's. With that each of the rider's told their dragons to fly as fast as they could to the castle. Tyrashk merely stayed at his pace and shook his head at the people infront of him. He then heard Ben speak up for the first time since their departure. "How come you aren't joining them?" "There is no need to." He harshly responded "Come on, have some fun, it won't hurt." Tyrashk shifted his body a bit and turned his head to face Ben at the last few words. He was about to say something again, but when he looked into those blue eyes infront of him he was mesmorised. Never had he felt as he felt now, not in a long time, not since The Disaster, he felt something inside, something that was not to exist within him. He seemed to lose his sense of strength, those eyes, they were so powerful, so beautiful. He wanted to let himself go and open himself up to Ben, but in a way he couldn't, he wasn't going to do that, not yet. Ben gazed into Tyrashk's eyes as he gazed into his. Their eyes remained locked for what seemed like eternity, but was only seconds. The deep maroon eyes caught him, he saw pain in them, he saw emptiness, it was as if those eyes spoke to him. He wanted to just put his arms around Tyrashk and hold him, to help him feel better, but inside him said otherwise. He felt something towards Tyrashk, it was a mixture of friendship, pity, caringness and love. Tyrashk broke away from his gaze, and began thinking 'It is not possible, how can it be, the word of the Gods cannot be broken, especially not by a mortal. How can I, The Heartless One, be feeling this way, it cannot be so.' With that he dismissed the thought, but something remained, something that creeped its way into him, a sense of happiness. It was something he had not felt after The Disaster had occurred, and it took over him. Thinking back a minute or two he remembered Ben's words, "Come on, have some fun, it won't hurt." without anymore thinking, he patted his ancient black twice and sent it surging forward. Within seconds he caught up with the others, it was as if he had been next to them all along, and then he was gone, he was ahead of them and was landing at the castle. When they had all dismounted and was once again on solid ground again, a group of servants came and took them away from the dragon roosts. Ben noticed that Tyrashk was not with them, and asked the young servant girl infront of him. "Do you know where Tyrashk has gone?" "I'm sorry my Lord, but Lord Tyrashk doesn't tell anyone where he goes, he shows up when he wishes to and there is almost no way for us to find him." She answered as pleasantly and unrudely as possible as this was the manner of a servant. They were each taken to a long hall where their rooms were located, it seemed as though their arrival was anticipated. Ben entered his room and saw the most beautiful room he had ever seen, it was better than any hotel he had stayed in, it was the same size or even bigger than a penthouse. He walked into what was supposedly the bathroom, and found a huge spa like tub inside. He was so amazed he had to see if the other guys had rooms the same. When he poked his head out the door, he quickly found everyone else doing the same thing. "Is everyone thinking what I'm thinking?" Joey spoke up. "YEAH!" everyone yelled in unison. And with that everyone closed their doors and bolted towards the ready tubs. Ben relaxed in the tub and almost fell asleep. He spent almost an hour in the tub and most of it was spent thinking. About the day's events, from the time Solomon came through the door, to when he was gazing into the eyes of Tyrashk. He wanted to know more, about this mysterious man, the servants know of him, but yet they do not know where he is. It was a puzzle Ben wanted to solve, one because he had already put his foot in it, and secondly because there was something about Tyrashk that he liked, he didn't know what, but there was something there when he looked into his eyes. *Outside the Castle in the forest* The sun was slowly setting, and from where Tyrashk wasc he could see the castle. He saw Lunar's dragon return, but he did not move. Instead he sat and waited a while, deep in thought, until suddenly a voice penetrated them. "My son, you look troubled." A ghostly form was sitting upon one of the rocks. "Father.........I......somethings happening." Tyrashk didn't look up, he knew who it was. "I feel your pain, but there is also something else there, something minute, but powerful..." the ghostly figure closed his eyes for a few seconds before the flew open again, "OH MY." Tyrashk looked up when he heard his father gasp, "What is wrong?" "This cannot be happening," he was looking up at the sky, "this is strange indeed." "What is father? Tell me?" The ghostly figure looked back down "The curse the Gods have placed upon you is fading, a part of it has already gone, but it is still there, only a small proportion has faded, but it is never-the-less fading. I do not know why, but perhaps it has something to do with The Chosen Ones." With his last few words he began to fade away, his shape slowly turned into a mist and disappeared. Tyrashk hopped off the boulder, tied his cloak around himself and pulled on his hood and began to make his way back to the Castle. *Inside the Castle* When all the guys had finished in the tub, they had found their clothes missing, instead they found different clothes, the ones that they had seen some people wearing when they were being escorted to their rooms. They were also all invited to dine with the one they call Master Kelgar, some of them remembered Lunar mention it that day, but they didn't know who he was at first, now they were going to meet him. They all ended up in a group being escorted towards the dining hall. Each of them wore a different design, each one matching what they had imagined in their heads. The garments were made of either silk, a very soft fabric or leather (leather belts and boots). To their surprise they looked quite good in them, and also they seemed to fit perfectly to their liking. They reached a pair of large wooden doors, where they stopped. Their escort walked off and they were left there. Suddenly the doors opened and a young girl came out, she beckoned for them to follow her as she went in. They were taken to the large table in the center of the hall, at the end sat an old man, at least in his 80s. They got closer and closer until they finally reached him. Their escort didn't leave, but instead introduced them. "Master Kelgar, The Chosen Ones, as you have ordered." With that she bowed her head, never looking up to speak, and then, without turning her back until at least 10 metres away, she backed away from him and then left. Before anything was said or done, the doors to the dining hall burst open. Lunar came charging in, in her arms was the limp and lifeless body of Solomon, her beautiful green eyes were now bloodshot from crying, and her face was stained with tears. "Master Kelgar! Solomon......is.......Solomon is.........gone." As the last word left her mouth, she reached Kelgar, kneeled down and let Solomon's body lay on the ground. She clutched to his lifeless body as if it would bring him back, but there was nothing else she could do. Kelgar looked at the body of his disciple who was now gone, and he watched his other disciple weep, and then he thought of Tyrashk, who was once his disciple until The Disaster changed his life forever. Tyrashk watched from the shadows of the dining hall, no-one noticed him and no-one knew he was there. He was not known as the Heartless One for no reason, he did nothing, not even shed a single tear for his dead brother, he killed with no mercy, and he watched as his last relative died and still felt nothing. "Goodbye Solomon, my brother." With those few words he turned and walked away into the shadows. ------------------------ AAARRRRRHHHHHHH! I finished another chapter! I cannot belive it...my head is about to explode from so much thinking, i've had to type up a little guide for myself just to get this plot concrete and to stop my self from getting lost. PHEW *wipes his forhead* that was hard to write. I mean i think there are a few spots that could do with some BETTER words, but i can't think that well right now, its being stressful lately and it has taken every ounce of effort and will power to finish this chapter.....its taken me a whole day, with all the other stuff in between. SO pls have pity on my when u send the feedback. I am exhausted and I need to sleep now...so pls look out for the next chapter soon!