Dark Isle 2

[crysede]

Teril:
She smiled up at Theo, "I know you're not. Yes, some tea sounds good, perhaps it will help me sleep."

As she moved to reenter the church, what had been merely a nagging feeling suddenly forced it's way into her conscious mind: there was something coming towards them, something that was entirely alien and yet deeply familiar to her. "Theo," she whispered urgently, "do you hear someone coming?"

 

[PmTick]

Theo turned around sensing someone close, he sniffed the air. "Run along, I'll alert the guards." Theo called out for the guards as he walked closer to the dense woods.

 

[crysede]

Teril:
She watched as he started towards the woods, making no move to alert the guards to the one who was approaching. The guards would not be needed: she was certain of this, though she had no idea why.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Javen

I could sense her there, somewhere...near. I stopped in my tracks, taking Phobe by the arma nd stopping her as well. I smelled the air and caught her scent.
"It's her," I whispered, disbelieving. "Come, we'll give the child to her. She'll care for it, i'm certain."
I was speaking out of my mind, trusting humans...a foolish idea, yet I was certain there was some truth to what I said.
A man's voice called for guards then, but it seemed unimportant.
I took the girl from Phobe's arms and suggested, "Why don't you stay here, should my judgment be impaired in some way. The humans...they can harm us, just not often very badly."
I carried the child to the woods edge, looking out from under the shadow of the trees, and saw a man's shape, and behind it, a woman's.
Her.
I stepped out into the open, not seeing any guards, and stopped, lowering my head so as to appear humble (if I could manage that). I looked across the churchyard, eyeing her from where I stood, hoping they saws the child and would realize my intent was not one of harm.

 

[crysede]

Teril:
She walked toward the shadowy figure uncertainly: half of her mind calm and trusting, welcoming him, wanting to run to him, the other half screaming at her flee. She walked right past Theo, not even seeing him, and met the stranger at the edge of the woods.

He carried a girl in his arms, holding the child out to her with his head down, not looking directly at her. Why was he so familiar? A hazy image came unbidden to her mind, of him standing here with another girl, older than this one. But she was certain she had never seen him before! Something out of her forgotten past perhaps? Reaching her arms out she took the child from him, cradling her in her own arms. She started back for the church, but after taking only a few steps she turned, seemingly unwillingly, and looked back at the man.

"I know you." She said softly, "Who are you?"

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Javen

When she turned back to me, I wasn't certain how to respond. I raised my head, certain that whatever fear she might have felt would be overcome by her curiosity.
SHe remembered me? But how? Certainly not the truest way...
"I am...a friend," I replied, looking her in the eye. i resisted for only a few seconds, then approached, stepping carefully across the grass and reaching a hand out, caressing the soft skin on her face. Already, she seemed strong, which could mean only one thing...
"You look so much like her," I muttered, not realizing that the girl would have no idea what I meant. "So much..."
I blinked, coming back to reality.
"my mother," i said, "You look much like my mother does. Beautiful in that same way."
I looked her in the eye for a moment, seeing the way the girl carefully held the child, in a way that was naturally nurturing.
Again, just like Jade.
"My name is Javen," I said. "And you will know me much better soon enough, I am sure... Just know for now that I intend you no harm."

 

[crysede]

Teril:
At his touch she felt the otherness within her rise to meet him, in an instant the blackness had slipped away again and the fields and forests no longer obscured by darkness, her ears once more picked out the thousand noises of the night. He spoke to her of beauty and of a woman, his mother, his voice soft and fluid just as she remembered: but from where? Javen - had she heard this before?

There was another name too, one he almost spoke, she could hear it whispered - not with her senses but with her mind. Instinctively her thoughts reached out for him, questioning. For one brief instant she felt him, recognized him as being the same as that which was she had been fighting against, saw herself in him. She recoiled from him, or rather from her own non- humanity which she saw clearly for the first time: this is what she was becoming!

"No!" Her voice a strained whisper, "No, I won't let this happen." Clinging tightly to the child, trying to share in the girls humanity as she had shared in Javen's otherworldliness, Teril ran back to the church.


Theo (I'll be playing him while Pm's away):
He watched in disbelief as Teril walked up the vampire, uncertain what to do, there seemed to be something between them. Suddenly she broke away and started running, Theo grabbed her arm as she ran by, "Teril, what's wrong?" But she pulled away from him, and ran back into the safety of the church. Casting a quick look at the man, Theo ran after Teril.

 

[PmTick]

OOC: Hey plans changed I'll be here this weekend after all.

Theo


I ran after Teril, "Teril what is wrong and who is that child. Did the man outside hurt you?"

 

[crysede]

Teril:
The guards were so preoccupied with the child, that it never occurred to them to inquires as to what Teril and Theo were doing outside, allowing her to escape through a side door into Father Johnathan's aboveground study. She went around and quickly closed the drapes on all the windows, shutting out the night and leaving the room bathed in the cheerful glow of the oil lamps mounted on the walls.

"No, I'm alright really, he did not hurt me, I'm fine Theo." She answered him, leaning against the wall, "I, I am just overly tired I think. I don't know the girl, he was bringing her here for aid like he. . . ." She stopped herself before adding the words ?he did before': there was no proof it was Javen who had brought her to the church, these memories could just be illusions meant to trick her into giving up her identity, to give up her fight and fall into the darkness that was pulling at her thoughts.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Javen

As she ran away, my thought were, why couldn't she have done this in the first place? If she had run...
I would have caught her. I was in a rage that night, and hungry to boot, as the rages tended to make me. Anger was my biggest enemy, and with Volmorth still a thorn in my side, I was fighting it all too often. We'd been in the trees that night, Celeste and I, her being her usual, difficult and overinteractive self. Sometimes, vampire culture, at least in these parts, could be overwhelming. The human still inside you doesn't have room to breath, and if you over immerse yourself in those of you kind, that small bit of humanity can easily suffocate.
We were in the woods, moving through the trees at fast speeds. I was fuming at the "prince", and what he'd said to Jade, not afraid for her (never afraid for Jade...) but angry. Celeste, had tagged along, trying to keep up and so far doing well. SHe talked too much, filled me in on too much information that I didn't know.
"Volmorth intends to unify the Bloods," she informed me. It would never work, but I didn't tell her that. Bloods bear too much ego.
"He wants an empire, like that he lost a few years ago," she continued.
He never had an empire, his father did, and since his father's mysterious demise, that empire was gone.
"He intends to press us all into agreeance, making one large empire of Bloods and Half-bloods alike."
Volmorth would sooner kill us than be unified with us, but this I cannot tell Celeste. SHe is young and trusting, and more than that, she trusts Volmorth, a tragic flaw in even a vampire had one.
I saw the girl then, walking ahead of us, looking as though she were lost, or perhaps that was just my perception. I was in the air before I realized, landing behind her and ksinking my teeth into herneck, drinking as though starving.
She fell to her knees, then onto her side as I drank.
Celeste came up behind me.
"She looks like Jade, doesn't she?" Celeste asked.
I withdrew at the mention of her name. WHen I looked the girl over, I realized she did indeed look like Jade. I checked her pulse...
Still alive but her heartbeat faint.
I looked to Celeste, who was grinning down at me. "I haven't seen you like this since...well, since you made me...and that was a different hunger, wasn't it?"
I looked down at the girl, realizing what I'd done. I mostly ed on the elderly, not on the young, not on the weak, unless the kill was a merciful one. Now, I'd not only possibly killed a young one, but one who reminded me some much of Jade. The question remained...would she turn?
I SLid my arms beneath the, turning my gaze from Celeste without response, and lifted her into my arms.
"WHat?" Celeste asked me. "I just don't get you Javen. She's human..."
I was moving away then, headed toward the nearby scent of humans.

 

[PmTick]

Theo

I figured I better make sure that guy doesn't cause any trouble. I left to go outside and help the guards, if needed.

 

[crysede]

Teril:
Watching as Theo left, she shut the door behind him. She slowly slid to the floor, resting her chin on her knees and wrapping her arms about her legs tightly. Somehow Javen's touch had made the darkness within her stronger, refusing to be banished to her subconscious once more. No sooner did she forcibly reject one thought than it presented her with another, and another - alien thoughts of black night and red blood, that made these things seem beautiful, that made her hunger for them.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Javen

The priest had found her, I think. I'd stood in the darkness, watching as he approached and saw the body. She'd been unconscious, barely breathing. I was certain she'd die. As we left, Celeste sulking in that way she always did. I was worried that she would tell Volmorth of this place, but I was certain she wouldn't, nor tell anyone else. She knew volmorth would destroy them all. She was also childish, and liked the idea of having a secret between us, something only we knew. To her, it would seem some sort of bond.
When we arrived back hoke, i went to Jade and hugged her, fighting tears, plagued by emotions I hadn't felt since being human. Fear, mostly, of myself and what I may have done.
uncanny, how the small amount of humanity sprung out at me like that...
I turned to Phobe.
"Come, let's go and see her," i said. "And let's agree to say nothing of this place to anyone, agreed?"

 

[Jeselynn]

Phobe

Nodding, 'yes' I whispered.


Moving away from the brush walking down the small dirt path

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Javen

We came upon the palace within a few hours walk. The building had been the center of the vampire populous just a few years ago. Now, the building lay in half-ruin, the walls dirty and falling apart in places. The caverns beneath were more than sturdy enough to last hundred sof years to come, however, and many of the areas upstairs still held strongly together.
"She's beneath the ground with the others," i informed her. "Come, we'll take the outside entrance."
I led her around back, finding the stormdoors, almost overgrown by weeds and brush, and pulled them open, revealing a dark entranceway beneath them.
"After you, my dear," I insisted.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Darryl

He awoke, panting...
A nightmare?
He shook his head, a feeling of impeding doom clinging to him, not giving way to his efforts to escape it.
He looked around, unsure wht had frightened him awake, but feeling that it was here somewhere, hiding in the dark corners or beneath one of the cots.
He pulled his feet up to his chest and settled in, sitting up and examining every inch of the room with his eyes, barely moving, as if the act might draw the attention of whatever he plagued his dream.

 

[PmTick]

Theo

I sniffed the air, the man had gone as well as the woman he was with. I decided to go back inside and check on Teril, I didn't like how she was acting.

 

[crysede]

Teril:
The light smothered her, made it so hard to think . . . she was certain it would be easier to concentrate on keeping the darkness from taking over her thoughts if she could just escape from the brightness. Moving to one of the windows she pulled it open carefully, then slipped out, closing it behind her so that Theo would assume she had gone back downstairs. She needed to get away from him and the church, far away: the need coalesced into a driving imperative that sent her running across the field. Her feet hardly seemed to touch the ground as she ran, the feeling was exhilarating, she could not remember ever feeling so alive before: why has she fought this?

Reaching the forest in a mere moment, Teril easily leapt into the branches of a tree. Looking around she saw all the night alive about her: even when clouds passed over the moon she could still see, as though the light were coming from within things rather than shining down upon them. As the heady joy of her new freedom passed, she felt stabbing pains of hunger grip her. Her tongue flicked out, licking her cold lips, as a wicked grin spread across her face: she knew where food was. Bounding through the trees she swiftly came to the edge of town. She stalked along the row of houses, sniffing the night air for the scent of warm, nourishing life.

There! She stopped in front of a small house, some forgot part of her mind murmured something about a man named Peter and his son, she pushed the thought aside with irritation: not now! Right now she had to concentrate on hunting. Moving carefully around the house she saw that the board covering one of the windows were loose. Perfect! She pulled gently on the wood, feeling it give way and pull off the window with a soft 'thwap.' Holding very still she waited for sounds of movement from within for a moment, then, hearing nothing, she climbed into the room.

In the room across from her she saw the two men asleep at the table, their guns lying in front of them, surrounded by garlic, crosses, and countless other charms. Every sense on heightened alert Teril stalked softly toward the older man. As she brought her head to his neck she heard the pounding beat of his heart, the pulsing of rich blood. Intoxicated with hunger she bit into his neck, her fangs savagely tearing his throat open from ear to ear. The man's body jerked once and he made a gurgling noise, red foam drooling from his mouth, then he was still. Blood fountained from the gash in his neck, splashing on her face as she eagerly latched onto the main artery and gorged on the rich red nectar.

Teril was so caught up in her feeding, that she didn't notice the younger man was awake until she heard his scream. Rounding on him with inhuman speed, enraged at having her feeding interrupted, she threw herself on him: biting, clawing, tearing flesh beneath fingers, until his scream stopped and he lay still, his body looking as though it had been torn apart by wild dogs. Satisfied, she returned to his father and finished draining the corpse of its blood.

 

[Jeselynn]

Phobe

As i walked past him down the path.

Walking down a long hall and into a small chamber, looking around there were 3 more halls.

'which way?' i asked

 

[PmTick]

Into The Wild

Theo thought he heard a noise coming from the forest. He scrambled outside and walked into the thicket where he saw a single flower with purple petals. "I bet Teril would like this." He picked the flower and brought it to his nose.

As its sweet sent filled his nostirls, his muscles turned to jelly and he fell to the ground. He was transforming into his jaguar form involuntarily for some reason. He tried to fight it but couldn't, he was in full jaguar form now. Soon thoughts of stalking gazelle overtook his thoughts of the church and Teril. He was forgetting about Dark Isle and it's inhabitants, the beast was quickly taking over. His last coherent thought was that of revalation, he now knew his brother Lucas' fate.

The jaguar sniffed the ground and looked up, eyeing the church just past the brush. He turned around and ran deeper into the jungle, away from the humans and into the wild.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Javen

"This way," I pointed to the first of the three halls, then stepped ahead of her, moving through the darkness, able to see nearly everything despite the lack of light. At the end of the corridor, I turned into another short hall, which opened up into the Great Hall of the underground level. It stretched nearly forty yrads in length and tweny in width, the cieling a mere twelve feet high, a great contrast to the size of the one upstairs.
"We've lived here for years, though the place was once flourishing and clean, and always kept-up," I explained, stopping and looking around. THe hall seemed empty at first, the burning torches that light the rom not showing us the dark figure that stood near one of the far support pillars.
"Where might she be?" I asked myself, thinking aloud.
"Where might who be, Javen?" A male voice, and familiar.
I turned, seeing the figure step from the darkness, his brown cloak showing him to be Rethman.
"Reth," I said, relieved it was not one of Volmorth's fiends.
"Jade, I presume," the holy man returned. Reth had been a monk before he'd been changed. Though his life was entirely different, he still looked for the guidance of a higher power. His faith had changed greatly, to the extent that he wasn't sure what to believe in. But he did believe in the goodness of all creatures.
"Yes," I returned. "WHere is she?"
"in her chambers, with Celeste," Rethman returned. "She was worried when you didn't return last night."
"Reth, this is Phobe," I said. "A new friend."

 

[Jeselynn]

Phobe

Leaning forward, I held out my hand and shook that of Rethman.

'hello ' i smiled

'is this a bad time?' i asked. 'we can wait. i have no plans in the future..' my voice trailed.

'Javen, maybe you can tell me about the woman in the woods' I whispered in his ear.

 

[crysede]

Teril:
Her hunger sated, she looked around the room with pleasure: blood splattered everywhere, shreds of flesh and entrails stuck to the walls and scattered on the floor, broken bodies. The once cosy kitchen was now a macabre, blood soaked monument to pure, chaotic brutality.

The violence thrilled the beast within her, and though she felt no further need to feed, she combed the house hopefully in search of more life to destroy. Finding none, she finally exited the same manner in which she had entered, and headed back into the forest.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Reuben

I smelled her as she moved toward the woods. My last attempt at attacking the town had ended in a shotgun blast. I wasn't as aggressive tonight as last. But the girl came wandering out on her own, into the woods. I stalked her, then stopped, catching her scent.
A...vampire?
I moved closer.
One of Volmorth's scabs?
I moved carefully up behind her, but not too closely, certain she would watch my own scent if the wind shifted just so. I growled lowly, letting her know I was there...

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Javen

The girl in the woods? The question had caught Rethman's ears as well, as he raised his eyebrows in question.
I couldn't explain that just yet. Insanity wasn't common among the undead, but occurrences had been reported in the past. I wondered if admitting my obsession would be wise.
"Another time, perhaps," I said. "Come, Jade is waiting. You will meet Celeste as well, but donot be so quick to trust that one..."
Rethman nodded, agreeing to Celeste's odd character.
I led the girl through a side door and down the long hall that waited behind it. When we reached the end, I turned to the last door and tapped quickly three times.
The door opened roughly two seconds later, Celeste's beautiful face appearing behind it in the candlelight behind.
Javen!" SHe spat, oddly happy to see me. SHe froze when she saw Phobe however, her smile melting.
"I've brought this girl to meet Jade," I responded.
Celeste moved aside, as if dejected that the visit was not for her favor. I entered, leading Phobe in by the hand.
Jade sat on the bed, an older, wiser version of the woman I'd seen earlier that night near the church. She smiled when she saw me.
"Javen," she said, as if she'd seen me last years ago instead of days.
"Jade, this is Phobe," I said, motioning toward the girl. "She's been staying alone notfar from the town."