Jeremy Dantoh's Story

The pine forest was quiet; not even birds sung their song, they weren't even in the area. It was deserted, no life was shown, until the silence was broken...

The sound of three people crunching on the forest floor which was littered in dead and dying leaves, the crunching footsteps were accompanied with the sound of something dragging across the floor, dressed in blooded rags. A corpse. Held by the left leg, the corpse was dragged. The pale, slightly discolored arm pulling the corpse along was covered in a black sleeve, connected to a black long coat held closed with three loose belts on the neck, chest and waist. A black rag was wrapped loosely around the neck and mouth, again held in place with small belts. Not much was shown of the face, the right eye had a square piece of leather stitched in place and the left eye was as lifeless as ever, silky black hair flowed across the face in the small afternoon breeze.
With the being walked two others, they seemed mindless, focusing only on walking with the middle man and carrying a corpse on their back. They were villagers, covered in blood soaked rags, their eyes were deep, dark and clouded. Their faces were pale and discolored, the three people... They were walking corpses.

As Jeremy walked with his accomplices, his attention was grabbed by the sound of running on the leaf covered forest floor. Before he could react, there was a small child pulling on one of his 'guard''s clothing, the undead accomplice simply continued walking, trying to catch up with it's master who was standing still, staring at the panicking child, his eye deep and dark it stared as if staring into the soul. What Jeremy could see was the young and energetic life energy running through the child's body, it was something which would've made him drool if his mouth wasn't nearly destroyed. He then turned his glance to the pale woman, she was dead, no life energy. It would be a waste to bring a body along without any energy to absorb, but the body had died recently, it would definitely last longer if reanimated now. Reanimation slows the decomposition of corpses, but doesn't stop it. And beneath the rags of the other two lay holes and rotting skin, one of them had already lost a hand. A great replacement.

Without saying anything, Jeremy placed his hand on the child, he would've pulled a smiling face if he could. Instead he spoke, "Let go, you are damaging my art. I'll have a look at that woman, is she your mother?" His voice was croaked, deep and lacked in any energy or feelings. The child responded with a nod, wiping the tears from her eyes. As the girl looked back at Jeremy, he had already stood and walked towards the female corpse. The child simply stood and watched as Jeremy signaled the older corpse to come to him, it walked with a limp and seemed like it was struggling. Suddenly, Jeremy grabbed onto the corpse's head and thrust it into the ground, crushing the skull. He lay the corpse on top of the woman forming a cross, both chests were close enough for the hearts to be in the same plane. Jeremy then placed his hand on his old accomplice's chest, causing a black pentagram to appear around his hand and it began to glow. Slowly, the energy inside the old corpse was being transferred and soon the eyes of the dead woman finally closed.

Jeremy turned back to the petrified child, "Don't worry, she's fine" He spoke out while kicking the body off of the woman. "Rise." The command caused the woman's eyes to snap open, they were dark and clouded like the others. She slowly stood up and stared at her new master. "Don't worry, you can speak to her."
The woman smiled, unable to speak she quickly ran to her daughter and hugged her, they both held each other closely, tears falling from the child. The mother was unable to cry.
"I apologize, she cannot speak. But you two can be together. However, you will have to join me and walk with me. If you get too far away from me, your mother will die. Again." The two nodded at Jeremy, the mother smiled and walked towards him. The child at first was holding her hand, but quickly ran to Jeremy and hugged him. "Thank you." The small, quiet, shaky words struggled to leave the girls mouth.
The other accomplice who was standing back out of the way appeared behind the group, carrying it's corpse along with the one that the other was carrying.

"Let's go." Jeremy spoke quietly and continued walking. The others followed.

-// A few hours ago in Tomachi village //-

The attacks of that black thing had stopped. Is it focusing on something else? It doesn't matter, now is the best time to fight back. How many bodies? 10. Perfect. There is enough energy to reanimate 20 bodies, and 7 were already reanimated. It is time to get them to fight back. The 8 beings separated and approached the blooded corpses scattered around the area, avoiding passing too close to the burning housing. One of the beings was Jeremy, dressed in his usual full black clothing. The beings placed their hands on the chest of the fallen corpses causing a black pentagram to appear around their hand. It glowed, life energy was being pulled into the bodies, it was such a large amount of energy that it became visible as whitish smoke being sucked into the pentagrams.

"Rise." The deep, mysterious voice originating from behind the rag covering Jeremy's mouth rattled throughout the area. The command caused the bodies to rise around him, each pulling large bone swords or spears out of the ground via a simple summon spell. The reanimated corpses slowly gathered around their master who was wielding a large scythe. Everything was ready.

Jeremy's attention was grabbed by the sight of a body falling from the sky, blood trailed from the body and the strange tentacle-like spike of the black thing as the body fell outside the village. There goes another victim, probably a hunter.

Jeremy was caught off guard, the black thing suddenly attacked. Massive spikes smashed through the buildings and pierced 3 of the reanimated bodies, the life energy left the highly damaged bodies and flowed back into Jeremy, who was petrified of the surprise attack. It didn't last long, Jeremy mobilized his bodies with simple thoughts, they swung at the spikes of the black thing as they retracted back into the main body. The spear men threw their spears into the main body, pulling new ones out of the ground when needed. Jeremy quickly moved towards the black thing, holding his scythe with both arms he swung, aiming to cut the body in half. Missed?
The black thing managed to change the shape of it's body, allowing the scythe to glide through the air.

"What!" Jeremy raised his voice through gritted teeth. He tried to use his momentum of the swing to spin around to strike again, but it failed. The black thing grasped onto the scythe, pulling it out of Jeremy's grip. Before he could react, pain seeped through his body, originating from his stomach. The reanimated bodies fell to the ground as life energy quickly flew back into Jeremy's body. He looked down, another spike had pierced through his stomach, but wasn't pulled out. Was the black thing expecting a reaction? Then there will be.

Jeremy gave off a small giggle, which turned quickly into a laugh, it wasn't long until Jeremy was laughing from the top of his lungs. The sound seemed insane, it seemed he had no control over himself anymore, until it stopped. Jeremy's laugh of insanity stopped as his body fell forwards, breathing in to refresh his lungs. His body was still standing due to the spike, but quickly fell to the ground with a thud as the spike retracted back into the black thing. Jeremy was left, blood pouring out of the gaping hole in his stomach. Tears of blood dripped out of his eye and joined the flow from the nose and mouth, flowing into the large puddle surrounding Jeremy.

"N-No..." He spoke to himself, struggling to keep alive, his voice was croaky and lacked energy. His only eye clouded and darkened, it was time for him to die. "No..."
Jeremy refused, he used all of his energy to move his hand. It was shaking and trembling as his arm slowly moved up his body. Finally, it reached his chest. "T-This... New... M-Magic.... Work..." A pentagram appeared around his hand, a larger one around his whole body. His wound began to heal as his body sunk into the ground, aiming to transport himself away from the village in order to reanimate himself. The great self-reanimation/regeneration magic, it has the ability to bring the user back to life when they are meeting death. It can also regenerate any damage to the body. The magic drains half of the user's energy, on first use it replaces life energy with Pseudo-life energy. The only way to regain the energy is to absorb it from other bodies...

And so, Jeremy's undead body resurfaced outside the village. Surrounded by 5 other bodies which were caught in the massive pentagram...

The four being trekked through the forest, one carrying two corpses over it's shoulders, another dragging a heavily blooded corpse, all dressed in rags except for the being walking in the middle. He was dressed in full black clothing and held the small child he encountered before on his shoulders, using his arms to prevent the child from falling.

Suddenly, a rumbling sound appeared from above Jeremy's head. Oh, that's right, this girl is alive, she needs to eat. "Hungry eh..?" Jeremy spoke out to the child who stayed silent, it had been a long time since she last ate so speaking would just show her pain. Jeremy simply sighed and looked around, oh that's convenient. There's a moose walking around, and it's wounded. Jeremy lowered the child from his shoulders and placed her on the ground. "Right, Charlotte, I'll get you some food." His voice was croaky, deep and lifeless. Proving his lack of life.

Jeremy grabbed the body being dragged by the female undead and dragged it a couple meters before stopping, he stared at the moose, judging it's speed. "Right." He quietly spoke out. Jeremy started spinning, holding the corpse by the leg with one hand, ready to grab enough momentum to hopefully use it as a weapon. And then, SNAP.

The moose stepped incautiously, it was one of those bad ass mother [censored], the blood loss from it's past wound paid no threat to the tough animal who just wanted to eat his damn bark. Suddenly, it heard a snap, natural reflex kicked in. The moose raised it's head turned it to look towards the direction of the noise. Before anything could happen a flying corpse smacked the moose in the face, bouncing off and landing on the floor with a thud. The moose did nothing, it stood in the same position, but about a second after the collision of the corpse, a flying arm flew towards the moose. It's spin was perfect enough for the hand to smack the moose in the face and also fall to the ground. Those eyes of that moose, it seemed pissed.

"Well... That..." Jeremy was lost for words, it was unexpected but should be expected. He is dead, decomposing very slowly, of course his body would break easily. That was a very stupid idea. "Mr. Dantoh.... your... arm..." The small starving words left the mouth of the child who had moved on to sitting on her undead mother's shoulders. "Eh? Oh, it happens. Let me, uhh... Go get it." Jeremy pointed at the other walking corpse, "drop those and follow." The order instantly caused the corpse to release it's grip and allow the bodies to fall to the floor, it then followed it's master who had already began to walk towards the angered creature.

The moose stood, staring at the two beings approaching it, it's awareness had obviously increased and it was ready to fight back at any moment. Jeremy's accomplice picked up the body and swung it over it's shoulder. Jeremy slowly bent down and grabbed his arm, slowly raising he stared the moose in the eye. Damn, that moose is pretty big. "Got a problem?" Jeremy spoke out, his tone was nearly the same, it was just a little more threatening. "Anyway, you seem like a tough guy, I'll just forage some fruits." He spoke out to the moose as he began to slowly return to the others, as he was speaking, he was waving his severed arm around where it would make the usual body language as if it was still connected. It even waved a little as a symbol to tell the moose to get lost.

There is blood seeping through the white ribbon strapped around Earths chest. Some of It drips down onto his white waist robes and light cloudy pants, some falls further and is absorbed by the forest floor.
Earth is walking slowly, bent forward in fatigue, each foot step heavy and he is pulling his great massive sword with slack arm.
Earth is following a great bull moose with a sword handle sticking out of its side. The sword handle belongs to a katana and the katana belongs to Earth.
“… …”

There was nothing particular on Earths mind as he was following said moose; he was just following the moose. He did not in any way plan or foresee his next encounter.

Earth is staring at the forest floor. In the corner of his eye he spots movement. Taking shape between tree trunks and branches as Earth gets closer and closer, are a party of human beings, among them one adlut is not wearing torn clothes, but is dressed in black. The one in black separates himself a little distance from the group, dragging something along the ground. He stops.
Earth is close enough to identify that the object being dragged by the man in black possess the shape of a human being. Earth makes some effort to pull his head up properly from its forward leaned fatigued position, and carefully observes.
The one in black shifts his stance, preparing for an explosive movement
“What is he...?...huh? Isn’t that…”
The man in black flings the body towards the moose and there is a snapping sound.
The body flies and lands and does not hit the moose at all, its complete failure, a horrible throw. However, something does hit the moose. An arm whirls through the air, spinning at the perfect velocity so that when it hits the moose, it does so with a perfect bitchslap straight to the face.
“Yeah. That’s Jeremy…”
Unmistakably so, was the man who had disjointed bitchslapped the moose Jeremy Dantoh: Abomination dispeller and necromancer.
“hehehe…” Earth chuckled, partly because he was very amused by the scene that had just played itself out, and partly out of a relief to see that at least one of his comrades had survived the darkness.
Upon the moose walking away:
"Yo!”

A familiar voice suddenly appears, drawing Jeremy's attention, he slightly turned his head and moved his eye towards the source of the voice to see the hunched down being. Blood dripping onto the forest floor and some insanely massive sword, Earth. His eye was set as a glare, not intentionally, it was natural for Jeremy. Of course, he was annoyed for loosing an arm to a moose. Maybe that kid can help...

Jeremy walked towards Earth, signalling the others to come with him, of course dragging the bodies with them. "Ah, hey there Earth. How's it going?" Jeremy tried to seem happy to see his comrade, but he was too tired and still pissed off. His voice was simply the same croaky, deep, mono toned.
"I see you survived that thing," He looked down towards Earth's wound, "...Just."

The two men were standing up facing each other in a regular talkative manner. However the scene was rather unusual. Such a cheerful dry forest: beautiful, nice and open with few low branches and a lack of under vegetation, yet such miserable people. One was missing an arm the other way too much blood.
"Hows...it going?" Earth replied with rather regularly toned voice but that lacked any sort of well-wishing or enthusiasm a regular voice might express. A rather bare thing, that voice.
"I’m retrieving my sword" Earth pointed at the moose, which was looking smaller and smaller, distance increasing.
"Well. I‘ll be going now. You should follow me." Earth said and wandered after the Moose.

"Eh, alright. Let's go guys." Jeremy followed Earth not far behind. With the rest of his accomplices following a bit further back, one man carrying three bodies and the woman holding her live child on her shoulders.

As they walked, Jeremy stared at Earth's wound. The heavy blood loss was making him a bit... Excited. Great passion began radiating from his dull, clouded and dark eye. Crap, gotta act natural.
Jeremy placed his intact arm over Earth's shoulders, holding his severed arm by the bicep it moved on it's own and wrapped around Earth's head to pat it.
"Hey... I see... You've lost a lot of blood. I can always reanimate you and then it won't matter." Jeremy whispered to Earth, trying to keep it out of the child's earshot, although she did guess that it was some kind of magic. Maybe teaching her necromancy will be able to keep Jeremy intact, regenerating and healing.
"Of course, I'll need your life energy which seems to be fading a little..."

On the bank of by a pond in a pine forest were four creatures, three were (more or less)human, and one little dragon.
A woman, of silver hair, was lying on the cold shore ground, naked, being tended to by another girl, who had readily rushed to the silver haired ones side as soon as she had her spotted.

First there was a scraping sound. Wait a few seconds and could be heard the sound of brief conversation, and finally footsteps.
Earth was dragging his great giant sword over the forest floor, disturbing any silence that may have existed subtracting his presence, while replying to Jeremy’s whisper:
"Hey... I see... You've lost a lot of blood. I can always reanimate you and then it won't matter."
"Of course, I'll need your life energy which seems to be fading a little..."
With a plain "No."

He arrived at the shore, and stopped. The iceblue eye took a few seconds to investigate the scene before it, it was a complicated situation that wound not have been expected. There should have been a moose here. That was what he had expected to be before him as he came around the shrubs just now.
But not only was there no moose, but there were a bunch of wierdos instead. A dragon, a naked woman and a man with unfamiliar and foreign facial features and weapon.
The sharp eyes gaze went from abnormality to abnormality before landing on his sword, its blade fully coated in mooseblood.
He walked forth "There is a blade... but there is no moose..." he muttered as he went to get his sword, swaying in his movement as a result of the blood loss from the wound spanning cross his chest infusing dizziness.
"Why is that? he continued to himself as he dropped his great giant sword a few footsteps before the other blade, which was dwarfed in the first ones presence. It gave of a sharp metallic shriek as the heavy hilt hit the white pebble ground.

He took up the smaller sword, cleaned it in the pond, sheathed it, returned to the great one and lay down next to it. The wound cross his chest was throbbing with pleasant warmth and his faces emptyness gave way to a dreamy smiling expression for a few seconds before regaining composure.
"Have you seen a moose?"
Earth asked the world around him.

Jeremy's question was quickly answered with a "No". Fucking asshole, it's painful to suffer this lack of life energy. And now he walked off towards that pond, wait... Where's the moose? Dammit, they lost it.
Jeremy continued forward, his severed arm left grasping onto his shoulder and dangling over his chest. He walked slowly as his eye scanned over his surroundings, acknowledging all of the beings gathered at the area. Hey, a dragon, and the life energy is enormous. That seems like a good prey, but with that dragon is another being with an amazing amount of life energy which seems to be damaged. Maybe if he asked them nicely if he could take some of the life energy, it does replenish, unlike the pseudo-life energy that Jeremy has to suffer with.

Suddenly, something grabbed onto Jeremy's hand, oh it was Charlotte. He looked over at the little girl to see a face of fear, or was it shyness? It doesn't matter, having a woman's daughter entrusted to him is an honor and a hindrance. He should've killed her before.
Behind Jeremy walked two other beings, the reanimated corpses. A male one carrying two corpses over his shoulders, and the female mother dragging a third corpse behind her.

Once Jeremy reached Earth, he stood there, staring at the eastern man. He seemed like trouble, and that life energy was pretty pathetic. He would crouch down next to Earth, but that would probably break his legs, Jeremy was already pissed off at having to carry his own limb around.
"Maybe it just ran off as soon as it left our sight." Jeremy answered Earth's question, his voice toned down to become more mono toned. It was still croaky and deep as before with his words dragged out.

The cloth scratched against her newborn skin, the feeling unfamiliar as she quietly pulled the dress tight around her chest, sitting still for a moment as her blue eyes blinked. The sky above her was blue, a heard of white horsetails streaking across from the east. The trees that surrounded her were all pine, though shorter than what she was used to. Back where she was from, Ammy was surrounded by trees so large it was impossible to wrap one's arms around them. These red woods towered up to the sky, even in her bird form she was unable to reach the top of the trees. These trees looked like kin, but they were so small that it seemed almost impossible that they were kin. Her ears swiveled, catching the sound of the birds and the other animals around as Ammy suddenly turned her attention onto the water her feet were in. It was warmer than what she was used to, untouched by the frozen glaciers from her lands and she looked down at her pale feet in the water. It wasn’t very clear, blood had swirled with the water and muddy clay had joined the mix. The wind had stopped and she brushed her hair back, picking up the blade that had pierced her side. It was oddly shaped, the blade still coated in her blood as she shook her head and stabbed the blade all the way to the hilt in mud.

“Of course it’s not mine,” her voice came out in a horse growl, clearing out her throat as she looked up, finally turning her attention to the people around her. The woman that had healed her was close to her side, her eyes blue like the snow flowers. If anything, Ammy thought she looked like a smaller version of her, much smaller. Her hands were so small they looked breakable, and her own hair was wet. The man on the far side of both of them looked uninterested as he leaned against his spear. “Thank you.”

Her head shot up as she heard the rasp of the blade, her hands reaching up to crunch down on her ears as he came closer. Her lip curled, revealing pointed canines as she caught the scent of blood. She immediately recognized the man walking towards them, her legs wobbling like a newborns as she stood and moved away from the sword as he cleaned it, then asked something about a moose. It was answered by a man who was carrying his own arm, two lifeless creatures behind him as Ammy tossed her head. That man-he was the one who's arm had slapped her!

“I’m that moose and you owe me an apology!” she boldly declared, stepping forward with the dress now on her body, the bottom of it coming to her knees. Her feet dug into the mud and anger caused her fighting spirit to blaze inside of her.

Jeremy quickly turned his glance to the girl strange girl in the dress, she. A moose? Jeremy felt quite offended at her remark, what would she do anyway? Kill him? Nah, he's Immortal now.
"Do I look retarded to you? You aren't a moose." He spoke towards her, his voice had a slightly sharpened tone to show how he took offense to the girls remark. He let go of Charlotte's hand and grabbed his severed arm by the bicep, it moved on it's own and faced the woman. The hand made a hand signal stating 'go away' as it waved.

Next, the eastern guy spoke to Jeremy, he moved his glance over to the laid back person as he spoke. Jeremy's voice returned to it's usual mono toned, croaky state as he answered, his severed arm moved where the hand would make a mouth which pretended to speak as Jeremy spoke; "I have no idea, I used to be a master of the elements. 'til I decided to learn necromancy, it removed my elemental powers so I'm stuck like this. I roam free in these lands, always have. People just refuse to mess with a guy carrying a scythe and having 20 corpses following him. Although, that was when I was alive, I don't have enough life energy to summon my scythe or reanimate 20 beings..."

Oh that's right, life energy. Without facing the fake-moose-girl, Jeremy spoke out to her. His voice in a more aggravating tone; "Oh yeah, is that dragon yours, fake-moose-girl? Or can I take some of that high amounts of life energy of yours? Don't worry, life energy replenishes."

Ammy
“I’m that moose and you owe me an apology!”

Earth
Upon those words the expression on Earths face changed briefly, slightly, shifting in and out of a momentary state of intrigued surprise. Then he spoke, remaining flat on his back.
"... ... Why are you the moose?" (there was a pleasand feel to this moment, the rippling of water, the cold stones to his naked back, and the cushioning of the golden ponytail laying comfort on he back of his head. Bare chest in the burning summer sun but at the same time swept over by nice coolness that can often be found in the air by any larger ammount of water. Two elements that crash and counteract, shifting heat and cold, governed much by the will of the wind. It reminded Earth of the conflicting pain and pleasure that was throbbing in the wound cross his chest. Or perhaps both were one and the same.)

Ammy
Ammy was taken aback from such a silly question. She blinked, wondering if she really did have a good answer to that or not.
"I-I guess i just wanted to be something other than a wolf for once. I'm a shape shifter, I guess. Does it really matter? You stabbed me and that man slapped me," she said simply, her anger failing. Back where she was from being a shifter was considered a curse, and these people weren't even blinking an eye.

Earth
Earth glanced at the woman, not with rudness in mind, but just because he did not want to turn his head wich was comforatbly resting on his lush ponytail
(inside the mind of earth) She is looking less hostile now. Why is that? Hm.
The sliverhaird womans outburst had blow over, the adrenaline now gone, her posturing was faltering, the wound in her side not allowing her to stand straight. The fire of the Dragon had caused the wound to close, but the cut run deep.
(inside earths mind) Wolf. Wolf? What is she saying...
"...Wolf?"
Earth asked.

Ammy
"Yes, a wolf. Is that so strange?" Ammy grimaced slightly and moved back up the bank to where the grass began, her ears twitching atop her head as she stared down at the owner of the sword. He looked at peace, one with himself before she pulled her gaze away. "It doesn't matter anyways. I was just passing through."

Jeremy
A shape shifter eh?" Jeremy thought while he listened into the conversation, it explained a lot about why this girl has a very large amount of life energy. As his severed arm fell back down lifeless, Charlotte quickly grabbed onto the hand again, it was further to the ground so it was easier to hold without stretching her arm upwards. She gave off a sigh of relief as the coldness of the arm reassured her safety. Then Jeremy heard the shape shifter mention him slapping her, so she must be the moose...
"I accept that you were the moose we were going after, since you know of that bitchslap. I must apologize for doing that, and I think it's pretty obvious that I did not mean to slap you..." Jeremy apologized to the shape shifter, his voice had calmed and the words were dragged out once again, it was a sign of him being sincere. As Jeremy waiting a while for a reply, he decided to break the silence with the great question he needs answering;
"Hey, fake-moose-girl, I see that you have a very high amount of Life Energy. Probably because you are a shape shifter. Anyway, as you can tell, I am dead. I am surviving on pseudo-life energy which does not replenish. Do you mind if I take some of your energy? The converstion ratio is about 1:2 so I won't need much. Just about a third. Is that okay with you, or do you need more of an apology?" His voice was more desperate, the words came out quickly and were not dragged out. He simply could not stand being stuck with a fraction of his full energy when he was alive. The first self-reanimation takes up a lot of energy afterall. And reanimating corpses simply splits the energy, it can easily be recovered by reversing the spell. But that still does not allow him to use his full potential...

Earth
Earth was looking through the corner of his eyes so he had yet to pay notice to it, untill now: "She has wolf ears" he mutters while glancing up at her with iceblue eye.
"You were suppose to be lunch then. You should applogize for not being a moose anymore."

Ammy
"Take what you need, no more," Amy offered, holding out her palm unsure how the trade would be made. Then she turned towards the man, her eyes narrowing."Who kills a moose with a sword?!"

Earth
"How about meat. Can I have a leg?"

Jeremy
The shape shifter's answer lightened Jeremy's mood tenfold, under the rags covering the bottom half of his face, he was smiling, drooling. This girl is simply allowing him to take her energy, but it is best to let her live. Killing her would be a bit like a douchebag since she is kindly handing it out. "I thank you, you are a very kind woman." Jeremy thanked the shape shifer, his voice had lightened as well as the aura around him. His eye even showed a tiny piece of life behind the death that plagues the body.
With that, Jeremy walked towards the shape shifter, signalling Charlotte to stay with her undead mother as he walked, a black triangle appeared on his left (intact) hand and began to glow. At first it seemed he was going to grab her hand, but instead his arm stretched forward and grabbed onto her forehead. The light from the symbol glowing through his fingers as the life energy was being drained and converted. Slowly, Jeremy's body became more coloured to a pale, white colour instead of the death-like blue tinge. His eye became less clouded and the brown colour slightly recovered behind the black iris. He had finally regained his full energy and could finally reach his full potential, maybe inventing a new spell which converts nature energy into pseudo-life energy. Oh yeah, his arm needs to be fixed. Jeremy quickly takes a little more life energy to make up for the regeneration cost and pulls his arm away from the woman's head, the symbol quickly faded.
"You will probably feel a little ill and tired, just give it an hour or so and your energy will have replenished." Jeremy warned the shape shifer, as he pushed his severed arm into the sleeve. A pentagram appeared around the shoulder which glowed for a few moments before disappearing. Jeremy had finally fixed his body.
As he moved his arm around, clenching a fist and bending it to get himself used to using it again, Jeremy spoke to the shape shifter again; "I thank you again. I owe you."

Ammy
"Thanks," she muttered, not sure why as she bent her head between her legs, "Maybe you could patch him up." She tried to divert their attention away from her as she let her body go limp. He'd taken more than she'd expected and it was taking its toll. Already her heart beat became a pounding in her head and her body shook as she took several deep breaths. Hell, that had been rough and she tried not to vomit as she stopped moving her energy towards the wound in her side. Healing now would kill her if she tried, and changing was out of the question for a good week ater that. Slowly she ran her hand over her eyes and lay back, letting the sun hit her face.

Jeremy
Seeing the effects of the energy drain on the shape shifter, Jeremy sighed, he only took a small amount of her full energy and she had that kind of reaction? "Have you ever used that large amount of energy before? It seems you are new to energy requiring magic." He spoke out to the shape shifter as he lifted Charlotte onto his shoulders, giving off a small "Yop" as he did so. He nodded his head and gave off a small giggle to the little girl as she laughs and cheers over Jeremy regaining his energy and fixing his limb. The female corpse smiled, but could not speak, instead she raised her hand to her mouth as a form of expressing her laughter. Oh yeah, Jeremy could get those bodies reanimated. And then store them in the death dimension, eh wait til later.
As for the shape shifter's suggestion, Jeremy replied with a hint of happiness in his voice; "I would, but I have no idea how. Normally healing magic would patch me up, and I can only use Necromancy." He explained to the woman, the croakiness in his voice had disappeared and it seemed more young, no words were dragged and it wasn't as deep as before.

Ammy
"There's a reason why we have so much energy. It holds us together and lets us split. Have you never met a shifter before?" she shook her head and sighed her eyes looking toward the kid again. The look on the kid's face was enough to make her do it again, and she smiled gently at their reaction. Yes, she would do it again. Even if it claimed her life she would do it again. Her body winced and her hand fell gently on her side, trying to make it appear normal.

Earth
Earth was was watching the sky while overhearing the conversation.
(inside the mind of earth) ... ... ... Heal me?... Jeremy has known me for a long time ...
"...Wolf. Why are you here?" He asked bluntly.

Ammy
"I dont know how to answer that," Ammy finally said after a moment, sitting up to look in the direction of Earth.

Earth
He did not look back, kept his eye fixed on the sky. "You are strange."

" That is the cost of being a shapeshifter... You do not know and will never know your purpose.".

Xin Zhao chimmed in, butting into their conversation. He moved closer to the water and emptied his canteen into the pond. "Shapeshifters are like water. They know nothing of loyalty. This pond, this water, holds this form but once it is moved, it takes the form of its container.".

Xin dipped his canteen into the water, getting his sleeves wet, as a demonstration of what he meant.

"I know my purpose as do each of my people. I've observed that this is a unique trait of ours for your people do not know their purpose. ".

Xin backed away from the water and returned to his original spot before continuing.

"Your farmers wish to be merchants. Your merchants wish to be Nobles. Your Nobles wish to be kings and your kings wish to be gods.".

Xin took a deep breath and then he finally decided to abandon his meditative pose by standing. As he rose he took his spear in his left and walked over to each individual, bowing rather than offering his hand.

"Where is the next settlement from here?", Xin asked, his dark brown eyes jumping from each individual to the next.

Skye accepted the shapeshifter's thanks with a quick smile, before hearing the scrape of another sword. Brimstone seemed to perk up again, coming to Skye's defense, but a quick glare at him made him shut up. She watched as the shapeshifter seemed to take in the environment around her once again.

The scrape of the sword grew closer, and the demand to know where the moose was, was almost rude. Skye answered quietly, "You wouldn't believe us if we told you - " At the same time as the shapeshifter told them that it was her. The scoffs and remarks made afterwards proved her point. "See? Told you that you wouldn't believe us." She sighed. She stood up with the shapeshifter, looking absolutely tiny and very muddy. Great. Her spare clothes were ruined. Again.

The Necromancer - one of the dispellers, maybe? - mentioned her dragon. "Actually, he's mine." She remarked, and as if in agreement, Brimstone chittered and glided up to her shoulder. The dragon was warm on her shoulder, radiating heat, and his scales in a thin line glowed orange as he breathed.

The next conversation that followed was long, and discussed the shapeshifter. Skye listened intently, but did not speak. There was no reason to. She instead listened, until the conversation appeared to be over. She had no purpose? Skye looked at her feet. Surely everyone had a purpose...Even if it wasn't clear.

She listened to the rest of the foreign man's speech, looking at each of them in turn. Or, strictly speaking, looked up at them all. They were all much taller than her. She looked like the child on the Necromancer's shoulders. The foreign man then asked about the next settlement near here. "The only one I know of was beyond the village...I don't know about beyond this forest." She shrugged. He asked a lot of questions.

"I think we should introduce ourselves." She began. They couldn't really talk much without knowing each other's names, so she decided to ask. "I'm Skye, and this is Brimstone." Brimstone chittered in agreement.

As everyone was speaking, Jeremy decided to get to work with the corpses. Making a rising signal to the male zombie, it picked up one of the bodies and held it towards Jeremy. While Charlotte was still sitting on his shoulders, Jeremy held it hand out and started the reanimation process. A black pentagram appeared on the chest of the corpse, it glowed a little as the pseudo-life energy was transported into it. Once the process was done, the pentagram disappeared and the body was dropped to the floor. Instead of ordering the body to rise, it was left to sink into the ground, ready to be summoned/teleported for use.

When all of the bodies were energized and stored, Jeremy allowed the male zombie to sink into the ground. Leaving him with Charlotte's mother. Of course he would let her stay, she was Charlotte's mother. Only a small amount of pseudo-life energy was used, and can be transported back into Jeremy's body if needed.

Now that Jeremy was finished, he turned to face the others. Charlotte sitting on his shoulders with a massive smile, and her mother standing next to Jeremy with a very happy look.
"Name's Jeremy Dantoh, this is Charlotte. I don't know her mother's name, nor does Charlotte." Jeremy stated to the others, speaking in his usual dark, deep mono toned voice.

“And yet it is the ever-changing state of both water and nature is what keeps your body alive,” she growled simply, “If water had any loyalty to one form, do you really think it would be so easy to fill your stomach with it? Can you eat a solid block of ice and gain water from it if it remains such a state? Nature has no loyalties; not with you, or me, in any form I take. The only constant is change.”

Ammy finished triumphantly, her eyes flashing golden for a moment as her inner wolf threatened to take over. This man was like the ones from her homeland; everything had to be loyal, belonging to someone or some idea, otherwise it was dangerous, unpredictable and had to be eradicated. Ammy curled her lip, her little canines showing. Ignorance was the true killer of men, not magic or shifters. Those that had lost their lives to such things deserved their fate. More often than not it was they who started the battle; the shifters were only trying to protect themselves from harm. All animals attack when cornered, she thought to herself as she lay back on the grass and gave a pitying smile in Skye’s direction. These clothes belonged to Skye and Ammy saw that Skye’s were already mud covered from helping her in moose form. At least Ammy had managed to keep the loaned dress away from the mud; it rested so high on her body. She would give it back. Once she remembered where exactly she had placed her own clothes the last time she had changed. Quietly she closed her eyes and put her head in her hands. The sun struck across her face, giving her silver hair an almost white appearance, as she rose her head up higher remembering the last time she had lived in a day so warm.

FLASHBACK

Ammy dashed past the trees, her blonde-white hair streaking out behind her six-year-old-self as she ran, her lips pulled back into a joyous smile. She could hear the shouts of the person who was giving chase far behind and she took the opportunity to slow, twisting her head back to look for him amongst the aspens. Seeing no sign and hearing nothing, she came to a stop. Her blue eyes, much like glacier ice, widened as she scanned the foliage. It was fall, the soft red and orange of the trees casting a colorful glow as they slowly threw themselves from the tree only to flutter joyously around in the winds.

“Azian?”

The snow-elf was nowhere to be seen, his dark hair and rich clothing having seemed to disappear into the woods that were his home. Curiously she turned her head taking a few steps in one direction before switching to a different direction. She turned on the spot, trying to catch even the slightest of glimpses of Azian.

“Come out! This is tag, not hide-and-go-seek,” she called with a giggle, her face towards the warmth of the sun as she bathed in its waves. She wasn’t worried; this wasn’t the first time he had pulled a stunt like this; until she heard the snap of a branch, followed by a growl. Her head turned, her body slowly backing away carefully as she lifted her skirt slightly.
“Okay, you can stop it now,” she called, twisting as another branch broke behind her. She twirled, only to get pushed from behind, her body lurching forward with a scream. Laughter rose from behind her and she turned, seeing Azian behind her. Her lips pulled back in a snarl as she launched herself at him. He fell back against the leaves with a sharp gasp, her arm pressed into his throat as his eyes smiled.

“Don’t! Do! That!” she growled, watching as his brown eyes glinted.

“Tell me you didn’t enjoy it in the least bit,” he smirked, his eyes flashing as she smiled. It was hard to stay mad at him. She took a deep breath, her eyes closing as she smelled the earth, the sky and even the tangy, piney smell of the man under her, “Get off of me Ammy!”

“Whoops,” she laughed as Azian pushed against her hips, slowly moving her to the ground next to him as they watched the clouds. Her eyes remained closed for the most part, and his remained fixated on her face.

They stayed like that for awhile, until the stars rose and the moon lay hidden behind a dark veil. Occasionally, the stars would fall from the sky and he would watch as her lips moved quietly, just a little twitch of breath every-now-and-then, her bright blue eyes tracing the fall until it vanished. His fingers twined with hers and she took her eyes off the sky to look into his. Her lips pulled into the smile again, returning her gaze back to the sky as he slowly rose. She listened to him move and shuffle around on the earth. Their heads touched their hair mingling together as he lay against her, his feet the opposite way from hers.

“What do you see?”

“Hmm,” she murmured, not taking her eyes off the sky as more stars fell.

“What do you see up there that holds you so captive, Ammy?”

“My mother told me that every star is a life, when they fall, that means that someone is entering the world. But each star has its own story behind it too,” carefully she pointed to a clump of stars, eyes shining brightly, “There. That’s where I came from. It’s a bull. If you look closely, all the stars from the outline of my creature.”

Azian smiled gently. Slowly he nodded, agreeing with her as one by one she enlightened him to which stars belonged to which animal. Slowly, even he could begin to see a pattern in the stars above. He rolled, bending over her to plant a kiss on her cheek as she stared up, blushing.

RETURN

That had been the good times, back when she was still welcomed with open arms in her village, being loved by everyone as Ammy, the Innocent. Six-year-old Ammy was happy, alive, surrounded by the rest of the village kids. She was the ringleader in all schemes and adventures, which was until the next year. She was seven when she found herself walking through the forest by herself one day. It was one of aspen and pine. The colors flashed gold, red and green in the light. It was cool and the threat of winter was nipping at her nose and cheeks but at that time Ammy had no problem with the cold, in fact she enjoyed it. As she walked she came across a split in the path and decided to head for the one that split from it. As she walked on it she was careful never to tread on a living thing, animal or plant. Soon she could hear it. The sound of water falling from the cliff that towered above the whole forest below called her onwards. Soon she arrived at the falls, the water falling blue and white in a clear cascade down into a pool that was also clear. Ammy could see the bottom of the pool, filled with the white stones that had created the path. Now they were also at the bottom of the pool and at the center, the stones that were rare on the path, the black ones were in abundance. The water sang and beckoned to her so she took of her shirt and pants before stepping into the cool water. As she waded toward the center, she suddenly began to feel a sharp pain, a pain that still caused her now to grimace. It was the forbidden spring, but it hadn’t seemed so bad back then. That water had given rise to her true nature; it had not caused it, but brought it forth out into the open. Ammy the Innocent died that day, and Ammy the Feared had been born. What was feared, was hunted, and if they were lucky, killed on the spot. Ammy had not been so lucky.

FLASHBACK

Her white dress billowed around her legs, making the colorless threads shooting through the black marble stand out. Her blonde hair fell around her shoulders, arranged so that it covered her breasts. Her eyes were closed. The low lighting in the room made the blood dripping from her fingers appear like black water, falling like diamonds from the tips. The cut right under her arm released the precious tears, the horrible jagged thing attesting to the pain she had endured. Her hands hug over the edge of the marble, her pale skin being mirrored by the puddle of blood shining on the cold grey stone. Her chest rose and fell with invisible breaths and a single tear shimmered on her cheek.

The barred door creaked open as her captors entered. Ammy kept her eyes closed, her heart beat as slow as her almost nonexistent breath. They walked over to her, their eyes glimmering black as they used their ability to keep her body bound tightly to the cold marble, slipping back to allow another to enter. Finally the last person entered decorated richly in a cloak of deep purple, a signature of royalty. He brushed the silver grey hair back from his icy eyes, looking over her body with a nod of approval. His healers had done well, not a scar remained except for the slice under her arm, right near the large artery running along the length of it. He remembered with sick pleasure how she had wept as the steal had cut through her, burning with the special powder that his assistant had given him. She hadn’t told them anything, holding true to her stupid Shifter laws. This time though, she would talk.

He rolled up his sleeves, nodding to the two men who had faded into the back of the room. They stepped forward, their eyes becoming normal colors and they began to arrange her in a position to better the pain that would be coming. Her eyes flashed open and she attacked, throwing her fist out to catch one of the extras under his jaw and sending him reeling back, the snapped rope still wrapped around her wrist. Her blood spattered the wall as she moved, quickly making the two binders useless on the floor. Their blood flowed from their lips and nose, their eyes closed in unconsciousness. She turned to her captor, his eyes narrowing.

“What do you want from me,” she growled her body tensing. He stepped to the door, pressing his back against it and signaling the man behind him. She received no answer, only the icy stare of the man who she didn’t recognize, had no knowledge of.
“Sleep,” came the soft voice of a different man, stepping form the shadows, his cloak as red as blood. As she started to fall, he swept forward, catching her in his arms and laying her gently on the table. He arranged her as best he could, clapping her hands in the chains that hung from the table instead of the useless rope.

“Thank you Kirsten,” the old man said, steeping forward and kicking the two men that lay on the dirty floor. “So, Wolf….”
“I’m not a Wolf,” she snapped taking her eyes off of Kirsten’s. She heard the slap as her head snapped wildly to the left before she felt the singing pain across her cheek. She had bit her lip, splitting it and already blood was oozing forth from the bite. She ran her tongue over the cut, tasting the salty blood and growling. Kirsten began to get anxious, his hand gently caressing her cheek which still stung like fire from the abuse it had just received. Ammy could tell that it wasn’t Kirsten who had slapped her but the man who was pulling his sleeve back up over his elbow. Her eyes flickered and hatred burned in her soul, making her stronger. She wouldn’t tell them anything, nothing about herself or the shifters. They were her family and she would remain bound to those laws even till her dying breath had escaped her lips. Her eyes flashed silver and then faded, her jaw squaring and becoming tighter as she locked it, thinking only of her familiars.

“Come now,” he said gently, laughter glimmering in his eyes, “You just have to lead us right to them in their woods and you’ll be free.”

She opened her mouth to say something, whisper it so low that only he would be able to hear but as she opened her mouth to speak there was the sharp pain of skin ripping and the horrible smell of flesh burning. Words turned into screams as the pain finally hit her, her body withering as it tried to escape whatever was doing this to her.

“Talk,” the Lord purred, pushing the heated blade further up into her skin, his eyes narrowing as the only thing that came forth from her was tears, but they didn’t fall. “Very well, you will talk before this is over.”
He pushed the blade up to its hilt, twisting it violently inside of her as she arched her back, keeping her jaw locked but screaming none-the-less. She didn’t tell nor say anything but kept her mouth void of words as they continued to torture her; steal cutting and burning, fire pushed inside of her and white hot iron all took a shot to loosen her tongue but nothing but her screams filled the chamber.


REALITY

Time had caused her to whimper, the harshness of the memory giving her a reason for why she had left. She had left to escape unjustness, to escape ignorance in man, to be free. Her eyes opened and looked upright as she watched the dragon sear fire over an open wound, the smell of singed hair and skin reached her nose as she looked back to her hands.

“My name is Ammy.”

Xin Zhao raised a brow and smiled at the shape shifter's response. She was smart and she challenge what his people had deducted from the very nature of shape shifters. He would continue.

"That is wear water redeems itself...It is holds no loyalty to a form because it's purpose, to give life to all things, demands it does not. Shapeshifters are not true to a form, they can be whatever they please and so can take on multiple purposes. They simply refuse to take on a purpose.".

Xin pointed at her wolf ears. "You have spent much time as a wolf I see... Yet here you are as a human and before you were this moose, a creature who is meant to provide nourishment for other creatures, while wolves ensure that such animals do not exceed their lands' carrying capacity.".

Xin paced about his hand on his chin as he recalled something a close friend of his argued. " A friend of mine once argued that perhaps Shapeshifters are blessed with the ability to choose their own purposes...that they are the true free spirits mankind wishes to mimic.".

A moment of silence fell on Xin as he recalled his friend and what fate befell her. One could see but a momentary hint of sadness in his eyes before it was dispelled and replaced with a gleam of false joy. "My name is Xin Zhao. I am a foreigner to these lands as you can see and hear.".

"Water..." Earth thinks while being set on fire.

The little dragon was burning his wounds shut. His muscles tensed on reflex and he felt a searing pain and at the same time a queer pleasure, like someone was scratching a really itchy rash on his chest, where the fire burned.
The fumes of his own charred flesh: The smoke, the fire, it reminded of the village, and Earths mind abruptly decided to flash that burning scenery through his mind for just a split second, reanimating a shadow of the terror that he had felt then. It was gone almost instantly, but left in its wake a clotting thick lump of emotions, taking tens of seconds to dissolve.
He was brought back to the real world. Oh right, he was on fire. Searing pain stinging and scratching again. The dragon was momentarily finished, the wound completely shut. Its surface was raspy against his fingers as he stroke it with his right hand. It would probably crack open if he moved too rashly.

"Where was I... ... water? They were speaking of it. Right water, Im thirsty."
He sat up into a casual position with loose arms and legs, and a relaxed face.

"We need food and water." He said, reminding of the obvious.
"I’m wounded, there is a pond, but there is no moose." The ice blue eye swept through the array of characters, assessing. It landed on the foreigner.
"Xin, you have a spear. You should hunt for me."

"Xin, you have a spear. You should hunt for me."
He said with certain obviousness, as though he had reached an undeniable logical conclusion.
"I am not a hunter, I will not hunt."

"But you have a spear."

"This spear is not meant for hunting. It is meant to be used for my own defense and the defense of my people.".

"Agreed. That is why you should hunt for your current people. Me."

"You are not my people.".

"... ..."

"Even if you were of my people, I could not hunt for you. For I am not a hunter."

"... ... You are making no sense. A spear is sharp and can be lobbed at animals."

"Yes it is. Yet this is the job of hunters. I am not a hunter. If I were , I would not be here in these foreign lands.".

(the peaceful mind of Earth)"Hm, strange. He isn't making any sense... One of us must be an idiot. Probobly him."

"Jeremy, you should go hunting."