'Seth's Story

Seth creeped from atop a blacksmith building. The sky was just the way he liked it, blood red. It reminded him of death. Death of dragons. Seth chuckled with a sinister grin. Then he turned his head to the village bank. A huge carraige rode into the bank. Seth leaped off the blacksmith and dived on another building, tummbiling forth and landing in a squat posistion. Knights were dragging the carraige. Something inside it mustve been valuable inside it.. he thought. Seth grasped his bow. He pulled back the string, grabbing an arrow from the sheth on his back. He attached the arrow, and released. The arrow landed straight in the wheel. It stopped the carraige.

The knights looked confused, trying to drag the carraige. Seth tried to imagine what they were saying. A knight walked over to the stuck wheel. He saw the arrow. Seth quickly ducked down. The knights drew out their swords and walked cautiously around the carraige. Seth whistled. His animal henchman, Hark, flew down. Hark was a hawk. "Hark, go distract those dumbasses.." mummbled Seth, pointing at the knights. Hark flew down. He flew in the knights faces and irritated them. The knights chased after Hark, while Hark flew down the market square. Meanwhile, Seth leaped off the building, right behind the carraige. He peered inside; 5 pounds of silver gleaming. Seth snatched it, and dashed out. He also retrieved his arrow.

Seth whistled Hark back over. The two ran into a dark alley. The knights lost them. Seth climbed into a hole in the side of an abandoned warehouse. This was Seth and Harks hideout. Seth layed out the silver. Hark flew on his shoulder as Seth counted the silver. "We'll be rich... cackled Seth. He stroked Hark.

Seth crawled along the streets. Hark flew onto his shoulder. He smelt an odd smell from the woods. Seth shook into the back of a wheelbarrow a hunter was draging to store hides. Seth rode to the forest. He leaped out to see a bulky red dragon with a kid that had black hair. Seth smiled and pulled out an arrow. He pulled back the string... and shot.

Nero yelled out in surprise and panic as he heard the whistle of the arrow, felt the tension in the air as the arrow whizzed by his ear, and felt Riley slam into him to push him out of the way and he heard her cry out. "Riley!!" he exclaimed, worry and panic in his voice as adrenaline coursed through his veins like never before. They were being ambushed! Riley was hurt, the arrow had hit her! He saw a flash of gold as Riley's eyes turned, and a flash of scarlet scales as Khothara leaped forward with all her fury, teeth glinting and flashing as she let out a thunderous roar, her eagle-like eyes finding their attacker about 30 yards away, shielded by the dense branches of a bush. He vaguely sensed Luna's quivering form behind him. Nero saw Riley turn, completely this time, as the sky thundered and clashed above them, her terrifyingly beautiful wolf features startled him at first until he reassured himself that Riley was still in there, her mind and consciousness were still in the predatory beast that was before him. But he had no time to linger on the beauty of her elegant, powerful wolf form, for everything seemed to have broken out into chaos. Khothara wanted to stand in front of Nero to protect him, but he wouldn't let her, because somehow he knew their attacker would put their dragons in more harm than the actual riders. Nero wasn't a fool, he knew why he'd tried to keep Khothara and Luna, and now Ryuu and Ranek, a secret from anyone else, why he and Riley had failed to go home in the first place. They knew that greed would consume others hearts when they found out about the dragons. Which raised another important question, how did this guy find out about their dragons, and how had he found them? But Nero didn't have but a split second to contemplate this in his brain as he fell to the ground before he had to get back up, the breath still knocked out of him. He barely had time to catch his breath and gasp for air as he hit the ground and the air was knocked out of him, before he nimbly leaped back onto his feet and lunged for his elegant black bow-which he had set down on a nearby log earlier-,for his axe was too far away to reach in time. Al this was in one swift, fluent movement. His hand grasped the smooth, black wood of his bow and he began to lift it up to prepare to shoot as he reached up to his quiver to grab an arrow to notch as his stormy gray eyes blazed like a charcoal black fire...

Sven erupted in to laughter, putting a hand to his chest. "I? I put her in danger?" His laughter continued. "That lion she killed would've gone after my kills, not me. They're lazy and rather scavenge than kill. I would've been fine!" Sven met Nero's gaze evenly.

The tall farm boy walked forward towards Nero, keeping his distance but squaring him up. Sven was notorious for starting fights and he was getting pumped up to start another. Sven! Ranek snarled in his mind. Back down. the dragon thought to him scornfully, standing next to Sierra.

"Whatever." Sven scoffed.

The young man stepped back, pushing his damp blonde hair out of his face as he walked back to his pile of kills, using the knife from his belt to start removing the feathers from the birds he had shot down. Ranek walked after him, laying down and spreading his wings so they provided a cover from the rain. Sven gave him a look of gratitude and went back to the tedious task of pulling feathers. With the blackbirds stripped down to the skin he sat them aside, pulling the squirrel closer so he could skin it and prepare it for cooking.

An arrow had been let loose, but Sven hadn't shot it. The arrow had barely missed Nero and came flying at Sven, hitting the ground directly next to his foot. The farmer snarled in rage, thinking Riley had shot it at him, but as he turned to look all he saw was Nero, a wolf, and a stranger. This wasn't a friendly stranger. Sven stood, skinning knife in hand as he ran towards Sierra, grabbing her arm and pulling her back, away from the fight.

"Stay low." He said softly in her ear, Ranek coming to stand in front of his rider and the girl.

Ranek snarled, wings lifted as he bared his teeth, clawing at the ground He made no move to attack, but made it clear he wouldn't hold back if this attacker came close. Sven picked up his bow, notching an arrow in it and releasing quickly. The flying stick whistled in the air, the gusty wind from the storm throwing it off its path and in to a tree instead.

Sierra let out a gasp as an arrow whizzed past her head, pricking her neck slightly, a small bead of blood trickled down her neck and she grabbed Sven by the collar of his shirt and quickly took him back behind a rock, trying to dodge the arrows as she did. Her instincts were to survive and every ounce of her body was alive and awake now. She'd gotten rather pissed from Sven and Nero's argument and it seemed the two weren't getting along well. She glanced up at the one archer and saw from behind him others seemed to appeared as well, a full attack on the small group. Ryuu?! she yelled mentally in her head, her baby dragon was no where to be found and it made Sierra stress even more. Sierra knew she had her elven curved dagger in her boot, but she didn't want to bother wasting it. She saw her pack over in the corner and pinned point the location of her bow. She closed her eyes, closing out the world around her, she couldn't hear Sven yelling at her saying no as she blinked open her eyes and found herself sprinting for the bow, she grabbed a hold of it and her eyes met the gaze of a young man bowmen before he let his arrow loose and it imbedded itself in Sierra's shoulder. She let out a cry of pain as the pain began to grow and soon her shoulder was numb as her body began to shut down. Sierra ran as fast as she could back to the boulder and she landed roughly on her side, diving into the shelter. She gasped as the pain suddenly felt 10x worse and she could feel her vision failing as her world went black and white. She looked over at Sven, her melted chocolate eyes full of tears as she handed him her elegant curved bow. "Don't. worry. about. me...Take. this..Don't Miss.." she breathed and looked back up at the sky, she grasped her hand around the arrow and pulled, she grimaced and winced as the pain worsened, she couldn't help but let loose a small cry of pain, drawing attention to herself as the arrows began to fly at the boulder protecting them. Sierra closed her eyes, trying to focus on the pain, she raised a hand and focused but with a sigh she knew she was too weak to heal anything. She sighed and crawled closer to Sven, trying to protect herself from anymore pain, her side rested against his outer thigh, trying to give him confidence when there was barely any in herself.

Ryuu found himself wondering around, he noticed that the forest was unusually quiet. With a growl he soon found himself looking eye to eye with a rather huge wolf. He gulped feeling the sudden settle of fear in the pit of his stomach. You can do this, it's fine. he murmured consciously to himself. Ryuu lashed his tail out at the wolf, which only made it madder, it lunged at Ryuu and he squeaked a surprise, rolling out of the way as the wolf nicked him with one of his sharp fangs. Ryuu growled and narrowed his melted butter eyes into slits, the golden/amber rim glowed with an intense fire. He heard Sierra's cry of pain in his mind and snapped at the wolf, sinking his fangs into the wolfs muzzle, it whined and tried to shake him off but Ryuu held tight, Ryuu then released and watched with satisfaction as the wolf went back into the woods, with its tail imbetween it's leg. Sierra?! What happened? Ryuu asked, lifting his nostril and scenting the air. Ambush.. Sierra's weak words came back to him. Ryuu felt the sudden passion and fury to protect her and ran as fast as his legs could carry until he saw the camp. Ryuu didn't go to Sierra instead he climbed a nearby tree and with a roar knocked one of the archer's to the ground, tearing into flesh.

Nero's arrow was loosed even as a volley of arrows form the opposite side zipped through the air towards him. He barely saw the arrow hit its mark on one of the other attackers before he ducked for cover near a separate boulder than Sierra and Sven. He notched another arrow even as he ducked for cover, but right before he reached the large boulder an arrow whizzed by his side, tearing through his shirt and nicking his side, sending a flash of searing pain through his side as the poisoned arrow skimmed across his flesh, making him cry out as he crouched behind the boulder with his back resting against the cool stone. He gritted his teeth and swiveled around so he could just barely look over the boulder, but was still protected by its bulk as he loosed a second arrow on their attackers, panic surging through his veins when he realized that they were now outnumbered with the others that had joined the first hooded figure. Khothara roared with fury and followed Nero behind the boulder, an arrow lodged in one of her wings as she ducked behind the boulder, although it barely concealed her horse-sized body. Khothara growled with frustration as she wished she could do more to protect Nero and the others, as without fire there was little she could do from this distance. In pure rage and frustration, she flicked her tail and sent a small sharp stone flying towards the hostile enemies, she heard a cry and was satisfied that the stone had done some damage to one of them. But all this definitely didn't stop them, in fact it barely hindered the enemies as they seemed to creep closer and closer to the camp, a steady stream of arrows continuing to slice through the air around them. Nero's aim began to get worse as he came out from his cover to loose arrows over the top of the boulder, as the poison worked fast and began to blur his vision as it rushed through his veins, closer and closer to his heart and other vital organs. It wouldn't kill him, but his energy was draining fast and his axe was still out of reach for if this turned into hand to hand combat. He fought the urge to sink into blackness as the need to protect Khothara, Riley, and even the others consumed his instinct, along with his own strong desire to survive.

Nero awoke with his cheek pressed against something cold, his side ached from laying on a hard surface for so long. As he came to consciousness, he realized the air was cold and damp around him. Slowly, he blinked open his eyes, his vision blurring for a second before his eyes began to come into focus. His head throbbed as he tried to sit up in the dark cell, every muscle screaming in protest as he pulled himself into a sitting position, his eyes slowly adjusting to the near pitch-dark. The only source of light was a meager, weak ray shining through a small, barred window in the wall high above him. He realized that the wall was stone, and he must be in some sort of dungeon somewhere. When he began to come to his senses, panic surged through him, surprisingly more out of the fact that he couldn't sense Khothara's presence in his mind that the direness of his situation. Why couldn't he sense her?! Was she too far away? What had they done to her? Where was she? ....Where was he??!

These questions surged through his mind and made his head throb once more. As panic and adrenaline coursed through his body along with the poison that continued to weaken him and that he had nearly forgotten about, he had to lean against the cold stone wall for support, wincing as a fresh wave of pain pounded through his side. He squeezed his eyes shut once more, and when the pain subsided he opened them again, trying to clear his head. With a slight shock - well, actually he wasn't really shocked at all, he wondered why things continued to shock him with how much he had already been through in the past few days - he realized his hands were in manacles chained to the wall, as if he was some sort of prisoner, imprisoned for unspeakable crimes. But what had he done??! This had to be about the dragons, he knew it. There was no other explanation.....but who would do such a thing?

....Riley....where were Riley and the others?! He sensed a weakened, subdued spark of energy near him that he recognized as Riley's aura, and he tried to focus on it through his mind since he could see near to nothing in the darkness, but to no avail; his powers were weakened from the poison and various wounds that left him battered and bruised. He was lucky his mind barriers had held, even while he was unconscious, it was as if they were impenetrable; the extent of that part of his power continued to amaze him, but he was undoubtedly grateful for it.

"Riley?...." he called out weakly into the impenetrable shadows of the structure, his rough voice echoing strangely off the asymmetrical walls in barely more than a whisper, as fear struck through his heart and mind, making it impossible to breathe....

The burning sensation and the call of her name finally woke Riley from her pain filled sleep as she landed on a cold hard floor. Slowly opening her eye's she could see with her Lycan vision that she was in a cell but she slightly relaxed when she saw Nero.
"what's goi....." Riley was about to ask but instead she hissed in pain as something cupped her wrists and burned her skin. Hackles of silver where placed around her wrist's and ankle's and it made her yelp in pain.

"shit....damn bastard's made these things out of silver" Riley growled. She tried to pull but the silver not only burned her skin but weakened her wolf strength.

"Nero are you ok? where are the dragon's? why can't i sense or see my Luna? are you hurt?" Riley started blubbering, one of the things she does when she's nervous.

"I'm fine." he lied, even as he felt the energy rapidly draining from his mind and body and felt a substantial amount of blood soaking through the side of his hoodie where the poisoned arrow had torn through his shirt and flesh. "...I don't know. I don't know where they are, I think they're too far away or something's blocking us from reaching them through our mind links, I can't even sense Khothara." he winced as another throbbing pain shot up his side. "I got grazed by an arrow, but I'm fine." he told her - that last part was probably a lie, he doubted any of them were going to be fine at the moment - ,finding her iridescent eyes in the darkness. "How about you? Are you okay?" he asked, concern in his voice as he heard her hiss out a breath in pain as she muttered something about silver, and he remembered about something in the old tales containing Lycans that silver was extremely harmful to them, sometimes deadly in strong amounts. Worry for her shown in his gray-blue eyes along with his own pain mixed there.

Riley could smell Nero's blood mix with the other's but his was the strongest meaning he was still bleeding
"Dang it Nero dont lei to me i can smell your blood from here" Riley growled and hissed again as the silver directly touched her skin.
Ever so carefully Riley started to move slowly toward's Nero. Lycan saliva is one of the most effective healer's, one of the reason's wolves lick each other's wounds.
She tried to be as quick and quiet as she possibly could, the silver burning her making her wound's ache and heal slower then normal but she finally made it to his side and sighed in relief as she un-tensed her body so the silver wouldn't hurt as much.
She moved her hand to his side and lightly touched it. Nero's shirt was drenched in blood and a small puddle had formed beside him. A small snarl escaped Riley's lip's and she made a silent promise to kill whoever did this to him.

"Nero i need you to understand something......i.....i am going to li...lick your wound so it will stop healing or else we will never be able to escape....Lycan saliva is an amazing healer and it will clear this wound up in a half hour at the most but i am not doing it unless you say yes and if so i need to the be very still" Riley whispered in his ear and waited for Nero's answer.

Sven was against a cold stone floor, his cheek lying against dust and dirt. Sven a voice whispered weakly in his mind, seeming to echo until the sound completely disappeared. Sierra? he thought back, eyes slowly fluttering open. I'm here Sierra... He reached out to her mind with his thoughts. The air was tense with pain, fear, and loss. Pulling an arm up and under his body, Sven gently pushed himself up on his elbows, lifting his head to look around. His chest felt heavy, throat was dry, and pain radiated from is back. It hadn't been the first time he had received a whipping to his back, but every time, especially now, it burned like nothing else. Sierra, I'm sorry. His apology was strained as he pulled himself up, sitting painfully. His wrists felt raw, causing him to examine them, what he found was iron shackles clasped around each wrist, rubbing against his skin with every movement he made. Im so sorry, Sierra. He had failed her, hadn't protected her, and now she was here. Injured, alone, and scared Sven could think of nothing worse then this, even the crumbling cave looked better than this, at least they had had each other and their dragons. Ranek. Where was Ranek?! Sven started to panic, searching his mind for the dragon's presence, finding nothing but silence.

"Ranek!" He called out, voice hoarse ad raspy from dehydration. "Ranek!" He yelled again, hanging his head shamefully as he heard no response.

Hot tears burned at his eyes and he quickly wiped them away with his arms, gritting his teeth against the metallic bite of the shackles. Not only had he failed Sierra, but Ranek as well. The one living thing that had been depending on him to always be at his best was gone, taken from him by the Forsworn. They would pay for what they had done, their blood would run red like a river as he sought vengeance.

"Ranek!" His voice carried though the prison cell's, echoing back to rattle in his ears.

"Enough," A dark, harsh voice snapped.

The sound of footsteps on cobblestone followed, the heavy boots walking down the long corridor with purpose and authority. A shadow loomed in front of Sven's cell, a dark face appearing at the bars as hate filled eyes peered in. Standing, in full armor with two swords at his belt, was Rashatok Charter. The fair haired elf stood nobly in front of the boy, a deep set frown causing wrinkles in his forehead as his eyebrows drew together.

"Father?" Sven whispered in disbelief.

"You are no son of mine." The man spat, giving the halfbreed a quick once over before continuing down the line of cells.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So, you thought you were safe?" Rashatok inquired to no one directly, not expecting any of them to speak up and defy him at this point. "You thought wrong." His voice dipped to a lower octave, a deep timbre that vibrated in his chest.

With his hands behind his back, he stopped, peering in to the cell that held a black haired boy, a sneer curling his lip as he looked down at the dragon rider. "You are no more than kids, playing with a fire you cannot control." His dark eyes went to the next cell, the one especially desiged to withhold the half lycan girl inside.

Moving to the center of the prison block, his hands came out from behind his back, swinging out to his sides as he shrugged his broad shoulders. "You upset the balance, children...precatiouns had to be made. Not only to protect you, but to protect the people of these lands."

"The time for dragon riders is gone and the need for dragons is biased on the fairytale prophecies of old and blind witches who do no clearly see how the future should be desiged." Rashatok explained, a smirk forming.

Nero felt Riley's presence next to him as she drug herself to his side and he tried to focus on her face even as his vision blurred. He gritted his teeth and sucked in a breath when Riley touched his side, although he knew she was trying to be gentle. It was then that he realized that the arrowhead was lodged in his side, whereas before he thought it had just grazed him; he had wondered why he was bleeding so much from just being grazed. Teeth still gritted, he closed his eyes and let out a long breath through his teeth, too drained and in pain to care at the strangeness of her proposal.

"Do what you have to do." he said through his teeth, fighting the strong urge to sink into the abyss of blackness awaiting him at the edges of his vision.

He glanced over to see a figure approaching, barely able to focus on his words as he spoke, but he didn't have to hear what he was saying to hate the actual man himself.

Riley quickly removed the lodge item in Nero's skin then put pressure on it. She hated him being in pain so she ignored the man, hiked up Nero's shirt slightly and leaned down. The man wouldnt see what she was doing cause in the dark it would look like she was just leaning on him. She made quick work knowing it would be awkward for. She licked the blood away then began on the wound. She gathered saliva on her tongue and started licking the wound, the coppery sweet taste of Nero's blood made her wolf's eyes pop open and lick her lip's but Riley surpressed her and the blood lust that poured for her inder animal.
Riley licked the wound until a thin layer's of skin started to reform on the inside of his wound then she stopped knowing that all that had to heal was in outside and tha would take 15 or so minutes.

Riley growled lightly at the man who glared dagger's at Nero then she bite into her wrist and put it to Nero's lips.
"dont worry, since i'm only half my blood willnt turn you but it will give you more engery and you have lost alot of blood you need to get it from somewhere so drink" Riley whispered low in Nero's ear then kissed his cheek and waited for him to take her blood before he passed out.

Nero winced as the lodged arrow was removed from his side, but the short burst of increased pain was short-lived. Nero vaguely felt Riley's tongue on his wound, a strange sensation at first, then felt the restorative properties begin to pour energy back into his exhausted body as his wound began to heal and Riley's Lycan saliva soothed the wound and stemmed the flow of bleeding. The black dots at the edges of his vision had begun to subside, although he was still very weak and was still in danger of blacking out. Nero watched Riley with an astonished, confused expression as she bit into the soft skin of her own wrist, and his eyes widened and he tensed slightly when she put her bleeding wrist to his lips. He met her eyes, an almost panicked confusion on his shadowed face, a question there, before he listened to what she murmured in his ear. At first he hesitated, the situation scaring him and starting to creep him out. The thought of drinking her blood seemed strange and insane, but then he realized that if he didn't he would black out, and they all needed to be at their best if they were to get out of this situation. Despite how out of it he was, his heart skipped a beat when he felt Riley's lips on his cheek, and with her there by his side he felt safer and suddenly more sure. Finally, after that first moment of hesitation, Nero pressed his lips the rest of the way to Riley's wrist and drank, trying not to cringe as the warm, coppery tang of her blood hit his throat. He leaned against her as he drank, as he barely had the strength to sit up himself.

"Ah" Riley hissed lowly as the silver burned her finger's. She had to move the cuff higher on her arm so Nero had access to her wrist and she was holding it making her finger's burn and sizzle from the metal. She lightly played with Nero's hair with her free hand, brushing the ebony strands away from his face. She could feel him getting stronger as he drank her blood but she saw him cringed at the flavor.
"its just blood" Riley said softly and stroked his cheek. When she felt that she couldnt take anymore she pulled her wrist away from Nero and licked the wound instantly healing the small bite holes. She then curled into his side, his body heat had returned and it comforted her.
"That took quite alot, i'm just going to rest for a moment then we will *yawn* find our dragon's" Riley mumbled as she rested her head on Nero's shoulder.

A pleasant shiver ran down Nero's spine as he felt Riley's gentle fingers trailing through his hair, as she tussled it slightly and moved it out of his eyes, in an almost soothing and comforting manner. Nero felt the soft brush of her fingers on his cheek and her sweet voice murmuring in his ear, and then wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his hoodie once Riley brought her wrist away from his lips and healed the small puncture wounds there. He could sense that it had weakened her, and for a moment felt bad, but then reassured himself that if he hadn't, he would most likely be blacked out and in some serious danger by now. "Thank you." he murmured softly to her as he felt her curl up into his side and rest her head on his shoulder. With his free hand, he reached over and brushed some strands of golden hair away that had fallen into her face when she had rested her head on his shoulder. "Just rest." he murmured softly to her, continuing to gently run his fingers through her soft golden hair and brush it out of her face and eyes. "We'll find them once we both have the strength and then we'll all get out of here.....I promise." he murmured, hoping he could live up to and keep that promise to her.