Until The End: The Battle of the Gods » Places

         

It had been a long day of deliveries, so it was no surprise to her brother, Seth when Era came crashing in the shop's front door -scarring the tourist couple that was glancing around at the brochures on the counter- and practically flew up the stairs to the apartment above the shop. Sighing loudly, Era grabbed the chunk of wood that she had been working on and, pulling out her knife, started to work on the carving in order to calm her nerves. It was a particularly dainty piece, a tree branch with a bird just landing on it, wings still open from flight. Whittling normally calmed her nerves, but today, Era was having another one of her rage-filled periods. She was about to crack again and she knew it -and she knew that Seth was thinking the same thing. Her periods of anger were becoming longer and she was growing more frustrated with the confinement of the city and the humans living there by the hour.

In particular, the last delivery had been to a human, a very wealthy and very overweight man. It was a rather humid day in the city and that -partnered with the fact that Era's fear of confinement was kicking in- meant that the idea of wearing the jacket the one that normally covered Era's feather made her cringe. So, Era had decided to let her full harpy self -horns, feathers, and all- show and the human that she had been delivering the package to was less than happy about it. He had thrown the money at her, told her to cover up those hideous "wings" and then promptly slammed the door in her face. Era was furious, but she stopped herself from knocking down is door and beating him to a pulp and instead, she collected the money and took off, circling the city for hours before she was finally calm enough to return to the shop. However, she was still fuming from the encounter and she knew that she would not be staying in the city for much longer. She would have to tell Seth as soon as possible that she would be taking another one of her "trips" and that he would have to put the deliveries on hold.

The whittling calmed Era down even more, but she was still rather angry which is why she was surprised, to say the least, when she found her eyes dropping shut as she fell into a blissful sleep. She was even more surprised when she woke up to find herself blinded by a bright white light. She winced, tears forming from the brightness, and gave a low grumble as she closed her eyes against the brilliance. When she opened them again, she found that she could see better, but the light still hurt her eyes. Blinking several more times to get the tears out of her eyes, Era slowly sat up, placing her bare feet on the floor. The floors of the stark white room were cool, but not uncomfortably so. There was a door on one wall and Era stood, grabbing her bo-staff -which she was glad she had in this weird dream- and made her way to the door. 'This must be a dream,' she thought to herself and then mentally slapped herself for the stupidity of the statement. Of course it was a dream. It wasn't as if she had just magically woken up in a brilliantly white room and didn't remember how she got there. But something felt wrong about the dream. It didn't feel like most dreams. Era felt much more aware than she had ever felt in a dream.

Shaking herself from her thoughts, Era turned back to the door and turned the handle. She shoved it open and stepped out into a large, circular room with seven other doors -not including her own. There were others in the room. Directly to her right was a black-haired girl -not human, she looked rather cat-like. Out of evolutionary survival instinct, Era took a step to her left in order to get further away from the girl. Of course, it was something ingrained in the bird part of Era's brain. The fear of cats. The feathers draped from Era's arms ruffled unconsciously, preparing her to take flight if need-be, but Era kept her composure. To the right of that girl was a monster of a man -also obviously not human, although Era was sure she had never seen his kind before. He had two swords strapped across his back and Era was sure that if given a chance and a reason, the man would easily be able to break every one of her bird-like, hollow bones. She instinctively clutched her staff tightly until her knuckles turned white and then continued to look around the room. There were others, five more actually, all standing in front of doors identical to the one Era had stepped out of, but before Era could survey them, her attention was pulled to the center of the room where a young woman and a man, both emanating an aura of power and grace were sat. The young woman stood first from her seat and walked toward the group of four doors to Era's left. She said something, Era could not hear what her said to the four.

Era had no time to contemplate what was going on as the tall man crossed his arms and spoke to the group of four that included Era, and this time Era could hear him. "Congratulations." Era's brow furrowed at the words and she looked closely at the man. She could see that, unlike the young woman standing near him, he was no human with his unheeding posture and his unnatural poise. His gaze was sharp and Era almost felt the need to turn away, yet out of pride and curiosity -and perhaps something akin to stupidity- she did not. Era felt her anger at this man's cold stare and his even colder attitude flare up for no reason other than she had already been having a bad day. And so, despite the fact that this man seemed to be staring into her soul, Era mumbled a very sarcastic, "Thanks. I do my best," just loud enough for the man to hear. She mentally slapped herself for letting the words come out so sarcastically, but she squinted at the man unflinchingly. What was going on here? 'This is a dream, remember?' Era told herself. A strange, oddly realistic dream filled with people she had never seen before, but a dream no less, and there was no point in getting angry at a dream. Yet, that same feeling that Era had gotten when she had "awoken" in the other room, nagged at the back of her mind. This was not just another dream and she knew it. 'Maybe I'm finally losing it. Maybe I'm finally going insane from the confinement of the city.' Era's palms began to sweat nervously and the feathers on her arms ruffled once more with the need to fly if only to release some of this nervous energy.

To her right, Era heard the cat-like girl mumbled, "Who are you, where am I, and why am I here?" Era had to admit that she was curious herself. Whether this was a dream or whether this was simply her mind finally cracking, Era had a feeling that this was an important event. She shifted her gaze to the man in the center of the room who had spoken before. He had a glint in his eyes that made Era believe that he knew everything, and seeing as he had been the first one to greet them, Era was willing to bet that he knew what was going on more than any of them. If anyone was going to tell her what was happening, then it would be him.

         

Tsyzz

How and when Tsyzz had fallen asleep was a mystery, but as soon as he laid his brilliantly colored eyes upon the ceiling above his head, and after the split-second of realization it took to recognize his own lucidity, the serpentine warrior hurled up and onto his feet. The last he could remember was staring out over a vast ocean of blood-red sand, not long after the last tendrils of the blazing sun had set, taking the heat of the day with it. True enough it had been over a week since he had slept for longer than a half turn of the sun dial, but the oppressive tendrils of exhaustion were far from dragging him to slumber. The peacefulness of his departure merely amplified the ferocity of his reawakening to some strange environment, without the company of his companions, and receiving the strangest feeling from this blank hallway.

Staring down the long hallway towards the doorway enveloped in light left him curious and comforted, as if there was a friendly presence . . . no, comrades would be a better way to describe it, to be found on the other side of the doorway. At the same time though there lingered a threat, a very dangerous presence that he knew would not disappear anytime soon, it meant an inevitable encounter that just might mean the end of all those involved. Yes, very good. A challenge. With a grim smile spread across his face, Tsyzz straightened himself up and proceeded down the hallway to the welcoming door, delighted at the prospect of what battles were to come.

Even on the most tranquil of desert nights was the silence so deafening as this place, the only sound to keep the warrior company being the rustle clatter of his claws on the ground as he walked brusquely with the rustle of his leggings as the wind he created whipped by. He would be more comfortable is whoever, or whatever, it was that had brought him here had also decided to clothe and armor him fully, but at least he was not stripped down to the quick, leggings would be enough. As he continued towards the door, the light emitted from it became ever brighter, to the point of blinding, something made that much more aggravating due to his race’s inherently weak eyesight, forcing the slightest of grimaces and turn of the head to minimize discomfort. His dominant hand reached out at the last as if to ensure that he could force his way through the aperture, a hand extended to grope into the adventure that was to come.

It took several seconds of blind groping and stifled hissing before Tsyzz was able to make full use of his eyesight, all the meanwhile having the deafening silence beat away on his head. After regaining his vision Tsyzz was greeted with the most curious of sights, a circular room one might describe as cavernous, a vast space from which the deafening silence seemed to emanate, and it turns out his instincts were correct, he was not alone. Seven doors to his left and right, all identical, would no doubt yield other somewhat confused inhabitants and they would all be greeted in the same fashion. The other noteworthy greeting to his entrance was the presence of two others, on the other side of the large room, both of whom resembled hideous humans. He could hear the entrance of the others to his left and right as he staggered in, but his eyes were focused on the man, if there was a choice to be made he would go along with him.